#wolf 359 analysis

[werewolfwriter323]

So I just recently finished relistening to Wolf 359, after having listened to it for the first time about a year ago, and I can't believe I forgot how good it was.

I just wanted to come in here to gush a little bit about how fun and emotional it was to relisten to it.

I love the story and all the themes about personhood.

And I love all the characters, I honestly feel like there wasn't a character that I disliked. Like sure Cutter and Pryce are terrible people and I'm not saying that they were in the right, but the way that their characters were written and played just made them such fun villians. Rachel and Kepler were also such good villans as well. I could also gush about all the other characters, but I'll save that for a later post.

And as a quick side bar I wanted to gush about a few specific scenes that have stuck in my mind, mostly because they hit close to home, but in a good way I suppose.

The first one was from Episode 12: Deep Breath, when Effiel is complaining about Christmas, and Hera chimes in to eventually wish him a happy birthday. It made me very happy that she remembered his birthday, and honestly made me start to love her more as a character. My birthday is on December 28th, and despite being after the holiday it is also often overshadowed, so I really felt for Effiel in that moment, and like I said it made me very happy about Hera remembering it.

To add onto this the scene in Episode 34: A Matter of Perspective, at the end where Minkowski, Lovelace and Hera all wish Effiel a happy birthday, this just added onto my joy. It just really meant a lot to see someone who had a similar birthday to mine, actually get it remembered properly. This isn't to say that my birthday doesn't get remembered nowadays. It does and I have friends and family who help me celebrate, but often times growing up it was definitely overshadowed.

The last scene that I want to bring up is from Episode 51: Shut Up And Listen, when Minkowski is calling Effiel out on constantly mispronouncing her name. I definitely just love that whole episode in general as it gives Effiel a hard look at how he’s been acting, but that scene in particular also stuck out to me, as I also have a similar situation to Minkowski. I have stated once or twice in other posts that my actual name is Carmen. I had many, many times in my childhood where people mispronounced my name as Cameron, and it eventually got to the point where I pretty much stopped correcting people who got it wrong. And it sucked. So I also really really felt for Minkowski on that scene. (I will fully say that I'm not an immigrant, I was born and raised in the USA, but 7 generations back I had 2 (many great) grandparents who immigrated from Italy, and my name as well as many other relatives of mine reflect that)

All that it to say that I connected more to Minkowski in that moment, and I gained an even deeper appreciation for her character.

So thank you to the writers and actors of the show for creating such wonderful characters and bringing them to life! It means a lot.

Overall I had a blast relistening to it and I highly recommend it!

[castingpods]

We all know that Hera has a panic disorder, it’s a major plot point and the impetus for Memoria, one of the best episodes of the show.

However, I think Hera could also be argued to be coded as physically disabled. From a medical perspective, her “body” doesn’t look like other people’s, nor does it function in the same way. She cannot mobilize herself, a fact which keeps her from being able to independently live in an earth society, and which creates a sense of isolation and difference from others. She experiences more frequent and more urgent “medical” problems than most other people, due to her body breaking down around her, to her own frustration and anxiety.

From a more social perspective, Hera faces microagressions and discrimination from her friends in a way that mirrors ableism very well. People simultaneously infantilize her by talking about her like she isn’t there and making assumptions about what she can or can’t do, and expect her to be able to function like everyone else without any accommodations, or her accommodations and comfortability are treated as an afterthought if acknowledged at all. An example of this off the top of my head is when Eiffel calls for a show of hands vote and Hera calls him out on the fact that she is excluded by the nature of that request. This isn’t even to mention all the microagressions that Hera faces from the crew but, let’s be honest, primarily Eiffel. Additionally Hera has what is effectively medical trauma from being experimented on while she was in development

I think it is important to acknowledge as well that even after Maxwell “diagnoses” and treats the problems, Hera is not cured. Her condition becomes more stable, yes, however she will never be a “normal” human who can live in an earth society independently due to her differences. She will always be disabled, much like many real life disabled people.

Also I love her

[jaxihammer]

You will never convince me that Isabel Lovelace is not disabled post-canon. Think about it.

Of everyone in the crew, she's spent by far the longest time in space. Sure, she's probably been exercising, but that isn't going to fully stop her muscles atrophying. Her bones are going to weaken. Not to mention the fact that she went into the cryo chamber, which we know isn't GREAT for you (I know Eiffel is kind of an outlier but still. Even once is gonna fuck you up at least a little).

Then add to THAT the fact that the body Lovelace has now was created by the dear listeners. Not only are they recreating a body that's already undergone almost a thousand days of the trauma of space; they're doing it with zero existing knowledge of how a human body functions in Earth's gravity. The clones are almost perfect, but there are notable differences in internal organs, and I wouldn't be surprised if Lovelace was put back together with some inconsistencies.

