#if he can survive dino attacks without a drop going down the side

[tickle-bugs]

simply thinking about the group all hanging out and the chaos.... the tickle fights 👀

- ragnarok anon

SO TRUE LETS TALK THE CONFERENCE IS IN SESSION

Spoilers for seasons 1 & 2 of Ragnarök below!

- Thinking about Turid being like "you should hang out with your friends more!" and magne and laurits are like :| but it's too late Turid's using the Mom Voice and insisting they have a get together

- Magne suggests a sleepover and Laurits wants to flee the country, but it turns out to be the most painless so they go with it.

- They invite Oscar first because once you invite Oscar to something, everyone else kinda just shows up. (Continuing my rarepair agenda: Laurits would obviously invite the bf first <3)

- Magne specifically does Not want the Jutuls there for....obvious reasons.....but Gry won't go without Fjor and Saxa overheard Oscar talking about it so...guess who's on the guest list c:

- In the fix it au in my head, Isolde survives, and thus Isolde is also here <3

- Fjor and Saxa somehow arrive to the sleepover overdressed. Silk pjs, Gucci slippers, eyemasks, the works. Everyone teases them but also like. WHO is doing it like the Jutuls. No one.

- They all go buy an absurd amount of snacks from the grocery store in their pjs. All of them just giggling and running through the aisles stocking up on junk food.

- They settle in for movies (i like to picture them watching American movies and making fun of them because they're ridiculous). Jurassic Park ends up in the line-up and Saxa, Fjor, Magne, and Laurits literally almost out themselves in seconds by arguing about the accuracy/scariness of the dinos in the film

- At some point, someone (Oscar) just fuckin. WAPS magne with a pillow like pillow fight! lets go dude! and the living room erupts in chaos and feathers. the humans in the room are like c: fun bonding activity and the giants and gods, eyes blazing, are like ONLY ONE MAY SURVIVE chasing each other around and stuff. crazy kids <3

- like of COURSE this turns into a tickle fight and it's Isolde and Oscar's fault. Oscar thinks it's funny to poke Laurits in the side as he's about to land the killing pillow blow on Magne, and Saxa makes a noise that she would never EVER admit to when Isolde curiously scritches at her ribs. Instant bloodbath.

- Laurits and Saxa both share a Look and their respective humans are like WAIT NO and make a run for it. Magne grabs Isolde's ankle and scoops her up like >:) and Oscar trips over Fjor and Gry and suddenly they are very interested in his nervous laughter

- Fjor is so sweet tho like...Isolde is giggly and begging him to give away literally just one of Saxa's spots so she'll have a fighting chance and Fjor's like "I dunno. Sorry." but the look on his face tells another story.

- Laurits, who somehow fuckin just DISAPPEARED from the chaos, just appears next to Fjor like "what about your spots?" >:) and Gry is more than happy to show him. Fjor is sweating, then he's laughing, because Gry and Laurits was not the devastating tag team he expected, but together they are ruining him.

- with Fjor and Gry distracted, Oscar tries to sneak away, but Saxa's like 👁️👁️ and immediately grabs him. Oscar dramatically cries out to Magne for help but his hero is face down in the corpses of about ten pillows, cackling, and trying to shove Isolde's hands out from under his arms. No help for you Oscar </3

- When the big tickle fight eventually dies down, it keeps starting up again on smaller scales throughout the night. Oscar and Laurits constantly tickle each other, which means one of them flails, which means the person who got hit wants revenge, etc. Fjor and Gry are all cute and soft and at least three people are like EWWW and dogpile them. Magne and Laurits keep pestering each other. Saxa is MEAN and will randomly just attack people. Isolde and Oscar conspire to bother as many people as possible <3

