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ernmark · 5 years

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Does Rita actively try to help Juno through his depression and intrusive thoughts? If so could you please show us some instances where she does?

She definitely tries to make an effort at it.

We don’t see it much in Season 1, in part because we don’t see all that much of Rita in general, and in part because Juno’s depression isn’t quite as major of a theme, and partly because Juno’s got something that he’s actively working toward during the entire season that keeps him too busy to get too preoccupied inside his own head.

In Season 2, though, he’s so much worse than he was before.

RITA: Boss, you been different since your eye blew up, realdifferent— You’re cranky all the time now! I mean, you were always cranky, but thisis different! (Kitty-Cat Caper)

And right away there’s evidence that she’s tried to help him through it, spinning a pretty horrific physical mutilation into something more lighthearted and at least somewhat positive:

RITA: ...you justshowed up with an eyepatch one day and after I was so worried about you cuz youdisappeared but you said it was okay so I thought okay maybe we can dress upand buy a little beakmonkey like all the pirates get in the movies—

Rita’s been giving him his time and space for six months without pushing him for an explanation or even to act beyond his capabilities. And that’s her trying to help him with his depression.

And this scene itself? When he gets physically violent and smashes her stuff, she doesn’t cower-- she calls him on his bullshit and holds him accountable, and that also is her helping him through it.

And she is holding him accountable, not rubbing his face in it. She’s calling him out because she’s hurt, but also because she cares. And she’s not blaming him for not trying hard enough or whatever. She understands that there are extenuating circumstances. She’s not taking it personally, which is... just so very nice, I gotta say.

JUNO: Rita…It’sjust a dry spell. That’s all.

RITA: That’s theproblem, Boss. You always get like this when you don’t have a case.

And once he concedes, she forgives him and immediately suggests that he get some sleep, and offers to help him get back on his feet.

JUNO: I…yeah, sure. I guess.

RITA: Well, I’m gladyou seen the error of your ways. Now go take a little nap in your office andI’ll call you just as soon as the next case comes through the door.

When he’s anxious about his abilities, she builds him up and encourages him:

RITA: Boss, you can do it! I know you can do it! You’re Juno Steel, remember? The winner of the HCPD’s Sharpshootin’ contest three years in a row!

When he’s caught in a spiral, she tries to help him logic his way out of it:

JUNO: Hey, Rita?Cancel that order for a new case. I’m feeling under the weather today.

RITA: What! But MistaSteel, you can’t! You gotta take a new case! You gotta helppeople!

JUNO: They don’twant the kind of help they’d get from me, Rita. I haven’t done anything goodfor anyone in months.

RITA: Of course youhave! You got Mick outta all that trouble with that shark!

JUNO: Thatwas a loan shark, Rita. I paid him.

RITA: Well,you got Cassandra Kanagawa off Mars, didn’t you?

JUNO: Thatwas you.

RITA: Well, it wasyour idea! And… and… hey, because of you, Billie Navarro is dead!

JUNO: That’ssupposed to make me feel better?

RITA: She was a realmean lady, Mista Steel. I’m sure it makes… someone feel better?

And again at the end of the episode:

RITA: Hey…what’s the matter, Boss?

JUNO: Nothingyou can fix.

RITA: But… we won!It was just the case you were waitin’ for, exciting and life-threatening, andit even ended with some real nice fireworks! It’s everything you coulda askedfor, and Ms. King is safe now, ain’t she?

JUNO: I’llsee you tomorrow, Rita.

RITA: Well… alright,Mista Steel. You’ll feel better after you sleep a little. You gotta. I know youwill.

Notice how it just doesn’t get any footholds?

We keep seeing her do this stuff throughout the season, but it never really takes, does it?

She’s not the only one who does this stuff, either. Mick and Peter are also pretty awesome at being supportive of their depressed little lady, but more often than not it doesn’t land. When they offer him space, when they offer him positivity, when they offer him solidarity, when they offer him reality-- sometimes they can derail his spirals, but there’s only so much that they can really do to help him.

And that comes back to a sad reality that’s talked about at the end of the season:

But it never worked -- none of the people he'd ever helped had stayed helped -- because you can't force someone else into it. Because getting better's always on you. It has to be. And that doesn't mean you're alone, doesn't mean you can't lean on others when you get tired or ask for directions when you get lost, but... Getting better's a long road. And if you want to go down it, you have to start walking. (Man of the Future)

Juno has to make that decision over and over again: in the FreeDomer’s compound, in the desert, in the Cerberus Province, and inside his own head.

And after he’s made that decision, Rita keeps doing the exact same stuff she’s been doing, but for the very first time he’s actually responding to it.

