real life sucks: again - Dec 27

Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia from 'Star Wars') died today. The fuck is wrong with 2016?!

Pathfinder: Villains 3 - Dec 26

And a member of the Diabolical church, remastered as a hellspawn tiefling instead:

HELLSPAWN CR6

Tiefling antipaladin (tyrant) 7 (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide 118, Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Intrigue 64)

LE Medium outsider (native)

Init +1; Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Perception -1

Aura Cowardice (10 ft.)

DEFENSE

AC 22, touch 11, flat-footed 21 (+9 armor, +1 Dex, +2 shield)

Hp 71 (7d10+28)

Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +6; +2 resistance vs. good

Immune disease; Resist cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft.

Melee +1 ranseur +12/+7 (2d4+5/x3)

Ranged mwk repeating heavy crossbow +9/+4 (1d10/19-20)

Special Attacks slavery/tyranny variant channeling 2/day (DC 15, 2d6 plus -2 channel penalty), smite good 3/day (+2 attack and AC, +7 to damage)

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7^th; concentration +9)

At will—detect good, pyrotechnics

Spell Prepared (CL 4^th; concentration +6)

2^nd—hold person (DC 14)

1^st—bane (DC 13), death knell (DC 13)

STATISTICS

Str 18, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 12

Base Atk +7; CMB +11; CMD 22

Feats Blind-Fight, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (repeating heavy crossbow), Intimidating Prowess, Selective Channeling

Skills Bluff +5, Diplomacy +6, Intimidate +13, Knowledge (religion) +9, Sense Motive +7

Languages Common, Infernal

SQ cruelties (shaken, staggered), fiendish boon (weapon +1, 1/day), touch of corruption 5/day (3d6), unholy resilience

Combat Gear potions of cure light wounds (2), alchemist’s fire (2), unholy water (2); Other Gear mwk spiked full plate, +1 ranseur, mwk repeating heavy crossbow with 10 bolts, spiked gauntlets (2), silvery unholy symbol, 33 gp.

Pathfinder: Villains 2 - Dec 26

A member of the demon knights', remastered as a pitborn tiefling:

PITBORN MURDERER CR 9

Tiefling rogue (knife master) 10 (Ultimate Combat 72)

CE Medium outsider (native)

Init +4; Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Perception +15

DEFENSE

AC 22, touch 15, flat-footed 17 (+6 armor, +4 Dex, +1 Dodge, +1 natural)

Hp 88 (10d8+40)

Fort +8, Ref +12, Will +6

Defensive Abilities blade sense, evasion, fiendish resistance, improved uncanny dodge

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee +1 dagger +12/+7 (1d4+4/19-20)

Special Attacks shatter 1/day, sneak attack +5d6 +2 Str damage

STATISTICS

Str 15, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 12

Base Atk +7; CMB +8; CMD 23

Feats Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Stealthy, Step Up, Toughness, Weapon Finesse

Skills Acrobatics +16, Bluff +14, Climb +15, Disable Device +14, Disguise +14, Escape Artist +20, Perception +15, Sense Motive +11, Sleight of Hand +16, Stealth +20

Languages Abyssal, Common

SQ hidden blade, rogue talents (crippling strike, fast stealth, fast tumble, finesse rogue, surprise attacks)

Combat Gear potion of blur; Other Gear +2 glamered chain shirt, +1 dagger, amulet of natural armor +1, cloak of resistance +1

Pre-New Year Rant - Dec 26

And so, 2016 is almost coming to an end. Odds are, we will be celebrating New Year in the USA, where I will not be able to regularly access the Internet, most likely, so first, let me wish everyone a happy New Year beforehand.

Secondly, let us wish good luck and good riddance to 2016. With less than a week to go, we had a major airplane crush in Russia, (no survivors), death of George Michael in the U.K., and the fallout between U.S. and Israel in the U.N. The last is particularly WTF-worthy: throughout its existence, Obama’s administration, (and the man himself), was very slow-mo. Now, with less than a month left, it, including Obama itself, is trying to compensate for 8 years of missed chances and opportunities, by running around like some crazy chicken making one mess after another. (The only thing different between now and then is that now Obama is making his usual snafus at a breakneck speed, rather than slowly, as he did back then). Either way, I feel sorry for Obama; I am not the biggest fan of the Donald, but I can see why the Americans have voted for the latter: the man is an unknown entity, while Hillary would have just continued Obama’s plotlines and strategies, and the Americans had enough of this for the last 8 years.

