#continuing with the callbacks to previous episodes it seems

[gavillain]

AGATHA EPISODE SIX SPOILER DISCUSSION; HOLY SHIT THAT WAS A GOOD EPISODE!!!!

A LOT happened in this episode, and we got a LOT of answers!

I'm really glad we got Billy Kaplan/Billy Maximoff's full backstory here at the midway point, and I really enjoy the way this episode bridged the gap between WandaVision and Agatha All Along. I'm just really excited to see Billy's story getting adapted here in general too. Obviously it's a bit different from the comics, but they kept a lot of the core ideas of it in tact. And I'm super happy to see that they explicitly kept his Jewishness in tact as well given the MCU's unfortunate habit of erasing or neglecting Jewish identities. We find out here that Billy Maximoff's spirit is inhabiting the body of Billy Kaplan, who died in a car accident the day the Hex came down. We also find out that Lilia was the one who put the sigil on Billy after reading his palm and seeing his broken life line (I was surprised but I thought that reveal was very satisfying). We find out that Billy's boyfriend's name is Eddie, so he's not Teddy Altman and thus probably not Hulkling, which I personally never really thought but other people were theorizing.

Oh and RALPH BOEHNER RETURNS!!!! :D Honestly, I didn't think I would care, but my boyfriend and I went WILD when we saw him pop up. A+ callback right there :D And I like him being the one to sort of facilitate Billy going to Westview after Agatha. After how little he did in WandaVision post-reveal that he wasn't Pietro, it was nice to see him get a bit more relevance again in the overarching plot.

Agatha pulls herself out of the mud and survives, and I also really loved how Agatha wasn't mad or vengeful towards Billy. She was legitimately excited to see him and know who he was. Their relationship is one of the most interesting parts of the show, so I'm glad to see that it's not totally being burned to the ground. Obviously, Billy is fully in the right not to trust Agatha, but we're now at a juncture where the two of them are going to be more open and honest with each other, and that has me excited! We just saw Agatha last episode prove why she is still very much a villain, but we also saw that Billy has a bit of a dark side in him too. I think we're gonna see Billy be torn between good and evil as the show goes forward and deciding what type of witch he wants to be, with Agatha being the proverbial devil on his shoulder. I made the comparison a few weeks back about Agatha and Billy being Maleficent and Riku from Kingdom Hearts in another font, and that seems to be the direction we're heading, which excites me.

Theory wise, there's not a whole lot of new theories for me at least, other than the ones continuing from previous episodes, but I do have a few more scattered thoughts: *Eddie uses the black heart emoji for Billy, so does that mean HE was the black heart that Lilia wrote on the list instead of Rio? If so, it's kind of weird that HE would be a "black heart" in any way. But also this still has me thinking that Blackheart may yet be involved. Not as Rio (who we pretty much know is Death due to leaks), but maybe somewhere else? I dunno, I'm not giving up hope that he or Mephisto are involved, even if it's just as an after credits scene.

*BILLY HAVING A BLACK CAULDRON POSTER IN HIS ROOM MADE ME SO FRIGGIN' HAPPY! To see Disney acknowledging that movie always warms my heart, but to know that Billy is a fan in this universe is REALLY cool and gives me a sort of kinship with him. Love to the underloved!

*Rio is still MIA since Alice died. Is she still tending to Alice or is she doing something else?

*Lilia and Jen aren't dead, and we know as much, but they didn't escape the bog with Agatha, so I'm wondering if the next trial will see the get out or maybe see them waiting there for Agatha and Billy.

*Billy is apparently on the road to find Tommy, which makes a lot of sense. I know people are upset that he's not after Wanda, but I genuinely don't think Wanda's return to the MCU was ever going to be in another TV show. I think, if Wanda returns, it's going to be in Avengers Doomsday, much like her return in the comics during Children's Crusade. But I'm excited to see if Tommy DOES return in this show or if Billy's ambitions are going to remain unresolved at the end of the road. I'm excited to find out!

NEXT EPISODE WITH SPEED PLEASE! I have a MIGHTY need to see Billy in that Maleficent cosplay in what I assume is the next trial… yes, I am, as ever, myself XD

[thesoftboiledegg]

Well, that was one hell of an episode.

I'll start with what we're all thinking: it's disappointing that the sweet moments that Rick and Morty shared in "A Rick in King Mortur's Mort" weren't real. "Little junebug" and the hug in particular were so loving. Admittedly, Rick seemed out of character, but I loved seeing his grandfatherly side.

However, I don't think it's entirely a bad thing. "Rick" changed way too quickly, and Morty forgave him too quickly. It let Rick off the hook when Morty deserves to tell Rick how much he hurt him. Rick needs to face what he's done, not make up with a quick hug and nice words.

And I mean--Rick could have programmed that robot to be cruel. He could've programmed him to mentally beat the family down so they wouldn't bother the real Rick. Or he could've programmed to be the same as he is. Why not? But he programmed that robot to be gentle and loving: the grandfather that Morty deserves. The one that Rick would've been in another lifetime.

I love how the robot also pointed out that anything that he did, Rick technically did himself. Rick programmed the robot to act that way.

"Rick and Morty is about how nothing matters!" Bullshit. The robot wasn't just a replacement Rick. Yes, Rick built him because he was being a petty asshole, but he could've made that robot an abusive piece of shit to be an even pettier asshole. Instead, the robot showed us Rick at his best.

I was glad that the episode clarified that Rick made the robot at the beginning of the previous episode so that we didn't have to wonder how long we'd been watching a Rick stand-in.

Rick still did everything else this season. He willingly went to therapy, spent time with his family, helped Jerry when he didn't need to (and side-eyed the family for making fun of him), told Morty that he loves him, threw himself on top of Morty to protect him, showed him physical gentleness, told him that his life matters, tried to be a better father to his daughters, and abandoned his revenge quest in "Solaricks" when Morty called him "Grandpa." He's still changing.

And this is the same man that's making himself crazy as he tries to hunt down Prime Rick. He abandoned that for a moment for the Smiths.

Even in this episode, Rick was tame compared to his past behavior. He's still crabby and somewhat distant, but he's far from the monster that he was in "The Rickchurian Mortydate" (and again, another brilliant callback to season three.)

Still, my heart breaks for Morty. All he wants is for Rick to love him. Rick does love him, but not in the way that he needs. His parents aren't exactly great, either--the Smiths might do more together as a family, but wake me up when Morty has another episode with Beth or Jerry. We've got, what, one of each? And his episode with Jerry was all the way back in season one.

Morty's repressed rage isn't going anywhere, either. I was shocked when he tried to kill the president. He's been racking up a body count since "Look Who's Purging Now" in season two, and I wonder how much worse he's going to get.

Not that I blame him after all the trauma he's experienced. The world had written him off as a nobody long before Rick showed up. Once, he was lonely and neglected. Now, Rick gives him plenty of attention and even affection, but he's also been selfish, abusive and just batshit crazy at times. When is it going to end?

I'm glad that this episode revived the tension between Rick and Morty--it's not a good thing, but it shows that Rick hasn't magically become a saint. It also shows that Morty's continuing to stand up for himself. And let's face it: we've got four more seasons to go. Their issues can't end here.

Maybe they'll split up for good. Maybe Morty will try to kill him. Maybe Morty will snap and carve a path of destruction throughout the galaxy. Maybe Morty's love will save him.

On a lighter note, I LOVED it when Rick said that the president and his inventions would give him "neurotypical cooties." I thought the writers had forgotten that Rick is autistic before season six. Nope, they haven't--and the series is blatant about representation.

No "Haha we code Rick as autistic! We won't state that in the show though lol!" No accidental portrayal, like Sheldon Cooper, that's offensive to the autistic community. Rick is autistic, and the show's going to rub your face in it. Cry about it, dudebros who say that Rick is neurotypical (and yes, they say that. I've seen it!)

The cliffhanger also made me ecstatic. It's everything that I wanted from a cliffhanger. Season five had a decent one, but it wasn't about Rick's character or backstory. It was just the usual "Damn, how are they going to get out of this?"

I can't wait to see Rick chase Prime in season seven. I'm also hoping that the show will become more serialized as it goes on. I've been saying for a while that making it increasingly successive and going full serialization in season ten would be gutsy and thrilling to watch.

Overall, this was a great season that seems to be building up to something even greater. The new writers clearly love and respect the show. They brought up concepts that I thought the show would never touch again, like Morty liking science (has that ever come up before? He has a bunch of science stuff in his room, but the show didn't touch on it.) All the callbacks were great and never seemed like nostalgia bait. They were loving tributes to the series.

And the new writers seem to like us, lol. They were clearly trying to please our "side" of the fandom.

