Cloak & Dagger, 'Offensive' - June 29

As summer of 2018 continues to pick up momentum, Marvel’s™ ‘Cloak & Dagger’ continue…to just continue. By now, they are in their fifth episode, which is a midway point, and so far, things are only beginning to get started. The first four episodes were more of an origin story than anything else, and most reviewers are not particularly impressed with the show. Am I impressed with the show? No, and I told you the reason why before – there is no Marvel™.

I.e., in this particular episode – ‘Princeton Offensive’ – Tandy tried to use her good looks…and also her powers, but, nevertheless, she still looks good here; for a semi-hobo, a criminal, and a semi-drug addict this girl certainly looks posh and healthy; anyhow, she infiltrated Roxxon to discover its’ secrets. From what we have seen on screen, Roxxon is a typical Wolfram & Hart client, whose members would screw each other in a heartbeat; Angel and co from ‘Angel the Series’ (AtS) are sorely missed here, but sadly, so far ‘C&D’ fandom is a small one, and there’re no signs of a crossover yet, so Tandy will have to do it on her own…with some help from Tyrone, perhaps. ‘Course, now that Tyrone has a girlfriend of his own now, so this can become complex, but who knows?..

Pause. Let us take a deeper breath and start again. Tandy has infiltrated the ‘Evil Inc.’ aka Roxxon, whose members behave just as evil corporate… villains are expected to behave. They are also, well, Anglo-Americans… with one exception. Secondly, Tyrone himself is behaving as a… ‘typical’, or perhaps even – a ‘stereotypical Afro-American’ teenager, complete with screwing his girlfriend, who is also an Afro-American. As a contrast, last week’s episode of ‘Reverie’ – ‘Blue’ – had an interracial semi-couple; there was no sexual content or anything like that; actually, there’s very little sexual content in ‘Reverie’ at all, which might be another reason as to why this show is still not very popular among the viewers, but at least two of the characters – Charlie and Monica – are ‘black-and-white’ themselves and are in a relationship. For a show that is supposed to be ‘edgy’ ‘C&D’ got none of that; instead, there is some sort of an official unofficial segregation, a tangible ‘us vs. them’ mentality in both the Anglo- and the Afro-American populations of the New Orleans, and that raises a question: what year is this supposed to be? 1978, maybe? Or the creative team behind ‘C&D’ is trying to create some sort of an American dystopia, here? Idiots, just look at the real life USA – the dystopia that is rising here has nothing to do with racial segregation, at least…not entirely.

Another pause. What is the ‘C&D’ finale game, here, for right now, there is no indication of it; in fact, T&T are still doing their best to stay apart from each other. This can certainly work, but… pre-story – throughout their incarnations in MCU, C&D needed each other to function, as much as they needed anything, or anyone, else. Here this does not appear to be so; in fact, T&T tend to use their other powers – seeing the hopes and fears of the other people – instead. Okay, but, that is not ‘C&D’.

Yes, it is childish and immature to exclaim that the Marvel™/Freeform™ creative team here is in the wrong, and if Marvel™ hadn’t been associated with this show, (so instead of ‘C&D’ we had something more generic ala ‘Tru Blood’), then there wouldn’t be half as many issues: it’d be ‘just a show’, like how ‘Reverie’ is, whose own numbers may be low, but still twice as high than those of ‘C&D’. Again, considering that ‘C&D’ is a Marvel™ show, and ‘Reverie’ isn’t, this is surprising, and not exactly in a good way – just what is the relationship between Marvel™ and Freeform™ here, how their cooperation works?..

Stepping away from such lofty heights, there is still the fact that the world of ‘C&D’ seems to be populated with clichés; Anglo-American clichés, Afro-American, and the episode’s finale introduced a Chinese-American character, who is extremely intelligent, very nerdy, and works for a big company, becoming a success. Maybe this new character is intended to be a foil for Tandy, but so far? She is also yet another cultural cliché. For a supposedly edgy show, ‘C&D’ appears to be too invested into a bad version of cultural appreciation, and that just is not good. In real life, if you are resorting to villainy to become successful, you have to be skillful about it, because otherwise? You will fail. In the past, DW tried to become a propaganda piece for the US – its’ government, (pre-Donald), its’ military might – and it backfired. Maybe ‘C&D’s’ own secret agenda will backfire on them too – and it will suck…

Well, this is it for now; thank you and see you in the future!

Reverie, 'Altum' - June 28

‘Reverie’ continues to improve. No, it really does. This week’s episode – ‘Altum Somnum’ – was all about… Kara Lynn Palamas, also known in S.H.I.E.L.D. as agent 33.

Yes, this is a joke, AoS and ‘Reverie’ are not going to have a crossover any time soon, but this week’s focus character Ashley/Denise was based on AoS’ agent 33, with plenty of similarities, if you know where to look. The differences is that Ashley/Denise was given dignity, redemption, humanity…everything that Kara/33 was denied as a character on her show. Not unlike how ‘Blindspot’ handled it, (just in a different way), earlier, ‘Reverie’ now shows that AoS sucked as a show, including the lack of respect for the characters; and their script got cut and revised several times…much more so than the ‘InHumans’ script had, yet because AoS is the supplement show to the greater MCU, it remains, (and will air its S6 in summer 2019), while the ‘InHumans’ are gone.

…Not that they are really missed; they were not bad, only – insipid, and also rushed. An 8-episode S1 was not bad, but a 10-episode one would have probably been better, but we got what we got, and the ‘InHumans’ are history for now. AoS remains. So’s ‘Blindspot’. And ‘Reverie’?

‘Reverie’ continues to stay low in the numbers, which is sad. Its’ initial episodes may have started slow and staid, but by now they are clearly improving; the only real handicap is its’ (incomplete) reliance on AoS’ themes and values, (relatively speaking), to get itself moving along. ‘Blindspot’ already does that, (its’ 3^rd season finished earlier this year), but it certainly is not unpopular either.