All this to say, I think Lovelace would become a mobility aid user when the crew lands back on Earth. Everyone on the crew would probably end up in physical therapy, but the damage done to her body would be by far the most extensive. Whereas I don't doubt Jacobi, Minkowski, and Eiffel could regain most if not all of their mobility, I think Lovelace would use a wheelchair, and eventually with PT could use crutches or a cane some days. Even if she were to regain muscle function, she would probably have some sort of chronic pain that would necessitate mobility aids!

In conclusion Let Her Be Disabled thank you for coming to my TED talk

[hephaestuscrew]

"Minkowski's been talking about Sondheim again…": Minkowski's love of musical theatre and what it reveals about her characterisation and her relationships

TL;DR: Renée Minkowski's love of musicals, while it might seem just like a mundane character detail, is used to give depth to her character because it contrasts with expectations of her from both the listening audience and the other characters. Her willingness or unwillingness to share this interest in different circumstances reveals her relationships with other characters at various points. Since this is a long one, if you'd rather read it as a document, you can view it here: Google Doc version.

"She actually really cares about these talent shows": Episode 8 (Box 953)

In the early episodes of Season 1, Minkowski is presented (largely through Eiffel's unreliable perspective) purely as a strict no-nonsense authority figure without much emotional depth, the kind of person who only likes things that are useful, purposeful, or mandated by Command. In contrast, musical theatre is a creative pursuit that has nothing to do with the mission of the Hephaestus and is viewed by many people as fairly frivolous or silly. The gradual exploration of Minkowski's passion for musicals is one of the many ways that the show expands and challenges our understanding of her as a character. 

The first indication that we get of her interest in musicals is through her entry into the infamous talent show, something that is required as part of the mission. Minkowski really cares about 'crew morale' activities in general, even when they actually have a negative effect on morale and even before she's friends with any of her crew (for example, the Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners in the earlier stage of the mission), perhaps partly because doing things in the "right way" is important to her. 

But Eiffel senses that the talent shows aren't just about rules for her: "it’s bad enough when she makes us do something just because it’s military protocol, but I think that she actually really cares about these talent shows". This might be the first indication that we get of Minkowski caring deeply about anything that isn't inherently part of her role as a Commander. Moments like this are part of the gradual process of giving us insight into her character beyond the Commander archetype that she tries to embody. And yet, she only indulges her theatrical passion because something mandatory gives her permission, or an excuse, to let another part of herself out.

Of course, to satisfy the needs of a talent show, she'd only need to provide a performance of a few minutes. But Eiffel mentions "the second act of the play" - which along with Hera's comment that "Isabel isn't the biggest role in the play" - implies that Minkowski was intending to put on the whole of Pirates of Penzance as her talent show act, rather than a few of the songs or some kind of medley. (I suppose that Eiffel could be exaggerating or Minkowski might have been planning to do extracts from different parts of the play, but I prefer the interpretation in which Minkowski gets to be more ridiculous.) 

Even though no one else would be willing to be in her production of Pirates of Penzance, Minkowski casts Hera as Isabel, a role with two lines and no solo singing. I found some audition notes for this play which said "The traditional staging gives [Isabel] more prominence than the solo opportunities of the part suggest, so she must be a good actress" which does make me sad in relation to Hera's inability to have a more significant role by being physically present on stage. 

It’s sweet that Hera still wants to take part though. She tells Eiffel "Pirates of Penzance is a classic of 19th century comic opera", so either she’s absorbed what Minkowski has told her about the show, or she’s done her own research and formed her own opinions. I enjoy the fact that Hera is the one Hephaestus crew member who shows potential to share Minkowski's musical theatre appreciation; I like to think that this is something they could explore together post-canon.

Anyway, I'm obsessed with the idea that Minkowski was planning to play every character except one in Pirates of Penzance, a show which is designed to have 10 principal characters and a chorus of 14 men. It seems that her contribution to the talent show was supposed to be an entire two-hour two-act musical, with costumes and props, in which she would play almost all of the parts. This is very funny to me as the perhaps predictable consequence of giving an ambitious and frustrated grown-up theatre kid a position of authority and asking them to arrange a talent show. Minkowski knows that the audience will be made up of her subordinates who are theoretically obliged by the chain of command to watch and listen, so she absolutely tries to make the most of that opportunity. There's probably also a degree to which she limits other people's involvement in her musical because - as with her other endeavors - she wants the outcome to be almost entirely within her control (something that is usually pretty much impossible in as collaborative a medium as musical theatre).

Of course, Minkowski's behaviour in most of the talent show episode is affected by her being drugged by Hilbert. This creates an exaggerated situation which is the first real opportunity for Minkowski to be something other than the strict sensible authoritarian Commander and the foil to Eiffel's jokey laid-back attitude. I don't agree with ideas that being intoxicated brings out anyone's true self (especially in the absence of consent for the intoxication), but it seems pretty clear that being under the influence of whatever was in Hilbert's concoction caused Minkowski to fully commit to a level of manic enthusiasm for her musical production that might have otherwise been obscured by her professionalism. It's a particular kind of person who belts showtunes when drunk, and Minkowski is that kind of person, even if that's not how she wants to present herself. (As a sidenote, I seem to remember that they took Emma Sherr-Ziarko's script off her to help her sound more drunk. It's an excellent performance.)

