Oh to have a transcript of today’s final class roleplay session. So much happened. There was shouting. There were three assassination attempts. There was heartbreak. The class finally put their hearts into their roles.

i’m gonna CRY ABOUT DESERT DUO. i’ve known about them for Five Days and i’m ready to throw my phone across the room about them. i just finished watching all the life series from grian’s perspective. (i watched them secret -> third -> last -> double -> limited)

together in every universe but they haven’t really been each other’s in years.

the fact that to this day when someone does something stupid or silly grian will start yelling scar’s name first (“NO SC- JOEL!” “nice one sc-timmy!”)

it’s turning to someone you have grown accustomed to being by your side and by the time you realize how much you needed them they’re just gone. and it’s literally your fault.

grian cheated on scar (in double life). and scar didn’t go back to him (in the subsequent series). and even still they’re still in each other’s life. they aren’t on opposite sides until the very end when it’s every man for himself. their factions somehow always end up allies.

EXCEPT SECRET LIFE. when they were the only people on the server with no friends. they lived next to each other and saw each other every day but were never more than that.

they lived next to each other. and every day they both were sad about having no friends.

the fact that grian won the first series by killing scar and then immediately jumped off a cliff as soon as he won. and scar won the most recent series when he had no one and grian was the one to tell him he won. to tell him that it was finally over.

i really need to watch at least double life from scar’s perspective to see his reaction to walking in on grian and bigB. bc him saying “they’re for your secret soulmate” was so full of hurt and venom and it was just enough of a hook to get me completely caught on them.

How do you think the series would have differed if Hayley had found her parents alive along with her pack? The reason they didn't find her sooner being the damn curse and the will to keep her safe and out of it? Or maybe genuinely not knowing where she was?

This is such an interesting question.

I think it would change so much.

Hayley was so desperate for a family that she willingly sacrificed 12 people she knew in order to find them. Finding her family would have been everything she ever wanted.

Now, I think it would be interesting to see what kind of people her parents were. From what Marcel says, they do seem like they were truly trying to create peace with the factions, but, unbeknownst to them, the Hollow was interfering. But we really don't know how they would react to Hayley's pregnancy and who the father was.

Hayley likely would have felt more connected with the wolves than she did initially with her pack. I think she still would have laughed off the betrothal because that was not the way she was raised. She also likely would have had some resentment towards them for not finding her. We don't know much about Hayley's life but she doesn't talk highly about her adoptive parents. Even if they legitimately couldn't find her, she likely would have still had some anger at them.

It may have created more animosity between the factions as Klaus would likely be more territorial of Hope as he grew to care about the pregnancy throughout season 1. It may have even limited Elijah and Hayley as Hayley likely would have spent more time in the bayou. The vampires therefore may be less likely to compromise with the wolves.

I honestly wish they would have allowed Hayley to find some family member, even if it wasn't her parents. The wolves in TVDU are so underdeveloped. They are used as side characters to create stakes for the vampires. This is emphasized by the fact that Klaus throw a 1,000 year fit because he has his wolf side bound but then never once changes into a wolf after the first shift.

The wolves in New Orleans somehow have royalty but also alphas based on merit? Jackson mentions he earned his role but then they often talk about being born to it. Hayley's parents, we don't know which one was born Lebonair, are supposedly the last of the direct line. Since Jackson's parents are dead (?) they likely would have been able to unite the pack under them until Jackson became old enough to lead on his own. Due to the curse, this may have taken longer. This would have solidified Hayley's position more as alpha than Jackson. I never understood why they were "co-alphas" when it was Hayley that won the pack back from Oliver on her own. But apparently this type of pack values royalty over actual leadership, but still somehow disrespects Hayley even though she is also royalty. Essentially, what my side tangent means, is Hayley's parents being alive would have given her a better position in the pack and allowed her to gain respect more easily because their alphas were backing her.

This likely would have led to a war for Hope. The pack would have wanted to keep their "royal" line with them and Klaus wouldn't have wanted that. This is especially true if Hayley had spent more time in the bayou and didn't develop the relationships with the Mikaelsons that she did in the show. It could have been a really interesting dynamic to watch.

Thanks for the ask!

I’m a newer Larrie and pretty naive about the One Direction days because I didn’t listen to that type of music during the time they were a band. I started liking them individually and somehow found myself in this fandom. I guess my question is why do fans compare them constantly? They all came from the same band, they all seem to support each other at least privately if not publicly and appear to be pretty grateful to have had that same experience. I’ve seen some some solo Harry fans really attack Liam and Louis negatively with even comments on their looks. They constantly compare them to Harry and how they’re somehow losers because they don’t currently have the kind of commercial success as Harry. I’ve seen other solo fans also go after Harry for all kinds of reasons too, which is just so sad to see. Was it like this in the band too? Or has this all heightened because they all went solo? They all have different sounds, so why compare them? Am I missing something maybe?

Hi darling. Welcome to the hellhole fandom. So, no. When they were in the band it was actually unusual for anyone to ever voice a dislike for any one of them. People had their favorites, but publicly everyone supported everyone.

1DHQ started the fracture with the constant pushing of Harry vs the band. They really wanted to position Harry as being separate from (and better than) the other guys. Then Zayn left. There were people who were disappointed/angry with him or who no longer cared about his career, so we started having OT5 vs OT4 discourse. Then babygate started and we had the next fracture where people began to think maybe Larry broke up or Louis cheated on Harry. This was when people became houies (people who thought HL has dated, but now has broken up). Then that was followed by the hiatus and Harry/his team pushing the separation of Harry up a notch.

There were still many OT4 supporters until HS1 dropped and then there was a whole faction of people who flipped out over Harry’s lyrics and image not meeting their expectations and I think that was when houies really divided into harries and louies. There were still larries and antis. But now there were also louies who were only interested in Louis and “rad louies” (radical louies) who hated Harry and thought he was the reason Louis’ career was being “sabotaged”. And there were also harries — some of whom hated Louis because they thought he cheated on Harry and some also bought into the idea that Harry was just better than everyone else.

The fractured nature of our fandom really went into overdrive with the popularity of Fine Line and quarantine. Thousands and thousands of people entered the fandom and many had zero interest in 1D. Harry’s het image was in overdrive with Watermelon Sugar and the idea that Camille broke his heart (thus, being inspiration for the album). Holivia, DWD, As It Was, Harry’s House and Harry’s growing fame really made things worse in that department.

It seems as though a lot of Harry’s newest fans see any link back to 1D or his former bandmates as being a step backwards or as the other guys trying to “use” Harry as a way to promote themselves. And until recently, Harry spoke very little about the band and had very little public interaction with them, so unless you paid very close attention, it was easy to think he didn’t care much for or about them. I think many fans do this weird thing of needing their fave to be “the best” — as if that somehow reflects on them, as well. Like, the way many Harries went overboard making sure Lloyd won best tour photographer only because they didn’t want Louis’ photographer to win. It’s ridiculous.

