In Voyager season 4 episode 23 “Living Witness” an evil version of the ship/ crew is shown- here’s the main crew and how they are evil

Evil Janeway

-hot 🥵

-butch

- coolest mother fucker out there

-murder(but like she’s pretty so it’s fine)

-cool haircut

-starts the episode off w/ a cool line about how violence is chill

Evil Chakotay

-bad haircut

-cooler face tattoo

-physically attacks Tom(relatable king)

-exudes chump energy (love him for that)

Evil Harry Kim

-gay ❤️💖❤️💖❤️💖❤️

-great hair

-serving cunt

-still a mommas boy

-also attacks Tom after Chakotay does

-tortues someone(lots of homosexual tension)

Evil Doctor

-orbs

-somehow more monotone+sarcastic

-unhappy to be working w/ Voyager crew

Evil Tom Paris

-whore

-very bad at his job

-gets jumped(but he deserves it)

-chump energy(but like he always exudes that)

Evil Neelix

-no pep :(

-zero flavor

-but he insults Tom

-and he also attacks Tom

Evil Tuvok

-pretty much the same

-but like meaner (very funny)

-ALSO attacks Tom

Pic of crew jumping Tom 💖💖💖💖💖💖

STRAWHATS FAMILY AU

The Lore Drop:

Alright,in this alternative universe the whole gang is a family. Robin and Franky are married and they are the parents. Brook is Franky’s adoptive father. Jinbei is Robin’s biological father. Brook is African (Nigerian (Bantoid))American and he was never married. Franky is caucasian, his roots comes from Turkiye. Jinbei is Indian, he married Olvia, she is Brazilian. So Robin is half Indian half Brazilian.

Only Luffy and Chopper are Frobin’s biological children.

When Robin and Franky got married, they had realised that they are rich enough to set on a quest to help the children of need so they went to see the world. HEAR ME OUT it makes sense because um Jinbei is a very respected doctor and Brook is a renowned musician; Franky own a ship/boat/cruise fix company and Robin is a doctor in the archeology field 😁 they are rich rich

First, Luffy was born. And their first destination was Japan. That is where they adopted Zoro. He was in Juvenile. They sorted out things and adopted this child to save him. Cause he was innocent. Luffy was 6 and Zoro was 10 when this happened. (I know the punishment age range is after 14 in Japan but the crime they were accusing him of was so severe or something that they had to, like you should know I’m just making shit up leave me alone)

After a few months they go to Finland. That is where they adopt Nami. A Swedish girl who was in the hands of a gun mafia that killed her sister and mother. She was 9. So they fight fight and get her.

The new year comes, and they decide to go to Mozambique. That is where they meet Usopp! When Franky and Zoro was walking through streets with full of shops and all, they run into Usopp (same age as Luffy) who was selling things he built. Usopp’s father Yasopp left their home when he was born, and her mother dies of sickness. The social workers does not give shşt about the poor. Franky sees this spark in him. He and Zoro buys things from him. And at the end of the day Franky asks if he wants a family they can be one to him. Usopp refuses because of his sick friend Kaya. Saying that he cannot leave her. Later in the week, yk the drill they show everyone that Kuro is bad person blah blah, they both save Kaya and Usopp. Usopp accepts to be part of their family.

They make BIG AHH turn and go to France. They drop at some seaside town. Such a nice touristic place. But so many shop owners with rent complaints. The mayor of this town goes againts its country’s law and increases the rents per SECOND. They dig down this mystery by accident and find out that the mayor is a evil motherfrucker scientist. He also has a son , Sanji (10 yo), whose very much so sweet. They want to fight the scientist but the country is actually supporting him. Since his products and the stuff he does supports the economy or something. So they technically kidnap Sanji. But Sanji needs it. With Franky’s relations they get him a fake id and all that. But they promise that ona day they will have enough power to defeat him. Sanji is happy.

The next destination is Canada. That is exactly where Franky and Robin decides to make another child 😁

After that they go to Egypt. They come across an organisation that Robin did her internship, the one that ran by Sir Crocodile. They find a lost child named Vivi. Vivi is an 8 year old who is getting used by Crocodile. They save her, save the country, yay! Allthough Vivi was a part of their family for a quite time after they learned that Vivi was a princess, they help her to meet her father. The Strawhats leave Egypt and promise eachother that they will meet again.

After 9 months Chopper is born. And the family is complete for now. But they are still in a quest to help children. Or to collect them lol. After a while the grandpas also join their quest. And yeah thats it. I would binge read it if someone makes a fanfic about it.

I had a vivid dream yesterday and my mind made me a fake ‘Hazbin Hotel’ Season 2 which I was disappointed to find wasn’t real. Basically it turned out Alastor had technically been a fraud: you know when Mimzy talked about how shortly after when he first came to Hell, and would be dismissed by others, overlords started going missing, no one knew what had happened to them, and then Alastor started sending out his radio signals filled with screams before revealing himself as the Radio Demon, whom no one would mess with? My dream saw overlords start to go missing again in the present, being the new big mystery to replace the dead angel, and for it to turn out Alastor didn’t actually kill those overlords the first time, he had just taken the credit, along that philosophy Zestial went by, “Why not let your strength be known?”. So Alastor had figured whoever it was who was killing overlords didn’t want it to be known they were doing so, and so took the credit to gain himself a rep faster, slowly building up some real power using this rep, in spite of no real power himself beyond that of any sinner. It also turned out Husk had actually been more powerful than Alastor when he beat him in cards, being the first powerful soul Alastor really got under his sway, the reason he didn’t kill him being that he couldn’t, but didn’t want that to be known. Also being why Alastor turned down joining Vox and the Vees. Leading to Alastor then making his deal, with the true force behind those overlords going missing: Eve, the first woman. And the moment he made this deal, Lilith felt it, and fled to Heaven. To say Alastor and she never met, but once Lilith felt what had happened, she knew she had to get out of Heaven lest her existence finally be ended. As for how Eve had any power at all: you know how during the storybook montage in the first episode, there was this shot where when they showed Heaven and the biblically accurate angels in the background, to the right there was this black glob with red eyes and a smile, and on the left there was this light glob with a closed eyelash? And how at that moment Charlie was talking about good and evil? Well in my dream season it was revealed that those two globs were literally Good and Evil, who in ‘Hazbin Hotel’ were actual characters, and that Good inhabited the form of God, to say his name was literally just ‘Good’, who kept Evil at bay, until Lilith made that apple of free will and gave it to Eve, infecting her with Evil the force, and making her its avatar. With the real reason for the Exterminations then being to prevent her from attaining enough power for Evil to engulf creation, and destroy Heaven, Hell, Earth, and all of creation, Lilith remaining Eve’s jailer, before leaving Hell to fend for itself on Eve managing to get herself a representative. All Alastor would have wanted would have been to actually have the power he claimed was his (hers), and so that would have been why he sold his soul, was so confident all season: before he had merely the illusion of power, and now he had it, or at least a taster. Only then he went up against Adam with the power of Eve, and lost, which he didn’t expect to: my dream season basically said that Adam was one of the only ones able to stand up to evil’s power, since in the world of ‘Hazbin’, he never ate of the apple (a departure from biblical canon). The reason his personality was like that was that Adam literally did/could not, know the difference between right and wrong, and so in spite of his speech was in the eyes of creation an innocent soul. A sword of good (God) smiting evil (Eve). So since Niffty took him out, the only ones able to ever defeat Eve would be Lilith or Charlie, Lilith terrified of what she unwittingly created, so refusing, leaving Charlie. My dream also saw Eve kill Vox, and then Valentino and Velvette had this mournful ballad that you’d swear you would feel sorry for them. Plus since she was the source of all evil, my dream saw a lot of Val apologists come out of watching, arguing away everything he did as a result of her influence.

bro your brain comes up with more elaborate shit asleep than mine does awake

Let's talk about Tidus and Yuna, shall we?

As someone who enjoys FFX, this probably should have come a long time ago. Tidus and Yuna's characters in the original Final Fantasy 10 are excellent.

Tidus successfully portrays a seventeen-year-old boy in this fantasy situation - slightly annoying, slightly arrogant because of his famous father and his own famous Blitzball career, and utterly overwhelmed by being thrust into an entirely new world without knowing if he can go home.

While FFX tries to fake you out into thinking it's a time-travel story where he has been thrust 1000 years into the future, the city of Zanarkand is a physical location in Spira that just requires you to be made of pyreflies to enter (aka dead or a summon). This makes Tidus essentially a summon, which is an interesting theory for another day. This means Zanarkand is just a place that hasn't changed in 1000 years, likely in some infinite loop imagining and reimagining people who had once lived there - warping them slowly over time, but ultimately just trying to keep the city alive (which is how we got Tidus from Shuyin, I think, idk I really don't care for 10-2's plot). The fayth were trying to imagine what would happen if Zanarkand was never destroyed, but I think they simply would have started running out of ideas for new people who lived there, so it did end up looping old characters into slightly newer forms. Like fanfiction characters, honestly.

But it's so great to see Tidus's journey. He starts the game a confused outsider just trying to survive, someone who doesn't mind speaking up about how he feels and what he believes. His outsider perspective provides a means for the audience to be introduced to Spira's world building as well, and we also get to see an unbiased point of view to Yevon's religion - and not necessarily a disrespectful one. Tidus, though he doesn't preach Yevon as a devout follower for his entire life, still tries to make an effort to be respectful of the good parts. When Shelinda corrects him, "That's MAESTER Seymour, or LORD Seymour", he says "Sorry, I'll be careful."

