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fightsbck · 5 years

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DIFFERENCE OF GENDRY’S CHARACTERISATION IN SEASON 8 EPISODE 2

content: you heard it - i should be sleeping but i didn’t. i watched the leak episode. i’m not fully conscious enough to make a full review of it, but i’ve focused my entire thoughts about gendry because i’ve been sort of hung up regarding him since there was an image spoiler a few hours beforehand. so here are some lines i’ll be drawing and refuse to take as part of my writing of him.

trigger warning: got spoilers, rape, sexual assaults.

things i'm willing to incorporate into my writing:

001 gendry has been busy making the weapons he should’ve been making instead. i like that he doesn’t necessarily prioritise arya’s, even if it was specially requested from her; it means he knows the exact reason why he was being brought to north - that was to supply the fighting men in winterfell with weapons just in time for the invasion. he had a job to do when he arrived, and he stuck to it. that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to do arya’s nor made sure he’d made it well for her; just that he’d saved it up for later.

002 it’s hot in the forge, my dudes, so the reason gendry was wearing a thin-layered of tunic wasn’t because he was trying to impress arya. it’s just naturally hot when you’re close to the fire most of the time, which he was, and i’ve had had a thought-out headcanon before that gendry naturally runs warm, body-temperature wise. so yes, i accept this as canon, but not out of any intention to allow nor encourage any sexual behaviour.

003 gendry is strong. he took a hammer from arya and struck it down with one swing against the bark and walk away like it’s fucking nothing. that’s canon and i fucking like it.

004 gendry does give arya her weapon personally. and he is impressed that she’s done well in herself as an armed woman considering he’d known her as a girl who was still so reckless while they’re-on-the-lam, but rather than complete awe, i think, like the show has been portraying, i might add a tinge mix of confusion and worry. gendry will always be plagued by the guilt of leaving her, and probably never quite stop blaming himself for the things that she must’ve endured alone afterwards. and he knew that, with such precise control of her skills, she didn’t develop it easily. so yes, he worries. and not just contemplative.

things i’m NOT willing, nor ever, going to incorporate into my writing:

001 gendry does visit arya later to deliver the weapon she’s asked, but he won’t be as freely to have told her about his ancestry nor her experience with the red woman. ( still, i like how joe said, “she wanted my blood. for some spell.” so i’m taking that as canon if he should ever explain it. ) this is because i see gendry as a very private person. all his life, up until arya, was him defending and protecting himself: that means he carries his anger and worry and concern all on his own without having to think that relying on people could be an option.

and while arya changed that particular point of view, when he began to trust her and they’ve developed that equal camaraderie and partnership while they’re on the run, this is not the same arya that he knew. gendry will tell bits and pieces, yes, i won’t deny, but see: how they’ve made arya as being the one to ask him all the questions. gendry doesn’t trust this behaviour. and he hadn’t before ( see: his first meeting with ned stark when ned asked him questions, and he seems closed off. ), i don’t understand why he should be suddenly okay with it now.

of course, one may argue it’s because they were friends before, good friends even. and i agree. gendry has always held a certain torch for arya. but again: this isn’t the same arya that he knew. and i know the show’s portraying him as hideously dumber than he is, but if gendry can detect arya was a girl when they were kids — before they were close, mind you — i think he would’ve had suspicion that arya isn’t the same. gendry would want an equal footing in this relationship once more, i would believe; because it’s what they had before, and what he wants to continue in the future.

this means, he gets to ask his own questions and have them be answered before he could re-trust arya again. if arya deflects, so will he.

002 gendry does not engage in a sexual relationship with arya. okay, i feel like i shouldn’t have to explain this, but i will: so gendry was raped. he was sexually assaulted, and he is traumatised by it. i know this doesn’t mean that gendry shouldn’t allow himself to indulge with further sexual relationships if he means it, but ... this wasn’t meaningful. again, referring to the above reasoning mostly that,

reason one. gendry doesn’t know this arya. yes, they’ve shared a large part of their history with one another, gendry and arya even grew together for a few years on the road, but gendry didn’t return the same ( see: how he’s become more of an active character than passive, which he was before when he was a boy, regarding his place in the social hierarchy ), so why should arya does?

reason two. and again, i will repeat: gendry is a very private person; reclusive, almost. wary and guarded easily with people he doesn’t know. he’s had good reasons to be like that, too, considering his background and his experiences at being tossed aside from one guardian to a captor etc. in the books, he has refused to engage with women who are flirting with him. i chalk it up to the fact that gendry just has an abundant sense of distrust.

and referring back to the first reason, gendry has yet to trust this arya. of course, there was that basis of their past that didn’t make him completely wary of her, but... at the same time, why should he? so far, arya has given him no reason to. she wasn’t like the girl he used to know, and up until then, she has given exactly zero information on where she’d been or how she’s changed. arya is now just a lady who wore the face of a girl he knew, and sometimes smiled at the jokes that they’ve shared. but she’s not the same, and she doesn’t seem willing to open up to him about it.

so yes, when there’s lack of trust, there would’ve been lack of motivation for him to pursue or agree to arya’s offer.

reason three. gendry is and always will be wary of his status. it doesn’t matter whose son he was: he is a mere smith, and he is uneducated, and he is a lowborn. he knows this. this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. it’s just who he is, and gendry’s long accepted this. with that said, no matter how much he jokes or teases arya about it, arya is a highborn. gendry just wouldn’t fuck with that, okay? a kiss, or a long hug, if you want to show that he’s attracted; but sex in a fairly public place where, you know, he could’ve gotten killed if anybody just passed by and saw, is not going to go. gendry’s been taught for about most of his life of his place in the hierarchy system, those sort of teaching just doesn’t fly out of the window one night.

