S.H.I.E.L.D., S6 - July 30

Let us start… no, let us skip the obligatory disclaimer, and go to the more intense things. Or not, let us wait and see how it goes.

To begin – ‘Insatiable’ continues… either to have problems, or to generate problems for itself, via Netflix: by now, there are rumors of a ‘review embargo’; i.e. apparently, no critical reviews can be published until the film itself is released. Look: it may appear to be a sound strategy, but in reality, this shows that ‘Insatiable’ does have problems that are more serious than just a badly made trailer is. If the film was sound, then a little criticism wouldn’t hurt; there are plenty of movies that went on regardless of what the critics thought…including the TV ones, but ‘Insatiable’ is trying to do something different, apparently, so good luck to it – so far it just further amplifies the feeling that ‘Insatiable’ is a badly made movie, so it might end up going the new ‘Ghostbusters’ route, where the movie had a bad reputation and was just bad. In fact, having any reputation helped the new ‘Ghostbusters’ some, as it actually made people want to come and look at it, just to see how bad it really was. Not unlike the Marvel ‘InHumans’ TV series, it was just…insipid, and while Marvel ‘InHumans’ just got cancelled after their S1, the new ‘Ghostbusters’ movie franchise…has also ended; there are some new ‘Ghostbusters’ comics, but otherwise? That is it for now; just like ‘InHumans’, ‘Ghostbusters’ have failed.

Meanwhile… the shark week has ended, the global tiger day was yesterday, and there are new news about AoS. Firstly, Clark Gregg, (aka Phil Coulson) will be back…to direct the first episode of S6. There are no news of Wen, (May), so she probably will not be back in AoS in any capacity, period. There are some Coulson fans that will be excited by the news, no doubt, but for the rest of us? This will not be the same; as always, AoS wants to have it both ways and consequently, does not succeed in either – go them. Not.

EW has published a mini-interview with Gregg online and showed that yes; he is directing the upcoming 6x01 episode – ‘Missing Pieces’, (or something like that). Good for him, Gregg has directed the ‘Fun and Games’ episode of AoS already back in S5, (does anyone feels that this made ‘Fun and Games’ somehow different from the rest of AoS, eh?), so he has plenty of practice under his belt – and everyone is very excited, especially Chloe Bennett, (who plays Skye/Daisy/Quake). The more I see of her as a person, the less I like her, regardless of what I feel for her character on one hand, and how much I respect her acting skills on the other.

Speaking of Skye/Daisy/Quake? Jeff Ward is also staying on AoS, as Deke Shaw, the FitzSimmons’ grandson from the future, and probably Daisy’s love interest. Why?

Listen, AoS began as a show about three couples – the FitzSimmons, Skye & Grant, and Phil & Mel. The FitzSimmons are technically a couple still, even though the show constantly divides them in ever creative and new ways, to a point where it gotten ridiculous: the two of them still have to sire and give birth to Deke’s mom, for otherwise, Deke will just fade away and Daisy will be left single again.

No, seriously, what gives? Daisy’s/Chloe’s love interests come and go every season, again to the point of ridiculousness – Britt and Dalton, Mitchell and Luna, and anyone else who’s forgotten, they all came and went for various reasons – is working on AoS with Chloe so bad? Seriously, by now this sort of a relationship leapfrog game with Daisy is also ridiculous…and there are still some fans who are feeling let down by the fact that SkyeWard relationship did not happen.

Of course, there is now Deke. Deke and Daisy, there is the letter D alliteration, how clever. If the S5 had treated their relationship as a, well, fledgling relationship, things would have been better for them and for the viewers. Instead, Deke’s role on S5 was all over the place, and never concretely with Daisy, (or as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new rookie either, for that matter), so right now he has less of a presence than Kasius and Sinara do – that alien power couple have some fans, even though they are evil and are kind of dead. Ish. If Deke and Daisy will appear as a couple of whatever sorts on AoS’ S6, then there will be some backlash just because – and now it is unknown if AoS can take it. (Mind you, if after their sixth season they will decide just to call it quits…that might not be a problem – six seasons are a respectable run, after all, and the Marvel scene is changing too…)

Anything else? No, not really. There’s also the upcoming ‘To All the Boys that I have Loved’ movie, also on Netflix, and-

And it is shaping to be a very different piece than the original novel was. The original novel – the first in a trilogy, and perhaps – the strongest, is a love drama novel. Yes, there’s some humor – moreso in the other two novels than in this one – but mainly to undercut the drama of the plot and to ensure that the novels don’t get too high-handed, or high-strung, or whatever. The movie – even in its’ trailer – has a lot more humor in it, including physical humor, than the novel does.

Secondly, the attitude. The author – Jenny Han – has made her heroine, Lara Jean, (let us just call her LJ in the future) – old-fashioned to a point, where she is still a virgin. Gasp, and with most of her friends, (including her big sister), not being so to the point. Somehow or other, Jenny Han’s LJ novels are romantic, without any sex involved, especially not directly. And in the movie trailer? LJ’s dad hands her apparently a set of condoms, for fun.

Now, here’s the thing – it isn’t certain if LJ is her author’s mouthpiece in her trilogy, but she is a representative of a certain set of values; actually, Jenny Han isn’t subtle about showing her values at least in this trilogy; she is politically correct and progressive, (of course), as there are racial minorities in the novels, and at least one homosexual character; but-

But when it comes to characters in the LJ trilogy in general, Jenny Han seems to have issues with them as an author. There’re LJ and her family, (including Trina, her eventual stepmother), there’s Paul Kavinski, (LJ’s significant other), and his family…but they are already nowhere near as well fleshed-out as LJ and her family are, there’s Josh and John- wait.

Josh deserves a special mention because he was LJ’s first love…but he became the boyfriend of Margot, LJ’s sister, and then they broke-up, Josh and Margot, leaving Josh free, but LJ didn’t want to get with him, because of reasons. She hooked-up with Pete instead…and the rest of the trilogy, (two and a half books, basically), are all about LJ and Pete…being together. They are being shoehorned together, sure, but-

But the same goes for the rest of romance novels, period. Teen or adult, it doesn’t matter – when it comes to characters, it all goes down very simple: character A meets character B, they fall in love and spend the rest of the novel getting there, whether you’re talking about Jenny Han or Nora Roberts; the devil’s in details, true, but the basic framework? It is the same. For those who love romance, Jenny Han’s novels, (both LJ trilogy and the others), should work; for those who want something more substantial, they will not. At least the LJ novels are driven only by plot, and the characters – especially the non-main characters – are secondary at best, little more than placeholders at worst. Josh was a main character in the first novel, (and he is probably going to be so in the movie too), but in the rest of the trilogy? He is barely even mentioned. Yes, he got himself a new girlfriend who was not related to the Song-Covey family, but his abrupt dismissal from the LJ world still kind of stings. Kitty – the youngest SC girl – actually addresses a point that Josh is not around anymore, and it goes down…about as well as the Apu controversy in the Simpsons-verse – it does not. As soon as characters stop being important to the LJ in love with Pete plot, they practically vanish and become ghosts for all that it matters. Ah well, how does the saying go? Don’t like it, don’t read? Sounds about right – Jenny Han’s novels – or at least the LJ trilogy – is sitting out there on bookshelves, as people do not read it. Maybe they will after the movie airs, but considering that the movie is already revealing itself to be very different from the books, it is not certain that it will be a good idea. For example, LJ novels are not very approving of sex in general and of casual sex in particular – the trailer has Mr. Song-Covey hand the movie LJ a set of rubbers – yes, that sort of rubbers. Ouch! This is a direct opposite of the novels’ atmosphere, of LJ’s character and of her father’s – but the movie does not care. This just might be a new ‘GG’ reboot in the making, or even – the PJ movies, which were denounced by Riordan personally, and that was the end of them – but that is another story.

