Lets Watch: Skyland

[Coidzor]

Spoiler: Orpisorde Sixxxxxx.

Show

We open on a big stormy sky castle that is full of ice. I'm guessing this is was a normal Ice block looks like. Cortez is evacuating people because the storm is so bad that they need to evacuate. Interesting that they'd have to, though I can imagine why. The storm could flip the entire block upside down! Presumably.

About time we got a castle in the sky. So they actually say the blocky blocks can get flipped by storms? What holds them right way up? Ants?

Mahad and Dahlia are currently heading towards home, and Cortez says this is good because it means they'll be gone before the "true" storm hits. This can only mean that they're gonna get hit by that and stranded and we're going to have to endure Mahad doing things to Dahlia. Oh good.

Sexual Harassment... Panda!

Uuunfortunately, the Hyperion crashes because of the storm, and it's been established that the radio has been cut because of the storm as well. So Dahlia and Mahad are stuck here for...who knows how long. This will be pleasant.

At least they're not soaking wet and have to take their clothes off to let them dry. Which would be the way this would start up in ye olde animu.

Back at Port Angel, Lena's going around hanging out supplies to the refugee's. Hooray helpful protagonists who are likeable. She then meets up with Chang, and have some nice banter about how his headphones are too big and how Mahad's gonna get to do dishes when they show up. Though...it appears they should of been back by now. Oh dear. Lena is concerned by this, and Chang tries to cover his tracks. For lack of a better term he fails.

Tracks? Chang is a bad guy now? Oh my, traitor in their midsts stuffs now...

We cut back Dahlia and Mahad, and it appears...Chang IS getting through to their radio, but they can't hear it since they're knocked out, and Chang stops trying to contact them as they wake up. Convienant!

The Duplicitous Fiend! He knew they were about to respond so he stopped hailing! His treachery knows no bounds!

Dahlia decides to explore the area (still storming really hard) to see if they can find...whatever. I don't actually know what Dahlia does this. She tells Mahad to try and contact Chang. Shouldn't be that hard considering he can contact them.

Obviously it's to not be stuck on the ship alone with Mahad.

And to get her clothes soaked.

Chang says there is too much interferance. Then how was he able to contact them in the first place, given we could hear him clear as day on Mahad's side of things. Whatever. He CAN contact Cortez, and tells him to look for them.

Mahad can't figure out how to work the radio now? xD Or the storm got worse in the five minute interval?

Okay, so...even the pirate ship is getting roughed up by the storm, and they mention that even it isn't meant to fly in this weather. Which means the Hyperion is extra ****ed because it's so small. I have to ask...how is this possible? The Hyperion is supposed to be this super powerful ship!

Powerful =/= good at flying in apocalyptic storm weather?

Wyatt, rightly so, says they should leave because they're responsible for hundreds of refugee lives, and thus Dahlia and Mahad will just have to wait out the storm, or die I guess. Cortez accepts this, emotionlessly (animation wise).

Makes sense.

Dahlia has...made all of five feet of progress, and Mahad is like "are you okay?" which causes Dahlia to panic, saying he is supposed to stay put, and then loses her footing and falls off the Hyperion and appears to die. I...okay, Dahlia is cool, but I know nothing about her other then her laser bow and her hate of Mahad. I don't actually care.

Hawkward.

Cortez and group get home, and they say they'll be using Vector to help calculate where Mahad and Dahlia could be because they're going to go right out into the storm to get them! Hooray I suppose. Lena demands to come with. Cortez says no and that's that. Chang does have some hilarious dialogue (only hilarious to the watcher) when he says that Mahad will be okay because Dahlia is with him. It's also dark humour, forgot to mention that.

Because Dahlia hates him or because they're both incompetent and liable to kill one another or at least get one another killed at the best of times?

Oh, wait, Dahlia is a live! The soft rocks of the cliff saved her from her fall, and she managed to get into a small outcropping underneath where she fell. Mahad won't be as lucky considering where HE begins to fall off, and the fact that falling onto hard rocks is the best case scenario should tell you how ****ed they are.

well, his head is the hardest part of his body, so he should be fine as long as he lands head first, right?

Chang continues to look for Mahad and Dahlia's radio with his radio, I almost called Mahad Ruby oops.

Why?

You can tell this is Canadian because the kids in the back ground are playing a Native American hand game. Lena says that these two kids playing "lets slap each other's hands because that's a game apparently" is proof that the refugee's haven't lost anything. I assume she means hope.

No, she obviously means their hands. She wants their hands for herself. XD Or possibly their very LIVES.

...apparently their plan was to use the storm's wind to blow her UP to the Hyperion, but the rope was there to keep her from flying off and splattering against some rocks. I just...I don't even...fine, whatever. This happened.

Of all the cockamamie ideas...

On his way to Vector's lighthouse Cortez says...the storm will be big. Alright. ALSO, a question. If the storm is this close to both Port Angel and the other place, and the other place had a glacier big enough for months of water, how did NO ONE find it? Where the refugee's hiding it from their benevolent pirate friends?

How does the storm make them find the abandoned ice mine?

Mahad gets indignant about Dahlia saying "ow" when he grabs her dislocated shoulder with both hands roughly. **** Mahad.

Well, you know, he's sick of sexual harassment panda showing up every time he touches a girl's shoulder.

Dahlia admits she is grateful that Mahad saved her, and is quite impressed that he did. Mahad says that she probably wants to give her hero a kiss. This episode could of maybe been character development for Mahad but instead it's making me want to stab him in his stupid face. Dahlia does not punch him because her good arm is dislocated.

What, she can't punch with her offhand?

Oh hey Chang finally got back to their frequency again and they are awake enough to hear him. Yay.

And there was much rejoicing.

.........THE WINDS ARE PUSHING THIS ISLAND ON A COLLISION COARSE WITH PORT ANGEL. ALRIGHT.

So the islands are basically really crappy boats. So all you need is sufficient power and you can make one into a giant super dimensional fortress.

Headcanon set. We will have a mobile block fortress land now.

...Dahlia and Mahad decide that the only way to save Port Angel from the island crash is by detonating the Hyperion, killing them along with the iceberg.

Well, that escalated quickly.

Mahad for what it's worth, does conceal he's doing this from Lena and Chang, and gets to talking to an adult instead. However, the lie he used to do so is something that makes Lena suspicious. Chang then uses a walkie talkie to hack into the radio's signal.

Sometimes you just need an adult, after all. So at least he realized that, I suppose.

Then...finally, the bomb explodes. But the iceberg is still intact. And for some reason Dahlia and Mahad and the Hyperion are still alive. I'm guessing that Lena's got something to do with it, because as the Hyperion exploded she sent out a Seijun pulse of some sort and glew bright blue. So...that's interesting I guess.

What a twist.

Even though there is no sun out. She uses what Seijun powers she has to direct lightning towards her to power her up instead. I...don't think that's how this works, but alright.

Ben Franklin upgrade get.

...FOR SOME UNFATHOMABLE REASON, Dahlia has decided that actually, she will kiss Mahad. Because **** characterizations, romance subplots sell ****ty CG cartoons. Thankfully this is interrupted by Lena shooting a giant laser beam at them, which out of context must sound hilarious.

Yeaaaah, it does sound like she's anti-kissing or has some kind of jealousy issue there. *shudder*

...the laser melts the iceberg, wasting all the water it could of been, but our heroes are saved. Wyatt says Mahad now has the right to show off for once. No he doesn't. This makes no sense. Cortez says that this event clearly shows Mahad and Dahlia make a good team. HOW.

They didn't kill one another, I suppose. So there's that.

Mahad says that he doesn't want to take any girls in his jet anymore cause all they wanna do is flirt and kiss at him. Cortez, in a quick bit of actual voice acting, tells Dahlia to not throw him overboard because they need him until tomorrow. Dahlia chases after Mahad saying she'll count the minutes.

...Well that's dumb. He spends the entire time chasing her tail and then once he gets somewhere with her he throws it all away and then there's weird tsundere stuff that's more appropriate to lena's age group than his own.

That's teh episode. My thoughts? I don't know if it's because of my mood, or the episode itself, but that was a trash ****ing episode. Boring, uninteresting, and when it could of been used for character development they instead went for...stupid bum ****ery and giant laser beams that melt icebergs but don't melt space ships. Alright.

Well, it could make the exterior quite hot without melting it, depending upon plating and shielding and cooling systems, I suppose.

[Rawhide]

Yeaaaah, it does sound like she's anti-kissing or has some kind of jealousy issue there. *shudder*

I was going to leave this one alone, but I will make a quick comment. I'm not saying that it is written well or even all that realistically but, well, I've been getting the impression that she actually does like him in general, but hates the show off/be an ass exterior. If he could just stop being an ass for one second, he might actually get the girl.

Well, it could make the exterior quite hot without melting it, depending upon plating and shielding and cooling systems, I suppose.

That, or be directed around it.

[LaZodiac]

I was going to leave this one alone, but I will make a quick comment. I'm not saying that it is written well or even all that realistically but, well, I've been getting the impression that she actually does like him in general, but hates the show off/be an ass exterior. If he could just stop being an ass for one second, he might actually get the girl.



That, or be directed around it.

That's basically what she says, but it comes so out of left field that it seems silly.

Yeah, that could work...I should science this...

[Coidzor]

I was going to leave this one alone, but I will make a quick comment. I'm not saying that it is written well or even all that realistically but, well, I've been getting the impression that she actually does like him in general, but hates the show off/be an ass exterior. If he could just stop being an ass for one second, he might actually get the girl.

That, or be directed around it.

<_< >_> I meant the little sister for firing a laser at her big brother and the girl kissing him and her reasons for firing said laz0r. v_v That may explain Dahlia's position to some extent, I suppose, though.

True dat.

[Rawhide]

<_< >_> I meant the little sister for firing a laser at her big brother and the girl kissing him and her reasons for firing said laz0r. v_v That may explain Dahlia's position to some extent, I suppose, though.

Oh, lol, I don't think she had any idea.

That's basically what she says, but it comes so out of left field that it seems silly.

What I think was most out of place was when Dahlia was so engrossed in his story that she was copying his movements and jumping on the table with him in like the second/third episode. Prior to and after that she's showed only disgust.

[Coidzor]

Oh, lol, I don't think she had any idea.

What I think was most out of place was when Dahlia was so engrossed in his story that she was copying his movements and jumping on the table with him in like the second/third episode. Prior to and after that she's showed only disgust.

Yeah... Thankfully not. XD

Huh. That does sound rather odd.

[Rawhide]

Huh. That does sound rather odd.

It is, yeah. I was honestly surprised that LaZodiac never brought it up. She mentioned the whole scene about him boasting about his flight prowess and all that, but not her reaction/participation.

[LaZodiac]

It is, yeah. I was honestly surprised that LaZodiac never brought it up. She mentioned the whole scene about him boasting about his flight prowess and all that, but not her reaction/participation.

I'll be honest, I thought she was just humouring him, or that she didn't actually believe him. IE cheering sarcastically. But I honestly can't even remember how that scene played out anymore, so maybe I'm just accidentily biasing myself

[LaZodiac]

Flyin' in the sky! It's Skyland time! Also delays due to power outages and crap.

Episode 7: Mutiny

Spoiler

Show

Excited by the possibilities this episode title brings. Please do not betray me.

Random observation from the opening. When are we going to hear more about the prophecy? It seems kind of important, even if the only one who believes in it is Oslo. Also, they haven't really fought against the Sphere much, have they. I suppose every day is a constant fight against the Sphere, by way of simply existing, but still.

This episode begins with Mahad showing off with the Hyperion, flying around and stuff, while the pirate ship follows after it. Cortez says that since they've got water on the ship, they can't carry Mosquito's, due to the weight. This makes sense only because I know how cargo planes work in real life cause my Dad worked on em, so I know that this is actually a logical thing, being too heavy to fly. Otherwise I would of thought this is silly.

Although it does bring the question of...are they transporting water FROM Port Angel? Or did they leave the Mosquito's out on a rock where the water was?

Mahad buzzes the tower, to coin a phrase. Can we just...remove Mahad, please? Cortez continues to deserve my respect for hating Mahad when he does this. Anyway, moving on. Dahlia's sensors picks up a damaged CHRON shuttle, with humans on board.

Mahad flies to it and goes to board the shuttle solo, which Cortez says is a bad idea (it is). Mahad tells him to stop being an old woman, because he is an asshat. For once however, Mahad DOES actually listen to Cortez. Good job, you might work your way up to likeability someday.

They find two people on board. They're alive, but unconcious. Mahad goes to check the logs to see what exactly happened. A little later on, one of them (a lady in a nice looking black outfit that...is as said, really nice looking actually. Also she has emoflip hair) wakes up, and Lena asks if she's okay. She doesn't talk, likely because she's nervous, but Lena takes this as meaning she's mute, so lets just assume she's mute then I guess.

After some brief tension with the black cloths girl being nervous around Lena, they take each other's hands. Lena then senses she's a Seijun! And that her name is Celia! Apparently Seijun's can do that.

Meanwhile Cortez confronts the other two (there was actually three saved from the shuttle, we just didn't see them) and welcomes them aboard. Green Cloths, another lady (and Celia's mother it seems) asks where Celia is and who Cortez is. Blue Clothes dude is still sort of unconcious I guess.

After explaining the situation, Cortez asks what they were doing on the shuttle. The lady explains that they were being held by Sphere due to their daughter being a Seijun. Cortez follows this up by asking how they got rid of the Brigs, and I mean come on guys they're made out of plastic it's not that impossible they could destroy it, especially with a Seijun daughter.

Mid way through explaining that "it's a long story" the lady SLAMS CORTEZ INTO A WALL WITH A SEIJUN PALM BLAST HOLY CRAP. Cortez is...KTFO. He's lucky he's not splattered against the wall right now. Green lady wakes up the blue dude (who...might be the guy from episode 1 somehow I don't know) and says that since this is the Saint Neziare, the rebel Seijun Lena is on board. If they captured her, they could get a great reward! So...we finally meet some Guardians!

With Lena, the mute girl manages to relay that her parents where killed and the other two are Guardians, but too little too late, they break into the room they were in. So...since there is no other crew, these two Guardians just took over the pirate ship. Oh dear.

Meanwhile on the damaged shuttle, Dahlia and Mahad are investigating the logs. It was damaged when lightning struck it. Since we know Seijun can throw lightning bolts...if this was mentioned beforehand, it would of been some clever foreshadowing.

The green lady, who's name is...Agent SSX13, starts contacting Diwan. You know, I thoguht Diwan was D1 originally, maybe green lady is Agent Esesex Thirteen? I kid. Diwan also reveals her name is actually Artemis. The hunter, clever. Diwan tells them "you better not of ****ed up" and Artemis is all "yeah no we did the exact opposite of that and captured Lena and the Saint Neziare." Happy by this news, Diwan sends out the nearest shuttle, and says she and Oslo will be there shortly.

...meanwhile on the broken shuttle, Dahlia finds the location of Karsem in the logs. This shouldn't help TOO much because of how Skyland works, but then I remembered Karsem is man made and not a block so it WOULD have a static position. Also, convienantly, the shuttle arrives, cluing our heroes in to something bad going on.

Back in the room that Lena, Celia, Cheng, and now Cortez are all locked up in, they're mostly resigned to their fate, wondering what to do. Except Cortez. Cortez continues to be "The Best" and tears an iron pipe out from a piece of the bed and starts bashing at the floor, saying he'll get out of here, even if he has to tear his own ship apart to do it. While that's going down Dahlia and Mahad are engaged in a minor cross fire against a group of Brigs. I'm surprised they just aren't getting rid of the Brigs, seeing as how they're so weak, but maybe they just don't have their weapons. Cortez has succeeded in ripping a hole into the metal floor. Cortez is legit awesome.

Cortez making noise causes the single Brig guarding them to come in, and threaten them, cause prisoner's aren't allowed to make noise! Cortez taunts him, the Brig fires, Cortez uses the chunk of metal he tore up from the floor as a shield causing the blast to hit the Brig in the head and blow it up. That is completely ridiculous.

Back on the roof of the ship, Dahlia and Mahad are fighting back...sort of. Mahad doesn't have a weapon but Dahlia does have a laser pistol, which is almost out of ammo. There is implied dead Brig's but we don't see any wreckage. They manage to escape by flipping off the edge to the deck below, which is kind of badass.

The blue dude saw all of this and contacts...Jelowa, the real name of the green girl. Alright, is blue guy Artemis? I have no idea. Anyway, she contacts her to say they have a problem. She tells him to deal with it, and...I swear that the blue guy's voice actor is familiar to me.

Cortez gets his hidden gun, and prepares their plan. They're going to...hack into the ship to regain control of it. Alright. Cheng needs his laptop to do it, which is in Cortez's bedroom for some reason. So now it's time for a mission, I guess.

Cortez knows his ship so well he knows what air ducts lead where. I'm alright with this because it's his ship, and he seems like the guy who'd go out of his way to figure this out just in case.

Anyway, after a brief action scene with Mahad and Dahlia hat implies they jumped to their deaths (they did not) we cut to Jelowa and her brigs. Lena shows up, and since she's Seijun the Brig's don't attack her. They also don't try to CAPTURE her, but Brig's are stupid so I'm not surprised they follow orders that literally. She demands the release of the pirate ship, or they'll retaliate. However, if they surrender the ship and GTFO, they won't.

Jelowa laughs at her puny threats. Because of how the brigs are positioned, they all fall to their deaths when Cortez opens up the cargo bay doors to further intimidate Jelowa. She doesn't really care, but Cortez with a gun sends her running cause she doesn't have any robots to soak damage for her. She tells a Brig to seal the exit as she leaves, to try and trap them in the cargo bay. Relying on a Brig to succeed at anything will be her downfall, I swear it.

Huh, it did seal the door. Oddly successful Brig is best character! Also Celia's missing. We immediately cut to Cheng in the air vents, being followed by Celia. Based on Cheng's interactions with her I can see a theoretical love triangle forming. Cheng bonks his head on the airvent which makes Celia laugh. GENUINE QUESTION: Can people who are mute laugh?

