Okay, so this has been bothering me since I first listened to Fawx & Stallion, but I think I finally have a way to articulate it. (it’s been a little while since I listened, so I might be wrong on some of the details)
So in episode eight, The Case of the Hard Truth, when Madge yells at Hampton for not mentioning Sarah, something about it always irked me.
Like, it was clearly putting James and Hampton in the wrong for arresting Sarah, but I honestly think they were kinda justified in it.
Ok, so while I obviously don’t blame Sarah for what she did as it wasn’t really her choice, she did still use them for her own benefit. And I feel like in that moment they were kinda right for it.
Now I’m sure you’re thinking “wow, so you think it’s ok to let a woman die just because two guys are butthurt?”
And like no, but kinda yes? Sarah knew the risk of taking the job and what would happen if she got caught. (She may have been blackmailed, I can’t remember)
It’s not fair for her, but I also don’t think it should be James and Hampton’s responsibility to get her out of it. Sure, you can say as good people they should try and help her, but they were just told that she was using them and considered them so stupid there was no way they would solve the case.
Like, I think they definitely should help Sarah, but they barely had anytime to get over the betrayal before having to put it aside to help her, especially Hampton, because Madge was not nearly as gently reprimanding as Archie.
And I kinda feel like they’re put in the wrong for it so much because they’re men and Sarah’s a woman.
Like I feel like if the genders were reversed, and it was a man using two women, who are trying to be respected as detectives, that scene would be bit more forgiving to the detectives.
I guess what bothers me is just how James and Hampton’s feelings of betrayal are just pushed aside and not really brought up again (I’m pretty sure anyway)
Especially Hampton’s feelings, side tangent here, cause it’s not just Sarah’s betrayal (which he was trying to deny until he couldn’t) but also how not even James takes him or their work seriously, and then he has to go save James before he can really get that out more.
I’ve been re-listening to Red Valley, so here’s some more thoughts on it:
who’s Malcolm? Genuinely do not remember who that is. (even though I’ve been re-listening)
Are we ever going to learn why Warren murdered someone?
Aubrey is being so suspicious and it’s making me nervous. I don’t know, I don’t completely trust her.
Honestly, I’m not sure if we’ll ever see Bryony again. I don’t really see why she would come back, maybe just for revenge.
I said before that Gordon might wake up really messed up in the head, but I’m not sure anymore. I feel like it will be some form of “came back wrong” trope, but I don’t know.
I am wondering how he will survive, cause I don’t think they’d kill him after all this. (if anything, maybe his mind/soul would need to be put in a computer and he’d become one with Gord)
Like, Warren survived the first hypersleep because of trauma, trauma that rooted itself in him when he was a child, so if Gordon survives, what trauma allowed him to survive? (with the degraded stuff at that)
I’m not sure if getting shot would be enough, I feel like at least one of the Teddy Bears’ Picnic people would have had that level of trauma, and sure Gordon was obviously not doing great while he was at Red Valley, but I still don’t think that would have the same affects on his brain as growing up in an abusive household.
So what has Gordon gone through in his life to be able to survive the treatment?
I’m also curious how the show will end, I don’t think they’ll fix the world or anything, but will it end with them more or less happy? All of them dying? My guess will be an open ending with the possibility of saving the world.
I hate Bryony so much, was listening to episodes 5-8 of season 2, and she’s so awful.
Warren and Gordon’s relationship.
When Warren says “I’ll wait” listening to Gordon’s tape, because Gordon always waited for him, and now, even though it won’t make any difference and it’s long since past, he’ll wait with him this time.
When Gordon chose not to look at Warren’s file, because Warren has so little say in anything right now, and completely strangers know everything about him and are being incredibly invasive, but Gordon is giving him the choice to keep it private, at least from one person.
Their dumb would you rather questions.
They make me feel things, it all just makes me want to pull my hair out (in a good way)
I’ve been re-listening to Red Valley, so here’s some more thoughts on it:
who’s Malcolm? Genuinely do not remember who that is. (even though I’ve been re-listening)
Are we ever going to learn why Warren murdered someone?