Minkowski wants interval ice cream. She wants "pirate costumes" (and she'll threaten to shoot a man to get them). She wants "swashes and buckles". She wants whatever props she can get her hands on (including a real cannon). This show is important to her, even though only three other people will witness it and two of them actively don't want to be there. It’s important to her for its own sake.

Eiffel says Minkowski wants "a second pair of eyes to tell her if the prop sabre for her Major-General costume was a bit much…"  While I certainly wouldn't put it past Goddard Futuristics to have a prop sabre on the station for no apparent reason, it feels more likely that she might have made it or adapted some existing item. Which suggests that maybe she was that passionate about the props even before Hilbert drugged her. 

Even so, it does feel significant that Minkowski's love of musicals is only revealed in the episode in which she is drugged, exhibiting lowered inhibitions, exaggerated behaviour, and an "impaired euphoric effect". Her love of musical theatre is initially revealed through a professional structure that provides permission, and then further emphasised by a forced intoxication that exaggerates some impulses that perhaps she already had.

"Some hobbies other than making trains run on time": Episode 17 (Bach to the Future)

After Eiffel tells to find Minkowski to find something else to do while her work duties have quietened down, they have the following exchange:

EIFFEL: You must have some hobbies other than making trains run on time. Something to do with friends? Boyfriends? MINKOWSKI: Of course I do, but, well, there aren't really a lot of opportunities for rock climbing or trail hiking in the immediate vicinity. 

Even though this quote doesn't mention musicals, I've included it here for two reasons. Firstly, it's very funny to me that, even after the talent show debacle, Eiffel acts like he's never had any evidence of Minkowski's hobbies. She tried to perform a whole play almost single-handedly and it didn't occur to him that this might indicate an interest of hers outside of work. I think this reflects the fairly two-dimensional view that Eiffel has previously had of Minkowski, which her interest in musical theatre didn't fit into. 

Secondly, it feels notable that Minkowski doesn't mention musical theatre here. She wants to show that she has non-work interests, but without undermining her own authoritative image. Her interest in rock climbing and trail hiking - while it may be genuine - fits with how she wants to be seen as a Commander. These are hobbies which portray her as physically capable, with a high degree of stamina and a willingness to adapt to perhaps less hospitable surroundings. Of course, Minkowski does have these traits and they serve her well on the Hephaestus. But there's not really anything particularly surprising about her expressing these interests. The surprise in this scene comes from the reveal that she has a husband, a character detail which - like her love of musicals - isn't something we'd necessarily expect from the archetype-based view of her we are initially presented with. 

Her interest in rock climbing and trail hiking never come up again, because these details don't really deepen her characterisation (or at least, they aren't really used to deepen her characterisation beyond proving that she isn't entirely all-work-and-no-play). In contrast, Minkowski's love of musicals is brought up over and over because it shows another side of her that she struggles to reveal on the Hephaestus, and that allows more interesting things to be done with her characterisation.

"You wanted to write showtunes": Episode 35 (Need to Know)

Alongside the more high stakes discoveries prompted by the leak from Kepler's files, we also learn that Minkowski applied to - and was rejected from - the Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.

Up until this point, we've only had evidence that Minkowski enjoys performing in musicals. But here we learn that Minkowski doesn't just love watching or performing in musicals - she wanted to write them too. This suggests a creative side to her that we never see her fully express.

The course

The Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program claims to be the only course of its kind in the world and it accepts just 30 students each year. The current application process requires applicants to: upload play scripts or recordings of songs they've written; answer a large number of extended response questions about their creative process and views on musical theatre; write a 'statement of purpose' which has to talk about why they are applying and include 3 original ideas for musicals; provide a professional resume and a digital portfolio; complete an exercise of writing in response to a prompt; and undergo an interview. The process might have changed somewhat since Minkowski would have been applying (which, if it was soon after she finished college, might have been around the early 2000s) or it might be different in Wolf 359's alternate universe, but I think we can safely assume that applying to this course was a serious undertaking that required an intense amount of commitment and work. 

Applying to a course like that isn't something you do half-heartedly or on a whim. You couldn't apply to this course if you hadn't done a fair amount of musical theatre writing already. (The course requires applicants to choose to apply as bookwriters, lyricists, or composers, but I'm not going to make a guess here as to which of these Minkowski went for.) The fact that Minkowski wanted to study this course suggests that she was seriously considering trying to make a career out of musical theatre writing. In Once In A Lifetime, she tells Cutter that commanding a space station has always been her dream job, but we've got evidence here that it wasn't her only dream job. There's something kind of funny and kind of sad about the idea that writing musicals was her back-up / fall-back career path. She does not like to make life easy for herself.

