S.H.I.E.L.D., Devils - Nov 29

AoS is back. Yay!

…As it does happen with this show, it did deliver on the latest episode – it introduced Hell (Dr. Strange’s Dark Dimension?); it pushed Coulson and May closer together (the two had an one-on, one-off relationship since S2); it gave much more backstory to Robbie Reyes/the Ghost Rider; it introduced senator Nadir’s InHuman brother; and etc. And?

And nothing. AoS was/is one of those shows that when its’ episodes work, they really work, and when they do not work, they really do not work. Here, in case of ‘Devils’, we got the former, but! It is a case of too little, too late: the next episode, 4x08, is the mid-season finale, meaning that the odds are that the entire S4 will be just 16, rather than 22 episodes long, are very good. ‘Course, there’s always a chance of the second half of S4 being 14 episodes long, but given the still-low ratings, I am not betting on it – we will just have to wait until 2017 to see.

As it was written before, AoS had problems, and starting from S2’s finale, AoS was unable to handle and resolve them, at least until the S3 finale. S4 is doing its’ best to have a clean break, but it has not quite succeeded in accomplishing this earlier, as I have suggested earlier. Moreover, with fewer episodes in S4 it has less space, and possibly less money, to accomplish this break as well.

Where does it live AoS with its’ S4 (and beyond)? Possibly in the same boat as the book ‘PRIMATES of the world’ by Jean-Jacques Petter and Francois Desbordes – it is a wonderful and initially impressive book, featuring numerous (nearly 300) species of lemurs, monkeys and apes on 72 colored plates, and is very aesthetically pleasing. But!

…But there is all that is too it, really. It does contain information about the primates, scientific rather than fictional, but it is generalized, unsorted, and is delivered at a compressed and rapid pace: minimum written information, maximum of illustrations and depictions. This approach is homogenous too, which makes things worse.

To be more precise, there are other guidebooks that have drawn illustrations rather than photographs; Luke Hunter’s guide to the carnivorous mammals of the world is one of them. Again, it uses drawings rather than photos, but the textual content of Mr. Hunter’s book is very different from that of Mr. Petter: it is heterogeneous – the textual entries are clearly of very differing lengths, as it should be. Both the snow leopard and the brown hyena, (for example), are predators and are related more closely to each other than to the grizzly bear, but they are just as different from each other as they are from the grizzly. Ergo – the entries of different lengths.

With ‘Primates’ it is different; the text is generalized as much as possible, and the format shows more creativity than common sense; I mean, you can put down the primates’ family tree in not a straightforward, back-to-front format, but rather a radial, left to right manner, but it doesn’t work as well. Or, you can sort the primates out primarily by continents rather than by infraorders, suborders and families, but it doesn’t work as well either – there is a reason why the Catarrhini are usually called the Old World monkeys and apes – they are found in both Africa and Asia; the Old World monkeys (Cercopithecidae) superfamily have subfamilies whose members are found both in Asia and Africa; while the apes’ family contain several genuses that are found in Africa and Asia as well. Mr. Petter did the best he could, but even so, he had to distribute his ‘flavor text’ about the Old World monkeys, the great apes (orangutans, gorillas and chimps), even about the Lorisoidea primates (aka the non-Madagascan lemurs) between African and Asian groups; it works, but not as well if he and Mr. Desbordes had sorted the entries evolutionary style – the lemurs, the tarsiers, (the link between the lemurs and the higher primates), the monkeys and the apes. Straightforward and simple. Mr. Hunter actually did this with the carnivores – one biological family after another, from cats to weasels. Mr. Petter and Desbordes just did not do it – well, history will judge them, if their contemporaries will not.

How does this relate to AoS? Well, as I tried to explain, ‘PRIMATES’ tried to create an aesthetically pleasant and scientific guidebook, (well, a quasi-guidebook, maybe) and failed. ‘PRIMATES’ is not much more than a picture book instead. AoS has tried to become an accessory/supplement to MCU – and failed. It tried to tackle ‘real-life’ issues in the second half of S3 (racial, international, etc.) and it did not work. S4 has new elements, but it also has a lack of any real-life issues, though it tries to do so with the InHumans as ‘the other’ in this season, but it does not really work. Of course, Marvel itself had thought that presenting Captain America (Steve Rogers) in comics as Hydra would be some sort of a clever anti-Trump statement, but it didn’t work, and just caused further friction among its’ fans.