Meanwhile back with Dahlia and Mahad, they're hanging off one of the wings of the pirate ship. They've gotta stop meeting like this. Dahlia can't reach Mahad's hand to pull herself up even though his hand is LITERALLY touching hers, model to model. I do not approve.

...the data card with the location of the super prison slips out of Mahad's pocket, and slides down the wing a long enough distance away that Mahad must now make The Choice. Dahlia or the disc?

...or rather, DAHLIA is the one who has to make the choice, because Mahad focuses purely on her, and she has to decide between getting the disc for him but dying, or letting it get away and living. I do like this twist, even if it's small. She might be in danger but she's also the one in control.

Okay, so blue guy IS called Artemis. I find this kind of funny now, because this dude is a totally dweeb knob and Artemis is a super badass hunter in mythology, so it's a nice contrast. Also Artemis is a girl's name. I wonder if Jelowa has a similiar idea to it.

...Jelowa, believing Mahad and Dahlia to be dead, says "with Lena captured, all we need now is Celia" and then IMMEDIATELY afterwards Cheng and Celia pop out of the air duct behind her. It's actually kind of funny how she does a double take about it.

Jelowa takes this moment to laugh maniacelly, and it has the slight issue of showing her head moving and NOTHING ELSE. Dat animation.

Somewhat contrasting the above bit of comedy, Lena and Cortez talk about how they're sure Celia is just hiding, and they hope Cheng has found his laptop. JUST before Jelowa radios the whole ship to say "oh hey, surrender or I'll be killing these children."

...she gives them a MINUTE to comply. Holy crap that's hard balling. We then cut to the Monolith, with Diwan and Oslo. Diwan says that, finally, the prophecy will be fulfilled (for some reason). Oslo says that, for her sake, it better, because Artemis and Jelowa have been known to **** up a lot. I'm impressed that they've got this far then, if Oslo specifically makes mention of the fact that these two are unreliable.

Cortez and Lena DID surrender. Jelowa gloats in front of them, and says that once she succeeds at this, Oslo will promote her over Diwan. I kind of hope these two idiots show up later, they kind of make a good quirky miniboss squad (to turn a phrase) compared to the legit danger Diwan and Oslo present.

And now it's time for the downfall. Artemis is going to be watching Celia and Cheng, while Dahlia and Mahad do their rescue attempt. I predict something bad is going to happen for our villains. The downfall starts with...Lena using her powers to telepath over to Lena and ask her to...use her powers to let her see what she sees. I...I SUPPOSE THIS WORKS. I mean if they can send telepathic messages, sending what they see with their senses would work just as well.

...Lena shows that if she was a Jedi she'd be the best Jedi, as she uses her Seijun powers THROUGH CELIA'S SIGHT to cause a the Brig guarding them to be destroyed. That...that is ****ing AWESOME. Hooooly ****. Artemis hears the commotion and goes to check on them, and gets distracted by his attempts to intimidate children (which fails). Mahad gets inside and is about to beat him over the head when suddenly the ship takes a MASSIVE nose dive, causing Mahad to fall over and Artemis to fall down the stairs and presumably die since metal stairs will **** you up son.

Dahlia uses the distraction of the ship messing up for...reasons to get into the room with Lena and Cortez, zapping a Brig but then losing her gun to Jelowa. Instead of shooting her immediately she taunts (it's her vice) and Lena is like "EEEENOUGH!" because she's sick of Jelowa's slightly better voice acting and her shout is Seijun charged so Jelowa ragdolls against Cortez's deck...she honestly looks like she just died.

...somehow or another, a Brig...A BRIG MANAGED TO DEFEAT MAHAD! It grabbed him with both hands (ignore that one is a cylindracal arm cannon) and throttles him, throwing him to the side. Celia shouts "NOOO!" and destroys the Brig, and...okay, I don't know if it's because of budget or what, but the effect for her Seijun blast is different from everyone else's. It was like a large stream of ice or fire that lingered for awhile on the destroyed Brig. Compare and contrast to the sonic blasts Jelowa, Lena, Diwan, and Oslo have, and to the lightning bolts Lena can do. Could...could it be that Seijun do actually have unique powers beyond just tele and psycho kinesis?

Diwan contacts Cortez on the view screen (apparently she can't see who's using it, even though Cortez's side can) and asks Jelowa why their ship is moving. Cortez says "cause you failed bitch". Though he specifically mentions that "your mutiny was unsuccessful" which...raises some questions. Mostly in that this was not a mutiny. Not only where Jelowa and Artemis not part of the crew...there was no crew to mutiny WITH. This was two Seijuns messing with their skeleton crew ship.

Diwan asks where Jelowa and Artemis is, Cortez says "sorry we're losing you" and hangs up. Eat that Citadel Council Diwan.

...we then cut to where Jelowa and Artemis are. They're sitting on a single bench, with a single lampost nearby, on a single block big enough for just the lamp and bench. They reflect on how they'll have a long time to think of what to tell Oslo and Diwan to make up for this failure. A part of me wants to point out they're BASICALLY going to die here, and that this was super cruel, and also really convienant because they found the one block that was JUST a lampost and bench and nothing else...but another part of me is actually REALLY amused by this imagery.

Meanwhile, back in Port Angel, it appears Celia has become a full party member. And a gabby one at that, fitting since she's been mute for so long. Lena is also teaching her how to become a stronger Seijun. This begs the question of who teaches Lena, but maybe she's just gifted. Celia's actually got a rather good voice actress, comparatively.

Mahad and Dahlia almost have a nice moment where Dahlia thanks Mahad for saving her, and apologizes for causing him to lose a way to find their mother. The almost is from Mahad saying she should kiss him for it. Hate Mahad. To contrast with this Celia shows Cheng how her telepathy works by sending him "I THINK U R CUTE" to his head, and he says "I think you're...cute, too!" and this is really sweet and shows that what writing skills they DO have for this show, they focused on the kid characters.

With that, the credits roll. The voice actoress for Celia isn't listed in the credits which makes me think she might not show up again which would be awful. The voice actor for Artemis doesn't show up so I can't see if he's someone I know from somewhere. This is disenheartening.

And that's the episode! My thoughts? This...was much, much better. So much better then last episode. It still has some of the flaws we've come to expect from Skyland, but it's got so much actually good stuff in it that I'm okay with this episode. The reveal that Jelowa was a villain was great, Celia is a really cool character that I REALLY hope sticks around (not least of which because we need more Seijun characters on the good guy side). Artemis and Jelowa were fun villains, and if they show up again they can be used to make Diwan and Oslo look better by having the latter be much better then them. The bit at the end with Celia learning her powers some more and stuff was nice, though if the episode had ended on the bench scene I would of been slightly more satisfied, since it gave a nice bookend to the episode.

Tentivaly excited for next episode. See you guys Friday.

[Rawhide]

Cortez gets his hidden gun, and prepares their plan. They're going to...hack into the ship to regain control of it. Alright. Cheng needs his laptop to do it, which is in Cortez's bedroom for some reason. So now it's time for a mission, I guess.

Confiscated? Borrowed? Usually stowed there for safe keeping?

Cortez knows his ship so well he knows what air ducts lead where. I'm alright with this because it's his ship, and he seems like the guy who'd go out of his way to figure this out just in case.

I agree.

Huh, it did seal the door. Oddly successful Brig is best character! Also Celia's missing. We immediately cut to Cheng in the air vents, being followed by Celia. Based on Cheng's interactions with her I can see a theoretical love triangle forming. Cheng bonks his head on the airvent which makes Celia laugh. GENUINE QUESTION: Can people who are mute laugh?

Depends on why they are mute. If someone actually has no voicebox or ability to manipulate it in any way, it will not sound like laughter, but quick gushings of air. But there are various levels of muteness and reasons for it. For example, the reason might be purely mental rather than physical.

Meanwhile back with Dahlia and Mahad, they're hanging off one of the wings of the pirate ship. They've gotta stop meeting like this. Dahlia can't reach Mahad's hand to pull herself up even though his hand is LITERALLY touching hers, model to model. I do not approve.

She couldn't reach because of how she was positioned. He could reach her, though, and did.

...the data card with the location of the super prison slips out of Mahad's pocket, and slides down the wing a long enough distance away that Mahad must now make The Choice. Dahlia or the disc?

...or rather, DAHLIA is the one who has to make the choice, because Mahad focuses purely on her, and she has to decide between getting the disc for him but dying, or letting it get away and living. I do like this twist, even if it's small. She might be in danger but she's also the one in control.

Like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Dahlia uses the distraction of the ship messing up for...reasons to get into the room with Lena and Cortez, zapping a Brig but then losing her gun to Jelowa. Instead of shooting her immediately she taunts (it's her vice) and Lena is like "EEEENOUGH!" because she's sick of Jelowa's slightly better voice acting and her shout is Seijun charged so Jelowa ragdolls against Cortez's deck...she honestly looks like she just died.

She's dragonborn?

Diwan contacts Cortez on the view screen (apparently she can't see who's using it, even though Cortez's side can) and asks Jelowa why their ship is moving.

Diwan is sending out both video and audio, until Cortez decides to respond, he's not sending out anything. When he did respond, he likely only sent audio.

Cortez says "cause you failed bitch". Though he specifically mentions that "your mutiny was unsuccessful" which...raises some questions. Mostly in that this was not a mutiny. Not only where Jelowa and Artemis not part of the crew...there was no crew to mutiny WITH. This was two Seijuns messing with their skeleton crew ship.

Mutiny.

...we then cut to where Jelowa and Artemis are. They're sitting on a single bench, with a single lampost nearby, on a single block big enough for just the lamp and bench. They reflect on how they'll have a long time to think of what to tell Oslo and Diwan to make up for this failure. A part of me wants to point out they're BASICALLY going to die here, and that this was super cruel, and also really convienant because they found the one block that was JUST a lampost and bench and nothing else...but another part of me is actually REALLY amused by this imagery.

Oslo and Diwan are aware of the ship's current position and path, as made clear by the message where Diwan asks why they are moving...

[LaZodiac]

Confiscated? Borrowed? Usually stowed there for safe keeping?

Those all seem like good answers. Though I'd hate to imagine what Cheng was doing on his laptop to get it confiscated

Depends on why they are mute. If someone actually has no voicebox or ability to manipulate it in any way, it will not sound like laughter, but quick gushings of air. But there are various levels of muteness and reasons for it. For example, the reason might be purely mental rather than physical.

Thanks. I've always been curious about this kind of thing, since I've...understandably, never talked to a mute before.

She's dragonborn?

Fus Roh KamehameHA!

Diwan is sending out both video and audio, until Cortez decides to respond, he's not sending out anything. When he did respond, he likely only sent audio.

Ah, that is something that hadn't occurred to me.

Mutiny.

I'll note the primary definition says "especially from ship crews" but I can see what you mean. It's just weird to imagine that, if the people revolted and destroyed the government, that would also be called a mutiny accurately, when there are other words that feel like they fit better.

Oslo and Diwan are aware of the ship's current position and path, as made clear by the message where Diwan asks why they are moving...

Oh I know that, but the implication was that Oslo would leave them there because of their stunning incompetence. I have a feeling he actually won't and we'll see Team Loser again some day, though.

[Rawhide]

Those all seem like good answers. Though I'd hate to imagine what Cheng was doing on his laptop to get it confiscated

Playing games? Using it to hack the ship's systems to prank other crew members?

[LaZodiac]

Playing games? Using it to hack the ship's systems to prank other crew members?

I can see that. Though, and this really just shows what kind of person I am more then anything, I imagined him hacking the camera's so he could spy on people.

[JBPuffin]

Holy crap I know what this show is now! They air it on Nicktoons (or did, at least) along with some of the other awesome but extinct shows like Invader Zim and whatnot. saw a few episodes, but had no idea what was going on.

[LaZodiac]

Ah memories. I kind of had the same encounter with Invader Zim, actually. Such a good show.

[Coidzor]

For Lala, Le Song.

Spoiler: I'm your mutineer

Show

Episode 7: Mutiny

Excited by the possibilities this episode title brings. Please do not betray me.

They don't have enough crew to have an interesting mutiny unless they retcon in more crew. Granted, more crew could be an improvement. Unfortunately, that's not what really happens here.

Random observation from the opening. When are we going to hear more about the prophecy? It seems kind of important, even if the only one who believes in it is Oslo. Also, they haven't really fought against the Sphere much, have they. I suppose every day is a constant fight against the Sphere, by way of simply existing, but still.

Like, who made it. Do Super Sandwitches have prophetic powers in addition to laz0rs? Are there Sky-Wizzards? Heretofore unseen Sky-Religion things with divine powers?

This episode begins with Mahad showing off with the Hyperion, flying around and stuff, while the pirate ship follows after it. Cortez says that since they've got water on the ship, they can't carry Mosquito's, due to the weight. This makes sense only because I know how cargo planes work in real life cause my Dad worked on em, so I know that this is actually a logical thing, being too heavy to fly. Otherwise I would of thought this is silly.

You have to wonder at the potability of the water after it's been stored in the mosquito hangars, though. Considering the oil and such that would be errywhere. Though if it's just a weight thing, that just raises the question of ballast and how the whole airship thing works.

Although it does bring the question of...are they transporting water FROM Port Angel? Or did they leave the Mosquito's out on a rock where the water was?

Could've left the moskeeters at port before going to get the water to go take it back, I suppose.

Mahad buzzes the tower, to coin a phrase. Can we just...remove Mahad, please? Cortez continues to deserve my respect for hating Mahad when he does this. Anyway, moving on. Dahlia's sensors picks up a damaged CHRON shuttle, with humans on board.

Mahad was obviously not taught manners by their mother, for all of her supposed virtuousness.

Mahad flies to it and goes to board the shuttle solo, which Cortez says is a bad idea (it is). Mahad tells him to stop being an old woman, because he is an asshat. For once however, Mahad DOES actually listen to Cortez. Good job, you might work your way up to likeability someday.

They find two people on board. They're alive, but unconcious. Mahad goes to check the logs to see what exactly happened. A little later on, one of them (a lady in a nice looking black outfit that...is as said, really nice looking actually. Also she has emoflip hair) wakes up, and Lena asks if she's okay. She doesn't talk, likely because she's nervous, but Lena takes this as meaning she's mute, so lets just assume she's mute then I guess.

Wait, if he listens to Cortez, how did he end up finding peoples on the shuttle?

Could we get more description than "nice looking black outfit?" Is she dressed sexy or something? Like she was going to a funeral or business meeting?

After some brief tension with the black cloths girl being nervous around Lena, they take each other's hands. Lena then senses she's a Seijun! And that her name is Celia! Apparently Seijun's can do that.

Kinesthetic Telepamathy!

Meanwhile Cortez confronts the other two (there was actually three saved from the shuttle, we just didn't see them) and welcomes them aboard. Green Cloths, another lady (and Celia's mother it seems) asks where Celia is and who Cortez is. Blue Clothes dude is still sort of unconcious I guess.

So there's Greensleeves, Blue Man, and Celia; and for some reason they just didn't show Greensleeves on the shuttle?

After explaining the situation, Cortez asks what they were doing on the shuttle. The lady explains that they were being held by Sphere due to their daughter being a Seijun. Cortez follows this up by asking how they got rid of the Brigs, and I mean come on guys they're made out of plastic it's not that impossible they could destroy it, especially with a Seijun daughter.

Indeed, they really need to have established the Brigs as being threatening to mundanes to some extent.

Mid way through explaining that "it's a long story" the lady SLAMS CORTEZ INTO A WALL WITH A SEIJUN PALM BLAST HOLY CRAP. Cortez is...KTFO. He's lucky he's not splattered against the wall right now. Green lady wakes up the blue dude (who...might be the guy from episode 1 somehow I don't know) and says that since this is the Saint Neziare, the rebel Seijun Lena is on board. If they captured her, they could get a great reward! So...we finally meet some Guardians!

With Lena, the mute girl manages to relay that her parents where killed and the other two are Guardians, but too little too late, they break into the room they were in. So...since there is no other crew, these two Guardians just took over the pirate ship. Oh dear.

So they just randomly decided to kidnap a little girl after making her into an orphan and then lay in wait for someone to try to rescue them? That's gotta be up there as far as weird plans go...

Meanwhile on the damaged shuttle, Dahlia and Mahad are investigating the logs. It was damaged when lightning struck it. Since we know Seijun can throw lightning bolts...if this was mentioned beforehand, it would of been some clever foreshadowing.

Ahh, so they intentionally sabotaged their ship...

Or somehow the little girl they had captured managed to get free enough to cripple their ship.

The green lady, who's name is...Agent SSX13, starts contacting Diwan. You know, I thoguht Diwan was D1 originally, maybe green lady is Agent Esesex Thirteen? I kid. Diwan also reveals her name is actually Artemis. The hunter, clever. Diwan tells them "you better not of ****ed up" and Artemis is all "yeah no we did the exact opposite of that and captured Lena and the Saint Neziare." Happy by this news, Diwan sends out the nearest shuttle, and says she and Oslo will be there shortly.

Heh. She's Tricky.

...meanwhile on the broken shuttle, Dahlia finds the location of Karsem in the logs. This shouldn't help TOO much because of how Skyland works, but then I remembered Karsem is man made and not a block so it WOULD have a static position. Also, convienantly, the shuttle arrives, cluing our heroes in to something bad going on.

So manmade stuff stays in place and blocks move around willy-nilly? Wiggy.

Back in the room that Lena, Celia, Cheng, and now Cortez are all locked up in, they're mostly resigned to their fate, wondering what to do. Except Cortez. Cortez continues to be "The Best" and tears an iron pipe out from a piece of the bed and starts bashing at the floor, saying he'll get out of here, even if he has to tear his own ship apart to do it. While that's going down Dahlia and Mahad are engaged in a minor cross fire against a group of Brigs. I'm surprised they just aren't getting rid of the Brigs, seeing as how they're so weak, but maybe they just don't have their weapons. Cortez has succeeded in ripping a hole into the metal floor. Cortez is legit awesome.

