A l'entrada del temps clar @greencheekconure27 - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
A l'entrada del temps clar
@greencheekconure27
my main blog; music, art, illustration,pictures of plants and general randomness.Will bore you with my landscape photos.fundraiser asks from strangers in my inbox shall be ignored sorry.
Like, black patches starting to build up on skin type dirty. Dude hasn't showered in several weeks.
I know Simon just got back from prison, but that aside, the standard level of grime on people must fucking suck. The COI folk were certainly cleaner than him. It must be pretty bad in a scarcity crisis like this.
But, aside from being freshly banged-up, I actually don't see any major scars (that line looks like an impact with the wall/hot pipe. We know the Iron Lung's walls were hot enough to boil condensation drops).
Since we know about how effective the Butcher was... yeah that checks out. I seriously doubt he's been overpowered often, considering literally everyone else is in some kind of calorie deficit (supposedly), and Simon is massive. Any time I try to explain that, it doesn't point to anything good:
Simon either stole enough food to stave off withering away in jail (which means he was playing dirty in there... I don't put that past him)
The COI was genuinely feeding him (I don't buy it)
He was eating good on Eden (equally as frightening to think about), and didn't spend much time in COI custody before getting put in the Iron Lung
Paraphrasing Markiplier, he wanted Simon to have a "rugged survivor build", hence getting into the best shape of his life for the role.
That also implies Simon was lowkey in the best shape of his life for this expedition (or possibly Filament's Battle). Dude was absolutely hogging the gym in prison. I laugh at the thought of Simon walking in there and everyone else getting up to leave immediately because they don't want to deal with his erratic bullshit LOL
I've always imagined that because humanity just couldn't afford ressources on improductivity and losing abled bodied that "prison" was actually hard labor. But like... hard and hazarduous labor.
Mining on rogue asteroids
Carrying cargo around
Cleaning fuel tanks and other systems
Repair work in dangerous area
Etc.
That always made much more sense to me than keeping a guy in a cell for months or years (depending on your timeline of choice) without using the ressources they were "investing" in him by way of space, air, water and food.
So, a la Jean Valjean (Simon Valsimon?... he did worse than steal some bread tho š ) He got buff working those jobs eagerly because he wanted to make amends. And there might have been a additional food as a reward system based on results to explain that he was able to maintain his muscle mass even through starvation times.
Also bet he was kept mostly in solitary when not on duty 'cause of the controversial nature of his crimes, which would explain that he was left generally unscathed.
Something interesting that I've noticed: I'm a radiographer (take x-rays for a living) and Iron Lung has really made me realise how events like Chernobyl have influenced the common / public understanding of radiation, and by association x-rays.
x-rays are generated from a filament (the first time I heard filament station I was like ??? why name a station after that???) where electrons leave the filament, accelerate across the tube, strike a target and release x-ray photons which leave the x-ray tube as an x-ray beam in the direction the camera is pointing. Whilst there is some 'scatter' radiation that goes off in random directions, including backwards, most of it is focussed in the direction of the beam.
X-ray radiation follows what's called the 'inverse square law', whereby as the distance from the tube doubles, the intensity of the x-ray beam drops by a factor of 4. This means that for medical x-rays, if we go to a ward to take a mobile x-ray, we normally consider a distance of over 2 meters away from the tube to be sufficient for a bystander to receive essentially no radiation. Of course the x-rays Simon was using have much higher exposure factors and greater intensity that medical x-rays (where we have to adhere to ALARP - keep the dose As Low As Reasonably Practicable) but the inverse square law still applies.
X-rays are also attenuated (weakened basically) by interactions with the electrons in whatever medium they travel through, with lead typically being used for radiation shielding bc its high atomic number means there are lots of electrons in lead to increase the chance of interaction between the x-ray photons and the lead electrons.
All this to say, Simon was probably not being as irradiated by the camera as people think; the camera was on the outside of the hull, so there was a little distance between him and the source of the radiation, and the hull and walls of the sub are obviously made of metal, so even if the COI didn't bother installing proper lead or lead equivalent shielding (which they probably didn't...) the metal would offer some degree of protection. The camera was also pointing away from Simon, so he wouldn't have been in the path of the beam and would have been receiving mostly scatter radiation rather than the full blast that Jack received.
The sort of radiation produced by x-ray generators also doesn't linger / build up in objects or surroundings, otherwise hospitals would constantly have to throw everything in x-ray rooms away! Places like Chernobyl are radioactive because nuclear power plants use radioactive isotopes - those things emit their own radiation and hang about forever. Devices like x-ray machines and CT scanners don't actually contain anything innately radioactive in them; they just generate x-rays when a current is run across the tungsten filament. If Simon isn't actively pressing the button to take an image, there is 0 radiation occurring.
