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my-sherlock221b · 4 years ago

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Supernatural Rewatch Ramblings: Wendigo

Wendigo

The long line of the MoTW series in Supernatural starts off with the Woman in White which is fairly well- known legend/ myth in most countries. Then we get this one next which claims origin from the Native American mythology.

Here is a review of the Wendigo episode with thoughts from me and @soulmates-for-real

I have always wondered why they were not so inclusive or better at being inclusive as a show. Yes, they did have many women and people of colour in important and strong roles, both positive and negative (though they could have done so much better!). But they steered clear from some of the huge mythology lores like that from Native Americans, Hindu, Latin American cultures. This may have been a wise political strategy to avoid conflict and so they stuck to the Judeo- Christian core but still managed a rather radical take on it!

Spoiler alert:

*God was the final villain?! Who would have guessed? And that the angels were dicks, relentlessly, and demons were in fact ex-humans.*

So back to Wendigo.

What a monster the Wendigo is!! In later seasons when we got only angels and demons and some vampires etc the other monsters were monsters in and of themselves. Like they were born that way—needing to eat human pituitary glands or whatever.

But Woman in White and Wendigo, and even Dead in the Water, or the Shapeshifter --the monster was created by circumstances. Betrayal and infidelity leading to murder suicides, extreme starvation leading to cannibalism and eternal hunger.

Far more terrifying than someone who is born a ghoul perhaps.

So here we are in Wendigo, at the forest/camp site with these fake, charming, rather useless camp rangers who carry M&Ms (nice touch and throwback to E.T. !), don’t wear shorts ( which anyway seems like a weird thing to wear when there is grass and stuff—why would you want to expose your legs?!), can’t see bear traps ( Seriously Dean?! ).

Sam is still restless and bristling at Jess’s death, as well as angry at Dad. All those years of separation do not seem to have given him any peace in his relationship with his father. Now to add massive insult to his already injured sense of self—he has lost his girlfriend in exactly the same way as his father lost his wife—making them even more identical.

So he is cranky and unwilling to give in to any of Dean’s suggestions. He denies his own nightmares, refuses good advice and food and is generally misanthropic. While Dean on the other hand seems to be enjoying this like a happy jolly road trip. The monster is almost like a secondary priority now.

What is most important, (and this becomes even more obvious in a re-watch post finale)—what is THE most important thing is that Sammy is riding shotgun, is in front of his eyes and safe.

Miserable and bitchy but safe.

That allows Dean to dial back a bit and bring into focus what has always been, for him, the really important part of their lives—saving people. This is always more important to him that hunting things. So, when he finds out about someone’s brother being lost and the coordinates match what his dad has left, well there is no choice really.

They have to find a way to save him.

If they find Dad there, well, good, but that is suddenly not a priority for him at all. He turned up at Sam’s doorstep, and as we know from the finale, waited there for HOURS since he was unsure of his welcome, then broke in at 3 am or something like an idiot….but anyway…..all that was because Dad had been away on a hunting trip and hadn’t been home in a few days…blah blah blah.

The first contact Dean makes with Sam who left home to go to college is to recruit him to help find Dad—the same guy who told Sam that if he went away to stay away.

And then suddenly now that Sam is with him, finding Dad is like meh. If we find him somewhere by the wayside while you and I hunt monsters Sammy, then yeah sure, great.

If not…well….we have stuff to do you and I…saving people, hunting things. The family business.

And John Winchester….well, what can I possibly say about him without taking up pages in ranting?! Why did he ditch the first monster? Why was he in SUCH a hurry to leave that he left his journal behind??

My theory of course is that he had to run away from the Woman in White since he had been unfaithful to Mary ( yes yes I know it had been YEARS at that point, but hello, this man made his life a crusade for revenge and sacrificed his kids’ lives also to that darkness, so…yes, being with Adam’s mother was an infidelity and you can’t change my mind on that !).

So naturally John was afraid he would be killed.

But still….he left coordinates for the next hunt in the journal and just ran off?!

The other question is what the hell is happening in motels across USA? Guys like these can just check- in on fake credit cards, leave a room full of satanic and serial killer-y documents, sometimes dead bodies, lots of salt at the door and windows, and just disappear without checking out….

Though the police do seem quite alert and swift in action in the Pilot compared to some of the laidback and clueless ones we see later.

What is most interesting is to see the character of season 1 Dean emerge.

He sass, he boss, he flirt, he lie, he charm, he fight, he save.

In fact, the very first time I saw Supernatural, it seemed that Dean occupied so much of the narrative space that I barely noticed Sam except as a foil to and a brother to Dean.

Now in the re-watch what is fascinating in retrospect is to watch Sam slide into ‘the life’ without a hiccup. He reads the journal, he figures out it’s a wendigo, he gets the civilians to cooperate, he also fights and saves.

And that look he gives Dean in the car?

Well, those who missed the signs in Pilot and didn’t ship Wincest from day one, surely started doing it then!

https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/supernatural-rewatch-s01e02-wendigo/

This is also the first episode that gives a clear parallel to the Sam and Dean relationship through the B plot. When Haley says she MUST go to find her brother –Dean nods in instant understanding while Sam is pissed off at having to ‘babysit.’

We see this in many more episodes in the future, and what is fascinating is to see Sam gain insights into his brother with every such parallel. To recognize what being the big brother has meant to Dean and how much he has done and given and even suffered for that. We will discuss this in more detail in the next episode review! ( Dead in the Water)

The chemistry and ease, almost a fluid sense of flow between the two actors is unmistakable in this episode. Even as Sam is really being a bitch and Dean is being a jerk, there is a definite undercurrent of something holding them together. It may be all about revenge for Jess’s death and finding Dad for Sam, but he will still stick with Dean and want to protect him as fiercely as Dean wants to protect Sam.

Sheila O’Malley has given a detailed explanation for the acting styles of Jared and Jensen and what she said about Jared is spot on and brilliant. He does what she calls active listening.

It is amazing how once you realize that you notice it all the time.

The reason why Dean can manage such perfect comedic timing or non- verbal communication is because Sam is always ALWAYS tuned into him. Listening, watching, reacting, observing.

Once again, for those of you interested in the meta and more erudite and informed reviews that this one 😊 do read what Sheila O’Malley has written.

Here are some excerpts which will entice you!

“David Nutter, who directed the pilot, also directed episode 2, and there’s a new DP here, the phenomenally talented Serge Ladouceur, who is still shooting the show. If the DP for the pilot, Aaron Schneider, helped establish the dark mood and horror-movie feel of the series, then Ladouceur just helped deepen and strengthen that continuum. The look of the show has changed, by Season 9. I would say that it has a more glamorous look now, more colorful, while certainly still very dramatic (even melodramatic). Supernatural is (and has been) one of the best looking shows on television.”

“The ranger comes in to talk to them, and they pose as environmental studies majors at the university in Boulder. Sam says they are “working on a paper”, clearly improvising, and you can watch the glorious schtick of Jensen Ackles as he adjusts to the new information of who he is supposed to be pretending to be. God is in the details, people, and it’s the detailed scene work of both Ackles and Padalecki that keeps this show going. David Nutter referred to Jensen Ackles once as a “meticulous actor” in terms of his preparation for every scene, no matter how small, and it pays off. He knows what the fuck he is doing. So does Padalecki. I couldn’t give two shits about the demons. It’s that DYNAMIC that is so entertaining and watch-able.”

And here are some thoughts on the episode from @soulmates-for-real, my partner in crime for the rewatch 😊

Except the fact that Sam is quite secretive about his nightmares but his body language is quite open and his expressions easy to read. On the contrary, I saw Dean posturing a lot with other people, pouting, flirting, making eyes...trying to be all nonchalant. But when it comes to Sam we see a different Dean - the more antsy and angsty Sam gets, the more intensely Dean reacts to him and you can see Dean's concern shining through. Leading to Sam coming to some kind of resolution and giving Dean 'that look' at the end!

#spn #supernatural #spn meta #spn reviews #j2 #wincest #fandom

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phantom-le6 · 3 years ago

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Episode Reviews - Batman: The Animated Series Season 1 (4 of 10)

Carrying on our look at the first season of Batman: The Animated Series, we present a fourth round of episode reviews, this time starting with a two-parter that introduced one of Batman’s stranger foes to the series.

Episode 20: Feat of Clay (Part 1)

Plot (as given by me):

Lucius Fox of Wayne Enterprises is lured to a secret meeting with a man who claims to be Bruce Wayne, who wants evidence the company has gathered about businessman Roland Daggett trying to take over Wayne Enterprises through insider trading. The meeting turns out to be a set-up, but Batman’s interference ensures Fox manages to live. However, the men escape and the injured Fox identifies Wayne as being complicit in the set-up.

In reality, the man who set Fox up is Matt Hagan, an actor who is forced to carry out errands for Daggett in order to ensure a supply of an experimental chemical compound called “Renuyu”. The compound makes skin highly malleable, enabling Hagan or any other user to rearrange their features as they choose. However, the compound is also highly addictive, and Hagan needs it to cover facial disfigurements following an accident he had years ago. Daggett insists that his men, Raymond Bell and ‘Germs’, eliminate Hagan for his incompetence, relying on Hagan’s addition to draw him to them rather than try to find Hagan, who was a noted master of disguise even before using the compound.

As predicted, Hagan breaks into Daggett Pharmaceuticals and is caught by Bell and Germs. They expose him to an overdose of the compound and then leave him in his car, where the compound begins to alter Hagan. Meanwhile, Batman has learned his alter ego of Bruce Wayne was impersonated for the attack on Fox, and has remembered Bell, who is distinguished by the radio headset he wears to monitor police radio frequencies. Batman uses this to flush Bell out by pretending to be a police radio operator. Cornering Bell with the Batwing, Batman interrogates him about the impersonation of Wayne. Bell confirms Wayne was impersonated, but passes out before confirming the identity of the imposter. The arrival of the police forces Batman to abandon his efforts with Bell.

Later, Bruce sneaks into Fox’s room at the hospital, but Fox panics and alerts the police officers outside his room, resulting in Bruce’s arrest. Meanwhile, Hagan’s friend and stand-in Teddy Lupus tracks Hagan to Daggett’s factory, where he finds the overdose has transformed Hagan into a clay-like monster. Seeing himself in the rear-view mirror of his car, Hagan roars in horror.

Review:

Apparently, there have been several villains who have taken the name of Clayface over the course of Batman’s history in the comics, of which four had already made appearances in comics by the time this series came round. What the series does is combine the occupation of the original Clayface Basil Karlo, namely being an actor, with the name of the second Clayface Matt Hagan, and then throws in an original origin story for the character. Well, for the character it’s original, but for the show as a whole it’s not very original. As the DC Animated Universe wiki rightly points out, this two-part episode shares a lot of common plot points with the ‘Two-Face’ two-part episode. Even the structure is roughly similar in that part 1 is set-up for a transformation that the principal villain then seeks retribution for in part 2.

However, Hagan isn’t as easy to empathise with and root for compared to Harvey Dent. While Dent was a crusading crime-fighter who was normally a good guy, and who was also friends with Bruce Wayne, Hagan comes off as someone who was probably a bit of a jerk to begin with, and who would probably be working for a creep like Daggett even if the chemicals that ultimately transform him weren’t addictive. In essence, Hagan’s arc is like one big warning about the dangers of getting too caught up in one’s looks too much. That said, he is well-voiced by actor Ron Perlman (yes, I mean the first cinematic Hellboy and Blade II villain Ron Perlman). Other notable actors who have guest roles across this two-parter are Ed Begley Jr. (too many credits to name, but guest appearances in the West Wing, CSI Miami and Star Trek: Voyager number among them), and the now-late Ed Asner voicing Roland Daggett (Asner being most notable in voice acting outside of this series for Carl in Disney & Pixar’s Up!).

Overall, it’s a decent part 1 with some very good guest talent alongside the show’s regulars. It just lacks a bit in originality, and for that it’s only able to score 8 out of 10.

Episode 21: Feat of Clay (Part 2)

Plot (as given by me):

In his trailer at the film studio, Hagan wallows in self-pity and despair as he recalls how after his accident, Daggett conned him into being a test subject for his experimental compound. Walking past posters on his wall, Hagan’s face changes to mimic the posters without him being aware of it. Teddy points this out, and Hagan realises he can now make himself look like anyone, even simulating clothing out of his body. However, doing this requires intense concentration, and when Teddy disturbs Hagan, the disfigured actor lashes out, realising his career cannot be salvaged.

Meanwhile, Wayne is released on bail, enabling him to continue his investigation as Batman, and Daggett insists that Germs kill Fox, despite the fact that Fox is in hospital and Germs earned his nickname by being a germophobe. Hagan also deduces Daggett will try to have Fox killed, and plans to kill the assassin so he can take their place, the better to then kill Daggett. As a result, all three men end up at the hospital. Batman intercepts Germs and manages to corner him in a room where viral and bacterial cultures are being stored for analysis, and uses this to coax Germs into revealing it was Matt Hagan who impersonated Bruce Wayne during the original ambush on Fox.

Before Germs can reveal how Hagan pulled off the deception, a police officer appears to apparently arrest Germs. However, it swiftly turns out the office is Hagan in disguise; he abducts Germs and takes him to the roof, intent on throwing him to his death. Batman pursues and saves Germs, and the dark knight is startled when he sees Hagan’s face change on reflex to try and mirror his own. Hagan uses his shape-shifting powers to try and kill Batman, but the effort soon exhausts him and he is forced to flee. Elsewhere, Hagan finalises his plans to kill Daggett, and knocks out Teddy when he tries to talk him out of it.

Later, Roland Daggett appears on a talk show hosted by TV journalist Summer Gleeson to promote “Renuyu” to the public. When Summer takes questions from the audience, an overweight woman in the audience storms the stage, grilling Daggett about the chemical’s side-effects and addictive properties. The woman then transforms, revealing it is actually Hagan in disguise, and the audience flees in terror. Hagan, now calling himself “Clayface”, attacks Daggett, but Batman intervenes. A fight ensues between the two that moves from the stage to the control room, Batman subduing Daggett along the way.

In the control room, Batman activates videos of Hagan’s films, causing him to shape-shift out of control as his body tries to emulate all the varying and conflicting characters at once. The police arrive as Hagan’s out-of-control changing continues, and they see his face briefly become that of Bruce Wayne. Hagan then smashes the control consoles, electrocuting himself. He laments that he never got a death scene this good when he was still an actor, and won’t be around to read the notices. While Wayne is cleared of all wrong-doing, Batman experiments on a piece of Clayface left behind and realises electricity has no effect on it. Combined with the actor’s choice of words, Batman realises Hagan gave them all a fake death; his body at the police morgue turns out to be an empty shell, and elsewhere a disguised Clayface laughs at his seeming triumph.

Review:

As I noted with part 1, the whole Clayface intro two-part story is quite derivative in its plot structure, having so many parallels to the Two-Face intro episodes that to a casual glance, they could appear identical. However, part 2 does compensate for this with more than just a great cast of guest voices like part 1 did. In part 2, we see Clayface show off his powers, and that’s where this episode comes to really stand out. Unlike some DC heroes, Batman faces a rogues’ gallery composed almost entirely of otherwise normal people who are either just insane human beings or some form of professional criminal. As a result, he’s often challenged more by their insanity or something technical they’ve done.

Clayface, on the other hand, opens our animated Batman up to facing a foe who presents a challenge because he has a physical super-power that the caper crusader has to contend with. Metahumans aren’t the norm for Batman solo adventures, but it’s fun to see them because they serve as evidence for why someone like Batman ultimately ends up as a member of the Justice League. It’s his ability to get through the initial clash, learn from it and be prepared the next time around that ensures Batman can win even against a super-powered adversary. However, even with this we’re not quite up to top marks, but we’re close. I’d give this episode 9 out of 10.

Episode 22: Joker’s Favour

Plot (as given by me):

Average Gothamite Charlie Collins is coming home from a bad day at work when he is cut off on the freeway by multiple drivers, including Batman and officers of the GCPD. However, the one that compels Charlie to return the favour complete with a string of abuse turns out to be the Joker. Horrified at his mistake, Charlie then tries to flee, but the clown prince of crime pursues him. Charlie, in the heat of the moment, states he’ll do anything to make amends, and the Joker agrees, stating that at some future time, he’ll ask a favour of Charlie.

Two years later, Commissioner Gordon is to be honoured with a testimonial, something that sits ill with the Joker, and he plans to crash the festivities. Despite having two henchmen and a right-hand woman in the form of one Harley Quinn, Joker decides to call in the favour owed to him by Charlie Collins. Charlie has moved cities and changed names, but the Joker has managed to keep track of the man, and insists Charlie return to Gotham if he doesn’t want his wife and son hurt. At Gordon’s testimonial, which is being held at the Gotham Peregrinators Club, Charlie’s favour for the Joker is open the door for Harley while she pushes a giant cake in. However, Charlie decides to try and warn Batman, and uses a club exhibit to make an improvised bat-signal.