Aubrey is being so suspicious and it’s making me nervous. I don’t know, I don’t completely trust her.
Honestly, I’m not sure if we’ll ever see Bryony again. I don’t really see why she would come back, maybe just for revenge.
I said before that Gordon might wake up really messed up in the head, but I’m not sure anymore. I feel like it will be some form of “came back wrong” trope, but I don’t know.
I am wondering how he will survive, cause I don’t think they’d kill him after all this. (if anything, maybe his mind/soul would need to be put in a computer and he’d become one with Gord)
Like, Warren survived the first hypersleep because of trauma, trauma that rooted itself in him when he was a child, so if Gordon survives, what trauma allowed him to survive? (with the degraded stuff at that)
I’m not sure if getting shot would be enough, I feel like at least one of the Teddy Bears’ Picnic people would have had that level of trauma, and sure Gordon was obviously not doing great while he was at Red Valley, but I still don’t think that would have the same affects on his brain as growing up in an abusive household.
So what has Gordon gone through in his life to be able to survive the treatment?
I’m also curious how the show will end, I don’t think they’ll fix the world or anything, but will it end with them more or less happy? All of them dying? My guess will be an open ending with the possibility of saving the world.
I hate Bryony so much, was listening to episodes 5-8 of season 2, and she’s so awful.
Warren and Gordon’s relationship.
When Warren says “I’ll wait” listening to Gordon’s tape, because Gordon always waited for him, and now, even though it won’t make any difference and it’s long since past, he’ll wait with him this time.
When Gordon chose not to look at Warren’s file, because Warren has so little say in anything right now, and completely strangers know everything about him and are being incredibly invasive, but Gordon is giving him the choice to keep it private, at least from one person.
Their dumb would you rather questions.
They make me feel things, it all just makes me want to pull my hair out (in a good way)
I finished my re-listen, so more thoughts:
Somehow I missed almost every episode that mentioned Malcolm, I hadn’t gotten to season 3 and missed the episode of While You Were Hypersleeping that mentioned him. He did show up in episode 7 of season 2 though, so that on was on me.
Also I changed my mind about Clive. He’s fine. I even like him sometimes. Outside of threats, he doesn’t really do that much harm, Sure he let Bryony do whatever she wanted, but I don’t think that would have stopped much. (Also he was probably scared of her, and I don’t blame him for that.)
Again, I’m convinced that something happened in Gordon’s past that was incredibly traumatic. I just don’t think he will survive hypersleep other wise.
I am curious what Aubrey meant when she said that it was the end of Red Valley. What are they planning?
People who complain about Victor Frankenstein really never bothered to think of what they’d do in his place, huh.
I absolutely would do better because I can think of the consequences of my actions. If I spent months looking at this thing I was trying to on purpose make and then succeeded at making it it seems unreasonable to be afraid of it after that, you met your goal.
Victor not thinking things through is, honesty, his Big Issue. In his reminiscence of the time leading up to his creation of the creature, he never mentioned what he planned to do about his eight-foot-tall son. The need to care for him doesn’t seem to have crossed Victor’s mind, and he hasn’t forewarned his fellow scientists at the university of his plan! I understand the likely concerns about people finding out about his grave robbing, but he really should have told his academic peers about his plans. Maybe he could have gotten the project peer-reviewed.
On the other hand, I don’t blame him for not having “upon his animation, the human you’ve spent two years working on develops a horrible wrongness that none can properly put words to, but which fills all who see it with fear and hate towards it” on his list of potential outcomes! He does, admittedly, contradict himself somewhat when he describes what the Creature appeared like before animation, but I do not think he was lying when he said the Creature changed when animated. I don’t see how, even with him thinking through the consequences of creating life, he could have anticipated that.
Ok, so I finally finished putting the incident dates on here, I would like to thank @life-in-present-tense for getting all the dates, it was incredibly helpful, and saved me so much time.
(This took me way, way longer to finish than it should have. I actually put all the dates in a while ago, but to make the sheet in chronological order I had to move each row manually and I ended up getting busy and not having the energy or motivation to finish it so I’m sorry about that.)
