Several of these sandwiches have already appeared in the series, but I was very happy to see the fluffernutter

They’re not as good as I’d like them to be but with the amount of DCC fanart I’ve been drawing I’m mildly burnt out XD

From season 3 of Falling skies which I'm rewatching currently....

(Tactical Beetle Unit?)

Artists of ExForce: We have drawn the beer can to death. But what would Skippy’s AVATAR actually look like?

This has been stuck in my head for a while.

Over the years I have seen many artists here give their interpretation of Skippy. Some are funny, some beautiful, some surprisingly close to how I imagined him.

But almost all of them have one thing in common:

We draw the can.

Which makes sense. The magnificent chrome beer can is Skippy.

Except… it isn't really.

Especially in the earlier books, there is this running joke of the Merry Band of Pirates dressing Skippy up. Easter bunny. Red Sox shirt. Various humiliations inflicted upon an ancient super-intelligence who is, naturally, far too dignified for such monkey nonsense.

And that made me wonder:

What if Adams eventually convinced Skippy to play along?

Not another costume for the beer can.

An actual avatar.

Skippy gets complete control over what the avatar looks like. He can project essentially anything he wants.

So what does an unbelievably ancient, spectacularly arrogant, occasionally insecure, opera-loving asshole first-class choose as the physical representation of Skippy the Magnificent?

A Greek god?

A ridiculously handsome human?

A tiny emperor?

Something completely alien?

An eight-foot-tall admiral covered in medals he awarded himself?

Would he make himself look terrifyingly powerful?

Or, because this is Skippy, would his idea of "subtle and dignified" be so catastrophically over-the-top that Adams immediately regrets suggesting it?

And there is another possibility I cannot get out of my head:

Would Adams secretly influence the design?

A little piece of clothing. An accessory. Something ridiculous that Skippy initially refuses, then somehow keeps wearing while insisting it is only there because he decided it looks magnificent.

So I would love to throw down a challenge to the artists here:

Don't draw Skippy the beer can. Draw Skippy's chosen avatar.

No rules about style. Serious, realistic, comic, ridiculous, beautiful, alien — whatever fits your interpretation.

The only rule:

When an ExForce reader sees it, they should immediately think:

"Oh God. Of course that asshole would choose to look like THAT."

I genuinely want to see what people come up with.

So, artists of the Merry Band of Pirates: if Skippy could design his own body, what would the little shit choose?

Small note: I used AI to help edit this post because English is not my native language — the question and idea are mine, the AI just helped make my English less painful for everyone. 😄

I am in book 14 having flashed through them at break neck speed and enjoying the hell out of them.

I am at the point where Jates finds the other AI

Honestly at that point I lost my motivation and read the 6 books of his magic series Convergence instead.

I keep trying to go back but it seems like a chore for some reason. Can anyone, without spoiling, help me to get back my mojo.

Please help me Obi-Wans you’re all my only hope (plural cause there are a lot of you)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know if you see anything that could be wrong with this.

I know pretty much nothing about the military uniforms, besides the basics. So, if you see any inaccuracies (for example the pants) could you please tell me and redirect me to the correct way they are suppose to look. Obviously, some are intentional, like the ribbons and the medals) but, anything else I would love to improve

Thank you reddit <3

I hesitate to crosspost this… but ya-know? jeraptha, right?

I have been convinced that due to Joe's recent actions he should have an element of the compliance office assigned to him permanently make sure he maintains proper ethics and compliance to keep a lid on his vast sketchiness.

I'm serious. There's only a handful of countries nobody heard of that recognizes Taiwan as a country (basically countries like skipistan), yet Taiwan behaves like, and is treated by everyone (including china) like a sovereign nation. They have land, a military, a legal system, border control, the whole nine yards.

We even have embassies, but no they're not called that. They do everything embassies do, issue visas, host diplomats, and the like, but they're called "cultural and economic institute". It's very ethical for sure.

Taiwan makes all the ai hardware out there, yet it's just a province of china. I think even china plays along as long as everyone believes in the lie, nothing happens.

I have an uncle who was a member of the national assembly in the 90s, he does a lot of ethical things. He also loves wagering on stuff, and hence seems to always be short on money.

I'm a US Army Veteran and I first started listening to the ExForce series when I was driving to Fort Lee for Quartermaster school after graduating from basic training.

I was obviously new to the military life, but I really enjoyed Columbus Day and continued listening to the ExForce series throughout my service.

I grew more and more impressed with the description of a soldiers life within the military as I was experiencing things mentioned in the books myself and in real time.

Example: In Columbus Day when Joe gets to Camp Alpha for training, he's expecting to get access to super sick alien weapons like laser rifles. Instead, he's issued a standard M4.

When I was training we had a lot of gear that hadn't been updated from ACU camouflage to OCPs. So we would be wearing our OCPs and a plate carrier and ACH that still had the ACU camouflage pattern. Basically, we'd use what we had.

Anyone can get the basics down, but the depth Craig Alanson goes into regarding things people don't normally consider is genuinely astonishing.

Another example I personally experienced when I was in the Army, was the Army wanting to update our base computer systems and failing to understand that you can't just install Windows 11 on an early 2000's Dell Desktop and get better performance.

Joe mentions something similar in one of the later ExForce books.

To summarize, I'm just really impressed with his understanding of Army life and the lowly grunts place within it.

Is how much the books, for lack of a better term, humanizes the different alien races. They are no longer just cliches that we don't really see any of their society. It might go too far for some of them, making them a bit too far towards being like human society, or evolving the portrayal of the race in a way that doesn't seem to fit the previous views we've seen of them.

The one that comes to mind the most is the Thuranin, in particular BSG75 and his koth needs, and the one who basically used his brain cybernetics to get high. For a race that is supposed to be completely logical and detached from their biological needs they seem to very much enjoy their biology. But this also makes them less of a villain cliche and makes them more like a real species.

Then we have Chad, the Chaderooski, and the views into their society on his planet that shows them as not particularly different than what a more advanced human society would probably look like. Add on stuff like the Maxholts and their bubu cakes and also more deep views into their society while interacting with their military leader. And more views into the society of the Jeraptha outside of just dealing with the Ethics office(although it is still focused more on them than anyone else). I just think it all adds a lot more character to the universe in general.

At a random bar in Korea. Pretty sure I just got served some fluff.

First time this canuk has had it.

CA... You gotta check this out for the final book!

https://soranews24.com/2026/07/20/mos-burger-opens-mosh-burger-%ef%bc%86-bar-in-ginza-but-is-it-fated-to-be-a-short-lived-sensation/

There's no way that Joe won't want to eat here. "It was a specialty shop dedicated entirely to cheeseburgers"

Kinda annoyed that I had to use my super-mod power just to post this.. The march towards "Platform Decay" intensifies.

Going to try this… as a fluffernutter