Alien: Earth 1.06 und Foundation 3.10
Sep. 12th, 2025 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAlien: Earth:
The internet tells me Sigourney Weaver is watching Alien: Earth and is as enthralled as yours truly. Now if that isn't a compliment to Noah Hawley et al, I don't know what is.
Wendy/Marcy and various other kid Synths in this episode get confronted with the ugly side of humanity more and more, never mind the xenomorph. Figures that the corporate reaction to Nibs' nervous breakdown two episodes ago would be "mindwipe her, and slow down her comprehension skills so there are no more inconvenient reactions", i.e. essentially lobotomize her, and hey, it's an artificial body with an artificial brain, so they can and they do, with no one but Arthur protesting, standing by his protest and getting fired for his troubles. (And that's not the worst that happens to him in the episode.) It's Nibs' treatment as a faulty machine that gets fixed that clues Wendy in to the truth of her own status and that of the other Synths. Boy Kavalier might talk about "favourites", but what he means is favourite lab pet. She and the Xenomorphs are the same to him (and most of the other humans on the island): potentially profitable experiments to be exploited, used and (if deemed faulty, like Nibs), just wiped clean. Not sentient beings.
While Boy Kavalier reaches new heights or lows in obnoxiousness, Kirsh (who has after all been listening into most of Morrow's recruitment conversations with Arush/Slightly) not only does nothing while watching from afar how Synth kid and humans alike bite the dust on the island but engineers at least one opportunity for this to happen, which makes me conclude that he is very aware that as a model, he's about to be made obsolete by the Synth kids (if they make it past their experimental stage), as Morrow taunts, and presumably he loathes Boy Kavalier to the depth of his mechanical heart, so he's happy to let the aliens escape and wipe out humans and new model synths alike. Morrow, of course, is on track with his island infiltration via poor Slightly. (BTW, I'm assuming this is why Yutani did absolutely nothing during the "arbitration" - knowing as she does Morrow is about to get the aliens back for her, it's in her interest to a) let Boy Kavalier believe he's won and b) have demonstrated to the rest of the Five that she was the reasonable one willing to do everything for peace.
Luckily, Joe continues to have excellent brotherly instincts and makes actual progress organizing an escape for Wendy and himself in this episode. Granted, Wendy declined at the start, but that was before the whole "Nibs/we're lab rats to them" realisation on her part. Mind you, Joe and the now late Arthur are currently the only two decent human beings on the show, the rest being showcases for capitalist dystopia.
RIP Isaac and Arthur. The titular (space)flies were sufficiently nasty, but T. Ocellus, currently still in his sheep, is still the creepiest. The episode's winner for "most spineless reminder of certain contemporary types" goes to Sylvia, while everyone playing a kid Synth in a adult body continues to amaze me with how well they sell it.
Foundation
Is the first season finale necessitating that the next season has to start without a century like time jump. Also, yowsers.
Okay, Dusk-now-Darkness (and btw, how good is the fact that the designation of the about to "ascend" Brothers Dusk as "Brother Darkness" was introduced way back in s1 just an episode after Hari Seldon was very vocal about calling the period after the end of the Empire "darkness"?) wins for evillest Cleon of all time, and that's saying something, with such competition as C 17 (last season's Brother Day) and of course the very first one. I did guess he might go after the uncanted clones on a general "after me the deluge" basis, and that he might attrack Demerzel in order to survive, but NOT that he'd do what he does in this episode. That was both incredibly cruel and in terms of his own goals efficient. It also means he just killed off my favourite character on the show and the Day with the most character development within a season. Or has he? I do have some hope for Demerzel, given a) the show in last season's opener made a point of establishing her consciousness is not centralized in her skull (and thus she had no problem surviving a half decapitation), b) earlier in this season, we saw her enter the Prime Radiant with her consciousness, c) we know you can download an entire being into the Prime Radiant (happened to Prime Hari courtesy of Gaal in late s1), and) the Prime Radiant remained untouched. So my current speculation and hope is that Demerzel downloaded her "mind" in lack of a better term into the Prime Radiant and there it will stay until the robots we see in the very last scene show up to provide her with a new body. In terms of Laura Birn's actorly future, they'd be fools to let her go after how great she's been in all three seasons, and again, there's the Hari predecent, so I would guess both Demerzel's disembodied self in the Prime Radiant and her later self will still be played by her.
(It better be. I really really don't want Demerzel gone forever. Can't imagine the show without her.)
