#or constantly being surprised by theirself

[jesse-cosay]

We know that Lake hasn't been out of the mirror world for long, and as I've explained in older posts, their anatomy is different than a regular reflection or a flec.

"Wow, do you have special metal strength?"

"No, I just don't feel pain like you, with your squishy flesh."

So they make this statement early on, which, if you pay attention, just isn't true.

Lake easily picks Jesse up in the next episode. As well as picking up Mace, which is an accomplishment when you consider how much of the flecs is actually metal.

They also punch through a metal pod and crush a porter with their bare hands. All evidence points to the fact that Lake does have super metal strength.

So why bother claiming that they don't?

For the same reason that Lake walks straight into the water during The Map Car.

They don't realize that swimming and floating are things they can no longer do now that they aren't reflecting someone else.

Lake's only reference is the few weeks they've been out of the mirror world, as well as their time as a reflection. That's not a lot when the rules of the world shift around you.

They know they don't feel pain the same way, but they likely hadn't been in a situation yet/hadn't noticed that they do have super strength.

"How does that work?"

"I dunno, it's like- ugh. I-I dunno!"

Once we get to the Lucky Cat Car, Lake is comfortable enough with Jesse to admit that they don't understand how they work. They don't have all the answers, and it's just as confusing to them as it is to him.

[zerm2v0hg]

'Murder Drones' Finale - First-Second Thoughts and Impressions

So, the finale of Murder Drones came out three days ago, and I have some thoughts, opinions and reactions to it. (Some spoilers below if you haven't seen it yet.)

On the first viewing, I thought there was a bit too much humour and it felt a bit too forced in the early part of the episode, not so much in the later part.

Helluva dramatic entrance on V's part. On one hand, I'm rejoicing that V's alive, plus I do think that more than what we'd gotten by Episode 6 can still be done with her character (whether that's in a canon second season or solely in fanfic continuations). On the other hand, it does have the "undermines the impact of the death scene that they're not really dead" effect on Episode 6's ending.

I can imagine that quite a few people will be annoyed that J ultimately got the Jerk with a Heart of Jerk treatment and knowingly sold out to the Solver, but on the second viewing, seeing how she was obviously hurt by V's rejection and was icing it down when she said she never needed her or N, plus the reveal that J survived in the end credits, I think there's still enough room for a second season or fan continuations to do more with her character after Solver!Cyn's death. That having been said, I do feel a bit annoyed that the revelation of J's true loyalties got pushed this far back.

Now, one major problem I had with V and J's battle is that it was too fast-paced, and the dialogue too condensed and difficult to make out, to the point where it wasn't until I turned on the subtitles during my second viewing that I made out the reveal of J and V's deal with the Absolute Solver here.

Similarly, I was constantly confused on my first viewing by the red-eyed Sentinel going after Lizzie, Thad and Khan, as it made me question my initial assumption that the Sentinel had sided with V due to its malfunction and probably saved her from the other Sentinels at Episode 6's end. I think this and the above dialogue issues are areas where the episode's compressed runtime made the narrative viewing suffer. :P

I was really, really fearing for the heroes' lives several times throughout this episode. :)

I enjoyed Solver!Cyn being a quirky and expressive but absolute nightmare, and their final dance-off with Uzi, N and V.

I quite liked how Solver!Cyn made full use of the Mind Screw "which parts of that were real" element of the Solver's hologram trickery to make the title fight bewildering, keeping us constantly on our toes, unsure whether or not what we're seeing is actually Uzi being drawn into a vulnerable position by more illusions. And then there's Solver!Cyn's Shapeshifter Guilt Trip.

