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Sometimes you win, and Sometimes you get brainfucked with the overwhelming awe of all of existence so hard your flesh melts off and you're a baby again. It just happens.

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I just started scavenger reign after seeing some lovely screenshots on here a few days ago and it reawakened this incredibly unique feeling of otherworldly wonder that I haven't felt since the first time I watched Nausicaä

If you have any kind of attatchment to one, then I would highly recommend the other; if you're unfamiliar with them both, then I would recommend watching either, because they're both sublime <33

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"Scavengers Reign"

I've always been a massive sucker for experiences that live on their atmosphere, colorful environments, and sound engineering - so this little Max series was naturally always going to be on my radar. And while it indeed excels on all of those traits, and are more than happy to show them off at every opportunity, it's also just a plain inspired story.

It takes an extremely simple idea - a downed ship gets stranded on an alien planet, and a few survivors must explore this world - wonders and dangers alike - in order to hopefully make their way out. There's three different subplots covering different characters, each covering a different angle (especially emotionally) and all go in very engaging directions. They may not have that much intersection until near the end, but it doesn't matter because it's all very well paced, never giving you too much or too little of something at once. 

It helps just how much range it has. Sometimes it lets you take in the activities of all these creatures, almost like it's a documentary, or show a robot assistant unexpectedly take an interest in nature. Other times it puts the characters through hell, from an Alien-style parasite invasion, to being trapped in your inner trauma, and of course, straight-up death. The stakes feel legit, but it doesn't feel *grim* either. There's a terrific balance, and it all works hand-in-hand to make it all feel *real*, made even more so with just how natural all the characters are in both personality and dialogue. (Azi's my favorite, if you're wondering)

Over time, the character-driven stuff does start to take over the awe, but all the virtues I mentioned before remain consistent all throughout. And it all comes together to end on a truly gorgeous, cozy, and mysterious note - the kind that really leaves you wanting more (and god, do I wish this pulls through a second season) but still feels like a complete experience in its own right. 

I give major props to everyone who had to fight for this to get made and released to the public and all the people at Titmouse who came together to make something this incredibly special and pure. Best new animated series of 2023, which is saying so much.

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There’s something I love about Sam’s comment about the months on Vesta being logged as overtime in episode one so much. It’s just so unapoligetically human, while fitting with themes in the show of a lack of humanity within the human characters because it’s an issue related to a non-essential survival requirement, that being money.

It feels like excellent commentary on money’s overbearing power in society that a man who has been stranded on a dangerous planet for months is concerned with it. And I appreciate that in a show that says so much about so many other things, it also snuck in small moments like that, ones that provoke even further thought if you’re willing to search for it.

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Scavengers Reign was phenomenal and I hope we get a season 2. I think my one critique is I feel like I got to know every character except for Ursula. I still don't know much about her or her history, and I want to. She seems like a good, deeply caring, and persistent person. Hopefully with another season the focus will shift a bit more on her in that regard.

Otherwise the pacing was fantastic. The animation felt deeply moving. I really adored the characters, especially Azi.

If anyone has yet to see the show I highly encourage it. I want to pick up the season DVD if HBO Max ever releases one.

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scavengers reign be like "here's a pretty shot. here's a funky creature. here's the most nauseating body horror known to man. here's a character going through unimaginable amounts of pathos. here's another funky creature"

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Scavengers Reign finale spoilers ahead:

There's something about the way Levi was the solution to Hollow, like... Kamen and the creature were in this feedback loop, right, making each other worse, isolated and focused only on each other. I was so unclear about Hollow's behavior and possible "motives" as it grew -- it wasn't behaving like an animal filling a niche in an ecosystem, but it didn't seem to have goals that made sentient sense either -- until I realized the extent to which their psychic bond went both ways. And nowhere was that more breathtakingly clear than when it found Fiona's body, looked at her with what seemed to be deep and genuine sorrow, then laid down beside her. Who knows if it would ever have moved again if she hadn't been destroyed. Like. This was a creature initially in tune and connected with its surroundings -- we see how the other members of its species go about their business -- until it enthralled Kamen and the two of them started feeding this circular obsession with themselves and Fiona, to the point that Hollow left its forest and trekked a vast distance to an alien hunk of metal that offered no sustenance, to go sit alone with a corpse. Completely disconnected from its home and the life on this planet.

And then. And then what breaks it, what boils away the monster, is this massive connection. Levi's deep and profound connection with the vast network of living things all over the planet, all intertwined -- it utterly overwhelms Hollow and Kamen, peels the creature down to a version of itself no longer bloated with the completely self-referential miasma it and Kamen had fostered in the closed system of their psyches.

And it gets another chance! That new little creature gets to go back and become a part of things again -- and so does Kamen. When we see him gently releasing that little green animal into the vibrant forest... That's the least selfish thing we've seen him do in the entire show. It's quite possibly the least selfish thing he's done in years. It's a step outside of himself, finally.

