Thunderbolts - May 3

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In part, it might be my doing – but I never denied it – so now let us talk about the new ‘Thunderbolts’ film instead.

First, it works. It works, because it mostly keeps away from politics, whether RL or MCU, and talks about the titular characters dealing, and defeating, their inner darkness, while managing the conflict with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, or – ‘Don’t call me Val!’ Pause.

…Throughout SW, there was no mention of Val or the Thunderbolts, who are a bit of Marvel’s Suicide Squad, (run by DC instead). Moreover, the DCEU itself is being remade right now, so let us not talk about it, and get back to MCU and the ‘Thunderbolts’.

…Throughout SW, there was no mention of Val or the Thunderbolts, but now, in the post-SW MCU, there is no mention of the Skrulls, the She-Hulk, or the Marvels; MCU is pretending that all of the above haven’t existed, and the CA: BNA movie, the D: BA TV series, and now – the ‘Thunderbolts’ film confirm it; there’s a distinct feeling of ‘in with the new’ with all of them. Even the titular team is named not after the general ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, aka the Red Hulk, but after some obscure piece of MCU in-verse trivia instead. Fun!

MCU’s Taskmaster/Taskmistress is dead – a pity – and there is no mention of Kate, even though she and Yelena had plenty of chemistry in ‘Hawkeye’. However, the market (and the political climate) directs, and with 4 years of a Republican president in charge of the U.S., Disney and its’ branches, including MCU, are changing. We have discussed it, when we talked about AAA, so let us not repeat ourselves. Anything else?

The special effects were impressive, another one of MCU characters that vanished was Rick Jones or whoever, who helped Natasha in her ‘Black Widow’ film; ah well. ScarJo is going to appear in the next JP reboot now, and it makes the ‘Black Widow’ film appear like a classical masterpiece. What else?

…Everett Ross, who appeared in both ‘Black Panther’ films, was also killed off in the SW; since he was ‘Don’t call me Val!’ ex-husband, this is somewhat important. Only not, since Val is flirting (sort of) with the Red Guardian (Alexei) already. Well, since the Thunderbolts (the characters) are forming some sort of a crazy family, (minus the dead Antonia), this is to be expected. Whether or not this will amount to anything is another story; for all we know, in the next film there will be no mention of the Thunderbolts’ team… just as there was no mention of Sam in the ‘Thunderbolts’ movie, not really, making Bucky’s appearance in CA: BNW kind of strange and unbalanced…

So, in conclusion: the ‘Thunderbolts’ work. They work as a movie, and in particular – as a standalone movie. However, Disney/MCU is a live action Marvel Comics Universe, which means that it all will be interconnected – in theory. In practice, as depicted by the now forgotten AoS, this might not be so. In AoS, the first 3 seasons were sufficiently tied, with ties to the greater MCU. From S4 onwards, however, this was not the case at all, and after the final, 6^th, or 7^th, season, no one is remembering AoS anymore; they didn’t even appear on the ‘What If?’ series, (aside from Coulson, who doesn’t quite count there). Put otherwise, quite regularly, MCU discards characters, plot lines, and more – there is no guarantee that the ‘Thunderbolts’ will be different.

This is it for now. See you all soon!

Jaws vs. Meg 2023 - June 18

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us have a flashback to the Shark Week 2023 instead. Now, there has been some consideration about the new SW: Acolyte series, but at the end of the day? It does not deserve the hate that it is getting… or does it?

From my point of view, the people who hate ‘Acolyte’ are the same people who hated the SW Sequel Trilogy, aka films 7-9, and who were handled by Disney/SW… however they were handled. Regardless, they weren’t vanquished; already by the time of the ‘Mandalorian’ S3, when Disney/SW were beginning to bring, well, the SW universe from the 6^th movie’s setting to the 7^th, the old criticisms were coming back. They stopped when the ‘Mandalorian’ ended, but apparently did not go away, as they resurfaced once more when the ‘Acolyte’ came out. Now what?

So far, Disney/SW franchise is not backing down from the TV show the same way they did with the 8^th and 9^th films. Back then, they fluctuated between total support and full reboot, and the result was a big setback, much bigger than any other Disney branches had to deal with. Since then, Disney/SW tried to retcon and circumvent its’ rebooted/redesigned universe, but with more mixed success than they would like, and ‘Acolyte’ is part of this mixed bag. What will Disney/SW do next, now that the ‘Acolyte’ is not being as successful/accepted as they expected it to be? It is anyone’s guess, of course, but hopefully they will be more consistent with their response than how they acted during the SW Sequel movie trilogy… Back into the real world?

No, ‘cause the reason I’m writing this entry is because I got to see the Shark Week special ‘Jaws vs. Meg’. In this special feature, people made a CGI battle between the great white shark and the Megalodon, with the latter winning, because of course it did. Pause.

Here is the thing. The reason as to why I was watching the special in the first place was because of nostalgia for AFO (Animal Face-off), as well as JFC (Jurassic Fight Club) and DW (Deadliest Warrior). In the first show, episodes ended with two RL CGI animals faced-off, in the second – we had prehistoric animals, and in the third, we had a live-action re-enactment of a quasi-historical battle – say, a Spartan vs. a ninja, or a Viking vs. a samurai. Here, in ‘Jaws vs. Meg’, we also have a CGI battle, both of a modern and of a prehistoric animals, well – fish. What next?

Well, for one thing, there was no doubt that this was the fight for the great white shark to lose. In nature, especially among the vertebrates, (the invertebrates are another story, admittedly – just watch Monster Bug Wars), size matters, and bigger and stronger beings triumph over their physical inferiors. Lions dominate over leopards, leopards – over cheetahs, wolves – over coyotes, coyotes – over foxes, and so on. The bigger and stronger Megalodon would dominate the great white shark during the time the two species coexisted, simply because while the great white shark could hurt it, the Megalodon could kill it far too easier than vice versa – as the special feature’s CGI confirmed. The Megalodon was able to take the punishment that the great white shark threw at it, and kill the latter with a single lucky strike. Overdramatized, maybe, but regardless, this would how it happen… what else?

Co-existing with the Megalodon caused the great white shark to become a specialist – it specializes it hunting seals, fur seals and sea lions, mostly in tropical and subtropical waters. It is more modernized than the Megalodon was, but it still prefers warm and tropical waters than temperate and colder ones. These days, with the global warming (or whatever it is called), the shark is moving north (and south?), including the shores of Eastern U.S. and Canada. What will come out of this, is yet unknown.

Back in the past, the great white shark had to stay closer to the shoreline, because in the open ocean the adult Megalodon lived and dominated – other sharks. However, there were also the cetaceans…

The cetaceans’ overall evolutionary history still hasn’t been completely resolved, but what matters here and now, is that during the Miocene and Pliocene, the baleen whales were smaller than their modern counterparts are, and more vulnerable to attack from such as carnivores as the Megalodon and the predatory prehistoric sperm whale cousins, (including the Livyatan). Just as the great white shark specialized in the pinnipeds – seals and their cousins that usually stay closer to the coast than in the open seas, so did the Megalodon specialize in the cetaceans, which preferred the open seas to the coastlines instead. The two species co-existed by specializing in different directions, and the Megalodon’s closer cousins, the mako sharks, specialized in yet a third – they aren’t as massive as the great white shark, but are faster and more maneuverable than it is. If the great white shark is a lion of the seas, then the mako sharks are the cheetahs instead. They would not outfight the Megalodon (or most other prehistoric predators), but outpace and outmaneuver them instead. The killer whales, for example, are known to attack great white sharks – successfully, too – but the mako sharks? Not so much. However, where do they fit in?

