Loki, 1893 - Oct 20

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Therefore, let us talk about the ‘Loki’ S2 instead. In this week’s episode, ’1893’, it seems that the S2 has found its’ wings at last. This episode worked.

No, really, it did. It kept alongside the main plotline of S2, and this time it even introduced the season’s main (?) antagonist – Victor Timely, yet another Kang variant that has fallen by the wayside of the council of Kangs. No, indeed – Victor, HWR, and the Kang from ‘Quantumania’ were three very different characters, but they were all Kangs, and outsider Kangs at that, it seems. Given how the show does not appear to be entirely done with HWR either, this can get interesting!

…The fact that Renslayer/Rebecca has teamed-up with Miss Minutes is also unexpected, since at the end of S1 the former has left – just left, and the latter did not appear to be too interested in working with anyone, so when exactly did they team-up? Of course, it might be an entirely different Renslayer/Rebecca from S1, as Victor is an entirely different Kang from HWR, but, still, Miss Minutes doesn’t appear to have too many variants, and-

-and ‘1893’ shows a break in the narrative from the first two episodes, as unlike them, Loki and Mobius actually get to go out of TVA, and not deal with its’ internal arcana, (I don’t care if it’s an appropriate term here, I’m using it), but rather with an external issue, (Victor Timely and everyone else who’s chasing him), and it is a variant timeline altogether, so score one for ‘Loki’ S2 here!

No, seriously, this is what ‘Loki’ is supposed to be all about – the Marvel multiverse! The titular character and his cohorts are gone out there and fix problems all over it! In addition, indeed, they did do something similar in S1…except that a Kang, the HWR one, had hijacked the agency and (in a different way) the show, making it all about him vs. Loki. Here, in S2, we have more variety, as general Dox, (who was the main antagonist in ‘Breaking Brad’), hasn’t gone away, but is rather biding time to continue destroying the multiverse, and right now Loki, Mobius, and the rest of their allies need to handle both her and VT, so another score for ‘Loki’ S2 – a more complex plot than the S1 one again!

…I’m also aware that since the real life sucks, some of the elements of the ‘Loki’ S2 plot will not go down well, given the new conflict in Middle East. But this isn’t Disney/MCU’s fault, for a change, (I hope not), so let’s cut them a break and hope that they won’t leave us hanging in the air just as ‘Loki’ S2 is beginning to get good with action and excitement balancing out all the lore and the knowledge (and the time loom). Given that it is Disney/MCU – who knows?

…In other news, the ‘PJ Masks’ franchise has released a new big bad – a reptiloid alien named Gloop and his minions. Sigh. So what? Yes, the showrunners are trying to make him a big deal, but these days the ‘PJ Masks’ franchise isn’t a big deal, so that’s the end of that… though it should be noted that Gloop seems to be falling in the previously-established ‘official new character’ category, one where he won’t just fade away, but rather continue on, meeting the rest of the established cast until the end of the season, after which either the next new character will come around, or the show itself might end, you know? So much for the ‘PJ Masks’ ‘upgrade’, it looks like! Anything else?

In fact – no. Rather, this is it for now, see you all soon!

 

Loki, Breaking Brad - Octo 15

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Now what about ‘Loki’?

Good question. In the second episode of the second season, (‘Breaking Brad’), we have general Dox, (played by Kate Dickie, apparently), destroy a large part of the multiverse. Pause.

Here’s the thing: we never saw this character in the first season off ‘Loki’, so they’re brand new, which is good, but they also may be the villain of the season, nothing more, the overall villain is Kang, or Kangs, but…

…But without the multiverse, can there be multiple Kangs? The ‘Quantumania’ movie established that the latter is true, but, again, this was before Dox destroyed a large part of the Multiverse, correct? If not, can we have some time framing here, please? In the first three-four phases of MCU, we had a good timeline where each portion of each phase goes, and how it correlates with each other; in phase 5, (ok, from the end of the phase 4 onwards), this is no longer the case. Instead, we got nothing, save for a question: what – literally – has happened to the Multiverse? Is it gone or not?

Obviously, the answer to the question has some large ripples and connotations as well: if the Multiverse is destroyed, (being destroyed), in ‘Loki’, does it mean that it is being destroyed for the rest of the MCU? And if so, was it sanctioned by Disney and the rest of the RL jazz?

No, seriously, ever since it was launched in the first season of ‘Loki’, the Multiverse was nothing but trouble in MCU. The 1^st season of ‘What If?’ went down well enough, but nothing fancy, and in its’ live-action incarnations the Multiverse was nothing but trouble. As the ‘Sequel Trilogy’ of the SW-franchise showed, Disney and its’ affiliates do not need to be too gentle to reboot themselves, and this may be what is happening here and now in MCU: the Multiverse is on its’ way out!

