#and they transitioned really early on like at the very beginning of adventuring

[lillybean730]

writing down comic idea at 3am >:D

[inbarfink]

Hello, Invader Zim Fandom! Say, have you ever found yourself thinking “hmmm.... I wonder how often Zim and Dib skip classes due to their constant misadventures and battles?” Well, whatever you did or not, I am going to do it now! Time for…

Checking Attendance for Invader Zim and Dib Membrane!

"The Nightmare Begins"

Our first major confrontation between the two leads (leaving aside some quarreling in the middle of class, but I am checking attendance - not behavior) happens explicitly right after Skool has finished. So, no class has been missed in the production of this episode. 

(I mean maybe I would ask about how long their Skoolday even is considering Miss Bitters introduces Zim, says ‘Doomed’ for a few minutes and then sends them home. But that’s, like, a common Bug with Schools in fiction. I’m going to assume that we’re not supposed to take the class/Skoolday as literally being that short.)

"Bestest Friend"

Zim takes a whole day off from Skool under the claim that he’s sick.

Zim: I'm sick. I'm not going to skool today.

Which, I mean, he said it to get Keef off his back, but then we do see he stayed in his lab all day to work on his Eyeball Machine. So yeah, here's our first missed attendance. Zim skipped a whole day of Skool right there.

"Nanozim"

Dib: Zim wasn't in class today, Gaz. Gaz: Maybe he's sick. Dib: Yeah, sick with fear!

Another whole missed day from Zim for the sake of his scheme!

"Parent Teacher Night"

Nothing! The entirety of this episode takes place either during Skool, explicitly after Skool or during a Skool-sectioned Afterskool event. 

"Walk of Doom"

Now this is where things really get interesting. Because Zim certainly spent like a whole day on his and GIR’s little City Adventure - but also, you might want consider the possibility that this episode took place over the weekend, or even just that it starts after skool. After all, Invader Zim’s Daytime Sky doesn't change that much between the morning and the afternoon.

However, even taking these factors into account, I still think that it’s more likely that this episode does takes place during Skool Hours and is yet another example of Zim missing a full day of Skool, and that is for one reason - the background extras. 

Through all of Zim’s Urban Misadventure, the City seems to be populated entirely by adults + one baby we saw on the Bus. No Skool-aged youngsters anywhere in sight.

And, maybe that’s a weird thing to get hung up on, but usually IZ Crowd Scenes do include a mixture of kids and adults… including some scenes in that very episode, but only after the transition into night. When Skool would obviously be already over.

Thus, I think it’s most logical to conclude that Zim, for some reason, decided to do this lil excursion in the middle of a Skoolday. Couldn’t wait for the weekend or even just the afternoon for some reason. He got a bee in his bonnet about the Guidance Chip and he had to do it at that very moment!! 

(But I am going to cut him a little slack with the ending. Cause, like, obviously he’s been driving for like a whole night and it’s going to take him some time to get back home… but for the sake of Being Nice I am going to assume this episode takes place on a Friday and he's got the whole weekend to find his way back home and so he only missed one day of Skool. After all, isn’t this what ‘Invader Zim’ is all about? Being nice?)

(This is a rhetorical question and the answer is no.)

"Germs"

As Zim himself states, he did miss a day of Skool due to his obsession with Germs.

Zim: The skool! The skool will know I've been missing! They must be really suspicious by now!

I wondered if that was actually more than one day, but we only see one transition to night near the end of the episode. 

Most likely this entire episode takes place over the course of a single day - Zim watched that movie very early in the morning before getting to Skool (he doesn’t sleep so he’s got a lot more free time in a day) and then got so Germ-Obsessed for that one day that he forgot about that.

And thanks (?) to the workaround at the end, we can be sure this time he only missed one single day of Skool.

"Dark Harvest"

So all of this episode takes place in the Skool, but mostly outside of the classroom. With Zim leaving early on after a lesson started, then Dib going after him a short while later and this whole …. Adventure lasted enough to get to Lunch Break and also probably the climax lasted a bit after it and into the next lesson period (considering how empty the Skool Hallways seem at that point.

However, this speculation is kinda moot since both Zim and Dib were both out there with Hall-Passes officially ‘just trying to get to the nurse’, so I am just not going to count it as skipping class at all. They had permission. 

"Attack of the Saucer Morons"

Okay, so… this episode starts at night, but by the time Zim gets to the Saucer Morons it’s already Daytime. But since Zim was very adamant about getting his Voot back ASAP, I am going to assume this is taking place Very Early in the Morning. It just takes a while for Zim to get back home from the crash site and then back again without the Cruiser, but it’s still probably like… before Skool starts. 5AM-6AM or something like that? You know, the excitement of an Alien Spaceship is going to encourage a lot of people to wake up early.

It’s not entirely clear how long the events of the episode lasted in-universe. There’s a few ‘skips’, like, how long did Zim’s initiation take? How long did it take GIR to get the Government Man robot ready? How long did it take the Saucer Morons to make that lil’ set-up for Zim?

But, Fastforwards to the climatic chase scene at the end of the episode, and we can see Zim has zoomed by a Skoolbus. Now, this might be a Bus taking kids back from Skool, or taking the kids to Skool. Either the implication here is that Zim has wasted a whole skoolday and it’s already the afternoon - or it’s still early in the morning and Skool is just about to start. And… since it’s just down to my gut feelings, I am going to say the second one. I think all of the little-time skips during the episode still don’t amount to more than like, an hour or two. So it being just before Skool starts seems reasonable to me. 

But, well, even for the sake of being nice to Zim…

I am going to assume that murdering all of these scientists (or however he got himself out of that jam) and getting back home to retrieve a new disguise will take like… A Considerable Amount of Time. And Skool was basically just about to start. So… I think that I’m going to mark it as Zim missing at least one class and getting to Skool late. 

"The Wettening"

This episode actually puts a lot of attention into making sure all of Zim and Dib’s confrontations take place after Skool hours and that all the time they spend at home planning is happening during the weekend. This episode is mostly useful for explicitly establishing that Skool is operating with a two-day Saturday-Sunday weekend. 

Now, I was wondering if I should count Zim as ‘skipping class’ for, y’know - not actually showing up to Skool on Monday and basically going straight home to drown to death in the toilet right after he won that water-balloon fight. But since the entire damn Skool was reduced to a ruin by Zim’s victory - I think it’s safe to say that Skool is canceled regardless. So that shouldn't count.

(Remember kids! If you wanna skip school, you should just blow it up with a giant Space Water Balloon first and then it’s okay!)

"Career Day"

The entire events of that episode were a Skool-sanctioned activity, so nothing really to report.

"Battle-Dib"

With the 8PM ticking clock, Doctor Membrane having a clearly very kid-oriented edutainment show that he’s apparently recording live, and all the other ordinary kids trying out for the audience… I think it’s pretty safe to say this whole episode takes place after skool.

"Planet Jackers"

Whole episode takes place at night, nothing for us to concern ourselves about.

"Rise of the Zitboy"

Okay, so this episode starts at daytime, with both Zim and Dib very clearly not at Skool - and usually that would be enough for me to assume this episode starts in the afternoon, but…

After Zim gains the Power of Pustulio, he seemingly immediately goes to Skool to test it out. There’s no reason to assume this is like, a whole night later. Zim’s only thought was about hypnotizing Dib and he knows where his house is. If it were the afternoon, wouldn't he just go to the Membrane household rather than wait for the next Skool Day? So this episode actually starts very early in the morning. 

And, like, either way it seems like this is happening very early in the morning and has no real effect on their Skool attendence and I shouldn’t dwell on it too much for this post but… I guess it still kinda surprises me that Dib got up bright and early just to do this shit like an hour before skool starts.

Most of the episode seems to take place before the first period of the day even starts, so the only actually relevant part to our discussion is the very last line from Zim.

Zim: Bye Dib, and thanks for the information! I've got a few more lawn gnomes to plant!

So Zim is going to skip away before Skool starts to take care of the security problems in his Gnome Field right away. So… he’s probably going to miss at least one class, if he’s even coming back. 

"Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain"

Episode takes place entirely at night, not relevant to our discussion. I am not going to consider the ‘One Year Later’ gag as canon, because, like…. come on. 

"Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy"

As the episode starts with a broadcast of Professor Membrane’s show (which as we have already established, is very kids-oriented, highly-rated and seems to be airing live), it’s a pretty safe bet that the whole events of this episode is taking place in the afternoon, so no Skool-Problems here!

"A Room With a Moose"

So, I am not going to knock Dib any points for leaving mid-class on something that wasn’t really a Skool trip. I mean… everyone thought it was a Skool trip, including the other students and their teacher. I assume either Zim took care of the paperwork while he was sneaking around setting up his plan or there was never any paperwork in the first place because it’s the IZ Earth and No One Cares.

Now about Zim… he has technically not skipped class in the sense that he was doing all of this under the guise of being in the toilet, but… Like, in his second round in the Restroom, he actually just never came back until… well, probably the next Skool day, considering it was nighttime at the end of the episode. Even with how apathetic Miss Bitters is… I assume she can conceive of the idea of a student trying to get out of Skool under the excuse of being in the bathroom, even if she doesn’t know/care about the Alien Teleporter Device.

So I am counting this as just a half day of skipping school for Zim. 

"Hamstergeddon"

Okay, so this was actually the episode that inspired me to make this post, and the reason why I conceived of it as a “Zim and Dib Skipping School” list even though, as you have seen so far… Dib has a pretty spotless attendance record so far. I just saw both Zim and Dib piss off from Skool mid-lesson to follow the Hamster Kaiju and started to wonder ‘hmmm… how often does this happen?”

And since we never see Ultra Peepi, like, outright entirely destroy the Skool - I don’t think the day would be canceled like it probably was in “The Wettning” (if it was, I’d assume we’d see more students running out and not just Zim and Dib). And I assume Dib would notice the Growing Peepi Problem near the start of the day, so they both missed about a full day of Skool just then.

"Plague of Babies"

Takes place entirely during one night, not relevant here. 

"Bloaty's Pizza Hog"

Explicitly takes place during the late afternoon/evening. 

"Door to Door"

Another Skool-Sanctioned activity similar to ‘Career Day’

"FBI Warning of Doom"

Takes place during the evening/night. 

"Bolognius Maximus"

After Zim reveals there is no cure to the Bolognafication, Dib runs out of the classroom screaming. This transition into a whole Zim Fantasy Sequence where he’s Gigantic and stuff. But it does seem like the whole ‘Dib being run out of Skool midway through the Skoolday’ did happen. Since they only re-meet after Zim is going back home from Skool. 

So that’s the first time Dib loses attendance (basically an entire day, since he didn’t even last one whole lesson) but not Zim. (But Dib still has a lot of ‘catching up’ to do).

(This episode also establishes that Dib is often late to Skool due to his various paranormal misadventures. Reliably enough for Zim to incorporate it into his Vengeance. However, that’s not entirely relevant since I’m only counting attendance in this post and not tardiness. But I thought I might as well acknowledge it.)

"Game Slave 2"

Episode takes place entirely at night, not relevant.

"Battle of the Planets"

Same as above.

"Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom"

So I am not going to count Dib being forcibly institutionalized by Skool administration as ‘skipping classes’, obviously. 

However, while Dib was being dragged off to the Crazy House, Zim used the chaos to ‘escape’ this Skool full of ‘Zombies’ and ready his base for tonight. Next time we see Zim, it’s nighttime and he is still readying his base. And even with Dib being late, it still seems like the episode started early in the first period. So Zim is skipping another full day of Skool basically. 

"Mysterious Mysteries"

From the events of the episode, it seems like ‘Mysterious Mysteries’ airs live (or at least semi-live, in regards to the interviewed segments). We already know that it airs in the evenings because that’s always when we see Dib watch it. Even if it didn’t actually air live, they would probably schedule their interviews to afterskool hours when they have three elementary-skoolers to interview. 

"Future Dib"

Episode starts at a Skool-Assembly, and then move to later that day in the afternoon/early evening (Membrane says ‘tonight’, but the sky is always daylight-yellow, so it seems to be later that day after Skoolhour, it’s just that the sun hasn’t quite set yet.) Either way, neither Zim nor Dib actually seem to skip class on that one. 

"Hobo 13"

With this being an entirely Space-Based Episode, we have basically No Data on what Earth Time this episode takes place. Zim does generally seem to call the Tallests just after Skool or during the night, so I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt on that one and not count it.

"Walk For Your Lives"

While I have no doubt in my mind that Zim would skip Skool for the sake of Probing Day and maaaybe Dib would too for the sake of catching Zim by surprise, well…

So remember way way back during ‘Walk of Doom’ when I talked about background extras? Well, I’m doing this again but in the other direction this time!

Because all the city scenes in this episode do actually feature both child and adult extras (including literally some of Zim and Dib’s classmates).

So I think it’s most likely to assume this episode takes place just after Skool hours. Or perhaps the weekend. 

"Megadoomer"

Starts right after Zim gets home from Skool, and lasts through the night. Not relevant.

"Lice"

Takes place entirely at Skool and also classes are canceled due to Lice Quarantine. I don’t really count any of the Nonsense in this episode as ‘skipping class’, it’s fine.

"Abducted"

We don’t have any details about when the episode takes place outside of ‘the daytime’, but again, Zim generally ‘updates’ the Tallest after Skool so I am going to assume this applies here. Plus, we also see Dib and Gaz at home by the end and they generally don’t skip Skool - so yeah, more evidence for this being the afternoon. 