He dashes into the Cloister of Trials to save the summoner who might be in danger, regardless of the rules or presincts, because he's got a childish outlook life and a good heart despite his many inital arrogant qualities. He wants the best outcome, he's willing to believe in doing the right thing even when it's hard, and yeah it's unrealistic at times, but it's a breath of fresh air for the people of Spira who live rather docile lives always in fear of Sin and dedicating themselves to the kindness of Yevon's teachings. He admits "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea" after he breaks the rules for the first time, and watching Yuna on her pilgrimage and how she interacts with the people who admire her for her father and her own summoner status allows Tidus to humble himself while still remaining fundamentally defiant to anything he doesn't agree is right - aka Yuna sacrificing herself.

Religion isn't always a bad thing, and FFX makes a point to emphasize this. The people of Spira are kind and respectful, banding together in the hard times and unting together to have hope. Yuna is initially a beacon of hope - all summoners are - making people smile and flock to her wherever she goes, and she gives people respect and encourages them to have faith not only in her, but in themselves as well. Even when she's branded a traitor, a significant number of people recognize Yuna's dedication to the people and immediately believe the next tale about it all being an evil Al-Bhed rumor.

Yevon's corruption is just a few people abusing their power, twisting a good message into a cult-like dedication. Wakka is the most notable case, but technically all of the characters go through a period of blindly believing in the teachings and Yevon and eventually finding their own path. Even Tidus, who didn't grow up believing in Yevon or knowing its teachings, finds that the people's way of life living in rightful fear of Sin has them NEEDING Yevon and the messages of kindness and compassion it preaches. Maybe they shouldn't believe in everything the Maesters say Yevon is, but he can understand the intentions behind it and how the regular, uncorrupt people just live their lives trying to be good.

Now that I think about it, the parallels between Yevon and Blitzball actually make a lot of sense - Blitzball is the entertainment people go to in order to forget about the fears of Sin, and Yevon is the religion people worship in an effort to band together and have hope against Sin. Huh. No wonder a Blitzball sign for victory became a religious thing.

Anyway, Wakka eventually apologizes! He recognizes that the Al-Bhed are just people. They don't believe in Yevon's ways BECAUSE they care, just from a different perspective. Just because they don't believe in Yevon doesn't mean they're savages, and when their Home is destroyed by merciless Guado, he hears them singing the Hymn of the Fayth to respect their fallen as well. Wakka admits he didn't want to hear anything he didn't agree with, that he was a jerk, and Cid agrees that he's hated Yevonites just for being Yevonites too.

Here's a Wakka glare just for our collective amusement.

Who were we talking about? Ah, Tidus.

Tidus is indeed a whiny character, childish, toeing the line between humor and annoyance. But he matures throughout the course of his journey, caring for the entire crew but Yuna especially. When they reach Zanarkand and learn the truth about the Final Summoning, Lulu tells him, "If you want everything, you'll end up with nothing," and he replies, "But I want everything!" His unwavering hope and optimism even when everyone is telling him it's impossible is necessary for the story, to tell the characters that yes, your sacrifices will be pretty and give temporary relief, and you'll be dead and martyred and remembered - but how can it be right? It's not.

From his basic, outsider, new perspective on this world he only just joined, it's not right. He didn't grow up with this being normal, so even in comparison to the Al-Bhed, he knows that it's not.

There's a saying somewhere that I forget the source, but basically it goes like "Children are raised to believe the world is good and fair but are outraged when they grow to learn it is not." Tidus asks what an ADULT would do, sacrificing a summoner and just moving on with their lives like it was fine to give one life for many, just happy it wasn't them. Adults are indoctrinated into a way of life and a way of thinking, and it's extremely hard to get people to change their minds - but not, as FFX proves, impossible. Both he and Yuna are still kids, kids who are still able to grow up to see the world for what it truly is.

Yuna was betrayed by Yevon, all her beliefs torn down and the hope she had placed on the system shattered. But she continued her pilgrimage. She dreamt of all the fun things she could do if she quit, knew that all of her friends and Guardians would accept her choice, but she knew she could never let it go. She stood up to the Ronso saying that she was fighting for the people, not the temples or Yevon - impressing Kelk Ronso who says she has an iron will that towers over Gagazette's peaks.

She has given her everything to this trip, but it's not fair. Just because it's the right thing to do doesn't mean it's right - and you need a character like Tidus to put his foot down and say no. Everyone is willing to sacrifice themselves, everyone is willing to be the one to die so that others can be happy. But it's not fair. It's not right to let anyone die, even if they're willing, even if it's one for many. It's a temporary fix, it's feeding an endless cycle of lies and false hope. It's not real.

But it is YUNA who ultimately makes the choice to say no. All this time, she's been insisting she keeps going despite both Rikku and Tidus's protests and desperate attempts to get her to change her mind. She's been the most resolute out of all of them to go through with this, but in the end, it's not Tidus or Rikku who kill Yunalesca before she can get the chance or present her a stirring enough argument or some alternative. No, it's Yuna who asks directly what the cycle of the Final Summoning and Sin mean, hearing that the hope they offer is false, and when asked who will be her fayth, everyone is silent, waiting for her answer - because it is Yuna'a choice, Yuna's pilgrimage, Yuna's story. And she says, "No one."

She would have gladly died for the people of Spira, but she is done. She isn't going to join into this cycle of death and lies. Her father chose to become a summoner and defeated Sin, but it was because he truly believed that it would make a difference. He died because he had hope, and maybe it was indeed false hope, but somewhere deep down, he really did want to find a way to stop Sin for good. He and Jecht went into that battle hoping that Jecht and Auron would find a way to break the cycle. And let's be honest, they did. Tidus and Yuna were brought up differently, but they end up seeing each other's sides of the story and agreeing on so many things. The people are worth fighting for even when they're being misled.

Yunalesca's argument is that sorrow will always exist, and false hope is all anyone can offer to soften the blow. But Yuna is ready to live with her sorrow and brave whatever comes from it. She will find her own hope, even without knowing there will be another way, and she knows she will conquer it. She proved it long before she reached Zanarkand, after enduring Yevon's betrayal; now her methods have changed, but her end goal is as resolute as it's always been. She's going to defeat Sin, and she's going to give people REAL hope, even when it's hard.

Yuna says no to Yunalesca. She joins in the fight to destroy the Final Summoning forever, and slowly she learns that she can function beyond Yevon's teachings. The team who made 10-2 seemed to think that Yuna needed to toughen up and become some kind of badass (which they failed at portraying, Yuna is an utter wreck in that game and let's not talk about how Rikku devolved), but she was already a freaking strong character! She stood up for herself the entire game as a strong-willed summoner willing to give her life for the cause, but she also stood up for herself by declaring she would LIVE. It's entirely in character for her, even when she's changing her mind and broadening her horizons. Yuna was the character who smiled even knowing she was on a long, slow journey that would end in her death, who was willing to do it if it would make others smile too. That is a strong character right there.

I do agree that she might not know what to do with her life now that she doesn't plan to die, but come on, don't make her into a wanna-be who tries to pretend like she doesn't care only to reveal yup she cares, what a pushover. Her caring nature is what makes her great to watch! Frustrating when she tries to do everything on her own with the Seymour thing, but entirely in character. Empowering when she makes her own choices and decides for herself. I don't know why she does nothing for two whole years during Eternal Calm but okay maybe I can see it. But for her to try doing a 180, respecting no one and no one respecting her even though she DEFEATED SIN was such a mistake. Plus the mini games in 10-2 are utterly atrocious. Anyway, tangent over.

But then the script has flipped at the end of 10. Tidus is the one that realizes Zanarkand is what Sin is protecting, that defeating Sin will make the whole city and everyone made from the dream disappear. He is the one who has to sacrifice himself for Sin to be defeated. Unlike summoners, however, Sin won't come back if he does this. He's grown across the journey just like Jecht did, following a summoner and learning what it means to want to give your life living in hope that it'll save everyone else.

Yuna has to sacrifice the Aeons she's forged her own bond with - which, remember, every summoner makes a unique bond with the aeons. She has to say goodbye to Auron, see Sir Jecht only one more time as he gives his life as an Aeon and uses the last of his power to give his sword for the final battles to fight on (did ya notice that?). Then, in the final tragic scene, Tidus becomes intangible and tries to say a cheerful goodbye, apologizing for not being able to show her Zanarkand like they had pondered when Yuna was dreaming of the things she'd do if she abandoned her pilgrimage and lived. Now, Yuna is the one having to say goodbye to the one sacrificing their life. The soft piano, the wailing of the colorful pyreflies as they disperse with all the dead, it's freaking beautiful man.

Yuna's final line hits hard too, her speech about how everyone has lost homes, dreams, and friends. They can build new homes and new dreams, even if they can't get back lost friends. "The people and the friends that we have lost...or the dreams that have faded...never forget them." Get it? Be...Because Tidus is a dream that faded? Anyway I'll just be crying in the corner over here don't mind me.