…The problems is that Obama himself just continued the strategies of the Republican president George Bush Jr. in those last 8 years, so regardless of what the president-elect has promised has electorate, there is no guarantee that things will be fundamentally different after January 20^th, 2017. People want variety, but they also want stability, and democracy is not very stable, (just ask the ancient Greeks – in Sparta they invented communism instead). With the election of Trump, the American society has once again put the plebeians/proletariat against the patricians/elite, and now both sides must figure out where to go from here. In Ancient Rome, it can be seen even in plays of Shakespeare – ‘Coriolanus’, ‘Julius Caesar’, ‘Anthony and Cleopatra’ – this conflict brought the end to the Republic, and paved way to the Empire. George Lucas, your Star Wars franchise says hi to the real world…maybe.

SW, incidentally, have developed its own issues: they do not know how to move forwards, now that the old canon has been declared apocrypha and redubbed ‘Star Wars: Legends’ instead. SW7 was very good, but it heavily relied on SW4 in terms of the script; ‘Rogue One’ is even better, but it is still set in the past, in the realm of the movies 4 through 6, (and it isn’t much different from some SW novels set in the ‘Legends’ universe. Still better than the real life U.S. politics, though).

Back in real life, there are not any breakthroughs or major shifts of the happy variety; in my own life…ditto. The TV and the like? Well, we have to look forwards the rest of ‘The Librarians’ S3. They seem to have conflated Horus and Ra – or confused him, but so did the ancient Egyptians. Ra was a sun god and the creator of the ancient Egyptian world. Horus was the brother and/or son of Isis and Osiris, (and just a brother of several other Egyptian gods); he was more of a war god instead. But! Both of them had the falcon as their sacred animal. Both of them had solar qualities in their divine portfolios. And! For a while, the ancient Egyptians worshipped both of them in the figure of Ra-Horakhty, so the differences between Ra and Horus are not important. What is important, (relatively speaking), that in S3, ‘The Librarians’ are faced with Apep, a snake-demon of darkness and night, and they are bringing a magical artefact of a sun god, (or the sun as a god) to challenge him. Frankly, they could have done the Greek version with Apollo and Python instead – it would be really similar, and as the S3 episode with the oracle has shown, they are keeping/have kept it in mind already.

…But still, this cavalier attitude towards the Egyptian mythology is grating. Rick Riordan and his novels were able to keep it straight; this really bad movie, ‘Gods of Egypt’, was able to keep it straight; so why ‘The Librarians’ cannot? Who knows…?

Then we have ‘For Honor’ game, by Ubisoft. It had appeared earlier in 2016, very exciting, but with flaws. Yet it continues to develop, and so far, it has appeared better than even before – not just with the new characters, but even a new game plan, that of Apollyon the warlord, who has to be stopped with plenty of melee fighting, maybe ranged too.

No, seriously, so far in all the game simulations, the combat was melee – but in the Apollyon promo, there are bows and arrows too, as well as combat-trained animals, maybe? Wolves and at least one war elephant… This game is shaping up to be really exciting, believe it!

The mention of war elephants reminds me of DW – I have been rewatching some of its episodes, the last one being ‘Ming Warrior vs. Musketeer’, which showed DW at its best. The hosts were unprejudiced; the tests showed the relative weaknesses and strengths of the various weapons, and the combat simulation was well orchestrated and interesting. The lack of prejudice really showed, too, as opposed to such S3 episode as ‘Hernan Cortez vs. Ivan the Terrible’, for example. For the first two seasons, DW was a good show, and then in S3 it went downhill so rapidly, that DW got cancelled – no funding, no staff, no anything. Even AoS has done better than DW – it is in its’ fourth season, remember?

