#makes sense to tell the plot of the show they're performing first

[romeowho]

if i had written the goosebumps musical, story of the phantom would've been like the second song, and the story of the play would've happened around when story of the phantom is now and would be a reprise of story of the phantom

[spirantization]

"Wild Blue Yonder" dealt with some of the emotional fallout of the Flux, so I want to rewind a bit and look at what that means for the Doctor.

I know that the Timeless Child and the Flux are contentious topics. I'm not here to argue either way. But now those storylines have decisively not been retconned, and with both of these fresh in my memory, I feel the need to offer some context for anyone who may not have seen it, and to recontextualize it for myself and anyone who has.

NotDonna: You don't know where you're from. The Doctor: How do you know that? How does anyone know? How does Donna know?

In "The Timeless Children", we find out that the Doctor was discovered as a child alone under a wormhole, and adopted by a woman named Tecteun. There was an accident where the Doctor fell from a cliff and regenerated, and subsequently Tecteun performed "experiments" on them to try to understand regeneration. The show minces words about this but she killed a child a whole bunch of times is what happened. Her experiments created the Time Lords and allow them to engineer their regeneration properties. The Doctor has no memory of any of this, and only finds out via the Master and information stored in the Time Lord Matrix.

The Doctor, predictably, doesn't tell anyone about this revelation. She makes a speech to the Master about how this makes her more, we get a single shot of her looking a bit tired in the TARDIS, then she immediately gets thrown in prison.

Ultimately, the Doctor doesn't know where they're from or who their parents are. And the very fact that they're not from Gallifrey is information that no one in the universe should have. Everyone who knew is now dead.

NotDonna: I saw it in your head. The Flux. The Doctor: It destroyed half the universe because of me. We stand here now, on the edge of creation, a creation which I devastated, so yes I keep running, of course I do! How am I supposed to look back on that? NotDonna: It wasn't your fault! The Doctor: I know!

A fun fact about the Flux is that the Doctor did not cause it. So why does he blame himself? Because the person who caused the Flux was Tecteun.

The reason why Tecteun wanted to destroy the universe is because the Doctor interfered with things too much. Too much morality. Too inspirational to people. She calls them a virus. So her solution to the problem of the Doctor is to destroy the universe, with the Doctor inside, and take her ship to a different universe to start fresh. She also was the one to steal all the Doctor's memories of previous lives in the first place. She's dismissive and patronizing and clearly does not care about the Doctor on an emotional level at all. Tecteun is a piece of work, and the implications of her actions and how they've shaped the Doctor have the potential to go deep.

Thirteen doesn't get too much of a chance to react to any of this, because there is plot going on. And shortly after they reunite, Tecteun gets killed by a different villain. So there was no emotional closure in the moment, and there's now no possibility for the Doctor to make sense of her actions. The Doctor does not tell any of her friends about any of these events. She keeps promising to tell Yaz but does not.

"Wild Blue Yonder" is the first time we, as the audience, hear the Doctor discuss the Flux. And their perception of events is skewed at best. The Flux wasn't caused because the Doctor made a mistake and a lot of people were killed, which is what you can argue for many other situations. The Flux and the devastation of the universe was caused by their mother, who promptly turned around and told them it was their fault for being such an interfering nuisance. We know that the Doctor is often an unreliable narrator, but this is beyond that. These are the words of an abused child who has internalized the narrative that the abuse was their fault.

So the Doctor being able to talk about this with Donna, who has seen what happened, who knows him, and tells him that it's not his fault — it means so much to him. He wants it to be her so badly. And then NotDonna laughs in his face. You can see the devastation. He thinks for one moment that he can finally talk about this with his best friend, and it's snatched away from him. He gives himself a moment to break down in the corridor, and then you can see the walls rebuilding as he suppresses it all again.

At the very end of the episode, back in the TARDIS, he's trying very very hard to be nonchalant. I'm curious. The NotDonna could remember all these things that happened to me while we were apart. Can you? Just wondering. Things happened, but I'll be fine. In a million years. It's not a joke.

He wants so badly to be able to talk about this. You can see it in all the lines of his body language. He's keeping himself together but is prepared to fall apart in an instant. He doesn't want to actually tell anyone, but if Donna just magically knew already, and could tell him it wasn't his fault — well, that would make the world of difference. But she doesn't know, and he can't bring himself to tell her. And so the cycle continues.

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

Moriarty (TNG) as good AI Art

I got to Star Trek The Next Generation season 2's Elementary, Dear Data in my rewatch and I couldn't help but notice how the holodeck actually nicely represents the current state of AI art in its process to create Moriarty.

At first, Data and Geordi ask for a "Sherlock Holmes mystery", so the holodeck simply provides one, verbatim -- Data has obviously already read it, and so he immediately solves it. Geordi is furious and leaves immediately, because Geordi doesn't have great characterization in the show proper, and lives in our heads as a better character.

But the point Georgi tries to make eventually is that this isn't a "real" mystery if Data already knows it, and it goes kind of unspoken that the Holodeck didn't create anything new, it just regurgitated what it has without any remixing or any real reason to go through it again.

Then Pulaski gets involved and tries to prove Data can't really do anything novel -- they ask the Holodeck for an original mystery "in the Holmesian style", and what does it do? It just copies and pastes different portions of Sherlock Holmes novels into the same document, and makes it a "new mystery", while still clearly being just a hackjob made in a hurry with no sense of aesthetics or direction.

While it might have been enough for Geordi or Pulaski, Data is a machine that can recognize patterns much better, and he immediately understands that this is just a combination of patterns he already knows, and once again he immediately solves it because he knows the original mysteries. But this time, Pulaski points out: this is a fraud! This is not what a real story is like! Holmes would never do this, he would actually think about the novel stimuli reaching his brain!

And I think it's really interesting how Data, a fellow machine, cannot immediately tell what Pulaski is saying. Because for Data, aesthetic don't actually make that much sense, at least not in season 2. He can't tell a good story from a bad one made out of different pages of different stories, because for him, it's all about patterns. Just like the Holodeck, Data does think this is good enough, and confronts her about it. I mean, what else is the Holodeck supposed to do other than recombine what already exists?

It's not until Geordi stops asking the computer to make a story and instead asks for the computer to make a character that the plot actually moves forward, because at that point they're dealing with emerging narratives that arise from the fact that Moriarty is now a hyper-intelligent AI that is free to do its own plans, regardless of what Sherlock Holmes story he's from. While Moriarty may be a repetitive character, his new reactions are not, and that's good enough that it becomes a massive problem that threatens the safety of the ship.

Before, when it was being asked to make derivative art, the Holodeck performed exactly to task -- but the result only really worked on people who either 1) did not understand art at a deeper level than the superficial, and 2) did not know the original art that well. The art that it spat out was valid, it was working, it was logically sound and fit together more or less well enough.

Pulaski, however, immediately understood that this result was inferior to the sum of its parts. She respects the character of Sherlock Holmes; she goes on a little explanation about the character's relationship to the human soul and how that's the actual point of the books, as opposed to just the simple puzzle boxes that Data (and, to some extent, the Holodeck) seems to believe they are.

And I just think that's just a poignant take that easily translates to the current state of art and artificial intelligence -- there is actually no value in derivative AI art that simply copies and pastes parts of other pieces of art into one straight line, regardless if it's an image or a story or anything like that. Yes, you can get some praise from people who either don't care or aren't familiar with the originals, but people who are actually into the art form -- the ones who have proven they are invested and are ostensibly the ones you're trying to catch as a steady audience -- will recognize and be bored by the result. There's no rhyme or reason to how a machine adapts a story into another, there's no aesthetic sense that makes it interesting to the human psyche. It's just a fast food version of art that doesn't really do anything for you, and you'll forget it in five minutes. Pulaski is not offended by the attempt, she's positively amused that an AI tried its hardest to make a Sherlock Holmes story, one of the most by-the-books and predictable mystery formats known to British literature, and the best it could do was just copy what's already there.

But when it's just a collection of ideas and vague directions that then go forward on their own, that's different. Moriarty is not an AI creation of the Holodeck -- he was given a push and then allowed to go wherever he wanted. He was not even a proper villain by the end of it; the combination of things Moriarty was resulted in a curious, driven, machiavelic yet ultimately sympathetic man, who just wanted to continue living and creating his own, original story, not based on anyone else's. The Holodeck's greatest achievement wasn't making an original story, it was making someone capable of doing that on their own, without having to refer to anything else.

There are entire Youtube channels right now that make a lot of bank by using these emerging language models to help them tell a story -- DougDoug has dozens of videos of him and his chat going on wild adventures aided by text AI that doesn't actually write a story for them, but instead simply provides direction for them to make their own decisions and their own stories. It's a genuine way to improvise and give the onus of planning to something else, especially when the story isn't the point, but the experience is -- just like the Holodeck!