Rick paused his revenge quest for his family, but he didn't end it. He'll do almost anything to kill Prime. Anything to eliminate the suffering that he can't drown with abuse and alcohol. Anything to make the pain go away for the last time.

[dcrewatch]

Detective Conan Rewatch: Episode 1105-1106

Episode 1105-1106: "Kid vs. Amuro: Queen's Bang”

Before watching this episode, on a scale of 1-10, how much are you looking forward to seeing it again?

AW YEAH KID HEIST WOO! 9!

Favorite screencap:

Kid: "Why yes, it *is* time for me to take over the manga and anime again. Thanks for noticing!"

Favorite Moment:

The whole confrontation between Amuro and Kid on the roof. Loved Kid's disbelief face. xD

Least Favorite Moment:

Nothing this time!

What’s one thing you noticed/realized about this episode that you hadn’t before?

Poor Azusa has to go out of her way to try to not get the Amuro obsessed population of Beika after her. ^^;

Ah, after all this time, Yoko still has headband merchandise. ...Of course I say this, but it's been like, 6 months in the actual timeline. @_@;; (The design isn't identical to the one in the linked case, but I have a feeling it might be meant to be a callback.)

"You're aware Queen Selizabeth of the Duchy of Ingram, who will be visiting in three days"

Hm, I wonder if this is meant to take place before or after the events of Crystal Mother? Kid must be very busy if it's before. ^^;

Amuro seems to be wearing Fusae brand clothing.

The staff likely used textured photographs for the art in the museum, but unfortunately my art history is failing me and I'm unable to identify the pieces.

Kid checking for Pandora while Amuro continues talking like nothing is going on is still hilarious to me.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate this episode?

WOOOOOO! 9! Can't wait for (hopefully!) a massive influx of Kid stuff this year with the next movie. ♥ The most recent manga case was the cherry on top.

Celebrate it!

Here’s a (not exactly) summary haiku:

Another Kid heist

Amuro is determined

A showdown with Kid

Next Episode: Episode 1107

Previous Episode: Episode 1104

[scribefindegil]

In honor of the anniversary of the last Divine Tree arc episode, which has haunted me obsessively for the entire intervening year, I thought I would gather some of my meta and fics about the arc in one place! You can find these posts (as well as a bunch of art and meta that isn't mine, and some cool facts about vegetables) in my "broccoli blogging" tag!

Meta:

(Lots of these are very short, focusing on a specific parallel. I haven't had the energy to write big meta posts, which was one reason I wanted to do this compilation!)

Vegetable horror vs. nature horror

Mind control in the Divine Tree arc

Vegetable heads as dehumanization

On the use of "Exist" in Divine Tree arc

Teru and Dimple in Divine Tree: "You really are amazing!"

Dimple's expressions of tenderness are visual callbacks to his previous violence: [Forehead touches] [Hair ruffling]

Big Cleanup/Divine Tree parallels

Mogami/Divine Tree parallels: [General parallels] [Dimple's last stand vs 100% Courage] ["Have you ever met an evil spirit that seemed happy?"]

World Domination/Divine Tree parallels (also they are twinned in the narrative structure which I need to make a specific post about!)

Mirrored Themes in Confession and Divine Tree

Dimple and Reigen parallels: [100% Trust and 1000% Gratitude] [from the start] [Divine Tree/Separation parallels] [Scars]

Fic:

I view fic as another method of analyzing canon, so a lot of the themes and parallels that I've talked about in the above posts get further articulated and explored in my fanfiction!

Faith In One Another (ficlet about the walk to the broccoli and themes of lonliness, also on tumblr here)

First and Final Orders (Dimple character study)

The Brassica Heresy (AU broccoli horror fic where the Divine Tree continues to rule over Seasoning City, and Tsubomi is the only person to realize that something is Wrong)

Other:

My Heretic AU tag, for thoughts (and also some mind-bogglingly great fanart!!) related to "The Brassica Heresy"

[atamascolily]

TBF Prediction: Cheating Death is the Ultimate Trick

... or, why I think Lin Xue Ya is going to die--or at least, appear to die--in a future installment.

When a dying Sha Wu Sheng tells Lin Xue Ya he'll be waiting for him in hell in Season 1, I didn't think too much of it. Then I got to to the opening scene of Season 3, where Lin turns up with a bottle of wine to Wu Sheng's to pour one out for the departed, and says, "Knowing how impatient you are, I'm sure you're upset our promised reunion is taking so long," my ears pricked up at the unexpected callback.

Then Lin adds, "I'll have you know it's not that I'm not avoiding you, but I'll have to beg your patience for a bit longer" and my foreshadowing detector started tingling: Is he really saying what I think he's saying?? Is Lin really going to die?

Here's the thing about Lin: he never lies outright, but he's selective in his phrasing so that everything he says is both literally true and completely misleading without full context. There are so many different ways to interpret this scene, and that line in particular, and it may be that I'm seeing something that isn't actually there. And yet, I can't help wondering why he says this and what it means--and, perhaps more importantly, why the audience witnesses this. What is this scene's narrative purpose, anyway?

(Urobuchi has gone on the record saying that this scene is intended to connect S3 to everything that has come before--but while that's certainly true, I'd be surprised if that were the only purpose, especially since he also said he conceived of S3-S5/movie plots as one story, compared to previous installments, which were more episodic.)

First of all, it shows us a more contemplative side of Lin we haven't seen before--a Lin who appears to have some degree of fondness for Wu Sheng, enough to come visit his grave when he's in the area. But it also serves as a reminder of Wu Sheng's promise from earlier--and the only reason we need to be reminded about that is if it's going to be relevant later on.

When questioned by Shang Bu Huan about where he's been and why he's late for their latest dungeon crawl, Lin says, "Nothing to worry about. Just indulging my superstitious side". What does he mean by this? Does he know--or suspect--something we don't? Coupled with Lin's casual remark to Wu Sheng that he might enjoy the spectacle about to unfold, it seems like Lin either has some foreknowledge of what's to come, or he's making a reasonable assumption given the parties involved. Like so much involving Lin, it's difficult to say for certain.

Shang's angry response for Lin to quit fooling around seems especially harsh when we know what Lin was actually doing, even if it's perfectly justified from Shang's perspective. Yet at the same time, Shang invited Lin to come along on this expedition, and even asks him to take the point position and lead the way. For all Shang's bluster, he seems to have found an equilibrium with Lin, or at least some kind of acceptance of his presence and his personality even when Lin annoys him.

Season 3 sends Shang and Lin on parallel paths, with Lin targeting Huo Shi Ming Huang and manipulating events to keep Shang and company safe even from a distance. In the final episode, Lin doubles down on this, running away before Shang can confront him. We don't know what's going to happen in Season 4 yet, but it's likely that their arcs will continue to diverge, at least for a time, (as confirmed in the S4 trailer) as Lin infiltrates the Order of the Divine Swarm on his quest to humiliate its master, who is also Shang's greatest enemy.

Gen Urobuchi has a reputation for killing characters off, but it's important to note that the deaths are never random or pointless; they only occur when a character has fulfilled their narrative arc. (This is how I knew Juan Can Yun wasn't really dead in S3, even though I wasn't sure how he'd survived until the reveal.) This is especially true for a major character like Lin.

Urobuchi has commented in interviews how Lin and Shang's characters are "fixed" compared to someone like Lang Wu Yao, who is still figuring himself out; this doesn't mean they can't grow or change, merely that any shifts will be more subtle and less obvious than, for instance, Lang's magical boy power-up to signify his self-determination. Shang and Lin can and will change as a result of their interactions with each other, but only up to a certain point--no matter what else happens. they'll always be recognizably themselves.

(The question then becomes, "What is Lin's narrative arc, anyway?" which is an essay in and of itself, so forgive me if I don't tackle that here.)

Lin and Shang's fates are tied together; this is true both on a narrative level and in-universe, where Lin is able to exploit those ties for the Nendoroid communication devices. In their cameos in the Pili main series and in the Nitroplus 20th Anniversary video, the two are always depicted as companions walking side by side or sitting together at a table or having adventures together, which is especially striking given the push-pull of their canon relationship and how often their paths diverge. I fully expect that the final shot of Thunderbolt Fantasy will be Shang and Lin walking off into the sunset together as dramatic music plays, their cloaks blowing in the wind--an image that is incompatible with Lin biting the dust. Nor do I expect Urobuchi to end the series on a downer note--Thunderbolt Fantasy is his baby and he loves it, and Lin is very clearly an authorial favorite on top of that. So what's actually happening here?

