Reccer’s Notes Sex pollen on Earth requires some shenanigans, but add in body swap and we’ve got a deep dive into how this combo would affect these two’s self-knowledge and desire. Very explicit, very steamy, very funny.
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<h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1"><i>Bridgerton</i> Season 4 Gives Class Struggle a Cinderella Sheen</h2>
<div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">It’s still Bridgerton, but questions of class division power its fourth season</div>
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Published on January 29, 2026
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<div class="post-hero-caption post-hero-caption-vertical [&_a]:link"><p>Image credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix</p>
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<p>Four seasons in, Netflix’s <em>Bridgerton</em> has a formula that works. Known for its steamy romances, candy-colored costumes, and effortlessly diverse Regency setting that’s anything but traditional, it’s a historical drama with a thoroughly contemporary feel. This isn’t a criticism, by the way—the show is delightfully fun escapism that manages to remain true to the swoony spirit of its source material even as it updates the saga of the sprawling family at its center for a modern audience. And in season four, the show pulls off its greatest trick yet, reimagining one of its most problematic stories in a way that often feels richer and more engaging than the original. </p>
<p>Based on the third book in Julia Quinn’s megapopular romance series, season four backtracks to tell the story of Benedict (Luke Thompson), the Bridgerton family’s artistic and free-spirited second son, who has not always fit in with his more marriage and family-minded siblings. Previous seasons of the show have touched on his frequently Bohemian lifestyle, his love of painting, and his hedonistic sexual pursuits with both women and men. Perhaps it was always inevitable that Benedict’s story—and the romance at its center—would not follow a conventional path. </p>
<p>Rather than a simple friends-to-lovers romance or a fake relationship that turns real, Benedict’s story takes many of its narrative cues from <em>Cinderella</em>, featuring everything from a glamorous transformation and a hidden identity to a wicked stepmother and a misplaced (and personally identifying) fashion item left behind at a party. The season begins with a masquerade ball, and much of that fairytale feel lingers throughout the four episodes of Volume 1 (all of which were available for review). But underneath the masks and mistaken identities, <em>Bridgerton </em>season four is really a story about class. And it is through the introduction of Benedict’s love interest Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha) that the show is forced to confront, in some small ways at least, some of the most uncomfortable elements of its own premise. </p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, this is still <em>Bridgerton</em>. The housemaids and shopgirls who quietly make the town run don’t suddenly unionize. The upper-class elites aren’t miraculously agitating for a minimum wage or fair housing laws. There are still lines the show won’t cross. And maybe this means the bar is in Hell, but it still feels important that the show is at long last acknowledging the stories of those who live outside the privileged world that the Bridgertons and their friends inhabit. Sophie, you see, is a maid. She’s not genteely impoverished or down on her luck; she’s a servant who performs manual labor, precisely the kind of character who has haunted the edges of <em>Bridgerton</em>’s<em> </em>previous seasons but never really directly taken part. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but Sophie is <em>great</em>.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="733" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-4-1100x733.jpeg" alt="Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek looking at herself in a mirror in episode 403 of Bridgerton" class="wp-image-837201" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-4-1100x733.jpeg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-4-740x493.jpeg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-4-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-4-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-4-2048x1366.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Liam Daniel/Netflix</figcaption></figure>
<p>Resourceful, intelligent, and kind, she never lets her difficult personal situation—an orphan with a stepmother who resents her and no future to speak of—make her cruel, cynical, or incapable of embracing joy. Her unabashed delight at simply being allowed to attend the Bridgerton masquerade is infectious, her honesty and complete lack of guile refreshing in a world where performance and presentation often carry more weight than truth. She’s a heroine whose happiness is easy to root for, so much so that no matter how you may feel about Benedict as a potential life partner, you’ll find yourself hoping these crazy kids can work it out, if only because <em>Sophie</em> wants it to so badly. It’s easy to see why this character has long been such a fan favorite, even if the book in which she is introduced is… <a href="https://reactormag.com/how-bridgerton-season-4-can-improve-on-its-source-material/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">well, let’s just call it problematic at best.</a> </p>
<p><em>Bridgerton </em>has always played a bit fast and loose with its source material. The show has both race and genderbent major characters (including Sophie herself). It’s moved the order of various narrative events around to suit its own purpose. And sometimes, it’s even made them up out of whole cloth. That season two love triangle between Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley), her sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran), and Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey)? Doesn’t happen in the books. The revelation that Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is actually Lady Whistledown? Happens much earlier in the show than on the page. Your mileage may, and likely will, vary on how well all of these changes, reorderings, replacements, and expansions have played out onscreen. Sometimes it turned out really well. And sometimes… not so much. </p>