I'm not saying AI art is eventually going to reach that point by itself, but I do think there's something to be said about just hitting random on a trope generator that gives you, the author, different ideas so you can write a story yourself; or even just rolling the die to see what happens to your characters as opposed to painstakingly arranging your story like a hand-made garden.

Star Trek constantly showcases characters like Data, Moriarty, The Doctor or Zora as more than the sum of their parts, and it's always because they are able to be more than simple reorganization of previously experienced stimuli. They are able to make choices that don't have to happen, but that they want to happen.

Don't get me wrong -- AI Art, as an institution, is corrosive acid and will kill entire industries. But the fact we skipped straight into the hellish capitalist version of that means we never got to fucking play with it. We never got to just use it as a stepping stone or something to unclog the sink when you have writer's block. Instead of going in random adventures with a Moriarty who can actually react and develop something akin to a character, we're getting a thousand offers to buy books that are just combinations of different novels on Amazon, with no way to really filter them out other than our own eyes.

I just wanted to hang out with Moriarty.

[recklessracoon]

I thought I'd share my Saiki K playlist. It's just a bunch of songs I like that I think fit him roughly arranged by where I feel like they fall on his character arc. Justifications for my selections under the cut.

I Am a Rock by Simon & Garfunkel: This song really strikes me as affirmations of a deeply lonely person trying to convince themselves that they're better off this way. A good fit for Saiki at the start of the series when he's closed himself off from other people.

The Beast by Spectacle-P: It's about a someone who's been lonely for so long that they've forgotten how lonely they are being offered love but being too proud and full of fear to accept it. I'd quote some of the translated lyrics but I'd just end up putting most of the song here I think. Please watch the subtitled video on youtube and tell me if don't think this isn't a good fit for Saiki.

Nothing at All: Reminds me of early series Saiki's tirades about how much being a psychic sucks where he just describes the symptoms of depression.

Loveless by Steampianist: Honestly I don't remember why I put this on here. Probably because of the feelings of alienation it conveys and how it seems to be about the ace experience of not being able to experience love in the way that society tells you should.

Are You Satisfied by Marina: I think this ones pretty self-explanatory. If I was better at drawing I'd like to make an animatic about the Saiki brothers using this song.

Star of Show: I'll admit this ones a bit more of a stretch and honestly it's mostly on here because I like listening to it when plotting out my fanfic but also "I'm not a freak/I'm not an act/I'm not a deity's performance!" kind of fits with his issues about how his powers affect people's perception of him.

404 by Pinocchio-P: It's about feeling unable to connect to people and like your true-self will be rejected. I also think the little alien guy in the music video for it looks a lot like Kusuo. I actually forgot how good a fit this was until I went and looked at the lyrics again and yup past me was correct in putting it on this playlist.

A Hundred Years Unresolved: It's lonely sounding and I came to associate it with Saiki because like listening to it when I play the Regentquest segment of See You in the Dark. No deeper reason then that.

Oh No! by Marina: Kusuo is the sort of guy to go "I know exactly what I want and who I want to be." You know, like a liar.

The Chattering Lack of Common Sense: I'm not sure how to explain it but I feel like the theme of falseness that runs through the song fits him. It's also worth mentioning that this song is also on my Kuusuke playlist that I'm not sharing here because it isn't as good and frankly it's kind of shameful that I even have a playlist for that guy.

I Am Not a Robot by Marina: Kusuo is vulnerable and lovable even if he doesn't believe that about himself.

God-ish by Pinocchio-P: I'm not sure how well this one fits because frankly this is one of the Pinocchio-P songs I don't feel like I have as solid a handle on the meaning of. I mostly chose it because of the name and because it seems to be a pretty cynical song.

Fear and Loathing by Marina: "Now I see, I see it for the first time / There is no crime in being kind / Not everyone is out to screw you over / Maybe, yeah just maybe, they just want to get to know you" I feel like this is fairly self-explanatory

arms by Christina Perri: I listened to my Pandora stations for the first time in ages recently (well back in August, apparently), heard this and thought "Kubosai song?!" though frankly it would also work well for Nensai or other Saiki ships or even platonically if you ignore some the more romantic lyrics. Though I think it's best suited to the first two listed. Anyway I think this fits Saiki's relationship issues pretty well.

Soap by The Oh Hellos: It's a very hopeful song about how people need other people and you are not unlovable. So I think you can imagine why I thought it was a good song to end the playlist with.

[cctinsleybaxter]

Furiosa thots!!! Putting under a readmore since it only just came out and i don't want to dissuade people from going. I find it kinda funny I find it kinda sad (I lowkey hated it but the war rig scene made me go stupid aaaa)

Stuff I liked:

Pacing and sound design. Was really skeptical of the 2+ hour runtime but it went by quick and plotting made sense

Costuming! Any time a practical effect or something textured is onscreen (which is not always. bodes well for the 'stuff i hated' section) is awesome; I don't care if it looks stupid or doesn't make sense it's a pleasure to have in class.

Arm backstory

This car

I went in thinking 'sigh well they're never going to beat robert de niro exploding that helicopter in midnight run' and then the war rig scene happened; I was going crazy!!! I loved it from beginning to end. I actually gasped because I'd noticed the grey mass of cloth being used as a flag at the first encampment and thought 'that's my favorite thing they've shown so far' (i was going to say prop but idk that it was practical); WELCOME BACK GREY CLOTH

Chris Hemsworth was somehow my favorite performance, I felt like he nailed the combination of goofy/ridiculous and scary/threatening

Stuff I didn't like:

George Miller uses bible allegories and imagery like he's the fucking Ultraman guy (Eiji Tsuburaya.) Why make posts about how fascinated you are by 'the japanese' using catholic imagery when we got that egregious crucifixion setup. Australians are culpable.

We don't learn anything about furiosa as a person that can't already be gleaned from Fury Road. I do think this does a pretty admirable job of storytelling for a prequel, we learn about what happened to Furiosa and we (sort of) get the character development that led her to take the wives with her, but I wish it'd been a brand new character's story

I like Anya Taylor-Joy and disagree with people saying this was a miscast because she can't act and is only suited to play models (misogyny takes many forms...), but I do think she's best in roles with a lot of speaking and micro-expressions, so playing a woman who barely speaks or emotes and will later become charlize theron just wasn't it. I'm also legitimately worried about how skinny she is rn

Stuff I hated:

This movie looked like absolute garbage in comparison to the rest of the mad maxes; even the ones I think are irredeemably bad. The combination of whatever frame rate they were using and the CGI was just. Ugh.

Scene transitions (so many fades to black) and montage (specifically thinking about the sped-up footage of them assembling the rig, Furiosa's Lion King dream sequence, and 'the horrors of war') were a hot mess

Framing dementus's anarcho-fascism as worse than immortan joe's regular fascism is such a misstep it casts a shadow over the whole movie. Yeah the hedonist with the working class accent who hates art and is too stupid/selfish to run a territory yadda yadda. It's very Stephen King villain, which would be fine!, but Fury Road had such good politics it just felt tired

You're telling me that a woman who spent her childhood kidnapped and threatened with rape (interesting that said threat only comes from individual extra bad guys btw; both evil men-dominated societies accept slavery and rape but condemn pedophilia) falls for her male coworker and mentor figure. You're telling me this is a compelling relationship between two victims of the same system. You're telling me you filmed it like a YA dystopian romance. You're telling me her backstory is that she showed a guy her most treasured and vulnerable possession, a seed from the fruit she plucked before being taken from eden and losing her innocence, and he bade her keep it by putting his big-ass yaoi hand over hers, and that's what solidified their trust. You're telling me she doesn't once speak to a woman who isn't her mom. Can we die? Can we go to the wasteland?

[wewebaggit]

"El never had romantic feelings for Mike"ers 🤝 "Mike had romantic feelings for El"ers

Y'all think y'all are arm wrestling bt it's actually called a handshake in most parts of the world.

Both come from some weird desire for romantic miIeven to have meant nothing/something for both.

Cuz everything has to be just right and fair and neatly tied in a bow. God forbid the gay boy have struggles with his sexuality or the straight girl get her heart broken in the process. Evil evil things. To have your feelings unrequited. Unless it's Will. Cuz he's single and has to stay single and pure and loyal and what not, and it's only temporary. Soon in a few years after the time skip at the end of the series he'll be rewarded for being reduced to a pathetic little sap with no social life beyond Jonathan, Mike and the horrors of having spidey sense for 2 seasons.

