#whatever the details they're going to be dead by the end of the episode

[remnantspod]

does anyone have favourite Remnants People yet??

[genericpuff]

holy crap okay so

I'm two episodes into Kaos

normally I keep my expectations pretty minimal because, let's be real, the Internet - and especially Tumblr - has a tendency to severely overhype new series to be way better than they actually are and it often leaves me sitting there like "that's it? that's what people were freaking out over for weeks?? that was just a bunch of cheap ships and tropes that i've seen 123785902380 times before" LMAO

BUT thankfully compared to other series like Hazbin Hotel and The Amazing Digital Circus, I haven't been worn out on excessive fandom exposure prior to watching Kaos, so I didn't really know what to expect going in besides what folks have told me so far - it's a modern-day Greek epic, and it stars Jeff Goldblum as Zeus (which is, unsurprisingly, peak casting).

That said, I'm very pleased to say that so far, the show is absolutely blowing me away. The set designs, characterizations, weaving of all the players into a central narrative led by a very coy narrator, all of it feels both refreshing and respectful to the source material at the same time.

so uh yeah that LO animated TV show... we have reason to believe now that it's gotten picked up by Amazon Prime, at least according to the showrunner's LinkedIn and posting history from February of this year that seems to imply LO may have been picked up by Amazon-

(but still, nothing's really been confirmed because they're being so tight-lipped about this you'd almost think it's because there isn't a show happening at all cough)

But even then, that means at best we still won't see anything of the LO TV show adaption for another 2-3 years, depending on how production goes.

Why am I talking about LO right now? Well it should be obvious - Kaos double-whammied LO by beating it to the punch at its own game.

I mean, just look at the creative choices alone in the design of the Underworld and its rulers, our beloved Hades and Persephone.

And yes, the entire Underworld is color-graded like this, something so simple and yet effective in communicating the nature of the Underworld and what it stands for - a place where the past lives on through the dead, paused in time, devoid of the vibrant color grading found in Olympus - or "Olympia" as its been named in this retelling - which is, by the way, a visual treat to take in every time it's featured.

(and yes, that is S-tier-companion Billie Piper on the left, but I will not tell you who she's playing, you actually really should go into this show as blind as possible for the thrill of figuring out these characters as they're introduced <3)

That's not even getting into the narrative structure of the plot itself or the phenomenal casting and acting, but again, I don't want to spoil too much as the show is quite new, and I want to actually finish watching the show myself before I get more into the details of its story and how it delivers it (I'm very much hoping I will still be singing this show's praises at the end of its 8 episodes, please for the love of god don't jump the shark, I don't think my heart can take that kind of pain again.)

All that's to say though, Kaos is, so far, exactly what us disappointed fans of LO deserve after all these years, and frankly, I feel like whatever is coming for the LO animated TV show is really gonna have to step up to the plate to both live up to the bar that Kaos has set as well as stand on its own without being affiliated as a cheap Amazon knockoff living in its shadow. Sounds a little familiar and a bit ironic, doesn't it?

[intuitive-revelations]

Semi-live/retrospective analysis of The Interstellar Song Contest!

And here's my usual commentary for episode 6! Featuring a long final discussion by a very split me, who wants to rave about bits they loved in this episode, but needs to confront some very concerning (or at least bungled) messaging.

As I'm not sure what will go on with the airing with Eurovision and the football, I'm just going to go ahead and post this one before the live airing, since I've seen plenty of other people already posting anyway. Spoilers below the read more.

Before we get started, some acknowledgement that I seem to have been partially spoiled regarding some reveals this episode. I'll hold my tongue for now, as I want to see how it comes together, but we'll see...

I love the absurdity of being cryogenically suspended just to keep hosting for centuries.

Ok, 2925 And it's the 803rd song content - assuming this grew out of an Earth thing (and follows Earth years) that would give us a potentially starting date of 2122?

As someone who's never watched Eurovision in my life, despite how much everyone ends up talking about it, I'm not sure what to make of the premise of this episode. Neat idea I think.

Oh yeah! Juno Dawson's writing!

WTF, that's Trenzalore! Literally stock footage from Time of the Doctor. Wasn't expecting to see it here (especially as I didn't think it would have been settled until circa. the 51st century).

A nice couple of easter eggs at the bottom, with the Zygon New Colony and Alpha Centauri. Trion too!

Also look at that resolution: 11920x6705.

Ok, Mrs Flood's here straight away.

Oh, good point regarding Earth from Belinda! This would seemingly imply Earth is fine, though absolutely it may not be a human derived thing. Trenzalore being a human colony (plus potentially the Zygon colony, if they're from Earth's refugee population) could be points towards Earth's state too?

Ah, the Doctor's joy at seeing Belinda enjoying herself.

So the vindicators are important to Flood. We'll see how accurate my prediction is I guess? "Link" seems to imply otherwise.

Does Freddi Fox's audio seem slightly off in this scene? Might just be my bluetooth headphone delay, but the lip sync seems weird. It's like he's barely annunciating?

"Hellians" huh? Could have done a bit more with this design, but whatever.

This is an insane number of people to kill off! wtf?!

"Not again" lol. I also see they're using the same freezing over in the vacuum visuals from Oxygen, which always seemed to be possibly inspired by GOTG.

Never mind, not dead I guess. Also mavity again! Interesting - as if Earth is gone then there's no real need to use that word again, since people presumably aren't actually speaking English here? I guess it can still be translated relative to Belinda I guess.

I wonder if Mrs Flood got sucked out too?

A DELTA WAVE?! (Remember the Doctor's plan in Parting of the Ways?)

Interesting detail on the betting. I guess that's more due to the broadcast than FTL communication specifically, but interesting thought.

Dugga fricking Doo

So much for Belinda enjoying herself...

"And I never got to tell him?" ??? I can't imagine Belinda has anything specific she knows she wants to tell the Doctor, so is this more of a subconscious thing, where she really is hiding another identity chameleon arch style? (Again, may have been partially spoiled here, but let's see.)

SUSAN SUSAN SUSAN, LOML!!!! HOLY SHIT!

I was spoiled on some sort of tease relating to her, but I wasn't expecting to actually see Carole Ann Ford today?!

This could link to the above, but I think it's a red herring. a) that's a sudden 'reveal', b) Bel still referred to the Doctor as her 'friend', and c) it's pretty notable we've got Carole Ann Ford here specifically.

(Also wow, she looks great here!)

Weird that this moment specifically reached the Doctor, is Susan telepathically reaching out to him right this moment, and that's what woke him?

Obviously the Doctor surviving in space is nothing new, but the frost melting is a bit interesting. I guess it was more just water settling on him, but makes me wonder if his body was also going to a sort of 'rest state', and the shock was enough to get his body temperature shooting up to keep him awake? We know Time Lords can survive a wide range of temperatures after all (oddly, despite being not that warm-blooded).

Also curious if there's actually oxygen here? The Doctor making sounds etc. would imply as such, as would everyone not really being dead, so maybe it's just a) low pressure, and b) cold?

Ooh, Gary's another nurse!

Ey, respiratory bypass system mention.

"Camp" lol.

"Mavitic suspension" oh come on... I'm trusting the low pressure idea.

"she/her" Yay, if a surprising courtesy to provide in talking to a terrorist in this situation.

Oh wow, and here we get to see the delta wave in action!

Pretty concerning that so many TVs (or future equivalent) are capable of broadcasting a delta wave?

Ok, so we're clearly getting a prejudice (and maybe Palestine?) thing with the Hellians. Kinda tired of stories where the oppressed go beyond being "well-intentioned extremists".

Also Cora is 100% a Hellian right? Horns hidden in her hair?

Graham Norton!

Oh so the song contest does originate from Earth? Interesting...

Definitely teasing the Susan connection, but I'm still sceptical.

"Revenge against the corporation" Hm?

Damn, and he we get the rageful side of the Doctor. The "ice" line reminds of that one: "there's a sliver of ice in his heart" from Series 7.

"That's not him" And Bel notices.

Oh, so horns are less hidden and instead cut. At least Cora is a lot more sympathetic. Also obvious real world parallels with her hiding this side of her.

And there's the corporation again. So they're responsible for Hellia. Is it a thing where the Hellians went into debt, and had to sell everything off?

"Your planet was invaded for honey?" Damn, I noticed the ad earlier, of course it comes back.

It may not be that absurd, but the sonic being able to be used so broadly and destructively against robots always feels a bit much, since it kinda implies most robots shouldn't be a threat. I get there's probably difficult levels of complexity to this based on the tech, but still.

Also the gun here, that tends to be particularly egregious. Again, I can excuse it for the sake of a story, but tend to prefer being a bit more restrained with these things.

Damn, rare we see the Doctor get to the point of actually trying to hurt someone for glee. Pretty ironic after what he just said about revenge. Also surprisingly fitting this comes with visions of Susan, given One's early attitude.

From reactions I'm seeing, I'm clearly not alone in finding this rough. Especially with no-one, not even Belinda, calling the Doctor out harder. I thought this would be the thing that pushed her back away from starting to enjoy travelling and become determined to leave, so I wasn't expecting her to coddle him so much.

Hard light holograms as a tractor beam is actually pretty clever.

"I'll do anything for you" lol

Did anyone find Mrs Flood among the rescued people, or has she been fine this whole time?

I wonder if they did any conlanging for this song, or if it's just syllables.

The intercuts of visuals of Hellia, a planet we don't even know, are honestly a great addition.

Side note - I think that alien behind the Doctor is an old prosthetic? I think i recognise it from Rings of Akhaten, plus some other Moffat era episodes.

Hmm... so in regard to real world parallels, what's the message here? As I said, it's always a bit uncomfortable when a member of an oppressed group acts as an extreme terrorist in a story, especially villainised as much as Kid here. On the other hand, in every other way, there's clearly a message here simultaneously celebrating the union of Eurovision and the like, while also seemingly condemning its failure on a political / world events front? Still pretty incoherent though. I'll go into a lot more detail later.

"I don't think I've ever told you, you're wonderful." Oh, is that it?