"The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot"

Episode explicitly takes place at evening/night, not relevant.

"Gir Goes Crazy and Stuff"

Episode starts at night, and ends at sunrise.

Not relevant.

(Also hey! Does this imply that we can tell that the City is on the East Coast at least?)

"Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom"

Starts at Skool and then seems to take place entirely at night - since the Wonderful Life of Doom starts with Dib sleeping in bed, I assume Dib kidnapped him and put him in the simulation while he was actually asleep.

"Tak: The Hideous New Girl"

Okay, so we had two fairly-regular Skooldays since Tak arrived on Earth.

Then, after Zim comes back from Skool the second day and Tak reveals herself, we cut to Zim’s battle against the Ham Demon. Which is also happening in the daytime. Although Zim later mentions he’s been trailing Tak for ‘48 hours’ - meaning exactly two whole days. 

And then as Zim realizes he needs Dib’s help, we cut to the Membrane house at nighttime. 

So… was that battle taking place in the afternoon/early evening  and it’s just that by the time Zim got to the Membranes the sun had already set? That seems to be the case from the establishing shot. But then Dib yawns and rubs his eyes as if he just woke up and Professor Membrane says ‘good morning’. 

I mean… with how often Dib seems to stay up late and wake up extremely early, maybe he takes a lot of afternoon-evening naps?

Or perhaps this suggests this establishing shot might’ve been just an art error? The little we see of the indoor backdrops are also kinda inconsistent about the Color of the Sky.

First seeming to indicate daytime.

And then… nighttime? Nighttime with sunset? Nighttime with sunrise?

Then nighttime again?

And then, the whole Giant Evil Weenie Stand sequence is at daytime again.

And it only becomes night again by the climax.

And with Zim’s ‘48 hours’ comment placing the Ham Demon fight at the early afternoon (it should be 48 hours after the Tak confrontation, which happened just after Zim got home from Skool) our scenarios are either: 

Zim battles the Ham Demon, then almost immediately Zim confronts Dib after his afternoon nap (and the Color of the Sky around the Membrane household is just Consistently an Art Error. It should be daytime). And the rest of the events of the episode take place on that same day’s late afternoon/evening. 

Zim battles the Ham Demon, then a few hours later Zim confronts Dib after his early evening nap (the Color of the Sky around the Membrane household is not an art error...for the most part. The sun has set already). Then the rest of the events of the episode take place over the next day.

Zim battles the Ham Demon, then the next morning Zim confronts Dib when he wakes up (the Color of the Sky might be a major art error, or it might be a failed attempt at conveying sunrise, or both). Then the rest of the events of the episode take place during that day.

And when considering which one seems to me the most likely, I took three different factors into consideration.

I wanna minimize just dismissing things as art/continuity errors. I want to be as canon-compliant as I possibly can.

The plot needs to maintain its sense of urgency. Having too many Big Timeskips where the characters just kinda don’t do anything significantly hurts the narrative. ‘

The possibility of skipped skool days which is… hey! Is actually what this post is supposed to be about!

Okay, so to elaborate on Point C: Scenario 1 has Zim spend like two full Skooldays’ worth of time on tracking Tak down and then he and Dib and Gaz stop her together during afterskool hours. Scenario 2 + 3 has Zim spend two skooldays, and then the three of them spend the day after that stopping Tak. And.. it’s not just a matter of considering Zim skipping two days versus three days and Dib and Gaz skipping one day versus zero days. Because also the weekend exists.

I actually think it’s incredibly likely that the Tak Reveal is supposed to take place on a Friday, and Zim tracked Tak over the weekend (so the ending of the Ham Demon sequence is on Sunday afternoon).

Especially as Dib apparently didn’t notice Zim either stalking Tak during Skool or just vanishing from Skool altogether due to the Ham Demon Situation. Like, considering how paranoid he is about Zim normally, you’d think he’d take notice and try and figure out if he is up to anything. Especially if it involved the girl he saw as an ally and friend. But it seemed like he was not bothered by anything or noticed anything Zim was doing in the meantime. Which I think only makes sense if Zim was ‘investigating’ Tak during the weekend. 

So in Scenario 1 that would mean the climax of the episode took place during Sunday afternoon/evening. And Scenario 2 + 3 would mean that those events take place during Monday, and thus all of our main trio is either skipping skool or waiting until skool is done to go on their Earth-Saving-Missions.

And the latter is both unlikely because it wrecks the sense of Urgency in the plot and because… like… did Zim and Dib just go to Skool and Angrily Glared at each other until it was done? It really just kinda ruins the dramatic pacing if Zim and Dib meet between the scene at the Membrane Household and the Weenie Stand. So going to Skool on Monday and then doing the Evil Weenie Investigation afterwards seems unlikely to me.

And as for the former scenario… like, as you’ve noticed. Dib very very rarely skips Skool of his own volition. And Gaz never does. Honestly I don’t think it’s in-character for her. Not cause she’s a goody-two-shoes who would never skip class or anything like that. Just because she never takes all of this Alien Stuff seriously enough to consider it a worthwhile reason to skipping classes. And no, neither is getting her brother beat up by security - even if she does enjoy the latter a lot more. 

I guess maybe just Zim could’ve been skipping Skool that Monday morning to do some more failed ‘investigative work’ before he actually realized the Evil Weenie Stand was important. While Dib and Gaz just attended classes like Normal and investigated the Weenies afterwards.

But then, like, did Tak go to Skool? She cares so much about showing off her ability to Actually Competently Infiltrate Humanity, and it seems most of the Evil Weenie Stand Construction is happening automatically… so I kinda assume she would go to Skool on that Monday? So with both Dib and Tak at class that day and Zim not being… that would be another Hypothetical Dramatic Scenario that is just Inexplicably Off Screen in the narrative.

You know like…. Maybe not Dib confronting Tak about Zim’s accusations if he truly doesn’t believe them at that point, but trying to warn her that Zim is deluded about her and out to get her? I just don’t believe any Skoolday after Zim and Dib's confrontation at Dib’s house could be uneventful enough so that we could just skip over it completely like that. 

So, I really really tried to get a scenario where I don’t resort to the Art Error Clause but… I think the only timeline that makes real sense in terms of narrative and characterization is Scenario 1. So most of the events of the climax of “Tak: the Hideous New Girl” probably take place over Sunday afternoon and thus neither Zim nor Dib actually skipped classes. Zim just had a very very busy weekend. 

"Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars"

Takes place entirely during the night/evening, irrelevant.

"Mortos Der Soul Stealer"

Same as above.

"Zim Eats Waffles"

Okay, so, there’s nothing in the text of the episode that explicitly says it but… since this episode centers around Zim eating waffles and reading the newspaper

I always kinda assumed it was taking place in the morning. And probably, like Saturday/Sunday morning.

This would also explain why Dib immediately goes to sleep at the end of the episode even though it’s the same ‘daytime’ sky-color outside.

 He woke up early for this - but now that his plan has failed so thoroughly, well… It's still the weekend and now he’s going to sleep in for a while. He probably needs it.

"The Girl Who Cried Gnome"

Well, presumably Moofy and the other Girly Rangers don’t go selling cookies during normal Skool hours. So this episode either takes place after skool hours or also over the weekend. The amount of kid extras in the scene also supports that idea. 

Of course, with the episode ending with Dib being tormented until nightfall, there’s a reasonable chance he won’t make it to Skool on the next day… but I’m going to be nice and assume he managed to get himself free, like, at 3AM or something. So he’s fine, just incredibly sleep-deprived and traumatized. So par for the course, really.

"Dibship Rising"

So, Dibship tries to go to school as Dib, and it seems like it could’ve worked

Poonchy: Hey! Dib's bein' all weird and giant again!

But, well for starters, Dibship only managed to get to Skool by the time for lunch break. I guess he’s really just figuring out how to walk and he’s pretty slow and heavy… So yeah, it might take him a While to get to Skool.  Then once he is at Skool, Zim almost immediately takes him over and starts up his Evil Scheme. 

It’s unclear how long it takes until Dib actually wakes up (hey, remember what I said about him being probably very sleep deprived?), but since Dib’s concern is about being late, I assume the skoolday is not yet over. And when he meets up with Dibship again…

Yeah, it actually took me a bit to notice it, but the scene is directed as to always obscure the top of the ship’s cockpit. AKA where Zim is. I thought at first that maybe he sent the ship out on its own and jumped onto it when it was passing through the Skool. But with that little trick of angles and the stick in Zim’s wig and GIR scattering acorns everywhere… yeah he was clearly on it the whole time.

So Dib missed about a whole day of Skool, spending the reminder of that day trapped just over the cesspool listening to the dying Dibship talk about how much of a loser they are. 

Zim got about… half a skoolday done before skipping out for, as Dib pointed out, no real reason other then endangering himself. And I’m pretty sure he, like, died at the end of the episode. So he’s probably not making it back to Skool either. 

"Vindicated!"

The events of this episode start during Skool and then explicitly continue after Skool, not relevant. 

"The Voting of the Doomed"

Takes place entirely at Skool doing Skool stuff, not relevant.

"Gaz, Taster of Pork"

Well, I am not actively counting Gaz’s absences for this post, so I don’t need to worry about, like, the multiple weeks that her dad kept her isolated in his lab (and even so, I don’t think being forcibly being pulled out of the education system by your parents count as ‘skipping skool’?) As for Dib, most of his ‘research’ we’ve seen happen either in Skool

Or at nighttime and thus explicitly after Skool.

The daring breakout from Membrane Lab does happen in the daytime - the day after Dib’s Hobo Encounter at MacMeaties. The question is just if Dib decided to wait until after Skool to get the information out to Gaz or if he broke her out ASAP skool be damned. (And it can’t be the weekend this time, “this Friday” is our explicit Ticking Clock). But since the sun had already set by the time they finished with their chase scene… Honestly, yeah my guess is he decided to procrastinate by waiting after Skool to break her out lol.

So Dib has had another Very Long Night, but he probably didn't skip skool (and since the episode ends on Friday, he technically has two whole days to finish Cleaning the Pig Toilets and still make it back in time for Monday! Fun!)

"The Frycook What Came From All That Space"

So Zim gets kidnapped from Skool at the very start of the episode and , according to Sizz-Lorr, a week before the Foodening starts

Sizz-Lorr: YES!! And that's not all, Zim! In one week, the Foodening begins once more, and you'll be trapped here for 20 years, just like I was!

And Zim manages to get off the planet at the very last second before the Foodening trapped him there.

And we know there’s no ‘time warp’ in place cause Dib did notice Zim was gone for three days about halfway through the episode.

Dib: Um, I noticed Zim's been gone for three days. Do you know where he is?

So, yeah, Zim was absent from Skool for a week.

(I am… going to assume Dib did not spend like 72-96 hours non-stop annoying the Tallest. But rather he went back and to Zim’s house whenever he had the chance so I am not counting absences for him.) 

"The Most Horrible X-mas Ever"

Takes place over Winter Break and thus is irrelevant.

In total, Zim has confirmed 12 missed full days of Skool + about two times where probably just skipped the first period. Dib has three missed days of Skool. So, like Zim might need to repeat the sixth grade if time ever Actually Moved Forwards in the IZ universe - but Dib is pretty in the clear I think.

Really, what I find really interesting, more than just the obvious difference between Zim and Dib’s tendency to skip skool is the difference between the earlier and later episodes. Like, not counting the five days Zim picked up at the second-to-last episode (which were very much outside of his control)…  Zim picked up 4/7 missed days in just the first eight episodes! And after that they are far less frequent. Perhaps the writers deliberately tried to take care to not overuse the whole skipping skool thing too much? Or maybe from an in-universe perspective it just took Zim a few weeks to really wrap his head around how the skool schedule thing even works? 

[meikuree]

book review: exordia by seth dickinson

alternative title: more people should read exordia please please please so I can talk to people about this book because it's eaten my brain.

note: not a spoiler-free review.

"where do I begin" is a common response to this book and I can see why. if you thought the locked tomb was adventurous for bending genres across books, Exordia does it six times or so in a single book.

perhaps I should start with how I got interested in reading this: i'd just come off the back of reading Serious Weighty books about memory, war atrocities, complicity and genocide, so I figured this would be a nice palate cleanser and 'transition' book. it's still about ethics and genocides after all, only dressed in the clothes of an author-described “fun” indulgent SFF book. a friend also sirened me with details and screenshots of a fraught central mother-daughter relationship (involving said mother [Khaje] pointing a gun to her daughter's head when she reunites with her) which I’ll admit expedited my interest.

long story short: I ended up so sucked into this that I was reluctant to put it down, and I inhaled it in 1.5 days. a 576-page book! that has happened a total of never times in my recent imaginatively parched life. this book reminded me in a way that reading can be limbically fun and unhinged, which sounds absurd and as if i should return to primary school but is true. i've been stuck in the academic reading mines for too long. I felt like my brain was being squeezed into a wormhole and emptied out in fragments on the other end, albeit in a nice and dysfunctionally salutary way reminiscent of crack.

the barebones plot is as such: anna sinjari (birth name jiyan) is a disenchanted 30-something office worker in new york city who's just been fired and is dealing with PTSD symptoms when she comes across an eight-headed "snake centaur hydra" eating turtles out of a pond. cue the rest of the plot. cue the second act, where a mysterious "spaceship" construct thing has landed near anna's hometown village Tawakul and she gets parachuted in to figure out what's happening and whether it'll accidentally spark off intergalactic conflicts. cue, also, a long ensemble structure that cycles between eight different characters' POVs and time and metaphysically-bendy happenings.

or, TLDR: it's a subversion (or rather anti-homage, cr. transversely) of first contact and geopolitical narratives with a relatively considered and considerate indictment of american imperialism, that also explores the practical ramifications of trolley problem-style situations*.