Charlie performs his task as Harley brings the cake in, disguised as a uniform cop. However, Charlie finds his hand is now glued to the handle, and the cake emits a gas that paralyses everyone not involved in the Joker’s scheme (the Joker’s men, Harley and Charlie all wear gas-masks while Joker springs up from inside the cake). The Joker pins a bomb to Commissioner Gordon’s suit and leaves with Harley and his men, planning to kill Charlie along with the assembled officers. However, Batman arrives, having spotted the improvised bat-signal as he’d been leaving the club as Bruce Wayne. At Charlie’s warning, he uses his grapnel gun to shoot the bomb outside, which results in the destruction of the Joker’s getaway van, after which he frees Charlie from the door, telling him to stay with the recovering police officers while he tackles the Joker.

Batman is quick to take down Joker’s henchmen and Harley while Joker gets outside. There, he is confronted by Charlie, who in mad desperation threatens the Joker with one of his own bombs that was thrown clear of the van. Joker pleads for Batman to save him, and the dark knight appears in time to apparently talk Charlie down. However, Charlie soon tosses the device to the ground, where it turns out to be a gag bomb instead of a real one. While an amused Batman takes the Joker into custody, Charlie looks forward to returning to his normal life.

Review:

This episode has quite a lot going for it. For starters, it’s another Joker episode, which are generally sure bets to be interesting once any Batman show knows what they’re doing with the character. Second, it’s a Joker episode with a very interesting premise of putting an everyman kind of character in the middle of everything. That alone helps the episode to stand out as something different, and that’s before we consider that the everyman character is being voiced by Ed Begley Jr. In and of itself, that last point might not seem like much, but if you compare Charlie Collins to the character Begley was voicing in the ‘Feat of Clay’ two-part episode, it shows this chap has an impressive range for voice-acting.

However, all of this is relative pre-amble to the fact that this is the episode that first featured the show’s major break-out original character of Harley Quinn. From the simple act of episode writer Paul Dini creating Harley as a guest character for this episode, her character has taken Batman’s original medium of comics and all other Batman mediums by storm. It’s hard to believe given the episode isn’t giving her a proper intro with origin story and all the rest, but luckily the show would later address that. However, I think that just goes to show how strong the character was, or possibly just how much Batman lore must have needed that character without maybe realising it. Factoring all this in, I’d say this episode is another top scorer; 10 out of 10.

Episode 23: Vendetta

Plot (as given by me):

Convict “Spider” Conway is being transported from Stonegate to give evidence against crime lord Rupert Thorne, but the transport boat is blown up by a bomb mid-transport. The officers on board spotted the bomb and got off in time, but Conway is missing and everyone begins to assume the worst. When Batman finds a toothpick like those used by Detective Harvey Bullock at the Stonegate Penitentiary docks, and later learns Bullock was once suspected of taking bribes from Thorne, he assumes something even worse; that Bullock planted the bomb himself.

Bullock is taken off the Thorne/Conway case because of this unsavoury history, while Batman goes to interrogate Thorne. The crime lord claims he wasn’t involved and that Conway’s testimony won’t damage him at all. This seems to confirm Batman’s theory that Bullock blew up the boat to prevent anything come to light about his own past with Thorne, but Commissioner Gordon is adamant Bullock is clean. However, when someone dressed like Bullock abducts another criminal, Joey “The Snail” Martin, from his police cell, Bullock is arrested.

Batman examines another piece of evidence found at the docks, a scale which looks reptilian but has human cellular structure. A chance phrase of Alfred’s combined with the scale gives Batman an idea. He eventually discovers Joey and Spider have been hidden in a cave with an underwater access and confronts their abductor, who identifies himself as a former professional wrestler named Killer Croc. Croc was apparently born part-crocodile, which gives him a massive strength advantage. Despite this, Batman is able to tie Croc up long enough to capture Joey and Spider and leave.

Back at the Batcave, Batman is able to trace Croc’s past; he became a pro-wrestler after a stint as a side-show attraction, then turned to crime when he came to Gotham. Initially penny-ante, Croc was later arrested by Bullock and convicted based on the testimony of Spidey and Joey. Realising this, Batman intercepts Croc when he tries to corner Bullock in the detective’s car, after Bullock has been released on bail. Batman and Croc take their battle into the sewers, where Batman ultimately wins, bringing Croc back to the surface for Bullock to take in. Bullock soon returns to duty with all charges against him formally dropped.

Review:

Here we get a fairly simple, but nonetheless decent, intro episode for another of the metahuman monsters that occasionally get a spot in the Batman rogues’ gallery. This time it’s Killer Croc, who has a fairly simple backstory and doesn’t require the kind of introductions we’ve seen for many of Batman’s other foes. The backstory for Croc is so simple, in fact, that it doesn’t lose anything from being worked into a Bullock frame-up plot that allows us to also see a major supporting character in Batman lore developed further. My only criticism would be that Croc’s proper name of Waylon Jones from the comics isn’t used, and that right at the end he gets identified as ‘Killer Croc Morgan’ by the news reporter. It might seem like a minor niggle to some, but between that and the frame-up seeming a bit advanced for the simplistic Croc, I give this episode just 8 out of 10.

Episode 24: Fear of Victory

Plot (as given by me):

Amidst reports of star athletes having panic attacks that cause them to lose, Dick Grayson’s college room-mate and American football player Brian Rogers is on the verge of being signed into the professional American football leagues. As they discuss this, Brian receives a strange telegram wishing him luck, but also reminding him that only a fool knows no fear. Later at a crucial game, Brian suffers a panic attack of his own, and later when Dick is out as Robin assisting Batman, he has a panic attack while scaling the side of a skyscraper to tackle two thieves.

Investigating Dick’s college dorm, Batman discovers the telegram is coated in a substance that is blocked by their gloves. Performing an experiment back at the Batcave, Batman deduces that the chemical is activated by adrenalin, causing major panic during moments of major excitement such as high-pressure sporting contests. The nature of the chemical clearly indicates the Scarecrow, but Robin contends that Scarecrow is supposed to be locked up at Arkham Asylum. A visit there swiftly reveals, however, that Scarecrow has escaped and somehow terrorised an orderly into keeping the escape a secret.

Elsewhere, a man identifying himself only as ‘Lucky’ collects another big win from Leon the Bookie, who sends his enforcer after the man to find out how he is managing to win so many bets. Lucky turns out to be the Scarecrow, and uses another drugged telegram to cow the enforcer into submission. Batman explains to Commissioner Gordon that in order to finance his fear experiments, Scarecrow is drugging top athletes and then betting against them or their teams, depending on the sport in question. That knight, Gotham’s professional American football team the Gotham Knights have a game that Scarecrow is likely to target, so Batman goes to intervene, Robin going along despite not yet having recovered from the fear chemical himself.

At the game, Robin spots the disguised Scarecrow entering and follows, quickly deducing that this time, Scarecrow has tampered with a player’s helmet rather than going for the telegram trick again. Watching the game from the lighting scaffold in the stadium roof, Scarecrow is puzzled as the targeted player doesn’t have a panic attack, and is then surprised when Batman confronts him. Scarecrow threatens to drop a vial of fear toxin on the crowd if Batman doesn’t back off, but then opts to drop it to keep Batman too busy to follow him. However, the vial lands on a lower platform instead.

A scuffle ensues that causes the vial to fall towards the crowd, but Robin arrives in time to swing out and catch the vial, overcoming his panic attacks and saving the day. He also reveals he was the one who swapped out the dosed helmet for a safe one. Scarecrow is swiftly returned to Arkham and Brian Rodgers is signed up to play professional American football.

Review:

Quick bit of house-keeping; as a Brit, I cannot stand how Americans call actual football ‘soccer’ and their version of football, well, football. After all, football is supposed to be played, as the name implies, with one’s feet. Why the Americans apply this name to their version when they almost never use their feet to move the ball is just silly to me. Also, given the shape of the ball, I’d say what they’re really playing is rugby, albeit with a better set-up in terms of ensuring player protection and, hopefully, no stupid rules prohibiting passes in the direction players are meant to run. So, for anyone wondering why I’ve insisted on using the term ‘American football’ all through the plot outline above, that’s why.

So, that having now been explained, let’s consider the episode proper. While this was the first episode to be aired featuring Robin, it’s the second from a production stand-point, and in all honesty it’s one episode that might have been better going ahead of the earlier Robin episode ‘Christmas with the Joker’. The fact that Dick is at college, and thus less available to act as Robin, is more directly shown here, so really this should have been made as well as aired first, then the Christmas episode done later on both counts. Robin’s arc in the story about overcoming fears is a decent, albeit highly cliché one that at times slightly undercuts the episode’s quality.

To some degree, the return of Scarecrow with a more terrifying appearance helps compensate for this, but then also undercutting the episode is the obviousness that the Scarecrow is the culprit. Between the episode title (and title card), not to mention the series of fear-related incidents with top athletes, it’s somewhat painful having to wait for Batman to make the connection the audience made five minutes earlier at least. It’s like watching any episode of Columbo, where the audience gets to see what actually happened first and then has to wait ages for the detective to work it out.

That way of presenting mysteries is almost as daft as calling a sport football if it’s not going to involve primarily foot-on-ball contact. The audience should always be in sync with or behind the detective, and if you get there ahead of them, it should be from your own deduction, not because the book, TV episode or film spoils the solution for you while making the detective work for it. Overall, this isn’t the best episode of the series by any means, and I give it just 5 out of 10.

Episode 25: The Clock King

Plot (as given by me):

Hamilton Hill, the future Mayor of Gotham, catches a subway to work at his law firm, and finds himself sitting opposite businessman and efficiency expert Temple Fugate, who is preparing for a hearing regarding a judgement of $20 million dollars against his company. Hill warns Fugate that he needs to unwind a bit before the court hearing or the judge may rule against him by misreading his tension as guilt. Taking Hill’s advice, Fugate takes his coffee break 15 minutes later than normal and goes to the park instead of staying in the office. This leads to mishaps that result in him appearing late and dishevelled, prompting the judge to rule summarily against Fugate, causing the demise of his business.

Seven years later, Hill is now mayor of Gotham and in the process of starting a re-election campaign. On his way to a fund-raiser for the campaign, Hill is detained when traffic lights at an intersection are tampered with, and at the same time a poster mocking Hill is unveiled on the side of a building. Bruce Wayne is also caught in the traffic mishap, and spies the culprit on a nearby rooftop. He attempts to interfere as Batman, but the culprit (Fugate now lightly disguised as the timing-obsessed Clock King) manages to escape through his expert use of timing.

Batman’s investigations of the traffic incident soon give him Fugate’s name, and when a bank is the subject of a targeted black-out to disable its time locks, the dark knight deduces this to also be Fugate’s work. At the bank’s vault, Batman is trapped inside by Fugate, who reveals via audio recording that he has left a high-speed vacuum pump to drain the vault’s air. The pump will take less time than Batman’s cutting torch, and it’s rigged with a vibration-sensitive explosive to prevent Batman tampering with it. However, Batman is able to break open the audio cassette and use the magnetic ribbon to rig up a pulley system; using this, he moves the pump to the vault door and then sets it off by hitting it with a batarang.

The bank vault, however, was ultimately successful in that while Batman is getting free, Fugate sabotages the opening of a Gotham subway station by making two subway trains crash at the station. Only minor injuries are reported, but in the confusion the mayor has gone missing. Batman, hearing of this and recalling Fugate having a lot of plans of a clock tower, swiftly realises Fugate has kidnapped Hill and taken him to the tower.

At the clock tower, Fugate has tied Hill to the clock hands, which will crush Hill at 3:15; the time Hill suggested Fugate take his coffee break at seven years earlier. As Hill’s law firm represented the plaintiffs in the case against Fugate, the timing-obsessed criminal has become convinced Hill’s advice was deliberate sabotage, and thus he various crimes throughout the day have been about exacting revenge on Hill. Batman arrives and engages Fugate in combat inside the workings of the giant clock, until Fugate’s clock-hand sword jams the gears, causing a catastrophic collapse. Batman and Hill escape, and while there is no sign of Fugate in the aftermath, Batman believes that a man with Fugate’s use of timing could easily have escaped as well.

Review:

While the main antagonist of this episode shares his codename and use of timing with a DC Comics villain that was mainly a foe of Green Arrow, this show puts a different person behind the name and modus operandi, complete with a different origin story. It’s a decent story, and one that certainly breaks a major convention of the series by having Batman operate in the daytime instead of being a strictly night-time crime fighter. However, that sort of change is good because it adds somewhat to the variety of the show while also taking the main character out of his comfort zone a bit. On a personal note, I also enjoy this episode because what happens to Fugate illustrates why if you’re someone who is worried about being somewhere on time, you should never listen to any advice that might put you behind schedule.

Hill might think what he’s suggesting will help Fugate, but it’s clear he’s not really engaged with Fugate and doesn’t understand the man. Anyone who is this good with timing clearly needs everything to run like, well, clockwork in order to be relaxed. I know because I’m often the same way and can’t stand the idea of being late to anything even where it might be the social norm. If being late is going to cause someone anxiety, don’t try to suggest that they do anything that’s going to risk making them late. Don’t tell them to have their break at another time or to get out of their routine; let them stay in their routine because odds are they need that routine just to keep calm.

As much as Fugate goes overboard on the revenge, Hill deserves the opening salvo of the traffic incident and poster graffiti, and so does anyone who tries to advise others on how to calm down without knowing them. Also, changes in routine and getting outside won’t help if the source of anxiety still exists. Anxiety, like every problem in existence, has only solution; deal with the problem at its source. Got an illness? Go for whatever treatment wipes it out or lets your immune system do so. Don’t like the current government? Vote to change who runs it and get everyone you can to vote the same way? Want to stop discrimination of any kind? Fight every kind actively, aggressively and never, ever just say ‘I’m not that kind of bigot’ and then do nothing else. Problems are only ever solved by action, not evasion.

So overall, this is a good episode with an interesting premise and a story that highlights the folly of giving well-meant advice if you don’t really know the person you’re advising. It’s not one of the highlights of the series, but I’d be hard-pressed to consider it a flop of any kind. I’d say about 8 out of 10 for this one.

Episode 26: Appointment in Crime Alley

Plot (as given by me):

Roland Daggett wants to buy up and redevelop Gotham’s Park Row, a formerly nice area of the city that has now become a slum so infested with crime that it is better known as Crime Alley. However, most of the residents of the area cannot afford to live anywhere else, so they are resisting Daggett’s plans. To that end, Daggett hires an arsonist known as Nitro to destroy the slum and make it look like a faulty gas main ruptured. Daggett asks that the explosion occur that evening at 9pm, which is when Daggett will be otherwise occupied giving his speech to the Gotham Better Business Council.

Bruce Wayne deduces Daggett is up to something as he watches news commentary on the Park Row situation, but he has his own appointment to keep in the area an hour prior to Daggett’s deadline, one he has apparently never failed to make. Bruce heads to the area as Batman, but is delayed when a girl comes running out of an apartment building screaming for help. Batman enters the apartment to find three crooks trying to terrorise the girl’s mother out of the place. The dark knight swiftly defeats the crooks and learns they’ve been strong-arming everyone in Crime Alley to leave, suggesting they may be working for Daggett.

Meanwhile, Crime Alley resident and physician Dr Leslie Thompkins realises Batman is running late and sets out to look for him, insisting to her friend Maggie that she’ll be alright, having lived in the area for 30 years. However, Leslie is abducted and tied up by Nitro and Daggett’s henchman Crocker when she discovers them rigging explosives in a condemned building. When Batman learns Leslie has gone out in search of him after he was delayed, he begins to search for her. He is then delayed when a desperate Crime Alley resident holds a clerk from Daggett Industries hostage for serving him eviction papers. Batman manages to diffuse the situation and resumes his search for Leslie.

A check of Leslie’s apartment reveals nothing, apart from a scrapbook that explains the nature of her relationship to Batman; Crime Alley was where Bruce’s parents were shot and killed, and Leslie was there to comfort the grieving Bruce, being a colleague of Bruce’s father as well as a local resident. Seeing a homeless man staring through the window, Batman confronts him and learns of Leslie’s abduction. He is delayed getting to her by having to stop an out-of-control tram trolley, which forces him to abandon the Batmobile and finish his journey on foot.

Finding Crocker and Nitro in the midst of completing their work, Batman locks them inside their own van and diffuses the bombs Leslie is tied up next to. Leslie urges Batman to forget her and get everyone out of a nearby hotel that has become a sanctuary for many people with nowhere else to live. As Daggett gives his speech, sections of Crime Alley explode, but when Daggett later appears on the scene, it turns out all the residents and most of the buildings are still ok. Only a few condemned buildings are taken out by the blasts, and Daggett’s men are under arrest. However, Daggett denies any involvement and pins the blame on the neighbourhood’s high crime rate.

As Daggett leaves, Leslie urges Batman to let it go, and the pair walk away to keep their appointment, each laying a rose at the place where Bruce’s parents were murdered years before.

