#Holy crap this series is a giant black hole

[kyliafanfiction-archive]

Writing Update 1-21-17

Enough Good 19 is up, and now it is time to plot out ICC 2x19, and holy shit, I keep digging a bigger and bigger hole for myself with this fic, how the hell am I gonna get all the things done in this chapter that I need to get done, it’s probably gonna end up being like 40,000 words, wtf?

Okay, so, no, it probably won’t be that long, but still, I gotta get quite a bit done. 

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 18 February 2019

Quick Bits:

Aquaman #45 gives us a new creation story with Father Sea and Mother Salt. It’s interesting world-building for what’s going on on this island. Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques, and Sunny Gho seem to level up on their art again. This book is gorgeous.

| Published by DC Comics

Avengers #15 continues the vampire civil war, with the Shadow Colonel basically kidnapping Ghost Rider. Jason Aaron is definitely taking this series in weird places, but it remains highly entertaining. Especially with collaborators like David Marquez and Erick Arciniega who deliver some incredible artwork.

| Published by Marvel

Avengers: No Road Home #2 reveals how Nyx and her family took Olympus. There’s also a neat parallel narration for Hawkeye explaining how the guy with just a bow and arrows can take on gods and monsters. The art from Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco, and Jesus Aburtov is gorgeous, they really seem to pushing themselves with their storytelling. It’s just a shame that none of the artists are credited on the cover.

| Published by Marvel

Barbarella/Dejah Thoris #2 is ridiculously impressive. Leah Williams, Germán García, Addison Duke, and Crank! are delivering an intelligent, humorous, and compelling adventure tale here that reminds me a lot of some of what Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse did in Tom Strong. It’s incredibly inventive and the artwork is amazing. Highly recommended.

| Published by Dynamite

Batman #65 gives us the penultimate chapter of “The Price”, featuring an all out battle between Flash, Gotham Girl, and Gotham. The artwork from Guillem March and Tomeu Morey is stunning, with some incredible layouts as the action continues.

| Published by DC Comics

Black Widow #2 is fairly bloody and violent as Natasha racks up a body count tracking down the people running “No Restraints Play”, a site that specializes in depravity. Flaviano’s line art seems scratchier than the first issue, but it works for the violent tone of story.

| Published by Marvel

Bloodborne #9 begins the third arc, “A Song of Crows”, as Aleš Kot, Piotr Kowalski, Brad Simpson, Aditya Bidikar, and Jim Campbell spotlight Eileen the Crow. This is a bit of return to the kind of abstract storytelling and embrace of oblique existentialism of the first arc as Eileen investigates the ritual murder of a hunter, but is confounded by time and holes in the narrative.

| Published by Titan

Catwoman #8 is ostensibly the “conclusion” to “Something Smells Fishy”, but it doesn’t actually end the story in any way and leaves the reader at a cliffhanger of continuing elements. That being said, it’s still an entertaining issue from Joëlle Jones, Elena Casagrande, Fernando Blanco, John Kalisz, and Josh Reed. Wonderful action sequences, and more questions as to the nature of a reliquary that seems to contain resurrective powers.

| Published by DC Comics

Delver #1 begins a new Comixology Original series from MK Reed, C. Spike Trotman, Clive Hawken, Maarta Laiho, and Ed Dukeshire. It’s a very intriguing and unique take on the fantasy gaming theme of a dungeon full of treasure and monsters with delvers working to plumb the depths. But it’s from the perspective of the townsfolk whose land the door to the dungeon appears in and how it changes and impacts their lives. 

| Published by Iron Circus Comics

Doctor Strange #11 concludes the battle with Dormammu and the Faltine, for now at least, from Mark Waid, Jesús Saiz, Javier Pina, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Cory Petit. Some very nice art as usual from Saiz, Pina, and Rosenberg.

| Published by Marvel

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3 continues “Mother of Exiles” from Tom Taylor, Juann Cabal, Nolan Woodard, and Travis Lanham as Peter finds out a bit about the rumours regarding his neighbour and Under York, another duplicate New York City under New York City, that oddly isn’t the Monster Metropolis. Great humour from Taylor in the dialogue.

| Published by Marvel

Guardians of the Galaxy #2 takes a somewhat different approach as Peter Quill drunk dials Kitty as he tries to make sense of what’s going on with Thanos, Gamora, everyone who’s dead, and the current state of the Guardians. Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Marte Gracia, and Cory Petit are really taking this series into interesting offbeat territory, while still delivering some excellent humour and an ominous feel to Starfox’s new band of “guardians”.

| Published by Marvel

Incursion #1 begins a new mini picking up on where the Eternal Warrior and Geomancer are since Harbinger Wars 2 and Ninja-K, and pit them against Imperatrix Virago, a cosmic villain that is devouring worlds (kind of like if Galactus were pestilence), from Andy Diggle, Alex Paknadel, Doug Braithwaite, José Villarrubia, Diego Rodriguez, and Marshall Dillon. The art is incredible, the stakes seem pretty high, and the outlook after this first issue look pretty grim for Earth.

| Published by Valiant

James Bond 007 #4 sees Stephen Mooney join Greg Pak, Tríona Farrell, and Ariana Maher for the art chores for three issues, continuing the tale of Bond and “Oddjob”’s team-up. Like Marc Laming, Mooney seems to be born to draw Bond and espionage themed stories.

| Published by Dynamite

Judge Dredd: Toxic #4 concludes what has been an excellent series dealing with xenophobia and hateful rhetoric from Paul Jenkins, Marco Castiello, Vincenzo Acunzo, Jason Millet, Shawn Lee, and Robbie Robbins. I’ve always found non 2000 AD Judge Dredd stories to be a bit of crapshoot, but IDW have been delivering well with the past two mini-series, this and Under Siege.

| Published by IDW

Justice League #18 is the latest excursion into the Legion of Doom territory from James Tynion IV, Pasqual Ferry, Hi-Fi, and Tom Napolitano. It works with some of the revelations from last issue regarding Martian Manhunter and builds a new narrative for Lionel Luthor’s past and his work with Vandal Savage. It’s interesting to see Tynion working with variations on discarded continuities in this way, building a new past that synthesizes pre-Flashpoint ideas with the current batch of backstories.

| Published by DC Comics

Middlewest #4 only seems to be getting better and better as more of this world and how it seems to work get fleshed out by Skottie Young, Jorge Corona, Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Nate Piekos. There’s something incredibly magical and special about this series that taps into the feeling of some of the best coming-of-age fantasies as it blends Ray Bradbury, JM Barrie, and Carlo Collodi into this magical realist adventure.

| Published by Image

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #3 concludes the opening arc from Saladin Ahmed, Javier Garrón, David Curiel, and Cory Petit by adding Captain America to Miles & Rhino’s team-up. This has been a very entertaining start to the series, with a nice mix of Miles’ personal life and superheroics.

| Published by Marvel

Naomi #2 reasserts that Jamal Campbell is a powerhouse of an artist and one of the best kept secrets of the past few years who really should have a higher profile. His art is amazing. It also helps that the story he, Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, and Carlos M. Mangual are telling is as compelling as this, as Naomi confronts Dee as she tries to learn about the day of her adoption. It’s very widescreen and epic as it hints at the broader DC Universe, but at the same time this is very deeply personal.