Given all of the foreshadowing, I think Lin's death is inevitable as part of the show's climax (most likely in the final movie). But I don't think it means he's actually going to die--but we'll think that he did, at least for a bit, only for him to pop out at the most dramatic moment possible. After all, Lin is an illusionist and a performer, a master at making people see what he wants them to see--and what could possibly be a more dramatic trick than faking his own death?

Alternately, perhaps Lin really will die, but will somehow be saved/resurrected/restored in the end, most likely through his connection with Shang. All of the foreshadowing was correct, and perhaps Lin even believes this is his fate--but Shang doesn't believe in fate and might be able to do the impossible to prove it.

Or perhaps the death is a metaphorical one. "The Enigmatic Gale"--the persona that Lin has adopted for the entirety of the series thus far--might fall, and perhaps he will adopt a new name to suit his new role in life. As I said earlier, I don't think Lin will change completely--he'll still be a rogue we love to watch--but just as Shang became the Edgeless Blade, it's possible Lin will undergo a parallel transformation.

Or perhaps it's some combination of the options that I've discussed here--I genuinely don't know. I lean towards the first one, given Lin's personality and Urobuchi's style, but at this point, I don't have enough information for anything more informed.

I'll confess straight up that Lin is my favorite character, and I don't want him to die for good, so perhaps this is all just mental gymnastics to convince myself it is isn't going to happen. That said, while the subtle death flags are there, I think there's also plenty of evidence that it isn't going to stick. If nothing else, Lin Xue Ya is the sort who always has to have the last word, and cheating death--and looking good while doing it--is 100% his style.

[lunar-years]

Jamie's mum is EXACTLY what I expected, I always thought they'd be super super close and he would be an extreme mummy's boy and this just went above and beyond. I have no idea why anyone ever thought she was dead, estranged, absent or anything like that, but I also never thought James came back as young as some others seem to think he did - Jamie never would have lived with him or anything, he would have just seen him now and then as a teenager until it got worse and worse. But this ties into his mum and Simon - Simon knew about the poster rotation and the some of the players be mentioned retired a WHILE ago. Which makes me think the mention of James trying to get back with Jamie's mum when Jamie was 14 wasn't in any way successful, like he showed up and she was already with someone else, but he was allowed to form a relationship with Jamie. Jamie never says they did get back together. So based on that and the poster details think Simon has been around ten to fifteen years, meaning that even though his bio dad had an awful impact in his later teens, Jamie was actually raised by two soft loving parents. Which makes sense for what a sweet happy baby he is when he isn't being triggered by his dad.

Gold star for anticipating the dynamiccc :)

Idk, my own thoughts are complicated (probably too complicated to discuss articulately as I'm still giddily writhing from a fantastic episode, but I'll give it a short go). I don't think I'm ever not going to think the way he talks about her in previous episodes was very wistful and implies a level of distance (that yes clearly is not the actual case, but I do think it feels a little disjointed, lol). That said, I've had a million thoughts on Jamie's mother and very rarely the same thought twice, so I've always felt any interpretation of her was/is valid.

I think I'll probably continue to think along those lines about many things, especially the way his mum and Simon and his dad all fit into the same picture. For instance, I personally still feel the line is played in the Amsterdam scene as "this was not the first nor the last time my dad tried to get back with my mum" and whether or not he was ever successful, well, who knows/can be head-cannoned different ways. Same goes for the level of his dad's involvement and when it all began (all we know with certainty is that it's been at least since Jamie was age 14). I mean, I think you're right that Jamie never lived with his dad permanently or anything, but I think it'd still be fair to say he might've spent weekends with him, etc. Regardless of the specifics, his influence was clearly palpable.

Meeting his mum was so great though. It wasn't something that was especially on my radar as a plot I really wanted for the season (I know some people have thought about her at extremely great length, whereas I've just never felt particularly invested in her one way or another) but it ended up being SO FUN!! Their scene was the cutest and best (the sexy baby callback was incredible). 100/10.

[dandelionjack]

hey, have you caught the boom video commentary with rtd & moffat yet? some really interesting stuff there that fits with the meta/truman show theory (or is maybe just a bunch of us on tumblr tinhatting about nothing at all) - there’s a moment where rtd is talking about the led screen technology they used and he says “it’s like you’re inside a television”

also some metatextual discussion about the familiarity modern fans have with the show’s historical continuity/lore & the idea of writing the doctor in a story that seems ‘too familiar’ because it’s been done on the show before… 👁️??? especially with all the callbacks to previous episodes like the end of the world and pyramids of mars

omg i NEED to watch this thank you for informing me! will report back

[area-vr]

Go rush rant

I usually don't write here, I feel more like posting on Twitter but I think it gets short with putting all of my thoughts in one place so here I go...

It saddens me seeing how the series current focus is not in the "right characters".. it's sad to see people say that they don't feel for the characters that are dying... That just show how much importance the writers had given to them.. and now they are killing them but still getting the focus to other characters that shouldn't have that much of involvement or importance with this plot (Yuga?, Asaka, Yuna, Yuhi, Rovian..)😮‍💨

Like, it's ok to have episodes like 92 with the message of Bochi and Manya.. but episodes like 93 and 94 where duels were just meaningless with Luge and Zion because at the end Zion ended up doing what he was refusing at the beginning even when he won.. and Rovian that just started the duel out of a tantrum of not wanting to believe her idol changed 🤨 Where do the Velgearians fit in there? And don't let me start with the 7s references and callbacks that are non stop now..😑 like, I know this was since the begining with the reveal of the creator that had Otes' voice and then the relic/door thing, I tolerated that since it was said that the creator was an earthdama and they were just there, no other 7s strong connection or whatsoever, but now they are almost tying everything to Yuga and the previous series that it's annoying...

And more annoying than that is seeing that, again, this arc theme being "Velgearians disappearing" and we just see them die while they do nothing about it and the only ones that are trying to do something are the earthlings (7s variants/ancestors at most), the focus is on them and not Yuudias or Zwijou...

We don't know where is Zwijou, although it's already common for him to appear for a chapter or two and delight us with his presence, this should be a time for him to be more active like he was at the second part of the previous arc or more... I mean Phaser is there... Where's Zwijou?

And then there's Yuudias who hasn't done something that impactful since arc 6 and has been almost a shadow for almost all of this season just getting active when it's time for the final duel of the arc BEING THE PROTAGONIST!!! His treat is the worst if you ask me (along with Yuamu but that's another story) there was a time in the cat episodes where the characters expressed how much trust they have in him and also a bit when Zwijou had to convince them that he's the key to defeat Kwaidul. Before that they practically didn't care...😥

With each episode it pass and spoiler that comes I realize more and more that this series doesn't care about it's protagonist (the protagonist seems to be Yuhi fhfh 😖 and that's another problem I maybe aboard in other post if I feel like it). And to be honest, I'm getting really disappointed to see that Yuga without even appearing, Yuna or Rovian are being more important than Yuudias at this point, it's not ok and I might stop watching the show if this continues.

Not that anyone cares either but I wanted to say how sad and disappointed I am with the series at its second season.

JusticeForYuudias

[biblioflyer]

Discovery S5E2 First Reactions

I've always been lukewarm on Discovery. This episode charmed me. Something I've long appreciated about Discovery is that it has continuously worked to address valid criticism without tossing overboard literally everything that sets it apart. I don't agree with every spicy Picard S3 take, but in spite of my enjoyment of that season, I felt a mild concern, if not irritation that what I liked about the series from its first two seasons was largely being ignored.

I've never had that sense with Discovery. With the exception of that utterly baffling episode where everyone started acting like Georgiou had redeemed herself without ever actually walking back her psycho persona significantly, Discovery has done a really good job of growing across all dimensions. The writing is more polished, the cinematography is excellent, the actors live inside their characters in a very natural way. There is nary a jar of eye drops in sight.

If this was pre-streaming era Trek with its 20+ episode seasons, we'd recognize this as the beginning of Discovery's third season. When Trek usually starts getting actually good rather than something with hokey charm.

And I'm actually kind of bummed this is its last season.

This was a nice "lore" episode. Lots of nice callbacks to bits and bobs of Trek trivia, but not overwhelmingly so.

I didn't see the twist coming with Raynor but I dig it. I liked Saru's observation that Burnham is "a force of nature." Like in previous seasons, Burnham's much criticized character flaws are acknowledged and overcoming them and working around them are part of the story, and handled quite well. Burnham is impulsive, empathic, and fiercely a creature of conscience. She benefits from having level headed people around her. Like Saru, whose arc throughout the series has been phenomenal.

Of course maybe I'm just a massive Doug Jones fanboy.

Culber doesn't seem like he's going to be a major player in this season, but he's doing good service as being the guy to deliver the good stuff, like "I asked how you were, not what you've been up to."

