#Cus the amount of literal horror in this season | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rowanthestrange · 5 years

Text

Doctor Who Meta: Cyberium AI Meta Masterpost

@grassangel said: A thought for you because of your meta: the Cyberium as the fluid in the opening credits.

It definitely does have a resemblance, doesn’t it. And that fits in with the Chibs style of ‘if you think it’s odd/wrong it probably serves a bigger purpose’.

The Cyberium AI is weird as hell. It’s clearly really important, not just as a plot device, but as itself. It’s got characterisation. It’s got a mirror important enough to be in the first episode - Tzim-Sha’s Gathering Coil, the first thing this Doctor ever faces.

And it mirrors the Doctor and Timeless Child’s ‘Power’. I mean it really mirrors them. To the point where, like with the Lone Cyberman and Rassilon, I’m not sure if it’s mirroring the character ridiculously heavily, or if it just straight up is the character. Just like working out Clara was going to be the Doctor with a TARDIS - I knew the result but I didn’t know what form it would take, literally the character or not, until the end. Cus that’s Doctor Who and its shapeshifting for you.

You know how my preferred method is to just point out all the metas as I see them, so you can draw your own conclusions if they’re different to mine, but I will actually put my thoughts as to what this all means at the end.

So click below for every bit of Cyberium AI meta from not just Series 12, not even just Series 11...but all the way back to Season 25)

(Under a cut because there was so much more than I thought there was)

In episode order then:

The Woman Who Fell To Earth

(The Gathering Coil as double-layer, mirroring the Cyberium AI’s role itself; but also therefore as its Doctor character mirror, and Timeless Child ‘Power’ mirror)

-See the title of the episode. The title with at least three references now.

-It crashes into a train when we meet it. A few moments before the Doctor does.

-“What are you? Okay, you don't like questions. More the private type, I get that.”

-Its data is absorbed into the Rassilon-mirror Tzim-Sha.

-In doing so also implants into him - and I quote the Doctor - “Micro-implants which code to your DNA. On detonation, they disrupt the foundation of your genetic code, melting your DNA.” Sound familiar?

-It’s being used - against the laws of the user’s species - in order to attain leadership. (Like Rassilon/Tecteun)

-Looks like one creature but is actually a huge number in the appearance of one. (The Doctor).

-The Gathering Coil might look like an Eldritch horror, but it never actually kills anyone on purpose. When it first shows up, the woman driving the train dies from shock, (“Shock” get it? Like...) Grace dies in an attempt to stop it by electrocuting it. The most damage it itself deliberately does, is short-circuit a crane.

----

The Haunting Of Villa Diodatti:

(Heavily as Timeless Child ‘Power’ mirror(?))

-The Lone Cyberman confirms the Cyberium AI to be both a lifeform and ‘weapon of some kind’. Like the Ux.

-We meet it already inside Doctor-mirror Percy Shelley - suicidal, social activist, and a great believer in the importance of society having Hope even if not so good at it himself. He is not trying to use its powers, but as Guardian of them doesn’t want others to take and abuse them. The word ‘Guard’ is also used by Mary in regards to the child. (And we could leave this episode and say how Irish Metaphor Doctor was a ‘Garda’ but you get the point).

-It hides in a house that appears to warp and change and shield and use a perception filter - theorised to be the Cyberium AI warping the perceptions of people in the building, even though none of them are remotely Cyber in any way. Shelley says directly only some of the changing is his doing. On a practical level, it must have strong telepathic abilities - like the Doctor. On a meta level, it hides itself in a place that mirrors a TARDIS.

-The Doctor can’t find it at first because it’s “hidden away, cloaked, too big to register.” Like the Timeless Child memories.

-The Doctor seemingly genuinely didn’t know what it was a minute ago, when she was asking Ashad what it was. But now suddenly she does know: “Cyber technology. The knowledge of the whole cyber race and AI from the future, containing the knowledge and future history of all Cybermen”. Almost as if she’s remembered.

-This next bit’s important and connected so we’ll just do the whole lot and break it up afterwards:

Percy: “They scorched and split the sky. Built the army of all armies. Left behind only pain, rage, fear and death.” Mary: “How is he seeing all this?” The Doctor: “The Cyberium is burning through his mind. It'll destroy him if it stays in him much longer. An epic battle. The Cyberium at the heart of it, controlling data, strategy, decision-making. Clever! Very clever. Someone took it from the Cybermen, sent it back through time here in an attempt to change the future.” *The Lone Cyberman tries to break in* The Doctor: “In an attempt to protect you from that.”