Review:

When it comes to adapting Batman’s supporting cast from the comics, there are a few characters who get over-looked in most versions, and Dr Leslie Thompkins is a major oversight in most incarnations. While Alfred’s place as Batman’s butler and Bruce Wayne’s surrogate father figure is generally ensured in every iteration of the character, the surrogate mother role played by Leslie is less featured. The fact that this series actually bothered to include her at all, and does so with such accuracy to the source material, is another example of why this show remains so iconic and definitive in terms of Batman adaptations.

Of course, the key to making this work is two-fold. First, the episode is apparently based on a specific comic-book story, which wasn’t something this series or later DC animated universe productions did very often. Second, they had Diana Muldaur, better known to Trek audiences as Dr Kate Polaski from season two of Star Trek: TNG, voicing Leslie, and while I didn’t generally care for her TNG character, she brings the right warmth and kindliness to her role in this episode. We also get Ed Asner back as Roland Daggett, which helps to ensure Rupert Thorne isn’t the only animated series original criminal that’s getting repeat appearances. It also gives the episode a suitably notable antagonist to keep it interesting. Overall, I’m inclined to put this one in the top-scorers club for this series; 10 out of 10.

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dacreshoney · 4 years ago

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Introduction

So guys, my first little stranger things x billy Hargrove x reader post!!

so I'm fairly new to this so I hope this isn't a bad first go at it!

warning: swearing, introduction and signs of abuse

(I do not own images/gifs or condone any abusive behaviour)

summary: y/n, you are the towns bad girl but one of the popular girls as well,the head cheerleader at Hawkins.

(18 years old)

you were one of the experiments at Hawkins lab as a child along with your mother and posses psychedelic powers.

your dad isnt very kind to you after he blames you for your mothers brain turning into mush due to extensive experiments.These are your two biggest secrets in which you have never told a soul, you then meet the new boy and your life starts to turn upside down, but could it be for the better?

A girl who thought she was loveless could be loved

August 20th 1983

senior Year, not like it mattered to me, I'd already missed the first week of what is said to be the most important year of my life. This was to hide the bruises and cuts my father decided to place me with this week, but If you asked Steve Harrington I missed school to avoid him after our summer hook up. Definitely not the case, but I'll let him fill his giant hair with a little more ego.

you know, having the bad girl/popular persona at school always helped hiding the cuts and bruises,suppose that's why I like to play on the stereotype a little. Saves me explaining a whole lot of no good to the principle or the police; in which would do me a fat lot of no good as my dad is the chief of police. But today I needed to get myself out of bed and stop feeling sorry for myself if i ever want to get out of this shit hole, I needed an education.

a little background story about you my name is Y/N Johnson, you see in Hawkins I'm the renowned bad girl with a charm and warm heart (if you ask my friends that is). To most people in Hawkins I am definitely classed as the towns vixen, if you get on the wrong side of me, others I think just exploit the fact I have a boat load of money. I would consider myself a kind person, I just have experienced a load of sh** that not even my worst enemies should have to deal with. Im your well known high school rich kid, who is also the cheerleader captain and that itself comes with its own problems.

What you really wanna know about me is my biggest and darkest secrets, well its complicated to say the least. We was always a happy family growing up, well from what I remember anyway, unless Hawkins lab brainwashed that too. So yeah, my bad girl persona I put on, its to hide all the crap in my life and to hide who I really am. It all began with my mother Elizabeth, she was.. different. Like me the lab also used her to experiment on, my father used to say its like my mother cam out of nowhere. it was 1960 when they met, there was a huge storm one day and out of nowhere my mother appeared to my father. He used to call her an angel that just appeared in Hawkins. The storm is what we know to be the upside down, we as in all the other experiments at the lab, the storm was them trying to close the gate in which creatures from the other side came through, my mother being one of them: a shapeshifter with psychotic abilities, they used them to connect to people from the real world. The lab wanted to procreate these beings into Hawkins and the world one day, but they didn't realise what kind of world they would unleash on Hawkins by doing these experiments.

‘Imagine a world like your own, but this world is distorted by time and space. Its a place of decay and death, the parallel universe and a dark reflection of your world’

Elizabeth was one of their test subjects and when she then gave birth to me she fought her hardest to make sure that the lab and the creatures on the upside down wouldn't get to her or her child, she knew one day they would want her child for something big. Her father obviously classed her as a lunatic and had her put into a psychiatric hospital, in which in the end she did end up loosing her marbles, lost all sense of communication. The labs next resort if Elizabeth wasn't cooperating was then me. My father at first resisted, but he had lost his ways after sending my mother away, he knew where he sent her, but he never visited. His wife to him was unrecognisable and lost, he even held a funeral in Hawkins to say that she had passed away. That was the hardest part of growing up, pretending that your mother was dead, imagine that huh?

He blamed me for that of course, the lab then offered him money, so he took it, he had gained a bad habit of gambling and alcohol. my father Robert was the chief of police alongside hopper, if you ask me he is the biggest hypocrite going. “serve and protect” he says, but beats his daughter when he feels like it and sells her for dirty money. The lab wanted to turn my brain to mush as well along as they got what they wanted, obviously as a child you don't know any different, but I started to learn and as soon as I did, the biggest regret ever. I unleashed hell on Hawkins at the age of 16, clearly I didn't realise at the time but I had opened up a crack in the gate to the upside down with just one scream. I locked up my powers after that, so they tired of me and refused to pay my day money, so you know what happened after that. Better hiding the bruises with the b*t*** persona, but what I didn't know is that the events that were to happen in my life and Hawkins would shape my life and others around me for the long haul. The craziness would determine which path I took and the lives of those around me I would come to care for.

who would of thought, a loveless heart like mine could be loved after all.

#strangerthings #billy hargrove imagine #strangerthingsimagine #stranger things imagine #billy hargove x reader

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nodesiretogrowup · 5 years ago

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alrighty, let’s recap this bitch!

LAUNCHPAD! I’VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH! PLEASE COME BACK!

I looked up when National S’mores Day is (because I’m a nerd) and it is August 10. So either the photo later was mislabeled or, more likely, Launchpad got the wrong info

Huey with the little baby scouts is TOO CUTE!!

I wonder if Violet’s there. Probably not because she would have been hanging out with Huey if she was. Or this episode was meant to come before Challenge

It’s a baby beagle boy! I wonder if he’s there of his own will or if it is part of some plan

He scared away most of the kids! Now they won’t get to enjoy s’more-y goodness

His s’more sounds DOPE AF, though it probably would give you INSTANT DIABETES

“Aw, not even a modern robot.” MY SWEET SON!

I know it was the bully saying it, but Huey should chill a bit when it comes to doing things EXACTLY and PERFECTLY. It’s just gonna cause stress

BOYD IS BABY AND I LOVE HIM

“Would you like to be friends?” “Sure. Wow, that was easy.” If only it was always that easy

I don’t know if Huey has the JWG as memorized as he thinks, going by Challenge and Quack Pack

“We’re just kids.” “Definitely!” *uses laser eyes to light fire*

This episode does a good job showing what a trigger word/phrase is like, though I’m not sure if that was the intention

I like that a squirrel with a burnt tail scurries out of one of the trees. It’s the attention to detail that helps elevate this show

Instead of jumping out of the way or hiding Huey jumps straight onto Boyd to try and help him. Huey already sees Boyd as someone worth protecting

The kid that just runs across the screen while his hat is on fire is great

Not sure why they took the time to change before going to Gyro but whatever

BOYD IS ADORABLE AND I LOVE HIM

“I’m more than an intern, I’m a scientist.” I feel like this might be hinting at Fenton’s arc for the season, possibly wanting to be seen more as a scientist than a superhero

I’m gonna pretend that using sunglasses on someone who is shooting lasers out of their eyes is a Cyclops reference. And they look pretty dope too

At least Fenton knows when he is in over his head...this time

Gyro trying to climb up on the table to avoid Boyd was kind of funny. And then him protecting himself with Lil Bulb

“Which one?” Manny is DONE with this shit

“Boyd? What idiot called it that?” Even when he’s not there, Gyro can still burn Mark lol

I figured 2-BO was a reference to something but wasn’t sure what. Apparently it’s a bit of a play on the name of Astro Boy’s in-universe creator’s son. Neat

Huey stays in between Gyro and Boyd to protect Boyd

Fenton’s face cracks me up. There are NO THOUGHTS in this man’s head lol

“You were an intern like me?” “Nothing like you.” Damn Gyro, why so salty?

I don’t know why Fenton is so surprised that Gyro was an intern. I feel like that’s a pretty standard thing

LOVE IS STORED IN THE BOYD

It make me sad when Gyro mentions how many times Boyd’s core programing was altered. Poor baby doesn’t really get a say in what happens to him

“ROAD TRIP!” Huey, you do these kinds of things ALL THE TIME. I feel like he should be used to this by now

“YOU’RE not going. GIZMODUCK is.” Does Gyro see Fenton and Gizmoduck as separate entities or is this just a no, but yes type of joke?

Huey standing up for Boyd is so sweet. They barely know each other but Huey trusts him

When the episode doesn’t have the theme song you KNOW shit’s ‘bout to go down

I wonder who’s flying the plane. My guess is Launchpad because Della would have been cooing over Huey making a new friend and go into embarrassing mom mode. He probably went of on his own adventure or did tourist things like buying collectables. Or maybe Gyro flew them there. Who knows

As many people have said, the art direction and animation for this episode are BEAUTIFUL. I love the pink tint the lighting has in most of the episode

SAILOR MOON CONFIRMED CANON

I bet Mark Beaks is a Sailor Moon fan

I like that the in-universe Sailor Moon is a bunny because Usagi is Japanese for rabbit

I love that going incognito nowadays means you wear a hat, a hoodie, and sunglasses. Boyd looks good in red (though red is my favorite color so I might be biased)

Gyro-takes one step and the fuzz shows up. NOICE

I like detective lady. She has a cool design

Huey and Fenton are awful at acting casual

“Crimes?” Oh my sweet Hubert. I’m pretty sure most if not all of Scrooge’s employees have had run ins w/ The Law

Gyro is like, move I’m gay

“I’m here on a very important...field trip.” ALL THE KIDS NEED A GYRO FIELD TRIP LIKE HOW THE GAANG GOT ZUKO FIELD TRIPS

Lil Bulb said FUCK THE POLICE

I wonder what it actually says

Fenton just watches as the inspector chases Lil Bulb

Seriously though, Fenton does a bunch of silly stuff in the background and this episode warrants a rewatch SOLELY for him

How did Lil Bulb know where to find them? And how did he shake off the inspector? I want to see his little adventure

FOR SCIENCE!

“Blah!” *arm armor attaches* I want this joke to come back

Fenton and Huey INSTANTLY nerd out. I love them

Fenton being a Gyro fanboy is ADORABLE

“AH, DUST IN MY EYE! The dust of GENIUS!” What a dweeb lol

I like that Fenton keeps the arm on for the whole scene

Poor Boyd, he looks so scared

Huey going into protective big brother mode

Doofus continues to be equal parts hilarious and disturbing

Where are their parents? Like, someone should be looking after these kids! ESPECIALLY DOOFUS!

“Do you need a hug?” I SURE FUCKING DO

Mark is such a prick lol

“NO WAY, A ROBOT BOY! DREAMS DO COME TRUE!” YOU DON’T DESERVE THAT DREAM YOU COCKWAFFLE

SOMEONE HUG THIS CHILD! BECAUSE I CANNOT!

“Seems like the little guy’s had it tough.” MY POOR BABY

Lil Bulb gets SO PISSED he blew a fuse

You really shouldn’t have left them alone, Gyro

Why does Fenton automatically jump to superhero for Boyd? I mean the theme of the episode is letting Boyd choose who he wants to be so of course Fenton would have his own idea of what Boyd should be, but why go straight to superhero? Do you want superbros, Fenton?

Huey already realises this might be a bad idea, because he’s more concerned about Boyd as a person rather than Boyd as a machine

“IN RETROSPECT WE PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE USED THE FIRST HOLE” Fenton, you dumbass genius

Dr. Akita’s setup made me laugh. I DIED when he “enhanced” the image

I recognized the character on the chips though I don’t know their name. I’m more of a western animation fan, so many of the references probably flew pass me

BOOP

I also have a key on my laptop that flies off (it’s the u key)

I LOVE BABY GYRO! It’s so cool they went with his og look (minus the red hair) to show him younger

I LOVE THE OUTLAW COUPLE! SO COOL! SO HOT!

Huey is so DONE with Fenton

I love the stupid G pose he does. PLEASE HAVE HIM DO IT AGAIN. PREFERABLY WHEN DW IS NEARBY

Such a polite boy

“My bones are metal!” This line and Boyd’s catchphrase of “Hi, I’m Boyd/2-BO, a definitely real boy!” reminded me of Olaf. The end of the episode gives Boyd even MORE Olaf parallels

Gizmoduck sliding by those boxes was cool

How did Gizmoduck get himself unstuck from that alley?

I loved the double take the female outlaw does

Huey is TRAUMATIZED

I legit thought Boyd was gonna light the oil on fire the first time I watched and I was like that won’t help

“So, what do we do now?” “I...don’t know.” This is why you don’t leave babies alone to fight criminals

Boyd reminded me of Calculester from Monster Prom when he asked the lady to return the money

STOP LEAVING THE CHILDREN ALONE! THEY ARE BABIES! THEY AREN’T EVEN TEENS!

“Why do we always fight when we’re on vacation?” Because this is Ducktales and there is no such thing as a normal vacation

Lil Bulb just kicking his lil feet

The “lab” safety poster made me chuckle. Then I remembered Akita is also a dog and I laughed more

LITTLE BABY GYRO GRADUATING! My guess is his professor/dean/principal influenced him on a personal level and is partially the reason Boyd is a parrot

Lil Helper blueprints. Nice reference to the og series

Has anyone talked about the poster with the cogs and the dogman in old-timey clothes that says GIZMOS on it? I think it’s a Dr. Who reference

IDEALISTIC GYRO AND BOYD IS TOO CUTE!

How did he NOT notice the second hole in the wall?

That is a surplus of handcuffs. Do you think she uses them for...fun times?

“I’m just a guy! With very bruisable skin!”

Poor misunderstood Gyro inventions

Boyd just politely waves at everyone

Huey is WAY calmer than I would be if I got lost in an unfamiliar city

Boyd says FUCK WORK

I love Huey stimming. Really hope Disney will let them confirm in words that Huey is autistic

Is it more common for two kids to wonder around by themselves in Tokyo? Because as an American I find it super stressful and would want to find their parents so they could be safer

THE BUNNY! AND THEN THE KITTIES!

Do cats just take buses on their own in Tokyo?

CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME BITCHES

“And I know what you’re thinking, what about ninjas?” I am ALWAYS wondering about ninjas

I like that Huey finally has a friend who shares the same interests and doesn’t mind info dumps

“Boyd, I don’t think you’re a killer robot. You’re just a kid.” “Aw, that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” T_T

I CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD

I like Boyd’s motief

Akita is us after the quarantine

When he complained about being stiff I was like mood

I like his Green Goblin disc thingy

The other people don’t give a shit about Boyd just FLYING DOWN WITH HIS ROCKET FEET!

Gyro shows up *dramatic wind*

His tablet has a duckie on it. I wounder if they have a Mac/PC thing going on with Waddle and what brand the duckie represents

When the adults argue and Boyd gets all sad and scared I FELT THAT

Huey doing his best to keep Boyd calm and defend him SO PURE

OH GOD HELP THIS POOR CHILD!

HUEY IS A GOOD BOY AND A GOOD FRIEND

“Because of you I’ve become an outcast.” I feel like you did that to yourself

ANIME HAIR POOF

ngl, that shit was TERRIFYING

“You don’t have to do what Akita tells you. Do what I tell you.” So close

“INTERN! FIGHT BETTER!”

Huey must weigh NOTHING if Gyro can pick him up

Akita’s tail looks like a cinnamon roll

Huey always finding that hidden info

The gibberish Gyro says is great

BOYD SAYS IT BECAUSE GYRO TOLD HIM THAT!

THAT HUG!!!

HOW DARE AKITA HURT BABY GYRO AND SWEET BABY BOYD?!

PROTECTIVE PAPA GYRO

NEEEEERRRRRRRD FIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT

“You’ll never invent anything worthwhile.” LIL BULB HAS ENTERED THE FIGHT

Are doggos recyclable?

HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGS

Blue eyes=good robot

ANOTHER HUG

Be Only Yourself, Dude

I like that basically Gyro admitted that he was like Fenton if Fenton hadn’t had support

“That’s not technically how doctorites work, BUT I DON’T CARE!” Do you think Gyro doesn’t have his doctorate or do you think he assumed Fenton already had one?

“The hugging is a ‘just for today’ thing.” YOU CANNOT STOP THE HUG TRAIN!

“Leave. Now.”

