This is way better than the last three cults I joined!

[moon_custafer]

Andrew rewatched episode 5 of Doom Patrol last night, and I’ve got to say it’s my favourite episode so far – the previous one had ended on a cliffhanger, with a cult summoning a god called the Decreator to destroy the world. Turns out the Decreator was actually constructed out of the cult’s faith, so the only solution is to go back in time forty years and start a rival cult who will be able, when the time is right, to summon the “Re-Creator.”

Obviously.

The more I think about it, the more I like that the good-guy cultists are all patients (and some staff) from a 1970s mental hospital, led by a chain-smoking, oxygen-tank-toting, rock’n’roll grandma. I think the main reason they succeed because they’re not simply a mirror-image of the original Cult of the Unwritten Book—one of their commandments is that when the Apocalypse comes they are to “Dance. Dance like there’s a giant eye in the sky watching you.”

Also, Ezekiel the cockroach is once again disappointed by the human race’s failure to be destroyed.

Comments

[sovay]

Also, Ezekiel the cockroach is once again disappointed by the human race’s failure to be destroyed.

I am charmed by this line.

[moon_custafer]

This was his second appearance in the series. Basically it looks as though every time the nearby town is threatened with disaster, this one tiny cockroach rears up on his back pair of legs and cries YES! AT LAST THE HUMAN PLAGUE WILL BE SWEPT AWAY! TREMBLE, YOU FOOLS!

In this episode he then got into an argument with a rat about whether cheese would continue to be available without humans to make it (the rat’s side of the conversation was rendered in normal rat squeaks—only Ezekiel talks, apparently.)

[sovay]

Basically it looks as though every time the nearby town is threatened with disaster, this one tiny cockroach rears up on his back pair of legs and cries YES! AT LAST THE HUMAN PLAGUE WILL BE SWEPT AWAY! TREMBLE, YOU FOOLS!

That's incredibly charming.

[moon_custafer]

So far, it is a weirdly charming show, based as closely on the Grant Morrison comics as tv can manage. Alan Tudyk, as main villain Mr. Nobody, routinely breaks the fourth wall—doing so is one of his superpowers. He began this episode by complaining that he hadn’t appeared in the previous two.

Though Andrew expresses the hope that Larry (Negative Man) can finally start having some fun and not just be the depressed guy who believes he ruins the lives of everyone who loves him.

[sovay]

So far, it is a weirdly charming show, based as closely on the Grant Morrison comics as tv can manage.

Hm. Where are you watching it?

Though Andrew expresses the hope that Larry (Negative Man) can finally start having some fun and not just be the depressed guy who believes he ruins the lives of everyone who loves him.

Agreed, though in a Grant Morrison universe I'm not sure how likely that is.

[moon_custafer]

Where are you watching it?

Erm, illegally, and several days after each episode actually airs.

[sovay]

Erm, illegally, and several days after each episode actually airs.

Ah. I will ask spatch to canvas his usual suspects.

(If the answer had been "Netflix," I knew what I was doing for the next hour.)

[edit] Hey, it is currently employing Mark Sheppard! Good for it. (I like him.)

[moon_custafer]

(He found a porn site whose users have apparently decided to take advantage of its already-dodgy status to post stuff that isn’t porn but which is bootleg. This is also how we got to watch Agent Carter. Also, for some reason everything is subtitled in Spanish.)

Mark Sheppard plays "Willoughby Kipling," who exists because DC wouldn't let Morrison use John Constantine in a non-Vertigo book.

[sovay]

a porn site whose users have apparently decided to take advantage of its already-dodgy status to post stuff that isn’t porn but which is bootleg. This is also how we got to watch Agent Carter.

I mean, I think that's much more sensible than porn.

Mark Sheppard plays "Willoughby Kipling," who exists because DC wouldn't let Morrison use John Constantine in a non-Vertigo book.

That is also incredibly charming, albeit in a totally different direction from the doomsaying cockroach! (Predicated on the fact that I feel John Constantine would be amused by the fictional existence of obvious cut-rate file-offs of himself.)

[moon_custafer]

(Predicated on the fact that I feel John Constantine would be amused by the fictional existence of obvious cut-rate file-offs of himself.)

Pretty sure I overheard them confronting one another in one of Andrew's recent dreams (He talks in his sleep. Like, a lot).

[sovay]

Pretty sure I overheard them confronting one another in one of Andrew's recent dreams

That would definitely happen to John Constantine. (I don't know enough about Willoughby Kipling to say, although from context so far it probably would.)

