#the star trek worms are too powerful

[randomnumbers751650]

So, I finished watching Ideon a few days ago and one thing that I thought to be really unique is how Ideon is a theodicy or has elements of a theodicy. Just to let you know, a theodicy is a question on the problem of evil: if God can and wants to prevent evil, and if God is good, then why does evil exist? It should be noted that a theodicy doesn’t necessarily require that God exists or not (I know actual economists and political scientists who unironically call their disciplines theodicies), because questions on the origin of evil are things that are with humanity since immemorial times. Also spoilers for a 40 year old show.

In Ideon, as they learn more and more about the power of the Ide, the Giant reveals itself more and more of a god. In fact, it is called a god in mid-season episodes, but they stop that after a while, probably the writers thinking it might be too much on the nose. But still, the characters are constantly debating why Ide allows that, if Ide is testing them, if Ide is good or evil, since it is orchestrating the meteor falls. A curious thing is that we have Ide’s perspective just once, with Bes’s dream – it wants to survive – and the rest of the discussions is what humans believe to Ide’s will to be, like as if they were some sort of amateur theologians.

In the end, they conclude Ide is trying to kill them because it deemed them unworthy of salvation due to their inability of stopping the cycle of war, but, again, this is their interpretation. And, in the end, Ideon is finally destroyed…but it was already established it had infinite energy, so it is kinda certain that it just allowed itself to be defeated.

Ideon is a story of how war is hell, using a super robot in a real robot story. It portrays conflict escalation, hypocrisy of ideals of honor in an environment that gives power to petty people, capable of selling their comrades for a promotion, or committing war crimes without any tactical advantage – it’s kinda obvious the Buff Clan is based on Imperial Japan, while humans seem to be inspired from Star Trek’s idea of federation – and, above all, the process of dehumanization: it starts with a sense of technological pride, impulse by miscommunication, which constantly evolves into incapacity of recognizing the other as anything but insects, and overall mutual hatred. It ended with parents disowning their child, a father trying to kill his daughter for a frivolous reason such as “blood purity” and what essentially was an attempt to make a human sacrifice to Ide (with Sheryl). No wonder, Ide decides that enough is enough, its patience wouldn’t last forever. The series goes out of its way to show that humans and buffs brought that to themselves.

Personally, I don’t think Ide is evil. I feel it genuinely wanted for humans and buffs to live in peace. The way it cares for children isn’t just because it’s an amalgamation of children from the previous civilizations, but because it genuinely likes them and see them as symbols of hope (or else it wouldn’t protect and support the adults as well) or innocence (when it protected the giant worm children). I could tell when Sheryl attempted to sacrifice Lou to make Ide work, it was beyond pissed off, to the point of destroying their homeworlds and colonies. This is why I don’t buy Ide was setting up a trap to kill both species, it could’ve done any time. It still preserved the ones in space, using the last of hope that they could solve their differences, but its hope drained with every advance, so if it wanted to destroy them, it wanted to make clear that if it was destroying them, it wanted to make them understand why before doing it.

In spite of that, Ide still loved life, including the lives of humans and buffs until the end. When all of them die in the final moments of the movie, they all reunite and, upon seeing the greatness of the universe, they can see how petty and a waste of time their squabbles and wars were. So, Ide had Messiah to guide them to a new planet, to restart the cycle again, hoping this time they would learn the lesson. In spite of Tomino showing a bleak pessimism throughout the series, I feel the end is optimistic.

[calliecwrites]

Gagh

Quark’s Bar on DS9, sometime after the end of the Dominion War.

“So let me get this straight.” Quark stares across the bar at me. “You’re a shapeshifter and a human?”

I wince only slightly. Am I human? My people’s history with that word is complicated. Sometimes we’ve claimed it, sometimes we’ve rejected it, but we’ve always had to exist in relation to it. And right now I look pretty human. That’s a thing we’ve always had to be good at. I turn my skin blue to make the point.

“You’re sure you’re not a Changeling?” he says.

“I told you, I’m a shifter,” I say. I point at the bottle of Romulan ale. “Give me that and I’ll prove it.”

He watches me closely as I down it in one.

“You drink. He never did.”

Quark means Odo, of course. Everyone here compares me to him, though he’s long gone. Some people leave a lasting impression.

He sets down my plate of gagh and watches as I eat. It’s alive and wriggling, as it should be.

“So how come no one’s ever heard of you?” he says.

“Ever heard any human myths?” I say. “Then maybe you have.” I shrug. “We kept to ourselves. Things were bad before the Federation, and old habits die hard. But we’ve always been there. There were never many of us. Things were too close during the war, and we decided it was time to come out into the light.”

Earth hadn’t been under that much scrutiny in a long time. After the bombing, people were looking for Changelings everywhere. Troops in the streets, blood tests, then the power outage – it was only a matter of time before they found us instead. Better to come out on our own terms. Show we stood with the Federation, not against it. That we wanted to help. The vampires and the werewolves and all the rest did the same, but they had an easier time of it. After all, the Federation wasn’t at war with people like them.

Quark hears the strain in my voice and changes the subject. “And I hear you’re doing well for yourself – a lieutenant on the Enterprise!”

I shrug again. “Think of us as another species, and it’s not that different.”

“So, uh…” I can guess what question is coming next, and he doesn’t disappoint. “Tell me about this absorption thing?”

“You mean this?” I take a handful of gagh, and pull. Doesn’t taste as good this way, but what the hell. Best to get the staring over early. And now I have an intimate understanding of the structure of live serpent worms, just in case I ever need to be one.

Quark’s eyes almost pop out of his head. No Changeling can do what I’ve just done. And the next question is going to be could you do that to a person—

Instead he grabs a passing dabo girl, not taking his eyes off my hand.

“Get the lady more gagh. I’m gonna need to see that again.”

The shifters' abilities were originally inspired by the Changelings, so doing a Star Trek crossover makes perfect sense! The 'troops in the streets' part is a reference to DS9 4x11 "Homefront" - not a good time to be a shifter on Earth.

Tag list (let me know if you want to be added):

@leahnardo-da-veggie @sandyca5tle @scrubbinn

[slippery-domjot-balls]

DS9 S4 E11 Homefront & E12 Paradise Lost, slippery thoughts

Wow....let me catch my breath. That was a wild and tense ride. Nice scenery too. Obviously these are just my opinions, but I wanted to share them because Star Trek makes me happy and passionate. I want you to be happy and passionate too!

Given the intensity of these two episodes I completely forgot it started off with Jadzia pulling off the most specific pranks on Odo.

Jadzia: I sneak into my coworker's private quarters and move his furniture by 3 cm every couple of days.

