Starting in episode 7; we have an Actual Proper Opening Sequence
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The Slayers Group Watch Thread
- Thread starter Octopus Prime
- Start date
John
(he/him)
FTL: The nurse's ship in general was a weird design. The front looked like a Jumping Flash! robot, and the back was just a boring container ship. I wish the nurse's logo would've switched to the Wu-Tang logo that was on some of the supply boxes, instead of the generic red cross. I hope those boxes were filled with neck collars, in line with the NIN nail gun boxes in Quake.
Aside from the shitty fat jokes, I agree with Purple that they at least went a different direction than Man infiltrating Sexy Nurse College. I don't know what spray painting "Bitch" onto someone's forehead was supposed to do, but it was a little shocking! Maybe it's future spray paint that automatically adjusts to a target, but to get that level of control you'd have to hold their head still for a while.
I was pretty sure the school was in on the gag, and was playing along. The one rival queen insinuated that she knew the score, and enjoyed teasing Francois.
Aside from the shitty fat jokes, I agree with Purple that they at least went a different direction than Man infiltrating Sexy Nurse College. I don't know what spray painting "Bitch" onto someone's forehead was supposed to do, but it was a little shocking! Maybe it's future spray paint that automatically adjusts to a target, but to get that level of control you'd have to hold their head still for a while.
There’s also the implication in the cold open that the head nurse doesn’t know how to cure spray paint on someone’s face.
Which, honestly… wouldn’t be that surprising given everything else in the episode
Which, honestly… wouldn’t be that surprising given everything else in the episode
The next two episodes are Out of this World!
Knight Checks
Nina Corners
I… don’t know what that second one means but I feel like Gravity Wells and Horsehead Nebula describe them well!
Knight Checks
Nina Corners
I… don’t know what that second one means but I feel like Gravity Wells and Horsehead Nebula describe them well!
Egarwaen
(He/Him)
These are both excellent episodes. Gravity Wells adopts the ever-popular anime space western style for an episode, but has a bunch of plot reveals (hmmm nightmare you say…), a pretty solid dramatic backbone, and also has some fun with Canal. The action is kinda ehh apart from that, but it’s pretty enough.
Nina Corners is back to gag filler but at least it’s funny gag filler? The guys who take funny costumes very seriously trope is back, we mock air travel a bit, we have some more fun with Canal, Canal has some fun with Nina, we mock Kane’s cape, nothing much happens.
Nina Corners is back to gag filler but at least it’s funny gag filler? The guys who take funny costumes very seriously trope is back, we mock air travel a bit, we have some more fun with Canal, Canal has some fun with Nina, we mock Kane’s cape, nothing much happens.
Real stark improvement with these two, and theres finally an Actual OP sequence, as opposed to tracking shots, darkness, and apologies for the OP sucking! And it looks real good too! Not as good as Next, but good!
Gravity finally got some Plot Advancement beyond “Some jerk wants Swordbreaker”, and a main villain in Nightmare (which was definitely mentioned in at least one earlier episode, but this is the first time they’ve shown up). you’d think that a Wizard Mafia that conquered half the galaxy would have been a bit more prominent. But they know that Some Old Guy dug up blueprints for a Lost Ship, and they apparently put all their eggs in chasing that basket. It’s also a Canal heavy episode so she gets to do stuff besides complain about Millys general presence. Also it’s implied that either Canal knew these old guys or else Kains grandma did, but no names are dropped so MAYBE BOTH?!?
Horsehead is another jokey filler episode, and it taught us the important lesson that Rails secretary is named Nina. I don’t know if she was named before this? It’s a light in content but Nina’s a fun character when divorced of her role of Clumsy Secretary. Turns out that Rail is a stabilizing force in her life as she’s VASTLY less capable when put into a non-secretarial role. Also I guess the Space Cops are just desperately desperately underfunded to the extent that The Bosses Secretary was all they could spare to escort a valuable Good Will ambassador. This is the future that Liberals Want. Loved the opening gag that Nina jumps dramatically through a closed window because she didn’t see the door.
We really got to start making a list of planet and character names for this show; they’re bonkers and delightful; these two alone gave us
Mr. Lozenge
Chicken Earth
Blanko Magma
Gravity finally got some Plot Advancement beyond “Some jerk wants Swordbreaker”, and a main villain in Nightmare (which was definitely mentioned in at least one earlier episode, but this is the first time they’ve shown up). you’d think that a Wizard Mafia that conquered half the galaxy would have been a bit more prominent. But they know that Some Old Guy dug up blueprints for a Lost Ship, and they apparently put all their eggs in chasing that basket. It’s also a Canal heavy episode so she gets to do stuff besides complain about Millys general presence. Also it’s implied that either Canal knew these old guys or else Kains grandma did, but no names are dropped so MAYBE BOTH?!?