When she calls him out (via the THEIA bot) for leaving her behind, he realizes and acknowledges his wrongdoing and apologizes.

THEIA: Cuz maybe then she should disappear for weeks instead. Not say anything. Cuz that would definitely make you less worried. And not way more worried. Ain't that right. Boss?JUNO: Oh. I… What did I do? Rita, I’m… sorry. I’m so, so sorry. (Long Way Home)

And just like before, after she’s aired her grievances, she hugs him and forgives him.

JUNO: I... Uh... I'm sorry, Rita. I'm just... So sorry. It won't happen again... Rita?

SOUND: RITA TACKLE-HUGS HIM.

RITA: I missed you, Boss. I was real worried.

JUNO: I know. I hear you. For once. And I missed you too, Rita. Really.

And when he does misstep, she reassures him that she’s still on his side, even after he’s been called out.

RITA: And besides, Boss...(SHE HUGS HIM)JUNO: (GETS HUGGED)RITA:I ain't goin' nowhere. (Man of the Future)

And she keeps calling him out.

RITA: Mista Steel, how come you're bein' so mean to your second-best friend!JUNO: Because he's a chump, Rita. I always knew he was a chump but it's still disappointing to find out just how true that is.RITA: Oh, come on, Boss--JUNO: You "oh come on!" Sorry. I'm just... disappointed. I really thought that he'd have the answer, or at least that... Ramses wouldn't sucker him, too. Like he did me.RITA: Aw, Boss...JUNO: Either way, I don't think Mercury's gonna help us with this one. And we only have... Twenty-one hours left. We've gotta keep moving.RITA: But first...?JUNO: "But first" nothing! All of Oldtown, hell, probably all of Hyperion's on the line, and you want to "but first" about my loser friend? No! Hell no! ...Yeah, wow, that sounded pretty bad, huh?RITA: Mmmhmm.JUNO: I should probably just... apologize.

I’d like to point out here that she’s not being mean or nitpicky here-- she’s helping him not be an asshole and push his loved ones away. She’s recognizing that this is a behavior pattern that he falls into when he’s scared and self-loathing, but it doesn’t excuse him being cruel to the people around him.

And because Juno’s in a place where he wants to get better, he’s accepting this as constructive criticism, rather than a personal attack or evidence that he’s a terrible person.

Rita also acts as a point of calm to ground Juno through his own panic/depression spirals:

JUNO: This is a nightmare… A billion to one chance... oh god damn it, this is a nightmare…!RITA: I can do CPR, Mista Steel. You just tell me when he’s breathin’, okay?

And again:

JUNO: A bad spot! Me? After all the times I've scraped you off the sidewalk, Mercury, you're really gonna stand there and tell me that you were worried I was gonna put you in a bad spot?!RITA: Mista Steel.JUNO: What?RITA: I'm almost there. Okay? It's almost done.JUNO: Right. Right, almost... done. Thanks, Rita.RITA: No problem, Boss.

And again, when he’s starting to voice some intrusive thoughts:

JUNO: I told you I'd change. Hell of a lot that was worth. Maybe the Theia was onto something. One bad choice and all your progress is gone. Maybe the reason it was so terrifying was because it was right.RITA: No, Mista Steel, I think it was probably scary because it brainwashed your best friend and then threw him through a door at you.

Notably, she also helps Mick calm down from a panic spiral:

MICK: Me and...?! What, did I already do something wrong? Ohhhhhh I knew I shouldn’ta switched those two chairs when I moved in! They said this place was gonna be fit to my specifications exactly, and then I came in and saw the chairs and I went, “hey, maybe they’ll look better this way,” and they didn’t! And now they’re gonna kick me out of Newtown, aren’t they?!RITA: No, Mista Mercury. We ain’t gonna kick you out. An’ we can help you move the chairs back if you really want. (Man of the Future)

Also notably, even now, she’s powerless to help Juno if he’s not in a headspace where he is willing to be helped. Which is why she’s ineffective when THEIA Mick gets under Juno’s skin:

MICK: One weak day. That's all I'm saying, Jay. Your punishment for one weak day could be to lose fifteen years of progress. You could go back to feeling how you did after you were booted out of the HCPD. You might feel fine now, but...

RITA: He wouldn't! You don't have to listen to him, Mista Steel, you're better'n that now in a million ways, and I wouldn't letcha anyway, and--

And again here:

MICK: Puck Falco, that's right. Where are they now?

JUNO: I don't know. We... fell out of touch.

MICK: Heard that one before, am I right?

