#scene spotlight

It got me thinking about an episode of Lilo & Stitch: The Series! that I've mentioned before, the one about Pleakley's family wanting him to settle down with a wife. I thought about this episode specifically because Jumba and Pleakley may have been shipped by the writers through bits and jokes and one-offs throughout the show, but in this episode they really tried to do the most official, "We ship these characters," as they possibly could without actually getting in trouble with the higher-ups.

Here's the setup for the episode if you're unfamiliar:

Pleakley's mother wanted him to finally marry a girl, or else she would find a girl for him back on his home planet. Pleakley ends up lying to get out of the arrangement, saying that he already has a woman he's engaged to on Earth. Just a minute later, when he answers the door, he realizes he's only made the situation worse: his family's there on the doorstep, saying they immediately "hopped a wormhole" to be there before his supposed wedding day.

He begins to stack lies on top of lies and claims that Nani is his bride-to-be. Nani is only convinced to go along with it after being reminded that, if Pleakley left, the only remaining adult to supervise Lilo would be Jumba.

Both Pleakley and Nani don't enjoy the charade they have to put up with for the next few days. Nani begrudgingly plays her part up until the actual wedding day, where she finds out that a real ordained minister was hired, meaning she would be legally married to Pleakley, which is where she draws the line. Nani refuses to be a part of the lie any longer and leaves just before the ceremony begins.

Here's where the Pleakley/Jumba stuff begins (and where the creative team had to start tiptoeing around what would force a rewrite from the execs):

Lilo convinces Jumba off-screen to take Nani's place. This way there's no need to write any kind of "ew no I don't want to" joke or have Lilo bribe him or something of the sort to get Jumba to do it. We don't see or hear Jumba's thoughts when he would supposedly be told that he is legally marrying Pleakley. This way the writers are neither confirming nor denying anything about Jumba being interested in Pleakley or not.

During the ceremony, Jumba doesn't seem put off by it all. There's no gag that he thinks it's gross to be married to Pleakley, or is "only doing it" because Lilo said he has to, or that he wants to be the groom instead of the bride, or anything like that. When asked for his name, he does claim to be "Jumbina," but that's most likely because Pleakley's family specifically wanted him to marry a girl (and are a very heteronormative bunch; if Jumba walked down the isle as a second groom, they would've been just as upset as if they found out Pleakley wasn't actually engaged). Regardless, I'd say Pleakley looks content-enough that Jumba's the one walking down the isle instead of Nani.

When the minister then asks for the vows, the audience is only given a single line from Pleakley: "Dearest, the day we met, I couldn't take my eye off you." As he says this, the genetic experiment of the episode -who happens to be a lie detector experiment- starts beeping loudly, meaning that was a lie. Which actually makes total sense. That was a lie. If you go back to the day they met, Pleakley was being brought to Jumba's prison cell, where Pleakley was told he'd be shipped off to catch a deadly experiment with this criminally-convicted mad-scientist he just met. These two were absolutely not a case of "love at first sight." I mean, when Pleakley first saw him, Jumba was crazily ripping up and stuffing newspaper into his mouth.

And that's the ONLY vow that we get to hear either of them say at the wedding. The writers explicitly made the ONLY vow a false one so the lie detector could buzz at it. Jumba and Pleakley don't say anything about how much they might actually love each other, because then the writers would be forced to make it a lie so they wouldn't get in trouble for suggesting that the two male characters have feelings for each other. If it was all just part of the joke, it would be super easy for the characters to say how much they "really love one another" and then have the lie detector go off in the background. The writers can't have vows that would imply that these characters are gay, so they instead made the characters not say vows that would imply that they aren't gay.

Now, if you know anything about how the legality of marriage actually works, you know that most fiction gets it wrong: you don't stop someone from being married by interrupting their "I do"s, cutting the minister off before they say "I now pronounce you," stopping the kiss, taking the rings, or anything like that. You are finally "legally married" when you sign the marriage certificate and legal paperwork, which can be during, after, or even before the actual wedding.