* fun fact: the beginnings of the trolley problem were developed in 1967 by british philosopher Philippa Foot. there may be something to be said for how the concept's been de-gendered since then, since I don't think it's really common knowledge these days that it was written about by a philosopher who was a woman

the not so much tone shift as tone derailing between acts 1 and 2 caught me off guard (the first act is very domestic and features cursed slice of life stuff, very much my thing!) but act 2 captured me once the bio-body horror shenanigans started happening, annihilation style, though... uh... with two of the characters (Erik and Clayton) who took up a lot of narrative time in early act 2, I was incredibly bored and going I'M JUST HERE FOR THE KURDISH FAILMOTHER [Khaje], GET OUTTA MY WAY GAYBOYS. but every character is important to the narrative and even if I think the 50 pages of davoud being plane-sexual should've been trimmed, they all add flavour!

arguably for instance the most beneficial purpose of davoud's interludes is to charm plane otakus into reading this book, which I can get behind. if I can get my plane otaku friends to be insane about this book along with me, even if it's for completely different reasons (I'm mooning over the complicated snake sisters and mother-daughter dynamics and kurdish side characters and worldbuilding) it'll have been worth it.

the big "scifi" element of this book centres around souls and narratives -- the snake alien Anna meets is called Ssrin (and also now my morally grey babygirl, more on that later) and also part of Exordia, the prevailing imperialistic system which 'pinions' (enslaves) other species' souls. this system's been explained better elsewhere, so I'll move on.

by the way, the marketing copy for this book by tor fails utterly to do it justice aside from Seth's own snake woman courts Kurdish faildaughter. just ignore it and go in blind like I did if you want. it's better that way.

what I liked

i've read the first Baru Cormorant book and bounced off it emotionally, even though cerebrally it should've been everything I'd have loved. bits where I would've exulted in war by inflation along with Baru, for instance, felt like I was simply revising my macroeconomics and monetary policy textbooks, and not in a positive way. well, I enjoyed this book a lot, which surprised me! there were many elements that were YMMV and which are usually incredibly inadvisable to pair together, but seth pulls it off. somehow. it's intentionally maximalist and deranged and A LOT but seth was clearly leaning into their id and if it works for you, it will work well.

this book directly references and subverts the whole anthropocentric "humans are destined saviours of the universe" scifi pillar shtick in the first act:

“Nooo,” Anna protests. “That’s it?” “That’s it.” “We’re not unusually stubborn? We’re not particularly diverse? Experimental? Curious? Willing to take risks? Jacks of all trades but masters of none?” “No,” Ssrin says, crossing two of her necks in a big X of negation. “You are jacks of running and masters of being inbred.” [...] “Good. You’re learning. The story of man is a story of mediocrity. But so are most stories, I think. Most things are average, or median; if they were not, nothing would make sense.” Ssrin begins to unwrap herself. “Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story, a story that goes back to the dawn of time. Your species is not special. It is not destined. But it is very, very inbred … and that makes it transparent to a certain kind of analysis. Your souls all bear the same tint. They are touched by the same story. It rings in your myths, deep down, lower than you know. [...]"

the story is often irreverent and driven by black comedy, but it does have real tragedy at its core (the Anfal genocide). the black humour isn't edgy, it's very resonant with the way communities who have suffered genocide or repression will use humour as a coping mechanism, something something sloppy james scott citation here.

the disavowal of humanity as a homogeneous group or race was refreshing, and I don't just mean in terms of the international posse of characters. I really appreciate the awareness in the narrative of the fact that apocalypses and disasters are nothing new to communities who have already experienced turmoil and the ongoing present/slow violence/necropolitics of colonialism and imperialism. as the common refrain in decolonial circles goes: the world ended long ago in 1492. and the book takes that seriously and grapples with why the residents of Tawakul would be deeply suspicious of the american secret ops teams coming to them, and is sympathetic to them if not siding with them. there's a good evisceration and explicit consideration of american imperialism and homo sacer regimes, eg. this segment where seth lays it bare and we're transparently not meant to see this as a good thing:

You are a contractor, and therefore you are not subject to American military law. But you are not on American soil, and therefore you are not subject to American criminal or civil law. No law exists for you. So I have created myself to enforce a deeper law. The law of right and wrong.

and the epigraph has this obama quote:

Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine. —President Barack Obama

which seth includes a citation for probably because they anticipated people going "wait, obama really said that?"

I'm not inclined to laud seth dickinson just for depicting viewpoints that have long been the default in segments of fiction outside the US media landscape (all this is not new to anyone who's spent 30 minutes researching the CIA on wikipedia or read about the USA's interventions in Southeast Asia) but I do like the gumption in centering the wretched of the earth. and very few things in this book feel tacked on, from subaltern perspectives to sexuality to the magic system. for better or worse everything is very intentional and constructed. whether that feels like rigid artifice or art to you will depend.

I also have a line in my notes for this post that goes "seth is very sciencey: he expresses human insights via mathematical language. compare to anthropological slant of le guin" I've forgotten what I was going to say, but I like that seth is interdisciplinary to steal a friend's phrase. I was bamboozled by the abstract maths in this (I'm not conversant in mathematical theory, alas, I should fix that) but after a while I was like: oh! these math debates are just like the structuralism/poststructuralism split, albeit expressed in well, STEM language, and: hey, this sounds just like assemblage theory. I've connected the dots.

other things (actually very central):

Khaje and Anna's relationship. THEIR RELATIONSHIP!!! the bit where khaje says "I should've asked my daughter to come home sooner so I could spend more time with her" ...

Ssrin and Ssenenet (her sister), all the tantalising nuggets of complicated sister relationships Seth gave us. if you thought I wouldn't be going in the direction of lesbian snake incest, you thought wrong, I am entirely down for that shit and craving fic though we've gotten barely 4 paragraphs about them

Khaje, Arin, and Anna/Jiyan, aka weird snarly triangle of platonic jealousy between a slighted actual daughter, her estranged mother, and said mother’s sort-of surrogate daughter

THE BODY HORROR I didn't get nightmares but you might and the body horror is impeccable and mixes both metaphysical horror (what if Hell was an actual place?) and fleshly ones

the ubiets and old gods, yay for cosmic

i should've also expected it given that it's seth, but the ending can be quite a downer. seth does the thing where they build up hope and then it crashes. i'm TragedySicko #6969 and have a libido for melancholic misery so I loved the emotional devastation, but I felt like I needed a drink and to inhale a depressing book about grief to properly process my feelings after.

segments I wheezed at:

1:

Khaje groans. She can tolerate Arîn Tawakuli, but only when she has been awake for between three and eight hours, only if she doesn’t have a hangover, and only if she doesn’t hear any particularly cheerful birds. Arîn is too young to remember the hard times of civil war. She’s an Apoist and a true believer in jineology and Khaje resents her. Not for her beliefs, but for the ability to believe. Arîn also loves to tell people that Khaje isn’t really crazy, she just has PTSD. For that Khaje truly despises her.

2:

“He’s my uniformed prisoner now. What do you think I’m going to do, heval? Torture him?” “You have been acting pretty strange!” Arîn blurts. “Sitting out there all night watching the Ugandans—skipping all the assembly meetings—I mean, you’re sober, that’s kind of out of character!” People laugh. Khaje bristles: “Fuck your mother, Arîn.” “Hey, we don’t curse mothers here,” Arîn snaps. “It’s bad jineology.” “Can everyone stop talking about mothers!” Haydar screams.

3 (after a nuclear detonation):

“How can our pickups be broken, but not their tanks?” Khaje demands. “Look at them, driving all over our meadow. Look, Arîn, they’re destroying your sustainably planted wildflowers. They’re ruining your topsoil.” “This is amazing,” Arîn says. “Look, the blasts cover the whole sky! They must have hit the entire hemisphere, at least!” “So?” “So the power is out everywhere. This could be the intervention we need to break out of the trap of endless growth, Khaje! The end of the Anthropocene!”

what I didn't vibe with as much

the Erik and Clayton interludes. dear god. I'm sorry, they represent the key levers of the american imperialist establishment and their presence has narrative importance and clayton is an expy/critique of Obama and "first Black guy to drop an atomic bomb"-style diversity rhetoric + there's a scene where it all does pay off, but... to borrow a meme, I'm tired of hearing about all these american men. I just did not care about their childhood reminisces and I would've loved to hear more about Anna and Khaje's childhoods instead. their madonna complex over Rosamaria was also tiring

and a paratextual note: I came into this a little suspicious of Seth or at least not as generous as I could be after reading Baru 1. I was proven wrong. still, they have this annoying habit of chastising themself in interviews for not citing female writers as inspirations off the cuff more often when it's like... you could prepare your answers beforehand. but I digress.

things I'm musing about

I've been comparing this a little to le guin's oeuvre, because I'm thinking about stories that centre small interactions but have high-concept interplanetary stakes. both le guin and seth do that, but le guin's writing distinctly feels anti-epic to me in a way seth's doesn't. perhaps because seth appears to subscribe to a "maths and engineering is the answer to the universe"-style idea.

lastly: I've never really believed in the recent grimdark/cozy division in sff circles, it's as meaningless to me as angst/fluff categories in fic. form IS related to content but there are stories with grimdark or gritty aesthetics that have pretty hopeful conceptions of justice, ethics, history, revolution, etc. and feel-good stories that are the inverse, that refuse myopically to reckon with uncomfortable histories and ironically end up looking way more cynical and nihilist to me. in the first category I'd place films like mad max: fury road. this is a book that ironically does have a spark of hope at the end: anna's people survive a nuclear apocalypse. and this book, I think, might very loosely belong in the former, which is an endorsement coming from me.

[tiredspacedragon]

BIONICLE Retrospective

2002: The Bohrok Swarms

Part 1.2: To Trap a Tahnok :REMASTERED:

It's a shame I couldn't get this one to go up on a Tahnok Tuesday, but doing that would mean waiting almost an entire week to post this and ehhh... I don't wanna.

So, the thing about 2002 is that, more than any other year of Bionicle, it is deeply repetitive. There's a lot of material for 2002, comics, mini-comics, web animations, a posthumous book. But a lot of it tends to cover the same events again and again. So when something like To Trap a Tahnok comes along, something that has its own completely unique story to tell, it's a breath of fresh air.

This comic does a lot of things I really like. Mostly little things, to be honest, but I'll start with a bigger one because it's worth mentioning. Because it is an original story unique to this medium, To Trap a Tahnok does not suffer from the same pacing issues as The Bohrok Awake did. It's not slow by any means, but each scene transition; which this issue actually has, already giving it a leg up over the breakneck velocity of its predecessor; happens comfortably, with none of the sequences feeling too cramped or too drawn out, making this issue an engaging but not tiresome read.

What I truly enjoy about this issue though, are the snippets of character work and worldbuilding it provides. I've mentioned in an older post how much I enjoy the mention of time passing at the beginning of this comic, a week since the Bohrok's emergence, to be precise. This little nod to the passage of time is a positive addition for a number of reasons. It establishes how long the Bohrok have been active, of course, which can give readers a good impression of the state the island is likely in, given how much destruction the Bohrok have been shown to be capable of in a short span of time. It also plays into the sandbox formula used in 2001. From this point on, the story is suggested to unfold relatively quickly, but that's a whole week's worth of adventures for young fans (or less young fans, as the case may now be) to dream up and act out with their own toys, pitting the Toa against the Bohrok in their quest for the Krana.

Speaking of Krana, this issue gives us our first look at Krana'd Lewa, and while he doesn't do anything, only briefly appearing at the end, this is another reason why the established time jump is important. We don't know how long Lewa was in that Nui-Rama hive wearing an Infected Kanohi, though his brief moment of clarity and the fact that he'd already finished collecting all his Kanohi by that point would suggest that it hadn't been very long. Here though, we know for certain that Lewa has been wearing this Krana for a week. No wonder it will have a much more lasting effect on him than the Infected Kanohi ever did.

Moving away from that one time mention though, I also want to commend the continued quality of the character work here. The Tahnok themselves are a main draw here, putting their dogged determination and surprising resourcefulness on full display, as well as showing off some of their Krana powers, something that doesn't seem to happen that often, honestly. We also get what is technically the first appearance of the Bahrag, though only their thoughts. They're not much more than generic ominous villains in the shadows at this point, but even this early their speech patterns are established and we get our first mentions of the "before-time" and the "restoration" of Mata Nui, which are also our first hints towards the Bohrok's true mission and its technical nobility. I do wonder how the Bahrag are aware of the island's name being Mata Nui, though. Perhaps "Mata Nui will be as it was in the before-time" actually refers to the robot, meaning Mata Nui, or rather the GSR, will be scoured clean and returned to its original state.

The Toa do quite well for themselves here too. I only noticed when I made the original version of this review, but all of the Toa put in an appearance in this issue. Lewa, naturally, is sidelined, but the rest each have an opportunity to contribute to the plot in some way. Gali and Pohatu are the main focus, an uncommon pair it's nice to get to see working together, while Onua and Kopaka both briefly appear when Pohatu explains their contribution to his plan, showing off more of that delicious teamwork from last time. Kopaka also goes on to show up in Tahu's scene, showing some good character development for both of them. Tahu is continuing his habit of delivering rousing speeches, this time to the Ta-Matoran, and it's not a bad one. "Remember -- your bravery, your wisdom, your spirit, make you as mighty as any Toa!" Wow, sure would be a shame if one year after this comic was published it was retconned that Tahu virtually held no respect for his Matoran at all by this point. Wouldn't it be wild if that happened? *ahem* Anyway, we also get Kopaka calling Tahu "my friend," and that's just delightful.

