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honey-minded-hivemind · 1 year ago

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Okay, this is probably the only au for X-Men Evolution I'll make that isn't a reboot/reimagining. This idea, which I'm sure plenty of people have had, is this:

What if someone from our world/a darker version of our world ended up in the show?

Somehow the reader, who is from what I will call Earth 2020, ends up in X-Men Evolution, possibly dying on Earth 2020 and somehow being dropped into the series proper. And for the reader, they're a mix of emotions, but one stands out the most: Sheer, utter PANIC. They're likely dead, aren't anywhere they've been before, don't have any papers or documents, and are in a world set in 2000 where superpowers are real and adults try to kill kids on a near daily basis. Bby is going through a panic attack as they check what's with them, finding that the good news is they had all their saved money with them in their satchel, but nothing else of much use besides a calligraphy pen, pepper spray, and a ticket with a date that hasn't even happened in this world.

Reader knows they could try to get involved, could pretty much do whatever they wanted, help or hurt or anything they want with the knowledge they have... But... they'd rather do the right thing. They compile notes, writing down every major event of the series for both the X-Men and Brotherhood, warning them about things like Apocalypse, Sentinels, Hydra, Weapon X being back in commission, pointing out the things that should be avoided, such as brainwashing your daughter, tossing children off of cliffs, threatening a bunch of teenagers, manipulating everyone, etc. ... but reader also mentions ways they can change the worst of it from happening and begging them to help Laura and the Morlocks. And then adds final notes, the bad things that could happen throughout the next twenty years, from 9/11, the wars in Europe and the Middle East, the pandemic of Covid, the wildfires in North America and Australia, terrorist attacks in different parts of the globe, tsunamis and hurricanes and tornadoes, pretty much every disaster, they list it, when it was supposed to happen, and pleads to stop it, or alert someone who could... By the time reader is done writing down every disaster and crisis that they remember, they have piles of notes, even some with theories. And finally, the reader sends the notes, praying for the best. Then they promptly go to hide out in some small town far away from everything, because they fear what happens if someone finds out how they know everything and where they're from... If it doesn't end well for other people, who's to say it would end well for reader?

The X-Men and Brotherhood get the notes, and are more or less shocked, because what they have is about twenty years worth of disasters listed, with notes about what specifically happens regarding them. But, for some reason, they decide to listen, wondering if perhaps the writer of the notes was like Destiny, a mutant who could see the future... And somehow, things go better. Less tossing kids around and off of things, helping the Morlocks find a safer place to live, freeing Laura, and destroying the Sentinels before they are finished, it all happens, and everyone is relieved to know that they've avoided whatever was supposed to happen. Yet... where is the person who warned them? So begins the search for reader...

And reader ends up in Bayville, somehow. Apparently they're now in the foster system, developed a mutation (they wonder how that's possible, how would that work, they aren't from that world- ) and so far have been doing their best to get by. It helped that they lived through what was basically a dystopian world, since they know useful tricks for their survival, and with a mutation, hopefully that can keep them alive for just a bit longer.. They end up in the highschool, having to do everything in their power not to feel tense and have a break down. They're in the town where everyone else is in, they only have themself to rely on, and they have too much knowledge of everything around them, plus an ability that could alert others of them. They're glad they helped, elated even, but... anxiety still worms its way inside them. They don't know how to deal with their own thoughts and the world around them, every bit of knowledge sending them spiraling. Because if someone finds out it was them... then what? When do people ever take things like that well, that someone knew, that they're from a whole other world, and that they haven't done much else to do anything? Reader stays alert and tired, but keeps going. Besides all the crushing fear and loneliness, the 2000s are a lot better than 2020: lower cost of living, lower prices on food, less gun violence, less rioting, less noise...

Then, I guess with the help of Caliban or Jean, maybe even Xavier, the reader is discovered. And the two groups have to take a minute. The person who wrote the notes... is some scrawny teenager who trembles whenever someone talks to them, and jumps at the slightest noise? It's confusing. They were expecting someone older, maybe a time traveler, not... whoever this is. And the moment any of them try to approach, the kid just gets wide eyes and tries to get lost, avoiding anyone in the school like the plague. But, they finally are able to corner them and talk... And what they find is... terrifying.

From what they're able to find out from the reader, who's trembling like a leaf and trying not to cry, they're not from around there, they saw things happen, bad things, and thought if they gave a warning, it might help. And what Jean and/or Xavier can read from their mind is downright nightmarish, images of violence and memories of hate, of people hurting them, of destroying others, of a world filled with violence ad wars and plagues running rampant, anything and everything seemingly out to end their survival... Even how they ended up there, a hazy, near-forgotten memory of water and silt in their lungs and the world fading to black, a hand holding forcing them under... And all they can feel for them is sympathy, empathy in some cases, horror at what absolute H*ll they lived through... They offer aid, thanking them for helping them...

And the reader is just... relieved, that no one wants them dead. Hoping that this world truly doesn't want them dead, that they can breathe and not fear for their life...

The characters are glad that the reader is on their side, and isn't some evil genius bent on the destruction of mutants... but it isn't easy to know that the person who helped them lived in a world that sounded and looked like H*ll, and then eventually died, in one of the worst ways to go... And they can't help but feel a little protective of them, a little worried. Sure, their new ally is also a mutant, but they also barely know anything about their powers or how to handle normalcy, used to fighting for themself among peers... Not to mention that their new friend had to explain the reasons they kept a calligraphy pen with them, and the reason scared them, because who knew a fancy ink pen could be so dangerous-

Over time, they all grow to be platonic yandere-ish, if not fully platonic yandere. Reader helped them, it's only fair they repay that kindness. And they don't have to worry about them going back to the h*llscape they called home. It's not like they were going to let them go back, even if they could. Best to not think too deep on leaving, though. They aren't leaving, ever...

(I've been wondering about this idea for awhile now, and I plan to make a playlist for this au, simply because why not? Expect plenty of Panic! At The Disco, and a song from Lemon Demon😊💛🧡)

Bonus:

Reader, staring at the handful of adults for the Brotherhood: For Best Parent of the Brotherhood, at least in the original timeline, I think?, I nominate... Lance

Adults: What? Why him? He's a teenager!

Reader: Well, originally, Mr. Lehnsherr seems to only showed up when he wants something, instead of being there to help his kids, let alone everyone else, and leaves the kids on their own, Mystique had threatened them, left them on their own with no supervision, and tried to toss children off of cliffs, and Mr. Victor doesn't have kids as far as I know, but if he is related to Mr. Logan, I'm not sure he had been a good parent or brother or whatever he is, due to capturing him for the person who put a control chip in his head, and also trying to kill him. So, that leaves the other acolytes. Who are never here. And also tried to kill the kids. Yeah, so, that leaves the actual Broterhood teens. And the only one who has acted anywhere near enough to keeping them alive and taking care of the group's needs is... Lance. So, by default, if not by actual execution, the winner of Best Brotherhood Parent is Lance. Good job👍

Adult Brotherhood Members: Wait, we did WHAT?!

Acolytes: Thank heavens we aren't parents

Erik: I did WHAT to Wanda?!

Mystique: I tricked my own daughter, and lost both her and Kurt?!

...

Victor: Wait, I'm Logan's what now?!

Reader: That might only be a theory, I'm not sure...

One DNA test later...

Test: positive

Victor:😳☹👀

Reader: Well... in my defense, I only thought it was a theory... Um... Should I say sorry, or congratulations?

Extra Bonus:

Reader, presenting each character with a gift: This is hand-made, so I did my best. I'm sorry if you don't like it🎁

Everyone: It can't be that bad opens their gifts

Everyone:

Reader: Do you like it? I'm not the best at this stuff, but, I did read three different books a few months ago... And spent the last three weeks working on these...

Everyone, holding an oddly-made crocheted scarf with their theme/colors: trying not to cry Its... nice puts it on🧣😭

Also them: Don't ever leave, please🥺☹

Reader: Um... I wasn't planning on it

Everyone: Good... because we aren't joking. If you leave, we will find you

Reader, realizing that maybe something might have just changed: Um... that's... sweet... worrying now if they're in danger😟

Everyone: 😊🥰😍💖

#honeycomb thoughts #platonic yandere marvel #yandere platonic marvel #platonic yandere marvel x reader #platonic yandere xmen #yandere x-men #platonic yandere #platonic yandere x reader #platonic yandere xmen evolution #xmen evolution #Earth 2020

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msburgundy · 2 years ago

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Can you go into more detail as to why you don't believe in evolution?

there is really no way to be detailed that is not ridiculously labor intensive so i'm going to try to give a short version that still gets the point across

the very simple version is that mutations occur in 2 ways: either a negligible substitution, or a difference in form of the amino acid

form is directly linked with functionality

changes in form can be negligible at best, impactful in some way, or fatal.

the most common outcomes for mutations are either totally negligible with no change in form, or fatal

that is, when mutations happen at all, which is rarely

and you have to take these odds to every single amino acid in the sequence of every single gene in every single gene of the organism

which means if you have 3 mutations maybe you'd retain 1 but the other 2 would kill you and so on

and in this case i don't mean a single base pair change killing the whole organism but potentially killing the gene it's part of, like say forming a premature stop codon on a critical gene

the only reason things live as often as they do is that mutation is VERY rare

if you're working in a 70 gene, approx. 47k base pair bacteriophage genome and you change just a few amino acids the odds that you kill the thing are pretty high

now increase the complexity, a mammal genome has multiple billion base pairs

you also have longer genes

which means you're less likely to affect meaningful change on them, but if you do the odds are still that it would be fatal

NOW

i couldn't tell you what percentage of the gene needs to change in what way to actually alter expression in a creature that complex, but your smallest gene length is around 100 base pairs and your larger genes upwards of a million

the importance of various genes is also in no way related to size, and they seldom operate independently of each other

multiple genes are implicated in the creation of any single part or trait

so now take a major complex change of form like for instance hands to feet

idk just the math is RIDICULOUS

you need to beat the odds a billion times to affect major form change across multiple large genes without killing any and then ALSO have the same total freak coincidence happen in another organism and ALSO have those organisms mate successfully

and don't even get me started on the idea of a progressive change in form, as if any creature with a partial foot wouldn't be useless and immediately killed

but even to accomplish a partial foot and form it gradually you are requiring the same ridiculous feat of probability

i just cannot even understand how i'm supposed to believe that, even before i was religious i could never get on board with it

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tuxedaaron · 2 years ago

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Yeah, I had some X-Men: Evolution fanfic ideas, too. So, in an effort to draw potential co-writers, I started drawing a few pics to illustrate them. Most of these ideas revolved around newly arriving Mutant, Chamber (a character I’ve always felt was just criminally underused) and the one member of the team he ultimately becomes closest to. In the wake of the accident, following the emergence of his powers, Jonothan Starsmore's body no longer functions as a normal Human's does (or even a normal Mutant's, for that matter). With the psychic energy in his body essentially providing all the needs his physical body requires (and no longer having any internal organs to speak of), he hasn't had to eat, sleep or even breathe since his mutation. But this development also renders him immune to the powers of Rogue (a fact which is brought to light VERY quickly). Initially, the knowledge that there's someone Rogue can finally touch again draws them to each other out of a combination of convenience and desperation (with both of them blatantly exploiting the situation in an effort to reclaim even a sliver of the human contact they've both lost). But it doesn't take long before the bond between them quickly grows into something more. All in all, I'm quite pleased with this pic, if for no other reason than because it was much more planned out and I wasn't shooting from the hip at the 11th hour like I was with last week's pic. This allowed me more time to make sure certain things were done right, despite the relative simplicity of the image. Truth be told, I had a number of poses in my head for Chamber and Rogue to share, but I went with this one, primarily because most of the other images, while still loving and romantic, had Rogue not looking at Chamber and I didn't really care for what that implied. So I wanted an image where the two of them were looking into each others' eyes and the emotion was clearly there. After that (and some successful pencil work), the rest was all dowhill. Even the background, though simple, turned out exactly how I wanted, looking brushed and almost like rain (sticking to that common trope where the two lovers share a magical reunion in a rainstorm). I suppose the only real challenge was in Rogue's see-through top, because the rules for it are kind of iffy. In some ways, it's transparent and in others, not. Chalk it up to the perils of hand-drawn animation, I guess. But in the end, everything turned out the way I wanted. So what do you think? Hope you like it. And if it should happen to get anyone curious about possibly jumping on board to help co-write these fanfic ideas, so much the better. Either way, hope to hear from you. ^_^

#tuxedaaron #fanart #marvel #marvel comics #x-men fanart #x-men evolution #x-men #rogue #chamber #jonothon starsmore

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ghelgheli · 1 year ago

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curious about the mesoudi? surely its not just social darwinism right

(re: Towards a Unified Science of Cultural Evolution [doi] and Is Human Cultural Evolution Darwinian? [doi], both by Alex Mesoudi, Andrew Whiten, Kevin N. Laland and listed on my september reading list)

nope, not at all! the thrust of both articles is similar: that those academic disciplines dedicated to studying the state and change of human culture (broadly construed—this captures linguistics, archaeology, sociology...) can benefit epistemically and methodologically from the wisdom of a century of work in evolutionary biology and its related umbrella as gained through a darwinian understanding of evolution

an example i'd give of where this has happened in a convergent sort of way (but still, imo, needs to happen more) is in the case of linguistic typology. the development of comparative and therefore historical linguistics in the 19th century, thru a wittgensteinian turn in the early 20th century, thru to today, destabilizes epistemologies that hold languages as fixed natural kinds, and sociolinguistic work (as well as an honest metaphysics of language) ought to destabilize the notion that languages are any sort of essential kind at all. the understanding of language as a relational phenomenon that only exists insofar as it is instantiated helps us understand why speaking of "a language" as an abstraction can only ever be the work of inventing taxonomies to describe vague and varying uses of language between people who are never really speaking the same platonic object of a language (i am definitely stepping on some realist toes here but i do not care. i've had professors who think that languages have some kind of independent metaphysical existence and this is honestly silly). this problematizes dialect/language distinctions and indeed ought to direct the sort of work any descriptive linguist does. if you think about it this is exactly the kind of destabilization that darwin offered to the use of natural kinds in biology. a species is not really a thing with an essence; it is a convenient generalization that is often vague, can be misleading, flattens variation, etc. (consider ring species, or paleontological work of building taxonomies of evolutionary history)

the first article gives an example (among many others) analogizing paleobiology with archaeology in the following way: inheritance is axiomatic to understanding fossil records, and those records are analyzed with evolutionary relationships via inheritance in mind. morphological similarities are no accident, but evidence of a genealogical relationship. in a similar way (they say—i'm now leaving my own wheelhouse) archaeology seems to have only recently adopted the methods of trying to analyze relationships between artifacts in the record thru inheritance. this is to be distinguished with firm lines drawn between different material "cultures" where one is supposed to have supplanted the other in a sort of punctuated equilibrium or displacement. instead, records of e.g. arrowtip morphology can be sorted according to similarity, and interpreted as a sequence of inherited cultural practice that changes over time according to "mutations". this also allows for taxonomies of ancestry, where families of material cultures can be hypothesized to descend from common material ancestors on the basis of inherited similarities

obviously the big one in this discussion, tho, is replicator dynamics. and the articles do mention memetics as the abortive attempt at applying replicator dynamics to human culture. what i think is done well is a complication of the conception of biological replicators as straightforward: biological inheritance can be rather more complicated than the gene coding for a trait (they give examples of overlapping, movable, and nested genes), and it isn't a priori a wrench in the machine that hypothetical cultural replicators would not be simply describable. they argue that it can be useful in a discipline like cogsci to try and develop an epistemology of discretized meme-like objects that could, perhaps, be tracked with more fine-grained observational methods than what we have now (there's a rather goofy paragraph about mirror neurons, which are far more contested than popular wisdom would have us think, but the article is from 2006)

now, this is where i think the analogy can sometimes be taken too far—but, to their credit, they don't do this in either article. because there is a tradition i've complained about On Here a number of times of using computational evolutionary biology to try and model cultural phenomena, and i just don't think that can achieve the complexity nor robustness that would be required, nor do i think it holds a candle to alternative methods we have available to us (like, you know, the science of historical materialism—which is in its own way, in the destabilization of kinds, stasis, and "progress" that dialectics offers and the uncompromising analysis of historical facts as proceeding from earlier facts, darwinian). these methods find purchase in evolutionary biology because, for all the genetic complexities involved, the notion of biological fitness is well-defined, as is biological inheritance, and the games that can be played in this sense have robust analogies to real-world competition (e.g. cautious ritual signalling between, say, stags). i'm very skeptical that this is something anyone is going to be able to do with the multiply more complex phenomena of intragenerational behaviour and culture. my immediate impression of anyone who claims to have done so, numerically, is that they fancy themselves the first hari seldon. but anyway, that's just to temper the optimism here. i think the essential thesis is strong.