In most media where a shapeshifting/illusion-casting villain pulls a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip on the hero, Fourth Wall Myopia stops it from affecting the audience as much, and when the trope is done poorly, it even makes the hero look like an idiot for falling for it. But when Solver!Cyn turned into N mid-stab; with all the Mind Screw that the Solver's holograms perform, I was honestly questioning if Solver!Cyn really had used a hologram of theirself to "which parts of that were real"-trick Uzi into stabbing the real N. :O

Man, I was surprised by just how SATISFYING I found it when Uzi melted Solver!Cyn's core, considering how goofy that eldritch digi-Satan is. :)

I'm a bit frustrated by the questions that have been left unanswered as of the finale, like why the Absolute Solver is doing what they're doing with turning planets' cores into black holes, and the other planets besides Earth that it apparently destroyed before being spread to Copper 9 by the lab experiments. And... apparently, Copper 9 is suddenly back together in one piece at the episode's end, even though Solver!Cyn shattered it like an egg when she put a black hole in the core... ,:-S

I'm also not sure about the reveal of V's motivations with her deal with the Solver - to me, it doesn't seem to fit with V's interactions when she thought Solver!Uzi was the Solver back in Episode 4. (Granted, it's not the only thing that feels convoluted in the series, with all the post-pilot retcons concerning JCJenson/the Absolute Solver and also V's post-pilot characterisation change, but still.)

Now, that shot on Khan when he pulls his Big Damn Hero move:

Did anyone else, the first several times they saw this, instead of seeing a remote in Khan's hand, think they were seeing him using the Solver abilities, with the signature hand-gesture and with a monochrome [null] singularity in hand instead? It took me a while to realise that was the door remote from the pilot in his hand, with the black part standing out while the rest was accidentally camouflaged, and stop having these questions rattling around in my head: "Khan has Solver abilities too now?! What’s that about?? Do all worker drones have some kind of Solver abilities and that’s why the Solver wants to wipe them out?! Did Nori somehow transfer a fragment of her own Solver to Khan when they were together and they made Uzi?! Why didn't they explain this at the episode's end??!!"

"No-one traumatises these weirdly-hot robots but ME!" Uzi x N may have become canon (and TBH, I don't care for it, especially with the way canon has done it, and I felt it could've been completely left out of the episode without anything changing). But was Uzi's comment there hinting that GLITCH are seriously considering making N x Uzi x V canon in future? :3

I quite liked the series-bookend in the final pre-credits scene. :) Heh, Uzi's "and also now I can do THIS" moment showing off the inhuman powers and monstrous transformation she's gained when lampshading her narrative journey was so relatable. :3

Man, Doll's memorial in the end credits was humorous! :D (And I don't blame Uzi, N and V for not looking impressed with the whole thing after the stuff Doll did, not least to them, and when Doll had seemingly much more agency over her actions than N or Episode 4's Solver!Uzi did to boot. XD)

I think the finale could've done without that post-credits scene, especially while the chances of a second season are up in the air, or it could've at least recontextualised it to make it clear whether or not Cyn/the Solver/whatever's left of them inside Uzi is still evil at this point.

One last peeve I have is that Uzi overcoming the Solver's possession through the power of love "coodies"-mortification and a bitch-slap was one thing, but her suddenly being able to turn the tables and possess Solver!Cyn in the finale when she's barely had half an hour to recover from the climax of Episode 7 feels like it came out of nowhere with no foreshadowing. Though that one moment didn't seem to contribute to the plot except to establish why the Solver doesn't just body-jack Uzi again during the finale, so I'm willing to let this one go a bit.

[aestheticaxolotl]

Lets Talk About Mimebomb

I used two images here because both are priceless and I didn’t know which I wanted to use more.  Let me start with Mimebomb, using the Carmen Sandiego Wiki to break them (mimebomb is non binary fight me) down as a whole, starting with appearance and personality (Excluding the comments around his action in the show, please bear with me once more as I do this).

Mime Bomb is a thin, red-haired young man (*Cough*) who looks like a stereotypical mime. He (*They*) wears a grey and black striped shirt, black beret, white gloves, black spandex and black shoes. His (*Their*) makeup consists of white face paint, black face paint around the eyes and on the brows, and a light red shade of lipstick. 

So I wanna talk about Mimebomb without their makeup first. We see that they are not meant to be an attractive character, and I appreciate that Carmen Sandiego created characters like that. But I digress, red headed males are stereotypically either super hot or super not. And they really tried to go with super not. But failed because I love them anyway and so does most of the fandom. Now, the mime get up is a very strange choice to me, seeing as people are more scared of clowns than global warming, and mimes are very similar to clown, but I don’t think it’s a fear tactic. But more of a ‘hey even Mimes can be cool yall’. 