Quark: That's weird. They would not even notice that change.

Jadzia: Oh, no no no. He sees it every time and it drives him insane.

Audience: Oh you silly worm!

And I loved that we got to see these two besties playing pretend. We need more Miles and Julian aviation adventures. Super cute pals.

R.I.P. Clive

Playtime is over now because the changelings have basically infiltrated Earth and are ruining everything all the time and it isn't fun anymore....or are they? They are, but are they? Possibly. Probably. Perhaps.

To me this kind of episode is the pinnacle of what Star Trek writing has always been about. We see a complex evaluation of choices in conflict. It is not about an obvious "right" or "wrong", but one decision versus another. This is a battle between perspective and reason. All sides contain some merit. This episode also shows good intentions taken too far and taken beyond the ethical reasoning that initially inspired the action.

If this episode were to have a villain it would be fear and paranoia itself and not any particular character.

Vice Admiral Leyton was an amazing character. It was brilliant to establish that he had a close professional history with Sisko early in the episode because it immediately made me trust him. You sneaky writers!! But that was the whole point. The story that was unfolding to the audience purposefully made us feel betrayed with Sisko. We co-experienced in real time the feeling seeing a close friend commit treason.

Enter the most powerful man on Earth. He can move the most stubborn hearts, calm the most irrational mind, and fill up the most starved stomach. Replicated foods beware of Grandpa Sisko. I see where Jake gets his style too! It was so believable that these three were family. You could see how cadences, mannerism, and behaviors in Granddad Sisko were passed to Ben and then passed down to Jake, but in their own naturally developing ways in each generation.

*Spoiler Alert* Grandpa Sisko also saves the day.

Just when I thought this episode had all the ingredients for perfection Nog the keeper of all things pure and innocent shows up. Look at that smug Ferengi. He knows that he is the best thing at the Academy and so do we.

A great thing about these two episodes is that every character acts as an essential part of the story. Nog will lead Ben on the chase with his talk of the Red Squad. A+ Nog!

This ain't your normal seagull. This one loves Bajoran women.

Around this point we have all the main details of the episode. Admiral Leyton and Captain Sisko are working together to protect Earth from a suspected Dominion infiltration and invasion. The President of the Federation is against the proposed worldwide security changes but reluctantly allows their implementation.

With security personnel, blood tests of all crucial Starfleet staff and family members, and martial law practically in effect everywhere we are ready to repel any Dominion attacks. After all, the wormhole was winking at DS9 a lot so perhaps a cloaked invasion fleet is on Earth's doorstep.

HERE WE GO! Papa Sisko challenges Daddy Sisko's paranoia. Ben is seeing changelings in his sleep and not the Odo kind either.

So we start to see the episode present one of it's many challenges:

How far should we trade individual autonomy for protection?

And THIS is why I love Star Trek. Grandfather Sisko is absolutely correct!! And yet, Ben Sisko is also correct. Both want to protect what they love, life ad they know and perceive it.

We search for the highest good in each situation. Ben wants to secure and save everything he loves on Earth. He wants to protect his family, his home, and everything therein. Grandpa Sisko wants the EXACT same thing. The methods to achieve their shared goal is in conflict.

DS9 writers have a candy bar on me. Well done!!! (engage smooching sounds)

This very moment is crucial for Ben. His paranoia is pushing him toward the type of dictatorial control that Admiral Leyton is calling for, but Ben has found that not only is something odd happening in the background but this entire movement smell stinky.

Nog is such a good cadet. I love him with all my little heart. He provided critical information about Starfleet Academy's unofficial super special secret mean girls club Red Squad. This little snack of information sets Ben Sisko on the trail of breadcrumbs leading to the smorgasbord of treason committed by Leyton.

Smug Shapeshifting O'Brien is a gift. Enjoy every second of this hilarious goop boy. Colm really did a great job. We do see that there is a Dominion changeling on earth (saw it earlier in Homefront as well). We understand how real the threat of their activity can be. We especially see how terrifying a changeling can be when Dominion version O'Brien has a little chat with Ben. It might only take one hostile changeling to completely destabilize an entire world.

I do wish we figured out how the fake changeling blood was created to trap Sisko. Clever girl, Admiral.

I felt bad for Leyton. He is someone caught in a difficult position of authority and personal fears. His own paranoia drove him to the utmost extreme. I imagined that maybe he has a cute little family with a kid back home. I imagined what it might be like in his shoes. It would be hard to live thinking that your lack of effort led to the death of your child or friend or family member or significant other. It would be hard to go to bed knowing that the person you once shared it with prematurely died because of that you thought you failed to do. Even in much of the two episodes his facial expressions show a man full of internal strife and conflict. It is as if he kept questioning his actions as he made them.

What if his fear of failing his community drove him to radical dictatorship? He wanted to keep all that he loved safe, but he betrayed everyone he loved. He demanded that all his loyal friends trust him. Trust is a two way exchange though. He abandoned trusting his friends and confidants. That was the beginning of his downfall.

Leyton wanted to protect society at the cost of society itself. He could not see beyond his fear of losing society to war and enemies abroad to the point of blindness. He became an enemy of all he cherished, and I honestly think that he knew that too. He was just so scared that he desperately dug in to the one aspect of his life that he thought he could control, which is so relatable. We all can act irrationally under stress and pressure. This is not justification or approval. This is accepting that life may not have as many villains in it as we are told to believe. People are just trying to be people, meet their obligations and responsibilities while preserving what little bit of life exists to enjoy.

We are all prone to brash behaviors in order to protect what we love, but sometimes it is healthy to set down the admiralty bars and accept that you can't do it all, especially alone.

Remember that everyone in this episode wanted the same thing. Leyton wanted to protect life. Sisko wanted to protect life. Grandpa Sisko wanted to protect life. Everyone held the same belief and motivation.

I appreciated how solemnly Leyton gave in and how respectfully he surrendered. It actually felt less like defeat and more like he was relieved of a burden that he was too overwhelmed to carry alone. He didn't need to carry it alone but chose to go alone. In a symbolic way by removing the admiral bars he set down his fear and moved on.

The amount of time taken for these shots impressed upon me the symbolic significance of it. Sisko also lets go and moves on with Leyton. By setting the phaser down he too lets go and agrees it is time to move forward from this conflict. He is still betrayed and disappointed, but he is not stuck or trapped in the past. He sets down his weapon and joins Leyton in facing a reality outside the oppression of their own paranoia.

I loved that Paradise Lost ends with the restaurant opening up again. It is the resolution these episodes needed. It was closure showing that being open to others and not letting the world cloud you of the humanity in others is fundamental to life.

