#i keep imagining him in situations. and every time its like an episode of its always sunny--

[overchromatic]

Beika is a disgusting little freak (affectionate)

[redeyeyuna]

WHEN THE CAMS ARE OFF

So, Nandor and Guillermo are canonically doing some things when when they're not being filmed. With knowing this, I wanted to recap a few things from the season.

This post will mainly focus on how Nandor in particular handled himself subliminally towards the camera in certain situations. Also, that Guillermo faked to leave the vampires in E11 just for the documentary got me thinking which other things could be made up too. Giving a false view of facts just to make the audience think otherwise or to distract them from something specific... This specific thing they wanted to keep private, and didn't want it to be anyone else's business. Cause they wanted to solve and figure it out for themselves without having it exploited to the full in front of the camera. And this is the relationship development (secret affair) between Nandor and Guillermo that ran its course and has been cooked in the background during the sixth season.

[Sorry in advance for grammar mistakes and typos. English is not my first language]

The first hint is alreay in the first episode!

Nandor necessarily has to emphasize that he hasn’t seen Guillermo since he left, and Guillermo immediately throws in that he is telling the truth. But Nadja seems already to know what’s going on between these two idiots.

Also, Nandor trying to help Guillermo by searching for a flat and then suggest him to move into the VERY NEAR garden shed… A practical temporary solution if you don't want to be disturbed by the other housemates. I can well imagine that Nandor already thought of a better place for the two of them at this time. *Caugh* Secret underground lair *Caugh*

/|\ ^._.^ /|\

What about Nandor having a crush on the Guide?

... did he really ever have that, though?😏 What if Nandor’s crush on the Guide was made up by himself just for the documentary to distract the crew/viewers from himself and Guillermo, so that they don't keep following them to catch some shots? Yes, I know Nandor’s sudden crush on the Guide was at first caused by the sleep hypnosis… But for Nadja, the hypnosis seemed like a dream… Perhaps Nandor also thought he had dreamt that he suddenly had a crush on the Guide (or maybe Guillermo just told him) and Nandor was like: “You know what? That’s perfect! I use this to distract the doc crew and viewers from me and Guillermo!”

Nandor had one or more love interest in almost every season that he had a crush on. Why should it be any different now?

Due to this the film crew weren’t focussed on following them and wouldn’t wondering if Nandor could actually have something going on with Guillermo. Nandor’s crush on the Guide in general seemed very odd and just pretended for the camera/viewers. Over time, it seemed to appear more and more obviously and artificially.

In E4 "The Railroad" before Nandor said goodbye to the Guide, he looked suspiciously over his shoulder before making his flirtatious move towards her. It seemed as if he was aiming at it. Shouldn't he have been eyeing up his crush instead of making sure he was filmed flirting?

In E7 "March Mandess" Nandor looked very obviously into the camera during the scene used for the flashback, while Nandor is talking to Charmaine about the guide.

I also wonder why it was so important to Nandor that Charmaine would keep the thing of him and the guide to herself. Cause it’s made up and he just mentioned that he would has a crush on someone so that the film crew could add flashback? Generally, threatening to kill her in her sleep just because of that felt a bit too excessive, doesn’t it?

When the Guide finally rejects him perfectly in E9 “Come Out and Play” (you go, Girl!), Nandor seemed to fully ignore her destruction she has thrown at him.

He purposely ignored what she said. Even though he is normally so easily outraged. Especially after these true words that his supposedly "big love" said to him, he should’ve been at least a bit upset.  

Just remember how devastated he was, when Gail rejects him, and she had rejected him way more nicely.

And please just directly compare Nandor’s “look of love” towards the Guide with how he looked at Guillermo in E3…

And the Oscar-worthy performance, in which Nandor fell on his knees saying overdramatically that the Baron should take his life instead of the Guide seemed totally forced.

Also, Nandor knew very well that the Baron wouldn't have killed anyone…

In E11 “The Finale” Nandor and the Guide is only a short topic at the beginning of the episode, when Nadja asked him if Laszlo could use some parts of the Guide for the Monster. Nandor didn't seem to be listening anyway with his mind somewhere else.

After it was announced that the film crew wanted to end the documentary, he didn't even flirt or interact more intensely with the guide in the entire episode.  As if he no longer needed to fool anyone now that he knew the movie crew was leaving.

/|\ ^._.^ /|\

What about Nandor still saying mean things towards Guillermo?

I also want to cover up the thing of Nandor remaining to say mean things towards Guillermo and wiping his hand on him after the intense hand clasp cause it was a bit clamy.

I I have read criticism of it in some WWDITS negatively posts. And this opinion is valid, no question. But I could imagine that Nandor only continued to do this for the camera, or it is just a normal thing between them cause they are a very fucked up toxic couple anyway ;)

Look at the slightly unsettled grin on Nandor's face when he gave towards the camera. As if he was worried that this very unusually long-lasting hand clasp could lead to more while the camera is still rolling. So, he had to come up with a quick excuse to end it. This facial expression from Nandor looking directly into the camera is so different from the looks he gave to the camera while interacting with the guide. It is just a short glace towards the lens before he puts his eyes back to Guillermo.

Guillermo looked as if he was sad not to express his gratitude to Nandor the way he would like to (cause of cameras as well maybe?)

/|\ ^._.^ /|\

The Finale

Nandor was so obviously happy that the documentary crew were going to leave. He was excited to shoot B-roll footage all the time and he sassily said this when Nadja told him about Guillermo being sad about the end of the documentary:

Looks like someone was really excited to no longer be constantly followed by the camera so that they could continue to focus on "other things"... Also, this reference to the will they/won’t they dynamic of Nandermo is insane.

Colin and Nadja suspecting Guillermo of having a secret relationship with one of the crew members could be an indirectly hint of a secret relationship with Nandor as well. @barren-heart already did this post about it which has made me to create this summary (hope you don't mind me mentioning you here :3).

Nadja possibly saw Guillermo making out with someone who looks like Nandor and maybe it was actually just Nandor!

She just don’t recognised it that fast cause they might quickly disappeared somewhere OR it was just another hint from Nadja, because she knew. She had become a bit of a nandermo shipper this season ;)

In the last speech of Nandor for the documentary it was so clearly to notice that the lair is only a metaphor for Nandor’s private life with Guillermo after the film crew would be gone...

This directly glance into the camera during the speech pause... As if he explicit wanted to make clear that he wanted to say something different when the cameras would be off.

And Guillermo’s reaction during that scene is so fucking funny. He seemed to have a moment of hope that Nandor would actually reveal their affair, but no it is the superhero lair again.

/|\ ^._.^ /|\

The Final Scene

In the background, there was played the same song that was used in the pilot episode for the post-credits. I like that really much!

🎶“Tonight in the Moonlight” (Morrie Morrison Orchestra)🎶 Tonight in the moonlight When silver blends with blue We'll do the thing all lovers do Lingering on till dawn breaks through Tonight in the moonlight with you

And again that offensive look into the camera from Nandor in the middle of his speech and Guillermo trying to get something specific out of him...

If, by this time, someone still does not consider Nandermo to be canon, then I can no longer help them xD

Subtext is their thing! That's always been the case throughout all the seasons! And in such a way that it was already too subtle to be subtext.

However, even Guillermos love sick puppy eyes and his cute “What about one… one of the other reasons?" didn't caused Nandor to spit it out. He bravely continued to avoid eye contact and was trying very hard not to become weak.

When Guillermo said that he won’t be here anymore after Nandor would wake up, Nandor’s description of their secret lair feels forced, which again supports the thesis of an actual love cave: “But what about us joining forces and fighting crime in a coequal partnership? Operating out of a hidden underground lair accessible exclusively by a top-secret coffin elevator.”

Of course, Nandor believed that Guillermo wouldn't leave and was just putting on a show for the camera. He knows his Guillermo better than anyone else...

And THIS look of Nandor’s face when he wanted Guillermo to sit with him inside his coffin comparing with a confirming deep voicing “Mm-hmm”

Oh boy, as if they are going to do very spicy things in that lair...

Then finally the relevation of Nandor’s masterpiece...

During the whole season Guillermo had a problem with sexual things in front of the camera while Nandor had a problem with expressing deep and meaningful feelings while the crew was filming. And because of that they prefer do both things IN THE SHADOWS!

/|\ ^._.^ /|\

So, this my view of Season 6 and the Finale and also my special tribute to my most favorute show! 🦇♥️

It has become longer than expected. Thank’s to everyone who has taken the time to read it this far!

[the-orange-solace]

When I was a child, I watched an episode of Criminal Minds where a man had a split personality. A woman who killed other women who threatened the man she formed to protect. I remember her sitting in the dark on a couch, a cigarette in hand beside a lamp, as she spoke to an Agent about why she had to kill them, that it was to protect him. It was her entire purpose for existing.

As a child, I used to pace empty halls in the middle of the night and lay in bed, repeating in my mind that I would be the only being in my body. I will not break into multiple people. I will be in control. I have to be because, at the time, I believed I could break into those monstrous plurals you see on TV. The ones that killed their family after years of neglect, abuse, and wrongdoing. The ones you should be afraid of ever becoming, no matter who you are or your situation.

So I became terrified.

And yet, nearly every night, I'd look up at the sky or the ceiling and beg for something to change—to not be alone. I was stuck pretending I was a different character, a type of escapism that sometimes got out of hand, lost in an identity that wasn't my own. Looking up and imagining being taken away, every character I adored was by my side, caring for me in return. I had to keep going, be them, and exist in a world with them.

I'd made up stories, different realities, and places in my mind to escape to, as well as explanations for things my underdeveloped brain couldn't comprehend in the place I found myself within. I clung to concepts, characters, and situations that reflected my own, and soon, I no longer felt alone—not with all the escapism I conjured up, not with the different identities to help me face what was happening.

But I was in control. I was one being. No matter what. I had to be a single being because that was good. I had to be good.

I would never hurt anyone, and being many meant being bad. I couldn't be bad.

When I was a teenager, I started researching and getting involved in minority and disabled spaces. I loved being informed, the stories, the many perspectives, and the complexity of humanity. So it was no surprise when I shared a plural headcanon with a friend, and they felt safe coming out to me. They were many. They took my hand and guided me through a community I was fascinated with and wanted to aid and represent like so many others.

I spent years learning, staying silent as others spoke, just listening to everything I could. But then, one day, like so many others, I spoke through a different facet, a different identity I had created as a child. The many faces of me represented things I could not be, I could not hold, nor could I handle. I was struggling; some of me wanted to lash out. So she did. She lashed out.

As always, I was faced with kindness, listening ears, and aid that then pushed me more to the surface from drowning. But I never left; just another part of me was lost, right? Of course. People are complex. I deal with my emotions in a complex way. Of course.

My plurally disabled friend watched as I became more comfortable speaking through the identities I had, whether they were facets of myself or characters that helped me. Soon enough, the continuous "role-play" and "emotional processing" developed into normal conversation, a comfort, a relief.

They kindly approached me and asked if I was a system, too. They had never met anyone who spoke to themselves like I do, definitely not any singlets. None of our other friends did, in person or not, not even people in our families. It was just us.

The fear from my childhood arose. I couldn't be multiple; I couldn't be more than one. It was bad. But hadn't I learned about Plurality? All its ups and downs? Its complexities and nuances? I accepted it wholeheartedly; I learned and evolved from the demonized perception I was given as a child. So, why was it still bad?

Because I must be lying; I must be a fake, a poser. It was the only reason, wasn't it? I had seen so many conversations and arguments about fakes, those who wished to be special. Had I somehow become the harm they spoke of? How could I do this to a community I swore to listen to and fight for?

I obsessed over it, forcing the panic, dissociation, habit, and ease of speaking in multiple identities and beings of myself away. I buried it as deep as I could for the betterment of everyone else. The community didn't deserve such harm, and I wouldn't bring it to their doorstep if I claimed it to be something I'm not.

