#and to use species difference as a race allegory has so many issues

[rocaillefox]

can people please stop turning furry worlds into fantastical racism/making up furry stereotypes. i do not want to read 'all cats are troublemakers. all bears are police. all rabbits are caregivers.' like, peoples features and bodies do not signify anything about personality, morality, political stance, etc. and the bioessentialism inherent to that concept absolutely reeks. this is not a politically neutral thing jsjfbvj

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Unfortunately for you guys, I just started the paper my foolish professor let me write about studious deracination in James Cameron’s Avatar, so get ready for some some academic posts to start trickling in. Here is a more detailed post of the tiktok I made. 

Today we are going to talk about race as an allegory in Avatar again!!! Avatar (2009) is a pretty blatant representation of indigenous peoples on Earth being colonized. Like, I don’t think anyone disputes that. But why do this and not make a movie about colonization?? Why make them aliens??

By separating these things from our real world, our real history, things we may have bias about, we can view it from a completely fresh lens. There's a deliberate choice to present a different planet and a different species and in that way, they have that allegory for colonization, for racism, for the destruction of our planet, be more evident and sympathetic to everyone viewing it as an example of our planet and these real-world things that are happening. Sometimes it’s easier to approach these issues when you don’t feel like they are targeting you. 

However, I feel like there's an interesting, perhaps not intentional, thing that James Cameron did as well with the second movie and that is addressing colorism. I read a lot of your fanfictions, okay, I read ‘em. Every time they're set in the modern era and our main characters are human there is a conscious choice to have Jake Sully's biological children Tuk and Neteyam be darker skinned, and to have Lo’ak be lighter skinned. We are all picking up on something that is implied in the narrative that I don't think anyone intended to be there. I don’t wanna give James Cameron too much credit in that regard. Let’s talk about that phenomenon. 

So this is studiously deracinating something, it’s a narrative strategy defined by an evacuated racial consciousness that ironizes assumptions of white universalism and uncritical postracialism. So what does that mean? That means by taking race out of the equation in something, the concept of race, it allows you to analyze the same concepts in more of an unbiased way, just as stated above with the first Avatar. It allows you to kind of look at yourself as well, your own biases and how they come into play while you’re reading or watching something. You are fully unaffected by the concept of race in the novel and are more so affected by your own assumptions. 

I think there’s such an interesting example of this in Avatar because of the way we have been perceiving Lo’ak and his outcast status in this movie and the way I’ve seen so many people perceive him as lighter skinned than his siblings. He has more traditionally human features compared to the other Na’vi, and this sets him apart and he is treated differently. I think so many people connect with him without fully realizing why. In Avatar we know that the Na’vi represent the indigenous and people of color, while the humans represent colonizers, majority white people. We take the colorism step without even thinking about it, our own assumptions and biases take us there. Just a thought. :)

[swordatsunset]

