FH: Afeera - Jan 27

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about something else. The latest FH character – the Afeera. No, I do not know what meaning this term/label/name has in RL – from what I have seen, this is a fully Ubisoft invention – and it shows.

How so? Let me be straightforward here: the Afeera is generic. And it shows.

Let us start again. Throughout the game’s existence, the PC characters of FH had flavors – knights, Vikings, samurai, and so on. Lately, however, this state of affairs began to change with the appearance of the ‘Outlanders’; until now, there were only two of them: the Pirate, (think 17^th-18^th century here than anything more modern), and the Medjai. The latter was clearly inspired by the characters in the Mummy franchise, the non-Tom-Cruise one, that is.

…For their part, the Medjai were based on the Western depictions of Ancient Egypt, and while that is neither here nor there, what matters is that while the Pirate was more modern, (proportionally), than the rest of FH heroes, the Medjai was more ancient instead, even moreso than the Gladiator and the Centurion were. This could be gleamed from the appearances of the two characters alone. The Afeera on the other hand, is different.

Officially, this character hails from ‘the kingdom of Arabia’, which is self-explanatory, but otherwise, there are few details that make them specific; even their weapon – a heavy mace – is generic, there’s nothing about it that is associated with an ‘Arabia’ of any kind.

A brief aside: as a weapon, (there are various meanings behind this word), a mace is a club, that has a big iron head with spines, or flanges, or so on, and a tough, stout handle, also made from iron, or from wood, with which to swing the head. Unlike a Morningstar or a flail, there are no chains to connect the two pieces; they are connected directly to each other.

Also, a mace is a weapon that a) inflicts mass damage – a direct or a glancing blow can easily rupture organs and break bones if there’s enough force behind the strike, even if you have armor on you. And b), a mace is not a precision weapon; while you certainly need to train with it, it is a different training from training to fight with a sword: to kill with a sword, you need to land a blow/strike at just the right place, (and if you don’t, your opponent just might survive…at least long enough to kill you), while with a mace or a club – not so much. It is proportionally easy to kill a person with a mace (club), than with a sword; as such, at least during WWI there were trench clubs as weapons… where were we?

Ah, yes, alongside the sword and the spear the mace is a standard RPG weapon these days, whether it is a LARP or a tabletop game – you can be certain that one of the less monstrous foes will use a mace or a club against you. Put otherwise, there is nothing special about a mace, and while, yes, one can argue that there is nothing special about the other weapons in the FH game, well… Somehow, the FH staff managed to make swords, axes and the other weapons unique and individual in the past, each PC had something unique and unusual, even the Pirate and the Medjai have… the Afeera doesn’t. Ah well, this is how the cookie crumbles, and also, you can always count on your family to make everything worse – but that is another story.

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

FH: Zhanhu - Nov 5

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In this particular instance, it happened because I myself messed up, and take about 90% of the fault upon me, fairly and squarely. The other 10 go to other people, but this is a hollow consolation for something that is undeniably your fault. Of course, your loving family will make everything to make you feel worse, but that is another story entirely, let us talk about something else.

The movies? The latest ‘Terminator’ film appears to have flopped, though personally, I found it to be rather enjoyable instead – not everything has to have a deeper meaning, no matter what some moviemakers say, but that is real life for you. It sucks on so many levels.

…Also, today was Election Day, and the U.S. state propaganda went into overdrive to educate people about voting, about voting machines, and about the evil Putin. Sigh. This is not how the States will defeat the new incarnation of the evil empire, they need to get their shit together first, and decide, whether the Donald will go or stay, for example. Until they begin to be cohesive, Putin will not have to do anything at all – the American government will do everything for him (and anyone else) instead. Period.

Let us talk about the latest FH character instead – a Wu Lin named Sun Da, and he is a Zhanhu. Regrettably, I have no idea as to what this means; i.e., it is a word from Chinese language, but so far, the searches lead either back to the FH proper, or to de-facto dead ends. On one search, Zhanhu was related to an ethnic Chinese name of some monkey species, (which is irrelevant to this discussion, sadly); in another, it was some sort of a local curiosity in a Chinese town; not very inspiring results, to be frank, but it’s par per course for FH – in this case, they took some exotic-sounding word and adapted it for their own uses. Bravo as always, I suppose.

…However, the new character’s trademark weapon – the Changdao – has proportionally more information about it. Like the Nodachi of Kensei from the Samurai faction, it is a two-handed single-edged long sword. Another oversized saber, really, but this one was used in the post-Medieval China, from the Ming to the Qing dynasties. A bigger cousin of the dao, it was used in elite infantry units, often against enemy cavalry, such as the Mongols. It will be interesting to see how Zhanhu and the Changdao will measure against Kensei and the Nodachi – when compared to the Nodachi, the Changdao had a shallower curve, especially in the real life. In FH? Who knows, and since we are not fully ready to return to real life, let us mention the DW – a S2 episode, ‘Ming Warriors vs. French Musketeers’, the dao was appropriately enough, the short-range weapon of the Ming Warriors; it was less effective than the Musketeers’ rapier & main gauche combo by a considerable margin… but this was still a less prejudiced and a more professional episode than the S3 starter, ‘George Washington vs. Napoleon Bonaparte’ episode. Probably because DW did not have some sort of a stake in ‘Warriors vs. Musketeers’ episode, unlike the S3 premiere episode instead.

What is next? Like the older four characters of the Wu Lin faction, Sun Da has no mask or some other façade/visage as many other characters in the other three factions. It can be played as either a male or a female, but that is not new either – the same story went down since the initial 12 characters, so no shock here either. Put frankly, when FH is forced to do something truly original, they make less of a confusion than when they try to outsource, as they did with the Zealot, for example. However, good for them with Zhanhu! (Real life still sucks though – my weekend was a clusterfuck, period, but this is a different story altogether).

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

FH: Hitokiri - April 27

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

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

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

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

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

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

FH: Shaolin, Tiandi, Jiang Jun - Oct 15

…Sometimes life gives you lemons even though you have no idea as to how to make lemonade. Sometimes it does give you lemonade instead, even though you were not expecting it, (or really needing it, truth be told). But – a silver lining on any cloud and so forth. Where were we?

