Wednesday, 3 May 2017

S.H.I.E.L.D., Cruel World - May 2

…Therefore, agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have said ‘farewell’ to the ‘cruel world’ of Madame Hydra/AIDA and left it behind. Except for Mack, who would rather stay there with his daughter Hope instead. So what?

Firstly, this means that AoS has resolved, at least to some point, its’ ‘conflict’ with SkyeWard fans. Odds are, Skye/Daisy and Grant were never in the works…or perhaps discarded sometime between S1 and S2, but the impetus lingered, and the way it all got resolved didn’t help either…so now, in S4, AoS decided better late than never, and gave its’ viewers some sort of a resolution between Grant and Daisy at least: perhaps in some universe, Grant, (who is a good guy himself now), and ‘his’ Skye will be happy together, even if he and ‘the canon’ Daisy cannot be…

It is possible that Skye/Daisy was never supposed to be with Grant, but somehow, through AoS mishandling the situation, it got out of hand and in a direction that AoS did not care about. They tried ignoring it, (not unlike how George Martin tends to ignore the fans’ inquiries about his future book – ‘Winds of Winter’ or something like that), and it worked, sort of. S4 of AoS had some of the lowest ratings ever…but by S3 AoS realized that it was not doing something, so they tried to do fan service instead. The show is sending feelers out to the fans and viewers – there was the entire ‘Hot Potato Soup’ episode with the Koenigs, (Patton Oswauld) and now this. AoS has realized that if the numbers of viewers and of ratings falls low enough they will be cancelled, so they are trying to reverse the trend…

Yes, again, the reason as to why a show is cancelled is not straightforward. ‘Agent Carter’, ‘Time after time’ and ‘Powerless’ showed that clearly enough, but still, contract or no contract, Marvel or Disney, AoS clearly decided to change its’ approach to its’ relationship with fans and viewers, so – good for them. Robbie Reyes the Ghost Rider is returning at the series’ finale, and-

Right now, it can go in any way, but here are the more likely ones, (I think). Mack has remained in the framework with Hope, and as the next episode’s promo is showing, he just might die on Ivanov’s (the Superior’s), soon-to-be-sinking submarine. Thus, either he will die, (stay in the framework forever), leaving Henry Simmons free to leave the show, and so will NCB, who plays Mack’s love interest Yo-Yo/Elena Rodriguez, most likely. Thus, Gabriel Luna, who plays Robbie Reyes/the Ghost Rider, will be free to adjoin to AoS as a new main character.

Alternatively, none of the above happens. Yo-Yo will actually rescue Mack in time, he will stay, she will stay, and the Ghost Rider will remain a recurring, not a main, character. The end. Either way, this can work for AoS, in part it all comes down to its’ budget and how will the show end, on the higher or lower end of its (still low) ratings.

This is especially important, since at least two new Marvel-related shows are coming to the viewers, (Netflix and Freeform): ‘The Defenders’ and ‘Cloak & Dagger’. Between them and FX’s “Legion”, which deals with mutants rather than the Avengers, the InHumans, or anyone else, AoS might be feeling the pressure mounting to change its’ approach to…something, and that is what it does. Good luck to it!

And speaking of new arrivals that don’t have to do with Marvel, for a change – firstly, Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower’ novel series are coming to TV as a new series, and it seems to be just as impressive as ‘The Defenders’ are, for example. Yay! Second, ‘For Honor’ is updating itself also in May 2017, apparently, with at least two new PC characters – the Centurion and the Shinobi. That…is not so yay, actually, as both sound problematic: the Shinobi is supposed to be a part of the Samurai roster, yet since its’ name means a ninja-like character, (just ask any fan of… the ‘Naruto’ anime and manga, for example, for the reason why), how will it be different from the Orochi? Not better or worse, just different? Minds want to know…

The Centurion, meanwhile, as part of the roster of the Knights, seems to have its’ own problems – it was a rank of the Roman Empire (and the earlier Republic); it is a part of the ‘ancient’ times, not the ‘medieval’ ones, as the knights were. Yes, sure, such divisions are ‘superficial’, especially for various games, (‘Battlefield 1’, for example, as a megalodon shark as an ‘Easter egg’ attack option), but ‘For Honor’ actually goes for authentic-looking characters, so a Centurion will probably just not look as the rest of its’ teammates, or else one of the game’s stronger points – the authenticity will take a hit. Either way, ‘For Honor’ loses.


So: AoS is beginning to fix itself; ‘For Honor’ – not so much; and many wonderful new shows are coming to TV and the Internet. That is it for this time, tune-in next week!

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