#i just think i need to go back to my w359 relisten

[milfbrainrot]

i am enjoying this show but i do think it's a good case study in how... not to worldbuild jlskdfklj.

i know it's not trying to be that deep, so it really is fine, but it's been kinda interesting to me picking up on things i don't think makes sense with the hidden connective tissue for what each society is supposed to be like and how they have developed from the present?

like everyone in most cultures thinks girls are fine and equal to men (ex. the moclan baby situation) and even if it's through an alien acceptance lens they're fine with gays (bortus and klyden) and even maybe chill with trans stuff ("ur kid can decide when she's old enough" in theory) etc.

but there are also so many jokes that stem from inequality that you wouldn't really think about unless you really considered it, like the Standard Straight Marriage Jokes you get with ed and kelly dependent on marital gender roles or alara having trouble with boyfriends who don't want a gf who's stronger than them (even though maybe the issue is her just being scary strong generally, it does come off like her super strength was almost created for the sake of "haha strong woman you would not expect it from" and to then make jokes that would hit with a modern non-introspective audience) etc.

if society has developed and done the work to actually get to a place of equality in these areas then those jokes and casual attitudes would be much less likely, and it makes sense to me that the guy behind family guy would not understand that or care because he is trying to appeal to a very standard modern audience the only way he knows how (uncreative jokes stuck in an outdated status quo).

[crossguild]

my all-time favorite piece of media is one piece (which, if you enjoy w359's character and narrative arcs and humor but wish there was more of it, PLEASE read OP, you will not regret it) and part of why i vibed with w359 is because it's very good at something OP is a masterclass in: recontextualization!

sometimes a piece of media drops a reveal that forces you to reevaluate everything you know about a character or a story, and that reveal changes everything and nothing-- it lets you understand a character on a level you never expected, that you never knew you were missing, but it changes nothing at all because that character is still the character you know and love

the moments that live rent-free in my brain from w359 are the moments where a character is completely recontextualized by a reveal. eiffel's backstory, how he ended up on the space station-- puts his behavior and everything about him into perspective. the moment you realize that his disrespect, laziness, lack of motivation are based in his own self-loathing, it made me go from disliking him in a shallow way to feeling a depth of sympathy, understanding and contempt that i didn't expect. it completely changes the experience of listening to season 1

lovelace, who i already loved, turning out to be an alien explained everything about her reappearance, and then theta scenario gave you both answers and additional questions when it's revealed that sometimes the duplicates will display a stronger personality or trait than the OG. both that and the trauma would explain lovelace's paranoia when she reappeared, but it's still left up to interpretation, and that uncertainty is something that lovelace is wrestling with as well

hera's moment in memoria reveals SO MUCH about why her systems have always been wack (although decommissioned helped as well), but it also put into perspective wtf was going on with pryce and her methods of control. it lives in our heads rent-free because the reveal changed everything and nothing all at once. it was the moment that hera's personhood is demonstrated more clearly than at any other time in the series, not least because of maxwell's insistence on it

and i know i've talked about this ad nauseum, but kepler's framing throughout the series is purely as a Threat, an agent of goddard's interests at the expense of everyone else, so even the relative help and benefit he brings is cast with suspicion and fear. and sure, he doesn't really care how the hephaestus crew feels, and he can and will wipe them out if he sees the need to. the reveal in the finale doesn't change that.

but it DOES reframe the character, because once you know that he isn't just talking out of his ass, that he truly believes in this ideal of humanity that he thought goddard would be able to bring him closer to, u recognize that what reads as a self-interested power-grab with 'the bigger picture' as a weak excuse is done in true and actual service to a misguided cause-- which is why i went from being pretty ambivalent about kepler to having him be my absolute favorite character in a series that's already overflowing with complex, compelling and fun characters.

and that's why wolf 359 has such high relisten value! because once you've understood the text, you go back to pick up the clues that were always there, that you didn't understand as foreshadowing, that you're internally screaming at now that you Get It, and then you yell at all your friends to listen to it so you can watch them experience the reveals the same way you did (: and then everyone suffers emotionally

ETA: and also why i think cutter is ultimately a letdown but also hilarious. his backstory changed absolutely nothing, we knew he was a clown and an evil mfer. get on OP's level with writing villains pls. i want a sympathetic AND irredeemable bad guy. absolute garbage asshole who i hate with every fiber of my being and can't stop thinking about