-Like Donna with the Doctor’s memories, this is burning Percy up. -An epic Battle, like with the Ux - a great battle referenced and not explained. The Cyberium AI instead of the Ux at the heart of it, used to fight it. (If anyone’s still assuming the Timeless Child(ren) thing was simply about regeneration power, there should be more focus on the Division and the Child as weapon). -The Doctor again coming in with extra information. -Possible Future Meta: Someone attempted to change the future by taking the source of power from the Rassilon (see the mirror).

-Thirteen tells the Doctor-mirror to just let the Rassilon-mirror have the power. (Reminds me of how the Timeless Child ‘would not yield any secrets’). But the Cyberium AI has been sending Shelley (Doctor-mirror) symbols and numbers. So Possible Future Meta: It wasn’t just the regeneration power Rassilon got from the Timeless Child, it was also information. (Of course - the Doctor, especially this one meant to mirror all this, is the Builder And Destroyer, after all)

-We confirm the Cyberium AI’s own sentience, separate from its host, (and its reluctance to leave). It changes the mental map of the house specifically to avoid the Lone Cyberman.

-The Lone Cyberman believes the host must be killed in order to get the power out. Mary Shelley immediately talks to the Lone Cyberman about fatherhood, and how he doesn’t want to do this. (Rassilon/Tecteun)

-The Doctor convinces the Cyberium AI to leave by showing it Percy’s future. (The mercury-like substance exits Percy quite like the poison with Ten. Given the amount of Ten-era-mirroring, this one’s cute). (Possible Future Meta: The Doctor meeting Timeless Child self, like with Martin!Doctor).

-The Cyberium AI goes to the Doctor, who calls herself its “true Guardian”. Says it feels “Very at home”. Going with how she seemed to remember what it was without ever being told earlier...

-The Doctor, when her friends and the planet is at risk, decides to give it over the the Lone Cyberman, and the Cyberium works with her in a way it refused to with Shelley, meaning she didn’t need to die, even though she says it had already started fusing.

-Next after the Doctor-mirror/Doctor, the power enters the Rassilon-mirror.

-(Yaz restarts the Doctor-mirror’s heart. That’s not important to this meta, but it sure is important to other ones).

-We talk about ghosts just as we enter the Ghost Monument.

----

Ascension Of The Cybermen:

(Both as Doctor mirror and Timeless Child Power mirror)

-Cyberium!Ashad says “The Cyberium does know you. Both you and humanity will be destroyed, and I shall bring the Cyber race to its greatest ever glory.” - the Cyberium AI has already seen the Doctor’s death before. Or it’s lying.

-The Doctor’s blatantly obvious talking-to-herself therapy speech is to Cyberium!Ashad.

“The Cyberium has given me understanding. It has distilled my purpose. I am the perfect vessel.” - A container, a ship for the Cyberium AI.

“Everything is in me for the ascension of the Cybermen, and beyond. ... All your deaths. The death of everything is within me.” - First, mirrors the ‘life’ within the Timeless Child. Second, considering before this was previously an AI trying to avoid conflict and entering Ashad, the fact that Ashad and his death particle gets convinced to go to the Master and Gallifrey, makes me wonder how much the Cyberium AI was forced to go along because that’s its nature and it has to follow instructions, or whether it was planning and pulling the strings. Or both - TARDIS-style.

----

The Timeless Children:

(Heavily as Doctor mirror, minorly Timeless Child Power mirror)

-“Oh. Oop. Excuse me. Check my notifications. Oh, goodie! The Cybermen are here, at the Boundary. Better extend the hand of friendship. Breaker 1-2 calling all Cybes.” So the Master knew that the Cybermen would come. How? They haven’t interacted from our perspective at all.

-The Master says to Cyberium!Ashad “I want you to think of me as your new best friend.”

-Master to the Doctor: “Don't heckle, dear. I can always decide to cut you short.” -Master to Cyberium!Ashad: “Oh, shoot. I should've said, somebody needs to cut you down to size, then zapped you. I was just trigger-happy. I'll use it next time.” (Plus, a ‘next time’ - we haven’t seen the last of him).

-The Cyberium AI is revealed to have been the one to create the Death Particle. Which again makes me question who’s pulling whose strings. As the Master points out Ashad is more organic than most, and Ashad simply says that he’ll mechanise when the process is over - ignoring the point that this didn’t work before. And Ashad seems to think it will wipe out everything, ignoring the reality that its coverage is only a single planet.

-The Master is clearly talking to the Cyberium more than Ashad at points.

Ashad: “The Cyberium will process and dictate the strategy.” The Master: “The Cyberium. I've heard a lot about that over the millennia. The heart of all your power. The centre of all Cyber knowledge.” -Sounds very like the other Timeless Child(ren) mirror - the Ux.