Are they gonna go to the plane?

This season has been consistently knocking it out of the park! I’m a SLUT for backstory episodes, so I enjoyed this one a lot. I loved seeing Gyro when he had hope and faith in the world. It SUCKS that Akita took that away from him. Hopefully Gyro will see things slightly less cynical now. Fenton was a dweeb the whole episode and I love him for it. Boyd is SO SWEET AND PRECIOUS and in NO WAY deserved the treatment he got. I have a feeling there is more to Boyd’s creation/Dr.Akita that we’ll get later on. Huey was ADORABLE this episode. It’s really sweet to see him hangout with someone who gets him. Everyone deserves to have at least one friend like that. The fight scene was GORGEOUS! SO FLUID! I really loved this one and I hope we get more Team Science episodes because these characters play really well off each other.

#ducktales #dt spoilers #a bit later than normal but oh well

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dreamingsushi · 5 years ago

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The King: Eternal Monarch - Episode 3

So I did watch the episode last Friday, but couldn’t type my reaction before today. Well I could have, but I chose not to because moping around and pretending being a larva was an interesting state of mind. I was actually looking forward to the next episode, I couldn’t have waited any longer before satisfying my curiosity about where is this all going. So sit down, take your pop corn and enjoy. Food is mandatory for this drama, trust me. You HAVE to eat when you watch it.

The guys are waiting for Tae Eul at the fried chiken place but then she sends a message saying not to wait for her, she’s not coming, which is quite surprising for them. Seems like she must like a lot fried chicken and beer. We do too. Honestly, now I am afraid to keep watching this because it makes me crave fried chicken and beer. So much. Which is kind of cruel to me because of isolation since there are no Korean restaurant near my house. Like NONE.

Which brings us back to Lee Gon telling Tae Eul he’s going to take her as his queen. She’s not buying it. And then he tells her she’s like his favorite number, which is zero, because it’s amounted to nothing but has absolute power. And he rambles on mathematical stuff. Wow, if it was me I would have sent him away, or maybe just have gone for the fried chicken, I do not need to be told about maths, especially not on such a boring tone. And being compared to 0 isn’t a compliment. He needs to change his flirting techniques. Okay, it still turns out to be a little cuter than I expected., he says he is powerless here because she doesn’t really care for him, but it’s okay because she’s greater than what he expected her to be. Then she’s lire are you done speaking nonsense, he says she’s stupid like a bear. Which is weird. Then she tells him to take her to this parallel universe of his. So he takes her to the bamboo forest. But the obelisques won’t show on that day, nope. Not convincing Tae Eul with any of those details, she’s more upset that he took her into the woods like that when it’s freezing cold. She tells him the results of his DNA tests are about to come out and hopefully they will find him some relatives. And she tells him to stop calling Eun Seop. He tells her that even if she found a relative based on his DNA, they won’t be his real family. He says his parents died when he was eight, well at least his dad, the mom probably died before that. She looks shaken. He gives her his coat and asks what’s the name of the guy she calls brother, he knows she’s an only child so he’s not her brother. She asks him what’s his name, how come he can ask people’s names when doesn’t tell his? He said that she can call him by his name even if she knows, he didn’t say he can’t tell nor that he doesn’t have one. She gets angry and walks away first. And she ignores him.

So cute. Taekwondo guy (that would be the guy she calls brother, but he was studying Taekwondo at her dad’s school) keeps on waiting for Tae Eul to come back and starts talking to the horse. Then he notices a symbol on the saddle. Which corresponds to a drawing in his block note. Which looks so much like a Canadian passport somehow.

So granny is hiring Jo Yeong’s fangirl. Partly because she liked the fanfics she wrote. Also because she applied for like the past four years. But this is priceless. The granny reading fanfics and talking about hashtags, knowing more stuff than I do. I am living it.

So seems like the Prime minister and Lee Gon are on some sort of competition? I didn’t get it really. I guess they didn’t agree on political stuff? I don’t know, don’t ask me. Madam the prime minister is unhappy though that the king disappeared. Oh okay, so basically, since the king started paying taxes, it would look bad if they in the party got a raise so she has been opposed to that to keep popularity amongst the people, which makes the ministers unhappy. She puts them all back into place. Fierce woman.

They finally get a new member the police unit team. And they kind of made it funny, well it’s very cliché, but basically a guy looking like a thug comes in with an handsome guy and of course they all think the latter is the newbie, but it’s actually the first one who is in fact younger than what he looks like, a little dumb but in a cute way, is nicknamed rose and has unicorn in his email address. Nothing you would expect. Then they head out to find the weapon that was used for the murder they are investigating. In the end it’s newbie guy that finds it at the end of the day.

Some thugs try to bribe mister taekwondo. Seems he used to be really rich and when bankrupt when he was a teenage. I mean, it was most likely his parents money. His mom has lots of debts so he basically makes no salary. While he walks, he has flashback of when he was teaching taekwondo and Tae Eul’s dad tells him to stop teaching because he’s scaring the kids away. Well he indeed was scary. By the name, the name is Shin Jae. And seems like tae Eul’s dad is the one that made him chose the path of police awww.

Back at the office, Tae Eul keeps on making fun of the new recruit and then Lee Gon calls her. Eun seop gave him her work phone number. But she hangs upon him. Later, Lee Gon and Eun Seop are at the grocery store and Eun Seop is like what did you say to her for me to get handcuffed, I told you to keep it a secret. Lee Gon to comfort him appoints him as the chef of the royal guards in this universe and names him the unbreakable sword too. I’m sure Jo Yeong wouldn’t like this, Eun Seop doesn’t like it either and calls him crazy.

So lady Noh (granny) says that the King won’t come out of his study room but because he hasn’t showed up in public people start to think maybe he is ill. The new girl says she has a solution and meets privately with Jo Yeong. It seems she opens an SNS account for him. Which gains a lot of popularity.

Lady Noh asks Jo Yeong to investigate the lady from the ID card, however he tells her he already did that on demand of His majesty and that girl simply doesn’t exist.

The results of Lee Gon’s DNA test came out and they match to nobody. She then receives a call about the horse: that kind of horse isn’t even in South Korea right now, so it wouldn’t be a stolen horse.

They go for beer and fried chicken. AGAIN. I hate this drama so much. Stop making me craving fried chicken! With beer. I am trying to eat healthy. And to go vegan, slowly but surely. Stop this torture now! Anyways, she takes a shot and asks him if he’s from another world and who else could have taken that portal. He says he can’t tell her unless she becomes a member of his court, which makes her annoyed again. He guesses she got nothing from his DNA tests, but still can’t trust him. And she says they leave? BUUUUT, they didn’t even eat the chicken. WHYYYYY? The chicken did nothing wrong, it HAS to be eaten...

Lee Gon orders to eat the carrots Tae Eul feeds him. He’s so happy. I don’t know why.

Jo Yeong goes to Lee Gon’s office. He remembers of His highness always looking into the autopsie of Lee Rim. He feels there’s something fishy and that Lee Rim isn’t dead. And it seems Jo Yeong guesses it’s related to Lee Gon’s disappearing. Well, kind of.

There’s a storm and Lee Gon has something going on with his shoulder.

Le Rim is back in the Kingdom of Corea. I guess you need the storm and the flute to go back?

Tae Eul has little problem with her car an Lee Gon comes to the rescue, but while she starts tying her hair up, time freezes, except for him. I am not convinced by the time freezing thingy. Lite not at all. It’s enough already with the uncle not aging up and the parallel universes... I hope they don’t make it too much... Because so far, this is good. Anyways. She leaves asking to watch for her car that is broken and he just drives away with it. He goes to the bamboo forest and the door is there, so he finally realizes the flute is the key.

Back in kingdom of Corea, seems like Lee Rim has his little army.

They got the result from the forensic team, which incriminates the suspect, but Tae Eul feels it’s falling into place too perfectly, as if it was planned. So they go to investigate and Shin Jae and Tae Eul bumps into a bad guy Shin Jae sent to jail some years ago. And bad ass fighting! Yeaaah!!!! With Lee Gon as a witness, until big boss is about to stab Shin Jae, so he gets targetted while saving taekwondo boy and kicks everyone’s asses with his whip. Lol. Shin Jae and Tae Eul were having a hard time, but just one hit from the whip master and BAM! Over. Shin Jae and Lee Gon fights a little. Shin Jae and Tae Eul shares a popsicle, Lee Gon feels forgotten. They have lunch together and then Lee Gon bids his farewell to Tae Eul because he’s going back to his world.

Shin Jae drives Lee Gon back and asks him the company who made the saddle for Maximus. Of course Lee Gon doesn’t know. He asks about the logo on it and Lee Gon tells him it doesn’t exist here, because it’s for his kingdom in another world.

When Tae Eul comes back home, no more Maximus, they are going back. And like what? He’s already in love with her? Well, has he made it to his world? We will know next week I guess! From the previews though, it looks like he made it and goes back to his loved girl too. I like that the plot of this is quite clear, we know where we are going at least roughly and I enjoy that in those times of uncertainty.

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digimonadventuretimelines · 5 years ago

Text

[08 - Still the Same as Ever]

“That kid reminds me of you.”

“What…?”

“It was like seeing another Daisuke, but that V-mon didn’t look like me. It gave me the impression it’s not an usual digimon.”

“What are ya talkin’ about V-mon? That kid cannot be me, we ain’t alike! Heh, I’d say he’s part of the goody-two-shoes group.”

“But they aren’t bad people, you know. They share the same desire as you.”

“If they did, then why would they accuse me of doin’ something bad!?”

“... Please, look at the situation you’re in.”

…

“They have the same desire as me…?”

He was at the balcony, admiring the view. That memory of what V-mon had talked to him before he and Ken left the Digital World caused confusion inside him.

“Why can’t they see what I am trying to do…? What Ichijouji and I are trying to prevent from happening again?”

Was it right, though?

“... I need to see that kid again.”

[Daichi’s World, year 2027]

Kiyoko mysteriously got a message from her brother saying he would stay at some friend’s home for a few days and to tell their mother to not worry about. oddly, the message came at the morning, so she had to explain things at the breakfast.

Miyako accepted that, just like her. and after leaving home for work… Kiyoko started to investigate her brother’s whereabouts.

“Daichi, where the heck are you? I told you were at Mitsuki’s house, but I just asked him and he said you didn’t see him yesterday. Whatever you’re doing, stop hiding stuff and let me help you doofus.”

She typed that while reading it with a quiet voice. When she hit the ‘send’ button, Kiyoko heard someone knocking on the front door aggressively.

“What? I didn’t expect him to return that quickly…”

She went to open the door, and after that… Someone stepped in very quickly and closed the door. She shouted and tried to use her phone to call for the police but…

“No wait, it’s me!”

“Ta… Taisuke!? Why are you wearing shades and a facemask!? Wait, your hair is… Down?”

“Argh, don’t ask me questions!” he snorted “No wait, I can answer that. Someone is… Following me!”

“Following you?” she frowned “Like, a digimon or a person?”

“I don’t know!” he took the shades and mask off “I was going to meet Eiji and suddenly I heard a ‘click’ ‘click’ and then…!! I had to go home and try to disguise myself!”

“You don’t know…” it wasn’t a good answer, but could her give him a hand at this hour? “If there’s someone following you, how about telling officer Ichijouji to investigate it?”

“It’s not… It’s not a police’s case! It’s some paparazzi!”

“I still think you need to tell officer Ichijouji about it.”

“How!? It keeps following me everywhere I go since yesterday! And my uncle is busy with the case of that attack on the theater event. A-and he might tell my dad about it!”

“So you want to hide it from them, to not let the adults know some creeper is following an innocent child-- Wait. I think I know who’s that creepy paparazzi following you.”

“D-do ya know!?”

She noticed someone very familiar outside right now through the window. Oh no, it’s him.

“It’s you Junya, am I right?” she opened the window “You jerk stop scaring my friends! I told you they’re NOT part of some conspiracy theory involving the legends!”

“Wait, what?” Taisuke blinked.

“Oh Kiyoko, I was passing by hehe--”

A teen revealed himself -- Spiky hair and with the same color as Motomiya Jun’s haircolor, holding a phone and now looking at her from the distance.

“If you bully my friends again I swear I gonna punch you to the outer universe!” she shook her fist “Now get outta here! Shush!”

“Wait, you know that person!?”

“He’s my cousin” Kiyoko answered unhappily “He’s a cool guy but he started researching for the Tale of the Chosen Children and ended up cooking some dumb theories. He said ambassador Yagami is hiding the truth from the world, that he knows those stories are real.”

“O-oh… Wait, what have I do with it!?”

“I’m sure he wanted to investigate your daily life, and perhaps make you spill the beans. Don’t worry, I know those are stories for children and that your dad isn’t hiding stuff from anyone else.”

“That’s illegal I think.”

“Yeah I know, I will fight him if he does it again. Let me know please?”

“Thanks” he sighed.

[Parallel world, year 2002]

Daichi waited the end of the school activities on the next day so he could catch Daisuke and finally ask a few questions. It still bugged him that the Daisuke of that world wasn’t friends with the Chosen Children, and that Ken was also one of the enemies. Those made no sense! How in the world would two gentle and caring people could be completely the opposite of their counterparts from his world?!

They were on the other side of the street, watching carefully from there. Ulforce Chibi had been on Natsu’s arms, while Daichi kept his eyes on the school’s entrance, and checking it out the clock. Oddly, his digivice had adapted to that world’s time from all of a sudden.

“It’s almost the time-- Huh? Someone’s coming”

“Oi, kid!”

They wasn’t expecting him to be already there! And to be the first to leave minutes before the school’s ring bell rang.

“Can we talk for a bit?” he was smiling? That seemed suspicious.

“So… You have a digimon right?” they were walking on the sidewalk, with no idea where they were going. But Natsu assumed to be back to the Motomiya household “That lil’ plush here is your partner?”

“Yes, he is” Daichi replied, still unsure if he could trust Daisuke or not. The fear from yesterday was still present in his voice “B-but why do you ask it?”

“Look, sorry for… Attacking you? My friend does not like to get people messing with his plans. We’re doing something for the people.”

“Enslaving digimon won’t solve anything” Natsu replied with a cold tone.

“Geez, why do you think we’re enslaving them?” Daisuke seemed uncomfortable with that wording “Ichijouji and I are just makin’ them unable to evolve. The digimon caused damage to this world three years ago.”

“It still makes no sense!”

“N-Natsu please…” Daichi tried to calm her down “I’m aware of what happened, the Chosen Children told me.”

“But did they tell you WHAT the digimon actually had done to us!? They invaded this world, kidnapped children, took everyone in town as hostages. And, another incident changed Ichijouji’s life.”

Natsu wasn’t aware of the last part. Maybe it was… An event from that world?

“His brother, ol’ Osamu, was hit by a car which was damaged by the digimon interference. He survived, but he can’t walk anymore.”

Wait, what!? Ichijouji Osamu survived in this world!? Natsu was shocked by that reveal. Because, in Daichi’s world Osamu is…

“But mr. Motomiya, you can’t simply condemn all the digimon for those incidents!” Daichi tried to be reasonable with him “There’s good digimon too! The Chosen Children’s job is to protect the worlds, not to take control of an entire world to protect the other!”

“I agree, but… Takeru and his mean friends keep accusing us from being bad people! I’m not a villain!”

“If you’re not, then stop pretending that that does not affect the others!” Natsu hissed “If you’re a hero you need to stop Ichijouji Ken!”

“If I stop him… The digimon will invade this world again!”

“Do ya think we’re evil!?” Ulforce roared “If the bad digimon invade, then the Chosen Children will protect this world just like before!”

“mr. Motomiya,” Daichi said with a frown “mr. Ichijouji might be confused as well and if you’re the only person he cares about, you’re able to make him understand that.”

“... I don’t think if they… If Hikari and Taichi… Would accept me after all the damage I’ve caused to them.”

“They will! After all, mr. Hikari doesn’t seem happy fighting her friend. In fact, she seems hurt by it.”

Daisuke glanced at him in silence, so there is hope. The hope to fix the wrong choices he had taken.

“I will talk with him then. Maybe if I explain things… No, could you lend me a hand, kiddo?”

“Yes, I can try. Also, I’m Daichi and these are Natsu and Ulforce.”

“Well you can call me by Daisuke then” he chuckled “... Thanks for giving me a reason to do the right thing, Daichi.”

“So you knew what you were doing was the wrong thing…?”

“Eh, kinda of…” he laughed nervously “Every time I tried to talk with Ichijouji he… Seemed pretty distant from me. I stayed with him because I couldn’t stand seeing him alone. And he’s still hurt by what happened to ol’ Osamu.”

“Despite of everything… You’re still the same” Natsu muttered.

“I’m glad you heard me, mr. Motomiya” Daichi smiled “This shows that you’re a good person after all, just like mr. Takeru and mr. Hikari think about you.”

“They… They think that about me?”

“Yes, they do.”

“... Thanks.”

