#peter ⋆˙⊹ personhood & visuals

[strangewonderful]

tag drop pt 3!

[rmbunnie]

Watched GOTG3 on friday! Here are some of my personal thoughts (spoilers obvs):

- I really liked it, first of all. To be honest, Rocket is my fave of the group alongside Nebula. I just think they’re neat, and I like characters that cause drama. If there’s no personality traits that are a little abrasive and offputting, then i’m not saying that’s a flaw, but perhaps i am saying its a bit of a missed opportunity. This is probably one of the reasons I am still interested in GOTG when most of the mcu is a bit worn out to me, there’s this neat focus on why they’re acting the way they are and letting their reasoning steer the story to a good extent rather than using it like an add-on (especially if the way they’re acting is flat out dickish,) and I think that’s a fun approach. All this to say, Rocket is one of my faves, and so a movie largely focused around his character is pretty interesting to me by default.

- The hallway fight was great. Loved it no notes a plus.

- I really liked the tardigrade suits on the tech planet-meteor-lab thing! They looked weird and offputting, don’t get me wrong, but space suits that are visually inspired by the creature that can naturally survive the void of space, boiling temperatures, and so much else are REALLY well-suited (haha) to the organic planet founded by the man who uses existing creatures as the bases of his "creations.” I can absolutely picture the High Evolutionary learning about a tardigrade and being like “hell yeah i just came up with a GREAT and original idea”

- I also liked the organic planet. Very cool the meat was so gross and the eye motif was fun.

- I have mixed thoughts on Adam Warlock, but mainly positive. I think that with the amount of things that were happening in the movie some of the scenes that were necessary for his development made the runtime drag a little and lose some momentum, but I’d rather have them than not have them. He was funny, and the creation of Adam posing at the end was both fun, cool to look at, and kinda something to think about, seeing as he was the one taking the place of god, but he is also the one named Adam. Maybe the idea there was that the first good act he does is the birth of his own humanity, as in existence as a person or as anything more than a passive invention? Or maybe they just thought it would be fun haha. Regardless, the idea of the divine being the one who can gain something through contact with the human is a sentiment that fits in the movie about the dude who plays god via animal cruelty but lacks what his "lesser” creations have and can never get it due to his failure to recognize their personhood idk.

-The ending is how it should have been imo. I know it’s so so sad to see a found family leave each other and it bums us out, and I am bummed out best believe but particularly in the case of Peter, Drax, and Mantis, it seems like what the movie was going for (if you’re taking the latter two’s writing as anything past comic relief which, like, of course I am) is that being in the Guardians was keeping them from evolving into the people that they were meant to grow into, and stunting their potential. Again, very relevant with the High Evolutionary, evolving people against their will isn’t right but remaining frozen in time isn’t natural. It was nice to see them get unstuck.

- Speaking of evolution and the characters, Gamora seemed like she had a little divergent character evolution thing going on, with 2014 as her sorta common ancestor. The ravagers seemed a little out of nowhere but not the the extent that it was unbelievable. “I bet we were fun” was really sweet. It’s nice to see her gain some of the things that she had before the time travel death bullshit personality-wise, the idea that she would always end up kinder and happier when she was free of Thanos (who i hate btw, not even as a character although that too, there was just NOTHING interesting done with him the whole goddamn franchise) than when she was with him is not something it takes a genius to figure out, but it’s still good to see. It’s also worth considering that original Gamora had to choose to be free of Thanos everyday and work with the consequences of his actions while 2014 Gamora was brought into a world where Thanos was gone regardless of her feelings or actions. This is kinda explored in the movie, and neither Gamora is bad, but I feel like its very important characterization-wise to understand that she didn’t fight to leave and struggle in doing so the same way original Gamora did, and so their worldviews are different, too, not only their experiences. To original Gamora the Guardians were fundamental to her indepence, without Peter she wouldn’t have gotten the orb so easily and without Rocket and Groot she might not have survived the Kyln. To 2014 Gamora, Thanos is out of the way and now these other people are kinda just here.

- Gamora dying in Infinity War or Endgame or whichever it fucking was was bullshit and i won’t debate on that but it is funny to see the directors of the mcu doing the exact same thing comic writers have been doing forever coordination-wise. Trying to work with the absolute trash that’s going on in the concurrently-running title is a comic struggle that transcends medium. GOTG did pretty well with it.

- I loved the High Evolutionary! Of course, not as a person, he’s the worst, but he was consistently really interesting to watch and his actor did a really really good job with him! The religious-type traits were really interesting, and specifically his bit with the opera song and music and how he valued literature and art was really interesting and not to be too jojo in marvel but it kinda gave me Dio or Pucci vibes. That’s the type of weirdass tangent one of them would say (specifically their convos with each other or the Pucci Hallelujah moment.) Everyone has already said more than i could say about his weird evolution-genetics shit but it remains weird. 

