Post-Olympics - Feb 26

The Olympic games of 2018 are over, and we are about to get back to several of our regular TV shows, including ‘Blindspot’ and AoS. Yay!

…Setting ‘Blindspot’ aside, (it is still a good show, just not as good as the first 2 seasons had been), AoS has been making noise lately about them reaching their 100^th episode. Well, not just them, but also Marvel™ proper, one supposes. On Feb 16, 2018, Marvel™ has released the ‘Black Panther’ movie, which has made its’ own splash, but by now things have died down somewhat so AoS should avoid any conflict of interest with the movie, (also, ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ has become available on DVD and Blu-Ray, but after the Kree in S5 – and all of them died – AoS has probably filled-out its’ alien quota for the season…perhaps). Where were we?

AoS tried to tap into the African power of the ‘Black Panther’ movie by featuring Flint, an Afro-American InHuman with limited telekinetic powers: all he could really do was smash rocks together and throw them at other humans and Kree with a deadly speed: in the first part of AoS S5 that was all he did and now the agents have left the future and returned to their own time – the present/past…if they succeed at figuring out just who did destroy the world and blamed Daisy, then the future of Deke, Flint, Tess and the others will never come to be – and then what?

And then the rosy finale of the first S5 story arc, where Tess and Flint sit in a spaceship of some sort, and with sheer adoration and puppy-like optimism behold the still-ravished planet Earth and hope that Coulson, Daisy and co. have made it, will never come to be – something else will. Okay.

Logical inconsistences and twists have plagued AoS since S3, if not the second half of S2, and real life isn’t much better – Mueller, for example, has discovered that there was Russian meddling in the US election, (and US didn’t meddle in politics abroad? Really?), they were more about discrediting Hillary, not electing Trump. Trump won largely on his own power, and Hillary lost correspondingly. Now what?

Well, US will have to admit that it has wasted a year chasing phantoms that were not there to satisfy their own political issues and move forwards. The Russian Federation can still be brought to heel, the European Union won back, and the Asian issues resolved…hopefully without starting WWIII, nuclear version, because apparently America’s multitasking skills aren’t sufficient to do all of the above and chase the phantoms, so it will now choose, what it wants to do…if it wants to do anything at all. It is impossible to predict what America and its’ people will do next, but…it is obvious to admit that the denial about the Russian involvement in the American affairs is not helping. US has to recognize that the post-Cold War period when it safely rested on its’ laurels is over and begin to do damage control to its’ internal and external problems, because otherwise? That’s it. The end of ‘Pax Americana’ and everything that it tried to stand for. Does America and its’ people want that? Since it is impossible to tell with the Americans, (especially from the outside), who knows…

Therefore, this is it for this time…hopefully, see you later this week with the returned AoS.

Black Panther the movie - Feb 16

‘Black Panther’ movie has arrived in the movie theaters at last. Let us talk about it, and if there are people who are still concerned about spoilers – and there probably still are – let them be warned: we will proceed.

Where do we stand with ‘Black Panther’? In Africa, and many people are already discussing the Afrocentrism, the Afrofuturism, and the similar aspects of the movie, and how they are making the ‘Black Panther’ film great. A dissonance is the voice of those critics who’re unhappy that the film was never filmed in Africa proper, but that is understandable – real life imposes its’ own restrictions even on the movie magics, and-

And here is the crux about the African issue: when the Europeans began to conquer Africa and, well, enslave its people, one of the other, less advertised, effects of this action was the eventual erosion of the initial ethnical African cultures and their subsequent replacements with the European ones, especially Protestant – just read the novels of, say, Chinua Achebe, to see how it went down in real life. Thus, whatever else can, or should be, said about the relations between Europeans, Africans, Anglo-Americans and Afro-Americans, the fact was that the African cultures were affected much more so than their European/USA Protestant counterparts, period, and this includes the current ‘Black Panther’ film – yes, it involves much more people of color as part of its cast (and crew?), but it is still an American movie, not an African one; its’ approach is a part of the ‘restitution’, of a karmic debt, of sorts, that USA still feels towards Africa and its’ native people – and that issue is a very thorny one back in the American society. Some people still claim that the pilgrims and the other European pioneers were the ones who made America great in the first place, and everyone else – i.e., P.O.Cs – are secondary…at best. And there others who claim everything in the previous statement…in reverse. Both groups – as well as others – have enough members who are very adroit at grabbing (and/or possessing) firearms, then gunning down everyone else who disagrees with them…, and that is not an exclusively American problem, but…