-The Master actively flirts with it. “Oh, come on, Cyberium, show us some leg. What do you actually look like, hmm?” And after shrinking Ashad without so much as a close-up, like he’s been nothing to the plot, “Well, aren't you pretty? And fast. You made your exit very swiftly there. Worried, were you?”

-The Master hoped the Death Particle would activate and laments to the Cyberium AI that his “nice little gamble” didn’t pay off - as in it didn’t kill him. (Assuming Timeless Children plural, that may be the only thing that would work, and that he is telling this to the Cyberium AI again could fit nicely with the narrative idea that it knows what it’s doing).

-“Oh, sorry, were you close? Candidly, I think you can do better.” ... “Wow, that was quick. Wa-ha-ha! Whoa! Woohoo! At least buy me... dinner!” - (And considering we all had a giggle at the clearly intentionally funny ‘a piece of you is in me’ line that’s going to happen either in about a minute, or in the world of the episode and making adjustments for simultaneous storytelling, right now...)

-“I ransacked the Matrix of the Time Lords, distilled all the knowledge, all the experiences, all the discoveries, into these brains up here. All the Cyber knowledge, all the Time Lord knowledge. Put it together, what do you get? Absolute supremacy in the universe. Choose me.” - (The Master pointing out we’ve now got two sets of incredible knowledge. Rule of three has me wondering about the Timeless Child’s ‘Knowledge’.)

-After the power was originally in the Doctor-mirror/Doctor, it then went to the Rassilon-mirror(?) and then to the Master. If you’re a fan of Timeless Children Plural theory.

-The Master: “No, Doctor. As of now, I wish my enemies a long and healthy life, so they may witness my many triumphs, because they will be legion.” - (So, in case you’re not familiar with the Legion thing, two points: A Legion was a division in the Roman army of about 3000-6000 men. We will be coming back to Rome - oh God will we - but just slot that information away for later. Point two - For another use of Legion, we need to head to the Bible, Mark 5:1-9. ‘Who cares, Rowan?’ Well, this is the story in which there is a man living among tombs, who no-one can bind, not even with chains. He cries out and attacks himself, and on seeing Jesus in the distance rushes over and kneels before him, screaming that he’d put him under oath not to torment him. Jesus doesn’t talk to him, but to what is possessing him, ordering it to come out, and asking its name. And it, not the man replies: “I am Legion, for we are many.” (Fun fact, we eventually get rid of the demons by exorcising them into animals who then run off...a...cliff. *sighs* Ok.)

The Doctor: “You're looking peaky.” The Master: “Oh, yeah. The Cyberium lives in me now, Doctor. Yeah. Yes. See, I've been looking forward to seeing your face about that. I can feel it flowing around in me. The information, the strategy, the... the... the consciousness. It's a beautiful thing. And look at us. I have broken you and created a new race. And now? Now I shall conquer... everything. Oh.”

-“See, I've been looking forward to seeing your face about that.” - This is a quiet point that exemplifies a major one. The Master’s story is different to ours. He knows things that we do not. The Doctor in theory (though I doubt in practice) had never come across the Cyberium AI before, she hasn’t mentioned its name or anything about it to the Master. In theory (again press x) the Lone Cyberman carrying the Cyberium AI just turned up when the Master dragged the Doctor through to Gallifrey as pure happenstance, he should know nothing about that incident with the AI and Shelley (and yet he quotes him). Why has he been looking forward to seeing her face in regards to that? What does he know about it that he expects her to remember? Just like with the Timeless Child infodump, we are fools if we take all this at face value, because the Master planned for all of this. And it seems like the Cyberium AI _itself_ is planning too.

Ko Sharmus: “You didn't start this. I did. I was part of a resistance unit that sent the Cyberium back through time and space. Though obviously we didn't send it back far enough. So this is my penance. Mine to finish. My journey ends here. But the universe still needs you, so I suggest you run.” (Ko Sharmus is treated way too important. We’ve got to see him again.)

----

Done? Done.

Well no, no actually we’re not. Because there is one final episode.

But we have to go back, just a little bit, to the Seventh Doctor. Stick with me. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

Silver Nemesis:

-A story revolving around a thing called Validium.

-To quote the TARDIS Wiki: “It was living metal that could think for itself and was capable of speech as well. When destroyed, it could reform itself.”

The Doctor: “Validium was created as the ultimate defence for Gallifrey, back in early times.” Ace: “Created by Omega?” The Doctor: “Yes.” Ace: “And?” The Doctor: “Rassilon.” Ace: “And?” The Doctor: “And none of it should have left Gallifrey. But, as always with these things, some of it did.”

-Catch that hint of the Cartmel Masterplan where it’s clearly meant to lead you to ‘And? The Other One’. It’s ok, you’re not reading too far into it, I promise.