| Published by DC Comics

Old Man Quill #2 gives the Guardians a taste of the depravity and despair that Earth has fallen to in this post-superhero world. Ethan Sacks shows there’s still a bit of humour left, though, in that Piledriver’s descendent thinks that Piledriver was one of the all-time greats. Also the art from Robert Gill and Andres Mossa gives a wonderful amount of detail to the wastelands.

| Published by Marvel

Relay #4 returns after a delay with new artist Dalibor Talajić (I believe Andy Clarke had to bow out due to illness, but I’m not 100% sure on that). Talajić’s art style is not as bright and clean as Clarke’s, giving a darker, shadowy approach that results in the bleak, horror elements of the story coming further into focus.

| Published by AfterShock

Seven to Eternity #13 returns from its own lengthy delay to conclude the arc in Skod, with the revelation of part of Adam’s choice to save the Mud King. It reiterates the theme since the beginning that there seem to be no good choices in this world, that everything tainted, despite Adam’s father believing the world black and white. While we are going into another trade break, Rick Remender, Jerome Opeña, Matt Hollingsworth, and Rus Wooton consistently make this worth the wait.

| Published by Image / Giant Generator

Sharkey: The Bounty Hunter #1 is the latest of Mark Millar’s Netflix feeder series, after The Magic Order and Prodigy, with Simone Bianchi and Peter Doherty rounding out the team. This one feels a bit like if Warren Ellis were writing Strontium Dog, and it works. The artwork from Bianchi is worth it on its own. Gorgeous character designs.

| Published by Image

Venom #11 is another holy crap issue from Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, Joshua Cassara, JP Mayer, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles. There are some really big revelations about Eddie and his family that really need to be read firsthand. Amazing work.

| Published by Marvel

X-O Manowar #24 reminds us again just how good of an artist and storyteller Tomás Giorello is. The action sequences and battle between Aric and Hesnid is incredible, with fairly inventive layouts that just elevate the overall impact of the pages. Giorello and Diego Rodriguez really make this something joyous to behold.

| Published by Valiant

Other Highlights: American Carnage #4, Bitter Root #4, Black Badge #7, The Black Order #4, Breakneck #3, Coda #9, Death Orb #5, DuckTales #18, East of West #41, Evolution #14, Exorsisters #5, Go Bots #4, Grumble #4, High Level #1, Hot Lunch Special #5, Jessica Jones: Purple Daughter #2, Jim Henson’s Beneath the Dark Crystal #5, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Discovery Adventure, Jughead: The Hunger #12, Lightstep #4, The Lone Ranger #5, Lucifer #5, Lumberjanes #59, Mars Attacks #5, Monstress #20, Outpost Zero #7, Rainbow Brite #4, Shuri #5, Solo: A Star Wars Story #5, Star Wars Adventures #18, Starcraft: Soldiers #2, Stronghold #1, Sukeban Turbo #4, Superb #17, TMNT: Urban Legends #10, Teen Titans #27, Turok #2, The Unstoppable Wasp #5, The Witcher: Of Flesh and Flame #3

Recommended Collections: Amazing Spider-Man - Volume 2: Friends & Foes, Bedtime Games, The Beauty - Volume 5, Black Lightning: Brick City Blues, Captain America - Volume 1: Winter in America, Days of Hate - Volume 2, High Crimes, Infinity 8 - Volume 3: The Gospel According to Emma, Old Man Hawkeye - Volume 2: The Whole World Blind, The Punisher - Volume 1: World War Frank, West Coast Avengers - Volume 1: Best Coast

d. emerson eddy would do anything for a Klondike bar, but he won’t do that.

[officialleehadan]

99 Shiny New Bugs in the Code

 Y’all have been asking for a sequel to this one, and here it is!

 +++

“How did you do that?”

Rick looked up when Marina spoke. She was real pretty. Big green eyes and red hair. Rick hadn’t worked up the courage to really talk to her yet.

The narrow-eyed expression of suspicion wasn’t really a good sign. Rick had sisters. He knew that look meant trouble.

“I told you; it’s called code,” he said and focused on the line he was trying to get work.

So far, it wasn’t working.

Well, he managed to get some spectacular sparks, and lit the curtains on fire, but Marina was decidedly calm about that. Maybe student mages did that kind of thing a lot? Rick didn’t have any way to know and Marina didn’t seem likely to tell him.

“Yes, but how did you do it?” she persisted, and finally set her book down so she could get a better look at the code he was tryingot write out on the floor in chalk.

God he missed his computer. Less than a week, and he would never take it for granted again.

Seriously. The backspace button. He would sell his soul for a backspace button that worked on chalk.

“I’m trying to figure out how to go home,” he said, and rubbed out one character to replace it with another. Days of trying and it still wasn’t working. He was starting to think it was wasted effort. “Open!”

Nothing.

“Portal magic is something only the Masters can use,” Marina told him shyly. She was still unsure what exactly she was supposed to be doing as Rick scribbled on the floor. For that matter, he really wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be doing. Until he could work the bugs out of his code, nothing was going ot happen. “It can be very difficult, and very dangerous.”

“Well, I got here one way or another,” Rickk pointed out. The code on the floor didn’t do anything, even after he rubbed out one clause and changed it by a few characters. “Crap. I was doing this in Haskell, but it’s not working. Myabe if I run it through Python…”

“What is that?” Marina asked, leaning forward to examine his code. “We use runes for some spells, especially in student magic, but this is something entirely different.”

“Python and Haskell are programming languages,” Rick sat back on his heels and sighed. At least on a computer he could try his code and maybe see what the problem was. This was nothing but ‘it works’ or ‘nope’ and it was driving him crazy. “Some languages are better than others, depending on the task you’re doing. I know a couple different ones, but this is… not exactly my wheelhouse. The magic, I mean.”

Real magic. That was trippy beyond measure and he really didn’t know what to make of it. Still, if code worked on magic, he could figure it out.

Probably.

Maybe.

He hoped, anyway.

Something occurred to him.

“Hey,” he looked up at Marina. “You know magic, right? What makes magic work?”

The question took her by surprise, but she thought for a while before relyping.

“It is energy,” she decided at last, and held out a hand. A little glittle or light ran across her fingertips. “In our world, there are rivers, unseen but present, called leylines. They are invisible, and usually under the earth. That energy is mutable, and shaped by will as guided by word, item, gesture, and rune.”

“Huh,” Rick muttered as he started to translate his line of code from one language to another. “Items?”

“Components, mostly,” Marina produced a vial fo glittering dust out of her belt pouch. Rick paused to examine it. “That is powdered mirror. I use it for communication spells. Another of my spells calls for rose petals, dried before midsummer. Often, the component speaks to the spell.”

“I didn’t write down CatDem,” Rick pointed out as he wrote, but he had a sneaking feeling that it wasn’t going to work any better in Python than it had in Haskell. “It just went off when the code flashed across my mind. But that was different. I mean, I know CatDem so well I could probably write it in my sleep.”

“What is CatDem?” Marina asked, bewildered.

“Huh? Oh, Catastrophic Demise. That spell that… kinda blew a hole in your castle.”

Blew a hole was downplaying it. Catistrophic Demise was an end-game spell that players could only get by doing a long series of complicated side quests. It was supposed to be a game-changer.