Maybe it is the lack of action: no matter how ‘Reverie’ tries, it just is not as action-high as AoS or ‘Blindspot’ are, but a show does not need a high level of action to be successful, as ‘Time after Time’ showed – it had plenty of action, but it got cancelled mid-season all the same. That is some sort of an anti-record; so far, only it and ‘Powerless’ got that treatment, and ‘Powerless’ was notably less coherent and uptight than ‘Time’ had been…

Back to ‘Reverie’? Not really; it is a good show already and it continues to improve. Will it be enough to win people over? That is another question, and so far, the prognosis is not good. Nor are the numbers, actually. Still here is to hoping – if ‘Blindspot’ was able to last for 3 seasons already, then maybe so can ‘Reverie’…

Well, that is it for now; see you all soon instead!

Cloak & Dagger, 'Call' - June 22

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks on so many levels. With that out of the way for now, ‘C&D’ adventures continue this week, and-?

And in this week’s episode, ‘Call’, T&T, the titular characters, spent getting to know one each other, while – in flashbacks – the audience could see just what their lives are are…normally. Without any supernatural cloak and dagger powers. Shall we discuss it?

Well, we certainly could, there are plenty of topics of discussion, from Tandy’s hypocrisy regarding her condition – yes, her assailant deserves to go to jail, but so’s she, he’s an aspiring rapist, she’s a practicing thief with a drug addiction problem, and detective Mayhem, (no, that’s not her name, but that is what I’m calling her until the show proves that she isn’t that comic character), is an idealist enough to demand that if Tandy wants her help, she’ll need to come clean too. As ‘Call’ showed, Tandy hates that idea, and if she doesn’t, her previous tentative relationship with the detective is over – astrology-wise, Mayhem looks like a Solar Leo, the sun lion, which means that on one hand, she loves helping people, for it feeds her inner ego, and on the other, if she ever suspects that anyone is taking advantage of her, she’ll turn on them immediately, for she hates being fooled more than anything else.  Where were we?

Another theme that rose in ‘Call’ is the role of mothers: Tandy’s mom is a more passive version of Tandy herself, complete with the drug addiction but minus the dagger powers; without her cleaning her act, Tandy will never succeed. …In fact, if it was not for the mom discovering her belongings and went on a binge with them, Tandy would have split and left New Orleans back at the series premiere, as soon as everything hit the fan at once. And, considering that Tandy did take to hide her belongings in the first place, means that her mom was, or is, actively looking for them too, which is a different level of wrongness entirely than just stumbling upon it; and once Tandy figures it out, she’ll…have to be the hero, here, take the moral high ground…or she will lose it, and go directly onto the dark side, Sith-style, (she already got the swords/daggers/whatever). Go team Tandy.

On the other hand, we got Ty and his mother, who pulled him and his father out of squalor and ensured that they are people to be respected and reckoned with, at least by material standards. Materialistically, Ty is better off than Tandy is, but this does not change the fact that he is still angry at the world for its unfairness… but then again – off topic – the world is unfair, it always is unfair, and all the attempts in real life to change it into a fairer one did not work, but rather backfired. The USSR was one of those events. The current version of USA is another…only now the backlash is beginning. You can rush headfirst into a utopia and think that everything will work as planning and that everyone will be happy, but the actual result? You can see it in contemporary real life America for yourself – just read the current news.

Back to ‘C&D’? Ty is trying to overcome his innate fears of cops as he goes to meet detective Mayhem in regards to Tandy’s case, (without knowing all of the details, mind). Judging by the promo ad at the end of ‘Call’, it will be a mixed success, at least initially. Considering that Ty is still cautious around cops, this can still go south, and considering that his arch nemesis the crooked cop will probably be around the precinct at just the right time to overhear him for plot progression, and…we’ll just have wait for the next week’s episode to see if it happens.

Anything else? ‘Luke Cage’ S2 is airing today on Netflix™, and compared to ‘C&D’, it is the better Marvel™ show. Why? Because it is.

Facepalm. Phrasing. But! If ‘C&D’ was supposed to address the various ills of the contemporary American society, and show it in all of its’ glory, then the various Marvel™ Netflix™ shows did it too, and for much longer; all of them have at least one season under their belts, they have more experience than ‘C&D’ does, and it shows. Plus - Marvel™.

It may sound like something uttered by Captain Obvious, but part of the reason why the viewers want to see all of these shows and movies is because MCU is building upon the well-established comic franchise. People already know Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, the Runaways and so on, and they want to see them live on TV too – and Marvel™ obliges, on its own, or in partnership with various other companies, including Netflix™, and now, in case of ‘C&D’, Freeform™. Only, in case of ‘C&D’ and Freeform™, where is the Marvel™?

Oh, it is there, to be sure, but so far? It is more of a salad dressing, as the ‘C&D’ cast and crew are concerned, apparently, but that is not what the viewers want…as the numbers show. They did get better after the previous episode, ‘Stained Glass’, but are still very low, lower than for AoS’ S5. Considering that we are talking about a seriously low bar here, the failure here sucks even more. Anything else?

Again, ‘Jessica Jones’, for all of its’ own problems, began to tackle the gender inequality problems in the U.S. society before ‘C&D’ did; ‘Luke Cage’ does the same for racial inequality, and as its’ S2 shows, the folks at the Netflix™ and Marvel™ tandem took notice of ‘Jessica Jones’ S2 problems – lack of a coherent villain, lack of ties with the general ‘Defenders’ universe – and fixed them. Good for them. And ‘C&D’? So far we got nothing specifically Marvel™ aside from the titular characters, (and maybe detective Mayhem, cough), and that is not what the viewers want. Not from a technically Marvel™ show, anyhow. If they wanted something else, there is plenty to choose from on TV, and that is what they do – they watch something else, which is not what ‘C&D’ needs, after all…

Well, this is it for now; see you all soon, hopefully!

Reverie, 'Blue' - June 21

‘Reverie’… amazing, it continues to improve as it introduces more variety in the mix. The previous episodes had titular characters who would get turned inside out in the reverie to achieve their goals, (both there and in the real life); this time, we have a character – Glenn – who doesn’t, but who actually uses the character to become some sort of a Robin-Hood-like hero, get over his phobias (in real life), and succeed. This is variety, and it is important, because it gives ‘Reverie’ greater chances of success, as opposed to APB and ‘Deception’. (Both of which were ‘Castle’ imitations, but honestly, they were not so bad; we will have to wait to see properly the next one, ‘Take Two’, to reach any conclusion about it).

