#unique problem solving each episode. every side character feels like an individual like a real person you'd meet at school

[bunnymajo]

*thinks about the events of Ojamajo Doremi for a few minutes*

*immediately wants to cry*

[rebelsofshield]

Star Wars Thrawn: Treason-Review

Timothy Zahn closes out the newest Thrawn trilogy with a mixed tale of intrigue and divided loyalties.

(Review Contains Minor Spoilers)

Grand Admiral Thrawn has been called away from Lothal. Just as the campaign against the local rebels begins to heat up, the future of the Chiss admiral’s pet project, the TIE Defender is called into question. Director Orson Krennic is jockeying for some of the Defender’s funding for his own mysterious project, Stardust, and Imperial higher ups such as Grand Moff Tarking and even the Emperor himself are all too willing to pit these men against each other. However, when a series of accidents begin to set Stardust behind schedule, Tarkin proposes a wager. If Thrawn is able to solve the cause of these incidents within an allotted period of time, he will secure the funding for his program. He agrees, but in the process unearths an unexpected conspiracy not only connected to the Empire but to the Chiss Ascendancy and his former protégé, Eli Vanto.

It has been a special treat for Star Wars fans seeing veteran franchise writer, Timothy Zahn, return to reimagine his signature creation for the newest era of the saga. Zahn’s first of this latest batch of Thrawn novels, simply titled Thrawn, proved to be one of the best novels in the current canon and offered an air of legitimacy to the Chiss’s introduction to the Star Wars animated show, Rebels. Zahn reimagined Thrawn as an atypical protagonist, a shining beacon of competence in a sea of Imperial prejudice and bureaucracy. This continued into the novel’s follow up, Thrawn: Alliances, which saw the titular character teaming up with Darth Vader in the present while flashing back to a Clone Wars era mission with Padme and Anakin. While not reaching the heights of its predecessor, Alliances still shined with its fun character mashups. However, with the third installment in this makeshift trilogy, the cracks with this latest batch of Thrawn novels are beginning to show.

The largest narrative flaw with Thrawn: Treason is a quandary that has slowly become more and more prevalent with each passing entry in Zahn’s reimagining of this character: Thrawn simply does not make for an interesting protagonist. Part of what has always made Thrawn such a thrilling antagonist in his original Expanded Universe appearances and later in Star Wars Rebels was his impenetrable mind and analytical approach to combat. Thrawn was always three steps ahead of our heroes and approached tasks with a logic that was both alien but also brutally practical. Zahn with these novels has had the unenviable task of translating this form of malevolent super-intelligence into an entertaining and compelling lead character.

The result has been the more or less refashioning of the Grand Admiral into a sort of alien Sherlock Holmes. Zahn has structured all three of his novels as a sequence of problems and conflicts that require Thrawn’s uniquely capable solutions. Thrawn proved most successful at this by not only making the titular character an underdog of rationality in the petty and flawed bureaucracy of the Empire, but also focusing the narrative through his protégé Eli Vanto. Eli’s modest goals and everyman persona made for a relatable step into Thrawn’s alien worldview and helped guide Zahn’s procedural narrative. Beginning Alliances in a season of power, Thrawn’s only real barrier was stripped away. While its flashback sequences offered an atypical Clone Wars adventure with a fun team up, its present day narrative suffered through a seemingly unflappable Thrawn and a frustratingly clueless Darth Vader sidekick.

What was once his greatest feature, Thrawn’s competence becomes Treason’s biggest failure. Zahn keeps Thrawn’s alien nature and intelligence but jettisons any menace or personal flaw and in the process creates a sterile and boringly successful protagonist. While Zahn does his best to populate the novel with an eclectic supporting ensemble, Treason cannot shake the fact that its primary protagonist lacks any sort of narrative or emotional tension. Zahn continues to write Thrawn as the brilliant mind able to outthink everyone else in the room, but in this case it robs any scene of suspense or even genuine conflict. Thrawn’s success rate is close to pristine and never once does one feel worried about his success or his crew.