#ask answer

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anagramtransitory · 10 months ago

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“The nature poem embellishes. It takes the memory of this picture and turns it outward so that we are the only disruption in a world of hard data: orange mountain lit from within, godforsaken field and the machinery of human defeat. (…) When will she want to know where she came from? Three geese take refuge. There were supposed to be thousands of them. They were supposed to put on a show for us.” is just…

That information passed between two living things, no matter how clearly or perfectly done, will come into focus for the one on the receiving end unevenly, because WE are nature in a world of cold hard data, WE are the interruption (as a living “live feed”, actively changing things, and made up of changing things), that when you tell a child where they came from you can try to tell them cold static hard data about an static act or a static process, when really you’re telling them about a live feed of life, you’re telling them about the way reproduction interrupts the picture (with ever-present random mutation, evolution, and the human intentionalness of reproduction) more than replicates it.

The more I read this poem the more I know this poem “knows what it’s talking about”. This is an internally coherent piece of art if there ever was one.

The idea this poem seems to lead you to is that “death is the closest thing a living thing can get to keeping a promise”. That the clouds keep the sky imperfect, that the live-ness of data keeps memory and recorded data imperfect, that the act of dying after having reproduced keeps the story of creation and destruction of an individual imperfect and unwhole (as their genes and parenting and possessions and things/skills they knew live on). So that the most non-disruptive thing you could do is to become static (dead), and even that is a promise you can’t keep, a promise that you’ll die completely. But that it’s only thing you can be (almost completely) certain to do. That all else is likely a promise about a single outcome from a binary system (will or won’t happen) in a world of live feeds. That the dead once dead can’t be certain to keep promises, either, and neither can god, no matter what belief system you have, because all promises and prayers and questions and answers are “cold hard data” attempting to interact with and keep up with constantly shifting sands at a live pace. To lie still amidst toys that move, and pretend to be dead, and to be interrupted in lying still, by a thing you and another grew from “zero” into “a unique uncontrollable live feed of 1s-and-0s”, saying they’ll “make you alive”, rather than reminding you of some static liveliness/liveness to fall back into.

I love the idea that nothing about me or my life could ever be captured in amber and used to replace me or tell me my own definition back to me. I love the idea that freeze frames from moments in my life, especially the bad ones, can never capture an entire life- not ones taken and looked at while I’m still alive, not ones taken of my home left perfectly intact as I left it made into a museum and seen after I’m dead, not collections of my life’s work in any recorded form of any kind no matter how all-encompassing and complete the record, from my birth to death. Because all you’ve done is make a very long video or very long document, one that can be began again from the beginning and repeat exactly the same, whereas a perfect capture of me would allow for the reality that if I as a soul-and-body combination started my whole life over again as a baby, having gone back in time, where everything else was exactly same, it would have gone differently, because I am a natural thing, and natural things can’t make good on promises to repeat cold hard data back exactly the same. I like that idea because I feel threatened with being oversimplified, as I become like everybody else in my level of functionality. That if I lived my life over again I’d win a victory over non-functionality different ways every time. I like the idea that there’s no way for anything that I do or am to ever be a repeat of anyone or anything else, and that to repeat myself in word or action is to do so in a completely unique context every time I do it.

I find the ideas accurate and useful. I especially find useful the idea that I can never promise my own life away or rope myself into an unbreakable pattern of behavior, because at best a repeated action is an idea I’m repeating to myself more than an action done exactly the same. And ideas you repeat to yourself have to be ones (if you want to do them well) that you know by heart, that are flexible in their application, that feel natural to have, and that you are still willing to act on in the real world. And something I know about myself is I can’t trick myself into having ideas or trick myself into acting out “ideas of actions” that I don’t believe in. The moment the idea of an action ceases to be right, the moment an idea seems to be wrong, it very quickly is changed or lost. Maybe some people can keep going to church or going through the motions of things, but I for 1 put my whole being into everything I do, and I put my whole being into the ideas I have, and all the things I do out in the world is me acting on those. Everything. I truly believe it’s all ideas, placebo, the mind, the self, the soul, and not facts or cause and effect, that run nature. At the very least, nature is run by very high level and unpredictable math, like a symphony of everything at once composed by its players simultaneous and parallel to each other, every smallest fraction of a second at a time, rather than by the math of pre-composed music. So that, in nature, nothing at all will play a promise out, and will tend to do the opposite, to go off on tangents of possibility like branches. So that therefore, if there is any repetition in a natural thing, especially a human mind like mine, it has to be because there’s something resembling an “idea chosen”, and if that stops, it’s an idea discarded in favor of attending to a present which demands a different (not necessarily better or worse) “idea”. The closer to possibly being able to have ideas an animal gets, in any sense of the word, the more likely I think it will be true that you’ll see more repetition than you would in rawer purer forms of pure nature at work without animal/mental intervention, because there will be ideas repeated first in a mind and then adapted onto shifting sands of reality second, rather than enacted first and labeled with ideas (by its own mind or by more external and objective other minds) only afterwards.

What I’m saying is I really find it helpful to be reminded by this poem of the way that if I start behaving differently and better, it’s only because I’ve mastered, and like, and deem appropriate, an idea that I’ve taken from others and adapted for myself. Just like most writing systems were examples of peoples learning that writing can be done and learning of the idea, and then making their own, rather than inventing it themselves, and the way you’d never know it, because even from the start they were so different as to seem independently thought up as idea+incarnation combined- like that, I can also take ideas (in the form of activities and abilities) and make them a part of a live feed of my life (insodoing making it unique from all other incarnations of that idea, the same way I uniquely act out commonly held ideas because they’re commonly held and yet do them in an un-copy-able way because they’re incarnations of a common idea had/understood/known by heart in a unique way) and that that live feed of my life will be a LIVE feed of ideas a mind believes in. I don’t want anyone to ever think they can tell me why I do things, or why I do things the way that I do them. I’m very scared of that. An idea is a copyable technology. But there is no technology natural things can copy perfectly off of other natural things, even if they’re identical, because one Mona Lisa will be a painting of an idea Leonardo Da Vinci had of the Mona Lisa. And the other will be an exact copy of the way that idea turned out- in other words, it’ll be an idea of a painting already painted, an idea already finalized, a still from a live video taken of a static image, and therefore won’t be able to be the same thing even if it is physically the same “thing.” Two identical things can be the same thing, but if there’s two different ideas for them, like “one” and “two”, or “mine” and “yours”, or “damaged/lost version” and “undamaged/surviving version”, which they inevitably will, they won’t be the same thing even while paradoxically being the same thing, at once. I like the idea that no sane person would look at a known and named historical inventor of a writing system who took an idea of a possibility and invented from whole cloth a way to record language and thought in a way that works logically well with the shared language and shared ideas of the region, and is easy enough to learn and remember and then teach to others from one’s memory alone- that no sane person would look at that inventor and their completely-locally-unprecedented-singular/unique invention, and say, that person owes it all to the culture they got the idea from. No sane person WOULD do that, because people can recognize that a person telling another about the existence of fire, and not how to make it, and having that recipient person somehow completely figure out what must be done to create a thing they’ve only heard about, by doing friction/hot-feeling-making types of things in new levels of intensity (smashing and not rubbing) with new types of materials (some rare and hard to find, some hard to invent like metal ore out of rock or cloth from barely-tamed barely-domesticated animal coats) in new combinations, until they get a hot so hot that allegedly some new magical thing will begin to exist, and then from those magical sparks or tiny flames, the ability to turn those almost every time into flame, and then, in a controlled and planned-for way, to be turned into a larger and sustained fire that doesn’t burn the grasslands or woods around you, and that doesn’t burn out because you figured out (in a way that back then wouldn’t have been obvious, no matter how obvious it seems now) what fire can exist on and can’t exist on- that having that recipient of gossip/unlikely tale figure fire out from an idea alone, is akin to figuring out fire completely alone, and is NOT an example of copying other people. However, I know that sane people would and will look at any life I lead where I appear to function/be functional and go “she’s copying other people because she’s a copier of people.”

Stacie Cassarino, “The Living at Dead Creek” [ID in ALT]

#for a live anything to be the only disruption to hard data- aka live living people #for a poem caputuring the essence of nature to be the only thing able to dispel a naturally static memory of a static picture #that the geese refuse to be a static loop of a show put on for us #for even migration with its repetition to be more like coming home and more like a disruption to a world of hard data than hard data itself #the -I’m making you alive-#the…and on & on #amazed #fav

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tornrose24 · 3 years ago

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Can we get some battle lines for the NWH village au bosses?

Also, how does Norman force Otto to fight Peter?

For Question 1.

Oi, that’s going to be tricky to do if I don’t have a full idea of how all the boss fights go down and especially what goes on in each domain (since not everything is finalized yet).

Max’s lines would involve taunting Peter, but also would reflect his own insecurities, like “I only see some teenaged idiot! Why would Norman want you of all people?!” or “What’s wrong Peter? Feel powerless and alone?! You have NO idea!”

Flint would either be asking Peter why he can’t just leave him in peace or “If I don’t give you to him, he’ll take my daughter!” (And I’m still figuring out what happens to Penny around this point, but if she were to get crystalized around this point.... yeah, expect some pissed off lines from Flint.) I don’t know for sure.

Curt would also be taunting Peter like “Once Norman is done with you, I’ll give your friends a new look!” Or “You have no idea how liberating it is when you give into this power!” Or “Imagine it! Me leading the villagers in a new age of evolution once your given to him!”

Since Otto isn’t himself when he’s in his mutated state, he’s more into trying to kill Peter, so his lines would reflect that as well as the frustrations he kept inside him. Like “Norman took away my life–I will take away yours!” Or “Your death will be my final laugh over him!”

As for Norman.... that one is especially tricky since he’s the last one. Because his mental state isn’t that great, it would be something like “Why can’t you let me have my son back?!” and then “I will remake you in my image, Peter–devoid of that morality that holds you back!” Just stuff that reflects both the father-in-mourning and the monster within.

For Question 2.

By this point in the story, Norman is aware that Peter is behind the ‘supposed deaths’ of the first three lords. He’s also aware that Otto would likely try to betray him someday and was probably hiding something from him.

So Norman is pissed to find out that 1. Peter is choosing to work with Otto since their respective goals can benefit off each other. 2. Otto hid the fact that Rosalie is miraculously 5/6 months pregnant (something that WASN’T possible for the couple before the cadou) and therefore hid the fact that there was another potential vessel for Norman to use. 3. Peter and Otto are able to genuinely bond and get along, which further pisses off Norman because it's like someone ELSE is stealing away his potential future son/the very thing he sought after from him.

And knowing Norman/GG, Norman doesn’t take the simple route. He wants Peter to be back in a completely vulnerable state and to break him back down.

So there’s an old boathouse by the river on the manor’s grounds... which would look an AWFUL lot like Otto’s lair in SM2. And this is where Otto would want to do final preparations before he and Peter could enact any plans. But Norman manages to ambush Otto when he’s distracted and injects him with a little something that will kick start Otto’s mutated form.

Peter quickly arrives, but he’s too late.

“You didn’t think I’d eventually find everything out did you?” Norman hissed as he began to plant the seeds in the scientist’s mind. “I knew you wanted to get back at me someday. I didn’t think you’d try to lay claim over something that I made clear was to be mine. And now you’re going to regret not giving that boy to me when you had the chance, because I’m going to take what little happiness you have left, old friend. I think it’s about time I congratulate your wife, don’t you?”

He turned to Peter with an unsettling glee in his eyes. “You know your new eight limbed friend isn’t so different than the others. Why don’t you get to see just how much of a monster Octavius truly can be when he’s pushed too far?”

He vanished as Otto screamed–his body changing, tentacles writhing and pulsating–and stumbles before falling straight for the waters below.

Peter tried to escape the boathouse upon realizing the Lady Octavius was now in danger. But a monstrosity bursts from the river water–the four tentacles are now enormous and grotesque and better resemble those belonging to a sea monster. The natural limbs are now multiple tentacles and the once handsome features were now sickly and discolored. With the multiple veins and lack of hair, he would have resembled a severely ill man if the eyes didn’t burn with an intense cold hatred that froze the boy to the spot.

“Doctor Octavius?” Peter stammered, pleading that the man within would still recognize him.

Yet the monstrosity let out a roar and swung one of the four enormous tentacles at the boy who had no choice but to leap out of the way while the wooden boards he had stood upon were smashed in under its weight.

#spiderman #spiderman no way home #no way home village au #otto octavius #norman osborn #max dillon #flint marko #curt connors #peter parker #doctor octopus #green goblin #electro #sandman #the lizard

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amispnrewatch · 4 years ago

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SPN 1x06 “Skin”

Okay, I’m gonna try to type while I watch this time instead of forgetting this blog exists until the episode is almost over.

You can tell the footage for the previously on segment was saved on a VHS copy instead of the original film that the show was shot with because even in the HD iTunes version I have it looks low quality as fuck. And jumpy in the way that brings me back to my teens watching the WB all the damn time.

I love this song. WTF is this song. Shazam says “Good Deal” by Mommy and Daddy. I… have no comment, except that it sounds like everything I was listening to in college at the time this shit was airing.

Aaaaand not!Dean turns around to face the SWAT team after obviously torturing some woman. THAT is a cold open.

I wanna know what that car is in the background. It’s pretty. Maybe a convertible Impala? They have similar grills. This is not at all important.

Also, I love that with these higher definition versions of the episodes you can see that Sam’s email is lawboy and whatever dot com and that people in the fandom have started calling him Law Boy. It’s hilarious.

DEAN: Well, what exactly do you tell ‘em? You know, about where you’ve been, what you’ve been doin’?

SAM: I tell ‘em I’m on a road trip with my big brother. I tell ‘em I needed some time off after Jess.

DEAN: Oh, so you lie to ‘em.

SAM: No. I just don’t tell ‘em….everything.

DEAN: Yeah, that’s called lying. I mean, hey, man, I get it, tellin’ the truth is far worse.

SAM: So, what am I supposed to do, just cut everybody out of my life? (DEAN shrugs.) You’re serious?

DEAN: Look, it sucks, but in a job like this, you can’t get close to people, period.

Aaaaand now I have Dean and Cassie feelings again and we haven’t even gotten to her episode yet.

SAM: No, man, I know Zack. He’s no killer.

DEAN: Well, maybe you know Zack as well as he knows you.

Aaaaaand now I have Dean and Lee feelings and we’re nowhere near Lee’s episode in season 15.

YOU JUST BLEW THROUGH A STOP SIGN DEAN WTF.

Little Becky. Oi with the reusing of names.

Of course Sam made friends with a bunch of rich kids while he was at college in a desperate attempt to try to be normal.

SAM: You know, maybe we could see the crime scene. Zack’s house.

DEAN: We could.

REBECCA: Why? I mean, what could you do?

SAM: Well, me, not much. But Dean’s a cop. (DEAN laughs.)

DEAN: Detective, actually.

I love that Dean was like “how dare you call me that.”

Okay, after a bit of research, I totally want to take a day trip to Bisbee, Arizona, but it’s already in the 90s here in the desert and it’s not even May so that trip is going to have to wait until… winter or something. There is no way in hell I’m going deeper into the desert when the weather gets hotter.

It’s a historic mining town tourist trap looking place now which is exactly the kind of shit I love.

SAM: Bec, look, I know Zack didn’t do this. Now, we have to find a way to prove that he’s innocent.

I mean, not technically, technically you would 1) NOT FUCK WITH A MURDER INVESTIGATION YOU’RE NOT LEGALLY INVOLVED IN BECAUSE ANYTHING YOU FIND WOULD BE INADMISSABLE IN COURT 2) find evidence to provide a reasonable doubt for the jury that he did commit the crime. You know, like a lawyer would need to do, Law Boy.

DEAN: I just don’t think this is our kind of problem.

When I made my husband watch this show with me (he’s seen it all at least once now over the years) this is the recurring thing that drove him crazy.

You guys can’t even go in through the back door? Or shut the front door behind you? Really?

REBECCA: (tearfully) Well, there’s no sign of a break-in. They say that Emily let her attacker in.

Yeah, that doesn’t even really mean that she knew her attacker. Just that it was someone she let her guard down around or got in some other way. See: The Son of Sam and Nightstalker, etc.

Love the pinup magnet on the fridge. I’d throw shade at that, but I have a pinup magnet on my fridge too so… pot kettle and all that.

Okay, both people in the next couple are gorgeous.

And oh wow those special effects changing eyes… wow.

This poor couple. I feel so bad for them in this episode.

How… how are the police gonna explain the way he was able to beat himself over the head with a bat??? I…

I love that 5:30 in the morning on TV is clearly like… 10 AM.

Okay, this is a really unrelated point, but the graffiti on the dumpster here reminds me of the Teen Wolf fandoms use of the name Void!Stiles when Stiles Stilinski was possessed by a Nogitsune… I just spent way too long digging through YouTube and my Tumblr tags from back when those episodes were airing looking for a few specific videos and couldn’t find them. The TL;DR reason I bring it up here is goofball, bi-coded main character guy getting possessed by an entity set on destroying the people he loves. SOUNDS LIKE THIS EPISODE AND A WHOLE LOT OF SPN RIGHT. I love that all these monster hunting shows call out to each other.

