#especially with a character who struggles like Adira does

[youngpettyqueen]

I was writing last night so I didnt liveblog my thoughts on it but! I am officially all caught up with Discovery, until s5 premieres later this week. gonna discuss my thoughts below, so spoiler warning!

overall, I really like Discovery! I love the characters, I love the dynamics between all of them, and I think the plots each season have been fun. sure, some of them are a bit convoluted, but hey its Star Trek so I expect that

I think jumping 930 years into the future helped with some of the issues I was having with the first 2 seasons, in that it was really hard to see this series as a prequel. ive talked a lot about how while the writing and everything made it clear this was a prequel, it just didnt look like a prequel. now, it doesnt have to, and the writing isnt held back by having to be a prequel, so we get to see and do some really cool shit. the new species introduced were awesome, ive loved seeing the federation come together, ive loved seeing different species we already knew and loved but so far in the future. I think the choice to go so far into the future was, overall, a good one

I think my biggest gripe overall with Discovery is that so many characters just. dont stay dead. I think this was fine with Hugh, I thought how they did it with him made as much sense (as much sense as anything in Star Trek makes) and it was pulled off really well, and I was satisfied from a writing standpoint and from an emotional standpoint. with Gray it was... fine. it was well-explained, but a bit of a cop-out. still, fine. Book's made me roll my eyes. im sorry, his was stupid. here's why I think so

I like Book. im not super attached to him, but I like him. I liked the conflict with him in s4. and I thought his death was actually done really well. it was sudden, and jarring, but you also realized pretty quickly that yeah. it was always going to end this way. Michael did everything she could, but she was never going to be able to save him. for a brief moment we think maybe he's saved, and then he's gone. it was harsh, but it was good (lemme give a shoutout to Sonequa Martin-Green's acting again cause her crying is VISCERAL) and then its immediately undone because Book is miraculously saved by 10-C. so, now, on top of having a cop-out resurrection, we also have an established pattern of Discovery being unwilling to kill characters and keep them dead

this isnt true with every case, of course. Discovery has absolutely no problem with killing villains and minor characters, and even killing characters we're familiar with but who dont play major roles. but now that we've done this resurrection thing multiple times, its going to affect how I view s5 and any situation they present where a major character might die. the emotional stakes just won't be there, because im gonna sit there and think about how we've been here before, and its never stuck. ill have a hard time taking any of those situations seriously, because ill be wondering how theyre gonna bring them back this time

that said, im still excited for s5 and cant wait to see what it has in store. of the newer Treks ive seen so far, Discovery is definitely one of the better ones. its absolutely better than Picard. I have a hard time comparing it to Lower Decks, since theyre such vastly different shows, but ive enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed Lower Decks. from what we saw of the SNW cast in Discovery, im now cautiously optimistic that ill at least enjoy the characters in SNW, even if I have to deal with. another prequel

I probably won't liveblog Discovery s5 when I watch it, just to avoid spoilers. so, see yall when I start SNW tonight!

[bloody-f4g]

queer themes in discovery season 3, part one here

spoilers, obviously.

One of the most common aspects of the queer experience is the struggle of visibility within a hetero- and cisnormative society.  Feeling invisible with straight and cis being assumed as default, feeling seen by other queer people, feeling invisible without seeing yourself in those around you and the media around you. 

Throughout almost the entire season, Gray has been literally invisible to everyone but Adira, and in turn Adira had only been out to Gray until about halfway through the season.  We can see Gray’s invisibility as a metaphor for being seen as yourself as a queer person (as cliche as it is).  Literally not being seen by anyone but the one other trans person in the show parallels how as a queer -- and especially trans -- person, there is a level of understanding and solidarity one has with other queer and trans people by virtue of that similarity. 

In the season finale, due to some scifi shenanigans, Gray becomes visible to Hugh, Saru, and Su’kal (and Adira still).  

Gray gaining visibility to these characters was a very good choice, with Hugh being another queer person and Saru a person of authority.  When gaining visibility as an individual or a group, these are the the groups that visibility is granted to most commonly.  Because of an ability to understand each other’s experiences, other queer people are easier to come out to, and Gray being literally visible to Hugh was a natural extension of him being visible to Adira.  (This is similar to when Adira does come out to someone (other than Gray), it is first to Stamets, another queer person.)  On the other hand, Saru, as captain of the Discovery (at the time), serves as an authority figure in this situation.  Those with power over oneself are also common to become visible to (come out to), often in a far more violent way than with other queer people. 

I really don’t think this was intentional, but I love that Gray being finally visible to people other than Adira somewhere safe.  This holodeck was created specifically for Su’kal’s childhood as a safe place.  I think there’s something comforting knowing that being perceived as a trans person in the future is something you can do safely. 

Before the holodeck is shut down, Hugh says something along the lines of “We'll find a way that you’ll be seen by everyone."  This makes me hope next season Gray being trans will be more explicit next season.  I was pretty disappointed about Gray not being explicitly trans, and Adira’s non binary identity presenting itself in them telling Stamets their pronouns and that they “never felt like a she.”  Adira and Gray weren’t the main focus of this season by far, and I understand them not having a lot of screentime, but Blu and Ian have been confirmed for the next season, so I can hope for more explicit trans representation next season. 

Queer people have valued found family over biological nuclear family for decades, maybe centuries.  This is from being physically kicked out of the nuclear family one was born into by virtue of homophobia and/or transphobia, or because of a feeling of isolation and separation from one’s nuclear family if they weren’t kicked out of their parents’ house due to an inability to relate to the hetero/cisnormative standards of development.  Thus, queer people search out other queer people they can relate to better than their biological family, and those that support them more.  This idea of found family has taken many forms within the queer community, most famously in the houses in urban black and brown ballroom culture.   

The found family trope has long been prevalent within Star Trek, and I love the form it has taken in Discovery.  Everyone has already talked about this (me too, we’re all emotionally invested in this) but i have to talk about it it: Paul and Hugh essentially adopted Adira.  This is straight-up text, with Hugh telling Georgiou that he wishes he had children at the beginning of an episode that ends with Paul and Adira bonding over their scientific project, Adira telling Paul their pronouns (again, something very intimate that they had only told Gray).  In the second-to-last episode of the season, Paul directly calls Adira his child, Hugh and Adira his “whole life.” 

Adira has a close connection with Hugh because they both love(d) someone who was (dead/presumed dead but actually in a mushroom dimension?).  They’ve emphasized multiple times that they are the only ones who know what this experience is like... just like how their queer experiences makes them able to understand each other’s point of views.   Because of their jobs on the ship, we see Paul and Adira together more, but, as Paul said at Georgiou’s memorium, they’re “kind of a package deal.”  Further than that, Gray’s hug with Hugh in the finale was so beautiful, and Paul taking a father-in-law type of position telling Gray off for disappearing for a few days. 

(Kind of a sidenote, but some people have taken Hugh and Paul’s interactions with Gray as “that’s kinda weird that Adira’s dads have also taken in their boyfriend, does that make them like siblings?” and I really think that the dynamic is better because of this: it’s a reaffirmation of the rejection of the nuclear family model; found families are never as cut-and-dry as biological ones because they aren’t formed under the same oppressive framework.)

The thing I love about Discovery’s queer rep is that these characters aren’t just stated to be queer, and then fit into the assimilationist standards of the cishets around them, but they go through queer experiences that queer viewers can relate to on a level above “kisses someone of same gender, bye.”

(That isn’t stating it’s perfect by any degree: I’ve already stated my hopes for Gray and Adira’s identities in the next season; I want to see more of Reno; out of these five characters, it’s disappointing that all but one are white.)

//these are just my interpretations, feel free to add on and/or disagree, in fact please do//

[finnoky]

AU where Quirin takes and raises Eugene after the DK falls

•| Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you five fun facts |•

Oh you have no idea how much this enables me - I stand by Quirin raising Eugene until the end of time bc it’s what they BOTH deserve

1) Oki so, here we see Eugene taken away as a baby without disclosing an EXACT location — that will not stop Quirin though, who had a stance against cutting him off completely despite it being Edmunds orders [It made sense to send the boy away but to send him to an ORPHANAGE was another story] Quirin finds Eugene a month or so after they get separated, during that time he found a house and a stable farm to raise a kid on [Gotta have an income] and then promptly goes to the orphanage and adopts Eugene.

By then, Eugene’s name has already been changed and frankly... Quirin thinks it suits him, though he occasionally slips up and calls him Horace. He feels a duty to raise the Prince but also kinda has a “My son now” mentality! Disagrees with Edmunds choices + decides... His kingdom is doomed, so he’s gonna ensure Eugene gets a stable upbringing with KNOWLEDGE of the Dark Kingdom without necessarily telling him “Oh BTW you’re the prince”. Being a father is hard and he struggles a lot, esp in early days, it’s a whole new challenge from being a knight but... Not one he really regrets?

Cue some fluff! Knight-dad trying to raise a baby and establish a life in a new country — Over time he grows and becomes Village Leader + Develops a bond with the monarchs based on his knowledge and previous high-rank in society from being a knight! Gets offered a guard position but turns it down in favour of spending time with his toddler son. Eugenes first word is Dada and Quirins never felt so content. Baby fluff of Eugenes milestones — Quirin has Eugene helping on the fields as soon as he can toddle without tripping (tho it’s mostly Eugene playing and running around while Quirin works) Toddler Eugene is a little darling and knows exactly how to use his cuteness to get praise and sweets

2) Eugene starts thievery / acting out soon after Quirin dates and marries Ulla, though it soon become a hobby he usually indulges in with his friend Arnie [though they take on the names of the coolest book characters Flynn Rider and Lance Strongbow!] Quirin thinks it’s just a phase and leans into the whole calling Eugene ‘Flynn’ because... He really loves the books, that’s not too odd? Though he doesn’t know of crimes + just thinks they go out to play a lot. Eugene ignored Ulla for the first few weeks because he doesn’t like the idea of someone new staying around — He doesn’t hate her, it just raises a lot of questions about his mum that Quirin doesn’t know how to answer... He resolved on the explaination that she was very sick and couldn’t take care of him anymore, though loved him dearly — it’s enough to placate him.

Eugene doubles down on stealing when he’s 10 and suddenly there’s gonna be a new baby in the house. [He doesn’t WANT a sibling + worries Quirin will love the baby more than him since he knows he’s adopted & all that though is too scared to ask] Eugene grows an attitude and Quirin finds himself exhausted and constantly caught in petty bickers as Eugene keeps running away + acting up, especially to his wife (Who loves Eugene very much, of course) ‘Flynn’ declares he wants to travel the world and be far away from step-mums and nasty babies, uhhh Domestic fall out stuff?

Things change when baby gets here and suddenly Eugene is a big brother and Quirin is MORE distracted, sometimes they forget to even read him a story and he can’t stand the squirmy little creature... All it does is cry and take what little attention his misbehaviour had earned him... So naturally, petty crime continues + Eugene starts caring less about getting caught, so it becomes more risky. He and Lance befriend some bad influences and start taking Big Kid Crime. It’s fun! Until Eugene is brought home by a guard and Quirin gives him the silent treatment for the next week. Quirin... He loves his sons, both of them, but he just isn’t sure how to handle a distressed 11 year old and a baby, it feels like there’s not enough hours in the day and Eugene is SET on making life harder for everyone.

Eugene stays against ‘Varian’, frequently makes the baby the villain in his games and makes him cry on several occasions. It gets even worse when he starts crawling bc now he can’t get anytime alone, it’s just frustrating! The solution probably comes when Varians starting to talk and he says ‘Oo-gee’ as one of his first words — ‘Lisa’s first word’ style — and Quirin and Ulla admit that Varian is obsessed with Eugene. It’s sorta a wake up call for Eugene to start trying to get along with the kid, and it works! He finds it fun to teach him things & have someone to talk to (even if he just babbles back) By the time Eugene is 12 he’s calling Ulla mum and love spending time with his little brother

3) Right! When Eugene is about 18 he picks up theiving again, mostly because he isn’t suited to the farm life and it’s easy money (Plus how else is he gonna achieve his dream of financial independence?) He moves out the farm under the guise of finding a new life with his best friend, though they quickly realise it’s not amazing when they get tangled up with the Baron + his antics. Eugene visits home every so often and claims everything is fine, it’s going great, he doesn’t need any extra help + his life is just dandy. His dishonesty mostly bc he doesn’t wanna worry Quirin and there’s been a bit of a strain since Ulla passed away.

