#but then they imply that there is a shift after those first two eps...
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Joyce staying at the cabin with Hopper and El to keep them safe bc no one in Hawkins knows they’re alive. Will, Jonathan and Argyle staying at the Wheeler's bc they have more room and presumably aren't in danger like the others.
OH WAIT there's a witch hunt for the Hellfire club, which means all the boys are in danger from the townspeople. OH WAIT the boy who came back to life has returned from the West, the same boy whose assumed death jumpstarted this small town's curse in the first place! The same boy who apparently everyone and their fathers knew was gay...
THE END IS NEAR! THE GAYS ARE RESPONSIBLE!
+ Time jump early somewhere in between.
Now picture how that would look in an 8 episode story format, leading up to a final battle lasting about 2+ hrs, and that's loosely how s5 is gonna go down.
#byler#enter satanic panic#enter religious imagery#enter small town blaming the apocalypse on two boys falling in love#NO but deadass...#I could see a gradual realization in 5x01#with them making a plan but then realizing it wont work bc townspeople are hunting down members of hellfire#the whistleblower for the hellfire club in the eyes of the town was jason#and now jason has been found dead#and before he died he told the townspeople that members of hellfire club were protecting eddie...#jason basically signed all of hellfire clubs death certificates#now that citizens are seeing real life impacts as a result of what jason said was caused by these kids playing dnd...#that they're now working for the devil himself#shit is going to get bleak af...#it could get so bleak that something horrible happens instigating a time jump early on#the duffers have said s5 is pretty quick in motion with continuing the events directly after vol 2#but then they imply that there is a shift after those first two eps...#so i think it's likely we're getting at time jump in time for 5x03#putting the rest of the season post time jump and preparing for the ultimate final battle#that is my guesstimation at this time
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right where you left me | ben barnes x reader
summary : you got dumped in a restaurant and haven't been able to move on since that day.
A/N: i wrote this months ago and posted it on my wattpad so some of u might have seen this and yes they are inspired by right where you left me, another shoutout to blondie. excuse my bad grammar and writing, english isn't first language.
You entered the restaurant and you immediately caught the smell of all different kinds of spices making your stomach growls. Your eyes roamed for an empty seat and you finally made your way to the corner in the dim light. Ben had texted you to meet him at the restaurant, he doesn't say why—you two hadn't been talking for a couple of days because of a simple disagreement. It's stupid, both of you held your pride too high to apologize and make up with each other.
You noticed his silhouette in the crowd and raised your hand, gesturing him to your way.
"Hey," You gave him a smile as he sat in front of you. You both stare at each other, the table filled with awkward silence as you keep fiddling with your fingers. "I'm sorry—"
"Look—" You two spoke at the same time and let him first. "How can I say this?" Ben muttered under his breath, and sighed. "I don't think I can be with you anymore."
"What?" you were taken aback by his words, what happened? You stayed there, unable to move. you felt like your heart had been shattered into a million pieces. You felt like your whole world had stopped.
"BRITISH ACTOR, BEN BARNES (40) IS RUMORED TO BE MARRIED AFTER FOUR YEARS OF BEING SINGLE AND ALSO CAME OUT WITH HIS NEW EP. SUCH A SURPRISE!!"
You sighed warily and shifted on your seat at the restaurant as you stared at the article on your laptop. Has it been four years? how?? Ben had always talked about writing his own songs, and you are glad that he finally pursued his dream. But you couldn't deny the burning pain in your heart when you read the article.
You dragged the cursor to close the tab on your screen, "Y/N," your head snapped up from your laptop to meet the familiar brown eyes which you used to call home. "Ben." you exclaimed, lowering your screen and drew your attention to him.
"How are you?" his eyes seemed to seek for eyes, implying onto something you couldn't put your finger on. You tried your best to not get drawn into those dark eyes, knowing he might have a wife out there.
"I'm okay. How are you?"
"I'm great." that goddamn smile.
"I heard about your EP! Congratulations." you mean it, you always want what's best for him. "Would you like to sit? I'm always alone, of course." you offered the chair in front of you, whispering the last sentence under your breath and closing your screen all the way down.
After a few awkward questions, you finally managed to relax with each other. You two exchanged your lives like old friends.
"I met someone." he blurted out,
And suddenly, you're back at the restaurant again four years ago. Standing in your cardigan, you could feel the mascara run. Your heart crumbled into a million pieces again. You barely had a grip on reality.
#ben barnes imagine#ben barnes#ben barnes fluff#ben barnes x reader#ben barnes angst#benjamin barnes#shadow and bone#aleksander morovoza x reader#billy russo x reader#billy russo#the darkling#the darkling x reader
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I keep going back to ep.4 of Bad Buddy because I can’t help myself.
P’Aof is a brilliant director and I believe this episode just reminded us of this fact. I also don’t think the episode is to be taken at face value.
I’ve had a lot of theories but the most recent one that keeps me coming back is that Pat isn’t as oblivious to his feelings as we are made to believe. It seems that way cause we’re seeing things unfold from Pran’s perspective and that sweet boy is so guarded and scared to be seen with Pat that he might not think Pat’s feelings are genuine feelings of love rather than just teasing.
I keep going back to two scenes that to me are important, that being the scene between Ink and Pran after the rugby game and the brilliant bedroom scene. At first I kept focusing on Pran because his emotional turmoil has blinded me a bit to the other things going on, but now that I had some time to think about it I’m starting to notice Pat more and more.
We were shown that he overheard Ink and Pran’s conversation that could only be interpreted as Pran carefully and very bravely asking Ink about her feelings for Pat and thus revealing that he is not really after Ink. And Ink being the precious bean that she is totally got it, tried to shift the mood and with her reaction kinda reassure Pran that it’s okay. And Pat overheard the conversation. Because of course he did. He can’t help himself but orbit around Pran and seek him out.
So hear me out. Let’s say Pat actually overheard their conversation, overheard what Pran said and what it actually implied. Fast forward to their conversation in Pran’s room. What if Pat just wanted to make sure he heard it right.. so he asks Pran if he likes Ink… He is always trying to get close to Pran only to be shut down and rejected by Pran every single time. So maybe this is Pat’s way of feeling Pran out? In a sense.. even his little role play includes Pran, not Ink. He asks Pran: If you were her, would you like me? He proceeds with listing all the things he’s done for Pran.. when he just could have listed things he’s done for Ink in their past.. why make it so specifically about Pran?
So if my theory is correct on any level… for Pat to then be hit with the “I hate you” from Pran must have felt like a slap in the face and Ohm acted it out brilliantly. His facial expressions scream hurt. And then, in true Pat fashion he tries to hide his hurt by joking.
I just refuse to believe that Pat is as oblivious as he is made out to be in Pran’s mind. I feel like Pran is projecting a bit.. because to him, even tho he is in love with Pat and has been for literal years.. actually being together seem like a no go. Because of their history, because of the family feud and because for him it might seem unlikely that Pat has feelings for him. Since we’re seeing things unfold from Pran’s perspective we don’t really know what Pat is thinking… so once we get to see things from Pat’s perspective, those two scenes might gain a whole new perspective.
#bad buddy#bad buddy the series#pran x pat#pat x pran#ohmnanon#bad buddy meta#kinda#I keep going back and forth in my theorise and my brain can’t focus#that can only mean one thing… REWATCH TIME
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Pretty Boy & The Kid
In 506 mitchell calls eddie “pretty boy” and he calls buck “the kid”. It was sort of a funny throwaway line mostly I think, but wondered how taking buck as “the kid” seriously in terms of the mitchell & eddie and eddie & savanna dialogue might shift the interpretation of those lines.
So, I present to you the relevant lines from those two conversations:
1. “Kid’s been waiting almost a year for a new heart.”
If we accept the potential double meaning, this line suggests that both chris and buck have been waiting for a heart. I take “almost a year” to mean 8-11 months. That’s a somewhat arbitrary time period but it makes more sense to me than a smaller timeframe since mitchell said “almost a year”. Maybe the time frame doesn’t matter in this case but they do interesting things with numbers in this ep so I think it may.
So, that timeframe leaves us pondering stuff that happened in s4 between ep1 and ep8 (or January 18 - March 8). I included 408 (which aired on March 8) bc 506 was originally 507 and was slated to air 8 months after (November 8).
That first half of s4 was a busy time for matters of the heart for buddifer. Both eddie and buck were starting to date. Also eddie was maybe starting to feel like chris needed of a mom/parent. He was also scared that chris wasn’t ready, or more likely that he wasn’t ready for a woman in his life. We know how eddie tends to proxy chris when he’s talking about his own feelings.
I think it’s interesting that the “almost a year” timeframe puts us squarely inside these heart aka emotional/romantic/familial issues. Buck and eddie were feeling their feelings about moving forward and making meaningful romantic relationships at this time. If we accept that both buck and chris are subtextually “the kid”...very inchresting.
2. “What do you want me to do? Go back to prison? Sit there rotting in my cell while my kid dies?”
Mitchell delivers this line too. We know that mitchell and eddie are parallel in this ep. Mitchell is an escaped convict trying to help his son and eddie is contemplating escaping his own emotional prison. He struggles with that concept the entire ep. Does he stay in his cell because it’s safer for his loved ones or does he let himself out and what does that mean for him.
If he stays in prison or continues to ignore matters of his own heart, what happens to chris? Eddie legit feels that his own heart issues are insurmountable and his dialogue with mitchell explores that. Eddie and mitchell’s conversation and later eddie and savanna’s conversation imply that eddie’s own heart is not quite healthy enough to give to chris yet the transplant metaphor is prominent.
In eddie’s case, I think he feels doomed if he does express his own emotions and doomed if he doesn’t. We know that eddie needs control. I think the things in his heart feel wild and unruly like the zoo metaphor in the season’s opening arc and like the prison riot metaphor in this ep. Eddie actually urges mitchell to go back to prison and find another way to save nolan. I think eddie is having a similar thought process for himself. To keep bottling up his own emotions and find an alternative means of getting chris the heart that he needs to grow up healthy and happy.
That’s buck folks. That’s why eddie is giving chris to buck and buck to chris. They both have good working beautiful hearts. Buck is eddie’s version of a bypass. I think that says so damn much about how much eddie recognizes and loves buck’s beating heart. I really do think that buck is eddie’s heart as well as chris being eddie’s heart. Eddie is still learning/deciding if and how to nurture his own heart. Based on the conversation and visual narrative in this ep, I think eddie has decided to “rot in his cell” rather than poison chris AND buck with his emotional issues.
3. When I found out about Nolan I was like, “Great. I’ll meet when he shows up in the cell next to me.” He’s not like that though. He’s a good kid. Nothing like me at all.
Eddie told Frank in therapy in 309 that chris is nothing like him. He’s an open happy kid who shares every thought and feeling. That is NOT eddie. But you know who else is a “good kid” open and willing to share his thoughts and feelings? BUCK. Buck is all heart and eddie sees that. Eddie loves that. Also, eddie really wants to protect that. We constantly see buck trying to save eddie’s life when he gets into deadly situations but also again and again we see eddie trying to save buck’s heart when life deals him devils and demons. Eddie is always providing buck’s heart with a jump and jolt. He want’s buck too to stay open and good and willing to share his emotions, just like he wants that for chris.
If eddie feels his heart/ability to engage with his emotions is no good, it makes total sense that he would give the man he trusts with his son more than anyone custody of chris. The will is eddie’s heart bypass. But it’s not perfect. It removes eddie from the equation because for buck to get chris, eddie has to die. Buck and eddie have got to talk about all these unspoken things between them and soon because this ish is cray!
4. “He was watching you for years, from a distance. He saw that Nolan was a good kid. Mitchell didn’t want to screw him up too.”
Eddie speaks this line to savanna in the hospital after mitchell dies to give his heart to nolan. This is literally just eddie talking about himself and savanna is at least a partial stand-in for sh*nnon. Eddie watched sh*nnon and chris from across the ocean while he was serving in the military. In the s2 christmas ep eddie tells buck that he was scared and used his service to avoid actively being a dad. Now in 506 we learn why. Eddie was scared of messing chris up emotionally. He was scared of “congenital heart failure”. So he stayed away.
You know who else eddie is loudly staying away from, keeping his distance from this season? BUCK. Buck is another “good kid” that eddie doesn’t want to screw up by sharing his emotional issues and needs. So he’s widening the distance between them. Stepping back and sinking into himself. Caging himself so that he doesn’t hurt him or so that he doesn’t get hurt by him because he wants to be with him so damn bad.
Pretty Boy
This didn’t come into play in the text much at all, not like buck as “the kid” but I do think this mitchell-assigned nickname for eddie matters. Eddie is the poised, reserved guy who keeps it together, who puts on a mask and faces the world, a model of reserve and control. And that shit is killing his heart. It’s shredding his emotions. It’s time for him to STAHP!! It’s time for him to stop repressing, take off the mask and show what’s really inside him, the good and the not so good. Pretty boy needs to heal and my money is on buck (and chris) as critcal to that process.
All of these lines and nicknames really stood out to me and hit different especially when I substituted buck as “the kid”. Then again, maybe I’m just losing it and y’all should ignore me! LOL!
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MCU Loki Ep 2 “The Variant” intensive analysis
So, the 2nd “Loki” episode come out and, again, I couldn’t stop myself from talking about it.
Beware about spoilers!
After a brief summary that’s basically made by showing us the most relevant scenes of Episode 1 we’ve the Marvel opening, this time with its usual music… though the Marvel studios logo is still in green and gold.
We start this episode in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1985, the year of “Back of the future”, only there’s no Martin or Doc or the DeLorean, but just some sort of medieval fair.
Pity.
Anyway Minutemen get on the place and didn’t care at all about how they’re attracting the general attention with their look. We know why, because they think to reset the timeline before leaving so it’s not like their magical apparition might change something.
They believe they’ve detected the Variant so they enter in a tent thinking they can capture them… only to fall straight in a trap, as the Variant was waiting for them, starting a registration as soon as they are where the Variant wants them to be.
Yeah, the registration was meant to be for the show that should have taken place there but the Minutemen are smart enough to get it’s a trap.
After a recorded message that seem to imply in that tent there was meant to happen some sort of contest or show about saving a princess…
My lords, my ladies, welcome and thank you for joining us, here at the castle. Please, settle into your seats for a great battle is about to commence. The prize? Our princess. Will evil prevail, or are we holding out for a hero?
…the song by Bonnie Tyler “Holding Out For A Hero” starts and, as it does Hunter C-20 gets possessed by the Variant (we can see a hand touching her head, green magic on the tip of its finger, and then Hunter C-20’s eyes take an odd green colouring for a moment, a sign she’s possessed) and starts murdering out her own men in a joint effort with the Loki Variant. However while she fights she suddenly drops unconscious and a figure in a cape, clearly our Variant, stabs with her sword the last minuteman. Then, as usual, the Variant steals from the Minuteman what she needs and, this time, also kidnaps Hunter C-20 before disappearing.
Many have seen in the scene a reference to the Shrek 2 scene in which Shrek and his friends storm the castle in order to stop Fiona from kissing Charming, disguised as Shrek.
Me, I would just want to know if the princess is meant to be Hunter C-20 or this Loki Variant.
We’ll see.
Well, anyway we get the Loki title and them we find ourselves with Loki reading a jet ski magazine when Miss Minute would want him to review what he had learnt instead. She tries to quiz him but, although Loki seems to know the answers, he’s not interested in being quizzed, defining it boring.
His attention focuses on Miss Minute, asking her if she’s a recording or alive. She explains she’s both.
Loki looks around then tries to test it, rolling the magazine and attempting to use it to hit Miss Minute, who jumps around in an effort to avoid his blows. He seems to have fun. If this is idea of venting for the mistreatment he suffered at the hands of the TVA or he’s just being playful that’s up to speculation.
Miss Minute escapes inside the pc, complaining he’s being a jerk.
Mobius joins him and from his dialogue we discover the magazine is actually Mobius’ not Loki’s. The guy gives him a package, telling him they’ve to go and that he has to wear what’s inside it, which is actually a jacket, which Loki wears.
They join the others and Hunter B-15 explains how C-20 and her team disappeared in 1885 and they expect it to be an ambush by a Loki Variant, although they don’t know which kind of Loki Variant it can be. Loki suggests they’re the lesser kind, lesser than him, of course.
Hunter B-15 demands to see the back of his jacket on which we can see the writing Variant. She laughs seeing the writing, mockingly, the way one would when he has managed to put an insulting sign on someone’s back without them realizing.
Loki points out she was very subtle in it and she explains she doesn’t want anyone to forget who he is… which, I guess, means Hunter B-15 found yellow, star shaped badges too subtle or maybe not fitting to everyone they deemed a less human to prune away.
Still Loki asks her back if she means they shouldn’t forger he’s their only hope of capturing a murderer.
B-15, who never believed him to be capable of something, correct him saying they should never forget he’s ‘a cosmic mistake’. In short the writing is there to make him recognizable, to ostracize and to humiliate him. He’s not like them, he’s a Variant.
She’s not doing this because he’s dangerous and they should be wary of him, just because he shouldn’t exist.
Mobius states that this is enough… which hints he’s not enjoying this, but he allowed it to happen and didn’t even warn or prepare Loki about it.
Long story short he’s clearly different from B-15 who relishes in all this (and mind you, this is not a critic to Wunmi Mosaku, who’s awesome in the part, just to her character) but he still doesn’t really take a big stance against it as he stopped it only when it dragged on too long.
Mobius brings them back to business, telling everyone they’re looking for a Loki, a variation of the guy with them. He reminds them they should be familiar with Loki because they had pruned more Loki Variants than any other Variant and they’re all different, in appearances.
As Mobius speak we’re shown some Loki Variations with their numbers. Our Loki is the Variant L1130.
I wanted to check the numbers near the Lokis but it seems there had been a mistake in the handling of the numbers
Jotun Loki appears to have first the number L1247 but in the close up it switches to L6792
Cyclist Loki is L1247 and the hulking one is L6792 while the green dressed one is L8914 and the last one with the big helmet is L7803.
Long story short Jotun Loki has probably 2 wrong numbers pasted on himself as they belong to other variations but all the Lokis’ numbers has in common the letter L at the beginning which I guess, stands for Loki.
The visual makes something interesting, projecting the various variants on Loki, which makes us immediately aware of the differences but also reminds us they’re all still Loki.
What leaves me perplex is how those Variants became so different from the original Loki. I mean, our Loki was caught few minutes after he escaped. Unless those Loki managed to escape to the TVA for a while (which would risk the timeline to reach a red line so it seems unlikely it happened) how did they manage to deviate so much from how they were meant to be in the Sacred Timeline?
I mean cyclist Loki would have needed the time to take part to a race to in that cup!
It’s true that in this episode it will turn out the TVA worries only of deviations that impact the timeline, so maybe the TVA started worrying late in their case but it’s still weird.
Anyway Mobius starts digging into the powers they’ve in common which are shape-shifting, illusion-projection, duplication-casting and Mobius’ favourite, which we don’t get to hear as Loki interrupts Mobius saying he got one of the names of his power wrong, it’s Duplication-casting, not Illusion-projection and explains the differences between the two, finishing with:
“But you already knew that.”
… which they didn’t. In short it’s Loki’s turn to point out they act as if they know him when they don’t know him and his powers as well as they think and that he’s actually of some use.
On a sidenote there’s to wonder which one is Mobius’ Loki’s favourite power and if it’s meant to be relevant. This Variant showed it could posses people, and I wonder if what happened to Selvig at the end of “Thor” is a hint our Loki can as well. Our Loki could travel through the secret paths… in “Thor” he could spell his knives, which we know he can make appear out of nowhere. In deleted scenes we learn he could cause mist to appear. “Thor: Ragnarok” said Loki turned Thor into a frog. I wouldn’t mind if he were to start turn people of the TVA into frogs.
Anyway Mobius accepts his explanation and tells the others they’re gonna break in two teams, one of which will include himself and ‘professor Loki’.
B-15’s words about Loki being a cosmic failure clearly made an impression as one of the minutemen question the idea and Mobius is forced to admit since they can’t find this Loki Variant they need an ‘expert’.
Loki takes his chance to remind everyone that by expert Mobius means him. He’s there because he has a use, an importance, a role and they shouldn’t look down on him.
The scene switches.
Loki and Mobius are walking toward the door that will bring them in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1985.
Loki, repeating a pattern seen in “Thor: The Dark World” asks for a weapon…
Loki (Thor: The Dark World): “You could at least furnish me with a weapon. My dagger, something!”
Loki (Loki): “Do I get a weapon?”
…which Mobius refuses to give him. Loki though points out once out of the TVA he’ll have his magic back and asks Mobius if no one is worried he’ll betray them.
Loki: “Well, I'll have my magic back. Is no one concerned about that?”
Mobius: “Of what?”
Loki: “Me betraying you.”
This also is something we saw in “Thor: The Dark World”.
Loki: “You must be truly desperate to come to me for help. What makes you think you can trust me?”
Mobius can’t say Frigga did trust him or that he promises him vengeance in exchange of loyalty so he tries to go for something he knew Loki wanted, a meeting with the Time-Keepers. Considering Renslayer, who’s above Mobius, couldn’t grant Loki that, if I were in Loki I would genuinely doubt Mobius can. He just tries to dangle in front of his eyes something Loki might want to win him over.
Loki pauses as Mobius mentions he could meet the Time-Keepers and asks if that’s what’s on the table. Mobius doesn’t really give him a straight answer, just a ‘Keep that focus’.
I wonder if Loki really wants to meet the three space lizards or he just let Mobius believe so because, by acting that way, he made clear he’s interested.
Oh, now that I look at it behind the helmets of the minutemen there are codes which could be their identification codes or names, since they don’t seem to use names.
B-15 has obviously written B-15 while other minutemen had much longer codes.
The group arrives in 1985 and Loki makes a relevant question:
“Let me ask you this, why don't we just travel back to before the attack, when the Variant first arrives?”
It’s something many viewers have been wondering and it turns out that the answer is:
“Nexus events destabilize the time flow. This branch is still changing and growing, so you gotta show up in real time.”
In short the authors knew this could feel like a dumb plot hole so they made a rule to explain why this couldn’t be done. It’s still not perfert… I mean, what it means to show up in real time? They aren’t in the same time as 1985, when itìs real time for them? But whatever, it’s nice they tried to fix this problem.
Mobius asks Loki if he watched all the explicative videos he was supposed to watch and Loki replied only as many as he could stand because he find that their ‘TVA propaganda is exhausting’.
I’m glad Loki and I see things in the same way. Most of the TVA babbling is propaganda meant to brainwash people’s mind.
A Minuteman then asks Loki what ‘these’ (these being the Time Charges) do.
Loki knows perfectly and gives us the confirmation to the thing I, and many others, suspected in the past episode.
Time Charges…
“Reset charges prune the affected radius of a branched timeline, allowing time to heal all its wounds. Which sounds like a nice way of saying disintegrate everything in its vicinity.”
