“I Have Written A Poem For A Woman Who Rides A Bus In New York City. She’s A Maid, She Has Two Shopping

AU where (somehow) Palpatine becomes Emperor and all that jazz without killing off the Jedi, but before they can like... DO anything to fix it, Anakin (recently implied imperial heir and visibly off his rocker) has a meltdown of absolutely horrific proportions and beheads Palpatine on live television, then declares that he's installing Padme, his WIFE whom he adores VERY MUCH, as Empress.

Padme isn't even THERE, she's busy giving birth on Naboo and nobody's had the guts to tell her about the whole Empire situation. IDK maybe Anakin begged Obi-Wan to look after her while Obi-Wan was on a forced leave and got a "Well, I've certainly nothing better to do" in response, and Padme and Obi-Wan are both kinda bougie, they're on an ~*~electronics cleanse~*~ while Padme rides out the end of her pregnancy.

"Don't contact us unless it's an emergency," they said, not anticipating that people would fail to tell them about the fall of democracy.

Realistically, the Jedi manage to Handle the Anakin problem (which, like, nobody's that upset about someone tackling him in the middle of the Senate to take him down after what he just pulled, there are OBVIOUS justifications for this arrest, holy shit), and then let democracy come back before Padme ever finds out, and really someone should have told her and Obi-Wan the second Palpatine went "hey, I should have a crown, and absolute power, and also the opportunity to torture Anakin for shits and giggles," but I just think it would be really funny for her and Obi-Wan to come back to Coruscant, twins in hand, only to find out that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, the Republic is an Empire THAT NOW BELONGS TO PADME, and Anakin lost his mind so spectacularly that he now thinks presenting Palpatine's severed head to her on bended knee upon her return to Coruscant is somehow a good idea.

Maybe the Jedi just decided that, since Palpatine was a Sith anyway, and Anakin isn't really DOING much while warming the seat for his absent wife, they could just... wait for her and Obi-Wan to come back and knock some sense into him. Less of a risk of a Jedi getting hurt trying to arrest him?

ROTTMNT Character Fight Style Analysis - Part 1: Leonardo

Eeeeyyyy it's finally here. This is my analysis of each character's fight style and role post that I teased about a week ago. This turned out to be a hell of a thing, so this will be split into many posts focusing on each character since I have quite a bit to say (and I think Tumblr might break if I put it all into one post). I plan to release one a day, but we'll see how it works out with school.

[Part 2: Raph] [Part 3: Mikey] [Part 4: Donnie] [Part 5: April]

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If there's one thing Rise is known for, it is the show's stellar action animation - it's the reason most people started the show to begin with. The visuals are so strong in these scenes, in fact, that Rise could have easily gotten away with having pointless fights each episode (if the budget allowed that) and still be regarded as a fairly decent show. However, Rise doesn't do that, instead chooses to give its action scenes depth by putting thought into the personality of each character and implementing that into how each of them fights, showing the growth of the protagonists over the course of the show.

After rewatching the show multiple times (seriously, so many times) I began to notice patterns in many of the show's big fights, particularly in how the turtles and April fight and how they cooperate with each other as a team.

I thought it might be fun to categorize and examine how Leo, Raph, Mikey, Donnie, and April fight by breaking it down into their unique fighting styles, their roles and strengths in battle, how they apply those roles, and how all of these demonstrate different parts of their character.

BTW: There's a reason for the order in which I examine each character - it will all make sense by the last post. There's also a bit of a TL;DR at the end, but I encourage you read the full thing (or at least skim it)

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Let's start with Leo.

Leonardo: The Strategist/Initiator

Leo was one of the easiest characters to analyze since a major focus of his character arc is the development of his fighting skills and his ability to cooperate with his team and act as a leader.

Fight Style:

Balanced/Well-rounded Fighter

Leo is the most balanced fighter on the team. He is a capable offensive and defensive fighter and has enough physical strength and acrobatics to handle many types of fighting styles. We see him fight everything from paper ninjas to the large Foot Brute and Draxum's hired goons (the dog guys) without seeming to be weak against one type of enemy. He may not necessarily be stronger than them but he is very versatile. However, this means that Leo doesn’t have a specific ability that makes him stand out in a fight (mystic and ninpo powers aside) the way his brothers do, and won’t have any inherent advantages that he can utilize when fighting a particular enemy.

Strengths and Roles in a Fight:

The Strategist:

Leo’s role as the team’s strategist is pretty obvious. He may not be given the title of “Leader” until the end of season 2, but we see throughout the show that he is a very quick thinker and is skilled at coming up with clever and effective plans. Of course, each member of the Mad Dogs supplies ideas and plans, but Leo is especially good at developing and implementing them. The most obvious example of this is his fight in the Battle Nexus in 'Many Unhappy Returns, but there are other times when he is the one to put all the pieces together (think of the big attack against Draxum in the Shredder armor in 'End Game').'