That... is a very interesting technique for attempting to escape, beating at the floor with a piece of bed. Then again, they don't really have a brig on their ship. XD

So, wait, there were brigs hiding out on the shuttle too? And the agents didn't just wait for Mahad and Dahlia to come back so they could capture them too?

Cortez making noise causes the single Brig guarding them to come in, and threaten them, cause prisoner's aren't allowed to make noise! Cortez taunts him, the Brig fires, Cortez uses the chunk of metal he tore up from the floor as a shield causing the blast to hit the Brig in the head and blow it up. That is completely ridiculous.

Yep. Especially considering that the robutt waited until the guy had bashed through the floor with an iron pipe first.

The blue dude saw all of this and contacts...Jelowa, the real name of the green girl. Alright, is blue guy Artemis? I have no idea. Anyway, she contacts her to say they have a problem. She tells him to deal with it, and...I swear that the blue guy's voice actor is familiar to me.

Jelowa Johnson, Designation: SSX-TRICKY, Code-name: Artemis xD And she's too busy to actually deal with rounding up a couple of normals to establish complete control of le ship. Wiggy.

Cortez gets his hidden gun, and prepares their plan. They're going to...hack into the ship to regain control of it. Alright. Cheng needs his laptop to do it, which is in Cortez's bedroom for some reason. So now it's time for a mission, I guess.

Oh dear.

Jelowa laughs at her puny threats. Because of how the brigs are positioned, they all fall to their deaths when Cortez opens up the cargo bay doors to further intimidate Jelowa. She doesn't really care, but Cortez with a gun sends her running cause she doesn't have any robots to soak damage for her. She tells a Brig to seal the exit as she leaves, to try and trap them in the cargo bay. Relying on a Brig to succeed at anything will be her downfall, I swear it.

Probably. Though it is kinda worrisome where a Seijun is running away from a normal just because he's got a gun...

Huh, it did seal the door. Oddly successful Brig is best character! Also Celia's missing. We immediately cut to Cheng in the air vents, being followed by Celia. Based on Cheng's interactions with her I can see a theoretical love triangle forming. Cheng bonks his head on the airvent which makes Celia laugh. GENUINE QUESTION: Can people who are mute laugh?

Honestly, I have no idea if people who are mute can laugh audibly. I imagine it partially depends on the cause of their muteness.

So Celia is also 8-ish then? Because I don't really see any love triangles forming between an 8 year old, a 10 year old, and a teenager-to-young-adult like you made Celia out to be initially.

Meanwhile back with Dahlia and Mahad, they're hanging off one of the wings of the pirate ship. They've gotta stop meeting like this. Dahlia can't reach Mahad's hand to pull herself up even though his hand is LITERALLY touching hers, model to model. I do not approve.

...the data card with the location of the super prison slips out of Mahad's pocket, and slides down the wing a long enough distance away that Mahad must now make The Choice. Dahlia or the disc?

Me either, those sorts of cliff-hangers are overused.

Someone needs pockets with snaps.

...or rather, DAHLIA is the one who has to make the choice, because Mahad focuses purely on her, and she has to decide between getting the disc for him but dying, or letting it get away and living. I do like this twist, even if it's small. She might be in danger but she's also the one in control.

I don't even see how she could manage to get him the disc and fall. That does not make sense.

Okay, so blue guy IS called Artemis. I find this kind of funny now, because this dude is a totally dweeb knob and Artemis is a super badass hunter in mythology, so it's a nice contrast. Also Artemis is a girl's name. I wonder if Jelowa has a similiar idea to it.

I guess he's not really a dude, then? Do we have dudeness confirmed?

...Jelowa, believing Mahad and Dahlia to be dead, says "with Lena captured, all we need now is Celia" and then IMMEDIATELY afterwards Cheng and Celia pop out of the air duct behind her. It's actually kind of funny how she does a double take about it.

The only thing that would make that better would be if she said something about them falling into her lap and then they literally fell into her lap.

Jelowa takes this moment to laugh maniacelly, and it has the slight issue of showing her head moving and NOTHING ELSE. Dat animation.

That sound positively lovecraftian.

...she gives them a MINUTE to comply. Holy crap that's hard balling. We then cut to the Monolith, with Diwan and Oslo. Diwan says that, finally, the prophecy will be fulfilled (for some reason). Oslo says that, for her sake, it better, because Artemis and Jelowa have been known to **** up a lot. I'm impressed that they've got this far then, if Oslo specifically makes mention of the fact that these two are unreliable.

I dunno, giving them insufficient time to even make the surrender just makes it seem like she wants to have some Kentucky Fried Cheng for dinner.

I guess them being ****-ups explains how they got their shuttle messed up by a little girl and/or young woman they'd already orphaned and captured...

Cortez and Lena DID surrender. Jelowa gloats in front of them, and says that once she succeeds at this, Oslo will promote her over Diwan. I kind of hope these two idiots show up later, they kind of make a good quirky miniboss squad (to turn a phrase) compared to the legit danger Diwan and Oslo present.

Faster than I would've given them credit for being, but I guess she does have some measure of super speed... And, yes, anything to round out the cast so that there's something between creepy mirror-universe Picard and cannon fodder mooks.

And now it's time for the downfall. Artemis is going to be watching Celia and Cheng, while Dahlia and Mahad do their rescue attempt. I predict something bad is going to happen for our villains. The downfall starts with...Lena using her powers to telepath over to Lena and ask her to...use her powers to let her see what she sees. I...I SUPPOSE THIS WORKS. I mean if they can send telepathic messages, sending what they see with their senses would work just as well.

LENA TELEPATHs... TO HERSELF!?

...Lena shows that if she was a Jedi she'd be the best Jedi, as she uses her Seijun powers THROUGH CELIA'S SIGHT to cause a the Brig guarding them to be destroyed. That...that is ****ing AWESOME. Hooooly ****. Artemis hears the commotion and goes to check on them, and gets distracted by his attempts to intimidate children (which fails). Mahad gets inside and is about to beat him over the head when suddenly the ship takes a MASSIVE nose dive, causing Mahad to fall over and Artemis to fall down the stairs and presumably die since metal stairs will **** you up son.

Oh, it was Lena asking Celia to give her Sight Beyond Sight(TM)!

And, yeah, with a name like Artemis, a Blue Man isn't really going to have much chance of intimidating chillens.

Dahlia uses the distraction of the ship messing up for...reasons to get into the room with Lena and Cortez, zapping a Brig but then losing her gun to Jelowa. Instead of shooting her immediately she taunts (it's her vice) and Lena is like "EEEENOUGH!" because she's sick of Jelowa's slightly better voice acting and her shout is Seijun charged so Jelowa ragdolls against Cortez's deck...she honestly looks like she just died.

Oh dear. They died awfully quickly.

...somehow or another, a Brig...A BRIG MANAGED TO DEFEAT MAHAD! It grabbed him with both hands (ignore that one is a cylindracal arm cannon) and throttles him, throwing him to the side. Celia shouts "NOOO!" and destroys the Brig, and...okay, I don't know if it's because of budget or what, but the effect for her Seijun blast is different from everyone else's. It was like a large stream of ice or fire that lingered for awhile on the destroyed Brig. Compare and contrast to the sonic blasts Jelowa, Lena, Diwan, and Oslo have, and to the lightning bolts Lena can do. Could...could it be that Seijun do actually have unique powers beyond just tele and psycho kinesis?

WHAT. WHAT. WHAT THE WHAAAAAAT. Must be some kind of Super Brig.

Oh, hey, Celia can talk now, it seems. Guess she was more into Mahad than Cheng.

Maybe they all have different elemental flavors except some of them share elemental flavors.

Diwan contacts Cortez on the view screen (apparently she can't see who's using it, even though Cortez's side can) and asks Jelowa why their ship is moving. Cortez says "cause you failed bitch". Though he specifically mentions that "your mutiny was unsuccessful" which...raises some questions. Mostly in that this was not a mutiny. Not only where Jelowa and Artemis not part of the crew...there was no crew to mutiny WITH. This was two Seijuns messing with their skeleton crew ship.

Maybe their systems weren't up yet. Maybe they can decide to not do full video with incoming calls. Surprised that they were able to get "bitch" past the censors, though.

...we then cut to where Jelowa and Artemis are. They're sitting on a single bench, with a single lampost nearby, on a single block big enough for just the lamp and bench. They reflect on how they'll have a long time to think of what to tell Oslo and Diwan to make up for this failure. A part of me wants to point out they're BASICALLY going to die here, and that this was super cruel, and also really convienant because they found the one block that was JUST a lampost and bench and nothing else...but another part of me is actually REALLY amused by this imagery.

Ahh, leaving people to die of dehydration. Also, weirdest block ever. Though I'm mostly reminded of the End of Time from Chrono Trigger.

Meanwhile, back in Port Angel, it appears Celia has become a full party member. And a gabby one at that, fitting since she's been mute for so long. Lena is also teaching her how to become a stronger Seijun. This begs the question of who teaches Lena, but maybe she's just gifted. Celia's actually got a rather good voice actress, comparatively.

Lena has obviously acquired enough experience to level up from all of her adventuring and now has Leadership or Mentor or something in order to teach Celia.

Mahad and Dahlia almost have a nice moment where Dahlia thanks Mahad for saving her, and apologizes for causing him to lose a way to find their mother. The almost is from Mahad saying she should kiss him for it. Hate Mahad. To contrast with this Celia shows Cheng how her telepathy works by sending him "I THINK U R CUTE" to his head, and he says "I think you're...cute, too!" and this is really sweet and shows that what writing skills they DO have for this show, they focused on the kid characters.

Oh dear. All caps telepathy that's not even spelled correctly? That's just terrifying. And Mahad just doesn't know how to actually capitalize on his gains. You'd almost think he was afraid of success with women or something and intentionally sabotaging himself any time it appeared like he might actually get close to one.

With that, the credits roll. The voice actoress for Celia isn't listed in the credits which makes me think she might not show up again which would be awful. The voice actor for Artemis doesn't show up so I can't see if he's someone I know from somewhere. This is disenheartening.

So no Steve Blum, eh?

And that's the episode! My thoughts? This...was much, much better. So much better then last episode. It still has some of the flaws we've come to expect from Skyland, but it's got so much actually good stuff in it that I'm okay with this episode. The reveal that Jelowa was a villain was great, Celia is a really cool character that I REALLY hope sticks around (not least of which because we need more Seijun characters on the good guy side). Artemis and Jelowa were fun villains, and if they show up again they can be used to make Diwan and Oslo look better by having the latter be much better then them. The bit at the end with Celia learning her powers some more and stuff was nice, though if the episode had ended on the bench scene I would of been slightly more satisfied, since it gave a nice bookend to the episode.

Tentivaly excited for next episode. See you guys Friday.

Woo!

[Rawhide]

You have to wonder at the potability of the water after it's been stored in the mosquito hangars, though. Considering the oil and such that would be errywhere. Though if it's just a weight thing, that just raises the question of ballast and how the whole airship thing works.

It's just a weight thing. Their floatation was not enough to lift the water and the mosquitoes, and water is more dense than aircraft (so more fits in a smaller space). We see some of the huge water containers suspended in a cargo bay in the episode.

Could've left the moskeeters at port before going to get the water to go take it back, I suppose.

What I would have assumed as well. But I really have no idea.

Wait, if he listens to Cortez, how did he end up finding peoples on the shuttle?

He waited until Cortez got there, rather than rushing in alone.

So they just randomly decided to kidnap a little girl after making her into an orphan and then lay in wait for someone to try to rescue them? That's gotta be up there as far as weird plans go...

Ahh, so they intentionally sabotaged their ship...

Or somehow the little girl they had captured managed to get free enough to cripple their ship.

I actually don't think either of these are a likely scenario, and it's clear that it isn't the first from the lady's reaction. It was likely an accident from storm damage.

I don't even see how she could manage to get him the disc and fall. That does not make sense.

Think: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

LENA TELEPATHs... TO HERSELF!?

Yeah, I spotted this too.

Maybe their systems weren't up yet. Maybe they can decide to not do full video with incoming calls. Surprised that they were able to get "bitch" past the censors, though.

Think of a current two way radio (aka walkie talkie), but add video. Each party can control what they send and when. If you automatically see the recipient as soon as you send your message, that would be like someone on Skype automatically seeing through your webcam as soon as they messaged you, without you needing to give them permission.

They didn't. Everything LaZodiac "quotes" is paraphrased, to put it mildly.

Ahh, leaving people to die of dehydration. Also, weirdest block ever. Though I'm mostly reminded of the End of Time from Chrono Trigger.

Ozpin Oslo and Diwan are on their way and will certainly recover them. What they do next, however, is not guaranteed.

Oh dear. All caps telepathy that's not even spelled correctly? That's just terrifying.

To be fair, we don't actually see or hear the telepathy, only his reply.

[LaZodiac]

Yeah, sorry about my paraphrasing causing some issues. I'll try and make it more obvious when I do something like that as opposed to direct quoting. Anyway, Skerlend!

Episode 8: Manipulations

Spoiler

Show

This episode begins with the Monolith and a squadron of CHRON shuttles just kinda flying around, being bad guys. Oslo is...using his Seijun powers to scan the skies, sensing for them. I'll admit, this is a half decent plan to find them, given how strong Lena's powers are. Though he should think about investing in a Cerebro.

...as he uses his powers, we cut to Dahlia, with an inverted "Seijun zone" around her (by which I mean the glowy blue background stuff that was at the start of episode 1, and in episode 3 when the telepathy stuff was happening), and she's starting to get a little...wiggy, as it where. Cortez and Wyatt wake her up, since she was apparently half asleep. She says she was just tired. Are...are we being led to believe that Dahlia is being controlled by Oslo? If so, for how long and why her? If he can control her, why doesn't he just have her look at the coordinates for Port Angel? Oh wait right the blocks move nevermind. Still though, why not take control of her while she's ON Port Angel, and have her send out a beacon or something?

...OH. THAT IS WHAT HE'S DOING. Once they get back to Port Angel he's going to have her set up a beacon of some sort. Anyway, Oslo says to Diwan that he made the connection "Thanks to the Solar Surge", so clearly something happened with the sun to allow this. Alright, and I like the implication that for all his power, Oslo could be stronger.

The ship docks with Port Angel, and we cut to Cheng and Mahad. Mahad's just kinda throwing his boomerang around, and Cheng asks where Lena is. She's in bed getting some beauty rest. I'm guessing the solar surge didn't make her feel that well. Suddenly we hear an explosion, which Mahad somehow knows "must be coming from the armory". Uh oh.

...for WHATEVER reason, the water storage house is in the armory. And it got blow'd right the hell up. Oh dear. Cortez is arguing with a man that has a long, funny name, about how it can't be a Sphere agent, because they'd blow up the entire colony, not just their water. So it must be a traitor in Port Angel. Dahlia is also nearby. Oooh dear.

Mahad arrives at this point, with Cheng, and Cheng says it's impossible that someone from Port Angel could do this! The npc with the long, silly sounding name says it's in fact very possible, citing the "strays" that Cortez picks up. Mahad is offended, and Dahlia so helpfully points out that Lena was here earlier, so maybe she knows something. Oslo, you're doing a good job at making yourself be an actual threatening villain today. Do not stop.

They get to Lena and she's just sleepin', book on her chest and so on. I'm...really thinking it wasn't Lena who did this guys #sarcasm.

...somehow or another Lena's got a digital decoder on her, that falls off as she wakes up. It would of let her enter the water storage house. Either Oslo works HELLA fast, or this is just a very bad coincidence. Judging from her boots being muddy and wet (and also apparently part of her suspenders, but that could just be an art issue more then anything) I'd say Oslo is just...REALLY FAST and REALLY GOOD at tricking people. Also, kind of a funny comment, Mahad says "There's a good reason for it!" and then he sort of whispers to Lena "so why are your boots wet?" like he just assumed she'd have a good reason for it. I don't know why, it's just something that made me chuckle a bit.

...also it occurs to me Lena was sleeping with her boots on. Dat model limitations.

The accusations fly, and Lena gets fed up, saying she'll find the person responsible. But Cortez stops her as she tries to leave. Mahad gets mad, the funny name guy (I think it's spelt Pretotchy. That's how it sounds) gets mad, errybody gets mad (except Dahlia). Mahad says Pretotchy has had it in for them since the beginning which would of been nice to have hinted at in other episodes but alright.

Lena wanders into the sunlight, head hurting from all the arguing, and the solar surge causes her to charge up enough power that, along with her frustration at what all is happening, she crackles with energy. She shouts for them to stop it, and releases her power, knocking everyone back. She...she then JUMPS RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW, making a perfect landing from like, 15 feet up, and runs off.

They cut to a bit later where they find Lena, and she admits that...she's so confused, maybe she DID do it. Clearly she's just not used to the solar surge so it's making her head a little messed up. Which makes sense, it seems to amp up Seijun powers after all, and someone not used to it would get overwhelmed. Also Celia isn't here

Also as an aside the voice actor for Pretotchy is actually pretty good for his role of "maniac who distrusts the main characters and shouts a lot". I approve. And Dahlia's actress is doing a pretty good job of clearly not being the normal Dahlia with how she talks, sounding like herself but intoning sort of like a mix between herself and Oslo. Which is as it should be.

Anyway, they confront her, Dahlia saying she needs to be locked up for the good of everyone. Lena panics again, and Mahad gets into a fight with Dahlia, which gives Lena enough time to...to SUPERJUMP away, almost flying. Jeez, talk about a power boost.

This time she's hiding in Vector's garden. Lena insists she's not a traitor and Vector, being the kind old man he is, believes her, and says to follow him. Meanwhile Pretotchy is having a speech, talking to all the people of Port Angel. Symbolized by three random npcs and three wandering npcs. LIMITATIONS.

...or rather I thought it was limitations. Turns out it's legitimately just six people, three of which only cared enough to walk by, and when he asks "Who's with me!" they all just kinda...leave, except for one guy who stays long enough to be asked directly if he's with him, to which he says "naw" and leaves. Wow. That's...that's great. The people of Port Angel care about Lena, they don't care about Pretotchy. I like this.