And I think it's interesting that the crucial moment was when the creature tried to enthrall Levi; it tried to suck Levi in the same way it did Kamen but Levi utterly RATIO-ED it through the awesome power of already BEING connected to a degree infinitely greater than the link Hollow was offering. Hollow couldn't contain all that; its capacity was too small. just. MAN!!!!

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#it was so much that was so much#the way he ripped out the thing actively destroying him but also the only thing keeping him alive?#the symbolism in this show makes me insane

i really really loved the scavengers reign final episodes.

that scene where sam steps under that tree and just. looks up at the light coming through the branches…Before anything even happened i knew at that moment he decided he was going to die there.

like can you imagine how that trip must’ve been ? he died long before he was even infected. he knew that. but ursula needed to see the demeter before he left her. he knew that. and so he went , dragging his corpse along. waiting. watching for the perfect place to say goodbye

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The world of scavengers reign is a world of pure mutualism. The show never asks “should we isolate ourselves from nature or connect with it” because that’s a false question; there is nothing BUT connection, there is no form of life outside of the ecosystem. Whether they can see it or not, every character becomes part of the planet the second they touch down.

The question then is what their connections will look like: if it will be mutually beneficial, parasitic towards one side or the other, or harmful to both.

I’ve seen people read Kaimen and hollow’s relationship as either kaimen “corrupting” hollow or hollow “manipulating” kaimen. But the truth is their relationship is just a noxious, unstable feedback loop. Neither party is really “in control”, they’re following the guidelines of an evolved relationship that was never meant for creatures as large and emotionally complex as humans to be part of. It’s the same process that occurs with the introduction of any invasive species: simple relationships shift in unstable ways, niches swap places and gain unexpected importance, and the health of the whole ecosystem is put in jeopardy through the lack of sustainability. The truth is that the strange, lovecraftian nightmare Kaimen and hollow create together is bad for BOTH parties. It’s the worst case scenario of the introduction of humanity onto the planet; not humanity “corrupting” some ideal, static image of perfect nature, but the relationship between the two making things worse for everyone.

It’s why one to stop Kaimen/hollow has to be Levi. Whose mutual relationship with the fungus in their circuitry has created something new and beautiful. Something we see has LONG TERM affects on the planet itself with the little baby planet Levis now growing from the flowers. This isn’t the case of nature “claiming” Levi. This is a collaboration, a partnership, something that utterly transforms both sides. It really seems like the death flowers form in some way the “mind” of the whole planet. And Levi has given that mind the artificial circuitry to think on a far higher and more active level than it was ever able to previously. It’s why hollow wasn’t able to control them. Trying to wrangle levis mind is like trying to hold a whole planet in your hands. Something wild and new and beautiful has been created here.

But these transformation can be scary! Sam’s fight with the parasite, paired with his prior skepticism at trying to “understand” the planet the way Ursula was, leaves him unable to adapt. Forced to either lose himself in the process of assimilation, or die separated from it. And again, the show doesn’t take for granted that these mutual connections are “good”. They’re necessary. Sam cannot live separate from nature. But for him, that death was still better than allowing it to change him so fundamentally. His strong willed nature makes him unable to let go the way Levi or Kaimen do, and the result is he doesn’t experience good OR bad results. He’s to brittle to allow for change. He simply ceases.

And so they you have Ursula and Azi. Who are both forced to learn and grow with the planet. Forced to follow the flow of nature even when it takes them places they don’t quite want to be. While at the same time finding little ways to exert their own agency, to not get swept away in the tide. And it’s a complicated balance. One that takes constant effort and isn’t guaranteed to end how they want. But they still have to do it. Because there’s nothing but connection.

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The last gifset was missing some Ursula appreciation

(plus some Azila cuz I can :3)

love the traumatized plant femme

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Me watching Scavengers Reign: oh you can tell they've seen Iron Giant

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every lesbian polycule has

- the traumatized buff cute butch

- the traumatized plant mom femme

- the probably a little traumatized, emotionally intelligent robot

- the traumatized little gremlin man they found within a psychic creature and decided to keep (he likes the plants)

- the recently unfrozen cute butch (otherwise she would definitely have trauma too)

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Finished the first season of Scavenger's Reign and wanted to post some thoughts about it.

First, I want to say that the show is gorgeous and the world and creatures are always stunning and interesting. This show is worth experiencing purely for those things alone.

However, as a story I think it was really lacking or, given the second season teaser at the end, maybe just incomplete. Which is disappointing since I can see the outline of some interesting themes going on but the show doesn't seem interested in delivering any sort of coherent statement about those ideas with the characters.

The unifying concept seems to be of humanity vs nature. Vespa is a wild and unfamiliar new ecology to the stranded survivors. While the creatures on Vespa aren't malicious their survival and the humans' survival is at odds and this forms the fundamental conflict of the show. Then later, I think in one of the last episodes, in Azi's flashback with Mia, Mia delivers a classic "this is the theme" monologue about how no matter where they are people should find ways to rely on other people. Which I interpret as the story being implicitly pro-humanity but also makes other things in the show less interesting maybe because I was hoping the show would go deeper than that.