Ah yes, FH has finally revealed all of its new characters. Let us look at them. We already discussed Nuxia yesterday; today we are beginning with the Shaolin monk – as opposed to a Hungarian short track speeder skater, whose last name is also Shaolin. Yeah, real life sometimes is simply bizarre. We have talked about him yesterday too, in regards to the hook swords – the gun staff was another one of his weapons, though it fell short of its’ Maori counterpart – a staff-slash-club. Seriously, there was no reason as to why Maori should not have won, and yet he lost the fight – but we talked about it yesterday too. The Shaolin monastery is also famous for its’ Kung Fu, but there was little of it in DW, and FH is all about the weapons, so it is doubtful that we will see any especial martial arts in the upcoming update. The Nuxia, of course, had some unusual moves, but then the hook swords are unusual, exotic weapons, so naturally her moves are unusual; the Shaolin’s are more straightforward…

Speaking of swords, next we got the Tiandi and his dao saber. Well, maybe it it’s the dao saber, but that’s what it looks like – the blade that was used by DW’s Ming Warriors, when they faced-off against the French Musketeers – and lost. Were the weapons mismatched? Not exactly; the Musketeers’ had more derived weapons, still not as good as the modern ones, but already more derived, reliable and better than the Ming Warriors’ were.

Any weirdness? Perhaps the fact that the face-off took place on a mountain pass of some sort that the Musketeers were storming, and the Ming were doing their best to hold them off; spoiler alert – they failed. The Musketeers won; their rapier triumphed over the saber, but it should be kept in mind that they also had a parrying dagger with them. Here is where DW would bend its’ own rules some – sometimes one team had ‘an extra’ weapon over the other team. The hosts didn’t really offer much justification, and even if they did, still having the Americans have 4 weapons, while the French had only 3, (the S3 premiere), for example, looked rather dishonest. The Americans love to win, but they prefer if it is done fairly…or at least not by obvious cheating, as it happened on DW. Then again, DW got its’ comeuppance – it is still cancelled these days, and there is no talk of it being rebooted. Pity, for it was a good show despite its’ flaws…but FH is filling its’ gap in the game world, at least.

Finally, we got the Jiang Jun. Apparently that is a literal name, not a title or whatever; it is the name of some mythical Chinese warrior or hero. His weapon is the guandao, which is the ancient Chinese version of the naginata used by team Samurai already – or the western glaive. The glaive’s main difference from a lance is that it was not used from horseback, but more on foot, against cavalry. It has a bigger tip than the lance does, and in case of both the naginata and the guandao, it is curved, more like a saber than a lance, rapier or spear, which are straight, and can stab instead.

This brings us to another Ubisoft game that was launched this year – their latest Assassin adventure. Apparently, Ubisoft hasn’t severed all of its’ ties with AWE Me YouTube series, as it had commissioned them to make the broken spear of king Leonidas, (featured in the 300 Spartans movie), and a khopis. The spear is a spear, save that its’ haft is broken, so it can be used as a sword or a rapier of some sort, while the khopis is a Greek adaptation of the traditional ancient Egyptian khopesh, which was a sickle-shaped blade, and according to some sources, the sharp edge was the inner, not the outer one, meaning that perhaps the khopesh was more like some sort of a military sickle than a saber.

The saber is mentioned here because the khopis was exactly that – a saber of the Antiquity. In DW’s S2, it was one of the weapons of Alexander the Great, put against Attila the Hun’s Sword of Mars, aka a longsword. Just think the Samurais’ nodachi (or katana), put against the Knights’, well, longsword. The difference is still there…and Alexander lost to Attila, but that face-off was one of the worst in DW from the technical point of view, (and that is unusual – usually DW had the technical side of things done completely right), so we will not go into it this time…

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

Reverie, 'Nice Guy' - June 14

On one hand, ‘Reverie’s’ new episode – ‘Nice Guy’ – was aired last night, and let us be honest: the series is growing more complex, but you can still see the AoS’ influence in its roots. ‘Reverie’ is doing its best to get away from them through rapid character growth and plot development, and it does a better job than Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ had. ‘InHumans’ hadn’t been a bad show, just insipid, and had bad PR problems from the start, even during the production stage, as did the current ‘Solo’ movie. ‘Reverie’ does not appear to have so many problems, but so far, it is a new show, untested, not overly popular, and – overly dramatic.

Plus, Sarah Shahi, who plays the main lead as Mara, is developing her own aura of weirdness – in the last episode, (‘Jane Bond’), the titular character, (the woman who was looking for her father and became a spy in the reverie), almost never appeared in the same shot, say – face to face – with Sarah. In this week’s episode, it was the wife of the titular character, Nate the ‘Nice Guy’, who also almost never appeared in the same shot as Sarah. What gives? Does Ms. Shahi not get along with the other women on the set, (something that might have also been true for AoS’ Daisy/Skye – Chloe Bennett), or is it some sort of ‘Reverie’s production gag? We will probably never know.

Also, Ms. Nate, the wife of the titular character, is supposed to be pregnant. She does not look pregnant at all. Yes, this is nitpicking, but Hollywood these days has suits for just such roles – couldn’t ‘Reverie’ get one? Just what kind of a budget are they working with?

…That is actually an interesting question: ‘Reverie’ does have special effects, but in a fairly dosed, controlled amount and so far, it seems to be not relying on them very much. On one hand, this is good; AoS showed that excessive CGI and special effects could be a bad thing, but on the other, given that ‘Reverie’ is not just a mystery drama, but a sci-fi one as well, this approach can backfire still. Again, we will just have to wait and see.

What we have already seen, instead, are the new characters of FH, and we were wrong – they are neither Saracens nor pirates, but rather ancient Chinese warriors, ancient being the time period here, rather than anything else. Do they work? So far, we only got the basics, but yes, they work as well as any of the already established FH characters.

…And who are they, the new characters? Undoubtedly, FH and Ubisoft™ will tell us more in the days for come, but even now, we know quite a few things from all the released material. There is the swordsman, the man with the falchion/saber. He is reminiscent of an assassin from the ‘Assassin’s Creed series, (also from Ubisoft™), done in an eastern/oriental style rather than the traditional one, and it works. Of course, the Assassin series also work, but they are a somewhat different game series from FH, so let us not compare the two – it’s like apples and oranges.

Second, is the monk with the quarterstaff. He is the Shaolin monk, so yes, he is a direct relative of the Shaolin monk from DW S1, and that deserves a mention of its own, for while the Shaolin monk did defeat his opponent, the Maori warrior, this victory was lopsided and weird, in a bad manner: the Shaolin won because his tiger-hook swords were superior to the Maori’s spear; this was the only Shaolin weapon that had the advantage, and it was a big one! Maybe even too big – in tests, the swords were not that overwhelming compared to the spear. As a result, when DW did the episode follow-up, as it always did, none from team Maori were there; it is unknown just what went behind the scenes during the making of this episode, but something certainly did.

Back to FH? The third member of team China uses these swords – she is probably the team’s assassin – and the last character uses a spear that is more like Nobushi’s naginata, rather than Valkyrie’s spear – a longer weapon that needs two arms to wield with a tip more designed for slicing than stabbing – so for now let’s call it a glaive to differentiate from the other weapons with reach.

