the mandalorian

Chapter 16.5 | Writing Warm-Up (ft. A Hermitcraft x The Mandalorian Fanfiction)

JoeRover behind the scenes, Writing Warm-up , , , , , , , , ,

The following is a fanfiction of events in the Hermitcraft series on YouTube and the Disney Plus series The Mandalorian. Please consider showing your support for both by checking out their respective channels or episodes (if possible). The parody names also come from the comments section of their videos.

Note: This was written before the outcome of the Turf War.

See, this is what happens when writers procrastinate writing their own stuff.

Title image for The Scaralorian Fanfiction

Chapter 16.5 The Player Head

Fearing that he would lose the Turf War and never see the glorious return of the Mycelium Resistance, Moff Grian abducted Scar’s Baby Yoda player head. Soon after its abduction, the Scaralorian traveled to Moff Grian’s upside down base in the Nether to discuss terms of release.

“I will give you the Player Head,” said Moff Grian with a wicked smile, “if you’ll build the back of my mansion.”

The terms were unfortunately too high and too impossible for Scar, and he had to leave empty-handed. But, he still had a plan.

The Scaralorian traveled across the server to recruit Bdubs and Cub for an assault on the Mycelium Resistance HQ. Though it looked like a Smurf home, the base was far more deadly thanks to modifications done by Doc.

Once united, the trio recruited Mumbo Jumbo so they could use his flying machine the Redstone I. As Mumbo finished prepping his flying machine, Scar polished his netherite armor and sharpened his netherite sword.

“How are you going to clean your helmet?” asked Bdubs. “You never take it off.”

The Scaralorian simply sighed. 

Soon, they were on their way. The Redstone I slowly inched its way to the mushroom-like base.

“Punch it,” said Scar.

“This is Minecraft,” said Mumbo. “This is as fast as it goes.”

Scar sighed once again.

Two hours later, the raiders arrived at the base. As they drew closer Doc’s security system activated. TNT canons shot at the Redstone I. 

“I’ll go ahead,” said the Scaralorian. “I’ll draw their fire while you make your way there.”

Scar switched out his netherite chest plate for an elytra. Scar leapt from the flying machine and blasted towards the base using a supply of rockets. The Scaralorian expertly dodged the canon fire. Flashes of light exploded around him as the air grew thick with the smell of gunpower. Finally, the air became less turbulent as Scar ducked down into the area under the canon’s range. He landed with a soft thud at the foot of the base. He ignored the nearby button; he wasn’t Moff Grian after all.

About twenty minutes later, the Redstone I arrived. Mumbo hacked the front door thanks to his knowledge of piston doors. However, the group was met by a mob of zombie troopers. The place quickly became a mess of swords, arrows, and rotten flesh…but the zombie troopers kept coming.

“We’re about to be overran,” said Cub in a panic.

Fortunately, Bdubs packed his bed. He placed down the bed and went to sleep. The time changed to day and the zombies caught fire in the sunlight.

With the way clear, the four hermits entered the base. Sitting atop a massive wooden throne was Moff Grian. A parrot with a nametag of Pesky Bird perched on the left armrest. Three dark hermit troopers stood at his side. Impulse, Rendog, and Etho waited wearing Bdubs player heads.

“Why am I here again?” asked Impulse.

“Shh,” said Moff Grian, “you’re not supposed to talk.” He then cleared his throat and faced the Scaralorian and his friends. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you made it this far, Scaralorian, but this is as far as you and your motley grew go…unless you agree to my terms and build the back of my mansion.” Scar stared at Moff Grian without saying a word. “Are…are you narrowing your eyes menacingly? It’s hard to tell with that helmet in the way.” Scar pulled his netherite sword. “Ah, I see that is your answer then.”

With a nod from Moff Grian, the three dark hermit troopers drew their diamond swords. Bdubs, Cub, and Mumbo equipped their iron swords.

“Hermit Challenges!” yelled Mumbo before charging at the nearest foe, who happened to be Etho.