In other movie-related news, SW9 will feature Carrie Fisher, or rather – the footage of Carrie Fisher as princess Leia. Her real-life family are apparently very happy/proud/positive etc., which is good, because if they weren’t, then the Disney-Lucasfilm merger behind the SW movies would’ve had a bigger problem from what they already had – but it was discussed earlier. There is still going to be controversy, as there was when they had done something similar in the SW ‘Rogue 1’ film, so why not? The mess that Disney-Lucasfilm merger found themselves in these days was discussed earlier too…

So, this is it for now – see you all soon!

Cloak & Dagger, 'Back Breaker' - July 27

And so, with 1x09 ep done and gone, “C&D’ are at their S1 finale. In their penultimate S1 episode – ‘Back Breaker’ – aka this one, things are looking ambiguous for our duo: Ty is feeling down and empty as Hell… and so’s Dy, only she has figured out that she can do an energy vampire sort of thing and get high on the hopes of others. This is not very heroic…which is why Ty straightens her out during this episode – sort of.

Let us try again, with less rambling. Firstly, 1x09 gave father Delgado something to do – he talked about heroes in literature at length, about their narratives and what will you. This is very impressive, very expositional, but we already went through this sort of thing with Hank Pym in the first ‘Ant-Man’ movie, where Hank became an expositional machine to be justified to be staying in the movie at all, period. It is sad, and father Delgado’s situation is just as sad. His role is to be a spiritual guide to Ty (and maybe to Dy, if he ever meets her), but this is probably the second episode that he has been in so far. Regardless, good luck to him – he needs it.

Secondly, aunt Voodoo and her niece are back. Aunt Voodoo appeared mainly in the episode’s prologue, where she apparently had laid a hex on Roxxon’s pipe network and it worked, as two new Roxxon minions, (male, of course), got contaminated by something that came through the pipework and now they are after Mina – that girl just cannot get a break: first Dy has apparently eaten her happiness, and now this.

Yes, Dy can now eat the hopes (and happiness?) of other people; Ty, maybe, can eat their fear (and despair?) – something like that. This is bad, of course, but the voodoo niece now knows that Dy is the other half of the Divine Pairing or something like that – bring on the fan-shipping. The fact that the two lead actors got amazing chemistry with each other does not hurt this show development at all either. More importantly, the two heroes of ‘C&D’ are down in different ways for different reasons and need to get back up, because more corrupt cops are coming after Ty, while Roxxon’s CEO sent an assassin against Dy’s mom…because he’s a heartless, brainless, greedy sod, who just cannot let it go…and the assassin isn’t much better off – here’s to her getting skewered by Dy’s daggers in the S1 finale next week. Of course, to make things worse for Dy her Roxxon hush money is missing, as is her semi-boyfriend, Liam, who both stole the money and got out of New Orleans ASAP, or the assassin has already captured/killed him and secured the money – ‘Back Breaker’ is not clear on this point. It does not matter to Dy, nor to Ty, who needs to make his great escape. Since he is the night, he’s cloak, he will make it.

…So, ‘C&D’ are playing a tight ship – much more like AC than AoS, for comparison – and are not afraid of a little fourth wall breaking. The catch is that that tightness makes the wall breaking unnecessary – unlike AoS, there are no unexpected twists in the narrative, and everything is quite predictable and enjoyable. So was AC, for that matter, so kudos for ‘C&D’ for imitating it in this way.

Meanwhile, detective Mayhem is having her problems – her boyfriend is dead, and the Corrupt Cop is out and has already beaten her badly, with no one else stopping him. Of course, since she is a ‘hero’, she will still do the right thing, (in the next episode/S1 finale) and become Mayhem proper, as it was implied in the Comic-Con promo. Odds are, she will go full vigilante as well, since her stint in the police did not work out – not in New Orleans, and not in NYC, (from which she had transferred down to New Orleans). In addition, there may be claws. The original Mayhem didn’t really have claws, but the TV version is different, so why not claws?

Anything else? Well, apparently, there is yet another teen Netflix movie going down, ‘To All the Boys that I Loved’ or something like that. Considering that Disney is airing its’ own teen movie – yet another version of ‘Freaky Friday’ later this summer, I am guessing that there may be some sort of a competition going on, but who knows? And more importantly – does anyone care?

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

Reverie, 'Despedida' - July 26

We are continuing to go our merry way with ‘Reverie’, as it reaches its’ 8^th episode, ‘Despedida’. This time, the AoS’ rip-off is Melinda May and her complex relationship with children; in the ‘Reverie’-verse she became Pilar, a woman who had sort of failed to save a group of girls back in her past, during Chile’s revolution (in 1973), and who has utilized the titular device to try and fix it – and fix it she does, with Mara’s help. What next?

…One of ‘Reverie’s’ flaws is not that it is influenced, cough, by AoS – it is not the first one to do so. ‘Blindspot’ did it, so’s ‘Quantico’ and DC’s LoT, but all of these shows are team-focused, literally speaking. There is no main character, unlike ‘Arrow’ or ‘Supergirl’ shows, for example, which do focus primarily on the titular main characters, at least to a point; everyone actually gets their ten minutes of fame, depending on an episode, whereas in ‘Reverie’, it was always about Mara, with the rest of the main characters always being in support roles. Some episodes – such as last week’s episode 1x07 – did try to change the dynamic, but not really; with just 10 episodes in the first season, the show’s cast and crew did not have too much room to maneuver, probably. This is not exactly a problem, more of an inconsistency; yes, from the common-sense-P.O.V., naming a show ‘Mara’ made it somehow less attractive than naming it ‘Reverie’; yet somehow this is still mostly a show about Mara, than about anything reverie-related.

Is it a problem? Not really; ‘Reverie’ is still in its’ first season; it might get better, or just change, in the following seasons, or it might get cancelled altogether, as ‘The Change’ did, (though ‘The Change’ ended after 2 seasons, rather than just one). Unlike ‘C&D’, there are no news of it being renewed for a S2, and somehow, this is not surprising – for all of its’ positive features, it just is not very good.

