#2.08 'necessary evil'

[isthereintruthnobeauty1968]

something about the fact that the three of them all met at the same time (during the vaatrik case/odo's trial run of being head cop on terok nor), that each have a very different but nonetheless longstanding relationship to the cardassian occupation (quark somewhat less longstanding But! he chose to set up there and the other two had no choice), and that each have a different set of values that conflicts with the other two's values has me still stuck on this. part of the reason i want more conflict between kira and odo on ethics & on the subject of the occupation (and the reason why i keep talking about 2.08 necessary evil lol) is because they could be foils! it would be compelling if they were! the tension/potential hypocrisy of them still being close friends/making exception for the other would be interesting!

and the three of them during the dominion occupation arc in particular is something i'm stuck on bc it recalls that first meeting/the vaatrik case but with very different positions AND lays bare that same kira/odo tension

rotating the idea of a quark odo kira love triangle with no reciprocated feelings in any direction in my mind

[mirekat]

The last time we watched ‘Necessary Evil,’ Em and I went down a deep (high) speculative rabbit hole trying to figure out why anyone would build a self-contained ore processing facility in space. Surely, we thought, blasting a cheap, bulky raw material like ore into orbit--or even shipping it over from an asteroid or a moon or something--would be far less efficient than refining it in situ? It’s not like the Cardassian military has any competitors planetside, or gives a damn about Bajoran labor laws, or worries about ‘Bajorans taking skilled jobs from Cardassian workers’ or any of the other reasons the evil Anaconda Copper Mining Companies of Planet Earth geographically differentiate their evil vertically-integrated neocolonial industries. So whose dumb idea was Terok Nor?

Well. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/jeff-bezos-space-pollution-amazon-b1887510.html

Anyway what definitely happened is that Gul Dukat, self-proclaimed Reformer and Benevolent Guardian of the Bajoran People, heard some Occupational Government Quisling timidly complain about strip mining and thought Oh YeS I ShAll MoVE pOllUTing InDuStrieS IntO SpACE aNd ThEN TheY sHAll giVe Me the LoVE I DeServe. 

[preseriesdean]

Talk to me about s2 supremacy. Spare no details.

thank you for asking and allowing me to gush 💕

maybe most importantly: it still has that early seasons 2000s vibe with flip phones and tape decks and newspaper articles and wide angle shots and americana and grainy film and desaturated colors and grittiness and loose layered working class clothing and shitty motels and grungy bars and this rough edge to everything

another main point is that it finds the perfect balance between monster of the week episodes and a season-encompassing story/myth arc by generally combining the two when necessary, unlike some of the later seasons

an overarching theme is the morality of hunting and whether or not truly every “monster” is really evil or deserves to die: “what if we killed things that didn't deserve killing?” (bloodlust, the usual suspects, croatoan, hunted, born under a bad sign, roadkill, heart) which plays into my next point

the pacing of the season works really well to set up everything about the season finale: sam's storyline with simon said, croatoan, hunted, born under a bad sign; and dean selling his soul, first through john’s deal with azazel, then with children shouldn't play with dead things (“what's dead should stay dead” / “when someone's gone they should stay gone. you don't mess with that kind of stuff”) and crossroad blues (“i think you did it for yourself. so you wouldn’t have to live without her”) and somewhat in croatoan where he's ready to die with sam

literally every single episode is a certified banger in my opinion. i can only think of 2 episodes that didn’t hit the mark too well for me personally but every other one i could rewatch endlessly, and those two still objectively have merit within the framework of the show/season

i won’t talk about each and every ep, but specifically the entirety of playthings, one of the most, if not THE quintessential, gothic episodes of the show. immaculate vibes.

the usual suspects, which shows how well sam and dean work together without even being in the same room and just how generally Weird they can be to outsiders, as well as continuing the theme of “demons i get / people are crazy” which was first set up in s1

as well as the entirety of what is and what should never be. no further explanation necessary i think.

also sam and dean look really nice

cinematography is on. point. the entire time. these shots alone from 2.09 and 2.04. museum worthy.