This brings us to the rest of the differences. All of team China’s members have no masks, but open faces – something that only a few other characters have – Highlander and Shaman of the Vikings, and the Aramusha of the Samurai. This already sets the Chinese warriors apart from the rest, and as for the rest… FH has released, or is going to release, a new scenario – breaching the castle – and Warden of the Knights, at least, got a new look, one that’s rather reminiscent of Tolkien’s Sauron. What gives? Then again, FH is as much about the looks as it is about the content, so there must be some logical reason behind their decisions…

Well, that is it for the moment; see you all soon again!

For Honor: new characters - June 9

Warnings, spoilers ahead. Turn back, or go forth – we begin.

Firstly. FH has made a new declaration/promo – we see some Knights, (and maybe Vikings), in some Middle East land, complete with palm trees, and one of the Knights is about to be hit in the face with – a falchion. Not a nodachi, which is a sabre-like blade itself, but a genuine falchion, and the hand that holds it, seems to be dressed in some sort of Middle East fashion too. Neat!

…Or maybe it is a pirate – you know, XVII century pirate, armed with a cutlass. In DW, the pirate was the knight’s opponent, and the knight was armed with the weapons used by the team Knight of FH – the sword, the Morningstar, (in FH, it is called the flail instead), the halberd, (the poleaxe in FH, but the principle is the same). Ergo, it is possible that we are going to get pirates out of the PotC franchise, but that would mean official firearms – black powder weapons, but so far, FH did not have even those, so most people think that FH is introducing Saracens, or maybe Mamluks, next instead.

That makes more sense than PotC-like pirates do. Not only we are talking no firearms, (no more so than the Knights, who are out of the Crusade/pre-Crusade era than from a later time), but it would take care of the South neatly too. The Knights are the West, (Europe, that is), Vikings are the North, (just ask Thor from MCU), and the Samurais are the East, (duh). This leaves the South, and whom can you choose?

Africans, (not Afro-Americans, BTW)? In DW, in S2, the Zande warrior defeated the Aztec jaguar knight, even though the Jaguar knight had the deadliest weapon in that episode – the maquahuitl. Bet that you cannot say that word three times fast, but it was a greatclub, studded with razor-sharp flakes of obsidian, and it could decapitate a horse, yet the Zande warrior prevailed still – his other weapons carried him through, especially the kpinga, (one wonders what the Black Panther would think of that), points-wise. As it was written before, DW had a problem with its numbers/experts in some of its’ episodes, but in this one? Everything was fair, the experts were detached and reasonable, and the Zande warrior won. Only… he had no armor, and in S1, when Shaka Zulu went against William Wallace, he lost.

True, Shaka Zulu lost because he used a spit of poison against William Wallace’s spiked buckler and dagger combo, but the lack of armor did not help either, (DW S1 had been weird like this). FH has its characters all armored… the Gladiator has no armor, but as we’ve discussed it in the past, a gladiator was no knight, he was a pit fighter from the Roman Republic & Empire, which was located in southern Europe… right. Southern Europe is still Europe, and strictly speaking, south is either Africa, and the using of its’ native people by Westerners can become a PR nightmare very quickly, or the Mesoamerica, which brings us back to the Aztec jaguar knight – it was this guy and his friends. They were armored, but their armor was padded cotton mostly, so it just is not up to the standards of the armors used in FH, and they are important – just look at all the weekly FH updates and their pretty colors, would you?..

Nope, neither Africans nor Mesoamericans really function in the FH world, so we are probably stuck with Saracens, Mamluks, or whatever FH will call them. Maybe they will be Pirates instead, but it is too much of a stretch, actually. Anything else?

Couple of other points. One is that ‘Solo’ shows that Disney has maneuvered the SW universe, (at least its’ movies) into an area not unlike the one inhabited by such TV shows as ‘Roseanne’, ‘Gilmore Girls’, even ‘Fuller House’ and ‘Girl Meets World’ – they tried to coast into new glory on the back of the old, and it backfired on them; ‘Fuller House’ seems to have gotten over it somewhat, ‘Girl Meets World’ has ended on a higher note, ‘Roseanne’ – let us just not go there, and ‘Gilmore Girls’… not so much. ASP, who invented them in the first place, may not be a supporter of the Donald, but she clearly had ideas of how GG should end, and it showed in their four-part reboot, which did not quite mesh with the series’ initial finale, and it hurt the GG franchise. Not as much as Roseanne’s twit (or whatever) hurt the ‘Roseanne’ franchise, but it still rankled to a point where no next sequel is in plan for them. Will SW end up like this? We have discussed this already and will have to see what happens after ‘Solo’…

And secondly, in ‘Cloak & Dagger’ we’ve got the detective Brigid O’Reilly, and it matters not that she’s yet another stereotype, (even ‘Blindspot’ got over them in S3, regardless of its own problems), but she seems to be destined to become a vigilante from ‘Cloak & Dagger’ comic series named Mayhem. Considering that for now Marvel™ is downplaying the comic side of the ‘Cloak &Dagger’ equation, this statement might be somewhat premature to tell, we will have to wait and see what the future episodes of this series will bring us…

This is it for now…see you all soon!

PS: And ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ movie will be discussed some other time.

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Past Life' - Feb 3

AoS has taken a break for this February, what with the winter Olympics, and the ‘Black Panther’ movie and all. Where did they leave us?

The agents have returned to the present, the Kree seem to be all dead – though we never learned just how many of them there were, exactly – and the last of humans seem to be making a brand/great new world in the same old place…wait, what?

Here is the thing. MCU has been building this AoS episode, ‘Past Life’, to be something special – and then it shot itself in the foot instead. It actually began earlier in the week, when MCU’s news revealed that Dove Cameron will be appearing on the show as a new character – Ruby Hale, daughter of General Hale – who has a big fan girl crush on Daisy/Quake. This means that regardless of what the MCU clip of ‘Past Episode’ tried to play at, it was already shot in the foot – the Marvel fans knew that Chloe Bennett’s character, Daisy/Quake, is staying on the show, thus neutralizing the clip’s ominous atmosphere. Weird and depressing, but that is life. It does not have to be, not for MCU and AoS, but it is.

Fast forward to the ‘Past Life’ episode proper, and we have few things to think over. One is that Coulson chose one of the worse ways of bringing Daisy back to the present – by force. Basically, he took away her choices by ICIng her into unconsciousness and bringing her back into the present literally. Yes, ‘Past Life’ also did its best to show the impromptu family – Phil, Mel, and Daisy…but because Coulson and May’s relationship was all over the map in the show, the scene did not have quite the emotional impact it was going for, plus by now the audience knows that Daisy will forgive Coulson in the wrong run, though it would be nice if she made Coulson apologize, even if just for a tiny little scene.