I'm steeling myself for a sudden pivot to the YA relationship drama genre next episode. I do have hope that given how everyone else is increasingly very natural in their roles and not feeling the need to oversell things, this will also be the case with Adira and Gray.

I recognize this is a loose end that deserves tidying up for fans of this particular relationship and I will endeavor to not be a spoil sport. Rest assured ready, its because I just don't like teenage / YA cringe, not because of the identities of the characters.

I'm not overly enthusiastic about Burnham and Book either. I've just never found it persuasive as an on screen romance, from a chemistry standpoint or character dynamics. It sort of made sense when Burnham was looking to leave Starfleet and as a sort of legacy of that time when having a sort of Han Solo type character as a partner made sense. But again, its just not my jam. They're interesting characters on their own, and it lowkey frustrates me that Discovery seems to think that romance is the primary way to do character evolution.

That having said, I maintain my promise to be seriously grumpy if anything happens with Saru and K'rina.

I am curious about what the MacGuffin will be in the end. I'm already assuming its another callback to TNG where everyone is hugely disappointed because its not the sort of thing that would radically shift the balance of power in the galaxy, but rather something more wholesome. Another message, the Progenitors' library: that sort of thing. A kind of passing of the torch where the Federation is kind of the new Preservers.

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME quick fast. last night we watched tng's "gambit part ii" and ds9's "cardassians"

gambit part ii (tng):

well, this continued to be underwhelming and frustrating for reasons outlined in my previous post

i will cop to maybe not following the plot as closely as i could have been but i thought the artifact turning out to be a weapon was fucking stupid, especially considering it was a Mind Weapon. girl what on earth. we didn't even get to visit vulcan properly

i DID however call that vulcan racefaking as romulan which i was quite thrilled about

vulcan race purity extremists right as we're having bajoran race purity extremists in ds9...girl what is in the water out there. everybody calm down. globalization (galaxization?) is not the end of the world

i did perk up a little when riker was forced to play his literal charade with other people, such as worf and beverly, but it was so brief as to be nearly insulting

this is the only time i think i have not sided with data in an argument...i don't think there was any reason to take poor worf to the woodshed like that :( i'm glad they're still friends though

cardassians (ds9):

oh i had STARS in my eyes this entire episode. i have been COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS until we see garak again and he did NOT disappoint

from what i saw of gifs i never expected his and julian's relationship to be like this...i expected julian to be mister stammery and for garak to enjoy making him squirm. which would have been great and i would not object to it in future content but what we got was a welcome surprise in that it was way more complex!!

like, julian as the garak whisperer...sisko didn't summon garak to his office directly he told julian to have garak there at a certain time. "he never tells me what he's actually thinking i just sort of deduce it"etcetc. i also like julian instinctively knowing when to let garak come to him and when to be firm with him ie stop the whole fucking shuttlecraft until his ass gets some real answers. we havent seen much of his bedside manner yet so to speak but he actually CAN be good with people! or maybe just good with garak

i can't wait to find out more about garak. the worst part of a garak episode is knowing now you have to wait a long time until the next garak episode. i love that he deliberately keeps us out of the loop even though i am DYING to know everything about him. you get the idea that he's really been through something

side bar how and why is he able to get into julians room in the middle of the night???? did julian give him the door code jic 👀other side bar i love this mans little silk pajamas. actually everybodys pj game was on point

cardassian war orphans FUCKED UP. no one is coming to take them back to cardassia, except the one who doesn't want to go. i am SO relieved they didn't pull a tng here by the way. going in i was almost sure they wouldn't but still

bonus points for obrien being fantasy racist in front of his japanese wife. she used her teacher voice to set him straight and not another word of that came out of his mouth for the entire episode. one that man knows about happy wife happy life. two it's a good callback to him also having a card in the cardassian-hating game. pretty sure we said "that was a very ugly thing you just said i dont need to hear it twice" about 1000 times to each other during the rest of the episode

my only gripe with this episode is that i would have liked to hear where kira comes down on this...this episode was very full and not really About her, but the absence of her felt very weird, especially when most of the cardassian stuff involves her so heavily. you can sort of guess where she'd stand ("if they don't like the way we parent they shouldn't have left them here and also we're being way nicer to them than they ever were to bajoran children") but i'd still like to hear it FROM HER. a shame we just didn't seem to have room

of course, i cannot possibly end this post without a shoutout to my very best friend sisko. my favorite sisko moment in this episode was his increasing incredulity when bashir interrupted his MEETING WITH A CARDASSIAN POLITICIAN to interrogate him without warning and then said "it was the highlight of my day. don't do it again." and then bashir did it again. my second favorite part was when bashir woke him up at fuck o clock and said he needed a runabout and sisko was like girl why and julian was like im sorry i have no idea and sisko was like well by all means. will one runabout do. like. he's so wry and sarcastic and at the same time so chill with breaking the rules when it matters - he trusts julian enough to know he wouldn't ask for a shuttle without a good reason and julian trusts him enough not to get mad at the request even when it comes at fuck o clock in the morning. like, he's so GOOD with his people and they respect him so much. im anxiously waiting for more sisko-centric content almost as much as i am for more garak content!!!

TONIGHT: tng's "phantasms" and ds9's "melora."

[tanadrin]

season 1 of picard was pretty good star trek, in that it touched on and expanded on themes that have been pretty common in the show for many years: what is a person and why we shouldn’t fear new or strange forms of life were chief among them. the whole angle of also taking a heroic figure and having him examine his life looking backward at the end of it was also a nice touch. the fact their actually were evil robots in a pocket dimension slavering to destroy the universe was dumb, though; so was the whole shady romulan subplot. like 5/10 relative to its potential.

season 2 had some good bits, especially as like a character study of picard himself, but it was a little hard to swallow that given that it was pretty obviously all a retcon, bc literally none of those character beats had ever been foreshadowed in 7 seasons and 4 movies. also the time travel plot was really dumb and mostly pretty boring unfortunately. 2 or 3/10 relative to its potential.

season 3 so far i’m on the fence about. vadic is a genuinely delightful, cheesy villain. the raffi subplot is not very strong so far, but maybe if they link it up with the main plot it will help the pacing. the guy they have playing picard’s son is also good, and whatever he’s got going on is actually pretty interesting to me, but we’re spending way too much time on boring irrelevant stuff that could have been dispatched in 1 or 2 episodes (changelings are back! we can’t go to starfleet for help; they should have spent max one episode farting around in that nebula).

obviously it’s too soon to render an overall verdict, but thematically this season just seems to lack a center so far, or a driving purpose beyond “oh no we’re being pursued by baddies with Mysterious Motivations.” i do wish the showrunners had spent less time crafting intricate callbacks and sound cues to reference previous installments of star trek and more time making sure the plot and the pacing hung together well. i don’t think you need to introduce new aliens or new villains in every installment of star trek; i don’t think star trek has to be lots of self-contained one-shot episodes; i think there’s room to use continuity to make the world feel fuller and more complete. but i don’t think picard is doing any of that particularly well, which is too bad! they have a good cast and a great art department, and there are some good ideas in here. the execution is just lacking.

[alex51324]

Yes!

To me, the peak was the VCR/Tivo era, when each episode told a self-contained, problem-of-the-week type story, but there was some continuity in B-plots, and sometimes callbacks between main stories.

Those technologies allowed for a reasonable expectation that a core audience would see most-if-not-all episodes, while the weekly broadcast format allowed for new or casual viewers to dip in and out at any time. With these constraints, it made sense for series to reward dedicated viewing (with context/nuances that you would only get if you'd seen a particular previous episode), but the basic requirement was still that each episode stand alone.

In the broadcast-only era, when if you missed an episode you missed it (at least until the next summer, when it might be rerun), there was little-to-no emphasis on between-episode continuity. That's why, in classic series with large continuing fandoms, there are elaborate fan-theories to paper over what--at the fannish level of analysis--seem like huge continuity gaps. How on Earth, for instance, did Illya Kuryakin have time to serve in the Russian Navy and attend the University of Georgia*, the Sorbonne, and Cambridge, and still end up at UNCLE's New York office, as number 2 of section 2, looking no more than 30 years of age? For that matter, is he from Russia, Ukraine, or Georgia? Each of these things was a one-off mention that served the needs of a particular episode.

(*the Soviet Socialist Republic, not the US state)

On a more significant level, characterization and situation had to be pretty static. Even if a character went through something that would, realistically, have a significant impact on their attitudes and behavior, that character had to still make sense to viewers who had missed that episode. The case-of-the-week format was (and is) a way to give the story meaningful stakes, without setting any traps for the person writing the next episode.

