Pathfinder: tengu swordmaster - Sep 30

For a change, since this was that sort of weekend, here's a tengu swordmaster, (a rogue archetype):

Tengu rogue (swordmaster) 9

CE Medium humanoid (tengu)

Init +4; Senses low-light vision; Perception +15

DEFENSE

AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 15

hp 50 (9d8+9)

Fort +4, Ref +11, Will +5

Defensive Abilities evasion, improved uncanny dodge, uncanny dodge

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee mwk rapier +11/+2 (1d6+1/18-20/x2)

Ranged mwk composite shortbow +10 (1d6+1/x3)

Special Attacks sneak attack +5d6, trances (crane trance, leopard trance, tiger trance)

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 18, Con 11, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 9

Base Atk +6; CMB +7; CMD 21

Feats Acrobatic, Aquatic Combatant (B), Empty Threats, Lovable Scoundrel, Tengu Wings, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)

Skills Acrobatics +17, Appraise +14, Bluff +11, Diplomacy +5, Escape Artist +15, Fly +9, Intimidate +11, Perception +15, Sense Motive +13, Sleight of Hand +15, Stealth +17, Swim +8

Languages Common, Elven, Tengu, Undercommon

SQ gifted linguist, rogue talents (befuddling strike, combat trick, fast stealth, finesse rogue), swordtrained

Combat Gear potion of invisibility; Other Gear +1 chain shirt, mwk composite shortbow (+1 Str) with 20 arrows, mwk rapier, cloak of resistance +1

Comments? Criticisms?

More Marvel - Sep 27

…To continue the issue of Marvel and mutants, because real life sucks – just ask Judge Cavanaugh and Dr. Ford – two more things should be mentioned, perhaps. One is that ‘Daredevil’ S3 is coming to Netflix in October 2018. This is Marvel, but not mutants – usually Daredevil stays separate from the X-Men and their crowd, though in the comics he did team up once with Wolverine and Jubilee to stop the Hand and their latest plot, but right now, on TV – not so much. Rather, from the trailers that we have seen, he might be going against Wilson Fisk/the Kingpin once again. (Maybe Punisher could help, but so far, there is no new info about him).

And the second? The ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ film has released its’ first trailer.

Now, here is the thing: ‘Dark Phoenix’ has nothing in common with ‘Insatiable’ – do people still remember that damn mess? Hopefully, it had been forgotten by now, but one of the things that contributed to its’ failure was its’ poorly designed trailer, which was badly put together, chaotic. The trailer of ‘Dark Phoenix’ has a similar feeling – it is chaotic, unintentionally designed to overwhelm the audiences with maximum of info in a minimal amount of time, just as the trailer of ‘Insatiable’ sought to do, also unintentionally. The result? While undoubtedly the ‘Dark Phoenix’ movie will be good, and maybe even better than the previous ‘evil Jean X-Men’ movie, where Wolverine had to fix everything, as he always does, because Cyclops and Xavier got offed by Jean earlier in the film, right now, the first expressions of ‘Dark Phoenix’ are mixed. Good luck to team Disney/FOX in sorting it all out.

Finally, speaking of movies – ‘Venom’ is coming to the movie theaters in October 2018 too. It will be interesting to watch, (plus its’ trailers were all done correctly, off topic). As it was already established, Carnage will not be in the movie, but some other symbionts – especially Rampage – will be, and Venom might be unable to defeat them through sheer physical strength alone, some more sophisticated strategies might be required. Since Venom tends to go more with its’ instincts than intelligence, Eddie might have his work cut out for both of them – but again, we will have to wait and see as to what will develop in the movie.

…Well, this is it for now – I will see you in the future.

The Gifted: eMergence - Sep 25

And so, ‘The Gifted’ S2 aired. Yay?

Well, it is a mixed bag, to be honest. Alternatively, more precisely, it is something of a reboot already. To elaborate?

S1 of ‘The Gifted’ was straightforward: mutants vs. Sentinel Services. S2…is also straightforward: the Mutant Underground, (such as it is), vs. the Hellfire Club, or, more precisely, the Inner Circle, as the ‘initial’ Hellfire Club was slaughtered in the opening scenes of ‘eMergence’, (aka the episode 2x01), led by the Frost triplets and – Reeva.

Reeva is a new character in the series; she is based on her namesake character in the comics, where there is a coup of the Hellfire Club, led by one Shinobi Shaw, son of Sebastian Shaw, one of the original members of HC, and Reeva is one of the younger Shaw’s followers. In ‘The Gifted’, there is no Shaw, any Shaw, yet, and Reeva is the one in charge. Go girl power, and she is a P.O.C. too, so – extra points for political correctness, perhaps?