<p>In the case of Benedict, the show has genuinely put in the work to make the shifts in his character feel earned. The early episodes of season four lean into the idea of Benedict as a rake, highlighting his multiple sexual partners, disdain for the rules of polite society, and resentment toward the man-of-the-family role he’s being forced to assume while Anthony is in India. But he’s also portrayed as someone who is deeply lonely and unsure, convinced that he’ll never find a woman who can accept all the disparate and frequently conflicting identities that make him who he is. He’s been uniquely positioned to both find—and accept—a love that colors outside the boundaries established by aristocratic society and to appreciate Sopie’s particular brand of authenticity. Yes, it helps that their initial meeting essentially occurs <em>Love is Blind</em>-style, when neither really knows who the other is, but the masquerade also gives them both the freedom to be their truest selves—that is, after all, the whole point of a disguise.</p>
<p>Thompson and Ha have a warm, genuine chemistry together, and their banter is easy and fun. This first half of the season definitely prioritizes yearning over sexual tension, as Benedict works to track down his mysterious masquerade dance partner and grows closer to Sophie-as-herself after rescuing her from a dangerous situation at a country party without realizing that the two are the same person. But this season largely belongs to Ha, who steals almost every scene she is in from her first moments onscreen—even when we as the audience don’t know who she is. Deftly shifting between determined grit, wistful joy, and desperate yearning, her Sophie is a woman made of many layers, and who has seen more than her fair share of struggle without allowing it to make her cynical or cruel. </p>
<p>But Sophie and Benedict are not season four’s only story. Much like last season, this outing has a much more deliberate ensemble feel, with multiple secondary plots and supporting characters getting considerable screentime in ways. Penelope and Eloise are drawn into Benedict’s hunt for the mysterious Lady in Silver, and his purported willingness to (maybe?) finally marry puts him at the center of the ton’s social season (and Queen Charlotte’s interest). We also get to see the early days of John and Francesca’s marriage, witness Hyacinth chomp at the bit for her own debut, and watch as Violet and Lady Danbury take tentative steps into chasing dreams tied to their own futures rather than that of their loved ones. In many ways, though Netflix split the show’s fourth outing into two volumes for some inscrutable reason, it still feels like the series’s most complete and well-balanced. Yes, its primary story is still Benedict’s, but his emotional journey is just one piece of a larger narrative whole. With half the season to go, it’s impossible to tell how <em>Bridgerton’s</em> decision to acknowledge that class exists in their candy-coated fairytale world will ultimately play out. But Sophie’s story offers a perspective we haven’t really seen before, and helps open up a corner of the <em>Bridgerton</em> universe that feels altogether new.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="733" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-6-1100x733.jpeg" alt="Yerin Ha as Sophie Baek, Luke Thompson as Benedict Bridgerton meeting at a masquerade in episode 401 of Bridgerton" class="wp-image-837203" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-6-1100x733.jpeg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-6-740x493.jpeg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-6-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-6-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bridgerton-s4-6-2048x1366.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Image: Liam Daniel/Netflix</figcaption></figure>
<p>The Mondriches, after all, were business owners before their son inherited a title, and regularly hobnobbed with various members of the aristocratic elite. Sophie, for her part, is threatened with violence, penury, and homelessness over the course of these initial episodes as she loses her job, is forced to sell her belongings to survive, and endures sexual harassment in the name of keeping a roof over her head. While <em>Bridgerton </em>certainly has a… let’s just call it an idealistic view of the camaraderie amongst the downstairs employees of Grosvenor Square, the show doesn’t shy away from acknowledging how hard they work or how central the roles they play are when it comes to facilitating the lives of leisure the Bridgertons and others like them enjoy. It’s a new sort of self-awareness for this show, but one it deserves no small amount of credit for.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, the season makes a valiant effort to explore questions of class outside of Sophie’s storyline. We meet more downstairs workers than ever before in the space of these episodes, and a major subplot involves many of the ton’s most popular household servants and ladies’ maids advocating for better working conditions and higher pay. It’s far from perfect—no matter how much we love it, a show like <em>Bridgerton </em>is never going to have the capacity to do the complexities of these issues justice—but the fact that it’s at least taking the issue seriously (something we can’t really say for the book this season is based on) is worth a great deal. Here’s hoping season four can stick the landing in its back half.[end-mark]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/bridgerton-season-4-gives-class-struggle-a-cinderella-sheen/"><i>Bridgerton</i> Season 4 Gives Class Struggle a Cinderella Sheen</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/bridgerton-season-4-gives-class-struggle-a-cinderella-sheen/">https://reactormag.com/bridgerton-season-4-gives-class-struggle-a-cinderella-sheen/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=837828">https://reactormag.com/?p=837828</a></p>
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<p class="syndicationauthor">Posted by Sarah</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/tv-review-star-trek-starfleet-academy-vox-in-excelso/">https://reactormag.com/tv-review-star-trek-starfleet-academy-vox-in-excelso/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=838045">https://reactormag.com/?p=838045</a></p><post-hero class="wp-block-post-hero js-post-hero post-hero post-hero-horizontal">
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<h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Qapla’! — <i>Star Trek: Starfleet Academy</i>’s “Vox in Excelso”</h2>
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<p>Well, it’s about damn time.</p>
<p>While the Klingon Empire played a big role in <em>Discovery</em>’s first two seasons, when it was taking place in the twenty-third century, they were never even mentioned after they vaulted forward into the thirty-second at the top of the third season. Over the course of the final three seasons of <em>Discovery</em>, we learned the far-future fates of so many of <em>Trek</em>’s various alien species—Vulcans, Romulans, Trill, Andorians, Tellarites, Orions, and others in less detail, but at least knew they were still around—but nothing about the Klingons at all.</p>