Speaking of actors facing an exit: I think this is it for Cassian I., though not for his character, because I bet there will be a tiny time jump between seasons, not a century (can't be), but two or three years so so, just enough to sell current Dawn aging into Lee Pace Dayness, thus allowing the show to keep Lee Pace around. Terence Mann might show up in the first episode of the next season in order to get killed off on screen, because he graduated to top villain and audiences want to be satisfied this way, but I don't t hink he'll be around for another full season; however, they definitely gave him more to do in the second half of this season than he got with all the previous Dusks in previous seasons. Wow. It makes all character sense for the worst a Cleon could be in this particular situation, in stark contrast to Day going from nihilistic hedonism to the best a Cleon could be simultanously. The last but one scene shared by him and Demerzel was heartbreaking, and they came so damn close, as he even found a way to navigate around her imperative to protect the Dynasty, that allowed her to tell him how to reset the robotic skull he brought (successfully, as it turns out in the last scene). If nothing else, this version of Demerzel at least died knowing one of the Cleons loved her enough to work to let her go.
(Brother Darkness, you really need to die very unpleasantly.)
Meanwhile on New Terminus: kudos to everyone guessing it was Bayla, not Magnifico, wo was the true Mule. And what a way to blindside book readers. (I do wonder whether that means show!Toran will get book!Bayla's story?) Mind you, I thought there was definitely a missing scene between Gaal revealing they hadn't been insanely stupid to bringt Magnifico along but cunning and Gaal making her escape - possibly with a more detailed explanation of how the Bayla-Pretend!Mule arrangement had worked - but either way, this is what necessitates the next season using essentially the same cast and having no more than a very few years (like I said, just enough to make the sole surviving Cleon other than mad Darkness age into Lee Pace shape) between seasons, since while Gaal escaped and the Second Foundation is still hidden (and now hidden where it is in the book as well, I remember that much at least), Bayla!Mule is still on top of the universe (well, other than Darkness with his superweapon, but come on, who'd bet on Darkness in that confrontation), and so Gaal has still a Mule to defeat.
I am curious whether Bayla will build up another front man or woman - like, say, the poor little brainwashed Infanta - or reveal herself as the true Mule to the galaxy at large now.
Lastly: as predicted, Gaal's reveal that original Hari is dead and she can't provide him with a new body has left a very angry, hurt and disappointed Vault!Hari behind. Deal with Bayla, y/n? It's a genuine question, I have no idea which way he'll turn.
And now excuse me. I'm trying to think of Demerzel prompts I will ask for Yuletide.
The internet tells me Sigourney Weaver is watching Alien: Earth and is as enthralled as yours truly. Now if that isn't a compliment to Noah Hawley et al, I don't know what is.
Wendy/Marcy and various other kid Synths in this episode get confronted with the ugly side of humanity more and more, never mind the xenomorph. Figures that the corporate reaction to Nibs' nervous breakdown two episodes ago would be "mindwipe her, and slow down her comprehension skills so there are no more inconvenient reactions", i.e. essentially lobotomize her, and hey, it's an artificial body with an artificial brain, so they can and they do, with no one but Arthur protesting, standing by his protest and getting fired for his troubles. (And that's not the worst that happens to him in the episode.) It's Nibs' treatment as a faulty machine that gets fixed that clues Wendy in to the truth of her own status and that of the other Synths. Boy Kavalier might talk about "favourites", but what he means is favourite lab pet. She and the Xenomorphs are the same to him (and most of the other humans on the island): potentially profitable experiments to be exploited, used and (if deemed faulty, like Nibs), just wiped clean. Not sentient beings.
While Boy Kavalier reaches new heights or lows in obnoxiousness, Kirsh (who has after all been listening into most of Morrow's recruitment conversations with Arush/Slightly) not only does nothing while watching from afar how Synth kid and humans alike bite the dust on the island but engineers at least one opportunity for this to happen, which makes me conclude that he is very aware that as a model, he's about to be made obsolete by the Synth kids (if they make it past their experimental stage), as Morrow taunts, and presumably he loathes Boy Kavalier to the depth of his mechanical heart, so he's happy to let the aliens escape and wipe out humans and new model synths alike. Morrow, of course, is on track with his island infiltration via poor Slightly. (BTW, I'm assuming this is why Yutani did absolutely nothing during the "arbitration" - knowing as she does Morrow is about to get the aliens back for her, it's in her interest to a) let Boy Kavalier believe he's won and b) have demonstrated to the rest of the Five that she was the reasonable one willing to do everything for peace.