And yeah there will be cirque du soleil levels of acrobatics being performed to show why this story and narrative makes sense. And I'm not opposed to it for being that but just that on show that prides itself for show don't tell it neither shows nor tells and then there's outside the show telling by cast cuz inside the show showing was less subtle and more in the realm of not there at all.

MiIeven is NOT a "plot device" for Byler any more than Mike being revealed gay is a plot device for independent El. They're both self contained arcs for the respective characters. MiIeven thoroughly exploited the BSY dynamic with how their interactions were framed and played and okayed and filmed. It's incredibly condescending to fault the GA for buying into the self insert fantasy of nerdy boy gets supergirl when the show didn't shy away from profiting off of it. Regardless of Mike's impending sexuality. Especially because of the super ambiguity of Mike's sexuality it cannot be classified as anything but trope exploitation. Subversion where? Leaving some visuals here.

El initiating the kiss in S1E6

And I'd love it if anyone explains them to me that's not the tired af "El's idea of romantic love comes from her watching soap operas" cuz she was shown watching it once. She was stuck in a cabin with a TV so she watched TV most of the time and daytime is soaps. You know what she (also) watched regularly? Westerns. Miami Vice.

Also El did make the first move in s1e7 to kiss Mike. Before Mike ever kissed her in s1e8. And before the soap operas n all other things. Point being. The BSY has always been BSYing.

Poor babies being forced by Lucas, Nancy and daytime TV into making out and enjoying it. Tsk tsk. (S3E1)

A forced to be flustered and blushing El after talking to her boyfriend.

Time to make out some more. It hits different at 4:20. - Mike & El probably. Dunno it's on mute.

Naive but powerful fawn rebelling against father for nerdy boyfriend. Ya. White American thing cuz Mike would be pissing his pants if he were anywhere else or maybe anyone else. (Can you imagine Lumax this way?)

For God's sake your platonic soulmate and so called lesbian awakening's brother is dying there.

Don't even understand the point of this shot. Since Mike never looked Billy's way. Or comforted Max. A glance at El that, idk what it meant, no mike crow expressions to guide me.

Scenes from a Marriage (1973) dir. Ingmar Bergman

Scenes from a Marriage (2021) dir. Hagai Levi

There's an intentional way in which the MiIeven scenes (not just the kisses 🤮) are filmed in a more "adult" way as opposed to the "cute teenaged romance" way that some people purport it is in contrast to Lumax and Duzie. (I guess they didn't go through puberty.🤷‍♀️) Heck even Jancy, Stancy never looked this weird even though sex was shown/ implied. (Because they were played by actors born in the 20th century and even then they weren't 13 🤷‍♀️.)

MiIeven is not a plot device for Byler. It is fan service. The adults shipping them and comparing them to various other adult couples isn't outta nowhere. Please compute. Which is why it was stretched for 4 seasons.

As of NOW Mike's sexuality is still plausible deniability and the breakup too is neither here nor there. It's NOT straightbaiting. Lmao. Not at all. It's fan service. Leaving the OBVIOUS BSY aside, the point neither party were forced into anything nor were they doing it to keep appearances cuz canonically NOBODY cared. Not Dustin, not Lucas, definitely not Will and I'm sure neither did Max.

El was a willing participant and initiator and Mike was also not opposed to it until puberty monster/feelings caught up with him. El has shown her attraction to guys and it is okay. There's no need to take that away from her cuz that is also an experience of girlhood. She barely has any experiences anyway. Let her have that.

It's the same for Mike. He's not some evil monster for being gay. Not anymore than Joyce was for being with Bob out of convenience and the fact that she liked him n didn't hate him. Mike does love El and cares about her deeply as all of S4 shows.

So to sum it up. Yes I smooshed 2 posts cuz I couldn't be arsed talking about these 2 AGAIN. But Mike and El were independent agents when they decided to embark on their disastrous romantic journey and Born Sexy Yesterday is REAL.

P.S. If you find this shit cute and y'all roll your eyes over byler kissing n what not (even in fics goddamnit). Hit your head against a spiked wall till you can't no more. Piss and love. 💙💛

P.P.S. Mike's the clingy one. NOT Will.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s4 ep8: Year of Hell pt 1

I really don't think I've rewatched this since it first aired- I usually ignored it when casually rewatching because I knew it was the one where Voyager nearly falls apart, and everyone's dirty and stressed, and generally having a bad time. But there's entire scenes I didn't remember at all, and they're all very good.

This was the first appearance of the astrometrics lab, which Seven and Harry had been building for the past few eps, which will be a primary set throughout the rest of the show. (Is it me, or did they change the ceiling of it later?? It feels different to me somehow in this ep, maybe just an unusual camera angle? I'll have to look more closely in future eps.) They have a little unveiling ceremony, where the Doctor tries to make a speech, and ends up being so annoying that everyone is glad to be called back to the bridge. (And he's still dunking on Tom- what did he ever do to you, dude?? Y'know, except be a supportive friend to you even though you treat him like crap??)

(RIP to Janeway's magnificent Gibson girl up-do hair once and for all- they cut it very short for this ep, and she wore some version of a bob cut for the rest of the series, which I have never stopped lamenting. She's always gorgeous, but the up-do was perfection. No, I will not be accepting criticism on my very correct opinion.)

The events of this episode were foreshadowed by Kes in 'Before and After' last season, but apparently, everything that Kes told them about it got erased from their memories when she got sent back to the current timeline, because none of them know who the Krenim are here, or that they should avoid them. So they waltz on through Zahl space as the Krenim start erasing the Zahl from the timeline with their time weapon, and they get caught in the crossfire, because of course the Krenim don't want anyone flying through what is now their space. (Literally everybody in the Delta Quadrant is so territorial! How they heck do they have interstellar trade when every alien species they meet is like 'no one is allowed to enter our space!!' Srsly dudes, why do you even have space travel when you're so damn xenophobic?? Why even would their societies actually put in the effort to develop warp capability when they don't want to go anywhere or meet anyone?? It doesn't make sense, but I guess it's necessary for The Plot, so ok, here we go with Xenophobic Delta Quadrant Aliens volume 15! lol)

The lead Krenim baddie is played by Kurtwood Smith, who gives a perfectly fine performance here, but this was right before That 70's Show started, and now, after having watched him in that show for so many years, I cannot unsee Red Foreman whenever he's onscreen. Like, I just keep expecting him to throw off the civil facade and have him angrily tell Janeway to leave Krenim space before he puts his foot in her ass. I'm usually pretty good about separating actors from roles, but Red is so iconic, I just can't, no matter how hard I try, and it's kinda distracting, tbh. But at least that isn't anyone's fault- the guy playing the second Krenim guy, however, is giving such a bad, over the top performance that I really question both the casting director and the episode director on their choices here. He straight up reminds me of the guy from those Liberty Mutual commercials, where it's supposed to be a caricature of a comically bad, good looking actor who can't even get through the simplest lines. Like, that's literally this guy. How could they have cast him, and let him act like that?? Idk, but that particular distraction is absolutely the production team's fault.

So Voyager has to go through Krenim space while under constant attack, and the ship gets beat up more and more each time, with power failing, the hull breaching, debris falling everywhere, things are on fire, everybody's getting injured and dying, nobody is doing okay. Everbody basically becomes the embodiment of the 'This is Fine' meme in this ep, especially Janeway, who's powering through it all by repressing her emotions as much as possible, knowing that she has to singlehandedly hold the crew together through it all. Chakotay has another one of his 'I'm going to disagree with you in the dumbest way possible' moments when he suggests to Janeway that they can't make it with Voyager, so maybe they should all abandon ship and try to get home in escape pods. Janeway's obviously like 'WTF NO CHAKOTAY' because she's not abandoning ship, ever, and she's not breaking up the family (she straight up just calls the crew 'the family' now, it's not even subtext anymore) and they'd be way less likely to get home scattered in tiny escape pods. To which Chakotay's like 'lol, that's fine, I didn't think it was that good of an idea, I just wanted to give you shit for no reason suggest it haha', as if that wasn't a mean and deranged thing to say to the most stressed out captain in Starfleet. (She must love that man so damn much to put up with that bs, good lord.) He decides to be nicer later, and gives her a pocket watch for her birthday, which she tells him to recycle because they need the replicator rations. He tells her he replicated it months ago before the Krenim attacked and he's been saving it for her, but she still won't take it, even though she's obviously moved by the thought he put into it. Maybe if you stop questioning her judgement she'd accept your gifts, you dumbass. It's a rather heartbreaking scene, since Janeway is clearly stifling her emotions just get by after months of attacks, when she no longer knows what the date even is to remember it was her birthday in the first place.