Ah, and of course this comes back to Gallifrey for the Doctor. Was thinking it, especially with his reaction to Cora's song. It's also clearly foreshadowing, given Susan's appearances (and, that thing I've been spoiled on).

Uh oh, Graham Norton here. It's going to be revealed this didn't come "from" Earth, but is more of a tribute to it, isn't it?

"Poor old Earth died many years ago." YEP!

"It is said the planet disintegrated, into rock and dust and ashes. All of the memories here were sieved from the rubble of a civilisation that died in a single second. Cause: Unknown." IT'S GOING TO BE THE VINDICTOR, I'M SO CERTAIN OF THIS. Did I actually get this right as far back as the first episode, that the TARDIS trying to get home is ripping Earth apart?

OMG, is him going there now going to be what causes it?!

CLOISTER BELL CLOISTER BELL

Jesus, that's a hard cut.

Ah, there's Flood. Here we go.

YEP IT'S THE RANI! Also bigeneration, which I also expected.

Hm... I was sceptical of Flood being the Rani, and in a weird way I still kind of am. Her new regeneration definitely has the right vibes at least, which is good! On the other hand, Flood herself doesn't really feel like the same character. Sure Time Lords can be eccentric and vary in personality wildly, but it's weird for an incarnation of the Rani to be so glib. At least the new one feels a lot more in character, which helps sell it.

Also interesting how oddly submissive and apologetic Flood is to her other incarnation, during and after the bigeneration? "Oh I'm ever so sorry ma'am." "Unfortunately, yes." Feels like there might be something else going on here.

Maybe there's something in-particular with the Flood incarnation, to try and induce the bigeneration, like taking cues from the Doctor after his bigeneration? Clearly the new Rani views her with some disdain, like she's a variation from the norm.

I'm sure other people are saying this, but it's so funny that after so many years theorising about Susan and/or the Rani returning, we now get both in one episode!

Overall Thoughts

Oh boy. I'm in two (or more) minds about this episode. To the point I think I need to properly segment this discussion.

Let's Talk Politics...

First off: the messaging of this story is kinda disasterous. I was going to be more forgiving and put it more aside, but seeing some other people's discussions does want me to emphasise the issues here, especially after not talking that much about it above. Plus it is leaving a worse and worse taste in my mouth the more I think about it.

In particular, the Hellians continues a bad trend (see things like The Zygon Inversion) of villainising portrayals of abused peoples while trying to provide real world commentary. While the trope has a long history and can definitely be interesting in cases, it is at it's worst here, putting the "extreme" in "well-intentioned extremist".

The Hellian's exact history is clearly a bit of a mix, between the capitalistic colonisation and enslavement of their world, and the way Cora has to hide her true self. This could be an allegory for a number of things (the latter partially making me compare it to a queer/trans metaphor) but obviously it's impossible to watch without thinking of Palestine. This villainous portrayal seems especially blind, considering the episode directly discusses how they've been targetted by propaganda, regarding ideas of things like cannibalism and witchcraft (they're literally called HELLIANS and are still getting demonised!). Meanwhile the status quo of the Intergalactic Song Contest is largely upheld, with the exception of allowing Cora to sing about her people. There's clearly some element of critique there, which is appreciated, but it is not enough. Note there's never any discussion of the Song Contest itself doing anything wrong, but rather just a general vibe of intolerance which Cora stands up against, and some offscreen "corporation" which doesn't even get its own name (other than the honey ad - which tbf I did appreciate as showing the price of such things and how petty it can be). There's half-hearted attempts of attacking the exploitation of colonised peoples for luxuries and the white/pink-washing of those crimes through media like Eurovision, which would be a good starting point, but the episode never commits.

Similarly, Dark!Doctor moments are hardly new, but this wasn't a good one. It's clearly meant to be a Witch's Familar / Face the Raven kind of thing, with him believing Belinda might be gone, and also being furious at someone's intent to commit genocide many times over. As he acknowledges, it's also his own trauma regarding Gallifrey coming out (he did NOT finish therapy). But it's rare we get to see him actually be physically violent in such a way, which makes it really stand out. It's only worse when you mix in the above politics. I compare it to The Zygon Inversion, but that's honestly doing that episode a disservice, as for all the Doctor's fury he still forgives Bonnie and the Zygons. I think something like this could have been saved if it were for two things (not necessarily both, but at least one of them):

All those people actually do die. While it doesn't change Kid's intentions, nor the plan to kill trillions with the delta wave, it does provide genuine, lethal stakes for the Doctor to become angry about, plus avoids the whiplash with the "happy-go-lucky" ending we get, of everyone in suspension being awoken.

Belinda is furious with the Doctor. Her reaction was not enough, which is kinda shocking, given the series has done so well with her realistic reactions previously. This should have been the breaking point that reminds her that, no, she was right: he is dangerous. I can sort of excuse her being relieved he's alive and understanding his trauma, if we take her to still be angry below the surface, but we needed much more.

One of the few possible saving graces of this, is that Wynn at least, despite being part of the plan is still treated sympathetically by the narrative, which is better than if it was just Cora, since it at least doesn't condemn all outrage and lets us see Kid as a particularly extreme terrorist / "psychopath" (again, not exactly a great trope to use). That is really picking at scraps though, and shows just how much the episode bungled this. There's clearly an intent to look at ideas of demonisation (again, just think about their names!), propaganda, whitewashing etc., which might be why I want to be generous to the writing, but it honestly falls flat because of Kid and his plan.

I'm pretty keen to know at this point how much of this came from Juno Dawson, from RTD, or from executive meddling. That might sound like a weak excuse, but given we are talking about Israel/Palestine and Eurovision, I really wouldn't be surprised if there was some interference from either the BBC or Disney. It would make some sense of some of the mixed messaging - but at the same time, the blame may very well be wholely on RTD and Juno and I don't want defend them if it's the case.

I don't know, I can technically make excuses all day and justify things in my head so I can better enjoy the rest of the episode, but I know that's not helpful. Ultimately I'm just disappointed the episode didn't do better.

As for how I'd haved tried and fixed it? Well, assuming we really do want to do "Die Hard at Space Eurovision", as in the original pitch, and for better-or-worse we really want a well-intentioned villain that has a point that can be applied to real-world issues, this could have been a hostage situation (rather than, you know, attempted mega-genocide). Maybe even have the hostage takers intentionally make sure the audience are alive and suspended, as they didn't want to actually hurt them all, but needed them out of their way so they can make their threat. It's still an antagonistic role, but one which is much more defendable and potentially justified, plus would allow a deep psychological / moral element, without racing to stop a countdown that will literally kill trillions. It also would allow them to actually, y'know, make demands which we can hear about and discuss, plus we could meet their enemy. It could even have had Bel and the Doctor on seperate sides of the hostage situation, which would've been a great way to use them both. Obvious potential risk would be it being considered a bit too close to real life, with regards to the hostages held by Hamas and Israel, but I'm sure you could make it work, framed more as a bank robbery style hostage situation. Even if this was impossible, this is just what I came up with off the top of my head in 10 minutes. I'm sure something better could be developed.

You Spend Decades Waiting for a Time Lady, then Two (Three) Come at Once!

Ok, now I've gotten that off my shoulders, time to go back to my usual optimistic self...

HOLY SHIT SUSAN AND THE RANI. Originally I wanted to make this section purely about them, before I decided I really had to discuss the politics of the episode in depth.

As mentioned, I had heard two spoilers: 1. that Flood would end up being the Rani bigenerated, and 2. that Susan may be back sometime this season, and there may be a hint at her this episode.

I certainly wasn't expecting Carole Ann Ford herself to show up this episode, which I'm so, so, so glad for. Even though it is surprising that Susan wouldn't have regenerated by now, given the Time War and everything, it always would have been disappointing if she came back with another face. So I'm so happy we got to see her. There's obviously meant to be a tease that she's regenerated into Belinda, but I strongly doubt that. Indeed I hope this is a sign she's alive and well telepathically communicating with the Doctor, and we'll see her in person.

I'm so curious where we'll find her though. Obviously she can't be on 22nd/23rd century Earth right now, unless she'll be found there once the timeline is restored. We saw her in the TARDIS, but I assume she isn't literally travelling in one (after all, if she was she'd probably be seen in another console room). It depends where she says the Doctor needs to "go back" too? It could be future Earth, or even modern day Earth (even another trap to get him back to Earth right now?). Honestly, I even think it might be Gallifrey itself? After all, that's where the Doctor always said he and Susan originally wanted to go back to, "some day". This feels particularly logical with the Rani's presence here too.

SPEAKING OF WHICH. OMG we've actually got the Rani on-screen. Even having heard about the leaks I was sceptical until I got spoiled about this episode specifically. Part of me was wondering if it would be a fake leak, akin to the filmed line with Missy where she calls herself the Rani.

I'm actually kind of relieved by the depiction thus far. I was pretty concerned at the idea of Mrs Flood being the Rani, as her personality largely doesn't seem to line up. She seems malicious and entitled, sure, but seemingly lacked any of the seriousness and scientific thinking of the Rani we know. Bigenerating now, however, into an incarnation that immediately takes on those traits makes it a lot more pallatable. Archie Panjabi is an amazing choice, and is immediately recognisable as the character.

Some immediately big questions we need to have answered:

Where has she been this whole time? No seriously, we've got to have some update on what happened to her during the Time War, right? If I had to guess, maybe she survived most of the war and was on Gallifrey on the final day, but immediately went renogade as soon as Gallifrey returned, a la the Master? We also know Flood was "hiding away", but for how long? Was a chameleon arch involved?

Why is Mrs Flood so different? Sure Time Lord regenerations vary greatly, but Mrs Flood is barely recognisable as the Rani, before and after the bigeneration. At most, we could say some of her companion outfit pastiches are references to the Rani dressing as Mel in Time and the Rani, but that's pretty much it. I guess her wanted to 'overthrow God' could be seen as a science / anti-myth motif too?