although of course, you may argue on two basis (1) that lust can make people do stupid shit, and (2) lust to add with “the end of the world” trope makes them even stupider. i agree. however, this is arya. as much as gendry doesn’t know this new version of her nor trust her, as per reason one and two, that doesn’t mean he’s just going to defile her like that. not only was he compromising his place as a smith brought by the kindness of jon, who was king then, but he’s also risking her reputation as a lady. she may not care, fine, but he does. he always have, and he always will.

reason four. back to the meaningful thing, yeah. just. gendry is already someone who needs absolute trust for him to finally be comfortable enough with someone for him to freely complaint, let alone sexually be involved with, but past his rape and sexual assault makes it worse. also the way arya treated him? all cold and harsh and quite mechanical ( sorry tv!show arya, but it’s true ) and her quickly assuming the dominant / top position without speaking with him? it’s not going to work. gendry’ll faster gets a panic attack and run the hell away to make sure he’s not bounded to the wall than to indulge her, no matter who she is or who she’s been to him.

reason five. probably a summarisation of all the reasons above, but he’s demisexual as fuck. he cares for arya, yes, but he doesn’t know her enough, in my writing, post-reunion to trust his body in her hand.

003 gendry had not slept with other women. after melissandre, he becomes even more reclusive and private in king’s landing. i wanna add more on the fact that seeing women and having meaningless sex with them is also coming from the fact that he watched his mom getting groped almost daily when she was working (when he was young) was what rooted this dislike towards men just coming blindly after girls, but that’s another headcanon for another time. regardless, gendry is — technically — a virgin.

004 gendry is not this dumb. i swear to god. he is a simple boy, yes, and a lot of time in his narration he refers to himself as “stupid”, but he’s not. gendry is a complex, though maybe not as complicated or as many layered as others, character who is equally thoughtful and logical and smart in his own way. a friendly reminder that, a lot of times, in the books, arya has acknowledged several times that gendry was correct and that she was wrong. he’s not just some dumb sidekick who’s got all the muscles. the tv show should stop writing him as so, and i won’t be writing him like that here.

tl;dr gendry didn’t have sex with arya, thanks. also HUGE SHOUT OUT to @xneedlepoint and @strklings for listening to me ramble about it before!!!!! yOU GUYS ARE THE MVP AND ILY!!!!!!!

DON’T REBLOG THIS !!!

#got spoilers #got negativity #i suppose??? lmao #ANYWAY THIS: WAS A LOT OF THOUGHTS #AT 3:00 AM #AHHH I NEED THE SLEEP NOW #but anyway im glad this is out #i!!! felt Better dissecting the parts #their first scene was actually so.. decent buT DAMN they ruined it huh #long post for ts #unformatted #gendry; meta.

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elenafisher · 5 years

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chelsea watches (read: is agonized by) “avengers: endgame”

i just got home from endgame and i have a lot to say about it!

OVERALL:

i... liked it? i think? i can’t tell.

there’s probably going to be a lot of complaining in this post, yet i didn’t actually hate the movie. but there was a lot to digest, so i’m sure my feelings will change over the next couple of weeks.

this movie was edited weird and i think it gave me whiplash.

the tone was dramatic and desperate, then lighthearted and fun, and then back to dramatic and desperate before i could so much as blink. it was very jarring!

it also made me cry.

robert downey jr. has always been very earnest in his portrayal of tony stark, but he gave all he had in this one. i was on the edge of tears watching him the whole time, really. there’s definitely a sense of finality to his performance.

those last 20 minutes had me weeping a bit. when they put the arc reactor on the bundle of flowers... oh, my heart. :’(

THE GOOD:

(most of) our characters are back!

but was there ever any doubt? the stakes were made to feel high, but they never really were. you always came away with the feeling that they were all gonna make it.

no word on vision, though! pretty confused about that one. i know he was killed after the snap occurred, so i don’t think they actually can bring him back, but i always thought that he would, since they have this to film still.

it was very well made. i hope they keep bringing back the people who work on the sets, the cinematography, and the lighting, because it was all so well done.

we need to raise one for alan silvestri and his amazing soundtrack.

oh, did anyone else notice the emphasis on DAUGHTERS?

tony’s daughter morgan

scott’s daughter cassie

clint’s daughter lila

thanos’s "daughters”, nebula and gamora

to me, it felt like they were setting up these girls for potentially taking up their father’s mantles, which would actually be cool as fuck.

morgan stark is absolutely the cutest little bean i’ve ever seen in my life.

I LOVE YOU 3000!

her scenes with tony were so sweet.

that cheeseburger parallel... oh man.

really, every scene that every person shared with tony was really good. you can just feel that everybody was giving everything they had because they knew they only had so much time left to play these characters together, and they wanted to get these final performances right.

tom holland, you heartbreaker. the audience in my theater went absolutely nuts when he finally returned. but when he was crying as he was talking to tony for the last time, oh man.

“i lost the kid.” please...

THE BAD:

i still don’t really get what they’re doing with thor.

i don’t share this opinion much because this is tumblr and everyone loves this movie, but i didn’t like ragnarok, and i don’t like what’s become of thor or bruce. i wasn’t really checking on these two before, but now they’re just the comedy reliefs of the MCU.

chris hemsworth is funny, of course, and thor is a badass, of course, but they were just trying so hard with him.

it kind of feels like they’re just pulling him apart, like one group still wants him to be the noble leader of asgard and the other just wants him to be the court jester. so, rather than decide, they just mushed their ideas together.

captain marvel: i knew she wasn’t going to be in the movie much, because she would’ve done everything in, like, 30 minutes, but they really, really underutilized her. seriously, she was only in this one, at most, for five minutes.

but, in those five minutes, she got a new haircut and kicked all kinds of ass, which are both wins.