Zahn also seems oddly unwilling to challenge Thrawn on a personal level as well. This proves especially odd given that the marketed point for this novel was supposedly testing Thrawn’s loyalty to the Empire when faced with the presence of the Chiss Ascendancy. While characters do occasionally raise this question to the Grand Admiral, he never quite crosses over into any territory that would cause the reader to question where he may side. It hints towards a larger problem in that this current take on the character never really strays morally or ethically. At times it feels almost as if Zahn has forgotten that Thrawn was originally depicted as an antagonist. The clinical brutality present in Rebels or Heir to the Empire is absent, replaced with a hyper-capable and empathetic force devoid of flaw or challenge. It’s done the cardinal sin for any signature character and made them boring.

This is not to say that Treason is a completely disposable read. Despite its utterly dull approach to its central character, the novel does offer an enjoyable military science-fiction mystery. Zahn crafts a fun “down the rabbit-hole” narrative that starts with a relatively innocuous task and rapidly evolves into a conspiracy that involves three galactic governments and the upper levels of the Empire. While there are a few narrative jumps that are fairly hard to track, there is a fun feeling of trying to keep up with Thrawn’s logic and solve the mystery alongside him. The general plot structure in a way almost feels more akin to a Star Trek episode. The concerns of intergalactic politics, procedure, and individual alien culture are highly important to the story and don’t feel that far away from the sort of issues that might beleaguer the crew of the Enterprise. Come to think of it, Zahn’s Thrawn is rapidly becoming a less fun version of Spock.

Lore hounds are sure to appreciate the further unveiling of the culture of the Chiss Ascendancy and their enemies, the mysterious Grysk. Zahn keeps the details sparse but intriguing, teasing out reveals of information through his various point of view characters and the plot points of the novel’s key mystery. While it clearly will not happen given Thrawn’s near “Lost In Space-status” and the collapse of the Empire, the idea of Palpatine’s government having to successfully navigate conflict with two other capable civilizations is an interesting one and is fertile ground for future storytelling.

The true stars of Treason prove to be the novel’s supporting cast, of which newcomer Vice Director Brierly Ronan steals the show. Designed as Director Orson Krennic’s right hand man, Ronan is both a delightful piece of dramatic irony and a welcome wild card to the tidy plotting of Treason. Ronan’s pure adoration of Krennic is an enjoyably playful in-joke to Star Wars fans who know how petulant and self-absorbed the man can be and it makes for a refreshingly different world view. His shifting loyalties and mostly self-motivated goals also throw a needed wrench into Thrawn’s endless planning and deducing and frequently upend conflicts and turn them into new directions. He quickly becomes a character that one loves to hate and also a much needed narrative catalyst at the same time. His presence into every scene demands not only an eye roll but attention and what more could you want from a minor antagonist.

It also helps that Ronan becomes a fun foil for returning character, Eli Vanto. Eli’s good natured support of Thrawn and accidental importance proved to be the heart of Zahn’s first novel in this series and, once again, Eli is a standout. Eli enters Treason with the most dramatic baggage and carries with him some of the most personal stakes of the narrative. Having abandoned the Empire by request of Thrawn at the end of the previous novel, Eli now not only spends his days amongst an alien civilization that doesn’t understand him (in an amusing detail, the Chiss rewrite his name to make sense for their own culture turning him into El’ivant’o), but also with knowing the fact that his old home and family regard him as a deserter and traitor. It forces Eli to cover his tracks when dealing with the Empire but also still strive to impress and survive amongst the relative coldness of the Chiss. The dynamic transforms him and Thrawn into a two person bridge between governments and revives that enjoyable master/student dynamic that made Thrawn such a pleasure.

Treason proves to be a frustrating read as a whole. Its plot is entertaining enough and its supporting characters easily carry the reader through its length, but Zahn’s glass hands approach to his signature character is threatening to undermine what made these projects so fun to begin with. Perhaps the relatively truncated in-universe timeline of this story proved a detriment? There’s really only so much that can be done with the character between the span of a few episodes of Rebels. Regardless, if Zahn ever does get the chance to return to this character, we will need to see him challenged more. Let him make mistakes, let him be a little evil, and let him have something, anything at all, to strive for. As it is, Thrawn is starting to feel like a favorite toy, and nothing more.

