#much more

Okay step 1, before I attempt to say anything even remotely intelligent about this set/these moments: please for the love of god, if you haven't already: look at Mel's reaction to Santos' breach of protocol/Langdon calling her out for it. I PROMISE it will make your life better.

Right, now the important part is out of the way: let us discuss this! And why Langdon is demonstrating GOOD TEACHER/MENTOR BEHAVIOUR, ACTUALLY. For both Mel AND Santos (yes. Langdon is a good teacher/mentor towards Santos in season 1. Multiple times in fact! More of those times shall: emerge as this series continues! Because I wish to fist-fight the people who claim Langdon never gave Santos a chance/never even tried to be a good teacher to her).

Remaining in 1x02, though, I combined these two moments because: they're from the same episode and because they're directly connected/Langdon literally references the first one in the second.

Ah, the beloved/beloathed trigger point injection presentation scene. The beginning of the end for these two, really.

Couple of things to note (we shall go: in chronological/GIF order for these. Because I'm a crazy rebel that way).

1)- Note that Santos interrupts Mel when she's in the middle of talking to Langdon here. Now we can see Langdon's face journey as he starts wondering: how he can possibly extract himself from this infodump that seems it will never end, Santos cannot, but she marches up to Langdon and is like 'yo! Heed me!' (I do not say this merely to throw shade: t'will be relevant in future!)

2)- Look how obviously eager/pleased with herself Santos is in GIF 3. That is an intern who is like 'I did a Cool and now imma flex it'. There's very obvious pride/satisfaction there and it's painfully obvious that she is expecting Langdon to: feel similarly. Honestly I feel like she's expecting an 'Abbot @ her REBOA'-esque response here? Maybe a bit of an 'okay, you should've presented this to me first, y'know! But that was really fucking cool, hell yeah! High five!' (I would guess she's gotten this from mentors/supervisors in the past - doing things that weren't strictly following established rules/protocol/was maybe pushing her luck a bit on what she should be doing on her own; but it worked out/demonstrated obvious competence and skill so she was largely always praised for it/encouraged to keep doing so).

3)- Unfortunately 'fuck yeah, high five me about this, that was awesome!' is, uh, not QUITE where Langdon lands on his response to this lmfaooo. He's also: EXTREMELY clear that this: was not okay. Even as Santos: REPEATEDLY tries to downplay what she did - the casual 'Yeah' with the "what, like it's hard!?" energy, then the citing of her experience at Hopkins - none of which moves him an inch.

This obviously ain't creating a great impression with: Either of them. Santos was hoping for praise and validation from a new superior she obviously wanted to impress/make good impression on and instead got: spray bottled in the face. Langdon meanwhile is probably not too chuffed that her response to this, instead of apologising/saying that she'll do so next time or whatever is to keep pushing back and trying to justify herself.

Tragically they get interrupted by: a dude with a very squashed face (which is why Langdon is yeeting off - though still making clear how Definitely Not Cool this was) so they do not get to delve into what I'm sure would have been a very profitable and chill discussion about this matter and it would've left 100% resolved. Ahem.

Anyway - that moment is a Good Teaching Moment because: if you have a line in the sand/something you feel very strongly about (as Langdon does about the chain of command/respect for those with more experience (which he demonstrates both ways/at all points in the chain, btw, for those above and below him, and what this means regarding responsibility etc)) but if something is A Rule (rather than, you know, a guideline/expectation/something that covers the 'most of the time') it is best to make that: abundantly clear.

No there is no wiggle room here. This is the expectation. The outcome does not make it okay. Personal circumstances do not make it okay. There is no realm of possibility in which this is ever: okay. Interns present first before putting in orders. That's it. No ifs no buts no maybes no asterisk situations where it might be acceptable. Just no. Whether or not Santos thinks that's a reasonable rule or not, it cannot be said that Langdon was unclear about it.

Now, onto the crike scene!

I've seen this cited a couple of times as, like, Kingdon fodder/proof that Langdon has some sort of soft spot/shows Mel preferential treatment/favouritism or what have you and I: call bullshit upon that. This? This is FAIRNESS at play. For several reasons/for both of them. Let us discuss;

Sticking with Santos: this is a consequence/to use her charming words from s2: 'what happens when you fuck up'. She makes it clear that she would like the chance to Do The Cool Thing. Langdon makes it immediately clear 1)- no you will not be Doing The Cool Thing this time, and ALSO makes it immediately clear 2)- WHY.

"You've already had a busy morning". This phrasing also makes it clear to Santos why he's saying no to her in this moment (as is evident from her: less than impressed facial expression lmfao) while sparing her from being called out to anyone else in the room at this point (which includes both Robby and Garcia).

