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roswelldetails · 4 years

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Episode 2x04 - What if God Was One of Us

EPISODE SUMMARY:

AN ACT OF GOD — On the verge of a breakthrough in her quest to save Max (Nathan Dean), Liz (Jeanine Mason) turns to Kyle (Michael Trevino) for one last favor that could potentially land him in hot water. Meanwhile, Michael (Michael Vlamis) and Alex’s (Tyler Blackburn) investigation into Nora (guest star Kayla Ewell) leads them to a farm, where they meet a historian named Forrest (guest star Christian Antidormi). Elsewhere, Cameron (guest star Riley Voelkel) confronts Jesse Manes (Trevor St. John) about her sister’s whereabouts, and Isobel (Lily Cowles) uses her powers for good. Amber Midthunder also stars. Shiri Appleby directed the episode written by Steve Stringer & Christopher Hollier (#204). Original airdate 4/6/2020.

DETAILS:

Roy said that he took veterinary training, which is how he was able to help with Louise and Nora's injuries.

"How come it feels like you don't know what I'm saying, but you know what I'm thinking?"

Roy moved the truck (with the pods in it?) to the livery.

"Boss's wife won't let him blame the drought on God so that honor goes to his foreman -- that's me."

Kyle on The Science:

"You're telling me that Michael Guerin used pinball parts and a car battery to cause cutaneous perfusion?

(Cutaneous perfusion...i think it is circulation of fluid/blood through tissue, but it's a bit above my head)

The device Liz needs is a "Personal Genome Machine". She ordered it when she still worked at the hospital.

Before entering the Crashdown, Graham Green tapes a Missing sign on the door for Hank Gibbons (who Noah killed in 1x13). Apparently someone covered it up.

The sign is HARD to read, but I think it says:

"All viable leads reported to Graham Green's UFO Emporium will receive a free keychain. Make certain you subscribe to the Weekly Probe as we dive deeper into the untold stories of Roswell and answer the question on everyone's mind. ARE YOU NEXT?"

Graham Green references that he's the "creator of last week's 39th most downloaded true crime podcast." (Assuming that this is the Weekly Probe, referenced on the poster).

Graham Green is opening a 1947 themed malt shop at the UFO Emporium

U.F. Doughs (the Crashdown's new donuts).

Isobel's been coming to the Crashdown every day for weeks. (Note that this episode is the first one that really doesn't have a clear time context).

"Feliz cumpleanos, mama!" Happy birthday in Spanish, of course, but note Kyle's choice term of endearment for fic purposes! And she responds in kind "Gracias, mijo!" (Mijo = male version. Arturo calls Liz mija = female version)

"A wild Michael Guerin finally emerges from his weeks-long hibernation in a lab and a library."

Again, non-specific time frame.

"When every other farm was struggling, the Longs experienced record-breaking crops. Summer of '47. No one could explain it…till October '48. The day after that photo ran in the paper, the farm was devastated by a massive fire. Foreman, entire staff killed. Whole place burned down."

"What caused the fire?"

"Well the paper called it an act of God. Said it was a freak storm. Bolt of lightning strikes the barn the same night that my mom's caught and locked up in Caulfield."

Wyatt Long's horses are named "Diamond" and "Silk".

Jesse Manes' beer of choice is "Polestaff".

Cam's postcard from Charlie (Likely the reason she came back to Roswell) says:

"See you back in Roswell --Charlotte"

Top left corner says "Greetings from Roswell, NM".

It was mailed to Jenna at the Green Hill Motel in Dayton, Ohio.

Jenna says it's not Charlie's handwriting.

Isobel in the mindwarp: "And what's your dream, Arturo? What would be your miracle? What do you pray for?"

Arturo & Rosa's fight…

"Did that fool give you drugs? I'll kill him!"

"Ow! You're hurting me! That's child abuse!"

"Everything I do I do to hold you up and you see it as abuse. I don't know what to do anymore!"

"Yeah right." Rosa falls down and laughs.

"This isn't funny! Sheriff Valenti won't give you any more chances."

"You should be happy. You wanted me to be on the field hockey team, remember? You said I should make friends and have good American fun."

"Who sold you the pills?"

"I stole them."

"Was it Frederico?"

"You wouldn't believe me."

"Tell me the truth!"

"It was Mom! She's either too high to notice that they're missing, or she knows and she doesn't care."

"You're lying to me. I don't know how to help you."

"So stop trying then. I'm beyond hope anyway, right? That's what everyone else in this town thinks."

"Maybe you're right. I'm going for a drive."

Arturo tried to register with Instagram as PancakePapi!! He ended up with PancakePapi58!

Scene with Steph and her dad...FIRST MENTION OF SOPAPILLAS ON THE SHOW!!! 🤤🤤🤤🤤 (They're the best...in New Mexican restaurants they're like, both an appetizer and a dessert. They're like hollow fried bread that you eat with honey. Delicious.) See here:

Plus it gave the show another opportunity to be authentically New Mexican through food references. (Last season it was in episode 2 when Arturo asked,"red or green?" And Liz replied "Christmas!". In New Mexico that means half red half green chile smothering her plate.) Like so:

1948...unclear how much time has passed, but Louise says months.

The kid's name is Walt. (Walt Long?? Some other last name?).

Nora says that under the tarp is the "pumpkin launcher" and it's a surprise.

Nora says it's not safe for Michael here, "but soon."

"Hey do you smell that? It smells like rain. It's what you smell like under all the grease and bourbon. It's what your workshop smells like. Something alien happened here. Not that I can still smell it 70 years later."

"This is the best evidence I've seen that Max and Isobel's mother survived the initial firefight. This is something that you do with family."

"Nora's my mother. If she was here at the same time as Louise…"

Note - when did they confirm who Louise was or that she was Max & Isobel's mom? This has not happened narratively yet.

Since Walt was a young kid, Alex thinks there's a chance he's still alive (though at the end Nora definitely thought he died when the barn blew up. I suspect that Walt survived and is the key to the story...not fact, just speculation.)

Forrest: "The foreman, Roy Bronson, was definitely hiding something. But it wasn't Little Green Men. It was Nazi spies."

"This is like Junior Year eraser room, getting caught by Coach Wiggins."

OG callback to the eraser room being the high school makeout spot. OG, "the eraser room takes our innocence."

Rosa in Spanish "¿En serio?" Basically "are you serious!?!" Or "really?" When the blender shorts out (awfully similar to her first Noah nightmare in 2x01)

"...when Charlie told me she had stole classified documents, I reported her. I thought I was doing the right thing and the military put her in prison."

"Right. Where she was safe."

"No. I… I didn't know who she really was when I turned her in. I didn't know what prison would do to her."

"She wanted you to turn her in, Jenna. She set you up to do so. She knew that as long as she was in government custody no one could get to her."

"Charlie fought in two wars. Who was she afraid of?"

"A private securities firm, most likely. You know that I met her? She was working on this genetic sequencing project that had the potential to save lives, but also destroy them. And there were some people out there who saw applications for her research that went beyond her intentions."

"She was doing research that could help save lives, and people wanted to use it to create a bioweapon."

"Well yeah, she created this pathogen that could seek out and dismantle specific sequences. Just think about it -- a smart bomb that could be detonated in the middle of a crowded city, only harm it's intended target. Think about the innocent civilian lives saved while you take out leaders of terrorist organizations."

"Or commit genocide. If her work fell into the wrong hands, it could quietly wipe out entire groups of people because they share a certain genetic code, while their neighbors go about living their lives. Why do you know so much about this? What's your interest in my sister?"

"I believed that I had a use for her pathogen, at one time. But my fight is over now."

A few notes about this exchange.

Clearly Charlie's pathogen is the key ingredient in the smart bomb that Flint was developing, as discussed in 1x12.

Liz's "personal genome machine" can break down the alien genetics and give Project Shepherd what they need to use a smart bomb on the aliens.

Don't forget, her lab is protected by Air Force security set up by "Alex's team". (Badbadbadbad!)

Rosa describing her bipolarism.

"I get these mood swings sometimes. Like, I can be happy and singing one minute, and then, all of a sudden, this darkness just closes in over me, and I have all these voices telling me that I'm worthless."

Jesse gives Cam the name of the security firm looking for Charlie. We don't see the name of it. He warns her to be careful. "I may be hobbled but they are not."