Horsehead is another jokey filler episode, and it taught us the important lesson that Rails secretary is named Nina. I don’t know if she was named before this? It’s a light in content but Nina’s a fun character when divorced of her role of Clumsy Secretary. Turns out that Rail is a stabilizing force in her life as she’s VASTLY less capable when put into a non-secretarial role. Also I guess the Space Cops are just desperately desperately underfunded to the extent that The Bosses Secretary was all they could spare to escort a valuable Good Will ambassador. This is the future that Liberals Want. Loved the opening gag that Nina jumps dramatically through a closed window because she didn’t see the door.
We really got to start making a list of planet and character names for this show; they’re bonkers and delightful; these two alone gave us
Mr. Lozenge
Chicken Earth
Blanko Magma
Gravity also had the most overt Slayers reference yet, though it’d only be something picked up by true doom murderheads; the symbol that appears every time someone magically mind-whacked a Nightmare goon was Dark Stars emblem
Purple
(She/Her)
Gravity- OK I understand metaphors and all but WOW KANE, YOU REALLY SUCK AT CHESS! Also I appreciate the escalation of "I'm gonna use my sexy charms to get info out of all the guys in town. And also all the girls in town. And also this police computer. And it's not just me right? People were aware that there's a movie called Searching for Bobby Fischer and it involves chess and that's basically it?
Horsehead- OK my subs all say Worries, not Corners. Anyway, WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH AIRLINE FOOD? "I prefer penguins." Reference gotten. Also it's nice to basically have original recipe Amelia here. And to a lesser extent, original recipe Phil. Just needs to shout Stewardess Crush or something.
Horsehead- OK my subs all say Worries, not Corners. Anyway, WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH AIRLINE FOOD? "I prefer penguins." Reference gotten. Also it's nice to basically have original recipe Amelia here. And to a lesser extent, original recipe Phil. Just needs to shout Stewardess Crush or something.
I have to get episode titles off Wikipedia, so I’m going to hold ol’ Jimmy accountable for “Corners”
Our next two episodes are really out of this world. It’s
The Bathroom Disappears
Vagrants Decision
Lets call them Interstellar and Jump Drive
The Bathroom Disappears
Vagrants Decision
Lets call them Interstellar and Jump Drive
Egarwaen
(He/Him)
Interstellar: we start with a slow, melancholic look at the end of Kane's grandmother's life, and the demolition of his youthful confidence in not only his own immortality but also the immortality of those he loves. (Canal is actually immortal, but that's neither here nor there) Primed by this to expect a serious, possibly even tragic, episode we instead get... An ancient superweapon triggers itself inside the Swordbreaker, resulting in Kane and Millie spending the entire episode in a mad scramble to attempt to reach the ship's only bathroom, as apparently Canal finds the entire idea of bathrooms repulsive and barely tolerates having the one. Also Kane's EVA mech has a cape.
Jump Drive:
Everybody get up it's time to slam now
We got a real jam goin' down
Welcome to the Space Jam
Here's your chance, do your dance
At the Space Jam Alright
Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam
Come on and slam, if you wanna jam
Jump Drive:
Everybody get up it's time to slam now
We got a real jam goin' down
Welcome to the Space Jam
Here's your chance, do your dance
At the Space Jam Alright
Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam
Come on and slam, if you wanna jam
Two episodes in a row about the problems of weird spaceship layouts. One has the excuse of being the result of a reality warping alien super weapon, the other has no excuse; it was just incredibly bad engineering. Maybe that ship was designed to confuse vengeful ghosts, like the Winchester Mystery House.
The dub makes the tragic look at the last moment of Kanes grandmothers life unintentionally hilarious; she apparently just up and dies in the middle of a casual conversation, and it’s one of those dubs that sidesteps any overt references to death, so they use the word “croak” instead. It’s wild.
Interstellar might also be the cheapest episode so far, half the shots were just dubbed over static images; in one case, rotating one so it looks like they fell over. It’s barely a step above the Marvel Superhero Show. LIked the gag that there’s only one single bathroom on the Swordbreaker because Canal thinks they’re gross and won’t abide them.
Jump drive is a much better episode up and down, the Swordbreaker crew is tasked to keep the mafia from stealing the fuel from a planetary migration ship. Apparently a really bad one because it hasn’t found a planet suitable for human habitation in 40 years, and we’ve seen a different one in damn near every episode so far. Also the mafiosos and the guys on board the ship willing to sell them the fuel are all just ludicrously il-equipped to deal with any member of the crew. turns out Canal can just… throw black holes at people if she wants to; and that’s not even the Swordbreakers big gun.