THE UGLY:

STEVE ROGERS, SIR, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

i can’t believe they hit the undo button on cap’s story.

rather than have him grow and develop in his new role in the future he never wanted or expected to receive, they just had him go back in time to marry the one that got away.

but don’t get me wrong y’all; steve and peggy hurt me so good. i live for their angst. but they weren’t supposed to get together like this!

it’s gross because peggy moved on. she was able to pick up the pieces and create something wonderful for herself by having a fulfilling career and a happy marriage with another man.

steve should’ve accepted her choice. if he loves her so much, he should’ve accepted that he lost her and, since she moved on without him, he has to move on without her.

i can almost get the poetic cinema that they were going for: after tony loses his chance at having a family and living his life, steve is woken up and realizes how much he’s been missing out on, so he decides to go out there and discover what he’s been running away from all this time.

but, rather than do those things, or literally anything else, steve goes back in time to... marry peggy.

like, he could’ve traveled the world with sam and bucky, or gone solo for a while, or even hit up sharon again.

sharon carter, what a waste. they really couldn’t commit to the idea of her and steve together, could they?

but as soon as they confirmed sharon to be peggy’s niece, there was just no way a romance could blossom. it’s kind of hilarious how in a cinematic universe where raccoons talk, characters time travel, and AIs can be 3D printed, kissing the niece of your former flame is still considered to be the weirdest thing about it.

seriously: i find it all so vulgar and manipulative.

the one good thing that came out of this was sam wilson, the only worthy captain america, receiving the shield.

i’ve read that some people are upset that sam got the shield instead of bucky. like, did y’all watch the last movie? let bucky have his plums and his goats. he’s done fighting other people’s wars.

THE EVEN UGLIER:

i got problems, y’all, and those problems have two names: natasha romanoff and clint barton.

i ship these two because everything in the avengers (2012) led me to believe that these super cool assassins who were fighting each other were actually in love with each other and it was them against the world (which doesn’t sound familiar at all, i know).

the characters had history and scarlett johansson and jeremy renner had chemistry. i saw it and i know all y’all saw it.

so, y’all can imagine how goddamn appalled i was when i first read that natasha and clint were not only not lovers, but that clint actually had a secret family, with a secret wife, on a secret farm, and that we were going to be told this with absolutely no build-up whatsoever.

but y’all could tell that the russos were as tired as i was when it came to accepting those facts!

they decided to throw caution to the wind and show some more intimacy between natasha and clint, which was delicious. finally, some good fucking food.

i mean, the necklace? she was wearing her necklace again!

to me, it seemed like natasha had fallen in love with him all those years ago, but he was either already married or had turned her down (or both?), and she was never able to act on her feelings for him. i think that clint was also in love... and perhaps knew that he could never be with her, because of their lifestyles and her past, and chose laura instead. or something agonizing and unfulfilling like that.

(i really hope her upcoming movie expands on this.)

and i do think that she loved him. like, romantically. she couldn’t stop touching him the whole movie (HER HANDS ON HIS FACE!!! she’s so worried for him i’m crying) and was shaking, she was so relieved, upon being reunited with him.

it is some consolation that no matter what, you are never able to deny that natasha and clint love each other: even when they’re not romantic partners, they are definitely platonic life partners. their mutual devotion to one another, in almost every universe in the comics and in these movies, is incredibly strong and moving.

so, rather than endure clint’s death, natasha chose to sacrifice herself so that he could get the stone and, ultimately, be reunited with his family. and, on paper, it sounds okay... except, it really isn’t.

y’all wanna know why it’s not okay?

it’s not okay because natasha was an original avenger, and we were never given the chance to spend time with her, or become emotionally invested in her journey, or to care about her reasons for making the ultimate sacrifice.

like, i cared about natasha, but i felt that i would’ve cared so much more (and that the audience could’ve, as well) had we’d been able to have a front row seat to her “atonement” arc.

because, as an audience, we sort of started in medias res: while she was not initially forthcoming with who she was or what she was doing, natasha came to be seen as a reliable and capable ally by the avengers, her second appearance onscreen. we are given no real reason to distrust her because she’s so desperate to find redemption, which she’s made apparent in almost every movie, and it’s hard to hate somebody working so strongly for another chance.

i mean, this journey would’ve been made so much more badass by us experiencing it firsthand, rather than relying on the hearsay from the directors, writers, and actors. we should’ve gotta a miniseries starring natasha romanoff as the black widow, so we could finally see what she did to become so disgusted with herself and so feared by everyone else.

this is (partially) why so many people adore bucky. we’ve seen him as the best friend, the fellow comrade, before he was forced to become a mindless killing machine. we’ve seen him kill and cause absolute mayhem. but now we’re watching bucky grow out from that and become something more (and, hopefully, something better).

basically, natasha romanoff should’ve received that same treatment. we needed to explore all of her facets, not just some of them.

tl;dr: we should’ve had more time with natasha.

it’s also not okay because natasha’s sacrifice, one that was both irreversible and absolutely pivotal to the fate of the final battle, was not given nearly the same amount of respect that tony received after his demise.

while we all owe a lot to robert downey jr. for his choice to portray, and continue portraying, tony stark / iron man, he is not the most important avenger.

it’s also worth noting that he did not have to be the one to snap his fingers. i mean, anyone could’ve been given what tony was wearing and then wielded the gauntlet. but, like natasha, he made a choice to sacrifice his life for the greater good.

yet, only tony was given an elaborate funeral. no matter how you slice it, it’s enormously disrespectful to a veteran team member. for this ultimate sacrifice to be made by the only woman on the original crew is doubly insulting.

AND ALL OF THIS IS MADE WORSE BY THE FACT that natasha’s death mirrors gamora’s. they’re identical, right down to the music that plays and how the camera focuses on their bloody bodies.

the russos were probably trying to invoke poetic cinema again here, but the scene comes across as somewhat lazy and insincere. like, they can’t even kill her right!

as terrible as this scene is, i want to give scarlett and jeremy a round of applause for it. you really got the sense that these characters were more than ready to die for each other, and that’s only because scarlett and jeremy were able to sell the emotional intimacy of the scene so well.

all of it is too little, too late, however.

allow me to conclude this rambling nonsense by stating that i also think they condensed her character arc too much. like, i know this branches off of what i was just talking about a dozen bullet points ago, but even if natasha were to receive this ending, i feel that she received it too soon, y’know?

there should’ve been more scenes in the previous films dedicated to her, and her feelings, and how she relates to any given situation, because another problem that drags this scene down is the lack of any information about natasha.

like, even when assembled with the other avengers, she feels remote.

perhaps that’s intentional, given that the character’s a spy and has been enigmatic about every other area of her life for so many years. but i think she’s been written to be too enigmatic.

