#was this like some...weird foreshadowing thing or something just for that 1 line in 'Welcome Back Dusker'?!
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Rory becoming an astronaut so he can go to the moon and finally be able to bite it.
#omg! is that why he dressed up in a spacesuit for the dance in 'Revamped/Jesse'sGirl'?!#was this like some...weird foreshadowing thing or something just for that 1 line in 'Welcome Back Dusker'?!#i mean i get the dance's theme was 'fly me to the moon'. but still. was the whole thing just hint at that line in the following episode?#my babysitter's a vampire#mbav#rory keaner#my thoughts#me being silly#my babysitters a vampire
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Stars That Rise At Dawn 2023 Revised vs 2018 edition differences: Part 2
Part 1 is at this link, and part 3 at this one. this covers chapter 15 to chapter 24. I was hoping that I could keep this to 2 parts but it's gotten long and I've delayed it enough at this point lmao.
As before, long sequence of passages with changes under the cut. I’ve put some commentary of my own personal opinion on a few of the changes, but the author mostly only explains her decisions with an enigmatic ‘improving continuity with the rest of the series’ so the effects are pretty subjective.
I tried to put changes/additions of the 2023 revision in bold, and when I quoted the 2018 edition, put it in strikethrough red.
Chapter 15:
Immediately the first change to this chapter (Tamar's reintroduction) is the epigraph. The original one, the sa-shira poem, was moved back to chapter 14, and the new one for chapter 15 is
“In the world of tomorrow one man defeats God—but what if that's exactly what God wants? Sparks fly! Featuring cutting-edge pyrotechnics to depict God, and 6 full minutes of spoken audio!
—poster for the upcoming film The Mad Wrestler”
This made me shriek out loud with laughter especially as I had just had a bit of a triggered breakdown (complimentary) while reading the last chapter . It's fantastic in multiple ways and very suited to this moment in the story LMAO, the puncturing sort of effect, but also definitely foreshadows certain things in the next two books. Also, wrestler. We who wrestle with G-d....
A few pages later:
Pre-revision:
God pulses in her eyes as she brushes her hands over the long-dead artist’s handiwork on the way to the door handle, wheeling fire in fractaling patterns.
Post-revision:
God makes a kind of exclamation point in her eyes as she brushes her hands over the long-dead artist’s handiwork on the way to the door handle, wheeling fire in fractaling patterns.
A friend of mine was INCREDIBLY taken with this and a few other similar alterations in this chapter that subtly but effectively enhance G-d as A Person who is Reacting and being an Active Participant with Tamar, being 'right there'.
Followed by
Pre-revision:
Wheels within wheels turn, unfurling like feathers made of dense starlight. So that’s probably a yes. Maybe. They’re not exactly known for making sense, or communicating clearly... but They sure are an exciting companion in her body.
Smiling, she steps into her building.
Post-revision:
Wheels within wheels turn, unfurling like feathers made of dense starlight. So that’s probably a yes. Maybe.
Smiling, she opens the door.
(quoting friend) "I love how the last bit, that They do not make sense necessarily and that they're exciting to have around, is unsaid, because of course God doesn't communicate 'normally' and of course Tamar is elated to have Them with her". It's very Tamar-characteristic to refuse to explain or to flatten an experience into a specific and narrow justification.
There's also a couple lines cut to reduce repetition, but also:
Pre-revision
“Welcome back, Tamar of God’s light!”
Post-revision:
“Welcome back, Tamar the Flame-thief!”
Both a much much more evocative and characteristic of Tamar, and a much cooler an epithet for a holy (the flame-thieves is listed among the synonyms for holies in various languages in an epigraph in Lives), with its Promethean, Jacob-like connotation, and given both of these are followed by Tamar thinking "Such a formal greeting", a much more defamiliarized bit of social worldbuilding -- a term that sounds provocative and even pejorative to the reader is very normalized in-universe.
Then there's an addition of:
“Oh, my day was good, definitely good! And God’s?”
Tamar laughs. Not many think to ask that. “Pretty good, as far as I can tell. They seem to still be curious about how some people think it’s weird or something when I faceplant on their batteries,” Tamar says with a shrug. “I got a lot of shock today.”
This ngl instantly made me like Havilah 5x more. Not many people think to ask a holy how G-d's day was!! And another bit of both G-d being actively involved with Tamar throughout the day, and Tamar trying (and struggling) to understand Them.
Once Tamar encounters Lucifer in front of her apartment, there's this significant change, which makes a big impact given it's the closest we get until late in Lives to Lucifer's actual feelings, and not just what they deliberately present to others:
Pre-revision:
Anyway. She looks down toward the voice, where it turns out there’s also an incredible amount of irritation. But nothing that seems much like lies. And, when she looks a little longer, she catches the scent of thousands of years of history. And inside herself she feels a few spinning flames of God, going off every direction, squinting and shrugging in a pattern she’s not sure she’s seen before.
Post-revision:
Anyway. She looks down toward the voice, where it turns out there’s a vibrant pulse of… terror. And something along the lines of disgust, revulsion even, but not quite the same as what even the most conflicted of her customers sometimes feel. Finely aged, perhaps. Yeah, the longer she looks, the more she catches the scent of thousands of years of history. And inside herself God squints and stutters in surprise, flames spinning in a pattern she’s not sure she’s seen from Them before.
This revision is instantly so juicy, in such a small number of words, in terms of characterization of Tamar, Lucifer, and G-d. Lucifer is terrified and repulsed. some of Tamar's customers feel similar, but not quite like that. the feeling has been marinating for a long time. Tamar is not bothered by this, she feels very casual but kind of drinks it in with some level of relish, like a fine wine or cheese. And G-d is Super Surprised, stutters in shock, implying it may have been a long time, perhaps centuries or more, since They've actually seen Lucifer.
Later in the apartment, there is an added line:
from the couch, where she’s been listening to the radio and watching the patterns tracing through God’s soul."
Hint at her hobbies and day-to-day life as a blind person, as well as the technological level of this setting, which gets emphasized a bit more later in Lives.
Safirah characterization and less clumsy/artificial-sounding narration:
“Precisely.” Tamar grins; there’s a reason this life of hers is more interesting than what she had going on in secondary school.
Got changed to
“Precisely. Not to mention making that Holy fear for their life.”
Tamar snorts.
The word 'dating' is replaced by 'fucking' here (one of the few blunt mentions of sex in the series actually) for some added Safirah characterization:
“You’re eight years older than me, not ten,” Tamar notes.
“People think we’re fucking.”
“Some folks will look at any two people and think they’re fucking.”
According to her social media the author is asexual, which may play a role in why so little sex is mentioned in these books, although intensely kinky scenes appear both in this series and in other books.
Chapter 16:
Pre-revision:
“...to be flaming queen of the first city, ever, on Šehhinah, and then say to yourself, ‘Flame it, I’m clearly not doing enough for people, I’m going to become more powerful than any Holy before or since”
Post-revision:
“...to be flaming queen of the first city, ever, on Šehhinah, and then say to yourself, ‘Flame it, I’m clearly not doing enough for people, I’m going to grab more power from God than any Holy before or since”
and:
“Oh flames, that isn’t commonly known outside of demons?” Hannuša says. “Wow, huh. Yeah, um, Lilith… Lilith’s something, alright. When she spoke the truest of God’s names and was completely immolated, she, through like a sheer act of will, and I have no idea if anyone else who’s ever lived has even half the will she does, she somehow forced her soul to accept, of all things, water vapor as her body.”
Post-revision:
“Oh flames, you don’t know?” Hannuša says. “Wow, huh. Yeah, um, Lilith… Lilith’s something, alright. When she spoke the truest of God’s names and was completely immolated—without Them having expected it, or having intended to immolate her, there’s a reason she impressed Them so much that she’s half of the Covenant—she, through like a sheer act of will, and I have no idea if anyone else who’s ever lived has even half the will she does, she somehow forced her soul to accept, of all things, water vapor as her body.”
This both refers back to the previous chapter's epigraph, impressing further that '6,000 years ago G-d was surprised and 'beaten' and admitted that They didn't know everything and had made flaws in how the world worked, and made this into the basis for changing the entire metaphysics of the afterlife, and the role of all living beings is to argue for how to fix the world' is foundational, ancient, uncontroversial theology.
And it's just sooooooo 'she impressed Them so much'……! Like wrestled with G-d, and prevailed, like Jacob ;-;
“And I think she’s got some friends among the angels that have some manifestations that involve her or something, so she can talk to them, too.”
Changed to
“And she is Holy, so she can talk to any of the angels—or other Holies too, I guess?—any time she wants through God. So that’s how she gets a lot of stuff done, she has angel friends who have eyes and stuff… to, you know, find us. The ones she wants to help..”
This comes up more in Lives again.
Chapter 17: No revisions I noticed, except that the epigraph for the previous chapter 18 was moved to chapter 17.
Chapter 18:
The epigraph (boring one about the neighborhood of Olive Heights) is replaced by a haiku:
“desert-burned | the river its sand | bright as salt
—Ono the Mute, 4977 A.C.”
Breathtaking, given the positioning of the chapter break: between Eliya seeing Tamar again saying "Hello Tamar" and “Elīya looks at Tamar, still trying not to look into her eyes, still failing utterly.”........
Yenatru's pov line "Except for the eyes, she's exactly the same" is replaced by “She doesn’t look that different.” More open.
The chapter goes the same for a while, but later in the chapter, during the motorcycle ride, Eliya's pov:
“Flame you,” Elīya can’t help but mutter.
Tamar just laughs. “If you’re referring to my eyes…” She trails off, as if expecting Elīya to guess at what she means.
Which Elīya does, deciding in a split second that what Tamar means is probably a condemnation of her. A failure of ethics. How dare she say flame you to a Holy, perhaps.”
replaced by:
“Flame you,” Elīya can’t help but mutter.
Tamar just laughs. “If you’re referring to my eyes…” She trails off, as if expecting Elīya to guess at what she means.
Which Elīya does, deciding in a split second that what Tamar means is probably a condemnation of her. A failure of ethics. How offensive to say flame you to a Holy, perhaps.”
Emphasizing something that's clear from the general syntax and structure of the in-universe terminology: "flame you" is the equivalent of "fuck you" or even more pointedly, "damn you", and is also, at the same time, a pejorative reference to being burned. Like the misogyny baked into the etymological origins of the irl curse "fuck you", where "being fucked" is derogatory and inherently unwanted. but NOT in the sense where this is concsciously thought of as like, a bigoted slur or anything. Holies use it all the time too!!! and jibril, in the next book, uses it too! But also not even a completely depleted of meaning flat sort of thing -- Tamar in the prologue "understands why people swear by fire" upon seeing G-d.
This is of course a central theme of this book -- anything real and powerful and mattering enough that someone would burn out one's eyes to see its beauty is also real and powerful and mattering enough to be capable of causing incredible hurt and damage by its presence, and is therefore not 'safe'. and this is not a bug or flaw or horrible underlying secret, but an inherent truth of how the existence of the stuff of the universe and consciousness works.
Pre-revision:
“So tell me, Elīya. What’s so ethical, so moral, about living your life like this, following this one path just because you think you should?”
“That path is ethics,” Elīya says through gritted teeth.
“And you’re the one who admitted you weren’t learning anything. So again I ask, what is ethical about this situation.”
“Perhaps it is teaching me focus.” Maybe.
“Perhaps,” Tamar echoes. “But I believe you’re more than this. More than this one thing, more than the constant chorus of ethics, ethics, ethics through your mind.”
Post-revision:
“So tell me, Elīya. What’s so ethical, so moral, about living your life like this, following this one path just because you think you should?”
“That path is ethics,” Elīya says through gritted teeth.
“And you’re the one who admitted you weren’t learning anything. So again I ask, what is ethical about your life.”
“Perhaps it is teaching me focus.” Maybe.
“On what.”
“On anything I need to focus on. On everything.”
“And is this everything anything other than ethical or unethical?”
“Flame you.”
“Already did that,” Tamar says. “But I believe you’re more than this. More than this one thing, more than this checking off ethics, ethics, ethics on every fucking thing that gets through your head.”
I don't really have a comment on this but I like it.
Chapter 19:
The epigraph is slightly altered:
Though the Holy are venerated now, they have not always been so lucky. In the first millennium A.C., King Lot of Nefil decreed that the Holy in his city cover their prices when in public, so as not to stain any unwilling eyes with the symbol of such an intimate—or, as Lot wrote in a rare surviving letter, “degenerate”—act. Some stone-etchings on official buildings in protest of this law can still be found by divers researching the ruins of the city, now many meters underwater after the unfortunate sea-level rise…
—Dr. Melia Yashim, The Past is the Strangest Place of All”
simply removing the bit at the beginning! i debated the intent behind this a bit, wondering if it was just for brevity, or because veneration is not actually indicated anywhere in the series, or something deeper, but ultimately concluded that the effect, at least, is to make this period sound less singular, and more like one excerpted bullet-point among a list of unknown length and number of other similar incidents.
After this, a longer altered sequence here, originally:
“Once we store the motorcycles,” Yenatru says.“Where’s Lucifer?” Tamar asks.“Uh, looks like they’re just standing a bit back there, leaning on their own arms,” Elīya says.Lucifer’s probably planning to watch the show over here if it gets confrontational or awkward again, Yenatru thinks. “Everything alright so far?”Elīya’s eye twitches; that’s not a great sign. “It’s… something.”A strange expression comes over Tamar’s face, along with a somewhat pointed shrug.He should do something, he thinks. But what? And how? The moments pass and Elīya’s eye still twitches.So Yenatru just says, quietly, “We should probably go over to her. Lucifer. So we can put the bikes in the shed and continue.”“They, her, what is up with him,” Tamar mumbles.“Nothing I have any reason or responsibility to tell you,” Lucifer responds, strolling right up, single braid swaying behind her. Or him, to Tamar. Her voice is smooth in this form; a good aesthetic choice, Yenatru thinks.
Now:
“Once we store the motorcycles,” Yenatru says.
“Where’s Lucifer?” Tamar asks.
“Everything alright so far?” Lucifer says almost in answer, merging into the form for Elīya.
Tamar starts at the new voice. “Who’s that?”
Lucifer doesn’t respond. “How’s it going?” she—or they, to Elīya—asks.
Elīya’s eye twitches; that’s not a great sign. “It’s… something.”
A strange expression comes over Tamar’s face, along with a somewhat pointed shrug.
He should do something, he thinks. But what? And how? The moments pass and Elīya’s eye still twitches.
So Yenatru just says, quietly, “We should put the bikes in the shed and continue, she’s waiting. Lucifer, I mean.”
“She—what?” Tamar swings her head in one direction and then another.
“Nothing I have any reason or responsibility to tell you,” Lucifer responds, strolling right past her, single braid swaying behind her. Or him, to Tamar. Her voice is smooth in this form; a good aesthetic choice, Yenatru thinks.
Tamar draws her cane out of her bag and sighs. “Yenatru, is there another person here or—”
“It’s Lucifer, she—they, him—can uh, shapeshift?” Yenatru whispers quickly.
“Oh,” says Tamar. “No one told me.”
:))))))))
Chapter 20-21: no changes I noticed
Chapter 22:
An added paragraph here:
Perhaps because it was easier not to.
So deceptively simple a reason. It was easier for her not to. It was perfectly easy for her to continue living without caring about those things, so she didn’t. She had no pressing need, no tangible pain, no burning desire. Or didn’t she? Didn’t she need and want more, these last two years?
Chapter 23:
Pre-revision:
“You know," Tamar says, "God is a part of me wherever I go, and I can’t exactly make that stop being a thing You should get it, considering—"
Post-revision:
“You know,” Tamar says, “This is what I am, wherever I go, and I’m not about to hide it just for you. You should get it, considering—”
Just a bit more mean and callous (and truthful) hahahahahasaadad
Post-revision, some slight additions:
“Oh, you know.” She shrugs. “Hanging out, exploring the city and getting lost ‘cause I’m blind, bickering with the other Holies, laughing when people think weird things about me, charging their batteries by shoving them into my eyes—”
“Into what now.”
“Into God.”
“…Got it,” Yenatru says, even though that’s not one of the things he’s heard of a Holy doing. “I didn’t know….Holies disagreed about God.”
She raises an eyebrow. “You don’t know much, do you?” She doesn’t sound angry, but her voice is serious.
His face heats. He can’t say he does. Not about this.
“So, yeah. Life’s more, now.”
More stuff about Tamar's life and societal utter ignorance (avoidance) of Holies
Finally, one of the biggest changes so far: the chapter stops at
“Yenatru finds himself smiling a little, feeling ready to do just that. Even if not quite everything makes sense. Even if the way he cares isn’t quite what he expected at all.”
The entire scene from the previous version that follows it is completely removed from this version: gone is the bit of Tamar accidentally feeling Yenatru's manifestation, her saying it's too soothing for her tastes, and Yenatru's uncharacteristically utterly fucking TERRIBLE and steamrollering line that undoes all his beautiful, character-deepening pondering and observation of the puzzle of her (Almost falling off mountains. God in her eyes. Maybe her like of those two things is actually one and the same—and maybe that means Yenatru understands some of why she made the choice she did.) This is of course a really good deletion, but also Tamar not getting to feel Yenatru's manifestation probably has something to do with stuff that happens later in Lives -- she'd probably recognize something is up with it.
Chapter 24:
This chapter has at the end, what I think is the single most important change, in terms of continuity and characterization (for Eliya), but even moreso in terms of narrative sincerity and honesty.
First there's a couple of minor-ish added lines (in bold as usual) that mostly serve to ramp up to the major change:
“Or maybe she’s at least an entire scene, an entire image, an entire place, not just the wind but also the open desert, and completely open sky, that too, she hasn’t factored in her tendency to look at the sky and horizon yet. And even then, is that incorporating every detail? She’s not sure, but she still seems to be onto something.
When Tamar tore into her on the motorcycle, the wind that wasn’t wind in her face, the motorcycle flying free over the desert, I believe you’re more than this, it hurt so much more than anything she’d ever heard before, sank so deep into her. Was it because what was her was so close, within her grasp? Or because—no one else had told her, the way Tamar did? Nothing’s stopping you…
Where did Tamar go, when she….she didn’t even do Theurgy, but the way she said so softly that she wanted. Her soul a whole scene too.
Elīya’s close to certain: she probably can check her traits against that scene-that-is-her, can’t she, to identify them as her? She’s identifiable to herself because she’s the desert wind.”
Then the major, major, entire-book-saving change:
Pre-revision:
But Elīya wants clarity, and there’s something she has to know. “Why do you care?”
Lucifer turns their head to her, gives her a particularly unreadable smile that lasts multiple seconds before they finally speak. They’re mostly in shadow, their eyes somehow lit by the stars. “’S really a simple answer. I care about everyone.”
Elīya blinks. “But Yenatru—”
“I care about him more, of course. But you’re someone, Elīya, everyone is, and you didn’t seem to have the slightest idea about whatever particular joy being you might bring. And there was a chance, right there, right in front of me, to help you find out. No way in fuck I wasn’t going to take that.” They pause, smiling. “Even if you do, generally speaking, really annoy me.”
Elīya coughs. Well, she likes honesty, so she can’t say anything against that. And—there’s something she has to say, isn’t there.
Lucifer’s all the way turned away from her when Elīya says, “Thank you.”
Again they turn back, this time only briefly, but long enough for her to see them grin. And they head off, walk somewhere, a shadow against shadows in this night, sagebrush licking against their dress.
POST-REVISION:
But Elīya wants clarity, and there’s something she has to know. “Why do you care?”
Lucifer turns their head to her, gives her a particularly unreadable smile that lasts multiple seconds before they finally speak. They’re mostly in shadow, their eyes somehow lit by the stars. “’S really a simple answer. I care about everyone.”
Elīya blinks. “But Yenatru—”
“I care about him more, of course. But you’re someone, Elīya, everyone is, and you didn’t seem to have the slightest idea about whatever particular joy being you might bring. And there was a chance, right there, right in front of me, to help you find out. No way in fuck I wasn’t going to take that.” They pause, smiling. “Even if you do, generally speaking, really annoy me.”
Elīya narrows her eyes. The person she was when Lucifer was teaching her seems so long ago. In such a short time she’s so much more. Such a short time—
Lucifer’s all the way turned away from her when Elīya says, “Thank you.”
Again they turn back, the kind smile spreading over their face, and Elīya takes a breath.
Ethically, because she values honesty, there’s something else: “But actually, meeting Tamar helped more, so I was right about my end of the deal after all.”
And Lucifer’s serene starlit face twists. “Really.”
“Really.” She crosses her arms, expecting a challenge. Expecting a fight, anticipating it and how it might help her understand just how she’s come so far so fast.
But Lucifer just curls their lip and leaves.
Bitterness washes over Elīya. So, that’s it then.
JUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think many different people could bring more richness of interpretation to this, but here's my own personal subjective pov:
IMO, this one change basically fixes EVERYTHING about the ENTIRE book that drove me so fucking insane i spent over a year fuming and venting and casting bitter contemptuous aspersions on the author and came close to completely ruining the entire book for me and making me drop the series.
Two different friends of mine who read the revision found this revised change to be The moment they finally actually started liking and respecting eliya!!!! While I didn't have quite this reaction -- I always liked Eliya lmao -- I know exactly what they mean, because Eliya was done so dirty in the previous version. In this revision, the lack of the twisting narrative dishonesty that plagued the previous version finally admits: eliya was just…….right. she was not Foolish And Misguided and Deluded to make a deal to get tamar back as the previous version of this scene implies, where this and subsequent chapters of the prevision version hammered home a message that eliya was Foolish and Mistaken to care about meeting tamar again, the parallel ‘you care’ was a clear ‘lucifer is teaching her and wisely and kindly giving her something that’s Correct and Meaningful, unlike tamar who has nothing to help her with, and unlike the delusions eliya stupidly thought were important’
And the fact like. That lucifer's whole spiel, while not altered at all, is reframed to allow it to absolutely stink of the hypocrisy it always held: lucifer absolutely does not think everyone has particular joys of being them, or that everyone is someone — they do not think tamar is someone as-she-is-now, or that tamar has a particular joy of being her. And eliya narrows her eyes — notices that as bullshit in the context of lucifer saying it instantly, rather than passively accepting lucifer’s Wisdom and Compassion in Saving Her like the previous version. And she retorts with her own agency, (though she either doesn't notice or doesn't care about lucifer's maligning of tamar, which is also cool)
And it fits, continuity-wise: in both versions of the book, Lucifer and Eliya never exchange another word for the remainder of the book, but in this version it MEANS something. the absolute tragedy of this relationship with eliya, possibly the only actually constructive and challenging relationship lucifer has ever had in their life, the way the only times lucifer was ever actually cool and hot and epic was when they were sparring and struggling with eliya -- all this slipping away the second eliya challenges just a step too far, by dropping the warping narrative dishonesty act and admitting that seeing the evidence of fucking Tamar's existence in the world made Eliya actually seize this, by indicating that Lucifer's teaching, while extremely necessary, was not sufficient to replace Eliya's own desires and plans, and that she didn't use and run with their help in quite the way they thought she 'should' have as a passive recipient. It's gut-wrenching, and this means it leads into and sets up Lives so, so, so well.