Back when I last looked at To Trap a Tahnok, I really liked it, a lot more than I expected to. I still do quite enjoy it, though I don't think I'm quite as enthusiastic over it as last time. Which isn't to say that I think it's worse this time around, I think it's more that I went into it this time knowing I liked it, so I wasn't as surprised. Still, I'm impressed by just how much Greg managed to cram into this issue without it feeling bloated or weighed down. It's well done, and the unique story is appreciated.

And that's as far as I got into 2002, so everything from this point on will be new ground! You might think that might mean I'll be slowing down, and I might, but it'll only be to pace myself. I've actually had several more retrospective posts basically done and sitting in my drafts since...January, maybe? ><' So after some minor edits, there's plenty more on the docket for the foreseeable future.

Next up: Into the Nest

[kroashent]

Val-Cula Daily - May 5

Val's random thoughts as she revisits Dracula Daily (An excellent choice if you missed it the first time around). Its a long day for Jonathan Harker, and one of the more interesting ones, so bear with the long post!

--------------------

AKA: Adventures on public transit.

Once again, Jonathan's delightful business trip in which nothing will go wrong (aside from some strange behaviour from the innkeeper the night before) begins with another delicious sounding dining experience:

I dined on what they called "robber steak"—bits of bacon, onion, and beef, seasoned with red pepper, and strung on sticks and roasted over the fire, in the simple style of the London cat's meat! The wine was Golden Mediasch, which produces a queer sting on the tongue, which is, however, not disagreeable. I had only a couple of glasses of this, and nothing else.

-------------

A driver comes to pick up our traveler, and the ominous conversation does not set off any red flags:

I quietly got my polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out. I must say they were not cheering to me, for amongst them were "Ordog"—Satan, "pokol"—hell, "stregoica"—witch, "vrolok" and "vlkoslak"—both of which mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other Servian for something that is either were-wolf or vampire. (Mem., I must ask the Count about these superstitions)

Yeah, this seems like you're in for a fine time Jonathan. Nothing to worry about here. That said, I really like Jonathan carting around this little phrasebook. Its cool to see that, even in the 1880s, some tourist trends remain the same! I also like the confusion over vampire/werewolf. The two have quite an intertwined history, and those who have followed my work know I have an opinion on these things!

----------------

Jonathan goes on a lovely little coach ride, and just continues to be a pleasant person so happy to be on this little business trip. In many adaptations, Transylvania seems to be always portrayed as this perpetually dark, gloomy place. But, as Jonathan remarks:

Before us lay a green sloping land full of forests and woods, with here and there steep hills, crowned with clumps of trees or with farmhouses, the blank gable end to the road. There was everywhere a bewildering mass of fruit blossom—apple, plum, pear, cherry; and as we drove by I could see the green grass under the trees spangled with the fallen petals.

Its interesting to me at how colourful and picturesque Stoker's work is, given assumptions about it. People made a big deal about bright, colourful horror like Midsommar, but its present and strong here in the quintessential Gothic horror.

-----------

Jonathan's journey on the Transylvanian bus remains a beautiful journey through the countryside, even as his fellow passengers and drivers start to get nervous as his destination approaches. Dracula's coach appears dramatically, and gives us an early glimpse of how Drac, for all of his faults, knows how to make a hell of an entrance:

A calèche, with four horses, drove up behind us, overtook us, and drew up beside the coach. I could see from the flash of our lamps, as the rays fell on them, that the horses were coal-black and splendid animals. They were driven by a tall man, with a long brown beard and a great black hat, which seemed to hide his face from us. I could only see the gleam of a pair of very bright eyes, which seemed red in the lamplight, as he turned to us.

I also love this exchange:

One of my companions whispered to another the line from Burger's "Lenore":—

"Denn die Todten reiten schnell"— ("For the dead travel fast.")

The strange driver evidently heard the words, for he looked up with a gleaming smile.

Its such a smug move and I love it.

-------------

The blue flames are one of those cool concepts that sort of vanish in adaptation. Once Jonathan switches to the new carriage, his driver keeps stopping the coach as blue lights appear alongside the road, running off into the woods and marking the spots with rocks. There's something really cool about this whole bit, a glimpse at the supernatural world beyond the main focus of Dracula and his vampiric ilk. Its not explained at this point, but its just a really cool bit of worldbuilding that hints that there's more supernatural stuff in the world. The driver also displays some Wolf Master traits here, which I'm sure I'll touch upon on a less eventful day.

-------------

Jonathan has his first experience with both Castle Dracula and the Count himself (at least, the Count presenting himself openly). Its interesting to see the description of Dracula in the book vs. the iconic look of Bela Lugosi.

His face was a strong—a very strong—aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor.

Drac has some odd behaviours here, but is remarkably cordial and professional. We also learn that Dracula apparently makes a good roast chicken. We never learn if Dracula himself or one of the brides is the one who actually cooks, but the fact remains that someone in the castle did. I really love the image of Dracula working in a kitchen with an apron and chef's hat to make his guest meal that Jonathan raves about (Jonathan has yet to have a bad meal on his trip and has been collecting recipes. I hope he got the chicken recipe from Drac.)

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Gerard James Butler born 13 November 1969 in Paisley.

When he was 6 months old, his family relocated to Montreal, Canada, where his father tried a few business ventures but ultimately failed. A year and a half later, his parents divorced, and his mother moved Gerard and his two older siblings back to her hometown of Paisley.

After the move, Butler was raised by his mother, with no further contact with his father until he was 16 years old. (Gerard and his later father reconciled, and remained close until his father died of cancer when Butler was in his early 20s.) During his childhood, Butler was enthralled with movies and acting, and his mother took him to several auditions. He joined the Scottish Youth Theatre and in one of his first roles played a street urchin in its production of Oliver!, a role I have played myself, in a school production I was in Fagin’s gang, but alas fame was not to come my way as it did for Gerard

Despite his love for theater and film, Butler was anxious to please his family and believed that acting was not a realistic career choice for him. “I was a 16-year-old kid on the other side of the world from where they made movies,” he later said. “Scottish actors never really got play. There was Sean Connery, and that was it.” Though he claims he is “not the most academic of guys,” Butler graduated near the top of his high school class and enrolled in the University of Glasgow, where he studied to become a lawyer and solicitor.

During his time in university, Butler was also the president of the law society and graduated with honours. Like many other new graduates, Butler decided to take a year off to travel abroad, and his ventures soon landed him in Venice, California, where he indulged in the high life: “This is when things started to go a little crazy,” he later said. “Something very compulsive and dark and lusty and pleasurable but damaging took over. It was suddenly knowing I could go out and have a life of traveling, craziness, adventure, partying, women, and all the other things that go with that—including a sense of abandonment.”

After California, Butler returned to Scotland to begin a two-year traineeship at one of Edinburgh’s top law firms,(while there he shared a flat with my pal Peter)but soon found that he despised the job more and more, and he started slacking off and letting his depression show. A week before he was due to finish his traineeship, he went to the Edinburgh Film Festival and saw a stage production of Trainspotting, an experience that crystallized his disappointment with the law and his yearning to be an actor: “The guy playing the lead role was phenomenal. It was such an incredible atmosphere. And I’m dying inside. This is the life I wanted to live. I can do this. I know I can do this. But it’s past now. It’s gone. I’m 25. I missed that opportunity. A week later, they fired me.”

Humiliated but determined to finally pursue his dream of acting, Butler moved to London, England, the next day and worked odd jobs while trying to get his career off the ground. While working as a casting assistant for the play Coriolanus, he ran into the play’s director, Steven Berkoff, in a coffee shop and begged for a chance to read for the lead role. He says of the experience: “I gave it everything. Afterward, the casting director came up to me almost in tears. She said, ‘You’re the best he saw in two days!’ Walking home was probably the happiest moment of my life, when there’s an energy in you that can’t be put down. I’d gone from handing out pages to getting the lead role.” After a successful run in Coriolanus, Butler landed the lead in the exact same stage rendition of Trainspotting that had inspired him to try acting again, and he was really on his way as an actor.

Making the transition from the stage to the screen, in 1997 Butler starred with Judi Dench and Billy Connolly in Mrs. Brown and also scored a small part in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. During the film’s shooting, he was picnicking with his mother near a river and heard screaming from a boy who was in trouble. He immediately dove into the river and saved the youth from drowning, winning a Certificate of Bravery from the Royal Humane Society as an example of his courage and caring.

After acting in a series of largely forgettable films, in 2003, Butler finally got his break with the role of the Phantom in Joel Schumacher’s on-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera. It was a demanding role that required the actor to sing most of his lines. Even though Butler had been the lead singer of a rock band during his time in law school, he was incredibly nervous about auditioning for the part: “I’d had maybe four singing lessons when I went to sing 'Music of the Night’ for Andrew Lloyd Webber, which was perhaps the most nerve-wracking experience I ever went through. But I got the role.

Some people thought I did a great job, but others thought it was sacrilegious.” Though Phantom did not hit blockbuster gold, it got Butler recognized in Hollywood, and four years later he landed the lead role, as King Leonidas, in 300, the testosterone-infused historical epic about a small legion of Spartan soldiers defeating the enormous Persian army. To look believable as a warrior king, Butler trained every day for four months in the most intense workout regimen of his life, giving him an incredible physique in time for the shoot: “You know that every bead of sweat falling off your head, every weight you’ve pumped—the history of that is all in your eyes,” he said. “That was a great thing, to put on that cape and put on that helmet, and not have to think …'I should have trained more.’ Instead, I was standing there feeling like a lion.”

Butler’s role in 300 was a huge boost to his career profile. Since appearing in 300, the actor has starred in several romantic comedies such as P.S. I Love You with Hilary Swank and The Ugly Truth with Katherine Heigl, along with appearing on many “world’s hottest men” lists. And his career isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

Despite all of his success, Gerard Butler still retains the breezy attitude of a guy who rolls with the punches and has a down-to-earth sense of humour. Looking back, he is still slightly stunned at the twists his life has taken and reflects on what could have been: “I wasn’t going to be an actor. I was going to be a lawyer … There was something else at work, something I didn’t have control of. If I hadn’t [messed] up that job, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. I might be a very mediocre lawyer in some small town in the middle of Scotland.”

Gerard has been quiet on twitter lately, one f his last posts on October 25th was plugging his latest film,Plane, which he said he “had a blast working on” He also has a number of projects in post and pre production, so loads more to come from this popular Scot. 

[cloudsoffire]

Why Sonic the Hedgehog is an Incredible Character

 essay below the cut (using capital letters in this for the sake of semi-professionalism):

Sonic the Hedgehog is frequently misunderstood by non-fans as a corporate view of what was cool in the 90s. To that, I say yeah. that’s absolutely what he started off as. The guy was engineered to be a counter to Mario. But you know what? Those corporate guys were right. But you also can’t say in good faith that that’s what he still is. Compare classic western Sonic to the Sonic we see today and while he’s still recognizable, he’s way different. Between cartoons like TAoStH, and the early comics, cultural perception of the character in the west was that of a spunky kid with a mohawk who said things like “Way past cool!” They even redrew the Japanese art to maintain this image.

But come Sonic Adventure, the cultures of Sonic merged. He was still a cool guy, but now he had an actual in-game character to go with it. At least an obvious one (we can talk about that in a second). This transition to 3d also marks the beginning of his modern character. Throughout the years, this character has been added to, flattened, and just been undersold, but his core traits are almost always there. Let’s go over a couple of games to get a better understanding of them.

Sonic 1:

Sonic doesn’t have much of an in-game personality in the original game. We know he’s impatient, and fights evil.

Outside of the game, there are the manuals. The US manual describes Sonic as “one tough dude,” and “the real cool hedgehog with the spiked haircut and power sneakers that give him super speed.” Right from the get-go, we can see the “hey fellow kids”ness of it, but it must’ve been what the kids liked, because Sonic absolutely took off in the US.

I can’t find a translation of the full JP manual, but I have found an English version of the story inside. We actually learn a lot more from this than we do from the US manual. Firstly, we learn that this isn’t the first time Sonic and Eggman have fought, and Sonic has a strong sense of justice. He cares for others, and is horrified when he learns that the mad scientist has turned the inhabitants of South Island into robots. He’s still a cool guy, but he isn’t just a cool guy.

Sonic 2:

Again, Sonic doesn’t have much of a personality. This game does introduce his friendship with Tails, and that they trust each other. Super Sonic is also there, but that doesn’t really say anything about Sonic’s personality yet. In Sonic Adventure it’s stated that he draws from the positive energy of the emeralds, allowing him to go super even after Chaos drained them of their negative energy.

Interesting enough, the US manual makes Sonic seem like a bit of a jerk. He’s again referred to as “One tough dude with spiky hair,” but that’s not all. The manual makes a point that “Mostly, Sonic lets [Tails] trail along,” but he’ll often run off and leave his friend in the dust. Not really something you’d see from him nowadays. But then again, that’s the US manual, filtered through our lens of “cool” at the time. What was sonic actually like during this game?