…Mind you, for a while probably the entire MCU had problems: not only Luke Mitchell had left, but Jaimie Alexander (Sif) and Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter) did, as well as who knows whom else. However, MCU – including AoS – survived. ‘Agent Carter’ did not…

Speaking of TW, a new show – ‘Riverdale’ – is coming to the screens in 2017. It is based on the characters from ‘Archie’ comics, but-

On one hand, Archie and his friends are very flexible. There were crossovers with the Predator movie franchise, the Walking Dead TV series, the Ramones’ music group, the Marvel comics (such as the Punisher, who might be getting his own TV series in MCU, BTW), etc. The ‘Riverdale’ adaptation – a soap opera/drama/mystery/etc. – is not very different. But-

On the other hand, ‘Archie’ was very demanding and particular when it came to its’ mark/brand/whatever. It generally took down the smaller folk who tried to use them for its’ own game, but when it came to someone more powerful – like the Marvel comics – it generally backed down first. Now, when faced with the CW and the ‘Archie’-based show, it seems to have reached a compromise with them: ‘Riverdale’ will keep the ‘Archie’-based character names, but the trademarks and everything else? It will probably something separate from ‘Archie’ comics instead. This is how ‘the Cursed Child’ works, after all. It is still a fanfic, but Ms. Rowling endorsed it at least to a point, for a part of the profits at least. Everyone got happy and we will have to see how ‘Riverdale’ works in 2017.

This is the end of this rant, and for now? Have a happy 2017!

PS: Here is a pallid vector ogrekin based on the new ‘Villain Codex’ rules:

OGREKIN (HALF-OGRE) CR 4

XP 600

Male human ogrekin fighter 2

CE Medium humanoid (giant)

Int +5; Senses low-light vision; Perception +1

DEFENSE

AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 13 (+1 Dex, +6 natural)

hp 25 (2d10+10)

Fort +7, Ref +1, Will +1

Defensive Abilities bravery +1, pale rebirth

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee shortspear +7 (1d6+9 plus disease), bite +2 (1d4+4 plus disease)

Special Attacks disease

STATISTICS

Str 23, Dex 13, Con 22, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 6

Base Atk +2; CMB +7; CMD 18

Feats Cleave, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Power Attack

Skills Climb +12, Swim +12

Languages Giant

SQ deformities (oversized maw, weak mind)

ECOLOGY

Environment any

Organization solitary or family (2–6)

Treasure NPC gear (spear, other treasure)

Pathfinder: Villains 1

Merry Christmas! Here are a couple of monstrous entries from the new Villain Codex with alternate racial traits!

BLUDGEONEER CR 4

Hobgoblin fighter 5

NE Medium humanoid (goblinoid)

Init +2; Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0

DEFENCE

AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +2 Dex)

Hp 47 (5d10+15)

Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +3; +1 vs fear

OFFENCE

Speed 20 ft.

Melee mwk Warhammer +11 (1d8+6/x3) or

Mwk Warhammer +9 (1d8+6/x3), mwk light hammer +8 (1d4+2)

Ranged mwk composite longbow +8 (1d8+3/x3)

Special Attacks weapon training (hammers +1)

STATISTICS

Str 16, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 12

Base Atk +5; CMB +8; CMD 21

Feats Bludgeoner, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Intimidate), Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (Warhammer), Weapon Specialization (Warhammer)

Skills Intimidate +12, Stealth +8

Languages Common, Goblin

SQ armor training 1, bandy-legged, battle-heardened

Combat Gear poition of displacement, potion of jump; Other Gear +1 scale mail, mwk composite longbow (+3 Str) with 20 arrows, mwk light hammer, mwk Warhammer, 36 gp

CRUSHER CR 7

Orc barbarian 8

CE Medium humanoid (orc)

Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +11

DEFENCE

AC 16, touch 9, flat-footed 15 (+7 armor, +1 Dex, -2 rage)

Hp 105 (8d12+48)

Fort +12, Ref +4, Will +5; +4 morale bonus vs. spells, spell-like abilities and supernatural abilities, +2 racial bonus vs. nausea, sickened condition and disease

Defensive Abilities improved uncanny dodge, trap sense +2; DR 1/-

OFFENCE

Speed 40 ft. (30 ft. in armor)