I was right about my end of the deal after all.....
I'll continue the last few chapters in a shorter Part 3
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STAR TREK: DISCOVERY | S1E8
"Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"
[I will react to each episode individually and in full, raw reception and then post as is unrevised here onto my tumblr for the full span of every and all NuTrek episodes and series that have been and will be released. If this falls under your field of interest - I welcome your company in joining me. Enjoy the ride.]
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"High Ranking Vulcan".
heh.
This intro though - it jkust makes me wonder the sheer potential of what couldve been for Trek.
Bryan Fuller made a masterpiece called Hannibal.
Not too sure on his hand in Trek - imho, it doesnt compare.
ANYways.
ugh i love seeing hte discovery warp downwards like that
Owosekun - love her name
such nice colours.
consistenty good colours in this show for sure.
i like how goldy inside the bridge is
oh interesting.
what an odd source of warp power
its insanely cool though.
that CANT be good for stamets.
is that foreshadowing
did you call her what she will become
damn stamets can you be like idk a bit likeable tho please.
like plenty of characters who are catty af but likeable in some way if even 1%.
ugh.
hi tribble.
keep tribblin
OO
SO BLUEEEE
SO PRETTYYY
This is so weird to me in how
this show literally comes out 2 years AFTER AOS3 in terms of production quality.
very pretty landscapes though
Saru. aint no way you walkin this terrain with them feets of yours
love the trees.
saru is so scrawnyyy
Saru literally looks amazing in any lighting no joke
damn
classic trek mist creature
living rorschach blot
Kol is so cool looking
those red accents work beautifully on his face
such lovely colour grading
everyones GLOWINGGG
there are certainly some wonderful visuals in this show ughhhh
Saru, the dust speaker
is that a klingon archery set
what is that
HAHA
i wish
nah
its a torture kit
sorry
cornwell yelling like that was kind of cringe lolll
this pretty blue dust dome that ash and burnham are in is so pretty
ugh something im gonna just never take seriously, "Ash x Burnham" nah get out
yeah yeah however, Kirk delivered this line beyond any other human's capacity
what an empty ass kiss
god its so forced.
another huge problem with this show is
they treat these characters like we know them already
but bruh everyone feels so much the stranger to me, even though we are past the halfway point of season 1.
is just so weird.
i am not invested in like any character, even ones i really thought i would/wanted to be
but its liek the show takes them away from me
i like how the klingons have a definite accent when they speak terran now
L'Rell is so striking looking
i love her eyes
such a piercing look
see like
i WANT to like this away party
but like
i kind of dont have any real reason to like any of these characters
especially with the utter animosity stuff that never got really properly resolved.
like between saru and burnham.
it feels almost uncomfortable.
to me the viewer watching from outside ofc.
thats a really pretty flower
i dont like this film style
it feels too tacky
so many stupid zooms
so cheap feeling
it feels like
star trek, Teen Wolf edition.
literally feels like its filmed int he same way as things like Teen Wolf that were almost 10 years earlier.
its so janky.
zero patience and sense to appreciate the scene itself without all this ridiculous cinematic embellishment.
its so unnecessary.
if even this show did this less, this show would legitimately be 7x better.
saru looks so beautiful with that warm white rear light
this is such a gorgeous instance of practical effects
and they got the PERFECT actor to don saru
Ash looks like someone ive literally known in my own life 😭
i love these red jewels on L'Rell's armour/clothing
costume and design department did a great great job in this show's production - i have no beef with them.
i like saru's mouth shape
its so odd. idk why i feel so detached from this show.
oh dang
angry saru.
ferocious oml
yo these are such pretty crystals]
saru running in THOSE?
HAAHAHAH damn
had to CG him hahah
that one camera shot was funny though
it almost looked like the show said "yes. he can run in these".
lol
oh damn convincing gore
i like how we continue seeing blood in trek with DISCO
when i t really started in Enterprise.
oh shit ANGRY SARU
BRUH
HE BACKKICKED HER LIKE A HORSE
this stick man being so strong
the way hes breaking that device literally looks like classic trek style
bundle two hands together and bash DBZ style XD
really pretty tree thing though
oooo the transporter circles at the bottom look SOO nice
dude
look at his detail
up close
its fucking amazing
oh my god
such masterfully done painting
speckling
im genuinely impressed
damn, im sorry saru.
though i think, who DOES live without fear.
man costume design is wonderful.
these red markings are really good
they compliment their faces really well
This is so odd. I have NEVER had this kind of feeling of "detachment" from a Trek production before.
The fuck is happening.
Ugh.
Not liking Bryan Fuller x Alex Kurtzman directing style in this show, like,
at all.
I am just waiting for when this show gets better.
Cuz it's lost a lot of my anticipation.
We'll see. Hopefully.
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Chapter Thoughts: 364, Why We Wield Power
This one got long. Have a jump!
Ujiko and All For One
O Welcome back, Shie Hassaikai arc relevance! Shame you had to be for nothing more than AFO’s “This isn’t even my final form” moment, but at least it’s something. I do kind of wonder, however, how AFO administered this to himself? Like, the Ujiko bit is a flashback; he’s clearly in the hospital lab, recording this message he’ll leave, and the thing he’s looking at is one of the bullets, not far from the device Shigaraki will later scavenge them from. So what exactly did Ujiko leave AFO? We don’t see it, just the kitty ear helmet.
If it were something external, then AFO would have had to have used it as Endeavor was burning him up, and I don’t recall seeing anything like that, even in the vague form of e.g. the strange close-up of Dabi flashing his collar at Hawks that turned out to be foreshadowing a micro camera. I suppose it could just have been in a vial that was destroyed, splashing its contents onto AFO’s skin? Or it was something he consumed/injected in advance, that was, idk, somehow triggered to his heartbeat stopping? It’s a little on the handwavy side, is what I mean to say.
O Every time the story brings up the Quirk Doomsday Theory (interesting that Ujiko calls it that now, too, despite that phrasing having drifted considerably from his initial terminology of Paranormal Singularity Theory), I wonder again if it’s ever going to seriously engage with the ramifications of it, and how it could even do so while still centering Deku and the rest of his class. High schoolers, even super-powered ones, are not traditionally extremely well-equipped for dealing with matters like “devastation resulting from human evolution.” (We might actually have seen some movement on this front in this very chapter, actually, so more on this below!)
O Ujiko leaving AFO presents while nostalgically waxing fond about him is so cute. God, that horrible little old man (affectionate) is so in love. On which note…
You guys, I had a whole thing I was going to say about Ujiko wishing AFO’s heart would not be filled with hate. It was so touching! And moreover, it made so much sense! It perfectly explained Ujiko’s strange ambivalence towards giving Shigaraki AFO, his bizarre attempt to pump the brakes on something we’re later told had been his and AFO’s goal for decades! It slotted right in with his talk about loving traits of AFO’s that are inherently tied to AFO’s own body, things won’t go with him to Shigaraki’s body! It added interesting nuances to his characterization, opening up possibilities that he went along with the bodyjacking plans because it’s what AFO wanted, but privately, he wished he could have found another way to get the man OFA, a way that wouldn’t require Ujiko losing those eyes and voice and smile he loved so dearly, or seeing that Buddha-like smile being tainted with hatred.(1)
And then the Viz official came out and it turned out, no, actually, the fan translators just got confused because Ujiko is an old man who uses extremely archaic language, and actually what he said was that he does want AFO’s heart to be filled with hate.
See, this shit is why I wait for official releases before doing chapter response posts.
Anyway, it’s fine, I guess. It’s what AFO wants, and what AFO wants is of course also what Ujiko wants. His heartfelt wish is for AFO to achieve his dreams—it’s sweet, in their awful way! But man, it just doesn’t click like I first thought it did. Why frame the line with, “Allow me to speak my mind,” as if it’s some big secret that Ujiko is nuts about his seventy-year husbando? Also, it leaves that weird characterization gap about Ujiko’s reticence to give Shigaraki the AFO quirk wide open. And there I was about to reconsider the AFO retcon theory!(2)
O I deeply wish I could love AFO’s talk about passing the baton to Shigaraki. It’s so well aligned with everything I liked about early-series AFO, and so horribly unsatisfying in execution. Rather than me repeating myself, please go ahead and fill in more of my usual kvetching about the bizarre conflation of AFO-the-man with AFO-the-quirk and how badly I want AFO and/or Horikoshi to read an article on the Teleportation Paradox. Maybe he could give Nolan’s The Prestige a spin.
That said, I do like that—while AFO’s de-aging is exactly as arbitrary as all of Hori’s ticking clocks of late—you can at least say, well, AFO is over a hundred years old, so it’s going to take longer to rewind him than e.g. Eri rewinding her father out of existence in a matter of seconds, especially since it’s coming in the form of something Ujiko whipped up, rather than just being one big concentrated, uncontrolled blast.
I do feel this runs afoul of the issue that a villain dealing with AFO absolves the heroes of having to figure out what to do about him, and that’s kind of giving the heroes a narratively unearned easy out. But I admit I didn’t expect the villain to be AFO himself! And, well, at least it’ll be fun to see him as a teenager, or even a child. Looking forward to seeing if heroes will still be willing to try to beat the piss out of him at that juncture.
O I’m very curious as to whether AFO has something specific in mind when he talks about thwarting the future of the entire world. It could just be more of his Evil Overlord talk, a generic statement about how he plans to rule, but the phrasing, “An act which thwarts the future they envision,” implies that he’s already done the brainstorming to come up with an appropriate atrocity.
Which is all to say, oh heck, is whatever he’s hinting at finally going to be the thing that brings Ujiko’s quirk singularity theory into focus? It’s been established that quirks have become the norm, and since they’re the norm, that means they’re an intrinsic part of the future people everywhere in the world envision. So if AFO has come up with some sort of way to affect quirks en masse, that would certainly qualify as global future-thwarting. It’s also close enough to Aoyama’s depiction of AFO’s goals re: using quirks to arbitrate with countries who need what that quirk offers to track with AFO saying Aoyama was merely “wrong in some of the details.”
I’ve long thought that the only surefire way to save humanity from the future Ujiko theorizes is in store for them would be to remove quirks entirely, but given the series’ intentional conflation of a person’s quirk with their inherent nature/personality, as well as the story’s nature as an energetic and optimistic battle narrative, taking away all quirks is an extremely fraught topic. I’ll be very interested to see how the story navigates that idea if it goes for it.
O This is such a fascinatingly melancholy panel. Maybe he’s being totally straightforward here, and it’s just meant to come across as alien in the totality of its evil, and thus scary, but I do wonder. If nothing else, he did once wish for his brother to join him, you know?
Also interesting that his eyes look the same as Tomura’s when Vestige!AFO is piloting Tomura around. AFO’s eyes always have looked like this in flashback scenes, of course, but somehow it had never struck me that ShigAFO’s foggy, blank eyes were anything other than an indication of his loss of control. (Possible evidence towards AFO having fought a losing battle against the biological determinism of his own quirk decades ago?)
Timothy “No Idea What He’s Talking About” Agpar
O His rhetoric here about children and adults sounds nice, but frankly, it’s not even in line with how Star acted, much less heroes as a broad category. BNHA deals so much in the idea of heroes as people who wanted to be rich, famous, admired as Strongest, or even just to generically “save” people; the only heroes I can think of off the top of my head who are giving serious thought to future generations are Nighteye (future vision), Nedzu (super intelligence; school principal), Best Jeanist (self-appointed mentor to troubled youth), and Aizawa (school teacher, dead bestie trauma).
The rest? Not so much. Even the manga’s most iconic hero had to be browbeaten by several acquaintances, a death-timer prophecy from his sidekick, and a horrific injury from his nemesis before he was willing to give serious consideration to the next generation. I’m pretty damn sure Deku is not thinking about future generations when he wields his power; he is rather explicitly thinking about the people he knows and cares about. Indeed, the OFA council about how he probably won’t be able to pass OFA forward anymore pretty well insured that.
Star & Stripe? Who Tim apparently knew personally enough to be carrying around a childhood photo in the wake of her loss?(3)
Nothing we learned about that woman in the brief time we had her suggested that her primary motivation was building the foundation for the future. She wanted to save people, sure, but that desire was all tied up in saving people BESTEST and MOSTEST. She had pouty angst sessions about not being able to make herself stronger than All Might; she explicitly styled her hair “like All Might but moreso.” Cathleen Bate, as far as we saw her, was entirely preoccupied with a hero of her current time/the previous generation,(4) not thinking at all about legacies and the children of the world to come.
Also, “Heroes use their powers to support future generations,” is a weird thing to claim when any given villain threatens just as many old people as they do young people. (See e.g. Overhaul putting Pops in a coma or the old granny Toga must have at least harmed and might have done worse to in order to get her blood.)
All told, I can’t help but feel that these are the words of a man on the cusp of grandparenthood, not a man who understands heroics as a job class.
One more thing: @robotlesbianjavert brought this up first in some talk about the chapter, but like… Many of the Pro Heroes we’re familiar with are in their early 20s to early 30s. Maybe that seems really old to the target audience of HeroAca, but it is actually really quite young. Edgeshot is 34. That’s barely anything; he has got a whole life and career ahead of him in danger of being snuffed out. It’s a noble sacrifice or whatever, sure, but maybe the manga could just call it that instead of playing into the bizarre Your Life Is Over When You Graduate High School messaging so typical of school setting manga?
At best, I can see the implications of, “Well, once you’re out of school, it’s all downhill from there and you might as well resign yourself to laying the ground for future generations! Nothing to live for that’s just for you anymore!” as being in keeping with Japanese attitudes towards one’s responsibilities once one joins the workplace, but even so, it’s pretty grim.
That Ninja I Hate (Beware of All-Caps)
O This Edgeshot twist is dumb it is SO dumb. I cannot believe I have spent the last 100+ chapters waiting for someone to tie that damn ninja around a tree and now he’s going to escort himself out of the story with a noble sacrifice that doesn’t even involve dying and could presumably be reversed in the epilogue with a heart transplant THAT’S RIGHT, HORI, DON’T THINK I’VE FORGOTTEN THAT HEART TRANSPLANTS EXIST.
Christ. Edgeshot has never even interacted with Bakugou. Why in god’s name couldn’t we have gotten Fiber Master working on muscle fibers and let Jeanist have this? That would have actual relevance and weight. This? For fuck’s sake, it doesn’t even have the bookending quality of a hero who failed to save Bakugou in the first chapter making up for that failure now, because Edgeshot wasn’t involved with the Sludge Villain fight.
THROWING US A REVEAL ABOUT EDGESHOT AND JEANIST BEING SCHOOL FRIENDS AFTER 300 CHAPTERS OF COMPLETELY PROFESSIONAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THEM DOES NOT ASSUAGE MY SUSPICIONS OF THIS WHOLE ARC BEING ONE BIG RETCON, HORI.
My god, they wouldn’t even have been in the same grade: Jeanist would have been in his senior year when Edgeshot was a freshman. And I notice Edgeshot wasn’t exactly leaping to use his own body to stitch up the gaping wound in All Might’s side six years ago, or become his bestie Best Jeanist’s new lung after Kamino.
This should have been Jeanist’s moment. He’s the one who has the established relationship with Bakugou, the one who wanted to see what kind of hero Bakugou would become, the one invested in his future. And as silly as Jeanist being able to use Fiber Master to do open heart surgery in field conditions would have been, it would have been far less silly than Edgeshot proclaiming that a super move that lets him piece others’ bodies—a move he typically uses on peoples’ lungs or center torso regions(5)—gives him enough knowledge to just set himself in Bakugou’s chest and be his hearIT’S SO DUMB I DON’T EVEN WANT TO TYPE IT. GOD.
Further, as others have said, it’s a real cop-out on building any tension on Bakugou’s death. No, I never believed for a second that Bakugou would stay dead, but seriously, two chapters? That’s it? All the drama and gnashing of teeth for two chapters? This feels less like a planned story event and more like social media exploded so hard about Bakugou’s death that Horikoshi’s editor was like, “Okay, you need to get Bakugou back in the story now.”
It’s just real bad, y’all. Two weeks out from the initial spoiler leaks and I’m still not over how incredibly, high octane stupid it is.
Odds & Ends
O I am amused by the implication that the reason Shigaraki only recovered a small handful of bullets is that Ujiko only made a single perfunctory batch of them before turning his attention to aspects of their contents he found more interesting.
O The close-up on AFO’s mouth is lewd the sort of thing I’d normally expect to be a precursor to some sort of breath weapon attack, but actually I suspect he’s just enjoying breathing without a tube down his throat for the first time in seven years.
O First thing AFO does after regenerating is steal a cape off a doomed hero. Truly, he is his student’s teacher.
O Amused at Tim Star Wars and the Prez calling Tomura by his given name. Do they think Tomura is Shigaraki’s villain name, or does Horikoshi just think all Americans are that forward?
O A typo for “rein in,” or the POTUS thinking the US should take command during these troubled times?
–-FOOTNOTES--
1: Also a way that wouldn’t have required any subsequent dinner dates be between Ujiko and a man who, to all appearances, is some fifty years his junior. It’s always so awkward when restaurant servers assume your husband is actually your son, you know?
2: Anon that sent the ask about said theory, if you’re reading this, I swear I’m still prodding at a post about it. It’s just trying to turn into one of my essays, is all.
3: Which I feel like raises some questions about cronyism in the HeroAca USA armed forces, but that's neither here nor there.
4: All Might was an active adult hero when he saved her, which would thematically put him in the previous generation, but they’re also concurrently active when she grows up. Also, numerically speaking, he’s in his mid-late 50s, while she’s 42—not a big enough gap to be generational.
5: And would it have been so hard to dig up a panel from Kamino of Edgeshot debilitating Kurogiri, rather than use two pages from the same scene—the same chapter, even!—of Edgeshot blitzing the first wave of the PLF and claiming that as ample experience with body invasion? “Yes, I have so much experience in invading other peoples’ bodies, from that one time in that one fight.”
#bnha#bnha 364#bnha afo#ujiko daruma#tim star wars#that ninja i hate#chapter thoughts#stillness has salt#my writing#quirk singularity theory
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Hootenanny Chorale Analysis
I, very much love Centaurworld and find it impressive that they released 2 seasons in a year.
for this to make sense please understand something’s. 1. I am not a professional at this, this is just my thoughts. 2. When I say Verse x I mean that is where I cut the lyrics to make it easier to analyze. 3. Please mind my spelling, autocorrect sucks and I usually don’t pick up on mistakes.
(Fun fact: a Hootenanny is an informal gathering of people with Folk Songs)
(Link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpwxTsezopQ )
This song is very similar to ‘Welcome to Centaurworld’ from season 1.
Verse 1:
Horse:
Hey, new friends
I’m glad we made it
Hey, new friends
As long as you are with me
I am home
This verse is similar to the first verse of ‘Welcome to Centaurworld’. That song was sang by Wamawink to Horse. It goes like this: “Hey, new friend
I’m glad you made it
What is this?
Hey, new friend
As long as you are with us
You are home”
The original verse is sung directly at Horse, while the this version was sung to everyone. It includes everyone and their experiences.
Verse 2:
Horse
You made it to Centaurworld
And nothing better
Represents our world
Moletaurs: Holes
Coldtaurs: Breathe in a bag!
Birdtaurs: Like!
Horsetaurs: Privilege!
All: Than this colorful collection
Of singing, dancing magic beings
Meeting here today
Again this was from the same song. And it mostly stayed the same. The other Centaur’s just interrupted the song. But this shows all their friends and how far they traveled.
“Cause you made it to Centaurworld
And nothing better represents our world
Than this colorful collection of singing and dancing
Half-animal, half-man things
You’re meeting here today” this was the original verse. I find it interesting that “Half-animal, Half-man things” was changed to “magical beings”. Showing that they have become more than just weird animal-man things. They became special and unique. “You’re meeting here today” and “Meeting here today” was also changed. Which makes sense, they Centaurs have met Horse already.
Verse 3:
Horse
And when a chorus gathers
At the end of the Rainbow Road
They’re one family
Slow and agile things
Strong and fragile things
From the skies to depths below
This verse was written for this song, as far as I am aware. This song is talking about Centaurworld as a whole. The “…Fragile things” line is a nice nod to the beginning when the herd was still fragile. This verse in for all the different Centaurs.
Verse 4:
Horse
It takes a little boldness
And a little bit of magic
(We can all be fearless too)
But I know you’re fearless too
(Fearless too)
This some of this verse is from “Hello Rainbow Road” from Season 1. “But it takes a little boldness
And a little bit of magic
I’d go on my own if only I had it” and “Fragile Things” from season 1. “You can all be fearless too”
I find it cool how Horse is singing from a song that is about going somewhere and the others are singing about protecting others. Which is exactly what they are going to do for the war.
It completely cut out going on Horse’s own. A nice bit of foreshadowing for “Who was She”. It talks about being Fearless, something very much associated with Horse’s Charater. (Being tossed in to the battle field, “Taurnado”, horses being tough and strong). In season 1 Horse thought that everyone was quite meek and not brave. So I feel like her saying “I know you’re fearless to” is important.
Verse 5:
Horse
Together, we’ll go into the unknown
So get ready to fight
You’re okay, you’re all right
All: You are Centaur…
You are Centaurworld
Again, some parts is from “Hello Rainbow Road”.
“Together, we’ll go into the unknown
So say bye to the old
And hello to that Rainbow Road”
This verse is very much referring to them going through the portal instead of traveling around Centaurworld. “You’re okay, you’re all right” is a fast becoming something one would say to someone they care about. This is the 7th time this has been used this way “Rider’s Lullaby (season 1), Rider’s Lullaby (Reprised) (season 1), I’ve been searching for you (season 1), Durpleton’s Lullaby (season 2), Hootenanny Chorale (season 2), Last Lullaby (season 2), Separate Ways (not sure if this counts because it only says ‘You’re okay’) (season 1) ” I used to think this was Rider’s and Horse’s, but it is to show care. Each time it appears it is someone saying to calm other other down or show that they really care or that they love the other person. I think this is showing that Horse has grown to truly care about Centaurworld and all the Centaurs.
This song is a song that is closing the circle, using lyrics for season 1 and giving them a new meaning. It is showing that the end is near.
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Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 20, part two
(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff) (Previous Post)
Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!
So much happens in this episode that I couldn’t stop the meta and had to break it in thirds. Part one is here, part three is here.
