#(<- that helmet absolutely counts as spoilers for anyone who has played the first two games)

[californiannostalgia]

Tangled the Series Character Analysis: Childhood Trauma POV

I can't believe Tangled the Series really created two incredible antivillains and threw them in direct contrast with the pre-existing golden couple. I love what the showrunners did with the main quartet, so I made a very subjective analysis post about it from a Childhood Trauma POV. (Spoilers, obviously.)

The Boys

The series' focus is on Rapunzel, and by association her direct opposite, Cassandra, so the boys get comparatively less screen time. But it doesn't take long to figure out that Varian is meant to be a parallel for Eugene—these are two people dealing with the absence of parental guardians, struggling to reconcile the lives they previously had with their changing ideals in relation to a less-than-perfect Father Figure.

They both respond to the helpless state of being young, alone, and powerless by trying to take back power in any way they can. Eugene reinvented himself and buried his desires for a family. Varian throws in everything he has into recovering what he lost, because he's a child and the best solution he can think of is to return to the familiar safety of his father's presence. A significant portion of his desperation is fueled by fear of his father’s disapproval, because as much as Quirin loves Varian, he wasn’t the dependable voice of support. Varian needs approval from outside sources, which was also Flynn Rider’s purpose in life, once upon a time. (Again, parallels.) 

Throughout the series, the boys' relationship with each other transforms from exasperated incomprehension to easy understanding. The process is hastened as Eugene lets himself realize he cares a lot about troubled kids who remind him of himself. He becomes aware that children should not be required to survive on their own like he and Lance had. Spurred on by his significant other's love and encouragement, Eugene is able to acknowledge the adverse affects of his childhood on his life and start moving on. His extending a ready hand to Varian is his process of healing. Though Eugene's first priority will always be Rapunzel, he truly wants to save Varian from the uncontrollable volatility of risky decisions because he knows that downward spiral intimately.

Of course, there is a difference between thieving from the rich and planning the destruction of a kingdom. We'll get to that later.

The Girls

Rapunzel and Cassandra are the biggest driving forces of narrative power in the show, and they are survivors of child abuse. Every one of the main quartet has Parent Issues, but Rapunzel takes the crown (figuratively speaking) with this one. She was kidnapped and groomed into a life-giving doll, and she was only able to escape her abusive adoptive mother through incredibly traumatizing means. For Cassandra, it was neglect, and even her loving adoptive father couldn't leviate the scars left on her childhood mind.

They're a classic case of Golden Child vs. Scapegoat, which is a common case seen in siblings raised by Narcissistic parents. When one child is "favored" more than the other, the kids experience vastly different childhoods, resulting in resentment that stems from their inability to understand each other. Rapunzel and Cassandra are both jealous of what the other had—Rapunzel wants Cassandra's casual, practiced ease with freedom and personal agency, while Cassandra wants the attention and respect that Rapunzel is given by the status of her birth. Because they're unwilling to speak candidly about the unique hardships of their childhood, what results is a series of miscommunications that put a strain on their friendship.

Cassandra and Rapunzel both want the other in their lives, but how they attempt to make that connection is very different. Cassandra wants to be a helpful, essential force in Rapunzel's life. Unfortunately, Rapunzel has been raised on the idea that when push comes to shove, no one will help her survive. Cassandra interprets Rapunzel's desire for independence as Rapunzel scorning the connection that Cassandra is attempting to create. Add in some manipulation from an ancient evil, and Cassandra decides she is done exhausting her emotions for Rapunzel.

Rapunzel, on the other hand, wants absolute honesty in her relationships. Gothel raised her on lies, so she spurns deception. But Cassandra knows the merits of protecting herself by holding her opinions in, which is where the misunderstandings occur. Rapunzel cannot trust someone who isn't completely forthright with her. She's tired of dealing with liars, and she grows afraid that Cassandra will cause her the same pain as Gothel did. But the thing is, Cassandra is not Gothel, and Rapunzel loved Gothel. She couldn't save Gothel, but maybe she can save Cassandra. It's not too late.

Rapunzel doesn't know when to give up on Cassandra because she is aware that she and Cassandra are similar people. Giving up on Cassandra would feel too much like giving up on her own hopes for a happy life. Rapunzel can't let Cassandra be unhappy. This princess cares too much, loves too hard. She never learned how to write people off because you can't survive a childhood like hers with that much cheer if you don't hang onto your optimism like a goddamn lifeline.

This is Rapunzel’s method of taking back power for herself: saving others. Rapunzel could have been Cassandra. Rapunzel is trying to believe she herself is worth saving—therefore, Cassandra must be worth saving as well. Rapunzel's significant other is giving her a stable source of love and support, but without a proper resolution to Cassandra's struggles—a final proof that despite Gothel's influence, they can both be happy—Rapunzel would feel incomplete.

The Golden Couple

At the end of the day, Rapunzel and Eugene are fundamentally good people. If it comes down to it, they would be unable to sacrifice the world for their own desires. (Eugene's thievery doesn't count as an expression of true desire because it was literally his method of survival. An expression of true, selfish desire for him might've been something like manipulation and abduction for the purposes of making people stay, but Eugene is not Gothel and he would never do that to anyone in a million years.) (On a side note, Rapunzel's selfish desire might've manifested in the abandonment of all duties and personal connections in favor of eternal exploration, or revenge towards a kingdom that failed to save her, or a thorough destruction of authority figures—but she loves people too much and would never be able to forsake her family.)

Life threw a lot of rocks at them, but these two came through it marginally well-adjusted. They affirmed their love for each other in a violent, unforgettable manner, which makes it easier for them to trust in each other's affection. Eugene would've been okay with never finding his biological father, just as Rapunzel had been okay with her biological parents' inability to protect her. They have no wish to punish the world for what they suffered. They’re content with who they are. They're just glad they made it, that they're finally allowed to love someone without being afraid. They're each other's saving grace.

The Antivillains

This is the difference between Hero and Antivillain: Cassandra and Varian are willing to punish the world for what happened to them. There’s a very faint line between justified retaliation and venting. In their desperation and anger, they cross the line, and they’re unable to stop themselves once they get going. Unlike the Golden Couple, Cassandra and Varian refuse to settle. They want what is owed. 

Also, they really, really hate themselves. (This is important.)

Varian believes Quirin is the ultimate source of affirmation. The fact that he lost his father by way of his own dangerous experiment, coupled with the fact that no one prioritizes his call for help in the face of national disaster, is enough to make him feel isolated from the world. Though he is burdened with a growing sense of remorse for his deeds, he doesn’t stop resorting to drastic, harmful measures to get his father back until he is forcefully stopped by betrayal from his allies. He finally makes the full transition from “antagonist” to “protagonist” when Rapunzel risks herself to save Quirin from the rocks. If Quirin could not be saved, there’s a possibility Varian might have stayed an antagonist, unenthusiastic though he may have been in his villainous role. As long as Quirin is trapped in those rocks, Varian remains the villain who put him there.

With Quirin safe, Varian allows himself to take huge steps in healing. He slowly rediscovers his self-worth, one that is separate from Quirin’s approval. Rapunzel—and by extension, Eugene—play the friendly, supportive role to Varian’s ingenuity, helping him along in his quest for self-acceptance. Varian still has trouble working through the heavily ingrained self-hatred, but he recovers enough confidence in his own judgment that he takes Eugene’s warning to heart and is able to install a safety device in his father’s helmet, just in case.

This is the Varian who meets Cassandra in the Tower that once belonged to Gothel. At this point in time, Cassandra has been manipulated into thinking of herself as weak and unimportant in comparison to Rapunzel. Her adoptive father, much like Quirin, was too gruff to be vocal with approvals. Her efforts have not been met with successes. She feels like a failure, and she hates feeling like a failure. This is Cassandra’s method of taking back power: by turning herself into someone unforgettable. If she can make something of herself, she’ll finally be able to prove Gothel wrong. She can be just as special as Rapunzel, if she’s given the chance. She wants that chance.

Similar to Varian, Cassandra doesn’t stop her downward spiral until her supposed ally and mentor betrays her and forcefully takes her power away. Only when there are no options left does she allow herself to admit that she was wrong. She is then rewarded for her honesty with Rapunzel’s love and trust. Armed with a new confidence, the sisters vanquish the evil together in an epic showdown that will long be remembered. Cassandra finally gets her dramatic hero’s tale.