With streaming, though, we get the opposite of that. The assumption is that the viewer will start at the beginning and watch every episode--often in a very short amount of time. This gives creators an opportunity to tell bigger stories, with multi-episode arcs and real character stakes, but you can also end up with what feels like a bloated movie. Streaming technology also lends itself to the engagement-driving "every episode a cliffhanger" pattern, and the compulsive piling-up of mysteries and riddles, which keeps the audience locked in for longer and longer periods without ever experiencing the satisfaction of resolution.

It ends up feeling like an unreasonable level of increasing demand for the viewer's attention--if I want to watch the show with the cute baby Yoda puppet, for instance, and I would prefer to have some idea what's going on in the plot, I have to watch these two or three other shows, too. (At minimum, that is. Ideally, I'd brush up on almost 60 years worth of lore, if I really want to get it.)

i really could write an essay on how shit is that we’ve completely abandoned the monster-of-the-week episode format even when rebooting shows that relied on it to replace them with grimdark edgy plotlines where nothing feels good or accomplished at the end of the day

[tolkiendefiled]

Season 2 Episode 4

Okay, I want everyone to look at the following screenshots. Because that’s right. You get a callback.

You get a callback.

You get a callback.

Everybody gets a callback.

I said in previous reviews that it seemed like the showrunners and writers for the Rings of Power really wanted to retell the Lord of the Rings, and boy, did they prove it with episode four. There’s barely a scene that doesn’t callback to something from the book or the films, and they’re all just painfully on the nose. If they were just going to pigeon hold the story beats from the novel, why not make a Lord of the Rings TV show? I mean, that’s actually what people expected Amazon to do. Instead, we got the Rings of Power and an hour of weird references to things that have nothing to do with the creation of the rings.

Like I said in my previous review, I’d be less bothered by this if the callbacks weren’t so frequent. But this episode hammers home another problem with the constant callbacks: continuity errors. We see this all the time with prequels. Someone says a line or does something that doesn’t connect to or instead contradicts the events of an existing story. Sometimes, it’s a little thing. And sometimes, it’s a story-breaking problem, like having Darth Vader and Obi-Wan fight twice when Vader said, in Star Wars, that when last they met, he was but the learner. Or having Kenobi save Leia as a child when, in Star Wars, she sounded like she’d never met him. Or having Padme die after giving birth when Leia says, in Return of the Jedi, that she remembered her real mother looking very sad. None of those make any sense, and they’re easy to avoid, and yet we have a similar thing happen in this episode.

The worst example is the Elven Rings. Elrond, Galadriel, and their crew head to Eregion to warn Celebrimbor about discount-Jesus… I mean Halbrand. And the whole time, Elrond and Galadriel bicker over her ring Nenya. Galadriel keeps getting visions of dark tidings, and later uses the ring to heal someone, and Elrond keeps telling her not to trust the ring. There are two story-breaking issues with this. One, that’s not how the Elven Rings work. And two, Elrond eventually gets a ring, so they’re going to need a good reason for him to change his mind.

Galadriel keeps getting glimpses of evil events as they head to Eregion. It’s implied that this might be Sauron’s doing; that since he’s connected to the rings, the visions are tied to things that will come to pass because of his actions. So, when the group gets blocked by a broken bridge and try to figure out another route, Galadriel gets a vision of the Barrow-downs near what will eventually become the Shire. By the way, with all the callbacks, I fully expected one of them to look at the bridge and go “Oh, we can make it,” but no one did. I would have let that one slide. Missed opportunity.

But here’s the thing. This isn’t how the rings work. They don’t give people visions. The Elves can have visions on their own, and items like a palantír - or Galadriel’s mirror - can cause visions of the future or past, although the mirror is probably an extension of Galadriel’s natural powers. But the Elven Rings don’t do that. They just preserve. You might ask how this is a problem. Well, if the rings now give people visions about future events, one specifically tied to any darkness or evil stoked by Sauron, why wouldn’t Galadriel, Elrond and Gandalf use their rings to figure out Sauron’s plans during the events of the Lord of the Rings? Why wouldn’t the rings warn them about Sauron’s return in the Hobbit? Better yet, why wouldn’t the rings tell them where the One Ring was or at least who had it? If the rings now have this power, where did it go? After all, the Elven Rings are unchanged by the events of the Second Age, so whatever powers they had during that age they should still have thousands of years later.

The other power that makes no sense is the healing ability. After Elrond scolds Galadriel for listening to the ring, the Elves make their way to the Barrow-downs because it’s the fastest way to get to Eregion. While there, they get attacked by Barrow-wights. Yes, the same Barrow-wights that attack the Hobbits thousands of years later. Now, who do you think, in this merry band of diverse Elves (screenshot below), is the first and only one to die? Yup, it’s the black one. Say it with me: that’s racist. Seriously, you kill the black one? And not just kill him, you do him like the dude from Jurassic Park? Well, at least he got killed after the opening credits. I mean, the show is all about diversity, but then again, they’ve only got room for one black Elf, and Arondir doesn’t share power.

That said, the scene (below) looks awesome. The Barrow-wights are beautifully rendered. This is some stellar animation. If anybody tells you it looks like garbage, they’re not being honest. The movement of their eyes alone sells it. This is some high-level VFX. However, the Barrow-wights are not supposed to be here. The Barrow-downs don’t become a fell place until the Third Age. In the Second Age, they’re actually part of the kingdom of Arnor, and held in high esteem. I double checked that because I was sure that they were fine during the Second Age, and I was right. It’s in Appendix A: “The Númenórean Kings” from the Lord of the Rings. You know, the section the show is supposedly based on.

Anyway, after this, they come across Adar’s forces, who are also headed towards Eregion to get to Sauron, and they get spotted by some Orcs. The Orcs shoot at them, and when one of the Elves gets hit and Galadriel comes over and touches him with the ring, it heals him. That’s also not how the rings work. None of them work like this. We know this because Frodo gets stabbed on Weathertop when he’s wearing the One Ring - the Master Ring, and it doesn’t protect or heal him. The Elves have the ability to heal because of their knowledge of how things work. It looks like magic, but it’s really just a deep understanding of the natural world. However, when it comes to Galadriel, part of her power comes from being taught by Melian, who was a Maia and the mother of Lúthien. Melian was incredibly powerful, using her skill to veil and protect Doriath during the First Age. She taught some of her skills to Galadriel, which were later used with the ring Nenya to protect Lothlórien. So, Galadriel should be able to heal people on her own, although it wouldn’t be instantaneous. She doesn’t need the ring, and the ring wouldn’t do this anyway. At best, they might slow the guy’s death, since it can preserve, but I don’t know of any instance of the rings being used like this. And again, if this were how they work, why wouldn’t Galadriel, Elrond or Gandalf use these powers all the time?

Of course, the scene wouldn’t be complete without Galadriel living up to her nickname (strong-woman), so she gives up her ring to Elrond for safekeeping, and goes to fight the Orcs as a distraction so Elrond can go help Celebrimbor. She does the cool fight scene stuff, but eventually gets caught by Adar, who says this: “Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo. (A star shines on the hour of our meeting).” Fair enough, but “Mae govannen (Well met)” would have sounded way more badass.

As the Elves leave, one of them comments on how Galadriel is sacrificing herself to save them, and Elrond corrects him, saying that she’s not doing it for them but to save the ring. He really doesn’t trust the rings, which makes sense given the changes to the lore, but it creates a massive continuity problem because, later on, he gets Gil-galad’s ring Vilya, and uses it to preserve Rivendell. That’s one hell of a party switch. How will the show explain this? Especially since there is no One Ring yet, so the book’s pretense of the Elves avoiding their rings while Sauron had his doesn’t work. Maybe they’ll try to claim that, once Sauron is defeated, that his power to influence the rings is gone. But if that were the case, wouldn’t that apply to everything he influenced from this time, like the Nine Kings of Men who eventually become ringwraiths? Once the show gets to this point, we’ll find out how they handle it. But do you see the problems they’ve created for themselves? The more they change things, the harder it is to make it jive with the Lord of the Rings.

Then there’s the Tom Bombadil scenes, where a whole lot of nothing happens. I’ve mentioned the pacing problems with the show, and these scenes are a perfect example of this. It’s just lots of meandering dialogue without any payoff. We find out that the stars the Stranger was looking for were actually on Bombadil’s ceiling, meaning dude’s search was actually for old Tom, who’s apparently supposed to guide the wizard or help him in some way, which he doesn’t do in this episode. And we had to sit through ten minutes of vague dialogue just to get that tiny bit of information, but not before Tom Bombadil gets to say his famous lines to Old Man Willow - excuse me, Old Man Ironwood. That’s right, the wizard gets attacked by a tree (below) and saved by old Tom, who kind of takes his sweet ass time coming to help. We’ve just got to throw that in there, even though Bombadil has nothing to do with the events of the Second Age, or any age for that matter. This is, by far, the most bizarre inclusion for the show because Bombadil literally doesn’t do anything major in the story because he’s not concerned about such things. Why would you add him in to basically do nothing?