"Now, you were hunting aliens, and I gave you Max's name. Why didn't you lock him up in Caulfield with the rest?"

"I don't know. I guess I feel like there's a story unfolding in Roswell. Has been for more than 50 years. You can't blame me for wanting to see how it ends."

Catherine Zeta-Jones in a laser maze -- Liz is referencing the 1999 movie Entrapment.

Liz trying to science-intrigue Kyle….

"Interesting historical footnote. There was an internment camp in Roswell. Nazi POWs built half this city. Hence the iron crosses. My great-great grandfather BoDean's foreman got busted for hiding a couple of women here. According to him 'A couple Nazi spies escaped and strudeled their schnitzel for room and board right here on this very farm. See, I was never really as into shooting squirrels as Wyatt is, so, when I came out here for summers as a kid, my cousin Kate and I -- we'd prowl the property for artifacts."

"You know, what we're doing you and me -- it doesn't only have to be for Max...once Max is healthy, we could use this genome machine to Target cellular apoptosis. I mean, we could craft polymerase sequencing in human DNA. We don't have to stop. We have no boards, no restrictions…"

Apoptosis is also sometimes referred to as "cellular suicide" or "spontaneous single cell death".

Polymerase is like the building blocks of DNA.

In other words, Liz is really, really smart.

FORREST LONG!!!!!! 😂😂😂.

Alex on the bullet shells: "These match the M1917s the airmen used in '48.

"They were scattered all over the property. Legend has it the Nazis we're building some kind of bomb in the barn. Then one night the Air Force showed up."

"The night of the fire."

"The blaze burned so hot it turned sand to stone. Papers say that lightning struck the barn and everyone died in the flames, but...that's bull. See I think the Air Force covered up the massacre that happened when they discovered that weapon.

A few things on this scene…

Forrest mentions his cousin Kate...Wyatt's sister who was murdered by Noah in 2008. So Forrest is Wyatt Long's cousin.

Substitute Nazi for alien and it's probably all based somewhat based in truth. In the 1940s that definitely would have been a reasonably obvious way to cover it up, especially given the history that Forrest cites and the military culture in Roswell.

Note: POW = prisoner of war

The iron crosses Forrest references…

Article on the German POWs in the Roswell Daily Record…

Walt was hiding in the barn when Tripp made it explode. Explosion looked shimmery, like the alien ship & tech.

Also, more info than you ever wanted to know about the Roswell Army Air Field/Walker Air Force Base/Roswell International Air Center...including some info on the POWs.

Sheriff Valenti's theory on Noah's death:

"I think Max Evans poisoned Noah and left him in the desert the night of the lightning storm, and I think Isobel Evans was in on it."

Kyle says it would take gallons of acetone to poison someone.

Tripp was Alex's great uncle

Nora was working on a ship to take the pods home.

TRIPP MANES!!! Full name is Eugene Manes III.

Alex finally gives Michael the piece of alien ship he's had. He doesn't want to be another Manes man standing in Michael's way.

Cam's voicemail to Liz.

"Got a lead on my sister. Give me a call when you get that tin-star-wearing E.T. awake, so I can curse him out for worrying us all. Good luck Liz. Bring Max home."

Arturo's Spanish to Liz and Rosa.

"Das gracias a Dios. Gracias todos los dias."

Translates generally to "Thank God. Thanks every day."

Isobel's monologue at the end:

"The idea of God always freaked me out. Like, apparently he made people in his own image, which, first of all, get over yourself. And also, does that apply to us? Does every planet have its own God? Let's say that we're all clones of the big guy in the sky. Well then, doesn't it stand to reason that we're all capable of slinging light? Well I guess by that same token we're all capable of tremendous wrath. We're walking contradictions. A never-ending mercurial rise and fall. Darkness and light. I guess the real miracle is choosing the light. Despite the ever-present darkness. Look at us. You're in the middle of a downright biblical desert, galaxies from where we started. I mean, our very existence is a miracle. I'm capable of so much more than I thought I was, Max. I really think that maybe I could do great things. I need you to come back, okay? I need you to be the thing that I can believe in. That doesn't let me down. I just need this one little miracle, and I promise I won't ever ask for anything ever again."

MUSIC:

1. LEN "Steal My Sunshine"

2. Spacehog "In The Meantime"

3. Duke Ellington "Take It Easy"

4. Maná "Como Te Deseo"

5. Oasis "Don't Look Back In Anger"

6. Ben Harper "Waiting On An Angel"

#roswell new mexico #rnm season 2 #episode details #long post #what if god was one of us #rnm 204

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callie-the-snarky-geek-blog · 6 years

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RvB16 Episode 13 Review: A Time For Hammers

(Old Blog Repost)

After thirteen episodes, Joe is FINALLY being merciful and giving us some exposition. THANK YOU RT GODS! Okay, so we’re nearing the end here people. What awaits us next? Let us find out!

Overview

Atlus does indeed give us an exposition dump. I know that some hate exposition, but at this point it is SORELY needed. So to put it simply, in the beginning there was nothing until time expanded and then came the father of the Cosmic Powers, Chrovos. Which still relates to Greek Myth as the inspiration, Krovos, was the King of the Titans and father of Zeus, Hera, and several others. Oh, he also would eat his kids… mythology is very messed up. Chrovos, who has power over time, created the Cosmic Powers and had them enslaved to do his bidding. WELL THEN. They claim to not know what the entire plan was however, only their part in it.

The Cosmic Powers however ultimately rebelled against Chrovos and the Titans, the majority killed and the rest imprisoned. The Cosmic Powers created a labyrinth within a black hole and in the center is a treadmill that they tricked him onto. So he is walking in place forever in one spot… Joe you totally stole that from Ten Little Roosters, didn’t you? Before things go any further, Sarge interrupts to ask why Grif of all people has a sword. Because he deserved it Sarge, shut up! But yeah now everyone (except Carolina) wants one so Atlus allows it… except Caboose. He wants Genkins golf club! It is what he deserves. Wash tries to ask the Cosmic Powers if they’ll relieve his headache as well, but Atlus confirms that they can’t alter the mind directly. They exist more to alter the minds of other races. So they can create physical manifestations and external forces, but otherwise they are limited in what they can do.

Before Atlus can get away from that subject, Simmons has an ‘aha’ moment. So there’s been a lot of speculation about what the Cosmic Powers are exact;y. Are they actual Gods? Aliens? AI’s? Well Simmons finally figures it out. My friends, the Cosmic Powers are indeed AI. The Reds and Blues protection? A protective firewall that prevents that Chrovos created to keep them in check’. Their current forms? Hologram projections that Chrovos setup to have them look the part of Gods to manipulate other races. The limitations? It was what Chrovos programmed into them. That’s my boy Simmons! So yea, the COsmic Powers send Huggins and Muggins away and confirm the truth. They are indeed AI, placed into devices that look a LOOT like the one that Epsilon was put into during the Recollection Trilogy.

With that out of the way, back to the exposition. So while he’s weak, Chrovos isn’t powerless. He used his power to cause a human to create a time machine, causing a leak in time. So yeah, the time machine last season? That came to be due to Chrovos. The leak gave Chrovos enough power to zap Donut and pull him into a time where he was much stronger, manipulating him into thinking that he was God before sending him back to the present with the time guns to put his plan into motion. Oh and during this, the guys say some… rather insensitive remarks about Donut. Remember this for the end my friends.

So yeah, the Reds and Blues have damaged the blocks of time and it’s apparently too late to fix it. Chrovos now has the chance to be free and time is going to topple over. There is one hope however, and that is for the Reds and Blues to go to Chrovos directly. To do this, they have to go into the labyrinth and fight through all of the forces guarding him and use a weapon made of the same material that keeps him imprisoned: The Hammer. Huh… simple name. I like it! Anywho, The Hammer will reinforce the bindings keeping Chrovos at bay, he’ll be unable to get out again, and time will be saved! You know, if they just went to them with that in the first place instead of sicing Gus… I mean the cyclops on them, we could have avoided this…

The Cosmic Powers send the Reds and Blues to another part of Starseat to let them make a decision. Oh and he also takes the swords back… except Grif’s! My boy gets to keep it! Hooray!!! Anyways, our heroes talk their options over. Simmons suggest they just go back and stop themselves from time traveling to begin with… but Carolina beings up that doing that will likely cause a paradox like Jax already said. So yeah, that’s out. Wash tries to rally the guys to go for it, pointing out that they did their best but in the end failing is the only way that they can knwo that they sucked and get better. Time traveling is not going to do anything to make it better. All that they’ve been doing is trying to relieve quilt or avoid responsibility, but the past is the past. They have to be better now because that is what matters.

