Signalis Spoilers///

I think its so telling that the scariest thing in Signalis (to me at least) wasn't the cosmic horror, but the fucking dread of living in an uncaring system

Meat monsters. A god that will devour all life. Entropy. A corruptive force that will devour and eat away at us physically and emotionally.

And the part that pulled me the most was knowing that Ariane and Elster got sent out on a mission they were almost certain to fail, because a dying empire demands some form of glory and subjugation.

You can kill the corrupted replikas. You can avoid them and still finish your objective. But in the end, you and one person you live are still going to die a pointless, painful death. She's going to suffer, and you're going to have to take her last breath for her, and you're going to have to die knowing that there was nothing to be done.

This whole thing was just a system demanding blood.

The horror was just there to drink it.

Invincible Episode 7 Improves Upon Its Already Great Source Material

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This article contains spoilers for Invincible episode 7.

Amazon’s animated adaptation of Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker’s comic Invincible was always a great idea. The property has just about everything that streaming services and their audiences are looking for currently: superheroes, ultraviolence, and jaw-dropping twists. 

One big question facing the series, however, was how could one show possibly fit in all the story of the comic’s lengthy 144-issue run? Invincible episode 7, “We Need to Talk,” is the first season’s penultimate installment and it reveals how the show is set to approach this logistical challenge. With so many comic book issues of plot to get through, Invincible seems perfectly happy to accelerate through that plot as efficiently as possible. To that end, “We Need to Talk” features a truly staggering number of climactic moments.

This might actually be the most charmingly chaotic and jam-packed episode of TV this year (at least before next week’s finale). So much happens in “We Need to Talk” that it runs the risk of overwhelming the viewer. With that in mind, let’s break down the important plot points of this hour and examine the major ways in which they differ from (and even improve upon) the comic.

Robot’s True Identity

The reveal that the entity known as “Robot” isn’t who he claims to be might be the most shocking Invincible twist thus far. And that’s saying a lot for a show whose first episode concludes with the story’s Superman equivalent straight up murdering the rest of his Justice League.

That Robot (Zachary Quinto) is really a malformed genius named Rudolph Conners isn’t a surprise to comic book readers, but its positioning this early in Invincible’s story is a surprise. Robot’s work with the Mauler Twins to create a new body for himself doesn’t happen until after the events of Omni-Man’s confrontation with Mark in the comics (more on that later). The show, however, shrewdly decides to present this moment in the same episode as Omni-Man’s fall – just so there’s never really a moment for viewers to catch their breath. 

But now the truth has finally arrived. Robot, the orange hunk of metal with a fixedly bemused expression, is actually a machine being operated remotely by Rudolph Conners. Rudolph, or Rudy, is a small, damaged man whose body isn’t capable of surviving Earth’s environment. For many years Rudy was content to exist in his own life-giving tank of fluids while operating his superheroic “Robot” remotely. Everything changed, however, when he met the hero known as Monster Girl.

Rudy couldn’t help but identify with Monster Girl (Grey Griffin), a fellow soul who has made the best of a flawed body. Everytime Monster Girl transforms into a monster, her human form de-ages several more weeks. Theoretically at some point Monster Girl will become an infant and then waste away into nothingness. Before any of that happens, Rudy wants to fix her…and he wants to fix his own broken body so that the pair can be together.

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To that end, Rudy sprung the mad genius villain team The Mauler Twins from prison to create a cloned body for him to transfer his consciousness into. What makes this whole thing even stranger is that the genetic material Rudy chose for his new body belongs to his Teen Team and Guardians of the Globe colleague Rex Splode. The new Rudy appears to be played by Rex Splode actor Jason Mantzoukas with his voice altered to sound younger. 

Does that mean Zachary Quinto is no longer a part of the series? Let’s certainly hope not as he may have been the best performer of the entire cast. And why did Rudy choose Rex’s DNA (and without Rex’s consent, it must be said)? Because Rex is hot, basically. Rudy chose a human form that Monster Girl was already comfortable flirting with. 

This is…a lot. And the fact that Rudy has to introduce himself to his teammates while they’ve all gathered for an “apocalyptic event” just adds to the madness. But what of The Mauler Twins? The disappointment of Rudy’s double-crossing doesn’t last long. For, after Rudy is forced to abandon his efforts to reincarcerate the Mauler Twins to return to the Guardians home base, the twins get back to their important task at hand. And that leads to the return of another important Invincible character…

The Immortal is Immortal After All

Back in Invincible episode 1, Mark Grayson’s dad Nolan a.k.a. Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) made short work of the Guardians of the Globe. Darkwing? Dead. War Woman? Dead. The Immortal? De….wait a minute. How can someone called “The Immortal” die? 

Well, it turns out that death for The Immortal (still voiced by Ross Marquand) is only temporary. Omni-Man removed The Immortal’s head, which is pretty much universally lethal across all genre stories. But The Mauler Twins theorized that if The Immortal’s head were returned to his body, he would spring back to life. 

Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened once The Immortal’s noggin was reattached. Unfortunately for The Mauler Twins, their dreams of forming any sort of alliance with the resurrected hero are quickly dashed as he immediately flies off to confront the man who killed him. 

Omni-Man v. Cecil Stedman

And that takes us to Omni-Man. In the comic, Omni-Man’s confrontation with The Immortal is what leads Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) to discover that he’s got a Darth Vader situation on his hands. The show borrows that moment from the comic because any time you have the opportunity to make a character watch his father tear a Wolverine-looking dude in half, you’ve got to take it. That comic book moment is surprisingly abrupt though. In one panel Omni-Man is doing his usual Omni-Man thing and saving a group of citizens from a faulty roller coaster and in the next panel, The Immortal is all over his ass.

The Amazon Prime series dramatically improves on what is already a pretty great moment simply by drawing it out and building serious tension. Nolan’s wife Debbie (Sandra Oh) and the entire Global Defense Agency led by Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) are already well aware of Nolan’s treachery and have decided to finally take action. In speaking to Den of Geek and other outlets prior to Invincible’s premiere, Kirkman (who’s onboard as a writer and producer for this adaptation) revealed that Cecil Stedman would be getting an expanded role earlier on in Invincible’s story. 

“Cecil Stedman is a character that we get to know a little earlier in the show and definitely we get to do more with him,” he said. “I think that’s a lot of fun. There’s definitely some differences to his character and working with Walton Goggins on him has been great.”

Cecil really is a fascinating tool for Invincible. Many superhero stories have a Jim Gordon-style government liaison for its heroes to interact with. This person usually represents the interests of the planet’s “normal” citizen and is particularly impressive for being able to cut it in the world of the super-powered. By having Debbie and the GDA uncover Nolan’s guilt first, Invincible creates a wonderful opportunity to display both Cecil’s competence and depict the absolute horror of we puny humans trying to keep a super-powered god in check. 

Many times throughout Invincible episode 7, Cecil admits that there is nothing they can do to stop Nolan. The best they can do is slow him down for a bit until Mark is able to intervene. The first roadblock that Cecil presents is the explosion of an entire suburban city block with Nolan at its epicenter (R.I.P. Donald). 

“Best it will do is maybe knock him on his ass for an hour or two,” Cecil says. Then when the smoke clears to reveal an unharmed Omni-Man, Cecil grimly adds “Or maybe not hurt him at all.”

Cecil then throws the “hammer” at Nolan, which is a powerful blast from a weaponized satellite.

“$400 billion for the world’s most expensive nosebleed,” Cecil quips when Nolan takes the weapon out with ease. 

Then we get a sense of how many moral shortcuts Cecil is willing to take to keep the Earth safe. Mad scientist D.A. Sinclair’s (Ezra Miller) wounds from his confrontation with Invincible haven’t even healed yet but Cecil already has him using his evil technology for noble purposes. Sinclair’s “Reanimen” technology is now being used to reanimate recently dead U.S. soldiers, who are sent in to slow down Omni-Man. Unfortunately, that is also unsuccessful.

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Finally, Cecil is forced to head out into the field armed with nothing but a teleporter to confront Omni-Man himself. When that inevitably fails to slow Nolan down, the GDA sends a monster that Nolan already conquered, only this time it’s been robbed of its weaknesses and fear. And that’s where Mark finds his father, just in time for The Immortal to arrive and deliver one hell of a surprise. 

There’s something to be said for the suddenness of the comic’s Omni-Man moment with Mark. Mark witnessing his dad’s evil act truly comes out of nowhere even though we know it’s inevitable as Nolan has been practicing this conversation all issue. 

What the show does with the moment is a masterstroke, however. By centering the focus on the human characters of Invincible’s world, we get a chilling sense of just how terrifying this all is. Omni-Man’s heel turn doesn’t just have personal implications for Mark, it means that Earth’s unbeatable protector now seems to hate Earth. More terrifying than that is that the only person we think can defeat him is Mark Grayson…who, it must be said, has done nothing but had his ass absolutely handed to him by lesser enemies over and over again for the past three episodes.

Amber and Mark

It probably feels anticlimactic to address Mark and Amber’s lover’s spat after breaking down Omni-Man’s reign of terror. But it’s necessary to see how far-reaching the changes (and in this case improvements) are in episode 7 in comparison to its original text. 

Mark and Amber’s relationship thus far has been all about frustration. Mark is facing an annoying problem with a seemingly easy solution. Amber (Zazie Beetz) is upset with him because he is absent in their burgeoning relationship. He’s absent in their burgeoning relationship because he’s a superhero. Therefore, the quickest, easiest solution to this dilemma is to tell her that he’s a superhero. 

So in this episode, that’s exactly what Mark does. He gets suited up and flies right through Amber’s window to deliver the exciting news. The problem is – she’s not that excited.

“Ugh, I know you’re a superhero,” Amber says. “I’m not an idiot, I figured it out weeks ago.”

This is not how things go down in the comic. That version of Amber is a bit more…let’s say “bubbly” and when confronted with the fact that Mark has lied to her for weeks she responds with an excited “My boyfriend is a superhero?!?!?”

The show, however, is smart to not let Mark off the hook so easily. Of course Amber knew that Mark is Invincible. Because, like she says, she’s not an idiot. Anyone who spends an inordinate amount of time with him is bound to figure it out sooner than later. So what Mark thought was a problem with an easy solution becomes yet another difficult lesson on his path to maturation. 

“I think that Amber is important in terms of holding Mark accountable,” Beetz told reporters prior to the show’s premiere. “Mark is still struggling with what his identity as a super person is. And she shows him that (powers) are not what make you good or special ultimately, it’s what’s in your character.”

It turns out that the people close to you don’t appreciate being lied to. Though human beings all look like particularly vulnerable ants from Mark’s perspective high up in the sky, we certainly don’t appreciate being treated like insects to be protected and manipulated by the powerful among us. 

Mark and Amber’s relationship is an excellent indication that nothing will come easy for Mark Grayson on this show. Every decision has an equal and opposite reaction. It’s important that he learns that lesson before he enters into what is sure to be the most stressful and morally confusing moment of his life next week.

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Invincible’s season finale will be available to stream Friday, April 30 on Amazon Prime.

The post Invincible Episode 7 Improves Upon Its Already Great Source Material appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Invasion Ch. 6

Description:  A planet conquering race of Saiyans invaded Earth and deemed it worthy of habitation. After bringing the humans to their heels, they set up a new society where humans had one role, to serve. You found yourself in the unlucky faction of being bought and sold as a human pet. With absolutely no interest in owning a human but no way out of having one, Kakarot made a bid on you at the urging of his brother. It was only a matter of time before you were either killed or forced into obedience.

Ch.1  Ch.2  Ch.3  Ch.4  Ch.5

Warning: Smut, simultaneous orgasms? Not exactly mutual masturbation, but close.

___________________________________________________________

The first urge you had the next morning was to run to Bulma and tell her about the mini-make-out session you had with Kakarot, but you weren’t sure how Vegeta would react to seeing you again so soon so you decided to give it a day or two. Your dreams were filled with the soft moment after dinner and how perfectly he felt against you, touching you. Even after you woke up, you still couldn’t stop thinking about it. It wasn’t just the kiss, but finally feeling like you weren’t completely invisible, that your presence was noticed and wanted. The full heaviness of your future was still there, but you were actively trying to avoid thinking about it, which is where cooking came into play. Cooking was always your escape before the invasion, it only made sense to use it now and you knew Kakarot wouldn’t exactly complain if you went all out cooking a huge breakfast. You barely finished cooking everything before he came shuffling out of his room, bare chested, stretching and sniffing the air.

“Smells good.” He said groggily, his voice still heavy with sleep.

“Thought you might be hungry since you didn’t eat much last night.” Just mentioning the night before made your cheeks flush at the memory.

“Starving.” He took his seat at the table while you fixed his plate.

When you placed his plate in front of him his tail wrapped around your wrist again, but this time it didn’t seem like much of a surprise to him.

“Does it still have a mind of its own?” You asked, softly running your fingers along his tail.

“Sometimes.” His tail tightened around your wrist.

“Well,” you uncoiled his tail from your arm, “tell it you need to eat and to stop distracting you.”

He smiled slightly, “not sure it listens to me that well.”

Kakarot wasn’t lying when he said he was starving. He basically inhaled everything on his plate and then asked if there was more food. You’d never seen someone eat so much so quickly without getting sick. It was mesmerizing to watch him scarf down every bit of food you’d made, except for what was on your plate, which he was eyeballing too. You smiled inwardly at the thought of spending mornings with him like this, but then the realization hit you, these mornings were finite.

“What happens next?” You asked, letting thoughts of the trial slip through.

“Lunch?” He looked up at you.

“No, I mean with the trial and everything. What do you do until then?”

He finished his food and began licking his plate, “Well, I’m not allowed to go on missions, and I can’t buy anymore humans. A lot of stuff is off limits to a saiyan awaiting a trial.”

“Oh, that’s a shame, I know how much you love purchasing us.” You teased but the realization stung a little when you remembered you were technically property.

“So, I basically just sit and wait.” He sat his plate down.

It seemed like a bad idea to just sit and wait for your death sentence, “doesn’t that get boring? The anticipation alone would be unbearable.”

“I can still train and spar, which is what I usually do anyways between missions.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal to him.

“I’ll go insane just sitting- wait, am I going to be involved in the trial?” You grabbed your plate and his, taking them to the sink.

“Not that I know of. What happened has nothing to do with you.”

You leaned back against the counter, chewing on the questions you had, “can I ask why there’s a trial in the first place?”

Kakarot looked up at you instantly, “why? It doesn’t impact you what the reason is.”

“I’m just curious. Plus, if I am forced into it somehow, it would be helpful to know exactly what happened.”

He appeared to be considering your request, it wasn’t like you were asking for specific details. He still seemed hesitant about sharing anything about his mission with you, which made you feel even more curious about what really went on.

“I’ll give you the main parts, but that’s it. Just enough so you know what happened.” He pushed his chair back as you remained by the counter.

“We landed on the planet, no issues. The inhabitants were obviously not happy about being conquered, which is why we were sent in the first place. The previous barrage of saiyans had failed to bring them to heel. Things got messy and I barely made it out.” He kept his gaze on you as he spoke.

“What does ‘messy’ mean?” You pressed.

“Things didn’t go as planned.” He explained poorly.

You thought about it for a moment, but it still didn’t feel right, “does the prince know what happened? What actually happened?” You knew you shouldn’t have called him out like that, especially when he was talking fairly openly.

“He’s the one who assigned the real mission.”