-“It should never have left Gallifrey, but some of it did. A piece of validium fell to Earth and was found by the Lady Peinforte.” Can you guess what she did with it? Why, she moulded it into a statue of herself.

-A silver lady statue.

-(You remember how we just seemed to abandon Barton? Who is somewhat not human? Was involved with creatures from another dimension? And that statue? Seemed set-up for a cyber plan? Saw nothing wrong with a bit of familial murder? Ooh hoo. Welp.)

-Nazis are involved. Ill-timed notifications. The Doctor forgetting. A cellar. (A fez). A meteorite containing the validium crashes by a barn. On November the 23rd. Happy Birthday. We blow things up. A lot of things.

-The villains of the piece? Besides the nazis and the Time(travelling) Lady? Well it could only be the Cybermen. A bit of the Validium is held by each of them

-The Cybermen take their bit of the Validium to the tomb of the Lady, with an inscription “Death Is But A Door”. The Lady is not buried there, and it doubles as a pun, with a hidden door.

-One of the lead nazis betrays his fellow to be turned into a Cyberman. “Supermen are all very well, but the giants are the master race.”

-The Seventh Doctor is mirrored with the Lady, who describes herself as evil. They even have mirrored scenes with their equivalent companions.

-The Lady: “All power, all power past, present and future, shall be mine. Why, I shall be mistress of all of that is, all that shall be, all that ever was. Yes, all! All!” - Oh, doesn’t she sound familiar now...

-Point Of Interest: Like many of the concepts Chibs has been playing with from Classic Who - the Morbius Doctors, almost certainly the Valeyard - this was apparently a fairly controversial episode among the old guard. Why? Because well...

The Validium: “I am beautiful, am I not?” Ace: “Yes. You're very beautiful.” The Validium: “It is only my present form. I have had others which would horrify you. I shall have those again. You are surprised I speak?” Ace: “I know you're living metal.” The Validium: “I am whatever I am made to be. This time Lady Peinforte called me Nemesis, so I am retribution.”

-I mean this is all cute but it doesn’t explain why it’s here and-

The Validium: “And I'm to destroy the entire Cyberfleet?” The Doctor: “Forever.” The Validium: “And then?” The Doctor: “Reform.” The Validium: “You might need me in the future, then?” The Doctor: “I hope not.” The Validium: “That is what you said before.” The Doctor: “Enough.” The Validium: “And after this, will I have my freedom?” The Doctor: “Not yet.” The Validium: “When?” The Doctor: “I told you when.” The Doctor: “Things are still imperfect.”

-Oh well that’s...Hmm.

Lady Peinforte: “You are nothing. Only the Doctor matters, and he is but a pawn in the game of my making.” ... Ace: “The Doctor's not just going to give you the bow. Tell her, Doctor. Tell her.” Lady Peinforte: “Doctor who? Have you never wondered where he came from, who he is?” Ace: “Nobody knows who the Doctor is.” Lady Peinforte: “Except me.” Ace: “How?” Lady Peinforte: “The statue told me.” Ace: “All right, so what does it matter? He's a Time Lord, I know that.” Lady Peinforte: “Well, Doctor?” The Doctor: “If I give you the bow,” Lady Peinforte: “Your power becomes mine, but your secrets remain your own.” ... Lady Peinforte: “I shall tell them of Gallifrey, tell them of the old time, the time of chaos.” ... The Doctor: “You had the right game, but the wrong pawn. Check.”

-What used to be the Cartmell Master plan is now the Timeless Child Master...plan- Is this why it’s involving the Master? For a pun? Whatever, either way the Seventh Doctor is now a treasure trove of useful ideas - I did wonder why Chibs chose Ace in particular as the companion who should get a ‘Thirteen meeting them again’ book - trying to lure people in for a second look, clearly.

-So what happens in the story? In the Timeless Child, the Master ends up absorbing the Cyberium. In Silver Nemesis, the Validium absorbs our Lady Mistress Of All. How neat.

-The Doctor ‘wins’ by giving the Validium the Cyberleader’s instructions, confirming it understood them, and then the Cybermen let it fly off to their fleet. Which then blows up. Because it chose to disobey them. (As he knew it would).

-The Validium is left floating in space, until the Doctor calls on it again. I’m not saying this relates to opening titles full of goop, but I’m not saying it doesn’t either.

So. That’s a lot. While I would usually doubt the Validium would literally be the Cyberium, and that it would be for fans to join together as they wished or not... Honestly, given the use of lore in Chibs Who, I don’t actually feel certain of that anymore.

But either way, there’s your meta masterpost, you can commence your theorising now.

