#I have a lot of thoughts about this wpisode

[cubanpetekotrb]

Absolutely loving the shit out of Ahsoka not entirely being Ahsoka the white. She has taken steps but she's not there yet.

She blames herself AND Sabine for willingly giving the map and going with Baylan.

She absolutely sees Sabines choice as Ahsokas failure as a Master while also blaming Sabine for not doing better.

And honestly Ahsoka is partly right, she wasn't a terribly good Master to Sabine. Becasue she wasnt dealing with her own shit and THAT she does know after last weeks episode but Sabine is also her own person that makes her own choices however wrong they might be. Ahsoka can't keep blaming herself for the choices other people make (and carrying that guilt with her). I mean I get that it's triggering for Ahsoka. Both your Master and your apprentice making choices that are 100% for themselves and their attachments, dooming the galaxy. Its kinda history repeating itself BUT you know, Sabine is not Anakin (so maybe galaxy not doomed this time) and Ahsoka is not responsible for other people's choices even though her inability to deal with her past influenced how she trained Sabine. Its still Sabines choice.

So Ahsoka is not there yet, I think meeting with Sabine is going to be important for both Ahsoka and Sabine to make that next step. For Sabine I think the next step will be fully embracing the Force. These witches said what they said for a reason.

[max-the-mouse]

WOW OKAY ANOTHER WPISODE OF: "Experiencing Indoctrination/Thought Control for the majority of your life was Bad for you"

i do not feel like my mind is my own sometimes!!!! always beating away cult thoughts™️

having the fundmental beliefs of my brain put there by ppl that wanted me to be afraid of the world and not think for myself has DEFINITELY affected me

okay well if anyone is writing a cult survivor character for any purpose i think you could add a lot of flavor if u included this:

the constant battle between the thoughts programmed into their head vs. what they know is true. this becomes more difficult if the truth they are trying to combat the thoughts with is a more subjective thing or if it has to do with what the character wants.

also just generally struggling to know what they want, from simple things to what they want in life.

sometimes i wish i could rip my brain out of my head and throw it in a bath of URNEX urn and brewer cleaner (iykyk ;3)

i still cant fight away the sinking pit of unease when i do something that goes against my churches beliefs (smoking, anything gay, anything trans (yeah thats an everyday one), watching/reading media that would have been restricted from me, learning a lot of science etc.). it doesnt happen every time!!! but it does happen a lot. esp the more anxious i am about the situation in the first place!!!!

i have to desensitize my brain like its a fucking horse and im the girl running around the arena waving a blankie or w/e

[calliecat93]

ST: TNG Watchthrough Episodes 13-16

Angel One: So... sadly one holdover from TOS at least so far is sexism. Not as badly, but it’s still VERY much present. The three leading ladies have all been put in s*xual/romantic relations at least once (though tbf they ALL are still very capable of their jobs so they got that right), off-handed remarks that rub me the wrong way, and then we have this episode. Now this COULD have been good such as going into the dangers of radical feminism (it exists, don’t pretend that it doesn’t) and showing what true feminism/equality should be against a sexist matriarchy that demeans/sexualizes men. Allow the women to show what feminism truly should be and maybe even open the men’s eyes to how demeaned and humiliated women can be treated when they are subjected to the same treatment. But we don’t. Crusher is allowed to be an awesome doctor which yes good, but Troi and Yar while competent are no more important than usual nor do any of the women (Crusher aside) truly drive the plot. Any demeaning treatment that men get especially equate to nothing (admittedly Riker just owning it is kind of nice, but still). The pieces were there, but not properly connected and thus all the pieces are scattered and confused. We also have Riker being FAR too much of a Kirk clone here. It has some bright spots with Geordi being a competent leader and again, Crusher is an awesome doctor who was just fantastic here. But otherwise had this done things properly, ot could have been bold for the time and imo the message of radical femenism is needed more than ever. The episode Equal Fighte from The Powerpuff Girls is an excellent wpisode showing the dangers and having strong women who are also positive role models lead the plot and deliver the message. But they failed here and I am FAR less forgiving of this than I am with TOS because we knew better by this point. 2/5.

