#penumbra things

[ilaria-jinx]

Spoilers for Season 5 below!!

Okay I’m gonna say this with literally so much love for the Penumbra Podcast and everyone involved in the podcast but-

Season 5 is weird, right? I can’t really describe how it feels, not well, but…

It’s like… it’s like all of the characters and the storylines shifted to the left a bit, but we didn’t really get any reason for it? In the Juno storyline, the Grandpappy’s Recipe episode is where it stands out the most to me - Peter’s attempt at gaining the recipe opened an eye into some new dimension for me, for example. Genuinely convincing someone he’s in love with them, conning someone for literal months… that’s never ever seemed like Peter’s style. He’s an in-and-out man. And Grandpappy was so, so sure, too. When did Peter start manipulating people like that so effectively? I knew he was good, but… this feels bad. Like, he feels bad. I have never gotten the sense that Peter was a genuinely bad person before. Stuck in a terrible situation, yes. But… bad? No.

And the way Juno only lingers on Peter’s con for literally only a second feels so off to me too. Because by the start of the next episode, he’s gone straight back into business mode, and concentrated on finding Nureyev. Juno has become kinder in these years, but I have never felt he was a fool. And yet. He doesn’t… he doesn’t actually give any thought to it, not really?? Like. I don’t- I don’t get it. The way he handles the whole thing between Nureyev and Slip, too, especially after Nureyev says he doesn’t want to see him anymore.

And can we talk about how weird it is that the Docana group managed to go years without anyone finding out they’ve been up-lifing or revivifying or whatever they call it so many people? I genuinely didn’t understand the surprise there, I’m so sorry (this is not sarcasm, I’m genuinely sorry for making an overly bold claim).

And can we look at the way that Juno and Rita are somehow closer than they’ve ever been, but Rita is suddenly so much edgier than she ever was before. She’s so much less bubbly than she ever was before. “But!” You cry, “she just finished being an intergalactic fugitive, of course she’s edgy!” Except she was an intergalactic fugitive for a WHILE and she was still acting like… well, like a kid in a candy shop, mostly. And to me, there are instances where it seems like her character has almost been back-filled, like they’re trying to make it look like she’s always been this way. The “Rita Special” comes to mind (although I might be reading into this one, it just feels really weird to me).

Also, there are dialogue decisions that I can’t make sense of. The way that Warner Jane is literally talking about Freedom in Chains, and the Prisma Crystal Chimes, and THEN refers to it as “this other show I’m putting on” before re-describing it as Freedom in Chains? I don’t get that. Things like that have been happening a lot this season, at least from what I can tell.

I can’t make sense of the storyline. Every episode feels completely different from the last, and all the characters feel off. It’s… it almost feels like I’m trying to jump between really tilted and oddly-spaced steps when I listen. It’s like… it’s like the plot is setting us up for a breakup between Peter and Juno, but then the way they talk to one another / Juno narrates about Peter is like they’re still going to try to be together after everything? It’s… it’s weird.

And then Second Citadel!

They’re dealing with a literal apocalypse, and it’s like… everyone was losing their minds in the standard way, and then it’s like they took an invisible off-ramp from the highway.

Can we talk about Quanyii? What HAPPENED to them? I know they lost their mind in the Mirrored Plains. I get it. But they strangled Damien? But the insanity that is killing the child they’ve literally known for going on 8 years? What? Caroline fighting her own wife?? Excuse me???

And Damien in the Indomitable Duelist is OFF. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but something is very obviously WRONG with him. He started acting nutty the second he got to Rilla and Tal in the Senate’s dungeons. Like… so desperate? And crazy? The high-pitched voice, the losing track of sentences, the distraction - all of it is so wrong to me. (That might be a plot device for later, so please don’t yell at me)

Arum is locked in Mark’s basement, which like - don’t even get me started on that, because I will literally never stop screaming about it, but even that feels wrong. How can Mark - the same guy who rescued Olala, who treated her as the child she was, and recognized her as such, straight up imprison his best friend’s love interest? I know it’s been 8 years. I know. But it’s really, really weird.

And that’s not even focusing on the actual plot line, which is, for the record, WILD. I love it, I really do, I also don’t get it and I don’t know if I ever will. I cannot fathom how they will save their entire universe from the attack that is coming. I do not get it. We are playing with forces beyond my ken, but it seems to me like the situation is… literally hopeless. The entire rest of all the universes, however many there are, are dead set on the destruction of this one, tiny universe. How can anyone possibly hope to fight that? I understand that our characters have no choice except to fight. But we as listeners - we have to recognize that it’s like… kind of futile, right? Is that what this ending is leading to? Futility?

I just. I really can’t figure out how either of these stories are supposed to go anymore.

One of the things I have always loved about the Penumbra Podcast is that while you never get the ending you expect, it always ends sort of hopefully, or at least with some kindness. Yes, Juno walks out at the end of Season 1, but he’s not leaving Hyperion. Second Citadel season 2 has everyone in a really bad spot, but the gang leaves the citadel for better lives. It’s sad, but it’s better, because life moves on and people move on. In this season… I feel like I can’t find that. I feel like I’m expecting some dramatic out of character 180 (in Juno) / a huge over-powered magic trick (in SC) to fix the plot, or else both plots are going to end in heartbreak and futility and sadness.

I feel like I never left the April Fool’s episode.

Please, please understand, I love this podcast so much, I am not trying to hate on anyone or anything. This podcast means so much more to me than I can possibly express. I’m just really confused, I guess? And I’m wondering if anyone else is also confused? Or if someone can explain things? Please, please, if I am wrong, or confused, or completely stupid - someone please tell me what I am missing. Please tell me I’m interpreting things wrong, and how to see it right.