Anything else? ‘Quantico’ is ending after three seasons or so, sad. Rousey had her shark week special, which was really a personal promo piece for her badassery – she should probably see a shrink about how to make herself feel happy rather than harass sharks. She clearly has issues, and whatever she does, sharks or no sharks, it is not helping. Maybe it is time to see professional help instead? Who knows…

Facebook took a huge dive in stock, but, apparently, they had expected it, so they are not down for the count by a long shot. There are first photos of the actress who will be playing the titular character in Disney’s live action Kim Possible film, and people are already fighting over it. What a surprise. Life goes on as it usually does, i.e.

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

Insatiable - July 24

So, ‘Insatiable’. Why take two cents on it?

Because it is reminiscent of the SW and its’ post-merger-with-Disney problems, that is why.

What did we see?

A trailer, which starred the main character of the upcoming show – Debbie Ryan. At first she is in a fat suit and everyone hates her; then her character loses weight over the summer, (got into a fight over food, acquired a broken jaw and had to fast all those weeks), and became ‘hot’. As in ‘sexy’. So?

Firstly, this story sounds already tropish and clichéd. The concept of an overweight, or a fat, woman, losing her bulk and becoming sexy, has been in use for a long while now, especially in various soap operas and the like. None of them use this concept as a fat-positive thing…because it is not. It is fat-negative, pure and simple, so for the ‘Insatiable’ crew to declare that their TV series will be so is either a lie, a straightforward one, which is bad, or their (first) trailer was just poorly designed and has currently shot the entire upcoming series in the foot, which isn’t very good either. In the trailer, to elaborate, we see Debbie’s character Patty decide that rather becoming a brand-new person, she would have revenge on everyone else, and we see footage of her punching another girl in the face at one moment and in another pouring…something (it can booze, or pee, or gasoline), over a sleeping boy, (after the two of them had sex). How exactly is this positive anything? It would make more sense to assume that Patty was always an unpleasant person, only now that she’s thin nobody notices it – not at first – and so she’s free to do whatever she wants, which is to say – be an unpleasant and a bad person. How is this positive?

…Meanwhile, Netflix airing another TV series, about another heavy young woman named Sierra, and this series is very different; it is another variant of the Cyrano story. In the original version, Cyrano was a very eloquent, but ugly man – he had a big nose, rather like HP’s professor Snape, but unlike the latter, he was very meticulous about his looks, (inasmuch as it could be helped), and a master duelist as well, so fewer people wanted to fight him than they did Snape…before Snape became a Potions’ Master, an Animagus, a Death Eater, and so on. He certainly had no problem in whipping Lockhart back in HP&CS either, but then again, we are talking about Lockhart here, so yeah. Where were we?

…One of the main plotlines of the Cyrano story was when he was helping another nobleman – a handsome man, who was as dumb as a rock…basically, a stereotypical rock – woo a maiden by being Cyrano’s mouthpiece – and the same we see in the Sierra’s trailer, where she uses one of her classmates – a pretty girl who is failing her classes – to act as Sierra’s mouthpiece to win over another one of their classmates…a handsome jock. How exactly this is more radical and fat-positive than ‘Insatiable’, exactly?

Actually, it is not. ‘Insatiable’ is the more radical one, ironically, but it just is not fat-positive. The word itself, ‘positive’, has a bunch of associations tied to it by now, and people know how to use them in a story, especially in a visual one – in a cinema, on TV or on a YouTube channel, to name a few sources. You try to subvert them…and you might succeed, or your followers might, where you have failed.

This is where that SW make an appearance. After their merger, Disney did not make a complete reboot of the series, rather they are continuing in the general direction of GL, but due to a series of surprising decisions (from Disney) that were discussed at another time, they were able to split their fanbase into a number of fractions, and it isn’t the case of a vocal minority – a single one; rather, this is a case of several fractions, all of whom are vocal and also warring with each other: the best case for scaring away new fans as well as for losing old ones. Both Disney and SW are media juggernauts, but their latest movie – ‘Solo’ – brought only tens of millions of income rather than hundreds, as expected, especially by Disney, so now Disney & SW are keeping a low profile as they are possibly figuring out what to do without appearing to be submitting to the fans’ desires of – whatever they want, for that would be a bad weakness, you know? Of course, this is also how democracy works – the people want something and they force it out of their politicians – but these days in real life USA has issues with democracy too, so let’s leave Disney & SW be… for now.

Back to Netflix? With ‘Insatiable’ and maybe similar TV series/movies/etc., they are trying to do what Disney did with SW, only go further and subvert the tropes in new ways. This actually will not be new, as the semi-reboot of ‘Heathers’, (appearing on various TV outlets earlier in July 2018), has already done – and it is already meeting with disapproval…which hadn’t stopped it from being aired, not entirely. Donald and his presidential achievements come to mind – they too are met with disapproval, and it had not stopped them, not entirely. How is that for a discussion topic on the U.S. society?

Back to Netflix again? As we discussed at the beginning, ‘Insatiable’ doesn’t come across very fat-positive; neither does Sierra’s series, but there Netflix isn’t subverting the tropes, but rather playing them in an old-fashioned way, and as a result that series is already being compared to ‘Insatiable’ in a favorable manner. Good for them…perhaps this is all a plot by Netflix to boost Sierra’s ratings for this and the future installments, while dropping ‘Insatiable’ off post-S1, (or sometime around that). In that case, where does it leave Debbie Ryan and the rest of her droogs? Probably pissed-off at Netflix and looking for some revenge.

More likely, however, is that Netflix is venturing into an unknown territory without a map and already getting some things wrong. That is not a problem, all they still need to do is to figure out when to cut their losses and retreat, or at least – re-think their strategy, just as Disney & SW might be doing right now. Otherwise, Netflix will arrive where Disney &SW currently are – in a position where they seem to be losing money rather than anything else.

Again, this is not exactly new territory for Netflix, as their misadventure with the ‘Gilmore Girls’ indicates – sometimes they actually do not succeed and need to do something. When the ‘Gilmore Girls’ reboot didn’t succeed, they quietly shelved any potential follow-ups, while ASP is currently running a different TV series entirely – and a successful one, just as the reboot was not. Sometimes all you need is to end something and start an entirely new thing instead. Good luck to her.

And equally good luck to Netflix with ‘Insatiable’, too. I don’t know what is going on with the series – maybe ‘Insatiable’ is going to be a great series and what we have here is just a badly made trailer – but until it comes forth, (August 10, 2018), we’ll just have wait to see how it develops.

This is it for this time; see you all soon.