In the end, it's sort of understandable why Yuna just sits around in Besaid after the end of 10 during Eternal Calm. Maybe. Not only did she have no plans for her life after Sin was defeated (thinking she would be the one to die), but she lost her entire purpose in life AND she's reeling from the fact that even though she made the choice not to sacrifice herself just for everyone else's false hope, someone still had to give their life - Tidus. Someone still ended up dying for the cause, even after all she went through deciding to live.

The ONLY moments I actually respect Yuna from 10-2 is during the end, when Nooj volunteers a plan to give his life to win the battle (which was already stupid even before Yuna's speech because we're talking about an Unsent, Nooj your plan does nothing to stop someone who's already dead, idiot). Yuna's lines are extremely good and well voice acted too: "'We had no choice.' Always 'We had no choice.' Those are our magic words. We repeat them to ourselves again and again. But you know... The magic never worked! The only thing we're left with is regret. No. I don't want this anymore. I don't want friends to die...or fade away. I don't want battles where we have to lose in order to win."

It also demonstrates better than that stupid minigame how difficult it was for Yuna to have destroyed the aeons she had forged a bond with. What I'm saying is, fuck Beclem and everyone else who dares disrespect Yuna, summoners, and everything they went through. Even though that time and age in Spira might be over, that's NO reason to immediately scoff in the face of everything all those people went through - everything YUNA sacrificed and endured for the sake of these ungrateful whelps.

Both Tidus and Yuna were excellent protagonists of X, despite both of them having a lot of growing to do. In conclusion, let me make use of this fun poll feature if you made it this far down:

so... i need to know more about the House of Torture. any idea where to start?

I think the best thing I can do is run down the origins and history of the group, and link to some shows on NJPW world if you want to check them out for more information. Then I'll try to sum up their general vibe, and why Jack Perry fits into their faction.

House of Torture got its start as a part of Bullet Club, back in 2020. I think technically they're still a subgroup of Bullet Club, but the two factions don't have much to do with one another these days.

The thing about New Japan in 2020 is that the pandemic really screwed up their schedule, and the international travel restrictions left a lot of their non-Japanese roster stuck outside the country. Bullet Club was especially hit hard, since it's generally been an "evil foreigner" group. So New Japan needed to make a new star and also prop up Bullet Club with some new, domestic members.

First, EVIL turned on Los Ingobernables de Japon. He won the New Japan Cup with help from Bullet Club's Gedo (July 11, 2020). Then he beat LIJ's leader, Tetsuya Naito, at Dominion (July 12) to win the IWGP heavyweight and intercontinental titles. Bullet Club never played fair, but there was absolutely no subtlety about Evil's heel act. That title win featured a ton of run-ins, low-blows, you name it. Dick Togo, a 50-something legend from the Japanese indies, debuted to join the group as Evil's personal henchman.

Yujiro Takahashi quickly became associated with Evil and Togo, simply because there weren't a lot of other Bullet Club guys left in the country to team with. Yujiro joined Bullet Club way back in 2014, and the pimp gimmick he developed back then hasn't changed much over the years. The most notable thing about him is that he saunters to the ring with a professional go-go dancer named Pieter, but unfortunately she hasn't been brought in much since the pandemic.

Evil's big title reign didn't last long, and pundits generally considered it a failure. He only managed to get one successful title defense, against his former LIJ buddy Hiromu Takahashi at Sengoku Lord (July 25, 2020). After that, Naito won back his two belts at Summer Struggle (August 29). Evil went back down to the midcard.

The final piece of the puzzle came a year later, after SHO turned on his tag team partner YOH. They had a grudge match at Wrestle Grand Slam (September 4, 2021). Right after the match, Evil, Dick Togo, and Yujiro came to the ring wearing "House of Torture" shirts, and gave one to him. From that point on, the four men were clearly distinct from Bullet Club, even if they never officially broke away.

The defining feature of House of Torture is that they have absolutely no redeeming virtues. The rest of Bullet Club cheats and takes cheap shots, but they tend to be kind of cool and sometimes they've got a good sense of humor. House of Torture doesn't want to entertain you. They don't even want to be entertaining villains. Sometimes I think they care more about frustrating the fans than they do about winning matches. Hence the name: We're the ones being tortured.

If I had to recommend a specific storyline to understand House of Torture, I guess I'd go with their feud with Just 5 Guys in the 2023 Destruction tour. J5G had a 5-to-4 advantage against the heels, but that still could keep them from pulling their bullshit heel tactics, because on September 24 House of Torture just convinced Yoshinobu Kanemaru to switch sides! Every time the good guys think they've got a fair playing field, Evil finds a new way to skew it.

A major criticism of House of Torture has been Sho's performance. Sho is genuinely a great wrestler, but ever since he turned heel he's become this craven psycho whose best move is to hit a guy with a wrench. Half of Sho's matches these days involve trying to get out of the match, by faking an injury or claiming his opponent forfeited when he's really tied up backstage. On the other hand, Sho's on-screen personality as a babyface was pretty bland, so I can't deny that being in House of Torture has helped his character development. I'm hoping that also benefits Ren Narita (who joined in December 2023).

Jack Perry should fit right in with House of Torture. His feud with HOOK last year was textbook cheap-heat heel work. If Hook had been feuding with Evil or Sho, I think they would've pulled a lot of the same shenanigans. The whole "scapegoat" thing fits in well too, and not just because the goat-head thing is spooky-looking. Jack has gone from not caring about the fans to feeding off of their scorn and ruining matches for the sake of spite. I don't even personally blame him for what happened with CM Punk, but his character wants me to resent him for it so he can revel in that hatred. That's the kind of attitude Evil, Sho, Ren Narita, Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru can relate to.

I must say that Bo Katan's conversion to Din's "cult" has got to be one of the worst things I've seen in tv recently. For many reasons. It was so terrible in fact that it has well and truly kicked my interest in the show down a terrifying hundred degrees.

I know a lot of people are up in arms about this season. And I'm devastated to be thinking so negatively of a show that has only ever brought me joy. Writing for The Mandalorian has never been amazing, but I was okay with that because I love Din and his weird little attitude and position towards the galaxy. The characters on the show were enough to keep it alive and fun and carry it without relying too heavily on a fantastically written script. And scenes that were meant to make you feel something did. Stakes were good, and the story progressed just fine. It was a fun, heartwarming show with some badassery tossed in. But holy moly and pie.

To start I can only guess at this point what the point behind Din being excommunicated was. He was obviously messed up over the fact that his family and clan let him go so easily but he understood and accepted the creed. I was excited after he had taken off his helmet and broken the Creed because it opened up this new way to explore the clan and the possible problematic aspects of how he was living and how the the clan worked. This in turn exploring Din's identity as a Mandalorian with the knowledge he's gained from Boba and the other Mandos from season 2. Maybe there is more than one way. Tie this to Bo Katan and her vehement dislike for the clan and the fact that they were together when he broke his own Creed we could have had a huge a fun and impactful conversation about mandalorians, his Creed, where Din stands when he's placed in the gray area of the Mandalorian identity. I'm not saying that the clan is inherently problematic or evil, none of that because subjectively, it's not, but there should have been some type of nuanced conversation that affected Din and his place in the galaxy and the fact that he had a foundling. Not only this but the fact that he had recently come into ownership of the dark saber which places him by Mandalorian tradition and culture at the head of Mandalore. Perhaps predictably I thought that season 3 would contain his battle and internal and external struggle as he's fitted into this place that he never thought he would be in. I was excited to see his relationship with his clan completely changed especially as he sees that he has a new place in the galaxy and starts to perhaps grow away from them which could have led to either an antagonist in Bo Katan or a reluctant ally, or both!

Din felt too listless over the entire situation. That was his family the people who raised him, the people he had sworn his allegiance to, were so quick to dismiss him without hearing him out. But nothing really came out of it, no emotion no internal battles, no anything. We were simply told that he needed to go and get baptized to be redeemed.

I struggle also with the concept of bathing in the living Waters and Bo Katan joining the clan. Baptism is just bathing if there is no intent behind the action. Din was baptized because of his intention and he has a little like prayer thing he said. Bo Katan on the other hand went into the waters to save him and nothing more. There was no intent behind her actions, in the ritualistic sense that there was for Din, which means she was not baptized. And technically, at least in my eyes, it should be null and void the fact that she went after him into the water. And if the show simply was implying that the water held special magical properties the whole thing feels cheap and fake and I hate it.

I think perhaps a lot of my discontentment with this season and Bo Katan's sudden acceptance into a clan that she had previously considered a cult, looked upon with disgust and disdain, came from the fact that we did not get to see this change resonate enough within Din, not even in the book of Boba Fett. Her being accepted so readily into the clan cheapened everything that we were supposed to care about when it came to Din and his redemption. It was humorous in the way that it felt like a slap in the face and salt on the wound, I can only imagine how frustrated I would be if I were in Din's position.

It also cheapens Bo Katan's character as well. What was the point in never showing us any kind of character development in her and then suddenly sticking her in this clan and making the audience think that that was natural and fine? If this was where her character was going since we introduced to her in season 2 I never saw it coming and I find it a strange diminishing of her character, when she could have been a wonderful foil to Din, an antagonist a roadblock, but also someone who he would eventually have to confide in in order to properly handle his new position with the dark saber and eventually maybe it would lead to them having a dual where Bo Katan could win back the dark saber and everything before worked up to put her back on the throne and she learned valuable life lessons made her more tolerable of more people in the galaxy.