In the JP manual, Sonic is indifferent to Tails. They become friends when the fox starts following him out of nowhere, and Sonic doesn’t stop him. He’s not mentioned to show off in front of him, and even allows Tails to modify his “Favorite machine, the Tornado.“ It’s also suggested that he’s praised Tails for his second tail, which he was bullied for. He’s explicitly mentioned to be cool, but it’s not in your face at all. This Sonic is much more laid-back than his US counterpart. Again, he has a strong sense of justice and cares for others.

Sonic 3&K:

This game is probably the most realized classic game. I could talk about it for a while, but this is explicitly about Sonic. This game shows that Sonic is quick to forgive, but very much not a pushover.

The US manual shows nothing.

The JP manual shows nothing.

Sonic CD:

Again, not much is learned through gameplay that we don’t know already. The animated cutscenes are cool though.

The US manual starts off by shoehorning in Princess Sally, a character from the Archie comics that does not appear in the game. The story at the beginning portrays Sonic as a thrill-seeker, and someone who does things just because he thinks it’ll be fun. This is definitely something that sticks around into the modern age. Outside of this, he doesn’t really display any character traits outside of concern for Sally.

In the JP manual, he’s once again shows few traits, but it does establish his confidence, stating that he can do anything if he has courage. His character profile also says he’s cool and popular with everyone everywhere. It also gives full diagnostics for Metal Sonic which I will be saving for future use.

Since we’re only talking about mainline games, we’re now moving up to Sonic Adventure. The first game with actual dialog. The game where the divide between the US and JP Sonic was, for the most part, removed. This is who Sonic really is. Could I have started here? Yes, but I think the other stuff is still interesting. Did you know Sally was in the US manual for CD? I didn’t.

Sonic Adventure solidified Sonic in a lot of ways, and made him a lot more three-dimensional (pardon the pun) than his previous iterations. Let’s go over his character profile first.

“He’s the world’s fastest, hypersonic hedgehog! With a strong love of freedom, the only thing Sonic hates is oppression. Despite his short temper, deep down he’s a really nice guy who is 100% committed to helping those in trouble whenever and wherever he can.” Perfect! That summarizes his character up to this point pretty well, and adds some other points. And for the most part, that’s how he behaves ingame, then and now. This is Sonic.

But we can go deeper than that. So we will.

Sonic’s main theme throughout both Adventure games is called “It Doesn’t Matter.” Seems a bit odd for a supposed hero, right? Until you take the time to really listen to it. It isn’t a nihilistic song at all, but it still isn’t something you’d give to a paragon hero. This theme is about not giving up, about always following your heart. Sonic doesn’t care about whether what he’s doing is “right” or “wrong” in the eyes of everyone else, so long as he’s following his own way. And sure, that way involves helping others and stopping Eggman, but that outlook on life also means that he isn’t afraid to be the bad guy. Hell, Sonic Adventure 2 starts off with him running away from G.U.N. instead of just waiting for Shadow to act while he was still in prison, thereby clearing his name. He’s impatient, spontaneous, and he doesn’t give a damn what anyone else thinks.

In Sonic and the Black Knight, Sonic has the following exchange with Merlina.

Merlina: “If you remove that sword and defeat King Arthur with it, you shall forever be the worst of knights, slayer of kings.”

Sonic: “Guess I can’t be the hero every time.”

In Frontiers, he doesn’t question the sky voice at all because he thinks following its directions will save his friends. When this is brought up, he brushes it off, claiming that if they’re evil, he can just defeat them, too. Sonic completely waives morality if it gets in the way of what he perceives as justice. And sometimes that justice is completely misguided, showcased in how willing to forgive he is.

Surge is someone who’s been hurt in the past, and Sonic recognizes this. He isn’t necessarily wrong to want to give her a second chance, but he just as easily extends this courtesy to Eggman and Starline, the people that have caused them and everyone else untold suffering. Surge has a point when she calls him naive. He is. But if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be Sonic. Sonic wouldn’t kill his enemies, because he believes in them. Would it be better for everyone if nobody had to worry about Eggman again? Absolutely. Has Sonic had the opportunity to kill Eggman but instead elected to let him escape? Of course. Sonic sees the good in everyone, and sometimes it works out for him, and sometimes it just hurts him and others. But he sticks to his guns, in a very non-literal sense. He actually expresses his distaste for using firearms in Shadow the Hedgehog.

Sonic isn’t just some corporate 90s kid that was made as a counter to Mario. He’s an extremely fleshed out character with incredible potential. He’s kind, compassionate, strong willed, quick-witted, and above all someone who lives for his own sake.

Some Sonic quotes to leave you with:

“How can [sealing Chaos (who is currently destroying a city) in the Master Emerald] help? It won’t change how he feels inside, will it? His heart will still remain in turmoil, and his anger just won’t vanish! He’ll just be trapped forever!”

“Nothing starts until you take action. If you have time to worry, then run!”

“Shahra... Will you grant me one more wish? I wish for a mountain of handkerchiefs. Now. Just let yourself cry. As much as you need to.”

“Every world has its end, and I know that’s kinda sad, but that’s why we’ve gotta live life to the fullest in the time we have.”

Sage: “And the voice that commands you. What if it is leading you to disaster?”

Sonic: “If they want to start trouble, I’ll stop them, too.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

this technically didn’t follow any essay format, but whatever.

if i missed anything, feel free to scream it at me.

[sarangbe]

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when this adventure began, sarang was convinced that he would be sent home very early on; if not round one, then definitely in round two. having been dropped from his former company just before embarking on this journey had him feeling unconfident in himself, but having a renewed attitude during the filming of “next gen” seems to have been the largest contributing factor to his current success. even though he still feels like he has a lot to improve upon, it doesn’t negate all of the progress that he’s made while here. now, instead of being somewhat tone-deaf, he’s trained his ear enough to consistently sing in-tune; he’s gotten rid of the leftover clumsiness in his body and has strengthened his coordination; he’s even picked up the very, very basic beginnings of rapping. he wouldn’t have gotten to do any of this had he not been offered the opportunity to appear on the show, so no matter what the final results are, he’s grateful for the experience, and is glad to be coming out of it with new skills, new friends, and even a small fanbase that’ll hopefully continue supporting him after the finale airs. he’s depending on them to continue boosting his image post-series, especially if an entertainment contract isn’t extended to him during the last episode.

in order to do that, however, he needs to put his whole heart into this performance—an original song that he, as well as the rest of his team, was given to wow the audience tuning in. lyrically, it’s about trying to apologize to a lover that’s been hurt, and the vibe of the set is innocent, and cute, and if there’s one thing that sarang knows he can do with no hesitation, it’s being adorable—his visual appeal and styling only amplifying those traits in him; his coppery hair curled perfectly and his outfit hugging his figure just right. that, and as the maknae of this unit, he feels a lot of pressure to maintain the winsome energy, and after days upon days of rehearsing, he’s finally ready to step on stage and impress the crowd with his vivid charms.

when the lights hit him and the beat booms through the speakers, he’s revealed as the central figure—immediately schmoozing with his expressions since he has the opening part, and therefore, needs to set the tone for the rest of the stage. facial acting is his strong suit, so he infuses a pitiful, yet cherubic, character into his lines; one he practiced for an embarrassing amount of time in front of the looking glass.

with each passing second, everything seems to be going off without a hitch. the choreography transitions are smooth; his motions are graceful, but bouncy when it matters; showmanship is at an all-time high as he pours every ounce of his heart, soul, and focus into creating a delicate impact on the stage. for most of the song, his voice is stable and characteristically his own—light, high-pitched, and delightful—but when the bridge arrives, he tries to belt out his line with more power, but instead, ends up going too far with his breath support; the note he hits being sharper than the one in the melody. those with ears for music, or those who also sing, are for sure able to hear his error, but those who don’t possess either skill may not really know the difference. that being said, he’s hoping the latter demographic is the majority.

wanting to make up for his mistake, he powers through the rest of the song with stunning smiles, well-timed winks, and when he sings his last line and once again takes his place in center formation, he blows the camera a kiss, then sends it finger-hearts; noticing that the hd-lens is focusing on him for an extended period of time.

with everything said and done, all he can do now is wait; hoping for the best.

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth [1 out of 2]

Just my raw thoughts, not a review or anything

I really loved Final Fantasy VII Remake when it came out during the early pandemic, it along with Animal Crossing: New Horizons kept me going during the difficult times before we started getting used to the isolation of the lockdown. Years later when I got a PS5 the first thing I wanted to play before I even Spider-Man: Miles Morales (the first game I got) or Astro’s Playroom was the PS5 exclusive (at the time) DLC chapter for Remake Episode Intermission which I also really loved since Yuffie has always been in my main party back when I played FF VII for the first time with that janky ass original PC port only available in Square Enix’s website.

All this is to say that Rebirth for me was a long time coming love at first sight, in a way similar to Remake I was disappointed by the previous main series entry be it XV or in this case XVI and then suddenly got my life completely taken over by Avalanche and their adventures, I was completely enthralled by it in a way few games have done and I was having a great time overall. So now that I’m done with the main story unlike my other posts I’m gonna talk a little liberally about the plot (I’ll mark Rebirth only spoilers with []) and bring in my own theories about the story.

So the game begins with you playing as Zack in a different version of the Sector 7 drop in a small sequence where Avalanche got crushed this in itself is strange as the timeframe from the death of Zack which he now survives in the ending of Remake which now somehow happens at the same time as an event that in the original timeline would have happened at around a month after his death, after he rescues Aerith we cut to the Nibelheim flashback which starts with a small section where we play as Sephiroth which I found really strange early on because it’s also the only time you play as him (until you finish the game) and finally after a bit you get to play as Cloud and do the rest of the flashback as it went in the original with the exception of a few more hints like Cloud’s VA also playing him as a faceless Shinra soldier clueing you in early on if you know where to look. Afterwards you do the rest of the story in a very similar way for a while, The Grasslands are fun starting area to explore and have plenty to do for what they are but aren’t too remarkable story wise except for the beginning of the Queen’s Blood side game that I will talk about later on, the real kickoff is the next area Junon which has you infiltrate Shinra’s main military facility and do a parade dance with the Honey Bee Inn minigame from Remake. Junon also introduces either the abundance of minigames that like the Playstation OG this game is completely filled with and unlike the original introduces Yuffie after the events of Intermission as a frankly impressively competent assassin [crazy that if not for Barrett she would have killed Rufus that early on] and teases her joining of the party later on rather than her antagonistic optional side quest in the original. The region started setting the mood that Rebirth would have but that got kicked into overdrive with Costa del Sol just doing its thing and completely upping the comedy and the drama of the story and it along with the rest of the Corel region being the main hub that introduces an absurd amount of minigames in Rebirth which depending on your tastes and thoughts on the original it’s either the most faithful aspect of the game or the one outdated thing they should have cut, which segues will into Gongaga because it sucks ass (I don't mind the minigames but I wanted the transition) yes it is home a to one of the coolest sections of the game [the girls rushing to the reactor to save the boys] but the open world aspect of Gongaga is bad and that seems to be the overall sentiment of the internet so I won’t dwell in it too much as it’s followed by Cosmo Canyon which is a great region with that weird FF trend that we have since XV of doing a small little horror section in all of them and soon after we head to Nibel and which again does a fantastic job with the story [except for the Cait Sith section that wasn’t all that] and finally we head to the ending zone and that I will save for the ending discussion in a bit.

[footballmanager2024download]

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[umichenginabroad]

Sun-Filled Week in Prague

Spring has finally arrived! (aka blooming flowers and warm weather) Despite having lived in Michigan pretty much my entire life, I can't stand the cold, and while Prague has never really been freezing, I've been waiting for it to hit the 70s. Especially after seeing Ann Arbor's heat wave a couple weeks ago, I've been craving the sun. And let me tell you, I think I got the sun at all capacities this week haha. From watching sunset to staying up until sunrise to paddle boating on the river midday, this week was filled with adventures.

There's a ton of good sunset spots around the city with one of them being a park with a really pretty view of Prague Castle near our apartment. So a group of us decided to do a little picnic + sunset situation! Tons of other locals also had the same idea lol since this hill was packed, but it was such a fun time jamming to music and chatting with everyone while we saw the sunset. (A must do for anyone coming to Prague, I'd say)

I don't know how you feel about the sunrise, sunset debate. I've personally always been a fan of sunset because of the colors of the sky, but watching the sunrise for the first time, I realized that I probably like the atmosphere more. There's something to being awake before the rest of the city that is super peaceful and makes you feel at ease. I really enjoy how at sunrise you can see buildings transition from lit up at night with lights to basking in the sunlight.

We tried to go to the Strahov Monastery, which ended up being closed, so shout out to the photographer who directed us to this gorgeous viewpoint

I will probably not be pulling another all nighter to watch the sunrise... but would def wake up early for it just for the peaceful vibes. I'm honestly very surprised that I still had energy the rest of the day even after I slept. But the plans were to go paddle boating, and that was something on my Prague bucket list. Plus the day was perfect for spending outside so I couldn't say no.

Seriously, I will never get used to how pretty the city is, and the view from the water made it even better. We all took turns paddling at the beginning, but I ended up being one of the two who paddled for most of the ride. You could say I got a nice leg workout in :)

For sure no misses this week. I can't believe I only get 2 more weeks in Prague...but I'm trying to make to most of it by exploring whenever I can. Look forward to the rest of my adventures in the city!

Catherine Jiang Computer Science Tech Career Accelerator in Prague

[inthelittlewood]

Over the years as a content creator, how have you adapted with the changing platform?

As well as the rise, decline, and rejuvenation of minecraft?

Was it hard?