Furthermore, in ‘Blue’, ‘Reverie’ introduced a new character, Oliver, who is…so much an imperfect copy of Grant Ward from AoS, but that is okay – AoS had tried to rebuild Ward so many times that making a perfect copy of him is impossible. What matters is that ‘Reverie’ is still a clone of AoS – Charlie is Coulson, Mara is Daisy, and so forth – it is stronger than AoS was; it is more consistent, and in case of Charlie and his part-time girlfriend, ‘Reverie’ is tackling interracial relationships immediately, while in AoS they didn’t, not really. Phil and Mel got back together at the very end, when it became obvious that they have to, or else – just go their separate ways, because Coulson, as a character, is dying. On AoS, that is – in the rest of MCU he is going strong, as the upcoming ‘Captain Marvel’ movie already suggests, so good for him!..

Back to ‘Reverie’? Yes, it is still an AoS clone, but one that is trying to separate itself from the original; its’ characters are imitations, but not 100% ones, but are trying to become more derived from the originals instead. Good for ‘Reverie’, and maybe it will give the show just the right amount of oomph to last for several seasons than just for one.

Anything else? FH is silent once again, after the big revelation. So far, all the new updates include more cosmetic changes, which is simply sad. FH is trying to be a strategy/gore game, not a fashionista one, right? Because otherwise, it really went down the wrong path. But again, we will need to see more in the future.

This is all for now, see you all soon instead!

Cloak & Dagger, 'Stained Glass' - June 15

The third episode of ‘Cloak & Dagger’, ‘Stained Glass’, was aired earlier this week. And-?

And judging by the numbers from the first two episodes, the series’ – and the season’s – premiere, the response was underwhelming. Why?

Again, let us talk about what ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are doing – they are tackling those pesky social issues; for example, Tyrone the Cloak is an angry young Afro-American man who’s got the weight on his shoulders – wait. Did we hear this before?

More precisely, we might have read it before – in ‘The Kane Chronicles’ by Rick Riordan, who has already appeared in our previous discussions. There, one of the main protagonists is Carter Kane, who is also a ‘young black man’, who always needs to be at his best because the world will always be ready to judge him, as it does Tyrone. Carter may be younger than Tyrone is, at the beginning of the chronicles he is just about 12 years of age or so, while Tyrone is closer to 17 or 18, but there is another difference too: Carter’s mother, the late Ms. Kane, was white. British too, but that makes Carter half-and-half, (or whatever politically correct term there is), and he has a sister, Sadie, who does not look like him, (or their father, Julius), but more like their mother – i.e., a true daughter of England. Thus, ‘the Kane Chronicles’ don’t tackle interracial relationships right away, or in the manner of ‘Cloak & Dagger’, but tackle them it does, or rather – it did, since ‘The Burning Maze’, Riordan appears to have toned down the politically progressive elements in his novels by a lot, and this brings us back to ‘Cloak & Dagger’ and its issues.

Or rather – America’s issues. In RF, the Kremlin government’s treatment of the Mausoleum mummy is something of a running joke these days: they should rather put up and bury him, or shut up and leave him be forever. The previous president, Boris Yeltsin, did attempt to bury him, but failed, and got buried instead, becoming, perhaps, Russia’s first leader to literally drink himself to death. These days, he’s mostly forgotten, but many of Russia’s current problems, including its’ leader, stem from Yeltsin’s reign – but he did attempt to bury the past, while his successor, Vladimir Putin, does not. Neither he does attempt to properly resurrect it, especially officially, but that is okay, that is all a part of his plan to turn RF into some sort of a variant banana republic, because of ideology – or rather, the lack of it. U.S.S.R. had ideology, the Old Russian Empire had ideology – sort of, but still, and the current RF – not so much. These days, the mummy embodies it, this confusion and lack of direction as to where to go – to the past, to U.S.S.R. and the old glory, or to future, to the West and the new glories. Until this is decided, until a statement is made one way or another, RF is stuck in a sociopolitical limbo, at the metaphorical crossroads, and is going nowhere, which is the worst choice of all.

Back in U.S.A., something similar is going with the issues of ‘slavery’ (mostly in the past) and ‘racism’, (which is much more current). Let us be honest here – slavery was one of the worst social inventions of humanity, it belongs in history’s refuse and whoever tries to reanimate it must be lynched. But-?

But on the other hand, slavery is firmly in the American past, as is the American Confederacy: nobody is trying to resurrect it either; none of the states are trying to get themselves out of the Union – at least not yet. Whatever issues are going on in the U.S. right now, slavery isn’t one of them; and racial inequality?

Racial inequality rises from slavery, that is true. Only…if the American society buries the slavery for good, (just as the Russian society should bury Lenin), then the issue of racial inequality also diminishes and the American society can solve it finally, though with rather radical measures, such as corporal punishment for those who use it, the racial slurs, etc. Some problems do not need a carrot to fix it, only a stick.

Only…that would be an intrusion into the private lives of the American citizens and would go against the American philosophy of the rights of the individual trumping the rights of the state, (pun intended). In the past, in the 1970s, when the racial integration only began, the American government in D.C. had to use the military to ensure that the individual states would obey them…which they did, but with reluctance, and plenty of it. The Americans have long memories, odds are that if D.C. tried something like this now, it would backfire badly upon them instead – things have changed that much from the 1970s, it seems…

So where does it put ‘Cloak & Dagger’? Why, nowhere, it seems. Not unlike how Kremlin avoids the issue of Lenin’s post-mortem existence, so does D.C. not interfere directly in the matters of race and racism – free will and free speech are wonderful, but this means that any sort of federal propaganda, official and especially unofficial, is inefficient. The audience members either are already pro- and don’t need such shows as ‘Cloak & Dagger’ to drive the point home, or are contra- and won’t be convinced by such shows; in fact, they are more likely to be annoyed, and as ‘Solo’ and related issues showed, the backlash can be bad. In the case of ‘Cloak & Dagger’ though, this just resulted in some bad numbers, the end. Hopefully, things will get better in the future, but let us not get too optimistic at the moment…

Well, for now, this is it – see you all soon instead.