Life keeps on like this. Eugene ages, steals alchemy supplies for Varian and hides his true income source because he wants to make Quirin and Varian proud! Varian grows up to be more headstrong in what he wants because he has someone standing up for him and telling him he’s proud, though the longer Eugene spends away the harder it gets? He loves it when Eugenes here! But the house feels empty without him, and Quirin is so busy + stressed from Varians experiments that there’s still that desire to do more, prove himself.

4) Movie diverts a bit! Eugene finds out about the hair glow and thinks... If one person knows about this then it’s him, and takes Rapunzel to Old Corona over night rather than a campfire. Varian is ecstatic to see him though gets confused by a random girl Eugene claims to have just found — He’s about to ask questions when Eugene asks if Varian could do his magic thing to find out about her hair. Varian insists it’s alchemy and agrees, dragging Raps down into the lab! Boop gothel talks to her when Varians gathering all the equipment and talks her ear off about how cool Eugene is and asks how they found each other since the story is weird... Experiements start!

Meanwhile Eugene is talking to Quirin, when Quirin pulls out a wanted poster and puts it on the table. He finally found out about how bad Eugenes crimes are and wants answers. Now. Eugene sits and tries to explain its not what it looks like, but Quirin doesn’t wanna hear it. The disappointment is evident and Quirin criticises “I thought you grew out of this, what role model is this for Varian?” Eugene doesn’t have an answer but argues his case that it was to be reliant — and he doesn’t wanna do it anymore anyway! Quirin accuses him of using the girl, while Eugene insists her name is Rapunzel and he’s just helping her, get the crown, be set for life and never have to bother him again.

Their argument is cut short by a Varian coming back upstairs looking frazzled, says there’s something about the magic that’s familiar but he can’t place it — sure is strong tho, and continues gushing and asking Eugene for all the details of what he’s been up to. Eugene... Explains, his usual light-hearted rendition of a great quest, while Quirin leaves and stays upstairs the rest of the night.

Varian sees them off in the morning! Hours after they’re gone Vari is still looking into the magic thing — that’s when he remembers the old legend about a sundrop... about how it saved the Queen... About the Princess. Varian sneaks out the house and heads up to the lantern festival to tell Eugene and Rapunzel his revelation, but he gets there just as Eugene is being lead away by guards. Varian finds Max and tells him how they need to free Eugene + basically... Helps him escape with fewer pub thugs and more alchemy. When they get to the tower Eugene tells Varian to stay on the floor and climbs up to help Raps - Varian stays at the bottom of the tower for approx 10 minutes before finding the back entrance and climbing up. Figure he gets there just as Gothel deages, it’s suddenly and before anyone knows it Varian is the one pushing her out the window bc he saw a stabbed Eugene and put two and two together. Then! Cue New Dream scene, except Varian is sitting on the floor in shock a distance away... After New Dream hug Eugene looks at him and Varian admits that “Ok, magic isn’t that bad”

5) Oh god the series! First off — Raps is closer with Varian in this (that’s becoming a theme...) so doesn’t just throw him out into the blizzard when he comes asking for help. Instead he and Eugene go back to Old Corona together after the storm, Varian isolates himself from guilt + has a tough time dealing with what happened, but he lives in the castle as Eugene starts getting angrier with the king and wants answers for what happened. He’s the one that finds Dark Kingdom stuff and he and Varian work on it together... Eugene has a suspicion he came from the Dark Kingdom so when the rocks start pointing there he’s like dope!

No villain Varian joins them on the trek to the Dark Kingdom + it’s all fun and games, Eugene tries to get more answers from Adira as they travel but she says it’s not her place to say... All he needs to know is the kingdom fell, and everyone was evacuated... She’s almost annoyed as she explains it, then Hector is treble annoyed when he finds out Eugene was raised by QUIRIN since that went against the direct orders... Though Adira defends it and says he was doing his duty of keeping Eugene safe, it’s basically a rift between them that’s confusing until they get to the DK and the revelation happens.

I feel... Moongene could be a thing in this AU? but since I’m running out of points I’ll leave it with Cass taking her canon role! I will point out! when Quirin is freed initially only Varian runs into his arms... Eugene hadn’t really spoken to Quirin properly since their movie fallout & he’s not sure he belongs... Until Quirin holds and arm out to him and pulls him into the hug too (PARALLLELS) and we get a happy reunited family (tho with some issues to work out regarding somethings... they need to rebuild trust, but work on it slowly. Edmund stays ‘Edmund’ to Eugene. He sees Quirin as his father & doesn’t push as much to reconnect with Edmund... Though that makes it easier in a way. There’s less pressure once Edmund understands and they form a friendship, but Quirin is Dad 100% (Sometimes Edmund gets called Dad 2))

[codynaomiswire]

TTS/RTA Egyptian Mythology AU

Also known as the Uraeus AU!

Several months ago, I made a post about a developing idea for an Egyptian mythology AU for TTS/RTA. The idea was prompted in large part by the snake-hair Varian (“Snakian”) scene from the series’ finale, and the concept of the uraeus in Egyptian mythology. Since first posting about this AU, Xiel and I have really been developing the idea further on the Discord, and here’s what we’ve come up with so far. Hope you all enjoy it!

Note: As a fan AU, this is of course subject to change and variations, so things may change or develop differently as time goes on and more new ideas spring up. This is just what we have in mind so far!  :D

Champions and Friends:

Varian - The kingdom’s seer and champion of Wadjet (aka “the Uraeus”). In this AU, Varian was born to Quirin and Ulla with his “twin brother” Ka - a living uraeus bestowed upon him by the snake goddess Wadjet. (More on Ka and Wadjet down below.) Having grown up with Ka, Varian is not (usually) bothered with having a snake attached to his head, and sees Ka as being like a brother to him. Varian also grew up being told by Quirin and Ulla to keep Ka a secret, as the family was worried Varian and Ka would be taken away from them if anyone knew about them. So for many years, whenever Varian would go outside, he would wear a head covering so Ka would remain hidden from the world. Once he did try to show Ka to some of the kids in his village, but they all ran away screaming, and he got in trouble with the parents for “pulling a mean prank with a snake.” So he and Ka never tried that again. However, things start to get trickier as Varian enters his early teens, and he starts to get visions about events to come, and has a couple episodes of sleepwalking in the middle of the night. Despite Quirin’s best efforts to keep the two safe, things finally come to a head when some kidnappers (led by Andrew) are hired by Set’s cult to capture Varian and Ka, and bring them back to be dealt with. Out of self-defense, Ka ends up landing a venomous bite on Andrew, who nearly dies from the poison. However, Varian has also taken an interest in alchemy by this time in his life, and learned how to create an antivenom for Ka’s bites. (While Varian himself is immune to snake venom due to his connection with Ka and Wadjet, he learned how to make it in case there was ever an accident involving someone else.) Varian manages to make the antivenom in time and save Andrew’s life, but this incident ended up taking place out in the open, and thus Varian and Ka have their cover blown. Quirin tries to prevent Varian and Ka from being taken away, but the next day the pharaoh’s soldiers come and take Varian and Ka to live in the palace, as the priests of Wadjet are certain that the time has come for the seer to step into his duties for the kingdom. Varian is at first very unhappy with being forced to live at the palace, but is befriended my Rapunzel quite quickly. And when his visions start coming on with even greater intensity, Varian must do what he can to help protect the people from Set’s plans and Apep’s impending return.

Ka - A living uraeus and Wadjet’s other champion. (Note: In this AU, “the Uraeus” refers to Ka, Varian, or the two taken together. The term applies to all three.) His character is inspired by the snake-hair character in the RTA series finale (though Ka has the added feature of a cobra hood), and his name is inspired in large part by the “ka” aspect of the soul in ancient Egyptian philosophy (meaning “double” and known as the protective aspect of the soul). His name is also reminiscent of Kaa from The Jungle Book, though it’s spelled differently. Given to Varian by Wadjet upon his birth, Ka has been with Varian since the beginning. While he and Varian are the same age, Ka grows up faster than Varian mentally, so he tends to be the more mature of the two. However, he isn’t adverse to causing some mischief from time to time. Growing up, Ka was pretty readily accepted by Ulla, but Quirin...was more leery of him. Especially given Quirin’s own past (more on that below), he first saw Ka as an interloper on what was supposed to be a peaceful family life. Despite this attitude, Quirin and Ka did have their moments of reliability from time to time, and Ka grew up seeing Quirin and Ulla as his parents (calling them “Father” and “Mother” respectively). For years Ka had to hide his existence from the outside world, and thus could get very lonely. It seemed that he would have to resign himself to a life of obscurity...until Varian started getting weird visions of things to come, and Ka started getting his own premonitions of things to come in the short term (i.e. waking visions of things close at hand). Ka also learned through his premonitions how to hypnotize people, which he would use mostly for therapeutic purposes, or to compel people to tell the truth if need be (though this function especially can take a lot out of him, so he’s not OP with this ability). Things take the most drastic turn for Ka when he lashes out at would-be kidnappers (as told in Varian’s description above), he becomes known to the wider world, and is then thrust into the champions’ efforts to save the kingdom from ruin. Ka also does that snake thing of prolonging his ‘s’ sounds when he talks, and when he first has the experience of talking to new people he takes to referring to himself in the third person. Just to be fancy I guess.  xP

Quirin - Varian and Ka’s father, member of the Brotherhood, and champion of Khonsu. Quirin spent a good portion of his adult life as a member of the Brotherhood in Karnak who - in this AU - are a warrior guild with allegiance to Khonsu, Egyptian god of the moon and time. While serving under Khonsu, Quirin acquired the ability to manipulate time in certain small ways - i.e. stopping time within a certain radius (usually a few yards), or around a certain person or object. This ability is very risky though, as if it’s used too often or too intensely it can have the side affect of “taking time” from the one wielding it (hence why Quirin appears a bit older than Adira and Hector, who are only a few years younger than he). After a good many years of service in the Brotherhood, Quirin decides to leave his service and settles down with his wife Ulla to start a family. However, upon the birth of their son Varian, Quirin is shocked to find that Varian was born with a living uraeus attached to his head (whom Ulla names Ka). After his dealings with the gods while serving Khonsu, Quirin is afraid of what Ka’s presence means for Varian, and does all he can to keep Ka a secret from the wider world. At first, Quirin is very leery of Ka, which does not go unnoticed by the rest of the family. Quirin is never cruel to Ka, never ignores him, nor dotes upon Varian while leaving Ka out of it, but it is clear that he sees Ka differently from Varian. Things become especially hard when Ulla dies when Varian and Ka are about ten years old, and Quirin has to raise the two on his own. Eventually, Quirin and Ka begin to grow closer, and Quirin does all he can to make sure he and Varian don’t get taken away from him. But after their cover is blown, Quirin is left worrying about his sons after they are taken away to live in the palace. As Quirin prays to Khonsu one night asking what can be done, he is informed that his duty as the Uraeus’s protector is not over, and that he will also be called upon to join in the effort to stop Set and Apep in the days to come.

Rapunzel - The princess of Egypt and the champion of Ra. Rapunzel was kidnapped by Mother Gothel as a baby, and was raised learning how to use her sun powers. However, when the champion of Horus comes to save her, Mother Gothel is defeated by her own evil designs, and Rapunzel loses connection with her healing powers in the ensuing struggle. After returning home, life is happy for the princess, and she quickly befriends many in her kingdom. However, when news comes to the palace that Wadjet’s seer has appeared in the land, Rapunzel begins her real journey to find her destiny, and must use her powers to save the land from its deadliest threat yet.

Eugene - The prince of one of Egypt’s major cities, and the champion of Horus. (Naturally, this was inspired by Eugene’s birth name being Horace in the canon series. xD) The son of King Edmund of Karnak, Eugene actually grew up in his family’s palace in this AU. When he was born, Eugene bore a birthmark on his shoulder blades that resembled wings. After consulting with the local priests, Edmund learned that the birthmark was a sign of the blessing of Horus, and that Eugene would come to wield great powers. Afraid for his son, however, Edmund has a hieroglyph painted onto Eugene’s back every few weeks or so to keep the power of the mark at bay. Eventually though, when Eugene is in his early teens, Horus’s blessing breaks through the barrier induced by the hieroglyph, and after a painful first transformation, Eugene has found that he has sprouted giant hawk’s wings from his back. After the initial shock, Eugene learns how to use and control this ability, and after some of Horus’s guidance, he manages to find the lost princess of Egypt and rescues her (while also falling in love of course ^^). After rescuing Rapunzel, Eugene decides to remain living in the capitol at the palace, though he keeps in contact with his family and home city.