Honestly, my channel very nearly died out at one point because I'm a stubborn bugger!

My channel was born from Minecraft but I soon felt the pinch, much like everybody else where new maps and mod experiences entered a dry spell and my peers all had their established groups, deeply entrenched in whatever SMP they had going. So I was just nearby, floating on my own little rock. Between that and the pressures of being PG in all my content, I needed to diversify my game roster and loosen the reins a little for my own sanity.

The variety period of my channel was really fun but it really highlighted the cold hard fact that YouTube was evolving in to a single topic success store, but that just wasn't for me. I'd rather have transitioned out the industry enjoying my final days as opposed to getting caught in a one game rut. I was doing radio before this and I was confident I could return to it.

This went on for a while, to slowly declining numbers. When I reached the 1.3m subscriber mark, it all screeched to a halt and I plateaued HARD!

In late 2018 / early 2019 my channel was almost dead. Yogscast were floating me some months when CPM (ad money) was low and I'd pay them back on stronger months, I'm eternally grateful for that. I resorted to making a Patreon and told myself I'd only do it for a set period and if it was still a dependency by the end of that time, I'd close up shop. I was looking to get married, have a kid and I needed more stability then aaaaall of a sudden, BOOM, one of the games in my roster blew up. Fortnite, and not even at the beginning of its life either. This was nearly 2 years in to Battle Royale.

My stubbornness had paid off for once. Others were hiding 30 seconds of info in 10 minute videos to get pre-roll advertisements and I was NEVER going to do that.. Mine were 50 seconds: "Hey how ya doing, here's your info, catch ya later" and people respected that. Fast forward to now and that's still my main bread winner, it's nuts.

Is it creatively fulfilling? No. Does it pay the bills and keep sponsors happy, heck yeah!

I stayed active in the Minecraft scene via streaming, cameos in other people's content and was in good standing with Mojang (so much so that I got to host Minecon Live, that was fun!! Remember the first Grid Runners map?).

I dabbled in casual speedrunning and was there for the Minecraft Championship's inception which I snapped at the chance at to play in as I'd championed the Noxcrew's work since 2012. So in a weird way, it feels like my stubbornness and commitment to quality didn't go unnoticed by the current leaders in the field. Those middle patches of MCYT weren't for me, the 'lets be a group of creators and by an empty mansion, leaning our gold plaque against the wall on the floor next to our 2 pairs of sneakers' and going uber kid friendly or entering roleplay wasn't appealing to me.

This new wave of Minecraft through.. Where improv comedy and a little bit of skill are praised. This is where I'm meant to be. I'd demonstrated all these skills through projects like the ADVENTure and the Noxcrew Gameshow but they were in some ways, a little too ahead of their time. I just had to survive long enough to be here for the right 'phase'.

3L/LL has breathed life in to my 'second channel' which, let's be honest, is my Minecraft channel, calling it second isn't fair and MCC springs my name up to the new gen. Creators blowing up now might have watched me as kids or other OGs will give a knowing nod but I certainly still feel like I'm floating in the aether not knowing juuuust quite where I fit in, similarly to before. I'm sure it's partly imposter syndrome but also my lack of commitment to the game for 4/5 years will be why I feel this pinch.

So that's my next goal, finding a new MC space to call home, being a stubborn fuck as always and pushing myself creatively. Let's see how it goes

[getoutofmyjaneway]

Enterprise is also Leaving Netflix. What Should you Watch Before it Boldly Goes Away

So let’s talk about Enterprise shall we? The black sheep of Trek, it is very different from what came before it. And you are right, Enterprise starts off slow.  R e a l l y    s l o w.  Do not let that stop you, Enterprise has a lot to offer! How you can watch depends on how much you have to put into the show:

Option 1 - Long Option

Enterprise is primarily comprised of story arcs in its third and fourth seasons. You can see Star Trek actively starting to transition its’ form of storytelling from usually one- or two-episode stories to the multi-episode to season-long story arcs we typically see in TV today. I will also not be the first to say that Enterprise really blossoms in those two seasons. Because of this, it is really hard to just jump into an episode in the middle of a story arc without being a little lost

Your best option is to watch all of the Xindi story arc and most of the story arcs in season 4.

Start at season 2 episode 26 The Expanse and watch all the way to season 4 episode 21 Terra Prime. This is the true series finally, do not watch These are the Voyages, it is one of the most insulting series finales, like worse than Seinfeld.

Please note that you can skip season 4 episodes 18 and 19 if you don’t like/ are annoyed by the Mirror Universe. These are for-fun episodes that I enjoyed, but I understand are not for everyone. Additionally, season 4 episodes 10 and 11 are not part of any broader story arc, but I would only skip episode 11, Observer Effect. I personally really like episode 10, Daedalus, which gives insight into the history of the Star Trek Universe.

This leaves you with anywhere from 42-46 episodes to watch. Now if that seems like a lot, don’t worry! You can always watch:

Option 2 - Just 10 Episodes

Season 1 Episode 13 - Dear Doctor

Ship's Doctor and resident non-human character Phlox is on Enterprise in a type of exchange program, with a human taking his place on a Denobulan vessel as they strive to learn more about each other's cultures. Phlox writes his human counterpart a 'Data's Day' style letter in which he recounts the adventure of the day. So what's on the menu today? Oh, I don't know, just the origination point of the Prime Directive, you might have heard of that before. 

Season 2 Episode 23 -  Regeneration

Regeneration is a follow-up to the movie, Star Trek First Contact. Yes. I am serious. A group of scientists encounters a crash site where they find Borg corpsickles and so kindly bring them back. This means that the Borg's attack at Wolf 359 was actually a predestination paradox created by the same man who leads the charge against the Borg at that very battle. Yikes. Overall though, a Borg episode was surprisingly appreciated, reminding us that this is overall still a part of the current Star Trek canon.

Season 2 Episode 24 -  First Flight

The point of Enterprise was to give us a glimpse into the early years of human space exploration. While we only saw so much, we did see the beginning of humans traveling at faster than warp speeds. As part of the NX program that spawned Enterprise herself, many tests had to be made to push the maximum possible speed. Of course, being the prolific piolet he was, Archer was there. Making drama.

Season 3 Episode 8 -  Twilight

Enterprise ran into an anomaly that slams into a corridor where Archer and T'Pol are. T'Pol becomes trapped and Archer frees her. This allowed her to escape, but he did not share her fate, being rendered unconscious by the same anomaly. That was 12 years ago. As a result of his injury, he can no long-term memories and Archer has to come to grips with what has been lost during that time. This is my favorite episode of Enterprise, that invokes shades of DS9's The Visitor and Voyager's Year of Hell. In my research, I found out that this was originally pitched as a Voyager story which is now so obvious. The relationship between Archer and T'Pol is never romantic, but you can see the true care they have for each other in their interactions here.

The “Romulan Interference” Arc

Season 4 Episode 12 - Babel One

Season 4 Episode 13 - United

Season 4 Episode 14 - The Aenar

I have decided to select this three-episode arc which is defined by Memory Alpha as the Romulan Interference Arc. By trying to turn the founding members of the federation against each other, the Romulans accidentally created one of their biggest rivals. Oops. Of course, the Romulans are not the main focus, where this really shines is the interplay between the different cultures of the founding races, the humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. You can see that this was originally planned to be long and drawn out, but they did a good job of condensing it into a nice little arc. Andorians are at their best in Enterprise and this is the most in-depth look that we see in the series. Star Trek Legend Jeffery Combs plays Shran and of course he is amazing, his chemistry with Archer is real. As a reoccurring character, this is not the first or last time we see Shran, but probably the most focused look we have on the character.

The “Xenophobic Humans” Arc

Season 4 Episode 3 - Home

Season 4 Episode 20 - Demons

Season 4 Episode 21 - Terra Prime

Another arc here to round off the list. I had originally only planned on placing episodes 20 and 21 here, but as there is setup done earlier in the season, episode 3, so I have also included it here as it contributes to a bigger part of the story. It makes sense after all that people have been through after the Xindi war, there would be pro-isolation groups. Heck, they probably were already there, but it makes sense that here, the tension would grow. It’s kind of ironic that after all of these struggles with alien races, the climax of the series sees a struggle not among aliens, but among humans. As a premise, this is what we all expected of Enterprise, a Coalition among explorers coming together to see what is beyond their shores. This is the true ending of Enterprise.

Again there are multiple ways to watch Enterprise, and again, these are just snippets. I know I left out some episodes that people will probably enjoy like The Expanse, Carbon Creek, or even the pilot Broken Bow (which in my opinion is the best pilot episode in the pre-reboot Star Trek era). This list was composed of episodes that would best give the Enterprise flavor, and in my opinion, the effect of an episode on Star Trek mythology was one of the biggest contributing factors. Would love to know what you think or if there are other episodes that should be added. 

[finalfantasyix]

Meet The Team Working On A Final Fantasy 9 Remake You’ll Never Get To Play

Final Fantasy 9: Memoria Project is a fan homage like nothing we've ever seen before. “It is no secret that fan projects get shut down all the time,” Dan Eder tells us about Final Fantasy 9: Memoria Project, a fan-driven love letter to the classic JRPG. It isn’t aiming to be a playable remake of the epic adventure though - instead, it’s an aesthetic homage to its timeless world and characters.

It’s somewhat anomalous in the world of community creations, but Eder wants to use this distinct identity to craft something truly special, even if many obstacles stand in the way of making it a reality. But the team keeps moving forward: “Without a doubt, some of the most frequent comments we get from naysayers is ‘have fun with it while it lasts’ or ‘cease and desist incoming’”, Eder explains. “People are understandably skeptical of the longevity potential of yet another passion project. The key difference is that, unlike those projects, Memoria is essentially an elaborate piece of fan art, nothing more - it will have no actual gameplay, will never be released to the public, and is nothing more than a ‘what-if’ scenario. [It’s] no different from any other fan-made piece of artwork. We have never, and will never, make a single dollar out of this project, and are basically doing this for the personal gratification of the fans.”

The genesis of Memoria Project dates all the way back to Eder’s younger years, with dreams of a potential FF9 remake entering his imagination soon after the original game’s launch. That’s no great surprise - millions still regard Final Fantasy 9 as the series’ finest hour. “While it's true that the project really started to pick up steam a few months ago, it wouldn't be a stretch to say I've been planning it since high school,” Eder explains. “I remember scribbling ‘FF9 remake’ on my notepad during classes and writing imaginary new features and battle system mechanics, starting online petitions to remake FF9 for the PS2, sketching drawings depicting scenes from the ‘FF9 sequel’ and whatnot. I could confidently say that my life would probably have been completely different had my older brother not borrowed this game from his friend in the summer of 2000.

“As a non-native English speaker who had never played an RPG up until that point, my first playthrough was a challenging experience to say the least, and I can honestly say that I understood literally nothing of what was going on the first time I finished the game (how I even managed to beat it is a mystery in and of itself). It didn't really matter to me though, since I was absolutely enamored with the incredible cast of characters, jaw-dropping FMV sequences, mesmerizing music, thrilling gameplay, and just the overall atmosphere and charm it exuded at every step. My unconditional love for this game persisted throughout my entire childhood and adult life, and it is one of the central reasons why I chose to become a 3D character artist in the video game industry. In short, this project is my way of thanking this game for everything it has done for me over the past 21 years.”

Eder’s passion for this game can be found across several industry professionals who grew up with games like this and wanted to replicate them, or create something entirely unique to live up to their brilliance. This is very much how Memoria Project found its feet, beginning life as a trivial side activity before blossoming into something infinitely more ambitious. It still has a long way to go, but there’s little urgency to reach the finish line, so the team can take their time and just enjoy the nostalgic indulgence of it all.

“Memoria actually started unofficially as a side project when I reached out to Colin Valek [of] Sucker Punch Studios in early 2020 after I came across his fanart of an environment from FF7,” Eder says. “I had already modeled Princess Garnet, and thought it could be a fun idea to combine our talents to reimagine the opening area of Alexandria. Initially, it was progressing at a snail's pace - we were slowly chipping away at it for over a year without making a lot of progress. While Colin continued modeling the buildings, I created another character - Vivi.”

This glacial pace received a resurgence of sorts in January when the Alexandria scene was finally complete, with Eder and company finally being able to see how much potential the project had if it was opened up to a larger range of creators. “When I posted that WIP screenshot, the response from fellow FF fans was overwhelmingly positive, more than we could have imagined,” Eder remembers. “Very quickly, other people from the gaming industry started reaching out - environment artists, animators, riggers, concept artists. That's when I decided to turn this side project into a full-fledged modern reimagining of the original game, while always making sure to emphasize the fact that this is a non-playable proof-of-concept, since we never have any intention of doing anything to violate Square Enix's copyright. Four months after officially announcing the project, we've grown from a couple of FF fanboys to a huge team of over 20 industry veterans working collaboratively to honor this masterpiece, fueled by our love and adoration for the source material.”

Now, the project has over 20 developers from Sucker Punch, Ubisoft, Rare, Unbroken Studios, and more all diving into this labour of love in their spare time, with composers and voice actors also contributing their talents to help make this glimpse into the world of Final Fantasy 9 worth celebrating. But Eder is aware of being overly enthusiastic, knowing that fan projects like this often doom themselves by undertaking something that isn’t feasible with so few resources.