This scene haunts me years later and I don’t even WATCH Teen Wolf. I just watched the fandom on Tumblr collectively lose it’s shit then tripped down a Hale Pack fanfiction rabbit hole.

ANYWAY

Back to Supernatural, a show that also treated its fan base, cast, and characters like garbage! Huzzah!

DEAN: Well, there’s another way to go—down. (They look down and notice a manhole.)

I’m gonna be mature and ignore the double entendre there…

But I love that Dean thinks of the world in 3D. Which sounds like a dumb statement to make, but this is honestly a good example of that in action.

SAM: I bet this runs right by Zack’s house, too.

Really Sam, sewers run by houses? SO WEIRD. I WOULD HAVE NEVER GUESSED.

DEAN: You know, I just had a sick thought. When the shapeshifter changes shape—maybe it sheds.

SAM: That is sick. (DEAN puts the bloody pile back on the ground.)

Guys, there is a WHOLE ASS EAR in that pile of yuck you’re looking at. I think it’s pretty safe to assume the shapeshifter indeed sheds its skin like a snake. A much… gooier snake.

Sam’s friend is rightfully pissed at him for fucking with the crime scene.

This is before the pearl gripped guns?! Wow. I never noticed that before.

Also, this whole episode gives me feelings.

++++

Cool. Tumblr mobile ate a whole section of my notes on this when it crashed for NO APPARENT REASON. Love that.

It always boggles my mind that actors can trust the people they’re working with enough to let people “tie” ropes around their neck or put them in actually dangerous positions in a scene.

SHAPESHIFTER: He’s sure got issues with you. You got to go to college. He had to stay home. I mean, I had to stay home. With Dad. You don’t think I had dreams of my own? But Dad needed me. Where the hell were you?

SAM: Where is my brother? (The shapeshifter leans in close to SAM.)

SHAPESHIFTER: I am your brother. See, deep down, I’m just jealous. You got friends. You could have a life. Me? I know I’m a freak. And sooner or later, everybody’s gonna leave me. (He backs away.)

SAM: What are you talkin’ about?

SHAPESHIFTER: You left. Hell, I did everything Dad asked me to, and he ditched me, too. No explanation, nothin’, just poof. Left me with your sorry ass. But, still, this life? It’s not without its perks. (He laughs.) I meet the nicest people. Like little Becky. You know, Dean would bang her if he had the chance. Let’s see what happens. (He smiles and covers SAM with a sheet.)

This exchange is just… so much. So many feelings. And I will forever (unless we magically get a fix-it fic mini season someday…) be SO MAD that none of this got resolved in that pointless, trash heap of a finale.

REBECCA: Okay, so, this thing—it can make itself look like anybody?

SHAPESHIFTER: That’s right. (She chuckles.)

REBECCA: Well, what is it, like a genetic freak? (The shapeshifter laughs.)

SHAPESHIFTER: Maybe. Evolution is about mutation, right? So, maybe this thing was born human but was different. Hideous and hated. Until he learned to become someone else. (REBECCA looks around, uncomfortable. The shapeshifter’s eyes glint silver, and he smiles.)

It always amazes me how much of this show is a pile of accidental queer allegories parading around in an ill-fitting toxic masculinity suit.

Vulcan mind meld! I love nerd!Dean. Also, I’m rewatching Star Trek: TOS with my husband, because that is what my life amounts to these days, rewatching comfort TV and flailing over the bits I love.

This post does a better job than I can do of pairing up screen caps with the dialogue of this next scene. SIX EPISODES IN. They’re dumping all of this character depth SIX EPISODES IN. FUCK THIS SHOW FOR NOT EMBRACING ITSELF.

Okay, I love that he screams back in her face after he threw the phone. It’s not something to laugh at because the situation is horrifying, but I can’t help laughing at it every time.

AND THE WAY THEY CUT THESE SCENES. Going from him winding his hand back to backslap her directly to him dropping the chains on the table to show how hard he must have hit her without actually making the actors hit each other. Good job editing department!

I… don’t understand the shifter’s motivation for killing people. If he can take over people’s identities without killing them, why kill them? Is it just because he’s a homicidal, rapist piece of shit? Cause that’s all it seems like.

How did the SWAT team even know she was being attacked? Why can the snipers aim no better than Storm Troopers?

Ugh, these kind of transformation body horror scenes are exactly why werewolf stories have never really appealed to me much. Like, I could do without watching your ribs move and teeth fall out, dude.

BUT.

THIS FUCKING SCENE.

I looked up the song that’s playing over shapeshifter!Dean being caught by the SWAT team and then going through the grotesque transformation. (And as far as I know, the iTunes version has the original music from the episodes.)

It’s a song called “Mary” by The Death Riders

Who's your mother, who's your mother here boy // Who's your mother, whos your mommy dear // Who's your father, who's your father here boy // Who's your father, who's your daddy dear

Silently screaming // Where everyone knows // Daddy's always watchin' // Where everywhere - everywhere I go

I don't wanna be a freak show pretty boy anymore // I don't wanna be a full time slave // I don't wanna be your midnight cowboy anymore // I just want to be Mary

This is… a fascinating choice. Here are the rest of the lyrics. The song as a whole has a weird incesty kinda vibe to it? Kinda like when SPN tries to straight-wash itself and misses the mark wildly. (Like Dean’s male siren episode.)

The midnight cowboy line reminded me of 12x11 and the bull riding scene with “Broomstick Cowboy” by Bobby Goldsboro playing over it

Dream on, little Broomstick Cowboy, // Dream while you can; // Of big green frogs, // And puppy dogs, // And castles in the sand.

For, all too soon you'll awaken; // Your toys will all be gone. // Your broomstick horse will ride away, // To find another home. // And you'll have grown into a man, // With cowboys of your own. // And then you'll have to go to war, // To try and save your home.

And then you'll have to learn to hate; // You'll have to learn to kill. // It's always been that way, my son; // I guess it always will.

Because, you know, why not add tons of feelings into the lyrics, right?

Props to the people who can embrace their rewatches and reclamations of the show with ease. Because every episode seems to remind me of how hollow and tragic Dean’s ending was and I just… struggle all over again.

Anyway, back to the episode so I can move on with my day.

REPORTER: An anonymous tip led police to a home in the Central West End, where a S.W.A.T team discovered a local woman bound and gagged. Her attacker, a white male, approximately twenty-four to thirty years of age, was discovered hiding in her home. (A sketch of DEAN appears on the screen.)

DEAN: Man! That’s not even a good picture. (SAM looks around cautiously.)

SAM: It’s good enough. (He walks away.)

DEAN: Man! (He follows SAM.)

(CUT TO: Alley. DEAN and SAM are walking. DEAN steps into a puddle.)

DEAN: Ugh, come on.

I love that we get two tiny little back-to-back vanity moments for Dean here. One commenting on the sketch artist rendition of him being broadcasted on the news and the other tripping in the puddle. There is literally someone running around the city trying to kill people while wearing Dean’s face, but Dean is still concerned with how he looks appears to others. He’s still concerned with keeping up his own performance. The shifter left him with just a t-shirt, so he doesn’t even have his usual comfort layers on and at any moment someone could spot him and call the police or try to kill him for assaulting Sam’s friend. His life is wildly out of control in that moment and the only thing he can try to focus on is his appearance (something semi-controllable) and finding the shifter before any of that other shit can happen.

One day I want to put together a like top 10 episodes focusing on / explaining each TFW character from the series. Like the kind of list you could show someone who’s never seen the show, but has OPINIONS about the characters (or who hasn’t seen the whole show and seen the growth they went through… you know, like the people responsible for the travesty of 15x20). This episode would be on that list. I’m not sure how I could manage to make a list of only 10 episodes to understand Dean Winchester by, but eh.

SAM: What are you gonna do to me?

SHAPESHIFTER: Oh, I’m not gonna do anything. Dean will, though.

SAM: They’ll never catch him.

SHAPESHIFTER: Oh, doesn’t matter. Murder in the first of his own brother? He’ll be hunted the rest of his life. (He picks up a sharp knife and examines it.)

Speaking of season 15 in general, this right here. This was Chuck’s villain story arc thesis statement. AND THEY DROPPED THE GODDAMN BALL WITH IT. I think that’s the thing that honestly pisses me off the most these days (about 5 1/2 months from when the finale aired) is that they tried making the whole thing a tragedy but did such an awful job with it that it just ended up like a deflating condom balloon at a dive bar concert. Disappointing and gross. The finale for season 14 set them up SO FUCKING WELL and it just… didn’t get there.

Becky’s parents are gonna be pissed at how torn up their house is after all this shit…

And you’re not shooting him when you first see him strangling Sam because…?????

I like that he took the necklace back. Also, is this kinda Dean death number .5 of the show? Like it wasn’t him but it was also kinda him. Eh.

At least they left the windshield on Baby this time. Reflections are better than tearing her apart.

#SPN 1x06 #amispnrewatch #reclaiming spn #performing!dean #lawboy #bi!dean #dean x cassie #dean x lee #stiles stilinski #void!stiles #teen wolf #dean deserved better

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v-thinks-on · 3 years ago

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We are driven by forces we cannot control to return home and take a wife. Or die. — Spock (TOS: “Amok Time”)

My contribution to the @trektribute zine.

Every seven years, all Vulcans are compelled to return to their native planet to engage in the ancient ritual of pon farr or die trying (TOS: “Amok Time”; “The Cloud Minders”). Among fans - and some writers of the series itself, if the odd Tumblr post is to be believed - the most contested feature of this unusual mating system is the suggestion that they only mate once every seven years. However, as a biologist, far more remarkable is the fact that any Vulcan who fails to mate dies. From an evolutionary perspective, it’s astounding that such a system could possibly evolve, but there are some possibilities.

Before I go any further, I should clarify that I will only be discussing Vulcans as they appear in Star Trek: The Original Series. I’m certain there’s fruitful discussion to be had about Vulcans across the Star Trek franchise, but I will exclusively be looking at what’s presented in the original 79 episodes.

First, the most pressing question; why only every seven years? Obviously, there are narrative reasons a writer may want to change this. Even The Original Series, which introduced the Vulcan mating system, seemed conflicted about it (TOS: “The Cloud Minders”). However, as a biologist, that Vulcans only mate once every seven years is perhaps the most normal thing about their reproduction. Humans are one of relatively few species on Earth that reproduce year round. Most species only mate during a particular time of year when there are enough resources available not only for survival, but also for the production and care of offspring (Wingfield & Kenagy, 1991). It makes sense that Vulcans, which live on a desert planet, would have more constraints on when they can reproduce.

Mating every seven years may sound strange, but there are species that reproduce on multiple year cycles; thirteen- and seventeen-year cicadas (Williams, 1995) are probably the most well known. Alternatively, it could be that “the seven-year-cycle” (TOS: “The Cloud Minders”) is measured in Earth years, and is actually one year on Vulcan, or is some equivalent ecologically relevant unit. Being entirely celibate outside of the mating season is also fairly typical. For example, birds that reproduce only once a year often have testes that regress for the rest of the year, making it physically impossible for them to mate - not to mention the hormonal changes that make them no longer have any desire to (Wingfield & Kenagy, 1991). This makes evolutionary sense because if you’re putting a lot of energy into a big reproductive bout, it would be a waste to expend some of that energy on other times of the year when offspring are less likely to survive.

Somewhat more unusual, however, is that it appears that Vulcans’ mating cycles are not synchronized. While Spock is obviously in the throes of plak-tow - blood-fever; the “madness” that precedes pon farr - none of the other presumably mature Vulcans present at his pon farr exhibit any of the same symptomes (TOS: “Amok Time”). Different members of a species mating at different times is uncommon in nature (but not unheard of; Wingfield & Kenagy, 1991) because it makes it difficult for them to find another individual who is also ready to mate. More often, in the wild, variation in when individuals are ready to mate is likely to cause one species to split into two because individuals will only mate with those that are ready at the same time, effectively isolating the two populations and enabling them to differentiate (Taylor & Friesen, 2017). However, like Humans, Vulcans engage in prolonged courtship (TOS: “Amok Time”), so they don’t have to go through the process of finding a mate when they enter pon farr, and unlike the aforementioned birds, they appear to be physically capable of mating even when it’s not their time, so the partner that isn’t going through pon farr can still be receptive. It may be that the environment on Vulcan is harsh enough that the optimal strategy is to mate at a different time from everyone else to minimize the amount of competition your offspring will face.

So far, everything has been fairly straight forward. As a biologist, the really strange thing about the Vulcan mating system is that they mate or die. In the episode, “Amok Time” (TOS), Spock compares this to the salmon, which, when it is ready to mate, leaves the ocean, and “must return to that one stream where they were born, to spawn or die in trying.” This is a pretty analogy, but it leaves out a very important detail; the salmon that mate die too, just perhaps a little bit later. There are many species that use up all their resources on one mating attempt, and then die; salmon, cicadas, many species of butterflies, the list goes on (Young, 2010). There are entire families of moths that stop eating entirely when they reach sexual maturity and just mate until they run out of reserves (Janzen, 1984). This may seem a little strange; why shouldn’t they try to live longer and maybe have a few more chances to mate? But often, these are species that have a lot of predators or otherwise wouldn’t live very long even if they didn’t spend all of their reserves on reproduction. So, instead of wasting energy on defending from predators or building up their immune systems, they just use it all on one big reproduction attempt.

Clearly, Vulcans do not do this. If they successfully mate, pon farr ends and everything returns to normal so they can try again in another seven years. This makes sense; Vulcans generally live long lives and should have many opportunities to mate. Then why do they die if they don’t mate? To my knowledge, there are no species on Earth that die only if they don’t successfully mate. There shouldn’t be because they don’t have any offspring and dying ensures that they’ll never have any more, so there’s no one to pass on their genes. Before I go any further, first I should clarify an assumption I’ve been making implicitly this whole time. For a trait - which could be as simple as eye color, or as complicated as a whole mating system - to evolve, it has to be genetically heritable. That is, there has to be some gene - or often, many genes - that code for it, that are passed down from parent to child (Dawkins, 1976). I’ve been assuming that the Vulcan mating system is composed of genetically heritable traits, which is assumed to be the case of any biological mating system (human mating customs notwithstanding).

To determine whether a genetically heritable trait, such as reproducing or dying could possibly evolve, biologists often imagine what would happen to a single individual with the trait that suddenly appeared in an otherwise identical population of individuals without the trait. So, suppose we have a population where individuals have the opportunity to mate every seven years, but if they don’t mate, they just keep living. Then, suppose an individual is born with a mutation that makes it so that if they don’t mate, they’ll die. If they enter pon farr for the first time and don’t have a mate, they die right there and the trait dies with them; they never get to pass on their genes for mating-or-dying. However, even if they do manage to mate that first year and have a child, and maybe even mate the next year too, they’ll still, on average, have fewer opportunities to mate and therefore have fewer children than their neighbors who can go a pon farr without mating and survive to try again in seven years. It may seem like a small difference, if our mutant only has four children before they don’t have a chance to mate and their neighbors have an average of five, but over evolutionary time, even such a small difference is likely to drive a trait to extinction.

The only purely biological explanation I can think of for the evolution of this strange mating system is based on one of the many hypotheses for why aging may have evolved (Bourke, 2007). The idea is that if an individual doesn’t mate one year, they’re not very likely to have a mate the next year either, or the year after that. This sad, lonely Vulcan has probably had all the children they’re ever going to have; at this point their remaining fitness is close to zero. However, they may have some relatives - children, or siblings - who share some proportion of their genes - children, for example, receive half their genes from each of their parents. If this lonely Vulcan happens to have the gene for surviving, whether they reproduce or not, they’ll continue to consume resources that could be used by their children or siblings who may still have a chance of reproducing. If, on the other hand, this lonely Vulcan instead had the gene for dying when it failed to reproduce, their siblings or children would get those resources and would therefore have an even higher chance of reproducing in the future and having more offspring, and, most importantly for evolution, passing on the lonely Vulcan’s genes, including the genes for dying if they don’t reproduce. This could be especially powerful on a desert planet, like Vulcan, where resources are presumably scarce.

This is also a valuable lesson in why we shouldn’t let evolution dictate how we live. Just because I’m never going to have children and therefore have no fitness doesn’t mean I should die, even if it would help my relatives have more children. Reproduction is so important to evolution because it’s how genes are passed on, and that’s what evolution is; the change in gene frequencies in a population. However, in life, there are things that are a lot more important than gene frequencies.