Cassandra - Mother Gothel’s daughter, Rapunzel’s best friend and champion of Sekhmet. After being born to Mother Gothel, Cassandra grew up as a child servant in the cult of Set, and was left entirely on her own after Mother Gothel left her to horde Rapunzel’s sun powers for herself. Being miserable in her life situation, Cassandra eventually called out to the other gods asking for their help (she was probably about six or seven years old at this stage). Sekhmet heard her, and gave Cassandra some of her powers so she could don a lioness form and bust her way out. (Although, this blessing also left its mark on Cassandra, as she now permanently sports cat-like eyes, even when not in her lioness form.) After fleeing the cult of Set, Cassandra wanders around for a while until she is found by the Captain of the Guard, who came after he heard reports of a dangerous feral child wandering the desert near the outer villages. The Captain takes pity on Cassandra when he finds her, and takes her in as his own and teaches her how to fight and how to have discipline so she can control her powers. In addition to transforming into a human-lioness hybrid, Cass can also talk to felines and request favors from them, like spying on enemies and scouting and stuff. After gaining the trust of everyone in the capitol, Cass also came to be known by the revered title, The Lioness.

Lance - Eugene’s best friend and fellow resident of Karnak. While Lance is not a chosen champion, he is still a gifted member of the group, and is invaluable as a supportive friend and skilled wordsmith. When Kiera and Catalina travel to the capitol after Catalina becomes a champion, it’s Lance who is the first in the group to befriend the girls. Lance also has a background in being a treasure hunter, which comes in handy when the group needs to locate legendary artifacts, ancient temples and other things that will be vital to the success of their mission.

Catalina - Sister to Kiera/Angry, and Champion of Anubis. (A quick thank you to the Anon who prompted us to consider Catalina as a fellow champion!) Like Cassandra, Catalina’s blessing from Anubis allows her to don a feral form (this time in the form of a werewolf/werejackal) to help fight against the agents of Set and Apep. However, Catalina was chosen to wield Anubis’s blessing specifically because her heart was the only one judged by the scales of Anubis to be able to balance the powers contained within his blessing. As the son of Set and a god of death, Anubis’s blessing is extremely powerful and volatile, and only a certain kind of heart can learn how to balance it and avoid being destroyed by it. While Catalina still struggles with her power (especially during the first few transformations), she is able to gain great control over it with time. While she is considered an outcast from most of the rest of society, Kiera stays by Catalina’s side, and together they travel to the capitol to join the other champions in their mission to stop Set and Apep from destroying the world.

Kiera/Angry - Catalina’s sister. While Kiera/Angry is not a chosen champion, she is still skilled and is a beloved member of the group. After her sister Catalina receives the blessing of Anubis, Kiera stays by her side and travels with her to the capitol to join the rest of the group to help save Egypt and the world from impending doom.

Adira and Hector - Members of the Brotherhood, Quirin’s honorary siblings, and Varian’s “aunt” and “uncle”. While Hector and Adira were also servants of Khonsu like Quirin, neither were given special powers by the deity. Nevertheless, their work as members of the Brotherhood proves invaluable for the group, and they are more than ready to help with their skills and knowledge for whatever may come their way. When Hector isn’t serving at Khonsu’s temple in Karnak, he is the more adventurous of the two, and spends a good chunk of his time being a sellsword for the caravans traveling across the desert. He also has an affinity for animals, and thus relates to Ka very well upon meeting him for the first time.

King Edmund - Ruler of Karnak, head of the Brotherhood, and father of Eugene. A lot of his role was already laid out in Eugene’s description.

Frederic and Arianna - The pharaoh and queen of Egypt in this AU.

Egyptian Deities:

Wadjet - A snake goddess of protection and healing, Wadjet is the deity who chooses Varian and Ka for the mission to stop Set and Apep. In this AU, Wadjet is also a goddess of farsight, and thus allows Varian and Ka to be her seers on earth. While a powerful and graceful deity, Wadjet also has a “soccer mom” kind of personality to her as well. In this AU she has the form of a naga - i.e. human upper body with her lower body being a long snake’s tail.

Khonsu - The god of the moon and time, and the deity served by the Brotherhood. Khonsu is a rather mysterious figure, and while he can see through time and its various possible outcomes, he does not have direct control over how events play out. However, he does impart the ability to manipulate time in small ways to Quirin, though the ability does comes with a price if used to excessively. Khonsu’s personality is quiet, stern, yet also with a touch of levity here and there.

Ra - The god of the sun, and giver of Rapunzel’s powers. Unlike the other deities in this AU, Ra seems strangely absent, despite his sun constantly moving through the sky overhead, and Rapunzel serving as his emissary. He only speaks to her very sparingly throughout their adventure, but when he does it’s always at key moments.

Horus - The son of Ra, protector of the sun, and arch nemesis of Set. Horus chose Eugene to be his champion on earth, and gifted the prince with his wings and ability to fly. (Haven’t really ironed out more of his personality yet to be honest. More may come later!)

Sekhmet - A lion goddess and protector of Egypt. Like Ra, Sekhmet doesn’t make too many appearances in this AU, but she does give Cassandra her incredible lioness warrior powers.

Anubis - A god of death, judgment and the son of Set. Despite commanding a lot of respect, Anubis is a deity that many Egyptians fear and don’t like to talk about. He has a very serious personality (given his job that only seems natural), and really doesn’t like the idea of Set and Apep wreaking havoc on the world and making his job as psychopomp all the harder. (Basically, one of his motivations for wanting to stop the end of the world is so he doesn’t have a ton of more work to do with all the death and destruction that would result. ...Yeah, not the most altruistic reasoning, but guess the guy’s just being practical. xP) When choosing his champion, he weighed the hearts of all in the kingdom to determine which one could balance his powers best, and the scales determined that it would be Catalina, hence him bestowing her with his blessing.

Villains:

Mother Gothel - A former priestess of Set. After learning about the princess’s sun powers, Mother Gothel kidnaps the princess in order to use her powers so that she may remain young forever and never die. However, her evil plans collapse in on her when the champion of Horus comes to save Rapunzel, and Mother Gothel is destroyed in the process. (This is pretty much the extent of Mother Gothel’s role in the story.)

Zhan Tiri - High priestess of Set, and one of the main antagonists of this AU. For many years, Zhan Tiri ran the cult of Set from the underground, and kept her identity as high priestess hidden while posing as an advisor to the pharaoh’s court. However, after her attempt to eliminate the Uraeus fails, Varian and Ka see through her disguise, and she is forced to flee from the capitol and run the cult of Set from the underground in the temples and caves in the Egyptian wilderness. She’s pretty much a generic villain like in the series, where she just kinda craves revenge and destruction because...evil.

Set - The “big bad” of the AU alongside Apep. Where Apep is the brawn of the evil duo, Set is the brains. Set plans on using his cult to help release him and Apep onto the mortal plane, basically wreak as much havoc as possible, and take over the world.

Apep - The “big bad” of the AU alongside Set. Where Set is the brains of the evil duo, Apep is the brawn. As the giant serpent of chaos, Apep’s one goal in life is to destroy the world and all living things. He’s kind of the antithesis of Ka in this AU. His voice sounds a lot like Smaug from The Hobbit movies, and while big, strong and scary, he isn’t super clever.

Aaaaaand I think I’ll leave this post at that for now. Whew! I’ll probably make another post a bit later concerning a general outline of events, and maybe also some other posts with some dialogue snippets that Xiel and I have come up with if there’s enough interest.

[bestworstcase]

more than once you've said "the tts fandom can't write x character, or can't write y character," but have you considered that maybe they can write them fine, you've just built up your desired interpretations of these characters? you give off this condescending attitude, like ONLY YOU can write tts characters accurately, ONLY YOU understand them, & any interpretations that don't in some way align with what you think are WRONG. this has become more apparent as you've worked through bitter snow

let’s discuss king frederic, and how he is often characterized in fanworks vs how he is characterized in the show. 

now... i think we can all agree that frederic is at best a mediocre father and a not especially good king, that in his worst moments he steps over the line into emotional abuse vis a vis his treatment of rapunzel, and that the avoidant head-in-the-sand approach he takes to the black rock problem in s1 causes widespread pain, unnecessary panic, and does not improve the situation whatsoever. 

he is widely disliked in the fandom for very good reason

however! it is difficult, though hardly impossible, to find fic where frederic acts or speaks... like frederic, for one very simple reason: the fandom, by and large, as a group, writes frederic as an angry, abusive man who blows up when he is confronted with the many, many things he does wrong. often this takes the form of a character, or characters, getting up in front of him and rattling off his list of crimes, real or perceived, followed by him basically throwing a tantrum.

canon frederic, to put it bluntly, does not do that. 

exhibit a: caine’s confrontation of frederic in before ever after.

caine sets up exactly the scenario that in the average tts fanfic would end with frederic yelling / blustering / furiously denying the accusations, plus she does it while rounding up all his guests and putting them in cage to haul them off and, presumably, kill them somewhere. like. the stakes are life or death and this is an extremely stressful situation for everyone involved.

and this is how that conversation goes down: 

FRED: Release my guests immediately!

CAINE: What’s the matter, Fred? Am I ruining your perfect day?

RAPUNZEL: ...The Duchess?

CAINE: Oh, honey. I am no Duchess.

RAPUNZEL: I don’t understand.

CAINE: Of course you wouldn’t, Rapunzel, but try to follow along. This is all your fault.

RAPUNZEL: What?!

CAINE: You see, after your untimely... disappearance, your father locked up every criminal in the kingdom... including a simple petty thief. My father. I saw him thrown into a cage and hauled off like some animal, never to be seen again. So... I thought I’d come back, and return the favor. 

[the wagon rolls in]

CAINE: Load ‘em up, boys! Your turn, Your Majesty. 

[Frederic moves to shield Rapunzel; Caine snickers.]

CAINE: Oh, come on, you didn’t think we’d leave our prized pig in the pen, did you?

RAPUNZEL: [as Caine’s gang drags Frederic toward the wagon] Dad—

FREDERIC: Rapunzel, stay back. 

RAPUNZEL: But—

FREDERIC: No. There’s nothing you can do. As your father and your king, I command you to stay put. 

there are two key points that i want to make here, because they diverge significantly from the way frederic is characterized in analogous scenarios in fanfics, like, 90% of the time. 

1) fred doesn’t get angry. he doesn’t bluster or yell. he orders caine to release his guests, and when she refuses, he gets quiet. he does not interrupt caine’s rant, he does not even try to deny her accusations, and he doesn’t stomp around escalating the situation even while caine is prancing around waving a sword in his daughter’s face or literally poking him in the chest. 

he stays calm. 

2) fred’s primary, overriding concern is for rapunzel’s safety, and the safety of his guests. not his own. he does not struggle when caine’s men lead him away. he protests on behalf of his guests, but not himself, and he attempts to physically shield rapunzel from harm before he is dragged away. he doesn’t waste his breath trying to argue with caine, but he does tell rapunzel firmly not to put herself in danger trying to rescue him. 

now... there are plenty of ways to interpret why frederic behaves this way, and my personal take is certainly not the only possible one. but the behavior itself, the staying calm in the face of a crisis, while someone is in his face threatening him, his family, and his guests and making pretty charged accusation, is a) objectively playing out on the screen and b) directly at odds with the way frederic most often acts in fanfics. 

exhibit b: mood-swapped frederic blows up just like fanon frederic constantly does

and this is the only time we ever see frederic lose his temper like this in the entire series. again, this is not a matter of interpretation: this is just plainly what happens on the screen. when he is in his right mind, frederic is not a “scream accusations, whip out a sword, and impulsively declare war or attack someone because he’s mad” sort of person, and to say that he is really like that, deep down, is just as silly as trying to argue that cass really is a peppy, soft-hearted, affectionate pushover, or that eugene really is too riddled-with self-doubt and anxiety to make any decisions, or that rapunzel really is a grouchy, moody, misanthropic person. the mood potion makes everyone act like fundamentally different versions of themselves; their behavior is, literally, out of character for their normal, not high-off-their-asses-on-a-magical-potion selves. 

exhibit c: the angry mob in secrets of the sundrop

like with caine, this confrontation kicks off with a premise that should be pretty familiar to anyone who reads any fic featuring frederic at all, ie everybody is pissed at frederic and there is literally an enraged mob screaming for justice in the throne room. and that goes like this:

[everybody shouting in angry panic]

FREDERIC: People... [raising his voice to be heard] Citizens, please! Listen to me!