Honestly, that’d be a fair question to Tolkien himself because the films prove you can cut Tom Bombadil out of the story, and it really doesn’t make a difference. I mean, I get giving old Tom a cameo in the Rings of Power, like someone randomly encountering him for a moment and then moving on, and even then it would be a stretch. But to try to tie him in with the wizards just makes no sense. He’s so removed from anything like that.

Speaking of making no sense, we’ve got Ents. Is there really any reason for them to be in the story? No. In fact, if you cut the scene out of the episode, you wouldn’t miss anything because it has nothing to do with the overall plot. In the previous episode, an Entwife captured Theo, so Arondir and Isildur decide to look for him. However, the villagers want to get revenge against the people who stole Isildur’s horse. I need to make a correction here. I said, in the previous review, that these were followers of Sauron, but they’re actually followers of Adar.

Anyway, before they leave, Arondir confronts the girl Isildur saved because he suspects she’s a spy. I’ve watched the scene a few times, and I’m not sure if the girl is actually a spy. She kind of admits it, but kind of doesn’t. Arondir demands that she show them where her people live, and on the way, the trio get attacked by some discount kraken (below), so Arondir can spout some lines about the “nameless things in the deep places of the world,” which he calls supper. Oh please, don’t put that in your mouth. You genuinely don’t know where that’s been. Do not. Put that. In your mouth.

Then we get to the Ents. They attack the trio right after Isildur frees the girl for helping him. She draws Isildur’s sword to try to get away, and the Ents think the sword is for cutting wood. The Entwife knocks the girl away - who survives this - and tries to kill Arondir, but he manages to talk her down. Why are the Ents here? Well, because there are Ents in the Lord of the Rings. Oh, you meant in context to the show? Well, remember back in the first season when the Orcs cut down the forest? Okay, that triggered the Ents because they knew some of those trees “from nut to acorn,” so they came to get revenge, like Treebeard with Fangorn.

Now, you might wonder what happens with the Entwives, since Treebeard says - in the Lord of the Rings - that they lost the Entwives and can’t find them. We don’t get an answer. She’s just there and gone after she frees Theo. But it is a valid question, given that the Ents operate on a different sense of time than anyone else, so the Second Age would be a short time for them. The way Treebeard spoke made it sound like the Entwives have been missing for more than a few thousand years. So, all of this is wrong - wrong on such a level that you’ve got to ask why even put it in the show. Do you think Isildur wouldn’t mention coming across Ents? That this wouldn’t be recorded in some lore and then passed down? That certainly someone like Saruman, Gandalf or Elrond wouldn’t know about this? Wouldn’t Elrond or Gandalf tell Treebeard about it, especially after the war when many of the Ents died and the lands needed repair and tending? Again, this creates a very strange continuity error. There’s no reason to do this. It doesn’t even add anything to the story because we don’t learn anything about the Ents. They’re just there.

That said, the Ents (below) do look awesome. I don’t know if any of this was practical, meaning if the Ent models were built for real, but they looked fantastic. I wouldn’t say the effects are better than House of the Dragon, but they’re much better than this show’s first season. If the show gets snuffed for VFX nominations this year, it’d actually be pretty unfair. This stuff is really good.

What’s not good is this nonsense with the Hobbits. Nori and Poppy wind up near the Stoor city, and bump into Merimac (pictured below), who answers the unasked question of what happens if you leave a Dwarf in the middle of Mad Max. I haven’t seen character designs this bad since the Hobbit films. And them ears! God damn! It’s because he’s brown, isn’t it? How come none of the white Hobbits have them janky ass ears? And how come he has to be dumb as dirt? My man is so stupid that, if you told him to tie his shoes, he’d actually try to do it and then pop back up and say, “I haven’t got any.” No, what gave it away?

Merimac unintentionally leads the girls to the Stoors’ village, which is just sitting in the middle of the desert. My first thought was: I hope they don’t light fires at night because people could see them miles away. And wouldn’t you know? If they were trying to hide, they failed. Anyway, they meet the leader of the village, who’s full of sass, and ties them up when they tell her that they’re looking for their friend, the wizard. Why? Because the only wizard this group knows of is the dark wizard. But later that night, she frees Nori because of what Nori said about her people traveling around, following a man named Burrows. Why? Well, because in the before times, another man named Burrows left the Stoor village to find a green place and promised to send someone back, and this woman thinks it might be Nori. Again, none of this is in the books, but that’s not my main problem with this part.

My problem is that, in the show based on a story written by a linguist who was very keen on tracking the progressions of his languages, the Harfoots have traveled around for thousands of years, and apparently the Stoors can still recognize their surnames. Words change over time, especially hundreds of years. That’s the thing Tolkien constantly mentions in his stories - that people can’t understand each other because of the changes to the languages. It seems like a major oversight, and a missed opportunity to throw in some respect for Tolkien’s love of languages, and actually make the show interesting - by the woman hearing Burrows, and later realizing this sounds similar to some old legend’s name, and then going there. I don’t know if that ever occurred to anyone on the show, but that’s an opportunity wasted.

At any rate, the dark wizard sends Xerxe’s extras to harass the Hobbits into handing over Nori and Poppy, but they don’t comply, and the men threaten to return with the dark wizard himself. That’s the episode. Overall, it was okay. It was very mid and still incredibly slow. 

That said, the VFX were fantastic. My favorite shot was the opening scene (screenshot below). The only things that are real are the actors and part of the set. Everything else is digital or composite, and that’s madness because it’s a single moving shot. The camera moves, stops, and moves again into this wide shot seamlessly. Not an error or flaw to be found. It’s absolute magic. I’ve got to give the effects team credit because their work for this season has been phenomenal.

Unfortunately, the story is still a mess. Since I already know, from the trailer, that Adar and Galadriel team up to fight Sauron, I’m guessing the next episode is where that happens. I swear, if Sauron is easily routed out of Eregion, the show will have killed their own story dead in its tracks. 

[sodiumlamp]

Picard

More like "Pic(king a better show to watch would not be h)ard"! Ha ha!

This is Season 3, Episode 5, "Imposters". I think this is a rare bird in the season, where the episode title is not some cutesy reference to classic Trek. Most of them have names like "Make It So" or "Four Lights". Sometimes they'll add a little twist like "Tea, Earl Grey Cold".

Oh... this is ass. Let's talk about continuity for a minute, because I'm still pissed off at how neither Guinan nor Picard remembered their meeting in 1893. I looked this up on Memory Alpha to see if there was some acknowledgement of the error, and apparently the people who made the show provided an explanation: Due to the changes in the timeline, General Picard never experienced the events of "Times Arrow", so this version of 2024 Guinan had never met Picard before. Which is kind of what I assumed, except Admiral Picard (the good one) still remembers 1893, but he never mentions any of it. He walks into her bar expecting her to recognize him, and he's surprised when she doesn't, but he never explains why she should. You'd think he would just assume she forgot, since it was so long ago. You'd think he would say "Don't you remember that 19th Century mine in San Francisco?" and she'd tell him she has no idea what he's talking about, and he'd go "Oh, right, because the timeline changed. Crap." But that never happens, which took me out of the show.

I say all of this because Picard usually operates that way. In the previous episode, Seven kills a Changeling, but it retains its human disguise even as a corpse. That's now how it worked in DS9, but they explain that here. Dr. Crusher makes note of how unusual this is, and she studies the body to understand why. She doesn't have a complete explanation, but she confirms that these Changelings are Built Different, and chalks it up to evolution. The upshot is that the Changelings in Picard are harder to catch than the ones in Deep Space Nine. I assume this also explains why they look more like liquid meat than the orange syrup we saw in the 90's. They wanted to beef up the Changelings and they did, but they also took care to inform the audience of it.

I say usually because Picard screws up in a number of places. For instance, Season 2 heavily implies that the Ten Forward bar on the Eneterprise-D was named after a bar Guinan ran in Los Angeles. It's not; "Ten Forward" is a designation for the most front-facing section of Deck Ten. Season 1 makes it seem like extracting Borg implants is a laborious, sometimes gruesome process, but Picard and Seven were de-assimilated pretty quickly and easily decades earlier.

