S.H.I.E.L.D., Self-Control - Feb 21

The finale of LMD mini-arc was one of the best episodes of AoS yet; Jemma, Daisy, Leo and others have rocked – okay, their actors rocked, but still. As always, AoS has capitalized one of its best aspects – actors and acting, and they have delivered: S.H.I.E.L.D. has been destroyed.

…Well, not entirely. Jemma, Daisy, and three rookie agents, (who didn’t even have their own episode) have escaped, together with Yo-Yo, and-

And now AoS S4 is entering its third stage – ‘Agents of Hydra’. Marvel Comics in general have used this trope before – the world where Hydra rules, and usually it’s Captain America, who is left fighting for freedom, but in MCU Captain America is busy putting the Avengers back together again, (‘Avengers: Infinity War’ film has begun to be produced earlier this year too), so it is up to S.H.I.E.L.D. to save the world, from Hydra, again. What is wrong with this picture?

…Essentially, they are back to recycling again – they killed off Hydra in S3, together with Malick, Ward, and Hive, and now they are bringing it back, as well as Grant Ward, in a virtual world, (did the ‘Matrix’ franchise get its’ cut or what?), to promote the plot along. This is not bad, of course, but-

However, sometimes it appears that the problem is less with recycling of ideas, (and shuffling of characters), and more with the fact that AoS does not know where it is going as a show. What was so important and significant about the Ghost Rider’s appearance on AoS? The Ghost Rider was a brand new character, and with him came the possibility, or even the probability of AoS going in a completely new direction, leaving the messy morass of S2 and S3 behind. Seriously, Hydra was creating controversy all over the Marvel fandom, and AoS’ treatment of Grant was only making things worse. Right now, the ratings of AoS are still lower than those of ‘Powerless’, for example, so once they had resolved any Hydra- and Grant Ward-related issues in S3, they should’ve moved on instead.

No, it could have been easy, being Hydra-less: the Watchdogs (and Ivanov’s people, to a lesser extent) could be, (and were, in the canon), equally versatile and varied opponents as Hydra, with Ely Morrow providing a more occult villain at the same time. Gabriel Luna was delivering a very good Ghost Rider, and his character was certainly flourishing, providing the counterbalance to Chloe Bennett’s new Daisy/Quake. If AoS was going to introduce the Ghost Rider into MCU they could’ve done the full 22 episode (or one season) treatment of him – between the Watchdogs, Lucy Bower and her cohorts, and even Ivanov and his immediate minions S.H.I.E.L.D. would’ve had its arms full – it certainly would’ve been interesting to see Robbie go against Shockley the InHuman live bomb. I do not see why it could not have worked, even if there would have been no romance between Robbie and Daisy, (frankly, the FitzSimmons, and later on May and Phil had the romance covered more than enough).

Instead of going the ‘completely new’ routine, AoS opted promptly to return to its old haunts – Hydra in general and Grant Ward in particular. The problem? The earlier controversies and issues will return as well.

Here is the deal. Part of the problem that AoS had with Grant was that he started as a sympathetic character who was probably supposed to be redeemed in S2. This never happened, and some people got seriously angry about this…while other viewers just hated him, period. The two groups began to argue and fight, online, but still, and some people just stopped viewing AoS, period. The ratings dropped, and the same thing happened when Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse were removed from the show as well. Some people hated them, but others watched AoS because of them, and with Hunter and Morse gone, there was no reason for these viewers to continue to watch AoS – and so they stopped.

…Yes, the appearance of new characters – the Reyes’ brothers, their uncle, Ellen Nadeer and her brother – could have brought new viewers, and this what probably happened, just in not big enough numbers to balance and compensate the viewers lost. With interesting new characters, veteran old characters, and an original and catchy new storyline AoS could have changed this, but instead they first got rid of the Ghost Rider in a seriously lackluster way, (Ely had just a giant box and no more than a score of men to battle his nephew and S.H.I.E.L.D. – some god), and then they promptly began to return to their old haunts – first Hydra in general, (we got some ‘real life’ Hydra action when director Mace was revealed to be a fraud), and now – Grant. Let the old problems and controversies return!

Again, some people are just going to hate Grant – and now they will also hate the AoS for bringing him back. Other people will still be rooting for him and Skye, so when AoS will return to treating Grant as the same old villain, they will also hate the AoS. (Yes, this version of Grant is VR and new, but since the VR world that Daisy, Jemma and the others have found themselves in is also Hydra-friendly, the VR version of Grant will also be Hydra-friendly and still a villain, because by now his official redemption is unlikely). More people will be unhappy with Grant’s return than otherwise, and the entire matter of Hydra? (Aside from the question as to where do Aida and/or Radcliffe get the idea about creating a VR Hydra world?) More of the same.

Currently, AoS is standing at a precipice of what can go either really right or really wrong. We will just have to wait until April and see how it goes.

Jaguar: a few facts - Feb 20

‘Big Cat Week’ has begun. Let us talk, in the honor of it, about the jaguar, since it seems to be the only non-African big cat on it, so far.

The jaguar is the third biggest wild cat in the world; it is twice as heavy as the leopard and can be as big as a lion, (which can twice more heavy than the jaguar itself). The Latin-Americans call it ‘el tigre’, which means ‘the tiger’, duh! This is why sometimes things get wonky in translation, and South America ends up having tigers instead. The puma – the second biggest cat in the New World – has its own share of problems with literature; sometimes it is described as a ‘panther’, which is also the alternate name of the leopard, especially its melanistic, black, phase. Bagheera from the ‘Jungle Book’ franchise is a ‘panther’, rather than a ‘leopard’, as an example. Now the puma just is not black; rather, it is uniformly colored from light grey to tawny brown, to brick red with creamy white underparts. Temperate pumas tend to be larger, with paler, greyish coloration, from the tropical individuals are smaller, with richer, redder tones. The cubs, BTW, are spotted, but these spots vanish around 1 year of age – so the giant black cat cryptids of U.S.A. most likely are not pumas, but the ‘panther’ versions of leopards and jaguars, which have escaped from zoos, public or private.