Tucker argues this a little but, saying that it’s selfish to not time travel and fix their mistakes, like say… when Wash hurt people back int he day. But Wash counters that mistakes make you who you are and when you make one, you need to fix it and grow from it. This gets at least the Reds and Caboose to agree that giving up the guns is the right thing to do and Wahs even says that he’ll be with the Rdds and Blues to fight alongside them. Aww, what a nice moment! It is so swe… something’s going to fuck it up, isn’t it?

Yep. The speech causes Carolina to feel guilty about her recent decisions and she tells Wash that no, he won’t be fighting with them. The two Freelancers argue, Carolina telling Wash that he’s disableled with him arguing against it. But Carolina finally breaks the news to him. When Wash got shot in the neck back in S15 EP17, it cut off oxygen to the brain. It was only for a few minutes, but that was enough to inflict brain damage. It is why Wash is having his memory lapses, he has a condition known as Cerebal Hypoxia, a brain injury. While the significance of the damage is still undetermined, the memory lapses alone are enough to make Carolina unwilling to let Wash fight ever again.

Wash… doesn’t take it well. He snaps. Like IDT he’s ever been this angry. He snaps at the Reds and Blues, asking if they knew. They say that thy didn’t with Carolina confirming that she kept it from everyone, so they’re just as shocked as Wash is about this. Wash calms down, but is clearly hurt that Carolina would keep something that massive a secret from him. Carolina tries to explain how she didn’t want to upset him, but Wash just walks away as she struggles to find the words. Everyone is left in shock. Even Caboose wounded more well… normal sounding than usual. Damn man, just… damn.

So how can things get worst after that? Well… remember when I mentioned the guys making those insensitive comment about Donut? Well that was ultimately the last straw for him. He takes the hammer, opening up a portal and telling the others that all that they said made his choice all the easier to make. He enters the portal, heading back to Chrovos. Well… Genkins warned us that the pink one would steal the hammer. He was not kidding…

Review

Well… we were all waiting for the plot bomb to hit… and here it is… and it has left only devastation in it’s wake.

Alright, before we dive into the last few minutes, lets talk Cosmic Gods and Chrovos. So first, THEY’RE NOT REAL GODS GUYS! THEY WERE DESIGNED THAT WAY TO MANIPULATE OTHER RACES! NO REAL MAGIC OR GOD-LIKE THINGS! THEY’RE AI. WE CAN FINAlLY PUT THAT TO REST!

Okay, got that out of my system! But yeah, the Cosmic Powers are indeed highly advanced and powerful AI, kept in a device similar to the one Church was in during Recollection. Which kudos to Joe for bringing that back in! It’s something I love about this series, it always finds ways to bring back minor or even just dumb things and make them significant. But yeah, while it does beg the question on what Chrovos is (an alien? Another AI? Something else?), it is VERY relieving to have this revelation especially since there’s been quite a few people… mixed about them being Gods to put it light;y. It’s also good that there ARE some limitations, like they can’t brainwash anyone or directly affect the brain for example. They can only manipulate things externally.

This helps make sense of a lot of things. The God theme is to cause others to worship them and obey their will. Chances are Huggins and Muggins’ species were one of those races… so it’s hard to say how well they’ll take it when/if this comes out. It makes sense they they just role with it and live up to it, it’s in their programming. Like this explains a LOOOT of things… aside form the cyclops unless there’s just an alien species that look like cyclops that exist. Which I’m not going to call impossible. Hell, that would be awesome! But yeah, this episode answered a lot but kept plenty of things open, like what Chrovos’ true reasons for making the AI were and keeps the Cosmic Powers in a… morally grey area. Like they seemed like they turned on him because he limited their power and whether they’re being honest about not knowing their creator’s true intentions is very debatable. So they’re not 100% good or trustworthy, but currently the Lesser Evil. So that’s good!

Alright, so… lets get to… Donut! Yes, I’m stalling, but it’s still important. Because this episode, as well as the past two with him in it, have done an excellent job setting up his current state. During the past 16 seasons, Donut has always been kin of the butt of the joke. Gullible. Naive. A joke with a good throwing arm who is mostly forgotten. Now tbf part of this is due to Dan Godwin not always being available so RT had to limit him, but in-canon it doesn’t help. Which kudos to Dan Godwin BTW. He nailed the hurt in Donut’s tone as he repeated the insults really well. He hasn’t really gotten to emote much as Donut outside being happy, so it is SO GOOD to hear him get to use a broader range. But yeah, while Donut is absolutely making the wrong choice here, you feel nothing but sympathy for him. Because we have seen how he’s belittled by the others, some of us for years. I’d say it’s a better version of what we got with Doc last year since this time we got to see Donut express how frustrated he was and Chrovos manipulate him into his current emotional state. Very well done.

And I can’t avoid it anymore. Lets talk about Wash. First, the good to hold it off just a tad bit longer. I really loved his speech. It speaks a lot about the theme of this season to me. The theme seems to be that no matter what you do or how you try, you can’t fix the past and you shouldn’t fix the past. The past is what shapes you into the person that you are meant to be. Instead of focusing on what you could have done or what you would do, you should focus on what you can do now. In the present. That is the time that matters. Coming from Wash after everything before, ti was so good to hear. And it’s true at least to me. Something I live by is something that Monty Oum coined before, “keep moving forward”. You can’t focus on the past, you just have to continue on. So hearing this… it really resonated with me.

But of course that all gets fucked up with Carolina choosing the WORST moment to feel bad and tell the truth. Look Carolina, I’m glad they you decided to finally tell Wash the truth, but this was the WORST possible time woman! Still yeah… Wash’s reaction was completely justified. Snapping at the others was harsh, but him being that angry? That hurt that Carolina would hide that he was brain damaged? That… that is a big deal. After everything, all the trust that they had built, Carolina both hid things from him and lied to him. Yes, it is understandable why Carolina was afraid to tell him. I feel a LOT of sympathy for her because I’ve dealt with a relative having a bad memory, and it is a terrible experience. She clearly regretted it and she sounded like she was outright trying to not cry. Jen Brown did such a fantastic job, as did Shannon McCormick with the raw emotion he had to use for Wash.

But as bad as I feel for Carolina, she made a huge mistake. She hid a serious condition away from her friend. She lied to him about the state of his condition. And then she chose to tell him during a serious situation that could decide the fate of time itself. Wash had been really happy and even fooling around before this, which makes seeing him so hurt all the more painful. Things can never be like they were before and now he’s likely going to have trust issues with Carolina. What’s going to happen now? I honestly have no idea. IDT it’s going to be resolved this season, that much I know. but yeah, it’s… it’s hard. I was about ready to cry when Carolina struggled to explain everything, especially as Wash just… walked away. It hurt.

Final Thoughts

This was an absolutely fantastic episode. The exposition was good and made sense, the humor was on point, and the emotional scenes were just… man I don’t think I have words. Joe did an excellent job writing them. Well guys, two episodes left to go. I am more uncertain of what’s going to happen than I have been all season. But I can safely say that whatever Joe is going to throw at us, I’ll be here for it.

#rvb #rvb16 #rvb reviews #old blog repost

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calliecat93 · 6 years

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RvB16 Episode 13 Review: A Time for Hammers

After thirteen episodes, Joe is FINALLY being merciful and giving us some exposition. THANK YOU RT GODS! Okay, so we’re nearing the end here people. What awaits us next? Let us find out!

Overview

Atlus does indeed give us an exposition dump. I know that some hate exposition, but at this point it is SORELY needed. So to put it simply, in the beginning there was nothing until time expanded and then came the father of the Cosmic Powers, Chrovos. Which still relates to Greek Myth as the inspiration, Krovos, was the King of the Titans and father of Zeus, Hera, and several others. Oh, he also would eat his kids... mythology is very messed up. Chrovos, who has power over time, created the Cosmic Powers and had them enslaved to do his bidding. WELL THEN. They claim to not know what the entire plan was however, only their part in it.

