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laufire · 3 years

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Supernatural s2

I’m halfway through s3 already (technically a rewatch, but there were episodes I didn’t watch the first time around), so this post is a little overdue lol. At this rhythim the posts will overlap. Plus I’m hoping I can finish s4-5 during the holidays to see the ~intended ending~ before I have to slow down on the binge-watch. After that, a season a month sounds achievable AND won’t take longer than 2021 xD

ANYWAY.

-Overall, I’ve enjoyed it more than the first one, but at the same time I’ve found myself missing how... claustrophobic? Insular? Compact? That one was. s2 was about the world opening up just a little bit more, introducing new characters to the brothers’ life, etc. I do love the detail that this is something that can only have, narratively speaking, once John is dead. Again: this show gets abusive families, consciously or not.

-The foreshadowing is beautifully done. 15 seasons make for a lot of unintentional and ironic foreshadowing later on, I’m sure, but the purposeful foreshadowing is superb this season. About the crossroads deals, of course, but especially about John’s last words. I already knew he’d told Dean he might have to kill Sam (father of the year, seriously. Though I side-eye the fandom even more for always having acted as if this is only awful for Dean lol), so I was hyperaware of every single detail. My favourite moment was the absolute horror of hearing Gordon proudly, cheerfully relate how he murdered his sister when she became a vampire (which, btw, as someone that’s still bitter about what went down with the Gunn siblings on Angel, I found it healing to see something like that treated as a horror story).

-Speaking of Gordon: I unashamedly love his character lmfao. Sterling K. Brown is mesmerizing, always. At the same time, I have serious mixed feelings (especially after seeing his arc in full in s3) because man, if it isn’t a racist mess. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s not exactly revolutionary that the first time we see the story from the monster’s POV (something I want the show to do! Often!), it’s when white monsters are stalked and brutalized by our first black hunter. Especifically a white woman, btw (although I’m happy to see Tara Maclay as a brunette vampire. I didn’t know I needed that in my life, but I did). And you can tell that the show thinks it’s just so SMART and FUNNY to have a ~racist black hunter!! I mean, the comment about how psychic kids would be “betraying their race” if they allied with demons?? FFS.

And ofc there’s the fact that he’s condemned for the exact same type of stuff that makes Dean be hailed as a hero lmfao. Though I won’t like, I love the moment where, faced with the comparison, Dean’s response is “I might be like you, I might not. But you’re the one tied up.” I love those kinds of character moments. As of s2 I officially have a love-hate relationship with Dean Winchester, I hate it here xDD

But still, on his own, Gordon is an amazing character (it’s one of the most frustrating things about the show, the greatness tainted by the bigotry :))). Charismatic, terrifying, and ofc superbly acted. Also, I love that the fact that he praised John (as opposed to every other hunter having a rockier relationship with him) is clearly supposed to be a red flag LMFAO.

-I enjoy how the seasons delves more deeply into Sam’s ~~dark origins, since it was my fave thing about him way back when. I’m already mourning the (as I suspect) lost of his powers, ngl. There’s a little more attention in how he tends to over-identify with supernatural creatures struggling with their ~dark sides too (bitch me too, the fuck xD), which I LOVE to see (among other reasons because at least in that way we get a little of their POV in the forefront lol). One of my favourites in that sense was the episode centered around the ghost-who-didn’t-know-she-was-ghost, played by Tricia Helfer. I clocked early one what was going on, but it was still very enjoyable, especially with Sam’s empathy with her (contrasted by Dean being a total bitch about it, btw. I can’t believe I still see post about how Dean is all heart/kindness/compassion/whatever the fuck. Dean is all about selective empathy and only when it conveniences him, pls).

I was more divided on the episode with Madison the werewolf, tbh. OTOH it put Sam in a better position, for a change xD. As the one willing to make The Hard Choices by fulfilling his promise to kill her because she was dangerous, even when Dean offered to ~take the burden from him. OTOH I hate that kind of thing lol. YOU GUYS KNOW A HUNTER PRO LIKE BOBBY, I BET HE COULD’VE FIGURED OUT SOMETHING TO CONTAIN HER A FEW NIGHTS A MONTH. Also, my immediate reaction was to compare this to when my man Angel had a crush on a werelady and helped her every month lmfao. But then, very few characters can withstand a comparison with Angel, in any sense :P

I also liked Sam’s subplot with his fellow demon-psychic kids, though I wish it’d lasted longer :/ (also: RME at the queer girl dying almost immediately AND her power being killing people, her girlfriend first of all, with her touch. The black guy was the last one to die at least...?). My fave was Ava, by far. I loved her since her reaction to helping Sam stealing a psychiatrist’s records was yelling “I’M AWESOME!!”. It made it easy to buy that someone that appeared so mundane, with her easy life and her fiance and whatnot, would become so power hungry and go off the rails, IMO.