So far, so good, but somehow this scene feels like the embodiments of ‘The Gifted’ reboot – and an unnecessary one; S1 of ‘The Gifted’ worked fine, even with the Hellfire Club thrown into the mix in the second half of the season; without arguing about the details, ‘The Gifted’ S1 worked because it was simple, straightforward, and basic; it had some social commentary and it did its’ best to create a ‘noir’ atmosphere with a WWII taste. As ‘eMergence’ has shown, S2 also has that, but in general 2x01 feels more like an introductory episode, one where the scriptwriters, the crew, and even the cast were more interested in showing where everyone re-positioned themselves rather than doing anything else.

Yes, ‘eMergence’ introduces what is probably the main story arc of S2: Lorna gave birth to her baby. Well, her and Marcos’ baby, but so far she and Marcos are being kept apart, (by fate and its’ agents, no doubt), so right now the baby is all hers.

Now, again, the acting is one of the stronger aspects of ‘The Gifted’, and 2x01 delivers here, as the actors, well, act, and do their best to deliver to the audience members as to what is going on out there is real. Well, real-ish, since this is a world of mutants, robots and God knows what else.

Speaking of robots, Jace Turner, (agent or ex-agent of Sentinel Services) was notably absent this episode, which is one of the reasons as to why ‘eMergence’ suffered: without the dichotomy, ‘The Gifted’ – as a TV series – just does not work. It tried to work without the dichotomy back in S1, and it did not really succeed. Same goes for now: throughout ‘eMergence’, the Inner Circle crew did their own thing regarding Lorna’s pregnancy and baby, (and Andy got to be the godfather; Sirius Black and Severus Snape look from their afterlife and pat him on the shoulders: he’s in a tough spot now!), while the Mutant Underground was all over the place, as the episode tried to show Caitlin’s growing concern about Andy, right there with Marcos’ concern regarding Lorna, Reed’s emerging mutant powers, (whatever they are), and Clarice and John’s attempts to find a missing mutant.

Yes, in itself this is not a problem, but again, in S1 ‘The Gifted’ was built along three main plotlines: the Strucker family, Jace doing his ‘lone wolf’ thing in the Sentinel Services, (especially after the Frost sisters killed his partner and best friend in the second half of S1), and Marcos, Lorna, Johnny and Blink/Clarice. In ‘eMergence’, as it was already said, Jace was absent completely, while the Struckers and the foursome were all over the place, both in the Mutant Underground and the Inner Circle/Hellfire Club. It isn’t a bad idea entirely, but in ‘eMergence’? It did not really work.

That said, ‘eMergence’ does signify that ‘The Gifted’ S2 will be quite different from what it was in S1, even regardless of the appearance of the Morlocks, (who will be discussed at another time). One thing for certain, however – it is going to be interesting.

…And this is it for now – see you all soon!

BtVS - Sep 21

…To continue on the topic of fiction, (because real life is still…more than slightly unpleasant), there is the matter of a potential BtVS reboot that comes and goes through the rumor network.

Here is the thing. A while back, Whedon did appear to be open to it – but it’d been years in the past, and by now Whedon is working with DC, rather than Marvel & Disney, so it’s actually anyone’s guess as to where the potential negotiations are going, if they are still going at all. Yes, TV series and etc. are a lot about TV show reboots these days; they also got their own streaming platforms and are trying to overwhelm their viewers through sheer quantity, (and quality) of their shows, movies, etc., but that isn’t the point.

Then what is the point? Hard to tell. On one hand, we got the upcoming ‘Charmed’ reboot. As we talked earlier, people are praising the show, (or rather – its’ trailer), for being ‘woke’ (or whatever), for having a racially mixed cast. For the record, AoS also has a mixed-race cast, (though they do not always manage it well), but it did not work for them in the long run, as their number statistics still dropped. Of course, they are having a sixth season in 2019, but it feels more of a reboot even at a distance, and we’ll still need to see just how much the regular cast has changed between S5 and 6 by then.

Back to ‘Charmed’? Now one of the problems with AoS was its’ script and plot line: it was constantly broken and reset from the second half of S2 onwards, whereas in the ‘Charmed’ trailer… it looks to be largely followed the original series’ plotline, just depicted differently. Here, CW is trying to have it all, both old and new, and-

And it can be just as good a strategy as what Disney did with SW – and failed. If CW does not fail, and even succeeds, with this ambiguous strategy, more power to them! In addition, if they fail…well, Disney had failed there too – with the ‘Wrinkle in Time’ movie.