Rapunzel and Eugene have an internal compass that lets them make snap decisions. They don’t have the healthiest self-esteem, but they can at least stand by what they think is right. Comparatively speaking, Cassandra and Varian have terrible self-esteem. They don’t trust their own judgment and are heavily influenced by outside forces. Without the constant barrage of trust and affection from Rapunzel, who is akin to a blazing sun when it comes to personal loyalty, these antivillains might never have reached their redemptive ending. They wouldn’t have been able to let go of their twisted priorities without outside influence. Can’t blame them for it, though.

It’s no surprise that Cassandra and Varian are relatable to many people. Who wouldn’t want to reclaim what was taken from them during childhood? (Of course, the problem occurs when you start hurting others to reclaim what you lost.) Their journey is a different kind of vulnerable from Rapunzel and Eugene’s journey, and it’s extraordinary in its detail. This show is essentially a long exploration of the various ways a parent can mess you up and the coping methods of kids who want to become more than their past, which is totally up my alley of expertise. I’m grateful I got to watch them grow taller than their trauma.

Finally, here’s a parting gif of Lance, because I love him and he’s a well-adjusted ray of sunshine. We all wish we could be as mentally stable as Lance—the main quartet included.

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian episode 8 reactions

Spoilers ahoy! In short I liked it a lot and now my brain is desperately trying to process it all haha

- thank god taika waititi knows I needed us to open on two unsympathetic comedy stormtroopers after all the stress last time. (in general this episode was very funny and it needed to be because dang mando is having a Bad Day in this one) that scene did such a good job of hilariously humanizing the stromtroopers but in a way that highlights what kind of people would stay with the empire even after the fall. they’re real breathing humans but they’re also baby-punching fascists and it’s not much of a loss to anyone that IG-11 goes to town on them

- ooooh cara is from alderaan!!! that explains just how deep her hatred for the empire is. (*me thinking wistfully about bail organa, the OG good dad of the star wars universe*) also I say this all the time but she is so cool and beautiful and important and the little ‘oh uh oops’ look she threw down at the baby after blowing that droid’s head of was  p r i c e l e s s . too bad she’s staying on navarro while mando leaves :(

- FINALLY name confirmation! I’m going to have to go and fix the spelling for my fics and I don’t even care haha. also pedro pascal is so amazing at making his voice expressive jesus christ you can feel the weight of it just from the small pauses between his words (’mandalorian recruits’ = evil empire speech for ‘children’ I’m assuming so. augh) 

- cara SHIELDING HIM WITH HER OWN BODY even though he’s literally still in full armor and her beautiful buff arms are completely unprotected *elmo surrounded in flames gif (ironically)* that might actually be more non-violent physical contact than mando’s had since he was a kid (lol but also ouch). there was something almost sibling-like in the way they huddled together, im hurt 

- with that grilled flamethrower trooper baby yoda has officially committed his first unassisted murder! *drying proud tears* they grow up so... well obviously not fast in this case but you know what I mean

as usual the baby was a delight. I mean you know this I know this but it bears repeating basically forever

- you know what in one way it felt a bit too early but in another I really like how they showed mando’s face. I think it’s because that reveal isn’t witnessed by any other characters except IG-11 (who is best boy <3 but also there in the role of a medical practitioner and audience stand-in so it doesn’t count in the metaphor lol) -- it’s entirely meant for us, the audience. the whole season really has been a long journey towards specificity in his character; we open up with him being a faceless, nameless and damn near wordless figure, and then they’ve let us closer and closer to him until... now we have his name and his face both and that probably means we know him better than the vast majority of the characters in the show (which is admittedly not saying much haha). it still leaves a LOT of potential in the interpersonal dynamics within the series, but does something interesting for our view of him (and sets up an interesting possibility for a sort of tension between the two as well maybe?). 

it feels weird and too intimate but I think that’s exactly what it’s supposed to do. I’d actually been trying to put this into words before this episode -- I didn’t feel able to write fic for this show until episode 7; before that taking on his POV felt... invasive, almost? awkward? but now it feels like the show has reached a place where we get close enough that it’s starting to be possible. he’s having to become more and more real (because he has a baby he loves and who needs him now and he can’t just dissociate anymore haha)

there’s also something really beautiful if fragile in how it plays out like... for this one moment he needs to allow himself to be made vulnerable (by a droid, no less) and through that act of tremendous courage, even though it confuses and pains him, choose to live. after all he was completely free to shoot IG-11 the whole time and he didn’t. I. Hm. mhm. im trying to figure out what I mean give me a few days to write fiction about it and maybe I’ll get it lol

- the way mando disappeared into himself/seemed to be just... resigned to it all was uh. awful! absolutely awful. 

thank GOD all these people around him straight up refused to let him die, at a few points it was almost a feeling of ‘SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME A GRENADE TO THROW MYSELF ON I’M NOT READY TO BE FULLY ALIVE AGAIN BUT I’LL HAVE TO BE BECAUSE I HAVE A LITTLE ONE TO BE A DAD FOR’ (at a few points where it’d be natural if he was triggered he instead seems to want to give the child to someone he thinks is more suited and then a) fight (and probably die but y’know at least he’d get to shoot someone) or b) at least stay with and honor the dead. oof) 

- very rude of mando to make a grave for kuiil when he’s not even dead tbh. how unlike our main boy in the helmet to be impolite like that, I’m surprised 

(I had so desperately hoped IG-11 at least would survive as a sort of legacy -- a testament to his skill and kindness and wisdom :( )

- I KNEW nothing would get the armorer in her own damn forge :D:D:D she is so incredibly cool and I love her. the way she stands there unshaken despite everything like a pillar of what their culture actually is at the core. and also when she’s like ‘well of course this is your son’ and the camera cuts to baby yoda as if to say ‘as I keep telling you dad’ 

the mirror of her immovable upright certainty and mando on his knees in front of the pile of dead people’s armor -- an image which makes it feel like this is not the first time he’s been there, right?

mando not enthused at the idea of evil sorcerers tho lol I foresee some trickiness in your future my boy

- of ALL the funny references they had to make sad it had to be the self destruct D: I’ve always had a lot of feelings about droids in star wars so I’m probably going to have to process this a bit. also “I’m not sad” oh honey

- I have only a very vague knowledge about the darksaber (I couldn’t get into rebels sadly despite my love for clone wars), but I do understand that it’s taking the nazi gold comparison they’ve got going on with the beskar and dialing it up to 11, that’s apparently a Big Deal. they’ve done such a good job with gideon in setting up a bad guy who works on several levels -- he wants the thing that’s most important to mando today for what’s implied to be Not very great reasons, he’s a physical reminder of the cultural and personal trauma this series is looking at, and as a remnant of the fallen Empire he’s doing a lot of work as the specter of this sort of lawless unsettled in-between age. good stuff! 

- greef karga earned himself a big place in my heart in this one. you might be sketchier than my understanding of horse anatomy, greef, but I love you nonetheless haha. when he starts to drink nervously while they’re trying to get out of the bar & when he’s immediately doing the sales pitch on Navarro once the blaster fire dies down fdkslhfkas. and that “Or maybe he’ll take care of you” shows that there is some real concern and friendship there and it’s so sweet. 

- mando carrying the baby like he was carried safely and with love by the mandalorian in the flashback............ damn dude. and he’s an official full time dad now what a time to be alive

- obligatory flamethrower report: do I even need to say it, mando’s flame thrower. must I point out how badly you have been shown up. honestly this has just been embarrassing for us all let us speak no more of it

[intothestarkerverse]

Welcome to My Dark Side (2)

Sequel to ‘Time of Our Lives’

Tony Stark has done his best to fit into the 21st century by embracing his new role, new family, and even his new nicknames.  Determined to become a hero worthy of calling Peter Parker his life partner, everything seems to be going better than he could have hoped…until Tony’s efforts to help Peter uncover the truth behind his parents’ death put everything he knows and loves in terrible danger.  In the face of absolute darkness, how can love and life survive?