#endgame spoilers #chelsea.txt #this is so long lmao kudos to anyone that reads it #and yeah i probably have more thoughts swimming around in my head #but i've been trying to write this post for three hours now and i can't think of anything else to write lol #i need to watch the movie again

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360degreesasthecrowflies · 6 years

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FarscapeWatch: 2.05 ‘The Way We Weren’t’

It’s been a minute, but we’re back in business. The season 2 reactions continue as I continue my first watch of Farscape!~

It's a flashback episode! This bodes well coming so early in the series after effectively a repilot as this season started.

Okay so we're in Moya...or are they just saving money by re-using the set, because either I'm watching a low-quality pitched-up version, or that's not Pilot??

Ladypilot? I like her. So something bad will happen no doubt. Just like Crais's lady second in command last season.

Are we watching a recording? Interesting flashback. Oooh yep they kill that Pilot and its...really quite brutal. Ugh Crais pfo.

And there's the stinger. Aeryn was part of the crew killing the previous pilot of that Leviathan. Which...actually is Moya. And it's Chiana that's found this recording, wuh oh. Good thing she and Aeryn have such a camaraderie and positive history so far... (Although we do seem to be retconning the character development in Taking the Stone away in these last few episodes).

So we enter the episode, and now we're all watching the tape...the whole crew, including Aeryn. Rygel right away stirs the pot, and I'm starting to see a Rygel-Chiana teamup connection. Rygel is somehow a lot more tolerable with someone else on his 'team', so to speak. So right away they all (minus John, I'm sure) jump to the conclusion that Aeryn has been deliberately concealing this past from them as some kind of long-held plan of her own, and really... I just don't think it's been seeded enough that Aeryn might be a traitor. She's been portrayed so far as The Main Girl even over Chiana who's had a lot of narrative focus, her entire character and arcs have been based around her being an outcast from her people, so what does she have to gain by playing what's by my reckoning now at least a months-long game against the rest of them and faking all kinds of emotional responses? Nah, not buying it. But the downside is that then makes the rest of the cast look bad, and I like those guys.

So they start to be paranoid that Aeryn might have come across - or even tortured! - them themselves in the past as they were on Moya at this time, three cycles - that is, three years, I think - ago. Aeryn denies it and John backs her up. Zhaan has a nasty little remark about being shocked that Aeryn would kill a Pilot but...Zhaan, she was ordered to, it would've been her own head on the block if she didn't. And Aeryn rightfully points out that Zhaan had no problem with cutting THEIR Pilot's arm off just out of her own selfishness. Chiana actually chips in as the voice of reason here and points out, had none of them actually thought to understand what it meant that Aeryn was a Peackeeper? She did bad things. So I wonder will this be an introspective episode about all that kind of thing?

Again, I imagine this kind of thing came up in the fandom at the time, but perhaps it's possible that Zhaan, D'Argo and Rygel, being the characters they are, just DIDN'T ever think too deeply about Aeryn's past - or even hid it from themselves so they could work with her. Chiana of course, the wildcard, has no such qualms. Being real though, they've all done plenty bad, Zhaan and D'Argo are canonically killers, even if they had reason, and Rygel and Chiana probably aren't squeaky clean either. Pot kettle much?

And we're into flashback with Aeryn ominously noting relationships. Romantic, perhaps? I'm just ready for John's whiny dudebro to rear its head again just as we'd started to move past that if it turns out she's gasp been with someone else before.

So the first thing that's established is that not only is Aeryn emotionless and focused because she's a Peacekeeper, her singlemindedness and adherence to procedure and policy are actually intense even by Peacekeeper standards. This Aeryn is very firmly Lawful Neutral, an alignment I'd say she keeps but adheres less strictly to at this point in Farscape real-time, veering into True Neutral. On that note, my imagined alignments for all our leads so far: Rygel = Chaotic Evil verging on Chaotic Neutral, Chiana = Chaotic Neutral, textbook, D'Argo = Neutral Good, Zhaan = True Neutral, John = Chaotic Good, Crais = Lawful Neutral. Pilot...hard to say, because Pilot's not been a character for long. Though going by last episode, perhaps that's due to change this season.

Flashback!Moya introduces a 'friend' of Aeryn's from the off. A male friend. Hmmm...

It's revealed that Aeryn also unknowingly facilitated the new Pilot, our character known as Pilot (this will get confusing fast >.<) being brought aboard Moya. It's decided that he should not be told about this tape and immediately the camera cuts to Chiana, hmm, I wonder if *someone* is going to show Pilot the tape??? Presumably he would not be happy to see Aeryn killing one of his kind, to be fair, would anyone be? This is going to go terribly wrong, isn't it.

Back into flashback. It seems that Aeryn's friend is a softly-softly approach kinda guy with his attitude to the imprisoned Pilot, but willing to change to overt violence in front of superiors like Crais. Peer pressure or looking after number 1? We also learn that Pilots are much more intelligent than human(oid)s, or at least, can handle a multipilicty of concepts far better than our brains could.

So we have a lot of Peacekeeper internal politics. Crais is a hard slavedriver who wants Aeryn's superior to work faster and do things ASAP no matter the damage that may cause. Aeryn's man disagrees, but has no choice as he's inferior. Also somehow Aeryn is always in the background in these scenes, although it seems to be the case that she's a lot lower down the chain. Just chance, perhaps?