Building on the above, why the sudden dynamic and shift after the bigeneration? It could again just be Time Lord quirkiness, but it does feel as if something's off about Flood. Like she's an experiment, or an intentional diversion from the norm. Not only does the new Rani immediately dismiss her, barely admitting she's even "a Rani" (even calling her Mrs. Flood as they leave), but she is immediately subserviant herself.

Again possibly linked to the above, why another bigeneration? While it could be something to do with the current state of the universe (remember RTD suggested bigeneration might even have been retroactive for all the Doctor's incarnations?), it seems more likely it would be part of some sort of experiment, maybe based on the Doctor. This could also be linked to Flood's oddness, potentially.

And finally, of course, what is her plan and motive here? (A bit more on this below.)

I kind of love that the person we've seen repeatedly breaking the fourth wall turned out to just be another Time Lord, rather than making it purely a god and Doctor thing. I'm also keen to see how she'll interact with everything/everyone else. Does she know about the Timeless Child (if so, she could potentially be a pretty strong parallel to Tecteun, and may want to experiment on the Doctor)? Does she know what the Master did? What's her reaction to the current state of the universe, with its decaying rationality and growth in magic? As a scientist, is she trying to reverse this?

Hopefully, we might get some more Academy era stuff, when she and the Doctor finally interact, this time not purely about the Master? (Imagine if we got an Ushas or Deca namedrop!)

...or maybe do make it about the Master, and let her be exasperated with them on-screen all over again. Bring him back too, so we can really get the full Mark of the Rani experience!

Everything Else

Anyway, for all the messy analogies, the episode as a whole was fairly fun. I enjoyed the setting and the side characters. Kind of a shame we didn't get more focus on the music? A lot of continuity references this episode too, between the familar planets (seriously, Trenzalore?! I can't believe they just straight up through that archive footage in there) and the delta wave.

Interesting to note, with all the Doctor / Master parallels this season, Kid kind of fits into that too? He literally lacks a real name, and is acting to revenge exploitation and the destruction of his homeworld. Mix in the Doctor's rage for Gallifrey's destruction being triggered, and we can see both of them: the Master, destroying the Time Lords in light of learning about the exploitation of the Timeless Child, and the Doctor showing that same rage for his destroyed world that Kid has himself.

Graham Norton of all people being used to deliver the wham line that Earth really is gone in this time was such a choice, which I can't help but respect. As mentioned above, I remain locked in on my "the TARDIS ripped Earth apart" theory, but this still leaves a number of questions. Why was the TARDIS unable to reach Earth in the first place? How is this part of the Rani's plan? Is it just revenge, or something more?

Logicially, if she's getting involved, it could very much be something "Time Lord-y" which fits well with my theory she's targetting the Web of Time. But why would she want to tear it down? To build something better? Or is she just experimenting with reality in general - possibly via the Doctor, seeing just how much she can use him to reshape history? The latter maybe supported by her biregeneration, if it suggests she's deliberately experimenting with him specifically, probably specifically because of his connection with the Timeless Child.

[commiegoth]

Okay at this point I gotta be real: season 2 of Severance has not been nearly as strong as season 1 for me. But I feel like a lotta the criticism I've seen from outlets and stuff has been kinda missing the mark a little bit on why it hasn't been working (to me). Like a lot of the criticisms I've seen kinda go on abt how the show introduces more mysterious elements without resolving them and people on reddit or whatever have their theorizing threads to occupy them but the show is only stringing them along, which is true to a certain degree this season but here's the thing: resolving all the little mysterious elements wasn't really the point in season 1. It kinda didn't matter what the numbers did because the show was really about the characters, and their arcs in terms of "waking up" from the indoctrination innies go through and fighting back. The show is a big ol allegory for working in a corporate office that treats you like shit so it kinda doesn't matter if the numbers do anything because they fulfill the role of mindnumbing busywork and a lot of the other little details are just worldbuilding set dressing and don't need the show to put a lot of attention on them. And of course once the show progresses to a second season we want some of these mysteries to actually get addressed. Of course we're invested in why Mark's dead wife is really alive and of course we're curious about what top secret evil thing Lumon is making the innies participate in through their work. But fundamentally that shouldn't GET IN THE WAY of the focus being on the core cast of characters, their relationship to one another, and the arcs they go through. The thing that, y'know, the show is about.

So the season started out pretty strong. Characters have new motivations since the first season based on where they left off, we have some intrigue with Helena's involvement from the outside (and inside too maybe wink wink), and some new variables introduced with Milchick promoted to floor manager and the "more ethical" changes made to their work environment. Fertile ground for exploring the themes and relationships we loved so much in the first season, oh boy! But then we get to Woe's Hollow and. The characters are dropped into a contextless environment, so we are pulled out of the momentum the preceeding episodes built. And it ends with one of the characters getting fired, so he's cut out of the core dynamic and spends the rest of the season divorced from the primary action, reduced to a secondary character. Then the season chugs along. Then we get an episode entirely devoted to flashbacks and another character divorced from the core dynamic. Then that episode is immediately followed by another episode entirely devoted to a different character divorced from the core dynamic. And then the next episode we see all our main cast again but they're all up to stuff that is, again, divorced from one another and the dynamic that made the first season so interesting, and we, the audience, are reminded of just how little time we've spent with Dylan and Irving and innie Helly this season. Their plot arcs are given a bit of a wrap-up in the lead up to the finale, and we're left to wonder how much more satisfied we might feel if the season had given them adequate time to establish further character development too.

And all this is not to say I hate this season or anything, in fact it's because I LIKE this show so much that it's so disappointing to me when it doesn't reach its full potential. There's plenty of stuff I enjoyed about this season, Milchick's arc in particular, and I liked what we do see of Burt and Irving, the idea behind Dylan's arc, etc. but it feels like wasted potential when we have barely enough time spent on them before their storyline wraps up. And none of the bottle eps are "bad" necessarily as stand-alone episodes, but when you only have ten episodes to tell your story in, it really detracts from the pacing to have like a third of the season draw us away from the stuff that made the first season so interesting. It's the shift away from character arcs and how the main cast of characters influence and interact with one another, and towards addressing the "mysteries" established earlier and then establishing more "mysteries" to build hype for a third season that really hurts the writing and my investment in the show. Even the commentary on capitalism and corporate culture seems to fall to the wayside (again, great ideas but where did they go??), which in conjunction with all the fucking CROSSOVER ADVERTISING we've been seeing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. This show could be good. It could be so so good. Why were these choices made to make it less good. Jesus christ.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

REWATCHING GO S1, LIVE PLAY-BY-PLAY OF DOOMSDAY WAHOO

HELLO MAGGOTS REWATCHING SEASON 1 BECAUSE THE FIRST TIME WAS A KIDNAPPING CHAOTIC MESS. EPISODE ONE HERE GOES. I DON'T REMEMBER A LOT OF DETAILS BUT YES.

Opening scene and Earth's got vibe-checked by God and I've been gaslit about the dinosaurs

GARDEN OF EDEEEEEN wow his first appearance and Aziraphale's already so prissy and flustered might fuck around and fall in love with him idk

I finally understand who these mf's are hi Hastur and Ligur you're not zombies after all

FOR FUCK'S SAKE SECOND SCENE CROWLEY'S BEEN IN AND SHE WALKED IN, SERVED HIPS HAIR AND CUNT, AND THEN MANAGED TO TALK HER AWAY INTO A PROBLEM

LIKE GENUINELY SHE COMES AND SASHAYS WITH HER HAIR AND SAYS TIMES ARE CHANGING AND HEAD OFFICE LOVES ME AND JUST INSTANTLY HASTUR AND LIGUR USE HER WORDS AGAINST HER

idk sister mary loquacious is kinda doing it for me rn with that satanic nun's habit and losergirl energy

third crowley scene and he's misplaced THE LITERALLY GODDAMNED ANTICHRIST because he made small talk with a bloke outside without checking for details

mmmmhm yes sister mary wink again your bitchless decisions are sexy y'know what i mean

Gabriel feels like his brain was eviscerated and replaced with one of those youtuber's paid course promos at the end of their how to change your life in 45 days: three simple mindset shifts video

so THIS IS WHY EVERYONE KEEPS SAYING PAVLOVIAN IN THIS FANDOM IT'S BECAUSE OF DUCKS of course it's because of ducks

mmmhm yes sure crepes French revolu--Crowley stop eye-fucking Aziraphale you're making everyone at the Ritz horny

Aziraphale don't moan into your food man you can't take these two anywhere

Crowley thanking the driver for slowing down is everything to me

And they're drunk hu-fucking-zzah good thing we'll have 11 year olds saving the world coz these fuckers sure ain't doing shit

OH MY GOD HE WAS TRYING TO SAY BOUILLABAISSE I JUST REALISED. I THOUGHT HE WAS JUST MAKING KISSY FACES AT AZIRAPHALE I'M NOT OK-

What Aziraphale was doing back was definitely kissy faces though that mfer wasn't even trying to say bouillabaisse when Crowley said what sounded suspiciously like baby

kissy kissy from lil miss prissy [i would have made such a great high school bully shame i had no inclinations that way]

SORRY WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK WAS THAT SOBERING UP EXCUSE ME THE FANFICS MADE IT SOUND LIKE IT WAS A CLICK AND THEY'RE SUDDENLY NORMAL WHY IS THE ALCOHOL REFILLING

oop nun down nun down

i want ya see a wile ya thwart amirite on a t-shirt

"actually i encourage humans to-" just say you're a lazy bitch azi we love you

love crowley fake-manipulating azi into helping like azi wants to be manipulated y'know so it's not technically his fault he was wiled over or whatever and they're both just such ENABLERS

not azi going SOFT at being godfathers with crowley

NOT BROTHER FRANCIS PLEASE NO FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SACRED AZI WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS PLEASE

WARLOCKKKKK I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

HNNNG MICHAEL SHEEN HAD TOO MUCH FUN WITH THIS

why is nanny ashtoreth so seductive with that of course dear is it just crowley's inherent disastergirl sex appeal

HALF PONYTAIL CROWLEY I AM A FUCKING SLUT FOR HALF PONYTAIL

GASLIGHTING HEAVEN AND HELL THAT'S MY BABYGIRLS

erIC THE DISPOSABLE DEMON I DIDN'T KNOW THEY COME IN S1 well not come i hope unless being eaten by a hellho--nope

ANGEL CROWLEY SAID ANGEL ANGEL ANGEL

CROWLEY TRYING TO BE SUBTLE ABOUT KILLING BEFORE GETTING ANNOYED

waiter crOWLEY OUTFIT I CANNOT BE NORMAL AFTER THE WEDDING DRESS DESIGNING ABOUT THIS COSTUME

FOOLS WRONG BOY YOU FOOLS IM DEAD

DOG IS UNIRONICALLY SO CUTE EVEN BEFORE IT GOES SMOL

gonna give my roxie a kissy brb she's my angel and all this dog talk makes me miss her (she's a few feet away under the bed)

i asked her for a kissy and she crawled out and gave me a kiss i love her

DOGGGGG ADAMMM

...roxie's crying to be taken downstairs it's nearly 2 am this is on me for waking her up i crowley'd myself fml

EYYYYY WELCOME TO THE END TIMES don't mind me I'll have to take roxie down yes I know maggots I'm crowley-coded I KNOW THAT I'M A BLOODY DISASTER BYEEEEEEEE

[smokestarrules]

May I ask about the Star Vs downspiral? I remember seeing commercials about that show but that's the extent of what I know. But I'm curious now.

