#re cap episode 1

[leveloneandup]

christenpress Wow— we launched a show today!!! The first episode of the re—inc original show, The RE—CAP: World Cup Edition, is now LIVE.

[chenfordsbby]

"The Roundup"

Season 1 Episode 5: “The Roundup”

“Nolan, the rookies and their training officers get involved in a competition that pits them against each other; officer Lucy Chen notices officer Tim Bradford is obsessed with winning at all costs”

Original Air Date: November 20th, 2018

Directed By: Nelson McCormick

Written By: Elizabeth Beall

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A new episode! Im ready to get right into it!! This was a fun episode to do!!!!

The episode starts with our favorite trio out in the field, at some type of fair/event and we are introduced to a new Lucy hairstyle, her iconic braided buns and it is one of my favorite ones.  There is visible tension between John and Lucy as they are freshly broken up, but that tension is oblivious to Jackson as he isn’t picking up on it, like at all.  The break-up is one that was for the better but seeing John being all mopey as he is literally a grown man is an ick. Like get it together man!  It doesn’t help with his longing pining as he overlooks Lucy talking to a firefighter, Antonio, who is by far better suited for her, mainly in the age range.

The premise of this show is about an older than average guy joining the police academy so it is to be expected that this first season would primarily revolve around John.  I appreciate how he can be the hero and the comedic relief at the same time.  For all the times he isn’t our favorite, we have to give credit where credit is due.  John has some of the best one-liners and funny bits, that we have seen from everybody! I like that for him.  On the complete opposite spectrum, he also shows heroic acts.  I don’t know what made him wander into the side yard by those kids to quickly rush into the back yard, but thankful he did because he rescued the little boy who fell into the pool.  

We have the introduction of a new character, John’s friend, Ben, who is also the owner of the house that John has been staying in.  I mean, lets be real, did any of us think that  house actually belonged to John!

In the roll call room, spirits are high as everyone knows what day it is: Roundup Day!  I think this is the first time since episode 1, we’ve seen Tim excited and with a smile on his face. Angela and Jackson are just as excited and ready for this competition day.  The rules are explained and the game is on.  

We have not seen any previous Roundup days, but we know that Tim hasn’t lost in the past 5 years and he wants to continue his streak, so he makes sure that doesn’t happen.  Enter Nell, another new character we are introduced to this episode.  She is the precincts 9-1-1 dispatcher and Tim knows how to woo her to get what he wants: the first one she calls for any incoming calls and she does exactly that.

Angela and Jackson are returning to the precinct booking 2 felons before Tim and Lucy have even left the station…let the games begin.  

Jackson and Angela respond to a call for a wellness check for a hospital disappearance.  After checking in on the elderly gentleman, Mr. Walker, Jackson was too quick to dismiss the call and leaver after speaking to him where as Angela knows.  She tells Jackson there’s something up with Mr. Walker and wander around to the side of the house and they witness him with a bag full of stolen drugs.  Angela knows the signs and what to look for, that’s not say Jackson won’t, he will, he just needs to learn them through his training.

John is itching to get in on this game, so he makes the executive decision to enter into it himself but only after getting highly annoyed by firefighter Antonio who asks him about Lucy.  I mean, you can’t fault the guy, he is young and Lucy is pretty.

Side Note: My fellow One Tree Hill fans!!! Skills!!!!! I love seeing other favorite actors on different shows!

Back in the “7-Adam-19” shop, Lucy initiates, or at least tries too, a personal conversation with Tim about Nell.  He quickly shuts it down with his infamous, “I’m married, Officer Chen and this isn’t something you and I talk about”. (Again, I’m trying so hard to act as if I haven’t watched any other episodes/seasons but little does Tim know….) Stoic, emotionless Tim is activated as he tells her to keep her eyes out for the DUI suspect, much to Lucy’s dismay, as I think she’s just whole heartedly trying to get to know Tim, with no other ulterior motives, and he isn’t being receptive towards it.  They come up on the DUI suspect and Lucy is taken aback with Tim as he is reading him his Miranda rights as well as demanding a blood sample while basically bleeding out before the ambulance takes him away.  Lucy is associating the DUI suspect as a human who was severely injured and not as a drunk driver who possibly killed a child and committed a serious crime.  I think this is where we start to see her empathy start to show.  No matter TIm’s feelings or not towards this suspect, he’s being a police officer.  He needs to demand and obtain the blood sample before its too late for the drivers victim or else it will all be for nothing.  Lucy will eventually learn that.  

In the shop again, Lucy is clearly annoyed with Tim after his behavior and actions with the DUI suspect. Tim picks up on it as well based on her attitude towards him that she isn’t happy, but he explains it needed to happen.  Her annoyance continues as she thinks he seems more interested in racking up points on the scoreboard than prioritizing the arrests of the bank robbers in front of them, which is not the case per Tim, because he can do both!  Tim is smarter than them, as he proves it when he pepper sprays them out of the money truck.  As good as Lucy is, her methods of policing still reflect naively.  Lucy would’ve just waited around for back up if it weren’t for Tims quick thinking methods and they both gain points making 2 more arrests.  Let us all just very much appreciate the bickering of Tim and Lucy literally bickering like an old married couple so early on, and it is only the beginning of this beautiful relationship!

It’s a nice sight to see Captain Anderson again!  

Getting closer to the end of the episode, is usually when all of the separate storylines wrap up and merge into one larger one, as we see visible when John, Talia, Tim and Lucy come together to take down these Mob bosses.  I don’t think Lucy meant to trip and fall, but it helped with all of the arrests, so Go Lucy!!  It seems to be a trend, but I like this way of ending episodes, with some, if not all of the characters working together to achieve the common goal!! A great way to include the entire ensemble!

This is the first time we really see Lucy interact with Angela and again with Talia.  So far, we’ve only really seen her mainly with Jackson and John, personally and Tim, professionally.  Lucy overhears the girls trying to decide what to do with their own points and how to divvy them up and when she puts things together, she realizes that they are doing it all in the sake for Tim so he can win.  It’s brought full circle because of Isabel. Tim and Isabel used to excel as partners in the Roundup, so of course this would be a sensitive day for Tim.  Angela and Talia were witnesses to those years prior and know how different this year looks so they need to too this for him.  Lucy took note how much this competition means to Tim but Talia and Angela knew the importance and meaning all along. 

Angela announces Tim and Lucy as the winners, now 6 years for Tim and the first for Lucy and Tim is thrilled.  He remains the reigning champion, yes, it probably boosts his ego a little, but at the end of the day, he needed to win it for his own mental health.  A reminder of what was once good between the relationship that once was with him and Isabel. 

Jackson is still struggling with, I suppose, his self worth of being a cop.  He knows that he got to where he is at because of his dad, but Angela encourages him to prove where he can go in spite of his dad. I love that for them.  This friendship is quickly growing on me!

John and Lucy still seemingly pining for each other is becoming old quick.  It is clear as day that Lucy is so far out of Johns league.  She doesn’t need him and she really never did.  I think the relationship started out of convenience and maybe even boredom while in the academy.  At this point, just be done, and move on. 

The episode ends with John (of course) and his friend Ben, who may be the best thing that The Rookie introduced us to so far.  Ben and his wise words is what John needs to hear: maybe its time for him to be alone for a while and see where that gets him….only time and watching more episodes will tell!

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Honorable Mention: Lucy’s Braids! I wish they kept this hairstyle longer!

Episode Peak:  Tim winning The Roundup. 

Episode Pit: There really wasn’t anything that bad in this episode, so none for this week!

Quote of the Episode: “We’re not robots, Officer Nolan.  We all have our bad days but our bad days pale in comparison to the people we meet” - Talia Bishop

Episode Rating: 8/10.  This episode was a quick and easy watch.  Nothing too major happening but not too slow either.  We got some solid baby Chenford crumbs in it as well! I liked it!

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I decided to start adding pictures throughout the blog! I'm thinking it add a little extra spice to it!

Another one down! I definitely took a different approach to this recap, I don’t know why, it just felt way better to recap it in episode order, rather than by the parings and relationships.  I guess it will all depend on the episodes for my blog style, but I am not minding it!  They are also getting way easier and more fun to do! 5 down, 15 to go for season 1! My god I am flying through these!! This one also is probably my shortest review but that’s okay!! They all don’t have to be super long!!!

Until next time in “Get in the Shop”… ;)

[futuristicmentalitynerd]

https://www.tumblr.com/futuristicmentalitynerd/723412973263159296/if-she-was-8020-what-was-i-1000-christen

What was the context of this?

From The Re-Cap Show when Jill described early career Tobin as an 80/20 profile -attack to playing defense- ratio.

[cecilysass]

The Penultimate Partner Episode: Analyzing the Second-to-Last Episodes of Seasons 3-7

So I was thinking about the show’s tendency to do an episode that is explicitly about the Partnership—about the deep abiding bonds between Mulder and Scully—right before the season finale.

This doesn’t seem to happen in season 1 and 2 (the penultimate episodes are Roland and Our Town, respectively, which don’t seem to play the same role). And something different is happening in season 8 and 9, so I don't think they fit as well.

But during the show’s peak popularity, seasons 3-7, the second-to-last episode seems to be setting up baseline emotional stakes for whatever plotline is about to hit. These episodes are giving us the state of the partnership, reminding us how devoted they are to one another. They also tend to have to do with one or both partners having a distorted perception on reality that requires the other partner's intervention in some way. I’m calling them the Penultimate Partner episodes.

So can we look at the themes of each of these Partnership episodes and see development over time? I think yes. It’s gonna be long. I rewatched them all, so buckle up.

Season 3: Wetwired - partnership as trust Season 4: Demons - partnership as loyalty Season 5: Folie a Deux - partnership as shared madness Season 6: Field Trip - partnership as touchstones Season 7: Je Souhaite - partnership as happiness

Season 3: Wetwired  (right before Talitha Cumi)

This episode, like several in the Penultimate Partner episode category, involves a X-file that distorts perception. Because Scully can’t trust her own senses due to the mind control, she also can’t trust Mulder, calling into question the key tenet of their partnership. (And by season three, they have definitely established trust as the bedrock.)

Her gradual mistrust of Mulder in this episode is tense and painful; you can see on her face how much she argues with herself about it even as her mind is tricking her. Others who fall victim to this mind control phenomenon wind up murdering their romantic partner, but in the end of the episode, when they’re discussing what happened in the hospital, they both seem pretty unsurprised that Scully’s paranoia focused on Mulder. They both know, late season three, how crucial trust is between them. They understand that it’s Scully’s worst fear that Mulder would betray her. It’s not even news to them.

What Mulder’s worst fear might be is also hinted at, although it’s unsaid. He’s furious that her life is put at risk by the mysterious informant. When Mulder believes Scully may be dead and he’s going to identify her body, his reaction is chilling. He seems to completely shut down emotionally, not even showing any reaction to the Gunmen. Tellingly, when he is offered a choice between getting answers and going to ID Scully’s body, he doesn’t hesitate—he chooses Scully. (Sometimes people claim Mulder doesn’t show this kind of commitment to her until much later, even until Home Again in season 10, so it’s interesting to see it so unequivocal here.)   