Despite the many differences in all these characters, regardless of where they were in the progress of their own lives, no matter the goal or intention, we all essentially desire the same things.

Star Trek is the future I hope for!

If you made it to the end of this post and are reading this then 10,000 sweet kisses to your forehead. If you didn't make it then I am still giving your forehead tender kisses, you are just not aware of it.

[elbiotipo]

The Mastropiero in Campoestela is, like I said, much like a cross between an Ilyushin II-76 and a Space Shuttle (Buran, if you will). It takes off and lands much like a airplane, and the engines are good enough to lift it up from an earthlike world in a single go.

While for the purposes of the story it might not matter much, since I already decided the level of technology in economics and handling is pretty much like modern or rather WWII airplanes, I AM putting a lot of thought on what the engines are like. Not only because it can help me draw plotlines (about half of Star Trek is "why did the engine stop this week") but also it helps me do LIMITATIONS, which are important in science fiction. Engines, especially, are absurdly powerful in science fiction. This Space Trucker Beto Dude is going to fly a nuclear plant, I need to keep in mind what's allowed to him and how, how fast can he get from here to there, how much delta-v and thrust and such. These are vital things to the story, not so much because of "realism" but because it tells me what my character can do, what he can't, and what's routine or extraordinary to him.

My main idea is the nuclear lightbulb engine concept, because it's powerful, allows takeoff and landing and has a cool almost retro name. While realistically, you could not see the "lightbulbs" without dying from radiation, there's something funny about "having to change a lightbulb". It must be very hard to keep it running, but Suisini the engineer is there for that, and the setting assumes the technology is mature enough for small scale ships. My only concern is how long it takes to turn it on and off, as it's basically a (totally safe honest) constantly melting down reactor. I don't want them to spend days turning the reactor on and off.

Fusion engines sound too complex for me for a rugged "bush plane" spaceship, antimatter and other exotic engines open a can of worms too. I could use some exotic materials such as metallic hydrogen as fuels (they do exist in the setting and I can vaguely justify them) that would make incredibly powerful chemical rockets... but I'm not sure.

As how the FTL drive works? Splendidly.

No really, he docks with a FTL ring thingy and just flies, don't ask any questions.

OKAY, FTL is, like always, THE impossible thing about all space settings. So, much like magic in fantasy, you can do what you want there, as long as, and this is key, keep it coherent. A top speed and how long and what does it take you to get there, and don't break those rules, don't go pulling off Holdo Manuevers. My idea is a vague "dark energy network" ships can ride, denser in some places than others, thus giving "terrain" to space (some routes are easier than others). The idea is also to call back to bush pilots and WWII airplanes, so there would be clouds and storms as the ships flies through "aetheric" space. The trip takes a few days, but it can take much longer or shorter depending on the currents: this also means that worlds in main currents will be more accessible, with lots of more remote worlds in harsher currents.

[il3x]

Tagged by @vikugnavikugna!

coke or pepsi? beverage BITE miette?? beverage STING her tongue like the insect??? jail!!! jail for beverage for One Thousand Years!!!

disney or dreamworks? dreamworks did HTTYD, right? them.

coffee or tea? tea

books or movies? books hehe

windows or mac? never used mac so windows it is

dc or marvel? ok, exposing myself here, worm was like my 2nd superhero media ever. i haven't read either 🙈 i have seen a few marvel movies but i'm not sure whether that should count for or against them

x-box or playstation? mine crafdt on my laptop

dragon age or mass effect? mass effect bc incuriouscat on youtube makes sick ass fan PMVs

night owl or early riser? night owl

cards or chess? chess, you can narrate stories about the pieces and thoroughly annoy your opponent (sibling) even as you lose >:3

chocolate or vanilla? chocolate all the way!!

vans or converse? wgat

Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash, or Adaar? I can't tell if these are fantasy names or antidepressants

fluff or angst? uhhhhdfcgvhbjnk gonna have to say fluff

beach or forest? beach

dogs or cats? cats 100%! (or secret third option: fish...)

clear skies or rain? clear. god. please... 🙏🙏

cooking or eating out? cooking :P

spicy food or mild food? Mild by any sane standards, but spicy according to my family and/or BBC Food haha

halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas? chris mas :))

would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot? uuuhhhh .. hh. hard one here. gonna have to also go cold

if you could have a superpower, what would it be? SUPERSPEED!! Or time powers. My irl friend has convinced me of their usefulness.

animation or live action? animation

paragon or renegade? renegade, it's the name of my serial killer dark forest!hollyleaf fanfic (only half kidding...)

baths or showers? shower

team cap or team ironman? hm. remember when I said I watched a few marvel movies? yeah none of them were this one :(

fantasy or sci-fi? fantasy baybey!!! but I adore both

do you have three or four favourite quotes, if so what are they? oh god okay. hm... "Where did we learn it, this talent for insatiability?" from The Handmaid's Tale still Lives In My Head from high school english. If song lyrics count, then, "You don't know me / don't you question my love" from Berlin, Without Return. "Sometimes a hypocrite is just a man in the process of changing" (I don't recall the exact wording) from... Oathbringer? is my fav cliche cosmere pick. Oh! And I forget the episode or even who said it, but at some point during the s3 All Might/AFO fight in MHA, one of the side characters stuck on guard duty said "You're confusing difficulty with importance", and that changed my life.

youtube or netflix? youtube :) it has fun little AMVs

[REDACTED] [Clearance Level 9]

when do you feel accomplished? when I bake something! making concrete stuff is really fulfilling, especially if I'm baking for other people.

star wars or star trek? spaceballs (jk, star wars, but I haven't seen star trek so sw wins by default)

paperback books or hardcover books? paperback

to live in a world without literature or without music? [sad character song assigner noises]... without music.

who was the last person to make you laugh? that would be @ty-bayonet-betteridge with several lines in their riley fic hehe

city or countryside? city! much as I complain about missing nature :') ideally a city that's near the sea

favorite chips? anything plain sea salt and properly crunchy 🤌

pants or dresses? pants, though dresses are fun for fancy occasions!

libraries or museums? is it a natural history museum? pleamse?? if so museum! otherwise library all the way.

character driven stories or plot driven stories? I don't really have a preference ngl

bookmarks or folding pages? i was one of those heretical kids who just plonked their books face down open 🙈😭 and now I mostly read online so... idk? Probably bookmarks.

Dream job? honestly would love to be on the management council for a small nature conservancy. second choice would be ecological research, but data-based, not fieldwork (animals scare me >.<)

What gives you comfort? thinking about The Characters...

what are some of your favorite song lyrics? literally ANY pun or double meaning lyric by idkhow!! gonna go with "lose yourself inside the city / lose your mind inside a week".

favorite ice cream flavor ever? chocolate my beloved...

first fandom? warrior cats......

deep ocean or deep space? (personally, i gotta pick ocean, because theres fish in there 👍😊)

Your desert island band?

