that final loop in Star Trek Discovery is soo good
Mudd has been resetting the past 30 minutes dozens of times, trying to work his way incrementally towards taking over the ship. The loop device I guess only exists within the loop because it disappears when they exit the loop. Within seconds of exiting the loop, they reveal important info to him and muscle memory kicks in, he was going to press the button on the device to reset the loop but it's gone!
one problem with the trope of short closed timeloops is that there is no post script and the characters go through the stages of it soo effectively that no one has ever wanted to return to a loop once they escape it. Even in shows with good strong continuity where the writers are otherwise very good at referencing previous episodes (Stargate SG1, The Librarians) there is no discussion of the loops once they end
so it's incredible to me that Discovery had a very short loop (only 30 minutes!), put TWO characters in it, neither character is a POV character for the show, AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT (WHICH ARE ALL INCREDIBLY RARE FOR TIMELOOPS) they did something i've never seen before which is have a character leave the loop and then want to go back into it!
I've described the main problem with Groundhog Day as that no one who was working on it had seen Groundhog Day, which is to say that a lot of issues with it could have been avoided if the people involved had a greater understanding of what they were creating. I've also described Palm Springs as being very good because it has both seen and fully understood Groundhog Day. P much every post-Groundhog Day timeloop can be judged on a spectrum of how much it seems like the writers have only seen Groundhog Day at some point vs having truly understood Groundhog Day
For Star Trek Discovery, it's evident that the writers have seen and understood Groundhog Day AND seen & understood groundhog day loops as done by other shows/movies, because they did sooooo much that is extremely rarely seen in timeloops and they did stuff that i've never seen before in the context of a timeloop.
There are other timeloops in other Star Treks, and they go back to pre-the Groundhog Day movie, and it's clear that the people who worked on Discovery love and respect previous Star Treks so they've definitely seen every previous loop done by Trek. Which means I guess those are next on my list to watch
time won't fly (it's like i'm paralyzed by it) Chapter 19/Loop 81
Read on AO3
Feyre sucked in a deep breath, the sound like clashing swords in the silent, vaulted arena. For a moment, she went fae-still, gazing at Tamlin like she'd never seen him before.
Then she started to laugh.
Surprise! I've joined the @feysand-hivemind to bring you guys this update on the timeloop project (and a little bday present to myself). I hope you like it :)
time won't fly (it's like i'm paralyzed by it) - Chapter 13/Loop 55
every bond you break, every step you take (i'll be watching you)
Chapter Summary: Rhys, thinking things can't possibly get worse, is once again proven wrong in the worst possible way.
Warnings: NSFW, temporary major character death, implied/referenced rape/non-con
Rating: Explicit
Notes: You didn't really think i wouldn't be part of an unhinged project, did you? Surprise! I love you @feysand-hivemind, you guys have been so wonderful, hot, talented, and unhinged during the whole process <3
Big thanks to my beta @xtaketwox for reading the stuff my 9 months pregnant brain wrote last July and never once asking me "Girl, what the actual fuck did you smoke?".
Read on AO3 here.
Drip drip drip…
The sound echoed everywhere in this damned place: the stone walls, the stale air he could no longer stand to breathe, even his head and heart. He hated this place. He hated the fact he had been staring at the same faces for the last five decades. He hated how he had to pretend he enjoyed whoring himself out every night. He hated how he couldn’t stand to look at red hair or long fingernails. He hated how this whole thing had been modeled after part of his court.
Most of all, Rhys hated himself for not realizing her trap from the start. He had been so foolish, so eager to believe that everyone had an ounce of goodness in them.
The red haired bitch was talking to someone he couldn’t bother to name at the moment, the poor creature so clearly uncomfortable in his captor’s presence. To every question asked, Rhys nodded and agreed with Amarantha — he had absolutely no desire to pay attention to anything that didn’t serve his purpose.
Rhys was tired, so tired that he didn’t know how much longer he could take this. Forty-nine years was a long time to be dealing with the same things day in and day out, even for a Fae, and that was without the loop situation stressing him the fuck out.
His thoughts strayed to Feyre. She had already won two out of the three trials, though he had to admit that he had had his doubts for a moment during the second one. Forcing back the tears threatening to fall, he made himself snap out of his melancholy. This wasn’t home. The sky was the same, and the stars were pretty, but nothing compared to the glimmer of the Night Court sky. The stars hadn’t been shining the same in nearly five decades, and he hadn’t seen his family in just as long.
Rhys was all alone.
He made himself follow another trail of thoughts instead, one of arrows and brushes and the night sky painted on a dresser. Of the hands of a painter, but also the hands of a survivor, someone who hadn’t felt a sense of security in years. Someone just as lonely as he was. He scanned the room for her, expecting to find her near the fae wine—
She wasn’t there.