Shark Week begins - July 22

Obligatory disclaimer: I hate my life. A new caveat: I hate my family even more; I did not expect to hate anything more than my life, yet surprisingly, I do. We, in our family, do not get along with each other, and with everyone/anyone else,…this is something else, and it is personal, so I am not going to dwell very much on it… this time. In addition, speaking of lives… ‘Shark Week’ of the Discovery channel is beginning today…on the Discovery channel…and it is bringing celebrities – human celebrities, and this brings us back to life: do any of those people have it?

No, seriously, this year’s ‘Shark Week’ of Discovery is bringing us Bear Grylls, and Shaq, and Ronda Rousey – all people who are supposed to be really famous and monumental in the lives of the peons, and they are all appearing on Discovery channel, and- wait. Isn’t Discovery channel supposed to educate, rather than entertain…as opposed to TMZ or whatever?

Rewind? Last year, a famous athlete of a swimmer – whether Michael Phelps or someone else, I neither remember nor care, admittedly – appeared on ‘Shark Week’, where he raced…CGI’d sharks. Basically, this was a free promo for the bloke, but since I do not remember him appearing ever in anything in the last year, (we are talking about summer of 2017 here), I guess that it did not work out for him. Why do Bear Grylls, and Shaq, and Ronda Rousey think that it will work for them?

Well, when it comes Ronda Rousey we might be off to something here. Ever since her defeat in MMA (or whatever it is called), her life was never the same, in a sad way. These days she might be on WWF, but it is not the same, and as for her TV debut…

No, seriously, Ronda Rousey was on ‘Blindspot’, (yes, the same TV series that we are discussing on occasion here), at the end of S2…for about one or two episodes, and that was it. Considering that ‘Blindspot’ had worked her up in its promo videos, this was weird…in an AoS way. Unlike the other Marvel TV series, (even ‘InHumans’), AoS had to deal with actors that went more than came, and as a result the main actors and their characters got reshuffled to different roles very often, especially in the later seasons. Ronda Rousey’s aborted presence on ‘Blindspot’ brought the same feeling to ‘Blindspot’, especially S3, which might be one of the reasons why it was somewhat different from the previous seasons, and not exactly in a good way. Something went wrong for Ronda Rousey with ‘Blindspot’, so now she is trying her luck on ‘Shark Week’, alongside Shaq and Bear. Here’re kudos for them; Ronda, in particular, will be dealing with mako sharks, which is good, for they hunt fish rather than marine mammals, but also bull sharks, which is work – these sharks are generalists and are game for anything, at least once, so if Ronda isn’t careful or dealing with CGI, she will be risking her life for real – and is it worth the (potential) fame?

The flip side, of course, is that unlike TMZ, WWF and the like, the Discovery channel was supposed to educate, rather than entertain, so why there are celebrities? What next, the World Wrestling Federation doing a number of shows with real life sharks also? The line between education and entertainment is blurring on the Discovery channel, and that isn’t good: for a while, Impossible Pictures™, also did educational shows, but then they got into entertainment, and it was the beginning of their end, until BBC pulled the, out of their misery for good. Will the Discovery channel go down the same route? We will just have to wait and see.

This is it for this time; see you all soon!

Cloak & Dagger, Comic-Con - July 21

So, about the Comic-Con of July 2017… It has a lot of information, but what interests us now are, well, ‘Cloak & Dagger’. Make no mistake, Comic-Con provided a wealth of information period – about the ‘Arrowverse’ series, (including ‘Black Lightning’), about the upcoming DCEU movies (such as ‘Shazam’ and ‘Aquaman’), about other movies, (such as ‘Godzilla: King of Monsters’, which is going to also feature Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah – no sign of Kong for now), but ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are of a particular interest to me, because, well, I tend to review them, as you’ve seen, if you follow my blog.

What has Comic-Con ‘C&D’ clips showed us? A few things. One is that detective Mayhem and the Corrupt Cop aren’t done with each other yet, and detective Mayhem will certainly become that – Mayhem – in ‘C&D’ S2, because yes, ‘C&D’ themselves got renewed for S2. Good for them, but so far aside from ‘InHumans’ and AC, MCU does not tend to cancel its’ shows – AoS is returning for a S6 next year, the Netflix crowd is going strong, and even ‘Runaways’ were renewed for a S2 back in January (2018). Go team Marvel!

Back to ‘C&D’ proper? The teaser video showed us Ty and Dy growing into a dynamic duo that is dependent on each other, for better or for worse. So far, team Roxxon still appears to be the ultimate bad guy for this season, but it is worth noting that their leader has mentioned both Stark (as in the Iron Man) and Rand (as in the Iron Fist) in the promo video, which is good, because so far all of the entire MCU is a mess; people in particular have pointed out in the past how CA: CW film had ignored the fledgling ‘Defenders’ series, all of them. (No mention of Daredevil or Hell’s Kitchen for example). ‘C&D’ is clearly amending this, which is good.

On the other hand, we see Ty and Dy fighting a crowd of crazed zombies, which is bad. That said, ‘C&D’ has clearly resolved the issue of villains by making them into almost faceless others – like the zombies of TWD and related fandoms, for example, or the wights from GoT. They are inhumane; they have no personality, no rationality or reason, no motivation; just good old-fashioned destruction. The ‘C&D’ version, however, are capable of using tools, such as chains or shovels, which most zombies usually can’t, but this doesn’t really matter in the long run – they can overrun Ty and Dy and their friends through sheer numbers, if nothing else succeeds.

…And Roxxon and its’ quest for power may be behind them; as far as villains go, Roxxon is not so much soulless as brainless and heartless, which is sad. When will master Jip make his move? Maybe he is the promised power for Roxxon, (or had promised power for Roxxon and they were stupid enough to believe him)? If so, it will be interesting to see how that will turn out; master Jip used to work for the Ancient One, (re: the ‘Dr. Strange’ film – remember it back in 2016?), so it will be interesting to see how his partnership with Roxxon will work out, (if there is a partnership, that is).

Anything else? Comic-Con has also showed first footage of the upcoming ‘Titans’ live action reboot, (we’re talking about ‘Teen Titans Go’ series, 2003-2006, I believe). So far this is already a very different show from its’ previous animated incarnations. This already is drawing some criticism, but so what? We ought to first wait and see as to how it will go on the TV screens first before criticising.

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

Cloak & Dagger, 'Ghost Stories' - July 20

…With only episodes left in S1, ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are stepping up their game and most of their cast is back – only father Delgado is absent. And the Voodoo priestess. And her niece, but – with master Jip lurking in the wings, it probably is only a matter of time until they reappear, because ‘Cloak & Dagger’ might be going into the more supernatural side of Marvel, due to the fact that in this universe the titular characters’ powers’ origin is more mystical – in the original comics they became, well, Cloak and Dagger by being experimented upon by a mad scientist type – kind of how it went down with Luke Cage, for example too – and here, on TV, we have a bunch of underwater scenes, and some black-and-white oily powers, and who knows what else – very different. Go, Ty & Dy!