The revelation 

This information is revealed against Minkowski's will. It's not something she wanted people to find out, and she isn't happy about them knowing:

JACOBI: "Dear Renée, thank you for your interest in the Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program..." MINKOWSKI: Oh, come on!  JACOBI: (pressing on) "We are sorry to say, we will not be able to offer you a spot in this year's blah blah blah." Oh this is too good. You wanted to write showtunes?  MINKOWSKI: Number one? Shut up. Number two, why are my personal records on there?! [...] How is it in any way relevant?! JACOBI: Oh, I think it's very relevant. I mean, if you're sending someone to pilot ships in deep space, you want to make sure that they can, you know... paint with all the colors of the wind.  Jacobi CRACKS UP - and, although to a lesser degree, so does Lovelace. Minkowski looks at her: really?  LOVELACE: Sorry, Minkowski. It's... it's a little funny.  MINKOWKSI: No, it isn't!

Minkowski seems defensive and embarrassed here. She obviously doesn't trust everyone there with this revelation (Jacobi, Maxwell, Lovelace, and Hera are all present). She considers this information to be "personal" and irrelevant and not even "a little funny". She's used to reactions like Jacobi's (and to a lesser extent Lovelace's); in Ep41 Memoria, she says "most people think it's hilarious that I like musicals" (see below for more thoughts about this quote). But the fact that these mocking reactions are expected doesn't mean that they don't bother her. She wants so badly to be taken seriously and, in this scene, her interest in musical theatre seems to be incompatible with that. Jacobi reacts the way that he does because of the idea that I've already expressed, that a passion for musical theatre does not fit with the serious authoritative image that Minkowski has often presented. It's not the typical hobby of a soldier, especially not a Commander.

To me, the way Lovelace laughs suggests that she might not have previously known about Minkowski's love of musicals, or at least perhaps not the full extent of it. At any rate, it's definitely news to Jacobi. And Minkowski clearly hasn't talked about it enough for it not to feel like a big reveal for her.

The rejection 

It's notable that this reveal is not just that she wanted to write for the stage, but also that she failed to get into a course that might have helped her work towards that goal. This of course compounds Minkowski's discomfort at having this information revealed. Not only did she want to write showtunes, but she encountered rejection in her attempts to do so. This detail implies that perhaps it wasn't just the appeal of her spacefaring dream that stopped her going down a theatrical career path. 

I'm about to move more into headcanon territory rather than just straightforward analysis, but I personally believe that, while Minkowski auditioned for a lot of musicals (particularly as a child / young person), she was never cast as the main role. She seems embarrassed about her interest in musical theatre in a way that (at least judging by people I've encountered) people who were always the lead in their school / college productions don't tend to be. 

We don't have much evidence about her actual level of singing/acting ability, given that she is inebriated during the only time we hear her sing in the podcast. However, it resonates with other aspects of her characterisation to imagine that Minkowski was generally good enough to get an ensemble part but never quite good enough to be cast as a main part. I think she might see only ever being cast as part of the ensemble, and failing to get into the Tisch Musical Theatre Writing programme, as slightly more down-to-earth examples of the same pattern as her repeated rejections from NASA. She is desperate to prove herself. She is "someone who very much wants to matter. To do something important." When she casts herself as almost every part in Pirates of Penzance, she is finally taking the opportunity to be a main character, an opportunity which I imagine had been denied to her over and over in both a literal and metaphorical sense.

"It's just from a play I saw once": Episode 41 (Memoria)

The next scene I want to talk about is from a memory of Hera's, which took place on Day 57 of the Hephaestus mission and in which Minkowski appears to be talking about the Stephen Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George:

MINKOWSKI: Oh, it's just from a play I saw once. It doesn't matter. (BEAT) The guy who sings it is this famous French painter. And his entire life is kinda falling apart. But he can always turn what's happening around him into these beautiful paintings.  HERA: And? MINKOWSKI: And... That's, I don't know. Reassuring, maybe? (BEAT) I don't know why I'm going on about this. You don't care.  HERA: I think it's interesting.  MINKOWSKI: Yeah? Most people think it's hilarious that I like musicals.  HERA: I don't see what's funny about it.  MINKOWSKI: Well, thank you Hera, but you're not exactly... you know.  HERA: I'm not... what? 

There's a couple of different things I want to pick out from this exchange. Firstly, the line "Most people think it's hilarious that I like musicals" makes me sad. I don't think she's talking about people on the Hephaestus there. Judging by the quote I talked about from Bach to the Future, Eiffel definitely wouldn't have registered Minkowski's love of musicals at this stage, and I doubt Hilbert cares at all about the hobbies of his fellow crew members. So Minkowski is talking about experiences that she's had on Earth, of people mocking her interest in musicals and thinking it doesn't fit with who she is. You can hear the impact of those experiences in Minkowski's reluctance to elaborate, in the way she says that something she obviously cares about doesn't matter, in her assumption that Hera doesn't care.