Now, back to the lonely Vulcan; this explanation may sound all fine and good from a theoretical evolutionary standpoint, but it doesn’t actually work with other things we know about Vulcans. I mentioned that it’s based on an explanation for why aging evolved; the idea is that animals die of old age to give their younger relatives a better chance of surviving and reproducing (Bourke, 2007). Therefore, we’d expect that if Vulcan doesn’t have the resources to support individuals who don’t have mates, it certainly wouldn’t be able to support individuals who are too old to reproduce. It may seem strange, but Humans are one of very few species on Earth that have menopause - i.e., a time when individuals are still alive, but no longer reproduce. One theory for how it evolved is for almost the opposite reason of aging; after a certain age, individuals’ genes are passed on more effectively by staying around and helping care for grandchildren than by having children of their own (Johnstone & Cant, 2010). However, this can only happen if there are enough resources around to support all three generations at once. Even though Vulcan is relatively inhospitable, it seems like Vulcans do still exhibit something like menopause. I doubt Spock was still going through pon farr every seven years by the time he crashes into the alternate universe (“Star Trek” 2009). If Vulcans have evolved to stop reproducing within their lifetimes, then it doesn’t make any sense for them to die after a single failed reproductive bout.

In that case, we need an alternative explanation. I said my first hypothesis was the only purely biological explanation I could think of; to try again we need to delve into the realm of culture. Many animals are capable of social learning, but none on Earth exhibit culture to quite the same extent as Humans. At this point, Humans evolve in a context that is, in many ways, shaped more by culture than nature (Richerson & Boyd, 2004), and like any proper species of humanoid aliens on Star Trek, Vulcans are the same. And, lucky for us, Vulcan culture is by far the most clearly defined alien culture introduced in The Original Series. They value logic to the point of rejecting all emotion and are particularly ashamed of their mating drives (TOS: “Amok Time”). It is not much of a stretch to think that if they didn’t have to endure pon farr, Vulcans would not mate at all. That cultural climate could easily be enough to result in the evolution of increasingly powerful mating drives, as only those with the strongest desire to mate would have any offspring. Eventually, it appears that Vulcan culture became so strict that the only way they would mate is if they would die otherwise.

This is consistent with what little evidence there is in The Original Series of what Vulcans were like before they adopted such a strict philosophy. The Romulans, who split off from the Vulcans around the time their philosophy of logic became widespread, appear to be more similar to humans; when Spock attempts to woo a Romulan commander to infiltrate her ship in “The Enterprise Incident” (TOS), she seems to have some physical interest in him. Even stronger evidence of what Vulcans were like historically comes in the episode “All Our Yesterdays” (TOS), where Spock reverts to behaving like an early Vulcan - for perhaps less than adequately explained reasons - which includes a strong sex drive even outside of pon farr, suggesting that their mating system has changed significantly in somewhat recent history. This is not to say that the evidence is conclusive; to determine that we would need to conduct an empirical experiment, which is unfortunately impossible, but this theory seems to present a promising explanation of the facts.

References

Bourke, A. F. (2007). Kin selection and the evolutionary theory of aging. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 38, 103-128.

Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. Oxford University press.

Janzen, D. H. (1984) Two ways to be a tropical big moth: Santa Rosa saturniids and sphingids. Oxford Surveys in Evolutionary Biology, 1, 85–140

Johnstone, R. A., & Cant, M. A. (2010). The evolution of menopause in cetaceans and humans: the role of demography. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1701), 3765-3771.

Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2008). Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. University of Chicago press.

Taylor, R. S., & Friesen, V. L. (2017). The role of allochrony in speciation. Molecular Ecology, 26(13), 3330-3342.

Williams, K. S., & Simon, C. (1995). The ecology, behavior, and evolution of periodical cicadas. Annual Review of Entomology, 40(1), 269-295.

Wingfield, J. C., & Kenagy, G. J. (1991). Natural regulation of reproductive cycles. In Vertebrate endocrinology: fundamentals and biomedical implications, 4(Part B), 181-241.

Young, T. P. (2010) Semelparity and Iteroparity. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10), 2

#v thinks #Star Trek: The Original Series #Vulcans

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marlborodean · 4 years ago

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spn quotes: season one

i’m collecting a bunch of quotes from the show! favorite lines, good points of characterization, etc. all organized by episode and character, and with timestamps!

w/ncest shippers get lost

season two.

1. PILOT

Dean—

[Sam: So we kill everything we can find.] Save a lot of people doing it, too. (08:51)

I can’t do this alone. [Sam: Yes, you can.] Yeah. Well, I don’t want to. (09:30)

[Officer: So. Fake U.S. Marshal, fake credit cards. You got anything that’s real?] My boobs. (28:50)

Sam—

When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45. [Dean: What was he supposed to do?] I was 9 years old. He was supposed to say, “Don’t be afraid of the dark.” (08:30)

You think Mom would’ve wanted this for us? (08:58)

We were raised like warriors. (09:06)

[Dean: Are you just gonna live some normal, apple-pie life? Is that it?] No, not normal. Safe. [And that’s why you ran away.] I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go, I should stay gone. (09:09)

[Dean: You’re really serious about this, aren’t you? You think you’re just gonna become some lawyer, marry your girl?] Maybe. Why not? [Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you’ve done?] No, and she’s not ever going to know. [Well, that’s healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy, but sooner or later you’re gonna have to face up to who you really are.] And who is that? [One of us.] No. I’m not like you. This is not going to be my life. (22:45)

If it weren’t for pictures, I wouldn’t even know what Mom looks like. What difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom’s gone, and she isn’t coming back. (23:17)

2. W*ND*G* ( x )

Dean—

Her brother’s missing, Sam. She’s not just gonna sit this out. (14:55)

[Hailey: And you’re hiking out in biker boots and jeans?] Well, sweetheart, I don’t do shorts. (15:54)

I’m supposed to be the belligerent one, remember? (25:13)

The way I see it, Dad’s given us a job to do, and I intend to do it. (26:31)

All that anger, you can’t keep it burning over the long haul. It’s gonna kill you. You gotta have patience, man. [Sam: How do you do it? How does Dad do it?] Well, for one, them. I mean, I figure our family’s so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. It makes things a little bit more bearable. And I’ll tell you what else helps. Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can. (27:05)

Sam—

[Dean: No, you’re not fine. You’re like a powder keg, man. It’s not like you.] (25:06)

3. DEAD IN THE WATER

Dean—

You don’t think I want to find Dad as much as you do? [Sam: Yeah, I know you do, it’s just—] I’m the one that’s been with him every single day for the past two years while you’ve been off to college going to pep rallies. We will find Dad, but until then, we’re gonna kill everything bad between here and there, okay? (04:09)

Well, maybe you don’t think anyone will listen to you, or... or believe you. I want you to know that I will. (11:58)

You’re scared. It’s okay. I understand. See, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too. I didn’t feel like talking, just like you. But see, my mom—I know she wanted me to be brave. I think about that everyday. And I do my best to be brave. (20:14)

What if we missed something? What if more people get hurt? [Sam: But why would you think that?] Because Lucas was really scared. [That’s what this is about?] I just don’t want to leave town until I know the kid’s okay. (29:48)

Sam—

People don’t just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them. (03:51)

4. PHANTOM TRAVELER

Dean—

It’s your job to keep my ass alive, so I need you sharp. (05:18)

Sam—

[Dean: It’s your job to keep my ass alive, so I need you sharp.] (05:18)

[Jerry: Well, he was real proud of you, I could tell. You know, he talked about you all the time.] He did? (07:09)

Hey, hey, it’s just a little turbulence. [Sam, this place is going to crash, okay? So quit treating me like I’m friggin’ 4.] You need to calm down. [Well, I’m sorry, I can’t!] Yes, you can. [Dude. Stow the touchy-feely, self-help yoga crap. It’s not helping.] Listen, if you’re panicked, you’re wide open to demonic possession, so you need to calm yourself down right now. (30:26)

5. BLOODY MARY

Dean—

Do I look like Paris Hilton? (18:08)

Her boyfriend killing himself, that’s not really Charlie’s fault. (29:54)

Now listen to me. It wasn’t your fault. It you want to blame something, then blame the thing that killed her. Or, hell, why don’t you take a swing at me? I’m the one that dragged you away from her. [Sam: I don’t blame you.] Well, you shouldn’t blame yourself, because there’s nothing you could’ve done. (31:24)

Sam—

[Dean: Hell, why don’t you take a swing at me? I’m the one that dragged you away from her.] I don’t blame you. (31:37)

Charlie. Your boyfriend’s death, you really should try to forgive yourself. No matter what you did, you probably couldn’t have stopped it. Sometimes bad things just happen. (40:37)

6. SKIN

Dean—

He’s sure got issues with you. You got to go to college. He had to stay home. I mean, I had to stay home with Dad. You don’t think I had dreams of my own? But Dad needed me. See, deep down, I’m just jealous. You got friends, you could have a life. Me? I know I’m a freak. And sooner or later, everybody’s gonna leave me. [Sam: What are you talking about?] You left. Hell, I did everything Dad asked me to, and he ditched me, too. (24:21)

Sam—

[Rebecca: It must be lonely.] Oh, no. No, it’s not so bad. Anyway, what can I do? It’s my family. (39:02)

Misc—

Shifter: Evolution is about mutation, right? So maybe this thing was born human, but was different. Hideous and hated. Until he learned to become someone else. (27:14)

7. HOOK MAN

Dean—

I told you, you don’t have to be a college graduate to be a genius. (14:59)

[Sam: Hey, be quiet.] Me be quiet? You be quiet! (19:48)

Sam—

[Dean: You’ve been holding out on me. This college thing is awesome!] This wasn’t really my experience. [Let me guess—library, studying, straight A’s. What a geek.] (21:30)

8. BUGS

Dean—

Growing up in a place like this would freak me out. [Sam: Why?] The manicured lawns, how-was-your-day-honey? I’d blow my brains out. [There’s nothing wrong with normal.] I’d take our family over normal any day. (08:21)

[Sam: You’ll be able to get out of that house and away from your dad.] What kind of advice is that? Kid should stick with his family. (20:26)

Hey, so with that kid back there, how could you tell him to just ditch his family like that? [Sam: Just, uh, I know what the kid’s going through.] How about telling him to respect his old man? How’s that for advice? (23:20)

Matt, under no circumstances are you to tell the truth. He’ll just think you’re nuts. Tell him you have a sharp pain in your right side and you gotta go to the hospital, okay? [Matt: Yeah, okay.] Make him listen? What are you thinking? (32:44)

Sam—

Remind you of somebody? Dad? [Dean: Dad never treated us like that.] Well, Dad never treated you like that. You were perfect. He was all over my case. ...You don’t remember. [Dean: Well, maybe he had to raise his voice but sometimes you were out of line.] Right. Right, like when I said I’d rather play soccer than learn bowhunting. (11:46)

[Matt: Larry doesn’t listen to me.] Why not? [Mostly? He’s too disappointed in his freak son.] I hear ya. [Dean: You do?] Matt, how old are you? [Matt: Sixteen.] Well, don’t sweat it, ‘cause in two years something great’s gonna happen. [What?] College. You’ll be able to get out of that house and away from your dad. (20:04)

[Dean: Hey, so with that kid back there, how could you tell him to just ditch his family like that?] Just, uh, I know what the kid’s going through. [How about telling him to respect his old man? How’s that for advice?] Dean, come on. This isn’t about his old man. You think I didn’t respect Dad, that’s what this is about. [Just forget it, alright? Sorry I brought it up.] I respected him. But no matter what I did, it was never good enough. [So what are you saying, that Dad was disappointed in you?] Was? Is! Always has been. [Why would you think that?] Because I didn’t wanna bowhunt or hustle pool, because I wanted to go to school and live my life, which to our whacked-out family, made me the freak. (23:20)

Dean, you know what most dads are when their kids score a full-ride? Proud. Most dads don’t toss their kids out of the house. [Dean: I remember that fight. In fact, I seem to recall a few choice phrases coming out of your mouth.] You know, truth is, when we finally do find Dad, I don’t know if he’s even gonna wanna see me. (24:05)

9. HOME

Dean—

And then you tell me that I’ve got to go back home, especially when... [Sam: When what?] When I swore to myself that I would never go back there. (07:56)

I remember the fire, the heat. Then I carried you out the front door. [Sam: You did?] Yeah, well, you never knew that? [No.] (12:38)

I don’t know what to do. So, whatever you’re doing. if you could get here... please. I need your help, Dad. (14:45)

Sam—

[Dean: I remember the fire, the heat. Then I carried you out the front door.] You did? [Yeah, well, you never knew that?] No. (12:38)

Misc—

Missouri: All those years ago, real evil came to you. It walked this house. That kind of evil leaves wounds, and sometimes wounds get infected. (27:15)

10. ASYLUM

Dean—

[Sam: This is a job. Dad wants us to work a job.] Yeah, well, maybe we’ll meet up with him. Maybe he’s there. [Maybe he’s not. I mean, he could be sending us there by ourselves to hunt this thing.] Who cares? If he wants us there, it’s good enough for me. [This doesn’t strike you as weird? The texting, the coordinates?] Sam. Dad’s telling us to go somewhere. We’re going. (07:05)

[Sam: We deserve some answers. I mean, this is our family we’re talking about.] I understand that, Sam, but he’s given us an order. [So what, we gotta always follow Dad’s order?] Of course we do. (12:17)

[Sam: I mean, why are we even here? ‘Cause you’re following Dad’s orders like a good little soldier? ‘Cause you always do what he says without question? Are you that desperate for his approval?] (36:52)

Sam—

[Dean: We’ve got to burn Ellicott’s bones, and all this will be over, and you’ll be back to normal.] I am normal. I’m just telling you the truth for the first time. I mean, why are we even here? ‘Cause you’re following Dad’s orders like a good little soldier? ‘Cause you always do what he says without question? Are you that desperate for his approval? [This isn’t you talking.] That’s the difference between you and me. I have a mind of my own. I’m not pathetic like you. [So what are you gonna do? You gonna kill me?] You know, I am sick of doing what you tell me to do. (36:43)

11. SCARECROW

Dean—

[Sam: I don’t understand the blind faith you have in the man. I mean, it’s like you don’t even question him.] Yeah, it’s called being a good son. You’re a selfish bastard, you know that? You just do whatever you want. You don’t care what anyone thinks. (08:08)

[Sam: You know, if you’re hinting you need my help, just ask.] I’m not hinting anything. Actually, uh... I want you to know... I mean, don’t think... [Yeah. I’m sorry, too.] Sam.... You were right. You got to do your own thing. You got to live your own life. [You serious?] You’ve always known what you want, and you go after it. You stand up to Dad. I mean, you always have. Hell, I wish I.... Anyway. I admire that about you. I’m proud of you, Sammy. [I don’t even know what to say.] Say you’ll take care of yourself. (25:04)

Sam—

[Dean: Dad doesn’t want our help.] I don’t care. [He’s given us an order.] I don’t care. We don’t always have to do what he says. [Sam, Dad is asking us to work jobs, to save lives. It’s important.] Alright, I understand. Believe me, I understand. But I’m talking one week here, man, to get answers. To get revenge. [Alright, look, I know how you feel.] Do you? How old were you when Mom died, 4? Jess died six months ago. How the hell would you know how I feel? (07:25)

[Meg: I had to get away from my family.] Why? [I love my parents. And they wanted what’s best for me. They just didn’t care if I wanted it. I was supposed to be smart, but not smart enough to scare away a husband. Well, it’s just.... Because my family said so, I’m supposed to sit there and do what I was told. So I just went on my own way instead. ...I’m sorry. The things you say to people you hardly know.] No, no, it’s okay. I know how you feel. Remember that brother I mentioned before that I was road-tripping with? It’s kind of the same deal. [And that’s why you’re not riding with him anymore? ...Here’s to us. The food might be bad, and the beds might be hard, but at least we’re living our own lives and nobody else’s.] (21:11)

[Med: You’re running back to your brother? The guy you ran away from? Why, because he won’t pick up his phone? Sam, come with me to California.] I can’t. I’m sorry. [Why not?] He’s my family. (31:13)

12. FAITH

Dean—

Looks like you’re gonna leave town without me. [Sam: What are you talking about? I’m not gonna leave you here.] You better take care of that car. I swear I’ll haunt your ass. [I don’t think that’s funny.] Oh, come on, it’s a little funny. (04:44)

[Sam: Maybe it’s time to have a little faith, Dean.] You know what I got faith in? Reality—knowing what’s really going on. [How can you be a skeptic, with the things we see every day?] Exactly, we see them. We know they’re real. [But if you know evil’s out there, how can you not believe good’s out there too?] ‘Cause I’ve seen what evil does to good people. (08:10)

[Roy: I looked into your heart and you just...stood out from all the rest.] What did you see in my heart? [A young man with an important purpose. A job to do. And it isn’t finished.] (15:27)

You never should’ve brought me here. [Sam: Dean, I was just trying to save your life.] Sam, some guy is dead now because of me. (19:30)

The guy is playing God, deciding who lives and dies. That’s a monster in my book. (22:42)

[Layla: I wish you luck. I really do.] Same to you. You deserve it a lot more than me. (30:38)

[Sam: To cross a line like that, that preacher’s wife—black magic, murder. Evil.] Desperate. Her husband was dying. She would’ve done anything to save him. (31:35)

God save us from half the people who think they’re doing God’s work. (32:04)

[Sam: What’s happening to her is horrible. But what are you gonna do? Let somebody else die to save her? You said it yourself, Dean—you can’t play God.] (32:58)