That was everything you were going to get from him, but it opened the door to so many more questions. Pushing for anything else would have been pointless, at least with him anyways. You had to get to Bulma, she would know more.

As you were thinking about everything he’d just laid out for you, he stood up and made his way towards you, placing his finger beneath your chin and tilting it up for you to meet his gaze.

“Don’t speak of this to anyone, understand?”

“O-Okay.” Having him that close again was a little distracting, as was his tail that crept up your leg.

“No, I need you to say it. You can’t utter a word of this or that we’ve even discussed it. It’s not only my life on the line at this point.” His gaze was intense as he held you there until you agreed.

“I understand. I won’t say a word.” You nodded your head as much as you could.

You assumed he’d release you after that, but he didn’t. He kept his hand beneath your chin as his eyes flitted from yours to your lips. The pull to him was almost overwhelming, even when you were convinced you needed to fight it. You could tell he was struggling as well, wanting to give in, teetering on the edge of right and wrong, it brought you some comfort knowing you weren’t alone in turmoil. The hand that wasn’t being restrained by his tail, reached up to caress his cheek, but his hand snapped over your wrist the second your fingertips brushed his skin.

“I’m not going to breed you.” His voice was low.

You were confused as to where that came from and how it was related, “um, I didn’t-“

“I can smell your arousal. We aren’t mating.” He stated as facts.

“We don’t have to mate to feel a little less alone.” Using his word was weird, you wanted to just say ‘sex’ or ‘fuck’, but you wanted it clear to him that you were not into being an incubation pod for his offspring.

Kakarot’s lips crashed into yours immediately. He pressed your back against the counter, his tail tightening around your arm as he poured his frustrations into the kiss. You used your free hand to thread your fingers through his hair, digging them into the back of his neck lightly. You set a slow rhythm of petting his tail, letting your fingers run along the soft fur until he let out low growls against your lips.

“Stop.” He said through gritted teeth as if he was barely hanging on by a thread.

“Sorry.” You halted your ministrations and returned to kissing him.

His arms wrapped around you, hugging you to his bare chest and inhaling sharply at the pain from his still healing wounds. He didn’t seem to mind the feeling as he made no move to push you away or stop you from being pressed against them. His kiss was heated and filled with need, but what kind of need you couldn’t be sure. You wanted to feel close, to feel something with another person, even though it was with an alien who purchased you. Bulma’s advice continued to run through your mind, to go with it because your old norms and expectations don’t make sense in the new order of things.

Over the next few days, you spent most of your time with Kakarot. Either cooking or making out. It was a simple life, but easy. There were no angry, jealous saiyans trying to kill you, no wrathful prince’s threatening your life, it was just the two of you guarded in your momentary bliss without distraction or interference. Ignoring every other responsibility either of you had. It was different seeing this side of him, no longer hindered by the obsession with keeping his distance from you or pushing you away.

Kakarot pulled back from your lips as you straddled his lap on the couch, “I need a shower and you need to start on dinner.”

“Shit, you’re right.” You’d completely forgotten about dinner. You moved to climb out of his lap, but he pulled you back into another kiss.

“We can continue this after though.” He spoke against your lips.

“Sounds good.” You smiled slightly.

It wasn’t that you didn’t enjoy having the softness from another’s touch, but there was only so much that kissing could do for you after a while. It wasn’t exactly a secret how much he was affected by it as well, especially when he had you in his lap or pressed up against a wall. Your mind stayed clouded and running between wanting to beg him to fuck you and not wanting to mate with an alien. Plus, it wasn’t like you had a lot of time together so maybe it was best not to complicate things? But the need was there for you both. You let out a frustrated sigh as you headed towards the kitchen and he headed towards his bedroom to grab his clothes. You rummaged through the fridge and cabinets, trying to figure out what you wanted to cook for dinner, but then it dawned on you, it wasn’t really your choice.

You made your way towards his room but paused when you heard a soft groan coming from it. His door was cracked just enough for you to peer in to see him. Your cheeks flushed at the sight of him, his pants pulled down just enough for his impressive cock to slip free and his hand wrapped around it. He leaned forward with his free hand against the wall as he stroked himself. You wanted to turn away, go back to the kitchen, but you couldn’t get your feet to move. Short, breathy groans escaped his lips, his cheeks almost as flush as yours as he worked himself closer to his release. The longer you watched him, the more you could feel your own arousal building and the wetness pooling between your thighs.

The second you heard your name on his lips, you were done. You slipped your hand down between your thighs, needing that same release he seemed to be chasing. It didn’t take you long to get to the same place he was, your fingers moving quicker just as his hand did. You closed your free hand over your mouth to keep the moans from slipping out as you felt your orgasm nearing. His hand slowed for a moment, stroking his thick cock just right until he let out a low growl and came into his hand. You leaned back against the wall and rode out your own release, coming on your fingers quietly. You heard him shuffling around the room and made a quick dash towards the kitchen before he exited his room.

You barely made it to the kitchen sink by the time he stepped through the doorway, “I forgot to ask what we’re having for dinner.”

“Um, I… I haven’t decided yet. Any requests?” You turned around to see him standing there with the same relieved gaze you probably held, but he seemed to be regarding you a little differently.

“No preference...” he looked you up and down, sniffing the air slightly, “just make a lot of it, I’m starving.” He left the room without another word, leaving you to lean back against the counter and chastise yourself for what had just happened.

Finishing dinner was a challenge. Your thoughts were racing at everything that had taken place over the last few days and especially the last few minutes. You felt ashamed of yourself, that you’d let your urges take over and the fact that you spied on him didn’t help you.

“Dinner ready?” he asked, startling you and making you jump suddenly.

Your heart raced as you turned around to see him waltzing into the kitchen, basically naked except for the pair of briefs that hung way too low on his hips. He was still drying his hair with a towel as he took his seat at the table. You were fighting to pick your jaw up off the floor and focus on serving him dinner instead of yourself on a silver platter.

“Yep, we’re having chili.” You placed a bowl in front of him.

“Are you not eating?” He asked when you didn’t immediately grab a bowl for yourself.

You shook your head, “not right now, I’m not really hungry.”

“Is it because of what you did earlier?” He asked bluntly, almost making you pass out from sheer shock.

“Um, what I-I did?” You feigned innocence, hoping it was something entirely different on his mind.

“I could smell you, I know you must have touched yourself. Is it normal for humans to lose their appetite after that?” He had zero shame about asking you about your orgasm.

“I-um, it’s not something that happens often… and I’m sorry for doing that, it was wrong of me to-“

“Sorry? Why are you sorry? I don’t care if you make yourself come, just maybe do it in your room next time instead of the kitchen.” He shrugged and started to eat his food.

“Wait, in the- oh, okay. Yeah, definitely. I’ll be more careful next time. Not that there will be a next time, I’m just-“ You stumbled over your words as you realized he didn’t know you’d seen him.

“It’s just a little distracting being able to smell you.” He said between bites.

“Distracting? How? Like in a bad way?” The more you learned about him the more confused you were.

“Just smells good. It makes it hard to think about anything else.” He stopped eating and stared up at you.

His tail wrapped around your leg and pulled you closer, no longer a surprising action that made you tense, but a soft one that made you relax. Kakarot looked up at you while his hand skimmed the waistband of your pants. He inhaled sharply and it sent a shudder through him as his pupils went wide.

“Very distracting.” He leaned closer and you couldn’t help the hopeful look in your eyes that he might do more.

He opened his mouth to say something else but a knock on the door made you both tense up and immediately pull away from one another. You’d only known of one person to come visit and you weren’t exactly thrilled at the possibility of him appearing at that moment. Kakarot glanced at you before heading to the door. You followed him but remained around the corner of the hallway, curious but staying hidden.

“What took you so long?” A small saiyan woman asked as soon as he opened the door.

“I wasn’t expecting you this soon.��� He looked like he was completely surprised by her as she wrapped her arms around him.

“We came early, we thought it would be nice to spend some extra time with you.” She pulled away.

“We?”

“Your mother was insistent.” A saiyan who looked almost identical to Kakarot stepped inside.

You shifted in place, making the floor creak and the group of them look directly at you. You’d never wanted the ability to disappear so badly in your life.

“Who is that?” The female saiyan asked and looked up at Kakarot and back to you.

“That’s um, she’s my human.” He sounded almost ashamed of you.

“Hi there, I’m Gine, Kakarot’s mother, and this is Bardock, his father.” She wasted no time in making a direct line towards you as you looked over to Kakarot.

“A human, Kakarot? Your brother was supposed to take care of you here, not pull you into his shameful activities.” Bardock kept his voice low, but you could still hear him clearly.

“He was convinced it would be a good thing. She’s at least useful for cooking and cleaning.” He was torn between looking at you and at his father.

“You can cook? That’s great, saiyans have an insatiable appetite, but I’m sure you know that, don’t you dear?” She looked at you curiously.

“Y-Yes, he eats like he has a bottomless pit in his stomach.” You offered a slight smile even though you were fully panicked on the inside.

You knew Kakarot and you knew Raditz, they both came from Bardock and Gine, the question remained about which one Raditz got his pleasantness from and you were thinking it was probably Bardock with the way he glared at you.

“Have you seen Raditz yet?” Kakarot asked, changing the subject from you.

“Not yet, we planned on going there after we visited with you for a while.” Gine answered, still seeming to be curious about you.

“I just finished dinner, there’s plenty for all of you.” You offered, hoping food would smooth things over.

“Great, Bardock was just saying how hungry he was on the way over.” She walked past you towards the kitchen.

Bardock followed suit, glancing in your direction as he passed, but not saying a word. Kakarot pulled you into the living room quickly, “I didn’t know they were coming this soon. Just stay out of sight for the most part.”

“Of course, just let me know if you need anything.” You nodded and watched as he headed out of the room.

Catering to one saiyan was difficult enough, and even then you were just starting to get used to one another. Now there were three of them and one clearly didn’t like your presence. You slunk into your room quietly and closed the door behind you as they ate and caught up. All of the tenseness and unease you’d felt in the beginning was starting to flood back in and you wondered if them being there would alter your relationship with Kakarot.

Ivar - Checkmate

This was requested so long ago I honestly lost track. It was by an anon, who wanted X from the Angst Alphabet with no detailed description. Hope you like it! 

Warnings: brief, very brief hints of rape.

Plot: Ivar hasn’t always been the murderous king we know. There was a spark initiating the fire.

Despite what some might have thought, he did not consider himself to have multiple personalities. Instead, he was like a many sided coin, or perhaps a puzzle, hundreds of different pieces fitting together to make a perfect whole, to make the man that he was. Pieces that he just so happened to fit perfectly with you by his side, always watching his back and hugging his front.

For polite and formal company, he was Prince Ivar, a man who cared about his subjects and who could go on and one about the different political aspects of running a kingdom. He knew all the social niceties and customs that came with being part of the upper class, even if most of the foreigners thought that the vikings didn’t have manners. He had a way with words that won over even the coldest of ambassadors, his natural charm soon getting king Harald to sing a trade agreement that seven generations of his family had been refusing for the last four hundred years. He sat in on a council meetings, voicing his opinions and commanding the attacks. He was a husband, of beautiful princess Y/N Y/L/N, the future king of Norway.

They called him ‘Ivar the boneless’, a heartless monster; but truth was, he had never killed anyone. He only sent other people to do so, because he hadn’t feel the need to do so. Ivar still had to stain his hands with blood, to see a man’s life flashing through his eyes in a last exhale. His brothers were much more violent than him. Ubbe had killed in a battle ruthlessly and Hvitserk had slaughtered wives and kids in front of their parents; not to talk about Bjorn, who had the permanent smell of death in his clothes.

But not Ivar. He only knew the love that you brought him.

When you changed the pillows for him, so that he was more comfortable, he saw the world he wanted to live in. When you kissed his forehead everytime you passed by, and actually spent some time listening to his plans and showing interest, his heart grew big with love just for you. In the way you ran your hand absentmindedly through his locks, he found the will to live and to conquer the world just for you. Or in how you helped other that had nothing, which made him want to be a better person. But if there was a thing that he loved, though, was the feeling of you dozing off on his lap after a rough day.

That night was different, because in your eyes were dried tears and in his ears still sounded your broken sobs. Your hands were clenched in his tunic, and your body was still shaking with aftershock. Sigurd, staring at you in the doorway, with his arms crossed. Ubbe, sitting by the fireplace sneaking pity glances at you. Hvitserk, not touching his food but playing with it. His mother, sitting beside him and rubbing his arm. They weren’t supposed to be there, but you were already their queen.

Without saying a word, Ivar passed your sleeping form to his mother and took off.

He crawled through the city, to the forest until the cabin in the woods. He staked his prey through the darkness, allowing the newest side of him to take control, the nameless mask that was so full of hatred that it could consume the world withering the planet into a dull husk. His target was unaware of his approach, unknowingly bringing its own demise upon by taking the shortcut through the dark path.

The knife on his hands should have been heavy, but it gave him an oddly comforting feeling. The one he had been searching all day.

It was not a moment later that he saw his chance, the man he was pursuing leaning down to take a log that had fallen from his hands. Without missing a beat, he fell on him like a lion on his prey, placing his gloved hand over the man’s mouth to muffle the expected yells. Raising the knife so the silver blade glimmered in the moon’s cold light, he waited as its body stiffened against his own, the condemned man’s breathing coming in terrified pants. Tightening his grip on his prey, Ivar leaned forward and whispered his messaged.

“This is for her”

With a silent roar, Ivar plunged the knife into the man’s stomach, his glove growing warm and wet with his blood as he twisted the knife. He expected instant guilt, regret or even fear. But a pleasant feeling grew in his stomach, as if the last piece of the puzzle had finally fixed itself.

“This is for her, for her. This is for her”

When he finally let the body fall, the knife still embedded into his abdomen, his target’s blood had already dried, caking the front of his clothes in a rust coloured splatter. For a few moments, he stared at the dead man before him. He had just killed a man, another human being. With his hands.

He was glad.

Although the side of him that always thought about how you might feel because of his actions was screaming at him, the blood thirst screamed louder, and he found himself dragging the tip of the knife against the man’s cheek.

It did not take him long to reach the edge of Kattegat, dragging himself between the shadows and in silence. The town was quiet, sleeping and unsuspected of the first murder of Ivar Ragnarson. He felt blood on his hands, on his knees and under his nails, but that didn’t stop him from smiling the whole way to your rooms.

All thoughts of sleep were banished from his mind as he entered his room and saw the slumbering form of his wife. Aslaug, always waiting and knowing, nodded shortly at her younger son and let your sleeping body rest on your side while she exited the room. His brothers were far gone, and silence embraced Ivar one more.

Crossing to the other side of the room, he paused as a whimper tore itself from your throat, filling him with the desire to reach out and hold you, to comfort you in a way you had yet to let him. Instead, he stepped away, folding his arms across his chest as he watched you, the noises fading away. Ivar knew it was necessary, the separation, because his touch would just make it a thousand times worse at least for now, even if he hated.

He knew what you were dreaming about, and it killed him to know that, even if you did allow him to be there, to hold you until the nightmare passed, he could never change the events of the past. He could never go back to that single morning when you had needed him the most, when he should have been there and not making stupid peace deals with traders. He could not chance the fact that he had failed you, had broken his promise to never let anyone hurt you.