Secondly, this scene is a complicated one for Minkowski and Hera's relationship. On the one hand, Minkowski freely talks to Hera about something she's passionate about, and Hera listens and expresses interest. Hera validates Minkowski's interest in musical theatre without making a thing of it being weird and Minkowski thanks her. Again, it’s shown as an interest they could could potentially share.

But on the other hand, it seems like part of the reason Minkowski feels able to open up to Hera is because at this point Minkowski doesn't see opening up to Hera as fully equivalent to opening up to a fellow human. She doesn't just accept Hera not making fun of her interest; instead it seems Minkowski is about to imply that this lack of judgment indicates Hera's difference from humans (although she does have the decency not to say it outright). Minkowski's expectation of judgment from others contributes to her saying something very hurtful to Hera here. (This kind of potential consequence of negative self-attitude is explored a lot with Eiffel, so it's interesting that Minkowski can sometimes have a similar issue.)

Minkowski and Hera's conversation is interrupted when:

The DOOR OPENS.  EIFFEL: Hey, Minkowski, we've - What are you guys talking about?  MINKOWSKI: We were just discussing how I'm going to take away your hot water privileges if you don't reset the long-range scan.

Eiffel can obviously tell that he's walked in on a conversation that is about something other than work, or he wouldn't have asked. But Minkowski actively chooses not to tell him that she was talking to Hera about musicals. Perhaps she doesn't know how to open up to a human subordinate about it. Perhaps she doesn't trust him not to make fun of her. Perhaps she just doesn't have any impulse to talk about her interests with him. Either way, if Minkowski's love of musicals is something which reflects a side of her personality outside of her Commander role, this is a moment where she chooses not to take an opportunity to share that side of herself with Eiffel. This reflects the emotional distance between them three months into the mission, which forms a nice contrast with the next couple of quotes I'm going to talk about.

"Composition. Balance. Harmony.": Episode 54 (The Watchtower)

When Eiffel comes directly face to face with alien life, he discovers that music is the human invention that fascinates the Dear Listeners:

EIFFEL: You haven't figured out music?  BOB: ORDER. DESIGN. TENSION. COMPOSITION. BALANCE. HARMONY.  EIFFEL: (low, to himself) Minkowski's been talking about Sondheim again…

I only learned in the course of writing this post that in this moment the Dear Listeners are almost exactly quoting a repeated phrase used throughout Sunday in the Park with George. The titular protagonist lists various combinations of these qualities in multiple songs in reference to his art. In the closing song, the lyrics are "Order. Design. Tension. Composition. Balance. Light. [...] Harmony." It's not only Eiffel's references that the Dear Listeners are incorporating into their speech - they've picked this one up from Minkowski. This also suggests that some element of her appreciation for musicals and the way she talks about them has fed into the Dear Listeners' understanding of the human phenomenon of music. The Dear Listeners aren't just parroting - they understood the quote enough that they left out the word "light", arguably the only quality in that phrase which isn't a big part of music as well as visual art. Eiffel likes music too, but I don't think that this is how he'd talk about his favourite songs.

This is a refrain about finding order and beauty out of the chaos and uncertainty of life, which was also the aspect of Sunday in the Park with George that Minkowski focused on when talking about it in Memoria. It suggests that art/music could be something governed by rules and principles, which is potentially something that appeals both to Minkowski and to the Dear Listeners.

Eiffel's response to this reference is one of those little hints that reminds us that Eiffel and Minkowski have spent a lot of time together and that not all of that time has involved them being at each others' throats or actively in a life-or-death situation. Some of it has just been Minkowski going on about a musical she loves and Eiffel (willingly or not) paying enough attention that he recognises this phrase as a Sondheim quote that Minkowski has talked about. I suppose that this quote might have been in Eiffel's pop-culture-brain anyway, but judging from Eiffel's general tastes and the fact that I don't think Sunday in the Park with George is one of the more commonly known Sondheim musicals among non-musical fans, it seems more likely that this quote is something he only knows because Minkowski has talked about it. 

Eiffel sounds exasperated at the mention, like he's heard Minkowski talk about Sondheim far too much. But I'd argue that this still says something positive about their relationship, when we contrast it with a couple of other moments I've already mentioned. Firstly, when her previous musical theatre ambitions are revealed to Jacobi, Maxwell, and Lovelace in Need to Know, Minkowski seems embarrassed and defensive. Secondly, in the memory from Memoria, she avoids telling Eiffel that she was talking about this same musical. Yet, by the time The Watchtower takes place, Eiffel is sick of hearing Minkowski talk about Sondheim. She doesn't have the same barriers up in sharing her interests with him, even though he doesn't have the same interests. I think this is a demonstration of how comfortable she feels with him. It's a hint at the kind of easy downtime that they've sometimes shared.