So yeah, it’s genocide or total destruction of that timeline and all the people in it.
But also yeah, Loki studied all he was supposed to study although he insists he watched only some of the videos. I’m not surprised though, a wizard had to be good at studying things and Loki clearly wanted to know how that world worked so of course he would have watched the video even if he’s downplaying it.
They reach the place in which the TVA fought Loki and discover the Loki Variant kidnapped C-20. It turns out that it’s the first time that Variant kidnapped someone. A minuteman suggests the Variant might have pruned (aka killed but the TVA doesn’t use that word) C-20.
B-15 acts defensively, saying a Loki couldn’t have beaten C-20. She clearly views the Lokis, the whole of them as this time she’s not even saying Variants, as inferior. She should probably remember she got collared by one Loki.
Loki tries to warn her saying she’s underestimating the Variant… which she’s doing as the Variant could have very well ‘pruned’ C-20 had the Variant wanted to.
B-15 isn’t interested in hearing him out as she interrupt him and tells the other to fan out and starts searching for C-20 fast as they’re approaching the red line.
Loki stops them, telling them if they’ll leave the tent they’ll end up killed. B-15 thinks it’s a waste of time but Mobius is willing to hear him out.
Loki launches himself in a long explanation, the gist of it being he thinks there’s a scheme behind the Variant’s actions, that they should be aware of their surrounding, listen more (like he does) and less prone to underestimate him or the ‘lesser Loki’.
Now… he’s not completely wrong, the TVA underestimates him, and they has underestimated the other Loki Variant, which we saw lead to some of their losses.
Loki claims the Variant wants him because they know he’s the stronger Loki and so wants to join forces with him to overthrown and rule the TVA. I’m not sure how the Variant would have known there’s a Loki working with the TVA but let’s assume they do and that Loki’s reasoning could make sense… or could be explained with him trying to paint himself as more important than he is.
But then he goes saying that this isn’t what he wants as he’s now a servant of the Sacred Timeline… which is patently untrue and hard to believe… who can hand them the Variant but what assurances he won’t be disintegrated once the job is done.
And okay, his own is a legitimate worry and a legitimate request.
It’s actually clever to ask for reassurances the TVA won’t dispose of him once the job is done… though it’s not like there’s an actual bargaining ground because, if Loki isn’t cooperative and therefore is useless, the TVA will dispose of him anyway.
It’s not so clever he would try to pass himself for a servant of the timeline when he clearly didn’t play the part well. Of course since he said Asgardians were fundamentally naïve, maybe that’s the kind of people he’s used to deal with… but he has experienced distrust in Asgard in “Thor”, proof his own people isn’t so naïve… and he should have figured out Mobius isn’t either.
And then he presses for urgently meeting the Time-Keepers saying they’re in grave danger… and this jump isn’t smooth.
Mobius knows Loki wants to meet the Time-Keepers, so of course if Loki pushes the issue in this way he’s going to be prone to assume it’s a trick. The speech doesn’t even keep a logical flow because Loki first presented himself as better than the Variant and capable to handle it but reluctant to do so for fear of being erased… but now he’s presenting the Variant as a grave threat that requires them to urgently talk with the Time-Keepers.
So from one side it’s pushing for too much when he hadn’t even shown himself to be useful yet and for another it makes for a weak argument if he’s really as superior as he claims to be.
So… hum… the speech seems to tumble down in an unsatisfactory manner, ‘seems’ being the operative word because, if there’s a goal behind its weak points, then they still have a reason to exist.
I’m actually not quite sure which game Loki is playing with the TVA.
He’s for sure trying to survive but then what else does he want to get? I don’t believe he aims to control the universe but I’m pretty sure he’s not swallowing the TVA propaganda and he doesn’t enjoy to be there.
His timeline was pruned so he can’t go back there. Does he want to save Frigga? Is that what he aims to do? Does he want to go into the timeline after… let’s call it ‘canon Loki’ died so as to replace him?
Prior to it?
I don’t know.
Is he saying all those things for the Loki Variant’s benefit? He hopes the Variant is out there hearing him and his speech would make the Variant interested in joining forces?
I don’t know. We’ll see.
Anyway as expected Mobius figures it’s a trick and, since there’s no more time to do anything else, they just reset the timeline and leave.
On another note I like how Loki uses an Asgardian way to say. Way too often in movies even aliens feel compelled to use English ways to say instead than way to say from the world they belong to.
We also see how a time charge works. Loki hurries to move away as soon as he sees them starting it.
They… do something with the top part of it, I’m not sure if they push a button or pulled some sort of safety pin. We see something yellowish being released in the fluid inside the time charge which then turns purplish. The purple colour expands to the whole glass of the time charge until from below it something like a coloured expanding pool comes out. Everything that gets touched by that pool ends up being disintegrated.
At the TVA the monitors show that the ‘reset’ (read ‘disintegration’) of the timeline is done and that C-20 ended up MIA.
A music that’s half sad half… disquieting, start being played and we move into Renslayer’s office.
Mobius is complimenting for her office, pointing out how there’s a new snow globe in it and how he doesn’t remember bringing it to her.
She replies he’s not the only analyst working for her, which seems to imply analysts working for her are meant to bring her souvenirs from their missions. Or better… not quite. Mobius asks her why she gets to keep all the trophies from his cases, which seems to imply they weren’t given willingly.
Still, he tries to get her to admit he’s her favourite analyst.
I’m not really sure what’s going on between these two. They don’t seem to be in a relationship and I’m not sure if Mobius’ attempts at flattering her are because he’d like to be in a relationship with her but doesn’t dare to push the issue or because he’s currying her favours.
We’ll see.
Renslayer moves the discussion to the mission Mobius just botched and I don’t know if I would define it as such. Okay, so they didn’t find C-20 nor the other Loki Variant but chances here are two:
- the Loki Variant was out there using C-20 as bait as Loki said, setting a trap for them, and they successfully avoided it
- the Loki Variant wasn’t out there and so wasn’t C-20 and therefore was nothing for them to find.
Either way the mission wasn’t botched as they came back and successfully disintegrated… pardon, the TVA doesn’t like that word, they prefer ‘purged’ the branched timeline and any living being inside it.
Renslayer, referring to Loki as just ‘this Variant’ complains he’s insubordinate, stubborn and unpredictable like Mobius.
Honestly I think the whole series is trying to draw parallels between Loki and Mobius, where Mobius is however the one who chose to submit to the system where Loki just can’t stand it and wants to break it down.
So, although Mobius should be ‘all lawful’ we can see there’s a bit of ‘chaotic’ inside him.
It’s probably worth to remember that ‘lawful’ and ‘chaotic’ are nothing else but the two opposite extreme on the Ethical axis used for RPG alignment where Lawful represents obedience to the law and Chaotic leans toward personal freedom, without regards to the law.
There’s another sign Mobius isn’t fully lawful, the fact he has the bad habit to leave the glass rest on Renslayer’s furniture, leaving rings, and then insisting he’s not who caused them as they were already there… when Renslayer points out they’re all there due to him.
I know a part of the fandom loves Mobius but I wonder if he’s in the story not only to interact with Loki but also to work in contraposition to him. There are two paths for him, either he chooses the same path as Loki or the opposite. We’ll see.
Mobius tries to blame the ring on Renslayer’s other favourite analyst. I wonder if such person exists and is meant to have a relevance in the story. It’ll be interesting if it’s the other Loki Variant in disguise.
I mean… the other Loki Variant knows plenty of things about the TVA which hints at how they should have a previous and prolonged contact with them because the TVA explains nearly nothing about how their things work to their captives but the other Loki Variant knows what Reset charges are and how they work or how to use a TemPad to open Timedoors.
Yet Mobius doesn’t seem to have info on when they captured that Variant, carried it to the TVA and then let them escape, so again, how did the Variant learnt so much about the TVA?
From another escaping Variant?
Hard to say?
Did they saw the TVA and tailed them till the TVA unnoticed?
I can’t really tell, we’ll see.
Anyway, back to their conversation, Renslayer points out the issue isn’t Mobius’ methods with Loki, but the fact he towed a dangerous Variant into the field… meaning they consider Loki dangerous.
Mobius claims that from that they had learnt ‘the Variant’ likes to stall for time, so the other Variant might end up doing the same, because, to Mobius, understanding one Loki leads to understand the other.
And I’m:
- actually you didn’t need to bring Loki to the field to learn this, didn’t you notice that’s what he did in other circumstances?
- if the two Lokis are different, no, understanding one doesn’t mean understand the other. I mean you had a Loki who was fine living as a Jotun while this one was traumatized by the idea he was a Jotun, Loki can be pretty different about them, enough to be complete opposite so no, nobody said they’ll surely share that particular trait.
Whatever, let’s go on.
Renslayer says Mobius has a soft spot for broken things (which Mobius denies because he’s a bit like Loki and doesn’t want to show weakness), which acknowledges this Loki is broken… but gains him no sympathy from Renslayer as she said that ‘Loki is an evil, lying scourge’. Because he attacked New York? Nope, just because this is the part he plays on the sacred timeline and he can change only if the Time-Keepers decree so, not because he wants to.
Renslayer is big on the predeterminism when it’s about Loki (who’s a Variant by the way and therefore already out of the Sacred Timeline) but why doesn’t she apply it to the TVA as well? They’ll take the Variant only if the Time-Keepers will so.
I think the TVA’s faith in the Time-Keepers has plenty of weak points and is hypocritical. I wonder if the show will explore this.
Mobius switches topic asking how the Time-Keepers are and it turns out he NEVER met them. So he basically can’t even be sure they exist or not, yet he’s pouring all his faith in those three space lizard.
Mobius seems kind of glad he hadn’t met them, which seems to hit they’re either dangerous to meet or he doesn’t have a good opinion of them.
Renslayer says:
“The Time-Keepers are monitoring every aspect of this case. I've never seen them so involved. They want that Variant caught.”
…which seems a way to put Mobius under pressure but really, if they decide the flow of time, shouldn’t the decide if Mobius will catch the Variant or not? They can decide if a Variant Loki can change or not but they can’t control the other?
Anyway Mobius signs the event report Renslayer already signed. We can see Renslayer signs R Slayer while Mobius signs M. M. M.
Mobius notices the pen he used for signing has the writing ‘Franklyn D. Roosvelt High School’ on it and complains that pen too should be from the other analyst Renslayer favoured. And I wonder again, who they are? They’re meant to be relevant? Or they’re only a plot device to make Mobius jealous?
Renslayer only tells him to stay focused. As he’s about to leave though, she stops him asking him if he believes in that Variant. Mobius doesn’t confirm this, saying Loki believes in himself enough for the both of them, complaining Loki is really arrogant and that he will delete him himself if this doesn’t work.
Of course these might be just words he tells to Renslayer but we saw him taking part to erasing timelines and even if he showed sympathy and kindness to the French boy he met in the cathedral in the very first episode, he let him be reset.
“Don't worry, that devil's afraid of us. We're gonna take care of him. And we're gonna put you back where you belong.”
This apparently kind sentence meant they disintegrate him and his timeline so the place the boy belong is basically oblivion.
But I’ll dig on Mobius and Loki in a moment.
For now let me pause a moment on the pen, another gift of Renslayer’s mysterious over analyst, with written on it ‘Franklyn D. Roosvelt High School’.
Franklyn D. Roosvelt, ex-president of the united state is also relevant for the MCU.
In 1940 Roosevelt ordered the formation of the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) to fight the Nazi Party, even though the United States was still at peace with Germany. To ensure that only the greatest scientists work for the SSR, Roosevelt ordered Chester Phillips to recruit Howard Stark into the agency. SSR works in the creation of the Super Soldier Sierum, which ‘gives birth’ to Captain America then it is the re-tasked to fight Hydra. Later it will become part of S.H.I.E.L.D.
So yeah, maybe it’s a coincidence but it’s interesting.
Back to the story.
Mobius leaves Renslayer and we discover Loki has been left outside Renslayer’s office to wait.
Mobius whistles and also motions to Loki to follow him.
Some has compared this with how one would act to a dog. It’s possible they’re not so off track.
The TVA is a world that discriminates Variants and find them worth only being erased. They shouldn’t exist, they’re cosmic jokes, no one should forget someone is a Variant.
Mobius too in his discussion with Renslayer referred to Loki as just “the Variant”. Yet Mobius also feels some sympathy for Loki. Renslayer says he has a soft spot for broken things, if can mean she acknowledges Loki was broken by his experience… but she might also refer to the mere fact he’s a Variant and Variants, in a way, can be seen as ‘broken’ as they didn’t function properly but followed their own path instead than the one the Time-Keepers traced for them.
So the idea Mobius sees Loki as some sort of pet can be fitting. Mobius is growing fond of Loki… but he’s still imbued in all the TVA’s beliefs and teachings about predeterminism and how Variants are bad.
He doesn’t want to be needlessly mean to Loki, but the latter isn’t equal to him, he’s a tool, as everyone reminds him and as he has to remind to everyone else.
Variants has no rights in the TVA, they just exist to be pruned, reset, or, in less pretty but more realistic words, disintegrated.
And Mobius is a guy in the middle.
While he doesn’t want to be a jerk to Variants… or to people in the Sacred Timeline who’re going to die, he’s not really willing to fully fight against the system because he has faith in the system and a side of him he thinks Loki should just accept his place.
We see it in their discussion.
Loki is somewhat nervous… which, I’ll be honest, feels a little weird to me because he’s being openly nervous when usually Loki can keep controlled and hide this sort of things.
He had played a high risk bet during the mission and lost, he had time to think at what to say to Mobius while Mobius was discussing with Renslayer yet what he comes up isn’t really worth of someone who’s supposed to have a silver-tongue.
Okay, so it’s not like we were shown him using his silver-tongue in the movies, as people tended to do the opposite of what Loki asked them or not listen him at all, with the exception of Malekith and the Grandmaster… but we don’t get to see how Loki won the Grandmaster over.
Whatever, maybe there’s a reason, maybe not, we’ll see.
When facing the Variant later, Loki will say he kept the TVA vulnerable at the Renaissance Fair for some time and also that he has been working on gaining their trust. Presenting himself as openly insecure to Mobius, instead than hiding it as he would usually do, might be part of winning him over. As I said in the past commentary for ep 1, sometimes there are more benefits in being honest than in lying, so it can be that it’s not that Loki isn’t nervous, it can be he sees more benefits in showing it to Mobius.
We’ll see.
Mobius is in a bad mood. Although it didn’t seem Renslayer had given him a earful for his failure, it can be his failure burns. He tells Loki to show up, reminding him in the elevator he said he didn’t like to talk… which is something else that makes me think Loki is trying to give Mobius EXACTLY what Mobius asked for, so as to fulfil his expectations and lower his guard.
The following conversation is relevant.
Mobius: Okay. Just shut up! Please. What happened to the guy I met on the elevator? Who didn't like to talk. Remember him? Now I'm stuck with this guy who won't stop yacking away about what makes a Loki tick!
Loki: What? Isn't that precisely why I'm here?
Mobius: No. I don't care what makes you tick. You're here to help me catch the superior version of yourself. That's it!
Only Mobius in the previous episode told him he wanted exactly this from him.
Mobius: I'm serious. All I seek is a deeper understanding of the fearsome God of Mischief. What makes Loki tick?
This is the problem of an unequal partnership like their own. Loki isn’t there because he’s Mobius’ partner and equal, Loki is there to serve a purpose, capturing the other Loki. Renslayer might be right and Mobius might have a soft spot with him, but in the end Mobius ends up reminding Loki his place in the TVA, he’s there to be useful.
Loki takes offence by Mobius calling the other Variant “superior”.
Mobius gives us a slice of his mind… and Loki calls him out on his attempt of manipulation.
Mobius: See? There it is. Right there. I believed, stupidly, that insecure need for validation would motivate you to find the killer. Not 'cause you care about the TVA mission or bein' a hero, but because you know this Variant is better than you and you can't take it.
Loki: Very nice. I mean, it is adorable that you think you could possibly manipulate me. I'm ten steps ahead of you. I've been playing a game of my own all along.
But there’s something else worth pointing out. Mobius clearly believes working for the TVA equates at being a hero… and also that Loki would be so prideful he would serve the TVA merely to show them he’s better than the other without caring of how the TVA then might dispose of him.
And again Loki shows his cards way too openly so Mobius calls him out.
Mobius: What, charm your way in front of the Time-Keepers, hustle them, and seize control of the TVA? Am I getting warm? A double cross by history's most reliable liar.
Is really this what Loki aims at? This is what he’s telling around but is really this? Maybe but it seems so obvious, even Mobius could guess it in 5 minutes so… I don’t know, it seems too predictable for someone who’s supposedly smart.
The discussion goes on. Loki has figured since Mobius didn’t have him erased after that failure he is sticking his neck out for him so he asks him why.
Mobius: I'll give you two options, and you can believe whichever one you want. A, because I see a scared little boy, shivering in the cold. And you kinda feel bad for that ice runt. Or B, I just wanna catch this guy, and I'll tell you whatever I need to tell you.
I think both options are true, although usually, when proposing two options, the implication is the speaker is telling us to chose the last one… and it makes sense because this is the main motive Mobius is helping Loki. He could do nothing for him if it wasn’t because Loki could be useful… but this doesn’t men Mobius has no sympathy for him.
On another note it’s the second time the scripts hints at Loki as being young
Loki: I was young (in 1971), and I lost a bet to Thor. Where was the TVA when I was meddling with these affairs of men?
I really wonder if the idea is that Loki is young for Asgard standards.
Anyway Loki points out he doesn’t need Mobius’ sympathy, at which Mobius replies that’s good because he’s running out of it.
And again in itself there’s a problem. Mobius probably sees himself as a good person, because the fact he’s using Loki also means he’s sparing Loki from being pruned but, of course, if he has no use for Loki, this wouldn’t save him any longer.
If sympathy is tied to personal convenience, it’s not really sympathy.
As soon as they caught this Loki Mobius ran there to get him for himself because he thought it would be useful. He could have grown fond and it’s fine because it happens… but the key is still Loki has to be useful to him in order to be kept. So he’s not a really selfless act.
That’s why Mobius is no hero, who selflessly sacrifice for Loki, because he hopes in personal gain and… and it’s absolutely human. Mobius might have studied Loki but he basically just met him. Mobius has his own life. Why should he sacrifice it for Loki?
He’s planning for their allegiance to offer mutual benefits, Loki helps Mobius to wipe another Loki out of existence and Loki gets to live a little longer even though, being a Variant, Loki should have been already disposed of.
Mobius probably feels very kind and the other at the TVA would probably agree with him, because he’s giving a chance to someone who is lesser and has no right to chances and this is how their world work.
But we, viewers should be capable to understand their world works in the wrong way.
Loki: What's this? Next step of your manipulation...
Mobius: This is the final step. Your last chance.
Loki: Oh, and what does my desperate last chance require?
At this point Loki has moved back into keeping distance. He calls what’s Mobius is doing as manipulation and sounds flippant as he talks of his ‘desperate last chance’.
Mobius might have sympathy for him but Loki has likely figured out Mobius wouldn’t save him from the TVA beyond a certain point. The very best Mobius can offer him is to remain there working for the TVA to catch other Lokis, all while wearing a jacket that points out he’s a Variant as well, a cosmic joke.
Maybe Mobius might manage to have him dismiss wearing that jacket. Still, all this is tied to how much useful he can be. Mobius though can’t offer him freedom or a way back home.
Anyway Loki’s last chance is to work, to go over each and every one of the Variant's case files, and then, give him his unique Loki perspective and find something. All this while Mobius goes to eat something and keeping in mind his life depends on him proving to be of some use.
Again we’re reminded that Loki isn’t free to drop this work, he’s forced to cooperate, his life depends on it.
Loki starts looking through the documents which basically cover the various cases in which the Variant ambushed the Minutemen and stole their reset charge, clearly not finding them interesting. A woman hush him and he hush her back.
Loki tries going to the one who seems a librarian… but who’s actually so mechanical she feels more like a robot who can’t stop typing to pay attention to those who call her if they don’t ring at her first.
Loki asks her for more files. No, not files on the case, files pertaining to the creation of the TVA… but they’re all classified. The same goes for files pertaining to the beginning of time and the end of the time.
Exasperated Loki asks which files he can have and he’s handed a handful of them which, merely cover his case as a Variant and the life of his alternate self in the sacred timeline.
Loki reads them anyway and discovers of the destruction of Asgard.
As he does he can’t help but shed a tear for his former planet, before noticing the TVA also noted that during the event there was zero variance energy detected.
This causes him to connect some important dots and so he rushes to join Mobius to the restaurant.
At first Mobius doesn’t want to listen him, claiming he told him not to bother him until he read all the files which Loki claims to have done.
Honestly he didn’t seem particularly interested in them but he might have done it as someone who practices magic should have been good at studying. Mobius insists and Loki points out what they’re searching isn’t in the files but in the timeline as the Variant is hiding in the apocalypse.
Mobius asks which one and Loki mentions Ragnarok, asking him if he’s familiar to it. And I wonder if Loki wanted an answer to this one question, if he wanted to know if Mobius knew his homeland was wiped away, that this is something the TVA allowed.
Mobius confirms he knows about it and apologizes to him.
Loki pretends not to care and goes on discussing how a Nexus event is the result of someone doing something he’s not supposed to that causes a chain reaction of things that aren’t supposed to happen.
Mobius confirms.
At this point Loki steals the salad Mobius was eating for his example and decides in his metaphor that salad will represent Asgard.
And tell me whatever you want but, as far as I’m involved this is Loki paying back Mobius for letting him to work while he went to eat.
Mobius gets immediately that his lunch is going to meet an abrupt demise but Loki doesn’t let this deter him.
Loki suggests if he were to go on Asgard before Ragnarok he could do whatever he wants, even push Hulk off the Rainbow bridge, and to prove his point, he adds more salt to the salad. He then says he could also set fire to the place. I don’t know what he adds to Mobius’ salad as he says so, maybe pepper, but this is enough to make Mobius beg not to set fire to the place, which I find hilarious. Loki continues to put salt and… pepper? Into Mobius’ salad commenting that he can do whatever he wants without going against the dictates of the timeline.
He then picks up Mobius’ drink only to find it empty so he goes to get the drink from the nearby’s table, Casey’s table. He then pours it into Mobius’ salad, likely making it impossible to eat, explaining how the drink represents Surtur who will destroy Asgard no matter what Loki does so what he does doesn’t matter.
In short, in addition to making his point, Loki let Mobius too without lunch.
Fair since Loki didn’t have lunch at all.
Mobius still doesn’t get it so Loki goes further on explaining if they have an apocalypse of whatever kind it doesn’t matter what one would do in it because everything would get destroyed so the Variant has to be hiding in an apocalypse, doing whatever they want without them noticing.
Mobius is forced to admit it’s not a bad theory and Loki tells him to bring him to an apocalypse and he’ll show him.