All of this is secondary because the real meat of the episode is the slam jam that Kane insinuates his way into.
Dont know if it was a. Written joke, or just the dub team having fun, but I loved how completely unimpressed the ships crew was when they finally find a planet they can live on. “Nice enough planet I suppose, got some good hiking trails, probably.” “I’m too old to actually enjoy this!”.
The dub makes the tragic look at the last moment of Kanes grandmothers life unintentionally hilarious; she apparently just up and dies in the middle of a casual conversation, and it’s one of those dubs that sidesteps any overt references to death, so they use the word “croak” instead. It’s wild.
Interstellar might also be the cheapest episode so far, half the shots were just dubbed over static images; in one case, rotating one so it looks like they fell over. It’s barely a step above the Marvel Superhero Show. LIked the gag that there’s only one single bathroom on the Swordbreaker because Canal thinks they’re gross and won’t abide them.
Jump drive is a much better episode up and down, the Swordbreaker crew is tasked to keep the mafia from stealing the fuel from a planetary migration ship. Apparently a really bad one because it hasn’t found a planet suitable for human habitation in 40 years, and we’ve seen a different one in damn near every episode so far. Also the mafiosos and the guys on board the ship willing to sell them the fuel are all just ludicrously il-equipped to deal with any member of the crew. turns out Canal can just… throw black holes at people if she wants to; and that’s not even the Swordbreakers big gun.
All of this is secondary because the real meat of the episode is the slam jam that Kane insinuates his way into.
Dont know if it was a. Written joke, or just the dub team having fun, but I loved how completely unimpressed the ships crew was when they finally find a planet they can live on. “Nice enough planet I suppose, got some good hiking trails, probably.” “I’m too old to actually enjoy this!”.
Egarwaen
(He/Him)
The sub does try to explain this - they note that the ship’s been modified so much over its 40-year mission to support its increased population that everyone kind of lost track of anything that didn’t directly support keeping the population alive.
This is also an interesting episode because it’s one of several so far that implies that while this civilization can travel between stars, its means of doing so can’t support both speed and volume. Anything fast is small, so doing something like moving enough people to establish a self-sufficient settlement requires stuffing a lot of people on a very slow ship and pointing them in kinda the right direction. Unfortunately the series doesn’t stick to this and is perfectly willing to ignore it in service of, Eg, an episode about an extremely inefficient medical training program.
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Yeah the “Spacefaring culture that has no idea how space travel works“ is definitely the most interesting part of the series.
I think I forgot to post last week? Stuff happened. Something something Nightmare.
INTERSTELLAR: The sub titles this episode 'Toilet Fears' which doesn't quite work compared to the dub title. I guess Kain and Millie are, uh, afraid? That they can't find the toilet?
Canal is starting to prove to be the REAL villain of the show, refusing to allow more than one toilet on the ship and just casually exposing Kain to the vacuum of space when he threatens a houseplant.
Also Millie stumbles upon an ominous glowy sphere room that is probably unimportant. She does the smart detective thing and gives it a flick. Keep poking those unexplained outer space phenomena, Millie!
JUMP DRIVE: A whole lot of time is spent on the B plot basketball rivalry and fairly little on the A plot. Which is fine because the A plot was boring and went nowhere, honestly. The goons weren't a threat, even the space mobsters weren't a threat after Canal was done with them. Definitely had more investment on whether or not those kids would get exclusive use of a basketball court no one will likely ever use again once the ship lands!
INTERSTELLAR: The sub titles this episode 'Toilet Fears' which doesn't quite work compared to the dub title. I guess Kain and Millie are, uh, afraid? That they can't find the toilet?
Canal is starting to prove to be the REAL villain of the show, refusing to allow more than one toilet on the ship and just casually exposing Kain to the vacuum of space when he threatens a houseplant.
Also Millie stumbles upon an ominous glowy sphere room that is probably unimportant. She does the smart detective thing and gives it a flick. Keep poking those unexplained outer space phenomena, Millie!
JUMP DRIVE: A whole lot of time is spent on the B plot basketball rivalry and fairly little on the A plot. Which is fine because the A plot was boring and went nowhere, honestly. The goons weren't a threat, even the space mobsters weren't a threat after Canal was done with them. Definitely had more investment on whether or not those kids would get exclusive use of a basketball court no one will likely ever use again once the ship lands!
There are six people total who play basketball and the court is hidden; making a roster of who can play when is pretty easy.