Melee +1 heavy flail +17/+12 (1d10+11/19-20), gore +10 (1d8+3)

Ranged mwk composite longbow +8/+3 (1d8+5/x3)

Special Attacks rage (20 rounds/day), rage powers (fiend totem, lesser fiend totem, scent, superstition)

STATISTICS

Str 24, Dex 12, Con 21, Int 6, Wis 11, Cha 8

Base Atk +8; CMB +15; CMD 24

Feats Furious Focus, Power Attack, Raging Vitality, Weapon Focus (heavy flail)

Skills Intimidate +10, Perception +11

Languages Common, Orc

SQ dayrunner, fast movement, squalid

Combat Gear earth elemental gem; Other Gear +1 breastplate, +1 heavy flail, mwk composite longbow (+5 Str), with 20 arrows, cloak of resistance +1, 249 gp

Pathfinder: Warlord fighter - Dec 21

WARLORD CR 18

XP 153,600

Gnome fighter 19

N Small humanoid (gnome)

Init +7; Senses low-light vision; Perception +1

DEFENSE

AC 34, touch 18, flat-footed 29 (+11 armor, +2 deflection, +3 Dex, +2 dodge, +5 natural, +1 size)

hp 204 (19d10+95)

Fort +20, Ref +14, Will +11; +2 vs. illusions, +5 vs. fear

Defensive Abilities blink, bravery +5, defensive training (+4 dodge bonus to AC vs. giants); DR 10/—

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.

Melee+2 longspear +30/+30/+25/+20/+15 (1d4+12/19–20/×3) 

Ranged radium pistol +27/+27/+22/+17/+12 (1d4+7/x4)

Special Attacks +1 on attack rolls against goblinoid and reptilian humanoids, weapon training (firearms +4, thrown +3, close +2, hammers +1)

Gnome Spell-Like Abilities (CL 19th; concentration +20)

1/day—dancing lights, ghost sound (DC 11), prestidigitation, speak with animals

STATISTICS

Str 18, Dex 16, Con 20, Int 13, Wis 8, Cha 12

Base Atk +19; CMB +23; CMD 39

Feats Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Disruptive, Dodge, Endurance, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (radium pistol), Improved Critical (longspear), Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Nimble Moves, Persuasive, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Spellbreaker, Step Up, Weapon Focus (longspear), Weapon Specialization (longspear)

Skills Bluff +19, Diplomacy +18, Intimidate +30, Knowledge (nobility) +13, Perception +1, Profession (gambler) +5, Sense Motive +18

Languages Common, Gnome, Sylvan

SQ battle bravado +4, evasive dueling +3, sun-bronzed skin

Combat Gear potion of barkskin (CL 12th), potion of bear's endurance, potions of cure serious wounds (2); Other Gear bracers of armor +2, +2 longspear, radium pistol (6 cartridges), belt of giant strength +4, boots of speed, circlet of persuasion, cloak of resistance +4, hat of disguise, ring of blinking, ring of protection +2, ruby signet ring (worth 1,000 gp), 5,075 gp

So, I took a fighter from the NPC gallery sourcebook and rebuilt him as a new archetype. What do you think?

For Honor IV - Dec 14

Today, ‘For Honor’ has expanded its’ game-verse… sort of. Yeah…no, it really did.

Here what it was earlier this year (2016): there were standard one-on-one matches, say between a warden and an orochi or a raider and a kensai that were exactly what they sound. There were team battles, where two teams in groups of three fought each other. Unlike one-on-one, which is a straightforward bash, these team bashes were trickier, as the players could help their teammates, utilizing their strengths to bolster their allies’ weaknesses. Finally, there were team missions, which were like the previously mentioned team bashes, but in an expanded setting, and with plenty of foot soldiers with which to do battle aside from the enemy heroes. Think RPGs’ PCs vs. NPCs, mainly.

In this update, however, the universe has expanded more. For one thing, there are single-player missions against multiple enemy opponents. Yes, think RPGs again, this time with narrative. As it was written in earlier ‘For Honor’ installments, the Knights are defending their domain from the Vikings, who seem to have food shortages, while the Samurais have arrived, having been exiled from their old lands, and are fully intent on doing or dying here, period. Rounding up the update are the new and improved NPCs, who no longer look generic but have some differences between each other, and similarities with the ‘PC’ characters. Even they have become more evolved!