About that movie, (AWIT, for shortness). On one hand, Disney tried something new, more out of its’ comfort zone – like many of the real-life classics, AWIT the novel is not easily adapted to the modern cinematic values, but Disney still tried. On the other, they still have diverged quite a bit from the initial novel: some characters, like Auntie Beast, were removed completely, while some scenes got seriously changed.

For example, in the novel, Charles Wallace, his stepsister, and their friend get to ride a winged centaur at one point; it is even depicted on some of the covers of some of the editions, (novel, not movie). In the movie, the three children ride a creature that is not anything like a centaur, (winged or otherwise), but more like some Pokémon instead. It creates a very different atmosphere, a more goofy one, and not necessarily in a good way. The result? AWIT got mixed reviews at best, and for now that franchise seems to be shelved, as far as Disney is concerned. (The fact that apparently it is Disney’s second attempt to make AWIT into a movie probably does not help either).

So where does it leave BtVS? Here’s the thing. Before there was Buffy as in Sarah Michelle Geller, there had been a movie, a prequel of sorts, featuring completely different actors with a very different plot. There was also a pilot that was never aired on TVs, but you can find clips of it and such on YouTube and the rest of the Net. It too shows some different actors from the official cast; for example, there is no Alyson Hannigan but a different actress playing Willow – a very different Willow. If that pilot had worked, we would have had a very different BtVS too, because of the real life dynamics between the actors, the crew, and the rest of show running personnel.

Enter the potential reboot, which will have a very different cast, (because, for example, the aforementioned Alyson Hannigan is not interested in being an actress anymore, it seems). What next?

They will have to make it a choice; with BtVS S12 (comic-verse) being apparently over, the time for them (whoever they are) to make a move is now, because otherwise, without a regular comic support, the entire BtVS franchise will fade into obscurity completely and any investment into it will be much riskier than it currently is.

But what is this choice? Either try telling the old story with new characters and actors, or telling a new story with new characters and actors; say, about some new, younger Vampire Slayer that didn’t appear in BtVS up to date, at least not as a regular character; and?

And right now Disney, (who is usually rumored to be interested in buying the BtVS franchise from Whedon, the Dark Horse comics and etc.), has already plenty of issues to go through. On one hand, it has finally admitted that it had dropped the ball with its’ SW merger and is doing damage control – a lot of it. The SW9 movie is coming out next year, but after that? It is anyone’s guess as to what will happen next.

There is also the issue with the Disney/Marvel merger too. In summer 2018, James Gunn was fired because of a ‘me too’-related mess, and the entire GotG derailed as the actors rebelled. An agreement was failed to be reached, (there were not too many details available to the public), and so by now GotG vol. 3 is off the roster. Instead, it is anyone’s guess as to what will take its’ place, (the more likely candidate is a second ‘Dr. Strange’ movie). Anything else?

…Between juggling SW and Marvel (and anything else at this time), Disney is really uninterested in taking risks, and BtVS is a risk simply by default. Of course, so’s ‘Charmed’ and any other reboot, but CW has bulked its’ audience/viewer fanbase via ‘Arrow-verse’, so maybe it can take a hit. Disney…can also take a hit, but it already took one with SW, and now GotG may be another one, so it will pass on BtVS…maybe.

Or maybe all those rumors about BtVS being bought by anyone are only that – rumors, and Whedon and co. will churn more BtVS comic series for years to come. We will have to wait and see.

…This is it for this time, see you all soon!

Real life & etc. - Sep 20

…Sometimes, life sucks. Sometimes, some days just feel wrong, no matter what, and sometimes, you just think about the future and wince: you can see what is coming clearly, you just cannot figure out a way to get out of it.

Or maybe you can, you just are not sure, (or maybe you are), if the way out is not worse than staying on course is. Or maybe it is worse, but you are just going to go that way anyway, because which is the lesser evil here? …But we digress.

…No, not really, we do not. The hurricane Florence is gone, whatever is going on down with Kavanaugh and his accuser is a storm that few people want to touch, and whatever changes the ‘me too’ movement was supposed to bring were not brought, and people are beginning to experience backlash from it instead. That is important, because if ‘me too’ does not begin to bring-in sociopolitical advantages, but brings disadvantages instead, its’ support, official or unofficial, may begin to dwindle and then…it would end, leaving everyone right back where they have started…if by ‘everyone’ one means Americans. Even Canadians never got as much involved with ‘me too’ as their southern neighbours did, never mind the Europeans, and-

And nothing. The Americans love to believe that they are the entire world when they are not. Post-1990s they could – and did – impose their will and values onto the rest of the world and it worked…until it did not. Everyone and everything, even a country, even its’ regime, have a time limit, and once it runs out, that is it. You are screwed. Well, not necessarily screwed, but certainly done, and will have to invent something new or bide your time until the next opportunity to bring back your old bag of tricks. What next?