- “There is no god, thats why i stepped in!!1!” and the bit wheres he’s scrambling to the cage where Rocket is to find out how he knew the filtration system thing were two particular highlights of his character for me. He is messy and emotional and all over the place, and he thinks he is perfection incarnate. His emotional outbursts add humor and are a big part of what makes him interesting and fun to watch, but he would ridicule them in any other being. This is proof that the High Evolutionary is a hypocrite with poor taste.

- Ayesha dead. She was a bitch but she slayed. she will be missed, for the comedy of those fucking gold lenses was a highlight of GOTG2 for me.

- Rocket is a creep. Rocket is a weirdo. What the hell is he doing here. The Radiohead singalong in the beginning was so fun. I loved it so much, genuinely. 

- Lylla, Teefs and Floor were. so much. Everyone says they’re sad, and of course they are, but the whole thing was offputting too. Not as in like “oh they’re so gross” the vibe was just horrifying and sorta nightmarish because it’s not like you think they’re gonna make it out, you see Rocket in GOTG the first and you know there’s absolutely nobody with him but Groot. The scream was, a lot, and very well voiced, I guess? It seems weird to say, it’s not like, oh wow cinema i loved the part where his friends died and he screamed as he watched them get shot in his face but i felt my stomach drop in that theater even though i fully knew it was coming so i guess what i’m saying is mission accomplished you did the thing the way the thing was meant to be and it gave me bone nausea.

- Also it has been pointed out before it is not original thought of mine but the cage death scream vs the dance party scream. I’m thinking about that. Similarly in the sense that i’ve seen it mentioned but I keep thinking about it, the Dog Days are Over was quite a choice, seeing the zune scroll to the most recent decade it has was, bittersweet, or cathartic i guess? They can finally just move through time, they get to be growing people again now. I love the Dog Days are Over. I love Florence.

- On the Lylla topic, everyone’s been saying this sad quote made them sad or that sad quote bummed them out but the thing that got me most was “We were right. The sky is beautiful, and it is forever.” in the final dream sequence. Idk why that one particularly got me like that, heaven and the sky as a pair is a pretty common concept, eternity is just hefty I guess. Compared to the cage though, I’m glad they get such a nice place to be.

- We got “vocabulistics” and now we have “emotionallistic problems.” In GOTG 1 I could give him the plausible deniability of smushing together “linguistics” and “vocabulary” but no, Rocket just likes putting “ballistics” inside words. As is his prerogative. 

- I like how weird and retro some of the sci-fi elements are. The movie isn’t just a rehashing of older sci-fi concepts of course, it implements the retro elements interestingly and makes them fresh, but mad scientist experiments and unnatural experiment beings in a slightly more horror/negative approach is like RETRO retro sci-fi, like heavy book Frankenstein original first-ever sci-fi, so it was interesting to see past sci-fi incorporated into story elements in addition to world aesthetics and soundtracks like we’ve already seen. It’s nothing new to say GOTG has a bit of a 70s vibe just as a franchise, which I absolutely adore, but particularly counter-earth has a kinda “wouldn’t it be fucked up if that happened” vibe to it that I think is really fun. We got meat planet. We got animal planet. Lets go. This is peak fiction.

- Speaking of GOTG being retro-esque this trilogy LOOOVES that fucking yellow slime. Every movie there is a prominent yellow slime feature, it’s the most consistent character in the mcu. Did they accidentally order too much on movie 1 and save the rest for later? It kills me. 

-Speaking of, it’s very funny to me that they end up living on Knowhere. Like in the grand scheme of things. They did well with it, they have lovely homes with nice tables and blankets and lamps and such but like. Imagine you break out of jail and you go to kill time at some shady weirdo planet because the guy who wants to buy your orb is there, and the guy who wants to buy your orb is also Spongebob. You call up the guy who killed your family while you’re there and he stabs you and throws you into the yellow goo to die. The weird guy you’re stuck with breaks down and gets in a fight with you and threatens to shoot you in the face after doing this weird venty monologue that you don’t get at all. This is all one night. Nine years pass and you’re besties and you live there. The goo vat you got thrown in is probably like two blocks away because the planet is kinda small. Idk it just doesn’t seem like that would give homey vibes to me but they made it work and i commend that!

- Overall it was a good movie. I definitely have some thoughts that I’m missing but the thing about situations like that is that I can’t remember them. I will be bummed that the trilogy has ended but things end and this is life. Oh well. It ended well.