(Of course, wild cats as a group tend to have varied coloration in almost all species, so I am not dismissing the possibility of black pumas completely – it still can happen).

Back to the jaguar. Unlike the leopard or the African lion, for example, it is a very private, introvert feline; part of the reason why the African wildlife appears in documentaries is because it is somewhat used to the presence of people; all those lions and leopards, cheetahs and elephants aren’t domestic, but neither are they afraid of people too much – hence the problem of man-eating cats, rogue elephants, etc. Animals should not fear people and vice versa, but a healthy dose of respect between the two must remain, or else there is going to be tragedy and blood.

Well, the jaguar? It does not appear to be a man-eater, unlike its’ close cousins the lion and the leopard; it tends to avoid people, which is why it is hard to film. Why? Because it used to being the underdog, so to speak.

Not so long ago, about 10-11,000 years ago, the jaguar shared the New World not just with the puma and the ocelot, which are smaller than it is, but also with the American lion and the sabre-toothed cats, Smilodon and Homotherium, which were bigger than it was, and stronger. The African lion is particularly notorious for harassing and killing smaller carnivores, such as hyenas, so there is no reason to assume that the American lion was any different, and probably would go after the jaguar just as the African lion tends to go after the leopard and the cheetah. That said, the jaguar is much stronger than the leopard and especially the cheetah, so tackling it was probably a team effort for the American lion; the jaguar can bite through skull bones of peccaries, and shells of armadillos and tortoises, so if an American lion faced a jaguar one-on-one, the fight could go either way instead.

On the other hand, Arctodus horribilis, the extinct short-faced bear of the Americas also bit bones in two to eat the marrow, and it was one of the biggest and strongest carnivores of the New World; its’ relative the spectacled bear still lives in South America, but it prefers more mountainous habitat than the jaguar, and it is also one of the more herbivorous bears, so it probably doesn’t conflict with the modern American big cats very often.

None of this applied to the short-faced bear – it was a carnivore, and a hypercarnivore to boot. Between it, the American lion, the sabre-toothed cats, and other Ice Age carnivores like the dire wolf, (yes, it was a real animal, George Martin did not invent it, BTW), the jaguar was usually outmatched, one way or another, hence its’ reclusive, out-of-way, rather nocturnal, lifestyle. When the humans replaced the previous Ice Age megacarnivores, the jaguar adjusted to this development with few changes to its’ lifestyle; it could’ve lived alongside the European colonists as did along the previous, Native American civilizations, but—

But the European colonists brought something else with them – livestock. The jaguar may be avoiding humans as a rule, but their pets and especially livestock such as cattle is fair game. Hence the hunts for the jaguar; that, and the destruction of its habitat caused America’s biggest cat to be expatriated from about half of its previous range; it is extinct in the U.S., Uruguay and El Salvador – yes, it may be coming back into the U.S., but now that president Donald is trying to build his Great Wall, it probably means more bad news for these big cats.

Speaking of Great Walls? Matt Damon’s version of it…okay, the movie version with Matt Damon in it, did not go so well, and it can be seen why: the plot sucks, even moreso than the plot of ‘Fifty Shades Darker’. Sometimes the plot is not as important to the movie, the ‘LEGO Batman’ film attests to this, but unlike the ‘Great Wall’, it had some very good acting and the way it was delivered saved the film. The ‘Great Wall’? Not so much, even though it did have some amazing quasi-medieval warfare in it.

Speaking of quasi-medieval warfare? Yes, by now it is obvious that ‘For Honor’ has ballistae in it, or something like this…

The thing is, when one thinks of a ballista, one thinks of something more similar to a medieval catapult instead, maybe something like the torsion catapult featured in the S3 of DW, used by William the Conqueror against Joan of Arc. In reality, the ballista appeared back in S2 of DW, when it was used by Alexander the Great against Attila the Hun. Essentially, it was a giant, stationary crossbow, used more in siege warfare than in the field. It had scored the least amount of kills in that episode, (i.e. ‘Alexander the Great vs. Attila the Hun’) and was one of the reasons as to why Alexander the Great lost the battle: he and his team had inferior weapons. The torsion catapult of William the Conqueror had its own flaws, it was inferior to the cannon used by Joan of Arc, but it was still better than the ballista.

…None of this applies to ‘For Honor’, of course – for all of its realism, it still doesn’t go for authenticity; its’ role is to amuse, not to educate, and in the end, it is all about the fighting, with or without a ballista. Shall we get back to the jaguar?

There is not much left to be said about this big cat. It has a lifespan similar to that of the leopard – 22-23 years in captivity, 14-16 in the wild. It is classified by CITES as Near Threatened, and it deserves protection, not prosecution. Now let us sit back and enjoy the ‘Big Cat Week’.

Big Cats & etc. - Feb 18

Let us start with the obvious: ‘For Honor’ got released earlier this week. So far, the reviews are unanimous – the story mode of the game is the weakest link, but everything else is very good. ‘For Honor’ has figured out how to play up to its’ strengths – the players’ interactions, the fancy armors, the combat maneuvers, etc. – and there are not too many weaknesses left; mostly some bugs that shall be fixed in the future releases of the game. Also, even the Lawbringer and the Valkyrie are playable characters, bringing the roster to the full dozen, (four for each fraction). All right!

