thoughts on wash's fighting style and his position in pfl because I can (utc because it's really long lol):

wash is very unique among the freelancers for a variety of reasons, one is that he doesn't specialize in one specific area of anything, he's a jack of all trades who is able to fill in for other freelancers if necessary. for example in s9 when york was supposed to be unavailable for lock picking/infiltration duty, carolina immediately went to wash (and we are ignoring that york is not shown to be good at lock picking!) if she trusted wash to fill in for their specialist in one area, I feel it's not a stretch to imagine that he can do so in other areas as well.

need a snipper but north and wyoming aren't available? wash can cover. need someone to get into the enemies' computer systems in place of ct, south, or york? wash can cover. need someone for stealth or reconnaissance in place of florida? wash can cover. etc etc.

wash's combat style reflects that jack of all trades, master of none thing very well too, as the way that he fights is very grounded and pragmatic when compared to the rest of the freelancers. a lot of people like to portray wash as less skilled than the other freelancers, but in truth I believe that wash being able to keep up and compete with the other freelancers despite his lack of dramatic flare is a show of just how competent and skilled of a soldier he is. wash is so good at doing what he does that he doesn't need all that extra bullshit to get the job done. sure, he might not look as Cool and SexyTM as the others while doing it, but completing the mission and surviving to live another day takes precedence over all else.

another way of looking at it is that wash fights in the same way that the odst's do, that is to say that he fights like a human who cannot plow his way through the battlefield in the same way the spartans can. wash's style of fighting is one that employs careful planning and targeted hit and run tactics—this is most obvious in recovery one and s6 whenever he's fighting against the meta.

I also feel it's important to note that wash is not a cqc fighter, he can handle himself if he gets into a cqc situations but his primary weapon is the battle rifle—which is a mid/long range weapon. if I'm being honest wash's way of fighting makes waaaaaaaaay more sense if you look at him not as someone who is trained to primarily fight against other humans, but as someone who is trained to fight against 8ft 2 ton aliens with plasma weapons that can slice through the hulls of UNSC battle cruisers (ships designed to travel through space!!!) like a hot knife cuts through butter and have the technology to raze entire planets to the ground in a matter of minutes.

I also personally believe that wash has the most military experience out of all the freelancers right behind florida, wyoming, and maine (who I hc as a spartan iii). we know that wash did his basic training in the leonis minoris system (a canonical halo system) and that system had two of the three planets glassed by the covenant in 2537, and wash directly references these events in the washed hands interview in the fan guide and the way he says it implies that he likely completed his basic training that same year. now I have some grievances with the timeline given in the book when it comes to the events depicted in the freelancer saga because it's just kinda weird, but everything prior to that bit is actually fine (though I hate the way that they decide to number the timeline lmao).

now in halo canon the human/covenant war ended in 2552, and according to the timeline in the rvb fan guide that was 1 year after alpha was sent to blood gulch. project freelancer is first cleared for funding 7 years BBG (before blood gulch), and recruits the 50 freelancers 5 years BBG. doing some math we can determine that pfl was cleared for funding in the year 2544, and the freelancers are recruited for pfl in 2546. so assuming wash finished his basic training in 2537 that would mean that he was in the military for 9 years before he joined pfl, and while wash is addressed as a corporal (e-4) in the washed hands interview he was most likely demoted to that after he was court martialed, and he was possibly going to be dishonorably discharged from the military because of his disorderly conduct.

using the current standards used by the us marine corps when it comes to rank progression, wash was most likely a sergeant (e-5) who was very close to being promoted to a staff sergeant (e-6). wash as a sergeant would've essentially been the assistant manager/co-leader of the platoon he was in while his staff sergeant was the manager/leader, and that would explain why he was able to even get into an argument with his CO in the first place. I believe wash held a similar position in pfl, as it's kind of implied that he did some management stuff in pfl (talking with internals/upper brass, him feeling comfortable with openly questioning carolina about whether york should be allowed on the sarcophagus heist, and of course he shows the ability to direct and somewhat lead south in recovery one, and him leading church, caboose, and the reds in s6, and him taking charge of the meta in s8).