Reverie, 'Nice Guy' - June 14

On one hand, ‘Reverie’s’ new episode – ‘Nice Guy’ – was aired last night, and let us be honest: the series is growing more complex, but you can still see the AoS’ influence in its roots. ‘Reverie’ is doing its best to get away from them through rapid character growth and plot development, and it does a better job than Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ had. ‘InHumans’ hadn’t been a bad show, just insipid, and had bad PR problems from the start, even during the production stage, as did the current ‘Solo’ movie. ‘Reverie’ does not appear to have so many problems, but so far, it is a new show, untested, not overly popular, and – overly dramatic.

Plus, Sarah Shahi, who plays the main lead as Mara, is developing her own aura of weirdness – in the last episode, (‘Jane Bond’), the titular character, (the woman who was looking for her father and became a spy in the reverie), almost never appeared in the same shot, say – face to face – with Sarah. In this week’s episode, it was the wife of the titular character, Nate the ‘Nice Guy’, who also almost never appeared in the same shot as Sarah. What gives? Does Ms. Shahi not get along with the other women on the set, (something that might have also been true for AoS’ Daisy/Skye – Chloe Bennett), or is it some sort of ‘Reverie’s production gag? We will probably never know.

Also, Ms. Nate, the wife of the titular character, is supposed to be pregnant. She does not look pregnant at all. Yes, this is nitpicking, but Hollywood these days has suits for just such roles – couldn’t ‘Reverie’ get one? Just what kind of a budget are they working with?

…That is actually an interesting question: ‘Reverie’ does have special effects, but in a fairly dosed, controlled amount and so far, it seems to be not relying on them very much. On one hand, this is good; AoS showed that excessive CGI and special effects could be a bad thing, but on the other, given that ‘Reverie’ is not just a mystery drama, but a sci-fi one as well, this approach can backfire still. Again, we will just have to wait and see.

What we have already seen, instead, are the new characters of FH, and we were wrong – they are neither Saracens nor pirates, but rather ancient Chinese warriors, ancient being the time period here, rather than anything else. Do they work? So far, we only got the basics, but yes, they work as well as any of the already established FH characters.

…And who are they, the new characters? Undoubtedly, FH and Ubisoft™ will tell us more in the days for come, but even now, we know quite a few things from all the released material. There is the swordsman, the man with the falchion/saber. He is reminiscent of an assassin from the ‘Assassin’s Creed series, (also from Ubisoft™), done in an eastern/oriental style rather than the traditional one, and it works. Of course, the Assassin series also work, but they are a somewhat different game series from FH, so let us not compare the two – it’s like apples and oranges.

Second, is the monk with the quarterstaff. He is the Shaolin monk, so yes, he is a direct relative of the Shaolin monk from DW S1, and that deserves a mention of its own, for while the Shaolin monk did defeat his opponent, the Maori warrior, this victory was lopsided and weird, in a bad manner: the Shaolin won because his tiger-hook swords were superior to the Maori’s spear; this was the only Shaolin weapon that had the advantage, and it was a big one! Maybe even too big – in tests, the swords were not that overwhelming compared to the spear. As a result, when DW did the episode follow-up, as it always did, none from team Maori were there; it is unknown just what went behind the scenes during the making of this episode, but something certainly did.

Back to FH? The third member of team China uses these swords – she is probably the team’s assassin – and the last character uses a spear that is more like Nobushi’s naginata, rather than Valkyrie’s spear – a longer weapon that needs two arms to wield with a tip more designed for slicing than stabbing – so for now let’s call it a glaive to differentiate from the other weapons with reach.

This brings us to the rest of the differences. All of team China’s members have no masks, but open faces – something that only a few other characters have – Highlander and Shaman of the Vikings, and the Aramusha of the Samurai. This already sets the Chinese warriors apart from the rest, and as for the rest… FH has released, or is going to release, a new scenario – breaching the castle – and Warden of the Knights, at least, got a new look, one that’s rather reminiscent of Tolkien’s Sauron. What gives? Then again, FH is as much about the looks as it is about the content, so there must be some logical reason behind their decisions…

Well, that is it for the moment; see you all soon again!

Pathfinder: Kasatha Ranger - June 12

UNDEAD SLAYER CR 15

XP 51,200

Kasatha ranger 16

LG Medium humanoid (human)

Init +2; Senses Perception +21

DEFENSE

AC 26, touch 14, flat-footed 23 (+6 armor, +2 deflection, +2 Dex, +5 natural, +2 dodge)

hp 132 (16d10+40)

Fort +17 (+21 against fatigue, exhaustion, and other ill effects from running, forced marches, starvation, third and hot and cold environments), Ref +15, Will +10

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

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.

Melee+1 holy scimitar +21/+16/+11/+6 (1d6+6/18–20), +1 undead-bane light hammer +21/+16/+11 (1d4+6)

Ranged mwk composite longbow +19/+14/+9/+4 (1d8+5/×3), mwk composite shortbow +19/+14/+9 (1d6+5/x3)

Special Attacks favored enemy (aberrations +2, evil outsiders +2, humans +2, undead +8), focused fire, trick shot (deflecting arrow, hampering strike, pinning strike), twin bows

Ranger Spells Prepared (CL 13th; concentration +15)

4th—freedom of movement

3rd—remove disease (2)

2nd—barkskin, owl's wisdom, protection from energy (2)

1st—calm animals, delay poison, longstrider, resist energy

STATISTICS

Str 20, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 8

Base Atk +16; CMB +21; CMD 35

Feats Agile Maneuvers, Cleave, Double Slice,  Great Fortitude, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Vital Strike, Point-Blank Shot, Power Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting, Two-Weapon Rend, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (light hammer, scimitar)

Skills Acrobatics +17 (+21 when jumping), Climb +13, Heal +17, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (local, planes) +5, Knowledge (nature) +6, Knowledge (religion) +15, Perception +23, Perform (string) +1, Ride +12, Spellcraft +13, Stealth +21, Survival +15, Swim +13

Languages Common

SQ desert stride, hunter's bond (companions), jumper, multiarmed, quarry, stalker, swift tracker, track +8, wild empathy +15, woodland stride

Combat Gearnecklace of fireballs (type I), potion of blur, potion of bull's strength, potions of cure serious wounds (2), potions of hide from undead (5), potions of lesser restoration (2), silversheen,alchemical silver arrows (20), holy water (4); Other Gear+2 chain shirt, +1 holy scimitar, +1 undead-bane light hammer, masterwork composite longbow (+5 Str) with 20 arrows, belt of mighty constitution +2, cloak of resistance +3, ring of protection +2, 743 gp

For a change, here's a high-level ranger from the NPC gallery, re-worked as a kasatha. What do you think? Any comments?