Minor aside, a shot showing that Aeryn DID in fact see Zhaan while as a Peacekeeper and was not at all bothered to see her captured. So she didn't mention that. On that note, I'm unsure who's privy to these flashbacks - is she telling John in private, or just thinking of them herself and we viewers are looking in, or are we looking in as if we were there for the context of what she's feeling now, becoming privy to information np-one else on Moya is?

Okay so it's revealed why Aeryn is in the background; she's been trying unsuccessfully for a while to get Crais's attention to request a transfer, and has been rebuffed coldly every time. Here he just walks away while she's speaking, sheesh.

Back to present day. It's all weighing on Aeryn's mind and she beats her punching bag until her hands are bloody. John comes to her and they talk, we get some indepth on Peacekeeper culture. Emotions are just about forbidden, especially positive ones, and bonds are also discouraged. Romance is tacitly forbidden, but sex is fine as a biological need for stress relief. It's interesting, the latter - I wonder if that was shocking in the late 90s, because it feels like that's a more common or more accepted perspective on sex at least, today, emotional and abusive other parts aside.

CALLED IT. Aeryn and..Valorik? (I’m going to call him V) were totally bangin'. But possibly also developing feelings for each other, at least inklings of, maybe onesided, maybe both ways? Which is of course, the biggest forbidden fruit. So back then, baby Aeryn was playing on a knife edge of breaking the rules, interesting.

(Possibly slightly kinky sex too, there's a bit of grabbing there and chocking, wow)

ALSO CALLED IT. John seems dumbfounded that Aeryn used to be "lovers" with someone else, and is struck speechless and stammering. Sorry sunshine, but you're both at least mid-twenties, did you really think you were her first? You were ENGAGED or nearly it anyway back on Earth! Aeryn admits now that this guy was her something special that she'd had feelings for - which puts an interesting spin on her requesting a transfer earlier in the episode, and not for the first time either - perhaps easier to run from the situation than deal with the conflict in her vows and her feelings? (Also, still working out John and Aeryn's relationship right now...it feels like Official Couple, but it's interesting how John has now been very much accepted, even as a leader, if his partner is still privy to being outcast at literally a minute's notice...)

Well, now Pilot's seen the tape. "How did he get hold of that?" John asks. Well, John, you're on a ship with two wildcards and two characters who distrust Aeryn, is it rocket science? Pilot calls Aeryn - Officer Sun - in to see him, and does NOT sound happy.

Let me take this moment to note how different Aeryn looks with her hair down and long. She's like a different woman.

Aeryn claims to closer to Pilot 'than any other two beings on this ship' as she still has his DNA inside her. Guess she and John have been using space condoms then? (sorry)

So Pilot attacks her, and tbh, I'm Team Pilot on this one. Aeryn's view that being reminded of what she had done - tacit admission that she forgot, it mattered that little to her! - is just as bad on her as Pilot discovering she killed one of his kind coldbloodedly is pretty much not equivalent I think. "I killed someone which is bad, but it's hard on me too because I forgot and only now feel guilty!" is a pretty weak defence.

Now Pilot's having a flashback. Of being 'installed' into the ship, which is literally being inserted into the driver's seat...and then wired in so he's rooted in. Eesh.

So, we have some interesting ethical things arising. Moya's previous Pilot refused to do as she was told so was killed by the Peacekeepers. Pilot was installed, but was aware on installation that the ship had had a previous Pilot who was now dead in order for him to be installed. Moya was at the time unaware and Pilot fears he will be rejected. Also, the PKs are going to forcibly install Pilot, instead of going through a year-long bonding process, they aim to do it within approximately two days. That's a lot. In the present day, Pilot now refuses to fly the ship - echoing the previous Pilot - unless Aeryn leaves. But... I feel like the fact that it is the same ship that Pilot himself was installed in, also, perhaps, benefiting from the previous one's death, complicates things. He did not, in the flashback, seem to be under the impression that he would be the ship's first ever Pilot.

So Rygel showed Pilot the tape. And Chiana's mad at him for it, god I love her, you never know what she's going to do.

Zhaan and Aeryn scene. Zhaan tends to Aeryn after Pilot's attack on her throat, but is a little rough intentionally and makes some snide remarks too. Interesting little scene, at first Zhaan seems to be very angry with Aeryn, but when she starts to pack to leave, then, relents and apologises; Aeryn only did as she was told. An interesting time-wise parallel comes here, because at the same time as Aeryn was obediently following orders, the other leads were already imprisoned for grossly breaking what was expected of them by murder, theft, or rebellion. Who is right, though? Arguments can be made both ways. And what was John doing three years ago? Probably...similar to Aeryn, following orders, following the rules, and possibly not worrying about the ethics of the situation either.

Back to flashback. More ethics, which is interesting. Aeryn wishes to follow her orders, but her feelings - and what Mr V is telling her - are coming into conflict with those orders, almost suggesting the Peacekeeper system may effectively be two-tier. One rule for the grunts, another for those high up enough for High Command to turn a blind eye. V wishes for Aeryn and he to be assigned together again and stay as partners - and he can make it happen. He also badmouths Crais which horrifies Aeryn - outright "insubordination", but V justifies it to her as observation - likely something else she has learned to value in the military. I'm reminded of Asimov's robots realising that in order to fulfil objective #1 - prevent humans from coming to harm by inaction, humans actually have to be harmed sometimes to save them from themselves or each other.

To complicate things even more. V wishes to sabotage Crais to save the Leviathan, Moya, for fear that pursuing Crais's plans will kill it. V is telling Aeryn, his forbidden lover this - although hearing about it puts them both in danger and makes her an accessory. Tricky, tricky.

Just one little aside as well. V insists that he knows what Aeryn feels, and that if she does as he says and leaves with him, she'll be so much happier. That's a nice parallel to John - but not an all-out positive one, because in both, Aeryn's choice and what she actually wants is being subordinated.