While Coulson and May rescued Daisy by completely overriding, if not disregarding, her opinions as a person (and etc.), Yo-Yo had an adventure of her own: she found her alternate self. Few episodes ago, the audience learned as to what has happened to the agents in the original timeline; Yo-Yo, in particular, went to fight the Kree, (with one of their stabbing spears), and was never seen again. Now we learn as to what has happened to her: the Kree overpowered her, kept her prisoner, and tortured/forced her to tell them things from the past – and this was done several times already.

To elaborate. What the agents are caught is not exactly a time loop, more like a time horseshoe, with Robin in the centre. Thanks to Robin and Enoch, (and how did team Enoch have a workable Kree Monolith ready to apprehend Coulson and his team except for Fitz?), the agents get to travel to the future twice – once with the Monolith back, twice as ordinary people – by going directly through the time stream, facing the future as it becomes the present, and later on – the past. …I am sure that the FitzSimmons could have explained it zillion times better and clearer, but they are not here. They are fiction. Real life sucks.

…Getting back from the philosophies, what about the action? As Yo-Yo the Younger was leaving Yo-Yo the Elder, she ran into Kasius and a couple of his minions, and…was overpowered? On the show, what we saw was this. Mack went into the arena, where he was confronted by the Kree, and saw Kasius killing Yo-Yo – the Elder, as judging by the clothes. Then Kasius drank the berserker bug juice and went to fight Mack, beating the daylight out of him long enough for Jemma to come to the rescue by sticking one of those deafness-causing devices into Kasius’ ear, which disoriented Kasius long enough for Mack to get to his axe-gun and stab Kasius to the death.

That is right. Kasius was stabbed to death with an axe.

Here is the bizarre bit. The axe part of Mack’s weapon is reminiscent of a weapon like the berdiche used by Ivan the Terrible’s people in DW S3, a great-axe in game terms, or if you want to think in FH terms – the Dane-axe used by the Viking Raider. It really is not built for stabbing, Mack should have gone for the good old decapitation instead – or instead of an axe, he crossbred his gun with a bloody halberd – or as FH calls it, the poleaxe, (used by the Lawbringer of the Knights). Unlike the berdiche, the halberd has an axe-blade in the front, a spike on top, and a hook in the middle – a more versatile weapon of the two. It was the only weapon, (not talking about firearms, here), that DW had in all of its’ 3 seasons – the halberd was that good.

….The Kree melee weapon of choice, incidentally, resembles a glaive or even a naginata – a slicing spear, used by the Nobushi of Samurai in FH…but we digress.

And so, Mack won with Jemma’s help – and Yo-Yo immediately ran in to her hero. Again, racial stereotyping, though not very extreme or noticeable. What should be noted is, firstly, this was Mack’s moment to shine, and he did not. In yet another earlier episode, Gryll, (later killed by Flint), made a big point of calling Mack ‘a beast’, and Yo-Yo made an equally big point of telling Mack that he wasn’t. Here, in ‘Past Life’, AoS actually had a perfect opportunity of having Mack struggle with those two views of himself and reconcile this inner controversy of his, and triumph, at least morally, by being a better person than Kasius was – and that never happened. Instead, we had a completely unnecessary fight…and some shifty behavior from Yo-Yo. (Yo-Yos?) Seriously, she is a better fighter than Jemma is, (no offence to Jemma), maybe even than Mack, but…she did not help. Why?

Yes, there were Kree with Kasius, but Mack gunned them down rather easily – AoS never got to flesh out the Kree fully during the time that the agents were in that dystopian future, so there was no reason as to why Yo-Yo could not help, but she did not. Another plot hole? Or a sign of another plot twist to come?

And finally – just what will happen to the humanity now that the Kree are dead and the agents have left back for their own time? Yes, they won their freedom, and are now free to live…exactly how they did before, on a desolate planet, in a lighthouse, with xenomorphs that not even the Kree could properly and fully control…yeah. Not the fairy tale ending you expected to have, (and why did Tess and Flint end up together? So that AoS could have a ‘proper’ interracial relationship, no matter how token, at last? Cloak & Dagger are so impressed!) Frankly, you could’ve had a final 5^th season with the agents staying in the future and becoming a part of a new hope, (yes, there were some SW associations, the way that Deke and Enoch perished was reminiscent of the ‘Rogue One’ movie, for example), but instead…we’re going to get something else.

And why this season may be the last? Because Coulson is dying, apparently, and now that he has a limited time left to live, he got to wrap some things up, yeah? And Daisy may yet end up the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. – a new S.H.I.E.L.D. since the old one is gone for good.

…Unless, of course, what Coulson is actually dying off is old age, and he still got several decades left in him instead – he just has not figured it out yet. Either way, ‘Past Life’ was good, but it could have been great, if not for some RL factors. See you all soon, then!

Runaways: Destiny - Nov 30

The third episode of ‘Runaways’ got aired (on TV and otherwise), and what can be said about it?

Deviations from the comics abound, and if this is how things will keep going, then we can safely speak about a separate universe from the ‘Runaways’ comic-verse. The TV/web-TV series continues to loosely follow the main comic plotline, but are continuing to create something that is more original than otherwise.

Again, is that bad? As it was already commented in the review of the first two episodes, by now MCU has developed and implemented several strategies when it comes to canon vs. original content in its’ TV shows. AoS is original, period: it does introduce canon characters, (as do the MCU movies proper) but in new, original ways; the show’s plotline in the end is its own. This is a good thing, but AoS does not have too good a grip on it, and so its’ numbers have fallen – the viewers, the ratings, etc. This is AoS’ fault; AC had something similar during its run, but it managed to do so more coherently than AoS did…but it was the one show that got cancelled. Go figure.

Conversely, ‘Gifted’, (as well as ‘Legion’, probably) has some canonical characters (at least), but it is set in a completely original, different setting…basically, the same thing that AoS, (and AC – even more so) did, just in ways that still keep the audience enthralled; fast pace of the series, and the intense conflict that is the main plot-driving device helps. ‘Runaways’ doesn’t have it, period.

No, ‘Runaways’ aren’t a ‘teenage soap opera’ according to some reviews, at least. That will probably be more of ‘Cloak & Dagger’ thing – that show comes to Hulu in 2018, next year. It will feature two teenage superheroes, the titular Cloak and Dagger – an Afro-American young man who has a cloak of shadows and an Anglo-American woman who generates daggers of light. Together, they fight crime…and even in canon, there was some soap opera/drama elements to their tale; what will Hulu do to their story remains to be seen. But ‘Runaways’? They are a soap operate, just not a teenage one – a family one: the parents have as much drama as their children do, if not more.