I want to say that Scully’s anxiety about trusting Mulder in this episode is foreshadowing aspects of the cancer arc in the next season, but I don’t think that’s really what’s happening. This episode seems more like an entirely season 3 cap to the Anasazi / Blessing Way / Paperclip storyline, especially the murder of Melissa. Scully’s paranoia calls back Mulder’s in Anasazi, and Scully explicitly blames Mulder for her sister’s murder when she’s drawn a gun on him. Even just the fact that we're there with Maggie, who has a picture of Melissa displayed prominently, tells me that loss is supposed to be on both partners' minds. (Actually, the interaction between Mulder, Scully and Maggie is pretty amazing in this scene; they’re an emotionally complex trio who seem to be communicating on some other level. I love how when Mulder and Maggie are talking to freaked-out Scully they almost sound strangely unreal, almost like they really are speaking falsely. It allows us to imagine the scene as it looks from Scully’s point-of-view, as a massive betrayal.)

Wetwired is, technically, a mytharc episode, as this whole mind control thing seems to tie back into X and the Syndicate. Personally I think the episode’s ending, emphasizing the mytharc-related plot and X’s involvement and whatever tf was happening there, was a little misguided. For my tastes they would have done better to play up the more personal, character-based themes a little more. But I also think this episode was the first real Penultimate Partner episode, and it was setting some patterns that were going to be expanded on.

Season 4: Demons (before Gethsemane)

From the cold open, we can already tell this is already a more personal episode than Wetwired. Mulder is the one having perception problems now; he wakes from a disturbing dream, covered in blood, muddled memory. This is also technically a mytharc episode, but much more concerned with direct impact on character than Wetwired was. 

Scully instantly rushes to Mulder’s aid—walks right into his shower, for heaven’s sake—and absolutely never wavers in loyalty to him, even when he looks real, real guilty and a "rational" person would be suspicious. She is in fierce, must-protect-Mulder mode throughout this entire episode, from the moment she shows up palpating his head with her hands to her back-off behavior with the cops to her badass cold “I know what you do” comment to Dr. Goldstein. She also helps Mulder see through his distorted perception, telling him "this is not the way to the truth" as he holds a gun on her.

In this Penultimate Partner episode, we see something more than simple trust going on, although there’s trust, too. Maybe the word is loyalty or devotion. We see Mulder coming apart and Scully completely and utterly devoted to him. It’s actually very clear foreshadowing for the following week’s episode, Gethsemane. Mulder isn’t stable, and he needs Scully to keep him from “los[ing] his course,” as she says in Demons’ end narration. Gethsemane will follow up on the Mulder losing-his-course idea, and also will explore the idea that Scully’s bottomless support of Mulder isn’t always good for her. (This idea is voiced especially by Bill.) 

There are some ways in which this episode is a neat little bookend to Wetwired. In Wetwired, Scully flees to her mother’s house, desperate and paranoid; in Demons, Mulder, similarly unhinged, seeks out his mother at her house. In Wetwired, Scully sees things that aren’t there, and in Demons, it’s definitely implied that Mulder may be seeing things in his past that weren’t actually there. In Wetwired, Scully pulls a gun on Mulder, and in Demons, Mulder pulls one on Scully. 

I adore this episode, even though it’s definitely vulnerable to the critique that Mulder acts like a self-obsessed loon and Scully a hopeless enabler lol. Especially because it comes before the Gethsemane / Redux three parter, I wish the episode would have explicitly connected his behavior to the cancer arc, as I feel like that would have made his wild choices seem more understandable. If he felt like he needed to find answers faster because he knew Scully’s time was running out and he saw it all tied together with her fate, then we would get why he was acting so rashly. It would also tie more nicely into Gethsemane, which misleads the audience into thinking Mulder has killed himself, in part, because he believes she’s been given cancer to make him believe. But again, I love this episode. Scully showing up and putting that blanket around Mulder when he’s shaking. Her hugging him at the end when he’s desolate on the floor. This shows a partnership that’s been through Paper Hearts and Memento Mori—that’s moved beyond trust alone.

Season 5: Folie a Deux (before The End)

This is another episode about perception—about one partner seeing things the other can’t. Unlike in Wetwired or Demons, however, in this episode the altered perception actually represents the real truth, something everyone else fails to understand. The episode plays around with the tropes of earlier episodes like Wetwired, at first encouraging us to think that it's a delusion that Pincus is a monster, but then convincing us, through Mulder’s eyes, that the delusion is actually reality.  

As other people have observed, this episode ends up being a nice little metaphor for the whole show: Mulder knowing what no one else does, being ostracized and considered insane, asking Scully to find evidence to corroborate him and ultimately convincing her to believe him and see what he sees. Their partnership is, quite precisely, a madness shared by two. 

It’s a monster of the week, not a mytharc, so there’s no distraction of elaborate mytharc plot, just characters and monster. And this is a Vince Gilligan operation, so our focus is definitely on character. From the first scene with Mulder and Scully, we sense that we’re going to be talking about the partnership. Skinner gives them an assignment in Chicago that Mulder doesn’t think is worth it, and he complains in a particularly self-centered way to Scully, which she observes (“You’re saying I a lot.”) The episode is going to be very explicit that while Mulder might be monster boy, they are in this unhinged partnership situation together. Another important moment comes later, when Scully is calling the perp crazy for thinking he saw a monster, and Mulder says, “Well, I saw it, too.” Scully’s careful about-face after that, her delicate avoidance of implying she thinks Mulder is actually crazy, is part of the dance they’re doing at this late season five stage of their partnership. She doesn’t quite believe him, but she doesn’t knee-jerk not believe him either. 

And the foreshadowing of what’s to come in this one, whoo boy. Most obviously, we must acknowledge that 1013 knew exactly what they were doing when Mulder tells Scully “you’re my one in five billion.” A mere seven days from now, a mysterious beautiful ex who believes his theories is going to show up to immediately cast doubt on that claim. And this episode is also toying with the question of whether Scully actually does always back Mulder up when it’s important, when she has to accept she saw something illogical. At the end, does she tell Skinner she actually saw a giant bug in Mulder’s hospital room? We don’t know, but I think it’s implied she doesn’t. That’s all presaging what will happen in The Beginning coming off of Fight the Future. It’s Scully’s little way of resisting the madness, but it also hurts Mulder and damages the partnership, which will be a problem in season six. 

Season 6: Field Trip (before Biogenesis)

Full disclosure: this is my favorite episode. So I’m going to make some big claims about it. This is the ultimate Penultimate Partner episode—the one that best knits together what it wants to say about their partnership and what it wants to establish for the finale. It's a monster-of-the-week episode (another Vince Gilligan ep, with John Shiban) but refers to the mytharc often. It’s also one of the best episodes about their partnership, period. 

This is yet another episode about distorted perception. This time, however, under the influence of a giant mushroom, both partners are unable to perceive clearly, to determine what is real and what is a lie. And when they’re confused, they critically turn to one another to help them see what the truth is.

Coming off of season six, the partnership is rocky. Mulder is frustrated that after so many theories of his have borne out, he still can’t get the benefit of the doubt from Scully, something he explicitly says in the dialogue here. Scully has felt like she’s not been trusted or heard, like Mulder has turned to others (Diana Fowley, for example) rather than his partner.

This is an episode about how they absolutely need one another to be able to make sense of the world—that individually each of their points-of-view are not enough. In Mulder’s hallucination, Scully accepts his claims about alien life forms too completely, not applying enough skepticism, not pushing back against him. In Scully’s hallucination, a world without Mulder, everyone is unacceptably unquestioning of the status quo, refusing to dig deeper, lacking Mulder’s critical acumen and drive. Neither partner likes the feeling of being unopposed, and it makes both of them suspicious about the hallucination’s reality. They may think they want their own view to prevail, but they need one another to be a whole person.

The theme of what’s real and what’s not – and needing one another to discern the truth–is exactly what is picked up and developed further in the Biogenesis-Sixth Extinction-Amor Fati arc that follows this. Scully’s skepticism has to stretch to incorporate more of Mulder’s worldview to make sense of what she sees in the Ivory Coast, and of course, Mulder calls on Scully’s worldview to see through his misleading dream world in Amor Fati. In fact, you could argue Field Trip is really about the idea that Mulder and Scully are one another’s touchstones—the people they need to know what’s right and real. 

Incidentally, this episode also plays around with some of season 6’s other subtextual throughlines: Mulder and Scully’s anxieties about possibly entering a non-platonic relationship, their unease about what a normal, domestic life might even be for them. For the entire episode they’re directly compared and juxtaposed with the Schiffs, a young married couple who died on Brown Mountain. The Schiffs are a tall man and a redheaded woman. They even die hallucinating lying together on a hotel bed after she asked him to “hold her” (although I do seriously doubt 1013 was intentionally foreshadowing a full year ahead). The last shot is of Mulder reaching out to take Scully’s hand across the ambulance, suggesting a kind of partnership beyond just, you know, partnership. Which takes us to the next season.  

Season 7: Je Souhaite (before Requiem)

Truthfully, I don’t think this episode fits quite as well in the Penultimate Partner category. It doesn’t share some of the same traits as these other episodes—it’s not quite as notably about perception, for instance—and it’s not fundamentally about the partnership in the same way. But it does end up commenting on their partnership (even their relationship, really) as part of its theme, so I think we can include it—especially because its position right before Requiem ends up being important. 

Je Souhaite (btw, written and directed by Vince Gilligan) has a bit of an unsettled feeling to it because it was kind of treading water, waiting to see what happened with DD and the series. Nothing too monumental could happen with the partnership or the plot because it wasn’t clear to anyone what would happen next with the show: whether it would end or continue, whether DD would be involved or not.

So we have a story about Mulder and Scully making peace with not having a significant impact on the world—e.g. not bringing about world peace, not introducing invisible bodies to science. Instead, they are content to delightfully share a beer and comment that they have made one another “pretty happy” (as Scully says about Mulder). Through the jinni character, they seem to take the lesson that they can enjoy being with one another, accept the simple happiness that their relationship brings them. Rather than wish for success that comes too easily, they take joy in the little things with one another.

Comparing this episode to the Penultimate Partner episodes that come before, we can really see how Mulder and Scully’s dynamic has evolved by season seven. We have a Scully who is much more open to supernatural phenomena, for example, and whose skepticism seems more like a reflex or a defense mechanism now. Scully’s move towards belief is partially reflected in the plot of the episode: the X-file here really isn’t even science fiction. It is just straight up fantasy or magical realism. Aside from Scully's brief mention of a disease to explain what happened to the mouthless man in the cold open, no plausible scientific explanation for the jinni's long life or wishes is really even floated.

Scully is delighted by the discovery of the invisible body, and Mulder is visibly delighted by her delight. He’s also frustrated by her retreat into doubt when the body disappears, of course. But even the reversal into her old skepticism is half-hearted, as she soon after she's engaging in discussion with Mulder about what his final wish was. This is consistent with the overall blurring of the old hardline believer-skeptic dynamic we see in season 7. It’s also peeking ahead to Scully’s coming role as resident basement believer in season 8. 

The last scene, with the beers and Caddyshack, is meant to be a callback to djinni Jenn’s comment that she wishes she could “live my life moment by moment... enjoying it for what it is instead of... instead of worrying about what it isn't.” Mulder, we see, is taking a cue from her. (And good for him, as we almost never see these characters do this. Except on rare baseball-related occasions.)

However, this episode’s position right before Requiem—and right before the events of season 8—ends up giving this scene a real bittersweet bite. We know, after Requiem, that they were probably a romantic couple at this time. We know, after Requiem, that this time is going to be their last happy time together for a long while. Later in season 8, we learn that one lingering wish of Scully’s in season 7 is that she wanted to conceive a child with Mulder. And of course we know, after Requiem, that she gets her wish—but with a vicious catch, with a terrible side effect, much like what happens with the jinni’s wishes. 