Over with Vector and Lena...Vector hides her in her bedroom where this all started. Because Pretotchy won't look for her here. To...to be fair, she ran away from here, technically this is a logical plan. Lena gets into some sunlight and starts complaining about her headache coming back. She groans and flips a chair like 20 feet.

It's at this point that Vector realizes what is wrong. Every 11 years, the sun reaches "it's strongest peak". Basically, every 11 years the sun gets as strong as it could get. However, this year, Skyland is experiancing Parahelia at the same time the sun is overcharging. I'm unsure if this is the accurate term for it, but according to Lena it means the earth is as close to the sun as it could possibly be at the moment, while the energy surge is happening. No wonder the powers are so...powerful today. I really hope we get a Seijun fight under these conditions.

...Vector starts getting into the crazy now, though. He theorizes that...maybe, the power surge is so great, she's unconciousily creating a "second personality" to shunt most of that pain and power onto, to protect her normal mind. That's...not how this works, but okay lets roll with it. She's a Seijun maybe their powers can do this, since they seem to be centered in the brain anyway.

Vector then name drops Halong Zalo from episode 3, saying they'll use a special meditation technique he learned from him to study her brain or something. Question, is Vector a Seijun? Because he doesn't seem like it, but he knows a lot of Seijun stuff.

Anyway, Lena starts meditating and...it not only calms her headaches, but it allows her to start glimpsing into the past. I'm not sure this'll fly in any court, but she see's evidence of someone putting her dirty boots on her last night. Okay so when the pirate ship docked we just sorta...cut to a day later. Alright.

She focuses some more, and eventually see's that it's...Dahlia! And then Suddenly Vector...I think he gets shot or like bashed in the head cause he goes "Nooo" and faints, clutching his head, and Dahlia is there now. Lena surmizes that it can't REALLY be Dahlia, since Dahlia would never hurt Vector. Though this is another instance where they call him "THE Vector" instead. What does that mean, exactly? They've never mentioned it.

Oslo reveals that yes, this isn't Dahlia. "It may be her body, but her thoughts are mine, Leeeena." and oh my god the way she says it, it's exactly like Oslo would. Lena catches this and immediately figures out it's Oslo. That's really good. Oslo gloats about how he's soon going to send the location of this block to his troops, which kind of depresses me because come on man, that should be the first thing you do in a situation like this, but alright. Dahlia just...sorta leaves, saying that even if Lena says who she really is, no one will believe her. Oslo drops the ball here, but to be fair to him it seems like an open and shut situation. Here's hoping the solar surge holds out long enough.

As Dahlia leaves, the REAL Dahlia starts resisting, saying "you can't do this, I won't let you" and other such stuff you'd expect. Her acting is markedly different from her when she's being Oslo, and I'm very impressed by it. This is shown best by, when Prototchy shows up again, Oslo knocks her down mentally, but she manages to get up and says "we've gotta warn Cortez!" and then when asked about if it's Lena or not, she slips into Oslo and says "Offfff course it's Lena", clearly showing Oslo fighting for control as they slip into his cadence.

Unfortunately, Prototchy saying every Seijun can't be trusted kinda makes Oslo mad, so he takes a brief moment to berate him, giving Dahlia time to resist again and warn him. Damnit Oslo, stop hoisting yourself by your own picard.

...thankfully for Oslo Prototchy is exactly as stupid as he appears because he thinks Dahlia is talking about Cortez. HAHAHAhaaa

Oh, it appears that the berating of Seijun hate Oslo did was directed at Dahlia, because the fight they're having is spilling out into Oslo's attempts to convince Prototchy to help him. That's kind of clever, though hard to get across considering.

Also, occasionally during his exchange we can see Oslo's force ghost/telepathy form. Unlike Lena's which is basically just her but blue and see through, his is fainty and wispy with shining white eyes that makes him pretty dang intimidating looking. Especially because we see it move into her body as he succeeds in beating down her personality and taking control once more.

Dahlia heads up to the light house and meets Mahad there. Dahlia easily convinces him she's gotta reconfigure some stuff for the Vector, and Mahad goes to leave. However, Mahad gets a notion and stops short of leaving to spy on Dahlia. And he hears "her" complaining about how archaic their tech is, and how it'll take ages to actually translate the data sent due to it being so old and crap.

...Mahad just sorta rides on some random moving thing inside Vector's lighthouse house and snatches the laptop away from Dahlia. I hope Oslo learned how to channel his powers through people like Lena can channel them through Celia.

However Oslo is COMPETENT and gets the laptop back. And he even remembered to switch off sleep mode from being a thing, so closing it didn't stop the data transfer between the laptop and Diwan's fleet. Meanwhile with Lena and the Vector, Vector's not dead and Lena's like "We need to warn the others!" Vector says that this is not the answer and that she must instead fight Oslo on his own turf. So we're gonna get an awesome mental battle maybe possibly perhaps.

I...actually feel really bad for Dahlia. Her brain is gonna be friiiied after this. Inside the mental landscape, Lena confronts Oslo (who's got Dahlia chained up with energy chains. Also I didn't mention it but Dahlia beat up Mahad and is currently crushing him with that moving observation platform thing in the light house. He'll be fine, but good on you Oslo for thinking of incapacitating him with it.)

Inside the mental Seijun Zone, Lena shoots what looks almost explicitly like a Kamehameha wave blast at Oslo, who just blocks it one handed and taunts her. Oslo then says, quite cleverly, that once the coordinates are sent, he'll willingly let go of his possession over Dahlia. Which of course he will.

They continue to beam fight (nothing fancy just the beams clashing, but still) while Oslo continues to taunt her worthlessness, saying he's already won. He probably shouldn't be taunting just in case, but since Seijun powers are also influenced by mental state maybe he's trying to fake her out to weaken her. And it works, because Lena loses. However, she has enough power to say that, Seijun or not, Oslo is in HER body, so it's his will vs HER will. Dahlia's gotta break this, mental powers or not.

Dahlia for her credit breaks free of the energy chains and draws her laser bow. Good job. Oslo taunts her, as one would in a battle of wills. Dahlia...****in..."THIS IS MY HOUSE! I'M KICKING YOU OUT!" This is great. I don't care how awkward it might sound, that line's actually badass. Go Dahlia!

Oslo easily one handed blocks her laser arrow because...well, Oslo is kind of a bamf. But the second arrow, to his surprise, manages to pierce his defenses and get him right in the gut. It also hit him so hard mentally that it sent his physical body flying out of his chair. Holy crap.

Meer seconds before the data transfer is complete, Mahad manages to get up and smashes the laptop with his boomerang. Oslo is understandably VERY upset, like if someone was downloading a game and it crashed at 96%. The pain and suffering, it is real.

Mahad then asks for proof that Dahlia is the real Dahlia, and she tells him to ask a question only she'd know. He thinks outloud "Hmm, what question would only the two of us know the answer to as a couple" to which Dahlia sighs, crosses her arms, and says "Dreamer." shooting down Mahad and also proving it's her. I'd argue against this because if someone was inside your head like Oslo was he could probably read through your thoughts and answer appropriately, but that's okay.

We end it with some nice banter between our heroes, Mahad saying that he could barely tell she wasn't Oslo, and Dahlia countering that her beating the **** out of him was all her. Everyone laughs. Celia isn't here

And that's the episode! My thoughts? Wow. Wowie zowie. Holy crap. This episode was great, it really was. The plot made sense throughout the episode, the acting was, for Skyland's standards and even for some better shows, top notch. I cannot stress how important the "mind controlled character speaks with the intonation of the character who is controlling them" aspect is, it's part of why I loved this episode, and any series that does something like this (like the body swap episode of Farscape) gets an A+ in my book for effort. This episode also made it so that Oslo is once again a credible threat. Not even there physically, he almost succeeds, losing purely because Lena was able to inspire Dahlia to fight back, and his overconfidence left a crack in his defenses. And even then he still almost won if not for Mahad getting up in time to smash the computer. Overall this episode was fantastic, except for one tiny detail, and that is that CELIA IS NOT HERE WHY IS SHE NOT HERE PLEASE BE HERE CELIA

Okay, until Monday friends. Fingers crossed for Celia, and for more episodes on this level of quality.

[LaZodiac]

...no responses? Alright. Maybe if the next episode is bad we'll have some discussion

Episode 9: King for a Day

Spoiler

Show

I can only imagine what this episode will be like.

...once again, it feels like the order of episodes are misplaced as this episode opens with Cheng running some kind of dj rock booth at night in Port Angel, dedicating the next song to their "newest and greatest captain, Mahad!". Maybe he's just hit the captain rank or something? Somehow? I have no idea.

The music is pretty good, though the dancing animations is what you'd expect. Lots of bodies just sort of flaying around haphazardly. Vector shows off this...weird glowing sphere inside of a machine that he says is the "light show" for Mahad's concert. For...for some reason.

...then a CHRON shuttle shows up and clues me in that this is...PROOOOBABLY a dream sequence, but given how this show goes I can not be sure until we've been told. Also the shuttle looks different, it looks like it's got a smaller shuttle on each wing. Assuming this is a dream, the actions taking place make sense, but if it's not...I don't know what the **** anymore. Lena hides under/inside a...something, I can't tell, with Mahad going in after her. They are hiding because this "must be a routine check" but if it was then how in the slightest is this place safe? What is happening. WHAT IS HAPPENING!

Oh, they're hiding in the blue energy sphere's container thing. Anyway, a bunch of Brig's pour out, followed by Diwan, who says that if anyone resists, they are to set fire to their homes. This is about where they'd wake up if this was a dream so I am forced to assume this is all happening and...I just...this doesn't work, at all. If the Sphere really does do the occasional check on each Block, that means they have an idea of how it looks. Oslo literally just has to look at the map of each Block to find out where the pirate hideout is (Port Angel) and then they're done, they win. I do not understand what is going on.

...and...and then the video pauses and gets scan lines like a video, and Lena says that Mom'll be really confused if we don't tell the story from the beginning. Mahad says that since the video diaries are his idea, HE gets to tell the story. So...is...is this just hinting at what's going to happen in the future? Is Mahad lying? I don't KNOW but now I'm REALLY INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT.

It then cuts to a view of Mahad as if he's being filmed, and Mahad says that he's going to do "Video Diary 42, which I like to call 'King for a Day' from the top!" Lena says from off screen "oh please" and the episode proper begins! I...okay that's actually kind of funny, and it does appear to give us a time frame. The plot has been going on for 42 days, so around a month and a bit. Okay. Lets see where this goes.

Mahad and Cheng are watching some loading of the pirate ship and stuff, and Mahad is mentioning how boring it is. Repeatedly. So...okay. Cheng tries to liven it up a bit by suggesting they play catch with Mahad's boomerang, which Mahad says would be pointless since it comes back on it's own. Makes sense, actually. Cortez asks them for help with some work if they're not to busy.

Meanwhile with Lena and Dahlia, Dahlia is teaching Lena how to throw rocks. I...okay, there is such a thing as throwing theory, so knowing how to BEST throw a rock so it hits something makes sense, but this is silly because she's a Seijun, if she's been reduced to throwing rocks something has gone very wrong. Also they are throwing rocks at what looks like old machinery on a super small Block nearby.

I think the voice acting might be slowly getting better. Lena's throwing arm is not...or so we're told. I can't even see the rock she threw, and according to Dahlia it's "not even close" so presumably she threw it pretty badly. Once again I'd like to note that as a Seijun I don't entirely think this matters.

To prove my point she uses her powers to recover the rock from free fall and bonks the target with it playfully. Which I think is actually kind of cute and what Lena would actually do after failing the normal way.

Back with Mahad, for some reason Mahad thinks carrying around super powerful explosives is boring, and hopes for some action. Fate suitably tempted one of the super powerful explosives that are very volatile snaps the chain it's attached to and almost crushes him and Cheng, saved only because Wyatt manages to dive into them and push all of them out of the way of it. The super explosive device then...well, explodes, and though it doesn't appear to do any damage to the Block, it makes a MASSIVE explosion radius that gets picked up by the Sphere. So I think I know why the Sphere show up here later...though that makes me wonder why they just said "it must be a standard check up" in the opening, but at this point I'm expecting this episode to go full on Rashoman on me.

OH, I misheard, the thing that exploded is just a giant battery, a power supply. And that single explosion cost them two months of power. Mahad says he doesn't care since it was exciting. Mahad is such an *******. Cortez says it's not about fun, Mahad says "It's NEVER about fun with you" and this is 200% petulant oh my god Mahad I hate you so much.

Lena shows up, and Mahad whines to her about how Cortez treats him like a kid. Since Lena is a GOOD character, she points out that this is because he ACTS like one. Mahad continues to be a petulant babyman.

Meanwhile Cortez reveals that the crew of the scouting party has returned, and that they've found a lot of clear, clean, unprotected water! So they're gonna go get it! Hooray! This won't be a trap at all and or won't cause really large problems for everyone in some way

After everyone in the bar leaves to get ready for duty, Cortez confrons Mahad. Basically, he's had enough of Mahad's ****, so he won't get to go on this mission. Instead, he gets to stay home and be the guy in charge of Port Angel until he comes back. I'll note that this will probably take longer then a single day thus making the episode title inaccurate, but since Mahad seems to be the one making all the episode titles this all makes sense.

...haha, okay, that was good. Mahad asks if Cortez is joking, and Cortez says "I must be, if I have no sense of humour" referencing a line Mahad said during their argument. The animation for the line isn't very good, but the line itself is decently funny truth be told.

Afterwards, Cortez goes to Dahlia and explains why he's doing this. Mahad does have the makings of a great leader, he's just a massive ****lord idiot who treats everything as if he was a kid. He needs to learn the meaning of responsibility. He then drops it on her that she'll be staying here to make sure he doesn't get everyone horribly killed.

After Cortez leaves the dumbstruck Dahlia, Mahad shows up and continues to Mahad at her about being Captain. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Dahlia says this is a nightmare. Mahad...Mahad says...

"I knew it, you dream about me"

....*throws up hands* **** it, I'm...gagag
ahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAAAH

Oh my ****ing god that was such a terrible joke but it was hilarious at the same time. Maybe my standards are just riddled with bullets but I laughed out loud. The kind of bad super cocky voice acting makes it all the better because he genuinely see's what he's saying as super clever and awesome and not a joke, because nightmare or not "she dreams about me" is all he's hearing. This is glorious, and part of why watching things that are kind of bad is also good.

It's at this moment I realize Dahlia is wearing a really weird outfit. She's got a waist long military esque shirt, the standard for the show really, and overalls (again, a standard). However, the front of the overalls is open all the way to the legs, so it's...if this was a better drawn/worse standards having series, it'd be a really sexualized outfit. Just a random thought that passed my head.

Next morning at Vector's lighthouse, we see the glowy sphere thing and it's container! It appears that it's a device that filters out specific bits of light radiation, and they're using it to try and figure out what, exactly, recharges a Seijun's power. Now THIS? THIS IS COOL! Actually exploring the super power of the series, trying to figure out how it works? That's cool. Still no Celia present

Also as a brief aside there is a checkers board in Vector's room. I know it's meant to be analogous to Chess, and the pieces are even black and white to symbolize this (the norm, at least up here, is white and red) but it really does not work as well as a chess board does. Sorry Vector

Anyway, back on the "figuring out what Seijun's are truely powered by" thing, it's clear Oslo at least has something figured out, since he bathes in sunlight 24/7, and Mom mentioned that this is super dangerous and going to cause him to die. So I wonder what Vector's study will find out. Also it'll be hilarious is Oslo dies from skin cancer due to UV radiation before or during the fight with our heroes.

...oh, that's cool. The checker pieces where just there for Lena to concentrate on while using her powers so Vector can get a steady, consistent reading. Interesting. Also, Lena properly notes that there could be nasty side effects to this, and cite's Oslo as being a horrible freakish monster. Vector assures her she'd never end up like him.

Back with the A Plot that is less interesting then everything else in this episode, Mahad is bragging about how easy it is to be a leader, when suddenly some guys who are moving stuff are like "it's almost lunch" and the guy telling them to move stuff is "no, move three more boxes" and now it's time for Mahad to step in apparently. The voice acting is decent enough, and I swear I recognize one of the movers from Sengoku Basara 3.

Mahad abuses his power, saying that in recognition of everyone's hard work, today is an official holiday. I can only imagine what kind of disaster will happen here. Like oh, say...the Sphere showing up without anyone noticing because all the guards are off duty because it's a holiday, perhaps?

..."It's Mahad day." Alright, Mahad's immediately let the power get to him. This can only lead to good things. He says that tonight, everyone's gonna celebrate! Cheng and Dahlia imply that they've done something like this before but since Mahad is in charge today it doesn't matter. Interesting.

Oh, I was wrong, the thing we're testing on Lena is not the light show. Mahad shows up at Vector's place and asks him to convert one of the power batteries that give them enough power for two months...into a light show. Mahad, you psychopath.

Thankfully Vector is NOT an idiot, despite his liking of checkers over chess, and says he's going to do it some other way, likely with the device they're using to test Lena as I first suspected. Bully for me!

...in the background Lena is making funny faces with the checker pieces. That's...actually kind of creepy in a way. Looking at it closer it's HER face and it changes based on her talking and her thoughts as the others talk. Cool!

Meanwhile at the Saint Neziare, Cortez and Wyatt are talking. Wyatt says they made excellent timing, and will be back sooner then they could of even imagined. Cortez...continues to be a major badass by saying that "who knows, something might come up" and he says it in such a way that it's clear he knows the Sphere is coming due to that power battery explosion. Wyatt asks what's up and Cortez simply says it pays to be prepared. God I love you Cortez.