Now this probably reminds one of ‘Riverdale’ the TV series, only ‘Riverdale’ is based on ‘Archies’ comic series, and unlike Marvel™ or DC™ ‘Archies’ never had any specific canon; their comics were, or are, mostly one-shots that weren’t really connected to each other, plot-wise. These days, this situation has changed, to some extent, but still, ‘Archies’ don’t keep all of their eggs in one basket; i.e., ‘Riverdale’ is only a part of their franchise, and a distinct one – but we got sidelined.

Unlike the other shows mentioned so far, ‘Runaways’ it trying to be both – remain true to the original plotline of the comics, and be original. The result is unusual – a mixture of sorts, but is it ‘the best of both worlds’?

…It is always possible to sit on both chairs for a while, but only for a while. Then we enter the FH territory, with its’ Shaman, who is armed not so much with a hatchet and a dagger, but rather with a hatchet, (or a hand-axe), and a kukri. The latter is something intermediate between a proper dagger and a short sword, a weapon that can not just stab, but also slice – it was featured in the penultimate DW episode, as a Gurkha weapon, when the latter went against the French Foreign Legion (FFL). WWII settings aside, that was a good DW episode, but the point is that the kukri is decisively not a Viking weapon, so how does it fit into the FH universe?

…And the same can be said about the Centurion and the Gladiator of the FH’s Knights’ faction, as it was discussed earlier: FH has clearly strained into the outer margins of its initial idea – knights vs. Vikings vs. samurai. They now have to go back to what they had, or abandon the old entirely, and go for the new. Since so far their main updates are various suits and armor designs, (for example, the Vikings now have an owl motif named the ‘night raptor’ or something similar), they will probably do neither, but end up worse, (respectively) than AoS has had by the end of S4 – and ‘Runaways’ are going down the same route as FH has had: sooner or later they will have to turn back to the old plot, or go somewhere entirely new, (but then they won’t be ‘Runaways’ anymore, technically speaking), or continue to straddle the line, eventually failing on both sides – but many seasons can pass before this actually happens, and in the meanwhile? We will be watching.

Well, that is it for today; see you next time!

For Honor: Aramusha and Knight - Nov 9

FH has finally released its latest heroes, the Aramusha and the Shaman, fully. What can be said about them?

As we have talked about them the last time, the ‘Aramusha’ means a fierce warrior, which is a fairly basic description, when you think about it: which warrior, especially in FH, isn’t fierce? Today, however, we heard the full promo – and now we know that for FH the Aramusha is a ronin, aka a masterless samurai.

To elaborate, in RL history samurais were knights of ancient and Medieval Japan, serving a noble lord – in theory. In practice, most of them ended up unemployed for a part of their lives at least, and were named ronin – masterless. Such masterless or unemployed samurai wandered the lands of Japan, ready to work for anyone for money or food and board, doing anything…but usually something military, because the samurai were the professional military class of the feudal Japan, just as the knights were of the feudal Europe.

So far so good, but if the European kings, emperors, lords and popes usually sent their knights, (especially the poorer ones) to fight abroad, especially in the Crusades in the Middle East and in similar undertakings in eastern Europe, keeping them under control, and their numbers down, their Japanese counterparts…didn’t, and as a result feudal Japan had plenty of professional warriors in its lands that were ready, eager and/or desperate to join in any civil mischief/uprising and make it worse/more intense, because professional warriors, remember? Consequently, feudal Japan was much more tempestuous and unpredictable than feudal Europe was…for a time. Then it all changed…and it can be noted that the European system of dealing with unruly and sometimes landless knights didn’t always work – from the Middle East came the Templars – yes, those Templars, which caused a lot of trouble in western Europe…and might’ve become the Illuminati…but we’re going conspiracy theory here, which isn’t good or healthy.

And in eastern Europe? The knights failed there too, though perhaps not as spectacularly, and vanished without a trace from history again. At least the samurai left a spiritual legacy to their descendants, which has caused no end of trouble for the Sino-American relationships in WWII and beyond – the two countries do not always get along, no matter what both of them would say…

However, this is RL. What about FH?

In FH, the question here is why the ronin is called an Aramusha instead? A rose by any other name and all that – but before get into it, let us talk about the Shaman also.

…As it was said before, the Shaman may be a part of the Viking faction, but in FH, s/he is also a Native North American stereotype, and the weapons do not disavow this motion either. The Aramusha is armed with two katanas – the Japanese version of the longsword that requires just one arm to wield, unlike the nodachi or the claymore, for comparison, which require two. This puts the Aramusha right next the Orochi, who, admittedly, uses only one katana, a fact that is so convincing to players, undoubtedly.

…And on the other hand, we got the Shaman, who is armed with a dagger and a hatchet/hand-ax, more similar, especially in size, to the ones used by the Berserker than the Dane-ax used by the Raider. This is not the worst idea the game designers could have come-up with, but-

Why a Shaman? A Shaman is a religious person, a priestess or a priest, in a non-European tradition, (especially of Native Americans and Asians). So how exactly did the Shaman in question become a ‘Viking assassin class’? Leaving aside the fact that contemporary Native Americans tend to view this sort of their depiction with dissatisfaction and are able to protect their legal rights quite well, where exactly, in what imaginary depths, did a ‘Viking assassin’ become associated with a Shaman?

Here is the thing – imagination, especially when it comes to mass media – online games, TV series, movies, etc., can be tricky. Just look at the ‘Dark Universe’ – it was supposed to be some sort of a response to MCU & DCEU, but with movie monsters, (including Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman). Sadly, after the first movie, (yet another ‘Mummy’ reboot), this idea half-stalled and recently has fallen apart completely. There will be other monster movies, (a ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ reboot is in the works), but they will not be a part of a shared universe, that is shelved, for now. Minus one for imagination, here.

Or take the upcoming SW8 film. The previous, SW7, was already rather lackluster by SW standards, ‘Rogue 1’ was the better film out of the two, but the point is, SW8 will be introducing yet another ‘new’ character, Rose Tico, as a possible love interest for Finn.

Here is the thing – Rose is Asian, Finn is Afro-American, whereas Rey and Kylo Ren are WASPS – and the last two are supposed to be/become a couple. Unfortunately, as far as many people are concerned, Kylo and Rey showed zero romantic interest in each other, (though plenty of the other sort), while Rey and Finn had plenty of romantic interest between each other. The problem is, Rey is the female lead, while Finn is a sidekick, plus there is the entire racial issue.