Yes, Russia, (and maybe China, and other countries), have participated in steering the U.S. in the direction of the mess that it is currently in, but so did the U.S. itself – it has no idea where it is going; it still has, well, democracy as its’ political polar star/lighthouse/traffic light – you make the metaphor – its’ light has grown vague and indistinct, and this is bad.

Look at Russia – it doesn’t have anything like democracy in its’ system of values, not anymore: Putin is apparently setting himself to be the modern Ozymandias: ‘look at my works, yet mighty, and despair!’ with not a sentient soul around to appreciate the colossal wreck – but it still has plenty of will and determination…and also an idea, or even – the idea, that democracy and Western-style politics is good, and it tries to go there, and maybe, one day, they will even achieve it, whereas the U.S….

Whereas the U.S. does not have that, or perhaps – it has too many majorities in it instead. There are too many people who have, well, ideas, of where the American democracy should go, and they all are pulling it in different directions, set against the background of the still-weakened state/country of U.S.A. The concept of ‘Balkanization’ of U.S. is not anything new; it is actually a common American dystopia, depicted in ‘into the badlands’ show among other things, for example. Will it come true in real life? We will have to wait and see.

Does the mention of ‘Badlands’ bring us back to the realm of fiction? In there, various goings-on are happening, too. The ‘Charmed’ reboot is happening in October 2018 and already there are people praising it for being ‘woke’ (or whatever), for having a mixed-racial cast. Sigh. The various films have already tried this out. ‘Black Panther’ – with a primarily Afro-American cast. It was praised…until people realized that ‘Black Panther’ was not about ‘real life’ Africa, but more about an idealized, American version of Africa – and the hype about that movie quickly died. ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ had a primarily Asian-American cast, (if not an exclusively one), and the same thing happened, only quicker, because as far as movies go, ‘Asians’ were less fictional than BP was, so its’ differences from reality are starker and more obvious. ‘Charmed’ isn’t a movie, it’s a TV series reboot, one that deals with witches and demons (among other things; the original series also had ghost pirates, ancient Greek gods and demons, and anything else, really), and the real-life racial issue didn’t really feature much in it; from the trailers of the reboot, it seems that the reboot will go down the same route, the races of the actors and actresses playing regardless.

The worst that can happen? ‘Charmed’ v2 will be a variant of ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’, in which Rowling has racebent Hermione, making her Afro-British, and by extent, Rose and Hugo Weasleys, (Hermione’s children with Ron) into biracial people. (Though yeah, I do not remember Hugo being in the story, but still. Let us mention him by default). And what happened next?

The play did not bomb, but only because the actors delivered – yay for them. There had been rumors of a musical/movie adaptation of the play, but the matter of Hermione and her race has come back once more. Either she really is Afro-British, in which case we need an Afro-British, or an Afro-American, actress in the HPCC movie, and that…isn’t something that is easily done by anyone, not even Rowling herself, who is very pointedly involved with the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ movie series, (where the bulk of characters, and especially – main characters, is Anglo-American, or European…basically, Caucasian), and not with anything ‘Cursed Child’-related. This means that all of her words in defence of Noma Dumazveny had been just that – words, and if the readers/viewers/fans are not buying them, J-Ro will easily switch back to an Emma Stone-Hermione, as she did with Jim Kay.

To be more precise, in collaboration with Jim Kay, J-Ro has started to re-release her HP books: they are already up to ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’, and the Hermione featured there is more like Emma than Noma, to put it blankly. Merlin knows why, of course, but if people are praising J-Ro for being ‘woke’…then maybe they should not, and she is not. Not really.

This, of course, brings us to Rick Riordan, who in his last novel, ‘Burning Labyrinth’, or ‘Burning Maze’, or whatever, also showed that he didn’t have to be ‘woke’ either if it didn’t deliver, and who has also started to release illustrated hardcover versions of his novels; so far, there’s only ‘The Lightning Thief’, done by John Rocco, (who seems to be Riordan’s artist of choice, when it comes to illustrating his novels and mini-novels in color), but it’s a start.