Back with Vector and Lena, he says he isolated the two strongest light waves, and thus sends them into her, and tells her to use her powers. She does so and it IMMEDIATELY becomes apparent something is wrong. She starts levitating along with the checker pieces, lightning starts flashing around her. It's...pretty nuts all things considered. She causes a MASSIVE Seijun explosion, which radiates as a huge mulitcolour wave/aurora borealis across the sky. It also slams into Diwan's ship, causing her to stop and start calling headquarters because oh my god that was a massive burst of Seijun energy I can feel it in my brain meat. Oslo is interested by this, and tells her to go investigate.

Suddenly, while Mahad and Dahlia are putting up decorations for the party, Cheng...gets an alert that a Sphere ship is incoming! Well then! Mahad jokingly complains that the banner needs to be a little higher on the left side, and it's pretty clear Dahlia is super tempted to beat him half to death with that hammer. She instead gives it to him and says that he can do it himself. Then Cheng shows up! The Sphere ships are heading our ways!

Six to Eight ships are coming, and that's pretty unfortunate. Mahad says it's not enough for an invasion but too many for a scout group...which is clearly wrong since Diwan was literally just going out for scouting. He then continues to be wrong by saying they should load up the Hyperion and go shoot them all! Dahlia points out that not only is the odds on Sphere's side given the amount of ships they have (and they may have more, Cheng is unsure) it will ALSO show Sphere that Port Angel is a pirate block. And then everyone's gonna die.

Mahad insists that since the Saint Neziare is not here, clearly it is not a pirate block. Alright. We'll assume this is true for now. It seems that Mahad's plan is just to...wing it and pretend they're just a port block. Dahlia admits that...technically this is a sensible plan. Dahlia then sort of kind of drops the ball here and out and out says Mahad has the makings of a good leader but needs to learn responsibility. Typically, telling someone this doesn't help, but we'll see.

...oh my god it was a fake Sphere signal by Cortez. You clever bastard. Wyatt is amused but not entirely if only because he thinks Cortez is above this, it's "unworthy of you". Cortez says yeah, it is, but Mahad needs to learn. It's also clear that Cortez is heavily enjoying this.

While hiding in the Hyperion, Mahad starts getting antsy, saying that the numbers are still all wrong. Since it's a fake signal this now makes SENSE. He checks the Hyperion's scanners and realizes they've been had, and radio's Cortez!

Ironically as this is happening, Mahad making fun of Cortez for sending out such a large signal, Diwan's ship flies by...a single block with a single telephone booth on it, which they've made into a scanner to pick up Sphere ships. Clever. Also, sorry folks, it's not a blue one

...Cortez tells this information to Mahad, but he does NOT believe it. Understandable. He then completely botches the "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" saying, which is again understandable because Mahad is an idiot. Also it occurs to me that if they DID believe this signal, and went out with the Hyperion, this would of given them a chance to kill Diwan, and strike a major blow against the Sphere.

Diwan meanwhile gives orders to the Brigs. I really wish they'd realize the Brigs are too stupid to infer orders, and she explicitly said "capture this girl, Lena, in a non fatal manner" so that the Brigs would actually do this. As it is, ordering them "not to harm her" just means they aim their guns at her and do nothing. Back on the Sain Neziare, Cortez says they need to find a way to lure the Sphere ship in the opposite direction.

And now, we've finally caught up with the beginning of this episode. And now I am no longer confused. Everything happens basically exactly as we saw, with some added dialogue some skipping some of the panning shots. We also cut to Cortez, and it seems that they're going to attack a Sphere water carrier as hard as they can, to attract the attention of Diwan's ship. This might trick Diwan, but I'm not sure if it'll trick Oslo...

While that's happening, Vector is trying to trick Diwan into leaving, saying that the large energy surge was just this machine of his, and he turns on the "light show" device. Unfortunately since Lena is hiding under there, I predict bad things happening. Speaking of bad things, Cortez just destroyed a Sphere water carrier. I...I bet he really wishes he could of just stole from it, but hey they got all that unguarded water so they should be fine. Still though...pretty big a waste.

...oh, clever. Since Lena is underneath the machine and bathing in it's light, she can make the same pulse as before. This will clearly show that this machine just happens to make that pulse. It's a clever trick. Oslo would see through it immediately if he was there, but Diwan's dumb and also it's night so her Seijun powers are off.

Diwan gets the call to go save the water carrier, she gets HELLA mad at Vector for wasting her time, she leaves, and Lena says to the video diary that this was how she saved the day! Yay! Mahad says she left out the best part, and tells Mom, or more specifically us, to pay very close attention. I...I'm hoping it's actually something I should pay attention to and not just Mahad being Mahad.

...the ending is kind of cute, honestly. Mahad gets Cortez to start dancing, and Lena is like "no one will ever believe that". Mahad says "It's my story, and my story ends with Cortez dancing". They say "Bye mom!" together, and the episode ends.

And that's the episode! My thoughts? I don't know if it's because of a slowly lowering bar of quality, or I'm still happy about how good last episode is (and no one's posted a discussion to help make me forget it ) but this episode was pretty good. It's not as good as last episode, but this one has some nice tricks to it, and had some pretty good/bad jokes.

Still no Celia. Guess she's not a recurring character after all. Hope you all enjoyed, and see you guys Friday! Be sure to post so we can discuss things, this isn't much of a Let's Watch without you guys

[Durkoala]

Well, if you insist.

Is Mahad really as bad as you make him sound? I'm wondering if there's any point to him being in the show.
In writing, the episode sounds OK, just a boring downtime filler-ish thing to extend the series. I'll be surprised if anything important comes out of this, as some character development for Mahad wasn't mentioned. I'm surprised that there wasn't even a moral message of 'don't neglect your responsiblities' shoehorned in somewhere.

Spoiler

Show

...then a CHRON shuttle shows up and clues me in that this is...PROOOOBABLY a dream sequence, but given how this show goes I can not be sure until we've been told.

...and...and then the video pauses and gets scan lines like a video, and Lena says that Mom'll be really confused if we don't tell the story from the beginning. Mahad says that since the video diaries are his idea, HE gets to tell the story. So...is...is this just hinting at what's going to happen in the future? Is Mahad lying? I don't KNOW but now I'm REALLY INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT.

Well, that's a first.
Also, I really like the the first line.

It then cuts to a view of Mahad as if he's being filmed, and Mahad says that he's going to do "Video Diary 42, which I like to call 'King for a Day' from the top!" Lena says from off screen "oh please" and the episode proper begins! I...okay that's actually kind of funny, and it does appear to give us a time frame. The plot has been going on for 42 days, so around a month and a bit. Okay. Lets see where this goes.

This is a change from the usual dreams and other framing devices. Not a big change, and it has been done before, but its quite sweet that they're doing this for their mum so she knows what happened while she was in prison. They'll have to get her out first, of course. (she is still locked up, right?)

The "video lines" idea reminds me of an episode of Teen Titans, where Raven tries to read a book and each time she's interrupted the imagined events stop in video lines.

Meanwhile with Lena and Dahlia, Dahlia is teaching Lena how to throw rocks. I...okay, there is such a thing as throwing theory, so knowing how to BEST throw a rock so it hits something makes sense, but this is silly because she's a Seijun, if she's been reduced to throwing rocks something has gone very wrong. Also they are throwing rocks at what looks like old machinery on a super small Block nearby.

It makes sense to teach the only Seijun they have as many combat tricks as possible. You never know what holes the villain might have in his defences. It reminds me of Eragon (No, come back!), where they dump all the knowledge and power they can on the resident Mary Sue main character in the hope that something will be able to kill the BBEG. Thrown rocks probably won't be much use against the Super Seijun, but it's better than trying to punch him.

Lena shows up, and Mahad whines to her about how Cortez treats him like a kid. Since Lena is a GOOD character, she points out that this is because he ACTS like one. Mahad continues to be a petulant babyman.

Sounds like a typical sulky teenager to me. If he had some positive qualities, I personally wouldn't have much of a problem with him, except for voicing.

After everyone in the bar leaves to get ready for duty, Cortez confronts Mahad. Basically, he's had enough of Mahad's ****, so he won't get to go on this mission. Instead, he gets to stay home and be the guy in charge of Port Angel until he comes back. I'll note that this will probably take longer then a single day thus making the episode title inaccurate, but since Mahad seems to be the one making all the episode titles this all makes sense.

...haha, okay, that was good. Mahad asks if Cortez is joking, and Cortez says "I must be, if I have no sense of humour" referencing a line Mahad said during their argument. The animation for the line isn't very good, but the line itself is decently funny truth be told.

Afterwards, Cortez goes to Dahlia and explains why he's doing this. Mahad does have the makings of a great leader, he's just a massive ****lord idiot who treats everything as if he was a kid. He needs to learn the meaning of responsibility. He then drops it on her that she'll be staying here to make sure he doesn't get everyone horribly killed.

Cortez sounds like a great character.

After Cortez leaves the dumbstruck Dahlia, Mahad shows up and continues to Mahad at her about being Captain. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Dahlia says this is a nightmare. Mahad...Mahad says...

"I knew it, you dream about me"

....*throws up hands* **** it, I'm...gagag
ahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAAAH

Le sigh.
Your reaction sounds accurate.

It's at this moment I realize Dahlia is wearing a really weird outfit. She's got a waist long military esque shirt, the standard for the show really, and overalls (again, a standard). However, the front of the overalls is open all the way to the legs, so it's...if this was a better drawn/worse standards having series, it'd be a really sexualized outfit. Just a random thought that passed my head.

I have trouble imagining this. Would be sexulised but isn't due to quality. What?

[QUOTE=LaZodiac;17883396]Also as a brief aside there is a checkers board in Vector's room. I know it's meant to be analogous to Chess, and the pieces are even black and white to symbolize this (the norm, at least up here, is white and red) but it really does not work as well as a chess board does. Sorry Vector [B/quote]
I've seen enough black-and-white draughts boards to not really be bothered by it. Also, Chess is good for symbolism but it's overrated, both as a symbolic source and as a game.

Anyway, back on the "figuring out what Seijun's are truely powered by" thing, it's clear Oslo at least has something figured out, since he bathes in sunlight 24/7, and Mom mentioned that this is super dangerous and going to cause him to die. So I wonder what Vector's study will find out. Also it'll be hilarious is Oslo dies from skin cancer due to UV radiation before or during the fight with our heroes.

...oh, that's cool. The checker pieces where just there for Lena to concentrate on while using her powers so Vector can get a steady, consistent reading. Interesting. Also, Lena properly notes that there could be nasty side effects to this, and cite's Oslo as being a horrible freakish monster. Vector assures her she'd never end up like him.

Hmm... I'd assumed that Oslo is a bad person who is sucking in as much power as he can get, consequences be damned. If he is actually corrupted by his extreme power, that raises a lot of possiblities. It's just a theory, though.
Also do Seijun have rapid healing? If so, Oslo could end up as some sort of monster for the end, trying to out-regenerate his cancer.

..."It's Mahad day." Alright, Mahad's immediately let the power get to him. This can only lead to good things. He says that tonight, everyone's gonna celebrate! Cheng and Dahlia imply that they've done something like this before but since Mahad is in charge today it doesn't matter. Interesting.

So Mahad's not getting flak for this because there's precedent?

Back with Vector and Lena, he says he isolated the two strongest light waves, and thus sends them into her, and tells her to use her powers. She does so and it IMMEDIATELY becomes apparent something is wrong. She starts levitating along with the checker pieces, lightning starts flashing around her. It's...pretty nuts all things considered. She causes a MASSIVE Seijun explosion, which radiates as a huge mulitcolour wave/aurora borealis across the sky. It also slams into Diwan's ship, causing her to stop and start calling headquarters because oh my god that was a massive burst of Seijun energy I can feel it in my brain meat. Oslo is interested by this, and tells her to go investigate.

Figuring out superpowers is always one of the best bits of having superpowers. So Seijuns are powered by a specific frequency of light? If constant sunbathing is hazardous, maybe some other frequency is harmful to them? or maybe it's just having to much power in your system that is dangerous? Either way, I smell a Super Seijun Bargin Bin Sale.

...oh my god it was a fake Sphere signal by Cortez. You clever bastard. Wyatt is amused but not entirely if only because he thinks Cortez is above this, it's "unworthy of you". Cortez says yeah, it is, but Mahad needs to learn. It's also clear that Cortez is heavily enjoying this.

You clever bastard indeed. I don't need to say anything else.

...oh, clever. Since Lena is underneath the machine and bathing in it's light, she can make the same pulse as before. This will clearly show that this machine just happens to make that pulse. It's a clever trick. Oslo would see through it immediately if he was there, but Diwan's dumb and also it's night so her Seijun powers are off.

Yes, it is a good idea. I'm a bit distracted by realisation that the night makes no sense. If the planet's shattered, there should be light coming up through the clouds as there's no earth to block the sun.

And that's the episode! My thoughts? I don't know if it's because of a slowly lowering bar of quality, or I'm still happy about how good last episode is (and no one's posted a discussion to help make me forget it ) but this episode was pretty good. It's not as good as last episode, but this one has some nice tricks to it, and had some pretty good/bad jokes.

Still no Celia. Guess she's not a recurring character after all. Hope you all enjoyed, and see you guys Friday! Be sure to post so we can discuss things, this isn't much of a Let's Watch without you guys

Shame. A seijun "sister" could have been interesting.
Anway, here's a post for you. I may have been wrong when I said that this was a filler episode: there's some foray into the Seijun powers, and a potential weapon discovered. I expect to see at least one of these ideas appear later on.
I took a look at a bit of this on youtube. It's better animated than I expected and I love the endless sky setting. I was surprised to hear that Cortez is scottish. The voicing isn't good, but I have heard a lot worse. At least Skyland seem to be making an effort to sound like people, instead of reading lines off the script so they'll get an icecream.
As it's made by a french studio (IIRC), was it first dubbed in french, and this is the translation? When was this made/aired? That might give an idea of the expected quality.

[LaZodiac]

Well, if you insist.

Is Mahad really as bad as you make him sound? I'm wondering if there's any point to him being in the show.
In writing, the episode sounds OK, just a boring downtime filler-ish thing to extend the series. I'll be surprised if anything important comes out of this, as some character development for Mahad wasn't mentioned. I'm surprised that there wasn't even a moral message of 'don't neglect your responsiblities' shoehorned in somewhere.int

There is a hint of him having learned a lesson, ie don't be such a jerkbag. However, I'm not sure how much it'll stick.

Spoiler

Show

This is a change from the usual dreams and other framing devices. Not a big change, and it has been done before, but its quite sweet that they're doing this for their mum so she knows what happened while she was in prison. They'll have to get her out first, of course. (she is still locked up, right?)

Yeah, Mom's still in super jail.

It makes sense to teach the only Seijun they have as many combat tricks as possible. You never know what holes the villain might have in his defences. It reminds me of Eragon (No, come back!), where they dump all the knowledge and power they can on the resident Mary Sue main character in the hope that something will be able to kill the BBEG. Thrown rocks probably won't be much use against the Super Seijun, but it's better than trying to punch him.

Understandable. God Eragon is bad

Le sigh.
Your reaction sounds accurate.

The thing is, that's an exact transliteration of my reaction. I paused the video, and said that as I went to go typing, and then it just....it just hit me and I started laughing maniacally.

I have trouble imagining this. Would be sexulised but isn't due to quality. What?

Well, I mean, because of how the models are made, everyone's clothes have to be fully encompassing, so we get an outfit that looks like this, without it being revealing.

Hmm... I'd assumed that Oslo is a bad person who is sucking in as much power as he can get, consequences be damned. If he is actually corrupted by his extreme power, that raises a lot of possiblities. It's just a theory, though.
Also do Seijun have rapid healing? If so, Oslo could end up as some sort of monster for the end, trying to out-regenerate his cancer.

All we know is that Mom said to Oslo that what he's doing is dangerous and unsafe for the body.

So Mahad's not getting flak for this because there's precedent?

Apparently!

Figuring out superpowers is always one of the best bits of having superpowers. So Seijuns are powered by a specific frequency of light? If constant sunbathing is hazardous, maybe some other frequency is harmful to them? or maybe it's just having to much power in your system that is dangerous? Either way, I smell a Super Seijun Bargin Bin Sale.

Oooh, that'd be interesting. We don't know for sure. All we know is that when the sun is "down" for lack of a given turn, Seijun's lose their powers. But the instant sunlight hits them they've got a charge of it to use.

Yes, it is a good idea. I'm a bit distracted by realisation that the night makes no sense. If the planet's shattered, there should be light coming up through the clouds as there's no earth to block the sun.

Well there is a giant sphere in the "middle" of the earth. Weather it's man made or not we don't know yet, and for all I know it might be the earth's core. Point is, that presumably blocks the sun enough for night.

Shame. A seijun "sister" could have been interesting.
Anway, here's a post for you. I may have been wrong when I said that this was a filler episode: there's some foray into the Seijun powers, and a potential weapon discovered. I expect to see at least one of these ideas appear later on.
I took a look at a bit of this on youtube. It's better animated than I expected and I love the endless sky setting. I was surprised to hear that Cortez is scottish. The voicing isn't good, but I have heard a lot worse. At least Skyland seem to be making an effort to sound like people, instead of reading lines off the script so they'll get an icecream.
As it's made by a french studio (IIRC), was it first dubbed in french, and this is the translation? When was this made/aired? That might give an idea of the expected quality.

Yes, it was made by a combination of English and French studios. I THINK both the english and french versions where made at the same time, with the french one taking precedent. I'm not sure though.

And yeah, the sky setting is super great. What Skyland lacks in character growth or really advancing the plot in any way what so ever, it makes up for in having a really interesting setting, and (tragically underused) powers inside said setting.

[Durkoala]

There is a hint of him having learned a lesson, ie don't be such a jerkbag. However, I'm not sure how much it'll stick.

Oh well, lets hope it does.

Understandable. God Eragon is bad

IDK, it has a certain charm.
Unless you meant the character, in which case yes he is.

Well, I mean, because of how the models are made, everyone's clothes have to be fully encompassing, so we get an outfit that looks like this, without it being revealing.

That is weird. Maybe it's a subtle form of flirting? Maybe it's an unsubtle form of flirting when you live in high, cold islands? Maybe the zip broke on her only clean pair of overalls?