Speaking of Luke Cage, or rather – ‘Luke Cage’ S2, Danny Rand, or rather – Iron Fist, will be airing his S2 soonish as well. So far, we know that this time the villain is someone called the Steel Serpent, but-

But there are at least two canon characters who are named that, so…it’s going to be rather how ‘Luke Cage’ S2 went, with one its’ main villains being the Bushmaster, (are ‘Luke Cage’ crew and co. will be putting the titular hero against snake-themed villains from now on?), the only thing is that it was the ‘other’ Bushmaster, in comics this name is usually used for one Quincy McIvor, while John McIvor is more of a runner-up. With ‘Iron Fist’, though, the situation is reversed – the Steel Serpent who is going to appear is the regular, a bloke named Davos, while the runner-up – the master of the death touch – will appear at a different time, if ever. We will have to wait and see just how MCU’s version of Davos is different from the comics’ version…

Back to ‘Cloak & Dagger’? This episode – ‘Ghost Stories’ – marked a milestone for the characters. On one hand, they have succeeded: Ty the Cloak got the Corrupt Cop put away, while Dy the Dagger confronted the chief of Roxxon over her dad’s death. On the other, they failed: Dy discovered that her late father wasn’t as good as she assumed in her idealism; in particular, he’d seen nothing wrong in some good old fashioned domestic abuse with her mom on the receiving end of it…so she’s going to take Roxxon’s hush money, and-

And nothing. So far Dy is back to hiding her cash in remote places, saving it for later. Mind you, saving money for later is a good thing, but in that case, Dy should have figured out a scheme to legitimize this cash in put in the bank under percentage or bonds or whatever, because just hiding the money does not work, the last time her mom discovered it and spent it all on a drug binge. Wonder what will happen to this cache of Dy’s cash?

Onto Ty? His main big scene will happen next week, and this week’s episode ended when Detective Mayhem comes home and discovers that her obligatory love interest – another cop, who appeared about once per scene every few episodes or so – is dead and stuffed in the fridge, with everything else in it pulled out beforehand to make space for him. This is ‘Godfather’ done in an obsessive-compulsive way; maybe it is master Jip finally making his own move?

Otherwise…no, this is it. ‘Ghost Stories’ was another good episode, masterfully done and with plenty of action and drama that was so lacking in the first few S1 episodes. Sadly, the numbers for the show still remain low, and with AoS’ remaining Disney/MCU’s obligatory supplement canon TV show, while the Netflix crowd is still more successful than ‘C&D’ are, the future of ‘C&D’ is still up in the air.

…Well, this is it for ‘Ghost Stories’; see you all next time!

Reverie, 'Black Mandala' - July 19

‘Reverie’ continues to make good with its’ episodes; this week’s episode, ‘Black Mandala’, shows the core characters’ team…continuing to act as, well, a team, in saving a Syrian refugee from an experimental interlocution scheme in the reverie, so yay for them!

…On one hand, this is unquestionably good: the relationship between TV and real life is too often too strained… or else we’re talking about the U.S. politics for the last few years, where everything is simply insane to a point where Thanos from MCU appears as a moderate Republican and a philosopher as well, so again, congratulations to ‘Reverie’ both for dealing with real life and with not plundering plot ideas from AoS for a change too. On the other hand, having read Arundhati Roy’s novel ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’, where one of the characters – S. Tilottama – is a daughter of a Syrian Christian refugee herself, I guess I became more inured to the Syrian plight.

Let me elaborate some more. Just like ‘The God of Small Things’, ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’ is a truly masterful novel, yet I found myself disagreeing with the author: she set up S. Tilottama and Musa Yeswi as some of the more positive characters of her second novel, setting them up against Tilottama’s other suitors as well as major Amrik Singh, who are much more the villains here, especially Amrik Singh. That may be so, but I found Musa and especially Tilottama to be more righteous than one can digest and possibly the author tried to set them up to be more likable than they deserved; it probably didn’t work, for while the literary critics did sing Arundhati Roy her well-deserved accolades, the readers weren’t in an great hurry to spread the fame of her novel, (I acquired my copy on a sale in a Drug Mart), but perhaps we’ve digressed?

Well, yes, we have. My point is that for as long as I have watched the ‘Black Mandala’ episode – from beginning to end – I was constantly being reminded of the above-mentioned novel and S. Tilottama and Musa Yeswi. I just did not like those characters; major Amrik Singh was undoubtedly a villain, but somehow I just could not picture Tilottama (Tilo) and Yeswi as heroes. Maybe they were anti-heroes of some sort, but otherwise? Where does ‘Reverie’ fit into it?

Nowhere. ‘Black Mandala’ was a wonderful episode, very dramatic, directed very well, (though what was Mara wearing on her date with her not-so-ex ex-boyfriend? It just looked bizarre), but also? Forgettable, and that is possibly the main problem of ‘Reverie’ – people just do not care about it very much. AoS – or rather, its characters – had similar problems, especially by S5: while Kasius and Sinara – a pair of alien villains – actually do have some fans, Deke Shaw, who was or wasn’t Daisy’s love interest in S5 doesn’t, and in fact seems to have become largely forgotten by now. Daisy is being paired with anyone else, really, other than him: like John Garrett, and Daniel Whitehall, and Sunil Bakshi, Deke was forgotten. The problem is that he is certainly not a villain, and in fact might be S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new rookie, but the viewers do not care, and so, Deke Shaw might as well have not existed in AoS’ S5. Of course, if his role had been better defined on the show things might have been different, but they are not and so he is gone.

By contrast, ‘Reverie’ runs a might tighter ship with its plot, cast, and budget – not only its CGI are tightly controlled and dosed out in appropriate doses, the number of characters per each episode is quite small too – there’s the main cast, (including one Monica Shaw, who comes and goes on the set as the plot requires it), and there are the clients of each case/episode, who need Mara’s aid in getting out of the reverie for whatever reasons. Not too bad, but ‘Reverie’ needs more recurring characters as well.

Look back at AoS; part of its’ initial success were its recurring villains…or rather, a villain – Grant Ward, (and Kara Palamas, for some time). This allowed AoS to build a bigger plot arc for its’ seasons and be a better, more developed show…at least in theory. In practice, it was something else, but even so, each later season would usually have its big bad – Alveus, AIDA/Madame Hydra, even Graviton and his alien space ninja minions…it worked. ‘Reverie’ does not have anything like that…for all that it got right in its’ script, it still has some flaws to work out, and a lack of a greater plot arc is one of them.

…Oh wait, Mara is going to have some sort of a breakdown the next episode and be the one who will need help rather than the one to help. Never mind, maybe we can have Oliver return in this episode – 1x08 – and be behind it. Otherwise, this is just a variant of the same old story, save that by this week’s episode Mara seems to have put her friendship with Paul on hold and got back with her ex ex-boyfriend instead, so there’ll probably be more conflict in 1x08 as well. How exciting. Not.