It was overkill for the whatever-it-was he nuked with it, but probably better than dying, which seemed pretty likely at the time.

He still felt kind of bad about the giant hole in the castle.

Marina was looking at his code again, and slid off her bench to get closer. “So this is a different language? Why did the first language not work?”

“Python is more object-oriented,” he told her, and held his hand over the line. “Open!”

Nothing. Not even sparks. Not even a waver in the air to suggest what had gone wrong.

God he missed his computer.

“Try with this,” Marina dug in her pocket for a minute and came up with a bottle of black liquid. When she shook it, it shimmered with powdered gold. “It’s made with powdered charcoal of holy basil, and gold.”

Rik examined it and shook the bottle to see the gold flakes float around in the thick liquid. “Does the type of ash matter?”

“Holy Basil is for moving forward, in the literal, and for seeking truth, in the metaphorical,” she told him with a shrug like it was common knowledge. “And gold conducts magic. Light magic, particularly, which I think is what you’re using.”

It was worth a shot. He eyed the floor, but was happier when she offered a slip of rag paper and a glass pen. He wasn’t accustomed to the antique tools, but they were better than chalk.

When he had the code transcribed, he handed the ink back, and looked down at his paper.

“Open!”

The paper lit on fire, and the air shimmered, before spitting out something that looked like a kitten.

Except, of course, kittens usually didn’t have feather wings to match a grey-spotted body.

“Ah,” Marina blinked, and offered her fingers for the little creature to smell. “Well, Ch’reet aren’t from this world…”

The kitten meeped and bumped its’ nose against her fingers politely, before leaping onto Rick’s shoulder, purring loudly.

Rick petted it helplessly and sighed.

“99 shiny new bugs in the code,” he sang glumly as the kitten made itself comfortable on his shoulders. “99 shiny new bugs. Take one down. Pass it around. 200 shiny new bugs in the code.”

+++

Counter-Code

Code for Magic

99 Shiny New Bugs

+++

Support me on Patreon!

[starsofshadowanddust]

Bookish Tag Questions!

AW YEAH! BOOK STUFF!

Tagged by the astonishing @acfawkes!

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

If it is a book I purposefully bought, then probably Sandry’s Story by Tamora Pierce but on shelves in general then probably Diana of the Crossroads.

2. What is your current read, your last read, and the book you’ll read next?

so i actually just finished a book titled Knit One Girl Two by Shira Glassman AND IT WAS AMAZING! The book before that was The Antagonists by Burgandi Rakoska which was also terrific! The next book on my list is The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge because I was flipping through my netflix and had a sudden realization that secret of moonacre was based on a book and i love my fantasy - cheesy and otherwise. 

3. What book does everyone like and you hated?

oh god there are actually a lot of these.... confession I have never made it through the Harry Potter series (yes, I know, I’m a terrible human BUT I GAVE IT AN HONEST TRY). I really hated slave, warrior, queen as I found that the lead was very strong willed and then ended up very passive and submissive at the end which was disappointing. I tried the winners curse series and didn’t really like it. imma leave it at that...

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

ummmm on my digital shelf, there are a lot of books there that I probably won’t get to. On my actual shelf... I’ve actually read everything on there sooo... Im actually pretty spontaneous in my reading...

5. Which book are you saving for “retirement”?

shakespeare marathon and working my way up to Dragonbone Chair. I don’t know, I’ll probably end up writing my own stories in my head during retirement cause I won’t be able to use my hands or hear an audiobook! 

6. Last page: read it first or wait til the end?

Depends on the book, but in most cases I’ll wait till the end! The only times I will check the ending is if I am reading with someone else and am keeping an eye out for triggers.

7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

I actually love reading the acknowledgements and all the other weird little things before and after the book! Getting to know the author can change the way you see a book which I find fascinating! :)

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

Thianna Frostborn. Not only is she amazingly sarcastic and smart, she is half frost giant which would be SO MUCH FUN!!!! The adventures she ends up on are so much fun and only have minor physical damage!

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

I actually have a lot of these! The first one that comes to mind is Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey which is one of the first fantasy books I read that are closer to the adult than young adult realm (see book three chapter 8) and this book was passed down to me from my mom who read it around the same age. It was one of the first books that I accidentally “missed” class in and its always been a comfort for me.

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

 I got the book Wait Till Helen Comes from my elementary school librarian (who has unfortunately passed away and im still sad about that) who taught me how the right book can change your view on life and on reading. All of us library helpers got to choose a book and this was the first time someone gave me a book that wasn’t a family member. Only problem was that during the creepy ghost scene my black cat was in my very dark room and knocked over my stack of books the same time the ghost knocked over a stack of books in the book... needless to say, its not a book I read much now!

... also, I “borrowed” my dad’s copy of Death in Yellowstone when I was 7/8... I wasn’t supposed to read it but it remains one of my favorites.

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special someone?

nope. I’m very possessive of my books. any books that have left my possession were either loaned, or I traded, or I got money for. I like books...

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

Probably Death in Yellowstone as it came with us on our trip back home from yellowstone... besides that, I travel mostly with ebooks as you can store more in less space!

13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

I no longer have a grudge against The Odyssey which is probably because the second read through wasn’t forced into two weeks with really detailed quizzes that killed my grade. All other books that I hated, I still have. peace like a river can still go burn in a hole (I have a poem about this book if anyone wants) and stargirl was a very terrible book. I DETEST it.

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

well I worked at the school library first period so I’ve seen quite a few things. There have been several bathroom passes, a couple photographs, a crap ton of phone numbers... There was a book about teen pregnancy found in the girls bathroom and that was pretty awkward. Strange, however, not really. 

15. Used or brand new?

both! If I really like a book, I will buy a new copy but for anything else I love used because it makes sitting in a corner like a creepy person less lonely because the previous reader probably did too!

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

While I haven’t personally read any King, I know for a fact that they aren’t checked out all that much at the high school level at a high school library. I would say that like any author, if the reader gets through it and enjoyed it - that author is a genius.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

well the Harry Potter series but that is just because i could never make it through (which is really annoying but not annoying enough for me to force my way through the books) but besides that, not really

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

well a lot of the YA popular series in my personal opinion. Twilight is definitely up there. There are probably a lot of terrible movies that I have watched jokingly that were originally books that I don’t know about. 

19. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

not really... I often forget to eat and forget that oh hey! my body is hungry and I should probably eat when I’m reading. 

20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

my old elementary librarian when he was still alive, and my mom. She is an english major/poetry minor so we don’t have a lot in common (Im going into geophysical engineering) but holy crap are her books good! and I get really excited about books and will read just about anything. I also have a problem where if I’ve started a series I really hate to not finish it so I’ve read an entire trilogy in two days because all books had to be back at the school library for summer.

Tagging: @bookishnessnessness @courtofglassandfire @beyondthestonewalls @stinti @intj-writer @swerpl @stinti @where-the-wild-dreams-grow @th3neighborhood-onparadiseway @goldkirk @observethewalrus and anyone else who wants to share their love of books!