Luckily, Joe continues to have excellent brotherly instincts and makes actual progress organizing an escape for Wendy and himself in this episode. Granted, Wendy declined at the start, but that was before the whole "Nibs/we're lab rats to them" realisation on her part. Mind you, Joe and the now late Arthur are currently the only two decent human beings on the show, the rest being showcases for capitalist dystopia.
RIP Isaac and Arthur. The titular (space)flies were sufficiently nasty, but T. Ocellus, currently still in his sheep, is still the creepiest. The episode's winner for "most spineless reminder of certain contemporary types" goes to Sylvia, while everyone playing a kid Synth in a adult body continues to amaze me with how well they sell it.
Foundation
Is the first season finale necessitating that the next season has to start without a century like time jump. Also, yowsers.
Okay, Dusk-now-Darkness (and btw, how good is the fact that the designation of the about to "ascend" Brothers Dusk as "Brother Darkness" was introduced way back in s1 just an episode after Hari Seldon was very vocal about calling the period after the end of the Empire "darkness"?) wins for evillest Cleon of all time, and that's saying something, with such competition as C 17 (last season's Brother Day) and of course the very first one. I did guess he might go after the uncanted clones on a general "after me the deluge" basis, and that he might attrack Demerzel in order to survive, but NOT that he'd do what he does in this episode. That was both incredibly cruel and in terms of his own goals efficient. It also means he just killed off my favourite character on the show and the Day with the most character development within a season. Or has he? I do have some hope for Demerzel, given a) the show in last season's opener made a point of establishing her consciousness is not centralized in her skull (and thus she had no problem surviving a half decapitation), b) earlier in this season, we saw her enter the Prime Radiant with her consciousness, c) we know you can download an entire being into the Prime Radiant (happened to Prime Hari courtesy of Gaal in late s1), and) the Prime Radiant remained untouched. So my current speculation and hope is that Demerzel downloaded her "mind" in lack of a better term into the Prime Radiant and there it will stay until the robots we see in the very last scene show up to provide her with a new body. In terms of Laura Birn's actorly future, they'd be fools to let her go after how great she's been in all three seasons, and again, there's the Hari predecent, so I would guess both Demerzel's disembodied self in the Prime Radiant and her later self will still be played by her.
(It better be. I really really don't want Demerzel gone forever. Can't imagine the show without her.)
Speaking of actors facing an exit: I think this is it for Cassian I., though not for his character, because I bet there will be a tiny time jump between seasons, not a century (can't be), but two or three years so so, just enough to sell current Dawn aging into Lee Pace Dayness, thus allowing the show to keep Lee Pace around. Terence Mann might show up in the first episode of the next season in order to get killed off on screen, because he graduated to top villain and audiences want to be satisfied this way, but I don't t hink he'll be around for another full season; however, they definitely gave him more to do in the second half of this season than he got with all the previous Dusks in previous seasons. Wow. It makes all character sense for the worst a Cleon could be in this particular situation, in stark contrast to Day going from nihilistic hedonism to the best a Cleon could be simultanously. The last but one scene shared by him and Demerzel was heartbreaking, and they came so damn close, as he even found a way to navigate around her imperative to protect the Dynasty, that allowed her to tell him how to reset the robotic skull he brought (successfully, as it turns out in the last scene). If nothing else, this version of Demerzel at least died knowing one of the Cleons loved her enough to work to let her go.
(Brother Darkness, you really need to die very unpleasantly.)
Meanwhile on New Terminus: kudos to everyone guessing it was Bayla, not Magnifico, wo was the true Mule. And what a way to blindside book readers. (I do wonder whether that means show!Toran will get book!Bayla's story?) Mind you, I thought there was definitely a missing scene between Gaal revealing they hadn't been insanely stupid to bringt Magnifico along but cunning and Gaal making her escape - possibly with a more detailed explanation of how the Bayla-Pretend!Mule arrangement had worked - but either way, this is what necessitates the next season using essentially the same cast and having no more than a very few years (like I said, just enough to make the sole surviving Cleon other than mad Darkness age into Lee Pace shape) between seasons, since while Gaal escaped and the Second Foundation is still hidden (and now hidden where it is in the book as well, I remember that much at least), Bayla!Mule is still on top of the universe (well, other than Darkness with his superweapon, but come on, who'd bet on Darkness in that confrontation), and so Gaal has still a Mule to defeat.