- Hi pls picture Magne and Fjor looking at each other like >:( and they're having some sort of subtext argument, as usual, and Magne looks about ready to bop Fjor in the nose, but Oscar is like "NO FIGHTING" and everyone else agrees. But Fjor thinks it's like....kinda funny that he's so attached to human opinions, so he pesters Magne until Magne launches himself off the couch, tackles Fjor, and harnesses maximum big brother energy to just. tickle him to bits. It's kinda a fight if you squint but it's more Magne being VERY smug and Fjor reconsidering if a lack of oxygen can kill him

- HI idk if anyone else did this at sleepovers (i had like two total growing up so the metric is. hard) but!! nails!!! Oscar makes it a requirement that everyone leaves with their nails painted, yes, even Saxa. It turns out to be a sweet bonding activity until a) Laurits having ticklish hands becomes friendgroup knowledge because Oscar is a bully and b) when Gry insists that everyone's toenails should match and more tickly shenanigans inevitably ensue

- okay but Isolde pulling Saxa aside to a corner somewhere while everyone else is loudly complaining about the pedicure and being like "I can do yours, if you want. If you hate it--" and Saxa, not wanting to be left out, is like "Yes. Mhm. Do it." Which is fun and all until she can't stop laughing at the gentle touches on her feet and Isolde is laughing along with her, trying to align the red paint to some semblance of perfection on her toes. It doesn't work out very well.

- Middle of the night truth or dare/ouija board shenanigans with this group would be incredible. No further thoughts your honor <3

- Like to think Turid was in on this the whole time because Oscar and Turid would be besties. They have that energy. Oscar being like >:) im your mom's favorite and Laurits being like >:O MOTHER

- this is. very incoherent. so sorry about that thus far but ALSO Magnus doing his little electricity party trick and then realizing in a literal lightbulb moment that he could like. be using this to get an upper hand in the tickly shenanigans. Pls just give me Magne getting DESTROYED by Fjor or Laurits and then he just claws a hand into their stomach (Laurits) or flutters his fingers by their ear (fjor) and they just. Scream.

- AU where the friends are all aware of Laurits, Magne, Saxa, and Fjor not being human and that factors into the teasing. Just think Oscar, Isolde, and Gry would be beyond entertained if they knew the truth. Also entertainment for the night being like. Idk strength contests and arm wrestling and shit while all the humans are watching and placing bets. bench pressing your friends IS a category and Saxa and Magne are tied. Also give me like. Fjor or Magne lifting something heavy or another person or smth and Saxa is like :) and poke. poke. poke. poke. and they have to not drop what/whoever they're holding.

- head full brain scrampled egg <3 i missed these kiddos :')

[dreamthinkimagine]

Dinosaurs

WARNING: Predator/Prey relationship

WARNING: Mention of getting eaten

WARNING: Mention of possible death

For @the-spooky-lee because she was so patient with my last fic that took me thousands of years to write

The credits rolled on the screens of the three-sided computer in the break room. Spock stared at his screen, his mouth agape, cold, and his mind practically blank. His mind - Spock’s mind.

“I love that movie,” Jim said as he shut off the computer. “Is there a problem, Spock?” Spock had to shake his mind from it’s empty void to respond.

“No, Captain. The illogic displayed in the film is most illogical.”

“How?” Bones cut in.”If dinosaurs were still around, some of them would most certainly eat people! They were carnivores, we’re meat. It’s nature. How is that illogical?”

“I think I’ll return to my quarters.”

“Good night,” Kirk said as he watched Spock walk out the door.

“If I’d known sooner that dinosaurs freak him out, I would’ve brought them up a long time ago.”

“This is serious, Bones. I’m worried about Spock.”

“I know. And well...he gets on my nerves, but I’m worried too.”

“I shouldn’t have made him watch the movie.”

“Now don’t go blaming yourself. There’s no way you could’ve known he, of all people, would react like that.”

“There’s got to be a way to show him dinosaurs aren’t an issue.”

“Well, what do you think we should do about it?”