Like here's how I interpret some of the characters and what happened to them. Sam starts out very pragmatic and is even positioned as opposed to Ursula on trying to understand Vespa (a thread that kind of gets dropped I feel). After he's infected with the parasite, at first he's invigorated but after coming to realize having the parasite allows him access to a deeper connection to Vespa chooses to die with his humanity rather than accept that influence. I think the horror framing of the parasite really muddies trying to think about it though. Kamen abdicates his humanity entirely to Vespa through Hollow (the little alien koala is called Hollow in the episode descriptions) unknowingly becoming a force of destruction but on contact with the "true understanding of Vespa" that Levi has is either rejected by the planet or reaccepts responsibility for his actions. Which one it is is kind of unclear. Finally, in Levi's arc the show seems to say that full harmony with Vespa isn't achievable by biological humans. Levi's strength is that they can be fully colonized by Vespa without any messy biological incompatibilities and they're even rewarded for accepting the planet with reproductive capability but that arc puts the human characters in a kind of bleak contrast and doesn't foretell good outcomes for them.

I guess I was hoping the show would give the characters a way to reflect on the idea of humanity vs nature more deeply. Probably the first couple episodes had me subconsciously ready to compare it to Dune and the teaser at the end of the last episode with the cathedral ship and the priests or whatever they were pushed that comparison into my conscious thinking. (Actually that teaser makes me a little worried if they're going about any of this thematic storytelling stuff being improved in S2, if it happens)

Anyway, some minor gripes: Hollow feels too much like a cheap trope. The rest of the ecology on Vespa felt very alien but still grounded. Hollow is just like a Grey but a koala complete with telepathic and telekinetic powers that no character ever really comments on and the transformation into a horror monster is also ungrounded.

I wish the show had spent a bit more time showing us how the characters discovered some of their knowledge about the ecology. Seeing Sam, Ursula, or Azi use the animals or plants in ingenious ways was cool but as they moved toward the ship and through unfamiliar biomes I started wondering about when they had the opportunity to figure all of this out. I'm thinking about the sequence where Azi, Barry and Kris have to cross that river and Azi pulls out this elaborate multi step process just to make sticky tack for their shoes like she'd been living by that riverside for years even though if you think about it I'm pretty sure that's the first time she'd ever been in that area.

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There is something about the inverse relationship of a man-made entity being reclaimed by nature vs. nature being corrupted by man y'know? Something about the totality of the human experience being intertwined with nature in both positive and negative ways...y'know? About nature having the final say in either way. About how the most beneficial relationship for both is one where humans respect nature. Because we're never gonna fully understand it. Y'know?

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Scavengers & Scavengers Reign review

Scavengers focuses on two stranded scientists on the planet Vesta Minor, exploiting its indigenous life for a variety of ends.

Biologically, the alien life doesn't make a lot of sense, being more like organic appliances. So if you're aiming for speculative evolution, don't bother. But if you're down for this amazing 2D animation and surreal spectacle, this is more than enough for you. It's honestly like watching people fixing a puzzle.

The story stars what are clearly predecessors for Scavengers Reign's Sam and Ursula. Due to the short being silent they have comparatively little personality, but the reveal at the end makes their actions understandable.

Overall a feast for the eyes.

***

Taking inspiration from the short Scavengers, Scavengers Reign features a more expansive cast stranded on the planet Vesta. Like it's predecessor it is a treat for the eyes, having stellar 2D animation.

Also like it's predecessor it makes no sense biologically, so again not for hard speculative biology fans. And while the creatures are still treated as appliances, there's a lot less of that, focusing instead on the human element of the story. Where Scavengers only had two silent characters, Scavengers Reign features three survivor groups plus additional later arrivals, each with a complicated history about their interpersonal relationships and how they arrived to the planet.

Less of a "solving puzzle" watch than it's inspiration, but this is a whole different beast anyways.

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Scavengers Reign was so perfect! I could not have asked for anything else from it!

I loved the depictions of the complex relationship humans have with the biotic world, and how some living organisms can fulfill niches within their environment that make them hostile to our way of life and how we survive. I loved how that isn’t depicted as inherently malicious. I loved that these relationships conveyed that nature can be a source of comfort and beauty, but also a source of terror and danger when we don’t fully understand it.

Everything about this, from its art style to its character writing, was so incredibly fantastic and I wish I had more people to talk about it with. It really is one of those stories that I wish I could write for myself.

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The conflict coming down to Levi and Hollow is so perfect.

Levi is a creation of humanity altered by Vesta. Hollow is a creature of Vesta altered by humanity.

Levi alters Vesta in turn, giving rise to a new species. Hollow alters Kamen in turn, giving him visions and guiding him.

Levi becomes a part of Vesta's ecosystem through the white lilly fungus, helping it grow. Hollow is torn away from Vesta's ecosystem through Kamen, killing more and growing more than it should be able to.

Hollow destroys Levi, which is the catalyst for Levi's transformation, becoming more than they were before. Levi destroys what Hollow has become, freeing Hollow and Kamen from each other's influence.

Two perfect arcs, coming together beautifully in two perfect confrontations.