I’m Exactly Like Other Geeks

side blogs: @musicaltheatrenerdiness (general musical theatre), @howcanyousitidlyby (BAPO), @waytooemotionalaboutsonglyrics (songs, mostly not musical theatre)

[lifes-pinata]

Grace: *Retroactively freaking out about Doing A Misogyny™*

Rocky: Me and the bestie!!! :)

[tubes-and-dice]

Brennan giving another banger speech about grief, as always.

"The things that are gone now that he's gone were good because he was good, and if it didn't suck that he was gone, it would be us saying in some regard that it wasn't good that he was here. So it's okay that it sucks. 'Cause something good is gone."

[birdplushie]

carol's parents loved her because she was their child, the simple obligation of blood relation. but they didn't like her as she was, they viewed her (as so many parents do their children) as something they owned and thus were entitled to try to fix and change until she was something easier for them to stomach.

similarly, the hive's love for carol is of a biological imperative. they love her simply because they can't help it. it is an instinct, it's what they were made to do. it's unconditional in its worst form. unchanging, unevolving. and they want to fix her too, don't care what she really wants because they've decided they know best.

helen made a choice, to love carol. she kept making that choice for 20+ years, even when it wasn't easy. she didn't intend to fix carol, but she wanted to help her, to push her to be better, because that's what a good relationship is. and she knew how to do that, how to stop her from going too far, from hurting herself. she didn't claim there was something wrong with carol, and certainly not that she was the solution, but she wasn't enabling her either.

manousos, too, is making a choice. to cross a continent and risk his life to meet her. to not leave when it isn't easy, to stick around for her so she can eventually choose him too.

love is a choice. and choice can be difficult. but love without choice is unsustainable.

[caspercryptid]

I think there's a third path to walk between "carol is a privileged white woman who doesn't understand war/poverty/other peoples material conditions" and "carol had full understanding of what she was doing and all her decisions are correct" which is simply that carol is Bad With People.

Carol is both Correct and also acting from a place of privilege— the way this plays out is that she has no fucking idea how to talk to the other survivors. She doesn't fundamentally understand the appeal of the hive mind so she can't convincingly refute its claims. Her failure to empathize has removed her ability to be convincing. More than that, she is Bad At Being Manipulative. She can't say the words "it killed my wife". She can't do it. All of those people might have understood her better if she could, but she can't! She can't do it! And so she is doomed to present herself as a blind arrogant rich white woman, and that is all the others see her as, because she can't express the missing pieces. She can't explain herself.

Likewise, when she excludes the non English speakers, she doesn't understand how that LOOKS. she doesn't understand optics. She doesn't understand that she's standing in front of the American flag telling people from other countries that her way is the right way. It's no wonder they don't want to talk to her! Think about how she LOOKS! but I think we are supposed to understand that this isn't how she IS. it's just how they see her, because she has failed to make herself understood, because the hive is better at optics. She makes a shaky conspiracy home video, it makes an infographic presentation explaining the same thing but sounding extremely pleasant. She looks hysterical because the hive is so good at pretending everything is normal.

And she is hysterical. But she's also Correct.

[normalaboutmediaa]

"We're excited to have something new to read" oh so you admit it sucks that no new art is getting made ever? You crave new stories and new experiences even though you have the sum total of all of humanity's knowledge and memories? You're mindlessly marching towards humanity's extinction but the prospect of a new romance book still excites you? What was that thing y'all said about Carol not knowing she's drowning?

[icy-moons]

to carol, the hivemind is conversion camp. to manousos, the hivemind are colonizers

[bugbugly]

“you wouldn’t do this if you loved me” reads to me as grief over the eggs just as much as betrayal at being double crossed by zosia. carol was hurt when she realized that helen was monitoring her drinking while they went through the process of freezing her eggs, but she did that because she loved her. because she wanted them to make a healthy baby one day. and here zosia is, zosia who supposedly loves her, who claims to have helen in her but only when it’s beneficial to the hive, disregarding what helen wanted. and helen would never do anything to hurt those eggs, whatever of helen is left in the hive is so small and weak that it’d be better off dead

[please-carol-deactivated2026050]

I think it's notable that Helen monitoring Carol's drinking was still, in a way, affirming Carol's right to drink. her right to autonomy. yes, Helen wanted to know if/how much Carol was drinking because that does impact the fertility process they were going through, and she wasn't honest about it, which has to be deeply painful for Carol for a whole lot of reasons. but as far as we can tell, she never told Carol to stop, she didn't force an ultimatum on her, she wasn't judgmental or passive-aggressive about Carol's drinking later. she just wanted information relevant to their choices as a couple and relevant to her partner who she loved. It's still a betrayal, but it's one that fundamentally recognizes that Carol is her own person and cannot and should not be restricted by Helen's choices or feelings. because that's not a partnership anymore! that's not love! that's ownership.

meanwhile, the Hive explicitly confirmed that they heard and respected Carol's choice not to Join, and then decided they'd just find a way around that anyway in secret. total disrespect for her autonomy and her feelings, and that disrespect is delivered with a smile and an indulgent persona of love and acceptance and fawning over her individuality, while they're working to betray and, functionally, murder her as an individual all the while.