Mobius accuses him of wanting to run back to his homeland and Loki says whatever apocalypse will do. Mobius makes clear he’s afraid to bring Loki around and Loki insists they’ve to test his theory. Mobius makes clear he’s afraid Loki would want to test how stabbable is his back.
Loki complains stabbing someone in the back is a boring form of betrayal. Mobius said he has done it 50 times… which is really not much for someone who lived as long as Loki especially since most of those stabbing if not all took place during battle, because Mobius is talking of literal stabbing here, not metaphorical one.
Loki is not really interested in arguing this one though and just says he won’t do it again because it got old which causes Mobius to laugh. Loki insists that he understands Mobius doesn’t trust him but he should trust something else, Loki loves to be right… and this seals the deal.
So the guys are at Pompeii, Italy – 78 AD, though it would be more correct to say they’re at Pompeii, ROMAN EMPIRE – AD 78 or 78 CE.
Eruption day.
While Mobius is absolutely scared they might mess up the timeline Loki is as overexcited like a kid on a sugar rush.
Loki cried reading of the destruction of Asgard but here he seems pretty giddy.
To Mobius scolding him because ‘it’s just not in good taste’ he replies ‘they’re gonna die anyway’.
And in itself is interesting. Mobius said he’s sorry for Asgard destruction, now he worries about ‘good taste’ but in the end he’s not going to do anything to spare those people’s lives.
The dead count will be of over 2.000 a good part of it dying a horrible albeit fast death as they’ll be literally vaporized by the heat of the pyroclastic flow.
In face of so many people about to die Mobius worrying Loki’s behaviour isn’t in good taste feels hypocritical, a mere care for the form, in fact he agrees with Loki it’s ‘cool’ the whole city will be wiped off the planet and his main worry is they shouldn’t create a huge branch.
Anyway, while Mobius insist they should start creating only a very small disturbance, Loki ends up freeing animals and announcing the eruption and the following death of everyone to the people.
Loki making all that chaos feels as if this is way to distance from the apocalypse that hit Asgard. Honestly I don’t think he wanted to go there during Ragnarok if there was nothing he could have done to save it.
However his speech is also an interesting way for Loki to try and pry info from Mobius about the TVA
Loki: ( Speaking latin ) You’re all about to die. That volcano is about to erupt! I would know, because I’m from the future. ( In english ) We are from the future, right? What is the TVA? I mean, it's from the future. It sounds from the future. It's pretty future-y.
Mobius won’t reply to him but the eruption will start right there, the Tempad continuing to sign zero variance energy, proving Loki was right. I wonder if this was also Loki’s way to try and see if an apocalypse could be prevented.
Oh, Loki talks Latin here but I’ve already talked about the language problem in the MCU and how the TVA seems to have a tv series version of Allspeak which, evidently passed to Loki too as he showed he previously couldn’t talk to Mongolian people.
On another note… the eruption, as depicted in the show, is not historically accurate.
Around 1:00 p.m., Mount Vesuvius violently erupted, spewing up a high-altitude column (the column supposedly as high as 30 km) from which ash and pumice began to fall, blanketing the area. Rescues and escapes occurred during this time.
It’s only much later, in the night or during the day after that the pyroclastic flows began and it Pompeei 4 minutes later, murdering everyone there.
The show instead seems to mix up the first eruption with the beginning of the pyroclastic flow (which is the one we see approaching from behind Loki), skipping the fall of ash and pumice.
Of course from a storytelling point of view it works a lot better, so it’s not a big deal and it’s just artistic freedom, it’s just my history lover’s heart which is bleeding.
If you want to enjoy how the eruption looked like there’s a nice video on Youtube “A Day in Pompeii - Full-length animation”.
The switch between Pompeii and back to the TVA feels a little abrupt, as if the Pompeii scene was meant to last more and they cut it.
Anyway they’re back on TVA and Mobius is summarizing Loki’s theory. Loki tells him he’s welcome, which, I take, is Loki’s clue he’d like to be thanked for his contribution. Mobius though is more focused on the mechanics of their new discovery.
He believes for Loki’s theory to hold the disasters have to be naturally-occurring, sudden, no warning, no survivors. So Ragnarok wouldn’t be okay because Loki and Thor triggered it and there were survivors. That is unless the TVA retconned “Thor: Ragnarok”.
Anyway, they decide they’ll have to find out how many of those natural disasters there are… but in the end Loki falls asleep on all the documents they’re checking.
I know there’s a debate if this proves he trusts Mobius or not… but the point is, he just proved himself he was of great help, so Mobius who has shown to have some measures of sympathy toward him despite his strict adherence to the TVA code and that make him capable to disintegrate him should need arise, has really no reason to harm him, quite the opposite.
Also he’s likely quite exhausted, both physically and emotionally otherwise he clearly wouldn’t fall asleep on an uncomfortable position over a stack of papers.
And differently from Mobius he supposedly didn’t even had lunch.
Mobius yawns which shows he’s clearly worn out as well, wakes him and tells him they’re going for a walk. So no bed, they’ll only take a small break.
I take they end up in the TVA version of a cafeteria where Loki asks Mobius about the jet ski magazine. Mobius ends up showing his total love for jet skis.
“Yeah. You know, some things... Actually, most things in history are kinda dumb, and everything gets ruined eventually. But in the early 1990s, for a brief, shining moment, there was a beautiful union of form and function, which we call the jet ski, and a reasonable man cannot differ.”
Actually he sounds like a fanboy, dismissive of everything he doesn’t like and imposing his own likes claiming no one could have a different opinion from him. It’s not a complain, it’s human. I like how the TVA members, despite their dystopian setting and their fanatic faith to the TVA religion have characteristics, both good and bad, that made them human.
However, at Loki’s question if he has ever tried a Jet Ski, Mobius admits he never been on one because if a TVA agent were to show up on a jet ski that would create a branch. It’s a poor excuse since they show up in timelines in their everyday clothes in time periods in which those clothes aren’t appropriate and anyway, who cares since they reset the branches so they could even show up naked and everything would get erased?
In this Mobius is the opposite of Loki, although he too has wishes that make him similar to Loki he doesn’t dare to fulfil them, he completely focuses on his work, he claims to read the magazines because they remind him what he’s fighting for… jet skis appearing in the Sacred Timeline in early 1990s apparently.
Okay, it’s more that he believes if the Sacred Timeline gets destroyed everything would but people who were believing to be heroes like he does would say they would fight for people, not for a beautiful vehicle that could be enjoyed only for a brief amount of time.
Mobius in a way is disconnected by the people on the sacred timeline, maybe because he never met them, he met the Variants, which are considered something to be pruned and nothing more and he actively help in pruning them.
So maybe he can’t work for people, because as soon as those people become variants, bang, they need to be wiped away. I think Mobius would like to be a decent person, I think he doesn’t want to harm people so he keeps distance and blindly swallows the TVA teaching and this discussion further proves it.
Loki asks if he really believes in all the TVA preaches and Mobius replies:
Mobius: I don't get hung up on, "Believe, not believe." I just accept what is.
It reminds me of a discussion he had with Loki in the past episode:
Loki: So that had the Time-Keepers' seal of approval, did it?
Mobius: Well, I wouldn't think of it in terms of approval and disapproval. That's sort of a... Let's get back to escapes...
Mobius just accepts things as they are presented. But why he accepts them?
Loki goes on summarizing how the TVA’s beliefs are that three magic lizards created the TVA and everyone in it including Mobius, which for Loki is clearly something dumb to believe.
Loki: Every time I start to admire your intelligence, you say something like that.
Mobius tries to retort it by turning tables on Loki.
Mobius: Okay, who created you, Loki?
Loki: A Frost Giant of Jotunheim.
Mobius: And who raised you?
Loki: Odin of Asgard.
Mobius: Odin, God of the Heavens. Asgard, mystical realm, beyond the stars. Frost Giants. Listen to yourself...
Loki: It's not the same. It's completely different. No. It's not the same.
Mobius: It's exactly the same thing.
The HUGE problem in Mobius’ reasoning is that he’s mixing up what Loki has experienced, his skin turning blue, proving he’s a Jotun, living his whole life with Odin, believing him to be his father, with Mobius merely believes as Mobius has no knowledge of what the Time-Keepers are since he never met them and likely doesn’t even remember when he was created or things like that.
Loki believes in what he lived though because he touched and sampled it and, in fact, he had a breakdown when he discovered part of it, the part he had no memory about but embraced out of faith was a lie (Loki couldn’t remember his Jotun heritage or his birth so he accepted what he was told, that Odin and Frigga were his parents). This likely makes even harder for him to accept that Mobius would just blindly believe in something he hadn’t experienced in the slightest.
Mobius had said:
Mobius: I don't get hung up on, "Believe, not believe." I just accept what is.
But at the end of it what motivates him is blind belief.
Mobius: Because if you think too hard about where any of us came from, who we truly are, it sounds kinda ridiculous. Existence is chaos. Nothing makes any sense, so we try to make some sense of it. And I'm just lucky that the chaos I emerged into gave me all this... My own glorious purpose. Cause the TVA is my life. And it's real because I believe it's real.
The TVA is real because he believes so. It has to be or his own ‘glorious purpose’ would mean nothing. Loki got burned by the truth. Mobius doesn’t want to end up the same, he doesn’t want to think at the absurdity the TVA feds him, he doesn’t want to question if what he does is right or wrong because the truth might disappoint it, it might be ridiculous, in bad taste, like being excited as Pompeii is about to be buried by the volcano.
The TVA is Mobius’ religion, and, to paraphrase Karl Marx faith in the TVA ‘is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.’
But this kind of mindset is also the mindset of whose who represent the ‘banality of evil’ of those who indulge in the capital vice of Acedia, whose who do not care, who do nothing to stop evil empower it and support it.
“...morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” ― Abraham Heschel
And, after all, Mobius works to support it, to support the TVA as they prune/reset countless lives.
There’s something else that’s interesting.
Mobius is supposed to be a lawful character… yet he doesn’t believe existence is order. Existence is chaos. And, in the same way as he’s afraid to try out a jet ski and making excuses for why he doesn’t do so, I think Mobius deep down is scared by chaos. Fascinated by it but scared by it as well. In fact he’ll later says that he believes when it all will end and the Time-Keepers will have finished untangling the timeline all that will emerge will be order.
Loki: Ah, I see. So, when they're finished, what happens then?
Mobius: So are we. No more nexus events. Just order. And we meet in peace at the end of time. Nice, right?
Loki: Only order?
Mobius: Mmm-hmm.
Loki: No chaos? It sounds boring.
Mobius: I'm sure it does to you.
Order is reassuring, it gives people a sense, a purpose, order is explainable. Order follows laws so it’s lawful. But order, like Loki points out, is also boring, predictable. No bad surprise would come out of it, true, but no good surprise either. No change. No possibility to get worse… but no possibility to get better either. Order is static where chaos is always changing. You need a mixture of both to make a worthy life.
Besides the idea they ‘meet in peace at the end of time’ to me feels more like an attempt to use a different wording to say ‘we’re all dead’ or ‘we’ll be all pruned/reset’. So not particularly encouraging.
But I’m running ahead a bit. When Mobius says Loki that the TVA is real because he believes so, Loki accepts it. For the moment.
Loki: Fair enough. You believe it's real.
And I wonder if, in a way, Loki can understand. Because the chaos, the unpredictable, is what made him discover he wasn’t an Odinson. If he hadn’t questioned Odin’s words, if he hadn’t gone and taken the Casket of Ancient Winters in his hands but just turned his eyes away when his skin turned blue, if, like Mobius said, he hadn’t thought to hard at it, or at how bad Thor could be as a kind, if he just had shrugged everything off and said ‘yeah, I’m sorry Thor will be a poor kind but that’s what meant to be, who cares?’ and ‘yeah, it’s weird my skin turned blue but Odin said I’m his son so who am I to question him?’ he would have spared himself many unpleasant things.
He would be at Asgard, thinking to be Odin’s son, trying to help Thor, who prior to his banning to Earth was completely unfit to rule, not ruin completely the planet. That would be his own glorious purpose. Nothing more.
And while it wouldn’t be a great purpose… well, it would have spared him of a lot of pain so I think Loki can see the charm of it… but at the same time he can see the danger of it. If we’ll blindly follow the rules we give up on our free will.
Loki: So everything is written. Past, present, future. There's no such thing as free will.
Mobius: Well, I mean, you know, it's an oversimplification...
Mobius thinks it’s an oversimplification but it’s not. He’s probably telling himself since he submits to the rules willingly, well, that’s his free will. But we’ve seen that the other option is being reset. The Variants are nothing else but people who didn’t follow the dictation of the Time-keepers, a dictation they didn’t even know existed, but merely followed their free will. And the TVA erases them.
It’s true, the ones that follow the Sacred Timeline, not knowing they’re following the dictation of the Time-keepers, are still, in a way, following their free will, but it’s actually a pretty tricky situation because their options get pruned by the TVA.
People don’t exist in a vacuum. We take decisions according to what happens around us.
Now think to a world in which Odin tells Loki the truth right from the start. This would lead Loki to get very different decisions… only that Odin, if it ever existed, got pruned.
Think to a Thor who’s ready to rule when he’s about to be crowned so that Loki doesn’t have to disrupt the coronation. Well, think twice because that Thor got pruned.
Think to a Frigga who hands the crown to Loki but also sits next to him instead than next to Odin to support him while he’s going through his worst crisis. Pruned again.
Think to the Warriors Three and Sif not attempting to go fetch Thor after he’s banned. Sorry, they got pruned.
Think to Heimdall not allowing Thor to go to Jotunheim. Never mind he got pruned.
Loki made his choices. It was his free will. But his choices were tied to all that happened around him, and since all that happened around him was decided he was channelled toward certain decisions, everything working to make him take such decision.
Actually, each time he tried to take a different decision he too got pruned.
The resulting Loki that inhabits the Sacred Timeline, more than the result of his own free will, is the result of manipulation of the events and TVA selection. Which is kind of creepy.
But okay, it’s interesting how, in a way, Loki tries to connect with Mobius.
Maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome as Loki was someone held captive and sentenced to death and then Mobius came in and made clear that Loki’s survival depended on him, maybe it’s just that Mobius showed him some measure of kindness and appreciation and it doesn’t matter if he was being manipulative or not, Loki was so starved for it he fell for it, or he caught up on some similarities between them.
Sure, it can be that by connecting with him he can better use him but I don’t think that’s just it.
Mobius is someone Loki can connect with on an intellectual level, where Thor was just ‘let’s hit things’ and the Warriors Three and Sif were just, let’s do what Thor says.
And after Thor and his friends there were Thanos and the Other and clearly Loki couldn’t connect with them. So it doesn’t matter how screwed up the situation is and how Mobius manipulated Loki in their first meeting and what he told him, fundamentally Mobius is the only one Loki, who’s forced to go around with a jacket saying ‘Variant’ because no one has to forget he’s a cosmic joke, has in that setting.
So yes, it’s VERY screwed up but it makes sense Loki would partially latch on him. It’s human.
On another note I’m not really fond of the idea of Mobius using the French ‘au contraire’ while talking with Loki. Maybe it’s an ad-lib but since there’s already enough mess on how the TVA can talk all the languages and Asgardian somehow don’t have Allspeak, I would have preferred if they hadn’t mixed English and French now. Whatever, maybe that’s just me.
Loki goes on.
Loki: You called me a scared little boy.
Mobius: I called you a lotta things.
I wonder what Mobius means here, if he’s just telling Loki he shouldn’t focus on that (as calling him as such was Mobius’ attempt at showing him sympathy), but Loki nails another relevant topic.
Loki: You did. You're wrong, though. You see, I know something children don't.
Mobius: What's that?
Loki: That no one bad is ever truly bad. And no one good is ever truly good.
It’s interesting it’s coming from Loki because it means, differently from how sometimes Marvel movies seems to depict a world in black and white, Loki could see the shades of grey.
In his family. In the Avengers. In Thanos and the Other. Maybe even in the TVA people. And this means in himself as well.
And we go back to what he said in Ep 1:
Loki: I can't go back, can I? Back to my timeline. I don't enjoy hurting people. I... ( Sighs ) I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to.
Mobius: Okay, explain that to me.
Loki: Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear.
Mobius: A desperate play for control. You do know yourself.
Loki: A villain. ( Sighs )
He painted himself as a villain, as someone all black, to show as if he was someone in control… in “Thor” when he was in an emotional storm, in “The Avengers” when he actually was working for Thanos.
But if we consider Loki’s words solely for their tie to the present discussion, he’s trying to tell Mobius that the black and white vision Mobius is trying to adopt doesn’t work. If there’s good in bad and bad in good, the perfect world Mobius thinks he can archive doesn’t exist and his glorious purpose is not so glorious.
Nothing is perfect and so no perfect order or perfect chaos can exist and trying to paint things or people black and white as the Time-Keepers are doing and the TVA as well, is a mistake.
Loki’s words though cause Mobius to remember the boy he met in the cathedral before going to Loki’s trial and how he had a candy box left by the Loki Variant. And I’ve always wondered WHY did the Loki Variant left that candy box behind? Is like she’s leaving breadcrumbs for the TVA or someone working with them to track her down.
Kablooie was only sold regionally on Earth from 2047 to 2051. While it wouldn’t be easy to track the Variant with just this, the Variant limits the place they’ve to search for them to only 4 years.
On an interesting note although Mobius claimed to know everything about Loki’s life he evidently had no idea if Asgardians had candies or not. So yeah, I think Mobius didn’t exactly knew EVERYTHING about Loki’s life, only what the TVA deemed relevant.
Anyway Mobius decides since they now know the Variant is hiding in an apocalyptic event in which Kablooie are involved they can cross-reference the two things.
Mobius has probably more clearance than Loki as he gets the files and then gives Loki a half, encouraging him to search fast through them by making it a competition… which actually is dumb, because the Variant can only be in one place so only the one who got that file among them can find it, no matter if he’s fast or slow… but whatever, Loki is motivated enough by this because he likes to win.
However, although Mobius asks him if he wants to bet on something, then he demands they’ll play for pride.
Anyway, as Mobius realizes it’s one apocalyptic event after another (all in 5 years) Loki finds what they’re searching for in an apocalyptic event in Alabama, 2050.
This gains him Mobius’ praise as he tells him he’ll take his job if he’s not careful.
I remember reading some interviews suggested Loki and Mobius had a mentor/student type of relation. Well, Mobius definitely feels like the mentor, one who takes care of Loki and teaches him how it works at the TVA, completely not focusing on how Loki was basically kidnapped by the place, doesn’t aim to stay there and people look down at him and is always ready to dispose of him because he’s a Variant… and what’s worse, the Variant of someone who, according to the Time-Keepers is meant to be ‘an evil, lying scourge’.
On the other side… working for the TVA is Loki’s only option to survive in that setting so Mobius likely sees it as Loki having to stop ‘thinking too hard’ and also make the TVA his life. In short he should just be like him and submit to the Time-Keepers.
So yeah, his point of view make sense but… it’s terrible, it’s actually telling people not to resist to wrong conditions but submit to them. It’s the typical mindsetting of a bureaucratic huge corporation or system, where no one matters and everyone obeys without worrying to much about what they’re obeying at.
But back to the story Mobius goes to Renslayer to asks her ‘to approve deployment of a fully-armed task force to the Variant's potential hiding spot’.
By the way said hising spot is in ‘Haven Hills, Alabama, corporate town owned by Roxxcart until it's wiped out by a hurricane’.
The name Roxxcart might remember to who read the comic or watched “Agent Carter” of the Roxxon Corporation, one of the world's largest conglomerates, founded in the 1940s. It also appeared in Marvel “Cloak & Dagger” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, with vague references at it in “Iron Man”, “Iron Man 2”, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer”, “Iron Man 3” and the MCU comic “The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week”. It’s hard to say if this will be another vague reference or there will be more.
Renslayer is prejudiced against our Loki as she continues to call him a Variant and tries dismissing the whole thing merely because HE suggested it and the other time he ‘blew up’ the previous mission. Which he didn’t but of this I’ve already talked.
Mobius is all happy Loki proved himself useful and his idea to use him was right but Renslayer instead insists on not trusting him, even though he just discovered a huge hole in their security system.
Now, okay, Loki isn’t to be trusted blindly, but Renslayer isn’t really giving a rational reason why this theory, which actually makes a lot of sense and is supported by some evidence Mobius collected, would be wrong. If they’re going to shot down any theory Loki comes up just because he’s Loki then she shouldn’t have even given him to Mobius.
In fact when Mobius point out how Loki HELPED discovering the hole in the security she’s only more worried.
Anyway Mobius is so excited he manages to get her to agree, although she warns him she won’t be able to help him if this doesn’t work out.
They kind of repeat something that was included in the video/commercial of the TVA Miss Minute showed Loki in the previous episode.
Mobius: For all time.
Ravonna Renslayer: Always.
I wonder if this is actually meant to be the TVA catchphrase.
Anyway Mobius leaves Renslayer and we see Loki is out of the room, nervous, waiting for him. He seems quite satisfied when Mobius says they’ve got permission.
Mobius is still all excited… and make a vague promise that amounts to… basically nothing, to Loki.
Mobius: I'm tellin' you. You actually help us catch this Variant, and who knows, my friend.
Loki: What, good enough for a face-to-face with the Time-Keepers?
Mobius: I didn't say that. One step at a time.
Loki: All right. One step at a time.
He actually promises nothing to him, because, as he said, he said nothing. ‘Who knows’ can mean anything, even that after they catch the Variant they’ll prune him, or they’ll merely allow him to live at the TVA, forcing him to work for them. Who knows what ‘who knows’ mean!
Loki tries to have some more solid confirmation and basically gets nothing, which is not very promising.
As far as I’m involved I think Mobius is doing this promise more because he’s trying to keep Loki loyal than because he has something solid to offer to him. In fact he hadn’t bargained with Renslayer for this. Loki is there to catch the Variant, catching the Variant would end their need to use Loki but, as soon as Mobius got permission for the mission he left without insuring if they were to succeed he could keep him.
Does Loki really want to meet the Time-Keepers? What he aims to get from them?
Anyway Mobius is so excited he tries to give knives to Loki.
Enters Hunter B-15, who strongly despise Loki who takes them away from him (I wonder if Loki managed to steal them back unknown to her. I would love if he did). She briefs her men for the mission, which also allows us viewers to get some info and orders them to prune Loki at sight. Clearly she doesn’t even believe in putting him to that mock trials the TVA offers to its captive Variants.
Loki makes present they should preferably prune the bad Loki, not him and then the scene moves to Haven Hills and I love how this time they had introduced it not by writing it on the screen but by showing us a sign saying we’re in Haven Hills, Alabama… before having it destroyed.
I really love this scene.
The TVA arrives at Roxxcart and they’ve the good sense to open their Timedoors outside of it.