[Max rears and whinnies to get everyone’s attention, and the shouting dwindles away.]

FREDERIC: I will not lie to you any longer. Corona is in grave danger. The queen has been taken; over half our royal guard lie wounded; and these black rocks draw ever closer.

[the shouting begins to pick up again]

EUGENE: Uh, sir, hi, yeah—if there’s a ‘but’ in this speech, you probably want to cut to it right now. 

FREDERIC: But I look at you, and I don’t just see subjects. I see friends, family; strong, brave individuals who have stood by each other, side-by-side, and have never, ever backed down from a fight! Today, we face a danger like none before. As your king, your friend, and as your brother, I ask you to fight one more time. For Corona!

again, key points: 

1) frederic does not deny, bluster, shout down, or otherwise attempt to refute the basic point that he bungled the black rock situation. he did bungle it, and he knows that [this scene is preceded by him spelling out the full extent of his failures to rapunzel and openly admitting guilt]. through his behavior, he demonstrates that he accepts culpability for the situation and implicitly accepts the legitimacy of the crowd’s anger. 

2) he raises his voice only so he can be heard above the shouting, and as soon as folks quiet down, he drops to a reasonable volume again. his mood is grim, but he isn’t angry. he projects calm. 

3) eugene is nervous about frederic losing control of the crowd and accidentally causing a riot or something; frederic is not. 

4) instead of denying the crowd’s anger, frederic tries to reframe the problem for them: yes, things are bad, but they are strong and brave and we can all work together to put things right. he doesn’t shout them down; he seeks to inspire them. 

and 5) when frederic says “we face a danger,” he means that. the very next thing he does after giving this speech is go straight to the frontlines to fight in the same battle he’s asking everyone else to join in. he's not asking them to do anything he isn’t willing to do himself. 

which... i would argue even more than the caine confrontation in BEA, is diametrically opposed to the way the typical fanon frederic would respond to an angry mob situation, because the typical fanon frederic is a very angry, aggressive man, and that... simply isn’t who frederic is. he’s calm, he’s knows how to work a crowd, he knows how to use his authority to achieve his goals without browbeating or threatening. 

even when he does get angry—such as his instinctive reaction to arianna’s kidnapping, when he jumps first to “we will invade old corona”—he doesn’t yell or stomp around or throw tantrum. he gets stiff and rather cold and makes an impulsive judgment call... but then he takes some time to brood by himself, calms down, talks things out with rapunzel, admits his failures, and doesn’t follow through with the impulsive order he made in the heat of the moment. 

like... flat out, he is not an angry man.

and it’s frustrating, when i go to read fanfic and frederic is overwhelmingly characterized as this hapless angry shouty abusive person, because it is breathtakingly far removed from how he acts in canon, and i like frederic as a character. i find him very interesting, and it’s not fun to read fics where everything that makes him interesting is taken away and replaced with this sort of one-note Shouty Angry King/Bad Dad Whom Everyone Hates. and that applies, unfortunately, to a very large number of the types of fics i like to read (namely, long canon exploratory or canon divergent fics, etc)

anyway,

i am perfectly happy to read interpretations of the tts characters that do not mesh well, or are even wholly incompatible with, my own. 

but i do expect, as a minimum, characters to behave more or less the way they behave in canon unless there is a clear reason for them to be different. i expect varian to be nerdy and chaotic and a bit of a disaster, for example. i expect adira to be aloof, blunt, and perhaps a touch arrogant. i expect cassandra to be ambitious and frustrated and prone to self-sabotage and envy. i expect lance to be laid back and eugene to be a bit vain. i expect the captain to be gruff and very tight-laced. and i expect frederic to act like a politician who is in control of his feelings but sort of cowardly at heart, because that’s how frederic acts in the show. 

i hold myself to these standards too. a ton of my editing process is “hm does this character really talk like this? is this how they would react to this situation?” and then going through and rewatching scenes or whole episodes and trying to find roughly analogous emotional beats or situations to sort of gauge whether i’m hitting the mark or not; it’s very difficult and i work hard on it and do not always succeed... and this does make me a bit picky about characterization in fics i’m reading, yeah, because it’s... always at the forefront of my mind. and then yes i post about it here, because this is the hyperfixation landfill where i dump my tts-adjacent thoughts. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

of course, you’re welcome to unfollow me if you do not enjoy reading what i post. it’s important to curate an online experience that you enjoy! if my general demeanor irritates you, you don’t need to inflict yourself with it.

[silyabeeodess]

Final Thoughts on Tangled: The Series

Normally, I don’t do many reviews, but since I’ve given my thoughts on points in the series before, I feel compelled to address certain things in the series in a full list.  As I’ve already brought up in the past, I very much have a love-hate relationship with the show.  This is because it has both exceptionally amazing and exceptionally terrible points that I can’t just shrug off--in part, because I’m starting to see them everywhere in a lot of cartoons these days, especially with Disney. Expect me to go over both positive and negative points, and I’ve give my conclusion on the series as a whole last.  There will be spoilers, so if you haven’t watched it in full yet, please do so before checking out the cut below.

Characters

As far as building up a lot of the characters go, I think most of them are really well-developed.  From a main character like Varian to minor figures like Captain Quaid, the creators seemed to have a good grasp of fleshing them out even when if they had a limited time to do so.  It helped the world of Tangled feel expansive and real, with even many of the background characters having their own identity and personalities: We didn’t need their life stories to make them stand out in our minds and they weren’t treated like a choir group used to only fill up space, which can be an easy pitfall when they’re showcased with notable importance to the story. (Moana, I’m looking at you.)  

My issues with the characters largely fall on a case-by-case basis--which will be brought up further below--but there is one general point that did wear on my nerves, and that’s with many of them having what I’d like to call “selective competence.”  By this, I mean that the strengths of the characters seemed to shift depending on whatever narrative the team wanted to tell.  One of the biggest examples of this is King Edmund: We’re introduced to him as a skilled fighter and fierce protector that could match up against not only the members of the Brotherhood like Adira because he trained them himself, but also while simultaneously holding his own for a time against Rapunzel and her friends--however, when he started being used for mostly comedy relief, he couldn’t even defend himself against the Stabbington Brothers who the group has already beaten multiple times over.  For crying out loud, they let him know they were there!  In no way do I think characters need some kind of point system to mark how strong they are--this is a story, not a tabletop RPG--but at the same time there’s needs to be better consistency and planning.  For the point I mentioned with King Edmund, an easy fix would’ve been a sneak attack that knocked him out before he had the chance to react by making him so consumed with the thought of losing his son in that moment that he wasn’t as aware of his surroundings as normal.  At least then there’d be an excuse!  This happens repeatedly throughout the series and with multiple characters though that it’s far from a slip up. 

Another general that focuses more on the girls is the power dynamic.  Look, I’m all for strong women, but not at the sacrifice of things like story or characters, and the show made a bad habit of leaning into that with their selective competence.  Think I’m wrong?  Ok, then explain this to me: How do you have two famed criminals with a known record throughout multiple kingdoms act like bumbling idiots who constantly either cause problems for the group with typically someone like Raps, Cass, or Adira having to get them out of that situation?  And if that wasn’t obvious enough, you have Adira’s little “I don’t get why they named it the Brotherhood because I’m a woman” statement that couldn’t be more on the nose.  

You know what?  I’m gonna go ahead and get to Adira despite her being a more minor character because I couldn’t stand her.  Most of the time when she showed up, I wanted to roll my eyes into the back of my skull because the primary reason she exists is to be a “strong woman who don’t need no man,” which, to be frank, we already have in spades in this show with much better characters.  She’s not impressive or a good role model for young girls: She’s an obnoxious token--and in more ways than one.  For no point whatsoever, she kept disappearing and reappearing in and out of episodes throughout S2 whenever the creators decided to use her--even though the audience is well aware she’s following the group and nothing seems to be stopping her from sticking by them.  They were shown fine with her travelling at their side on multiple occasions, so what was the need to have her vanish off and on when we know she’s just keeping up with them in the shadows anyhow? To top that off, she insists on being needlessly mysterious just for the sake of it despite her sharing similar goals with Raps and the group.  It would’ve been one thing had she just kept the potential danger of the moonstone’s affects on Raps a secret: The best lies are told with a bit of truth and it would’ve set up the mysterious angle of her much better.  Better anyway than her helping them one minute and then beating them up in the next because she “doesn’t like to be touched.” It got to the point where I didn’t care whether or not she could be trusted: I just wanted her offscreen.  

Going back to something positive for a moment though, Raps and Eugene are easily the best in the series (Or at least when they’re alone together, I have notes on both....)  I’m not talking about the romance between them--although that was really well done: I’m talking about how they bounced off of each other.  There’s something to be said about people who are willing to grow beside each other, and that growth shines in their relationship.  If one of them falters, the other is there to not only pick up the slack, but help pull the first back onto their feet.  Both Raps and Eugene have their highs and lows throughout the series and they’re willing to call the other back to earth and be their support when things go too far.  The power dynamic issue I mentioned earlier?  I never see it with them. They’re both balanced and match to each other’s strengths/weaknesses.  Neither of them is a vision of perfection, a knight in shining armor, or a damsel in distress: They’re two people who work in tandem to get through the hard times and simply enjoy the good ones together. 

Since I already wrote a large post discussing Raps and Cassandra, I’m going to link to that here.  For Cassandra though, I can summarize my thoughts on what they did to her character in one word: Butchered.  For both Seasons 1 and 2, the set-up for her was great, but everything after that was mostly an abysmal fall from grace.  They focused too much on her being jealous of Raps and upset over Gothel and ignored all of the problems that had sprung up in their friendship--such as Raps pushing her to the side just as much as anyone else and taking advantage of her friendship.  And then she literally had to ask herself, “Wait... am I the bad guy?” for her to consider that her actions may be unjustified.  Even after that, she immediately jumps back into her “villain” mode when Varian accidentally fired at her and blaming Raps--who’s just standing there--all while knowing ahead of time that Raps signed the decree for the weapon and having already excused it.  I saw glimmers of potential in the finale, but honestly, they fumbled and tripped so much with Cass that, even while satisfied with the conclusion to her arc, I’d far from call it a success.

Lance... This character just screams of missed opportunities. They gave him a great background to go with Eugene’s as these two best friends leaving a life of crime behind to each find their place in the world and then proceeded to make him the butt of a joke just about every second he was onscreen.  I can’t even think of a genuine character trait he had: I just look at him and see Tangled’s version of Olaf.  At least the end where he adopts Angry and Catalina was sweet, but even that felt lacking because all we got out of them were dumb jokes.  We see them together, but hardly in a way that would establish a parent-child bond; more like two siblings outwitting their dim babysitter.  The creators just could’ve handled him so much better, giving him and Eugene/Angry/Catalina more sincere interactions or letting him have a couple of moments to show what skills he brings to the group. They already had Shorty and used comedy among all of the characters anyway, so what was the point of making Lance a walking punchline?     

As for Eugene, I don’t have much to say beyond the points where they just made him out to be a moron like they did with Lance.  I actually really like how they developed them: How, personality wise, he never felt the need to change himself for anyone--he was confident in himself--but nevertheless struggled to find his own identity because of his past, family legacy, and whatever other revelations he came across in the present.  It was an interesting journey, watching him find himself.     

For all the bad I had to say regarding Raps in the post I listed earlier, I will admit as well that she does have some positive aspects.  I liked how her character arc focused on the importance of personal freedom while balancing it with the moral choice of accepting one’s duty to others.  For a time, she’s not ready to rule Corona due to her lack of knowledge/experience and never having the chance to discover what she needed in her own life.  However, she doesn’t use it as an excuse to shirk away from her responsibilities.  She accepts her duty to her kingdom and her people--and even to Eugene to an extent since she does love him and knows it’s unfair if she made him wait forever at her side--but she’s not willing to throw away her own happiness by rushing forward to fulfill them. It’s a balance that’s easy to struggle with, if not to the same degree as a princess, whether from a basic work/life or group/individual scenario or if you’re, for example, a young person rushed from one phase of their life to the next with certain expectations. The cherry on top is that she’s also a person struggling with her own maturity in the meantime, going from careless in some situations to a voice of reason later down the road.  

