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grav_ityI had this discussion with someone on my f-list, though of course now I cannot remember who. I should keep better notes. ;)
Anyway, since this starts with an almost immediate spoiler for "The Five", I figure I should lead with a spoiler cut. But only because I don't know most of you well enough yet to lead with a kiss. ;)
*ahem*
So Nikola, vampire genius, has this grand if somewhat vague plan to take over the world. With vampires. Crappy vampires, I'll grant you, but still. I get the impression that Nikola did not spend 60 years on this project. If we allow him until 1950 or so to recover from the war, and then have him go through a decade or so of Increasingly Elaborate Plans, I think the timeline might be a bit closer. Plus I think Nikola is the type to get distracted. By, say...the invention of the microchip. I have no idea.
But really, I think Nikola's "It's so simple, it will make you cry" indicates that he really spent a while doing INSANE THINGS trying to get vampires, and it turned out all he needed was a sharp knife and a special kind of tuning fork. And, you know, the powers of electricity, but whatever. My point is that I think he came up with the basic idea, and then spent a decade or so trying to do it on his own before he thought about going to John (or Helen). And even then, he only went to them because he needed blood.
(Aside: do Nikola and James ever actually speak to one another? EVER? IN THE WHOLE SHOW?)
Where was I?
Oh yes, Ashley.
Let us accept that, locked inside nearly every human being, there is the potential for Abnormality. Nikola's little proto-Vampires might have had other predilections, but let's assume they were overwritten by Nikola's additions. So Ashley is a proto-John (and a proto-Helen, but that is less important at this stage), she just needs to be activated. And the Cabal has a Clever Plan for that.
This means that when Ashley wakes up in Cabal custody, she's already dead. Yes, it sucks, but it's also the truth. Everything Dana did from the time Ashley regains consciousness is a stalling tactic, to give her treatments more time to work. And the very first thing Ashley does when she wakes up? Electrocutes herself.
(For the record, I also don't think that there was anything in that energy drink. I think it did exactly what it was supposed to: stimulated her metabolism. The drugs were already in her system, the damage already done.)
Let me be clear on something: I believe that Ashley is herself until she collapses at the Sanctuary. This is where Dana's plan is so reliant on timing, because she can't let Ashley be home for long enough that Helen finds out there's something wrong with her. "Oh crap" is the last thing Ashley Magnus says, without having to fight it through levels of genetic and mental manipulation.
Oh did, I forget to mention that? Because yes: telepathy. We see that the Super Ashley Gang works on telepathy, both between one another and their orders. Does this remind you of something? It should. Because even though Nikola voices his commands to his minions in the episode, he still had to CALL THEM in the first place. Also, he's not in vamp!face when he says "Sanguine Vampiris", and yet they all react to him. And the minions themselves take out the Cabal dudes without verbal communication.
After Ashley collapses, she's mindless (more or less) and she responds to non-verbal orders and pre-programming. But she just has the teleportation at this point. It's not until after they get the source blood that she gets all those augmented talents which are transferred to the rest of the Gang.
(Aside: I thought it was cool that the effects people made Ashley's zort different from John's. I appreciate that kind of thought and detail. Genetics: only the same if you've been cloned (or grafted onto by an evil corporation that turned you into a superbeing.)
And why, you ask, did I need Nikola in this? "The Cabal hunt me at every turn" he says, and I believe him. I also think he's leaving out the part where sometimes he loses, and has to abandon things (which might also account for why it took him 60 years...), and that the Cabal found some of those things, and used them on Ashley. I think it's interesting that they never talk about the similarities between (at the least) Ashley post-collapse/pre-tank, and Nikola's minions. Because: hello! Nikola is even able to use the weapon that takes them out to ACTUALLY CREATE VAMPIRES. And they kind of touch on it in "Trail of Blood", but not in the way I was expecting.
Which leaves me with two closing thoughts:
1. I believe that it is something either purely Ashley or something she got from Helen that allows her to break through, and that the Cabal ignored or overlooked that aspect of her make-up (because that's what Evil Corporations do). That is where the proto-Helen part comes in handy.
2. WHO THE HECK WAS GIVING THE SUPER ASHLEY GANG THEIR TELEPATHIC ORDERS?
+++
And all of this is, quite naturally, the way I am coping with not thinking about how the Helen/Nikola Showdown of Doom at the Cage Match is going to turn out.