[satelliteofmstielove]

K19 Hangar 18

                                  Aliens or something, I don’t know

General notes

          I always remember that this movie is K19 because it’s Hangar 18 and that for some reason strikes me as mildly funny. From the title I expected it to be about airplanes, but it’s actually about spaceships. Made in 1980, starring people from things. Nothing really to note about the episode. Everyone’s here for the whole thing this time, so let’s get a-rollin’.

 Prologue

Joel pops up from under the desk sounding like he hit his head.

No real intro this time, no Mads. Joel just tells us the name of the movie and we go straight into Movie Sign. Maybe they were pressed for time this week.

 Movie pt. 1

I can’t tell when the guys get into the theater because the version I’m watching is such bad quality. Any black backgrounds make it impossible to see the guys. Later on they started putting a slight filter on the movies to make the silhouettes stand out better.

At 3:22, Joel asks why made-for-TV movies always look different than normal movies. Tom informs him, correctly, that Hangar 18 was shown in theaters. Why is that, actually? It is related to how they’re shot? There’s even a difference in look between different types of TV shows, so I assume that’s why. Does anyone want to inform both me and 1989 Joel?

When the movie astronauts are checking switches and things on the space shuttle at 5:39, Crow asks Joel if he remembered to check their switches and things. Joel doesn’t answer. Several seconds later at 5:47, Servo asks him the same thing, and he says no. Servo seems slightly distressed but lets it be.

Crow’s comment about the movie satellite makes Tom/Josh laugh at 7:26.

Joel messes with the on-screen controls at 7:43, but again, you can barely see him.

Something about Crow’s incredulous tone at 9:10 is really funny.

When you can finally see them, Joel and bots look like they’re sitting closer together than usual.

At 9:54, Joel makes a joke about prune-flavored Tang, and Josh laughs mockingly at it.

So far this whole movie has been half black screens. VHS movie played on UHF TV x old VHS recording + YouTube upload = hard to see.

76° at 6:13, when the time and temperature come up at 12:46. Looks like the Twin Cities are making their way toward summer.

Tom calls commercial at 13:25, Jeopardy-style, and Joel commands it more forcefully at 13:31. They don’t fade out until 13:38, though.

Joel reads the setting caption at 13:47, and Crows remarks a bit petulantly that he can read.

Holy crap, those are big lights on that police car. Also, why does this guy have such a strong Southern accent when they’re in Arizona? And I’m already sick of these captions.

As they leave the theater, Crow says he wants a soda, as if that’s the reason they’re leaving. Servo says he wants some saltines.

 Host Segment 1

 Crow’s wiggly fidgeting is cute. He’s such a little kid in the first few seasons.

Joel tells Crow he’ll need to borrow some of his RAM chips later to increase computing power for some other part of the ship. He doesn’t explain which, but maybe it would be common knowledge for Crow. Apparently, a dangerous meteor shower that could puncture holes in the ship is heading their way, and somehow the extra RAM chips with help with that? Maybe he can use it to increase the ship’s shields (which may or may not exist), or maybe he needs it to calculate a course away from the meteors or something. By the way, is it still called a meteor shower if it’s in space?

The bots have been really into irritating Joel in the past few episodes, and the trend continues here with Crow asking “Why?” and “So?” to everything Joel says. At first he seems sincere, but it quickly becomes clear that he just wants a reaction. It’s not clear if Joel catches on, but either way, he continues patiently explaining.

I love it whenever the bots cuddle up to Joel. Crow seems to know it’s cute and is using to his advantage.

Joel mentions that if he dies from lack of oxygen, the bots with have no human to play Parcheesi with, and implies that always ends badly. Having seen how the bots get along when Joel’s not around, I can imagine how that goes.

Mid-morning pleasure stimulation? Okay…I mean, I’m sure that’s not weird but it sounds weird.

Crow finishes off the whole thing with the classic “Daddy, what’s Vietnam?” and laughs, telling Joel to lighten up. Joel does not think it’s funny and finally snaps. Joel’s interesting; he’s almost impossible to rile, but once riled, he’s got something of a temper. You can see it in segments like his attempted barbershop/soda fountain in Giant Gila Monster [402] and the end of Castle of Fu Manchu [323]. Here he actually tells Crow to go get his belt! I can’t tell if he’s really going to use it on Crow or if he’s just playing along with Crow’s game by being the angry dad. Hope it’s the latter.

Similarly, I can’t tell if Crow’s reaction is real or if he’s still just in little kid mode. Again, I hope the latter is true.

 Movie pt. 2

Crow is making sounds of pain as they come into the theater. Joel tells him to quiet down and Tom teases him and laughs about the ordeal. I guess he really did use the belt. That’s the not the right way to discipline your robot children, Joel.

He also seems to be fixing Crow’s arms or something. They are kinda flimsy.

At 29:57, Crow says something about a “safety seal” and Servo barks like a sea lion. Just made me laugh.

Joel says when he was in 4th grade, he had the same kind of biohazard suit from the movie at 30:31. I’d doubt it, but it’s not impossible, especially given that a) Joel’s weird and b) this show takes place in a version of reality where satellites, robots, and mad science are a pretty casual affair. So who knows? But Joel also says it didn’t have the big mask, so he might have just been talking about a regular raincoat. (Or maybe it was a joke, because riffing. But that’s no fun.)

30: 56- I love Crow’s straightforward approach to things, hahaha.

At 31:09, they’re talking about Meatloaf (the singer) and Crow mentions he likes ketchup on his meatloaf. It’s not related to the joke, but it makes me imagine tiny baby KTMA Crow trying to eat meatloaf at the table with his dysfunctional little arms, which is oddly adorable.

The aliens really do look like Uncle Fester…when the guys sing their version of the Addams Family song (at 36:43), you can hear all three of them snapping (well, at least two). The bots must be able to generate snapping noises.

At 39:20, Joel mentions “Joe Namath Netted Slingshot Briefs”, which become a running comment throughout the rest of the series, especially the Joel era. I’m not getting a picture for this one; I think the BVDs picture from the last entry was enough trauma for all of us.

Wow, mentions of Jackie Coogan and Tor Johnson back to back at 39:55. Little did they know then how many opportunities they would have to talk about Tor Johnson (so many episodes, including The Unearthly [320], Bride of the Monster [423], and The Beast of Yucca Flats [621]). By the time they got to Jackie Coogan (The Space Children [906]), though, none of these original three were there. Here’s a picture of Jackie Coogan for no reason.

Now this airport guy has like a half-Boston, half-Southern accent. Though it is in the southern half of the country, Arizona is not really The South, filmmakers.

At 44:49, Tom goes on making fun of the possibly-crazy airport guy for so long Crow mutters that Joel spanked the wrong bot. That prompts Servo to ask him how his “bot” is; Crow doesn’t respond. 

Crow makes a zing! joke at 45:22, and Joel tells him to “take the laugh” like Dr. F told Larry in the previous episode. Crow says it hurts when he laughs, which makes me wonder how badly Joel spanked him with that belt. Oof. Tom also mentions that load pan-emptying will hurt later. The more I hear about load pans, the more I don’t want to know the details.

As they leave the theater, Crow says he need to get a pillow for some unspecified part of him.

Host Segment 2

Joel attaches what he calls a coupling device to Crow’s head so they can look through his memory and decide what’s worth keeping.

The first memory in the list is “On”. I’m not totally sure what that means, but I’m assuming it’s a necessary function. Maybe it’s the code that allows him to turn on?