Bdubs and Cub soon followed. The room filled with grunts and clangs as Scar approached Moff Grian. The Scaralorian sliced at Moff Grian with his netherite sword. At the last second, Moff Grian deflected the blow with his own netherite sword; however, it glowed with enchantments.

“Ha!” laughed the Resistance Mother Spore. “Didn’t think I had one of these, did you?”

Moff Grian struck at Scar. Scar blocked it. The two fought, striking and blocking. The swords clashed in bursts of iconic buzzing and crackling sounds. Finally, Scar won the upper-hand and knocked Moff Grian to the floor. 

“Where is Baby Yoda?” demanded Scar.

“He’s over there,” pointed Moff Grian.

Scar turned only for a moment, but that was enough time for Moff Grian to equip his elytra. “You will never find the Player Head!” Moff Grian blasted off using rockets and shot through a hole in the base’s ceiling. A moment later, Scar rocketed after him.

The three dark hermit troopers and the three allies of the Scaralorian stopped fighting once Moff Grian and Scar left. 

Cub faced Impulse; Rendog stared down Bdubs; and Etho met eyes with Mumbo.

“Wanna grab some cake while we wait this out?” asked Etho.

“Yeah, sure,” said everyone.

Moff Grian soared over the shopping district with the Scaralorian in hot pursuit. The two danced around buildings and shot down alleyways. They weaved through small openings and rocketed passed a couple of shopping hermits who nearly fell over in the wake of the flyers.

“Ha! Ha!” said Moff Grian. He took a moment to glance backwards in order to better mock Scar. “You’re only second to my flying skills!” He returned his attention to the sky before him only to see a ring from his Turf War mini-game a moment before impact.

“Moff Grian died from terminal karma,” reported the chat.

Moff Grian’s inventory exploded outwards, including the Baby Yoda player head. The items and player head tumbled towards the ground like little meteors. Scar dived towards the helpless Minecraft item block. He hoped his elytra would hold together as he picked up speed. The ground grew closer and closer.

Finally, he retrieved Baby Yoda. He pulled up and soon they were safely back in the air.

The Scaralorian and Baby Yoda returned to the Mycelium base and the Redstone I. Scar thanked Bdubs, Cub, and Mumbo with three diamond blocks each. Then with Baby Yoda in his off-hand, Scar turned and walked into the sunset.

“You know,” said Bdubs, “if we were accurate to the season finale of The Mandalorian, we would have–“

“Hey!” said Impulse. “No spoilers!”

Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading.

Please consider liking and sharing!

Bdubs’ footsteps echoed off the walls of Mumbo Jumbo’s mega-base. Finally, after nearly getting lost, he found Mumbo Jumbo at a lectern. 

“What’cha doing?” asked Bdubs.

“Writing a book,” said Mumbo, finally turning around.

“A book?” said Bdubs. “A Book of Mumbo Jumbo? What’s that about?”

No Wrong Turns at Albuquerque | Fortnite Season 5 Review

JoeRover Reviews , , , , , , , ,

Season five of Fortnite (chapter two) started off with a bang—literally, as the Zero Point is exposed. With it exposed everyone is trying to escape the loop. To stop the players from escaping, Agent Jones hires hunters from all across the multiverse, including The Mandalorian.

The new season has many enjoyable new features. One is the crystals that allow players to dash-teleport for a limited time. Another is the introduction of NPCs (non-playable characters) that offer upgrades and bounties.

Speaking of bounties, you can be assigned the task of eliminating a random player in exchange for gold bars. This means you can also be targeted. Any gold bars collected can be used to purchase weapon upgrades or hire a hunter to help you in battle.

I do like the cleaner lobby UI. There isn’t as much competing for your attention. I also like the new quests menu; I like how the quests and challenges are in the form of text messages from characters.

Thankfully, the punchcards have been integrated into the quest system. With the new system, you don’t feel overwhelmed by 50 punchcards displayed all at once; now, you are given the tasks a few at a time. The missions also seem like little stories instead of just challenges.

I really enjoy how much easier it is to check quests, eliminations, and the map while in the match. I like how you don’t have to guess at the controls to switch between tabs.