- Oh one more thing but the High Evolutionary ultimately lacking creativity was really interesting. All he can ever do is use bits and pieces of things that already exist so he can’t ever achieve what he would consider true perfection, because he can’t appreciate anything that exists due to its inherent and unavoidable flawed nature, and since his “inventions” are based only on preexisting stuff the flaws aren’t going anywhere. When he does come up with something worthwhile he effectively discards it because he doesn’t understand what makes it special, he just knows that it has something that he doesn’t and he’ll destroy it and eventually ruin what was good about it in the first place in the pursuit of replication, so if he ever did achieve perfection he wouldn’t even be able to do anything with it. The one thing he makes that he values, the only thing he can think to do is copy it and ruin it. His mindset won’t allow ingenuity because his pursuit of something without flaws can only ever be informed of traits he’s already seen in flawed beings. He owes everything he ever did accomplish to the flawed. If he wants something perfect so bad he should have at least tried to start from scratch (it would have been a move of immense hubris but obviously he’s not above that) but he can’t, because not only is he uncreative but like Rocket points out, he doesn’t even want perfection, he just hates everything the way it is. 

[skyeventide]

Okay so for a Tolkien character Míriel and for other fandom I'm vaguely aware you used to write frev things, i THINK. So uhhh Marat. I am so sorry. Yes I chose Marat because his name starts with M also.

okay let's do both starting with miriel

How I feel about this character

I like her! there's a lot of little details about her that are great, and for however much I might mourn that her narrative story is cut so short, there's something I find very interesting in the fact that you can make a very solid argument for post-natal depression as part of her story. she's a pretty harrowing look into matters of mental illness in elves and in valinor as well, as well as one of those mother characters in the legendarium that imo inherit something from Tolkien's own mother (and his mother's death, as well). cool, 10/10, I dig her.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I'm gonna be big boring and say Finwe (and I do actually ship it), but also Indis if you spin it right, and Finwe/Indis/Miriel? the poly three-way is something I would like to read, or even write, but it's hard to do it in a way that I find satisfactory, primarily because some of the pivotal metaphysical conflicts of the laws and customs are centered around them and solving those is harder than simply working through interpersonal relationships. a challenge for another time.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Vaire and Nienna are up there, then if we are counting the obvious familial relationships also Feanor, and the platonic Indis relationship is also interesting.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I'm not sure I have any opinion that can be considered unpopular? I don't think there's any discourse around her that would warrant the definition. I have some strictly in-universe thoughts that I would like to loudly share with people of Arda who seem beyond incapable of letting this woman choose and keep the names she wants and her personhood seemingly co-opted for this and then that; and that's like, beyond the Therinde/Serinde thing, though of course it's related, but I'm referring to the Fíriel name primarily, which? "the one who died"? come tf on guys. but like I said, that's a bone to pick with the elves, not really an opinion per se.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

okay, hear this. she returns to life after Finwe's death, but before the kinslaying at Alqualonde, and leaves Vaire's halls. a story I want to read.

and now Marat under the cut

How I feel about this character

okay I should specify that I never wrote FRev, only read a lot about it, gobbled down other media, and read historical accounts, so it's a little hard to talk about how I feel about Marat as a character while restraining myself from like, tryna distinguish between the historical Marat, the reception of Marat in later literature, and the hmmm propaganda of Marat in his favour or against him. thorny issue. so I'll pick one thing: it's fascinating how the sanctification of Marat specifically happened through the visuals of Jacques Louis-David, whose knowledge of historical sources is ample and evident if you know where to look. I'm talking specifically about the position of his arm in the very famous painting. google any deposition of Christ and you'll see the exact same arm position, sooo how's that for religious symbolism in a secular icon

All the people I ship romantically with this character

uhhh probably Simonne Evrard, his wife. I've seen and read some plays where there's some wild writing of sexual tension via blade-penetration with Charlotte Corday (notable the Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, no that's not a ship name it's how the play is shortened) but like, I enjoy it solely for how unhinged it is.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

France

My unpopular opinion about this character

the leopard print of his lapels is incredibly fashionable actually. also, he's not always as extreme as some detractors painted him if you go and read his actual positions and their development.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

heh, good enough health to keep going coulda been cool.

[ernmark]

Juno Steel and the Time Gone By (part 1) reaction

Here there be spoilers.

If you haven’t listened to the episode, I highly recommend you check the trigger warnings before you do. There’s some disturbing stuff in this one, visually and thematically.

First of all, I’m super stoked that it came out a day early, so jot that down.

I have a love/hate relationship with Clippy!THEIA, particularly Juno punching his own face just to get back at it. If that ain’t our lady in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.

Juno said “Do whatever you want, just save my life.” Are they still active? Is that how the THEIA was able to identify Juno’s location as being a peeper breeding ground? Is Ramses actually tracking him right now?

I love the idea of the peepers as a monster. 

Is The Man In The Brown Jacket a reference to Night Vale’s Man In The Tan Jacket?

Also, I kinda love him. 

Also, is the “he’s not interested” that Buddy gives us a reference to him being our official Ace?

So I see indentured servitude is the theme of the hour. 

Just taking a second to bring up a little thing of plots in longform series: typically there’s a major overarching plot that spans the entire season, along with all its ongoing subplots and themes. The smaller plot of each episode is often a sort of microcosm of one of those subplots/themes, which helps to bring it into sharper focus. And yeah, I am definitely seeing that here: a rich and powerful person sweeping in to “save” the victim of circumstance with medical technology that’s wired right into their body and way more invasive than it has any right to be, and all it costs is their soul? Yeah, a little bit.