In other words, AoS is back to being just entertainment – and for a while, (S3, S2 too), it was not even very good entertainment, and now that it has been sent to ten o’clock in the evening, things aren’t looking good for it. Yes, starting from S3 AoS tried to be good (as a TV show), but apparently it was not enough. In real life, bad guys sometimes win, and good shows are cancelled. ‘Course, being caught between the Netflix’s ‘Defenders’, who are coming up nicely, and CW’s DC ‘Arrowverse’ AoS is the underdog and it shows, especially in the ratings.

However, what about ‘Dr. Strange’? Can the latest MCU movie not help AoS and etc.?

‘Dr. Strange’ itself is primarily an entertainment movie, not unlike Disney’s ‘Moana’ that appeared in theatres not so long ago, only without ‘Moana’s’ depth. Okay, that was uncalled for, ‘Dr. Strange’ and ‘Moana’ have the same amount of depths – these days Disney owns Marvel as well. ‘Dr. Strange’ is a Disney movie with the main character become a hero, and a typical hero at that. At least CA: CW utilized the talents of its’ cast rather than special effects to carry it forth – and it worked. ‘Dr. Strange’…did not, and while it also worked, CA: CW is still the better movie by right.

Therefore: AoS is in trouble off screen, regardless of what it does on screen and things will not get better anytime soon, it especially with the midseason hiatus coming forth – this sort of thing is always bad for the ratings. Pity. 

Egyptian myths & etc take 2 - Nov 27

So the second episode of ‘The Librarians’, S3. As I expected, they continue to run amok over the Egyptian mythology – what gives? In the season’s opening, they appeared to have confused Apep with Set; now, as I suspected, they have thrown Anubis into the mix.

First, who was Anubis? Anubis was an Egyptian god of the dead; a gatekeeper and a subordinate of Osiris, who was its’ ruler. Think Charon from the Greeks, but with a good deal more of responsibilities and oomph. Unlike the various monotheists, the pagans – Egyptians and Greco-Romans at least – put their entire afterlife into the underworld, and that was okay. For the Greeks and the Romans most of their dead spent the eternity on the asphodel fields in a limbo of sorts; for the Egyptians, if you were not good enough to live in paradise, Ammut, the devourer of souls, would devour you and that would be the end. Appropriately, Ammut was a creature that was part lion, part crocodile, part hippopotamus – the Egyptians knew just what creatures they feared, and they had very healthy imagination.

…This is all very good, but what did it have to do with werewolves? The short answer is – nothing at all. The Egyptians did not have werewolves, because there are no wolves in Africa, not even in the ancient times. There are so-called ‘Ethiopian wolves’, but these are more like jackals, and jackals are the Old World’s answer to the coyote, not the wolf. They just are not as scary as wolves are, not on the obvious level at least. Basically, when ‘The Librarians’ decided to tie lycanthropy to ancient Egypt and throw good old Anubis into the mix, they had no ties with the real-life Egyptian mythology and just came with something of their own, out of the blue.

Again, this is no problem, it is just strange behavior for a normally professional and precise show – seriously, the folks over ‘The Librarians’ and TNT in general were too lazy to read Rick Riordan’s ‘Kane Chronicles’ trilogy? Who knows…?

In other news, while ‘The Librarians’ appear to be revamping their show in general, possibly for the ratings, ‘River Monsters’ (RM) is coming back in 2017. Sadly, I find much less excited about it than before. For a long while, approximately for the first six or seven seasons, RM was awesome; now, it is still very good, but it has clearly jumped the shark. JW rocks, but he has exhausted his potential in exchange for ratings, and now it shows. S8 of RM has ended with a whimper, and it was focusing on marine life, rather than the freshwater one. RM still works, obviously, but it is equally obvious that it has jumped the shark and no matter what it will do, it will be unable to change this state of affairs.

Finally, AoS is returning this Tuesday, so yay. Of course, Arrowverse is launching its’ own major four-shows ‘crossover’, so Marvel, AoS and MCU are still the underdogs in the realm of television, but perhaps the expanding ‘Defenders’ can do something about this balance…

Therefore, until next week, then!