Secondly, this week’s episode of ‘Powerless’ is the best one so far – the show seems to have found its’ footing at last, and it is mostly corporate humor with some DC trappings, especially in the main plotline, where Van and Emily have to convince the Atlanteans to sign up with Van’s company as clients. The humor is still very low-brow, (to put it mildly), but there is less of it, and when it does occur, it is presented in a very absurd manner, so it is impossible to take it seriously, or be offended by it – mostly. Plus, ‘Powerless’ is a sitcom after all, it isn’t even trying to pretend to be anything like ‘AoS’ or ‘Blindspot’ or ‘Arrow’, so one shouldn’t dig too deeply either. ‘Powerless’ is here to entertain, it entertains (the audience), end of story. How exactly ‘Powerless’ does it, is another story, but occasional profanity aside, ‘Powerless’ works.

…Unlike AoS, BTW. The next episode will come only next week, of course, but judging by the clips by now the show is robbing its’ villains off their dignity as human beings; this is why these days all of AoS’ villains are unsympathetic, period – Grant, and Kara, and even Malick and his crew were somewhat sympathetic, so when ‘the good guys’ began to kill them, the ratings began to slip even lower, and right now AoS is still at its’ lowest; the ratings are going up and down, but they are still currently lower than the ratings of ‘Powerless’, and the latter has only aired 3 episodes so far. We will just have to wait until the next week to see what AoS does next.

Finally, next week is ‘Big Cat Week’ on Nat Geo Wild, meaning plenty of nature documentaries about the big cats of the wild, (duh!). That is very good, but, FYI, most of them appear to be filmed in Africa instead – I have already touched this issue when I discussed AFO’s ‘Gorilla vs. Leopard’ episode, and here it is more of the same: lions and leopards of Africa, plus several other African wild animals, (spotted hyenas, wild dogs, cheetahs, etc.). Again, I’ve no idea why the Asian big cats – tigers and leopards, (different subspecies than the African leopard), snow and clouded leopards (completely different animals from the ‘ordinary’ leopard) aren’t appearing; maybe it all comes down to the differences between Africa and Asia in general and how the West perceives them in particular?.. I have talked about this before, if anyone else has any other ideas, I am listening…

However, there also going to be some sort of a special about the jaguar, the biggest cat of the Americas of the modern time. Incidentally, its’ closest living relative is the African and Asian lion, not the leopard.

Let us pause and talk about taxonomy of the pantherine, or ‘roaring’ cats. The already-mentioned clouded leopard belongs in a sister group or genus to the rest of them: Neofelis. It consists of two species of clouded leopard, so let us put them aside, (they are very different from the rest of the pantherine cats). The jaguar is most closely related to the lion, the tiger – to the snow leopard, and the leopard itself is more closely related to the lion and the jaguar, but it is not as derived as either of them. In this case, the scientists mean that the leopard retains most of the basic feline features; it is not as specialized as the lion and the jaguar are.

The numbers, (let us take the AFO approach for a while) seem to support this theory. The jaguar and the leopard look superficially similar, but the jaguar is twice as long and twice as heavy as the leopard. A male jaguar can be the same size as a male lion, king of the beasts, but the lion is twice as heavy as the jaguar is, so the leopard is not even in the same league as the lion – and it shows. In their respective behaviors, that is.

This technically brings us to the puma, (or the mountain lion) and the second point I want to make about ‘Big Cat Week’, which is also about the cheetah: the cheetah and the puma aren’t ‘big’ or ‘roaring’ cats, they actually belong to the so-called small cat family – basically every other cat, wild or domestic, that isn’t a lion, a tiger, a leopard, a jaguar, etc. According to the latest data, the lion and the rest of the ‘big’ cats parted ways with the rest of the felines about 11.5 MYA – way before there were humans on the planet.

Then, 8.2 MYA, the feline evolution produced the so-called puma lineage, and by 5 MYA that lineage has split into branches that produced the cheetah of Africa and Asia on one hand, and the puma itself, as well as the jaguarundi, on the other.

BTW, the jaguarundi is nothing like the jaguar: it is a small wild cat, less than a meter in length, less than 10 kg in weight, and is built a bit like an otter, with short legs, an elongated body, long tail and short, rounded ears. They still hunt mostly on the ground and behave as the rest of wildcats do, too, but then again, most of the cats, not only look similar, they behave similar: a feral cat, a bobcat and a puma behave similarly, their main differences are their respective sizes and the prey that they can take down, (according their size and strength). With the ‘big’ cats, such as lions, the comparison gets vaguer, but as the Asian lions show that this difference is largely secondary, caused by the life in savanna: in Asia, the lion lives a more solitary life, not unlike that of the tiger or the leopard; there are small family groups, but that is it…

(BTW, the now-extinct American cheetah was a closer relative to the puma than to the modern cheetah).

Getting back to ‘Big Cat Week’, let us be precise. Aside from the old reruns, (whatever they will be), it will show more footage of African wildlife, (‘big’ cats, ‘small’ cats, other animals), and a Sir David Attenborough’s special on the jaguar, (possibly with other American wildcats guest starring as well). This is not a bad layout, just…weird, in regards to Asia and its wildlife.

So, this is it for this installment; see you in the future!

S.H.I.E.L.D., 'The Man' - Feb 14

‘The Man behind the SHIELD’ was a very good episode, utilizing acting and atmosphere (setting) over special effects. The agents of the show were properly heroic, the villains – appropriately villainous, and the flashback to the pre-Bahrain Phil and Mel were suitably adorable, showing their relationship. So, what is the problem?