(STORY CONTAINS ENDGAME SPOILERS)

Read on AO3

“You have breakfast yet?”  Tony eyed the six year old perched on a stool at his breakfast counter.  Her responding expression was beyond her sparse years, little mouth drawn into a serious frown, brows furrowed, dark eyes humorless with their intensity.  “Guess I should ask if you had anything good for breakfast, instead, right?”  Without waiting for a response, he turned back to his cupboards, plucking two bowls, two spoons, a carton of milk and a box of cereal out before precariously balancing his bounty back across the kitchen to the counter.

Morgan immediately perked up at the sight of the sugary breakfast treat that Pepper tried very hard to keep away from her growing daughter.  The fact that she had dumped Morgan on him this morning because she had an early morning conference call with someone in Japan just meant that Tony had a chance to spoil her, and spoil her he would.  Tony couldn’t bring himself to look on her as a daughter no matter what genetics said about the matter, but he’d always wanted a little sister and Morgan Stark was special in every single sense of the word.  He loved that kid and he’d happily murder anyone who even breathed on her wrong.

Morgan examined the box of cereal carefully as Tony prepared their meal, amused by the sugar-covered pieces of processed grain in the shape of tiny arc reactors and corresponding red and gold iron man helmet-shaped marshmallows.  “Let’s not tell your mom about this, huh?”

Morgan cocked her head at him, providing him with a half smirk as she chewed.

“Yeah, okay, don’t know what that means.  Kid, you’re the most cryptic six-year-old I’ve ever met.”  He enjoyed a few spoonfuls of his own bowl before he thought to ask, “Happy’s taking you to school in a bit, right?”  Pepper hadn’t said anything about Tony playing chauffeur, but he also hadn’t been paying much attention when the mother and daughter had arrived early that morning either.  Pepper could count her lucky stars that he didn’t require a lot of sleep and that he was still almost obsessively focused on the puzzle that Fury had presented to him after the fundraiser or he’d likely have been down for the count like most of the civilized folk in Manhattan at that hour.  As it was, he’d been deeply ensconced in his workshop with something that was going to benefit his future plans with Peter...a project he’d had to artfully hide from Pepper before she connected the dots and realized something he’d rather she not know.  

“Mhm,” Morgan barely afforded him a grunted response around her heaping mouthful of cereal.  It really was a shame how Pepper fed this kid.  Cutting sugar out of her breakfast food regimen was un-American.  School plans settled, the two fell into a companionable silence, eating their cereal and glancing over the graphics of the Old Man on the box from time to time.  Some kind of idle statistics about his do-gooding and IQ adorned the back.  The IQ was off by twenty points.  He was going to have to make them fix that.  

Tony didn’t realize Morgan had finished her cereal until he looked up from the box to find her staring at him with that same intense expression.  “You okay, Maguna?”

“How come you and daddy are the same?”

Tony almost spit his cereal out.  Somehow, he managed to swallow it in a gulp and stall for time with a little coffee as he coughed and sputtered on the soggy grain and milk.  “Uh, well, it’s just genetics kid.  You and the Old Man are a lot alike, too.”

“Um...no.  You and daddy are just alike, TJ.”

“Okay...well...there’s an explanation for that...”

Morgan pursed her lips and raised both brows at him, moving to a kneeling position on the stool so she could lay across the counter and reach out to place her hands on his face.  “You look just the same.  And sound just the same.  And your fingers are the same.  You’re the same as my daddy.”

Yeah, okay, so she was a Stark and he really should have seen this coming.  He could almost pity Howard in this moment if this gave him any clue about what he’d been like as a six year old.  Christ.  Tony cleared his throat, searching for something to say to explain it all away.  Instead, all he could do was stall for time.  “How did you figure this out, Kid?”

“Miss Friday helped me.”

“Seriously? What do you have to sat for yourself, Fri?”

“You told me to assist in Morgan’s education whenever possible, Boss.”  Tony let out a long sigh, that had not been what he meant.  “She asked me about your fingerprints and voice analysis and how they corresponded to Mr. Stark’s so I provided her with detailed comparisons of both.”

Tony tapped the back of the little girl’s hand on his cheek with his finger.  “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”

“Cause I am.”

“Mhm, and what made you think to compare my fingerprints and voice with your father’s?”

“My teacher said everybody has a voice that is just their own and not like anybody else in the whole wide world but you and daddy sound just alike.  Sometimes when you put me to bed I close my eyes and pretend you’re him.”

God, she was actually trying to kill him, now.  Tony felt his throat constrict as he plucked her hands off of his face and gave them a tight squeeze.  “I’m not your daddy, Morgan.  I wish I was because you’re so damn smart and beautiful and amazing, but I’m not.  You’re right, though, I’m not you’re brother either.  I just....I really need your mom and everyone else to believe that I am so can this be our little secret and I promise that sometime real soon I’ll sit down and tell you everything, okay?  For now...believe me when I tell you that your daddy is out there watching everything you do and he’s so freaking proud of you kid.  Whenever you see a rainbow or a shooting star or something crazy good happens to you out of the blue, that’s your dad telling you how much he loves you.”

“3000.”

Tony blinked away the tears in his eyes, clearing his throat and abandoning the counter to tidy up.  “Exactly.”

“Boss, Happy is here to pick up Morgan for school...” Saved by the AI.

“You hear that, Maguna?  Get a move on or you’ll be late.  Wait...I want a hug first.  Yep, that’s the stuff right there.”  He buried his nose in the little girl’s hair for a moment and gave it a good ruffle with his fingers before he let go.    “Be good and kick butt in school, okay?  Love you, kid.”

“I love you too, TJ.”

“3000?”

A pause.  “2005.”