****

I know no-one comes to these things for my stupid conclusions, but in case you did, here’s a couple of my very disparate fever-brained thoughts, that I’m too ill to put together more...smartly, and might have to come back to if you’re ever going to actually see this post:

-The Doctor/The Other/The Timeless Child had a hand in the weaponisation of the Cyberium AI (forced/cajoled/whatever).

-The Time Lord empire, in at least one version of reality, is inextricably linked to the Cybermen empire, with the Cybermen showing similar levels of technology to Time Lords (a cyber carrier ‘more advanced’ than very far future humans have ever seen - “Coming out of vortex now”, implies it has time vortex travel. And “That’s my home planet - that's Gallifrey”. Immediately the image cuts to Cyberman, then straight back.)

-The Timeless Child was chosen as a vessel to save some form of living knowledge, rather than just being a mystical alien.

-((My nuttiest guess that is only 30% meta and 70% gut feel is it’s a TARDIS-kind, probably our own, which stayed with them because they carried her, and now she carries them. That concept, the little links we’re seeing with TARDISes and their sentience, the implied planetary genocide of all but a saved pair, cyberised humans and cyberised Time Lords - a TARDIS is a cyberised something, the question of living technology, the gloop of the vortex, the Ghost Monument, the Doctor’s agonised loss of her for her first episode that she then only finds at the end of the second on a dead planet ruined by space-fascists...))

-Are those two the same story? You could go in either direction. The stories are all about cycles and loops, so a strong case for mirroring, but at the same time we have a Lone Cyberman who can’t be converted properly and no-one knows why, which makes me think that is still Rassilon with either the ghost of a memory of an old plan, or - thanks to time travel - the old plan itself. That perhaps the Timeless Child’s Power would end up somewhat fused with the Doctor when they turned it into the weaponised Cyberium “AI”, explains why we see it in meta go from benign to weapon creator.

-The Cyberium AI created the Death Particle which would destroy all life and stop the Cyber-Time Lords from taking over. This feels like the exact thing the Doctor was trying to stop with the Time Lords in The End Of Time, and Day Of The Doctor, as their absolute last-ditch plan.

-Certainly the Battle that the Alliance are gearing up for, I would assume is the same battle that we keep seeing in mirrors, and is directly related to Gallifrey. It keeps coming up linked together, like with Ko Sharmus, and we first find out about the Alliance from the inside of a stolen Battle TARDIS.

-So perhaps that’s a point that history is hinging on, and someone - read: the Master - has chosen to interfere. Things all seemed to go wrong after he discovered the Timeless Child information - impossible Time Lords and TARDISes appearing, an Alliance, a Cyber Empire etc. Maybe originally the Doctor/Timeless Child (title, not necessarily youth) was used to control the Cyberium AI and win the battle. But the Master took them away from Rassilon so that couldn’t happen, so everything’s a catastrofuck of paradoxes.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We got a long time to think about it at least.

#doctor who #doctor who meta #the cyberium ai #the timeless child #the timeless children #rassilon #the assilon #(i’m so ill)#(so take it in...whatever form this is)#(too feverish for thinking)#(stupid partner socialising and teaching kids and giving me diseases)

37 notes · View notes

jugandbettsdetectiveagency · 7 years

Text

Some of my thoughts on episode four:

(disclaimer: this is not supposed to be eloquent or cohesive or whatever, I just kept seeing posts that ground my gears and I had to just write something out)

I wish Kevin’s reconciliation statement hadn’t come just before Betty told him all about the letter. I’m not saying she didn’t have a right to be shook and spaced out but it meant she ignored Kevin and we were kinda back where we started. Not a character thing, just a scene organisation thing.

Hiram and Hermione are up to some super shady shit and I am living for all these cryptic conversations between the two of them. I feel like they are marionettists pulling the strings of the whole town - north side, south side, you name it, they don’t discriminate. I feel like a lot of the hinting was to them playing a part forcing a town-wide self-destruct, caused by this civil war. Encouraging Archie’s vigilante group, wanting Alice to speak out about taking about south side resources, throwing it back to wanting to take out Fred... I don’t know what the extent of their involvement in specific events, or what their endgame is, yet but I’m so excited to see.

I friggin knew Veronica didn’t throw that gun. She’s just as much into the power trip high as Archie is - we can see that when she stands up to her parents. I think seeing the fight made her realise Archie’s motivations in a less superficial way than she did with kitting out the whole of RH in some cheap-ass looking t-shirts, but the actual feeling of firing the gun caused her to take a step back and be like whoa ok, this is real. And there was a sense of this throughout for Archie too - pre-episode he’d already tried to delete the video. He’s a bit caught up in wanted to seek justice (it’s not justice, it never was, it’s plain revenge that he’s trying to shove into some haphazard disguise) and being in way over his head. I found it funny that I couldn’t work out whether he was proud or embarrassed during his slow mo hallway march to his remixed red circle tune. Were the kids in awe or just plain mocking him? I think that sums up Archie’s character pretty well. It’s not football or music, but it’s the same set up with different choices.