But we are talking about the ‘Black Panther’ movie specifically. It is an American movie, done about a fictional African country, (back in 2016, one of Wakanda’s neighbouring countries was Canaan, which isn’t even in Africa, more like in Middle East, just look over your Old Testament geography, here). As such, anything Africa-related to it, isn’t ‘genuine’ African, more like yet another attempt of USA to ‘restitute’ its’ historical (etc.) debt to ‘the Black Continent’, and all that follows. Thus, claiming that the ‘Black Panther’ has Afrocentrism, or Afrofuturism, or anything Afro-related is…posery, and isn’t very honest; this isn’t exactly Africa-anything, more like good old Uncle Sam congratulating himself on his virtues…as if the Donald doing exactly that in the presidential seat wasn’t enough of that.

Beyond the African (and/or Africa-related) elements, what else is there? …A typical Marvel movie, that’s what – high-quality CGI, high-quality acting, high-quality plot…but the same as usual: all heroes prevail, all villains die, and Disney’s ‘Lion King’ looming in the shadows. As if the CIA agent Bilbo Baggins was not bad enough. …Okay, agent Ross – he’s the replacement of Coulson, now that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been taken out of the equation again, and agent Coulson was probably still in the future at that point of time in MCU, (re: AoS S5).

AoS here is mentioned because of villains. Klaue is dead now, the end. This version of MCU Man-Ape got PC-edited the most, and has been downplayed because of racial stereotypes which is just what the world doesn’t need more of, especially in this day and age. And Killmonger is dead, as he’d been repeatedly in the comics, (for example in 2016), which is a rule of thumb of villains in MCU; the only notable exception, (Thanos doesn’t count – he stayed largely behind the scenes until the upcoming ‘Infinity War’ movies, and Red Skull is down for the count for all purposes too), is Loki.

Let us take an aside for ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ as well. It was a reset of Thor’s corner of MCU, as everyone that we have met in the first two ‘Thor’ movies are gone; either they are dead, or are simply gone, as Jane Foster and Sif are. Aside from Thor and Loki, there’s no one left, everyone else – like the Valkyrie – are brand new. This makes Loki’s standing in Thor’s life somewhat unusual: he is a blackguard, but a predictable one. Thor knows by now how far he can trust his brother, and when he cannot, and he treats Loki accordingly. Thus, the only variable left in the Loki-Thor relationship, (sibling relationship, you perverts!) is what will Loki do about it, especially now that Thanos has come for the Infinity Stones personally, and as we know, he has bossed Loki once, and he can do it again. Where does it leave the Trickster God?

…He can stand with Thanos and fall with him, however eventually. Or he can stand with the Avengers and get a share of their triumph and be redeemed, at least in part, (just as how Bucky Barnes seems to be going – the entire White Wolf cameo at the credits’ end, remember?). Or he can decide to screw all of this and just escape and go and live his own life, be his own person at last. He can do anything; he just has to survive the Infinity War…and to admit, especially to himself, that now and here, (and maybe forever), Thor is the bigger, better man, even if Loki does not want to be a hero. Asgard is gone, (thanks to Hela and Surtr), but its’ people remain, and they are following Thor, not Loki. Does Loki care about that? Does Loki care about anyone else other than himself? The first ‘Thor’ movie showed that he does not, but he has convinced himself of it being otherwise, so now he has to decide if he abandons the lie or makes it into a truth? Loki will not be king in the Marvel movies, most likely, but it does not mean that he has to be a villain either.