The loathing became so present it formed into tics that caused aches and disruptions in my life. Multiple stressors--along with an identity crisis--will do that to someone. So my shoulder and neck muscles ached from shrugging, flexing, and all the repetitive movements I couldn't stop without crying from the suppression. So I didn't. I let it disrupt and hurt.

Then, one day, someone, some random, unknown system to me out in the world, spoke about how it didn't matter what was real or not; it didn't hurt anyone. Plurality and the belief of it didn't hurt anyone. It hurt no one to discover themselves, to test the waters, to simply pry into yourself and learn. There was no shame in figuring yourself, or yourselves, out. There was no right or wrong, nothing to be ashamed of or fearful of. Just another part of living.

So I did. I poked and prodded. I gave my parts names, spoke to them in the middle of the night, asked questions, got to know them, and learned we couldn't talk through words at first but could emotions and sensations. I realized I couldn't find where my Plurality started or where it ended, that we—oh god, we—the idea was so surreal but...comforting—were so combined, living without specific individuality outside of me that there was no separation in sight. Not that I could figure out. For so long, I believed everything was just me. Only me.

But now it was someone else, too. These things that made no sense, these things that felt out of place or special, unique, and ever-changing could be someone else.

Someone else.

The more I reflected, learned, applied, and prodded, the more things made sense. Until one day, I looked at my friends, held my breath, and spoke. Stated that it like it was a sin for me of all people to say.

I was plural.

No one blinked an eye. No one questioned it outside of boundaries and clarification. It wasn't surprising that their childhood friend was many. How surprising could it be when they used so many different names for different parts of themselves to express hard things?

It was astonishing.

And here we are, years and years later, grown and still learning, living, fighting, but more in touch with ourselves than ever before with so many more sys friends and aquatints. More experiences, a better understanding.

It's not shameful to learn, apply, and reflect. You take nothing from anyone but your time and open-minded exploration of the world and yourself(ves). There is no evil in being human, living life, phase or not. There is nothing wrong with you, any of you, for existing or living. You just are. I embrace you, I embrace us, and I embrace everything that comes with a life of many.

So, if you're struggling, just know you're not alone outside the body. We know, and so do many others. It's going to be okay; you'll find yourself in time. Don't rush it. There will always be time.

[ottersandfandoms]

Full Analysis/breakdown of the asmodous crystal exchange because the episode broke me and this is how I cope. Warning: long

So the first shot we have is Stolas sitting on his bed in apprehension, then Blitz jumps up on the balcony. Blitz starts the night off like any other, bringing out his bag of sex toys and just speaking in an unworried manner. Yet we have the sad music playing in the background that lets us know this is temporary. It’s NOT a normal night. Stolas knows this too and he’s just quietly watching.

Stolas finally speaks and he stutters at the beginning. This is really happening. He disregards all the other things Blitz brought and instead just asks for the book.

This is when Blitz first starts noticing something is up. We see a quick shot of his smile dropping. He was all worried about Stolas getting bored of him earlier and wanting the book back and now he began to actually think those fears are being proven true. Even if he doesn’t admit it, Blitz has a big fear of not being wanted and just pushed aside, like he has been for most of his life. 

So when Stolas admits he needs the book back Blitz panics. His fears are true. He begins to hurriedly speak and makes excuses. This book is his livelihood and the reason for his jobs so it makes sense why he is scared of losing it. He leans in and tries to initiate sex. It works every time with Stolas so why wouldn’t it work now? Stolas begins to grow sad. He does want to have sex with Blitz. But he knows that would be unfair so he gets up.

Blitz is terrified. He desperately begs Stolas for the book. Blitz is being put in a vulnerable situation and he doesn’t like it. His whole life could be destroyed if he can’t keep his business afloat. He wouldn’t be able to support himself and couldn’t support Loona. He would “do anything” to keep it.

But then Stolas shows him the crystal. Stolas presents it to him in a happy tone. He tries to be happy and hopeful even though he is clearly still very worried. Maybe everything will be ok. Maybe Blitz will reciprocate Stolas’s feelings and everything will be great.

Blitz thinks Stolas is joking. He doesn’t understand why Stolas would do this. Now his job is safe but his relationship with Stolas is not. His deepest fears are being proven once more. 

He’s not good enough.

He goes into this state of wanting to please.

When Blitz was a child, his dad clearly saw Blitz as the weakling compared with Fizz. And no matter how much Blitz tried to prove himself, it was never enough. “I can do better” is almost juvenile in its phrasing. A desperate plea and promise that might diffuse the situation. Blitz reverts back to his childlike self where he was always last choice and flung aside like he didn’t matter. Imagine how many times he said that exact sentence to his father.

Stolas explains. Stolas actually does a good job of saying what he wants. He is clear and to the point, emphasizing asking what Blitz wants. During Stolas’s speech, Blitz glances back and forth at the crystal, trying to make sense of what’s happening  and then at Stolas. Because he does want to stay. He likes Stolas. If he didn’t care, he would've taken the crystal and left, but he didn’t and chose to stay. Stolas finally just finishes his speech by confessing his feelings. He says them in a frantic way; he is putting himself out there but there is hope there too. 

Blitz thinks he’s joking. Of course he would be. Why could Stolas actually seriously care for him? How could Stolas care for him? The only possible explanation has to be that Stolas is joking. So he puts on a roleplay because he thinks it’s what Stolas wants. He refuses to accept there may be something more.

Stolas takes this as a mocking rejection. His hope has been squashed. Stolas is so used to being mocked that he immediately takes Blitz’s ‘roleplay’ as Blitz making fun of him. Stolas has been mocked by the people, the other Goatia, Stella. Blitz is just another one to add to the list.

He accepts the supposed rejection and walks away. Blitz now realizes he wasn’t joking. He is legitimately surprised that Stolas would want anything true with him. Blitz has this worldview of nobody truly wanting him; finding him useful, sure, but actually wanting him…that would be impossible. Stolas’s confession is a stark blow to that worldview and it makes sense why Blitz needs time to accept this.

This is where Stolas makes his mistake, he doesn’t give Blitz time to think through this. He takes Blitz’s confusion as rejection, not stopping to consider that Blitz is just as scared as he is. His hope is now totally gone. Both Stolas and Blitz are eerily similar in their fears. They both just want to be wanted but where Stolas shrinks away in sadness, Blitz lashes out.

And that's exactly what Blitz does now. And he doesn’t stop.

He doesn’t want to deal with his own hurt feelings so he instead blames it all on Stolas, to hide the fact that he may be blaming it on himself. The thing is, most of what Blitz says is true. Stolas repetitively called him a plaything and ‘little imp’ so it makes sense why Blitz doesn’t fully believe him. Blitz has always been the inferior one in his relationships. With Fizz, With Verosika, with Stolas, with countless demons. This has caused him this inferiority complex that he can’t escape. 

Blitz has tears in his eyes and he is truly breaking down. He has spent so long trying to convince himself that Stolas doesn’t care and now suddenly he does? He still hasn’t actually accepted that Stolas cares for him. He can’t accept that and that makes it all more painful. It has to be some lie or game and he is begging Stolas to stop playing. To stop complicating things because that will force Blitz to think about how he feels.

"Let's go!"

Blitz fully expects Stolas to yell back. he is so used to being in arguments where the other person will lash back as well. And Blitz almost wants this. He believes he deserves it.

But Stolas doesn't...

Instead he takes Blitz sceaming the wrong way. You see this heartbreaking scene of Stolas starting to cry. Stolas has spent his whole life being told to be quieter, be more controlled, less emotional. Him crying in front of someone, rather than alone really emphasizes the hurt he is feeling. And then there is of course the most heartbreaking line: “I didn’t realize you think so low of me”.

Everyone thinks low of Stolas. He is the “pathetic” Goatia prince who is constantly scoffed at and bullied. Blitz was his escape from all of that, but now he believes Blitz thinks the same as everyone else.

But Blitz DOESN’T think low of Stolas. He thinks low of himself. 

Blitz realizes he fucked up. He went too far and hurt Stolas.

He realizes that Stolas misinterpreted what he said because Blitz was never really talking about Stolas, he was talking about his own feelings. We can see Blitz actually try to reach out to Stolas. He needs to let Stolas know that he doesn’t think that. You can hear him start to say “I’m sorry-” but as he’s saying that Stolas portals him away. 

Blitz “What the fuck” perfectly encapsulates his feelings. He doesn’t understand what happened but he knows that he messed up. Blitz needs to let Stolas know that he actually cares about him and apologize for what he said and Stolas needs to understand that Blitz needs some time.

Blitz never once said that he doesn’t care, only that he doesn’t believe Stolas can.  

[verboselocket38]

Before any Stolas/itz stans come to me saying I am a Blitzø stan, I'm not. I dont like Blitzø but this thought has been in my head for awhile and I gotta bring it out here.

Imagine this...

A society where Imps are seen as the second lowest class next to hell hounds where not many are able to start their own buisness.

Now Blitzø wanted to start his own killing buisness where he needs to get to the human realm. Currently its successful, but its only sucessful when he sleeps with Stolas every month for his grimore which access people in hell to the human realm.

A lot of people have already talked about the power dynamics and coercive relationship the two have so this post is mainly me talking about how Stolas was the one to force Blitzø into the relationship, whether he knew or not.

1. The reason for Blitzø to live

Lets just get this out of the way, the Grimore is the reason why Blitzø needs to run his buisness. The buisness that helps pay for his daughter and him to have a roof over their head, and their employees. Money that helps them pay for food, bills, other necessities for them to LIVE. Imps are one of the lowest classes in society, we see in previous episodes they may work as butlers for the Goetia and a not treated well.

In Full Moon Blitzø was begging for Stolas for him to do better all because he missed a bit for their arrangment. Alot of people think hes pleading because he "actually loves Stolas and wants to do better" when.... No it was more of Blitzø begging to keep the one thing that kept his buissness that he worked so hard to maintain afloat - and this was before Stolas showed him the crystal. Even if thats not what the writers intended thats not how it comes off in the show.

2. "But Blitzø started the arrangement!"

No he didnt. When Stolas took Blitzø to the bedroom when he was caught trying to steal the grimore, he thought Blitzø was going to "ravish him." HE made it sexual in the first place.

Now its been 25 years since these two last saw eachother. In that time things change and these two only interacted once as KIDS. When you are a child your personality and perspective usually changes as you grow older. What I mean by this is that Stolas being a royal, in Blitzø's mind he believes that if Stolas figured out WHY he was here sneaking around his house, there is a good chance Stolas could just kill him.

And before any of you say "But Stolas would NEVER do that 🥺"

How exactly is Blitzø suppose to know???

It's been 25 years since they lady saw each other. Stuff changes. If Blitzø thought Stolas wouldn't kill him if caught, then why didn't he just ask Stolas for the book? I mean if he knew that Stolas would willingly give him the book for the business, then wouldn't this whole arrangement like- never happen in the first place???

In his mind in this situation, Blitzø was panicking. In this situation him being sexual with Stolas was his only priority in his mind to keep himself alive.... And then later he gave Stolas pity sex.

(Which let me just say since this part is what I believe defiently what wasnt going through Blitzø's mind... But if he left with the book not giving Stolas sex, I wouldn't be suprised that Stolas would feel betrayed and then track Blitzø down to take the book back. We know he can track him down in Murder Family and Truth Seekers, so I wouldn't be suprised but yeah I just wanted to point this out.)

3. "But What about Blitzø's Exes?"

People like to bring Up Blitzø's exes to point out how he somehow screwed up in his relationship with Stolas even though it is a separate issue. And something to point out is that Dennis, a character from the Queen Bee episode, was there. He wasn't an ex, he was a fling. I wouldnt be suprised that the amount of people there are just flings. As for Verosika she has every right to hate him after he maxed her credit card, but like.... girl making a party every year about hating Blitzø isnt going to let these people get over him.