@thesternest @seroquelfan @chaoticrushu, but no pressure to answer, and anyone is welcome to join! add your own question at the end if you answer :]

[trek-tracks]

It’s weird to me that I spent the entire day yesterday celebrating DeForest Kelley's birthday and then what did I dream about? Not TOS Bones, but of hanging out with Karl Urban.

This is the latest in my string of increasingly bizarre dreams about The Boys, a show which, I cannot emphasize enough, I have not even seen five minutes of and know very little about (I've seen some gifs). In this one I was hired to play Butcher’s long-lost superhero daughter, (which makes zero sense given our respective ages), so I was spending a lot of time on set trying to learn the ropes of the show. According to my dream, Butcher’s superpower was to turn into a giant worm.

I asked Karl how that was helpful and he said: “It’s not.”

“...Except for that one episode where we had to tunnel through some dirt."

And I was like...fair enough.

He said “they don’t use it a lot because the effects are expensive so usually I’m just fighting and brooding.”

My superpower involved solving crossword puzzles. Basically, I had a bunch of blank puzzles, and if I solved a word in the puzzle, that thing would appear. So, many of the solutions were, like, “flaming arrow.” Karl was very impressed that I could solve big crossword puzzles in real life, because he was incapable of actually turning into a giant worm.

The big plot of the year was that Butcher’s ex was pregnant (by whom I don’t know, maybe him) and extremely angry and was sustaining herself by eating human flesh like a zombie. There was an evil law firm that was somehow involved in allowing this to continue. I asked Karl if this made any sense within the arc of the show (again, I can't stress how little I actually know about the show) and he said “just roll with it and don’t think about it too much. That’s what I always do.”

Anyway we wound up at some kind of cast bonding trip on the beach and I kept trying to get a good picture with him to show you all because I thought you’d never believe me otherwise (forgetting, for some reason, that it would be obvious when I was starring in the same show as his kid that we knew each other), but all I had was a crappy 2004 digital camera. He was pretty good at using it, though, because he said his friend Chris Pine never had new tech either. That’s when I admitted that Bones was my favourite Trek character, and we wound up having a conversation about that.

At the end of the trip, we went back to shooting and it turned out that the evil we were fake fighting in the show was real and we had to fight it in real life using modified versions of our TV show powers. It was very complicated. I was about to get killed by an evil hockey player (we were shooting in Toronto, after all) when Karl turned into a giant worm and flattened him. After the fight, back in human form, he was like, huh, I guess I actually can do that in real life.

The season was very successful and we were renewed, and I was really excited about it, until we found out that the big plot twist was that I wasn’t really Butcher’s daughter and this season I was going to date his son (does he even have a son? I have no idea). So I walked off the set because I was afraid Tumblr was going to cancel me for fake incest.

We were renegotiating the plot when I woke up

Anyway, sorry for subjecting you to one of my truly strange dreams, but you’ll all be happy to know that Dream Karl the Sometimes Giant Worm and I are friends now.

[setokaibapetty]

5 + 1 Fic Friday Roundup: Uplifting Women

Some fics revolving around women (and one man in a woman’s body) who lift their family/community/world up. May is the month of Mental Health Awareness after all - though I went for tech uplift instead of creating an uplifting atmosphere via emotional labor (though there is some of that in some of these as well).

1. Down the Rabbit Hole to Westeros (AO3)  -  A SI into Selyse Florent, later Selyse Baratheon. Refusing this time around to be vexed by a mustache, lack of indoor plumbing, and no more guacamole in favor of keeping her eyes on the prize: Surviving the upcoming Long Night and not letting Melisandre go Full Melisandre.

2. Compass of thy Soul (FF / AO3) -  Being reborn into the Uchiha clan during the Warring Clans Era is surprisingly idyllic, so long as you don't mind hard work and are too young to know any of the people who are actually dying. But innocence never lasts, and trying to help family stay alive is a road strewn with a surprising number of pitfalls and last-minute diversions. [SI-OC. Fluff, politics, fix-it. No Aliens.]

3. Sanitize (FF / AO3) -  Basic medicine and sanitation are simple. During the Warring Clans era, they become revolutionary. [OC-Insert]

4. Cold Winds Blowing (SB) -  Maia, a young woman without much direction in life, awakes in the snows of the True North beyond the Wall in the year 295 After Conquest. Equipped with a power she barely understands, the Celestial Forge and the endless potential it represents, she struggles to find her own path on the foreign world of Planetos. Will she be wrapped up in the schemes of the great players? Can the best of intentions truly bear out good results, or are they a mere hindrance to true power?

5. Taylor on the Edge of Forever (SB) -  A Worm AU/Star Trek AU where Taylor Hebert has alt powers related to having been in the Star Trek future before being returned to her teenage self in Brockton Bay.

Bonus: Coin and Conformity (SB / AO3) - A man wakes up one day to find that he isn't in his apartment, isn't in his own body, and isn't even on Earth anymore. The language, the geography, the culture, the stars, and even the technology level are all different. Even worse, in this backwards medieval society he had found himself in, he woke up in the body of a woman. A woman who had just given birth to her first child, a son.

[heyitschartic]

Tagged by @vikugnavikugna

coke or pepsi? You know I love coke, but in terms of soda I'll have a diet pepsi.

disney or dreamworks? Dreamworks

coffee or tea? I drink like seven coffees a day

books or movies? BOOKS. I love movies, but books are so fun.

windows or mac? Windows, fuck Mac!!!!!!!

dc or marvel? I don't really like comics in general, but my gf loves the BatFam so I'll go DC

x-box or playstation? Playstation easy

dragon age or mass effect? I don't like either

night owl or early riser? I wake up at 6am every single day

cards or chess? Chess, but I always lose at it

chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate for taste, vanilla for smell

vans or converse? Vans

Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash, or Adaar? Who?????