Owie Owie Owie
Wen Zhuliu takes exquisitely tender care of Wen Chao, despite presumably disliking him quite a lot. He wipes his tears away, saying that the tears will infect his wounds, which...isn't likely, but ok.
I will note that he didn't get the "no sting" kind of medicine, however, so maybe there's a limit to his kindness. Wen Chao screams and yells at him while he puts a tiny amount of medicine on one tiny spot of owie. It's going to be a long night for these fellas. Except it isn't because they're going to die, so at least they won't have to put more medicine on.
The candles blow out and we hear the sound of a flute, which Wen Zhuliu hilariously says is just the wind when Wen Chao starts freaking out. They have two days to go before they get to safety, and Wen Chao is pretty sure he's not going to last two days. And you know...he's right!
As usual he blames Wen Zhuliu for the situation, but then gets afraid that WZL is going to leave him, and starts making promises of status. WZL says that's not necessary. He is a loyal sonofabitch, I'll give him that.
The Man Comes Around, Redux
And now Wei Wuxian enters the scene, climbing menacingly up the stairs carrying his own hair fan, just like Lan Wangji did in the previous episode. (Gifset here). Wen Zhuliu doesn't look optimistic. When the boys on the roof see Wei Wuxian they don't look too happy either.
Wei Wuxian stops in front of Wen Zhuliu and proceeds to have a philosophical conversation with him. Wei Wuxian has come to fuck your shit up, but he has also come to pass judgement on your ethics because he is, fundamentally, still himself.
Wen Zhuliu takes the opportunity to justify his actions, giving a heartfelt statement about what he owes to Wen Ruohan. Wen Zhuliu knows his number is up and that they obviously didn't kill Wei Wuxian hard enough, but he still feels righteous.
(more after the cut)
Here Wei Wuxian asks a question that shows the fundamental difference between himself and Wen Zhuliu. In many ways they are similar: neither of them was born into their clan. Both were appreciated by the clan leader and placed in high positions. Both feel an obligation to those clan leaders. When Wei Wuxian asks "why do other people have to pay for your gratitude?" he's foreshadowing the moment when Jiang Cheng demands the death of the Dafan Wens.
Wen Zhuliu doesn't hesitate to murder people because his clan leader wants him to. Whereas Wei Wuxian doesn't hesitate to pay a terrible price--his golden core-for his gratitude to Jiang Fengmian. But he won't let the Dafan Wens pay the price of his continued membership in the Jiang clan; he chooses exile while Wen Zhuliu chooses murder.
Wei Wuxian is done talking and very very slowly brings his flute into position and starts to play. Wen Zhuliu doesn't make a move to stop him, but he might be frozen in place...everything happens at weird speeds in this scene.
Lan Wangji is super horrified when he sees what Wei Wuxian is doing with his flute. So horrified, in fact, that by the time they are face to face, he's moved past any other emotion.
Lady in Red
As Wei Wuxian plays the flute, the camera moves around him (or they spin him on a turntable) and the scenery around him shifts to a 360 view of...the burial mounds! That's so fucking cool!
You can take the boy out of the graveyard but you can't take the graveyard out of the boy. He is carrying it within him now.
He summons up the hottest ghost lady ever, to scratch the shit out of the Wens with her fancy fingernails. She's all in red, not the dark Wen red, but super-saturated bridal red.
She's not dressed as a bride, but she is very pretty and the color is awesome, particularly when she turns into red smoke. Presumably having actual ghosts attacking people is ok with the censor board as long as they are pretty ladies in nice clothes, since there are two in this episode and this one is absolutely definitely a non-corporeal being when she wants to be.
Camera Operator: What did I ever do to you?
She fights with Wen Zhuliu, who tries to put his core-melting hand on her, unsuccessfully, and then figures out that Wei Wuxian is the better target, so tries to put his core-melting hand on him.
Wen Zhuliu, you need to have some different moves! Not everybody has a core for you to melt.
Zidian’s Revenge
As soon as Wen Zhuliu targets Wei Wuxian the boys break in from the rooftop, with Jiang Cheng snapping Zidian up over a rafter and down around Wen Zhuliu's neck in a single move, and then hauling him up and hanging him.
This is a pretty gratifying moment; Jiang Cheng finally gets his vengeance using the weapon his mother gave him before this fucker killed her. He also gets to come back at the guy who melted his core and kill him with a spiritual weapon. All around nice work, Jiang Cheng.
Meanwhile, Lan Wangji initially placed himself between Wen Zhuliu and Wei Wuxian, which is a pretty strong show of devotion, given that his chest was directly in line with Wen Zhuliu's hand.
He watches intently while Wen Zhuliu dies...Lan Wangji is actually a pretty vengeful guy, isn't he? He's not into torture but he seems to like executing bad people, and he enjoys chopping off arms a whole lot.
Welcome Back
Having disposed of Wen Zhuliu, Team Where The Fuck Have You Been is ready to greet Wei Wuxian. This is Lan Wangji as he prepares to turn around and face him.
This is not "relieved that my soulmate is ok" or even "feeling betrayed because you didn't even send me a text." This is cold, hard, fury. He's plowed right past relief and joy into full on disgust and vehemence.
Jiang Cheng is also pissed at him, but he's so used to being pissed at him that it's not a remarkable emotion, and it passes quickly. He gives him his sword, calls him a prick, punches him in the shoulder while Lan Wangji looks grumpy Wang Yibo tries very hard not to smile, and fails.
Then Jiang Cheng gives Wei Wuxian an enormous squishy hug.
Wei Wuxian, who has probably wanted that hug for the past decade, does not return it, and looks stricken, eventually raising his flute hand behind Jiang Cheng's back.
Lan Wangji glares at him while Jiang Cheng hugs him, and then shifts to glare at the flute.
Let's talk about Lan Wangji's body language here. This scene is often talked about, including by OP, as "Wei Wuxian picks a fight with Lan Wangji in order to push him away." But since their very early days,Lan Wangji's nonverbal communication has been an essential component of his relationship with Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian has been reading his microexpressions from the very start, and he's the only one besides Lan Xichen who does that.
Lan Wangji's anger and disapproval are written all over his face and posture, so much so that even a casual observer can tell what he's feeling. For Wei Wuxian, with his extreme awareness and having shared actual literal telepathy with the guy previously, this has got to feel like Lan Wangji is screaming at him.
Lan Wangji is the one picking this fight. Wei Wuxian is trying to defuse it by giving him time to calm down before engaging. For perhaps the first time since meeting him, Wei Wuxian ignores Lan Wangji to focus on Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng asks him a bunch of questions and Wei Wuxian slides out from under most of them, giving half answers, non-answers, and what All The President's Men calls a non-denial denial.
Wei Wuxian, who is adept at sounding like he's speaking truth when he is lying, here sounds like he's lying when he's speaking something very close to the truth. He spins a particularly outrageous-sounding tale of finding a cave and learning an ultimate power there...but that's actually what he actually did, actually. Xue Yang does this "lie so much that the truth now sounds like a lie" thing by accident, years later in Yi City, but Wei Wuxian is using it as a deliberate tactic to hide the truth from his brother. Which is basically his main occupation at this point.
He acts offended that Jiang Cheng doesn't believe him, but he does it playfully to cast everything in the conversation as a joke.
Lan Wangji is not as inclined to accept utter codswallop as Jiang Cheng is, and he has already figured out an important underlying layer of the situation--the turn away from the way of the sword--while not seeing the very bottom layer, the "I don't have a golden core" layer.
Unfortunately, he continues to be judgy and pissed off. He says "Wei Ying" gently enough, but his body is braced for conflict.
Wei Wuxian looks at him wearily and stands up to have the fight Lan Wangji is asking for.
Maybe you were right
But baby I was lonely
I don't want to fight
I'm tired of being sorry
I'm standing in the street
Crying out for you
No one sees me
But the silver moon
Soundtrack: 1. Sympathy for the Devil, The Rolling Stones 2. Tired of Being Sorry, by Ringside
Writing Prompt: Who is the lady in red and what is her deal?
#fytheuntamed#the untamed#wangxian#chengxian#the untamed gifs#restless rewatch the untamed#canary3d-original#my gifs
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Why Julie and the Phantoms is a masterpiece of a show. Part 2. Heroes and Villains or Let that foil shine
NOTE: Thanks again for your kind response to Part 1. I never expected that. It being my first tumblr post and a first meta in quite a long time I was blown away. I read all the tags, some were really hilarious. About having more than one brain cell xDDD I laughed so hard. It means a lot.
NOTE2: Please remember that the gifs are made by me, so don't crop, edit or give as yours.
Part 1.
Before diving into meta, I have to mention that the Villain of the story is actually one of the best in the decade. He’s cool, evil from the start, we understand his motives and we certainly are not supposed to love and make excuses for him. The writers made sure of that. So back to the main topic.
A foil is a character who contrasts with another character; typically, a character who contrasts with the protagonist, in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist
Foils in literature are not necessarily antagonists. A friend can be a foil or sometimes even a thing, a song. Whatever can make a good and real contrast to the protagonist. But it’s not very simple to use this author’s device and not fall down a deep hole. Because you have to make sure you did just the right amount of work to make it understandable for a reader, the things you want to contrast are definitely there and still you don't waste a character. On TV it can be even harder given limited air time. And, well, I don’t come across this device being used in full very often nowadays. It’s usually good and evil fighting for the plot. That’s why I personally appreciate JaTP so much.
Caleb is clearly a foil to Luke. As much as I’d love to say that Julie also has one, that’s not entirely true, at least not this season. Carrie is not her foil though it may seem so, and I really think that’s cool as Julie’s journey is being presented through her own demons and I'm going to cover that next. That being said, of course Caleb doubles as an antagonist plotwise, but I personally consider him being written more as a contract to Luke so we could see and appreciate his character and journey better.
1. Origins
Caleb and Luke have extremely similar backgrounds. They are both natural performers. They know how to deliver, because c’mon, “Now or Never” is something and so is “The other side of Hollywood”. Stage is their natural habitat, their element, power. Although they channel this power from completely different places.
Let’s start with our little ball of energy. It’s emphasized TWICE that he doesn’t care about the money aka the physical side of art.
All Luke wants is to make music. Connect with people. He is so happy just to be heard despite him loving to perform. Making music is what makes him feel alive and basically that’s enough. I think if there was no “hologram” magic at all, Luke would have still been extremely happy to make music with and for Julie. Because that’s the way he is.
But Caleb doesn’t know that. He knows, and I’m standing by that, right away that Luke is the one to aim at. Because we always feel the similarity in people. If Luke said yes, Reggie and Alex would have followed. So Caleb recognizes the passion and shoots at them what he thinks is appealing. And, oh boy, he delivers.
“The Other Side of Hollywood” is a perfect song to emphasize Luke and Caleb being foils for each other. Follow me here:
But these lines come from very different places. For Caleb the only thing that matters is himself. He owns the show, he IS the show. It’s about being famous, drowning in applause, admiration. Look at how he performs. Confident, yes, but still very much in control. He must keep his perfect face. No flaws, no real emotions, no real connection (Did you miss ME? I did too // This band is back). Whereas Luke is simply living the best time of his life each time he performs. Is it just jamming? Bring it on. Doing fun riffs? He’s all for it. He doesn’t care how he looks (though who could deny gorgeous sweaty Luke), he owns the show just because he is a natural.
So back to the business. Caleb immediately puts the boys in his own shoes:
On the other side we live like kings // Your soulprint on the walk of fame on the boulevard of your wildest dreams // I got your glamour, got your gold, got all you’ll ever need
And, I mean, he is not that wrong. You can see the appeal on the boys’ faces. They are young, passionate, handsome, talented musicians. Of course they wouldn’t deny fame. Of course they would want all that to some extent. And Caleb is very sure he pulled the right strings.
Watch me make a move, I’m your number one choice
Also I have to mention, as we are talking about TOSOH (IKEA name again) and it being a foil for Luke, thy lyrics still don’t forget about what is important for Reggie and Alex (we’ll talk about that just a bit later):
Welcome to the brotherhood -> Reggie
Where you won’t be misunderstood -> Alex
Then again, lots of foreshadowing in the song, if you listen carefully the lyrics are stressing the true colors of the offer:
A tomb with a view
Man, what a metaphor. I would have run out of there the minute I heard this line. But our boys share one brain cell (I can’t get over how funny this is) and it’s currently taken by Julie, so I don’t blame them.
Disappointment is huge. Caleb read it all wrong. So we are moving to the next point in our Heroes and Villains essay.
2. Recruitment
It’s very cool that Caleb offers the boys to join his band right after Luke offers Julie to join Sunset Curve. They both are going out of their ways to get that (although have different budgets apparently. But look, they live in a garage). Luke made a hit with a bunch of Julie’s not very well structured lines (I love Flying Solo with all my heart as a song, but as a poem it just looks weird to me) to impress her, and we all saw the show Caleb had thrown to impress the boys. Plus food. And fancy dancing. But here is where contrast comes again.
Caleb offers to join the band, yes, but only as backup singers. It’s his show, remember? It’s only about him. He doesn’t care if they are even good. He wants their magic under control.
Share the spotlight with ME / How do you like MY new band?!
Luke offering Julie a spot in the band is a completely different story. He saw what she is capable of. He instantly knows she must be the key to a new sound, a new level. And he, a natural performer, frontman, lead guitarist, steps back and gives the spotlight to Julie. To think about it, he could have just got her magic under control by giving her simple lines, incorporating piano in the songs and that’s all. They would be visible, he would still be a center of attention, and Julie herself wouldn't mind that much. But that’s not who Luke is. Yes, there is a funny scene of “Hey, I’m your lead singer” and “you don’t have to be mean”, but it’s just messing around. Because right after that he finishes Flying Solo, writes several other songs with Julie, seeks her approval of Sunset Curve songs and basically follows her around like an adorable excited puppy.
Moving on and back to the rejection. Again the writers are mirroring them. Julie quits the band & the boys decline the offer. What does Luke do? Well, he tries the way he knows: books a gig, makes Reggie and Alex sing in perfect harmonies and does his puppy eyes thing. And it doesn’t work. And Luke goes to reflect and then probably try to come up with a plan. But something tells me he would not have haunted Julie until she joined them.
What does Caleb do after the initial rejection? Puts a cursed stamp that leaves them no choice but to join HGC. You don’t need to say more.
But in fact the more I think about it, the more I suspect Caleb also not possessing enough mental capacity for a human being. Like, if it wasn’t for Willie, how would they even know? Has Caleb planned to simply show up one day and casually explain? Look, foils in everything.
“You’re in a tough spot… So, you wanna join the band?” | “Looked like it hurt… you know where to find me”
But we sidestepped a bit.
3. Pulling the strings
After the song Caleb comes out to consolidate his success. What he does is clever and, btw, that’s the only time he becomes Julie’s foil. They are stating basically the same thing.
Again, Julie is concerned about the band and the boys, while Caleb is only concerned about having them under control. But they both are pulling basically the right strings.
What is interesting, Caleb actually impressed the wrong person (and that person is our sweet Reggie). Luke follows the string Julie pulled. Although the offer is tempting, he insists twice that they are in a band already directly to Caleb and then in Eats&Beats he says "It's like Julie said, we have a new band, a new sound». No matter what Caleb promised, Luke is not affected at all although Caleb’s offer is a very-very safe choice.
Speaking about using friends as foils, Alex and Reggie also serve as contrast characters for Luke at some points. Luke’s indifference to money is first stressed through Alex who is clearly the chief accountant for the band. His lines about not getting tips, living in a garage and «it’s a little bit about the money» are waved aside by Luke. Reggie is clearly the most affected by the whole Bobbie thing. His lines «I don’t care what Julie said, I’m glad we scared Bobbie», «So we’re gonna forget about getting back at Trevor?» are getting a clear contrast by Luke’s «It’s what Julie said, we have a new band, a new sound» and «He has to live with that guilt».
While editing the article I realised a very cool thing I haven't noticed before. How badly Luke wants to go on tour. And again that's another thing Caleb offers as if reading his mind. That's actually brilliant, to think about it.
Caleb is a VERY good reader. He tests the waters with a speech about disappearing from stage and going around the world and all dreams coming true. Still he doesn’t know the boys and especially Luke, so his phrase “no real connection” doesn’t register that much.
But he learns. Remember the lines I’ve marked before?
Reggie is afraid they will not be together after they cross over. He is in desperate need of a family. So wouldn’t it be nice to spend the rest of your afterlife with your brothers? (Reggie's main insecurity is loneliness, feel of a broken family. That's why he is the most concerned about crossing over. Will his family stay intact?)
Alex is insecure, and not being understood by the people closest to him will always hit hard. So welcome to a place where you won’t be misunderstood. And actually we know there is a guy you like and find comfort in. (Alex's insecurity is growing up in times when he could not truly be himself even with his family and for sure not believing he would ever be able to find someone meant just for him)
That mirrors the whole Luke’s beach speech perfectly. Only comparing them we can truly appreciate why Luke is the leader. He shuts down his own demons to make Alex and Reggie remember that they are not alone (“and I believe in you”. sorry. Olicity fan).
Caleb makes them suffer to get what he wants. But this time he is careful with the words aimed at Luke. Yes, he repeats his words about vanishing and applauses BUT he makes sure that his words about CONNECTION are the key words for Luke. Intense look, calming voice, touching - these are all elements of hypnosis. And Luke is in a daze. (Continuing the parents' thing, for Luke the main insecurity is not managing to connect with his mom. Maybe that's such a big thing for him: through all these people he wanted to find that connection with her)
4. The Hero’s journey
That’s the best part actually but I won’t be saying anything new or that you don’t know. Luke is made of lyrics and music. That’s his soul, heart, that’s the feeling running through his veins. He doesn’t need anything other than that in his life. Playing for eternity is “a gift no musician would ever turn down”. But he actually does turn it down. As well as his dream to go see the world with his band (is there covid in jatp universe?). He is the one who resists the hardest to the pull. Luke, who always has a guitar in his hands, doesn't want to play. Because it’s not only about the music now. He has this amazing girl in his afterlife who was willing to accept them for who they were, helped Luke battle his own demons, eased his pain and made him open up. And it doesn’t make sense any longer without her anymore. “And you’re a part of me now till eternity”.
Caleb, being Luke’s foil, completely misses the whole point of connection. It’s not in his nature. His house band are just recruits (Just so happens you’re in luck we’ve got a vacancy). For Luke his band is his family (We are the only family we ever gonna need). The Connection theme is one of the main in the show. And it’s so cool to show it focused through Luke whose best way of interaction is a touch. But not being able to touch Julie Luke has to find other ways, although it’s not that simple for him. And Julie backs that up: We connect in so many other ways. They literally touched each other's souls. Without knowing she put a stamp of her own on Luke, Alex and Reggie. They’ve never felt loved enough, appreciated enough, supported enough. They’ve only had each other. And Julie’s stamp is love. And for Luke (as well as Reggie and Alex) from now on this girl is worth dying for all over again.
_______
So yeah. I hope you enjoyed it, as I for sure enjoyed writing. There is gonna be a part 3 about Julie and a few honorable mentions of parallels of the Pilot and the Finale (I hope at least to do all that). I’ve also figured very very cool connections in the songs and I can’t wait to share.
Also as I was heavily speaking about The Other side of Hollywood, @catty-words has a wonderful meta on rain metaphors here (sorry for tagging, if you don't want to be tagged), check it out if you somehow missed it. It's super clever.
#jatp#julie and the phantoms#julie molina#luke patterson#reggie peters#alex mercer#jatp meta#jatp analysis#my gifs#my edits#don't crop#please be nice#caleb covington#ana's meta#am i smart? i am#having more brain cells then sunset curve
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Batman Movie Villains Ranked from Worst to Best
Recently, a YouTuber I follow by the name of Mr. Rogues released a list of Batman villains ranked from worst to best. I have nothing but the utmost of respect for Mr. Rogues as a content creator, but I took issue with his list because his long-standing biases were often the deciding factor in many of his rankings. So, I decided to do a list of my own.
I’ll be going over every Batman villain to appear in the movies, briefly analyzing their portrayals and ranking them on a scale of 1 to 5. To prevent the list from being too cluttered, I’ll be separating the villains by which movie series they’re part of. Here we go!