…And this brings us to Killmonger and the rest of Marvel’s villains; the only thing that is really separating Killmonger from the rest of them, (aside from Loki), is that Killmonger had actually had a chance to repent and redeem himself…which he discarded, so the end result is all the same. One dead villain. Back in the 90s, the Herc (H: TLJ) and Xena (X: WP) TV series had this sort of thing: on occasion the titular characters would battle someone who was less outright evil and more misguided or misdirected or something. Then they would be offered, usually in the last part of the episode, to stop and think about their actions, to repent and turn around. If they didn’t…Hercules and Xena would still kill them, but at least they were offered a chance to stop being villains and maybe even become good guys, (at least to a point). MCU…does not do that. The bad people do not get a chance to repent, (Loki just was not cornered and gunned down yet)…only in AoS, they did.

In the second part of S2 it seemed quite likely, that Ward and Kara will redeem themselves with the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. and either rejoin them or leave the show via T.A.H.I.T.I. Instead, canon happened and they both died. AoS has played this out very badly; even now there are people who hate Ward, (and to a lesser extent Kara), as well those who hate May, (and to a lesser extent Coulson), and Hunter & Morse are not very popular too. (Hunter’s return in AoS S5 so far was very perfunctory, and his interview on the Marvel News website – ditto). This on top of both real life issues with AoS & MCU, and all the other fan conflicts, (regarding Hydra, as well as Cap vs. Tony CA: CW conflict)… AoS has suffered and has never recovered, not even now, in S5, but we are talking about the ‘Black Panther’ movie now, and Eric Killmonger.

…A lot of people are talking about how Killmonger has broken the villain mould. He has not. His final battle with T’Challa the titular Black Panther was two men dressed in almost identical clothes with almost identical weapons – if this wasn’t a ‘dark mirror’, then what is?

…But wait! Killmonger was confronting T’Challa in regards to how people of color are being treated outside Wakanda! How – American of him. Oh wait, he actually grew up in the West and is socially aware! …Remind us, why is he the villain, again?

...In real life, there'd been plenty of times when USA has tried to intervene in African countries directly as well as via UN. None of those attempts succeeded. One of them was Liberia, a real-life African country that was created by Anglo-Americans for the freed ex-slaves – they were to go back to their homeland and build their own country there. It’s unknown if it is was supposed to be a utopia, but initially it was anything but democratic: the former Afro-Americans set themselves up as the new country’s elite, and the Native Africans as their serfs/slaves/servants/whatever. Native Africans and Afro-Americans are two very different people, (people such as Jules Verne have recognized it way back in the past), so to claim that an American/Afro-American movie is African-anything is wrong.

Okay, it is actually yet another American/Afro-American perception of what an African utopia is supposed to be - that's the 'African' part here, probably. In reality Wakanda would probably be not very different from Liberia or any other country; yes, it had a wall to keep everyone else out…let us ask the Donald and his cabinet as well as his critics just how effective this sort of a contraption is. It’s about as effective as the American attempts to build an interracial utopia within itself since the 1970s – it has failed, odds are that it will continue to fail here and now, and if in 2020 Oprah will decide to run for the presidency of the US the resulting fall-out will make the fall-out from Clinton’s defeat look mild because the interracial relations of USA both within and without are far from idyllic or utopic. ‘Black Panther’ is yet another attempt to do something about it, this time utilizing MCU’s excellent, (but apparently limited), movies. The result – a standard USA MCU movie, (i.e. very excellent, much better than DCEU’s counterparts), about an Afrofuturistic, (or whatever the right term is), utopia that got everyone, (or at least 'the right people') in the US singing accolades about it so much that since the beginning of this week ‘Black Panther’ became a ‘trigger-happy’, or ‘hot trigger’, or whatever: people are already beginning to be pissed-off by the monolith of praise and are doing something about it without even judging the movie for themselves… This is not good or conductive; whatever people in Disney, MCU and beyond wanted to achieve via this film, it just might backfire instead…

This is it for now; see you all soon!

