Tag Archives: supernatural

What'cha Watching Wednesday #6

As there is again stuff that got in the way of finishing this post on time (an unplanned trip home and a concert), I decided that I will turn this into a more irregular series. So, with some delay I present to you the sixth instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday which again covers more than one week.

WWWWhat is this about?

Every other Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week(s) while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.
Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Supernatural – Season 10, Episodes 23/24: (Watch Date: 14./21.05.)

They really did it…
They really went through with that ridiculous idea of having to kill off one of the most beloved characters… Even now two weeks later, there is still much discussion over on Tumblr and I kind of think this might become one of the things the fandom just doesn’t accept or will be in denial about for quite some time.
The best thing in The Prisoner, which was very minor redemption for what they did the previous episode was Dean’s line:

„I think it should be you up there — not her.“

I agree with him whole heartedly, as I’m getting more and more annoyed by Sam. Story-wise he brought Charlie into that predicament, he didn’t listen when he was told to stop.
Still, so much more and so many different things could have been done with the whole situation. I saw contemplations for the body to just be an illusion, I read theories that Rowena taught Charlie a spell that would have helped her, I also came across the simple fact that Charlie could have just climbed out of the window which was even suggested by actress Felicia Day herself.
But no. They didn’t do any of it.
As a writer myself, the excuse that this was where the story lead them doesn’t really work for me (and I know a thing or two about stories that develop into completely different directions from what was initially intended: *click*). The narrative of the Season so far let to many things, but not to kill off Charlie in the most undeserved way possible.
Despite that was there another good thing for the episode:
Dean is slowly breaking apart due to the loss – which could have been handled differently, but still – and Castiel confronts him and tries to stop him.
What I find most incredible about this is that Cas, a powerful angel that could have easily subdued a mark-controlled/afflicted Dean, did not go back on his words to not hurt him and did not fight back and let Dean pummel and threaten to kill him. This was a very strong way of displaying his loyalty beside the spoken „And everyone you know, everyone you love — they could be long dead. Everyone except me.“ (And yes I’m still not calling it Romance)
What I understand even less then Charlie’s demise was why they included a look into the backstory for for the (Franken)Styne family only to have Dean kill them off? They could have spent that time to explore how Charlie could have escaped…or with re-animating her…or many other things better than to include those idiots in the first place…
From all the Season finales I watched in the recent years Brother’s Keepers was one of the most  disappointing and unsatisfying finales.
The whole narration of the episode stood in stark contrast to the Season’s narrative. The title screen shows Angelic Grace destroying Demonic Smoke, yet Castiel was nowhere near Dean when the mark-plot was resolved, neither was either involved in the spell that caused it (One could go out on a limp an argue that they meant the encounter between Castiel and Crowley, but that does not qualify in my book). As I contemplated some time ago did a lot point towards Castiel saving Dean from the mark by sacrificing his Grace.
But no they added the book, the Stynes and the witch to unlock a nasty spell that would remove it, but unleash something very bad that the mark kept in check. Thanks to Death we know this and while the Winchesters seemingly accepted that Dean would be sent to another plain and Sam killed, so he wouldn’t start rescuing Dean again, the whole thing was called off when Dean misses his brothers head, reaps the reaper instead and Rowena casts the spell. Bonus points for the communication skills, that caused this whole mess to go down… A short phone call would have sufficed to tell the others to stop, but no reaping first, then we see what happens…
The new threat, The Darkness, had a similar entry to the Demons at the end of Season Two, but I kind of anticipated that one of the openings would destroy Baby, but no such luck here either…
The writer’s seem to be telling their own story, regardless of the things the characters did or said before, there also seems the be some kind of memory blockage when it comes to repeating plot lines that have been explored before…
A part of me wants to know how they will continue from here, another part – the larger part – wants them to redo the last few episodes and write them according to the narrative of the Season…
Maybe I’ll join the Fanfiction author’s and try myself on a fix-it fic….

Undateable – Season Two, Episode 7-8: A Live Show Walks into a Bar (Watch Date: 15.05.)

I don’t really have to add anything to my assessment from last time, but I got someone from the HGWAnime hooked on the show when I talked about the funny live show in these episodes with many guest stars like the guys from Scrubs or Ed Sheeran. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who liked this live show, so Season Three will consists only of live shows…

Orange is the new Black – Season One; Season Two (Watch Date: 15-19./21.05.)

As I still had some time left on the trial run from Netflix after watching Daredevil I decided to check out this series.
And again I have to say that I am baffled at the quality that was displayed. It is incredible that a format that is not easily accessible puts so much effort into creating great content, when programs for the masses are carelessly shoved onto the audience.
There were few things I didn’t like watching the show (e.g. Chapman in regards to my I-don’t-like-main-characters-problem), but so many more things that I enjoyed. I’ll probably get into more details later on, but there are some things I’d like to say here already.
I really enjoyed the stories of the side characters, which where way more interesting than learning anything about Piper. The show also criticises society in every form and shape a lot and it is good and necessary critique.
But the thing that got me to enjoy the show even more than I already did, was the usage of my beloved mother’s tongue during the episode You also have a Pizza. 😀
This episode will get a special instalment of the Lost in Translation series as one of the few positive examples. I’m still excited about it…
Though they do well with all kinds of accents and languages from what I can tell.
As diverse as the languages is the cast, the characters and their backgrounds.
Simply put: It’s a brilliant show.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more of it.
Though I wonder if I am the only person that thought Trisha looked like a female Joffrey Baratheon, even though the actors are apparently not related…

Elementary – Season Three, Episode 24: A Controlled Descent (Watch Date: 28.05)

Finally some actual plot beside the case, but it still hadn’t had the effect I would have liked. They only hinted at Sherlocks relapse and didn’t show much of the struggle he went through afterwards. For character development it would have been interesting to see that.
But now we can only wait for Season Four and the possible appearance of Holmes senior. Maybe they will do some more character exploration there again…

Once Upon A Time – Season Four, Episode 16-23 (Watch Date: 30./31.05.)

So I finally managed to catch up with OUAT, but my initial excitement for the new development regarding the villains soon subsided. I mean, I get why they included a reason for why they became the way they are, but some of it just felt cheap, disappointing and too rushed.
There also where some things that didn’t make sense to me:

  • Does the Clover-thing from Oz have a cloaking spell itself or why the hell did Robin not recognise that thing, when they made the baby?
  • Why did they even have to include another baby? o.O
  • And why does everyone keep using his name as if he was called Robinhood and not Robin Hood? They could just call him Robin…
  • How can a real-world heart scan not notice a heart that supposedly is close to turning into coal?
  • Why does every bad guy have to be on some kind of revenge trip? It’s getting boring…
  • Why did Emmas childhood friend Lily have to turn out to be Maleficent‘s daughter?
  • Where’s Belles back bone when it comes to switching between Will and Rumplestiltskin?
  • Why does Will even get involved with her, when we know from OUAT: Wonderland that he doesn’t have his heart and is in love with another? (Where in his time line are we?)
  • Why is everything connected?

If anyone has answers for any of the above questions, please let me know.
Other than that was it kind of obvious that The Sorcerer is non other than Merlin himself. Though I was more disappointed in the conclusion of the Happy Ending for villains plot. Ursula, Regina and Maleficent pretty much got theirs, Cruella was disposed of and Rumple released the Dark One. I think I’d be more happy for the two of the first three, if I had known them a bit longer and we still don’t know what consequences Rumple will now face without the Dark One and if he considers it to be a Happy Ending.
For the whole Dark One lore I had hoped they would have included something fancy like the Baba Yaga creating it or something, instead we got another evil smoke thing that was battled at the dawn of time by a powerful entity. Still, this finale was much more enjoyable than the other one (even though the smoke in SPN looked a bit like the curse-smoke from OUAT >_<) .

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

I accidentally spoilered myself for Grimm, so I’m not sure when I’ll feel like catching up with it and as all these series now had their Season finales I’m probably checking out other stuff until their return. We’ll see.
PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #5

Without warning I skipped two weeks of this thing, but not because I didn’t watch anything, but because of my Dad’s and, well, my Mum’s birthday. I just didn’t feel like writing this. So, with some delay I present to you the fifth instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday which again covers more than one week.

WWWWhat is this about?

Each Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.
Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Supernatural – Season 10, Episodes 19-21 (Watch Date: 23.04./01./07.05.)