Burton/Schumacher Tetralogy
Bane: Perhaps the only villain in this series I’d call “bad.” The calculating tactician of the comics is nowhere to be found here; instead, he’s reduced to a monosyllabic, brain-dead stooge for the other villains. Overall, he does nothing that couldn’t be done by a random henchman. 1/5
Two-Face: A deeply layered villain in the comics, Two-Face sadly gets upstaged by the other major rogue in the movie, but that’s not to say he doesn’t leave an impression. Tommy Lee Jones gives him a manic and mercurial demeanor that, combined with his colorful design, wouldn’t be out of place in the Adam West series. The size and scope of his criminal organization make him a genuine threat, and there’s something darkly fitting about Batman’s former ally being responsible for the creation of Robin. 3/5
Poison Ivy: Mr. Rogues for some reason ranked her as the worst Batman movie villain of all time, and frankly, I don’t see why. Like Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, Uma Thurman gives this character a delightfully over-the-top demeanor that combines with a colorful, comic-booky ensemble to make for another great “what-if-this-character-appeared-in-the-Adam-West-series” take. She does a good job juggling the differing facets of Ivy’s character: she’s the put-upon cynic, the craven opportunist, the radical eco-terrorist, and the suave seductress all in one package. 3.5/5
The Penguin: Fuck the Razzies. Danny DeVito made this role his own and set the stage for the character for years to come. He’s a bit of a departure, but a welcome one: far from the refined gentleman of crime Burgess Meredith portrayed, this Penguin is an animalistic thug warped by a lifetime of anger and hatred of the society who rejected him due to his deformities. His signature wardrobe, trick umbrellas, and Penguin gimmick are all there, but DeVito sells the role by showing amazing versatility: he can go from a comical and pitiable weirdo to a terrifying sociopath at the drop of a stovepipe hat. 4/5
Mr. Freeze: I honestly can’t say much about this character that my mutual @wonderfulworldofmichaelford hasn’t already. Arnold Schwarzenegger perfectly encapsulates both popular versions of this character: the flamboyant, pun-loving criminal genius from the Adam West series and the Animated Series’ traumatized scientist desperate to cure his loving wife of her terminal illness. Sure, the puns and hammy one-liners are what this version character is known for, but Ahnold definitely knows when to apply the brakes and give a greatly emotional performance as he tries desperately to cure his wife. 4.5/5
Max Shreck: Probably the only time you’ll see a movie-exclusive character on this list, and deservedly so. Corrupt businessmen are dime-a-dozen in Batman stories, and most of them have little personality outside of being greedy scumbags who either get defeated by the hero or betrayed by the other villains. Shreck, however, is different. Not only does he have an eye-catching fashion sense on par with any of Batman’s famous rogues, but Christopher Walken brings his signature manic intensity to the role, creating a character that’s as wicked and sinister as he is cool and stylish. You totally buy that the general public sees him as the good guy. His warm relationship with his son is also a delight to watch. 4.5/5
Catwoman: Michelle Pfeiffer does a lot to really make the character her own. She gets a lot of genuinely badass moments, but underneath all of her coolness lies the undercurrent that she’s a broken, traumatized character lashing out at the people who abused her and took her for granted. Even when she takes these ideals to unreasonable extremes, you never stop feeling like the retribution she brings on her enemies is at least a little warranted. Also, she has amazing romantic chemistry with Batman and her costume is fucking metal. 5/5
The Ridder: It’s Jim Carrey. 5/5
The Joker: This role is perhaps the one that set the standard for future Jokers to follow: Jack Nicholson’s humorous yet unnerving performance signaled to audiences early on that this would not be the goofy trickster of the Silver Age, but a different beast entirely. This Joker is a film noir gangster on crack: a disfigured mob hitman who quickly takes the entire criminal underworld by storm and unleashes his special brand of chaos and destruction across Gotham. He’s an artist, a showman, a charismatic leader, and the man responsible for ruining Bruce Wayne’s life. 5/5
Christopher Nolan Trilogy
Talia al Ghul: You know that recent trend in Disney movies where a side character we thought was harmless and inconsequential turned out to have been the villain all along in a twist with no buildup or foreshadowing with the reveal happening too late in the movie for this character to really do anything cool or impressive before being unceremoniously defeated? That’s Talia. DKR is the weakest of the three Nolan films, and I feel like it would’ve been much better received without this twist villain contrivedly shoehorned in. Also, while I could kinda forgive the trilogy’s whitewashing of other villains like Ra’s al Ghul and Bane due to the talent their actors display, Marion Cotillard doesn’t get a pass because she just doesn’t have the charisma or screen presence needed to pull it off. 1/5
Victor Zsasz: While the idea of redefining Zsasz as an over enthusiastic mob hitman instead of a serial killer is very interesting, it’s ruined by the fact that he barely even appears in the movie and doesn’t really do or say much of anything despite the buildup he gets. 1.5/5
Two-Face: Aaron Eckhart portrays Harvey Dent as a character of tragedy in a slightly different way than other tragic villains in superhero movies: he’s lashing out at a society he feels wronged him, but instead of being a lifelong outcast or put-upon loser, he was a handsome, successful crusader for the common good who lost everything he once held dear all in one fell swoop. You really feel for him even as he does horrible things. If I had to nitpick, though, I am slightly bothered by the fact that he plays some comic book movie cliches straight (i.e. they never call him by his alias and he dies at the end,) but it’s a solid performance overall. 3/5
Scarecrow: I’ll be upfront and admit that I’m more than a little annoyed that certain facets of the character had been changed in the name of “realism” — once again, they never call him by his villain name and he never wears a comic-accurate costume — but other than that, I can’t complain. Cillian Murphy plays the character with a smarmy, eerie charm that really makes his scenes stand out, his willingness to ally himself with other villains suits his character well, and the fact that he appears in three consecutive films with a different evil scheme in each really helps tie the movies together. 3.5/5
Catwoman: Much like other secondary villains in this trilogy, she really doesn’t get a chance to shine compared to the main antagonist — and, once again, it pisses me off a little that they do the whole “never refer to her as Catwoman but vaguely hint at it” thing — but she’s everything a modern Catwoman should be. She’s sly, manipulative, really holds her own in a fight, has great chemistry with Bruce Wayne... it’s all there. It’s also great to see Anne Hathaway break away from her usual type casting to play a role this dynamic. 4/5
Ra’s al Ghul: He’s a character that was in desperate need of mainstream exposure, and by God that’s what he got. Making him Bruce Wayne’s mentor adds a layer of personal tragedy to the climax where our hero has to stop the man who made him who he is from destroying Gotham with his admittedly brilliant plan. Add in a strong, captivating performance from Liam Neeson before we found out he was a racist asshole, and we’ve got one hell of an overarching villain. 4.5/5
The Joker: Everybody’s already discussed this version of the character to hell and back and likely will for years to come, so I’ll keep it very brief. He’s funny, he’s badass, he’s terrifying, he has great dialogue, it sucks that Heath Ledger didn’t live to see his performance reach the audience it got, and he basically makes the entire film. 5/5
Bane: Mr. Rogues actually ranked Bane higher than Joker on his list, and keeping it 100, I actually agree with him here. Finally, after decades of being dumbed down and misrepresented outside of comics, Bane is finally portrayed as the tactical genius from the comics. Tom Hardy plays Bane to perfection, being very believable as the peak of human physical and mental achievement, the man who broke Batman physically and emotionally. His design is iconic, his every line is quotable, his voice is weirdly fitting, and the memes are funny. 5/5
DC Extended Universe
KGBeast: Another point where I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Rogues. He is absolutely wasted in BVS, being nothing but a generic henchman for Lex Luthor. He doesn’t wear his costume from the comics, he’s never referred to by his alias, he doesn’t have his signature cybernetic enhancements, and he never does or says anything noteworthy. 1/5
The Joker: Ugh. I don’t know what’s worst: the tacky clothes, the stupid tattoos, the weird Richard Nixon impression that passes as his voice, the fact that promotional material hyped him up as a “beautiful tragedy” of a character even though he’s only in the movie for like 10 minutes and barely does anything, Jared Leto’s toxic edgelord behavior on set done with the flimsy pretense of “getting into character,” or the fact that he’s just trying to copy Heath Ledger instead of making the role his own. 1/5
Victor Zsasz: Chris Messina proves undoubtedly that Zsasz CAN work as a secondary villain in a Batman movie. He’s once again a mob assassin who enjoys his job a little too much, but unlike Batman Begins, he really gets time to shine. He’s just as sadistic and depraved as in the comics, but he also has this disarming, casual demeanor about him like he’s just indulging a hobby instead of slicing innocent people’s faces off. His close friendship with his boss Black Mask adds some depth to the character as well. 3/5
Killer Croc: Sadly, he doesn’t get much time in the spotlight, but he’s pretty cool nonetheless. The makeup and prosthetics used to create him look amazing, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s deep voice and imposing body language make him really stand out as an intimidating presence. He’s often in the background, which fits his role as an outcast by choice and a man of few words, but whenever he does get focus, he has everyone’s attention. It really would be a shame if this character’s only appearance was in a mediocre schlock action movie, but he makes the most of what he has. 3.5/5
Deadshot: Another highlight of what would otherwise be a forgettable film, Deadshot is just as cool and competent as he’s always been in other media, but this portrayal stands out for one simple reason. Will Smith was a very odd choice to play the role, but it worked out for the best here because you get the sense he truly understands the characters. He’s ruthless and pragmatic, but has just as enough charm and depth to make him likable. 4/5
Black Mask: I, like many, was skeptical when I saw early trailers depicting Roman Sionis as a foppish weirdo who doesn’t wear his signature mask, but upon seeing the final movie, I really feel like he has the high ground over other DCEU villains. Ewan McGregor is endlessly captivating in the role, portraying him as a swaggering dandy who is nevertheless dangerous due to his boundless narcissism and explosive temper. Sure, those who deal in absolutes would be put off from the differences with his comic counterpart — who is far more cold and humorless — but from a certain point of view, this flamboyant take on the character isn’t so much a departure as it is an addition to make him stand out while keeping his role the same. Black Mask has always been a middleman between the traditional mobsters of yesteryear and the colorful rogues that plague Gotham today, and this portrayal perfectly encapsulates that. He works in the shadows, but isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty; he flies off the handle and gets reckless at times, but there’s no question that the whole operation was his idea. 5/5
Harley Quinn: Margot Robbie owns this role. She’s unbelievably dazzling as a badass, funny, sexy antihero who deals greatly with tragedy and proves that there’s always been more to her than her initial role as the Joker’s sidekick. Again, not much to say, but she’s almost perfect. 5/5
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Life And Times of Scrooge McDuck Retrospective: The New Laird of Castle McDuck! “And I’ll Remember It Poppa! There’s Always Another Rainbow!”
Hello all you happy people! And welcome back to my look at the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck! And to make up for lost time im’ doing two instalments this month, and with luck and my schedule holding out I plan to finish the main series in September, doubling up again for the last two months to finish this up.
Background wise there’s honestly not a lot this go round, as it’s less rooted in history and more Don Rosa’s need to settle an annoying flaw with continuity. Man oh man do I relate to that and having read comics for at least half my life, i’ve seen writers do this by the bucketload to fix decisions from other writers. Sometimes for the write reasons and sometimes because EVERYTHING WAS BETTER ON MY EARTH. Don Rosa, like most writers.. has done both.
Here though it’s for the good and for understandable reasons: Barks had Scrooge’s origin as a poor shoeshine boy from Glasgow.. but also had a rather famous and awesome story, the Old Castle’s Secret, that also gave them a giant ancestral castle. Rosa fixed this by having the McDuck’s having lost it due to a combination of being driven off the land by a fake ghost dog and poor turns of fourtune meaning they coudln’t pay the taxes to live there and were behind on taxes on it, hence the Whiskervilles having taken it over in part one.
But obviously the Whiskervilles coudln’t KEEP the castle as Scrooge owned it in present day, thus this chapter explains how he got it. It was a stroke of genius plot wise too as it allowed him to open each act in Scotland and using the castle to measure where Scrooge is in life: As a boy dreaming of getting it back, as a young man who while not a success succeeds at this, and as an older hardned man who realizes he simply doesn’t belong here anymore who has to leave his family’s legacy here behind to start a better one in America.
The only other real story is that a sequence here was based on the film A Matter of Life and Death, and Rosa detailed in his notes his quest to get a copy as the distribution rights here were a nightmare at the time. Thankfully that’s clearly changed as a quick look on Amazon shows both a standard DVD release, mentioned by rosa in the book and a snazzier release by the Criteron Collection are both easily available. He ended up getting a copy from Canada, and while he didn’t get any insight at least got a neat addition to his collection. Admittedly this dosen’t add much to the story, I just thought it was neat. So with all of that settled, join me after the cut as Scrooge tries to buy back his family’s legacy.
And Scrooge has already arrived in Scotland, having reunited with Downy and Matilda, who as a refresher is more responsible and straightlaced here versus the 2017 incarnation. Part of me DOES wish they hadn’t glossed over the reunion especially since this chapter is the last time we’ll see Scrooge and his Mom together before her utterly heartbreaking passing a few chapters down the road. But I get why we opened here instead: it’s a captivating open, with Scrooge speeding to the castle, his mother and sister trying to stave the rain off and time clearly of the essence. It sucks you in as we don’t know WHY Scrooge was summoned last time, only that it was bad enough he needed to come home, and thus ratchet’s up the tension until we find out shortly.
It turns out the back taxes on Castle McDuck are up and the castle is being sold., doing so with some glasses, foreshadowing his iconic specs wearing as the snow and brightness of the praries in various seasons mean his eyes are all done fucked up like mine. The Whiskervilles are naturally not only the prospective buyer but already trying to take the property prematurely, with Fergus and Jake holding the line, because love isn’t always on time. But Hortense is and when the Whiskervilles mock her daddy and uncle, planning to tear down the castle out of spite, her response reminds us why donald is a ball of rage and badassery...
Have I mentioned she’s my favorite part of this story? Because she is. Her response to scrooge being back is also just pure adorable.
Scrooge does get a big reunion with his dad and uncle, getting a big hug from Fergus, if squshing his cream cheese sandwitch... and yes that’s apparently a real thing. I mean I do love me some cream cheese don’t get me wrong, but it just feels weird to put it on bread as the only thing, but I guess i’m a bit spoiled with crackers and bagels in my day and age or putting it on tosat with salmon and.. saying all of this both makes me very hungry for cream cheese. So I guess i’ts not all bad it’s just weird to me, especially since I don’t think it’d keep all that well unregrigrated but I also don’t know the times that well. Or maybe when your that poor and hungry, it dosen’t matter how good it is and maybe i’m just spoiled by my upper middle class existance. I dunno. The point is i’m going to go get me some cream cheese be back in a minute. Here have some music.
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For all two of you that didn’t clear out, Fergus naturally for the time, turns out to be sexist, insisting Jake get “The Women” home.
Though Rosa gets a great joke out of it by having Jake wonder if he can even reign Hortense in. And I do love Hortense’s character. Whlie i’ts simple, she’s simply an angrier version of her son without the penchant for half-assed schemes, it works and makes her stand out against the more subdued rest of the McDuck family outside of Scrooge.
Fergus explains HOW it got so bad to Scrooge: While the McDuck ancestors pooled resources to automatically pay the taxes, eventually only having two poor old men who could barely keep their family fed and a slightly less poor pulp fiction writer somewhere in America meant the taxes piled up and the Whiskervilles are within a whisker’s reach of gettng the castle, something mentioned in part 1.
It also provides a great payoff to the first part of Scrooge’s journey: while the boy bemoans only having gotten the 10,000 dollar check from the mine sale, and that will only just about cover the castle’s taxes, he feels disheratned as it’s ALL he’s accomplished.. but in a nice moment from Fergus he points it WASN’T all for nothing: Thanks to his work they get their home back. His family can move from the cramped confines of Dismal Downs back to their ancestral homeland like they always deserved. While he may of not achieved his goal of being rich yet.. he still achieved his goal of buying the castle back, the very thing that set him on this path in the first place. It’s telling though that it takes a reminder of that, that Scrooge is loosing sight of the very human, for lack of a better term, reasons he set out: while he’s finally built a better life for his family, if just so.. all he can see is that he’s not RICH. The money is starting to cloud his judgement.. and i’tll roll over him entirely before the series is over.
The Head of the Whiskervilles shows up with the Sheirff.. whose also a Whiskerville lest you thought unfair and crooked policing was a strictly american thing. But Fergus points out their too early.. and Scrooge flashes his check. And when the Head Whiskerville scoffs at a mcduck having money... Scrooge points out he didn’t believe in ghosts either and brags about his awesomeness in the first chapter, revealing what he did and leaving The SHierff pissed and the older whiskerville ready with a plan: he decide......
Sadly not with children’s trading cards but with swords, and gets past the legality issue by simply challenging Scrooge’s pride and angering him into accepting. Argus, the head whiskerville whose name I just got from the comic, reveals his plan to the Shierff: While he’s dueling Scrooge Sheirff can snatch the bank statment.. though why Scrooge didn’t you know, cash it before coming and how an american banks tatment is valid in early 1900′s Scotland...
So the Duel is on.. and like the money he’s made, the Duel is another Marker of how far Scrooge has come and how despite still not having made his fortune yet he’s rich with EXPERINCE. His experince fighting cattle rustlers and pirates means he has the reflexes to easily outfight his opponent.. though him saying he learned how to fight “Injun Style from Buffallo Bill”, i.e. learned how to fight like a native american from a white guy and beat Sitting Bull with it just makes me feel like i’m watching that episode of Saved by the Bell where Zach has to learn not to be racist but then thinks this outfit is acceptable.
Scrooge also tracks the guy using the tracking skills he learned from the blackfeet which again feel like the picture above , but send Argus running.. only to lure Scrooge into a fight on the castle battlemnt in the pooring rain and disarming him. Luckily the spirit of Sir Quackly gives the lad his sword back and Scrooge wins the fight.. but promptly gets hit by lighting while celebrating Caddyshack style.
No really Scrooge is.. or close as he got knocked into the water and is now in heaven. Sir Quackly naturally doesn’t want to see the last hope of the Clan McDuck dies and goes to talk to the tribunal of McDucks to sort it out hence the Matter of Life And Death connection.
The Tribunal is made up of former McDucks.. it turns out Scrooge is here because of Quackly: the lighting was SUPPOSED to hit the tower, distracting Argus, and they prepare to write Scrooge off because their more concerned with golf than the fact that their whole clan’s future is on the line.. which I do not get because unless you are Tiger Woods or the Film Caddyshack, golf usually is the boring garbage water of sports and this is from someone who dosen’t like sports to begin with. I do like the Missing Links of Moorshire though so there’s that. And golf episodes of shows are usually good.. the sport itself is just incredibly boring. And I sat through Mank. I know boring. I know wanting hours of my life back. Golf is the Mank of Sports.
What we get is a pretty tiresome sequence honestly: Quackly points out the tribuanls faults while their just dicks who only care about golf. Which again, Mank of sports. Or if you prefer the Cloud Atlas of sports but with SLIGHTLY less untetionall racisim and sadly much less Tom Hanks and Hugh Grant. The point is golf sucks and while I ilke the REST of this chapter this bit just dosen’t work for me and was clearly funnier in Rosa’s head, with the assholes not thinking much of Scrooge’s achievements and only liking him when they find out he’ll be a tight wad, the only funny joke in these draggy as hell three pages, not counting the start and finish of the sequence which arnet bad, as they send him back to earth with Quackly mentioning the dime, but not giving out WHY it’s important. That he has to figure out on his own and all that good stuff.
So Scrooge uses his dime to unscrew the bolts and back at the castle while Argus TRIES to pawn it off as Scrooge being a coward and depart with the bank draft....
Damnnnn that’s badass, he gets the bank note back (only knowing because one of his ancestors mentioned it, though with his memory of the dying dream gone he dosen’t know WHY), and has Fergus run into town to pay the taxes tonight before any other shenanigans happen while he keeps the two scheming dogmen captive long enough for Fergus to get too far for them to catch up. Argus plans to go with plan “Do a murder on Scrooge”.. but fines Scrooge is far from unprotected and not the only badass in his family.. I mean Hortense exists but I mean that ther’es more than two... you know what jut look at the ghost heads.
So the two run for their lives..... also they forgot you know Hortense exists.. she’d revenge murder all of them and they both know it.
So with the land safe and the taxes paid so the Family can implicitly move in, we end on a beautiful sunrise as Scrooge prepares to leave soon. Despite all the setbacks and hardship Scrooge is deterimend to still make it and knows he won’t fail forever. When Fergus mentions Gold at the end of a rainbow, Scrooge takes that, and the golden dawn as a sign. WHen Fergus understandably asks if he’s sure he’ll make it this time.. we get a nice nod to Bark’s best and most notable painting “always another rainbow to close us out”
It’s a beauitful and inspiring statment.. no matter what you face.. there’s always a light at the end of it. Always another opportunity, another goal to reach, another hill to climb.. and life to live... and it’s one i’ve taken to heart and always will.. and one that will land Scrooge his fortune yet.
Final Thoughts:
This chapter is alright but like I said the two page sequence in heaven dosen’t really work for me. It’s just not funny enough and really shoudl’ve been trimmed down a page so we could get more character stuff with Scrooge and his family> Otherwise it’s a tightly paced thrilling chapter in Scrooge’s life, showing just how far he’s come and how far he has left to go. The DIsmal Downs chapter serve as a good marker of where Scrooge is and where he’s heading as I mentioned earlier, with this one showing that while he’s not hit his goal yet, he still got his family their true home back, beat his enmeis and is a legend to be. Ther’es always another rainbow.. and he just needs to find it. All in all a decent chapter outside those two pages, and a good setup for the next three glorious chapters.
Next Month on LIfe and Times: One is Scroogey and the other is FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD, as Scrooge meets his arch enemy and rides a motherfucking lion. And if “rides a motherfucking lion” doesn’t make you come back I do not know why you read this.
Next Time On This BLog: What is that, that Freaky Thing? It’s A naked Mole rat as we return to Kauai this time with Kim Possible and Co as Drakken tries to capture stitch and Jumba wonders if Rufus is one of his or not.
See you at the next rainbow
#the life and times of scrooge mcduck#the new laird of castle mcduck#scrooge mcduck#fergus mcduck#jake mcduck#downy mcduck#hortense duck#hortense mcduck#matilda mcduck#don rosa#comics#fantagraphics
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Essential Avengers: Avengers #211: ... By Force of MIND!
September, 1981
THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH!
Oh hey, Dazzler, Hercules, Black Widow, Moon Knight, Angel from X-Men, Yellowjacket, Black Panther, Tigra, and Hawkeye?
Are you joining Captain America, Wasp, Beast, Thor, and Iron Man as the new Avengers?
Is this going to be the next biggest roster since the Korvac Saga?
Possibly! Jim Shooter is back and he was the guy behind that story.
Jim Shooter is very back, something the creative credits make sure you don’t miss.
“Joyfully welcome back long-time star Avengers scribe, me, Jim Shooter -- ‘cause I’m writing these credits, and, also I’m the boss!”
Charming. Non-facetiously.
It has similar energy to the ol’ Stan Lee introductions. And is probably just as much a pretense. Eh.
So the story “... By Force of MIND!” starts in the Avengers conference room.
And penciler Gene Colan sure has interesting ideas what that should look like.
We’ve seen the Avengers’ conference room a couple times in various books. They tend to have a grand conference table with assigned chairs?
Look at this one from Avengers Annual #10.
Or the one just as recently as last issue #210.
Pretty big overall. Suitably grand.
But the conference room has apparently been redecorated because it looks different. The personalized chairs are still there.
But the table is puny. It looks like the Young Avengers table at Thanksgiving. Set up off to the side for all the kids. Its dinky. It doesn’t look like all the Avengers can fit around it.
Which possibly supports Captain America’s point when he decides that the Avengers roster needs to be trimmed down to only six.
All those people on the cover are going to be really disappointed to hear this.
Captain America: “The Avengers have a habit of playing for high stakes! I believe that a lean, close-knit group is better... stronger!”
Beast goofs that they’ll need explosives to dislodge him from the team.
Also, there’s a trapeze on the roof of the conference room. Why. I mean, I know why. Your acrobatic characters need to be casually acrobatic at random times or they’ll be bummed out. But also why.
Wonder Man isn’t as bothered. Even after all this time on the team, he doesn’t feel like he’s ever really belonged here doing this hero stuff.
Vision and Scarlet Witch are selling themselves as a package deal. You get both or you get neither.
Captain America gives the Avengers some time to rest and think but they’ll reconvene at 1600 for the new roster announcement.
So there’s 9 people in or adjacent to the Avengers. Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Beast, Jocasta, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, and Wasp. Three are gonna have to go.
All of this possibly getting fired, gives a pretty dour attitude (except for Wasp who doesn’t seem very concerned and probably doesn’t have a reason to be. Would you want to tell Wasp that she’s fired? I wouldn’t). Beast decides to lighten things up.
By causing problems on purpose.
So Beast bounces through the crowd of Avengers, jostling them all, and stealing Wonder Man’s glasses. Who hates having his glowing eyes show.
Scarlet Witch: “What on-- !? Beast! You crazy -- !”
Beast: “Moi? Crazee? Begging your pardon, mademoiselle witch. I am merely, how you say... playful! So, like gimme some space to be a jerk in, you know? Okay?”