In all honesty I think Blitzø having a lot of "Exes" was just meant to make Blitzø look worse than Stolas. This is just something I wanted to get out of the way.

4. If you still think that its Blitzø's fault cuz the relationship started, let me put it in perspective like this...

(This isnt suppose to be a 100% accurate comparison to Stolas and Blitzø but this is just to set an example)

There was this couple named John and Leslie. Now John has been intrested in Leslie in a romantic way and asks her to be in a relationship. She says yes and they date for awhile. Things may or may not start out ok but later down the line Leslie starts being not a good partner. By that I mean she might be emotionally manipulative towards him or making him think that anything Leslie herself doesn't like is immediately JOHN'S fault. Apparently if we go by the HH/HB fandom's logic, John would be at fault for being abused because HE was the one who started the relationship. The fact that he had feelings for her at one point automatically means that he has to be in the relationship forever now.

Now if we go to Blitzø and Stolas, Blitzø is at fault for being in sexual coercion because he tried to not get himself (In his mind) killed by Stolas when he tried taking his book. Its his fault for not loving him when what they had was a transactional agreement that was purely business. Its Blitzø's fault for not realizing Stolas was having a serious conversation with him in Full Moon, when Stolas has never treated Blitzø like an equal in the past.

Conclusion

When going through this whole rant I wanted to put this somewhere but didnt know where:

I don't condemn thievery... but I also dont condemn coercive rape.

Just because Stolas feels bad about it does not make anything any better. Even if he didn't mean to put Blitzø in this situation, whatever way you look at it, its unhealthy. Blitzø needed the book to run his buisness that he worked hard for to LIVE. Stolas was the one who decided this whole agreement. HE was the one who put these two in this predicament. And yet this show still decides to make Stolas look like a victim.

[bobbydagen24]

what are some episode ideas your hoping to see in the next tv show? assuming we do get one.

a few of mine would be.

an episode where JD and Bruce are shown still Butting heads with each other loads in present day annoying the other Bros a lot. and maybe during a Hike out in the woods or something something happens which results in JD and Bruce getting cut off from the others and being lost. leaving them stuck together in the middle of nowhere bickering over the right ways to do things with JD using all his survival skills he picked up but Bruce at first stubbornly refusing to go along with what he says given he doesn't want to admit that following JDs lead might for once be the most logical thing to do in a situation. anyway the episode could lead to them opening up to each other a bit more about their lives after the breakup. Bruce could tell JD about the effect he had on his self confidence and how difficult it actually was for him to learn to relax and not stress over every little thing he did after having him micro manage him for years. and JD could tell him more about his time he spent away from society in the 20+ years basically having no one but Rhonda for company maybe in part because he was too afraid of getting close with people and then ruining things with them like he did with their family. it'd just be good to have a little episode focused on their Rocky dynamic imo.

an episode where Branch is ill and his Brothers try to take care of him. a few other people have had this idea and someone even did a cute fanfic involving Both Kismet and Bro zone fighting over the best way to take care of Branch. but yeah I think the idea simply involving Bro zone coming around one day to find Branch so ill he hasn't left his Bunker and while he acts like its no big deal his Brothers insist on staying with him to look after him. somewhat confusing Branch but he agrees to it since he's too tired to argue with them and over the course of the episode they all lightly bicker and disagree on the right way to take care of him. while also annoying Branch with how much they mess around in his Bunker maybe not putting things back in their right places. I like to imagine this all culminates in Branch getting annoyed with them all and questioning them on what their even doing there and why they're all being so weird. kinda surprising the Brothers as they say looking after someone in the family when their sick is just normal to them. and I like the sad angsty idea of Branch not realising this and being confused by his Brothers behaviour throughout the episode since he's always just dealt with this stuff on his own in the past. kinda making his Brothers a little somber when they Realise this like they knew he'd always been independent but not to this extreme extent that he literally didn't have help even when he needed it.

this isn't really so much an entire episode idea as it just a single plot point I could imagine happening early on. that being at the start of the show Bruce is obviously only just staying in Pop Village for a short night or Two given he has to get back to Vacay. but as a plot point and an easy way to keep all the Brothers in one place for the first season I'd have something happen towards the end of the episode that makes Bruce change his mind and decide to stay in pop village a bit longer after talking it through with Brandi and making sure she'd be fine to cover while he's away. maybe something happens that makes him see things are still pretty complicated between all the brothers and he decides he should stick around a little longer until their in a more stable place.

an episode where same as the popular fan idea Floyd is shown to be claustrophobic and panics after coming out of a small space still having issues from his captivity tho he tries to hide it from other people. but it could be a nice chance for Branch to recognise what's going on with his Brother and try to talk to him about it. tho maybe after some poking and prodding Floyd ends up saying something along the lines of him suddenly having flashbacks or something. feeling like he's right back in that moment feeling helpless and like there's nothing he can do in the face of these towering giants tho Floyd thinks Branch might not understand. and this could be when he tells him exactly how their Grandma died and how helpless he felt witnessing the whole thing as a kid and how he still sometimes is reminded of that day just by ordinary everyday little things. it'd be a kinda cute bonding moment I think.

I've said before I can easily imagine an episode just focusing on Bruce and Branch as well given their vastly opposing personalities. since Bruce tries to be laid back and carefree and of course Branch is so high strung and particular especially tv show Branch. plus Bruce is probably the most Traditionally "" Normal "" out of the Brothers so I could imagine him having problems with crazier Tv Show Branch. like imagine him going over to Vacay to spend more time with Bruce and his kids only for Bruce to be weirded out to see Branch playing a game with the kids involving them having to run around lots tiring themselves out. all so Branch can at the end collect their sweat in his Jars to restock his supply in his Bunker. and when Bruce questions him on what the hell he's doing he says that his kids larger size means their sweat fills up his stocks much much quicker and easier. making it more efficient to use their sweat than his own 😂😂😂😂 and tv show Branch just continues to do stuff like this unnerving and annoying Bruce more and more to the point he eventually asks him to leave using the excuse that he's making their customers uncomfortable. and I like to think later on when talking to Brandi she'd kinda chew him out a little over it pointing out they were seen as weird at first simply for being together. I'm not really sure exactly how this episode would end but I like to think Bruce would see that he kinda just wanted Branch to fit a certain more normal idea he had of his brother. making him realise he's somewhat acting like JD used to. anyway those were a few general ideas I had for episodes I'd like to see if we do get a third show what about you what sorta episode stories would you like to see?

[wutheringheightsfilm]

Jumping in on the Merlin thing for a second and his awful, upsetting character arc from beginning to end... like I fully get where the bootlicker accusation is coming from, but I do think the show is actually like borderline horror if you start taking the destiny thing into consideration. My personal view of Merlin as a character is that he comes to Camelot in s1 completely unaware of what he's stepping into. Truly unprepared to come to The Anti Magic Capital that Classism and Genocide Built and witness a public execution within the first 5 minutes. His WHOLE deal in s1 is him like dangerously stepping into situations he doesn't fully understand because the social rules governing them are so nonsensical to him.

But by the time s2 starts he is Very Aware of how much Camelot is actively a terrible place for him to be and also he is in some deep and frightening level bound to that place and to Arthur. He is genuinely desperate to get out in s2 (he's a little angry and reckless throughout) and every attempt he makes to go against Destiny* ends in tragedy. Freya is the biggest example, but (wait sorry this in the back of s1) I also think a lot about how Will was pushing him to go against the grain only to get killed saving Arthur's life and to have Merlin's own mother tell him he belongs at Arthur's side NEXT TO WILL'S FUNERAL PYRE. It's a really scary moment if you concede that some element of Fate is at play and is working to keep Merlin in place.

Anyway, anyway I think by the end of s2 Merlin has been forced to accept "his place" (he betrays Morgana and is so furious that he acts out and let's Kilgarrah loose which I mean a lot of people probably died right??) so you get him being more cheerful in s3 because he is has to be happy right? He can't ever leave so he Has to believe in the prophecy and Arthur. It's a sunk cost thing, right? People have died for this. Merlin is killing people over it.. Morgana is lost forever. So it HAS to be leading to something beautiful. Merlin will keep supporting this regime because The Future will be better (undefined when or how and who cares that Arthur never really gets better). And the end is s3 is so hopeful and Merlin probably really believes it's all coming together at that Round Table they are really on the edge of something and then... and then.

Well Lancelot dies. And Uther dies in the worst possible way. And Arthur never, EVER gets better. And Merlin's world gets smaller and smaller and his ability to imagine anything but the path he's been stuck on forever goes away completely. And in the end the only thing THE ONLY THING he has is Arthur's life. Arthur staying alive, the thing which will mysteriously lead to the perfect future that makes all the previoys atrocities ok, is the only thing he can believe in. He will sacrifice anything and anybody for that one fact. It is the entire crux of his tenuous personhood.

Sorry I'm getting carried away here and not even talking about Fate very much here, but like it is absolutely chilling to get to the last episode and have Merlin confront Kilgarrah** over the fact that Albion did not in fact happen and have his answer be roughly "all has happened as it was meant to, this has been the story the entire time, you've done everything you were meant to". And so of course Merlin is going to spend the next millenia still on the same path, still forced to wait for The Promised Future to make good.

AND LIKE TO BE CLEAR its all bad writing. Genuinely, the first half of the show did not set up the back half. The writers were going for something in s4 and s5 entirely beyond their means. The politics of the show were abysmal (see: never knowing how to handle the genocide or fucking picking a side with Uther) and ultimately the writers were too in love with the status quo to tell a functional story. Like I am not in anyway suggesting that Merlin's relationship to fate and possible lack of conplete free will is something they did on purpose (if only because I'm never convinced the show fully understood how bad Merlin's situation was... one too many jokes where the knights played keep the food away from him, you know?) but I do think it's a necessary talking point to see what does happen to Merlin or to others in the first two series when he makes these attempts to act outside of his circumscribed role (like his attempt to free Morgana from Camelot that gets a lot of Druids killed).

*On the topic of Destiny I do think the show plays coy on how much of what happened was truly inevitable, but ultimately the viewer is meant to believe that Mordred and Morgana's fall and Arthur's death were all things that could not be changed because that's Arthurian Legend and also because, well, everyone starts to look pretty indefensible if Morgana wasn't always going to turn into a "villain" (as dubious as the politics of positioning her as such are). (Though actually I do think one thing that people let slide when people talk about Morgana is YES she correctly wanted to kill Uther and those who supported the magical genocide, BUT ALSO she was ultimately unable to break away from her class allegiance as a noble woman who believed she was entitled to a hereditary crown. Those two causes were inseparable for her. THAT'S why people kept telling her she took after Uther so much.) So anyway I think it's valid to say that if Merlin could have brought himself to completely ignore Gaius and Kilgarrah in s2 then maybe Morgana wouldn't have gone evil, but well. The show (for the much worse) simply wasn't built that way in-universe or out of universe (because, again, the politics of bbc Merlin Are stunningly awful).

**Kilgarrah has the avatar of Fate is also such an interesting question. I think the first two series kind of play with he idea that Kilgarrah is, well, certainly self-serving and looking for vengeance and that possibly he is misleading Merlin to that end. But then the show doesn't really do anything with that idea and in his subsequent appearances has Merlin treat Kilgarrah's advice and wisdom with complete good faith (though in-universe this is obviously partly the result of his never to be resolved grief over the sudden and violent loss of his father and becoming the last dragonlord). So I do think the writers intention with him by the end of the show is, unlike Gaius***, that he really was a mentor/wiseman figure for Merlin and was Truthfully communicating the prophecies.

***Gaius can go kick rocks truly. He is so terrible and like I get why Merlin feels like he's the only permanent, stable (parental) relationship in his life (I love you Hunith! I'm so sorry the show hates mothers!!!!) but genuinely Gaius should have died by the end of s3 at the latest this is LITERALLY Hero's Journey 101 to have the mentor/parent die. If we're taking my No Free Will Conspiracy Theory at face value then the fact that Gaius didn't die is all the proof you need that he was toxic to Merlin's well being and development of self hood outside of the prophecy.