Some of the hatred towards Harry is rooted in jealousy because people feel he had an unfair advantage over the others, thus having a success the others could have had just as well. Some of the hate is people feeling as though he has the power to do whatever he wants in terms of his image and stunts, so he must be fake and only cares about fame and money. Some of it is people buying into the idea that Harry ended the band because he wanted to be a star and he’s actively trying to ruin Louis’ career. There are a million different reasons people send hate his way.

As for comparing the five of them, as you say, they all have different sounds and none of them compete with each other. But I do think Sony very much wants Harry to be the Justin Timberlake and be the only one who reaches that huge level of success. And the media doesn’t help because many of the articles are written in a way that praises Harry and puts the others down (for no reason at all), so fans feel defensive and lash out. I tend to think Liam, Niall, Louis, and Harry all care about each other very much and are supportive of each other. And I really doubt they like the articles that do that nor would they support the nasty way some of the fans behave.

Sorry this was so long. And at the same time, this barely touched the surface, but I hope it helped a little.

my odyssey with the shitshow that is legends and lies, the patriots

i'm watching bill o'reilly's show legends and lies, the patriots and it is wild. 💀 for a show that claims to disperse legends and myths it sure does feed into a lot of narratives. it's actually impressive, how it dramatizes these events and people to the point where every single figure is inaccurate and somehow less entertaining than their actual selves. didn't get to every episode because not all of them are online.

up to the war it's mostly a lot of dramatization that doesn't really add anything and is still horrendously awkward. but the constitutional convention onwards is where i sat there and went. oh, this is bad.

it's obviously not equipped to handle the jefferson-hamilton rivalry and the resulting political factions because it dilutes both figures so bad lmao.

jefferson is just pouting 24/7. they have the actor say the quote from the letter he sent washington about the dinner bargain where he went " hamilton tricked me sirrr he literally duped me into a compromise" without any context. and when washington later calls him out on his sneaky newspaper bullshit he just sits there sulking. like give the guy some credit, he could scheme! he was a far better politician than hamilton! if you're going to try to break down the mythological image of jefferson as the holy patron of the common man then do it all the way! he wasn't like "but sir :(" and then gracefully concede defeat wtf. they make it seem like jefferson lost to hamilton and then later suddenly won (?) without delving into the attacks on hamilton's reputation and how it was a very effective campaign.

also, there is a lot to explore in jefferson's arguments themselves. it would be worthwhile to delve deeper into why exactly he opposed hamiltonian policies, how he thought it would affect the union, etc. to be fair the show does talk about how he thought hamilton would create a monarchy, which is true - but it's just barebones, you know? maybe a bit more detail to actually strengthen both sides' argument if your goal here is objectivity and truth.

i'm a little lad who wants berries and cream!

and you could probably guess this from what i just said about jefferson but hamilton is exactly the ambition-crazed machiavellian schemer you would expect him to be. what's worse is that they don't go into his actual actions that can be critiqued all that much. like why exactly did he want the whiskey tax? what consequences did it have? there's a lot of complexity to dig into, both in how he reasoned he was taxing a luxury, how the farmers reacted, etc. or how there was speculation (duer) that strengthened jefferson's concerns; none of that's really addressed properly. once again, just barebones. this man did not conceal his thoughts, there's a lot of ammunition and yet.

it's hilarious because from his very first appearance as aide-de-camp they kept doing these sneaky cuts to his face where he's just side-eyeing with this deadpan expression. at the time i was like "wtf is wrong with this editing" but i think they were trying to foreshadow 😭. for the rest of the show he's always sitting in corners, smoking and staring at jefferson/washington.

and the quasi-war is so bad. so bad. they address hamilton wanting to use the war as an opportunity to establish a standing army but go about it so heavy-handedly it just becomes wack. in the show, hamilton is so crazed by his jealousy towards adams that he'll do anything to take power (his ambition did have a role in it but it's weird that they don't say anything about what the french were doing at this point, why americans were divided? not even sure if non-history buffs will immediately realize that this war with france is due to the french revolution and la dih dah.) and this what he says after mchenry claims that adams will want washington as general again:

"But His Excellency is far too old to command from the field. He will give his command to a trusted friend. Someone...perhaps...he once thought of as a son. *smirk with McHenry*."

the last part? "someone he once thought of as a son" BITCH if you did any research you would know that hamilton was screaming crying throwing up at the mere THOUGHT of being considered washington's son. you can hear the villain music in the background. no, literally, you can actually hear villain music. i love this show so much.

then it tells us "yeah hamilton took power" but where is washington in all this? the guy who insisted on hamilton being his 2nd apparently out of love for his "son" (lafayette found dead in a ditch). dying in bed according to the next scene lmao.

so yeah hamilton is a shitshow but that also ruins washington because he's in that weird position of being idolized and also diminished. "yesss slay washington you are so talented as a spymaster and spotting talent but also you were manipulated by hamilton! but also you fully supported hamilton's agenda! you were such a good president i love you."

and john adams is so weak it's an insult to the man. at least show us that hater energy. wdym adams went "i had thought you had stopped this obsession of yours" to jefferson when jefferson was complaining about hamilton? maybe he didn't hate hamilton as much at that point if that's what they're implying? but the show makes him into this affable guy, who didn't want an army (the man longed for military glory) and only dismantles it because he realizes that jefferson was 100% right and it was all hamilton's quest for power. the french are nonexistent in this french-american war, which is my biggest grievance.

and aaron burr...the less i say about this show's aaron burr the better. didn't even try for historical accuracy. didn't try for anything besides "mwahahaha i am a politician! with no ideas! and i will say that to your face hamilton" so yeah the hamilton that they portrayed as crazed for power (in the same 40 minute episode i tell you) is suddenly a great judge of character. maybe at the end they did make him slightly sympathetic? it talks about his public fall from grace after the duel so some points for that.

and look at this shit y'all. can't make this up.

sigh. a historian says "jefferson insisted on seeing hamilton as a power-hungry monarchist" but then the show makes it seem like that's the truth. all the historians are saying things and then the show's scenes are saying something completely different so the entire thing is ???? wtf is the goal of this thing?

besides all of this, it's a wild ride based purely on the absolutely terrible hair. you will not believe how bad the hair is. i shit you not i screamed ten times wondering where the hell they got wigs that can look that bad. watch it just for the hair actually.

and of course the strange, awkward editing and flashbacks that are probably confusing to people who are normal and don't keep historical dates/events marked up with these people's lives. washington dies and comes back to life in flashbacks like 3 times.

it sucks! it's not even entertaining but there are moments of humor and ridiculousness; the bad hair really saved this thing. i might be harsh, given that i just defended hamilton the musical for its relative inaccuracy, but i find it fundamentally different because this show claims superior historical accuracy. it looks and feels like a low-budget documentary and it's just. wrong. at certain points. if it wants to get real into the nitty-gritty of these complex people then you have to commit! it couldn't quite abandon the common impression a lot of americans have towards jefferson, couldn't abandon that perspective of hamilton. but then it doesn't delve into the actual mistakes and darker actions of these people. maybe it was in a different episode but i saw no mention of the reynolds pamphlets, jefferson's relationship with sally hemings, diplomatic deals, or whatnot.

not only is it a ultimate failure at clearing up legends and lies, it probably created some new ones instead. only part that was relatively okay was benedict arnold's i think.