11001001: More Holodeck shenanigans, yippee! It was... okay. Nothing great, but nothing terrible. I was excited about Holodeck enhancements... but all it did was create a woman to distract Riker and Picard. Which they go on and on about how more advanced she is to the other times but not only did we only have one other Holodeck episode, but she’s REALLY not that different from the holograms in that episode aside form her learning faster. The Binars manner of speech also got old VERY quickly. But otherwise there’s nothing particularly bad. Wesley is able to be smart without making the adults look like idiots, I liked Picard and Riker’s interactions and they felt like a genuine Captain and First Officer standing together, and the Binars actual motivation and reasons for taking the Enterprise instead of being another evil alien species was nice. Also the musicals core was really good, which can be said for every episode thus far. It’s a decent episode with some nice points, but otherwise unremarkable with not enough moments to justify a higher rating than what I’m giving the initial watchthrough. 2.5/5.

Too Short a Season: Ah aging, it happens to all of us one way or another. Apparently this episode got mixed reviews because of the make-up and overacting... but I actually liked this one quite a bit. Maybe Jameson got too much focus over the cast, but I don’t think that either the story or the theme were bad at all. This could just be because I’ve recently seen someone who is getting older express distress over becoming old, but I did feel empathetic towards Jameson. He was old, fragile, and deteriorating, and such a state is gut-wrenching to both the individual and the one caring for them forced to watch it, helpless to do anything. In some ways it’s tragic especially when Jameson dies in a manner much more brutal than a natural one from old age. But he also did all this without thinking of his wife and her thoughts, grew more arrogant the younger that he got, and brought his ultimate fate onto himself because of his irrationality. There’s a theme of age and youth here, and shows how de-aging/trying to cheat death will end badly for you. It makes me think a lot about events like my grandmother dying while just deteriorating and my grandfather having a hard time dealing with it. Maybe that’s why this hit me so much, IDK. But that made me feel especially bad for Annie who is helpless as her husband dies and her final moments with him made me teary eyed. It’s not a perfect episode with some of the acting being a little off, but otherwise I really liked this one! Also I couldn’t help but think of McCoy, who is still kicking in his 130’s as the pilot demonstrated, getting an offer for de-aging... and him just giving them all two middle fingers, delivering a MAJOR tirade/rant about all the medical and ethical violations such a treatment would cause in the wrong hands (and BOY does he know that it would be too easily abused), and the mental image just made me smile so big XD. 4/5.

When the Bough Breaks: Child kidnapping! Ho boy! So we have a society kidnap children, including Wesley, in hopes of saving their dying society. Needless to say, this is a HORRIBLE thing to do. I was fully expecting to be annoyed at this episode since... well an episode with mostly kids int his kind of show is VERY easy to do wrong. TOS’ And The Children Shall lead, while I admit I was probably too harsh and it does have some merits that I’ll try to give whenever I do a full review, is still my least favorite episode at least in part due to the kids. Fortunately, this one is fairly tolerable. Whatever I feel about how Wesley is often portrayed, he is intelligent and Wil Wheaton is a good actor. In a situation like this, Wesley can be competent and intelligent especially since he’s trying to both save himself and younger children. It helps make him look noble and brave despite being a naive kid who can grow into a capable Starfleet officer one day without making the actual adults look incompetent in comparison. Also major props to Dr. Crusher for keeping her head and still being a competent officer and badass doctor despite having every reason to go ballistic/panicked after her son’s kidnapping. God I love her~! I feel bad for the people who clealry want children to love as their own... but it sitlld oens’tjustify their God awful actions and they got off super easy . While not as bad as I was expecting, the episode overall was just okay. Nothing great, nothing bad, and nothing remarkable enough to justify the final ranking. But it was otherwise fine and helped me like Wesley more, so that was nice. Oh and Picard being awkward with children was hilarious and cute especially at the end, haha! 3/5.

Sorry I put this on hold until the weekend again. Half was due to other stuff, the other half was due to... well, my mom was a TNG fan. She works at home, but her days are very busy aside from the weekends. So I have been trying to hold it off so that we can both watch it together. My way of making up for the 20+ years of refusing to do so until now, haha. I’ll try to speed it up with the upcoming week since we’re nearing the end of the season. While the season is still meh, the cast is really growing on me and there are some bright spots still that help with character and wanting to keep watching despite the story quality. Which since I know it gets real good int he later seasons, is encouraging. Easter is tomorrow and we are expecting company (just two people, no risks of virus or anything) so IDK if I’ll make it to TNG tomorrow, but I’ll try my best. If not, I will force myself to resume Monday.