BTW: RME at Dean being all “oh Sam is going too dark/becoming to cold” when Sam kills Jake. Jake ripped off his spine and killed him first!! It both amuses me and infuriates me all the times Dean tries to push Sam to be more like himself and then freaks out whenever Sam is not all sunshine and rainbows (while still remaining, IMO, far less cold than Dean himself. Besides, it’s not easy to be colder than Dean, lol).

Lastly, a little character detail I loved was when Sam was jealous about Dean being in the federal database but not himself lmfao.

-I loved the new foreshadowing crumb with Sam finding out Mary knew the demon, too (information he’ll withhold from Dean, which I approve of LOL). I mean, I know exactly what’s up, I’ve watched most of s4 xD (also, what is UP with this family and making deals with demons. Everyone but Sam so far!! And then HE gets dragged for ~getting too close to one smh. Maybe lead by example!! Also also: yes, it was meant to be ambiguous, but I can’t help but notice the only kiss-pact -or further, depending to how close YED was to Lilith’s levels, since to make a deal with her you have to fuck xD- we didn’t see was the one that must’ve happened between John and YED. Cowards!! xD). Still. I’m so curious about her. Her resurrection is one of the main reasons I’m determined to make it to the later seasons, ngl.

-Another thing I LOVED about this season is how they used sibling relationships to parallel/foreshadow stuff about the brothers, the way s1 did often with fathers. I’ve already mentioned Gordon and his sister, but the others are not less brutal imo: Andy having to kill his evil twin, who wanted him all for himself (... Dean is that you xD); the little girl’s ghost who wanted her grand-niece to commit suicide to stay with her, and didn’t give in until her old sister agreed to die in her place. It was chilling. Also, at one point the parallel was between the brothers and a married couple (the ghost-who-didn’t-know-she-was-a-ghost) and asñdlfkajsf. I’m guessing they had fun with the shippers lol.

Speaking of the brothers’ relationship, this season also goes a little further in escalating the violence between them, when Dean punches Sam in the face and he refuses to respond (“you can hit me all you want, it won’t change anything”. Fuck), or when Dean again punches Sam after Sam was possessed by Meg ¬¬

-Going back to my love-hate relationship with Dean, lmfao. My biggest beef remains how much validation his POV gets from the narrative, granted or not; he’s one of the most irritating cases of protagonist-centered morality and I know it’s only going to get worse smh. At least this season it feels a little more balanced than in s1, with episodes like the one where the civilian Sam had tried to keep away dies halfway through the ep because Dean allowed him to get involved, for example. Still, it grates on me xD. The continuing prison rape jokes/demonic possession rape jokes (with Meg and Sam), his general grossness with women and his lack of sympathy for non-humans even when they’re not trying to hurt anyone don’t exactly help. Also, I often see him praised for some of his political views, a lot of which I agree with (his mistrust of cops, saying convicts don’t deserve to die no matter what they do), but when contrasted with his general attitude across the show it’s really grating ngl.

But then he has such AMAZING character details thrown in, that make me appreciate him as a POV character nonetheless, as much as I often want to curb stomp the guy xD. I loved his speech about how there’s no such thing as a dignified death. I love how he refused to come near his mother’s grave, both at the beginning and at the end of the episode (this show is like, the cure to DCCW’s shows false fuzzy sentimentality istg). I love his pop-culture references, like when Sam mentions Dean always thought OJ was the murderer or Dean jokes about freeing Katie Holmes from Scientology’s cult xD (sometimes it really hits you how old this show is lol). I enjoyed his Wishverse episode, and his lines after Sam dies/he sells his soul to save him (“I had one job”, “my life can mean something”) hit HARD.

But most of all? I LOVE how and why he starts losing respect for John. It’s so fucking cold and abrupt and makes so much sense!! Like, yes, part of it is John’s message about killing Sam (... again, father of the year!), but most of all it’s about John making a pact with a demon and dying TO SAVE DEAN (and probably, simply that he died at all. That shit de-mystifies anyone). IT’S SO FUCKING GREAT TO WATCH. “He spent his life chasing that demon. He was supposed to die fighting, not making a deal with the damn thing. That was supposed to be his legacy, not this." Damn, Dean xDD. The *contempt* with which he said that killed me.

I also love his inherently atheist vision of the world (even if yes, it’s extremely funny knowing this show has canon God and angels and shit -no Jesus Christ though, which I find endlessly funny-, or that they actually meet the archangel Gabriel in disguise xD. Either way, the episode with the fake angel and its foreshadowing was hilarious), his anti-destiny stance, and that it’s him and not John who gets to kill YED.