At least he knows he’s being a jerk??
And then he runs off with Wonder Man’s glasses, goofing all the way.
Wonder Man: “Come on, you lame-brained blue-furred buffoon!”
Beast: “Hmmf! I’ll have you know, sir, that I am a highly intelligent blue-furred buffoon. I hole a dozen PhDs! I speak fifty-three languages... but I tell you, I don’t get no respect! Wanna hear me say ‘eat my dust, jocko,’ in Latverian?”
In the face of all this buffoonery, Wasp still doesn’t really care.
She decides the done thing is to go get her hair done for the big meeting. And sure this is short notice but she’s Janet Van Dyne. She’s going to have a movie starlet’s appointment bumped for her.
Scarlet Witch reflects that maybe the reason Jan isn’t worried about the possibility of being cut is that the Avengers aren’t her whole life. She has other stuff going on. A husband. A fashion line. The fabulous existence of being Janet Van Dyne.
Jocasta comes and tries to ask Vision for advice. Even after her big focus story, she still feels like an outsider. And she doesn’t have a life outside the Avengers. So unlike her brain donor Wasp, she is very worried about getting kicked out.
Jocasta: “You’ve learned to fit in, even though you’re a robot, as I am. Please... help me to...”
Vision: “I beg your pardon, Jocasta. I am a synthezoid, not a robot! As such, I am a perfect meld of computer microcircuitry and living, synthetic flesh! In all ways I am a fully functional man! I have a wife -- who needs me now! I cannot help you with your dilemma.”
And then Vision peaces out of this conversation by flying through the ceiling. Even though he’s going to join Wanda who is in an adjacent room. Ya weird, Vision.
You’re also massively unhelpful whenever anyone asks you for advice.
This is fully the second time Jocasta has asked him for advice. At least he didn’t trash the room in an angst ‘I DON’T HAVE FEELINGS AHHHH I MISS WANDA’ tantrum this time.
Jocasta is left alone. Which basically sums up her time in this book. Poor, poor robot. She’s so lonely she goes off on an existential soliloquy right outside Vision and Wanda’s room. Which is a bit passive aggressive. But hey. Superheroes.
Jocasta: “Are you truly so much different, Vision? So much better than I? I know that my voice rings metallic... but yours is cold hollow and emotionless!”
“I have built-in sensors! I can see! I can hear! I can feel! I function well enough? Don’t I? Don’t I? What does it take to be alive?”
“Does it take warm flesh? Am I merely animated because I am made of metal? I did not choose to be what I am!”
“I am what Ultron made me! Ultron -- the evil robot nemesis of the Avengers! He made you too, Vision -- reconstructed you from a long-dead android body! Both of us rebelled against his evil! Both of us sided with the Avengers!”
“Why, then, am I less than you? Is it because you are loved... and I am alone? Ultron... loved me...”
;__;
Poor robot lady.
I do wonder why the Avengers have been so indifferent to her presence. She did come to them during a chaotic moment in the team history. Vision was based on Wonder Man who wasn’t on the team while Jocasta had to coexist with Wasp from day 1.
There’s also that while both she and Vision are angsty robots that turned against Ultron, Vision (despite his famous “even an android can cry” moment) tends to be more performative with his angsts. He sulks. He broods. He smashes furniture.
Jocasta sits quietly and sadly in the background. Makes tentative stabs at companionship but backs off without ever causing a fuss. Different socialization rules for the robot genders possibly?
The good news is that modern Jocasta has learned to assert herself a lot more. She’s been a delight in the Dan Slott Iron Man book.
Anyway. Hopefully that line about Ultron doesn’t foreshadow anything. Its going to be really dumb if Jocasta brings back Ultron because the Avengers treat her with all the attentiveness of the fridge (although she may still legally qualify as one depending on how much of the Henry Peter Gyrich’s nonsense has stuck around).
Time for a sudden, drastic tone shift!
Beast exits stage Avengers Mansion, pursued by Wonder Man.
He hides up a tree like a rocket belt isn’t something Simon has or the ability to jump hella high.
But Wonder Man takes neither of those options. Instead he karate chops the tree down in one stroke. Which is impressive but I imagine Tony Stark is going to be annoyed. That tree was part of the landscaping!
Not expecting this, Beast falls out of the tree complaining that cutting down trees is illegal in New York. Wonder Man catches him and takes his sunglasses back.
Beast: “You grabbed me! But nobody’s fast enough to do that!”
Wonder Man: “People think I’m just strong! Everybody forgets that I have instantaneous reflexes and blinding speed! To me, the world looks like its moving in slow motion!”
I feel like if Wonder Man was Actually Fast all along, he’s not been getting much use out of it, considering how often he takes dumb hits in fights.
And then Wonder Man hurls Beast into the sky.
Like. Really high into the sky.
Beast: “omigosh! omigosh! omigosh! He’s nuts! He’s crazy! He’s -- who cares about him?! I’m dead! He killed me over a crummy prank! For stealing his glasses I get to end up as a blue blotch on the street. My girlfriends won’t recognize me! I can’t look! Wait a minute! This is serious! This is for real! I’m falling at hundreds of miles per hour! Nothing can save me! I’m really going to die! Like this?! I’m going to die like this?! NO!”
Wonder Man: “Relax, Beast. You’re in good hands with Wonder Man!”
Beast: *Whuff*! You -- you caught me! But that’s like catching a bullet.”
Wonder Man: “Told you I moved quick!”
Beast: “thanks. You’re a decent guy for a common ruffian, Wondy!”
I mean, he also threw you straight up, Beast. Is it so impressive that he caught you?
But with the disproportionate response to a prank by making Beast think he’s going to horribly die, Wonder Man sort of apologizes and says he’s going to miss hanging out with Beast.
See, Wonder Man isn’t going to hang around hoping he gets to stay on the team. He’s actually decided to quit. As has been Wonder Man’s thing for a while, he just doesn’t enjoy the superhero life.
He’s always struggling with insecurity and dislike of throwing himself into deadly danger a dozen times a week.
In fact, he wasn’t too broken up when Henry Peter Gyrich kicked him off the team. Back when he got super into the idea of becoming an actor. He even said at time “If I can get used to playing roles on a stage - maybe I’ll feel more comfortable in my role as superhero!”
Except, as we saw in the Shadow Lord/Berserker two-parter, Wonder Man hasn’t gotten used to playing roles on a stage.
And we’ve seen that his Avengers responsibilities are getting in the way of his acting opportunities. So. Not a surprise he’s going to leave the team as long as the roster is being rearranged anyway.
Wonder Man asks if Beast likes that superhero life of facing death all the time.
Beast: “Frankly, I never really actually considered the possibility of dying... until a minute ago. But think of the fun, glamour and girls, Simon! This is the life!”
Wonder Man: “Is that stuff really enough for a guy as smart as you, Hank? The way I see it being a hero doesn’t make you a person any more than having power makes you a hero.”
Beast: “Yeah. But pigs make good pork chops so I’m staying!”
I’m not really sure what Simon is getting at here. I think its something about finding yourself?
As the time for the meeting draws minutes away, Completely Normal Doctor Donald Blake arrives at the mansion by cab. The cabdriver wondering what a guy like Blake is doing at Avengers Mansion. This Completely Normal Cab Driver is tempted to snoop but goes naw!
If he had snooped, he may have seen Completely Normal Doctor Donald Blake turn into the Mighty Thor and head into the mansion.
Here’s a funny thing, Thor claims that the reason why he talks to himself so much is out of protest that there’s just not enough heralds in Midgard to tell people how cool he is.
Thor: “Thus, the mortal facade is stripped away -- and thus, once again Thor treads the Earth! Thor, god of Thunder, Prince of Asgard! Thor, son of Odin! Bah! That the son of Odin must so proclaim himself -- ! Are there no heralds about? Nay... never when thou needest one! Unannounced, I enter this Earthly ‘mansion,’ poorer than the least dwelling in Asgard!”
Thor also wonders to himself that if he is chosen to take part in the new Avengers roster, will he choose to remain with them? One presumes he has a lot of Thor business going on. That’s why he left the team back when Moondragon was temping with them. She convinced him he was slumming by hanging with the Avengers.
OH. MEANWHILE. That Completely Normal Cab Driver?
He is seized by a strange compulsion. He parks his cab in an alley, takes off his clothes and -- MOON KNIGHT?
Inside, the Avengers are assembling for their meeting to find who is fired or not. Except they’ve decided to give the rinky conference room table a pass and are instead sitting around in a room with even fewer chairs and a table less conducive to holding a meeting.
Lateral move.
I’m wondering whether there was some miscommunication between writer and artist or what.
Cap tells the Avengers to find a place to sit (when there is only one visible chair) when Jarvis interrupts.
Moon Knight has shown up and demands to see the Avengers. And the automatic defenses that should have stopped him seem to have been switched off.
Moon Knight insists that the Avengers summoned him. That he was forced to come to the mansion. Which comes as news to the Avengers.
And then a whole bunch of other superheroes show up claiming that they were also forced to come here.
Hi Hercules, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Angel, Yellowjacket, Dazzler, Tigra, Black Panther, and Iceman!
So that explains the cover.
Wow, a cover that didn’t even lie!
There’s a hustle and bustle of the various superheroes complaining about being here because they had better things to be doing. Black Panther is late for a meeting to speak with the UN Security Council!
And Dazzler complains because its too cold to sit next to Iceman. And Iceman is just like ‘it be like that.’
Oh and Tigra seems to decide to get in some impromptu yoga. Don’t know what the deal with that is. But cats be like that sometimes.
Moon Knight sees all these heroes here and comes to the conclusion that this is some weird Avengers membership drive. But he is very not interested in this!
Yeah, I don’t know that a mysterious vigilante who mostly operates in the shadows would be a good match for a public superhero team.
Cough.
Iceman too is like sorry but I’m not into the hero stuff. I was on the Champions. I did my time!
So he and Moon Knight turn to leave. Iceman saying he’s going to need to find a cab and Moon Knight clearing knowing that he’s going to be picking up that fare.
But when they get near the door, the two freeze.
I realize that Iceman is involved so I mean that they suddenly stopped moving.
And they get super belligerent at each other and start fighting. With Iceman expositing about his skills. Which is normal for a comic. But seems a bit weird in the context of whats going on.
Iceman: “I feel compelled to explain how my X-Men training helped me to get the most out of my mutant ability to freeze the moisture in the air!”
And he freezes the ground under Moon Knight’s feet so he slips like a doofus.
But when he goes to finish the fight, Iceman’s head suddenly starts to hurt. Which he says is like someone else is in his head with him. He can’t think clearly enough.
While Iceman is distracted, Moon Knight throws some of his moonerangs at Iceman who blocks them. But neither can continue as the pain in their heads incapacitates them both.
Yellowjacket: “Wait a minute! I know who must be behind this! That arrogant self-styled g-- *uhh*”
And Yellowjacket freezes in place, as if in a trance.
The Avengers are concerned but Angel suddenly starts flying around the room, saying he can’t resist, he just has to flyyyyyy
Which apparently offends Tigra for some reason. Some mysterious reason. How mysterious.
Angel: “The Angel’s in the air! Watch me do my stuff!”
Tigra: “So, you think you’re pretty special, huh, Wings? Well, you’re just another bird to Tigra, the She-Cat -- and cats eat birds!”
Angel: “Sounds wild -- ! But you’ve got to catch me first!”
Tigra: “I will Bird-Man! I will -- with my nice, sharp claws! And, once I do, I’m plenty strong enough -- to tear your precious little wings right off!”
Eeeeeeeeesh. Well that’s retroactively a sore subject. Angel has his wings badly injured during the Mutant Massacre storyline and they end up amputated, sending him into a depression. And then stuff happens stuff happens, its his college roommate Cameron Hodges’ fault, Apocalypse gives Angel metal murder wings.
But in the here and now before that series of events, we must assume something similar to the sudden antagonism between Moon Knight and Iceman.
Something weird is going on and stating out loud that you’ve figured out what just gets you put in a trance.
Of course, I know what’s going on because I peeked ahead so I’ll just go ahead and tell you its M- *uhh*
Hahah, just kidding! Can you imagine, though? Anyway, its Moondragon.
She’s lurking behind the Avengers watching them watch this nonsense. They don’t notice her because she’s decided she doesn’t want them to. Until she does.
But before that, hey, time to call out Beast.
Beast: “Hey-- ! That’s not a costume! Tigra’s for real! She’s like a cat ... covered with fur -- like me! I should be thrilled, I guess... But instead, I find it vaguely unsettling!”
Look, furries can’t judge furries for being furry. Its the law.
Anyway, Moondragon lets the Avengers notice her and they turn around and go ‘oh ffs its Moondragon’ more or less.
Moondragon: “I sensed your need for order... for organization! So I returned!”
Iron Man: “What?! What right do you have to interfere?”
Moondragon: “Why, divine right, naturally!”
You may not like her but you have to admire her confidence.
She recaps her backstory a bit, including her belief that she’s Actually A Goddess of Mind. Because she was raised by the demigods of Titan and she’s super psychic.
I’m not sure how super psychic. I don’t think she and Jean Grey, for example, have ever locked horns. And Jean Grey is kind of the byword for super psychic.
She’s at least psychic enough that she gave Daredevil his vision back. I think that’s psychic?
I do wonder how Moondragon stacks up on the Grey scale. But not enough that I want that kind of dick waving contest between the Avengers and X-Men. There’s enough of that already.
So after explaining how great she is the Avengers basically react with ‘oh ffs, we did not miss this’ and ask what this has to do with this circus.
Moondragon: “Come now, Iron Man! Who better than I to bring order to the tangled affairs of this company? When last I left this august assemblage, my status was still Avenger-on-call -- meaning that I would aid you in times of dire need! I am needed now! -- And so I am here!”
Iron Man: “Swell.”
I think I’ve actually missed her advanced state of arrogance. Or maybe I’m just charitably inclined to her because she and Phyla-Vell got back together and alive in the current Guardians of the Galaxy run.
Anyway, Hawkeye has not missed her advanced state of arrogance and decides to peace out. He’s got an actual paying job to do and he’s late for work because Moondragon dragged him out here.
Moondragon tells him he can go. FOR HIS FATE LEADS HIM AWAY FROM THE AVENGERS FOR NOW!
Hawkeye: “Baldy, if you’re so hot why couldn’t you figure that out without dragging me across town?”
Good point, Hawkeye.
Honestly? I think she did it to troll you.
Black Widow and Black Panther also take off. Black Panther to his UN thing and Black Widow back to her job with SHIELD.
Moondragon doesn’t stop them. So I’m guessing their fates also lead them away from the Avengers for now. But. Why bring them? They didn’t do anything?
Moondragon, were you just padding out the numbers for a more exciting cover? Dammit, Moondragon!
Hawkeye is Hawkeye and thus extra extra so he shoots a suction cup arrow at a helicopter to hitch a ride instead of taking a taxi. And as he dangles from it, he muses melancholic about what Black Widow and he once had. And ironically, Black Widow is also thinking about him and sure that he doesn’t care for her anymore.
Womp womp.
Inside the mansion, Moondragon decides to continue, to the protests of Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America.
So she yells SILENCE! and paralyzes them, just like with Yellowjacket.
The assorted crowd of everyoen else fusses and wonders what to do but Moondragon takes charge and demands that Dazzler show her stuff.
Or rather:
Moondragon: “You use your gift frivolously... as part of a musical act! Please demonstrate!”
That’s... a way to request that, yes.
Dazzler doesn’t like her tone but decides to demonstrate anyway. Cranking her pocket radio and converting the sound waves into a dazzling light show.
Dazzler: “I.... uh. Also skate! Not much of a power, huh?”
Moondragon: “Hmm! Greater than you suspect... but i sense that your desire to be a minstrel is deep and sincere!”
Minstrel? Really? Psychics have no excuse for not knowing the right word.
I’m getting a real mixed vibe from Moondragon talking to Dazzler. Its like she’s being condescending and complimentary at the same time.
But since she senses that Dazzler just wants to do disco stuff, she tells her that she can go.
Dazzler isn’t sure whether to leave the Avengers to deal with this or as she thinks “Baldy’s rap sounds real cool but this scene is definitely tense!” but Scarlet Witch tells her it will be alright.
So Dazzler goes. “When the Scarlet Witch says go -- I go!”
Dazzler knows the score.
With Dazzler gone, Moondragon is like ‘welp lets get back on with it’ but Scarlet Witch has had it.
Scarlet Witch: “Enough! We demand that you cease this outrage! We can make our own decisions.”
Moondragon: “Can you? Some of you would choose to stay out of force of habit... or loneliness... or fear of failure in the world beyond these walls! You are children! It is far better that I choose!”
And now Iron Man has had enough. And has also had an idea.
While his body may have been paralyzed by Moondragon, a lot of his armor functions are thought activated because, hey, I don’t see a lot of buttons on him, do you?
So all he has to do is think WHOOOSHy thoughts and WHOOOSH he goes, flying through the ceiling of Avengers Mansion. For once, it is Tony Stark who destroys Tony Stark’s home.
And once he’s outside Avengers Mansion, he is apparently far enough outside her range that he can now move. And since “brainwaves are electromagnetic in nature” he turns on his built-in transceiver to emit a microwave psionic jamming signal.
Which is something that he just can do!
The effect of which is that it’ll make Moondragon “feel like she’s got static on every channel!”
Sure!
Kind of reminds me of the First Foundation’s anti-psychic defenses they made against the Second Foundation. Ah, classic sci-fi. Sometimes it teaches us things like how to fight specifically Moondragon.
Moondragon is sure that she can overcome the jamming if she can just regain her concentration but...
With psychic frequencies jammed, the paralyzed Avengers start to spring into action.
So she just puts up a force field. Projected from her spaceship in Earth orbit and activated with a remote control in her glove.
Aside from the other things I’ve given Moondragon, I’ll also give her this: she came prepared.
Moondragon: “Why must you resist me so? Why can you not simply acknowledge that you need my godly guidance? We are wasting valuable time! I have yet another group of candidates to summon... but I cannot dally here much longer!”
I really want to know who her B Squad would have been.
But with the Avengers trying to break down her force field and Iron Man swooping back in to help, Moondragon decides ‘hey fuck this actually’ and teleports away.
Moondragon: “By the braided ring! How naive... how foolish you are! Perhaps I am wasting my time on your petty affairs! All right then -- enough! Have it your way! I am needed elsewhere in the galaxy! Farewell!”
And she doesn’t die on the way back to her home planet.
I do like that she recontextualizes the scenario as being actually this is a waste of her time and she’s just throwing pearls before swine. She’s going to go somewhere that appreciates the work she’s doing out of the goodness of her heart.
She is horrible. And like with Emma Frost, I just kinda appreciate that in a character.
With Moondragon not here to force people to stay, Thor tells all the non-Avengers to fuck off. Not very gracious, Thor. They were forced to come.
Iceman leaves and reminds everyone and me that his life goal is actually to be an accountant. Something I’m surprised by every time I hear it.
He even offers to help the Avengers with their budgets or tax forms. Heck of a guy.
Angel also leaves but muses that he kind of hates to.
Angel: “I... sort of hate to leave! I haven’t really done much with my life since the Champions broke up! -- Besides hang around with the X-Men a little! I never thought about becoming an Avenger --! Maybe I ought to!”
This is the thought process that will probably lead him to form X-Factor and that road leads to Cameron Hodge and Angel becoming Archangel. Dammit, Moondragon!
Although, the X-Man I really want on an Avengers team is Cyclops. He’s so defined by being an X-Man and by being a leader of X-Men, I want to see what he does on a team that already has plenty of leaders. I want to see if he goes through a weird character transformation like Beast and becomes relentlessly chill.
Alas.
Anyway, Tigra speaks up and says “I gather that you guys weren’t really looking for new members, but now that I’m here... uh, any chance?”
Cap is dubious because he doesn’t know a thing about Tigra (except that he gave her clothes to Patsy Walker) but Hercules is like hey we all saw how she tried to beat up Moondragon, that shows she has mettle.
Plus, there are Avengers that Hercules knows nothing about, which is totally the same thing.
Hercules: “You, for instance! You are called Wonder Man, though in sooth, I know not why!”
Wonder Man: “Really? Well, I... I’m as strong as Thor... almost...”
Hercules: “Eh? What?! HAVE AT THEE, THEN!”
And then he punches Wonder Man through a wall.
God, I love Hercules.
And then he tries to wrassle him, just pleased as all get out that Wonder Man is still conscious after Hercules gave him a big punch. “What fun!”
Wonder Man is less pleased.
Wonder Man: “Why are you doing this? Why are you attacking me for no reason?”
Hercules: “Men must brawl to know one another! How better to learn the measure of a man -- ? And what greater gift can a man give another than the thrill, the glory, the joy of battle? I am a friendly fellow who would often give this gift -- but, alas, most mortals are too frail to receive it. You are not, though! You and I may batter freely!”
Hercules just wants to punch people to be friendly but poor guy is just too swole for most men. He needs a real sturdy friend to beat the shit out of.
Wonder Man squirms out of the wrassle and clocks Hercules through a different wall. As the Avengers just watch like ‘yup this is the kind of day this has been.’
Hercules is in good spirit about being clocked through a wall and decides that now he and Wonder Man are friends and that Wonder Man is truly worthy to be an Avenger.
Wonder Man sheepishly mentions that actually he was quitting to pursue a career in acting and WHY HERCULES LIKES THAT JUST AS WELL!
Hercules: “Acting? Why of late, Hercules has kept company with those mortals known as the ‘jet set.’ I know many producers and directors! Come, I’ll introduce you to them! And the women, friend Wonder Man!”
Captain America, bemused: “you meet some strange folks in this business.”
There’s an non-existent Wonder Man and Hercules Take Hollywood Buddy Comedy Book and its a crime that its non-existent.
Geez, Marvel. GEEZ.
Anyway, that’s Wonder Man gone. Out of one buddy comedy into another.
Tigra reminds the Avengers that she’s still here and still wants to be in the Avengers.
Tigra: “Yeah... uh, back to my little problem... I’ve been at loose ends for a while... and I really want to belong somewhere! I know I could cut it as an Avenger! Please?”
This time, the objection is that the Avengers just don’t have room for a new person. They were trying to pare back! Not recruit!
But Beast interjects and reveals he is also leaving.
Beast: “Wondy and I had a talk this morning that started me thinking -- and I hate to admit it, but a couple of things Moondragon said hit home! You know, I used to be a scientist! I used to have a future besides my next gag and tomorrow night’s date! I want to see if there’s anything left of Hank McCoy besides a ‘blue-furred buffoon!’“
Hank’s early character beats on the Avengers were him struggling to find what his place on the team would be. He couldn’t be the strongest with Iron Man or Thor on the team. He couldn’t be the smartest with Iron Man again, Black Panther, or Yellowjacket. Wonder Man joining the team. Wonder Man joining the team gave Beast someone to be there for and with. But mostly Beast’s tenure has been kind of... party time for him. He’s been the fun member of the team. Going out to parties and juggling multiple dates and telling jokes.