<p>The characters of Lura and Ja’den in <em>Starfleet Academy</em> are the first we’ve heard of any Klingons in the thirty-second century, and we still didn’t get any notion of the status of the Klingon Empire.</p>
<p>In “Vox in Excelso,” we finally get some information, and it’s heartbreaking. The Burn apparently completely destroyed the Klingon homeworld of Kronos. The Klingon Empire, which has been a superpower in the galaxy ever since we first saw them in the original series’ “<a href="https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-original-series-rewatch-errand-of-mercy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Errand of Mercy</a>” in 1967, is now a nomadic, broken people, refugees stumbling through the galaxy trying to survive.</p>
<p>Ja’den, we learn, lived on Krios (established as a Klingon colony in <em>TNG</em>’s “<a href="https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-next-generation-the-minds-eye/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Mind’s Eye</a>”) with his parents and brother. In these days of the Klingon Diaspora, Klingons have clung even more firmly to their warrior ethos, and the importance of learning to hunt. The latter is particularly worth noting. Klingon proclivity for hunting was established in <em>TNG</em>’s “<a href="https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-next-generation-rewatch-birthright-part-ii/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Birthright, Part II</a>” (one of your humble reviewer’s favorite episodes), but as we saw it with the empire at its height, it was an indulgence, a sport. But for Ja’den and his family, it’s a necessity to survive.</p>
<p>The Klingons of the thirty-second century are also completely uninterested in accepting charity. Since the Burn was reversed, the Federation is finally in a position to help them, and at the top of this episode, a ship carrying a bunch of Klingon refugees has suffered catastrophic mechanical failure. But the Klingons aren’t interested in help. They want to fend for themselves. Back in <em>DS9</em>’s “<a href="https://reactormag.com/star-trek-deep-space-nine-rewatch-the-way-of-the-warrior/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Way of the Warrior</a>,” Sisko quoted Curzon Dax as saying that the only people who can handle Klingons are Klingons, and this episode embodies that observation. (Your humble reviewer established that Curzon said that after living through the Betreka Nebula Incident, an event referenced in that same <em>DS9</em> episode, and which I explored in the novel <a href="https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Art_of_the_Impossible" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>The Art of the Impossible</em></a>.)</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="733" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-03-1100x733.jpg" alt="Gina Yashere as Lura Thok and Holly Hunter as Nahla Ake in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" class="wp-image-838046" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-03-1100x733.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-03-740x493.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-03-768x512.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-03.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Paramount+</figcaption></figure>
<p>In fact, Ake employs that truism, as she reaches out to Obel, a now-very-old Klingon diplomat she has a pre-Burn history with, played with gusto by David Keeley, whose scenes with Holly Hunter are magnificent. The pair of them have an obvious and fond history, which appears to be at least partly sexual. It’s especially entertaining to watch them together, as Keeley has a foot of height on Hunter and that’s before you realize that Keeley is wearing big stompy Klingon boots and Hunter is, as it the character’s wont, barefoot in most of their scenes together.</p>
<p>Obel, however, is unwilling to accept the Federation’s charity. There’s a world very much like Kronos called Faan Alpha that the Federation is willing to give to the Klingons, but they won’t accept it. Obel does, however, offer to find out if Ja’den’s family was among those who died in the refugee ship disaster.</p>
<p>(Why nobody ever brings up the Federation’s aid to the Klingon Empire after Praxis’ destruction in <a href="https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-original-series-rewatch-star-trek-vi-the-undiscovered-country/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>The Undiscovered Country</em></a>, which is what led to the Federation-Klingon alliance, is left as an exercise for the viewer.)</p>
<p>Because this is the series at a school, we have to have the cadets learning stuff, and the focus this time around is on a debating competition, run by the EMH. This causes two separate problems for Ja’den. One is that he absolutely detests public speaking and tends to freeze up. The other is that he wishes his debate topic to be the Klingon Diaspora. The EMH is reluctant at first, but eventually agrees that the topicality of the subject because of the loss of the refugee ship is exactly why it should be discussed.</p>
<p>We learn this week that Caleb is an expert debater, which, honestly, isn’t <em>that</em> much of a surprise, as being a fast talker would be a requirement for living on your own on the run from the age of six onward. At first he offers to partner with Ja’den, but the Klingon views that charity with the same disdain that Obel does. Instead, Ja’den winds up debating the point against Caleb.</p>
<p>We also see Darem learning how to be a team player by aiding Ja’den—though, of course, his primary goal is to assist in his hated roommate Caleb losing—by showing him some Khionian meditation techniques.</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1100" height="733" src="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-02-1100x733.jpg" alt="Bella Shepard as Genesis, Karim Diane as Jay-Den Kraag, Sandro Rosta as Caleb, and Kerrice Brooks as Sam in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" class="wp-image-838047" srcset="https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-02-1100x733.jpg 1100w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-02-740x493.jpg 740w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-02-768x512.jpg 768w, https://reactormag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/star-trek-starfleet-academy-104-02.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Credit: Paramount+</figcaption></figure>
<p>Indeed, the notion of people helping each other while saving face is all over this episode. It’s writ small in Darem using sticking it to Caleb as an excuse for why he helps Ja’den. It’s writ larger in Ja’den’s backstory. Ja’den’s desire to become a physician is at least in part due to watching his brother die from wounds that could be healed with Federation medicine. Or, indeed, any medicine better than what Klingons can provide for each other in the state they’re in. That same brother also wanted Ja’den to pursue his dream—unlike their parents.</p>