Back to flashback with Pilot, and we learn that not only was Pilot's plugging-in to Moya painful, the pain *never went away* and he has just been living with it, accustomed to it, since then! Sheesh. Further, Pilot has only been accepted by Moya in the first place because she was tortured into submission.

Well this is good. Pilot, feeling guilty, has now unplugged himself from Moya by effectively amputating part of himself that was plugged in. Plus side, he's no longer in pain, minus side...he's no longer in control of the ship, so she effectively has no brain to maintain all the things that need done. Aeryn blames herself for this all and no doubt the flashbacks will let us know why...

Awh, Aeryn's solution is that Pilot needs to talk about the time back then, which is something she's learned from John, I quite like that. John of course seizes on this to pressure Aeryn to talk to HIM which...okay, but it's not all always about you buddy. Just let her do her thing, she's a grown-up.

Flashback to Aeryn and V, alone, intimate. She tells him she will go with him. She admits fear of the unknown, though, and he tells her she has it in her to be able to survive elsewhere - which is heartbreaking, because we know she since has, when she in the past didn't believe she could. She just never could have imagined the circumstances that would occur in.

So it turns out that Aeryn sold V out for his treason. PLaying by the rules and being good was more important. But it's understandable, it's how she was raised, and she was protecting herself, too. Even as he is dragged away, V tells her she's special, even in a proud tone - nobody else would have attempted this, that is, she has turned him in for the reward of being able to get her transfer that had failed so many times before. In a way, she has, ironically, gone about getting that through less than official, or typical channels.

Back to present, and it's heavily implied that V was tortured to death for his treason. Tough on Aeryn, tougher on him, of course.

Aeryn and John, present day, drop from above into Pilot's chamber, bypassing the sealed door. Pilot uses two DRD guards to attack, but John and Aeryn are able to shoot and disable them, approaching and holding Pilot at gunpoint, wow, that escalated fast.

Okay I love how Aeryn doesn't get his talking thing. So she pushes Pilot to talk by shouting at him and threatening to shoot him up here and now if he doesn't. Smooth. It's revealed that separated, Pilot will starve, life support will fail and the others will die, and only Moya will survive.

Aeryn offers herself to be killed by Pilot if he will spare the others. Pilot is humbled, and reveals that it is not just those brought up memories he's been struggling with; he feels just as at fault as Aeryn, because...

Flashback again. V on Pilot's planet, which again complicates good-guy-V that's been portrayed throughout the whole episode. It's revealed that Pilot was informed, and knew going in that in order for him to become a Pilot of that ship - at his young age, before he had been decreed ready - the existing Pilot would have to be killed and removed, and at the time, was although morally torn, happy with that. He was in effect, happy to facilitate another's death just so that he was able to see the stars - perhaps making him a criminal worse than any of the others on the ship in that sense, who killed in desperation or for the greater good. It is his guilt that was dredged up by the tape.

Aeryn convinces Pilot that they have both come a long way since they were those people. Pilot is convinced to reconnect with Moya in a rudimentary manner, but which will lead to a natural, non-painful bond, mutually between the two of them. He will though have less control now, a nice plot McGuffin for later no doubt, but it's thematic so I'm not bothered by it.

Coda, John and Aeryn alone again. Aeryn makes the point that V and John both said to her "you can be so much more" which I didn't pick up on, but hmm. Of COURSE John then tries to fish for a love confession out of her, and we close just on a positive musical cue as the two just look at, and then away from each other. Goddd just give her a minute dude. But they are cute together and I'm getting more a sense that she's just reserved about things of that nature this season than that she's actively not interested and he's pursuing obliviously because she's a humanoid who's the right colour and shape for him.

Okay, that was a lot! I quite liked this one, this season is shaping up already a lot stronger than this time in season 1. 7 to 7.5/10 for this one. Let's get into the breakdowns:

CHARACTER BEATS

JOHN

John...actually doesn’t have a whole lot to do this episode, except what’s required of him as the Designated Hero (be present for the solution of every plot element) and as the framing device for the flashback narrative. I feel like despite John’s prodding, Aeryn comes on her own to most of the solutions and means to reach solution in this episode. Having said that, he is a little more respectful of her this episode than he was last season (”Aeryn, do this, but I haven;t got time to tell you why. Obey me, woman!”) which is a pleasure. I still feel like his leadership hasn’t quite been narratively justified yet though, some more infighting from the others or incapability to work together in his absence would bring me more around to that viewpoint.

CHIANA

Chiana was, as usual, a delight, and for once this time actually wasn’t the progenitor of the plot through carelessness or not thinking about the impact of her actions. She didn’t have a whole lot to do here, though she did get the ball rolling. Still shows a tendency to be out for herself and crucially, only really rely on herself, as as soon as eyebrows are raised about Aeryn this episode she mainly makes herself scarce; interesting that her behaviour in ‘Crackers’ isn’t actually that far off her normal or baseline unlike the large divergences shown by the other characters in that episode. I wonder if that speaks to her baseline being madness or unpredictability, or if there’s a psychic strength there to her.

ZHAAN

First up, Zhaan ditched her horrible gold collar in this episode and looked a lot better for it, although the actress (I haven’t learned names yet) looked oddly shapeless in some scenes, almost like the gown was cut to cover up a pregnancy. No clue whether or not that was the case though, it may well just have been an unfortunate - or otherworldly, I guess - cut. I actually didn’t like Zhaan so much in this episode for the few scenes she made an appearance - she was unreasonably bitchy, I felt. Its possible she was just a little stressed out and acting out, but she didn’t feel like season 1 Zhaan - perhaps just wrongfooted by something she with all her foresight had failed to foresee. I felt Zhaan abused her power and influence in a few scenes here in a petty way I don’t expect from her, even if she did later show remorse. Still, character depth is always interesting.