***

Illogical thoughts filled Spock’s head. Dinosaurs weren’t real. Just something for film...right? Heart pounding against his ribs, he stood from his bed. Holding his breath, he shuffled to the computer, keeping himself cloaked with his blanket and said, “Computer, search dinosaurs.”

Spock’s temperature dropped as he looked upon the photographs of fossils from the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex. Those powerful jaws and massive teeth that Spock knew without a shadow of an illogical doubt would be able to take his arm off in one bite. He shivered at the sight of the remains of a Brontosaurus. The size. The sheer size. What could have a fighting chance against it?

Everything changed when he laid eyes on the bones of a Spinosaurus skeleton.The skull that was as long as he was tall with what looked like pressure sensors - to feel where prey was instead of seeing. That tail perfect for propelling itself in the water. Powerful legs for the land. Once he was able to properly process claws on the end of its arms, he slammed the power button on his computer, breaking it.

Now it wasn’t just a story anymore. Dinosaurs had been real. Not even the Vulcan nerve pinch would be able to save him against these beasts.

“An asteroid,” Kirk said. He was so engulfed in thought, that he didn’t hear his door open. “65,000,000 years ago, an asteroid crashed into Earth and wiped out all the dinosaurs. They’re gone, Spock. They’re all gone.”

“So you can calm down now.”

“Why would you think that I am acting illogical,” Spock asked. “That assumption itself is quite illogical.”

“Well, for one you have that blanket wrapped around you; you green blooded -.”

“I was cold.”

“The power button on your computer screen is destroyed. Were you looking at dinosaurs?”

“That is irrelevant.”

“What about the fact that your lights are on? Is that ‘irrelevant’?”

“I needed them on to navigate my way to the computer.”

“You left as soon as the credits played, Spock.” Spock stood there before them in silence, trying to wrack his brain for a good excuse. Alas, there was none. “It’s alright, Spock. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”

“Now I’m a Doctor and not a psychologist, but maybe some role play would help. Let him know that dinosaurs are simply nothing to be afraid of.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe we could all act like the dinosaurs in the movie? I know it’s childish, but if he sees us do it, it might take his mind off the intensity of the movie.” Spock and Kirk stared at him in silence, expressions blank.

“...Interesting theory, Doctor.”

“It worked with Joanna when she was afraid of dinosaurs.” They still stared at him. “Or we could try something else.”

“Spock,” Kirk said. “An asteroid wiped them out, remember? There’s no way one can hurt you. I hate to say this, but, your fear is...illogical.”

“I am not afraid.”

“We were just over this, you - ”

“Bones.”

“Well if he keeps insisting that he’s not, I say we leave him here. We’re clearly wasting his time.”

“Perhaps that would best.”

“Agreed. Coming, Jim?”

“...Captain.” Jim heard and understood that through the low tone in Spock’s voice that he was being asked to leave. Jim rose and followed Bones out of the room without a word, leaving Spock to himself.

“Think he’s OK, Bones?”

“I don’t know, but he obviously doesn’t want our help right now.”

“We’ll try again tomorrow,”

“I’ll be there.”

***

The next day, Spock was able to keep his composure for all to see - all except Jim. He could read that half-Vulcan like a book and was easily able to see the subtle changes. How Spock's muscles were always braced. How he spent most of his time staring at one monitor. He knew he needed to do something and fast.

Jim spent his dinner in front of his computer screen searching for a documentary he had seen years before. Spock was a scientific mind, so he had to show him something scientific...right? As the computer played the first scene, Jim jumped out of his chair. He memorized the name and jetted down the hall to Sickbay. But on the way, he ran into Spock.

"Spock! I need you to come with me!" No time to get Bones now.

"Captain?" Kirk pulled him into the break room, and began talking to the computer. As Spock wondered what was happening, he suddenly saw a Spinosaurus on the screen and stared at it. Mind blank. The screen suddenly cut to an asteroid hurling through space, with Earth nowhere in sight. Kirk watched him for the whole documentary. And it didn't help; Spock hadn't even moved until the credits rolled. If the scientifically established fact that dinosaurs were extinct didn't mean anything to him, then it had to be something else. Kirk thought for a moment.