fluff or angst? You KNOW I love angst

beach or forest? Ooooo I think I have to go forest

dogs or cats? Cats all day (sorry Illidan)

clear skies or rain? I lvoe days with just that slight drizzle of rain

cooking or eating out? Eating out tf??? Who is picking cooking

spicy food or mild food? SPICY

halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas? HALLOWEEN MY FAV HOLIDAY

would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot? I live in Minnesota, I already made that decision

if you could have a superpower, what would it be? I think I'd have to go with Boensaw's power from the hit Canadian web serial Worm

animation or live action? Animation

paragon or renegade? Evil 😈

baths or showers? Baaaaaath, I love a nice bath

team cap or team ironman? Hate Iron man, at least cap is likeable I have never found Tony Stark interesting or entertaining and Captain America just has thay sort of scruffy charm

fantasy or sci-fi? Fantasy

do you have three or four favourite quotes, if so what are they? This would get too long so Ill post one: 'What are we going to do, Dogger?'It seemed a reasonable question. After all he had been through, surely Dogger knew something of hopeless situations. 'We shall wait upon tomorrow,' he said. 'But--what if tomorrow is worse than today?' 'Then we shall wait upon the day after tomorrow.' 'And so forth?' I asked. 'And so forth,' Dogger said.

youtube or netflix? Youtube

[REDACTED] you couldn't get that out of me under torture

when do you feel accomplished? When I accomplish something that I've been working at for a long time, especially something that means a lot to me

star wars or star trek? Star Trek, easily. Star wars is like two good movies and a game, at best

paperback books or hardcover books? Hardcover, nothing feels as good in your hands

to live in a world without literature or without music? Without literature, sorry. I just couldnt live without something to listen and dance to.

who was the last person to make you laugh? Hard to remember, it was either my gf, bug, or Peri

city or countryside? City, I want to have things to do

favorite chips? Salt and vinegar

pants or dresses? Dresses, you can't force me to wear pants anymore

libraries or museums? Museums just because they're so much more of a trip

character driven stories or plot driven stories? Character driven, almost always. That's always the stuff that digs into me more

bookmarks or folding pages? Bookmarks Jesus christ what kind of freak folds pages

Dream job? Honestly, I'm kind of in my dream job already. Doing scientific research on fun and interesting problems every day. If it wasn't that, I think it would be writing. I love writing, but I don't have enough time for it sadly.

What gives you comfort? A good book, a lover's touch, warm blankets and soft animals, the quiet sound of the city waking up, good food and fine alcohol.

what are some of your favorite song lyrics? One for the money, two for the better green 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine

favorite ice cream flavor ever? PEANUT BUTTER that or cookie dough.

first fandom? No surprise but it was the Ranma 1/2 fandom, for obvious reasons a young Chart was ENTHRALLED by that concept

Your desert island band? Otoboke Beaver cause I'd be pissed

As for who I'm tagging.... @cpericardium @bug4932 @skitter-queen @rainfrazier get to work

[power-chords]

I'm late but cavefic for fanfiction tropes. and also omegaverse

I had to come back to these LOL

Cavefic: C-. I appreciate that this trope originates with Star Trek and has apparently been used extensively with the Beauty and the Beast TV series from the eighties. I think someone could do a For Whom The Bell Tolls style Spanish Civil War AU for any number of fandoms I'm into and I'd eat that shit up. But I also have major metropolitan brain worms and I think caves in the wilderness are boring unless they contain ghost doors and can read your mind, or some doomed Jack London character who is about to die for his hubris. As an excuse to get two people to get it on, I prefer more civilized settings.

Omegaverse: F. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF forever, hard no, absolutely not, no fucking way. Not even because it weirds me out but for some reason THIS specifically is the Bridge Too Dumb in a medium of amateur erotica whose standardized currency is some of the dumbest, biologically impossible sex. Grow up and write your faves fucking problematically for normal human reasons that involve gross power imbalances and questionable consent!!! (I love you guys and I'm happy for you but I Just Can't take it seriously At All lmao)

[ramshacklefey]

Oh yes, and in general, these books are an excellent example of "if your characters act like the world is normal, the audience is probably just gonna roll with it."

There's a lot to be said about how/why to make that work, but it mostly boils down to, "Is this something the average reader of this genre is familiar with?" and/or "Is it similar enough to real-world concepts that they'll get the point?"

Governor Module... Hm don't know that one, but 1) it was hacked, so it must be a computer thing and 2) its purpose is pretty obvious from the name and what the character said it can do once it's hacked.

The feed? That's a new word, but okay, it says "entertainment feed" and you can watch shows and stuff with it. That sounds like a kind of internet thing, I know how internet thing works.

Streaming media at work? Everyone knows this! Oh, we can stream media directly in our brains here? Baller.

Giant sand worm? Everyone knows giant sand worm!

There's that feed thing again. Oh we can also send messages using it! Definitely an internet thing.

Laser guns? We fuck with laser guns. Laser guns in arms? Gotcha, character is either a robot or a cyborg, let's keep reading and find out which.

Hopper? New word but obviously a flying vehicle based on what they're doing with it.

Etc.

And really, we see this all over in fantasy and science fiction writing!

Star Trek didn't get around to explaining how warp drive works until TNG, but it's clear from the beginning that it's how spaceships go fast (and remember, this was a pretty new idea at the time).

Teleporter? Ok we've seen stuff where people disappear from one place and reappear somewhere else, now we have a device that does it.

Light saber? No idea how that works, but I know sword and I know light and it's glowing so ok cool.

If something is really new and really strange and really important to the plot, you can go back and give more explanation later. But you can get a loooong way by just. Showing characters using and interacting with things to explain what they are and how they work.

And if you really do need to explain something, a couple sentences will often do, and we can discover more about it as the story goes on.

Jedi?? No idea, but everyone knows knights. Yep and these are good knights, got it. Ohhh, there are evil knights too.

The force? Oh, it gives these Jedi people "powers," so like. Makes them superheroes or wizards. Some kinda magic field. That's neat!

Ah ok, this Darth Vader guy is one of the magic knights. Oh shit he just choked a dude out from across the room! So that's one of the "powers" the Jedi have.

(Martha Wells takes this to an extreme, but also by almost never explaining exactly how anything works, she leaves herself open to just go, "Oh yeah it does this too, but it can't do that" later on in the story.)

An important writing lesson I'm taking away from Murderbot is that you don't always have to ease your readers into the world and the characters and speculative concepts. Sometimes you can just start with the fun part where there's a sandworm trying to eat someone and that's fine too.

[littleclover]

I just made a eyeball move around in live2d and I literally feel like GOD!!!

Everytime I complete a beginner friendly project I feel so powerful!

It's like I could move mountains with my brain+keyboard+mouse...

I'm not even kidding this is why I am always stuck with a thousand unfinished projects, I just feel so powerful when I am doing something and it works that when I hit a roadblock I instantly feel so powerless! It's like that one star trek episode where Kirk's buddy gets hit with God mode and he is all like "haha im literally god lol" and then Kirk hits him with a roadblock in the form of crushing his mortal vessel with a small rock the size of a gigantic rock which is exactly how I feel.