The Initiator:

Leo acts as the initiator in battle as he is either one of the first into battle or is the one to start a coordinated attack. This doesn't mean he necessarily has to attack first, but that he is usually the one to put the plan into action. This role relies the most on his mystic powers as his portal and teleportation powers give him the maneuverability needed to accommodate any plan. His abilities allow him to enter and disorient the enemy, or he can portal allies into the fight and create opportunities for a follow-up attack. This plays into his strengths as the Strategist as being the initiator can help him begin a strategic attack by maneuvering people or objects into their needed positions.

Utility:

Leo’s skills truly shine in a fight against a few number of enemies as he can better focus his strategies on a specific enemy and direct the battle in his favor. With less pieces in play, he can properly utilize his mystic powers and act as the initiator instead of bouncing around a battle with no real objective in mind. It becomes easier to coordinate attacks with his brothers and allies since they don't have to spend time fighting different enemies.

However, in a fight with multiple enemies, Leo’s skills can be easily overlooked. Sure, he can direct the fight as the Strategist, but there’s only so much he can do in the middle of the chaos. His role as the initiator isn’t all that effective in a fight with many enemies as well as he and his brothers tend to just rush into battle in those situations. However, Leo’s balanced fighting style means he could theoretically go up against every type of enemy and won’t be at a noticeable disadvantage, which is very useful in a chaotic battle.

How it Plays into His Character:

Admittedly, the show is probably the most direct in using fights to show some of Leo's character traits, since so much of his arc is centered on his fighting and use of mystic powers. However, Rise does use this in enough interesting ways to make it worth mentioning.

While his role as the Strategist plays into Leo’s strengths as a character, it also highlights Leo’s problems with team communication. When Leo plans a strategy, he often fails to inform his allies of his plans, which can result in losing the battle or frustrating those around him. The show demonstrates this by having him make strategies in a fight but leaves his allies in the dark and confusing them. Leo does this, in part, to show off, but also because the plan simply makes sense in his head, so it would be easier for him to just do it instead of having to take the time to tell everybody his plan.

The initiator is a good role for Leo’s powers and fighting style, but also feeds into his cockiness and overconfidence in a fight. Leo has a tendency to play the hero and either overestimate his abilities or underestimate his opponent. He may be the best fit for going first in a fight but Rise uses some fights to show how this can conflict with some of his character flaws. When he goes into battle first overconfident and cocky, it only conflicts with the team, but with his own role as the Strategist. He could, theoretically, bring his teammates into the fight after him, but if he thinks he has an easy win in front of him, all strategy goes out the window.  

His status as a balanced fighter and lack of specialization in battle is a likely source of some of Leo’s insecurities about his place in the group. We see in 'Portal Jacked!' how Leo doesn't feel like he has a proper role on the team - that he's just the face man - which is reinforced by the way he fights in comparison to his team. Leo is well suited to fight a wide range of enemies, but when his brothers have easily identifiable skills that can give them a distinct advantage, it becomes difficult to recognize the advantages he brings to the team as a well-rounded fighter.

Working as a Team:

As mentioned earlier, Leo's strengths as a fighter make him the one best suited for the first attack in a coordinated team strike as it highlights his skills as the Initiator and the Strategist. It shows how well he can fit those roles when he plays to his strengths and overcomes the character flaws that stand in his way. While the others do have skills that may allow them to start the first attack, Leo's abilities and strengths as a fighter give him (and his team) a much stronger advantage in this position.

Leo also does well when he goes second to last in a team attack, as he can finalize a strategy and prepare for a final blow by putting all the pieces into position. However, this is more situational as there are other characters just as well suited for that second-to-last position and can fill that role when Leo needs to be the one to start a team attack.

Leo’s fighting style, however, does make him a poor fit for a follow-up attack or the final attack in a fight. His balanced fighting style means he isn’t suited for a strong final attack. While he is technically fine acting as a follow-up attacker, it doesn’t really play into his strengths and isn’t that effective when fighting with others who are more suited to that role. His balanced fighting style also prevents him from effectively dealing that final blow to an enemy since he doesn't have a specialized strength in this regard. Again, he can do it, he just isn't well suited for it.

The way Rise develops and explores Leo's fight style demonstrates one of my favorite things the show does with his character (in fact, all of its characters). At first glance, he may seem pretty one-note and predictable, but as we go through the show, we see how both his character is actually more complex than we were first led to believe. The fights Leo participates in reflect that, as not only do his skills develop over the course of the show, but we begin to see how it all ties into his personality and growth as a character - making his fights more meaningful than what they may seem.

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[Little bit of a TL;DR: Leo is the team's strategist and initiator in fights, supported by his balanced fight style and mystic powers. These roles play into his greatest strengths but they also expose some of his character flaws and insecurities. In team fights Leo is most effective as the first or second to last attacker but isn't well suited for a follow-up or final attack]

Thanks for bearing with me on this stupid long post. They're all going to be like this btw. Next up will be Raph. I plan to get that done and posted tomorrow.

OREO STUFFED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

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dramione fic rec list

COMPLETED SERIES

this is my first deep dive into dramione and i wanted to share these amazing series i’ve read in the last few months. no particular rank or order to this list. enjoy!!!