sam and dean’s relationship is just. sublime. “we were just starting to be brothers again” (2.01) – “he's the only one who gets to call me [sammy]” (2.03) – “you make a move on him, you'll be dead before you hit the ground” (2.09) – “if i ever turn into something that i'm not you have to kill me” (2.11) – “i can't, i'd rather die” (2.14) – “i thought it was supposed to, to be this perfect fantasy” / “it wasn't” / “we never went hunting and you and me just never, uh... you know” (2.20) – “i had to look out for you. that's my job” / “and what do you think my job is?” (2.22)

without taking the focus off the brothers as its core or feeling suffocating, s2 introduces more recurring supporting characters (bobby... kind of, as a rollover from the s1 finale; jo, ellen, ash, gabriel, victor henriksen, gordon walker) and expands on the monster lore, lending some depth to the spn universe before it begins to really ramp up with heaven and hell etc. from s3 onwards

the music was so good, too, although that’s true for other seasons as well. from ‘bad moon rising’ playing on the radio after the car crash in 2.01 and ending with ‘don’t look back’ in 2.22 and everything inbetween; dean singing along to ‘can’t fight this feeling’ in 2.05, ‘hellhound on my trail’ in 2.08, ‘renegade’ in 2.12, ‘back on the road again’ in 2.14, ‘house of the rising sun’ in 2.16, ‘silent lucidity’ in 2.17, ‘rooster’ in 2.19, ‘americana’ playing during sam’s death etc.

they just... did not hold back in all hell breaks loose part 1. earth shattering.

season 2 is funny (hollywood babylon, “maybe the spirits are trying to shut down the movie cause they think it sucks”) and heartbreaking (all hell breaks loose) and silly (tall tales) and deep (what is and what should never be) and philosophical (houses of the holy) and tragic (heart) and creepy (croatoan and pretty much all the rest) and intelligent (the usual suspects) and beautiful to me 💛

[cosmicbeastie]

Star Trek DS9 | 2.08 “Necessary Evil”

[splendidemendax]

tbh i don't know if it's fair to say that odo "doesn't get" moral greys until s3: 1.04 "a man alone" already complicates things (his disapproval of the smuggler is more based on the guy's price-gouging than his law-breaking) and 2.08 "necessary evil" has him facing the fact that kira (in his mind, good) was not, in fact, "innocent of the crime [he] was investigating" (in his mind, bad). even flashback-odo, five years younger than show-odo, shows a deeper understanding of what justice looks like: he didn't turn kira in for the crime he thought she committed because he believed her punishment would be unjust.

some of this is certainly about odo's own positions, which i do think are interesting to understand in the context of him being a changeling. it makes a lot of sense, for example, that he would believe in heavy surveilance: he's from a species that fully lacks a concept of privacy, so the usually-tricky balance between "privacy" and "safety" is a pretty easy call for him.

if i may get a little doyalist with it, i think part of the reason for odo's inconsistent ideas of justice is a writer thing. it's clear that they all agreed "odo likes justice;" it seems to me that different people had different ideas of what "justice" means. in some episodes odo's trouble defining justice is very sympathetic and in some it's problematized, but in some, it is (in my mind) way off the mark but goes unexamined anyway.

tired of 95% of ppls criticism of odo being “but he’s a cop :\”. like he’s not even an actual cop. he’s a security guard in a campy 90′s sci-fi show. i guarantee you no one on here who likes odo is going “actually i like irl cops now” because they like him. because that would be fucking stupid. there is just as much if not more nuance to him than the rest of the characters and you’re refusing to acknowledge any of it just because “he’s a cop”. form an original fucking take. at least have it mean literally anything