The Werther Project was a strange episode. On the one hand did it give us another look at the Men of Letters and of course the return of Benny, but on the other hand did it just re-iterate things we already knew. We know Dean has pretty much given up on getting rid of the Mark and Sam shows more and more ruthlessness in his pursuit to still try. Still, nice to see Benny again – even though he wasn’t the real Benny – and his discussion with Dean was well handled and interestingly put back in Purgatory.
When I read the title for Angel Heart I expected something different. In a way did it concern Castiel’s heart, but not like I thought it would. Just some episodes ago in The Hunter’s Game we saw the return of Claire Novak, the daughter of his vessel and now she is back and searching for her mother. Well, they find her, but it’s not a happy re-union… Just let me say that it was nice to get some closure on this part of Castiel’s background, even though I’m not entirely sure it was necessary to get rid of Claire’s Mum like that, but I’m probably just a bid touchy right now when it comes to Mum’s.
Additionally, it again showed that not all angels are alike and that there are bad kinds that would rather harm humans than help them.
As for Dark Dynasty, apart from the ridiculous fact that they turned the already useless addition of the Styne family into the FRANKENstein family and that it was already obvious that keeping stuff from Dean would turn out bad – because it always does, is there only one thing I have to say about this episode and especially about its end:

NOPE.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D – Season Two, Episode 14-22 (Watch Date: April/May)

As I expected last time did I catch up with this show to be prepared for Avengers: Age of Ultron, though as the release in Germany was before the one in the States (again) the last piece of the puzzle was still missing when I went to the cinema.
Anyway, the episodes were again a roller-coaster. We finally found out, why May is called the Cavalry, we learned more about Skye and the Inhumans and many more.
Skye’s story was interestingly handled and even though there was a different kind of Mum-problem as in Supernatural, I really enjoyed Skye’s last interaction with her dad.
They also finally made good on the relationship between Fitz and Simmons, but in a weird way. While they finally interacted and talked again, was there still not the same spark that made them special in Season One. I really liked them back then, but now that Simmons has changed to a more cold-hearted and calculating person this is all really strange. It’s not like I want them to be together – that would ruin the beauty of their relationship, though that is already ruined – but I just want them to be normal around each other again and the little nods with the sandwich in Afterlife or their general interaction these last few episodes. Though, seemingly the love-bug has latched on Simmons from seeing Hunter nearly lose Bobbi and she seemingly had a change of heart regarding Fitz’s confession from the last Season finale and though I’m inclined to refer to my earlier assessment of Dark Dynasty to how they coped with it in this finale…
Apart from that do I still not get why anyone would even want to be around Ward. I just can’t stand that guy and his misguided, manipulative ways… It’s also beyond me why they kill off interesting characters and keep the awful ones… He is just such a shallow and boring character… [Edit: Forgot to add, that I already discussed this character in length over at Pop goes the Culture and I just don’t feel like adding more to it right now…]
And why does everybody have an agenda? This is just getting ridiculous…
Well, I guess we’ll see how the next Season will turn out, as it just has been renewed. (Like Agent Carter, YAY! :D)

Daredevil – Season One (Watch Date: 25./26.04.)

So, apparently I couldn’t help myself but to sign in on Netflix and watch the entire Season in two days…
I never really cared about Daredevil as a character, I’ve seen some stuff, watched that movie back in the day, but barely knew anything about him and I probably confused him with other heroes more than once. But with all the good Marvel did in their movies and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter and all the stuff I’ve seen over at tumblr I got more and more curious.

And I wasn’t disappointed.
It’s a really great and interesting show and very different from all that Marvel has offered us so far. Where usually there is black and white the characters here are ambiguous to say the least, everyone could be seen as hero or villain, depending on the point of view. They have interesting characters on either side. Fisk and his right hand man were just as interesting as Matt and Foggy. Though I was surprised at how likeable the supposed bad guy was, how utterly annoying a wannabe journalist (Karen) and how fascinating a mere nurse (Claire) can be.

Most incredible is, however, the acting. It’s always hard for an actor to get into a role of a disabled person, but pretending to be a blind character that can see through his other senses, but pretends to see nothing, sounds like a pretty difficult job to me. And it was well done by Charlie Cox, whom I only knew through his role in Stardust.
The only thing I found strange was his American-English accent, it sounded so weird and when I re-watched Stardust – for the first time in English – the difference to his more British-English accent was clearly, well, visible would be a very bad pun, but I can’t think of any better word.
Though pretty much everyone did a great job.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more of this show, though I’m also curious what they will deal with story-wise as they already killed off one major character and interesting side characters and put the main villain in jail – though Marvel villains rarely stay in prison for long…
(P.S. In my first part of the post I accidentally wrote Datedevil, which sounds like a weird comedy show about dating…)

Undateable – Season Two, Episode 04-06 (Watch Date: End of April)

Speaking of really weird dating show: Some time during my break I discovered this show.
It’s weird, not always funny, weird and has a bunch of ridiculous characters and did I say weird?
They play a lot with stereotypes and prejudices, but there are also moments of utter ridiculousness. It’s fun to watch and you don’t really have to think much while doing so.
It’s a nice alternative to the other shows.

Elementary – Season Three, Episode 18-23 (Watch Date 04.05./11.05.)

Two shows about Sherlock Holmes pop up close to each other: One keeps close to the books, the other only takes the names and some basics. Well, and one has way more episodes than the other. But I won’t go into more detail as I want to make a comparison post between the two series one day.
Anyway, Elementary is an interesting crime show, with eccentric characters and weird puzzles. But this show falls in the footsteps of many other crime shows and repeats the same pattern over and over again. There is little development in the overall storyline and character development, there is just the crime solving. The only things that happened were the change in relationship between Holmes and his sober companion and the possible promotion for the police captain.
It’s just getting a tad bit boring.

Escape Artist- Season One, Episode 1 (Watch Date 30.04.)

In a recent rush of buying some DVDs I got my hands on this one. Unmei and I watched the first episode in German, but we didn’t get around to continue. British crime shows are very different to what we are used to here in Germany, but it is always interesting to watch.
The bad guy in this one seems utterly creepy and there was again a mother who didn’t make it to the end of the episode. The story deals with some quite interesting aspects of the works in court, so I’m curious how this will turn out.

The Pretender – Season One, Episode 13/14: Bazooka Jarod/Ranger Jarod (Watch Date: 23./27. 04.)

We also didn’t manage to continue with (re-)watching this one in German.
But we discussed that it would be highly unlikely that what Jarod does in the series in general wouldn’t be possible in a current day setting and it would also be quite hard to replace the actor. Michael T. Weiss just does a really great job at portraying the childish genius of this character.

Doctor Who – Season Three, Episode 11: Utopia (Watch Date 03.05.)

As I already got the Netflix account for Daredevil I used the chance to find out how they translated the phrase uttered by The Face of Boe to The Doctor that played a role again in this episode:

„You Are Not Alone“

Turns out they didn’t, at least not completely. They used the English phrase and gave the translation afterwards, but you still could make the connection to Professor Yana (aka The Master). I think this is a good choice as renaming the character would have been silly…
Translated the phrase reads: Du bist nicht allein, Therefore the name would be: DBNA and I doubt anyone would go by such a name… (The formal version Sie sind nicht allein would make even less sense: SSNA).
Anyway, please don’t ask me, why I started thinking about this, things like that just happen.

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

As you can see did I catch up with with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, as I went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron on the 26th of April. The cinema here actually played the original version once, beside the German dub. Thanks to them sending me into the wrong room when I wanted to watch Guardians of the Galaxy in English I now got to see AoU for free. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #4

To get back into the flow of Blogging I present to you the fourth instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday and its new logo.

WWWWhat is this about?

Each Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.
Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Supernatural – Season 10, Episodes 18: Book of the Damned (Watch Date: 16.04.)

Just like last week did Tumblr force me to catch up with this show. It’s just no use to get spoilered all over the place (I know you can block tags, but I’m too lazy for that).
I was mainly confused by the whole Book of the Damned plot. I mean Sam mentions the book back in There’s No Place Like Home and pretty much sends Charlie off to find it, but that’s about all of what we learn about it. Okay, it’s evil and written on the skin of an insane nun, but regardless of that we pretty much no nothing more than that it might me capable of helping Dean.
Also the inclusion of yet another party with the Styne family wasn’t well executed either – right now they feel as useless a side-plot as Cole. And why does it have to be a Nazi-support family again? I’m getting really tired of those…
When it comes down to it I think this episode had two good things:
#1: Charlie returned!
I really like Felicia Day. I first met her as Codex in The Guild, who is probably just as nerdy as Charlie, no Codex is nerdier…anyway, Felicia so far did not disappoint me in any of the roles I saw her in. With Supernatural her appearance always leaves me grinning, but also fearing that she will not see the end of the episode, both because she has a high likeliness of getting (badly) injured and the shows high amount of female(-lead) deaths…
It’s by the way interesting that Charlie’s real name is Celeste, which derives from the Italian name Caelestis, means nothing else than: „from the sky, heavenly“ or in other words: celestial. You could also count „Charlie“ as reference to Charlie’s Angels and get another direct connection to the other celestial beings – even if just by name.
So technically we had a gathering of the heavenly host at the Bunker, when Charlie and Castiel met for the first time this episode (Sorry, couldn’t resist that one…).
Speaking of celestial poultry:
#2: Castiel got his grace back!
While I still don’t like the behind-Deans-back part of the current story line, did I quite enjoy the dialogue between Castiel and Metatron.
Several times now it was implied that Castiel is not like other angels.

  • He is compassionate for (certain) humans (in particular).
  • He enjoys being around them
  • He willingly defies orders to do what he believes is the right thing to do.
  • He thinks in colours.

