johntfs

I haven't actually finished 10.13, but I was mildly disappointed that neither contestant chose John Rambo's survival knife. It's a knife with a saw-back spine that was designed by actual human people to be used by other actual human people. No elves, no video game stuff.

So the Collin Sage vs Steve Koster competition was kind of awful. No one looked good at the end. Collin Sage is "Unbeaten" with a blade in three pieces during the KEAL test. Steve Koster looks like a spoilsport for being pissed about failing to meet the parameters of the weapon that he picked for the challenge. And the judges remind us with their "Rules are rules" stuff how often those rules have been arbitrary guidelines in the past. I recall multiple episodes where multiple participants have failed to meet parameters but have been allowed to continue because [insert dumb justification in this space].

Just saw an ad on History that a new season is coming October 2.

Kelly, who made a falchion with an actual horse head pommel! Who noted in one of the championship episode (where she placed third out of five) that she'd gotten mad at her malfunctioning washing machine so she turned it into a knife. Honestly you could tell that Willow's hog-splitter looked huge compared to the other guy's. Doug could probably tell that at a glance but he still wanted to test Willow's so he could split a hog. And he did. Twice. I did like the hug at the end when J. denied that he was big but completely owned that he was scary.

Haven't actually seen the episode yet. but I think I can take a shot at these. Why TVAmensia? Because plot. Maybe they're on variant timelines because they were variants. Think about Sylvie's life for a bit. From the (Asgard equivalent) age of maybe 8-12 she's been running from the TVA and hiding in places where everyone there dies over and over and over again. She slew the person ultimately responsible for all that and apparently that somehow made things worse. Maybe she doesn't want to work at Mickey D's forever, but just wants to chill out there for maybe a good decade where her worst problem will be "Oh shit! That guy did want fries with that after all!"

The weird weapons are part of the main draw for me. The first part is generally 5800 version of "Okay, camp knife, bowie or seax?" But then we get examples and histories on weapons we've never heard of plus get to see them tested/wielded. Turning to this most recent episode, Willow was adorable and I was so glad she won. As for the other guy, I mean, sucks that he didn't even get tested... but when parameters are a thing, measuring tape is your bestest friend. Use it.

Just started this and young Mariner is so adorable. She's like if Boimler and Tendi had a baby that wasn't green.

I suck at remembering names, but this episode kind of went by the numbers. For the first guy out, dude, if you have 15 minutes left, unless your blade is ready to sell in a market, keep working. I admit that was a mild surprise. I thought Ben had the most to do, but I guess deciding to relax those last 15 minutes annoyed the judges like crazy. The second guy out was much less of a surprise. He was half-assing his pins. He knew that. And still did it. So yeah, his handle fell apart in testing. And for the final part, Travis seemed to get that his handle wasn't working but still didn't bother to redo it and that was pretty much that. Ben made a superior weapon that was comfortable to wield. Plus, damn. Double pig slicing. Cut the carcass in half and then cut it in half again.

The TVA that B-15 and Mobius wanted to overthrow and/or burn down, has been overthrown and "burned down." It's mission and purpose has changed from one of destruction (prune the non-Sacred timelines) to one of preservation. Mobius and B-15 are loyal to a TVA that deserves their loyalty - or is at least getting to that point. Meanwhile Renslayer is still the same woman who regularly sentence people to be banished to the End of Time to get eaten by a Smoke Monster. Miss Minutes being a psycho is not even a little bit of a surprise.

Sylvie is a fully separate character from Loki. Hell, who says Thor(ina) is even her brother. Maybe she's a sister instead.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Ma'ah is accidentally a better therapist than Miglimoo ever dreamed of being.

Someone somewhere is writing an epic femslash fanfic novel based on that concept.

To get paid in Quarter-Pounders?

Tendi and Rutherford worked well because they clearly could be a couple but right now they're both too comfortable as friends to take that extra steps. Also, Rutherford looked good in his "Lover's suit" and Tendi was Day-um! in that evening dress. It's not listed on IMDB yet but I think Quimp was the guy Mariner got to pretend to rob Boimler back on episode 2 of the first season.