FH: Hitokiri - April 27

Let us talk, for a change, about FH, and its’ newest character – Hitokiri. Supposedly, this name/title means ‘executioner’, but even minimal research reveals that rather it means – if translated directly from Japanese – ‘manslayer’ or ‘mancutter’, because of the subtleties of Japanese language (and of Japanese to English translation). Okay. What is next?

So, the FH creative team designed Hitokiri to look like an executioner, or perhaps – THE Executioner from MCU; certainly, Hitokiri confers a similar feel to the MCU’s real life version from the ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ movie; why did the FH creative team decide to make him a Samurai than anything else is another question: there’s nothing inherently Japanese, or even Oriental, about executioners. Yes, they were going for an anti-hero here, just as how they did with Vortiger/Black Prior for the knights, but if with Black Prior that made him/her almost into a specific person, (reminiscent of Apollyon, remember her?), with Hitokiri they went rather the other way and made him/her almost oblique and personality-less. Maybe that was supposed to be intended, but it is still weird.

Now, in regards to the weapon – what is it? It is an ono, a Japanese version of axe or hatchet. Unlike the Vikings’ Dane axe and battle-axe, FH’s ono has two sides; in reality, there had been only one. It was used as a weapon of war, but also for other purposes; in fact, it was only rarely that the Japanese used their axes for war. Usually, it were not the samurai proper who used them, but rather the sohei – warrior-monks, or the yamabushi, (mountain hermits). Does Hitokiri look like a Japanese warrior-monk? I honestly cannot say – in FH, appearances and themes usually did not go past the external aesthetics, for it is the sort of a game where everyone tries to kill everyone else, (or at least – everyone else who is not on their team), so anything past appearances is superfluous.

Getting back to weapons, let us get back to Black Prior. As we have discussed him, he was armed with a sword and a kite shield, and we talked primarily about the shield, letting the sword go, since it looked like a one-handed version of Warden’s sword. Apparently, some people claim that it is different. Warden’s sword is a longsword – a typical knightly sword with a straight double-edge blade and a cross-shaped hilt, built to be gripped and used by both hands, whereas Black Prior’s sword is a broadsword, also known as a basket-hilted sword, because its’ hilt was usually shaped like a basket of some sort. It was a military sword, unlike the rapier, which was used more often in civil duels instead, and was invented later than the longsword did, in the Late Modern period, as opposed to the Post-Classical one. Seriously, the precision of some people is overwhelming.

Back to Hitokiri? Honestly – no; so far, Ubisoft deemed that we should know only little about their backstory – a glorified executioner of some sort. Seriously, this is what FH is coming to? Its’ creativity team could use some work, I am thinking.

…This is it for now – see you all soon!

C&D, 'Alignment Chart' - April 25

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. True, the young striped skunk that I came across earlier this week might disagree – when I found it, it was dead, and judging by the snarling expression on the corpse’s muzzle, it had not been a happy death either. Of course, while it probably came from natural causes, it possibly was not the obvious natural cause: while our park has coyotes and red foxes, as well as some semi-feral cats and dogs, none of them will willingly go for a skunk; only the great horned owl does, and I wouldn’t put anything against the northern goshawk either, but there was never any evidence of them living in our park; and the red-tailed and the sharp-shinned hawks that do live there aren’t interested in skunks, even young ones. I’m leaning towards the theory were the skunk youngster perished in one of the recent rainstorms – they can be very bad, and our park gets semi-flooded regularly, and skunks aren’t good swimmers… so there. There are plenty of big holes in this theory too, the main one being that I found the dead animal on the ‘high ground’, which does not get flooded, actually, but still. The skunk is dead, and I am not, not yet, so let us count our blessings and move on to C&D.

This week’s episode, ‘Alignment Chart’, brought…a real life message aimed against human trafficking, which is one of the main elements of C&D S2: Tandy has been taking them on with help of Tyrone and Mayhem, but this time she went alone, and got captured, after her new friend – Mikayla or someone like that – tazed her in the back. Ouch. MCU – and C&D is recognized as a part of it, unlike, say, ‘The Gifted’ - does love a good betrayal. Next week, it seems, Tandy will be for even tougher times, but Tyrone will help.

