Since I finally caught up with 3x03: if we also let Amaya have problems with her totem, can we a) let it be a problem longer than like one episode, and b) have Stein be the one who gets high with her, thereby making Jax second-hand high (and if we use Gary he can accidentally have some of that stuff too)? Because we're obviously keeping our sweet rewrite!Nate far away from the ship, so he doesn't run danger of being as useless as show!Nate!
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind bringing our Nate back, just to showcase how much better things can be with a not-awful version.
But I agree with you 100% - if you’re going to make a problem with the totem, it should be a longer term problem, and solving it should move the plot forward more than “recruit this character”. Maybe ALL the totems have a problem? Maybe they have to figure out what is causing all the totems to screw up? Maybe Mallus is going after the original totems, way back in history and they have to go visit ancient Africa to fix it, but to figure that out, they need multiple totem-holders! Who knows! There are options!
Though, to derail entirely (apologies) - what I would have liked (so far) is more of a balance between the Legends and the Bureau. We’ve been following the Legends for two season already - we know them, we like them, and it’s hard seeing them played as the fool every time even when we know it’s meant to be funny. They’re incompetent! Absolutely, totally incompetent! And that’s not our Legends. It would work much better if the Bureau had a different style, but not necessarily a better one - that would work the whole same competition angle, but be more respectful to characters we love.
You know how the recent James Bond movies have had a whole thing about “old in-person hand-in-hand approach” vs. “new, slick technology from-a-distance” thing? We could’ve had that! The Legends are messy, but they inspire. The Bureau is neat, but they don’t know how to deal when their plan goes wrong. The whole chainsaw/scapel thing? Take that and run with it! You wouldn’t use a scapel to cut down a door to save people inside a burning building - a scapel is not always the right way to go, the way the show keeps pretending it is. Thus far the Legends are only “allowed” to fix things because the Bureau doesn’t know about them fixing it, or because they fix it before the Bureau gets there, not because they can do the job the Bureau can’t.
Take the Freakshow episode. Let’s see how it COULD have gone:
- The saber-toothed tiger anachronism was simple (a level 1); it could’ve been solved by either the Legends or the Bureau.
- The Legends get there first, but the Bureau is right on their tails, and due to the clash between the two groups, things go wrong and the Bureau self-righteously kicks the Legends out, saying that they’ll handle it. The Legends are pissed about this, but reluctantly concede because they did, in fact, screw up with the tiger.
- However, when losing the tiger makes Barnum lose faith in his ability to keep a circus running, thereby changing history, that escalates the situation to a 4 - but the Bureau isn’t good at inspiring people to do things. They’re good at erasing things without being noticed, not fixing a mistake that’s already been set in place (say because erasing his memory won’t fix the emotional impact of what happened). The Bureau doesn’t know what to do to fix this. Reluctantly, and with their teeth gritted, they invite the Legends to take care of the issue.
- The Legends get all smug and arrogant and go in to fix it their own special way…except because they got so cocky, they mess up. Barnum sees their powers and catches them and it all goes wrong, and it escalates again.
- The Bureau is SUPER mad and give the Legends an impossible deadline to meet, or else they’re just going to come and erase EVERYONE’S memory - they don’t care that it’ll damage the timeline in the long run, removing some wonder from the world, as long as it fixes the immediate problem.
- The Legends object to this and quickly scramble to try to fix things, pulling out a squeaker of a victory (including the fight scene we had at the end with Amaya and Firestorm) just before the Bureau arrives.
- Everything is fixed, Sara rubs that in Sharpe’s face, and Sharpe leaves, dissatisfied that she wasn’t able to finally catch the Legends in a serious error.
What’s wrong with that? It puts the two teams on even footing, it gives the Legends both the respect they deserve for everything they’ve done AND gives the Legends a reason to screw up so badly (because of the situation, they’re made to be cocky and over-confident, leading to error), and you still have the Bureau all snobby and condescending. Seriously, is there anything the episode gave us that wouldn’t have been equally covered by this approach? Come on!