Score: C

[2fiskekaker]

Why Skam means a lot to me

Skam is over. It has been a journey, an adventure. This is one of the most ambivalent feelings I have experienced in my years on this planet. I’m so thankful for everything. I’m so thankful that I discovered Skam 10 months ago and got to experience all these things. However, I’m also incredibly sad and it leaves a terrible void in my heart knowing that the last clip ever now has been released. 

It sounds weird but the release of season 3 is already an incredibly nostalgic feeling to me. Back then what feels like a hundred years ago, I didn’t know what this series would do to me, would mean to me. For the course of season 3, I dedicated my life to the show. All week I would spend an unhealthy amount of time doing Skam related stuff on the internet. By the end of the week, I would re-watch the clips in the full episode in an almost religious way. I would turn off my phone, dim all lights except a couple of candles and then watch the episode on the big screen with all my focus. 

Because of this I almost got annoyed by how my friends watched the show. They would watch an episode in the middle of being on their phone, while eating, doing other stuff, or right before going to work etc. This was so far from how I watched the show myself. I needed several hours afterwards to process and discuss the episode online. I think that this is related to how I felt (feel) deeply connected to Isak. I felt like I was Isak and that I could acquaint with his problems on a deeper level. So when my friends watched the show in a more superficial and entertaining manner (which is probably perfectly normal) I would get annoyed because I felt like it was my life and my problems. And by that, it felt like they didn’t care about my life or my problems, which probably isn’t true. I felt like everything was directed at me. I took it personally. 

Days went by with endless updates of the website hoping for an update. I used hours discussing and reading discussions in the Danish fan group “Kosegruppa DK”. I read analyses, theories, recaps, articles. I watched the news in Norwegian, I watched other tv shows from Norway. The real-time aspect made it real for me. I had to live Isak’s life as well as my own. I have felt hopeless, happy, relieved, hurt, angry, sad, in love. I had never been this paralysed by a tv-show before. A tv-show which paused my real life. Some people would probably suggest that I needed help when I say that nothing, nothing in my own life was more important to me than Skam was in the autumn of 2016. I spent time learning Norwegian, despite it being mutually intelligible with Danish, my native language. I listened to Norwegian radio, to train my understanding of spoken Norwegian. I read random news articles out loud to train speaking Norwegian. I borrowed a 600-page book about Norway and Denmark’s common past in history. I even looked up how to move to Norway and the requirements to obtain citizenship for citizens from the other Scandinavian countries. 

That is, I have been planning and living a life that wasn’t my own. Skam has made me realise a lot of things and has made me learn a lot about other people. I don’t think that any tv-show ever will be able to make me philosophise and think about my own life, and what is wrong about it, in the same way Skam has. This is, of course, being emphasised when I see the characters’ relationships. I know that I never will experience that type of love you do when you are a teenager. Time has simply gone by. I know that I won’t experience the freedom and unity of living with my friends in a commune. Both because of being too old, but also because I’m not even entirely sure that I have any friends that would want to do it with me. I know that I won’t experience having been growing up in a capital city with everything that comes with it. And lastly, I know that I won’t ever get a life where school is just a side-issue and the friends, drama, parties, and problems are the main focus. These are things that remind me of how my own life is and why I would rather have another, why I want to escape sometimes.

Of course, it’s not healthy to live in a parallel universe but Skam has relieved some of the pain of living, in a way that no other thing ever has, whatsoever. And when you get updates every single day during the season, then it’s just even easier to live through someone else. I feel like I probably wasn’t suitable to watch Skam in real-time, especially in season three, because of the fact that I invested myself so deeply. I adopted the show and integrated it in my own life in a way that made me mentally exhausted. The thing is that Skam’s realtime concept mimics the same brain functions that are responsible for the development of mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression occurs when the individual speculates for several hours each day for months. It’s not the negative thoughts themselves that create depression. It’s all the hours of handling and speculating about them that does. And this is exactly what the realtime experience of Skam recreated. Each day you spend hours thinking about the characters, discussing them online, reading about them, thinking about them etc. I spent at least 6 hours a day thinking about Skam which evidently made my mood drop, because all that thinking made me hate my own life.