Well, honestly there was a Lot that contributed to its fall from grace, but here are some of the lowlights.

(It's been a very long time since I watched this show so I may be forgetting some details; this is how I remember it).

A) Four prominent characters are drawn into a horrible, horrible love square. Star herself, Marco, who is the other main character whose family she stays with while on Earth, her ex-boyfriend Tom, and another character who we meet later, Kelly. I'm sure some people always shipped Star and Marco, whatever, but a significant amount of the fandom including myself were beyond content with their relationship staying platonic---romance was not a factor that needed to be brought in to make us care about their dynamic. In fact, romance just about killed any enjoyment for them at all because it was so poorly written.

Marco and Star go back and forth between taking that romantic step and subsequently rejecting each other for various reasons. At some point Star gets back with her ex, Tom, who seems to have turned over a new leaf. Marco and Tom even have episodes where they hang out together too. Then Marco starts dating Kelly at the same time Star and Tom start to fall out again.

Now that I'm writing this I've realized I actually forgot another entire character who was wrapped up in this; Jackie Lynn, who Marco has a crush on in the early season(s?). She and Marco are together at some point until she leaves him because he's clearly not into her anymore. There are five characters who get stuck in this terrible plotline.

It's just... so needlessly dramatic and completely unnecessary. Star and Marco end up together, of course, but in doing so they completely screw over those two other characters, and by that time, their relationship just leaves a bad taste in fans' mouths.

B) Star VS as a show initially started out as pretty episodic and pivoted to a more narrative-driven storyline later on, which isn't at all necessarily bad, but a lot of what I personally liked about the show ended up being pushed to the wayside because of the bigger emphasis on the plot, and it was disappointing. Not everything needs to have a massive earth-shattering narrative to be good.

The early episodes were character-driven, full of incredibly interesting worldbuilding, and just fun to watch. All of those things were shoved away to make room for something more dramatic and serious.

C) The main bad guys are also pretty much an entire species which is never a good idea because it breeds so many uncomfortable writing decisions. They're "monsters" and they are The Bad Guys, who the Regular People need to stay away from. The narrative kinda tries to challenge this concept, but in the end it's really just not important whatsoever.

Honorable mention) When the show was still good, Marco had a couple episodes in which really interesting things were happening with his gender; he crossdressed as part of Plot and then seemed as as if he was confused about how it made him feel? But later on that plotline turned into more of a joke than it already was and went nowhere. Just weird.

D) How the show ended was one of the absolute worst I've ever seen. I truly cannot explain to you just how--bizarre it is; anticlimactic, rushed, unexpected in the worst way. To stop people from fighting, Star makes the incredibly quick decision to just. destroy magic.

So she does.

The aftermath shows that the two dimensions (Earth and Star's original home, Mewni) are now merged together in some sort of 'happy' fusion, magic is completely not a thing anymore, and entire species that have before been shown to canonically need magic to survive are dead because of it, though the show doesn't think to provide a better explanation for that at all.

And it ends.

[mllemaenad]

The Magnus Protocol: Taking Notes

Okay, well, it sounds very much as though "Freddy" is tattling on Sam. Might not be, of course: once you've assigned a personality to something you head straight down the path of attributing meaning and motive to all its actions. And in the case of Freddy, there might be no intelligence behind it, one intelligence with many voices behind it, or many intelligences with potentially competing motives behind it. Depending on which of those it is, you get a different picture of why it does what it does.

It alerts Alice that Sam has been poking around "The Magnus Protocol". It shouldn't have alerted Alice; it sounds as though Colin was the intended recipient, although it would make sense for it to go to Lena as well. It suggests that it did not want official action taken against him for looking – whatever that might mean – but that it did want someone to know what he was doing.

It's fairly easy to predict that Alice, upon receiving such an alert, will tell Sam to knock it off but not actually take any action against him. The recording Gwen hears at the end of the episode suggests (although does not confirm) that things can in fact go very, very wrong in this job – so this may constitute a protective gesture. On the other hand, if the greatest risk were to just be getting fired, well then that might be for the best.

It's a weird alert, though.

Alice I just received a security notification. Sam About me? Alice Someone was trying to access restricted files. And my money is on you. – The Magnus Protocol: Taking Notes

What do you mean, "someone" is trying to access restricted files? No user ID? Or username? Or even a device ID? What the hell sort of security alert is that? If you were a manager, and you received that, you'd have to go on a witch hunt. Depending on how you look at it, it's either a terrible alert tailored to produce a stressful working experience ... or a whisper that might be meaningful to Alice, and no one else.

The arrival of the third voice, "Augustus" is interesting because he is a complete unknown. To be clear, I'm aware that the prevailing theory is that this is Jonah Magnus. I'm not especially here to dispute that; not at the moment. The man's first name starts with a "J", which fits nicely with ".jmj error" and, well, the name Magnus is right there in the title, which suggests it's at least to some degree relevant. It's as good a theory as any, and while you can absolutely throw out other possible names there's not enough detail yet to prove anything.

But what is interesting is the implication if that is Jonah Magnus. If the voices originated in this world then they might be anybody, of course. No way to tell. But if they came from another world, it suggests that something more than just voices came through. Because, to my knowledge, that voice was never recorded.

It makes sense that you'd hear John's voice leaking between worlds – he's on virtually all the tapes. It makes reasonable sense that you'd hear Martin's: he was on quite a lot. You might also expect "Elias Bouchard", or Basira or Tim or even Gertrude – because if it's just voices then whether they're alive or dead or even confirmed still hanging about in another dimension shouldn't matter. But if it is Magnus, then something came through that wasn't recorded: the voice of an earlier body, or even his original one. Some internal sense of "this is how I sound" that differs from anything recorded on the tapes.

And if it isn't him? Well, all of the above still applies, with the added question of "Who is it, then?"

If it is him – and I will speak as such for now because there's not yet enough thread to follow if it isn't – then his story choice is interesting.

Alice Dear grandpa Augustus does always tell such lovely stories. – The Magnus Protocol: Taking Notes

Alice implies that Augustus's stories are somehow worse than Norris's and Chester's – she didn't remark on any of theirs in quite the same way, except to call Norris's first one "tame". I don't know what metric she's using: they all seem pretty ghoulish. But this story does address a different perspective.

It's a tale of resentment and entitlement. Of someone who was special, but not quite special enough for his own liking – and who fed his soul to something monstrous to increase his own standing. His father seems to have a seat in the House of Lords, and all the wealth and standing that would accompany that position. The letter writer, however, is a bastard: an acknowledged bastard, apparently, whose father has provided for him, but nevertheless a bastard set apart from the legitimate children of the household.

He's also very concerned that people aren't appreciating his talents.

Augustus/Violinist My violin tutor, one Oliver Bardwell by name, nursed a conviction that this honor was purely the fruit of his own skills as an instructor, rather than a product of my talent and endeavor. ... My course was set for Mannheim, a destination where I felt a youthful certainty that my brilliance would at last be acknowledged. – The Magnus Protocol: Taking Notes

This fits very well with Jonah Magnus, who very much played second fiddle, so to speak, in the story that had his name on it. On a meta level: he was the villain of the piece, the one who pretty well had to fall and fail in order for the narrative to reach its conclusion. But even in-universe it's highlighted that he's just ... not that special:

Archivist Right. When I said that I would ‘replace’ Jonah in there, that’s not– That place, the centre of The Eye, i-it’s… It wasn’t made for him. That’s why he’s like that, it’s too much, it’s overwhelmed him, his whole being, just destroyed. Martin Oh yeah? But let me guess, it was made for you? Archivist Yes. – The Magnus Archives: Parting

It's got to be galling: Magnus built an institute and served his god for literal centuries, and eventually remade the world under its power. But does the Eye want him? No, no it does not. It wants the grumpy archivist who does not want to be here at all, and who is in fact actively plotting to kill it. Jonah Magnus is the Eye's acknowledged, but displaced, bastard son.

It's also implied that a sense of ... hm ... aristocratic entitlement, let's say, played a part in the selection of his hosts:

Archivist Elias’ stomach tightened at the memory, the fierce judgement in his father’s eyes. Even laid out in a casket, it was as if he had looked at Elias with disdain. What should he say? That he had no idea why he wanted this job? That he was all alone in the world, no friends, no family, nothing but the deep certainty that he deserved better. That he was destined to be important. That it was in his blood. – The Magnus Archives: A Stern Look

And it is hard not to notice, at this point, that Augustus picked Gwen to hear this tale.