-I liked Ellen and Jo. Not LOVED, but I liked them. I keep fearing that secondary (especially female) characters will feel empty/shallow but the show keeps proving me wrong, even with one-episode wonders, and at first I wasn’t sure about them, but I was sold quickly. Partially because of the actresses, they both had this... humanizing, endearing quality? It worked really well. I also loved the explicit contrast between John and Ellen’s parenting styles, with Ellen wanting Jo to return to school and be safe from the hunt, and Jo wanting something different. Also, I wouldn’t ship it if you paid me, but LOL at anyone who actually buys Dean sees Jo as a ~little sister just because MEG said that rme.

This show is just REALLY good when it comes to giving depth to a character with only a couple of brush strokes, which makes it all the more frustrating when they abruptly die or disappear to never be seen again/only once more (to abruptly die!) :)))

I was less sold on Ash; he was amusing, but having a Genius Hacker TM helping them out seemed like the beginning of increasingly giving the brothers ways of deux ex machina-ing them out of problems, when one of my favourite things about the show is seeing them creatively find ways out themselves. I like when they’re competent! Like with the multitude of codes they have to improvise plans, like in the episode where with two words through a lawyer they implemented a quick scheme so that Sam would escape from a police precinct. I like that stuff.

-I’m still so bitterly jealous about the dead man’s blood hurting vampires detail. SO BITTERLY JEALOUS. I love a lot of what this show does with its lore but that little bit is the worst offender. I want it so bad xD

#talking to the void #my thoughts #spn thoughts #supernatural #sam winchester #dean winchester #gordon walker #ellen harvelle #jo harvelle #spn s2 #the winchesters get to have a tag I GUESS

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dianadragonfly · 4 years

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Blogging “The Sign of Three”

I’m noticing that I’ve been reading so much amazing fan fic that my sense of the characters has changed. There are so many layers to Sherlock Holmes —all of the fan fics I’ve been I’ve been reading layered on top of Gatiss/Moffat’s Sherlock on top of all the cultural ideas of Sherlock and all the adaptations down the the ACD canon. ACD lost control of his Sherlock almost as soon as he brought him into creation. Most art is like this but Sherlock has an impressive number of layers.

So the beginning — I love Lestrade and Sally.

Ugh, I hate the fact that it’s a cheap joke that calls Greg to miss his big moment. Amusing tho. Lestrade would have phoned or called before bringing the helicopters.

Is it bad that my heart sort of hurts to see only 1 tea cup on the tray?

Ugh. Mrs. Hudson’s lecturing on marriage reminds me of me in my 20s. All my friends were getting married and settling down and having babies. I wanted zero to do with it all and was made to feel like a freak for it. There was one particular bridal shower that might have been the low point of that time of my life. The sort of smug assumption that one who was not married has no valid opinions ... I recognize that. Why does everyone treat Sherlock like he’s incapable of being hurt?

THE LOOK AT THE CHAIR! My heart! That’s the sound of my heart cracking! Isn’t there a .gif someone of Sherlock and John staring at empty chairs? @simplyclockwork has said something to the effect that this fandom stans staring at empty chairs.

I’m sure this is boring for the 10 followers I actually have, but it’s fun to me to take notes and recall how the episodes are out together.

I love Sherlock and Jannine. Too bad he wrecked this cute little friendship in the next episode.

David is obviously terrified of touching Mary. Hahah

If Mary has only had this identity for 5 years and John pretty much doesn’t have family, where are all these guests from? Here (Midwest US) there is a wedding, sometimes a meal for the wedding party, then a party/reception for everyone. One can attend any combination of the three that you are invited to and not seem rude. The British weddings that I remember have been an all day affair. Not something you do for a causal friend.

“Oh Sherlock, neither of us was his first.” This partnership between Sherlock and Mary is so cute and so pure. I freakin hate where it went. She recognizes that Sherlock and John’s relationship was the most important relationship in Sherlock’s life. She is aware he feels pushed to the side and uses that knowledge to comfort him, not torment him.

Mycroft of course uses it to torment him. That “Redbeard” reference was pretty heavy-handed, Mycroft. Might as well have blinking lights saying “Foreshadowing!”

When the room goes silent for Sherlock, I cringe so hard. Thank you for cutting away...

Oohhh the reaction Mary has to the name “Cam.” That’s how you foreshadow.

Considering how subtle the writing is and how understated so many things are, I don’t believe the continually clunky references to Series 4 ideas are just badly done. There’s something else... I’ve read the meta about it and I believe that I’m missing something huge, but that’s a conversation for another DVD.