For Honor: new characters - June 9

Warnings, spoilers ahead. Turn back, or go forth – we begin.

Firstly. FH has made a new declaration/promo – we see some Knights, (and maybe Vikings), in some Middle East land, complete with palm trees, and one of the Knights is about to be hit in the face with – a falchion. Not a nodachi, which is a sabre-like blade itself, but a genuine falchion, and the hand that holds it, seems to be dressed in some sort of Middle East fashion too. Neat!

…Or maybe it is a pirate – you know, XVII century pirate, armed with a cutlass. In DW, the pirate was the knight’s opponent, and the knight was armed with the weapons used by the team Knight of FH – the sword, the Morningstar, (in FH, it is called the flail instead), the halberd, (the poleaxe in FH, but the principle is the same). Ergo, it is possible that we are going to get pirates out of the PotC franchise, but that would mean official firearms – black powder weapons, but so far, FH did not have even those, so most people think that FH is introducing Saracens, or maybe Mamluks, next instead.

That makes more sense than PotC-like pirates do. Not only we are talking no firearms, (no more so than the Knights, who are out of the Crusade/pre-Crusade era than from a later time), but it would take care of the South neatly too. The Knights are the West, (Europe, that is), Vikings are the North, (just ask Thor from MCU), and the Samurais are the East, (duh). This leaves the South, and whom can you choose?

Africans, (not Afro-Americans, BTW)? In DW, in S2, the Zande warrior defeated the Aztec jaguar knight, even though the Jaguar knight had the deadliest weapon in that episode – the maquahuitl. Bet that you cannot say that word three times fast, but it was a greatclub, studded with razor-sharp flakes of obsidian, and it could decapitate a horse, yet the Zande warrior prevailed still – his other weapons carried him through, especially the kpinga, (one wonders what the Black Panther would think of that), points-wise. As it was written before, DW had a problem with its numbers/experts in some of its’ episodes, but in this one? Everything was fair, the experts were detached and reasonable, and the Zande warrior won. Only… he had no armor, and in S1, when Shaka Zulu went against William Wallace, he lost.

True, Shaka Zulu lost because he used a spit of poison against William Wallace’s spiked buckler and dagger combo, but the lack of armor did not help either, (DW S1 had been weird like this). FH has its characters all armored… the Gladiator has no armor, but as we’ve discussed it in the past, a gladiator was no knight, he was a pit fighter from the Roman Republic & Empire, which was located in southern Europe… right. Southern Europe is still Europe, and strictly speaking, south is either Africa, and the using of its’ native people by Westerners can become a PR nightmare very quickly, or the Mesoamerica, which brings us back to the Aztec jaguar knight – it was this guy and his friends. They were armored, but their armor was padded cotton mostly, so it just is not up to the standards of the armors used in FH, and they are important – just look at all the weekly FH updates and their pretty colors, would you?..

Nope, neither Africans nor Mesoamericans really function in the FH world, so we are probably stuck with Saracens, Mamluks, or whatever FH will call them. Maybe they will be Pirates instead, but it is too much of a stretch, actually. Anything else?

Couple of other points. One is that ‘Solo’ shows that Disney has maneuvered the SW universe, (at least its’ movies) into an area not unlike the one inhabited by such TV shows as ‘Roseanne’, ‘Gilmore Girls’, even ‘Fuller House’ and ‘Girl Meets World’ – they tried to coast into new glory on the back of the old, and it backfired on them; ‘Fuller House’ seems to have gotten over it somewhat, ‘Girl Meets World’ has ended on a higher note, ‘Roseanne’ – let us just not go there, and ‘Gilmore Girls’… not so much. ASP, who invented them in the first place, may not be a supporter of the Donald, but she clearly had ideas of how GG should end, and it showed in their four-part reboot, which did not quite mesh with the series’ initial finale, and it hurt the GG franchise. Not as much as Roseanne’s twit (or whatever) hurt the ‘Roseanne’ franchise, but it still rankled to a point where no next sequel is in plan for them. Will SW end up like this? We have discussed this already and will have to see what happens after ‘Solo’…

And secondly, in ‘Cloak & Dagger’ we’ve got the detective Brigid O’Reilly, and it matters not that she’s yet another stereotype, (even ‘Blindspot’ got over them in S3, regardless of its own problems), but she seems to be destined to become a vigilante from ‘Cloak & Dagger’ comic series named Mayhem. Considering that for now Marvel™ is downplaying the comic side of the ‘Cloak &Dagger’ equation, this statement might be somewhat premature to tell, we will have to wait and see what the future episodes of this series will bring us…

This is it for now…see you all soon!

PS: And ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ movie will be discussed some other time.

Cloak & Dagger, series premiere - June 8

‘Cloak & Dagger’ premiered this week. How can it be described?

As – a bagel. A very well done, nicely toasted, cream-cheese-augmented bagel, but still a bagel. Just a bagel, or a great bagel, but still a bagel. There is no surprise about it, no twist – and that already sets it apart from AoS and possibly from AC.

What ‘Cloak & Dagger’ – this version of them, anyhow – is about? On one hand, there’s Tandy the Dagger, who was a princess and an aspiring ballerina, but now that her father is gone, and her mother is a drunken ho, Tandy herself is a semi-drug addict and a thief and is about as anti-heroic as you can get, especially that now she can manifest potentially deadly daggers made from solid light. Her archnemesis is the Roxxon Corp., and she will do anything to bring it down and avenge her father’s death and mother’s humiliation. And Cloak is Tyrone, a young Afro-American man, who raised himself from poor roots alongside his surviving family but cannot rest easily while his brother’s killers – corrupt police officers of NOPD – are alive and free. His powers are his trademark cloak of shadows that can teleport him away from danger, among other things.