Ahh, Bughead. My sweet, sweet Bughead. Yes, Juggie was a bit of a twat. But I can see his motivations (not excusing his actions, just as an aside). He seemed so shifty about the code cracking when literally all he had to say was yeah Toni and I are already talking about this. Did he know that Betty was the one who gave the letter to the register at this point? At least, he didn’t know it was personally addressed to her yet. He didn’t know how involved she already was with wanting to crack it. His frankly bloody annoying need to ‘protect and save’ Betty reared its ugly head again and it just made him seem like a bit of a shitty boyfriend. We all have those days though, who are we kidding? This whole self-deprecating, ‘you only hurt the ones you love’ spiel was cute as a character introduction, but dude, get your act together! Also I find it ironic that his whole speech to Betty during that first s1 argument of theirs was about not fitting in to the respective, societal roles of ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’, at least on his part. It’s a little bit insulting that he’s basically squishing Betty - head strong, brave, stubborn, ‘nancy drew meets girl with the dragon tattoo’ Betty Cooper - into the mold of sweet little girlfriend that can’t handle it. ‘She’s into the darker things’, he said about Toni. Pfft, that was a lame justification even for you, Jug. BUT he’s a kid trying to balance the weight of two worlds on his shoulders, and I also wanna cut him some slack. I love this boy dearly and his distress is my distress. ALSO, it’s not really OOC, idk why I keep seeing this. This is what Jughead does, do you not remember him not telling anyone he was homeless. He carries all the burden. Plus, a couple of months ago this dude had never been a boyfriend, practically told Archie and Betty that the concept of that label was foreign/didn’t sit well with him. He’s navigating a pretty big learning curve and while he was doing well it won’t be smooth sailing, that’s just unrealistic. All in all, I was fine with the way Bughead played out this episode. “I’ve been gone two days” I mean I’m crying, come on, Betty.

Side notes: I want like a billion code cracking party episodes. That shit is my jam. Maybe with a bit less hostility next time, just a thought. Definitely the same amount of Kevin though (although perhaps not used as a counter to Jughead bringing Toni next time please).

This episode definitely tried to show the strain on the difficulties of communication because of the distance between them now (but I think Alice just revealed how they will once again be reunited - thanks, girl. Your classism was real telling there). While it was frustrating and annoying it was also expected and we saw how they came back together ever time. It’s gonna take more than that to break these two. I mean they literally woke up snuggling. I think at this point most of it is just pure frustrations at their situation and the need of an adjustment period. I think too many people built up too many expectations about the milestones that are supposedly coming in their relationship and keep placing them on every episode, only to be like well this episode sucked when they don’t happen. Frankly, I think we were so thrilled with the ep.13 that we never really stopped to think that it might be a little bit OOC for these two. It was a big leap from where we’d seen them at in the rest of the season, and while it was by no means unreasonable that that’s where they ended up after a mutual confession of love, and I’m not saying that I didn’t flippin’ love that scene (cus y’all know I DID) I don’t think we can expect a pick up this soon in the season, especially with this new wave of life or death drama.

Speaking of adjustments, let’s talk about Toni. Toni seemed to straight up want to cause drama this episode. She was literally whacked in as drama-starter extraordinaire, with nothing spared to develop her character - girl was shortchanged. But what that also means is that we literally have no clue as to what her motivations are yet and, contrary to some rather hasty beliefs, I don’t think those motivations are just to get into Jughead’s pants - give a girl some credit. For one, she got some of that classic Bughead communication that we all know, love, and miss going again. She forced some issues out into the open and while it was by no means enough it was a start. She’s got her own reasons for doing whatever it is that she’s doing - this much we’ve been told - but until we know what they are, I’m holding all judgement. I mean, yeah I don’t like her right now, but she’s not blacklisted just yet.

That brings me to the tone. THE TONE OF THIS EPISODE. I loved the direction they seemed to be taking in the first episode of the season and, for me at least, it is just getting better and better. We all joked that the only teaser we kept getting is that s2 would be darker, but boy was that the truth. The end of this episode and from the looks of it the majority of the next one is literally paying homage to one of the most used tropes in horror cinema - the phone call. And I love it. I freaking love it. Yeah, we would love it to be sunshine and rainbows all the time for our fave couple(s) but honey, if that’s what you’re legitimately looking for then this is not the show for you. Boy, it isn’t. The angst is getting ramped up, the horror is getting ramped up, the not quite supernatural in terms of there being no supernatural elements but it still feels that way tone is getting ramped up - the fog machine is working overtime! I love it all, and I just can’t wait to watch more pieces of the story and the secrets unravel as the season continues.