D’ARGO

Shockingly, in this episode, D’Argo didn’t have a lot to do. This is becoming a recurring theme. There were some positive scenes of camaraderie with John (the rock-paper-scissors to decide who would intercede between Aeryn and Pilot was a nice touch) and I suppose tacit camaraderie with the rest of the crew by siding with them - although, I may have expected from history for D’Argo, the honourable warrior, to side with Aeryn, the honourable warrior. There’s some closeness with Pilot at the end, too, which builds on a (I think) season 1 scene where D’Argo played him music. Perhaps most interestingly, I don’t think he’s shared many scenes with Zhaan lately - yet is kissing her in the credits at the start of every episode, particularly interesting given the team-up with Chiana last episode. I will be keeping a close eye on proceedings.

RYGEL

I actually...didn’t hate Rygel here. Even though he caused the plot and stirred everything up by showing Pilot the tape, it did ultimately have good outcomes, allowing both Aeryn and Pilot to work through some trauma and improving Pilot and Moya’s in-the-background relationship. And he also at least claimed to have acted out of a sense of duty and honour, which...is fair, and also does in a twisted way fit with Rygel’s established perhaps old-fashioned traditional values. You’re alright, little man.

PILOT

This was...very much a Pilot episode, that actually gave surprising depth to, and made me care about a puppet. Two puppets, actually. I’m shocked at how formidable LadyPilot managed to be in her few seconds of screentime, and I’m actually a little sad for Moya - a character who’s literally a set - losing that connection and maybe still never knowing what happened. Dark. Lots about Pilot here; the big benevolent nonviolent alien turning out to be not only smarter than any of them, but also essentially a cold-blooded murderer worse than any of the rest of them was quite the twist. I’m also starting to wonder how far in advance and with what consequences the seemingly offhand monster-of-the-week plot of giving Aeryn Pilot DNA in season 1 was planned to have a lasting reach and effect on future plots. Perhaps it’s ironic to talk about a puppet becoming three dimensional.

AERYN

Woh boy, a lot to get into here. This episode is a little of an Aeryn character study, delving into her past alongside Pilot’s and revealing a past romance, unhappiness with how she was treated as a Peacekeeper, and a tendency to try and keep her head down and get on with it that remains in the Aeryn of the present day. A real duality is revealed in Aeryn in this episode; she has been tempted in the past and has resisted the temptation, but at the same time has cut herself off from happiness in favour of yes, safety, but also misery. She is not a risk-taker, though she is at the same time both a tactician and a warrior, which is an interesting combination of attributes and adds depth to the character she seemed to be early on this time last season. Seeing a Peacekeeper-heavy episode, we are also as viewers privy to how much of the Peacekeeper motto and policies are actually bent or broken by the people themselves and how Aeryn’s devotion to the rulebook is somewhat atypical.

WHAT THIS EPISODE ESTABLISHED:

Pilot actually has a history! And a dark one. John and Aeryn are actually not together despite hints pointing that way so far this series. Aeryn was rule-abiding even for a Peacekeeper, and everyone who isn’t John on Moya is still quick to distrust her. Crais was a dick even by Peacekeeper standards. And Peacekeepers aren’t as united a bloc of people as has been made out so far in the series. Also do we all just live on Moya now?

CHARACTER RANKING SO FAR AS OF 2.05:

1) Chiana

2) Aeryn

3) John

4) Pilot

5) D’Argo

6) Zhaan

7) Rygel

That’s us for this episode of FarscapeWatch until 2.06, ‘Picture If You Will’! (which seems to be perhaps a Chiana episode from previews!) Check out the #farscapewatch tag to keep up with the series, and/or read all my reactions in the masterlist which you can find here and linked on my blog’s main page

#farscapewatch #farscape #farscape fans #farscape season 2 #john crichton #aeryn #no spoilers #zhaan #d'argo #chiana #moya #sci fi #reactions #reviews #tv review #90s #throwback

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queensofmystery · 7 years

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5x18

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@elementary-said-ni said: Totally agree with the Joan thing. But the Sherlock being racist part? Are you sure? He definitely didn’t go by emotions when it came to Shinwell, he was always objective when it came to him, right from the start. But the only reason he was so hell bent on getting the truth out of Shinwell was because he has always believed that if you murder someone, you cannot be excused, no matter what the circumstances. I was reminded of Murder Ex Machina where Mason tries to justify the killer who murdered a bad person, and Sherlock says that the killer did not have the right to take a life, and so he must face the consequences. I also believe that the writers want us to be in two minds, and want us to pick a side. I think this is what leads to the conflict between H and W that the writers have been talking about. Should SBK take priority (for now) or not… And this doesn’t mean that Joan is wrong, I think she is right in prioritizing taking down SBK, I just don’t think that he is in the wrong either… The whole murder being a no-no thing is why he practically pleaded with Kitty not to murder Gruner, and was so relieved when she didnt have a murder on her hands…

I want to answer your comments in two parts - first, on Sherlock’s prejudices and second, on Sherlock’s attitude toward murder in general and the idea of Kitty committing murder.

I want to highlight what @beanarie said here about 5x18 - it made me think of the double standard we’re seeing in how Sherlock is treating the event of Kitty mutilating a man who abused her vs. Shinwell murdering a man 12 years ago because a gang he belonged to manipulated him into doing so. I don’t think Sherlock thinks he’s being racist, of course not, but his distrust of Shinwell has been there from the beginning, and even after he’s been training Shinwell to succeed against SBK for weeks (months?), he’s immediately ready to turn on him once he has proved (to himself; we have a witness account and Shinwell’s indirect confession but so far no physical evidence - Idk what’s enough to make a conviction) that Shinwell committed murder. If it’s not racism in his character, it’s racism in the writing. Kitty, a white woman, was allowed to mutilate her rapist’s face and return to New York without any consequences because Gruner would implicate himself by revealing Kitty as his mutilator.

