u/ArtsyApoidean

May be a hot take as I know a lot of people loved the episode, but I found the final fight of season 3 really underwhelming. And don't get me wrong, the animation was gorgeous, but that isn't always enough. The character writing just felt... off. A bunch of conflicts and character beats rushed into confusing resolutions so everybody could have a Super Saiyan moment and get to the end of the plot, and it just didn't sit right with me. And after giving it a lot of thought, I think there's one missing line, one that appears in most of Superman's confrontations, which sort of captures what went wrong in the writing of this episode. He never asks Eradicator "Why are you doing this?"

Feels like an especially glaring omission given that we have seen this version of Clark ask his enemies this over and over. It's usually the first thing he says when he winds up fighting someone. But here? He says "It doesn't have to be like this," sure, but then Eradicator throws some fighting words and he grins with Gokuesque battle fervor and says "you heard the man." I don't hate a bit of cheesy camp but this just feels inconsistent with his character, and it leads to a fight to the death which he seems to take with basically no weight on his conscience.

A few episodes ago alt-Jon was averting big fistfights and making peace treaties with the enemy, and Clark was smiling with fatherly pride and saying "this, this is what Superman fights for." So much for that I guess.

Maybe some of this is on my expectations, but the whole episode I was waiting for the moment when Clark comes back and talks to the Eradicator. I kept thinking he was gonna drop that line just like he always does, do something we hadn't seen anybody do yet and actually listen to the fear, let the man speak his piece, and lead into a resolution similar to DCAU Amazo where Eradicator realizes he has no real reason to be attacking them like this. And this wouldn't have sapped the "big climactic battle" energy out of the finale either, because they had TWO heavily signposted brewing conflicts set up with both Lex and Jonathan, and neither of those went anywhere. Jonathan suddenly has a character 180 when Clark tells him "you don't have to be Superman anymore" (which you'd really think would make this character PISSED), and Lex's resolution is even more of a whimper, his device just doesn't even work. (And there's a third if we recall Hank exists.) I kept waiting for Clark to ask the question that would start that dialogue and shift into the "second phase" and he doesn't do it until Eradicator has literally been beaten to pieces. And even then, it comes in the form of a "what's wrong with you?"

And I feel like it was the show's own foreshadowing that led me to these expectations. They wrote the whole Eradicator story like a big red herring, set up like it was a story about Clark's strength of will where some other threat would be the "real fight", and then the red herring was that there was no red herring and it's just a big standard punchout. Hrm. After a season about placing strength of character over superstrength, with this villain who is basically a tormented escaped clone born out of fear and strife and never treated like a person, this was the absolute perfect moment to showcase Clark actually utilizing his talent for resolving situations with communication and understanding, and they wasted it on... Dragon Ball Z reference? Seriously?

Just a huge missed opportunity in my opinion. And a massive waste of Jonathan Lane's character in particular.

Already converted 2 of my reason into health for lock scars, so this leaves me with 2 for the rest of the game. Complete exhaustion just to do commissions. No more visits to Ghirbi. Why would you betray me like this, raw cuddler? ;_;

I want to convert all the Hunters to my cult before I ascend and not murder any of them, and I'm already waiting on Douglas to lose a resentment so it's fine if the RNG is low. Just, is it at all possible?

Bullet pointing this one for readability, not AI:

• Jon -- sorry, Jonathan is back, he's got a very different attitude now. He looks Clark Kent up and down and says "you're not Superman, I am." He's also pretty obsessed with the broken timeline now, hmm.

• "DON'T CALL ME SUPERBOY, I'm Superman." kinda a double beat of the last point but what a line, that is a direct quote I believe.

• He was devastated by that loss to the Eradicator. Down on his knees, staring at his hands wide eyed, muttering "I couldn't do it..." This boy is about to break.

• The Eradicator is LOOSE IN THE DAMN TIME STREAM OH NO. Clark is presumably going to be shielded somehow in the Fortress, but time may be about to start breaking. Jonathan will be compelled to fight this. He might take Lara's remaining time device and leave her stranded in the past while he chases after the Eradicator.

• Kara might be dead, if she is Jonathan thinks it's his fault 100%, and he WILL fuck with time to bring her back if he thinks he can.

• A major beat for SBP is betraying Clark's pleading and killing Con-El. We have two ways that could be mirrored here -- (1) Eradicator is a Kryptonian Lex clone, who might develop humanity in his time journeys and come back reformed enough for Clark to see the good in, and Jonathan to still want dead, or (2) whatever is going on with Bizarro who's also a bit of a Con-El here (but oh god please let this be a psych out please don't kill my boy Bizarro). (Note: they may also lead us up to this moment but have Jon not take the kill shot so the viewers don't hate him, but I suspect it'll be mirrored.)