This raises another question: is it just the refugees from the Outer Rim who wind up living longterm in the Cerberus Province? Is this what lies in store for the citizens of Hyperion City that Ramses displaced with his real estate scheme? Don’t get me wrong, it is utterly horrific no matter what, but I’m curious whether this is going to hit Juno’s “I must save Hyperion City” button.

The radiation burns are absolutely horrific. Just… *shudder*

But also: the people with these burns cover their faces with masks, and that’s not the first place we’ve seen people do that. Is this where Miasma got her assistants? It makes a grim amount of sense– these are people who are desperate enough to sell away their autonomy and their voices, many of whom have medical and academic skills that Miasma would have found valuable. And it isn’t as though she ever respected their personhood, or anyone else’s; I don’t think she’d be above buying people. It just adds another layer of horror to what happened to them down in the tomb.

I feel like a dog perking up every time I hear footsteps outside. 

Slight figure covering their face with a scarf? IS IT PETER?

A criminal who missed his flight to Mars? PETER?

A heist on another planet? IS IT MY SWEET KNIFE BOY?

So we now know that the Outer Rim was a confederation of sorts, and that they had too many languages and cultures to be mutually intelligible. (Did I ever post the thing about the Outer Rim being allegorical to the USSR? If anyone remember reading it, please let me know because I can’t find it.)

During the card game, Engstrom had to ask Peter’s place of origin; is that because Peter doesn’t have a noticeable Brahmese accent, or just because there are too many languages for his accent to be identifiable? I personally suspect it’s the former, since there’s clearly a good deal of discrimination and hostility toward people from the former Outer Rim, and that would cause professional problems for Peter. Still, I have to wonder.

So I’m a fan of Buddy. She and Valles Vicky seem like they walked out of the same gangster flick, and I’m all about that.

Also, I’m all about mob bosses who go out of their way not to make their underlings do things they don’t want to do– it’s tactically important, because it builds respect and loyalty. Hazing and abusing your underlings may be effective ninety-nine times out of a hundred, but you can bet that last one’s planning on stabbing you in the back. 

Also, “his Buddy” sounds awfully romantic; I can see how that would be hilarious if they’re decidedly not into each other. From the cues I’ve gotten so far, I suspect she’s a lesbian and he’s aro and/or ace, but those are mostly guesses and vibes more than anything super conclusive.

The fact that Buddy’s been scouting Juno for this long– and that Juno’s walking into the desert fucked up her timetable– suggests that she wants him working for her long term. Why? Why him? Did she hear about him from Vicky? Did she want to snipe him out from under Ramses? 

The fact that the planet is called Baldur (Baldr?) is entirely too entertaining to me, because that’s the name of my dog. So every time they mention the planet, I picture this ridiculous boy:

So what is the CureMother?

Is it something that could potentially save the indentured servants? What makes it so valuable? The fact that Juno didn’t see it is clearly important, so what’s going on?

Vespa’s been in servitude for five years, and she’s clearly fried enough to be regularly hallucinating Buddy, but people’s faces get fried after living in the Cerberus Province for two. Where has she been in all of that time?

When’s the last time that somebody thanked Juno for following his conscience and not firing a gun?

So that monologue about finding peace in lost hope, and the pain of getting that hope back. What exactly is this referring to in the grand scheme of things?

Is this about Juno getting back his will to live and his sense of purpose after he’s given them up for dead?

Is this about Ramses, the man who is hope incarnate? 

Is this about Peter (I wasn’t kidding earlier), who made Juno feel hopeful against all odds?

I suspect we’ll find out in two weeks.

[mdwatchestv]

Westworld 2x10: Looks Like We Made It

Well, we did it. We survived the onslaught of mystery, gun violence, and general confusion that is Westworld. This finale episode was sort of emblematic of the season as a whole in terms of what worked and didn't work, and generally the best and worst elements of the show. I will of course be talking about all the big twists and turns, but a finale is also great opportunity to reflect on a show as a whole and take a look at the big picture. The whole park if you will. While Westworld is a show about a lot of things, robots, personhood, technology, Dolores' wigs, it is mostly a show that is about its own mystery. It is a show that wants you to try and solve it, taunts you with seemingly meaningless complex clues, defies you to anticipate its twists and turns. Westworld asks its audience to pull apart details, to search for meaning, to try and outsmart the endgame. This can be a double edged sword, as a constant drive to solve the puzzle guarantees the viewer's rapt attention, but it also means every bit of the show is pored over, and pulled apart. Plot that doesn't quite line up, or wonky storytelling devices that may have slid under the radar in another show, are made glaring. Put another way, if you are encourage your audience to pick at the fabric of your story, they are going to find holes.  However, if you have a pack of vultures tearing apart your narrative and you're STILL able to conjure up a genuine surprise, then that is something special indeed. This last episode encapsulated both the pitfalls and payoffs of the mystery box show, and why the show in general suffers by often not being able to stand up to scrutiny.