So that’s my academic thesis on that. I know others have pointed out the existence of this type of episode before. What did I miss? Do you think I am wrong to leave out seasons 1, 2, 8, and 9? Why do we think these episodes focus so much on distorted perception? Interested to hear others’ thoughts (if they make it through this lol).

[yuri-is-online]

... so what do we know about the Clash? (pt. 2)

moving right along from part 1

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGH EPISODE 5: HOTARUBI. PLEASE INTERACT WITH DUE CAUTION.

The Laurel Crown is first referenced by Ritsu in Episode 4. It is an award given to the best performing house of the year at an event called the Darkwick Gala. Kaito says it is held one week before graduation, Ritsu says there are a lot of rewards given out to graduating winners. He also very specifically says that it is "the shortest path to success and independence from Darkwick for us ghouls." That word independence strikes me as important, though it is not followed up on here or elsewhere unless you count the discussion surrounding Article 78 in Episode 5. Ritsu thinks that Taiga was interested in it once upon a time due to his impressive mission completion record in his first year. We know Zenji wanted to win the crown to obtain recognition as an author, while most of the other ghouls we've met show a degree of disinterest or lack of knowledge of it. Ren mentions at the end of this conversation that he didn't know about the Gala, and Ritsu points out that despite being canceled it was never removed from last years schedule. It is not not this year's though, and he implies that Cornelius is covering something up. Which really does seem to be the case...

The Crown system was discontinued as a direct result of the Clash... we think. It is never explicitly stated "yeah the Clash happened so we aren't doing this anymore" it's instead alluded to as something they can't do because there are too many ghouls to control. We know it had to be this as Haku tells Zenji that it was discontinued after he died, and Zenji died during the Clash. According to Haku, he was killed by a rogue anomaly. He adamantly discourages MC from looking into the Clash gee why would you do that HAKU and this seems to be a similar stance to what Cornelius would take if he knew you were curious. Cornelius and Moby are reluctant to let Lyca free because "what if we have another case of a ghoul-" We can assume he is going to say "killing" or something along those lines based off the concerns listed about Lyca, but that's not confirmed.

Ritsu finds documents about the Clash in the school's archives. he finds them alongside disciplinary documents, he says he either overlooked them or someone had them checked out as he has not read them before. The file is thick and is specifically titled "The Clash: An Overview of Civil Affairs Instigated by Darkwick Students." The term "civil affairs" is interesting. As best I can tell it is a military term that refers to small scale missions undertaken by small teams that focus on civil action? Like diplomacy stuff? Or organizing humanitarian aid? And in more sinister scenarios to assist in psychological warfare to condition a population to not fight against your military but I don't know if that's what the translation team was going for here exactly. I think it's just meant to imply things got really bad and really violent.

Lastly, this is less easy to prove than some of the other things as fact but I still think it is one: there are hints of a split in the student body over who is pro-anomaly and anti-anomaly. Subaru is obviously very pro-anomaly and thinks that capturing them is cruel, Taiga seems to be pro eating anomalies while Romeo is very comfortable with catching them and collecting bounties. A lot of this seems to be tied to how they view the school, the Institute that runs it, and their place in that hierarchy. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that they are trapped at Darkwick and don't want to be. At least not forever.

So to re cap all of the things we know to be fact: the Clash happened sometime last year, half a year ago at the absolute latest. The fight is thought to have been started by the ghouls, we do not know over what. The Laurel Crown system and the Darkwick Gala were both canceled after the fallout of the Clash, in which at least two named people are thought to have died: Zenji Kotodama who would have been a second year Hotarubi student and Dante whose former role is unknown. Zenji still resides in the school as a ghost, though this is unknown to Darkwick staff, and Dante has been brought on as a Professor. Also, all of the Inspectors seem to have quit at the end of the previous year due to the ghouls abusing mesmer matches on them. Three dormitories were disbanded at some point and one new one was created. We do not know if this was connected to the Clash or if it was an inciting incident for it, but at some point Clementia, one of those dormitories, was the scene of some sort of fight. Some of the students of Dionysia dorm went missing, presumably the ghouls. We know nothing about what happened to Ultio aside from the prison they were tasked with running now being run "by Darkwick." All general students from these dorms were re-assigned elsewhere, as were the general students previously assigned to Jabberwock who had general admissions halted. There is a spy amongst these ghouls who Taiga believes is intending to make them look bad; Alan and Tohma are attempting to isolate this spy. We do not know who this spy is spying for, or what Alan and Tohma want out of him exactly, nor do I really expect to find out anytime soon.

So. Now onto the Questions and Theories. As in things we can assume but cannot exactly prove:

Questions and Theories

Jiro and Zenji look extremely similar with a few noticeable differences, namely the piercings Jiro has and the glasses Zenji wears. My first thought was that maybe Jiro was made out of Zenji's corpse, but his birthday is listed as October 13th, which is not the middle of the year by any stretch. They also have different blood types; I think the most practical explanation comes from Zenji himself. When describing why he's so attached to the haunted doll you've found, he says it looks just like his brother did when he was a baby. I have some screenshots of Zenji following Jiro around in a campus event because he wants to help him find something he's looking for, so it does make a bit of sense. And make me even more sad.

The Institute that runs Darkwick seems to be deeply suspicious of ghouls and feel a need to keep them on a short leash. There is a great deal of distrust and resentment between the ghouls and the Institute, and the Clash seems to have been the result of that distrust. The thickness of the records Ritsu finds suggests to me that whatever the Clash was exactly, it took up most of the previous year and that it had something to do with Darkwick's treatment of anomalies.

On that point, I think that Clementia was likely destroyed by a rogue anomaly. The destruction MC sees is described as something going on a rampage, and not as a fight. The fight angle is still possible of course, and if that's the case I wonder if it has something to do with how Ultio was running the prison. I mentioned in the previous post that the goddesses these dorms are named after are meant to sort of balance each other out, so if there was going to be a clash of ideals between anyone on campus it'd probably be these guys.

I feel like Obscuary was set up as a result of the Clash? Or at the very least some time before it specifically so there would be some place for Rui and Ed to go. I think the dorm members will all be crossed with an anomaly in some way, Ed with a vampire, Rui with a reaper, and Lyca with a werewolf. Also, Ed is rumored to have done something. What? No fucking clue, don't even know if it's related to the Clash but still he has done something to get added into the rumor mill.

We don't know what Haku's stigma is as he didn't tell us. He also makes a point of saying that he thinks it's a good thing to get through a mission without using your stigma, if anything he seems to discourage the MC from using or relying on the ring to help the ghouls. You could see this as him trying to encourage her to value herself more, or maybe he thinks that there is a cost for using stigmas we don't know about just yet and they're not the blessings the ghouls think they are. Also he asks Cornelius if he has ever lied to him at the end of the chapter and if you think I didn't find that sus as all hell-

I need to sleep, but remind me to make a post about Haku sometime. Because I don't think he's evil exactly, but I do still think he's the spy.

[forwhoever]

the re-cap show | episode 8 | 1:01:30

c: “& it could be that that goal was the goal that you surpassed me in header goals with the uswnt, so congratulations.”

t: “this has always been a thing! i don’t know when this started between you two, but it was like chris being like ‘well, i still have more header goals than lindsay horan.’”

[eggz505]

Okay. Lads. Jamie just put on their thinking cap and has an idea she wants to share. Hear me out here. I was re-watching Double Life, as one does, and I made a few connections.

1) This one is a stretch. But .Grian mentioned this "being his game. He can change the rules." And said something along the lines of a ritual of goathorns and amethyst. He could be referencing making a watcher like portal symbol whatever that thingy is called. The two L shapes with the dots making a portal shape. The L shapes would be the goat horns and the Amythest could be made into block that LOOK like they're portal blocks.

2) this is the better one. Grian spends, for the most part, The whole series OBSESSING over BigB and wanting to go against his own gimmick with the soulbonds to go after BigB (this is something I fawn over religiously. It has STUCK in my mind for AGES and I never knew why. Finally paying off oml) In the latest season, Secret Life BigB is doing the WEIRDEST things to the point people are theorizing that the watchers have recruited/shown great interest in BigB. This seems coincidental at face value but grian didnt just obsess over him as a bit, he spent the WHOLE SEASON being weirdly in love with BigB and BigB is spending this WHOLE SEASON doing weird things. Watcher level weird things. Ergo? I think Grian took a liking to BigB because of himself bring a Watcher which caused him to gravitate toward BigB, because BigB was either dormant as an already aligned Watcher, was newly recruited as a Watcher, or the Watchers first started to show interest in BigB in Double Life.

3) I just came up with this but in support of BigB being a Watcher I think the timeline really lines up. Double Life is the first time Grian obsesses over another player which struck me as uncanny. In Limited Life, the series that followed, what did BigB do? Watch. Other. Players. He was a nosey neighbour. PEARLESCENTMOON teamed with him that season. Pearl was there when Grian got recruited, what is BigB got recruited during Limited Life? He watched other players the whole season, he had a lookout tower, Grian gravitated towards him as an ally during the season. Now in Secret Life? Grian goes to see BigB EVERY. EPISODE. It is ritualistic. Like his "episodes wont be complete without seeing what weird things BigB is up to".

Okay. I am Jamie and I am taking off my tinfoil cone of a theory/thinking cap. I am fixated on the idea of BigB being with the watchers. I dont know if his intention is to REPLACE Grian or to have Grian be more involved in his Watcher duties/shenanigans, or if hes supposed to be like a trade offer from the watchers?? It could be that Grian liked BigB in double life and the watchers were like. :o "We could use that." But I am a sucker for the Life Series and the lore that other fans come up with. I am so shit at drawing but I can write like Alexander Hamilton, so let me know who wants more theories :D

TLDR: I think Grian made Watcher-esque references in Double Life. I think BigB has been a subject of Interest for the Watchers since Double Life. I think BigB was doing Watcher like things in Limited Life, either because he was recruited BY the Watchers in Limited Life, or in Double Life, or at the least he was being heavily influenced. I am a sucker for the Watcher!BigB headcanons fans are making. Thank you and good day. Jamie out.

[seeminglydark]

1. would caro and john be into the tv show, the x-files? would they buy tapes of the episodes and talk about their own conspiracies and guess about the outcomes of the episodes.

2. also your comic has help peak my interest for the supernatural and conspiracy theories. what are some stories or theories that you’ve learned about that you have found the most interesting? and were you a believer before starting your comics or has your interest grown as you’ve continued with your comics.

3.lastly, i’m trying to buy more secondhand items and become the diy punk that i’ve aspired to be since high school (too afraid since i was a closeted trans man and living with an unaccepting family), any tips?

i, like john, try to stay away from modern tech as much as i can. i’m able to stay off my phone for the most part and rarely use my computer but i’ve been looking around and audiobooks on cassette are kinda expensive around me so i like to narrate book as i read them in paperback. i was wondering if canonically john uses resources such as the library and what his favorite books and movies are. i love horror and am just now getting into sci-fi and i love watching movies on my vcr + tv combo and i sometimes use a blu-ray player for more rare or expensive (at least in vhs format) movies.

sorry for the long winded paragraph, i’m unfortunately unable to escape my strict household (despite being an adult) until i find a job and am able to save every cent. i also tend to isolate myself so i have no friends to help me out. sorry to vent to you about this but i just wanted to end this by saying your comic and characters inspire me and give me hope that i’ll be okay once i’m free.

YES. John is obsessed with x-files. every once in a while you can see he has the iconic 'i want to believe' poster in his younger years on his walls. He still has it as an adult. both caro and john like watching those together, they also enjoy the twilight zone, charmed, Buffy (they they agree the corny movie from '92 is the best) and those old Bruce Campbell shows noones heard of, re: Brisco County Jr. I think as kids they theorize, and as adults they talk about everything everyone gets wrong, now that they know how these things really work. John can always guess WhoDunnit.