Egyptian myths & etc - Nov 21

Last Sunday, I began to watch the third season of ‘The Librarians’ (2014). As always, it is a rather enjoyable show – much more friendly and non-conventional than most other shows that I watch on TV; the titular heroes still have to defeat various villains with teamwork, but unlike, say, ‘Blindspot’, they do it not through violence, but through thinking and brainwork, and while there is SOME angst, usually there is more humor instead.

Also, unlike AoS, the cast and crew of ‘The Librarians’ treat their characters with respect and don’t appear to be rewriting the plot on a regular basis – they are as solid as AoS would like to be, (though AoS IS cleaning up its’ act in S4 – somewhat), which is why their treatment of the Egyptian myths is rather surprising.

Or perhaps it is mistreatment instead? (Feel free to make your own pun). Right now, one of the villains that the titular heroes have to defeat is Apophis, a monster from the Egyptian mythology. Surprisingly, the crew and especially the scriptwriters of the show had confused him with Set.

Now, Egyptian mythology IS somewhat confusing: just look at Ra/Re (the archenemy of Apophis or Apep) and Horus (the archenemy of Set). Both of them are falcon-gods, both of them have solar attributes, and both are depicted as either falcons or falcon-headed humans. Both have solar attributes, both had been chief deities of ancient Egypt at some point in time, and at least for some time they formed a single deity – Horus-Re. (Or Ra). Yeah, only professional Egyptologists would be bothered to distinguish between the two gods for real at this point.

Yet, while Set has something similar with another Egyptian god – Anubis, Apep is actually NOT really a part of this confusing imagery problem – he is a giant snake that awaits Ra nightly at the Tenth Hour of the Night and Ra has to defeat him, or else the sun, and the world, is doomed. The first episode of ‘The Librarians’ S3 has a depiction of Set (or Anubis), but it is inappropriate: Apep is a giant snake without any human or humanoid features, (unlike the rest of the Egyptian deities). He cannot really be confused with Set, or Horus, or any other Egyptian god or goddess – in no small part because he was not one, but rather a demon that must be warded and worshipped against instead.

I honestly hope that ‘The Librarians’ will be able to sort this unexpected and strange confusion between Set and Apophis out in the future episode, but don’t count on it, especially as the episode 3x02 promises ‘Egyptian werewolves’ instead, which implies Anubis instead. However, you know what? This sort of Egyptian confusion does not diminish one’s enjoyment of ‘The Librarians’ and their non-standard approach to various challenges.

…Speaking of standards and standardization, this reminds me of ‘Deadliest Warrior’ (DW), and especially the third and final season. Whether we are talking about ‘Teddy Roosevelt vs. Lawrence of Arabia’ or ‘Crazy Horse vs. Pancho Villa’, you are faced with a standard, two-person team for each character – one being the book expert, and the other doing all of the hard physical work.

…This sort of thing had not diminished the enjoyment of watching DW, especially not while the show was not cancelled. However, it might have contributed to the diminished ratings and to the reasons why DW became cancelled after S3. Of course, ‘Vampires vs. Zombies’ might’ve contributed to DW’s downfall as well – but that is another story…

Finally, AoS is returning to TV on Nov 29, so keep up and be ready to enjoy the series again, for as long as it has time to left…

Gray Jay - Canada's national bird? - Nov 17

Taking a break from Pathfinder & Worldscape, let’s get back to the real world. It seems that Canada has chosen its’ national bird this week, and it is the so-called gray jay, or the whiskeyjack.

So far so good, but if you are thinking that this is a differently colored version of the blue jay, you would be wrong. The gray jay belongs to a completely different genus of corvids than the blue and the Steller’s jays do, (or the pinyon jay does, for that matter). It is a long-tailed, medium-sized bird, colored more somberly than the most other American jays are – not in blue, but in much more somber coat of different shades of gray, with some whites and blacks thrown in for contrast and variation. It has no crest either, and its appearance is more delicate and songbird-like than a blue jay’s, for example.

Moreover, like many other corvids, the gray jay is an opportunistic and resourceful bird – it lives in Canada, rather than in U.S., (well, duh), but it does not fear people, and will sometimes steal their resources without any apprehension or anxiety for itself. Basically, it is a bird analogue of the gray squirrel from eastern Canada and U.S. And – it has a sticky saliva.