Sounds cheesy? But that is what 2018’s version of ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are about. Tandy & Tyrone are living parallel lives that are only beginning to touch each other, (in a non-sexual way, here), but both of them are already ‘little people’ whose lives were ruined by ‘the man’ in bad ways. Frankly, the only TV show that has this depicted in a more blatantly obvious manner is ‘Killjoys’, who are, themselves, an imitation of AoS, but done in such a manner that they come across as a fairly original TV series, very politically correct and progressive too, whereas ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are not. Politically correct and progressive, that is. Yes, ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are crossing the racial lines in their relationship, (we’re talking about the titular heroes, here), but so far there’s none of that on one hand, and on the other…as we’ve talked before, Marvel™ seems to be downplaying ‘Cloak & Dagger’, as opposed to ‘Runaways’ – no new comic books about these heroes seem to be appearing on shelves.

Let us get back to real life USA – for them, apparently, interracial relationships are a big deal…or at least this is how their mass media presents them. In Canada, interracial relationships are a regular deal instead, and no one is making a whoop about them, or a fuss, or anything else – including a TV show. (Unless we are talking ‘Bachelor’, ‘Bachelorette’, or something similar, which is something else entirely). But that’s Canada, and ‘Cloak & Dagger’ is an American TV show, set in New Orleans…but so far we had nothing that made their home city specifically New Orleans: it is actually quite generic, and could as well be called L.A., Chicago, Boston, or Mexico City.

Well, maybe not Mexico City – ‘Cloak & Dagger’ so far was a dichotomous, black-and-white world, anyone else almost didn’t exist there, (though there were one or two secondary characters that were neither Anglo- nor Afro-American, but of different nationalities), and this isn’t real life America – just look up the Aaron Hernandez incident, as an example. Whatever ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are doing, it is an idealized America, a fictional one, regardless of whether or not it is a utopia or a dystopia, and this brings us to Marvel™. It is absent.

No, there is the logo before the episodes begin to fly, but that is it. There is no sign that connects ‘Cloak & Dagger’ to the greater Marvel™ universe, save for…the Roxxon corp that featured in AC and the first two seasons of AoS, (the last sightings that is). Sadly, so far we still have no idea just what does Roxxon do in ‘Cloak & Dagger’, is it an energy corporation as it is in the basic canon or what. It will be revealed, probably, as Tandy’s story develops further, hopefully, but for now – it could just as well be called ‘The Company’, as its’ counterpart is called in ‘Killjoys’, and nothing would change in ‘Cloak & Dagger’ plot-wise, at least for now.

Anything else? Firstly, it would be nice to know more about father Delgado’s own backstory – he has lot of tattoos beyond those priestly robes of his in this universe – is he an ex-Yakuza or something? That would actually make ‘Cloak & Dagger’ more interesting, at this point.

Secondly, the Biblical quote that we saw in the church scene of the opening episodes? It is from the second chapter of Daniel. In it, king Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and one of his courtly magicians, diviners, oracles, and whoever can explain it to him. Along comes Daniel, and promptly explains it… but first, he says, (we are quoting the King James Bible here):

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
    wisdom and power are his.
²¹ He changes times and seasons;
    he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
    and knowledge to the discerning.
²² He reveals deep and hidden things;
    he knows what lies in darkness,
    and light dwells with him.
²³ I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors:
    You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
    you have made known to us the dream of the king.”

That line – number 22 – is the one used in the opening episodes of ‘Cloak & Dagger’, and this is important because it raises the issue of the divine/mystical/supernatural in that show. What we knew before the premiere of the show is that this version of ‘Cloak & Dagger’ will have their powers rooted in the mystical/etc. But again, so far we have no evidence of that, the audience might as well assume that their powers came from the explosion of the truck that’d also fallen into the water alongside Tandy, (who was in the car with her father), and Tyrone, (who jumped after his brother, who’d been shot by the ‘corrupt cops’) – and that is the only real problem with ‘Cloak & Dagger’, though it is a big one: it is generic. It is built from clichés and while it utilizes them with a great efficiency and the acting skills of, well, actors, helps the show greatly too, it doesn’t nullify the fact, that just like the ‘Black Panther’ movie, ‘Cloak & Dagger’ is yet another mouthpiece for yet another American perception, this time of itself, set in a fictional universe that is affiliated with Marvel™, however loosely. And is that a problem?

No, but it is a sufficient motivation to keep a careful, watchful eye on the show and the direction in which it goes. Until then – see you all soon.

'Reverie', Bond - June 7

‘Reverie’ continues with its second episode. And?

And ‘Bond. Jane Bond’ episode seems to be setting at least one of themes of the series: ordinary people go into the dream world, and become someone extraordinary – a spy, in this episode, or given the spoilers for the next week’s episode, a bank robber. I.e., they are turned inside out, just as the framework did to people in AoS. Could ‘Reverie’ be more like AoS if it tried?

And try it does. To be interesting, that is. There’s Charlie, who’s friends with Monica, who is in cahoots with him to sell the Reverie to the Defense Department. And there is Alexis, whose closest friend is Dylan the A.I., who is based on her long-dead twin brother. And there’s Mara herself, who’s being now clearly haunted, (it verges on trolling, really), by her dead niece. This is very exciting…thanks to the actors’ acting and the background, CGI’d or not. The script itself is rather lukewarm – at least for now, the crew of ‘Reverie’ are playing it safe. Anything else?

Marvel’s ‘Cloak and Dagger’ premieres this week too, so this is going to be exciting…unless you are on team Marvel, who are downplaying them. ‘Runaways’ got a comic-book reboot, ‘Avengers’ and ‘Deadpool’ are enjoying a surge, even ‘Black Panther’ is going strong, but ‘Cloak and Dagger’ show not a peep. Weird, since they did appear in the comics once before, in the ‘Runaways’, for example, where they tried to rescue Molly, since they assumed that the rest of the Runaways had kidnapped her…but in the TV-version of ‘Runaways’, the teens are wanted in connection to the death of a young lady named Destiny instead, so we’ll have to wait for their S2 to see as to what will happen and who’ll come up, plus it is probably too early for them to crossover with ‘Cloak & Dagger’ Arrowverse style, but we will see. ‘Cloak & Dagger’ need to get through their own S1 first. There is already plenty of excitement, but again, we will just have to wait and see as to what will develop next.

…I guess that we will talk later for real, so for now – see you in the future. And as for ‘Reverie’? Good luck to it all the same – it is a decent show and promises us many good things to come, unless it gets cancelled, as APB and ‘Deception’ had. Here is hope to it in the future, too.