It’s interesting how Loki looks up at the storming sky. I wonder if he’s searching for thunders (we saw one hitting the ground before the TVA appeared) as a way to check if Thor is around, even though it’s clear Thor wouldn’t cause such destruction.
To Hunter B-15’s surprise Loki uses his magic to dry up, which somehow seems to make her even more suspicious of him. Because yeah, drying yourself is such a sinister act.
Mobius would like to go with Loki at the Green House but Hunter B-15 forbids it, wanting to part them. Mobius has to go with Hunter D-90 while Loki has to stay with her.
And I’ve the personal suspicion that’s because she hopes in a not to obvious chance to prune him too away from Mobius’ eyes.
B-15 tells Mobius if he’s not fine with it, he can go argue with Renslayer about it.
It’s interesting how they’re arguing. I wonder if Hunters and Analysts actually form two different and opposite classes in TVA who argue against each other despite a poster depicting them as working together.
Anyway Loki gets in between and tells Mobius it’s fine, that he can trust him and that he’ll understand trust has to be gained so he’ll gain it.
Honestly the way Loki puts it makes him even more suspicious for me, but I wonder if the key is it has to work for B-15.
Mobius complains about how is always the people you can’t trust that tell you ‘trust me’. Well, the people you trust wouldn’t need to ask you your trust so they won’t tell it to you.
Mobius though at this surrender as well, he’s so excited to get the Variant he doesn’t consider he could ask to stay with B-15 as well, or that he could say B-15 is asking this because she wants to try to harm Loki. He just let the issue go after a jab about how the past time B-15 ended up wearing the Time Collar.
Meanwhile the Loki Variant has noticed they’re in thanks to all the cameras in the place, as if they were waiting for the TVA. Again I wonder if the Loki Variant has someone supporting them in the TVA because they seem to know too much, later they’ll even show knowing the other Loki was brought in by the TVA to capture them.
We see the Loki Variant leaving down a tempad on which there’s a countdown that’s at 20 minutes.
Back to Loki he’s in the greenhouse with B-15, trying to chat with her… which could be a genuine attempt at communication or an attempt at warning the Variant they’re there. I’m not sure on which side Loki is… but I wonder if his goal is to stall things.
He might suspect if they get the Variant he’ll be disposed off so his aim might be to show he’s useful but also to stall the capture of the Variant. This might be what he was trying to do in the previous mission as well. So it’s not exactly he’s trying to help the Variant, he’s trying to gain time for himself.
B-15 doesn’t feel like talking with him but then they find a guy who claims to be shopping for plants despite the hurricane.
B-15 asks Loki if the guy could be him and Loki points out he ‘probably would have worn a suit, but, yes, maybe’, hinting at how Loki cares about how he looks.
B-15 gets too close to the guy who manages to grab her. We see some green magic pass to B-15 and then the guy faints. Loki asks if he’s dead but ‘B-15’ tells him ‘they usually survive’, making clear she’s no more B-15 but the Variant possessing her, who also recognizes Loki for who he is:
“So, you're the fool the TVA brought in to hunt me down.”
As I said this sentence gives me the feeling the Variant knew the TVA brought him someone to hunt them, in short they’ve inside intel about the TVA and I would love to know how.
Now possessing B-15 is a good move as she’s a good fighter with a weapon in her hands and this also leaves Loki on her own.
Loki recognizes the speaker for what they are, the Loki Variant possessing B-15, in short himself.
The Variant points out:
“Please. If anyone's anyone, you're me.”
Implying the Variant saw themselves as the better/original Loki version.
Wunmi Mosaku does a good work at playing the Loki Variant here, really.
Back in the shelter people is clearly in deep distress and a guy thinks the TVA is there to help them.
I think Mobius is torn, a side of him would just search for the Variant, the other is being affected by the situation but he tries to suppress it.
D-90 instead doesn’t care and pushes the man away as if he didn’t even exist. Which he doesn’t for him.
Mobius: What are you doing? Hey! These people are scared.
Hunter D-90: They're about to die. They should be scared.
Mobius: Okay. Not of us.
Even though those people aren’t Variants as they’re going to die the TVA doesn’t acknowledge them right. Like the Loki Variant they don’t care what they do because everything will be erased, either by a reset charge or by the apocalypse.
Mobius doesn’t like this… but again it’s not like he’s trying to save those people, he’ll let them die because the Time-Keepers dictate so.
Hunters in the TVA are somehow all jerks. Again they would work well as stand in for police brutality but I don’t know if the series wants to go this way.
Mobius and D-90 are interrupted when a Minuteman informs them they had found a tied C-20 who’s in state of shock and repeating over and over ‘it’s real’.
So C-20’s role isn’t to be a bait, I think it’s possible the Variant wants to use her to deliver a message to the TVA.
Back to Loki he comments on the spell used.
“Enchantment is a clever trick. Cowardly, a bit amateur-ish, but clever.”
The fact enchantment was used seems to be a nod to how the Variant might be Sylvie Lushton, who also went under the alias of enchantress.
In the comics Sylvie is not the original enchantress, that one was Amora, sister of Lorelei who appeared in “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”. Sylvie was supposedly a human created by Loki who also gave her her magical powers. Although she has no training she has amazing magical powers and moved from wanting to be an Avenger to trying to become a Villain.
We’ll see what this Variant will turn out to be.
Anyway the Variant blames Loki of being the coward one because he works for the TVA. She mocks this asking him if he really believes that, which he confirms so she dismisses him:
Hunter B-15 (possessed): ( The variant chuckles ) And here I was worried that they'd found a better version of me.
And this again seems to imply the Variant KNEW the TVA got themselves a Loki but who told them? They just discovered it at the fair?
A person, Randy, appear and B-15 touches him then faint. Loki almost hurries to help her before realizing what had happened.
Well, the Variant could have disintegrate Randy instead she preferred to transfer themselves into him. This is interesting because it seems although they’ve no hesitation in killing TVA people they’re against harming normal people.
Loki still go to check B-15… or can it be he placed something in one of her pockets? Like a message for Mobius? Loki touches his jacket before bending down on B-15 and this time we don’t see what he touches as she’s cut off the screen which is odd.
The Variant thinks he’s trying to search a transmitting device to call the others for help. Loki tails the Variant, challenging them to face him and then explaining how he had gained the TVA confidence.
The Variant is not that much impressed but they continue to give Loki their back. Not that it matter as that back isn’t really the Variant’s back.
Loki explains his plan… which I don’t know if it’s really his plan or a trick.
Loki: I'm going to overthrow the Time-Keepers. And, uh, cards on the table, I could use a qualified lieutenant.
It’s relevant how Loki, talking with the Variant, uses a more polite and Asgard like language.
The Variant is clearly not interested in working for Loki but what hits me is that they don’t want to be called ‘Loki’ which could be because they aren’t Loki after all.
Loki: What say you... Loki?
Randy (possessed): Ugh. Don't call me that. You can call me... Randy.
I love how this meeting helps Loki to realize why Thor found these techniques annoying.
Loki: God. Now I understand why Thor found this so annoying.
Loki claims he has helped the Variant at the fair so yes, apparently he has played that risky bet back then for a reason. I really would love to know which game Loki is playing.
Loki: Listen. Enough with your games. I've been trying to help you. I kept them vulnerable at the Renaissance Fair for some time.
The Variant still isn’t interested in joining him as they don’t care about ruling the TVA.
We see that there are Time charges placed all around, partially hidden from sight which don’t promise anything good and someone, likely the Variant, is tweaking with them while ‘Randy’ keeps Loki distracted. So yes, this Variant too is good at stalling.
C-20 is still babbling, while Mobius tries to get something out of her.
D-90 just waves her off saying she’s off the dial and showing a worrying lack of a care for a companion.
Although C-20 says she wants to go home when Mobius offers to send them back she says she can’t as she gave away the position of the Time-Keepers.
Oh, so C-20 knew it? Did she, differently from Mobius met them?
D-90 tries to contact B-15 causing her to wake up.
Loki tries to get what the Variant wants but the Variant refuses to explain themselves saying Loki is too late. Loki counters he’s ahead as he found the Variant’s hiding place, then notices the Time charges and thinks the Variant lead them there to blow the place up.
As he turns his gaze Randy has disappeared and the Variant has possessed a big guy who starts beating Loki. Loki is not really fighting back. Are possessed people really so powerful or Loki is trying to pass himself for weak?
Anyway, after pointing out:
Loki: I would never treat me like this.
Which might be our clue the Variant isn’t really a Loki but someone pretending to be one, Loki starts more actively to try to avoid blows and even use his magic to get something he can use as shield.
The Variant’s language is nowhere near as polite as Loki and the possessed guy manages to send Loki on the ground. The idea of a toy dachshund bumping against him is cute.
B-15 manages to find Mobius and she’s forced to confess she lost Loki. Likely she thinks it’s due to Loki but doesn’t know how to explain it while D-90 just says Mobius’ favourite Loki betrayed him as they run to search for him.
The possessed guy is using another tempad connecting it to another mechanism. Although Loki couldn’t move he hadn’t tried to kill him and now Loki wakes up and demands to know what the Variants wants from him and what is this about. He’s clearly angry.
The possessed guy stands up and then tells him to brace himself before fainting, a sign the Variant isn’t possessing him anymore.
A recording keeps on repeating Loki’s last two sentences ‘What do you want from me? What is this about?’.
I’m not sure why the Variant would record those two sentences and play them over unless we’re to assume they’re actually only playing in Loki’s head.
The Variant appears, removes their hood to reveal it hid a blond woman face then in an unfriendly tone she states:
“This isn't about you.”
Loki’s surprise lasts only few seconds before he says ‘right’.
Meanwhile the countdown has reached 0, the light shot down, the time charges, tons of them, turn on but then below them timedoors appear, sending them away.
Mobius notices what’s going on and worries about where the Time charges are going.
Back at the TVA we assist to the sudden formation of LOTS of branches. The Analysts come to the conclusion someone ‘bombed’ the Sacred Timeline.
Renslayer, who has a hunter helmet that starts with A-25… which might mean she was one of the first hunters of the place, grabs her weapon as Minuteman spun to action.
Loki sees the Variant grabbing the Tempad again and using it to open a human size timedoor as she watches him. She waves at him the way he did at the Hulk when he went on the lift and goes through the Timedoor. Loki considers following but stalls for a moment. Mobius is running there, telling him to wait. Loki sees him but decides to go through the timedoor anyway and, as he does the timedoor disappears, leaving Mobius and the hunters outside.
The episode ends here.
People had been wondering what was Loki thinking when he went through the Timedoor and Tom Hiddleston explained it in an interview:
There's a very big moment at the end where Loki steps through that portal. From your perspective what is going through Loki's mind when he looks back at Mobius and then decides to go through the door anyway? Is he feeling any remorse there at all?
I think certainly there's conflict. I think he… you know, Mobius is someone who, perhaps for the first time in his life, he thinks he might be able to trust, and perhaps trusts him, and he doesn't want to betray that trust, but at the same time he has to go and see what that's what's going on, he has to do that. I think it was he can't help himself but follow… uh… because it's too strange and to, you know, provoke so much curiosity within him. So there is a huge conflict there, he thinks “I probably shouldn't do this, maybe there can be repercussions down the line, but I have to see what that's about”. ['Loki' - Tom Hiddleston & Owen Wilson Talk Ep 2 Twist! _ TVLine Interview]
Now this might be not the full truth because Tom might have been forced to withhold information in order not to give away the plot of future episodes but it’s worth considering it.
Undoubtedly following the other Loki is a risk. It’s clear the other is challenging him to follow… and he knows next to nothing about the other Loki so, if the TVA is bad for him, the other Loki could be worse and he might be trading a bad place for a pure hell. Who says the other Loki doesn’t work for Thanos for example?
In the TVA he has Mobius as some sort of interested ally, with the other Loki he has no one. You know, "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know". At the same time it makes sense he wants to try following the other Loki because he’s not the type to stagnate and remain there. He has to see, he has to try. Where Mobius wouldn’t risk, Loki does. I hope for him the bet will be worth it.
Last but not least it’s worth to mention in the ending theme they’ve replaced two photos of Loki with one of the Loki Variant and another with just a different image of Loki with the TVA jacket.
So anyway we’ve gotten to the end of it. I still wonder if the Loki Variant as an insider in the TVA passing her info and if she’s really a Loki or she just pretends to be. How she came to make all this big plan? Why she had looked like she wanted Loki to tail her?
We’ll see.
#loki#loki odinson#loki laufeyson#mobius m mobius#hunter b 15#hunter c 20#ravonna renslayer#casey#mcu loki#tom hiddleston#9 worlds study#9 worlds study mcu loki
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Well the Winter hate is making a comeback, so I guess it’s time I talk about her characterization in V7.
Buckle up folks. It’s a long one.
Winter’s first ‘appearance’ in this volume is as a projection, mirroring Ironwood’s position. She appears after him, echoing his authoritarian stance. But the first time we actually encounter her, she cuts in ahead of him, before he can even speak, to demand her sister be freed immediately. “Take those off before I start hurting you.” She’s still clearly Ironwood’s subordinate, but when her sister is at risk, she doesn’t hesitate to take charge, regardless of how it looks. I bring this up first because I think it implies right off the bat that Winter’s true motivations might not be wholly aligned with Ironwood’s. She trusts and respects Ironwood, and willingly follows his lead when it comes to the world. But that version of her- the obedient soldier- is a facade. One which is (temporarily) dispelled when someone she loves is in trouble.
Bringing me to my first point- Winter may try to present as cold and unfeeling, but she cares deeply for the ones she loves. She’s affectionate with both Weiss and Penny, and clearly loves them both a great deal. Her love for her sister or Penny has been the focus of most scenes she’s been in, despite the fact that she’s essentially Ironwood’s 2nd. She also quickly took to Ruby this volume, and seems to have a good deal of respect for her and the rest of Weiss’s teammates. Based on her reactions at the dinner party, she seems to think that RWBY is having a positive affect on Ironwood. And she’s incredibly proud of how far her sister has come, and of the family she’s developed along the way.
Which gives me my 2nd point- Winter both loves and trusts Weiss, and prioritizes their relationship over most everything else. Half way through the volume, Weiss and Winter get to really talk. @robynshill did a really good analysis of this, so I’ll keep mine brief. Essentially, they talk about their emotional journeys after leaving their family home, and Winter even suggests that Weiss join her in the Atlas military now that she’s free. But it’s Winter’s reaction to Weiss’s concerns about Atlas/Ironwood that interest me most.
Winter first reassures her sister that Atlas will soon shift it’s focus to helping the rest of the world. “We will. Once we’ve weathered the storm, we will.” She defends the general, but also, crucially, acknowledges that he’s made mistakes. “I know the general hasn’t done everything perfectly, but he’s doing what he thinks is right.” Already, she’s willing to reveal to her sister that she has some amount of doubt about their current course. Her focus here is on doing what’s right, and at this moment, she believes that Ironwood knows what that is better than she does. When Weiss questions that assumption, and his decisions to hide things, Winter instinctively doubles down (almost like she’s been groomed to defend him). “Ironwood isn’t keeping secrets. Not from me.” But Weiss knows what that sort of dedication often means, having only recently shaken it herself, and she keeps pushing. And Winter, because she’s not just some lapdog, and because she loves and trusts her sister, considers it. She’s past the instinctive reaction now, and trying to decide if she is really sure that Ironwood trusts her with the whole truth.
She’s let’s herself look worried, and actually unsure for one of the first times in the whole series. And then she decides to share a secret with Weiss. Likely a secret that Ironwood has not cleared her to share, given that neither Winter nor Weiss bring it up again, and no one is shown telling the others.
The way she presents the maiden info tells us that (point 3) not only is Winter conflicted, but she is only able to move past that conflict becasue she believes this will allow her to do good. The moment we see between Winter and Fria is bittersweet. Winter, at first, is sweet and gentle, but her face turns sad and almost remorseful as they sit. This is clearly not a responsibility that sits easily on Winter’s shoulders. Back with Weiss, she explains that it was difficult to come to terms with, but “the more I thought about it, the more I saw it as a privilege. A chance to do some real good. For Atlas, for Remnant.” This may not be exactly what she wants, but she does want to bring good into the world, the whole world, not just Atlas. And she doesn’t use Ironwoods language here- her goal is not simply to protect. Her motivation is ever so slightly different- she wants to do real good.
It’s important for her that, despite having been groomed for the position, she sees it as her own choice to accept it. “I’m choosing it now. I’ve made it my own. And I take great pride in it. That has nothing to do with father, or the general. That belongs to me.” When she mentiones her father, her face grows defiant. When she mentions Ironwood, she looks down and away, as if ashamed. And when she claims it as her own... she gives Weiss this look:
Pride, hope, acceptance, but also some sadness. She is glad for the chance to do good, but she also needs to believe that she is doing it on her own terms. She’s proud of having found a way to do that, proud of having carved out her own destiny in life. This isn’t something she’s doing for Ironwood or anyone else, she’s doing it for herself, so she can be the person she wants to be. But, on some level, this choice makes her sad. Sure, Ironwood’s trust and acceptance matter a great deal to her, but what she truly wants is the agency to choose to do good. And some part of her isn’t sure that this is the way to achieve that.
There’s one more scene I need to talk about before I make my final point, and it’s one I think is widely misinterpreted by most of the FNDM. So bear with me.
After election night, when Ironwood & co are discussing next steps, it’s Winter who brings up the possibility of martial law. Now, I’ve seen a lot of people go after her for this, and I get the frustration, but I do not think she suggested it because she wanted him to take that course. I think she did it to make sure that someone would talk him out of it.
See, I don’t think it was by accident that she brings it up right next to Nora (who’s been advocating for Mantle from the start) and Ruby,(who’s thus far been pretty effective at getting through to Ironwood). If she wanted to convince him to declare martial law, she could easily have waited until the kids left. But I think she knew he was already considering it (I mean, he didn’t sound very surprised when she raised the possibility), and didn’t think he would listen to her (or any subordinates) if she tried to convince him not to do it. But Nora and Ruby? Of course outsiders, especially ones who’s trust Ironwood wants to earn, would have a much better shot at convincing him. So she brought it up right in front of them, ensuring that they’d do all they could to talk Ironwood down from that ledge. Which is exactly what they do. And she watches without ever trying to stop them, looking concerned at first and vaguely satisfied when then succeed.
Winter’s been in the military most of her adult life. She likely knows Ironwood better than anyone, and would be well aware of his mental state. She’s shown repeatedly that she’s not nearly as blind a follower as she pretends to be. And though she cares deeply for him, it ultimately does not take precedent over her love for Weiss (and quite possibly her love for Penny as well). Her moral code, too, differs from his. Her focus is always on doing good, while his goal is to protect. While those two things have been mostly aligned up til now, this last episode changed that. [spoilers for ep 11 ahead]
Ironwood’s just given her a choice between continuing to try and do good in the face of potential disaster, or doing bad things to more reliably protect (some) people. With his ideology, that choice may seem simple. But Winter doesn’t share that ideology. She wants to do good, and that makes the choice more complicated. To make this worse, she now knows that Ironwood has turned against Ruby, and, by extension, Weiss. And she’s with Penny, the protector of Mantle, who I have no doubt will choose to side with the people she feels responsible for, not the man who gives her orders. Essentially, all the people Winter loves will make the choice that her own beliefs tell her is right and good. But to make that choice, she must reject the man who gave her a place and a purpose.
RT has done impressively well with the arcs of abuse victims so far (with Blake, Weiss, and even Willow/Whitley), and I don’t think they’ll falter with Winter’s. Her emotional journey thus far has been about learning to make her own choices, take agency over her own destiny, and embrace her family and the ones she loves. For her to side with Ironwood now would not only mean abandoning that family and character growth, but also betraying her core ideals and the foundational beliefs that make her who she is. And I just don’t see a fantasy hope-punk show like RWBY writing that kind of story.
#i hope im not wrong#because winter deserves a good arc too#let her find her freedom#and let her trust herself enough to make the choice she knows is right#dont make Weiss the only Schnee who escaped Jaque’s attempts to destroy them#let her help her sister#as Winter used to help her#and let them find their home together#this is hope-punk not grimdark tragedy#winter schnee#weiss schnee#penny polendina#fria#winter maiden#james ironwood#rwby analysis#rwby character analysis#long post#petratalks#rwby7#protect winter schnee#my stuff
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Gimme Shelter livewatch under the cut.... I was on my phone when I wrote it so apologies for the typos
“Patchwork Community Center: Care Given to All” with a huge, lurid heart. Hmmm.... patchwork having two meanings here.....
Pastor (?) has 2 Timothy 2:22 tattooed on his arm! “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (NIV) Are we looking at growth and found family in this episode?!?
Oh that’s the alleyway!
Hitting mythology themes— Connor is an Anglicized version of an Irish name— Conchobar mac Nessa is maybe the most famous bearer of the name, from Irish mythology— he’s the king who lusted after Deirdre and had her locked up until she came of age, which is probably neither here nor there as far as this poor Connor is concerned...
That thing has a big lurid heart on his overalls better run lol— Oh shit it’s an evil Teddy Ruxpin!!!! Thanks Davy Perez!!!!
That’s the thing animal control uses to manage aggressive animals??? Is this saying something about the Patchwork people?
And that’s it for the cold open.
——
The uh, the mcfuckin what, the Camelot Palace Casino? Is this a tour of the legends of Ireland and Britain all of a sudden? What’s with hitting this theme so hard so fast?
Uh-oh the whole Highway to Heaven reference has me side-eyeing Dean’s suggestion for Cas snd Jack to leave the bunker... Dabb even “spoiled” that line in a tweet lol... in that show the cop and the angel got their (vague) assignments from the big guy.......
Oh SHIT “we’re standing in what I call ‘the trap zone’” Perez is coming for my whole life with this episode!!!! And they’re doing highkey “season one totally-normal Winchester investigation questions script” I love it!!!!
“Slasher flick” Oh we’re revisiting Mint Condition. This is fine.
AND TOMBSTONE THIS IS NOT FINE DAVY! We’re running the good times backwards what did I say about this being the flipside of Last Holiday!
H2H again but this time it’s sus... plus I’m with Zack, I totally want the cozy murder spinoff I imagined Adam and Michael doing plz
Oh the Cas and Jack dynamic here is so sweet.
Pastor just leaving his door open like there’s no such thing as a thief bless his heart. They must be torn up about Connor but Pastor was the last one to talk to him so he’s sus I don’t make the rules.
Oh no Red’s a THIEF!!! Who ever would have guessed. Okay I did NOT expect that jumpscare because of the way Connor’s murder primed me, that was masterfully done.
That’s vaguely an Ohio Star quilt square on the sign behind her except um I forget what that tilted square in the center turns it into? It’s chiming with something... I’ll have to look that up later.
“Divide and conquer” no never split up in a slasher movie that’s how you get murders use the buddy system!