Manacled - @senlinyu / @senlinyuwrites  if you’ve delved into Dramione at all, you’ve most likely heard of this incredible dark epic. it takes place in a Voldermort Wins!AU and takes inspiration from the Handmaiden’s Tale about population control in this new frightful era of the Wizarding World. be prepared for all 77 chapters to consume you in this tale of love, loss and hope in between. 

+ emphasis on dark epic. the writer themselves have acknowledged that with such dark and heavy themes, there are large aspects of the story that may be triggering for some people and therefore manacled might not be the fic for you - and that’s totally okay! (what’s important is that you take care of yourself) as always, read the tags and know your limits. + senlinyu is a phenomenal writer, often collaborates with @elithien, pairing their artistry together. @avendell is also another great digital artist who has worked closely with senlinyu, even creating multiple companion art pieces for Manacled (but try not to let the art spoil some parts of the fic for you!!!) + senlinyu has soo many Dramione works, just follow them & dive into it!

Bone Mortar - @mightbewriting enemies to lovers is a given in everything i’m about to talk about in this post, but this short and sweet series takes us to a modern!au setting of academia. what’s not to love about these two professors who are about to go head to head over a little administrative conflict at the start of the new school year?

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Timeline of Naruto Universe

For my own purposes, I want to sort out a timeline for how I’d like to believe the events unfolded, starting with the founding of the villages as Year 0. There are a lot of contradictory statements about how old people are, when the village would’ve existed, etc. One clear example: I have to disregard the statement that Hashirama became Hokage 67 years prior to Naruto’s events. Since he was Hokage at the time of Madara’s defection, it was actually 74 years prior to Part II at minimum that Hashirama became Hokage, based on the ages of Hashirama’s grandchildren. 

So a lot of this is going to be 1) pure conjecture and 2) selective reasoning. It’s also not going to pay much mind to birthdays aside from their year date, as that might make this overly complicated. It’s a fruitless endeavour, really, but I thought it’d be fun to try to make sense of it all. Below the dates I have character ages where it is useful or relevant, as well as notes on how it fits into the narrative/in respect to other established dates. I’m sure there are better and more precise ones that exist, but this one’s mostly just for me anyway.

So without further ado, here’s my timeline:

Year 0: Konohagakure is founded; village system established 

Characters: Hashirama and Madara approx. age 25

Notes: Konoha is founded in the years following Izuna’s death, who is approximately 24 when he dies. Madara and Hashirama both appear to be 1-2 years older than their siblings based on their appearances as children.

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Rottmnt!Casey Jones (Jr.) design is fantastic and here's why:

I'm sorry for ignoring the numerous asks actually requesting stuff for me to review, but I have to strike the iron while it's still hot.

Ok, so. Rottmnt has fantastic, 10/10 character designs. That's not something I discovered, it's something anyone with two eyes and a brain can figure out. In particular, the eponymous Turtles themselves have never been more interesting and distinct before this incarnation:

They are fantastic anthro designs, simultaneously easy to imagine as humans while feeling inseparable from their animal traits. And the crew managed to take this a step further with Casey by going in the complete opposite direction! Casey is not just a regular post-apocalyptic fashion kid, he is a reverse engineered turtle gijinka. It's not all that visible at first because the pieces of his attire are all pretty standard, admirably practical, and color-faded, but think about it! The green jumpsuit and shoes are the base "skin", the chest-plate is self-explanatory, and the cape is the turtle shell.

And of course, it's all made even more endearing by how he incorporates something from each of the 4 brothers. Leo is the most obvious influence because Casey is his direct protege; he adopted his eye markings in his mask, his color for the armor, and the diagonal fanny-pack -I wouldn't have complained if he used a belt, but the fanny-pack is the much better option because it's more realistic and practical for him to use that-.

Donny made his gadgets, so he wears his insignia on the cape -which also cleverly breaks the dullness of it without bulking the silhouette- and his shoulder pad is purple.

You get the sense that Casey never really met Raph in his original timeline, so he is only present in the red details and, lastly, Mikey is present in the adorably doodled knee-pads.

Lastly, his facial design is great. Now, I could follow that up with an actual argument about how it balances his more traditional lean hero physique with less conventionally attractive traits that actually convey a personality and a context for where he grew up, but actually, no, I'll just spam pics of him because he really does have Expressions™️ and I love him for that:

For the record while ATLA is an excellent show and Zukos redemption arc was perfectly paced, I would kill to have had Zuko join the Gaang at the end of book two, because the first half of book three would have been the funniest thing on the planet. Like. Just picture it. A bunch of unsupervised teenagers travelling undercover through enemy territory, trying to blend in… and the only people who have even been there before are 1. A guy who hasnt been there in a century, and 2. The former crown prince who has literally never spoken to a fire nation citizen who wasnt nobility, military, or one of his servants.

Like. Neither of them have any idea what they’re doing, or how normal fire nation citizens act, but they’re pretty sure the other one is wrong. Rest of the gaang knows even less. No adults. Zuko and Aang getting into a shouting debate over the finer points of fire nation culture is a nightly event. They are both so wrong, and so, so awkward

Not nearly enough “Sirius Black makes himself at home in Privet Drive because there’s nothing the Dursleys can do to get him to leave” fic out there, and it’s a crying shame.

Vintage Stockholm apartment

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