Elrond and Gil Galad short fic

Gil Galad was stirred from his paperwork by a dagger imbedding itself into his desk. He had already started the ridiculously familiar phrase of ‘Elrond,knives, we’ve talked about this’ when he looked up at Elrond’s face and stopped. He tried to discreetly see the piece of paperwork that had been slammed onto his desk with said knife. Ah. So this was how he died.

‘What,’ Elrond’s voice was calm and pleasant sounding yet still managed to shake with rage, ‘Is this piece of bigoted bile that lies before me, and why may I ask is your seal beside it.’ He should have been expecting this he supposes. He tries to offer an explanation but is intercepted instantly by Elrond’s voice rattling off the contents of the cursed document as if he were talking about the weather. ‘It has been passed into law that for the purpose of diplomacy, any members of Lindon’s diplomatic delegation may be denied participation on any embassy based on possible offence to the customs of the people in question’. ‘That’s only a summary of it there are numerous clauses-’, but he stopped knowing it was fruitless.

‘This is an invitation to put numerous elleths and members of same sex relationships out of the job and you know it,’ he stated as if Gil Galad hadn’t said anything, accompanied by a glare that contained somehow more threat than the fact that Elrond’s hand was still resting on the hilt of the dagger. ‘ Its plausible that you might have thought you could slide it by without raising too much public awareness, you are generally capable of discretion, but the idea that you thought I wouldn’t find out about it is laughable.’ This is perfectly true. He knows that through various back channels and connections in every faction little goes on in the world that Elrond doesn’t find out about. He’d never had this work against him before, it had helped him on numerous matters before and cut down the time needed to explain things, but then he’d never tried to conceal something from him before.

‘And why would you not want me to know? I refuse to believe I could be so poor a judge of character to support a king who held this kind of prejudice so why wouldn’t you let me help you work around it?’ he looked betrayed now and made Gil Galad feel sick to his stomach. He knew how much work had been needed to get any sort of trust from the Peredhel, with good reason considering how most of his relationships with his family had gone. The idea that he could have undone that progress was terrifying. He knew lying would make the situation so much worse and so finally decided the truth was his only hope.

‘There was significant pressure from the Numenoreans on the matter. They threatened to cut of all links and we need them Elrond. We would not have won without them and you’ve told me yourself we’ll need them again.’ Elrond went very still for a moment and when he spoke his voice was slow and dangerous ‘Do you realise, how much worse that makes it’. ‘Elros,’ and there it was the word that had been left unsaid but very much present in so many conversations ‘Has been dead for over a century’. And now this conversation was in the most dangerous territory yet, ‘I am insulted that you think I am too emotionally compromised to offer council on an entire country because my brothers descendants have adopted some messed up ideologies. What did you think I was going to do when I heard hmm? Were you worried I’d fling myself off a cliff? Sail away and never come back?’. ‘You can’t plan to convince me you’ve healed from all of it. I know you better than that.’ ‘Well I thought you did! Don’t you think if I was planning to do any of those things I’d have done them by now? I’ve had a century without Elros and numerous points over my life in much worse positions than I am now and I’m still here aren’t I? I’m not going anywhere anytime soon I’d appreciate not being treated like I’m so delicate I’ll break at any moment.’

‘Your right. I’m sorry, I should never have signed it and I certainly should have concealed it from you. I broke your trust and I understand if you hate me for it.’ he reached out and took his hand looking into his herald’s eyes unflinchingly. The anger had almost evaporated leaving a weariness and pain that had been beneath all the Peredhel’s actions of late. But there was strength as well. So much strength made even more so with the pain. He felt that the eyes were looking into his very soul and seeing all of it more clearly than he himself could. Knowing Elrond he probably was.

But Elrond must have been satisfied by what he saw because he released his hand to straighten his robes and spoke ‘Good. Well I suppose we should get to work than at reversing this thing. May sway in Numenorean politics is clearly not what it used to be but it is not nothing. If we pull on the right connections I think we can devise a strategy to reverse this thing without anyone being the wiser.’

And Gil Galad breathed a sigh of relief. Why he would ever think he could manage this without Elrond he didn’t know. They fell into their old routine and in a few weeks it was as if nothing had happened. He was seriously questioning how his guards hadn’t noticed the dagger though.

Here’s another Gap Years post

It’s my tumblr and I can do what I want.

………………

The north wing of the palace is built around a single room. Four thousand years of use have worn away any fancy name that it might have had, and now it is only known as The Problem Room. When there is a problem, the leaders of the elven world discuss it in The Problem Room. The Problem Room is also known as the source of many problems.

It doesn’t look particularly important. It’s the size of a human conference room and has about the same layout. The walls are covered in monitors and displays, and a huge holographic globe hovers in the center. All of this surrounds a beautiful table with nine matching chairs. The furniture is in grayscale, made of dark glass and detailed metal. The room usually has another dozen mismatched chairs shoved against the walls that don’t fit the aesthetic. The room has lasted four thousand years. That doesn’t mean that it has lasted particularly well.

The Apex always sits at the head of the table. As of three days ago, that is Apex Ishtar Mercuralis. She has a sizable cut over one eye and her signature braid is a little bit shorter, but all things considered, she’s well and ready to lead. Ryn Stormson Mercuralis sits to her left doing complex equations on a sheet of paper. Three other councilors sit around them.

The first is Devana Marolak, a stout woman with sharp fangs and feathery brown hair. A human might guess that her family came from anywhere between Eastern Europe and Mongolia. Devana is a traitor. Not to Ishtar, but to the old Apex. She represents the Hunters, a huge faction devoted to keeping those uppity wild humans in their place. When Emer failed to act quickly enough, she switched sides, betraying centuries of family history and getting her own brother killed. Ishtar is well aware of her councillor’s true loyalties, and prefers it to the normal sort of betrayal that happens in court.