The Cosmic Powers however ultimately rebelled against Chrovos and the Titans, the majority killed and the rest imprisoned. The Cosmic Powers created a labyrinth within a black hole and in the center is a treadmill that they tricked him onto. So he is walking in place forever in one spot... Joe you totally stole that from Ten Little Roosters, didn’t you? Before things go any further, Sarge interrupts to ask why Grif of all people has a sword. Because he deserved it Sarge, shut up! But yeah now everyone (except Carolina) wants one so Atlus allows it... except Caboose. He wants Genkins golf club! It is what he deserves. Wash tries to ask the Cosmic Powers if they’ll relieve his headache as well, but Atlus confirms that they can’t alter the mind directly. They exist more to alter the minds of other races. So they can create physical manifestations and external forces, but otherwise they are limited in what they can do.

With that out of the way, back to the exposition. So while he’s weak, Chrovos isn’t powerless. He used his power to cause a human to create a time machine, causing a leak in time. So yeah, the time machine last season? That came to be due to Chrovos. The leak gave Chrovos enough power to zap Donut and pull him into a time where he was much stronger, manipulating him into thinking that he was God before sending him back to the present with the time guns to put his plan into motion. Oh and during this, the guys say some... rather insensitive remarks about Donut. Remember this for the end my friends.

So yeah, the Reds and Blues have damaged the blocks of time and it’s apparently too late to fix it. Chrovos now has the chance to be free and time is going to topple over. There is one hope however, and that is for the Reds and Blues to go to Chrovos directly. To do this, they have to go into the labyrinth and fight through all of the forces guarding him and use a weapon made of the same material that keeps him imprisoned: The Hammer. Huh... simple name. I like it! Anywho, The Hammer will reinforce the bindings keeping Chrovos at bay, he’ll be unable to get out again, and time will be saved! You know, if they just went to them with that in the first place instead of sicing Gus... I mean the cyclops on them, we could have avoided this...

The Cosmic Powers send the Reds and Blues to another part of Starseat to let them make a decision. Oh and he also takes the swords back... except Grif’s! My boy gets to keep it! Hooray!!! Anyways, our heroes talk their options over. Simmons suggest they just go back and stop themselves from time traveling to begin with... but Carolina beings up that doing that will likely cause a paradox like Jax already said. So yeah, that’s out. Wash tries to rally the guys to go for it, pointing out that they did their best but in the end failing is the only way that they can knwo that they sucked and get better. Time traveling is not going to do anything to make it better. All that they’ve been doing is trying to relieve quilt or avoid responsibility, but the past is the past. They have to be better now because that is what matters.

Tucker argues this a little but, saying that it’s selfish to not time travel and fix their mistakes, like say... when Wash hurt people back int he day. But Wash counters that mistakes make you who you are and when you make one, you need to fix it and grow from it. This gets at least the Reds and Caboose to agree that giving up the guns is the right thing to do and Wahs even says that he’ll be with the Rdds and Blues to fight alongside them. Aww, what a nice moment! It is so swe... something’s going to fuck it up, isn’t it?

Wash... doesn't take it well. He snaps. Like IDT he’s ever been this angry. He snaps at the Reds and Blues, asking if they knew. They say that thy didn’t with Carolina confirming that she kept it from everyone, so they’re just as shocked as Wash is about this. Wash calms down, but is clearly hurt that Carolina would keep something that massive a secret from him. Carolina tries to explain how she didn’t want to upset him, but Wash just walks away as she struggles to find the words. Everyone is left in shock. Even Caboose wounded more well... normal sounding than usual. Damn man, just... damn.

So how can things get worst after that? Well... remember when I mentioned the guys making those insensitive comment about Donut? Well that was ultimately the last straw for him. He takes the hammer, opening up a portal and telling the others that all that they said made his choice all the easier to make. He enters the portal, heading back to Chrovos. Well... Genkins warned us that the pink one would steal the hammer. He was not kidding...

Review

Well... we were all waiting for the plot bomb to hit... and here it is... and it has left only devastation in it’s wake.

Okay, got that out of my system! But yeah, the Cosmic Powers are indeed highly advanced and powerful AI, kept in a device similar to the one Church was in during Recollection. Which kudos to Joe for bringing that back in! It’s something I love about this series, it always finds ways to bring back minor or even just dumb things and make them significant. But yeah, while it does beg the question on what Chrovos is (an alien? Another AI? Something else?), it is VERY relieving to have this revelation especially since there’s been quite a few people... mixed about them being Gods to put it light;y. It’s also good that there ARE some limitations, like they can’t brainwash anyone or directly affect the brain for example. They can only manipulate things externally.

This helps make sense of a lot of things. The God theme is to cause others to worship them and obey their will. Chances are Huggins and Muggins’ species were one of those races... so it’s hard to say how well they’ll take it when/if this comes out. It makes sense they they just role with it and live up to it, it’s in their programming. Like this explains a LOOOT of things... aside form the cyclops unless there’s just an alien species that look like cyclops that exist. Which I’m not going to call impossible. Hell, that would be awesome! But yeah, this episode answered a lot but kept plenty of things open, like what Chrovos’ true reasons for making the AI were and keeps the Cosmic Powers in a... morally grey area. Like they seemed like they turned on him because he limited their power and whether they’re being honest about not knowing their creator’s true intentions is very debatable. So they’re not 100% good or trustworthy, but currently the Lesser Evil. So that’s good!

Alright, so... lets get to... Donut! Yes, I’m stalling, but it’s still important. Because this episode, as well as the past two with him in it, have done an excellent job setting up his current state. During the past 16 seasons, Donut has always been kin of the butt of the joke. Gullible. Naive. A joke with a good throwing arm who is mostly forgotten. Now tbf part of this is due to Dan Godwin not always being available so RT had to limit him, but in-canon it doesn't help. Which kudos to Dan Godwin BTW. He nailed the hurt in Donut’s tone as he repeated the insults really well. He hasn't really gotten to emote much as Donut outside being happy, so it is SO GOOD to hear him get to use a broader range. But yeah, while Donut is absolutely making the wrong choice here, you feel nothing but sympathy for him. Because we have seen how he’s belittled by the others, some of us for years. I’d say it’s a better version of what we got with Doc last year since this time we got to see Donut express how frustrated he was and Chrovos manipulate him into his current emotional state. Very well done.

And I can't avoid it anymore. Lets talk about Wash. First, the good to hodl it off just a tad bit longer. I really loved his speech. It speaks a lot about the theme of this season to me. The theme seems to be that no matter what you do or how you try, you can't fix the past and you shouldn’t fix the past. The past is what shapes you into the person that you are meant to be. Instead of focusing on what you could have done or what you would do, you should focus on what you can do now. In the present. That is the time that matters. Coming from Wash after everything before, ti was so good to hear. And it’s true at least to me. Something I live by is something that Monty Oum coined before, “keep moving forward”. You can’t focus on the past, you just have to continue on. So hearing this... it really resonated with me.

But of course that all gets fucked up with Carolina choosing the WORST moment to feel bad and tell the truth. Look Carolina, I’m glad they you decided to finally tell Wash the truth, but this was the WORST possible time woman! Still yeah... Wash’s reaction was completely justified. Snapping at the others was harsh, but him being that angry? That hurt that Carolina would hide that he was brain damaged? That... that is a big deal. After everything, all the trust that they had built, Carolina both hid things from him and lied to him. Yes, it is understandable why Carolina was afraid to tell him. I feel a LOT of sympathy for her because I’ve dealt with a relative having a bad memory, and it is a terrible experience. She clearly regretted it and she sounded like she was outright trying to not cry. Jen Brown did such a fantastic job, as did Shannon McCormick with the raw emotion he had to use for Wash.

But as bad as I feel for Carolina, she made a huge mistake. She hid a serious condition away from her friend. She lied to him about the state of his condition. And then she chose to tell him during a serious situation that could decide the fate of time itself. Wash had been really happy and even fooling around before this, which makes seeing him so hurt all the more painful. Things can never be like they were before and now he’s likely going to have trust issues with Carolina. What’s going to happen now? I honestly have no idea. IDT it’s going to be resolved this season, that much I know. but yeah, it’s... it’s hard. I was about ready to cry when Carolina struggled to explain everything, especially as Wash just... walked away. It hurt.

Final Thoughts

This was an absolutely fantastic episode. The exposition was good and made sense, the humor was on point, and the emotional scenes were just... man I don’t think I have words. Joe did an excellent job writing them. Well guys, two episodes left to go. I am more uncertain of what’s going to happen than I have been all season. But I can safely say that whatever Joe is going to throw at us, I’ll be here for it.