But now it’s over. And as much as I adore all of the seasons, I will particularly miss Isak. I’m already tearing up just by the thought of having to let you go. When I realise you aren’t even real it causes me to shed actual tears. You feel so real and the boundaries of what is real and what is not have partially been erased. I believed every word you spoke, every face expressed, every feeling felt. I have laughed at every joke cracked and cried whenever things were too much. I feel like I’m saying goodbye to something important, something with great meaning, something real. It has been one hell of a ride and I’m beyond thankful for getting to follow you on this amazing journey. You have gone from a young insecure boy with incipient feelings that you didn’t know how to express and a difficult situation at home that you didn’t know how to handle, to a strong, clever, and brave young man that is capable of facing challenges as well as loving and be loved. You went from backstabbing your friends out of desperation and despair to someone who is there and stands up for their friends. We have had the delicate honour of following you through some of the most important moments of your life. The moments where you realised who you are. When you dared to be you and dared to be loved. When Even saved you and you saved him back. And all of this has been the most beautiful story ever told. Season three provoked feelings that I never thought I was capable of feeling from a TV show. It was a magical period of time now stored safely in the lands of nostalgia. You have meant more to me than most actual human beings in the real world do. I’m certain that there are next to no other fictional 18-year-old boys who has meant this much to the world. You will always have a special place in my heart and live on there for many years to come. I will love you. As a little brother. As a good friend. As someone I used to be. As who I am. Thank you Isak, you are absolutely beautiful. And thank you Julie Andem for creating an alternative and better world. Thank you for creating a world that I have been able to live in for the past 10 months and escape to when the real world became a little too much. The autumn of 2016 will forever be nostalgic and a sad yet happy memory of something incredible. 

The endings of season 3 and 4 respectively are masterpieces. For some reason, I didn’t have the highest expectations to the ending of season three, but the final week was beautiful and beyond satisfying. Isak and Even were together and were pretty public about it already back then. Sonja and Emma had accepted how things were. As this was before season four I also took note of the fact that Sana gave Isak a Christmas present. This was such a good parallel to the first couple of episodes in season three and showed what kind of friendship they had developed and symbolically the friendship between religions. Magnus and Vilde hooked up which we had been rooting for and provided some nice comic relief. If you think back, the whole of season three was unique in how little all of the other characters were involved. For the same reason, it was such a weird yet welcome feeling to finally see the girl group united again. This also applies to the end. The conversation between Isak and Eva. This might be one of my favourite things. I personally had hoped for just this to happen and when I saw Eva sit down next to Isak I screamed. Remember how we hadn’t seen Eva for so long at that time. This scene just made a complete circle of Isak and Eva’s friendship to me and was so important and beautiful. It completed Isak’s transformation. That’s why I was glad that Eva got to accompany Isak in finishing his season, even though many argued that it should be Even. But the vulnerable and beautiful parallel to season one was just too important. And last but now least we got the words “Alt er love” that reminded us how Isak and Even got each other in the end. When you look back this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but we have to remember how many of us were dissolved from the angst and we needed this as a reassurance that everything was going to be okay. This is why I love the ending of season three. It is happy, but not excessively happy in the Hollywood way. No loose ends. 