Rampage II - Feb 14

And so, I got a look at the second ‘Rampage’ movie trailer. And?

And it is still a crazy mess, with a giant gorilla, and equally giant crocodile/alligator/monitor lizard, and a giant wolf makes it an even three. But now, there is also a newer development that had become obvious only now: this is a kaiju movie rip-off!

…Or an imitation clone, fair enough, but still. In the last few years, the ‘shared kaiju universe’, (or whatever it is properly called), is centered around both King Kong and Godzilla, as well, as their upcoming conflicts, both with each other and King Ghidorah, another giant monster, (a giant three-headed variant dragon from space). Ergo, now we have ‘Rampage’, which has a giant gorilla to substitute for KK, a giant reptile to substitute for Godzilla, (and the second trailer shows that this duo will fight), and a giant wolf because… he was in the original video game? (I believe that the wolf’s name in the game was Ralph, so it is a ‘he’). Not the best reason to star in a movie, but there were worse ones, so there’s that. Anything else?

The thing is that as far as movies go, ‘Rampage’ seems to be simply lazy. When the aborted ‘Dark Universe’ spawned the new version of the ‘Mummy’ movie it did precisely that – yet another reboot of the franchise, at least in part because the trilogy about Nick, Evie and their family became clearly exhausted by the time of the third movie, (dealing with a crazy-evil resurrected ancient Chinese emperor for a change), so something new had to be done – and it was done, and the last ‘Mummy’ movie version also featured a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, so it did try to be different; it just wasn’t very good at it, it seems – but it tried to be original, (to a point, because by now the ‘Mummy’ is a classic for an obvious reason – everyone knows what it is about), and if it didn’t work, it still tried. 

‘Rampage’ on the other hand, currently seems to be shaping into a ‘Kong vs. Godzilla’ movie – before the actual ‘Kong vs. Godzilla’ movie gets aired. …Oh wait, this movie was made and aired in the 1960s, so this version of the kaiju universe is just another reboot. What a surprise! Not.

On a more serious note, the ‘Mummy’ reboot was exactly that – a mix of the time-tested and original and it has failed. It happens. By contrast, ‘Rampage’ is an imitation of a ‘Kong vs. Godzilla’ kaiju movie in the trappings of a 1980s/90s game, which consisted of monsters smashing buildings… period. Not very highbrow, and even an imitation of a kaiju movie is a step upwards here, though not by much, and ‘the Rock’ has stolen the trailers, both of them, so far.

He does get around – he was in the ‘Baywatch’ reboot, (not exactly a success either), and he will be in ‘Rampage’, and he was in the ‘Jumanji’ reboot…which, not unlike the ‘Mummy’, was a franchise reboot, trying to package an old story in a new, different package. Here, the franchise succeeded; the new ‘Jumanji’ is not really like the original movie, aside from some basic similarities, of course, so there is that. Yay for it…and it did not try to imitate the original movie either, so there is a lesson to be learned… other than that ‘the Rock’ can make anything look good, especially in a trailer. Is that it?

Yes, although there is a new ‘Warhammer’ game coming forth – ‘Vermintide 2’. We already saw one of the new PCs of the game – the ‘Kerillian’. This is an elf warrior, whose options include a stereotypical elven archer, (and a very good one), an assassin-type rogue, armed with twin swords, reminiscent of FH’s Shaman and a spear-wielding fighter, who is more like FH’s Valkyrie instead. Go FH team Viking, then! The ‘Black Panther’ movie is coming forth this week too, and AWE Me YouTube channel released a new video of ‘Men-At-Arms’, as they made a spear from that franchise. Actually, it too is similar to FH’s Valkyrie’s spear – a weapon that is designed for stabbing, rather than slicing. Go FH team Viking times too! In addition, of course, the conclusion to ‘Fifty Shades’ movie trilogy will be released this week… and odds are not in its’ favor.