<p>When he goes on his first hunt, Ja’den refuses to kill the bird he’s is chasing, as he does not wish to become a warrior. His father angrily grabs the bow and arrow and shoots at the bird in a rage, missing it by a mile. His parents then abandon him on Krios, leaving him to go to Starfleet Academy on his own.</p>
<p>It takes a come-to-Kahless conversation between Ja’den and Lura to make Ja’den realize the truth there. Klingons in a rage don’t get careless—it focuses them. Klingons are used to rage, so if his father missed the bird, it means he did it on purpose. Again: charity through deceptive means that allows the person providing the charity to save face while still doing the service. Ja’den’s father missed on purpose, under the cover of rage, and then departed, which not only respected Ja’den’s wishes that the animal not be harmed, but also gave him the impetus to follow his dream and go to Starfleet Academy. But it also allowed his father to maintain his honor as a warrior.</p>
<p>That scene also gives a bit of Lura’s backstory. Her parents were part of a group of free Jem’Hadar and Klingon warriors, who apparently wandered the galaxy beating each other up or something. I’m really hoping we learn more about that group, because it sounds like a fun bunch…</p>
<p>In the end, Ja’den is able to win the debate by passionately arguing that Klingons need to be allowed to be Klingons. That when they’ve lost everything, it’s even more important to hold onto what they can hold onto, in this case, their honor, and their spirit.</p>
<p>And in the end, Ake and Vance are able to work out a way to show charity without forcing the Klingons to accept it as such. They summon Obel to Faan Alpha and declare the refugees to be trespassing in Federation space. Vance, in essence, declares war on the empire.</p>
<p>What follows is a hilariously and deliberately lame-ass space battle in which weapons fire bounces off shields with no physical damage to the ships (at one point, a damage report is given as “shields at 95%,” which I’m fairly certain is the highest that number has ever been in a line of dialogue describing shield damage), in which no one is killed, and for which the awesome Klingon leitmotif from <a href="https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-original-series-rewatch-star-trek-the-motion-picture/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>The Motion Picture</em></a> is played on the soundtrack. After only a few minutes, Starfleet surrenders. Obel declares Faan Alpha to be the Klingons’ as spoils of war.</p>
<p>Charity given. Face saved.</p>
<p>As someone who has adored the Klingons since being blown away by <a href="https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-original-series-rewatch-day-of-the-dove/">Michael Ansara’s Kang</a> and <a href="https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-original-series-rewatch-errand-of-mercy/">John Colicos’ Kor</a> on the original series, and who has written a significant amount of Klingon fiction over the decades, I absolutely loved this episode. Writing the Klingons as a broken power and reduced to being refugees is a good choice, as it shows the negative consequences of the Burn to a people we’re invested in as viewers. And it also reminds us that just reversing the Burn isn’t the complete solution for everyone.</p>
<p>One of the hallmarks of <em>Star Trek</em> has always been that the compassionate solution is preferred to the violent one. This is a lovely example of a solution that is both violent <em>and</em> compassionate—fitting for a story about Klingons, truly—and still embodying the hope for a better future that has been baked into <em>Star Trek</em> since the beginning.[end-mark]</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/tv-review-star-trek-starfleet-academy-vox-in-excelso/">Qapla’! — <i>Star Trek: Starfleet Academy</i>’s “Vox in Excelso”</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/tv-review-star-trek-starfleet-academy-vox-in-excelso/">https://reactormag.com/tv-review-star-trek-starfleet-academy-vox-in-excelso/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=838045">https://reactormag.com/?p=838045</a></p>
The day before I sat down to write this, an earthquake struck Tottori, in the region I called home for three years. At a magnitude of 6.2, it was large, but by no means devastating by Japanese standards. I messaged my friends in Yonago, and they sent reassurances alongside photos of broken dishes. “We are okay. It was very scary.”
Somewhere down the line, I chose a life that chases earthquakes. I lived in Taiwan, then California, and now Japan. However, I remain ill-prepared. I grew up in Michigan where tornado, fire, severe storm, and even shooting drills were commonplace, but I was in my mid-twenties putting on cosplay makeup for an anime convention in a Los Angeles apartment when a San Diegan friend told me that what I should be doing during an earthquake was not saying, “Oh my gosh, it’s still going?” but rather finding a sturdy doorframe to brace myself against. “Doorframes are the sturdiest places in most houses,” she told me, while the tremors rattled mascara tubes and wigs on a glass coffee table. “They taught us that in school.”
Of course, students today are taught differently, as the doorframe theory has since been widely debunked. But at least she had some inkling of what to do. It occurred to me then that while I was well-versed in the myriad ways to get a car unstuck from snow or how to manage when an inevitable snow-effect blizzard knocked out our power and toilets and faucets stopped working, I would flail helplessly during a Big One.
But truly, how much of disaster preparation is a delusion? I admire the cult classic film The Iron Giant for many reasons, including the film’s depiction of students watching a disaster prevention film about nuclear warfare. It’s a cutting satire of actual Duck and Cover videos released in the 1950s. A student is shown hiding under his desk when the bombs fall, and though the classroom is burned to a radioactive sizzle, his desk is unharmed! While this is useless advice when it comes to surviving a nuclear holocaust, friend, geophysicist, and fellow Reactor columnist Kali Wallace assures me that ducking and covering during earthquakes is sound advice, as most people are harmed due to falling objects.
While a nuclear holocaust is arguably much more challenging catastrophe to contend with than an earthquake, even in the face of death, decisive action is preferable to panic. The only thing more reassuring than taking action is, perhaps, blaming something for the disasters.