Let us diverge for the moment and try to talk about the director Mace. Someone has suggested to me, that the ‘LMD’ mini-arc might also be his origin story, as the Patriot, (his comic book counterpart). You know, the heroic Americans vs. the dastardly Russians, etc. The first mini-arc was about Robbie Reyes becoming the new Ghost Rider and earning his wheels, and this one is about Jeffrey Mace.

Maybe, but this does not subtract from the fact that ‘The Man’ was also a fairly simple and straightforward episode, the entire allusion to ‘the Matrix’ franchise regardless. (Also, when Fitz had helped Radcliffe built the framework prototype? That episode escapes me for the moment. Aida – yes, the framework - no). And this simplicity has its own issues.

Look at the big ‘Coulson confronting Ivanov’ scene. Yes, Coulson is demonstrating his moral superiority to Ivanov, no doubt! However, the trick is that to be morally superior to someone the two of you have to be on the same playing field, however vaguely, to speak the same ‘metaphorical’ language.

Not so long ago I have read the novel ‘The Epic Adventures of Lydia Bennet’, a sequel to ‘The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’, which is a modern adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, (written by Kate Rorick and Rachel Kiley). In ‘Adventures’, Lydia confronts George Wickham in the end, tells him that she is over him, she has forgiven him, he has no power over her, and she is moving forwards – and so she does. This is good, but neither in ‘The Diaries’ or ‘The Adventures’ did Wickham show any true sign of sharing values with Lydia, (hence his betrayal of her, of course), nor did he show any regret over his actions, or tried to fix the damage that he has caused. Lydia’s confrontation of George in ‘The Adventures’ was cathartic, for her, but for George? It probably left him neither hot nor cold, certainly not moved or affected, (contrary to what Lydia might think or imagine). Lydia has moved on. George…continued to move in a different direction. The end.

The same thing has happened in ‘The Man’. Coulson’s speech to Ivanov was impressive, but what was the point? To fix Coulson’s reputation for the viewers after the events in S2 and 3? Ivanov just wants to kill Coulson because of Andronnikov (back in S3) or his dead SVR friends and cohorts, that is it. Anything else just goes over his head. Not unlike Ely Morrow, Ivanov is flat and almost clichéd.

Now, this approach of AoS’ is understandable – they tried to make their villains well-rounded in the past – Grant Ward, Kara Palamas, even Gideon Malick in S3 – and their ratings plummeted, as the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did some increasingly morally objective actions, erasing the lines between them and the villains. The show’s ratings plummeted, so now AoS is trying to go the other route, by having the good characters being good, and the evil characters being evil, insane, unlikable, and – unrealistic. The now-dead senator Nadeer, Terrence Shockley, Anton Ivanov, even Radcliffe and Aida – they are all depicted as unlikable and increasingly mentally unstable, period. All of them are crazy in somewhat different ways, but they are all still crazy. And evil, of course. Faced with such opponents the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are sure to win and to be heroes.

And as for the more mechanical level? How did team Radcliffe captured Coulson, Daisy, and Mack? May – okay, May was still hurt from the ghost-caused insanity, and Mace’s handling of her was not that gentle either. Mace himself is apparently a fraud, not a true InHuman. However, Daisy? Even Coulson? What gives?

Moreover, yes, the time frame is confusing – when did team Radcliffe do the switch, chronologically speaking? AoS did purposefully leave this behind the scenes in ‘The Man’, but hopefully this will be revealed in the next week’s episode, when the agents’ confrontation with the LMDs reaches its’ climax.

So, this is it for the week’s AoS episode. See you all later!

AFO & For Honor VIII - Feb 13

With all the excitement of fictional TV shows old and new, I neglected AFO – but not really. 

Recently I have rewatched yet another one of its episodes – ‘Gorilla vs. Leopard’, and several things hit me this time.

Firstly, why did the leopard have to fight the gorilla? Whereas the tiger is found only in Asia, and lions live in Africa – and also in one tiny spot in India – the leopard is found on both of these continents; it is a more versatile cat than either of them, so why is it that the nature documentaries depict the leopard only as an African cat?

Maybe it is because the Western world views Africa and Asia in two different ways, these days. For the West, Africa remains wild and challenging in this sort of way; almost like ‘the Old West’ cliché of the American fiction (not sure about the European, though). Asia, these days, is certainly not – rather, that is where the new big business lies, the hope for the future civilization lies, etc. The leopard has no place there – pity that no one has told that to the leopards, who are actually making a living alongside people, as racoons do in North America and red foxes in Europe – but the leopard has a much bigger punch than either of them, speaking both metaphorically and literally.

Yes, the African population of leopards is probably bigger than that in Asia; yes, the African leopards have greater swathes of wild habitat to live in, but still. The last time someone talked about the Asian leopards properly and in detail was the National Geographic magazine, in December 2015, when they published an article on leopards – on all of the leopards, African and Asian. Given how humans treat the rest of the planet, including the big cats, it is about time that someone did that! (I.e. publish the article and bring the public’s attention to the big cat issue).

…Wait. This doesn’t have anything to do with AFO; you can just as well go on a tangent about how the apes have a similar situation to the big cats: gorillas and chimpanzees are found only in Africa, orangutans and gibbons, (called the lesser apes by the scientists in modern times) – only in Asia. True. One can also get back onto the proper topic by pointing out that the real reason why ‘Gorilla vs. Leopard’ episode was so problematic is because the two animals in question was so different, a fact that the show itself had to admit in passing…so why did the leopard lose?