I love the “asking Sherlock to be best man” scene. The look on his face. It’s so different from his blank blink when Molly says she sees him. Oh! wedding planning scene. Mary’s shirt is covered with little thumbs up emojis— I didn’t notice that.

Sherlock’s face. He doesn’t understand why John would want to not be involved with the minutiae of wedding planning.

Has anyone explained why Bainbridge was targeted?

Sherlock in the fuzzy hat - squee.

There are so many jokes online about Sherlock having a military kink. I don’t see it. I mean maybe ... he looks somewhat amused at soilders — but he does at all humanity. Oh, the look he gives John when John pulls rank. Maybe. . .

Oh no, here comes Meat Dagger! There are several Sherlolly fan fics where Sherlock calls him “Meat Dagger.” Not in a complementary manner.

“Stories worth telling” - the storytelling theme emerges again.

Uh.. why is John’s face on Vitruvian man? That’s just bizarre. Fandom seems to see it as proof that Sherlock sees John as an ideal man. I’m not sure. But bizarre.

Those cylinders aren’t phallic at all... nope.

Ohhh ... curled up on the stairs. So cute.

The scene. The scene. The knee touch is coming up!! They are so funny and relaxed with each other. I never noticed Johns feet on Sherlock’s chair. This scene has been analyzed to death but it’s so amazing. They are just enjoying each other’s company, making each other laugh, and maybe? drunk enough to flirt in ways they won’t let themselves do when sober.

The first few times I watched, I missed Sherlock suddenly being interested and awake when the client references “taking it further.”

From where do I know the “I’m just going to whip this out?” joke? Pink Panther?

I buy that Sherlock has little experience with alcohol, but not John. John wouldn’t let himself get that completely drunk — he’s a drinker. Even though he has cheated on Sherlock’s system, I think he’d know the difference. Unless he just decided “screw it. It’s my last night with Sherlock.” Which would help explain the knee touch. He’s not planning on getting drunk and sleeping with Sherlock or anything, but . . . It would have to be deliberate for John to drink enough to end up in the slammer. Or buzzed on the staircase. Or maybe he’s somewhat faking his buzz to see what happens.

Dear Lestrade: I love you.

Mrs. Hudson presenting the full English breakfast. Oh my god! I feel sick for John.

Watching on a TV with a Blu Ray is so awesome. I was able to pause and read the little blurb about Major Sholto that Sherlock pulled up.

Back to the wedding ... we’ve been away from it for a while. It’s kind of a shock.

— note : small children had the phone and big child (spouse) got the TV for a bit. —

Oh the scene where his speech goes off the rails. I cringe so hard for him.

Irene in his mind palace... naked ... my son walked by, looked at the screen, said “Not watching!” Hehehe

Mycroft is sort of a god/Greek chorus figure in fandom and in this version of the mind palace. He provides the exposition, he is all knowing, he is the God-in-a-box. Interesting how he has evolved.

Molly is shooting daggers at Sherlock when they leave to rescue Sholto. Cute.

Of course Mary knows his room number. I would have loved for their partnership to last longer.

That kiss on Mary’s forehead.

There’s a theory that Major Sholto and John were lovers or that at least he wanted to be John’s boyfriend. The “neither of us were the first” quip is mostly taken as just a cute joke by me most of the time. But “Mr. Holmes, you and I are similar, I think.” And “We wouldn’t do that to John Watson.” There is great love and admiration shared by both of them at the least.

Sherlock and Janine dancing. “I wish you weren’t.. whatever it is you are.” line. I interpreted it as Sherlock being a genius/ aloof / etc. But maybe it’s more of a reference to his sexuality, as fandom insists.

That might be the whitest wedding I’ve seen outside of my hometown. Not one friend or associate of color?

The pregnancy reveal. So much fandom analysis of this. I am unable to pause and really look at it because again, although there are many electronic devices in the household, whenever I’m on a TV, it gets comandeered. WHY DO I HAVE TO HIDE MY FANDOM IN MY OWN DAMN HOUSE! ?

But the pregnancy is a big thing. Life cannot go back to how it was. This a significant departure from ACD canon as well. There’s no going back to being just Sherlock and John and hoping Mary just disappears.

I see Sherlock’s sadness for real this time and it’s not just because I let all the theories influence me. I didn’t realize how much time it takes to establish the shot before Sherlock leaves. He looks around. John and Mary are dancing and Mary exchanges a look — a “thank you” type of look. Like she understands Sherlock but she will not ever give up John. Sherlock catches Janine’s eye and starts to move toward her. Then it’s revealed Janine is dancing with one of the men Sherlock pointed out as a good candidate for sex. He sees Molly. She’s dancing with Tom. He’s pushed her away and she’s stayed away. It occurs to him that he is, as Janine says, “whatever it is” he is. But he no longer belongs with John and Mary (“We can’t all three dance”) and so he leaves.