Gonna stop a sec because I just realized that Zack is two-faced. The British dandy was an act. The killer is wearing a Cinderella mask. Ok I’m gonna make a prediction that Zack is actually the killer, a la the demon in Repo Man...
Okay there was definitely a beat after Dean said “Glad soneone’s taking charge” [ofHell] and the focus shifted to Sam. Hm.
“We’ve got to set her up for her own death” so meta, these writers are gonna shred us.
I love being shown how much Castiel has changed throughe Jack not understanding the Kool-Aid reference. And the cats line lol. That’s both amazing and poignant.
That’s a log cabin pattern in the cafeteria. Home. Makes me think back on other quilts we’ve seen this season and if “weaving” is the right metaphor for writing lol. I mean, the action of “patching” is synonymous with “mending” or even healing, but patchwork is also a craft with a long, long history in America (idk if quiltmaking is called patchwork everywhere) of taking a few often mismatched fabrics and cutting and sewing into something beautiful. There are generally two kinds of quilt tops— patterns, like we’ve seen so far in this season, which are carefully planned and involve precise measurements, and “crazy quilts” which also require skill but are often more freeform and piecemeal. But both aspire to be beautiful. That’s an interesting way to conceptualize a serial text... as both creating and mending....
That prayer was sweet and not at all what I was expecting.
I get the finger-cutting for Valerie (stealing=sticky fingers) but not for Connor? Tenuous connection still betw lying and writing? It’s evocative of Se7en but the killer seems to have the same MO for all the killings (I attended CSI for a while.)
Snow White is making me uneasy. Oh she’s the preacher’s daughter... we’ve seen that in early days, too.... oh.... oh....
It’s not the AV guy despite having seen all the AV equipment around Valerie. That’s too easy.
“A saint is a sinner who keeps trying-“ no scroll back, the important part was “we all have to take care of each other.” That’s a theme in the series.
She’s all in pink....
dean and amara on the same wavelength about food lol
Ha ha inversion of “oh you’re a fan of religion? name all seven gods then.”
Castiel’s testimony just wrecked me.
“Members serve the gift of food” hmmm the signs in this episode are tip-top
Gonna just watch for a while.
Oh crap “each is a finger” oh it’s about the sins of the father— No Cas no, you’ve fallen for the misdirection!
Oh okay good, Chuck’s not done snuffing worlds. That had me REALLY WORKED UP ha ha because Amara has no reason to lie right?
That was a really good conversation.... and implying that Former Death bent the truth...
Oh fuck I’m gonna cry “I wanted younto see that your mother was just a person” YES! DISMANTLE THIS MYTHOLOGY AMARA!!! Name it!
THE MYTH THAT YOU’D HELD ON TO FOR SO LONG did they just— THEY DID
rigging the game— ftfoh with the casino metaphors already we know the house always wins except when it doesn’t
Lying, lying, lying,
Do we even know Snow White’s name yet? And why was Connor a liar? Because I think we can make a guess at this point.... ah ha ha her name is sylvia— “forest spirit” she’s Mrs Butters— and she’s after hypocrites— but the killing isn’t supernatural, just churchy?
Oh shit SHE IS A DEAN MIRROR IF SHE STABS JACK I’LL FLIP A DAMN TABLE
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prairiedust.exe has encountered an error and must be restarted
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Okay so “Dad” steps in and stops Sylvia’s attack on Jack...
Why is that Zack? What????
“I’ve been lying to you” oh here we go
Oh it would be death #3, remember what Dabb said about threes a long time ago, two attempts that are unsuccessful and one that satisfies the parameters— but no he’s a jack :((((
I have to stop watching for a while.
Okay I finished it. Holy cats do I have some Thoughts about this episode.
What I loved: Revisiting Dean’s anger, BUT the parental mirror here (in retrospect, at least for me) was a John mirror-- all the mothers (exc for Rowena) in this episode are dead. And Pastor Joe didn’t apparently embrace his wife’s faith until she had died, and then his vision was radically different than his wife’s was-- much like John’s reasons for becoming a hunter were vastly different from Mary’s... but much like “patching” this subtext was possibly even more “healing” than having John back in the 300th ep... This was... looking at a child’s anger when they’re in the middle of their own family mythology. Am I implying that Dean’s anger is immaturity? Eh, it’s... unripeness. I have an old meta in my drafts about the heroine’s journey and why Mary’s story conformed to it while feeling totally unfulfilling in her actual character arc and I’m so glad I sat down and examined that rather than finish it. I have a lot I want to say about Cas’ testimony too, but that has to sit a while. ALSO also, Cas has already thrown away his shot by making the Empty deal, right?....
LANGUAGE! Cas saying “I found myself lost” is a bonkers sentence, right? It’s like when people say someone “turned up missing”-- AND it does not have the same meaning as “I realized I was lost”-- you get a double whammy of the connotation “to search for.” I loved loved loved how language was such a big deal in Last Holiday and then again here, I need to rewatch while paying closer attention to Sylvia and things she says... but these two were sister episodes in so many ways, that when I said there was a “lack of narrative mirrors” in Last Holiday, that’s only because the lens for that kind of reading is Gimme Shelter. That is not the first time spn has played with a “coin” or paired structure-- I think the first time I noticed it was Fan Fiction/Ask Jeeves but I was a transfer student from another fandom at the time lol. But of course, we get a huge truth bomb at the end of the episode, and again that splashy cymbal all over lying...
What I got wrong-- Zack wasn’t the killer but he’s fishy as hell-- he stole Sylvia! Is this part of Rowena’s “people generally end up where they deserve to be” except she’s built in an express lane? “Do you need a driver” is that his actual job now? Taking unripe souls to Hell Orientation? What’s up with him being there... the other shoe did not drop. So there is a third episode out there somewhere where this might get wrapped up? The conversation between Dean and Cas can easily be something that happens offscreen, and I don’t think that it would be the first time we miss an “important” conversation, especially since we know roughly what will be said and how it will wrap up-- it’s an “open text” of a sort. Maybe a fanfiction gap lol, I can’t wait for the codas.
Also, the fingers thing being Sylvia’s father’s favorite analogy is where she got her MO, something that I definitely didn’t see, although it fits right in with her father’s slightly pithy character. I think it’s interesting again how we’re playing with threes and fours. Three fingers got cut off but it was apparent that Valerie (valorious one) wouldn’t die until finger #4.... Jack really seems to be our last hope.
#the folklore of supernatural#the mythology of supernatural#mary winchester#davy perez#the second timothy of supernatural#gimme shelter#season 15#my mom gave me the family baby name book when i was about eleven and so i had an obsession with names#all of my characters in all of my stories had Important Symbolic Names LOL#it amused my father who told me I needed to read herman melville#and there's a little bit of my own family mythos.#now i harangue my own kid to write and stuff ha ha ha except instead of a baby name book i gave him watership down#same effect#more rabbit fighting
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Re-liveblog: eps. 22-23
[ep 22]
Ooh, Meng Yao as a spy makes more sense. I was thinking about Qing or Ning and wondering since when either of them counted as Xichen’s “old friend”.
I, of course, immediately accepted he was a spy, even before he was textually declared as such and only just appeared as WRH’s right-hand man. It wasn’t until very recently that my eyes were opened to the fact he did lure the army into a trap, a trap that he personally designed, and the battle was only won thanks to WWX and his secret weapon, which MY couldn’t have predicted, in the show at least. So what was his plan? Was it different in the book? Why would he put LXC in harm’s way, when MY|JGY defined their entire relationship by the avoidance of that?
We’ll only see this in the flashback, but I find it very curious that he let NMJ see his true face and live. And in this episode, we see reaction shots of MY being concerned when NMJ is losing the fight -- and since nobody is looking at him, this reaction must be genuine. Which implies that he is not committed to the Wen cause, and is keeping in mind the consequences of their defeat. It would have been a very bad look for him if the allies won and discovered NMJ recently died in his custody. Too bad MY miscalculated how important the lives of those random Nie cultivators would be to NMJ. If only Meng Yao did anything but kill them, I suspect the course of his relationship with NMJ would run very different.
(It’s also funny that the battle plan includes Missiles That Make People Explode... That are used on a couple of redshirts and not, say, on anyone crucial to the allied war effort, and are never mentioned again. And then WWX stands around for about 10 more minutes before deciding to do something. The direction of this scene is... not the best.)
[ep 23]
It’s painful to watch the fear and reverence Meng Yao still holds for his father figure. The flinching, the hiding, the immediate supplication – when was the last time he felt safe and respected, before the bullying with the Nie and having to watch and even partake in atrocities with the Wen? I hope he can finally have some good things in his life now.
First of all, it’s very funny in retrospect to see myself constantly refer to NMJ as MY’s father figure. Well, it’s not my fault that I wasn’t shown the full scene where MY seductively strokes NMJ’s saber until much later! (Although to be completely fair, considering what JGY eventually did to his father, and what else he did in the tv show knowingly as opposed to accidentally in the novel, maybe these interpretations aren’t as incompatible.)
The interesting thing here is that I, once again, completely bought what MY was selling to NMJ with considerably less success... So my interpretation of this scene was completely off-base -- but on another level, I still agree with my initial assessment.
I pitied MY when I thought the immediate overperformance of submission was his natural unfiltered reaction. Now I find it notable that this is the behavior he intentionally chooses -- both as the default survival mechanism over the course of his life, and in this specific scene. And in this scene, this behavior is targeted at and fine-tuned for LXC -- but not NMJ.
The very first thing MY learned about LXC is his protective instinct over him. The best manipulation is not a lie but the truth with certain omissions; he is afraid for his life when a strong angry man he just wronged is brandishing a giant blade at him -- isn’t it nice to have another strong man whose protection you can guarantee by jumping behind his back and grasping at his clothes helplessly? I mean, it’s not much else he can do in this situation, and when I was watching for the first time, I of course didn’t know he had actually killed people in cold blood a few minutes ago, so in this context his apologetic attitude makes more sense, he should be acting like that. But LXC doesn’t know either, just like a first-time viewer! When MY triggers LXC’s protective instinct by crying for his help personally, presenting it as “us against them” (them as NMJ, in this case), LXC doesn’t see the manipulation. When MY shifts the blame on NMJ -- “It's as you can see. In the situation a moment ago, even if I explained, Clan Leader Nie wouldn’t believe me” -- NMJ sees through the bullshit and even laughs at it, but the spectacle isn’t for him, it's for LXC. And NMJ can see it -- he watches MY the damsel in distress tenderly touch the arm of his valiant defender, watches the tidy, polite, performative way MY kneels to apologize, and sighs -- he knows MY has won this round. At least over LXC.
But in addition to what NMJ already knows and what MY has not repaired, MY makes another important mistake. This part of the scene will only be shown in the ep. 41 flashback, but MY still doesn’t understand NMJ’s worldview and apologizes only for insulting him personally. He not only fails to apologize for taking innocent lives, but tries to defend his decision.
Does MY still care for NMJ? From his concern in the previous episode, it does seem so. Does MY still hope to regain NMJ’s favor? Maybe, but due to a combination of not understanding and not prioritizing NMJ, this is instead the scene where MY loses that favor forever.
The above only applies to The Untamed. In the book (chapter 49) the dynamic is very different. When NMJ awakes, MY is carrying him and Baxia to safety alone. In the show, LXC is present from the beginning of the scene, and MY feels safe enough to play them against each other. In the book, he has no means to protect himself and is absolutely terrified. A very interesting paragraph:
He suddenly shouted, “ChiFeng-Zun!!! Don’t you understand that if I didn’t kill them, you’d be the one who died then?!!”
This was actually the same as saying, ‘I’m the one who saved your life so you can’t kill me or else it’d be immoral.’ However, Jin GuangYao was indeed worthy of his reputation. The same meaning but a different wording, and he was able to create a contained sense of frustration and a reserved sense of sorrow. As he had expected, Nie MingJue’s movement halted. Veins stood out under his forehead.
Having paused for a while, he clenched the hilt of his saber and shouted, “Very well! I’ll kill myself after I kill you!”
In the show, NMJ is already selfless and offended only on behalf of his murdered subordinates -- but the book takes it further, and he’s ready to sacrifice his own life if it means avenging them. Then the entire next paragraph is an almost comical chase where “one striked with madness and the other fled with madness”. When LXC finally showed up, “Meng Yao looked as if he had just seen a god from Heaven. He quickly scrambled over and hid behind the person’s back”.
In other words, the full scene in the book reads almost exactly as the incomplete version of it in episode 23 looked to me on the first viewing. There’s no layer of manipulation -- Meng Yao simply is terrified of one man and seeks protection from another. And most of the dialogue is the same -- but just via the staging and acting choices, the scene gains a second, darker meaning. Which fits with the show’s tendency to villify Jin Guangyao. He can’t even beg for his life without it being a manipulation! What in the book was a wholly sympathetic moment of desperation for him, in the show is made calculated and two-faced.
Back to The Untamed!
LOVE how Xichen immediately calls him “A-Yao” while standing right between his shitty fathers
Lol, this was truly a moment for the ages! Too bad we only saw NMJ’s reaction (because he was in the frame with LXC) -- I really want a reaction shot from JGS to this!
The following private conversation between JGY and LXC caused me almost physical pain on rewatch... A note from this (third, I think?) viewing: the line “I’ve followed Clan Leader Nie for so long. I know his intentions. I have also never taken it to heart before” which is a perfect continuation of the previous scene: JGY paints NMJ as unreasonable, and himself as selfless and accommodating. Oh, and of course makes LXC say “No-no of course I didn’t mean you were evil!!” I also continue to feel like I’m the one stabbed in the heart by their sad smiles, when they both know something is ending but can’t or won’t talk about it -- but I’m preaching to the choir here.
What I do want to comment on is another thing missing from the written liveblog -- on my first viewing I apparently misunderstood the conclusion of the scene.
What I thought was happening: JGY did proceed to enact the plan he described; the “old, weak, women, and children” he offers to send to Qiongqi Path were sent there, and were the same group of people later rescued by WWX and led to Burial Mounds; the small group of people JGY had with him under arrest are “those who really had a hand in the bloodshed” whom he openly proposes to execute, to which LXC agrees; and the twist at the end is that he relished in overseeing or even performing the execution himself, seemingly in a very brutal way.
But according to this analysis, which I trust, JGY immediately broke his word and executed the innocent prisoners that he promised to only imprison. This would definitely make more sense for the drama of the scene and the meaningful look JGS gives him... But there were only few people under arrest in this scene, and none seemed too old or too young, and where in this case did the Wen remnants of the Qiongqi Path who latter committed the Burial Mounds exodus come from?
[Episodes 4&10]
#the untamed#jin guangyao#nie mingjue#lan xichen#jgyreliveblog#this has been sitting in my drafts for like a month for no real reason#so some of these points may have been addressed by things i've written or reblogged since then#i had to take out the external link to the mdzs chapter so that the post could show up in the tag#sorry about that
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VLD Rewatch: Season 3
For a half-of-a-half season, season 3 packs quite a bit in and sets up a lot of plot. This shouldn't be surprising; Voltron was laid out as three 26-ep seasons, with each season bringing a new big bad and new theme. Season 3 is our beginning of the Lotor arc and there's a lot of setup and... a lot to unpack here.
For those who are still in "can't do it" mode about rewatching the series (which is fair), here's a quick summary to catch you up:
Shiro has been missing for (it's kind of implied) months. Without Shiro, Voltron and the group are fractured, especially with Keith's deep grief over losing Shiro preventing the recruitment a new Paladin.
Ultimately, Keith takes up the mantle of the Black Lion, Lance moves to Red, and Allura gets Blue. The group is clumsy and outmatched by Lotor and his generals who are definitely Up to Something. Keith tries to play leader and it's a bad look when he's making decisions via grief escapism. The team gets briefly trapped on a foggy wifi-less planet, discovers a bizarro alt-reality where Alteans rule the universe and Shiro is Swedish and doesn't mind Slav, and trails after Lotor and Co who have made off with the reality-breaking comet from Svavland.
Meanwhile Shiro escapes the Galra again, catches up with Voltron, shares a couple lowlit intimate moments with Keith while also awkwardly undermining his authority and jeopardizing the safety of the team, but no one suspects a thing.
Oh and there's a flashback episode about the OG paladins that I'll be honest I skipped since it turns out literally nothing that happened in the past is relevant to the present day and our only major revelations are that we (and Haggar) learn that she was once Honerva, Zarkon her husband was once kinda adorable, and turning evil swaps out your voice actor. Oh and Honerva had a cat who may or may not be as old as Haggar and potentially still kicking around.
Let's talk about season 3.
There's good and bad to be had with this season. Originally when I began my rewatch of the show I wanted to do it as though I were watching the season for the first time. Season 1 and 2 made that astonishingly easy; of all the seasons they seem the most confident about what the show is and what it's going for. Season 1 is for the mild setup and world building, season 2 is for the character building, relationship building, lion building, and problem resolving. Season 2 is arguably the show's strongest season overall so it's a tough act to follow. Season 3... makes an effort.
The good of this season is really good. Keith's grief over losing Shiro surprised and moved me the first time I saw the season and I was impressed with how long they held onto it given the show's habit of moving on pretty quick. Keith's grief holds the team back and endangers it; his early insistence on going after Lotor felt like a way to channel his anguish and maybe get a little revenge for his loss. Keith got one of his most significant character boosts in season 2, and following it through in this season sets up a complicated Keith that we will see for seasons to come.
The other good is Lotor. Lotor is handsome and charismatic and devastatingly cunning and is a polar opposite to his Saturday-morning-cartoon-villain dad. Zarkon was threatening, but Lotor is INTERESTING and his "wait and see" approach makes us the audience want to wait and see what he's up to. His band of generals are intriguing and colorful and I love the variation of their designs and personalities.
And of course, we can't talk about the good stuff in season 3 without discussing Shiro and Keith's relationship. Season 2 gave us some really fantastic growth and moments and entire episodes between them, but Season 3 brought a new level of intimacy that definitely bumped it up a notch. From the slow-moving reunion and closeups of only Shiro and Keith's faces, to their quiet moments alone in dimly lit rooms. This season gave us "as many times as it takes", which remains one of the most beautiful little exchanges between the pair in the whole series. The jury is still out on whether or not Sheith was a hopeful intention by the creatives on this show or just an incredibly happy accident, but looking at some of the decisions made in 3x05 and 3x06 especially lean more to the former. These scenes are more bittersweet now knowing how it all ends up.
There is a lot of setup for future things in general, and this is where it becomes difficult to separate what is in s3 with what will be by the end of s6 (and beyond) because some things we just can't unknow. It was really interesting to see how things that made me very hyped after this season now take on a bit of a disappointing and even bitter flavor because some roads really don't go anywhere. Lotor's mysterious plans for instance, only seem to get more mysterious, as do his allegiances. He spends most of this season clearly toying with the Paladins, clearly prepared to destroy them or let them destroy themselves, but later he sides with them and the Paladins seem pretty quick to forgive this and assume he's a good guy now. Lotor's "side" is never clearly established since his goals never are. The Lotor in s3 is interesting by virtue of the assumption that we will eventually learn all his secrets. But we never do, and that definitely for me taints him as a character.
Speaking of some mixed character motivations, s4 reveals that Narti was either a spy for Haggar the whole time or that Kova was, or both, and yet in season 3 Haggar sends a goon off to spy on Lotor. Even in Haggar's private moments she seems unsure of what Lotor is up to so this later reveal that she was aware the whole time is an odd one and still left very vague.
Similarly, major problems arise with Shiro in s3 but only via the hindsight of s4-6. Everything about the way Shiro is brought back into the fold in season 3 is highly suspicious. From a narrative standpoint I want to say it begins with Sven as foreshadowing, an alternate-reality Shiro who looks JUST LIKE SHIRO but is NOT SHIRO. Unfortunately I think this was less of an audience wink and more of an excuse to nod to the original Sven. But Shiro's Journey opens with scientists doing tests on him, Shiro's pupils dilating to the sound of camera lens adjustments, and Shiro literally seeing a dead-eyed copy of himself on a slab. The words "Operation Kuron" are repeated at least three times as the Galra let him escape. When Shiro meets the two aliens on the ice planet and they accuse him of being a traitor, Shiro protests, "I'm not a--" and never finishes. He does pilot logs into a Galra Cruiser as he tails Voltron. And that's just in one episode.
The next episode has him repeatedly undermining Keith's newfound leadership position (a position Shiro repeatedly encouraged Keith into in s1/2 to Keith's great reluctance), to the point of talking over him and shouting at him. He dismisses the safety of the team for the sake of the mission; something that goes expressly against the team Voltron way of doing things (Kolivan details this in s4) and is completely against Shiro's nature. It felt manipulative to me the first time and it still feels off when at the end of this he privately tells Keith "I'm sorry I had to step in back there", referring to Keith's failure (which was not a failure) and then in the next breath "you're good at this." This was the topic of many a heated debate when the episode came out but from my end there is just no way to see that the man presented here is Shiro and not an insidious clone.
There's a term for this that I forget where the storyteller essentially gaslights the audience for no real reason. Ultimately we will come to know that this is Shiro. A little more short-tempered but ultimately a good boy and not the potentially fully aware evil clone that season 3 hints at. It's bad writing; and the reason that it's bad writing is that the audience is privy to very little more than the characters are when it comes to Kuron and yet the characters are not in the slightest bit suspicious about the behaviour that we the audience sees as suspect. We end up gaslighting ourselves because of bad writing, only to learn that we were right the whole time. And genuinely, speaking as someone who loves all Shiros dearly, Kuron is a whole walking writing disaster. But more on that as we get further into the season.
I don't love the episode, but the Comet episode is a surprisingly adult-oriented one and presents an interesting flip to things and an intriguing hypothesis that I wish had been explored better, or longer, or something. As I've said 100x before, Galra aren't an inherently evil race; they're the result of a 10,000 yr universe takeover. This episode suggests that Alteans are no better, and the broader implications of this are massive and should have offered a much bigger fundamental shift in the characters and the way they viewed this war. In particular Allura, who previously immediately turned against Keith the moment his heritage was revealed, despite having become good friends with him. Her learning that her own people aren't immune to "absolute power corrupts absolutely" is a moment that is not given any real weight or consequence . This is a letdown especially since this potentially weightier-themed episode was self-aware enough of that weight to be the only episode outside of the Voldemort season to show imagery maybe a little too old for its younger audience (the repeated shot of the mummified Altean scientist).
From a production standpoint I noticed a lot of little things. There were a number of hookup issues; some hilariously drawn bg characters, some compositing that worked and some that decidedly didn't. Some of the editing was a little rough in places and some of the timing of things felt very off. There were some jokes that ran long and didn't land and threw the pacing off or stole time from other things. The editing on the Comet episode was particularly off and the characters were visually difficult to track at times. Also, there is definitely a different/longer version of the "As many times as it takes" scene even if it only exists in script or maybe board form. All of the Shiros in that scene were drawn by Ryu, who was often tapped for revisions (particularly for Shiro and Lotor). But the Keith in that scene is not a Ryu Keith; and Keith's "Well--" in "If you're feeling up to it" sounds like two lines spliced together. Ryu's fingerprints are all over 3x06 in interesting places; I definitely spotted his artwork in at least one shot of the Galra post leader and I think a Zethrid. He drew a few of the short haired Shiros as well. I think this episode underwent a number of changes; I remember too that Lance exclaiming "you're looking better" was originally Keith's line. At the same time we get little nice superfluous animations like the foreground gecko. Just a lot of inconsistencies.