“Ouch.”

~~~~~

“I’m still not sure about this.”

“What’s not to be sure about, Beautiful?  I’ve thought of everything.”

Peter turned back to the holographic read outs with a long sigh.  They were blueprints of the old Oscorp labs, or at least what little information Tony had been able to hack his way into at Shield, along with a few other reports that looked like weather and topographic readouts of the area.  Peter knew that this was their best bet, but he didn’t like it.  He didn’t think he could attribute it to his Spidey Sense, or Peter Tingle as the rest of the Avengers had taken to calling it (thanks to May).  No, it didn’t feel quite the same.  There was no sense of impending danger, just a heavy blanket of foreboding that was threatening to choke off his air supply.  Tony obviously didn’t feel the same, so maybe he was just being silly.  Or maybe he wasn’t.

Peter was supposed to tell May that he was going on a spring break trip with Tony, MJ, and Ned.  While MJ and Ned were actually going to go to Florida to live it up, he and Tony were heading to upstate New York to infiltrate Osborn’s lab.  Ned would be armed with a special Stark Phone that Tony had outfitted with the tech to provide realistic synthetic substitutes of Tony and Peter.  If May or Pepper sent texts, they were going to get varied and believable responses meant to replicate the young men’s actual speech and text patterns.  If they called or video chatted, a variant of the BARF technology was going to provide a realistic computerized response that would again fool the older women into thinking they were both in Florida living the good life by utilizing actual noise pollution and visuals from Ned and MJ’s vacation.  The guilt of leaving May at the airport thinking they were taking Tony’s private jet to Florida when they were instead flying headfirst into danger...it was almost suffocating and he couldn’t ignore the worry any longer.  “What happens if we’re not back in a week, Tony?”

“If we’re not back by the time that MJ and Ned have gotten back, than Friday is going to reveal our true destination to May, Pepper, and Fury so arrangements can be made.”

Funeral arrangements or just rescue mission arrangements?  Peter wanted to ask, but he knew better than to say any of that out loud.  He and Tony rarely fought, but Peter knew that nothing made Tony angrier than mentioning their own mortality.  “Are you sure this is a good idea?”  Because Peter wasn’t sure at all.  He’d heard Tony’s argument a hundred times but part of him still felt sick at what they were planning to do.

“Your parents are out there.  They’re alive.  We don’t leave men behind.  Besides, if there is something big and nasty coming than we need to know what it is and how to stop it.  I refuse to do what the Avengers did and just sit around waiting for the Big Bad to come knocking down our door.  We’re not going to be surprised again, Peter.  Whatever this bad thing is...we’re going to identify it and even after we close that gateway...we’re going to be ready for it because there’s no guarantee that closing the gateway will end the danger.  None.”

Peter could only nod slowly.  “Yeah, okay.  No, you’re right.  Of course you are.  I’m just...I’m nervous about getting my hopes up and visiting another world and just...everything.”

Tony laughed, reaching out to tug Peter across the room and into his arms.  His lips ghosting against the younger man’s, breath hot against Peter’s mouth as he embraced him, “We had sex in two different times, Baby, now we get to consummate parallel earths.  Tell me that’s not hot as fuck.”

“Depends on the parallel earths.”

Tony snorted a laugh as he nuzzled into Peter’s neck and nipped at his ear, “You need to stop worrying.  We’re superheroes, Baby.  Arguably the two best superheroes on the planet.”

“Only because Thor is off world with the Guardians...”

“Honestly, you and Thor.  If I didn’t know better, I’d be jealous.”

Their conversation died off as the Quinjet came to a quiet landing.  Peter held onto Tony for several more seconds, eyes closed, breathing in the scent of the older man in an attempt to calm the frenzied beating of his heart.  Finally, though, he gently pushed himself away and tapped his watch to engage the Ironspider suit.

Several things became apparent to Peter as the two descended the ramp from the cloaked jet plane.  This was clearly going to be even more difficult than Peter had thought.  Fury hadn’t been lying when he said that Shield had sealed the lab in an attempt to prevent anything from the Gateway from breaching the outside world.  From outward appearances, it looked like the entire building had been encased in a giant block of cement.  “Uh, so...” 

“Don’t worry, I had the Iron Legion working on our way in for the last twenty-four hours.  Believe it or not, inside this cement, there’s another layer of titanium.  Anyway, it took six suits, but we have a way in.  Follow me.”  Iron Man circled the building with Spidey close on his heals.  The moment they turned the corner, Peter could see the suits.  It appeared that they’d concentrated their repulsers into a succession of laser-like beams that had sliced a rectangular chunk of cement and metal to reveal one of the doors on the blueprints.  “I’m leaving them on guard duty while we’re gone.  Friday will make sure that nothing comes out of this facility until we get back...and if by some miracle something gets by, she’ll radio the New Avengers.  You don’t have to worry, Pete.”

“Famous last words.”  It was in times like this that Peter found himself missing Mr. Stark.  Tony just hadn’t experienced the level of failure and defeat that Mr. Stark, or even Peter, had.  He didn’t know to expect the worst, but Peter did.  He cast a wary glance at the Iron Legion, biting his tongue as Tony moved for the door.

It came open with a pop, the musty smell of stale air, dust and mildew washed out around them.  Peter only got the smallest whiff before he felt the filtration system in the suit come online. 

The interior looked like nothing but darkness.  No light could penetrate from the concrete and titanium covered walls, so there was nothing visible beyond a few feet into the entry.  It wasn’t as if Mr. Stark hadn’t thought of those concerns a long time ago.  Something as mundane as darkness was hardly any match for Iron Man.  Lighting and night vision had been built into the earliest models of the suit, after all.  As Iron Man stepped into the abyss beyond, that tech came online to illuminate the area around him and several feet in front of him.  A similar array of artificial illumination ignited on the Ironspider suit as well.  Gulping back his fear, Peter reached out to close the door behind them and they were bathed in black.

The entire facility was filthy, awash with dust, debris, and cobwebs.  Out of the corner of his eye, Peter caught sight of what he could only assume was the corpse of a fallen Shield Agent, but he did his best to avoid looking at it for too long.  Still, the momentary glimpse of the skeleton was burned onto is retinas.  “Tony...”

There was something wrong with that sight.  The body.  As much as he wanted to avoid looking, he couldn’t help but glance back towards it.  “Tony, if the building is sealed...how is that body not mummified...”

Tony was already bending over it to examine the bones as the oddity of the body struck him as wrong at almost the same time.  “I think these are tooth marks...”. He held up an ulna, running an armored finger over the grooves on the bone.  “These are definitely toothmarks.  Friday says they appear...humanoid.”

Peter certainly hoped that Tony couldn’t hear him gulping in fear behind his own mask....but with the sensitive comms, he probably could.  “Tony...what are we locked in here with?”

“I don’t know.  Let’s just...be careful, and hope that Peter Tingle of yours is on point tonight.”

“Spidey sense.”

“Hmm,” Tony reverently replaced the bone and stood, brushing off his gauntlets.  

“I prefer the term ‘Spidey Sense.’ “

“Give me one good reason why I should call it Spidey Sense, Baby, because that name isn’t nearly as funny...”

“Because you’re the only thing that makes my peter tingle.”

Tony had to brace himself against the wall to support himself as he laughed.   “God, Beautiful, every time I don’t think I could love you more...you go and drop one of those gems on me.  Damn.”

Peter’s response was lost on his lips.  He felt the telltale warning of danger shiver down his spine as he caught sight of movement just at the periphery of their location.  There wasn’t time to warn him, there was really only time for Peter to fire a quick line of webbing at his lover and tug him back as something dark and terrifying lunged from the shadows.  Peter could swear he could hear it moaning the word ‘meat.’  

“What the fuck...” A repulser blast bit into the wall inches from the creature, scorching its arm and the tatters of what appeared to be clothing and once more driving it back into the shadows before either hero could get a good look at it.  “Well, at least we know what ate the bodies...”

“Yeah, Tony, that’s not nearly as comforting as you think it is.”  Even worse, perhaps, were the observations from both Karen and Friday that the creature had no heat signature and wouldn’t be visible on infrared.  Now their trek through the building was much more careful and calculated.  There were signs of the creatures everywhere.  Claw marks on the walls, ransacked rooms, shattered furniture, the little skeletons of rats and mice and anything else unfortunate enough to have been sealed into the lab with them.  It was only the knowledge of the Parkers’ distress call that kept Peter moving through the corpse of the once thriving laboratory.  His parents were alive.  They’d escaped this place, and so would he and Tony.  They just had to.

At least Tony seemed to know where he was going.  He’d studied the blueprints much longer than Peter and had no doubt pinpointed precisely where a lab with a dimensional gateway would be located.  Neither man mentioned the occasional sound of shuffling footsteps, the soft grunts and moans, the momentary glimpses of shifting shadows.  There were clearly more than one of those things in there with them, but for the moment, they were hanging back.  Maybe Tony had scared them with the repulser.  Or, maybe as with many of the hunters in the animal kingdom, they were stalking their prey and waiting for exactly the right moment to strike.