Its been a fun time for Beast but he’s not really been living up to his potential And there were times he could have become the scientist on the team again. Or helped as one. Yellowjacket hasn’t been on the team as a core member for a bit. But he stuck in his role as the team clown.
Like with Thor, Moondragon has convinced Beast that he’s been sort of slumming it with the Avengers and now he’s gotta go rethink his character.
Where does this lead him? Why, he’s going to join the Defenders! And going to try to get that non-team team more organized like a team team. Is this a good thing? I don’t know, I haven’t read a lot of Defenders! Hopefully the Defenders podcast I listen to gets to that point soon!
But Beast isn’t the only one Moondragon has swayed.
Vision and Scarlet Witch likewise announce that they’re quitting the Avengers.
Vision: “Perhaps we will not succeed in finding a place among ordinary people -- but we must try!”
So perhaps influenced as well by the conversation Wanda had with Jan where Wasp wasn’t worried about losing her spot on the team. Which Wanda attributed to Jan having a life outside the Avengers. And apparently Wanda and Vision have been afraid to try for that. Until Moondragon dunked on her for it.
Geez. If there’s anything Moondragon is good at, its getting Avengers to quit the team. She got Thor and Hellcat last time. This time she got Beast, Vision, and Scarlet Witch.
So there’s room for Tigra now but also too much room. They were aiming for six and even with Tigra, they’d only have FIVE THERES ONLY FIVE CLEARLY.
Jocasta, in the background: -saddest robot in the world-
Yellowjacket shrugs and decides to rejoin as a full-time member to get the number up to six. His research hasn’t been going great lately anyway so he has time in his schedule.
Feeling overlooked, just like last issue, which was a filler which was supposed to address the Avengers overlooking her, Jocasta decides to slink away. Just leaps out the window and runs away from home.
Jocasta: “They didn’t even notice me... didn’t count me! Was it an oversight? Or had everyone already made up their minds that I would be one of those eliminated? What difference does it make? I am nothing to them! They do not want me here! Maybe I’ll find someplace where I am wanted! Maybe I’ll find someone... who loves me!”
=(
And where does Jocasta go from here?
She wanders the country looking for love, presumably in all the wrong places, and is seized by a per-programmed compulsion to rebuild Ultron. This leads to a big team up between the Thing, Machine Man, and her and Jocasta sacrifices herself to help stop Ultron. The Avengers hold a memorial and Machine Man attends, realizing that he had loved Jocasta.
So plus side: she does find someone to love her. Minus side: she dies and also its Machine Man.
Double plus side: she’s eventually rebuilt. Dies a couple more times. But she’s currently alive.
It’s going to turn out that this was a failure of communication.
(On the team less than a day after basically begging to join and she’s already made herself at home and is hogging the entire couch. How very cat of you, Tigra.)
Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor had decided privately to ask her to stay on as a Special Substitute Avenger, keep living in the mansion, and help out when its needed.
In the hubbub of Moondragon’s recruitment drive I guess they forgot to bring it up. I feel like its something you should have approached her with before the meeting, just to make sure she was okay with it.
Hindsight and all.
The snubbing from Vision definitely didn’t help.
Iron Man: “I hope she comes back! -- And I sure hope Moondragon doesn’t!”
Hah.
I do wonder what the initial plan going into the meeting would have been, before Moondragon took it over. What roster had Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America decided on before Moondragon talked three Avengers into quitting and introduced Tigra to the team?
I guess we’ll never knoooow.
Captain America muses that although it seems like they drove Moondragon away, she may have gotten what she actually wanted. “What if she used her mental powers subtly to influence the decisions that were made?”
And its possible because of how her speech influenced the three people who quit.
The thought just about makes Iron Man furious.
He doesn’t have time to dwell on it because the news shows up to get coverage of the last panel new roster AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! moment.
I do love a good last panel new roster Avengers Assemble moment.
And that was Jim Shooter’s first issue back. And a pretty great first issue too.
Not that the previous issues have been bad necessarily but he definitely brought a sense of fun to this issue. Even though there’s some forced fighting for those ACTION SCENES most of it is just character interactions. Even some of the pointless fights.
And like writers like to do when they take over a book, Jim Shooter draws a line in the history with a shake-up to the team roster. Reintroduces Moondragon into the book because he has unfinished business with her.
I’ve actually been reading the original Star Brand book by Shooter and the writing is night and day. Its all text text text words words words but its much punchier here. Though there are some strange spelling and punctuation choices.
Still, I’m excited to have a consistent writer back on and I’m even excited about it being Jim Shooter. I hated his first run on the book on first read and then appreciated it more the second time through. And I’ve heard interesting stuff about this upcoming run.
Psst, follow @essential-avengers. You are being mentally influenced by Moondragon to do so. Wait, this is a counterproductive self-promote. Er, like and reblog because you choose to?
#avengers#essential avengers#Moondragon#Tigra#Beast#Wonder Man#Scarlet Witch#Vision#Iron Man#Thor#Captain America#Wasp#Yellowjacket#essential marvel liveblogging#and guest starring#saddest robot runaway#Jocasta#Hercules#here to pick fights and be jovial and he's never out of jovial#Black Panther#Black Widow#Hawkeye#all late for work#Moon Knight#grudging cameo#Dazzler#just wants to dance#Iceman#just wants to accountant#Angel
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Relistening to MAG013: Alone
A few thoughts:
Season 1 is amazing and infuriating to relisten to at the same time. Looking back, so many things are just straight up said in a basic fashion, but without the information or context behind them they go WAY over your head. So listening again, you’re just YELLING and recognizing not only characters, but phrases, information that is super important even now, and in general, the Powers being super obvious in what they’re doing.
This episode is the pinnacle of that.
So, there are quite a few things going on, the Lonely and with that, the Lukases. But, since we still don’t know too much about them and in general, what Peter is you know actually doing atm, I’m gonna put a pin on that and talk about other things. Mainly: Anchors and monster Jon stuff.
(Gonna add here: Laughing at the fact that Naomi said Evan wasn’t close to his family bc they were “religious”. Evan took one look at his fog creating, sea family and went “You know I actually like people so uh bye~”).
Anyway, anchors.
“I tried to back away, but the ground was slick with dew and I fell. My fingers dug into the soft cemetery dirt as I looked around desperately for anything I could use to save myself, and my hand closed upon that heavy piece of headstone. It took all my self-control to keep a grip on that anchor, as I slowly dragged myself away from the edge of my lonely grave.” -MAG:013
Gonna focus on the particular choice of wording. Literally, what is described as an anchor is what help pulls her out of a grave. Falling into the lonely grave with no way to get out is the full fear (something that is confirmed later on in MAG:120).
“At last he’s in the moonlit graveyard, the oldest of the dreams. It is peaceful, cool and damp as the rolling foggy fields stretch out in all directions. He hears her calling pathetically from the bottom of the graves, but by now he knows there is nothing he can do but stare. She begs to be released, to dream of this place no more, but there is nothing he can do.” -MAG:120
Okay, so that’s just one thing. Could just be creative wording used to foreshadow actual anchors later on. Sure. Except….later on, there’s the emotional anchor.
“And then, as I found myself in the middle of that open, desolate field, I heard something. It was the strangest thing, but as I tried to run I could have sworn I heard Evan’s voice call to me. He said, “Turn left”. That’s it. That’s all he said. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that’s what he told me to do. And I did it. I turned sharply to the left and kept running. And then… nothing.” -MAG:013
Evan, despite being…well, dead, was Naomi’s emotional anchor. Which, makes sense! He grounded her when she was alive and made sure she didn’t feel lonely. In her hour of need, he was there to be that anchor and lead her back home.
All the way back in episode 13, not only do we have a mention as an object as an anchor, but a person as well! They’re a bit different, but it does show that as early as this, one way to escape the Powers and their presence are through anchors. Whether the form is an object or a person depends on the situation.
…But that’s not the only reason why I brought up the MAG:120 quote.
Gonna go a bit subjective here, but… this was the first episode that really started warming me up to Jon as a person. Season 1 Jon is an absolute bastard man and relistening makes him even funnier because he’s basically a toddler stumbling around and making a mess of things about things he doesn’t understand and calling himself smart for it. And he’s still a bastard this episode don’t get me wrong. He’s annoyed and snooty and sounds like he’d rather be anywhere else.
But at the beginning of the episode he’s with Naomi. He tries to give her privacy for her recording. Then she asks for him to stay, so she doesn’t feel alone. And he does.
At the time, that endeared me a bit. It’s small and it didn’t make him into a good person, but it showed there was much more to him than being an arrogant bastard man. It showed that he cared for these people who gave statements and cared for their comfort, even if he begrudgingly showed it.
Knowing what we do now, Naomi was his first victim. By giving her statement to him, she’s now cursed by the Archivist and the Beholding to relive her trauma for the rest of her life.
All because he chose to stay.
And he was going to leave!!! Is the worst thing!!! He was going to leave and if he left, Naomi would have been fine!!! She would have said her statement and she would have been on her way!!! But he stayed!!! Because she asked and she wanted someone there!!! He was being kind and in turn he accidentally doomed her!!!
Jon’s first moment of compassion in the series turns out to also be his first monstrous one.
It fucks me up a bit.
One last thing. In MAG:017, Elias mentions that Naomi lodged a complaint against Jon. There aren’t any specifics at all. The only details Elias says is this:
“Regardless, I would prefer that you not antagonise anyone connected to the Lukas family. They are patrons of the Institute, after all.” -MAG:017
This makes me think that the complaint wasn’t about Jon’s bastard behavior towards her. Rather, I think it may have been the nightmares. The Lukas did not care for Naomi at all. In fact, they drove her out because they pretty much blamed her for their son’s death.
“My son is in there. He is dead.”-MAG:013
The way this line is worded...it sounds like that the latter could have been avoided. While we still don’t know exactly the limitations of the monster powers, Peter has talked about living until seeing the next Lonely ritual and there’s the vague idea that The End can’t take Jon. It’s not too much of a stretch to think that the Lukases blame Naomi for Evan’s death because without her, he could have possibly been on the path of the Lonely and been unable to die.
With all this being said, why would the Lukases CARE if Noami makes a complaint against Jon? They made is clear she wasn’t welcomed that she wasn’t a part of the family.
..But she was their victim.
I’m thinking that Elias warned off Jon because by taking her statement he accidentally stole the Lonely’s victim and gave her to the Beholding instead. We STILL don’t know what exactly is going on between Peter and Elias, but there has to be some sort of alliance or something, and Mr. Archivist here accidentally doing monster things and messing with Elias’ allies might not help with that.
I don’t have much more to say on this episode, and I think I’ll make a few more of these as I go through the rewatch. This episode in particular though...it’s a bit haunting (no pun intended). When I first listened, I was so intrigued by this new person and hearing her words and her experiences. It was different and it showed that there was something more dynamic going on with the storytelling because instead of just Jon the narrator, we had actual people in this world living these statements. It’s weird, with how technically important this episode is, with all the rest, it’s so easy to forget about Naomi and her tale within the now literally over hundred statements made throughout the series.
It’s been said before how well TMA does mundane horror. It’s usually described with objects, or an odd neighbor, or a job you don’t think about. There’s something else to be said about this though. For the statements, there’s an expectation. If something horrible happens...well, we know. That’s the point. Later on, we can expect horrible things to happen both in meta-narrative and the statements because we’re actively engaging in both.
But...this is so early in the series. We haven’t even met any of the other main cast yet. Hell, Jon really isn’t even a full character, mostly just a personality we’ve come to be familiar with. And yet, one of the the worst decisions, probably one of the most important moments in TMA for our main character, the moment that starts his life down the road of destruction feels like almost nothing. Just… a character building moment at best.
And if I hadn’t gone back and relistened to the series, I wouldn’t have even thought about it.
“And I wish that I could convince myself that ignorance was the same thing as safety. But then, how many weeds have you unthinkingly stepped on in your lifetime?” -MAG:106
Weeds indeed..
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Hello half valid anon here (i like my nickname 😂). I got through all your fics and they were all great. Right now im just reading a lot of poi fanfics and watch fanvids cause i can't accept that the series is over 😂 --- i know what you mean about fics affecting you negatively. I had this with 13rw (the Show and some fics) everything was so dark and hopeless that i had to stop watching it. I also love to seek out fics where someone is hurt so i can feel my pain through the characters (1)
But i try to read only fics with lots of comfort so it kinda feels like i get comforted as well (dont know if that makes sense). If it makes you uncomfortable or if its unhealthy for you to write about this i completely understand and i dont mean to come of as pushing you to write. I just hope whatever you do will be the right decision for you! As for you feeling suicidal im sorry to hear that. Let me know if there is ever anything i can do to help! I wish i could say sth more comforting but Im not super good with words :( i just hope you have people in your life that support you! 💛
maybe root will grow on you too? Or maybe you can skip her scenes and enjoy John, Harold and most importanly Bear! 😂 Yeah Shaw definately looks really good. She is a bit like Reese minus the caring. At first it seems she doesnt care about anything at all but thats not exactly the Case. There was an episode with Shaw and a little girl (3x5) and i really loved it (have you seen that one?).
I really think Shaw would grow on you (especially since in the beginning she does a lot with John) but then again a lot of her later scenes include Root so im not sure. Yes i love that there were never any romantic undertones with her and John!!
yeah the core four were great. I was so sad when Carter died! :(
i guess everyone sees chemistry different, i think Shoot and Rinch post have great chemistry ☺️
as for John being good with people: YES!! he is always so compassionate and such a great listener as well. I especially like him with children. John and the baby were so cute or John with the boy who offered to pay for him. John + Kids was always a great combination and i wished we would have seen it more often. Also regarding children we did we never got to see a John Taylor scene after Carters death? I needed that!
yes John the badass is also amazing! His character has so many different sides and i love him so much!!
i think Grace Harold was really cute but i dont really see a future for them, i mean he lied to her for so long! but then again they really loved each other so idk maybe they work it out. Im also not into John/Harold/Grace but like you said good for the people who like the ship :)
John and Zoe were great! i wish Zoe would have appeared more often!
I have so many things to say about John and the boring therapist but i think i better not say them :D i wish i could just erase their relationship from my mind!
of course he didnt die! i didnt see a dead body so i refuse to believe he is dead! i also just wanted them to be happy. what kind of an ending is it to let the main character die? i refuse to accept this! -- thank you for the rec i will check it out :) while i do like fluff i mostly read h/c (with the focus on the comfort) cause i just want John to get his much needed comfort :D -- i have no idea where season 1 is supposed to be boring. but idc the people can live with their wrong opinions :D
(today: tumblr user nourann3 discovers the option to indent text after almost 5 years on tumblr...)
Hiii !! It is a very valid nickname 😂 That's nice !! Hmu if you want more recs ! Lol same honestly, I can't believe it's been 4 years since the show ended ! I can give you a link to my poi/Rinch fanvids playlist if you're interested 👀
Oh boi 13rw is so cursed, can't believe I watched all of the 1st season 😬 I remember being afraid of the suicide scene making me uncomfortable but it was so cringe, unrealistic and just bad that I wasn't even that uncomfortable, I cringed when she cut her arms but that's it.
Yeah big mood I project a lot on comfort fics as well. For suicide fics, I think it also depends on how the fics adress the subject. It's something that is complicated to write. If I read a suicide fic with no recovery I'm gonna project but feel like shit. But with recovery, I can project into the recovery as well so it's better ! I read a really good ace attorney fic showing Miles recovering after a suicide attempt, it was thoughtful and didn't fall into the pitfalls of magical super fast recovery/love heals everything, and some lines stuck with me, it was really good and comforting. But yeah if it's just a suicide/suicide attempt then I don't think it's good for me (but sometimes I still read it bc I'm a Dumb Bitch).
Dw you didn't come off as pushing 💜 I'll see how I feel about continuing it or not. I have to figure out if writing about suicide is positive or negative for me 🤔 I mean I'm not portraying John's suicidal crisis as a positive thing, and he reaches out to Harold, and considers he might get better so I don't think it's bad for me ? Another problem is that I have a tendency to drop my wips to write a new shiny idea I get, and then I never finish anything gkgkffjfjf I dropped the suicide fic for the body horror fic which I dropped for the time loop fic, and there's also the hanahaki fic I started last year but I haven't touched in months, plus a bunch of random shit floating around OneDrive lmao someone stop me
What helps the most is venting, just getting that shit out is helping y'know. I appreciate your support ♥️ at least it's not as bad as it used to be
I doubt Root will grow on me, catch me watching her scenes at 1.5 speed lmao, also yes you bet I'll enjoy watching them !!
Yes I remember that ep ! Iirc the little girl tells Shaw she has feelings but the volume is lower than in other people or smth along those lines ?
I hope she'll grow on me bc she seems cool. I remember I was a bit afraid of her just becoming a sort of hollow copy of John, like "look we added another badass to the show". Seems to be more than that though ! Also I'm curious about their mayhem twins dynamic. But yeah if she has a lot of scenes with Root idk how much it'll annoy me
I feel like I wouldn't be able to get the Shoot chemistry bc I'm too biased against Root lol
Ikr the crossing hurt me so much. But thinking about it takes me back to my careese days and my first fics lol. I feel like the death of one of the core four + the abandonment of the library really alienated me from the show (did I already say that before ?). And here I'm gonna shamelessly derail from Carter to the library bc boiii do I have a lot of feelings about the library !! And you're here, talking about poi, so you're the perfect subject to throw these feelings at. This post really says what I feel about it (I'll put the link at the end as well if you wanna read it after you're done with this l o n g reply). It was in a way its own character and its forced abandonment/destruction really hit me (fucked me up when they broke that glass board). It says something that it's one of the few things I remember from S3 along with Carter's death and 4C. I loved it a lot, it was a cornerstone of the show. It was a safe place, a home for Harold and John (and Bear !). I love when they're together in there, I love this cracked glass board, this yellow stained glass in the windows !!! (at least I assume it's stained glass ?), these lights, Bear's cushion, the whole cozy/safe/isolated feelings, just absolutely everything. And yeah later they have the subway, idk when it's introduced I don't remember if it's early enough for me to have watched it. And maybe it's nice, I can't judge rn. But it's like trying to give me a new MC after a MCD, make him as nice as you want I'll be clutching the previous MC until I die. Gkfkfkff I went overboard and off topic but I just love the library ok
Ikr I love how he's badass but also gentle and understanding and nice to people ! I love him !!! Yeah wolf and cub is really good, also I love when John smiles to Darren at the end !! I use this moment as my pfp bc I love it so much. He's just so cute ! I wish he smiled more (did we ever hear him laugh in the entirety of the show ?). Baby blue is so great, Harold and him are such a married couple in this ep ! Yeah same more content with John and children would have been nice.
I never thought about how much we needed a John Taylor scene but yes !! We were robbed :((((
Speaking of John being a cool badass. Here's a badass John vid rec it's super good
youtube
Yeah they were cute in the past. I think it's good he went back to her bc it gives closure to both of them. But I don't see their relationship working again. She grieved, probably started to move on after all these years and knowing he lied all this time probably won't make her want to go back with him. I've never been in love so what do I know lol, but were I her I probably wouldn't want to go back with him and I'd just be happy knowing he's alive after all.
Same I need more Zoe (also she's hot)
Lmao let's just forget about that weird relationship shall we
Aren't we all the same, firmly believing he's alive and happy out there ! It was foreshadowed since the first ep and it made sense but do I care ? No, fuck that shit John is very much alive
You're welcome ! John needs all the comfort and the love !!! I think I have a preference for fluff bc he gets hurt enough in the show lol
Indeed they can, veryyy far away from us
Sry if this is shit I have like half a functioning braincell today
The post abt home bases I mentioned
#half valid anon#look you have your own tag#person of interest#tw suicide#i thought I was done but then i got feelings abt the library
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UPCOMING ML SEASON 3 EPISODES SYNOPSISES AND THEORIES PART 1
k I had to do this eventually.
So welcome! We are now officially more than halfway through season 3 so I think that now it’s time to list all upcoming episodes, and what I personally think will go down in each based on synopsis.
I’ll be covering wether or not I think a episode will be filler, which episodes will have Kwami swap, viperon, pegasus, ect., and the general theories I have for what will happen in each episode. EPISODES WILL BE LISTED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
I WILL NOT BE INCLUDING FELIX, CHAT BLANC, AND BOTH FINALE PARTS SINCE THERE’S A PHOTO LIMIT AND THOSE ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT FILLER LOL.
This’ll be updated several times, and I’ll also include theories made by other people as well :))).
SPOILER WARNING: THIS LIST WILL COVER THINGS LEAKED BY ZAG SUCH AS THE SYNOPSIS FOR UPCOMING EPISODES, AS WELL AS CHARACTER DESIGNS AND STUFF. YA’LL HAVE BEEN WARNED.
And without further ado, let’s go!
————————SPOILER LINE————————
So let’s recap the episodes aired so far to make sure we’re all on the same page.
Episodes aired are Chameleon, Animaestro, Bakerix, Backwarder, Weredad, Silencer, Onichan, Oblivio, Christmaster, Gamer 2.0, Stormy Weather 2, Timetagger, Party Crasher. So obviously none of these will be mentioned.
Now let us commence!
1. REFLEKTA
So this episode seems very much like a “sequel” episode, as it’s a akuma repeat. However, it’s not listed as such, which may have to do with the fact that she’s “not alone” this time (a double akumatization??? With Rose, maybe???)
A big theory behind this episode that I can 100% get behind is that luka gets his miraculous in this episode. As seen before, most people get their miraculous when someone they love is akumatized, and since Juleka is Luka’s sister it makes sense. Plus, ladybug is gonna need help if Reflekta is indeed “not alone.”
Another theory going around is this is the Kwami swap episode, reason being some Kwami swap merch has the label “reflekta” on it. However, personally I think that episode will be “Feast”. (You’ll see that theory later).
Lastly, this is basically confirmed, this is the episode with Ladybug’s formal introduction to Mayura. This episode is the only one chronologically before Miraculer that hasn’t aired.
So there’s three big theories revolving around this episode. Yay!
2. DESPERADA
I mean, personally I think this episode is filler. I have nothing to say about it except that we got the design leaked because of out of order airing. This villain design was shown in Gamer 2.0:
Again, nothing much to say except she looks pretty wicked!
3. STARTRAIN
This episode kind of peaked my interest on the whole “help” part, and it also did because there was a post (can’t remember who, sorry) pointing out a startrain foreshadowing in a previous episode.
But now that Party Crasher is out, we now know that this “help” may have something to do with IT’S BASICALLY CONFIRMED MAX GET’S THE HORSE MIRACULOUS IN THIS EPISODE!!!!