Instead of recapping all 90 minutes of this episode, which I tried to do, realized I had written 3k words of nonsense regarding timelines, and decided no one really wanted to read that, I have instead decided to just get to the good stuff and talk about the twists, everything I was right about, all the things that didn't make sense, and all the questions we still need to  answered. There were two MAJOR twists in this episode, and they could not be more opposite in success and execution. Let's talk first about the one that worked - the Tessa Thompson is secretly Dolores twist. It is revealed in a climactic scene that Tessa Thompson, is not actually herself, but instead a host with Dolores' personality.  Not only is Tessa really Dolores in that scene, but she has been Dolores in EVERY "present" day scene (aka every scene that took place post-Bernard waking up on the beach) for the ENTIRE season. This twist worked so well because while it was truly unexpected, it also made sense. Not only that, it was in plain site the whole time, right on screen. This is perhaps the first and only time I have been inspired to rewatch Westworld in order to look for clues in Tessa Thompson's performance (and they are there!) It was neat, surprising, and sensical, the ultimate trifecta of television twistery. This was by far the best twist in the season, and dare I say the series. It was quite simply elegant, a word I don't think I have ever used to describe the behemoth of Westworld. But also of course more questions were raised. At the end of the episode we see Dolores, restored to her form, and Tessa Thompson together (in what I am hopeful is a direct sequel to San Junipero), but if Dolores is back in her own body, who is in Tessa's? Dolores left Westworld with a purse full of host balls (lol), so who else was in the bag? Who is Tessa now??

But let's talk about that other big twist, that after the credits twist (what is this a Marvel movie?) that Man in Black twist. Ugh, is the only real feeling I have about it, followed by "why are you telling us this". The episode opened with the Man in Black as we left him in the previous episode, digging into his arm in search of a port to prove his hostdom. Dolores rides up on him in this grotesque scene (he uh, made pretty good progress in the gouging department) and recruits him to journey with her to the Forge. During this interaction she also slips the flattened bullet from Teddy's head into his gun, which eventually causes it to backfire when he inevitably turns on Dolores. This was confusing to me as, while dramatically impressive, there was no way for her to know at what time he would fire that bullet. The two of them did quite a bit of firing at the Delos security cornering Bernard, who is to say he wouldn't have gotten to the bullet at that point. Anyway, after blowing his hand off Dolores leaves the MiB on the surface while she and Bernard continue into the Forge. After Bernard kills Dolores we cut between the MiB riding an elevator into the Forge, and Bernard escaping. Visually, it seems as if the two will intersect, but when the elevator comes for Bernard the MiB is nowhere to be seen. In fact we don't see the MiB again until the end of the episode at the guest evacuation point where he is lying in a tent, wounded but still alive. Seemed like sort of an anti-climactic arc for him for the finale UNTIL the credits rolled and we rejoined the MiB in his elevator journey. This time we see him arriving at the Forge and seeing a clearly very hosty-version of Katja Herbers. He declares "I knew it!" and she escorts him to the round studio room we saw Peter Mullan in early this season. She begins interviewing him the same way that the MiB himself interviewed Peter Mullan's character, thus revealing that the MiB is....what? A host? A human/host hybrid? And Katja Herbers really was a host this whole time? It was clear they wanted to end the episode with a "HOLY SHIT" moment, but instead of screaming "WHAT!" my first thought was "WHY?" In a finale that had packed so much information, why add this in? Why negate the MiB's humanity even further? Honestly the most interesting thing about his character at this point was his waning humanity, and if that's gone too, what's the point? But after many days of thinking about it, here is what makes the most sense re: what's going on here. Earlier in this episode we saw inside of The Forge, where Peter Mullan's "code" was repeatedly tested in an attempt to emulate the original. This process was overseen by a copy of Ben Barnes, Peter Mullan's son, whose abandonment was the pivotal moment of Peter Mullan's life. I think what is happening with the Man in Black is a similar situation, where the Forge program is running different "versions" of the MiB in preparation for creating a host/human hybrid. It would make sense then this process would be overseen by the code version of his daughter, whose murder at the MiB's hands could easily be considered a similar pivotal life moment. But then what does this mean for the series, is everything we've seen so far a simulation run by the machine? And then what exactly was the point of Ford's game for the MiB? To lead him here? To distract him? And then why? Unlike the Tessa Thompson twist, this twist was complicated, unwieldy and seems detrimental to the emotional impact of the story. If you have a different take on what happened here, by all means please let me know.

