Commander_Cotty

[littlemope]

I commissioned this brilliant Asajj Ventress from @ins0mnia-dreams!

჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻჻

Asajj Ventress—A Different Kind of Star Wars Princess

The episode begins with magic and mourning: Quinlan Vos must bid eternal farewell to the love of his life.

So there is magic begins. With the part of his heart he lives the power could help to raise Asajj Ventress from the dead.

Like in every fairy tale, there’s a condition for the miracle: a special place, something valuable in return, and a restriction that, if broken, would break the spell.

It’s not even important to know how Ventress fell in love with Quinlan Vos in Dark Disciple. Only one thing matters—what does "heart’s desire" truly mean?

At first, I thought the spell had erased her love for Quinlan. But seeing her constantly searching for clues leading to the Hidden Jedi Path made me doubt that. By the end of the third episode, I realized the true condition of the spell: they are doomed never to meet again. Subconsciously, she understands this. Her hesitation isn’t just caution—it’s a way to avoid getting close to the one she loves. If she breaks the condition, she will likely die.

The writers’ decision to bring her back but deny her love feels poetic. Nothing in life comes without a price.

Lyco Strata – A Different Kind of Apprentice

It’s worth mentioning her companion, the young Padawan Lyco Strata. Honestly, I don’t see them as a typical "parent and child" duo. Unlike Omega’s dependence on Hunter or Grogu’s on Din, Lyco isn’t entirely reliant on Ventress.

He survived without her before, and while he obviously needs her help now, it’s more like any adult in his situation would. He’s quick-thinking, adaptable, and fiercely determined to live. It’ll be interesting to see how their relationship develops.

It would be hilarious if he became Asajj’s apprentice. The Jedi in the Force would feel vindicated for all the trouble she caused during the Clone Wars.

But if I'm being totally honest, I'm totally into that idea. Raising of apprentice could be incredibly challenging,  but that's exactly what makes it such a powerful growth opportunity for a master.

[littlemope]

Dave Filoni started this 'I can resurrect whoever I want' game first—well, now I’m playing too. Scorch isn’t dead, because Gregor and Echo survived explosions and Hunter lived through Cad Bane shooting him straight in the heart.

[izzyovercaffa-blog]

I think one of the more disappointing things about the Republic Commando fandom is that fans of Kal, generally, argue that critics of Kal Skirata are “unfair” in their criticism. That there’s an uneven attention placed on the character’s flaws that are disproportionate to the other characters.

The issue is that fans generally don’t understand that that’s in response to a narrative that holds everyone else alongside Kal responsible for their personal missteps, mistakes, and abuses, but does not ask the same of Kal, himself.

A favorite scene to, I think, argue the above is the scene where Darman beats the ever-loving shit out of Kal. It’s brought up as if it’s a scene we should take at face value, of Darman taking Kal to task, holding him responsible.

But the truth is, in the context of the rest of the series, it’s not. 

What that scene is, is damage control. 

What Darman knows in that scene about what Kal has done, does not match what Kal has actually done.

That is, what Darman knows is that Kal kept Etain’s pregnancy from him.

What Darman doesn’t know is that Kal knowingly chose to put both Etain and Etain’s unborn child in a position to die. Kal even says as much to himself early in True Colors, but makes no move to change it.

The novels don’t hold him responsible for Etain nearly miscarrying, and Etain nearly dying. They only hold him responsible for lying to Darman about the existence of a pregnancy.

There’s an enormous difference between the two. The difference being that the former is an abusive and controlling man willing to unfairly kill, indirectly, the person his son loves most without his son’s input, compared to the latter of a flawed but ultimately loving man making poor decisions to protect his son in whatever way he can. 

And there should be more concern about the way fans of Kal will defend the former as if it’s the same as the latter, when it’s … not. How fans remember the books, is not reflective of how Kal actually treats his sons. But it is reflective of how an abusive man defends his choices as if there’s no other way or option.

And as much as fans want to sympathize with him, it cannot hurt to also take a step back and critically examine everything he does, and compare to how disproportionate the excuses and the forgiveness falls on Kal compared to the rest of the cast besides him.

If fans are willing to overlook how Kal is constantly playing a game of damage control with all of his sons from book one, but are equally unwilling to overlook the physical abuse Vau has waged on Delta Squad and Atin, then all fans are really arguing is that physical abuse is the only kind of abuse they’re willing to recognize as legitimate. 

And that’s worrisome.