I feel for him so so much.

#sherlock season 3 #bbc sherlock #benedict cumberbatch #john watson #the sign of three

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Ghost of Tsushima Ending Explained

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This Ghost of Tsushima article contains spoilers.

Ghost of Tsushima is as epic as the classic Akira Kurosawa movies that inspired it. And in the spirit of those movies, Jin Sakai’s long journey to free his homeland from the Khotun Khan and his Mongol army concludes in brutal fashion.

Main protagonist Jin goes through a lot, both internally and externally, on his journey, while wrestling with the traditional, samurai notion of “honor,” whether or not it’s worth dying for, and what honor is worth when innocent lives are on the line. Fittingly, the game’s finale sees Jin come face to face with two opponents who are ultimate representations of honor and dishonor.

Needless to say, there’s plenty to unpack in Ghost of Tsushima‘s final moments. I’m going to delve into the conclusion of Jin’s tale in-depth, exploring the complexities of his relationships and the repercussions of the tough decisions he’s faced with.

What does killing Khotun Khan really mean for Jin?

In the final battle scene of the main story, Jin and his allies Yuna, Sensei Ishikawa, Norio, Masako, and Kenji storm Khotun Khan and his army at Port Izumi, blowing the unsuspecting Mongols to bits with explosives and slashing what’s left of them to pieces, clearing a path for Jin to finally finish the one-on-one duel he and the Khan had at the beginning of the game.

Of course, the fight doesn’t wind up being a fair one because Khotun has no honor. Jin fights Khotun one-on-one for a while, but then the Khan retreats to his ship, where Jin must take the Mongol leader down as his armed cronies rain swords, spears, and fire arrows down on the Ghost’s head. When Jin finally defeats Khotun, the dying Mongol utters the words, “Kill me and another will come. We will be remembered.”

To this, Jin replies, “No. You will be forgotten,” before slicing Khotun’s head off of his gigantic shoulders. Killing the Khan doesn’t end the invasion — there are still Mongol encampments strewn all over Tsushima. But I believe Jin’s victory symbolizes something much deeper for him personally.

Throughout his journey, Jin has struggled with the nature of honor. It’s virtuous to fight enemies head-on, in a fair fight. But what if your enemy refuses to fight fair? Is it worth risking the lives of your people in the name of honor, or is it justifiable to use the art of deception to gain an unfair advantage against an enemy as unscrupulous as the Mongols?

In the context of Jin’s story, Khotun Khan represents what happens when a warrior succumbs completely to the allure of dishonor, or “the way of the Ghost.” When Jin tells the Khan he will be forgotten, he knows that because he’s taken up the ways of the Ghost himself. Jin will be forgotten, too. All of Jin’s sacrifices to save Tsushima will not be attributed to him or clan Sakai, but to the Ghost.

What is the significance of the peasant and his cart?

Shortly after Jin and Lord Shimura meet at their old sparring circle in Omi Village, they happen upon a peasant whose cart is stuck in the mud. He tells them he’s headed North to join the Ghost’s army and they help him get his cart back on dry ground. Lord Shimura even wishes him well, telling him to avoid Mongols.

Jin has no idea what the peasant is talking about — he hasn’t started an army. But Lord Shimura enlightens him, explaining that the figure known as Ghost has now taken on a life of its own. Jin’s actions as the Ghost — particularly his open defiance of Lord Shimura’s orders when they retook Castle Shimura from the Mongols — have encouraged the people of Tsushima to question their leaders in a way that dismantles the foundation of tradition that samurai and the shogun were built on. Essentially, Jin has sparked a revolution.

There’s a lot of foreshadowing going on here. As we later learn, Lord Shimura is leading Jin to a duel to the death, but as they help the peasant and discuss the repercussions of the manner in which Jin has chosen to fight the Mongols, it’s clear that Shimura harbors no anger toward his nephew. He still loves him, but he’s disappointed and mourns what they once had. They were meant to be father and son, but the fact of the matter is, Jin has undermined everything Shimura worked his life to defend and uphold, and what’s worse, he’s now inspired the people of Tsushima to follow suit.

Why does Lord Shimura fight Jin to the death?

At the Sakai family cemetery, Lord Shimura reveals to Jin that he’s been tasked by the shogun, who have branded Jin a traitor, to kill him. Jin believes that he’s inspired people to stand up for themselves, but in Lord Shimura’s eyes, there is only one way to lead one’s life: with honor. And because Jin has chosen to use dishonorable tactics to defend Tsushima, he must pay for his transgressions.