For personality we do not have a lot to go on as some of the other but we still have SOMETHING, I was forced to reference the books for this so please, if you have no read “Clue by Clue”, check it out.

Mime Bomb has been described as quiet by El Topo and weird by Tigress. Mime Bomb is seen as an opportunist, immediately tattling to V.I.L.E Faculty when witnessing Carmen stowing away on the graduate mission during her holdover year, and secretly hiding a rare stamp in Detective Chase Devineaux's coat when he was on to him. In the Clue by Clue novel, Mime Bomb is said to be skilled in symbiology and cryptanalysis according to Professor Maelstrom. He is also prone to avoiding fights or physical contact when possible. When fighting Sheena in the Who in the World is Carmen Sandiego novel, she easily beats him while he is distracted. When offered a helping hand to his feet by Black Sheep, he declines with a shrug and silent nod. In Clue by Clue, when Le Chèvre and Tigress are fighting Carmen, he stands off in the sidelines and shadowboxes rather than assisting.

Now, let us begin on what I have brought to the table.

Mime Bomb is seen as an opportunist

I have to begin by defining the term ‘Opportunistic’ using the Webster's Dictionary, Opportunistic meaning “exploiting chances offered by immediate circumstances without reference to a general plan or moral principle”. And dumbing it down for myself “They take what is best for theirself rather than the people around them.” Right, so. Mimebomb being opportunistic is CANON and shown MANY times. I will draw your attention to every time Mimebomb has turned Carmen or who ever into the Faculty for not following the rules. I would have loved to stated that this is a ‘teacher pet’ thing but I was surprised when I realized it wasn’t. The Faculty really doesn’t like Mimebomb and are very sarcastic towards them, constantly underestimating them and using them as the butt of the joke! And yet we see them completing missions successfully and with finesse, other messing up the mission they set up so carefully and thoughtfully.

Mime Bomb is said to be skilled in symbology and cryptanalysis

Cryptanalysis is the art or process of deciphering coded messages without being told the key. While Symbology is  the study or use of symbols. This is very telling. Mimebomb studying codes and symbols can allude to selective mutism or even mutism. Personally, I prefer the former, Selective mutism is a childhood disorder in which a child does not speak in some social situations although he or she is able to talk normally at other times. And this can form in adults too. But the implications that they let if form how they preformed in school/college? Amazing, they made a choice and stuck to it for SUCH a LONG time. That commitment is amazing. This is also useful to more historical based mission or where it may lead into hieroglyph or other symbols. I’m willing to wager that these talents are why DOCTOR BELLUM brought Mimebomb on the hunt for an artifact. Because they would know some of the writing and symbols.

He is also prone to avoiding fights or physical contact when possible

Mimebomb being physically weak is not an accidental detail. Far from it! I think addressing that a male character who is more brains than brawn is a detail that needs to be pushed, and as off as Mimebomb is, they are the perfect example of this. They are not masculine and are easily taken down by Young Blacksheep, Chase, and other characters. Mind you it’s halariauous but PLEASE- You are KILLING their JOINTS. I have a feeling the avoiding physical contact is a very... Self protecting action that I feel would have to be more touched on in a headcanon post rather than an analysis post. The best I can come up with is the speculation that Mimebomb refuses to let people become close to them.

When offered a helping hand to his feet by Black Sheep, he declines with a shrug and silent nod

This, this the most telling thing EVER.  Mimebomb refuses a helping hand. They do not work well with others and when they are offered help, the refuse it. They have a self serving bias. A self-serving bias is any cognitive or perceptual process that is distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem, or the tendency to perceive oneself in an overly favorable manner. It is the belief that individuals tend to ascribe success to their own abilities and efforts, but ascribe failure to external factors. When individuals reject the validity of negative feedback, focus on their strengths and achievements but overlook their faults and failures, or take more credit for their group's work than they give to other members, they are protecting their ego from threat and injury. Mimebomb protects themself at all cost, and that makes me wonder, why? Because they know that they can’t accept others help or their comforts. And they are fine with it. They are okay with being alone.

he stands off in the sidelines and shadowboxes rather than assisting.