[favoritefightingfrenchgoth]

yeah here’s the order 

1 2.16 Cat and Mouse 2 1.16 Hidden Enemy The Clone Wars movie 3 3.01 Clone Cadets 4 3.03 Supply Lines 5 1.01 Ambush 6 1.02 Rising Malevolence 7 1.03 Shadow of Malevolence 8 1.04 Destroy Malevolence 9 1.05 Rookies 10 1.06 Downfall of a Droid 11 1.07 Duel of the Droids 12 1.08 Bombad Jedi 13 1.09 Cloak of Darkness 14 1.10 Lair of Grievous 15 1.11 Dooku Captured 16 1.12 The Gungan General 17 1.13 Jedi Crash 18 1.14 Defenders of Peace 19 1.15 Trespass 20 1.17 Blue Shadow Virus 21 1.18 Mystery of a Thousand Moons 22 1.19 Storm over Ryloth 23 1.20 Innocents of Ryloth 24 1.21 Liberty on Ryloth 25 2.01 Holocron Heist 26 2.02 Cargo of Doom 27 2.03 Children of the Force 28 2.17 Bounty Hunters 29 2.18 The Zillo Beast 30 2.19 The Zillo Beast Strikes Back 31 2.04 Senate Spy 32 2.05 Landing at Point Rain 33 2.06 Weapons Factory 34 2.07 Legacy of Terror 35 2.08 Brain Invaders 36 2.09 Grievous Intrigue 37 2.10 The Deserter 38 2.11 Lightsaber Lost 39 2.12 The Mandalore Plot 40 2.13 Voyage of Temptation 41 2.14 Duchess of Mandalore 42 2.20 Death Trap 43 2.21 R2 Come Home 44 2.22 Lethal Trackdown 45 3.05 Corruption 46 3.06 The Academy 47 3.07 Assassin 48 3.02 ARC Troopers 49 3.04 Sphere of Influence 50 3.08 Evil Plans 51 1.22 Hostage Crisis 52 3.09 Hunt for Ziro 53 3.10 Heroes on Both Side 54 3.11 Pursuit of Peace 55 2.15 Senate Murders 56 3.12 Nightsisters 57 3.13 Monster 58 3.14 Witches of the Mist 59 3.15 Overlords 60 3.16 Altar of Mortis 61 3.17 Ghosts of Mortis 62 3.18 The Citadel 63 3.19 Counter Attack 64 3.20 Citadel Rescue 65 3.21 Padawan Lost 66 3.22 Wookiee Hunt 67 4.01 Water War 68 4.02 Gungan Attack 69 4.03 Prisoners 70 4.04 Shadow Warrior 71 4.05 Mercy Mission 72 4.06 Nomad Droids 73 4.07 Darkness on Umbara 74 4.08 The General 75 4.09 Plan of Dissent 76 4.10 Carnage of Krell 77 4.11 Kidnapped 78 4.12 Slaves of the Republic 79 4.13 Escape from Kadavo 80 4.14 A Friend In Need 81 4.15 Deception 82 4.16 Friends and Enemies 83 4.17 The Box 84 4.18 Crisis on Naboo 85 4.19 Massacre 86 4.20 Bounty 87 4.21 Brothers 88 4.22 Revenge 89 5.02 A War on Two Fronts 90 5.03 Front Runners 91 5.04 The Soft War 92 5.05 Tipping Points 93 5.06 The Gathering 94 5.07 A Test of Strength 95 5.08 Bound for Rescue 96 5.09 A Necessary Bond 97 5.10 Secret Weapons 98 5.11 A Sunny Day in the Void 99 5.12 Missing in Action 100 5.13 Point of No Return 101 5.01 Revival 102 5.14 Eminence 103 5.15 Shades of Reason 104 5.16 The Lawless 105 5.17 Sabotage 106 5.18 The Jedi Who Knew Too Much 107 5.19 To Catch a Jedi 108 5.20 The Wrong Jedi 109 6.01 The Unknown 110 6.02 Conspiracy 111 6.03 Fugitive 112 6.04 Orders 113 6.05 An Old Friend 114 6.06 The Rise of Clovis 115 6.07 Crisis at the Heart 116 6.08 The Disappeared 117 6.09 The Disappeared: Pt. II 118 6.10 The Lost One 119 6.11 Voices 120 6.12 Destiny 121 6.13 Sacrifice

and Season 7 is in order just like 6

there’s some fuckery to the timeline of clone wars right