As this season ends, our heroes have become separated into three locations. We have the hosts that were uploaded into Host Heaven and sent out to a random satellite. Most notably these hosts include Akecheta, Teddy and Maeve's daughter. It's not clear what adventures are left for them to have up on their satellite, but's also unlikely that James Marsden is off the show. However now that Dolores has access to a host-making machine, she could always whip up a new Teddy with a different personality...  Speaking of, we also now have a contingency of hosts in the "real" world including Dolores, Bernard, whoever lives in Tessa, and whoever was in Dolores' ball bag. Dolores' goal is to destroy humankind, but as you all know by now I am STILL waiting for answers re: where Westworld is and what being in the "real" world actually means. I will never let this go, it drives me crazy. Finally we also have host characters still in the park, although it looks like many of our friends were destroyed by zombie death Clementine, in one of the final scenes we see technicians Felix and Sylvester being tasked with salvaging any hosts they can. At this they meaningfully turn and look at the pile of bodies containing Maeve, Armistice, and Rodrigo Santoro. Salvageable indeed. And while dead is never really dead on a show like Westworld, it does seem like Shannon Woodward and Simon Quarterman finally met their makers. Of course there is always a chance for host resurrection now that we know every human in the parks data was coded, but of all the death, theirs seemed the most permanent. There is also the last moment revelation that Luke Hemsworth has been a host all the time, tasked by Ford to protect the hosts of the park. He did spend an awful lot of time this season trying to make sure that Bernard stayed safe. He is also able to immediately recognize that Tessa is really Dolores, something the audience wasn't able to do all season, and then just lets her loose to supposedly destroy humanity. That's cold Luke.

Finally let's talk about the predictions I was right about and the burning questions for next season. In the first episode I predicted that Dolores was responsible for the deaths of the Westworld hosts, including Teddy, and I was KIND OF RIGHT. While the flood didn't cause the host’s deaths, rather their corpses were simply swept up in it, Dolores DID cause the flood and she did WANT to delete all the hosts. Also it is arguable she drove Teddy to suicide by messing up his programming. So I am going to claim this. I also believe that the park's location is a matter of consequence, and if never addressed is a huge plot hole. Yes, this is the hill I will die on. This episode also left a lot of questions, we know the fate of the Westworld hosts (dead or uploaded to Host Heaven), but what happened to all the hosts in the other parks? Did the other six parks also have a Valley Beyond situation? Are there clean-up crews hard at work there as well? While Westworld is clearly the crowning jewel of the parks, there are still a lot of other hosts out there, and perhaps even surviving guests, that simply haven't been accounted for. We have also now seen three parks, will we get to see the other four next season? I am still firmly of the belief that the "real" world that Dolores is in, is really just "CityWorld". Again, yes, this is the hill. Another question is, if Luke Hemsworth is a host, why wasn't he infected by Clementine's virus? Why didn't Maeve immediately incapacitate Clementine, or Matrix stop all the hosts? She did at the very end, but it seems like a missed opportunity for her to admin-power-battle Clem.

Overall this finale episode, like the season in general, had high highs and low lows. This season was able to tell some of the most powerful and emotionally affecting stories of the series, with the highlights being Maeve's journey into Shogun World and the near-standalone tale of Akecheta's lost love. These stories delivered fleshed out characters with relatable motivations and high stakes, they also had a clear beginning, middle and end. And in a show which just seems to be falling on and on down the plot expansion rabbit-hole, stories with complete arcs stand out. The Tessa/Dolores twist worked so well because it also marked the clear ending of another character's emotional journey. Bernard struggles with his faith in human nature, and his role in helping the hosts all season. With his decision to bring Dolores back to life and let her murder whoever she wants, he has clearly made a firm decision on where he stands, bringing his season-long arc to a conclusive end. However this season, and episode, was also plagued with the murkiness and purposeful obfuscation that has become an unfortunate hallmark of the series. Often emotional connection is lost as the show brings in seemingly endless technological developments (the Cradle, the Forge, human/hosts, park wide activation codes, system access, guest profiles, mind-reading hats), that often feel more like a distraction than authentic world-building. Both seasons of the show also have relied heavily on multiple timelines, and while this season was upfront about its time hopping, it was a bit straining to try and keep the two separated as a viewer. Don't get me wrong, I love shows that aren't afraid to challenge their audience, but keeping the dozens of storylines straight in addition to time and space, sometimes makes watching the show feel more like work than entertainment. Ultimately this season did do a lot right, and was able to make up for some of the failings of the initial run. My hope for season 3 is a more focussed story that is able to deliver twist quality over quantity. I hope instead the writers take different kinds of risks in the storytelling: investigating new worlds, spending time with unexpected characters, and creating complex emotional bonds. My fear is that going into a "larger" world will cause the smaller stories to get lost. After all, who cares what's going on back at the park when Dolores is leading a massacre of mankind. Of course if she even IS in a larger world at all.....

Writing about Westworld was exhausting. I miss The Magicians.

