I love Oda but man is INSANE for not making the timeskip more relevant to the straw hats outside of power ups
Brook: Literally a rockstar??? There should have been a running gag where people ask Brook for his autograph at every island they visit! It would be so funny if some villains were starstruck fans trying to keep it together during a fight!
Sanji: It would have been great if the newkama recipes came up more than once. There could have been a gag where Sanji stops in the middle of a battle to literally cook a power up for the crew. Imagine this man dicing onions in Onigashima, force-feeding Zoro a stew during his fight with King
Robin: She worked under Dragon for two years, met Sabo and Koala and maybe Ivankov, she probably knows the Army's entire plan to take down the gov and yet it never comes up! Does she know about Kuma? Nika? The five elders? Does she secretly communicate with the Rev Army????
Zoro: I love the idea of Perona teaching Zoro about fashion. It wouldn't have plot relevance but imagine him busting out some fashion tips out of nowhere every so often.
I'd love to hear more ideas, the missed opportunities here haunt me.
Edit: link to ongoing collection of headcanons since some people only see the first four ideas
Can you please share some words to use instead of "Look", I really struggle with that, it's always "She looked at him in shock" or "He looked at her with a smile". I know there's "Gazed" and "Glanced" but I wanted some advice to use "Look" less
Marvel’s Continued Terrible Avengers Doomsday Marketing and the Pratfall Effect
All the eggs now lay in the basket of the next Avengers movie – coming out nearly 8 years after the previous one. And let it never be said that Marvel didn’t go all out.
From humiliatingly kicking out the newer heroes it had introduced with much fanfare to replace them with the reanimated corpses of Tony Stark (Doom or whatever they’re calling him) and Steve Rogers; to injecting a tranquilizer dose of nostalgia and cameos with X-Men and 300 different universes colliding – Marvel is doing everything it can to force a blockbuster out of this mess. Only for a low, low budget of 700M.
A lot of people have a problem with Catra. In my experience, the biggest issue they have is that she was forgiven ‘too fast’. In this essay I will analyze how that is not true.
First, to lay a foundation, let’s discuss everything that Catra did (wrong). Because while I disagree with people who think this way, I also disagree with how some fans get rose tinted glasses about Catra’s actions and the harm she caused. It is worth noting there is a distinct difference between Catra and Lonnie, for example. Catra had the opportunity to not just leave, but to walk into a good situation. If Lonnie left the Horde (I am not saying she wanted to just as an example) she would have nowhere to go, and her survival would be uncertain. Catra knew she could go back with Adora up until the end of season 3, and choose not to anyways. This was not indentured servitude, Catra willingly participated as a member of the Horde and attempted to climb the ranks. She wanted (or thought she wanted) to be there.
So what did Catra do? I am not going to talk about everything she did, just things I think are important for this discussion. In “Princess Prom” Catra attacked the Kingdom of Snows and everyone attending, kidnapping Bow and Glimmer in the process. Bow was kept in a typical Horde prisoner cell, and Glimmer seemed to take quite a beating (we do not know exactly what happened to her). She also took a lead role in the “Battle of Brightmoon”, nearly destroying Brightmoon in the process. Next, Catra pulled the lever to activate the portal. This was potentially world ending and resulted in the death of Angela, which Catra was indirectly responsible for. In “Mer-Mysteries” we find out Double Trouble disguising as Flutterina was a distraction so the Horde could attack and conquer Salineas, resulting in one of the more tragic scenes in the show as Glimmer, Bow, Adora, and most importantly, Mermista, see the devastation that has been caused.
Finally, is her actions towards the people around her. Catra for a lot of the series acted with very little care or compassion. She emotionally manipulated Adora, mistreated Scorpia, and even sent Entrapta to almost certain death to “Beast Island” under false pretenses, even though they worked together for multiple seasons at that point. Catra consistently and callously acted with no regard for others to serve her own selfish goals. Of course, Catra was treated horribly as a child by Shadow Weaver, and that trauma passed onto her in her actions towards others. For the most part, this is only really a consideration for the audience. Only Adora and whoever she confided in with that information would know that about Catra, and thus it is irrelevant for determining forgiveness (unless you assume off-screen conversations that are really just fanfiction and not relevant for an analysis).