[ID: Equally haunting is a story told by Gerald of Wales in his Topographia Hibernia, an anecdote that drives home both the horrors of miscegenation and the fate of the benighted Irish. Couched as a vignette about an old couple, a man and a woman of Ossory who are outwardly wolves but inwardly human, the story catches the eye of many because of its capacity for poignancy and shock, and for its evocation of the touching devotion of the aged couple and the pathos of their plight. An abbot’s curse has caused a human pair to live seven years as wolves; if they survive, the couple is released and replaced by another pair of humans who assume the burden of the curse for the next seven years, and so on, pair by pair, forever. Narrated in detail and at far greater length than Gerald’s cursory accounts of Irish women copulating with goats or Irish men inseminating cows, this allegory of species miscegenation unfolds vividly in our mind’s eye as the old male wolf pleads with a priest to bless the female wolf – who is very ill and near death – with last rites and the Host. When the priest performs the rites but withholds communion, the old wolf, to prove that she is human and thus deserving of the Host, uses his paw to peel off the top half of her wolf form, from head down to the navel, shockingly disclosing an old woman beneath. A woman’s body thus proves the humanity of the wolf-couple – sexual difference emerging in the instant of confirming humanity, and issuing as the very ground of confirmation. The human voice alone, emerging from the jaws of a male wolf, has not been adequate to confirm humanness. A woman’s face, breasts, and navel are necessary – her navel also presenting proof of human predecessors before her. After she has “devoutly received the sacrament,” the skin is folded back again over the woman’s humanness, and the two wolves, sharing the priest’s fire all night long, depart in the morning, merely the latest pair to endure an unendurable destiny (O’Meara 75, 74, 70–2; Brewer 5: 101–3). Like the people of Ireland who must bear the burden of imposed subhumanity in perpetuity while striving for admission to full humanity and civilization, the Irish werewolves of Gerald’s story are subhuman in perpetuity and live on the margins of the civilized world, as they ask for the most fundamental gifts of Christian humanity: sacraments and rites. Even if this individual pair survive their seven years of submergence into animalkind, these humans-who-are-wolves continue to be collectively cursed, doomed to subhumanity and outcast status forever. The story’s haunting ambience is delivered with wonderful little touches, like the lively presentation of the priest’s terrified incredulity, the human speech that startlingly emanates from the male wolf’s maw, and the old wolf’s desperation as he makes his plea for the dying female. Finally, though the narrative concludes that “the wolf showed himself . . . to be a man rather than a beast” (72), we are left not with an image of the reassuringly human, nor one of the palpably animal, but with an impression of a profoundly tragic intermixture, and a relentless continuity without end. Through this strange presentation of a story that appeals at the level of affect and intuition, we absorb an allegory of colonial logic rendered as the fearful intermixing of kinds. Irish appear like savage beasts on the outside, but may really be human under the skin. Their humanity, however, cannot be extricated from their animal nature, and even if some appear Christian, as witnessed by a touching faith in the highest of sacramental rites, the taking of the Host (a faith that confirms the power of those rites over all creation, universally), the Irish – as represented by these unfortunates of Ossory – are in the end tragic beings, mixing dual natures, at best doomed to pity, and forever denied access to full human and civilized status.]

Heng, the invention of race in the european middle ages

[bonesingerofyme-loc]

Let’s discuss Eliksni

This current season, Season of the Splicer, has a focus on Mithrax and the House of Light and Eliksni in particular as a species. Following with the landmark alliance between Caitl’s leftover Imperial Cabal and the Vanguard, now Mithrax has founded the House of Light and reached out a hand of peace to the Last City.

To this end, he has offered his services to the Tower and the Vanguard and in return, Ikora offered the House of Light resettlement within the City limits, under the Traveler.

This is the start of how incredibly poorly thought out everyone has acted in this season.

Ikora offered shelter to the House of Light without Consensus approval - hell, without even consulting with Zavala. She invited aliens into the Last City unilaterally, which, yeah, no shit that’s going to cause friction. 

Mithrax, in the first mission, when we chat with him, Osiris and Lakshmi in the Fallen Quarter, states that he will keep his House here and away from the rest of the City. We then have quite a few lorecards from weapons and whatnot detailing Eliksni out and about, alone, in the greater City. So was that a lie, Mithrax?

I get what the angle is here. I really do.

But allegory is fucking stupid.

There is nothing remotely similar between the Fallen/Human relations in the Destiny universe and hostile relations between nations or peoples on Earth IRL.

I think it’s all too easy for a reader to forget that Eliksni are alien. No matter how different a person’s culture might be on Earth, they are still human. They are still exactly the same as anyone else. You can look at them and see yourself. Their internal existence is, at least if you’re not going full solipsist, the same as your own. And you can bet on that because they’re human. We all grew up on the same planet. We all ate the same things, shat under the same stars, watched the same moon come up at night. It doesn’t matter from which corner of the globe you’re from or the divergence of phenotype, we’re all still human, closer than close. 

Eliksni (and Cabal, and Hive, etc) are alien. They are fundamentally different in a way that two cultural groups on Earth can never, ever be. Their brain chemistry is nowhere remotely comparable, assuming they even have brains in the way we’d describe it. There is no way to bridge the species gap about internal lives and existence - they are intrinsically other. They share none of the same, most  fundamental experiences of being that humans do, just as we do not for them. 

This isn’t to say that an alien can’t be empathized with or treated fairly, what I’m saying is that you cannot, in any way, compare an alien to a human, especially in how a person would relate or react to them.

