OOOOO, THE EAST! I Was Only Thinking About The West, Ur So Right!!! I Wish They Went Back To The East,

This, but for my 50 minute ST presentation!

And all my like 5 unfinished works on ao3 (JANUARY, PEOPLE, I WILL POST NEW CHAPTERS IN JANUARY)(EXCEPT FOR THE SLUGTERRA SECRET SANTA I SIGNED UP FOR IM NOT LEAVING STOCKINGS EMPTY FOR CHRISTMAS)(THAT WOULD BE EVIL)

Reblog the writers’ fortune cookie for luck!

the mark vientos celebration scream face is something so important to me personally

Fun fact: my friend thought cave trolls didn't exist in the eastern caverns for 6 episodes because she thought Hamengku was a HUMAN because he wasn't the RIGHT SHADE OF BLUE. I love Slugterra.

Also, happy slugtember! Consider these posts an apology for missing half of it :)

Slugterra: a cautionary tale on why queer people need to stay friends with their ex's

I really gotta stop making things

"What happened to the Elves"

a completely improvised song/theory because I try to continuously refine my skill for procrastinating my actual work using interesting and self-improving methodologies

and yes I have a face, I know, its disturbing to me too, just focus on the mediocre guitar it'll be okay

ROTE: my incoherent rambles

whenever Burpy is ghouled/gooned/sick in the show, Eli is SO. DISTRAUGHT. or at least happy when Burpy is freed. Like, pets their head, says "hi", smiles to them, quipps a joke; something to show Burp that their human is very happy they're back.

I watched the will shane gets cured scene again, and I forgot that Burpy is also ghouled there; the shot that saved his dad also freed Burpy. And does Eli retrieve Burpy, like he usually does?

No. He immediately thinks the worst, walking up to his dad on the ground. Burpy doesn't even cross his mind. And Burpy's chill with it, hopping to will shane just like Eli did. After all, Burpy and Eli only really bonded after Will's disappearance; he obviously knows how much the man means to his son.

Its a great way to subtly hit the viewer with how big and tragic it all is. Imagine watching lightwell and ROTE back to back? Eli nearly sacrifices himself for Burpy a million times, and would again and again and again. But then his dad returns, and the fabric of time (and our understanding of the lore) changes dramatically.

So much so that, in the chaos, Eli touch-Burpy-and-I-will-kill-you Shane has bigger fish to fry that Burpy being back. Its startling to watch. It's something so small, but so impactful. It's even made more clear when Jun - who we learn in slug-fu showdown demands more time from his slugs to trust them - warmly greets Joo-Joo again, and thats the only time we ever really see that from him. and even will says "hello, old friend." and after that? Burpy isn't even ANIMATED, OR ON SCREEN for the last 5 minutes. Like Burpy isn't a main feature of the battle. thats BIZZARE. until...the promise to save his dad. Burpy retook Eli's shoulder, right next to doc.

When else do we see Eli not go above and beyond for his slugs? When others show more care for their team than he does? Never, actually.

It was just there, when he realized he still had a dad, and needed to speak to him first. He's in full "omg dad's here and alive" mode. Of course he is; but a lesser show would have had him reunite with burpy. The end of ROTE is a very harrowing slugterra watch, and its little details like this that made it so poignant. Eli's slugs took the backseat to his dad, on screen and as a part of the narrative itself, till Eli needed them again when he lost his dad for deeply sorrowful second time.

If you ever rewatch this show, keep a very close eye on burpy. What they're doing, how they react to events. Knowing the little guys been around for thousands of years and probably knows all the shane secrets makes all the little emotions fascinating. one of the best things I noticed was when Will saved eli on the ground with burpy; Burpy was growling at blakk while being shot. We havent seen him growl like that since....eli first met Dr Blakk in episode 1 of the entire show. I now see that shot as Burpy's true revenge, for that moment 5 years ago; Will got to shoot Burpy and land a hit with them on the monster who sent him to the deep caverns. Justice at last, for both of them...till, you know.