Ok ok. I'm done for now, but literally I am always down to talk bbc Merlin, I am so upset about it all the time.

HI!! Okay I had to reopen my laptop in order to answer this because the mobile app was shitting itself lmao. Let me go point by point here because you said a lot of compelling stuff

your destiny + sunk cost fallacy theory is really interesting, and i really wish the showrunners/writers had realized this for themselves--and if they did, actualized it in the writing of the show. that would have been so interesting if we had gotten true moments from Merlin of him regretting where he has gotten to in life to that degree. god if only bbc merlin was actually a psychological horror about how you can't avoid your fate that's been predetermined for you. honestly if bbc merlin had grappled with predeterminism at all beyond a shallow skim of the surface of the idea it would have been 10 times more interesting

"Though actually I do think one thing that people let slide when people talk about Morgana is YES she correctly wanted to kill Uther and those who supported the magical genocide, BUT ALSO she was ultimately unable to break away from her class allegiance as a noble woman who believed she was entitled to a hereditary crown. Those two causes were inseparable for her. THAT'S why people kept telling her she took after Uther so much." <- this is actually incredibly true and honestly i do think it is a side effect of the show refusing to grapple with class dynamics as a whole because it lets the audience ignore it as well unless you're purposefully thinking about it, though i do still think her arc is what a previous anon said: the stereotype of someone who's Too Radical and Goes Too Far, and i'm not a fan of that at all. I'm not saying you're saying her arc isn't that, but it's just so badly written like you said 😭

"but genuinely Gaius should have died by the end of s3 at the latest this is LITERALLY Hero's Journey 101 to have the mentor/parent die. If we're taking my No Free Will Conspiracy Theory at face value then the fact that Gaius didn't die is all the proof you need that he was toxic to Merlin's well being and development of self hood outside of the prophecy." <- WHAT I'M FUCKING SAYING!!! Gaius should have died and it's a crime he didn't!!!!

Anyways overall I find your fate conspiracy theory to be super compelling and it has a lot of implications i didn't consider... ugh if only Merlin (and the writers of the show) had like an ounce more of self awareness and then it would have truly been horrifying for him to realize the cycle he's stuck in... ugh we could've had it all.

[timeagainreviews]

Mining Gold

In his 2012 stand-up special “New In Town,” John Mulaney quipped that he “always thought quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem than it turned out to be.” This sentiment seems to have rung true with people online. Quicksand was such a big deal in media in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Who could forget Westley jumping headlong into quicksand to save Buttercup in “The Princess Bride?” Remember the first time you saved Mario from sinking deep into golden sands? Yet in real life, very little quicksand. While I am sure there are parts of the world that grapple with quicksand, it’s more of a trope than anything. Trapping our heroes allows storytellers to show who these characters are under pressure. While Doctor Who has its share of great escapes, it’s also prone to using capture to pad time. But isn’t that a cynical view? Can’t trapping our heroes also give the narrative a moment to breathe?

Quicksand is the perfect type of trap because it’s a ticking clock that must be treated with attention and care. Characters must slow down and assess their situation. It’s odd then that Doctor Who has never used quicksand in the show proper. But it’s just a placeholder. You could throw someone into the Timelash. The Fourth Doctor had to shoot a rope while standing over a pit of horda. Or again with the Fourth Doctor when he stepped on a landmine. But that last one is different, isn’t it? The horda and Timelash are as real as the Swamp of Sandness and the Bog of Eternal Stench. But landmines are very real. And in some parts of the world, a horrific day-to-day reality.

Returning after a seven-year absence, Steven Moffat brings the Doctor back into the minefield with “Boom.” But unlike Doctor Who’s last episode named after an explosive onomatopoeia, “Kerblam!”, this episode aims to chastise capitalism’s role in atrocity, not give it a free pass. Also making a comeback are a few Moffat staples- Villengard, the Anglican Marines, and stupid children. Each does their part to build a narrative mirroring the current political climate. But have any of Moffat’s less celebrated qualities returned along with him? Will he fall into his own trappings as a writer? Is this trope just padding out time? Or can a bottle episode become an instant classic?

Coming off the heels of last week’s manic “The Devil’s Chord,” the show was due a bit of a breather. While I’m all for bombast it’s nice to know this thing has an off switch. I already saw someone on Instagram who disagrees wholeheartedly. In their words “Boom? More like BORING,” so I imagine this one won’t be popular among dullards and the chronically contrarian crowd. But as an old, I appreciated the slower pacing and the emphasis on emotion. If you need a constant source of laser swords and loud noises, allow me to quote the Third Doctor- “Don't worry, Brigadier. People will be shooting at you soon.” Luckily, Billy No-Mates and his five Instagram followers appear to be in the minority. Most everyone I’ve talked to absolutely loved this episode.

The one issue I’ve seen fans bring up that holds any kind of water has been the conversation around faith. The inclusion of the Anglican Marines introduces a religious angle that some have criticised as preachy and offensive. In the past Moffat has used the Anglicans to various ends. Spanning across two centuries, the Anglicans we’ve met so far have come in numerous forms. Sometimes they’re allies of the Doctor, and at other times, they’re a fanatic organisation hellbent on stopping the Doctor at every turn. This time, however, the Doctor and they cross paths presumably by happenstance. (More on why I say presumably later.) This group of Marines are already in a deep conflict with an elusive enemy, which they appear to be losing. Despite these losses, they keep their faith. But it’s hard to keep faith when your enemy is as invisible as your god.

The two soldiers we’re introduced to are Carson and John Francis Vater. Not as in they’re married like the Fat One and the Thin One couple from “A Good Man Goes To War,” but rather that Carson only gets the one name. As names go, John Francis Vater is akin to purple hair in an anime- total protagonist vibes. Vater even has a daughter named Splice living back on base. He has a cute “save the cat,” moment when he tells Splice to brush her manky teeth. Which is why when he dies, it feels like there’s still more to his story. Unfortunately for Carson, he exists to illustrate the way the Villengard smartmines on Kastarion 3 operate. As it turns out, it’s pretty quick, rather violent, and kind of pretty. Even more unfortunately for Vader, he is now essentially lost as Carson was acting as his eyes due to temporary blindness.

It’s never really explained why the Doctor and Ruby are parked on the planet. Presumably, it’s the Doctor doing his usual “land wherever and explore,” approach. But it’s the death of Vater that draws the Doctor and Ruby into the action. After lifting the veil from his injured eyes, Vater’s injury draws the attention of a Villengard Automated Ambulance Unit with the video face of Susan Twist. Having assessed that Vater’s recovery time would be too big of a drain on resources the ambulance terminates him. The Doctor comes running at the sound of Vater’s scream but finds nothing but an empty crater and a smartmine under his right foot. It’s the inclusion of Susan Twist here that makes me wonder if this isn’t part of some greater plan. Pretty obvious, really. Also, didn’t a big portion of Moffat’s last episode also take place in a crater?

The Doctor’s voice carries out along the horizon with a mournful rendition of “The Skye Boat Song.” It tells of the journey Bonnie Prince Charles took from Benbecula to Skye after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden, thus spelling the end for the Jacobites. This worked for me on several fronts. As a fan of the Second Doctor, I admired the nod to his past. I also enjoyed the reference to Ncuti Gatwa’s Scottish identity. The forlorn quality of his singing reminded me of the Master playing the Skye Boat Song in “The Power of the Doctor,” which was one of the better parts of that story. I was also grateful that they didn’t undercut the tension with a pop song, or something truly cringe, like quoting from Harry Potter.

The Doctor is singing to calm himself and hopefully delay the bomb until he can come up with a new plan. But it’s this singing that draws Ruby to his location. Together the two of them must move their bodies in sync to a rhythm so the Doctor can rest his leg. In yet another contrast to “The Devil’s Chord,” music is being used in an entirely different manner. But this time, the Doctor’s dance partner, Ruby Sunday, is less complimentary and more complicated. The Doctor faces death all the time, but seeing Ruby put in harm’s way raises the Doctor’s blood pressure. The adrenaline becomes harder to control. And his bio-signs become easier for the smartmine to detect. Because of this, the Doctor’s emotions are raw and prickly, another stark contrast from last week. He chastises Ruby for not doing as he tells her, but she ignores him because she’s got her own ideas about what she is and isn’t allowed to do. I was getting shades of Amy Pond from Ruby in this one, and considering the author, that makes sense.

If you’ve ever heard me say that I wanted the chance for Jodie Whittaker to get mean, or show anger, this is precisely the kind of depiction of the Doctor I meant. In many ways, Ncuti is the same brand of golden retriever adorable as Whittaker, only here they’ve allowed him to show that he’s capable of a depth of emotion. The Doctor has an authoritarian streak that he hides well, but in times of stress, the walls begin to fall away and you see the complicated Time Lord underneath the fish fingers and custard, the floppy hair, and the eccentric fit. This is exactly the kind of episode I wanted to see Ncuti get to do. I’ve seen him deal with heavy subjects in “Sex Education,” I’m glad they didn’t just hire him because he’s hot and dripping charisma. He’s also incredibly capable of going into dark places.

While looking for a rock to help the Doctor balance his dangling left leg, Ruby happens upon the “smelted,” remains of Vater. The Ambulance sort of formed and condensed Vater’s body into a tube shape topped with a nameplate and a hologram projector containing an AI facsimile of Vater’s consciousness. And I’ll say it because everyone’s waiting for me to say it- it’s an actual fleshlight. There, I said the thing. Are you happy? Is this what you wanted from me? Are you not entertained? I’d like to pretend I was so wrapped up in the episode that I didn’t think it, but I absolutely did. It’s VOR all over again. I got over it pretty fast.

That’s the way good Doctor Who goes, really. The little hang-ups are more like snags when you’re moving along. It’s easier to look past the nitpicks and grievances when there’s so much more at play. When Doctor Who is bad, all it has are its nitpicks and grievances and that’s a real sadness when that happens because we’re no longer watching Doctor Who, we’re watching the background go by. We’re admiring the wallpaper because just because the writers phoned it in, doesn’t mean the set designers did. But this is Doctor Who firing on all cylinders.

We are however getting into the realm of one of my nitpicks about this episode and that’s Splice. Because she lost her mother, her dad, Vater, has special permission to let her live on base. The issue I have is that I wasn’t joking earlier when I said she’s stupid. I don’t say this to badmouth the little girl playing her, as she was good. I also don’t mean to denigrate the script. What I don’t understand is why is she so old? That may seem like a weird question because kids come in all sorts of ages, but this one is little kids stupid. I found it hard to believe that a girl of her age would confuse a hologram for her father. I get that she might be fooled by the voice and I can even believe that she would be foolish enough to wander into a battlefield to find him, but I’ve never once seen my dad looking like a translucent blue hologram. This is why I say she’s too old. An older kid would have figured it out. They should have either changed her dialogue or cast someone younger. Otherwise, she’s a perfectly fine character.

Splice’s emotional reaction draws the attention of another Anglican Marine named Mundy Flynn. Immediately my Whovian brain was doing backflips at the sudden appearance of Varada Sethu. For those of you not in the know, Sethu is planned to be a companion in season 2 next year. Seeing her this early was very exciting. Was this an Oswin Oswald scenario or a Martha’s cousin dying at Canary Warf scenario? Did they enjoy working with Varada so much that they created a character for her in the next season or is this some wibbly wobbly sort of thing? Well, as it turns out, it’s a wibbly wobbly thing. I didn’t learn this from the show, however. I learned it from Doctor Who’s social media. And honestly, I really wish they’d have just left us to wonder on this one. Would it have killed them to leave an air of mystery around her character? There’s still a bit of mystery, but I feel like they’re holding people’s hands a bit too much. I guess they’re afraid people’s imaginations will run too wild and we’ll set ourselves up for disappointment. They know who their audience is. But still, I like the not knowing part. I like the speculation.