The Gateway didn’t look anything like Peter had imagined it would.  Shows like Stargate had always made them out to be large and imposing, a shifting, whirling mass of colors housed within an intricate metal or stone structure that provided it shape.  This portal was anything but. 

Peter could barely make it out without one of the specialized lenses of his suit.  To the naked eye, it appeared as little more than the somewhat fluid appearance of very hot air on a humid July day.  It was in that subtle wavering of the light that the slightest glimpse of a world beyond their own could be captured...but never long enough to make anything out.  A quick sweep of the area showed that the portal was being maintained by a strip of metal along the ground that was joined to a large and imposing computer.  While Peter had been examining the Portal, Tony had been taking stock of the technology.

“They cut off power to the lab in the hopes that it would cause the Gateway to close.  It didn’t, which means that whatever is powering this portal isn’t coming from our dimension anymore.”

“That’s comforting.”  Peter reached out to touch the shimmering air.  As his finger hit the air, the tip of it vanished.  He felt nothing.  No pain, no tingling, no disconnection.  Nothing to suggest it was a portal to another world besides the fact that the tip of his finger had vanished before his very eyes.

“Peter, stop poking the portal.  It has a radiation signature...”

The young man withdrew his hand quickly, glad that Tony couldn’t see what he was certain was a guilty look on his face.  Neither of the men had withdrawn their suits since entering the laboratory.  The air inside the lab was breathable, if their read outs were any suggestion, but also so stale that it would likely not be pleasant for either one of them.  Besides, with those monsters running around, it seemed smart to have some kind of protection on hand.  Now, with what looked like a radiation signature emanating from the portal...the suits were staying on for the foreseeable future.

Tony was busy patching one of the main computer terminals into a handheld arc reactor to allow him to reboot and access the information they both hoped was still accessible on the hard drives while Peter was pacing the lab like a nervous animal in a zoo.  Just like a nervous animal in a zoo, he could feel what was an indeterminate amount of eyes trained on his every movement and his inability to know where they were or what they were planning was making his every instinct scream warnings in his head.

Desperate for some distraction, Peter started to look more closely at the room itself.   It looked as if the place had just been abandoned in the middle of a shift.  There as a mug of coffee by one terminal with what appeared to be dried contents of a cup still housed within it.  A stack of granola bars and food from what must have been a break room vending machine  sat next to a swath of complicated equations that Peter picked up and shuffled through silently.  Not everything was immaculate, however.  A few desks had been upturned.  Chairs broken.  There were bullet holes in the wall near the door and the door itself had clearly been forced open from the outside by organic means.

“I think...I think after they sealed them in here, my mom and dad must have gathered some supplies and tried to stick it out in here.  But um...whatever’s out there...it must have wanted them pretty bad.”

Tony glanced up from the computer, the expressionless mask of his armor giving Peter no hint as to what was going on in the mind beneath.  

Peter’s foot met with something on the floor and it skittered forward.  Upon closer inspection, he recognized an old school camcorder with a tape still housed inside.  “You um...you think you can make this work?”

Tony had already Jerry-rigged a thumb drive to the computers’ memory to download any and all information he could.  Waving Peter over, he took the camcorder and in a matter of minutes had it once more powered up, tape rewound.

For several seconds it appeared to be a tape recording the team’s initial attempt to establish the Gateway.  Then, the scene cut out and a familiar face came into frame.

She was a little older and much less put-together than she had been the last time that Tony and Peter had seen her, but there was no mistaking Mary Parker for all that she and Peter resembled one another.  She was dirty, sweating, tired, but still very much alive as she addressed the camera.

“If you’re seeing this, than that means you came back for us...which...all due respect, Fury, but that was stupid.  I told you we’d be okay if you sealed us in here, that we’d figure something out...and we did.  I think.  I hope.  No, I’m sure that we did.”

A loud sound shook the frame and with wide eyes Mary glanced off camera where Richard was shouting “Hurry up, Mary, we don’t have a lot of time here.”

“Right.  Right.  We can’t stay here, Fury.  The anomalies are...they’re not like we thought.  They appear to have higher brain function, an ability to communicate.  They’ve displayed a remarkable ability to reason and hunt and now that they know they’re trapped in here with us...that we’re the only food supply left...they’re pretty determined to eat us.  So uh....it’s time to go.  And since we can’t get out of here through the door....we’re going to use the Gateway.”

“I’ve had a little bit of time to work on the math.  I think I understand how this thing works at least as well as the men who built it...which arguably isn’t very well.”  She held up the swath of complicated equations that Peter had seen on the desk nearby.  “It’s all here.  I’ll...leave if for you.  Hopefully...hopefully it‘ll still be here for you.”

Another loud sound, a curse from Richard, and Mary paled considerably.  “I’m sorry...I’m sorry I’ve got to cut this short.  I...I can’t shut the Gateway down because it’s not being powered by our dimension anymore.  Unless or until we find the power source, this thing is open for good...but I can change the world it opens up to.  We’re not going to the world where these things originated...but beyond that.  I don’t know.  I’m going to try to make it home, Fury.  But if we don’t...you keep your promise and you make sure my baby boy is taken care of, you hear me.  You owe us that.”

The sound of wood splintering, of those creatures hissing and screaming and moaning.  The camcorder dropped, still recording and slid against a desk, catching the image of Richard and Mary Parker as they ran through the Gateway to the screams of the monsters they left behind.

Peter closed the camcorder, hands trembling slightly.  “Tony...if those things are as smart as she says...why aren’t they coming after us?”

Tony hazarded a glance towards the broken door and rubbed the back of his neck with a gauntlet.  “I don’t know, Beautiful, but I don’t like it.”

Peter considered it for a moment.  “Maybe they’re trying to get out again...”

“I don’t care how scary they are, Peter, there’s no way they’re getting past the Iron Legion.”

“So...when they can’t get out the door and they realize that we’re the only food source...”

Tony cursed, “Yeah.  I think the ones we can hear are sentries...”

“They’re watching to make sure we can’t get away.”

“‘Fraid so.  Or hoping that when we get done here we’ll leave them an opening to get out.”

Peter was already gathering the papers his mother had left behind, stuffing them into a briefcase he’d found discarded beneath a desk.  He threw the camcorder in with it and after a moment’s hesitation grabbed the handful of granola bars as well.  They probably didn’t go bad, right?  And he might get hungry later.  “What I don’t get...is why they didn’t go through the portal, too.  If they’re smart and they’re hungry and they’ve been surviving in here for over a decade....why not try that other world out?”

“Because your mother was smart enough to leave it open to a location they wouldn’t be able to utilize, Pete.  Radiation signature.  Whatever is on the other side of that portal is deadly for them...at least as deadly as it would be for us.”

“But my parents...”

“They didn’t go through to that world, Pete.”  Tony gestured to a read out near the floor where a long alphanumeric sequence could be seen.  “You can see most of the readout on the video.  It’s not the same.  After your parents went through...they must have found a way to redial the Gateway and make sure it emptied to someplace...innocuous.”

Peter didn’t know if this new made him feel better or worse.  “Okay...so...what’s our next move...” His words died on his lips, replaced by an anguished cry brought on by what felt like the pain of being set on fire.  His Spidey-Sense had never felt like that before.  It had never been so strong that it was excruciating, but as his gaze moved from Tony to the doorway and he caught sight of what had triggered the tingle...Peter completely understood.

His Spidey Sense was right.  

They were so totally and completely fucked.

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode 8 Easter Eggs & References

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This Star Trek: Lower Decks article contains spoilers.

If anyone was on the fence as to whether or not the Lower Deckers in Star Trek: Lower Decks were also giant in-universe Star Trek fans, the latest episode, “Veritas,” will reveal the truth. Mariner, Rutherford, Tendi and Boimler know their Trek history better than most real life Trekkies. And to prove it, this episode has more Easter eggs and deep-cuts than (mabye) all the other episodes combined. From discussions about the hair styles of obsecure TNG characters, to some very big homages to a big seen in Star Trek VI, this episode packed in the references, and then decided to throw in a Gorn wedding.

Here are all of the Easter eggs and references we caught in Star Trek: Lower Decks, Episode 8, “Veritas.”

Klingon trial from The Undiscovered Country