Ive always been interested in the idea of the supernatural. im a big skeptic though, ill be honest there, even though ive had many 'experiences' myself. i kinda like the idea of the unbelievable. definitely making the comics has peaked my interest in things i wasn't too keenly aware of before, like cryptids. im fascinated by the concept of Missing 411, and missing people who reappear somewhere else, but Liminal Spaces hold my heart specifically. ive always been keenly aware of the off feeling in those places before i even knew what that meant. i love scouring the internet for images of things like abandoned hotels that give me a weird kind of uneasy, most of the things people tag as Liminal aren't really that, so its a scavenger hunt to find something that fits my idea of it. coming up with the lore of my stories has been an adventure. my interest has definitely grown, more in places and phenomenon than in ghosts specifically.

there are so mnay things you can do to diy punk stuff, in my opinion thats the best and most rewarding way. it sounds to me that you need to start small and slow for your safety, so let me reassure you right here anon, that punk is a set of ideals, and not just fashion. youre still punk no matter what youre wearing. a jacket or vest is always a good place to start, you can literally buy ANYTHING at the thift store that strikes your fancy. this is a canvas you will be adding too for as long as its yours. once you have your canvas, its time to create, and there is literally no wrong way to do this. you can use paint markers, embroidery, bleach, ect. dont have money for spikes and studs? you can use soda can tabs and bend them, metal lighter caps, hell even staples and safety pins always look cool. you can make your own badges by bending metal soda or beer caps around a soda tab with a safety pin through it and then paint whatever you want on the cap. dental floss is what you usually see when punks have the white stitching on their pants and jackets, its durable and doesn't break, since crust and gutter punks need tough clothes that last. if you're worried about your family, i would personalize it first in small secret ways that are just for you, such as a message beneath your collar as seen here on my friends jacket. and here, and here! he hides patches on the inside as well! Im including a pic of john hiding a patch on caros varsity jacket as well. i will post my jackets one day, my camera is broken but i figured id share his since he hides things more than i do!

John absolutely uses the library, its a fantastic resource for SO many things, depending on where you're located. He would also probably use a digital reader later, because many of them you can get library cards on and borrow books that way. he is not a strong reader so he mostly reads books that may be under his age level, like goosebumps, but who cares, do what you enjoy. movie wise hes very obsessed with cosmic horror (hence the UFO tattoo) his favorites are Alien, The Thing, Killer Klowns from Outer Space and the Blob from the 80s. both he and Caro love the original Evil Dead franchise, horror comedy like American Werewolf in London, lost boys, etc.

Thank you, Anon, for the long winded paragraph. You asked some really fun questions for me to answer, i love nothing more than to talk about my characters, it was a really nice little break from editing a new podcast episode. I am so so sorry about your situation, and i am sending you all the best and all the love and strength that you can come out of this free and on the other side and live as yourself. If my comics and characters stories can provide a tiny bit of hope that its going to be ok, than ive succeeded at what i set out to do. wishing you all the best. and look into your library, they may have resources to help you with this as well.

[venus-is-thinking]

DRDT Handwriting Analysis

Hello everyone! I decided to take a look at the canonical handwriting of the various characters in DRDT. We've actually seen a good number of handwritings and it definitely seems like they are specifically written differently, so it's a fun new dimension of the characters we can look at. I've done my best to compile all of them in this post, but please let me know if I've missed any!

I'll be going in order of when we first see them, starting with:

Arei Nageishi!

Arei is our first handwriting reveal, which we know because she wrote the arm wrestling contest board in Chapter 1, Episode 2! She seems to write in all caps and has a slightly curvy style.

Min Jeung!

Whoops, murder time. Min's handwriting is seen on the "OUT OF ORDER" sign. We don't know it's hers when we first see it, but in the trial, it's revealed that she must have written it.

As far as I remember, we don't have another sample of her handwriting, which is unfortunate, given that I believe this is probably not what her real handwriting looks like. She's clearly printing in very straight lines; it's probably meant to look official. If it looked handwritten, it would lower the credibility of the out of order sign.

I also tried to see if you could tell what any handwriting looked like from the papers on the table in the Bonus Episode she's in, but I didn't manage to pick anything out that was actually legible. So, I guess we don't really know what Min's handwriting would normally look like.

Xander Matthews!

Xander wrote "Charles Cuevas' Motive" on this DVD, but a lot of it got smudged off when he planted it in the CD reader (god I hope I got it right I'm sorry Charles I'm trying to remember which is which).

He seems to use all caps. It's also not the neatest, given that the two Cs run into each other despite being on different lines.

Notably, there is a more filled-out version.

However, the red text isn't written by Xander himself, because he's dead at the time. As best I can figure, this is Teruko writing in an impression of Xander's handwriting. The image of the CD appears as Teruko says, "Hm, are you talking about this?" implying she's the one carrying it, and the rest of the writing is filled in when she says so. It might seem like it would be Rose, given that she's the one who figures out what it's supposed to say, but Rose instructs someone else to rotate it, so it can be assumed Rose isn't holding it. Teruko is the one to take the DVD out of the player at the end of investigation, so I'd really assume it's her.

...HOWEVER!

We actually have a specific example of Teruko replicating Xander's handwriting! She smudges it during investigation and re-writes it on. It seems to me like the creator went back to the original version of the CD in the trial (the little ink blot at the left of the O matches better with the first of the two images here, imo). I doubt there was much internal consistency given to how Teruko writes Xander's handwriting when trying to replicate it on this CD, but...

Teruko Tawaki!

Teruko's handwriting is bad-bad. It's very shaky and she struggles with letters. The O and C (as she thinks she's writing) that she replicates back on the CD have some more of the shakiness that this handwriting has, which implies to me that the creator knew at the point of the Chapter 1 murder that Teruko's handwriting wasn't smooth. The replication of Xander's handwriting in red back in Xander's section looks smoother than I think Teruko's would, which might be points towards someone else having written it. No clue who, though.

Notably for Teruko, I honestly wonder if she's meant to have dysgraphia? I don't know a ton about it, but it's a learning disability that makes it much harder for people with the condition to handwrite clearly. Just an interesting sidenote, if anyone with dysgraphia knows more/if this is wrong to say in some way, please let me know!

Charles Cuevas!

Back on track, I skipped ahead with Teruko to put hers next to Xander's. We don't technically have confirmation that this is Charles' handwriting, but it's very very heavily implied. It's written in cursive, which Whit says Charles writes in in the Chapter 2 trial.

This also implies that Whit has seen Charles' handwriting, which could add more to imply that this is his, but considering Charles has evidently seen Whit's (more in a sec), I don't think that means much.

Plus, as a fun note, Charles' custom weapon is the only one that isn't listed on the above handwriting sample. This is the biggest factor in me believing that it's Charles'. (Plus, I think Whit says something about getting it from a friend? I'm not reopening the episode sorry gang)

Whit Young?

Wait, where's the handwriting?

Well, as far as I remember, we haven't actually seen Whit's handwriting. We know from Charles that he dots his Is with hearts, but that's all we got. Sorry gang.

Eden Tobisa!

Eden literally gave us a handwriting sample. Thanks!

It's pretty cute! She has a curvier handwriting style with some irregular spacing, which I think gives it nice charm and character.

The Chapter 2 Killer??? (or accomplice)

Idk man! It seems like it has to relate to someone who's at least somewhat guilty in this whole thing, right?

I've written briefly about why I believe this is Levi's handwriting on @1moreff-creator's Levi accomplice theory post, but that would totally work for the popular theory that he's the killer, too. Either way, it's a handwriting sample.

Bonus!

NO WIFI! WHY LIVE :(

I have no idea who wrote this. From what I can tell, it might've been here when the cast got there...? The weird thing is that it changes.

Shoutout to @accirax for remembering that the white board changed, because I did NOT notice/remember. However, that begs the question...

WHO THE HELL WROTE THIS???

It's very possibly Veronika, as she's the one who's noted to, like, know and remember what Monokuma looks like. If so, that means we have a Veronika handwriting sample, yay! I really don't know who else would be drawing Monokumas. Maybe the mastermind...?

And that's all! Clearly there's no point to this post and I can wrap this-

Haha. You didn't think I actually made a post that doesn't have a theory to it, did you?

This has all been building up to me trying to figure out who the hell wrote this note. Because, I originally believed it made the most sense if it was a note that Xander wrote to himself, but accirax pointed out that we've seen Xander's handwriting, and it looks different. Then, I started noticing that we've been receiving various handwritings. Like, a LOT of handwritings.

I think that it's plenty likely that we're going to receive EVERYONE'S handwriting at some point throughout this series. Notably, all characters who have died thus far (Xander, Min, Arei, Chapter 2 Killer Even Though We Don't Know Who They Are) have already shown us their handwriting. This is probably because we're going to figure out who wrote this note at some point.

Does that mean everyone whose handwriting we've already seen thus far is safe? Maybe! I've gone through and talked about Xander, Arei, Eden, Charles and Teruko's with confidence. From what we know of Min's and Whit's, it doesn't seem like it's theirs, but I'd believe for either of them that it could be theirs if the devs wanted to pull a fast one on us (Whit could just... not write with hearts on the Is for this one. Min was replicating printed text).

I guess that means I'm saying that the most likely authors of the "Kill Teruko Tawaki" note are Mai Akasaki Ace, Rose, Hu, Arturo, Veronika, J or Nico, with Min, Whit and Levi also being possibilities that I just don't believe as strongly. I do want to note that, if Rose IS the one who wrote it, she could also easily be replicating someone else's handwriting. Ultimate Art Forger moment.

Conclusion

I compiled this image of all the handwriting I talked about with the purple being known handwriting and the gray being unknown.

I think it's really cool that the dev put time into giving each of the characters unique handwriting, and I think it's definitely a piece of evidence to keep in mind when theorizing about masterminds and killers and such.

Hopefully this was a fun read! I look forward to possibly figuring out the handwritings of literally every other character someday.

[hyperfixationsstation]

the link for the re cap show on spotify!!!

they discuss nwsl playoff format and nwsl schedule as well as the production quality

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Thoughts after re-watching Taskmaster s02e01:

- Watching this has reminded me that when I saw this season for the first time, and had heard of none of the contestants in it before – this was even before my phase of watching 8 Out of 10 Cats/Catsdown and getting really really into Jon Richardson – my favourite was Richard Osman. This was established in the very first task, when he was the only person who thought to bring the mat down the hill instead of trying to get all the balls up the hill. I immediately decided I liked this guy, who was so matter-of-fact about how smart he was. He continued this pragmatic approach throughout the episode. In the potato throw task, he was the only person to cross the red green by covering in things he was allowed to touch. In the task where they had to get information out of Fred the Swede, he was the only person to use the tactic of getting the guy to spell out his answers by having Richard ask about each letter and Fred would say yes or no. Which is the most reliable way to do it, if you have a task in which you have to find an answer by only asking yes or no questions, and it always bugs me when someone struggles with one but doesn’t think to do that. Richard Osman was pragmatic and intelligent in his approach to tasks throughout the season, but really showed that off in episode 1, capping it off by winning the live task. I remember I was rooting for him for the rest of the season.

- @youpricksneverwalk has worked out before that there’s a pattern of people getting referenced in one season, and then appearing in a later season, and going on to win it. Sam Campbell was referenced in season 7 because he drew a picture that James Acaster brought in as a prize. Ed Gamble was referenced in season 5 because he stole from Greg for Mark Watson. John Robins was referenced in season 3 because Sara Pascoe brought in his clock as a prize – and he hasn’t won yet, but we’re pretty close to that.