Take a horrible war on Earth. From any time period. You’re going to have belligerents on both sides, deep-seated dislike and hatred of each other. But these things can pass and there are always, always those who are against it on either side. And they fade away. The scars can remain, at times, but these differences are driven by cultural rivalries and those cultures can fade away or move together. And over time can be lost in the collective visage of humanity, which does not bear a brand on it’s sleeve of ancient allegiance to one or another.

Do you know what cannot ever change? Biology. An alien will always be alien, no matter how close you associate with them or how long. There will always be a deep, fundamental disconnect in some major areas that cannot be crossed because you cannot be them and they cannot be you. 

And this is fine - a human should be human and an eliksni should be eliksni, or insert whatever favorite alien you have there. 

What gets me, though, is when writers treat ‘race’ and ‘species’ as interchangeable. It’s why I tend to take issue with using ‘race’ when referring to fantasy species, especially when there is no interbreeding possible. Dwarves and elves can get a little loosy-goosy there. 

You have these lorecards about Eliksni getting hate crime’d by the human population in the Last City or being shunned or prejudiced against and the r/dtg subreddit is all up in arms about the evil civilians and it’s like look - they’re aliens.

The fuck else did you expect?

This isn’t a case of accepting some human refugees in, this is a group of aliens that for seven hundred years have been the bogeyman for very real and very literal reasons. 

Humans have positive experiences with other humans all throughout life.

Humanity has not had a single positive experience with aliens since we learned alien life exists. I’m excluding the Traveler here, frankly, because it’s a cosmic god. 

For the seven hundred or so years that alien life has been a reality for the human race, they have been devoured, hunted to extinction, brutally sacrificed, used as torture fodder, used to feed eldritch gods and other, lovely, lovely things. 

Is it any surprise that the first time alien faces are seen in the Last City it’s met with hostility? There are zero positive experiences with aliens for all of humanity. The only ones who have had some are Guardians. The face of an alien means death or worse. The face of a human can mean that but again - we know so many humans in our lives, of all stripes. Here though, an alien, any alien, any face that is not comfortably human, means death. Something that the entire population of the Last City was very forcibly and violently reminded of just recently with Ghaul’s invasion and the subsequent slaughters that happened. Did we forget the citizens thrown to the warbeasts to be devoured?

The eliksni of House Light don’t deserve the hostility, of course. But it’s not surprising and really, it’s not the fault of the civilians. The fault is squarely on the shoulders of Ikora for deciding this incredibly poorly thought out move unilaterally and Mithrax for not recognizing that this was going to happen.

Because it goes both ways. Fallen haven’t had a single positive experience with aliens in all their existence, either, remember. For them, any alien, including humans, meant death. The thing with Saint-14 being a demon? Excellent! Perfect in showcasing this dynamic! But the stupidity is in recognizing this and then just going ‘lmao nah just give them free range in the Tower which is infested with Guardians, which they’re going to be terrified of.’ This is the purest of idiocy, a complete failure of leadership on all sides and is really quite insensitive to the needs of both species. 

So is the solution permanent segregation of species? No, but it’s definitely not just letting Fallen wander at whim and go to fucking ramen shops. This is seven hundred years of human-side bias and god-knows how long for eliksni to overcome. 

Aliens aren’t human. It bothers me when they’re treated that way because it’s lazy. This is a unique and fascinating angle in a story, one that is uniquely science fiction. Treating it as just a clumsy allegory for human relations is a waste of text (and also, ironically, a bit insulting to what the allegory is about. Unless you’re cool with implying that some people are as inhuman and inscrutable as literal bug aliens which is a yikes from me, dawg).

Maybe the salient point that Bungie is trying to make this season is that Ikora and Mithrax are complete knobheads and worthless leaders, but I’m gonna hazard that’s not the case.

[communistkenobi-archive]

Re: POC Imperial characters, and my opinion doesn't matter cuz I'm white, but the Empire, at least in new canon, doesn't seem to discriminate more by species than race, so it makes sense for there to be humans of color in Imperial command. I feel like they're balancing out the amount of nonwhite representation on both sides to justify this, except the main protags are still overwhelmingly white. Example: Rogue One— diverse cast, but white MC. The only counterexample I can think of is Resistance.

the issue with that is that the Empire is directly inspired by the US empire and Nazi Germany, both of which are fundamentally tied to white supremacy and settler-colonialism. you cannot meaningfully use them as an ideological basis for an enemy faction in your fictional universe while also ignoring the racism that is foundational to their ideology (or you can I guess, but that makes your parallels garbage and incoherent).