I am curious whether Bayla will build up another front man or woman - like, say, the poor little brainwashed Infanta - or reveal herself as the true Mule to the galaxy at large now.
Lastly: as predicted, Gaal's reveal that original Hari is dead and she can't provide him with a new body has left a very angry, hurt and disappointed Vault!Hari behind. Deal with Bayla, y/n? It's a genuine question, I have no idea which way he'll turn.
And now excuse me. I'm trying to think of Demerzel prompts I will ask for Yuletide.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-12 03:46 pm (UTC)(Of course, so much of that scene was a great callback to the previous episode's various lab-related catastrofucks, so I'm sure at least part of it was a screenwriting choice. But also, are we supposed to assume Sylvia either sabotaged her own mindwipe by letting Wendy hang out with Nibs immediately afterward, or that she's just that careless?)
I still have trouble not thinking of T. Oecellius as "eyeballtopus." This is entirely my partner's fault. But we also support her wrongs and look forward to seeing what she gets up to in the next few episodes.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-12 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-12 05:31 pm (UTC)Lord knows I lack the skill and patience, but I've been headvidding Demerzel to Lael Neale's Sleep Through The Long Night for three solid weeks. She's such an interesting character!
I haven't gotten to it yet, but so glad to see folks are enjoying the Alien show. It'll be a real treat when I get home and can watch it while it's pitch black out lol.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-12 11:02 pm (UTC)OMG BAYTA. That actress certainly sold the shift from shallow Influencer to cunning/charming Traveler to terrible Mastermind, and in such a short season too! I realized there had been all these little hints -- the Mule obeying her (and NOBODY else) when he was torturing Dawn, her palm print working on the security door, how Maggie could love the Mule AND Bayta. I bet the writers high-fived themselves over that one. She's not dead, either! I wasn't sure what happened to the Mule. And him saying "hide" to the little girl seemed suggestive....but does he have any real power? WHO KNOWS. Very exciting! I realized some of the things she was saying ("there's a good Empire") were uncannily like the Mule's insults, except boy did they come off differently from a sweet-faced charming woman. Yeek. (I don't think she nonconned Tolan, at least I really really hope not, but Gaal did think Pritchard was okay and he was a sleeper agent, altho he claimed he could still think for himself, and his final goal wasn't for Bayta.)
My heart BROKE for Day, which was pretty amazing given that I LOATHED him for like half the show. Lee Pace also completely sold that character turn. One reason I love this show is it gives the actors such wonderful opportunities. I was SURE they were going to rescue Demerzel somehow but....omg no. T thinks she's in that new skull Day brought back? Or maybe she is in the Prime Radiant? They can't just ditch that actress, she's such an integral part of the show. She might be MIA for a while, tho, like Hari this season. It looked like the baby actually dissolved RIGHT before she did so I was still thinking somehow she could make it out....
Emperor Darkness OMFG. It's a real shame this cast isn't picking up awards, and Terrence Mann was just stunning as a space opera Lear with no brakes. That was another amazing character arc. And him killing Day's ferret AND then feasting on the lamb was such perfect foreshadowing for that final confrontation. Which was staged in a GORGEOUS way. The show is so beautiful and the cinematography is just flawless. This finale was so tragic but it was also so well-done it was exciting to watch, even if some of my faves got it in the neck. I love seeing the older actors, too, like Jared Harris, Cherry Jones, Alexander Siddig, Troy Kotsur (I really want to see more of HIM next season, especially with Gaal).
And -- GAAL. Lou Llobell is another MVP and I loved seeing her in charge and her Action Hero escape! and that final exchange with Hari was just brutal. "You heard what you wanted to hear" applied to so many people this season. It did feel like her storyline didn't have quite the depth of some of the others but it was great to see her fully come into her power, and WIN that epic fight her whole life had been building toward. -- I can't think they would just do Gaal v Bayta (Mule) again for season four, but who knows, maybe Bayta will team up with Hari, or Gaal and Bayta will have to team up against Darkness, or Salvor will come back!! or something I can't even think of.
It was so good to hear the news about next season's renewal too, especially after all the constant doomsaying and nasty criticism (a whole lot of it racist. Ugh, reddit). The company announcing it RIGHT before the finale was both calculated (I'm sure it kept some fans tuning in to try to support the show) and a great sign of support, especially for the handoff from the original showrunner to the new writers. Who did an AMAZING job, especially with the last three-four episodes.