An older elf sits on the other side of Ryn. He is Gullin Eburos, and he is nearly 500 years old. Genus Eburos is one of the high nobility though, so the pale elf only appears about 60. He has long white hair and looks the most like a stereotypical Tolkien elf of anyone in the government. Gullin is a biologist specializing in viruses and disease. Commoners call him the plaguekeeper. He likes the status quo regarding the human realm, but Ishtar needed an apocalyptic pandemic and knew who to call. He is a well-liked person, and quite down to earth considering his skills and power. However, there is a reason why Apex Emer Sondaica didn’t call on him to manage her own doomsday plague. Gullin has some skeletons in his closet.

The final occupied seat holds a very young elf. Due to their long lives, elves can stagnate as a culture. To avoid this, their government switches hands constantly and every High Council must have a scrappy youngster. Does it help? Not really. Ishtar’s scrappy youngster is Amedi Kebero, a prodigy from the outer nobility who won their year at the Conservatory less than twenty years before. They have reddish brown skin and dark gold hair in short loose coils. Amedi wears an archery armguard along with their noble vambrace, and their magic sometimes flickers from Mercuralis indigo to its original rust red. The other four seats are empty, as Ishtar has not chosen the rest of her council. However, Amedi and Ishtar’s seneschals stand at the edges of the room taking notes.

The five talk for a while. They are the High Council and there is always a lot to discuss. Other experts cycle in and out of the room giving reports. Some of it is good (the low casualties during the coup, public support), some it is annoying but harmless (Ishtar caused a magnitude 4 earthquake during her final duel with the old Apex that somehow affected both worlds), but some of it is definitely bad. In any coup, even a human one, the new government needs to eliminate their opponents. Elves typically do this by killing most of the ruling genus and its high noble supporters, and assimilating the rest into more neutral families. Ishtar has tried to keep casualties low this time around. Unfortunately, her attempt to capture her enemies alive has left three young adult heirs to the high nobility at large. It has also left one of her liutenants dead and another high noble seriously injured.

They always expected one heir to escape. Zerada Adust, the enchanting noblewoman betrothed to Marin Sondaica, has been wandering the human realm for a few years now. She seems more interested in human affairs, and the council thinks that if they leave her alone, she’ll be content to slip into obscurity. Either way, no one has been able to find her. Perhaps her captured brother has some information. More threatening though is Kova Marolak, Devana’s fiersome niece who was only a year shy of attending the Conservatory and becoming a true noble. She dodged the soldiers sent to take her into custody and disappeared to the human realm. Lastly, of course, is Marin Sondaica, the son of the former Apex. He unexpectedly ran off to the human world as well, seemingly having no idea that a coup was about to happen.

The prince must have found out somehow, because he had gathered three extremely capable humans and swayed them to his side by he was found. The testimony of the soldiers is enough to know that Marin chose his allies for a reason. The tall blond boy was an archetypical human warrior, and the one with glasses clearly had no qualms about violence. Even the less physically impresive human noticed the presence of elves before he should have. The council has a theory that the boys are the children of three human oligarchs as well. They’re a nearly perfect crew to keep an outlaw prince alive.

The council need to catch him, and they need to do it soon. Sooner or later the wild humans with their geiger counters and worldwide web will notice that things aren’t adding up. They will learn that they aren’t alone in the universe, and every elf alive knows what wild humans do when they feel threatened. Wilders are blunt, fanatic creatures. They’ll die for any cause, and keep fighting a losing battle on nothing but spite. Giving them a common enemy, a true outsider that every last human would hate and fear, would create an army like none of them can imagine.

No elf, not even the most honorbound noble, wants to die at the hands of a desperate teenage human with nothing left to lose. Elvenkind must avoid discovery until after they have already won.

…………

Congratulations! You’ve now met the entire (starting) main cast. Marin, Brian, Xavier and Clay make up the A plot as they drive across the USA, and Ishtar, Ryn, and Amedi are the B plot, trying to stop them. They will meet many other elves and humans along the way.

Transformers: Mosaic #328 - "Shogun"

Originally posted on January 12th, 2009

Story, Art - Iván Mas

deviantART | Seibertron | TFW2005 | BotTalk

wada sez: A Bludgeon-focused strip set in an alternate version of IDW's continuity—sort of along the lines of Evolutions. Mas offered his own commentary on the strip on his deviantART; I’ve mirrored it and some behind-the-scenes material below, along with an entirely separate strip in a similar vein written by Enric Farguell that was apparently rejected by the Mosaic editors on the basis that it wasn’t “sequential art”. I decided to reach out to my friend Sam to get an independent view on the strip’s cultural background:

Sam sez: So Sekigahara was one of the last big battles of the warring states period. The narrator is a Toyotomi loyalist, while the Tokugawa he is talking about is Ieyasu Tokugawa, who will win the battle, establish the Tokugawa shogunate and his territory of Edo will become capital and eventually modern day Tokyo. It’s basically standard tonal samurai stuff, all “my death brings honour to my family” and that. A bit orientalist in tone here for sure, but there’s an element of truth to be had. The thing is there’s an official Transformers thing from Japan that is exactly this—not exactly, in that Bludgeon isn’t there, but there was a Warring States/Transformers crossover thing during the Age of Extinction windup. [wada sez: Sam was thinking of a collaboration between TakaraTomy and a company that made actual armor/swords inspired by Sengoku period factions, and also wanted to mention that one time the protagonist of Sengoku Basara showed up on Q-Transformers.] The thing about Japan is that this is all happening 500 years ago so it’s about far out enough for this to be easily mined for fantasy stories. Lots of fiction about what if there were literally demons on both sides and such.

Well, I think it's one of the mosaics I've made that I like the most.

I think it is quite complete in many aspects, we have on the one hand a small historical study of documentation.

It is one of the most famous battles in the history of Japan, Sekigahara, which ended up deciding the Tokugawa Shogunate with Oda Nobunaga, for the next 300 years and which was one of the bloodiest in memory.

So... somehow I link what is the IDW transformers universe with real facts, as we know, in the IDW universe some important politicians or military leaders are under decepticon influence, in Infiltration, but... because they couldn't start said infiltration from Japan?

It could have been, and that is what I wanted to propose, so whoever was Shogun won this battle thanks to some decepticons infiltrating their ranks, commanded by a Bludgeon, something that seems obvious to me since its samurai-style design always amazes me. It seemed a bit unjustifiable.

However, the story is told by a general in the ranks of Toyotomi. Trying to follow the samurai spirit a bit, it follows that this samurai is going to die. I took this image from a statue in Japan and it served me very well both for its pose and its shape to convey what I wanted, also, we can say that... it is another nod to something existing.

I know that maybe it is a bit complicated to read, but I was interested, since the story is told by a guy, that the typography was more calligraphic, so to speak.

The last balloon surely costs more, the one in Bludgeon, but it is intentional, as you can see, its appearance is very unpleasant, and I wanted the test globe to convey the same thing, that it be dirty, illegible, aesthetically ugly, unpleasant, in order to help give the personality of Bludgeon, who by the way, already gives a clue about the Infiltration that we said before.