He looked over at the food table — she wasn’t there either. Now alert and on edge, Rhys tried scanning the room for her general presence, drunk on wine as she was. Something was wrong, very wrong, and he couldn’t believe he had fallen so far into his misery that he had lost sight of Feyre.
Slowly taking a deep breath and trying to calm his racing heart, Rhys glanced around to see whether anything else was amiss.
Everyone looked miserable. The Attor was accounted for, the bitch standing next to him. Every High Lord was present—
Almost everyone, he thought to himself, resisting the urge to growl. Tamlin was unaccounted for.
He cast his mind all over this sham of a court, the usage of his powers draining him more and more by the day, until he found both of them, their presences next to each other. Tamlin’s mind was a fortress, but Feyre’s… she was screaming every thought down the bridge between their minds.
More, more, more
Tamlin moved his lips down her throat, sucking on her collarbone, his hands everywhere and nowhere at the same time. She rolled her hips, so desperate for any sign of friction, happy for any sign of affection from her High Lord after more than two months of being ignored by him day in and day out.
Tamlin loved her, of that she was sure. He had to ignore her to protect her. He felt the same way for her as she did for him, the way he was touching and kissing her more than enough proof of that.
Stolen moments would have been more romantic if they weren’t both stuck under a piece of rock, prisoners to the whims and boredom of a deranged maniac.
Rhys snapped back into his own mind, his mind racing a million miles a second. He tried extracting himself from Amarantha, but her grip on him was so strong, her attention so sharp, that he couldn’t do it without making her suspicious. He tried being a lively participant in whatever shit she was talking about, giving her the most lustful look he could muster while pressing down his nausea at the situation.
My mate my mate my mate.
Amarantha leaned in, licking the back of his ear, her hand drifting down the front of his pants, grabbing him in plain sight of everyone. “You look delicious tonight Rhysand. I am going to take my sweet time with you after we’re done here.”
He swallowed down his disgust and gave her the best smirk he could muster. “I can’t wait.” He lied through his teeth, thankful when she turned her attention to someone else.
Rhys checked in on Feyre again.
“You have no idea how much I missed you. How much I need you.”
Rhys felt himself on the verge of throwing up, but the effect those words had on Feyre were the exact opposite.
“I missed you too.” she said. “Every day is torture without your touch.”
Her hands went to the waistband of his pants, unfastening them as best as she could.
“Quick,” Tamlin said, “we don’t have much time.”
Rhys breathed out a sigh of relief. He was trying to get her out then. If he managed this, Rhys was willing to forget all the years of animosity between them.
Anything for Feyre. His mate was worth forgetting every grievance, no matter how severe.
Tamlin resumed kissing Feyre, who was in turn stroking him with a sense of urgency Rhys had never seen on her before.
No. This was not supposed to be happening. He was supposed to get her out, he was supposed to get her to safety, not take advantage of five minutes of Amarantha’s distraction.
He heard Feyre’s sigh of relief and felt like dying. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think. His mate and the male who had already taken everything he loved from him.
Rhys kept mental tabs on them, just to make sure she would eventually get out and would eventually make it to safety, once Tamlin realized that her safety was the only priority.
In, out, moan. In, out, moan. Everything felt like a sharp stab to his heart.
Mate. Your mate. Not Tamlin’s, yours, screamed the one sided mating bond, and he wished he could drown out the noise, wished he could leave this body and be there to stop it from happening.
“Feyre, yes, you take it so good.” Tamlin whispered with every movement, his hands all over her.
Feyre felt like she couldn’t breathe, like everything began and ended with Tamlin, like the feeling of him pinning her against the wall was searing her entire being. She tried to get oxygen into her lungs as she felt her orgasm — and his — approach but felt like there was something binding her airways shut. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This hadn’t happened the last time they’d done this.
“Tamlin, wait. I’m not feeling good.”
But Tamlin was too far gone and kept pounding into her relentlessly, like he was chasing the seconds they didn't have. He bit into her shoulder and groaned, pushing one last time, before spilling himself into her.
Feyre came with a scream, her mouth opening wide, desperately trying to catch her breath, her consciousness minutes from slipping away. She felt her tongue swelling and heart racing. She didn’t know what was going on.
Rhys snapped back in his head, counting his breaths.
In, out. In, out. In, out. He glanced at Amarantha, glanced at everyone else, everyone oblivious to the internal panic he was going through.
“I’ll fetch you a drink,” he said, though he wasn’t sure whether Amarantha had heard him, and left as quickly as he could.
He winnowed to where Tamlin and Feyre were once he was out of sight, and the scene before him was worse than anything he had ever lived through.
“You idiot,” he screamed, not caring whether Tamlin responded. “What did you do?”
Tamlin pulled at his hair, the look on his face one of panic and fear so extreme it was oozing off of him in waves.
Feyre was lying on the floor, face blue, clawing lines at her throat in a desperate losing war to get more oxygen into her system.
“Feyre?” he said, lifting her upper body and resting it on his lap. “Feyre do you hear me?”