Mundy sees the Doctor holding the remains of Vater and commands him to drop them. But if the Doctor drops the remains, he risks setting off the mine. But even worse, if the mine goes off, it will turn him into the explosion. The Doctor refers to himself as a ”complex spacetime event,” indicating that if he were to explode, it could take out half of the planet. But Mundy isn’t convinced and tries to shoot the Doctor’s arm to make him drop the tube. Sensing combat, the Ambulance bots start looking for the injured to either heal or put out of their misery. Releasing her mistake, Mundy commands Ruby to shoot her in the arm in order to draw the ambulance away from the Doctor, but in her hesitation, Ruby is mistaken for an enemy and shot by Mundy’s comrade Canto who arrives late on the scene.

While we’re on the subject of Ruby, I wanted to point out that I found it a bit odd that Kastarion 3 was her first experience on an alien planet. Sure this is only her fourth adventure onscreen, but we were told in The Devil’s Chord that six months had passed. Granted, Rose Tyler spent an entire season having earthbound adventures with the Ninth Doctor, so there’s an explanation. I have to tip my hat to their attention to detail here as not even the Doctor Who Magazine comics have taken her off-world. I guess “Space Babies,” kind of counts. Just something I felt worth mentioning.

Not only has Ruby now died, but the Doctor learns that even if he does dupe the smartmine into thinking he’s not a living person, it will eventually detonate by default. The only way to stop this is now outside of the Doctor’s control, sort of. He must convince Mundy to surrender. Since the mine belongs to the Anglican Marines, only their surrender will disarm the device. Otherwise- boom. The Doctor explains to Mundy that the war they’re fighting is with themselves. The Villengard algorithm has been tricking the Marines into attacking themselves to keep them buying their product. It’s a war being waged against nothing all in the pursuit of profit.

Mundy asks the Doctor for proof which is where the Doctor’s stance on faith comes into play. But I feel like the actual conversation the Doctor is having in that moment is that faith is both a good and a bad thing. It’s not that he’s saying it’s bad for someone to have faith in God, but that it’s bad to let faith do your thinking for you. Splice has faith in her daddy. The Doctor and Ruby have faith in one another. Faith can strengthen us as people. But when it’s used to justify not considering deeper truths, it’s a hindrance. I feel like this is very in line with things we’ve heard the Fourth and Tenth Doctor’s say about religion in the past. I will admit though, I am an atheist, so I can’t speak from the perspective of a person with faith.

When Mundy tries to send evidence back to command, it’s intercepted by the algorithm and overruled. The machine has taken over and the smirking face of Susan Twist shows no signs of compassion leaking through. But with the Doctor connected to the machine and his hand connected to the remains of Vater, he’s able to send Vater into the algorithm. As Vater battles the ghost in the machine, I was reminded of “The Doctor’s Wife,” when the TARDIS re-enters her body and destroys House from the inside. In fact, lots of this episode reminded me of previous Doctor Who. The short war fought on the basis of a lie reminded me of “The Doctor’s Daughter.” The message about unchecked capitalism reminded me of “Oxygen.”  And of course there’s the mine calling back to Tom Baker in “Genesis of the Daleks.” Lots of what Ncuti was doing this week reminded me of Tom Baker and I mean that as the utmost compliment. He was doing stellar work here.

This episode had me grinning from ear to ear for the entirety of its runtime. But it wasn’t until after that I realised what it was that had me so happy. Sure, the episode was good, but I realised that it was the first time in the last 5 or 6 years that I had enjoyed a new Doctor Who episode without a giant asterisk hanging overhead. I cried tears of joy during “The Woman Who Fell to Earth,” but that was excitement for Jodie. My opinion of the episode itself was quite low. I enjoyed “The Witchfinders,” (also how cool was that reference to it in this episode?) and I enjoyed “It Takes You Away,” but I loved “Boom.” Without any hesitation, I absolutely loved it.

While the RTD2 era has been a marked improvement, I have had a few reservations. Mostly that it has so far felt like they’ve been trying way too hard. Trying too hard to have fun. Trying too hard to be funny. Trying too hard to be action-packed. I hope that the people in charge have seen the fan reaction to Boom for what it is. You don’t need massive budgets. You can do smaller stories with simple sets. The fans will respond well when you nail the tone and writing. Even Ncuti Gatwa said that while he was confused the entire time shotting the episode, it ended up being his favourite of the season. This felt like the most Doctor Who episode of Doctor Who that I’ve watched since Moffat left, and I’m including the new Davies stuff in there. This is what I meant when I said I wish Davies would chill the fuck out. Stop trying so hard.

Where this falls short for me is it highlights how insular the show has been since it returned. Eight episodes, six by the same writer, one by a former showrunner, and the remaining one is shared by two new authors. Why? I’ll be honest, Davies has never been my favourite Doctor Who writer. He’s a strong producer who writes people well. But when it comes to his episodes, other than “Midnight,” he’s never written one I would call a favourite. This is just a personal preference. When they announced his return, I was more excited for a return to competence than a return to classic writing. We could use new blood in the writer’s room. Even Chris Chibnall could see that, and he did hire some pretty good talent. My two favourite episodes from his era are written by people new to the show. More of that, please.

In truth, bringing Moffat back was a good choice. Unlike Davies, Moffat has written some of my favourite Doctor Who. And as with most anyone who has written the shear volume of Doctor Who as he has, he’s also written some of my least favourite Doctor Who. It’s bound to happen at that level of output. He’s not a writer without problems. His writing of female characters leaves something to be desired. But Moffat writing under a different showrunner, with an editor? Total Chad material. Some of the best. If they kept bringing him back like this every year or so, I would absolutely love it. Especially because it would continue to leave room for new talent.

With Vater in the machine, the ambulance revives Ruby. Sadly, Mundy’s love, Canto, dies just as he proclaims his love for her. This part was a bit shallow in that it was barely set up and felt like loss for the sake of loss. As Jean Cocteau once said “Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.” So it’s a bit difficult to feel sorry for Mundy here, but it’s not completely void of an emotional core. It’s nice that Splice has a new caretaker in Mundy, and that’s as happy an ending as we need. What’s more important is the emotional depths we’ve experienced with the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby. This was the moment when they were solidified for me as characters. I needed this episode. Not so much to show me that the Ncuti and Millie could do it, I knew they could. But rather to show me that the show could still do it. That RTD was still up to the task of delivering us something more than progressive happy fun. We’re not beyond the realm of complexity. And with that, I can relax a little. What else ya got, Davies?

[sillypiratelife]

You need to read the live action, the manga and the anime as different canons. It's healthier to the fandom's brains AND it's also better for analyzing properly what is going on.

One Piece is the type of story that relies heavily on the medium it is presented on. Hm actually, let me correct myself: One Piece is the type of story that celebrates and understands and was born to be told in that specific medium. The form and the content don't exist as separate entities, but are rather intertwined to elevate the narrative. That the characters are soooo cartoonish is not a mere style choice— it holds meaning, it complements what the author is trying to transmit.

One of the first things that I learned in college while studying storytelling was that there's a max point for tension in any story. There's a top to how tense you can keep the audience. If you reach that point, you won't be able to intensify the emotions; that's it, you need to introduce a breather or you'd end up with a stagnant narrative.

In manga/comics and cartoons/anime it's easier to walk that line. The power to make some silly joke or have the characters acting stupid is in the hands of the mangaka. I bet any manga reader or anime watcher can think of a moment in their fav series when the characters were in the middle of a seriously important moment, just to be involved in something ridiculous that breaks the tension.

It's fantastic. Mangas and animes love to make fun of their mediums, introducing satire to allow the audience some laughs. It's not until later when the reader/watcher sits and realizes how fucked up the whole situation was. A delayed punch to the gut, something to keep the mind working and thinking of their series until they wait for the next chapter/episode.

How to make the audience feel the impact of a character? Well, you can allow the audience to empathize with the character by explaining their reasons or backstories, you can show the world through their eyes. You can also show them all goofy and happy, so when the hammer strikes the readers/watchers will be nostalgic for the good times, mourning the fact they will not get more of that and becoming nostalgic. There are so many ways to keep a character haunting a story...

Oda is aware of all the manga medium can and cannot do. For people like him, the limitations are actually just more tools to play with. If you want to double check what I'm saying, go reread the panels where Luffy awakened Gear 5. Only manga could offer what went down in those panels; when the very nature of Luffy's powers are revealed to the audience and the characters, the manga gets self-aware and voices it out: "hey, this is the type of thing that only happens in comics, right?"

The anime allows a different range of tropes and shapes the story, correctly translating it. It's true that the best translations mind the public and the medium, adapting the jokes and references. It's also true that every translation is a little betrayal to the original, a unique creation in its own right. A good example of that is the way that the fillers shape the perspective of the watchers when it comes to the characters' dynamics. If the anime has a filler arc where the fight, a new tension will be present in the next manga canon arc. If the anime shows a filler where characters are close friends, it's gonna be weird when they start acting all distance back at the manga canon events. Not all fillers are meant to be considered part of the main storyline, of course. You have OVAs and you have movies and fillers and all types of media that are considered separated.

On the other hand, you have the visual changes: imagine that the anime changes the angle of a scene where two characters used to stand close and put more distance between them. What the manga could mean as a subtle implication that those characters cared about each other could turn into cold tolerance of the other's presence. Even the best of animes have those changes!!!!

In One Piece's case, turning the story into a live action series must change almost everything. It'd be impossible to maintain the cartoonist aspects of the story (unless they decided to go full Looney Tunes in that movie with Brendan Fraser lol). The choice was the following: we can try to keep the original elements even when they translate poorly to the new medium so we can please the original fans that are used to the story —OR we can try to translate the essence of the story and change all that needs to be changed, so that we keep the storyline and storytelling coherent and cohesive, at the cost of creating something not necessarily alien, but still new.

Violence in OPLA is way more serious.

You know how in the manga/anime characters would get fatally wounded and come back like it was just a minor injury? Or how they'd heal with no major medical intervention? That's a liberty of the medium. Your brain doesn't process the same way when you see a drawing wounded and when you see a real life person wounded. In OPLA, the suspension of disbelief is harder to achieve. Even and because the story was already introducing Luffy's powers and other fantastic elements, they needed to be careful to not overdo it. One option was to make people actually die— to know that in the live action not everything is so silly? It raises the stakes. OPLA discards some elements that are natural of a manga and in consequence, the story turns out to be darker. You have no fillers or little stripes of silly drawings or author comments or openings and endings. You'll have to do with what you do have and tell a story worthy of being told in that new medium.

That's a good translation right there, made by someone who understands that you cannot copy and paste things recklessly. That's the formula that made so many live actions fail, in fact.

You'll see many fans complaining because they don't understand any of what I just explained. For them it's easier to justify their opinions by saying that "they did this bad and that's why I don't like it" than admit that "they did this correctly but it's not my thing anyway".

One big example? Fanservice cannot be carried out from manga/anime to a live action. It's not the same to exaggerate the proportions of a body in a drawing (we can discuss the morals of this later) than ask of it from a human person. It's not the same to use some sexual traits in fiction as a way to appeal to the audience than to carry out those implications to a live action (again, I'm not saying it's good or bad because that's a discussion for another time).

Actors are humans. They will never have the same characteristics as an animation or a drawing, no matter how advanced technology is. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you appreciate art for what it is in its medium.

So really, what's the healthiest option? It'd be to approach each version as exactly that, a version of the story. As foreign as it can sound to some fandoms, the audience doesn't have to justify their opinions on something. Opinions are not professional reviews or art analysis. You can be as subjective as you want! To perceive each version as its own little world is easier: you can say "I like this better" without invalidating the opinion of anyone else. There's also the fun in exploring the different implications (they look like friends in this version but like lovers in this other) and playing with the divergences. Fans do that all the time in their art (literature, visual art, music, etc)

You can also analyze different versions of what is going on and contrast them. Do the differences change the form and content of the story or just one of those things? How does this new element change the dynamic between these characters? Are the characters written well but get thrown into a new setting? Is the setting the same but the characters feels more like ocs than the characters from the original story?

