#chel janus descending

[annabelle--cane]

right, I've been taking another stab at janus descending via the supercut after my spotify messed up the episode order for some reason the other week, and it is. very good. I just finished what I believe is equivalent to episode 10 and I am gripped. the chronological/reverse chronological structure following chel forwards and peter backwards makes the first half and second half very different kinds of unsettling. and like, I was unsettled from the first peter log, but with every chel episode it becomes clearer and clearer that, yeah, what's happening is exactly what I expected was happening, and it's actually even worse! what if the last five years was a scifi horror podcast .

[keykidpilipili]

Janus Descending Sequel

Or as I like to call it local white man keeps calling dibs on driving the hive mind monsters with the power of the Cain instinct.

[specialagentartemis]

Something always fascinating to me is the "character who thinks they're in a different genre" phenomenon. The theme of the story you are telling determines what the right and wrong actions to take are; but the characters, reacting in-universe to the situation, don't know what story they're in, and the exact same responses can be what saves you or damns you depending on what kind of story the author is telling and what the story's message is about what life is like.

In Wolf 359, Warren Kepler approaches the mysterious and powerful aliens with threats; he kills their liaison and tries to position himself as a powerful opponent. However, he's shown to be wrong and making things worse: his preemptive aggression is unwarranted and unhelpful and bites him in the ass. The aliens want to communicate and understand humanity and share our music. It's Doug Eiffel, the pacifistic (and kind of scaredy-cat) communications officer who loves to talk and share pop culture, who talks to them and understands that the aliens are scary not because they want to kill us but because they don't understand the concepts of individuals and death. Talking to them, communicating with them, understanding where they're coming from and and bringing them to understand a human point of view, is what succeeds. Openness rather than suspicion, trust rather than aggression. Kepler thinks he's a dramatic space marine protecting the Earth from the alien threat by showing them humans are tough and can take them, but that's not the kind of story this is.

Conversely, in Janus Descending, Chel is in awe of the strange and beautiful alien world around her. She wants to touch it, understand it, get up close to it. When she sees a crystal alien dog, she wants to befriend it, despite Peter's warning. But when she gets close to it, extending her arm in greeting, it attacks her and drags her down into the cave to try to eat her. This sets the inevitable tragedy in motion. Suspicion is warranted; trust will get you killed. Because this is a sci-fi horror, with a major running thematic reading about how racism and sexism will destroy your brain and your society, and how the people who think they're too smart to be prejudiced don't see their own prejudice and will end up ruining the lives of the people they still don't fully see as equals, this kind of trust that Chel shows this strange alien is tragic. However it is also a horror story where there are very real hibernating space snakes ready to wake up and eat the fresh meat that has landed on their planet, and by being too trusting Chel has accidentally introduced herself to one.

Kepler, suspicious and ready to shoot any alien he doesn't understand, would likely have survived Janus Descending; Chel, with her enthusiasm for learning about and meeting aliens, would have been a wonderful and helpful member of the Wolf 359 crew.

In a similar manner, in Alien, Ellen Ripley yells to the rest of her crew not to bring the attacked crewmember with the alien on his face back on the ship and into the medical bay, you don't know what contamination that thing might have; she's ignored. She tells them not to let the crewmember out of quarantine even though he seems fine; she's ignored again. Ripley is the one person protesting this isn't safe, we don't know what's going on, and she is consistently ignored, until an alien bursts out of her crewmate's chest and then eats everyone and Ripley is proven to be right and also the only survivor. (And it turns out that the science officer consistently overriding her protests was an android sent by the company that contracted them, and said android was given orders to bring the alien back so the company could study it and do weapons development with it, try not to let the crew find out about it, and kill them if he had to in order to do so!)

Ripley's paranoia and mistrust of the situation was correct, because Alien is a space horror and the theme is in space no one can hear you scream (also corporations consider you expendable).

Conversely, in All Systems Red, we have a damaged and almost-combat-overridden Murderbot being brought back into the PreservationAux hab medical bay after being attacked by other SecUnits. Gurathin becomes the one person protesting this isn't safe, we don't know what's going on, he doesn't want to let Murderbot out because it's hacked and probably sabotaging them for the company contracted their security and sent it with them. Gurathin thinks he is the Ellen Ripley here! He is trying to warn his teammates not to make a dangerous mistake that will get everyone killed!