‘Reverie’ got most, if not all, parts of a winning formula right. It just got them in too small a quantity, it seems. We will just have to hope that it does not get cancelled post-S1, as APB did. Until then, however – see you all soon!

Cloak & Dagger, 'Lotus-Eaters' - July 13

Now, what about ‘C&D’? In this week’s episode, ‘Lotus-Eaters’, they actually get to do heroic deeds…to an unusual extent, but let us tone down the excitement a bit and try to go about it slowly.

Firstly, the episode’s title. Initially, the lotus-eaters were featured in…the ‘Odyssey’, yes Homer’s ‘Odyssey’, though in modern adaptations of this classic they tend to be overlooked in favor of bigger, showier encounters – the Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, etc. (And James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ is something else – maybe the lotus-eaters are featured there…if you want to sieve through all of these words to encounter whether or not the lotus-eaters are there…good luck. Also, you will be wasting your life. Where were we?)

Right, Homer’s lotus-eaters. Odysseus encountered them very early in his odyssey: a bunch of people who just spent their time eating sweet lotus and nothing else. This is a throw-back/reference to Hesiod’s golden age, when humanity had nothing to worry about but just lived peacefully and placidly, with about as much personality as an average modern pencil or a bookmark have. 

Eventually, they faded away and the silver age began – Hesiod’s version, but this is not important right now. What is important is that just like Hesiod’s golden age humans; the lotus-eaters were devoid of personalities, (while even the Sirens had some sort of a character in the initial novel) and cared only about eating their lotus.

Another note: in the modern times, ‘lotus’ is referred to a relative of the water lilies, but in Homer’s epic? It was a magical, mythical plant that appears to be more similar to real life jujube and its’ cousins instead. So what about ‘C&D’?

Both Dy and Ivan Hess succumbed to their version of lotus, which, in the ‘Odyssey’ gave its’ consumers perfect memory in exchange for a complete memory loss and energy drain – the lotus-eaters didn’t do anything but ate their lotus, and when Odysseus’ crewmembers did the same thing, they joined the lotus-eaters in their sloth. (Inactivity, not animal). Odysseus, for his part, usually wasn’t slothful, (especially if given a choice), nor was he particularly mild, meek, or politically correct – he had the rest of his crewmen capture their afflicted fellows, tie them onto their benches and to their oars, and set sail to his next adventure. Harsh, but so’s Odysseus.

And so’s Ty, when he got Dy to snap out of it, from getting her lotus – listening to her father’s voice. He used some tough love to achieve that, and then Dy used the same technique on Ivan Hess, nevermind that he does not look anything like an Ivan. As it was discussed at other times, for a presumably politically correct and progressive show, ‘C&D’s’ approach to racial issues is certainly clichéd, and not in an astute way. However, it works, at least to a point – Dy and Ty have reunited the good doctor with his daughter, so one superhero mission accomplished, and that is speaking literally. ‘The Lotus-Eaters’ were all about Ty and Dy being super-heroic, traipsing around an exploding rig while fighting insane oil rig workers, so there!

…The other side is that ‘The Lotus-Eaters’ featured only Ty and Dy from the main cast and only the Hesses from the recurring cast. Considering that earlier in the summer 2018, when ‘C&D’ were just getting started, there was an online featurette that featured many more people, including father Delgado of whom almost nothing was seen in the entire ‘C&D’ series so far, this is kind of sad. Also worrisome, as AoS also began to play ‘musical chairs’ with its cast as its’ seasons wore on, its’ popularity has fallen, as had its’ numbers, including the number of the viewers. Considering that ‘C&D’ already very low numbers, (lower than those of ‘Reverie’), this is not good. And yes, in part it might be because the first half of ‘C&D’ was more of a prequel as the titular characters settled into their world and began to grow as people; Dy in particular, as she realized that before she’d met Ty, she was a very bad person herself, but now she’s genuinely changing, so good luck to her!

…Anything else? Well, now the action is speeding up in ‘C&D’ – Ty is up to confronting the Corrupt Cop in the next episode. Good for him. Now, obviously, ‘C&D’ are compensating for the initial episodes of inactivity, but it is still debatable, if this strategy, from slow to fast, well, fast, is a good one, especially when you got just 10 episodes in your initial season to work around in. Oh well, you have to deal the hand you have been given, with ‘C&D’ or otherwise.

That is it for this week’s episode of ‘C&D’; I will see you all soon!

Reverie, 'Pas De Deux' - July 12

‘Reverie’ is back this week. Yay!

Well, it is ‘yay’ because otherwise, there is not too much left to talk about. Well, we can talk about the ants in the Marvel™ franchise, more specifically – in the Ant-Man and Wasp movies, (there are two now), how they can fly. The twist is in the ants themselves.

…As far as insects go, ants’ closest relatives are bees, wasps, and the like. In many of those insects, there are three adult morphs: the worker, which is technically female, but is actually sexless, the male, more usually known as the drone, and the queen – the fertile female. The ants have all of these morphs, but only the drones and queens retain their wings…for the mating flight. After that, the males die, and the fertile female queens go underground and start new ant colonies – sir David Attenborough showed all of this in one or another of his specials. (The termites are something else, not very closely related to the ants, and so we will discuss them another time). What interests us now, if we have no life, is does the Ant-Man fly an ant drone into battle, or an ant queen?

…And now that we have acknowledged that, we have no social life, back to ‘Reverie’? In this week’s episode, ‘Pas De Deux’, we encounter an ex-ballerina, who has lost everything in a bicycle accident, (including her unborn baby)…and then regained it all in the reverie, with the usual twist: she is dying in the real life, and has to be brought back, or else.

In a secondary twist, Alexis seems to have changed her attitude towards other people a lot, and now does not take their attempts at impromptu suicide by the reverie lying down: if Mara doesn’t get them out of there nicely, she will pull them out of it manually, by physically unplugging their machine parts. That course of action is fraught with its’ own risks, but since it was allocated only a single scene, we cannot really talk about it very much – not right now.

The other plotlines include Mara’s ex-fiancé, (and it’s a man, not a woman – there aren’t too many same-sex plotlines going in ‘Reverie’ yet, but this is just their first season, this may change in the future), who is also the doctor, (psychiatrist) of the ex-ballerina, so there’s some tension as well. In addition, Mara is continuing to confront her inner demons, but, presumably, the main point of PDD is that the ex-ballerina has accepted her fate and will continue teaching her sister’s children’s ballet school, while the latter is quietly dying from multiple sclerosis. Have I mentioned that PDD was especially dark even for a ‘Reverie’ episode? No? Then did I mention that PDD was based on the AoS plotline where Mack refused to leave the framework because he had his daughter in there, (she died a long time in real life before the AoS S1 events began)? Also no? Well, now I have, and I will say it again: ‘Reverie’ has taken that plot line and dealt with it much better than AoS had done, so there.