#rvb #rvb16 #rvb16 spoilers #rvb reviews

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gwydionae · 7 years

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When I first went through Voltron, I was not 100% convinced that Shiro was a clone. It was obvious he'd been experimented on in some way, but somehow I had missed the line about "this specimen is ready to be used" or whatever. XD After going back through the show, uh, yeah, he's totally a clone. They even use "kuron" as the name of the project - ku-ro-n, as in the Japanese pronunciation of "clone". Way ta be subtle, guys. XD

But then I started wondering what his purpose was. I mean, Team Voltron had survived with "Kuron" at the helm for months, even taken a good chunk of Galra territory. So why was he released? What was he supposed to do? So I went back through all the episodes with Kuron and... wow. I actually feel a bit stupid for not seeing it before.

Before I get into that, I want to bring up his mention of a "weird headache". Why is it “weird” and why even talk about it? If he knows he’s a clone on a mission, seems he just shouldn’t bother mentioning it at all, and since he is bringing it up, would that perhaps imply he really doesn't know what he is? Does he maybe think he's real but is susceptible to following what the Galra want him to do without realizing it? This leads me to believe that while I think he is a clone and working under Galra orders, I don't think that he knows that. I think that he believes he is truly doing what Shiro would do, because of course he is because he's Shiro! But somehow the Galra - Haggar, most likely - are controlling him, manipulating his actions to their whims in order to carry out their plans. And boy do they have big plans...

The first thing he has to do is regain control of the Black Lion, and in order to do that, he has to get rid of Keith. But he can't simply get rid of him, he has to take over properly so everyone believes he is their true leader. Seems easy enough at first when Keith hands him the job on a silver platter. Only problem is that the Black Lion isn't fooled - it knows something isn't right with “Shiro” and refuses him. And so “Kuron” has to find another way to take over. And so he does, in a truly cruel and manipulative way.

See, Kuron has already seen that Keith is willing to bow to what he wants and that the other Paladins will listen to Shiro's plans. So he just casually takes over the mission from the castle despite Keith piloting the Black Lion, telling them what to do, and when Keith protests, the other Paladins back Kuron's idea and Keith has no choice but to go along with it or risk the team turning on him. So Kuron says that they shouldn't go after Lotor - like Keith wanted - but should instead go back to their Lions and keep Lotor from getting the new comet!ship. Note that this is after he already knew about the piece of the teledove. But then they get to their Lions and Kuron changes his mind - after Keith had gotten on board the whole "ok gonna stop that ship" thing. Now Kuron says they have to keep them from getting the teledove. This frustrates Keith, especially when Allura backs Kuron, because he thought that he and Kuron had gotten on the same page but then Kuron undermines his supposed authority and leadership again. This is at least the second time in just this mission that Keith tried to make a decision only for Kuron to step in and convince the team that Keith is wrong and he is right. He is playing mind games with Keith, and Keith is losing because he just thinks it's Shiro being the natural leader that he is. And to make matters worse, when Lance straight up asks Keith what to do next, Kuron is the one that answers, not even giving Keith the chance to respond. Lastly, Keith, and even Pidge, want to follow the comet!ship after the teledove is destroyed, but Kuron tells them not to, and they listen without even questioning the fact that he just reneged on his earlier statement of "we can't let Lotor get that ship". Again he changes his tune and again it contradicts what Keith wants to do and again the rest of the team follows Kuron's orders instead of Keith's.

But the worst part of all of this? When Kuron tells Keith that he's sorry he "had to step in" and then proceeds to guilt trip Keith by saying he needs to learn to pick his battles (which is funny considering Kuron literally avoided as much confrontation as possible but was then willing to risk Voltron getting hit by the comet!ship's laser). If you don't really think about it, it sounds all nice and good when he says stuff like "you'll get there" and "the Black Lion chose you" but in reality all this does is heap more responsibility on Keith's shoulders, telling him he needs to lead but his actions saying he's not yet good enough to do so. The words are not uplifting - they are hollow, merely there to put more pressure on Keith who was struggling to deal with being a leader from the moment he took the job. Kuron is solidifying in Keith's head that he, “Shiro”, is the better leader, no matter what the Black Lion chose.

To end off season 3, we hear Keith say that his number one goal is to stop Lotor and keep him from using the comet!ship to cross realities. But the start of season 4 makes it clear that Kuron has been in charge of Voltron for months as they have done nothing of the sort, leaving those missions instead to the Blade of Marmora. Keith has kept his word and made that his top priority, but Kuron wouldn't allow him to do it with Voltron, and hence Keith joined the Blades. By this point, Kuron's plan is working near perfectly. While he continues his good standing with the other Paladins, he makes Keith look bad by chastising him for missing missions - even ones as insignificant as a show of arms - and this only proves to make Keith himself more miserable. By making Keith feel both guilty for not being there and unneeded due to Kuron being the "true" leader, Kuron is slowly pushing him out without losing any of his standing. And then comes the tipping point - while Keith is away on a mission with the Blades, some rebels are attacked. But note that as soon as the Paladins show up to help, Galra back up shows up. Awful quick, wasn't it? Why would they need to call for back up before the Lions showed up? It was cargo - they weren't exactly putting up much of a fight. It's almost as if someone tipped off the Galra that the Lions would be there...

And as if on cue, Kuron convinces the Black Lion that the other Paladins won't make it without Voltron. That they need him - there's no other way. And finally the Black Lion gives in, and Kuron gets what he wanted. Keith returns to the others ostracizing him, everyone standing firmly behind Kuron. And after being manipulated by him for months, Keith willingly gives up his Paladin status to Kuron, exactly as planned. Kuron is now a hero and great leader, and the one person that openly challenged his plans is gone.

From this point on, Kuron's real plan begins, the one that should ultimately lead to the destruction of Naxella if all goes well. Aside from the blips that are allowing Pidge to leave to find Matt and using Voltron to see what ship - Lotor's - the Galra were attacking (which are decisions he clearly didn't want to make but seemed to realize he had no choice), Kuron puts all his effort into the Voltron shows. He has the Blades and rebels liberate planets, but he keeps Voltron away from all of that, instead using it to spread hope and gain support within that section of the galaxy. Perhaps he wants to keep Voltron out of it to make sure Naxella is the last planet in the area as it's the most heavily armed and something only Voltron could handle. Or maybe he really does just want to get as many peoples' hopes up as possible so Naxella exploding will seem all the more devastating. Whatever the reason, his plan works, and suddenly Naxella is the last remaining target and they have a ton of support in the area around it.

Perfect place for a gigantic bomb to ruin everything.

The entire plan to take Naxella seems to be Kuron's and Kuron's alone. He is the one telling everybody where they will be and what they will do, making sure even the Blades and Coalition are included. He sets them up perfectly to be in range when the planet explodes. He even has Coran monitoring the Galra communications system that Pidge and Hunk disable from the castle - the same castle Kuron was in when the mysterious Galra reinforcements showed up in season 4 episode 1. Did Kuron do something to the castle? It would explain how the Galra knew when to call for back up earlier and how they now got their communications back online quickly but still after Voltron had nearly taken Naxella, allowing Kuron to brush Coran off when he informs him of Haggar’s battle cruiser because it would arrive too late anyway.

Not to mention explaining why Haggar said "good" when told of the attack. She knew this was coming. She was in on the plan. Why else would she just happen to be on a ship that has a weapon attached to the front - that hadn't been seen in four seasons - needed for the plan? And she knew to shut down both cannons the rebels had taken over as well as how to do that remotely. She had Kuron place them there and then snatched their new weapons away when it was time for the next phase of the plan. Again someone asks Kuron what to do about the stopped battle cruiser - Keith this time - and again Kuron says to leave it alone because it doesn't matter.

But this is where someone other than Keith has ideas that go against Kuron's. Lance is actually the one who, upon noticing the pillars rising from Naxella, orders Pidge to plot a course for their escape. Kuron, of course, overrules him, saying they should "find out what they are" first. Obviously this leads them to being trapped. And when they do escape Voltron and head below to see what's causing it, it is Kuron that suggests Allura try to shut it down. It seems obvious that he knew this would be too much for her, perhaps hoping it would put her out of commission. But she ends up being ok, and much to his disappointment, it is again Lance with the good ideas. He convinced Allura not to try to stop the plant but instead restart Voltron so they can escape. This works, and while I'm guessing this goes against Kuron's ultimate plan, he goes along with it. Maybe he thought they would still be blown to bits anyway. Maybe his Shiro nature kicks in. Maybe he hasn't realized this whole time that it was his actions that lead everyone here and there's a part of him that really does want to escape and stop the planet from exploding. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter, because the plan has worked perfectly and the planet will blow up before Voltron reaches Haggar.