So: ‘For Honor is shaping up to be a very fun game without any pretentions. Cannot wait until the next year, to say otherwise. 

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Slingshot' & For Honor III - Dec 13

Today, several things have happened. Firstly, AoS has made a brief resurgence with an online mini-episode featuring ‘Slingshot’ – Elena Rodriguez, one of the recurring characters from the second half of S3. It feels like a shortened episode of AoS, where Elena – and the episode is placed before S4, during the six months that Daisy was AWOL from S.H.I.E.L.D. – hunted down one of her former nemeses, one of the corrupt cops from Columbia that had killed her cousin. Elena does not kill him, she proves to be the better person, but the man still dies, having been gunned down by friendly fire.

What can we learn from ‘Slingshot’?

It is a cameo episode – each of the six parts features one or more main cast characters, including Jeffrey Mace. (Is he about to stay beyond S4 finale and the entire LMD mess?) Each time one of the main characters appear, they move the plot forward and help the audience bond and sympathize with the titular heroine. It works…about as well as any other AoS episode works: the mid-season finale was not just kind of underwhelming, but it also had very low ratings; lower than the mid S3 finale, for comparison. ‘Slingshot’ is unlikely to make much of an impact, especially since it is just 30 minutes long, and AoS returns on January 10^th, about a month from today. NCB herself and her character also are not liable to make much of an impact – Elena Rodriguez is not different from Kara Palamas, Joey Gutierrez or even Robert Gonzales; maybe AoS is trying to be politically correct by being racially diverse cast-wise, but as the elections in real-life U.S. have shown, real life (in the U.S.) and its depiction on TV are two different things.

But related, of course. With comics, it is one thing – a person may have any kind of views on politics, society, etc., but if they buy a comic, they still spend money, and as I have written in my previous rant, if a comic-book character isn’t a beloved comic-book character, and the comic itself isn’t a medium via which a reader communicates/bonds/etc. with that character, both the comic and its’ characters become yet another commodity that can be bought and sold…or not, and just be left on the shelves, period.

With a TV show like AoS, it is different. People are still paying to watch it – but they are paying not for AoS specifically; they are paying their general cable/satellite/etc. bill for their television, so AoS, (for example), does not get money from them directly, unlike the comics. For them, ratings are more important if they are to get paid. They will not get paid – Hell, the show itself might get cancelled – if the ratings are low enough and people just are not watching the show in question during the time slot. (And yes, AoS has a problem with this too – are Marvel and Disney trying to kill the show? Who knows.) This is what is happening to AoS. Elena’s character just is not enough to save the show anymore.

…As I have written in my previous rant, AoS is not suffering from bad actors or bad acting; rather, it is suffering from a number of other problems, including recycled ideas. In case of ‘Slingshot’, we have the same 0-8-4 that was used to kill ‘Ramon’ that appeared in the episode 1x02, ‘0-8-4’. Seriously, it seems that after months and years of AoS being aired, there are far fewer novelties amongst its’ ideas that there could be. Honestly, sometimes it seems that AoS would be better off just emulating the ‘Secret Warriors’ comic than doing what it has done – following its’ own thing just led it nowhere, to lower and lower ratings, period. Elena herself has been playing a growing role in the main series, but this has not affected ratings, period. AoS just might be gone too far downwards to be saved by a ‘renovated and improved’ character.

AoS aside, For Honor is back with new characters. First, there is the warlord of the Vikings. He is a heavy hitter like the raider, but armed with a shield, he is also better armored and faster than the raider; he is slower than the berserker is, but still better armored. A more balanced-out character, then.

With the Samurais’ shugoku, it is less straightforward. He is certainly slower and bulkier than the orochi is, but I am not sure if he is more balanced than the kensai is; certainly, his kanabo – the Japanese greatclub – delivers more ‘oomph’ than the kensai’s kodachi sword does, visually speaking. In game mechanics, this might be different; we will have to see.