conflict between species has been used as a allegory for racism in SW (as it has been in many sci-fi/fantasy worlds), but that is extremely problematic when most of the human characters are white (as is the case in the PT/OT, tCW, and other SW media). it essentialises racism and assumes that differences between groups have a real biological basis (and therefore racism has a rational consistent logic to it, even if it’s still presented as bad) - different humanoid species are undeniably biologically discrete from one another, but human beings of different races are not.

so in order to not challenge the (assumed mostly white) audience too much or make them too uncomfortable, diverse casting is now used for both factions. but again the issue is that one faction is explicitly an allegory for real life historical fascist regimes that were founded on white supremacist ideology. casting a bunch of non-white actors to play those roles de-politicises the conflict and makes it about a generic struggle for power, where the bad guys are bad because they’re just evil, not because of any dangerous ideological projects that are steeped in irrational and incoherent understandings of group differences.

[ramajmedia]

Why Carnival Row's Reviews Are So Negative | Screen Rant

Amazon's ambitious new fantasy series Carnival Row features a murder mystery, a troubled romance, and a fantasy world rich with neo-noir and steampunk aesthetics - but it's also attracted a significant number of negative reviews. Why has a TV show that seemed to have so much promise left so many critics dissatisfied?

Carnival Row stars Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne as estranged lovers Rycroft Philostrate and Vignette Stonemoss. Philo was a soldier who fought in a war in Vignette's homeland of Tirnanoc, until the human forces of The Burgue decided to pull out of the war and leave the fae defenceless against their invaders. Vignette and Philo met in the war and fell in love, but got separated in a battle that left Vignette believing Philo was dead. They're reunited when Vignette joins her fellow fae refugees in The Burgue and discovers that Philo is alive, well, and serving as an inspector with the city's constabulary.

Related: Amazon's Carnival Row Cast & Character Guide

Those who have already fallen in love with the world of Carnival Row have no need to fear that the negative reviews will end it after one season. Amazon announced Carnival Row season 2 alongside the release of the first season, so we can expect to see Vignette and Philo return no matter what. Currently the show has a "Rotten" score of 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, and here are some of the reasons why reviewers were less than impressed - in their own words:

New York Times:

"Reanimates bits and pieces from different branches of the fantasy genre into a glum and lumbering beast that only occasionally sparks into life... The energy left over from this exercise in world assembly doesn't appear to have gone into creating vivid characters or an involving mystery or romance."

Variety:

"Bloom, pitching his voice low as a human detective, does little at all while trying to solve various uncompelling mysteries. However much narrative energy spent ginning up an alternate universe in which divine creatures exist seems wasted as Bloom plods through cases that are either uninspired or inspired by every Jack the Ripper copycat in history."

Slant:

"Not an episode goes by that doesn’t make one wonder what Carnival Row could have been had it not bitten off far more than it can chew. There’s much to like here—mostly the kaleidoscopic genre-mixing—but not enough to overcome the show’s confused handling of the socio-political allegory at its core. Would that this beast were more thoughtfully stitched together."

CNN:

"World building is hard enough, but as circus acts go, Carnival Row is like a juggler on a unicycle. It's kind of interesting to watch, but nobody really needs it. Nor does the prejudice directed at the mythological races really come alive, as allegorical as it might feel."

The Week:

"Carnival Row leans heavily on ornamentation to distract from shallow tropes and cliché plots. But whimsical sets do not make a show inherently interesting. Neither do fancy-sounding names like 'Vignette,' which only serve to gussy up the one-dimensional characters underneath."

Carnival Row uses the influx of fae into The Burgue as a transparent allegory for real-life issues such as immigration and racism, but a lot of critics said that this aspect of the show falls flat - either because it's too clumsily inserted, or because its an element that feels like it's been done too many times before. The show can also be somewhat alienating to those who aren't already enthusiastic fantasy fans, with its rapid-fire world-building and cast of characters with names like "Tourmaline Larou" and "Agreus Astrayon." However, Carnival Row is already finding an enthusiastic fanbase among viewers, and some reviews are considerably warmer towards the new series:

Hollywood Reporter:

"It takes a few episodes for the series to introduce and spin out this cobbled mythology — and that will undoubtedly lose some people — but ultimately it works when it gets going. Carnival Row has a strong cast and if you're in the open-minded mood to see how humans, fairies and inter-species creations fight to get along in a dark world of magical realism and Jack the Ripper-era British police tactics — replete with political machinations, an otherworldly serial killing spree and disparate tribes of combatants — then this is precisely your stew."