Crow knows how to play Heart and Soul? I’d like to see that.

Nobody wants to go through “load pan training” again. My earlier sentiment about load pans has not changed. I would also like to see Tom and Crow’s bunk beds. What do you think the membrane that Crow mentions is? Apparently it’s less pleasant than load pans.

Nobody wants to keep the King Family specials.

They don’t feel like keeping a bunch of Highlights magazines, STP commercials with Mario Andretti, every episode of Punky Brewster, Lyle Waggoner’s penile implant show (???), Joe Something-or-Other’s business school (I wonder if that’s a local thing), Robert Vaughn’s Helsinki Formula, Aaron Gray’s cellulite show, or George Hamilton’s skin care hour. They do, however, want to keep a still of that one Farah Fawcett poster. I won’t bother to put a picture of that here because you’ve probably already seen it.

Joel smiles when Crow makes his buzzer noises.

He asks Crow where he picked up these weird infomercials, and Crow tells him he fell asleep while watching TV23 one night. It sounds like the Brains thought their channel played too many infomercials.

Movie pt. 3

I guess stunt driving isn’t part of the training to become a government agent. Also looks like their car was a Pinto.

The Apache Plaza Joel mentions at 58:03 was local mall in St. Anthony that was damaged by a tornado and then snowmelt. River Place is another spot in Minneapolis.

At 58:43, Crow notes that aliens have nipples like Joel does, as a human. Joel says his are a little more ”pouty.” I don’t know what that means, but ew.

Ah, thank you, movie, for cutting away instead of showing them cutting into the alien, proving once again that you are better than City on Fire. But you can really stop telling us where we are every single time we change locations. If the time is important, fine, put that, but if you’re just moving between places we’ve already been several times, you don’t need to tell us again.

Time and temp pop up again at 1:02:09, 75° at 7:15.

Tom calls commercial at 1:03:12.

Crow makes a good point at 1:05:44- why did it take them so long to even try to figure out where the government was hiding the ship?

Hey, a swear bleep at 1:08:45. The guys react to it, obviously knowing they would have to cut it out for the episode. Servo proceeds to make some “ship” jokes.

You know, these government agents would be a lot less conspicuous if didn’t wear suits everywhere. Also, even if the brakes don’t work, wouldn’t the car, you know, slow down if he stopped pressing the gas? Cars don’t just maintain momentum forever even if they can’t stop. And I’m already predicting this whole petroleum plant thing is going to explode in firey ball of death, killing the new set of G-men, while the astronauts get away.

Wow, Crow makes the same guess at 1:11:28.

Well, I was sort of right. Crow was more right than I was.

Crow’s little “c’mon, c’mon” as they leave the theater is adorable.

 Host Segment 3

They’ve hooked Crow up to the coupling device again, and take a look at his first memory ever.

For some reason the memory isn’t from Crow’s point of view…Anyway, Joel sings a song while finishing Crow up, then whacks him lightly to turn him on. His first sound is a baby cry until Joel whacks him again. Joel tells him name and he asks why, and Joel tells him it stands for “Cybernetic Remotely Operated Woman.”

Current Crow is very surprised to find out he’s a woman, but seems to get over it very quickly.

Joel tells him he’s actually a hermaphrobot because he ran out of parts. Why would running out of parts mean that he had both- you know what, never mind. 

I guess being a woman or hermaphrobot turns Crow into a stressed mother.

But it’s actually a joke anyway ha ha ha, Joel made a fake memory to tease him. Joel tells him that he only made him in the first place so he could play that joke on him in the future. Harsh, man. Joel’s kind of a big jerk in this episode.

Movie pt. 4

 Hey, it’s the plot-relevant radio station, like Invention Exchange from Giant Gila Monster [402].

Crow makes another good point- will the people inside the spaceship survive? It didn’t get burnt up on re-entry when it landed, so maybe they will. OoooOOOOOoooo mystery….

At 1:34:31, Crow also makes a call-back to City on Fire [K16].

Oh, they did survive. Did the guys preview this movie, or are they just that eerily smart? Maybe one of them had seen it before in the past?

Conclusion

This segment is very short, just the guys mentioning that the fan club is almost up to 1,000 members, and showing off the fabulous demon dog that 1,000th member can win. They mention it’s from the opening credits. Demon dogs will show up again in the next season in The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy [102].

Is Crow carrying something over his shoulder? I can’t tell what it is.

The credits cut off in this recording, so hopefully there was nothing terribly interesting or new.

Thoughts on the Movie

          Forgive me the unkindness, but his movie is full of mostly rather ugly people. And Darren McGavin looks like the general from The Iron Giant, and/or Tommy Lee Jones. Which makes sense because the general from the Iron Giant looks like Tommy Lee Jones. Beyond that, I don’t know how I feel about this one. It’s really not that bad, it’s just sort of dumb. I feel like it would have made a more interesting television series than a movie. It has some good moments, but it felt like it was trying to tell two different stories. The longer the movie went on, the more it seemed to lose its focus. On the other hand, I actually cared some when Lou died, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies, even non-MSTed ones. Ending was kinda stupid, though.

          The other main thing that kept bothering me was why the government kept letting the astronauts poke around and potentially muck up the their big cover-up. Why do they even let them out of D.C. or Houston or wherever they were? (I really should remember because of the excessive captioning.) Can’t the Feds just keep them where they are until they’re done lying about the U.F.O.? I mean, that doesn’t sound legal, but neither does tampering with and lying about important scientific information to keep people happy until the election, and they’re already doing that. Half the plot could have been avoided if they’d just been smart enough to stop Bancroft and Price from running around. I guess that’s why they didn’t. But that’s not a good enough reason to suspend my disbelief on that point.  

          Oh yeah, and then it gets into the tired old sci-fi trope of the aliens who are almost exactly like humans and trying to explain with actual science. I don’t have any real problem with human aliens in fiction (Superman, for example, has never bugged me), but when they try to pretend like it makes any sense, that’s where they always lose me. The whole “humans are descended from them” just doesn’t work for me. If the two species were able to breed, wouldn’t they have needed to be very similar to begin with? Then that brings us back to the parallel evolution thing, which makes very little sense in an attempt at hard sci-fi. So yeah, not quite a bad movie, just a mediocre one. It would probably make good material for a modern riff.

Review

          This one was alright. It seemed like they were a little distracted by a semi-watchable movie, so there wasn’t much riffing. I didn’t laugh a whole lot during this episode (favorite riff- Tom: Maybe they’re just a couple of yahoos from Arkansas.) The spots they did riff had a lot of energy, but they seemed to lose it as the movie went on. Maybe the movie wasn’t stupid or infuriating enough to keep them firing. That’s another good reason they wrote and practiced the riffing when they moved on to the wonderful world of cable.

           Not related to the review, but I have a question for my six or seven readers. I mentioned a lot more of my thoughts on the movie in the notes this time- is that annoying, or do you prefer it that way? I got back and forth about whether I should include that there. On the one hand, it’s part of the experience of watching and episode. On the other hand, it’s not really the purpose of this guide. I’ll do whatever works better for you guys, so let me know if you have a preference. Thanks!