There's lots of heartbreaking little scenes in this one- the Doctor having to let two crewman die as he evacuates his patients from sickbay, knowing the hull is about to breach and they won't reach the hatch in time; Harry and B'Elanna playing a trivia game to pass the time and distract her from her injury while they're trapped in a turbolift waiting to be rescued; Tom triaging wounded and lingering with B'Elanna even once she's stabilized, clearly worried about her; Seven acting as a guide for Tuvok after he's blinded in an explosion while retrieving her from a jeffries tube, where she'd stayed back to find the phase variance of an unexploded chronoton torpedo. (The same one Kes did in 'Before and After', though the radiation doesn't seem to be a problem in this timeline, for some reason.) So many excellent slices of the crew soldiering on, and pulling eachother along through sheer force of will, with their dedication to each other and their mission to get home all they have to keep them going.

Seven's discovery of the phase variance on the Krenim torpedo allows them to create a defense against it. When the main Krenim baddie uses his temporal weapon to try to erase another enemy planet from the timeline, and ends up erasing half the Krenim empire instead, Voyager sustains no damage from the shockwave, which draws the main Krenim baddie's attention. He realizes Voyager's presence somehow messed up his calculations, and he kidnaps two of Voyager's crew to interrogate, and threatens to destroy the nearly crippled Voyager if they get in his way.

Captain Janeway finally, reluctantly decides to let the majority of the crew take escape pods to evade the Krenim as long as they can while she stays on Voyager with the senior officers as a skeleton crew to try to get Chakotay and Paris back from their Krenim kidnappers, and to find a way to get Voyager through Krenim space in one piece to rendevous with the rest of the crew on the other side. The last shot is the escape pods leaving Voyager, which I think was maybe the first time we'd seen escape pods launched en masse from a Starfleet ship, which was a pretty heartbreaking cliffhanger to end the episode on. I'm honestly surprised this was a mid-season two parter and not a season closer/opener, but at the time, I'm sure I was glad to only have to wait a week to find out what happened next instead of a whole summer.

Tl;dr: A sad but well done disaster-type story where the crew is pushed to the brink, with a devastating cliffhanger.

[mixterglacia]

So here's my general opinion on Hazbin Hotel.

First and foremost, YOU ARE ALLOWED TO LIKE THE SHOW. MY VIEWPOINT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN'T ENJOY IT.

Alright? Let's not string Logan up because he doesn't like a show.

Spoilers under the cut obviously.

To start, I absolutely think Viv is talented. I'm not going to pretend that she has no skill whatsoever because that would be disingenuous. I think that she's got an amazing gift for music videos and one-off episodes.

However that doesn't translate to an eight episode series.

When it comes to both of her shows, I find that her characterization, plots, and tone are very inconsistent. It becomes extremely clear when she really likes a character because she starts rewriting them to be this tragic thing that the whole plot needs to revolve around.

I'm not saying that a comedy series can't have depth. I'm an RvB guy, there's absolutely a way to strike a balance between snark and serious. But so often the dramatic parts of Hotel feel like they're fighting -against- the humor, not using it as a foil.

You can't expect me to take you seriously when you have half an episode dedicated to an absolutely stellar performance by Angel's VA, then make a rape joke in the next episode.

Beyond that, for a show about rehabilitating sinners, you spent all that time on Angel and his arc, only to have Pen' be the one who dies and goes to heaven? Are you honestly telling me that doing one grand gesture, one -singular- act of sacrifice is all it takes to get in?

Don't get me wrong, Pen was literally the only thing I consistently liked about the show. But his temporary death felt like nothing more than a tool to shove the plot along.

I believe a lot of this show's faults stem from having WAY too many characters. You have eight episodes that run for roughly half an hour each. You have to make some sacrifices to make things work. I'm not even sure having full hour eps would make it better, but it definitely wouldn't hurt things.

But Viv should be able to make those tough calls if she wants to be considered a good writer.

The three Vee's were almost completely wasted, -especially- Velvette [sp?]. You've got too many random antagonists in such a short season. Them (mostly Vox) interjecting during the big fight was jarring and more distracting filler/haha dick nonsense.

The only one I find was used in pretty effective way was Valentino. He's honestly a really nasty piece of work and I mean that in a positive way. He's charming until he isn't, he's predatory, and makes my skin crawl every time he's on screen. Good, kudos on that front.

But for the show that's supposedly the girl-show to Helluva's boy-show? THE GIRLS ARE BARELY FLESHED OUT. It feels like Viv can't decide who her main character is. (Likely a side effect of the bloated cast) Angel could be considered just as much of the lead as Charlie.

Speaking of Charlie, she comes off like an extremely flat and frankly obnoxious character for more than two thirds of her screen time. Why does her relationship feel like an after thought when it's canon? If it was meant to be a will they won't they, it could have made more sense. But it felt like we were constantly being reminded that they were together rather than showing us outside of the (i think) second to last ep.

The pacing is also totally out of control. The first episode was one big plot dump, then nothing moved the main story along for four and a half episodes, then suddenly everything is happening all at once? It feels like being in bumper to bumper traffic, then taking an off ramp.

Again, they really needed to streamline the cast.

As a final note, I really, REALLY hope Lilith is going to be more than just the evil bitch exwife. I already find Stella to be a total waste of a character. Please don't do the same with Lilith because I'm already sick of the "uwu misunderstood dad with his cunt ex" in Helluva.

I guess I'm extra annoyed because I really truly want to like this show. When the writing hits, it's absolutely amazing. But the overwhelming majority of the time, it's just -boring-. I know she can do better which makes it all the more frustrating.

You're allowed to like it. I'm allowed to dislike it. I'm glad so many people find joy in it.

I just wish I could.

[tribow]

So I watched Paradox Live: The Animation

You know what "The Animation" means. Paradox Live is a mixed-media project that's more than just the anime, but what is Paradox Live?

Well, I imagine this is what the pitch sounded like in the board meeting at Avex Pictures: "What if we made Love Live, but with boys and we centered it around Hip-Hop?"

At first glance that's essentially what Paradox Live is; a bunch of male idols but instead of singing J-Pop they RAP! Have the fans choose their favorite group and swoon over these boys...but wait, they can't just copy Love Live down to the letter. They need soemething to stand out from a basic idol franchise..... 👏 that's it! TRAUMA.

Every character must have some traumatic backstory that fuels their hip-hop! And...and...they wear accessories made out of stuff called Phantom Metal that allows them to create illusions for their live performances. However, using it also makes them relive their trauma! PERFECT!

Well....I have some critiques on the premise, but I'll get into it later. How's the execution?

It sucks. The anime even commits the greatest sin of an idol show: the music is bad. How could you? That's the one thing you gotta get right no matter what!

Okay well if the most of the music isn't good how's the drama? Can't have trauma without some drama right? The good news is that the characters aren't bad, but the bad news is that the narrative sucks.

What brings these hip-hop groups together is a tournament to decide who is number one for a grand prize of...I forget the number, but it's A LOT of money. Each group has their own motivations for accepting the invintation to this event. Whether it be to prove their music is great or to win that prize, they gotta go all out to win that competition!

...Anyway, the tournament hardly matters to the plot. That's practically background noise to the real focus: character drama. A good half of the cast has their backstories elaborated on, but it's a whole lot of tell don't show. If I fully understood japanese I doubt I would need to even look at what's happening to get an understanding of what's going on.

I did a little research on this show, and the consensus I saw was that the audio drama for Paradox Live is way better than the show. The anime is adapting this audio drama and while they should be able to take advantage of the visual medium....they just don't. The conversations just don't feel natural. A lot of character interactions feel a little forced. The adaption needed to transform the narrative to fit its medium better and it failed to do that.

Not to mention that the story itself doesn't make much sense. There's a lot of leaps in logic you have to allow to consider the story good, especially the problem with the premise. If the Phantom Metal is so dangerous why must the characters use it? Some characters do give an answer, and that answer is "Because I just gotta!"

...So no answer. They're using it deal with it.

Sigh...

What really gets me is how several characters say that they love hip-hop because of its self-expression. I agree! Hip-hop as a genre is one of the most personal forms of music. It's the poetry of spoken word harmonizing with the rhythm of music. There's not many genres out there that have a culture of delivering a personal message to the listener like hip-hop. Yet, Paradox Live doesn't take advantage of this.

They chose the perfect genre of music to be paired with this character drama, and they don't use it to punctuate how these characters feel about their lives. They say they love the genre for self-expression well why aren't they doing that? Maybe the audio drama leans into this better I don't know, but the anime sure as hell doesn't. They don't even do rap battles!

Oooooo this irks me. This is a hip-hop tournament right? Why don't the characters do rap battles??? They do "battle", but it's like a normal music competion. One group does their performance and the next group does theirs. Boooo!