Knowing how much One Piece values symbolism, it'd be interesting to see how they could translate the constant influx of symbols in the manga or in the anime to the live action. The live action might show just the most important parts, cutting all the rest for lack of both space, time and budget. What does the author consider to be vital to the story and what can be cut down?

To have three parallel Luffy's in different stages of the story is fascinating to me, more so than the idea of trying to mix three formats that won't even match, mind you.

[savagewildnerness]

Part IV

The Children of Darkness

Notes are a bit random on this and not well formulated, but in case anyone is interested… book version for page references is new UK Sphere publishing.

POTENTIAL EPISODE TITLES

The Devil’s Road

Symphony of Malice

Notes:

Lestat’s fighting spirit: how have we seen this manifest of the TV show so far?  How will we see it manifest in the future?

What is the connection between Lestat refusing to surrender and him always enduring?

Even in terror: Nicki prisoner and he and Gabrielle in danger, Lestat is still the *doer* - a being of action, who, at odds with his impulsive stereotype is immediately attempting to form some kind of plan.

Nicolas’ presence is often described as some form of “shimmer” – as if his mind is unreachable.

Lestat also describes himself “staring coldly” at Nicki – disassociating in order to be able to cope with the situation?

Lestat talks of his instincts here numerous times – he is drawn to Armand – to his beauty, his power and his allure, but his instinct tells him over and over again how dangerous Armand is and basically Lestat’s instinct says RUN.  Where is this instinct from?  Is it the instinct of The Hunter and Lestat knows the danger of Armand in the exact same way he knows the danger of The Wolves when in front of them?

“the astonishing innocence of his boyish face” (p216) how Assad is this description of Armand?

“as if the devil still retained the face and form of the angel after the fall” is so Memnoch coded!

Lestat is a very new vampire here and even as a mortal he was young!  Yet he is so brave.

Magnus, Allessandra and Armand are not a dissimilar age?  1400’s-ish?

The old queen (Alessandra) talks about dreaming of the mortal world above and its music and so on from her stone pillow in just the same way Lestat describes himself doing in modern day at the start of the book.

P221 “Nicolas looked like an animated corpse.” And I think, in many respects, already he is, sadly sadly sadly.  I love the description of him as “A child thrown among porcelain dolls.”

“The power of Satan will blast you into hell.”  “You keep saying that! And it keeps not happening as we can all see!”  Surely this will be on TV!

“Will any of them allow me to take Nicki alive from this place?” Yes as a reader you already feel how doomed Nicolas is by now.  How can Lestat not feel it too?

Anne loves the word “MALICE” and uses it a lot in this part (in relation to Nicki and to Armand)

P226 he Devil’s fiddler whom you worship from afar every night” – how much of Lestat’s thoughts has Armand actually eavesdropped upon?

I can imagine TV Armand saying “You, for whom the working of the dark trick is an act of shameless greed.  You gave it to the very womb that bore you!”

“that our immortal faces should be such masks for our true souls” I found interesting, as you’d often say a human’s face reflects their soul.  But of course a vampire’s face does not change with time.

P227 – Armand’s quote “Tell me why!” surely will be on the show?

“He knows no limit and so he has no limit” is essentially “Only the impossible can do the impossible”!

Is Lestat’s rage (p227) transference (he feels Armand’s rage) or his own range towards Armand and about Nicolas?

“Ah sad lost child, roaming catacombs beneath a great city and an incomprehensible century.” – Does this description reflect show-Armand’s nature/essence?

I REALLY HOPE Lestat says “I never lie.  At least not to those I don’t love.”

“I am that new evil.  I am the vampire for these times” will surely be on TV?

Nicolas, no matter how on the verge of death he seems is listening to every word when they’re in this place, as he later brings up “The canker In the heart of the rose” that Lestat calls himself.  So what does Nicolas make of it all, listening as a human who has just been tortured by these beasts… who thinks Lestat didn’t love him enough to turn him.  And who knows what the vampires said to Nicki.  They can see his thoughts, so beyond the physical torture, the power they will have had in his mind to potentially reinforce and solidify all of Nicolas’ deepest fears…  Nicki moans at the canker in the heart phrase.

“There is no romance in what you are.  There is great romance in what I am.” I feel this is deeply the essence of Lestat, to be remembered in all he does.  Lestat despises lack of Romance!

“She receded from me as if she were an image in a sailor’s glass.” What a gorgeous metaphor!

Magnus appears to have brought death to MANY mortals quite fine!  So what exactly is Alessandra saying here? I do think Lestat hasn’t fully understood her when he talks of loving mortals already and maybe he is in part horrified by the implications of immortality?  I also wonder what Nicolas, the only human listening here makes of Alessandra’s summation of immortality?

P233 Lestat asks if Magnus loved mortals the way boys love butterflies as they rip of their wings – it’s a thing Armand is often accused of by others.

Orpheus allegory re-Lestat and Nicki p234

P234 The way Lestat describes Nicolas’ experience of being locked up so closely to his own… and Lestat will now do unto Nicki as was done unto him by Magnus.  This is A Lot for them both… because Nicki has fully seen what these beasts are from the way they tortured him… and Lestat is now both beast, lover and lover who (Nicki thinks) didn’t love him enough…?

P235 “Do not do this thing” is italicised.  Lestat cannot hear Gabrielle’s thoughts.  So does she even say this, or does Lestat just imagine it or know she would say it?

I love the mix of love and death and desire in Nicolas’ turning.  It’s a weird combination of the most carnal of all the turnings and yet the only emotion aside from this pure satiation of lust and need is the entire existential dread of existence itself!  That interspersed with such human memory of love and human experiences that are lost forever now, for them both.  Lestat is clearly aroused by turning Nicolas and he seems to kind of shut off his reason/human love and let his desire take over?  It’s a strange mix of desire (what Lestat always wanted), domination (the power Lestat has over Nicki – reflecting somehow that his class meant he always had some kind of power over Nicki) and what Lestat knows himself is a disaster I think even as he does it.

What a quote – “philosophy straining to contain the ghastly images, the torture, to surround it with language…”

Nicki raves about The Witches place on p236 just as Lestat did when he had just been turned on p97

It’s interesting how Lestat acknowledges here that Nicolas cannot truly know what he is asking for in pleading for The Dark Gift and acknowledges how awful it is the power he has over Nicolas.  It’s one of the things I love about this book in particular – no matter what Lestat does, his internal moral compass is incredibly self-aware and correct.

P238 & p266 – Lestat tells Nicki he has misunderstood everything here and Nicolas says very similar in their last argument on p266

For anyone thinking Nicki only hated Lestat by this time – p 239 “Unspoken words coming from him of love.”  Nicolas loves Lestat even now, no matter what he’ll later say.  Lestat sees it in his mind while Nicki is here still mortal.

I feel as though Nickistat represents to Lestat for eternity that tantalizing prospect of what a mortal life might have been.  Lestat was only on the cusp of manhood when he was turned.  What might it have been to be two artists, in love – growing old together, loving and dying.  Well, it would have been awful Lestat – but because you can never access it, it remains eternally an ideal and unreachable vision – that glimmer of a possible mortal life and love with Nicolas.  The last vestige of the idea ever having any reality to it dies along with Nicolas in this section.  Perhaps while Nicki is still human, Lestat is still connected to his own humanity in a way that once Nicki is turned Lestat isn’t ever again, as there is nobody who loved him as his human self who is also still human left alive…?

In Nicolas’ turning, Lestat slits his own throat rather than his wrist to make Nicki a vampire – it is carnal, sexual and indicative of death as well.  On TV there could be some visual parallel possibly between how Lestat creates Nicki and how Louis killed Lestat?

The slant of the colourless landscape in Nicolas’ mind reminded me of the slant of the floor in S2E5

P243 To see Nicki change had been to see him die.  Why do we usually see most humans cope fine with turning and their transition into a vampire in the books?  If it really is so random as Armand says…?  That said, Nicolas was utterly broken before he was turned, so!

P258 – Nicolas keeps his and Lestat’s dressing room as a shrine to Lestat – even a half-drunk bottle of wine left untouched.  If that does not speak of the depth of his love for Lestat and of his pain at his loss, what does?

Lestat finds Nicki’s violin not where he lives, but at Renauds.  Nicolas left Renauds never to return after Lestat’s on-stage breakdown where he saw Lestat shot but not die.  Not only had Nicki given up studying violin – he never played the violin again after that day, until he became a vampire.  Imagine what his experience must have been.  Friendless as all the actors from Renaud’s have gone abroad.  Not even a violin for solace.  Thinking he is unloved.  Nicolas must have felt his own descent into death.

Lestat worries whether vampire Nicki feels anything at all anymore p256

What does Nicki feel about playing The Devil’s instrument?  Especially when he has not played it for so long…

What does it mean that Anne introduced characters as villains (e.g. Armand, but Lestat too) then she and we grow to love them….

P260 quote – why exactly can’t Lestat stand Nicki’s music now seeing as he describes it still as very expressive.  How does it feel to Nicolas that he now has all of the technical and emotional skill he always wished for on the violin and can do with it as he will, and Lestat just calls it ‘petty’ – another punch to the heart to tell him Lestat never loved him? 

Lestat and Nicki loved each other as humans and despise each other as vampires as much.

Lestat compares Nicki to his whinnying and dying mare numerous times – poignant allegory

The sorrow that Lestat and Nicolas’ last fight is in Renauds – a place they were truly happy

Sam is gonna act his socks off in expressing the meaning behind the loss of Renuads and the perversion of it into something vampiric, when it was Lestat’s whole world of artistic expression as a mortal and an emblem too of his and Nicki’s love and start of life.

The Witching Hour again on p247!  Anne uses it so often!

Armand consuming Nicki’s abode, like an insect-demon and he instantly lets Lestat know he knows about Nicki being made (nonverbally)

I love the juxtaposition of opposites in Armand - Devil versus innocence etc… and for Lestat - danger versus allure

When Armand attacks Lestat with the way nobody has ever cared to teach him anything (p250) it is The Cruelest.  That he steals this from Lestat’s mind is even crueller… and I love it.  Please make the TV show…!

As a lover of sunrises and sunsets, may I say, I love how Anne describes skies!

Armand trying to get Lestat to kill Gabrielle and Nicki is utterly horrific.  I hope that’s on TV!

The way Lestat says “Exactly!” When Gabrielle is saying they need to get Armand’s knowledge even though she cares less about it than the meaning of leaves and stars etc. even though Lestat absolutely doesn’t mean exactly, as Gabrielle’s pondering are alien to his own humanistic mindscape!

Nicolas’ shrine to Lestat in Renaud’s.  HE LOVED LESTAT.  I will say it over and over!  (This is not saying they were meant for each other.  I LOVE TOO that Nicki is DEAD!)

I love how Anne even makes the traditional comedy and tragedy theatre emblem into a poetically poignant image

Even though Lestat and Nicki despise each other’s vampire-selves, there’s such sensuality still between them.  When Lestat gives Nicolas his violin, Nicki leans his head against Lestat.  When Nicki says “The Devil’s Instrument”, he looks into Lestat’s eyes for the fist time, and he’s trembling.  This is the first time he has played violin since Lestat’s theatre breakdown!