So, back to the question, was Catra forgiven too fast? Well, to start, I almost reject the question. People who say this seem to imply that everyone forgave Catra for every thing she ever did. Catra did not interact with every character post redemption. Mermista for example, had no interaction with Catra and we cannot know what she would think about the situation. And many of the people she did interact with, didn’t really have much of a choice either way. The fate of Etheria and everyone living on it was on the line, Catra was there and that’s all there was to it. All the remaining members of the rebellion did was not treat her like trash. The people who actually forgave Catra are: Adora, Glimmer, Bow, and Entrapta.
Glimmer I would guess is the least controversial of these four. This is interesting because Catra did the most individual harm to Glimmer: kidnapping her, attacking Brightmoon, and indirectly killing her mother. However, as many people have pointed out at this point (and may be a future analysis), Glimmer and Catra have parallel arcs. Glimmer with her actions in season four did pretty much the same thing Catra did. She was directly responsible for a nearly world ending event, and is indirectly responsible for the only mother figure Catra had, Shadow Weaver (obviously she is a lot worse of one than Angela), being killed. The pair also spent plenty of time together on Horde Prime’s ship, being forced to communicate as there was no one else to talk to. This shared experience made them closer and understand each other more. Finally, Catra saved Glimmer’s life, sacrificing herself to be subject to whatever horrible things Horde Prime could do to her. Overall, it’s logical Glimmer would have forgiven Catra.
Bow is a little more tricky. His personality is warm and kind. He showed that to Adora when she was their captive all the way back in the first episode - it’s just who he is. What I would add to this is Bow (and Glimmer) saw firsthand how much Catra meant to Adora. He saw her reaction when Catra’s voice went out after she sent Glimmer back. And yeah - there’s that too, Bow loves Glimmer and Catra saved her. Bow’s forgiveness is in character and justified.
Catra sent Entrapta to Beast Island. She ended up kind of thriving there, but she understood what that meant. It is arguably the most morally reprehensible thing Catra did. However, Entrapta herself was not innocent. She helped the Horde’s attempt to defeat the princesses and created the portal (I think Entrapta is more responsible for the portal situation than Catra is, but I know that is probably a hot take). She faced that head on in “Launch”, seeing how her actions affected her former friends. I think Entrapta not forgiving Catra would be the pot calling the kettle black - she fell in love with Hordak for Titan’s sake!
And finally, Adora…do I need to even talk about Adora? She witnessed every awful thing Catra went through growing up, has a heart of gold, and is in love with her. Obviously Adora would put aside the feelings of resentment. Not to mention the fact Adora probably blames herself for a lot of what happened. Obviously she forgave Catra.
I want to end this with an overall conversation about forgiveness. This will get into some personal views and feelings about life you may not share. Forgiveness is not a feeling, it is a choice. It is shown that holding a grudge is bad for your health. When you refuse to forgive, and cling onto bitterness and resentment, you are not hurting the person who hurt you, you are hurting yourself. She-Ra teaches us a lesson in forgiveness. If the characters had not forgiven Catra, the world would have been doomed. Letting go of these feelings of resentment will save your own personal world. I think some people get upset about characters forgiving Catra because they have their own Catra they are unwilling to forgive, or maybe they are the Catra. The past is in the past, we just have to do our best to heal.
You never make peace with grief. You never accept it. It doesn't go away, neither does it decrease with time.
The grief just chooses to sit in some deep corners of your heart, knocking at your door, softly, murmuring sweet words until you open the door and let it consume you on a random day, on a windy morning, or a bright afternoon or a quiet evening.
It scratches the wounds you thought were deep disappeared into your skin and you thought "Wow, look how it has healed."
I read that grief is a spiral staircase, but it is also a pendulum. It comes back and forth. With the same intensity, maybe even more. You don't get used to it.
You don't accept it. You just stand there amidst it all, wondering if this is what it's supposed to be like.
Grief is also a bouquet of flowers made at the shop as a lover's gift but instead it is brought by an old man for his dead wife's grave.