I'm just wild about Hari(s)
Date: 2025-09-13 12:41 am (UTC)Since Kalle took Hari to....the moon??....is there a possibility that robotic body next to her was housing Hari? The voice was distorted, so maybe....And is there a Hari still on Helicon? If not we've gone from like three Haris (Vault Hari, embodied Hari, Helicon Hari) to one. Or wait, is that not right? Arrgh.
OG Harry (killed by his son)
Vault Harry 1, who guided the First Foundation and didn't know about the Mule (still active)
Vault Harry 2, who was in the knife and then embodied by Kalle (died on Ignis after guiding the Second Foundation with Gaal)
So we're left with one, right? (The same way we went from Empire manifested in three men to one final Emperor)
no subject
Date: 2025-09-13 12:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-13 09:45 am (UTC)Good question. My current guess is that Sylvia wasn’t consciously self-sabotaging, but subconsciously she could have been - i.e. she did prioritize not losing her current job above all else, including ethics, but maybe remnants of said ethics made her block out the obvious - that Wendy, or any of the kids, would bring up the last few days towards Nibs if they weren’t told not to, and that thus the mindwipe and “reset” would be for naught.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-13 09:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-13 09:56 am (UTC)…and if any of the three/four will be kept among the regular cast for the next season, it’s going to be Lee Pace, not because the others weren’t excellent but because he IS the biggest name.
I can’t vid, either, but I am definitely hoping for a Demerzel vid from someone!
no subject
Date: 2025-09-13 10:24 am (UTC)Pretend!Mule is definitely dead, Gaal killed him both in her mental world and in the real world. (Otherwise she wouldn’t have been alerted to something being wrong by the continued mental presence of the Mule in her mind.) As for whether he did have any real power, I think so, though he can’t have had much on his own; presumably the combination with Bayta’s power created a boosting effect, as with Magnifico. But I did notice all the way back that when Maggie AND Bayta were in Toran’s spaceship en route to New Terminus and Pretend!Mule the Pirate was still on and around Kalgan, i.e. lightyears away from both of them (though back then I only thought light years away from Magnifico) , Pirate!Mule did not mindwhammy anyone, he used good old force and brutality to intimidate people. He only started to use mental powers again when he and Bayta were on the same planet once more.
Assuming Bayta did indeed have the origin story she gave to the Pretend!Mule, there’s also still the possibility that one of them was the baby and the other the child nearly drowned and thus being traumatized into unleashing mental powers. I thought the other child was Maggie, but it would work with Bayta as well. Note that she’s been cryptic about her own exact origins, just saying that she came from the space equivalent of a flyover state and that her people had been poor, both of which would fit with the Mule flashback.
I don’t think she non-conned Toran, either, at least not so far, otherwise she wouldn’t have said “I’ll explain everything” to him; if show!Bayta is getting book!Magnifico’s story, or parts of it, then my guess based on very vague memories form decades ago is Toran gets Book!Bayta’s, i.e. Book!Bayta didn’t get converted because she actually had developed real affection for the true Mule and that had never happened to him before, not without mental coercion, so so he didn’t convert her, and my guess is in the tv series Bayta didn’t convert Toran for the same reason, because he truly fell in love with her, and while she gets “love” from thousands now - both as an Influencer and as the true Mule - as a mentalic she must know the difference.
Demerzel: true, transferring in the other skull before her body got destroyed would be another possibility, but wouldn’t then Kalle and the other robot have identified her as the one clasping? They did explictly say it wasn’t Demerzel who was contacting them. So my guess is that she is currently in the Prime Radiant, and that her earlier scene with Kalle in it was to establish she can indeed transfer her consciousness into it. She must have known or guessed that it would not be destroyed along with her original body. And given Demerzel survived five thousand years in a state that physically was her being reduced to many thin, thin plates not in contact with each other, I don’t have to suspend my disbelief if the show tells me next season she survived her body being melted.
Foreshadowing: there was also the early scene this season where blood stains land on Dusk’s head, just as they will in the finale when he blows up all the other clones.