Later in the episode, Rutherford describes the setting for the episode as “Alien trial 101.” He’s not wrong. From the elevating platform to the tall alcoves full of shouting aliens, everything about this setting — including the banging of the creepy gavel — is meant to remind us of Kirk and McCoy’s trial on the Klingon Homeworld in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Granted, the gavel in The Undiscovered Country was not shaped like a skull, but the guy who banged it in that movie was wearing a metal claw.

The voice of Klarr

Kurtwood Smith plays the alien Klarr in this episode. Smith is famous to RoboCop fans as being the bad guy in RoboCop and famous to Star Trek fans as the guy who played the President of the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. As the President, Kurtwood Smith is the guy who said Kirk and McCoy had to stand trial for the murder of Chancellor Gorkon.

Roga Danar versus Khan

Mariner and Boimler’s debate about “biggest badasses” is hilarious because everyone has heard of Khan, and only hardcore TNG fanatics have heard of Roga Danar. For most people, Roga Danar (played by Jeff McCarthy) is as Mariner says, “some dude nobody has heard of.” He appeared in the TNG Season 3 episode “The Hunted,” and briefly, did “outsmart” Picard, just as Boimler says.

Mariner’s defense of Khan echoes what Trekkies generally think; that he’s the best Trek villain ever, though obviously, nobody would pit Khan against Roga Danar! Mariner describes Khan as a “genetically engineered supervillain. Dude was a space seed!” Naturally, “Space Seed” is the TOS episode in which Khan first appears. Tendi’s reference to Khan’s “thick, thick chest’ is likely an allusion to the urban myth that Ricardo Montalbán wore a prosthetic chest while filming The Wrath of Khan. However, many sources (including director Nicholas Meyer) have repeatedly said that the “thick, thick chest” was all 100 percent Ricardo Montalbán.

Living on Earth

Mariner is super concerned about getting kicked off the ship and being forced to live on Earth “Where there’s nothing to do but drink wine and hang out at vintners and soul food restaurants.” This is a reference to both Captain Picard and Captain Sisko. In 2380, however, Jean-Luc Picard has not returned to his family’s vineyard full-time, The “soul food” references Sisko’s Creole Kitchen, a restaurant run Ben Sisko’s family and specifically operated by Ben’s father, Joseph Sisko. The restaurant first appeared in the DS9 episodes “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost.” 

Picard’s family wine vineyard, made famous in “All Good Things…” and the series Star Trek: Picard, first appeared in the TNG episode “Family.” 

Bug Captain Is Kenneth Mitchell

Star Trek: Discovery actor Kenneth Mitchell — who played the Klingons Kol, Kol’sha, and Tenavik— plays the voice of the insect-like Captain Seartave. In this same episode, Mitchell also plays a Federation guard and a Romulan guard. 

Send them a message

When Captain Freeman tells Mariner to “send them a message” to the alien ship, Mariner fires the phasers right away. This could reference The Wrath of Khan when Khan says “explain it to them,” which means, he wants his lackeys to fire a photon torpedo. 

“Denobulan flesh-eating bacteria”

Jax mentions a “Denobulan flesh-eating bacteria,” which references the Denobulans, a race of friendly aliens made famous by the prequel series Enterprise, specifically Dr. Phlox. Interestingly, Phlox did have a bunch of unorthodox treatments on the NX-01 Enterprise, which might have included weird fleshing-eating stuff.

Vulcan nerve pinch

Rutherford points out he doesn’t know how to do the Vulcan nerve pinch but managed to do it anyway. Non-Vulcans have done the Vulcan nerve pinch on several occasions. Picard did it in the TNG episode “Starship Mine,” Data did it “Unification,” and Michael Burnham did it in “The Vulcan Hello.” Most hilariously, McCoy tried to do a Vulcan nerve pinch in The Search For Spock, while Spock’s Katra (soul) was in his body.

Vulcan shuttle

During their covert mission to the planet Vulcan (presumably) Jax, Rutherford and Philips are flying a classic Vulcan shuttle. This is the same design of shuttle Spock took to hook-up with the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Famous starships in the museum

The museum where Jax, Rutherford, and Philips steal a Romulan Bird-of-Prey is packed with a ton of famous Star Trek ships, including:

A Jem’Hadar fighter (Deep Space Nine)

A Ferengi shuttle (TNG and DS9)

A D-7 or K’Tinga class Klingon Battlecruiser (TMP, TOS, TNG, DS9, and, technically, Discovery)

Several Federation shuttlecraft (Mostly TNG era)

A classic TOS shuttlecraft

The Vulcan landing ship from First Contact.

A Tholian ship (“The Tholian Web,” “In a Mirror, Darkly.”)

And…something that looks like the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Romulan Bird of Prey

The ship that is stolen, and later used by Ransom and Tendi, is a classic TOS-era Romulan Bird-of-Prey. Prior to this episode of Lower Decks this style of Romulan ship has only been seen in canon three other times: In the TOS episodes “Balance of Terror” and “The Enterprise Incident,” and in the Picard episode “Absolute Candor.” That said, the Bird-of-Prey in “The Enterprise Incident” was digitally inserted into the remastered “Enterprise Incident” in 2008. So, really, this ship has only appeared in canon in 1968, 2008, and twice in 2020.

Federation Guard

Also voiced by Kenneth Mitchell, the Federation Guard has security armor and a helmet reminiscent of the kinds of outfits security guards wore in The Motion Picture, The Search For Spock, and The Undiscovered Country.

Fan Dance

Jax tells Rutherford to “to a fan dance,” to distract the guard. This references Uhura doing a dance with feathery fans on Nimbus III in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In that case, the fan dance only got Kirk and Spock some horses. 

Does Philips know the TNG crew?

The chief engineer of the Cerritos, Philips, makes two references to TNG episodes when he’s running out of oxygen. He says “Mark Twain’s got a gun!” and “Tasha No! The garbage bag’s behind you!” The Twain thing references Mark Twain pulling a gun on the TNG crew in “Time’s Arrow.” And the Tasha comment seems to reference “Skin of Evil,” when a creature who you could call a “garbage bag” did kill Tasha Yar.

Gorn Wedding

Does the Gorn wedding count as an Easter egg? Considering we’ve never seen this many Gorn (Gorns?) in one place, ever, this feels like yes, this counts as an Easter egg. Also, if the shuttle crashlanded during a Gorn wedding, does that mean they crashlanded on Cestus III, a planet the Gorn took over in the TOS episode “Arena?”

Romulan Bridge interior 

Everything about the interior of the Romulan ship matches a TNG-era Romulan ship, which seems to reference, mostly, the TNG episode “Face of the Enemy,” in which Troi is kidnapped by Romulan agents, but also, made to work for them.

Covert Ops Starfleet Outfits (Again!)

This marks the second Lower Decks episode in a row that references the all-black bodystocking outfits from the TNG episode “Chain of Command.” And because Ransom wore one in “Much Ado About Boimler,” this is the second episode in a row that he’s been on an undercover mission.

“You know who I hate, Remans”

The Romulan guards are talking about how they hate “Remans” and that Remans are “the worst.” The Remans are an alien species who live in the same planetary system as the Romulans on the planet Remus. We never met the Remans until the 2002 film Star Trek: Nemesis. Although he was human, the Picard clone named Shinzon (Tom Hardy) considered himself a Reman. The events of Nemesis and the attempt for the Remans to take over the Romulan Empire happened just one year prior to Lower Decks, in the year 2379.

“Like whenever Q shows up”

John de Lancie voices “Q” in a flashback where he forces the crew of the Cerritos to play some kind of absurd chess game with playing cards and a soccer ball. Q is dressed in his judge’s robes from the TNG episodes “Encounter at Farpoint” and “All Good Things…” In the context of “Encounter at Farpoint,” this outfit is actually taken from Earth’s future history; at some point in the 21st century, several draconian courtrooms existed on Earth, in which the rulings were neither fair nor just. Q says “Do you think humanity is really worth saving?” which was basically his whole beef in “Encounter at Farpoint,” when he calls humanity “a savage, child race.” The ridiculous board game, in which the crew is turned into chess pieces could reference the DS9 episode “Move Along Home,” in which the crew has to act out certain moves that are reminiscent of a board game.

Salt Vampires… are… alive!

When Mariner tells Ransom that his date is a “salt vampire” the says that “salt vampires died out more than a century ago.” This references the very first aired TOS episode “The Man Trap,” which takes place in 2266, more than a century before Lower Decks. This is the second time the M-113 “Salt Vampire” creature has been referenced on Lower Decks, but the first time we’ve actually seen it in the flesh — sucker hands and all.

Dr. T’Ana has a “Remember Me” moment

When Dr. T’Ana says that nobody on the ship remembers her, this could reference the TNG episode “Remember Me,” in which Dr. Crusher enters a small bubble parallel universe in which people she knows, start to vanish from existence. 

Boimler’s speech about what Starfleet officers “don’t know”

To prove that Starfleet officers are good people, but sometimes totally ignorant of what is going on in the galaxy, Boimlter rattles off several examples of Starfleet officers not knowing something that was utterly nuts. 

“Did Picard know about the Borg?” References the TNG episode “Q, Who?” in which Q forces the Enterprise to encounter the Borg. Picard may not have known about the Borg in 2365, but there’s some debate that some people in the Federation did. Seven of Nine’s parents knew about the Borg in the 2350s.

Did Kirk now about that giant Spock on Phylos? This references an episode of The Animated Series called “The Infinite Vulcan.” The “giant Spock” was a huge Spock clone named “Spock 2.”