There's literally a character who suddenly drops his usual energetic child-like personality and says the exact words that can trigger another character. It's as if he suddenly knows exactly who you are and what you've done throughout your life, and then poof! He's back to normal and doesn't even remember what if he said. Imagine if he pulled that shit during a rap battle and airs out someone's dirty laundry right on stage? People would go ballistic!

Dramatic potential aside, I know the narrative has little to no conflicts between the characters and they essentially become each other's support group. However, they could still have that conversation through rap. They can do it with music, hip-hop supports this.

And the thing is, the anime does this! In the finale they actually do have the characters express themselves through rap in an effort to emotionally communicate to each other. Heck, there's a filler episode where as a joke they start rapping in support of their friend doing a spicy food challenge at a restaurant and it's unironically the best part of the whole show.

It was doomed to fail anyway. The fact that each hip-hop group had their own hip-hop subgenre really showed that Paradox Live's story was an after-thought to the character's concepts. They need to be marketable, they need to have variety, and they need to hook in fans and make money. I didn't look into it, but I doubt the voice actors are even actual rappers. Paradox Live doesn't actually care about hip-hop, it cares about how it can make this multi-media project a success. A concept like this won't have synergy between the story, characters, and music. Not only is it super difficult, it's just not profitable. Finding the right team to pull off something good with a grand scale like this is a tall ask.

Speaking of which, you'd think the animation would suffer a lot from this and surprisingly...it only suffers a little.

This is the first I've seen of their work and they go crazy with the first episode. A lot of big camera movements going on and some surprisingly good mix between CG and 2D animation in several shots. This quality vanishes by episode 2, but it doesn't drop too low. There were some clear moments where the animation sucks (especially near the end), but I was decently surprised.

This is the first work I've seen from Pine Jam and they seem good! I wonder how they would do on a better project than this mixed-media one.

....But yeah those are my thoughts on this show. It's not good and I wouldn't really recommend. I can understand if this show has its fans. The characters are honestly neat. I heard that outside the anime the music is better, so maybe there's something to latch onto there.

Man, mixed-media projects get a lot of words out of me.

[saucy-mesothelioma]

The Blues Brothers: A Jukebox Musical Done Right

I have a vehement hatred for jukebox musicals. In my opinion, they're lazy and are just a way to put popular songs in your movie that you know will succeed instead of taking the risk to compose your own. If I know a movie is a jukebox musical I tend to immediately dismiss it.

Which brings me to The Blues Brothers.

I adore The Blues Brothers. It's one of my all-time favorite films and one I think is highly underrated. And yet it's a jukebox musical. So why do I love it so much?

I think why The Blues Brothers works when so many other jukebox musicals fail for me is the fact that you can tell that there's a genuine love for the music that they're playing. And the reason behind that is that The Blues Brothers was an actual band created by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in 1978, two years before the movie even came out. Not only do they perform the songs featured with sincerity, but they also feature some of the fundamental names in blues and soul. Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, and Cab Calloway perform their own songs ("Think", "Boom Boom", and "Minnie the Moocher" respectively), and Ray Charles and James Brown sing absolutely incredible covers of "Shake a Tail Feather" and "The Old Landmark". They didn't just take popular blues and souls songs and put them in their movie, they got some of the pillars of the genre to perform those songs.

The appearance of the songs also makes plenty of sense story wise. The entire plot of the movie is that Jake and Elwood are trying to get their blues band back together, so naturally the film is full of classics from the genre, both performed by the band as well as in the background. Even songs that could seem out of place such as where Aretha's character Mrs. Murphy starts singing "Think" in the diner, it doesn't feel that way because of how the movie has decided to present itself. The Blues Brothers takes absurdity and delivers it in a direct way: it knows it doesn't make sense, and it doesn't apologize for it. They play their absurdity like a Monty Python skit (especially towards the end), and that actually helps to make the breaking into song and dance all that more believable. The songs aren't in there just for the sake of having them, they fit the scenes they were placed in. "The Old Landmark" is a classic gospel that plays when Jake realizes that getting the band back together is their mission from God; "Think" is played because Mrs. Murphy is trying to tell her husband to reconsider leaving her to play with The Blues Brothers; we already know that Curtis used to sing to the brothers while they were at the children's home, so it makes sense that he's the one who sings to stall for the brothers at the show; the band does a cover of the Rawhide theme because it was the first western song they could think of to play at Bob's Country Bunker. Every major song has a reason for being there, and isn't there just for the sake of having a popular song in the movie.

As I said, I tend to steer clear of any jukebox musicals, but my brother as a big ABBA fan has watched Mama Mia!, and I feel he gives a great example of why the movie doesn't work:

The plot was as if they picked the songs they wanted first, and then moved the storyline around it, instead of vice versa. This included parts of the movie that had absolutely no relevance to the story and were forced in to get another hit ABBA Gold song in there. My best example: they absolutely killed the meaning behind Does Your Mother Know. Originally a song about a guy denying sexual advances of an underage woman, is now turned into a song about a MILF talking about how much (completely legal) people want to have sex with her. What once was a song about a guy doing the right thing and not taking advantage of a minor, is now stripped of its meaning. You might say, "Well, it was probably to advance the plot, right? This was important to the story? They had to have this song in the movie or else we'd have unresolved plotholes, right?" No.

The Blues Brothers comes nowhere close to having a problem such as this. As I already stated, the songs either exist to help further the plot or directly reflect what is happening.

In my opinion, The Blues Brothers is probably one of the best jukebox musicals of all time due to the obvious love for blues and soul as well as the impeccable incorporation of the songs into the story

[carefulfears]

as someone who hasn’t seen Aquarius (and doesn’t plan to) can you list why it is so awful 🍿

girl i literally do not even know how to discuss it. i had a friend staying over on saturday night and tried to break down all of the plots that happen just in the first 13-episode season and it took me over an hour and i did not remember all of them. there is an insane amount of shit going on. and none of it really makes any sense or connects properly to anything else. my saintlike friend kept going "what does that have to do with charles manson?" "wait, how did that other plot end?" "why did they do that?" and my answers had to be I DON'T KNOW. IT DOESN'T. NO IDEA.

perhaps it would be more successful if it were more focused and didn't take on so much? we'll never know. it is way more difficult to follow than any nbc drama has any right to be, and it is extremely graphic and violent for no real reason? it isn't self-serious enough to require that many rape and murder and assault and dead baby scenes on screen. like. calm down. this is nbc. (actually what i'm watching is the unrated version that dropped on netflix but literally STILL)

the main thing that absolutely baffles me to no end is duchovny's character (i have semi-affectionately mostly-derogatorily nicknamed him "officer police brutality"), the things that we see him do on screen and that are implied he has done in the past tend to err on the side of abhorrent and borderline evil, often no better than what we see the abusers and murderers doing, but we still follow the story through him and are continuously shown his "Good Guy" standing. he's one of the only characters that takes the female cop (claire holt's charmain) seriously, he regularly looks after witnesses/victims, he's kind to the disenfranchised coworkers and spouses in his life. there are several little charming personable tidbits and jokes and endearments.

don't get me wrong- i exist in the context of all that came before me etc etc- and i'm starkly against categorizing characters as "good" or "bad," discussing a character like they're meant to be our best friend rather than a story that's telling us something. i just absolutely cannot figure out what the story is trying to tell us about him. i cannot figure out how we're meant to follow him, and how we're meant to interpret his role in the larger context of the show. in my opinion it would've served the cultural/emotional arc to do without some of the posturing. you don't have to make your central character a Good Guy. we don't have to be constantly brought back to the side of someone who often behaves no better than the villains, to follow their story.

duchovny is great in it, and i find it to be an extremely interesting performance. i love to see him take on the darker material and nuances that he hasn't had a chance to, sometimes he'll have a moment or inflection or mannerism that i've never seen him do before, which is so cool for me. but i do think the role is miscast, if they were trying to tell a story about a character who is of a grim time and is capable of doing inexcusable things, things that trap him in that time. often, duchovny just brings a natural likability. it's what he's been cast for, in the past!! a lot of these quirks, and endearments, and charms, come with his presence or are engineered by him.

which isn't a bad thing, i'm not gonna say "noo david duchovny you have to fix your typecast reputation. people find you too likable. people love to see you too much." but the script would've had to challenge him/that a lot more than it does, to pull the character off.

and if they weren't trying to tell that story, of a man trapped in a dark time doing dark things, i don't know what they were trying to do.

i'm sure there will be some nbcaquarius / sam hodiak shooters who are mad at me to read this but i guess some of y'all got the show and i just did not babes! can't stop watching it tho

[cringengl]

MiIeven and lying- what their relationship represents.

The airport and rink o mania scenes show the state of miIeven's relationship really well.