Grief is also that one sticker you never used cause "I'll use it on something nicer" but the nicer never came and the sticker faded away into nothingness.
Grief is me, existing.
Grief is us, choosing to let it consume us until we find a purpose to get out of bed and open the door cause someone was knocking.
The hell is going on with Tuvok’s kids? How old are they? Why do they do this to me? Welcome a segment I like to call:
Chaos loses their mind over Star Trek continuity ✨
(Chaos loses their mind over Star Trek continuity ✨)
For this week’s episode: In canon, Tuvok’s children have wildly conflicting potential ages, specifically his daughter. Come along for the journey.
To start, Tuvok has a solidified age within canon. Tuvok states his stardate birthdate to be 38774 (“Unimatrix Zero II”), putting his birth year in our terms as 2264. This makes him 107 as of when Voyager goes missing in 2371.
In the episode “Flashback”, Tuvok states he is 29 years old in said flashback two months into serving aboard Sulu’s ship on a three year mission. After this ends, he resigns his Starfleet commission, and six years later, begins Pon Farr.
As an aside, it’s really funny that in this episode, Harry says to Janeway that the nebula they were seeing wasn’t the same as the one the Excelsior saw eighty years ago, which means Janeway should be aware Tuvok’s over 100, so her birthday wish to him later in the show is even more wrong.
Anyways, this makes the absolute youngest Tuvok can be when he starts Pon Farr 38. Another small aside, I did make a post about when the fuck Vulcans start Pon Farr a period ago and mistated Tuvok’s youngest potential at 35 because I forgot about the three year mission. Apologies. Tuvok’s age here is incredibly relevant, however.
He says he and T’Pel raised their four kids during this time between his Starfleet careers. In alpha canon, we only get mention of two of their names. His eldest son, Sek, and his youngest child and only daughter, Asil.
In “Hunters” when Voyager gets their letters, it’s mentioned that Sek has gone into Pon Farr some point in the previous four years, took a wife, and sired a daughter. Now, I’d say that this should put a cap on how old he is considering as far as we know Vulcans go into it in their twenties but who’s to say?
Now, here’s where shit gets annoying as hell and where I think Star Trek writers knew there’d be some nerd thirty years down the line that paid way too close attention and wanted to punish me in particular. Tuvok’s daughter, Asil.
In “Alice”, Paris mentions that Asil was conceived during Tuvok’s eleventh Pon Farr. Don’t ask me how the hell that came up in conversation between them, but it’s mentioned. Here’s the kicker, Tuvok can’t have physically had eleven Pon Farrs by that point. If he was 38 at his first, and with the seven year cycle, his eleventh wouldn’t happen until he was 108, seventy years later.
Let’s go back to my old estimate, and say the Excelsior space docked after the fight with the Klingons and Tuvok got the hell out of dodge. Let’s say he really was 35 when he went into his first Pon Farr. This now allows for Asil to have been conceived while Tuvok and T’Pel were in the same quadrant, but only by a couple years, making Asil about two when Voyager goes missing.
Wow, that sucks. A toddler without her father. But that’s not that complicated, I hear you say. That’s not too much conflicting information, it could be simple as not remembering.
O, ye of little faith.
In “Fury”, Janeway mentions being present for Asil’s kolinahr. Last I checked, two year olds can’t do months in the desert studying alone. Not unless they’re really determined, I guess. Also also, the kolinahr is something adult Vulcans do, so she couldn’t have even been a teenager.
In the episode “Lineage”, Tuvok says that it has been a while since his children were young when Tom goes to him for advice in being a father.
And, just to further make information unclear, in “Once Upon A Time”, Sam Wildman, Paris, and Tuvok are all in a shuttle crash and Wildman gets hurt pretty bad. She starts panicking a little about her young daughter growing up without her mom. Tuvok comforts her by saying his own youngest has been without her father for four years now, but he trusts the people around her to guide her well. Now this may just be me, but I feel like you wouldn’t say that exactly if your daughter was a full blown adult.
Conclusion? I don’t know, man. This show couldn’t keep its head on straight if it was a man shotgunning a Coors Light in the parking lot of a football game.