Gerald Durrell had encountered this bird and wrote about it in his book ‘How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist’ – read it. It is a good book, especially for the fans of wildlife and animals. He depicted how a gray jay would take bits of food offered by him and his crew and stick it to nearby tree branches with its’ saliva. Go jay!

That said, while most of the American jays are exclusively American birds – (whether it is the blue and the Steller’s, the pinyon, or the scrub jays), the gray jay’s immediate relatives live in Asia: the Siberian jay that lives in Siberia, Russia, and the Sichuan jay that lives in Szechuan, China. Regardless of being closely related to each other, each of the three birds has a very distinctive look from the other two – they are individual species, not subspecies or any other variants, but…so what? Nowadays, there are plenty of people, never mind birds, who want to go to Canada, which brings me to my last point.

John Oliver, of whom I am normally a fan, has been in a dark place lately, since he proved to be a seer of some sort – he had foreseen not just the Cubs’ winning, but also Donald Trump, so now he, and most of the U.S. media will have to work with a president who is pointedly NOT a friend of theirs; they’d been humbled, and by whom? Donald Trump. So now John Oliver got vitriol coming out of his ears, (and so do the rest of his coworkers and counterparts), and it is understandable. But – the only reason to come to Canada if it is spring and you are a Canada goose (or a similarly Canadian bird)? Mr. Oliver, that is out of line.

Yes, as some Canadian author had written, if it was not for the American democracy, there would not be a Canadian one either, but he had also written that no one in Canada really knows how the U.S. democracy actually works. Put otherwise, U.S.A. and Canada might be neighbours, but they got two different ways of making a society work, and you know what? I am putting my foot down and saying that Canada is the better one. I am not comparing Donald to Trudeau, this is like comparing apples to oranges turned crazy, I am comparing the Canadian election to the American one: the stakes weren’t THAT lower in the former, but it was done with much more decorum than the latter, so, please excuse me, but Donald’s victory is symbolic – it’s symbolic of the fact that it was the American society in total, all social strata and variations has degraded its democracy so much; and Donald Trump – no. This is about the gray jay, and the other birds, and the fact that for once John Oliver is wrong: Canada is a fine country to live, and if you do not like the new president-elect, or any other features of the ‘new’ U.S. so badly, then it just might be the country for you.

Just listen to the gray jay and its distant blue-colored cousins: they whole-heartedly agree. 

Pathfinder: sample green martian - Nov 16

SAVAGE MERCENARYCR 1/2

XP 200

Green martian barbarian 1

CN Large humanoid

Init +1; Senses Perception +5, detect thoughts

DEFENSE

AC 14, touch 9, flat-footed 14 (+6 armor, +1 Dex, –2 rage, -1 size)

hp 17 (1d12+5)

Fort +6, Ref +1, Will +3

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee greatsword +7 (2d6+9/19–20)

Special Attacks rage (6 rounds/day)

STATISTICS

Str 23, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 6

Base Atk +1; CMB +7; CMD 16

Feats Cleave, Power Attack

Skills Climb +7, Knowledge (nature) +4, Perception +7, Survival +5, Swim +7

Languages Common

SQ detect thoughts, ferocity, fast movement, muti-armed

Combat Gearpotion of cure light wounds, potion of remove fear, alchemist's fire; Other Gear breastplate, greatsword, sling with 10 bullets, 5 gp

From the second Pathfinder/Worldscape story arc, here is a sample green martian - from Barsoom. How does it look?

Pathfinder: Sword-devil ranger - Nov 12

SWORD-DEVIL CR 19

XP 204,800

Human ranger 20

CE Medium humanoid (human)

Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +25

DEFENSE

AC 36, touch 18, flat-footed 26 (+8 armor, +3 deflection, +4 Dex, +6 dodge, +5 natural)

hp 184 (20d10+70)

Fort +20, Ref +22, Will +13

Defensive Abilities improved evasion; Immune fire (120 points), poison; Resist cold 30

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.