The way I see it, was the only reason his missing grace bothered him, was the fact that he couldn’t continue to help and felt useless and was even willing enough to die as punishment for what he had caused in Heaven. He also felt so bad when he took another angels‘ grace that he had pretty much given up and would have used it until nothing remained and he would get back to the point before he got it, but as he saw a glimpse of hope to restore his own grace, he took it.
But why did I like the conversation?
Metatron not just implied, but directly asked what Cas even is right now. They discuss – well Metatron has more or less a monologue about it – being human and show some of its perks. He doesn’t even consider Castiel to be an Angel of the Lord any more. At that point Cas is living on borrowed grace and not really following anyone’s orders but his own – and maybe the Winchesters. He also has experienced humanity in many different ways (being mortal himself, watching humanity, being with the Winchesters, …) So when we finally see Castiel’s wings again it is kind of a big shock.
When we first saw them back in Season Four a fan made this theory of the molting angel and that raising Dean from hell had quite an impact on him/his wings.
But now…well…his wings are barely existing any more and it is kind of terrifying. I can’t look at pictures of it without feeling bad for him…
But somehow, aside from the very bad state of his wings, do I kind of get the feeling – and judging from some theories regarding this Season’s intro others do as well – that Castiel will (have to) sacrifice his grace/himself to safe Dean from the Mark and become mortal in the process. It just seems like everything is pointing in that direction…

The Pretender – Season One (Watch Date: 16.-22. April)

Again I haven’t really gotten around to watch more than this…
But currently it is more the re-watch with Unmei in German.
It’s weird because some of the translations are quite different from the original. The best example would probably be the often quoted key-conversation between Miss Parker and Sidney regarding Jarod’s return to The Centre.

English:
Sidney: „The Centre wants him alive.“
Parker: „Preferably“
German:
Sidney: „Das Centre will ihn aber lebend.“ (But the Centre wants him alive)
Parker: „Wenn sie meinen“ (If you say so)

Aside from that is it difficult to answer Unmei’s questions, because even if I don’t answer to not spoiler her, she sometimes considers it an approval of her theory.
But it is interesting to see her reactions to some of things. For one does she not like the sinister grin Jarod has when he starts to plot the punishment/confession. I have to admit it is quite creepy, but it certainly fits. Though I do wonder why people don’t realize that his expression has changed throughout the revealing conversation…
Still, one thing is for sure: We would both never want to be on his bad side…

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

With Age of Ultron around the corner I think I’ll now have to catch up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as it is said that the story again leads to what happens in the movie.
We’ll see if I can manage to do that before going to the cinema.
PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #3

Due to my long absence from Blogging this is only the third instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday, but also one that will span more than one week.

What is this about?

Each Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.
Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Grimm – Season Two, Episode 14: Bad Luck (Watch Date: ~21.03.)

When I felt a bit better I tried to regain some normalcy by catching up with the shows I watch. Grimm was one of them. Some time back I already talked a bit about the show (still have to re-write that post) and I also mentioned that I want to make another series about the weird usage of German words in it, but so far I didn’t get around to talk more about it.
What I also didn’t manage to do is catch up further.
I’m still a few episodes behind and this one is the last I saw (I tried watching Double Date, but stopped after ten minutes or so, because I didn’t feel like watching more).
Anyway, the episode put an interesting twist on the „Lucky Rabbits Foot“ myth, but took a weird turn on the actual story line.
I’m still not sure about the whole Juliet-turned-into-a-Hexenbiest plot, but I do believe this could turn out interesting, as they so far usually portrayed them as the evil/bad guys and with one of the good guys becoming this kind of Wesen they could gain some redeeming features – like they did from the get go with Monroe and Rosalee as good Blutbad/Fuchsbau. I know Renard is technically a Half-Zauberbiest, but he is still not as good as the other two in my book.
What I do not get is the new plot with Adalind. She is such an annoying character and now she is pregnant from the Grimm thanks to a One Night Stand under a spell? Yes, awesome plot. [/sarcasm]
Seriously, when has a weird-ass pregnancy ever been a good plot-devise?
I mean she isn’t even a good mother to the child she designed to have as insurance/bargaining chip and she gets a second child right away?
As harsh as it may sound, do I hope – for plots and everyone’s sake – that she loses the child.
As interesting as a Wesen-Grimm baby would be is this predicament something I do not need explored while they are dealing with other more interesting things.

Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season Two, Episode 12/13: Who You Really Are/One of Us (Watch Date:~21.03.)

Skye struggles with her new powers, Bobbie and Mack reveal to Hunter who they really work for and Skye’s dad teams up with quite destructive forces.
Or simply put: This show gets more and more interesting and I just don’t feel like watching, as much as I want to. >_<
As for these two episodes: The glimpse at Mays back story with the appearance of her ex-husband was nice and gave her a little more depth. Though Skyes character development throughout the Seasons is by far the most explored. She now has people she sees as family and therefore rather harms herself than accidentally hurting them. It is not the healthiest of traits, but a good one to have.
Her path is understandable, what I didn’t understand was why Mack kidnapped Hunter to reveal that they are secretly working for the real S.H.I.E.L.D. He kind of lost credibility and sympathy points for that …
It just didn’t really make sense to me, but I guess it will be explained in the episodes I haven’t watched yet.
I really want to know how the Inhumans and the second S.H.I.E.L.D. story line come along, while trying to stay away from Spoilers, but I just can’t bring myself to watch the next episodes…

The Musketeers – Season Two, Episode 18: The Prodigal Father (Watch Date: ~21.03.)

Another series I probably haven’t mentioned yet.
I initially started watching this one because I wanted to see Peter Capaldi in a different role than the strange rival Doctor from Fortysomething and to see him in action before he became The Doctor.
The show is fun and interesting and the actors are great.
This episode focused a bit on Porthos, who soon became one of my favourites (in fact I’m even considering to change this guys‚ origins just so we could use him when Warlords get’s a screen adaptation one day >_< – though I’m afraid Howard Charles is a tad bit too short…).
It’s great to see a bit of his back story and have him show his wits for once. I mean, it is one thing to trust a newly found father, but it is a totally different thing to pretend to trust him, while still being loyal to the people, who became his family. I think this whole situation was handled quite well and as audience I did wonder were Porthos‘ loyalties lay, but I really liked the conclusion.
Rochfort on the other hand was the weird, creepy guy from the start and he now has his signature eye-patch and a plot to plan against the queen. As I haven’t seen the last two episodes of the Season I don’t know yet how it concludes, but I guess it will be interesting.
And just for the record: It was so weird when I heard the English pronunciation of the names the first time – especially d’Atagnon. Not that I’m doing any better at using the French way of their names – I can’t say Richelieu without nearly breaking my tongue – but it’s still weird…

Supernatural – Season 10, Episodes 15-17: The things they carried/Paint it Black/Inside Man (Watch Date: ~21.03./~Easter)

Logging on to Tumblr and not being spoilered for Supernatural is quite impossible, so I did manage/was forced to get up to date with this one.
I don’t really know what to think about the current story line. I never really felt connected to Sam and his character becomes more and more ruthless and dislikeable by the Seasons. Dean is supposed to be the Knight of Hell, that is coping rather well considering the circumstances, but Sam is human and that makes this an even more terrifying development.
After 10 Season they also have not learned that doing stuff behind the other ones back isn’t the best of ideas – though I liked seeing Bobby again and the whole plan they thought up was quite fun/interesting.
Though I still don’t really get the relevance of Cole. Sure he has a history with Dean and seeks/sought revenge and kind of reflects how many Hunters came into their world from a different perspective, but it is still kind of annoying…
By the way: My Review for the Second Season of Supernatural was recently published over at Extremis Reviews.