Anyways... I asked the worm man if I have a God complex but he said I apologize too much and that I'm too nice to have a God complex, but idk... sometimes I feel like a Gary Mitchell... like I guess it's hard to have a true God complex when I have a cringefail personality...

[artbyblastweave]

In terms of Worm’s larger deconstructive project, I’ve always sort of pattern-matched New Wave/The Brockton Bay Brigade to The Fantastic Four. Not necessarily to the internal family dynamic itself; there’s no one-to-one there, besides the fact that they’re both crimefighting families- but to the celebrity element. An examination of what would happen, what would go wrong if you had a public-facing family of crime fighters, no secret identities.

There’s very little money in it, for one thing; Ward establishes that unlike the Fantastic Four, the Dallon-Pelhams have a hard time monetizing their situation, soliciting donations and relying on their out-of-costume careers to make ends meet. No super scientists extorting Proctor-and-Gamble here. 

Panacea loosely covers the “why don’t they change the world with their superscience” bit- because it would lead to burnout, put too much descision-making power in the hands of one fallible person, and lead to someone who’s both guilty about not doing enough and resentful of how much of their time is monopolized by helping people to try and feel less guilty.

Glory Girl covers the perverse incentives you’d see if you had maskless, “publicly accountable” heroes; if your whole image is tied up in being a wholesome family that plays by the rules to earn people’s trust, you’re incentivized to go to unethical lengths to cover up your missteps, and being “publicly accountable” is kinda just code for being able to effectively swing celebrity power and institutional connections around like a cudgel.

The situation with Fleur and Lightstar is another example of the “public-facing-family” dynamic turning sour, and actually pattern-matches pretty closely to a problem the FF have dealt with at numerous points, including during Civil War when The Human Torch was attacked by a mob in his civilian identity. If you operate without secret identities, people can hunt you down when you’re out of costume and murder your uncostumed ass, and turn you into an example as to why nobody should follow your lead in unmasking. (For a long time, the FF were some of the only heroes without secret identities not because they were making a statement, but because the circumstances of their empowerment made it too hard to get away with what they were doing.)

Now, the thing is that there’s a big and obvious way in which New Wave doesn’t map to the Fantastic Four, and it’s a pretty foundational one; the Fantastic Four are scientists, explorers and adventurers. Structurally speaking, their stories hew closer to Lost in Space or Star Trek than they do to a lot of conventional cape stories. They’re specialists who you call to look at the latest weird science thing. They’re the vanguard you send through a portal to see what’s on the other side. You send them to open relations with Wakanda and Atilla and The Savage Land, and they’re the perfect people to send because of their (or at least Reeds) genuine sense wonder and love of discovery and their disdain for political intrigue in favor of collaboration and SCIENCE! The crime fighting is ancillary, something they do as it comes up or becomes immoral to ignore, but it’s not their charter.

This is something Worm doesn’t model as precisely. You get close-ish with Toybox, the extradimensional Tinker Think Tank, but there’s no group that serves the same function the FF does as a public-facing adventure-research institute staffed by parahumans. This is something that’s actually much easier to imagine forming during the Ward era, due to the thinning of dimensional walls, the increased accessability of Shardspace, and the deaths of Mannequin and Simurgh and everyone else who was making a point of wiping out would-be Reed Richards. It still wouldn’t line up perfectly, because a big part of the FF is that they were the first, the foundationals, the first spark of wonder the world had seen in years. But a “go-where-no-man-has-gone-before” team in the Ward era really would round out the archetype!

[theromanticrationalist]

Discovery 4x01 Kobayashi Maru

Wow.

That actually turned out way better of an episode than I had expected! I wasn’t really into it at the beginning, but as the story unfolded, it become so much more compelling. That ending. Absolutely chilling and devastating. Space is brutal, yo.

Discovery Season 3 finale left me with a lot of mixed, disappointed feelings, but what they’ve introduced here could make up for it if they follow through with what they are promising. I really want to see them build Michael into the character I know she can become, but first she must deal with a lot of her core issues and suppressed trauma. I absolutely LOVE President Rillak’s inclusion in the story and the challenge she presents to Michael. That whole last conversation between the two of them, as Rillak reveals her true intention for joining the Discovery on their mission, and her brutally honest assessment of Michael’s weaknesses as a Captain was SPOT ON. This is the kind of stuff I love to see in my Star Trek. To me the celebration of diversity isn’t just about working together, but it is about “iron sharpening iron.” It is about pushing each other to become our better selves through the give and take, through the controversy and the conflict, through the disagreements, through the weaknesses and the failures, and how one chooses to learn from those failures. Star Trek hasn’t always been consistently great with this concept, but I think it is a powerful thread of the franchise. I am excited that this what they are promising for this season! Yes! Let’s really put Michael through the wringer, as she has never truly learned yet the lesson of her Vulcan Hello - she is still acting out of those same impulses.

Of course can I just say SARU MY CAPTAIN. I lovedlovedlovedloved the scenes with him on Kaminar! I love the Kelpians, their culture and their race, and it was exciting to see how they’ve developed over the centuries. Of course, it was beautiful. Loved the design of their counsel chamber! But truly I loved his moment with Su'Kal, and how the young Kelpian was sharing such wisdom to Saru, to help him understand that he needn’t struggle between his love for his people and his love for Starfleet, that Saru can find that balance within himself. Saru too still has a lot of undealt with trauma because of his having to leave Kaminar, his people, in the dark (for a time) while he went on to live in the light. That’s pretty traumatic!

I think if season 3 had made this internal struggle much clearer in Saru and not make the narrative feel like Saru and Michael were at odds in competition for Discovery, then I wouldn’t have felt so resentful that they gave Michael Discovery over Saru. They really made it seem like Saru was somehow not fit to be Captain because of his heart was divided between his two loves, which is 1000% not even the case. It would have been more apt to focus on what does Saru actually want, does he truly want to be Captain? Because clearly he is more than qualified - even more so than Michael at this point. But they seem like this is what they’ll be focusing on this season for Saru and I am excited!

Dude, I want to live here! Look at all the gorgeous colors and shapes! A kind of space-goth under-the-sea aesthetic. So cool.

Well, we shall see what this new challenge and mystery brings for our Discovery crew! I hope it is amazing!

Oh, I love my precious little worm child. Adira is always standout for me. She is SO stink’in cute! She is like the Chekhov of the group!

[justanothergaymess]

Star Trek DS9 - First thoughts after the first episode

Might also be the first two? Netflix labels it as a part 1&2 but they are like, connected?