• Edit: another SBP mirror I just realized could easily be coming up (and is sort of already in progress); one of his core traits is that he feels like he's not the right superman, isn't wanted or given a proper place in the realities he's in, he feels like he should be someone else but just isn't good enough. This dynamic seems to be forming with Jonathan Lane and how he relates to everyone in the past's memory of the Jonathan Kent version of him. Jon Kent showed up and fixed everything and made everything better. But Jonathan... he couldn't do it. He wasn't the right Jon. This could lead in a variety of directions but it could definitely be fuel for an SBP style mental breakdown. He might even try to somehow find the other Jon in the time stream.

• Mxyzptlk is still somewhere out there offering universe reshaping wishes (this might leave our gang with a time device to mount their own chase, if Jonathan goes into a purple portal, or he could find Mxy after departing). He likes to target guys who go by Superman.

• We STILL don't know who the centerpiece guy of the villain scene in the intro is. Although, one prediction I've floated is that it could be a Superboy lost in the time stream for years... hmmm....

Prime Time is nigh, brothers and sisters and martian friends. Rejoice.

And for my wild tinfoil prediction of the week, I predict an Eradicator shocking redemption arc followed by tragic beating from Jonathan Lane.

Flipped between MB3 and MB4 three times already.

But Champions is so easy right? Just keep grinding! :')

Something I was thinking about while watching this episode and haven't seen anyone mention yet, Morty is really never trapped in this dimension, he just thinks he is.

What's the main difference in this from the regular Portal Gun? Aside from the Fischer Price aesthetic, it's those little green balls (which are also aping those toy vacuums, but they're a pretty specific green that we know the meaning of). Now, think about the perspective of a Rick making the Portal Jr. The first things on a Rick's mind in giving a Morty this thing are "how do I make sure he doesn't run out of juice he can't make more of" and "how do I make sure he doesn't bust this and trap himself like an idiot." And the obvious solution to both of those which the visuals convey to us, is swapping the portal fluid for portal bobas, which are sturdy even if spilled, and which the Portal Jr can juice.

When Morty's Portal Jr "broke," what broke was a beaker full of green dyed water, and the beads of actual quantum transport solution were just lying on the floor intact. Morty literally just needed to scoop up the gun and one bead and find a beaker.

Bonus: If Morty had just died he would have also immediately woken up at home in a project phoenix tube in the sub basement. So he had two ways home all along.

I wasn't paying attention, I was just excited there was an Overqwil in a heal ball, but he is kinda cute...

Your honor, dear people of Metropolis, I will prove to you today beyond a shadow of a doubt that PRIME TIME is imminent. Let's explore a few key beats in this episode (and a very interesting color choice) shall we?

EXHIBIT A:

Throughout the episode, we're eased towards Kara's theme statement by pitting the squad against their alternate selves (and tragic Lex -- side note YAY HE GOT TO TALK TO CLARK and the reveal was so funny). And yes, they're from another universe, but they bear a strong resemblance in their visual design to the resistance in the future Jon Lane comes from, and that hardly feels accidental. Their story is also very similar to that future's, with the key difference being far less time has passed and Lex isn't the bad guy in this one, so there's a connecting thread to pull with Jon here. And what we see from them is a big emotionally repressed antiheroic energy, fighting at all costs to avoid defeat, which as we quickly learn is a result of their traumatic backstories.

EXHIBIT B:

The maze. This is where everything really comes to a head. First off, importantly, our squad succeeds at this challenge, and the others fail. This challenge drops the physical games for an emotional challenge, and because Kara and Jimmy are together and able to open up to each other this spurs an emotional breakthrough and Kara is able to solve the challenge. And what is the solution?

EXHIBIT C:

I'm making Kara's theme statement on the maze challenge an exhibit of evidence, because the line gets repeated a lot through the rest of the episode. "There is no one true path. The future is ours to shape." Interesting and specific choice of words.

EXHIBIT D:

Our heroes and the tragedy antiheroic gang both resisted the pull of Mxy's final offer, but only with Superman there to step up and talk them all into listening to his experience and outsmarting Mxy. Now, it's probably going to be awhile before he's allowed to try this whole gambit again -- his hour is up. But maybe he'll be able to in, oh, say twenty years? And you know who doesn't have Superman to talk him down? JONATHAN LANE.

EXHIBIT E:

Final piece of evidence, and this one I admit is circumstantial, but it feels intentional. In the opening credits, Jon appears surrounded by yellow lightning. When he comes to the past at the end of this episode it looks different from the effect we saw on the wrist device before, he walks out of a crazy wall of yellow lightning. And, hey, didn't we just see some yellow lightning somewhere else? Like, on an anvil? Hmm...

I rest my case. People of Metropolis, get in your tachyon bunkers now. PRIME TIME IS COMING.

Edit: Didn't think I needed to clarify this but NO AI WAS USED IN THE WRITING OF THIS POST. I just like to use bullet points when writing out an argument for a theory like this.