What this all boils down to is that Lord Shimura is so unshakably committed to honor and samurai code that he intends to kill his would-be adopted son in the name of it. He’s an honorable samurai, and he refuses to compromise. “You have no honor,” he scolds. “And you are a slave to it,” Jin retorts. This is the inevitable impasse that these two warriors, the last samurai of Tsushima, have arrived at.

There’s a generational aspect to this finale that resonates with the current sociopolitical state of the world as well. Lord Shimura is devoted to tradition to an almost fanatical extent. He represents an older generation who are in power and whose stubbornness and refusal to listen to reason in times of crisis cause them to risk innocent lives in the name of upholding the status quo and protecting archaic notions of right and wrong. Sound familiar?

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Jin, of course, represents a younger generation that dares to challenge old ideas and who aren’t afraid to rail against tradition if it means finding a better way to protect their people. They aren’t afraid to call out their elders on their bullshit and take a progressive, evolved approach to leadership.

Remember: Despite Ghost of Tsushima being set in ancient Japan, Sucker Punch is an American developer. It likely isn’t a coincidence that Jin and Lord Shimura’s eternal debate over tradition vs. progressivism bears a resemblance to the elevated generational conflict that has gripped the US in recent years.

Are Lord Shimura and Jin father and son?

Despite Jin and Shimura’s irreconcilable differences, there’s one thing that’s crystal clear when watching them ride on their horses together through Omi Village: they still love each other. This is the tragedy at the center of the story. Because these men have chosen diverging paths, there is no longer a way for them to coexist at all. And yet, they are family and they care for each other deeply. It’s a paradoxical situation, but Shimura had tried his best to bring Jin back to his side of the fence.

Earlier in the story, Lord Shimura lovingly reveals to Jin that he’s publicly announced his intention to adopt Jin as his son, adding that he demands Jin stop using deceptive tactics in battle and face his enemies head-on (no matter the cost). But then Jin poisons a gaggle of Mongols at Castle Shimura, a spectacularly dishonorable display that saves the lives of countless Tsushima denizens and thoroughly embarrasses Lord Shimura in front of his new shogun buddies.

This act of defiance forces a rift between Jin and Shimura that seems insurmountable, and they never make the adoption official. But in their samurai showdown (sorry, had to) at the Sakai cemetery, they seem to still be referring to each other in familial terms, almost unmistakably like a father and son would. Actually, if you die during the boss fight, Shimura actually calls Jin “son” before sticking his katana in his spine. Brutal.

Technically, Shimura and Jin are not father and son by the end of the story. They’ve chosen separate paths and they will never walk side by side again. But at that moment, in their hearts, they are father and son through and through (this is reinforced even further depending on whether you choose to let Shimura live or not when you defeat him — more on that shortly). “Our final day together,” Shimura says moments before they cross swords. “It is beautiful.”

What is the meaning of the final haiku?

Before Jin and Shimura’s epic fight to the death, they each write down the final words of their respective clans in the form of haikus. As in all of the other haiku moments of respite in the game, you’re given three options to choose from for each of the three lines of the poem. The words are profound encapsulations of their fraught relationship over the years.

Line 1 options:

Eyes that saw my pain

Hands that shaped the world

Strength in every step

Line 2 options:

A fate neither of us want

Destiny divides our souls

A bond broken forever Line 3 options: I fight without hope This is where we part Will death redeem us? The most intriguing option of all is, “Will death redeem us?” I believe Jin is being skeptical here, asking himself whether killing each other is the only course of action, as the shogun suggest, or if it’s all just a pointless, empty display of “honor” in the most antiquated sense. What’s the point of them fighting each other? Is it the right thing to do? Jin doesn’t think so. Essentially, the haiku just reinforces how insanely depressing the characters’ predicament is. There’s a finality to Jin’s words, and the most heart-wrenching thing about the poem is that he has chosen to make the final words of the Sakai family a miserable breakup letter to/about his uncle, who isn’t even a Sakai!

What happens if you choose to spare Lord Shimura?

Once Lord Shimura is defeated, he requests that you grant him a warrior’s death. “Honor me,” he pleads. You are presented with a choice: You can either spare him, essentially spitting in the face of the ideals and philosophies Shimura dedicated his life to, or you can grant his wish and let him die on his own terms.

If you choose to spare his life, Jin stands tall above his beaten uncle and refuses to kill him. “I have no honor,” he says. “But I will not kill my family.” Shimura, heartbroken, tells his nephew that, “The Ghost will be hunted for the rest of his days,” to which Jin replies, “I know.”