#riverdale #riverdale spoilers #have a word vomit #edit: I keep adding more about jughead lol I can't stop #won't stop

120 notes · View notes

recentanimenews · 7 years

Text

Three-Episode Test: Ink's Fall 2017

Welcome to the Three Episode Test, where Ani-Gamers contributors give you the low-down on what they're watching (or not) from the current simulcast season and why.

Garo: Vanishing Line

Streaming on Crunchyroll (sub) and Funimation (dub)

This is the anime I look forward to most each and every week. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen any of the other Garo anime thus far or if you were turned off by the second season, because Garo: Vanishing Line is the big, dumb powerhouse anime you’ve been craving. Let me clarify: Vanishing Line is that special kind of “sit back and turn your brain off” that lets you fully appreciate the animation MAPPA is capable of, because backstory and story take the back seat to wild, over-the-top action as well as phenomenal character designs and set pieces in a New York setting.

Looking and behaving like a cross between a pulp comic and Redline, Vanishing Line centers around an American hero (the golden lion-suited Makai Knight) on his uber-cycle as he fights Horrors (monsters) that seem to channel the spirit of Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s creations. The hero is the lovable, collateral damage-inducing goof in the same vein of The Tick – the eternal child, and his pairing with the other Makai Knight, a cold and calculating sniper, while cliché in its setup, works with a sublime chemistry for the stories told thus far.

Across its first three episodes, this series exudes a perfect mix of vivaciousness and joviality. The casting off of the brooding shroud that cloaked the previous season is welcome to say the least, and the 3DCG suit, unlike the other series, is integrated really well with the traditional animation. (The series loses a piece of its charm there, in my opinion, but makes up for it in adrenaline.) The golden lion suit is only brought out as a finishing move (as opposed to being woven into its wearer’s inner turmoil), and the 3DCG and camerawork SHINE with the motorrad motorcycle sequences.

Girls’ Last Tour

Streaming on Anime Strike

This title has got to be the cutest bit of dystopian fiction that exists (aside from Humanity Has Declined). It’s a story of survival in a post-war wasteland that seems vacant of all life save two children, respectively representing brains and brawn, trained in arms…and only one episode passes before the main characters are naked in a bath together. But that is thankfully, an aberration.

Most of the first three episodes can be more appropriately billed as slice-of-post-apocalyptic-life, wherein the bonds of friendship between the two adventurers – climbing ever higher in a desolate, stratified world of mankind’s own creation – are exposed via simple conversation amidst strenuous conditions. The warmth between these characters, their acceptance of each other’s flaws and strengths as what makes them them, is what makes this series so endearing and humorous.

Only a vague flashback is given for reason behind the girls’ outing, but the reason to watch is the journey and not any particular destination. (We’re lucky to have this and the new Kino’s in the same season.) It’s just genuinely pleasant to spend time with these characters as they lean on each other to keep on keepin’ on, and the moé attributes and chibi designs force a doting focus against the backdrop of lifeless, broken architecture. It’s not anything deep, but it’s got a solid sense of its own world. And I’m willing to go along for the ride for the rest of the season.

Kino’s Journey – The Beautiful World – The Animated Series

Streaming on Crunchyroll

As a fan of the first anime adaptation, I’m feeling a bit trepidatious for more than a few reasons after viewing the first three episodes of the new Kino’s Journey. The good news is that the reboot is watchable and keeps the air of the original. The bad news is that I really don’t think it is as strong.

Largely, this has nothing to do with the pronoun faux pas committed in the impression-important first episode nor the more slightly unsettling feminine design conceived for the series. Simulcast haste easily excuses the former, and the latter can be reluctantly chalked up to something brought to my attention via CR member Kolkpen in a comment on an article @illegenes and I wrote. The larger source of my anxiety, then, comes from the storytelling.

Having just re-watched the original adaptation for another Crunchyroll article, I can safely say that the amount of exposition in the new adaptation is comparatively dreadful. That is to say it exists. Not everything is spelled out; thankfully, each country is left up to an observational storytelling true to the original series. Kino’s backstory and intentions, however, are articulated verbally to a ridiculous (read: any) degree.

The art is gorgeous in most circumstances, and the attention to lighting is incredible, but the cleanliness means the visual communication lacks the muddled filter of the TV lines presented in the original. Kino’s, after all, is a depiction of circumstance meant to provoke audience contemplation. The original adaptation does this on all levels, while this later adaptation seems somewhat hell-bent on clean lines.