The Gorn. That thing looked like a dinosaur and Spock had seen it attack Kirk. Now it all made sense, Spock wasn’t so much afraid for himself as he was for his own Captain.

“Spock, you know we’re probably not going to have to fight a dinosaur?”

“...You must be prepared...Jim.”

“I don’t think I was prepared with the Gorn, but I came out okay.”

“Preparation increases one’s chances of survival. But even with that, survival is never guaranteed.” The next thing Kirk did caught Spock rather by surprise; he’d never expected Jim to place his arm around him.

“Hey, I’m not going anywhere. How about this, if I train a little more often, will you calm down?”

“I cannot calm down when there is no need to as I do not have your Earth emotions.”

“Of course, Mr. Spock,” he said and gave his side a squeeze, causing Spock to jump at the sensation. "You know, Spock, I'm not the only one who needs to be prepared for a fight." With that, he squeezed his side again, forcing Spock to jump. "Let's start now!" Suddenly Spock was under a vicious tickle attack with Kirk going rampant on his sides squeezing up and down, up and down. Spock jumped out of his trap and raised his arms up to his ribs, ready to defend himself. “C’mon, Spock,” he said. “I’m a James Tiberisaurus Rex. You’re a Spockosaurus, like the Spinosaurus in the documentary.”

Spock froze at the names.

“Spock, I can’t train to fight anything like a dinosaur without a dinosaur to fight.” Spock thought for a moment.

“Logical, Captain. Perhaps you could attempt to escape from this.” The “unemotional” response scared Jim, especially when Spock wrapped his arms around his ribs and pulled him closer. “Spinosaurus, unlike Tyrannosaurus Rex, used their claws to kill their prey.” With that, Spock started gently scraping his “claws” over the Captain’s ribs.

Bones was walking down the hall when he heard the screech and booming laughter. His curiosity getting the better of him, he made his way towards the break room. The door opened and he smirked victoriously. What he saw was a laughing Kirk with Spock digging into his belly and Kirk using his pointer and middle fingers on each hand, kind of like a T. Rex he noticed, to get at Spock’s underarms. He chuckled.

“Well, well, well,” Bones said, gaining their attention and putting a halt to their tickle fight. “I told you a little role play would work.” Kirk and Spock looked at each other.

“Look Spock, it’s a Boneseosaurus; like a Brontosaurus, except, this one’s ticklish.”

“Fascinating.” They each took a step forward and like the two carnivorous dinosaurs they were mimicking, worked together to take down the herbivore dino - the Spockosaurus pulled while the James Tiberisaurus Rex pushed at their prey. Once the Boneseosaurus was taken down, they relished in their feast.

“Wahahahahait,” Bones cried as Spock clawed at his stomach, and Kirk used his fingers to scratch his neck. After that, Kirk kept his promise to train more often and Spock found himself not fearing dinosaurs anymore. He even took up an interest in the prehistoric reptiles. And, while he never told anyone, he kept three small plastic ones hidden away in his Quarters only for him to see. A Brontosaurus, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a Spinosaurus.  

[arlingtonpark]

SNK 128 Review

Attack on Titan/Terminator crossover when?

The last two chapters were an inexplicable low point for the series. Quality storytelling zoomed by us and jumped right out the window.

It was like the opposite of how most fans viewed the early days of the series. In those days, the story was good, but the art was atrocious. Now the art is great, but the storytelling is atrocious.

Characters said things without explanation, events happened without explanation, there might have been a teleporting horse or two at some point. I don’t know, but it was bad.

Now, I’m happy to say this chapter is SNK back in full form. This was peak Attack on Titan.

…For good and ill.

Let’s start with the good.