[Daichi’s world, year 2027]

“Their information is correct,” Ken told Taichi via phone “I had been informed of a suspicious activity in the Digital World.”

“Is that… ‘Roar of Freedom’ they mentioned?”

“Yes, I think they’re connected to that incident from 2025.”

“... What do you need?”

“Nothing at the moment, but if I’m right about this… We might find him.”

“Sir!” an officer opened the door of the room “S-someone invaded and… And…”

“What?” Ken turned to look at the woman “I will call you later, I need to go now” he told Taichi and hung up “What happened?”

“The Strikedramon brothers… They had been… Deleted.”

“Deleted!? How!? The security of this building is…”

“We don’t know! All we got was… This.”

She gave him a paper with something written in Digimoji.

“... I will handle the case. Please, check the cameras and check if you can find something suspicious.”

“Yes sir.”

“Wormmon,” he looked at the digimon playing something on a tablet “Can you read this for me? I need to call the others” and he passed the paper to Wormmon.

“Um, let’s see” Wormmon took his reading glasses and examined the paper.

“Hello? It’s Ichijouji. Could you gather the rest of the group for me? I know we all are busy, but this is important. Ok, I will wait.”

Wormmon started to type the translation on the tablet.

“I need a gathering of all ten as soon as possible. No, it’s indeed important so that’s why I’m trying to reunite all of us. It also about him, I think I got a clue. Can’t tell that yet, and what I want to discuss is about--”

“Kenchan.”

“One sec, Wormmon was translating something for me.”

“Here,” Wormmon handed him the tablet and Ken read it aloud:

“... ‘You won’t win this time, Chosen Children. I know who all of you are.’ , huh?”

“That’s concerning…” Wormmon frowned.

“I think we have to reunite everyone right now. I got a message addressed to us.”

#datl text chapter #daichi arc phase 1

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johannesviii · 7 years ago

Text

The City of the Dead

Some A truckload of highlights of the last EDA I’ve read (The City of the Dead).

I took these screens while reading, along with my reactions. As usual, this is full of spoilers.

Okay, so, just imagine. In a parallel universe, one day, Clive Barker decided to write a Doctor Who story, and even if he tried to seriously tone down his usual mix of strange gore + weird sex + unusual magic, the result was still a bit too much for the series, but so good the BBC published it anyway.

Wouldn't that be great?

Now stop imagining, because it's a book written by Lloyd Rose, and it exists.

It's flawed. Of course. What book isn't? It sidelines Fitz and Anji near the end. Its twist could have used a bit of foreshadowing. It delights a bit too much in torturing Eight. But who cares, honestly. It still transported me in a world where there's real danger, and cute cats, and dark magic, and sugar donuts, and blood spells, and awful and weird and wonderful characters, and nightmares, and laughter. It's an experience, to say the least, and probably not for everybody, but my god, what a ride. 10/10

Okay, so, the only thing I know about this book is that I’ve got one friend who really likes it. And it’s by Lloyd Rose, aka the writer of Caerdroia. Will this book be weird too?

APPARENTLY YES. YES IT WILL. What a start.

Doctor, that’s called sleep paralysis. It might be scary, but nothing bad will actually happen to you, okay? Breathe.

Okay now I’m kind of nervous too.

[Unexpected Scherzo flashbacks]

That’s one of the most unnerving descriptions of Eight I’ve ever seen. Wonderful.

"I believe”

Oh don't start with the Earth Arc feelings...

RELATABLE

Museum of Magic? Take me there.

Art goals.

And the price for best out-of-context sentence goes to...

Excuse me, that's way too cool.

Also, it instantly made me think of which kind of bone I'd cut if I ever wanted to do this. Probably a toe.

So, magic is now a thing in this series. Hasn't been the case since The Scarlett Empress, I believe. Why do I get the feeling I'm gonna say 'that's way too cool' a lot over the course of this story?

I'm cackling

He really doesn't want to admit something's wrong.

Wait wait wait wait. What? The bone charm was in the TARDIS?

Doctor no.

Eight being distracted by donuts in the middle of a discussion about a murder, everybody!

A very nice beach

Hmmm cute? Cute.

The exact kind of offerings I'd like to get once I'm dead.

So, this story seems to be a murder mystery, and the goal is to find who the Magician is. I like it.

The Magician found Eight, then. Maybe he's the source of the nightmares?

Meanwhile, Eight tries to go to a goth party, and it's very awkward and relatable.

And Fitz and Anji are visiting New Orleans at night with a guy who pretends to be a magician, and Fitz keeps ruining his groove.

Swan, you're like a parody of a Mary Sue

GO UP

Meanwhile, Anji and Fitz both want to punch Dupre on the nose and I gotta say... me too.

Every conversation in this fandom ever

Guess that puts Dupre on the suspects list, then.

That sounds like the kind of ludicrously aggressive death electro thing I listen to when I need to use violent lines and colours in a drawing.

I guess we can also put Teddy-weird-artist-Acree on the list of suspects (even though his fear of going downstairs is a pretty good alibi). Also, bonus cat.

THIS CONVERSATION HAS ONLY JUST STARTED AND IT'S ALREADY GOLD

Eight's like "Hmmmm what makes people feel better, OH I KNOW. CATS. HERE. HAVE A CAT."

THIS IS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER BY THE MINUTE

(mid-liveblog update: I drew that scene before I even finished the book.)

He literally ran away haha.

Teddy Acree is cracking me up, seriously wtf

A perfectly reasonable suggestion, Doctor.

ASDFGHJFF He vaguely remembers the Daleks so he finds saltshakers 'sinister', I'm dead

UNREQUESTED 'THE TURING TEST' FEELINGS

SHIT, THAT HURTS

'What if I'm nuts?' 'I'm rather counting on it'

Interesting.

Eight already regrets starting a discussion with Dupre.

THE UNREQUESTED 'THE TURING TEST' FEELINGS ARE BACK WITH A VENGEANCE

Oh my f█cking god

♫ DO THE CREEP ♫

Aaaaaand I think we can also put Thales on the suspects list.

GOOD SHIT GOOD SHIT

Eight, this is a bad idea.

I love how he's dodging Dupre every time that weirdo tries to touch him.

Also, that's a very relatable reaction.

Eight is like "okay no, I'm way too asexual for this"

THE DOCTOR HAD DECIDED IT WAS ABOUT TIME FOR HIM TO LEAVE

'Hadn't he'

Something was actually summoned??

Can you imagine going home in a corset with spikes because you were stuck in it? Lucky he was here, poor her.

Mood

BIG MOOD

Not exactly a revolutionary development, but interesting nonetheless.

Oooooh. His nightmares are actually trying to take him somewhere?

FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT IN THE BOOKS, EIGHT IS VERY CLAUSTROPHOBIC SO I'M PANICKING A LITTLE BIT TOO

SHIT HE FOUND SEVEN IN HIS LOCKED MEMORIES

He has no way of knowing that was a past version of him, has he?

Okay so the Magician isn't Dupre. Which... isn't very surprising.

‘AN IMP WITH TERRIBLE EYES’

Hey look it's the best meme from 2016

HARSHER IN HI̟͔͈̻͓̱ͅN͓͇͉̗̜D̤̼̻͙S̮̤̱͓I͓G͔͉̱͓̩̦̠H͕̲̯T͖̰͎

10/10 conversation

Thank you for clarifying, Doctor

HOLY SHIT

THIS IS SO COOL

I MEAN I HAD A FRIEND WHO WAS A TAROT NERD AS A KID, AND AAAAH LOOK, THAT'S ALL THE CLASSIC DOCTORS AS MAJOR ARCANA

Of course Seven is the Hanged Man OF COURSE EIGHT IS THE TOWER ASDFGFFH THE FIRST MEANING IS 'BRUTAL CHANGE, DISASTER AND IMPENDING DOOM'

Now I want to draw all these cards with the Doctors on them, haha.

I keep thinking about Twelve putting like ten spoons of sugar in his coffee.

This book is starting to break the record for the most "asexual Doctor" moments. And I’m 100% okay with that.

YOU DON'T SAY.

He also vaguely remembers Faction Paradox!

I love how patient Fitz can be with him when he's not well.

He's in the past now and trying to find the source of the problem. That may be interesting. Or it will just make everything more confusing.

And I think that child might be the Magician.

LOOK AT MY FAVORITE IDIOTS BEING HAPPY FOR ONCE

it won't last long

'Your blood smells funny'

WHAT

WHAT she’s some sort of spirit what

UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE WEEK

I'd say 'somebody do something' but I'm sorry this is way too funny.

Probably.

Oh shit what the fuck. Is he planning to sacrifice him or something?

WHY DO I GET THE FEELING THIS SCENE WILL MAKE THE NUMBER OF LINES IN MY "EVERYTHING BAD HAPPENS TO THE EIGHTH DOCTOR" GOOGLE SHEET SKYROCKET

Eight might be the champion of gallows humor... but he's still starting to panic a little bit

The thing with the Doctor is, you know he can't die permanently since it would be the end of the series, but because he can't, they set the damage limit veeeery high, so a scene like this one is wayyy more stressful than it would be with a human main character.

Please be scared by the double heartbeat thing & let him go because I'm also starting to panic there.

THIS SCENE IS BOTH HORRIBLY STRESSFUL AND VERY FUNNY THIS IS CONFUSING

Meanwhile: what the f█ck is Fitz doing

Doctor please try to concentrate on a way to get the hell out of here

HE STILL HASN'T ESCAPED AND FITZ AND ANJI ARE WAY TOO FAR AWAY

UGH STOP MAKING ME LAUGH I'M TOO STRESSED FOR THAT

I SAID STOP IT

EIGHT STOP MAKING ME LAUGH THIS IS BAD

Meanwhile Fitz has decided to investigate a grave in the middle of the night, because why not, also I'm too stressed for that right now, go back to Eight

WHAT THE F█CK ARE YOU DOING HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT I THOUGHT YOU COULDN'T GO DOWNSTAIRS WHAT THE F█CK

SHIT SHIT SHIT F█CK HE ACTUALLY DID IT F█CK

TEDDY YOU BASTARD

AQZSDFGHJGFFG F█CK

Meanwhile in the cemetery: I have a new suspect

Okay okay now back to Eight being sacrificed because holy shit

I was about to say 'if he could have done something, he would have done it sooner', but I just realised he expects the invocation to work, and call the thing which is chasing him in his nightmares.

Okay. Okay. That worked. Dupre's dead. Good. F█ck. That was so stressful. Also Eight is probably still bleeding all over the floor, but at least it's over.

TEDDY YOU LITTLE SHIT COME BACK & UNTIE HIM

ASDFGHJKHF

Was it really so difficult to tell the police someone was trying to sacrifice you for some bullshit ceremony? I'm sure they've seen worse.

HAHAHA THAT WHOLE HORRIBLE ORDEAL WAS WORTH IT JUST FOR THIS SCENE

Doctor, no

Asexual Doctor moment number 74612

Fair enough.

HE WAS STILL HIDING IN THE HOUSE

OH NO HAHA

GOOD. Thank you.

If the reveal is something like "hey it was the guy who died at the beginning" I'm gonna be angry.

I must admit no other character we saw so far is the right age to be the kid from the destroyed house. This is getting complicated.

SHIT. SHIT. I completely overlooked that. Good twist.

BAD TIMING BAD TIMING

Wait what the f█ck, if the Magician is attacking Eight right now, he can't be Thales. Who the hell is he, then.

WELL THIS IS NEW

And here we have Fitz trying to pretend he's interested in architecture.

Understandable after the recent events.

OUCH Were these feelings really necessary? I mean this book is intense enough as it is

Teddy is a little shit and at the same time it's impossible to 100% hate the guy, he's like a non-murderous version of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

He was too obviously weird to be the Magician anyway.

Yeah, we know, Teddy, we watch that show

This whole conversation is gold.

OH SHIT

PLEASE TELL US WHO IT IS, THE SUSPECTS LIST IS NOW VERY THIN.

Wait, it's gonna be someone who already died, isn't it.

Perfectly confusing sentence, thank you Doctor.

Okay so, it's 100% confirmed, it's not Teddy. Not a surprise, but good.

STILL TOO SOON AFTER 23 BOOKS

Are they getting sidelined for the finale? Not sure I like that.

I'm cackling again

WHO IS IT

WHAT

HE'S NOT THE RIGHT AGE TO BE THE KID OR THE FATHER WHAT

WHAT THE F█CK HE WASN'T EVEN ON MY RADAR

WELL PLAYED

Oooooooh, he sacrificed his lifespan and so he looks older. Nice trick. Well played.

ALSO I JUST REALISED IT'S THE SAME TWIST THAT THE GAME 'HEAVY RAIN' PULLED AND I FINISHED IT ONLY A FEW MONTHS AGO I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING BUT NO

Ah yes, clearly there wasn't enough physical pain in this book already.

"You don't sound very certain”

This book is so weird, in the best way possible.

Woah the Magician's house nearly works like a TARDIS.

I just had a revelation. Of course I love this book. It's almost a Clive Barker book.

WE FINALLY KNOW WHAT THE TATTOO WAS

I love this f█cking book so much.

I also love Eight's reaction to that reveal.

OH SHIT WHAT

RUST IS USING HIM AS A WEAPON TO CONTINUE HIS VENGEANCE AND RETRIEVE THE AMULET I LOVE THIS

HOLY SHIT EIGHT

He's gonna leave him to... weird swamp creatures which are supposed to guard him while Rust is away, and I'm sure everything is gonna be fine RIGHT

'It's as if there were somebody else living in here with me'

I KNEW IT THAT WAS A BAD IDEA

WHAT THE F█CK did the swamp things trapped him in an imaginary world?

How long has he been there??

Everytime there's a good scene about the contents of the Doctor's pockets in these books, there's a better one in one of the next books, I swear. But I still doubt this one can be beaten.

That explains so much about the random cup of tea Twelve had in the middle of Skaro in The Witch's Familiar, too.

Third screen about the contents of the Doctor's pocket, because I'm still not tired of that.

Mrs Flood has access to this place. Is it an actual place then?

Asexual Doctor moment number 87454

Mrs Flood, NO.

Wait a second, is this place some sort of fairy realm? Is that why he refuses to eat anything here except what's in his own pockets?

Are... are you attempting to escape this realm by walking

Oooh isn't that the cover of the book?

Good point. Also I'm glad they're back in the plot.

I'M HOWLING

FITZ NO

AZSDFGHJ ANJI NO

OH SHIT SHE GUESSED WHO THE MAGICIAN WAS?! GOOD JOB ANJI

Friendly reminder: I love these two idiots.

FITZ TRYING TO PILOT THE TARDIS, EVERYBODY

THEY ACTUALLY SUCCEEDED

So it WAS some sort of fairy realm, woah.

WAIT WHAT

SECOND TWIST WHAT

RUST ISN'T THE KID EIGHT HAS SAVED?

THALES? IT'S THALES??

Wait wait wait, Teddy said Thales wasn't human either, didn't he?

Ooooh Thales is another Naiad!!

OH SHIT OH F█CK OH LORD

EIGHT, PLEASE NEVER DO THAT AGAIN

So he really was using the Void to track Eight, after all. The nightmares about Nothing chasing him were entirely justified and not a metaphor at all!

HOLY SHIT EIGHT NO BAD PLAN

The finale of this book is literally the concept of Nothing saving the day while Eight literally yells into the uncaring infinity of the Void. What can I even say about that.

He doesn't belong in the Void after all, so it can't really claim him. That should convince him he's not a complete monster, after all. Good. Good and nice ending.

Oh that's even better.

Good.

#Eighth Doctor Adventures #Eighth Doctor #Fitz Kreiner #Anji Kapoor #The City of the Dead #doctor who #edas #An EDA liveblog full of useless comments #long post #appallingly long post #language tw #caps lock #body horror tw #violence tw #gore tw #eye contact tw #sex mention tw #gif

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renaroo · 8 years ago

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My Perspective on This Idiocy

I have a hate-fascination with Nick Spencer. I’ve read his comic Bedlam and thought it was just about the best comic he was capable of writing because creator-owned Image publications tend to be quite a bit of insight into the creator.

Now if you don’t know about Bedlam it’s a comic where a maniacal, Joker-esque villain known as Madder Red terrorized a city until he seemingly died in a final fight with his heroic adversary. In truth he was captured by some mysterious organization that “reformed” him through questionable means. And suddenly he is working along with the police force to try and stop other villainous maniacs while constantly being on edge with whether or not his reform actually worked.

An inherently evil man, secretly reformed, infiltrating the side of justice he once worked against, in order to maintain law and order. The sort of thing which had it happened with a Red Skull or a Joker people would (rightfully) lost their shit because the moral event horizons for the characters are so far removed from the concept of reformation in reality we wouldn’t be able to accept it.

I read Bedlam at the time and was fascinated by a dark inversion of what the only “end point” for undeniable evil in a comic book world could be, but I was also in my very light, very short “dark and gritty” phase of being an 18 year old life long comic reader.