Must be rough, to believe in something so much and have it disappoint you like that. (40:57)

You know, I’m not much of the praying type, but I’m gonna pray for you. [Layla: Well. There’s a miracle right there.] (42:00)

Sam—

[Dean: I’m gonna die. And you can’t stop it.] Watch me. (05:23)

[Dean: You’re not gonna let me die in peace, are you?] I’m not gonna let you die, period. (07:04)

How can you be a skeptic, with the things we see everyday? [Dean: Exactly, we see them. We know they’re real.] If you know evil’s out there, how can you not believe good’s out there too? (08:18)

[The guy is playing God, deciding who lives and dies. That’s a monster in my book.] No, we’re not gonna kill a human being, Dean. We do that, we’re no better than he is. (22:42)

Misc—

Layla: I guess if you’re gonna have faith, you can’t just have it when the miracles happen. You have to have it when they don’t. (41:19)

13. ROUTE 666

Dean—

[Sam: Look man, everybody’s got to open up to someone sometime.] Yeah, I don’t. It was stupid to get that close. (13:06)

[Cassie: Whenever we get—what’s the word?—close? Anywhere in the neighborhood of emotional vulnerability, you back off or make some joke or find any way to shut the door on me.] (15:19)

Sam—

You told her. You told her the secret. Our big family rule number one—we do what we do and we shut up about it. For a year and a half, I do nothing but lie to Jessica, and you go out with this chick in Ohio a couple of times, and you tell her everything? (04:18)

Oh, my life was so simple. Just school, exams, papers on polycentric cultural norms. [Dean: So I guess I saved you from a boring existence.] Occasionally I miss boring. [So, this killer truck—] I miss conversations that didn’t start with “this killer truck.” (29:31)

Ever make you wonder if it’s worth it? Putting everything on hold, doing what we do? (39:10)

14. NIGHTMARE

Dean—

[Sam: Well, with what he went through, the beatings, to want revenge on those people—I’m sorry, man. I hate to say it, but it’s not that insane.] Yeah, but it doesn’t justify murdering your entire family. [Dean—] He’s no different than anything else we’ve hunted. Alright? We gotta end him. [We’re not gonna kill Max.] Then what? Hand him over to the cops and say, “Lock him up, officer. He kills people with the power of his mind.” [Forget it. No way, man.] Sam— [Dean, he’s a person. We can talk to him. Hey, promise me you’ll follow my lead on this one.] Alright, fine. But I’m not letting him hurt anybody else. (25:01)

[Sam: We’re lucky we had Dad.] I never thought I’d hear you say that. [Well, it could have gone a whole ‘nother way after Mom. A little more tequila, a little less demon hunting, then we would have had Max’s childhood. All things considered, we turned out okay. Thanks to him.] All things considered. (38:27)

As long as I’m around, nothing bad’s gonna happen to you. (41:27)

Sam—

Well, I know one thing I have in common with these people. [Dean: What’s that?] Both our families are cursed. [Our family’s not cursed. We’ve just... had our dark spots.] Our dark spots are pretty dark. (19:13)

I was connecting to Max. The thing I don’t get it why, man. I guess because we’re so alike? [Dean: What are you talking about? Dude’s nothing like you.] Well, we both have psychic abilities. We’re both— [Both what? Sam, Max is a monster. He’s already killed two people, now he’s gunning for a third.] Well, with what he went through, the beatings, to want revenge on those people—I’m sorry, man. I hate to say it, but it’s not that insane. (24:43)

If I just said something else, gotten through to him somehow. [Dean: Don’t do that.] Do what? [Torture yourself. It wouldn’t have mattered what you said. Max was too far gone.] When I think about how he looked at me, man, right before.... I should have done something. [Come on, man, you risked your life. I mean, yeah, maybe if we’d have gotten there 20 years earlier.] Well, I’ll tell you one thing. We’re lucky we had Dad. [I never thought I’d hear you say that.] Well, it could have gone a whole ‘nother way after Mom. A little more tequila, a little less demon hunting, then we would have had Max’s childhood. All things considered, we turned out okay. Thanks to him. (38:03)

15. THE BENDERS

Dean—

Look... he’s family. And I kind of—I kind of look out for the kid. You gotta let me go with you. [Kathleen: I’m sorry, I can’t do that.] Well, tell me something. Your country has its fair share of missing persons. Any of ‘em come back? Sam’s my responsibility, and he’s coming back. I’m bringing him back. (08:56)

When we were young, I pretty much pulled him from a fire. And ever since then, I’ve felt responsible for him. You know, like it’s my job to keep him safe. I’m just afraid if we don’t find him fast.... Please. He’s my family. (15:04)

Demons, I get. People are crazy. (28:08)

If you hurt my brother, I’ll kill you, I swear. I’ll kill you all. I will kill you all! (35:54)

16. SHADOW

Dean—

[Sam: What are you gonna do when it’s all over?] It’s never gonna be over. There’s gonna be others. There’s always gonna be something to hunt. [But there’s got to be something that you want for yourself.] Yeah, I don’t want you to leave the second this thing’s over, Sam. [Dude. What’s your problem?] Why do you think I drag you everywhere, huh? Why do you think I came and got you at Stanford in the first place? [’Cause Dad was in trouble. ‘Cause you wanted to find the thing that killed Mom.] Yes, that, but it’s more than that, man. You and me and Dad. I want us to be together again. I want us to be a family again. [Dean, we are a family. I’d do anything for you. But things will never be the way they were before.] They could be. (24:04)

Sam—

What if this whole thing was over tonight? Man, I’d sleep for a month. Go back to school, just be a person again. (23:42)

Dean, we are a family. I’d do anything for you. But things will never be the way they were before. [Dean: They could be.] I don’t want them to be. I’m not gonna live this life forever. Dean, when this is all over, you’re gonna have to let me go my own way. (25:02)

Misc—

[Sam: Go to hell.] Meg: Baby, I’m already there. (30:22)

17. HELL HOUSE

Dean—

People believe in Santa Clause. How come I’m not getting hooked up every Christmas? [Sam: ‘Cause you’re a bad person.] (27:01)

Sam—

Man, we’re not kids anymore, Dean. We’re not gonna start that crap up again. [Dean: Start what up?] That prank stuff. It’s stupid, and it always escalates. (04:24)

Kind of makes you wonder—of all the things we hunted, how many existed just ‘cause people believed in them? (37:17)

18. SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

Dean—

[Sam: What makes you so sure?] Well, because I’m the oldest, which means I’m always right. [No it doesn’t.] It totally does. (03:38)

Listen to me. I can promise you that this is not your fault, okay? [Michael: It’s my job to look after him.] (20:53)

I know how you feel, I’m a big brother, too. But you got to go easy on your mom right now, okay? (21:24)

Dad did not send me here to walk away. [Sam: Send you here? He didn’t send you here, he sent us here.] This isn’t about you, Sam, alright? I’m the one that screwed up. It’s my fault. There’s no telling how many kids have gotten hurt because of me. (25:35)

Dad never spoke about it again. I didn’t ask. But he, uh... he looked at me different, you know, which was worse. Not that I blame him. He gave me an order, and I didn’t listen, and I almost got you killed. [Sam: You were just a kid.] Don’t—don’t. Dad knew this was unfinished business for me. He sent me here to finish it. (29:26)

Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to. It’s okay, I won’t be mad. (33:57)

[Sam: Sometimes I wish that...] What? [I wish I could have that kind of innocence.] If it means anything, sometimes I wish you could, too. (40:05)

Sam—

Dean, I’m sorry. [Dean: For what?] You know. I’ve really given you a lot of crap for always following Dad’s orders, but I know why you do it. (34:39)

Sometimes I wish that... [Dean: What?] I wish I could have that kind of innocence. [If it means anything, sometimes I wish you could, too.] (40:05)

19. PROVENANCE

Dean—

I’m sure that this is about Jessica, right? Now, I don’t know what it’s like to lose somebody like that, but... I would think that she would want you to be happy. God forbid have fun once in a while. (20:47)

Sam—

I had a girlfriend. And she died. And my mom died, too. I don’t know, it’s like... it’s like I’m cursed or something. Like death just follows me around. Look, I’m not scared of much, but if I let myself have feelings for anybody— [Sarah: You’re scared they get hurt, too.] (30:39)

Misc—

Sarah: I know, losing somebody you love—it’s terrible. You shut yourself off. Believe me, I know. But when you shut out pain, you shut out everything else, too. (31:27)

20. DEAD MAN’S BLOOD

Dean—

He does what he does for a reason. [Sam: What reason?] Our job. There’s no time to argue. There’s no margin for error, alright? It’s just the way the old man runs things. [Yeah, well, maybe that worked when we were kids, but not anymore, alright? Not after everything you and I have been through, Dean. I mean, are you telling me you’re cool with just falling into line and letting him run the whole show?] If that’s what it takes. (14:51)

Sam—

I’m happy he’s okay, alright? I’m happy that we’re all working together. [Dean: Good.] It’s just the way he treats us like children. [Oh, God.] He barks orders at us, Dean. He expects us to follow him without question. He keeps us on some crap need-to-know deal. [He does what he does for a reason.] What reason? [Our job. There’s no time to argue. There’s no margin for error, alright? It’s just the way the old man runs things.] Yeah, well, maybe that worked when we were kids, but not anymore, alright? Not after everything you and I have been through, Dean. I mean, are you telling me you’re cool with just falling into line and letting him run the whole show? (14:51)

[John: You left. Your brother and me, we needed you. You walked away, Sam. You walked away!] You’re the one who said “Don’t come back,” Dad. You’re the one who closed that door, not me! You were just pissed off that you couldn’t control me anymore! (19:27)

[John: Sammy, it never occurred to me what you wanted. I just couldn’t accept the fact that you and me, we’re just different.] We’re not different. Not anymore. With what happened to Mom and Jess, we probably have a lot more in common than just about anyone. (29:20)

Misc—

John: This is never the life that I wanted for you. [Sam: Then why’d you get so mad when I left?] You got to understand something. After your mother passed, all I saw was evil, everywhere. And all I cared about was keeping you boys alive. I wanted you prepared, ready. So somewhere along the line, I stopped being your father. I became your drill sergeant. So when you said that you wanted to go away to school, all I could think about, my only thought was that you were gonna be alone, vulnerable. (28:21)

21. SALVATION

Dean—

For the last time, what happened to them is not your fault. [Sam: Yeah, you’re right, it’s not my fault, but it’s my problem!] No, it’s not your problem, it’s our problem! (05:42)

You’re just willing to sacrifice yourself, is that it? [Sam: Yeah. Yeah, you’re damn right I am.] Yeah, well, that’s not gonna happen—not as long as I’m around. [What the hell are you talking about, Dean? We’ve been searching for this demon our whole lives. It’s the only thing we’ve ever cared abut.] Sam, I want to waste it, I do, okay? But it’s not worth dying over. [What?] I mean it. If hunting this demon means you getting yourself killed, then I hope we never find the damn thing. [That thing killed Jess. That thing killed Mom,] You said yourself once that no matter what we do, they’re gone. And they’re never coming back. [Don’t you say that! Don’t you—not after all this, don’t you say that.] Sam, look. The three of us, that’s all we have. And it’s all I have. Sometimes I feel like I’m barely holding it together, man. Without you or Dad.... (37:51)

Sam—

So Mom’s death, Jessica—it’s all because of me? [Dean: We don’t know that, Sam.] Oh really? ‘Cause I’d say we’re pretty damn sure, Dean! [For the last time, what happened to them is not your fault.] Yeah, you’re right, it’s not my fault, but it’s my problem! (05:34)

Misc—

John: I want to stop losing people we love. I want you to go to school. I want Dean to have a home. I want Mary alive. I just want this to be over. (21:10)

22. DEVIL’S TRAP

Dean—

You know that guy I shot? There was a person in there. [Sam: You didn’t have a choice, Dean.] I know. That’s not what bothers me. [Then what does?] Killing that guy, killing Meg... I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t even flinch. For you or Dad, the things I’m willing to do or kill, it’s just... it scares me sometimes. [Azazel!John: It shouldn’t. You did good.] You’re not mad? [For what?] Using a bullet. [Mad? I’m proud of you. You know, Sam and I, we can get pretty obsessed. But you, you watch out for this family. You always have.] (29:41)

Listen, you mind just getting this over with, huh? ‘Cause I really can’t stand the monologuing. [Azazel: Funny, but that’s all part of your M.O., isn’t it? Mask all that nasty pain, mask the truth.] Oh yeah? What’s that? [You know, you fight and you fight for this family, but the truth is, they don’t need you. Not like you need them. Sam—he’s clearly John’s favorite. Even when they fight, it’s more concern than he’s ever shown you.] (36:52)

Sam—

[Dean: Well, you and Dad are a lot more alike than I thought, you know that? You both can’t wait to sacrifice yourself for this thing. But you know what? I’m gonna be the one to bury you. You’re selfish, you know that? You don’t care about anything but revenge.] (19:24)

Misc—

Azazel: He’s gonna tear you apart. He’s gonna taste the iron in your blood. [Dean: Let him go, or I swear to God—] What? What are you and God gonna do? (35:09)

#finally posting this 😜#tagging the ppl who said they'd be interested!!#lukeskysaunter #ijaazat #let me know if you want to be removed from/added to the tag list for future posts like this :)#spn #supernatural #ej.pdf #dean winchester #sam winchester #spn season 1 #spn season one #spn quotes

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askkrenko · 4 years ago

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Krenko’s Guide to Pokemon: Eevee Line

Part 1. Because seriously.

DESIGN:

Eevee was intentionally designed to be some sort of generic wild critter that could exist but doesn’t. Given traits of all sorts of small, furry things, the purpose of Eevee is to be cute, lovable, and evoke the feeling of ‘some animal.’ It is simultaneously known to everyone and completely unknown. Everyone recognizes Eevee but nobody actually knows what it is. Eevee is, above all else, THE ‘normal’ Pokemon.

And honestly, it’s totally freaking adorable. Eevee is the best rabbit dog fox kitty thing that ever was, and nobody doesn’t love Eevee. Its design basically couldn’t be better. There’s a reason this fuzzlewuzzle regularly competes with Pikachu for being the face of Pokemon. Sure, it can’t quite win, but it’s up there.

But the concept of Eevee is really the interesting one. Eevee was the first Pokemon with branching evolutions, and while other Pokemon have gotten such since then, Eevee has always had the most. Starting with three in Generation 1, there are currently eight possible evolutions of Eevee, and there could easily be more on the way. This puts the Eevee line in a really notable position. I always love when a Pokemon has a unique gimmick, and while in combat each Eeveelution might just be another, having an Eevee with so many options to choose from makes it an interesting Pokemon to obtain.

But before we discuss the designs of any evolutions, let’s talk about the non-evolved alternate form: Gigantamax. Like Pikachu and Meowth, GIgantamax Eevee is just a gimmick. The Pokemon’s not strong enough to be used, and Gigantamax Eevee can’t actually evolve, so it’s just there to be big and fluffy and cute… and it just fails at that. It’s not that Gigantamax Eevee isn’t cute- of course it is- but it’s not cuter than Eevee is normally, and the big bushy collar isn’t nearly as fun of a unique touch as Meowth being memes or Pikachu going back to its fat gen 1 design. Sadly, Gigantamax Eevee is a waste of everyone’s time.

And now onto the actual evolutions.

VAPOREON:

Vaporeon is an interesting and unique creature, with large fins on its head and small ones down its back and tail giving it the appearance of a fish, but still with a clearly mammalian mouth and legs. Vaporeon is clearly aquatic and clearly related to Eevee, but other than that it simply doesn’t look like anything. And yet Vaporeon still has a clear design and aesthetic, as something that could maybe possibly be something between a dog, a seal and a dolphin. It’s an elegant, clean design that looks fantastic without looking absurd.

JOLTEON:

Jolteon’s just yellow with spikes. It’s simple, but it works. There’s nothing weird about Jolteon’s design in the least, though admittedly that means there’s nothing overly special about it. Jolteon is just what happens when you take Eevee and make it cool, and other than the bright coloration there’s nothing particularly odd about it. One of the more subdued Eeveelutions, I like it, it’s cool, but I don’t exactly have specific praise for it.

FLAREON:

Flareon looks even more realistic than Jolteon. The red coloration’s a bit bright, but other than that it’s just a big ol’ floofy floof. The shape and color of its fur suggest fire, but unlike many fire types it doesn’t feel the need to actually be on fire. Like Jolteon, Flareon is a good, clean design.

It’s also noteworthy here that the first three Eeveelutions have big collars, like Eevee does. The rest do not. Honestly, I really like this part of the design, but I understand why not all would have it.