Speaking of SW, here is a theory as to what is going on over there: the Disney/SW franchise are quietly using its’ various films, comics, and especially TV series, to bridge the gap between the original trilogy (the 4^th-6^th movies) and the sequel trilogy (the 7^th-9^th movies). Since most people did not like the sequel trilogy, they are becoming unamused/disillusioned by Disney/SW’s current tactics and are beginning to be vocal about it. What next?

Anyone’s guess. Disney/SW’s original handling of the sequel trilogy broke the SW fandom, as we have discussed it way back when, and since then Disney/SW has done its’ best to undo this breaking, because it harms the entire franchise. However… First, you cannot please everyone, and second, the original issues – the original reasons as to why some people did not like the sequel trilogy – have never left. Disney/SW is trying to just re-sell it in a different package/wrapping, nothing more, and people are not fooled. They are not fooled and they are getting angry – and what the fallout will be this time, remains to be seen…

Back to Disney/MCU? There is not much remains to be said. Unlike the situation with SW, here things are less obvious: it has healed its’ rifts regarding AoS, (by removing it completely from itself), as well as the captain Rogers/Tony Stark rivalry, (ditto). Sadly, since ‘Kamala Khan’, the MCU branch of Disney is trying to reimagine itself for no good reason, and as a result, it suffers… without any obvious reason. The fallout from that has already manifested itself in SI; ‘Loki’ S2 so far is avoiding this fate, but this does not guarantee that it will be a smashing success either; more time – and data – is needed to make this judgement…

This is it for now. See you all soon!

GotG Vol 3 - May 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and I apologize for my tardiness. Now let us talk about the GotG, Vol 3. What is it?

A really great film, to put it down concisely. Without getting into details too much, let us point out as to what is absent from GotG Vol 3 – multiverse and Kangs.

No, seriously, let us try again. Throughout the GotG series, aside from the Christmas special that titular characters went from challenge to challenge, growing and developing as a team/family from film to film, including the ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’ movies – only not, as some of them were dusted by Thanos… and Gamora died in a non-reversible way – and got replaced by an earlier copy of herself, who acted quite differently from the previous incarnations. So what?

Therefore, compared to the previous Marvel film, ‘Quantumania’, GotG Vol 3 is more toned down out of the two, it is more restrained, and the stakes for the cast and crew – not the characters – are higher. Put otherwise, the former put a better performance than their counterparts in ‘Quantumania’ did. What next?

Next, the movie is more restrained, by Disney/MCU standards. ‘Quantumania’ is supposed to be a leap into the multiverse. Sadly, Disney/MCU hasn’t gotten the hang of the multiverse so far; the best take on it is ‘Loki’, and so far the info about its’ upcoming second season is kept close to the chest: apparently, Disney/MCU is aware that they haven’t figured out as to how to play the multiverse card correctly, and ‘Quantumania’ was supposed to be a test run. Like a test run into something new, it was not a smashing success, even if Elon Musk’s went worse, but that is real life for you – it sucks.

Back to Disney/MCU the fact that the titular characters disband at the end of the film, marking something of an end for the group. This is important, for everything has to end, for otherwise it risks overstaying its’ welcome. Now, this is something that has been harped about in regards to Disney/MCU for a while now, so some elaboration is in order. Let us begin.

Firstly, nothing is set in stone, and as long as MCU continues to make money for Disney, it will continue to run. However, the overall reputation of Disney/MCU will continue to suffer and what will come out of that is another question. Of course, this means that the voices of Disney/MCU’s critics will continue to sound, but by themselves, they are nowhere near enough to end the MCU, for they matter less than they like to. In the elections of 2016, the American mass media did its’ best to ensure that Hillary Clinton would win – and she did not. Since then, the American mass media wasn’t the same, and neither is the rest of the American society – but the Donald is still neither arrested nor affected overmuch; he may’ve lost the election-2020, but he’s still kicking, and the Democrats are trying to stop him from running for the election of 2024, and are mismanaging that strategy…badly, but that is another story.

Back to GotG Vol 3, they have actually ended and kudos to them for this. Disney tends to make its’ series a trilogy, and GotG confirms to this… unlike the Ant-Man franchise, whose third film, ‘Quantumania’, feels more like a beginning instead – but it also leaves the ant-family high and dry. That is a cheap shot, it is, and even Disney (and MCU) admit it… somewhat.

Ah yes, the villain issue of Disney/MCU. Until ‘Quantumania’, the villains of this franchise came and went in a range of a single film – normally. There were exceptions. Thanos was one, obviously. The characters in AoS were another, but AoS itself is buried deeper by Disney/MCU than Thanos is, but where it does leave Kang?