Or maybe she would see how much of a failed leader she's been and would come to accept that Din is the Mand'alor. I don't know. And I never will get to know.

I would say more but I think I have too much to say truthfully. All I know is for the first time I've felt disappointment and disinterest in a show I absolutely adore and it's heartbreaking. But I'm tired of accepting poorly made choices in writing for shows this big though. I'm sick of being told to sit and enjoy it and stop complaining when it genuinely sucks. No matter how much I love it. I'm not happy with it and as a viewer I deserve more than half baked plot points and non existent character arcs.

Solar was, as always, extremely cool and competent today. But I’m still sorry he had to do what he did. Especially since he gave his Moon so many chances to just turn back.

On the other hand… it kind of seems like that Moon would have considered it a weird form of mercy, since he truly believed he had nothing left to live for in his home dimension, and he probably would have continued to be a deathseeker if he had succeeded in his goals with Solar. Not that he would have been one for very long, though, since I am pretty sure that Spaniard would have immediately alerted our Moon and he would have avenged Solar in short order.

I think the whole thing also shows more clues to the divergence point in universes as well. I mean. I still feel like the main divergence is Solar’s Monty leaning way more into his British heritage—which may or may not be faked, unlike our Monty who was actually apparently born in Britain but will deny it if asked—but beyond that it probably also has to do with what went down during Sun and Moon’s own separation and how they reacted in the aftermath.

According to Solar, it seems as though his original Moon did not try to intentionally leave his kill code in Sun when they separated—either that, or even if he had wanted to leave it behind like our Moon did, he only succeeded in leaving the barest amount needed to evolve into an Eclipse/Solar. And since this means the kill code still would have been a lot more active in that Moon—especially since there was no Lunar to act as a suppressor—if KC did evolve into his own person there, the separation attempt that Solar mentioned to Lunar would have gone a lot worse than what happened to Old Moon—mishap with magic aside—because KC likely would not have wanted to leave. There was no clean break—so when Solar’s New Moon rebooted, there still would have been those code fragments swirling around that both had the chance to regrow into another kill code—as happened in our universe—and drive that Moon to become more cruel and more likely to go off the deep end.

Because, remember, technically speaking the Moon we saw today is also a “Dead Moon,” as per Evil!Sun’s words, because Solar told Lunar way back when that the Moon they were hearing yelling in the background wasn’t actually his original Moon. That’s why he warned Lunar about not trying to separate our Moon and KC.

As to what ended up happening with his Sun, and why separating didn’t work… I think that has to come down to what the Creator said to Sun, back in… I think it was the episode where he came to the daycare to inform Sun about Earth’s existence? And Sun asked about why he couldn’t/wouldn’t help with the KC situation? He mentioned that Sun and Moon were never supposed to separate to begin with, and he was very surprised Moon actually survived the process himself. Golden Freddy warned back when Eclipse was first making himself known that they couldn’t just separate the two because Eclipse was holding on too tightly and it would result in the ripping out of chunks of Sun’s code/mind if one party was unwilling… but it seems like there might still be a risk of that even if the parties are willing. Which might mean that Moon intentionally leaving/trying to leave parts of his code behind is what saved him.

…Which in turn might be part of what went wrong to turn Moon into New Moon, since that was a very clean separation between Old Moon and KC, come to think of it.

...Anyways—Sun used a magic spell to get rid of Eclipse, which removed a lot of the inherent dangers of the process. And Moon would have used a magic spell to get rid of KC if his circle hadn’t been broken, which wasn’t an option at all in Solar’s old universe, since the only reason Sun and Moon knew about magic is due to the Eclipse problem, which wasn’t an issue in Solar’s old universe because everyone was initially very on board with the idea of separation.

The situation is just sad, in general… but it also highlighted some things Solar inherited from his Sun, since his actions up to landing the killing blow reminded me a lot of Sun’s speech to Eclipse before blasting him out of his mind with magic, and also the way he killed Bloodmoon that first time and some of the things he said to his hallucinations of them.

It was also very heartwarming to hear Solar claim our daycare group as his family, and to see exactly what lengths he will go to protect their peace of mind and physical safety. And then also Spaniard immediately telling him he was always welcome in this dimension, which is so true.

I do hope he talks to someone about what he had to do, though. No one here would blame him, and everyone would understand why he did it… but sharing the burden always helps.

(I do still wonder if he ever had the expectation that Moon actually would come back and try to help him with his own Sun and Moon, though, when that was the price he set for his help with the space laser. I mean. I guess Moon could have been trying to do that as well during that month, or it is possible that the situation with Solar’s Moon just went south to quickly that his own physical safety became more important… but I’m still a bit disappointed that plot point was dropped so quickly. But Solar did seem to imply today that he knew deep down what happened with Sun was inevitable, so I guess that might have just been his way of giving himself some false hope while working on a more concrete and achievable goal in the meantime. And possibly trying to make himself a safety net of a debt owed in case he needed help? Which is cynical, yes, and I don’t think he’d try holding that over anyone’s head now, but it makes sense why he would be wary around any Moons initially given what his own was like. It’s the same reason our daycare group was wary of him at the start, after all, considering their own Eclipse.

But given the family comment, those feelings and fears have definitely evaporated by now. Which is, again, very heartwarming.)

It was also cool to see him talk tech with Moon at the beginning of the episode. And it was nice that Moon came down to essentially wish him good night. And funny that he conveniently “forgot” to mention that he himself actually liked playing with the donut, assuming it is the same one from the theater that he was messing around with that one time he, Earth, and Sun were trying to have a movie night and couldn’t agree on what to watch.

By Any Means Chapter 13 (Malcolm Bright x reader)

Warnings: descriptions of violence

Prodigal Son tag list: @queenoffandom08, @imwithyoutiltheendofthelinebucky

Everything tag list: @greenrevolutionary, @byebyebreezywrites, @spngingerbread21, @layazul, @lov3vivian, @simonsbluee

You put your head in your hands and let out a groan. You had never seen so much blood in all your life. You rubbed your eyes and pinched the bridge of your nose. You jumped when you realised that someone had sat down beside you.

“Sorry,” said Malcolm, “That was a lot for you to take in.”

“I think I should be the one apologising,” you said, “Threw up on your crime scene.”

“Technically it was outside it.”

“Can’t imagine Gil was too happy about that.”

“He was more understanding than you think. Besides,” Malcom sighed, “At least this shows that you’re still human.”

You raised your head a looked at Malcolm. He gave you a pitying look and put a hand on your shoulder. He gave it a comforting grip and you realised that you were still wearing his jacket. You made a move to take it off and Malcolm put his hand over yours.

“I think you need that more than me.” He said

“I always give back what I take.”

“You didn’t take this. I gave it to you.”

“Right,” you felt your cheek get hot again and your hands curled in the lapels of the jacket. You’d never admit it to him, but Malcolm’s jacket did give you a certain level of comfort. You could still smell his aftershave and you resisted the urge to snuggle into it. You looked up sharply and said,

“John the Baptist.”

“Huh?” Malcolm frowned, “What does he have to do with this?”

“Y’know, beheaded and his head on a silver platter? Several artists have done paintings of it. Caravaggio was always my favourite though.

“Of course,” Malcolm jumped to his feet, “Why didn’t I see that earlier?”

“Because the decapitated head was a bit of a distraction.”

“No, well, yes but I’ve seen worse.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“How?”

“I was being sarcastic,” you said, “So many creative homicidal maniacs running about New York. Who goes round beheading people? Surely there are easier ways to kill people that doesn’t involve you getting splattered in blood?”

Malcolm froze. He looked over at you and stood up slowly.

“What did you say?” he said

“Surely there are easier ways to kill people.”

“No, no, no,” Malcolm shook his head, “Before that.”

“Who goes round beheading people?”

“Exactly,” Malcolm started pacing, “what do both of these things have in common.”

“Murder.”

“Besides from that.”

“Both are based on paintings.”

“Which are of.”

Realisation dawned and you stood up. You ran your hands over the back of your head and said,

“Beheadings.”

“No.”

“No?”

“Well, yes,” Malcolm waved a hand, “but executions.”

“These people are being executed for having fakes.” You said with an amused smiled and raised eyebrows

“I’ve had weirder reasons for people killing others.”

“Such as?”

“No reason at all.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Doesn’t it?” Malcolm slowly approached, “Killing just for the sake of killing? No reason at all other than the sheer joy of it.”

“But then there is a reason, isn’t there?”

“Oh?”

“Pleasure,” by now Malcolm was directly in front of you, “For the sheer joy of it.”

“And you think that’s why these crimes are committed?”

“You tell me. You’re the profiler.”

“They believe what they’re doing is a necessity,” Malcolm said, “that they need to rid the world of this… this…”

“Evil?”

“A little melodramatic.” Said Malcolm with a smirk

“And we’re dealing with a serial killer who beheads people.”

“Technically he’s not a serial killer yet.”

“Key word- yet.”

“Although,” a frown crossed Malcolm’s face and he became suddenly serious, “That raises a very important point.”

“Which is?”

“If this person views these people as evil, how would he view the people providing the art?”

“Being a little melodramatic don’t you think?”

Hi girlie!! So I've decided to send a faith req bc ofc

- So all I want is just...

- John

- Yk???