ESPEON:

The psychic evolution, Espeon’s purple colors are a bit more out there than the previous three, and my first instinct when looking at it is that it’s supposed to be hairless like a Sphynx Cat, but then it has those huge tufts on the side of its face that are clearly hair despite it not having tufts or even signs of fur anywhere else. They’re too high to be whiskers, too, so they just come across as weird. In fact, everything about Espeon is weird, and not always for the better. The split tail is a cool design, but I don’t understand what it’s going for. The jewel on the forehead I DO understand as a psychic focus, but it’s so obviously artificial compared to the previous Eeveelutions that it feels out of place. In fact, the core concept of Espeon feels a bit out of place. Most of the Eeveelutions are the result of stone or location radiation, and Umbreon happens at night. Espeon levels up in the day time with affection, and somehow becomes a psychic type. A psychic type whose pokedex entry calls the Sun Pokemon.

Eevee’s whole gimmick is that when exposed to weird stuff it transforms, so I have a hard time understanding why a happy Eevee turns into a psychic type during the day. If it was just about the strong bond with its trainer, why does the sun matter? And if the sun does matter, what’s going on with its everything?

Espeon ultimately just doesn’t work for me. It reads wrong as a creature and I don’t understand how it fits in with other Eevee lore.

UMBREON:

Okay, what’s up with those circles? Black fur I get. Gold stripes I get. Floofy tail, red eyes, sleek body, sure sure sure. I am totally on board with that. But those clean, obvious golden rings absolutely take me out of this design. I get that they’re supposed to be moonlight rings or something, but I’d have been much happier if this thing had golden spots instead of such clean shapes, to make it look more like a realistic animal.

As far as actually fitting though, it makes sense as a Night-based Pokemon, but the Moon thing is a bit more of a stretch. It’s not nearly as bad as Espeon and the Sun, but Eevee plus Moonlight should result in a brighter, glowing Eevee, not a darker, more sinister Eevee. Umbreon also has a serious issue of its abilities not being what it says they are. For example, the Pokedex says it’s got poison; Umbreon has never naturally learned a poison type attack. Its rings glowing is supposed to be one of its key features, but none of its abilities reflect that.

This isn’t to say that I dislike Umbreon or Espeon overall. Some of my favorite Pokemon have been Umbreons and Espeons. Their designs just really don’t sell the story that they’re trying to.

LEAFEON:

So, now this is more like what I’m talking about. Eevee + Moss Rock/Leaf Stone = Eevee that’s turning into a plant. It’s still an animal, but with its ears and tail and some of its fur turning into leaves so it can now photosynthesize. Also the leaf is a sword because that’s bitchin’.

Now, while I am totally on board with Leafeon’s concept, I do think the design could’ve used a bit of tweaking. The head and tail are great, but the little leaf things coming off the body look a bit odd, and I’m not really sold on the mostly tan color scheme. I think it’d have looked better with more browns and greens. Specifically, brown legs and belly, green back and neck. Maybe a leafy collar like the original Eeveelutions all had collars. Still, I like it overall.

GLACEON:

I don’t particularly like Glaceon. While it reads as an Ice Eevee it doesn’t read as an Eevee infused with Ice or adapted to Ice so much as it reads as an Eevee with design elements that look ice-like. The sharp diamond shapes over it don’t actually have anything to do with ice the way Jolteon’s spikes are the result of electric charge or Flareon’s floof looks like fire. Further, the addition of what is clearly a hairdo is just sort of weird. It’s too sharp to look like it comes naturally and while it makes for an interesting visual element it doesn’t mean anything or serve any purpose in the Glaceon itself. At least Espeon’s split tail was supposed to be for sensing things. Glaceon just has huge flaps that are definitely a disadvantage in a fight and don’t seem to serve any purpose other than possibly attracting a mate.

Glaceon is a solid design for a creature but not for ‘this is an Eevee mutated by the ice element.’

SYLVEON:

OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOMINATION!?!?

Oh, it’s a cute fairy Eevee that’s pink and blue with ribbons and bows? You’d think so, and I don’t mind the color scheme for a fairy type but THOSE ARE NOT RIBBONS AND BOWS. Those are ‘feelers.’ Those are FLESH. Fur-covered, wriggly, boneless flesh.

This is bad. This is wrong. This is not okay.

This is not a fairy. This is an eldritch horror. Foxes should not have tentacles, and tentacles should not have fur.

And that’s not even getting into how much I hate Sylveon’s evolution method. Eevee evolves into Sylveon when it has affection and knows a fairy type move… but Eevee can just learn Baby-Doll Eyes on its own at level 15, so this isn’t a feat or anything special, it’s just a normal part of raising an Eevee. The worst part is that this is some weird new and special method to explain why you couldn’t have done it before, but the only actual change here is that Eevee didn’t learn Baby-Doll Eyes naturally before, so instead of something being discovered the world has just been rewritten to allow Sylveon to exist.

Because Sylveon is a monster from outside reality that has forced its way in here.

I hate Sylveon. I hate Sylveon so much. And to truly understand how much I hate Sylveon you need to understand that I love Eevee. I have two Eevee on my nightstand- named Artemis and Apollo after my Espeon and Umbreon from Gold and Silver. I make it a point to use Eeveelutions in every game, because I love them so much. One of my oldest RP characters was a Jolteon named Flash. On Halloween, I had one of my video game characters dress up as an Eevee to go to a costume party in an MMO. Which obviously didn’t have an Eevee costume so I had to assemble it. So my hate for Sylveon isn’t just ‘oh, this is an icky Pokemon,’ but I take its existence as an insult to Eevee, who I love so much.

You came to the wrong Eeveehood by Dakunart

TYPING:

What type do you want? Eeveelutions come in eight different types, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. But that’s Pokemon for you. And in the future we’ll probably get even more types. I just hope they have good designs and aren’t disgusting abominations.

STATS OVERVIEW:

We’ll talk about stats of Eeveelutions individually, but for now let’s note what they all have in common: numbers. Every evolved form of Eevee has a 130, a 110, a 95, two 65s, and a 60, for a total of 525 base stats, making for Pokemon that are highly specialized in some areas and very weak in others. This results in all of them having at least a decent stat array, except for Flareon, though whether their array is offensive, defensive, or more balanced varies.

Eeveelutions by Endivinity

MOVES OVERVIEW:

As with stats, we’ll discuss them for individual evolutions, but as they’re all evolved from Eevee they do share a large amount of their move pool. Eevee is notorious for learning Baton Pass naturally, a move so powerful and useful it’s been banned in many formats, and though it requires chain breeding, Eevee’s one of a relatively small number of Pokemon that can learn Wish.

Yawn, Substitute, Protect, and Rest all offer strategic options, and though not available in the current generation, Eevee could previously learn Toxic.

Actual attack forms for Eevee to learn pre-evolution are pretty limited, but an Eevee can learn Shadow Ball and Iron Tail, both of which have their uses.

Eevee does have a number of unique attacks, primarily from Let’s Go Eevee but also the Z-Move Extreme Evoboost. While all of these are viciously powerful to the point of being outright broken, Eevee’s evolved forms can’t learn them, and thus they’re not relevant in most competitive play.

Next time, we’ll start going down the list of forms and discussing them in the specifics. This one’s a doozy.

Eeveelutions by Lushies-Art

#Krenko's Pokemon Guide #Eevee #Jolteon #Vaporeon #Flareon #Espeon #Umbreon #Glaceon #Leafeon #Sylveon #Eeveelutions

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rametarin · 3 years ago

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To reiterate.

The virus is real, masking kinda helps, the vaccines are real, effective and fine.

The issue I have is not that the vaccines “don’t work,” or.. have “magnetic whatever” in them (they don’t.) That’s hooey. The reality is, yes, COVID19 is real, the vaccines are real. In fact, mRNA vaccines, once the bugs are worked out, will enable RAPID response to the onset of actually very bad plagues or bio-weapons in a very short time, and have the potential to render a virus toothless out to ten billion generations of natural mutation from the source, given enough development. the mRNA vaccines or conventional COVID19 vaccines are not there to sterilize you, give you learning disabilities or autism, or TURN THE FREAKIN’ FROGS GAY.

The real problem is that this virus didn’t need to exist, and it is beyond disbelief to imagine that a corona virus with characteristics of multiple different corona virus families, many of which from species with no hereditary function to apply or infect human beings, would just fly out of the ether. COVID19 was without precedent and was shown to have characteristics identical to other corona viruses not of its hereditary lineage, but cousin species. However this discourse has gotten awfully quiiet, for some reason. It wasn’t just a Pangolin virus that gained the ability to negatively interact with human lungs. That did not happen by natural mutation in the wild.

Considering the fact it verywell and probably was a weapon that just so happened to escape from the literal god damned Chinese military COVID biolab in Wuhan, funded by Fauci’s little group, where they were STUDYING THIS EXACT BULLSHIT, that may be a reason of international diplomatic relations and national security. Despite being rather obvious to anyone that thinks about it for two god damned minutes.

So we have an American-Chinese team where they study gain-of-function in corona viruses in a Chinese military bio-lab, a virus with grab bag characteristics that IT CANNOT GAIN THROUGH NATURAL EVOLUTION ARBITRARILY (no two mutations are EVER the same. You don’t get the same fucking spike through convergent mutation, that shit was spliced and inherited) and surprise surprise it escaped and made its way across the globe because the Chinese corrupted and manipulated the WHO and international bodies into keeping quiet and not asking questions on threat of nuclear war (look it up. The US tried to probe, China threatened.)

And ultimately, what is the damage of the virus? Actually rather little. It was never going to exterminate more than 1-2% of the human species before we all gained natural immunity to it, or it thinned the herd enough for allow natural immunity at the great expense. Same as corona viruses from everywhere else on earth humans have dealt with since antiquity. It’s just another virus that can kill you and will more than likely kill the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions.

So then, why release a milquetoast virus as a doomsday weapon? And there’s the rub.

COVID19 was not created to cleanse the world like a conventional bio-nuke. It was created to be the backdrop for a greater discussion and practical argument for socialism. After using the bureaucracy to negate alternatives and other options, inertia in the system designed to prevent functioning and solving this problem in any logical of reasonable fashion, they want to have a “discussion” about how to fix this.

The real discussions they want to have are about the poor and the exposed, about how there’s now a need to prevent people from being homeless regardless of their ability to pay for a shelter, or work for pay. A reason to declare it to be wrong to hold church masses, but turn a blind eye to other people having maskless close-quarters gatherings. A reason to demand a kind of “practical conformity” in the form of masks, whether or not they actually do anything to eliminate virus transmission outside of a clinical setting or from lack of switching them out enough.

The virus was created to be a prop and a natural hazard as people argue for the “necessity” of their ideological bullshit. It was a weapon designed to punish inaction and the lack of addressing infection vectors. It was created specifically to argue that, “nobody, despite their age or level of infirmity, should be accepted to just die from natural greater exposure,” since they disagree that just because you’re old, you should be more vulnerable to illness.

So they’ve argued and used a virus as a weapon to demand everybody tighten their belts and we stop accepting that just because someone is morbidly obese and with other co-morbidities and age related weakness, that a wave of flu that for the rest of humanity is unfortunate and inconvenient but survivable, takes out people 80+. COVID19 is simply a weaponized prop for this “turning point” discussion.

But it’s not JUST a weapon designed to make those conversations about, “social change,” more real, it’s a weapon designed to make healthcare a bigger part of government and policy making as a whole. Creating a necessity via healthcare necessities, such as through viruses released into the wild to mutate and change. Or, if not naturally mutate and change, occasionally refresh the antagonist pool by dropping new and more virulent strains artificially created and cultured. Y’know, as a treat.

This is why so many like Faucci are in on it. What on earth would the medical establishment have to gain from colaboration with the Chinese military? A fast tracking towards vaccine technology that otherwise may’ve taken decades to fully realize, but due to practical and pragmatic reasons, can now be argued to get “needed” funds and necessitate rapid approval and development. Undercutting miles of red tape and time gated meetings, approvals, commitees, deliberations and refinements and trials, due to it basically being, “wartime emergency.”

And it isn’t even about gaining billions, conceivably trillions of dollars in profit. Just greed, there are better avenues for that then this haphazard cloak&dagger mess. It’s this entire performance is about engineering, “social change” and turning the world into a theater.

This method to “have convuhsayshuns uwu” and flex a bit of authoritarian moralist muscle is the epitome of everything that is wrong with, “social justice”, as defined by these fucks. Manufacture a problem and then use social manipulation techniques and set the house on fire to distract and force priority of discussion, only converse in the way and topic of what and how you want to converse, and disallow conversation that might take the outcome away from the target. It’s cold blooded, it’s manipulative, it’s machivallian, it’s fucking psychotic. And oh so familiarly, it’s in the interests of somebody’s, “greater good.”

Every complaint the supposed “left” has about hawk&dove war mongering against tangible other people and governments, the need for civil rights and diplomacy, the need for privacy from government, goes out the window when it comes to something like a virus or plague. They’ll very happily use the wartime economy and social schism to impose their own moralist versions of jingoism. And a virus is the perfect thing to weaponize to get what they want. Just rather than fight an unwinnable war against drugs or islamoimperialism, they seek to turn the wartime economy towards and war on illness. Replacing the military with the medical establishment.

And when the curtain finally falls and people point out this has all been smoke and mirrors, a massive play to dismantle churches, reshape the social sphere, make the New Normal not accepting seasonal viruses wiping out the elderly and infirm just because you can’t stop seasonal viruses, they’re going to ask, “But what did we really lose, though? :^)”

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nightmarenoise · 4 years ago

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Some thoughts on TMNT 2012

I finished watching the entirety of the TMNT 2012 series a while ago and boy, do I have some thoughts™. First of all though, the following is going to be my opinions and you’re free to disagree with them. If you feel like attacking me for expressing these opinions though, I’m just going to have to ask you to take a minute and consider that you are about to be a bitch online over an eight year old children’s animated show, and that maybe you should find something else to base your entire identity around. Secondly, I don’t hate the show, not by any means. It was fine. It was fine. It was fine, you guys. I wouldn’t have watched it otherwise. I watched usually about half a season per day because I have too much time on my hands but if I do more than 13 episodes, my puny brain will implode. That being said, I understand that the binge watching might have affected my judgement, because having to wait for a new episode to air each week hits different, I know. Still, I came home after work each day, cozied up in bed and watched 13 episodes of turtle shenanigans before going to sleep and my sleep schedule has never been better. But I digress. Also, I will compare 2012 to Rise, because that’s the only other TMNT show I’ve seen and because this is my post and I want to and it’s only initially.

I feel like the main difference between Rise and 2012 is that Rise is a character-driven show, while 2012 is ultimately plot-driven.

Why do things in Rise happen? Because a character wants something (the boys want to buy their dad a nw robe, April wants to spend a normal day with her new friend, etc, those are just from the top of my head). The motivations are ultimately mundane, and then the story goes from there.

Why do things in 2012 happen? Because the plot said so. Sure, the characters grow and change, but they’re ultimately vehicles for the plot. We don’t really take a minute to let the characters breathe. Usually, things happen because the Turtles saw something on patrol and they’re on patrol because they know the plot is waiting out there to get them.

The show starts with April’s dad being kidnapped by the Krang (/Kraang? It’s unclear) and April herself being spared this presumably gruesome fate because Donnie saved her at the last second. She then goes on to live with an aunt we never see.

We also don’t see much of how this affects April at first. Sure, she is shown to be sad and wanting to get her father back, but the episode ends on the Turtles leaving her at her aunt’s place and then we’re done for the day. Hell, the next time we see April, she just casually drops by their place to show Mikey how to make online friends.

Maybe that’s just me being overly criticial, but I could have done with more time between those moments, showing her coming to terms with things, her normal day-to-day live, or heck, even just going to the lair for the first time.

But we don’t get that because plot has to happen.

April isn’t the only character who suffers from that, but I feel like it affects her the most.

The writers seem to have learned their lesson, because when April loses her dad for the second time, to mutation this time around, she blames the Turtles (which isn’t wrong) and then doesn’t talk to them for a month while presumably going back to her aunt, who I suppose never asks any questions. She only goes back to talking to them when Casey tells her a similar story and she realizes something something, hurting someone without meaning to. Which is fine, but it’s also not really, because it implies April being rightfully upset isn’t valid, because the Turtles didn’t mean to mutate her dad and it was an accident, but it feels like it tone polices someone for experiencing a loss and not letting her take some time for herself to come to terms with that.

But y'know we need her, in part because she’s The Special, but most importantly, so one of the most tedious love subplots can happen.

I know they explained April’s specialness as her being a human/Krang mutant and the Krang needing her unique brain to mutate the entire planet because …reasons. Except for when they later attack New Yok and then don’t need her for that anymore. On that note, I do not understand Krang’s plan at all. Time passes faster in their dimension and they’re kind of at war with the Triceratons and have trouble with the Utrom, so they want to leave (even though the Triceratons are clearly also in our universe, so why not pick a different dimension to take over entirely? There’s established to be ten) and mutate a planet to take over. This is all well and good, except they’ve been at it for about seven million years? Krang takes credit for creating the first humans with mutagen and it’s been mentioned that they steered human evolution to the point where they could create a human/Krang hybrid, such as April. But why did they only have one? They lost track of her when her dad and her fled to New York City, wouldn’t it have been more convenient to have more mutants to do their vague mutant stuff they require by the plot to take over the planet?