Solo - June 6

So, ‘Solo’. Where to begin?

With Rose Tico, who, just like her friend and co-worker Rey Ridley cancelled her Instagram account. Okay, they aren’t really Rey and Rose, but everyone assumes that this is why the ‘trolls’ have been giving them so much flak – and they are at least partially right.

Here is the thing. Democracy – works. Freedom of speech – works. Only, what the US have been experimenting since the Cold War has ended is internationalism – they’ve been trying to turn Earth into some sort of a global, international, republic, and that is something different from democracy. Bitcoin and the rest of cryptocurrency are a part of internationalism, as are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and so forth. Until 2014 or so, the US encouraged this sort of thing; it fit into their vision/invention/reinvention/etc. of globalism, (internationalism), which was depicted as a global/international village, that sort of thing. And then, in the last few years, Russia’s president Putin stood-up, looked the U.S. in the eye and told to bugger-off, and annexed Crimea, and exposed the American weakness, and also – EU’s strength, and that hurt the U.S. even more. Officially, they did not acknowledge any of that, but unofficially, they are trying to change all that – hence why the American 45^th president is the Donald, who does what he does…

Tone down to SW proper? The latest SW movies are still about internationalism, something that might not be so welcome in the newer, more nationalistic, U.S. society anymore on one hand. And on the other, the new reboot has problems that have nothing to do with the greater US society – SW might be a classic by now, but Disney are messing with it. A classic is a classic, it is retired, fossilized, eternal, it withstood (or withstands) the test of time and is also unchanging, rigid, permanent, set in stone, as Mozart’s melodies are, (as an example of classical music), and Disney took the wrong approach to them from the start.

People may or may not have forgotten, but until Disney bought Lucasfilm™, the SW franchise had plenty of novels, comics, and etc. about what happened after the Empire fell – without waxing poetic, it consisted of numerous other wars, culminating in the Republic and the Jedi knights battling the Yuuzhan Vong or whatever they were called. Disney bought Lucasfilm™, and promptly declared all of those works to be ‘Star Wars Legends’, or apocrypha, basically. That angered many people, so from the start, Disney and SW fans were not getting along. Incidentally, this is atypical for Disney, because usually they are instead all about pleasing people so that Disney can make more money, and here they started on the wrong foot, period. What next?

It got worse after the SW7 movie – people were already unhappy with Disney’s treatment of SW, and so when the SW7 movie aired, they began to criticize it, and that tendency caught steam. In part this was because Disney did start messing with the classic by giving it new material – and in doing so the SW classic stopped being that, and became ‘just’ SW, a movie business franchise.

…Didn’t we talk about that before? Yes, we did – a long time ago, about AoS. AoS itself experienced the things that SW had, including controversy…and the same went for MCU in general. It just that in case of AoS & MCU the battle lines were clearly drawn, as a rule – was Hydra Nazi or just evil, was Grant Ward a victim or a villain, who had the truth on his side – Stark or Rogers, and so forth. Somehow, MCU managed to split its fandom into factions that did not get along with each other, something that neither it nor Disney wanted. They did damage control, or tried to – for example, in S1, Skye calls Red Skull a Nazi; in S4 conclusion, she calls Madame Hydra’s old kingdom a fascist state instead. These are two different terms, two different terminologies, but in AoS’ case, the damage was already done, and while the Internet can sing AoS accolades, it cannot deny the truth – post-S5 AoS is in a bad shape, so keeping it going may not be a good thing, not to the show itself, and not to MCU in general.

Another thing that AoS has in common with the SW films is the negative attitude towards the cast/crew, though in SW’s case the brunt is aimed more at the actors – KMT and Ridley, for example, and in AoS the brunt was more towards Whedon and co instead, them being the scriptwriters, and sadly, it wasn’t undeserved – AoS script was reworked repeatedly, seems of those reworks were still visible, which made things works. SW – especially the SW8 movie – has the same issue, though not as severe, because it is a single film, and not an entire TV series. SW8 feels like two movies smashed and stitched together, not as a single film. For example, Rose/KMT feels toned down as a character, (even moreso than Finn), hopefully not so that she could eclipse Rey/Ridley, for otherwise, that could be more motivation for her not to return to the SW9 movie, whenever that will come out.

And yet AoS had an advantage over the SW movies – it was not apocrypha, it is more like a supplementary material to the MCU’s movies. Consequently, its’ fandom, while divided between each other, did not really go for any of MCU’s cast or characters: they were too busy fighting among themselves instead. SW does not have that, people are divided largely on whether they love it or hate it, and that leaves them plenty of time and energy to turn onto SW’s cast and crew if they hate it.

Not that AoS’ advantage is such a good thing: eventually the fan base collapsed, leaving AoS with a fraction of what it initially had: the damage control came too late, the audiences just are not interested in watching it very much anymore, and the cast seems to be hemorrhaging characters constantly. This did not appear to be happening with SW franchise, but then came ‘Solo’.

‘Solo’ is not an apocrypha; it is a part of prequel that is a part of the canon by now, but it was not as successful as the other SW movies were: it only brought in tens of millions of dollars on its first weekend, not hundreds, and that can signal new troubles ahead. Disney may pretend that it is ‘progressive’, or ‘conservative’, but at the end of the day, they are all about the money, and everything else is secondary.

Recently, we have discussed the latest Rick Riordan book about Apollo’s adventures in the mortal/demigod world. Unlike the previous novels, which had plenty of such features as a same-sex family, this one had none. It isn’t known for sure as to the reason for why such change, but Rick Riordan is also associated with Disney, just as MCU and SW franchises are, and his franchise, at least, is able and ready to pick and drop any of the ‘progressive’ or political correct values depending on what would make his works sell better. Can something different be said about SW? Considering that ‘Solo’ also is not as ‘progressive’ or diverse as the ‘Rogue 1’ movie had been, maybe it can.

But the damage? It has been done. Plenty of people got upset for Disney & SW for changing things and going in new directions, more fools them, but – they’re the customers, they are the ones going to watch the movies, and if they stop, then Disney got a product that people won’t buy, and that isn’t what Disney wants. Already ‘Solo’ brought only tens of millions of dollars rather than hundreds, and that Disney does not like.