"One day more": Episode 61 (Brave New World)

Eiffel recognises another musical reference of Minkowski’s in the finale. As the crew are preparing for their final confrontation with Cutter and co., Minkowski quotes Les Misérables, mostly to herself - but Eiffel recognises the lyrics and joins in:

EIFFEL: Hey - chin up, soldier. We're almost through. Just one more day, and then we're done.  MINKOWSKI: Yeah, one more day. (more to herself) The time is now, the place is here - one day more.  EIFFEL: - one day more.  They both stop, dead in their tracks. MINKOWSKI: Did you just - ?  EIFFEL: Was that what I - ?  They look at each other: No way. And BURST INTO LAUGHTER.  EIFFEL: Man... this is really it, huh? The end of everything. 

It feels really important that Minkowski and Eiffel share this moment of togetherness before she tries to send him back to Earth and before the rest of the action goes down. I think there’s some nice symbolism about them finding a way to communicate that they both understand. Making references is Eiffel's thing, and musicals are Minkowski's thing, so this is a synthesis of their two approaches. Again, there's a contrast with Minkowski's previous unwillingness to share her musical theatre passions with Eiffel (at least without the mitigating circumstances of a mandatory talent show and some kind of intoxicating substance).

I talked about the significance of the fact that they reference this particular musical in this post from ages ago. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler for Les Misérables to say that the revolution that the song One Day More is building up to does not end well for the revolutionaries. When Eiffel says "Just one more day, and then we're done", it encompasses both the possibility that the crew will escape to travel back to Earth and the possibility that they will all die. Minkowski's reference to a famously tragic musical suggests that it's the latter possibility that's at the forefront of her mind (right before she tries to send Eiffel away from the danger). But Les Misérables is also a story about people standing together in solidarity against powerful oppressive forces, which gives particular resonance to the way that this reference brings Eiffel and Minkowski together in a moment of being completely on the same wavelength as they prepare to fight Cutter and Pryce's plan.

When they laugh here, it's not about the 'hilariousness' of Minkowski's interest in musicals, it's about their unexpected unison - Eiffel's recognition of Minkowski's reference and Minkowski's surprise at the fact he joined in. It's a laugh of togetherness, of shared understanding, of friendship. It's a moment of lightness in dark times. And that moment is provided by Minkowski's pop culture interests, not Eiffel's. In spite of all they've been through, she's not lost that part of herself, and in fact, she's more open about it, at least to Eiffel.

I'll finish by highlighting what Eiffel says when he's trying to get into character to impersonate Minkowski so he can turn the Sol around:

EIFFEL: Umm... yes, this is Lieutenant Commander Renée Minkowski. I'm... uh... well I sure love schedules, and, uh, musicals. And that man, who I married…

I just think this is a nice example of Eiffel not defining Minkowski solely by her professional Commander role. Sure, she likes schedules (probably in a personal as well a professional capacity to be fair), but she also loves musicals, and her husband. It is a fairly reductive overview of her as a person, but it feels reductive in a fond way, like these things are part of Minkowski's brand to Eiffel in a way that he might affectionately tease her about. (Credit to @commsroom for this thought.) His view of Minkowski has come a long way from "our resident Statsi agent" or even just "you must have some hobbies other than making trains run on time." He doesn't see any contradiction or inherent humour in Lieutenant Commander Renée Minkowski's appreciation of musicals.

Conclusion

Minkowski's love of musical theatre is used to deepen her characterisation and is one of the ways in which we gradually begin to see her complexity beyond the strict Commander archetype. The degree to which she is prepared to share this interest at various points is used to illustrate the nature of her relationships with other characters: a general unwillingness to show a less serious side of herself; a complicated potential shared interest with Hera; and the growing understanding between her and Eiffel.

If you read this whole thing, well done / thank you 😄 It wasn't meant to be this long - it just happened… Feel free to share your thoughts!

[g0at0ad]

Alexander Hilbert, biggest rube of all time. lost his entire family to radiation poisoning. spent his entire life dedicating everything he had to the singular goal of a perfect miracle cure for everything. he killed so many people along the way because to him, no cost was too great. he was miserable and bitter and alone but it didn't matter because by god, if he accomplished this, it would all be worth it.

got sent up to space to continue his research thinking that he was the one with all the information (he wasn't). the guy he was supposed to experiment on died so his bosses told him to experiment on his friends instead, and then he did it because of course he did. no sacrifice was too far. he didn't care about being a good person, he didn't care about being liked. he would do whatever it took to never allow someone to die like his sister did ever again. even if it meant killing his only friends in the whole world.

