1990 The Flash : Double Vision
Nov. 10th, 2016 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethOdd episode title, don't see how it connects. Some dude with wires on his head can inject a thingy into people's brains and the remote puppet them. The Flash keeps on blacking out for eight hour stretches and yet won't stay in the lab while the scientist figures out what has happened. This goes predictably poorly, until it gets solved by shoving wirehead's hand in the electric fuse box on a wall. Surprisingly this does not count as lethal force, because reasons. The guy just gets brain damage from the wires in his head. His injectable devices can be destroyed with ultrasound, which is cutting edge Star Labs tech and not something a hospital would have.
This one is a bit tricky to harvest for 2014 Flash plot bunnies because if this tech is even possible in 1990, if as much of it is on the record and can be duplicated as seems in this episode, the world would not resemble the Flash world by the time it caught up.
Also it's only useful for plots that are of no interest to me.
I am so bored of mind control. It's never used for anything more than making one person feel really guilty while everyone else tells them it's not their fault. What's the use in that? A good amnesia story can show the team how they'd look to a good person they trust who is suddenly lacking context. There's a ton of mileage in that. But a straight up puppet just ... all it is is 'I was only following orders' but as if that actually justifies anything. We have free will, we need stories about actually using it. The other sort seem to be about soldiers coming back all traumatised cause they hurt people, but everyone else is supposed to let them off the hook. It's creepy.
Yes I say that as someone who likes Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier. I can see the problematic.
Also, if I was talking to them, I would never say it wasn't their fault or they couldn't help it or they couldn't do anything to stop it. Because seriously, if that's what they're hanging their sanity on, what are they going to do next time? There are multiple technologies in their world that can make there be a next time. If everyone forgives them because they couldn't do anything, if the only reason they can sleep at night is it wasn't any of their doing, that's like rewarding them for disassociating, like it's not their fault as long as they just sit back and watch in their own heads. Sod that. Fight. Teach them to fight. Sure they were under duress, but what can they do under the same pressure next time?
Even if the actual logical answer is 'sod all actually' that's not an answer they can live with, so find a better one. Fight when you can, ask for help when you can, stay the hell out of the other guy's range if that's the best you can do. Learn how to resist psychic powers, that's got to be a teachable skill in verses that have them. Weaponise being a stubborn arsehole. Whatever. Just hand them a toolkit, not a white flag.
Because why are these stories supposed to help the viewer?
What about them can?
Sure there's always arseholes trying to control you, but what are you going to do about it?
This one is a bit tricky to harvest for 2014 Flash plot bunnies because if this tech is even possible in 1990, if as much of it is on the record and can be duplicated as seems in this episode, the world would not resemble the Flash world by the time it caught up.
Also it's only useful for plots that are of no interest to me.
I am so bored of mind control. It's never used for anything more than making one person feel really guilty while everyone else tells them it's not their fault. What's the use in that? A good amnesia story can show the team how they'd look to a good person they trust who is suddenly lacking context. There's a ton of mileage in that. But a straight up puppet just ... all it is is 'I was only following orders' but as if that actually justifies anything. We have free will, we need stories about actually using it. The other sort seem to be about soldiers coming back all traumatised cause they hurt people, but everyone else is supposed to let them off the hook. It's creepy.
Yes I say that as someone who likes Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier. I can see the problematic.
Also, if I was talking to them, I would never say it wasn't their fault or they couldn't help it or they couldn't do anything to stop it. Because seriously, if that's what they're hanging their sanity on, what are they going to do next time? There are multiple technologies in their world that can make there be a next time. If everyone forgives them because they couldn't do anything, if the only reason they can sleep at night is it wasn't any of their doing, that's like rewarding them for disassociating, like it's not their fault as long as they just sit back and watch in their own heads. Sod that. Fight. Teach them to fight. Sure they were under duress, but what can they do under the same pressure next time?
Even if the actual logical answer is 'sod all actually' that's not an answer they can live with, so find a better one. Fight when you can, ask for help when you can, stay the hell out of the other guy's range if that's the best you can do. Learn how to resist psychic powers, that's got to be a teachable skill in verses that have them. Weaponise being a stubborn arsehole. Whatever. Just hand them a toolkit, not a white flag.
Because why are these stories supposed to help the viewer?
What about them can?
Sure there's always arseholes trying to control you, but what are you going to do about it?