One of the best things about this series is the action. The action is almost always great, and a big reason why is that Isayama isn’t afraid to go big.

There were lots of big moments in this fight sequence.

Mikasa crashing through the window, Armin shot full of bullets, Annie and Reiner, Kiyomi beating Floch’s ass. It all made for an exhilarating read.

Isayama also understands how to pace an action scene.

Unlike every other part of his story. This was an obligatory potshot sorry not sorry.

There’s a beat to the sequence. Big moments punctuate lengths of relatively calmer action.

Mikasa crashes through the window and saves everyone. Next big thing is Armin getting shot down, but in between the two moments is Mikasa and everyone fleeing the thunder spears. It’s something of a reprieve between major plot beats.

There are reprieves like that between all the major moments. Isayama is inexplicably uneven with applying these principles to the whole story, but he typically does it well in action sequences.

See: the last two chapters.

Relatedly, another great thing about the chapter is the stakes. This is also to do with the pacing.

There’s a great escalation to this chapter.

Armin and Connie try to trick Floch because they want to avoid a fight, Floch doesn’t take it, Kiyomi fights back unexpectedly, Mikasa steps in, they flee for their lives, Armin is taken out, Annie and Reiner step in with their titans, and Connie kills in cold blood.

The stakes get higher and higher. That’s what good pacing looks like.

And on a more macro scale, we get an update on Eren’s progress and it’s worse than we thought. He’s already reached the mainland. Millions are probably dead.

That’s a big thing to drop on us just before a make or break action sequence.

Stakes have been risen.

Ok, now for the bad.

First off, Magath.

I mean, he’s saying things that make sense, but you can’t just have a character do a 180 with no build up.

Magath is talking like he’s thought a lot about this. Sure would have been nice to see some of that thinking.

The fatal flaw for this chapter is that it’s just a retread of the Uprising arc. All this action is cool and well done, but at base, it’s all stuff we’ve seen before.

Once again, we’re faced with a brother vs brother kind of conflict. People who should be comrades in arms are forced to turn their arms against each other. The only difference is that this time the government our heroes rebel against is a bit too in love with fighting for survival.

This could have been an interesting contrast. Attack on Titan has usually been emphatically supportive of fighting for survival. The OG Uprising happened because the government refused to fight and the Survey Corps decided they had to overthrow them.

This time, the government is so in love with fighting that death means nothing to them. Floch kills people just for talking back to him. I’m sure he’ll gladly die if he thought it’d help his race.

This was a great opportunity for the series to explore a new angle on its usual themes.

To some extent, the series has already touched upon this. That’s why Eren is a 3000 lbs. dino-titan right now. He took the SNK mantra too close to heart; now he’s a lumbering monstrosity bearing down on innocent lives.

So put this down as a missed opportunity to expand on that.

Instead of that, this chapter is spinning its thematic wheels, stuck in Uprising-era thinking.

“O, woe is me, must I really turn thine arms on my fellow countrymen? Must the world be so cruel?”

That is the conflict of this chapter in a nutshell.

Totally a retread of the Uprising arc.

The final scene, where Connie has to kill a compatriot in order to save Armin’s life, is exactly the same as the scene in Uprising where Armin had to kill the soldier threatening Jean.

Same setup. The killer, Armin in Uprising and Connie in this arc, has expressed reservations about harming his compatriots even to achieve his goals.

That person finds themselves in a situation where the life of a comrade is threatened by a compatriot.

They have no choice but to take a gun and shoot the compatriot in the head, killing them in cold blood.

The moral is the same too: sometimes, you have to kill to survive.

The character writing suffers because of this.

For some reason, Isayama decided be wanted to make the exact same point again, but he didn’t want to put any fresh spin on it.

Thus we are served with the absolute disservice of Jean, Connie, Armin, and Mikasa forgetting the Uprising Arc ever happened, and the lessons they learned from it.