The clothes torn apart sat by the fire, waiting for your permission to be burnt. Ivar notice his tunic wrapped around your body, and clenched his jaw. He touched his cheek with sticky fingers.

He could never change that another man had stolen what you had given to him, and only him, in your wedding night. And, no one could have foreseen Ivar becoming the most ruthless killer of all Vikings in the dark of the night.

Because no one would ever hurt his queen while he was alive.

Vikings Tags:

@worldisadirtyplace​

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The Ship of Monsters

Check me out, I’m being topical!  I had another review almost finished for today, but when I saw the news I knew I had to set that aside and find a movie about life on Venus.  This one is a ridiculous Mexican film starring Lorena Velazquez from Samson vs the Vampire Women (looking only slightly less like Cher) and one of those amazing cardboard robots you only get in the very worst of late 50’s and early 60’s sci-fi.

An atomic war on the planet Venus has killed off all the males, so an expedition is sent out in search of replacements, consisting of a native Venusian named Gamma, her Uranian navigator Beta, and their robot Tor.  After promising the Empress that they will bring back only the most manly of men, they wander the solar system a while collecting creatures with penises before an engine problem forces them to land on Earth.  The first human they meet there is Laureano Gomez, a singing cowboy with a well-earned reputation for telling tall tales.  One might assume one could predict the rest of the movie from there… but then Beta turns on Gamma and reveals that her true mission all along was to conquer a planet to feed the vampires of Uranus!

I gotta say… I did not see that coming.

The Ship of Monsters is supposed to be a comedy.  It’s seldom funny when it’s trying to be, although it mercifully avoids being the kind of desperately unfunny a lot of bad comedies are… possibly this is because it’s in Spanish, and by the time I’ve realized something is stupid there’s another subtitle to distract me. The jokes, such as they are, are pretty standard.  Tor the robot was created by an alien race, who were aware of Earth but never bothered exploring it because they thought the inhabitants weren’t very intelligent.  Laureano is in the habit of telling ridiculous stories to his drinking buddies, so of course when he claims the Earth is being invaded by space monsters they don’t believe him.  That sort of thing.  The movie is much funnier when it’s just showing us absurd situations, but to nobody’s surprise, The Ship of Monsters is at its funniest when it’s trying to be serious.

This hilarity comes in many forms, covering just about all the possible bases for a dirt-cheap 1960 sci-fi film.  We have spaceship sets made of cardboard, covered with buttons that don’t actually press and levers conveniently placed so people can bump into them during fight scenes.  We have Tor, with his tin can body that’s always a little dinged up but never in the same places, giving us clues as to what order the scenes might have been shot in.  He also has wiggly spring antennae and makes a little whirring noise every time he moves. We have space babes in silver bathing suits and glittery high heels.  Vampire-Beta, sporting plastic fangs that look like they came from the bottom of a cereal box, could be the female counterpart to the guy from Dracula vs Frankenstein, and the puppet used to represent her in flight is nearly as bad as the one from The Devil Bat.

The ‘monsters’ of the title are a bulging-brained Martian prince, a scaly cyclops, a spidery creature with venomous fangs, and the mobile skeleton of what appears to be a *damn worwelf (he tells us that his race has Evolved Beyond Flesh... apparently not Beyond Bones, though).  The costumes are all terrible, particularly the warwulf puppet, whose backbone extends into his mouth and who has to be carried around with his feet dangling in any shot that’s not a close-up.  It’s nice, though, that a little imagination went into them, and somebody gave a bit of thought to the idea that a monstrous appearance is relative.  The Martian tells Beta that he admires her ambition and might even marry her if she weren’t so ugly by his planet’s standards.

At the end, naturally, this alien invasion is defeated by Laureano, his twelve-year-old brother, and a cardboard robot, while Gamma just stands around and screams.  With a movie like this I expect nothing less.  The denouement contains my favourite intentional joke in the whole thing, in which Gamma stays on Earth with her True Love, and Tor the robot takes his, the Jukebox, back to Venus with him!  Tom Servo would have given a speech to congratulate the happy couple, and I can just see him breaking down into happy tears before he got five lines in.

(The wirwalf skeleton is not present at the climactic fight, by the way… no explanation is offered, and I strongly suspect that they broke the puppet trying.  I rather enjoy this omission, because it lets me imagine him getting lost or maybe buried by an enterprising dog, and finally finding his way back to the landing site only to learn that they’ve left without him.)

I called Laureano a cowboy but he only has one cow.  Her name is Lolobrijida and she is the very first time I have ever seen a movie spur a hero into action by killing his cow.  She gets a proper Teenagers from Outer Space death, with her skeleton left behind propped up by metal struts like a dinosaur in a museum!

I also called him a singing cowboy, which he is – there are several songs, including one in which he tries to explain to Gamma and Beta what ‘love’ means.  The songs have pleasant but forgettable Mexican pop melodies, and none of the lyrics make a whole lot of sense.  Being translated over-literally from Spanish probably didn’t do them any favours (my own Spanish tops out at yo no tengo dinero), but I still can’t imagine that the What Is Love song clarified anything.

Laureano himself comes across as kind of a fool, but he’s not actually a full-on idiot, which is quite important.  If he were the kind of one-dimensional ‘comedic nitwit’ embodied in characters like Dropo, or the janitor from Reptilicus, he’d be insufferable.  Laureano is no genius, but he’s got personality traits besides being stupid – he cares deeply for his little brother Chuy and for his animals, and he doesn’t treat Gamma and Beta’s appearance as two women for the price of one.  Very quickly he decides that Gamma is the one he loves, and he sticks to that, doing his best to let Beta down gently even when she offers to make him a king.  He’s also smart enough to trick Beta into dancing with him so he can steal the device she uses to control the rocket and Tor, and to listen to Gamma when she tells him about the various monsters’ weaknesses.

Gamma and Beta, on the other hand, don’t have a lot to them besides the basic fact that Gamma is the Nice One and Beta is Evil. Gamma starts out in the story with a strong sense of duty, and it’s a bit disappointing to see her abandon that because of Tru Luv.  I would have liked the ending better if she’d taken Laureano home with her so that the two of them could be the Adam and Eve of the new Venusian race.  Meanwhile, Beta shows no sign of any loyalty except to herself and her own ambition.  Her original mission, to secure Earth as a blood supply for the Uranians, falls by the wayside as she decides she’s going to conquer and rule the planet herself.

So The Ship of Monsters isn’t exactly a feminist manifesto, but neither is it complete misogynistic garbage like Project Moon Base.  The whole premise, after all, rests on a planet of women being able to develop space travel all on their own!  This is a fairly surprising plot point, because in many ‘planet of women’ movies like Fire Maidens of Outer Space or Cat Women of the Moon, the ladies need the virile Earth Men to come to them.

There’s also a little bit of actual science peeking out of the cracks.  The moment for launch of the rocket from Venus is determined by when ‘the elliptical orbits coincide’.  Launch timing is, indeed, a delicate art depending very much on what’s orbiting where. There’s also the moment when, trying to land on Earth, Gamma and Beta worry that the friction, combined with our oxygen-rich atmosphere, will set their ship on fire.  This stuff is pretty impressive coming from a time when the moon landing was still nearly a decade away.  There are even a couple of scenes in zero gravity that honestly aren’t totally terrible.  I mean, I’ve seen better, but I’ve also seen much, much worse.

There’s also one weirdly prescient moment when Laureano, telling one of his silly stories in the pub, describes being surrounded by dinosaurs – only to get a laugh a moment later when he mentions that they had beautiful plumage.  I’m not sure whether this is meant to be a joke in that Laureano is exaggerating an actual encounter with an angry bird into something more fearsome (I think we’re to assume that the whole story is totally made up), or whether it’s just supposed to be funny that Laureano thinks dinosaurs had feathers instead of scales.  Either way, it’s the equivalent of the moon Fornax in Menace from Outer Space being so reminiscent of Io.  There’s no way the writers could have known that, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

The Ship of Monsters is very cheap and very dumb, but it’s good fun for those of us who like crummy old alien invasion movies, and I recommend it to anybody in that demographic.  As for actual life on Venus… I feel like a lot of the people getting excited are too young to remember when Bill Clinton told the world that we had totally found life on Mars.  Humans have been discovering life on other planets for about two hundred years and every single one of those ‘discoveries’ has turned out to be either a mistake or an outright lie.  We have plenty enough to panic about this year without a Venusian invasion.

TROS - What did I even watch? Or how I lived to see the day Disney murdered a prince, left Cinderella alone in the desert, and hoped for the world to rejoice because it was “fun”?

Dear friends, I’ve been here for the spoilers and I’ve even talked with some of you. I went to watch the movie today, with 0 hope of anything except of seeing my baby Ben Solo and Adam’s fenomenal acting (and listening to some good John Williams). 

I knew it would be horrible, but as @nevernerdenoughblog said seeing it makes it even more. Like @clairen45 it felt so wrong. Should I rejoice with a Reylo kiss that Rey gave but seconds later didn’t even cry over Ben’s dead body? I refuse to acknowledge this characterization of Rey. She was the only one that ever believed in Ben Solo, she shipped herself to make him know he was loved and wanted and to help him. Where was this Rey in this movie?

I am sorry guys (especially for the tagging) but I need to write this out or it will eat me and you guys are the few ones that relate to my pain. You know what really hurt me the most in all this? Toxic masculinity disguised as feminism.

1) FAREWELL HEROINE’S JOURNEY

They trashed the Heroine’s Journey. They murdered it and spit in its face. JJ Abrams simply decided that the Heroine’s Journey (done in act 1/ep. VII and act 2/ep. VIII) was not cutting anymore and decided to send Rey on a Hero’s Journey (ep. IX only, new 1st, 2nd and 3rd act altogether), where she has become this almost toxic masculine fighter under Leia’s training  — Badass girl? Yes. Full of anger? Yes. Logical? Yes. Connected to anything? No, not even herself, she kept on the run, afraid. In search of the Jedi detachment? Yes. —, only to send her happilly off to a desert planet in the end of her journey and finishing with her alone talking with an old lady.

Which remind us of the start of TFA, meaning she has comeback to what? Luke didn’t even comeback to that “home” in Tatooine the end of his Hero’s Journey? So she went to a place of death to what? This is a slap on the face of the Heroine’s Journey. This is how toxic masculinity corrupts and interrupts the most uncomfortable (to psychologically unhealthy bystanders) and fundamental (to the woman herself) phase of Heroine’s Journey: You want love, family, a partnership, connection, nurturing or progeny? That is weak, it is foolish. You need to fight, to conquer, to take, take and take. Otherwise you won’t be strong or independent.

REALLY???????????

I AM CRYING! WHY? WHY? WHY? Daisy, are you really seriously satisfied with this ending? Because REY DESERVED BETTER. 

BTW, BEN SOLO DESERVED BETTER! The true feminist of this story DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER! ADAM DRIVER DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER! He always respect the director’s view, does his best to accomplish it and brings his best acting to the table. The only saving grace in the whole movie to me was Ben’s arc because 1) Adam was doing it and 2) He honored his character. Man he deserved so much better!!!!!

I’m not even going to repeat what everyone already said about where is George Lucas’ Fairytale Story, because you guys said it all. But I have a beef with Disney executive decisions:

2) WALT DISNEY - HOW I WISH WALT WAS ALIVE

Walt Disney. Much have been criticized concerning his choices to make HEA in fairytales. But what now? We find balance by wanting our children to grow up to be cynic and seeing the feminine as weak? Unhelpful? Bad? 

“Yo independent women! You need no prince even if you have one. He can compassionately and selfelessly die to save you because he loves you and you can go off, happily, to celebrate with your friends! You don’t mourn his body, oh no. You don’t tell him you love him. You forget him. You go be that cool lonely warrior.”

Excuse me but I can kick ass and have the romantic love life and children I want! I can have both! Because I am a human being and I deserve it. This is not a matter of being a men or women. This is a matter of balancing the feminine and masculine within.

But that is not just it. BEN SOLO DESERVED BETTER! WALT WOULD NEVER, EVER LET A CHARACTER THAT WENT THROUGH ABUSE AND SO MUCH PAIN DIE THE WAY BEN SOLO DID! Is that a Disney movie??????? I mean, what did I just watch????

Walt Disney, the man who promised P.L. Travers, upon knowing who Mr. Banks was to her (her deceased alcoholic father) and what Mary Poppins, her work, meant to her, said:

“George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. Maybe not in life, but in imagination. Because that is what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.”

THAT IS WHAT STORYTELLERS DO! Like so many fanfic writers in this fandom @nite0wl29, @stargazer1116, @intp-slytherin97, @eleanor-writes-stuff, @postedbygaslight, @raven-maiden, and so many others!! Btw, thank you all!! My vacation starts tomorrow and I’m going to read again all your amazing fics to regain exactly that: HOPE!

What was TROS? Leia and Luke believing in the good in Rey? The whole Jedi Order believing in her? I have nothing against that but why didn’t they believe or help Ben too? Ben didn’t receive any of that love, WHY? What was wrong with him? What did he do?! He was the most selfless of souls, just like his Father and Grandmother. Is this vicntim blaming??? WHY DISNEY, LUCAS FILM and JJ ABRAMS, WHY?!

I used to think people were wrong when they said Disney was only doing SW for money. Because Walt Disney also said and lived by this rule:

“The important thing is the family. If you can keep the family together — and that’s the backbone of our whole business, catering to families — that is what we hope to do.”

SW is about family and I refuse to accept ep. IX as SW. It has all the make up of SW, but it lacks the heart and very essence of it.

As dear @eleanor-writes-stuff said, so much for criticizing Rian Johnson, only to consagrate his work. That man honored the storytelling art and I’ll be forever grateful to him for his touch in SW and for how his writing touched and changed my life. And I know Waltz would have approved too because he also said:

“I prefer to entertain people in the hope that they learn, rather than teach people in the hope they are entertained.”

3) PLOT? WHAT PLOT?

Leia’s feelings for Ben have remained ambiguous, you can both read her as someone who wants her baby boy dead (because her death allows Rey to stab Ben to death if she wants to, when Ben was never going to harm Rey) or not. Actions speak louder than words, and this was the movie when Leia would have the chance to assume the responsability for her mistakes and take action, instead of only claiming she believed her son was alive.

If she clearly wanted to reach Ben, was Maz’s words needed? No, they weren’t. It was exactly because Maz needed to voice it that proved Leia’s actions could be read as ambiguous. Again, actions speak louder than words. Her body only disappeared after Ben’s did too because what? She was expecting him to die so she could collect his soul?

I dearly love Leia’s character but LEIA DESERVED BETTER! CARRIE DESERVED BETTER! In the end I’m not sure what to make of the ST Leia. She could have helped Ben but clearly sent him away to Luke because? What?

Ben Solo get his redemption from his own 2 hands + his father’s memory (not force ghost) + Rey’s confession. In the end he becomes the bride of the monster, only to die right after, in a what? Plot twist?

Finn, who? That was so messed up! Rose? Poor Rose!!! Hux? Oh Hux deserved better too. I was glad to see that Poe matured though and grew in his arc.

I’m also mad and confused about other plot points:

Ben throws his bleeded kyber krystal away because of his father. Okay. Why did no one help him when he cried on the Force to crack his kyber and soul, but Luke Force Ghost appears to catch Rey throwing a lightsaber in an on fire tie fighter?