As seen in Party Crasher, Chat already knows who Max is when he show’s up, meaning he got his miraculous in a previous episode. And since his mom get’s akumatized here, it can only be assumed... this is it chief.
I’m also desperate for this episode to come out because I’ve had a total of TWO dreams that Marrinette gets the mouse miraculous in this episode. I... have no idea why, but I just have that intuition telling me so.
4. KWAMI BUSTER
This episode has a extremely innocent synopsis but it SUSPICIOUS AS HELL since it’s called KWAMI BUSTER??? My guess is now Gabriel is trying to hunt down the miraculous box but why would the TEACHER BE CALLED KWAMI BUSTER??? DOES SHE KNOW??
My guess is she get’s akumatized for a completely different reason but Gabriel is just like “lol help me out. Track down some Kwamis” and she’s just like “lol mkay”
5. FEAST
WOAH AM I EXCITED FOR THIS.
So personally, I think the Kwami Swap happens in THIS episode. I don’t know, it just seems like a perfect episode that would set up a Kwami swap! Like maybe when Master Fu hurriedly gives back the miraculouses in a akuma attack, there’s a mix up in the Miraculous boxes???
I’m also excited to see how Adrien and Marrinette manage without Tikki and Plagg for, what, a day?? A week?? It’ll be really interesting to watch.
Also if I remember correctly, one of the leaks was Luka wearing a snake noir suit. Maybe it’s this episode??? If Master fu can’t give back the cat miraculous to Adrien in time?? Idk, but I’m hype.
(Side note: I find it really weird this is the only episode whose synopsis doesn’t outright mention a akuma villian. The name doesn’t sound like a akuma either?? This is hella suspicious and confusing lol)
6. IKARI GOZEN
Ooooo ok.
So, personally, I’m 99.9% sure Kagami gets the dragon miraculous in this episode. I mean, her mom is out here getting akumatized!! Also, I wonder what it was Kagami did wrong? It’s not really made clear... did Kagami disobey her for Adrien? For her own purposes??
Anyway, this episode is post Stormy Weather 2, a episode which pushed for development, and the other post stormy weather 2 episodes aired so far were amazing!! So you kno I’m hyped.
7. THE PUPPETEER 2
Okokok, this synopsis doesn’t scream much, but chronological wise it’s Post Stormy Weather 2, directly after party crasher, and IMMEDIATELY BEFORE CHAT BLANC, FELIX, LADYBUG, AND THE FINALE!!!
So for me, this episode can have a huge inciting incident that kicks of those wicked last few episodes of the season. The only theory I have for this is this episode is what gets the ball rolling.
It’s supposed to come out this saturday, which is... crazy, actually. There might be some hugeee spoilers in this one! So watch with care!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And... that’s it! If you’re wondering about leaks like Dragonbug, snake noir, ect., I believe those are in the Finale, and will be talked about on my separate post about the last 5 episodes of the season (I’ll edit this post to have the link to that post when I make it)
I’m sorry if this was confusing or a bore to read, but either way I hope you enjoy! If you have additions, disagreements, or questions, please reply to this post or, preferably, drop me a ask!
Hope y’all liked this... this season seems like the best one so far ;))
#WOW that took a long time to make!!!!!!#watch it get like 5 notes ;_)#miraculous ladybug#mlb#miraculous#ladybug#ml#adrien agreste#chat noir#tales of ladybug and cat noir#ml spoilers#ml theory#ml episodes#ml season 3#miraculous season 3#marrinette dupain cheng#reflekta#feast#kwami buster#juleka couffaine#luka couffaine#viperon#kagami tsugari#ml kagami#kagami
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Glee - S1 E1 (Pilot)
Is it a smart idea to rewatch glee again? No.
Am I going to do it anyway? You bet your sweet bippy I am!
Am I going to liveblog my garbage monkey brain thoughts along the way even though nobody asked for it? Hell yeah.
Here goes!
Wow. The first frame of this entire show is literally of a woman who looks like she’s about 10 years above the natural lifespan of a Cheerio. Then again, I’m sure Sue’s not above holding back her best recruits for multiple years because Ohio high schools are apparently just Like That™
I also never notice this opening song was a remix of Keep Me Hangin On, wow. That’s actually kind of interesting foreshadowing of sorts, like, kind of smart. I’m glad I’m watching the part of Glee that was kind of smart.
This scene also doesn’t feature any of the Unholy Trinity as far as I can see. Are they a JV squad? Am I putting too much thought into this?
Sign #1 That Mr Schuester Is An Asshole: Really, my guy? Driving around with your muffler dragging on the ground so bad it’s making sparks? That’s not very Road Safety of you. Fuck off.
Sign #2 That Mr Schuester Is An Asshole: Wow, there’s going to be a lot of these, huh? Anyway, anybody with working eyes would clearly see how scared Kurt is right now. “Making some new friends Kurt?” Fuck off.
KURT. FIRST SIGHTING OF THE BOY. What a delight. But also, not a delight, because he’s being bullied and he deserves better. Look at his outfit. Iconic from day fucking one.
Finn, you’re a himbo. What’re you doing with these assholes?
Puck’s first line in the whole series is “It’s hammer time!” What a fucking dork? Who made this boy popular.
DO MORE THAN TAKE HIS COAT, FINN. LET HIM GOOOOO!!!
I paused while they were tossing Kurt in the dumpster and, wow, got the most hilarious frame where the guy who isn’t Puck is getting a meticulously polished boot to the face. Netflix let me take screenshots, you coward.
The first shot of Quinn... My wlw bones are shaking.
Why would they use that photo for Lillian Adler...? WHO WAS BORN IN 1937, MIGHT I ADD. THAT’S NOT A REAL YEAR.
It’s weird to see Mr Schue actually speaking competent Spanish. Why did they veto that later? The ONE likeable thing about him was his competence as a school teacher, and they really threw it out the window huh?
WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THE MEMBERS OF SANDY RYERSON’S GLEE CLUB??? This kid seems to really like singing. Also, welcome to the beginning of Ryerson being annoying as all hell.
Oh my gosh, the background choir stuff. This show really had style back in the day!!!
R A C H E L B E R R Y Y O U R M A K E U P ! ! !
Ken Tanaka walked so incels could run.
Jane Lynch you beauty. You absolutely impeccable beauty.
“Since when are cheerleaders performers?” Uh... Emma...? I get that Sue’s going ham on her budget but, like, be nice to the students? They perform their butts off!
Sue really just BRAGGED about having an iPhone. I was 9 when this came out. Why do I feel old...
Sign #3 That Mr Schuester Is An Asshole: He hears his coworker, presumably of several years, just got fired and doesn’t even ask why. He just jumps on the glee club like a frog on hot asphalt.
He really wants to Make The Glee Club Great Again, huh?
MySpace was really a thing, huh? And why does this grown-ass male teacher know so much about the students having them?
I know nothing about actual American schools, but I do know that they sure as shit don’t work like this. Why does a club have to win EVERY competition to be considered an asset?
Mr Shoe really lying awake at night half-naked next to his wife thinking about the glee club already? Yeah sounds about right. Also, of course you’d think up Nude Erections for a name, you asshole. Put some clothes on.
R E S P E C T MERCEDES YES!!!
Brad the piano player was really here from day ONE... Icon.
Cellophane, Mr Cellophane... Yes Kurt bby you killed it.
Chris Colfer looks so YOUNG here!!!
The hair fix... I C O N I C !
Tina really wrote her stutter down, huh? And nobody ever saw through it? Amazing.
The goth Tina look, too... Perfect... Never change...
Say what you want about Rachel Berry being generally insufferable, but I really fucking feel it when she sings On My Own. The monologue kind of kills The Drama of it, but they really solidly established her character by layering them. She really is a gold star right now.
The first-ever on-screen slushie!
The way she walks down that hall. My God you can just see how terrible she is to be around.
Never forget Rachel staring at photos of her with two men who turned out to not be her dads. Who are they? What are their stories? We’ll never know.
God, I love this stupid scene of Quinn, Santana, and a bunch of Cheerios cartoonishly typing hate comments on Rachel’s MySpace video and laughing like knock-off Disney villains.
I like watching season 1 Artie because season 1 Artie was a good character. Mostly. And he KILLED Sit Down, You’re Rocking The Boat. Rachel wasn’t asking for a male lead who could keep up with her vocally, she was being straight up ableist and that’s a fact. I love Cory, but Kevin McHale was always a better singer.
Mercedes picking up and spinning Rachel for this little routine is something I never really appreciated before, it’s cute even though they don’t like each other yet!
I really don’t get why Rachel says they suck. Yeah, sure, she’s gunning for a solo, but the vocals were solid there. The choreo was just a little janky, possibly because it’s their first EVER rehearsal?
“There is NOTHING ironic about show choir!” Incredible.
How long did it take Mr Shoe to find Rachel out on the bleachers? Did he search the whole school first?
ARTIE! CAN! KEEP! UP! WITH! YOU! VOCALLY!
I never understood Rachel quitting so soon. How long was she in the old glee club for? Surely they were never popular either?
Ah, the first “My hands are tied” for the series. Mr Figgins is a garbage principal.
Not going to advise the principal against referring to Artie as a cripple, William Shoestir? Alright.
How did the Schuester marriage last as long as it has? Do Will and Terri’s insufferable personalities just cancel one another out?
Sandy Ryerson really just openly brags about cheating the system for medical marijuana and dealing it?
Matt Morrison 100% has lip fillers. Nobody’s smile curls like that naturally.
“Terri and I are trying to get pregnant” What a weird way to phrase it. What is it, a race? Who’s going to get knocked up first!
A FIFTH OF BEETHOVEN, HOW I’VE MISSED YOU... The sound design of this show at this point is just... *Chef hand kiss*
“What you’re doing right now is called blurring the lines” Oh just wait until season 4, Sue... Just you wait.
WHY is Mr Schuester so ridiculously sweaty? I didn’t need to think about that?
EVERYONE on the football team is 30.
William Schuester you can’t just watCH TEENAGE STUDENTS SING IN THE SHOWER YOU ARE A TEACHER WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR LICENSE?!
Hearing Cory sing this always makes me emotional. What a talent!
Sign #4 That Mr Schuester Is An Asshole: I don’t think I need to say why using the weed to blackmail Finn is a shitty thing to do, do I?
“I’ll pee in a cup! ...I’ll pee...” I love Cory’s delivery.
PRIORITY #1: HELP THE KIDS Oh season 1... I love you so.
Mr Schue you WISH you were anything like Finn Hudson. You never will be.
Ah... Finn’s first monologue. He’s such a sweetheart. AND SO IS CAROLE. Carole is a queen I will stan forever. YOU THROW THAT MILK BB!!!
All Finn wants to do is make his mom proud. What a sweetheart. Mr Schue you do NOT deserve him.
These POV shots really enhance things, why the fuck did they stop using them?
Subtly having Kurt look at Finn in the same shot as Rachel was a nice touch indeed!
RACHEL WAS REALLY DOWN WITH ROLLING ARTIE RIGHT OFF THE STAGE HUH?
Terri’s a straight up hoarder, huh? Like a raccoon but instead of collecting edible garbage, it’s monogrammed garbage.
Surely you can’t just... BECOME an accountant, right? You need some serious qualifications for that right?
Also say what you want about how insufferable Terri is but her actress is ridiculously talented and absolutely steals every scene she’s in.
Now the background choir is doing Soul Bossa Nova and I am L I V I N G why didn’t they keep that motif!!! It was so ICONIC!
I don’t need my prostate removed. RIP Carole Hudson but I’m different :/
NO MEANS NO, KEN! TAKE THE L AND MOVE ON! Way to take out the fact that a girl won’t date you on everybody else around you! Toxic bastard. The absolute stench of melodrama on this bastard is noxious.
I was going to ask why Rachel didn’t know about Finn and Quinn if they’d already been together for 4 months, but then I remembered gossiping requires friends...
“Terri rides me. Hard. And I’ve always appreciated it!” Why don’t we talk about how this line sounds more. Why doesn’t Emma bat an eye at it oh my god
HERE COMES VOCAL ADRENALINE!!! And Jesse St. James is nowhere to be seen. How convenient. Also, they’re all 30. I’m sensing a pattern.
Sorry VA, all songs popularised my Amy Winehouse legally belong to Santana Lopez
Puck, if you were stupid enough to fall for the prostate excuse, that’s on you. Or maybe it’s on the education system...
You can do better that Mr Schue, kids. Don’t mourn him.
Ok, what the fuck is this scene where he’s filling out the job app to become an accountant? There’s a dude in the row in front off him just throwing crisps around? What is this place?? Why are you here sir???
“Accounting is sexy” shut up you horrible married man
The Cheerios sure did have straight ponytails for like, one episode, huh?
Finn is such a good boy. He doesn’t know it yet, but he is, and saving Artie from that portapotty is his first step to figuring it out.
This shot of Finn just wheeling Artie out of there... Ugh. My HEART.
KURT WHAT ARE THOSE LAYERS? SWEATER SHIRT SWEATER? HELLO???
Pee balloons. Nailing the lawn furniture to the roof. Finn, you’re better than that!!! Stop your dudebros.
They really had Artie be a guitar player, and a pretty good one at that, but they never mentioned it again? Artie had such potential SMH. (Also, Netflix subtitles are telling me it’s Arty, but I categorically refuse to spell it that way.)
Whyyyyy didn’t he go to KURT for the costumes as well? Look at his outfit, Finn. He clearly wants in on that job.
Will Schuester really is just desperately clinging to his glory days in high school. I’d feel bad for him if he wasn’t such a creep about it.
Emma, meaningfully: Do you know who that is? That’s you, Will...
[FRANTIC DISCO MUSIC IN THE BACKGROUND]
I find it hilarious how the audio of Don’t Stop Believin’ just DOES NOT match the characters except for the solos... Also wow, autotune city. Am I awful for genuinely not liking this cover?
I like watching them perform it though. Kurt’s adorable little shimmy... Rachel and Tina smiling at each other like that... Everybody having a blast... I’m here for it
LOOK AT MY BABIES TILTING THOSE MIC STANDS...
Ok the way Rachel and Finn look at each other here is making me FEEL
I know Puck’s about to join anyway but WHY is he there watching... Just to have a mysterious bad boy moment? Lol you dramatic bastard
Please let them win nationals without you, Will.
So, yeah! There’s that! Those are my thoughts and feelings, basic though they may be. Episode one is fantastic, the kids are fantastic, and William Schuester can suck a toe.
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G1 Episode 30: Transcript
Episode
Show Notes
[This can also be found on AO3!]
[Stinger]
S: Black, like it’s-
O: Yes, it's completely black. Like straight fucking coffee. It is the sludge from hell.
[Intro Music]
O: Hello, welcome to the Afterspark Podcast, an episode by episode recap of the Generation 1 Transformers cartoon. I'm Owls!
S: And I'm Specs.
O: And today we're gonna be talking about episode number 30: Day of the Machines! Let's talk about giant robots today, shall we?
S: Yeah.
O: [Laughter] We start with, of course: Midnight, Quantum Laboratories, home of America's most secret inventions.
S: A security guard finds some um, “misplaced” items- ah, some very familiar misplaced items. [Laughter] Oh-
O: Hi, Soundwave! So the guard picks up- a picks up Soundwave along with a box and a guitar case and takes them to the Lost and Found.
S: It looked like it was in someone's office. Sooooo, why does the security guard uh, take it to Lost and Found? Why does he even do that? I mean, he says something about the absent-minded professor being at it again. Um, does this mean he just does this with anything that's left in people's offices?
O: He is like the most passive-aggressive security guard ever. [Laughter] (Or whatever he is.) Because, like, oh that would be super annoying every time you come in it's like, where- where's my office plant? I guess, you know, Roger took it back to the lost and found cuz Roger is a jerk.
S: Yeah.
O: [Laughter]
S: Laserbeak and Soundwave transform and uh, Soundwave tosses a key to Laserbeak, telling him to release Megatron.
O: And, oh my god, Megatron’s in the frickin’ guitar case. Why didn't he just transform instead of them unlocking it? Why do they care about the structural integrity of this random guitar case?
S: Maybe it would be uncomfortable to transform and burst out of it? It’s- I don't know.
O: Okay, so Megatron doesn't like being uncomfortable. Is that why he was in a plush guitar case?
S: Obviously.
O: [Laughter] He’s gotta ride in comfort!
S: Once Megatron's free Soundwave grabs the box and Megatron blasts the Lost and Found, uh, door?-
O: Gate.
S: Gate-
O: They were like in a kind of gated, like, a clear fence area if that makes sense.
S: Yeah.
O: Chain-link fence, that’s the word I’m looking for, sorry.
S: Yeah- Megatron blasts the a- chain-link entrance to the Lost and Found with his fusion cannon.
O: And yet the guitar case will survive this! It just gets left behind.
S: That's a lot of attention to detail for something that does not matter at all.
O: [Laughter] Right?! Megatron and Soundwave then subvert some tanks by flying over them undetected.
S: You know, in the gentle glow of the moonlight.
O: I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on the whole “Megatron being somewhat subtle” here thing.
S: It's Megatron, what can you do?
O: [Snicker]
S: So Megatron, uh, blasts a hole in the roof of the building that they land on.
O: Well, okay, subtle for him. [Laughter] We are then introduced to the most powerful computer on earth, TORQ III.
S: This implies the existence of TORQs I and II, so what happened to them? For that matter, why is it Decepticon-scaled?
O: No one knows, although I do love the image of TORQ I and II being shoved into, like, a broom closet somewhere. Probably rather glad they're in that broom closet, considering what happens to TORQ III after this.
S: Yeah.
O: So, Megatron then... reprograms TORQ III to serve only him by using this really phallic looking thing that comes out of his helm.
S: It's a literal mind fuck, guys.
O: Literally! That looks like that is what is happening!
S: Yes!
O: Very, very much! [Laughter]
S: Yes, like you weren’t watching that bit when we scripted this and then I threw it out and then when we rewatched it and you were like, “Eeeaaaurgh!”
O: Yeah, I was like, “Okay sure, mind fuck,” cuz I'm like looking down and typing and then I look up, when I had to rewind for some reason and I was like, “Oh my god!” [Laughter] And she’s like, “Yeah, that’s why I said it!” I’m like, I wasn’t looking. [Laughter] Well, that image will never leave my head. Great!
S: And now it's in yours!
O: [Laughter] Or it will be! We have screenshots. Anyway, TORQ begins blaring, “Illegal access! Illegal access!”
S: Oh, that brings to mind so many bad things.
O: Yeah, it does! Yikes!
S: “It certainly is,” Megatron replies.
O: It's amazing. I love it. [dissolves into laughter]
S: Oh god, the computers’ screen-face-thing is purple, so what were these people thinking? This is like Decepticon catnip. Did they hear it was purple and decided they needed to have it, in addition to it being the most powerful computer?
O: No, Megatron heard it was purple and decided they needed- needed to have it. [Laughter]
S: He would. So, Megatron, being himself, procedes to program it with his personality because what could be better? More of him!
O: Okay, bu- but why does sticking his head-dick into the computer make it into a copy of him? I have so many questions right now, the first of which is, why would this be a good idea?! Did Megatron just forget he's a complete total bastard who doesn't like authority?
S: Obviously, there's no one better than him so…
O: That's fine and dandy until the thing tries to rebel against you and, I'm like, it’s you, of course it's going to.
S: It's a blind spot he has.
O: Obviously. Soundwave and Megatron, then open the box they had brought in with them, and put the microchips inside onto these really strange looking robots around the lab TORQ is in.
S: Yeah, yeah, I mean what possible applications these robots have? How do they function? One’s got noodly arms that don't even- that they don't nearly seem like they should be able to lift anything. And they're all just sort of scattered around the lab higgledy-piggledy.
O: Yeah.
S: In a line? Or something, I don’t know.
O: It's weird.
S: Once the microchips, apparently called ‘circuit linkers’, touch the other robots TORQ can control them.
O: He then uses Soundwave for target practice. Another lovely character for my shit list, apparently.
S: Owls is developing quite a shit list.
O: I am! I've got my hit list. The funny thing is there will be several that will die. Foreshadowing for the movie.
S: [Laughter]
Unfortunately, characters I actually like will die so I don't really think that gets me, you know, anything, honestly.
S: [Laughter] There's no net gains there.
O: There’s no net gains here.
S: And so, elsewhere, two scientists are working super late, wondering if they made TORQ- TORQ III even though it's not specified here- you know, too smart.
O: And TORQ could control the whole world, uh, whatever would we do if the wrong person got ahold of him, uh, you know, so, you mean, like right now, this very second!
S: Ah, one of the scientists notices that it's, you know, fucking after midnight and says they should go home and get some sleep.
O: He says “we.” Are the scientists lovers?
S: It's possible. Maybe they're married?
O: It’s getting spicy tonight, baby. Welcome to Dr. Love’s laboratory! And so as he turns to leave- or as one of the scientists turns to leave, the robot controlled door closes and locks them in. When they go to call maintenance, TORQ tells them that maintenance can't help them.
S: This is why robot doors are bad, guys.
O: Or, not having a secondary method in which to exit, at least, is very bad.
S: Yeah, the other scientist um, starts for rebuild- rebuilding his, ah, little TV phone into something that can call long distance in order to call for help because, I guess, TORQ does not control the phone lines.
O: Or won't, if he rebuilds it?
S: I guess? I don’t know. Elsewhere, by dawn's morning light, Megatron, Rumble, and Frenzy are flying around, putting more of the control chips onto some oil tankers because that's how that works, I guess?
O: Di- did you know oil tankers come in fleets, Specs?
S: It seems like so much wasted effort went into the shot. They clearly drew all of these ships individually.
O: Ah, the days before digital animation and coloring, I think.
S: But they could have just Xeroxed one of them and been done-
O: [Laughter] Or even traced! Maybe, I guess.
S: I mean, look at 101 Dalmatians, they did fuckin Xerox-
O: That’s true-
S: So many Xeroxed dalmatians-
O: Shit, that's right, there are a ton of Xeroxed dogs. [Laughter] Elsewhere, at the Ark, Teletraan warns Optimus that there's skullduggery afoot!
S: A bunch of oil tankers are converging near the Decepticon base which- is in the middle of the ocean?
O: In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, according to this map. To which I have to ask, how the hell did Carly get in there a few episodes back?
S: She chartered a plane, a train, and an automobile, and then teeny-weeny little boat.
O: Well, while I do certainly think Carly is capable of that, considering she's badass. I refuse to believe this map is accurate and they have to be in the Pacific Ocean. It just seems too close to the Autobot base in other episodes not to be. If, regardless, if they drove all the way to Washington DC no problem in that one episode. Either that or the platform isn't built on top of their base as the dialogue seems to imply and it's just, you know, one of their bases of the week.