Even so, I think that on the mosaics page there are problems with the resolution, a pity.

If you look closely, my signature appears with Japanese characters at the bottom left, and the whole frame has a great job, the blood stains are evident why I have put them, and if we look at the page as it progresses, it acquires that reddish tone, giving to understand that the battle hardens.

Another detail is the Mosaic logo, which... if we look closely, I decided to put a "What if..." implying that it was a kind of separate universe. In addition, in the header, we have the signs of the two banners, if you search a bit, as a curiosity you will see that the one on the left is the Tokugawa sign, mixed with the decep symbol.

And a little more.... I did the page in pencil with gradients, it is a very grateful technique but somewhat slow and tiring, however, it turned out well.

Yikes. Here's a lesson for you: don't bother with Warhammer players that are slowly pushing 45 or so.

You see how the 40k playerbase had a bad rep back in the day, because of the very high concentration of "that guy" personalities? Yeah, they never changed or grew out of it, they just developed a superiority complex because they pushed some minis over the table in their teens back in 90whatever. Never won anything official with all that experience tho so... yeah, go figure.

Add to that an Imperial Guard player - which, let me tell you, is in our cultural context somewhat of a red flag? - with symbols on the dice that indicate a certain political leaning and a certain choice of vocabulary that occasionally bleeds through, then you got a clear case of "yikes".

My only takeaway from this? Solar, you Boomer fuck, you buy neither minis or books, your shoddy 3D prints are barely painted, yet for some reason I'm the "stupid kid who knows nothing"? Note that we were also talking about a field I am writing MY BLOODY PHD THESIS IN (Marketing, target audiences, etc.). And apparently I "know nothing". Fucker you do nothing but whine about the company who's product you pirate. You barely know the lore of your own faction, yet somehow your age elevates you to master gatekeeper or what?

Main reason I called quits after one round. Shoved all my tau minis into melee, claimed an "oops" play mistake, and packed my bag. What a waste of an evening. Fucking Boomer mentality, demanding respect for being a bloody amateur for 40 years. What? You want a participation trophy for aging? Fuck off.

Fucking hell I gave the benefit of doubt at first but I'm not sharing the table with a potentially right-wing asshole. You had a 20 year headstart to become a decent person, you had your chance.

I was reminded that i've written like, almost an essay about Motormaster Characterization in the comments of a fic i wrote in class one time and now i'm gonna transfer them to a post so you can all see them.

Obligatory reminder at the start that a) this gets long, and b) this is my own personal take. If it conflicts with yours, great, two cakes, I like reading fics with different interpretations than my own. However, if you vibe with it, buffet rules apply, take whatever you want and however much you want and leave whatever you don't :D free headcanons to a good home or whatever, lol

In regards to Motormaster's approach to authorities, subordinates and equals:

Motormaster literally doesn't know what an "equal" is. If he were anyone else, Scrapper would be approaching him as an equal, but Motormaster has no idea what to make of equals. He has subordinates and he has authorities who must be obeyed, and if one isn't an authority one MUST be a subordinate somehow, or at least treated like one in his head. It's not really his fault that he has no social skills whatsoever, but either he needs to learn them or he needs to get out of the way, pretty much. Scrapper just kind of goes "okay, fuck it, i am your superior by rule of seniority" instead of trying to make friends as equals. Onslaught doesn't have the leave to throw his weight around the same way, so instead Motormaster acts like a dick until some other authority (here, Scrapper) gets in his way about it, but Onslaught is perfectly capable of retaliating as long as Motormaster starts it.

In regards to Motormaster having been "built for leadership" vs having the actual qualities of leadership:

I like the idea that Motormaster may have been "built for leadership" (he is probably the best leader of the bunch just by process of elimination, unfortunately) but he does not have enough emotional maturity or problem-solving skills to actually lead. This guy solves all his problems by hitting them until they go away. You cannot be a leader like that, it does not work, your team will either fracture underneath you and stop working or they will fracture underneath you and decide to get rid of you, no two ways about it.

...Motormaster is so headstrong that he refuses to listen to any ideas he can't pretend are his own or otherwise line up along what he already thinks. Scrapper can threaten him into being polite, but unless he makes politeness into a game to be won that is a prelude to fists and swords and guns (it can be done, but probably not by Scrapper) he cannot convince Motormaster of the value of being polite. He can tell Motormaster that he needs to treat his team better or he'll be ousted, but he can't convince Motormaster of the same unless he can frame it as not only not treason (he Will defend the other Stunticons' honor, after all) but the correct Decepticon response, and something that Megatron would approve of, AND that treating his team with kindness and evenhandedness is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength, AND!!!! that Mtoromaster will come over stronger not only to his team but also the rest of the faction if he jumps to violence less and trades on words rather than actions. All of which will require a really deft hand, and one Scrapper doesn't feel like wielding at the moment. ... I think that's one lesson Motormaster will have to learn from experience, actually. I can't see anyone meeting him at his level and also being someone he'd deign to listen to in the first place, so instead he'll have to suffer the consequences of his actions in some way or another to decide that he needs a new first response to conflict outside "roll over and seethe internally" and "literally start beating people"

What it really comes down to is that Motormaster lacks almost every tool in a good leader's arsenal. He is a poor communicator, he is recalcitrant, he is stubborn, he takes his failures out on his team, he claims responsibility for his teammates' successes, he is absolutely ignorant of his own flaws, he has no emotional management skills and even worse emotional mediation skills, he does not work with his subordinates but against them, and he sees nothing wrong with this. He's not entirely to blame because he is new, untested and untried and without any of the experience he would need to actually succeed at this, but he's also got no interest in changing, because he thinks he has this shit in the bag and it's only because he was saddled with a defective team full of idiots who don't know how to listen to him that anything ever goes wrong. And, of course, not only does everyone outside the Sunticons know this, but most of the Stunticons do, too :( Motormaster is the only one who thinks he's doing a decent job. The other Stunticons just also don't know how to do anything different either, since none of them have those skills either, and they've never been led by a team leader who does.