The dramatic irony is that J-Ro’s novels, illustrated by Jim Kay, are not selling so hot, and neither is the illustrated hardcover edition of ‘The Lightning Thief’. People just are not buying those books as much anymore, so both J-Ro and Riordan have their work cut out for them and need to invent new tricks or something, (as we have talked in the beginning, here). J-Ro is already doing this approach with her FB films; Riordan…we will have to wait and see.

Speaking of movies… a Disney/SW representative has made a statement, that they will be slowing down with the new films; after the SW9 movie is release, no new SW movies will be made for a while. This isn’t surprising; in fact, after ‘Solo’ this statement was to be made soon or later – right now, Disney has brought SW and itself into a corner when it comes to SW movies; but there’re always TV series to keep the SW franchise afloat. Maybe it will work in the end.

Anything else? No, not for the moment; see you all soon instead!

Captain Marvel I - Sep 18

So, to sum it up. The lousy week is over. In the future, there are many weeks like that one – my life sucks, as I am repeatedly reminded by it, but conversely, lives of many other people suck even worse; those caught in the path of the now-gone hurricane Florence, for example, or those who work for SeWi in the world of tennis – they aren’t enjoying themselves either, so everything, (and everyone?), is relative…

Onto more pleasant things? I can now give life the finger – for the moment, life is good, so there is that. There’s also the new ‘Captain Marvel’ video trailer, and-

And it is something else – purposefully so, but still. It appears to be focused on the life and times of the titular character, who – before she became a superhero – was an Air Force pilot; it was apparently her dream, metaphorically speaking. Or is it allegorically? Regardless, the trailer shows that she was a resilient, tough, determined girl and became an even more resilient, tough, determined woman by the time that the events of the movie will appear. Good for her, though the choppy delivery of that statement could have used some work.

In other news, there are brief glances of younger Fury and Coulson, of Kree and Skrull aliens appearing on screen. Sadly, they are there only for appearances – in this trailer – and do not really contribute to it at all. I hope that this state of things will change in the future, however. Anything else?

‘Venom’ the movie is coming on October 5, this year, so there is that. ‘Iron Fist’ S2 has come and gone, (metaphorically speaking), so bully for it. Carol Danvers rocked her trailer in any of her superhero suits, so it will be interesting to see her properly in her film. It will be good to see Nick and Phil too, though. A: IW film showed Fury and Hill to be those among the dusted, while AoS’ S5 had Phil finally retire, with May, due to a number of factors, especially – his failing health. It is possible that he and May will be back in AoS’ S6 (or any future seasons, that is still possible), but for Gregg who plays him, and for MCU, ‘Captain Marvel’ movie has priority…

…This would be a good time and place to discuss the ‘Me Too’ developments back in the real world, but the mood is not right. Yes, there is already officially admitted backlash to the movement, but talking about it feels rather like kicking an ailing horse now, so maybe we will talk about it – or something else – at another time instead.

…So, this is it for this time; see you all soon!

Iron Fist S2 - Sep 11

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. My upcoming week promises to be rather bad, so I actually cannot wait for next week’s Monday, because it will give me a reprieve. Go me. My life sucks. I hate it.

…Of course, on the other hand, there is the first-rate tennis player SeWi, who has it worse. To recap, she lost her match against her fellow tennis player N. Osaka, and apparently turned upon the game’s umpire when things did not go her way – and lost her temper. As a result, she is now fined almost 20 grand, (as I have heard), the tennis officials are backing the umpire, (so she now might need to apologize – or not), and there already are some rather crude and unpleasant caricatures of her, too, damaging her reputation further. Yeah, and she cannot blame her bad decision of D.C. and the president Donald either. Poor her. Really.

Mind you, as much as I believe that SeWi is in the wrong here, it must be admitted that the caricatures, (there were at least two different ones), were completely unnecessary, and probably made the already bad business worse. SeWi and her people are probably doing their best at damage control, and the caricatures are making their job harder. One may hate SeWi, (though why? She is not a politician, at least), but still, to go at her deliberately is not a good thing. Hate leads to the dark side, the Jedi said, and they should know: the SW/Disney merger was apparently completely in the dark, it remained in the dark regarding the SW fanbase, and now the merger became successful at alienating that fanbase: some of its’ members honestly do hate it, and will probably abandon it, a new cartoon series or not.

This brings us to another merger – that of Netflix/Marvel. More precisely, ‘Iron Fist’ S2 was aired. How did it go?

It worked. The Netflix/Marvel combo took criticisms of ‘Iron Fist’ S1 and did their best to fix them. So far, it seems that their strategy is to take an ever-increasing amount of ‘Iron Fist’ comic elements and introduce them to ‘Iron Fist’ in particular (and maybe to ‘The Defenders’ in general). Yay?