The main reason as to why the Megalodon is not around anymore, no matter what fan favorite theories proclaim. During the end of the Miocene and the first half of the Pliocene, the two Americas formed a single continent finally, and the world began to enter an Ice Age. The Megalodon (and many of its’ prey species) couldn’t handle the climate change and died out; also, in the Megalodon’s case, the disappearance of the warm shallow seas between the two American continents left its’ young vulnerable – well, more vulnerable, to predation from smaller sharks, including the great white and the hammerhead species. Megalodon vanished during the Pliocene and Pleistocene periods, and the smaller sharks flourished.

The same situation goes for the whales: the modern whales are giants, true, but they are specialists as well. The baleen whales feed on plankton, and many of their species spend their lives migrating between the two poles, following the seasons and the currents, to keep themselves fed, (and the global warming is throwing a wrench into this), while the biggest toothed whale, the sperm whale, is a deep sea hunter, feeding mostly on the big, giant, and colossal deep sea squid species. Its’ closest relatives, the two Kogia whales, are tiny by comparison, and little is known about them, so let us put them aside for the moment. The point here is that the time of easy living in the ocean has ended for now even before the humans evolved on planet Earth; compared to the Miocene, when the global oceans were full of small and medium-sized baleen whales, the modern ocean has only big baleen whales, or giant ones. Megalodon would be outmuscled in the modern ocean – but the great white shark would have nothing to do with that… Anything else?

The CGI battle of ‘Jaws vs. Meg’ could have used some tweaking and twerking, but this is splitting hairs; the point here is that it was an enjoyable TV program, while the ‘Acolyte’, for example, is much more forgettable.

Therefore, we will end the discussion for now - This is it. See you all soon!

X-Men 'Lifedeath 2' - April 17

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; it is raining all day long, so onto the X-Men ’97 episode of the week? In this case, we get to see more adventures with Storm/Ororo Munroe, as she, well, adventures. I could elaborate in some detail, but – spoilers?

Ok, not so much, as this week’s episode flavor is space and Kree, bringing back such favorites as Deathbird and the Gladiator. Listen. X-Men ’97 are playing on the audience’s nostalgia and they are playing it hard. If you like it, it is your thing; otherwise, why are you watching the show?

Again, unlike the live-action/MCU shows, X-Men ’97 is not trying to be realistic, and without the live-action’s constraints, it is not. Rather, we got some very outlandish designs, such as the last week’s variant Sentinels and this week’s aliens. X-Men ’97 is doing its’ best to be outlandish and outrageous – and it is succeeding there. No, seriously, it does, as people are certainly enjoying the titular characters battle various bizarre foes – such as the angry mobs of F.O.H., the crazy sentinel robots, and this week there are alien villains, (in a manner of speaking). Moreover, by outright adapting X-Men comic storylines, the show is… playing it safe and certain, as well as avoiding any controversies that could arise with outright new materials, such as the SW movies 7-9, (the sequel trilogy).

…Maybe the latter is not the best example, but it works: the Sequel trilogy was supposed to expand and to add new lore and dimensions to the SW-world. It failed (for various reasons) and since then… Disney was trying to play it safe; because it loves to make money, and hates to lose money, among other reasons. Controversy ruins everything is Disney’s opinion in all of its’ franchises and branches these days, and it shows.

…But wait! Hasn’t it tried to sneakily show as to how the world of SW passed from the one seen in the movie 6 to the one seen in the movie 7? Yes, and once the audiences began to realize it; the hate was back, and since then… Disney/SW is sticking to ‘the Bad Batch’ cartoon; once it runs out, it is anyone’s guess as to where it will go, (especially since ‘The Mandalorian’ seems to have ended for now). Anything else?

No, not really. X-Men ’97 are expanding their initial universe, but they are doing through visual pageantry and the like, so for now, this is it, as there is nothing specifically new to discuss. See you all soon instead!

Loki, Heart - Oct 27

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and most of the time you cannot control it, as it just goes on as it has intended to, and all of your attempts to interfere in it result in cosmetic, secondary, (at best), changes – now onto ‘Loki’ S2.

Here, unfortunately, the situation isn’t any better – this week’s episode, ‘Heart of the TVA’ brings us back to the ‘Breaking Brad’ mess, where it was all about destruction; this week it is all about killing – pardon me, pruning – of the various characters. General Dox and her people – gone. Timely – gone. The ex-judge RR – gone. Even Miss Minutes and a variant Loki are gone, (temporarily or not). What gives?

No, seriously, what gives? MCU has not treated its’ characters so badly since AoS’ S2 finale, (and no, that is just a coincidence, the two shows barely interconnected at all). Back then, AoS S2 resulted in a massive killing-off of characters, (some of whom were quite interesting, and who weren’t Kara Lynn Palamas, who is another story completely), and now, ‘Loki’ S2 is doing the same thing: we barely get to know people (ok, characters), before they’re gone. The ex-judge RR and Victor Timely, for example, could have been just as important in ‘Loki’ as agent 33/Kara had been in AoS, and now, they are just gone.

…Right, some people are pointing out to me that within MCU ‘killing’ and ‘pruning’ are two different things, (however superficially similar): the show’s titular character, (as well as Sylvie and agent MMM), was pruned in S1, and it revealed that the ‘pruned’ characters (and things) go into some sort of a subspace wasteland where they stay forever, (or until a giant fog dragon eats them). To this, I reply: small consolation, not to mention it looks as if general Dox and most of her minions were killed, rather than pruned. I.e.: was it worth to introduce us to Dox and co. in the ‘Loki’ episode 2x02 only to get rid of them two episodes later? This sort of ill-treatment of characters is reminiscent of AoS at its’ worst, again.

…In addition, ‘Loki’ is all about the multiverse – or it is supposed to. The episode 2x03, ‘1893’, has kind of embraced this – at last, but now, in ‘Heart’, we’re back in the TVA proper, where various factions are fighting for its’ control, never showing openly just what are the stakes they’re fighting for. In S1, ‘Loki’ did show bits and pieces of multiverse, but in S2, the multiverse is being downplayed even more. Why? Is MCU being rebooted, some fans are wondering? To this, I respond: yes. Look, for example, at the information about ‘The Marvels’, the MCU movie coming out in Nov 2023: it features Carol, Monica and Kamala, and-

No Skrulls. The Skrulls were a big deal in the first ‘Captain Marvel’ film, and they played a minor, but an important role, in WV, in which Monica got her powers. Since then, the Skrulls virtually vanished from MCU, and SI was an immediately forgettable show. It was also an insipid show… and it introduced Ms. Sonya, who took over from Countess Val with nary a comment. Put otherwise, MCU took time and effort in building countess Val, (Ms. Ross), as a character, only to replace her with Sonya when it really mattered. SI was supposed to be a milestone in MCU’s development and progress, and instead it became a forgettable side note – another sign that MCU is rebooting itself in mid-stride, not unlike how the SW sequel trilogy did do it. Moreover, there is no sign of Skrulls in the trailers and teasers for ‘The Marvels’, which further indicates a shift in the canon. What next?

Well, it is anyone’s guess, really. People are beginning to discuss for real that MCU is rebooting itself a-la SW. Of course, this reboot cost SW plenty of fans, but that does not matter: ever since ‘The Mandalorian’ S3, SW moved in the direction of the aforementioned sequel trilogy – that is the end game, to show how the SW world of the episode VI became the world of the episode VII and beyond. The SW fans did not like the world of the SW episode VII and beyond, but Disney/SW does not care, apparently, since it is returning its’ viewers there, albeit this time by a roundabout route. Will it succeed this time is an open question. What will this ‘rebooting in mid-stride’ approach/attitude do for Disney/MCU as well is another. ‘Loki’ S2 is already suffering from this, however, and that is not a good sign, for Disney/MCU or otherwise.

Well, this is it for now, though. 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!

Paw Patrol Movie 2 - October 4

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, while on the imaginary side of the equation, we got… what?