To recap, here’s all the information on the sheet:
Episode Number
Episode Length (for multiple statements in one episode the statement length is in parentheses. [ I’m not quite finished with them yet])
Episode Name
Read by / Taken by
Case File Number
Statement Giver
(Date of) Statement Given
Regarding… (summary)
(Date when it was) Committed to tape
(List of) Speaking Characters
Incident Date
Along with the information, there are multiple sheets:
Episode Order
Alphabetical Order
Alphabetical Order without (most) “The"s and "A"s
Chronological Order by Statement Given Date
Chronological Order by Incident Date (For ones that have no date, I placed it based off of when the statement was given, so the incident was some point before then.)
Statement Filters (Read by / Taken by - Jonathan Sims, Elias Bouchard, Gertrude Robinson, Basira Hussain, Martin Blackwood, Melanie King, Timothy Stoker, and Live Statements)
Speaking Characters Filters (Literally every character that spoke in more than one (1) episode, and One Time Characters)
For the filter sheets I’m not sure how well it works on mobile, but it definitely works on a laptop.
(EDIT: The Statement filter page is not completely working, Episode 200 is on every filter, I will try to fix that later)
I listened to Frankenstein - A New Musical today, here’s some thoughts:
I liked the music, and I think it did a decent job at staying faithful to the book.
Most of the changes I didn’t like, but there were some I thought were interesting.
The musical definitely makes Victor worse than he is in the book. (which if you’ve read my other Frankenstein posts, You know I don’t think he was that bad.) And by extension, makes the Creature more sympathetic.
I’m not sure how I feel about the Creature having a better excuse for the murders, mainly Henry.
I do like the song between William and Justine, it makes it so much more sad to know what happens to them.
Absolutely feeling something about the Bride being from Justine, I’m not sure what, but I’m feeling something about it.
Kinda surpised there’s not a whole gay love song between Victor and Henry. (Like “Your Light” from Epic: The Musical, which I think would work for them actually.)
I do not like that the Bride was alive before Victor killed her. In the book, the whole point was that if he brought her to life she would be her own person.
I do kinda like that the Creature was trying to embrace DeLacy and ended up killing him. To me it shows that the Creature just can’t be with humans and it’s just very sad and tragic.
It seems odd to me that Victor would ask for forgiveness from the Creature in the end, I feel like he was more antagonistic to the Creature than he was in the book.
Do you think that when Odysseus finally gets back home to Penelope, he’s gonna be all “I’m a monster, I did so many horrible things” and Penelope is going to comfort him and tell him that he’s not a monster, he’s just a man.
My thoughts on Epic: The Musical, The Ithaca Saga:
(Spoilers Ahead)
I first listened at midnight after a long Christmas Eve, but I thought it was good.
I was so tired that I didn’t really understand what was happening though, and I didn’t realize Telemachus was speaking at some points.
Overall I really liked this saga.
I still haven’t had the time to listen to the entire musical in order yet, I probably will on Monday.
I’m not sure if there’s really supposed to be any message or moral to the story, maybe just that no matter what there will be people that love you.
Cause I originally thought it was meant to be “Open Arms” vs. “Ruthlessness” but that only works if you completely subscribe to ruthlessness being the “Right” thing to do.
I was thinking it was going to be a “you need a balance between the two” kind of thing, but in the end Odysseus lets go of “Open Arms” entirely, although Athena has picked it up.
I really thought that Jorge would change it, and Odysseus would spare that one guy (I vaguely know he was more or less innocent in the Odyssey) with Polites singing “Open Arms” in his mind. (There was an Open Arms reference in that scene, so I was right about that I guess.)
To be fair, I don’t think there was really any sort of moral or message to The Odyssey either, it’s just a story of this guy’s long trip home. (I’m sure there are small story points and stuff, I just mean like an overarching thing across the whole story.)
As always the vocals, music, and animations are all amazing.
