overheard in the office and other things

[tielan]

Someone's talking about BSG - at least, I think they are; I'm pretty sure they referenced Adama's stabbing at the end of Season 1? And then...segued into Lucifer (perhaps?) - I've never watched Lucifer, so I don't know what's the connection.

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Apparently my stomach is not satisfied with my breakfast this morning. It wants more...

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Is it weird that I can never read one of Obama's social media tweets or messages without actually hearing it in his voice, speaking in his cadences?

(That's as close to any well-wishing for the 4th July as you're going to get.)

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Query: can you think of a pop culture reference to an experiment that produced a monster, but the monster looked okay on the outside until it started doing things and then it was downright awful? My brain's first thought was 'Frankenstein's monster' but the creature seems to have been ugly on the outside and mostly badly socialised.

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Feeling down in the dumps right now. Mostly tired, I think.

Comments

[eggsbenedict]

HAL-9000? Gremlins? XD

[tielan]

The problem with both HAL and Gremlins are that they're non-human. I was looking more for a human-ish example - something that people would start off identifying with before they pull back.

[eggsbenedict]

Ah, I guess I don't really think of... humanoid shapes first when I see "monster".

And blegggh, hope you haven't gotten the bug that's going round. Here's to a better weekend!

[the_rck]

Possibly Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? I can't recall if the Mr Hyde part looked terrible or not, but I'm almost certain Dr Jekyll was normal in appearance.

[tielan]

Hm, I can't remember how Hyde looked.

[edenfalling]

Dorian Gray? Not quite a monster, but the whole point there is that he looked fine on the outside because his portrait absorbed the "ugliness" of his actions.

[tielan]

Oh, yes, Dorian Grey - of course...

[escriveine]

Almost every super-soldier ever (no, not you, Cap!) follows the 'looks okay, then goes berserk' model. A recent example would be Will Simpson and other recipients of Kozlov's Combat Enhancement drugs in Jessica Jones.

Come to think of it the MCU is chock full of that sort of thing: humans who were either predisposed to mental instability or went to the dark side after, say, being exposed to Terrigen or going through Stryker's lab and gaining non-obvious abilities. Or getting merged with a Symbiote at the Life Foundation (Eddie/Venom, or better yet, Drake/Riot). The Hulk probably also fits the bill.

Outside of the MCU, you've got brainwashing subjects like the Manchurian Candidate. I don't know that Dorian Gray counts as an experiment, but there was definitely external intervention to give a lovely veneer to a monster.

[tielan]

One of my first thoughts was Schmidt turning into the Red Skull.

[theladyscribe]

The evil robot in Metropolis, though it was meant to be evil from the start. The reference might be too old/obscure for what you want, though if it's Steve Rogers-related, it'd be perfect.

[tielan]

Surprisingly, not Marvel related at all! :)

[velithya]

My immediate thought of monsters that look nice but are evil was Glory from Buffy but then she wasnt an experiment that produced a monster, so doesnt really fit. Hmmmm.

[tielan]

The experimental part is more to do with the way that people reference it: "The Great Experiment".