…Well, this is it for now; see you all later!

Batman Ninja - Feb 13

…On the topic of Batman, has anyone caught the wind of the upcoming ‘Batman Ninja’ film? It is another straight to DVD animated feature…which has Batman (and his Bat-family) go to the feudal Japan, where they save the country in question from Joker and the rest of Gotham’s rogue gallery, (which includes Gorilla Grodd, who usually fights Wonder Woman and/or the Flash instead, for some reason). Does not sound too bad, we got glimpses of Joker and Batman trying to beat each other up with Samurai/Ninja swords…but Joker seems to have other weapons in store, from Clayface, (who is less of a weapon, and more of a villain/rogue in his own right), to a giant Mecha monster, (possibly a Godzilla/Joker hybrid?). That is more of a pushing the envelope, so I’m honestly not sure if I’m going to go for it as I did for ‘Gotham by Gaslight’ movie, or even the Batman/Scooby-Doo crossover, which wasn’t that bad, surprisingly.

…The matter of weapons could be a good time to bring forth some sort of an FH discussion, as both Aramusha and Orochi use the katana, (Kensei uses nodachi, a different sort of sword), but right now I’m more busy with the Viking Valkyrie, who uses a spear instead, so no. Anything else?

AoS is returning on March 2^nd, so’s ‘Blindspot’, as people already know. For those who miss it and aren’t into the Winter Olympics, (especially the RL version, which already is going all political with what USA is up to), there’s DCEU’s ‘Black Lightning’ and LoT came back too. (Teams Arrow & Flash say hi), so everyone is all set. The ‘Fifty Shades…’ trilogy is concluding (as a movie-verse) in cinemas starting tomorrow and by the end of the week Marvel is releasing ‘Black Panther’, so we are all set.

…See you all later, everybody! Hopefully!

Librarians S4 - Feb 9

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. For reasons that are not related to what will be discussed below, though.

What is being discussed here? Hard to say. ‘Librarians’ S4 came to an end, and it was quite satisfying, possibly better than S3, so there’s that. They are still presenting atypical yet heroic characters in atypical yet extreme situations, as they always did, so kudos to them for finding their niche – their humor is appreciated, especially in the darkest hour, though their racial representations are something else, let us be honest. However, if it works, it works. What else?

MCU is on a roll – ‘Black Panther’ is coming later, this February, ‘Cloak & Dagger’ – later this year, ‘Ant-man & Wasp’ movie after that, followed by some ‘Captain Marvel’ film, (currently unnamed), and then there’s the upcoming ‘Venom’ film as well. (In Marvel™, Venom is one of Spider-Man’s greatest enemies, but so far, Spidey is not going to appear in this ‘Venom’ movie. Maybe they are taking a ‘Kong & Godzilla’ approach, with the protagonists starring in their separate movies before taking on each other in yet another one? This could work, though as the ‘Dark Universe’ has shown, it does not always work.

The thing is that the ‘Dark Universe’ not so much failed to launch, as it did not succeed. The result was somewhat lackluster, and the ‘Mummy’ remake was uninspiring, as was Mr. Cruise. People do not like to admit it, but movies are all about money, not unlike TV series…but while TV series (sometimes) get the chance to redo things in upcoming seasons (S1 did not work, let us try with S2), movies do not, not exactly.