Overall it's still an alright season but knowing what's coming means I just don't love this season the way I used to. The little moments that rock still rock but a lot of plot pawns were pushed forward that were ultimately just discarded. I can't wait to see if finishing the next 3 seasons will retroactively bump this season back up to where it once was in my heart.
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Dust Volume 6, Number 2
Grisha Shakhnes
Time for another collection of short, sharp reviews, covering a gamut of styles. Our most tireless contributor, Bill Meyer, turned in a record eight Dusts this time, so if you like jazz, improv and experimental music, this is your edition. Other writers included Ray Garraty, Jennifer Kelly, Justin Cober-Lake, Tim Clarke and Ian Mathers.
Max B — House Money (Self-released)
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Max B is doing 75 years in prison, yet before his bid he recorded a lot of music to be used by trusted collaborators. Last year’s Coke Wave 5 with French Montana felt authentic enough to be confused with Max’s pre-prison mixtapes, only a bit more polished. This new EP is no less wave-y and goofy, but too many guest verses dilute the fun. If French, with whom Max B recorded a lot of mixtapes together, seems like a natural collaborator, the rest of the guests are an uneasy fit. House Money is a Frankenstein-y affair exactly because Max himself wouldn’t invite them to his booth (not that they are lousy talents, they are just on a different frequency with Max B). It is probably mixed and produced by someone who thought that these collaborators would attract additional audience, yet the result is the opposite: Max B’s fans would feel alienated by impostors in his own domain.
Ray Garraty
Jeb Bishop / Jaap Blonk / Weasel Walter / Damon Smith — JaJeWeDa (Balance Point Acoustics)
Pioneer Works Vol. 1 BPA 19 by JeJaWeDa (Jeb Bishop / Jaap Blonk / Weasel Walter / Damon Smith)
No matter how big the stage they occupy, it isn’t big enough for Jaap Blonk and Weasel Walter. Both men are masters of strategic exaggeration. Put them together and a clash is inevitable. Blonk not only spews sound poetry like a symphony of pan-lingual news broadcasts and surreptitiously recorded mouthwash experiments, he manipulates electronics with a video game controller that looks especially ridiculous in his gangly hands. Walter mugs and wallops, each movement lunging simultaneously at your ears and your funny bone. Perhaps you’re wondering, “isn’t this a record review? How will these visual descriptions clue me into the sound?” Play this record and you will know. And you will also marvel at the way bassist Damon Smith and trombonist Jeb Bishop balance the other half of the band’s nuttiness with seriousness so unfailing, you might put your money on them against Roscoe Mitchell in a game of poker.
Bill Meyer
Ben Carey — Antimatter (Hospital Hill)
ANTIMATTER by Ben Carey
Sydney-based electronic musician Ben Carey played saxophone before he took on modular synthesizers. This may explain the quivering, palpable presence of the sounds he devises; he makes static pulse and shake like swollen lips engaged in the act of vocalizing. His deployments of attenuated tones, sudden swells, and insistent chimes are discontinuous and episodic, but also quite thoughtfully planned out. Both the sudden shifts and the long considerations of discrete elements feel as essential as the unforgettable bridge in a bubblegum cart hit, and the qualities of the sounds Carey ponders amply reward the attention required to follow their shifts in and out of audibility and back and forth across the stereo spectrum. If you’re inclined to get well acquainted with Antimatter, consider springing for the LP. Since both Carey and his label are situated in Australia, it might take some looking and spending, but Rashad Becker’s cut and the 45-rpm playing speed guarantee maximum presence.
Bill Meyer
John Chantler — Tomorrow Is Too Late (Room40)
Tomorrow Is Too Late by John Chantler
From the pig’s ass on the sleeve to the titles of the album’s two tracks, John Chantler’s Tomorrow is Too Late promises to deal with endings. But when you put the record on, you find yourself adrift in events that defy linear description, let alone the definition of a final point. Oh, sure, both of them end, but they don’t spend the time leading up to those terminations making sure that you know where they’re going. The title track was commissioned for the 2018 iteration of the French electronic music institution INA GRM’s Présences Électronique festival, and most of its sounds were obtained from a François Coupigny synthesizer that is over 50 years old. Rare earl synths are like worlds unto themselves, and the listener is adrift with Chantler as he invites sounds to converge, dispel, and recongregate in winking, restless masses. On “We’re Always at the End,” the electronic sound convergence make way for a pipe organ, which coheres into a solid sonic presence, but when it disappears, the piece does not. This is music to inhabit, over and over again.
Bill Meyer
Richard Dawson — 2020 (Weird World)
2020 by Richard Dawson
This sixth full-length from cult songwriter Richard Dawson unspools like a series of linked short stories, the characters sharing a blighted, latter-day English backdrop and perhaps avoiding one another’s eyes as they pass on the streets. Sung in Dawson’s wavery tenor — with flights up into a very uncertain falsetto — and backed with the most straightforward of rock-ish instrumental arrangements, the songs flourish in their specificity. The metal-riffing “Jogging,” for instance, tells the story of a mid-life crisis with startling exact-ness, an ex-school counselor, laid off and too anxious to leave the house, advised by a doctor to take up jogging. The story is told first person, in the most straightforward way possible, with minimal embellishments. If it weren’t for the crashing guitar chords, the squiggly lines of synth, you might be listening to a friend over coffee. The scenarios are mostly dreary, of people stuck in soul-sucking jobs, in towns where things go wrong through neglect and inertia. Yet, once in a while the sun comes piercing through, and life, however stunted and bare and grey, turns ever so slightly hopeful. I’ll leave you with verse from lacerating “The Queen’s Head.”
“The guy from the vape shop
Ferrying his chocolate labs
Waves to us cheerily
From a leaky kayak
‘I've lost everything apart from what counts’
Pointing to his dogs and then at his heart.”
Now that’s a pre-chorus.
Jennifer Kelly
Frank Denyer — The Boundaries of Intimacy (Another Timbre)
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On The Boundaries of Intimacy, composer Frank Denyer explores volume dropped to a soft level. The approach produces a sort of intimacy, nearly everything sounds hushed, although it remains unclear whether, as listeners, we're leaning into a confidant or cupping our hand to a wall to eavesdrop. Regardless of our position as listeners, Denyer continues his work with unpredictable instrumentation, highlighting sneh and koto playing in various places (including two version of a koto piece), and combining flute and electronics for a strange tonal study called “Beyond the Boundaries of Intimacy.” When he works with a more traditional set of instruments, as on “String Quartet,” the ostensibly comfortable sounds become unfamiliar, an experienced aided by Denyer's play with dynamics, turning from a crescendo to a near disappearance. Denyer presents those sorts of challenges across these pieces (written over the past 40 years). He requires attentive, patient listening, but rewards it with unsettling experiences.
Justin Cober-Lake
Avram Fefer Quartet—Testament (Clean Feed)
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This record is credited to the Avram Fefer Quartet, and it’s true that the Brooklyn-based alto and tenor saxophone wrote the tunes and leads the band. But he’s not necessarily the guy you will listen to every time that you play it. Not that there’s anything wrong with Fefer’s playing, which combines Sonny Rollins’ muscularity with an affinity for bold melodies rooted equally in soul jazz and West African pop music. He’s got ideas, emotion and chops to spare. But damn, what a band! Fefer and bassist Eric Revis have an association going back to the 1990s; no matter which way the music rolls, the foundation is solid. Drummer Chad Taylor is a regular member of a trio with Fefer and Revis which made a couple records a decade or so back, and he’s also a member of bands led by Revis and guitarist Marc Ribot. Taylor never misses a chance to turn the music up a little closer to a boil, and the blues-rooted tone that Ribot favors here adds steely sentiment to the blues, mass to the Afrobeat repetitions, and confident complexity to the free interludes in this music. So, if your attention wavers from the saxophone for a second, it’s probably because you’re listening to how one of his accompanists is playing off of another one. Wotta band!
Bill Meyer
Roc Marciano — Marcielago (Self-released)
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In “Saw” Roc Marciano says, “Sometimes I pinch myself in disbelief,” referring to a level of fame he’s achieved after 20 years in the rap game. The listeners are pinching themselves as well, but for a different reason: Marciano doesn’t repeat himself. Roc Marci works with his lyrics on two levels: line by line as well as bar by bar. As defined by Marci, his songs are “poetry over beats.”Marcielago is a quieter effort, closer to Rosebudd’s Revenge 1 and 2, than to 2018’s KAOS and Behold a Dark Horse. To rephrase the poet himself, on Marcielago he’s more like a pimp than a mack. The standout here is “Ephesians” which starts with early electronica and then explodes into a full-scale attack. Marci’s long time collaborator Ka spits here a verse which does an impossible thing: Marciano is murdered on his own turf.
Ray Garraty
Machtelinckx / Badenhorst / Cools / Gouband — Porous Structures (Aspen Edities)
porous structures by Machtelinckx/Badenhorst/Cools/Gouband
This quartet comprises two steel-stringed acoustic guitarists, one percussionist prone to placing stones on his drums, and one clarinet and a saxophone player who likes to sing. The album’s title implies permeability, and the music delivers by creating the impression of actions happen in different places at the same time. Ruben Machtelinckx and Bert Cools’ guitars create structures made of slow-moving, finger-picked patterns. Toma Gouband and Joachim Badenhorst often sound like they are playing in some resonant space outside of the guitars’ sanctuary, where their sounds can spread a halo of echo around and occasionally blow through the dry, close-miked string sounds. The former’s rattling rocks create more texture than motion; the latter’s distant croons and spare tones create a sense of distance. In their own quiet way, these musicians have arrived at a sound that can’t be mistaken for anyone else’s.
Bill Meyer
Salim Nourallah — Jesus of Sad (Palo Santo)
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The narrators of Salim Nourallah's songs don't often find things going so well. Nourallah's taken that point to its logical conclusion on new EP Jesus of Sad. Rather than indulging depressive tendencies, though, the songwriter brings his sense of humor for a parodic take. “So, you think you've suffered?” he sings to open the disc. “I sip the tears of the world from my coffee cup.” The hyperbole might immediately develops his exaggerated character. Accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Billy Harvey, Nourallah moves on to “Born with a Broken Heart,” a funky number owing something to Soul Coughing while providing one of the best bass lines in his catalog. The cut's full of wit while addressing serious questions about faith, gender equality, and more.
“This Doesn't Feel like Peace, Love, or Understanding” (the second track here to echo a Nick Lowe title) sounds like quintessential Nourallah, with a pop-rock sound that would have fit on any of his last few records and a relatable sentiment conveyed in smart lyrics. Two versions of “Misanthrope” close out the disc. Nourallah co-wrote the song with Rhett Miller, but here he turns away from the Old 97's' bouncy version (called“She Hates Everyone”). Nourallah slows it down, building complex feelings; he can't fully enjoy his strange love now under his anxiety about the future. It closes the EP well, being yet more honest emotion that manages to misdirect and complicate things, the true heart covered by the knowing satire of “Jesus of Sad.”
Justin Cober-Lake
Parashi—Tape From Oort Cloud (Sedimental/Skell)
When a record provokes images of a Captain Beefheart lyric turned inside out, you know its makers are on to something. The squelchy sounds that usher in “The Vanishing Coast,” which is the first of this LP’s four tracks, does not bring to mind synthesizers, even though that’s what Mike Griffin (that’s Mr. Parashi to you) probably used some time them. Nor does it bring to mind someone else’s record. Rather, I hear the words “slow and bulbous” as the music sinks slowly into its own swampy stealth. “Broadcast Failures” leaves even those alinear coordinates behind as it pings its way woozily into the depths. The titular malfunctions might be echoed calls which fail to distract the sonar-like main body of sound, or the squashed, distant carousel that follows. Or maybe it doesn’t. File this under best practice befuddlement, but be sure to tape a bookmark to the plastic outer sleeve to remind yourself of the necessity of playing it.
Bill Meyer
Tom Redwood — The Glue (self released)
The Glue by Tom Redwood
With The Glue, his fourth album, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Tom Redwood has tapped into a rewarding strain of country/folk that pulls hard on traditional roots, while adding a knowing wink, flowing performances, and plenty of tuneful song craft. As in Jim O’Rourke’s beloved series of Drag City albums, the music-making is taken seriously but is undercut by self-deprecating humor. On “Easy Love” Redwood sings, “When I was young I was easy loving / But now that I’m old, I’m not so dumb,” and on the title track he makes a playful reference to “round, gorgeous thighs.” He’s not afraid to play it straight, though, such as on the haunting “Cold Mother Night,” and reflective closer “Shut the Door.” There’s superb lap steel playing by Kier Stevens, smart counterpoint on guitar and “cheesy keys” from producer Matt Walker, and ethereal backing vocals from Rosie Luby, which contrasts nicely with Redwood’s aw-shucks delivery.
Tim Clarke
Grisha Shakhnes — Being There (Unfathomless)
being there by grisha shakhnes
Being There presents the listener with a document of actor, action and the arena in which the former enacts the latter. Essentially, Grisha Shakhnes recorded himself recording and recorded the room in which he was recording. Sometimes a recording device filters the subjects of his inquiry on the way to the recorder; while the sounds were captured by a Zoom digital recorded, some of them went through a Rvox reel-to-reel tape deck along the way. Equipped with the knowledge that you’re hearing Shakhnes making recordings, you quickly find yourself making decisions about what sounds to follow, and then dealing with the consequences of the choices you made as your act of following draws you into the chain of events that made the album in the first place. You are present with Shakhnes, sharing in the creation of Being There.
Bill Meyer
Six by Seven — Dream On (Cargo)
D R E A M . O N by six by seven
One of the great shoulda beens of 1990s British rock (on the other side of the Atlantic, it’s doubtful anyone not reading something like the NME at the time would have heard much of them), Six by Seven are also one of the few from that era to keep going in a way that’s not just repeating old glories. Now almost entirely just frontman Chris Olley (his son Charlie drums here, but otherwise it’s a solo show) you wouldn’t guess it from the massive, warmly analogue psychedelic/motorik drones and drifts here. Stylistically speaking, Olley can be a restless guy, never really revisiting the glory of Six by Seven’s first three albums (what you might call their classic period, and well worth checking out) but also covering an astonishing breadth during the years since. The recent Dream On is as good a place to dip into his stream of work as any, boasting three massive soundscapes (the best of which might be “And No One Knows Your Name” as well as briefer, dreamier song like “Hey Kid” and the title track. Both his muse and the demands of making music your day job keep Olley forever moving, though — even writing up this release was marked by the appearance of a double album-length Dream On 2, so anyone on Olley’s wavelength can expect a lot to keep up with.
Ian Mathers
#dusted magazine#dust#bill meyer#ray garraty#jennifer kelly#tim clarke#ian mathers#max b#jeb bishop#jaap blonk#weasel walter#damon smith#ben carey#john chantler#richard dawson#frank denyer#avram fefer quartet#roc marciano#porous structures#salim nourallah#parashi#tom redwood#Ghrisha Shahknes#six by seven
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The Handmaid’s Tale 3x07 Thoughts and first half of Season 3 Review
Okay gonna break it down by the story lines that were going on here. This episode seriously went absolutely nowhere, but made sure we still got some of that token Gilead suffering just to remind us--again--how horrible this place can be.
1.June/Hannah/Mrs. Lawrence
June had no plan. What was she going to do once she saw Hannah? Say Hi? Mrs. Lawrence is also a mystery. We had ample chance to learn about her and Joseph, but nothing of substance really came up. I liked the narrative in ep 5 about their courtship with the cassette tapes. But we haven't gotten much beyond that. If we're spending so much time on June at the Lawrence's, why can't we explore who they are? Lawrence is a conundrum but beyond those few scenes in eps 2 and 3, we haven't seen him and June interact in any meaningful way. And Mrs. Lawrence comes off as a recluse who's gone crazy and is some version of a hysterical woman who can't handle things and honestly, that seems like a disservice in a series that is supposed to prioritize the story lines of women in this society.
1.5 June/OfMatthew
Okay the instant we met OfMatthew they tried to make it seem like she couldn't be trusted. June made a couple of attempts to try and feel her out, but it hasn't worked so far. I'm tired of them doing that thing where they imply there is more to the character, but never actually explore it. This girl is pregnant for like...the fourth time poor thing. But then she's "saving June's life"? Why is Aunt Lydia asking her to keep tabs on June anyway? I get why June lashes out afterwards and one thing I love love loved was the Handmaids instantly shielding her from the guardians. But...in the end OfMatthew's actions ended up costing the life of Hannah's Martha and no direct repercussions to June.
Why is June spared? I feel like she's been able to get away with way too much at this point. At the Waterford house it made more sense because there was so much more at stake and they were all somehow involved. But now? Here? June is just being stupid and going nowhere. And OfMatthew is a question I really want answered but feel like it probably won't happen.
2. Emily & Moira
Loved it. Absolutely. Not nearly enough. I want Emily coming out of her shell, figuring out the kind of person she has become, how she copes, her leaning on Moira for support. Her realizing that she can fight from the outside. This was too short. Moira and Emily MADE IT OUT. We need their stories, their voices. It doesn't just end once they're out. As the series moves forward, there NEEDS to be more of a focus on Canada and the refugee experience of these characters that we watched suffer and become another version of themselves in Gilead. It won't detract from the narrative, it'll just shift it. In it's natural direction imo.
3. The Waterfords in DC
Again, this went absolutely nowhere . We have this mystery new commander and Esme Cullen and they seem to have something to offer, but nothing has moved forward. Dirty politics? Adultery? Ooh ahh -_- but nothing has actually...happened?
We already saw last ep that Fred and Serena were well on their way to repairing their relationship. I do like the notion that they work best when they're plotting something together or working towards something together. Serena wants her power back and ironically, working on par with Fred is what makes their relationship thrive. Even though she worked with him to build a world in which all the power is stripped from women. But since this has already been set in motion, why the dance? Figuratively and literally lol. Give. Us. Forward. Movement.
Overall S3 Thoughts so far:
Why is it so stagnant this season? Even if Hulu is ordering more episodes and they want to stretch it out, at least give us some new content, some new stories. I would KILL for Janine or Alma's backstories. Why not go that route? We all know by this point that Janine isn't actually crazy and Alma we have zero knowledge of but know she seems to have been involved in the resistance from pretty early on. Tell us about Alma! And through her, tell us about the resistance~!!!!!!~!~@!!!!
The world of Gilead was already established early on in the series and we've seen little sprinkles of how it came to be through backstories and elements of the Handmaids' daily routines. GIVE US SOMETHING NEW. AGH. We don't need to see more suffering, more executions. I thought this season was going to be about fighting back! There is literally so much that goes unsaid, so many untapped characters that are made to be nuanced but nothing about them is ever actually explored.
Seven episodes in and what's new?
- June has a new posting but we still know nothing concrete or valuable about the Lawrence's or about the resistance movement which seems to at least partially operate out of that house
- The baby is safe in Canada with Luke and Moira, butwe know nothing about their lives there. What's it like living as a refugee? With a baby? We get some of that just now in 3x07 with Emily and Moira, but like I mentioned above, it's not nearly enough. It's like a little tease? Like the potential is THERE why not dedicate more screen time to this story?
- June told Luke the truth, but we haven't seen Luke in 2 episodes and we only really saw his reaction to the recording as he listened to it. Did he tell Moira? How is he coping? What is Moira thinking?
- Serena pulled her usual "j/k Ima do what suits me not you" and Fred is along for the ride to like...gain more power? We see a new Commander come into play here but after two eps we still know nothing? we're just...kinda suspicious.
- Nick has been so MIA it's not even funny. He gets promoted but we really don't know why/how? He gets deployed but was hanging around DC for those few weeks after he said goodbye to June? June finds out some (not-so-surprising) info about her baby daddy but we don't see her cope with it or address it at all?
Look at all these BUTS
The stories are being set up but not fully executed and I can't fathom WHY. Also, these setups could have been done in maybe 4-5 episodes instead of SEVEN.
Hulu has been really quiet about the second half of the season which I think we are officially entering into now with Ep 8. So maybe everything picks up like crazy at the end. Here's hoping. 😞
#the handmaid's tale#3x07#tht#season 3#june osborne#nick x june#june x nick#nick blaine#serena joy waterford#fred waterford#handmaids tale#hulu#reviews
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Golden Kamuy Ep 19
Okay, sorry, I couldn’t help it, I have to talk about this episode.
In itself many things in this episode aren’t badly done… the problem are that various cuts done previously or during it or even changes in the placement of the scenes affected it greatly.
This chapter starts with the continuation of the scene of the crane dance from the previous episode.
I’ve already discussed of how I’m strongly disappointed by how they handled the dancing crane scene but I guess repeating it helps get some relevant points.
For who’s not familiar with the manga but is watched the anime I’ll explain that the Ogata flashback you see at the end, in the manga, was presented much sooner, before Asirpa got the chance to do that crane dance, and I’ll also add that dance wasn’t done just because, but due to a certain discussion.
In this discussion Asirpa asks Sugimoto why he’s searching for the gold, Sugimoto replies he’s doing it to help the wife of his deceased friend. Ogata, who’s also present, connects this info with how Sugimoto told him he was searching the gold for the woman he loves...
...and claims that this means the woman Sugimoto loves is that widow. Sugimoto doesn’t reply. As in the manga Asirpa has a completely one-sided crush on Sugimoto of which Sugimoto is COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS and the situation is getting uncomfortable she does the crane dance to change the mood and divert the discussion on a neutral topic. Sugimoto doesn’t understand why she did it (I told you, it’s an one-sided crush of which Sugimoto is oblivious) but it’s implied Ogata connects the dots and we see him smiling gently (the Japanese onomatopoeia used for his ‘heh’ in that scene is the one for soft, gentle laughs and one that normally is never used with him) and, possibly, sort of sadly in Asirpa’s direction.
It can be speculated that in this love triangle (Umeko/Sugimoto/Asirpa) in which Sugimoto is oblivious of Asirpa’s feelings, he saw the triangle between his father, his father’s wife and his mother and this can turn out to be a relevant plot point because, interesting enough, Noda had Asirpa waiting 11 volumes before asking Sugimoto why he was searching the gold, just while Ogata was present and could connect the dots.
But anyway, that was the previous episode’s problem.
I’m reporting it here as well, merely because the moving of the flashback at the end of this episode when it was fundamentally meant to be PRIOR to the ending of the previous episode affects things.
Let’s go on with the story now.
They decided to cut ENTIRELY the whole Anehata arc.