To clarify: the racial issue exists in Hollywood, whose inhabitants ruminate on it long and hard, about as much as politicians from D.C. do. In real life, there is no issue, aside from what some morons make about it. One of them may have become the current president of the U.S., but so far, there is no indication that even that character is actually racist, because if he was, the press would have ferreted it out by now – but no, he is just an overly horrid person, it seems. However, SW has nothing with RL, (duh!), so there are issues; there is already an Afro-American actor playing a role of importance, (does anyone remember Lando Calrissian, anyone?), so let us give him an Asian-American love interest as well.

The problem here is not just racial, it is the cliché – in movies and on TV WASPs tend to get paired-up with other WASPs, and POCs – also with each other. When there is an exception to the rule, such as on ‘Remedy’ as an example, they do not always last, (the couple on ‘Remedy’ broke up by the end of S2, and the show itself got cancelled not long after). Basically, when it comes to relationships, Hollywood and co. (‘Remedy’ was a Canadian show, actually), are clichéd and unimaginative – kind of how the FH creative team was with the Shaman. With the Aramusha, they might have gotten ‘too clever’ instead, and unnecessarily so: when push comes to shove, ‘Ronin’ can be as good as a label as ‘Orochi’ is, for example.

Moreover, as for the weapons… The Aramusha has the same katana(s) as the Orochi does – this is the first time FH repeated a weapon; it might be a landmark but not a good one – and the Shaman’s weapons are a part of the character’s image problem, which was discussed earlier…

So, there you have it: a ronin by unnecessarily different name, a Native American/Asian mystic that has even less ties to Vikings than a Centurion and a Gladiator have to the Knights, and a possible creativity problem in FH in general. See you all next time!

For Honor: Order and Havoc - Nov 2

It came to pass, that FH is going to have yet another update/season – its’ fourth so far. Yay?

Well, its’ problems haven’t gone away – but I’m not talking about the technical issues or about the matters with its’ story line: I want to talk some about the latest two new characters that will be appearing in the FH universe – the Aramusha and the Shaman.

First, the Aramusha. It is a part of team Samurai, and…I have no idea of what it means. No, actually, I do – it means ‘fierce warrior’ in Japanese, and is a more generic term than a ‘kensai’ or a ‘shinobi’ would be. Ergo, this means that the Aramusha is designed (was designed?) with a more generic, basic standard in mind than the Highlander or the Gladiator were; it is a much more generic and fundamental stereotype, and that makes it had to like him, because of that. Again, how you will be able to play him is another matter, but so far, the Aramusha does come across less exciting than the Highlander was, for example.

And as for the Shaman…look. A shaman is a religious figure, not exactly a priest, or rather – yes, s/he is a holy person, but specifically in a non-European tradition, which includes the Vikings – the European traditions, I mean. A Viking Shaman…it can work, but not necessarily, and as J. R.’s foray into Native American culture in order to further fuel her new works – aka Newt Scamander and the pre-Harry Potter era – showed that Native North Americans, at least, are on alert when it comes to their interests, however remotely, and as such, if FH isn’t careful, it can be accused of being racist, or racially insensitive, or something similar that it doesn’t need, either. And moreover…

Moreover, this shows that FH continues to have issues with creativity. Its’ storytelling mode was one of its’ weakest points from the start, and ever since this issue did not get better, but probably worse. Even the Centurion, ‘back when’, showed signs that the FH creative teams had issues in expressing as to what the game sought to achieve initially; now we have yet another character in the Vikings, which, historically, had nothing to do with the Vikings, and another character in the Samurais that is so generic, that it is the same problem as the one with the Vikings & the Shaman, just from the opposite side…

End rant for now, more on this when more details on the Aramusha and the Shaman will become known… Until next time!

For Honor: Centurion & Shinobi

More about ‘For Honor’.

To wit, I finally saw the promotional videos of the Centurion and the Shinobi, and-

Well, the Centurion appears to be something of a hybrid between, well, an ancient Roman soldier and a gladiator, complete with a facial mask. He fights with a gladius, which is short, but broad, sword, and an armored fist. The gladius was one of the oldest swords, it may be a direct and an immediate descendant of the so-called Iron Age sword, which is probably the oldest sword of Europe, and it was a very versatile weapon: it could chop, it could slice, it could cut and stab, as it was shown in the S2 of DW – ‘Roman Centurion vs. Rajput Warrior’. This is one of the better DW episodes ever, as it showed the ad- and dis-advantages of both cultures, to wit that the Romans fought better as a group – say, an army, while their opponents, such as the Celts and the Teutons fought better one-on-one…which is why the Rajput won that battle (it was one-on-one). The Romans fought as a shield wall, they possibly had invented the tower shield, (compare the Centurion’s shield from DW with that of the Spartan from DW S1, when the Spartan defeated the Ninja, aka the Shinobi, and you will see the difference). They led with the shields and followed with their swords, allowing their enemies to break upon the Roman wall of steel.

The flip side, of course, is that individually the Roman military was much worse than their ‘barbaric’ opponents which is why so many of the gladiators weren’t ethnically Roman, but foreigners instead, (gladiator battles were often fought one-on-one or in small groups, duh!)…

As the promo video shows, the FH Centurion is exactly the opposite of RL history – it is an individualistic fighter armed with nothing but a short sword and a gladiator-like armor, (and yes, the word ‘gladiator’ is probably derived from the word ‘gladius’, RL grammar history rocks, sometimes). There is a direct statement that the Centurion fights for an ‘empire’, but whether or not it is for the Roman (Byzantine?) Empire, is another story, and given that in FH the storytelling is its’ weakest aspect, I am not expecting too much from this side, information or otherwise.

As for the Shinobi… Again, we’re dealing with a Ninja, albeit one that is more robust than how the Ninja are usually depicted and dressed much more colorfully than what is stereotypically expected, and is armed with a kusarigama, which is something else.

Well, in reality it was a sickle, a farmer’s tool that some enterprising and inventive soul opted to attach a ball on a chain, not unlike that of a Morningstar or a flail. The result is an impressive, versatile, and dangerous weapon, and FH’s Shinobi wields it with pride. Of course, so did its’ DW counterpart, but it still lost to the Spartan…but that was because DW was kind of naïve in its first season, and it tried to utilize such ‘alternative’ weapons as black eggs – to wit, hollowed, empty eggs, filled with powdered glass, or pepper, or something similar. Such weapons were not ineffective, but they scored no kills, zero kills, (officially), so the warriors who utilized them, lost to their opponents – always. FH seems to have nothing like this, so their Shinobi/Ninja is proportionally more formidable than DW’s used to be.