Not only do these scenes set up the whole cali plot line, in terms of what all the characters end up doing (such as El being separated from everyone else) but it also sets up how miIeven is such a performative relationship.

To make it clear, I have no doubt that El and Mike love eachother, I just believe it's in the platonic sense and that the reason they chose to date was due to their desire to be normal (aka they mistook their friendship feelings for romantic ones because they wanted to conform).

At the beginning of the airport scene, we see a happy reunion between Mike and El. It's clear that Mike is trying to be a great boyfriend by doing everything that a boyfriend typically should, such a flowers, however, the performative aspect quickly becomes apparent when El's smile drops as she reads the tag: "from Mike".

The most damming evidence of all this is when Argyle calls Mike ('s outfit) a "shitty knockoff"- Mike is a shitty knock off of the normal kid he's trying so hard to emulate.

The sympathy is also strongly weighted towards Will- the 'hug', Mike and El ignoring him, having to trail behind them as El says she wants it to be a day about only them, Will's dejected face and even Jonathan noticing and wishing Will a good day. It all shows that Mike and El haven't learnt from their mistakes in s3 about abandoning their friends for eachother, because if miIeven was going to be endgame, they so easily could have done this and acted like s3 showed them that they should stop being so rude to their friends when they're together- but no.

The whole day that El plans out is what she wants her life so desperately to be with the lie she makes up, and Mike plays into that. However, the audience is shown how ridiculous their performance is through Will. He's not afraid to be honest about the fact that they don't go to parties, or that El is having trouble and it really does show how Mike being with Will would be staying true to himself, and not doing what other people want him to do.

Will has always been true to himself, whether it being for wearing bright clothes that got him bullied in middle school, to staying true to his intrest in DnD in s3.

This makes the van scene all the more tragic as Will is not a character that lies, the closest he gets is telling Joyce "I'm not going to fall in love", but this can easily be interpreted as I'm not going to be able to be in a romantic relationship because I'm gay in 80s Indiana.

This is why the van scene is so important to his character- because it's the first time that he's not true to himself, which is why it has to play a fairly big part in s5.

Now Mike has to make the choice about whether he wants to be true to himself, his queerness and his love for Will, or to keep living the dream life that he and El have created. However, with El already realising that she cannot have a normal life and that maybe that isn't such a bad thing (her whole arc about discovering who she really is as a person, and that she is not the monster, meaning that she doesn't have to imitate the movies she saw in Hopper's cabin anymore), it is all the more likely that Mike is going to end up with Will.

Just like in other famous love triangles, such as Katniss, Peeta and Gale, where Katniss has to choose not only between the two boys, but also how she wants to live her life- through violence or peace, Mike has to do the same.

However, we've already seen how this conflict has played out....

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 14

Don't worry, only half of the episode is clips from previous episodes.

But the second half manages to repeat a lot of stuff we've seen before as well...

Okay, I don't want to get too deep in the weeds on this. Suffice to say, the first half of this episode is just a highlight reel focusing on all of the Angel attacks seen in this series from Episode 1-13. There's sound effect, but no music. There's some voice-overs on some of the footage, like Toji Suzuharu talking about how he blamed Eva Unit 01 for getting his sister hurt, or Big Rigg Mahoney expressing admiration for Rei's performance in the battle against the... fifth Angel? The octahedron one.

Objectively, it's a good introduction to the series if you've come in late, and I was talking before about how Japanese TV is organized into thirteen-week blocks called "cours", so it kind of makes sense that Episode 14 might benefit from bringing new or returning viewers up to speed.

Also, I'm sure the staff working on this show needed a breather. I read the Wikipedia article for this series and it talks about how they had trouble meeting their deadlines and the plot started to get... weird around this time. So from that perspective, I'm happy they got a chance to take it easy for a little while. It probably wasn't enough, but it's something.

However, as a guy liveblogging the whole series on DVD, this kind of sucks for me, because I just got done recapping the first 13 episodes, and now I'm stuck with nothing new to talk about. Also, Episodes 1-13 were kind of repetitive to begin with. An Angel shows up, the gang at NERV breathlessly discuss the threat, then they come up with some daring plan to kill it with giant robots. Some team-building happens, and maybe one or two of the characters opens up a little about their feelings. Rinse and repeat.

Of course, there's only been so many Angels in this show, so we wrap up with the 11th Angel from Episode 13, and it's mentioned how the existence of this Angel still hasn't been confirmed. That's because Gendo Ikari ordered NERV to cancel the alert and report it as a false alarm. Which brings us to the present, and...

The "Human Instrumentality Project Special Conference". I'm halfway into this show, and I still don't know what this is or who these spooky guys are that Gendo talks to on the holographic phone. They're supposed to be important, but when the call is over, he always dismisses them as toothless. NERV holds all the tiles, as he puts it. Admiral Clownshoes cautions him against irritating them, so I guess that they must have some pull in this thing, but not much.

Basically, they think an Angel did enter the NERV base and at least threatened the integrity of the Human Instrumentality Project. For all they know, it spoiled the whole works, but Gendo is covering up the entire incident and denying that the base was in danger at all.

So they're mostly upset that they can't get a straight answer out of Gendo about what happens. He insists everything is fine, but the know he's good at hiding the truth, so they'll never know for sure if he's lying. But they can't proceed with the HIP without Gendo, so why are we even having this conference? Because these guys just want to voice their frustration, I guess. I can see why Gendo doesn't respect them.

Gendo insists that everything is on track, in accordance with the timetable in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and "Seele's" plan, whoever that is. Oh, wait? Seele as in "the seven seals" from Revelation?

The thing about this show is that it tries to act all slick with these Bible references, but from what I can tell they're all just peppered in without any significance. There's something called "The Central Dogma", but I don't even know what it is. The Three Magi are the trio of Persians who traveled to Bethlehem to see the newborn Jesus Christ. In this show they're supercomputers. So for all I know, Gendo could be talking about the literal real-world Dead Sea Scrolls, or a schedule he pinned to the NERV company bulletin board.

It's all meant to sound very hoity-toity and intellectual, but they never really explain what the Human Instrumentality Project is or how it's to be accomplished. I assume it involves all of the times Gendo and Admiral Clownshoes have been off-site, like their recent trip to Antarctica. It probably also involves that embryonic thing Kaji delivered to Gendo from Europe, and so on.

And I don't demand an answer on the thing. It's clearly meant to be explained later on, but scenes like this where they talk about the thing without ever directly identifying the thing... well they just go 'round in circles.

Meanwhile... whatever this is. NERV is running an experiment to see how well Rei and Shinji can sync up with each other's Evas. So this is Rei's first time in Unit 01. She has some sort of psychadelic experience that culminates in her asking "What am I?" over and over again, and when she finally comes out of it she observes that it "smells like Ikari". I assume she means Shinji, although it might smell like Gendo too, I dunno.

Asuka isn't included in this experiment, and when she asks why she's not participating, Misato reminds her that she doesn't want to pilot the other Evas anyway, so why bother? All right, but why is she suited up, then? Are they doing a different test with Asuka, or did they have to let her sit in on this so she wouldn't feel left out? Because I'm betting it's the second one of those.

Yeah, definitely the second one.

So Shinji also observes that syncing up with with another Eva feels strange, and he thinks it smells like Rei. Then he reports that something is "trying to get into my brain", and he has hallucinations of Rei.

In the control room, they call this "mental contamination", so it sounds like Shinji's description is accurate. As far as I can tell, when you pilot the same Eva long enough, you leave some sort of "psychic residue" behind, which the next pilot might encounter when they try to use it. That's what caused Rei to experience that identity crisis earlier, because she was picking up Shinji's thoughts. But when Shinji picks up Rei's thoughts...

Unit 00 goes berserk, just like it did when Rei had that accident pre-Episode 1. The only difference this time is that when Unit 00 attacks the control room, Rei herself is standing at the window. Also, they can't eject the plug for some reason, so Shinji's stuck in there until the battery runs out of power. I think he might be better off that way, since ejecting the plug seemed to be what got Rei so badly hurt.

Misato and Ritsuko discuss the accident afterward. Misato notes that this is almost exactly what happened back when Rei got hurt, almost like they're in a cartoon, and the animators reused the same cels of the Eva punching the wall in an attempt to save time and effort. That can't be a coincidence, but Ritsuko tells her she can't say much until they run more tests. Privately, Ritsuko considers that Unit 00 was trying to attack Ritsuko, specifically.

Anyway, Shinji is okay. We see him wake up in a hospital bed, just like he did in Episode 2. Almost exactly like in Episode 2. It's like he's in a cartoon and they reused the footage from that previous stay to save time and effort. Nah. Nevermind that shit, it's time for Math Puppy.