Let us step back from AFO for a moment and return to ‘For Honor’. After making the nodachi sword for Kensai, the ‘Man at Arms’ group at ‘AWE ME’ channel made…not Warlord’s Viking sword as I expected, but the Dane axe of Raider. The process of making the axe was interesting, the ‘field testing’ even more so. Unlike the nodachi, which was a slicing weapon, the Dane axe also smashed – through bricks and the like. Thus?

Well, here lies a difference between Viking and Samurai methods of fighting in the game. The nodachi itself is not a light weapon, just as with the Dane axe, you have to use two hands to wield it, (hence why the Westerners called their version of this blade a greatsword), but still, it is thin. It is sharp, it is strong and resilient, but it is thin. The Dane axe is not – yes, its’ cutting end is thin, but everything else about it is thick. If the nodachi struck you with a flat side, it would still sting, but you would be safe. If the Dane axe hit you, you would still be knocked prone, probably with several broken bones too. The Vikings, of course, did not let such facts of life stop them, they were that bad ass, but this point still has to be made. Unlike the nodachi, in fact, unlike even the Viking sword, the Dane axe could be used not just as a weapon of war, but also as an axe, used to cut down trees or whatever. Hence, why it is different from the nodachi; also – how is it different, too.

So, how does this bring us back to AFO? Let us look at the gorilla and the leopard once again. The leopard is a killer and kills monkeys and apes, including humans and gorillas; the gorilla is not. It isn’t really a fighter either, the fights between silverbacks (mature gorilla males) tend not to end in violence; flatly, the gorilla is a much more peaceful animals than its’ cousins, humans and chimpanzees, are. So, why did the gorilla win?

Let us return to the Vikings’ Dane axe. When DW has put the Viking against the Samurai in S1, the put the Samurai katana against the Viking sword; but the Viking axe was put against the Samurai kanabo – a wooden club with iron rivets stuck on it. As DW showed in its own experiments, the Viking axe was powerful and heavy, but the kanabo was more so. (In ‘For Honor’, the kanabo is the weapon of the Shugoku, remember?) That was one of the reasons why the Viking lost in DW – but lost it fairly.

…Of course, throughout S1, DW did make a point to judge it all fairly – and it did so, (save for the ‘Shaolin Monk vs. Maori Warrior’ episode, but that is another story). Sadly, this fairness revealed that the American Green Berets were worse than the Soviet/Russian Spetznaz, so post S1 DW did its’ best to be prejudiced instead, so after S3, when George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Lawrence of Arabia, the show got cancelled – for the lack of funds, (and maybe sponsors): the Americans aren’t that dumb to believe that sort of propaganda – and we’re talking about a nation who says that most of its’ evil immigrants come not from the South, Mexico, from the North, Canada – so the DW cancellation was just sad. Prejudice just does not deliver in the long term.

The same goes to AFO, only because it was depicting animals, rather than people, it was less obvious, but the principle was the same. That is why the gorilla won its’ face-off, and the anaconda – with the jaguar. (According to Luke Hunter, the giant otters of South America sometimes eat anacondas, and honestly, they tend to stay away from jaguars instead). Not because they were more efficient fighters/killers/etc., but because the cast of the show decided it so. DW used real actors; AFO – CGI’d animals and robot models, so AFO’s prejudice was less obvious, again, but the end result was the same: both shows got cancelled.

And ‘For Honor’? ‘For Honor’ is a computer game, not a TV show, so it is subjected to a different set of standards – and as such, it is a different story.

Powerless & For Honor VII - Feb 9

And so it happened that ‘Powerless’ has found its’ stripes – sort of. Tonight’s episode, (‘Wayne’s Dream Team’?) was a typical sitcom about a work place; there was very little superhero element, mostly in the beginning and concluding scenes. In addition, yes, apparently ‘THE superhero’ of Charm City is the Crimson Fox. Go her.

Anything else? Well, for all of its flaws, ‘Powerless’ is still strong than AoS, despite AoS being an older and (supposedly) more ‘robust’ show by far. All is learned by comparison, in March there is going to be a comedy – ‘Making History’ or something similar – which makes ‘Powerless’ look really good, sophisticated, and clever.

An aside: yes, TV shows inspire one another; AoS’ itself has inspired several series, including ‘Blindspot’ and ‘Dark Matter’ (a sci-fi TV show set in space). DCEU’s LoT has done the same thing – by now, there are several TV shows that deal with time travel in different ways; ‘Making History’s’ approach is that of comedy that makes ‘Powerless’ look good – and we are talking about promo videos that are supposed to entice people into viewing the show in question. Of course, ‘Powerless’ approaches this topic with its own flaws: apparently it is just skipping them and airing itself on Thursday evenings, (at least in Canada). Not cool, but it is the call, period.

Of course, in real life the relationship between U.S. and the rest of the world continues to twist and turn: today there were news about twenty or so American refugees who got into Canada (the province of Manitoba) on foot – and keep in mind that winters in the Canadian prairies is not something to be toughened out, period. Guess they wanted to get out of America that badly; guess currently U.S. sucks that much.

In other news, this week people learned about all of the playable characters in ‘For Honor’ – all of them, except for the Lawbringer of the Knights and the Valkyrie of the Vikings: this is good, but a curious point: the sword of the Vikings’ Warlord is supposed to be a gladius? Weird.

Here is the weird part. The gladius was the sword of the Roman Empire; in DW, the Roman Centurion wielded it in S2. It was a short, broad sword, unlike the khanda sword of the Rajput warrior who fought the centurion in DW, easy to wield, but—

But the Roman army fought as a cohesive unit; they were more flexible than the Greek phalanx was, (think the Spartan in DW S1), but regardless, there was not individuality on the level of the Rajput – or the various Celtic people that lived beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. DW had shown a Celtic warrior in S2 too; his weapon was the longsword, so hello, Warden of ‘For Honor’, we will get to you in a bit.

