#be vibing with her nature. for good or ill. regardless of his stance.

[cursedfortune]

💭 + The Shaman

Thoughts. @hriobzagelthewanderer

"Indeed. Very Shaman." The witch answered vaguely as ever. Fingers threading through her hair, brushing it back and over her shoulder. Her gaze, hollow as it often appeared despite the vast variety of emotions it contained hidden within their inky depths, trailed over to Hriob for a long and quiet moment.

It was him. It wasn't as though a stranger was present to ask. She hummed, finding herself in a rare situation where she actually felt conflicted to voice something to another's face. Why? There was no shyness in her, no shame or modesty to prevent it. So no absurd or ridiculous notions. So what was it?

Her tongue clicked audibly as she clearly was mulling over just how to answer. Or if one were to go beyond what has already been said.

"Harmony." Mortem answered anyways as she eyed him over. "Uncertainty." In him or her? She bristled but not solely out of anger. That would be rude, she enjoyed his company too much to express negativity when she didn't actually feel it. The witch is... thoughtful. Brows knitted, focused but not because the question presented is difficult. Something else... How curious.

"Harmony, because I find our energies easy to mesh. Uncertainty, because I do not yet know what that means beyond something I find comfortable. And it's not for emotional reasons, nor sentimental ones. Those are not the things to lead this charge, not when we still have only started to blossom in this friendship." Closer. Yes, she is getting closer. "Old things. Things without souls. They understand me well, you see. Things with souls do not. Never completely. Never fully. It's easy to say all people exist this way, because we do. It's a touch more complicated, however, when I'm not really a person. Not in the ways you still are." It's not a comment that comes laced with self-pity. It is fact. She knows of the design of witches, the cosmic tools that they are. She knows the truth.

Her fingers flexed slightly before lifting, a quick motion - frustrated. Yet she takes her chin between her fingers, willing herself beyond it to focus. "These souls my people possess... they exist to tether us together. Beyond that, I am a product of my function, my purpose. An undeniable truth that cannot un-see reality. And though I am quite certain you have seen much and feel much, I do wonder if that is still enough to understand the places I have gone - and the places I will go."

Do not get her started on the visions. She will not address them at this juncture. So soon, when she is still so full of uncertainty about such a thing. Things that may or may not come to pass. Things he may know or not know. No, she will not speak on the what ifs when they have only just begun. And thus, she'll only say the truths that are within reach. Because knowing these things now may just help in knowing the things that could come.

Mortem may be a lonely creature trapped within her own design, but she was aware and without regret for it. The witch could only be so lucky that those that mutually wished to spend time with her understood her in the ways needed. Especially ones like Hriob, with longevity and the likes. Or else this isn't a reality but a fictitious nightmare of a tale that will have no ending, but be left hanging like a thread cut without a purpose.

[sicklyscribe]

alien smoochies

Short and sweet of it:

If supernatural romance and small town drama are tropes you like, I think you won’t be disappointed if you give this show a shot. All of my concerns are ones that could turn out to be pilot-specific, and all of my accolades are ones that have every reason to continue showing up in every episode.

Character motivations were very strong and barring the placement of one scene, feel like natural parts of both the character’s lives and the necessary plot.

Chemistry between all of the actors was also a plus, though the pace of information and the desire to keep secrets from the audience at times worked against the main ship.

Plot isn’t anything to write home about, it’s an alien drama on a YA-centric network based on a YA novel, are you expecting anything more than the classic tropes applied to modern-day, and applied well? If you are, I suggest The Expanse, but you’ll be sacrificing the heady YA romance focus for a plot-oriented and philosophical-political lens. Both shows deal heavily with ideas of identity, community, and the rights of man, though, which all alien stories worth their salt should do!

That being said, the political overtones that are present are not shy. If it were ten years ago and I was reviewing, I’d say it was a bit much. But it’s not ten years ago, it’s now, and I’d say much is fucking warranted in a small town American drama set in 2019. It takes a stance with immigration, diversity, mental illness, lgbtq, feminism, “the wall”, and disabled veterans. It knows that escapism in fiction is important, to a point, but chooses to put itself in what I think is a brave and effective in-between.

let the long-winded-ness begin: Spoilers, of course

Basically all I wanted out of this show was for it to have a cute lead romance that was as charming or more charming than the one on the ill-fated Star-Crossed (yes I watched some of that, yes it could have been way better, but also yes it tried some things that made me smile and I thought worked pretty well), plus a plot that only made me suspend disbelief when it came to the existence of aliens that look like models and have superhero powers.

The romance was almost too heavy-handed for me, and I was watching this show for the heavy-handed romance. It feels this way, in my opinion, because we see the heart-stopping, sappy, magnetic draw of these two characters over and over again in ways that just seem over-the-top without knowing their history. Having them flustered at seeing each other again unexpectedly is endearing, but insisting overtly and repeatedly that we’ve got true high school sweethearts love on our hands folks! before giving us the hints that a lot happened that contradicts/questions the initial information feels a bit like the carriage before the horse.