even if wash wasn't a sergeant as a corporal he would've been in a position to be the leader of a fire team, so basically wash isn't some rookie who had no clue wtf he was doing as many in the fandom like to characterize him; he is an experienced and battle hardened soldier by the time he joins pfl no matter how you look at it.

to put all of that into context, carolina is born 29 years BBG, which would be 2522. so during pfl she's in the 24-28 range and she wouldn't have joined the military until 2540. I actually personally head canon that wash is the same age as carolina, but that he illegally enlisted at 15 because of a crappy home life, but ignoring my head canon and assuming that he joined the military at 18 instead, he would've been born in 2519.

your sokka is SO sokka and i say this as someone who holds him so dear ur writing of him is amazing. tbh im sooo fussy with his portrayal but its pretty nailed. like so many fics (esp zukka and zuko centric and ESPECIALLY ones where hakoda like adopts zuko) he's constantly pushed to the side in favour of zukos issues and zukos problems when in reality sokka is very hurt himself and has suffered a lot. man i GET taob sokka i really do bc people seem to think he was a lil mean but nobody seems to realise when you're in sokkas position it would've read like everyone was against you. all the swt men, including his dad who snapped at him, and even katara and aang and suki tell him to give zuko a chance and the fact that they were trusting someone who had hurt all of them so much- because yes WE know zuko wouldn't have killed them, but the gaang didn't. not when they were being chased and terrorised, and when sokka had his trust betrayed in the prison, he had absolutely every right to hate zuko, esp when it felt like everyone who he thought would understand his feelings, including his own dad who had been hiding his relationship with zuko from him, seems against him. his conversation with hakoda was probably my favourite scene in taob just bc he was allowed to feel like that without being treated by the narrative as someone just being mean to poor little zuko. he gets to be a sourpuss and angry and jealous at zuko for feeling like hed been replaced by his own dad. all of the water tribe men get this treatment like they're not written as bad people for being wary or disliking zuko initially (even chena despite being enemy no.1 at the start). his convo with hakoda was so important bc it stressed the detail that yes zuko has suffered and deserves to be cared for but SOKKA is his son, his actual child who is so hard on himself for things out of his control and who has hurt so much and deserves just as much as zuko does. sokka is just a baby my boy. he's not the main character but he's just as complex and intricate as zuko, not just in taob but also for the times we have seen him in tams there's been keen detail to his emotion and how he's feeling pointed out

me rn

Because of the RM New Perspective headcannon I genuinely cannot imagine anyone other than Stan singing the song

have a good day !!

AAAAAA!!!!! THIS MADE ME SMILE SO WIDE!!!!

i am like, genuinely shook, by the sheer amount of anons i get telling me that they exclusively associate new perspective with rm ( esp. since posting it embarrassed me so much that i deleted it several times??? ) or that they'd never heard it before, but now they listen to it all the time and have ravesey style brain rot??? AAAA

which!!! literally that song is such a fucking BANGER!!! like when i tell you it was my favorite song all through hs, it carried me. also yes, i'm aware my ( expensive ) taste(s) are flawless. and just like everything about it gives me ravenstan crimson dawn rm vibes? something about it being in the jennifer's body movie soundtrack, all the high highs and low lows ( i do think ravenstan's vocal range is incredible, it probably is kind of giving brendon urie but ~raspier~ ), it's ;) xxx <3

it's just The Song Ever. the rm flagship theme song, or rather, i think because if rm was ever a tv show, i'd have crimson dawn covering style be the intro...i think new perspective is the outro to every episode and might be...the acoustic version? we love a little contrast. i think about the rm tv show too much, i want to write it out.

speaking of writing stuff out tho, sometimes i kind of want to write that little new perspective headstannon scene out where raven is singing to him and kyle is getting very publically rizzed haha. we have to see the save rock fuck a rockstar tanktop and the mini skirt i fear. also jersey writing KYLE <3 really big across his collarbone n sending him out there to sign autographs with a nonexistent ass slap? iconic.