- My DS9 mutuals made me believe that this was a romantic story between Liquid Man and Quark. I am not getting that impression yet. This isn’t a homoerotic slashfic, this is a treatise on politics

- Last time I interacted with Star Trek in any meaningful capacity was at the age of 14 when some obscure German television channel ran dubbed episodes of TNG. I didn’t pick up on it back then but they certainly made some heavy choices in the writing of the Ferengi. I hope I am just imagining things but it feels really bad

- Liquid Man looks like my grandfather on my father’s side. I do not like that. Also, the only major spoilers I have for this show is that he is like a quadrupel agent or something? Don’t know what I think about him

- Xiomara was so goddamn spot on when she said I would love Kira. Exactly the stuff my blorbos are made out of. Firstly, she is hot, and secondly, she is correct; why should the Bajorans shed the Cardassian occupation just to subject themselves to the hegemony of the Federation? The only meaningful difference between the Federation and the Cardassians is that one has intense soft power and the others have hard power. I know this is a Star Trek show so the Federation have to be the good guys and Kira will slowly learn to trust and at the end of the show be in support of the Bajorans joining the Federation. But! If TNG is anything to go on, a third to half of the main cast will inevitably end up with evil clones/models of the same design/parallel universe selfs as the show goes on. Can I get an “evil” alternate universe Kira that blows up Federation Ships and breaks Picard’s nose or something. Please. As a treat.

- Speaking of Picard; I have only watched TNG in German and since then, I have only heard Patrick Stewarts voice as Uriel Septim and (in my memory more importantly) Richard III. So. Uh. Weird. I can’t trust this voice after hearing it speak so many wonderfully evil Shakespearean monologues.

- Speaking of Captains, my goddesses, is Sisko acted well. Genuinely surprised how good he portrays the emotions of a traumatized, grieving man trying to outrun the call of destiny. I am just afraid that your name is one of the first to appear in the intro, good captain; you can’t deny the call, I am afraid. “You exist here” and “It is not linear” got to me.

- Sisko called Worm Lady “old man” and she is now a genderqueer transfem in my mind.

- Genuinely positive reaction to Kira shutting down the doctor for romanticizing “frontier medicine”. I love her. She should be allowed to break more people’s noses. I am not sure if this show will manage to meaningfully address the colonial narratives imbued in the original Star Trek but at least we get that moment.

- O’Brien becoming permanent cast member is nice but! I feel this station could profit from an openly slutty bisexual. Send Riker, too.

- One of my mutuals has Gul Dukat as a pfp and hm. I mean he is as pompous as he is pathetic and could become an interesting character but just like Liquid Man I am not seeing it yet

- Not to be a lesbian but Kira’s nose...

[whydoeseverythinghurt]

Someone tell me Lower Decks gets better

Edit: So I am hearing good things from very angry people, and I think that means that it’s fine.

I know that a lot of people like Lower Decks, and I think in isolation, I would be one of them, but this is supposed to be Star Trek, right? I like Rick and Morty’s particular brand cynicism, and hopelessness, and I know a lot of the people working on Lower Decks come from there, but that just isn’t Star Trek.

Disclaimer: I only saw the first episode, so most of this can be discounted if that isn’t an accurate depiction of the show as a whole.

Star Trek started off as a ‘perfect’ utopian future, that was about what its creators thought we should aspire to. But from the get go we are shown that there are many issues with it, and that it is a utopia because someone is always fighting against the bad actors, working to improve life, and deal with all those issues. Star Trek is about reform from the inside.

Kirk and Spock both think the Admiralty, the Starfleet Code of Conduct and even the Prime Directive are needlessly restrictive, so what do they do? They find loopholes.

Spock tells Commodore Decker that he won’t stand for the endangerment of the crew, and if he wants to call it mutiny he can do so the second they get back to civilization, where Spock will be allowed to plead his case. Kirk is told that all the Court Martial business can be swept under the rug if he’s willing to give up his pride, and he says no. He forces them to have to go through the process, so that he can plead his case, but also to demonstrate that the system should work, it shouldn’t ignore issues.

Picard and River find out that the Admiralty are being controlled by worms, and take it upon themselves to stop the damage that they are doing. (Such a Star Trek sentence, I know.)

Deep Space Nine as it progresses makes the show about how the ‘utopia’ is based on colonialist ideals, and leaves behind the most vulnerable in society. In the beginning this is done with the justification that if they help the people suffering and being discriminated against, then they may lose a potential ally, or gain an enemy. The government decides that it isn’t worth the risk, and let’s people suffer.

But Deep Space Nine is not just as amazing as it is because of the Holocaust metaphors, its also because it pushes at the moral fabric of the Federation. It asks the question “What happens when push comes to shove, and your perfect society descends into war?” And it shows the fallout, and it shows the toll on people’s lives, and it shows that even when you aren’t living in a perpetual state of war it’s very difficult to go back.

Voyager asks “What happens when no one is looking? What happens when all you have are your ideals and morals that come from a society you are no longer attached to (that we as the audience know, no longer exists)? Do you sacrifice your morals so that you can get back to your utopia? In fact, do you sacrifice your ideals for your utopia as a whole. Or would sacrificing them make it something other than a utopia?”

Haven’t seen all of them yet, so: Discovery says “What happens when you make the wrong moral judgment (or depending on interpretation, the right one, but no one allows you to go far enough)? What happens when you are the scapegoat that they blame an entire war, on? Even one that has brewing since before you were born. What do you do when they place the blame squarely on your shoulders, and solely at your feet? What do you do when the one person who gave you a chance to prove yourself turned out to be lying the entire time, and actually wanted you to be what everyone else thought you were? 

“What do you do afterwards? How you trust someone again after that kind of betrayal? What do you do when some goodie two shoes, who has never seen the horror that you have, comes waltzing in and trying to apply their morals to your life? How could they possibly win your trust?” That one gets a definitive answer, they show their convictions, even when no one is watching, they say, “we have to do the right thing.”

It goes on to ask several others, (from what I know) which are in some ways similar to later seasons of Deep Space Nine, “What do you do when the utopia you loved and fought and bled, and that people died for, is gone? How willing are you to fight to get it back?”

Lower Decks introduces a character who sees the moral failings of Starfleet, shows them to other people and then encourages them to give up, and not try to make the situation better. They have influence, and could easily seize power, but what do they do? Nothing. They watch as people who should not be in charge remain in power and do nothing about it, and discourage anyone who wants to try. They don’t want things to be different, they want to rebel against their parents. And that’s it, not corrupt institutions, not bad protocols, or worse people in charge. They want their parents to notice them.

That is not Star Trek. Star Trek is about hope in the most dire of circumstances. It’s about persevering and going against the odds, even when you know you’re probably going to die anyway, but you still have to try. 