Once Upon a Time – Season Four, Episodes 14-16: Darkness on the Edge of Town/Unforgiven/Enter the Dragon (Watch Date: ~23.03)

As I mentioned before (another re-write worthy post) did I get hooked onto this series quite fast. Now it’s into its fourth Season and many things have happened since then.
Though a few things remained unchanged for me: Regina is still my favourite character and I still don’t like the Charmings. If any of the enormous cast deserves a Happy Ending it’s the (no longer) Evil Queen. Yes, she did some really bad things, but throughout the Seasons she has done a lot to redeem herself and we’ve seen that a lot of what she did was due to a twisted sense of vengeance.
Unlike the Frozen storyline do I enjoy the current turn to the search for the author and focus on the bad guys. Rumpelstiltskin got quite dull throughout the Seasons and is now finally getting back to his former glory, even though his actions are quite cowardly, which is his theme anyway.
We also got some new villains trying to get their turn at a Happy Ending. I really like their portrayal and back story so far. It really makes the actual story line more and more interesting again. The only things I wonder is who would date a Dragon (And why does everyone need to be related in some way? o.O)? And how much time has passed since Rumpel was exiled, that Belle is already seeing someone else? (Another subtraction from the sympathy points)
Still, I couldn’t get myself to continue watching as well…

The Pretender – Season One-Four + Movies (Watch Date: March/April)

Well….the only thing I currently seem to be able to watch is this old show…
When I was a teenager I caught some episodes on television and really liked what I saw. For quite some time now I wanted to watch the whole series and now as I didn’t want to tarnish the other series I’m following by watching them with a heavy heart I decided to catch up with this one. (I also tried Parks and Recreations to get my mind off of things, but I got kind of bored after the first Season)
I do believe there will be a separate post about it one day, but let me tell you this: It is surprisingly helpful when trying to cope with the loss of a loved one. The series deals a lot with these kind of things and portrays some great life values.
It’s also quite funny and has many interesting characters, just the main story line gets weirder and weirder by the Season/episode…I mean, like, really weird, Adalinds-baby-is-normal-in-comparison-weird…
I still started to re-watch it now in German with Unmei and occasionally re-watch one of the English episodes, as this is still the only thing I feel like watching at the moment…

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week/month?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

I hope I can get back to watching stuff like I used to, but right now I have this enormous watching-block (just like writer’s block only with shows – only that I’m also having a writer’s block right now when it comes to stories…) whenever I think about starting an episode. I really hope this gets better, but I’m not sure if there will be another instalment next week.
PoiSonPaiNter

Supernatural Summary – Season 2

Welcome back to the overview of Eric Kripke’s Supernatural; the monster-of-the-week mystery drama series about the Winchester brothers Sam and Dean.
We met them on their first journey in Season One and continue right away with:

Season Two

Storyline

The sustained injuries from the crash in the Season 1 finale are fatal in Dean’s case so John saves him by making a deal with Yellow Eyes to trade his own life for that of his son. After John’s death the boys carry own with The Family Business and soon discover that there is more to their mother’s death than they initially thought. Azazel – not the mutant, the Demon – has a plan for certain children and Sam is one of them. When the kids he had chosen were exactly six months old, he would come to their crib and leave a little present: his blood. This endows the children with special abilities, including mind control, premonitions, and super strength. Sam and others like him are forced to battle each other for the survival of the fittest, unfortunately that isn’t him. Following his father’s footsteps Dean makes a deal to bring him back in exchange for his life a year later. The chosen one is given the task to use the Colt to open up a Hell Gate to release an armada of Demons into the world. The Winchesters and their gang are able to close it, after far too many have been freed. The only upside of the ordeal is that Dean manages to kill Azazel with the last of the Colt’s bullets.

The Monsters

The majority of monsters appearing in this Season are the same as before: Vengeful Spirits await the viewer in every other episode and with Azazel’s plan unfolding Demons come more and more into the focus.
Through Dean’s short death we also learn about the existence of Reapers that collect the souls for their journey to the afterlife. Another new addition are the Djinns who instead of granting you three wishes, trap you in a dream world and drink your blood.

Plot Points

The review-intro into an episode features Dean repeating their goal and pretty much their family motto:

“Dad would have wanted us to carry on. Saving People. Hunting Things. The family business.”

On the one hand is it a reminder to the audience of John’s passing, on the other hand does this emphasize the monster-of-the-week theme.
A major plot point of this Season are Sam’s abilities. He starts getting premonitions and as luck would have it they meet up with other people having similar powers and backgrounds as him.
 We also get glimpses of the other children that gave into the darkness of their powers by misusing them and/or siding with the Demons.
When in Season One we met Bobby Singer (a namesake of producer Robert Singer), we learned that he is an experienced hunter and willing to aid others in their Cases. With the Season opener we also meet Allen and Jo Harvelle, who run a bar in the middle of nowhere that is frequented by many Hunters. At first suspicious of the Winchesters do they soon become part of the team and help them in the final battle at the Hell Gate.
Re-appearing from Season One is also the Demon Meg, though she is soon sent back to Hell. With her and Azazel – who claims to be her father – out of the way, the playfield is about to change towards the new escapees.

Pro’s and Con’s

The regular appearance of Vengeful Spirits plot is repetitive, yet it serves as distraction from the actual battle – both for the watchers and the brothers – to have something nice and simple admits the chaos. 
Just like the previous Season are the brothers splitting up again for no other reason than to reunite later on. With the big bad lurking in the background one might think it wiser to stay close in case of an attack. Yet, the stubbornness of the characters play against this.
The plot line with the gifted children was an interesting aspect, both in means of diversity of powers, but also in the way they were used. 
Sadly this whole ordeal felt rather rushed and was handled in a few episodes only.
For the first time, we also get a glimpse at the police side of their investigations, when a real officer of the law starts looking closer into the brothers frauds and false identities. 
But this as well only gets little screen time and the full extent of their meddling with actual police business is not shown.
All in all this Season had some more interesting turns than Season One and it certainly gained a better footing. Some things felt unnecessary, others should have been explored some more, but still an enjoyable Season.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Until next time
PoiSonPaiNter
Season Three: Supernatural Summary – Season 3
Originally Posted on EXTREMIS REVIEWS: Carry On Our Wayward Sons: Season Two – The One In Which Dean Gets That Bastard Azazel

Supernatural Summary – Season 1

Usually a review on [The EXTREMIS REVIEWS] is for a Comic Book volume, detailing what is happening and how the overall storyline is coming along. This one is instead about a TV series and also a bit different.

Supernatural by Eric Kripke is more or less a monster-of-the-week mystery drama show that started into its tenth season in the beginning of October. Because (nearly) every episode follows a certain pattern a proper review – episode by episode – would be rather redundant. Therefore I’ll give an overview of the storyline and a few important plot points so far, so that you will be well prepared for catching up.

Season One

Storyline

The brothers Sam and Dean Winchester set off to find their father John, who hasn’t returned from a hunting trip. Though, unlike normal families the Winchesters do not hunt game, but monsters; especially an yellow eyed Demon that killed their mother by pinning her on the ceiling and burning her alive. While not able to defeat the Demon, the boys at least manage to meet up with their father. He tells them of a weapon – a Colt, whose bullets can kill Demons – which he wants to use on their mutual enemy. Playing cat and mouse with the fiend, the three of them end up badly injured, after a Demon-possessed driver sends his truck crashing into their Impala.

The Monsters

From this short storyline you can see that the first Season focused on gaining its footing and showing off the vast collection of monsters the two protagonists would be facing. The term monster-of-the-week-show can be used here as each week there is a different foe, with the big bad lurking in the background.
For the first time we meet Ghosts – or rather Vengeful Spirits -, Vampires, Werwolves and of course Demons and many others. Without much explanation as to the why and how, the ways to deal with these creatures are simply thrown at us:
A Ghost’s remains need to be salted and burned; Vampires have to be beheaded and Silver Bullets do the trick with the Big Bad Wolfs.
With the Colt there is also a way to get permanently rid of Demons, whereas exorcising them would send them simply back to Hell.

Plot Points

In this Season we are not only introduced to the key characters – Sam and Dean, and to some extent John and the yellow eyed Demon – but also to some of the key elements of the show.
As mentioned before is most notably the monster-of-the-week theme. While a (version of a) monster might return, it is rarely the same creature two weeks in a row. These encounters aren’t by chance, but instead sought out by the boys. In newspapers and other media they look for strange sightings or freak accidents and then dress up as police, FBI or whatever necessary to pursue their so-called cases.
We also learn about the Colt and John Winchesters Journal, the latter holding information about all the monsters he had encountered in his time. 
Both items are frequently referred to or used after their first appearance. 
The Journal even seems to be like a Wikipedia for everything monster-related as it provides an answer to all the questions the boys have whilst searching for a way to defeat their foes.
Another big topic besides the search for their father is the search for revenge. I have not mentioned this in the summary, but Sam’s reason for joining his brother wasn’t to find his/their father. He wanted to kill the Demon that not just took his mother, but in the pilot also took his girlfriend.
 Driven by revenge he feels their cases to be bothersome instead of a good/the right thing to do for the people suffering from the monsters.
In this Season we see Dean as the boy/man who would follow his father’s words to the letter and Sam as the rebellious kid that rarely agrees with either of them.
 Their arguments are petty and childish and don’t always seem genuinely motivated.

Pro’s and Con’s

While it is unsatisfying that most of the plot is carried by dialogue of the brothers at the end of the episode – usually in or around the Impala -, it still isn’t that bad a reoccurring pattern. Though this is what makes it difficult to review it properly.
A plus point goes to the diverse range of monsters.
When I first watched the show during its original run on television (back in 2007), I was quite afflicted by it. A scene from the episode “Wendingo“, never left my memory. But when I re-watched it, it wasn’t as exciting any more. Though, I cannot tell if this was due to the show or my changed point of view. But I do believe it has a lot to do with the latter as seven years is quite some time (It would be ten if I had watched it on American television).
You need a magnifier to see the plot in this Season and the initial thrill of meeting new different monsters is soon replaced by the predictability of the episodes’ outcome. Still, it is an interesting concept, with some surprises and it has a finale cliff-hanger, where you simply want to know what happens next.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Until next time.
PoiSonPaiNter
Season Two: Supernatural Summary – Season 2
Originally posted on EXTREMIS REVIEWS: Carry On Our Wayward Sons: Supernatural Season One – The One In Which the Winchesters Become a Pair

Questions upon Questions…

As I again am struggling to work on any of the proper posts I still need to finish, I’d like to get some thoughts/questions out of the way about stuff I recently watched. Needless to say the following contains Spoilers and probably doesn’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t watched the stuff yourself.