First, there is Ahsoka, or rather – ‘Ahsoka’ the TV series. As some people have suspected all along, at the S1 (?) finale, the titular character and her cohorts got stranded in another galaxy, away from the main scene, leaving the canon plotline free to develop however, it wants, if the setting of the SW films 7 through 9 is the endgame. Yes, Ezra, Hera and Chopper are still free to confront Thrawn, but given that this series is, or was, about Ahsoka, the fact that the Jedi knight Tano is off the main board at the moment doesn’t inspire optimism that this series will continue, (even if Ahsoka herself will). What is next?

In the SW-universe – anything can go, of course, as for us… well, ‘Loki’ S2 is almost upon us, joy, but we will discuss it when it actually starts, airing, (maybe). For now, though, there is also the ‘Paw Patrol Mighty Movie’, and I can only ask: what?

Here is the thing: while ‘PJ Masks’ went all over the place lately, as the show lost its initial successful identity and tries to acquire something new, (rather than keep the old format – that of superhero fables), ‘Paw Patrol’ hasn’t. It is the same as always: Rider and his six pups, (the core characters), go all over their world, exploring new places, solving new puzzles and obstacles, making new friends, and… that is it, really. Aside from the Humdinger people there are few real opponents for the titular characters; everyone tries to get along, (more or less), and there was little superhero-like shenanigans in the franchise.

Then came the mighty meteor story arc, where the pups acquired a meteor – or rather a meteorite from space that gave them superpowers; them, and various another people as well, and so, for a while, the pups did have other ‘real’ foes aside from the Humdinger people: a human woman named Lady Bird, and a housecat named Copycat. For a while, the paw patrol franchise did feel like a good-natured spoof of the superhero genre… and then the arc was over, and the pups moved on with their lives.

And then, in September 2023, the franchise tried to reboot itself with the mighty meteor – what gives? That arc is officially over, and frankly, the new movie feels the worse take out of the two on the bloody space rock; (we have discussed the difference between meteors, meteorites and asteroids elsewhere, remember?). Moreover, what about continuity? The first PP movie – one that introduced Liberty, (a dachshund), had fit into the main narrative quite neatly, as Liberty was installed into the main PP TV series with nary an issue; now she’s been sidelined and the franchise tried to introduce a new villain – Victoria Vance – who feels like a rebooted (and somewhat upgraded) Lady Bird variant. What gives?

…By that I mean with the PP franchise in question: previously, it worked, and better so than the PJ Masks’ one; now… maybe not so much. Ah well, that is real life for you. Did I mention that it sucks?

For now, however, this is it. See you all soon!

Elemental - June 15

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. This is all I want to say about it right now, so let us move onto the ‘Elemental’ movie instead. Regrettably, ‘Elemental’ is much of an improvement, topic-wise – it also sucks, not unlike how ‘Doolittle’-2020 sucked, only moreso.

Let us elaborate. Superficially, ‘Elemental’ isn’t too different from Disney’s ‘Zootopia’ film (2016), save that in place of anthropomorphic mammals we got anthropomorphic elements instead – air, earth, fire and water. No, the ‘Avatar/Korra’ franchise had people who could control such elements instead, (and they had people who had no such powers too). The world of ‘Elemental’ is more restrictive than the world of Aang and Korra is, as well as the world of ‘Zootopia’ – there are only four main elements, (any ‘crossbreads’ such as mud or steam embodiments don’t appear in this film), and nothing else. In fact, at least some critics are asking why are there sentient/self-aware elementals, of water, for example, and then there is just plain water, which is neither sentient nor self-aware.

Next, we got the actual plot. In ‘Zootopia’, we got a love story between a red fox and a bunny rabbit, an unintentional and flattering parody of Harry and Megan. They have to solve a mystery of the night howlers, figure out who is trying to set carnivores and herbivores, (well, ‘predators’ and ‘prey’) against each other, as well as deal with prejudices, biases, preconceptions and superstitions against each other. In ‘Elemental’, we got a female fire elemental named Ember and a male water elemental named Wade who… pause.

The main conflict in ‘Elemental’ is that Ember had blown stuff up, and Wade has to report her to the city hall. Since that would put the kibosh on Ember’s entire family and their dream, done in the ‘Straight-off-the-boat’ style, Ember has to persuade Wade that she isn’t so bad and he shouldn’t report her – and when she does achieve it, in a manner of speaking, (among other things), she loses her temper shortly afterwards once more, and creates another explosion that she and Wade have to solve together. Fair enough, but the plot of ‘Zootopia’ is simply better and more complex out of the two.

Then we come to romance. As it was said above, in ‘Zootopia’, romance is only a part of the movie; the mystery of the night howlers is just as big a part. In ‘Elemental’, there is only romance… wait, what do I hear? It is an interracial romance and therefore it is more important? Right, once again, from the topic.

As TLM-2023 showed, racial issues are still big and thorny in the U.S. society: after TLM-2023 aired, I saw many videos and read fan reviews that – while claiming that they were not racist, certainly made a lot of noise about H.B. and her race. The fact that TLM-2023 is a bad movie on its’ own merit does not help the situation either. However, what matters is that TLM-2023 is one side of a coin – a film that brings out a lot of race-based critique in a manner that helps no one.

…Meanwhile, ‘Elemental’ is the other side of the same coin: it is supposed to be a responsa to the interracial relationships’ critique, but it does so smoothly and glibly that it helps no one.

Again, the U.S. society, or at least its’ elite, don’t deal with interracial relationships very well. Look at Disney/Marvel, for example: in AoS, there were no WASP/POC relationships; in ‘Avengers’ – ditto, and SW did not do any better. TLM-2023 handled this sort of thing very, well, heavy-handedly, pardon the pun, but at least they tried – and ‘Elemental’ doesn’t do the interracial relationship any better, certainly worse than how ‘Zootopia’ did it.

Put otherwise, ‘Elemental’ is ‘Zootopia’, not only simplified to just four races/species, but with all the rough edges sanded and smoothed out, which only hurt the film. In ‘Zootopia’, characters had to deal with real prejudices and outright segregation – tall, small and short characters were often treated differently from each other and without any political correctness either. ‘Elemental’ does not really have that; yes, Ember and Wade come from different social classes, but ‘Elemental’ does not explore that either; the main conflict here is that Ember and Wade are fire and ice…I mean, fire and water, ha-ha. Couldn’t they make them earth and air instead? Are earth and fire, for example, all that compatible?.. Never mind, where were we?

Flat-out, by smoothing out any controversies and conflicts, the creative team behind ‘Elemental’ has decreased its’ value, has decreased the value of Wade and Ember’s relationship… period. Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and MJ have value as a couple; Sony’s Miles Morales and Gwen, (as well as Peter B. and MJ Watson) – ditto. Ember and Wade – not so much. You want to see a fictional interracial couple that works as a team, defeating enemies and overpower obstacles? Go and re-watch ‘Zootopia’ once again. ‘Elemental’ is just a faded copy of it.

Anything else? Yes, Ubisoft’s FH franchise seems ready to go Mesoamerica soon – already there is a conquistador-like character in the works. There was a conquistador – Hernan Cortez himself – in the third and final season of DW, but that is another story…

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

Honor Among Thieves and Co. - March 23

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us try to find some different topic of discussion. Pause.

Sadly, there does not appear to be any; ‘The Mandolorian’ is already being discussed to death, while ‘Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among Thieves’… ok, let me rant.

‘Honor’ may be a D&D film, supposedly, but it is set in a very specific setting: The Forgotten Realms. Initially, The Forgotten Realms were just one setting within the broader D&D spectrum, but now, apparently, they dominate it, with their rivals, such as Eberron and Pathfinder, seem to have fallen by the wayside.

…Actually, that may not be really fair: the RPG sector began to suffer, just as many other luxury goods and services, ever since the COVID-19 outbreak, and it has not really recovered from it. However, the decline of some of its’ aspects, such as Pathfinder, began pre-COVID-19, and so I’m not fully sold on this state of affairs being the pandemic’s fault alone – something else might’ve worked behind the scenes, but what? Who knows…?