Langdon is tactfully telling her no - WITHOUT turning it into a public spectacle/putting her in the spotlight and possibly negatively impacting Garcia and/or Robby's opinions of her by doing something along the lines of 'no, Santos, you can't do the crike because you already went behind my back/totally flouted the clearly established chain of command/expectations here and went and performed procedures on your lonesome trying to show off!!!!' So he's allowing for the benefit of the doubt/for this to be a one-and-done incident that's settled going forwards.

It also reinforces/is a subtle nod towards WHY he feels that hierarchy/structure is important and why experience matters/how this system works to benefit both the more senior residents and the more junior ones which is: there are things she hasn't done before/doesn't have experience with/needs someone to coach/guide her through, still - as she well knows.

This is not a situation where she can freely pick and choose when she decides to respect Langdon/those with more experience than her. She doesn't get to say 'no I refuse to present things to you/check orders with you/defer to your experience and knowledge when it suits me' but I will also absolutely take advantage of that experience/knowledge when it suits me to allow me to Do The Cool Thing. This has to be a two-way street, she doesn't get to reap the benefits without taking the parts she doesn't like, too.

Again: Langdon has made his feelings on the matter here very clear. He's expressed that what she did was not acceptable. He's then followed that up by reinforcing that: see, there are things you don't have experience with/reasons why we operate this way - it's for your benefit AND the patients' safety. So he presents a consequence for her actions; but subtly enough that it doesn't immediately drop her in it with Robby or Garcia. This is clear, fair setting of rules, that there are consequences for not following those rules, but that Langdon is not being vindictive/trying to spite her.

Also, from a 'as a mentor to Mel' perspective: Mel has ALSO never done a crike before (as we find out when Garcia prompts her a few lines on from this). Mel is also more experienced than Santos (an R2 to her R1) both of which combine to make it reasonable to think she'd get to do the crike/be invited to do it over Santos without any extenuating circumstances.

Mel however does not speak up and point out she hasn't done one before, nor did she make any move to try and volunteer herself/push in and ask to do so. Mel is a fairly passive human being and she rarely speaks up or asserts herself in such a fashion - she certainly wants to learn and she wants to do procedures/needs to do them (and is more than capable of doing them) she just doesn't have that self-confidence/personality type where she'll put herself forwards/advocate for herself. She very much approaches things with the attitude that she should wait to be told/asked regarding procedures.

There are pros and cons to both Santos and Mel's approach here, and neither is, ultimately, objectively wrong or objectively right - they're just different. But this is where someone in Langdon's position as a teacher/mentor/arbiter in these scenarios has to learn to manage them. Whether you've got 30 kids in a classroom before you, or two junior residents in a single trauma room - you need to be mindful of the different personalities and inclinations of those around you so that you don't always have one person constantly answering questions/volunteering information/taking over and doing everything. It doesn't allow you to assess the knowledge/capacity of any of your other students, for one thing, and it's not great habit to encourage/allow with zero checks. Everyone here is an adult, ofc, but they're in a competitive field and a teacher/mentor's job, regardless, is to make sure that everyone is getting a chance to learn and grow and do things.

I feel like we can see where I'm headed with this but: Langdon stepping in and making the call that Mel will do this, in spite of Santos stepping up and asking for the opportunity herself: is a GOOD thing. It shows that he has enough insight to have clocked that: 1)- Mel is not the most assertive person in the world and, per how she responds to the order of things, is unlikely to ever demand to do a procedure/argue with anyone. (this IS something Mel needs to work on, btw, but day 1 of a new job: ain't the time/moment for that). 2)- this is the second time today Santos has pushed in - and the second time Mel has allowed it, which likely tells Langdon everything he needs to know about how this dynamic is going to work if it's allowed to continue as is.

So, imo, it's also important to show (both of them) that simply calling out/putting yourself forward will not always bear fruit. This would, actually, over time, hopefully mellow Santos out a bit in constantly feeling like she has to get in there first or else she's going to miss chances/that if she doesn't speak for herself no-one else will/she won't be treated fairly/given opportunities. Obviously that doesn't have a chance to manifest, as we only get: this one day lmfao, but it's a solid tactic to deal with this sort of thing and get some balance for everyone involved when there's time to do so (which there would be during a residency program).

Langdon does also continue to keep his eye on Santos/her learning btw. And this adheres well to a motto Santos herself recites in season 2 which is 'see one. do one. teach one.' She's still getting to see this procedure (very up close and personal, btw) as Garcia and Robby talk Mel through it, and Langdon makes sure she's not left hanging/forgotten about and prompts her to be ready to bag the crike once it's in place, so he's still conscious of her inexperience with these procedure and is making sure she's getting the teaching cues she needs as well.