Rey would turn to the Dark side if she killed Palpatine, right? 5 minutes later she won’t turn to the Dark Side anymore even if she still kills him in anger? Just because the self righteous jedi chose to let Ben get thrown down the abysm by himself but Rey was the Chosen One?

Still on this topic, so she choses to give up her soul so Palpatine uses her body as the vessel of his soul and the legion of siths, in order to save her friends, but she won’t take Ben Solo’s hand, even if she claims she wants to + retaining her body, to do the same?

I think force bonds don’t make much of a difference anymore when one of the parts dies. Ben can die and Rey seems pretty okay?

INTERESTING FACT: Beside me there was a father with his 6 or 7 year old son. The child kept asking what was going on everytime the movie introduced any plot twists or too much information too quickly. When the Reylo kiss came on screen, you know what the kid said? “I told ya!” I wanted to cry when seconds later the boy was claiming now was Rey’s turn to bring Ben back. Children understand the Heroine’s Journey and it doesn’t scare them. It is beautiful like that. The father then had to try and explain to the boy that other things were going on and that no, “that guy was gone”. What have you done people?

4) EPISODE X

I must have a clown face. They lied to us about this movie being “The Rise of Skywalker”. Maybe they lied to us about this being the end of the saga? Considering JJ claims this is fun, happy and hopeful, yeah, I doubt they are making an episode X or ressurecting Ben Solo after throwing in the garbage the Heroine’s Journey. I vaguely remember Adam also said he wasn’t going to appear in another SW.

IF they do announce an ep. X, I’m not watching it unless Ryan or someone like him directs the movie.

I loved to see Han Solo’s memory helping his son. That man trully loved him and it is tragic that he screwed up as a father only because he thought he wasn’t enough to be a good one and that Leia and Luke would know better.

I also loved to see Ben Solo as his father son and grandchild to his grandmother and great grandmother. He was beautiful and I love him and he’ll be forever with me.

I liked the Reylo kiss... but Rey’s actions in this movie have affected me so that it doesn’t feel like they scrapped the surface of making justice to this that could have been the happiest and most balanced of all SW couples.

IT COULD HAVE BEEN EPIC. IT COULD HAVE BEEN GRAND. But it wasn’t.

I’ll forget TROS. YBTOTT is now canon to me, because it is a perfect 3rd act in this trilogy, and @postedbygaslight honors the Heroine’s Journey like few writers have the gut and courage to do. Thank you so much Wayne!

And if anyone had the patience to read this to the end, thank you. I feel it too guys, this was awful and horrible.

Tribes episode notes;

We see with their eyes, we hear with their ears, we think with their mind, feel with their emotional heartbeat.

Nationalism, obsession with self and psychology, fondness of nature, concern for the future of the planet, democracy and the rise of people power.

Through music, art and poetry the romantics deepened our connection to our place of birth, fondness of monarchy and enabled emotional connection to both. This same passion bore an evil twin, where nationalism and division caused hate and discrimination of ‘us and them’

nationalism : the longing to go back or stay where you came from. Nostalgia, starts with the sense of loss. For the nationalists, it started with a sense of defeat e.g. 18th C scotland.

Burns (scottish poet) was convinced that music could trigger a great swell of fellow feeling even if you were seperated by wealth, rank or eduction

In the early 1800s , germany was not a unified nation but a quilt of states that were united by language and divided by everything else… they fell to the invading french (by Napoleon Bonaparte, child of Enlightenment who was bringing reason, uniformity of institutions, codes of law…. Poison to the romantic mind)

German writers and artists were driven by a sense of nationhood to seek their ancestral past in the woods and forests of german landscape. Hoped to rediscover roots of their culture that were lost in the french modernity. Called this “Deutschtum”

18C German philosopher Johann Gottfired Herder invented what it means to belong to a cultural tribe, he challenged the Enlightenment (liberation from old wives tales, superstitions, religious superstitions, folklore ballads), which believed that once this liberation occurred we would all be rational creatures who would all be the same.

Herder: we aren’t the same, we’re the product of innumerable ancestral deposits of memory, custom, dress, song and folk poetry

he believed there is no shame in difference, although he invented germanness, he didn’t deem it superior to anything else (e.g. polishness or scottishness), he was against flattening of difference, because for him, whether you like it or not, difference was a deep truth about human nature.

Herder’s writing was in response to the anxieties of becoming modern, the rush into money, materialism and metropolitan uniformity.

Romantics (herder included) believed that what we need to live truly human lives was a sense of belonging, a connection to the traditions of our own tribes. Something that can relate to our own time: the more modern we become, the more we need anchorage (anchorage in memory, dreams, ancestry, myth and whole universe of our connected imagination)

Caspar david frederich, monastery graveyard: hope for germany that was being invaded by french modernism. His father died under french invasion. symbolism within the painting: waxing moon soon to renew cycle, death of Jesus which isn’t actually death but promise, buds on the winter trees promising spring. Mournful painting full of death, but hope of new life.

French established the capital in german town and called it Westphalen, regarded german as less rational and sophisticated, made french official language of state. Grimm brothers resisted this by going back to the language and folk tales of the people. Thought they would find the roots of their germanic culture and resurrect it.

Ordinary folk offered their stories, which were transcribed and sent to the grimm brothers.

The published stories were for children and considerably muted compared to the original; dark, cruel, full of cannibalism, mutilation, death, incest (e.g. cinderella’s sisters cutting off their toes to try on the glass slipper, snow white’s abandonment in the woods was meant to end in her heart, lungs and liver cut out and cooked for the evil queen)

Grimm’s stories were made for working class townsmen, who after a day's work were to return to fantasy horror. Grimm’s brothers were trying to reconnect the folk to the dark, savage and primeval german forest.

For german romantics, they were sure it was in the forest that their nationhood was born; world away from modern civilization, it was a primitive world of magic and violence, ancient wisdom and natural justice.

2,000 years before German tribes won against roman invasion within these forests, these forests were a symbol of the people

WW1 germany defeated, Nazis perverted everything that herder and germany’s lieral minded romantics had stood for; forests became not just the symbol of german strength but also of its ethnic putriy.

The Holzweg (the path through the woods), i understood this as a metaphor for nationalism and unitedness: one path can lead to two different directions, one direction can lead to universe of magic, enchantment, creative flights of imagination that are needed to establish an idea of common fatherland. The other path a dark route of bloodshed and brutality.

Mariele Neudecker restages the landscapes of freidrich and grimms in liquid filled glass tanks that mimic the atmospheric conditions of air, light and fog. Reconnecting us to not just the darkness but the wonder and mysticism of romanic art.

Abuse of romantic imagery in the Third Reich. Romantic images have beauty to them but also a dark underbelly. People to have sense of fear, wonder. She’s not sure if she’s reclaiming the landscape but neutralising it somehow out of the political weight. Wants people to question their perception and question their understanding of those images.

Polish liberation didn’t give up hope, rallied around figures of romantic artists; Chopin included.

Heart of polish culture was in paris, where in 1830s politicians, artists, writers had fled into exile after the poland was not just conquered but wiped off the map. With memories of homeland sharpened by separation, they created poland of the imagination in their art.

It is possible to belong to a country, its language tradition and family, yet at the same time belong to humanity.

Romantics ultimate message: harmony (with people, nature & ourselves)

Book 1 Hope returns  Chapter 46 Vanguard By goldstonegolem64

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9HJV1Ben6k

Galra central command

It had been about  eight teen hours since Root rot was sent to conquer and Zarkon was starting to get frustrated  with how long it was taking. 

“ Any word from the weed or any of the ship captains that were sent with him?” Zarkon asked 

After a few second of wait one of the transition officers spoke”  No my lord We are getting nothing but static . But before he did go dark we did receive a message from Root Rot group saying that they had run in with the Valkyrie. “ .

‘ I know that but it was seventeen vs one how could one man take on so many at once or maybe Voltron and or that titan was there as well  “ Zarkon said as he got up from his throne 

“ Should we send the twin or Skyver to assisted Root Rot in his mission?”

“ No he either succeed or he dies. I would rather not send those three to their  deaths. We will deal with at in do time “   Zarkon said as he was leaving the room “ Recall any Sub-commanders and commander that nearest to us, call back the nearest mobile repair bay and tell every refinery to double their work load we are going to need as many mans on deck just in case we are attacked In the coming days” Zarkon left the control room and walked towards Haggar’s lab. As he moved he walked passed dozens of soldiers  each one moved out of his way as they could see he was visibly angered by the failure of his commanders for not capturing voltron, for not stomping out the rebel cells that had been cropping up recently after voltron showed back up.

But then again he had grown complacent over the centuries believing that no foe could stand up to him and the empires might . But that all came back to bite him for not handling this problem himself. But that what project Titan was for .Zarkon stopped in front of the door way to Haggar’s lad then entered the room. As he entered the room he found Haggar looking out of a window .

“So how is the constructs of the Titan project going “   Zarkon said as he walked over to look out the same window 

‘ We are putting on the finishing touches from the data we’ve collected from ever battle that both the Valkyrie and Voltron had been in the past two months and have made the proper adjustments to face both of them at once but there is a draw back  to this upgrade.” 

“ And what is that my dear  “

“  You will need a full on neural link for it to control so if titan is destroyed it will most likely kill you.”

“Well we have the Lazarus protocol . Now on the statue of Root Rot and his men ?”

“All but two are alive and counted for. K-38 and K-2″

“So Root Rot Is dead then”

“ No he is most likely still alive,recovering and adapting  from this defeat. Now should we send a recover team to collect him along with an invasion force to the planet ?” Haggar asked 

“ No We have lost already to many men and recourses on one world and if Voltron and The Valkyrie are there we will lose so many more and with the twins and Skyver mechs being rebuild and upgrade and the new batch of Kurons being grown  and trained we would most likely lost . Speaking of which how is batch two training coming along?”

“ Worst then the first . We tried to lean more into the silver paladins altean d.n.a But this as caused those to come out mindless.”  Haggar walked over to her desk and showed a video of a Kuron in its test tube it looked liked an Altean with tan skin, red cheek marks and pink hair in their mid teens . They were just floating there in it’s pod doing nothing but growing  then the monitor at the front of the pod started to glow red. Then the scientists  in the lab moved  toward the pod and tried to figure out what was going on. Then the Kuron inside started to violently  morphing from a normal body and into a  gray scaled beast. It then Burst through the pod’s glass and attacked the scientist and ripped then apart. It then let out a roar that caused the surrounding kuronsin there pods to start to change as well. They then burst out and started to rampage through out the lad ripping into each other.

“   It seems like they have reverted to a more primitive Mind set if you remove the human D.n.a and try to fill in the gapes with Altean or Galran D.n.a.” Haggar said as she stopped the video 

“ So the silver Paladin is human and Altean so there are other Alteans still alive on the planet Earth then “  Zarkon said as a smile came across his face

“ Yes and no. The Silver paladin dose share some D.n.a with the black paladin but there seems to be small changes to their d.n.a . Like how the Silver paladin heart pumps blood slower then the Black paladins that tends to happen a kid is born in zero or artificial gravity.”

“So he was born on another world then. But there was no other planets in that solar system that could host life.” 

“ Well the first humans we had captured were on the ninth planet of their system. So there ma be colonies on other worlds or moons.”  

“ Alright then we’ll send a scouting ship to find this colony. Now have you found the traitor in are midst yet

“No I haven’t. “

“But we have “ Another voice said 

Both Zarkon and Haggar turned to look at the voice and were supriesd by who they saw.

Else where in the universe

Jay was sitting in the Med bay playing a game of chess against Pidge 

“  Are you sure your ok jay “Pidge  asked as she moved one of her pawns 

“ I’m fine my suit took most of damage and I’ve been through worse “ Jay replied as he moved his knight

“Jay your skin is bright ready and your smoking still are you sure your fine” pidge said as she moved another pawn .

“  It’s fine I’ll just shed of the dead skin of next time I shower next “ 

“ Wait you shed like a lizard  “ Pidge had a strange image in her head of Jay shedding like a snake 

Jay looked up from the chess board and looked perplexed by pidge’s statement “ Yes like a lizard would. “  Then he remembered pidge was not from mars “Sometimes I forget we come from different planets. So something normal to me is weird to you  and Vic-versa”  

“ That is true but still are you going to be alright after all that happened yesterday “ 

“Pigeon I’ve been sitting in this room four hours . I think I’m good at this point. Also Checkmate “

“What. “ Pidge looked at the board and saw that jay had moved his  rook right in front of her king then notice that the queen was behind it and had the bishop that move on black spaces was also aimed toward the rook” Uh didn’t see that coming.Good game jay “ 

“Finally after six game I won once and now I retire on top” Jay said as he shot both his hands up in joy.

“ Alright then so what do we do now “

“ We will jst a bit more before the others show “

“And what do when they ask about the big one sitting just out side of the city’s limits “

“Will let the others deal with at when they get here “ Jay replied 

‘[Captain The castle of lions as entered the planet’s orbit and Allura wishes for both of you to meet them at the as soon as possible}

“ Speak of the devil i guess we should head out then” jay said as he got up from his seat . “Hey Val did you leave the speeder here or is it still in your chest “ his said in his minded 

“ I left it just out the Prometheus’s cargo by door.” Val said 

“ Thank you” Jay said as he and pidge walked out of the med bay 

“ Your welcome  ‘ Val replied  

“ So were taking the not the green lion. “ Pidge asked 

“ Pidge it’s “ looked at his phone” 5 in the morning and people are sleeping so the bikes will do for now” Jay said as he walked down the ramp and saw his silver speeder which he called quick Silver. As he sat down and wait for pidge he saw the castle of lions slowly starting to descend from the clouds  on the other side of the city. As he watched the castle. Pidge riding her speeder” Alright lets go” Jay said as he and pidge drive towards where the castle was landing.