Scientific explanations aside, credit for disasters has long been given to gods or devils or the sins of many or karma. For my part, I believe the science, but enjoy the folklore, especially when it gets weird.
On this front, unsurprisingly, Japan does not disappoint. A persistent folktale originating in the 17th century claims that earthquakes are not entirely natural disasters, but rather preternatural ones caused by the wriggling of Namazu, an enormous catfish who dwells beneath the earth. According to legend, Namazu has been held captive beneath a foundation stone at Kashima shrine in Ibaraki prefecture for centuries. Namazu becomes ornery sometimes and, if not properly guarded by the enshrined god Takemikazuchi, the big fish flings himself about and the earth trembles. (No tea, no shade, but Takemikazuchi must really be sleeping on the job, given that Japan’s Meteorological Society clocks in around 1,500 earthquakes annually.)
Japan, which has one of the world’s most advanced earthquake detection systems, known globally as the EEW (Earthquake Early Warning), has toughened its responses after centuries of earthquakes wreaking havoc—but there are no preventative measures to be taken against the human imagination.
Today, I am writing about a little anime girl who, since the ‘80s, has sometimes been blamed for earthquakes.
Birth of a Mythology: The Ballad of Minky Momo
Credit: Ashi Productions
Magical Princess Minky Momo, in many ways, was a pioneer in the mahou shoujo (magical girl) subgenre. Beginning in March of 1982, the series aired on TV Tokyo on Thursdays at 5:55 pm, an ideal timeslot to snag the attention of kids after school. Magical Princess Minky Momo is credited with being the first magical girl anime to incorporate animal mascots, which have since become a genre staple. Her transformation sequence, which paired music to her movements, was also groundbreaking, and the series is said to have directly inspired Creamy Mami (I know, I know, these names are… something), which maintains a devoted fanbase even today.
Minky Momo is undeniably cute, if generic in appearance—pink hair, yellow ribbon, blue dress. She is not of Earth, but hails from a sky-kingdom known as Fenarinarsa; writer Takeshi Shuto adapted the mouthful of a place name from a musical he wrote in high school called The Man from Finalinasa, after realizing “Finalinasa” would be difficult for Japanese speakers to pronounce. Fenarinarsa is home to countless copyright-free fairy tale characters, and Momo and her three animal companions are directly inspired by Momotaro. Fenarinarsa is in danger because it can only remain in Earths’ orbit if people on Earth have hopes and dreams, which, erm, was surprisingly tough during the ‘80s bubble economy. So Minky Momo goes to Earth and, like Superman, moves in with a childless couple. From then on, she uses her magic powers to transform into a teenage version of herself that, à la Barbie, takes on different roles in order to solve life’s problems and bring happiness to human beings. She’ll be your vet, your hairdresser, your police officer, whatever you like!
Schmaltzy? Yes. Typical of the subgenre? Yes, at that point in time. Harmless? Probably, and I am not one to disdain programming intended to motivate children to do good deeds. It is all too easy for the world to dismiss the things girls like as empty and worthless, and I do not doubt that its target audience found much to love about the anime, which had high-quality animation and a heroine worth admiring. Kids are not cynical, jaded old weebs like yours truly.
Of course, inspiring little kids was not the real intention of the people paying for the show, and when Minky Momo merchandise failed to meet market goals, toy company Popy pulled sponsorship. When that happened, the show was destined for cancellation.
The creative team behind Minky Momo accepted this defeat with a decided lack of grace. No, Minky Momo did not go quietly into that soft night. Instead, in a clear act of vengeance as petty as it is iconic, the show’s creators decided to murder Minky Momo. Her cause of death? An early, unforgettable example of Truck-kun. Minky Momo saves a child in the road, only for a truck full of toys to barrel right through her. Cut to a shot of her gravestone, complete with a funeral portrait.
Credit: Ashi Productions
In short? A lighthearted children’s TV program ran over its young protagonist and cut straight to the graveyard way back in 1983. Eat your heart out, Game of Thrones.
Now, Shuto claims this gruesome ending was always on the table just in case funding was pulled, but come on. The murderous truck was full of toys. A statement was being made.
…And then immediately retconned, because Popy reinstated funding to Minky Momo in order to sell a dragon-themed pair of scissors that they already had in production. Ashi Productions agreed to shoehorn a dragon character into the show. And so, within minutes of her death scene, Minky Momo was reincarnated as a human baby.
Ashi must have been a real rollercoaster of an office environment in this era. The dragon character, called Kajira, was beloved by no one involved in production. His role was to bite and eat everything and repeatedly say only his own name, but mostly to sell those damn scissors.
All of this makes for an amusing romp through weird ‘80s anime lore, and it isn’t hard to see the animators as punchy rebels in this scenario—at least until they doubled back. Animators are often overworked and unappreciated and have every right to protest. However, writing this piece has made me consider another perspective (I am a sentimental creature, and I will not apologize)…
The scenario becomes much less funny when you consider the little girls at home who probably loved Minky Momo and her adventures and watched her death unfold onscreen in abject horror. The resentment animators rightfully felt (and still feel) toward their officious overlords aside, growing up is tough, man. I wonder if Minky Momo was to some Japanese kids what Artax from The NeverEnding Story was to so many Americans. Her death may have been a formative experience.