I feel like a lot of discussion on Rick's self nemesisship tends to take this tone towards it, treating them as diametrically opposite Ricks far apart on the dimensional curve, one is the passionate nihilist, the other the cold narcissist. And that's not entirely untrue, in the part of their stories we see. But I don't think it was always that way.

Some details to consider:

• Rick has a bunch of backstory that happened before Prime walked into his garage, he was basically Reed Richards of the suburbs. He built robots for the feds (this is how he met Diane) he adventured with Kyle (side note: I think Kyle is a Jonny Storm reference and probably will be Diane's brother if we ever meet him, but that's not exactly relevant) formed a rivalry with Nimbus, he recognizes the box of Beth C-131's childhood objects indicating he made versions of the same things. The way he interfaces with this backstory heavily suggests it went the same way in dimension c-137.

• Speaking of the toybox, it also tells us something interesting about Prime. Since c-131 is functionally identical to the Prime Universe and its Rick is just a slightly off Prime variant, that means Rick Prime went to this effort for his Beth too. Rick Prime cared for his family not just in the same way but through the exact same actions as c-137.

• C-131 (and presumably also Prime) abandoned the family when Beth was around the same age as C-137's Beth was killed. In other words, Ricks start abandoning Beths right around the same time C-137 loses his family.

• Rick Prime's dying words: "You would have been me, I just walked into your garage before you walked into mine!" I don't think this is just hollow hurtful words, it's something they both know to be true. These two men lived the same life until a terrible divergence point.

• Finally, there's the point Prime makes about he and C-137 being the only two Ricks to discover interdimensional travel. But if this is a capacity some nonzero fraction of infinite Ricks possess, that makes no sense at all. It should happen over and over. Unless, the first Rick to do it tried to make sure any other Rick who was about to would receive a visitor instead.

So what, then, is the actual divergence between C-137 and Prime? Nothing but time. In an infinite multiverse, you're liable to find some universes where everything went exactly the same, but time flows infinitesimally slower, or the big bang just happened a little while later, and everything's behind. So Prime is the first to discover interdimensional travel, and he's a highly intelligent narcissist so he quickly realizes he will have other Ricks on his tail, and he intends to stay PRIME Rick. So he starts hopping to every dimension he can find that's nearly identical to his own, all of them just a bit behind the timeline of his reality, and intercepting Ricks to give them the portal tech before they can get there themselves.

Somewhere in the process of Prime's explorations, he starts coming home less and less. His once happy marriage starts to fall apart. Eventually Diane delivers him an ultimatum, and he decides to leave. He regrets this, but the choices are made. Going back now would mean abandoning his whole timeline just for a girl. And besides, he's better off without her. He'll help other Ricks see that they're better off too, before they have to go through what he did. Maybe this all happens shortly before his visit to C-137, so he comes off more callous and less convincing than usual, or maybe he just picked a bad moment for the visit. In any case, he meets Rick C-137 essentially living in his own past, at the moment where he wishes he'd done everything different, and he makes the choice Prime regrets not making. And this, this is the one thing Prime can't fucking take. No Rick should have what he can't. And from there, we all know the story.

TL;DR -- Rick C-137 literally would have become Rick Prime if Rick Prime hadn't been ahead of him in the timeline. "I just walked into your garage before you walked into mine."

She might be having some doubts after watching Clark get shot, but the way she reacts, I don't think she expected the bullet to hurt him. I'm curious if it'll come up later in the season, with Clark's struggling to feel like himself.

He's so sweet and I need him to meet Clark so badly. You know the minute he spots Clark he'll just recognize him too, fly up all "my friend :)". I have never seen such a pure cinnamon roll in my life and that includes Clark himself. This might be the best character rewrite the show has done.

There's no rule in time travel that says he's going to experience the same amount of time passing as our present-day characters, after all... and the armor looks Kryptonian...

Granted, the entire planet Krypton is maybe in the Phantom Zone right now, so it could just be Zod or literally any other escaped Kryptonian, but with the number of episodes we have left in the season are they really about to try to introduce that?

I think this might instead be Jon, one who's several years older, probably a bit deeper into his groundhog day, after he's lost his way.

(Yes this is another Jon = Superboy Prime tinfoil post)

I mean he was basically a glorified cop, this is just so excessive even for his real job.

Alex you gotta stop playing Fortnite and pay attention to your threats. >!Wait no no Alex I take it back go back to playing Fortnite!<

On top of being probably the most criminally defective Braniac, not only did he have the body of a Clark (one with extra special man of energy powers -- although those are willpower based so they may have been inaccessible), but he had access to all his memories, including knowledge of the multiverse.

If Primus hadn't been stopped on Earth, he was probably about to wipe out every living thing in the universe for being unworthy, and then start ultronning his way across other realities. He would have become a one man crisis on infinite Earths.

Also why did he go for the 80s v neck what's up with that Brainiac did he just always wish he had pecs