Even if we assume that this first mutation means that the first humans didn’t surface between seven and five million years ago, humans haven’t evolved that much in the last couple thousand years. Why wait so long? It must have been billions of years for the Krang.

I know it’s a cartoon and stuff, but they could have easily removed that problem by cutting the line about Krang taking credit for human evolution and for the Krang having been with us for thousands of years. It just creates problems.

Speaking of problematic, the romantic subplots. So, Leo wants to bang his sister, Donnie is creepily obsessed with the first human girl he’s ever met and Mikey is such a good boy, he gets two love interests, because one isn’t enough for all the love and goodness contained in orange boy. I still think it’s weird because all of these love interests are humans, but I gradually got over that. I managed to think about this without physically convulsing for ten whole minutes, for starts.

Okay, so Donnie/April is just bad. The writing and the execution are bad. The characters are fine, I love Donnie, even though he focuses way too much of his time and attention on obsessing over April, but I can let that go on account of him being a teen dealing with his very first ever crush. April though is frequently made to be a callous bitch who knows of his feelings and leads him on when she wants something, but pushes him away at all other times. I vividly remember the time New York was overrun by Krang and April helped Donnie bandage his injured arm and he was about to confess his feelings to her and she pulled too tight to get him to stop. Instead of being up front about it or just telling him that she either liked him or not or that now just wasn’t the time to focus on romance - all of which super valid in their own right. Rip the bandaid off, girl. None of them look especially good coming out of this.

It gets worse considering that after seasons of back and forth and even introducing Casey to give us a love triangle, everyone’s favorite thing in media and April redeeming herself by also being That Way to Casey and by redeeming I mean informing us that she just isn’t really fit for a relationship because she is very toxic in handling them, the whole thing is just kind of dropped forever. There’s no payoff. We spent so much time watching Donnie agonize over this, get worse, then get over his stalker-ish tendencies and get rewarded with a kiss and then nothing ever happens. They don’t even have a conversation about their feelings. The show tries to make it seem like there’s a special connection between April and Donnie because she kills him and then feels bad and brings him back, but, no. That’s not how any of that works. Ultimately this whole thing feels like a huge and infuriating waste of time. Fourth place. And that’s a kindness.

Leo and Karai get third place, mainly because of the incest. Neither of them is as toxic over this subplot and it also has the common decency of not taking up that much time, but it’s still weird. I don’t have much to say here. I guess it was dropped in the end, but maybe also not, but at least there weren’t 30 episodes about Leo agonizing over Karai while she was being weird and also she had her own thing going on and felt like a more fleshed out character than April despite getting less screen time. Third place.

Mikey gets silver because while he’s flirting with two human girls, they both seem to be exclusively into it and also he’s much more mature about dealing with it than his supposedly intelligent brother. Get this. Mikey, being mature at something. None of these ships are confirmed, but it’s a nice change of pace.

Raph takes gold because he fell in love with a girl after she beat the crap out of him and nothing is more valid than that.

Okay, the plot feels kind of rushed, in that they’re confessing undying love after kissing twice, but one, they’re teens and two, this is just the best we’re going to get out of this show.

Casey, well.

Casey exists. He doesn’t add all that much to the story. He has a delightful dynamic with Raph, coming in just after Slash confronted him with his worst traits and then reinforcing the “be a vigilante and do good”-angle and that’s nice. Outside of that though, he tries to hit on April, he hits things with his hockey sticks and I guess he has a family he cares about that we never see. Oops.

I’m very ambivalent about Splinter. I do get him and he’s a good sensei, but kind of a lousy father? Sure, his entire life went up in flames quite spectacularly, but as soon as he realizes his daughter is alive, he often seems to prioritize getting her back over the lives of the four sons he actually raised and spent the last fifteen years with? Also, he’s a dick to Mikey? He gets better later and then he dies. Hm.

Mikey wasn’t as annoying as I feared, going in. He was still stupid, but he had his moments. I also didn’t find him as funny as some of the writers probably hoped, but he was fine. He’s a good boy who deserved better every step of the way, but his brothers and Splinter are kind of not nice to him despite him being just as capable as his brothers. Neither is the show, often making him the butt of a joke or downplaying his achievements (producing super-retro mutagen, saving all his brothers from parasite wasps and the one time he saved the city from cannibal pizza it was treated like a “it was all a dream or was it” and nobody believed him). He doesn’t get a lot of development, but he’s the goodest boy.

Raph again surprised me. He arguably underwent the most development, dealing with his many demons and getting a grip on his temper. This was especially apparent in the Northampton arc when he did chores without complaint and helped Leo train.

Leo on the other hand, started as the leader of the team and ended the story as the de-facto leader of the family and also he was stronger now. I don’t know. Being a leader was his defining trait from start to finish and while he agonized over that, he wasn’t allowed much development outside of that. His first meeting with Karai introduced this subplot about him wanting to be irresponsible and do his own thing, but that was quickly dropped and never brought up again. I liked him best when he was being a dork over his favorite TV show or that time he went to space and on his first outing tried to hit on an alien lady. I would have liked to see more of that Leo, because that Leo was actually interesting.

Donnie, I don’t know. Most of his time was poured into the world’s worst romantic subplot and outside of that he had some traits, but he was mostly there so he could analyze things, develop antivenoms at the drop of a hat, finally create a retromutagen and build 152 vehicles. I like Donnie, but there isn’t much to talk about that isn’t directly tied to April. Except maybe how he promised to turn Timothy back into a human and then never did, even though we keep seeing his frozen remains in the back of the lab. For shame, Donnie. For shame.

To the show’s credit, a lot of the mutants looked horrifying and creepy. They had a tight grip on that horror vibe and it was great. They maintained a balance of comedy and horror and while it wasn’t great, it was a nice reprieve.

I hated Shredder and I know I was supposed to, but I will never get over what a petty bitch he was.

The thing that hit me the hardest was probably the destruction of Earth at the end of season 3. I was legitimately upset about that, so that’s probably a good thing. But when five minutes into the next episode Scrooge McDoctor Who did some timey whimey bullshit to reverse it, I was not any less upset. Make of that what you will. (No, I’ll explain, I felt cheated and it was cheap and annoying. Just when you think the show has some balls, it pulls a “sike” and then flips back to the status quo, usually). The space arc was simultaneously interesting and also not, with a lot of predictable plot threads, but at least we got more locations than the same two nocturnal New York streets all the time.

The ending though was super weird. The other turtles then went into space and probably died or some shit, because they never show up again and also the Fugitoid’s head is alive in orbit, but whatever, no time for that because we have to go back, for the 50th time, to the Foot!

The plot has no time to unfold because the plot needs to happen.

Do you ever think the writers squabbled a lot? It kind of feels like a lot of them wanted to do their own thing and then someone else meddled with that and then we got a patchwork of unconnected threads, left loose and dangling.

I was surprised when we got some buildup to April’s growing dependence on her alien crystal and even one episode dealing with its powers before we got to the episode dealing with the crystal’s effects on her. That sort of nuanced pacing was new. I was also initially very sure that this subplot would only find its payoff in the season finale or half season finale, like most other plot threads usually did, but no, it got its own separate episode.

Yes, they went all Dark Phoenix, but the ending was super anticlimactic, because April killed Donnie and then someone reminded her of it and she felt bad, so she stopped being possessed by evil. They fucked up on the home stretch, but they tried.

I never liked the time travel episodes with Renet much, they felt weirdly intrusive and adding nothing new to the plot. It felt like the first one only happened so we could meet Tang Shen before she died and that didn’t add a whole lot of anything. It confirmed things we already knew and introduced Mikey’s love interest and that was that.

The show tried to do a thing about anti-mutant racism once, but it sure is a good thing that the only people racist against mutants were the mafia, so we don’t have to worry about making a nuanced take here. They could have done something really interesting, but then went for simple black-and-white-morality instead.

My favorite episode was when the boys played Dungeons and Dragons with a sparrow mutant.

The worst part of the show though was its fifth season. First it seemed like it would just continue from where the fourth season had left off with Shredder being revived - because like a good villain, or herpes, Shredder always comes back - by the worst looking dragon I have ever seen in my entire life, but then that arc surprisingly ended after four episodes, shocking me to my core. Almost as shocking as Donnie almost killing a guy, but then deciding not do at the very last second. Again, feels like they could have done more here, but then they didn’t.

The fifth season started with two arcs that seemed to tie up loose plot threads, like Shredder’s revival and the bug alien guy I could have sworn died when he was yeeted out of an airlock coming back to enact his grim revenge, all so Raph’s girlfriend could live on the same planet as him and then never appear on the show ever again. Also Mikey died and his brothers were sad for five seconds before going about their business and then he came back with superpowers and then he conveniently lost them at the end of the episode, because the plot doesn’t have time for things that are emotional or interesting. Then there was that time the writers were like “What if we made Yojimbo, but with anthropromorphic animals and also the turtles are there” and it existed and the Turtles added very few things to the story and then went back to their dimension and never talked about it ever again. Or the time they said “what if we made Mad Max and also everything was terrible” and so they did and Leo became a hulked up war criminal but everyone forgave him because he wasn’t himself but immediately snapped out of it after seeing his brothers and Raphael was on steroids and Donnie became a robot in what I assume was a reference to the comics where he died and became a robot and also Donnie ended up being the only one whose body died, but considering what became of his brothers, he was probably the best off? And Raph had amnesia just so he could say he had amnesia and it didn’t actually factor into the plot once because he immediately recognized Mikey. I don’t know, I hated that special.

But at least it gave me emotions. The best part of the “that time travel demon is back and trying to monster mash” arc was when I remembered that I could browse tumblr on my phone while it was on and then I didn’t bore myself to death and also didn’t miss anything of value.

The series finale was fine. Nothing to write home about, but perfectly fine, even though the show threw an awful lot of shade at the 1987 version.

I feel like the most jarring thing about the fifth season was that the show spent four seasons going out of its way to present itself as something with a cohesive narrative and a plot that goes on and on and then we get these disjointed stories, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with the story at all. Just the writers throwing some idea at a wall to see what sticks because they either didn’t have any ideas anymore, or too many, but the end result wasn’t great and I’ll recommend newcomers to stop after the fourth season, because for real.

Tiger Claw existed and he was infuriatingly capable and powerful and then his sister chopped off his arm and then he got a robot arm and that was it forever. I don’t know, some episodes felt more pointless than others, but some managed to be fun or interesting and some just added something they thought was fun and it ended up never mattering again.

Some characters disappeared randomly, like the dove guy and I don’t care enough to ask what happened there.

Karai’s mutation being reversed off-screen was super bizarre. Sure, her being able to change at will as metal as heck, but it felt weird and incomplete and like I missed an episode. Maybe I did. It was also infuriating how her venom was a plot point in one episode and never brought up again after that.

Outside of that, I don’t have much insight to offer. Other people already exlained how the fight scenes, while nice, are not very accurate, especially the bo staff moves, or how the show is very dark, not in tone, but in actual absence of light and lots of greyscales or how most characters have singular traits rather than fleshed out personalities, especially the supporting cast. How there isn’t a lot of diversity in the human characters and how figure-hugging a lot of April’s and Karai’s clothing is (shoutout to April’s yellow shirt, it’s uncomfortable to look at, cheers) or how the female characters are frequently damselled.

I liked when the animation added personality to the characters because the writing sure didn’t think it had time for that.

All in all, it’s a mixed bag for me. It’s a fine show to watch if you have the time and it’s not all bad and I can see why people enjoy it, but it’s not for me. I liked some episodes enough to watch again, but I feel like in nine out of ten cases, I’ll opt to rewatch Rise instead because it has more of what I personally like, but I won’t think less of you if you enjoyed this version of the show. I’m not telling people that one version of the Turtles is superior to the other, just that I think it’s important to take off those rose-colored glasses and be critical of the things you consume every now and again.

But if you prefer plot-driven shows that can be surprisingly dark, you might enjoy this. Or you could watch Avatar, because it has that as well as three-dimensional characters and better worldbuilding.

Thank you for reading my way-too-long thoughts about an animated kid’s show.

#some of these are nitpicks some of these are not #i did not beta read this #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles 2012 #tmnt 2012 #Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles 87 #tmnt 87

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chaoskirin · 4 years ago

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The CoViD Vaccine

I first posted this to facebook because of the high number of anti-vaxxers on the media. But I figured I’d post it here, too. This is a quick study of why the CoViD-19 vaccine was developed so quickly and why it’s likely safe. Sources at the bottom of the post.

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Part 1: Why was the CoViD vaccine developed so quickly while other vaccines take years?

Some people cite the inability to produce an HIV/AIDS vaccine after so long as a justification for stating that the CoViD vaccine could not possibly be developed in such a short time. However, there's a very good reason with the HIV/AIDS vaccine is taking so long, and it's found in the genetic makeup of the virus.

HIV is a strange virus, in that it completes its cycle insanely fast (within 24 hours in some cases) and because of this, it's prone to mutations. Because little to nothing was done about the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the virus was allowed to spread, unchecked, rapidly mutating and developing into HUNDREDS of strains.

You know how we have to get a new flu shot every year because the virus has mutated into something new? That's HIV, but instead of a new strain appearing once a year, a new strain can appear in the course of one single viral generation. When HIV is transmitted to someone else, it may already be a slightly different virus than it was in the transmitter. This means that a vaccine developed to work in the person who transmitted the virus would not work for the newly-infected person.

That's why, at this point in time, antiretrovirals (drugs that disrupt the replication of the virus by preventing it from attaching to RNA) actually work better than a vaccine.

As well, HIV/AIDS specifically attacks the immune system, hampering any efforts at strong immune response. That is, by the time a vaccinated immune system recognizes the virus as a threat, it has already destroyed part of the immune system AND mutated itself, meaning the even a vaccine that would otherwise work can no longer be effective. This is a known phenomenon called "immune exhaustion."

Lastly, HIV is really good at hiding from detection as a dormant phase of the viral particles (called provirus) can remain within cells for years before lysing from/destroying the cells they're inside. And HIV creates these provirus particles every single cycle, which means even if a vaccine is developed and destroys all free-floating viral particles, the dormant particles will always be around to start a new phase of infection, once again leading to immune exhaustion.

In the case of HIV, the hope of a vaccination lay within the blood of people with a natural immunity to HIV, which is a brand new frontier of vaccine development that is poorly understood.

Conversely, CoViD-19 does have a semi-quick mutation rate, but not as fast as HIV. It was also immediately taken seriously by medical professionals, and the development of the vaccine started soon after the virus's discovery. Unlike HIV, CoViD does NOT attack the immune system (instead, it triggers a massive immune response called a cytokine storm) and it also does not hide undetected within cells. (...Probably. We are still learning about the virus.)

Part 2: Genome Mapping

First, it's important to note that data sharing and sequencing equipment is much more sophisticated than it used to be. This means that several labs can work on the genetic mapping of CoViD at the same time, and share that data in real time. Powerful software allowed the geneticists to connect the various strands of viral RNA gathered from patients presenting with the virus, and it was quickly determined that CoViD-19 (AKA SARS-CoV-2) was remarkably similar to SARS-CoV years before. The viruses share between 88%-90% of the same genetic code; some scholars refer to both viruses as the same "species."

The full method used to determine the genome can be found here: https://www.thelancet.com/.../PIIS0140-6736(20.../fulltext (very long, but pretty cool!)

During the sequencing, it was also determined that while CoViD-19 showed mutations between each case, the faithfulness of the virus to the control was about 99%--suggesting that it was mutating slower than expected. This meant that a quick response could prevent the evolution of the virus to a point where vaccines would be ineffective. While there are multiple strains of CoViD-19, it's likely that they are all currently very similar.

The genome also showed that, like SARS from years past, the CoVid-19 virus contained the same protein receptor--known as ACE2--which had already been studied. The receptor (or spike, as it's called) is what allows the virus to bind to a host cell and release its RNA.

Other factors to consider that are related to the genome mapping itself is that the COST of mapping is far less than it has been in the past, and it also faster and more accurate. Development of vaccines for other diseases (such as chicken pox and HPV) were often hampered by cost, time, and inaccuracy. Conversely, every time the CoViD-19 virus was mapped, the resulting data was nearly the same.

In short, one of the hindrances to vaccine production is often the genome mapping. It's impossible to create a vaccine without knowing the full details of the virus, as a vaccine's purpose is to produce an immune response. That's essentially tricking the immune system into believing it's fighting a virus. The hardest part of vaccine development for CoViD-19 is already done, and it was done in record time.

Part 3: Messenger RNA and synthetic RNA

Before discussing the vaccine, I need to talk about what messenger ribonucleic acid (AKA mRNA) is.

When a cell splits, it needs to make an EXACT copy of its DNA for both cells. Because DNA is fairly complicated, it can't just split in half like the rest of the cell. It needs a set of instructions, which is where transcription comes in.

An enzyme called RNA polymerase makes a near-exact copy of the DNA strand, except for the nucleotide thymine, which is found in DNA, is transcribed as Uracil on the mRNA strand. A lot of stuff happens after that, but the important part is that this mRNA strand is read by ribosomes and TRANSLATED into proteins.