Anyways, ‘Honor’ is set in The Forgotten Realms’ setting, something that has not been openly/officially acknowledged so far. That is one. Two, is that it is a relatively conservative movie rather than a progressive/liberal one: a person of color plays the barbarian character, (so’s the paladin, but he’s more a temporary character in this film), and the druid character is a tiefling rather than a human or an elf. Second pause.

…Since this is a rant, may I point out that lately RPGs have this weird issue regarding tieflings. In fact, tieflings are only one out of several ‘planetouched’ races, a group of humanoids that have extradimensional ancestors… think the InHumans of MCU – initially regular humans with alien DNA, they became a brand new separate species by the time of them being featured in the MCU. The planetouched are similar, save that, the tieflings have demon or devil genes, (to use the term incorrectly, but still), while the descendants of the various celestials are called, the aasimar… and they are represented much less often than their tiefling counterparts are. I have no idea as to why, but this is how it rolls at least since the 3.5 D&D edition. Weird!

Getting back to the film, let us note that the tiefling druid here is a tiefling because the party needed one non-human character, to pass as a fantasy racial minority, probably. Again, this is not exactly new – Pathfinder, for example, tended to stick with human NPCs, when regular old monsters would not do; oh, it had its’ dwarves, elves, half-orcs and so on, but humans dominated. Since Pathfinder takes place on imaginary planet named Golarion, I do not know whose issue this was and why and how it was addressed, if it ever did. Still, Pathfinder 2^nd edition is a lot like D&D 5^th edition, so we do not care about Pathfinder as much anymore. Where were we?

Right. So, ‘Honor’ is peddling a specific setting as a general one, and it is quite conservative with its’ PCs, and it took its’ plot straight from the SW – Forge is a discount Palpatine, (“I cannot bare to see you die, so I’ll leave”) while his ally Sofina the Red Wizard is a discount Assajji Ventress. More precisely, Neverwinter and its’ lords are Coruscant and its’ Jedi, while the Red Wizards are Sith, with Thay being their home country. So what?

So nothing, especially since The Forgotten Realms’ setting itself has changed a lot in passing from the 3/3.5 edition onto the 4/5 one. Not sure, if it was for the best either – but while the different editions of D&D differ quite a lot, none of those changes came into the movie because of reasons. Where we are left with them/without them?

Again, with a conservative film that has several heterosexual couples – Forge and Sofina, Edgin and Holga, and Simon and Doric. This is never emphasized, of course, but it is there; Edgin and Holga, especially, are the Not-A-Couple of the film, as Holga tends to rebuff Edgin’s advances, (at least some of the time), but at the end of the film, Edgin, (and his daughter, who’s a minor character in the film – at least this one), choose to resurrect her than his late wife – symbolism is hitting the audience on the collective head here.

Again, there is nothing wrong with the good old classics, but could you acknowledge it, at least? In Pathfinder – at least the 1^st edition, not certain about the following ones – there were plenty of sexual minorities, (since it is a different world altogether and our rules don’t apply to it) – and so it seems to get cancelled, as I, for one, no longer can find much of it aside from the Internet, but the same can be said about many other RPG rulebooks and the like… Where were we?

Ah yes, the conservative values disguised as progressive ones. It isn’t just RPGs, you know? For a while, I was invested in Mr. Riordan’s PJ novels, as well as those spun-off/inspired by him. On some level, they were progressive as they utilized various racial and sexual minorities, but then-

But then I realized that it was ‘The Whale’ scenario – you remember our discussion of ‘The Whale’ as in the 2022 movie? In the discussion of it, it was pointed out that ‘weight’ and ‘race’ were window dressing for the actual movie message, (such as it was), and the same can be said for the latest novels of Mr. Riordan both about Magnus Chase and Apollo, as well as for the spin-offs.

Take, for the example, Mr. Yoon Ha Lee’s ‘Dragon Pearl’ novels, (there are two of them so far). They’re chockful of sexual and racial minorities… whose gender and race don’t play any role in the series, they’re just window dressing, and the main characters are a gumiho (fox spirit) from ‘the wrong side of tracks’, and a tiger spirit from a noble clan that’d disgraced themselves by treason against the emperor, or whoever. I.e., they are variant Skye and Grant from AoS, (I am going down with that ship). Ergo, does it matter if the supporting cast are not heterosexual? Hint: it does not… and the same largely goes for the rest of the spin-offs. There are some divergences from that mould, for example the ‘Tristan Strong’ series, but they are the ones that I cannot find on shelves anymore since the pandemic ended. Gee, I wonder why… What else?

Ah yes, one final part regarding the ‘Honor’ film – its’ main cast are a bunch of misfits that make a regular experienced N/PC face palm. No, wait, there are two – the team’s sorcerer is a descendant of Elminster. If anyone outside of the RPG community, (especially the parts keyed to the Forgotten Realms) know and care who Elminster is – good for them. They can go back watching ‘The Whale’ – the two sets of media are equally good. In addition, as for the misfit part, now this fossilized cliché is almost a requirement that you need to succeed in a film… unless you are in something akin the SW films seven through nine – but that is another story.

For now though, this is it. See you all soon!

Zootopia+ - Nov 16

Obligatory disclaimer – real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Zootopia+’ mini-series: is it any improvement? I confess that I have no idea, so let us proceed.

On the literal level, ‘Zootopia+’ is a straightforward idea: it is a November-2022 released mini-series, (6 episodes), dealing with friends, family and acquaintances of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. Herein lies the issue: why and what for?

‘Zootopia’ itself was a successful 2016 Disney film, featuring a world of anthropomorphic animals, (primarily mammals too), with the focus on the aforementioned Nick and Judy, who have to solve a mystery of the night howlers and co. (Spoilers: the sheep did it). As such, it was a fast paced, exciting and dramatic mystery and adventure animated movie. The aforementioned ‘Zootopia+’, conversely, is a 6 episode mini-series, focused on the various animals (mammals) that Nick and Judy have encountered in their mystery quest, and who’ve helped them, (rather than hindered, cough, sheep). The issue remains unchanged, however: what for, and why?

Disney is already implementing this ‘fill-in-the-gaps’ strategy – in its’ SW franchise. After their initial (overly) bold take on the SW-universe, which resulted in a fractured SW-fanbase and an increasingly certain possibility of the remaining SW-fans turning against Disney/SW and turning SW from a profit for Disney into a clear-cut loss – and so Disney/SW went in another direction: they stopped talking about the future after the SW9 film and instead began to increasingly hover around the world of the ‘first six’ films, going into the increasingly smaller holes and gaps to flesh-out the SW-world. The SW-world did this already to itself, if you ever read any of the SW: Legends material, but because it was not Disney-certified or approved, Disney/SW tends to ignore it instead – at least officially. Unofficially, it is more of a relationship that Disney has with Mr. Riordan: while not acknowledging this aloud, Disney is using Mr. Riordan’s material in MCU – first in the ‘Moon Knight’ franchise, and now in BP – and the same goes for the SW: Legends, as Disney/SW uses them to flesh itself out now – but how does that relate to ‘Zootopia’?

It does not and herein lies the issue: ‘Zootopia’ is a ‘Disney original’ film, and any information delivered in it is ‘Disney original’, one that has nothing in common with any other Disney material. However, while the original ‘Zootopia’ quickly enough became admired… that is pretty much the extent of its’ influence: these days it is more obscure than popular, hence the issue: why did Disney think that ‘Zootopia+’ would work? Given how it has hardly made a ripple even in the actual ‘Zootopia’ fan base… I would say that it had not – but Disney tried, money was issued (and/or assigned), product was released…and no one cared. Obviously, success is measured by other means other than online popularity, and the Internet is full of critiques that fall flat, (but gods keep me away from the ‘Lyle-Crocodile’ film), yet I find myself honestly confused: just what Disney intended to achieve with the release of ‘Zootopia+’? The closest I can come-up with is that Disney is gaging-up, or stirring-up, the interest in the franchise, before going out with the next movie installment of this ‘verse’, because otherwise there is no reason to this rhyme, to butcher a popular statement. Still, it is what it is, and I just had to share my opinions on ‘Zootopia+’, because why not?.. The PAW Patrol franchise has done/is doing/etc., etc. a much better job of world building, to the point when they have become a victim of their own success – but that is another story.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

She-Hulk, Jen - Sep 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the latest ‘She-Hulk’ episode instead. Only… it is not doing so hot either – this week’s episode’s highlight, apparently, was when the titular character, wearing a sparkling pink dress, punched Titania – who was back for round three – in the mouth. Titania was wearing an equally sparkling pink power suit, BTW. So what?