I’ve made no secret of how I expected it to suffer censoring and how I would wholeheartedly approve parts of it being censored.
If you’re not a manga reader you might not know who’s Anehata. Well, simply put, Anehata is an animal lover. No, it’s not he likes them, he rapes them and then kills them. He dies while raping a bear. Yeah, that’s not the sort of things you want to see in an anime.
What I expected however was for the anime to just cut the.. ‘animal loving side of Anehata’, not fundamentally the whole arc as that was a relevant arc filled with character development for basically all the cast. I was fine with them making Anehata a hunter, an animal pelt thief, a guy into crazy things, whatever really. I’m not so much fine with them removing the whole story he spurred.
And I’ll immediately start to tell you why.
In the manga the Ainu we met in the episode had no idea who’s violating the animals and ends up thinking it’s Tanigaki. They chase Tanigaki and he escapes.
So when Cikapasi will see Asirpa dancing it’ll be only him and Inkarmat and they’ll report the problem Tanigaki is in. Sugimoto and Asirpa will rush to help him but… Ogata will also go search for Tanigaki on his own. That’s because to Ogata Tanigaki is Tsurumi’s man and very loyal to him so he thinks Tanigaki is there to hunt him.
The anime tried to keep this part but mostly postponed it (let’s skip the subbing mistake of Tanigaki calling Ogata just ‘private’ when he’s a ‘superior private’)...
...making Ogata’s reaction to Tanigaki’s presence nonexistent at first, as it’s actually Tanigaki who worries about Ogata being there and not vice versa (again let’s ignore another subbing mistake as the truth was Tanigaki was actually worried because Ogata was there, not because they were there)... which is silly, really.
The assumption Tanigaki was working for Tsurumi was a logical one and showed how Ogata is clever and cautious. The fact he ignores the whole thing and, even when he touches it he doesn’t really dig deep into it, either tones down his fear Tanigaki might be working for Tsurumi or his intelligence.
A good character development for Tanigaki gets lost as well. In fact Tanigaki refuses Ogata’s help (I won’t dig into how Ogata came to offer his help to Tanigaki) against the Ainu threatening Tanigaki because he fears Ogata will kill the Ainu.
This is the guy who, in the past, refused to talk things over and used Asirpa as a human shield...
...and that now is willing to allow the Ainu to harm him in order to protect them from harm from Ogata.
This is character growth that goes skipped.
Many other things got changed.
First of all the arc which established how Inkarmat and Tanigaki were getting close got cut. In the anime having Cikapasi claiming he and Inkarmat are a family with Tanigaki as the gigolo doesn’t help to convey how, while they were travelling together, they really had started becoming a family.
Also, who remembers the previous anime episodes in which Inkarmat and Asirpa met might remember Asirpa didn’t like Inkarmat. The reason was Inkarmat expressed interest on Sugimoto by claiming she liked men with facial scars and Asirpa got jealous and hurried to try to discourage her by telling her Sugimoto eats Osoma.
This plays a relevant part in how Asirpa will react when she’ll see Tanigaki and Inkarmat together and it’ll be VERY obvious the two are close. She’ll stop feeling antagonistic and she’ll encourage them to GET MARRIED ALREADY.
In short there will be no staring at Tanigaki in disgust thinking he’s a gigolo… which, really had no reason to be.
And then we have many, but really many other things that get cut due to the whole Anehata arc being cut, like Asirpa asking Ogata to protect Tanigaki and Ogata actually doing it without killing anyone, the whole thing causing a shift in their relation… or Sugimoto continually expressing his distrust for Ogata and being unfriendly with him even after the man saved Tanigaki. Or Asirpa challenging her fear of snakes to save Sugimoto and actually saving him and Sugimoto standing in front of a bear without fear in order to get Anehata’s skin.
Those were RELEVANT things that got lost so we could have three minutes of the Kamuy hopunire ceremony in which Asirpa will repeat part of the talk she gave Sugimoto in Ep 3… which is not so good really, both because it takes away time that could have been used to show us things that instead got censored but also because it implies Sugimoto already forgot all of it.
Mind you, I appreciate they wanted to show some Ainu culture but it sort of felt very random. In the manga the Kamuy hopunire took place because Sugimoto killed the bear Anehata raped. Here they just got invited to it at random so the whole thing seems an excuse for exposition.
It makes matter worse because it implies Tanigaki waited a lot to tell Asirpa what he came to tell her, which is plain stupid.
I appreciate they left Sugimoto’s comment about the gold at the end as well as Asirpa’s worried gaze. This was good.
It’s also very cute and a complete anime addition the scene in which Cikapasi is sleeping with his head on Inkarmat’s lap (in the manga Inkarmat and Cikapasi don’t take part to the ceremony).
What’s not so good is Ogata questioning Tanigaki ONLY NOW about his motivations… and what’s probably worse is him accepting so easily the whole thing, fundamentally moving to a next topic as soon as Sugimoto says Tanigaki isn’t the murder of those three soldiers.
In the manga Tanigaki proved his good intentions by letting the Ainu arrest him, so when Sugimoto cleared up it wasn’t Tanigaki who killed the three that were with him and Asirpa also explained how Tanigaki wanted to return to the Matagi and how devoted he’d gotten to Huci, Ogata decided he wasn’t a danger...
...never mentioning his opinion was also influenced by his budding ‘friendship’ with Asirpa which in the anime is completely glissed over...
(in the manga Asirpa was the only one in the group which showed interest and worry for him almost playing the role of the mother figure... and we'll learn in this episode how Ogata's relation with his mother was... or better wasn't as the woman was focused on waiting Hanazawa and was ignoring him... which explains how important is how Asirpa instead is paying him attention and giving him care...).
In the anime Tanigaki proved nothing. He might not have been the one who killed his companions but really, this doesn’t mean he isn’t there on Tsurumi’s order.
Ogata dropping the whole thing to jump just at how Huci’s dream is just a dream is abrupt and not really logical.
The anime instead did something interesting by keeping both the expression Sugimoto had on the magazine and the one he had on the volume version at Asirpa’s words she wouldn’t go back to Otaru.
It’s also good how we’re shown that Shiraishi and Cikapasi are sleeping while Inkarmat is shown watching the starts outside, a hint something is on her mind.
In the manga Inkarmat, Cikapasi and Shiraishi don’t take part to the discussion because they weren’t present, the anime did a clever thing by showing Shiraishi and Cikapasi were sleeping and Inkarmat was outside.
I won’t get into the whole discussion about Sugimoto’s gun that got skipped as, if the anime plans to stop at Abashiri, is not really relevant to have it remark that Ogata now owns the rifle Sugimoto took from a soldier of the 7th. Sure, it was character interaction that got skipped and this is bad but I can understand it.
I REALLY, REALLY LOVE HOW THEY HANDLED THE NIHEI FLASHBACK.
That was very good and I love how Nihei voice actor managed to make Nihei sound gentle as he talks about his son. That’s a side of Nihei the anime had cut previously so it’s good they had included it now.
Ryu joining the gang in the manga happened in a completely different situation but it can work and it’s not handled that bad. Okay, it’s weird Sugimoto, who’s not into guns as Ogata, realized Tanigaki had Nihei’s gun but it can work.
The scene of Ryu chasing Nihei’s rifle is emotional and well done and I love it.
The scene with Koito is very well done, if I’ve to complain about something the only thing I could find is that they didn’t explain how Koito’s dad is an important admiral.
Now… I was worried sick on how they would handle the whole Ogata flashback.
I shouldn’t have been.
It’s a thing of beauty.
I couldn’t have asked for more.
First of all there’s that music that just tells you how you’re watching a tragedy. I NEED TO GET IT AT ANY COST.
The visual is also beautiful the scenes are really pretty and emotional per se. I’ve often though Golden Kamuy was nothing special visually (I’m used to Joker Game levels) but here they did a really good work. The sky, the sunset light, the grass, the night sky with the moon, the flowers, the sun light, the sea. It’s all pretty.
Ogata’s voice actor, Tsuda Kenjirou, bless the man, does a wonderful job. I think he’s really fond and understanding of Ogata (or, as he calls him, Hyakunosuke-chan) because really, he makes such an awesome work of portraying him here I’m still AMAZED.
Ogata is speaking very calmly, almost distantly, as if he was worn out… and yet there are all the pauses in the right moments, the way he draws some letters… the tiny moments in which some emotions transpires, like when Ogata says he liked the monkfish stew, the way he pauses before admitting his mother kept on making monkfish over and over. The way he later will repeat over and over while the visual shows us the image of his mother cooking and smiling in a beautiful sunset. The way he says no matter how many birds he took her nothing would change. The way he pauses when he’s about to admit he put poison in her food as if he wasn’t capable to admit it smoothly. The pause he makes before admitting Hanazawa never come… the way he calmly replies to Hanazawa’s spiteful accusation… It breaks my heart when he comments on Yuusaku’s serene smile and than draws out that ‘ahhh’ before commenting how he realized Yuusaku was a boy loved by his parents.
Tsuda Kenjirou really stops each time there’s something that’s hard/painful for Ogata to admit so as to hint at how hard it’s for him to voice it..
The whole monologue is not an easy thing and he delivered it beautifully, remaining detached and yet, at the same time, giving us small glimpses of how in truth Ogata was really emotionally involved in all that.
How Ogata is emotionally involved is also in the tiny details you see as this is made really well visually also.
How Ogata clences his hand a little when he says he loved monkfish stew, for example underlines how he’s actually affected by what he’s saying.
The choice to make Ogata’s shoot resound as he says his mother had gone crazy is brilliant. The two scenes fundamentally superimpose and this is pure genius because Ogata’s words also were a shoot in a way.
The way Ogata’s mother didn’t look at him when he brings her the bird but raises her head and looks at something only she can see…
The way they visually remarked how Ogata was waiting for his father to come see his mother.
Hanazawa also had few lines but they were spoken in such a spiteful manner you can hardly feel any pity for the man…
I love how they showed the background behind Ogata in darker tinges, the window disappearing, when Ogata realized Yuusaku was a child loved by his parents.
Yuusaku’s death is also very emotional and they let the reference about him being another bird offered to a different parent in hope of love and attention.
I love how they showed him falling twice, the last time making clear Ogata was watching the scene (as he’d been the one shooting him).
I love how they showed Ogata’s mother holding baby Ogata as Ogata hoped Yuusaku’s death might mean his father could show some interest into him. The background of that scene is also wonderful, with Ogata’s mother holding him to her chest, that serene sky and all those flowers blooming.
I love how Ogata moves slightly closer to his father as if he asked him if he ever had a chance.
I love how we saw child Ogata watching in the distance, a parallel of how Ogata’s mother watched in the distance, hoping for Hanazawa to come back for her. This speaks so strongly of how in Ogata there’s still that child that’s hoping for his father to be back for him.
The sunset is also beautifully drawn and meaningful, as a parallel of how their story is coming to an end… and how child Ogata isn’t really looking at the sun but in another direction, where the night has already started to fall…
I love how as Hanazawa speaks, we’re also shown Ogata’s expression. His mouth is open, these weren’t the words he was hoping to hear… before he forces a smile. This is really the end then. There had never been hope for him, no matter what he were to do.
It’s a pity they don’t show Ogata’s face as he left...
...but I guess they wanted to show us his meeting with Tsurumi just after the whole thing.
And here there’s another visually clever thing. Through all the talk Ogata stares ahead of himself expressionlessly. When Tsurumi pats his legs he turns toward him but we see only his eyes. They’re empty eyes. There’s no pride or joy or whatever. It’s almost as if he mechanically reacted to being touched. Tsurumi praises him again. And the camera then pans from Ogata’s empty eyes to how his lips are actually turned up in a smile… but, as we saw his eyes were empty we can now clearly say it’s a smile that lacks heart behind it. His lips are curled up but there’s no substance. It’s an act.
And, in fact, Ogata’s thoughts imply he’s not believing to a single praise Tsurumi made him (though I wish they hadn’t used the word ‘seducer’ in the translations as it implies a sexual contest that’s just not there).
The scene then skips and jumps into showing us the group having reached Kushiro’s sea. While everyone is cheering the camera instead focuses on Ogata, who’s standing there and checking with the binoculars if the place is safe, refusing to play with the others, as if to tell us that what we saw before is the story that hides behind this calm and collected man.
And all this everyone is perfect.
I can just forget all my complains in face of such an AWESOME handling of this flashback scene, really.
I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT.
Whoever did this episode did great in transposing this part. It really touched my heart. I can’t stress it enough.
I LOVE IT.
#Golden Kamuy#Ogata Hyakunosuke#Hanazawa Yuusaku#Hanazawa Koujirou#Asirpa#Sugimoto Saichi#Tanigaki Genjirou#Inkarmat#Cikapasi#Tsurumi Tokushirou#Koito Otonoshin#Tsukishima Hajime#Nihei Tetsuzou#Kirawus#Shiraishi Yoshitake#Golden Kamuy Episode
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when the lamp stays unlit
a multi-part anon that’s been waiting awhile:
...I never really fully thought of shiro as physically disabled... he had a fully functional prosthetic arm with all the motor skills of a real arm plus superhuman strength and so forth AND because it didn’t really impair him. It would be one thing if he was physically disabled and the show thus normalized disability; but to me, Shiro‘s arm (and Ezor‘s fake leg and Zethrid‘s missing eye) were more like sci-fi ‘cool battle scars’ rather than things that really impacted their social or emotional life. [...] The missing arm made [Shiro] more incapacitated during s7 (I guess?) but it was an excuse for benching him, which is something I found ableist. And while he has a mental illness as well, I thought it only ever became an issue when it was convenient to the plot. Hope that made sense, it wasn’t my intention to be insensitive since many people see him as great disability rep.
This is nearly as difficult a subject as race, but it’s also an important discussion to have. We do need the conversation about LGBT+ representation in VLD, but it’s drowning out an equally important conversation about how disability is represented (and treated) in popular media.
As a caveat, I’m a work in progress when it comes to un-learning the ableism that permeates Western culture, even when directly harmed by its perpetuation. So I’m inviting anyone with the spoons and lived experience to join in. The more voices and perspectives, the better.
Behind the cut: clarifying a few terms, how the SFF genre conceptualizes disability, how humans conceptualize difference, narrative treatment of Shiro as disabled, and PTSD/mental health in popular media.
First, let’s define some terms so we’re on the same page. Assistive technology “increases or maintains the capabilities of people with disabilities.” Adaptive technology (a subset of assistive) is tech “specifically designed for persons with disabilities and would seldom be used by non-disabled persons.” Gadgets like sock cradles are assistive, since an abled person might use them; a prosthesis or screen reader would be adaptive. The majority of media representations of disability will use adaptive technologies to signal a disability, rather than assistive. (definition from wikipedia)
Now for a few lesser-known terms. There’s a philosophical concept concerning the breakage of things we’ve always taken for granted. Like flipping a light switch: the light goes on. We don’t pause to marvel over what made the lightbulb glow. Then one day, you flip the switch and the light doesn’t come on. Now suddenly you have to stop and notice something that previously you’d never given much attention.
This sudden awareness of wrongness --- the light not going on --- takes three forms. It can be conspicuous, where it’s visibly damaged, ie the lamp is smashed. It can be obtrusive: a part is missing, ie there’s no bulb in the socket. Or it can be obstinate, ie the bulb and lamp are fine, we just don’t have power.
The abled perspective --- when suddenly reminded of disability --- is to see the disability as conspicuous and obtrusive. That is, broken and incomplete. Which means, that’s the only story the abled perspective knows, so that’s the story it tells, over and over.
It’s a common assumption, especially in the SFF genre: adaptive technology removes a character from the category of disabled. Cybernetic modifications or prostheses become design elements; the character is considered --- and written --- as abled. In a sense, the character is like the lamp when there’s power: the author can ignore the label of ‘disability’ and carry on without giving more thought to the issue.
But if there’s removal (or breakage), for the author, it’s like flipping a switch and the light doesn’t go on. You can almost hear the author thinking: ‘oh, forgot this character can’t do anything.’ Until the story provides repairs or replacement, the previously adaptively-abled character is now un-abled.
Disability --- in the absence of adaptive technology --- is, at best, obstinate. The character is neither broken nor incomplete; they’re a lamp without a power source. Nothing else has changed. But if someone never gave thought to how lamps need power to operate, their first reaction won’t be to ask if the power’s out. It’ll be to check the lamp, the bulb, the wiring, and declare it mysteriously broken because no light is happening.
Abled writers effectively shift the blame onto the lamp: it’s now useless, by some ill-defined sense. But it’s not; it hasn’t changed. It was reliant on power when power was available, and it’s reliant when power’s not available, too.
The analogy itself is already too simple for the reality; it implies a person could be abled/disabled as on/off. So let’s adjust, and say: the lamp has a solar-power backup and still lights up --- just not as quickly or brightly. Or it’s a drill whose battery needs recharging: it’s still usable as a manual screwdriver, awkward but workable. Plus, the base is still handy as a makeshift hammer.
The presence of any given disability does not automatically mean the person is fully dis-abled by all other measures as well. Analogies only go so far, after all.
But this is the main point: the character never stopped being disabled, any more than the lamp stopped needing power. By that same token, the person who takes medication for ADD isn’t ‘cured’ with medication, anymore than a paraplegic stops being unable to walk just because they have a wheelchair.
Now that I think about it, this could extend to just about any representation one doesn’t experience personally. I mean, we do it to each other: “behind the grill, she’s one of the guys.” And then we see the person after work in a dress and heels and we’re reminded she was a woman all along; we were just setting aside her gender because we could ignore it. Like the light switch we flip unthinkingly, we paid that detail no mind.
And the fact is: it doesn’t matter if an onlooker judges a trait as irrelevant. The person still has that gender, religion, ability, sexuality, ethnicity, age, etc. When we aim to be colorblind, or genderblind, or sexualityblind... it’s like having a lamp that won’t go on and not realizing electricity is required. We’re blind to half the picture, so we blame the lamp, not the absence of power.
We’re forgetting that because we can ignore her gender doesn’t mean she can. Or even would. But so long as we can, we’ll miss all the ways her reality informs her experiences.
You’re right that benching Shiro in S7 was an ableist move. The entire season makes evident how little thought the staff has afforded Shiro. To them, he was abled, now he is not, and this radically changes everything: no longer a paladin, not even a pilot, nor even on the front lines (and when he is, he loses). As @caramelcheese pointed out, Shiro’s fought with both hands tied behind his back. Lacking one arm shouldn’t slow him down in the least.
Others have written at length about Shiro’s new prosthesis. They’ve raised practical issues with a floating arm, such as imbalance and center-of-gravity, and ethical issues such as the offensiveness of a design that echoes his tormentor’s signature detail, so I won’t belabor those here. To me, there are two aspects even more insidious.
One is caused by narrative silence on Shiro’s changed status. Shiro’s only visible difference is the loss of his prothesis; the narrative fails to address this, let alone provide any other explanation. Narrative silence becomes tacit confirmation: an amputee cannot be a hero.
The second is the dehumanization. Before S7, in casual dress, Shiro’s arm was evident; in armor, he was no more marked than anyone else. His expulsion from being a paladin is visually reinforced by his loss of the Black Paladin’s armor; the Garrison uniform and space suit are modified to be constant reminders that Shiro is disabled. There is empty air where his upper arm would be.
His redesign marks him as literally incomplete.
As for mental health, we can’t discuss Shiro’s PTSD in a vacuum, when it’s a part of so many kids’ lives. Some suffer PTSD themselves from first-hand trauma, and likely many more suffer it along with their parents as a result of the US’ anti-immigrant attitudes. The hardest hit may be military kids between 8 and 18, of whom roughly one in five has a parent who suffers from PTSD.
Shiro had to have been a powerful figure for those kids. He had onscreen panic attacks and flashbacks, yet remained a hero in the story and to his team. His PTSD-inflected moments may have served the plot, but those also worked to keep present the continuing damage from his trauma. More importantly for younger viewers, he laid a hero’s narrative over the sometimes terrifying reality of a family member who suffers from PTSD or related trauma.
S3 left that behind, turning Shiro’s trauma into headaches, and even that much mentioned rarely. By S7, no signs of PTSD remained. The EPs’ tone-deaf explanation --- that Shiro learned to grit his teeth and just deal with his trauma --- was a horrific betrayal of the audience who related to Shiro. Willpower has never been a viable cure for mental illnesses or trauma.
One ingredient for healing from PTSD is support and love from a strong network of family and friends, and it’s ironic the series’ only example of a healing moment was the DnD episode. It allowed Shiro/Kuron to create and role-play a new story for himself, in a safe environment, surrounded by the support of people who mattered most to him. When Shiro/Kuron tells Coran that he feels better after playing, it’s one of the rare grace notes in the story: because that would be a healing experience for someone with PTSD.
Shiro’s story undergoes an odd reversal. He begins the story treated as though he’s abled, yet mentally traumatized. By S7, the story considers him disabled yet also fully ‘over’ his PTSD. He went from conspicuous and obtrusive for his PTSD, to conspicuous and obtrusive for being an amputee.
After thinking about it, I wonder if perhaps it’s because once the lamp has been broken for long enough --- regardless of the reason --- it eventually becomes yet another thing we don’t think about. Just like once, perhaps as children, we found light switches fascinating and the lamp going on/off to be worthy of deep thought, eventually we learned to pay it no mind.
Perhaps Shiro’s reversal is yet another indication of an abled creator who doesn’t understand the obstinate nature of disability. We have some backwards notions about illness, in the US, and one of them is that illness is a moral failure. Like, if you just tried hard enough, you’d be better. Any disability for which there’s no cure --- you can’t regrow an arm, after all --- thus renders the person both permanently broken and morally inadequate.
And, apparently, not worthy of being a paladin.
#vld#voltron#disability#representation#characterization#sol thinks about stuff#random existentialism terms#come for the sugar stay for the salt
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Here we go...
... Okay, frustrations about the preview for episode 20 aside... Let’s watch a raw of Zi-O 19!
Sort of. Might skim.
In no order:
Love me a good en medias ras. Only start I can ever seem to have for my writing.
LADY DRIVER! THE DRIVER IS A LADY!!!
‘Who are you?’ ‘I am... Red Buster! No! Wait! Wrong show!’
He gives a long winded speech, Sougo doesn’t get it, and Geiz doesn’t bother. I love these boys. Most of the time.
Okay, so he just starts a fight. Geez, Hiromu. Your communication skills have gotten even worse.
Geiz just tries to punch him while Sougo is confused. These two, I swear.
And then Geiz stays on his feet while Sougo falls over. This is hilarious.
Sougo is currently lying face down on the ground twitching. What is even going on here.
Hiromu, Rider Kicking people you just met is extremely rude!
I kinda love the fact that Another Quizis somehow looking totally confused by Ora freezing time.
Also Geiz got frozen in the air and it’s funny.