Being critical of Kal is not a personal attack, and if reading about how Kal is abusive immediately makes you defensive, then … it’s worth investigating why it makes you defensive. It’s worth taking the time to reflect on these questions, what it means to you, and what it changes if it’s true. 

[littlemope]

It will never cease to amaze me how fans try to justify Kal Skirata as a person. He’s a great book character—I’d even say he’s too well-written for a simple story about a squad of commando adventures. Karen Traviss did a fantastic job creating, as she put it, "a bad man." But trying to defend him, knowing how he treated not just Etain but also other characters who never did him any harm—and sometimes even helped him—that’s just strange to me. A difficult childhood and youth is no excuse for all his actions. Kal, after all, is not a child. Likewise, the fact that the clones knew nothing but war doesn’t justify his manipulative behavior toward them.

[cabbagegearchive]

If you know, you know

[ominouspuff]

.

[casifires]

GAWD DAMN 😦

[art-soop]

dressed to impress 😌

[littlemope]

He looks so fine, omg

[exhuastedpigeon]

You can and should write fanfiction that isn't perfect. You can and should write whatever fanfiction you want. You can and should write fanfiction that brings you joy even if it's silly or goofy or weird.

Except for me. My fanfic has to be perfect and read like a novel and ruin at least one person's sleep schedule.

[littlemope]

This is the way.

[cacodaemonia]

New AO3 spam/scam tactic

Heeeey all. I've posted a lot about the AO3 comments scams that have been going around since late 2024, and yesterday, I shared a well-sourced video that discusses the explosion of long con scams in general since 2020. For anyone who's curious about this kind of thing, those links might be useful for you, but I think they also help explain why this comment I got a few days ago immediately pinged my scam radar:

(Yes, since then, AO3 support has responded to me and confirmed that the account is posting spam. I'm not slandering some random new user)

So, red flag #1: the comment came in on a fic I'd just posted that day. This is very consistent for these seemingly innocuous comments—they'll pop up the day a new work is posted or the day a new chapter goes up. Red flag #2: I don't recognize the user at all. I'm sure this wouldn't work for very popular creators on AO3 who get loads of comments, but I know all the people who comment on my stuff and rarely get new commenters. So that was odd in itself. Red flag #3: the comment is extremely vague and generic. It doesn't mention characters or anything that happens in the fic, but unlike short comments by real people, the message has a very... 'email they sent to a work colleague with whom they're friendly' vibe to it. That's pretty standard, too. Red flag #4: when I went to the user's profile, I saw that, shockingly, it was a brand new account and completely blank. For a while, these scammers were including weird amounts of contact info in their AO3 profiles (you can see examples in the posts I linked to at the top), but lately, they've been more bare bones. Red flag #5: the comment is such weird overkill. This is probably more specific to the fic I posted that day, but if it had been a long, complex story, I might have just thought the commenter was being extremely generous with their wording. The thing I posted, however, was a 600 word fluffy scene where nothing 'captivating' happens 😂 Like I said, weird overkill.

I think that covers my main reasons for immediately being suspicious. I wanted to explain them because a lot of people I've spoken to about these spam comments don't suspect them right away. And it really sucks having to be paranoid, but here we are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As I mentioned, AO3 confirmed that the comment was spam, and they took it down. I also saw another comment from the same scam account yesterday, but by the time I got the reply from AO3 this morning, that comment was gone. So it may be that they're mass deleting comments by those spam accounts now? If anyone has insight on this, I'd love to know.

Anyway, just to give another example of the wording of the comment, here's a screenshot of it:

Vague again, and the fic was a one-shot, so mentioning a chapter is fishy.

I hope this helps prevent a few people from getting sucked into these long con scams. I still don't know exactly how they play out beyond the scammers offering to do paid art commissions, but obviously, they're making money with the comments or they wouldn't be flooding AO3 with them.

[littlemope]

I'm not a native English speaker so some of my comments meet criteria on the list. It's pretty difficult sometimes to fully express your feelings in a foriegn language so can I might leave the comments conveying my pure emotions without being too specific about a text.

In my opinion, we've got one main criterion here. If someone asks you for money or any other favour, you need to be carefull.

[misstoodles-doodles]

Bad Batch Sketch Page #2 — AU & Regs

The sketches that the first AU picture was supposed to be a part of. Some of these are hints of ideas and some are straight up impossible what-ifs 🥲. There were too many on this one.

Heavy-hitter trio! Hevy! It’s Hevy!!!

Domino Duo kicking butt and taking names.