S: Which they do seem to have so many of those.
O: They do have a lot of those.
S: Yeah and so, well, Optimus smells a rat named Megatron.
O: I mean, he's not wrong.
S: He really isn't and, uh, so Quantum Labs is finally able to get a hold of Optimus, I think, through Teletraan. I don't remember.
O: Yeah, I mean, Teletraan 1 basically operates as their phone so-
S: Yeah.
O: -Yes.
S: Yeah. So, the scientists at Quantum Labs warns them about TORQ's sudden case of the evils.
O: And Optimus is ready to head towards the Lab. Hound offers to investigate the oil tankers all converging in the middle of the goddamn Atlantic Ocean.
S: You're not a boat, Hound. You're really not.
O: It's ok, Skyfire’s gonna come. Skyfire and Spike. [Laughter] You know, the dream team!
S: Optimus transforms and, um, Wheeljack, Prowl, Sideswipe, and Ironhide are suddenly right there! Right there! Where the hell did those guys come from?
O: Through the power of camera angles they were there the whole time.
S: Prime's group arrives at the Labs and Optimus rips the crossing barrier off so they can enter before, you know, being shot at by, you know, the robots. Or tanks?
O: They are attacked by all the tanks from before, that apparently don't have any humans controlling them.
S: Oh, oh so that's why they were so useless earlier.
O: Oh, yeah, probably.
S: The Autobots are surrounded by this plethora of vehicles as Optimus channels Charlie Brown, “Good grief!”
O: Or Jotaro from JoJo's Strange Adv- Bizarre Adventure.
S: Yeah, Being cars themselves, they got the brilliant idea to, um, shoot out the tires on the attacking vehicles.
O: This only gets them so far, so Optimus Prime speed dials the Dinobots by pressing his abs.
S: Ah, ab cell-phone service.
O: I mean, it was the 80’s. I mean, why not make the cell phone your entire ab if it's got to be huge? Might as well, right? I mean, at least, you save a little space, but that being said you would think it’s in his helmet considering the little antenna a few episodes back. But continuity? What's that?
S: And I’m just imagining someone going up and knocking on your grill while in truck mode.
O: [Laughter] “Optimus Prime call Dinobots! Dinobots smash gas station!” [Laughter] “Wait, no!”
S: So Peter Cullen talks to himself for a few lines and the Dinobots arrived with Grimlock in the lead.
O: Good thing Peter Cullen only does Prime and Ironhide because if we had to say that- if we said that joke for every time Welker talked to himself it would be absurd.
S: We'd be here all day.
O: We would be here all day!
S: Optimus orders the Dinobots to smash here-
O: Which, obviously, being Dinobots they comply, there is much mayhem and explosions.
S: Yep. So, apparently, the doors are controlled by a computer but not the windows because the two scientists are able to shout to the Autobots from their open window.
O: I also am laughing because a lot of like ah, multi-story buildings that are, like, work places you can't even open the windows.
S: Especially now. You might have been able to in the ‘80’s.
O: Yeah.
S: But, uh- but, uh-
O: Definitely be a question because probably not every place had AC either.
S: Yeah.
O: So I imagine it would have been more common. Sludge gives Optimus a lift to the window and he helps the two scientists escape.
S: Optimus asks a question and then um, answers it himself with, you know, the answer, of course, being Megatron.
O: He's basically, like, a machine rebellion!
S: The scientists are confused as TORQ shouldn't be able to control things that aren't, you know, specifically designed for it. Then Sparkplug shows up to explain about the chips the Decepticons have been using them. Um.
O: Where did he come from? Why are characters poofing into existence so much in this episode?
S: The power of convenience.
O: The power of convenience. Optimus then takes the chip from Sparkplug and sticks it into his arm.
S: Optimus, why would you do that? It's controlled everything else it's touched just by touching it.
O: But not him, apparently. The Autobots are led to TORQ’s hangar but the door is locked.
S: To quote Optimus, “Thankfully, I have a delicate lock-picking technique.”
O: That technique is blasting the door- [Laughter]
S: And-
O: Let it never be said that Optimus doesn't have a sense of humor.
S: Oh, oh god, he definitely has a sense of humor.
O: It's just dad humor.
S: Yeah, and so the Autobots are attacked by those funky looking machines that we saw earlier before we jet on over to Skyfire and company.
O: Apparently the Decepticons plan is to collect all the oil from the tankers and pump it down to their base but, oh no, the oil platform is protected by an unbreakable shield.
S: We've seen that one before.
O: How the heck didn’t the Autobots see the Cons building this giant freaking platform in the middle of the fucking ocean!
S: They're just not paying attention to the goddamn oceans, I don't know.
O: The Sky Spy, you have Sky Spies!
S: Yep, they land on one of the tankers. Hound and Spike exiting from Skyfire’s crotch hatch.
O: Of course.
S: They ask the captain to hide them so they can get, you know, through the shield and surprise the Decepticons.
O: Hide him how? Skyfire is huge! How are they going to hide him?
S: Mass-shifting? I don't know, somehow it works.
O: And at the boat docks, Megatron's supervising personally, for some reason, along with an incorrectly coloured Hook.
S: As the ship approaches, Hound and Skyfire jump out of a conveniently sized hole that was just on the ship's deck. I guess it's um, a hold or something? I don't know.
O: Yeah, but it was really large. Like, large enough for Skyfire to get into. I have no idea how realistic that is. And then a fight breaks out! Soundwave and some of his cassettes joining the fray as well and our dead-weight- I mean, Spike, is captured by Laserbeak pretty much immediately.
S: Yep. Megatron tells them to surrender or he'll have Laserbeak drop- drop Spike.
O: [Sarcasm] Oh no.
S: Soundwave is standing off in the background like the strong, independent tape deck he is.
O: And, back at the lab, more of those crazy machines come out of the hole Prime blasted and attack.
S: Again, what were these made for? They seem, um, perfect for hunting Autobots. Optimus, were your friends planning on doing bad things to you?
O: Quite possibly. About those bad things, Optimus is captured by the kink machine- I mean, the bondage machine- oh, I mean, the one with the tentacles. [Laughter]
S: [Laughter]
O: I’m serious, what else is that thing supposed to be for? Like, maybe that's what they were doing? Were they making a giant bondage machine for the Autobots? [Laughter]
S: [Silent laughter]
O: I broke Specs, yay! [Laughter] I’m sorry!
S: Prowl can lift as he struggles to hold one of the robot’s mouths open, so it doesn't, like, crush him.
O: But then Ironhide just walks up to his opponent, plugs a hole with his finger and then it explodes. Welcome to the Looney Tunes, starring the Autobots.
S: [Laughter] Sideswipe just makes his clap and that kills it.
O: [Laughter] Of course. So after, you know, um, all of that, they finally enter the hangar to find a maze.
S: Who designed this place?
O: I think TORQ’s done some redecorating overnight. He has had an army of, like, robo slaves at his disposal.
S: The funky-ass robots.
O: [Laughter] Kinkmatron.
S: [Laughter]
O: That’s it’s name now, no one can stop me! Optimus enters alone, uh, before we cut back to Skyfire, Hound, and Spike, who are in the Decepticon brig.
S: When the Decepticons catch naughty Autobots, they go in the naughty Autobot hole.
O: Dare I ask what that means for Spike? [Laughter]
S: [Laughter] God, there is a really terrible pun there.
O: [Laughter] Yeah, there probably is!
S: God, I am not going into that.
O: [Laughter] Nope, nope, we’ve talked about kink machines multiple times, I don’t want to get into anything else tonight!
S: Spike and his compatriots are trapped and waiting for rescue but, don't worry, Spike has a plan!
O: I feel like it's only fair, they're stuck there because of Spike in the first place. He should have a plan.
S: Well, considering what his plan is, he was the only damn one who can carry out.
O: True.
S: TORQ- Well, back with Optimus, TORQ continues to bait Optimus as, you know, our dad-bot makes his way through the maze and evil robots.
O: Optimus gets another circuit breaker- that wasn’t what it was called.
S: Circuit linker-
O: -Circuit linker put on him and this controls him. [Laughter] You know, “controls him.”
S: I guess we should assume Sparkplug or Wheeljack disabled the other one, um…?
O: That makes sense. Although I- hmmm. So through this entire section, right, I was comparing TORQ’s dialogue to Megatron. You know, since Megs programmed his personality into this computer. You know, everything seems spot-on, I can hear Megatron saying all of this but then when TORQ captures Optimus he says, “Come to me, my pet,” and I have to admit it sounds like what Megatron would say in this situation, and I basically fucking lost it while we were watching it. But to make this even better! He says, “You're mine now,” two seconds later. Apparently, Megatron's thirst for Optimus transferred over, too!
S: Yeah. Surprise! Optimus has been pretending to be controlled the entire time.
O: Of course!
S: And that broken- broken circuit linker he had earlier was, in fact, there for a reason. He swapped it with the active one.
O: How he managed to do that without touching the live one is debatable but alright.
S: I don't have the time or energy to debate it so-
O: [Laughter] Fair.
S: Let's not. TORQ orders his robots to destroy Optimus but one well-placed punch by, you know, the Dad-bot makes TORQ explode.
O: Ding-dong, the TORQ is dead.
S: TORQ I and II are probably very grateful.
O: [Laughter] I mean, TORQ III seems like a bastard. Certainly was a bastard there at the end. Soundwave warns Megatron that TORQ is no longer in control of the tankers but Megs’ will control them with his radio transmitter he's conveniently holding.
S: Does it come with a funky hat?
O: We could only hope but, sadly, no.
S: Yeah. The scientists send Optimus and company off on, like, a super-fast boat. I think it's a hydrofoil, I don't know, as they head towards the Decepticons location. So, apparently, they were close to the coast.
O: Apparently. With Sparkplug driving, by the way.
S: Oh, Sparkplug, most interesting man in the world. He knows how to do everything! He's been a ruby miner, an oil driller, a mechanic, boat captain, everything!
O: Autobot liaison?
S: Yeah.
O: And back into the brig, uh, Spike has conveniently found an electromagnet just lying around.
S: I'm starting to think this isn't so much their brig, as it is their trash-pile room.
O: Not to mention what the fuck they were using an electromagnet for or how.
S: I don't know. God, ygm Spike uses the electromagnet to magnetize the cassettes standing by the door to the walls- magnetize their guards.
O: Yes, essentially. With the cassettes incapacitated, Skyfire burst the door down- bust the door down. I know what I'm saying.
S: And through a five-second interlude we are told the Autobots in the boat are within sight, as Soundwave spots them.
O: But Megatron's not worried, they'll never get that shield, right?
S: Jetfire, Hound, and Spike find the shield generator uh, so helpfully being guarded by Frenzy.
O: Skyfire lures Frenzy away as Hound shoots the generator with one of his missiles.
S: How did Hound get his ammo back? Because I'm pretty sure they were disarmed.
O: Shhh! They don't want you to think about it, they didn't, either.
S: Well, that's true. The shield goes down just as the other Autobots arrive and, ah, you'll never guess how they do! The boat yeets itself out of the water and onto the platform and it’s horrifyingly entertaining cuz I keep imagining that the boat is gonna break.
O: Right? Another fight breaks out with Starscream, Laserbeak, and Frenzy joining Megatron and Soundwave.
S: And Megatron runs away and Optimus follows to destroy the radio transmitter.
O: Once destroyed, Optimus tells the tankers they're free to go.
S: Megatron, you know, being a sore loser sets the whole platform to explode.
O: The other Bots make it back to the boat but Prime runs to go find Skyfire and the others who who they presumably know are on there, for some reason?
S: I mean, I think-
O: I mean, it's not the worst assumption to make but, I'm like, did they see them? I don't think they did.
S: I mean, they talked to one of the tanker captains? I don't know.
O: I don’t know if they… They wouldn’t have had time. I- I'm gonna go with maybe they've all got GPS on them or something and roll with that, probably.
S: Yeah. So they all make it out on Skyfire once he's able to get, you know, out of the platform.
O: And take off.
S: Yeah.
O: One of the scientists thanks the bots for their help and makes a rather unfortunate comment about unreliable machines.
S: [Sigh]
O: You know, eating that entire foot.
S: Yeah, and he attempts to make a recovery but it's not really successful.
O: It isn’t very good.
S: And that's it! That's the end of the episode. Oh, but they brought the boat back to where it was from originally.
O: I mean, good for them for not exploding the boat, that was helpfully lent into them, I suppose.
S: Yeah.
O: But join us next time for everyone's favorite holiday: Autobot Day! Wait... wait... no? Do we mean: Decepticon Day?
S: [Sigh] Parades.
O: [Laughter]
S: There are parades.
O: Parades and I think this is a multi-parter, if I’m remembering properly?
S: Yep.
O: Cause, I think it's like Megatron’s Master Plan?
S: Yeah, I’m pretty sure that's what it is.
O: It's a multi-parts-
S: It’s two parts, I’m pretty sure. And we have fanfiction recommendations. Due to the fact that I've been swamped, I didn't come up with any so Owls has supplied our fanfiction recommendations for today.
O: Wild-card fics yet again. These had nothing to do with the episode. All right, um, so I have picked two for today. The first one is “Cuck Rung” by… I think this is said, Evedawalrus.
S: Yeah, I think that’s what it is.
O: I think that’s accurate. I can’t remember what her username is on Tumblr but, um, it is IDW continuity, it is rated T. It's technically slash but let me tell you all the slash is relatively background, for the most part, and where it's really not the main focus but it has, um, Minimus Ambus/Megatron and uh, Drift/Ratchet. Our main characters, there are more than this that have popped up since, but our main characters are Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, Drift, Ratchet, Swerve, Megatron, and Ravage.
O: Our description is: Rodimus creates a shipwide group chat. This proves to be a horrible decision. It is ongoing, it's not complete, it is multi-chapter and, let me tell you, it is hilarious. I laugh my ass off every time I read this. Um, because it is literally just a group chat with all of these characters and think of it very much like a discord where you have certain people who can, like, rename others and all this other shit. It's amazing, I highly recommend it. [Laughter]
And our second one is a “Shimmer of Hope” by NiCad? [Pronounced ny-cad]
S: Ny-cad? Nee-cad?
O: One of those.
S: The pronunciation’s debatable.
O: Thank you, Internet! It is IDW, it's rated T, it’s Gen, uh, there are no pairings, and our characters are Verity and Springer. The summary is, “What did Verity write in that thank you card to Springer, anyway?” It's a one shot. I believe this is after- it's the last of the Wreckers trilogy from the IDW comics.
S: Requiem for the Wreckers, maybe?
O: I think that one. Uh, this is right after that. It's pretty short but, um, I really like Verity so I'm like Verity needs to be in more things, so those are our recommendations for today.
S: And that just about wraps it up for us today, remember to check us out on Tumblr or Pillowfort as Afterspark-Podcast for any additional information, show notes, or links, we may have mentioned. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at AftersparkPod (all one word). And various other locations by searching for Afterspark…. Podcast- [Laughter]
O: [Laughter]
S: You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at AftersparkPod (all one word). And various other locations by searching for Afterspark Podcast, such as AO3, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Youtube, just to name a few.
O: Ah, feel free to send us questions on Tumblr, too. We actually, you know, have to do a mic check before we do any recording so, ah, it’s helpful for us. I have a list of questions but we're gonna run out eventually and I don't think I should be left to think of questions by myself. If you have a question about Transformers or whatever, feel free to send it to us on Tumblr and we'll probably use it for a warm-up and I'll try to answer it on Tumblr, too.
S: Yeah or, I guess, in the comments on AO3, Youtube.
O: Yep, that also works comments on AO3, Youtube Basically anywhere we respond back to which is mostly Youtube and AO3.
S: Yeah, uh, so till next time, guys! I'm Specs!
O: And I’m Owls!
S: Toodles!
[Outro Music]
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A Buffy rewatch 6x01 Bargaining Part 1
aka friends who resurrect their other friend together, stay together
Welcome to this dailyish (weekly? bi-weekly?) text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.
And today’s episode starts us off on what’s decidedly the most controversial season of the entire show. I’m so excited!!!
Now that I think about it, I’m not sure I ever watched Bargaining Part 1 on its own. The show has plenty of two-parters during its run (some named, some not), but Bargaining has the distinction of also being aired on the same night. As a result, many of its digital copies you can find will also have Part 1 and Part 2 together as one single episode.
So for me, talking about the first half of this season premiere only, feels even more stranger than usual, but that’s mostly because of that viewing history. This episode really isn’t worse at being the set up for its next chapter than a What’s My Line Part 1 for instance; in fact, it has its work cut out for it as far as set ups go given the time jump. As a result, even if the story is incomplete, there’s a lot to chew over still.
Let’s see some of the things we got here.
First, I want to address a costuming choice that I absolutely adore and that I tried to draw attention to in my chosen screencap as well. Willow and Xander are both wearing numbered shirts with sequential odd numbers on them. Meaning that there’s a missing number between them.
See, this is exactly the kind of on-the-nose visual storytelling that I love in this show. Buffy is layered with meaning and themes, and sometimes that just means adding tiny details for your audience to interpret with the text.
I’m not sure if the numbers themselves have that much meaning - but no one can stop me from assigning meaning to them if I want either, so... 11 and 13 are both prime numbers, and as such can only be divided by themselves and 1. Possibly a foreshadowing to one of the season’s theme: this year the Scoobies are their own worst enemies.
And if 12 is Buffy, then we can take that as a reference to the fact that she’ll be resurrected at midnight. Or, we can also dig even deeper into the number 12, because oh boy. While 11 and 13 are prime numbers, 12 is a superior highly composite one with no less then 6(!) divisors. That means that unlike its neighbors, 12 can be divided and expressed through a number of combinations of its prime factors.
(Also, apparently 12 is also a “sublime number”, which of course it is.)
In other words, you can take 12 apart and put it back together in multiple ways.
Which brings us back to the show from our weird segment of me trying to math interpret costuming decisions. What the gang does here will have lasting consequences on Buffy’s mental health, and she’ll internalize that by believing that she ‘came back wrong’ for quite a while.
So it brings up the question. Why do it?
We don’t really see how and when the gang decided to bring back Buffy of course. Which as far as a storytelling device goes, is the right choice, but I still kind of wish that we knew more. Resurrection was broached as a subject in Forever back in season 5, and Tara then was like “No, no and also, NOPE” while Willow seemed to have been already considering the logistics of it all.
In the present, Xander appears to be the most uncomfortable about the idea, backtracking as the actual reality of what they’re about to do starts to hit him. Anya seems hesitant too, but she doesn’t argue. Tara still maintains that it’s wrong, but she also says that it’s what they agreed on, and so she stands by it now.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Willow that pushes the idea the most, as the resident elected team leader. (Xander apparently made a plaque and everything? It’s kind of adorable.) Alyson Hannigan really adds on to the emotional impact of Willow’s speech, so me copying in that quote won’t have quite the same effect, but I wanted to have it here regardless:
XANDER: We saw her body, Will. We buried it.
WILLOW: Her body, yeah. But her soul, her essence... I mean, that could be somewhere else. She could be trapped, in some sort of hell dimension like Angel was. Suffering eternal torment, just because she saved us, and I’m not gonna let... I’m not gonna leave her there. It’s Buffy.
Now, we, who have already seen the show, know of course that that’s not the case. That wherever Buffy ended up, she’s at peace. And one could ask the question, why the Scoobies wouldn’t consider that option and the consequences of their actions if that’d be true?
And the answer is rather simple - because they don’t want to. They miss Buffy and they refuse to move on with their lives without her. They need her, so it’s easier to believe for them that she must need them too.
Back in season 3 I applauded Willow for having self-awareness when it came to her own motivations and biases. But power does strange things to people, and Willow’s been getting worse and worse about justifying and lying to herself about her own intent.
At her core, Willow wants to do good. That’s why she stayed in Sunnydale even though she had the opportunity to go to college anywhere in the world. But she also wants to be special. To be loved. To matter.
Bringing back Buffy is about the Scoobies needing their friend, but for Willow, this is also an exercise of the limit of her powers. Her defying the laws of nature and accomplishing something that’s barely even possible. That’s why she also pushes for secrecy, and why she keeps hidden from the rest of the gang, what she did to get the last ingredient for their spell.
Deep down, she knows that it’s wrong, and she doesn’t want anyone else to challenge her own justifications.
(Also, the CGI snake is really rough on the HD version. Yikes. I really do need to do another rewatch after this with the standard DVD edition.)
On a happier note, season 6 aired on a different network with looser restrictions, and they were allowed to have Willow and Tara kiss every once in a while. The kiss that they share here is actually the SECOND ever we see between them on screen in the twoish seasons they dated so far, so that’s some TV history. It still won’t happen all that frequently, but it’s a step forward.
I also mentioned before that I adore Tara and Dawn’s relationship, and this episode showcases that. Tara made funny-shaped pancakes for her! (Well, she aimed for round ones, but Dawn didn’t mind.)
I love them.
Also, I just noticed that in the above screencap Dawn too has a numbered shirt, and 7 is another prime number? In fact it’s the prime number preceding 11. So I guess the main theme is that they’re all a team, wearing numbered shirts akin to a sport team garb, and yet are all alone? It’s probably not that deep but that never stopped me from overanalyzing.
I do question the flimsy plan of pretending that Buffy’s still alive through BuffyBot, but I guess they were counting on bringing Buffy back from the start. In the meantime, Dawn has two witch moms, a robot sister and a vampire babysitter to look out for her. That’s not so bad.
Plus Tara is wonderful, and was probably able to help Dawn with her grief through her own experience. No wonder that they’re so close now.
Dawn of course still misses her mom and her sister, and I’ve had a lot of feelings seeing her with BuffyBot. When BuffyBot hugged her and you can see all the emotions passing through in Dawn’s eyes... What is Michelle Trachtenberg up to these days?
Plus we’ve got the scene with Dawn cuddling up to the charging BuffyBot when she’s unable to sleep. Gets me every time.
There’s also Xander refusing to announce their engagement with Anya, which... I’ll probably talk about later, and Anya directing her frustrations and anxiety with everything towards Giles, and his inability to make up his mind about leaving.
Now, I used to be frustrated with Giles for leaving, both here and later on; but I think I get it better now. When I think about Giles, I see him as the adult in this group, so it feels like he’s leaving all the kids to fend for themselves. In reality though, the Scoobies are all adults at this point. One can even make the argument that Giles is no more adult than them.
Well, okay, let’s not go that far, they’re like 20-21 at most, but they’re making their own life decisions at this point. Meanwhile Giles is in the middle of a midlife crisis and doesn’t feel like he has a life, independent from these young adults, on his own.
But we’ll get back to this subject later on.
Overall, I like this episode. A lot. There’s plenty of excellent dialogue and interaction between the gang, and we’re setting up things nicely for the season.
I’m ready for Part 2!
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