Sometimes Picard struggles to get its own continuity straight. Last episode had a flashback to "five years ago", when Picard told old stories of his adventures to a bunch of excited Starfleet officers, and he unwittingly told his son that Starfleet was the only family he ever needed. The thing is, five years ago, Picard was in the middle of a fourteen-year resignation from Starfleet. He was bitter and disgusted with the whole organization, so it seems odd that he would be so eager to call it "family". His crewmates, sure, but not Starfleet. I'm not talking out my ass here, because this was all established in Season 1, set two years before Season 3, and three years after this flashback scene.

My point here is that the show is a confusing mess. Lots of TV shows play fast and loose with continuity. Hell, TNG was a repeat offender, using, distorting, or discarding TOS lore as it saw fit. But TNG could get away with it, becuase it was (a) good, and (b) it wasn't depending so heavily on the callbacks to TOS. Picard, however, is pretty much marketed as a continuation of TNG. Season 3 in particular is marketed as a damn reunion show. It desperately needs to get the continuity right, or at least mostly right. But it makes some big blunders, which means the callbacks that actually make sense are less effective.

For example, this episode sees Commander Ro Laren from Starfleet Intelligence show up to question Picard and Riker about their shenanigans in the previous four episodes. But the last time we saw Ro, she betrayed Starfleet to the Maquis. The idea here is to make the audience wonder if this is really Ro at all, or a Changeling infiltrator disguised as Ro. That's a good angle, except that the show has made too many mistakes in the past, so I couldn't ignore a third possibility: It's a plot hole.

So we get this rather well-acted scene with Ro and Picard talking out their beef, each gauging the other to see if they're really who they claim to be. But the whole time I'm trying to gauge the writers, trying to figure out if they actually watched the Ro episodes of TNG and paid attention. And it turns out they got it right! This time. It's frustrating because a lot of this episode is about trust, and I can't trust this show because it's let me down so many time.

For example, I assumed Captain Shaw would be killed off by now since they introduced him like the kind of jerk who dies in hilarious fashion in a horror movie. He's like the guy who dies in the restroom in Jurassic Park, or Peck from Ghostbusters. Yet Shaw remains improbably alive and with zero marshmallow goo on his body. Ro had most of the crew sent to a different ship and warns Picard to make a run for it, but she doesn't tell any of this to Shaw, who is the captain of the damn ship. So Picard has to convince him that Ro's news of a Changeling conspiracy is legit and they need to run, except Shaw's been burned by Picard before. He finally comes around, but it's becoming more and more clear that Shaw's sole purpose in this show is to pump the brakes on the plot. I'm sure Chicagoans love seeing one of their fellow dipshits on the show, but as far as I'm concerned Captain Shaw is like a bad Peter David Star Trek novel come to life. I trusted the show to avoid stooping this low, and they keep digging deeper.

Will the Federation Horns appear in Star Trek: Picard? Is that where we're headed? Maybe they already did, since there was a live band at that pre-launch party for the Europa mission in Season 2. They were simply biding their time, scouting the centuries before making their big move in Season 3. Their plan: pointless filler bullshit. The cybrid bitch is mine.

What else happened? Oh, Jack Crusher got cornered by a bunch of Changelings posing as security officers, and he suddenly "activated" just like Dahj and Soji in Season 1. I mean... literally exactly like what the synths did in Season 1. You'd think that the writers would get to this scene and someone would point out that this is too similar to a moment from a previous episode, but no.

Could this be an important clooooooooooooooooo as to what Jack Crusher really is? Maybe he's a robot like Dahj and Soji, by which I mean not a robot at all, but somehow a robot anyway, because the writers don't understand what words mean?

I'm gonna say no, because Worf pulls the same trick in this episode. A bad guy captures him and Raffi and makes them fight to the death for his amusement, and Worf fakes his death in order to get the drop on them. How did he fake his death so thoroughly? He used the "Kahless Technique."

...

You know what? I'm in the wrong blog, but I can roll with this. I thought Worf was acting a little too much like a Jedi in this show, but no. No, he's become a Dragon Ball Super guy. That's why his hair is white. He's not going grey, he just had to be in Ultra Instinct (mastered) so that he could properly align his ki to survive the knife wound. Also he needed the heightened reflexes and speed to ensure Raffi would actually stab him in the right place, since Raffi's such a fuck-up she couldn't win a fight even if it was fixed. At least now I know how Goku survived all those stab wounds he got in the Zamasu arc. He learned the Kahless Technique. Or he's a synth. I hate everything.

Or... they could have just caught the guy they wanted without all this nonsense and had the information they needed without all this rigamorale, but Captain Shaw can't slow down the show all by himself. We have to drag this out to ten episodes together! Come on everybody!

Back to Jack Crusher, so he beats up and kills four Changelings all by himself. Bev asks him how he knew they were Changelings and he admits that he had no idea. He's just been having these nightmarish visions of murdering every crewman on the ship, so when they tried to capture him it just sent him over the edge. He sees all this red shit when he's in this mode, so either he's a vampire and this is all a Hellsing reference, or he's like a Borg sleeper agent and the red color scheme is meant to throw me off the scent. "Ha ha," the writers said when they came up with this. "We always use green lighting for the Borg, so this time we'll use red and they'll never see it coming." No, I'm on to you, Alex Kurtzman. You ain't slick.

Oh, right, I forgot to talk about the show's opening. They didn't do a flashback this time, instead it was a dream Jack had of himself shooting up everyone on the bridge. Apparently the writers got bored trying to make a space 9/11 on Star Trek so they started doing space mass shootings instead. This show is hacky and crappy and boring and stupid and not even the Kahless Technique can save it.

[somebody-909]

I Love Yoo 151 Analysis (pt.2) - A Lovers' Goodbye

(Part 1 here)

In the episode, the characters show a level of deep concern for each other, but it's continuously contradicted by their hurtful actions and words. But why is it so contradictory? Answering this question helps us better understand the turmoil and complications involved in this heartbreaking scene, as well as what feelings are most genuine.

A Desperate Desire to Connect

Yeong-gi leaves his school to see Shin-ae standing in front of him. She confronts him as to why he’s ignored her calls and if he’s planning on leaving without saying goodbye.

Yeong-gi walks past her.

But looking carefully, we notice that Yeong-gi is momentarily caught off guard. And we are given a glimpse into his feelings. Notice the way he first looks at her, his expression is almost violent; you see the internal turmoil he feels when Shin-ae suddenly surprises him. The moment is similar to other key moments where Shin-ae causes this look: at the balcony; when she put his earphones in; and when she looked at his healed scratches during their lunch break.

I'm going to argue this look is because he is suddenly confronted with something he's guilty of doing (avoiding and lying to her) and, like the other moments in the series, because he finds Shin-ae to be emotionally confusing.

His second expression seems to indicate guilt, and him contemplating whether to engage with what Shin-ae is saying. But instead he walks away, and his expression shows resigned resolution, as he's firmly decided he won't engage. This falls in line with those other moments, instead of engaging with whatever feelings Shin-ae invokes in him, he chooses to dismiss them. Here, this includes the dismissal of Shin-ae herself.

Shin-ae's Hands

She continues, accusingly asking him about how he deceived his friends.

“How long were you planning on keeping everything a secret? How long were you planning on keeping you a secret?”

But her questions are actually more redundant, it’s their implications that are meant to convey meaning. They insinuate that his friends would’ve wanted to see the real him. They would’ve wanted to be there for him. And as we see in the WcDonald's scene, she is part of this group. She would've wanted to be there for him.

Accordingly, she then shifts from her surface level emotion of anger to what she more desperately wants to convey — her compassion and desire to be there for him. Because she is scared — so scared to lose him that she so desperately tries to convey this compassion in hopes to reach him.

“Yeong-gi! I’m right here for you! Just as how you were for me! Please!"

After being ignored once again, she extends her hand to touch him and she yells out a different name, the one acknowledged by both of them to be his real name.

“Nolan!”

We see the motif of hands and emotional distance again. Every instance where Shin-ae extends her hands, she doesn't actually reach Yeong-gi or she is met with refusal, with WcDonald's as the only exception (although Yeong-gi initially protests). Her attempts to reach him are denied.

Here, when Shin-ae extends her hand and calls out "Nolan", she reaches to connect with him once more, but this time with the real him — the one without the mask and the fake name.

But he pushes her instead, rejecting her attempts to reach the true him.

It's Freezing Out

After pushing her, Yeong-gi quickly realizes what he's done and his concern for Shin-ae leaks when he says,

"The rain is freezing!"

It's a callback to previous moments in the series where they express concern for one another after commenting on the weather.

This moment of unhidden concern contradicts what we saw just a moment earlier when he ignores and pushes her.