Figuring out superpowers is always one of the best bits of having superpowers. So Seijuns are powered by a specific frequency of light? If constant sunbathing is hazardous, maybe some other frequency is harmful to them? or maybe it's just having to much power in your system that is dangerous? Either way, I smell a Super Seijun Bargin Bin Sale.

Oooh, that'd be interesting. We don't know for sure. All we know is that when the sun is "down" for lack of a given turn, Seijuns lose their powers. But the instant sunlight hits them they've got a charge of it to use.

What's interesting? The harmful frequency idea or the idea of quick-charge super-superpowers? Whichever it is, thank you. The instant powers would imply that the sunlight just unlocks what powers they have, but that qualifies as overthinking it.

Well there is a giant sphere in the "middle" of the earth. Weather it's man made or not we don't know yet, and for all I know it might be the earth's core. Point is, that presumably blocks the sun enough for night.

Well, that makes some sense. I'll do my best to not think about it too hard.

Yes, it was made by a combination of English and French studios. I THINK both the english and french versions where made at the same time, with the french one taking precedent. I'm not sure though.

And yeah, the sky setting is super great. What Skyland lacks in character growth or really advancing the plot in any way what so ever, it makes up for in having a really interesting setting, and (tragically underused) powers inside said setting.

So is the french version likely to be better?

The setting reminds me of one of my favourite settings ever: the Edge.
I've written a lengthy (and probably somewhat garbled) post on it, but the short version is it's a giant cliff, which is the Edge... of the world. On top of the edge are a lot of different environments (endless forests, dark forests, REALLY REALLY scary eldritch forests, lots of mud, the city, a flying city of scientists, and a desert that grows stones, among others). There's a lot of races, few of which match their stereotypical image (trolls are short, stocky woodsmen, for example) and even more monsters. The main action is set on the flying ships and the battles between the sky pirates and the Leagues of Merchants.
Like skylands, the characters and plot sometimes suffer for the setting, with the authors dragging the story all over their world. Sometimes this drags the plot down, sometimes it manages to work really well. There aren't any real powers or magics in the setting, just strange phenomena that can be harnessed with science.

Anyway, I'd better cut this off before I write another love letter to the Edge and disrupt the thread.

[LaZodiac]

So is the french version likely to be better?

The setting reminds me of one of my favourite settings ever: the Edge.
I've written a lengthy (and probably somewhat garbled) post on it, but the short version is it's a giant cliff, which is the Edge... of the world. On top of the edge are a lot of different environments (endless forests, dark forests, REALLY REALLY scary eldritch forests, lots of mud, the city, a flying city of scientists, and a desert that grows stones, among others). There's a lot of races, few of which match their stereotypical image (trolls are short, stocky woodsmen, for example) and even more monsters. The main action is set on the flying ships and the battles between the sky pirates and the Leagues of Merchants.
Like skylands, the characters and plot sometimes suffer for the setting, with the authors dragging the story all over their world. Sometimes this drags the plot down, sometimes it manages to work really well. There aren't any real powers or magics in the setting, just strange phenomena that can be harnessed with science.

Anyway, I'd better cut this off before I write another love letter to the Edge and disrupt the thread.

Presumably. As someone who does not speak French I would be unable to tell!

Sounds quite interesting. Ironically Skyland could have a bit more of us exploring Skyland. We're supposed to be pirates fighting against Sphere for independence! Right now it's really just a bunch of people trying to live in their port without any trouble.

[Coidzor]

Spoiler: Erpisode The Ninth

Show

Episode 9: King for a Day

Ominous potentially Mahad-related title is ominous.

...once again, it feels like the order of episodes are misplaced as this episode opens with Cheng running some kind of dj rock booth at night in Port Angel, dedicating the next song to their "newest and greatest captain, Mahad!". Maybe he's just hit the captain rank or something? Somehow? I have no idea.

I mean, sure, Mahad getting his own ship to captain is far-fetched, but why is an 8 year old DJing?

The music is pretty good, though the dancing animations is what you'd expect. Lots of bodies just sort of flaying around haphazardly. Vector shows off this...weird glowing sphere inside of a machine that he says is the "light show" for Mahad's concert. For...for some reason.

Oh dear, flaying at a concert. That can't be good for their health. Sounds a bit macabre, actually.

It's like a really bad disco ball?

...then a CHRON shuttle shows up and clues me in that this is...PROOOOBABLY a dream sequence, but given how this show goes I can not be sure until we've been told. Also the shuttle looks different, it looks like it's got a smaller shuttle on each wing. Assuming this is a dream, the actions taking place make sense, but if it's not...I don't know what the **** anymore. Lena hides under/inside a...something, I can't tell, with Mahad going in after her. They are hiding because this "must be a routine check" but if it was then how in the slightest is this place safe? What is happening. WHAT IS HAPPENING!

So... It's a VOLCHRON?

And it's so powerful they have to hide. Which suggests that even in his power fantasy dreams, Mahad is kind of a "chickenwuss," as Seifer would say.

Oh, they're hiding in the blue energy sphere's container thing. Anyway, a bunch of Brig's pour out, followed by Diwan, who says that if anyone resists, they are to set fire to their homes. This is about where they'd wake up if this was a dream so I am forced to assume this is all happening and...I just...this doesn't work, at all. If the Sphere really does do the occasional check on each Block, that means they have an idea of how it looks. Oslo literally just has to look at the map of each Block to find out where the pirate hideout is (Port Angel) and then they're done, they win. I do not understand what is going on.

Yeah, does seem to suggest there's some... issues. I guess the blue energy sphere blocks Seijunery or scanning or something? Maybe they rely upon most Seijun having the brains of Mahad in order to accommodate the necessary changes to handle their energy powers?

...and...and then the video pauses and gets scan lines like a video, and Lena says that Mom'll be really confused if we don't tell the story from the beginning. Mahad says that since the video diaries are his idea, HE gets to tell the story. So...is...is this just hinting at what's going to happen in the future? Is Mahad lying? I don't KNOW but now I'm REALLY INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT.

Oh gods, it's a home movie. And Mahad doesn't really know how to tell stories. Which I suppose explains why they did a less than ideal in media res opener.

Heh.

It then cuts to a view of Mahad as if he's being filmed, and Mahad says that he's going to do "Video Diary 42, which I like to call 'King for a Day' from the top!" Lena says from off screen "oh please" and the episode proper begins! I...okay that's actually kind of funny, and it does appear to give us a time frame. The plot has been going on for 42 days, so around a month and a bit. Okay. Lets see where this goes.

That or they've just been keeping video diaries for some span of 42. Flexibility!

Mahad and Cheng are watching some loading of the pirate ship and stuff, and Mahad is mentioning how boring it is. Repeatedly. So...okay. Cheng tries to liven it up a bit by suggesting they play catch with Mahad's boomerang, which Mahad says would be pointless since it comes back on it's own. Makes sense, actually. Cortez asks them for help with some work if they're not to busy.

A boomerang only returns if it doesn't hit something or isn't caught. And even with the ones that *do* return after hitting things, those aren't suppose to return when caught. Although I suppose revealing that the thing is weird and will actually drag back whoever catches it to Mahad may be interesting for later. Who knows, maybe he'll throw it at someone who will catch it and then be pulled back towards him and kick him in the face in the bargain, aided by the velocity of the magic boomerang thing.

I have to wonder why he has a magic boomerang in the first place, but maybe it's some kind of relic their deadbeat dad discovered while dungeoncrawling and decided to leave for his non-magic offspring.

Meanwhile with Lena and Dahlia, Dahlia is teaching Lena how to throw rocks. I...okay, there is such a thing as throwing theory, so knowing how to BEST throw a rock so it hits something makes sense, but this is silly because she's a Seijun, if she's been reduced to throwing rocks something has gone very wrong. Also they are throwing rocks at what looks like old machinery on a super small Block nearby.

Obviously there's some Blocks which are so poor they can't even afford balls, so the children have to throw rocks instead as part of their games, necessitating a high degree of rock throwing and catching ability so that they don't kill one another/die. And Lena needs to know so she can blend in if she ever has to go to ground in such a place.

That, or throwing rocks is the new version of skipping stones since they don't have enough water to have lakes and ponds anymore.

I think the voice acting might be slowly getting better. Lena's throwing arm is not...or so we're told. I can't even see the rock she threw, and according to Dahlia it's "not even close" so presumably she threw it pretty badly. Once again I'd like to note that as a Seijun I don't entirely think this matters.

Because every PORT ANGELIAN NEEDS AN APPRECIATION OF THEIR BLOCKULAR PASTIME!

Not appreciating rock-throwing would be like being English and not enjoying Football! Or American and not enjoying Football! Or Canadian and not enjoying Hockey-based fistfights!

To prove my point she uses her powers to recover the rock from free fall and bonks the target with it playfully. Which I think is actually kind of cute and what Lena would actually do after failing the normal way.

Does Dahlia just give her the most withering look possible after that? XD

Back with Mahad, for some reason Mahad thinks carrying around super powerful explosives is boring, and hopes for some action. Fate suitably tempted one of the super powerful explosives that are very volatile snaps the chain it's attached to and almost crushes him and Cheng, saved only because Wyatt manages to dive into them and push all of them out of the way of it. The super explosive device then...well, explodes, and though it doesn't appear to do any damage to the Block, it makes a MASSIVE explosion radius that gets picked up by the Sphere. So I think I know why the Sphere show up here later...though that makes me wonder why they just said "it must be a standard check up" in the opening, but at this point I'm expecting this episode to go full on Rashoman on me.

Of course it's boring. It's only exciting if you think they'll accidentally go off, in which case it's mostly terrifying, or you'll get to intentionally set them off and then it's really just the big boom you're looking forward to as the payoff in the end. xD

Woo, volatile explosives being subjected to conditions that should've blown them all to kingdom come. And then it blows up anyway and doesn't blow them all to kingdom come.

How does it have a GIANT EXPLOSION while leaving them and the other GIANT EXPLOSION bombs completely untouched?

A GIANT EXPLOSION would generally cause some level of investigation, if for no other reason than to make sure no Space Mongols have decided to lay waste to human civilization by blowing up Skyland block by block, I suppose.

OH, I misheard, the thing that exploded is just a giant battery, a power supply. And that single explosion cost them two months of power. Mahad says he doesn't care since it was exciting. Mahad is such an *******. Cortez says it's not about fun, Mahad says "It's NEVER about fun with you" and this is 200% petulant oh my god Mahad I hate you so much.

Oh, well, that at least explains the lack of death and destruction and a chain-reaction that kills them all. They might want to try a form of energy storage that *doesn't* explode, though. XD

Cortez was being way too merciful though, Mahad would really have something to whine about if he was having to pedal like a hamster as punishment for a few months to make up for the lost power. XD

Lena shows up, and Mahad whines to her about how Cortez treats him like a kid. Since Lena is a GOOD character, she points out that this is because he ACTS like one. Mahad continues to be a petulant babyman.

A petulant baby-manchild complaining to a 10 year old. When he's... what, 14, 15? 16 tops?

Meanwhile Cortez reveals that the crew of the scouting party has returned, and that they've found a lot of clear, clean, unprotected water! So they're gonna go get it! Hooray! This won't be a trap at all and or won't cause really large problems for everyone in some way

Obviously this scouting party that sets them up for a trap were originally supposed to be the mutineers from that other episode, but they got lost and only showed up in time for this one, so they had to improvise!

After everyone in the bar leaves to get ready for duty, Cortez confrons Mahad. Basically, he's had enough of Mahad's ****, so he won't get to go on this mission. Instead, he gets to stay home and be the guy in charge of Port Angel until he comes back. I'll note that this will probably take longer then a single day thus making the episode title inaccurate, but since Mahad seems to be the one making all the episode titles this all makes sense.

His punishment is being put in charge of the skeleton crew of people watching to make sure they don't get completely jacked while the main body of people is out? Not being caber-tossed out a window?

Cortez, you really need to get with the Caber Tossing program, here.

...haha, okay, that was good. Mahad asks if Cortez is joking, and Cortez says "I must be, if I have no sense of humour" referencing a line Mahad said during their argument. The animation for the line isn't very good, but the line itself is decently funny truth be told.

It still seems... slightly off when you quote it like that, though.

Afterwards, Cortez goes to Dahlia and explains why he's doing this. Mahad does have the makings of a great leader, he's just a massive ****lord idiot who treats everything as if he was a kid. He needs to learn the meaning of responsibility. He then drops it on her that she'll be staying here to make sure he doesn't get everyone horribly killed.

Meaning that the odds of Mahad being horribly killed, possibly in some kind of bizarre sex-act-murder, just jumped way up.

After Cortez leaves the dumbstruck Dahlia, Mahad shows up and continues to Mahad at her about being Captain. This shouldn't surprise anyone. Dahlia says this is a nightmare. Mahad...Mahad says...

"I knew it, you dream about me"

Mahad, the grapist, everyone.

.....*throws up hands* **** it, I'm...gagag
ahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAAAH

Oh my ****ing god that was such a terrible joke but it was hilarious at the same time. Maybe my standards are just riddled with bullets but I laughed out loud. The kind of bad super cocky voice acting makes it all the better because he genuinely see's what he's saying as super clever and awesome and not a joke, because nightmare or not "she dreams about me" is all he's hearing. This is glorious, and part of why watching things that are kind of bad is also good.

Cheesy, stupid lines being delivered completely without irony. That'd wear anyone down eventually, I suppose. and if you're going to go crazy, might as well start laughing while you're at it. xD

.It's at this moment I realize Dahlia is wearing a really weird outfit. She's got a waist long military esque shirt, the standard for the show really, and overalls (again, a standard). However, the front of the overalls is open all the way to the legs, so it's...if this was a better drawn/worse standards having series, it'd be a really sexualized outfit. Just a random thought that passed my head.

Wait, they're all running around dressed up pseudo-militarily this whole time? ...The front of the overalls is open to the legs? Do you mean she's wearing galoshes then? Sexy galoshes?

Or are her overalls just exposed so she's basically wearing an open coat, underwear, and then thigh-high rubber boots?

Next morning at Vector's lighthouse, we see the glowy sphere thing and it's container! It appears that it's a device that filters out specific bits of light radiation, and they're using it to try and figure out what, exactly, recharges a Seijun's power. Now THIS? THIS IS COOL! Actually exploring the super power of the series, trying to figure out how it works? That's cool. Still no Celia present

So it's not a hidey-hole, it's a battery to super-charge Lena so she can rip people's heads off at night/even more easily during the day?

Also as a brief aside there is a checkers board in Vector's room. I know it's meant to be analogous to Chess, and the pieces are even black and white to symbolize this (the norm, at least up here, is white and red) but it really does not work as well as a chess board does. Sorry Vector

Bah. It's Red vs. Black for checkers! RED AND BLACK! Sometimes Red and White, but that's like, super rare.

White Vs. Red is for posh people's chess sets. And then you get the exotic ones which can be anything from translucent fluorescent green versus translucent fluorescent orange to like, purple and yellow.

Alas, poor Vector.

Anyway, back on the "figuring out what Seijun's are truely powered by" thing, it's clear Oslo at least has something figured out, since he bathes in sunlight 24/7, and Mom mentioned that this is super dangerous and going to cause him to die. So I wonder what Vector's study will find out. Also it'll be hilarious is Oslo dies from skin cancer due to UV radiation before or during the fight with our heroes.

Huzzah! You'd think that proof against skin cancer would be one of the lower-level superpowers that Seijunery conveyed, but it would be a bit lulzy if that were not the case.

But, then, he would probably not be as pasty and blindingly white if that were the case... He should at least be capable of tanning, you'd think...

...oh, that's cool. The checker pieces where just there for Lena to concentrate on while using her powers so Vector can get a steady, consistent reading. Interesting. Also, Lena properly notes that there could be nasty side effects to this, and cite's Oslo as being a horrible freakish monster. Vector assures her she'd never end up like him.

Interesting that she'd be the one to note that sort of thing. I don't think Oslo, Norway let it slip to her about his secret source of his power from what you've said sofar, though?

Back with the A Plot that is less interesting then everything else in this episode, Mahad is bragging about how easy it is to be a leader, when suddenly some guys who are moving stuff are like "it's almost lunch" and the guy telling them to move stuff is "no, move three more boxes" and now it's time for Mahad to step in apparently. The voice acting is decent enough, and I swear I recognize one of the movers from Sengoku Basara 3.

Haha, resolving disputes! How will he balance the need to be fair so he doesn't lose what little respect he has and maybe even manages to improve the esteem he's held in with the need to get things done! Wackiness ensues!

Granted, that'd probably require him to be aware of how generally disliked he is by those who actually have cause to interact with him! xD

Mahad abuses his power, saying that in recognition of everyone's hard work, today is an official holiday. I can only imagine what kind of disaster will happen here. Like oh, say...the Sphere showing up without anyone noticing because all the guards are off duty because it's a holiday, perhaps?

Silly Mahad. Silly Port Angel. Temporarily putting someone in charge doesn't make them absolute dictator able to just declare holidays willy-nilly. And holidays don't mean no one has to watch the radar or whatever magic they have instead of radar.

..."It's Mahad day." Alright, Mahad's immediately let the power get to him. This can only lead to good things. He says that tonight, everyone's gonna celebrate! Cheng and Dahlia imply that they've done something like this before but since Mahad is in charge today it doesn't matter. Interesting.

Yeeep. So very, very corrupt. Ostensibly one of the heroes, ladies and gentlemen. xD

Oh, wait, did he just unknowingly declare a holiday on a day that was already a holiday anyway or that they generally start kicking back after all of the hardasses leave after they get to a point where they can easily do so by finishing up the last of what they were working on? XD

Oh, I was wrong, the thing we're testing on Lena is not the light show. Mahad shows up at Vector's place and asks him to convert one of the power batteries that give them enough power for two months...into a light show. Mahad, you psychopath.

Frivolously wasting power after already having gotten rewarded for wasting power through carelessness! XD

Thankfully Vector is NOT an idiot, despite his liking of checkers over chess, and says he's going to do it some other way, likely with the device they're using to test Lena as I first suspected. Bully for me!