Sougo is trying to tease Woz and Woz is just like ‘Really?’ but Sougo is still finding it hilarious. He’s literally giggling right now while the other three just look vaguely tired.
I love how they’re just treating Woz as a future encyclopaedia of some kind now.
Geiz is like ‘fine let’s interrogate this asshole now.’
Shiro Woz is having too much fun and I hate him.
I love the separate music cues for the two Wozes here.
Also, would you guys stop leaving Sougo alone w/ Woz? We’ve established that he’s easily swayed when people “support” his “dream.” This seems like a bad idea?
I still think this could be how Woz gets officially added to the squad. So long as they don’t try to do it by kicking Geiz out. I realise I'm the minority but... I’d prefer Geiz.
The Wozes are talking at the same time and it’s kinda creepy...
Tsukuyomi just cut him off. You go girl. No idea what she’s got up her sleeve.
Wonder if whatever’s going on next ep is some plan between Geiz and her? Possibly...
Aw, someone else brought Junichiro a watch. Sweet. Also, hi again, Hiromu.
Now Junichiro thinks they’re friends, oh you sweetie. He’s gotta be so happy Sougo has friends now. XD
Also sweet how Sougo was happy someone else brought a clock.
Geiz looks like he’s considering punching Shiro Woz if the guy doesn’t back up.
Literally, the way he just subtly shifts his weight away. Like ‘oh my god, get out of my bubble.’
Geez, Shiro Woz. The city has to maintain those lights, you know!
Okay, but Hiromu and Sougo are sitting at the table pointedly not speaking... While Woz is sitting by the door? I mean, I’m all for banishing Woz from the table for larfs, but... Like... What? Did he just sit there on his own? Is he moping?
Wow. Hiromu. Stop being so rude.
Sougo tried to say we’re all friends here and Geiz got offended. Maybe don’t do stuff like that when he’s already annoyed about having his personal space invaded by Shiro Woz.
Tsukuyomi just straight up yelling at Hiromu is funny, but I can’t tell if it’s bc she’s annoyed at her boys, or bc she’s annoyed at him.
Woz is upset bc Hiromu failed the test. But he’s still sitting by the door moping for some reason.
Why anyone would ever trust Shiro Woz is beyond me. He’s too creepy happy.
And after that dramatic scene... They’re all playing a game. That Sougo is bad at bc he’s a goofy boy.
And Geiz is moping in the corner now, bc he’s afraid of fun, too. Fun might result in feelings.
Sougo is so goofy and adorable this is unfair. Sou stop it. You’re too cute. I want to give you a hug.
Is one of the answers gonna be chicken? That’d be funny.
Sorry, Junichiro. Fun might lead to feelings and Geiz is allergic to showing feelings. (he totally did the ‘abort mission’ thing again)
Yeah, like Geiz is actually gonna murder anyone. Though... Wonder what he was doing? Brooding, probably. Maybe coming up w/ an idea?
I love how Sougo’s still in pyjamas, but Tsukuyomi and Geiz are both dressed. Though I guess we just established Geiz sleeps in his clothes.
Also I think Geiz’s outfits are finally repeating? Meaning they do only have a finite amount of clothes?
Woz looks... Kind of concerned?
Look at my boys and their synchronisation!
Another Quiz looks so confused every time stuff happens. It’s kinda... Cute?
Shiro Woz always seems like he’s threatening people despite how cheery he is and he needs to stay away from my boy.
The BeyonDriver remains confused, and that is still valid.
Also that catchphrase was really lowkey, and I must unwillingly offer you respect.
SHIRO WOZ STOP CHEATING!
I feel like Geiz’s actual plan here is to just beat some sense into Hiromu? Which might be the best course of action actually.
This is also added to the fact that, in the preview for next ep, they’re seen doing a Rider Kick together. This leads me to believe that he’s actually trying to help him and his dad reconcile or something? Only, Geiz’s main method of handling stuff is punching it. So that’s how he’s doing it.
Which would also lead me to believe that the situation implied by next ep is something that Shiro Woz has forced into effect through his Nook, or some sort of plan that Geiz and/or Tsukuyomi came up w/, and maybe Sougo’s in on it, not sure.
I love how Geiz just glares at Shiro Woz all the time. I would, too.
See, it’s bc he flashes back to what Hiromu said, and how he apparently sat up at the table all night? He looks like he’s realising something at the end of that flashback... (also Woz is still sitting on a stool by the door which is still funny)
Wait... Is he here to kill his dad, is that what he was saying? Bc I can see why Geiz would resort to punching him to interfere. Maybe Geiz has dad issues, too?
Woz looks so... Disinterested in Hiromu’s tragic backstory. Geez, dude. At least pretend you have some empathy.
So I’m thinking Geiz has a plan. (maybe he even talked to Hiromu about it last night???) But we don’t tell Sougo these things. Bc that might be actually admitting we really do trust Sougo.
Or maybe we did and they were all acting. Who knows. We did get a fraction of a second of dramatic eye contact there before he pushed his hand off.
Can’t believe I’m causal shipping a bloody raft. XD *loud melodramatic sobbing* I’m so alone! ^^
Yeah, see, he says ‘are you still trying to stop me?’ or something like that (yes, I have an online translator).
Oh my gosh... Maybe he’s actually here to kill his dad (or something like it) and Geiz is like, ‘stop it, there’s other ways’ and, like, parallels get drawn between how he originally intended to kill Sougo? But isn’t doing that/isn’t sure he even wants to now? And that’s why Shiro Woz is calling him naive in the preview?
I dunno... Sougo’s certainly not rushing in to stop them... I mean, he looks unhappy, too, so... It could be either way.
Last question of the ep: Why does Quiz’s Driver say ‘Fashion Passion Question’ when he dresses like that and fashion is clearly not his passion?
Preview: Still scared, but I’m now wondering if these shots are out of order? Maybe the first one is the last one? Bc it looks like Geiz, Sougo, and Hiromu are all working together... The other shots are still making me nervous, but that moment where Geiz makes a face like he’s getting electrocuted by the two Watches makes me suspect there’s more to it.
... Yes, I super suspect that, now. Bc Sougo was in the Double armour in that first shot, and one of the later ones is Shiro Woz blocking a huge W symbol in the same lighting... I would be so down w/ the boys teaming up to kick Shiro Woz’s ass. Hiromu can help, too.
Alright, that’s it for now. Virtual turtle cookies for anyone who read this far, sugar for those allergic to nuts.
Still nervous and grasping at straws, but I have hope. This could even end up being something that brings the boys closer. Still going down here on my casual ship raft. ^^ Sorry, I know I keep saying it it’s just so funny to me. XD Rather tired, though. Not much else to say.
#Kamen Rider Zi-O#Zi-O Spoilers#Kamen Rider Zi-O Spoilers#have I mentioned I love Geiz?#hopefully read more keeps working#anyway#not many tags#already reacted to the preview enough I think#Timey Wimey Rider
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Series Review: Read or Die (R.O.D. the OVA)
Welcome to another episode of Paul is Weeaboo Trash!
Today’s topic is a show I’ve previously seen one episode of, so long ago that I’m almost going in fresh: the OVA (what we in the US would call a “direct to video release”) of Read or Die (2001–2002)!
I was lucky enough to grow up in a household where education and fun were not portrayed as opposites, and we had the means to find plenty of fun educational things to do. My parents searched for all kinds of potentially interesting activities, and living in southern New Hampshire, the Boston area was not prohibitively far to go for them. And so I was signed up for Splash, a program one weekend per fall in which MIT students teach middle- and high-school-age kids seminars on a wide variety of topics.
What counted as topics worthy of education was quite broad, however. I ended up in a "class" that consisted of watching one episode each of several anime that the student running the class was a fan of. This was back in the days where anime fandom spread person-to-person by recommendations and there was more emphasis on developing a background knowledge of "classics" among the more informed and/or snootier fans. (I still feel this way a bit because certain tropes and references are so common or influential that being familiar with the original sources can make newer shows suddenly make a lot more sense, but I disapprove of the gatekeeper tendency to look down on people who don't yet know the things "everyone knows".)
I don't remember how many shows we sampled there, but the two that made an impact were Hellsing, which in retrospect was at best questionable for the age of the audience, and was very much not my thing because I have a low tolerance for gore, and the topic of this post, Read or Die, which was very much the kind of thing I wanted to see: a nerd being a badass in a fantastical way. Especially since I was also really into James Bond at the time, so I was probably primed to eat up other media involving a British spy fighting a mysterious secret organization. Since I'm incredibly averse to media piracy and had no clue where to buy anime, though, I never followed up to finish watching it, and eventually it faded from my mind. Until I stumbled across the first volume of the manga for super-cheap at Saboten Con last year, and it flicked some nostalgia switch that reminded me how much I'd enjoyed it at the time, although I barely remember any actual details, so I am practically going in fresh here.
Read or Die follows Yomiko Readman, a teacher, obsessive book collector and reader, and superpowered secret agent who can manipulate paper in nearly any way. Any paper available, from money to ribbons to a briefcase full of blank looseleaf she apparently just brings with her. She uses this power in the course of her service as a secret agent, codename The Paper, working for the British Library?! Along with Miss Deep, who can selectively phase shift, and Drake Anderson, a gruff and dismissive military type (and apparently potter in his cover job), she is assigned to a plan to save the world in a way that vaguely involves collecting books. Saved from whom? The I-jin, clones of historical geniuses with superpowers related to their areas of expertise, such as... knowing stuff about insects, or... uh... spreading Buddhism to Japan... who are going to flashy and violent lengths to steal books the British Library is trying to acquire legitimately. Trust me, it eventually gets explained, and the Big Reveal, although pretty goddamn weird, fits in with the rest of what has been established. Suspend your disbelief enough to accept the I-jin at all, and it’s fine, although still a bit ludicrous.
And I submit that all that is still less weird and ridiculous than your typical superhero or spy movie, and this show does after all have elements of both genres in one. Or, well, more and more superhero and military action as it goes on. Although the theme music uses 60s guitar sounds, chromatic chord changes, and blaring brass hits that are virtually guaranteed to evoke the James Bond theme, and our main cast do work for a secret intelligence agency, they are in quite open military-style conflict with the I-jin -- with the approval of the UN -- and very little that’s actually covert occurs, with the notable exception of something I can’t spoil that happens at the end of ep. 2. And because of the superpower angle, some of the instances of weirdness are not flaws at all but pretty creative implementations of the characters’ powers (using a paper airplane as a lethal weapon?!).
This last point didn’t really fit in organically, but I'd also like to mention a couple of things about the art that I love but don't see often. The very first shot of the series uses multiple flat backgrounds at different distances moving in relation to each other to convey the camera moving across the scene, which I have seen in other animated works (at the moment, I can only think of examples from very old Disney movies off the top of my head), but not in recent ones. I don't know whether it's simply out-of-fashion or this is a result of the shift to CGI so animators figure "why would we do this when we can actually render a city with realistic perspective?" This show also has a particular kind of fluid motion in characters that I’ve seen in many reasonably-high-production-value shows from the 90s and 00s, but rarely in newer shows (Space Dandy being a notable exception). Maybe I'm watching the wrong recent shows, maybe it's just a stylistic choice that's out of fashion, maybe it's harder to pull off convincingly when you're not animating by hand.
I’m glad I finally got to watch this. It’s even better than I remember. Now to get to work on the rest of the manga and the other series. Oh yeah, haha. The abbreviation "R.O.D." stands for both "Read or Die" and "Read or Dream", which are different parts of the same larger series. The Read or Die manga (4 volumes), this OVA series, the Read or Dream manga (also 4 volumes), and a 26-episode TV series all take place in the same narrative universe, rather than the usual model of the anime being an adaptation/retelling of the manga. There is also a light novel series I know nothing about, but it sounds from the Wikipedia article like that is the single ongoing series that is the source for the two manga and two anime. (There is also apparently a barely-related future side story manga.)
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W/A/S: 1/3/3
Weeb: I don’t think there’s much, if anything, in here that would require explanation to a typical Western audience and which isn’t also explained in the dialogue.
Ass: There is a single implied nipple in the opening sequence. Gasp! And Miss Deep's costume design is pretty fanservicey, but only barely more explicitly so than you're likely to get in American media deemed suitable for older children.
Shit: Until the Big Reveal, it's just unclear why anyone involved other than Yomiko should be this interested in acquiring the specific books that serve as the show’s MacGuffin, nor is it clear that the I-jin’s plans extend further than searching for them in a very destructive way, leaving me baffled that the Library immediately makes the connection that the books are key to saving the world. There are a few minor errors in the subtitles and a visual glitch (Blu Ray remaster, please?), and a couple of places where faces just... don’t... look right. Oh, and if you’re watching the dubbed version, add another half point of Shit for Crispin Freeman’s British accent.
And for the first time I feel the need to add a CONTENT WARNING. Usually, I think the review is sufficient to give you the idea whether there is anything likely to be disturbing in a show, but this is different, because the first two episodes have the sort of over-the-top stylized combat you might expect from other action anime or Western superhero media, where even a death comes off as un-shocking. But in ep. 3 of this, there is a shocking pivot. There are several short instances of graphic and sudden violence of kinds that are quite a bit more disturbing and distressing (even when they involve the use of powers) than anything that occurred previously.
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Stray Observations:
- Yes, those of you who know a little Japanese caught that joke: "Yomiko" could be loosely translated as "read girl". Her name is "Read Girl Read Man". Because she likes to read. Get it? Ha! Ha! Ha!
- In the manga, Yomiko is also established to be a literal bibliophile. As in "books, regardless of content, turn her on". I'm kind of glad this is not a plot point in the anime.
- The “secret” operation in the last episode, which is conducted with UN approval and involves an actual military attack with an actual goddamn naval fleet (and collaborating with North Korea to keep the US too distracted to notice it, even though this is a British operation against an organization that literally burned down the White House in the first scene of the first episode) might actually beat the first few episodes of Full Metal Panic! for “worst undercover operation ever”.
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Ok so Idk if this is going over board but since Darui and C are a ship, do you think that when they were younger, they mightve been able to have a thing or wanted to but couldn't for what reason? And as adults they shoved it into the back of their heads?
Why would that be going over board? Are you referring to the remark I made about shipping asks taking more effort than others? Because there's really no need to worry about that, if that's what you mean. The only reason that came up at all was because that ask had been sitting in my inbox for nearly a week already and I hadn’t had the time to sit down and properly concentrate. I like working on questions, it’s just that some take more time to answer than others.
Hm... Yes, but also no? I actually tend to think of it as happening the other way around with the thought of a romantic relationship never even occurring to them until the events of Shippuuden, possibly even as late as after the war. Here's how I see their relationship developing:
C, Darui, Mabui and Samui's ninja registration numbers lie within the range of CL5517 and CL5596 (funnily enough, C's is actually the lowest out of the four of them despite his being the youngest, while Darui's registration number is the highest). For comparison, Omoi and Karui's registration numbers are CL6305 and CL6306 respectively, which is why I assume C, Darui, Mabui and Samui graduated from the academy at roughly the same time, meaning Darui and C most likely graduated early since they are a good three years younger than Mabui and Samui.
A while ago, I actually posted a headcanon about what Darui and C's relationship might have been like during their academy years and totally intended to follow up on that with more posts about their teenage years and early twenties but never got around to it because there were some details I hadn't (still haven't) worked out yet but that's a story for another day.
Anyway, what I've noticed is that, while they're A's bodyguards, they have a distinct (and probably unconscious) habit of gravitating towards each other, regardless of A's position, which is probably the most inconsequential detail ever but also kinda sweet?
What I'm getting at is, I don't think Darui and C ever made the conscious decision to get to hang out, get to know each other, become friends and so on and so forth; it just kind of happened and by the time they realised where things were headed their lives were already entangled to the point where it just naturally seemed like the next logical step to take.
For no reason in particular, I think C and Darui, actually didn't see all that much of each other for a couple of years after graduating. The higher ups of Kumo might have been busy spreading rumours about Darui's skills and sending him on missions left and right because ever village wants to flaunt its geniuses as much as secrecy allows and Darui is the closest Kumo had to its own Hatake Kakashi, while C, after deciding to go into the medical field, was kept busy by hospital duty but for some reason they still ended up running into each other every couple of months, always slipping back into that same easy, effortless companionship. Like, C might spot Darui taking a nap somewhere between missions, flop down next to him and spend the next two hours going over his anatomy notes while Darui grunts his acknowledgment and goes back to sleep until work catches up with them and they see nothing of each other for a couple of weeks or months again until that early morning on that one faithful day where they run into each other on the way to the Raikage's office, chat for a bit, say their goodbyes because they'd be late for work otherwise, and then spend the next five minutes awkwardly walking next to each other because they're both headed for the Raikage's office.
Starting at the time they entered the academy their relationship might have gone from something like "You're the least annoying. I'll gonna sit next to you" to "So you're gonna graduate early too, huh?" to "Didn't expect to run into you again so soon, last I heard you were on a mission in Water Country. Wanna catch up?" to "Wait. When did you get promoted?" to "Wanna grab a bite to eat once the shift's over?" to "Mind if I crash here tonight? Mission got me beat and I really don't feel like walking home." to "I got you a toothbrush, you know, since you're staying over so much." to "I heard your lease was running out. Wanna move in together? Might save us both some money." to "Karui, Omoi, not that we don't appreciate it but... the cards, the flowers, a gift basket? Isn't that a bit much for an appartment?" which is about the point where I think their relationship is at when they're first introduced in Shippuuden.
They're used to each other's company and, more importantly, they're comfortable in it and then canon happens makes their lives a whole lot more complicated. Specifically ep. 202/3 comes along and makes Darui's life a whole lot more complicated.
I kinda think the fight against Team Taka was a bit of a "Holy shit! Close call! I actually thought I might lose you" kind of wake up point to Darui. When comparing Darui's attitude at the beginning of the fight to his attitude at the point after Suigetsu attempts to attack C and later when C is caught in Sasuke's genjutsu the shift in the way he fights is remarkable – for that same reason, it's also great fun to compare this fight with his fight against Ginkaku and Kinkaku; it's like looking at two completely different characters.
Darui is not taking things seriously at first, or at least he's feeling calm and casual enough to keep snarking back and fourth with C despite being in the middle fight. But there's this tiny moment:
Jūgo's talking about C specifically and depending on context, the Japanese line can either be translated as "take him down" or "kill him" and I love that the camera switches to Darui's reaction first, before showing C's. Darui literally just told him that there was no need for him to stay in the fight and that he and A would handle the situation, while C basically paints a giant target on himself by remaining stationary as he's looking for Karin and I think this is the moment Darui realises the responsibility he's taking on and the amount of trust he's (unwittingly) asked of C and I'll be damned if the "The change in his personality"-line isn't more Darui trying to appear casual rather than him actually making light of the situation. By the time Suigetsu attempts to go after C, Darui is dead serious.
Which is why when C actually does go down after Sasuke's genjutsu effects, something snaps and logic gets thrown out the window. C falls over and Darui is distracted to the point of taking his eyes off of Suigetsu for several seconds, long enough for Suigetsu to initiate a jumping attack and actually push Darui on the defensive while he's still off balance. Which you can't really fault him for since a huge explosion just went off and the next thing he sees is C keeling over for some unknown reason.
Conversely, this was his reaction right after Atsui got sealed within Benihisago:
It's not that he isn't serious during the fight with Ginkaku and Kinkaku, or doesn't care; it's just on a completely different level. Anyway at this point at the fight against Team Taka is where things get really fun. The KinGin siblings make a huge deal about words being tools with which to trick people and here Darui does just that. In an effort to quickly finish off Suigetsu, he makes use of the fact that Suigetsu is already somewhat distracted out of concern for Sasuke and gets him to actually look away and in the direction of A and Sasuke with one short quip about how Sasuke's done for (which is not Darui's usual style, he snarks a lot and might even get carried away with a small speech just before or after a fight, but with opponents he's really blunt. Quite the opposite, against Ginkaku and Kinkaku he's almost excessively polite.) Anyway, so he intends to finish the fight quickly and he does..
And I love using those screen caps at every chance I get because of the cold, cold fury on Darui's face and the fact that this is an expression you rarely get to see on him. Seriously, that's Darui going after Ginkaku and Kinkaku:
Against the KinGin siblings, that's war; but the thing against Suigetsu? That's personal.
And I love how, rather than joining up with A, he jumps straight to C, plasters himself to his side in the most impractical way possible, casually talks shit about Sasuke as if he hadn't just pinned a guy to a wall with his sword, and doesn't even consider letting go until prompted because Raikage's orders.
Also, holy fuck, Darui, that's your boss you're glaring at. xD
Anyway, what I meant to say is, getting C back on his feet is all well and good, but right now Karin is still around (theoretically capable of attacking them) and Darui has successfully prevented himself and C from forming handseals or taking any kind of quick measure to defend themselves. And they remain in that position for several minutes, all the while the fighting continues without them but, you know, priorities. By the way, notice how by the time Darui let's go, C's chakra control is able to control his chakra well enough to perform Mystical Palm, despite Darui having to hold him up until seconds prior? I'm not say they were both stalling because that feels like a bit of a stretch but I'm heavily implying it nonetheless.
Well, point I was trying to make before I got carried away is, the fight against Team Taka is a bit of a turning point for the two of them (Darui maybe more so than C). Maybe it was actually one of the closest calls they'd had in a while and Darui is confronted with the thought of "Shit. That could've ended badly." and "For a moment there I really thought you might've died." and this is where one realisation in particular sets in. He can do well on his own. But he can do so much better with C by his side.
And that's the realisation that eventually leads to this line:
And I've talked about this line before. At length. Darui's fine shinobi, fully capable of taking over the role of the Raikage's right-hand man; and he knows that. But he's not above admitting to himself or the Raikage that he's just that much better when working together with C. Not even necessarily in a romantic context yet, but definitely as a partner of equal standing.
Hell, in ep. 363 during the Allied Shinobi Jutsu, it's not just future Raikage Darui who's leading the charge of the Kumonin. Again, C's right there by his side.
And you know how there's this theme of some Kage having a second in command to share the duties with? Chronologically, you have Hashirama and Tobirama, Hiruzen and Danzo, (I'd even go so far as to include) Tsunade and Shizune, A and Darui, Kakashi and Gai, and Naruto and Shikamaru. And I don't know how much of that actually was a conscious decision on the writers' part, but C is framed in a way that makes him the character most likely to take over the position of Darui's second in command.
Now what would be the last push necessary to push their relationship into the realms of romance? I'm afraid this is gonna be the most anti-climactic answer ever.
I blame the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Give them knowledge of a reality that's so very, very much like their own except for that teeny-tiny difference. Give them a taste of else they could have in addition to the bond they already have and have them notice that, while unexpected, it feels right. Remind them that, while it's all well and good to be willing to give your life for someone, it's better to share it with them.
It might leave them reeling for a while but once they're back in Kumo things will work themselves out sooner or later because of that pesky habit they have of always kind of gravitating towards each other.
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