XO MD

[inthespiritofthemind]

#43 Christians Are All One in Spirit

As I have watched and listened to the words and scenes of what is happening in our country today, the Lord has spoken to me quite clearly about some specific events.  The foundational issue which I will address here is the death of George Floyd. I have seen and shared on social media the background of the man in two formats.  One was a post by a lawyer who had info on Mr. Floyd’s criminal background and the other was a public figure and speaker sharing a rant about the same information.  

When I shared the first post by the lawyer, I was uncertain about sharing.  I had already seen a video by George in which he spoke about how the young black men today need Jesus and to make changes in their lives.  I also read that he had received Jesus himself and had become active in ministry for black men and youth.  So, I know that he was a born-again believer in Jesus.  As I read the background info shared by the lawyer, I thought it was good to know that info.  Then, as I talked to the Lord about that info, the Lord said to me that He did not remember any of that.  He said that George was a believer, his sins had been paid for and were removed as far as the east is from the west.  George was a holy, righteous child of God and was in heaven with Him.  So, I deleted the post.  If God does not see the sin anymore, I didn’t need to either.  George is as righteous and holy as every other Christian is, completely clean, brand new and forgiven.  2 Corinthians 5:21

Then I watched the rant by another person to hear other info which had been researched concerning the rates of black on black murder and including other related statistics in the country today. The background of George Floyd was shared again with even more info of the actual details at the time of death. You know, we all feel that we need to have all the info on everything.  Not so. I knew what the Lord had said about the previous criminal activities and knew that God was not holding anything against George.  In the natural or flesh, George reaped the consequences for the sin in his life before he received Jesus as Savior. After his rebirth, George was held blameless by God for any sin. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Sinful behavior after rebirth is the result of demons in the soul and no longer has any spiritual consequence for any Christian.  George Floyd lost his life because he was murdered.  The man who killed him was under the influence of the demonic.

To understand this whole picture, we need to know what happens when we receive Jesus as Savior.  Before Jesus is received, we (the whole world) are all sinners and living with our souls (mind, emotions and will) as the highest functioning part of us.  We are living in disobedience to God.  And because of sin, we are spiritually dead.  Jesus bought us reconciliation with God through His sacrifice on the cross. In other words, we are forgiven, reconciled to God, made right with Him, through the blood of Jesus.  2 Corinthians 5:18-19   But we must receive Jesus as Savior to have the benefit of that reconciliation.  If we don’t, the gift has been in vain for us.  The Holy Spirit has been sent to every person on this earth to convict us of sin and draw us to Jesus.  John 16:7-9

As soon as we receive Jesus, God performs a miracle in the holy spiritual realm and He recreates us as a new spiritual being. We become one spirit with Him.  We are reborn, or born again from above.  We are spirit beings just like God.  We are “dead to sin and alive to righteousness.” 1 Peter 2:24   Our spirits will never die again because of sin.  We have been made new righteous, holy creations in the spirit with God.  Jesus does not need to go back up on the cross to save us again.  Hebrews 9:25-26   It has been done once for all.   Hebrews 10:14

Believers today are the church.  We are all one in spirit.  We all are one spirit with God.  John 17:32   And as far as skin color is concerned, it is not how God sees us.  He created all mankind and created all the colors, but His view of us is not as the world sees.  We are all spirit just like God.  So, as far as God is concerned, we believers are all the same color, invisible.   Acts 10:34-35    Romans 2:11   We cannot see spirit with our natural eyes.  But we are real and alive in the spirit.  We are not to look at the flesh anymore as Christians.  2 Corinthians 5:16   We need to look through the eyes of the Holy Spirit.  We are to discern each person in the spirit through the Holy Spirit.  We need to also discern ourselves in the spirit.  We need to see ourselves joined in the spirit to our God.  We are in right standing with God as believers. Can you visualize yourself as joined with your God in spirit?  There is nothing separating us.  The capacity for sin is still in the soul and still comes from the presence of demons. But we do not sin.  1 John 3:9   We must believe the truth about our personhood to be able to understand the will of God.  The enemy is stealing the truth from our minds and rendering us ineffective spiritually because we are a threat to him and his kingdom prospering.  We cannot let darkness continue to run our lives. The stakes for our country are too high. The enemy steals, kills, and destroys as much as he can because of our ignorance.  John 10:10   Ignorance comes from a lack of knowledge.  “My people perish for a lack of knowledge.”  Hosea 4:6

We, the church, are living through times of all out demonic war and have declined to come to the fight.  We haven’t known or learned to fight the demons instead of the people in whom they reside.  Ephesians 6:10   The devil has hidden our need for the Holy Spirit who manifests for our benefit if we will seek Him.  We cannot fight the spiritual battle without the Holy Spirit.  He is the Spirit of God!  He is the power!  He gives us discernment to see the demons!  