The violinist is "gifted" an instrument by a dubious merchant type reminiscent of Mikaele Salesa (the man was right – the peddler of magical artefacts is indeed a folktale staple), and it did make him a bit more special ... but never, ever quite special enough:

Augustus/Violinist And yet, while admiration rained down upon me, never was I elevated beyond the confines of my origins. The rarefied world of my noble patrons was closed to me. Modest riches adorned me, some small fame clung to my name, but never was I truly allowed to escape the position of my birth. – The Magnus Protocol: Taking Notes

It is also very much the story of a man who learned how to hurt other people for his own gain:

Augustus/Violinist It was not simple philanthropy that led to my taking on positions of tutelage in those bustling cities where I plied my trade, providing a musical education to the poor and the easily forgotten, asking nothing in return. Nothing except the occasional student who would not be missed. – The Magnus Protocol: Taking Notes

That's almost exactly how Magnus operated: employing people who would not be missed and then using them up to serve his own ends. Like Magnus, the violinist feeds people to his malevolent god.

And, not least, there are the sinister implications of the letter itself. The recipient is a "nephew", meaning he is almost certainly the child of one of the violinist's legitimate half-siblings: people he dismisses as "useless". He was not close with the nephew, so his inheritance may be something of a surprise.

Which leads to this:

Augustus/Violinist There has been a great deal of rain here this last fortnight, which has been strangely pleasing to my maudlin mood, and has brought with it some nostalgia for that dreary summer you took residence with me. I flatter myself to think that I might have imprinted upon you some part of myself in that time together, and perhaps in this way I seek to keep hold of my prized violin still. – The Magnus Protocol: Taking Notes

Right. So, yeah, the kid is definitely screwed. For all we know, the violinist lives still.

If Norris's stories are of loss and regret, and Chester's could be called a warning, Augustus's is both an enticement and a trap.

Go on. Play the cursed violin. Feed it blood. What could possibly go wrong?

But you have to wonder, then: why would Magnus tell a story that so neatly reflects what an awful person he was?

We also establish, outside the main story, that Gwen is definitely the kind of person to open weird attachments in her work email. When the OIAR gets hit with a ransomware attack, we'll all know who to blame.

It's hard to state anything definitive about what she heard. I mean – yes, it sounds bad, but, well, Gertrude Robinson once dismembered a man and threw him down a cursed pit. I'm not going to sit here and try to claim Gertrude was nice, but she was very much on the side of the world not ending. What any of this means all hinges on who the guy Lena was talking to was.

And, of course, this one is littered with world-building notes to put aside for later: "Starkwall", "The San Pedro Square Massacre", "The Protocol". Little you can do with any of them immediately.

But ... just for a thought exercise, say it is Jonah Magnus talking.

A protocol can be a lot of things. It may be rules to be followed in a formal occasion. It may be instructions in the event of an emergency. And there are also network protocols, which are about the transfer of information. I suspect in this case it has a double meaning, as Archives did. So it is something practical ... and also something else.

The word is then uttered for the first time in the episode where Magnus first speaks. It is immediately followed by a tale in which a man transfers an instrument – and I think more importantly the music that instrument produced – to someone new, and in doing so hopes to transfer some or all of himself.

The thing is. I'm not going to call Magnus's master plan "bloody stupid" but ... well, let's just say it had some obvious holes. I mean, really. He spent literal years specifically torturing this one guy, then used him very much against his will to end the world, and then just ... let him wander around, being annoyed about that. Obviously John had some moral qualms about the whole apocalypse situation, but even had he not – pretty well anybody would probably put "ruin Jonah's day" quite near the top of their to do list, under the circumstances.

It would hardly take a genius to foresee some retaliation. And self preservation is Magnus's whole deal. It's the reason he gives for destroying the world:

Archivist/Jonah Magnus I began to worry that if one of them successfully attempted their ritual, then I would be as much a victim as any, trapped in the nightmare landscape of a twisted world. At first, I attempted prevention, but the cause seemed hopeless. The only way to ensure I did not suffer the tribulations of what I believed to be an inevitable transformation was to bring it about myself. So what began as an experiment soon became a race. Beyond that, I was getting older, and mortality began to weigh more heavily on my mind. How much in this world is done because we fear death, the last and greatest terror? – The Magnus Archives: The Eye Opens

The apocalypse is just him getting everyone else before they could get him. And I have wondered, a bit, about Magnus's attitude in Last Words:

Archivist It’s over. Jonah/Elias Is it? [sigh] Yes. Yes, I suppose it must be. [TIRED EXHALATION] Where’s Martin? I rather thought he’d be the one to do the deed. … [METALLIC CLINK] Ah, I see. Going it alone, are we? Probably for the best. Empathy only holds you back in the end. Archivist You’ve failed. Jonah/Elias Have I? Archivist Immortality. It’s impossible. Even without me, nothing escapes entropy. Not forever. Not even fear. Jonah/Elias Yes… Pity. I suppose I always knew that, deep down. But it was wonderful while it lasted. I’ve seen more than I could have lived in a thousand lifetimes, and every moment was so – – The Magnus Archives: Last Words

That's all very odd, really. He thought Martin would kill him? In fact, he once bet quite heavily that Martin would not kill him. Of course, he hadn't ruined the whole world at that point, which is a thing that might well adjust a man's attitude to murder. So he thought Martin would come here, and kill him?

He was not especially surprised to see John standing over him with a knife. He seemed mostly bemused at the idea that he had failed, although he did agree that this thing, in which he bathed in the misery of others, was indeed over. There was some begging and screaming, of course, but he put up very little resistance – even though this was a straightforward physical assault. None of John's overwhelming psychic powers here, just a man who never showed much inclination toward violence taking his very first stab, so to speak, at knifing someone to death.

It seems peculiar, that a man who would do literally anything to stay alive – who betrayed his friends, who stole the lives of others, who doomed the whole world – would not have a plan in place to escape the very obvious enemy who was almost certainly going to come after him.

Unless, of course, he did have a plan. And we're listening to it.

[wasyago]

okay um

riptide spoilers for the recent episodes!!!

I dont usually write theories and stuff but i haven't really seen anyone talk about it (maybe i just missed it), and i need to get these thoughts written down because my mind is going a million miles per hour and its driving me crazy.

(Also i guess, disclaimer, im not a patron so the last ep i saw was 108, and i don't know any of the information shared in rolled.)

So. This team of strong pirates, Captain Widow, they're turning the Dread Queen into a lich, right? Like, that's the only logical solution i can think of. They're talking about the Dread Queen obtaining power over life and death, which is like the main lich thing - immortality and the ability to be both dead and alive at the same time. They're performing a long complicated ritual, which is also necessary to become a lich, and that ritual requires a lot of sacrifices and feeding energy and nutrients to the Dread Queen. (And, i apologize, all my knowledge about liches comes from Pointy Hat's videos, but i think they're pretty good to base a theory on).

From what i can recall and what i relistened to: no one knows anything about the Dread Queen, Shadowbeard has never talked about her, in the newspaper about the Lords she was just a silhouette, in the memory Jay got from the Black Sea all they said is that they needed to find her corpse in order to make someone a pirate lord (which clarifies nothing), Drey thought she and all the rest of the Pirate Lords were dead. From what we know about the Lords, Rose dissappeared in the hole in the sea accident. According to Lizzie's words, a couple years ago two more of the Pirate Lords went missing, which are the Dread Queen and our boy Hendrix (which we know is hiding in his pocket dimension). And then Shadowbeard was murdered by Ava in the Shadow Scull Masacre.

As we know from Zamia, the Dread Queen's crew didn't disappear but instead came to the black sea and took over an island. And because there's no contact with the outside world from the black sea, and because Navy freely allows pirates passage there, its fair that the world thought the Dread Queen was dead. And this lack of contact and no Navy activity is probably why the Dread Queen chose the Black Sea as a place for her lich ritual. No one will know about it and no one will interfere, no one will stop them from taking over an entire island and killing it's emperor and doing whatever dark magics they want.

Im not sure why they picked this island specifically. Whether its because of the Great Tree (tm) that is "the way of life and connects every corner of the island and gives it life" and probably has a lot of nutrients for the ritual in it. Or for any other reason, maybe it was just the first island they saw, maybe they just wanted a cool castle, maybe because it's the capital, i don't know but I'm sure there's a smart reason.

Gardeck The Scull Crusher aka the minotaur guy did say that their captain is blessed, and its the reason why death is temporary to them, which is one of the details that confuses me. Because first, who is he referring to, the Dread Queen or Captain Widow, both are technically captains. And second, if he is talking about Widow, then uhhh, how? If he's talking about the Dread Queen and if she is undergoing a lich ritual, (and becoming a lich would grant her the power to freely revive people), then how is she able to cast spells while in a cocoon and probably unconscious and probably not yet a lich?

Uhhh don't know how to end these things but that's all i got for now. Also HUGE respect to Grizzly for coming up with all this and connecting so many things and parallels. Because some of the information comes from as far back as episode 32, and its still relevant and accurate and comes up in the plot now, and oh my god.

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

Ed Coded Mountain Goats Songs Part 2

I decided to challenge myself to assign a Mountain Goats song to each episode Ed appears in. It's going to be a series of posts because for some of them I have, uhhhh, a lot to say.

Previous Post | Next Post

S1E4 - Discomfort in a Married State

This episode's song is Bones Don't Rust, from the album Bleed Out. This album was inspired by 1960s-1980s action movies, simultaneously celebrating and subverting them in all their pulpy, bloody glory. Which, considering Ed's costume is a direct homage to Mad Max (1979) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) was a source of inspiration for the show, feels appropriate.

This is the first episode Ed is really in, and it's critical for setting up his character arc. The audience isn't given any of his backstory yet, but we're given lots of important details about who Ed is and what he wants.

Like, even with Blackbeard, you know, like going, ‘Okay, he’s basically Mad Max, but on the high seas. He’s a biker. A sad biker.’ - Taika Waititi

One of the things we learn about Ed is that he feels trapped by his role as Blackbeard. When Stede asks, "Do you work for Blackbeard?" Ed is visibly taken aback and says "Never thought about it like that. Yeah, I suppose I do work for Blackbeard."