Overall, Zhan Tiri was a pretty good villain, particularly because she was actually, well, an honest villain.  After years of show after show, movie after movie, constantly being compelled to give their bad guys some sob story that hardly ever makes up for their actions, we’re finally back to getting to villains we love to hate. While I wouldn’t place her on the top tier, she’s still well done overall.  I don’t like her more powerful forms that much--they just don’t seem to have the best designs--but the child form was great.  The team found a good balance of conniving and creepy with her look.  My main complaint is that she can’t learn to shut up.  Now, it’s not the monologuing or even her spilling her own plans that I don’t like. Yes, it’s a trope for villains; however, it’s often used to showcase their arrogance; give the audience some more information about what’s going on in a simple, but effective way; and typically done when either the hero is at their weakest or when the villain is alone/with other villains.  The problem is Zhan Tiri’s timing.  It would be one thing if she monologued when Raps was at her weakest: Instead, she decides to reveal her identity and intentions to Raps well before her plans could succeed, therefore putting them at risk.  Had she not outright said “I’m playing Cass,” Cass’s morality would be placed in a more questionable eye by Raps and the others--further encouraging the conflict between the two young woman, which was what the demon wanted.  Her explaining that to Raps was just dumb.   

Music

I have no complaints.  Whoever is behind this, bravo: You made gold.  

I’d dare argue that the bulk of the songs could easily be any number that you’d hear on a successful Broadway track.  They're memorable, catchy, and tailor-made to perfectly fit in their respective scenes.  Everyone involved seemed to put their heart into the music, making many of them extremely powerful pieces.  The dialogue also meshes really well with the music, allowing the songs to flow naturally in and out of the scenes.  The only time where I’d say it doesn’t quite work would be in Through it All, but considering that the scene makes a point of joking about the musical elements of the series prior to that, you’re supposed to be aware of how unnatural it is, which can give it a charm of its own.  

Art and Animation

Again, for the art, no complaints.  Aside from some minor nitpicks that I’d shrug off--and I mean really minor, like a bird for the beginning of one episode that was huge in comparison to a second flying close to it--it’s beautiful. The style has a strong, painter-like quality that fits with the concept of this being Rapunzel’s story, matching to her--of course--being an artist.  You have these bold, beautiful colors and the team wasn’t afraid of letting them shine at their best, like in scenes such as when Rapunzel and Cassandra are fighting as the sundrop and moonstone.  There were so many nice contrasts that directed one’s focus perfectly on what the creators wanted you to see and that also made for rich, impressive moments in the show.  

As for more subtle details, one that I particularly liked were some of the gradients and the way they’re applied, such as the blush to Rapunzel’s face.  There’s something about that soft speckle around the edges that’s really satisfying, and--when comparing Rapunzel’s design to the flatter skin tone on most of the other characters--it gives her a warm glow that helps solidify her as the physical embodiement of the sundrop.

The animation is also super solid, and any critiques I have on it largely fall to things I think probably had more to do with the script than the animation itself.  For example, there’s the moment when Cass and Raps are fighting in Gothel’s house where Cass ties Raps hair around a pole, in the next moment it’s off the pole and Raps smacks her with it, and then it’s immediately wrapped around the pole again with Raps trying to unravel it.  It’s a pretty obvious and careless mistake to make--especially when you see how wonderfully choreographed a lot of the series is with dynamic camera shots that move fluidity with the characters.  What makes me think it’s more of a script-based problem is that there are similar inconsistencies that happen elsewhere and--while animated beautifully--don’t make much sense. One example of this is in the finale, where Cass is dying.  I tried re-watching the scene and checking the wikia to see how she got a fatal injury in case I missed something, but no: It’s never shown.  It’s like the team decided to have her dying just so Raps could say the healing incantation one final time. If you want to excuse it, you could say it had to do with the moonstone, but then you’d also have to explain how neither of the girls showcase any physical weaknesses aside from their loss of powers when Zhan Tiri takes both of their respective gems. Which leads me to...

Writing 

This is the hardest for me to discuss because so much of it is either really, really good or really, really bad.  I guess to start, I’ll bring up a problem that I noticed mimicked another show, Star Vs. the Forces of Evil.  Similarly to SVTFOE, the last season didn’t focus enough on the main plot to properly flesh it out--albeit, SVTFOE was much worse than Tangled: The Series could ever fear being.  A lot of people try to blame this on “Well, it’s the last season: It’s all they’ve got left to tell the story in.” Ok... Well, yeah, we can talk about how Disney and other companies stink at just letting creators tell a good story in the time they need to in another discussion, but here’s the thing: The teams know well in advance how many episodes they have to work with. Unfortunately, they wasted some of those episodes.  Did we really need to see Catalina as a werewolf?  Did we really need Pascal to befriend a dragon?  Even in the finale, with the more minor characters’ stumble into the Lost Realm, what was the point of it besides humor and getting them out of the way for a bit?  I’d understand if they were episodes for lightening the mood, but they already put so much comedy relief in with the main plot that that isn’t necessary: The mood’s already light enough and there’s just not much time to waste on random filler.  Again, filler isn’t a problem in itself either: You can have it, just don’t let it sacrifice main points that the show should address. One way to have gotten around this was to use more of a two-plot structure with some of these episodes: Plot A would focus on whatever fun the team wanted to have while Plot B could sprinkle in bits of information that the audience will need later for the main story--or they could even have done that with just a small scene to nudge some info in after the episode was done and before the credits rolled.            

I’d like to bring up some of the points that I thought could’ve been covered better.  First off, the whole “destiny” thing.  Well, we get what all signs Raps’ destiny is pointing to, but as often as it was brought up for Cass, they hardly explained what she wanted after taking the moonstone. What was her plan?  Initially, she didn’t want to attack/take over Corona. Sure, they tried saying she didn’t want to be anyone’s second, but everyone was going to hate her for taking the moonstone in the first place, so... good work there: I don’t think Cass would be stupid enough not to realize people wouldn’t think highly of her for it despite what the show tried to tell us.  They even missed the chance for some friction between Cass and Eugene after the latter was made the Captain of the Guard: Come on, you know that would’ve set her off!  Even the show questions this by Raps asking Cass what her end goal was in, I guess, the creators’ attempt at patching their mistake too little too late.  

Then there was the oh-so-important eclipse that we’re told nothing about until it gets here... besides that fact that it’s an eclipse.  The way the team tried to build it up through Zhan Tiri, you would’ve thought it was some cosmic magic on level with Avatar’s Sozin’s Comet. From what we could tell though, no, it’s just a normal eclipse.  That’s fine, but then why not explain more about it when everything else involving the sun and moon was amplified to some magical involvement?  

Thirdly, they brought the death incantation back: You know, that spell Raps was stupid enough to think she could control and then somehow randomly did for Varian because plot device despite it later being rendered pointless when the black rocks are then shown to be able to pierce through the amber just fine in S3, so Raps could’ve used those to save Varian’s father instead back when she had control of them?  That death incantation?  Yeah, suddenly it’s a bad thing again.  I could probably write a whole other post on these types of goofs alone, but I’ve been writing this for hours now and I’m almost to the end of it.

To wrap up this section, I will, however, admit that I liked some of the little things they included and would bring up later: I just wish they had done it more.  This is a method I call breadcrumb storytelling, in which a creator--for a specific moment--gives attention to something small that inevitably has a solid payback, often with the audience forgetting about it for a period only to resurface in their mind at the reveal.  One major point I’m talking about here was the use of the Moonstone shard.  Like many others, I actually did think they were going to show it as a sign of Cass’s slow destruction--that the Moonstone was a physical part of her and that by destroying it or overusing its power, it would inevitable destroy her as well.  It was a pleasant surprise to see the shard used as the key to defeating Zhan Tiri, and just how it was used.

Conclusion

So, did I like the series overall or not...?  Eh... I still find myself going back and forth on it.  What I hate about it, I hate with a passion, but the good parts that are there genuinely moved me. The things that worked wrapped up nicely and it was nice, but bittersweet to see the characters get their happy ending because it did feel pretty earned and you do feel sad to say goodbye to these people and this world you’ve become familiar with.  So I wouldn’t call it bad: I’d compare it to car that got totaled in a wreck and still somehow managed to flawlessly parallel park without any casualties after it flipped across the street.  It’s a mess, but I can still smile at it by the end of the day.     

[afreakingdork]

Review: Tangled: Before Ever After and Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure

I should have realized that Tangled: Before Ever After was going to precede something. The movie ends with Rapunzel's father knowingly "locking" Rapunzel up once again and telling her she will not be allowed out of her tower. It ends with her singing about how she will someday be free.... and almost immeidately as Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure begins, we see this rule is not enforced in its entirety and instead is set to be anywhere in the kingdom of Corona and they never really touch back on this point set by the movie that is MEANT to set up the show.

As the first season progresses, I was excited to see more about the black rocks. The part of season 1 that jumps out the most to me is Varian's turn. Sure, he blames himself for his dad's encasement in amber and it's logical to lash out those feelings of self hatred, but for him to point blank turn completely evil because Rapunzel has 'betrayed' him is just too much. Rapunzel even tells him that the storm is about to destory all of Corona (which includes his hometown and where his dad is encassed in amber mind you). She even tells him that she will help him as soon as she is done, but I guess I am supposed to believe he is too far gone to hear these words? No? Yeah, no, because he responds by saying that by then it will be too late. The question as to why this is so dumb is revisted later.

So season 2 sets us out on the road, Rapunzel will finally be free to explore the world like she wanted. There is a ton of fun to be had in these episodes; adventures aplenty. We slowly uncover the mystery of the black rocks' origins and the Moon Stone. I like the concept of an opposing force against the sun drop. My favorite arcs are the Captain Quaid arc right at the beginning of the season and the Tirapai Island arc. The outfits in the Tirapai Island arc are especially choice. In fact, kudos to season 2 for having all these really dope outfit changes in general. They are all beautiful. Also kudos to the Tirapai Island arc for giving Hook Foot his own episode before they just wrote him off the show. Also, also Vigor being Lord Demanitus was an awesome (albeit stupidly hilarious) twist that I did not see coming.

As we get closer to the Dark Kingdom things really start to fall apart. "Rapunzel: Day One" creates a rift in Rapunzel and Cass's relationship that seems so out of character for Cass. She's mad that Rapunzel won't heed her warnings about Adira, but Rapunzel has always gone around Cass to find the good in people. It's been happening since season 1 and it seemed really strange for it to only be a problem now. I guess since the whole world is getting more dangerous, but it really leads into "Rapunzel and the Great Tree" where Cass sings "Waiting in the Wings." She's harboring this loneliness that I guess I can see, but also more on that later.

Finally reaching the Dark Kingdom, King Edmund being Eugene's true father is someting I saw from miles away. It's too obvious a set-up and really a bit uncessary, but yay Eugene backstory I guess? That is until Eugene is immediately convinced by the father he rightfully rejects to keep Rapunzel from her destiny because it's his destiny to stop her? It makes absolutely no sense for Eugene who has turned around his entire life solely on his belief in Rapunzel's abilites, but I guess we need even more conflict at the castle.

Moving into season 3, there are just so many implications and dropped storylines. Starting with Cassandra's turn; how was she Mother Gothel's biological daughter? Mother Gothel is shown to be quite old, so I kinda doubt she could sow an heir. Also what does it really matter? On Tirapai Island, Cassandra was shown her truest desire was just to be accepted by her father. I'm glad the head guard is just dead to her after being her beloved father just because he lied about her being the heir of an evil witch? That's usually not something you'd be too happy about and defintely not something you would hold against your best friend for being 'the one your mother preferred.'

When we get back to Corona, the king and queen's memories have been erased and Varian is still being all evil, but only until things get too real and he might hurt actual people. The rest of Varian's redemption arc and him struggling with other people's perception of him was quite good though, I have to say. Picking up on the 'visit later' point I mentioned about Varian earlier, there was no rush because I guess Quirin was in stasis while frozen in the amber. I will say, there was no way Varian could have known this, but it really shoots the whole rush to save my father or you aren't really my friend thing in the foot.  

Episode 2 of season 3 just starts with Rapunzel in a new (ugly) dress and is just Queen. There is not even a throw away line of dialog to explain that Frederic and Arianna still have not regained their memories. In fact Frederic and Arianna just don't show up for 6 more episodes until this problem needs to be addressed! The whole issue is a mess, "Rapunzel's Return" shows Rapunzel recognizes the memory erasing wand from "Rapunzel: Day One," and yet even though in "Rapunzel: Day One" there is a very easy to make cure that Cassandra aboslutely explains to Rapunzel, they never try to even create this cure and instead rely on love to hopefully coax back Frederic and Arianna's memories.

"Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?" ends with Red wanting to be called by her real name which is Catalina. Now, I don't know if this is a production erorr, but in the very NEXT episode "The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne," they go right back to calling Red Red, but then a few episodes later in "Day of the Animals" they are appropriately calling her by Catalina.

Rolling back one episode from that, let's return to the 'visit that later' I mentioned for Cassandra, we have "Beginnings" that creates a huge plot hole for "Waiting in the Wings" as we see Cassandra has absolutely had the chance to go out and do what she has always wanted to do, but decided not to for the sake of friendship? I get that the story is supposed to be touching and Rapunzel is looking for a friend, but she makes friends wherever she goes and Cass is full well shown to understand that. So it doesn't really help the whole betrayal storyline to know that she gave up her dreams to stay with Rapunzel when she was never actually ordered to do that in the first place. She made that choice consciously. She finally starts to see the light in "Once a Handmaiden..." and I was really excited for the change and how Cass and Rapunzel would work together to sort this out, but one little change and boom Cass still believes Zhan Tiri even though she knows they're evil and manipulative. Cass has shown throughout the series that she is FAR smarter than this. She always trusts herself above all else. Overall, for it's flaws I'm not sad I watched it. The end tied up nicely and I feel satisfied.

[greenjacketwhitehatdocmui]

The Lesson of Cassandra (from Tangled:  The Series)

    By now, most people have seen the season finale of Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure.  It’s probably safe to say that some people didn’t see it coming. After all, Cassandra was set up to be Rapunzel’s best friend.  How could she possibly betray her?

    It wasn’t as sudden as some people think. In fact, I would even dare to say that this was pretty much laid out from the beginning.  Her actions in the season finale were a culmination of many factors and not just because the writer(s) felt like it.

    Cassandra has both good and bad qualities.  Some of Cassandra’s good qualities include her loyalty, her ambition, her decisiveness, intelligence and her directness.  In a battle, few are her equal.  With Rapunzel, she often shows a softer side. She often offers advice to a naïve Rapunzel, who could certainly use the wisdom.  And she aspires more than to be seen as just a handmaiden, the role forced upon her by her gender.  It’s little wonder that she’s found a very vocal fanbase; many can relate to her struggles.

    Unfortunately, she has more than a few negative traits. Due to her focus on becoming a guard/handmaiden, her directness frequently goes to the extreme of hurtful bluntness.  She often does not read social cues very well—especially not as well as Eugene. She does not take criticism well, often changing the subject or ignoring the statement altogether.  In fact, she is frequently hypocritical, imposing standards on others that she doesn’t live up to herself.  And despite her confidence in her skills, she is terribly insecure.  If someone outdoes her in any way, she reacts badly, perhaps even labeling the person a threat.  “Challenge of the Brave” showed a darker side of this.  When she lost to Adira without a single blow being landed, she continually told Rapunzel that she didn’t trust the latter—despite being a resource. It’s obvious that in her mind, “superior=threat,” especially if the other person outdid her handily.

    Many of Cassandra’s traits, both good and bad, can be traced to her upbringing.  An orphan, she was raised by the Captain of the guard.  Judging by her behavior when she was temporarily reduced to childhood, the Captain obviously raised her with a firm hand.  He instilled in her the values of honor, duty, earning one’s keep and knowing one’s place, and she's a strong, independent woman because of him. Despite his overzealous nature, he genuinely cares for her—even if he may be overly harsh.  It is also obvious that they don’t always communicate with each other very well.  Cassandra's fear of swimming is an example of bad communication.  

    Over time, we note that the values that Cassandra learned from him can easily be twisted to ridiculous extremes—or forgotten altogether.  Something came easier to another person than yourself?  Get jealous because they didn’t “earn” it.  Honor a promise?  Sure, if it’s not too inconvenient.  Varian found that out the hard way.  Earn one’s keep?  Become the greatest warrior she can be instead of a handmaid.

    More disturbing is her friendship with Rapunzel. Yes, she gives Rapunzel some much-needed perspective when they talk.  However, for most of Season One, she disparages Eugene—a man who literally died to save Rapunzel.  She understands Rapunzel’s need for freedom.  However, she sees Rapunzel as her chance to fulfill her destiny, to attain the glory and respect that she's always been looking for.  She wants Rapunzel to depend on her, otherwise she has no purpose.  In this respect, the relationship between Cassandra and Rapunzel isn’t a healthy friendship--especially since Cassandra has difficulties discussing her feelings with anyone.  

    Despite being kind and intelligent, Cassandra can be remarkably short-sighted and selfish.  In the first episode, she doesn't want Rapunzel to tell anyone that they left the castle walls, despite the fact that Rapunzel's hair has grown back. She's afraid (justifiably so) of being sent to a convent by her father if she screws up.  She has been known to leave people in the lurch so that she can achieve her goal, even going so far as to potentially harm Rapunzel in "Challenge of the Brave."  And of course, there is her ultimate act of selfishness in the season 2 finale.

    I'm of the opinion that this was foreshadowed even as far back as season 1.  We've seen some of Cassandra's darker nature.  We know that she's not one who suffers fools lightly, if at all.  We understand that she has very high expectations of herself and others around her.  And we know that time and again, she's been denied the opportunity of being the hero she's always wanted to be.

    Does this mean that she's been evil all along? I personally don't think so.  I think that she genuinely cares for Rapunzel, but not in the healthiest of ways.  What she's been all this time...is entirely human.  We've seen her flaws and vulnerabilities.  Whatever she experienced behind that door in "Rapunzeltopia" was probably the final nail in the coffin, as evidenced by Cassandra's unwillingness to hug Rapunzel back.

    Here's the thing:  A lot of people were absolutely gobsmacked at Cassandra's betrayal. I suppose it all depends on your viewpoint of the character.  If you thought that, despite the evidence to the contrary, Cassandra was someone to be idolized, then the ending probably hit you harder than most.  If you acknowledged that Cassandra had good points and flaws, the ending was still surprising, but a reasonable ending.  If you absolutely hated Cassandra, you probably said "I knew it."

    I think that there's a lesson to be learned here: Idolizing someone to the point where you are blind to their flaws doesn't do anyone any good.  Conversely, seeing only a person's flaws and not their good qualities blinds you to what they can or have accomplished.  Often, the middle ground of accepting both flaws and merits is the best approach--but not an easy one.

    Do I believe that Cassandra can be redeemed? I certainly hope so--but I also hope that time is spent dealing with the repercussions of her betrayal.  She should feel extremely guilty for that moment of weakness, that she does not deserve any forgiveness--but goes on trying to be better every day.  That, I think, would make her a stronger character--and eventually, a truly worthy friend to Rapunzel.

What are your thoughts?  I’d certainly like to know.

--Doc

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 6 Review: Scavengers

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This Star Trek: Discovery review contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Episode 6

If you want to understand how Star Trek has evolved as a franchise, look no further than “Scavengers.” The Star Trek: Discovery episode sees its main character, Michael Burnham, disobeying a direct order from her commanding officer (again) in order to go on a rogue mission with Emperor Georgiou to save her, ahem, friend Book and secure a pre-Burn Starfleet black box. It’s the sort of stunt Kirk pulled on the regular (and, yes, this includes Kelvin Kirk), and it’s the kind of stunt Kirk would have been celebrated for it—both within the world of the TV show or film and, more importantly, by the viewer. Here, the context is much more complicated. We viewers are encouraged to understand why Michael did it and to see the goodness of her motivations, while also being encouraged to see how and why Burnham’s actions negatively impacted her crew and could have led to some devastating consequences. Frankly, it’s a radical and deeply interesting subversion of the myth of American individualism, and it’s one that the Star Trek universe is well-equipped to make.

American pop culture has a relative dearth of good stories about institution, especially for a culture currently struggling with the failure of so many and a deep distrust in the ones that remain. Star Trek has, generally, been an outlier to that rule. From the beginning, it has been a story that is not so much interested in depicting a utopian future as it is depicting a future with a utopian institution: the Federation. The world of Star Trek has never been one without its problems. This is a universe that still knows wars, famine, and systemic inequality. But it is also a universe that has an institution that works, one that our heroes are not only a part of, but believe in. Though this is challenged as Trek goes on, especially in a show like Deep Space Nine, it is rarely completely undermined as a possible ideal. In Trek, the dream of an institution that works for the many is not a pipe dream; it’s a pragmatic one.

How does this all relate to Star Trek: Discovery? Well, unlike the first two seasons of this show, Season 3 is deeply interested in exploring this idea of the possibility of a good and functional institution. The Burn may have destroyed what the Federation once was, but it still exists in some form. Much of Season 3’s tension has been the question of whether that pragmatic dream of putting one’s trust, work, and time into this collective organization is a worthwhile one or rather, like so many modern TV series tell us, that believing in something larger than yourself is for suckers.

In “Scavengers,” Michael demonstrates how she has lost patience with that dream. For her, for a no doubt very long year, it was for suckers. The Federation wasn’t coming to save her, so she had to learn how to save herself, and that is a hard habit to break. In that time without her crew of her Federation, Michael did have someone. She had Book and it’s understandable that she wants to save him here. When his life is put in jeopardy, Michael is forced to choose between the status quo she once had (which fostered a belief in the Federation) and the status quo she has been forced to live with for the past year (which fostered a belief that she could only trust herself and Book).

In Michael’s mission into Emerald Chain territory, not only is she trying to find information that she believes will help the entire Federation, but she is also trying to save someone she cares deeply about. Her motives fit well into Federation values, but her actions chafe against them. Part of being part of a collective (no Borg allowed) means making decisions together and, in a hierarchal institution like Starfleet, it means sometimes having to go along with a choice that you think is the wrong one. It’s an experience that a deeply individualistic American culture is not often encouraged to accept as a valuable one. And it’s a part of my culture I have been thinking a lot about during the COVID crisis, as we watch the United States failure to embrace a “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few” ethos.

Interestingly, “Scavengers” puts a decent amount of narrative time into looking at why Michael’s choice was perhaps the wrong one, and it’s a thematic thread that picks up on characterization from earlier in the season, and earlier in this series. Since her reunion with the Discovery, Michael has been trying to have her cake and eat it too. She wants to be part of the crew and the Federation, but she only wants to follow the rules when they align with her personal priorities. We saw her go behind Saru’s back in “People of Earth,” planning a rogue mission with Book that relied on Saru blindly trusting her, which he did. But, after this latest stunt, that trust is seriously frayed. Saru can’t rely on Michael and, perhaps, vice versa. If Michael tried the “People of Earth” stunt now, it might go very differently. Saru is smart to recognize how that is a serious problem that needs to be addressed now, when the stakes are relatively low.

Of course the stakes aren’t low emotionally. The weight of how he should respond to Michael’s insubordination obviously weighs heavily on Saru’s shoulders. He goes to Tilly for advice, and she tells him what he needs to hear: Michael’s decision puts the entire crew’s future in the Federation in jeopardy. It must be met with consequence. And it is. In the final, best scene in the episode, we see Saru strip Michael of her first officer duties. It’s the right decision—even Michael thinks so—but that doesn’t make it any easier for Saru to accept. This willingness to lean into the difficult questions is, more than anything else, what makes Saru a good captain.

Interestingly, Vance also rebukes Saru before giving Michael a bigger dressing-down. He thinks Saru should have come to him with Michael’s intel about the black boxes and the opportunity of securing another. Like Michael, Saru has perhaps become somewhat used to not having a commanding officer to check in with. And he really hasn’t been a captain for very long.

Is Vance hiding something about The Burn? Perhaps. Vance continues to dismiss Michael’s valid point that, without solving the mystery of The Burn, the Federation will never be able to properly move on. Vance’s reluctance to invest resources in solving this mystery could simply be a very understandable attempt to prioritize saving lives rather than investing in the long-term health of the Federation as an institution, or it could be that he is trying to hide something ugly about the Federation’s potential role in the disaster. Only time will tell. For now, the crew of the Discovery continues to move forward, with the belief that the dream of the institution is something worth investing in. What a statement.

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Additional thoughts.

If you’re a fan of Big Plot Development, the beginning of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 was like Grudge-nip. The first three episodes of the season dealt with the major repercussions of Michael and the Discovery, respectively, jumping through time and then, eventually, coming back together—with an additional one-year time-jump for Michael thrown in for good measure. While the fourth episode leaned into the character repercussions of it all, last week saw another major plot development when the Discovery found the 32nd-century version of the Federation. This week’s episode, “Scavengers,” like that other Season 3 outlier “Forget Me Not,” was another episode that was more about moving the chess pieces than taking any pieces. This is the kind of transitionary installment that is all about following up on lingering character moments and minor plot threads, which is not to say that it didn’t have its excellent moments, just that it very much felt like an episode that comes in the middle of the season. I have a feeling that, looking back on “Scavengers,” we will see the many major plot developments it is setting up for the second half of the season.