Finally, we have the Knights’ peacekeeper. Essentially, it is an assassin-type warrior – no actual armor, a sword and a dagger for weapons. The peacekeeper is fast but unarmored, not unlike the berserker of the Vikings or the already-mentioned orochi of the Samurais…

Overall, this all is terribly exciting: ‘For Honor’ is a wonderful game and I cannot wait until February

Greek oracles and etc. - Dec 11

And so, now that AoS is gone until 2017 for real, let’s turn back to ‘The Librarians’, from time to time. In this particular episode, they had to deal with a self-fulfilling prophecy that risked having Eve dying from the Reaper. It was all a plot slash trap by the oracle of Delphi so that Eve would die in her place, but since Eve is one of the main cast of ‘The Librarians’, the oracle died instead. So?

So, the only worthwhile commenting piece is the prophecy, or rather – a prophecy. The one concerning Perseus, the star of ‘The Clash of the Titans’ movie and its’ remake, as well as several other features; also, the namesake of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson, one of RR’s most beloved heroes. Before, however, Perseus could slay the gorgon Medusa, and save Andromeda from a sea monster, he had to be conceived and born. His mortal grandfather was a king named Acrisius, who had a daughter named Danae, Perseus’ mother to be. One day, for no particular reason, Acrisius got a prophecy that he is going to die by his grandson’s hand.

Acrisius, naturally, got angry and scared, and imprisoned Danae into a bronze or copper tower without any windows and only one door. Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, saw Danae and infiltrated the tower in guise of a golden shower, and promptly impregnated her with the original Perseus. In nine months or so, after Perseus was born, Acrisius learned of this, sealed him and Danae into a wooden box or chest, and set the afloat so that they would die from natural causes rather than from his own hand (he was that sort of person, apparently).

Of course, Danae and Perseus survived, Perseus grew up, killed Medusa, saved Andromeda, etc. Eventually, he went to Argos, where his grandfather ruled. When his grandfather heard that Perseus was coming, he fled, and Perseus, not being the smartest of the antique heroes, decided to console himself by participating in the local Olympic Games (or something similar). In particular, he was one of the discus throwers. He threw the discus, it went sideways, (metaphorically speaking) and hit a member of the crowd, killing him dead. It was Perseus’ grandfather, albeit in disguise. The prophecy came true.

…Okay, and none of it is the same as the version told in ‘The Librarians’. Again, this is not a problem; ‘The Librarians’ may be a show about heroes fighting monsters and villains, but this is presented in an unorthodox manner; in part to make it more attractive for the viewers and to make ‘The Librarians’ more unique; and in part because of the budget – odds are, ‘The Librarians’ don’t have the same sort of budget that AoS or any of the ‘Arrowverse’ shows have, so fewer special effects by far. S2 has shown this quite often as an example.

Moreover, the Greek oracles themselves could be somewhat strange, if you look at them properly, without any modern adaptations, (like Rick Riordan’s), you would find yourself wondering: What were the Ancient Greeks thinking? The oracles varied from asking random strangers for advice, to the case of Croesus, the king of Lydia. He went to war with the Persians, asked the oracle for advice, the oracle replied: ‘King, you go to war, you destroy a great kingdom’. Croesus went to war, and destroyed a great kingdom – his own. The oracles are not to be trusted, and while ‘The Librarians’ have simplified (and/or skipped) this entire problem by making the oracle some sort of a demigod herself. No muss, no fuss, everything straightforward, and pure brainpower over brawn, as ‘The Librarians’ tend to do. Good luck to them and successfully high ratings, too!

PS: And the cool AU of the week would've been if Perseus had married Medusa instead, rescuing her from Athene's curse, but 'The Librarians' have nothing to do with that.

S.H.I.E.L.D., laws - Dec 6

Last night, AoS’ S4 mid-season finale was aired. And?

In some ways, it was different from S3 mid-season finale, for example. In ‘Maveth’, Coulson rescued Fitz from the alien planet in question, and there was this huge-scale explosion of a castle (belonging to Malick and Hydra?) and in general back then AoS tried to recreated the ‘Avengers’ atmosphere, both then, and at the end of S3 proper, when Hive was destroyed by a nuclear explosion in space. It did ignore the fact that a screen in a movie theatre was a different beast from the screens on a TV or a typical domestic computer/laptop, so the final result wasn’t quite ‘Avengers’-like; plus Luke Mitchell’s departure from the series caused more damage – and now?