What I’m getting at is that since then I care a lot more about the motivations of why people choose to write such stories and frame them the way they do than I did when I was younger.

My next hate-fascination with Nick Spencer wasn’t other indie titles like Morning Glories (which I missed the boat on) or his run on Ant-Man (which I skipped because I haven’t had a huge relationship with the character), but with his involvement with the “Superior Spider-Man” storyline Dan Slott was penning, Spencer writing Superior Foes of Spider-Man. If you don’t remember, that was a storyline where Doc Ock was dying so he switched brains with Peter Parker and left Parker to die in his old body but decided to be a pompous asshole version of Spider-Man and outdo his predecessor culminating in an issue where he dates Mary Jane briefly so that Slott could continue to fuck with MJ fans and have an issue where the cover had MJ in her underwear. Classy.

Spencer obviously didn’t have a lot to do with this main storyline (though the current parallels tells me a lot about the values Marvel puts in maintaining the concept of what superheroes even are), but he wrote the ancillary book that was allotted by a lot of fans and critics that turned the Sinister Six into a Suicide Squad/Secret Six-like morally questionable-to-bankrupt protagonists whose exploits you come to hate yourself for cheering on as gleefully as you do, especially in the face of inevitable defeat.

Humanizing and giving voice to the side of the people comics have traditionally used as hatable enemies easy to root against.

The next bout of hate-fascination I’ve had is with this tire fire that has been his run with Captain America and what we’ve seen as the moral collapsing of the entirety of the Marvel Universe. A world where the Nazis were supposed to win WWII and the Allies decided that the MU as we’ve known it, as crafted by Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and many others (mostly Jewish creators), was actually a FALSE reality crafted by the Allies after-the-fact where they made sure to defeat Hitler, but allowed the Holocaust to happen. A fact that REALLY can’t be overlooked considering what a vital role it plays in Magneto’s life and his descendants’ lives, not to mention the parallels of the struggles of the X-Men in general.

You can follow the entirety of what has been the Spencer disaster in great articles like this Polygon summary and the same author’s rundown of yesterday’s issue.

But, apparently, people still don’t get it because everything’s cyclical and comics will return to normal by the end of the summer yatta yatta let’s ignore that three months ago there were actual Neo-Nazis including Tila Tequila holding a party in DC where leaked footage shows hate speeches and actual Nazi saluting to “Hail Trump” and the fact that a high level Marvel executive is now a paid member of the Trump White House that also has Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.

Let’s instead look at what this says about Nick Spencer as a writer. The man is a professed Liberal, a huge Hillary supporter apparently during her campaign, and also a man baby who takes offense to everything on Twitter Dan Slott-style, and apparently has an inability to reflect upon his own body of work and see the trends that are glaringly obvious to me just through this short overview.

Nick Spencer is a white, male neo-Liberal suffering from a morbid fascination with the macabre fascism and atrocities of reality, who is just being ‘real’ and ‘edgy’ by making drawn out portrayals of these ideologies, and saying “implications and moral grandstanding be damned” because (for reasons that he pretends to be oblivious to) this sort of villainous humanizing and morality postulating world where “Social Justice” terms can be hurled by careless, strawmen “actual bad guys” and Black characters who suffer racist abuses in- and out-of-universe apologize to their white friend sells to the white, male 18-35 demographic.

Is Nick Spencer a neo-Nazi or support the real world fascism he uses in his stories? I don’t know, I don’t really care.

But I know why he’s using it to sell comics, and I find that fact unforgivable both for him and for Marvel. And for him to act like he’s being attacked for “simply writing good, controversial stories” while he and his buddies claim that the REAL PROBLEMS at Marvel right now are diversity and that damn DC putting out content people are gravitating toward instead of shitty comics where Captain America and the whole world are actually Nazis the whole time, shows me where convictions of his sort really lie.

You can stamp your “I’m With Her” stickers all over your forehead and lambast Trump tweets all day, Nick Spencer, but like most white, male neo-Liberals I have met in my life it doesn’t really make a difference because your nose is still stuck up the assholes of the people you actually relate to because other communities you “champion” for are harder to understand and more complex to portray the humanizing elements of compared to moral quanderies of “punching that guy who kinda looks like me and had a life like mine just because he has a stupid haircut and talks about the symbolism of Peppe the Frog while proclaiming the superiority of the White Race makes us just as bad as Hitler, guys”.

Yeah, it’s easier. Just like it’s easier to say you’re pro-Diversity, pro-Women, pro-LGBTQA+, pro-Progressive ideals to avoid being called out or questioned, but much harder to write with a conscience perspective for those groups while playing to your actual target audience.

So my hate-fascination with Nick Spencer has come full circle. He’s ironically hit his own moral event horizon. And he’ll possibly make himself and Marvel lots of money while doing so. But it won’t be from the demographics that are actually growing in America and worldwide. It’ll be from the one that’s been shrinking for 20 years now and, historically, already lost this war once.

Not that Nick Spencer’s current Nazi fever dream likes to admit that they actually lost it.

I’m going to declare my hate-fascination with Spencer over. Not because I think his career is over, not because I don’t think he’ll make some other big waves with some other stupidity (probably on twitter) later. But because he’s finally reached the apex of this little journey in his writing career. And it’s boringly average white fanboy fare in the big picture of comics.

Characters and comics are immortal, writers and artists are temporary, but the shame of this douchebaggery is hopefully going to be immortal.

It will be for as long as I’m blogging, at least.

#long post #Rants of Unusual Size #opinions opinions opinions #Nick Spencer #Marvel critical #nazism tw

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davidmann95 · 8 years ago

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Age old comic questions to ask: in the old debate regarding "which side of Superman is the real person whole other one is the fake identity", I consider Clark Kent the real person and Kal El/Superman his mask. What's your opinion?

In spite of being such a profoundly significant aspect of him - arguably THE significant aspect of him - I actually have two pretty irreconcilable answers to this one. In part it’s a matter of a multitude of fundamentally incompatible takes on him being presented over the years, and to narrow it down to a single vision in terms of legitimacy is impossible after 1940 or so. But if we’re being really honest, it also has to do with my mood at a given time, and my frustration with how he as a character is often treated.

The first answer, what I’d call the proper answer for a modern mainline take on him, is both of them are real. Or, depending on your standards, neither of them. He doesn’t just turn off who he is, or spend half his life pretending. When he’s slouching in a bad suit and pretending to be near-sighted he can still count and mentally sort by size every dust mite in his field of vision in a picosecond, he’s still listening into police band frequencies, he’s still fighting for truth and justice. He’s still being Superman. And when he’s wearing a leotard and holding up collapsing bridges, he’s thinking about hitting deadline and feeling bad about bumping into that one guy from accounting and remembering how to make the recipe he tried on a recent time-travel trip that he’s sure Lois would like. He’s still being Clark. And at the same time he can’t be angry or bold as Clark, or scared or awkward as Superman, same as you might have Work You and With Your Friends You and With Your Family You, and they’re all real but not whole. The ‘truest’ guy such as he is would probably think of himself as Clark, but that’s the guy who knows how to drive a tractor and has been tinkering with a one-man Multiversal transportation unit in the Fortress and is wondering if he’ll ever write another novel, not exactly fitting with either of the above. And you could count on your fingers all the people in the universe who interact with that side of him on anything like a regular basis. Ultimately, they’re both meaningful and valid expressions of who he is, Clark the part of him that feels awkward and alien but determined to do the right thing in spite of the limits even he possesses, and Superman the very nice godling raised by the Kents to help people because he can.

…but there’s another answer too. If you’re enforcing a more rigidly-defined take on the identity binary, if you’re focusing on one side as being a ‘truer’ expression of himself even if neither encompass all of it, if you’re picking between the Silver Age Superman or the Byrne Superman as a more valid expression since they both decide on one, or if I’m just particularly frustrated with DC’s treatment of him on a given day and feel they need to flip the script - if one way or another, you’re being forced to pick one. In that case, my answer is definitely, unquestionably that he has to be Superman who sometimes pretends to be Clark Kent, not the other way around.

I know that goes against 30 years of conventional wisdom - especially since Kill Bill/Quentin Tarantino’s argument to that effect left a sour taste in a lot of mouths - but like the old narrator says, he’s SUPERMAN, DISGUISED AS MILD-MANNERED REPORTER CLARK KENT. That’s how Siegel and Shuster made him, that’s how the majority of his most critically-acclaimed stories portray him, that’s how he was for 48 years until John Byrne kinda-sorta-maybe broke everything forever, and of all the things he changed for the worse, Clark as the unambiguously true character of the two might have been the most destructive. ‘Power levels’ can be adjusted, he can start fighting bigger and stranger or smaller and more intimate threats, Krypton and the presence or lack thereof of Ma & Pa Kent in the present can be retconned, but that’s a fundamental change to the innermost core foundation of who he is, and while it arguably led to the more well-rounded “they’re both real” take down the line - though I’d argue it was headed that way anyway and Byrne actually significantly delayed it - at the time, it absolutely, catastrophically cut the character out at the knees. I would sincerely say that DC accepting it as the True Canon take on the character has been one of the biggest reasons he’s struggled to regain a foothold in the public imagination.

For one thing, if Clark’s the ‘real’ guy, he’s probably not going to be that different from Superman. He has to be brave and charismatic and unwilling to let injustices go unaddressed no matter the cost, because those are all clearly fundamental aspects of who he is, and Superman has to be capable of all those things too. The problem of course being that that makes him a Superman who isn’t doing cool Superman stuff, and unless you really zero in on the office drama or reporter intrigue as equally relevant and exciting parts of the story - which most don’t - that makes a Clark who’s real ironically a distraction from the real event of him being Superman, a set of interstitial scenes to break up the robot-punching. And it takes away the drama of him having a secret identity if they’re both the same: of course he spends half of his life as the guy he truly is when he’s not being a superhero, for the same reason Peter Parker doesn’t just take an Avengers paycheck and spend all his time as Spider-Man. Him willingly spending his time acting klutzy and insecure when he’s actually Superman is a fascinating insight into his character. If nothing else, it hits on the primal motherlode of relatability that is “to be normal and accepted he has to pretend to be someone he’s not”; there’s no overstating what a long way that goes in making a borderline god someone who you can sincerely empathize with, and everyone on Earth can do that with that experience. Handsome Hero Reporter Clark Kent fighting crime on the other hand is an obvious thing that character does if he has superpowers, and nothing more. It cuts him down from having an interesting motivation for each identity to one for both, and undoes a lot of potential complexity in the process.

American Alien is the one story to come down entirely on the side of Clark Kent being the real one that I know of to really, powerfully work, and it rewrites a ton of how he functions to make that fit. In spite of some of what I said above still applying - the story is about how he becomes Clark Kent, superhero, his decision to put on the suit being an ancillary aspect of that, rather than him going down two parallel tracks that converge in interesting ways - it actually turns out well; it’s arguably the best Superman story since All-Star even if I’ve personally preferred a couple others, and in the isolated context of that story, it works incredibly well. As a Superman who’s meant above all else to address the specific themes and aspects of who he is that this story wants to go into, it goes perfectly: he’s a Clark who can still believably do Superman stuff, but because he’s really Clark that image ends up cracking, yet when the chips are down Clark is still tough enough in and of himself to get the job done. It’s absolutely a fair-game reimagining for the sake of what the creators are trying to do.

But just the same, while it fits for that one story and any possible sequels, I don’t think it fits with the broader portrayal of Superman as an icon, for a very important reason: one of the big things at the heart of his story is the idea that it’s our best selves that are our truest selves, at least in his eyes. Jor-El isn’t just the guy who failed to save Krypton, he’s the man who gave us Superman. Jimmy Olsen may be a dope who wanders into danger so often he needs a signal watch to summon the most powerful man on Earth to regularly save him, but he’s also a quick-witted crusading action reporter who’s decent enough that the best guy on Earth considers his best pal. Perry can be a dick boss, but he’s he’s a crusading journalist of integrity who wants to bring the best out of the people he works with, and because of that Clark looks up to him. Lex has done horrific damage, but Superman above all thinks of him in terms of the kernel of goodness inside him being squandered, and all the wonderful things he could do for the world. In Superman’s world it’s the best in us that’s the most essential part of who we are; he…screw it, Morrison put it better the way he always does:

“In the end, I saw Superman not as asuperhero or even a science fiction character, but as a story of Everyman.We’re all Superman in our own adventures. We have our own Fortresses ofSolitude we retreat to, with our own special collections of valued stuff, ourown super–pets, our own ‘Bottle Cities’ that we feel guilty for neglecting. Wehave our own peers and rivals and bizarre emotional or moral tangles to dealwith.

“I felt I’d really grasped theconcept when I saw him as Everyman, or rather as the dreamself of Everyman.That ‘S’ is the radiant emblem of divinity we reveal when we rip off our stuffyshirts, our social masks, our neuroses, our constructed selves, and become whowe truly are.”

The essential truth of his story is that inside every Clark Kent - the person our fears and vulnerabilities make all of us be, even him - when the time is right and you tear your shirt open there’s a Superman who will emerge as your highest, truest self to make things better. Not that behind every seemingly-magnificent Superman there’s the moments where he has to calm down and stop rocking the boat and go back to being scared, vulnerable, mild-mannered Clark Kent. You can rectify that by presenting Clark as a profoundly appealing figure in and of himself - Superman’s really just like you too! (though isn’t he just Spider-Man at that point?) - but like I said earlier, while Clark should be admirable, past a certain point that runs into some major problems of its own, and Lois is supposed to be the one to show how a normal person can be super anyway. Again, I think the best path forward is for both of them to be true. But if you’re making a decision, Clark may play his part…

#Superman #Clark Kent #John Byrne #Grant Morrison #Superman: American Alien #Spider Man #Lois Lane #Opinion

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douchebagbrainwaves · 5 years ago

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OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT VALUATIONS

The most obvious difference between real essays and the things one has to write in high school the solution was the telephone. You can change everything about it, is roughly what you hope to get from a graduate program. Then if they decide they do want to invest—usually because they've heard you're a hot deal—they can pretend they just got distracted and then restart the conversation as if they'd been anointed as the next Google?1 I read an article in which a car magazine modified the sports model of some production car to get the best investors, because the very idea of Web-based startup is food and rent. And yet all the empirical evidence points that way: pretty much 100% of startups that go public is very small.2 So if you start a company than incorporating it, of course, and this is one of the most ad hoc parts of any system. So he proposes there are two kinds of theoretical knowledge had to be carefully planned. But if someone had, they'd probably be quite rich now. You grow big by being nice, but you knew there would be no rest for them till they'd signed up.3 Expert hackers are a tiny minority of the population, they're the best source of organic ones, because they're at the forefront of technology. But when I think about it, including even its syntax, and anything you write has, as much as submission.

Soon after we arrived at Yahoo, said: I actually put more value on the guy with the failed startup. So to the extent that valuations are being driven up by price-insensitive VCs, they'll fall again if VCs become more like one another.4 They've faced resistance from investors of course. VCs, especially if you deserve them. If you're not, there's a good chance it will be with people you know, you'll find they have an uncanny way of leading back to it. There are an infinite number of questions. Is anyone able to develop stuff in house, and that probably made a difference. You've made something you need to do their job.

If you'd been around when that change began around 1000 in Europe it would have seemed to nearly everyone that running off to the city to make up for it, is roughly what you hope to get from a company that managed a large enough number of companies could say to all its clients: we'll combine the revenues from all your companies, and we make a point of exerting less. In 1450 it was filled with the kind of gestures I'd make if I were drawing from life. Let's think about how such a management company to run your company for you once you'd grown it to a certain size. To be attractive to hackers, they're especially sensitive to it. Some of the problems they face are the same, their exteriors express very little, and they are arranged in a tree structure. It's not the kind of thing is out there for anyone to discover. There is more to setting up a company than to be a job. But once again, I wouldn't aim too directly at either target. This force works in both phases: both in the transition from starting a company. What makes a good startup, you can always tell. That's why we advise groups to ignore issues like scalability, internationalization, and heavy-duty security at first. It's more important than brevity to a hacker: being able to solve it.

They seem lazy because the work they're given is pointless, and they know how much jobs suck. As with contrarian investment strategies, that's exactly the point. Whereas when you're big you can maltreat them at will, and you know what it said? What makes anything good? The real question is, how far up the ladder of abstraction will parallelism go? Most hackers are employees, and this tends to warp their development decisions. It's an encouraging thought, and b their growth potential makes it easy to attract such money. The worst ideas we see at Y Combinator we get an increasing number of companies, and pay you your proportionate share. Treating a startup idea. And yet conventional ideas of professionalism have such an iron grip on our minds that even startup founders are probably dissuaded from doing it by their parents. Eleven people manage to work together in quite complicated ways, and yet we can profit by helping them, because when you're growing slow by word of mouth. Now the people who create technology, and we make a point of exerting less.5

With his tail between his legs, or rebel. Opinions are divided about how early to focus on your least expensive plan. Fairchild Semiconductor were not startups at all in our sense. But software companies don't hire students for the summer to work on your own projects. The old answer was no: you were supposed to go to college.6 When we started Y Combinator we bet money on it, and group themselves according to whatever shared interest they feel most strongly.7 It's not even that old; it only dates from about 1990. Imagine waking up after such an operation. The lower of two levels will either be a language in which the elements are characters. I think there's a general principle at work here: the less energy people expend on performance, the more hooks you have for new facts to stick onto—which means you accumulate knowledge at what's colloquially called an exponential rate. A lot of the most successful founder we've funded so far, so tentatively assume the path to huge passes through an A round, unless you're very unusual, will feel your age to some degree an admission of failure.