Gaal: agreed, including that we won’t just get a replay of this season’s showdown, however her storyline developes from here. Given she made sure that she herself doesn’t know where the First Speaker led the other mentalics from the Second Foundation to, I don’t think she’ll reunite with them immediately, so might need other allies. Was she ever told Dawn was still alive? Presumably she’ll figure out Demerzel must be gone once Darkness announces himself as the one true Emperor and continues his after-me-the-deluge rampage, since she knows Demerzel wouldn’t let him do that.
I noticed Jane Espenson co-wrote several of the last few episodes, and Roxann Dawson directed repeatedly as well. Two women of my fannish past whom I like a lot, yay!
Re: I'm just wild about Hari(s)
Date: 2025-09-13 10:40 am (UTC)Original Hari (killed by his son at his request, but did download his consciousness/memory/mind/however you want to put it) into the dagger deliberately while that was going on); his body (but not his consciousness) was then buried in space and ended up transformed into the Vault courtesy of prearranged technological means the show was very mealy mouthed about
Vault Hari : based on Hari’s dead body and SELECTED memories. Guided the First Foundation on Terminus. Had no idea about the existence of a Second Foundation until a visiting Salvor told him, then figured out that must mean there was another version of Hari who did know about it, which meant that he himself was “the left hand”, i.e. the copy. Was displeased, as we’ve seen.
Hari-in-the-dagger: was transfered by Gaal first (inadvertendly) into the ship that was supposed to rendezvous with Rhaesh after he killed and downloaded him and rendezvoused with her in cryo sleep instead, and then, after their first big argument when she realised he’d planned all of this and her and Rhaesh were never supposed to end up together on Terminus, was transfered by her deliberately into the Prime Radiant which she took with her when she left the ship again in her cryo rescue pod. Gaal spent the next decades asleep until Salvor found her. This Hari, otoh, spent them fully conscious in the Prime Radiant this short of going insane and was v.v.v upset when Salvor after thawing up Gaal persuaded her to download Hari from the Prime Radiant into Salvor’s ship’s system because they needed someone to fix it. Having spent a century plus in digital form, this Hari then got a whole new flesh and blood body when he did what Kalle in the Radiant had told him to do and had Gaal and Salvor transport him to a planet (not Helicon, Helicon only ever shows up in flashbacks to Hari’s early life) where he gets transferred into said new body without knowing how that worked. This is the Hari who then ends up with Gaal and Salvor on Ignis, who guides the Second Foundation on Ignis by not returning to Cryo when Gaal is asleep and whom we see as a very old man leaving with Kalle through a portal in this season’s second episode. Is implied to have died, but then again - we only saw him leave, not die.
Current number of Haris around in the galaxy that we KNOW to be around: definitely just the one in the Vault who confessed that he can’t stand being locked in a tomb anymore but had to realise that Gaal can’t provide him with either his other self or a new physical body. She honestly doesn’t know how Hari Prime got one, i.e. the mechanics, though she does know on which planet it happened and that someone who looked like Kalle the very dead mathematician of centuries ago was involved, as she caught a short glimpse of her back then. I.e. whle she didn’t lie to Vault!Hari in the finale, she could have provided a few more details, and while things were hectic, it might have been a conscious choice on her part. At the very least, it gives her something to bargain with if she should ever need his help again.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-14 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-15 07:01 am (UTC)Re: I'm just wild about Hari(s)
Date: 2025-09-15 09:07 am (UTC)All of this, of course, happens for good reason. However, I can't help but feel that S1 Gaal, with her righteous outrage at what has been done to her by Hari and Raych would be horrified and appalled to see her S3 self, three hundred years later manipulate Dawn in the way that she has while tacitly accepting the huge number of deaths that her actions directly or indirectly cause.
Re: I'm just wild about Hari(s)
Date: 2025-09-15 09:34 am (UTC)Mind you, I also think young Hari the geek would have been appalled at his older mortal self's actions, never mind later things like Vault!Hari killing the s2 Warden to make a point. And of course all the Cleons make show this over and over again, see also s2 Dawn telling Sareth when they talk about her family's murder and whether or not s2 Day could have been responsible that AT THIS POINT he cannot imagine doing anything like this. On the bright side, the Cleons also show making other choices is possible even in dark and desperate times, see this season's Day developing into completely the opposite direction from last season's Day.
Given how far Gaal has gone in the ruthless pragmatist direction, I suspect her s4 arc, when she has to start near completly without allies very much due to her own actions, might lead her to rediscover the need to sometimes choose idealism over ruthlessness - after all, s4 will start with Darkness in both senses of the world triumphant, and the alternative has to be something humanistic.