Very much so. This is, after all, what all of the Marvel shows are about – to give their audiences the Marvel experience that the various comics (and novels) cannot. Otherwise, what is the point? There are plenty of non-Marvel TV shows, (some are not even in related to DC or other comic universes either), so to counter them a Marvel show, (TV, online, etc.,) has to use, well, Marvel elements. Moreover, it worked. Go them.

Anything else? Not really. ‘Iron Fist’ S2 shows that the Netflix/Marvel shows are diversifying and are going beyond the NYC city limits, at least partially. ‘Iron Fist’, the comic and the online series, for better or for worse, is caught between USA and Asia, and it needs to balance between these two landmasses to succeed.

…One may ask, if ‘Luke Cage’ is not similarly caught between USA and Africa. It is not – ‘Luke Cage’ is solidly Afro-American, with the emphasis on American, and while he – and Misty Knight, and a few others – can always come to Africa, especially to Wakanda, on request of their good friend king T’Challa aka the Black Panther, their homeland is still USA. (Seriously, this is what happened in one ‘Black Panther’ comic series: at one point in time a group of super-villains, including – a version of the Fenris twins, tried to take over Wakanda by fermenting internal political unrest, so the Black Panther realized: this is bigger than me and my family, and so he got his posse, which included Ororo/Storm, Misty Knight, and – Luke Cage, aside from other characters, and defeated the villains…eventually).

…Yes indeed ‘The Gifted’ S2 is returning to TV on Tuesday, September 25^th. I must admit - this is good news, and the current trailer is already exciting; the lines are drawn: the Mutant Underground vs. the Hellfire Club and Lorna is, potentially, the wild card. Magneto was never a member of the Hellfire Club, the Cuckoos have lied to get Lorna in, and if she ever finds out, the results will be explosive: Magneto was powerful, but never subtle, and Lorna seems to have inherited that. She will not be happy to have been lied to, that is for sure.

On the other hand, ‘The Gifted’ S2 trailers seem to imply that the Hellfire Club will undergo some sort of an W&H (from AtS) moment, which involves an internal coup. If done right, it will be a game changer, but to do that, ‘the old guard’ who will be killed off should be established first, otherwise the coup’s impact will be diminished.

…Yes, this all takes place in different Marvel universes: ‘The Gifted’ takes place in a separate universe – Earth-TRN674, while ‘Iron Fist’ – on Earth-199999. I have no life, (but this week, and especially the weekend still suck). Of course, it would make a cool crossover, but we will have to wait for someone to write it, so for now, we have to watch ‘Iron Fist’, and wait for ‘The Gifted’ S2, and also – for ‘Daredevil’ S3, which is also in the works. Unlike ‘Iron Fist’, ‘Daredevil’ so far takes places only in NYC, so for now, ‘The Defenders’ focus will be shifting back to NYC, leaving the rest of the world for the Avengers or whoever.

Yes, it does not appear that Thanos’ cosmic snap has affected the Netflix corner of MCU, (and as it was hinted at ‘C&D’ S1 finale, ‘Rands’ & ‘Starks’ share the universe – and Roxxon, and ‘C&D’ are also a part of that universe. However, some kinks are still needed to be worked out – so good luck with that.

This is it for now, see you all soon.

Cats & whales - Sep 7

…Recently, on YouTube, I came across a video discussion about ‘big cats’ vs. ‘little cats’, and how those terms are confusing. Here are my two cents about them.

Firstly, these terms are not scientific, but more of lay. In reality, you can describe all animals, including wild cat species, as either ‘big’ or ‘little’, but from taxonomy’s point of view, most of the big cats belong to the genus Panthera, or – the roaring cats, (because they can roar). Currently, this genus consists of the lion, the tiger, the leopard, the jaguar, and – the snow leopard, (or ounce). The clouded leopard, (well, leopards – there are two species of them), belongs to the sister group of the Panthera cats, Neofelis, and together, the two genera compose the Pantherinae subfamily of the cat family.

So far so good, it can also be added that the ounce, while it is more often called the snow leopard, is much more closely related to the tiger, while the scientists are not currently sure, just who is more closely related to the lion – the jaguar or the leopard. The tiger and the ounce are the closest relatives of each other among the roaring cats though, even though the ounce really does look more like a leopard, which is why it is much more commonly called the snow leopard. What next?