Their experiences from Uprising are directly and obviously applicable to this current situation, but it never occurs to them. It’s honestly stupid of them.

That’s a problem with Isayama. It’s really hard for him to present a viewpoint genuinely opposed to his own in good faith.

There is no debate in this manga. Characters disagree sometimes, but one side is always obviously wrong and one side is always obviously right, and you can tell because the wrong side is always struck silent when confronted by the right side’s #truth.

I get that the point is that they don’t want to kill their compatriots, but still, Jean, Connie, Armin, and Mikasa…are adults, right?

They should be able to articulate a strategic vision that doesn’t entail killing people, even if it’s just to avoid doing something they don’t want to do, shouldn’t they?

In fact, I’ll do that right now.

“We want to be at full strength when we face Eren, so we should avoid a fight at all costs.”

I came up with that on the fly! -flexes-

When Reiner tells them to just hang back and let the warriors fight, Connie rightfully points out they’re basically being infantilized, so I guess that Isayama’s point is that they are being childish, but still, their characters should be past that point.

(Mikasa gets points, though, for coming closest to a smart rationalization.)

The strongest example of this character regression is Connie’s outburst. Connie is pressed on avoiding a fight and he explodes on them.

“You know we’re here in order to save people, right?! So, why are you making it sound like we’re going to have to slaughter all these people on the island?! How did it turn into this?!”

Da fuck is he talking about?

How, indeed.

No one is talking about slaughtering everyone on the island. Where is this even coming from?

Well, maybe that’s the point. Isayama, flawed writer that he is, can only think of Connie’s reluctance to kill his compatriots as deranged, so he’s having Connie talk like a deranged man.

Yeah, that would make sense, if only…

Annie: You’re right.

No, he’s not! What are you doing!?

Look, maybe I just have the wrong perspective on this, but I think Annie is completely fucking wrong.

It’s true the warriors are the only ones with a personal stake in this. They’re fighting for their homeland’s survival; the 104th is not. So she’s right, the warriors have no right to make them kill their fellow countrymen.

But that lack of a right goes deeper than that. The warriors have to right to force the 104th to help them at all.

And you know what that means?

It means no one is forcing the 104th to be here.

The warriors can’t ask them to fight their compatriots because more broadly they can’t ask them to fight Eren. They chose to stand against Eren anyway.

Choosing to fight Eren very clearly extends to fighting his pissant lackeys.

The warriors cannot ask them to fight the Yeagerists because that is an extension of not being able to ask them to fight Eren. Naturally, them choosing to fight Eren means they’ve chosen to fight the pro-Eren Yeagerists.

So, ok, our heroes are forced to dirty their hands, and the series wants us to think about why that is. Why did it have to come to violence?

K, I’ll bite. Let’s think about this.

Let’s dive in deep on this. Why does this violence keep happening?

And don’t say it’s because of the cycle of violence Isayama talks about.

I’m talking even deeper than that.

Why does the cycle happen in the first place? And what perpetuates it?

It happens because people always forget the past. They don’t remember history.

Ok. And why don’t they remember?

They don’t remember because of a complex web of factors, some personal and others structural.

Think about it this way:

Right now, brothers are killing brothers. Why? To get an answer, why don’t we look at another time when brother killed brother.

In the 1860s, a war was fought in the United States. Many states tried to destroy the country to preserve their fundamentally racist way of life.

Brother killing brother. Why did it have to come to that?

I think Abraham Lincoln said it best.

“On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago [1861] all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”

This is from a speech he gave in 1865, a month and a half before his death, and a few weeks before the end of the war.

The war happened for structural reasons and personal ones.

For both sides, war was acceptable as a means to an end because of the incentives of the moment. The situation was structured to make war an option.

At the same time, there were personal factors involved. It’s not that the war would have happened no matter what personalities were involved. Indeed, the right man at the right time can make a big difference.

Why did Connie and Samuel have to fight?