Irt the "age" of the Stunticons, something difficult to quantify because they're adult robots who were built very recently and given 0 guidance on how to be functional people:

The stunticons in general are fascinating to me because they have the like, physical and social standing and skills of a young adult (i'd place them around mid-twenties, given they're new to the Decepticons and could be likened to recent college grads) but absolutely zero life experience whatsoever, and the emotional self-management skills of an older child at best. It makes for a really interesting contradiction because they are like. SO ill suited for basically any task that isn't "go in, shoot autobots, get out" and even then they struggle with that because they don't get along well. Given a little bit of time and patience- and probably some external lessons on "being nice", "using your words", and "communicating issues and then solving them together" like the average person irl gets from the ages of 2-15 lmfao- I think they'd all be able to mature into genuinely effective fighters and a genuinely functional team, but first they like. have to not kill each other or get shot for insubordination lmao

Irt Motormaster trying to start a fight with Scrapper, a large part of the fic, but also regarding his approach to interpersonal dynamics in general, just applied narrowly:

Motormaster doesn't have any emotional processing skills, just like the rest of his team. None of them have any life skills at all. Scrapper is just impossible to rile unless he wants to be riled, and since MM has no way to escalate the situation that wouldn't put him objectively in the wrong (he cannot start hitting people here! they're of the same rank as him and both have seniority, though onslaught's position is significantly more tenuous than Scrapper's, so it's against the rules) so instead he just has to chill the fuck out or leave, which would be retreating, which would be losing. So he can't do that either. Someone help this poor truck, he can't start a fight without getting in trouble :(( his life is so hard :((((

and, finally, in the eternal and hilarious words of my friend @megatronismegagone who summed this all up better than i ever could (because I have to write whole fics to say what others can manage in a few sentences, of course)

his self awareness is at negative 1000 and his dicks bigger than his brain. hes such a fucking dude. oh my god. onslaught needs to kick the shit out of him a few times. actually no he needs someone to dunk him in the ocean and shake him dry every time he does or says some bullshit. his socialization is lower than his self awareness somehow

1, 2, 3, for Callisto! :D

1. What is your ocs full name? Does this name have any special meaning/history? Callisto Noa! For meaning, it's kinda twofold. Callisto the moon/greek myth dosen't exist in the setting of the UNITYxEclipse game as we thought it'd be interesting if "earth" wasn't... our Earth with all the same things (This was espcieally apparent when devolping the Chorus (a space theocracy about mechs being seen as gods among other things)) however spacey names/names of celestial bodies are really cool and it's a great scource of sci fi names (especially named geographic features of planets). I largely chose it because I thought it sounded cool and fit the character I had in my mind. To Callisto herself though, it's incredibly important. It's a name she chose and is very important to her because it's hers. Callisto is a character who at the current moment, is filled with feelings of inadequecy and feel like she doesn't deserve/is worthy of anything, so she often doesn't allow herself those things. However, her name is one of the few things that she sees as hers, despite it all, She's still Callisto. And that idea of names/identity is something I want to play around with alot, especially with regards to the stuff with her nickname/callsign!!

Also one short note, I chose her last name "Noa" from the Mobile Suit Gundam Character Bright Noa, mainly bc it sounded cool and I love how Tomino does sci fi names

2. Does your oc have any nicknames? How did they get these nicknames? The only thing close to a nickname she has at the moment is Wraith, her callsign. And oh do I have a lot of thoughts about it. A big part of Callisto is the fact that she is inhabiting a facade and that nickname is very much part of it. The thing is, the "Wraith" is an Ascencian (space fascists) pilot named Argyre Zephra Solis and his mech the Wraith of Deimos (it has a loonger title of it's "acchivements" bc well it's a fascist weapon of war), a feared name and part of one of the most powerful Leviathan (a leviathan is their name for like... the in world equivalent of an Eva/Gundam) squads on the Unity Ring. "Wriath" is a "war hero" and big symbol for the Ascencians + their war effort. "Wraith" is what Callisto has been running from; the war, empire, fascisim. The other thing is, the Wraith is dead. Argyre died in the assult Callisto was conscripted in. Callisto hid in the mech's bloodied cockpit to stay safe. The next time she opens her eyes she is the only mech standing in a quiet battlefield. And her hands were gripping the controls The Ascencians/Argyre's Squad open the cockpit and find someone who is def not Argye, and she's imprisoned.

The thing is, according to like... Ascencian rehetoric about the bond between a Pilot and a Leviathan, this should be impossible. To them, (something we established in worldbuilding is none of the factions have a correct idea of what a pilot's bond with their mech is) pilots are like... "chess kids"/newtypes, and Callisto is not one of them and the public knowledge of that would be catastrophic to their rhetoric. However the process of finding a Pilot compatable with a Leviathan is hard, it's not something you can force (but oh have they tried), the knowledge Argyre died in some conflict he should have won is also an unpleasent pill to swallow, so what do the Ascencians do? They make Callisto the Wraith. Till they find a real replacement, Callisto inahbits the facade of this symbol of war, a symbol she has tried running from but can't. This idea of The Wraith being tied to Callisto is something I'm trying to explore through play, even free, having espaped, she still can't change the callsign somehow, she's still bonded to the Wraith of Deimos (a Ascencian symbol), and both of them are still a knife of war. It's something she (and Deimos) despratley want to escape. Ideas of like... subverting/destroying/transforming symbols/fighting against fascist rhetoric and the ideas is something that I've been very much wanting to explore with this character. I feel like a big part of Callisto's journey is slowly becoming someone who can have agency with her identity again rather than being someone who's identity/worth (being seen as a weapon to be used, the wraith, a knife, a dog of war, etc.) deterimed by others.

Sorry, that was a REALLY long explanation for that one nickname lmao. I just have A LOT of thoughts about what Callisto being the Wraith means

3. How old is your oc? She's in her earlyish 20s! I feel around 24 or something.

OC Ask Game- The Baiscs

CAUGHT. UP. WITH. ONE PIECE.

HECK YEAH.

Theories and predictions TIIIIIIME-

Note that I have not checked theories so the below may be common ones the fandom would go “Awwww cute, yeah we’ve theorized that for a decade”, but I’m putting it here for laughs and to see how many hold up on further scrutiny or by the finale.

1: Sanji and his brothers have Lunarian DNA edited in by their father, since the timeline lines up for when Judge was part of MADS and King was a test subject. Also see the Seraph, so we know Dr. Vegapunk and his crew had access.

2: There is gonna be some big ass reveal with Zoro and his ability to cheat death. The fact that the reaper was looming over him is important, and he got a sword his is named after the god/ruler of hell. Oda is building some THEMES here. Plus, he got the sword Wado because of Kuina’s death, which is interesting.

3: Weevil isn’t Whitebeard’s son by the usual means, dude’s a clone.

4: Pudding has been kidnapped by Blackbeard to try and awaken her third eye to read the Poneglyphs. Also sidenote but how the heck will Shanks, Kid and Law translate the glyphs? WHAT MEANS DO THEY HAVE. THEY SEEM PRETTY CONFIDENT. ...Tho tbh Kid and Law are probably just trying to gather the glyphs before they tackle that, so Shanks is the main one I’m side-eying here. (Maybe Oden taught him how to read the poneglyphs???)

5: Blackbeard is gonna lose because the sea. Like his whole ass crew are devil fruit users. That fucking idiot. Also have we have only seen him use Haki sparingly, and seems overly dependent on the fruit. So that will be interesting. Also adjacent theory- Blackbeard as a individual is at least partly gonna lose because of Zoro or Sanji or a combo of the two. 