The main place where this really gummed up the wheels for me was the post-healing, pre-reveal bit where the aliens are fighting about what happened. The current indication at this point in the show is that Liz did not give Max the time of day until maybe the very end of high school, and if so there was not any reason to believe it got to a romantic level (could be remembering this wrong, I’m not infallible and also I don’t want to go through CW ads again to confirm). This in the subtext of Max’s obvious infatuation mixes to present an obsessive/idolistic vibe to his feelings. As the pilot progresses, chinks fall into place in the backstory until we finally get enough foundation to fully support the way these people are talking to and about each other.

This intense withholding to me was a net negative -- I would have preferred more overt hints in the first twenty minutes that the main relationship meant much more in high school (and possibly was much more) than a long crush met with a budding one, and nothing happened from there. It would have made me feel I had more freedom to fall into those sappy loving longing scenes without the nagging sensation of unbalance.

Despite this, I was able to still totally go weak at the knees for the ‘You’re just feeling echoes of what I feel for you... It’ll wear off...’/’When will it wear off?’/’A few days, maybe a week’/’Okay, I’ll kiss you then.’ because THAT’S HOW YOU WRITE THE HELL OUT OF A BUDDING SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE. With each line I was hoping they’d go in this direction, and when I have hopes like this for sci-fi/fantasy romance dialogue I’m usually disappointed. This was *kisses fingers* bellissimo.

Other than the romance, the alien confrontation scenes in the early/mid portion of the episode could have really used a bridging line or two. Michael and Isobel are furious that Max healed someone and caused a scene when they’re not even sure if she remembers or suspects anything. Meanwhile, Michael is shorting out cameras and causing supernatural mayhem in nearly every scene he’s in. While Max and Isobel aren’t thrilled about this, there’s no acknowledgement by any of the three that Michael doesn’t have a leg to stand on here, or if they really feel that what Max did was that much more dangerous, they don’t nitpick at why. They shouldn’t have done the latter, really, since they were in their own dynamic with their own established norms and if this was part of those norms they wouldn’t have had to debate them. But as an audience member it took me out of the scene and lessened the impact of the job it was supposed to do in establishing how these characters fit together.

(also, i feel that since the scenes I just mentioned fell a bit short, I can’t say I see the point of Max telling them ‘I’m going to reveal our secret!’ when it will be for all intents and purposes unavoidable for him to do so regardless. To reinforce the character motivations, these scenes may have played better if Max was on the fence about telling Liz, and his siblings convinced him not to despite his concern for her and desire to alleviate her fears of mental illness. This would have shown his viewpoints -- “I think it’s right to tell her”/”I should be in charge of this decision” -- warring with his core value -- “Protect my siblings” -- and this conflict would have provided a lot more fodder for establishing the dynamic norms for these three.)

My other big-ish gripe was the military man set up to be the antagonist. In a “legend” fraught with red tape, cover-ups, and lies to highest branches of government, Commander Manes has one conversation with a young doctor (the son of his trusted dead colleague, yes, but still) and said young doctor plays the information barter game... and wins? The plot seems to need these two to be trusting in each other to some degree, but to have it happen so soon? A short scene where Doc Valenti was up to his ears in legally binding scary paperwork plus a half dozen checkpoints and failsafes before getting to the secret alien HQ would have been nice. I just don’t really buy that this head honcho guy waltzes on to base with a civilian and tells him the whole story just because he was BFFs with the guy’s dad.

This isn’t really a gripe, more of a standard that I think is worth aspiring to: disabled actors exist, and it would have been better if one had been cast as Alex. Maybe something sci-fi happens in the plot later that would have made this unfeasible, I don’t know. Maybe it was attempted and there really wasn’t anyone for it. There are a lot of maybes. I just know that representation always happens this way: it is simulated before it is direct. It’s good to support the simulation as far as it affects public opinion, but not talking about how it can be better is treading water. So: I’m incredibly happy for the work this show is doing to put different types of people in the public eye. As a part of that public eye, I feel the need to make my voice heard, so to speak, in continuing to push the standard.

Getting off my tiny little tumblr soap box, I think that’s about it for my thoughts. Of course I’m a writing nerd, so I have thoughts on every line written in every show I’ve seen in the past five years, and I’m not going to subject myself or anyone reading to the tedium of that. Of course I didn’t even scrape the surface of all of the topics covered by this pilot and what I thought about each and every one of them -- Liz’s characterization and relationships with her sister and best friend especially -- but suffice to say if I didn’t pick on it then I really enjoyed it. 

Anyone who enjoyed this, let me know! I’m not putting it in the tag since I’m trying to limit my fandom interaction, but I am interested in maybe doing more series or pilot reviews if people want to read them.