One of the captains who takes part in Vance’s meeting is an older woman and I know this is not the first time we have seen an older woman in a position of authority in Star Trek or pop culture in general, but it still feels rare enough to both give me a thrill when it happens and to be commented upon.

I can’t help comparing the Discovery this season to the experience of living in a quaranteam. This episode, Michael made a decision to increase the quaranteam’s risk level without getting the pod’s approval. Not cool, Michael. (But also: good job saving lives.)

I am Team Healthy Institution, generally, but working within bureaucracy takes time. Being a lone wolf is definitely faster and more flexible. I do get Michael’s frustrations here.

Do we think Georgiou likes Saru? When Michael asks her to go rogue with her, Georgiou immediately points out how it will screw over Saru, which is kind of cool and unexpected.

Michael “I’d rather regret something I did than something I didn’t” Burnham.

I love how, within weeks of getting captured into this forced labor camp, Book knows like the whole history of the place, including the failed revolutions.

We get an Adira/Stamets plotline this episode that is both sweet and somewhat frustrating. Like, I get that Stamets is being supportive here and I love that, but also life-death does work in a linear fashion in almost all cases. Rather than Star Trek: Discovery having to give queer characters a Get Out of Death Free card, I’d rather they, you know, just not kill them in the first place.

Michael and Georgiou’s rescue mission has got to be one of the most obvious rescue missions in history. This isn’t a critique. I love how big they go here. Georgiou is obviously loving it.

In the great dogs v. cats debate, Star Trek seems to come down on the side of the cats. Porthos aside, from “Catspaw” to Grudge, the cat energy in this show has always been stronger than the dog energy. And I say this as someone who has neither a metaphorical dog nor a literal dog in this fight. (But Tilly doesn’t like cats, which I love for her as a character trait. Just when you think she’s gonna zig, she zags…)

But is there more to Grudge than meets the eye? Almost definitely.

For the record, a cat in a spaceship would probably convince me.

Do we think Linus will ever get a proper storyline? Do we want Linus to get a proper storyline?

Um… I feel like this black box information is something Michael should have already mentioned to Saru. Or is this a symptom of how deep her inability to trust right now goes?

We get more information about the Emerald Chain here, mostly about the character of Osira. While we don’t get to meet her in person, we do meet her meathead nephew. Presumably, this means that she is an Orion and also that she is the worst.

“I love me.” I love you too, Michelle Yeoh.

We don’t get a lot of answers regarding Georgiou’s apparent PTSD here. She seems to be remembering something from her Mirror Universe past, and it was not fun. Is this a result of her conversation with Kovich? Probably. Is it something that will lead to her Section 31-centric spinoff? Most definitely. Read some of our speculation on that here.

“Let me just say, there’s no head injuries…” I love this as a conversation opener.

“We always find each other.” If you were wondering, yes, I am 100% into the Michael/Book thing. Thank you, show, for giving Michael a healthy love interest storyline this time.

Bonus!: We get another “toothbrushing” scene with Stamets and Hugh this episode, which is to say: a scene of them being domestic and sweet together. In general, I am for more domestic scenes for this entire ensemble. After all, the Discovery is not only their workplace but also their home. #relatable

I want bocci on my spaceship.

“One day, we will find the answers we are all looking for.” Yes, Saru is my favorite character. Yes, I am so happy he is getting so much to do this season.

The post Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 6 Review: Scavengers appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[codynaomiswire]

TTS/RTA - “Destinies Collide” Initial Reaction

Note: Spoilers and some unpopular opinions ahead.

Ok, so...I’m going to go ahead and be honest right away.  Overall...I didn’t actually like this episode very much.  Not all of it was bad to me, but I also can’t say that I thought it was very great.  Here are some of my general thoughts and opinions on it at this point for those interested:

Things I did like:

- As always, the animation, voice acting, and soundtrack were all really good in this episode.  Kudos to the animators, VA’s, sound design team, and music team for all their hard work on it!  You all did a great job!

- Special shoutout to Zachary Levi for his vocal work on Eugene’s song!

- Lance figuring out that destroying the statues would stop the ghosts from re-spawning!  Such a great moment for him, and he was honestly one of the best things about this whole episode in my opinion.  (Also the little acknowledgement between him and Adira was cute, and his complimenting Cass on her bravery when she went to retrieve the gondola from the middle of the gorge was really nice.  Was great to see those fleeting but sincere moments of him reaching out to other characters he doesn’t talk to all that often when he’s on screen.  It was a nice touch!)

- Adira running around like an old-timey cartoon character to catch Pascal as he was falling.  That was cute and funny!  xD

Things I didn’t like so much:

- The fact that the episode was stuffed to the gills with plot twists and red herrings.  Like a lot of fans, I do love a good mystery, and plot twists when implemented correctly are terrific.  But a lot of the twists in this episode felt really forced in my opinion, were too heavily concentrated, and the overall plot felt really rushed and chaotic.  Especially when we get such big developments as Eugene finding his long-lost father and Cass going turncoat, I think it would’ve been worth it to spread out those plot elements a bit more and to flesh them out better over the course of more episodes perhaps.  Probably would’ve been good on that note to take out some of the other non-plot-related episodes earlier in the season (ex. “Goodbye and Goodwill,” “Curses!,” “The Eye of Pincosta,” etc.), and instead give more time and attention to other plot-related elements that could’ve used it.  (It also feels to me like Disney in general has been trying to chuck out a TON of plot twists in their latest works, and that’s starting to get a bit wearing in my opinion.  Creators shouldn’t be afraid to use clichés or linear story lines if they happen to work out for the best.  Not everything has to be super surprising or edgy in order to be satisfying or captivating to the audience. ��Don’t force it if it doesn’t work.)

- Eugene being revealed as the Dark Prince.  Ok, ok, don’t get me wrong here.  I don’t totally dislike this development.  I do think it’s good that the series has endeavored to give us more of Eugene’s past, and yes, I do congratulate those fans who figured it out/had the theory before the big reveal.  (Way to be observant guys!)  But I personally do feel like there are a few problems with this development:

Was it just me, or did Eugene seem surprisingly...unfazed by this latest discovery?  I mean, yes, he did have a song about having an identity crisis over it, but even then, I felt like he seemed to get over it pretty quick?  I know he’s been increasingly unfazed by all the weirdness of their adventures, but man, this takes the cake on that point.  He also didn’t seem to question it for very long (which is kind of odd, especially when Edmund himself is...a bit strange), he didn’t seem the least bit miffed with Edmund about sending him away when he was a baby, or really show much emotion at all over things save for a few words and shifts in expression.  I’m sure all this needs time to sink in for him, ok, but still.  His reaction wasn’t very realistic to me.

The fact that King Edmund seemed to just send baby Eugene away in the care of his nanny and...that was it.  Like, I know the show can’t go into tons of detail on things, but honest to goodness!  It looked like King Edmund just sent baby Eugene away into the wide, dangerous world with only his nanny to take care of him and to guard him.  Like, there were no other guards with her or a foster father as well or anything!  Nope.  Just send your kid off into the wide world with minimal security and resources and hope for the best.  Way to ensure a secure future for your child Edmund.  Way to go!  xP

The time spent on this development felt super rushed.  I think it would’ve been better if there had been a whole episode dedicated to Eugene’s past as the Dark Prince, and not just have it as a B plot for the season finale.  It is supposed to be kind of a big deal, right!?  I think it would’ve been worth it to give this development its own episode.

I also find it strange that Edmund identified Eugene as his son simply by looking into his eyes.  I mean...sure, I do think I see a resemblance between Edmund and Eugene, so it’s probably right anyway.  But I do wish there had been a bit more of an explanation or more evidence for the truth of this theory instead of just, “We have the same eyes.”  (Who knows, maybe we’ll get another twist in season 03 where we find that Eugene was not actually Edmund’s child, and he had been mistaken all along.  But yeah, at this point, I would not be fazed by that.)

It seems like this development came along in order to bring about some sort of deep conflict for Eugene, but honestly...I don’t feel like it brings a whole lot of conflict at all?  I mean, sure, it’s great that he’s come to find that he has a family and whole lineage that he can now learn about, and that’s a big change for Eugene on a personal level.  But otherwise it doesn’t really do much to change the trajectory of his life or anything.  I mean, if the Dark Kingdom were still a functioning place, I can see where this would present a conflict.  Eugene could’ve felt torn between his obligation to rule the Dark Kingdom as its heir, but then his love for Rapunzel would be the opposing pull that could tear his heart in two over the whole thing, and cause more tension between himself and King Edmund who would’ve wanted him to stay to rule, etc.  But that’s not really the case.  The Dark Kingdom is dead, and everyone has left.  So there really is no Dark Kingdom left to rule.  So...Eugene can just go ahead and marry Rapunzel and live his dream in Corona anyway.  No conflict really.

I also feel like the development does do a detriment to how Eugene’s character was played up in the Tangled feature film.  One of the things that Eugene’s character was supposed to do in that movie was put a twist on the original fairytale, where instead of a prince saving Rapunzel from her tower, it was a thief that people assumed was just a good-for-nothing nobody.  But he became the hero of the story through his own bravery and self-sacrifice, and not because of any royal blood in him.  So yeah, I kind of feel like this development undermines that whole aspect of the original film.

And just a quick personal opinion: I feel like Cassandra being revealed as the Dark Princess would’ve been more compelling than having Eugene as the Dark Prince.  Could’ve also been another reason why Cass seized the Moon Stone for herself, if that was the trajectory the writers would’ve taken things in any event.  If she was the heir to the kingdom in charge of guarding the thing, it would make sense that she could see it as a kind of birthright for herself or something.

- And thus leading into the biggest one for me...the whole Cassandra plot twist.  I know some fans think this is a fantastic plot twist, but I don’t really like it.  Here are my reasons as to why:

It feels like a rehash of Varian’s betrayal, but bigger, with a lot less buildup, less reasoning behind it, and fewer sympathetic qualities.  Now, I’m sure that something big happened to Cassandra beyond that mystery door in the shell house, and I do kinda hope that we’ll get to see just what exactly happened in season 03.  But wow, I gotta say, it’s going to have to be something super compelling in order to excuse this degradation of Cassandra’s character.  Especially after Cassandra had so much character development throughout both seasons 01 & 02, this really felt like it came out of nowhere and didn’t make much sense at all.  I know there’s a theory that it’s not really Cassandra (that she’s either a clone/doppelgänger or is somehow possessed by some evil entity), and that may be right.  Heck, with all the crazy plot twists peppering this series, most anything could be a possibility at this point.  (She could be Zhan Tiri’s vessel, or Mother Gother retroactively reincarnated before she fell out of Rapunzel’s tower, or a young Mother Gothel before she time-taveled back to the past or something.  Who knows at this point!?)  But from what we know right now, it just seems to be a spiteful action with purely selfish motives on her part.  (“I’m fulfilling MY destiny!”)  We don’t even see her struggle with her decision (unlike Varian, who did have his moments of second-guessing), or show any signs that she’s making it out of interest for others.  I mean, yeah, who knows?  Maybe we’ll get yet another twist in season 03 where she did do it to protect Rapunzel somehow, and it was necessary for her to be perceived as an awful person in doing it for...some reason?  But...sigh. (Especially when her solo song before this point was largely about her wishing she had the glory she felt she deserved...that whole thing just really rubs me the wrong way.  Again, don’t get me wrong, I feel like “Waiting in the Wings” sounds amazing, and I would sympathize with some of the lyrics talking about missed opportunities, feeling like you’re meant for something more but not being there yet, etc.  But it seemed like Cass was increasingly becoming some sort of glory hound, and nobody admires that or finds that sympathetic.  (“Selfishness has never been admired.”  ~ C. S. Lewis)  At least Varian was trying to save his dad in what he was doing.  Yes, he was going about it poorly, and there were some elements of selfishness in it to be sure, but at least he was understandable in his motives.  Not excused for sure, but there was at least an explanation that made sense and was beyond “Me me me me me.”)