I have an addition to the people who got referenced and then appeared later, and amazingly, it keeps the pattern going! Jon Richardson brings in a certificate he got for doing the “highest ever stand-up gig” because he did one on a plane, and says Dara O’Briain and Jack Whitehall both did support. Dara, of course, later appeared on Taskmaster and won. We have yet to see Jack, and it’s probably fine if they keep it that way.

We’ve also discussed some other comedians who’ve been referenced before and could possibly appear in future seasons to continue this trend. Noel Fielding brought in a picture of him and Julian Barratt as a prize once. Steve Pemberton referenced Reece Shearsmith in one of his prize tasks. Tim Key brought in an excuse note about appearing in Daniel Kitson’s play, though Kitson appearing on Taskmaster is more theoretically possible than a genuine possibility (however, I have said “I’d really love this person on Taskmaster but of course it would never happen” before and then been proven wrong, so technically you never know…). Re-watching s02e01 has reminded me of another one (in addition to Jack Whitehall) – Katherine Ryan calls Sofie Hagan for help during the task where she needs to translate Swedish.

They also had Susie Dent give her ruling on a semantic issue at one point, and she could be fun on a New Year’s Treat sometime.

- They really did jump right into this one. Halfway through, I went back to check and be sure I was, in fact, watching the first episode. That potato throw incident, with voting on disqualifying Joe, was the second ever task of the season. Normally they take a bit of time to warm up first, don’t jump right in with something that intense. Even the task of getting the balls up the hill was pretty intense, with Jon, Joe, and Doc all losing their minds. That was a great intro to the season though. I guess you have to just jump right in when you only have five episodes in total. No time for getting to know anyone.

- This might be an unpopular view, but I think the jokes about Greg and Alex having sex with each other were funnier when they were slightly more subtle in the early seasons, when they’d sort of come out of nowhere and catch you off guard. As opposed to being quite so constant.

- This isn’t really relevant, but Richard Osman looks too big. He sits in those studio chairs and looks like a cartoon character in a comically small chair. He walks around the house and looks like he doesn’t fit in it. I think he’s the same height as Greg, but I don’t notice Greg looking too big, in the day-to-day shots, the way I do with Richard Osman. I guess that’s because Greg mostly just sits on a chair that’s been made for someone his size (as opposed to the contestant chairs that are too small for Richard Osman), but I think of other things I’ve seen Greg do, and he didn’t look that out of place. Greg Davies walked around the We Are Klang set and just looked like a regular tall person. Richard Osman looks like a human walking around a Lego set.

- The frequent "four comedians and Richard Osman" jokes are funny. You wouldn't get that these days, because it's normal to have vaguely comedy-adjacent non-comedians on Taskmaster. But I think Richard was the first - everyone in season 1 was a comedian (though there was one "four comedians and the poet Tim Key" joke), and everyone in season 2 besides Osman is a comedian.

- Katherine Ryan was noticeably good in this episode too, even if I've gone off her these days. I think Taskmaster played to her strengths well, she's funny when she's doing the "take charge attitude" thing, pretty much equally funny when she succeeds and when she falters. Also I found her speech about not caring where the ball goes in sports funny - I assume that was shoehorned stand-up? It sounded like it, though the only stand-up hours I've heard from her are from after this so I don't know. It was funny anyway. I don't mind shoehorned stand-up on panel shows when it's funny.

- It is funny to watch this again now that I know Doc Brown is the only person to ever go on the Taskmaster podcast and say he hated filming this show (though Russell Howard came pretty close to saying that - every other person has said they loved it). I wouldn't have noticed on a first watch, but he doesn't look like he's having a great time.

[leveloneandup]

What is your go to karaoke song?

[chenfordsbby]

"The Switch"

Season 1 Episode 4: “The Switch”

___________________________________________________________

“The rookies are temporarily paired with new training officers: when Nolan and Lopez track down an escaped criminal, the discover a little kindness goes a long way.  Jackson is forced to face his fears when he is partnered with Officer Bradford and Officer Chen and Nolan must face a hard truth”

Original Air Date: November 13th, 2018

Written By: Vincent Angell

Directed By: Toa Fraser

____________________________________________________________

Another new episode, another cold open led by John and Talia. It would be Talia if she wasn’t spitting official police codes and their meaning at John.  Action is only one aspect of being a cop, as we forget there is the paperwork side to also being a cop and Talia does not let John forget that.  He is in his training days as a rookie police officer and that also means learning every single thing there is to being a cop including all of the penal codes!  I like that Talia is always quizzing and grilling John!

We enter the roll call room with all of our favorites!  We learn that the rookies are at the point in their training where they switch their T.O’s for a few days.  John gets paired with Angela, Jackson with Tim and Lucy with Talia.  As mentioned by Angela later in the episode, this is done on purpose.  The rookies can’t learn only one way how to be a cop.  And as we’ve seen already, Tim, Angela and Talia all have different teaching methods and police procedurals.  They were getting too comfortable with their normal T.O.’s, hence a switch-up! A glaring visible reaction we see is from Talia and Lucy when Grey announces they are going to be together for these next 2 days and its for the most obvious reason: Talia knows. How are these next 2 days going to be for Lucy? I guess we'll find out!

John and Lucy’s relationship has been a main focus for these first few episodes of this series and very heavily focused on this episode.  I don’t know how television works, but I want to assume that maybe the reaction towards this relationship was not a positive one and the writers/creators of “The Rookie” picked up on it and decided to end them before they could really even start? Or I could be completely wrong and this was their trajectory for this relationship the entire time?  

I am truly so sorry for my words that I spoke regarding my feelings on them because as of episode 4, I no longer feel the same way.  I have no defense to take on this matter! It is hard to root for John and Lucy as a couple  The older you are, age gaps in relationships don’t really matter, but in John and Lucy’s, it does, because their age gap doesn’t work.  To me, and I am assuming a lot of other viewers, the age gap reflects one as of a creepy uncle and his younger niece, not one of love between two grown adults.  

At the end of the episode, we finally get to the John and Lucy of it all.  When John confronts Talia to tell her to back off from his personal relationship, she quickly turns it around and for lack of better words shoves it back into Johns face.  John is all talk- he says he cares for Lucy and wants to be with her, but Talia is right.  If John truly cares for Lucy like he says he does then why is he letting her potentially ruin her career; the second word spreads that Lucy and John are dating, it will not only put a Scarlett letter on her uniform but it will also end her barely begun career as a police officer, but for John, barely a scratch on him and he will basically get off scotch free.  John knows that Lucy deserves and wants to be a cop as much as he does so why would he do that to her.  

Lucy comes to see John, clearly upset and distraught.  Lucy, who has been struggling with this decision to end things for weeks, is taken aback when John so very nonchalantly, at least to her, ends things first before she can end it with him.  John says its because he doesn’t want to be the reason why she fails out of training, which Lucy takes offense to as she should because that reasoning alone is John protecting his self.  You can clearly see the pain that is written all over Lucy’s face and how this has been an inner turmoil for her for weeks and it makes all of it kind of really sad.  As much as we don’t like her and John together, she actually felt something for him and it’s killing her to end things with him.

I think it’s safe to say that John and Lucy were exactly who each other needed while in the Academy, but now as they are in their training days, their so called relationship is crumbling, and fast.  Their relationship has shifted and they are trying so hard to grow together while also growing through their training, but are they actually just growing apart and at the very least, for the absolute better?

4 episodes in and this episode is the most we have gotten to see of Angela!! I immediately like her.  Right off the bat, she is telling John about her personal life regarding how she was raised and how she grew up: by a single mom, the youngest of 4 siblings, all of which are boys and the only girl of the family!  The first of hopefully a lot more insight into her personal life!  We are slowly getting more back stories from not only Angela, but a handful of other characters as well; At this point, we know the most about John and Tim, a little about Jackson (he is a legacy) and now Angela.  Hopefully we get a little more insight into Lucys personal life as she’s the only one we don’t know much about!!  Not only do we get to see more of Angela but also of John interacting with someone else who isn’t Talia!  It’s safe to say that John is a large part of the comedic relief of this show hence his current dilemma of his training rook book.  John has been carrying it around all throughout the courthouse to study, but when he has to stop a convict from escaping he RUNS BACK TO GATHER THE SCATTERED PAGES OF THIS TRAINING BOOK-JOHN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! LEAVE THE BOOK AND RUN!!!  Angela is quick to tell him that this is the exact reason why this switch up happens every year.  The rookies get too comfortable with their official T.O’s and need to see the perspective from a different T.O.  Eventually, John and Angela find the escaped convict at his daughters quinceanera, where they let their human sides show and allow him to finish the night with her before the arrest is made.  Like Angela said, they aren’t monsters.  We also get even more of who Angela is as she tells John more about her family life/growing up and opens up about her dad because seeing this dad with his daughter is bringing up memories of her own dad.

Watching Jackson and Tim being paired together is like seeing a newborn giraffe trying to find their walking legs while the mom just sits back and watches.  Jackson is this newborn giraffe: he has the legs but they are shaky and brand new.  Jackson watches Tim and sees what he strives and hopes to be one day in his career.  Jackson looks so young compared to Tim, both in age and experience.  Tim knows he’s a damn good cop and every rookie he’s trained has also became a good one too, and Jackson wants to eventually get there but how long will it take him to do it and to what extents?

Jackson being oblivious to Tims training style, thinks he’s in for the beginning of an easy ride when Tim starts to talk personal with Jackson than BAM, a Tim Test- “Ive been shot boot.  Where am I?”  One of the more recognizable ones as well.  It is the same test he did with Lucy on her first day and where as Lucy didn’t pass (at least according to Tims standards), Jackson did or at least impressed Tim a bit with all of the correct answers.   

Tim and Jackson stake out the house with Tim’s fellow cop friend and in doing so they start to get shot at and yet again Jackson freezes up the instant he hears the gunfire and he becomes the shell of a person and hides within himself, so afraid. Tim is shocked to say the least and this is not a good impression for Jackson at all, so what’s going to happen?

Tim is angry to say the least and before he even gets out of his shop Angela knows why.  I believe that Tim has every right to be as angry as he is.  How is he properly supposed to train a rookie who wants to be a cop when at the first sight/sound of bullets and guns he runs and hides?  To Tim, Jackson is asking to be killed and that is the last thing that he needs on his shoulders.  He confronts Angela and to his dismay Angela knows and has covered for Jackson as well.  I like how Angela tells Tim that Jackson isn’t broken because he isn’t, he just has some issues to work through.  (If we are going to talk about broken people, there are essays we all can write about Tim Bradford, especially Season 1, so he just needs to push his mouth!)  

I like to see that Jackson is opening up to Nolan,  it’s the starting stages of the friendship between our rookies!  The end of day one, Jackson goes to Tim in the locker room to stand up for himself and his actions.  Tim is not Jackson’s T.O therefore, in Tim’s mind it won’t affect him whether he succeeds or fails because in the long run it won’t affect him, he harbors zero responsibility towards Jackson. This episode shows the first few signs of the serious friendship of Angela and Tim (and I know that they are best friends but again I am writing these as if I have never watched this show before and I don’t know what’s to come!) But where does Tim stand with Angela, because what happens to Jackson would directly affect Angela and after this episode, we know that they have a friendship beyond just being patrol officers together.  Which is exactly why I think Tim brings Jackson to see his friend, Wallace.  Wallace is a hermit of a person of who he once was and that’s no way to live and if Jackson continues down this path that he is currently on, Jackson will become just that and Tim knows and sees that.  Tim was never going to turn Jackson in, but he did need to put a little fear in not only Jackson, but Angela too.  This can’t happen again.