Doctor Who – Kill the Moon

For some reason I simply can’t get over this quote from the episode:

„My gran used to put things on tumblr“
(Lundvik)

Let’s look at the facts for this statement:

  • As „gran“ means „grandmother“ the astronaut Lundvik is the granddaughter of someone that used tumblr.
  • tumblr has currently (in our time line in 2014 or the Whoverse equivalent about 2014ish) a growing number of users.
  • The episode is set in 2049 which makes this 35 years from now.
  • Lundvik looks like she is in her late thirties/early forties, with a lot of squinting she scratches at the late twenties.

Everyone on tumblr is excited about the mention, but I am wondering if no one has done the Math, because all these information lead me to the following conclusion:
Her grandmother was at least in her late twenties when she used tumblr – assuming the grandmother was 16 years old when having the mother/father, who in turn was 16 years old, when the daughter is now 30 years old. While this would be according to the user statistics, it would make less and less sense if the ages of the generations where to rise. E.g. grandmother: 24; mother: 18; daughter: 42 would mean the grandmother was in her late forties and this would make it highly unlikely that it was the gran who used the platform and not the mother.
If she had said „mum/mother“ I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
Though, I haven’t read from anyone else yet, who was bugged by this, so it’s probably just me anyway…
Other than that is this episode a bit retconning to the events of „The Seeds of Death„, a Second Doctor serial that I’ve actually managed to watch already, that is also set on the moon in a time the humans don’t want to go into space any more. This serial, however, takes place in the late 21st century, a time that according to the Twelfth Doctor is past the moment humanity decides to explore the stars again, which gives the episode a lingering taste of wrongness…
But this is not the only continuity thing that is kind of strange…

Supernatural – The Song Remains the Same

As I have recently caught up with the show and am currently working on a season-summary for The Extremis Review I again came across this conversation:

MICHAEL
You’re my true vessel but not my only one.
DEAN
What is that supposed to mean?
MICHAEL
It’s a bloodline.
DEAN
A bloodline?
MICHAEL
Stretching back to Cain and Abel. It’s in your blood, your father’s blood, your family’s blood.
(The Song Remains the Same)

What we have here is the reference to a bloodline that according to the Archangel Michael goes back to the beginning of humankind.
The bible tells us, that Cain and Abel where the first sons of Adam and Eve and became „The First Human Born“ and „The First Human Murdered“; it also tells us that Cain had tons of kids, while Abel died young. Therefore the bloodline supposedly started from Cain. The Supernatural-Cain we meet in Season Nine, however, doesn’t seem to have any offspring whatsoever, which makes this a bit more complicated.
So, if neither of the brothers had children in the shows history, we have to look at their parents again. Though, as all humans derive from them, it would mean that pretty much every older brother(/brother-pair) on the planet would be suitable as vessel(s) for Michael (and Lucifer)…but hey, the Winchesters are the main characters, so they are the true ones for reasons! (Yes, I know, I have serious problems with main characters and one of these days I will reflect on them…)
But if they are chosen because of said „bloodline“ does that mean the angels are somehow involved in that line as well, to be able to call them their (true) vessels? Would Michael and Lucifer have been able to possess Cain and Abel respectively? (Judging from Cain’s tale in First Born, I guess they would.) And whose bloodline is it really?

Supernatural => Destiel?

When I started to watch the show I was well aware of the Fandoms love for Destiel(, which is the Shipping portmanteau of the pairing Dean/Castiel). I’m generally not the slightest bit interested in fanmade pairings, but this one made me curious enough, to see for myself, if it was really as obvious as the fans claim.
While I can see a deep (or profound as Castiel called it) bond between the two characters – and I kind of feel bad for writing this – can I not see any romantic feelings that would be displayed by them…
Even as a more or less casual viewer I am aware that they would do a lot for each other – especially Castiel, who is sacrificing quite a bit for Dean – as either has become quite important to the other over the seasons. I realize that they deeply (want to) trust each other and feel utterly betrayed when something happens against that trust.
I see two man who have found some kind of soul mate in each other and that don’t want this connection/bond to break and are therefore willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary. Dean is a character that doesn’t trust easily, but if he does it/the person he puts his trust in means everything to him. Castiel is someone who trusts easily, but has found something special and precious in the returned trust from the Winchester that he doesn’t want to lose. I think they’ve done pretty well with the Dean-doesn’t-want-to-be-alone-theme in Season Nine and losing Cas has become nearly as bad a thing for the hunter as losing his brother is.
I can see all that, but I just don’t see any romance involved…
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy their dynamic and the majority of their characterization, I just don’t see that spark we saw with the other couples in the show. The only time I can think of, where there was a minor spark, was when they apologized for disregarding the others trust, but that interaction can just as well be seen as the re-kindling of a deep friendship.
Besides if they where to become officially canon, the only problem I would have with it, would be the fear that the people responsible would make it too cheesy, which is kind of doubtful as they would probably rather over-emphasize it due to Deans brash nature. Guess we’ll see what the new Season has in store for this.
For some odd reason do I feel bad for not being able to see this, as the Fandom eagerly tries to show people the little things pointing at the pairing, but if I watch those scenes in the context of the episodes, all I can see is the deep friendship/familiar relationship between those two…
But maybe I’m just too rational(, maybe even too cold-hearted?) to understand it, as I pretty much have the same problem with a romantic view on JohnLock (Sherlock/John, especially from the BBC Sherlock).
Why can’t two people just share a deep/profound friendship/bond without being romantically or otherwise involved?
Anyway, let’s move on from time line and shipping strangeness to something entirely different.

Jack the Giant Slayer

The movie with X-Men and About a Boy star Nicholas Hoult in the titular role is a fun watch, if you don’t pay too much attention to details that is.
When I first watched it a couple of weeks ago I was already bugged by the far to modern looking leather jacket of the hero, but when I re-watched it yesterday with my mum, I noticed something even more strange:
Jacks shirt has a skull print in the chest area.
I highly doubt something like that would be possible to make in the portrayed time period, let alone affordable for a mere farmer boy. Were they planning on emphasizing the Slayer part or did they not have any grey print-less shirts during production? >_<
It’s not like a golden full plate armour or a seemingly equal human-giant tug-of-war makes more sense, but I’ll just leave it at that until I might write a separate review about it.
Well, now you know what kind of things I ponder while watching/reflecting stuff and hopefully now that this is out of my head I’ll be able to finish my other writings…
PoiSonPaiNter
P.S. If the above portrayed opinion is to induce hate or other kinds of negativity towards myself, I shall release my inner Cyberman and delete the offensive comments without further warning.
© I don’t own the rights to the quotes and am just using them as illustrative material.

The Elevator – Relaunch?

After I published my post about the Elevator-Meme (the one with certain characters from different Fandoms being stuck in the same elevator, read the link to know which one I’m talking about), quite a lot of people read (or looked at) the analysis and its accompanying One Shot that I had published on both Fanfiction.net and Animexx. I got some interesting and lovely responses so far (I even inspired someone to make a challenge out of this! o.O)  and well, what can I say…the mind keeps wandering back to it…
Several people have asked me if I will continue the idea, but at that time I didn’t have any idea how to.
The biggest problem being that I don’t know the majority of Fandoms as well as would be necessary to properly write such an enormous „Fandom soup“ (as a reviewer put it).
But as I said: The mind keeps wandering…I am more and more inclined to add more story to what I already have, to include scenes of everyone receiving the invite to get to the conference, to add some more thoughts and descriptions in certain moments and to simply continue where I left off.
As the Doctor Who Fandom is the one I feel most confident writing about, it his highly likely that the solution of the problem I created  (As a reminder: The universes merged and they met up to figure out how that happened and how they can reverse it) will be solved with the help of The Doctors companions (including Jack/Torchwood, River Song and the Ponds to some extend).
Though I see possibilities to also include „The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.“ and other Marvel researchers and possibly heroes as well. A mentioning of the Star Trek people is kind of inevitable , but I’m afraid I know too little about them to actually make that work beyond receiving and acting on orders. (If anyone wants to help, let me know how you would include them in my setting.)
Another thing I would need to worry about would be:
How do I include the other characters?
I have a rough idea what they could be useful for like the Holmes brothers for the planning, House for assembling and coordinating medical teams, Sheldon doing the same with „normal“ researchers, but that still leaves the question:
What am I supposed to do with the pirate and the angel? o.O (And the possibility of characters from their respective universes running amok…)
So you can see still a lot of thought is necessary to even get the characters to properly work for the sake of the story.
Regardless of that another important topic still needs to be contemplated:
How the hell did all that happen? Who caused it and how could the assembled people actually stop and reverse it?
The setting I created is quite Sci-Fi-y and as I said I’m most comfortable with Doctor Who, therefore my current thought is that the classic DW villains, the Daleks, caused it.
We have seen them mess with universes through their Reality Bomb, who is to say they would not create something that would merge universes, making it easier for them to kill everything in one go?
Quite overused probably, but the only thing I feel adequate to write about.
But long story short: The possibility that I re-work what I wrote to simply prove my points in the analysis and widen it into a more complex story with more details and an actual solution, becomes more and more likely.
It is just a matter of time until I find the missing pieces to start writing, I suppose. But you are more than welcome to join me in my musing. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter

Of Karl the Moose and Ponies with Horns

At the beginning of this month my flat got a new inhabitant.