Again, real life doesn’t work like that; both ‘the Catch’ and AC ended after two seasons rather than one, and ‘Time after Time’ and ‘Powerless’ ended practically before the end of S1, but in general, this is how it works. Movies do not work exactly like that; yes, both ‘Batman’ and ‘Superman’ franchises got rebooted over the years repeatedly, but they are heavy hitters, big leagues, and-

And if truth is to be told, while comics often receive a lot of flak about having little content – sort of like popcorn for brain – horror movies have even less: they aim only to scare and thrill the audience, nothing else, no clever commentary, (socio-communal and etc.). The comics at least… you can do all sort of things with the comics, plus it is much easier to reboot them than any ‘proper book’ series, and-

And you can always either insert some sort of original content or revamp what there is already, as MCU has apparently done with the Ghost in the upcoming ‘Ant-man and Wasp’ movie, by remaking the Ghost into an entirely new villain…one that isn’t a white-furred dire wolf from the GoT franchise either. (Though an official MCU/GoT crossover could be cool). You cannot exactly do the same thing with a ‘monster’ movie character, though it does not stop Hollywood and co. from trying – this was the third mummy ‘reboot’, for example, while ‘Shape of Water’ was the reboot of the ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ movie that wasn’t. It works – but it is a hit-and-miss, (and yes, ‘Shape of Water’ was not a part of any movie universe), and the latest ‘Mummy’ reboot was a miss, so some time later no more Dark Universe period. What next?

It is anyone’s guess, really. ‘Librarians’ S4 is finished, ‘Shape of Water’ got ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ covered. MCU movies are going strong, DCEU’s movies – not so much, and AoS is returning to us in March, as does ‘Blindspot’.

See you all later.

JW trailer 2 - Feb 5

The second JW trailer was aired. What did we learn?

That this is the official parting of the ways with the original novel duology. As one of the characters tells another one in the trailer, ‘the dinosaurs are old news’, they’re gone – and they most certainly are, as we get a proper glimpse of the Indoraptor this time.

It is decisively anthropomorphic, the proportions are all wrong. The I-Rex was a carnosaur, a RL dinosaur with some supernatural skills, cough, technically speaking. The Indoraptor is thoroughly anthropomorphised, on the other hand, a genuine D&D troll with some reptilian traits on top of everything and anything else.

Here is the thing. The dinosaurs of the JP franchise grew clearly more and more anthropomorphic since, well, the beginning. In the initial JP novel, the dinosaurs were animals, RL animals; science might have returned them back to life, but they were still animals. Crichton’s raptors were reminiscent of tigers, the dilophosaurs – of leopards, and so on. They were intelligent – but then again, RL modern animals are themselves can be quite intelligent, cognizant even – but they had no human DNA in them, period. Frog, (or some other amphibian) DNA – sure, but human? No.

Then came the JP3 film, and while in the first two JP movies the dinosaurs were animals, (though there were some dodgy moments with the tyrannosaurs), in JP3 anthropomorphic traits were appearing, especially in the raptors.

A brief aside about the raptors: part of the reason why they had such… incorrect PR in RL may be in part because of Crichton and his JP novels. You see, in those novels, he officially and publically conflated the generic term of ‘raptor’, (now known scientifically as dromeosaurid dinosaurs…which isn’t much of an improvement, because one of the ‘raptors’ is known specifically as ‘Dromeosaurus’…never mind), with specifically Velociraptor – only it wasn’t the dinosaur that we call the Velociraptor in these modern times, but its’ bigger cousin called Deinonychus. Deinonychus was just as big as the raptors in the first JP movie – at 4 m in length, it was the third-largest raptor in RL, with only the Utahraptor and the more recently discovered Dakotaraptor, being bigger – and it was the star of the JP movies, albeit under an incorrect name…though even in the late 1980s Deinonychus and Velociraptor were scientific synonyms…science can be confusing, in short.

Back to JP3. There, the raptors were decisively anthropomorphic, not only able to deduce that them pesky humans have stolen their precious eggs, but open to communication, literally. Dr. Grant directly communicated with the raptors in JP3, bargaining their safety in return for the return of the dinosaurs’ eggs. RL animals do not behave like that, (unlike fictional ones, as the ones described in medieval bestiaries, for example), but-

But already in the previous JW movie Dr. Wu, (who apparently didn’t die back in the first JP film – maybe S.H.I.E.L.D., or Hydra, or some other shadowy organization saved him back then), admitted/confessed/exposed to the viewers that these dinosaurs aren’t ‘real’, (i.e. realistic), they’re ‘hybrids’, (i.e. chimeras), fictional, artificial creatures.