The music Nicolas plays, Lestat tells Nicki it is petty.  However, he describes this too as sensual and full of emotion.  The violin tells a tale.  The emotion bends and twists Nicki.  It is a lamentation and it seems to perfectly express Nicolas’ inner world.  Why does Lestat call it petty?  Because Nicolas can mock humanity with his music now?  It certainly isn’t because it lacks emotion.  I think Lestat fears how inhuman he is as a vampire, and he hears confirmation of it in Nicki’s music now.  But that doesn’t mean Nicolas’ art is bad or petty or lesser.  Of course, Nicki’s art is *more* now in most respects as now he is technically perfect.  I’m reminded of how this week I told someone (who was asking technical aspect of piano playing of me and I am NOT technical on piano!!!) That violin is my first instrument and their response was - “Like Paganini! Like Stephan Grappellli!”  And like… No…. Not like genius violinists!  Like a rubbish violinist!  Obviously, I know them… but it is odd to me that you namecheck them to me.  Because.  NO.  NOT like them!  Anyway, I digress….

To Nicolas, Lestat calling his vampire-art petty must feel horrendous - like a physical slap.  He envied the ease of Lestat’s success as a mortal, but never begrudged him it.  Now, Nicolas has all the technical skill he desired and Lestat calls his creativity PETTY.  What an insult & a DISMISSAL!  Cruel as Nicki’s words are to Lestat.   (I really wanted to read from Nicki’s perspective this time.  We are literally in Lestat’s mind this entire book, but he is not the only being who feels pain.)

P264 versus p230 - Nicki remembers Lestat’s “canker in the heart of a rose” comment from when he was mortal, near death, tortured by Armand and his coven.  He remembers all these beasts said to each other that night.  What a horrific true first introduction to what happened to Lestat - these monsters torture him, drink his blood, tell him goodness knows what horrendous things about Satan and how evil and Satanic Lestat is… Then Lestat is one of them….

All Lestat wanted as a mortal was to be good and to carve a grove in The Savage Garden.  But now, he uses that as an insult to Nicki.

And I’ve said it many times, but I do not believe Nicki went to Paris, hoping for he and Lestat to fail.  I believe there is truth in it, in the nihilistic way we can all believe “Wouldn’t it be funny if there was an apocalypse in 5 minutes and we were all DEAD.” (Just me?  Well, ME, anyway..) and we all have these dark thoughts… I definitely believe these were thoughts Nicolas had.  But I do not believe he desired it… at least not for Lestat.  I think of it more as a depressive thing - if it fails - YAY, I always knew it would.  And he DID love Lestat.  And he did need his light.  But now he doesn’t.  Now he is A Dark Thing: the summation of his worst fears he no longer needs Lestat and what’s more I think it’s why Lestat cannot stand him - he is now the embodiment of what Lestat fears *he* might be as a vampire: an entirely inhuman creature.  But Lestat is never that.  However, Lestat created vampire-Nicki and the inhuman thing he is.

“It’s all a misunderstanding, my love” Nicki says to Lestat on p266 in their final argument.  Almost exactly what Lestat says to Nicki p238 “You have misunderstood everything” before Nicki is turned.  The sorrow in this echo/twist/reiteration.

I am not sure about it, but I wonder whether part of why Nicki is SO cruel to Lestat at the end is as he NEEDS Lestat to leave him and he knows that no matter how Lestat despises him, he won’t abandon him.  Yet, Nicki probably knows DEATH awaits him not too far away now.  And he likely knows, were Lestat to stay, he could drag Lestat to his death as well.  So, maybe he is freeing Lestat, in a way?

But although Lestat and Nicolas despise each other, they love each other too.  The opposite of love is indifference.

[atopfourthwall]

Watching thru Star Trek Voyager for the first time. Do you like this series if so, favorite episode?

Posting my full thoughts below a read more because spoilers. But it's a mixed bag at best, favorite episode the two-parter Scorpion.

It's biggest issue is that it refuses to abide by its central concept: a Starfleet vessel lost 70,000 lightyears from home with few resources and in a place the Federation have never been to, made up of a mixed crew of both Starfleet and the Maquis - a rogue terrorist organization set on freedom from Cardassian oppression due to shitty treaties the Federation made in the name of peace.

Voyager goes for seven years and you would think with a premise like this, the ship should be a WRECK by the time it gets home - barely held together with duct tape, flickering lights and debris in spots because there just isn't time or necessity to deal with minor stuff like that when there are bigger concerns to deal with. You'd think the crew has gotten more lax, dirtier or with more rolled up sleeves and casualwear as the situation has made them less of a formal structure like a regular Starfleet vessel and more like a found family, maybe with a ton of alien crewmembers from the Delta Quadrant who have decided to join Voyager along the way because they (and the Federation by proxy) have offered something that wasn't present in their corner of the galaxy, something better and they want to join the mission back home. You'd think the ship itself would have changed in appearance as they've had to patch it with technology and because they don't have regular drydocks to replace lost/damaged systems and bulkheads. Sure, Star Trek has replicator technology, but I can't imagine Voyager has MASSIVE replication technology capable of creating HUGE swaths of the hull. At the very least, you'd think you'd see cracks in the hull hastily sealed up - maybe a kind of Kintsugi thing where the cracks are a different color because of special alien material used to keep it strong. You'd think those Maquis crewmembers, despite being former Starfleet, wouldn't be wearing Starfleet uniforms because why would they? They're here because they're stuck and what's Starfleet going to do if they haven't shined their boots? Throw them all in the brig for however long it takes to get home? More interpersonal conflicts between crewmen as they have to find a way to live together, have different approaches to solving problems, maybe deal with the crippling loneliness and despair that comes with thinking you may never make it home (either because of the dangers of space travel or just because it'll be 70 years on our current technology to get there).

But no. Nothing like that ever happens in Voyager.

Because it followed the pattern that had made Star Trek TNG so successful (despite it having a premise that DEMANDS more serialization), every episode the reset button is pressed. The ship is restored to normal, character development is rare or confined to a single episode. The few attempts at serialization are just… badly written (or just met with a shrug), which probably explains why they mostly dropped it in later seasons. You'd be forgiven for watching the first episode and then the last while thinking "Wow, not much changed except for Janeway's hairstyle."

Oh, but there WAS change… just not very much. A new cast member to replace one leaving… and a character brought on to be the breakout character - one of the few times we brought on new crew from this part of the galaxy - was shuffled away the episode beforehand because inexplicably some of his people were farther out than they ever should have been and he decided to stay with them because he met them for a few days. A romance between cast members that… was okay, but not great. Another romance introduced at the last second because they needed one of their characters to actually DO something because they had spent 7 years inventing boring hobbies and interests for him separate from his identity as fake-90s-Native American-whose-entire-culture-was-thought-up-by-a-fraud-who-tricked-Hollywood-into-thinking-he-knew-what-he-was-talking-about.

A lot of plots could have happened on any other Trek show. A lot of plots dealt with "Hey, maybe we'll get home THIS time!" and they of course would not. They invented a whole new way of propulsion that allowed you to be in every spot in the universe at once (and easily reversed the negative side effects by the end of the episode)… aaand then just pretended it never happened. The recurring villain enemies ranged from godawful to okay, but not fully realized.

Behind the scenes it was often full of office politics before actual quality. Whenever an episode needed some padding? Add technobabble. Have an ambitious idea for an episode? Nope, we're not interested in anything challenging. Do anything that might make the characters look bad or have more shades to them? Noooope. There were plans and ideas, things thrown out like, for instance, a year-long storyline where the ship would get as battered as I suggested… and it was shot down, turned into a two-parter with the reset button pushed hard at the end of it.

There's plenty to like about Voyager. Some really do love the characters and I like a lot of them, too. And there are plenty of episodes that I recommend and really enjoy and rewatch… but it's mostly wasted potential. It's telling that Ron Moore, who joined Voyager's writing staff after Deep Space 9 ended because he wanted to keep doing Star Trek, left after only 3 episodes… and went on to make the Battlestar Galactica remake, which for all its flaws did the Voyager concept considerably better and with all of those ideas I mentioned up top concerning the crew, the damage to the ship, the shades of grey, the hopelesness at times but still hope, etc.

[impathearted]

ok feels weird for me to articulate this without just catching up on riptide and then talking on it bc i'm worried im over reading into it or making incorrect assumptions without potential further context

but i'm on episode 41 and it's hitting me like a fucking bus so i wanna at least post it for my own records or something idk

with ollie i feel like ik it can be interpreted as kinda silly of like oh haha teenager we accidentally kidnapped a second time that now lives on our ship haha i feel like there's a horror element to that on a story level? of like this haha silly side character archetype that is then affected by the direct actions of a main character who was fulfilling their flaw who is then forced to go from adolescence to young adult hood literally overnight. is terrified and scared bc his entire body changed and he's been terrified and scared already for months.

he has no say in where he is or what he's doing, he's not consulted for any decisions that could affect their wellbeing because he is a child and he is the silly side character. he is brought from that background silly voice - insane character idea space to this "i am going through the horrors and it is your fault" role.

and it's horrifying! because chip is aware of his role in that and this humanizes ollie to such a degree for him that he suddenly realizes that this kid does NOT want to be here. that because he did want to be on a ship as a child, he has this innate reaction that everyone would want that. he never even questions until that moment that not wanting to be ON a ship was an option.

and i feel such dread in my stomach at the idea of like. imagining im a 15 year old boy who is upset with my mom and i go hide on a ship thinking it'll just annoy her or start another fight. that i will go home tonight. that i will see her over dinner and we would be mad at each other but at the very least we would still be in the same room! and then to in such a short amount of time, be out at sea with a stranger more than twice my age, who is going through an entire identity crisis and was a part of the occupying military force in my town and is now declaring he is a fucking pirate.

this loud, enthusiastic man who is kind but unempathetic to my situation. who is now the only person in your life and who i suddenly have to rely on for survival in a life i've literally never even considered before. to be dragged into the mess that is desire island. to then be kidnapped and be threatened directly with death. to have everyone directly be honest that it was a dangerous situation. its not my mother sugar coating rough things to keep me from being worried.

its being dunged into the deep end socially. i'm dismissed because i am a child but i am not treated as a child. i am infantilized but not respected.

and then suddenly the only person who's actually made an effort to get to know me, falls into his own personal cycle of destruction and i get a little to close.

to imagine being reassured that you just need to help, that this one person who you feel remotely any form of comfort is asking you to just help him and hide this weird compass you don't know shit about besides that it will show you the thing you desire most. to not understand that everytime you look at it, it is changing you. it is altering who you are fundamentally.

to go from that child to that adult with no transition. that would be fucking terrifying. hes already doing it socially but then is forced to do it physically. this child has gotten literally zero choice and has now had every autonomy he ever possessed stripped of him.

[foureyes802]

I feel like every Space Ghost comic since 2005 is more interested in appealing to the dozen people left that love Space Ghost but hated Coast to Coast, apposed to actually working with the excellent characters and world building that Space Ghost and friends revived after the 80s. I'm not convicted we aren't going to get a Space Ghost comic better than a 7/10 by numbers space adventure until we get a Space Ghost comic that can admit the talkshow wasn't a mistake but was actually excellent. At least we still have that new episode of Jellystone to celebrate Coast to Coast turning 30 this year

See, the thing for me is that I do love the original '66 cartoon, independent of my existing love for c2c, but I still really dislike the post-'05 comics! They DON'T appeal to me because to give Space Ghost a super serious backstory and raise the stakes of his adventures and make him gritty and brooding (*unironically* brooding, as opposed to c2c) is to betray everything that worked about the OG and made it fun. More under the cut.

I *like* that he has a million different, incredibly specific rays on his power bands based exclusively on what kind of trap he's been caught in. I *like* that he constantly announces what's going on to the audience even though this is a cartoon and they're already looking at the screen. I *like* that the villains aren't super violent or threatening, even when they do things like taking Jan & Jace hostage. It's a lot like the Batman series from the same year, but Space Ghost was a cartoon that shared its own episodes with a *different* cartoon so each one has about 1/5th of the airtime to work with. And it worked! In part because of the stuff I already listed, and in part because it was committed to itself. "We have 7 minutes to take the children of America on an epic space adventure, and that's what we're going to do, dammit!" I can imagine the writers saying.