…Yes, this is the stable of C&D – Ty and Dy are inseparable, metaphorically speaking. On their own, individually, they are defeated easily enough, together – not so much. The Runaways managed it, sort of, in the comics, but these days both them and Ty & Dy are having their own reboots in the comics, going in two very different directions with two very different depictions. The Runaways – in the comics – are trying to get their old gang together, but keep ending up with a new one, featuring new people, such as the Doombot, (a robotic rogue version of Dr. Doom), while Ty and Dy have already gotten together and are established heroes, while the Runaways are move of Avenger-Ish these days.

Back to the TV version of C&D? Unlike ‘Runaways’, it takes less liberty with its’ script, regarding TV vs. comic-verse, but again, it is less exuberant than the ‘Runaways’ are. Not unlike AC in the past, C&D works with a small, tight cast with a small, tight budget, so – no showy special effects as they are in the ‘Runaways’, ‘the Gifted’, and especially AoS. Did people notice that there were no AoS representatives at the red carpet premiere of ‘Endgame’? They were at CM, but at ‘Endgame’? No. Guess now that they were brought back into the fold, (hopefully), they are not interesting anymore. Of course, I, for one, will try to watch them once they come back in May 2019, but real life being what it is, I make no guarantees.

Back in C&D, Brigid seemed to have gotten some of her mojo back, Tyrone hadn’t killed Connors, (who seems to be genuinely repenting for now), and C&D in general tries to compensate for the lack of showy special effects by having plenty of non-showy ones. Since its’ numbers in S2 remain low, it does not seem to be working. Of course, the fact that it is a YA adventure/drama may have something to do with that – not everyone likes MCU’s take on it, especially with AoS still running around and not down for the count. Pity, because C&D is enjoyable to watch, with just enough sci-fi/supernatural elements, (Ty seems to be using voodoo to find Connors’, for example), to make it different from most police/detective adventure/drama TV shows as well as the other MCU shows, including ‘Runaways’, so there!

…This is it, for now. See you all soon!

C&D, 'Rabbit Hole' - April 18

This week. Real life sucks. It sucks for many reasons, including, sometimes, your own stupidity and, maybe, arrogance. Sometimes you just fuck up your own life yourself, and if you are lucky? You are lucky and there is not fall-out to bury you, (which it could, otherwise). Needless to say, I hate my life, and I hate other people, and I also hate myself – and then, some day, (like today), you get to see some birds, a duck in a puddle that it just deep enough to drown a sparrow, (maybe), a couple of adventurous cottontail rabbits, an American toad, (that is what the species is called), and you realize that sometimes life isn’t so bad, and you aren’t desperate enough to do something truly desperate yet – so let’s move on to C&D.

In this week’s episode, ‘Rabbit Hole’, we…get a pun, sort of. On one hand, Ty leads his mother to one of his hideouts, aka a rabbit hole, (while spouting a bunch of New Orleans’ historical facts in the process), while Dy goes down a more metaphorical rabbit hole, (think ‘Alice in Wonderland’ the original novel), going after Mayhem – and Connors. The man is alive, rather insane, and Dy gets to save him from Mayhem, while experiencing flashbacks from her childhood, (and yes, she and Ty are just young adults, but still). Fun!

…On the other hand, Ty has to outrun police and gangsters, while taking care of his mother, so he is not bored either. The gun-wielding shmuck that we have seen in the last week’s promo? He is the most pitiful gangster that I have ever seen, and the least intimidating one. True, more kudos to C&D for depicting oodles of real-life stereotypes, (yes, that is an oxymoron, but still), but …

…The truth is, is that the actors are one of C&D’s strongest assets. So’s the plot, of course – so far C&D is unique and apart from AC, AoS, ‘Runaways’ and even the Netflix crowd, (which is gone, but still), but it’s the actors who carry it forth and make it convincing…with minimum special effects, as opposed to the later seasons of AoS, cough. The sad thing is, C&D’s numbers are low, and that is sad, because it is a great and enjoyable TV series, especially in the current season. Of course, so was AC, and it is cancelled, but still. C&D is still going forward, still enjoyable, and Ty & Dy, in particular, have a strong fan support, but…

