Asta these last few episodes, had just been... Gah! So good!
I love that they're talking about trauma without naming it, ya know?
She was abandoned by her mother as a child- that pain doesn't leave you no matter how supportive your father and community is. Even if she may have closure of that part of her life, the baggage doesn't just go away.
She's scared of leaving and of being left. Scared of the edge of the mattress b scared to leave even when she knows she should, even when she's at risk she still stays.
She's scared so she protects, she's the mother of her group even when she never had one of her own.
I love this story line for her. I love her so much. This season has been so great
Jotting down my thoughts on a whole ep for the first time! So far, this has to be my favorite episode of the season (and there were already a lot of good eps this season). Season 1 is unbeatable, 2 was halfway decent then it went off the rails, 3 was too goofy for my taste, but 4 imo found the perfect balance between the sincerity of s1 and the humor of s3.
Spoilers
lol yet another vandertrees gaslighting attempt - I like how Asta and Harry get coupled up in D'arcy's dream
Really satisfying to see characters finally communicating with each other and dealing with their problems! D'arcy taking charge of herself is a huge step, and I have a feeling she'll succeed this time
Harry admitted to trying to murder Jimmy in front of him asdfaf
Also loved seeing Asta going on her own arc too and finally acknowledging that she deserves to put herself first. Wasn't sure how I felt about Jimmy returning to the screen at first, but then I saw that convo between them and the light bulb clicked. It clicked for Asta too, and narratively, it's a subtle but strong way to show how far she's come now and who she used to be with Jimmy.
That said, if this season ends with Asta leaving Patience by herself, I'm flipping a table asdfasdf D'arcy and/or Harry needs to go WITH her.
I want to know what Sheriff Mike's mind looks like. Next, he was right about the Mantid!??? Incredible!
My husband (the mantid) is now my wife (also the mantid)
I was expecting Harry's dad to be an abusive dick but I wasn't expecting him to be this much of a dick omg. And I liked it! I was afraid they'd try to "humanize" the dad too, going against everything we learned about Harry's species for the past 3 seasons. This is still someone who apparently used to punch baby Harry in the throat(??) and tried to murder/eat his own offspring multiple times. And the guy who left his kids to fight to the death in the ice wind desert (but they all do that so no biggie). There's nothing about him for Harry to love. He's not Harry's family. The people of Patience are.
I was surprised to hear him mention Harry's brother though, because I thought Harry murdered all his siblings and drank their blood to survive the ice wind desert LMAO (maybe there were multiple survivors then)
Kind of wish we had enough time to see him interact with other people though (Asta looked like she was going to enthusiastically greet him before Harry steered the convo away; curious if she knows the full extent of how fucked up Ed is)
At first, I thought Harry noting that people are shaped by their guardians (see: Jimmy), he was going to connect that to himself and his dad. And when he didn't, it felt random. But now that I think about, he didn't have to. It doesn't matter if he realizes it so long as WE do.
Just when I thought the Harry/Max friendship was written out, it comes back with a homerun. Favorite part of the ep hands down. I knew they weren't going to kill of Max, but Harry making that choice without hesitation and then acknowledging that he cares(!!) is HUGE. There's that delicious character development, there's the moment he was afraid to have with Max back in s2. Living rent free in my mind, brb, sobbing.
MOST INSANE CLIFFHANGER 10/10 the visceral satisfaction I felt!! Finally, finally Ben and Kate know about Harry. Now all we need is for him to reveal everything to Mike and Liv too, then the gang's all here. I don't want a cutaway next ep, I don't want Ben and Kate memorywiped, I want to see how the show deals with this(!)
resident alien s4: and in this episode harry will try to propose to asta & it’ll end with him saying she’s been friend-zoned! surely this will dissuade the harry x asta fans from believing they’re endgame!! :)
i love harry’s character development this season. it’s the trickle effects that lead to him giving back to the people in his life. you have to remember, he wasn’t always in the position. he started out as a fish out of water mimicking behavior, stumbling through social cues, and being overwhelmed by emotional complexity he was never built to feel, let alone manage. harry was grappling with complex emotions he was not conditioned to understand, and in turn could not self-govern those emotions. but he had others there to govern him. he had asta & other people present to put him on training wheels. it’s the people he found in his life that were able to help regulate his big feelings. normally he was only ever in the position to receive, but the circumstances have changed. now, he’s metabolizing those experiences into something generative.