Pretty much in the same place as the rest of the villains, save that now there is a multiverse – as in a nearly limitless supply of Kangs. Now when one Kang dies, another can replace him with little effort, and that is it. It is the same old story, just cheapened even more, since death of any Kang will be almost meaningless on one hand, and on the other, the rest of the villains are now redundant as there’s probably always a Kang who can do their job just as well.

To expand – ‘Quantumania’ differs from Vol 3 is that it has a hero, who was left high and dry, as with ‘Quantumania’ over, there’s no indication as to where the Ant-Man and the rest of his family will go, (i.e. they are all left hanging), and on the other hand, it has a villain that had no meaning in the greater structure of Disney/MCU, no matter how much the latter tried to up-play the multiverse. Sad, but GotG Vol 3 did not have these issues, which is why people like it much better than they had ‘Quantumania’, and that is that.

This is also the end for now. See you all soon!

Ant-Man 3 - Feb 7

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us move onto the ‘Quantumania’ movie instead.

…Then again, things do not appear to be improving, as the reviews of it are mixed, almost as bad as the ‘Eternals’ movie had been. However…

…However, whereas the latter was an experiment of Disney/MCU in movie genres, ‘Ant-Man 3’ is a standard slash typical Marvel film; actually, it is a standard superhero film.

Work with me, here how ‘Ant-Man 3’ goes. The hero is a hero. They become complacent and too comfortable in their heroism. A villain comes along and gets the best of the hero via their complacency. The hero has to work twice as hard now to succeed, (because they have no other choice, duh). They succeed and the villain dies. The end. Pause.

Now, if that sort of scenario sounds familiar, that is because it is. For examples, both the second ‘Puss’ film and one of the final episodes of ‘PJ Masks’ S7 (I think, how many seasons does the effing series have?), have similar scripts, with the main difference from ‘Ant-Man 3’ being that the villains, (not all the villains), don’t die there.

Now, Tom Holland’s 3^rd ‘Spider-Man’ film, (‘No Way Home’), has the same thing – the Spider-Trio actually manage to redeem/cure, (in a manner of speaking, but still), their villains, while ‘Ant-Man 3’ doesn’t.

…Oh, wait, there is the new M.O.D.O.K., aka the old Darren Cross/Yellowjacket, who got revived and remade by Kang – and who turned on him; wait, evil always turns upon itself. Never mind. At least the now-cancelled M.O.D.O.K. of team Hulu had been authentically original and entertaining – that is probably why it got cancelled.

On a more serious note, though is MCU’s multiverse. So far, the only real successful Marvel movie/other creation that had involved the multiverse was the aforementioned ‘No Way Home’, as it actually showed it in action – and it worked. Everything else, though – not so much. ‘What if?’ S1 was really a variant Avengers series without anything truly new, (but with plenty window dressing), while the ‘DS2’ film was a live-action version of one of the ‘What if?’ plotlines, and this brings us to ‘Ant-Man 3’.

‘Ant-Man 3’, again, does not bring anything new to MCU: the plotline is typical of the other MCU movies, except for the fact that if previously team MCU killed-off its’ villains in every film and so forth, quickly running out of them… now it can do the same, just with the confirmation that it can also – when it wants to, or needs to – pull out a new Kang/Scarlet Witch/Thanos/Ultron/etc. out of the multiverse, since it has done this to Kang two times in a row now, and neither Kang was the actual Kang, apparently. Fancy that!

As for MCU Phase 5, in general… listen. MCU’s Phase 4 was about transitions, and we have talked about that at length. Contrastingly, ‘Ant-Man 3’ didn’t have too many transitions; what it had were resolutions, something that the first phases of MCU were, and are, well known for; whatever MCU was doing, and was going for, in its’ Phase 4, appears to be over, and what we are left with?

Same old that we had before Phase 4, it seems. Phase 4 of MCU actually experimented with different genres, sometimes successfully – i.e. ‘Spider Man: No Way Home’, and sometimes not – i.e. ‘The Eternals’ – but experiment it did. Now, it seems time for cinematographic experiments is over, and MCU returned to where it had started, with tried and tested true, old-school, done by the book, works. The details might be different, but the underlined idea is the same… save that now MCU can access the multiverse, bringing the same villain in different incarnations over and over again, diminishing itself, and the success of its’ heroes, even further than compared to the level that the ‘Kamala Khan’ and ‘She-Hulk’ series have brought MCU to – and that might be part of the reason as to why Mr. Feige seems to be cutting down on the number of MCU TV series since MCU’s Phase 4 – but that is another story.

As for ‘Ant-Man 3’… it is an entertaining movie, but little more; once you look past all the sound, the color and the furious noise, this film doesn’t appear to be living up to the hype that it’d generated, and the critics have realised it, hence why they appear to hate it… at least some of them have. Guess we will just have to wait and see as to what MCU will do next.

For now, though, this is it. 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.