To finish with the Romans, for most of their history, they preferred to use their short, broad swords in combo with their shields, which were much bigger and stronger than those of their barbarian neighbours were. Pushing with their shields and stabbing with their swords in close melee, the Romans’ military tactics were different from their neighbours, who often preferred to use one-on-one combat in their battles; they used much bigger, longer and heavier swords than the Romans did – and that included the Vikings; (just look at their weapons in ‘Vikings’ of History channel, if you want).

Enter Warlord, technically speaking. ‘For Honor’ may be just a video game, but it is a very good video game; they went the extra mile to make their playable characters unique, each with their own signature weapon. Thus, the choice of ‘gladius’ is surprising, because the Vikings had their own sword – the so-called Viking sword.

It was one of the oldest sword designs in the post-antique Europe; it was built to slash and slice, rather than to stab. William the Conqueror in DW’s S3 used it against Joan of Arc, who was armed with an arming sword instead.

The arming sword was the next step in European sword evolution: as DW has shown, it was designed to stab as well as to slash, so a completely different set of moves was taught/learned to use this blade properly. The longsword of Warden in ‘For Honor’ came next, thus it is more advanced than the sword of Warlord, and if you ever have the two of them fight, (which probably happens fairly often with all the beta testing that ‘For Honor’ is having before the big reveal later this month), you can see the difference between the two swords; the blade of Warden is much longer and heavier than that of Warlord.

The Japanese – to stay on topic of both swords and ‘For Honor’ – have done something similar; for example, the nodachi – or the greatsword – used by Kensai is older and less advanced than the katana – or the longsword – of Orochi.

…Let’s put swords aside for the moment, and point out that ‘For Honor’ has also tried to give backstories to its’ factions. The Knights are spreading into Ashfield in order to recolonize and rejuvenate the legacy of their ancestors (the ancient Romans?). The Samurai are building their empire in Myre after losing their homeland (Japan?) to water and fire. (So, the universe of ‘For Honor’ doesn’t have Japan? Now that is an interesting idea for a fantasy). And the Vikings have come to Vallenheim also to rebuild anew – something went wrong with their new home too (a reference to Vinland, maybe?). In addition, they seem to be the naval power among the three – so maybe the final product will have some naval battles too?

So, that’s it for tonight; so you all soon with something less trivia-like than just sword history and evolution (hopefully).

S.H.I.E.L.D., BOOM - Feb 7

Last night’s episode of AoS, ‘BOOM’, was a peculiar episode in several ways. Let us try to list them.

Firstly, Jeffrey Mace has allowed himself to be captured by the Russians so that the rest of the team would help Daisy stop Sparkly, a Watchdog revealed to be an InHuman, whose power is to self-detonate and survive this – repeatedly. Now, on one hand, AoS has finally created a new InHuman with new, and unique powers, (there were rumors of AoS showing/introducing a character named Molecule Man into the MCU, but it’s anyone’s guess if that’s Shockley, or Vijay Nadeer, or whoever – see below). On the other, however, they killed off senator Nadeer.

Yes, the senator was an unsympathetic character to say the least, but somehow AoS has handled her death prematurely; in an earlier episode they depicted her brother having survived having shot and going into an InHuman version of hibernation as well. It made sense that he would have a confrontation with his sister the senator sometime in the future. Now she is dead, (officially?), so what role is Vijay to play? Killing Shockley in the future with his own InHuman powers, (whatever they are)?

Shockley himself is another topic of contention. On one hand, it is nice that he now has a name to go with the face – until ‘BOOM’ he was known as Watchdog Alpha, a rank, rather than a name, so there’s that; on the other hand, Shockley? It’s up for discussion, whether this makes him rank with the episodic characters of Robert Stevenson, (in the original ‘Treasure Island’ novel there were such minor characters as Mrs. Blankley and Mr. Crossly), or with Pokémon (“Shockley, I choose you!’ “Shockley-Shock!”). The man has used a Taser before, and now he just explodes, so – Shockley? Just who is the genius behind that name, anyhow?

Speaking of genius, let us talk about how Mace has stopped Ivanov’s truck. It was the same way as to how Steel has stopped a train in ‘LoT’ S2, (the first half). ‘LoT’ is part of DCEU, not MCU, so – copyright infringement? And that’s not even getting to the Russians – back in ‘Arrowverse’, team Arrow is also fighting them, just in a different incarnation: unlike Jeffrey Mace/the Patriot, the Arrow was never especially American; not that he doesn’t have his own problems, but still. AoS often had problems with originality, but at least it did not appear to be ripping off from other shows so directly. Greater real-life politics in the U.S. is one thing; the situation in D.C. is getting increasingly messy; but lifting off from other shows? Yeah, AoS will probably catch flak for that; other TV shows have lifted off ideas from it, (‘Blindspot’, cough), but never so blatantly…

Speaking of other shows, ‘APB’ deserves a mention, since it has begun this week. So has ‘Legion’, of course but it works. ‘APB’… it is hard to say. Whereas AoS usually has good ideas, but bad delivery, ‘APB’ has it almost the other way around. For one thing, its’ basic idea – a millionaire inventor has a personal tragedy, and repents from greedy ass into a good person – was lifted from the ‘Iron Man’, movie, comic and character. For another, another of its’ basic ideas is have robots help cops fight crime, and—

And ‘APB’ is a cop show, but there are already plenty of police-based shows on TV: ‘Law and Order: SVU’, ‘Chicago PD’, etc. So far, robots are not enough to make ‘APB’ stand out in the crowd, as ‘Blindspot’ has its puzzles to achieve that.