As the castle landed both Jay and Pidge arrived

“ So how do you think the others are going to react to see the big one ‘ Jay asked still sitting as the castle landed a few feet away 

“Don’t know but it’s going to be fun when they learn what happened here. Also do you wonder what happened on their missions “ pidge said as the door they were in front of started to open

“ Why don’t we ask them are selves “ Jay replied as he walked into the castle of lions  followed by Pidge the two walked onto the kitchen first and Found most of the crew  which was Matt, Hunk , Nyma, Rolo , Keith and Shiro sitting  at the table eating the food goo” Sup Guys how did your missions 

Adam spoke first “ We had some trouble but it was a” Adam was cut off by  a blueish green furred ferreteped  as Jay called them suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed him by the face which kind hurt do to the electrical burns he suffered from the fight 

“ Oh no we truly are in the worst possible reality to be in . Unless it the reality . . What is your name boy “ Slav asked

Jay with his cheeks being stretched out spoke “ Jay Sorin and I’m guesting your Slav ” he replied 

“ Yes .Also if our here now then this realty still has a chance “ Slav said then he was grabbed by the back of the collar by Shiro and was pulled away

“ Sorry Jay He’ s been raving about of end of the world ending conspiracy theory the moment We said anything about the Valkyrie.”  Shiro said as he put Slav down

“ It’s not a Conspiracy it’s a strong possibility” Slav Counters 

Shiro and Slav started to argue about this while Jay and Adam watch and laughed a bit  

“So Hunk Keith Rolo, Nyma how did your mission go?” Pidge asked

“ Keith made a friend with a GAlra pilot “Hunk said

“ They were no my friend I just helped them out see as the five of us were inside of a giant space worm.” Keith replied 

“ but they liked you the most “ Nyma said jokingly 

“ Maybe Galra just know when their in the presents of one any other “ Hunk said 

“ That is true but only for pure bloods seeing as they are all fucking purple “  Jay yelled

“ Thank Jay for the info “ Keith said 

“ So they just were being polite because Keith saved them ok if it comes back to bite us in the butt that’ s on Keith then agreed ” Hunk said 

“ Agreed”  Everyone said 

“ That’s fair .Now Pidge What did you and Jay do while we were away ?” Pidge asked

“ Fought some robeasts and the guy who took my leg nothing to big “Pidge said like it was no big deal 

Everyone was quite for a few seconds before Matt speaking up “  Are you alright did you have a panic attack . Jay where were you during all this”  Matt asked as he looked towards jay 

“ I was being electrocuted for info you shmuck. Also I to was having a panic attack but no one asked if I was ok “ Jay said and that was followed by everyone asking what happened, Why the empire was here did they find out about the plan. As Jay and Pidge were bombard with questions 

“ Ok well answer all this questions but first we need everyone here to fully explained what happened here “ Pidge said 

In the bridge of the castle of lions Allura and coran were talking 

“Princess I have sent a message to the blade and Asmo  telling them about are success on all three of are mission. Is there anything else you would like me to do”   Coran asked 

“  I would like to Have Pidge, Jay, Beau, La-sai ,N-7 and Ace here to get me their mission nreport Also I would like to Talk with Ryner and Isara seeing as she and the Queens Sayers are hear. But besides that I’m good”  Allura said 

Coran could tell something was up with her.” Allura what is wrong you seem off’

Allura bite her lower lip then spoke “ I’m just a little bit worried about the Mission coming up . Maybe we should wait a little bit longer and train more so we can truly be ready for it”

Coran knew that wasn’t the full truth ” I feel the same they have only been paladins for a few months now and they lack the train or at time maturity, Hundreds of years of experience of fighting massive battles. But  I have watched them be on the same level of the original Paladins and I believe that they could be better then them and lead the universe in to a better tomorrow “ Coran smiles thinking about it”  

“ You know just what to say to put me at ease Coran.”She smiled and looked up to coran “ But I’m still worried about the others their so young and I kind of fell like I forced them into this roles with out truly thinking this through. Each one of them nearly at less once on this journey and I’m sending them into a Fight that decide the fate of the universe. “

“I may not know much about humans but from what I’ve seen they have sir pasted all of my expectation and beat ever challenge that came to face them. An I will bet on my life that they will beat this next challenge with flying colors  “ Coran said as he pulled Allura into a huge

“ I hope your right Coran I hope your right.” Allura said 

As the two hugged The door to the bridge opened to revel  the rest of the crew with Pidge and Jay at the front 

“ Hi boss sorry to interrupted but we have something important  to tell you.” Jay said 

“ What is it  “Allura asked 

The team wait for the rest of the crew to join and when they did Jay and Pidge explained what had happened from when they arrived to the fight with Robeast and the squad of copy Valkyrie then the fight with the Thunder Bird and Dread wing. Then the Battle with Root Rot. Everyone stood there in shook as they listened to how Jay was for the second time was nearly killed by the plant man again.

“ So This IronWood guy Called you Dad ?” Lance said just a little weirded out 

“Yeah an the other guy black thorn said like me when I was a teenager witch confused me as well . If they were still alive we could have asked them about that but we still have one of those pilot’s still alive hows that memory collecting going anyway ?”   Jay asked Coran 

“ It’s been going fine and we will fine out soon what that pilot knows in about two more days .” Coran replied ]

‘Ok Is there any thing else you too want to tell Us “Allura asked as she looked at the both of them .

“ Oh that  Jay call Val “Pidge said 

“ On it “ Jay said before talking in his mind “Val It’s time” 

“ We are on are way” Val said This was followed by Music started to play over the comm and the world started to shake 

“ What is that “ Shiro asked

“ That would be are Ace in the hole “Pidge said as she walked up to the terminal punched in a location and a scan appeared showing the Vanguard walking from a massive crated that had something in it covered in Ice and Vines.”   Ladies and Gentlemen we give you the colossus Vanguard the unbreakable and Allura she would like to speak to you and Voltron I don’ t know what that means but I think Shiro might know” 

“ I Do Pidge. Paladin to your lion “ shiro said as he and the rest of the paladins left the bridge

Back a Galra central command 

Thace had decide to move the chip he place in the control room .As he walked to the control room  he felt for just a moment that someone was watching him again. HE looked behind him to see no one behind him. This sent a chill down his spine but he continued to walk towards the control room as he entered the control room. Some one tried to stab him. He quickly grabbed the wrist of his assailant and was about to punch them only to have his free hand grabbed  by someone else in the room followed by a knife stabbing into his leg. He fell to his knee and then was punched in the face. He looked to his right to see Harley smiling at him Then he looked to his left to see Quinn. Both were standing over him. Then they started to whale on him . Each punch  cracked against his face and he could fell his skull crack and his jaw being dislocated. after a few minutes of being beaten on. With his jaw busted he could only say one word “ Why?” 

Quinn moved in closer and whispered in Thace’s ear  “Sorry about this Thace but it’s the only way to make whatever your planning work in are favor “  

Then Harley leaned in “ Look around the room “ 

He looked up again to see serval things about the room. The first thing was that the cameras were destroyed and there was a body of a control room officer knocked out. Then he noticed that the console in the room had a familiar  looking blade in it. Then something clicked in his mind he remembered that there was two blade members that started a family they had kids twins. Both parents dead on a mission leaving the twin. The blade wanted to take the twins in but sadly they had disappeared before and could be found. “  You”

“ Yes we are but we aren’t going to join your little group we just want out of the empires control “Quinn whispered as she and her brother picked up and dragged him out of the room towards Lady Haggar’s lab 

Back with the Paladin

Voltron flow towards the Vanguard with the Valkyrie in toe

Allura stood in the cockpit of the black lion and started at the colossal purple Knight as it stopped and looked up towards the two mechs 

“Shiro before we talk to the Vanguard my I ask when pidge said  that the vanguard wanted to talk to Voltron and you knew what she meant. I just wonder how”

“ I though you knew about me seeing as you are bonded lion” Shiro replied

“ No I don’ t maybe your bond with the black lion is deeper then my own.”

“ Yes and no. You know how Val is Different from the Valkyrie.”  

“ Yes “ Allura replied as she started to see where this was going 

“ Well besides the lions that live in each part of Voltron I’m guessing he is the “

“ I am the Lions young Shiro “ Leonidas said out loud in all the lions  

Everyone was quiet for a few seconds before Hunk spoke up 

“ Who the heck was that?” Hunk asked 

“ I am Leonidas the prideful or as you all call me Voltron “ 

“ So You final decide to reveal yourself good I was tired of waiting “Val said

“ So this guy is the same as Val right . So dose that mean he can fight on his own when were not around to pilot the lions?” Lance asked 

“No I was not build that way.  Where The Valkyrie can pilot  herself do to the fact that she doesn't  have to split herself into five different pieces. But I make up for that by being more flexible with my pilots and each pilot will unlock different abilities. “  

“ But I can manipulate time and I can scan anything and turn it into a weapon. “ 

“ I can rip a hole in the fabric of reality “

Everyone could felt tension between the two that only sibling would have. It was a little awkward until the Vanguard spoke over the comms 

“ And I can open portals to any where I’ve been to which is all of what you called the know universe. Make barriers around me and I can came gravity balls that can pull in and destroy it. “ The vanguard sounded happy to be able to take to other of their kind and completely missed the tension between the Valkyrie and Voltron. “ Sorry if I interrupted what you were doing I’ m just happy to finally meet more of my own kind after being alone for so long a can’t wait to hear everything you’ve seem the past billion years “

“  Before we do that Lady Allura must ask you something” Val said 

“ Yes this is of most important that we know your awnser “ Leonidas said 

“ Oh ok” Vanguard replied 

“ Your up Princess” Shiro said as he turned on the Black lions Outer p.a System 

Allura then spoke “ Hello Vangaurd I am princess Allura of Altea and I request your in are battle against the Galra Empire You do now about the empire right?” Allura asked

“ Thank you for asking. They are current in control of 80 percent of the knew universe and have been draining world of their quintessence to furl their war machines and to keep their Leader and  his wife alive for the passed ten thousand years. And I would like to join you in stopping them. But I will save this I don’  t like fighting all that much. I only fight in self defends and to protect the animals that live inside of me . But what I can do is open wormhole that allow you and the rebels you work with to any place you want to go and any planet or place you want protected I can do that. But I will not put the creatures I care for in harms way but if yo are in dyer need of my help I will fight but only as a last resort  ”   Vanguard said 

“Well at least they know their boundaries . “ Lance said 

“ And where their loyalty lay “ Keith replied 

“ Ok as long as we can count on you when we need you must. That is fine by me “  Allura said 

“ Ok with that out of the way can I ask Both Val and Leonidas a few things ?”  Vangaurd asked 

“ I see no problem with That” Val said 

“ Neither do I”  Leonidas add 

“ Alright time to wait a the next few hours while this three talk “ Pidge said 

As The Vanguard , Val And Leonidas started Talk they switched to a Language that the universal translator couldn’t  understand. But that didn’t really matter to the paladins at the moment they were just happy to have the Vangaurd now truly on there side. But Allura still felt nervous about the battle to come.

Else where in the Crate the cyclone covered in ice and Vines lay there motionless but near the head there was the sounds slamming and sizzling as Root Rot started to break free of his frozen prison . As he burst free from the finally layer of ice. he let out a roar of anger and  as his body had turn from green to brown do to how cold it was. He started to pull  himself out of the exit hole he made and As he did his legs broke of as he continued to pull himself out and crawled to the edge of what remained of the Cyclones head and rolled himself of and ihit the ground hard shattering most of his body leaving only his left arm and head in tacked 

“Cold I H-h-hate the cold” He tried to regrow his missing limbs only for nothing to happen. His body was dying and he need to reset.So he unraveled himself and started digging into the soft earth that the rain and the melting ice had made for him .It would take a few years for him to heal completely  from this fight but it would be all worth it as while he rested he would adapted to the cold an along with that he would start to grow a new colony for his clan with the only thing fueling them is Revenge Bloodlust and a need for fresh meat 

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER.

❝DON'T YOU, TWO DUNDERHEADS, FORGET IT! ❞

Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a fantasy world on a planet that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided into three pre-industrialized nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, and the Air Nomads. The fourth nation, the Fire Nation, is, in contrast, an industrialized nation that is capable of manufacturing various kinds of machines. Within each nation, there is an order of men and women, each called "Benders," who have an ability to manipulate their native element. The bending arts combine martial arts and elemental mysticism. They are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.

In each generation, one Bender is capable of bending all four elements; this is the Avatar, the Spirit of the Planet manifested in human form. When the Avatar dies, he or she reincarnates into an unborn baby native to the next nation in the Avatar Cycle. Beginning with the mastery of his native element, the Avatar learns to bend all four elements in the order of the cycle, which parallels the seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire, and autumn for air. Learning to bend the element opposite of one's native element is extremely difficult because of opposing fighting styles and doctrines.

The Avatar possesses a unique power that resides within him, called the Avatar State. It is a defense mechanism that empowers the Avatar with the skills and knowledge of all the past Avatars. When the Avatar enters this state, his eyes and mouth begin to glow. The glow is the combination of all the Avatar's previous incarnations focusing their energy through his body. However, if the Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, then the reincarnation cycle will be broken and the Avatar will cease to exist.

Throughout the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in harmony and maintain world order. The Avatar also serves as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, home of the world's disembodied spirits.

Aang, a 12-year-old Airbender of the Air Nomads' Southern Air Temple, learned from the monks that he was the Avatar. Usually, the Avatar is told of his or her true identity after turning sixteen. However, the monks feared that a war between the four nations was incoming, and that the Avatar would soon be needed to help maintain balance and restore order. Shortly thereafter, it was decided that Aang would be separated from his guardian, Monk Gyatso, and sent to the Eastern Air Temple to finish his training.

He was scared, confused, and overwhelmed by recent events and his new responsibilities as the Avatar, Aang flew away from his home on his Flying Bison, Appa. While flying over frigid southern ocean waters, a sudden storm caused Appa to dive deep into the sea. In the Avatar State, Aang used Airbending to protect Appa and himself by creating an air bubble around them. However, the air bubble quickly froze into a sphere of ice, forcing them both into a state of suspended animation.

When the series opens one hundred years later, the Fire Nation is on the verge of victory in its imperialist war. The Water Tribes are in crisis, the Southern Water Tribe's warriors have gone off to war, leaving their home defenseless, and the Northern Water Tribe, though largely intact, is continually on the defensive. The vast Earth Kingdom is now the only true barrier to the Fire Nation's domination, but as the Fire Nation continues to encroach on its borders and conquer its territories, hopes of victory grow bleaker with each passing year.

Two siblings from the Southern Water Tribe, Katara, a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka, discover and free Aang and Appa from the iceberg. Aang soon discovers to his horror that during his dissappearance, a war had begun. The very year he vanished, Fire Lord Sozin took advantage of both the Avatar's absence and the Firebending-enhancing powers of a powerful comet to launch a war on the three other nations. To Aang's shock and disbelief, the Fire Nation's opening gambit had been a genocidal assault on the Air Nomads. The Air Temples were stormed and the Airbenders slaughtered in an effort to break the Avatar Cycle, leaving him as the last known Airbender in existence. His nation was extinct.

As the Avatar, it is Aang's duty to restore harmony and peace to the four nations. Along with his newly discovered friends Katara and Sokka, his Flying Bison Appa and his pet Lemur, Momo, and later the blind Earthbender Toph, Aang travels the world to master all four elements, while trying not to get capture by Prince Zuko and Princess Azula.

Although it takes years of discipline and training to master any one element, Aang must master them all and defeat Fire Lord Ozai by summer's end, when the return of Sozin's Comet will give the Firebenders enough power to win the war. If these events come to pass, not even the Avatar will be able to restore balance to the world.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is easily the greatest Nickelodeon series of all time ( in my opinion.) The show has a lot going on in it: an incredible and binge-worthy story, complex and lovable characters, great animation that still looks great today, and action that's not only exciting and excellent but perfectly balanced. The concept of the series alone ropes you in, and that's because it's unique and you want to learn more about this intresting world. Because of the main goal, we get to travel around the world with the characters and explore cool places. Since we're never in the same place for two long, the locations never get boring or repetitive. The show covers many mature themes such as war, genocide, life, death, responsibility, love, and so much more. Despite this, it never feels like too much and it's natural. Also, as much as the show can be deep and mature at times, it has a great sense of humor. The jokes mostly come from characters like Sokka who acts as the comic relief and Toph who is always sarcastic. The show perfectly balances humor and action very well. Although I love almost everything about the show, the best part about it is the characters. Each and everyone is great in their own way. Each and everyone gets their own development, which is amazing.

I never actually got to watch it on Nickelodeon the first time because the show had already aired for years and i only got to know of its existence when it was recommended by my cousin and i had grown to love the show and the characters.

The show has a total of 3 seasons and 61 episodes. I would most definitely recommend to anyone, it's suitable for audience of any age.

TOP 6 EPISODES.