Never any call for a lone wolf You have to learn to go with the flow But they can find a use for a scarecrow Depending on your stomach for crows Always gonna need a little muscle If you prove yourself worthy of trust Your bones don't rust

Blackbeard isn't Ed, it's Ed's brand. Blackbeard is the guy in Stede's book who looks like a "viking vampire clown with nine guns" on him. Blackbeard is is so terrifying people see the flag and surrender immediately. "I don't even need to be on the boat." He's a figurehead, a scarecrow, trapped inside his own legacy with no idea how to get out.

Bones Don't Rust is a song about the grizzled veteran of whatever profession (assassin, detective, mafia guy, biker, etc) who has been doing the same job for decades and is going to do it until it kills them. Probably if they tried to retire they would either die two days beforehand, or end up getting pulled out of retirement for one last job.

Haven't checked a mirror in years Don't need to know the bad news There's not gonna be a gold watch After 30 years of paying your dues

Ed wants to quit, but he doesn't know how. Pirates don't retire, they die. And Ed's so bored and burnt out that death is starting to feel like his only option. When Izzy says that Ed needs to make a decision or they'll all die, Ed replies with, "Now that's an idea, I haven't done that yet. Haven't died yet, have I? Maybe we should try that."

Show up five minutes early as usual Work on just a couple hours' rest Your bones don't rust They stay hard as diamonds They cut through steel They still sing when they're hungry And they ache when they're angry

Despite all this, Ed is still very good at what he does. Izzy spends the entire episode haranguing Ed over whether or not he has a plan, but Ed came up with one before the episode even started. He has it calculated down to the second, and knows there is nothing that needs to be done until nightfall. Is the plan flawed? Yes. But you get the sense that Ed has been the smartest guy in the room for a long time, and he gave up on asking for help a long time ago.

When Stede says that he'd give anything to be like Blackbeard, even for a second, Ed uses that to demonstrate to both Stede and Izzy exactly how much it sucks to be Blackbeard: "They're going to die and it's all your fault." He knows that this isn't sustainable for him. At some point he's going to slip up and everyone is going to die. That's what pirates do, isn't it? Most of the pirates Ed knows are dead, anyways.

Listen for the voice of the spirit Maybe something wrong with your ears Always on the edge of collapse now Absolutely nobody cares But everybody loves a professional Not a single track in the dust Your bones don't rust

Ed is alone. He opens up to Stede partly because there is no one else for him to talk to about any of this. Everybody loves Blackbeard, the professional, the "world's most brilliant tactician." They love him for what he can do for them, the role he's perfected. In all of those relationships, there's no room for Ed as a person. There is something wrong, and Ed knows it, and absolutely nobody cares*

*Until he meets Stede, who tidily overturns Ed's entire worldview within a day of meeting him. Even after he learns Ed is Blackbeard, he never demands that performance from him. He suggests Ed retire instead of staying miserable. He goes to keep Ed company when they all expect to die, without demanding a new plan from him, and comes up with the lighthouse idea at the same time as Ed. Finally, Ed has someone on his own level. Stede may not be a good pirate, necessarily, but he matches Ed perfectly.

[dramadramallama]

just finished jazz for two and honestly... not bad! the acting's really nice, even if the writing falls short at times. there were some really good moments, and the tension really worked. i was like, INVESTED.

i'm living for the longer episodes; they're only 30 minutes long, but i remember the 6-7 mins (not counting the opening+closing credits) we mostly got--and still get sometimes. i'm sensing a change and i'm all for it. now if only they could use those 30 minutes efficiently.......

the biggest flaw i think comes from the "fake-depth" of the characters. instead of intelligently suggesting/implying stuff to 1. save some time 2. let the audience interpret things on their own--they spend a lot of time on unnecessary scenes and off-screen narration (my biggest enemy in kdramas) to give the illusion of substance. it's not so much that's there too much telling, and not enough showing, it's more like there's too much showing for things that should have been told instead (and vice versa.)

all that time could have been spend on more casual scenes to show the character's personalities and their relationships. y'know, get some real depth. nothing crazy, just a few details here and there, to highlight important characteristics, and show why they act the way they do.

jun-ha was really interesting, and the dynamic he had with do-yoon's happy-go-lucky character was kinda nice. the actors did really well. but he was written like they didn't who he was at all, like they just needed an archetype to fill up an empty space. what was the deal with his sister exactly? she was so normal compared to him lmao. why was he so interested in se-heon at first? his borderline sexual harassment was way more incriminating that whatever he had going on with do-yoon, so why panic over a lil smooch? i think they both would have done it justice if their relationship had been explored more.

similarly, we mostly see tae-yi's prickly side, even when he's hanging with his (only?) friend, do-yoon. why not show why they get along so well? or why do-yoon likes him so much that he doesn't seem bothered by his moody temperament? do-yoon didn't even know he had a dead older brother lol, like... what kind of friends were they exactly? they also could have spent some more time showing exactly why and how se-heon falls for tae-yi. like even though i totally bought it (they were cute!), at least sell it to me a little? it was almost like there was no transition from the frenemies tension-filled moments and the first kiss. it's nice that they got to the top of the stairs but they missed a few steps and almost tripped lol.

but hey, they got there in the end!

Trope Tally:

new guy at school

heavy rain + umbrella sheltering and sharing

guys slamming other guys against walls

unavoidable bed sharing + bonus "i hate you" (*cuddles you when asleep*) + double combo "i sleep better around u"

slow mo falls (+bonus lying on top of each other)

past trauma (+bonus orphan)

controlling parent (+bonus RICH controlling parent)

cool uncle

everyone's kinda gay lol

the power of music AND LOVE

light hurt/comfort (and YOU get beat up, and YOU get a slight cut on your hand, and YOU get also beat up!)

noble idiocy (+bonus unnecessary break up)

jerk with a heart of gold (x2)

sunshine/tsundere pairing (... x2)

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #39

Batgirl (2000) #19 - October 2001 Writer: Kelley Puckett..........Pencils: Damion Scott Inks: Robert Campanella.....Colors: Jason Wright

Another memorable one shot story in what has become the definitive Cass Cain story mold. I don't think I'll have too much to say about this issue specifically. Those who were fans back in the day surely remember it, and if you're new to Cass's Batgirl run then as always for this early period it's a good book and I encourage you to go out and read the issue for yourself, especially since work has been busy this week, so I don't really have time to go through this issue in detail.

Still, by way of brief recap, this is the one where Cass is patrolling extra hard, determined that literally nobody in Gotham should die that night, when she's distracted by a news broadcast:

Wait, whatever state Gotham is in has the death penalty? Then why do all the super criminals never yadda yadda cinema sins ding sound.

The guy himself is super stoic about it. No sign of repentance or reflection or regret, but he's clearly accepted what's about to happen and determined to face it with some degree of dignity.

But then cast abducts him mid-execution

Only to be stopped by the mother of the woman he killed. I know I'm rushing through this summary, but just, the faces in these panels are so good. Cass's pleading and heartbreak, the woman's implacable stone-faced determination in the face of this demon-looking vigilante, the way the murderer, shocked out of his stoicism, can't bring himself to face this woman. Also just thematically, the metaphor here for Cass's own internal struggle with guilt, that no matter how much she's changed, no matter how much good she does as Batgirl, the man she killed, someone's son, maybe someone's father, is still dead, and she can never change that. It's extremely blunt and on the nose, but it works.

So anyway, back the murderer goes, only now that his stoic shell has broken he can no longer face his end with peaceful dignity. All Cass managed to achieve was to make his death more horrific.

And of course we find out that the reason Cass was so determined that nobody should die is that this was the anniversary of the murder she committed. Which of course is a very Bruce-like sort of sentimentality.

....

We've seen this sort of stand alone episodic one shot from Cass several times now. As much as I like the more serialized stuff playing with her various relationships to Bruce, Babs, the rest of the Bat family, or her dad, or her mom (as of yet unconfirmed by canon), these sorts of one shots really do seem to be the stories og Cass worked best in, the stories she was designed for even. While we've talked about this before, here a short bullet-point review of what defines a classic 'Cass Cain story' from her early Batgirl period

Stand alone story. One issue of the comic, one complete story. It might presume familiarity with Cass's character and background, but they're generally meant to be satisfying even if this is your first introduction to Cass.

Human focus. Cass's stories are concerned not with aliens and demigods and magic and science so fictional it might as well be magic and other larger-than-life comic book tropes, rather they're focused on relatable human characters, regular people trying to survive in a dispassionate world.

Somber tone. Cass's stories aren't upbeat action adventures where good triumphs over evil. The overall tone isn't fun, it's sorrow, grief, isolation, where light and hope are all the more precious for how rare and fragile they are.

'Street level' antagonists / no costumed criminals. This is arguably necessary to maintain the above focus and tone, but no super villains whose bombastic gimmicks and personalities would distract from the humanity of the everyday people around them. Even in the rare case when an enemy has super powers - "Meta" in issue 3, Kenny in issue 10, the cybernetic assassin in issue 18 - they're still dressed in more or less normal clothes and treated as regular people, not comic book super villains. And even then they're the minority of antagonists, usually Cass is fighting regular street thugs and mob guys, even though she's arguably the most explicitly superpowered member of the bat family, which in turn minimizes the length and importance of action scenes so the story can focus on human drama and personal themes.

Heavy thematic resonance. Cass as a character is about family - the family we're born to, or that we choose, and about the tension that results when a family member genuinely loves you and yet is still terrible for you or to you. And she's a character about doing the right thing even when it's hard, even when it doesn't seem to make anything better. And she's a character about guilt, about what it does to you, about how it can motivate you to do better while still hollowing you out inside, about how penance alone without the catharsis of absolution is a bottomless pit that will never be filled no matter how many acts of contrition you pour into it. These themes are the core of Cass's character, and her most iconic stories all relate back to one or more of these core theme in some way. "My dad's bad, isn't he" "Maybe he did [change], but my daughter is still dead"

Not every issue of Cass's book has fit into this description, but when she's not caught up in some crossover story or going through some significant shift to her status quo, these are the sorts of stories she's engaging with on a regular basis. Again, these are arguably the stories she works best in.