- OK anyway so yk when John's praying to the Lord, and he's like 'Please I can't do this anymore'

- I'm pretty sure it ends up being a fake and it's not the lord

- But what if it was, and the Lords like 'I hear you, you must keep on. I will send you help.'

- And he sends reader, who's like... an angel-ish?

- They can help by healing and pacifying demons for John to kill

- They're also very nice

- And John rlly likes them

- But once he finishes the job, he realises that he'll have to let them go

- But when that comes, readers like 'Well, jobs technically not over since there's still ALOTTA evil about'

- So yea :>

EEEEEe my first faith request!!! Bestie I will 100% do that for you!

Hope you like this one!!

John ward x angel!Reader

Authors note: John is kind of pining, and Reader is incredibly sweet. John is super sweet but incredibly scared, he's absolutely shaking,(H/L) is hair length, (H/C) is hair color, (S/C) is skin color, mostly from an outside POV following John

warnings: Mentions of blood, religion, guts, and talking about Gary, god, and angels, Reader and John are just vibing, killing demons, and helping each other, non-biblically accurate depictions of angels

John was staring down the barrel of a fight with a man who...wanted him dead, wanted to kill him violently, in the meanest, most aggressive way possible, and then sacrifice him to the antichrist, disembowel him and use him as a sacrificial lamb, so, what does he do? pray, he begs, pleads for god to remove him from the situation, and for the first time, god responds

"John, why do you beg? do you not think what you are doing is for the good of the world?"

John is shaking by this point "I'm scared Lord, what do I do? I don't want to die here"

"It does appear you are in over your head, I offer you some help from one of my angels, however, you must finish this fight, then I will get you out of this building alive"

John nodded violently, and then suddenly a bright, white light engulfs everything around him and then, and he was greeted by the most beautiful being he's ever encountered, their (S/C) skin looked like it was glowing, and their (H/L), (H/C) hair looked as if it was made of pure silk, they were beautiful, the purest being he had ever met. He had never met anyone like them, And they looked like they were ready to fight, the sword they were holding looked so well crafted. He suddenly felt at ease, almost comforted, by the presence of this beautiful angel

you smile at him "Hello! you must be John, the lord has summoned me to help you clear the world of evil"

You smile and stand beside him "Let's finish this..." before you immediately slash at Gary, who dodges fast and goes in for another attack, John stares at you for a few seconds before shaking it off and raises his crucifix, and starts to...well purify Gary (?)

The fight lasted longer than you and John wished it did, mostly because of the 'Rain of spiders' thing, however, you both come out on top, but unfortunately, John knew he had to let you go now, he didn't want that, he thought you were so cool and friendly, and interesting. Then you turned and looked at him "The lord says we still have more work to do, how about we deal with these demons together? we seem to be more powerful together." John never felt himself jump up like he did when you said that, he immediately jumped on the chance to have you with him while he's fighting these devils that are plaguing the world, all he wanted, was to keep you close. The Lord did keep his promise, he got John out alive, however, he also gave John a new friend, he never felt like he could trust someone like he felt he could trust you, even those he trusted still felt...odd to him, however, with you, there were no trust issues, but at the same time, everything he tried to hide seemed to come out in one way or another. He made a couple of new friends, helped countless people, and made it out of a scary situation alive, sure, death had happened, but all wars come with casualties, and he knew this was just the beginning of a war that would last for years to come, but he was ready, he had you, and father Garcia after all.

I'm incredibly proud of this one! this might be my longest fanfic ever or at least one of them! hope you like this one!

Do you think hijacked Peeta fell out of love with Katniss? Or did he hate her/was afraid of her but still loved her? Is post hijacked Peeta the same Peeta or a new person altogether? Thank you :)

@everlarkshipper

So I think to answer this question it would be important and helpful to first discuss what hijacking did to Peeta psychologically!

So from what we know, hijacking is when you are shown memories of a person, thing, event, etc. and you are given a non-lethal dose of tracker jacker venom so those memories become nightmare-ish and associated with fear instead of whatever else you were feeling in the memory. The venom also makes you very disoriented and confused which further convinces you that the memory is real no matter how fake it seems. Peeta also mentioned that the memories look "shiny" compared to real ones, and that is how he was able to filter through what was real and not to recover. The Capitol showed Peeta videos they had of him and Katniss together when they gave him the venom so he would be associate the scary hallucinations with her and think she was dangerous and evil.

I think it is a lot more complicated than Peeta still loving Katniss or not. When Peeta went into the torture, he loved Katniss so dearly that he was lying to protect her. He was cooperating because he did not know what else to do and was defending her, he risked his life to warn District 13 of the bombing so she would be safe. When Peeta started being hijacked, he loved Katniss more than anything else, and it was most definitely very painful and sad when the memories he had of her started to become horrifying.

Afterwards, Peeta knew he once loved Katniss, but thought he was wrong to love her and that he was tricked. He was mentally anguished when thinking about it, when Delly Cartwright (Prim in the movie) was talking to Peeta and comforting him, he was crying and confused. I'm sure part of him knew she was right, but fear is such a powerful emotion.

When Katniss talks to Peeta for the first time, he asks her about the bread and whether or not that actually happened, at the end of the conversation he says "I must have loved you very much" and then Katniss said that he did (The movie was different and had Peeta say he should have let her starve, which I hated because Peeta would have never said that to her). Peeta knew how much he loved Katniss, his mind was just so scattered and he did not know what was real and what wasn't.

So, to wrap up my point, Peeta technically fell out of love because he was so afraid of her. But he knew that he once loved her, and as the memories got more and more sorted he started to love her again. He remembered why he loved her, that it was safe to love her, and he realized she loved him too. His memories started to come back. So yeah he horrified of her, but a deep part of him still loved her I think!

Hijacked Peeta wouldn't be a whole new person all together, just very different and now mentally ill. He and Katniss both had PTSD, Katniss says in the book that sometimes Peeta would grip the backs of chairs and panic, shout, and cry. She would still have to help him sort through memories sometimes and re-explain things to him, but in the end they were okay. Peeta was still Peeta, as in he was still the boy who loved baking, painting, sunset orange, who double knotted his shoelaces etc. He has just been through very traumatic events that changed how he saw the world and how he lived on a daily basis.

:)

Y/N doesn't really know how the Player works right? They really just opened up Pandoras box and let a murderer into the world again just for a few questions that are better off not answered. The first thing the Player would probably manipulate them, so this is all going down hill because Y/N took away Dust's happy ending.

I can see how this would be more then frustration from his point of being, but did he even inform Y/N how evil the player is?

technically ... dust never had feelings about y/n to begin with! he just faked an obsession or interest to lure out player from all the other unrecognizable husks to this one.

it worked, he caught them, and he used y/n to his own benifit.

so imagine they're frustration when they feel like a dumbass pawn who's both but a bargain chip on both sides.

to clarify? no. he didn't TELL them what player was or what he was, because y/n wasn't supposed to even be around by the time he caught that annoying heart.

he'd just spare them the headache and tell them they can leave.

no context for the kidnapping and no answers when they were just suddenly free.

but yeah y/n made some questionable choices to go digging deeper on the shady Skelton's basement... (which was technically you guy's choice lmao) to their credit he could have kidnapped more innocent people...

but yeah. player is basically Pandora's box. they would go to destroy everything except... they won't. why?

cuz there scared on the surface their true reset is SO powerful that it even wipes off dust's memories.

they don't want that. they don't want to wash away their sins. they don't want things to go back. they don't want to be forgotten. not again. this was the CLOSEST thing they had to making things real...

well... actually maybe a few deaths here and there. a few poor homeless folk, a few more rich assholes, they're making a deat note bucket list.

it's not like killing humanity is that hard since they're a destructive bunch. all is needed is to let them destroy themselves unlike monsters who were united despite their differences.

still. you won't find this lil demon going on a killing spree without caution. guns exist and they can't exactly dodge actual bullets. this is ALL NEW and uncharted territory for them and they're not confident enough to risk things. not unless they have a full grasp of the military power and how dangerous these humans are... and how much of a danger THEY are to them =)

Yeah, of course! We’ll do a lot better than last time, I promise. *Flowey feels an even greater attachment to Chara now, after hearing that specific deal of their mother starving them as punishment. Nothing like that should ever happen to them again. To go along with the soul-amplified empathy for Chara’s situation, Flowey also feels vengeful and proud even, to have killed their mother.*

*Flowey burrows back to Kara, unsurprised by the commotion not only because he was warned in advance, but also because it’s just a common event at this point for physical fights to break out. He doesn’t bother to step in yet though, since everyone else seems to have it covered. He stays at the ready just in case.*

Jeez, what do people have against you, Kara? You’re like a battle magnet. I think you should run from the battle this time since you’re already hurt. Undyne will have the anon distracted for a while.