So earlier this week I watched the latest HoD episode – you know, the one where Daemon T. kills his wife with little more than a big rock. Killer Croc from the DC-verse would have been so proud!.. But we are not Killer Croc, and I, for one, find it kind distasteful that team HBO and co. have needlessly vilified Daemon T. just for extra drama.

Again, in the book, Daemon is not a good man, but his wife dies pointedly from natural causes and he has nothing to do with it, Targaryen family powers or not. By making Daemon actually do the deed, team HBO and co. have made him something of a misogynist and have diminished him as a person and as a character. The fact that HoD’s main protagonist – you know, the ‘new and improved’ Dany – wants to elope with him does not help anyone either… but wait!

In this universe, actually being an evil asshole gets you ahead! Daemon and co. are doing the right thing by their standards! Well, yes, and don’t forget – the upcoming Dance of the Dragons thingy will be the start of the end for the Targaryen dynasty; odds are good that GM was going to revive their reign at the end of ASOIAF, but now that ASOIAF faded away, and GoT ended up with a Stark on the throne instead… yeah, this makes it hard to root for anyone on the show and I’m actually hoping that all of the Targaryens featured on the show so far will die – but there was one unexpected side-effect: I remembered MCU’s AoS.

…yes, I’ve been talking about it on and off for ever, but this time the death of Ms. Daemon reminded me of Fennec Shand from the SW-verse instead. Why?

In SW, Fennec is shot down, left to die, but with Boba’s help she recovers and becomes his assistant.

In MCU, Kara is shot down – not unlike Fennec – and is just killed-off by the show.

Put otherwise, Fennec is SW’s Kara, and the issue isn’t that that Ming-Na Wen, plays Fennec on SW, and played both the Cavalry and agent 33 on MCU, (in a manner of speaking, but still), and it isn’t that Disney properties recycle each other’s ideas, but how AoS has treated Kara. Agent 33 was an interesting character, and the showrunners could have pulled a Fennec and kept her alive, but they did not. Indeed, Kara did not have to be a regular character on the show at all – they just could have sent her off to her mother, (with or without her memories intact), or done something similar, (as they did to the characters of Lance and Bobbi in S5), and that would have been the end. Instead, they flat-out treated her as crap, and that is the final line.

…Not that HBO is treating its’ powerful women characters any better – Ms. Daemon was verbally abused by her asshole husband at first and then killed-off by him, while the surrogate Dany is coming off as Daemon’s female counterpart instead. Oh, and one of her (potential) minions just killed-off her new husband’s same-sex partner. Take that, modern socio-political values!

…In the ‘She-Hulk’ we do not go so far, but it is the same direction still. In the comics – and the cartoons – the character in question was, and is, one of the Hulk’s most powerful relatives and allies, and Titania is her adversary and arch-nemesis. On the show, the two appear to be little more than just two semi-toxic bitches that just cannot get along because that would be the reasonable and sensible thing, am I right, fellows? Oh, and the ‘Mr. Immortal’ subplot, cannot forget that – a Marvel character has faked his death 8 times, effectively becoming a bigamist! Ha-ha-ha! ‘Futurama’ actually did that plotline first, save that its’ bigamist did not fake his death, he just shapeshifted and packed-on more wives. Have to admire his stamina, if nothing else – but he still were taken down by all of his wives, just less legally and more violently than Mr. Immortal has been.

…There is also MCU’s Abomination, who was last seen on the show having a cult with multiple girlfriends – and he got set free. Aside from the moral issues, there’s the fact that he got diminished from being a monstrous reflection of the Hulk into a mere jerk too – but that is what ‘She-Hulk’ the show does, apparently – it diminishes all the Marvel characters that it touches, no wonder the original Hulk fled to Sakaar in the episode 1x02 before it was too late – or maybe it was, we’ll just have to wait and see.

...That said, my original point is this is what the American nation have come down to, after ‘MeToo’ and all of that? Between HoD’s handling of Ms. Daemon on one hand, and ‘She-Hulk’ making its’ titular character a mockery of the ‘powerful female character’ concept, I am really sore at real life. Did I mention that it sucks?

…Well, this is it for now, people – I will see you all soon.

She-Hulk, Magic - Sep 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has passed today, on Sep 8, 2022, at 96 years of age. May she rest in peace! The rest of the world will be in a worse place now that she’s gone, as her immediate heirs – her son Charles, and his sons, William and Harry, don’t get along, (and there are plenty of lesser scandals and fights in the family too), so it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen in the British politics next. Given that the modern world is already a rocky place, this is not good. Shall we try to lose ourselves in the world of fiction instead?

…Yeah, that is tricky too – we got a partially live-action remake of ‘Pinocchio’ coming out today, (i.e. Sep 8, 2022), but, frankly, I am not the biggest fan or connoisseur of this franchise, so I politely pass over this. ‘She-Hulk’ is onto the 4^th episode (‘is this not real magic?’) of its’ franchise so far, and it seems to be finding its’ legs by now, and… it’s somewhat decent, as we get to meet some new and original characters, and get to see the titular character actually do something more aside from some rom-com lawyering – she isn’t Ally McBeal, after all!

…The problem with ‘She-Hulk’ is that by now it is unintentionally diminishing the Marvel characters that are featured in it – the Abomination, Wong, Titania, the Wrecking Crew, and even the titular character. Instead of being, well, characters, heroes and villains, as the characters of the Phase 1 through 3 were, the characters of ‘She-Hulk’ seem to be as relatable, realistic and sympathetic as the characters of any rom-com – say, ‘Friends’, had been. People just do not care about the adventures of J.W. and her Gal Friday, Nikki, (the duo are trying just a touch too hard to come across as straight), as they seem to meander from case to case, from episode to episode, (while looking sexy, because reasons). Oh, and Bruce/the original Hulk is gone from the show, having left for the vastness of space once more. Planet Hulk, here we come!

Back on Earth, the titular heroine is about to get sued by Titania, (whose RL is Mary) about who is the real She-Hulk. Hold on to your horses, you cannot stand the excitement! …The poor bloke from Michigan, who got mauled by a grizzly bear and her three cubs, is causing more excitement on the Internet than the ‘She-Hulk’ does. And finally, there is the entire issue with Amazon’s latest series: ‘LotR: RoP’ – people hate it.

Now, Amazon, is actually denying it, which is just dumb – either those negative numbers and reviews are a lie, in which case Amazon should just ignore them, or they’re the truth, in which case calling them a lie is a mistake. Disney was already in such a place with their SW franchise – the SW movie sequel trilogy, to be more precise. They tried to do something about such criticism, and their actions resulted in the SW fandom to be still split into several factions, and Disney/SW itself is trying to rebuild itself…, which includes ignoring that the sequel trilogy had ever taken place. I do not know as to how Amazon will handle their misadventure, but that will actually be interesting to see. Anything else?

Aside from the fact, that team Amazon had no open indication that anything LotR-related is guaranteed to be an immediate hit? I am afraid not. Gorbachev is gone, Her Majesty is also gone, and we are left with the live action Pinocchio-2022, which even IGN openly calls ‘mediocre’, which means that it is that bad. Therefore, for now, this is it. I will see you all soon instead.