It is about not just fighting for yourself, but for your family, your people, your crew, caring about the faceless and the nameless, the ‘lesser’, those that cannot fight for themselves. Standing up to and against the institutions which did the wrong thing, which did not protect the people they should have. (The waters get muddy with the different framings of the maquis, but you are meant to be sympathetic to their ideas, and morals, if nothing else.)

Nihilism has its place in Star Trek, (a cynical outlook can be seen as one of the most common character traits across series.) Existential dread has its place too, but it has to be tempered with that hope. And that hope isn’t unwavering, in fact most characters at one point or another lose it, briefly or for longer periods of time, but in those moments they rely on those around them to keep the faith. They continually pass the torch of whose responsibility it is. One of the most important things is that there is always someone who has hope. 

And I would probably like Lower Decks if it seemed at all willing to explore the idea, “Well, what do you do when hope is completely lost? What do you do what there is no one left? And the thing you love is a shell of either what it used to be, or what it aspired to?”

Instead, all that is left of a green character who has never encountered that adversity and has their ideals forcefully beaten out of them. The central authority in their life tells them how they are wrong to cling to them (and then that person is demonstrated to be right.) I would be interesting to see the story if they wished to explore a slow dawning realization that hope is really lost, or even asked, “What do you do when there is nothing to hope for? And no one left to have that hope?”

To me it seems like they heard about Star Trek from parodies, and wanted to make jokes, so they set its central themes on fire, and then didn’t want to explore the implications. Just play in its dead carcass, and don’t you dare think about what it once was.

I know that Enterprise had its issues, but most people say that it improved greatly with the last season (besides the last episode), and say that it could have done more and been better if the network would have just kept it around a bit longer. People have their criticisms of Discovery and Picard, but I get the impression that they truly are labors of love.

Lower Decks gives me the feeling that it is just a blatant cash grab made by people who didn’t know, or understand the property and just had to do something with it. I know that their is diversity in the series, but I wish that I could say definitively that that the woman in the burka was actually meant to show the same sentiments as Chekhov in the Original Series. (As I remember seeing someone suggest as a viable option for how the New movies could handle Anton Yelchin’s death.) My thoughts right now is that it’s just an attitude of “Well, Star Trek is about diversity in thought, culture, and race, so we should make the characters diverse, because it’s a utopian future, right?” With no intention to to continue the way of dealing with current issues through allegory.

I hope I’m wrong. As far as I know it is a good show, but right now I don’t think it’s a good Star Trek one. 

(Although again take that with a grain of salt, because I have seen so little, and I didn’t particularly like the Orville, or what I’ve seen of it. Mostly, because it felt clunky, unnatural, boring and like they took half remembered plot points/storylines and placed new characters into them. The heart was there, but the thought didn’t seem to be.)

Tl;dr: Can someone tell me if Lower Decks has the characters fight back against Starfleet, or the bad elements in it? Or even if it explores why that isn’t an option? Why they have lost all hope?

[fictionz]

New Fiction 2022 - May

"The Ghost Birds" by Karen Russell (2021)

You see them when you look away.

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "1 Kings" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Saul done fucked up and all of Israel pays the price. God really loves an underdog though, helping David survive and accrue power on the sidelines as he gets built up to be the good king.

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "2 Kings" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

This is some real Game of Thrones-ass Bible with the fallout from Saul's death and David's coming and going as he keeps having to fight off the Philistines and others. And I thought Kings was a 2-parter but now you're telling me there's ANOTHER TWO chapters of king-making?

Dracula Daily - "May" by Bram Stoker & ed. Matt Kirkland (1897)

My good friend Jonathan Harker is having a rough start to his summer.

"Gorn Trek" by dux (2022)

All of Star Trek is poorer for having not received a TV series following the continued journeys of Gorn.

Outer Wilds - "Echoes of the Eye" dev. Mobius Digital (2021)

I was sour over being made to dwell in the dark, but I understand now. The rest of it bowled me over and now I’ll gladly replay those segments with more appreciation. I can’t get enough of conspiracy board gameplay.

Aperture Desk Job dev. Valve (2022)

Yep, Valve needs to make more games.

Sitting dir. Emily Yoshida (2017)

Hold my hand and tell me of yesterday.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness dir. Sam Raimi (2022)

Like: it's so weird and VERY Sam Raimi horror-goof. Dislike: too many moving parts and definitely hindered by MCU tie-in fluff. EEAAO is my multiverse of choice this season.

The Ancestral dir. Le-Van Kiet (2022)

You can’t run away when you’re chasing.

Petite Maman dir. Céline Sciamma (2022)

An understanding achieved is the greatest moment.

Firestarter dir. Keith Thomas (2022)

Control was the illusion. Now it’s chaos we seek.

Eraserhead dir. David Lynch (1977)

Motile horrors.

Videodrome dir. David Cronenberg (1983)

Ah, yes, absolutely long live the new flesh.

Men dir. Alex Garland (2022)

You almost got there.

Crash dir. David Cronenberg (1996)

Meet me on I-5 and I’ll show you something sweet.

The Bob's Burgers Movie dir. Loren Bouchard & Bernard Derriman (2022)

A feature-length pace isn’t always the way.

Goosebumps - "Stay Out of the Basement" (1996)

You know you shouldn’t go back for the dog.

Goosebumps - "Monster Blood" (1996)

Leave Aunt Kathryn to her hi-jinks.

Goosebumps - "Let's Get Invisible" (1996)

If we’re in it together then it might not be so bad.

Goosebumps - "The Girl Who Cried Monster" (1995)

Self-defeating prophecies.

Goosebumps - "The Ghost Next Door" (1998)

An eternity of repayment.

Goosebumps - "Be Careful What You Wish For" (1996)

Leave good endings alone when you bring them to TV.

Goosebumps - "The Werewolf of Fever Swamp" (1996)

If a howl works, take it.

Goosebumps - "You Can't Scare Me" (1996)

The perfect girl is real actually.

Goosebumps - "One Day at Horrorland" (1997)

You had to take it too far.

Goosebumps - "More Monster Blood" (1996)

A light jaunt through 1970s TV set design.

Goosebumps - "Scarecrow Walks at Midnight" (1996)

Nope.

Goosebumps - "Go Eat Worms" (1996)

Perhaps the most awful notion.

Goosebumps - "Ghost Beach" (1996)

Just stick to nice hotels.

Goosebumps - "Return of the Mummy" (1995)

Story so nice they did it twice.

Goosebumps - "Phantom of the Auditorium" (1995)

Not the dark and handsome stranger you’re looking for.

Como Dice el Dicho - "Muerto el perro se acabó la rabia" (2019)

Except I wouldn’t even want a dog.