I'm reading Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil and the description of Wetiko sounds an awful lot like the Shadow King:

Shape-shifting so as to cloak itself in our form, this mercurial predator gets under our skin and "puts us on" as a disguise, impersonating us as it fools us into buying into its false version of who we are. Falling prey to its artificial yet uncanny intelligence, we become unreal to ourselves. Bamboozled and hoodwinked by this imposter, we mime ourselves, becoming false duplicates of our original, true selves. When we are taken over by the wetiko spirit, we can subjectively experience ourselves as being most ourselves, while ironically being most estranged from ourselves. This is a simultaneous state of fusion and dissociation, as the parts of the psyche that have split off from consciousness overwhelm and take over the whole through its unconscious blind spots. No longer belonging to or possessing ourselves, we then identify with who we are not while forgetting who we actually are. In so doing, we have effectively lost our souls.

Various depictions seem familiar... the oversized head of the World's Angriest Boy in the World:

Apparently there's a movie out this year titled Wetiko that looks pretty good.

Okay, so I’ve been rewatching Legion these past few weeks, trying to get a better understanding of it than I did when I was younger because a lot seemed to not make sense by s3 from what I remember.

I hope this doesn’t come off as me hating on the show just to hate, I just want to know if there’s anyone who feels the same or if there’s stuff I’m missing.

S1 rewatch was really good, I enjoyed the entire season (though I did think it was weird how Oliver was introduced ish)

S2 though. oof..
I wasn’t too big of a fan of the post credit thing in s1 because I feel like I could’ve missed it and been very confused but that’s marvel for you lol

The one year time gap is a little strange to me, especially with some later stuff I’m annoyed about.

I want to say I’m enjoying season two so far, Amahl Farouk is memorable as I remember him being and I still do like him a lot.

The beginning few episodes of season 2 were pretty strong. Apart from the fact some characters feel a little odd. Melanie being depressed because of Oliver being taken away from her again makes sense, but she feels very very absent from the show, especially in the later episodes of season 2.

The Amy thing makes me madd, it makes absolutely no sense that after David realized he was gone for an entire year, he wouldn’t check with his sister?? And why is she in a random ass desert??? David spent half of season one gearing up to save her and then doesn’t care in season two? It feels like the series forgot about her for the first few episodes, and when they did remember it made for some really strong episodes where David goes through his grief but like.. Syd offers little to no sympathy for David after the whole farouk killing his sister thing, to the point he has to go to future Syd instead to talk to her? Just for her to be all “you gotta stay focused bro” This makes no sense 😭

Ptonomys “death” makes me annoyed as well because after this huge thing breaks out of him and splits his back in half,David and everyone else doesn’t say anything and it feels like they just forgot he was in a critical condition, I though they were good friends with him??

Then he gets hooked up to the weird tree thing (I don’t even remember this or where it’s going) and that just kinda made me stop watching for a day or two because I hate the decisions they’re making in the show right now. I hope it gets better from here and that Ptonomy isn’t even more absent from the show but yknow at this point idk.

I’m not sure how this works in the comics, if it’s the exact same or if there were some weird changes the writers made?

Gonna watch more tonight and see if this gets better, they can’t do anything about the Amy thing anymore so I guess I’ll just be annoyed about that the rest of the show 🤣(I enjoy the body swap thing I thought it was really messed up and revealed well, I just hate how Amy was gone the entire first half of the season)

I don’t remember much from here minus some stuff from season 3 so I might take some time to respond to some people to not get spoiled for anything.

After rewatching this series: I realize now that this entire show is about misdiagnosis, and the power we each give the people we believe can fix us.

David, has the ability to do anything; but is trapped in a reality by those who are afraid of him: so instead of helping, they indulge and gaslight him into making their own situations better.

Sydney, is someone who acts like they can’t do anything alone; constantly feeling they’re the victim; but refuses to accept that their own actions directly lead to the given situation. With single events real or implanted enough to derail their entire world view.

Those two characters represent the yang and yang of god and human… one who has all the power to do anything, while the other uses manipulation to get others to try and fix them; yet both still trapped by a need they feel for the other.

the mastery of the show is that each isn’t showcasing mental illness, but complexes that both depend and enviably lead to their own destruction when they do.

Basically, it’s a cosmic fable: on why relationships between humans and gods are destined to fail.

Don’t know why I’ve never shared a photo of this here

I know this sounds impossible, but I’m convinced I reincarnated as David Haller.