The other ‘big cats’ of the modern world are usually the cheetah and the puma, (also cougar, mountain lion, catamount, panther, etc.). They are a part of the Felinae family, aka the non-roaring cats, which contains all of the cats that do not belong to the Panthera and Neofelis genera. Usually, the scientists call the cheetah and the puma ‘the Puma lineage’, which consists of the cheetah, the puma, and the jaguarundi, which looks nothing like a jaguar. Really, this small-headed, short-legged, long-bodied wildcat looks more like a weasel of some sort, not a cat. It lives in Central and South America, eating various small animals – rodents, birds, small reptiles, arthropods. They even eat some plants too. It is much smaller than the cheetah and the puma are, but then again, the cheetah is not really big, it is merely tall, as is the giraffe. I.e., the giraffe is tall, the elephant is big, (look at the two side by side to see the difference), the cheetah is also tall, while the lion is also big. This is different.

The cougar, (or the puma), on the other hand, is genuinely large, about the same size as the leopard, (or the smaller jaguars) is, and is built like a leopard too. As such, it is truly is a big cat size-wise, but on the other hand? It cannot roar. The jaguar can, and so can the leopard, but both the cheetah and the puma cannot, just as their cousin the jaguarundi cannot. As such, they are ‘little cats’, even though there is nothing little about them, particularly the puma, but from taxonomic point of view, they are. Period.

Hence lies the root of confusion between ‘big’ and ‘little’ cats: the scientific and non-scientific terms do not fully match. The wild cats are not unique with this problem; other animals have it too – the whales, for example.

Just like ‘big’ and ‘little cats’, ‘whale’ isn’t exactly a scientific term; science divides the cetaceans into two parvorders: the Mysticeti, or the baleen whales, and the Odontoceti, or the toothed whales. …There’s also the Archaeoceti, but all of those mammals have died out, (or not, and instead they are the truth behind the sea serpent myth as some cryptozoologists exclaim, but until a genuine sea serpent is captured and studied, they are still considered mythical, and the Archaeoceti – extinct).

Anyhow, most of the cetaceans known as ‘whales’ belong to the Mysticeti, the baleen whales; the Odontoceti or the toothed whales have proportionally far fewer ‘whales’ among their number, as opposed to ‘dolphins’, ‘porpoises’ or ‘blackfish’, and only the biggest of them all – the sperm whale – is usually treated as a ‘proper’ whale in non-scientific terms. Everyone else is usually considered ‘something else’; that is especially ironic since the sperm whale’s closest official relatives, the so-called dwarf sperm whale and the pygmy sperm whale, are among the smallest members of the cetacean clade. Sadly, they are also among the most obscure, shy, retiring and least studied members of the clade too, so we’ll talk about them some other time instead…

…And that is that for this talk; see you all soon!

MCU, Pathfinder, & d20 - Sep 6

…With all the Marvel-related excitement surrounding the return of the ‘Iron Fist’ Netflix series, we decides to watch ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ movie as well, and-

And nothing, or rather – something. The movie certainly calls out Hydra as being the Nazis’ scientific branch or a part of it, but something like that. This means that the fraction of the Marvel fans who claimed that Hydra was Nazi was more in the right than the one who claimed that it wasn’t, it was just evil (and maybe fascist as well), but-

But frankly, the entire CA: TFA film has a notable undercurrent of pulp fiction in it, where the brave heroes would go forth and smite the evil Nazis with some good old-fashioned fisticuffs and similar things. Please excuse me, but how does that fit with historical accuracy? Once I read a love novel online where Menelaus, (from the Iliad, husband of Helen) fell in love with Miriam, the sister of Moses, and things derived from historical (literary, but still) accuracy very quickly. MCU and the rest of the Marvel franchise amount to the same thing. They didn’t exactly care about historical accuracy, they went for the Nazis because they were convenient (and because the original Captain America comic was something of a pro-USA propaganda piece), and then-

And then, or rather – now, the social situation changed, both abroad and in the US, and the old values do not quite match with the new ones anymore. Plenty of people thought that while Hydra was evil, it was not Nazi, and if MCU itself said that it was, then who cared? Not enough people, that is who, and they were right. If you are going for fiction, then do not be surprised if fan fiction – the fiction of your fans – goes in a different direction, especially if the canon became established well-enough for a sufficient number of people not to care anymore. Canon can be reinforced, but not on fan fiction level, as the ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ play showed: Hermione became an Afro-Brit, plenty of people were angry at that, Rowling defended this transformation firmly enough…and that’s it. HPCC was not a flop as the rebooted ‘Ghostbusters’ were, for comparison, but only because the actors’ acting was that good; these days, HP transformed into Fantastic Beasts/FB, and in the first movie? Almost all of the main characters were Anglo-American, or at least – of a European, rather than of Asian or African descent; only the president of the MACUSA was Afro-American…can we say ‘token character’ here? And yet no one made a stink about it, and so far, most of the main characters in the upcoming second FB film also appear to be Anglo-American too. J. Ro can be politically correct, but if it does not bring enough dividends, she does not have to be, it seems. (Kind of like Rick Riordan and his novels, remember?)