Anything else? Before ‘Reverie’ had taken their week off last week, their numbers have actually gone up slightly, so that’s good news…provided that their week off didn’t bit them in the proverbial foot this time – so far it is too early to tell about the numbers. ‘C&D’ are… still doing worse than ‘Reverie’ does, even though they are really trying to do something about it…but that is a talk for another time…

However, for now, this is it. See you all soon instead!

Ant-Man and the Wasp - July 8

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ movie premiered this month. Wow! It was great.

It was very clever, too. Whenever you talk about MCU and its’ problems regarding the various TV series, (and also online/streaming/torrent series), you may forget that its’ movies are something else, very masterful. This does not mean that they are flawless – when the ‘Black Panther’ came out in February 2018, it was revealed to have its’ own issues, and so does ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’: already there are critics who complain about this or that problem – usually an ‘ableist problem’ – in the movie. Fair enough.

However, what we are paying attention to is that the ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ are separate from the A:IW film; in fact, the movie takes place chronologically before the A:IW film and remains separate from the rest of MCU; in the initial ‘Ant-Man’ movie there was a scene where the titular character fought the Falcon (Sam Wilson) as something of a prequel to CA:CW film, (in which the Ant-Man fought on the side of Cap, rather than Tony), as well as a tie-in. Nothing like that here; yes the Ant family gets affected very severely by Thanos’ titanic finger snap, yet because the Ant-Man ends up trapped in the Quantum realm, (or the Quantum zone, whatever the proper canon name is), it is unlikely that he will be a part of the fourth Avengers’ movie either, because now he has to escape it on his own, and that will take time.

In the previous film, mind, Yellowjacket (Darren Cross) was trapped in the Quantum realm already, so maybe in the next film Scott will encounter Yellowjacket there…just to escape the Quantum realm; right now, Scott just isn’t experienced and powerful enough to do it on his own. It is just as possible, of course, that Ghost and Goliath and the remainder of his friends will do it from ‘this side’, so we’ll have to wait and see as to what the next Ant-Man film will deliver, but!

But the fact that Ghost did not die during the duration of the film, (and neither did Sonny, FYI), marks another notable break from the MCU movie traditions, where villains died, (even Loki did, sob), at the end of each movie. Thanos did not die, but he is Thanos, and besides – the fourth Avengers movie is coming forth eventually, so he will probably die then instead. The Red Skull is back, but so far, he remained below the radar, so there is no indication of the role he will play in the future MCU installments. Killmonger was sang accolades to by the various critics, but he still died, so he is off the table, for now. But Ghost is alive, and unlike Sonny, she has her own ideas and knowledge about the Quantum realm, so now maybe she will play a role in the next, future movie, and that is a notable deviation from the pre-established MCU canon – in the movies, AoS, Netflix series and so forth. (Cough Black Mariah Cough). Go, MCU – you have made several breakthroughs here without anyone apparently realizing it!

Pause. Ghost’s fate was the first breakthrough, and the second-?

Back to the Ant-Man and the Quantum realm. By staying in the Quantum realm, the Ant-Man will avoid being drafted, (or re-drafted) by the Avengers to go onto their Happy Thanos Hunt, and as such his adventures will continue to present a separate plot line that regardless follows the main plot of MCU, all of its’ phases, so to speak. MCU tried to do so in AoS, by making it the supplement show to its’ movies, but it didn’t work – from the second half of S2 onwards, (or maybe even from the very beginning, the very first season), AoS went all over the place in regards to its’ own plot and script, so now, this second attempt, via movies, is much better! Anything else?

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ is a fun movie. Maybe it is not very deep, the ‘Black Panther’ film got a different reception from it, but this is okay. People are enjoying it, and this is still miles better than ‘Solo’, the Disney hybrid with SW rather than Marvel. Go team Marvel/Disney!

Oh, and one another thing. There’s no particular political correctness in it, (though the ‘Screen Junkies’ on YouTube claimed that Luis, introduced in the first ‘Ant-Man’ movie was the first Latino-American character in MCU, and now he’s also back), unlike, well, ‘C&D’, which recently aired a clip where Ty is getting beat-up by several of his Anglo-American classmates…

Another pause. Here is the thing. Ever since the Donald became the president, the various media-related companies, organizations, etc., grew increasingly stringent because ever since his election as such, they were shown the actual limits of their power over the American society – and they do not like it. They do not like it, and ever since the 45^th presidential election, they have done their best to prove that this is not so, they are the top power in the U.S. society – but they are not. All of their attempts to prove otherwise ultimately fail, but in the process of these failures they are making the American society ever worse – and ‘C&D’, (remember how Marvel™ has distinctively distanced itself from this duo now?), is one of their attempts. Fine, yes, ‘C&D’ is trying to reveal the ulcers of the modern society, both gender and racial inequality. Fine. How do C & D, Ty & Dy, fix it? ‘C&D’ has already spent about half of its first season just setting them up – setting all of the characters up, and by now many of them are still cardboard clichés, in one way or another; they may make most of their villains heterosexual Anglo-American men, but how does that make real life America a better place? Rather, ‘C&D’ and similar TV shows are provoking further conflicts, all the way up to potential pogroms, (regardless of color of both sides)… ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ movie avoids all of that, so congratulations to them for it too. The movie does have people of color in it, including Ghost herself, but while they are not in the main roles – not yet – neither are they diminished, not really. Go, team Marvel™, again! No wonder it seems to disassociate itself from ‘C&D’… Good for Marvel™, it seems…

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

PS: Here is a choral angel with a broken soul template, from Pathfinder Bestiaries. How does it look?

BROKEN SOUL CHORAL CR 8

XP 2,400

NE Small outsider (angel, evil, extraplanar)

Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect evil; Perception +16

Aura protective aura

DEFENSE

AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 16 (+3 Dex, +9 natural, +1 size)

hp 116 (8d10+72)

Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +9; +4 vs. poison, +4 resistance vs. evil

DR 5/-; Immune acid, cold, petrification; Resist electricity 10, fire 10, sonic 5; SR 17

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., fly 50 ft. (good)

Melee slam +10 (1d3+1)

Ranged piercing hymn +12 touch (4d6 sonic plus deafened)

Special Attacks agonized wail (DC 19), baleful gaze (DC 19), countersong, harmonize, torturous touch (DC 19)

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +11)

Constant—detect evil

At will—aid, ghost sound (DC 13), dispel evil (DC 18), dispel magic, invisibility (self only), plane shift (self only), remove curse, remove disease, remove fear

3/day—cure moderate wounds, sculpt sound (DC 16), sound burst (DC 15)

STATISTICS

Str 13, Dex 16, Con 21, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 17

Base Atk +8; CMB +8; CMD 21

Feats Alertness, Diehard (B), Endurance (B), Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Toughness

Skills Acrobatics +14, Diplomacy +14, Escape Artist +11, Fly +20, Knowledge (planes) +14, Knowledge (religion) +14, Perception +16, Perform (sing) +14, Sense Motive +16

Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech

ECOLOGY

Environment any good-aligned planes

Organization solo, duet, or Ensemble (3-8)

Treasure standard

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Countersong (Su) A choral can attempt a Perform (sing) check to counter magic effects that depend on sound. This ability functions as the bard ability of the same name.

