Five Awesome Robots: Cameron

Cameron, from Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is another awesome robot.

Derek and Kyle Reese

Terminator: The Sarah Chronicles expanded on Kyle Reese's family tree. Now I admit this is a little strange that Derek (Kyle's older brother) was never mentioned and so comes out of nowhere. It's just like: Hi, I'm here!

But the character more than makes up for that fact. Derek is interesting and seeing him struggle with being in the present and having lost his brother provides interesting sub-plots is good story telling.

The big thing with Derek is that he has a strong connection to his brother. Hell, one of the reasons he decided to go back in time was to make sure his brother didn't die. That takes some strength to leave the world you know behind for something unknown.

I really think I love strong family bonds in fiction because I never felt I had a strong family bond with any of my family, really. So when I see a story where a sibling goes through a lot to rescue another sibling it is really nice to behold.

Kyle is the more pure of the brothers. He's the one that Derek looks after. Sarah Connor even remarks that even when Kyle got angry he still had some brightness to his eyes.

However, Derek is at the opposite end of the spectrum and it's probably one of the big reasons why I prefer him. He can go dark and is the more protective of the pair. He feels like it is his duty to look after Kyle.

I really wish that we got to see more of Kyle and Derek working together at brothers. All we have to go on about the brothers' relationship is flashbacks from Derek and what Derek said about Kyle. What if the reality was different? What if their relationship was strained? What if...

Hell, a Season 3 would've given us answers since John Connor and Catherine Weaver traveled to the future. The cancellation of TSCC robbed me of more Kyle/Derek moments!

Catherine Weaver's Allegiance

One of the bad things about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC) being cancelled was that there were a shit load of questions left unanswered. Now I'm aware some series end on a cliffhanger on purpose (looking at you, Animorphs), but this wasn't the case for TSCC.

One of those unanswered questions was who Catherine Weaver is really loyal to. Now some people may think that she has to be a good guy as the plot twist in the finale points to that. But that's really not the case. There is no clear answer as to whether her ultimate goal is to help John Connor past his usefulness to battle Skynet.

Let's look at what has been shown in the series:

In Weaver's backstory we see that she was going to be asked by John to join the Resistance. She was put in a case to prevent her from escaping. When she was let out by unsuspecting Resistance fighters she didn't show any regret in killing them. So she isn't loyal to the Resistance as a whole.

And why was she put in a case in the first place?

Was it just a test by the Terminators Against Skynet?

Or are the Terminators Against Skynet split into groups themselves? Some having different end goals than others?

Maybe one group of the Terminators Against Skynet decided that the Resistance should have the help of the T-1001 but didn't want to leave it to chance. So they would lock her up in the case and then she'd be let out at a place where it would be either she joins or dies?

When Catherine Weaver is in present day she does seem to relate to humans but also puts John Henry's well being above her 'daughter's'. Near the very end of the finale, Weaver says for James to take care of Savannah but earlier in the series she made a remark that Savannah came second to Henry. So Savannah had only a limited time of being useful before it didn't matter if she died.

From a story Jesse Flores tells Derek Reese in Season 2, it is my headcanon that Weaver rescues Derek at one point and so Derek knows what she is but hasn't told anyone. He hasn't even told Jesse.

So Weaver being a good guy isn't certain. All that is certain is that she's against Skynet which means she may be okay with John dying once he's not useful to her anymore.

Sayings Sundays (March 23, 2014)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is one of those shows that deserved so much more than it got. It only got two seasons when it deserved so much more. It is one of the big reasons I became a Terminator fan.

The show follows the adventures of Sarah Connor, John Connor, Cameron, and Derek Reese as they try to stop Judgement Day from happening. It's the one non-James Cameron pieces in the franchise that is adored by the majority of Terminator fans.

The quote I chose this week is said by Derek Reese about Cameron (aka the good Terminator of the series, except for one episode). Throughout the majority of the series the two are at odds. It is most likely that Cameron is the Terminator that tortured him in the future and so he hates her. Also is the fact that he generally loathes Terminators in general.

Hey, he's a fighter of the Resistance so that mindset is to be expected.

And here is another Within Temptation song. Hey, they're a good group so expect more of their songs in the future.

When I heard the song 'Iron' I thought that it matched Rachel. The song is basically the singer talking to a person who needs to fight and can't change the fact. That's Rachel.

Rachel, of course, being from the Animorphs series by K.A.Applegate.

Many people confuse Rachel as just someone who loves bloodshed and can't live without the war with the Yeerks. What they often forget is that many times throughout the series she questions herself. She doesn't just fight without thinking, she fights and questions how much she has changed.