Okay, so in this dystopian world, there's a puppy from Niigata who somehow knows how to solve math problems. It's insane, right? Only humans, pigs, and certain horses know how to do math, but Kana somehow has the same power. And Kana's only a puppy. Imagine the kind of mathematics Kana will be capable of in the future.

Naturally, Kana is excited to be on the radio, barking "Wan! Wan! Wan!" over and over. Then they ask Kana what 325 minus 324 is. Damn, that's a hard one. I think it's six, but I don't know. But Kana gets it right! I checked it on my calculator and boom. 325 - 324 = 1. Good dog!

We close on Gendo and Admiral Clownshoes, still discussing that conference from earlier. They talk about SEELE interfering. Wait, I thought it was Seele's plan they were following. Why would SEELE interfere? Fuck this cloak and dagger shit.

Also Rei is no worse off from the experiment, and she's already retrieving the "Lance of Longius". That seems like the sort of plot development that should be elaborated upon, but oops, the Math Puppy segment went a little long, so we're out of time.

Next episode... Misato is having a quarterlife crisis and she's worried that she won't find a husband, so getting back together with Kaji might be her only chance. That sounds really, really bad, actually. For the first time since I started this, I actually kind of want to skip this episode.

She does promise more fan service, so maybe Misato did me a solid and burned all the footage, forcing them to air Episode 16 in its place. A man can dream, can't he?

[adamwatchesmovies]

Samurai Cop (1991)

In terms of movies that are so bad they're good, Samurai Cop has it all. The razor-thin plot is little more than an excuse to string together car chases, overly violent fights, ridiculous characters, equally bewildering dialogue, gratuitous sex scenes, laughable performances, unconvincing wigs, badly dubbed extras, befuddling editing choices and the kind of mistakes only a director drunken on their own power could make. It constantly surprises you despite a story devoid of any imagination.

To combat the Japanese gang that’s taken over Los Angeles' cocaine trade, “samurai” policeman Joe Marshall (Mathew Karedas) joins the force. With his partner Frank Washington (Mark Frazer), the two make a break in the case when Joe catches the eye of Jennifer (Janis Farley), a woman whom crime lord Fuj Fujiyama (Cranston Komuro) is attempting to romance.

You might’ve seen one of the film’s best scenes on YouTube at some point: the one where Joe talks to a flirty hospital nurse whose pickup lines you’d expect to hear coming from a drunken frat boy. Trust me, that’s just the beginning. This movie feels like it was conceived by a horny, bloodthirsty 13-year-old and written by aliens. While on a bust, Joe will say something to fellow officer Peggy (Melissa Moore) and you’ll think “That’s a weird line; you could probably take that one the wrong way without trying much…” only to realize the innuendo wasn’t accidental at all! You shouldn’t be surprised when it happens over and over, but you will be.

Eventually, you’ll realize this movie was shot most of the way, only for the production to run out of money and shooting to resume months later (it explains why Matthew Maredas has to wear a wig in his first scene). It's obvious, but you're taken aback. You’re not used to seeing movies this earnest made this badly. Samurai Cop has recurring jokes, the kind of recurring jokes that anyone with any kind of good sense would’ve thrown away and then burned out of shame. When writer/director Amir Shervan shoots a man emerging from a burning vehicle, he doesn’t think to ask the stunt guy to scream or act like he's in pain. All he sees is a man COVERED IN FLAMES, exactly as he’d envisioned it, which means it's a flawless take.

The plot of Samurai Cop is so basic it would’ve been as dull as a butter knife if it weren’t for the constant blunders. In one scene, the actors are clearly done delivering their lines and are waiting for the director to yell “CUT!” After he did, the editor (either Ruben Zadurian or Amir Shervan once more) didn’t go ahead and eliminate those extra few seconds of nothing; they kept them in. You’re as dumb-struck as the performers, wondering if there’s something you’re supposed to do to make this ordeal end… and then it does, so you breathe a sigh of relief. If Samurai Cop pulled that stunt on you, there's no telling what's next. Will it be two goons dubbed over by what has to be the director, using the same voice, in a row? How about someone going from 0 to 100 in one second, or some pointless nudity? You don’t know but every time, your response will be “Oh, well of course!”

The glory that is Samurai Cop cannot be contained in a few hundred words, and it can’t be summarized in a “best of video” either. If you have friends who don't understand why you like watching bad movies, show them this one. They'll be howling in no time. (September 1, 2021)

[thevindicativevordan]

Superman & Lois Season 3 Review

Another season is over, let's take stock of how the show did in comparison to S2.

Well for starters their poster game dramatically improved, the pic above is the first one that I would describe as cool. The writers seemed to have taken feedback from S2 into account because they made several corrections that I think led to S3 being the best season of the show yet.

First off they dropped the emphasis on the Multiverse which had previously played a strong role in S1 and 2. Good timing considering that the general audience at large has started to show signs of fatigue with the very concept of Multiverses, Spiderverse aside. I myself have grown utterly sick of the Multiverse and was grateful that like X-Kryptonite, the show decided to put that storytelling crutch on the shelf.

Second, they did a much better job with juggling all the characters' storylines this time. Lois, Superman, the Irons, and Smallville all connected to the overarching Intergang plot in a way that made sense and worked to flesh out Mannheim in contrast to the Parasite Twins last season who suffered from too much vagueness and multiple plotlines that failed to connect emotionally. Sam and Lana having similar emotional arcs - where they learn to move past the pain they suffered from previous relationships and be ready to explore new ones - was a great way of connecting the two that I did not see coming. And sue me but I enjoyed the Kyle/Chrissy romance as out of left field as it was.

Bruno Mannheim was easily the best villain of this series thus far. His actor was able to switch from charismatic and sympathetic to terrifying with startling ease. My favorite example of that is the episode where Nat and Matteo had dinner with the elder Mannheims, Mannheim was cracking jokes and being the cool dad one minute, and getting ready to beat John Henry Irons to death the next minute. Great casting and acting for the entire Mannheim family, odd choice to use a take on Onomatopoeia for a Superman show, but I thought Peia's love for her family and ruthless nature to protect them contrasted well with Lois. Loved that scene at the end between Supes and Peia where he tells her it's ok to let go, opposite message of the iconic All-Star scene which they also homage, but one that I thought can be just as comforting.

Speaking of her, Lois benefitted from being the star of her own storyline this season. She got to deal with cancer and investigate the Mannheims, she got to make mistakes (like when she hesitated to keep digging into Mannheim after her bonding with Peia), have struggles with her self-esteem, and her past actions regarding Lex help set up S4 nicely. Eager to see the fallout of Lex's hatred for her next season.

Clark didn't get as much to do this season other than butt heads with Mannheim and Jordan, but he got enough cool Superman saves and nice Clark moments for me to be satisfied.

New actor for Jon is great. Not only does he look more like the Jordan actor's twin but his performance was on par with his predecessor. Making Jon a firefighter was a nice way to give him something to do beyond being Jordan's emotional support, or take the fall for his girlfriend. Writers appear to have finally caught on that most of the viewers see Jon as the true sympathetic kid who embodies the best of his parents. Jordan however... what the hell are they doing with this kid? He was a total creep this season regarding Sarah and towards the end it felt like maybe they were going to pull a twist ending by having him start falling into villainy. Then they had the scene at the end where he apologizes to Sarah and I have no clue where they're going with him anymore. Having S4 be Jordan's fall while Jon finally gets his powers and has to confront his brother would be the best way to end this series, a way of coming full circle back to S1 being Clark vs. his own evil half-brother without being a total rehash. Dunno if the show has the balls for that, I expect they do not, but man it would be a great set up for a series finale

The Irons were far more involved this season which made me happy. Scene where Irons and Mannheim confronted each other after Irons saved his sister from the bomb was pure classic Superman/Lex hatred, made me wish we had gotten more scenes between Wole and Coleman because the two played off each other beautifully. Grinned when I saw this show follow through on the Steel/Lana romance, happy to see something of Pak's influence reach outside of comics.

The Lex actor is the best live action Lex since Rosenbaum, have to give the CW credit for being able to adapt Lex while the film side struggles. Really looking forward to him stepping up as the Big Bad next season. Given the show's emphasis on family and that they won't be bringing the actor playing Sam back as a reoccurring support, I firmly believe they should have Lex kill Sam in S4. Would be a great way to establish Lex as a threat, show how determined he is to punish Lois, and write Sam off in a way that serves the story.