Did Dr. Crusher know about that ghost in the lantern from the Scottish planet that she hooked up with that one time? This is from the TNG episode “Sub Rosa,” and yeah, Dr. Crusher hooked up with a ghost that lived in a lantern.

“Drumhead!” Boimler’s mic-drop moment is the word “drumhead,” which references Picard giving a speech that ends a witch-hunt trial in the TNG episode “The Drumhead.” The “drumhead” itself, refers to the head of a drum that would be up-ended on a battlefield to serve as an ad hoc judge’s bench.

Q references Trelane!

When Q appears at the end of the episode, he says “I challenge you to a duel” to the Lower Deckers. This references the character of Trelane from the TOS episode “The Squire of Gothos.” Trelane was a being with powers that were basically exactly like Q, and later Trek novels like Q-Squared, made it clear that Trelane was a member of the Q-Continuum who had been cast aside. When Gene Roddenberry first created the character of Q, TNG writers were worried he’d be too similar to Trelane and fans wouldn’t accept it. These days, naturally Q, is much more famous that Trelane. And yes, Trelane did challenge Kirk to a duel in “The Squire of Gothos,” and Kirk accepted.

Q speaks French, talks about Picard

When Mariner says : “Get out of here Q! We’re not doing any of your Q bullshit” he says “S’il vous plaît Mariner!” This implies he knows Mariner pretty well, which is hilarious, but she tells him she’s not French and he should go bother Picard. Q says, “Picard is no fun!He’s always quoting Shakespeare, he’s always making wine.” Picard quoted Shakespeare to Q, specifcally Hamlet in the TNG episode “Hide and Q.” Mentioning that Picard is making wine at this point in time is interesting. We know that by 2385, Picard will leave Starfleet and go live on his vineyard in France. But, in 2380, Picard is still in Starfleet. Is he making wine on the Enterprise?

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Star Trek: Lower Decks has two more episodes in season 1, which air on CBS All Access on Thursdays.

The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode 8 Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[redjayson]

Okay so in Batman Beyond there's an episode where Bruce and Terry go see a 'Batman Musical', just imagine that goes on in Gotham and Jason finds out and asks(forces/tricks) the batfam to go.

i’m finally answering this! i had a really rough week, which is why this took a while, but i kept thinking about this prompt and laughing, so thank you for that.

and on that note: are you serious, that’s amazing. i vaguely remember watching batman beyond but i don’t actually remember all that much about it. i’ll need to look this up.

but yes. yes. i want this to be a Thing.

i want to imagine it as something between holy musical b@man! and the ember island players. like. just picture the kind of crazy misinformed shit that these people are tossing into the mix because what’s the truth and what’s the lie, no one knows, they’re going to make a musical about batman and his however many kids/sidekicks anyway

(they people putting on this play are probably college students)

(stephanie has probably dropped by to help with set designs and laughed herself sick in the process)

getting back on track, how does jason find out about it?

there are two ways i think it could happen. one: jason loves lit. we know this. he collected first editions with alfred and bruce when he was a kid. in my personal experience, if you like lit, you almost definitely like theater in some sense as well. at the very least you’ve read plays. 

jason holds his goddamn red hood helmet like he’s hamlet and it’s yorick.

trust me, he likes plays.

so maybe he pays attention to the kinds of plays that are being shown around gotham. he likes going to some of the matinee performances on saturday and sunday afternoons – he can’t go in the evening because he has to patrol. sometimes alfred goes with him. it’s…nice. and yeah, going to performances means that sometimes he goes to the gotham university performances as well. they actually have pretty good ones. a couple years ago they put on the importance of being earnest and then twelfth night the next semester. he was too busy when they were putting on godspell and west side story to be able to go see them, which he’s still disappointed about.

anyway. it’s not like whoever’s putting on this ridiculous play is keeping secret about the fact that they’re making it about batman and co. 

(i’ve made up my mind: it’s definitely the university kids that are putting it on. they’re the team starkid of gotham city. i bet a bunch of them said, “hey, we should do this, and also i bet it could count as our senior thesis” and they all went along with it and now they can’t turn back. they don’t want to turn back. this is going to amazing or they’re going to be arrested by batman, but god, what a way to go.)

so jason finds out, and, like steph, he busts a gut laughing about it before deciding that this is awesome and he’s definitely going to bully the rest of the family into seeing it with him. every time he thinks about bruce’s face he just starts laughing all over again. oh man. it’s going to be amazing. 

the other way that jason finds out, though: 

campus isn’t his usual haunt, but he’s been following some jackass with a connection to one of his open cases. spoiler has too much homework to help him, but she’s already given him the go-ahead to work on campus, which is nominally her space to patrol/operate in. 

and this dude – it doesn’t really matter what he did. he’s connected to drugs or he’s friends with the wrong person or he’s done something else. jason’s going to get everything he needs from the guy and then drop him off at the precinct. with a bullet to the leg if he really annoys jason. 

the thing is, the dude’s a member of the make-up crew for the batman musical. they’re doing dress rehearsals tonight. jason’s in full armor because he just wants to get this done and get back to his regular patrol routes as soon as possible. (like the rest of gotham, the campus is easy to grapple around. jason doesn’t have to touch the ground and shadows his target from the rooftops.)

the guy goes into the theater building. jason needs to make sure that he’s not meeting with anyone before jason grabs him. that’s why he didn’t take him out during any of the time that it took for the guy to cross campus to the theater building. meeting at the theater would be a good cover; there’s so much happening when rehearsing, so many people coming in and out, in all sorts of costumes and make up – if you needed to meet someone clandestinely, there are worse places that civilians have thought were secret. 

jason slides through a window, makes his way up into the balcony seats so he can spy (gotham university has a very nice theater. in the past, the waynes have donated generously to it), and –

“oh my god,” jason says, staring at the stage. 

he ducks down so that none of the actors can see him if they look up from their acting and past the lights to the balcony. jason tries to keep his laughter quiet, but it’s so fucking funny.

when he’s finally regained control of himself, he decides to just go for it. he feels a little bad about interrupting their rehearsal, but hey. gotham is all about unexpected surprises, and really, what else were they expecting when they decided to make a play about batman?

“can anyone point me to where brad merritt is?” jason calls as he strolls into the auditorium. his shit-eating grin is hidden beneath the helmet.

the actors all grind to a sudden stop. 

“um,” says an actor who’s probably meant to be the replacement. he looks at actor-nightwing. actor-nightwing turns to actor-batman. 

“he’s in the back with the rest of the make-up crew,” actor-batman says. 

“cool,” jason says, hopping up onto the stage and walking past them. he shoots them friendly finger guns. “you’ll need to replace him. he’s going to be in jail opening week.”

behind the stage, jason catches a glimpse of brad before he takes in red hood stalking towards him and bolts. 

“you get the assholes on campus next time, spoiler,” jason grumbles, and then he’s taking off after his target. 

so jason knows and he is all about that. he is going to see that shit opening night. he’s so damn ready. 

“stephanie,” he complains, sprawled out on her couch and finishing off the leftover lo mein that was in her fridge. “why didn’t you tell me what the university kids were doing?”

“what university kids?” steph asks, head still bent over her chemistry textbook. 

“the theater kids,” jason says. “the batman play.”

stephanie looks up, already laughing. “i know, right?” she says. “i’ve been helping out with some of the sets in my spare time and i’ve heard bits of it and it’s going to be a thing of wonder.” she grins. “they’ve even got spoiler in it!”

“hell yeah,” jason says, getting up to throw away the lo mein carton and high-fiving steph as he passes. he sits next to her at the table. “you think we can convince the rest of the family to go?”

“i can get cass and tim,” steph says. 

“i can definitely get alfred,” jason says. “probably also dick.”

they look at each other. 

“he’s your dad,” steph says. 

“he’s not my–” jason starts, then shakes his head. “goddammit. fine. if i get bruce to go, he’ll make damian go, as a…family bonding thing or something. two for one.”

“awesome,” steph says. “i didn’t want to try to convince the little hellion to go, anyway.”

“you’re in charge of babs,” jason says. 

“sure,” steph says. 

they fall into an easy silence. steph turns back to her chemistry work. 

“you did that last problem wrong,” jason says, craning his head to look at her work.

steph throws her pencil at his head. 

it takes two bribes, a guilt trip, and five minutes for dick to stop laughing (which jason will tolerate, because he did the exact same thing), but the entire wayne family, stephanie brown, and barbara gordon show up to the gotham university theater the opening night of The Batman Musical. 

the actual name of the musical is something else, but to their family, it’s just The Batman Musical.

jason’s still horrendously disappointed he didn’t get to surprise bruce with the news of there being a play about their family. he was treasuring the idea of what bruce’s face was going to do.