It did, however, feel like all my settings were reset between seasons. It seems like the aiming is off and that the camera moves faster, but that could be because I’m just bad at the game.

I do like the auto-run feature; I’m not constantly redoing the button press for running each time my fingers slip.

But, my favorite new feature so far is the sand tunneling. In the sand covered middle of the map, you can sink into the sand and move around at a fairly high speed. You can use this ability to get around, hide, or sneak up on players. I do wish they could turn off the feature once the match is over. If you are standing on the sand when the match ends, you still sink which prevents you from doing a victory emote. Update: It seems that Epic Games did fix this bug. In a recent match, I was standing on the sand at the moment of victory but didn’t sink.

I also wish they would fix the bug where you get a message saying they can’t find your preorder even though you didn’t order anything.

With new features, bounties, and The Mandalorian beskar armor quests, the latest season of Fortnite is looking interesting. 4.5/5

What are your thoughts on the new season? What hunters do you think they’ll add? How do you think the season will end? Reply in the comments below.

Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading.

The Smashwords End of Year Sale begins Dec. 18

From Dec. 18-Jan. 1 many of my eBooks will be 50%-100% off!

Smashwords

Rambling I Am Hmm

JoeRover Odds and Ends, theories , , , , ,

I planned to do a joke illustration/comic of Baby Yoda opening a Christmas present that contained a lightsaber package that said, “For ages 300 and up.” But then I began to wonder, “What would be the age equivalent for Yoda’s species?” I figured it would make sense to do 300 for three for simplicity’s sake. I was content with this idea until I watched The Empire Strikes Back.

On opening week, I watched Rise of Skywalker. Afterwards, I thought it would be fun to watch all the movies in episode order. So far I’ve made it from Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi. During The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda mentions to Luke that he’d been teaching people to become Jedi for 800 years. In Return of the Jedi, Yoda says that he is about 900 years old. I then was reminded of a Film Theory video by The Flim Theorists about Baby Yoda being the last of the species because their maturing cycle is too long for effective reproduction. I started wondering what would Yoda’s aging cycle be like?

So, we know that he’s been teaching Jedi for 800 of his 900 years. This means that he must have been an adult (or close to adulthood) at 100 because it is doubtful he had a Padawan while still a youngling. As far as I know, they take on a Padawan soon after becoming a Jedi Knight. They’ve got to be mature enough to be one at this point. We also know that in The Mandalorian, Baby Yoda (regardless of clone or not) is 50 years old. So we have 50 years unaccounted for. I’m also going to assume Yoda was rounding when he said 800 because he also spent about 20 years in exile after the Republic fell (supposedly Luke and Leia were in their 20s). So Baby Yoda has (give or take) about 50 years to go from Baby Yoda to Adult Yoda.

Depending on when The Mandalorian takes place, we could see an adult or near adult “Yoda” in the next Star Wars movies. To me it sounds like Mandalorian takes place soon after Return of the Jedi. The First Order is barely a rumor and word about the Jedi returning hasn’t reached Mando–he has no clue what a Jedi is. According to the Internet (and we know how reliable that is), the Rey trilogy takes place 30 years after Return of the Jedi, so that is 30 years that Baby Yoda is growing. We could very well see Padawan Yoda.

Anyway, all this math brought me back to the Film Theory video. In it, MatPat talks about how defenseless babies are. Baby Yoda doesn’t seem completely defenseless; we’ve seen him use Force powers and bite. I then started thinking about animals. Many animals are born with defenses that they grow out of: spots to blend in or a smell that makes them “invisible” to predators. I thought how weird is it that people babies don’t have this. We don’t have camouflage that we grow out of as we age. Part of this is because we are predators and don’t need protection as much. But, it got me thinking that maybe the reason Yoda’s species is so good with the Force is because they have such a long aging cycle. Nature needed to balance out their long childhood with something so that they could reach adulthood and reproduce. Enter the Force.

This long childhood also allows them to practice more, thus becoming even better.

It then got me wondering if being a Force user is some kind of self-defense for babies. The Jedi are constantly going on about someone being too old and having to unlearn what they’ve learned. Maybe that’s the reason they start training so young: to get them using their talents before they age out of it. We see Baby Yoda using the Force to protect himself or the others in the group.