The ending of season four is for what it is, brilliantly solved by Julie Andem. I’m incredibly thankful for getting all these tiny little clips from all the other characters. It is, of course, bittersweet because we all wanted to see most of them in their own seasons. But sometimes you just have to stop while the going is good. I was devastated when I watched Vilde’s clip. The things she has to do with the finances, the medicine and so on is beyond what anyone should have to do while growing up and it tears my heart out. Not least when I think about what a beautiful season this could have become. Chris(tina)’s clip also surprised me. The comic relief was to be expected however this also showed us another side of her. The serious side of not feeling good enough around your friends, but also pressure around money. If we fast forward to the very final clip, I immediately started crying when Chris reached out to Vilde which I didn’t expect. Back to the week, I loved Even’s clip as well for obvious reasons. His story could be told so beautifully. We finally got to see that “everything isn’t always love” in the form of slurs which I think is important. “Kjære Sana”. This clip was just the essence of Skam. I think it was evident that nobody had the point of view, which really emphasised that the ending was near. My emotions already messed with my tear ducts when I saw the Oslo cinematography and the beautiful soundtrack. I love that Julie Andem included meta comments about Even working at kaffebrenneriet, she included stuff from a fan fiction, she included comments from different fan groups. William was smiling, Isak and Even were cute and looked like husbands, Sana looked gorgeous, there was soundtrack from season one, Eva and Jonas might end up together and the clip was released at the IRL time of sunset in Oslo. The fact that Jonas ended Skam, just pleases my brain in all ways imaginable. The circle is ultimately completed. He began Skam with a speech and ended it with one as well. As he spoke we switched to see a screen being filmed. We switched to our point of view. It was just so beautiful and his voice is perfect for emphasising the main points about how everything is not always what it seems. People and things change. Sometimes you have to feel what is right for you. People fight battles you know nothing about. Life is now. But what is most important is love.

[rhetoricandlogic]

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

While I loved Greek mythology as a kid, I had no idea that The Iliad existed. My first proper introduction to the story of Achilles and the fall of Troy was actually the 2004 film. It’s a treat, and one that you owe yourself; it’s half an interesting take on the story (pushing the realism angle) and half an enjoyably bad big budget movie (HECTOR! just… HECTOR!). Troy’s release coincided with a few years where my preteen self was obsessed with seeking out representations of queer men in media, so, naturally, the story of Achilles and Patroclus became near and dear to my heart. (“In conclusion: cousin.”) It’s been almost a decade, but picking up The Song of Achilles brought back the days when I despaired over ever getting my hands on a copy of Velvet Goldmine.

The Song of Achilles tells the story of the Trojan War through the eyes of Patroclus, Achilles’ childhood companion and lover. Patroclus, the son of a minor king, is an awkward and ungainly prince. When he accidentally kills another boy, he is exiled to the court of King Peleus and becomes close with the prince, the half-god Achilles. The two spend an idyllic childhood and adolescence with each other, but when they come of age, the Trojan War breaks out. Achilles is destined to either win glory and death at Troy or live a long and forgettable life. Achilles picks the former, and Patroclus won’t let let him go alone, even if that is the fondest wish of Achilles’ mother, Thetis, who despises all mortals.

Adapting a myth is a particular challenge unto itself. (Side note: can we do away with the idea that the book is always superior to its film adaptation? They are two different mediums! Case by case, people, case by case.) On the one hand, you’ve got your own take on the material, thus your desire to adapt instead of create wholesale. On the other hand, you have to negotiate how faithful you want to be to the original texts… after you’ve decided which ones you want to use. Do you stick with just The Iliad or do you also include earlier texts that expand on his youth? Because I’m not terribly familiar with the source materials Miller is using, I’m finding myself in a difficult position. For instance, I can’t fault Miller for having Achilles be a child of rape or Achilles going off to war as a celebrated hero without having fought a single battle; that’s on the ancient Greeks. She’s decided to stick as close to the “historical record” as possible, while highlighting how true Achilles and Patroclus’ love for each other was to the exclusion of all others.