The S4 mid-season finale, ‘Laws’, was much smaller in scale; in fact, in terms of special effects and all, it was more like ‘The Librarians’ S2 finale, with few special effects, (if any); but ‘The Librarians’ really aren’t into special effects, (though the first two episodes of their S3 were something different). AoS, on the other hand, was – after all, it is a part of MCU, so there!

However, as I may have written before, this time, with S4, AoS is possibly working on a tighter budget than it did in the first 3 seasons. In part it is because Elena ‘Yo-Yo” Rodriguez (NCB) is getting her own mini-series, (available on Dec 13, 2016), online – fair enough, but AoS/MCU already did something similar between S2 and S3, and it didn’t prevent S3 from trying to go epic, as it was already written.

On the other hand, the ratings of AoS S3 began to fall down very fast, and right now, they do not appear to be recovering, regardless of the presence of the Ghost Rider. The latter, of course, is his own kettle of fish; in S4, AoS tried to do what DC’s ‘LoT’ did with Jonah Hex – something of a special guest superhero on top of the regular team. It worked in ‘LoT’ because ‘LoT’ is a better (right now) TV series compared to AoS, plus-

In addition, ‘LoT’ is a part of the bigger DC’s ‘Arrowverse’ TV-verse, which also includes ‘Arrow’, ‘The Flash’ and nowadays – ‘Supergirl’ (2016 onwards). The four TV shows are not exactly a smoothly functioning machine, they have problems, but as the ‘Invasion’ of last week has shown, their casts and crews can work together without any problems, with each show having its unique identity in the greater DC ‘Arrowverse’ TV-verse.

On contrast, AoS’ cast and crew have constantly problems – with each other and with other people, I would guess. As promised, Skye/Daisy and the Ghost Rider/Robbie Reyes didn’t have any romance or any sort of a relationship between each other, which is one of the reasons why Robbie (and his uncle) just went off somewhere else in the third quarter of ‘Laws’ – so far there is no final and definite idea as to how to properly integrate Robbie into AoS and S.H.I.E.L.D.

Again, this is nothing new – throughout the series Skye/Daisy had a problem with having ‘an opposite number’ – Grant, Trip, Hunter, Lincoln – they all came and went for different reasons and in different ways, Robbie Reyes is just the latest, and while the writers may think that this helps Daisy’s character development, the audience may just feel irritated instead.

Now, the interactions between a show and fans is important, but it is also less straightforward than people may think. Take, for instance, ‘The Flash’, where people have been giving Iris flak. Now, it may be so because in this incarnation Iris is Afro-American, but in truth, she just is not very contributive to the show, not how Laurel is, or how Felicity is in ‘Arrow’. A crew of a show may have views about how a show is supposed to work, and fans also may have views about that same issue – different ones, so hello – conflict.

It is argued that not ALL the fans are offended when a character gets ‘racebent’ or changed in some other way, as Ms. Rowling tends to do with her characters (the original HP-verse, not the new ‘Fantastic Beasts’ expanded one), just the most vocal and obnoxious ones. Perhaps, but as AoS has shown, ignoring them is not so easy, either…

Well, no, not just AoS – the entire MCU. Hydra is supposed to be one of the bad people, yet there is a strong support for it online (at least). They may not be the biggest faction, but they are there, and they are well prepared to fight-off any opposition – and they have plenty of opposition, because pro-Hydra is pro-evil (sort of). Moreover, since the Internet is that sort of a marvelous invention, any arguments can very quickly either die-out or grow to great proportions.

Wait, isn’t this the sort of an argument that ‘socially-challenged’ nerds can only get involved in? Anyone sane will avoid this sort of a discussion by a mile? Yes, and they avoided the fandom by the same mile too, it seems, as AoS’ viewers’ ratings fell.