[fanscribbling]

11 Questions!

Rules

1. Always post these rules

2. Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you

3. Write 11 questions of your own

4. Tag 11 people

I was tagged by @youre-on-a-starship :D <3  Thanks love! (Also your questions are amazing! Setting the bar high :P )

Alex’s Questions:

If you could go on a week-long camping trip with three people, real, fictional, or both, who would you go with?

Holy crap this is hard. I’ll have you know I answered everything else then came back to this. 

First off King Richard III because I NEED to know what happened during his reign and he’s a warrior, so he knows how to rough it. Okay never mind suddenly this became easy: CHAUCER AND SHAKESPEARE. Shakespeare and Richard would most likely start full out fighting, but hot DAMN that would be the most bawdy, hilarious week ever. 

(Sherlock Holmes, Kirk, Neil Gaiman, and Tom Hiddleston were all considered but fell to the might of the MEDIEVAL/EARLY MODERN WRITERS!)

If you could instantly master one physical skill, what would it be?

Quarterstaff fighting. No question here - I mean mastering all the levels, potential acrobatics included. 

You’ve got a half hour to kill before your appointment and your phone’s dead. What do you do?

Dude this happens so much in my life. It’s pretty standard honestly - I read a book, or write my novel (which I ALWAYS carry lol - I legit have a pen and 2+ notebooks on me at all times). 

What’s your alignment in DnD terms (Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic Good/Neutral/Evil)? What do you wish it was?

I think I’m neutral good. I don’t believe in following rules for rules’ sake, and I do enjoy breaking them when it won’t hurt others. 

Honestly, I’m pretty damn happy with what I’ve got :) 

What’s that one weird film you watched on repeat when you were a kid?

I don’t think any of the films I watched when I was a kid were exceptionally weird - I was obsessed with The Little Mermaid for a long time, I wanted to be a mermaid so badly :P 

What’s your go-to style?

Leather jacket, combat-style boots (I wear them pretty much every day), black jeans, black shirt, BRIGHT jewellery. I basically use my clothes as a palette for my accessories.

Do it for the vine. What’s the craziest thing you’ve done just to do it?

Saw that it was raining outside, and walked out into it, fully clothed. I stood in the rain for a full 20 minutes, and though it’s really not that crazy, it was one of the most freeing experiences. 

What never fails to put a smile on your face?

Historical memes. Any kind of medieval history meme will have me grinning instantly. Stick that shit on my birthday card and I’m yours. 

Who’s you’re favourite author and why?

Modern: Neil Gaiman. I considered Rowling, but I have yet to dislike something Gaiman has written, and I’m not the hugest fan of The Casual Vacancy. Also, when I read Neverwhere, it was like seeing what I wanted my writing to be.

Historical: Chaucer. Shakespeare has him running a VERY close race, but FUCKING. CHAUCER. GODDAMN. JUST PLEASE READ TROILUS AND CRISEYDE - HE HAS TAKEN THE SOURCE MATERIAL FROM THE ITALIAN AND CHANGED IT SO THERE’S AN UNDERLYING COMMENTARY ON HOW CRISEYDE IS ACTUALLY NOT A FICKLE, STEREOTYPICAL ‘WOMAN’, AND INSTEAD FIGHTS AGAINST THE CONSTRAINING RULES IMPOSED BY SOCIETY ALL THE WHILE BEING PURSUED BY A WEAK-WILLED, CLINGY, ROYAL BASKET-CASE OF A MAN AIDED BY HER (POSSIBLY-INCESTUOUS) UNCLE. 

ALSO THE CANTERBURY TALES HAVE MY WHOLE HEART. 

What book actually changed your life?

I’m going to have to pick two, because they changed my life in very different ways. 

First: If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor. I fell in love with the book’s style immediately, but there was something about the message that resonated with me. I’d been struggling to allow myself to pursue the field I loved, because I couldn’t see how it was useful, or how it could help people (which is really important to me in my life’s work). This book’s ability to equate everything at the level of beauty was the first step towards seeing the worth in what I could do by teaching my field. Thank you Jon McGregor, I made the right choice. 

Second, A Paperbag Princess. It was by asking me a question related to that book that I met one of my best friends in grade two. 

What’s the last fanfic you read? Link it maybe?

Oh sweet lord, that god I followed up my earlier ones with fluff XD I am currently in a giant Scotty hole and the last one I read was: @kaitymccoy123‘s Scotty motivation ficlet! Honestly it was so sweet, I agree that Scotty would 100000% give the best hugs. (Fuck, a Scottish accent, sense of humour, and hugs???? I’m so done for.) https://kaitymccoy123.tumblr.com/post/159762100007/motivation-ficlets-scotty

Now... for mine!

Fanscribbling’s Questions

1. If you could work in an area other than your own (or study, if you’re a student), what would it be?

2. If Starfleet existed, what branch would you be in and why?

3. What author/book series would you say helped form you as a person?

4. How did you discover fanfiction?

5. The apocalypse is happening! What’s the one thing you take from your house (excluding survival items) before you run off to help save what’s left of the world?

6. If you could instantly speak any language fluently, which one would it be?

7. You’ve woken up to find a time machine on your door, with a card saying: ‘three free day trips, as a thank you’. Where do you go and why?

8. If you could have the absolute perfect day, based on how you’re feeling right now, what would it look like?

9. You’re offered the following: eternal life, uninterrupted health, or a superpower of your choice. What do you choose?

10. If you could spend a year in a fictional world of your choice, which one would you visit?

11. If you woke up one day able to play a musical instrument perfectly, which one would it be?

There we have it! some of the people I’m tagging might have been tagged already :) Answer if you like!

@outside-the-government, @medicatemedrmccoy, @kilismaiden, @mamawasabi, @yourtropegirl, @grumpykate, @trekken81, @lamentforboromir, @star-trekkin-across-theuniverse, @phanofmanythings, @lurkch and @kaitymccoy123 :D <3 

[velkynkarma]

Okay. So. I’ve had some time to come down off the mind-is-screaming-internally S2 high and think about a lot of stuff that I saw on my first playthrough. I still intend to go through and re-watch more closely for details. And I have NOT hit that level of ‘instantly knowing when and where scenes and tiny minuscule important details happen’ yet like I have for S1, so some thoughts might be jumbled or more explainable on a second pass. But for now, my reactions, my pros, my cons, my thoughts, and whether or not I’ll still be writing for this series.

Buckle up ‘cause like everything else I write this is gonna get long.

So as I mentioned last night, there were things I liked about this season, and there were things I didn’t. Let’s start with those. PROS:

Everyone gets a moment of sheer badassery. Everyone. Both in their Lion and on their own. Shiro’s combat scenes, Keith’s fights, Lance’s sharpshooting, Allura’s staff fight, I mean the list goes on.

One of my favorites was Hunk when mind controlled, though. Because holy crap—did you see how brutal he was when he had no inhibitions holding him back? He went to town and he messed Lance up pretty good. This says quite a lot about his character that I thought was really interesting. Hunk has has a lot of combat ability and potential, but he holds himself back, partly out of anxiety or that he doesn’t really believe he can do it, and partly because he doesn’t prefer the fighting method when there are other options. Hunk can absolutely fuck you up if he really wants to. He chooses not to. That’s big.