Meet Karl:

Karl

Karl the Moose

What is there to know about Karl?

He is absolutely fluffy.
He is a Moose.
And he was supposed to me a Pony with Horn.

But how did he get into my possession?

He was a birthday gift from Black Kat, Schnitzel and Anice.

Yet, his story is way more fun than that.

His story includes an inside-joke, a thought spoken out loud and a horrible pun.

But let’s start at the beginning …

At last years Wacken (which I still haven’t reviewed yet) the following scene played out:

DarkFairy and I were waiting for Rammstein to start, when she discovered a man with a strange drawing on his back.
Without warning she proceeded to point at him and partly yell: „Look! He has a … Pony with Horn! … Unicorn!“ („…“ are pauses 😉 )

This description was so ridiculous that we kept on using it throughout the whole festival.
You didn’t have a proper argument for a conversation? Pony with Horn.
You didn’t know what else to say? Pony with Horn.
You agreed on the weirdness of something? Pony with Horn and an acknowledging: Pony with Horn.
We had great fun with the Pony with Horn that weekend … 😀

When later that year Kat, Iron Eve and I were in Hamburg for the HellNights (that are also still waiting to be reviewed), we ended up in a shop for flat decorations.
In that shop we saw several fake trophy heads that looked pretty cool and were awfully fluffy. (They had a bison, a shark, a mammoth and others hanging at a wall and thrown into a bin.)
When we skimmed through the catalogue I discovered that they also had a unicorn-version of this.
Without second thought I then said something out loud that I probably shouldn’t have said:

„When I have a proper flat, I’ll get that unicorn-thing for my wall.“

What a bad idea that statement was, became clear throughout the evening of my birthday earlier this month.
When I arrived at our meeting point Kat handed me an enormous package that I was not allowed to open before the other two arrived.
This in turn caused a weird conversation with the barman of the pub we went to:

„Should I put the package away?“
„No, I still need to open it.“
„Oh, so you don’t know what’s inside? A proper present then.“

Through shaking the package I knew that something plush was inside. Though I expected it to be something different.
I also didn’t remember my statement from several months before.
So when I could finally open it, I didn’t understand the present, until Kat reminded me:

„You said, you wanted to get it when you have a proper flat, but I thought you shouldn’t wait that long. Before Christmas there were some Unicorns left, but afterwards it was hard to find anything. So we got you the Moose.“

And this is how Karl the Moose came into my possession and I’d say he is one of the most hilarious birthday presents I got so far.
They even thought about adding a paper-horn. 😀

When I couldn’t quite stop petting the poor thing (the artificial fur is really soft and fluffy…) Schnitzel gave the Moose its name:

„If you go on like this he will be bald („kahl„) soon. You should call him Karl to make it seem like he is supposed to be bald.“

In retrospective a quite fitting name.
As I had recently seen it again the name „Karl“ reminds me of a crow (I think) from an old adaptation of  „The Snow Queen“. (I was shortly tempted to call my new laptop that arrived on the same day „Klara“, because of the crows companion >_< )
The other Karl it reminds me of, as I just noticed, would be the one whose Latinized name is in discussion for becoming the name of the Nameless King in the book I’m co-writing.

What also is fun, is the English version of his name.
As I said: „kahl“ means „bald“, following the pun, the English name would be „Baldur“.
Which by the way is a name-variation for „Baldr“, the god from Norse mythology, whose story I mentioned in this post.
I think it’s funny how those things tend to connect if you look a bit closer …

Short version: I have a new flatmate. 😀
(That has nothing to do with the Moose from Supernatural)

PoiSonPaiNter

P.S. It finally snowed! 😀

Imagine all these guys were stuck in an elevator…

If you are amongst the people that look around the Internet for (funny) things concerning your fandoms than you probably came across this thing at some point:
elevator
So why am I writing about this?
Well, I started thinking about it when my brain was supposed to think about other – way more important – things and that usually ends up as a post…

Anyway, let’s have a look at this situation:

Eight guys from several different fandoms get stuck in an elevator for 24 hours.
In my opinion more interesting than: What would happen if they all were stuck? is: How the hell did they all end up in the same elevator? But before we get to that.

Who are these guys anyway?

We have: Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, The Doctor from Doctor Who, (Reboot) Spock from Star TrekDr. House from House M.D., Castiel from Supernatural, Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock and Tony Stark from Iron Man/The Marvel Cinematic Universe.
You could pretty much say that every person derives from a different universe, at least that’s what it looks like. Based on what we know of the stories and the connections between them we can soon come to some interesting conclusion:

  • Sheldon is a fan of both DW and ST and as Comic Book nerd he of course knows about Iron Man – all of them fictional in his universe.
  • There is however no – to me known – mentioning of House, Supernatural or PotC, yet the last two are most likely fiction as well
  • There is no mentioning of TBBT or House in one of the other formats
  • Sherlock seems to be fiction in all of the universes.
  • Except the one version of ST where Spock quotes Sherlock and says the line is from one of his ancestors.
  • Whereas Sherlock is mocked by John Watson for quoting Spock, making ST fiction in his universe.
  • Same goes for DW, when Rose Tyler calls the Doctor „Spock“
  • TBBT, House and Sherlock all play in a modern day setting that resembles our universe
  • So do Supernatural, IM and DW, but they have far to much influence on the time line of their respective universes, to be considered as one.
  • PotC plays in the past and is most likely fiction in both House and TBBT

To summarize that, we have:

  1. TBBT and House, that could be from the same universe where all the other people are fictional
  2. DW, where at least ST and Sherlock are fictional
  3. Sherlock, where at least ST is fiction
  4. ST, where Sherlock could be fiction or history
  5. IM, where at least Sherlock is fiction (and judging from characters in an Avenger Comic, the Doctor might be not-fictional)
  6. Supernatural, where at least Sherlock and ST are fiction and
  7. PotC, where non of the fictions yet exist and that might be a possible past for TBBT and House.

That makes, let’s say, 6 universes and a different time line of one that need to come together for them to end up in the same elevator.

How would that be possible?

Well, with ST and DW we have two of the leading Sci-Fi shows that occasionally deal with parallel universes and overlapping time lines. Add the Marvel Universe to the mix and the mash up is pretty much self-explanatory. I mean: The TARDIS blew up once and created a whole lot of cracks in the universe, combine that with the Alien technology of ST and IM and it could happen.

But why would these people be in the same elevator?

If you look at the people you soon realize that all of them – except Jack and Castiel – are really good at something. Well, Jack is good at retreating and Castiel’s an angel, but not in the way the others are. Just look at this:

 Sheldon Theoretical Physicists
 House  Medical Genius
 Sherlock  Consulting Detective
 Spock  Scientist
 The Doctor  The Doctor
 Tony Stark  Technology Genius

Now imagine a messed up combination of all 6 universes. Don’t you think the governments wouldn’t send their experts to meet up and figure out what’s happening? Now it is arguable why House would be involved, but I guess they would just want to include someone that can figure out if the mess-up will be unhealthy for the inhabitants of the planet.
In regards to Jack I’d say the Doctor is prone to picking up strays, so why should he let a disorientated pirate roam the streets of a major American city?

Why American? Well, most of the characters are American and I can clearly imagine it being some fancy meeting in one of those really high buildings. With lots of stops for an elevator.

So how did they end up in the same elevator?