6: Blackbeard isn’t gonna be the final battle for Luffy. I’m not sure who the final battle will be- I’m leaning towards Shanks or Im-sama, but neither of those feel truly *right* right now so IDK. I could absolutely be wrong since Blackbeard’s goal may be the same as Rocks, which was to rule the world (and symbolically Luffy opposes that because yanno. Freedom.), but Im-sama is the current ruler and system, whereas Shanks would be a symbolic final passing of the torch for the younger generation to have truly surpassed their elders.

7: Hawkeye, Im-sama and the freakin’ Elephant are all connected somehow because of their eyes DON’T ASK ME HOW. (...oooh wait does that mean Hawkeye is ancient? Huh. That... would be interesting if Zoro takes on the mantle of death/king of hell and wins against Hawkeye, finally bringing death to an immortal.)

8: Law is not going to win against Blackbeard, but he’s gonna escape with Pudding. Also her eye will get awakened which will help solve his Poneglyph reading problem. This may also bring in Katakuri again, YES.

9: Kuma may have also been a Lunarian.

10: Speaking of Lunarians, since they were the previous gods, my grand theory: There used to be a bad oppressive system during the void century, Joyboy and others attempted and successfully overthrew it, but in the fallout the government/celestial dragon factions that took over and came out on top simply put in another bad system with themselves in power instead. However there are some holes, such as why the government wanted to completely erase that history instead of spinning it as they are the true heroes and yadda yadda.

It could also be Wano is a shorter period of what ended up happening during the void century, just with the end result being worse aka what if a Kaido figure won with the Orochi types overthrown and the Kozuki types suppressed and scattered.

Alright that’s it for tonight yeet.

Bound for Glory preview

Josh Alexander vs. Eddie Edwards - Alexander is defending the Impact men's world title. Edwards earned this title match on August 18 in a six-way match.

Edwards is the leader of Honor No More, a renegade faction of wrestlers disillusioned by the shutdown of ROH in December 2021. While Tony Khan purchased ROH and revived the brand on AEW, Honor No More invaded Impact in January 2022 to take their frustrations out on across the minor leagues. Eddie, who spent seven years in ROH and eight in Impact, revealed himself as the leader of the group in February. So he's basically the Benedict Arnold of the promotion. Alexander, meanwhile, has become Impact's franchise player, so it'll be a tough blow to the company if Edwards takes the world title from someone like him.

Once these two get in the ring, though, I don't expect the Honor No More storyline to be much of a factor. These are two smash-mouth grapplers, and this match should be a violent war of attrition. It might be interesting if Edwards captured the title for Honor No More, but it's hard for me to believe they'd cut off Josh's title run for that. My prediction is that Eddie's defeat here will be the beginning of the end for this faction.

Jordynne Grace vs. Masha Slamovich - This is for Grace's Impact women's world title. Slamovich is undefeated in Impact, and on September 1 she beat Deonna Purrazzo to become the #1 contender.

Grace is a thicc powerlifter and Slamovich is a classic monster heel character, so this has all the makings of a MEAN GUY MATCH~! except with women, which you don't get to see every day. If I was booking it I wouldn't even have this go very long. Just have 'em spam big power moves like a Brock Lesnar/Goldberg match until one of them gets caught and goes down for three.

You could have Grace be the dominant champion that shuts down the undefeated monster, but I think it's Slamovich's time. I smell a title change.

Matt Taven & Mike Bennett vs. Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley - The Kingdom (Taven & Bennett) are putting the Impact men's tag team title on the line. Sabin and Shelley defeated Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis on September 22 to earn this match. Up until the Kingdom won the tag title, Honor No More seemed to be going nowhere fast. Could that all come crashing down here? I'd say this one can go either way.

Mike Bailey vs. Frankie Kazarian - Kazarian won a three-way match on September 23 to earn this shot at Bailey's Impact X division title. Kaz is an AEW guy but he was in Impact for most of its first twelve years. Bailey is over a decade younger than Kazarian but he somehow looks a decade older. There's probably no upside in putting the belt on Kaz at this point, so Bailey should retain.

Deonna Purrazzo & Chelsea Green vs. Taya Valkyrie & Jessicka - VXT (Purrazzo and Green) are defending the Impact women's tag team title. They won the belts from longtime friends Valkyrie and Rosemary. Now Rosemary's other friend Havok has undergone a transformation into Jessicka, who's a little more on Taya's wavelength. So I guess that group wants to try again with this new combination. VXT seems to have a better thing going, so they should probably keep the belts. I get the feeling this Jessicka/Taya/Rosemary storyline is going to be more about a schism in that trio.

Mickie James vs. Mia Yim - James has vowed that she'll retire the next time she loses a match, so she's effectively put her career on the line here. Yim was released from WWE last year, and returned to Impact about six months ago. I suppose it's possible this is Mickie's last match, because Yim seems like the sort of opponent she'd want for that role. But they only introduced this "last rodeo" storyline five weeks ago, so it's hard to believe they'd blow it off so quickly. I'm picking James to stay alive for at least a few more months.

Call Your Shot Gauntlet - This is a 20-person gauntlet match with timed entries. The match starts with two entrants in the ring, and at regularly scheduled intervals each additional participant joins the match. Eliminations can occur at any time when someone exits the ring over the top rope directly to the floor. Once two entrants are left, the first to score a pinfall or submission wins the match. The winner receives a Call Your Shot trophy and the right to challenge for any championship in Impact Wrestling, without any warning to the champion.

Fifteen wrestlers have been announced for this: Bhupinder Gujjar, Bobby Fish, Eric Young, Gisele Shaw, Heath Miller, Joe Hendry, Johnny Swinger, Killer Kelly, Moose, PCO, Rich Swann, Sami Callihan, Savannah Evans, Steve Maclin, and Tasha Steelz. I'd say the favorites are Young, Maclin, and maybe Callihan or Heath if they've got a story to tell. Swinger or Hendry might make sense if they want to set up a comedy match for one of the lesser belts. You could do something with Kelly or Steelz, but women never seem to do very well in these things.

I usually punt with these things and pick a wildcard. I guess Fish, fresh off of leaving AEW, is the biggest x-factor in the field so far. But there's still surprise entrants to reveal, and any of them could be game-changers. What am I saying? It's Impact. I'm guessing the surprises will all be like the Kiss Demon and Luigi Primo.