[moon_custafer]

Last night Dr. Caulder was there, along with a large number of real and fictional (mostly fictional) wheelchair users. It eventually turned into Stephen Hawking throwing shade at Dr. Strangelove.

[sovay]

It eventually turned into Stephen Hawking throwing shade at Dr. Strangelove.

I suspect I and many other people would pay to see that.

[moon_custafer]

If we could connect a video feed to his dreams, it would either be the hottest reality show (surreality show?) around, or we’d be getting sued over copyright every week.

I should add that for the last few months, his dreams have mainly been about a bar and restaurant located in the Cretaceous, accessible by wormhole, and staffed/patronized by his favourite fictional and sometimes historical characters (Neil Gaiman came in one night and was rather weirded out). Also, the waiters are all velociraptors.

[sovay]

I should add that for the last few months, his dreams have mainly been about a bar and restaurant located in the Cretaceous, accessible by wormhole, and staffed/patronized by his favourite fictional and sometimes historical characters

I'll just take it as read that Andrew never roleplayed in the fan community Milliways, because that would make too much sense.

[baggyeyes]

I’m sorry, but I had to come out from lurking to say that is totally a book I would read.

[pedanther]

I feel John Constantine would be amused by the fictional existence of obvious cut-rate file-offs of himself.

And there are several of them around, because Morrison wasn't the only writer who wanted to use Constantine in a non-Vertigo title and decided to just work around the ban. Phil Foglio's version was named Ambrose Bierce, complete with hints about how he may or may not be the Ambrose Bierce who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1913.

[sovay]

Phil Foglio's version was named Ambrose Bierce, complete with hints about how he may or may not be the Ambrose Bierce who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1913.

That's also great.

Continuity

[palain-7.livejournal.com]

And it looks like the rat is the one who crawls inside Robotman to mess him up in revenge for the squashing of his mate!

The apotheosis of TV

[palain-7.livejournal.com]

Love the comment of Mr. Nobody, the architect of the scheme in response to Crazy Jane's criticism of his obviously derivative name for their cult: "Ok, I'm not L. Ron Hubbard! Who has the time?" The more you know about L. Ron the more hilarious this is.

Yes, the re-creator cult conquered because they're not a mirror image of the monomaniacal de-creator cult; they're a shattered mirror image which is crazy in a dozen different ways as opposed to the de-creator's single craziness. Their brain(damaged)-storming session is hilarious. 'Why can't the messiah be a dog?" "Yeah, a dog with invisible writing that only comes out when someone rings this special bell?"

Speaking as someone who was on Toronto's old cult-hotline (410-CULT) for 8 years, the comment about "the last three cults" is spot on. We called those people the "frequent flyers". Interestingly enough they never seemed to be particularly damaged by their time in their old cults; they just quit because it turned out that the guru/High Priestess/whatever was a dirtbag and other people were being hurt. They'd then wander, with the same total lack of background checking that let them join the last one, into the next. The odd one would come to rest in something harmless but for most it was this life long pinball journey from one bumper to the next.

Re: The apotheosis of TV

[moon_custafer]

I was wondering how you’d view that episode, given your time with the cult hotline. It occurred to me the Rewritten Book, despite labeling themselves a cult (or because they did) might not even meet your definition of such, as they’re weird but non-hierarchal* and not actually out to abuse their adherents.

*Sort of— Dr. Harrison has mind-control powers, but she’s very willing to accept input from her followers.

Re: The apotheosis of TV

[palain-7.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's a clear distinction between the two groups. Well spotted! The Cult of the Unwritten Book is totalist (although I suppose that they would speciously argue against that with a malaprop use of the word 'totalist' by saying that they are against Totality in favour of Nullity), they have a rigid heirarchy (the Archons) and, most importantly, they lie to you when you come in the door. They certainly lied to Elliot the Book (love the lines "We don't kill kids!", "Or burn books...well, he's both.") and, in the comics, the straight-razor wielding nuns are tricked into the transformation into said creatures.

The Cult of the Rewritten book might bear a charge of Totalism but fail on the other two counts. That they're not rigidly hierarchical is shown by their staff meeting. The objection that "I too question the use of the male pronoun in this exercise." when the consensus is moving towards a dog messiah would get you excommunicated in a second in an abusive cult. And of course, they're totally up front about being all about a giant eye-in-the-sky that will engage the decreator in a staring contest.

Continuity

[palain-7.livejournal.com]

Just noticed that Ezekiel got his own tombstone marker when some of the Patrol are dumped into the Donkey Guts World and are standing in front of markers representing people in the town that's in there too.