I feel like this was originally supposed to be a one off joke rather than an actual trait or habit. But... If you know me by now, I can twist this on it’s head so fast, it’s not even funny. But I can’t here, I can’t except maybe they do this to encourage others? I think when they do work in a team, they do try their best to support who they are working with unless its an annoying slime ball like Neal the Eel (Not hating on Slimebomb, I just noticed they work better as comical enemies rather than a relationship, and i love that)

Now, there was no abilities category in the wiki, and I found this interesting, so i drew from the Trivia section of the page and found out... A lot really, that is interesting. But only one of them made and impression on me and it’s the one I want to focus on for a paragraph or two.

Mime Bomb is actually classified by A.C.M.E. as insane; given he is locked up with Maelstrom in a loony bin. considering he NEVER speaks (by choice), makes sense.

I’m going to take a second to define the term “Insane” using “Wikipedia” rather than a dictionary. “ Insanity, madness, and craziness are terms that describe a spectrum of individual and group behaviors that are characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns.” Hmm....What abnormal pattern are we looking at here. Selective Mutism. The mime outfit doesn’t help. I’ll make note that the official wiki says it’s choice that Mimebomb doesn’t speak, but doesn’t give us a reason why, speculation and theories are in store here and I will reference my V.I.L.E Operative headcanons.

In the end, Mimebomb was and still is one of my favorite characters in the whole freaking show. I enjoyed ever second of them on screen, every caper and ever wacky highjinx.  I’d watch the whole show again just to see them being the awesome character they are. As usual, requests are open and please! I love when requests come in! Stay tuned for the next one y’all!!

[writershapeholeonthedoor]

Alice Cullen x Emmett Cullen x Rosalie Hale Headcanons

The very first vision Alice had after being turned was of Rosalie and Emmett. They were hugged, sitting on a roof, eyes closed. It could be anywhere in the world. It could be any couple in the world. She had visions of them before, altough most of them were too blurred to see them correctly. This time she saw them clearly. Alice didn’t know who they were, but she felt like home;

When Alice finally joined the Cullen’s she was so focused in seeing both of them on person she almost forget to explain how she knew who they were;

For her annoyance, neither of them greeted her with open arms (“you keep forgeting you’re the only one who know things, darling” Jasper had telled her many times). Rosalie was suspicious of the short girl who appeared at their house stealling her brother's room (she later admited that seeing Edward living in the garage was the best year of her life so far);

Rosalie was more than just suspicious, though. She was confused. There was this girl who was like the female version of Emmett (a lot more noisy and hype and small and less gentle) and she was doing things to Rosalie. Emmett was her mate, so why did she shiver every time Alice smiled?;

Emmett was feeling guilty and scared. He felt like he was betraing Rosalie’s trust because of the thoughts he was having. She was his angel, how could he feel like that for anyone else?;

Emmett was the first one to realize his feelings towards Alice meant something more for them;

The day Rosalie decided to ask Carlisle was the happiest day to Alice. She couldn’t stop jumping around and kept humming random songs while doing it;

Carlisle was a little surprised, but still had an answer for Rosalie (he had all answers or knew where to look for them). “It’s really really rare, Rosalie. More rare than most of human deseases. I believe there’s only happened like five cases that the Volturi know of. We actually know one of them. I’m surprised you had to ask me to know the answer to your question.” Rosalie looked confused for a few seconds, before shaking her head slight. “The Denali’s sisters.” “Not sisters, my dear, mates.”;

So yeah, they were all mates. Alice waited patient (not so much, she broke five pencils while waiting) on her bedroom after Rosalie left Carlisle’s office. She heard her taking Emmett deep in the forest, but stayed behind;

Things were a little insane after that. Alice bought them a huge bed and moved to their room, redecorating the whole thing. Rosalie was exasperated to see her dresses pushed into a corner to release space to Alice’s wardrobe. Emmett didn’t mind that his clothes were in the hallway that week, actually he found it hilarious to go naked to find his pants and underwear (he always did it when Edward opened his own room door, just to shame him);

In the end they had to broke the wall and get the other room to be their closet. Rosalie and Alice went out to buy the things to separate and organize while Emmett was doing the dirty work with Esme’s supervision;

Well, it became one big closet. Rosalie and Alice shared clothes, shoes and acessories. To make them laught (more Rosalie since Alice already knew what would happen) Emmett would enter the closet and get out using one of their things, like a dress or a old shirt from Alice, saying that the amount of clothes was the high point of their relationship;

“See, I have much more options now!”