Did Wallace cure Jackson? No, but is it the first step in the right direction for helping Jackson with his fears, absolutely.  Which also proves true when Jackson takes a step in the right direction in helping Tim during the quickly ill fated shoot out towards the end of the episode.  He didn’t get out of the shop and start shooting, but he did take the initiative to prove to not only Tim but himself as well that he’s not scared anymore and he can be a good cop, just let him show it.  I think it was a blessing in disguise that Jackson was switched to Tim for these 2 special days- in hindsight, it was exactly what he needed.

Theres tension in the shop between Talia and Lucy for the most obvious of reasons.  Lucy has yet to do the one thing that Talia has told her to do: end things with John. Lucy tries to continue to talk about it but Talia doesn’t want to hear it, she has said her piece regarding it and if Lucy doesn’t want to follow it than that’s on her own conscious and it’ll be nobody but herself to blame for her own actions. Not only is Lucy breaking things off with John right for her to do in her professional life it’s also right for her to do in her personal life as well because let’s be real: Lucy! Chen! Can! Do! So! Much! Better!  Hopefully we will see it happen soon.  It makes you wonder if Talia has been in this situation before or if she’s known someone who’s been in a similar situation as Lucy is in.  

Back at the precinct hallway, Talia is calling Lucy out regarding Lucys ignorance of arresting the wrong runaway from the car and good for Talia.   As much as I like Lucy at this point, she does seem to be a little too confident (Hmm maybe Tim is rubbing off on her?!). Lucy thinks she’s one of the better rookies and there is nobody out there like her; Talia quickly shuts her down.  Talia sees the potential in Lucy, but I also think that she sees the lack of commitment to being a good cop.  Talia mentions she’s putting maybe 65-70% into her training days and the other 35-30% of her training/rookie days into being with John.  Lucy should have 100% commitment to her training and rookie days and zero commitment to John, it should even be a question.  Talia doesn’t understand why especially when it can ruin her career before it will even start.  Lucy needed to hear this very tough from her- maybe it’ll whip Lucy into shape and into doing the right thing…which is inevitable ending things with John.

The amount of personal information we are getting on our favorite characters in this episode is really great! Talia shares more personal information on her childhood in that being she grew up in the foster system, I can’t wait to learn even more on that.The next day in the shop, Lucy expresses to Talia that she doesn’t want to end things with Nolan because she really likes him and it’s one of the things she’s been most serious about in a long time, the first is about becoming a cop, as we learn that entering the police academy was on a whim to anger her parents but it quickly became one of the best things that Lucy has ever done in her life.  4 episodes in, we can say its safe to assume that anything that Lucy does in her life is serious and she doesn’t take it lightly.  Which is why she says that ending things with John is going to hurt her and it’s a hard decision for her to make, but at the end of the day, she knows that she has to do it.  She knows this because of Talia’s words that she overheard in a interrogation room.  Like Jackson being paired with Tim, I think it was a good thing for Lucy to be paired with Talia.  Talia is exactly who she needed to give her the push to end things with John.

I like how all of the side scenes and storylines converge and end up with everyone back at the precinct and all working together.  There is a good balance of personal storylines as well as ensemble storylines and it is handled very well.  At the end of day 2, the final day of “The Switch” the rookies are getting grilled by Grey on their T.O’s personal life but in a surprising, but in a typical “The Rookie” fashion, none of them fess up and say a damn thing about their temporary T.O’s.- makes you wonder why not, when each of them clearly did learn something personal?!

____________________________________________________________

Honorable Mention: Jackson’s Dog Biscuits Hack 

Episode Peak: The end of John and Lucy. Or is it?

Episode Pit: Not enough Tim and Lucy (we are all thinking it!)

Quote of the Episode: “Yo, yo, yo.  You call an Uber?  I’ll understand if you don’t give me a five star” ~ Wade Grey

Episode Rating: 10/10.  This episode is exactly what we needed at this time. We learned so much more about a number of the characters regarding their personal lives.  We got a little switch up in partners and to see how they all interact with each other was awesome! I can’t wait to see more!

Random Thoughts:

Lucy’s on duty hair was finally changed to her iconic low bun, which suits her SO much better.

With the lack of interaction between Tim and Lucy this episode, it was nice to see Lucy sticking up for Tim.  They haven’t been riding together for long, but in the time that they have been together in the shop, Lucy knows well enough that Tim would never have turned Jackson in, and she was right!  Our itty bitty #Chenford crumbs are showing!

I don’t care how many times I say it, Tim Bradford is so hot.  I know he is a completely fictional character and we have Eric to thank for bringing him to life, but there is just something about that man.

Out of John, Jackson and Lucy, I believe that Lucy has shown the most potential about becoming one of the best cops that Mid-Wilshire will have seen!

___________________________________________________________

Oh boy! This one was a doozy and if you’re reading this than that means you stuck through all of my rambling and I truly can’t thank you enough! There was so much going on in this episode and I had a LOT to say about it!!!  I hope you guys are continuing to stay with me and read my weekly episode recaps because there’s a hell of a lot more to come! Thank you again, so much! As always, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and opinions on everything!!! I love to hear it, always!

Until next time on, “Get in The Shop”...

[isekai-crow]

Mashle: Magic and Muscle Season 1 Re-Cap + Season 2 - Episode 1

Other Episodes-> ep2 ep3 ep4 ep5

This anime shits all over JKR in the best way possible. Highly Recommended if you can make it through the 2nd half of Season 1.

Overall Rating So Far: 8/10 with hopes it will stay there.

For comparison, season 1 ended up 6/10. TToTT as to why...

I'm writing this while re-watching season one, and maaaaan what a strong start Season 1 had!! 9/10 for the first 4 episodes!!

How is this avoiding copyright? I don't know but I fully support it.

I LOVE MASH AND HIS REALISTIC TAKES.

The pacing got completely thrown off after episode 5. Did we really need those fight to be THAT long and drawn out?? No. I get that animation studios are limited in how far into the manga they can go in a given season, but I would have preferred anime original filler over 2 episodes of metal punch dude, and the whole "chamber of secrets" esque episodes...

Despite being sorely disappointed by the second half of season 1, I did finish it. Starting episode 1 of Season 2, I completely forgot where the last episode had left off and it hasn't even been that long!! I had to laugh at just how much my brain had tuned out by the end, which is sad, because this is such an amazing premise.

HOWEVER

SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 BROUGHT BACK THE DRIVE TO WATCH!!

The first episode of season 2 doubles down on poking ALL sorts of holes in the plot of Harry Potter and sidestepping any massive overlaps to avoid copyright. BUT IT'S SO OBVIOUS, I LOVE IT.

May I introduce you to...

"Harry Potter with just enough serial numbers filed off to avoid a lawsuit." - Capybara

Spoilers for Episode 1 Below the Cut

We started off with a small recap of the end of season 1 and honestly I don't remember most of it happening.

Woo they beat the Tom Riddle/Abel Walker, Woo they won tons of points for their dormitory, Woo Mash's super special "magic spell" the Suplex!!!

But oh no! There is a rumor that Mash can't use magic has gotten out! To be fair, it was only a matter of time. Bicep Smash Magic can only get you so far lolol.

The little celebration party is very cute, and suddenly Abel and Abyss show up, and Mash is just totally chill with them joining in their party. Abel even brought a deck of cards and they're playing bullshit of all games lmfao

Personally I want to know why Dot has his mouth and face all bandaged up, but I assume that's Lemon's doing for some reason or another lol

Let me just say, I love Abel and Abyss. Abel is terrifying and carrying around his creepy doll and freaking Finn out, and literally just wants to have fun with everyone. He's far more incompetent, or maybe just normal? than he seems. And cares about Abyss!! And Abyss is doing his best to take care of his master, and thanks Mash for stopping them both. And can't talk to women!!

We love a traumatized bishonen.

Mash gets called to the Bureau of Magic and basically gets called a Mudblood to his face for not having magic and is being sentenced to death.

AND DRACO MALFOY SHOWS UP TO SAVE HIM.

You cannot dissuade me that this isn't another Draco.

And of course, to counter Draco/Ryoh Grantz, we get Knock Off Harry Potter and gang!

Neville with a dragon? Snow girl is Luna? The one with the book is Hermione? Obviously these are also original characters and there is no one to one with characters, but it's fun to try and place them.

Fake Harry Potter / Orter Madel says the most Not Harry Potter thing ever, and its hilarious that a character known for going against the rules has a caricature doing exactly the opposite.

Fuckin' mood Mash. Where the hell did RON come from??? ah.. his only purpose is to narrate what's happening. Makes sense.

The magi-parasite shows up, mob deals with, and it should be a done deal, but Orter continues to push the issue as Ryoh tries to stop him.

Will Mash be taken away and executed? He's not budging. Will Draco and Harry fight? What will become of Mash now that Dumbledore and Finn's Big Bro have shown up?

Until Next Time..

What the fuck is this show I love it so much.

[mindmeltonabun-blog]

Alchemy of Souls: Theories and Analysis for Eps 13-14

Hey fellow readers!

If this is your first time reading my blog, I strongly suggest you read all of my other posts before continuing to read this most recent one. They provide a clearer understanding of why I think something will happen. I know my posts can be rather long, but they do provide a comprehensive view of everything that has happen in AOS. Therefore, I will not be answering questions which I’ve already gone over in previous posts nor questions where the answers can easily be found in the episodes. These types of questions will be ignored.

If you have questions which were not already answered in my posts then please feel free to ask them! I felt that if I had spent a great deal of time in organizing and writing these posts, the least you can do is read them before asking questions. I made these posts to be very detailed because I did not want to have to answer the same questions repeatedly. 

On a serious note, I would appreciate it if people would quit taking my ideas and/or theories and passing it off as their own on social media and other blogs. If you want to share my theories, then give me credit for it. Again, I spend a great deal of time on these posts. It takes time to conduct research, re-watch episodes, connect the dots, and think through everything.

Ok……. wooshaaaaa……trying to find my inner peace right now!

Anyways, thinking caps on! Let’s analyze and theorize! 

Keys and Reminders

Thought I should include this key just in case you all get confused when I mention certain characters’ names. I’m starting to mix up everything because there are so many names, faces, bodies, and souls lol. 

Jin Bu Yeon=Naksu=Jin Bu Yeon/Naksu

Cho Yeong = Mu Deok=Cho Yeong/Mu Deok

The person you see in the show right now is Jin Bu Yeon/Naksu’s soul back in her OG body. Again, Cho Yeong/Mu Deok’s soul went back to her OG body and died. There are no 2 souls/1 body type situation. 

How the Hong Sisters Have Created the Perfect Illusion

One of the main themes in AOS is illusions. How do you create an illusion if you were a scriptwriter or director? You can leave out scenes, flash fake memories on the screen, manipulate the order of scenes, include convincing dialogue, etc. This is what the Hong Sisters been doing in AOS, most were just unaware of it. The Hong Sisters did remind everyone through various characters’ dialogue that to see past illusions, you need to read in between the lines. 

Most people saw that scene with Soi followed by the scene with the same physical marks on the Mu Deok body as “proof” that Mu Deok is indeed Jin Bu Yeon (well this is Jin Bu Yeon’s body, but most kept getting the soul part wrong lol). Anyways, these same people saw these scenes as another piece of evidence that Mu Deok’s soul is Jin Bu Yeon’s soul and that her soul still resides in the body. Again, these viewers couldn’t see past the illusion the Hong Sisters created. It’s all very surface level thinking. 