Feyre’s hands went limp, and he heard her heart stop.
The beast in him roared. “She told you to stop,” he said slowly, directing all of his ire at the High Lord who had taken yet another person he loved away from him. “She told you to stop. You were supposed to get her out.”
“I- I thought she was enjoying it.” Tamlin’s voice broke. “She enjoyed it last time.”
“Pathetic,” he heard the voice of his nightmares behind him. “Males are so pathetic.”
Tamlin was now on the floor, crying next to Feyre. Rhys placed her on the floor, like she was a fragile piece of glass, and slowly turned.
“My queen, I just got here,” he said with a calmness he wasn’t aware he possessed. “They—”
“Save it Rhysand,” she said, poking Feyre’s head with the tip of her shoe.
Rhys wanted to murder her. He wanted to take her apart piece by piece, limb by limb, until there was nothing left of her, not even her name.
“I thought something like this might happen, which is why I’ve had Tamlin unknowingly consume a special plant that is toxic to pathetic beings like humans. I guess you could say she was allergic to him. And now my entertainment is gone.” she sighed. “I guess you have to find us something else,” she said, approaching him.
Rhys was rooted to the spot, unable to move, breathe, or speak. The beast inside was out of control, but without his powers, both he and Tamlin were nothing more than a cosmic joke.
She placed a pointy nail on his chest and pushed him back until he hit the brick wall behind him. Amarantha ran her nose along the column of his throat, running her tongue from his collarbone up to his ear, her hand drifting down his chest, beneath the waistband of his pants, gripping and stroking him. With his traitorous body responding to her touch, Rhys felt like dying.
His mate was gone, and he hadn’t been able to do anything to stop it.
“I told you I was going to take my sweet time with you tonight.”
She pushed him down, and Rhys was far too gone to wonder whether she realized the state he was in, or whether she even wondered what had caused it. He hit the floor with a thump, knees bent, and stared at nothing.
Amarantha lifted her skirt and lowered herself on his face. “Lighten up, Rhysand,” she said, bringing her fingers to his hair and tilting his head so his lips were on her, rubbing herself on his face and moaning. “Next time you decide to take a liking to one of my pets, remember you’re nothing but my whore, and that your only purpose in life is to pleasure me.”
Rhys was indeed all alone, and he didn’t know how much more of it he could handle.
Closing his eyes, he prayed darkness would come to save him.
the Janeway was put in a very short timeloop as the first symptom of an alien parasitic takeover of her body
First it puts the target's brain in a loop where they repeatedly die (as a way to start the target to accept their own death). Stage 2 is the target believes theirself to be a ghost who watches their own funeral, put on by the other people on the ship. Finally, the parasite appears as the ghost of one of the target's deceased loved ones and says this is the normal process of dying before people accept their own death and move on to the afterlife. This parasite picks the form of Janeway's dead father. The parasite cannot take the target, the target has to go willingly
The loop only happens four or five times, it's very short and it starts with another person in on the loop tho he forgot later on (also it was all a projection of her mind so there was some anxiety dream influence happening too). Death is really common in timeloops, people often go on a string of suicides before accepting their own temporally-locked immortality. This episode (Coda, s3e17) really goes hard on "dying for real is better than being in a timeloop" because it's part of a specific plan to get Janeway to accept her own death.
as for the rest of the episode, I've thought a lot about how I'd be extremely angry at my dad if he ever showed up again and there's been a few pieces of fiction where the main character gets to yell at their absentee parent when the parent tries to reenter their life. And those are nice but it's another level to have a Ghost Dad when the POV character is also a ghost*. so it's really something to see Janeway still keep her head and put her living crewmates above her fake ghost dad.
Also there's that thing about captains always go down with the ship, so it's funny to see Captain Janeway be like "i'm a ghost and i've gone down but my ship is still up so I'll stay as a ghost on my ship". Even without the entire world history of seafaring and the military industrial complex, captains would still be over-represented in fiction because they're full of crunchy chewy tropes. "I'm the captain so i'm going to continue my captain duties in death by haunting my ship" is SUCH a captain thing to say
I am understanding how the Star Trek Discovery episode was Like That when it was building in part on this episode. There are two more Star Trek episodes on my list, both are Next Gen and one of them is definitely pre-Groundhog Day movie so should be very interesting
decided i should maybe take a break from Survivor and watch something else instead of watching another season of it. I landed on S4 of The Bear and i think the show is mocking me
I'm still v mad about s3 (hence why it took me 4 months to start s4 after it first came out in June) and I can't believe they're trying to get back into my good graces with a timeloop episode. Audacious. How fucking dare they
This is a post that I saved as a draft on February 4th
Today some friends were giving me timeloop recs and my weebiest friend mentioned an anime so I said to send me the name on discord so i can look out up later. He sent it to me and also sent another rec which you can guess based on context clues