I love all the songs, but I think my favorite is “I Can’t Help but Wonder”
Something I have seen debated lately is the change that the suitors explicitly attempt to (or plan to) rape Penelope. I’ll be honest, I think it’s fine, I don’t think it was entirely necessary to make quite so explicit when previously such matters were only alluded to, but I don’t mind it.
I don’t think the video of Jorge explaining that Calypso “is a child in an adult body” completely means that she didn’t assault him, he’s saying she is childish in that she doesn’t understand what would typically be acceptable behavior, but I don’t think that means she would be literally like a child. (But that’s just my interpretation.)
I know a lot of people find it annoying that the suitors are made “worse” when Calypso was downplayed in the musical. But I’ve seen arguments that the suitors never intended to assault Penelope… and like, I don’t know, that seems a bit obstinate to me.
Like sure, you can argue that it did not need to be as explicit as it was in the musical, but to say it was never there in the story seems like willful ignorance.
Do you really think they would have been like “Great, I am now king, Penelope is my queen and I have murdered her son, I will never lay my hands upon her because I respect her as a human being with autonomy. What a good day.”
And look, I’m not gonna say that the gender of the victim doesn’t make a difference, cause I’m sure it’s a part of why it was made more explicit for Penelope, but I don’t necessarily think that it’s why it is less explicit for Odysseus.
From what I understand, as I still have not read the Odyssey, in the books, Odysseus’s assaults are framed as him being so good in bed that even Goddesses want him, it is still framed in a way that makes him “powerful” and in a way that it is his “"choice”“ to sleep with them. (I’m not sure that came out right, I guess I just mean it’s not said in a way that most assaults on women are typically written, far less violent and explicit I’m sure that it was framed in this way because many people [now and then] think that men can’t be victims of rape.)
Anyway what I’m getting at is that the people who assault Odysseus are literally not human. Meanwhile the suitors are humans. So for me, the suitor are always going to be worse in my mind, they are humans, they know exactly what they are doing and the harm they are inflicting. Not that the harm non-humans (Gods/Goddesses in this case) inflict is lesser, just that they’re not necessarily going to consider humans on the same level as them (especially in this case)
So I feel like maybe that’s why the suitors were made explicitly intending to rape Penelope.
In the end, I really enjoy the story, and I’m excited to see what will come next for Epic.
Saw a thing about Frankenstein where they were like “Victor’s so selfish, his family dies and he finds a way to make himself the victim.”
Am I crazy? Cause… Victor is the victim. Like I feel like that’s pretty clear, the Creature kills all of Victor’s loved ones to hurt Victor.
Obviously yes, William, Justine, Elizabeth, and Henry are all victims as well, but they’re not the target. Victor is the target, to the Creature the rest of them are just collateral damage.
I recently read (technically listened to) The Hunger Games for the first time, so here’s my thoughts:
I only finished the first book, and I won’t get to the second until the library has it.
Everything I knew about it before hand was from the Studio C videos and whatever my sister might have mentioned.
Every time they said Haymitch’s name I could only think of the Studio C bit where they say his name.
Also was thinking about the “he gave the other half to the pigs” bit from the sketch when I got to that part.
I already knew that Rue dies. I also know that Primrose dies.
Katniss is probably Demiromantic right?
I don’t really care who she ends up with, I’m pretty sure it’s Peeta though, and so far I ship her with Peeta more, mainly because she explicitly says she doesn’t have romantic feelings towards Gale.
Also girl is really clueless, Dude literally confesses that he likes her on national television and she’s like “does he like me?🧐”
but to be fair I have the advantage of years and years of ship debates to know they like her.
My audiobook kept pronouncing “Mellark” as MELL-ark instead of mel-LARK and it bothered me the whole time.
I initially thought that Cinna would later betray Katniss, but when I was looking up the actors that played the characters in the movie, I saw that he does not.
Also I was for some reason imagining him as an East Asian guy, so I was surprised that he was black in the movie,
Absolutely Fucked Up what they did to the other tributes.
For some reason a part of me thought they wouldn’t have done it to Rue, like by sheer willpower Katniss could have spared her from it.