Brian Myers vs. ??? - This is scheduled for the pre-show. Myers has issued an open challenge with his Impact digital media title at stake. I get the feeling this won't be anybody very good, and Myers will cruise to retaining his title.

just finished the trailblaze mission the other day and immediately went to your blog bc i knew you'd be sane about it 😭 absolutely baffling to me but somehow not surprising that no one seems to care about the mystery like???? there's so much weird shit going on and such interesting pieces of lore about memoria and different factions and how they interact in this absolutely huge universe??? i also loved firefly i'm so sad that people don't seem to care much abt her :( she was so sweet and the fact that they touched on chronic illness w her character and her using the dreamscape as a way to escape from that reality... this patch was so so good in so many ways and i'd love to hear your thoughts if u have any!! :) (also the MUSIC???? if i can stop one heart from breaking had me in actual tears)

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE FIREFLY i got another anon asking for my thoughts about what happened to her and i'm still kind of wrapping my head around. That. so i'll save all that for later! she's definitely a new favorite of mine, though. we didn't get to spend too much time with her but like yeah she won my heart pretty immediately. she was so... genuine? sure she hid a lot, but she didn't seem like she wanted to. it was more like she had to. not for her own sake, but for stelle's

that was the other thing that really got me! the bond she formed with stelle. like oh my god. they CONNECTED... stelle ADORES her. they felt so comfortable in each other's presence despite the wall firefly had to keep up... stelle picked up on the thing i just mentioned above: that firefly wasn't entirely honest not to give herself an advantage in the game of penacony (like aventurine and, to a degree, black swan) but to keep stelle safe in the midst of it. and it was for this reason that stelle chose to trust her. and to offer her genuine friendship in return

the entire sequence of exploring golden hour and then dream's edge with her was sooooo nice. it just made my heart feel at ease. and also yes if i could stop one heart from breaking is BEAUTIFUL and i want it on spotify rn. so i can loop it for 58347685673453485734 hours

my thoughts about the mystery on penacony as a whole are like. well:

the key to what caused firefly (... ?) and robin's deaths lies with misha and a child's dream

not saying that in the way some other hsr fans are and theorizing that misha's evil, btw. i really doubt that. this comes off more as a ... ralsei deltarune situation. two genuinely sweet kids who just want to go on adventures and live their lives but got mixed up in the fucked up inner workings of the worlds they live in

misha's grandpa is obviously a nameless and i'm 75% sure he's also the watchmaker (i say 75% because someone - a random npc, maybe firefly, or someone else, i really don't remember whose mouth it came out of - says that clockie was designed in the watchmaker's likeness and i don't think misha's grandpa is a talking clock . so. um. ...)

clockie is going to be a bigger part of the plot than he is now and there's totally going to be something fucked up underneath the cartoony exterior

aventurine stresses that we can't trust acheron because she's an emanator, but an emanator of who, i wonder...? her connection to the dream world, her memory problems, and the way some of her dialogue varies from player to player (INSANELY COOL TOUCH BTW) makes me want to say fuli. or possibly... IX. mythus? i guess lan and nanook are possibilities but i kind of really really really really doubt that

idk like i mentioned in the tags on a different ask i gotta properly explore penacony and read all the things i've picked up that i ignored in favor of finishing the trailblaze mission! and do the 53873453465786837 side quests i got from tinkering with people's emotions. Help. it'll probably help me theorize more! lots of little clues and foreshadowing strewn throughout the game's text, hehe...

i've REALLY enjoyed this update though. definitely sunk my brain even further into the hsr interest than it was before. penacony's cast is really dynamic and interesting (firefly, misha, and acheron are my faves here). also, the dreamscape pass is such a clever feature. really makes you feel like a tourist AND it's got lots of little morsels of lore inside. love it. uhg. i can't wait for the next big update i'm going to explode

Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014)

What would happen if the Nazis had won the Second World War? Wolfenstein: The New Order provides a window into this hypothetical scenario through the eyes of the main protagonist, William Blazkowicz. The Nazis obsessed over pushing the unethical boundaries of science experimentation. In Wolfenstein: The New Order, they center their fictional plot around this tension revolving around the Nazis developing advanced weaponry that eventually usurps the Allies. Captain William Blazkowicz or B.J. for short is a U.S. special forces operative that leads a raid against a crucial weapons laboratory run by Nazis, specifically by his archenemy, Deathshead. There is barely any breathing time in between levels. Wolfenstein: The New Order places me in a binary world where I am either doing the shooting or somebody else is shooting me. In my first play though, there were moments when I had to literally pause the game because the intensity of violence becomes unbearable, which made the game feel impossible to beat.

Wave after wave of Nazis come rushing through like swarms of iron hornets. The game made me think about the Holocaust, Rwanda, American Slavery, and other forms of genocide that have been committed, except the role is reversed. One by one, the Nazis drop like flies before me. For some reason, I am the Captain William Blazkowicz, which somehow miraculously grants me the unrealistic superpower to survive armies of men that had taken armies of men to slaughter these armies of men. I sincerely enjoyed playing Wolfenstein: The New Order because I felt like I was rightfully exercising my power to execute fictional vengeance against a faction that had committed an insidious and evil travesty on human kind. Yet, there is an unsettling tingle in the back of my head that tells me that this is not justice, but merely a vicarious participation to unabashed violence.

Wolfenstein: The New Order Video Reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlvfqfGTar4

Hearts of Iron IV update!

The UK won its civil war against the British Empire, but only after waiting 8 years for the world war against the Asian Co-operation faction for some reason. During this time, Australia and Canada both had civil wars, with the Aussies winning theirs, but the Fascists won in Canada. The British Raj became independent, but also suffered from two different civil wars. The Communist one died quickly, but the Fascist one has almost taken all of mainland India.

The Confederacy of American States won the US Civil War against the Confederated States of America, but FDR died during it, so Truman saw it through. Then he started being rude to me (Germany).

Italy ceded France back to the original democratic France after the end of the World War. It didn't give Denmark back to the Danes though, which was very rude of Mussolini. How he got accepted into the Allies, I have no idea! Maybe Lord Halifax liked him.

Poland turned fascist with a new Kind, and invaded Czechoslovakia. Which was annoying, because I wanted their land. So through a bit of exploiting, I joined Romania's war against Poland and was able to ReichsKommisariate them at the end, then annex them by reducing their autonomy!

Saudia Arabia somehow went Communist and tried to invade Turkey, but got beaten back by the UK. They're now a puppet of the UK.

The Russian Federation is still fighting the Soviet Union after 6 years. The Federation has a lot more land, but Stalin is still putting up a strong fight, and still hates me for being different to him.

Imperial Japan somehow got its arse kicked by all the different Chinese Republics and Manchuria, despite it having a much bigger army and fleet. Tibet also joined in the fun after turning fascist for some reason.

Meanwhile in Germany, I have kept my little faction of with Switzerland, Spain and Scandinavia going, now with Portugal in it as well. It has been very hard stopping Spain going to war with anyone. I've had to kick them out and let them back in many times to avoid getting dragged into wars.

Time for a new scenario. Not sure who to play as though. Played as Britain many times, so not them. Might try KaiserReich next time 🤔