I've made no secret of the fact that, while I like modern Cass and I'm glad she exists, she doesn't really hit the same to me as Cass classic. And yeah, a big part of that is that her history and relationships just aren't the same. She doesn't have the same fraught relationship with her father, there are no parallels between David and Bruce, Bruce isn't particularly central to how she became a hero - he wasn't even Batman at the time. She didn't become a hero by stepping into a legacy role Babs had left behind, so there wasn't this close generational connection between her and Babs, or even any particular relationship between them at all until a good deal later.

She still felt guilty over killing someone, but it was something she was forced to do under threat, not something she willingly did only to suddenly regret it in the aftermath, so the guilt seems a lot more misplaced. Also everyone knew about it from pretty early on and forgives her for it, there isn't the same period of her actively hiding it sure that everyone would reject her if they found out like we talked about last time.

So yeah, so, so much of her history and relationships are completely different, but something I maybe haven't focused on enough is that her stories are different.

From the moment modern Cass is introduced she's tied up in global conspiracies, the league of assassins, people turning into monsters. She's on teams with super-powered allies fighting costumed super-criminals in serialized stories that take years to play out to any meaningful resolution. The concise, street-level stories focused on the individual humanity of the people involved and on connecting her stories to her history by thematic links... I haven't read all of modern Cassandra's appearances, but I've read enough of them to say that these kinds of stories either simply aren't present or are overwhelmingly in the minority.

Even in the 'Batgirls' title that sadly ended last year, with Cass, Steph, and Babs are working and living together, theoretically my all time dream book. But their interpersonal relationships are rarely the focus and their adventures are mostly fighting various larger than life costumed criminals. It was a fun book, sure, but even in itself that's a break from OG Cass's deliberately somber tone.

So I guess if there was one thing I'd like to see from modern Cass, apart from some sort of retcon restoring the OG David Cain with his difficult and layered relationship to Cass, it would be a return of the archetypical Cass story, because these are the stories that best highlight Cass's best qualities - her empathy, her compassion, her inner conflicts.

[gaykarstaagforever]

Oh the irony that I only saw DS9 "The Way of the Warrior" after the first two episodes of Discovery.

I could have saved myself lots of angry posts by just pointing out how "The Way of the Warrior" did that kind of story well, and Discovery DID NOT. The parallels between the two plot-wise are also highly suspicious. But that would be me assuming anyone who worked on Discovery had ever watched DS9, and I find that hard to believe.

And as much as I liked "The Way of the Warrior," it itself is the kind of traditional Trek episode I don't even like that much, namely meaningless video game action based on bog-standard in-universe factional disputes. That's okay occasionally, but Trek is a Big Ideas show - shooting bad guys with Space guns is not a big idea.

I did like how much lore was substantially changed, just for this one episode. The Cardassian government has fallen to a coup before the episode even starts, the Klingons unilaterally decide to take advantage of that to rebuild their empire at the cost of any and all long-standing alliances, and Worf shows up in a bad mood and ready to drop out of Starfleet.

Adding him in is like adding salt to a recipe that is already good without it, but just that little extra makes it even better. And his character is consistent with TNG, where he's friendly enough and open to relationships, but he's also very repressed and quick to get annoyed and standoffish. So him dealing with Quark every day now is going to be great fun for both of them!

They did the meet-cute with Jadzia well. They have as much chemistry as Worf is allowed to have with anyone. He's just very quiet and nuanced about showing it.

I like how they mentioned Emperor Kahless. I had forgotten that TNG thing where the Empire was revived under that clone those weird guys made and everyone just went, "Yeah okay sure."

I love Klingons, and it's nice to see DS9 make them something more than the comic relief they were sort of turning into by this point. I don't quite buy that they would be so immediately dead-set on a full-on invasion of Cardassian Space, just blow off Khitomer like it doesn't matter. At least not the whole government. It feels way more like what the Obsidian Order tried that time they thought blitzing the Changeling homeworld was a smart idea, like something only rogue extremists would do. But I'm guessing we get more details about what the Klingons are really dealing with internally going forward.

I also think Gowron backed down waaay too fast, for a guy who seemed 200% down for whatever 5 seconds before. But they had to end this somehow, and he WAS getting his ass kicked by the scrappy border outpost.

...I was so happy to see Gowron again. Bob O'Reilly absolutely digesting the scenery, as usual. This guy has more fun being a Klingon than anyone should be allowed to have.

This has to have one of the highest body counts for this generation of Trek. Between the Klingon and Cardassian fleets, and whatever Cardassian colonies the Klingons stormed, at least a high number of thousands died for this stupid thing. And we see tons of people get shot when Gowron invades the station. I mean, Julian is good, and their weapons were clearly not set to vaporize, but not everyone would have come back from all the meleeing and railing kills.

...Oh and I know they're never going to bring it up, but if the Klingons and Federation actually go to war again, the Organians should totally show up and Q the crap out of both of them. But I know that's like the "don't Klingons have pink blood" thing, they always "forget" about that, just like the whole Klingon forehead thing.

(Because when we DID get into that, it was lame. Fine.)

Seeing Kira and Jadzia being buddies was nice. Kira needs someone like that to get her to relax occasionally. Also, Nana Visitor looks SO MUCH BETTER with that new Kira haircut. It's a subtle change but it's long overdue. Now they just need to get rid of the shoulder pads.

( and I will naturally assume this specific scene has led to slash content. Maybe even some created by women, that isn't terrifying and gross!)

I also really like the scene where Sisko calls Garak in to "measure me for a suit" while they're discussing battle plans, and he immediately figures out what they want and just silently consents. Great character beat.

I don't know what the big deal about the famous "root beer scene" is. Apparently the actors got that reworked into a more meaningful scene than was intended or something? Which I guess was a rare example of that happening in Trek, so good on them. It's a nice little scene and all. But people talk about it like it's some Top Trek Moment and...I mean, they're using root beer as a metaphor for dealing with humans. It's fine. Didn't change my life or anything.

[leandra-kinard]

Watching this week's ep. SPOILERS ahead

Okay, so I'm "live commenting" on the ep because I'm already djsghjksdghsg and nobody is online so… I'll at least scream into the void the FIRST scene is a flashback that includes Tommy!!!!!!!!!!! dsghslgs AND HE'S THE FIRST MENTIONED BY NAME! (the BoBs are gonna hate this so much right hahahaha) OMG and Tommy saved him there. But wow, that was a rough one, they couldn't save the baby :'(

They still haven't released the body huh? Ok, so… I mean there was still that theory (because of that "leaked" script page and other small details) that I shared at the beginning as well, but after Tim's full interview and Pete's long message I was 99% sure Bobby was fully dead after all. But this is sus.

And ugh, it's been two weeks, and everyone is still completely off kilter. I bet Athena hasn't even allowed herself to grief properly at all. And shit, Chimney is blaming himself for sure. Oh wow, that's the confrontation? Chimney just tried to do the right thing. But I get it, when he's in the ground it's real. :-(

Ugh, Gerrard is interim Captain again? Well ok, just for a little while. They are making him more sympathetic than he deserves lol. Well… again.

Oh wow, Chimney is one tiny ball of rage huh? Understandably. Man this is all very tough to watch. I feel very uneasy about all of it and how the characters are affected, and how they have to muddle through. Which means this is really well done so far.

I bet there is something to it that this kid is that woman's after all. Someone kidnapped him and set the house on fire, is my theory. Oh he even has the birthmark. Yeah… that's her kid. Athena has the same theory as me, so I guess that means I'm right. What a fucking shitty situation though. The kid grew up believing the other woman to be his mom and probably grew up loved and really well cared for. What are you even gonna do with that? You can't just rip him from the only family he knows to put him back with his birth mother.

Oh shit the house… with a huge and beautiful kitchen that Bobby would have loved to cook in. But yeah, Athena is working to distract herself. I wonder if we'll see her break down completely at some point.

Hey so I have a wild idea. A DNA test could solve this mystery, lol.

I genuinely am close to crying rn even if nobody has fully cried yet. The loss feels so real. Oh shit, yeah ok, now I'm full on crying.

Hm ok, the DNA test came back and the kid is with his real mother. Weird. "For a moment you let yourself believe that miracles were possible." Yeah, like I am believing about Bobby. Well, with a very small likelihood at this point, but what if this "miracles don't happen, he's really dead" thing is a ruse to make us think that about Bobby? Or it's to confirm to us that Bobby is dead. It could be either or. I'M GOING INSANE! lol

10 more minutes.

Oh yeah and now everyone is grieving and crying, or not crying and holding it in. I feel awful watching this. Oh no Chim. Drinking alone… Not good. Man this is painful af. All of it. Aww he's with his kids and first wife. Yeah I'm sobbing again. Yeah that was it. Nothing that hints at whatever that script page was. So he's really dead, all the way dead. I mean like I said, my hopes that he wouldn't be were small at this point, really small, but they were still there. Some kind of miracle because his special blood actually saved him, and the government didn't release that because they had to figure out why he didn't die or some other shady thing governments do. But the way this episode ended that's 100% sure not gonna be the case. Bobby is really gone. Now excuse me while I go sob some more.

Good episode btw. I would have loved to see more of the others and how they're dealing than those few brief moments, but of course the focus was on Athena, and there needed to be some other type of story, so, as so often, there wasn't enough time for more. But they're not done with their grief. I'm sure there's still gonna be something, and probably with Buck, because it does look like he's been holding it all together to take care of everyone and everything. I bet he's still gonna have some kind of breakdown over this in the next ep.

Anyway… RIP Bobby Nash. I'll miss you.

[fallloverfic]

TGCF donghua Season 2, Episode 8 thoughts

I couldn't even open the episode without screaming today for Reasons TM so yes I'm screaming some more. Very good ep. Spoilers for the show and the book below.

Hua Cheng being like, "Oh, you like it when I just rush in, gege >:3" -flirty-

Just kills me. Xie Lian so tickled pink by it, too. They're so in love.