The view of government in America today tends to incite fear in those of us who believe in God.  We are shocked by the violence, murder and destruction happening across the country. That fear and shock are demonic. The murder and destruction are demonic. The racism, hate and accusations are demonic.  We must look past the emotion their presence brings and with the Name of Jesus and the Power of the Holy Spirit command the demons to stop, cancel their plans and schemes, and speak forth the power of God.  The actions which are not from God are from demons.  We must separate the spirits from the people in our thoughts. That’s what Jesus meant when He said to pray for your enemies.  Matthew 5:44   They deserve to be free from the demons and saved as much as we do.  Jesus died for the whole world.  And we, the church, are the ones to be doing battle with darkness and telling the lost and demonized how to be free and that they are reconciled to God already.  We have been given the ministry of reconciliation.      2 Corinthians 5:20

Christians, we don’t need to look at news shows or social media to find out what is happening and what we need to do about it. We need to talk with the Lord and submit to His will. I asked Him a few weeks ago if the election and all the politics is about money when I was asked to donate to another campaign group.  He said “No, this is a spiritual battle.” That is the Word of the Lord!   He doesn’t want us to be uninformed, but He would have us see through spiritual eyes and not the eyes of the flesh.  He definitely wants to be guiding our steps to be about His business.  When He has something to say, we need to be listening.  He speaks as often as we will listen.  Directly to us.  The Word of the Lord is what He is still saying today.  Sometimes the Bible is His method, but more often than not, His communication is personal and direct.

So, George Floyd is in heaven.  His killer will be tried.  He deserves to be set free from the demon who manipulated him to commit murder and to be born again if he has not already.  The other murders, protests, riots, and destruction need to stop!  The country needs to return to some semblance of economic order.  The police are needed by our country and need to be reassured of their acceptance as public servants.  And the spirits of racism and hatred must be bound!  Those causing the issues nationwide need to be held accountable for the demonic actions committed.

Fear over the virus is bound and health from the cross is offered.  We believers must curse the demonic plague at the roots and destroy it.  We must bind any more effect on the people of our world.  The members of my church group are actively doing this warfare already. I am sure many are praying, but what is needed is warfare against the enemy!   Let us unite, church, and speak bounty from the Lord.  Speak the truth in confidence.  Fight the demons behind the ungodly thinking in the people being used to cause destruction and death.  Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life.  John 14:6   The war is not over or lessening.  We are still needing to go to battle.  Rise up, church, and do what God says to do!  

[theremharths]

A complaint I have re: Legions of Fire that I haven’t talked about yet (somehow) is that like

Peter David doesn’t really put much effort into portraying the tone Londo’s eps have in the show

Londo’s focus episodes are usually chaotic. They’re full of surreal lighting, dreams, visions, unreality, screaming/crying/shouting, symbolism, death, blood and usually they have at least one v loud and visually confusing sequence. This is esp true for Londo eps that also heavily feature G’Kar

The trilogy isn’t... angry enough. 518 is largely quiet for the same reason the Centauri emperor outfit is white, to symbolize the stifling of Londo’s personality, the stripping of his personhood. But there’s still underlying anger present in the way we see Emperor Londo, in how the strangling scene in 317 is practically deafening w/ how amplified the growling and choking and music are

The trilogy is impotent in its attempts to capture the visceral nature of Londo and the symbolism of his storyline, refusing to let the reader even read about him properly half the time in book three by limiting his presence to short diary interludes instead of proper chapters. The part where Londo cuts a Centauri nobleman’s head off is as good as it gets

G’Kar also lacks the... meaty presence... that he has in the show. He gets a single one-word line of dialogue in 317 and yet you can feel it when he says it. In the trilogy he’s unobtrusive, insignificant, lukewarm and flat and boring. Trilogy G’Kar is the hypothetical vivisected, organless, and lifeless G’Kar post-execution that Londo describes in 402

Even the death scene is flaccid, having G’Kar think about how he had to kill Londo to “save Sheridan” in the climax of a storyline Sheridan has absolutely no part in, a storyline that belongs to Londo and G’Kar and no one else, definitely not to Sheridan of all people. An awkward denial of the connection between them even in their most iconic moment together

The essential erotic tension present in Londo-G’Kar interactions is missing entirely, and yet Peter David believes the reader has some sexual desire to see Londo "put in his place” by Shiv’kala, by Durla, by whoever. This is a misinterpretation of how Londo is written in the show, bc one doesn’t create a character w/ the obvious intention of averting stereotypes of fat people in order to make the audience want to see them humiliated

To quote jms on only showing the aftermath of G’Kar attacking Londo in Dust to Dust, rather than any of the physical violence itself:

Implying more than one sees is something that you kinda have to learn over time. It can be very effective, as here.

Peter David is voyeuristic and gratuitous w/ his portrayal of Londo’s violation, instead of framing him as having any sort of strength or agency or power in his ability to withstand over a decade of torture and abuse

Vir Cotto’s Oatmeal Hetero Hellscape is where good characters go to die

[strangewonderful]

tag drop pt 2!