Melee+2 longsword +28/+23/+18/+13 (1d8+11/19–20)

Ranged oathbow +28/+23/+18/+13 (1d8+8/19–20/×3)

Special Attacks death vow 7/day (+10 weapon attack and damage)

STATISTICS

Str 22, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 14, Cha 8

Base Atk +20; CMB +26; CMD 45

Feats Bleeding Critical, Blinding Critical, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Deadly Aim, Dodge, Endurance, Improved Critical (composite longbow), Improved Initiative, Improved Precise Shot, Manyshot, Point-Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus (composite longbow)

Skills Acrobatics +15 (+19 when jumping), Climb +19, Handle Animal +12,Heal +15, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (geography) +13, Knowledge (nature) +18, Knowledge (planes) +5, Perception +25, Ride +18, Stealth +28, Survival +25, Swim +14

Languages Common

SQ avatar of vengeance, camouflage, hide in plain sight, inspiring example, second combat style, seething fury, slashing fury (longsword, short sword, dagger, rapier) swift tracker, track +10, untouchable, wild empathy +19, woodland stride

Combat Gear+1 anarchic arrows (5), boots of speed, +1 flaming arrows (5), +1 frost arrows (5), +1 shock arrows (5), +1 unholy arrows (5), potions of cure serious wounds (2), potions of delay poison (2), scroll of neutralize poison, adamantine arrows (5), purple worm poison (2), smokesticks (5), tanglefoot bags (5); Other Gear+4 mithral chain shirt, +2 longsword, oathbow (+6 Str) with 30 arrows, belt of physical might +4 (Str, Dex), cloak of resistance +5, efficient quiver, ring of protection +3, ring of sustenance, 4,195 gp

Basically, I took the 20th-level ranger from the NPC gallery and re-built them as a sword-devil from the new Worldscape comic arc. How do they look?

Real life sucks: U.S. politics' version - Nov 9

Real life sucks. I can tell it to you from a personal experience. When our cat died several months earlier this year, we had about two cases left of specialized cat food left behind – for aging cats with kidney problems. Either we could have thrown them out, or put an ad onto Kijiji and that would have been the end of that. Instead, we rode downtown to hand them over to the Toronto Humane Society in person.

Life being what it is, THS DIDN’T accept the cat food, on account of it being so specialized, but they DID ‘kindly’ offer to throw it out for us. Since we did not need it anymore, and because we were emotionally exhausted, we accepted. The food was thrown out regardless of what we did. We wasted TTC tokens on top of everything else, (and these days they are not cheap). I hate real life.

And then, on November 8^th, Donald Trump was elected the 45^th president of the U.S. Immediately, the Americans began to look into immigration to Canada, (over here), or to New Zealand (and Australia?) as soon as this morning (November 9^th). The stock market is having the next bad experience since the British Brexit, too. Life, thanks for further reinforcing my point!

Do I feel sorry for Hillary and the rest of the Clintons? Yes. However, earlier this year, I have participated in Canadian elections, albeit on a municipal level. My family was supporting a Conservative candidate, (personally, I lean more towards NDP, actually), who is something of a family friend… Okay.

Our role was fairly small: we put down promotional posts over the candidate’s neighborhood, and promoted him in there as well. And at the same time we could see firsthand the ‘chaotic optimism’, cough, that he generated, he and his aide, (sent by Mr. Harper directly, so we were told). It was a clear case of counting chickens before they hatched, and it ended in failure – not only for our friend, but for Mr. Harper too: he lost his job to Mr. Trudeau. The moral? The same thing had happened to Ms. Clinton.

There is one more thing – the mass media. According to it, Trump is a racist, misogynist, et cetera, Anti-Christ. Of course, Hillary is barely better. Thus, at least for SOME people, the LEAST disgusting candidate won. In the U.S., mass media has acquired excessively too much power over the lives of people, (including the politicians, maybe). Internet, with its’ features such as Facebook and Twitter further complicated things – it is getting next to impossible to figure out of the information is true, false, a deliberate falsehood or just some person sharing their opinion – and getting quote-mined. On November 9^th, U.S. found itself in a world very different from the one depicted by its’ mass media where the good guys always won and/or were Democrats. Now they will have to decide if the Democrats are good guys but still have lost, or they were never the good guys to begin with, or if the mass media has lied to them all along all this time. For some people, it will be tough to adjust, let us be honest.