There's... a lot more to it than that, but that's the basic gist.

Which takes us to the question: What is an mRNA vaccine?

It's taken a long time to develop synthetic mRNA. Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian scientist, believed messenger RNA could be harnessed to create all sorts of disease resistances, but the synthetic material was quickly identified and destroyed by the body's immune system.

Because Karikó was experimenting with an idea that other scientists had dismissed as impossible, it took her FIFTEEN YEARS to create something with such promise that she finally received grants to further her work. It wasn't until 2005 that Karikó discovered a way to trick the immune system into NOT immediately attacking the synthetic RNA.

Only 15 years ago. And even then, because many of Karikó's peers had already dismissed messenger RNA as a valid medical tool, it took them a long time to get them on board, and research crawled forward and a snail's pace.

Her accomplishments DID interest a post-doc named Derrick Rossi, who successfully used the synthetic RNA to create proteins in a petri dish out of various polypeptides. Most interestingly, an introduced immune contingent would ignore the mRNA, as if it was supposed to be there.

It was this work, in 2010, that made Rossi realize that mRNA could be used to create vaccines.

This inkling of an idea required "proof of concept" in order to receive funding for further research--which was slow in coming. Any new technology, even discoveries that are microscopic, carries risks, and it turned out that repeated doses of mRNA could produce unwanted side-effects. It wasn't until 2018 that Moderna (which should be a familiar name to everyone by now!) Developed a two-dose therapy that would not produce significant negative effects in humans.

Just in time, too. CoViD-19 appeared in 2019. And while Moderna, Pfizer, and several other companies had been experimenting with mRNA as a vessel for vaccines, nothing had yet been approved for use.

Remember when I talked about the genetic map of CoViD-19 in my last post? With that, scientists creating an mRNA vaccine did not actually need the virus in order to work on the vaccine. All they needed was the genome--and they could then synthesize RNA, which could then be used to build the protein shell of the virus, producing an immune response.

Unfortunately, companies developing the vaccines came under fire for essentially using the promise of a save, synthetic material to fill their coffers. But of course, that's capitalism, and that's a different story.

But essentially, rather than a traditionally-created vaccine which uses dead or modified live viruses, an mRNA vaccine has never touched a virus, has never been injected into an animal in order to synthesize more vaccine, and is able to be ready-made in a lab using messenger RNA.

Of course there is concern about possible long-term effects of this new type of vaccine. The cool thing about mRNA, though, is built into its very code. After it does what it's supposed to do (in the case of the CoViD vaccine, that job is "building a viral envelope that contains no actual viral RNA," it self-destructs. That's why it has to be stored at such low temperatures. anything higher than that and you'd have what's essentially a slurry of random synthesized polypeptides that wouldn't do a damn thing.

So the worry isn't really whether there will be long-term effects from this vaccine, but whether the synthetic mRNA will be able to survive long enough to produce enough fake virus shells to create an immune response. So far, trials have proved successful.

Part 4: Polio, and Why Most Vaccines Are So Extensively Tested

There's a good reason that the FDA requires such extensive, lengthy testing on vaccines, and it has to do with the polio vaccine.

I'm sure most opponents of vaccination cite the early polio vaccine as a reason not to vaccinate--that vaccines are inherently dangerous and should be approached with caution.

Trials of the polio vaccine went well, and were well-tolerated, which meant scientists were initially baffled when a vaccine caused 40,000 cases of polio in children, 200 of which were left paralyzed, and 10 of which died.

At first, people were convinced that this meant vaccines were dangerous--many blamed Jonas Salk for pushing the vaccine through R&D and dooming everyone who'd gotten the vaccine to polio.

So what happened? Did dangerous chemicals in the vaccine cause a weak immune system leading to polio? Was the process itself flawed? Was it time to give up on vaccines as a valid form of disease protection???

Fortunately, no.

Just like today, there were many nay-sayers about vaccines, and those who were against putting them into their body. See, Salk used formaldehyde to de-activate the virus, which people recognized as being very poisonous. despite the fact that the vaccine itself contained none of the chemical, the public demanded an alternative if they were to take it.

So a company called Cutter Labs decided not to use formaldehyde to deactivate the vaccine. In fact, they didn't de-activate the vaccine at all. Because of a lack of rigorous safety protocol at the time, the error was then missed by health inspectors, who ok'd giving a completely live virus to 40,000 children.

This incident, called the Cutter Incident, led to more rigorous oversight and testing when it came to vaccination. It also let to what's called "attunated" viruses, which are weakened, but still living viruses. These attunated viruses have been responsible for outbreaks of poliomyelitis around the world, all because people feared the process used to kill the virus.

The point is, the reason it takes so long to approve vaccines under normal circumstances is that you are dealing with a medication that contains actual viruses (albeit usually dead viruses) plus agents designed to provoke an immune response, such as aluminum. Deactivated vaccines also used to contain thimerosal as a binding agent preservative. While not elemental mercury, thimerosal was derived from mercury, and thus just as suspect as Salk's formaldehyde.

In any case, there's a lot of people concerned about what they are putting into their bodies. And while the use of aluminum adjuvants has been proven safe over decades of vaccinations, every single one still must be tested in order to determine efficacy and safety. Pushing a vaccine that doesn't work is just as bad as pushing a vaccine that causes harm to the patient.

To be fair, it is likely the alum compound that causes vaccine reactions, which means it's up to medical science to do better! Thankfully there are many new adjuvants on the market, including MF59, an oil emulsion which is derived from shark liver; most people consider this a much better option than heavy metal, and it is the most likely candidate for use as an adjuvant in the CoViD-19 vaccine.

If, that is, an adjuvant is needed at all. Currently, there's some speculation that the mRNA in the CoViD vaccine could alone provoke a strong immune response.

Part 5: Putting it all together!

1. Coronavirus was caught quickly and an immediate medical response was established. Using new genetic mapping technology that has only been developed within the last decade, CoViD-19's genome was mapped and made available.

2. CoViD-19 does not hide in, nor does it attack the immune system. For this reason, it's much easier to create an immune response to a vaccine as compared to, say, the HIV virus. Unlike the HIV virus and the common cold, CoViD-19 also currently has limited strains and mutations, making it the perfect time to create a vaccine.

3. The vaccine does not use viral particles. It doesn't need to be "incubated" and then tested after each incubation period. There is no chance for the vaccine to cause the virus in any dose. Instead, it uses synthetic messenger RNA in prompt the body into synthesizing the protein shell of the virus, which activates our immune system.

4. It contains a natural adjuvant found in shark liver oil, rather than heavy metal aluminum. This cuts down on the testing time. Adjuvants provoke an immune response more quickly than the virus alone, although Pfizer stated that the vaccine would likely work without one.

5. Lastly, this can't be overstated enough, the idea behind testing is to have a successful trial in as many people as possible. Other vaccines fail because of unfavorable trials. (For example, chicken pox took so long to develop a vaccine for because of the lack of technologies we had today leading to low efficacy rates in test subjects.) Compared with the MMR vaccine, which has an average efficacy of 90%, the CoViD-19 vaccine achieved a 95% efficacy rate in 10 months. There was very little "back to the drawing board" except in one case where the company developing a vaccine trial dropped completely.

I do want to state here that it is normal for medical science to work faster and better as time progresses. Vaccine science IS medical science, and has only been utilized for the last hundred years. All medical sciences progress and become more reliable as time goes on, including heart transplants, treatment of HIV, diabetes, hell--even Alzimers may have a cure in the next decade thanks to various breakthroughs in the last three years.

It is okay to be cautious. It is not okay to dismiss science because you're afraid or because you don't understand it. It's okay to ask for help learning about these things.

We science people aren't here to lie to you. We look forward to a future where serious disease is a simple hindrance, and not a life-changing event.

Sources:

https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/covid-19-how-unprecedented-data-sharing-has-led-faster-ever-outbreak-research.html?fbclid=IwAR2V_HfDaloTaNfBJ489f1fmdsBbWaYp5j72d3AYo9roKJNaiUATkYc3rA8

https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/resources/COVID-19/COVID-19-fact-sheets/200128-nCoV-whitepaper.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3p00yVtK16aduVIF5LV6dgetFEuho4CoxX7ifmVlDcSSPei6p79IyNzpQ

https://www.verywellhealth.com/hiv-vaccine-development-4057071

https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/10/the-story-of-mrna-how-a-once-dismissed-idea-became-a-leading-technology-in-the-covid-vaccine-race/?fbclid=IwAR0brQXhvrs4pMp9AwXOU5KT0z1B-VsbMn8R3RS65Hv_gLqo5gButRTftyg

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/could-an-mrna-vaccine-be-dangerous-in-the-long-term-649253?fbclid=IwAR1MM2vpKrUucLGwEb2T5OZAADMFp3oABJFTcG5F8xDfPfykx5gGwZIWHaE

(And apparently I forgot to save my sources about adjuvants. :|)

#covid-19 #coronavirus #vaccine safety #health and safety #not bestiary #i hesitate to tag it this way but #american politics #because you know people here #think this is political

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mst3kproject · 5 years ago

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Kingdom of the Spiders

Yep, this is the one with William Shatner in it. It was directed by John ‘you really undermine your authority when you put Bud in the middle of your name’ Cardos, who did the same job for The Day Time Ended and Outlaw. It’s also available on Rifftrax, so I think we’re fully qualified for EtNW status… but if you need one more returning star, we have of course the much-maligned Mexican Red-Knee Tarantula.

The Shatmeister is Dr. Robert Hansen, the vet in these here parts. He’s not sure what caused Mr. Colby’s prize calf to suddenly fall sick and die, so he summons help that arrives in the form of Dr. Diane Ashley, an expert on venomous animals. She quickly determines that the area is being invaded by huge, pissed-off tarantulas! The over-use of pesticides has forced the spiders to evolve, and they’ve become social hunters with a more concentrated and deadly venom. In large numbers they’re capable of taking down cattle, dogs… and maybe even humans. The soundtrack consists of terrible country songs, all of them by the same guy you’ve never heard of.

As 70’s Nature’s Revenge movies go, Kingdom of the Spiders is… adequate. It’s not remarkably bad, but there’s nothing particularly creative or interesting in it, either. The direction is nondescript – none of the shots are visually striking, but anything artsy would be out-of-place in a film that’s intended to look as down-to-earth as the farmers and cowboys that populate it. There’s a county fair that stands in for the Fourth of July Weekend from Jaws, and a ‘spider hill’ that serves as the Smaller Shark, but both of them are mentioned and then just kind of go away, rather than fulfilling any role in the plot. They’re there for the same reason as the love triangle, because movies are supposed to have those.

The love triangle is what’ll make you hate Shatner’s character. Dr. Hansen seems dedicated to his work and he’s kind to his neighbours, but he’s an absolute ass to women. He seems to have a thing going on with his dead brother’s widow, Terri, which is very Claudius of him, but he rejects her almost violently when she accidentally calls him by her husband’s name. In one scene he teases that he might marry her himself, and then a day later he’s bringing Diane by to introduce her, which results in Terri fleeing to the kitchen to cry. The impression we get is that he can read her signals, he just doesn’t give a shit.

He’s a jerk to Diane, too. He asks her on a date moments after saying he has to go see ‘his girl’ that afternoon. It turns out he’s referring to his four-year-old niece, but he didn’t clarify that until after he asked Diane out, which can only mean he deliberately led her to think he wants to cheat on somebody with her. Later when he wants her attention, he runs her off the road and basically kidnaps her for dinner with him, and then he drives her car after she’s angrily told him not to. He teases her about her feminism and makes her open beers for him… and of course this is supposed to be Twu Wuv.

Like a lot of useless love triangles in a lot of useless movies, this one is resolved when the third party dies. Shatner therefore doesn’t have to choose – if Terri had lived and he’d chosen Diane instead, she might have decided to reduce Hansen’s time with her daughter Linda, whom he clearly adores. With Terri dead, he gets Diane and the child all to himself. Terri was nothing but an inconvenience, and is summarily disposed of.

I did like Diane, though. She comes across as kind of a snotty bitch when we first meet her, but she warms up fast. My favourite part of the movie is when she sees a gigantic tarantula crawling out of a drawer at her hotel room, and she immediately picks it up, pets it, and tells it it’s pretty! How could I not like this lady? Apparently actress Tiffany Bolling got the role mostly because she was willing to do that while their first choice, Barbara Hale (of The Giant Spider Invasion) was not. She deserved way better than to be William Shatner’s love interest.

The unfortunate thing about this sequence is it, and a couple more in which Diane happily handles the spiders without harm, rather undercuts the idea that they’re supposed to be aggressively seeking out human prey. There are other scenes in which we watch humans run around madly, screaming and flailing, while the spiders merely sit there not doing very much. Worst of all are two separate sequences in which a fatal accident seems to result not from spiders attacking people, but from people freaking out because a spider was in a vehicle! It makes the whole movie feel like an over-reaction.

I do realize this may be my personal reaction, rather than the average one… somebody who’s actually scared of spiders might find this completely horrifying. But… you know spiders move at like one mile an hour, right? The Creeping Terror could catch them. Just go get in your car, and drive away. It would have worked for the sheriff if the crowd hadn’t slowed him down!

Moving along – the characters of the Colbys, a farming couple who’ve poured everything they have into their herd of cattle only to see their livelihood destroyed, are people we can pity but we know better than to get attached to them. The opening scene is Mr. Colby bragging about how his calf is a shoe-in for first prize, and you know right away that he’s destined to lose everything. The series of tragedies that ensue for the couple are all similarly telegraphed.

At the end we see a terrible matte painting depicting the entire town draped in spiderwebs. This looks so bad it’s actually difficult to figure out what we’re seeing, and I’m not at all sure what it’s meant to tell us. Diane had talked about the spiders ‘migrating’, implying that they’re just passing through. So are we meant to think that now they’ve killed everyone else, the spiders have moved on and our so-called heroes can escape? Because there are no actual spiders in the image, just their webs. On the other hand, Diane also talked about spiders storing their food by wrapping it in webs. So are they gonna come back to eat everybody later? But it’s just a spiderweb… the humans can rip it apart and go. Did the characters win, or lose? Are they going to live or die? The movie just runs out of ideas and ends.

This is a bit of a shame, because the core idea here is kind of neat. The spiders have become monsters not because chemicals or radiation has mutated them, but because evolution did. Diane explains that over-use of pesticides has done two things: one is to create DDT-resistant spiders in the same way as misuse of antibiotics creates drug-resistant bacteria. The ones that can tough it out survive and produce similarly tough offspring. Second, the pesticides have killed off the spiders’ usual prey, forcing them to turn to alternative sources of food. Spiders with more potent venom are better able to kill large prey – as are those that work together.

I actually like this better than the idea of monsters made by pollution. The toxic monster genre can’t really be about nature striking back because the creatures in it are truly un-natural. When it is evolution that makes monsters, that is nature demonstrating that it is more powerful than we are. It’s also more realistic, I guess, though only in a movie-science-y kind of way. It��s not very plausible that the spiders could evolve so fast – the major changes in their behaviour would probably take many, many thousands of generations – but at least we know that evolution is a thing that happens, whereas exposure to radiation or toxic chemicals just kills stuff. Too bad the concept seems to make for terrible movies.

Unfortunately, if the movie’s point is supposed to be that nature is tougher than us, the vague ending kind of undercuts it. As I mentioned, we don’t really know if the protagonists are going to live to see another day. Diane says that if insects turned on humanity we wouldn’t last long, but at the end the main characters are still alive. There are movies in which an open ending is perfectly appropriate, but in this one it just feels incomplete. If I were writing this, I would have the humans escape to another town or city, onto to find that the spiders have gotten there first. That would be a little cliché, but it would make the point that while minor victories are possible, in the end the battle of man versus nature can only have one winner.

Kingdom of the Spiders is fairly well-known as a ‘bad movie’, and I expected I would either love it or hate it, but in the end I did neither. I dislike Shatner’s characters rather strongly, but I’ve seen worse, and he’s not as stilted here as he is in some of his work. The rest of them are okay. The music sucks but it’s pretty forgettable, as opposed to things like The Sad Mushroom Ukelele Anthem that crawl inside your ear and nest there like a botfly larva (if you don’t know what that is, do not google it, I refuse to take responsibility for what you’ll learn). I think a big part of the problem for both this and other spider movies like Tarantulas: the Deadly Cargo and Arachnophobia is just that live spiders don’t make good actors. You can’t direct them. It’s really hard to take something seriously as a threat when it’s just kinda wandering around.

Speaking of Arachnophobia, apparently producer Igo Kantor believed it was a deliberate ripoff of Kingdom of the Spiders. He didn’t do anything about it because, and I quote, “you don’t go and sue Spielberg.” That’s a good enough excuse, I suppose, but I bet he and the makers of Parts: the Clonus Horror would have a lot to commiserate about.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #kingdom of the spiders #tw: spiders #70s #non hamlet reviews that mention hamlet

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