Ms. Marvel, 'Destinied' - June 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks: we got one heatwave coming after another, with intermediary thunderstorms to make life more interesting, apparently. Hence, let us talk about ‘Destined’, the episode 1x03 of ‘Ms. Marvel’.

What can be said about it? That finally, after reaching the half-mark of the ‘Ms. Marvel’ S1, we got some excitement here. First, Kamala’s brother got married, and we got a beautiful depiction of an ethnic Islamic marriage…before the Damage Control goons gatecrashed it. This time, though, they seem to be going after Kareem and his mother, who are associated, or simply are, the Clandestine, or the djinn. Pause.

So, in real life, the djinn are a part of Islamic – or proto-Islamic – mythology; their role isn’t too different from the various demons and such in the Christian mythos; they were blamed for everything bad and unknown and mysterious, their shapes were often poorly defined – there are even some version of the djinn who are more akin to the doppelgangers/evil twins of the modern Western mythology; and the Quran mentions them, but not necessarily in a good way, either. Also, you can call them genies or jinn instead, and they often weren’t as nice as they were in Disney’s ‘Aladdin’; in the ‘original’, ‘1001 nights’ ‘Aladdin’ the jinn or the djinn were really powerful entities, able to destroy cities and armies, and built palaces, and to take them across the world…basically, compared to mortals, the djinn are almost all-powerful, but the forces of the Lord, (or Allah), can route them, if necessary.

…And none of this applies to the djinn ‘depicted’ in ‘Ms. Marvel’, aka Kareem and his mother, whose relationship with Kamala has become more ambiguous by now. Rather, the ‘djinn’, or the Clandestine of MCU seem to be surrogate InHumans, and I got nothing new to comment about that here, because of predictability. In Marvel Comics, Kamala ‘Ms. Marvel’ Khan was an InHuman, and was regularly associated with them, even though she never was a part of Black Bolt and Medusa’s court, and she has her own storyline; separate from the InHumans’ main one – usually. There are always crossovers, you know!..

In MCU, there are InHumans, actually, but because their TV series was insipid, nowadays MCU pretends that they never existed, a fact further enhanced by the fact that AoS was a clusterfuck, and has already been largely replaced by S.W.O.R.D., as well as by Damage Control. Hence, we got surrogate S.H.I.E.L.D. chasing surrogate InHumans, because despite all of the proclamations that MCU’s ‘Ms. Marvel’ is original, in reality it is just a rehashed version of the comics, because Disney has problems with original – just look at the ‘Lightyear’ movie: while it isn’t bad, neither it is truly great.

…And the same can be said about the ‘Obi-Wan’ series; I was not going to talk about it, but, since it has finished, I might as well – the show’s predictable: Obi-Wan got his shite together and kicked Vader’s ass, while Reba’s storyline was also neatly wrapped-up. Sadly, while Obi-Wan has won a clear and a decisive moral victory, he did not kill Vader; since Vader has become Palpatine’s chief enforcer by now, (though yes, technically, he is Palpatine’s apprentice – but does anyone believe that?), his death would’ve caused a major butterfly effect… so ‘Obi-Wan’ the TV series doesn’t kill Vader, and everything from now on till the events in ‘The New Hope’ will be (mostly) canon. Did I mention that Disney has a problem with originality? Well, it does, and in case of ‘Ms. Marvel’, it is also in denial, both regarding originality and the quality of ‘Ms. Marvel’ it is rather trite and unoriginal, but it is also beautifully depicted, complete with the ethnic angle: hooray for that!

…Otherwise, however, this is it for now. ‘Ms. Marvel’ S1 is halfway done; we will just have to wait and see as to what will happen next. See you all soon!

 

Ms. Marvel, Crushed - June 15

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about something else entirely – this week’s episode of Ms. Marvel. Named ‘Crush’, it is about Kamala’s crush on Kareem, whose mom may or may not be a supervillain – isn’t the MCU fun?

Well yes, yes it is, save that so far, little else is going down in ‘Crush’ – MCU is going with a slow burn here, possibly to avoid competition with ‘Obi-Wan’, whose penultimate episode has also aired on this day. There are similarities between the two shows: in ‘Obi-Wan’, women are clearly in charge, save for the titular character and Darth Vader; the show could’ve went with just the original female characters, but they tried already something similar in the SW sequel trilogy, and that didn’t go down too went, so now they’re trying a subtler approach – and there already are mixed reviews towards the show. Fun!

‘Ms. Marvel’, on the other hand, is trying… something similar, actually. Both the titular character, her mom and grandma dominate the show, at least to a point. Since Islam is actually a quite patriarchal religion, there is… a female character, (not related to the Khan family, but still a family friend), who is planning to challenge, or is challenging already, some sort of a mosque board for more gender variety – or something along those lines. Now what?

So far, there is no obvious indication as to how this plotline will go in the future episodes: Disney/MCU obviously has no intention of alienating the Islamic community…but neither does it want to be retrograde and upset the progressive community…so yeah, Disney/MCU is going to handle this politically correct, politely, and perfectly poised – the 3P, you can call them.

On the other hand, we still got the Damage Control duo, as they canvass the area, trying to find that elusive masked vigilante. (This takes place in a world with Sokovia accords, remember?) So far, they do not appear to have much success, but then again, they appear to be mostly annoyances right now… which is appropriate, since now? Kamala is not much of a hero, either.

Oh, of course, she is well intentioned, and she is already doing ‘the right thing’©, but, sadly, the scope is rather underwhelming – period. Again, this isn’t surprising, she isn’t a hero yet, she is only learning, but this does leave her behind on all the excitement and the drama, when compared to ‘Obi-Wan’, where the latter tries to be a telenovela built along the lines of the ‘Rogue 1’ film… or the ‘original’ ‘SW: Legends’ novels… Everything old is new again, put otherwise.

‘Ms. Marvel’, however, does not do that, but tries to be original – to a point. The problem is that while Hulu’s ‘Runaways’ – remember them? – actually did go mostly original, at least in the first two seasons or so – ‘Ms. Marvel’ does not. In fact, it tries to multitask, as it tries to entertain with Kamala and friends’ teenage antics, as well as to promote the Islam-American community, (at least the Pakistani aspect of it), in the best possible light. I.e., ‘Ms. Marvel’ the show fluctuates between reality and fiction, without settling on either, and consequently it risks ending-up flat-footed instead.

There was another TV show that tried something similar, and it was AoS, (the first 2-3 seasons). This show actually introduced a Russian – or a quasi-Russian villain; there was actually a mini-story arc, set in Russia, which caused Hunter and Morse to be taken ‘out of commission’ – they were supposed to get their own TV show, but instead they were taken outright out of MCU. Ouch!

‘Ms. Marvel’, on the other hand, does not have excessive characters, (as AoS did during the first half of S3), but it did have a reference to S.H.I.E.L.D. in the series’ premiere, apparently. Can’t say that I’m too surprised, as S.H.I.E.L.D. is still supposed to be a part of MCU, it’s just that due to real life issues Disney/MCU can no longer fit it, (at least for now), so now we got Damage Control running around, (and not amounting to anything yet). It will be interesting to see as to what exactly MCU will do with this development, and how does S.W.O.R.D. will fit in, (remember, Photon took over S.W.O.R.D. at the end of WV?). Indeed, Photon and S.W.O.R.D. should be appearing soon enough, since Kamala, Carol, and Photon are supposed to all appear in the 2023 MCU movie ‘The Marvels’, right? Because if Photon will be removed – and she is the Afro-American character here – this will be a PR disaster and Disney/MCU hates that…

For now, however, this is it. See you all soon.