It’s also strange when Cass’s life was really pretty good before that moment, so what could she have hoped to gain from taking the Moon Stone for herself?  She had her friends, a loving father in the Captain, a loving community back in Corona, a steady job, a dream to work towards, etc.  It just...makes no sense, and feels more wrong than epic to me as a big reveal.  Again, maybe there will be a good explanation for it in the future, but from what we know right now, it just seems to make her character a twist antagonist for the sake of having another one, and it just feels frustrating currently.

The weird transformation sequence when Cass grabbed the Moon Stone.  I mean, I can certainly can get behind the glowing white-blue hair and eyes (something that the moon![insert character name here] theorists got right!), but...wow, the crew really went anime trope on this one.  Which I’m not totally opposed to.  I think anime references are cool.  But this one just...felt a bit weird?  I mean, I know the Moon Stone is way more extra than the Sun Drop, so sure, perhaps the alterations it makes to someone’s appearance when being infused into them could’ve been a bit more than just a change in hair color.  But I think it would’ve made more sense if the armor Cass already had on became a different color or something (btw, RIP knight!Cassandra and armor, you were short-lived and will be missed), but instead it gave her what basically looked like a moon superhero jumpsuit.  From a purely aesthetic perspective, it does have a great design, and Cass did look quite striking in it.  But even though it looks great on a purely aesthetic level, I also don’t feel like it fits the tenor of the rest of the TTS/RTA aesthetic.  I just..feels kind of out of place to me.

On a personal note: I also think it makes more sense for Varian to have been the moon vessel/the one to take the Moon Stone in the series, so this development also honestly had me disappointed in that way.  I know, I know, yes, there is a bit of a bias to this opinion, but I also do think that Varian’s character had a TON of evidence to suggest this would’ve been more than plausible for his character, it could’ve tied into his motives to free his father, and he already had deeper connections to the Dark Kingdom than we’ve ever seen of Cass, and it would’ve been a great way to reintroduce him into the series.*  And hey, if not Varian, I feel like it would’ve made more sense for Eugene to take the Moon Stone instead of Cassandra, with Eugene being all, “I’m sorry Rapunzel, but I can’t let you do this,” or something like that.  I think that would’ve been way more compelling than Cass just doing it because of “destiny,” which she believed she had because of...reasons?  Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong, but as it stands right now, I don’t think Cass was the best choice to go turncoat and to become the vessel for the Moon Drop.  Or at the very least, they probably should’ve shown some sort of conflict in her over the decision.  I know she’s not a very warm character, but pure malice doesn’t seem to fit her either.  Just...weird.

*On the topic of Varian, I also have my opinions regarding how he as a character and a lot of the Varian fans have been treated in the aftermath of season 02 (by both other fans and some of the TTS/RTA crew members actually), but I won’t talk about that in this post as it’s not in the actual contents of the episode itself.  And while I may get into it more in another post, I don’t feel like getting into that drama right now, especially when things are so fresh off the tail end of the finale.  Just wanted to drop this note here though, as it’s another unpopular opinion I have related to this episode and to season 02, and I feel like the fandom and crew members could’ve done better in their responses to Varian’s fans.  Just saying.

So...yeah.  I guess that’s about it for now for my initial reaction to this episode.  You don’t have to agree with me on it, but these are just my own honest thoughts on the topic for anyone interested.

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 4 Review: Forget Me Not

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This Star Trek: Discovery review contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Episode 4

In some ways, “Forget Me Not” is Star Trek: Discovery‘s most ambitious episode yet. It may not include epic space battles or a trip to the Mirror Universe or a jump 930 years into the future, but it does attempt to address the cumulative collective trauma of an entire starship crew that has gone through all of the aforementioned—a narrative endeavor that has much less precedent than bearded Vulcans.

Fittingly, the episode begins with a log (supplementary) from Discovery’s doctor, Hugh, who is in the midst of compiling a comprehensive report on the crew’s health. The opening voiceover, though presumably written well before coronavirus, is startlingly relevant: “It’s starting to hit everyone… just how little we have to hold onto. The personal moments we use to define ourselves—birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, funerals—we’ve jumped past all of them.” Um, relatable. Perhaps it’s particularly easy to find catharsis in this depiction of Discovery’s mental health struggles because of what’s going on in the real world now. Either way, this addressing of the crew’s mental health is long overdue for a show that encourages us to accept that Starfleet is some form of utopian institution.

Of course, just because Hugh is asking the right questions, doesn’t mean he’s getting the honest answers. “First they have to accept help,” muses Hugh in his log. “For a crew of overachievers, that kind of vulnerability can be hard to hold.” When he presents the report to Captain Saru, he diagnoses the crew with heightened stress levels pretty much across the board, but he doesn’t have an easy fix. Out here in the darkness of the future, there’s only the mission of finding the Federation to hold onto and, for some, that’s understandably not enough. In many ways, the easy past was jumping through that wormhole. (Though Detmer and Stamets may not agree.) The hardest parts have come after: in surviving through what they’ve found on the other side, in learning how to live in the in-between times without the rites and rituals they took for granted in their home time.

Saru is on it. He is a holistic captain and he’s taking the relative lull between crisis situations to address some of these lingering and complex issues. He asks Stamets and Tilly to find a way to use the spore drive should Stamets become incapacitated or worse, and he takes his crew’s mental health struggles seriously, getting some helpful advice from an unexpected source: Zora. Well, no one on Discovery knows her as Zora yet, but we do—we were introduced to the character who evolved from the Discovery’s computer in the Short Treks episode “Calypso” (written by Picard showrunner Michael Chabon). There, she was the lonely artificial intelligence of the Discovery computer, long ago abandoned by her captain and crew. Here, she’s seemingly new, an evolution of the computer as influenced by the sphere data, and she’s got movie recommendations! As Saru later theorizes to Hugh, she’s protecting the crew in the same way the crew protects her. It’s a heavy-handed, but not unappreciated metaphor for the Trill host-symbiont relationship that makes up the focus point of the episode’s other major plotline…

Though we met Adira as the genius teen engineer in last week’s episode, this week, we really get to delve further into their character—and, you know, so does Adira. They don’t remember anything before getting picked up in an escape pod not so long ago and, frankly, they are an impressively functional human being given that backstory. But the time for mysteries is (thankfully) over. Adira is the host to a Trill symbiont that includes Admiral Senna Tal, and Discovery needs access to his memories in order to find the Federation. Luckily, Adira would also like to know what the heck is going on with their past(s), and accepts Discovery’s offer of a ride and escort to the Trill homeworld. That escort ends up being Michael.

There were many fascinating character dynamics at play in “Forget Me Not.” Tilly and Stamets. Hugh and Saru. Stamets and Detmer. Detmer and Hugh. Saru and the Computer. You name it, this episode probably had it—but the one that had the most work to do was the dynamic between Adira and Michael. All those other relationships have seasons of history to build off of, but Adira and Michael just met one another. It says a lot about the power of both Sonequa Martin-Green and Blu del Barrio’s performances and the chemistry between the them that the emotional journey of their storyline works so damn well. By the time these two are boarding a shuttle to head down to the Trill homeworld, I am already invested in their easy banter and earnest vulnerability and that investment is crucial as the stakes both raise and become more, well, mindscape-y.

As anyone who has watched an episode of dramatic television may have suspected, Adira’s visit to the Trill homeworld isn’t conflict-free. While the Trill are initially overjoyed to hear that one of their own is returning to them, after having lost so many in The Burn, their reception soon turns sour when they realize Adira is a human host and the rejection is honestly difficult to watch. They deny Adira access to the Caves of Mak’ala, and ask that they immediately leave the planet. But this isn’t Michael’s first rodeo. When some hostile Trill show up looking to forcibly separate Adira from their Trill symbiont, Michael takes them out and, with the help of a more radical Trill, brings Adira to the caves.

Once there, Adira is able to use the milky pools to communicate with their symbiont and, with Michael’s encouragement, unlock the secrets of their past. Adira grew up as an orphan on a generation ship, but they had family: Grey, their boyfriend who was Trill. The two were in love and it was adorable, then tragedy struck. Not long after Grey became a host to a symbiont named Tal, their ship was damaged and Grey died, but not before Adira became Tal’s new host. Adira’s memory loss came as a result of their inability to fully connect with Tal (and also, probably, because of their trauma). After spending time in the caves, Adira is able to meet the many hosts who live on in and with Tal, including Grey, and is accepted by them and by the other Trill.

“Forget Me Not” was all about relationships: the ones we have with others and the ones we have with ourselves, and the ways in which those two categories are inexplicably intertwined. Relationships of all kinds can be highlighted, challenged, and changed by trauma and its aftermath. For Adira, the trauma of losing Grey and unexpectedly becoming the host to an alien fractured one of the most fundamental structures of their personhood: their memory. For the crew of Discovery, abruptly losing their homes and families without properly mourning that loss was eating away at the bonds between this starship family. Both Adira and the crew of the Discovery couldn’t hope to start healing, without pausing to make space for the pain they all felt. It’s pretty badass that Discovery devoted an entire episode to this theme, and that they managed to tie two relatively disparate storylines so tightly together with it.

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Additional thoughts.

I kind of hate that Grey, one of Discovery‘s first two trans characters, is tragically killed in the same episode we meet him. Yes, it’s complicated by the fact that he lives on in Tal and that there is something funky going on in that Adira can see and interact with him, but it still sucks. That being said, it is pretty amazing to have two trans characters (in non-binary Adira and trans Grey) on Star Trek—I love them both.

Hanelle Culpepper, who directed the first three episodes of Picard, was behind the camera for this one and did an amazing job in an episode that asks for both domestic squabbles and alien mindscapes. Some moments when I especially appreciated her style: Those close-ups of Adira as the Trill discussed whether they would help them. The shots of Detmer’s hands clenching around the table before she brainstorms her haiku of death. The way Detmer is standing in foregrounded shadow before admitting to Hugh that she is not OK. Honestly, just like all of the shots of Detmer and how they visually communicated her not-OK-ness.

“You wanna fly this monster?”

Can we talk about the Trill costuming? Honestly, these shapeless, flowing tunics would make great home quarantine wear, especially if you’ve been working on your triceps.

Ronnie!

I love that the introduction to the Michael/Adira dynamic comes from Hugh. He points out that Adira and Michael have a lot in common, as two people who are attempting to live past their trauma. Additionally, from Michael’s point of view, Adira is so much easier that every other relationship she’s got going on right now. Adira might expect things of Michael, but they don’t expect Michael to be the person they were a year ago, when Discovery jumped through the wormhole, because Adira didn’t know that person. Adira can offer Michael something that no one else on the Discovery can right now: a fresh start. And Michael, well Michael can offer Adira her skills as an empathetic badass, which immediately come in handy during their mission.

“Adira’s life takes precedent.” Michael is not here for your fucked up priorities.

Hugh totally nails his analysis of Michael as a “responsibility hoarder,” and he does it in such a loving way.

Riker Googling: “does petsmart sell flying trill fish?”

Yoga. Interstellar shopping. Limiting dairy. It is worth noting that, in that long (and hilarious) list of suggested therapies for the crew’s stress problem, Zora never mentioned, you know, therapy. Though perhaps we can assume that is what Hugh is offering to Detmer when she comes to him at the end of the episode.

“Get in there before someone shoots us.” Someone put this on a cat poster!

Joann and Keyla: friends or friends?

If anyone else is confused about other characters’ use of “she/her” pronouns for Adira, who identifies as non-binary, actor Blu del Barrio explained how their character’s journey will mirror their own in an interview with Syfy Wire, saying: “Even when people are using she/they pronouns, for Adira, because they have not shared their identity with the Discovery crew … And this was basically the case because I still wasn’t really out to my family and I didn’t want to be out on screen as a character who was out until I was … I wanted to wait until I had told my family and my friends. So I kind of came out alongside them.” Adira’s pronouns are “they/them,” as are del Barrio’s. (Also, that Syfy Wire interview by Riley Silverman is worth a read in its entirety.)

I love that Saru’s dinner party small talk is all about kelp crop harvesting. We are not worthy.

It is so believably nerdy that the Discovery bridge crew/officers would have a haiku-off at family dinner.

OK, but are Linus and Emperor Georgiou like actually friends?

“Well, at least the wine was good.” I love that Georgiou was invited to this party.

I can only imagine that one of the proposed titles for this episode was “Dr. Hugh Culber: Stealth Therapist.”

The Discovery now has the coordinates to find Federation headquarters, whatever that means…

Bless the patron saint of Starfleet therapists: Dr. Deanna Troi. Eat some chocolate in her honor.

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