On the bad side I guess this season ending on Doomsday didn't do much for me? Doomsday being a weird adaption of Nuclear Man from Superman IV (they even end the season with a fight on the moon!) and DCEU Doomsday is one of those times where I just ask "why?" when I see this show taking influence from the DCEU. Oh and there's all those supporting cast plotlines that aren't going anywhere now that the show has basically trimmed the cast down to the Kents and Lex. Nothing will come of the Irons moving back to Metropolis and building Steelworks or Kyle and Chrissy having a kid, not that the writers are to blame for that.

People would have been pissed if the show ended on this cliffhanger, lucky for them that S&L are at least getting what is likely to be one final season to wrap things up. Tulloch was saying that she wasn't sure if S4 was the last season, but I don't believe S&L can get another one. Between Nexstar just barely renewing this show after months of negotiations with WB, Nexstar making it clear the show isn't very profitable and they want to transition away from scripted content, most of the supporting cast members being laid off to cut costs, the real life town that scenes for Smallville are shot at only being signed up for three seasons, and of course Superman Legacy being primed to release in 2025, there's no way S4 will be anything but the final season. Especially with the WGA (and possible SGA) strikes delaying S4 scripting and shooting until late 2024, I expect that S&L S4 will air just a little while before Legacy's July 2025 release date, much the same way as the CW Flash series ended a little while before the Flash movie released.

Between MAWS and Legacy it's unlikely this show will have much if any impact on the Superman franchise, but it's been a nice diversion while the film side sorted itself out and MAWS got worked on. I'll definitely check in for the final season, I'm sad that the Irons won't return but I think the show might benefit from having to focus on the core cast rather than get sidetracked by focusing on everyone else like how the Flash show botched it's final season.

[thepatchycat]

Commanders and Children

So @existentialscientist, you mentioned the youngling arc of TCW a while back; took longer to get around to this than I intended, but here's a rough outline of a Youngling Arc AU where Cody actually gets to go pick up the Jedi kids and inevitably gets drawing into the shenanigans!

Plot Stuff:

-Unlike in the show, Cody manages to set out with the pick-up car shuttle before Grievous pops out of hyperspace, but Grievous does still show up to cause problems for the fleet. This prevents Cody from simply returning to the Negotiator with the kids in tow, because it's not a good idea to bring children straight to an active warzone.

-However, it would take a lot longer to get them all the way back to the Temple or the next-nearest Jedi not currently in active combat, and Ahsoka is still stuck with the pirates, so Cody decides to wait for word from the battalion (since the combat could potentially end in just a couple hours, making the original plan still feasible) and help the kids try to fix their ship in the meantime.

-Said ship is still venting coolant and needs to land. On Florrum. Cody is not thrilled by this, and he does his best to make sure they're not close to the pirate base, but the pirates don't exactly broadcast their location so they probably end up landing about where they did in the show.

-The kids want to go rescue Ahsoka. Cody tells them firmly that they are not to perform any heroics and his first priority is to get them home safely, though in the back of his head he's strongly considering sending them to safety on the shuttle he arrived with because he knows R2 is a remarkably capable little droid that could probably pilot that one a lot more easily than the old Jedi ship, and also if they get Professor Huyang fixed they'll have a responsible adult chaperone. Cody could stay on Florrum and start on some recon, because Rex would kill him if he was here and didn't do anything to try to help Ahsoka. Cody himself also does not want to leave Ahsoka with the pirates longer than necessary if there's something he could do about it.

-He's still weighing his options while working on ship repairs (assisted by the tech-savvy Nautolan child while the others work on fixing Huyang or building their lightsabers) and waiting for word from the battalion. At some point he realizes it's gotten suspiciously quiet and his Someone's Getting Up to Trouble Sense is tingling, so he goes back inside the ship proper to find that the kids, naturally, have decided to run off and rescue Ahsoka themselves.

-Cody, naturally, sets out after them. He probably takes the shuttle at least part of the way and hides it in an outcropping as soon as he gets close to any other visible beings.

-Now, one of two things could happen here:

A) Cody catches up just as the kids are convincing the troupe leader that they're a group of acrobats. He claims to be their manager because revealing them as a group of (vulnerable and inexperienced) Force-sensitives and himself as a Republic officer might have Consequences and also he's kind of used to rolling with Jedi Shenanigans. Still, he Does Not Like This Plan. He's very skilled in living up to certain roles, but "acrobat manager" is not one of them, and these are actual children heading straight into the pirates' den. Jedi children, yes, but that just means he has no idea what kind of training they do or do not have. At least with clone cadets he'd know their respective capabilities! But Jedi pull off some wild feats, so there's a possibility this will actually work. He's very insistent that the kids stick strictly to performing and let him go find Ahsoka, which he does by either pretending to help the troupe serve drinks or pretending to join the audience.

B) Cody's just a little too late, finding the point where the kids' tracks end and the troupe's trail keeps going. He follows the troupe to the pirates' base and has to sneak in commando-style. Cue long-suffering facepalm when he sees what the kids are doing, but blowing their cover would be literally the worst course of action so he just makes his way to Ahsoka.

-Option A has more comedy potential, while Option B seems a little more like what Cody might actually do and plays better to his skillset. Also, unless Cody leaves his armor on the ship when setting out after the kids, he'd probably have to either ditch it with the troupe (Not Ideal) or disguise it with a costume coat (or possibly a very large poncho, Rex-style) and mask (in case anyone knows what a clone's face looks like). Option B has him being sneaky anyway, so this is at least somewhat less of a problem--and he could probably steal a guard's coat for camouflage.

-Either way, he makes it to Ahsoka, who senses him and manages to shuffle back behind a crate while the pirates are distracted. He frees her, and they see the kids manage to get the lightsabers, so they start sneaking around and quietly picking out an escape vehicle that they'll inevitably need to steal when the pirates notice Ahsoka is missing.

-The ensuing getaway goes mostly the same in the show, except they actually succeed in outrunning the pirates because with two Commanders around their pursuers don't stand a chance and the transport doesn't crash. Also, Cody and Ahsoka may or may not have performed a little more preemptive interference of the explosive kind on a couple of the vehicles they did not use, if Cody had detonators with him. He might not have brought any for what should've just been a pick-up, but maybe he simply likes to be prepared.

-Anyways, they make it (and Hondo gets to deal with Grievous on his own, not that they know that, but the wily pirate probably manages to escape somehow) back to Cody's shuttle, and the expedition ship meets them somewhere either on-planet or back out in space. The repairs are sufficient to get them to a rendezvous with the Republic fleet, which has made its retreat and given them coordinates to return to. And there's probably some conversations along the way, definitely including a little bonding between the Commanders; I'm a firm believer in the idea that they enjoy addressing each other by rank as a bit, and I wish we got to see them interact in the show.

-At least a few of the kids probably fall asleep on the ride home. Ahsoka definitely needs a nap, but she's probably reluctant to sleep before the kids are safely back. Still, she might doze off in the co-pilot seat.

-The Negotiator still got blown up, sadly, and Obi-Wan might be slightly worse off since Cody wasn't there to help him delay Grievous (rip the cool barrel shot) but not by much; Hondo is not here to demand payment for any generous services, but the kids probably have fun recounting the tale of what happened.

Misc:

-The kids would probably be a lot more divided about running off to rescue Ahsoka, since help did actually come and at least a couple of them would probably be inclined to listen to the adult in charge. Katooni seems like a responsible type, and Byph seems like an anxious sort, but they might both go to try and keep the others out of trouble (and because I don't really wanna leave any of the kids out). Ganodi is still staying behind as back-up pilot and/or to provide distractions to delay Cody's inevitable pursuit. She does not last long against the Big Brother Commander Look, but she tries. She does finish fixing Professor Huyang, and she and the professor and R2 get the expedition ship to rendezvous with the shuttle.

-Is Cody good with kids? I like to think he's got good communication/social skills and experience being an ori'vod, so he's not terrible with them. He's not doting the way Waxer would be, but he's at least used to adjusting his demeanor for different audiences (shinies vs. veterans vs. superior officers). However, he might end up spooking the kids a little by being blunt about the kinds of risks they should not be attempting, even when trying to avoid being pessimistic. It's not easy to balance keeping up morale with imparting seriousness of a situation. There's a moment in the show where Petro brags about how he's going to defeat Obi-Wan Kenobi and also Grievous with his new lightsaber, and I think Cody understands that it's youthful bluster but he's still like "until you have defeated General Kenobi in a lightsaber duel, if you ever see Grievous, you run, do I make myself clear?"

-Cody probably scolds R2 for not stopping the kids from running off, and he also suspects that R2 is the reason their hyperspace jump landed them near Florrum in the first place; R2 whistles, innocent as anything (stranding the kids near Florrum did ensure they got in contact with whichever Jedi was closest to the kidnapped Ahsoka)

-Dunno if I have any further relevant thoughts to include here, but I'd be delighted to hear other ideas about how this arc would go down!