Except, of course, that Lotor ruins it.

But there's the most interesting part. The plan would have worked if not for Lotor. Kuron played his part perfectly - getting control of the Black Lion, getting rid of the dissenter in the group, getting everyone to free all the planets around Naxella while keeping himself and Voltron safe, planning the big, final attack on Naxella itself that would lead to everyone being blown to smithereens... It all would have worked if Lotor hadn't attacked Haggar's ship. (I suppose you could argue that Keith’s kamikaze plan might have worked too, but there’s no guarantee of that.)

But all this begs the question: What now?

Now that that plan has failed, what is Kuron's purpose? Does he have one? Will he be able to conceal the fact that he's not actually Shiro if Lotor, Haggar’s son, joins up? If Keith comes back? If Lance starts to question Kuron's orders due to what happened on Naxella? I get the feeling Kuron will be exposed sooner rather than later, and I am very interested in seeing exactly how that goes down. But for now, I am mighty impressed that they were able to make every decision that Kuron made seem credible at the time and only start to come apart once you really pay attention to what he says and does. And I really love that about seasons 3 and 4.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #shiro voltron #voltron shiro #vld shiro #spoilers #gwydo's musings #...i haven't used that tag in forever XD #but i really wanted to get this out so #here ya go #i'm sorry if you actually read all this because man do i like to ramble #and i felt really stupid i didn't realize all this sooner #but to be fair i only just watched the show a week ago XD #so i'm not too far behind right?

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krokodile · 7 years

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movie watched in 2018, just three n this one with two behind a cut because spoilers for movies older than all of you :P

battle of the sexes - holy fuck, so good. SO SO SO GOOD. look, i usually can’t stand emma stone and i rarely like sports movies. but i loved this movie so much i couldn’t shut up about it for days. emma stone and steve carell are fucking flawless, and watching the bonus features, seeing how emma lights up whenever billie jean is onset, it’s clear how strongly she felt about doing this right. and it absolutely shows. her transformation goes beyond the makeup (although holy crap they did a good job with that). her performance is remarkable; i won’t take back all i’ve said about how annoying i’ve found her over the years, because i did, but i underestimated her (which i guess is thematically appropriate for this movie :P ). she is immensely skilled, and her desire to do this project justice is plainly visible. the fire in her eyes when she’s on the court is fucking magnetic. i can’t say enough about how much i adored this performance. and i generally feel that biopics bring out the worst in actors (academy catnip though they may be).

steve carell nailed his role as well, but that was no surprise; i knew he would be perfect. i hope he gets his oscar for this, finally, though i’m assuming 3 billboards will sweep all the major categories. andrea riseborough is predictably perfect, and cute as a bug’s ear - i’ve always thought she was incredibly pretty, but this is the first time i’ve found her adorable. she and emma stone have the most insanely believable chemistry - i don’t think i’ve believed an onscreen relationship more, in every facet.

the movie looks amazing; it drops you right into the 70s with no detail ignored. and, you know, having lived on planet earth, i knew how this story ended. and yet, i was nervous. i was on the edge of my seat wringing my hands through every set. i wanted to stand up and cheer. i just...i really loved this movie. i expected to like it, because reviewers i tend to agree with raved over it, but i didn’t think i’d fall in love with it. easily one of the best to come out of 2017, at least for me.

when the wind blows - this is the best movie i NEVER EVER WANT TO SEE AGAIN. oh my god. look, if you know this movie, you understand me. if you don’t, how do i sum it up? an elderly couple living in (i think) rural england has been following the news of a seemingly inevitable nuclear conflict approaching. the wife is largely unconcerned - after all, they made it through world war ii, and enough time has past that the memories have become romantic - and the husband is confident that the government pamphlets instructing him to whitewash the windows and create a shelter out of doors will instruct him well.

...you know where this is going, because there’s only one way this story can go.

bombs fall, everyone dies.

but not like that. while most of their area is flattened, their home stands. and at first all seems well. emergency services will be along soon enough to rescue them, after all. the pamphlets instruct them to stay in their little shelter for fourteen days to avoid fallout, but the impracticality of that is immediately apparent, and after all - if you can’t hear it, feel it, see it, how can it be harming you?

sure, they’ve had headaches, but stress, you know?

if you for some reason have been meaning to see this but haven’t gotten to it, and don’t want spoilers, skip this, because i really can’t figure out how to explain how quietly horrific this film is without spoiling the entire thing.

the couple - jim and hilda - quickly grow bored indoors and stroll around their garden, chatting about how nice everything will look once it’s grown back next season.

yeah, you’ve correctly inferred just how much denial they’re in. hilda notices a neighbor’s dog in the distance and worriedly comments that it must be hungry; we can see that the dog is not only dead but partially fused to the ground. grimmer still is jim’s comment that people must have put sunday dinner on early in the week; he can smell the meat roasting. hilda mentions her worsening nausea, which jim attributes to a woman’s inability to handle stress.

the water runs out, there are rats in the toilets, and hilda and jim can’t quite pinpoint why they feel so off; so tired and weak. surely nothing a cup of tea wouldn’t fix, but that’s out of the question now. still, emergency services should be arriving any moment now. they wonder how their son and his family are faring.

jim wonders if hilda is wearing lipstick; she isn’t. her gums are bleeding. but surely it’s a result of ill-fitting dentures. they’re old; it happens. those strange sores on their limbs must be varicose veins. they’re old; it happens. bloody diarrhea? hemorrhoids. they’re old; it happens.

jim runs out of answers when hilda’s hair starts coming out in handfuls - or perhaps he’s simply too weak to speak much at this point.

ultimately, they retire to their tiny shelter, both finally acknowledging - wordlessly but clearly - that no help is coming. with no better ideas left, hilda suggests they might pray. jim, endearingly, begins his prayer with “dear sir,” which hilda suggests is wrong. they are, after all, an old married couple.

mid-sentence, jim ceases to speak. and that is all.

this movie came out in the 80s, as part of that boom of nuclear holocaust films that flooded the nation at that time. but unlike the thrillers or the family dramas, this film is almost painfully quiet. jim and hilda have no fear. there’s no screaming, no crying, just wondering why on earth their son seems to have gone mad at the news. war is survivable; they’ve done it before. there are no horrific shots of dead bodies, of people burned and in agony. just jim and hilda, quietly transforming from round-faced little old cherubs to hollow-eyed skeletons.

and my god, they make you love them. they’re fucking adorable, with their accents and their quaint little house. they bicker, but you know neither would know what to do with themselves without the other. (the sweetness of their relationship is, i imagine, what makes the moment where jim carelessly calls hilda a “stupid bitch” as she refuses to get into the shelter - the oven’s on, the laundry’s still on the line, she really should take care of these things first - so disproportionately upsetting. it feels personal, somehow.)

the movie looks absolutely gorgeous. the characters are animated, the home is done in 3d models, manipulated with stop motion, and the blending of mediums is startlingly seamless. the character designs are simple - jim looks rather like an elderly charlie brown, with a large round head, dots for eyes, a little squiggle mouth and little else - making it all the more effective when the effects of their sickness start to visibly affect them. there’s no gore, nothing hyperrealistic, and yet the images are deeply disturbing in ways eli roth can only dream of being.

as the saying goes, one death is a tragedy; a million, a statistic. we can speculate about the number of lives lost if nuclear war breaks out, but somehow that will feel less devastating than watching just these two. there’s nothing exaggerating, nothing made “bigger” for film. just the quiet, horrible truth.

and fuck, it’s a sick feeling when you remember that this is exactly what we did to every single japanese individual who didn’t immediately die when we bombed them. they died in days and weeks after with radiation poisoning, or years later of blood and bone cancers. either they went through this themselves, dying horrible, agonizing deaths that they couldn’t even feel the hope of curing, or they helplessly watched their families. numbers are sobering, but the reality of the suffering is nauseating.

oh and i mean trump seems determined to bring about the same fate to the us, so there’s that to think about, if you didn’t feel shitty enough.