RITA: Mista Steel, this is all wrong! Diamond was gone before you left the HCPD and Detective Falco just transferred to another planet and--

I’ve gotta say, she’s really good at handling him when he lets her. I suspect that she’s developed a lot of these skills over the course of fifteen years being his friend, and this latest dark period is largely her exercising every skill she’s got in her arsenal to try and help him.

#the penumbra podcast #penumbra meta #depression #thesquidydude

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nerdfighterwhatevernumbers · 6 years

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just saw infinity war so let’s go

okay so most of this could have been avoided

i’m not gonna say it wouldn’t’ve been hard for wanda to destroy the soul stone earlier, but i’m pretty darn sure it’s selfish of these guys to say ‘no we don’t trade lives’ over their robot friend then ask hundreds of wakandans to die for them while they buy shuri time to save vision

they should’ve insisted on wanda destroying the stone after the second wakandan death cuz that’s already twice the number of robot lives they were willing to lose. Peter’s across the galaxy willing to shoot the love of his life in the face and thor’s standing in a star blast to make an ax but wanda watches those people die for several minutes before even trying to help and the rest of her friends were like ‘yeah, risking these wakandans seems like a fair trade’

sure thanos reversed time and stopped it from breaking but that’s when it broke right in front of him, he’d have to guess the time and place of its destruction to get it back and even if he managed that the protagonists sure didn’t know he’d do that, otherwise their plan wouldn’t have been about destroying the stone in the first place

and apparently through the many years thanos has been doing this, no one once said to him ‘hey thanos- instead of destroying half of the population so existing resources can accommodate them, why not use your infinity stone powers to create more resources?’

i mean he destroys half of the universe’s population with the snap of his fingers, you’re telling me he couldn’t have made bread? Is making extra bread and fish strictly a Jesus power? He destroyed a moon but he can’t grow more trees? Peter’s dad literally did that kinda stuff in gotg2 and he couldn’t kill everyone with a snap of his fingers

the deaths in the movie felt off

of course the black character is the first death

with the exception of gamora and possibly loki, no one’s death felt earned or like it did anything

it feels like they only did this because it’s a comic book movie and they know they can use death to raise the stakes as much as they want because no one stays dead in comics. i dont care if they said everyone will stay dead they do not mean it.

i say loki because it affected his brother somewhat, other than that it struck me as weird that he tried to go for a straight attack instead of actually trying to infiltrate or otherwise trick thanos. if he thought thanos wouldn’t fall for it you think he’d have a more clever or cunning plan than ‘sneakily try stabbing him’ i mean he didn’t even seem worn out to such an extreme that that was all he could think of. this is the GOD of trickery and that was your best shot? if he was worried about his brother thinking he betrayed him, calling himself ‘odinson’ would’ve been enough of a hint that he was still on his side

gamora’s felt more earned because it gave her a character arc. she had an entire arc in this movie, and it tied in with the villain, and it was a huge growth aspect for both her and peter, and she was an active player in the events surrounding and leading up to her death. even with a reset button, that still feels like it did something, that felt earned.

the death scenes they had had almost no stakes for me, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t emotional or well acted, i definitely got sad at thor crying over his brother’s dead body and rocket having to watch groot die again and peter saying ‘i don’t wanna go’. but darnit they cannot get me to care about dr steve

even pepper and tony’s relationship felt like it had more stakes than a lot of the deaths because that’s something that might have consequences and shows a certain important aspect of tony’s character AND it was basically unavoidable unlike over half these deaths. im saying this and i still do not care about tony or his relationship with pepper who deserves better (pepper who deserves better being her chosen married name i assume).

i’m not gonna gripe on dr steve just giving thanos the stone after flat saying he’d let tony die first cuz i’m assuming it’ll be a ‘i had to do it for the good timeline to happen’ thing

i think it did manage to have some character and relationship growth despite how crowded it was- contrast this to civil war where everything that didn’t involve tchalla felt like a waste of time. Again, this was especially present with Gamora, and rightfully so given her relationship with the villain. i like what they’re doing with hulk too, they’re actually making the character work for something and try to learn more about himself instead of just turning his power off and on when the drama demands it. Thor is great as ever, speaking of which those asgardians better come back to life or it’ll be a big eff you to everything in ragnarok

The jokes worked, I laughed at basically all of them, marvel movies do usually tend to be funny except age of ultron. speaking of which, i love that brucenat becomes just an awkward greeting keep it that way please

overall i gotta say

no one yelled ‘peter!’ and had spiderman and starlord both go ‘what?’ so this movie gets a 0/10

#it is 4am #i saw the late showign cuz it was easier to get seats to

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