Anything else? As people are pointing out, life goes on, even if the Democratic set of values that had been gathering power and dominance since the 1970s were checked – severely – by Trump’s election. No, no one is going to secede as it happened after the election of Abe Lincoln – maybe you remember that man – but the presidential race has torn the American society apart and putting it back together won’t be easy or simple, even if everyone wanted to, and probably not everyone does. The democracy is a very powerful political system, and its power comes from its variability, instability, changeability, and not everyone likes it, because otherwise Trump would not have been elected, but he was. Now, for the next 4 to 8 years, (unless something ELSE happens, and not necessarily for the better), he is the new president of the U.S. Real life sucks, and it always did.

…Did Hillary have to go the extra mile and lose the election to bring the point home for all of us, though?

End

Dr. Strange - Nov 4

Let us now talk about ‘Dr. Strange’ the movie. What can be said about it?

It is an origin movie. It does not talk about just Dr. Strange’s origins, but also about Mordu’s and Wong’s, in the terms of MCU. The Ancient One…yes, you can talk about whitewashing here, but after Mordu and Wong, it does not really work, (at least not in my opinion, yeah). If you want, you can say that it is an introductory movie, as opposed to ‘Captain America: Civil War’ film, where everyone knows each other, and pieces are largely fusing together to form a greater whole, rather than appearing unexpectedly, out of the blue. Alternatively, if you want, CA: CW has closed the lid on the stage 2 of MCU, while ‘Dr. Strange’ has opened stage 3.

Consequently, the plot of ‘Dr. Strange’ is more straightforward than, say, that of CA: CW. The character do not know each other at first, they are strangers to each other, not just to the audience. This is one of the movie’s main elements, and it works.

(For the record, Kaecillius, the movie’s main villain – Dormammu doesn’t count, he is more of a Galactus-type entity, and beyond good and evil, really – isn’t an OC either; in the canon, he is one of Mordu’s minions, but here Mordu isn’t evil, or at least – not yet evil; more like misguided or has a philosophy crisis; he isn’t chaotically evil as Kaecillius is, but he is just too lawful and righteous. It happens.)

Another element, of course, are the special effects. They are overwhelming and help disguise the fact that the movie’s plotline is simple and straightforward. Neither of that is bad, but, hey, special effects! Kung-Fu fighting! Magic! Surreal cityscapes! You name it! The movie got it! Including Dormammu, which is currently little more than a magical talking head! A deadly magical talking head, but still. Is anyone reminded of the titular wizard from the wonderful wizard of Oz movie? I was.

And yet, that aside, ‘Dr. Strange’ is supposed to entertain – which it does. (It IS a movie based on a comic, after all). Character-wise, Steven Strange is like Tony Stark, (the Iron Man, duh), with Christine playing the role of Pepper (sort of?). His journey from a rather arrogant arse to a selfless hero, the Sorcerer Supreme, who was willing to die, repeatedly, to save Earth from Dormammu is presented really well. Three cheers for Benedict Cumberbatch! And Wong can make a great Dr. Watson, too.

Anything else? Not really. As a movie, ‘Dr. Strange’ was a journey from point A to point B, focusing on the titular character. Everyone else, even Mordu and Wong, were secondary characters, though hopefully, Strange and Mordu will be able to become friends once more, rather than enemies, as they actually were in the comics, but still. Otherwise, it is a movie aimed exclusively at entertaining, with few connections to the real world, (thought there IS realism, of course), which is a good thing for MCU, since between the Hydra matter, the moral debates generated by the AoS TV show and even the entire Steve vs. Tony conflict, MCU doesn’t need any more controversies anytime soon. So – behold ‘Dr. Strange’, the new Marvel movie, which is quite entertaining, but – nothing else. 

S.H.I.E.L.D., Good Samaritan - Nov 2

Now then. Since the 4^th season of AoS has begun, the already low-level audience decreased by somewhere between 25 and 30 (maybe even 35) percent. Why?

One of the issues is the ‘recycling’ – and I am not just talking about how this version of Robbie Reyes seems to becoming a redeemed/redeemable version of Grant Ward, with Gabe playing the role of Thomas… and where is Thomas Ward nowadays? He is gone, as yet another sign of disrespect of the cast towards the characters. You do not see anything like that on ‘Killjoys, or ‘Blindspot’, or any of ‘Arrowverse’s’ DC TV shows, even though they are all different in regards to their format.