(Kara) " I guess the more people know me, the more people hate me. Luckily, my arm will improve soon enough if I replace it with a mechanical arm." (Dess) "I didn't promise that. Kara gives Dess the side eye. But we do have the tech. You will still be technically different, though. It might even be able to control from others." (Undyne) "While fighting I never thought an Airbender was real since Alphys told me anime was fake. Anyway, I can't fight alone for much longer." Kara swings their sword at them and,

(Kara) "I guess that's a win?" (Sans) "You didn't die." (Kara) "True." Everyone gets an alert on their phones except those who don't live in this universe. There's a news article. (News) "Today, we're finally revealing that Asgore will be tried in court for the murder of 6 kids in a few weeks. Now, if the people think Asgore should be found unjustified in those killings, the penalty will be no less than death. If found justified, then no penalty shall be placed. If it's not a unanimous vote in the jury, it'll be up to the Prime Minister. If you remember the laws, you might realize that the death penalty is strictly prohibited. However, this does not apply to monsters since they don't have similar rights. Thank you for listening, and keep notified to see more about this case." (Dess) "Starts laughing Wow, this is hilarious now, just how much evil is in humanity. Using the death penalty? PFFT, and they call America evil. I wish all humans would just kill each other already! It's obvious total extinction will come when they all A-Bomb themselves anyway. Why can't I kill them?" (Kara) "Smacks Dess in the face. Listen here, you little shit. Humans, I'll admit, are sometimes evil. But you want to kill them all? What the hell is wrong with you? I thought you were a good monster. At least that's how you reacted to Noelle and…" (Dess) "NOELLE'S DEAD!!! I say those who are dead don't care anyway." (Kara) "Wait, has all this backlash and anger been because you miss Noelle?" (Dess) "What? No, I'm fine. I'm just a jerk to everyone I meet." (Kara) "It's okay if you are sad. Can you let it out to me?" Dess looked in the opposite direction, fighting back tears. (Kara) "You know, I remember when we all used to go to ICE E's Pizza's. We all used to sit down and talk. Remember what you did when Noelle got scared because the ICE E's mascot came through." (Dess) "I would hold her in my arms. I would say, 'Shh, it's okay, he won't hurt you,' and she'd be happy. She couldn't hold it in and cried. Kara, Sniff I miss our childhoods. I miss when we used to be friends and be happy together. I miss my dear father. I miss my little sister. I even miss my Mom. I've tried to start a new life with all these people, but they're never as good as us. And seeing you with Flowey shows we are about as far apart as ever. You have friends and no longer need me nor love me." (Kara) "Hugs Dess Listen to me. It doesn't matter if we're friends, lovers, or acquaintances. We make our lives better by being together. That's all that matters." They cry for what seems like forever until finally, they both stop. (Dess) "Alright, we can continue."

I always thought the Prequels were good Star Wars stories told less well than they could have been, and one of my pet peeves (obvs. YMMV) was that GL forgot they were prequels and so spent far too much time teasing Anakin's inner conflict when everyone already knew how that was going to end. We did need that taste of what was to come, but the better movie would have been less in Anakin's headspace and more in everyone else's. We all know Anakin's going to fall. Focus on making it hurt. I think Obi-Wan Kenobi's got it figured out. They don't need to explain the obvious over and over again, they just need to stab you in the heart with it in new and cinematically pretty ways.

I mean... yeah, pretty much. The prequels were underwhelming for a few reasons, firstly because George Lucas insisted on writing all the dialogue himself (he had done it for the other films, but there were multiple co-writers and script polishers and actor improvisations that saved it) and it was.... bad. Ponderous, self-important, clunky, and in the case of Anakin and Padme's romance, inadvertently and unfortunately hilarious. This was compounded by his insistence on directing it as a dreadfully grim and wooden tragedy (Hayden Christensen got panned for his performance, but he said that he tried to lighten it up/act in a different way, but George didn't want it), when SW works best especially in its moments of lightheartedness and self-aware gentle mockery of itself. It's a soap-opera fantasy/sci-fi popcorn universe; it doesn't need to be written and directed like King Lear, and the prequels were weaker due to George's insistence on playing them completely straight.

So... yeah, we all know that Anakin is going to fall to the dark side, and I have said before that the whole thing where Padme dies in childbirth because lady parts (apparently there are no gynecologists on Coruscant but Luke can get a totally realistic fake hand?) and that's what makes Anakin go evil is also Bad. The parts and components are there-- Anakin's deep attachments to his mother, Padme, and Obi-Wan, and his problems with anger and desperation to fix the injustice that he experienced as a child slave -- but they're never given enough narrative elbow grease and genuine emotion to make them really hit the way they should.

This is especially obvious because yes, we are now all suffering buckets over Kenobi in the way that we came the closest to doing in Revenge of the Sith (which is by far the best of the prequels, despite its problems). We already know the story backward and forward, we know what happened before and what's happening next and how everything ended up this way, but because it focuses on emotions and character relationships and love and trauma more than clunky exposition or cliché narrative gimmicks, it still hurts a lot anyway. Yet again, it shows the idea that you constantly have to Shock The Audience to tell a good story is total hooey. If you're not necessarily shocking them, but you're still landing your emotional punches because your storytelling focuses on GENUINE feelings and respects the decades of engagement that fans have poured into this story and these characters, you don't NEED schlocky gratuitous random "twists" and the wanton Grimdarking of everything.

Basically, that was why I hated the sequel trilogy so much: the sheer disrespect shown to Han, Luke, and Leia, the destruction of their story arcs and narrative goals from the original trilogy, and the way this was all done in the name of Game of Thrones-ifying Star Wars and never felt authentic to the tones and themes of the original. As a SW fan for my entire life, I simply can't enter or engage with that take on it, because it is so disrespectful and destructive from what the story always was about before. Even the prequels, while they're technically and narratively underwhelming and I wanted them to be much better, still are Star Wars movies. The sequels on the other hand feel shoehorned in from an entirely different franchise, and the fact that mediocre white men can just make up shit and not even properly plan out, script, or plot their addition to one of the most beloved properties of all time will never not make me see red.

That being the case, the obvious adoration that Kenobi has for the characters, the way it tenderly focuses on their love and their relationships and their agonising pain, while still centering hope, Obi-Wan's rusty but deeply rooted compassion, his desperate desire to rest but his equally grim determination to fight for what's right even when it's totally hopeless and his heart is broken... that got me feeling Some Kinda Way. Because at its heart, that is what SW has always been about, and I think the reason people are responding to it so strongly is exactly because they recognize that.

2023 / 22

Aperçu of the Week:

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not the ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

(Stephen Hawking - British theoretical physicist and astrophysicist at Cambridge University)

Bad News of the Week:

With the Manhattan Project, mankind has already opened Pandora's box once. For there will be no way back to a time before nuclear weapons. Despite knowing better, the lid will never be put on the box, because there will always be people who see an advantage in it: personal preservation of power, deterrence against real or imagined threats, signs of national strength and other superficial egoisms. We will never get rid of this curse. And exactly the same thing is happening again now. With artificial intelligence. Says Warren Buffett, too.

The scientists can't be blamed for this. It is in their nature to test the limits of what is possible. And if the goal of their research and development is also economically attractive, there will always be someone to fund their work. It started with shopping recommendations in online stores. It continued with the analysis of movement profiles. And today, AI in insurance companies is already making decisions about who gets which rate at which conditions. All based on bare numbers, so 100% objective.

In a way, the great advantage of human intelligence is the equally human retarding moment. It is called conscience. Doubts are good, because they let humans think again, risk a second look, weigh things up based on personal experience. Artificial intelligence does not have this control mechanism. It decides purely on the basis of facts, coldly, ruthlessly. Example: how would artificial intelligence decide if the power fails in a hospital and the emergency generator only has enough electricity for one system. What would it shut down - itself or the life-support systems of patients in palliative care who were doomed anyway? Exactly.

The statements from critics - and there are many among them who have been or are in AI development themselves, such as Sam Altman, the head of ChatGPT creator Open AI - calling on policymakers to act are serious. Once again, technical progress is much faster than regulatory requirements. Still, for example, the handling of fake news and hate speech in social media lags far behind. But this time there is (even) more at stake: the control of the human over the machine.

Joachim Weickert, professor of mathematics and computer science at Saarland University, lists four areas of risk: Upheaval in the labor market, even for highly skilled professions. Destabilization of societies through disinformation. Loss of control, intransparency and one-sidedness. And finally, the damaging independence of AI itself - by simply taking command itself, fully aware of its own superiority. Almost 40 years ago, we were introduced to the central machine instance Skynet in the cinema. Let's hope it's not "I am back!" one day in reality.

Good News of the Week:

I am a child of the Cold War. Germany and Europe were divided. In school we learned what to do in the event of an atomic bomb explosion and subway stations led to bunkers. The world seemed clearly divided into good and evil. Nevertheless, I took to the streets against the stationing of Pershing missiles, found the "nuclear sharing" frightening - to this day, we Germans do not know where the U.S. forces keep how many nuclear weapons in our country. Neither do we know about Great Britain and France. Creepy.

Then came the turning point. Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union collapsed, the war of systems seemed to have a clear winner. And nuclear weapons were to rust away uselessly, serving only as a fetish of Arab and East Asian rulers. With Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, there are now two men in power in undemocratic states for whom nuclear weapons are a perfectly normal utensil of geopolitical interests.

And the United States is not very squeamish about its words either. In the future, the United States should be able "for the first time in your history, to deter two roughly equal nuclear powers," says national security adviser Jake Sullivan. And, "one of our greatest nonproliferation successes in the age of nuclear weapons has been extended nuclear deterrence, which gives many of our allies the assurance that they don't have to develop their own nuclear weapons." In short, living with the bomb is again (or still) quite normal.

