#you'd be forgiven for thinking we live in America

[cornfieldsrambles]

I love Trevor and Julia so goddamn much, the way they're utilised in TMA season 3 is my actual favourite thing.

Like. Right smack in the middle of the Everything Wants To Kill Jonathan season, they just. bring up these two recorded statement givers from season 1 (they were both brought up maybe one (1) time each after their initial statement eps but you'd be forgiven if you fully forgot they existed).

And they honestly picked the perfect two, like you can't go wrong with "serial killer's daughter who lives in his shadow" and "homeless guy who has apparently been tracking and killing vampires his entire life. Also there are vampires in this universe."

(more t&j rambles under the cut - it is LONG lmao)

Which is its own thing, tbh - vampires are such a footnote in the grand scheme of tma that it's hilarious. They're not connected to anything, we don't meet any, no one else ever mentions them except Daisy like one time, I'm not even sure which entity they serve! The Hunt? Slaughter? Stranger, even? Fuck knows. Trevor Herbert sure doesn't. He doesn't even know what the fears are! He and Julia think they know what they're doing but they are so far removed from the actual Plot™️ despite having a literal Exposition Machine in their back pocket. The only problem of course being that the Exposition Machine hates both their guts.

Anyway yeah Jonny just took these two characters and slammed them into season 3 like "they're a found family now and became cross-country monster killers. This is a problem because now, technically, Jon is one of the monsters they like killing."

They straight up hijack the plot, which. It's so fun watching them storm in like they're such an intimidating force. They really think they're main antagonists. Scratch that, they think they're the main characters of their own show. Some supernatural-esque dark gritty monster of the week series. Yeah, sorry, that spinoff ain't happening.

They weren't even gunning for Jon specifically. They don't know who the Archivist is or why he's important. All they know is "eye guy bad". THEY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HE WAS IN AMERICA. Jon just had the Supremely Rotten Luck of walking into the vicinity of Julia Montork. I cannot get over it.

And honestly they're so weirdly endearing. The way they pass the story back and forth while giving their statement, the way it just devolves into banter by the end? Julia calling him "old man"? Come on, it's cute as hell. Meanwhile Jon's there like "yes I'm sure this is very nice but can you maybe untie me from this chair please"

oh and by the way. These two fucking C-tier villains just so happen to be in possession of the book containing GERARD FUCKING KEAY.

You know. Gerry Keay? The extremely plot relevant (and fan favourite) character that fills Jon and the listeners in on all that juicy exposition we didn't get from Leitner? The guy who's been teased and seemed to be involved in basically everything since season 1? Gertrude Robinson's protege? That Gerry Keay?

Yeah, they just. Have him.

They don't know why he's important, they just use him as a monster manual and he tells them as little as possible because he hates them. Also this is unrelated but at one point he refers to Trevor and Julia as the Van Helsings and I just adopted that as my go-to name for those two because I thought it was fun.

And then in season 4 they pick the Actual Worst Time to show up. Right at the height of the single most packed episode of the season, these two clowns break into the institute in the most melodramatic way possible:

Like who the fuck do they think they are.

AND THEN THEY JUST RUN STRAIGHT INTO NOT-SASHA. WHO IS ALSO INEXPLICABLY HERE.

They really thought they did something. They really thought they knew what they were getting into, the grizzled rogues taking down the monsters one kill at a time. They were marked by the Hunt - ironically they WERE becoming the same monsters they set out to kill. Exactly the same monster that killed them.

And then Trevor spends the last few months of his life running like prey from the thing that killed his surrogate daughter. Fuck, what a way to end it. TMA is so good at getting you attached to characters with barely any screentime or impact on the larger plot, and these two are my go-to example.

I really love Trevor and Julia is what I'm saying

[corona-journal]

Well, its been about a year now, of global pandemic.

Here we've gotten lucky, and society is mostly behaving normally....

Hardly any cash seen or used now a days.

Announcement of a lockdown and the panic buying of toilet paper is part of your observational check box.

Scan in a code to check in, wherever you go, except home. (Some people just take a photo of the code, completely nullifying the point of check in)

Europe still in lockdown, again. Because they can't get it together....*

America won't do proper lockdown, because it's against their God given rights....*

(*personal impression only, historical analysis may differ)

Asia pandemic barely makes the headlines, unless it's about Aussies stuck somewhere.

African pandemic? For the lack of news, you'd be forgiven for thinking Africa didn't exist....

It's incredible how we've adapted to the modified world.

The government is pushing for airline travel domestically, get a bit of internal economy happening

And a year ago, this was a meme from Facebook that came up in memories

Desperate has multiple dimensions, socially speaking.....

Lots of noble acts called for....

Accommodation for the homeless. (Nice, short lived)

Calls for recognition and extra pay for nurses and doctors... (still waiting on delivery)

Bring our people home from overseas! (We still have people overseas, but we managed to get tennis players in and out for the Australian tournament)

The Big Push For A Vaccine. Now being rolled out, the AstraZeneca version undergoing scrutiny because of reports of blood clots after injection.

"We're all in this together" yet the feelings of isolation and loneliness have sky-rocketed, and the demand for mental health services far exceeds supply.

So, as usual, a big mixed bag of results, nebulous victories for the politicians, and the fault of someone else when it didn't quite work.

Really, it's a mix of good luck in some places, common sense in others, and plain out stupidity in other cases.

So that's my (approximately) first year, off the cuff, review.

16 March 2021