I think this song fits her perfectly for that aspect.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 1 Review (Parts 3 & 4)

I review the next three episodes in Season 1. Derek Reese finally appears!

Shipping Confessions: Jesse Flores x Riley Dawson (TSCC)

Again we find ourselves at the doorsteps of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. There are just so many reasons to come back to this show. As this is another edition of Shipping Confessions, we are looking at yet another non-canon ship from this masterpiece of a television series.

I say that I like femslash because I find myself attracted to femslash pairings easier than slash or heterosexual ships. I don't mean that I have more femslash pairings than any other kind of pairing, just that there is something special I feel towards femslash pairings. I don't fetishize these kinds of pairings to the point it affects my perception of real people, like some others do.

I never bought into the relationship between Jesse Flores and Derek Reese. The pairing made Derek dumber just so the pairing would work. However, I can't deny that it's a canon ship. But who I pair Jesse with in the show is not canon and yet works so much better.

I pair Jesse up with Riley Dawson. Not because they are two girls but because they fit so nicely together.

This is a ship in which only one of the pairing holds any real power. Jesse Flores is that person. She is a conniving woman that isn't afraid to do the darkest things in order to see her plan completed. Jesse decides to go back in time with Riley Dawson in a plot to have John Connor kill/destroy Cameron.

While Jesse x Derek is canon I believe she does not really love the older Reese boy. I think it is the fact that she is using him that she gets worried about him not being with her. Any feelings she had for her Derek (Jesse and Derek are from two different timelines, long story short) were lost when she decided to enact her plan.

Jesse has a great hatred for Terminators and so didn't like how close Cameron got to John Connor in her future. So destroying an influence that pushed the Resistance in the wrong direction was something Jesse didn't mind doing. However, she forgot that Cameron and John were both close and the Terminator put John in the center of her universe.

Riley Dawson was basically a nobody in the Resistance and Jesse chose her. It would seem that Jesse chose Riley for no other reason than she thought the girl would be attractive to John and didn't question authority.

In other words: it would seem as though Jesse thought of Riley as nothing more than a weakling.

However, there is some part of Jesse that wants to drop the facade and abandon her plan. There was something else to her choosing Riley to be part of her plan than just to be attractive to John. She chose Riley because the girl was also attractive to her.

Riley Dawson is a pitiful character. She is one that doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the Terminator Universe. I think this makes her unlikable to a lot of the Terminator fanbase as well as to the Jameron (John Connor x Cameron) Shippers.

To me, though, I just she her as pitiful. I think she accepted not because she's a weak character, but because she felt attracted to Jesse. Here's a good looking woman telling Riley she wants the girl to come with her. So Riley follows.

Riley stays with Jesse partly because she is weak and being abused by the older woman, but also because she loves Jesse. Riley must sense that Jesse isn't as open to a relationship as she is, so she acts like a good little girl. She follows the plan.

Riley never loves John, but pretends to because she loves Jesse. She believes that if she follows the plan Jesse will love her. There is at least one point where she was physically abused and another point where she just loses it. But she handles it all because she loves Jesse and believes there is no one else that can love her.

The scene where Jesse kills Riley is just full of tension. Riley has found out that Jesse's plan revolves around Cameron killing Riley. So Riley goes to Jesse because she feels betrayed. Riley feels so betrayed and so lost that death is the only way out.

The woman she loved was willing to sacrifice her. Riley had also been thinking of suicide (including one scene where she cut herself in the bathroom) because she just could not handle there being a Judgement Day. That what she had seen in the future was going to happen again.

So when Jesse killed her she was happy. Because if she couldn't have Jesse, at least she didn't have to live in a world that she was terrified of.

Jesse didn't like killing Riley. She only did it because of her warped sense of duty. She had to kill Riley or the girl would tell John about the plan. After she kills Riley, Jesse pauses before she takes the body out. Jesse knows she loves Riley and is disgusted at herself for what she did.

Jesse even swims at the pool her and Riley used to go to. While this may seem cruel, it is probably Jesse's way of dealing with the guilt. She recalls why she did what she did and feels close to Riley.

Jesse and Riley don't have a perfect relationship by any stretch of the imagination. Both have faults that ultimately destroyed both of them, but they did love each other. They both cared about each other. It's just neither could do what was necessary for them to find peace with each other.

Jesse is my least favorite TSCC character and Riley is despised by most of the fandom. However, I like Jesse only as she relates to this ship and believe Riley is given much more hate than she deserves.

What is up for the next Shipping Confessions? We go into the show Revolution and explore a type of pairing that some people might consider "gross" and "perverted". But I consider okay since it's in the realm of fiction.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 1 Review (Parts 1 & 2)

I go over the first three episodes of the season.