The Crossroads of Destiny (Season Two, Episode 20)

The Avatar and the Firelord (Season Three, Episode 6)

The Firebending Masters (Season Three, Episode 13)

The Southern Raiders (Season Three, Episode 16)

The Ember Island Players (Season Three, Episode 17)

Sozin's Comet (Season Three, Episode 18-21)

How the Empire could’ve won the war

Imagine if The Empire had competent military leaders and decided to bypass Palpatine’s overconfidence and incompetence. These are ways I think the Empire could’ve won. Before anyone calls me out, this is just for fun and I do not believe they should’ve won, I just think if more competent Imperials were in charge aside from Thrawn, The Empire could’ve won.

Better PR. Seriously, The Case for the Empire lays out an excellent defense for the Galactic Empire. Basically, the Republic was rotting, everyone saw that. All the Empire had to do was take power and not make people desperate enough to rebel. Keep the peace, enforce the law and not be so heavy handed.

Do not be dependent on fear. When Palpatine ascended as emperor, ended the rotting Republic and ended the Clone Wars basically everyone was happy. However in only 20+ years he went from most loved person in the galaxy to the most feared/hated one. There was no need to build the Death Stars and such a massive military. Those were necessary for rule through fear. But instead of fear Palpatine could’ve ruled by love. He was definitely cunning enough to fool the galaxy further. Instead Palpatine’s, Vader’s and Tarkin’s methods led to a creation of a giant rebellion that brought the Empire down.

Act like a real Empire with no Xenophobia. Induct alien races into their empire and continue their expansion by conquering territory while promoting their way of life over others. Their downfall was being dogmatic and authoritarian to the point that everyone rebelled against their regime.

Don’t terrorize other species. Whether Palpatine genuinely hated other races than humans or just pretended to do in order to divide his potential enemies it was a bad move. Excluding non-humans from the upper echelons of the Imperial military and power structure (Thrawn, Grand Inquisitor or Mas Amedda excluded) limited the Empire’s power base. Terrorizing other species created more enemies the Empire had to deal with and which helped to brought it down.

Krennic’s survival. I fee like the Death Star might not have been destroyed in A New Hope if Orson Krennic was still in charge. He was far more in tune with the battlestation’s capabilities than Tarkin ever was. I feel like he would have recognized the threat to the base sooner and squashed the Rebel fighters in the trench sooner He wasn't afraid to get into the battle and it really wasn't his fault that the plans fell into the wrong hands, the Rebels just outclassed the Empire during that sneak attack. Tarkin's blind arrogance and underestimation of the Rebels is what allowed the Death Star to be destroyed.

A New Hope 1. Recover any jettisoned escape pods right away, otherwise destroy them: Some see this a major plot hole. I'd say people (and imperial personnel, for that matter), do make mistakes. To avoid those, they should have had a pursuit protocol: Pull the captured ship in, then close the doors, maybe have two or three squadrons of TIE fighters doing the rounds, in case a escape pod gets out before the doors are closed and, more important, have some recovery ships out, so that fleeing pods can be captured instead of just blasted into oblivion. A captured pod can be searched. As far as we know, only one copy of the plans was made. 2. Disable the Millenium Falcon: You just captured a ship that matches another ship you were chasing, no one is inside, at the very least, take the keys off the ignition, remove the battery, maybe secure it with a chain and a lock. And they had time to work on it, enough time to install a tracking device, anyway. However, I'm willing to give them this one: Let's say they were absolutely sure the Rebellion would not find anything useful by looking at the plans, so it was fine to let them escape with them, make presumably a hundred copies and spread them across the galaxy. That level of confidence in your development and validation teams is amazing. Not only do you think a potential enemy will not find any flaws, but you're also convinced they won't try to build their own space station using your plans. Bravo. 3. Build an Imperial blockade of Star Destroyers around the Death Star. 4. Send the Imperial Fleet to Yavin IV, not your ultimate weapon: The Death Star had just accomplished what it had been built to do: It was a last-resort enforcer of policy. They destroyed an entire, fully populated planet, because Tarkin wanted to do a demonstration. That was stupid, but effective anyway, it would definitely make it into the news all over the place. Then you put the gun away, hopefully never to use it again. Any opposition in the galaxy would have crumbled at the chance of seeing that thing show up in the sky. They had tracked the Millenium Falcon to Yavin IV, but the Rebel Fleet was clearly not there. The attack on the Death Star was executed with thirty small ships, hardly a major engagement (unlike the battle against the second Death Star). If anything, the Battle of Yavin could have been compared in size to the Battle of Hoth, which was dealt with using a subset of the Imperial Navy, plus infantry. In the meantime, they could have done some additional vulnerability analysis with the Death Star well hidden elsewhere, find the exhaust port and maybe even other vulnerabilities, and put torpedo-proof blinds on it.

Empire Strikes Back 1. The Battle of Hoth: There are eight Star Destroyers (Executor, 6 smaller but still impressive Star Destroyers of two classes and one Victory class) involved. Executor closes with the planet and proceeds to blast the surface with their turbolaser batteries, ignoring the shield generator. Eventually the base with flood (with magma or ice). The two Imperial-1 class destroyers fly interference for the Executor, keeping fighter wings in the air as well as intercepting anything attempting to escape. The four Imperial-II class destroyers blockade the planet: One at each pole, and one either side of the equator to watch for trickery. The Victory class destroyer is a mobile interception device for capital ships and corvettes launching from Hoth. Now all they need to do is wait. They'll either pick the base off piecemeal, destroy it with Turbolaser Terraforming or the rebels will attempt to flee: In which case, the remaining destroyers will pick them off. The Ion Cannon doesn't act as a permenent 'disable', the base has a limited power generator and there are too many ships for the Ion Cannon to cover for. The planet will give way long before they starve the rebels out. Hell, the 501st had elements in the fleet sent, they could have just left everyone in orbit and stuffed Vader with them into a drop pod, unleashing on the base instead of the costly assault. 2. On Bespin: A heavier hand. The figurehead of the rebellion and five of its greater heroes were present.. and all of them got away. As soon as the trap was sprung, simply moving in with heavy interception cover would have been enough to decapitate the Rebellion. They had, at the bare minimum, twelve fighters: Three ties, 8 tie-interdictors and at least one Tie Defender (Which was probably capable of destroying the Falcon alone). They'd surrender before dying, so Vader gets his apprent-er, 'the emperor's prize', the Rebellion gets executed in a suitable gory fashion on Galactic Holovision and the Rebellion ends. 3. The Falcon, a known dangerous and rebel-owned craft, was sitting on its landing pad the whole time. You've got EIGHT Tie Interdictors (bombers) prowling Bespin. Maybe one could spare a second to drop some ordinance on the powered down craft? The one on a pad with no supports barring its umbilical, about 50-100m out from its parent building? 4. If you won’t destroy the Falcon, criple the Falcon. Seriously, cripple the Falcon: The same technicians who disabled the hyperdrive could've taken a few more minutes to mess up the rest, making it unable to take off. Leia, Chewie, Lando and the droids were already surrounded at the landing platform. It would've ended up in a horrible standoff or maybe even a peaceful surrender. But it would have ended there. Afterwards, Vader would've sensed and captured Luke, making sure he was given top-notch medical attention and a high-end replacement hand. Then, who knows, maybe he could've have enjoyed some much-needed face time with his dad and get things off to a better start.

Return Of The Jedi 0. Jabba The Hutt is smart. Jabba does not hold a grand execution. He has Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, Lando and the droids at his mercy. He plans to offer them up as hostages to the Empire. Since it's established that Vader and Jabba became partners in the new canon comics, I could see The Empire paying Jabba's demands. Jabba’s demands are simple. Money, a replacement Rancor and Princess Leia as his personal slave for the rest of her life. The Empire is more than happy to oblige. Vader comes to Jabba’s palace and takes the Rebels. The droids are dismantled.  Han, Lando and Chewbacca are executed. Leia remains by Jabba’s side as a slave. Now that Luke has nothing left, he embraces his destiny and joins his father. They take out The Emperor and rule the galaxy as father and son. 1. Stop and arrest the crew of the stolen imperial shuttle: Part of this is pure speculation, but I assume the crew led into Endor by Han Solo had no way to let their fleet know that they had made it. So, as a perfect corollary to a great plan to force the Rebel Fleet into a decisive battle, set up an ambush to capture the advance team on the ground on Endor as soon as they set foot on it. Of course, it would be a lot easier to just blast the shuttle before it even lands. The thing was loaded with explosives, even a humble stormtrooper with a thermal detonator could have done the work. Of course, Vader would have been upset because of his insistence in mixing family and business. In any case, the generator shield would have remained intact, with the second Death Star being fully operational: It did manage to do a lot of damage to the Rebel Fleet, and the Imperial Navy could've done the rest once they started fighting at close range. Also, think of the fact that the Rebels would've had Lando Calrissian insisting that they should wait on Han to blow up the shield. At that moment, Han would've been either dead or sitting in a cell. And the assault on the Death Star II would’ve been a failure. 2. Vader tries to convince his son to join willingly. Vader does very little to connect with his son. He wants to call him Anakin? That's fine, let him do it. In fact, Vader could have used that to tell him his story, after all, the Jedi were indeed very arrogant and unfair towards Anakin, let Luke know that. Maybe even tell him about Padme, he seemed very curious about his mom, he would've listened to that. Same goes for the Emperor, instead of antagonizing Luke from the beginning, he could have asked him about the things he disliked about the Empire. What reforms would he support? Would he be willing to lead some of those reforms from the inside? Just because you're bad, doesn't mean you need to be crass. Also, Palpatine was friends with Padme, right to the very end, bring that up as well. 3. Exterminate the Ewoks. The Empire is not above genocide and would showcase even more reason to want to take them down. They're a warrior culture. You know it, they know it. Your first expedition to Endor was nearly foiled by the furry little bastards, who were surprised and outnumbered. You know, the one where they were looking for a site to set up the shield generator for the second Death Star? Or don't even bother! First, glass the area with turbolasers. A quick planetary firestorm and you've got a nice wasteland to build your facilities in. Suddenly, no ewoks. You can see the rebels coming a few kilometers away. Problem solved, no exploding battlestation.

Build the Death Star II around Coruscant. This is the heart of the enemy. It's in the galactic core, there is plenty of space for a shield generator and it is HEAVILY defended. Not only is it heavily defended, it's even further into the Core than Coruscant and Palpatine is even more powerful there. He can very literally puppet a good portion of the population.

Practical Mass Production Vs. Egomaniacal Engineering. Bigger is not always better. Constantly seeking to build bigger military weapons takes time, money, and resources all of which could be used towards the mass production and perfection of smaller weapons. For example, how many millions of Republic credits does an Imperial AT-AT walker cost and how completely unnecessary is a vehicle of that size on the battlefield? The Empire already has a fighting force a million times larger than any other in the galaxy, why does it need to waste time on things like Death Stars and Super Star Destroyers? Building smaller fighters and ships is the better way to go. Build more Interdictor-class cruisers. These ships used mass shadow generators to literally pull ships from hyperspace by projecting an illusion of the gravity well of a planet. In Star Wars a ship cannot go into hyperspace while inside a planet’s gravity well. This means that any rebel ships that unwittingly raid an Imperial facility where an Interdictor class vessel is present are sitting ducks from the moment they are sucked out of hyperspace. In the Imperial Handbook: A Commander’s Guide, Princess Leia writes that “if the Empire had known how to build smart instead of big they would have built thousands more Interdictors.” She goes on to claim that, if they had, the Rebel Alliance “might not have survived.”

Give Tie-Fighters armor and shields. Sacrificing armour and shielding for maneuverability and speed is gross incompetence. With armour and shielding plus the talented Imperial Pilots, you have an Imperial Navy that is a force to be reckoned with.

Do not sacrifice quality for quantity for the Stormtroopers. They are as they are meant to be, elite soldiers of the Imperial Military. So do just that. Make them elite, feared and powerful. Only recruit the best. Give better protection and the best tech. Give the quality of the Clone Troopers, but improve on that for the Stormtroopers and you have an army worth fearing.

Continued Production Of Dark Troopers. Sometimes a top secret expensive weapon can give you an advantage in war. One that the enemy will never see coming and not have the slightest hope in the universe of stopping. Enter the Imperial Dark Trooper, a seven-foot tall robot who fights better than any human being, has a jetpack, fast, fires a supercharged weapon that shoots both high concentrated plasma and rockets, and is considerably scary looking. A simply platoon's worth of these guys is enough to wipe out entire outposts and bases of their enemy. They work fast and leave nothing, but death in their wake. After a few minutes whatever was their target is gone, reduced to smoldering ruins. Sometimes their victims don't even have time to make a distress call. Needless to say, they're bad news, though they remain pretty much unheard of. Fortunately for the good guys, the Empire never got around to truly deploying the Dark Troopers in great numbers like the Trade Federation did with their goofy battle droids. You may already know the history from playing the classic first-person shooter Dark Forces, of course: the mercenary Kyle Katarn was able to locate the secret production facility for Dark Troopers in space. Once aboard the Arc Hammer, he destroyed the ship and the Dark Trooper menace was put out of commission to almost never be seen again. If they did have more than one facility, and use Dark Troopers solely in their battles and invasions, keeping the regular storm troopers in reserve, The Rebels would not have a hope of winning.

Design better Death Stars. This might be the single most obvious and easiest solution to them all. If you build a planet-sized space station, then you don't leave a small hole two meters wide for the enemy to launch torpedoes into. Now the idea of a Space Station needing an exhaust port does make sense in that pseudo sci-fi way. Don't want our Stormtroopers dying in the middle of the night to carbon monoxide ventilation problems, do? But why not place a metal slab with slits over it? Or raise the metal slab so the vents are on the sides? Or make the ventilation pipe more crooked inside so it's not a straight shot to the reactor core? What if? What if? What if? There are so many painfully simple solutions to the problem. I can forgive the idea of the second Death Star being blown up because it was still under construction, although - I'll say again - if the exhaust system leading to the reactor core isn't made in a stupid straight line then a ship isn't going to be able to pass through it.

Make Thrawn the commanding officer on Endor. I know what you must be thinking, Thrawn was sent away via Rebels finale. Let’s just say this is a scenario where Thrawn was successful on Lothal. Thrawn would have shown up weeks before the battle, taken one look at the "primitive natives" on Endor, and figured out a way to stop them from beating up AT-STs with giant wooden logs or killing stormtroopers with rocks. The Death Star lives, the Rebel fleet gets completely wiped out. Mobilizes the fleet comprised of Interdictor-class cruisers and Tie-Defenders. Thrawn would be smart enough not to allow Luke anywhere near The Emperor. Thrawn would successfully either destroy the shuttle or capture the landing party. Thrawn would convince Palpatine it is safer to execute the Jedi and Palpatine agrees and if Vader objects, Palpatine would just unleash a storm of force lightning killing Vader and securing victory for the Empire once and for all. 

Today! On Unpopular Opinions: Destiny 2, Warmind

Destiny 2′s newest DLC, Warmind is borderline trash.  Now, when I pre-ordered it, I, initially, went through the usual rigmarole.  Foolishly placing my hopes and expectations that this $20 DLC would right all the wrongs that have plagued D2 since its outset, and then coming to the cold realization that by the time Bungie was willing to entertain listening to its Destiny fanbase, Warmind was likely all-but completed.  Meaning that it would either be the same as DLC1, Fall of Osiris or negligibly better.