Yay, he's just going to irradiate the remaining population of Port Angel instead! Maybe it'll cause some 8 year olds to start spontaneously Seijuning!

...in the background Lena is making funny faces with the checker pieces. That's...actually kind of creepy in a way. Looking at it closer it's HER face and it changes based on her talking and her thoughts as the others talk. Cool!

So it goes from being a simple smiley face to being an elaborate portrait of her face in two colors?

Meanwhile at the Saint Neziare, Cortez and Wyatt are talking. Wyatt says they made excellent timing, and will be back sooner then they could of even imagined. Cortez...continues to be a major badass by saying that "who knows, something might come up" and he says it in such a way that it's clear he knows the Sphere is coming due to that power battery explosion. Wyatt asks what's up and Cortez simply says it pays to be prepared. God I love you Cortez.

I hope like Vector or Dahlia or basically anyone who was actually supposed to make sure Mahad didn't **** it up knew that, too, though. XD

But maybe the festival is a cunning ruse to provide a cover and they can say it was just a fireworks accident or drunk buffoonery.

Back with Vector and Lena, he says he isolated the two strongest light waves, and thus sends them into her, and tells her to use her powers. She does so and it IMMEDIATELY becomes apparent something is wrong. She starts levitating along with the checker pieces, lightning starts flashing around her. It's...pretty nuts all things considered. She causes a MASSIVE Seijun explosion, which radiates as a huge mulitcolour wave/aurora borealis across the sky. It also slams into Diwan's ship, causing her to stop and start calling headquarters because oh my god that was a massive burst of Seijun energy I can feel it in my brain meat. Oslo is interested by this, and tells her to go investigate.

SHE'S GOING SUPER SEIJUUUUUUUUN!

Uh. That's not good. Not only has her attempt to go Super Seijun failed, but it's also exacerbated the whole "let's go check out Port Angel" thing.

Suddenly, while Mahad and Dahlia are putting up decorations for the party, Cheng...gets an alert that a Sphere ship is incoming! Well then! Mahad jokingly complains that the banner needs to be a little higher on the left side, and it's pretty clear Dahlia is super tempted to beat him half to death with that hammer. She instead gives it to him and says that he can do it himself. Then Cheng shows up! The Sphere ships are heading our ways!

She gives into him trying to get her to raise her side by telling him to do it himself instead of cracking his skull open? Interesting. xD

Oh my, now it's time for his trial by fire. How will Mahad fare with these party crashers?

Six to Eight ships are coming, and that's pretty unfortunate. Mahad says it's not enough for an invasion but too many for a scout group...which is clearly wrong since Diwan was literally just going out for scouting. He then continues to be wrong by saying they should load up the Hyperion and go shoot them all! Dahlia points out that not only is the odds on Sphere's side given the amount of ships they have (and they may have more, Cheng is unsure) it will ALSO show Sphere that Port Angel is a pirate block. And then everyone's gonna die.

Obviously this is the difference between scouting and scouting in force because there's something weird and potentially dangerous going on.

Though it also depends on the size of a place how much of a force is necessary to invade and occupy it. And while presumably 8 ships is enough to give them a problem when they're undermanned, it's probably not enough to mount an invasion while they've got full strength. Or at least, 12 gods I hope it isn't because that'd make the Pirates and Rebellion even more pathetic than you've already made them seem. xD

And horrible judgment Mahad is horrible.

Mahad insists that since the Saint Neziare is not here, clearly it is not a pirate block. Alright. We'll assume this is true for now. It seems that Mahad's plan is just to...wing it and pretend they're just a port block. Dahlia admits that...technically this is a sensible plan. Dahlia then sort of kind of drops the ball here and out and out says Mahad has the makings of a good leader but needs to learn responsibility. Typically, telling someone this doesn't help, but we'll see.

Yes, because the Hyperion is *totally* not a famous pirate vessel that they don't know has returned from being disappeared for ages. XD

Indeed, it's not really quite the place to reward him with partial praise. I suppose it is a place to remind him that being a leader entails responsibility to those being led, though, considering he had just presented a plan which would lead to them having the full might of the Sphere military hurled at them...

...oh my god it was a fake Sphere signal by Cortez. You clever bastard. Wyatt is amused but not entirely if only because he thinks Cortez is above this, it's "unworthy of you". Cortez says yeah, it is, but Mahad needs to learn. It's also clear that Cortez is heavily enjoying this.

...Oh my. Cortez is trolling them. And more savvy than I would have thought so far.

While hiding in the Hyperion, Mahad starts getting antsy, saying that the numbers are still all wrong. Since it's a fake signal this now makes SENSE. He checks the Hyperion's scanners and realizes they've been had, and radio's Cortez!

Oh my.

Ironically as this is happening, Mahad making fun of Cortez for sending out such a large signal, Diwan's ship flies by...a single block with a single telephone booth on it, which they've made into a scanner to pick up Sphere ships. Clever. Also, sorry folks, it's not a blue one

Heh. Well, it establishes that there are lots of little blocks with random parts of the old world(that have somehow survived the length of time since Earth fragmented) like that one with nothing but a bench and a lamp post and Gaspar the Guru of Time on it.

...Cortez tells this information to Mahad, but he does NOT believe it. Understandable. He then completely botches the "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me" saying, which is again understandable because Mahad is an idiot. Also it occurs to me that if they DID believe this signal, and went out with the Hyperion, this would of given them a chance to kill Diwan, and strike a major blow against the Sphere.

The Cortez who cried Sphere. Yeah, but then the Sphere would know there was something fishy in the area since Diwan would have explodigated there. Unless they were able to make it *look* like an accident, like she crashed and the Brigs malfunctioned and ate her. Though I don't think they'd be allowed to go quite that far, even with protagonist-centered morality.

Diwan meanwhile gives orders to the Brigs. I really wish they'd realize the Brigs are too stupid to infer orders, and she explicitly said "capture this girl, Lena, in a non fatal manner" so that the Brigs would actually do this. As it is, ordering them "not to harm her" just means they aim their guns at her and do nothing. Back on the Sain Neziare, Cortez says they need to find a way to lure the Sphere ship in the opposite direction.

What, and lampshade the stupid minionosity of their stupid minions? Interesting that Diwan *knows* it was Lena what was trying to go SUPER SEIJUN, I suppose.

And now, we've finally caught up with the beginning of this episode. And now I am no longer confused. Everything happens basically exactly as we saw, with some added dialogue some skipping some of the panning shots. We also cut to Cortez, and it seems that they're going to attack a Sphere water carrier as hard as they can, to attract the attention of Diwan's ship. This might trick Diwan, but I'm not sure if it'll trick Oslo...

If I could recall any stereotypes about Norwegians being cunning or crafty, it seems like this would be a really appropriate place to reference them. But, yeah...

While that's happening, Vector is trying to trick Diwan into leaving, saying that the large energy surge was just this machine of his, and he turns on the "light show" device. Unfortunately since Lena is hiding under there, I predict bad things happening. Speaking of bad things, Cortez just destroyed a Sphere water carrier. I...I bet he really wishes he could of just stole from it, but hey they got all that unguarded water so they should be fine. Still though...pretty big a waste.

Vector, you fool! Now that the Sphere know you have that device, they're going to want to follow up on investigating it!

Ahh, overly successful attacks that won't actually attract quite the attention you want while wasting a resource you could've captured instead.

...oh, clever. Since Lena is underneath the machine and bathing in it's light, she can make the same pulse as before. This will clearly show that this machine just happens to make that pulse. It's a clever trick. Oslo would see through it immediately if he was there, but Diwan's dumb and also it's night so her Seijun powers are off.

horribly dangerous experimental SUPER SEIJUN pulses!

Diwan gets the call to go save the water carrier, she gets HELLA mad at Vector for wasting her time, she leaves, and Lena says to the video diary that this was how she saved the day! Yay! Mahad says she left out the best part, and tells Mom, or more specifically us, to pay very close attention. I...I'm hoping it's actually something I should pay attention to and not just Mahad being Mahad.

Oh dear. If these episodes were longer, this would be right where the bit where the road to hell is paved with good intentions would start to lead to things going tits up. XD But since this is the end of the episode, I guess all's well that ends with anticlimax. XD

...the ending is kind of cute, honestly. Mahad gets Cortez to start dancing, and Lena is like "no one will ever believe that". Mahad says "It's my story, and my story ends with Cortez dancing". They say "Bye mom!" together, and the episode ends.

Uhh... Cortez dancing is the best part? ... ... Are you sure that Dahlia's the one you're dreaming about at night, Mahad?

Also, Cortez better have been doing the highland fling. Just saying.

And that's the episode! My thoughts? I don't know if it's because of a slowly lowering bar of quality, or I'm still happy about how good last episode is (and no one's posted a discussion to help make me forget it ) but this episode was pretty good. It's not as good as last episode, but this one has some nice tricks to it, and had some pretty good/bad jokes.

Certainly sounds less painful than I'd have expected.

Still no Celia. Guess she's not a recurring character after all. Hope you all enjoyed, and see you guys Friday! Be sure to post so we can discuss things, this isn't much of a Let's Watch without you guys

Celia's just breaking your heart. Even with your begging her please to come home. XD

[LaZodiac]

You know, all the asking for what the characters look like made me search for images of them. And what I found shocked me. There are drawn versions of each main character and villain, and they look...REALLY good actually. Dahlia looks like she's ready to bust heads, Cortez looks even more badass, Mahad...doesn't look like a petulent twerp. Oslo and Diwan kind of look like sages, Oslo in a dark high collared monk robe and Diwan in an actual dress. It's really interesting seeing these, and thinking "this is what they were intended to look like."

It's basically made me realize that hey, Skyland was a book. So when I get the chance I'm gonna order the novel, and once the show is done make some comparisons between the two. Sound interesting everybody?

[Coidzor]

Is Mahad really as bad as you make him sound? I'm wondering if there's any point to him being in the show.

I've been wondering that myself. At least in Avatar, Sokka(sp?) was there as a buttmonkey and comedy relief and had some level of wanting to protect Katara.

In writing, the episode sounds OK, just a boring downtime filler-ish thing to extend the series. I'll be surprised if anything important comes out of this, as some character development for Mahad wasn't mentioned. I'm surprised that there wasn't even a moral message of 'don't neglect your responsiblities' shoehorned in somewhere.

Some level of development of Mahad or Mahad and Dahlia would've been nice, come to think of it, yeah.

Spoiler: Durkoalaing it up

Show

This is a change from the usual dreams and other framing devices. Not a big change, and it has been done before, but its quite sweet that they're doing this for their mum so she knows what happened while she was in prison. They'll have to get her out first, of course. (she is still locked up, right?)

The "video lines" idea reminds me of an episode of Teen Titans, where Raven tries to read a book and each time she's interrupted the imagined events stop in video lines.

True... It is a bit different without being completely out of the realm of established precedent for such things, I suppose. It is pretty interesting that they're recording all of this stuff for her, especially as it'd make the twist of the knife of their inevitable orphaning all the crueler. OTOH, there's a certain element of "wait, why are we thrusting a stack of DVDs at her after freeing her instead of telling her?

Such a better show. XD

It makes sense to teach the only Seijun they have as many combat tricks as possible. You never know what holes the villain might have in his defences. It reminds me of Eragon (No, come back!), where they dump all the knowledge and power they can on the resident Mary Sue main character in the hope that something will be able to kill the BBEG. Thrown rocks probably won't be much use against the Super Seijun, but it's better than trying to punch him.

Maybe, though they might have more Seijuns if they didn't keep eating the filler and one-off characters. I still doubt it was for combatting other Seijuns... At most I suspect it was for times when she might want to do something, such as to cause a distraction, but doesn't want to give away that she's a Seijun just yet.

Sounds like a typical sulky teenager to me. If he had some positive qualities, I personally wouldn't have much of a problem with him, except for voicing.

Ah, so you're following along and he hasn't displayed any positive qualities at all? He's just a wastrel through-and-through? xD

I have trouble imagining this. Would be sexulised but isn't due to quality. What?

Yeah, I don't understand where the sexualization comes in even after having seen some pictures. Her outfit looks silly, sure, but I don't see any sexuality in it.

I've seen enough black-and-white draughts boards to not really be bothered by it. Also, Chess is good for symbolism but it's overrated, both as a symbolic source and as a game.

Well, yes, that's the point. Chess is *the* over-rated game of strategy to show refinement and such.

Hmm... I'd assumed that Oslo is a bad person who is sucking in as much power as he can get, consequences be damned. If he is actually corrupted by his extreme power, that raises a lot of possiblities. It's just a theory, though.

He didn't just seek power because evil. THE POWER MADE HIM EVIL. What a Tweest!

Also do Seijun have rapid healing? If so, Oslo could end up as some sort of monster for the end, trying to out-regenerate his cancer.

...Or Deadpool...

So Mahad's not getting flak for this because there's precedent?

I guess it's a piratical tradition?

Figuring out superpowers is always one of the best bits of having superpowers. So Seijuns are powered by a specific frequency of light? If constant sunbathing is hazardous, maybe some other frequency is harmful to them? or maybe it's just having to much power in your system that is dangerous? Either way, I smell a Super Seijun Bargin Bin Sale.

Maybe it's like overcharging certain types of batteries?

Yes, it is a good idea. I'm a bit distracted by realisation that the night makes no sense. If the planet's shattered, there should be light coming up through the clouds as there's no earth to block the sun.

I guess night is more like regular solar eclipses by the other blocks getting in the way? ...I've been trying not to think about it, really. xD

Shame. A seijun "sister" could have been interesting.

And given us a non-antagonist to contrast her abilities and development with.

Anway, here's a post for you. I may have been wrong when I said that this was a filler episode: there's some foray into the Seijun powers, and a potential weapon discovered. I expect to see at least one of these ideas appear later on.

True, though part of it does still feel a bit fillery from what's been said so far.

Ironically Skyland could have a bit more of us exploring Skyland. We're supposed to be pirates fighting against Sphere for independence! Right now it's really just a bunch of people trying to live in their port without any trouble.

And then there's that. XD

You know, all the asking for what the characters look like made me search for images of them. And what I found shocked me. There are drawn versions of each main character and villain, and they look...REALLY good actually. Dahlia looks like she's ready to bust heads, Cortez looks even more badass, Mahad...doesn't look like a petulent twerp. Oslo and Diwan kind of look like sages, Oslo in a dark high collared monk robe and Diwan in an actual dress. It's really interesting seeing these, and thinking "this is what they were intended to look like."

It's basically made me realize that hey, Skyland was a book. So when I get the chance I'm gonna order the novel, and once the show is done make some comparisons between the two. Sound interesting everybody?

Of course, they also gave Cortez old man lines on his mouth, but no wrinkles anywhere else on him, which was a bit visually confusing at first.

And yes. Definitely sounds like a potential plan. Let's Reads have been interesting so far, too. XD

[LaZodiac]

And yes. Definitely sounds like a potential plan. Let's Reads have been interesting so far, too. XD

Noted. Just gotta find out if I can get the books in English. And how to do a Let's Read

[Rawhide]

...no responses? Alright. Maybe if the next episode is bad we'll have some discussion

Sorry, I went to see Teddy.

Oslo reveals that yes, this isn't Dahlia. "It may be her body, but her thoughts are mine, Leeeena." and oh my god the way she says it, it's exactly like Oslo would. Lena catches this and immediately figures out it's Oslo. That's really good. Oslo gloats about how he's soon going to send the location of this block to his troops, which kind of depresses me because come on man, that should be the first thing you do in a situation like this, but alright. Dahlia just...sorta leaves, saying that even if Lena says who she really is, no one will believe her. Oslo drops the ball here, but to be fair to him it seems like an open and shut situation. Here's hoping the solar surge holds out long enough.

He's setting up the opportunity to transmit undetected.

Do you by any chance mean petard...? Because hanging with Picard would be very different.

[LaZodiac]

Sorry, I went to see Teddy.



He's setting up the opportunity to transmit undetected.

Do you by any chance mean petard...? Because hanging with Picard would be very different.

...RIGHT, sorry. My bad (also, lucky).

Understandable. Also yes but it was a joke because Oslo looks like Picard (and they even make note of it in a magazine clipping I saw. It was in French though >_>).

[LaZodiac]

Okay folks, it's time for episode ten! Lets do it!

Episode 10: Red Rock People

Spoiler

Show

Please don't be racist please don't be racist please don't be racists *cross fingers*

We open with Lena using her Seijun powers to...put together a jigsaw puzzle that is in the shape of a penguin? Alright. Gotta flex that Seijun brain somehow. I approve. Her concentration is broken by Cortez shouting at Mahad, who is nearby. Turns out Mahad, with the Hyperion, with Lena on board, attacked an entire squad of Brig's by himself. Cortez is understandably upset because by some random chance they could totally hit him enough to destroy the Hyperion, while Mahad is all "Who cares, did you see how they blew to pieces!" and such.

Good ole dipstick Mahad. Cortez says a Spy Patroller could of followed him back here and doomed them all, and forbids him from leaving without his permission (second time it's happened in the series, if curious).

However, this time, Mahad's had enough and shouts "you're not my father!" which...doesn't really seem appropriate in this situation but Mahad is mad so I suppose it makes sense he'd just lash out like that.

...this is immediately countered by Cortez shouting in what is...a really well acted line "AND NEITHER ARE YOU!" and you can hear his voice kind of break apart at the end of it. He says that Mahad's Dad was a badass, a born leader. Not some kid who wanted to show off. This is a good scene. Mahad whines about how he's sick of being treated like a kid after Cortez leaves. At this moment, however, the Hyperion picks up a mayday distress call!

It's from their Dad

Mahad tries to contact him, but to no avail. However, he does have the coordinates of where the transmission came from. I'm...I've got a feeling this is a REALLY obvious trap just waiting to happen. But then this is like the third or fourth episode where I've said that and been wrong so...there you go. I'd rather be right in this case though, for sure. There is a lot to be said about using dead parents as a character trait, and I do think that it's cheap to bring them back. UNLESS something interesting is done with them. Maybe this time, assuming it's real, something interesting will be done with it.