Harmonize (Sp) When chorals work together, they can use their complementary voices to create mystical harmonies. Two or more chorals within 60 feet of one another can use calm emotions or heroism as a spell-like ability, four or more chorals can use shout, and six or more chorals can use greater heroism or holy word. Only the choral that actually casts the spell-like ability in question must take a standard action to achieve this effect—the other chorals need only take swift actions during the same round.

Piercing Hymn (Su) As a standard action, a choral can launch a concentrated blast of sonic energy from its mouth as a ranged touch attack. This attack has a range of 90 feet with no range increment and deals 4d6 points of sonic damage. Any creature struck by a piercing hymn must succeed at a DC 17 Fortitude save or be deafened for 1d4 minutes. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Cloak & Dagger, 'Mirrors' - July 6

‘C&D’ continues with its’ regularly scheduled programming. ‘Reverie’ did not. No, seriously – this week it took time off, and it is coming back next week. Considering that its’ numbers are still low, this might not be the best strategic choice for ‘Reverie’, but who knows? Maybe it is.

As for ‘C&D’, this time around, in ‘Funhouse Mirrors’, Ty and Dy met some new people, or – not so new ones. Firstly, Dy the Dagger met the scientist that was introduced to us in the previous week’s episode, Nina Hess, and she is a racial stereotype. She is also a social stereotype – the idealistic, tough, self-sufficient, independent, intelligent, modern scientist who is only loosely associated with Roxxon, and who doesn’t fit in with them. No, really – ‘Mirrors’ also showed Nina’s Roxxon boyfriend, and they have nothing in common, not at all. This might be ‘C&D’s’ point – one of them – and the main reason as to why Nina and her father are P.O.C’s from China, rather than WASPs, as of Roxxon’s employees seem to be. Can you go even more cliché?

Yes, as Ty reconnects, or tries to reconnect, with one of his late brother’s friends, who is now a drug runner minion of the Corrupt Cop. The latter sets up Detective Mayhem to shoot him, which she does, while the Corrupt Cop goes chasing after Ty, who oversaw it all, and escaped only via his teleportation powers. This is wonderful, yet, oddly, the Corrupt Cop seemed to be only shaken after seeing a teen disappear into thin air in mid-stride. Yes, this is the New Orleans and all, but so far only Ty and Dy showed to have any over powers; yes, there’s Ty’s girlfriend and her auntie the voodooists, but-

On one hand, they were in this episode too, as they did a Tarot card reading regarding the past, present and future. Having done them – Tarot readings – myself, I’m not sure just how they relate to the voodoo culture, but let us be honest: this version of ‘C&D’ seems to be mostly about original content, while ‘Runaways’ were more balanced, (but they are better established than ‘C&D’ is also), while AoS and AC never had any canon content, not initially, (and apparently not now either). ‘C&D’ seems to be caught in the middle, and it has problems with the cast.

No, let us not talk about how a Sino-American family seemed to have acquired a last name of Hess. (It sounds European, not Asian, so maybe there is some backstory that would be helpful if it ever came out?) The point is that both Dy’s mom and father Delgado have vanished from the show at the point, and Ty’s girlfriend and her auntie have minimal roles, especially in this episode. We have seen this before, especially in AoS, when the show’s crew could not keep a full cast full on and had to juggle plot lines and cast characters from one episode to another. The fact that AoS began to hemorrhage cast members from the second half of S2 onwards did not help, while the fact that ‘C&D’ currently are not experiencing this is a good thing, yet they are beginning to juggle characters too all the same. Considering that this attitude cost AoS numbers in the long run, it is doubtful that ‘C&D’ will handle it any better, since they are nowhere as well-off as AoS had been in its’ first season. Where were we?

Detective Mayhem killed the ex-friend of Ty’s late brother, as the Corrupt Cop might have expected her to. He is not a supervillain, but he is a competent villain all the same, and the two of them are currently equally matched to decide the winner right now.

Back to Dy? If Ty’s revelation with straightforward – this could have been him, if his parents, (and especially his mother), did not get him a better life, (and these characters are absent for this episode too, incidentally), then Dy’s is not exactly so. Her father might have been the boss of Mr. Hess, (now comatose to a point that not even cookies with cardamom can snap him out of it), but Dy herself never wanted to be a scientist; she wanted to be a ballerina, a point that was clearly told to the audience especially at the series’ premiere. If things have gone right, with the rig and all, then Dy and Nina would still be two very different people, and-

And Dy’s father did not die in the explosion: rather, due to a collision, their car fell from a bridge in an accident, where Dy met Ty when he dived after his shot brother will into the water himself. Dy and her family are not tied to the rig and its’ explosion directly, which raises the possibility that team Roxxon are just cheap assholes who looked for an easy scapegoat, and Dy and her mom were just that – easy and convenient, only now this karma is coming back to bite team Roxxon in the ass, for if Dy and her mom hadn’t been reduced to being white trash, Dy would never go on her crusade against Roxxon as soon as she had anything, (and someone), in her corner. Rather, she would have been a ballerina, the end. Thus, she and Nina do not really match up – not as each other’s ‘reflection’, not as anything. It seems that somewhere – and we are in the mid-point of ‘C&D’ S1 – ‘C&D’ had to reset its’ script and backstories on some level at least. AoS did it repeatedly, and it harmed, rather than helped that show. We will just have to wait and see how ‘C&D’ handles it.

Well, this is it for now; see you all in the future instead!

Pathfinder - Imperial Foo creature

For variety, here's a dire badger (B2) with the Imperial Foo template (B3). How does it look?

BADGER, DIRE IMPERIAL FOO CR 11

XP 600

NG Large outsider (augmented, good)

Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +32

DEFENSE

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

hp 128 (6d10+90)

Fort +8, Ref +5, Will +4

Defensive Abilities damage reduction 5/bludgeoning, ferocity, immunities (poison, disease, paralysis and sleep), paired protectors, stony defence

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., burrow 10 ft.

Melee bite +3 (1d6+18), 2 claws +3 (1d4+18)

Special Attacks blood rage, freeze, spells (as a 10-th level sorcerer)

STATISTICS

Str 30, Dex 19, Con 29, Int 20, Wis 18, Cha 15

Base Atk +4; CMB +8; CMD 32 (40 vs. trip)

Feats Ability Focus (ferocity), Eschew Materials (B), Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Skill Focus (Perception)

Skills Escape Artist +22, Perception +32; Racial Modifiers +8 Escape Artist

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate forests

Organization solitary, pair, or clan (3–5)

Treasure incidental