Aww poor Guzi. He's so scared T-T I do appreciate that they made Guzi's father (and Guzi) wear brighter green roflmao So you know, "yeah that's him." (I mean they also keep focusing on him shots in case you missed "The only character in that bright a green" and "also he has a kid with him"). He's not bad looking. I assume Qi Rong is gonna modify how he looks somehow.

Another outfit change for Xie Lian. He's so cute! I love the idea that Hua Cheng just buys him clothes to wear and Xie Lian is like, "If it makes San Lang happy :D", and it's just this never-ending round of comfortable, pretty clothes that make him look nice. Not like his rough cultivator's garb (at least according to younger Xie Lian, it is very rough on his skin).

Hua Cheng's face when Xie Lian touches him aldkjaldaj Just like OMG GEGE TOUCHED ME HE TOUCHED ME (it's like that Spongebob Squarepants meme with brain Spongebobs running around screaming while his brain is on fire). Aww he's so happy Xie Lian touched him, admiring his hand. It's so cute.

This is "I'm never washing this hand again" behavior.

(Why did that one guy who bumped into the dead person clothes lick his hand when he didn't know what he touched aldkjalda I just alkdjalj why alkdjalj)

Guzi's father is actually comforting him a little (usually he walks with his bound hands ahead of him, but in one shot he's got his hands resting on Guzi's head in what seems to be a comforting gesture)! That's sweet. And then he's maybe covering Guzi's eyes from the dead body ceiling? (Or maybe grabbing onto something in fear, I don't know). Dude may not be a great father but he's doing a little I suppose.

Hua Cheng burning the bodies cause it makes Xie Lian uncomfortable :3 Love he. (Also Xie Lian worrying about Mu Qing :3 And being grateful to Hua Cheng :3).

Xie Lian just... placing all the Trauma to the side cause he can't deal with it right now, it's In The Past TM. As he does. It's just how he's lived for 800 years. You know. (exqueeze me while I cry some more over this man)

THERE HE IS!!! THE TERRIBLE MAN alkdjaldkaj My beloved Qi Rong adlkjalj You're so awful, I love you.

I love all the little details of Qi Rong's design. Just all the bangles, the way he kind of looks like a mobster showing off, and his slightly unkempt hair. And he has green claws! Here's the full official poster of him if you'd like, though I think it's more fun to see him in the show. I still love his shoes, and his single glove with the cut off thumb is nice. Also you can't tell from the poster, but his long hair is braided and goes past his waist.

There's also like... something strangely cute about his interactions with his minions. They're all so protective of him. (Well, until they run away in fear of Hua Cheng roflmao)

Hehe Pei Xiu returns. He's not going to be bothered.

Xie Lian like, "haha yeah exile is very idle" alkdjaldkaj WE'RE SHELVING THE TRAUMA YEP

roflmao you can't tell in the subtitles, but if you listen to the voices, you can tell they're censoring what Qi Rong is saying about the heavenly officials XD (like you can hear the censor buzz sound to cut off what he's saying in Chinese lol) That is hilarious. I love that so much.

I don't think they needed to spend so much time with reused animation from previous episodes. I think a briefer flashback of Xuan Ji would have been better. But well... whatever. I know part of my impatience is that it's been so many years and we only get so many episodes and it's gonna be who knows how many years before we get the next season lol Like it's not a bad thing in terms of narrative (if I think still overly drawn out), I'm just like "yes, yes, I get it, now go back to new stuff".

Guzi's father begs them to spare Guzi T-T He's not all terrible. Just a bit terrible.

I love that Hua Cheng catches the statue and gently places it on the ground. Even if he hates the statue and what it represents, he won't destroy an image of his gege, or treat it poorly.

I do appreciate Xie Lian's instinct to protect The Child TM, but like roflmao Xie Lian, his father is still human and like getting his body broken. You could also idk... save him...? Too...?

Just want to appreciate the animation here. Something about Qi Rong holding Hua Cheng's arm (and Hua Cheng holding his head). It's really nice.

The fight scene was really good! A bit slow, but I get it's the dramatic reveal of the "Xie Lian" clone with lipstick and green eyes! Is he a body snatcher? Is he a clone of Xie Lian?? Tune in next week to find out!!

The subs were mostly fine this episode. I'm still confused why they shorten "Immortal" to "Immor" but they did that on something else, so I guess they're at least consistent about the weirdness and the maybe edited machine translation.

Overall, very good ep. The chibis were cute! Angry Hua Cheng being magical and powerful was fun! My favorite terrible man is finally on the scene, can't wait to see how much more awful he is next episode! Hua Cheng's comeuppance with this will I guess be delayed until then lol I thought it'd be this week. But that's fine!

Other episode thoughts (didn't start doing these until season 2, episode 3):

Season 2: Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8 (you are here), Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12

[paalove]

For lock you up inside and throw away the key, 9 (I mean there is, but I'm curious as what made it click for you), 10, 16/17 (you can replace "scene' by "chapter"), 20 and 26?

ask game

:D :D :D :D

...

9. Was there anything from canon that you pulled for this fic?

sdkmdsmsmdksm you're right, of course there was. now being real i probably wouldve written something for this pairing eventually, being as i [kicks my jack/boss jack/joker fic under the table] Have No Strong Feelings About Coercive Fictional Authority Figures etc etc etc. buuuuut this came when it did because of the sauna meeting between kant and captain christ.

like firstly whatever the pool does re: his fear of water, it's clearly His Spot and the captain showing up there and demanding, inevitably, his response and attendance, is- well, it's a power move and crucially it's a power move he makes when they're both undressed. and grabs his thigh.

so yeah, this fic is about the repeated intrusions kant is powerless to resist.

hot

ahem. who said that.

10. Share a screenshot of the original outline (if you dareee😈)

okay i swear i have physical outlines of some of my fics it's just you guys keep asking about the ones that ive destroyed dkmksdmskm

so THIS outline was made on some scrap paper at work. and then, you know, discarded as destructively as possible, being that "work" is a school haha. it looked like a table i had filled with potential sex positions, locations, and win-loss scenarios!!

16. What was the easiest scene chapter to write?

oh, the first chapter, far-and-away. that one pretty much wrote itself - i knew how they had to meet, in this universe, as soon as i knew i was writing it. starving gangly kant was a very self-driven character so i didn't have to spend any time experimenting with his next thought or (attempted) action, and i knew the kind of sinister i wanted the captain to be.

17. What was the hardest scene chapter to write?

even though three took the longest to actually get started, that was more my outside life stuff - it was actually the second chapter. of the three, that was the only one where i had to leave and come back to particular moments because i wasn't sure how they ought to go.

the key was figuring out what exactly kant would want from a "victory" here, position-wise - how he wanted it to go, when he's walking a line between his own frustration and the captain's actual power. it was tricky!

20. What is something you wish more people noticed about this fic?

oooh, im going to go with this: "He's pretty sure he can call it one loss, one win, and one draw - but he can't quite remember which is which." it's in the summary, and it's important dfnmkfmdkm

the key is (and im not saying which is which) - one of the chapters, kant could reckon as either a win or a loss. another chapter, he could reckon as either a win or a draw. the other one, he could reckon as either a loss or a draw. :D

26. Wild Card! I'll tell you a fun fact about this fic!

so obviously a big element of chapter three taking so long, other than my intercontinental transit Problems, was that i couldnt exactly predict how kant's experience would be once the betrayal was revealed - im not trying to be perfectly compliant with future episodes, but there were so many possibilities for how kant could end up on the other side of the mountain, so to speak - chapter one, he has no idea of any of the secrets, chapter two he's buried in them, and chapter three he's starting to take some agency wrt them. i really wanted to know how that might look in canon before i committed.

and im glad i waited, ultimately, because dead-eyed kant on the boat calmly asking bison if they could just talk on land absolutely influenced certain details. first kanaphan the Actor that you are.

bonus fun fact: babe is totally alive i swear and promise xoxoxoxo

[lamuradex]

Actually, following that update, I wanted to talk a bit about the losing story Skinwalker a little bit. I'm glad the other one won, but I think this was a neat idea.

The basic concept was this:

A V-Tuber is streaming for his audience when there's sounds over the stream, confusion, and a gunshot. It sounds like there was a struggle, only for the V-Tuber to come back, as his avatar starts moving, and continue the stream. However he switches off the mic and only communicates via the chat. From there, basic idea was going to be that the Chat are slowly realising, or immediately knowing, that something was wrong. The V-Tuber is acting strange, and the dawning realisation is that someone else is at the controls now, most likely whatever home invader they heard breaking in. The Chat try to keep the intruder talking, but no one knows where the V-Tuber lives to call the police, and they're trying not to say anything alarming in the chat to alert the intruder. The situation ends with the mic coming back on and sirens, the intruder running, with the V-Tuber avatar left on screen stuck in an unsettling grin.

The ending, and the little bit of a twist, would have been that of course the V-Tuber is found dead, and a funeral held online for him amongst some fellow V-Tubers (perhaps a silly idea but I think we can all see it happening). The narrator however would then realise that The Intruder had known certain details about operating a V-Tuber avatar, and that it could even be one of the ones attending his funeral.

Honestly, it just sounds a bit like a Black Mirror episode, doesn't it? It was a bit inspired by the episode of Elementary that focused on online gaming (S5 E14 - Rekt in Real Life), which features something a bit similar, a guy killed on stream by an intruder.

It was also going to include some thoughts on clown faces.

Wait, hear me out!

In the clowning world, what there is of it, clowns can only use their own make-up pattern. It is against every rule to use another clown's design. They make it official, painting their designs on eggs to keep track and keeping them as records. Faces can even be passed down, as long as no two clowns are using it at once.

And I feel that could connect to V-Tubers. The use of another's face. What it would mean to use another V-Tuber's avatar. The idea of being another person because you were using their avatar.

I dunno though... The main problem is I don't actually watch any V-Tubers, and I am not doing that kind of research just to write a short horror story.

So yeah, I'm glad that Lucid and Dreaming won that poll. Look forward to it on Oct 31st. Happy Halloween, everybody!