“i pay attention to the theater scene, jason,” bruce said when jason brought it up. “as does alfred.”

yes, jason knew. 

“and i pay attention to anything to do with batman,” bruce added. in case they get anywhere too close to the truth, he didn’t say out loud, but jason could hear the subtext just fine. paranoia, thy name is bat. 

“but you’ll go see it with us, right?” jason asked. 

bruce turned back to his computer.

cue the guilt trip and bruce’s eventual acquiescence. if jason didn’t get to see bruce’s face at the whole idea of it, then at the very least he was going to make absolutely sure that bruce would be at the performance. 

damian’s look of disgust at the whole idea of it nearly made up for the disappointment with bruce, anyway. 

they show their tickets at the door and are shown to their seats. they take up a good portion of an entire row. jason makes sure to place himself between steph and alfred. there’s a brief scuffle when tim almost ends up sitting next to damian, before bruce sighs, pushes them apart, and sits between the two of them. cass leans her head against steph’s shoulder, half-asleep; she’d had a long night, apparently. barbara catches jason’s eye and looks reluctantly amused at this whole thing. dick is flipping through the playbill on damian’s other side and laughing very, very quietly. 

the musical starts and it is, indeed, a thing of wonder. 

highlights of the play, since i’m not going to actually figure out what the plot of it would be:

batman dealing with villains and every so often just picking up a child and handing them a domino mask. congratulations you are now my vigilante sidekick. 

in the audience, in reaction to one scene in the play jason and stephanie say, perfectly in sync: “did robin just die?”

cass, her head still leaning against steph’s shoulder: “you know...it was really unclear.”

jason and stephanie burst into raucous laughter

people don’t know much about about oracle, but she’s been active for a while, and some information must have spread. still. the general public has no idea what oracle looks like or what gender they are, so i present to you that the role of oracle in The Batman Musical is played by someone who wanders around in a bright green morphsuit and occasionally disseminates information when the batfam needs it

so many wonderful songs. jason and stephanie are already making plans to ask if the university is going to put out an album afterwards. if not, they’re pretty sure that they can convince dick and/or bruce to let them help fund one

damian is So Offended at first, but he gradually gets into it, because there’s some poking fun at batman and the idea of vigilantes in general, etc., but at the core of it the love that gotham feels for batman and his family really seeps through.

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 2: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains WANDAVISION Episode 1 spoilers, and potential spoilers for future episodes, the wider MCU, and Marvel Comics. We have a spoiler free review here.

NOTE: This is our reference guide for WandaVision episode 2! If you’re looking for episode 1, click here instead.

And you thought this show couldn’t get weirder? WandaVision episode 2 moved its sitcom-flavor a few years into the (still black and white) future, introduced a few new characters, and started leaning a little harder into the MCU than we saw in the first episode.

Let’s see what we found…

Sitcom Inspiration!

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The idea of a regular suburban couple needing to do something goofy like put on an act for a talent show seems like classic sitcom fodder, but things get even more specific in this episode.

The animated intro is VERY reminiscent of the opening of Bewitched, the sitcom I feel like this has the most in common with in its first two episodes…for obvious reasons.

Due to the Hays Code, non-married couples never shared the same bed on television until…Darrin and Samantha on Bewitched in the ‘70s. This episode begins with Wanda and Vision in separate beds until Wanda magicks them together. 

One other sitcom-y connection might be that whenever reality is starting to show its cracks, a character says “damn,” which has to be against whatever TV rules they had in the 1950s and therefore breaks the immersion further. Vision’s boss yells it at dinner in the first episode and Vision says it when there’s that outside noise in this one.

Bova

The sharp-eyed Ed Duffy spotted a carton of “Bova Milk” in the opening animated segment of the episode.

Bova is a cow evolved to walk and talk like a human, a gentle old soul who served as a midwife at the birth of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. Well, at least in the comics. We’re not counting on seeing Bova’s lovely bovine countenance on this show any time soon, but hey, you never know!

The Grim Reaper

Also visible in that animated intro is the Grim Reaper’s helmet, apparently underground at their house. The Grim Reaper is an extremely annoying Marvel villain who constantly popped up in stories dealing with Vision and Scarlet Witch. He was the brother of Simon “Wonder Woman” Williams, was a stupid racist, and was really angry all the damn time.

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The actual location of that helmet could be a subtle callback to the events of Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s Vision series, which is an absolute masterpiece that you should read as soon as possible.

Westview

Wanda and Vision live in the fictional town of Westview, which despite looking very much like a Burbank backlot, is likely supposed to be in New Jersey. There’s two reasons we’re going to place Westview in New Jersey. First, Herb makes a reference to Hackensack, NJ later in the episode. But more importantly, in the comics, Wanda and Vision made the real life bedroom community of Leonia, NJ their home in the 1980s Vision and the Scarlet Witch comics.

Illusion and Glamor

Wanda and Vision’s stage magic act name has them going by the name of “Illusion” (Vision) and “Glamor” (Wanda). In the Vision and the Scarlet Witch comics, Illusion and Glamor were characters of their own, famed stage magicians Ilya and Glynis Zarkov, who were friendly neighbors of our favorite weirdo couple. What the public didn’t know was that their stage magic was actually REAL magic (kind of like what we see with Viz and Wanda later this episode). And what even fewer people knew was that they were also international criminals. Anyway, don’t expect Ilya and Glynis to show up on WandaVision or in the MCU now that their names have been used.

Also…is it us or does Wanda’s “Glamor” bathing suit thingy feel like a reference to some of her original, skimpier costumes?

Who is Geraldine?

That would be Teyonah Parris as “Geraldine,” who it has already been revealed is in fact the grown up version of Monica Rambeau, the young girl we met in Captain Marvel. While we’re on the subject, is it us, or does Geraldine’s brooch look a little like the logo she wore when she took on the mantle of Captain Marvel in the comics?

The Neighbors

In addition to Agnes (who we wrote about in detail here) and the aforementioned Geraldine, we also meet Fred and Linda, Dennis the Mailman, Dottie and Phil, Beth, and someone named Herbert. We have our suspicions that the seven of them (minus Geraldine) could be Marvel’s Satan’s Seven. We wrote more about this theory here.

Ol’ Herb, perhaps coincidentally, but perhaps not, shares a name with Herbert Edgar Wyndham, the Marvel Comics villain known as the High Evolutionary, who in some versions of Wanda and her brother Pietro’s origin, was responsible for giving them their powers.

The Helicopter

Wanda finds a toy helicopter, in full color, in her bushes. For one thing, the helicopter is in Iron Man colors (or Vision colors?). For another, it has the #57 on it. Vision made his first appearance in the comics in the pages of Avengers #57 in 1968. But perhaps most importantly, that helicopter bears the logo of SWORD (which we wrote more about here) on it.

So here’s the uncomfortable question: is this just Wanda’s subconscious playing tricks on her, or did she actually bring down a SWORD helicopter not knowing what she did?

The Beekeeper

The weird and disturbing beekeeper is an agent of SWORD based on the logo on his back. Or…is he?

“For the Children”

The creepy, cult-y repetition of “for the children” certainly can’t be foreshadowing for Wanda’s own struggles with starting a family, can it? Of course not. Nothing to see here…

The Strucker Commercial

The watch comes from a company called “Strucker.”  

The Strucker watch matches up with one of the themes of the rest of the episode. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker showed up as part of Wanda and Pietro’s origin in the MCU, but before that, he was a comic book foe of Captain America’s, a Nazi who had a mystical artifact that gave him powers: his Satan Claw. With all the devil mentions elsewhere in this episode, this is likely intentional.

“He’ll make time for you,” the slogan from the commercial, likely hints at another aspect of Wanda’s story here. In the comics, she was discovered to be a Nexus of Realities, an entity with a lot of explanation that amounts to “she’s important to the multiverse.” The person who discovered this about her (and nurtured it, and protected her because of it) was Immortus, the far future version of Kang the Conqueror. 

The same two actors from the Stark Industries Toastmate 2000 commercial from episode one are back here. If they become a recurring theme, do they have greater significance?

Lingering Questions…

The WandaVision house number is 2800. So far, we’re drawing blanks on what that might mean from a Marvel or MCU standpoint.

Does anyone recognize the logo on “the cabinet of mysteries?” Is this something Wanda has worn? Is it perhaps a Doctor Strange easter egg?

Is it possible that “Wentworth’s” department store is a reference to Deidre Wentworth, better known as Superia, the villainous Femizon who once created an alternate reality of her own? No? Too much of a reach? OK, fine.

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

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