Where were we? Right, MCU and Hydra and pulp fiction. Also – Disney. With SW, Disney began to alienate the old fan base, purposefully or otherwise, by rebooting the SW universe entirely, and retiring everything else into the ‘Star Wars: Legends’ reservation. As a result…well, we have talked about the current result of that approach; in the Marvel merger, Disney seemed to have done something different. In the CA: CW movie, which we discussed in the past, MCU declared that Hydra was gone, (and made Zemo not part of it, but rather an independent agent), but then there was AoS…

Let us check the facts: in CA: CW film, Hydra is supposed to be gone; in AoS S3 Hydra was supposed to be defeated at last via the cooperation of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the US forces, represented by Glenn Talbot; and in AoS S5 Hydra was shown to be doing just fine and going strong and while S.H.I.E.L.D. did set it back, it mostly had to deal with various aliens and Talbot, who became the local Graviton instead, (a super-villain). So is Hydra gone or not? Apparently not, it seems.

Where does it leave MCU? Looking stupid, as apparently Captain America and co. don’t know what they are talking about; actually, in A: IW film, Red Skull is back, so Hydra may be returning to the Marvel movies again for real, and-

And this is more like J Ro, who plays fast and loose with canon; it isn’t alienation, as Disney did with the SW fan base, (and for no good reason), it’s more like… fracturing and factionism. The Marvel fan base is arguing – whether Hydra is Nazi or just evil; whether Grant Ward was evil or not; whether Cap or Tony – and Disney/Marvel is not reining them in; in fact, it seemed to encourage the Cap vs. Tony debate as CA: CW movie was coming out, and now…

Yes, MCU does not really have any tools for reining fans it and probably it did not want to; yes, this is still better than the straightforward alienation of Disney/SW, but still, considering the online debates, arguments and fights regarding the MCU topics, they still earn a cringe. The fracturing did not do any favors for AoS, (or AC), as its’ numbers have sunk. Odds are, the upcoming 2019 AoS S6 will be something of a reboot with an updated cast…and a new plotline; plus, with only 13 episodes as opposed to 22, AoS will have to change, as the old strategies won’t work so well anymore. Even back in S4, some of the AoS resolutions felt rushed, and that was actually a good season…

Anything else? Well, on the subject of Nazis and pulp fiction…we are probably getting back into the d20 Modern campaigns. Yes, Pathfinder doesn’t seem to be abandoning its’ old layout straightaway as the new ‘Runelords’ campaign path seems to indicate, but we aren’t so excited about it either; the first Pathfinder adventure path that we did play was the ‘Shattered Star’ one, and it was also heavily connected to the Runelords; did we enjoy it? Sort of, but not enough, to go back to the beginning. Therefore, rather, we are probably going to go down the d20 Modern path, because while D&D 3.5 is similar to Pathfinder in the layout, d20 Modern is similar in approach.

Let us elaborate. From the ‘Complete Warrior’ onwards, D&D 3.5 invested very heavily into various prestige classes – the ronin, the beast lord, the blightlord, the ashworm dragoon and so on. By contrast, Pathfinder was much more restrained with its’ prestige classes, which gave new, different options to the base classes (aka the barbarian, the rogue, the fighter, etc.), which otherwise were quite straightforward, (though yes, different feats, spells, domain powers and so on did give them differences). Later on, in ‘Unearthed Arcana’, D&D 3.5 tried to give variant abilities to the base classes instead – and in Pathfinder, we have the archetypes, that gave different abilities to the base classes, while d20 modern we have the so-called talent trees that give the base heroes various talents, allowing the players to create very different PCs following the same guidelines. In place of prestige classes, d20 Modern had advanced classes, which were more tailored to various base classes than D&D 3.5 prestige classes did. And while, yes, they were also different from what Pathfinder did, d20 Modern featured such prestige classes as the musketeer, the mesmerist, the spiritualist and so on – classes that we also encounter in the Pathfinder.

That is not to say that Pathfinder is truly similar to d20 Modern – it has plenty of differences too, but still, the family relationship is visible. So yeah, for now we may be making our own adventures in the d20 Modern world, but who knows…

This is it for now; see you all soon!