[sabworks]

I see blouses, I draw Nureyev wearing them. I don’t make the rules.

[blue-mood-blue]

Juno: Break up with me, to my face

Juno: If you even can

Nureyev:

Nureyev: [flees through the window]

[myrabbitistryingtokillme]

The weirdest part of being in a podcast based fandom where designs aren’t canon is seeing a design for ur beloved character that is just viscerally NOT how they look to you whatsoever and you just have to literally block whoever made it to make sure u do not see an interpretation that wrong again. It’s usually wonderful art too and if it wasn’t supposed to be that character you’d probably like it but it’s just WRONG.

[astraldrake]

Corruption takes its toll text reads: Red and white petals swirled around them, a few landing on Sunny’s armor, settling into his hood and sticking to the drying blood on his side.

Penumbra could hear his labored breathing over the sound of shifting plant life.

“There’s nothing left- for either of us,” Red stained his teeth and dripped into the grass. The wind carried the sharp smell of radiolaria, and the cloying sweetness of rotting flowers. “You’re as dead as I am. you can already feel it, can’t you?”

[of-swords-and-princes]

glad to see we are all totally normal about the new juno ep... anyway, I spent nearly all of sunday designing slip and his tattoos after the early-release 👍

[pippalovestunabrick]

No but this is so important and not just because Nureyev is finally waking up to something outside his Slip tunnel vision. But because Nureyev has never been in the position to plan for a life. His entire focus has been on survival and obligation and anonymity since he was (the equivalent of) a high schooler. He has never had the opportunity to be like "what do I want to do with my life?" because that agency was taken from him by the GAS, by Mag, by being a fugitive, by Dokana and he has actually never been at liberty to just, choose.

This aspect of Nureyev makes me that much more feral about his offer to run away with Juno way back in season 1, because being able to run away and live a life he wants is not something he allowed himself to even imagine until he met Juno goddamn Steel and that meeting like jumpstarted his heart. The life of thrills and decadence across the galaxy might not even be what he truly wants, but even being able to envision the fantasy of it was HUGE for him. Which makes Juno’s rejection of it (in Murderous Mask, but moreso in Final Resting Place after everything they went through together with Miasma, and realizing that there was the potential for genuine love, trust, compatibility between them) all the more devastating. It wasn't just a rejection of Nureyev, but effectively crushed that first real hope for the future that he had allowed himself since Saraswati.

[alexandenigtscreations]

Redraw of the 1888 painting "Favourite Poet" by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but made it a Juno Steel and Peter Nureyev thing. Digital painting is out of my comfort zone. So took the prompt "Keeping it Classic" from the Penumbra Creators Collective, as a personal challenge.

Original work in the undercut below 👇

[witchinatree]

so i am a horror fan (somewhat, sometimes im a bitch) and ive listened to the magnus archives im also in the final season of archive 81 and need to decide which podcast to start next i have several saved on spotify rn and i figured i'd leave it up to tumblr

which one should i start 1. welcome to nightvale 2. camp here & there (side note: huge will wood fan and i listen to his album which is songs for this podcast i think? when somebody needs you is elite) 3. wolf 359 4. the penumbra podcast 5. hello from the hallowoods 6. red valley 7. monster hour

[azdesertwillow]

So since I've seen it come up several times, I figured I'd post the song where the latest Junoverse episode gets it's name.

Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ford

It was about the horrible conditions many miners worked in. They worked in a company town and were paid with the company's exclusive currency that was only good at the company store. You lived where you worked, you couldn't escape, it was framed as a good thing—made your life easier... Sound familiar?

This mind set is also very similar to a lot of silicone valley tech companies. Amazon was also talking about going back to a similar system that just skirted the laws that make it now highly illegal.

The chorus of the song is especially relevant to our beloved thief.

The name of this episode is brilliant, honestly. And even then, I wouldn't put it past Penumbra to make it reference something specific within the story as well in the next episode.

Enjoy!

[squivulous]

Smooch cruise

[ilaria-jinx]

So I’m sure I’m the last to notice this, but I feel the need to just point out the insane parallels in season 2, particularly between Sarah and Juno Steel with regard to Jack/Ramses. The acceptance of help, finding someone with whom they can be themselves, who is willing to help them become better than they are. The steady rise, both in Northstar and in the PI business; the feeling of being empowered to make something great. The eventual downfall, the sense of betrayal, the veritable destruction of a rock that was so solid turning into tissue paper.

I love the difference in their journeys. Sarah fought so hard to get back what she lost, or maybe she gave up on Andromeda and settled on her own anger to sustain her. Juno, though, he uses his anger not to focus on bringing back what he had- his eye, Oldtown- he uses it to make his life livable again. He adapts.

Did he do that because he recognizes that Hyperion city, the universe, is more important than his grudge? That maybe Sarah Steel simply didn’t have a big enough slice of universe to think it worth changing for?

Maybe it was because he didn’t want to be Sarah. Maybe it was because he’s just different.

All I know is that he made a different choice. And for better or worse, it made his life livable again.

[givemeureyes]

it’s been two days since i listened to “juno steel and the monster’s reflection” and i have not stopped thinking about it since.

like… people are just people. even when you don’t want them to be. even when it would be easier if they were monsters, easier if they were just evil. you have to make the choice every day to not make the same mistakes your mother did. you have to make the choice every day to see past her in your reflection. and you have to make the choice to see that she felt and loved and hurt on accident and on purpose just like you do because she was human and then you still don’t have to forgive her. you can see that your mother loved you and that still doesn’t make it okay.

[fergusdraws]

more of my old juno steel fanart. i miss himb

[anydaynowany]

i really need to get more people to listen to red valley, i’m suffering with not enough fan content to feed the hyperfixation gods

[croh3]

i love podcasts so much i wish queer people were real