Egarwaen
(He/Him)
I chose to believe that the players were a secret order dedicated to protecting the ship’s control room, with basketball as both a convenient cover for constantly spending time near it and a means of selecting their successors.
There’s absolutely no evidence of this in the show, of course.
There’s absolutely no evidence of this in the show, of course.
Purple
(She/Her)
Interstellar: Oh damn I forgot Baby Kane already had the cape. That's great. As is the airlock gag. The sideways disk drives continue to really bug me. Also, hey, this is a good adventure idea, gonna steal it for a campaign soon I think... and speaking of stealing, that one sound effect sounds like Defender. Or maybe Qix?
Jump: Exploring the juxtaposition of having a functioning generational colony ship in a setting with FTL it just isn't equipped with and people swinging by and trading and such is super fascinating and OK who am I kidding this is the closest I can find but it's really solid.
Jump: Exploring the juxtaposition of having a functioning generational colony ship in a setting with FTL it just isn't equipped with and people swinging by and trading and such is super fascinating and OK who am I kidding this is the closest I can find but it's really solid.
We’ve got a two parter this week kids, as episodes 11 and 12 are
Friends Scatter
Rain of Tears End
But maybe you know them better as Kuiper Belt and Laser Guns
Friends Scatter
Rain of Tears End
But maybe you know them better as Kuiper Belt and Laser Guns
Well, Kuiper was a bit of a mess; immediately killing off Kanes closest and dearest friend, Jess. You remember Jess, of course, Kane never shuts up about all his fond memories of him. He’s a regular character, he is! Turns out they were both hired to act as bodyguards for a cargo ship. They briefly consider changing ships, which would have added some dramatic stakes, but then, nah, they don’t. Anyway, beloved regular character Jess dies after being shot at by a ship way too far away to see, which violates all the laws of physics, and then Kane has to contend with all the pirates himself, which he does handily because, you know, Sword Breaker. Then he gets into a fist fight while trying to work off some steam from his friend dying and the lady he saves calls him a murderer for working with the cargo company.
Laser Guns is even more disjointed, but at Leas gives some closure, turns out that if Canal had done even a moments research into the cargo company she’d have realized that the cargo company was letting Pirates explode their ships as part of an insurance scam, and aforesaid ladies husband got killed as a result. So Kane gives her all the evidence the cops would need to arrest the company owner and then heads off to avenge beloved character Jess by tracking down the ship that murdered him. Which, as it turns out, is another Lost Ship, the Death Cloud (another Slayers reference; Death Cloud is one of the Dark Lords, along with Shabranigdo and Dark Star); the Death Cloud kills a bunch of cops in order to show off how powerful it is, and even Swordbreaker has a hard time beating it, but ultimately succeed because Kane and Canal have had years of experience fighting with a Lost Ship and these yokels have had it for, like, a week. But as soon as they do, an even bigger and way more intimidating lost ship appears, which terrifies Canal, and makes an overt threat to the, before leaving. Then we cut to the Nightmare headquarters, where the leader says that Kane and Canal are presenting too much of a pain in his ass so he’s going to have to get involved directly now.
Hey! I think the plots going to start now!
Laser Guns is even more disjointed, but at Leas gives some closure, turns out that if Canal had done even a moments research into the cargo company she’d have realized that the cargo company was letting Pirates explode their ships as part of an insurance scam, and aforesaid ladies husband got killed as a result. So Kane gives her all the evidence the cops would need to arrest the company owner and then heads off to avenge beloved character Jess by tracking down the ship that murdered him. Which, as it turns out, is another Lost Ship, the Death Cloud (another Slayers reference; Death Cloud is one of the Dark Lords, along with Shabranigdo and Dark Star); the Death Cloud kills a bunch of cops in order to show off how powerful it is, and even Swordbreaker has a hard time beating it, but ultimately succeed because Kane and Canal have had years of experience fighting with a Lost Ship and these yokels have had it for, like, a week. But as soon as they do, an even bigger and way more intimidating lost ship appears, which terrifies Canal, and makes an overt threat to the, before leaving. Then we cut to the Nightmare headquarters, where the leader says that Kane and Canal are presenting too much of a pain in his ass so he’s going to have to get involved directly now.
Hey! I think the plots going to start now!
Egarwaen
(He/Him)
These should theoretically have been good episodes but they’re just not. For starters there isn’t enough here to fill out two full episodes; neither Kane’s old friend nor the grieving widow do anything more than move information around, but both get a lot of screen time anyway. The spaceship battle is dull and predictable; I’m pretty sure Yamato does exactly this “warp on top of the long range striker” battle. And the pirate’s ship being a Lost Ship is basically irrelevant. It would have been interesting to see it’s personality, to contrast the other two, but no.
