{"id":7280,"date":"2019-05-08T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T20:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7280"},"modified":"2019-04-22T11:26:12","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T18:26:12","slug":"mark-watches-crusade-s01e10-memory-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2019\/05\/mark-watches-crusade-s01e10-memory-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Crusade’: S01E10 – Memory of War"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the tenth episode of Crusade<\/i>, Gideon goes against Galen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s advice and heads down to a planet rumored to kill everyone who lands on it. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Crusade<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of consent, genocide<\/b><\/p>\n

There are parts of this story that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite<\/i> add up to me, especially in terms of why<\/i> something like this was created. We have the technomage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s AI left to explain it, but even the existence of that<\/i> is a little convoluted to me? But look, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something I want to yell about before I get into the details of this, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because I was remiss in not mentioning this before, but:<\/p>\n

OH MY GOD, GIDEON, STOP TALKING TO THE APOCALYPSE BOX!!! Stop it! Everything about this seems like a horrible idea! Before, it took y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all to a dead world with a NIGHTMARE living below the surface. And now, it took you to a planet where a significant portion of the crew MURDERED ONE ANOTHER. Why the hell are you still listening to it??? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting a sense\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unsaid at this point\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat the Apocalypse Box actually draws people in and makes it hard to resist using it. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why<\/i>, nor do I have a theory about what it actually is or what thing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dliving or not\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis able to speak through it. But this is BAD, right? Real, real bad??? Please stop?<\/p>\n

But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Matthew Gideon, and the dude is stubborn<\/i>. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating about this crew is that there are so many stubborn people in it. Dureena, Max, Gideon… yeah, they are each their own nightmare, but stuck together on this mission? Well, this episode is a fantastic example of the fact that even after four months together, they still<\/i> haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figured out how to get along. They have their own agendas, their own reasons for being on the Excalibur<\/i>. Of interest, though, is Max\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to all of this. Look, Gideon was being way<\/i> too risky in not heeding Galen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s warning, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious if there will be another mention of the high cost that was paid to secure what Galen and Dr. Chambers created. But after getting a couple episode\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s featuring Max\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire for more tech (and, by extension, more money, fame, and notoriety), I was initially surprised by his swift refusal to go down to the surface of the planet. There was probably untold technology to be discovered there! However, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a key element that also<\/i> motivates Max that I had forgotten: self-preservation. Max is down to do anything<\/i> to get ahead, unless that thing involves a significant threat to his own life. He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gain fame, money, or notoriety if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dead, right?<\/p>\n

And weirdly, he ends up being on the rational side because going down to that planet was a bad idea before they went. While they went. Once they were there. ONCE THEY STAYED THERE AFTER THAT FIRST ATTACK. Gideon, why the fuck didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all leave IMMEDIATELY after multiple people murdered other crew members? Oh, this was so intense<\/i>, and I thought it was brilliant that we never saw the attacks but merely heard them. (Well, except for that IPX crew member trying to kill Max.) It made this so much more terrifying. Which also had the possibly unintended ramification of me being angry at Gideon for not leaving. LEAVE. TAKE THE WHOLE CREW WITH YOU. FIGURE IT OUT AND COME BACK. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave them there with the possibility of MASS MURDER hanging over your heads! Perhaps I have the chronology mixed up, but at some point, Gideon is aware when night falls, everything will get infinitely worse and HE STILL DOES NOT LEAVE OR ORDER HIS PEOPLE TO LEAVE.<\/p>\n

I guess we can still write that off as Gideon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stubbornness, as well as his refusal to leave anyone behind. (I mean, we can explain Gideon remaining, but not everyone else.) Galen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motivations made far more sense to me, especially since he knew that a Technomage had to undo the terrible thing another Technomage had done. He was hired for that, right? I got that part, but then… the Technomage made an AI to survive him? So that the nanovirus could keep living on without him? Just because? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a little shaky on this part, and I think this episode kind of falls apart in terms of the story. I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand why this AI was kept around aside from… arrogance? I mean, the AI told the audience why they were still around, but since the creator wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s information that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel as weighty or as meaningful as I think it was intended to. And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the stand-off down below, which just looked weird as hell. I mean, I definitely got confirmation that Dureena was under the influence of the nanobots, but having the bridge shot out from under her… broke it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hold on her? Maybe? If that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case, why didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the imminent threat of destruction and death break anyone else<\/i> out of its control? What did Galen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stick actually do<\/i> here? How could that computer explode and the stick is still intact?<\/p>\n

At the very least: we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got that nanobot shield thing!!! That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a huge, huge<\/i> development, and it would allow people to travel back to Earth for limited amounts of time. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fantastic thing! I do hope we see it again. Otherwise, I liked most of this episode, but it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t as strong as the last two.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Memory of War\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– The paperback edition of my debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now up for pre-order!<\/a> It comes out on May 7, 2019.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"