In general, just...absolutely gorgeous fight scenes. The choreography and movement of the characters was superb. As someone who studied animation I was blown away. Beautiful work.

All the Lions got an upgrade of some kind, some kind of special weapon. It kind of bothered me in S1 when the Red Lion got its giant super-gun at the last minute because it felt kind of deus ex machina, but I am glad at least that it’s become more established this is a thing all the Lions can do as long as you connect with them enough.

The Black Bayard has been recovered. Hell. Fucking. Yes.

There were just so many great character interactions and bonding moments. I love that we had a variety of different team-ups to see how different characters interacted with each other, especially in cases where they hadn’t previously. Hunk and Keith, Lance and Pidge, Lance and Shiro, Keith and Shiro, Lance and Hunk...just a lot of great interactions

There were so many “what the actual fuck am I watching” moments for me but I was laughing through all of them, so no complaints there. (Space mall. Just. Space. Mall).

Lots of moments when I laughed out loud or grinned wildly

Shiro losing his fucking cool because he’s human, yeah, I like seeing that haha

Slav. I just. As a person with obsessive compulsive disorder I related with this guy on a fundamental level. I’m not quite as bad as Slav is but man do I get what it’s like to have to do really stupid shit to just progress on a day to day level. (Also, he’s funny).

Zarkon and Haggar’s relationship was explored a lot more, which I really found interesting. In S1 they were a well-oiled machine and worked together perfectly. They also clearly trusted each other. S2 changed that up with Zarkon’s Lion obsession and Haggar wanting to focus on the internal spy and finishing off Allura. I’m curious to see where this will go and if it will form a rift.

Also: Haggar can be tricked. Her magic is not infallible. I suspect the Blade of Marmora has a technique or something to resist druid magic, otherwise they’d have been hardcore fucked centuries ago, but I find this intriguing all the same.

Blade of Marmora: “Come unarmed.” Haha but okay unless you literally disarm Shiro you can’t disarm Shiro and they know that so I’m genuinely surprised they didn’t throw more of a hissy fit over this one.

Not gonna lie I actually really liked the design of Zarkon’s armor-mech. Almost more than Voltron. Dem wings, man. Dem wings. Also, on that note, why the heck does he even need Voltron or the black lion when he’s got his own single-person mech that he can control without having to recruit four other people to work with him?

They basically confirmed false memories are entirely possible for Shiro since Hunk gives us a breakdown of how that arm actually works a little better. The Blade of Marmora may have been real but there is still so much fic potential here I’m foaming at the mouth over it.

CONS:

I’ve got a few cons, but well, let’s get the big one out of the way first. Galra Keith. (And since I know this can be a controversial topic and my feelings on this one are complicated, let me first preface this with an assurance that I have zero shade towards anyone who liked the Galra!Keith theory in S1 or likes the canonization of it in S2. This is just my opinion and in no way does it invalidate yours).

Okay, unpopular opinion time: I’ve never really been on board with the Galra!Keith theory (which I guess is no longer a theory, but yeah). I’ve never really made a big deal of it though because frankly it’s not my place to lecture others on what they want to like or not. I mean, hey, it’s fandom. Like what you like, just don’t cram it in my face. I was content to ignore Galra!Keith tags and go about my business. But the reason I was never really fond of the theory is I could never make it work, with the details presented in S1. And lord knows I tried, anyone who knows me at this point knows I love theorizing and analyzing this stuff. But it just felt so circumstantial. Most of the “evidence” people would point out in S1 could have supported a dozen different kinds of theories. The only real unexplained piece was Keith’s inexplicable draw to the Blue Lion at the beginning, but even then, I didn’t consider this an immediate indication of Galra blood per se. The show also has magic in it, after all; he could have also had some kind of sixth sense or other ability. It just wasn’t enough to go on. And above all I simply could not reconcile any kind of Galra presence on Earth when in S1 they were fully presented as devourers and conquerors. There was no way Zarkon could have known about Earth, especially if the Blue Lion was also on his radar, and not shown up to just take what he wanted and blast it out of orbit. Zarkon takes. He doesn’t have patience for stealth and subtlety when he owns half of the known universe, and I couldn’t see him having a single soldier on Earth without immediately taking advantage of it. Whether that was Keith, or some parent/ancestor of his, didn’t really matter. It just didn’t mesh with Zarkon.

S2 drops a few new details that flesh this out a little better. The existence of a stealth-oriented resistance certainly would justify how some Galra individuals could theoretically have been to Earth without immediately summoning a full fleet to blow it out of space. If they knew the Blue Lion was there they might even have a reason to target Earth specifically, if only to keep it hidden for as long as possible. I am mollified by this, at least, since it does provide some possible answers to the big plot hole issue I had with this theory. But I don’t know. Galra!Keith still feels too…contrived. Too convenient. It just doesn’t feel natural to me, in a series and plot that has otherwise put a lot of focus on naturally developing story as it goes. Each episode drops details that lead to the next episode, smoothly and subtly, but something about Galra Keith just feels very ham-handed. I’m having a little trouble coming to grips with it. Maybe they’ll drop more information in season 3 that will smooth this out more, but right now I’m just…really not a fan of this piece. On the plus side, while I am not really a fan of Keith having Galra heritage, I do kinda like that most people on the ship are just like ‘oh okay you’re part alien whatever.’ Like it isn’t drawn out into a huge drama spectacle. When it’s first officially revealed only Shiro is actually present and I half expected Keith to beg Shiro not to tell anyone because he’s scared of their reactions, just because they’d want to play up the reveal drama for a few episodes, but there wasn’t any. Everyone just knew. Learned off screen even, other than for Shiro, because there is no scene when Keith comes forward and says ‘hey so yeah, turns out I’m part Galra?’ to the team. And with the exception of Allura, nobody really reacted. Hell, there wasn���t a “reaction episode” like you would have expected with a theme like this. It almost felt underplayed. Or, treated as not-really-that-weird-a-thing, like in Keith and Hunk’s episode together, in which Hunk continually draws attention to the Galra heritage but not really in a hateful way. And I kind of liked that, because while Galra!Keith feels a little on the cliche side, at least that kind of response shook that up a little. And, not gonna lie, on a completely aesthetic reaction, I am just super fucking glad that Keith didn’t like…hulk out Galra style. I’m not a fan of Galra designs in general, I’m glad Keith didn’t just magically turn purple and all that. (Though this really does beg the question of how much his biology is affected by that Galra heritage. We know it’s affected his sixth sense at least somewhat since he appears able to sense and interact with all the Lions, and we know it lets him interact with Galra tech which is…weirdly convenient…but otherwise he looks perfectly human). Anyway. That’s my thoughts on Galra Keith, which was the biggest con for me. The rest are less controversial. OTHER CONS:

Pidge and Lance didn’t get to use their bayards to create new solo weaponry for Voltron. This makes me sad as I really wanted to see Voltron get a badass sniper rifle or a chain-whip thing like Zarkon had. I did like that everyone got to work together to make the super huge-ass sword, but I would’ve liked seeing some new weaponry too.

Thace. I just wasn’t feeling it with this guy. I know we’re supposed to feel sad when he dies, but honestly? They didn’t give us any chance to bond with this character or establish anything to really connect to him with. We see him resisting the Galra and tricking Haggar which is cool and all, but it just kinda felt like he was there. There was no emotion there, no connection. When he makes his heroic sacrifice I didn’t feel any kind of heartache because it was just like ‘oh...that NPC died. Eh, that sucks.’