gets sent to space again, finds out aliens are real, betrays his new crew, gets thwarted by the ship idiot, spends a couple months in handcuffs, turns out one person from his previous crew is still alive, she punches him in the face. he finally gets one tiny win when there's evidence his miracle is actually starting to work and then immediately gets shoved around by his superiors and gets called a failure and the plug is pulled on his project, right as he thought it might be beginning to work.

he finds out that his bosses expected everything to go terribly and built a room where he could kill himself and upload his brain into a computer and send everything to earth, and his response to that is not "wow wtf" it's "yeah this seems reasonable". because it's never been about him. he has such a lack of ego in relation to this. he doesn't care about accolades or being the hero. as long as his work survives and his task is accomplished, it's fine. his life is worth nothing beyond this one single task because he's already given up everything else that matters to him.

and then he DOES fucking die. he dies in a fiery painful explosion after thinking he had a leg up on his superiors (they knew about his plans to thwart them the whole time), and he doesn't even get his brain uploaded into a computer. his work dies with him.

but at least he was onto something, right??? RIGHT???? WRONG!!! his miracle cure was not working, it was something entirely different that he has been observing!!!! and!!!! and!!!! his miracle cure was never going to be a miracle cure!!! his bosses had been severely manipulating into engineering a virus that would kill literally every human being on the planet!!!!

everything he had ever worked for was a lie. all the people he killed died for nothing. nothing he ever did would have ever had a snowball's chance in hell to help anyone.

rip Alexander Hilbert. you died as you lived, the biggest rube that has ever existed.

[colonel-kepler]

I'm like kepler except instead of having 15 ulterior motives that work towards a goal I have 15 ulterior motives that are all conflicting and make no sense

[emp-t-man]

YOU SLANDER MAXWELL??? YOU SLANDER HER LIKE NOT-SO-STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER????

[wanderingandfound]

Inspired by platonic-pals-punchout (and Eiffel and Hera currently losing to a One Piece duo and a One Piece fan saying that OP is the aromantic media of all time, a claim I've also seen made about Wolf 359 over the years) I find it interesting that like, man commanders in Wolf 359 don't get friends. You have Eiffel and Hera, Jacobi and Maxwell, Fourier and Hui. But Minkowski, Lovelace, Kepler? The entire crew is their responsibility so they don't get to have a buddy. (Meaningful relationships? Of course. Friendship? Yeah. But an equal they can talk to about their feelings and worries if they so chose? LOL, no.)

But there is one more notable pair in Wolf 359, one that is mentioned in the very first episode and lasts through the finale. Pryce and Carter. Partners in crime with no one to answer to but themselves. At the very top of this capitalist military command, they're allowed to have each other because there is no one to tell them no, and they don't actually care about the lives of their subordinates apart from how they care about most efficiently utilizing and extracting any resource. If someone dies because they made the wrong decision? Well, they never make wrong decisions. But aside from that, who cares? Immortality is only for the two of them.

[officer-achilles]

I need to formulate my thoughts on Dr. Hilbert one of these days because for all my In-Love Posting about him I actually really REALLY like analyzing his character 😭 and to my horror, he and I have vaguely similar moral beliefs (not the human experimentation bit though)

[nammikisulora]

I cannot get over the Wolf 359 finale. It is such an amazing episode, and it wraps up the series in a way I feel is both earned and fitting. On top of that it has so many brilliant moments, some of which are (just off the top of my head, in no particular order):

Hera: I need you to trust me. Eiffel: With my life, darling. With my life.

THEMMMMMMM!!

"HARPOON!?"

Best line ever. Also, marry me, Minkowski. Lovelace, my hero. That whole scene? Perfection.

And speaking of perfection, all the scenes of Jacobi getting the crap beaten out of him by Riemann.

Jacobi: Come on, Big League – let's dance.

Why exactly does my brain translate all of that into "I want to know him carnally?" I don't know, but it does.

And of course, speaking of Jacobi...

Kepler: Thank you, Daniel. And goodbye.

MY HEART!!! Those two have done something to my brain. (Possibly broken it.)

And of course one of my favourite character deaths of all time...

Kepler: After all… I am still a person. And that means I'm on Jacobi and Minkowski's side. Even if they don't think I am.

Hey fuck you, sir, who gave you permission to invade my brain like this? I don't want to call this redemption, because Kepler lived and died as an absolutely horrible person... but that's it. Awful as he was, he was still one.

And of course last but not least: Eiffel's and Hera's choice. Dude's come so far since the early eps, and... yeah, it makes me Feel Things.

Also...

Eiffel: Hera, I –

HEY FUCK YOU :'(

Obviously there's so much more, like pretty much all the flashbacks, but I'll leave it here before I quote the whole episode...