At the end of Ep 14, the whole being blind, but able to tell when it would snow or rain is just another illusion meant to trick viewers into thinking Mu Deok is Jin Bu Yeon. In actuality, Cho Yeong/Mu Deok’s soul may have been able to do those things because she was swapped with the Ice Stone. There are probably other explanations, but ultimately it has nothing to do with Mu Deok being Jin Bu Yeon. These are just illusions. You should be able to differentiate what is the truth and what is a lie by now. Ignore the illusions and focus on the truth.

What the Hong Sisters have been doing is creating the illusion that Mu Deok is Jin Bu Yeon so that when they drop that bomb that Naksu is Jin Bu Yeon it’s going to shatter your illusion aka blow your mind. Honestly, I’ve grown tired of all these mind games that the Hong Sisters have been playing lol.

More of Jin Mu’s Lies During Jin Bu Yeon’s Brainwashing Is Revealed

I have talked about how the Hong Sisters like to make light of Naksu’s real identity through Jang Uk’s dialogue and this happened again in Ep 13! Naksu was wondering how the constellation ceiling opened. Jang Uk asks Naksu, “Who told you that? Your father?”. Naksu replies, “He said the only way to open the ceiling above the constellation basin is by the energy of a constellation mage”. 

Now the Prince recognized the ceiling could only be opened by those who have mastered Chisu which is the truth.

You see, Jin Mu told Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon this lie because he never wanted her to find out her real identity (Jin Bu Yeon). Jin Mu knew Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon would eventually master Chisu and could go to Cheonbugwan to see her constellation. To prevent her from doing that, he told her the little lie about needing the energy of the constellation mage to open the ceiling.

Later in Ep 13, here comes another little piece of info that Jin Mu left out during brainwashing time with Jin Bu Yeon. Maidservant Kim mentioned the names of the constellation mage and his daughter. Notice Naksu’s reaction upon hearing this. She was confused as hell. She was like “Cho Yeong?” ...who's that lol. She tried to soothe herself by telling herself, “That’s my name” like yea that's my name lol. If Naksu was indeed Cho Yeong/Mu Deok, she wouldn’t have that kind of reaction. She’s wouldn’t have any reaction period, but she did which is telling that Naksu is indeed Jin Bu Yeon. 

Over and over again, Jin Mu has left out pieces of information (i.e Naksu’s “father” was a soul shifter) as well as lied about many things (i.e needing the energy of constellation mage to open the ceiling) in order to keep Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon in the dark about her real identity so that he could continue to use her to carry out all of his evil plans. He brainwashed Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon pretty severely.

Destroying The Ice Stone

I have told you all that in order to destroy the ice stone, you must have energy that is greater than the Ice Stone. For those who are unaware, the energy of the Ice Stone is the same Hwansu, the Sun, or star. Now, on the day Jin Bu Yeon tried to destroy the Ice Stone, she was unable to because she didn’t have enough energy to (yay looks like I was correct when I said in previous posts Jin Bu Yeon was trying to destroy the Ice Stone). Meaning she only had the energy of the Ice Stone which was not enough. The only way to truly destroy it if you have energy that is greater than the Ice Stone. This fits in line with my theory that the combination of Jin Bu Yeon and Jang Uk’s energies should be more than enough to destroy the Ice Stone. It could also be that Master Lee will add his energy to help those two to destroy the Ice Stone. You need like a lot, and I mean a lot of energy to be able to destroy the Ice Stone. Time for teamwork lol! Uh oh…I feel like Master Lee is going to die.

Connection between Jin Bu Yeon and Naksu

Something worth mentioning is the meaning of Naksu’s name and how it is connected to Jin Bu Yeon. Naksu’s name means “falling water”. What type of precipitation symbolizes “falling water”? Rain. On the day Jin Bu Yeon was last seen with Jin Mu, she was trying to destroy the Ice Stone. Specifically, Jin Bu Yeon was injecting a lot of energy into the Ice Stone to make it rain (please review “The Water Cycle”; post is found at the end of this section). Anyways, the reason why Jin Mu named Jin Bu Yeon, “Naksu”, was because he was naming her after the very thing she was trying to do the day he was with her which was to make falling water/rain happen. 

Master Lee

Before I start this section, I just want to pat myself on the back for correctly predicting Master Lee was a soul shifter!! Woohoo!! Celebration! Can’t wait to see if my theory that Master Lee is Seo Gyeong will also come true! Anyways, let’s talk about Master Lee!

Review Of Hwansu, Ice Stone, Fluffy, and Soul Shifting

As you all can probably tell by now, I have no patience for stupidity and laziness. If something has been explicitly stated in the show or I have extensively explained it in my blog, you all should get it by now. The concepts in AOS are not difficult to grasp. It is not rocket science, ok? In my Phd program, there are many students whom I would categorize as smart. To make up for my lack of intelligence, I work hard. I put in 50x the amount of work just to get to where they are. Therefore, I have no sympathy nor patience for stupid people who are lazy. At that point, they’re just plain stupid. 

I’ve seen across multiple platforms how people thought Master Lee was bluffing when he said he was a soul shifter (Group #1). Then I also saw people saying how Master Lee was lying about being a soul shifter because Fluffy didn’t bark at him (Group #2). If you are in either group, start rewatching all the episodes and use your brain to think. Put in some work. 

This will be the last time I go over simple concepts from AOS. I’ve done my fair share of work. 

Let’s review some things:

A. Soul shifting is the process in which you shift your soul into another person’s body and vice versa. It is the equivalent of the fountain of youth. 

B. Souls are immortal, bodies are mortal. 

C. What does it mean to run wild? It means there’s a gap between the soul and body where energy can leak out. 

D. What does Fluffy do? He detects the energy that leaks out from the gap between the soul and body. 

E. What is Hwansu? It is the ability to convert water to fire and fire to water. Water and fire are metaphors for souls and bodies respectively. Hwansu allows one to soul shift without running wild. 

F. Who has mastered Hwansu? Master Lee. 

G. How old is Master Lee? Over a century old. Review Ep 6 and Ep 14. 

H. How can one soul shift without running wild? By mastering Hwansu or using the Ice Stone.

Take all of this information and put it all together. 

Let’s first look at Group #1. Master Lee wasn’t freaking bluffing when he said he was a soul shifter. How do you think he has remained so young looking? Go back to points A, B, E, F, and G. Why do you think Master Lee offers to teach Jang Uk Hwansu? Just because? No. It’s because he’s already mastered Hwansu. You can’t teach someone something if you have not mastered it. Again, what is Hwansu? Go back to point E.

Why do you think it was stated that Master Lee only wears a hemp robe? It’s because that’s the only way he can be identified since he changes bodies/faces all the time. Imagine if you were a soul shifter, you can change your body/face as many times as you want, and no one could tell it was you unless you wore something consistently. Master Lee could essentially be invisible if he wanted to be. For example, he could easily change to a different body/face and wear a blue robe and no one would be able to tell it was him. 

Now let’s look at Group #2. Why doesn’t Fluffy bark at Master Lee? Go to points C, D, E, F, and H. If you’re really that simple minded, let me spell it out for you. Fluffy doesn’t bark at Master Lee because Master Lee has mastered Hwansu. Master Lee doesn’t run wild because there’s no gap between Master Lee’s soul and the body he is in. What does that mean? No freaking energy leaking out for Fluffy to even detect. Therefore, he doesn’t bark at Master Lee.

Jesus Christ. 

So, if you know Shaman Choi had used the Ice Stone to soul shift, do you think Fluffy is going to be able to detect her? No. Fluffy will only be able to detect people who have shifted souls using a Soul Ejector. Then what was the point of Master Lee bringing Fluffy? To psyche Shaman Choi out. Master Lee knows very well that the person who has the Ice Stone will not be able to be detected by Fluffy, but he still wants to psyche her out. Why? Read further down in the next section. 

Master Lee's Game of Chess and Tug of War

From push and pull to the ebb and flow of water, everything in AOS is about opposing forces (duality). Now with Master Lee vs Shaman Choi/Jin Mu, it’s all one big game of tug of war or chess. In a game of chess, there are two important pieces: the King and Queen. Master Lee has already made up his mind who his King and Queen pieces will be: Jang Uk and Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon.

He needs his King and Queen to be at the top of their game so that he can use them to defeat Shaman Choi/Jin Mu. You see, Master Lee has mostly prepared his King (Jang Uk), but his Queen is still a work in progress. She still hasn’t been able to access her powers mostly because she is suffering from a mental block.

Master Lee is aware of Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon’s mental block and knows the only person who can help her bypass her mental block is Jang Uk. This leads me to my next point, why do you think Master Lee had told Jang Uk that story about Seo Yul’s first love? It was because Master Lee was trying to “push” Jang Uk to “pull” Naksu closer to him. Master Lee in an indirect manner was trying get Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon to not repress her feelings anymore. I did mentioned that Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon's mental block is a result of suppressed emotions and memories. Side note, I thought it was funny that Jang Uk later uses the same tactic on Park Jin by telling him how Master Lee has been saying at the Jang residence as a way to push Park Jin to confess his feelings to Maidservant Kim lol.

Going back to previous post (“Deep Examination”), I'd mentioned Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon would never be able to fully come out from the shadows because Jin Mu made the whole world hate her. He did so by using her to carry out his evil plan as well as forcing her to become a soul shifter. It’s not easy to change the world’s negative perception of Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon, but Master Lee has been working behind the scenes to do so. It’s like a multistep process!

Think about Master Lee’s conversation with Park Jin in Ep 12. What was Master Lee trying to do? He was trying to change Park Jin’s perception of Naksu. Why? Park Jin has great power (btw I’m not talking about physical power, I’m talk about power in the sense of influence) as the leader of Songrim. Master Lee knows Naksu’s fake identity as "Mu Deok" is about to come out. Therefore Master Lee wanted Park Jin to be understanding so that he doesn’t immediately kill her once he discovers “Mu Deok” is Naksu. Overall, Master Lee was trying to change Park Jin’s negative view of Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon because he wants Park Jin to protect his Queen chess piece until he's ready to use her against Shaman Choi.

So who else’s opinions holds power in the world of AOS beside Park Jin of Songrim? The royals. By revealing himself as a soul shifter, Master Lee is seeking to accomplish three things: 1) Change the negative view people have about soul shifters 2) Change the negative view people have that those with great powers are always bad 3) Pull the person who has the Ice Stone out from the shadows. By accomplishing the first two things, it would allow both Jang Uk and Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon to finally come out of the shadows and be judged fairly for who they really are as people and not solely judged by how they may appear to others from the outside (i.e abominations, chaos, monsters, etc).

Furthermore, the notion that those with great powers should consider everything before exacting justice could also be applied to Jang Uk and Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon. Meaning once Jang Uk and Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon fully come into their great powers, they will consider everything before punishing someone. It's like that quote from Batman, "With great power, comes great responsibility".

A brief digression. Look at Master Lee, he has great powers, but he doesn't instantly kill Naksu when he saw her. Why? Because he wanted to consider everything before he decides to kill her or not. He wants to know everything about her before making a judgement. It's like how in our the judiciary system, a judge must consider all the facts and evidence before making a judgement. That's how people with great powers should act like. When you're in a position of great power, jumping to a conclusion just based on what see on the surface is not justice, it's prejudice. This all ties back to one of the main themes of AOS: to not pass judgement only based on what someone looks like on the outside (body; outside), but to pass judgement based on who they are as a person (soul; inside).