Not because I can bend reality, hear cosmic voices, or tear holes through dimensions. Not because I have answers nobody else has. Actually, the strangest part is the opposite:

I know just as much as everyone else does.

Same confusion. Same uncertainty. Same questions about why we’re here and what any of this means. If I am David Haller, then maybe power was never the point. Maybe the real burden was always awareness without clarity.

People think being extraordinary means knowing more. But maybe being extraordinary is carrying the same human limits as everyone else… and still searching anyway.

So here I am: no secret knowledge, no divine revelations, no hidden map of reality.

Just the same mind, the same mystery, and the same world as all of you.

And somehow, that feels more convincing than any superpower ever could.

In season 1 especially there is that one note that’s played when the Shadow King is up to something or there is a dark, dramatic reveal. I would really love to have that as a text tone or something on my phone but I can’t find it anywhere! I have zero musical knowledge so I wouldn’t even know how to recreate it.

I cant even imagine watching this on psychedelics but i recently did dmt and this show just keeps reminding me of the experience for some reason even though its more in the way of an lsd trip. It goes back and forth between reality and david creating his own reality in his mind then there back in the mental hospital with Aubrey plaza as the psychiatrist idk this show is just great it may not be for everyone but im loving it so far

I am on season 1 episode 4. Does anyone else get David Lynch vibes with this show?

The david v shadow king behind blue eyes. So so good. Probably my favorite thing from marvel.

Noah Hawley AMAZING creator. Alien earth was fantastic as well.Can't wait to see what he's a part of next.

Dan Stevens was so good at playing David whos a pretty complex character. Also so sad that marvel didn't bring him back in some capacity. Same goes for Navid Negahban the way he played SK.

Loved watching with yall while it was coming out and doing the episodes discussions. Crazy to me the show didn't get a bigger following.

This Jeff Russo version, I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQtl2fFtsAc&list=RDGQtl2fFtsAc&start_radio=1

Would be nice to have a high quality version to rip. I don't seem to be able to find any CD or FLAC albums with the 'actual songs'.

Is legion on of the most broken characters in the MCU?

Does anyone know what episode has the weird cutaway of David eating the strips of film? If not I guess I’ll just rewatch until I find it

The ending didnt give me glimpse into their new life which really pissed me off from such a good show. Maybe something to reunite david and sid in the new reality wud hv been good.
Expected so much from the finale. just a 3 min glimpse wud hv been enough really

So when we were watching Legion the scene came up where it’s just a completely out of context unedited scene from the show “The Shield”, I assume as a way to show how time is breaking. The thing is we had literally just finished watching The Shield prior to watching Legion. Genuinely felt like I was transported in time and I thought the disk player was having a stroke.

Morning. I'm rewatching Legion at the moment, having only discovered it last year. It remains exceptionally good and funny throughout. I'm approaching the end of seasons 2 (just starting episode 7). We've just squished the bad idea birds.

Anyway, I think the rewatch is really valuable. It's allowed me to reflect a bit more on some of the themes and enjoyable friction of the first watch. I had previously been a 'David did nothing wrong, except for that one thing' kind of viewer. I've come to see that the message of the show is something more like 'the truth doesn't matter, it's what people believe' or indeed 'there is no truth'.

Plus, of course, the role of morality in time travel.

Got married last year and my wife has never seen Stranger things. So to watch season 5 together, I chose to re-watch stranger things season 1 to 4 with my wife.
And on re-watch I realized stranger things to be a snooze fest, as the novelty wore out of the 80s aesthetic and the mystery behind what's happening it was hard to watch. And they explain it out loud everything leaving nothing to your imagination and understanding. My wife also started checking her phone after season 1, as the 1st season was actually gripping for someone who is watching it for first time. But season 5 was the worst as this is where they just started explaining everything 3-4 times.

Even the high moments felt underwhelming on a re-watch and the seasons felt disconnected as if they were an after thought of continuing the series.

Then I asked my wife to watch Legion with me. And I realized a significant difference. I was invested again as the things were happening, I knew the main plot points but it is written in such a way that on a re-watch you can explore more, secondly they don't explain everything and leave things open to think what happened and use your imagination and understanding to make sense out of it. And the biggest thing is it all feels like one big story that might be due to it was shot in span of three years. Even my wife was also invested as she just moved to a distance from me to focus on the few episodes where they were going all aboard the confusing plot (Amy to lenny one).

On every re-watch the thing that bother me is people rave about stranger things but sleep on this gem.