I have written before about anime’s treatment of girls, both the good and the bad, but truck-kun doesn’t get the final word this time. Nor does the toy company, or the production company, or the show’s disturbing and unintended popularity among the burgeoning lolicon subculture at the time. Minky Momo’s legacy would continue on, albeit in odd and unexpected ways.
Perhaps it was the weird dichotomy between innocence and adulthood that motivated audiences to see further darkness in the series. A show that ended so violently is probably more sinister than it appears, they reckoned… whatever the reasoning, someone, somewhere, observed a bizarre connection between episode 46, “The Day the Magic Died,” and the trembling of the earth, and a legend was born.
The Curse of Minky Momo
Credit: Ashi Productions
Centuries after stories of catfish causing earthquakes became commonplace in Japan, the would-be final episode of Minky Momo aired, accompanied by a superimposed onscreen alert that an earthquake had struck the Kanto region. Viewers at the time joked that Minky Momo had used her magic to take revenge for her unjust demise.
Once is a joke, but when the same coincidence happens twice, things start getting weird. Later that year, on May 26th, the 1983 Sea of Japan Earthquake devastated the Tohoku region when the resulting tsunami caused 104 deaths. This earthquake occurred within hours of the broadcast of “Don’t Say Goodbye,” the final episode of Minky Momo. It is probably here that the urban legend really began taking root.
And the coincidences continued. During a rebroadcast of the series in 1989, an earthquake struck Aomori the day episode 46 aired. And then, in 1995, the Kobe earthquake, a truly catastrophic disaster, coincided with another rebroadcast of Minky Momo’s death. At least 5,000 people died, and the city of Kobe still bears the marks of its impact. I have met people who remember the quake and still shudder when recalling it.
I wonder if it was at this juncture that the discourse changed from, “Minky Momo is cursing us!” to “Minky Momo is trying to warn us!” Because all these curse allegations haven’t led to depictions of Minky Momo as a villain—if anything, she is seen as a girl fighting to defend the earth, even as her murder is seen as the cause of so much destruction.
Japan is a nation that experiences multiple earthquakes a day, and I am not a superstitious person. But I am fascinated by the stories that shape our world, like so many horror and fantasy fans. The supernatural is compelling regardless of your belief in it—while I think the obvious answer to the Minky Momo/earthquake question is that correlation is not causation, at the same time, I love this legend for all kinds of reasons, not least of which is this: the senseless death of a little girl at the hands of her creator should not go unnoticed.
What does it mean to mythologize a fictional character?
The curse of Minky Momo reminds me of other modern characters that have been linked with tragedy. In 2014, two fourteen-year-old girls attempted to murder a friend as a sacrifice to the creepypasta character Slender Man. The man who murdered John Lennon cited The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield as an inspiration, the first of several instances in which the book was reportedly carried by disturbed individuals who committed acts of violence.
I am never one to blame entertainment media for violence, to be clear—it’s much too slippery a slope, and far too big of a discussion to begin unpacking here. But the sway a fictional character can have on the human psyche is fascinating. I would argue that far more characters have provided positive inspiration throughout history. This is never as newsworthy as specific instances of violence or tragedy, of course, and feels like a more amorphous catch-all: Yes, kids are inspired by Peter Parker and Sailor Moon and Luffy, and we do not question that. We rarely seek reasons for goodness, but we always seek reasons for evil.
But earthquakes and human beings are not the same. An earthquake’s tremors, even if caused by a grumpy catfish, are not selfish actions, but mindless seismic activity. It is fascinating that we continue to anthropomorphize forces of nature to this day, but pairing up the violent, uncontrollable shaking of the earth with an anime girl somehow feels especially human of us. I don’t believe in the curse, but I do admire its tenacity, and what it says about the power that stories have over our world.
On this front, I want to end this with one more fact about Namazu. Despite the chaos he inflicts on Japan, the giant catfish is not actually seen as a villainous monster. In fact, he is viewed a little bit fondly by the public, and not only because he has cute whiskers.
In the years before billionaires could flee on their private jets, earthquakes were a unique equalizer. Earthquakes were as devastating to the wealthy as they were for the poor; the wealthy, of course, had far more land and assets to lose. In the wake of a disaster, their wealth might be redistributed among the poor. This giant catfish has something in common with Robin Hood: Just as the tides of public opinion turned Minky Momo into a harbinger of a coming disaster rather than the cause, in the Edo period Namazu gradually came to be credited with decimating the ill-gotten gains of overbearing feudal lords.
For all that the world is unfair to creatures both real and fictional, I find this tendency—to shift our perspective from fearing a curse to embracing a gift—a hopeful aspect of being human. Life is very unfair right now, and likely to remain that way. So I’ll cling to whatever peculiar justice stories have to offer for as long as the world allows art to exist.
But hey, after A WEEK I have a new passport! - their website says may take up to three weeks, so I am very impressed with this. Also have the old one back (sent separately). The photo of course strongly resembles a headshot from a C19th volume of an institution for the criminally insane at which the head doc had taken to photography and theories of physiognomy, but don't they always?
***
In the world of spammyity-spam-spam:
Really, I am quite tempted to 'deliver an oral talk' (? as opposed to doing a presentation in the form of interpretative dance?) at the 13th International Congress of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (ICGO-2026 Asia) as it's in Kyoto: 'adorned with early autumn foliage, offering a serene backdrop for academic exchanges, you’ll have the chance to experience traditional tea ceremonies, stroll through ancient bamboo groves, and engage with a city that values both heritage and scientific progress'.