But yeah, this was some solid mentor/teacher-ing for a number of reasons. And, you know, last thing before I wrap this up, actually: NOT caving in/allowing Santos to perform a procedure because she asked for it first is also important in terms of making clear the kind of culture/expectations the ER has. Garcia's constant (and blatant) favouring of Santos/allowing her to do procedures (even ones that are not typically taught to residents) is ultimately unfair to other students whose only crime is: not being bang-able as far as Yolanda is concerned, and it also just reinforces the 'me against the world' / 'every man for himself' kind of mentality/competitiveness that neither Langdon nor Robby wants (both of them make later references/mentions of the importance of teamwork and cohesion and unity within the ED - and they're right. For proof of why this is important please see: the entirety of season 2).

The first three pages and growing of Suggestions is nothing but everything that's currently broken.

There's too much to quote. Many people were hit by the glaring levels of whiteness ... only to be gaslit by the devs:

(It is, quite obviously, more white overall than before, and coupled with the newly greyed player status box in the upper right corner, the difference is stark. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that it's more white, whatever technicalities you want to quote to ignore the simple experience of looking at the site.)

People are also hit by eye strain and difficulty in reading, recognizing icons, in addition to the site missing the warmth it once had. Popup boxes, especially dragon tooltips, have changed for the worse:

For most people, the new version (right side) is much harder to read. It's also almost twice the size, so it gets cut off completely if you're at the bottom of the screen. There's so much wasted space, and it's no longer neatly compact, which is the point of at-a-glance tooltips.

Not only is the feel of the site very different, the actual informational content has changed.

If you overlook the dead corporate grayness of the new status box (right side), you notice:

No more notification numbers.

No more bestiary.

No more achievements.

Commas (yay!) but now the treasure amount is truncated to show thousands (K). But it also has decimals for some reason? Which means that presuming the purpose was to save space (unnecessary), you're only saving a single character's worth of space.

They have intentionally withheld information from you. Weirdly. In a weird way.

Not only is combining commas and decimals and the K indicator a supremely bizarre way to display a number, you now no longer have any idea how much treasure you actually have. Which is a MAJOR issue when you stop to think about it. Not only do you deserve to know, at a glance, on every screen, exactly how much you have at any moment, when you are juggling treasure for Dom or for custodianship purposes, or simply recording progress toward a goal, exact treasure matters.

It matters so obviously that it's legitimately insane that this is now hidden from you. Oh, I suppose you could just hover your mouse over it and it'll show the full amount ...

If you had one. On mobile. On this extremely mobile-friendly new interface. (sarcasm)

You've also lost the ability to directly view your treasure in the vault too, for it also, for some reason, uses the K. In fact, this information was originally completely obscured, because there was no hover workaround and no screen at all that would show you your accurate treasure amount. That only changed today and only if you try to add or withdraw funds.

So you need to employ a non-intuitive workaround just to see how much treasure you have, the most basic stat in the entire game.

On to the continued lack of information! In addition to no longer having notification numbers, if you were to click on your notifications (the bell icon) you also helpfully get ... no indication of which notifications are new. So this is permanently ambiguous, unless you memorize the time stamps.

It didn't used to be this way. Previously, you were allowed information about your own account.

Also, feedback on this exact status box concept was provided months ago; summarily ignored.

Now, keep in mind that the only update to the new format (bigger nav buttons on mobile) occurred on a bare handful of least-impactful pages. This means that the pages you most use (lair, dragons, forums, etc.) are NOT updated.

Except ... they were made worse. Because now the forums viewed on mobile have extremely tiny text. You have to zoom in and pan all over the place in ways you didn't have to before. Or ... the forum text is actually extremely oversized, and you can't actually zoom out enough to read it. People are experiencing both extremes! The one singular part of the site that could have benefited from an improvement on mobile was made distinctly less mobile friendly on this mobile-friendly update.

There are many other QOL and just user-friendliness issues across the site, from used buttons (like Bond) being almost indistinguishable from unused buttons or the background, to Waystone placement, to weird choices in text color or boldness de-emphasizing important info. Just take a read through the entire Suggestions forum, or many of the Forum Discussion posts ... helpfully earmarked by a series of padlocks:

(I guess the Discussion forum isn't for discussions.)

It doesn't help that many users seem to expect people to be totally chill with everything, as if there aren't a handful of actual real issues with the update that could have been easily avoided. They seem to think that because they personally see nothing wrong that no one else could have a different experience.

It also doesn't help that we're going into a fest Dom weekend, and the update is abandoned as-is. Good luck if you needed your treasure amounts. Good luck if you wanted to participate in Dom/fest activities but find the update too unpleasant to play. The timing is terrible.

Like all the worst parts of the update, it was all easily avoidable. It's not like they're overburdened either, as the admins like to frequently remind us. The dragon art teams are different from the QOL teams which are presumably different from the teams dealing with bot traffic. Yet the new Vigil dragon breed was released during a bot attack and now we have a UI update on the heels of that on top of a fest. It's not like these aren't very deliberate choices which foreseeably impact gameplay.