Ms. Marvel, series premiere - June 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so here is a shout-out to Mr. Nicklaus Brendborg: this learned worthy, while writing – and publishing – his treatise on old age, aging, and immortality, talked about – well, mentioned, really – the naked mole rat. That is fair enough, but he implied that the ‘ordinary’ rats and mice used in labs are its’ relatives. Yeah, no – the terms ‘rat’ and ‘mouse’ are very broad; the term ‘mouse’, for example, includes not only the various rodents, but also the so-called marsupial mice – distant cousins of the kangaroos and the koala, and close cousins of the quolls, the numbat, and the extinct Thylacine. By contrast, the term ‘rat’ includes several genera, including, obviously, the naked mole rat, as well as several of its relatives from the parvorder (or infraorder) Phiomorpha, but the ‘true’ rats aren’t closely related to them; this parvorder actually includes the Old World porcupines, (not the ones found in North America, but the ones found in Africa, Asia, and sometimes even in southern Europe); proportionally, the naked mole rat is a much further relative to the lab rats (derived from the black and Norway rat stocks, mainly), and lab mice, (variant house mouse, primarily), than we are to the apes. For Mr. Brendborg, a man of science and philosophy, to make such a mistake slash generalization is just rude and wrong – so let us end this rant for now, and turn onto ‘Ms. Marvel’, the series’ premiere.

So, what have we here? Last time, when we have talked about the ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ series, we talked about how Disney was playing it safe with SW now, producing new content that is only fan-approved. Whether that is a good long-term strategy is another matter, but this is what Disney does with SW. And what about MCU?

First, in ‘Ms. Marvel’, Disney is playing it safe, again. The series’ opener, ‘Generation Why’, is an introductory chapter through and through; in it we meet Kamala Khan, a modern young woman with a strong personality and personal values, whose relationship with the rest of her family is loving, of course, but there’re some pesky personal issues that initiate the rise of a conflict between them – a generational gap or whatever the modern term is… Wait a second…

…In ‘Encanto’, we have Mirabel Madrigal, who is a teen/young adult, who is a good person, (some character flaws notwithstanding), who loves her family and vice versa, but due to some pesky personal issues she and the rest of her family end up fighting…before making up.

…In ‘Turning Red’, we have Mei-Mei, who is a teen, who is a good person, (some character flaws notwithstanding), who loves her family and vice versa, but due to some pesky personal issues she and the rest of her family end up fighting…before making up.

…And in ‘Ms. Marvel’, (the TV 2022 series), we have Kamala Khan, who is a teen, who is a good person, (some character flaws notwithstanding), who loves her family and vice versa, but due to some pesky personal issues she and the rest of her family end up fighting…before making up – wait, what?

…Without a doubt, there are some differences between our three protagonists; i.e., Mirabel is the only one without powers in a power-ful family, (pun intended, sorry), while in Kamala’s case it is more of a reverse, (so far), and Mei-Mei and her mother both have powers to turn into giant red pandas now. Conversely, though…

In ‘Encanto’, the Madrigals are depicted – each of them is depicted – in a unique and a standout way, to a point where Julietta and Pepa’s families don’t appear to be very closely related at all, from a physical P.O.V.

In ‘Turning Red’, the citizens of Toronto – for example, Mei-Mei and her friends – are depicted in all of their multicultural glory, where each and every one of them is unique, in a standout way.

And in ‘Ms. Marvel’, we are about to meet the citizens of New Jersey, all of whom are depicted in a way that promotes America’s multicultural glory, with its’ characters depicted in a unique, standout way, each and every one of them…

Again, there are differences – ‘Turning Red’ and ‘Ms. Marvel’ don’t display the same high level of individualism as ‘Encanto’ has, but their levels are high enough…and then we come to the religious issues. ‘Encanto’ takes place in Colombia, (late 19^th century-first half of 20^th century, most likely), so the odds are that it is a Catholic, rather than a Protestant or Orthodox, community, though that is only a minor element in the movie. ‘Turning Red’… yeah, this one is a bit fudgey, but there are religious-cultural elements as well. And in ‘Ms. Marvel’, we learned from the trailers and the teasers, that Islam will be playing a BIG role in the TV series. Ergo-?

Ergo, while being something of a variation on the theme of a politically correct progressive young woman main character, ‘Ms. Marvel’ is also a propaganda piece, (unlike ‘Encanto’ & ‘Turning Red’, presumably): it aims to show ‘the life and times’ of a Muslim family in the U.S., how it lives, (as a unit), and how it functions, (as a unit), how it is both same and different from the WASP American families, and so on. So-?

So nothing. This week’s episode – ‘Generation Why’ – was pretty much just that: an introduction to yet another politically correct progressive young woman character, and another introduction to a politically correct and properly presented Islamic-American family. People, who like this sort of thing, will like ‘Ms. Marvel’; those who do not, will call it ‘Woke’, and will not. Such ‘soft power’ may be better than the ‘hard power’ that Putin’s Russia is trying to execute in Ukraine, but it has its’ own flaws – but that is a discussion for a different time. Is this it?

…Wait! There is more! There is the Avengers-con! And the magical bracelet from one of Kamala’s grandparents! (A person has two parents, but four grandparents – and we are talking a standard nuclear family here, anything more derived, and we get much more confusing numbers). And Bruno! But we do not talk about Bruno- wait, sorry, wrong Bruno. In ‘Encanto’, Bruno is a seer, (with a strong moon symbolism, but we will not get into it here). In ‘Ms. Marvel’, Bruno is just a teen/young man, who got friendzoned by Kamala so hard, that even the crappy Avenger-con feels sorry for him. No, seriously, there is a feeling that Disney/MCU is poking fun at itself – first there was the Avengers musical in ‘Hawkeye’, which was nothing more than window dressing in that series, and an unnecessary one at that, and now we get the Avengers-con, which was the weakest part of the episode, and as for the ‘magical bracelet’… well, we already talked about it: between AoS and ‘InHumans’, the InHumans became especially toxic and anathema to Disney/MCU, so Kamala will get to be something else other than an InHuman. Good for her!

…For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

'Obi-Wan' - June 7

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but we will be talking about the marvellous Ms. Khan, and some other fictional topics, later this month, but now – we’re obliged to talk about ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ the TV series: what about it?

Nothing in particular, that is what. Whatever Disney does with MCU is one thing, whereas SW found itself in a bit of a hard spot after the ‘Sequel Trilogy’: it had released a trilogy of not-so-good movies, (and several that weren’t so bad, but still not so good, in the meantime), and it had split the fan base, which resulted in the latter wondering if they should bother with SW anymore or what. Since Disney had no intent of making a money loss this big, it did something about it – but what exactly?

…It abandoned the SW films, and instead focused on comics and TV series, subtly rebooting, redesigning, and twisting the already existing SW material to suit their values, that is what. It seems to be doing the same thing with the Marvel characters as well, such as Kamala Khan, but we will talk about her another time, right now, our topic is Obi-Wan Kenobi…

…Well, no, not so much precisely, as there is also ‘The Mandalorian’ to consider, as well ‘The Book of Boba Fett’. The former was praised, the latter not so much. Why?

Because the latter did not go anywhere, but rather just stayed in one spot: ‘The Mandalorian’ developed the SW universe further, while ‘The Book’ did not; in fact, these days most of SW TV series do precisely that – they develop the SW universe further. They also only bridge the gap between the prequel trilogy, (SW films 1-3), and the original trilogy, (SW films 4-6), leaving everything else open. More precisely, the Disney/SW conglomerate are playing it safe; they’re upgrading and tweaking old material, while not adding anything new; they are adding new characters, but they’re second fiddle to the already established ones, whether from the movies, such as Boba Fett and Obi-Wan, or from the older series, such as the characters from the ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ cartoon… So what?

So nothing. When Disney/SW made the sequel trilogy, they were authentically making something new; whether well or poorly is another story, but it was still new, through and through. Now, however, they’re just tweaking and updating the old stuff and playing it safe; working with what already is, or even was, not making anything of their own, of the what-there-could-be variety, because it is risky, and can – and has – result in money loss, both literally, (fewer fans paying fewer monies for the movies), and figuratively, (fewer fans means fewer people to spend monies for the movies). Disney, regardless of whatever its’ guise is – SW, MCU, and so on – is a money-making machine, first and foremost, and whether it is progressive, regressive, or anything else is secondary – but this is more of an MCU issue instead, so we digress.