I realize there’s a lot of reasons for this.  Bungie agreed to a ridiculous content schedule with Activision, where they were forced to pump out new content and games on a schedule that disallows for proper development and growth.  That, the new direction of Destiny is Call of Duty w/Space Losers.  That, because, for the second time, Bungie changed D2′s game direction in the eleventh hour; brought in new people who did not understand the lore or what the game was supposed to be, etc, etc, etc.

And yet, here we are.

The campaign Warmind is alright.  And I mean that in the loosest of senses of the term ‘alright.’  I have many problems with its story direction. Some of them, a lot of you have previously heard before: silent protagonist, uptight, kiss-ass ghost, stiff character development.  There are other issues I take up, however. Issues that just left me scratching my fucking head in a general mystified and annoyed manner. (Note: there be spoilers)

1)  Once again your Guardian follows along with some half-assed plan to save the universe. (Which, if I’m being honest, the Universe never felt threatened during Warmind.  It’s more of a, “hey, can you help me get rid of these guys who’re crashing my place? They smell bad, eat all my food, don’t clean up after themselves and are generally ungrateful jerks.”)  This plan, borders the epitome of asinine, mind you. It amounts to:

Zavala: “Hey, let's take a piece of the Traveller and bait this giant-ass snake-god thing.”

Ghost/Guardian: “...”

Ana: “Then, what?” (Ana, who is suddenly an expert in the Hive asks curiously.  Meanwhile, your ghost, who should have wised up and remembered that you fought ORYX, the Black Garden, Skolas, SIVA (which, were, generally betterish plans) should have had concerns.)

Zavala: “We wing it.”

Ghost/Guardian: “...”  (Both of you should have protested, citing how we winged it with the Almighty and Ghaul and that didn’t really work out.  The Almighty is still slowly destroying Mercury, but NOBODY mentions that.  The next time you’re on Mercury, stop what you’re doing and look around.  The planet is still being ripped to chunks and pulled into the Almighty.)

Ana: “What?  We could use Rasputin--”

Zavala: “No! Absolutely not.”

We use Rasputin.  

How?  His “relic weapon” a super-heated/conductive spear that we literally chuck at a god.  I mean, why not, right?  We took down Oryx who was (pre-”established D1 canon is hearsay and folklore and not fact”) literally the strongest God we’ve fought since the quasi-para-casual tentacle thing that was supposed to represent the Darkness embodied.  At least, in the Black Garden, they had the good sense to have us beat the damn god by proxy.  Defeating Xol was just lazy writing. He’s a fucking Worm God!  You know, the thing, Auresh/Oryx took/consumed to become the taken King and literally lead the Hive out of the Fundament/Deep.

But, hey, it’s cool in the end. After all, Xol was the weakest, puniest Worm God of the bunch.  It's not like it/he had power only rivaled by the OTHER WORM GODS. Let’s chuck a nuclear spear at it.  That’ll kill it. Because science!!

2)  Your Guardian is sent to the Deep/Fundament by a fucking God.  Xol literally transports you to another plane of existence, cutting you off from the Traveller’s Light (because your plan is so asinine) in order to kill you slowly.  Mind you, this place is a horror show of horror shows. The Deep makes Hell look like a vacation to Mazatlan. There are things there that preyed on the Krill/Hive, things that we, humans and guardians could not comprehend without the Books of Sorrow/Toland.

Do you understand the wasted potential for story this was? It was monumental.  Monumental! Me, an Exo, was transported to the Hell of Hells by a literal God, because I wasn’t worth its time.  I’m there, floating around for, I don’t know, minutes? My annoying ghost is freaking out. Meanwhile, Xol has had enough of our shit.  He’s gone to destroy Rasputin (which, he might have done anyway, but hey, nothing like 3rd party intervention to up the timetable). With the Warmind removed from the gameboard, Xol has a clearer line to solar conquest.  Why? Dunno, it's never mentioned why a God would wish to conquer Sol. It never really seemed to care that the Traveller slept above Earth before it awoke.

It didn’t seem to care that the Traveller had.

Meanwhile, my Exo titan is floating in something that vaguely looks like blood.  There’s some weird stills of probably torture? Good thing, I’m an Exo. Don’t feel pain, because robot.  Don’t need to breathe or eat, because robot. Don’t get tired, because robot. And, then, miraculously, my guardian climbs up from a crevasse, obviously drained and near death.  My ghost is quick with the first aid and I’m good to go.

...Seriously?  Okay.  Okay. I can kind of see how that works if your guardian is an Exo.  Because robot.  But, human?  Awoken?  How?  Just how?  You were in literal mortal danger *again*.  Presumably, you needed to figure out what the Hellscape the Deep was and how to navigate it. You would need a way back to your native dimension, which would require you to seek aid from the natives.  Except, the natives have never seen your kind and they all want to kill you. And this would take time. Somehow, against all odds, you find someone who’ll help you escape and you make the journey together, because let's be realistic: there’s always that one person who knows the way, but was too chickenshit to go it alone.  That person dies getting you to the “portal” which’ll take you back to your dimension. By the way, you’ve got no Ghost. No Light. Limited ammo. No food. Nothing to repair your weapons and armor. No oxygen to breathe.

Somehow, you climb your way out, just like the Kratos climbed out of Hades.  Or, from an actual literary standpoint how Orpheus and Eurydice.  Dante and Virgil.

Except, not, because you get treated to a 30 second cut-scene of flashing images and your guardian clawing their way up a crevasse.

Kudos, Bungie.  Good job.  If the fanbase of Mass Effect could flip shit over the ending of ME3 to such a degree that they had the game’s actual ending redone (via post-production patch that was FREE) to better please them and work with the meta of the MEU, what do you think the fanbase of Destiny will do?  Don’t answer.  I know its buy shit from Eververse.

3)  Rasputin.  The titular reason we’re even on Mars.  The whole reason Anastasia Bray (Clever, Bungie.  Clever.  Rasputin and Anastasia.) has gone to the Hellas Basin.  She didn’t go there to go home. Not really. She went there to connect to a thing that she built that transcended all known laws and bounds.  It was alive, but alive in a Godly sense. Not bound by the constructs of Human morality.  Oh no.   Ana might not initially know for sure why she was drawn to Clovis Bray.  Sure, she awoke to her second life with her name badge on her person. And then was summarily told not to investigate her past. As if she were an Exo or concerned about DER.  She might not have consciously known she was seeking Rasputin, but she always was.

Meanwhile, Rasputin is a God, created by man to protect Us All.  Given sovereign to do so as he saw fit. Think about that. Think about Humanity as a whole currently.  In what universe would all of Humanity greenlight the creation of something like this? Never mind that, think about Humanity collectively since the dawn of science fiction writing.  When has it ever benefited Humanity to place their safety in the hands of others? My Skynet senses are tingling. But, wait, it's okay guys. Moon X/the Traveller is here! None of us understand what it is, but let’s go meet it.  While they’re doing that, let’s sanction a civilian company to build a guardian that thinks for itself, learns independently, is prudent, wise and plays the long game. Let’s make it so its not bound by Human morality so it can make the hard choices, us Humans would flinch at.  Nobody knows how a Moon is moving on its own or terraforming whole planets!  But, we’ll put our faith in a machine.

By the way, none of us truly understands or can comprehend this thing that we’ve built.  Oh, and there’s no way for is to. All of which, happened during the Golden Age, before the Collapse.  Interestingly GA mankind already knew of the Vex, so most likely reverse engineered Vex tech went into the creation of Rasputin.

Oh, and it's just Rasputin.  Whose always been on Mars. Sure, they retcon/bungiesplain it away well enough, but still.  Where the hell is Charlemagne, Jys or Virgil? It was established that Charlemagne was the Warmind of Mars, but now its a submind.  They’re all Submind. In other words, the children of Rasputin.  Story potential!

...Never mind, that’s not D2’s development team’s prerogative.

Fast forward to the present and Rasputin has become active because the Traveller has awoken.  His old foe, his biggest threat. The one thing Rasputin still doesn’t comprehend. Its awake/alive again.  Its parasites (guardians) have been doing a terrible job of policing Sol and protecting Humanity. Not their fault, their still human.  Rasputin was fine with letting the parasites struggle. It could focus on (presumably) the triangle ships, holding back the Red Legion, Eliksni colony convoys, Tomb convoys and other nightmares.  It was smart, cunning. Playing a very real and deadly game of chess. He couldn’t reveal too much of his might or himself, that would draw unwanted attention. Then the Traveller awoke and the rules changed.  So, he throws off his disguise and swings into full production/activity. Warsats activate that have been dormant for centuries. Orbital strikes occur all throughout Sol, hammering the Legion, Hive, Vex, Fallen, Taken.  And Xol thaws.

Yet, still, Rasputin is incomprehensible to us.  And we, “the” guardian, aid a shortsighted, single-minded Doctor in unshackling it. Yup, we did that.  Nearly killed him in the process, but we did the damn thing.  Doesn’t matter, though, in the end, right?  Because Rasputin is a machine, built for us.  Except, not.  No.  He’s more than that now.  Now, Rasputin is completely Free and he proclaims that he’s going to protect his ants.  Yeah. Good job, Ana.  Oh, and Zavala still has complete faith and trust in us.  Despite!  Despite having solid reservations in utilizing Rasputin.  Despite the fact that we ignored our Commander and leader.  It’s cool, though, right?  We’re celebrity status.  We’ve taken down 2, count ‘em, 2 Gods.  Crota was a Demigod at best.  (But, he got his own Raid... Nokris.)

Does Anastasia know this?  Nope.  She never mentions it. Never mentions Oryx or Crota or the Black Garden or how we did what no one else could.  And we did it with no plan and 3 to six other insane guardians with annoying, uptight ghosts.  To her, we’re just a guardian with a ghost that has a stick up its USB port.  Weird, right?  We’re Iron Lords for crying out loud!  Young Wolves. Bounty Hunters for the Reef Queen.  Prison of Elder gaolers.  Emissaries of the Cult of Osiris and now the Nine.  Oh, and some of us are Faction Heralds.  Standard Bearers for Dead Orbit, Future War Cult or New Monarchy.  If you got the exotic class item from DO, FWC or NM in D1, youse a Herald and Standard Bearer.

Is there ever mention of this?  Nope.

4)  The Hive finally gets snipers/sharpshooters and shield-wielding swordsman.  Both of which seem like obvious no-brainers to have always been incorporated.  Except!   That goes against the Sword Logic. So, sincerely, you get a plus for adding them to the heretical, “cowardly” faction of the Hive. 

Question for you, though. Why would you knowingly (God, I hope it was knowingly) honor previous canon in this instance, but not with others? Like, where Xol is concerned?  Or the Deep/Fundament? Or Rasputin? Why the cherry picking?

5)  Why even bother naming yellow-bar area and mission bosses or units if you won’t bother explaining who they are, what they do and what they want?   Because, I honestly, lost interest in reading the named enemies once I realized there was no information about them in or out of the game.

From a Gameplay standpoint, it's what you’d expect from Destiny 2.  Up-tempoed action with moments of intensity and hopeful triumph.  If you play smartly, it rewards you. If you overextend yourself, prepare to get ganked.  Horribly. Progression is more inline with its predecessor, which might make the casuals pause.  Thankfully, it isn’t like Day 1, Vanilla Destiny, where it was impossible to reach Light Level Cap solo and without completing Raid/Nightfalls.  Except, no one would take you if you didn’t have G-horn or Icebreaker. Ah, the Good ol’ days of the Grind and the Loot Caves.  My point? The action is more reminiscent to that feel, just with all the current bells and whistles, which is a good thing.

Exotic weapons finally feel fucking worthwhile.  I played the whole Warmind Campaign with the combination of Sweet Business and Actium War Rig and I absolutely love it!  Add the Galliard-42 or the Kibou AR3 for some added fun and thrills. Pairing the Tractor Cannon with Sentinel is immensely satisfying.  That punk, Nokris didn’t stand a chance. And neither did his minions. Melts the opposition. Plus, its just really satisfying to watch 5 charging Knights (with sword and/or shield) get punted halfway across the room or into a wall or over a ledge.  I finally feel like how those damned Taken Phalanxes must feel. The Borealis is a fun choice, too. Although, I haven’t spent much time with it. The payoff for matching damage types and busting shields is well worth it.

The added cosmetic gear is neat.  My new favorite jumpship, hands down, is Currus Gloriae XLII.  As a Titan, having a spaceship that looks like it can go to war and do some damage is a welcomed plus.  The sparrow, Azure Azazyel looks really awesome. Even though it doesn’t have an interesting contrail effect, it still is fun to ride.  It feel like it belongs in Akira or Bladerunner and I dig it.  What I’ve seen from the new emblems, they’re decent.  

The updated effects of the new guns is much needed. Dragonfly on an autorifle?  Yes, please. Rampage on a Handcannon that you don’t have to grind for? I’ll take it.  The new Ghost shells are blase at best. The emote wheel is a nice touch, but seems a bit late.

Hoo boy, Override Frequencies and Memory Fragments.  Gotta hand it to you there, Bungie. I could not figure out how to get those until you unlocked them.  And those Fragments? I didn’t even figure out how to unlock them. Or I did, but it didn’t work?  Don’t try shooting them until after you unlock Hellas Basin.  Found that out by accident.  Thank you, random Guardian who was just shooting at a ledge!

So, like I said on the outset: Warmind, as an expansion is alright bordering on trash.  It is entirely redeemed in its Gameplay, but woefully drops the ball where the story is concerned.  Is it worth the $20? Eh. You’d probably still be better off waiting for the comet expansion to drop and for Bungie/Activision to repackage and re-release Destiny 2 this fall/winter.  There will be some that will find it a $20 well spent and others who won’t, who’ll swear off the franchise completely.  As for me? Its an investment. Like investing in Roseart and hoping they turn into Crayola. One day, they just might.

Congratulations, 2017 Survivor!