I'll leave off with one more note: in the show, especially pre-movies, Eli looks to burpy for advice constantly. It's never pointed out, but Eli always checks in: "do i tell them this?" "Is this the right move", etc. When the five of them promise, he didn't have to check. Either he didn't need a second opinion - he knew what his mission was - and/or he already assumed burpy was in agreement. I don't know if eli "grows up" during the slugterra timeline - its only a year - but he does gain more confidence in himself. And thats not him getting over past trauma or not feeling guilty over things anymore - thats on him becoming more accustomed to looking ahead instead of behind him. Like what jun said to pull him back.

If you catch me on ao3, I'm fascinated with the shows absolute hatred toward backstories. I think that's convenient for the writers, duh, but I also interperet it as a mirroring of the shane gang's attitude towards their pasts. They need to go forward, yes, but they also desperately want to move on, to make the past not matter anymore. If they were to make any actual good slugterra content again, I would like them to keep making ROTE-like stories; not even necessarily giving us complete backstories (we didn't even get that with Blakk), but having our characters contend with past events. his dad, of course, but also: Twist. dana. tom por. the goon. eli's mom. any and all lore about pronto, kord, and trixie. Any of these things returning would fit well in any plot they come up with, and continue making slugterra's fight with good and evil more and more personal to the characters. that's what slugterra exceeds at - having a plot's lore tie juuuuuuust slightly to broader slugterra history/culture and making these characters learn and face it together. If you want to make a better future, the past must be resolved.

and I think eli finally realized that at the end of ROTE, even if he spends the rest of the running show letting other missions distract him from that painful reality.

also we can be saved ch 2 is in production and i have monday off, and legend says that if you comment on my other stories my depression will lesson and i can actually produce content again thanks yall i love this fandom :)

they have absolutely recited the entire avatar intro together at least once, especially after they tell tad about the elementals.

I like to think that if/when Eli and Tad have to duel, they always delve as deeply into being incomprehensible to terrans as possible by speaking in quotes from the surface

E.g.

Tad: “[sigh] I miss my wife Eli. I’ll be back”

Or

Eli: “did you know you have rights? The constitution says you do”

Or just the whole “buying clothes at the soup store” argument

Note: they have both mutually agreed to never actually give away info on the sun or the sky or the surface in general. This started entirely as a slip up from Tad that Eli just doubled down on. It started out with one quote per duel until months down the line they’re both simultaneously recounting the entire eggman announcement (minus the moon) word for word in perfect harmony

SNAPCUBE!

An individual of culture i see-

Honestly Anon, best take on Eli and Tad ever-

Eli, for an entire year, has and no one to meme with till Tad showed up, and it's absolutely hilarious for the two of them, and hella confusing for everyone else!

Also the agreement on staying nothing about the Sky is amazing because they're going to have to fill it in with something different and leads to outlandish statements lmao

Just a post of appreciation for the slugterra-minor-character lovers:

many of you tumblr slugterra citizens adore the neutral/villian characters of slugterra. CC, Mr. Saturday, Maurice, Blite, Gar Revelle, Nacho, Billy, Mario Bravado, the gentleman, the fish pirates, basically all of the eastern caverns characters...there's alot of them. And I never talk about them, and have rarely wrote about them.

But hey, I freaking adore them too. They make Slugterra feel loved and huge and expansive. I have extensive plans on bringing Billy and Mr. Saturday and CC back in TEAL pretty soon, and all the side characters eventually - I swear thats still happening! It's just, like much of slugterra, they all need an episode where they crossed the line from "character who the audience is delighted to hc/theorize their personality and motivations" to "character who's still mysterious but there's something/some event that's solid to appreciate about them". I want to give that to them, like all of you! That's just in the ao3 realm for me.

So even if I don't reblog it, keep posting they/them Twist and CC thirst-traps and Billy polls, its clearly super fun AND you continuously remind me to write about them :)

With much love, Mister Rose

also, I think Seargeant Slug is Billy's dad.

sorry about not posting too much

truth is, I'm a Mets fan, and while thats not a big deal usually, this week has been a goddamn MOVIE PLOTLINE and all my free time has been devoted to keeping up with 2024 Met Lore.

for example: few days ago Pete Alonso and his wife went pumpkin picking and he brought a "lucky pumpkin" with him for the game that evening and he gushed about it being like a baseball in an interview.

gosh this team is running on dorks and memes its wonderful