Entertainment Weekly:

"If a group of hardcore genre fans got together and wrote a TV show, and then somebody’s rich Uncle Jeff (Bezos) Venmo’d them several million dollars to produce it, the result might be something like Carnival Row... At times, the mythology can feel needlessly complex, but there is something truly endearing about Carnival’s earnest, irony-free storytelling."

Sydney Morning Herald:

"As a piece of fantasy fiction, this is rich and engaging... The visual touches are stunning, an intoxicating blend of Victorian grime and gilded age polish, where mansions and slums clash, sliced in two by monorails of clanking steam trains overhead."

Ultimately, it seems like Carnival Row is a show where you'll have to watch for yourself to find out if its your cup of tea. And it's worth at least giving it a chance - after all, there aren't a lot of steampunk fantasy shows that feature Jack the Ripper-esque murder mysteries and puppet shows starring tiny kobolds dressed up in costumes on TV right now.

More: Read Screen Rant's Review of Carnival Row

source https://screenrant.com/carnival-row-amazon-reviews-bad/

[kinesar]

The unique problem of dragons

I have been thinking about magical creatures a lot lately. I have been running a game for about six months and I am having a lot of fun. I haven't for nearly a decade and I miss the interaction from this side of the screen. World building has also been a great fun for me. Having a setting that is uniquely my own has been a huge reward and boost to my creativity. I am telling a story in a land of my own making. And thus, I am looking at the flora and fauna now.

Dragons are a problem. In my world the magic is high but there was a huge godwar. It lasted a very long time, during which many dragons were killed and harvested for their vitae and treasure. That then brought me to questions such as: What happens then when there are only male red and female gold dragons left? Do both species just die out or do they see a necessity that goes beyond their base impulses? Answering these questions had me looking at other sentient races in D&D before setting forward with an answer.

What I looked at first was the Elves. They are a species of diversity and change. They have a very chaotic nature but are grounded not only in magic but also in their own ideals. While they were a creation of a god it was more of an accident. They have spread throughout the planes and are adaptive and interesting. Next I considered the Dragonborn. What a perfect allegory for my current world building issue. A race of dragon-like humanoids with a mixed heritage and unique abilities based on their heritage. They fit the problem very well. While the elven influence on my thinking was that of interspecies changes the dragonborn provide a look at heritage and power that is passed down.

Thus, I am now using this same model on the dragons of my world. Since there were too few left interbreeding had to occur or they would have all perished. Now I can say that alignment may still play into it, but that doesn't mean that you won't see some gold in a black dragon. And since there was so much crossbreeding you have a problem trying to see what exactly you are dealing with from afar.

I am wanting my world to have a unique flavor to it just beyond the history and available magic items. If the dragons themselves are different then it changes how you hunt them and how they behave when you confront them. What if a blue/silver/copper dragon isn't as unreasonable as a blue would be? Breaking the segregation of the types of dragons makes each one it's own. Imagine now how terrifying dragons are when you can't tell immediately from their skin what their motivations and desires are? Mixing them and breaking that past makes dragons dangerous and mysterious again. Now instead of facing a red dragon bent on conquest we have a dragon that is sick of humanoids and the damage they are doing to his hunting grounds.

[jillmckenzie1]

Beyond, or: Daddy! Issues! In! Space!

We can all agree that Stephen Hawking was a pretty bright guy. He took a look at what humanity had been up to and was quoted as saying, “I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.”

If you’re in a pessimistic frame of mind, Hawking’s quote is easy to get behind. Due to pollution, environmental mismanagement, and climate change, bird populations in North America are plummeting. That’s only a single example of how our arrogance, selfishness, and ignorance damages the place we live in. Not to get too technical, but we humans can be pretty goddamn dumb.

Does that mean we’re doomed, and that the prudent thing to do is to hide under the covers until the end? Maybe not, because the rest of Hawking’s quote is, “But I’m an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.” He’s not wrong. For every moment of evil or idiocy we witness, there are just as many of grace and compassion.

