Spaceposting 10.10.
Oct. 10th, 2025 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yvannairieI do actually think that before episode 4, Beebs was used to getting promises he could trust him to keep out of Shrike, which is why Shrike relapsing ends up triggering such a big breakdown in communication between them, resulting in what I consider the most heinous shit we’ve heard him say to Beebs until now.
Episodes 2 and 3 go out of their way to establish that both Beebs and Shrike make bids for connection through sharing their interests. Treating ep3 as a representative showcase, we get an example of a kind of trade of bids going on between them – Beebs teaching Shrike to play the guitar, and approaching him to spend time with him for its own sake, Shrike* *changing his patterns to better accommodate Beebs’ interests, staying out of his way and also practicing the guitar by himself. The relationship is two-sided, even with Beebs being perhaps more proactive in maintaining it because he’s just a lot more gregarious than Shrike is.
We also know that the Terran stuff matters a lot to Shrike. The pizza, the cartoons, his interest in El Bandito specifically is a major part of a different bid for connection he makes in episode 2 (which Beebs takes in the form of dropping the argument), and it’s also a part of how Beebs approaches Shrike in episode 3 when he’s making his own bid for Shrike’s company (which Shrike takes and immediately *returns *by asking for more guitar lessons. They’re so funny to me, just endlessly doing little kindnesses at each other and being so fucking snarky every other time.)
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Spaceposting 5.10.
Oct. 5th, 2025 04:49 pmyvannairieIt's kind of galling just how much Monkey Wrench seems to be written For Me, Specifically, especially b/c within the episodes that are out they've both established extremely clear visual symbolism (in the form of triangles, diamonds and circles) and extremely clear colour symbolism (in the form of the primaries red, yellow and blue, plus the villainous green) and now I'm looking through all of the episodes with a magnifying glass, spotting those patterns everywhere and questioning if that's a design decision made for cohesion and visual interest or if it's worldbuilding hiding in plain sight.
I already kind of convinced myself that purple is the designated Endling Colour:tm:, but the case is so shaky I know I'm basically just seeing the Shrike-Punti parallel and extrapolating where doing that isn't necessary. But like why would they establish Secondary Colours Bad if they were gonna use PURPLE there?
Spaceposting 3.10.
Oct. 3rd, 2025 12:25 pmyvannairieI woke up thinking about the Terran pendant and how Shrike taking it off Jaw Bone and then trying to find a way to give it to Beebs is a peace offering. "If it makes you feel better--", he says, because he knows it's valuable, but he chose to give it to Beebs because at least they can sell it if Beebs doesn't appreciate that Shrike is trying to make a bid for connection (through his interests, the same way we know Beebs has done for him. They do it in episode 3 at each other)
(I'm on the floor crying.)