And on the topic of robots and technology, the drone that has appeared in ‘APB’ certainly looked amazing – and also very similar to the drone that my family had bought as a toy for the New Year; the two certainly share the body plan/design. Our drone looks also impressive, and can also fly, but—

But first, you have to charge it, its’ battery. To do that, you have to link the drone to a computer – it cannot be charged directly from an electric outlet, too risky for the battery in question. You charge the battery for half an hour, (i.e. 30 minutes), and then you can fly the drone…for about 6 to 8 minutes, depending on the weather conditions; our drone is especially vulnerable to strong winds, so… I cannot help but wonder just how well ‘APB’s’ drone works in real life, off TV?

So: AoS continues to go down, (currently, the ratings are even lower than what they were in the ‘Ghost Rider’ story arc), and ‘APB’ is not doing so well either. What will the future bring them? We will just have to see. 

For Honor VI

…While AoS continues on ahead, as do other old shows, of course, joined by such new ones, as ‘Riverdale’ and ‘Powerless’, ‘For Honor’ goes on as well, as do other games, of course, but—

However, ‘For Honor’ seems to be diversifying, so to speak. Last week, the ‘DYI Cosplay Shop’ has released a video that shows the process, or the instructions, of how to make your very own Peacekeeper costume. If anyone is still confused, the Peacekeeper here is one of the Knights’ characters, an assassin wielding two swords, and looking kind of Umberto Eco here. Now, ‘Man at Arms’ have brought forth the Kensai’s sword – the nodachi.

Now, as I have probably written some time earlier, the nodachi was Japan’s version of the greatsword, unlike the better-known katana, which was Japan’s answer to the longsword. The main difference between the two weapons was the size: you needed two hands to wield the greatsword (or the nodachi), while for the longsword (or the katana) one hand would do. If you look at the intros of the Kensai and the Orochi in the game, you will see that difference.

Beyond that, it should be noted that when creating the nodachi, the Japanese remained true to themselves: while the Western swords are designed not so much for slicing as for stabbing, for the Japanese the reverse is true. In the Western terminology, the design of the nodachi would probably cause them to call it a sabre, rather than a sword… does anyone care about this in this day and age, facing with a game? (Instead of a real life blade coming at them in the real world?)

This probably brings us to the game mechanics. The Peacekeeper is a fast character, using speed and precision to defeat its’ opponents. (I am using ‘it’ because by now most of the PC characters in ‘For Honor’ can be customized into being either male or female. Hah). The Kensai also uses precision, (actually, I think that most of the characters of ‘For Honor’ do, BTW), but his nodachi/greatsword also uses momentum, as it was shown in a clip of the Kensai going five rounds with the Nobushi, who uses the naginata instead. Both of them tried to end each round quickly, but whereas the Nobushi was versatile, the Kensai was less so; this character is generally slower than the Nobushi or the Peacekeeper in question are. (That was the intent, BTW).

Back to the real world? ‘DIY’, as well as ‘Man at Arms’ and a few other similar groups are a part of the ‘Awe Me’ YouTube channel, which promotes all sort of cool things. ‘Man at Arms’, in particular, have done something similar to the ‘For Honor’ nodachi with the ‘Battlefield 1’ jambiya dagger and trench club. (The latter is self-explanatory, the former was a specialized dagger, also curved and designed for slicing, rather than just for stabbing; it appeared in DW S3 as one of Lawrence of Arabia’s weapons)… Put otherwise, more power to them.

So: ‘For Honor’s’ next big breakthrough is in a matter of days, on February 14. They are already putting an extra mile in contacting – and contracting – ‘Awe Me’ group. Good luck to them, and – I can hardly wait for the next development. 

Powerless, 'Wayne or Lose' - Feb 2

‘Powerless’ has made its’ debut. Does it work?

Okay, that is a loaded question. Shows can get aired regardless of whether or not they work, just look at AoS: not only its episode for this week, (‘Hot Potato Soup’), contained a bunch of Russian clichés for villains, (yes, and the Donald seems to be a fan of Russia for the moment, cringe!), but it also had some tall and skinny secondary agent that played no particular role at all; maybe he was supposed to be a love interest for the girl Koenig, but somehow it just didn’t happen – one of AoS’ problems is a bad delivery of what are otherwise good ideas. ‘Powerless’ seems to have something similar too.

No, seriously – the idea is very good: the lives of background civilian characters who have to endure the fallout between the various superheroes and villains; the show, in particular, focuses on a company that invents, (or tries to), ways to make the civilians’ lives more bearable. Okay. There are worse ideas in existence, but the way that the S1 premiere of the series has done it? Not so good.

The first half of the episode has characters interact in humorous ways that border on outright obnoxious and unbearable; it is a fine line between that and humor, and I am unsure where ‘Powerless’ had landed. In the other half, the humor had abated, and the episode had some very good moments, especially the discussion between Emily and Jackie…where the humor was at its’ lowest. Somehow, at least in this episode, the sitcom format of the show did not really work. You can have a sitcom show about an inventing company, (run by Bruce Wayne’s cousin, no less, who just wants to return to Gotham City, ha-ha), set in the DCEU, but somehow, tonight, it didn’t work. The show was simply – uninspiring, uninviting, and not just because the villain of the episode, (Jack-o-Lantern or someone like that) seemed to be a cliché, (and even AoS was able to avoid clichés in most of its episodes), while the superhero, (Crimson Fox?), was not depicted very well either. AoS did its’ best to grab the audience’s attention from the start; so did ‘The Librarians’, and they are much more comic than AoS is, (for the obvious reasons).