As for the Shinobi fitting in with the rest of Samurai… I have a feeling that FH is beginning to make the new classes purposefully different from the old ones; we have the Centurion defeating the Peacekeeper (both are Knights) at the very least, and I think something similar is happening with the Shinobi and the rest of ‘team Samurai’: he is ‘related’ to them, but stands apart from the ‘original four’. Again, we will have to wait and see as to what FH will do with that…

So, that’s it for now, two new classes for FH, coming on May 16, 2017; we will just have to wait and see if the Vikings will have someone new for them as well…

AFO & For Honor VIII - Feb 13

With all the excitement of fictional TV shows old and new, I neglected AFO – but not really. 

Recently I have rewatched yet another one of its episodes – ‘Gorilla vs. Leopard’, and several things hit me this time.

Firstly, why did the leopard have to fight the gorilla? Whereas the tiger is found only in Asia, and lions live in Africa – and also in one tiny spot in India – the leopard is found on both of these continents; it is a more versatile cat than either of them, so why is it that the nature documentaries depict the leopard only as an African cat?

Maybe it is because the Western world views Africa and Asia in two different ways, these days. For the West, Africa remains wild and challenging in this sort of way; almost like ‘the Old West’ cliché of the American fiction (not sure about the European, though). Asia, these days, is certainly not – rather, that is where the new big business lies, the hope for the future civilization lies, etc. The leopard has no place there – pity that no one has told that to the leopards, who are actually making a living alongside people, as racoons do in North America and red foxes in Europe – but the leopard has a much bigger punch than either of them, speaking both metaphorically and literally.

Yes, the African population of leopards is probably bigger than that in Asia; yes, the African leopards have greater swathes of wild habitat to live in, but still. The last time someone talked about the Asian leopards properly and in detail was the National Geographic magazine, in December 2015, when they published an article on leopards – on all of the leopards, African and Asian. Given how humans treat the rest of the planet, including the big cats, it is about time that someone did that! (I.e. publish the article and bring the public’s attention to the big cat issue).

…Wait. This doesn’t have anything to do with AFO; you can just as well go on a tangent about how the apes have a similar situation to the big cats: gorillas and chimpanzees are found only in Africa, orangutans and gibbons, (called the lesser apes by the scientists in modern times) – only in Asia. True. One can also get back onto the proper topic by pointing out that the real reason why ‘Gorilla vs. Leopard’ episode was so problematic is because the two animals in question was so different, a fact that the show itself had to admit in passing…so why did the leopard lose?

Let us step back from AFO for a moment and return to ‘For Honor’. After making the nodachi sword for Kensai, the ‘Man at Arms’ group at ‘AWE ME’ channel made…not Warlord’s Viking sword as I expected, but the Dane axe of Raider. The process of making the axe was interesting, the ‘field testing’ even more so. Unlike the nodachi, which was a slicing weapon, the Dane axe also smashed – through bricks and the like. Thus?

Well, here lies a difference between Viking and Samurai methods of fighting in the game. The nodachi itself is not a light weapon, just as with the Dane axe, you have to use two hands to wield it, (hence why the Westerners called their version of this blade a greatsword), but still, it is thin. It is sharp, it is strong and resilient, but it is thin. The Dane axe is not – yes, its’ cutting end is thin, but everything else about it is thick. If the nodachi struck you with a flat side, it would still sting, but you would be safe. If the Dane axe hit you, you would still be knocked prone, probably with several broken bones too. The Vikings, of course, did not let such facts of life stop them, they were that bad ass, but this point still has to be made. Unlike the nodachi, in fact, unlike even the Viking sword, the Dane axe could be used not just as a weapon of war, but also as an axe, used to cut down trees or whatever. Hence, why it is different from the nodachi; also – how is it different, too.

So, how does this bring us back to AFO? Let us look at the gorilla and the leopard once again. The leopard is a killer and kills monkeys and apes, including humans and gorillas; the gorilla is not. It isn’t really a fighter either, the fights between silverbacks (mature gorilla males) tend not to end in violence; flatly, the gorilla is a much more peaceful animals than its’ cousins, humans and chimpanzees, are. So, why did the gorilla win?

Let us return to the Vikings’ Dane axe. When DW has put the Viking against the Samurai in S1, the put the Samurai katana against the Viking sword; but the Viking axe was put against the Samurai kanabo – a wooden club with iron rivets stuck on it. As DW showed in its own experiments, the Viking axe was powerful and heavy, but the kanabo was more so. (In ‘For Honor’, the kanabo is the weapon of the Shugoku, remember?) That was one of the reasons why the Viking lost in DW – but lost it fairly.

…Of course, throughout S1, DW did make a point to judge it all fairly – and it did so, (save for the ‘Shaolin Monk vs. Maori Warrior’ episode, but that is another story). Sadly, this fairness revealed that the American Green Berets were worse than the Soviet/Russian Spetznaz, so post S1 DW did its’ best to be prejudiced instead, so after S3, when George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Lawrence of Arabia, the show got cancelled – for the lack of funds, (and maybe sponsors): the Americans aren’t that dumb to believe that sort of propaganda – and we’re talking about a nation who says that most of its’ evil immigrants come not from the South, Mexico, from the North, Canada – so the DW cancellation was just sad. Prejudice just does not deliver in the long term.

The same goes to AFO, only because it was depicting animals, rather than people, it was less obvious, but the principle was the same. That is why the gorilla won its’ face-off, and the anaconda – with the jaguar. (According to Luke Hunter, the giant otters of South America sometimes eat anacondas, and honestly, they tend to stay away from jaguars instead). Not because they were more efficient fighters/killers/etc., but because the cast of the show decided it so. DW used real actors; AFO – CGI’d animals and robot models, so AFO’s prejudice was less obvious, again, but the end result was the same: both shows got cancelled.

And ‘For Honor’? ‘For Honor’ is a computer game, not a TV show, so it is subjected to a different set of standards – and as such, it is a different story.

Powerless & For Honor VII - Feb 9

And so it happened that ‘Powerless’ has found its’ stripes – sort of. Tonight’s episode, (‘Wayne’s Dream Team’?) was a typical sitcom about a work place; there was very little superhero element, mostly in the beginning and concluding scenes. In addition, yes, apparently ‘THE superhero’ of Charm City is the Crimson Fox. Go her.

Anything else? Well, for all of its flaws, ‘Powerless’ is still strong than AoS, despite AoS being an older and (supposedly) more ‘robust’ show by far. All is learned by comparison, in March there is going to be a comedy – ‘Making History’ or something similar – which makes ‘Powerless’ look really good, sophisticated, and clever.