Does this bring us back to the trolls who trolled KMT and Ridley into quitting Instagram? Yes. Are they in the wrong, not to mention despicable? Oh, yes. But are they part of the reason as to why Disney got involved/bought Lucasfilm™ and the SW franchise? Yes. They are the ‘fanboys’ who would spend all of that crazy money on the SW movies, at least in theory, and without them, there is no crazy money, only – some money. That is not a problem, but Disney is primarily about money and without it, there is no reason for Disney to stay.

The relationship between Disney and the SW fanbase began on the wrong foot, and the new SW trilogy continued that trend. As a result, there are people who feel that SW is ruined and either become some sort of an ubertroll on the Internet, or stop going to SW films at all.

The first are becoming a problem for the entirety of the American society. There is little to no caveat or responsibility to be held accountable for one’s words in the U.S. society anymore. One’s actions can still have repercussions, but words? Not so much, as the case of Ridley and KMT show.

In Russia – since we moved back out of the SW sphere – the situation is different, as an example. There, the people always knew that if you say anything that goes against the state, you could be punished, and most likely, there were. Therefore, they kept mum, unless they did not, unless they intended or accepted that they will be punished, and went forth all the same, consequences be damned. Thus, the revolutionary movement in the Old Russian Empire was born, and it is being alive to this day. ‘Comrade Navalny’ embodies that spirit in our time and day, and Putin knows it, and he has a problem.

Russia is still an Asiatic, rather than a European country, and most of its political workings, external and internal, are still not very Western. Its’ monarchs – regardless of what they are labelled as in different days and ages – are autocrats and are completely obeyed, until they aren’t. Nicolai II, the last tsar of the Russian Empire, got – first deposed by his generals (the future leaders of the so-called ‘White’ movement) with the full support of the rest of the elite, - and then – he and his immediate family got executed by the proletariat slash communists (the ‘Red’ movement), with the elite not doing anything to save him. Then the White and the Red forces fought each other, (as well as the various separatists, nationalists and etc., known collectively as the ‘Green’ movement), until the Red forces won. They became the first Russian communists, but their modern political descendants have much less common with them, than Navalny and his people do – and Putin recognizes that. So?

So, while Putin can order – in theory – that any of his subjects can be dragged out of their home, be arrested and/or executed, his subjects can also do the same to him. During the Russian historic period, the Russian rulers were assassinated, regardless of whether we are talking about Tsars, Emperors, or General-Secretaries. Nikolai II was the only one to be publically executed, Nikita Khrushchev – the only one to be de-facto fired, Mikhail Gorbachev – the only one to leave the throne of his own volition, but Putin doesn’t seek to imitate any of them, (and he is unique as his farce with Medvedev the Prime Minister has established in the not-so-distant past), hence, he is also forced to restrained himself. He may have mountains of plans, but a threat of physical violence restrains him…at least until he hadn’t mended bridges with the West, after which he can always flee to the U.S., or the EU, or wherever as a political refugee instead. Insane in a surreal way maybe, but also Russian.

Now. The Russian restraint based on violence is bad and barbaric, but what the Americans have in its’ stead? Nothing at all. As one of their top historical figures spoke, “I have what you’re saying, but I will defend your right to say it!” Fast forward for decades, and what we have is an unbridled and abused power to speak anything to anyone. There is no restraint, no control, no responsibility. America as a political state is trying to reign it in – hence its’ escapades against Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, as well as against the cryptocurrencies and immigration, and so forth. Sadly, they have chosen the Donald to execute these countermeasures, so now the American political landscape sucks. Ever since the end of the Cold War, for more than 20 years, U.S.A., government and society, went towards an international utopia, (not unlike how the now-defunct U.S.S.R. did, especially during Leonid Brezhnev’s reign), and it had achieved some of it, but during this process it had lost much of its’ own strength and clout with its’ fan base, (such as the EU – just look at the latest events), and now, yes, it is trying to turn back the clock by a lot of kneejerk, frantic, ugly movements. This is not working – as it did during the Civil War, the U.S. is going for a quick solution where something much more long and lengthy is required. And that returns us to SW, and the second group.

Just as the U.S. in general, SW – and Disney – lost influence among the SW fans. That is bad, because it brings forth the trolls, but while they are despicable, it is the quiet ones who are worrisome, because if they stop going to Disney’s SW films, then they are not going to Disney’s SW films and they aren’t spending money on it, and Disney is suddenly making only tens of millions on SW films and franchise rather than hundreds. Considering that they bought the franchise from George Lucas for a fortune that would make Tywin Lannister greedy, this loss of revenue makes them upset. And?

And one hand, they cannot do anything about the trolls. Facebook, at least, is making movements to make trolling harder, but when there is a will, there is always a way. On the other, they can pull a Riordan and return back to basics, without any particularly politically correct or progressive traits and features in their films – as, say, ‘Solo’. Yes, there is something going on with Lando, especially in regards to Solo, but compared to ‘Rogue 1’, ‘Solo’ is mild.

Again, AoS did something similar to this already – it had shuffled characters and their roles, starting from the second half of S2. This strategy backfired upon them especially by damaging the continuity from the first season to the fifth – whatever the writers had in mind, however grand did they want the series to end, it didn’t work. And now Disney/MCU/etc. have advanced AoS to a S6, however truncated…

Back to SW? This strategy will not work for them, because they are a movie franchise, not a TV series’ one. Yes, the SW franchise now has several TV shows under its belt – cartoon TV shows of various complexities, but regardless this fact does not affect anything – not the trolling, and not the money loss. If Disney/SW tries more films in the style of ‘Solo’ rather than ‘Rogue 1’, or the other new SW movies, and it doesn’t work, but just angers more people – other people, who’d been happy with the direction that SW went now instead – and causes more money loss, then maybe Disney will decide: okay, let’s shelve the SW project for now until the noise dies down and the old (okay, older) movies are forgotten. And that would be it – the end of the SW movies for the near future. Now even more people would be upset, but Disney would not care anymore – they would still have Marvel™, as well as their own prince-and-princess thing. The end and Disney would avoid any ugliness, as the one happened to Rey and Rose – that is, KMT and Ridley – as well.

However, will this happen? We will have to wait and see, and for now – enjoy ‘Solo’ and the rest of SW films. See you all soon!