Love is Like a Cocktail

Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise: Busty blonde turns all moé and clingy after sipping (or guzzling) any alcoholic drink prepared by her sweet, attentive husband. I don’t need to overindulge, in either alcohol or this particular anime, to puke. Beer goggles are one thing, but imploring preciousness by placing them on an audience in order to enthrall them to the database is a malady. The situations behind the protagonist’s indulgences are overly simplistic excuses for the camera to focus on her HUGE boobs, and what’s meant to be endearing (her enjoyment of the drinks and her mood change thereafter) propagates the notion that all females really want to do instead of work is drink and dote on their husbands. Sure, the MC is drinking to feel good, and that’s all well and good, but the effects are induced to solely benefit the male character and, by proxy, the male-targeted audience. (The MC is never affected positively by the drinking with regards to herself save the momentary salvation the destruction of neurons affords.) It’s sickening, frankly, and wholly without merit. Not only does Love is Like a Cocktail borrow reactions and framing from the impeccable Wakako-zake, but the series also nods to recipe introductions a la the classic Bartender. In fact, the only original thing Love is Like a Cocktail has going for it is the motorcycle-riding lemon, which is at least weird and original and ends (thankfully) each episode. Even though this is a short, I struggled to make it to episode three to make my final decision: I will not be watching any more of this dreck.

Pikotaro's Lullaby LA LA BY

Streaming on Crunchyroll

While it started airing too late for me to write up for my Summer 2017 3ET, Pikotaro’s Lullaby LA LA BY was by far one of the best comedies of last season. Each episode features a fairy/folk tale background drawn by director Takashi Taniguchi, about whom you can and should read about here and then watch what is available of his catalog, and features an improvised dialog by comedian Pikotaro. The latter is that guy who penned that pineapple-apple song, and he features in each and every episode as an antagonistic force.

It’s comedy brilliance.

The new season isn’t actually new. It’s comprised of the 3 Web episodes that preceded the series proper. None of them are are great as any episode from last season (maybe with the exception of the Cinderella episode), but any fan of the series will be glad to watch them. And they might serve even better as an introduction to the main series. So, please, if seeing those three shorts tickles you fancy as much as they tickle your funny bone, go watch the rest of Pikotaro’s Lullaby LA LA BY. Guffaws as well as chuckles that snowball into breathless tears await you.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie

Streaming on Crunchyroll

A woman in her thirties decides to become a NEET and thereby ascends to her made-up “elite NEET” status. Soon she indulges in an old pastime for which she, lately, has just not had the late night hours or energy necessary: MMORPGs.

I’m not sure whether I’m mad at the IRL plot for interrupting the MMO experience with Seth McFarland-ish emotigag cuing, or the MMO being similar to the other players-trapped-in-the-game series and teasing me with IRL Welcome to the NHK-ness. All I know is that this series is so occasionally cute that nothing else really matters. That is to say that this is junk.

It refuses to be here or there and, at least as of the first three episodes, seems trite in comparison to Welcome to the NHK and ReLIFE. Not that this series has to be dark, but it is about a woman in her thirties after all. And that’s kinda what I hate: this series wants both worlds but doesn’t really know how to balance them. The whole thing makes a joke out of a bad situation portrayed with such a light hand that it confuses humanity and punchlines. Hell, it makes dramatic reaction punchlines … which would be more heady if the series itself were.

If you’re looking for a cute woman nerd geeking out over games and boys men, then this is your bag. I, however, forgot it in a taxi.

TWOCAR: Racing Sidecar

Streaming on Crunchyroll

To be perfectly honest, I literally thought this type of racing was fabricated so that the animators could thrust body-suited riders’ backsides into the cameras as they flail into dramatic poses along the raceway. As it turns out, sidecar racing is REAL, much like Keijo!!!!!!!! is (…now), and pretty darned exciting too!

TWOCAR isn’t so adept at turning something slow and calculating, as with wager games in Kaiji or Akagi, into bloodsport, but it does a darned good job at realistically and enthusiastically depicting the sport itself. The whiny feel-feel relationships between the teams’ partners and the collective group of riders as a whole enables a “story” of sorts, but mostly this show is just about admiring the execution and digging into the turns.

That is to say the racing is enthralling for both its uniqueness and the extra drama injected by home team vs. visitors (personalized by intimate teams of two) as well as the backstories and current conflicts of the latter. I can’t believe I’m about to say this (I blame the whisky), but TWOCAR is a pretty competent sports anime. It’s nothing that’ll upend the world, but it’s got enough visual flare and dramatic knowhow to keep me entertained week to week. Kudos!

originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on October 25, 2017 at 1:49 AM.

By: Ink

#Anime #News #Ani-Gamers

0 notes