However! Whilst a metal sub wouldn't necessarily become irradiated with the amount of x-rays that Simon took, the blood ocean is a far more interesting case! Cells are at their most vulnerable to radiation during mitosis when they're dividing, which means that stem cells (which frequently divide) are very vulnerable to radiation! If we take the blood ocean to be a big biomass which can adapt from its inert state to do things like smoosh researchers together into an eel or meld with a submarine and adapt it to a living thing (maybe like totipotent stem cells having the potential to become anything?), then it was probably Not Enjoying getting blasted by radiation very much. Or maybe it was the total opposite; x-ray beams contain a lot of energy, perhaps the blood ocean is unaffected by the damaging nature of ionising radiation bc of its unknowable nature and it was feeding from the energy of the x-ray photons??
anyway, sorry for rambling, tl;dr neither Simon nor the SM-13 were probably as irradiated as you might think, but radiation could potentially have an effect on the blood ocean?
I really love reading your ideas and analyses, just wanted to contribute something of my own :)
I already came to this conclusion a little while ago but there are some others who might need to see it come from the horse's mouth.
Thanks, Anonymous Radiographer!
I also noticed that all the SM-13 terminal photos are .dcm files. Those are DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine), which are bundled with a bunch of metadata, like parameters, equipment settings, in a higher dynamic range than usual. Absolutely crazy attention to detail!
Iron Lung Details: The Map Lines and Simon's Navigation
I think this is one of my favorite bits of characterization in the movie, and such a good way to track Simon's progress throughout.
image-heavy below
His first interactions with the map are very careful and wary. He squints at the markings, trying to make out the nuances and details on it. When he first jots down his initial placement, he's got a soft touch with the charcoal stick. Probably worried about breaking it. His lines are steady and precise.
Our first glimpse of his journey track shows he's taken things very slowly. He's gotten maybe three strides on the map by the time his first O2 light goes off. He's not in a rush, he's taking his time and being thorough, but the O2 light sinks in that he doesn't have the luxury of time.
Next time we see the map, Simon has considerably sped up with the whole expedition. But also from the short lines, we can see he's still hesitant with navigating in the ocean.
Lots of feeling out for walls and obstacles, and even a bit of going back and forth. If I had to guess, he probably got the turn and angles wrong and messed up his directions. Still, lots of progress way faster!
We go quite a bit before the map becomes relevant again, massive time skip to post-stranding in the caves and out of range from the map. As he succintly puts it, he's fucked. How does he keep track of his path without the map? Make more map!
The first addition to the map is carefully trimmed and measured, he even double checks the grid. He goes a bit past the landing coordinates but it's still a small addition. He either doesn't think he'll need to use that much paper to get back into the mapped range, or he won't waste paper just yet.
He's more comfortable with the process as well. Mark progress, take picture, double check the angles, visualize it, jot it down, repeat. We then get a time skip while he fumes over the tape Xs, and there's already an update to the map.
He's added considerably more to the extension, but it's in squares. He's done the extensions in increments as they became needed instead of all at once. He even tapes over a piece of pipe?? Yeah whatever works dude, at least you didn't end up headed that direction.
Also in comparison to the original map and the new expedition line, you can see he's moving in longer lines. No longer tippytoeing through the geography, though in his defense, the tunnels are slightly wider than the ones he was dropped into originally.
There's also a neat little bit during the driving scene, where the proximity radar beeps and he gets the turn wrong before adjusting. Really sells the startle!
Also during the driving scene, we see him improvise ways to do more than one thing at once. His caution and calm from before is out the window, he can't just ditch parts of the driving system he has down, but he can add to it to make it more malleable. Like trying to stick the camera button down so he doesn't need to go back and forth, or putting the folio on the throttle to keep pushing forward while away from the console.
His lines are way messier as well. In part from having to draw vertically instead of horizontally, but also he doesn't have time to care about the map looking pretty and clear. This is just for him to see and work with, after all. He also doesn't check everything with the camera anymore, if the proximity says there's something he just assumes a wall and puts it on the map.
Also notable is his methods. He still sticks close to walls to map out an area, but at the center of that larger pocket, you can see that once he noticed he might be boxed in, he moved closer to the center of the open area and then turned to the unmapped portion. He's triangulating.
This barely-second-long scene is so important to me. Sloppy as he is with the map now, his lines are still straight. Wonky, but straight. But as time passes and his mind starts to go from exhaustion, pain and isolation, we get this curved line. His navigation is going as tilted as his mind.
Then we reach the SM-8 and my god, the aftermath. You can see how heavier his hand has gotten (and how blunt the charcoal tip has worn down to) by the change in line thickness. You can also see his triangulation got severely wonky at the end there. Loops and turns and spins, and back to the short spurts of movements once he neared the beginning of the circle.