“One of the most common traps for these kinds of fan projects is being overly ambitious,” Eder says. “Since all of us are actively working in the video game industry, we understand the importance of milestones, short term goals, and taking things one step at a time. For now, we are focusing our efforts on the opening sequence of the game, which mainly revolves around Vivi and his exploration of Alexandria. Where we go from here is still being discussed, but one thing I can say for sure is that Vivi will not be the only main character we're planning to include.” I’m told that Memoria is aiming to look indistinguishable - at least from a graphics perspective - from something you’d see in a triple-A blockbuster, and it seems the team has the pedigree to back that claim up.

Visuals are the entire point after all, since turning this project into a playable piece of media would require far more resources to create. By narrowing its focus, Memoria is able to deliver something special while also hopefully avoiding the ire of Square Enix. “The fact that this is a non-playable project definitely makes it easier for us to tailor the experience in a way that would truly allow the audience to be fully immersed in the world without having to worry about technical limitations,” Eder tells me. “Creating actual functional gameplay is a completely different ball game, one that we never had any intention of even discussing given the copyright limitations. This gives us a lot of leeway with how we are going to portray the world of Gaia in terms of character interaction, camera movement, [and] scene transitions. We have a lot of cool plans for the near future - please look forward to it!”

As for the sad truth of fan projects like this often being wiped from existence by publishers throwing out cease and desist letters, Eder is confident that Memoria occupies a niche where this won’t happen. It’s not a commercial or even playable product - it’s a piece of fan art, albeit an endlessly elaborate one. If the tides were to change, Eder believes companies should welcome the enthusiasm for experiences like this.

“If I were to be completely honest, I think it could be a potentially brilliant decision by Square Enix to do something wildly unexpected and invest in a project like this,” Eder states. “There's a considerable amount of hype, talent, motivation, and pure, unadulterated passion behind it. It's not something I would expect, but I think it could be incredibly helpful in regaining some of the trust and reverence that this legendary company was known for during its golden years.”

(source)

[bronyinabottle]

MY LITTLE PONY: A NEW GENERATION (G5 Movie) THOUGHTS

It’s finally here. The beginning of Generation 5. Though before I get into the movie in some detail I’m going to reiterate one more time what G5 means for my content and a non-spoilery summary of the movie.

Again, I will say that the movie nor will the G5 series coming later have much of an effect at all on any of my blogs. The revelation in Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear that life itself is also magic means that a world that implied to have no magic for years would mean the extinction of all life (Perhaps resulting in the wasteland we saw in the Season 5 finale). There may be something I’ll probably do at some point on a certain different blog. But even then, that may likely be a one-time thing and probably come around the time the series is starting to air.

That said, just because I’m continuing with mainly G4 content doesn’t mean I disapprove of G5. In fact, my non-spoilers thoughts on the movie is I think it is a good start for this new generation. There are questions I have that I’m not sure will be answered (Though many of those questions are the same ones I had in my Trailer/Preliminary thoughts) quickly enough. But the movie is structured well enough, in fact it’s probably a better movie as a whole compared to any of the movies G4 had (The 2017 movie, Rainbow Roadtrip, and all 4 Equestria Girls movies). As the 2017 movie was fun, but it jumped around a lot, sometimes scenes transitioning too fast. And while Rainbow Roadtrip may have been this on purpose, the entirely slice-of-life story taking up a long length… made it something of a less interesting plot to follow. It feels like some of that special could of been cut to at least a two-parter length and keep the same beats they hit. And while i have a soft spot for the 3rd and 4th Equestria Girls movies, I’ll always say a full-length pony adventure feels better suited for what I want to see out of MLP then spin-off movies with high school movie cliches and weird pony/human world shenanigans.

So movie-wise I’m not a G4 purist. It’ll take some time to see how Gen 5 compares to Friendship is Magic when we get to the series. As I feel it’d take a lot for it to surpass G4 in my mind. But I’m going to try to be as fair as possible and judge on it’s own merits. The implied connection to G4 by referring to G4 being ancient Equestria is going to naturally get the staff and hasbro pressured by fans to tell us what happened in-between the generations. Because that’s the trap they put the writers in when they made it so they want to try to say it’s in the same universe. That’s the double-edged sword Hasbro chose to have, trying to appease the G4 fanbase and keep at least some of them around. But at the cost of questions both nitpicky (Such as character design being inconsistent) or actual honest questions that need to be known (Why did magic disappear, and what happened to the Alicorns) for some of us to truly see this as the same Equestria.

After the break, I’ll have more spoilery thoughts

Even for a brief moment, it was nice seeing the Mane 6 and 2D animation. The former because of course those are the ponies many of us that saw all of G4 loved. And the latter, because while the animation wasn’t bad in this movie. I’m one of those who’d prefer to have 2D animation in an animated film. As in most cases aside from Pixar, it’s just a strong preference of mine. If this had the animation of the 2017 MLP movie but otherwise everything else was generally the same here, I feel that would of have been great.

I wish they didn’t have to have Sunny’s dad die off-screen, as he seems like he could of been a compelling character. And not to mention if perhaps he has any connection the “ancient” days in any fashion. But *sigh* I get it, it’s an old trope where part of the character’s offscreen growth is not having their parent(/s) around.

On a side note there’s quite a few times during the beginning of the movie that somewhat foreshadow what happens to Sunny later. 3 times where she had a fake horn and wings on her. Once in the flashback, then 2 separate times when she’s doing her protest where she has her own costumed wings and horn. As well as the helmet and mechanical wings.

Also, there’s no way around it. Some of the discussions this movie are going to get quite political. (Namely one part of Sunny’s song that could be seen as having a double meaning of a jab at Trumpsts regarding “Building your wall”) From the very premise in the early times, we know that the inspiration for the story was last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Which honestly, I do support the message they’re going for. Having an anti-racism message to tell kids from the very beginning and making a focus on it is important when in G4 it only got briefly touched upon in Bridle Gossip and the Heath’s Warming Eve play. Although it certainly rose up to some form of prominence with Season 8 and onward. Still, while you can argue if G4 executed the anti-racism message well. it does come with something of a problem that the series finale left Equestria in the least divided it’s ever been.

And personally, I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time to say “Well, it’s a realistic take. Racism has existed for years in our world. Same should go for the ponies” and while yes, racism is still rampant in today’s world. That said, that ignores that if we went from The Last Problem to the start of G5. There’s a huge difference between our world and Equestria. There is no ancient civilization that we look at like “Yeah, those were the golden days of world peace” when normally the “Golden age” was reserved for the high classes of Ancient Greece or Rome. It was most decidedly not perfect, with slavery rampant and wars for the sake of expanding an empire. While if you look at The Last Problem’s Equestria, you not only have peace between the three main types of ponies. But you literally have non-pony citizens in Equestria. You can see a dragon handing off a flower to a pony which can imply cross-species romantic relations. With the Friendship school still going strong, and was the reason that the world was saved in The Ending of the End. While perhaps it may be too glowing to say that future is perfect for everyone even in-universe. It’s certainly a hell of a lot better outlook then comparing to how we view even the so called Golden age of ancient civilizations. The Last Problem’s Equestria implies it looks to ally with every country outside of Equestria, not conquer them.

So it should still be a valid question on just how this world collapses to the point it gets to where G5 is at the start. I at least assume that it’s not the fault at all of any of the Mane 6 nor Twilight. Or at least I hope it isn’t, as I’d rather the MLP fanbase not have to deal with a The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker situation. (Where after the joyful end of the original trilogy, things go wrong as Luke almost murders the son of one of his best friends and his sister despite trying to hard and succeeding at redeeming his father who at that point in the canon was a galaxy-wide known ruthless mass-murderer.) I assume we’re at a point where everyone of the Mane 6 sans maybe Twilight are presumed dead. And even in Twilight’s case, there’s a chance that G5 decides to say that G4 overestimated the whole Alicorn immortality thing. Though I wouldn’t put it past Hasbro to have some event where the Mane 5 of G5 meet the Mane 6 in some special event whether that’s a a Season finale or a sequel movie/special. Where either the Mane 6 return in a limbo situation similar to the Pillars at the end of Season 7 or Time travel gets involved. They may even string us along on answering just what in the heck happened until they involve a meet-up with the Mane 6 in that way. Though I hope they don’t, I’d really like the beginning of the series (Or I guess this supposed special coming up in Spring supposedly?) starts to answer some questions. G5 should get a chance to stand on it’s own, but I hope the writers are actually well aware there will be so many questions people have and address them in the show. A cynical part of me feels like they’re likely to string us along until at least the Season 1 finale.

Onto the characters for a bit. I think Izzy Moonbow was absolutely the most stand-out character in the whole movie. She was energetic, funny, and aside from “The pegasi are bad news” she along with Zipp and Sunny were the most averse to the way the world was. She was already the most popular due to the tennis ball memes. But now it feels like she legit stands on her own and most certainly deserves to be the most popular character of G5 thus far. Behind her in a bit of a surprise to me was Zipp, who I thought would be mainly a Rainbow Dash-expy. Though she really helps out Izzy and Sunny in Zephyr Heights. Despite having Twilight be my favorite pony from the very beginning of G4 all the way to the end, I didn’t feel as strongly about Sunny for some reason. So she’s in the middle of the pack, she could grow on me later. I just don’t know if I click with her as much as I did with Twilight. As for the last two, while I don’t hate either of them. Either one could be the lowest of the 5 for one reason or another. Pipp (Although I will say she's probably my favorite character design out of the 5) feels like she doesn’t do a whole lot in the movie and it takes until she’s forced to be an outlaw because the other choice was to get imprisoned like her mother was. So she may come off as quite pretentious, though it’s arguable Rarity was the same way early in G4. But she definitely grew later. Could be the same case for Pipp. And as for Hitch, he has shining moments in the film. But what might hurt him is the fact he was such a bad friend to Sunny up until the campfire scene. “I’m the last real friend you have. You really want to lose me too?” is not a healthy friendship. Hitch may have been Sunny’s friend the longest, but it definitely feels like Izzy connected immediately. I don’t know if this show will get into shipping any of the main characters between each other mid-show, but if they do. I hope it’s between Izzy and Sunny currently, cause Hitch and Sunny just gives bad vibes even with Hitch getting better later.

None of the songs I felt were particularly too special. Though I think the closest was Sprout’s “Danger, Danger” song that has similarities to Smells Like Teen Spirit in some parts of the song since I tend towards more rock/metal-esque music.

I touched upon it earlier, but there’s perhaps a stand-out reason for why the G5 movie outdid the 2017 MLP Movie. They have the typical “Our heroic group splits after a sad moment before coming together again for the climatic good end” in Sunny seeing that that the two crystals don’t instantly bring magic back, and when Twilight left the group after an argument that happened with Twilight trying to take a pearl. They perform the same purpose in the movie. But the crystals not working, crushing Sunny’s hope for a little while works better into the story. Where as Twilight’s part frustratingly brought the sea pony scene to an end too quickly and/or doesn’t feel right of Twilight to have done that. It felt forced in the 2017 movie, but works out in the G5 movie. Especially since a part of it is that it’s not the crystals themselves capable of bringing magic back. But it’s the journey going after the crystals that brings the ponies themselves their magic back.

Just a small note on dictator Sprout, he tries to cause a war. Though admittedly the film seems to treat him as a joke the entire time despite his seriously evil ambitions. With the only repercussions is he gets a wishy-washy answer on if he was a good sheriff from his mom. I don’t quite know how I feel about that yet, but I wonder what they’ll have in mind for Sprout given his actions. He and his mom are the only ones that feel like a true antagonist. Though they seem to be ok with things fast when the magic comes back.

But anyway on to the ending, we see that Sunny becomes an Alicorn. Which I guess with no other real Alicorns around, I guess it makes sense to alicornify her since she’s the real leader behind what united the leaders of each type of pony again. Though there is of course this weird thing where her horn and wings don’t seem like as much a part of her body compared to very obvious connected wings on Twilight when she got hers. Sunny keeps her horn and wings to the end of the movie, and has colored streaks in her hair. Though I do wonder if that;s truly permanent. If it is permanent, I suppose at least they got to have a headstart and have it established at the end of the introductory movie rather then have it shock people at the end of a shortened 3rd season. I still feel like Twilight had well earned her alicornhood considering that besides what she did in the series. She has a whole childhood and time as a teenager learning under Celestia. Which had to mean something, and I’m not sure Celestia just leaving her to live the rest of her days with her friends in ponyville was that. Sunny has no doubt been trying countless time to try to spread friendship throughout her life even after the tragedy of her father’s passing. So there’s no doubt she’s been through a lot, and may indeed be worthy of being an Alicorn at this point. Though in terms of screentime before Alicornhood it's definitely a lot less then Twilight had. And it is at least nice to see that it is possible for non-unicorns to become one. (The only case of that we sort of got was a children's book that may or may not be canon that implied Cadence was a pegasus before she ascended)

Though you have to wonder if the visual differences such as Sunny’s alicorn horn and wings, the cutie mark only on one side (Yes I know that’s how it was normally in the MLP generations before G4. But a distinct visual difference between shows is still noticeable even if the context of G4’s cutie marks on both sides of the flank was about it being easier on the puppets for Flash), and how animals can have wings or weird round shapes such as those bunnies when G4 has normal looking animals. There’s enough striking visual differences for any nitpicky G4 to say “This isn’t the same Equestria”. And if someone tries to say maybe some sort of evolution happened. That’s still trying to put a little too much real world logic on this fantasy world. And evolution tends to take millions of years to have such dramatic changes. Not 1000 years or so, there should still be normal looking animals at this point and time. And these small details are probably going to be the things most ignored but nonetheless can build a case that this isn’t the same Equestria. Even if they touch on the important questions like how magic disappeared and what happened to the Mane 6, there will be details they make different that will add to the case that this is it’s own universe if it doesn’t quite matchup with what was remembered about G4. There will be fans who will be that nitpicky to call G5 out of continuity for small details like that. That is again the trap they put themselves in when they decided to try to say it’s the same Equestria.