But am not at all tempted (more DESTROY THIS WITH FIRE & EXTREME PREJUDICE) by this solicitation:
Imagine if, instead of being buried in PDFs, your work could answer questions directly, 24/7. Not just to students, but to anyone curious, anywhere in the world. When corporate companies, grant providers, grad students, journalists ask AI about your field, they get up to date info and not outdated summaries. Today, your Google Scholar profile just sits there. No one can ask it questions. No one can discover the depth of your work through AI search. AI is becoming the new search engine for expertise. And academics are invisible. We built something to fix this. Your own .cv domain. LLM optimized. SEO optimized. Analytics. Branded URLs. Digital Chat Twin.
AAAAARRRGGH.
Ask ME the questions, please. Because, and I quote, 'No one can discover the depth of your work through AI search'. Many a true word.
***
And, in fact, this week has been quite the flurry of that Dr oursin being relevant - apart from query on scholarly listserv which was well in my wheelhouse but had me going 'would be helpful to indicate what reading - apart from google search - you had done before asking for suggestions' -
Request to referee a paper on topic on which I am somewhat reluctantly considered a Nexpert, for journal in an area in which I am not.
Query from researcher about sources for a possible project of theirs.
Invitation to go and talk about the History of 'Engines of Love' (as the condoms found in William Empson's college rooms were described) in connection with an exhibition in the summer.
Have also had agreeable email exchanges with Elderly Antiquarian Bookseller friend.
***
On the downside, printer is acting up, doing both being fussy about toner cartridge AND thinking there's a paper jam in Tray 1. Sigh.
Time of the Great Freeze cover art by Brinton Turkle
Speculative fiction writers have imagined countless different ways that the world could end—from fairly realistic options (such as nuclear war or a super flu) to rather more implausible scenarios (like zombies). But we’re in the depths of winter right now, here in the north, so I’ve been feeling drawn to stories set during a frozen apocalypse.
Below are a couple of books, a short story, a movie, and a TV series which explore the possibility of a frozen Earth. The cause of the planet’s deep freeze is different in each of the stories—and one is an apocalyptic tale that is simply set during the winter months—but they all result in a stark, dangerously chilly landscape.
The 10-year-old narrator of “A Pail of Air” lives a very sheltered life—literally. Along with his Pa, Ma, and younger Sis, he lives in a small shelter (essentially a glorified blanket fort) that they call the Nest. A few years earlier, the Earth was ripped out of its orbit and as it careened away from the heat of sun, the gasses in the atmosphere froze and fell to the ground in snowy layers.
Every so often, one of the family members has to venture outside in protective gear to gather a bucket of oxygen to replenish the Nest’s air supply. It’s during one of these excursions that the boy sees a woman in a nearby building—something that surely isn’t possible, given that everyone on Earth is dead aside from his family.
Despite the story’s short length, Fritz Leiber manages to craft a detailed picture of how such a catastrophic event could impact life on Earth—not only that, but he also manages to make a compelling philosophical case for why survival on such a cold and dead planet is worth fighting for.
Time of the Great Freeze is set in 2650, which is a few hundred years after the Earth entered an ice age due to cosmic dust blocking out the sun. Millions of people sought refuge in purpose-built underground tunnels across the world, with the plan being to (hopefully) wait out the cold.
But the passing centuries have led to these subterranean cities becoming increasingly insular, so when a group of New Yorkers detect that the temperature has risen slightly and suggest exploring the surface, they’re cast out as traitors. With far less preparation than expected, the group strikes out across the ice in the hope of making it to a similar city near London with which they’ve made radio contact.
This is a pulpy and plot-driven adventure story at heart. The characters admittedly aren’t all that well differentiated or developed, but the real draw is the exploration of the frozen landscape itself and the encounters with people and animals that have managed to eke out an existence there.
The cause of the apocalypse isn’t known in Moon of the Crusted Snow, but whatever it was results in a power blackout. Although this apocalypse doesn’t lead to the planet freezing over, the story is set during the winter months in an Anishinaabe community in northern Canada, so there’s plenty of snow and ice.
The First Nations community already lives at a distance from mainstream society so they’re shielded from some of the chaos that erupts down south—a glimpse of which the reader sees when two college students manage to return home. Although the community is in for a rough winter, they’re used to being intermittently cut off due to bad weather so they have some food and fuel stores. But that preparedness—paired with their remote location—makes them a target for outsiders.
Moon of the Crusted Snow is a slow and contemplative read. But although the end of the world might not seem as imminent here as in other stories, there’s still plenty of tension to be found.
Snowpiercer currently exists in three formats: There’s the 1982 graphic novel written by Jacques Lob and illustrated by Jean-Marc Rochette, a 2013 film directed by Bong Joon Ho, and a TV series that ran from 2020 to 2024. My favorite version of this story is the movie, so that’s the one I’m going to focus on.
The world is plunged into an ice age after an attempt to reverse climate change backfires. The only people left alive are on the Snowpiercer—a self-sustaining train that has been looping the globe for almost two decades. Although the train provides safety from the bitter cold outside, conditions onboard are far from perfect. While the wealthy passengers in the front carriages live a life of luxury, those in the back are forced to endure terrible conditions. This unfair system leads to a group of tail section passengers instigating a rebellion.