We only got 1 Shiro flashback. Granted it was a big one, but like Shiro said, I still have so many fucking questions.

Hunk and Lance kinda got a little flanderized. I get that Hunk likes food, and I get that Lance is kind of the obnoxious-hormonal-teenager trope, but I think it got pushed a little too far in some scenes. They also got less development this season than the others, which wouldn’t really bother me as much if it had been fairly even across the board, except it wasn’t. Half the story was about Keith. Look, writers, I know we asked for more character development for Keith because he needed it pretty bad, but whipping it to the other extreme end of the spectrum wasn’t quite the solution?

The Red Lion’s abrupt change in attitude just seems…strange to me. I’m not sure how I feel about it. This is a Lion that you really have to work to get to like you and it’s ‘very unstable.’ It’s rather abrupt about face to the point when it just randomly keeps rescuing Keith was…well. The first time was awesome, but after a while it kinda felt overused. *flat sarcastic voice* “Oh boy. Keith is in trouble. I wonder how he’ll get out of this one.” On the other hand, I almost wonder if this is in part a reaction to Keith piloting the Black Lion, if only for a short while. I wonder if Red is trying to do the same thing right back—prove itself to its partner? I don’t know. I’m conflicted on this one. But to me it lacked subtlety in the same vein as Keith’s story.

That cliffhanger. Just. That cliffhanger.

RANDOM THOUGHTS, QUESTIONS, AND WISHLIST ITEMS

Okay. The final plan. Cool and all, but like...the fuck didn’t they just wormhole Zarkon’s ship into a sun or black hole? Like. C’mon. Even corrupted-Alfor-thoughts thought of that plan. They didn’t even have to re-imagine it. They had precedence. They were ultimately planning to destroy the ship anyway, and at the time they made their plan they hadn’t even considered trying to recover the black bayard, which were the only things they’d lose. They could have saved so much hassle. (The answer is of course that there wouldn’t be much of a show after that, but still).

As stated I’m not really a huge fan of Galra Keith but man, if I am being asked to accept this as canon, I fucking demand that he gets to dual-wield his Blade of Marmora with the Red Bayard. Because we already know he’s ambidextrous in with his sword. And that would be too fucking cool.

Okay so Matt’s not a prisoner anymore. He got rescued by rebels or something. Cool. Uh. Where’s the love for Sam Holt though? Where the fuck is Pidge’s dad? Please tell me somebody rescued him too? The man just wanted to find existence of life outside Earth he didn’t sign up to be a fucking war prisoner give the guy a break.

Also I kind of laughed when Shiro was all “hey Pidge don’t worry it’s okay Matt’s a survivor like you” because this is literally the same guy who was like “yeah Matt you gonna die unless I fight this guy for you since you have zero combat survival capability and both of us know you’ll be dead in like ten seconds.” And now he’s with rebels. Escaping. In a violent situation. I wonder how that’ll work.  

They were really pushing Multiverse theory in this season and I find that very intriguing. I wonder if anything will come of that.

Okay but the presence of a human-themed shop on a random space mall really both intrigues and puzzles me. ‘Cause this means there are regular visitors to Earth, or at least people know about it outside our solar system, when previously it sounded like we were in the space boonies and no one had ever heard of us (which is why it was a great place to hide a Lion). Earth obviously did not have robust inter-planetary trading since the Kerberos mission was all about discovering life outside Earth, and Lance thinks Pidge is crazy for believing in aliens waaaay back in S1Ep1. So. What gives? How?

The insane animation style change happened again for Shiro using his bayard and then everyone screaming. I guess they have a 1-pivotal-moment-per-season rule with that.

So we knew Altean Haggar was coming, that one just seemed kinda obvious. What I actually find more intriguing is that Haggar’s hair is white. Now granted we only have a few Alteans to work off of (Alfor, Allura, Coran, and now Haggar), but Coran has repeatedly implied Allura has extra abilities and has referred to her (or other Alteans who did the Balmera ceremony) as “sacred Alteans.” Presumably, this is something linked to the royal line, and so far every royal Altean we’ve seen has had white hair. I’m wondering if Haggar is a relative. Of course, this is all circumstantial evidence and pure conjecture. It’s also possible that hair color can be shapeshifted, or white hair isn’t associated with the royal line, or a dozen other things. I’m not holding my breath, but I am curious how Haggar fits into the planet destruction.

Overall I did like the theme they were going for this season, which is that your blood does not define you or decide what “side” you’re on. We had some good Galra (or just neutral ones, like the restaurant owner, or ones that just did not fit the ‘cull the weak, be the best warrior’ mentality we were largely led to believe the Galra were in S1). And we have Bad Alteans, although honestly I’m sure everyone saw that coming already.

I feel like there were a LOT of subtle nods to or jabs at the fandom in S2 too. Lots of theories came true of course, but there was also a lot of dialogue that seemed to deliberately poke fun at some theories or fan favorites. Sometimes it was funny and sometimes it felt kind of insulting or trollish. But this is hardly a surprise, I guess, considering how much they played with us right before S2 dropped.

ON WRITING:

So am I still planning on writing for Voltron? Well. I’d like to. I liked the majority of this season, it was fun, my heart was pounding through most of it, and it left my mind a screaming wreck by the end. It was intense. But it was mostly good. I enjoyed it. There are a few problems I need to figure out though.

Galra Keith is probably the biggest wrench in my fic-writing plans at the moment. I’m not…really sure how to process this. Characterization is the most important part to me when I write, and I always try to stay as true to the characters as possible based off the canon material we’re given. To me it is absolutely vital to do that character justice. I feel that is what a responsible writer should do. So even if I write stuff that isn’t centric to his heritage, or even to Keith, it’s now still a core part of his character that needs to be considered when determining his actions, thoughts, goals and motivations, especially considering some of his actions in S2 as a direct result of that. It’s something I need to keep in mind when I write him, but it’s also not really a theme I’m a fan of. I am certainly not petty enough to write it out of existence because I don’t like it—that’s not fair to the character either, and I detest that kind of blatant disregard for a character’s core traits, it’s not responsible writing. It’s leaving me a bit puzzled as to how to proceed. I’ll need some time to think on it. I need to figure out how to get on board with Galra!Keith in a way that still leaves me comfortable writing it.

(Plus, not gonna lie, it totally tanked an idea I had in mind where I was intending to use Keith as the main POV. Okay, I may be a tad bitter about that. I liked this idea. Oh well). That cliffie is another issue. At least we can work with the S1 cliffhanger. What do you do when a character has disappeared? Are we gonna have to establish they got him back every time? Or set it at an indeterminable point somewhere between all the action? Except there wasn’t really any point during which they slowed down. Just. Gonna need to think on that one. And as previously mentioned in this post, I’ve got a nasty case of the obsessive compulsive disorder, mixed with being an insane perfectionist, and it’s driving me bonkers now that some of my fics are canon inaccurate. I’ll get over it but man. It bothers the hell out of me.

ANYWAY. There’s my thoughts. In one long, super post. If you read through all that, congrats.