I imagine it to be like this:
Sheldon had been asked to attend a meeting where his skills were needed. They had been quite secretive as to about what it really were, but they were government officials so he didn’t question them and was rather flattered by the invitation. The meeting would be in one of the highest levels, so he made sure to get a spot in the corner away from the console station as every other person that would enter would most likely leave before him. Before he entered he had seen an old man with a cane making his way to the elevator as well. For a second there he thought of just closing the door and let him take the next one, but he felt generous today. So he pushed the button to open the doors again for the man to enter. The man muttered a „Thanks“ and leaned against the side opposite of him. The physicist tried grinning at the other replying „My pleasure“ in a mocking tone, only gaining a suspicious look for that. When he was about to ask the man if he didn’t want to pick out a level the doors were stopped from closing again. For a moment Sheldon stared at the well-dressed foot, before the doors opened to reveal a man around his age in a coat that looked far to warm for this time of the year. The new arrival apologized with a wide grin and a „Sorry“ that didn’t feel at all sincere. The man glanced at the control station and the other passengers. With a small grin he then positioned himself in front of Sheldon facing the doors.
A loud yell emerged from the hall in front of the elevator when another man was fast approaching the machine: „Please hold that!“
The man in the coat stepped forward like he had done to enter. It would have been a waste of time to let another member of the meeting wait for the next elevator.
„Thanks.“ He said to the coat-guy before he added to the one that had followed him: „After you.“ The man wearing a blue Star Trek uniform entered before him. A cautious look in his eyes and a small courtesy smile on his lips. He stopped in the center of the small room while the other positioned himself in front of the console.
„Apparently we all have the same destination. That’s convenient.“ He commented with a smug grin, but did not get a reaction as he had hoped to get.
Bored with the other passengers he started to type away on a gadget.
For a moment there was silence in the room and the vehicle started to make its way upwards. Without any warning the latest arrival bluntly asked the Star Trek guy: „Are they real or did you have surgery to look more like Spock?“
He gained a snort from both the coat-guy and the one with the cane and a nod from the skinny boy in the back. The one in question just looked at him as if he didn’t get the reference. But before the gadget-guy could get an answer the elevator stopped abruptly and went down again. Quite faster than the passengers would have liked. When the doors opened they revealed two guys that looked like they had just robbed a costume store: One had decided to dress up as pirate, while the other pretended to be his own grandfather.
„Hello everyone, sorry for that. But I needed to take the lift. They didn’t allow me to enter the meeting with my own transport.“ He started babbling.
He shoved the other guy in front of him mumbling „Get in mate. Ha. Mate.“
„I’m The Doctor by the way and this is Jack Sparrow.“ He introduced himself and the other man that was just staring at the strange room.
„Captain Jack Sparrow“ Jack corrected and proceeded to knock on the metal walls.
„You know I once traveled with a Captain Jack. Nice fella. Became a fixed point in time though. Oh, and of course Sally Sparrow. Lovely Sally Sparrow. Had a run in with the Weeping Angels, but defeated them most brilliantly. You don’t happen to be related to her do you? No, that wouldn’t be possible. Would it? Hmm…“ The Doctor mused with his usual demeanor of running about and using his hands, only to stop and look at the Captain. When he noticed the others stared at them he added: „Oh don’t mind him. He’s a pirate from the 18th century. Doesn’t know what a lift is.“

Why isn’t Sheldon recognizing any of his heroes?

Because he can’t. Their stories are fiction in his universe, that means if the producers of the show have a rough idea of what the actual person looked like, they will hire an actor that resembles him. So to be clear: The Doctor, Tony, Sherlock, Spock and Jack (and Castiel) dress similar to their fictional counterpart and they resemble the versions played by Matt Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Quinto and Johnny Depp (and Misha Collins), but they are not them. Just as Sheldon doesn’t look exactly like Jim Parsons and House not like Hugh Laurie.
Strong resemblance: Yes. Alternative version of the actors: Not really.
It’s a bit like making a movie about a historical person: You take what you know about them and an actor that looks like them and wrap it in a tale.

But how would they get stuck in the elevator?

Let the tale continue…
Soon The Doctor noticed that the others were staring at him and not the pirate.
„Ooooh. I see. It’s me you are wondering about, not him. Some of the most brilliant minds of the universes and they are puzzled by me. Ha. Isn’t that something?“ He concluded clapping his hands together in delight.
„Oh please. We’re not puzzled. You clearly are just a lunatic babbling about pirates, that has the fashion sense of an old man.“ The man in the coat countered with distaste.
„Lunatic?“ The Doctor pondered this for a moment, before he replied with a wide grin: „No. I might be a mad man with a blue box, but I’m clearly not a lunatic. And: Bow Ties. Are. Cool.“ He declared, straightening the accessory and started to look more closely at the other one. Something was odd about him.
„Yes. That’s it. All of you listen up. Something is odd here. I don’t know what so far but I will figure it out soon. So now, everyone state their name, species and qualification.“ He ordered.
„And why would we do that?“ The coat-guy retorted in a superficial tone.
„Because if you hadn’t noticed: The lift stopped moving and it wont start moving again until you tell me what I need to know and we will all miss the meeting.“
„You can’t do that.“ Coat stated unconvinced.
„Apparently he can. I just checked the elevator software. It’s deadlocked. Heck, it’s that locked, I can’t even get through it and that says something.“ The man with the gadget admitted awed. „You’re brilliant. You have to teach me how to do that.“
„Awww…thank you. Maybe later. First introductions. You there in the corner. You go first.“ He pointed at Sheldon.
Nervous and unsure he fidgeted with his fingers. This man claimed to be The Doctor and if he wasn’t just an insane lookalike than he was really stuck in an elevator with one of the most incredible people he had ever heard about. Taking a deep breath he let it out in one go saying: „Sheldon Cooper, Human, theoretical physicist“
„Hello, Sheldon Cooper nice to meet you.“ The Doctor took his hand and shook it.
„N-nice to meet you too…Doctor“ He replied still shaking a little.
The Doctor then turned to the man with the cane and moved his hands into a „go-on“ gesture. „Gregory House, Human, doctor“ he simply replied.
„Ha. A doctor. Hello.“ The Doctor greeting him as well through shaking his hand.
When he turned around the man with the gadget had a wide grin on his face when he answered: „Tony Stark, Human, Genius“
„But not smart enough to break my deadlock.“ The Doctor mocked him before he took the offered hand.
„I am working on that and you have to teach me how to do that.“
„I will, later. Now you.“ He then started to circle the guy with the pointy ears. „You are not human. Maybe half-human.“
„That is true.“ He affirmed. „I AM Spock“ He started and stared at Tony for a moment „and I am half-human, half-vulcan and a scientist.“
„That is impossible.“ The remaining passenger commented, while they all were staring at Spock.
„Why would that be…oh…yes…you’re fiction…or at least you’re supposed to be fiction. Yet you are here. Oh, that is brilliant.“ The Doctor concluded in excitement.
„Fiction?“ Spock repeated when The Doctor went on to the last one.
„And you are?“ He prodded again.
With a sigh he complied. „Sherlock Holmes. Human. Consulting Detective“ This time all eyes were on him. Ignoring them he confronted the other man with the same question.
Straightening his bow tie again he answered „I am The Doctor. I’m a Timelord. I know how universes work.“
He grinned again pulling a metal stick out of his pocked and pointed it at the console
„And now: Geronimo!“ The Doctor yelled and the elevator started to move again, but not without throwing out sparks and making an abrupt start. When the machine had settled on a normal speed The Doctor grinned at the passengers.
„Sherlock Holmes. The great detective. Mr. Spock and other brilliant people. Oh this will be fun.“
Tony was just about to ask what a Timelord is and what that strange stick was when an
eighth passenger arrived out of nowhere.
„Hello? Did you call for an angel?“ He asked slightly unsure.
„Why would anybody call for an angel?“ Sherlock remarked.
„People do that. If they need help.“ The angel replied.
„You are a real, proper angel?“ The Doctor asked, staring at the man with slight distrust.
„Yes. Of course.“ The other replied.
„Does anybody know anything about angels existing?“ The Doctor asked the rest, when no one said anything he added: „Thought so. That makes…5 different universes and a different time line at least.“
„Six.“ Came a quiet correction.
„Six? Why six? What makes you think six?“  The Doctor started questioning Sheldon and tried to figure out what was different about him that he would think of a sixth universe.
With recovered confidence he cleared his throat and said: „I am fairly certain that Mr. Tony Stark aka Iron Man is not a part of my universe. Even though it’d be great if he was. You are quite incredible Mr. Stark.“
„Oh, thank you. I know.“ Stark replied to the flattery.
„Iron Man? You’re not made of metal.“ The Doctor wondered, pocking Tony in the chest. „And luckily you’re not a Cyberman either. Uuuh that would be bad. Oh that would be really bad. Let’s just hope neither the Cybermen nor the Daleks have noticed that there are several universes to destroy. And hopefully not the Sontarans either….“ He then went into another rant before he turned to Spock. „Did you know that the vulcan greeting is perfect for opening the doors in Sontaran battle fleets space ships? Probably not…poor Donna…But that’s not the point. Anyone else not having an ‚Iron Man‘?“
„Only in the movies.“ House replied.
„Yeah. I think there was one of those awful and loud obnoxious films called like that.“ Sherlock added with distaste.
„There’s a movie about me?“ Tony wanted to know.
„Three, by now. Plus an appearance in The Avengers. Several comic book series and cartoons.“ Listed Sheldon.
„Well, that’s awesome.“
„Wait a minute.“ Interrupted The Doctor and turned to Sherlock again. „A LOUD film?“
„Yes. Loud, as in: The volume of the film in the cinema is always turned up far too loud. Are you retarded?“
„Of course not. What year do you live in?“
„2013, why would that be of relevance?“
„Really?“ Asked Tony this time.
„Yes of course. What is this nonsense about?“
„Interesting. You’re supposed to be from the 19th century…“ The Doctor told him, while observing him again.
„Apparently I’m not.“ Sherlock and emphasized his comment through rolling his eyes.
„Apparently you’re not. And that is really interesting. Angel man!“ The Doctor moved up front again to talk properly to the man that was just standing there.
„Cas. That’s what…people call me.“
„Cas. Hello Cas. I’m The Doctor. Nice to meet you.“ He greeted him properly and shook his hand.
„So, Cas. Do you need to be anywhere. I think it’d be most interesting to have someone from your universe as well to be able to revert this whole mess back to normal.“
„Unless I’m called I don’t really need to leave.“
„Good. Very good. You stay. Jack stays. Jack stop pressing buttons. They make us stop every time.“ The Doctor then proceeded to scold the pirate.
„Sorry mate.“ He apologized and held up his hands in defence.