Bong Joon Ho manages to pull off a genre juggling act with all of his films, and Snowpiercer is no exception. It’s full of thrilling post-apocalyptic action scenes, but it’s also a thoughtful examination of class politics. It features a deeply moving and horrifying monologue from revolt leader Curtis (Chris Evans), but there’s also weird humor thanks to Minister Mason (Tilda Swinton).
Spanish-language TV series The Eternaut starts with a group of old friends playing cards and being interrupted by the sound of cars crashing outside. Not only has every car in sight come to a stop with their drivers dead at the wheel, but snow is falling—which isn’t at all common in Buenos Aires, in summer. Something is clearly going on, but anyone who steps outside to investigate keels over dead.
After sheltering in place for a short time, main character Juan (Ricardo Darín) decides to risk the weird weather in a homemade protective suit in an attempt to rescue his daughter, Clara (Mora Fisz). But while venturing through the eerie city, Juan discovers that the snow is only half of the apocalyptic problem.
The Eternaut is based on a comic book series from the ’50s that was written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and illustrated by Francisco Solano López. I haven’t read the comics so I can’t speak to how the show fares as an adaptation, but I found both the setting and story compelling and plan to check out season 2 when it airs.
I’m always on the lookout for frozen apocalypse stories, so if I’ve missed any of your favorites, please feel free to mention them in the comments. I’d love to add further recommendations to my to-be-read and to-be-watched lists![end-mark]
As authoritarianism continues to take hold across the world, writers and translators are compelled to revisit an age-old question: What might art offer in response? Perhaps not answers, but something quieter and more resilient—a reminder of shared human frailty, and of the possibility that our “flow of being,” as Anatoly Loginov writes, might arrive at a “narrow neck” where attention itself […]
Summary: Théoden and Denethor hunt the elusive Slash Fairy after she makes them ... do things. Over and over. Featuring the horses of Middle Earth, with music by Fountains of Wayne, Celine Dion and Kenny Loggins.
Reccer's Notes: This month's theme is "ideas that are very, very bonkers, but approached with the utmost dedication to making it work within whatever passes for reality in that fandom." Author's dedication is key in this humorous tale of slash spreading like a glorious spready thing in the LOTR world and you'll believe that Denethor and Théoden-King need each other whether they realize it or not. The fairy is merely the mechanism. Just check out the other pairings and revel the night away! I especially liked that femmeslash was included, and also horses.
Review copy provided by the publisher. Also the author is a dear friend, and I read an earlier draft.
I'm so glad we're finally closing in on the day when the rest of you can talk about this delightful weird book with me. If you've been reading John's short stories for all these years, rest assured that this book has the same heart and the same absolutely fresh take on the world and its structures. If you haven't, what a treat you have ahead of you! Go forth and read!
This book, though. Okay. Ellie looks after the structure of the universe far more than most of us with physics training. She regularly visits the skunkworks, an extra-universe space that allows for tweaking and re-coding the laws of this and other universes. John puts the physics in metaphysics here--there's a whole community of people dedicated to this work in a way that's a lot more like a branch of engineering, architecture, or software design.
Unfortunately, most of that community has been poisoned against her by her self-righteous, violent, and gaslighting-prone sister Chris. And when their mother dies, Ellie is left scrambling against changes in the laws of physics themselves. She's not sure who she can trust. Thank goodness for her hulking cousin Daniel, the most food-focused metaphysician you'll ever meet.
So yeah, you'll be intrigued, you'll be hooked, but you will also be hungry. Maybe it's that John and I have similar taste in food (the bao! the brussels sprouts! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THAT EGG TART, CHU), but I was on the edge of my seat mostly to find out how Ellie and Daniel would beat Chris's machinations but also a tiny bit to see what food item Daniel would come up with next. I always knew that cooking was crucial to the maintenance of space-time. Soon the rest of you can see why. Highly recommended.
The second attempt at a present for my mother has arrived Several Whole Days before I am next going to see her! Hurrah! (About ten days after I'd received a notification that the previous attempt was ready to ship, and I'd be hearing more from the courier Drekly, I... realised I had heard nothing more from the courier. Apparently the parcel evaporated, but the company sent the order back to the workshop as a priority job...)
I successfully exchanged blood for a bowel prep kit! The blood results have not yet shown up in the NHS app, but fingers crossed for them coming through... drekly.
Allotment! Post-bloods I took myself to the plot to empty the compost pail, and accidentally did a whole pile of weeding, thereby establishing that the garlic chives have overwintered successfully (thus far) even if they're looking a bit bedraggled; that I do in fact have a lot of garlic I failed to harvest last year that's coming up merrily now (which I am contemplating redistributing in aid of maybe getting bigger bulbs out of it...); and that there are going to be So Many Beetroot. (Largely self-seeded.) (I did accidentally eat some of the garlic chives, Contra Bowel Prep Instructions, because apparently I Ought Not Be Trusted At The Allotment when I'm on a low-residue diet, BUT I successfully did NOT eat ANY of the spinach or rocket or lamb's lettuce.)
I consolidated enough of my Book Piles to unearth the coffee table! AND THUS we have begun a puzzle, which I am greatly enjoying.
Tinned pears. Tinned pears are always a Treat that is a Small Luxury, and they are especially so this week. ...it is possible that I am going to go through my entire stash.
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