Unfortunately, this means that Miller writes herself into a few corners. When the Trojan War breaks out, Thetis hides her son among the daughters of King Lycomedes, dressed as a woman. In the original myth, the young Achilles and the Princess Deidameia have a fling that results in a son, Neoptolemus. But because Achilles having a fling while away from Patroclus would violate Miller’s concept, she turns it into a rape arranged by his mother, instead of incorporating it as an obstacle to Achilles and Patroclus’ happiness. Honestly, in this respect, The Song of Achilles reminded me hard of my misspent youth reading super-generic boys’ love manga—heteronormative roles (Patroclus is a healer, while Achilles is a warrior), the glowing raptures of pure and true love, and the demonization of women. (And now I’m picturing The Song of Achilles as boys’ love manga. Join me, won’t you?) For most of the book, we’re only given Thetis, who tries to control her son’s every move, and Deidameia, a wailing, screaming, emotional wreck who hurls herself at Patroclus at her first real opportunity. Later, we are given Briseis, who, even if not completely developed, is kind and affectionate, but the damage is already done. Despite the fact that the culture Miller is writing about had plenty of men who had male and female lovers in their lives, there’s this weird rejection of both bisexuality and the idea that people might be attracted to more than one person in their lives. While both Achilles and Patroclus engage in heterosexual sex at least once, they’re disgusted by it. (Achilles moreso than Patroclus; he describes it as “greasy”.) It’s an odd byproduct of Miller’s devotion to depicting their relationship as all-consuming and deeply important, and it’s an unwelcome one. I’d much prefer a novel where this was a problematic affair that the couple overcame, rather than this bizarre rape scenario.

Compounding this is the fact that Miller’s Achilles is quite idealized. His shift into the glory-seeking, arrogant, and sulking Achilles familiar to readers of The Iliad feels abrupt and weird. His character development is too flat to make him feel like a fully-realized character: instead, he’s an impossibly perfect subject of love until the source material requires him to not be. It’s unfortunate, because Miller’s writing style is a lot of fun—readable, with enough of an eye for unique detail to keep things fresh. (Too little, and I don’t hear an author’s voice. Too much, and all I hear is straining style.) I’ve gotten more entries for my commonplace book out of this one than my recent reads. And Miller acknowledges that her characters are speaking a different language; part of the episode in the court of King Lycomedes hinges on Deidameia using a masculine noun instead of a feminine noun. It’s a light touch, to be sure, but it does remind the reader that this is another time, another place, and another culture. I might give her next novel a whirl as her voice develops, if the story is original. But with this as an example, I’m not too sure about her powers of adaptation.

Bottom line: Miller’s devotion to the “historical record” and portraying how true and pure the love of Achilles and Patroclus was to the exclusion of all other relationships leads her to write herself into a few corners that she solves bizarrely, as well as idealize Achilles to the point of flatness. Miller’s writing style is a lot of fun, though—readable, with a good eye for detail, and a good approach to writing about Ancient Greece. A pass.

In addition to this review from Clare: I experienced -again- that I’m extremely sensitive to weird metaphors. They throw me out of the book and it takes really a long time until I can continue. They seem to be Miller’s speciality. Like: 

... I also saw the answers. Yes, they nodded to each other, yes, yes.

How about no, no, no? If answers start running around and noddig, we’re in trouble. Or:

Iphigenia. A tripping name, the sound of goat hooves on rock ...

Look, here’s goat hooves on rock. No Iphigenia sound there.

Also: why is a boy who never faught a battle in his life ... a hero worshipped by all? I had the same problem with The Traitor Baru Cormorant. It’s just not likey that completely inexperienced individuals match the hero-specifics without even trying.

And then the main thing: why, instead of using the -at least partially bisexual- relationships as a plot-point to develop character growth and discuss a whole bunch of problems (and resolve them) - try to make this purely homosexual at all costs, even the cost of completely destroying half of what was previously built. If such was the original intent, there’s no sense in introducing Iphigenia at all.

[livingwithashipname-blog]

i used to love scorpion but it's become mediocre since the second half of season 2 bc all they've done is bait waige. tbh, it's not a good ship and maybe i'm biased bc i've headcanoned walter as aromantic (which would've worked much better in terms of his character since the show seems to be telling ppl with higher IQ that to find a place they belong they have to develop EQ to "evolve" when as a society, we should be accepting them and not making them fit in with us)

No offense anon, but…  Is there a question in this?  It’s unclear exactly what you’d like to discuss or know from me.  But I chose to take my time with this response in order to open a discussion within the fandom.  This isn’t a rant.  Lol!