At this point in Sullivan's speech on Friday in the White House press room, I would have preferred to get out of it and would have expected unpleasant dreams for the following night. But then I was surprised: In light of the New START nuclear arms control treaty, which expires in 2026 and which Russia suspended four months ago anyway, Sullivan called for talks "on how to deal with nuclear risks beyond 2026" so that no new conflicts would arise.

And then came a double whammy: first, the U.S. called for talks "without preconditions," and second, it directed that call to Russia - and China. And thus, for the first time, acknowledges an equal footing. Therefore, the talks will happen. I am not naive, there will be no large-scale waiver with reciprocal controls that everyone would then abide by. But whoever made the statement "Where there is talk, there is no shooting." was almost always right.

Personal happy moment of the week:

My son returned yesterday from a vacation in Italy with his mother and sister. Where he was not only willing to risk a glimpse of nature and culture, but also went swimming for a whole two hours every day. And today he left with my father for a week-long bike tour, from Koblenz along the Moselle to Luxembourg. And he has already declared that he will also make a detour to a church or castle worth seeing. In addition, he not only tanned his skin in Italy, but also overtook my wife in height. So in every sense it means: he is getting big.

I couldn't care less...

...about the further rapprochement of the Arab powers Saudi Arabia and Iran. This time in the form of the establishment of a naval alliance. Officially it is said that this is the only way to bring security to the region. Iranian naval commander Sharam Irani declares: "Then we will witness our region being liberated from unauthorized forces." This can only mean the U.S. naval base in Bahrain. A common adversary is apparently enough to bridge fundamental differences - in this case, the Shiite versus Sunni faiths of Islam. Unfortunately, this will do nothing for democracy or even human rights. On the contrary: The oppression of women, for example, will be cemented even more firmly.

As I write this...

...a mixture of full moon, everyday worries and Monday horror keeps me from sleeping. Well at least I'll get my blog done, which I didn't get around to finish yesterday / Sunday.

Post Scriptum

On Saturday was organ donation day. A topic that urgently needs more attention. Because about 8,500 Germans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, for kidneys, for example, about eight years - too long for many. And in 2022, only 900 people donated an organ. Theoretically, people are much more willing to donate, but bureaucracy is the main obstacle: many relatives don't even know what the deceased person's position is on the subject, and there is often no valid identification. The so-called "objection solution" would put an end to this, as the donation would then have to be actively and centrally documented. But there is currently no majority in parliament for this. And at least one person dies every day in Germany - avoidably.

Finally got to see Les Mis live again after almost 10 years. And since my memory is terrible nowadays and I barely remember those shows other than what I recorded on Tumblr, I figured I better do so again, LOL.

The anticipation dramatically rekindled my Les Mis obsession. I watched the 25th and the Staged Concert versions again about 5 times each in the span of a week and a half or so, developed a bit of a new Thing for Javert in general and Michael Ball's Javert in particular, abruptly became a Valjean/Javert shipper, dove into Les Mis fic (I'd read a few E/R things here and there but not a lot), and decided to give The Brick another try (the new Donougher translation this time, which I've really enjoyed - especially with helpful historical and cultural footnotes on Kindle - though I've gotten a bit stuck at Waterloo again).

Anyway, this was by far the best of the three times I've now seen it live. The first time, in 2012, I had an unsatisfying understudy playing Valjean. The second time, in 2013, the cast was mostly great but there were some technical glitches. This time was more or less perfect and the cast was amazing.

And yes, I painted my nails to match the program.

Loooong rambling review/notes/thoughts, mainly for Future Me, below the cut.

It was opening night in Charlotte, January 31 with my mom and Jeff, and I think we had the full cast with no understudies or anything.

Nick Cartell as Valjean, Preston Truman Boyd as Javert, Haley Dortch as Fantine, Christine Heesun Hwang as Eponine, Devin Archer as Enjolras, Gregory Lee Rodriguez as Marius, Addie Morales as Cosette, Kyle Adams as Grantaire, Matt Crowle and Christina Rose Hall as the Thenardiers.

Looking at their headshots beforehand I wondered if Nick Cartell and Preston Truman Boyd weren't a bit young for the roles, but they were fantastic.

Cartell's voice was a little higher and lighter at times than some Valjeans, but also a bit deeper at others, and he held his own in duets with Javert. His Bring Him Home was gorgeous and his Finale was beautifully emotional and moving. Boyd was perfect as Javert. Powerful voice but still a lot of feeling and emotion.

Haley Dortch as Fantine was wonderful but a little soft and quiet at times. When she put some volume into it, like on I Dreamed A Dream, she was great, but some of her factory bits and deathbed bits were a little too soft and hard to hear. Addie Morales had a beautiful clear soprano as Cosette, and Christine Heesun Hwang was amazing as Eponine.

I thought Gregory Lee Rodriguez as Marius was perfectly good for most of the show but then his Empty Chairs at Empty Tables was absolutely showstopping, maybe the best I've ever heard.

All of Les Amis were good, and Harrison Fox as Gavroche. Devin Archer especially was extremely good as Enjolras. I feel like in the other live shows I've seen Enjolras didn't have a lot of interaction with Grantaire or anyone else outside of specific lines that require it, really? This one had a bit more humanity and feeling to him and I really liked him. Kyle Adams as Grantaire was also excellent, even apart from Grantaire's relatively few lines, his mannerisms and acting were spot on and compelling - cynical and mocking, knowing what's coming and scared for his friends, heartbroken as they begin to fall, starting with Gavroche.

The Thenardiers were pretty good, maybe a little more exaggerated and broad humor than some I've seen, and M. Thenardier's voice seemed a bit obviously a put on funny/evil caricature sort of voice? IDK, I've never heard his natural voice, but this seemed more obviously fake and cartoony than most, sometimes kind of tilting toward Billy Crystal as Miracle Max?

I also thought he played Dog Eats Dog much too funny. I kind of feel like that scene should lean more into the sinister aspect of Thenardier, which Matt Lucas does very well. This one played it a good bit lighter and sillier with his mannerisms and tone, which kind of made the dark lyrics about God being dead and the harvest moon feel a bit out of place and less impactful. I feel like Master of the House should be his sort of genial host persona, even if he's humorously admitting to being a scheming crook at the same time, but Dog Eats Dog (and the robberies) should be more a brief glimpse of his real sinister and base nature without the veneer of humor, what he truly is when there's no one to fawn and flatter and manipulate - and then by Beggars At the Feast he's back to scheming and flattering, craven and vulgar but the darker side hidden away again.

Other stuff:

I'm not sure how much the staging changed since I last saw it live? The souvenir program says the visuals and scenery were revamped in 2009, and a lot of that looked the same, though I think the Paris and barricade sets were a bit different?

I think the opening and Look Down were a little different from what I've seen before. And I've definitely never seen a version that included some extra scenes of Valjean being abused and driven away by the townspeople after his release and before meeting the Bishop. There was even an extra verse about the Mark of Cain? that I had definitely never heard before at all. It was a nice addition, though.

The Fantine scenes were good and about the same as I've seen, I think. One slightly jarring note was the American-ness that showed through in a few parts. I guess I'm just used to British versions, but Mme Thenardier had a very sort of brash American accent, and the factory foreman sang "sitting flat on your ass doesn't buy any bread," which just seemed glaringly out of place? Like I could buy "arse," maybe, but "ass" just seems jarringly American and modern. I kept thinking about the Fry & Laurie "American Ass" sketch.

I'm pretty sure the staging of Lovely Ladies was a good bit different than I remember. One of the whores also had a verse I've never heard in Lovely Ladies, something about "will the bleeding ever stop?" And instead of Fantine singing "Come on, Captain, you can wear your shoes - don't it make a a change to have a girl that can't refuse?" they changed it to "did you wear your shoes?" and had the other whores sing those lines when Fantine came back after her first time with a customer. Which seemed a slightly odd decision to me, I always thought Fantine bitterly singing those lines was pretty central to showing that she's accepted her lot and how far she's fallen as she joins the fallen women.

There's a few other bits that I'm not super familiar with as they're not in the recorded versions I know best - Valjean's lines to Cosette just after they've left the Thenardiers', Grantaire's "fleas will bite" part, Cosette's "you are loving and gentle and good"/"in your eyes I am just like a child who is lost in a wood" verse of In My Life - but I had at least some familiarity with them. I'm still quite sure I'd never heard Valjean's Mark of Cain verse or the one in Lovely Ladies before at all.

I'm not sure if Who Am I? was a bit different from the other times I've seen it in person too. In the recorded versions I've seen most, they mostly skip Valjean actually going to court and revealing himself. I only recently saw a recording of a London version that had the end of Who Am I? in the courtroom and Valjean opening his shirt to show his brand, and it was new to me, so I don't think the previous versions I've seen did it that way? I like this version of it, though.

(ETA: Found the playbill and program from the 2012 show and it does have a Champmathieu - normally played by the guy who ended up as my disappointing Valjean that night instead - in the credits, so perhaps it did have a court scene and I've just forgotten ever seeing it 🤷‍♀️ Goodness knows what else I've forgotten, lol.)