However, All Systems Red is a very different story than Alien, and Murderbot is neither a traitor on behalf of the company to sabotage them and steal alien remnants for weapons development, nor a threat to the humans - it's a friend, it's a good person, and it wants to help them against both companies willing to screw them over. Trusting it and helping it is the right thing to do and is what saves their lives. Gurathin is proven to be wrong.

If everyone on the Nostromo crew had listened to Ellen Ripley, they would still be alive (except Kane. RIP Kane), because this is a horror story about being isolated and hunted and going up against this horrifying thing that wants to kill and eat you and just keeps getting stronger. If everyone on the PreservationAux team listened to Gurathin, they would all be dead, because this is a story about friendship and teamwork and trust and overcoming trauma and accepting the personhood of someone very different from you.

Same responses. Different context. And so very different moral conclusions.

Warren Kepler was about how the brash violent over-confident approach to things you don't understand is wrong, and that openness and developing that understanding between people is what's important; Chel was about the tragedy of trust destroying a Black woman who wanted so much to believe in a world that could be kind and beautiful. Ripley was about a woman whose expertise and safety warnings were ignored and brushed aside and everyone who did so died because of it; Gurathin was about how even justified fear shouldn't mean you make someone else a scapegoat and mistrust them because they seem scary.

Sometimes you're in the wrong genre because you need to be, because the author is trying to show how not to react to the situation they set up in order to build the mood and the theme they're trying to convey.

[skyfullofpods]

298 is Janus Descending!

Sci-fi horror. Xenoarchaeologists Chel and Peter are sent on a mission to investigate a planet, and the remains of the alien civilisation that once lived there. Episodes are told from alternating perspectives, and in different chronological orders.

Main series is one season of 14 episodes, with a sequel of seven episodes.

[fyeahaudiodrama]

Running list of scientist tournament scientists:

Carlos the Scientist (WTNV)

Jane Gonzalez (The Pasithea Powder)

Sally Grissom (ars Paradoxica)

Winifred Eurus (Tides)

Peter Crichton and/or Chel Stadler (Janus Descending)

Alexander Hilbert (Wolf 359)

Ashwini Ray (Moonbase Theta Out)

Norah Tendulkar (Unwell)

Dr. Von Haber Zetzer (Oz-9)

X (Girl in Space)

Violet Liu (TSCOSI)

Who else can we throw into the eventual #ScienceFight2023?

[rusalkaandtheshepherdgirl]

I've just finished Janus Descending and it's so gorgeous. Also Chel please marry me I'm hopelessly in love with you

[figofswords]

So....Janus Descending kinda broke me....like don’t get me wrong, GORGEOUS writing and plotline, but also god damn I am Hurt

[effervescentdragon]

so i just finished listening to Janus Descending podcast and I have two thoughts;

- ouch, my fucking heart 😭 and

- the writer is a Wolfstar shipper, or I'll eat my coffee mug.

[pronouncingitwang]

chel janusdescending 🤝 martin kartin blackwood

making audio recordings under the pretense of work to leave for their love interests to listen to if they miss them

[cloudcrouton]

There is literally NO Janus Descending content on here so someone’s gotta do it

Anyway I’d die for Chel so jot that down

[naazaif327]

To be fair to Chel, if Janus Descending had been more How To Train Your Dragon instead of Alien, petting the crystal dog would have really worked in her favour

[podcastlimbo]

Hey who’s in charge of naming the characters in Janus Descending I just wanna talk

[specialagentartemis]

I realized a while ago that “Chel” and “Peter” from Janus Descending are named sky and stone respectively, but I only just learned by accident TODAY that the protagonist of Primordial Deep is named after… an ancient Cambrian Period sea crab creature. Which honestly I should have guessed.

[skyfullofpods]

J is for Janus Descending!

Xenoarchaeologists Chel and Peter are sent to investigate a planet, and the remains of the alien civilisation that once lived there. Episodes are released in an inverse chronological order, making for a fascinating narrative structure.

Sequel series Descendants released its season one finale during the holidays.

[peachblossom-odyssey]

It’s just a little rain! Peter, come and dance with me!