In my view, Sherlock has never been objective about Shinwell—he has been the Devil’s Advocate from the beginning, I think purposefully on the writers’ part. They wanted to set up Sherlock as the side that believes Shinwell to be inherently bad because of his background. Joan was the side that believes Shinwell to be capable of doing good, of redeeming himself (as she wishes to by helping him, but no one writing the show cares about that). Sherlock then is the person who saves Shinwell from prison, and the person to offer to train Shinwell, even though both he and Joan do the training. After all these sacrifices Sherlock sees himself to be making for a man who he has always believed to be untrustworthy, to learn that Shinwell has committed murder 12 years ago puts Sherlock in a spot that, as you said, forces the audience to choose a side. Racism is inherent in this, because Shinwell is a victim of a racist system.

Even with Sherlock’s comment in Murder Ex Machina, I don’t think Sherlock has a black-and-white view of murderers. I think he is black-and-white about intent, and what the killer in question did or didn’t deserve. There is Abigail in 2x04, his first “killer” who he didn’t give away (and the abused teenage boy who actually was the killer who he didn’t give away either), and the scene with him and Kitty in 3x12 was not him begging her not to kill Gruner. He hoped she wouldn’t murder him, but he did not dictate to her that murder was not the solution. He said: “You, um... saved me. I'd like to return the favor. This is a favor. Interfering. If you decide that killing Gruner is going to make you feel whole again, I won't stop you. But I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that we had found a way to expose him.” (Kitty: What does that have to do with me? With what he did to me?) “Nothing. Everything. Wish I could tell you. Whatever you decide, you must understand that you will always be special to me. You will always... be my friend.” (via transcripts.foreverdreaming.org)

He wanted to tell her it wasn’t necessary to murder Gruner to ensure he got the punishment he deserved. I think the issue with Sherlock and Shinwell is Sherlock assumed he knew Shinwell murdering Jameel was proof that he was right about Shinwell, that Shinwell was, in fact, the bad, untrustworthy, dangerous person he had believed from the beginning and this murder from 12 years ago was going to prove to the world, and to Joan, that he was right all along. But he didn’t take into account the circumstances of Jameel’s murder like he did with Abigail and her abusive father and Kitty and Gruner. He didn’t even try. He just wanted Shinwell to admit to the murder so he could get the guy back in prison and out of the way (remember he commented how the structure of a gang and prison gave no proof that Shinwell would make a good informant?) That’s what seems clearest to me, and that’s why I think Sherlock’s actions show racism. In this situation, Sherlock playing the Devil’s Advocate about Shinwell is going to have a racist tone no matter what, because Shinwell is black, and prisons and gangs are predisposed to victimize black people. Sure, the white writers may not be aware of the full social and racial weight of what they’ve written, but it’s there. That Joan, a WOC, is the one to want to help Shinwell move forward with his mission is just as significant (and I sincerely hope they don’t flip their views after this episode and have Joan turn completely against Shinwell I will be pissed because it wouldn’t make any sense).

I definitely admit I am coming at this while being firmly on Shinwell’s side. His murder of Jameel is not excusable, but nor should he be villainized for it. His last lines in 5x18 need to have an impact on people: “You looking for someone who killed one person. SBK kills dozens of people a year. Their drugs ruin thousands of lives, but don’t nobody care. They don’t get press. They’re not clever. They’re not fun. They’re just evil.” Sherlock focusing on the murder of a single person, by a person who has been trying to prove his willingness to destroy the very thing that made him a murderer, over the myriad of crimes committed by the gang he’s trying to take down—if I was Shinwell I’d probably want to beat up Sherlock too. (I don’t like that the show chose to show Shinwell acting that way toward Sherlock, they did not set it up well, I don’t think most of the audience will be discerning enough to not immediately villainize Shinwell…it’s happening already, and Idk which direction the show will go, but I don’t think it’ll be helpful.)

(This might be a stretch for some but idc) Shinwell is like a more extreme version of Joan. He killed someone because he was manipulated into doing so (not that he doesn’t have free will, but think what might’ve happened to him if he’d refused to kill Jameel?), while Joan killed someone during a surgery. Both killed people that they cared about, to varying degrees. Both killed people they would’ve otherwise done everything to save if events had gone differently (Joan was trying to save her patient but did the exact opposite; Shinwell and Jameel were like brothers, and Shinwell would’ve done anything for Jameel if SBK hadn’t lied to him about someone he thought he could trust). Both came to regret those deaths to such an extreme they shaped their lives around redeeming themselves for those lives they had taken. The show won’t address it, but I think Joan sees herself in Shinwell. She sees a successful surgery, a positive memory from her disgraced medical career, a life that she was able to save that actually mattered. What does Sherlock see? A former criminal and gang member, a murderer, someone who doesn’t deserve redemption despite all the strides Shinwell’s been making toward that very thing, with Joan’s help (and if they’d approached 5x09 the way they should have, Joan would’ve had a direct say in saving Shinwell from prison—and there’s nothing in the canon to tell us she didn’t have a say in it /shameless self-promotion)

I hate even talking about what I want the show to do with Shinwell because I feel if I talk about it that means it won’t happen. And I know you didn’t say Shinwell should be villainized, I’m bristling against the writers who seem to want to deliver a moral message with Shinwell’s character that will only demonstrate that people like Shinwell are doomed, fighting a losing battle. Once a black criminal, always a black criminal. The violence against Sherlock in 5x18 rang like a nail in Shinwell’s coffin. So many people don’t excuse violence committed by MOC, while they will excuse it again and again when committed by white men. Like @nairobiwonders said here, Shinwell is Sherlock in season 1. She thinks Sherlock will come to want to see Shinwell redeemed…but what makes me angry about that idea is that the show won’t give us enough to make Sherlock’s turnabout convincing, I just can’t see it. They give so little to Joan I have to resign myself to seeing her emotions twisted whatever way suits the plot best, regardless of what little emotional development she might’ve had with Shinwell if this show actually cared about her.

#elementasquee #elementary #joan watson #shinwell johnson #i want the wolves to come for me #elementary season 5 #my s5 meta #my meta #elementary said ni #kitty winter #episode #518

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