The best part about 2017 is that you gave it your best shot. 😌👌🏼 Yes, tables turned. Plot twists happened; LIFE happened. 🙂 Reaching breakthroughs nearly broke you, stepping off your comfort zone felt almost like the worst idea, letting go of certain things barely had you moving forward, but guess what? You’re still here, alive and ready to conquer the next decade. You’re still here reading this post along with the rest of the year-in reviews on social media. This however, is not a #2017bestnine post, sorry. 😅😂✌🏻 Perhaps more like a proud congratulatory message from an ordinary human being who survived the year of seeding and reaping just like you did. 😎👍🏻#thuglife For some reason, 2017 was indeed a year of absolute crunch if not for all, maybe for the most of us. Let me walk you through this year’s highlights. From a forex trader’s perspective, the Brexit event welcomed the year with a crash on the British Pound. This sent trading charts on disarray until almost half of Q3. Also, Trump happened... need I mention what kind of Trump actually happened? Oh yeah, tensions on war here (China), tensions on war there (North Korea), tensions on war everywhere. Anyway, so the Federal Reserve also hiked interest rates 3 times this year; enough to send the dollar to Mars. But then again, Trump happened in between (ha ha ha, but may Trump supporters take no offense) and as Janet Yellen said before she left office, the fundamentals are supportive of growth and increasing rates is still appropriate. Oil prices hit new highs and boy, of course, #bitcoin... BITCOIN made history! 🤯💸 I’ve never considered it as an investment, but well it’s a highlight yesteryear so let me give credit to where it’s due. Congratulations to those who made profits or earned valuable lessons from the heavy market waves, and all the best to your 2018 investment journeys! 🙌🏻 Meanwhile, Juan de la Cruz could be crying out “Why can’t we let the yearend event pass without a single record of damage from typhoons?!”. Urduha, Vinta, you guys happy now? Well, that’s just the tail of a long list of highlights from every Filipino citizen’s 2017 diary. Why? Well, starting today we ought to be watching our hard-earned cash flush down the drain for the new tax schedules. Too negative in context, sorry but I just really hope the government’s “Build, build, build” program would be implemented as presented to the trusting (even in blind sight) public. If the program delivers (in the next five years) then I’ll wholeheartedly salute this administration. Ikaw na bahala sa pera namin, Tatay Digong! 😅 Moreover, this year we almost lost our life-changing tech advancements. I’m talking about Grab and Uber, but I’m just happy you managed to settle issues and stay in business. At least you can still keep helping Pinoys in their daily exodus (of commuting) and you can still keep saving lives from the wonderful world of random, choosy, abusive, unpredictably unsafe cab drivers. Well done, Grab & Uber! We didn’t lose you, however we lost Angkas & Wunder Carpool just like we lost someone’s hand when MRT messed up once out of the countless times it messed up this year. So let’s take this moment to reminisce our escapes from traffic (with Angkas) and our environmentally friendly acts (with Wunder Carpool, while eliminating the number of cars in the streets and their carbon emissions)... R.I.P. Angkas and Wunder Carpool App 😔 Let’s not forget the nationwide teleseryes we’ve actually casted in without us knowing. Mocha Uson’s role stood out as she escalated (way too) quickly from being an icon of fake news to being an epitome of dedication in service to Filipinos (specially when she entered law school). But still, let’s give her a chance, we’ll never know how much things can change for her and the (fake or not) news she’s had the power to infuse in our unsuspecting minds, sarcasm aside. One other plot in our nationwide teleserye also picked sizable interest from the public. Remember the sensational pre-debut shoot in the Malacanang Palace? Of course you do, that’s the latest twist. I wonder how the story ends though. 🤔 The war against drugs is still on, but only the branches of the glorious tree (of gods and masterminds) have been shut down. The carriers of the drug biz could be out, but its origin persists. And this question also persists: is the battle truly for the purpose of eliminating narco politics in the country or just for the purpose of silencing gnawers to the business? Oh well, let’s see. 🤧 On the brighter side, Filipinos became more educated and aggressive in terms of investments. The PSEi made multiple all-time highs and settled above 8,500 in the last trading hour. I hope that our willingness to explore the local and global markets continue to grow and that we’ll still feel empowered despite an increase in tax for passive investments. Mehehehe... amazing pahabol for the year ahh. I like your style, PH gov’t. Well, who doesn’t, right? 🤣 Congratulations, my fellow Filipinos who cared enough to feel the frustrations and handle the crazy political roller coaster. Congratulations for having no choice, but to deal with adversities like we always will. #thuglife Congratulations for having the courage to post your views on social media despite huge chances of your issues being left diverted and unaddressed by the stupefying government officials. Uso pa rin naman ang welga, galit lang talaga tayo sa dakilang traffic... soooo nah! 🤗😶😂 Now enough on politics. Inhale optimism, and breathe out these words: “Thank you government of the people, for the people and by the people. Well done!” *slow clap* 👌🏼 Now if there’s anything more sensational this year, that’s your love life. Yes, your love life. It’s that piece of needle that made you feel excruciating pain at one point this year, and that thread that sewed you back together when everything fell in perfect bliss. Well, let me not dwell on this too much, because we’re not ending this novel with everyone’s love stories. 😅 Congratulations, strong and independent humans for knowing your worth and not settling for less. Congratulations, f*ck boys and girls for playing too well this year you might actually have caught yourself STD. Sorry not sorry. 😏 And of course, congratulations to those who started and finished 2017 on their own (like completely “single”). Your third wheeling skills are remarkable! 😂🙌🏻✌🏻🍻#ForeverAlone 🙃 Highlights from the world’s iconic couples though? Single, taken, married, or whatever, we all felt that heartbreak on #Brangelina ‘s split (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt). Don’t tell me you didn’t twitch on that painful news. Oh well, at least “Jelena” (Justin Bieber & Selena Gomez) are back together before yearend, coining each other as their one true love. #MayForever na ba to? News just two hours ago revealed, Selena’s been calling JB, “my husband”. Boom!! And oh, Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth got engaged, while Kylie Jenner got preggy. 🤭 Meanwhile, from the locale, #JaDine was a highlight for allowing the battle of morales to surface among conservative Filipinos. “Come on guys, it’s 2017.” he he he. 🤷🏻‍♀️ But really, let me take this moment to shed one last tear of joy for all the “It girls” getting wedded this year, even including the mother-of-the-It-girls, Dr. Vicky Belo-Kho. #WeddingGoals emerged from this parade of love, and I can’t wait for all of them to spread lovely genes across the planet. 😂🤗 Solenn and Nico, ano na?! Hahaha! Kayo talaga hinihintay ko eh! El Patato 🐢 deserves cute company 👶🏻 ! JK! Oh, I just love this pair! Anyhow, for some time my newsfeed’s been filled with wedding-related posts of friends. In fact, I was a bridesmaid for a time so yeah, 2017 was a year of love after all. 😍Congratulations to those who tied the knots this year! All the best wishes!🍾 From the social arena, we’ve seen depression take its toll on a massive scale this year though some thinkers disvalue its existence. Hi, Tito Joey! Sorry, but depression does exist. We’ve seen people fighting against bullying and racism to name a few, and people working towards advocacies on gender equality. The battles have been tough. In fact, we have casualties. Chris Cornell of Soundgarden & Black Hole, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, and Kim Jonghyun of K-pop group SHINee, are iconic names we’ve lost to suicide with depression being the key cause. One that triggered sadness most in me though is with Nadine Lustre’s brother where she coined #KeepGoing . The series of suicidal deaths allowed me to write the song “I Owe You”, and I hope I never get to finish it. 😔 Hello, survivors of this reaping world! Congratulations for never giving up! Congratulations for taking it all in, for standing up for what is right, for challenging yourself everyday, for battling with your personal demons and for pushing yourself to #KeepGoing . You may not be proud of yourself just yet, but God is proud of you and He will always be. 😉 Moving on, the more trivial things. Quite a number of words were added to the Filipino dictionary (unofficial but widely used) 🧐 such as “petmalu”, “lodi, & “werpa”. Vice Ganda even made a song out of these words. And speaking of songs, “Baby Shark” was almost this year’s favorite along with “Despacito”. 😅 Congratulations to all of us for enjoying 2017 with simple pleasures amidst the chaos! We truly are Filipinos for this trait. We smile amidst the storms, stand up and move forward. But really, take no offense, I’m sure we can do better than what we’ve done this year. Our creativity and love for novelty could translate to creativity for the bigger things this 2018. I am certain of this, and sure that we can attend to the issues that really matter. We need not be superstars or high profile personalities to change our bad habits that collectively destroy the world, socially, economically or environmentally. We need not be superheroes from films we’ve watched this year. No need to be part of the “Avengers” to save someone from bullying. No need to be part of “Justice League” to hear out anyone who’s close to committing suicide. No need to be “Wonder Woman” to look at humanity with hope amidst all the chaos. No need to be the big guy, because no matter how minute we are compared to this huge planet, our actions still create the Earth as our home. And what do we do to build a “home”? We build and connect our little realities. Let’s create better realities this 2018, so that next time we can congratulate ourselves for being co-creators of a better world. 🌍🌻 Too abstract I know, but well congratulations for letting that thought sink in for awhile. Congratulations for closing the year stronger than when you started. Congratulations for making it this far. Congratulations for surviving 2017! Now, get ready for a grander year. Hello, 2018! 💪🏻😎👌🏼 P.S. Congratulations for finishing this lengthy piece. hahaha! I hope you found value in it.😂

Atomic Rulers

 So 2020 fucking blows.  We’ve got Death and Pestilence all over the place, War is waiting in the wings licking her chops, and I’m sure Famine is only a matter of time.  You know what we need?  A hero. Operator, put me through to the Emerald Planet!  After fifty-five years, the Earth must once again call upon Star Man.

(I apologize for the poor quality screencaps in this review.  The WiFi at sea is not great, so I’m watching movies on YouTube in decidedly low definition. I’ll replace them with better ones if I ever get out of here.)

Atomic Rulers, also sometimes known as Atomic Rulers of the World, is actually the first Star Man movie.  Does that mean we get an origin story for our brave hero?  Of course not.  Instead, we learn that the evil nation of… uh… a sign in the movie says Merapolia but the dubbing sounds like Magolia... whatever. Their nuclear testing is starting to contaminate Outer Space and the Emerald Men don’t like that – they send Star Man to Earth to do something about it.

This movie gives us two things none of the other Star Man movies do.  First of all, there’s an actual purpose to that ‘globemeter’ watch thingy he wears. The opening of every movie explains that the globemeter allows Star Man to do three things: travel through outer space, speak and understand any language, and detect sources of radioactivity. The first two functions have proven to be very useful, but neither the Salamander Men nor Ballazar’s Brain were radioactive, so the third just sat there like the stocks app on an iPhone.  Now, with the threat of concealed Magolian nuclear weapons, he finally uses it!

The second is, holy shit, a plot.  The Magolians want to rule the world, and aliens from a dozen different Godzilla movies have assured them that when conquering the Earth, you have to start with Japan.  To that end, their agents are sneaking atomic weapons into the country. Star-Man tries to confiscate these, and in the midst of the lame-ass fight scene that follows, the Magolian Bag-O-Nukes is carried off by a bunch of annoying little kids!  The Magolians kidnap one of the kids and try to force him to tell them where their bomb is.  Star-Man rescues the boy, but it’s too late – they’ve already retrieved the bomb.  There’s just a few hours left before Japan must surrender, or be blown to bits as an example to the rest of the world!

There’s actually even more to the plot than that. It’s full of wild twists and turns, with Star Man and the Magolians taking turns looking like they’re about to win the day.  Yet at the same time, unlike the other Star Man films, the story is not obviously bifurcated!  You can tell where Movie One ends and Movie Two begins (with the rescue of the kidnapped kid), but the same characters are involved throughout rather than changing from reel to reel.  Even the gaggle of nameless kids in short-shorts kind of play a role in the plot, helping Star Man and giving information to the police whenever they can. The plot unspools in a single main storyline from beginning to end, and events usually make enough sense that you can figure out where they fit.

Even more shockingly, Star Man himself actually has some personality in this film, even a bit of a character arc.  In the other movies he just ran around punching aliens and smiling at children, but here we see him as a bit of an arrogant dick, confident in his ability to beat the mere humans who represent the threat to the universe.  When he is nearly beaten instead, he is forced to learn a little humility, and nearly sacrifices his life to save a hostage.

By leaps and bounds, then, this is the best Star Man movie I’ve seen.  There’s a couple more out there, but they’d have to work hard to be better than Atomic Rulers.  At the same time, as praise goes ‘the best Star Man movie’ is almost as faint as ‘the best Coleman Francis movie’.  It still sucks big-time, and Mike and the bots would have had riff material to spare.

I mean, this is a movie where the bad guys have a giant cartoon demon face on the wall of their lair for some reason, and when they’re not disguised in blazers and ties they wear coronavirus suits with the same face on the chest.  There’s a bit where Star Man swordfights with a bunch of them, using fencing foils that were just lying around in the room for some reason.  Other fight scenes are mostly things like Magolians frantically shooting at Star Man while he just stands there looking smug. The ‘atomic core’ MacGuffin is just a plastic tube full of glitter.  The back-projected ‘flying’ effects are dire.  There’s a bomb that has a literal clock on the side ticking down the minutes like in an old cartoon.  There’s a pretty girl strapped into a death trap that I can only describe as the world’s slowest guillotine.

There’s a fairly extended sequence in which we see the Magolians’ car driving down a road, then cut to Star-Man flying, then back to the car, then back to Star Man, then back to the car, and on and on until I could almost hear Crow shouting “he’s following them!  We get it!”

The Magolians themselves confuse me a bit. People refer to their embassy and their ambassadors, and there’s a flag on their car and so forth, so I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to be from a country on Earth… and yet they behave exactly like the villains of a Japanese alien invasion movie.  They have dumb costumes, they call the guy in charge ‘supreme leader’, and most distracting of all, they refer to conquering ‘the Earth’.  Maybe this is just an artifact of the translation, but I would expect humans to talk about ruling ‘the world’ rather than ‘the Earth’.  It left me expecting a big reveal at the end, and when there wasn’t one, I had to go back to the beginning to see if they’d been established as aliens and I’d missed it.

Speaking of possible artifacts of translation, there’s another thing here I’m not sure about.  A lot of Japanese ‘no nukes’ movies have American antagonists, or at least, white guys who are clearly a stand-in for Americans.  My favourite example is the belligerent country of Rolisica in Mothra, which is an absolutely hilarious summary of what 60’s Japan thought the West was like.  Magolia, on the other hand, appears to be a stand-in for the USSR.  The actors playing the Magolians are mostly white, and we only ever hear two of their names: the supreme leader has a nonsense name, but the ambassador is called Boris Zedenko.  I wonder if this is original to the script, or whether it was changed when the movie was dubbed for American release.

The thing I find most interesting about Atomic Rulers is that while Star Man does save the Earth, that’s not really his goal.  The Emerald Men sent him here to prevent a war because Earth’s radioactivity was leaking into outer space, threatening other planets.  Star Man isn’t here to save humanity, he’s here to save the rest of the universe from us; saving us from ourselves is merely a side-effect.

This makes Star-Man a little different from his imitators, Space Chief and Prince of Space.  Despite their space-themed code-names, they are humans from Earth, with a specific interest in protecting this planet.  Star-Man seems to have the broader responsibility of protecting the civilized galaxy in general, and this is reflected in the premises of his movies. In Evil Brain from Outer Space, Ballazar’s Brain is using Earth as a place to launch a general takeover of the universe. Invasion from Space was a little less clear about it, but I’m pretty sure there was something about the Earth being ‘the richest planet in the galaxy’ and the Salamander Men would presumably use that loot for nefarious purposes.

A side implication here is that Star-Man probably has other adventures, too – we’re only seeing the ones that happen to bring him to our particular planet.  Considering how strange Star-Man movies can be anyway, and how trippy the brief shot of the Emerald Planet, with its crystal-headed creatures and robots and even a couple of what appear to be the Pairans from Warning from Space, one has to wonder about these potential non-Earth storylines.  How fucking weird would those be?  I’m imagining something like an entire movie about Krankor’s pet giant.

Another thing that distinguishes Star Man from the other space dinks is that he has actual superpowers.  Space Chief and Prince of Space are basically just normal guys in stupid outfits.  Prince of Space claims that Krankor’s ray guns have no effect on him, but really we see he’s using his wand-thing to deflect them.  Star Man, who is from another planet, can fly and has super-strength. This kind of makes me wonder if he was intended as a Superman imitator… but that would make Space Chief and Prince of Space the equivalent of Batman, and I just can’t insult Batman like that.

I am developing an honest affection for Star Man movies.  Their desperate cheapness is more than made up for by their over-the-top absurdity, and the result is not at all ‘good’ by any reasonable measure and yet is always entertaining.  Camp like that is all too rare to find, and even rarer to find a franchise like Gamera or Star Man that can do it dependably.  I don’t know why the Japanese are apparently so good at this, but I’m glad somebody is.