it’s an absolutely brilliant piece of art; one of the best animated films i’ve ever seen. but i think it’s best to go in warned about what you’re seeing. you know it’s going to be sad, you know they’re going to die, but...you should know that it’s worse than you’re envisioning.

still. see it. it’s on youtube.

ringing bell - because shit, i didn’t already want to die enough, right? it’s bambi, but with sheep. oh, and instead of growing up and marrying his cousin, bambi joins forces with the hunter and becomes an expert gunman.

yeah.

honestly, i didn’t like it, and not for the reasons you might think. yeah, it’s sad, but i didn’t think it was well put-together. the first third is just a baby lamb called chirin prancing around being nauseating (or cute, i guess). the second third is an irritating, dumb baby sheep deciding he wants to become an apprentice to the wolf who killed his mother, which...okay, i can accept that he’s come to reason that only the strong survive (there’s an absolutely gutting scene, one of the few done well, where the lamb attempts to rescue a bird and her eggs from a snake. the mother is killed, and in the scuffle, the eggs are broken. the image of chirin wailing “why do the weak have to die?” is going to be the thing that fucks me up for the rest of my life. jesus christ.) but we see NONE of this - he goes from hunting down the wolf determined to kill it, the wolf knocks him down a fucking mountain, he climbs back up and declares his intent to become a wolf.

we get a rocky movie’s worth of training montages, and really a whole bunch of nothing for the second act. i’ll give it credit for having the wolf’s design be badass as fuck and for the hunting scene having more realism than i’d expect from a sanrio production (yeah, this came from the people who brought you hello kitty.) but the story elements are really ignored. we never do find out why the wolf never just ate the damn sheep when it came looking for him.

the third act is better - chirin’s adult model is the stuff of nightmares compared to his cotton fluffball appearance in the earlier scenes, and everything looks gorgeous and is animated far better than what came before it. i won’t spoil the story of the ending, but the final shot, of chirin alone, wailing for the wolf in what sounds creepily like a howl, is...depressing. it’s not SAD. it just comes with a resignation that makes it so much worse than just being sad. of course this is how it ends. what else could there be for this wretch, no longer a ram, but not enough a wolf?

it’s a short, about 50 minutes, and at first i was thinking it might have worked better as a feature, but really, it would’ve worked better at the same length, just with differently-applied focus. still, i appreciate its existence. i think the 70s and 80s realized what we’ve forgotten now - kids eat up the dark stuff, the cautionary and morality tales. when things are scary, you get to feel proud and excited that you made it through. when things are sad, you learn to remember that happiness returns. when you experience loss vicariously, you begin to understand it, how to process it. when you see death, you accept it as part of life. kids WANT to understand these things; they WANT to know more than what they know; they WANT to take on tough things and overcome them. WE want to keep them “safe” and “innocent” - they know that that’s the opposite of what they need.

that said, if any kid i’m watching wants to watch it, i’m going to another room until it’s over. JESUS.

#movies watched in 2018 #MWi2018: battle of the sexes #MWi2018: when the wind blows #MWi2018: ringing bell #anime

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darnedchild · 7 years

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Molly Hooper Appreciation Week Summer 2017 - Day 2

On FFdotNet and Ao3

Also, I haven’t had a beta look it over because I like to live dangerously. Mostly, though, because I literally finished it about two minutes ago and I really wanted to post it so I could go to dinner. SO - My first Khanolly-ish sort of fic thing.

Molly Hooper Appreciation Week Summer 2017 - Day 2 - Not On The Side Of Angels (Fanworks focusing on Dark!Molly)

Descent Into Darkness

John Harrison was the most beautiful man she had ever seen, and she was going to make sure he died a slow and painful death.

The bombing of Section 31 had rocked Starfleet. The massacre at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco had ripped through the command ranks, leaving the fleet vulnerable without many of their senior and most experienced officers.

Both were acts of terrorism that hit far too close to home for many.

Molly was one of them. She had been scheduled for duty at the London building the day of the bombing. If there hadn’t been an unexpected delay with the public transport system out of her suburb, she would have been buried under tons of rubble just like many of her friends.

The knowledge of just how close she’d come to death had nearly knocked her to her knees.

And then the revelation that the devastation had been caused by John Harrison had finished the job.

The section supervisor Doctor Anderson hadn’t wanted Harrison in his labs; as Harrison wasn’t a doctor or biologist, there was no reason to allow him access to any of their projects. But word had come down from high (the rumours even whispered that the order had come from the office of Admiral Marcus himself) and there had been no choice. Eventually, even Anderson had agreed that Harrison had offered a few insights on some of the experiments, including ones that focused on some unique tissue and blood samples they had been given to analyse; samples, they were told, that had been acquired from an unmarked, derelict spacecraft found in deep space.

At first Molly had enjoyed Harrison’s visits. He’d walk into the lab full of barely suppressed energy, listen to the other scientists as they discussed their current experiments, and then rattle off suggestions. It didn’t hurt that he was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen, and watching him walk amongst the work stations was a treat. He’d even stopped by her station a few times that first month, before moving on without a word. She suspected he had found her experiments to be inconsequential; which they might have been on their own, if they hadn’t tied into the larger project she’d been assigned.

The top secret one that no one without a very specific clearance, not even Harrison, was allowed access to. Nearly an entire year of Molly’s blood, sweat, and tears.

Those inconsequential projects had been stepping stones for something far bigger.

While the others worked to identify applications and uses for the samples, Molly worked on finding a bio-agent that would bring the mysterious lifeform to its knees should Starfleet ever encounter another one. Her orders were to create something that would weaken the alien, and slow or temporarily stop its regenerative abilities, so that the creature could be more easily subdued (if necessary). Early testing indicated the alien shared large amounts of DNA with humans, which complicated matters considerably. She would need to create something specifically engineered to stop a powerful creature that was a distant relative of humans in its tracks, without risking the safety of the men and women of Starfleet (and the Federation as a whole).

Months after he’d begun his visits to the labs, Molly had looked up from her microscope to find Harrison watching her. His pale gaze had seemed to burn into her, as if he could read every emotion or thought that passed through her mind. She had blushed and blinked, and when her eyes opened again, he’s expression had transformed into a friendly smile that she had reflexively returned.

Soon enough, Harrison began to make a point of coming by her station whenever she was there during one of his rare visits (which wasn’t as often as before now that her main work was being conducted in a secure area). He’d ask about her project and then her day, her cat, the trip into work that day, what she’d chosen for lunch. The sort of small talk she would have assumed he abhorred.

Molly had thought, mistakenly it appeared, that they were becoming . . . something, friends at the very least.

Through months and months of light flirtation, unexpected meetings in the canteen, long conversations about the work going on in the labs, and one single perfect, passionate kiss after he had pulled her into a disused cupboard two day before the bombing . . . through all of that, Molly had never once mentioned or even hinted at her secret project or that she suspected that John Harrison was more than he appeared (if he wasn’t one of the infamous ‘mysterious’ lifeforms, she’d eat Anderson’s prized cactus).

Only an idiot would look back on all that and not put two and two together. He’d been using her to try to gain information, and once she was no longer useful he had condemned her to the same fate as everyone else at Section 31 without a second thought.

Fair enough, she hadn’t felt more than a brief twinge of guilt when Admiral Marcus himself appeared at her flat and asked if she’d be able to recreate the bio-agent she’d been close to perfecting at Section 31, and—more importantly—if she thought there was any way to make it lethal.

Which is how she currently found herself in the sickbay of the Vengeance, partnered with a man who took orders well enough but clearly had no clue what it was he was helping to synthesize.

Admiral Marcus had reassured her that her serum was only to be used as a last-ditch effort if all other attempts to apprehend and subdue Harrison failed.

She looked up from the terminal she’d been working at when the ship’s computer warned that the warp core had shut down and it had switched to the sickbay to auxiliary power. All non-life support systems would be temporarily shut down.

That was unexpected.

Molly saw her companion pull a phaser out of a drawer that should have only held medical supplies, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. He set the phaser to the side, but she noticed he kept at least half his attention trained on the door from that moment on.

Molly started when her terminal screen flickered as the ship’s full power was restored. In the list of executable medical programs was one that shared the same name as her cat, ‘Toby’. She was positive the program hadn’t been there before the power down. She cast a furtive look toward her Richards (who was, apparently, more comfortable holding a phaser than he had been running a centrifuge) and accessed the program.