This disrespect is another problem of AoS – not just of the cast towards its’ characters, but towards other shows – especially ‘Agent Carter’, (AC): the Ghost Rider plotline has been heavily borrowed from AC S2, down to Isodyne and Roxxon, and – zero matter, (or whatever it is called), which infests people and turns them either into ghosts (Dr. Wilkes on AC, Lucy Bower and her posse on AoS), or into something else (Madame Masque on AC, Ely Morrow on AoS).

 Of course, there is also the issue of the occult – so far, everything in AoS S4 can still be explained by science, unlike the upcoming ‘Dr. Strange’ movie, where the point is clearly that everything CANNOT be explained by science, so – no tie-in? AoS did it in S1, but not since then. Why? Who knows?

Well, a PARTIAL reason is that there is a lot of tension behind the scenes that we do not know off – Luke’s departure has been taken with clear ill grace, and as for Hayley Atwell, (she played agent Carter in question)? So far, she is happy to star on a mystery drama show that has nothing to do with Marvel, but as I had written in the past, AC was beginning to be just as good a show as AoS was, so losing it probably hit MCU hard, so – more hard feelings?.. At the very least, there is idea scavenging, (rather than recycling) between AoS and the now-defunct AC, which just is not professional, not really.

Add to that the recycled idea of redemption, (and why they couldn’t do it with Grant, anyways?) and…a possible conflict between Chloe Bennet (Skye/Daisy) and some of the writers? The point is that Chloe was very firm that there wasn’t going to be any romance between her character and Robbie the Ghost Rider, (Gabrielle Luna), yet it doesn’t stop the writers to have the two characters continuously interact in a ‘slow-burn’ way, (and Gabe, Robbie’s brother, is right there in the midst of it). I don’t know how AoS will resolve this without either making Chloe into a liar, (which is bad), or just have any relationship between Robbie and Daisy just fizzle out, and-

It is not as bad as making Chloe into a liar would be, but it is still bad. Once Ely is dealt with, why should Robbie then stick around? Yes, a romantic relationship with Daisy is not, or will not be, the ONLY reason for him to do that, but it would certainly make things simpler – for the show. Otherwise…Robbie and Gabe will stay for the rest of the season (another 16 episodes, maybe?), say, and then they are gone?

…Well, the Reyes' brothers are recurring characters, not part of the main cast. But again, in this case, what next? There are rumors of a separate Ghost Rider TV series in the future, but where does the Ghost Rider’s eventual departure leave AoS? In the previous seasons, S.H.I.E.L.D. could always count on Hydra, (and especially Grant), to move things along; now they cannot. They got the Watchdogs, but the Watchdogs themselves come along as half-fleshed – perfect cannon fodder, but nothing else. (Yet). Hellfire/J.T. James? Does anyone know where the actor who plays him, (Whitehead), stands with AoS? Moreover, he is yet another variation of an ‘irredeemable’ character, someone like Grant or Kara, so this probably does not sit well with some audience members – after his re-appearance in S4, the show’s ratings have continued to drop…

Where does this leave AoS? In a potential conflict between cast and writers, in a dead end that heavily requires the Ghost Rider to remain and join the main team to get out, with few original ideas left, (apparently), oh, and a gape-worthy reference to SW – either Coulson IS like Han Solo, or isn’t.

Considering that Han Solo DIED in SW7, how exactly does this statement/comparison made by Jeffrey Mace, (the new director), becomes a good idea? Yes, the second half of S3 was full of the ‘guessing game’ of who will die from Hive, just as Han had died from his son, but this is S4 now, so the guessing game is over? On the other hand, will Robbie die while killing his uncle Ely? Does anyone have an idea?

That said, in a certain way SW is appropriate in regards to the AoS – just like S4 of AoS, SW7 relied way too heavily on the past movies to make itself work – the new, upcoming films are supposedly going to be more original than SW7 was. As for SW7, this reliance on the past did not undo it, as it did to the new Ghostbusters (the 2016 film as opposed to the 1984 one), but it still damaged the film somewhat, just as the same reliance is damaging the AoS.

Therefore, this perhaps is the reason why AoS is failing – because its’ originality is transforming into something else – or perhaps it is just failing. The fact that now AoS is taking a hiatus until the end of November does not help either – it certainly did not help LG. Until it returns…it will be missed…by an increasingly decreasing audience