…It is also true that it is still largely detached from the greater MCU, even moreso than ‘Runaways’ are, (in my opinion). AC was an extension of AoS and MCU, so fans trickled down to it, no problem. C&D does not have this advantage and has to make it on its’ own. Sadly, the greater fandom does not seem to be obliging – so far, they are more interested in GoT, and, well, MCU. Since the former is in its’ final season, (and it is living to its’ hype), and the latter has ‘Endgame’ the movie coming forth, this understandable; sad, but understandable. Anything else?

…Actually, no. C&D is a fun show to watch, but it is uninspiring, unlike, well, AoS, for example, or ‘Blindspot’, (especially the first seasons). This is its’ flaw, and it’s a big one, and C&D is unable to deal with it, at least not yet – but this is a topic for another discussion.

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

C&D, 'Shadow Selves ' - April 11

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Now onto the main event.

We are back. We could not talk about the opening two episodes of C&D S2, so what about this one ‘Shadow Selves’? It is focused primarily on detective Mayhem or, more correctly, on her two halves – the detective and Mayhem. The former is a goody-two-shoes. The latter is a variant Jessica Jones, who herself is a variant Faith the Vampire Slayer from BtVS, as we have talked earlier. Together, the two make a very convincing Ying-Yang metaphor, which is, as people know, two halves of a whole, light and dark. Not surprisingly, C&D corner of MCU deals a lot with this imagery, (and keep in mind, that the halves have dots of contrasting color, to point out that even villains can be redeemed, and heroes – corrupted. Cough, AoS, cough). Also not surprisingly, many of C&D villains have something similar going on, especially with light and dark. We are talking, of course, about the ‘rebooted’ C&D comics. In ‘Shades of Grey’ story arc, Ty and Dy had to deal with their former friend, Grey, who became some sort of a variant vampire with vaguely Killgrave (from Netflix JJ) powers. In ‘Negative Exposure’, they had to deal with a much more better known and established villain – Mr. Negative, who had made a deal with some sort of a Lovecraftian Old One, and helped him to try destroying the world in exchange for Dy. To complicate things, Ty and Dy were on outs in both of those arcs, and got together only at the end of NE. Yay!

By contrast, in the TV series, Ty and Dy are not together yet, (though they already have amazing chemistry together). They have grown more powerful and skilled in mastering their powers, and they need them to manage Mayhem. They do not do a very good job, and ‘Shadow Selves’ introduces (sort of) a further complication – a sex-trafficking ring that C&D should handle, because they are something of New Orleans vigilantes. If they do not, Mayhem will, and Ty, at least, is not happy about her take on things. Yes, Ty and Dy are beginning to squabble, (sort of), but it is either them or having them make out like a pair of horny teens – and if they do that, a lot of fanfic authors will be out of jobs. Metaphorical jobs, but still.

Speaking of jobs, father Delgado was fired – he was shown fired in ‘Shadow Selves’ – and is now a street preacher. Again, he is shown being mostly behind the scenes, but he is playing an important role, as do Ty’s parents, as do his streetwise friends, cough – one of them is in the sex-trafficking ring, and it’s up to Ty, (maybe with Dy’s help), to save him. Maybe. If he wants to be saved, that is. Between his own evil self, Mayhem’s take on things, (her better half still needs to regrow her lost backbone, it seems), and everything else…yes, the survival of Ty’s friend is not very high.

In the background, we got the police investigation into Connor’s disappearance; in the foreground – Dy’s possible corruption by Mayhem and her attitude/take on things…mainly crime. Fun. C&D S2 is shaping to be very interested…and very different from the mainline MCU. There is no mention of the Avengers, or the dusting, for example. Ah well, as we’ve seen from C&D S1 finale, they’re there, maybe the snap has just missed them, or something. It is still going to be a very interesting S2. Hopefully, we will be around to see it too.

…This is it for now – see you all soon!