[boasamishipper]

the entire kusimayu scene was devastating but to me the worst part was that by Joining she not only lost her individuality but her culture died with her. immediately the hivemind stopped chanting and singing and speaking the quechuan language and rolled up their blankets and packed up their things and walked away. the animals were set free and the goat that kusimayu had been cradling so lovingly just minutes earlier chased after the hivemind wearing kusimayu's body and bleated for attention and love and got none because there is no one left to care specifically enough to give it.

[annabelle--cane]

I would be a lot more convinced by the hivemind's offer if they were actually acting like they were the combined souls of everyone on earth, but they're simply not. the first person to get infected would have just been in a hivemind of one, but her behavior changed immediately. if they were every person on earth and nothing much more, then they'd have teams seeing to every major religious ritual, they'd be speaking endangered languages, they'd be looking after pets, they'd be preserving works and sites of cultural importance, they'd be putting on plays, they'd be singing, they'd be doing things that mattered to people, they'd be doing literally anything for fun for themselves. zosia and the massage shows they still experience and appreciate pleasure, but it doesn't look like any of them do anything like that without the presence of an immune person. by the numbers the hivemind should be about a quarter muslim and a quarter christian, but I doubt any of them will be making pilgrimages to mecca or baptizing newborns. seven billion minds all brought together and somehow none of them want to pet a baby goat? not one? a widdle baby goat? no one in the plurb soup wants to pet a goat? fuck you, I know humans, we go crazy for baby animals.

[petr1kov]

see carol is right to be freaked out but i also think that deliberately framing her with a huge 'president of the united states of america' flag while she tries to impose her worldview to several people who come from different countries of the global south has to be an intentional choice

[shifuaang]

I'm not kidding that I UGLY sobbed during the Manousos travel sequence. I have never seen a more beautiful representation of the desire for human connection. The shot of the rock with the drawings done of early humans and animals representing one of the first modes of externalizing thoughts and sharing ideas before written language was developed... Manousos going to painstaking lengths to learn English so that he can communicate with Carol in her tongue when they finally meet... The breathtaking scenery around him that he cannot even fully appreciate because he has no one to share it with...

The hivemind has already seen the whole world and can't experience awe. They don't have to work to learn a language, which is an act of tremendous love and respect when shared between humans. In gaining all of the knowledge of every brain on the planet, they lost all sense of empathy and determination and spirit, which Manousos embodies at every turn.

[danthedancerbymitski]

that scene is so moving and this is why

[bugbugly]

extremely eerie and unsettling how the hive framed the joining as a ritualistic process, even if it was at kusimayu’s request, and then abruptly stopped singing the moment she joined. that was the very last instance of her culture existing on earth and they couldn’t even finish the song

[tio-trile]

The pets are the best part of the game hands down

[piastriainz]

winning the championship like this is so incredibly embarrassing. literally asking for help over the radio last race because he could not do it on his own. bottling the first lap today and getting taken over by his teammate (who is on worse tyres) that has a doomed strategy yet manages to finish higher. i’d be so humiliated PLEASEEEE

[heysudokustar]

Ykw, good for lando or whatever. But I could never take him seriously when I see Oscar out there, all fucking season, fighting his own team.

Qatar was a painful reminder of my eternal hate for McLaren.

No changing that.

[isadora16aslani]

The fact that he might win with 2 points WHICH OSCAR GAVE HIM

I'm so disgusted

[dasiesanddarkness]

the way Superboy and The Invisible Girl is Natalie literally begging her parents to see her pain and give her the support and love she needs but both of them dismiss it because in their eyes Diana is doing worse and requires more support

and in I’m Alive when Dan says “it isnt always about your comfort, it’s about helping your mother” and Natalie says “as always” because it has never been about her comfort, it has always been about helping Diana and she has always been left to figure it out on her own

and then in Song of Forgetting when Natalie hugs Dan, initiating contact with someone other than Henry for the first (and i think only) time in the show because she’s in so much pain because her mother forgot who she was and he hugs her back until Diana starts to remember when they met and then he pulls away and once again doesn’t offer her the support she needs because he’s too focused on Diana

and how throughout the show Natalie still acts as her mother’s protector (“that’s bullshit, she trusts you!” right before Didn’t I See This Movie, yelling at her dad when he breaks the music box, and driving her to the hospital during I’m Alive reprise) because she still cares about her so much and wishes she would get better so she can have a good relationship with her

and at the end right after I Am The One reprise when she walks in and Dan starts sobbing and she becomes the one that takes care of him by reassuring him and turning on the lights because she knows that he needs it and she’s so used to putting her own pain on hold

the way Natalie struggles the entire fucking show and it’s always second to her parents’ struggles