Space travel provides the human species with more than scientific advancements and colonization opportunities. It allows us the chance to evolve, to embody the promise of what we can be. Filmmaker James Gray knows that space exploration is simultaneously external and internal, and his latest film Ad Astra explores that concept with intelligence and nuance.

There isn’t a whole lot that rattles Roy McBride (Brad Pitt). In the near future, he’s an astronaut, and he’s partially become a legend because his heart rate never rises above 80 BPM—even while he’s falling to earth. As McBride works on a gigantic space antenna, a power surge strikes Earth. Thousands are killed, the antenna is destroyed, but McBride manages to keep his wits about him and survive.

The other reason McBride is a legend? He’s the son of H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), a fiercely intelligent astronaut who was the commander of The Lima Project. Their mission was to explore the outer reaches of the solar system and search for signs of alien life. McBride’s father has been off-planet for 26 years, and somewhere around Neptune, Earth lost contact with The Lima Project.

McBride’s BPM even stays under 80 when he’s given a mission. The surge originated near Jupiter, and it may have been caused by an antimatter device that McBride Senior was tinkering with. It’s possible that McBride’s father is alive. If so, is he behind the surge attack, and what are his intentions? Accompanied by Pruitt (Donald Sutherland), an old friend of his father, McBride must voyage to the Moon, Mars, the outer reaches of our galaxy, and the interiors of the human heart.

There’s been a bit of a renaissance in space cinema during the last few years. Films like Gravity and Interstellar have tried to provide a balance between hard science fiction and a meaningful emotional journey. For me, I waited for the Goldilocks Principle* to kick in, and I yearned for an astronaut movie that balanced out the emotional journey with astounding visuals. Ad Astra is precisely that movie.

Director James Gray isn’t quite a household name, and I imagine he prefers it that way. Take a look at his filmography and you’ll see that his interests lie in how experiences and exploration change people. He’s doing the same thing here as he did with The Lost City of Z, he’s just painting on a far bigger canvas. His film is handsomely shot and provides some mind bending visuals. While other directors would luxuriate in CGI, Gray frequently focuses on Brad Pitt’s face, providing us a window into his character. Before you worry that Ad Astra is going to be a cosmic snoozefest, I should mention to you the jaw-dropping set pieces that include a shootout on moon buggies and a zero-gravity fight between McBride and an extremely angry baboon. I should also mention the excellent set design, and Gray has taken great pains to depict what space travel is likely to look like in the near future.

Gray and co-writer Ethan Gross have written a smart and sophisticated screenplay with a great deal to say. Great art allows for a wealth of interpretations. You could certainly read it as a religious allegory, where a person journeys to meet their creator and discovers the truth of their purpose. I read it as more of an exploration of masculinity and how it’s affected by the bonds between a parent and child. A running voiceover by Pitt keeps the film’s point of view narrow, and that’s just as it should be. The more specific a screenplay is, the easier it is for everyone to relate.

The cast essentially exists to support Pitt at various stages, and that’s also just fine.** You’ll get Donald Sutherland for a few scenes as a grizzled ex-astronaut, a dash of Ruth Negga as a Martian administrator, and a pinch of Liv Tyler as McBride’s estranged spouse, all in service of illuminating different aspects of his humanity. 2019 is turning out to be a hell of a year for Brad Pitt, between this and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. He doesn’t often get the credit he deserves for acting skill, and as McBride, Pitt delivers career-best work. He’s playing a taciturn space jockey, but he never grandstands with his performance or becomes a stoic block of wood. Pitt’s McBride excels at emotional compartmentalization (as mandated by U.S. Space Command), yet discovers that emotions have a way of breaking free.

Ad Astra isn’t a CGI adventure perfect for date night, and it’s not a meditative rumination on the human condition playing in the cramped confines of an arthouse cinema. It’s more than that, a film made with impeccable craftsmanship, blazing intelligence, and emotional honesty. Ad Astra is a special film, the kind of film that isn’t made much now or back in the day. You owe it to yourself to see it.

  *Nope, this isn’t some goofy term I made up. You can read about it here.

**I should also mention the quietly weird cameo appearance by Natasha Lyonne as a Mars gate agent.

  from Blog https://ondenver.com/beyond-or-daddy-issues-in-space/