but yes, i love new perspective rem(ember) nation, omg. you guys are so cute. it also means a lot to me because my music taste sort of makes me anxious, so it makes me really excited to share something that i love/music i like and associate with the boys, with all of you and have you enjoy it and think about it also!!! <3333 ilyilyily

-uncle nina, new perspective ravesey nation

i don't know if fishman island era sanji is genuine flanderization or im somehow giving him too much and too little credit at the same time. and maybe i was just frustrated that he regressed so bad after two years on Gender Island when i erroneously assumed (after watching iva + co at impel down express that queerness is as close to the ultimate ideal of freedom that one piece is about as you can get) that he would be better for the experience. and i know im going to turn around on him by the time i get to whole cake island but literally brother can we cut this shit out lmao

I know hello future me is like. THE guy who talks about avatar the last airbender in all of his videos. But did he really have to do it like that in the one about the japanese human experimentation death camps? Its part of his central thesis about how japanese war crimes arent in the cultural memory like german ones are but. It should have been like. An example at the very end. Not the first thing he talks about right after the intro.

Like call me a prude but i think talking about how the fire nation is inspired by imperial japan between clips of graphic descriptions and heartwrenching witness testimonies of japans crimes against humanity is uhhhhhhhhh bad taste!

there's nothing!!! NOTHING that makes me more violent than people eating in a cinema

just woke up from a horrible dream about my chemistry final tomorrow 😭

Looking at some stuff for a plotbunny of mine, I incidently noticed this 

and in the jp version

With the expected differences in delivery and tones but bar that -

Rhea here is acting as if she knew what Jerry wrote in his diary, and is surprised her bro found out !

(Did she read it already, or knows what it’s about?)

I’ve already supposed during WC, in general (and after her Seiros the Warrior stunt), Rhea ultimately thinks the world needs Sothis, because she cannot guide it to prosperity like the Goddess most likely would.

Still, because Rhea hasn’t completely given up on Fodlan yet, unlike Lehran, she still cares and offers her help to everyone around.

Rhea felt “safe” enough, at one point, to abandon her hair dye and use her real hair colour (maybe her real name too?), even if that used to spell certain doom a thousand years ago.

And then, she read Jerry’s diary.

And learnt why Jerry ran away, because bby!Billy isn’t “natural” and how it made him afraid. Especially afraid of her, someone who saved his life, someone he knew and worked with and apparently had a good relationship with for at least 300 years.

Of course the game follows this course, the second Billy becomes green Rhea is more and more insistent on making them sit to bring Sothis, because red herring and all -

But what if Jerry’s reveal also participated in her general feeling of hopelessness and resignation, at how only Sothis can save the world now?

People might be seeking Nabatean parts for power (breaking in to steal Seiros’s bones and actually the SoC?), people knowing they can find “power” in Nabatean blood, people knowing her niece has “special blood”, gross experiments using Nabatean parts (demonic beasts, even if they are using artificial crest stones), old enemies resurfacing in her own home (Solon) and now, that.

It’s not the final nail in the coffin (i suppose kind of similarly to Dimitri, Rhea’s final moment of despair is the Holy Tomb, aka humans really seeking Nabateans parts for power + a Hresvelg!) but she grows more and more desperate, the probability of another Red Canyon happening grows higher with each passing month -

The world is going to fall, someone she thought she could call an ally died, and lo, that someone had never been her ally (at least not for the last 21 years) - she needs Sothis more than ever now and oopsies, her brother finally catches on her plans -

Imo she’s less pissed (lol) than surprised, but ignores him because from the moment Billy started to show signs of Sothis awakening, Rhea became an ostrich, putting all of hopes for a good resolution of the situation on what Billy represents - people know Flayn is a Nabatean and are hunting her for her blood? Seteth’s first reaction is of course to gtfo away, and hide again, because he knows what will happen if she stays, Rhea most likely knows it too - but it’s alright, because Billy is here.

Billy, who might or not be Sothis at this point (for her) is here so there’s no need to panic !

And yet, the world really start to spiral in a narrative she knows too well, a narrative she cannot stop (but doesn’t try to stop either?) and so she fuels all of hopes on Billy and the chapter 11 revelation.