I'm not sure about Enjolras' verse admitting the people have not risen and telling the women and fathers to leave the barricade to not waste lives - it was unfamiliar enough that I was startled by it, but I think I might have at least heard of it or read the lyrics or something at some point but mostly forgot about it? It still surprised me. I also feel like the others I've seen must have had some form of the runaway cart scene, but I'm quite sure never as in depth as this one? Usually just more suggested or glossed over quite quickly, I feel like. Here we had Valjean asking around desperately trying to get the townspeople to help (more like the book) before doing it himself and Fauchelevant thanking him afterward, which I haven't seen before.

I definitely liked Les Amis (and the bits of E/R content) more in this version than past ones. If I remember right (and judging by my notes) the other versions had only the bare minimum of Enjolras & Grantaire interaction, and Grantaire mainly interacted with Gavroche? This version kept the Gavroche & Grantaire bond, which I rather like, but did have a fair bit of E/R too. Early on in the cafe, Enjolras sort of grabbed Grantaire while he sang "don't let the wine go to your brain." and in Drink With Me, Enjolras was up on the barricade looking all statuesque and dramatically lit when Grantaire began his verse, but he quickly came down and stopped the others from bothering Grantaire, looked into his eyes for a long moment, and clasped Grantaire's arms in a somewhat comforting way for a moment, at least.

This Grantaire was not very comforted, though - he turned away and sort of staggered miserably off to the corner of the room and hid his face in his arms against the wall until Gavroche ran and threw his arms around him. Enjolras looked after him for a moment, but didn't follow. I really liked this Grantaire, he was very mocking and sarcastic early on, then pretty wretchedly angry and scared and bitter knowing what was coming for his friends and Enjolras, and showed all of that even in his manner and gestures when he didn't have lines. On the barricade he hung around the fringes, hanging back when the others had all climbed up. He was the one to stay and watch the captive Javert during the first battle and clearly wasn't in any hurry to join in. It was subtle enough that if you didn't know the characters you probably wouldn't catch much of the nuance, but if you do and you were making a point to watch Grantaire especially, he was absolutely perfect.

And then when Gavroche died! Apparently the other versions I've seen, his death was off-stage. Here he'd climbed down behind the barricade out of sight and Les Amis and Grantaire all panicked when there was a shot but cheered when he turned out to be fine. He'd climbed back up the barricade and was standing at the top finishing Little People when he was shot and fell forward across Enjolras' lap. And gah, the way they all reacted, but especially the tender sorrow of Enjolras picking up his body and the sad, lingering touch as he handed him down to Grantaire. And then Grantaire carried him to the front of the stage and just sat bowed over him for a good long time. I also liked how after everything was over, Javert stopped and looked sadly at Gavroche's body, bowed his head and crossed himself (I can't remember exactly where but earlier in the Paris street scenes there was a quick, cute little sassy interaction between Gavroche and Javert at one point, too.)

I wasn't expecting the Grantaire & Gavroche relationship the first time I saw it live, being mostly familiar with the 25th and YouTube clips of older versions, but I like it (though I prefer they don't make that Grantaire's *only* real interactions, which I think the first versions I saw live kind of did). It gives Grantaire a little more softness and humanity. This version had a cute moment, I think maybe during Red & Black? where Gavroche, feeling like one of the grown up rebels, is enthusiastically swallowed up in a crowd of most of Les Amis singing fervently about rebellion and stuff, and Grantaire, who has kept his distance from the passionate crowd, sort of sighs, walks over, reaches into the crowd and extracts Gavroche at arms length and pulls him away. I thought it was sort of a sweet moment of Grantaire not wanting Gavroche to get so enthusiastically swept up and involved in this adult (albeit young) rebellion that he's quite sure is doomed.

(Another minor Gavroche bit - after Eponine died, he was standing next to Grantaire and turned his face into Grantaire, who hugged him for a bit. Then Gavroche went and hugged Marius for a long moment and then picked up Eponine's fallen hat after she'd been carried away and handed it to Marius. The show usually doesn't acknowledge him being Eponine's brother, but it was a nice little touch.)

I really wish I'd followed the final barricade death scene better. I'm seeing it again in March, so will pay closer attention to that. It's quite dark and strobey, so that makes it harder to follow, but it seemed like Grantaire kept trying, at the very end as his friends began to fall, to climb the barricade at last, maybe toward Enjolras, but never made it all the way? It's not quite "will you permit it?" but if I was reading (and am remembering) it right, at least it's a sort of nod to Grantaire still being willing to die with his friends and Enjolras in particular even if he can't truly embrace their cause.

While I'm on a shippy note, I have recently found myself enthusiastically on board the Valjean/Javert ship (IDK how I wasn't before, tbh, but I blame Michael Ball for giving me a new appreciation for Javert that I never quite got from Norm Lewis) and there were some good moments for them too. I'm so used to recorded concert versions with minimal acting, so it's always nice to actually see stuff. And this Valjean and Javert had pretty good chemistry, quite a lot of physicality, pushing each other around and grappling and a lot of long tense eye-contact. Especially after saving Fauchelevant, if I remember right Javert ended up holding Valjean's coat when he went to lift the cart? And there was some lingering eye contact as Valjean cleaned up and put his coat back on. And it might have been there or some other scene around that time, Javert holding onto Valjean, like they shook hands or maybe Javert was handing him his coat and kind of grabbed him and lingered for a moment while singing the "I have only known one other" stuff? Something like that, anyway, and I enjoyed it.

Boyd did a great Javert's Soliloquy, enough convincing fury and despair and agony. Some Javerts don't put enough emotion and absolute end-of-his-rope despair into it for my liking, but his was excellent. And as I mentioned, Gregory Lee Rodriguez was very good as Marius in general - even a few humorous touches I hadn't seen before when he's in the throes of awkward infatuation with Cosette - but then his Empty Chairs at Empty Tables blew me away, both the voice and the emotion.

The staging of the finale bugged me a little. I did like that once Valjean joined the company for DYHTPS, the Bishop stepped forward and hugged him in welcome - I've seen that in other versions but never live. But it drove me nuts that from the "take my hand" line on, well into the DYHTPS reprise, Marius and Cosette were just sitting at center stage holding each other sadly, which felt a bit distracting? Valjean was a bit off to one side, but it would have felt more fitting to me to have him at center stage and let Cosette and Marius move off to the side to comfort each other. It's not their moment! And then they stayed sitting there when the rest of the cast was gathered singing the closing lines, which still felt a bit off. I think they finally got up and joined the company on the very last line or two? Meh.That staging bothered me a bit.

That scene, especially once it gets to "take my hand" and he's actually dying, should be entirely Valjean's moment. Fantine and Eponine too for the gorgeous harmony, but Valjean and "to love another person is to see the face of God" should absolutely be the focal point. And then the DYHTPS finale should be about unity, everyone together. So it just seemed weird to have them just sitting around in the middle of the stage for so much of that transcendent ending.

(Very on brand for Marius though, that boy can never read a room. Always making him and his love life center stage when everyone else is busy with serious things like dying.)

Overall, though, it's definitely the best of the three times I've seen it live. Really no significant complaints about the cast or anything at all, other than fairly minor nitpicking. I loved it and was just in heaven from start to finish. I'm seeing it again in March with my friend and I already can't wait.

My mom, who has seen the movie long ago but isn't super familiar with the story, said she found it a little hard to follow a few bits (at least from our upper level seats, though I did bring my binoculars). It took her a while to realize that M. Madeleine was actually Valjean, as he looked quite different between leaving the Bishop and showing up there, and she didn't realize who Javert was on the barricade until he'd gone and returned and Gavroche called him out. The musical also doesn't really mention Valjean's having been famous on the chain gang for his strength, which makes it not super clear why the runaway cart scene makes Javert suspicious. But overall both she and my brother loved it too, though not quite as rabidly as I did, lol.

HOLD THE FUCK UP. Lightsaber crystals are alive??? YOU TORTURE THEM TO TURN THEM RED? How come LEGO Star Wars (my only personal interaction with Star Wars) never mentioned this...?

Technically alive, yeah! Kyber crystals are technically just crystals that are "attuned" to The Force and can channel that energy efficiently, but because "the Force flows through all living things" they're just a tiny bit sapient, able to communicate non-verbally with other crystals and living beings, partly due to their intricate lattice patterns. Also they have traces of organic and inorganic material in them, and they're invulnerable to heat and extremely resistant to physical damage and pressure

Now, in the Pre-Disney lore (pretty much any non-movie Star Wars thing produced before 2010-ish) "Red crystals" were actually just fake kyber, because uh. The Sith are evil but respect mining rights apparently and they just. made their own synthetic crystals?? and they kept turning out red by accident until they decided "eh good enough". kinda lame ngl.

But in the new lore: kyber crystals are naturally attracted to the Light Side of the Force and so they simply don't work for Sith because they have a will of their own. So in order to make the crystal do their bidding, a Sith must take a kyber crystal (either their own or a crystal taken from a Jedi they killed) and forcefully channel The Dark Side into it, pouring all of their hatred and rage and fear and pain into the kyber crystal until it becomes corrupted and turns red. This process is called "bleeding". But it requires a certain balance otherwise they risk causing instability in the lattice or even cracking the crystal through the sheer violence unleashed upon it (as is the case with Kylo Ren's unstable lightsaber)

It's possible to "heal" corrupted kyber crystals by channeling The Light Side back into them, this usually turns them into a pure white (like Ahsoka's new lightsaber crystals, which were recovered from an Inquisitor she defeated and disarmed)

so yeah they're alive and can be tortured :)