Well, yes, but ‘Obi-Wan’ is not too different from ‘The Mandalorian’ TV series, or the ‘Rogue 1’ film – it is successful filler material, (unlike the ‘Solo’ movie, which was a decisively unsuccessful one), but nothing more. As such, I doubt that I will write anymore about it anytime soon.

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

Moon Knight, 'Tomb' - April 20

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about MK instead.

Sadly, here is not too much to talk about either, except… for the Egyptian mythology: in this week’s MK episode – ‘Tomb’ – we get to meet Tawaret at the very end of the ep. So what?

‘The Kane Chronicles’ by Mr. Rick Riordan, that is still what’s up. In the second book of that trilogy, Carter and Sadie Kane – the titular characters – get to go to the Egyptian underworld, (because of Osiris, cough), where they meet Tawaret, aside from the other characters, (including the moon god, Khonshu). Here, in ‘Tomb’, Marc and Steven seem to be trapped in some sort of a limbo, depicted as a mental asylum, but that… is nothing new in the world of comics, DC’s Batman got trapped in this sort of thing quite regularly, for example, and they meet Tawaret.

To add injury to insult, Carter and Sadie encounter Tawaret who works in a retirement home for aged Egyptian gods, i.e. an alternate medical facility to the mental asylum that the Moon Knight, (Moon Knights?), has found himself/themselves in. I.e., Mr. Riordan associated Tawaret with a medical profession, and ‘Moon Knight’ seems to be running with it. Given how MK’s cast and crew reamed Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins in regards to their treatment of Egypt in WW84, this dependence on Mr. Riordan’s works seems strange, almost hypocritical. Anything else?

Aye, ‘The Secrets of Dumbledore’ movie. I have seen it, and found it to be disappointing. Why?

Let us start with ‘The Book of Boba Fett’. Unlike ‘The Mandalorian’ series, ‘Boba Fett’ was less of a success because whereas ‘The Mandalorian’ series moved the entire SW universe onwards, ‘Boba Fett’ did not. Well, technically, it did, as the SW universe has the entire linear time concept, but you have to admit that ‘The Mandalorian’ also developed and expanded the SW universe in content, whereas ‘Boba Fett’ did not.

But the same can be said about ‘The Secrets of Dumbledore’ – it didn’t really introduce anything new into the wizarding world; the story did move forwards at a livelier pace than the ‘Boba Fett’ series did, but whereas MK has Tawaret, ‘The Secrets’ had a qilin.

A qilin is a mythical Far Eastern animal that is supposed to appear before a birth or a death of a great sage or a ruler, but to the Western audience/readers, especially the baseline members, a qilin is a Far Eastern analogue of a unicorn instead. Consequently, the use/participation of the qilin in ‘The Secrets of Dumbledore’ and the election that was the climax of the movie, transformed the election from, well, an election, as conceived by the Western audience into something more among the lines of ‘and the hand of God chose the rightful king and cast the pretender into Gehenna’ – this sort of thing. Given how the elections are a big deal in RL – maybe even an even bigger deal given the RF’s assault on the Ukraine – the way that ‘The Secrets’ handled the elections’ concept is outright insulting!

In addition, since we are going back to real life, people have already talked about the nearly complete absence of Tina Goldstein’s character from the movie. The team behind ‘The Secrets’ did not even try to explain it – they could have made Tina pregnant, or ill, or something, but no – and therefore, people are believing that she’s avoiding J.-Ro because of the latter’s transphobic statements. Fair enough, though it is weird – J.-Ro had no problems with Dumbledore being gay so that she could court the sexual minorities for her novels, or Hermione being a person of color so that the real life people of color would like her works before, so why the abrupt change of tune? Ah well, it is her life, her choice, and nothing else. Is that it?

Yes, pretty much – MK continues to be largely divorced from the rest of MCU, the occasional nudge-nudge wink-wink Easter egg aside, the Donald seems to be preparing for the 2024 election after all, and if he does win it, then the rest of the West will stop looking at the U.S. as their spiritual leader for sure, and – that is it.

See you all soon!

TBOBF - Jan 16

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and you can always count on your family to make it worse, so let us briefly talk about Boba Fett instead. We are already 2 or 3 weeks into 2022, so it is time for me to make my first blog entry of the year anyhow…

…Well, here is the tricky part – there is not much to talk about in regards to ‘The Book of Boba Fett’: like almost anything that is associated with Disney, the technical side of things is done perfectly, but otherwise…

But otherwise, if you look at the Disney/SW situation, then you will notice something else: it is stuck. It is stuck within the framework of the first two trilogies, done without Disney’s involvement and investment in Lucasfilm™, and while ‘The Mandalorian’ tested those borders, ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ – not so much, at least not in the first three episodes; ‘The Book of Boba Fett is taking place sometime around the original trilogy…ok, sometime after the SW6 film, but so far it is ignoring the greater galaxy far away and is centered around a certain town on Tattooine instead. In ‘The Mandalorian’, we travelled all over the place, but then… first, Gina Carano made a daft and a politically inapt statement, she was fired, her SW character Cara Dune was scrapped, the end. Where did this leave us?

…With the titular character handling over Grogu the Yoda Baby over to Luke Skywalker, leaving fans wondering, just what has happened to the tyke between ‘The Mandalorian’ S2 finale and the SW7-9 films that he either sat out Luke Skywalker getting his ass handed over to him practically by everyone else, or else Grogu was in the posse that joined the Dark Side and handed Luke Skywalker his ass. Neither possibility is good, so for the moment Grogu and the rest of the remaining ‘Mandalorian’ cast are benched, and we got ‘The Book of Boba Fett’, which is detached – in a large part - from the rest of the SW universe. The fan community is not too impressed, and so ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ is not flourishing as much as it could have been. Anything else?

Yes, the AoS, for I would not be talking about Disney’s latest SW misadventure without it. Yes, DC seems to have come up with its’ own take on the show’s initial premise in the ‘Peacemaker’ series, which is actually the redemption arc Grant Ward should’ve had; the titular character is his variant, the rest of the crew are the variant AoS, save for the Vigilante, who is essentially a Deadpool variant instead. Marvel’s loss is DC’s gain – if Deadpool was a regular on the AoS show, it would have been much more popular and successful than how it was. Instead, we got Ms. Ming-Na Wen making a smooth and a casual reply to the question – is AoS coming back? – that amounts to her saying nothing and promising nothing, which is much more diplomatic than anything that Chloe Bennett would’ve said, but I digress.

First, Ms. Ming-Na is a talented actress, who knows that who pays for the music dances the girl, and does not go against Disney/MCU’s grain, as Chloe Bennett seems to have had. Second, AoS is over for good. Whatever it was supposed to be initially, in the end it was a clunky Frankenstein’s monster of a show, which had cannibalized the other cancelled MCU shows, such as ‘InHumans’, ‘Ghost Rider’, and even the cancelled third season of AC, but we’ve discussed it in the past.

Third, Disney/MCU has re-started that issue themselves in ‘Hawkeye’ – yes, we’ve talked about this before, but again, I’ll note that given how the audience’s/the fans’ reaction to the suggestion that Laura was the ‘true’ Mockingbird all along was ambiguous, Disney/MCU quickly squashed the discussions on this topic, and used the latest ‘Spider-Man’ movie to cover-up its’ tracks. However,

…However, there are traces of AoS in ‘No Way Home’ as well; the way that team Spider-Man deals with the extradimensional villains isn’t too different from the Tahiti method that AoS used on Cal, so clearly, the way that AoS had re-used its’ recycled ideas has spread to the rest of MCU by now. Oh dear, we will have to wait and see as to what will come out of it.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!