Jin choosing to spare his uncle is the ultimate act of defiance. In his mind, he’s eschewing tradition and choosing to lead his life not by blindly following old traditions, but by carving his own path and thinking for himself. At the same time, he knows that his uncle doesn’t see it that way, and he knows quite well that he’s just denied his mentor his dying wish. This is heavy, heavy stuff.

Jin then puts on the Ghost mask and walks away. He knows that his defiance won’t come without a price. He’s giving up his life as a samurai and his relationship with his uncle to fight for his people in the way he sees fit. It’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make.

What happens if you kill Lord Shimura?

This is where things get really Shakespearean. If you choose to kill Shimura, Jin makes him a promise: “I will make sure you are remembered as a great warrior, a wise leader, and a father.” Shimura is appreciative. “Thank you, my son,” he says, as if indicating that Jin has won back his respect. “Find me in the next life.”

It almost feels like an act of mercy for Jin to kill his uncle. Yearning for a warrior’s death isn’t a foreign concept for Jin — he often talks about the guilt he harbors for surviving the Mongol invasion at Komoda Beach when his samurai brethren didn’t. While his values may no longer align with his uncle’s, to let his one-time mentor leave the earth on his own terms is like a parting gift, a sign of utmost respect for a warrior who was uncompromising in his beliefs.

Ghost of Tsushima is out now on PlayStation 4.

The post Ghost of Tsushima Ending Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

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mst3kproject · 6 years

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504: Secret Agent Super Dragon

Let’s move on to another oft-overlooked subset of MST3K – the Budget Bond films. These are always very bad, but often a lot of fun if you’re in the right kind of mood.

Brian Cooper is Super Dragon, pulled out of retirement to find out who’s distributing poisoned chewing gum to co-eds! Boy, if that doesn’t sound like the setup for a thrilling spy caper, nothing does! The plot seems to revolve around a Dutch student named Christine Bruder, so Cooper goes to Amsterdam looking for her. There, in between fucking his female colleagues and flirting with every woman he sees, he learns that Bruder was part of a plot to smuggle deadly drugs into the United States, hidden in fake Ming vases. An evil conspiracy is planning to dope the free world on a chemical that will cause us to violently attack one another, and then… uh, I don’t know what happens after that, but it’s probably safe to assume it’ll end in the bad guys ruling the world. That’s always the goal.

What’s with that spy movie cliché about the glamorous secret agent who sleeps with every woman he meets? Friends, enemies, co-workers, random waitresses… our suave hero loses no chance to insert Tab A into Slot B. He can’t walk down the street without having women throw themselves at him. This trope has been parodied to hell and back in everything from Austin Powers to The Million Eyes of Sumuru and it’s actually sort of weird to see it played straight, as it is here. As a PSA to my readers: never sleep with a glamorous secret agent. He probably has like nine venereal diseases.

The weirdest thing in the movie is a facet of this trope: it’s the bit where Cooper and Agent Farrell are busily smooching when a man breaks into her apartment and tries to kill them. They fight him off, and he commits suicide so they can’t question him. Cooper then throws his body out the window, turns the soundtrack back on, and the couple just pick up where they left off! Maybe it’s because I’m not a glamorous secret agent but I gotta agree with Tom Servo on this one: I don’t think I could have sex in the same room where I just watched a guy kill himself. It wouldn’t be right, you know?

I will say that this indifference towards death bothers me less here than it did in Master Ninja I, but the characters in Secret Agent Super Dragon have presumably have years of both physical training to kill and psychological coaching to deal with the consequences. Even so, just getting right back to the makeout session before the body’s even had a chance to cool seems unnecessarily callous.

The other trope I notice a lot of in Secret Agent Super Dragon is the death trap. Our hero’s life is threatened repeatedly but always in some contrived way that allows him a chance to escape. The first time he’s tied to a rail so some machine can come along and roll over his head. He gets out in the nick of time and it crushes a can of red paint instead. The second time he’s nailed into a coffin and thrown into the river. He holds his breath and inflates a flotation device. The third time, he’s trapped in a building rigged to explode. His buddy flies in with a helicopter. Why doesn’t anybody just shoot this guy? Villains that stupid don’t deserve to take over the world!

Yet another thing that stands out as remarkably dumb is the cause the charity auction is supposed to support – ‘an International Hospital for Babies with Malnutrition’. Okay, so, imagine you’re somebody whose child is starving, which probably means you’re dirt poor. Instead of sending food to you, these people expect you to bring the baby to a hospital, which may be in another country, so that they can feed the kid there. Is the complete impracticality of this supposed to be our clue that it’s a scam? The script never references that, though. Did somebody just pick a bunch of charitable-sounding words? Was it a bad translation of something that actually made sense in the original language? Are the writers just that stupid? We’ll probably never know.