With the added twist that unlike last time - when Nabateans were alone against Nemesis’n’pals - now she has allies, so maybe Zanado won’t happen and they have more “time” than what they thought...

But no, imo Jerry’s diary really hurts Rhea because it’s not like his death deprives her of an ally, but it’s more like Jerry’s diary reveals he has never been an ally to start with -

(add CS to give her another blow with Aelfric, her child, who tries to kill her)

I know Rhea already knew Jerry found her “frightening”, but I don’t think it’s because he knew she was a Nabatean, more like she knew he thought she was stupidly strong, and sometimes has to act stern’n’scary befitting her role

Jerry finding bby!Billy not “natural” and running away from Rhea could only mean, imo, to her, that Jerry found out his baby wasn’t human and ran away from her, who isn’t human either. Unlike Willy and the Adrestians of back then, the second Jerry finds out she’s not “natural” like his baby, he bails out on her.

In other words, a person she thought highly of and respected/loved/called an ally/friend would have left her in a heartbeat (lol) if he ever knew the truth about her.

Ultimately, Jerry’s diary to Rhea, in the course of the game, cements the “we cannot trust humans because they will turn on us the second they know who they are” feeling she had 1k years ago - then dropped - then believed in again - then re-dropped.

Humans are out for their parts, Nabateans cannot trust humans -> only Billy as Sothis can save them now. 

That could explain why she hyperfocuses on Billy - beyond a mere wish to see her mother again - Billy/Sothis is the only person able to thwart a cycle that starts to replay itself and ended, last time, with the Red Canyon.

As for Seteth’s reaction...

He came to trust Billy, but wonders what they are, and asks Rhea what she did to Billy, unaware - at that point, that Billy is supposed to be Sothis.

When he finds out (after Supreme Leader’s stunt) he has his anwers, as expected, Rhea really tried to rez Sothis he is annoyed, but what is done is done but moreover...

Now understands what has been going on in her head, and how desperate she is (something she later confirms) and what she wished for, Sothis to bring order back to the “wayward land”.

Seteth accepts to help Billy - and it is revealed, given how deferent he is to them in SS and follows their choices, that he actually shares Rhea’s wish, maybe not to see Sothis return, but Billy, her avatar, to guide the land. Imo, given some of his own lines, Seteth too believes in a better world guided by Sothis, but unlike Rhea, even if he despairs at the current state of Fodlan with wars and what not, he isn’t yet at that point where he gave up on humans and Nabateans and a world where Sothis isn’t here - the second she appears (or her avatar) he undestands and follows her lead, but if she’s not here? He’ll try to manage and do his best for Fodlan...

Something Rhea did, but then stopped believing (or not? 12 vessels in 1100 years isn’t the sign of her being completely desperate, despite what we’re told) and believes again.

It’s kind of fitting with the Nin dev interview from 2020, Sothis is the Progenitor God to Nabateans, and they believe she can make the world go back on the right rails again.

However, Seteth still thinks/hopes/believes that even without her, Fodlan can go round, something Rhea doesn’t anymore, at least during that specific moment the game is set in, and before Billy receives their “revelation”.

*puts a photo of me in between two random photos i took of the sky today, not because they go together whatsoever but simply so any poor soul that happens to scroll across this post won’t be jumpscared by one giant image of me taking up their entire dash* :)

also yes those are the Everything Stays shoes that i wear far too often and i thought about Moon and flustered my damn self when i was putting them on today and if you want to know why i thought of him specifically… well, you’re just gonna have to read Ch. 4 of ES when i post it on Thursday and you’ll find out 😊

ok so what if. hear me out on this one. midoteto suicide pact.

I hate that drinking alcohol had become so normalised that people who don’t want to or can’t drink are being pestered to have just one bc how could they not 🙃

americans: oh noooo lol its so smoky, what the fuck canada why would you do this lmao

canadians: our country is literally fucking burning down and people are losing their houses and entire communities

.

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the ib theory board is getting extended

i don't think you want anything to do with me anymore so i can just vent the texts i want to send to you here