Yeah I wasn't super feeling these two either. Can't even be arsed to joke about em! They sure happened though.
John
(he/him)
Don't mind me, slowly getting caught back up after vacation and resting for old injuries.
Gravity Wells: Nice well trodden space western scenario. Canal was being a bit too unworried about the macguffin disk when she was getting pelted with thousands of rounds of ammunition. Not much else to say, which is kinda my M.O. for this series in general.
Gravity Wells: Nice well trodden space western scenario. Canal was being a bit too unworried about the macguffin disk when she was getting pelted with thousands of rounds of ammunition. Not much else to say, which is kinda my M.O. for this series in general.
Well hurray along as we’ve got episode 13 and 14 next;
Recollection Returns
Fear Whispers
But I like to think of them as Meteorite and Neutron
Were halfway through the show, then we’re back to Slayers!
Recollection Returns
Fear Whispers
But I like to think of them as Meteorite and Neutron
Were halfway through the show, then we’re back to Slayers!
Egarwaen
(He/Him)
Maybe it’ll even have been transferred to CR by the time we’re done?
We can only hope; as the brief reprieve that LU has given us worked out great otherwise
John
(he/him)
Working on it! I'm taking 1-2 days off in between sessions, to lessen the injury risk. I'll catch up in 2-3 weeks.
Horsehead Nebula - The subbed version probably fared better than the dub on this one, because the fake language both the Cow and Chicken tribes use is... less than flattering. It was in between Jawa/Huttese and someone saying Ooga Booga.
I also had to look up when this series aired, because the whole Terrorists Hijacking a Plane would land much differently today. It was a few years prior to 2001, so closest analog would probably be Airplane II's Sonny Bono plot 15 years earlier. Finger on the pulse there!
Meteorite does indeed advance the plot, albeit not in any specific direction; we learn that Kanes grandmother is dead (did… we not already know this?) and also meet her boyfriend Jill (“Jill is a strange name for a man” says Millennium Nocturne). Then we get a bunch of flashbacks to Kanes Grandmas youth as a space adventure hero and how she died apparently fighting Nightmare (and not mid conversation with Kane as a previous episode implied), then our new villain Some Blond Guy (Spreader of Darkness, according to the bumper) shows up and freaks out Kane enough he can’t use the psi-blade and then Jill dies and that’s about it.
Oh and we see Canals true form, which is about the same as her regular form but it’s more “ethereal goddess” and less “pigtailed maid”
Oh and we see Canals true form, which is about the same as her regular form but it’s more “ethereal goddess” and less “pigtailed maid”
METEORITE: Ok this episode is more like it. I guess this show is just stronger when it focuses more on its main plot than filler episodes.
I don't think we were explicitly told Kane's grandmother was dead, but it was heavily implied. Enough that the reveal of the gravestone isn't that much of a shock to anyone not named Millie.
One thing that stood out as being probably important is Millie's reaction when Jill mentions a certain name. Does 'Stargazer' mean anything to her? Hmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Oh and besides Canal showing us her HILF form (Hologram I'd Like to Fffffffly me around space) we see some old guy wake up Gaav from Slayers (who died his hair blonde at some point) and then Blonde Gaav shows up to flex at Kane who has a bit of a crisis of faith in his own abilities and then things just kind of end.
NEUTRON: Hey remember that episode where Kane met a previously unmentioned old friend who then died the very same episode? Let's do that again, but let the friend live this time!
This episode is really only half filler since while the A-plot is just yet another Space Job, at the very least it has the benefit of restoring Kane's confidence. As well as that of his friend whose name I've already forgotten. So memorable, Kane's old friends!
I don't think we were explicitly told Kane's grandmother was dead, but it was heavily implied. Enough that the reveal of the gravestone isn't that much of a shock to anyone not named Millie.
One thing that stood out as being probably important is Millie's reaction when Jill mentions a certain name. Does 'Stargazer' mean anything to her? Hmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Oh and besides Canal showing us her HILF form (Hologram I'd Like to Fffffffly me around space) we see some old guy wake up Gaav from Slayers (who died his hair blonde at some point) and then Blonde Gaav shows up to flex at Kane who has a bit of a crisis of faith in his own abilities and then things just kind of end.
NEUTRON: Hey remember that episode where Kane met a previously unmentioned old friend who then died the very same episode? Let's do that again, but let the friend live this time!
This episode is really only half filler since while the A-plot is just yet another Space Job, at the very least it has the benefit of restoring Kane's confidence. As well as that of his friend whose name I've already forgotten. So memorable, Kane's old friends!