Part of it is because there’re hotheads like Floch calling the shots.

Floch is the absolute worst man for this moment.

But so far, this has been purely descriptive. Ethically speaking, one side is clearly in the right.

Lincoln nailed it in his speech:

“Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”

One side countenances war, while the other merely tolerates it.

So why do you think this had to happen?

I’ll tell you what not to think.

“Violence is one thing you can’t take from humanity.”

Thinking about it in terms of violence and being violent, as Yelena does, is lazy.

There are reasons why the world is cruel, but that’s actually a good thing, because if the world is so cruel for a reason, that means we can change the world and make it less cruel.

And that, if you squint really hard, is another theme of Attack on Titan.

[aion-rsa]

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous – A Parents’ Guide

https://ift.tt/3iW8hT3

The following contains spoilers for Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

The Jurassic World franchise is known for its PG-13 level of violence and thrill-factor, but Camp Cretaceous seems aimed for a younger audience, as evidenced by the PG rating and the current McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys. But is it right for your kids? From one parent to another, here are the things I noticed that might be triggers for your kids, as well as my experience watching the season with both of mine.

What Will Appeal to Kids

Let’s start with the good. This show is full of dinosaurs, and the animators clearly enjoyed luxuriating on the sheer awesomeness that these prehistoric titans embody. The campers get to ride among them in gyrospheres—the see-through, ball-like vehicles that are possibly the coolest conceit of the franchise—and zipline past the necks of the tallest sauropods. While in an underground kayaking river, they see bioluminescent parasaurolophuses. Several of the campers are present when a baby ankylosaurus hatches from an egg (which is a little heart melting, even for the most cynical viewer).

The cast of campers is largely likeable, and while viewers might not identify with all of them, there’s likely to be at least one member of the cast who they empathize with. Dino Nerd Darius, the first camper viewers meet, is an excellent viewpoint character for watchers who are entering this world, especially those who are as excited about dinosaurs as he is. In a familiar trope, the campers overcome their differences to work together as a team—and become friends. The trope is familiar because it works; we’re rooting for these scrappy underdogs to make it off the island and get back home.

The Cliffhangers

But it’s important to know that season one does not end with a conclusion to the story. Spoiler: The kids do not make it off the island. They’ve been abandoned by the adults and left to fend for themselves, because despite their best efforts, they miss the last ferry.

Despite this uncertain fate, the season finale does feel like it wraps up the larger arc of the season. It closes with assurances that the campers believe they’re going to make it, that adults are determined to come back for them, and that a missing camper survived (more on that below). The season certainly feels finished, even if the story is left completely open-ended.

But while the season finale isn’t a true cliffhanger, a large chunk of the episodes are. This is not a one-a-night before-bed TV show. This is a show that’s designed for binge watching. Episodes 2 and 4 end at relatively safe places, where the action isn’t imminent, but those are about the only two that offer a decent pause. If you’re planning to watch this as a family, leave more time than you think you need. (Parents like me will be just as eager as their kids to see what happens next!)

The Jump Scare

In the tradition of Jurassic Park movies starting with the very first one, Camp Cretaceous relies heavily on the adrenaline pumping of the jump scare. The opening scene of the first episode places viewers in a first-person video game perspective as Darius plays the official Jurassic World game—something not revealed to the viewer until a T-Rex’s jaws come closing down to black out the screen, just before a “Game Over” symbol.

There are plenty of moments throughout the series where the main characters think they’re safe, and danger appears out of nowhere, threatening everything. Sometimes the viewers share the sudden revelation of danger—that surprising shock of teeth and claws right at the forefront of the screen. Some kids thrive on this type of action; mine (five and ten) ended up attached to one arm on each side as we binge watched the last four episodes. Compared to superhero action, where the impact always affects someone else, Camp Cretaceous’s intensity comes from putting the viewer right at the center of the action.