My point in this is basically: They wouldn’t get stuck. It would have to be one hell of an elevator to make them get stuck for 24 hours.
I can see The Doctor wanting to get information from the others so he knows whom he is working with and therefore stopping it or simply using his Sonic Screwdriver to get it working again.
Given enough time Tony would probably be able to unlock the machine and Spock would be able as well, if he saw fit in doing so.
It isn’t said much about Sherlocks hacking skills, but I think even though they would be quite good they’d still be far from Tony’s or Spock’s.
House, Sheldon, Jack and Cas would be pretty useless when it comes to technology.
Jack would only be helpful if they needed to escape and for that he would have at least a little bit of knowledge about where he is – which he doesn’t have as a pirate in an elevator. And of course only useful for pressing random buttons.
Cas would just teleport himself out, no idea who the other people are and what he would be supposed to do.
House would be good if someone hyperventilated.
Sheldon would probably be the one hyperventilating.

Anyway, what I find even also interesting in the thought process I just went through is:

What happens when they all exit the elevator?

In the „little“ tale I told with this, they all were send to a meeting to figure out what had happened.
So here is a glimpse at said meeting:

Finally the elevator had reached its destination. Pushing his way through the others Sherlock hurriedly exited the machine.
„Mycroft!“ He addressed his brother that was already awaiting him.
„What took you so long, brother mine?“ The older Holmes calmly retorted with he hinge of menace in his voice.
„That lunatic with the bow tie, babbling about time travel, space ships and different universes. How am I supposed to work with them? They’re useless. Why wasn’t I allowed to bring John? He would have been better company than those people.“
“ Oh dear. They were asked to come here just as we were. Just bear with them for a while.“ Mycroft tried to stop his brothers tirade, but he only got a snort.
„Hello. I’m The Doctor and you are?“ The ‚lunatic with the bow tie‘ interrupted their conversation, holding out his hand.
„Mycroft Holmes
. I’m with the British Government.“ He introduced himself and accepted the hand.
„You are the British Government“ Sherlock mumbled and got one of his brother’s famous smiles in return.
„Lovely, the older brother and the British Government. They like me there. Mostly. I was knighted by Queen Victoria…and then exiled. And don’t get me started on Elizabeth I….Still mad I never took her on a honeymoon. Anyway, British Government! I saved London a couple of times from alien invasions. Usually around Christmas.“ The Doctor rattled down, still shaking the hand, before he added: „Do I know you? You look familiar…“
„I can assure you that we have never met before.“ Mycroft replied taking back his hand.
„You saved London from alien invasions? Than you can’t be from my universe or you probably would have helped Thor.“ Stark interjected.
„Thor as in the Norse god of Thunder?“ Spock joined the conversation.
„Yes. In my universe he is a demigod travelling through different realms with the help of an Einstein-Rosen bridge. He recently stopped some Dark Elves from taking over the world. In London.“ Tony explained and showed the others pictures of Thor, Malekith and the destruction of London through his gadget.
In the back Sherlock gestured to his brother that these people were clearly insane.
„That is interesting. He looks a bit like me don’t you think?“ The Doctor held up the gadget that showed a picture of Malekith beside his face.
„Nope.“
„Really? Oh, yes…old face, not this face. Had different faces before. My mistake.“ He amended his statement and gave back the gadget.
Sheldon and House had already found themselves a seat at the long table that stood in the room, while Cas and Jack stared out of the window. As it was too ridiculous for him, Sherlock made his way to the far end of the table away from the others. His brother following him suit.
„They either are completely insane or they truly believe what they are saying.“ Mycroft concluded.
After a moment The Doctor turned to the ones responsible for the meeting.
„Can I bring up my TARDIS it’ll be helpful for figuring this out.“ As he was allowed he send a signal with the Screwdriver and the blue telephone box appeared beside him.
„That is one cool trick.“ Tony remarked.
„That is not a trick. That is technology I thought you’d know better than that.“ The Doctor retorted slightly offended.
„How can a wooden blue box help us?“ Did Spock want to know.
„Because it’s bigger on the inside.“ Sheldon answered before The Doctor could even open his mouth.
„Yes. How do you know that?“
„You are fiction in my universe too.“
„Oh. I am fiction. Haha.“ The Doctor clapped his hands in delight.
„Your show is called ‚Doctor Who‘ and it’s the longest running Sci-Fi show. Closely followed my Mr. Spock’s show ‚Star Trek'“ Sheldon explained.
„‚Doctor Who‘. I like that. Doctor who. Doctor who.“ The Doctor couldn’t help but repeat it in a sing-song.
„‚The oldest question. The question that must never be answered. Hidden in plain sight.'“
„What did you say?“ The Doctor now void of all delight and utterly serious.
„It was just a quote from the show!“ Sheldon replied in defence.
„You have my life in a show and even that made it into it. Not good. Really not good.“ He contemplated this for a moment before pointing a finger at the physicist and saying: „You might know things about my future. About everyone’s future that are fiction in your universe. You must be really careful of what you say. But first I need to set up some things.“
He then proceeded to go inside the TARDIS and pull out some cables that he then connected to screens on the far end of the room. Tony and Spock had provided him with their help to see more of that strange technology, while the others examined the box in suspicion.
„That is impossible.“ Sherlock concluded after he had rounded the box for the third time.
„‚Once you’ve ruled out the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth.‘ This box is a spaceship capable of flying through time and space and has bigger-on-the-inside technology.“ Spock told him with a hinge of admiration in his voice.
„What did you say?“ Sherlock demanded to know.
„You clearly heard what I said.“
„How can you know that? I haven’t said it here. Ah, right ‚fiction‘.“ Sherlock concluded raising his eyebrows in annoyance.
„You are fiction in the Star Trek and probably all the other universes. Though an alternative time line of Star Trek suggests you’re also related to Spock as one of his ancestors.“ Sheldon explained.
„Anc..?“ Sherlock started and stopped himself from letting his mind wander into that direction, while Mycroft burst out laughing.
The awkward moment of silence after this was then interrupted by the yelling of The Doctor:“Lazarus!“ As he turned to look at Mycroft.
„I hope you don’t turn into a giant spider thingy that sucks out the life force of other people.“ The Timelord mumbled and then proceeded to push a button he was holding: „Hello Kate! How is UNIT coping?“ He turned around in a swift motion to greet the blond woman that had just appeared on
one of the screens.
„Not well Doctor. We have all kind of strange reports floating in. We have to find out what caused this and how we can reverse it before any severe damage is done.“ The head of UNIT Kate Steward reported.
„Working on that. Just let me add a couple of others to the conference. You ready Tony?“
„Yup.“ Stark answered and pushed another button.
„Stark what is the meaning of this?“ Nick Fury of SHIELD answered right away.
„We just need a bit more information that’s all.“
„Spock! Your turn!“ The Doctor yelled again, making a turn to point at the scientist; earning confused looks by both Steward and Fury.
„On it.“ The other replied and pressed the third button that held a connection to his starship.
„Now that we are all together. We need to combine our knowledge about everything unusual. Everything strange. Everything that can help us to get out of this mess.“ The Doctor stated their plan.
„You mean aside from the fact that there are several supposedly fictional people meeting up in the same conference room discussing matters of high importance for their respective universes?“ Sherlock summarized their situation with a smug grin.
„Yes. Aside from that.“ The Doctor acknowledged dryly pointing at him.

Well, this is how I’d imagine it. As I said I don’t see most of the peoples actual usefulness in the given setting, but it’s the only one that’d make sense. Given the opportunity they might excel in their respective fields, but just for information gathering and techno-babble. Don’t thinks so.
And I hope you had as much fun reading the tale as I had writing it. 😉
(And if I might add: I haven’t seen that much of ST, TBBT, House and Supernatural. So any miss-characterizations or miss-informations derive from that.)

If this whole meme however means that the actors get stuck in an elevator.
Well, then one of them might know the meme and animate the others to make up a funny story of what happened when they got stuck.
But most likely they will only make smalltalk and wait like every other person for the elevator to move again.
Real people don’t really have „super powers“ after all…

PoiSonPaiNter

© The picture and it’s content, as well as all the characters belong to their rightful owners. Mine are only the ideas and the story formulated in this post. If you’d like to use it, let me know beforehand.