I disagree with the notion that the show is telling its audience that high IQ, low EQ individuals have to develop EQ to evolve or fit into society.  This insinuates that the geniuses sacrifice their intellect in order to become less socially inept.  This is simply not the case.  One of the show’s core messages is to communicate the benefits of emotional intelligence in relation to one’s goals to share that intellect with the masses - learning to adapt without sacrificing identity.  The message is continuously addressed with Walter O’Brien because he is the genius with the lowest EQ, the creator of Scorpion, and uses his business as a hub for like-minded individuals with various skill sets.  

What makes us different from animals as humans is cognition - the ability to reflect on our thoughts and experiences and act on them to change ourselves and our environments.  Walter is not efficient at processing emotion to label it properly, meaning that he can not identify behaviors to which he can not relate.  This does not mean he can not emote, but the amount of EQ he gains over time is learned.  It does not derive from within.  The same is true of the other geniuses to a lesser extent.  (Elyes Gabel talked about this at the cast’s first SDCC appearance - Walter has an emotional vault that he struggles to access.)  Furthermore, Walter’s environment contributes to how well he can regulate his emotions.  In the show, Walter’s intelligence was fostered as a child through his work for the government.  But his emotional development was only fostered through Megan because she accepted him for his differences unlike his parents.  This is why he was so protective of her medical care and fought hard on an intellectual level to save her.  Since Walter’s emotional development is an arc for the entire series, his character will be written to show his successes and failures in various aspects of his life in relation to his life goals.  

As far as attraction is concerned, Walter could be written as aromantic in relation to his genius.  This would have been a great and intriguing development.  But various moments in the show suggest that Walter, at the least, is romantically attracted to women for now.  Therefore, his emotional intelligence will also have an impact on any romantic relationship he seeks to have given the show’s premise.  If you’ll indulge me, allow me to explain using recent scenarios from the show, present the conundrum that lies within fandom, and how that conundrum is capitalized in order to “bait” fans on Waige under the cut.  It’s long, so don’t say I didn’t warn ya! 😜

Examples from Canon

In episode 2.22 Hard Knox, the team mobilized to help Ralph win his court battle.  Ralph tried to explain his program’s functions to Walter, but he couldn’t understand Ralph’s approach.  Sadly, Walter projected his frustration over a problem he couldn’t solve in that moment onto Ralph.  This led to Ralph walking away feeling defeated and Paige threatening to quit.  When he realized the mistake in his behavior, he approached Ralph and said this, “what upset me is that you were willing to slow down for me to-to let me go down the wrong road, when that would’ve hindered you, because I couldn’t grasp your work.  Never hobble your intelligence for anyone… because if you do that in this garage, imagine what you’ll have to do out there… for humans.  The world needs to catch up to you… because if-if it can, just a little, imagine what a… a beautiful place it could be.”  This example is unique because it reinforces the show’s core message in IQ vs. EQ on the basis of intelligence, not emotion.

In 3.15 Sharknerdo, Walter argued with the client over the way he stated the service fee instead of accepting the fact that the client was not interested in learning the correct way to communicate $109,000.  This cost the team their job and dismantled the weeks of work Paige did to secure that contract.  Paige was rightfully frustrated because Walter couldn’t get like Elsa and let it go. 😂  Plus, it’s even more frustrating that Walter secured a new job on contingency, where payment is only guaranteed upon completion of services.  This is bad for Walter despite the fact that Paige is the liaison for several reasons: 1) he talked with the client in her absence, 2) he lost a job with a secured fee and replaced it with a less secure one (that’s not good business when you have employees to pay), and 3) he is the boss of Scorpion who makes the final decisions.  In Paige’s absence, he is the next point of contact for independent jobs (those not issued through Homeland Security).  This is the statute of limitations when it comes to his goals for Scorpion.  He has to acquire skill sets to make him more efficient at communicating with average/high EQ, non-geniuses if he wants to diversify his clientele to do more good in the world.  In other words, he has to learn and apply approaches on an EQ level to appeal to normals in order to get them to his level or create an equal playing field.  Another great example of this can be found in his interaction with the foreman in 3.14 The Hole Truth after his talk with Happy.  I apply the same tactic as a researcher.  I have to know my audience and how to address them in order to communicate my findings and spark interest.  If I do not, I limit my reach and open doors to miscommunication and misunderstanding.  