Death

It should be no surprise to anyone familiar with the franchise that people get eaten by dinosaurs in Camp Cretaceous. The animation is handled very delicately. Viewers never see any of the details of the fates of these usually unnamed park employees. The one named adult who is eaten, Eddie, has just stolen a vehicle from the campers, which is likely to make viewers feel substantially less sorry for him. His scene is fairly dramatic: viewers watch him try to escape from the Indominus rex, who ultimately prevails in getting a human meal, and his screams, though quiet and faraway, are certainly audible.

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How Camp Cretaceous Connects to the Jurassic World Canon

By Jennifer Lee Rossman

But it’s not just seeing people get eaten, or knowing that the kids are finding what’s left of those who were attacked, that makes death loom large over the series. Much of Darius’s motivation comes from losing his father to an illness. The pair had promised to visit Jurassic World together, until Darius’s father’s sickness got the better of him. In one of the most touching episodes in the season, viewers see Darius’s father in his hospital bed, fighting for his life—but losing. Viewers don’t see his death, but Darius’s loss feels palpable. We needed a box of tissues to deal with those scenes, but for kids who fear losing parents to illness—particularly in the midst of a worldwide pandemic—it’s important parents are ready for those scenes going in.

There’s also the tease of the death of one of the campers. In the last episode, camper Ben plummets from a monorail into the jungle below, his fate unknown to the other campers. By this point in the series, the campers have survived a number of long falls before this—zip lines are supposed to be one of the fun features of the camp, but when the campers are using one to escape the Indominus rex, the fun gives way to fear. In one episode, Camper Yaz jury rigs a zip line to evade a leaping Mosasaurus in a horror version of a Sea World aquarium. So it’s not a certain thing that Ben died in the fall—and the fact that the campers choose to continue their escape without looking for him is one of the big, ethical moments in the series, where the kids choose the chance that the five of them will survive over the likelihood that, if they search for Ben, all six of them could die.

Ultimately, Ben survives; his fingers twitching as his companion dinosaur discovers him are the last things viewers see in season one. But that moral question has no easy answer, and sometimes it’s those bigger questions that challenge younger viewers, even more than the scary parts.

Romance 

There’s no explicit romance in season one, which is more focused on friendship than other teen drama. Kenji, the oldest and richest of the campers, makes several comments about impressing girls, and once claims to describe himself as a “tall hot drink,” a comment met with groans and one, “Gross.” (Brooklynn, a social media star who has a deep love for her espresso machine, tells Kenji, “You could never be coffee.”)

One close friendship does develop between two girls, and while fans of other Dreamworks shows like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power may start shipping them, budding romance at this point is only wishful thinking.

My Family’s Takeaway

All kids are different. My ten year old found the intensity and the jump scares much more upsetting than my five year old, who was all about the cool dinosaurs. Both relied on me to assure them that things were going to be all right at the end, which was a bit of a leap of faith on my part, since I was also watching the series for the first time. Thankfully, Dreamworks did not let me down: all the kids made it out alive, and if all of us dropped our jaws that the kids actually failed to get off the island, it just whet our appetites for a second season.

Some kids, especially those who have watched other parts of this franchise, will handle the show’s intensity like champs. There’s almost no gore (the kids get dirty, but I can’t recall seeing any blood in the entire first season), which makes it slightly tamer than the cinematic parts of the franchise. The trailer is a good indication of the tone of the show, giving examples of how the music heightens the tension, and how danger lurks around every corner. If you’re still not sure, the first episode makes good use of all of those elements, and while the stakes are absolutely higher as the season goes on, if you think your kids can handle the first episode, they’ll probably be fine for the whole season.

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That said, I’m really glad my kids didn’t watch the show on their own. We’ve had no nightmares, but I think that’s in part because they watched it with a parent, who could help them feel safe in spite of the intensity. As it turned out, watching it with them really enhanced my experience as well. My vote? Make this a family night watch and share in the awe and wonder of dinosaurs together.

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