A password request popped up.

She frowned.

The program was probably nothing, an inside joke left by the ship’s programmers.

Then again, hadn’t it been well known that John Harrison had been heavily involved in the design and programming of the Vengeance? If there was the smallest chance that the program wasn’t a joke, that it had been rigged to appear only if certain ship systems had been rebooted . . .

The entire idea was farfetched; but she still found herself searching her memory for anything that stood out, anything that Harrison might have expected her to remember and make note of.

There was one thing. They had been talking about Toby, Molly had told a story about when the feline had been a kitten and had managed to get into a bit of trouble. John had mentioned having a pet once. He’d only discussed it briefly, and then his face had clouded and he’d changed the subject as if the memory pained him.

What was its name?

“Redbeard.”

“Pardon, Doctor Hooper?”

Molly jerked and realized she must have spoken out loud. “Red blood. Cells. I think I’m going to need another look at the results from the last run on those blood cells.”

Richards nodded. “Do you need me to set anything up?”

“No, I can manage. Thanks.” She waited until he turned back to his station, then typed in ‘Redbeard’.

File after file sprang to life across her screen. Molly skimmed each just enough to get the general idea, then moved on to the next.

There were schematics for torpedo cases and cryotubes. A list of names, ages, and serial numbers. Page after page of technical information that Molly didn’t recognize. And a document with her name at the top.

“Molly,

If you’ve found this, it means the delay with the 7:15 train was sufficient to keep you out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, it also means that you have put yourself back into danger by boarding the Vengeance.

I need you to do one last thing for me, Molly. Somewhere in the galaxy, there are seventy-two souls who are sleeping in cryostasis. They are my crew, my family; and they have been taken from me by Admiral Marcus and his men. Everything I have done, I have done for them, to rescue my family from the hands of those who would use and destroy them.

Regardless of your feelings for me, I ask . . . no, I beg you to help them.

Do not trust Marcus.

Do not trust anyone.

Above all else, you must survive, Molly. My Molly.”

She stared at the screen and tried to process what she’d just read. Even without a signature, she knew who had written it.

What the hell had been going on in Section 31?

“Marcus thought something like this might happen.”

Molly turned just in time to catch the butt of the phaser against her cheek. As she hit the floor, she saw Richards frowning at the terminal screen. “Sickbay to the Bridge. Khan left a love note for the good doctor.”

Who the hell was Khan?

Marcus’ voice came across the comm. “Not important. Is the serum finished? Does it work?”

“Close enough.”

Richards stepped over her toward the carefully stored vials that contained the serum. Molly tried to reach out and grasp his ankle as he passed, hoping to pull him off balance, but he jerked free.

“We’ve got visitors. Khan and that idiot Kirk will be coming straight here, so I need you to bring it to the Bridge. Marcus out.”

Richards grabbed a hypospray and loaded it with the serum. “Nothing personal, Doctor. I wish I could say that the Admiral will be lenient on you, but we both know you aren’t going to make it home.”

“Neither are you.”

Both Molly and her assailant jerked at the sound of a third voice. Before Richards had a chance to turn toward the door, he was already down.

Molly looked up to see John, phaser in hand.

“Have you read it?”

She nodded, and cautiously stood up. “Parts of it.”

“And?” He stood tall and alert, and she thought she saw his fingers shift against the handgrip of the phaser.

“What do you need . . . Khan?”

Some of the tension seemed to melt away from his face and the hand holding the phaser lowered to his side. She wondered what he would have done if she hadn’t given him the answer he wanted.

“My crew is on the other ship. As soon as I’ve dealt with Marcus, they’ll be transferred to the Vengeance.”

Her mind had already begun making lists of what would need to be done to wake Kahn’s crew from their cryosleep. “I’ll prep the sickbay.”

He darted forward and wrapped his free hand around the back of her head to pull her into a kiss that stole her breath away. Almost immediately, he released her. “Kirk and the engineer will be looking for me. Secure yourself, things may get a little bumpy.”

And then he was gone.

Molly looked down at Richards’ stunned body, and quickly leaned down to snatch up his dropped phaser. After a second’s hesitation, she picked up the hypospray and tucked it into the pocket of her tunic.

Khan had told her himself.

Do not trust anyone; and above all else, Molly needed to survive.

#molly appreciation week #day 2: not on the side of angels #khanolly

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seulementpourlesamoureux · 7 years

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Reason I think WWIII projected start is probably about 2040-2050:

Effects of climate change will start reaching Europe and North America, and more of the world’s economic superpowers will be forced to deal with it. Right now, it flies under the radar because the most extreme effects are only visible in Subsaharan Africa and the countries lining those areas, and South/South-east Asian especially lower lying island countries, a few South American countries who’s main economy is based on things that is affected by climate change. BUT, but 2050, there’s a projected 15 million climate refugees and they will try to move to Europe and America. That’s when they’ll start giving a shit. rising tensions will create an environment for animosity to thrive between communities who are feeling the pressure of not having enough themselves but being forced to accomodate foreigners and foreigners who had no choice but to move and now feel like they have nothing else to lose.

It will get easier and easier to build technology such as computer viruses and actual (biological) viruses because of the light-speed scientific progress we’re making. In a heated political environment that involves multiple countries all with the ability to fund research and development, information that can be used for good (creating vaccines and helpful computer programming) could very well also be used for nefarious purposes; such as creating designer viruses to create bioweapons (granted we are very far from this and actually, the US has put in programs that would detect ppl who appear to be trying to make these things. But we don’t know if other countries have the same oversight. We don’t know if the US is doing this themselves or other countries’ govs might be creating their own bioweapons. Soviet Union for example, did create weaponized smallpox during the Cold War. If they could do it back then with limited technology, imagine how easy it would be now that we have sequenced the genome of so many things already.)

Subpoint: With everything being increasingly connected to the net, a similar thing could also be imagined for computer world. And it’s not so much, “shutting down the internet” that would be a problem. It would rather be, hijacking it for nefarious purposes. Maybe they steal everyone’s credit cards. Maybe they turn off the ability to do any banking procedures. Soon we have descended into chaos because nobody uses cash anymore. Economic collapse would be swift and devastating. (an internet friend referred me to the story of Stuxnet a few weeks ago and I never ended up reading it but with some serendipity, the whole story was outlined as one of the nightmare scenarios in the book that I clearly just finished reading and now I am low-key freaking out.)

I’ve mentioned rising sea levels and desertification so many times on this blog it’s become redundant. Ignoring the fact that countries that are not wealthy would not be able to put up the same measures that Netherlands and Germany has with dams and everything, even those areas would be vulnerable if economic pressures due to climate refugees forced people out of the poorer low-lying areas, cuz maintenance of the dams would suffer and eventually that would mean it would also become more vulnerable to terrorist attacks. One bomb on a dam is all it would take to unhinge the entire tiny country, because let’s be real if parts of the country would already be 10 ft under water twice a day right now without the dams, if the dams disappeared the effects would be sudden and irreplaceable.

All of these could happen further than 2050, for sure. I hope it is. I don’t wanna be alive through a world war that I personally experience. I’ve experienced war already and I am not keen on experiencing it on a scale where there will be no escaping. So why do I think it’s probably 2040-2050?

Here’s the thing. People have short memories. Generational memories are practically non-existent. Every second or third generation goes through a war and that’s been true as far back as I know my western history which is like, 1600′s (not very well, better with 1850-2000). But I know my Asian history. And aside from small wars that have always existed, isolated in an area, big wars happen every 80-100 years. Because that’s how long the longest human memory would last. Then the last person who remembers the war forgets. It becomes just stories. And we are bound to repeat history. I had hope that world wars were the exception. Maybe those two were sufficiently bad that we understood this is not something we are going to do again.

But the last survivors of the Holocaust have started to die off. By 2040, the youngest of the holocaust survivor’s children will have died off. The World Wars will become a story. None of us experienced it within our parents’ generation. So we will forget teh lessons it taught us, and we will repeat history. I can already see the starting patterns. You can see it if you look really close. Everything I outlined above, it’s already happened in smaller scales, and the mechanisms exist/are being put in place right now for it to happen again but much worse.

I hope I am dead by then. I don’t know that it’ll be worth it to live longer than 60.

#long depressing post #but I mentioned a few of the illuminating #and scary things #I learnt from the latest book I finished

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