“Em, you’re going to ruin this dress.”

“Oh honey, don’t get here and rain on my parade. I look much more fabulous than you in this!”

Rosalie wouldn’t be able to stop herself from laughting. Sudently, all the three of them would be bursting in laughts;

They agreeded to decorate the room in a mix of all of their tastes (Alice almost cried when Emmett said he wanted a bear carpet);

Both Emmett and Alice would help Rosalie to deal with her feelings and get out of her shield. Rosalie think it’s easier to talk about feelings with Emmett, but following Alice around was freeing;

In the beginning they didn’t acted like a couple in public. Alice let them keep their couple story and pretended to date Jasper to avoid the flirting from humans. But at one school she lost control. Emmett was spending the week with the boys on a hunting trip, and this other guy thought it was his chance to get Rosalie on a date. He spent three days constantly asking her out (ignoring her glares and demands to step back) until on thursday he decided to put his dirty hands os her ass. Before he could, Alice was there pushing him away with force enought to crash him in the locker behind him, her other arm protective around Rosalie waist;

“You should not touch what dosen’t belong to you, boy.”

Emmett was back in less than two hours when Alice told him what happened. He broke the guy nose and received his suspention with a satisfied smile. No one touched any of his girls;

They spent a year living with the Denali’s after that. In Alaska they could just be theirselfs. Didn’t needed to go to school, weren’t the different couple in the house, could just be;

Emmett grabs the most pretty flowers he can find when he goes out hunting to make them bouquets. When Alice goes with him, they collect much more than usual so she can help him make a flower crown to Rosalie. The blonde thinks is ridiculous and romantic and cute. She never uses it inside the house, but keeps them all until the flowers die;

Emmett lets them put make up on him when they’re bored. He even asks them to teach him so they could do theirs. All family thinks is the most cute thing on world to see Rosalie sitting on a chair, Alice doing her hair while Emmett do her make up. Alice don’t let Emmett do her make up though, so he will do her hair;

Other cute situation: Emmett also learned how to do their nails. Once or twice a week, you could find them all sitting in the ground doing each other manicures. Alice has to admit he is really good at it. As a reward, they let him choose the nail polish color;

Alice makes sure Rosalie recieves every car magazine on the country and keep an eye to every car event happening in cloudy days. She also makes sure to always let Emmett know the new games he might like;

The family always decorate a big tree for Christimas, a tree they all get out to find. But they have they own tree in their room, a smaller one that Emmett cuts and brings so they can decorate together. Rosalie’s heart is always full of love when Emmett puts Alice on his shoulders so she can put the star on top;

Alice sits between Emmett’s legs when they play videogames. Rosalie is usually sitting behind them in the couch, running her hand trough Emmett’s hair watching them;

Alice and Rosalie goes shopping every week. Emmett transport their bags and make sure they don’t spent all of the Cullen money on their shopping trips. That’s it, until they take him to the games store and then they’re the one who have to control him;

Emmett and Alice once did that two parts costume. They were a cow. Rosalie spent the night pretending she didn’t know them;

Alice have to keep an eye on Emmett decisions because he dosen’t think much about consequences. Her job is to see his stupid ideas and then tell Rosalie so she can stop him from doing it (she dosen’t do it herself because she agrees with most of them);

Alice and Emmett tries to prank Rosalie but never can. Rosalie is always alert to their jokes, so she never uses the hair-drier before searching for flour and she absolutely dosen’t trust to enter their room when is too quiet (Emmett tries to scare her by jumping behind the door). But Rosalie can put quite a number of pranks on them (Alice dosen’t even have to pretend be surprised by them);

They have dates together or on pairs. Alice likes to take Rosalie to ice skating and to dace, while the blonde girl takes her to walks at the forests. When they all go out, they end up in the roof looking the stars and the moon;

Forehead kisses, noses kisses, kisses, kisses, kisses;

A lot of hugs. Hugs from Emmett, hugs from Alice. Hugs, hugs, hugs.