All-in-all though, I think that’s at least a good enough chunk about my thoughts on the movie to end off here. If there’s something I missed or something from the movie you’d like me to give a particular opinion about or elaborate on something feel free to ask me here. G5 is indeed off to a good start, just I will be along the many hoping some questions get answered sooner then later. And I’m not sure I’m confident in getting anywhere until a Season finale or a 2nd movie. And it’ll be a year before the series starts proper (Though again I guess there’s a 44 minute special coming in Spring to try to hold us over). But I could definitely see G5 finding it's own following, now there's just the inevitable clashes between some of the more vocal fans of each generation bickering at eachother. But hoping there will be enough that take the movie's lessons on divisiveness to heart and be able to enjoy both even if there may be preferences.

[elminx]

Energy Update: September 2021

Happy September!

Numerologically, September is a 5 universal month [9 (September) + 5 (2021) = 14 = 1+4 = 5] in a 5 universal year. In numerology, the number 5 represents the pivotal moment in the middle of it all. It holds the vastness of all futures – both good and ill. 5 represents freedom and adventure. A 5 month is, in general, a time to tap in and go with the flow – it’s not a time to make your lists and check them twice; instead, it’s a time to think big and say “yes”. We’ve been sitting in 5 energy all year so this may feel like a bit of a homecoming for some or very nerve-wracking for others. This will have a lot to do with your own personality and comfortability with 5 energy.

Astrologically, the month of September is a mismatch for our 5 universal energy. We spend most of the month in Virgo season and may have to spend quite a bit of time putting in the work to catch up on things that we fell behind on during summer vacation. Whether it’s back to school or back to work, Virgo season always has a feeling of settling into your routines again or perhaps finding a new and more healthful routine.

The Setup

The Sun is in Virgo for most of the month, Mercury spends the entirety of the month in Libra, Venus finishes her stint in Libra and moves ahead into Scorpio, and Mars enters Libra at the midway point in the month. As our planets transit through Virgo, they are squaring off with the lunar nodes, trining retrograde Uranus in Taurus and Pluto in Capricorn, and opposing retrograde Neptune in Pisces. As they transit Libra, they are reactivating our Saturn-Uranus square through a trine to Saturn, trine to retrograde Jupiter, and opposing retrograde Chiron in Aries. Venus whose the head of our pack will be squaring off with Saturn and opposing Uranus once she enters Scorpio.

We are still under the effect of our Saturn in Aquarius square to Uranus in Taurus – this is our Unstoppable Force meets immovable object energy that is in effect throughout the rest of the year.

Additionally, we are deep into retrograde season with all of our outer and transpersonal planets in retrograde. Mercury will join these planets later this month for its third retrograde of the year in the sign of Libra.

For a sneak peek of October: Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all station direct from 10/6-10/18 – this is the Green Light you’ve been waiting for. Now we just need to get there.

The Nitty Gritty

September is filled with contradictory vibes and may feel like a roller coaster. One day you may feel invincible and full of the highest highs but it is worth keeping in mind all month that what goes up must come down. We are all subject to gravity – plan accordingly. In particular, the first and third weeks of the month look fairly rocky while the third and fourth weeks have promise and moments of sweetness. This is a month to tidy up – to work smarter rather than harder. To pair down your responsibilities and make sure you are maintaining healthy boundaries around work, play, and excess.

The 5 energy may give the impression that it’s go time but it’s really not. Not yet. We will have six planets and Chiron retrograde by the end of the month which is always an indication that our energy is best expressed in an inward fashion.

Two of our personal planets (Venus and Mars) change signs this month which will personalize the energy with some emphasis on the relationships in our lives. While Mars is in Libra, we may be called to balance out the relationship energy we share with our others in some way – early on Mars will make an opposition to our wounded healer Chiron in Aries – there is pain to go through to get to the other side. Venus in Scorpio can be harsh and unyielding but also deep and seductive. These two energies do not sit well together, Venus may try to control (especially with emotions – using toxic tactics like the silent treatment or double binds) while Mars just wants everybody to find peace and get along. The more space you can give your others, the better off you will be.

Relationships may be especially tense around the new moon in Virgo on 9/5-9/6 as Venus in Libra squares of with retrograde Pluto in Capricorn while Mars in Virgo makes a trine. This year is all about transformations – first, we need to transform internally, but then this transformation needs to ripple outward and into our realities. There may be some break-ups and breakdowns during this time – it is likely that some long-term partners (Capricorn rules marriage, let’s not forget) are starting to realize that their connection has run its course.

In a year when it feels like we need to hold onto everything (influenced by our long-term Saturn-Uranus square in the fixed signs), this may feel catastrophic. Uranus in Taurus has a big lesson for us now: nothing lasts forever and retrograde Pluto in Capricorn is reinforcing this lesson. Now is the time to release what you have outgrown. It will likely feel very uncomfortable this month to continue to wear your mostly shed skin. As you navigate this energy, make the choices that are best suited for who you would most like to be, and you alone.

Herein lies the secret to navigating this month and really the energy of all of 2021: give up the illusion that you can control or “help” other people, and instead work controlling and “helping” yourself. As Anne Lamott says “Help is just the sunny side of control.” We are being pushed by our Saturn-Uranus square towards an ever-deepening understanding of this lesson and, since Virgo is a sign concerned with service and helping others, this will be especially accentuated as our sun transits the sign of the virgin. The lesson may come due on 9/14 as our Sun in Virgo opposed retrograde Neptune in Pisces – this is a day to give up the illusion (Neptune in Pisces) that we can control (Sun in Virgo) our Others.

Especially right now, our Others may be on an internal journey that is impossible for us to reach or understand. We’ve all had to make hard decisions and recalculations since the beginning of 2020 – beware of following your Others to a place that feels uncomfortable to be AND most especially of demanding your Others follow you to a place that feels uncomfortable for them. Be especially aware of projection and the illusionary stories that you tell yourself – especially as we approach our full moon in Pisces on 9/20 that is conjunct Neptune retrograde. As we enter our month to finally get shit done in October, we want to do so with our eyes wide open. See things as they really are, not as you would like them to be.

The entirety of September and October will be overshadowed by our Mercury retrograde in Libra cycle. Mercury enters its shadow on 9/6, officially retrogrades 9/27, stations direct again on 10/28, and doesn’t exit its post-shadow until November. The standard Mercury retrograde things apply: get your car fixed before the retrograde (change your oil, too!), double-check your work, save often, and watch out for miscommunication and upsets involving technology and travel. Because Mercury Chthonia is transversing backward through the Venus-ruled sign of Libra, this is another indication that this time will be spent re-thinking, re-imagining, re-editing things that have to do within our most personal relationships.

Mercury Chthonia’s path spans from 10° to 25° of Libra which means that it will trine retrograde Jupiter, just barely miss an exact trine with retrograde Saturn, square retrograde Pluto, and opposed retrograde Chiron not once but thrice through its retrograde journey. This will likely be the densest retrograde cycle of the year but potentially the most rewarding. If the message seems murky and unclear, write out your experiences for review after Mercury stations direct – you may find that there were hints of your lesson that you were too “in it” to see.

The lower energy of Libra is prone to emotional entanglements and codependency so it’s likely we will be revisiting these themes in our own lives during this time. Watch out for where you are not allowing your Others to differentiate or be themselves. Watch out for where you are stifling yourself to please your Others as well. Chiron in Aries is always a lesson in putting on your own mask first BEFORE you step up help an/Other put their mask on. Again, see above about maintaining strong boundaries this month – do less but make what you do count for more.

Balance truly is the way through this month but it may be hard to find. Practice your very best self-care and make sure that when you say “yes” to things, you really mean it. This is a month that could easier run away from you if you’re checking out on yourself or trying to do all of the things with no hand on the brake petal. Breath and put one foot in front of the other – slow and steady will get you to the finish line. Once our planets station direct in October, we will be able to move faster.

Below, I’ve broken down the important daily aspects of the month. Please keep in mind that the days listed are just the days that these aspects go exact in EST – strong aspects can be felt anywhere from 2-7 days (or more!) in advance of their completion and for a number of days afterward. I have bolded the most important aspects.

The Aspects

9/2 – Mars in Virgo opposed Neptune retrograde in Pisces, Moon in Cancer square Venus in Libra – this could spell relationship troubles. Mars is off in daydream land while Venus is feeling triggered. Lie low and try not to put undue pressure on your Others during these transits.

9/3 – Mercury in Libra trine N. Node in Gemini – watch out for Ah-Ha moments and signs that show you a way forward on this day.

9/4 – Moon in Leo squares retrograde Uranus in Taurus – here we see one of our four monthly days where the moon reactivates our Saturn-Uranus square. Lie low. Stay aware. Caution.

9/5 – Mercury in Libra trine retrograde Saturn in Aquarius – the energy is volatile – expect breakdowns and breakthroughs especially involving communication about long term things

9/6 – New moon at 14° Virgo, Mercury enters their shadow, Venus in Libra trine Jupiter retrograde in Aquarius, Venus in Libra square Pluto retrograde in Capricorn, Mars in Virgo trine Pluto retrograde in Capricorn – Pluto’s influence on this new moon (through both Venus and Mars) is unmistakeable – something has got to transform. With both and Venus and Mars involved, it may be a change within your relationships. Remember to reach for balance (Venus in Libra) and compromise if it is available.

9/7 – Sun in Virgo trine retrograde Uranus in Taurus – expect (and embrace) the unexpected during this time. What you hold onto too tightly may break. Stay away from the illusion of control during this time.

9/8 – Moon conjunct Mercury in Libra, Moon in Libra trine retrograde Saturn in Aquarius, Moon and Mercury opposed retrograde Chiron in Aries – this is an air grand trine which means that we are supporting in learning something during this transit. This re-activates our Saturn-Uranus square and Chiron – the lesson is likely to be heavy. Avoid using your emotions as a copout to understanding.

9/10 – Venus enters Scorpio, Moon in Scorpio square retrograde Saturn in Aquarius – this is our first hint as to what it is going to feel like to revisit our Saturn-Uranus square during Scorpio season. Take note.

9/13 – Moon in Sagittarius square retrograde Neptune in Pisces – something may be revealed today and it may feel like a major setback. Pivot your attention and focus on things that you CAN change.

9/14 – Sun in Virgo opposed retrograde Neptune in Pisces, Mars enters Libra – a repeat on 9/13 – you may not have all of the information. All that glitters is not gold. Watch out for “helper” behavior that isn’t helpful and victim/savior complexes.

9/16 – Moon conjunct retrograde Saturn in Aquarius – this is another of our four lunar activation points to our Saturn-Uranus square. Make sure the weight of the responsibility you are carrying is actually yours.

9/17 – Sun in Virgo trine retrograde Pluto in Capricorn, Venus in Scorpio square Saturn retrograde in Aquarius – in a month that begs for transformation, this is one of our powerhouse days – level up. Change may be uncomfortable but it will be even more uncomfortable to stay in your too-tight skin. Watch out for the control through emotional manipulation because this again activates our Saturn-Uranus square and Uranus is not having any of that shit.

9/20 – Full moon at 28° Pisces, Moon conjunct retrograde Neptune, Mercury in Libra trine Jupiter retrograde in Aquarius, Mars in Libra trine N. Node in Gemini – where are you going? do you have a path forward? Things may seem foggy and immutable at this time. Watch out for your boundaries and projection. The Mercury-Jupiter trine repeats during Mercury retrograde on 10/3.

9/22 – The Sun enters Libra, Mercury in Libra square retrograde Pluto in Capricorn, Venus in Scorpio opposed retrograde Uranus in Taurus – Happy Autumnal Equinox! The seasons are shifting but there’s a metric fuckton of tension in the air. Tamper down the emotional volatility – not everything needs to be a struggle. Tap into the Libra ideal of peace and balance for all. The Mercury-Pluto square repeats during Mercury retrograde on 10/01.

9/24 – Moon conjunct retrograde Uranus in Taurus, Moon in Taurus opposed Venus in

Scorpio – there’s a lesson here in letting go of control. This reactivates our Saturn-Uranus square…again. Step away from the Venus in Scorpio impulse for revenge.

9/25 – Mars in Libra trine retrograde Saturn in Aquarius – this is a good day to put in the work.

9/26 – Moon in Gemini trine Sun and Mars in Libra and retrograde Saturn in Aquarius. – another air grand trine. Show up for your own life – what you focus on grows.

9/27 – Mercury retrograde at 25° Libra – go slow. check your work. save often. Mercury retrograde 3-4x every year since this is normal Astrological Weather but still important to pay attention to. In the sign of Libra, Mercury will likely help you to rebalance something about your relationships.

9/29 – Sun in Libra trine Saturn retrograde in Aquarius, Venus in Scorpio trine retrograde Neptune in Pisces – you may want to work but it’s likely that your head will be in the clouds. Watch out for emotional dysregulation. The Sun activates our Saturn-Uranus square so caution would be advised.

9/30 – Moon in Cancer square Mercury retrograde in Libra, Moon in Cancer opposed retrograde Pluto in Capricorn, Venus in Scorpio square retrograde Jupiter in Aquarius – go slow, emotions are high. Misunderstandings will have a lasting impact during this time.

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