Robots, Rage, and Randomsauce

I am not uptight about privacy because I'm hiding something. I'm uptight about it because the people who dismiss my right to privacy are dangerous to you and me and our families, personally, all the time.

the same people that make Beast Box?

RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE!

The Robert Halmi-produced Hallmark miniseries Merlin originally aired on April 26 and 27, 1998. Sam Neill stars as Merlin in a story that covers his time being raised and trained by Queen Mab as a child and continues to the end of the story of King Arthur.

Directed by frequent Jim Henson collaborator Steve Barron, this is one of my favorite interpretations of the Arthurian mythos, in large part because it leans so heavily on the mythology of the Merlin and the world of fairy. I know the current vogue for the Arthur story seems to be gritty realism mixed with an attempt at plausible historicity, but I don't want that. I want magic and fairies and griffins and the ideals of doing the right thing. It's an allegory. It's a fairy tale. It's a legend. Let it be magical.

A lot of creators I like worked on this, too. Two of the writers are playwright Peter Barnes and Ladyhawke screenwriter Edward Khamara. The conceptual designer was Alan Lee. The cast includes Isabella Rossellini, Helena Bonham Carter, Rutger Hauer, Lena Heady, Billie Whitelaw and Nicholas Clay (from Excalibur!). I especially want to point out Miranda Richardson, who is excellent as Queen Mab, and Martin Short, in one of the best performances of his career, as Mab's gnome servant Frik.

We have four rooms most of which reflect the various family members.

Left over vampire hunting stuff, places on the walls where swords used to be, the pink housecoat in the closet, horse soap. This was Big-D's room.

One big bed and a race car bed, very simple furnishings, smells like whisky. This was Door and Boy's room.

Messy yet cozy, with old gaming gear. This was Marcus's room.

But then we have one outlier. Gear for combat sport training, holes in the walls, very sparse yet a lot of broken shit. This doesn't fit anyone we've currently seen in the family. And then I recalled something.

Anton, D's son who was most likely lost to the fae court. If we continue with the logic that family members are inspired by the 40k Emperor and Primarchs, then we can follow that logic with the way these characters are named. Marcus = Magnus Door = Dorn Anton = Angron

I was thinking about Door. By, erm...The standards of the D family, he's actually quite a good parent!

He's physically affectionate with Boy, rather than being "traditional" and kind of distant with his son. He's unafraid to show concern for him.

He's quite honest with him; he doesn't try to shield him from the truth for the sake of peace of mind. This is probably also partly because in these situations, underestimating how fucked you are will get you killed, but I think it also shows that he respects him. He treats him as being intelligent and capable enough to be told exactly how it is. He isn't the kind of parent that raises their child on heavy condescension and infantilisation. Although, Boy is 11, so, you know, a bit more being treated like an 11 year old might be in order, but, you know, by the standards of this family's way of life, not bad.

He isn't the kind of parent that raises their child on negative reinforcement. When Boy does something well, he praises him. He encourages his skills, interests and sense of humour. He rewards him when he does well. He's not the kind of parent that rules by shame and judgement, causing their children to grow up feeling inadequate and like they're never good enough. His way of parenting is far healthier than that, and I think it shows in the ways Boy is mostly quite open about himself, like freely showing the family his writing and sharing interests such as gaming with them.

Also, again, by the standards of the D family, he shows concern for Boy's mental health. While he does seem to equate being able to get through it with being "strong", he doesn't seem to hold it against Boy that he's having difficulties, or view it as some failing.

Despite bringing Boy into hunting and teaching him how to use a gun, letting him drink booze, etc, he does have concern for Boy's childhood innocence, and he supports his interests like any good parent would do.

I love how he apologises to Boy like that. It's such a small thing, and that's something that really exposes who he is. He could just brush him off, but he doesn't. He wants Boy to know that he's listened to, and that he, Door, is doing wrong by zoning out while Boy's talking to him.

He puts Boy's safety first. As much as you can while being a hunter and training him to be one too, at least...

He gives him advice instead of just scolding him for not knowing stuff or finding it hard to work stuff out, and talks to him like he's smart enough to engage with them. Some parents really don't do that; they treat it like a bother to have to teach and encourage their children, and use shame to keep them compliant.

He shows his approval of Boy freely, and when he thinks Boy is struggling with stuff, he tries to advise him; he doesn't withhold praise to use shame as a disciplining tool. Even when they're talking about something Boy's worried about, he's encouraging him, telling him that he's smart enough to handle these things, giving him confidence.

Also, this isn't a big thing but I find it really cute how he adopts Boy's eccentricities here with how he says eleven as beleven. It's just really cute, and shows how he's trying to engage with Boy on his level, rather than just talking straight down to him. And look at that lack of toxic masculinity! Telling him it's okay to have doubts, instead of pulling the "men always need to be strong and certain" card.

He's deeply conscious that Boy is a child, which seems to be a feat considering it seems like Big D raised him from the start to be a Hunter; he's not just blindly repeating what was done to him with no regard for whether or not Boy can handle it.

I think it shows a big difference between Door and Big D that Door is very aware of the trauma being inflicted on Boy, and seems to view as a bad thing he'd rather avoid if possible, whereas Big D views it as necessary and beneficial.

Even when he messes up what he's trying to say, he acknowledges to himself that he messed up; he accepts his faults in it instead of letting himself be too proud and blaming Boy, and he tries to explain what he actually meant. He's scolding himself in his head, not Boy. Not perfectly, but that's better than what it could be.

Even though the message he's ultimately teaching him here - that he shouldn't risk kindness to supernatural creatures - is deeply cynical and rather dark, I still think the way he does it is good. He sets the record straight on what he meant, and doesn't let Boy apologise and feel bad for being mistaken. He reaffirms that he's there for him, and that it wasn't that Boy was wrong to be kind; just that monsters will take advantage of it.

.....except for the Ancient Egypt nook

The oft-touted "checks and balances" within the American system which foreign allies thought they could count on to protect the world from the likes of the current situation have shown themselves to be inadequate.

Trump is the problem, but Trump is the figurehead of a larger issue which I would be surprised to see resolved so quickly.

We still haven't fully recovered from the impact of his first term. This first year of his second term is ten times worse. It will take decades to repair the shit he's utterly destroyed. And some of it can't be fixed.

Our credibility with the world is gone. Again, it will take decades to earn it back, and we will never be in the same place on the global stage as we were, again.

"Fuck you Elon, this is for killing the high speed rail program!"