An aside regarding the chimera. Initially, in ancient Greece and Rome, it was a mythical monster; it was part lion, part goat and part snake, and it breathed fire. It was dragon-like, but also composite, so not even the ancient Greeks and Romans themselves believed it to be real…

In later times, the chimera lost, in part, its’ specific features, and became a composite, generically vague-looking monster instead. Some of the gargoyles on various basilicas and cathedrals were probably considered to be chimeras instead in the older times – but in modern times, while the ‘classical chimera’ is once more a feature of the fantasy genre, in sci-fi the term ‘chimera’ is used to describe various hybrid creatures, whether composite animals, or human-animal hybrids, (and there were some in various sci-fi novels and TV shows over the last few decades). Thus, the ‘new’ dinosaurs of the JW films are not really dinosaurs at all, not even by Crichton’s standards – they are chimeras. The I-Rex supposedly had human DNA, and the Indoraptor certainly has it; even the vague shots of it in the new trailer show it, it even behaves like a human – a stalker, maniac, mad killer, but a human nonetheless. Thus, with the Indoraptor being probably the main villain of the new JW movie, it is safe to suppose that the next JW movie will only loosely be a dinosaur-associated movie, and more of a generic sci-fi one – but we’ll have to wait and see until its’ release properly for further assessment.

That’s it for today; see you all soon!

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Past Life' - Feb 3

AoS has taken a break for this February, what with the winter Olympics, and the ‘Black Panther’ movie and all. Where did they leave us?

The agents have returned to the present, the Kree seem to be all dead – though we never learned just how many of them there were, exactly – and the last of humans seem to be making a brand/great new world in the same old place…wait, what?

Here is the thing. MCU has been building this AoS episode, ‘Past Life’, to be something special – and then it shot itself in the foot instead. It actually began earlier in the week, when MCU’s news revealed that Dove Cameron will be appearing on the show as a new character – Ruby Hale, daughter of General Hale – who has a big fan girl crush on Daisy/Quake. This means that regardless of what the MCU clip of ‘Past Episode’ tried to play at, it was already shot in the foot – the Marvel fans knew that Chloe Bennett’s character, Daisy/Quake, is staying on the show, thus neutralizing the clip’s ominous atmosphere. Weird and depressing, but that is life. It does not have to be, not for MCU and AoS, but it is.

Fast forward to the ‘Past Life’ episode proper, and we have few things to think over. One is that Coulson chose one of the worse ways of bringing Daisy back to the present – by force. Basically, he took away her choices by ICIng her into unconsciousness and bringing her back into the present literally. Yes, ‘Past Life’ also did its best to show the impromptu family – Phil, Mel, and Daisy…but because Coulson and May’s relationship was all over the map in the show, the scene did not have quite the emotional impact it was going for, plus by now the audience knows that Daisy will forgive Coulson in the wrong run, though it would be nice if she made Coulson apologize, even if just for a tiny little scene.

While Coulson and May rescued Daisy by completely overriding, if not disregarding, her opinions as a person (and etc.), Yo-Yo had an adventure of her own: she found her alternate self. Few episodes ago, the audience learned as to what has happened to the agents in the original timeline; Yo-Yo, in particular, went to fight the Kree, (with one of their stabbing spears), and was never seen again. Now we learn as to what has happened to her: the Kree overpowered her, kept her prisoner, and tortured/forced her to tell them things from the past – and this was done several times already.

To elaborate. What the agents are caught is not exactly a time loop, more like a time horseshoe, with Robin in the centre. Thanks to Robin and Enoch, (and how did team Enoch have a workable Kree Monolith ready to apprehend Coulson and his team except for Fitz?), the agents get to travel to the future twice – once with the Monolith back, twice as ordinary people – by going directly through the time stream, facing the future as it becomes the present, and later on – the past. …I am sure that the FitzSimmons could have explained it zillion times better and clearer, but they are not here. They are fiction. Real life sucks.