MCU instigated controversies – both unintentionally, as it was with Hydra in general and with Grant Ward and Kara Palamas in AoS specifically, and intentionally – Steve vs. Tony in the CA: CW film and Steve becoming Hydra in the Marvel comics. The most…intense part of MCU fandom reacted heterogeneously to these new developments, and sales fell. Viewers ratings’ (especially for AoS) – ditto.

In addition, it is always tricky to calculate a sale – there is no rule of thumb: people may buy-out a comic book issue/series of issues/etc. in one area and ignore the same piece in the other. Just look at ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ transcript book – it may not be a comic book, but the principle is still the same: in some Russian cities it was completely sold out, while here, in Toronto, Canada, I never saw people buying it, or any other books in Harry Potter series, including the latest edition of ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ with its magnificent new illustrations (by Jim Kay, I think). ‘Cursed Child’ was sold at a flat rate of 15 dollars – cheaper than a novel set in the Pathfinder™ game-verse, and people still weren’t flocking to it…unlike in Russia. Bet you this is not what Ms. Rowling expected when she had realized the transcript…

‘Cursed Child’ is relevant to the discussion about MCU, AoS, DCEU and etc., because it also tried to be culturally diverse, as ‘The Flash’ is, for example. In ‘The Flash’, Iris West is an Afro-American, and people are displeased by this; with ‘Cursed Child’ Hermione and her daughter, Rose, had the same issue. (They got over this by their acting skills, period). Ms. Rowling promptly called them racists and that was the end of that, as far as she was concerned. The same thing is happening in MCU, as Zendaya may be the new Mary Jane in the new ‘Spider-Man’ movie, and-? Racism?

Well, on some level – certainly yes. However, on another – no. It is somewhat ridiculous to treat characters from books, comics, TV series, movies as real-life people, but without this treatment these characters become, well, products that need to be sold and bought, period, and they are usually being sold to, and being bought by, a specific audience, which, in case of AoS (and the rest of MCU, maybe), isn’t really interested in this sort of thing, not entirely, not anymore.

There is also the option of putting a show onto Netflix, for a flat rate. But again, not everyone can afford it, and even among those who can afford it, there are those, who are still uninterested in watching it, and if there are enough of such people – the ratings plummet, and the show goes further downwards, now further depowered by the people who are somewhat interested in watching it, but cannot afford it – but AoS isn’t worried by them, because it is a free show that is steadily losing popularity for the reasons discussed above – it was too controversial for too long and now investors are losing interest in it or getting worried.

Shows hate controversy: when one of the ‘background ponies’ on MLP: FIM began to be controversial, it was showed into background as far as possible, and began to re-emerge only recently, now that the controversy is long gone. AoS did not do the same approach (pragmatic, if not sensible) to Grant and Kara Palamas, and paid the price.

Speaking of Kara… The S4 mid-season finale had Melinda May gotten replaced by a robot double – which was exactly what Hydra did via Kara back in S2. Back then, Coulson very quickly recognized the imposter due to intimate, personal details that Kara just could not know about May. Now… he is fooled, but that is not the point, the point is that AoS is back to recycling its’ ideas; S3 (especially post-‘Maveth’) had recycled many ideas from S2; S4 is not as bad, but it still shows, and that also diminishes its’ chances to be renewed (for S5 and beyond). ‘Agent Carter’ was cancelled after just two seasons, remember?

On the other hand, S4 shows a notable decrease in InHumans – right now they are mostly plot devices; there are Daisy and Yo-Yo and director Mace himself (clearly influenced by Steel from DC’s ‘LoT’), and that is it. Oh, and there is also the senator’s brother, but right now he is a no-show, so who knows? Instead, we are going to get the invasion of robot body snatchers, spearheaded by Aida and Dr. Radcliffe, (who immediately knew that there was something wrong with Darkhold, unlike May or even Fitz, for comparison). It is possible that AoS is downplaying the InHumans specifically, especially at least their own TV show airs (in the upcoming years), but with InHumans being largely a no-show, and Hydra gone (cough), AoS is lacking two of its major elements since the beginning of S3. Again – not good.

So, in conclusion of the rant: AoS’ S4 is still going strong, but not strong, as it was in the beginning. Will it be enough to rescue AoS for the future seasons? Who knows…?