peter helped harry to accept his human-ness & alien-news as two halves of the same whole. that led to a conversation with asta where harry told her she need to acknowledge her failures but also embrace her successes in tandem. d’arcy managed to tow in harry when he was on the brink of sacrificing his people for his alien energy, and she instilled in him the reminder that he’s nothing without a people to fill up his backdrop. and now harry has been there to remind d’arcy that she is connected to everyone & that the world would be incomplete without her.
harry has found himself in a position where he’s relaying the love and support he was first gifted. he has grown & looped that growth back into community. word travels fast in a small town…. so does love, and that sentiment has always been a tentpole of resident alien. but it’s been really beautiful to see harry go from the receiver to the giver. he learns. he earns. he returns.
I was going to say headcanon, but honestly, this should go in the prediction pile LOL! Random people will send wedding gifts to the clinic because they didn't get the memo that Asta isn't marrying anybody because nobody bothered to send that memo. Ellen accepts half the gifts because a lot of them came with chocolates/candies. Harry accepts the other half because somebody sent a pie.
Asta will sigh in exasperation and be so Done with her co-workers, but do nothing to stop the rumors. At the end of the episode, Harry offers her a piece of that pie. She is so #Done btw, did we mention that she's so Done?? But she'll accept the pie anyway. As a friend. Also nobody corrects the person who baked that pie in the first place.
There will also be a part where Ellen sarcastically congratulates Asta on her wedding plans while eating the candy from the gifts.
So the whole town just casually assumed Asta accepted Harry's proposal? It never occurred to them that she might have said no LMAO.
A while ago, I made a bunch of zany predictions on how the showrunners will continue to gaslight team vandertrees by feeding and sinking them at the same time. And somehow I still lost to the brains behind canon:
Harry asks Asta to marry him, and it's another totally platonic bestie moment, we will affirm their FRIENDship every other sentence. But also Asta won't reject him in public or even act like she's rejecting him apparently. She also won't correct anyone who assumes they're getting married. We will close out with Harry telling Asta her virtues are her kindness and her nice silky hair. But as a friend!
The Mantid sucks and everyone hates him because he sucks, you can count the number of fans he has on one hand and that number is still one. Because it's me. I'm the one fan.
The Mantid sucks and everyone hates him because he sucks, you can count the number of fans he has on one hand and that number is still one. Because it's me. I'm the one fan.
Just spilling a few thoughts about some unintentional(?) parts of Harry's character. I think it's interesting that he never actually gets jealous of anything (besides ET), like envy is just something not baked into him. I thought he was jealous of Dr. Ethan back in S1, but thinking back, that wasn't really envy- he was feeling competitive because he couldn't stand someone being better at things than him. Every time Max or Sahar egg him on, he gets competitive and trips over himself too. But none of it was jealousy. I remember thinking he'd get jealous of Joseph pursuing Asta (platonic or otherwise) back in S3, but it never happened. It didn't happen in S4 either. And he's never been envious of Asta's other friendships iirc. Maybe it's intentional, maybe it's not, but it's something I found neat and something so consistent it's a trait (or lack thereof). Like, there's a lack of entitlement there that probably plays into why Asta feels safe around him regardless of everything.
Another funny thing is that he's very much not a selfless person. He doesn't identify as a "good" person or strive to be one, and by his own admission, he'd really like it if certain kids just died. But whenever there's someone weaker in the room, he always, consistently, puts himself between them and harm's way (unless he's the one doing the harm lol). He shielded Max from the crash, he sent Sahar out of the cabin when Bridget's DNA clones were gaining up on him, he evacuated everyone from the school before checking out the caldera model explosion, he volunteered to find D'arcy so Asta could stay behind (neither of which worked out lmao!), he generally went out of his way to keep Max and Sahar away from his alien escapades- even when he needed Max to help spy on the hybrids, he kept him away from the "action." Then he dipped out of there when he couldn't beat the Mantid, but still LOL
Anyways, I love Resident Alien, for those that know me, you are not surprised. I read the comics and watch the show. I even made a PowerPoint about how much I love it. I should make more fan art honestly!
annaxmalina
blakekathryn
baratheonpilled
yousharknotpass
romaincrisis
2087