VOTE HELEN, my friends. It's what Nikola would do. ;)
Anyway, since this starts with an almost immediate spoiler for "The Five", I figure I should lead with a spoiler cut. But only because I don't know most of you well enough yet to lead with a kiss. ;)
*ahem*
So Nikola, vampire genius, has this grand if somewhat vague plan to take over the world. With vampires. Crappy vampires, I'll grant you, but still. I get the impression that Nikola did not spend 60 years on this project. If we allow him until 1950 or so to recover from the war, and then have him go through a decade or so of Increasingly Elaborate Plans, I think the timeline might be a bit closer. Plus I think Nikola is the type to get distracted. By, say...the invention of the microchip. I have no idea.
But really, I think Nikola's "It's so simple, it will make you cry" indicates that he really spent a while doing INSANE THINGS trying to get vampires, and it turned out all he needed was a sharp knife and a special kind of tuning fork. And, you know, the powers of electricity, but whatever. My point is that I think he came up with the basic idea, and then spent a decade or so trying to do it on his own before he thought about going to John (or Helen). And even then, he only went to them because he needed blood.
(Aside: do Nikola and James ever actually speak to one another? EVER? IN THE WHOLE SHOW?)
Where was I?
Oh yes, Ashley.
Let us accept that, locked inside nearly every human being, there is the potential for Abnormality. Nikola's little proto-Vampires might have had other predilections, but let's assume they were overwritten by Nikola's additions. So Ashley is a proto-John (and a proto-Helen, but that is less important at this stage), she just needs to be activated. And the Cabal has a Clever Plan for that.
This means that when Ashley wakes up in Cabal custody, she's already dead. Yes, it sucks, but it's also the truth. Everything Dana did from the time Ashley regains consciousness is a stalling tactic, to give her treatments more time to work. And the very first thing Ashley does when she wakes up? Electrocutes herself.
(For the record, I also don't think that there was anything in that energy drink. I think it did exactly what it was supposed to: stimulated her metabolism. The drugs were already in her system, the damage already done.)
Let me be clear on something: I believe that Ashley is herself until she collapses at the Sanctuary. This is where Dana's plan is so reliant on timing, because she can't let Ashley be home for long enough that Helen finds out there's something wrong with her. "Oh crap" is the last thing Ashley Magnus says, without having to fight it through levels of genetic and mental manipulation.
Oh did, I forget to mention that? Because yes: telepathy. We see that the Super Ashley Gang works on telepathy, both between one another and their orders. Does this remind you of something? It should. Because even though Nikola voices his commands to his minions in the episode, he still had to CALL THEM in the first place. Also, he's not in vamp!face when he says "Sanguine Vampiris", and yet they all react to him. And the minions themselves take out the Cabal dudes without verbal communication.
After Ashley collapses, she's mindless (more or less) and she responds to non-verbal orders and pre-programming. But she just has the teleportation at this point. It's not until after they get the source blood that she gets all those augmented talents which are transferred to the rest of the Gang.
(Aside: I thought it was cool that the effects people made Ashley's zort different from John's. I appreciate that kind of thought and detail. Genetics: only the same if you've been cloned (or grafted onto by an evil corporation that turned you into a superbeing.)
And why, you ask, did I need Nikola in this? "The Cabal hunt me at every turn" he says, and I believe him. I also think he's leaving out the part where sometimes he loses, and has to abandon things (which might also account for why it took him 60 years...), and that the Cabal found some of those things, and used them on Ashley. I think it's interesting that they never talk about the similarities between (at the least) Ashley post-collapse/pre-tank, and Nikola's minions. Because: hello! Nikola is even able to use the weapon that takes them out to ACTUALLY CREATE VAMPIRES. And they kind of touch on it in "Trail of Blood", but not in the way I was expecting.
Which leaves me with two closing thoughts:
1. I believe that it is something either purely Ashley or something she got from Helen that allows her to break through, and that the Cabal ignored or overlooked that aspect of her make-up (because that's what Evil Corporations do). That is where the proto-Helen part comes in handy.
2. WHO THE HECK WAS GIVING THE SUPER ASHLEY GANG THEIR TELEPATHIC ORDERS?
+++
And all of this is, quite naturally, the way I am coping with not thinking about how the Helen/Nikola Showdown of Doom at the Cage Match is going to turn out.
VOTE HELEN, my friends. It's what Nikola would do. ;)