Anyways, going back to the the third point, Shaman Choi/Jin Mu had been “pushing” things by “shamelessly” hiding the Ice Stone within the palace walls. In response, Master Lee was trying to “pull” Shaman Choi from the shadows by revealing himself as a soul shifter who can see other soul shifters . Remember it’s all about "push" and "pull" when it comes to fighting/war. How can you pull someone out from the shadows? You rattle them.

Master Lee was not planning on exposing Shaman Choi as a soul shifter, he knows she used the Ice Stone to shift her soul. Rather, he was planning to shake her up by exposing other soul shifters surrounding her (those who used soul ejectors to shift souls). Ever heard of psychological warfare? You know what happens when people start to panic and feel like they’re being backed into a corner? They start to make mistakes; they start to make stupid moves. They essentially expose themselves.

What else could cause the evil duo to panic? The arrival of Jang Gang. From Master Lee’s reveal to Jang Gang’s arrival, these things will ultimately cause the evil duo to lose focus and let their guard down….this is when Master Lee will put into play his King and Queen chess pieces ...aka Jang Uk and Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon will attack!

Master Lee sure does have his work cut out for him lol. He has to change the minds of two powerful people ( Park Jin and The Royals) to ensure his King (Jang Uk) and Queen (Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon) chess pieces won't be harmed until Master Lee is ready for them to be used against Shaman Choi/Jin Mu.

Chaos and peace are two sides of the same coin, when the coin is flipped, the world holds its breath to see which side the coin will land on. I’m not a betting person, but I’m pretty sure our power couple will bring peace to Daeho. 

How Soul, Energy, and Body Go Together

I think there may be confusion about soul energy and the body work together. To it simply, power/energy is not a feature of the body. Rather it is a feature of the soul. Take for example, the conversation between the King and Jang Gang. The King mentioned how Jang Uk was able to place a soul in a deal body and how it lived for over six months. Let’s think about this for a second. Does a dead body have any energy? No, it doesn’t. What gives a body energy is the soul, it is what gives “life” to a body.

Now with regards to the Ice Stone, people keep confusing what it really does. It is like a soul stone, not a body stone. It’s not going to bring back bodies, okay? So please don’t ask me for the hundredth time if GJY is going to come back for Part 2. This show is about souls, not about bodies.

I know this can be a difficult notion to grasp for many, but keep in mind this is Alchemy of Souls, not Alchemy of Bodies. The body is useless, it is something that can easily be reduced to ashes. The body doesn’t matter, the soul does. This has been repeatedly so many times now, yet people are still turning to the body to make theories. If you did, you truly did not understand the foundation of the show to begin with. 

For these reasons, I truly think what happen with Jin Bu Yeon while she was in her Mama Jin’s womb is that Jang Gang used the ice stone to bring back her soul and this act inadvertently infused her soul with the energy of the Ice Stone. This act caused for physical changes to her body (i.e physical blindness). Changes to the inside is reflected on the outside. Inside (soul) -> Outside (body), not Outside (body) -> Inside (soul). What this means is changes to the soul is reflected outwardly in the body. 

Since I know you all will ask again how the body of Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon can see now, I will explain it one the last time. Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon’s soul had been transformed when Jin Mu switched her soul into Mu Deok/Cho Yeon's body. During the time Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon’s soul was in Mu Deok/Cho Yeon’s Body, her gained more energy through mastering many spells. Therefore, when she returned to her original body, her soul was more powerful than it had previously been. She had accumulated more energy which caused her soul to heal her own eyes. Again, changes to the soul are reflected outwardly in the body.

This connects back to what I had previously said that in order for Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon to fully access her energy/powers, she must unlock her mind. It’s all in her mind. It’s all a mental thing. Or as I like to see it, Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon just needs to go see a psychologist! Baby girl is having an epic identity crisis! Anyways, I hope this makes it clear to everyone. This will be the last time I mention this too! 

Why Did Fake Daddy Jin Take A Strand of Blood from Cho Yeon?

To inject it or whatever into Soi so she can open the doors to Jinyowon. Recall that blood and energy go together and energy is connected to one’s soul. When you take someone’s blood, you essentially have a small piece of their energy/soul. Their energy (qi) is like DNA lol. So the doors of Jinyowon is locked by like a DNA molecular lock is the way I like to look at it lol. Again, this has nothing to do with the body.

Jang Gang’s 20 yrs Soul-Searching Journey

In my previous posts, I kept mentioning that Jang Gang had gone on a soul-searching journey for the past 20 years, but it finally dawn on me that he was on a LITERAL soul searching journey haha!!! Continue reading below for my theory on what Jang Gang was doing for the past 20 years! This is how I think the events happened for Jang Gang......

Cho Chung was killed. Jin Mu takes Cho Yeong and keeps her in Danhyaggot. Jang Gang seals the Ice Stone and leaves to find Cho Yeong. Many years passed and Jang Gang still has not found Cho Yeong.

Jin Mu takes Jin Bu Yeon to find the Ice Stone that Jang Gang had sealed. Around the same time, Jang Gang hears that Jin Bu Yeon has also gone missing and suspects Jin Mu took her to find the Ice Stone. Jang Gang goes to where he last sealed the Ice Stone to try and find Jin Bu Yeon. Jang Gang finds Jin Bu Yeon, but he realizes that the soul within that body is not Jin Bu Yeon’s, it’s Cho Yeong’s soul. He recognizes that Jin Mu had swapped their souls. What started out as a journey to find 1 soul/1 body now became a journey to find a second soul and body. Damn what a freaking mess lol. Jang Gang made it his mission to find Jin Bu Yeon’s soul (now in Cho Yeong’s body) so that he can return both Cho Yeong’s and Jin Bu Yeon’s souls to their original bodies.

Jang Gang leaves Cho Yeong in an old lady’s care while he goes out to search for Jin Bu Yeon’s soul. Before he leaves Cho Yeong (now in Jin Bu Yeon’s body), he tells her she must change her name to “Mu Deok” to avoid being found by Jin Mu. Jang Gang resumes his search for Jin Bu Yeon’s soul (in Cho Yeong’s body). He ends up searching for many years because it’s like I said, finding a soul is very difficult because their looks/face/body have changed. Jang Gang hears about a powerful assassin named “Naksu” who uses Tansu. Jang Gang knows Jin Bu Yeon’s soul was powerful since he infused her soul with the Ice Stone before she was born. He puts two and two together and realizes “Naksu” must be Jin Bu Yeon’s soul (in Cho Yeong’s body). 

Jang Gang had great difficulty catching up to Naksu because she was a shadow assassin. Meanwhile, the old lady who was taking care of Cho Yeong soul (in Jin Bu Yeon’s body) had died. Jang Gang finally manages to find Naksu, but he was too late. He learned she had tried to shift souls before she died. He knows that when the Alchemy of Souls spell is casted for the 2nd time, souls are returned to their original bodies.

Thus, Jang Gang knows Cho Yeong had return to her original body and died. He goes back to Sari village to retrieve Jin Bu Yeon’s soul (now back in her original body). However, he finds out the old lady died and Jin Bu Yeon was sold off to Chwiseonru Courtesan House. He makes his way from Sari village to Songrim. Cue his arrival to Songrim. Talk about fate and coincidences lol. Jang Gang was out searching for many years only to learn that the one of the surviving souls (Jin Bu Yeon) was at his home and hanging around his son. 

Anyways, I do wonder if Jang Gang is trying to find Jin Bu Yeon to kill her or return her to her family. Jang Gang might want to kill Jin Bu Yeon because he’s afraid she would run wild since she had been away from her body for too long. We have seen cases where people who return to their bodies do run wild (i.e Gil Ju). I would like to think better of Jang Gang and say he will return her to family. No…but really though…is this how Naksu’s reveal happens? Jang Gang comes back and reveals Naksu is Jin Bu Yeon. This then exposes Soi as an imposter who was placed in Jinyowon by Jin Mu. Once that happens, Jin Mu is going to start scrambling! This would definitely push Shaman Choi and Jin Mu to come out into the open. Boom! The battle for the Ice Stone begins!! Ohhhh I’m liking this theory of mine!

Who Killed Broker Kim?

The most obvious person would be Jin Mu since he did ask Soi if there was anyone else who would recognize her. Then again, the show is not about the obvious lol. Therefore, I think it Jang Gang was the one that killed Broker Kim. Why? Because Jang Gang has been tracking the last surviving soul (Jin Bu Yeon) and he probably wanted to keep Jin Bu Yeon’s identity safe. The piles of dead bodies we see next week is probably a trail of Jang Gang’s movement towards Jin Bu Yeon. Jin Mu did say Jang Gang does not kill so inconspicuously.  

Other Thoughts

I felt like this is a scene is foreshadowing Park Jin and Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon will have another face-off. I LITERALLY CANNOT WAIT FOR IT!!! I know Naksu/Jin Bu Yeon isn't going to kill Park Jin because that would hurt Jang Uk since he considers Park Jin his father.

Ok I'm done! There's always more I want to write about, but I'm exhausted!

[brightnote]

The missing cut? A fake trailer scene or a sign of something to come? Potential clue for additional Maria content in Secret Invasion (Spoilers Episode 1)

Do you remember the scene that Marvel used in the teaser trailer for Secret invasion? Nick comes into the bar, he walks to the back and sits in the back corner with Maria.  I guess I just thought this was the same scene with different lines. But actually it seems like a different scene than is in the show! Now I am not here to give anyone false hope of a Maria revival but does this mean there is at least some other Maria content in this series in the forms of flashbacks?

This is from a teaser trailer so the source is .... not reliable but let’s look at the caps anyway.  In the actual episode they are sitting at the chessboard table. I rewatched this scene in episode 1  like five times and there is another chessboard in the bar but it doesn’t pan out to show it is between them when they are in the back corner in the trailer. At the bar in the episode the chess board it is very clearly between them.

 Then Maria said something like “you were content with letting my calls go to voicemail.” So this could be a teaser trailer set up and not actually part of the series. When she’s talking to Fury what do you notice about her face? Do you see what I see—or rather what I don’t see?

looks like a pretty un cut nose there! We have Maria with no cut on her nose meaning this conversation happened before she ran into G’iah in the tunnel!?! I’m not being delusional right, there is no cut there!!  I also think she’s sitting in a different place. Below you can see a cap from the episode: 

Is it possible we are going to see something about this bar scene later in the series?

If you look at the angle you can see there are no beer bottles at the chess table and that Maria and Nick were sitting somewhere else and then eventually moved to the chess table. 

In the teaser trailer, there is a chessboard in the foreground but they are in the back corner with no chessboard between them.So did they go to that bar the night before too and it is a flashback?! Is that when Gravik followed Fury there since he was already there when Maria was there and did not follow Fury inside?  Is Maria’s green and red beer bottle between her and Nick representing the skrull that came between them?! 

We actually don’t see Maria or Nick in the bar in the official Secret Invasion trailer FYI we have two shots of Maria one of her in the tunnel and one of her at the bombing. Also a lot of the chess references we see in still or promos are with both Nick and Maria, re the bar and this still from People:

Does this mean Fury was already scheming before the bombing and slaying of Maria? Are they playing it together and that’s why we see these references with them together?  If this is so  then how did they fall into such a trap? Notice at the bar we see a green bottle between Maria and Nick and in the still we see a green bottle label behind Maria we also see a jar of green pickles (green + glass??)  behind Maria in the safe house and then again see green in front of her when she’s explaining the bombing plans to the audience. If a green exit sign above Rhodey’s head is enough of a green signal to lead into a skrull theory…. some green around Maria can be an indicator of something afoot too not that she is a Skrull but that Skrulls are around her or foreshadowing something! 

Thoughts?