…Yes, ‘The Librarians’ have actually scaled down the humor in S3, but the thing is that their humor was never as lowbrow as ‘Powerless’ seems to be. (There was an off-kilter remark regarding sex with robots, for example. Yeah, ha-ha). In addition, ‘The Librarians’ are an adventure show, not unlike AoS, or any of the ‘Arrowverse’ shows, it’s just that its’ heroes are unconventional, and battle their foes in unconventional ways. ‘Powerless’, on the other hand, is a sitcom; it doesn’t have any action, and relies mostly on humor to get from point A to point B – and in the first episode, it seems to be functioning the best when its’ humor is low, rather than high. Hah.

So. The newest component of DCEU is off to a rocky start, and there are rumors that DCEU movies are not doing so good either. (They are not). Hopefully, ‘Powerless’ won’t be the first sign of DCEU’s end. On this pessimistic note, see you later. 

S.H.I.E.L.D., Potato Soup - Jan 31

‘Hot Potato Soup’ was aired. And?

And it was a good episode. The Koenig family rocked. The interaction of the FitzSimmons and Mack against LMD Radcliffe Mk I was poignant and dramatic. So was Ming-Na’s performance as LMD May, (no doubles this episode). Radcliffe the original is shaping to be a very formidable villain, but – when did he look into the Darkhold the first time? He certainly did not do it onscreen, even during the Ghost Rider mini-arc, and before S.H.I.E.L.D. secured it, it was lost, discovered by Lucy Bauer and her husband in some crazyass hideout instead. When and how did Radcliffe fit into this chronology?

Aida is continuing to evolve as a villain, which brings us to the apparent Superior of the Watchdogs and etc. – a Russian villain named Anton Ivanov, who has a submarine. Pause.

Firstly, it is a Russian villain. The show attempted for him to have a dramatic entrance, but the truth is, without his nationality, he is just another villain, who ‘is not Hydra, really’, a psychopath, apparently, but that is it. In many ways, Anton is yet another disappointing villain, alongside Malick, and Lucy Bauer, and Ely Morrow – even Radcliffe is a better and smarter villain than all of them combined, and he still has sympathetic traits in him. Hive has ruined it for AoS villains – after an alien space worm that has almost destroyed Earth’s civilization, it is hard to be taken seriously when you are just a crazy guy in a sub.

The matter of nationality…yeah, in S3 AoS did bring forth the ‘evil Russian stereotype’, and ‘Hot Potato Soup’ alludes to it directly: it is ‘Parting Shot’, where Bobbi and Lance, (Blood and Palicki) left the show. So far, they are not coming back, so AoS has introduced a new agent instead: a girl Koenig, and she is not played by Mr. Patton…probably because that would have been too much even for Mr. Patton. Oh well, he still rocked, and so did the Koenig family of both genders, unlike the AoS’ idea of Russian villains. This is cliché, or cast-typing, and real life being what it is, the president Donald seems to be actually friendly with Russians, so it’s possible that right now the cast and crew of AoS are having a collective facepalm/cringe moment regarding ‘Hot Potato Soup’ – they probably thought that Hillary was going to win the election and continue Obama’s policies, including the foreign ones, including the ones dealing with Russia.

…BTW, Russia became ‘un-democratic’ on Hillary’s watch when she was handling U.S.’s foreign affairs, so there is that. Furthermore, her opponent supposedly came into power via Russian hackers, but no concrete proof had been presented during the ‘interregnum’ and now that the Donald is in charge for real, and doing some damage to the U.S. for real, there is no talk of it being the Russians fault… So what?

Well, it means that for all of its’ stupidity, the American society and government, (and the relationship between the two has its own issues) can get its’ head out of its’ ass and start to fight for it really considers to be important, regardless of whatever histrionics Hollywood pulls out as part of its effort (remember Madonna? Yeah, this is a case when naiveté and passionate speaking make things worse, not better). At this moment in history, Russians make good bogeymen, but nothing more. This isn’t the best attitude to approach them with, and the use of Russian (and Russia) related clichés in such shows as AoS isn’t helping anyone either; even ‘The Last Ship’, which is much more political than AoS is, has moved past this cliché; so why AoS is returning to it? …It may be just the straw to get it cancelled, instead.

On the other hand, ‘The Last Ship’ is relevant to this rant also because in the original novel, (different from the TV series, BTW) because it featured a Russian submarine – just as AoS is, now. Of course, ‘The Librarians’, S3 premiere, has also featured a submarine, (just not Russian, more like a museum piece, hijacked by Apep), so AoS is not even being original here: the good guys, (S.H.I.E.L.D.) have a quinjet, so the bad guys, (not Hydra, most definitely, even though ‘The Patriot’ depicted Hydra coming back) have a submarine. Clever, right?

Well, no. This is more of the entire recycling of ideas. In S2, the late Robert Gonzales commanded his faction of S.H.I.E.L.D. on an aircraft carrier called the Iliad. AoS being what it was, it has not mentioned the Iliad since the end of S2, though there was info that agent Weaver was now running the vessel, nor has it made an appearance. Between this info, and the fact that Hydra is back, yeah, AoS is back utilizing S2 ideas – the Ghost Rider related reboot is failing right now, even if one ignores how the LMD May is Kara in a nanomask, yeah? However, amazing performance by Ming-Na – she brings both of her characters to life now.

So: awesome delivery by the actors, but a much less amazing plot, with potential real-life repercussions (as we have seen, the Donald isn’t shy in using his power around – just look at Ms. Yates). That is it for now, see you all later!