[mintytrifecta]

Something Something Memoria and The Watchtower parallels something something seeing yourself in a way so unlike you in order to grow something something memories and the power of knowledge yadda yadda Eiffel and Hera parallels something something Bob is to Eiffel what Maxwell is to Hera etc etc

[aromantic-dana-cardinal]

i am churning ep 61 around in my mind i cannot stop thinking about the story in the beginning, about pryce and her obsession with control and perfection (or how she views perfection at least) and 'fixing' others. how she doesn't care if others are hurt during this ("they were never afraid of her...unless she wanted them to be" and willing kill everyone on Earth because she could simply make new, "better" humans). all of this shows she views herself as Not human, as above others, as better, almost godlike in a way ("it'll just be our humanity"). i don't like her but damn is she a fasnciating character.

[g0at0ad]

actually you know what I'm not done. because Alexander Hilbert might have made the top 10 list of Characters Most Doomed By The Narrative.

because he had to have known, right? he had to have known that the company offering to fund his extremely dangerous and unethical experiments did not have his best interests in mind. eiffel and minkowski didn't have the full breadth of knowledge about what Goddard was up to, and even they could tell something was up. hilbert's a smart guy, I'm sure even 1 minute spent talking with cutter made him aware that this was a dangerous company with dangerous people that did not have altruistic intentions.

and he was with the company for a while. he saw what they were willing to do to people. but he still took the money. of course he took the money. they offered him the chance to see his life goal realized. he would have made the same choice every time. in this, hilbert the logical man of science, was not logical. there was no world in which he didn't take the money.

hilbert believed in the viability of decima as a miracle cure 100%, at all times. never a moment of doubt, never a moment where he wavered in his certainty that if he just worked hard enough, if he sacrificed enough, eventually it would work. so he never anticipated that goddard never intended his virus to work. he never anticipated that he was being manipulated into creating a bioweapon, that his project to cure suffering permanently was in reality going to be used to threaten all of humanity.

I really can't see him making any other choices. I think it would have been interesting to see him grappling with the fact that everything he's spent his life working for was a lie, but I can't see his life going any other way. he was doomed the moment he saw his sister's corpse and decided no one would ever die like her again. he was one of the smartest men on the planet, but this one goal he had that he would throw away everything for was the perfect tool for Goddard to manipulate him into getting what they wanted out of him. the perfect carrot to dangle in front of him and get him to do anything they needed him to do. and he would have followed that carrot a 100 times over.

[annabelle--cane]

This is probably a silly question but I’ve been wanting to get better at media analysis as a whole, and was wondering if you had any tips or ideas on how to expand on it on deeper levels

comparison is usually a good place to start to try and dig into something, pick two examples of works that have something significant in common (a similar character, a major theme, stylistic choices, etc) and see how they do similar and different things with that shared feature. in my experience this kind of exercise helps me better understand how both of the things I'm looking at function and how works try to express ideas with their artistic content in general.

to use examples of things I blog about, both the magnus archives and wolf 359 have plot points about characters being secretly replaced with changeling type creatures. both of these shows are interested in exploring how trauma changes a person's fundamental identity through sf/f metaphor, but the conclusion when we find out lovelace was replaced is that she is still isabel lovelace, but not-sasha is absolutely not sasha. not-sasha knows she's an impostor the whole time, lovelace doesn't; we as the audience and the rest of the characters knew sasha before she was replaced, neither us nor most of the w359 cast knew original lovelace; etc. you can then spin this out further and think about how each of their messages about identity can relate to their respective genres and their general ideas on humanity.

[len-the-neverending]

My brain can no longer form coherent thoughts, so the long, analysis-y Minkowski "Dirty Work" post will have to wait, but you know I have to meet my quota of 1am W359 posting, so:

WOLF 359 CHARACTERS WHO I WOULD BELIEVE IF THEY TOLD ME THEY KNEW WHAT A MEME WAS:

Daniel Jacobi

Alana Maxwell

Marcus Cutter

Isabel Lovelace

WOLF 359 CHARACTERS WHO I WOULD NOT BELIEVE IF THEY TOLD ME THEY KNEW WHAT A MEME WAS:

Renee Minkowski

Warren Kepler

WOLF 359 CHARACTERS WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT A MEME IS BUT WOULD LOVE TO:

Douglas Eiffel (as confirmed by Gabriel Urbina)

Hera

WOLF 359 CHARACTERS WHO KNOW WHAT A MEME IS BUT WISH THEY DIDN'T:

Rachel Young

Miranda Pryce

WOLF 359 CHARACTERS WHO HAVE NEVER HEARD THE WORD MEME IN THEIR LIFE AND ARE PERFECTLY FINE WITH THAT:

Alexander Hilbert (unless Lovelace explained it to him while they were prepping to leave Earth, in which case he goes in the above category)

[vyla-and-the-pods]

I love fandom research/anthropology!! Do this if you can!!

Hey, audio drama tumblr! I'm doing a research project into bias within AD fandoms, and if you have a few minutes I would love if you could take this survey :) it just asks general questions about what shows you listen to/participate in fandoms of, and what characters/pairings you tend to favor.