I've also mentioned before, but this is the time where the camera pictures stop being snapshots to him, and he begins to visualize them as full, tridimensional perception. The camera have become his eyes.
Once he agrees to meet up with Ellie, he's completely ditched the map grid. He's eyeballing the coordinates, and by now he can do it fairly confidently.
He also draws a very straight line with a confidence that he shouldn't have about the terrain. He's triangulating between where he is, the Light POI marker, and what he's guessing is open range for him to navigate thanks to the charted map. I must assume he intends to eyeball and feel his way around that line at the very least.
Not only that, during the trip to the Light, he drives without checking the map once. He memorized the middle point coordinates, drives to it, and then adjusts to the intended destination, all while talking shit at Ellie. That is fucking impressive!
Or, is it?
We're back from Eyeball land and bargainign with Ava for freedom now. The section of the map with the neat straight line is, not? We see now instead shorter, measured though slightly curved lines. It's a similar path overall, but very much different strokes, angles and lines.
This could be a continuation error, or this could be Simon misremembering his trip to the Light. Your pick!
Then we get the trip back to the SM-8 and what a ride it is. Simon isn't really all there for it, but he still keeps track of his movements. Messy, longer lines, heavy pressure on the stick.
On the way back, we see he jotted down the sub location, aaaand the Light path lines are wonky again. Simon, please can we get a definitive look on those please?
Now we have the Ellie face-off so all maps and coordinates are out the window. What is worth noting is that however long the trip back out of the tunnels took, he didn't bother with the maps at all. Ava agreed to meet him at the exit of the tunnels based on his guesstimate coordinates, so it wasn't that far to go, but this is not new territory for him, he definitely navigated on proximity radar only.
This is good to know for me, because I am heavily leaning towards the "Simon becoming a shuttle operator" fic idea lately.
Something something Simon would also navigate this way in space. He seems incredibly methodical. Possibly spurred on by being nervous, which is an interesting character trait to have. So, I'll put that in my notes:
Simon treats a stressful situation like something to be surgically precise over, and Simon knows the basics of navigation immediately. There's no "learning how to drive/nav" sequence, he just does it.
More little evidence cues about my theory that Simon used to be a pilot...
Saw some gifs from iron lung (again) and now thinking about how gentle Simon truly is. Under all the fear and desperation and anger.
He touches the map with the tip of his fingers, careful and light. He caresses the chair after hitting it roughly, as if to apologize. He begs a voice to just please talk to him a bit more. He asks for forgiveness from the people who imposed him and sent in that ocean. After everything, he carefully wraps the black box and pleads to his mother to keep it safe.
Even in this horrible situation, even after everything, the first opportunity he gets to shed the mask, he shows kindness to the very thing that is to become his tomb.
I wonder, who he wouldāve been, if he got the chance to grow up in safe enough place not to hide that part of him.
The top picture is one I took in April while visiting Kyiv, the bottom is from yesterday morning after a Russian drone strike. This is the Dormition Cathedral at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was originally built in 1051 and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's a testament to Ukrainian culture and religion, which is exactly why Russia targeted it.
I donāt know why that affected me so strongly, but Iām watching a youtube video on disasters on Lake Huron, and the first one involves a coal freighter that was lost in the White Hurricane of 1913 called the SS Argus. Everyone on the ship was lost. But itās mentioned that the captainās body washed up later, and was found without a life jacket. So they thought, based partly on testimony of another ship that thought they saw them go down, that it just happened too fast for him to have time to get his jacket. But then another body was found, that of the second cook, and she was found wearing the life jacket marked ācaptainā. And thatās ā¦
It didnāt work. It didnāt save her. But itās so very possible that he spent his last moments alive trying to save someone else, one of his crew, and they probably both knew that it wouldnāt work, that there wasnāt a lot of hope in a blizzard on the lakes in November, but he tried ā¦ he tried anyway. Even if it did nothing but maybe make her body easier for her family to find.
You know that Mr Rogers thing of ālook for the helpersā? How many times has someone, facing the end, done something tiny and fragile and maybe hopeless just to try and help someone else? Whether it works or not. How many people went to their graves at least trying?
That has to say something about us. As a people. As monstrous as we sometimes (perhaps often) are, so many times we were also ā¦
Whoever saves one life, saves the whole world.
And sometimes you canāt save one life, sometimes it doesnāt work, sometimes thereās no getting out of this for anyone, but ā¦ try anyway. Because it matters anyway.
And maybe no one will ever know. But maybe also some day more than a century down the line, maybe some idiot will be crying into her coffee because of what you died trying.