Fives AU protective vibes & hints

Jesse & Kix Comfort/Angst

Cody rescue. Protected in Rex’s poncho ;-;

Hunter bringing two knives to a gun fight feat. Cody

Howzer and Mayday would talk. I know they would.

Plan 99 alternate. Reunion.

Original unedited page:

[foxwithadarkside]

A stolen tag list is being stolen @ghostymarni @lonewolflupe @wings-and-beskargam @eclec-tech @eobe @foxwithadarkside @fiveminutetrash @crosshairs-dumb-pimp-gf @feral-ferrule @ladylucksrogue @nika6q @skellymom @vimse @gargothnightzine @sunshinesdaydream @noblelightfighter @returnofthepineapple @freesia-writes @covert1ntrovert @vikushat @nocturius8015ficore @mamuzzy @risavulpes @niobiumao3 @sazzujazzu @blackseafoam @thora-sniper @gars-weaponeer @leenathegreengirl @vodika-vibes @headphones-ct-09978 @thecoffeelorian @bad4amficideas

[eobe]

❤️‍🔥😱 From accidentally out-of-lethal-fate-summoned Commander Mayday to smouldering sunglasses Darkwing Duck (black ice vulture in this case) epical rose-delivering dance-absolving double quest challenges succeeding and generally charismatic Commander Cocoa 😎✨

Finally he‘s dancing with my precious vod Archer ✨🤩🫠

This one is so beautiful and dynamic, maybe my favorite Maycher so far 😎🌹🏹💙

[ins0mnia-dreams]

Asajj Ventress - sith asassin, night sister and nounty hunter.

[poohkeepsee]

"Under the Jedi, the clones are all the same but they become individuals.

Under the Empire, the stormtroopers are all different but they all become the same.

And that shows you how evil people crush you and take away your individuality, and make you a number. So now you're TK-126 instead of being Rex, instead of being Cody... that's what the Jedi were providing, space to be yourself."

[archivewriter1ont]

Hunter and Rex Sibling Thoughts

It will never be not funny to me how Rex adopted Hunter so quick. He spent a quarter of an episode like "Meh I don't know, this guy is kind of crazy" to the Bad Batch show where he was like "Yes. I definitely came to find you when the world crashed down and I can't even find my big brother, because I thought you might want to talk to yours." And you know what? Hunter did.

I love writing/reading fanfic about this duo because they are just so perfect as a set. Hunter is quite obviously the feral little brother who bites people, while Rex is the chill older brother who responds by taking him for ice cream and/or reminding him that biting is bad for everyone involved and besides he already met his biting allowance for the week. (It completely depends on who he bit.)

TLDR: ⬇️⬇️

How the rest of the GAR sees Hunter:

How Rex sees Hunter:

[littlemope]

This is definitely true, and I seem to view the same way Hunter as Rex does.

[nchlsdmn]

Trick - Formerly known as CT-3301, is a consummate clone trooper who loves games of chance. He has been with Hawks since they both served in the Republic military. His laconic wit masks a haunted heart, and he won't get along with his Umbaran crewmate too well.

Luco Bronc - Sharp-tongued sniper Luco Bronc defended his home of Umbara during the Republic invasion. Although he has no love for the Republic that defeated and occupied his planet, Luco is willing to set aside his differences to work with Zero Company.

Tel-Rea’ Vokoss - The Tognath Jedi Padawan Tel-Rea’s boundless discipline and determination has led her to join Zero Company as she seeks to honor the legacy of her late Jedi Master.

Cly Kullervo - One of the last surviving members of the Mandalorian Clan Verminoth. She joins Zero Company purely to further her implacable quest for revenge.

Hawks - Once a captain in the Grand Army of the Republic, Hawks now leads Zero Company. Clever, cool-headed and decisive, Hawks works with operators from any and all backgrounds, as long as they know how to get the job done.

[littlemope]

If it should happen that no one writes fics about them, I'll do it myself. I definitely do it!

[shyranno]

Guess who watched The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and hasn’t stopped crying??

[the-baddest-of-batches]

Playing Pretend. 2023.

I just wanted to do a piece to break the burnout, so have a smol baby clone running in the rain.

[the-baddest-of-batches]

Cradle to the Grave - the Kamino Cadet Redeux. 2024

It's been a little under a year since I posted the original art at the top, and I needed to revisit it. It's gotten so much reach, and touched so many people.

But it's not the whole story.

[named-anon]

Can I please request a Commander Mayday?? ❤️

Of course you can <3

[littlemope]

He is so sweet ❤️ Recently watched the episode. I miss him already.