I then began asking myself do we have something as babies that we “grow out of”? I came up with *cue the SpongeBob meme* imagination. As little kids we see magic in the world but eventually grow out of it. However, some, such as artists and inventors, don’t quite lose all of it. And how many times have we seen it where kids seem to know things they shouldn’t. Maybe if we encourage kids to keep dreaming, we could evolve into Force users. Maybe that’s why no one seems to know Yoda’s species because they are evolved humans. Spooky.

Do you think we could see soon see an older Baby Yoda? Do you think he could be the star of the next trilogy or just a side character? Let’s talk in the comments below.

Until next wormhole… thanks for reading!

Until Jan. 1 many of my books will be on sale during the Smashwords End of Year Sale. Check out which are available here.

The Mandalorian and More |Rapid Reviews (Spoilers)

JoeRover Rapid Reviews, Reviews , , , , , , , , , ,

The following are my opinion and do not reflect the opinion of any organization or person. May contain spoilers!

Horace Crenshaw, Jr.: Author of Blowing Sandstorm which, as the website describes, is a memoir of “a commander that was put in charge of an Army Reserve Petroleum Unit during the initial months of Operation Iraqi Freedom.” I haven’t read the book yet, but I was impressed with the website. It looked very professional. It was easy to read; there were few to no errors; and everything was easy to access. Within moments of arriving, I knew who Crenshaw was, what services he offered, and what the book was about. I would suggest fixing the book trailer video to add a thumbnail, if possible. As it is of writing this post, it looks like a broken link and makes me hesitant to click it.

The Mandalorian (Disney +): I was a bit leery and skeptical about the show. I’m not that big a fan of bounty hunter/anti-hero type of shows (though they are growing on me). I was a bit worried in the opening scenes when The Mandalorian didn’t speak. I was concerned about what type of show this would be. I was glad to see that events picked up. It was a little slow at first, but first episodes usually are. I was glad to see the action pick up; and then when I saw who The Mandalorian’s target was, I was hooked. Then it got better in the second episode. It added some humor and we got to see more of The Mandalorian’s character. Finally, I like the lone-hero western feel of the show; you can feel the isolation of the character and the environment.

New Super Lucky’s Tale (Nintendo Switch–Playful Corp.): It’s hard not to like a game with a cute fox who wears a cape. The graphics and animations are bright and cheerful, perfect for kids and the young at heart. The game comes with a ton (and I mean a ton) of puns. The characters are also very unique and colorful. I liked the burrowing mechanic; it allows you to avoid dangers by passing under them or you can use it to sneak up on foes. Also, it’s nice to see a game where a tail whip attack actually does something–I’m looking at you Pokèmon (LOL). Finally, it didn’t seem like you needed to be a master gamer in order to collect all the items. I didn’t play the game but watched the gameplay series by Stampy Cat (aka stampylonghead)–the videos are sponsored by Playful Corp.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows–Respawn Entertainment): I haven’t played the game, but I saw the cutscenes and some of the gameplay thanks to Gamer’s Little Playground. The story was very intriguing and hooked me right away. It was great to see what surviving Jedi were doing since the Purge. I quickly became attached to Cal and the other characters. I did notice times where the game got glitchy, such as characters passing through objects. Also, at times it looked like the characters would change appearance slightly. I don’t know if it was just the gameplay or something with the game, but at times the animations–especially during some of the fights–would seem odd. But, I like the ending and I hope this means we see more of Cal and the Mantis crew.

Lady and the Tramp (2019 live-action, Disney +): I think I liked the animated version a tiny bit better, but this version was also great. I liked how the animal characters showed emotion. They looked like they were sad or happy; they didn’t look stiff. I enjoyed how believable the CGI was; I could believe that these were “talking” animals. I also liked how it followed the original but wasn’t a carbon copy. It did start to feel long near the end.

Do you have any shows, books, movies, etc you’d like to see a review on? Tell me in the comments.

Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading.

Support me at Ko-fi.com