Lena suggested telling Cortez this news. Mahad says that no, they're doing it themselves. He'll show Cortez he's not a kid, once and for all! By breaking the rule Cortez put over him to follow a possibly fake signal to a random location in a setting where the locations are always moving and thus possibly making it so that you're lost forever in the sky.

Good ole dipstick Mahad. Never change also I'm lying please change.

Meanwhile on the Monolith, Oslo is talking with a Sphere agent and Diwan via holotransmission, and they're listening to the same distress call. Diwan says it's impossible, it can't be Marcus, he's been dead for years. Oslo tells Diwan to get his personal Patroller ready so he can go to the location of the signal. It should tell you something when both the antagonist and protagonist have the exact same mind set towards a given subject.

...OH MAHAD *Facepalms*. As they fly out to where the signal is coming from, he mentions that he's super excited that their Dad is alive. Then expresses confusion because Vector's maps don't show any Blocks here. Mahad! MAHAD! STAHP IT! You are one of the least endearing, most willfully stupid, protagonists I've ever encountered. And don't bully your sister, she's just practicing her super powers that are no doubt going to save your stupid ass from the horrible rock monsters that the episode title technically implies.

...Lena says she's practicing using her powers without looking, which is a super important skill. Mahad says "What good will that do" and further proves that he is a very, very dense person. Meanwhile OSlo is flying his shuttle and their scanners pic up the Hyperion, which he finds quite convienant (sic) for him, so he goes to intercept. Mahad's scanner picks up Oslo's ship, and Lena says they should go home, cause if Cortez was here that's what he'd order them to do.

I don't even need to tell you what Mahad says, do I?

Oslo orders the Brig escort shuttles that are with him not to hurt her...which severely limits their battle capabilities but alright. And the theoretical dog fight commences! I say theoretical because Mahad spends most of the battle doing aerial tricks for fun, because he's still on that kick of "everything should be fun" I guess. One of these aerial tricks involves basically slamming the bottom of the Hyperion into the tip of one of the shuttles, causing it to lose balance and slam into a nearby rock outcropping. Mahad's really lucky he didn't destroy the Hyperion doing that.

There's a brief sight gag of the Brig's literally flying in a circle around a giant rock structure trying to "chase after the Hyperion" which has dipped out of sight. I don't find it that funny, but I'll note that it's, once again, more proof that these are the worst robots ever. Oh my god, whoever is in charge of Sphere, build better robots please.

You know, it occurs to me. Who IS in charge of Sphere? Oslo implied he wanted to turn against Sphere as well when talking with Mom, but he also seems like he's...really the highest ranking member of Sphere in general. Who does Oslo answer to, if anyone? And if he doesn't like Sphere's methods while also being the boss of Sphere, why doesn't he just change them? Is he just too cancerous?

Anyway, the persuing Brig's destroyed, Mahad resumes course and starts bragging, taking his hands off the steering wheel and looking away from the "road", not noticing they're flying into a cloud. Meanwhile with Oslo, he's just flying into a cloud on his way to his destination because he can at least trust the Brig's to distract them. Cut back to Lena who is not impressed by Mahad, but mid way through Mahad continuing to boast, she shouts "Look out!" and it's shown oh god Oslo and Mahad crash into each other. Good job hero/villain. As a result, both crash land, though not near each other.

The Hyperion is...basically WRECKED, not even the radio is working. Not that Mahad calling for help from Cortez would of mattered much, especially after the fight they had. Thankfully, according to Mahad, the massive, massive damage the Hyperion is under is something he can fix. It'll just take awhile. Also, this block just happens to be the one where Marcus (Dad) had sent his message from. Here's just hoping nothing goes wrong.

Things immediately go wrong, as the first thing they actually encounter in this desolate hunk of rock is Oslo's ship, equally wrecked. They enter the ship to see that Oslo is inside, stuck, his leg trapped under some debris. They proceed to taunt him mercilessly, which isn't entirely the MOST heroic thing they could be doing right now, but I'll give them that hey, they have a grudge.

And here is where the episode is starting to slip. Lena uses her powers to sense that Oslo used all of his stored up power to prevent himself from dying in the crash. Ignoring that he spends so much time bathing in sunlight that he can use his powers perfectly in any condition entirely. Now, who knows. Maybe he just has a very LARGE reserve, not infinite, and the amount of power needed to save yourself from an immediate death is far more vast then simply knocking some fool over, but it would of been nice to have some deeper explanation into Oslo's power so this could make more sense.

Oslo asks them to help him get out from the wreckage, and assuming that they'd help him is PROBABLY to much of an assumption, even for him, but I can guess the crash probably rattled his big ole head around a bit, so he's under the impression that heroes should be heroic. Mahad says that Oslo should learn his manners, not demanding to be helped out. However, Oslo counters, saying that their Mom wouldn't of left him to die like this, and that they NEED him since he's the only one that can take them to her.

Mahad gets mad and runs into the ship, telling him to never talk about his Mother like that. The way this is framed, with the setting sun just outside the door of the ship, casting a pretty dark shadow on Lena and Mahad, it's...actually pretty effective. This is, for lack of a better term, our heroes in the dark. They could let their greatest enemy, their main foe, die here, stuck under machinery, drained of power and forever just inches away from a ever lowering sun that he cannot reach.

Mahad fails the test of "The hero in the dark" but Lena succeeds, and says they have to help him. This is why I personally consider Lena the protagonist, despite Mahad getting more focus. Lena says that their Mom would never let anyone die, without at least trying to help. And we've actually got some support for this, because Mom mentioned to Oslo that he's endangering himself by bathing in sunlight so much. She absolutely despised him at that point, and would rather spit on him then accept his partnership, but she'd still point out he's slowly killing himself.

Lena uses her power to free him, and Oslo gets up, limping fairly badly. I'm going to be keeping watch to see that he keeps this limp up, cause I like consistency like that. Mahad barges in and tells Oslo to just keep in mind that, if it where up to him, he'd still be stuck. Oslo gets half way through a "if I still had my powers" threat before Lena cuts them both off. They're STUCK here, this isn't time to ****ing argue. Oslo for his part agrees, saying Mahad would be better off listening to her. Though he pronounces it Ma-had instead of Mah-hawd. Flubbed lines~

Mahad also agrees, and says that he and Lena should get going, the signal is ten kilometers from here. But Oslo stops them, saying that it's a waste of him. Marcus Ferrel is dead. Mahad counters by asking that, if he REALLY thought he was dead, why is he out here? Oslo says nothing, and gets a bit of a surprised expression. Mahad takes his silence as all the answer he needs, which...to be fair, it is. Lena then says it's time to go.

However, Oslo can't go. He'd never make the ten kilometer's on his busted up leg. But Mahad is cruelly, but correctly, saying he HAS to come with, to insure he won't radio in his fleet to trap them. This...this is going to hurt, a lot. Oslo takes this moment to get back at Mahad a little, by saying "Fine, but I'll need help walking" and extending his hand to him. Mahad is frustrated by this lose lose situation.

For their credit, Oslo's still got his limp going on, even while being helped by Mahad. And this place looks rough. This is the exact worst place to be crash landed with your enemy. It's barren and lifeless, and the sun is still there but covered by clouds so they can't get power maybe. It's rough.

Oh, okay, the sun CAN power them up, that's good. Oslo explains that since his injuries are just THAT bad, he won't get his powers back for a pretty long time. So, confirmation, sunlight DOES give them a healing factor, and the healing factor takes precedence over charging up their powers. Therefor it's the stronger effect, and thus Oslo's bathing in sunlight 24/7 would cause an overgrowth of healing, which in other words would REALLY mean he gets cancer, cause that's what cancer is, cells that overgrow or overcompensate and become bad. Oslo has managed to take a healing factor and make it hurt him.

They then find what looks to be stonehenge, but with strange arcane markings on everything. Mahad technically makes a real life reference joke by asking how people got the stones like this, and walks into the middle of the henge, onto the big magic circle. The area starts shaking subtly and Oslo leaps into action as quickly as a crippled bald man can, shouting at Mahad to not go into the circle. But it's too late. Lightning starts crackling, and Oslo tells them to go to the airlock of their ship. Suddenly we see.....what looks like the Predator from the movie of the same name, only more monstrous and completely invisible save for the occasional flicker of invisibility field (I mean you can see it's invisibility. If that makes sense. TRUST ME THIS MAKES SENSE. We can't see it, but we can make out what it looks like). Oslo says it's The Symbiote, and they have to run.

Oh, when Oslo said Airlock, he ment...something in the sand, which he points out to them. I not only wonder what this means, but how Oslo knows about it. This is quite interesting...

The Symbiote just sorta floats there menacingly, while Mahad and Lena struggle to get the air lock open. Eventually they do, and the three of them descend under ground, into Stonehenge...apparently. It then closes above them, thus ensuring the invisible lightning monster won't get them. Though now they're stuck in an underground ruin.

After exploring a bit, Mahad gets mad and demands to know how Oslo knew about this place. Oslo says he's destroyed countless Rebel safe houses, so he actually knows all their secrets. I guess that explains why the only rebels left remaining are the pirates, and why they don't have a force like we'd expect. Mahad and Lena descend deeper into the ruins, which gives Oslo time to try and use his handheld communicator. It doesn't work, though it's unclear if it doesn't work because it's broken or because Diwan just doesn't answer.

Finally, after all this searching, Mahad and Lena finally hear the signal again! They rush in and...find that it's just a recorded broadcast that was being set on loop. He really is gone. Maybe. Mahad thinks more hopefully, that maybe if they recover the entirety of the somewhat garbled message, they can find out where Marcus went after leaving this place. To his credit he does fix the message, and gets...quite a lot. Somewhere in this area is a data cube with the location of his next hideout. The base has been compromised so they made a secret weapon. A Symbiote, a charge of Seijun power mixed with an electronic program. It's...it's basically literally just a monster made out of technobabble, but it's still cool. It's apparently coded with dna for Marcus's friend (I think it's Meela, so their Mom, but I can't be sure), Mahad, and Lena, so only they can control it. This spells trouble for Oslo.

Although, Oslo knows what it is. The way this message is structured it feels like this is the FIRST Symbiote they made. Which means that it's likely Marcus really is dead. Also unfortunately, the part of the message saying how to control the Symbiote is too garbled. So that's bad.

...ooh, that's nice. Oslo was watching basically the entire thing, but kept quiet. He even heard Lena and Mahad say they can't let Oslo hear this. He THEN announces his presence, announcing he has water as well, and asking them what they're up to. Good play, Oslo.

Because Mahad is a jerk he doesn't take the water, and Lena doesn't either because she doesn't want to cause everyone to fight. I kind of wish they hid that Oslo was still secretly going to betray them during this better, so that we can feel like Oslo is actually putting aside their issues with each other. But who knows, maybe he actually is. We don't know exactly why he tried to call Diwan.

Later that night, Oslo takes some time to **** with Mahad, asking if he's SURE he doesn't want any water. Mahad says no, based on the idea that he might of put something in it. Oslo laughs and asks, rather sarcastically, if he REALLY thinks Oslo would of poisoned his own water. He then follows that by asking if he's, "HRRRM, perhaps a bit....paranoooid?" in that delicious evil somewhat Norwegian way Oslo has. Mahad says that yes, they'll never trust him. Not here, and not anywhere.

Oslo then starts laying it on thick. He says they're right, never trust anyone. Their mother taught him that years ago. He talks about how they were the best of friends in Guardian school. She was so different back them, "she understood me." He slams his water bottle on the table they're sitting at, saying she betrayed him to join up with Marcus Ferral. Lena asks how Mom and Marcus met, because she wants to know. Oslo obliges.

It was during their last year at the academy. By then Marcus was a wanted pirate, hunted for stealing Sphere territory water in broad daylight. He was around Mahad's age at the time too. Oslo and Mom where assigned to capture him, their first mission as Guardians. It was Meela that got to him first, and we've seen how that went. Oslo lets his angry bubble up and throws his empty water bottle aside, saying he wishes it could of been him.

Mahad gets FURIOUS and gets up, the lights of the room once again shadowing him. Once again, our hero in the dark. He takes out his boomerang, and says that Oslo doesn't know anything about their family. That he should end him, right here and now. Oslo tells them he does not want to do that, especially if they want to see their mother again. It's at this point we start hearing rumbling and roars. The Symbiote is doin' stuff! Oslo adds that they might need his help to get out of here alive.

Later (after the comercial break point) Oslo has finally managed to contact Diwan. She says a Rebel scrambler was preventing messages from getting through. And given how scrambled Marcus' message was, it's entirely possible that it's Mahad's fault Oslo can contact her now. Nice job hero.

Oh right I forgot to mention it but the data cube Marcus mentioned in his message also has the coordinates of every Free Block in Skyland. That's...kind of important. Oslo brings this up to Diwan, which is how I'm reminded of it. He then explains his plan off screen. Once again, although I like this scene, I would of prefered if we could of thought that Oslo really was putting aside their differences so they can survive. I like the idea of a villain who, when experiancing they're "In the shadows" test, acts like a hero. Especially when the hero counters it by acting like a villain.

Meanwhile, while Mahad and Lena sleep, Oslo is flexing his muscles a bit. Seems I was in some way right, Oslo wasn't really drained, per say, he just had his powers locked for a moment while his body healed. That's just my assumption on how this works anyway. He's rotating the water bottles around his head menacingly, like a psionic juggler.

He taunts Mahad as he wakes up, saying "good morning" and levitating the water bottle over to his face, inches from hitting it, before pulling it back. Mahad, for his credit, doesn't allow Oslo's passive aggressive taunts get to him. I'm going to be honest, this is actually kind of creepy, especially give what we know about Oslo and what he...intends, for Lena. And then Mahad just sorta leaves Oslo with her sleeping body and like I know he doesn't KNOW what Oslo wants but WE do so it's SUPER ****in' creepy. Could Mahad not endanger his sister please?

...meanwhile while Mahad explores to check up on some things...oh. OH. Okay. Apparently it seems Oslo opened the airlock to get a quick boost. And also to let the Symbiote in, which blasts lightning at Mahad. He's able to run off, but it's chasing him. And just as he gets to the safe room they were in, Oslo closes the door, making Mahad essentially trapped between a door he can't open, and an invisible psychic construct that spits lightning. Today is a bad day to be Mahad (technically that can be said everyday). Also, Oslo's got Lena capture. Oh dear.

Jeez, Oslo works fast. He takes Lena into a room and reveals that he knows where the datacube is! It's right in this room he just took Lena into. Oslo tells Lena that if she wants to save her brother, she better cooperate. Seeing as how the Data Cube is surrounded by laser bars, I'm guessing only specific people will be able to get at it. Thus one of the many reasons why he needs Lena.

Meanwhile with the Symbionte, Mahad barely dodges it's attack which shatters the glass of the door he was pushed up against. This...this definitely is NOT a Brig, and therefor not something Mahad has even a remote chance of defeating. Back with the cube, LEna says she's got no idea how to get at the cube. Oslo simply says "you're a smart girl. If you want to see your brother again, figure it out." which comes off REALLY creepy knowing what Oslo wants from her.

Lena then realizes that...it opens the exact same way as the Airlock does, which Oslo should know. He doesn't know how THIS system works, so I can kind of see why he might be confused about it for a little, but this guy IS supposed to be smart and skilled at this, shouldn't be too hard to realize. But then, it's also probably DNA locked, so Oslo wouldn't be able to do it anyway.

Anyway, Lena obtains the data cube for Oslo, who grabs her by her wrist and drags her along as he goes to escape. Lena telepath's over to Mahad to tell him to look for some kind of control pad like the Airlock and the security grid had, cause that must be how they control the Symboite. Seeing as how this horrific invisible monster of lightning and claws is...invisible and lightning, it might be a bit tough for Mahad to do this. Mahad cowers in a corner and begs for it to stop as it charges in for the kill, and we cut away before seeing the gruesome end, also ensuring that Mahad actually lives.

Meanwhile, outside, Oslo and his group of brigs meet up. Lena asks to be let go, which Oslo refuses because she's as important to him as this cube. Again, reeeeal creepy. However, before he can escape properly, Mahad appears! We know where this is going. Oslo orders the Brigs to destroy him (fun fact, Oslo ACTUALLY calls them Brigs for this entire episode. I totally called that nickname!) but then the Symbiote appears (as much as an invisible creature can) and...stands there menacingly as they pump bullets into it. Oslo continues to run off with Lena, but she body blows him with a energy blast and as they all fall to the ground she grabs the data cube with her powers. Oslo does the same and they start a tug of war.

Mahad then...I don't...he runs into a stone wall to knock a rock off of it so Lena can grab with her powers so she can...do something with it, don't know. Mahad orders the Symbionte to attack the Brigs and it SLAUGHTERS them, tearing them into pieces. Lena then uses a tiny blast to knock the cube out of Oslo's reach and off the side of the block, forever lost. She's still sort of holding onto the rock with her powers for some reason.

Mahad sics the Symbionte on Oslo and it...walks towards him very slowly and menacingly, and allows Oslo to just escape onto his shuttle and escape. I...alright! Our heroes fix the Hyperion and then leave the Symbionte on the block, mentioning that Cortez probably wouldn't get along with it. As if to support this, Cortez radios in and shouts in a concerned voice "MAhad! Where are you?!"

Mahad uses this as support, saying "see, Cortez doesn't get along with anyone."

Roll credits.

And that's the episode! My thoughts? I...okay. This episode started a little weak, and ENDS...terribly. But the middle portion of it was beautifully done. I don't know if it's just a coincidence because of how their program worked or what, but the framing of the shadows, the music, the acting, it was all VERY strong. And...and then it just ends with the plot randomly resolving itself in an episodic manner so that no real consiquences happen. What was a really good episode ends on a flat foot note. It makes me sad.

The Symbionte joins Celia in the "characters I wish we learned more about and showed up beyond their one episode" category. See you guys on Monday.