Also take into consideration instances where Walter has lied about facts in order to achieve the greater good.  Episode 2.04 Robots is a great example.  What’s also interesting about this episode and others in which this has happened is that Walter doubts the scope of his own emotional intelligence.  The same is seen with Happy Quinn whose EQ is closer to Walter’s.  If you have read any of my reviews, I talk about this doubt factor several times.  Walter and Happy have demonstrated emotional mastery in both their work and personal lives.  Their main issue is consistency outside the limitations their logical brains impose on their emotional functionality.  Yet overall, they improve each season.

This show is loosely-based on the real Walter O’ Brien, who is an executive producer.  If you ask him to choose between IQ and EQ, he will tell you, EQ over IQ, from his own personal experiences which has been infused widely throughout this show.  You can read that interview HERE and learn what he did to create the show.  It’s very enlightening!

Fandom Realities

Here’s the conundrum that stems from fandom.  (If you read the interview, then you already got a sense of what I am about to say.)  Scorpion is an action dramedy in two parts - personal stuff and mission stuff.  And these two elements are interchanged in every episode.  However, the majority of fan commentary on the show is about the romances first, the other personal storylines second, and the missions last.  This means the greatest pull, as far as spoilers and other marketing strategies are concerned, is information on the ships whether it’s through social media, press releases, or cast interviews.  The majority of fans don’t get excited over the missions (or else that would be reflected in fandom convo and creations).  Scorpion covers some real projects like the Chernobyl dome and the Svalbard Doomsday Vault (both of which are really cool btw).  And I am curious if an upcoming episode will take a note from a docu-drama on Mars that debuted on National Geographic.  Anyways, Waige is not canon and yet Waige-centric episodes receive behind-the-scenes exclusives on pop culture news sites like Entertainment Online.  Katherine McPhee and Elyes Gabel are sent out on press to talk about them.  You do not see similar treatment with the other ships because Waige is the main ship of the show.  All others are side ships, regardless how much exposure they get.  Quintis is highlighted in the storyline because the relationship is between two main characters, who are both high IQ, low EQ individuals, as opposed to Callie (RIP 💀) which is between a main and a guest, both of whom have average/high EQ.  

The showrunners, writers, cast have alluded and established in many ways that Waige is an endgame, slow burn otp.  The mystery lies in WHEN this will happen.  It would be stupid for them to reveal that information.  But they use episodes to answer that question for the fans.  As fans, we can choose to trust what is there to put our expectations in check or fall for the bait!  Besides, we get more receipts the more the writers use more than one episode to foreshadow.  If we don’t like what we see after some time, we have to determine what is the breaking point and move on or devise a new plan to indulge the content (e.g., skip episodes, binge later).  We also have to take into consideration that some decisions are in the hands of network execs.  At the end of the day, it makes no sense to engage in endless emotional masochism over something we no longer enjoy.  It’s silly!  But I digress.  If you want to know more about my theories on Waige, feel free to go to my page, type “the Waige flip” in the search engine, and read all about it.  As someone who ships Waige, I don’t have any questions on them until season 4, episode 12/13.

I will not argue whether Waige is a good ship or not because it’s not my place to police opinion.  What I will say is that Waige is an intriguing pairing because it is a relationship between a low EQ individual and a high EQ individual - a genius and a normal.  (Btw, high IQ, high EQ individuals exist - it’s a function of nature vs. nurture.  But that’s a topic for a different day!).  Melvester had the same dynamic, but the EQ gap between Megan and Sly was much less than that between Walter and Paige.  For this reason, Waige will always face unique challenges.  Like I said at the beginning of all this, Walter’s emotional development is a series arc and his triumphs and failures will extend to his personal life.  But one thing this show does well is communicate understanding in the team’s decisions, both geniuses and non-geniuses, whether you agree with their stances or not.  That’s necessary given the show’s premises!

If you’ve read up to this point, CONGRATS!!! You have survived another Emanda’s Inner Sanctum analysis/thought piece!  Toodles peeps! 😘✌🏾️