The entire episode is full of contradictory moments such as this, where the characters deep concern for each other is juxtaposed by their seeming apathy and disdain. So it's necessary for us to sift through what we see, and differentiate between what to accept as real and what to call surface-level and "self-sabotaging".

Yeong-gi's Hands

Shin-ae ignores Yeong-gi's concern over the weather and continues talking about her feelings.

"It kind of makes sense now. How you were able to see through my act. 'My facade.' Because you were the same...

I want to feel angry. I should distrust you. But I feel sad...

I don't want you to disappear. I don't want you to go away."

Shin-ae starts to cry here (you can notice a streak on her right cheek)... Does Yeong-gi notice this in the rain at this point?

Yeong-gi begins to extend his hand out to Shin-ae — he wants to comfort her. But he chooses not to.

Despite his concern for her, he doesn't involve himself. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't touch her. Why?

"You deserve someone better."

I've previously mentioned that the panels in Ep. 65 are purposefully ambiguous, meant to roughly reflect both Shin-ae and Yeong-gi's feelings of inadequacy. They both feel as though the other deserves someone better.

However, the panels with Yeong-gi strikingly reflect his movements, giving us insight into his thought process.

In this scene in Ep. 151, Yeong-gi's hands parallel that moment on the balcony, and his thought process is the same. He ultimately turns away because he thinks she deserves someone better.

However, I also want to draw attention to another parallel — when Yeong-gi reaches back towards Shin-ae when she calls him at the formal.

At that time, Yeong-gi is called by Shin-ae since he is the one who is troubled. He extends his hand back towards where he heard her because he wants to seek comfort in her.

So, when Yeong-gi extends his hand to Shin-ae, it's not just for her. It's because he also wants to allow himself to rely on her.

But when he extends his hand towards her, the specific thought he has is,

"I don't deserve you."

What we see is that, part of Yeong-gi's hesitance is also because he has to fight that reaching for Shin-ae means something to him.

Because deep down he has also has a desperate desire to connect with her. But he hates himself. He doesn't think he deserves her. So he doesn't allow himself to pursue this "selfish" desire. He doesn't let himself reach for her.

As a result, he only allows himself to support her when he doesn't get that reciprocated, like when he stands to the side during her dance with Kousuke, when he asks Dieter to comfort her, or when he sits outside her hospital room... running away when she sees him.

Being there for her means something to him.

He doesn't deserve her so he doesn't allow himself to rely on her. Even though she wants him to.

Yeong-gi's Reaction

After Shin-ae's repeated attempts, Yeong-gi finally responds.

"I don't have anything to say. I'm sorry for leading you on all this time."

And this calm, blunt admission of guilt causes Shin-ae to be hit with the full reality of their relationship.

Perhaps during her inquiry this whole time, she was actually hoping to be somewhat proven wrong. That Yeong-gi would now show a desire to genuinely connect or at least have some explanation that wasn't just... because. and I'm sorry.

Her countenance changes and she becomes more mellow. She seems to change from denial and insistence, to acceptance. And she asks the last few questions to finally cement her worst fear — that it was all fake, right from when the masked boy asked to be partners.

"The night you asked me to be your partner... You said we made a great team... Our friendship... How much of it was genuine? I'm guessing it was all a lie too, huh?"

But this time, Yeong-gi lets it get to him.

What changes?

Is it her expression? Maybe he notices she's crying this time.

Is it her words? Earlier, Shin-ae asks him "What happened to you? Do you hate yourself?"

Now, she questions their shared relationship which causes Yeong-gi enough anguish to act. We may interpret this to mean that concern for Yeong-gi alone is not enough to drive him to reach for her, but concern for something that affects her too, their shared relationship, is (which is fitting, as mentioned earlier).

Yeong-gi also doesn't verbally respond to her question, was it all fake? Does this mean the answer's yes and he can't bring himself to say it?

I'll argue that he doesn't answer because he can't — he doesn't know the answer. Surely, some of it was fake, but something was real.

Something was so real that hearing her so sadly ask whether it was all fake makes him feel enough pain to fight against his inhibitions... and he finally reaches for her.

A Lovers’ A Friends’ Goodbye

Yeong-gi hugging Shin-ae the way he does... is intimate. But there aren't protests from Shin-ae. Instead, she sinks into the embrace.

When he looks at her, holding her face in his hand, and wipes away her tears, she quietly accepts.

I don't think I need to say how intimate this is. And frankly, how bizarre it is to see them do this. We haven't seen their relationship steadily progress to a point that would warrant them doing something like this in a way that feels appropriate. This is easily far too intimate for their relationship.

I’ve argued now and in the past that Yeong-gi has realized his (romantic) feelings for Shin-ae. His inner conflict simply meant there was a lot more exploration of his feelings that was shown in the comic.

As a result, I have not focused on Shin-ae’s perspective nearly as much. But there are moments where she seems to bear some undue fondness for Yeong-gi, especially due to her sudden role-reversal after the formal. She becomes quite friendly with him, she gives him soft smiles, she even reaches for him in her dreams... all of which may have been indicative of something that was there, something she didn't think about — something subconscious and unnoticed. Something romantic.

I believe this is shown here. Shin-ae wouldn't have ever initiated this, she wouldn't have even thought to. It makes a lot of sense that it's Yeong-gi who initiates this intimate moment (because he's realized those feelings, and it's been lingering under the surface for a while).

But Shin-ae's immediate acceptance is very telling... she feels something too. And she doesn't mind it. At least not in this moment.

There is this undeniable sense of underlying understanding between them. What they’re doing is not explicitly romantic. But it’s most certainly not platonic. They understand that the nature of what they’re feeling is unconventional and beyond friendship.

But alongside these feelings, there's something heavier — a feeling of desperation.

It feels like a goodbye.

Just moments before, Shin-ae seemed to have reached the final stages of accepting that Yeong-gi's gone.

They feel this impending sense of goodbye... So for one final moment, they entertain everything they purposefully hid behind their masks, what bubbled under the surface, what would've blossomed if given time. Everything that could've and would've been.

Their desperate intimacy in these final moments strikingly resembles what we may have seen elsewhere... but between lovers.

Lovers who know they will be separated, so for their final moments together share a moment of uninterrupted and unquestioned intimacy. No questions or qualms. After all, this could be the end.

But - Yeong-gi and Shin-ae weren't lovers. They were only friends, right?

Unless... this was also something that could've been?

However, when Yeong-gi places his hand on Shin-ae's left cheek, he touches her scars. We know that she got them from her accident in middle school. But all Yeong-gi knows is that he dropped her.

After he finally allows himself to reach for her, he's reminded of how he's failed her.

And he remembers — he doesn't deserve her.

His resolution is cemented, and he finally severs their ties... walking away, and calling her "Yoo".

Conclusions and Ep. 152

At the peak of the conflict in their relationship, and the height of their emotions, Shin-ae and Yeong-gi are faced with the imminent end of their relationship.

Despite it apparently being brought about themselves, through their contradictory actions, we can easily understand that their disdain for one another is... faked. For Yeong-gi, it's a byproduct of his special blend of troubles — his affinity to lie and "manipulate", in accordance with his insecurities. He doesn't tell Shin-ae he feels that he's bad for her, because he understands she won't accept that. Instead he pretends he doesn't care for her at all.

And Shin-ae, who isn't privy to the thought process behind this, is left wondering why her repeated attempts to reach him are rejected. Perhaps the boy under the mask really didn't care for her at all. It was all fake after all.

But Yeong-gi hugs her when she asks him that. They share a brief intimate moment with no words. And yet this moment is the most honest. The intimacy and care they show each other in that moment easily supersedes their earlier moments in honesty. Their feelings are palpable to us, and we understand them to be earnest and open. In this sole moment, neither of them hide.

Episode 152 shows the aftermath this moment has on them — Shin-ae is left reeling — she stands in the rain, mentioning that her throuat hurts. Later, she lays in bed in fetal position — completely struck by grief. Dieter himself recognizes this pain to stem from her love for Yeong-gi.

Yeong-gi, parallels her pain — his throat also hurts, as he dry-heaves after the moment. His physical agony reflects his emotional turmoil.

Personally, I believe there is some optimism to be found in 151 and 152 — after all, the love these characters have for each other is genuine. Not even after, but during the moment, they already regret hurting one another.

If their love for each other is enough to already push back so violently against their insecurities and desire to run away, it's only a matter of time until that love wins.

And when that happens, Shin-ae and Yeong-gi will reach a place of genuine emotional connection, where neither of them feel the need to don a mask. A place where, instead, they willfully choose to cast it aside in order to truly see one another. Because that's exactly what they want, to love each other's authentic self.