So, while the ceremony gets crashed just before the end of it by Gantu trying to grab the genetic experiment, that doesn't actually stop the marriage proceedings unless the signings are postponed. Also, let's appreciate how Pleakley immediately hops into Jumba's arms at the sight of danger, and how Jumba accepts it.

After the ceremony is wrecked and Pleakley explains all of his lies to his family -and they apologize for being hard on him and not understanding- the minister stands up from under the rubble to ask who's paying for the officiation as he holds up some papers, supposedly the legal documents for the marriage. But no one actually responds. The scene ends with a look of newfound-understanding between Pleakley and his mother about their conversation from just a moment ago.

There's no further comment towards the minister about how they don't actually need marriage papers or that the marriage itself is being called off. No one says anything about it in the wrap-up scene just afterwards where Pleakley's family leaves. There's no, "Man, I'm glad I didn't actually have to marry Pleakley," from Jumba or some kind of, "I'm glad that's over," from Pleakley.

From all we know, Pleakley and Jumba did sign those papers for the minister to file with the state of Hawaii.

And this is the best the writers could do. They weren't allowed to canonize/confirm anything, even if they wanted to. They have to try making it as canon as possible by explicitly not stating certain things that would delegitimize it. It becomes a whole assignment to carefully slip past the people holding their paychecks.

"Walls have ears" 📜 Scene Spotlight

In the gloomy light, Crowley could barely distinguish Aziraphale’s features after he had sat down on the opposite bench. But he clocked the expectant look. “Hello,” Aziraphale said, and it sounded almost like a question, fizzling away without an answer. He looked around the carriage, his gaze lingering on the closed curtains for a moment. “I see you haven't lost your affinity for mysterious meetings.” 

Crowley pondered before replying. The carriage and the driver were handpicked by him – he had even double-checked the horses. And yet, one could never be fully sure where and how Hell’s eyes and ears appeared out of the blue. So he chose his words with care, “It’s really fortunate to meet you here. Gotta be sure, you’re not spreading too much good on my watch. Can’t have you negate all my hard work, can we?” 

Bewildered, Aziraphale stared at him, a clear sign that Crowley had met the intended tone – the distanced and professional one he hadn’t used with the angel for centuries. Millennia even. A twitch around Aziraphale’s lips revealed when he picked up the code and started to play along. “Surely not,” he replied and eyed Crowley up and down. The question that was written blatantly on his face came out in a riddle. “Haven’t seen you since Edinburgh. You made quite a spontaneous exit that night. Hellish business, I assume?”

"Pardon me, earthform, have you seen any abominations in the vicinity?"

"Quite an ingenious scheme, eh, Flaversham? And aren't you proud to be part of it?"

hehe boop

"Cartographer, linguist, plumbler. Hard to believe he's still single."

It's interactions like this in the movie that really make the original expedition team come to life. The way that they all talk and make little jokes around each other. The way they carry themselves side-by-side, just because they're comfortable. It makes Milo stick out even more when you see how much everyone else already fits in.

Plus, it keeps the audience from thinking about Helga and Rourke as being any different from the rest of them, because everyone treats Milo like the odd one out; they all poke at him and get upset with him and don't want to be around him unless they have to. But, as we get to meet the rest of the team, Helga and Rourke don't seem to adjust like the others. They're the least understanding, the most self-interested, and the least willing to listen or open up. So, when these two make the call to do what benefits themselves over anyone else, it doesn't actually feel out of place. It's not some slap-in-the-face twist to shock you: it's a twist that makes sense, keeps the conflict going, and you still get to enjoy what comes out it.

Regardless, all of these mercenaries have done these kinds of jobs before, and have done them with each other. They know each other's quirks, humors, and stories (at least somewhat). It even comes off as them feeling like family around one another, and they play favorites like parents and siblings. I mean, try to tell me that Rourke would've smiled if anyone else would've said what Helga said. Look at his smirk.

They're treated like people. People with both positives and negatives. [Insert quote about the Atlantis characters being the best DnD party put to screen.]