Beyond that… it’s honestly really hard to say anything deeper about Secret Agent Super Dragon, because this is another movie that’s not very ambitious. It has some vague themes about drugs as the downfall of western civilization, but its characters don’t have appreciable arcs and there’s not much by way of symbolism for me to analyze. All it wants is to keep us mindlessly entertained for an hour and a half – and there’s nothing wrong with that, honestly, but Super Dragon isn’t even any good at it. Trying to watch without Joel and the bots I found myself drifting repeatedly. There’s the charming super-spy, the parade of blandly beautiful women, the evil mastermind with a vague plan to take over the world, the easily-escaped death traps… we’ve done this all before, and Super Dragon doesn’t even use the stereotypes in skillful or interesting ways.

The thing about spy movie tropes is they’re so easy to parody, and have been parodied so many times, that even somebody who doesn’t actually watch spy movies can spot them because we all absorb them through pop-culture osmosis. Playing them straight therefore runs a very serious risk of boring the audience. Of course Agent Farrell is working for the bad guys, because in a story like this, a character like her does – and of course she falls in love with Cooper and betrays her bosses for him. None of this stuff is even really foreshadowed (except that Farrell dyes her hair – can’t trust those unnatural redheads!) but we still know it’s coming because we’ve seen the same shit in fifty other movies. The bad guy wants to cleanse the world so it can be made anew? Been there. The movie wallows in misogyny but in all the same old ways, so I’ve got nothing new to say about it.

Throughout the film people talk about the ‘legendary Super Dragon’ but I don’t think we ever get a reason why Cooper’s so great. Bond films begin with a breathtaking action setpiece to show us that our hero has nifty gadgets and balls of steel – Secret Agent Super Dragon begins with Cooper playing dead by the pool. His most remarkable ability seems to be holding his breath for a really long time, and his gadgeteer, the kleptomaniacal Babyface, makes most of his gadgets out of literal toys. I think this might be a joke about the obvious miniatures some of these movies use… but I’m not sure. All I’m sure of is when that dinosaur waddled into the room I was halfway expecting it to demand the return of the Golden Ninja Warrior.

About the only place where the movie seems to accidentally brush by a real statement is in a moment that resembles a historical reference. Cooper has infiltrated a conspiracy meeting (by wearing a half-mask that leaves his rather distinctive chin fully visible) at which the Big Bad, Mr. Lamas, is delivering an expository monologue: their factory in India is in full production of the drug, which will be shipped to America in phony Ming vases and bring the world to its knees! If you’re going to talk about drugs making and breaking empires, China and India are where it happened.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the East India Company fostered opium addiction in China because they wanted cheap tea and because the British government had vague plans, which never came anywhere close to fruition, to add China to their empire. The opium to feed this addiction was grown in India, often by farmers who would rather have been growing actual food but owed too much money to the EIC. This all led to the Opium Wars and a lot of other unpleasantness in which the British Empire came out looking even more like assholes than they usually did. In a story about conquering the world through drug addiction, then, having the drugs created in India and slipped into something Chinese looks like a reference to history repeating itself.

It may also mean something else. Secret Agent Super Dragon is relentlessly white, set mostly in a city in northwestern Europe, where conspiracies of middle-aged white guys drink booze and decide the fate of nations. The actual work that makes this possible, however, is being done by people of colour in the east. Not only does this seem to reference how western nations use other countries as battlegrounds and bargaining chips in their own power struggles, it can also serve as a reminder of something we frequently forget: a lot of what makes our comfortable lives possible comes from other countries, made by people who could never afford to buy it. My eyeglasses, the sweater I’m wearing, and the chair I’m sitting on were all made in China. Our entire economy depends on cheap foreign labor, and I wonder sometimes how much longer that can last before the whole thing falls apart.

Is any of this the movie’s intentional theme or message? I doubt it. The historical reference seems to be just a ‘hey, look how clever we are!’ moment and the rest probably goes no deeper than ‘oh, no, our children are doing drugs!’, which has been on the verge of ending civilization since at least the thirties. Secret Agent Super Dragon is just a dumb trashy Eurospy movie, and not even a very good one. I don’t hate it, but mostly because it’s not worth that kind of effort. The MST3K treatment renders it infinitely more enjoyable, especially when Tom and Crow do Jazz.

Agent Cooper was played by actor Ray Danton, who died in 1992, a year before the episode aired. Probably all for the best. I doubt he’d have been into all those jokes about how his character is perfectly smooth.

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