Plus this method yields teams of developers who already work well together. Like all illicit connections, the connection between wealth and power flourishes in secret. One way to make something people want is to get there first and get all the way to think about this.8 For example, many languages today have both strings and lists. Once you remember that Normans conquered England in 1066, it will be at a high valuation means enough investors were willing to accept it. I've never heard anyone mention explicitly. The right environment for having startup ideas need not be a university per se.

In How to Become a Hacker, Eric Raymond, Guido van Rossum, David Weinberger, and Steven Wolfram for reading drafts of this. But marketing is increasingly irrelevant. Don't optimize for valuation.9 Established ones have learned to treat saying yes as like diving off a diving board, and they won't even dare to take on ambitious projects. They reject nearly everyone they talk to, which means to try.10 And yet, when I think back to the 1960s and 1970s, when it was the basis of Amsterdam's prosperity 400 years ago. It just seemed a very good profiler, rather than for any practical need. In that world, the hardware we'll have in a hundred years will be looking for ways to take advantage of anything new, and are willing to forgo in return for an immediate payment, acquirers will evolve to consume it. Query response times, usually the proof is profitability. Perl cult. Octopart there was no one but him. We charged a flat fee of $300/month.

This is one of the principles we began with is false. An eminent Lisp hacker told me that his copy of CLTL falls open to the section format. I were choosing now that's still the one I'd pick.11 A rich company is one with large revenues. You're thinking out loud. Instead of delivering what viewers want, they're trying to force them take their prices off the site. There are just two or three of you, and b the subject of writing now tends to be set artificially low because the first investor becomes your asking price. When you write something telling people to be curious about certain things and not others; our DNA is not so disinterested as we might think. Most successful startups not only do something very specific, but solve a problem is often to redefine it.

Notes

When you fund a startup. But the money was to backtrack and try another approach.

Buy an old copy from the Dutch baas, meaning master. The more people would do fairly well as good ones don't even try. Maybe at first you make something hackers use. No VC will admit they're influenced by confidence.

Even if you suppress variation in prices.

For founders who continued to live inexpensively as their companies that get killed by overspending might have infected ten percent of them is that startups aren't the problem, any more than whatever collection of specious beliefs about its intrinsic qualities. I explain later. The rules with the founders'.

In practice it just feels like it takes forever. 3/4 of their origins in their IPO filing.

It didn't work out. The few people have told me: One way to fight back themselves. Garry Tan pointed out by Mitch Kapor, is to imagine cases where a lot of people who currently make that their buying power meant lower prices for you, they made much of a powerful syndicate, you can do is not that the path from ideas to startups. Predecessors like understanding seem to be employees is to discount knowledge that at some of them.

But that doesn't exist. I'm saying you should never sell.

Good news: users don't care about GPAs. Consulting is where the ratio of spam. In fact most of the world barely affects me. 7 reports that in effect hack the college admissions there would be taught that masturbation was perfectly normal and not fundraising is a net loss of productivity.

We think of. Odds are people whose applications are perfect in every way, without becoming a police state. But it's telling that it offers a better strategy in terms of the most famous example.

Now the misunderstood artist is not to be high, they tended to make you take out your anti-recommendation.

The latter type is sometimes called an HR acquisition. Part of the growth rate has to their companies took off? An investor who for some reason insists that you can't dictate the problem. I don't think you need a higher growth rate has to their situation.

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philpenmanblog · 7 years ago

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TWO HOURS IN TIME ON 9/11

My cellphone rings so I ignore it. I figured it was work and I had just worked 6 months straight. Splash News had sent myself and another photographer to head up their new East Coast office for the company. This involved being on the road traveling for 6 solid months in every state of the US and often getting last minute calls saying “You have one hour to get to JFK, you’re on a flight to Argentina for a shoot that is at 10am tomorrow.”

September 11th was to be my first official day off and I had just worked to 3am that previous evening so I was not in the mood to pick up my cell. The usual protocol was cellphone would run off, then my house line would start ringing continuously until I picked up.

This time my landline did not go off and I heard a beep indicating a voicemail had recorded. Figuring it was one of my parents I listened, it was in fact a Splash reporter who said: “Phil a plane has flown into one of the World Trade Center towers, you might want to check it out.”

I switched on my television to see the live images being shown by NY1 and thought to myself -Holy shit !- and you might want to check it out? of course I will I’m headed down there now.

I jumped out of bed threw on whatever t-shirt and pants I could find, grabbed my camera bag and jumped on my bicycle and cycled like a man possessed to get to the towers as quickly as possible.

At this point I had not even known that a second plane had hit the other tower as I had left my TV in such a hurry that I was down at the site within 10 minutes. I was making stops along the way where I knew their was a good vantage point to show the size of the towers with the flames engulfing the top of the towers.

First stop was on West Broadway in Soho. People were just watching dumb struck with what was unfolding before their eyes. At this point I was so out of it that all I was thinking about was getting the best angle.

I raced down Broadway where people were being held back, from what looked like a part from one of the planes. I was still blocks away so it did not really register. I stopped took a picture and jumped back on the bike.

Everything was in fast forward mode for me as I wanted to get these pictures but my main goal was to get below the towers as I knew it would not be long before the Police roped everything off with tape and I would not get near.

This may sound stupid now but I got to the site and locked my bike up. I had absolutely no idea how my day was going to be and I had no intentions of losing my bike to theft. I arrived to what has become my place to go every year to mourn, by Trinity Church and what used to be where I bought all my DVD’s and CD’S at “ J & R music.”

It was a real mix of businessmen in suits, tourists, construction workers, and local store clerks staring up at the towers. Some people were screaming others with their hands over their eyes struck in disbelief of what was unfolding before them.

I could hear loud screams as people were jumping from the top of the building.

I’m not going to pretend that I was really registering what was going on. I was a young kid in my early twenties that was a news photographer. These stories were what I had always hoped I had not witnessed but if they did happen, I was going to make sure I was there to cover them.

The Police started to move people away from the Park row area. Television crews were doing their live feeds around me and ambulances were attending to people struck by what they were witnessing.

The area had started to clear out and I was focused on getting shots of the church with the towers in the background.

As I was shooting all of a sudden I could hear a loud noise and the building was collapsing in front of my very eyes through my viewfinder. I clicked away just watching the tower come down further and further as the large beams from the towers got bigger and bigger in my camera.

I pulled my camera down from my face and a bunch of fireman were running past me shouting “Run kid the towers falling this way.” I ran into J & R music to see Policemen and people headed to the back of the store.

Within seconds the windows that looked onto the street had turned black. You could see nothing.

A man runs in screaming “Fuck! I made it” he was covered head to toe in debris. A policeman gives him a bottle of water. The man looks possessed as he had literally just ran for his life.

I go up to the guy and say do you mind if I take a couple of pictures. He says “go ahead Kid!”

I started taking some shots. The contrast between this Man completely covered in debris whilst people were fresh in their suits in the middle of a CD section was just surreal to me.

If you were just standing at the back of the store you would have absolutely no idea what was happening outside.

I walked to the front and could see that the visibility was getting better. I stepped out the store to what seemed like a parallel universe from the store I had just been standing in.

Paperwork was falling from the sky all around me and the streets were covered in debris. There was a deadly silence and it took a few minutes to register what had happened.

As I stood there I started to see the resemblance of what looked like people walking, some being held up by friends and co workers, others sat in shock.

I pulled my camera up to take a picture of a Woman being helped by what looked like a traffic warden.

They were both covered head to toe and she was crying. I questioned myself, could I do this? take pictures of people at their weakest moment.

In the past all I had to shoot was football fans rioting or celebrities. The closest I had come to this was photographing people after they had lost a close one but the shoots were always official and the people wanted to tell their stories.

It’s not like I thought this is history playing out in front of me and I have to record it because at that space in time I was really not with it at all. A building had just come down in front of me and I had put myself in this position. I had always wanted to photograph these types of moments and all the photographers I grew admiring were war photographers like James Nachtwey and The Bang Bang club.

I started to document the history unfolding in front of me but when in reality, these were human beings, someone’s loved one, a friend and family member.

It was at this point that I thought about my family and friends. The cellphone networks were overloaded so no calls were coming through at all. I knew my family would be panicking and be trying to get hold of me but I could not call out and knew they would be worried.

I learnt soon after that my parents knew I was down at the World trade center. They were watching a live stream on television in the UK, and saw me on television taking pictures of the people walking through the debris. This was just after the first tower had fallen. I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for them to know that their son was there and ok but this was before the second tower had come down.

All of a sudden firemen were running up the street towards me. “Run! the second one is about to come down.” Myself and a few other people who were there started knocking on the door of a building.

A man came to the door but did not want to let us in. I’m not sure if he was afraid or in shock but a policeman with us screamed at him to “open the door!” We all rushed in.

We quickly ran down to the basement of the building where others were waiting. I did not hear the second tower come down but after a few minutes I went back upstairs where the same man who had told me we could not come in was handing out face masks to people headed back outside.

Again the debris was coming down around us. I Saw a good friend of mine Jason a fellow photographer covered from head to toe in shock. I asked him if he was ok, his reply was more along the lines of “I’m fucking freaked out” as you would expect any person to say.

I continued to carry on taking pictures of people being helped by firemen, Policemen and EMT’s.

I could see Policemen taking sips of water and sharing the bottle with us all.

Out of this huge disaster I was witnessing how people really come together and look out for each other right before my eyes. Too often in NY we get too angry and are quick to jump down each other’s throats but deep down you can see that when something like this happens we are altogether.

My first trip to New York was in 1994 and then I knew this is where I wanted to live. The energy, the people! I spent the next 6 years or more trying everything I could to get here. My Dream of being a New Yorker never wavered.

I have now been here over 15 years and still wake up everyday loving it. We all have days when the city can beat us down, but I see the city as a friend. It may sound strange but after riding around the streets of NYC for 15 years you get to notice everything. What new stores open, which places close.

You get to know the homeless guys on the street by name and enjoy chats together over coffee in the mornings. NYC is everything to me so when I witnessed how New Yorker’s came together during this time it gets to me emotionally.

Things had gotten very silent. You would maybe hear alarms going off or a siren from a police car, but generally everyone was in a daze about what we had all just witnessed.

My phone rang. It was my friend from Rotterdam, Debbie who I had gone to College in the UK with. I told her I could not really talk but that I was okay and to call my parents and let them know I was fine.

I went back to shooting pictures of a priest helping a lady bloodied up and crying whilst sitting by an ambulance.

It was then I saw three men walking through the debris towards me. One now a good friend called George was still holding his briefcase.

The phone rings again. Its my boss Kevin who is in Los Angeles. He says “I know you do not want to leave the site, but you have to get back to the office to send as the papers were waiting.” This is still one of the biggest regrets I have ever made as a photographer, was to leave the World Trade center site as I knew there would be no way back in.

I started to look for my bike but it was gone. I had no way to get it so I started to run.

Our office at the time was basically a two bedroom flat in Hell’s Kitchen. I shared this apartment with my co-worker Dan, but in reality we were never there as we were always traveling on assignment.

As I was running I stopped at a coffee cart to get some water. For some reason I went to pay which sounds normal but at the time and place it was weird. The guy gave me a bottle and said, “Don’t be crazy, have it “.

I continued to run with my camera round my neck, covered in debris with a facemask covering me. People were looking at me like I was some kind of weirdo.

People were gathered around televisions on the street, some rushing to get uptown, others going about their business.

The run from the World Trade center to 38th and 9th is a few miles but I could not find a cab and the subways were not an option.

I got into the flat/office and quickly started to edit as I knew the Internet would likely go down fast. I managed to get my pictures moving to the papers and then Dan came in with his pictures. Of course the internet did go down, and Dan was left struggling to figure out how to get his images sent.

These two hours of my life were to be just the beginning.

The years after were some of the most painful. For a year straight I was having to photograph funerals, features with people who had lost loved ones, and anything related to the ongoing story. I remember having to shoot a feature on a man who was selling toilet roll with Osama Bin Laden’s face on it. When I say difficult its not like I lost a loved one but emotionally it really breaks you. Seeing such pain people are going through.

I have since connected with a lot of the people I photographed that day and we stay in touch and reach out to see how we are all doing every year.

One day a few years after the attack on the World Trade Center I received an email, whilst coming out of a cinema in the East Village with my wife Karen. It was from George who I had photographed that day. We had shot a feature together a year after 9/11, where we’re- united the three men I had photographed.

George had written to me to see how I was doing, I literally broke down in tears on the middle of 2nd Avenue. The emotion of the day had gotten to me. I still break down from time to time every time I think about that day and do not believe I will ever truly understand or realize the size and magnitude of what happened.

If the Building’s had come down any other way I would be dead. That’s a strange thing to wrap your head around.

WORDS AND PICTURES BY PHIL PENMAN

Listen to an interview recorded with Steve Harris of the BBC about my memories of that day.

#September 11th #phil penman #World Trade center #New York

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hellyes-tommccamus · 7 years ago

Photo

Mutant X [TV] (2001-2004)

S01E04 “Fool For Love”

[spoilers]

Sci-fi/action

Tom McCamus plays a main role in season 1

This episode is one of my favourites. It’s about love, although more of the dark and unpleasant sides of it. And that brings great joy to my cold, cynical heart.

Adam has sent Shalimar to meet another feral New Mutant at a club, and she is bombarded by attention from admirers. With her good looks and constant smile, it’s no surprise. (In a parallel universe Shalimar and Emma run a multimillion dollar business. Just imagine if they used their abilities to win over customers and sell them practically anything.)

Eventually the New Mutant, Donna (Monique Ganderton) shows up. She’s a party girl very much of the 00s era, wearing one of those sparkly halter neck tops and choppy highlighted hair. She tells Shalimar she doesn’t want to go into the underground as she isn’t a New Mutant (where have we heard this before? Ahem last episode. Although pretending to be “normal” is a very common and relatable thing).

A guy accosts Shalimar with extremely cheesy pick up lines. She does the feral eye thing on him, which does the trick. And probably safe to use on drunk guys. Who’d believe his story, even if he admitted to being turned down?

Donna, however, is less resistant to the charms of random club guys and is helpless to resist a guy who is bragging about his big TV. But after kissing him she decides she is actually a feral and uses her powers to attack him. (I wonder if there are ferals that aren’t trained in martial arts. How would the ability manifest in an unfit person?)

Then, Mason has a stalker. Wait, did I say stalker? I meant visitor. Karen Bell (Claudia Besso) works in internal audit and reports some unauthorised research that she has discovered. I initially thought she had to take a deep breath before going into his office because she was afraid of him, but in light of later evidence, perhaps not. She can’t stop smiling when she’s talking to him. Mason tells her he knows she hacked his emails. She does the politician’s change of subject and makes it sound like that’s what led to her discovering the unauthorised research. But we know the truth.

Poor Emma wants to join in with combat training, but the boys tell her she should stick to using mind powers. Jesse suggests she has telekinesis, which shows how much attention he’s been paying to someone he lives with. She gets her own back by playing a mind trick on them.

Brennan and Jesse go to the bar to try to find Donna’s “date”. Brennan manages to get a date with a waitress with one line and a smile. Then Emma shows up and uses another unmentioned mental power. She helps a security guard remember Donna’s date’s car. Which is kinda cool but related to empathy? Nope.

When Donna doesn’t answer the buzzer, Shalimar breaks into her apartment. And it’s a really awesome, modern apartment. The sets of Mutant X really are something special. The design and lighting of Sanctuary and Genomex are really something.

Shalimar is ambushed by a man and they begin to fight. Now the fight scenes in Mutant X are generally dubious, but this one is actually approaching Matrix quality. Half way through the fight the man reveals he is a feral with his eyes, and the tone of the fight changes to more of a courtship dance. And ends with Shalimar throwing him on the bed and jumping on top of him.

But then a neighbour bangs on the wall and ruins the mood (and, dear reader, that neighbour is after my own heart). The man refuses to tell her his name, and indicates he is somehow involved with Donna. But Shalimar still appears to be enamoured with him. Angry neighbour wins however, she has called the police and they are here already. If only the real police were so fast and vigilant. Sigh.

Adam uses a cool program to make a 3D photofit image of the man from Shalimar’s swooning descriptions. Adam explains her feelings as a series of chemical reactions, but she’s totally smitten.