…Getting back from the philosophies, what about the action? As Yo-Yo the Younger was leaving Yo-Yo the Elder, she ran into Kasius and a couple of his minions, and…was overpowered? On the show, what we saw was this. Mack went into the arena, where he was confronted by the Kree, and saw Kasius killing Yo-Yo – the Elder, as judging by the clothes. Then Kasius drank the berserker bug juice and went to fight Mack, beating the daylight out of him long enough for Jemma to come to the rescue by sticking one of those deafness-causing devices into Kasius’ ear, which disoriented Kasius long enough for Mack to get to his axe-gun and stab Kasius to the death.

That is right. Kasius was stabbed to death with an axe.

Here is the bizarre bit. The axe part of Mack’s weapon is reminiscent of a weapon like the berdiche used by Ivan the Terrible’s people in DW S3, a great-axe in game terms, or if you want to think in FH terms – the Dane-axe used by the Viking Raider. It really is not built for stabbing, Mack should have gone for the good old decapitation instead – or instead of an axe, he crossbred his gun with a bloody halberd – or as FH calls it, the poleaxe, (used by the Lawbringer of the Knights). Unlike the berdiche, the halberd has an axe-blade in the front, a spike on top, and a hook in the middle – a more versatile weapon of the two. It was the only weapon, (not talking about firearms, here), that DW had in all of its’ 3 seasons – the halberd was that good.

….The Kree melee weapon of choice, incidentally, resembles a glaive or even a naginata – a slicing spear, used by the Nobushi of Samurai in FH…but we digress.

And so, Mack won with Jemma’s help – and Yo-Yo immediately ran in to her hero. Again, racial stereotyping, though not very extreme or noticeable. What should be noted is, firstly, this was Mack’s moment to shine, and he did not. In yet another earlier episode, Gryll, (later killed by Flint), made a big point of calling Mack ‘a beast’, and Yo-Yo made an equally big point of telling Mack that he wasn’t. Here, in ‘Past Life’, AoS actually had a perfect opportunity of having Mack struggle with those two views of himself and reconcile this inner controversy of his, and triumph, at least morally, by being a better person than Kasius was – and that never happened. Instead, we had a completely unnecessary fight…and some shifty behavior from Yo-Yo. (Yo-Yos?) Seriously, she is a better fighter than Jemma is, (no offence to Jemma), maybe even than Mack, but…she did not help. Why?

Yes, there were Kree with Kasius, but Mack gunned them down rather easily – AoS never got to flesh out the Kree fully during the time that the agents were in that dystopian future, so there was no reason as to why Yo-Yo could not help, but she did not. Another plot hole? Or a sign of another plot twist to come?

And finally – just what will happen to the humanity now that the Kree are dead and the agents have left back for their own time? Yes, they won their freedom, and are now free to live…exactly how they did before, on a desolate planet, in a lighthouse, with xenomorphs that not even the Kree could properly and fully control…yeah. Not the fairy tale ending you expected to have, (and why did Tess and Flint end up together? So that AoS could have a ‘proper’ interracial relationship, no matter how token, at last? Cloak & Dagger are so impressed!) Frankly, you could’ve had a final 5^th season with the agents staying in the future and becoming a part of a new hope, (yes, there were some SW associations, the way that Deke and Enoch perished was reminiscent of the ‘Rogue One’ movie, for example), but instead…we’re going to get something else.

And why this season may be the last? Because Coulson is dying, apparently, and now that he has a limited time left to live, he got to wrap some things up, yeah? And Daisy may yet end up the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. – a new S.H.I.E.L.D. since the old one is gone for good.

…Unless, of course, what Coulson is actually dying off is old age, and he still got several decades left in him instead – he just has not figured it out yet. Either way, ‘Past Life’ was good, but it could have been great, if not for some RL factors. See you all soon, then!