The other thing about the whole situation is, Batman had time to become gritty. You could argue he pioneered it, in fact. In the time that Batman was influencing the landscape of modern superhero comics, Space Ghost was... doing the talk show. And Cartoon Network comics about the talk show. When the '05-'06 comics tried to jump straight into full grit, basing the tone on what was already on the shelves in '05-'06, there was no buffer for that. It's especially jarring because Coast to Coast and The Brak Show were still freshly cancelled at the time, so that was likely the version most familiar to a lot of comic book shop regulars who picked it up. Maybe they loved it then, IDK. I haven't looked at contemporary reviews. When I read it maybe a year ago I thought it was so self-serious that it was trying to *shake off* its predecessors, like, "No, that stuff is dumb, we're trying to be Batman In Space now! It's so cool and grand!" And it wasn't NOT those things, especially because the art is legitimately really good, but it also didn't feel anything like Space Ghost. A "modern reboot" of the series would have to straddle that line for much longer for me to get into it, taking itself seriously but keeping itself fun first & foremost. Also I hate the way they redesigned and wrote Zorak.

[hellosupernatural]

Season 1, Episode 12, "Faith"

dean is dying (for the first time), the episode

its kind of cool having a cold open right at the end of a rescue mission because thats probably what it looks like from the perspective of the rescuee, suddenly these people just burst in and save you, all heroic and macho

i wonder if the episode's events ever get mentioned again in the show, or if it impacts sam and dean, cause i really dont remember this being a thing aha, although i do remember the monster, i just dont remember dean dying being the reason they happened upon this episode's baddie

its interesting how easily dean accepts his impending death, maybe because he's relieved that neither his brother nor father are dead or dying. thats probably the ideal end for him, one in which he lived his life serving his family, and spent none of it grieving them. but also i can imagine thats sad to him, he would want to be alive to protect them

its so interesting that sam goes to the miracle worker, something that would be a quack job to normal people, but a viable option to sam because he knows the supernatural exists

OMG DARLA FROM BUFFY, i wonder if i recognized her when i first watched the show

dean is reluctant to be healed by the healer. this is really sensible characterization for him that fits in with what i remember of his character in the future. reluctant to accept help, in part because he feels undeserving of such goodness because he himself hasn't done enough good or has done too much bad

omg dean is 27? thats basically my age now...

i know im so biased because i adore benz' performance in buffy and angel, but i just feel like her performance as leyla is so vibrant, she really commands attention

i almost forgot, i started making these episode reactions because i was so in love with julie benz' performance in this episode i wanted to do reviews so i could keep track of guest performances that i felt were genuinely good, and not just good for an SPN filler

its really interesting how sam breaks the news to dean about roy trading life for life thinking he's healing the dying. he talks to dean as if he's apologizing to dean rather than upset at the loss of innocent lives. i wouldnt be surprised if, while unhappy about the death of an innocent man in place of dean, he's mostly ok with the outcome so long as dean is still alive

which kind of reminds me of dean's blase attitude in the beginning of the episode, while unhappy about sam's distress, hes mostly ok as long as he knows sam and dad are alive and healthy

i love every time kripke gets to overlay music on a scene, he's great at picking songs

also, introduction of a reaper! so exciting!

i cant get over how good dean and leyla's chemistry is, it also helps that the two visually look good together, it's a shame this is their only episode together

what a crappy situation, dean feeling like he didnt deserve to live, and feeling like shit that he doesnt want another innocent life to go so he has to prevent leyla from getting healed even though she deserves life

i cant believe dean didnt just snatch the necklace from the reverend's wife

i also wish that dean could just explain whats happening to leyla, but i guess the darkness of the information, knowing that she believed in a god that would support roy's healing, knowing that she just supported a creative string of murders, would probably be even more distressing then just dying

interesting lingering glance when sam is like "you cant just play god." i think that dean wishes he were dying instead of leyla

this is a very good dean episode, i think because its an episode that hits to the core of dean's values/bottom line, which lays an interesting boundary for how viewers should understand him. clarity is so important for any works and its effectiveness, so i think thats what i enjoy about this episode

aww, roy started asking for sue ann. i wonder if he feels the rush of the supernatural when the exchange of life occurs. i also wonder if he sense sue ann was dying

lol, reverend's wife dies and they just drive off real speedily, and the cops dont immediately suspect him

i love dean's carefully blank expression when leyla tells him that the healing didnt work

"it must hurt to believe in something so much only to have it disappoint you like that." ok dean, could be about leyla and roy's healing...OR YOU AND YOUR DAD, DEAN

"if youre gonna have faith, you cant just have it when the miracles happen, you have to have it when they dont." ok leyla...i guess that can also apply to dean and his dad

leyla touches dean's head similar to how the reverend touches the heads of the ailing

"im not much of the praying type, but, im gonna pray for you." ugh, thats such a good line, actually makes me tear up. i find it very relatable. i work in a music ministry, but im not christian, but i still join in some of the prayers because, although i dont believe in god, i believe in many of the sentiments of some of the chants and recitations. if you have the fortune of being with a good group of people, i believe in the importance of sharing those sentiments because, in this case, the good will and well-being of others is more important than the why-of-it, whether through faith to god or otherwise. i think its very significant for dean to want to pray for leyla, not because he believes in god and his ability to help her, but because he himself holds her in his thoughts, and because she believes that the shared good will of people will help heal the people.

anyways, fantastic episode, really up my alley, super tight performances, thematic structure, and character writing. 9/10

OMG wait john winchester not coming to save dean is so funny, god he's the fucking worst. 9.5/10 lol

wait a second, netflix release of supernatural dont have permissions to use the original tracks for the earliest season(s) so the reaper intro didnt use oyster. i pity kripke for such a massacre of his vision. 9.6/10 lol

[bungobble-my-balls]

What if Fyodor possessed Sigma wouldn't that be crazy hahah

So with the Jesus allegory from the last episode he doesn't get completely reincarnated, but a copy of himself is made within Sigma from the information transfer, and it's almost like he's reincarnated.

OK hear me out

I don't think this is actually what's going to happen with the anime, but I DO think this plot is plausible enough that it could happen in one of bsd's many canon alternate timelines.

So you know how Fyodor did the whole 'help me I'm innocent and the real Fyodor has taken over my body 🥺' stchick to trick Sigma? OK so in this scenario let's say that's actually foreshadowing.

Fyodor's ability, although I'm not exactly sure what it is, based on theories seems to involve him being able to make another version of himself. Some people even believe he can put a version of himself inside of someone to kill them from the inside (I don't have the exact reasoning but there are theories just go with it).

After Sigma uses his ability on Fyodor to gain EVERY one of Fyodor's secrets and everything about him, he passes out from information overload as we know. What if in this coma state, Sigma and Fyodor's abilities are combining (Sigma gaining all of Fyodor's knowledge, Fyodor putting a version of himself inside of Sigma), and this creates a version of Fyodor created just from the knowledge Sigma gained of him. This version takes over the body, and when 'Sigma' wakes up its actually a new version of Fyodor (especially because Fyodor would be made of more knowledge than Sigma considering their lifespans, so Fyodor's consciousness could be more powerful).

So it's not like a ghost possession situation, it's an ability possession similar to what happened with Shibusawa.

So 'Sigma' walks out of Mersault, maybe during whatever chaos happens in the 2 hours, and sees Nikolai still holding the original Fyodor's arm.

Nikolai is shocked to see Sigma alive and awake, but then soon finds out that it's actually Fyodor (or a copy of him) in Sigma's body. Fyodor doesn't know about any events that happened before the information transfer, so he doesn't know about Dazai getting shot, Chuuya and Dazai's plan, or his original self dying. So Nikolai fills him in on that.

At that point, Fyodor realises he'll need to stay underground again for some time before he can get back at Dazai and continue his mission. It's helpful though that everyone believes he's dead and that he looks different, since people won't be looking for him.

So Fyodor and Nikolai go underground together this time, because with the DOA now in shambles Nikolai is Fyodor's only ally. And Sigma is currently trapped in his body, but in a limbo between consciousness and unconsciousness. His own conscious is in his body being relayed information over and over to keep him in an overloaded state.

Also for this AU Fyolai are still repressed homosexuals (Nikolai a little less after his post Fyodor death speech but still repressed enough), because even if I'm putting Sigma through a body possession plot I'm not gonna have his body be in the middle of Fyolai kissing I wouldn't do that to him.

Fyodor intends to find a way to get a body for himself, and they bring along Fyodor's arm and find a way to attach it to him again as a start (I thought about a Mary Shelley character having an ability to do this, but I forgot she already exists so I'm still thinking about how they'd do this).

I can also imagine Fyodor using Sigma's appearance to fuck with Dazai as a part of his plan later on. Maybe he takes more of his acting classes and even pretends to be Sigma at some point in the future.

[catchyhuh]

Thoughts on Pops' sidekicks? Yata, Mariya, Melon, that glorified babysitter from island of assassins, etc etc [places ask before the beasts' cave and slowly backs away]

[the beast sniffs the air, catching a faint whiff of tokyo crisis and bolts out of the cave like its prey drive has been activated] i may or may not have a particular favorite one off girl that i have been studying like bacteria in a petri dish for years, and this ask may or may not have looked like this to me

BUT YES!! I HAVE MUCH TO SAY

i think the secret to a good backup lupin character is to emphasize how mundane and comparatively normal they are IN A GOOD WAY OF COURSE! your supporting character needs to SUPPORT and the easiest, funniest way to do that, is to have them be just some guy. they can be weird, but they can’t be weirder than our main features. they can be cool, but they can’t be cooler than our main guys. you get it? 

and since it’s so fucking easy to make ANYBODY seem normal standing next to zenigata, you’d have to work pretty damn hard to beat the first point, so the most important thing HERE is to have them resigned to their fate. you will not stop him. it is impossible to stop him. he will not even acknowledge that you DID, in fact, try to stop him. really, the most you can do is catch the back of his coat before he accidentally steps into traffic when he's on autopilot

melon is probably the funniest in terms of this resignation because if anything he delights in having a front row seat. he’s not stopping shit! and you got like the old men that were just grinning and not even TRYING to keep him alive in episode 0 and twilight gemini, which i guess makes them beat out melon in terms of “it is what it is.” and then in the middle mariya is like, “ok, not letting him die but also he’s just not fucking listening to me and honestly when else am i gonna get a chance to partake in a car chase!! let’s go.” and then yata is slowly approaching the mariya level of stress because he’s clearly begun to realize if he has a panic attack every single time zenigata almost gets himself killed he’ll die of a heart attack before hes even 30. and. oh god i watched island of assassins and i remember proto-yata but i can’t even think of his name now. something very american. jimmy? BUT HE NEVER ACCEPTED THE FACT HE COULDN’T STOP ZENIGATA hence his Weakness in comparison. i also am vaguely aware that one special has this cop lady working with him but she ends up secretly being evil but i haven’t seen that one yet and also she’s. evil. so i imagine she wouldn’t count anyway so WHATEVER THERE’S OUR RANKING OF THE PEACE THEY’VE MADE WITH THE SITUATION

you can ALWAYS give pops a weird tagalong. it is ALWAYS correct! there’s four thieves and only one of him, which means you gotta give him SOMEBODY to work off of! i will always be pro-sidekick just because it makes him funnier or even adds a tiny bit of unexpected depth (him telling yata he understands if he quits the case, really everything he does in response to learning about mariya’s father/childhood, etc), and as a bonus, you might even get a really good character in their own right! all because they thought “damn. this is a little unfair isn’t it. have this guy follow him around for an hour” 

i have the science of this down pat. IN FACT THIS WHOLE THING IS PROBABLY WHY I’M SO #PROYATA I LOVE GOOD DYNAMICS! THE BEAST THANKS YOU FOR LISTENING