Back at Genomex, Karen is searching someone’s computer hard drive and is caught in the act (world’s least sneaky hacker?) by none other than Shalimar’s mystery guy.

Adam’s search using the magic 3D photofit somehow hits on exactly the right person. If we have this kind of technology in the future there’s absolutely no way it would be this good. You’d probably struggle to get a match even describing someone you knew well. But anyway, Shalimar is devastated to find out he works at Genomex. But Adam thinks that a research associate wouldn’t know about the GSA and what they’re doing. I find that hard to believe. How can you be involved in research and not know what it’s for? Any sufficiently clever person will work it out from the context and conversations of colleagues. Even the interns who wash the test tubes probably know. Adam probably should have told her that of course he knows what’s going on and is totally evil, because telling her he’s probably unaware gives her the idea of sneaking into Genomex to tell him. And Adam just lets her? Sure, sneak into the base of our biggest enemies to go talk to some guy you just met. Maybe he just knows better than to try to change the mind of someone in love.

Karen goes to report her findings to Mason, but she hasn’t actually found anything concrete. But Mason has every faith in her and assigns GS agents to assist her. He does his usual routine of circling and staring at her, but it’s quite clear that she would happily have him stare at her all day. He calls her by her first name, which he never does with employees. And the way he calls out good luck to her after a long pause and turning away. It’s a credit to Tom’s acting abilities that it’s unclear whether he is uncomfortably aware of her interest in him or if the interest is mutual.

Shalimar sneaks into Genomex, and seems to easily find where the object of her affections works. The man, whose name is Richard (Yannick Bisson) tells her he has developed a serum to reverse mutations in DNA. He talks about realigning the DNA codes. I’ll just be over here laughing. Again with the weird concept that New Mutants have two sets of DNA, the normal human DNA and a completely separate set of New Mutant DNA. It could be possible that all the mutated DNA is located on a single chromosome, I guess. But anyway, if we’re going with that idea, then wouldn’t the treatment need to remove or chemically switch off the New Mutant part of DNA? There are many ways to adjust the expression of DNA that doesn’t touch the original code, through epigenetics such as changes in methylation.

Shalimar is shocked by his research, but has little time to respond as Karen’s unsubtle hacking strikes again and they have to run before she can get to them.

Karen reports back to Mason. It’s really unclear why his employees report to him so frequently. Wouldn’t it have been better for her to go after Richard and try to find him? Check the CCTV or something? Either Mason is such an obsessive micromanager who wants to badly to trust someone but just can’t (understandable if we’re to believe his version of how Adam betrayed him) or are his employees just so damn scared that they check they’re doing OK every five minutes?

Mason’s anger disappears when she tells him about Richard being a New Mutant and working on a formula to reverse New Mutancy. Obviously he wants the formula. From the last episode, we know this is something that has been worked on for the last twenty years with little success. Apparently Richard kept only half of the formula on his work computer. Now I can’t see how he could have worked on such a thing in that way. He must have done significant amounts of work and testing in the lab. Wouldn’t IT be able to dig up old versions of files from the network? And couldn’t it be deduced from the equipment and chemicals Karen already knows were used in an unauthorised way?

Richard takes Shalimar back to Donna’s apartment. I understand they’re on the run, but isn’t bringing a new love interest back to an (ex? current?) girlfriend’s place kinda tacky? Shalimar doesn’t seem to mind, but she’s completely head over heels for him.

He tells her he’s been taking the serum he invented. Now that he’s tested it on others to check it works. Richard says he’s never felt comfortable and always wanted a normal life. Shalimar argues that it’s not a bad thing, it makes them special. It’s kind of a heart wrenching situation, and makes me think of the awful “cures” they had for homosexuality. A wish to be “normal” is a common one.

Brennan and Jesse have finally tracked down Donna’s date. They seem to have left Emma behind, but she catches up with them and tells them the man wasn’t lying when he said Donna attacked him. Another power to add to her list, lie detection. For some reason Brennan takes out his anger on the guy and sets off his car alarm.

A weird exchange takes place between Shalimar and Richard. She gets the impression that she will have to take the serum as well for them to be together, so she brings up the topic. And he pretty much confirms this. Abusive relationship alert. Wanting someone to change to be right for you is bad enough. But just knowing you are expected to change without being told is really sad.

The next scene contains two things that every Mutant X episode seems to need: shirtless Brennan and the lab underwear. Shalimar brings a sample of Richard’s serum to Adam. Adam’s reaction to it is very scientific: cautious but not dismissive. Unlike his decision on the Pushka from the last episode, which pretty much did the same thing. He’s very understanding and accepting of Shalimar’s consideration of using the serum. He advises her to wait before making a decision, which is wise. She has known the man for a couple of days at most.

Karen tells Mason that her friend at the medical examiner’s office told her about a body that had unidentifiable DNA. But somehow they knew that the DNA had been altered recently. When the show came out, the Human Genome Project had just been completed, so there was a sense of arrogance that we had “cracked the human DNA code”. This fails to be true even now. Sure, we understand a lot more about DNA, how it works and what certain parts of it do, but I think identifying mutated DNA is a bit difficult. All sorts of things can lead to changes in DNA. And altered recently? Do we have some kind of internal change log? Well, no.

Back at Sanctuary, Emma is practising kicking. Brennan wants to bet on whether Shalimar will take the serum. Jesse is initially not impressed but then joins in.

Mason and Karen have an oddly romantic scene over Donna’s dead body. Although she works in internal audit, Karen must also be a geneticist, as she says she matched Donna’s DNA to the code of the formula Richard was working on (yes the one they only have half of). Have I mentioned how much I like the glowing cuts between scenes? There's loads of them in this episode.

In what we now know to be a dead woman’s apartment, Richard has come to the end of his treatments. He tries again to convince Shalimar to take the serum too. He also suggests they could try to make the relationship work with her not taking the serum, but she won’t consider it. Which is odd when she says she’s in love with him and will do anything to be with him. But in the next breath she agrees to take the serum. The next morning Richard is in a lot of pain.

While walking through Genomex, Mason and Karen have a heated argument about her leading a GSA raid. You see, this kinda thing is why I find it hard to believe that the employees are unaware of what’s going on there. In the end he relents.

Adam has analysed the serum. We get a nice sciency picture onscreen of some spinning DNA and a 3D visualisation of a molecule. I believe he says he has done research into its meiotic crossover sequence. Meiotic crossover actually happens during cell division, and the serum is not living tissue. (It’s possible that after years of lectures by scientists from all parts of the world, I fail to understand Adam’s accent). The upshot is that the serum has similar consequences to the Pushka. The moral of the story: unless you’re trying to cure something deadly, don’t mess with human DNA.

Proxy Blue reports about a body that was found with altered DNA. The medical examiner’s office definitely needs to give its staff confidentiality training.

Richard is getting so sick that Shalimar tries to take him for help. But then Karen shows up with a couple of GS Agents. But Jesse, Brennan and Emma show up and dispatch them easily. Karen grabs a gun, but Emma knocks her out with the kick she had been practising.

Back at the lab in Sanctuary, Richard is dying. But he says his bone marrow can save Shalimar. Would have thought that would make her more ill, but OK. And how shocking, Adam actually wearing a lab coat in the lab! And it’s a microbiology lab coat too. I guess he’s ready to do some science that doesn’t just involve computers and lights.

Meanwhile at Genomex, Karen is begging to go back to her old job. But Mason has other plans. Stasis? Is he serious? But she’s not even a New Mutant. But that answers the question of whether he liked her. The answer is uncontrollable laughter.

Richard and Shalimar have an emotional goodbye. We don’t actually get to see Adam do any science. Shalimar seems to be fine, apart from being lying down by a pool of floating candles level sad. I do really like Shalimar though. She’s a tough, independent woman, and at the same time doesn’t shy away from showing her emotions.

So to wrap up, we see that love leads variously to death, bereavement and scientific experimentation in a state of suspended animation. Just like in real life. Be careful out there folks!

#mutant x #tom mccamus #victoria pratt #victor webster #lauren lee smith #forbes march #john shea #monique ganderton #claudia besso #yannick bisson

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anangryally-blog · 8 years ago

Text

I'm very pissed off.

I learned a lot about patience and empathy when I was young.

I remember my mom pulling imaginary patience out of her heart and tossing it to me when she could tell I was low on it. She would toss it across the room and even though it was invisible I could actually feel it working. I’d go from emotional to stable with just a few handfuls. Real, live magic. Of course now I understand it was a placebo effect. This understanding, though disappointing, has given me the confidence to understand my emotions and do my best to control how I react to them. I’m not always good at taking the ‘high road’. I do not always choose to be calm. I argue. I get emotional. Typically I do what most people do - I make a decision and my pride glues me to it no matter how right or wrong it is. The tragedy of being human. But often I struggle to commit to a single belief or side because “what if I’m wrong?” Shouldn’t we all be asking that question? I want so badly to do what’s right but what’s right for me can be wrong for someone else.

At least I know that much.

I’m not sure what to say right now about everything happening in our country. It’s very difficult to remain composed, smart, and thoughtful when you’re simultaneously outraged. I can’t picture my moms handfuls of patience being thrown in my direction and I find it impossible to see the other side. I think I’m right, but what’s right for me might not be right for someone else.

Right?

I’m not so sure anymore. Sometimes there IS a right and a wrong and no grey space in between.

I got labeled a liberal or a democrat or a hippie or whatever else I’ve been told I am because of my focus on people. Had nobody ever thrown those labels at me I’d be hanging out somewhere in the middle. When my dad was a State Representative I’d hear him talk about all the political drama amongst the other reps. He would bring up controversial bills they were going over. Sometimes he’d talk about one and I’d think, “I don’t know what the issue is there, that one seems pretty great.” The republicans are for that one. Oh. “I don’t know what everyone’s whining about with this one, it seems very helpful.” The democrats are for that one. I see.

Sometimes politics obsess over money. Sometimes politics obsess over people. Lately it seems to be obsessing over the need to choose one over the other. This is where my composure gets a bit lost. This is where my label gets put on me. I am a dirty dirty liberal because I choose people. I will always choose people. I sincerely do not understand how I could be wrong here.

I have never been in a position where someone told me I couldn’t do something, until recently when some of my rights became threatened because I am a woman — a rant for another time. Can I get married to the person I love? Yes. Can I go to school? Yes. Can I see a police officer and know he or she will protect me? Pretty confidently. Can I travel the world? Yes. Even despite speaking only one language? Yes.

What would I do if anything in my life was taken from me from a total stranger?

…What would YOU do?

Call me overreactive, but I would be So. Fucking. Angry. If a stranger told me I couldn’t do something that had absolutely nothing to do with his or her life I would want to hurt that person. I would feel violent. Protective. Confused. Misunderstood.

I have the privilege to say, “fuck you, this is my life.” I have the privilege to not NEED to consider these questions. I have the privilege of knowing my family is safe and happy.

I could choose to be silent during times of injustice. I have the privilege of making that choice even though I’m aware that not everyone around me has the same comforts.

But I don’t choose to simmer down.

Because I’m not a piece of shit.

I’m a fucking human and so are you and so are 7 billion others. Seven. Billion. Seven billion adorable, tiny babies have been brought into this world and cried and laughed and grown up.

Not a single one of these 7 billion asked to be here. Not a single one requested to be born into any particular life.

Call me a crazy, illiterate, liberal bitch but my brain cannot grasp how some people think it’s FINE to fuck with another persons life FOR NO REASON.

And don’t give me a single “reason” that has to do with money or a book or petty personal preferences, because if it doesn’t directly affect the roof over your head, the clothes on your back, or the people you love, then it doesn’t fucking matter.

I am sick of being patient, calm, cool, collected, composed, indifferent, and peaceful. I am sick of saying, “Oh woah I’m sorry I forgot to fact check that part of this issue. I didn’t realize it was going to be so detrimental to your livelihood to let a gay man marry the love of his life. I didn’t realize saving boat loads of drowning children from Syria was going to make your house too crowded. It must have escaped me that all your efforts toward helping EVERY kid have a good life is compromised now because so many of them are being aborted. I can’t believe I forgot to think about the effectiveness of a wall while I ignorantly considered putting my tax dollars instead toward free education for all the non-aborted kids. I’m out of line, I’ll go do some more reading.”

Enough of that.

Fuck you guys. Seriously fuck every single person who thinks any of the inhumane things Donald Trump and his supporters are doing is okay. Fuck every single person who has the audacity to say “Liberals want free handouts” as if none of you have ever needed any kind of support EVER in your lives. And if you’ve never needed support then it means you were given hand outs PROBABLY FROM WEALTHY RELATIVES.

I don’t have any patience left because I am educated. Has anyone ever taken a history course? Has anyone ever been taught that history repeats itself? Does nobody care about the parallels between Hitler’s agenda and Trump’s agenda? Has anyone researched psychology? Does anybody know about the Stanford Prison Experiment? Did you comprehend the results and what they told us about human behavior? Have you heard of the phenomenon the “Bystander Effect”?

I don’t have any patience left because I am empathetic and I don’t live in a magical little bubble all by myself. I don’t separate my humanity from the humanity of another human because read those words and recognize how fucking absurd it would be to do that. It’s important to me to occasionally think “what would I ACTUALLY do if I were in their shoes?” Because I am a liberal bitch who is on the right side of history and I’m definitely not going to see a side that promotes oppression and regression.

I don’t have any patience left because I am American and I fucking love what my country was meant to stand for. Remember the statue of liberty? Do you remember where she came from (hint, she is not made in America)? Do you know what she stands for? Remember how we got here? You know how fun it is to go on ancestry.com and find out all the different countries your great great grandparents came from? WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES. Do you know the difference between the words UNITED and DIVIDED. Guess which one we chose to put in front of our country? UNITED. Remember?

I don’t feel comfortable living my happy life day to day anymore when so many people are affected by the political corruption. Do our politics not reflect our ethics? So many people keep telling me to forget about the politics. Stop worrying, Have hope. Don’t get so mad at the people you love for supporting different things.

I’m not pissed off at people because they are republican. I’m not pissed off at people because they voted for a candidate they thought would give us palpable, necessary change. I’m not pissed off that people are protective of our borders and of our economy. I’m not pissed off that we keep an eye out for terrorists. I’m not pissed off that people don’t want their hard earned money to go to someone else.

I’M PISSED OFF BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE OKAY WITH HURTING OTHER PEOPLE. I’M PISSED OFF BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE PRETENDING SOME OF US ARE SOMEHOW BETTER THAN OTHERS.

I’m not angry about politics. I’m angry about ethics. And I don’t give a fucking shit if we are related by blood or if we have known each other for twenty years or if you volunteer at the animal shelter on the weekends. I don’t want anything to do with anybody at this point who thinks it’s okay that our president is not-so-slowly following in the footsteps of a man who gave us our largest genocide in history. I don’t want anything to do with anybody who thinks it’s okay to prevent me from getting birth control or from stopping an unwanted pregnancy. I don’t want anything to do with anybody who thinks it’s okay that racism is still an enormous issue. Nothing that’s happening right now is okay. And me trying to understand how that escapes so many people is like trying to justify slavery, the holocaust, rape, murder, child abuse, and everything else that we KNOW is wrong. There is no grey area in there. This isn’t a situation where we ponder the different sides. This isn’t about economics or politics.

I don’t support violent protests. But I don’t support silence either. I don’t want terrorists here. But I refuse to label 5 year old Syrian children as terrorists.

I don’t tend to be an extremist in any way except that right now I’m extremely protective of the people around me who don’t have my same privileges for the dumbest fucking reasons in the universe. I am unapologetically at a zero tolerance point right now. I am in FULL ally mode. I will not choose to live my life regularly because I get to. I am going to utilize my position to be here for all the people around me as best I can. I’m not going to stop complaining. I am not going to dramatically move to Canada because I actually want to make America great again, but for real this time and not on Trumps hateful agenda.

This is a terrible time for our country. And if you don’t see that, open your fucking eyes. And if you’re okay with that, remove yourself from my life because we no longer have any reason to be connected. You are supporting a divided frame of mind and the only part of that I support is you dividing yourself from me.

And if you’re scared or pissed off or confused or trying to figure out how to help, I’m here doing the same thing, always available to talk and find solutions.

I might not be able to create any huge difference, but I’m an ally for refugees, minorities, women, LBGTQ, everyone! My eyes are open always when I’m out and about and I am more than ready to stand my ground for both myself and my peers. I stand behind what I believe in and I’m done being patient.

So if you must keep asking when we will accept this presidency or when we will calm down or why I am still up and arms about everything or how on earth I can shut people out for mere politics, understand that to me and many other people in this country (and also the world) this is about ethics. And we won’t go away until it stops.

This will be in history books just like all the other shitty, unethical events our country has dealt with. Which side of history will you choose to be on?

#politics #ethics #opinion #history #right side of history #ally #human rights #7 billion #refugees #fuck Trump #impeach trump #empathy #allies #united #America #rant

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