An aside: yes, TV shows inspire one another; AoS’ itself has inspired several series, including ‘Blindspot’ and ‘Dark Matter’ (a sci-fi TV show set in space). DCEU’s LoT has done the same thing – by now, there are several TV shows that deal with time travel in different ways; ‘Making History’s’ approach is that of comedy that makes ‘Powerless’ look good – and we are talking about promo videos that are supposed to entice people into viewing the show in question. Of course, ‘Powerless’ approaches this topic with its own flaws: apparently it is just skipping them and airing itself on Thursday evenings, (at least in Canada). Not cool, but it is the call, period.

Of course, in real life the relationship between U.S. and the rest of the world continues to twist and turn: today there were news about twenty or so American refugees who got into Canada (the province of Manitoba) on foot – and keep in mind that winters in the Canadian prairies is not something to be toughened out, period. Guess they wanted to get out of America that badly; guess currently U.S. sucks that much.

In other news, this week people learned about all of the playable characters in ‘For Honor’ – all of them, except for the Lawbringer of the Knights and the Valkyrie of the Vikings: this is good, but a curious point: the sword of the Vikings’ Warlord is supposed to be a gladius? Weird.

Here is the weird part. The gladius was the sword of the Roman Empire; in DW, the Roman Centurion wielded it in S2. It was a short, broad sword, unlike the khanda sword of the Rajput warrior who fought the centurion in DW, easy to wield, but—

But the Roman army fought as a cohesive unit; they were more flexible than the Greek phalanx was, (think the Spartan in DW S1), but regardless, there was not individuality on the level of the Rajput – or the various Celtic people that lived beyond the borders of the Roman Empire. DW had shown a Celtic warrior in S2 too; his weapon was the longsword, so hello, Warden of ‘For Honor’, we will get to you in a bit.

To finish with the Romans, for most of their history, they preferred to use their short, broad swords in combo with their shields, which were much bigger and stronger than those of their barbarian neighbours were. Pushing with their shields and stabbing with their swords in close melee, the Romans’ military tactics were different from their neighbours, who often preferred to use one-on-one combat in their battles; they used much bigger, longer and heavier swords than the Romans did – and that included the Vikings; (just look at their weapons in ‘Vikings’ of History channel, if you want).

Enter Warlord, technically speaking. ‘For Honor’ may be just a video game, but it is a very good video game; they went the extra mile to make their playable characters unique, each with their own signature weapon. Thus, the choice of ‘gladius’ is surprising, because the Vikings had their own sword – the so-called Viking sword.

It was one of the oldest sword designs in the post-antique Europe; it was built to slash and slice, rather than to stab. William the Conqueror in DW’s S3 used it against Joan of Arc, who was armed with an arming sword instead.

The arming sword was the next step in European sword evolution: as DW has shown, it was designed to stab as well as to slash, so a completely different set of moves was taught/learned to use this blade properly. The longsword of Warden in ‘For Honor’ came next, thus it is more advanced than the sword of Warlord, and if you ever have the two of them fight, (which probably happens fairly often with all the beta testing that ‘For Honor’ is having before the big reveal later this month), you can see the difference between the two swords; the blade of Warden is much longer and heavier than that of Warlord.

The Japanese – to stay on topic of both swords and ‘For Honor’ – have done something similar; for example, the nodachi – or the greatsword – used by Kensai is older and less advanced than the katana – or the longsword – of Orochi.

…Let’s put swords aside for the moment, and point out that ‘For Honor’ has also tried to give backstories to its’ factions. The Knights are spreading into Ashfield in order to recolonize and rejuvenate the legacy of their ancestors (the ancient Romans?). The Samurai are building their empire in Myre after losing their homeland (Japan?) to water and fire. (So, the universe of ‘For Honor’ doesn’t have Japan? Now that is an interesting idea for a fantasy). And the Vikings have come to Vallenheim also to rebuild anew – something went wrong with their new home too (a reference to Vinland, maybe?). In addition, they seem to be the naval power among the three – so maybe the final product will have some naval battles too?

So, that’s it for tonight; so you all soon with something less trivia-like than just sword history and evolution (hopefully).

For Honor VI

…While AoS continues on ahead, as do other old shows, of course, joined by such new ones, as ‘Riverdale’ and ‘Powerless’, ‘For Honor’ goes on as well, as do other games, of course, but—

However, ‘For Honor’ seems to be diversifying, so to speak. Last week, the ‘DYI Cosplay Shop’ has released a video that shows the process, or the instructions, of how to make your very own Peacekeeper costume. If anyone is still confused, the Peacekeeper here is one of the Knights’ characters, an assassin wielding two swords, and looking kind of Umberto Eco here. Now, ‘Man at Arms’ have brought forth the Kensai’s sword – the nodachi.

Now, as I have probably written some time earlier, the nodachi was Japan’s version of the greatsword, unlike the better-known katana, which was Japan’s answer to the longsword. The main difference between the two weapons was the size: you needed two hands to wield the greatsword (or the nodachi), while for the longsword (or the katana) one hand would do. If you look at the intros of the Kensai and the Orochi in the game, you will see that difference.

Beyond that, it should be noted that when creating the nodachi, the Japanese remained true to themselves: while the Western swords are designed not so much for slicing as for stabbing, for the Japanese the reverse is true. In the Western terminology, the design of the nodachi would probably cause them to call it a sabre, rather than a sword… does anyone care about this in this day and age, facing with a game? (Instead of a real life blade coming at them in the real world?)

This probably brings us to the game mechanics. The Peacekeeper is a fast character, using speed and precision to defeat its’ opponents. (I am using ‘it’ because by now most of the PC characters in ‘For Honor’ can be customized into being either male or female. Hah). The Kensai also uses precision, (actually, I think that most of the characters of ‘For Honor’ do, BTW), but his nodachi/greatsword also uses momentum, as it was shown in a clip of the Kensai going five rounds with the Nobushi, who uses the naginata instead. Both of them tried to end each round quickly, but whereas the Nobushi was versatile, the Kensai was less so; this character is generally slower than the Nobushi or the Peacekeeper in question are. (That was the intent, BTW).

Back to the real world? ‘DIY’, as well as ‘Man at Arms’ and a few other similar groups are a part of the ‘Awe Me’ YouTube channel, which promotes all sort of cool things. ‘Man at Arms’, in particular, have done something similar to the ‘For Honor’ nodachi with the ‘Battlefield 1’ jambiya dagger and trench club. (The latter is self-explanatory, the former was a specialized dagger, also curved and designed for slicing, rather than just for stabbing; it appeared in DW S3 as one of Lawrence of Arabia’s weapons)… Put otherwise, more power to them.

So: ‘For Honor’s’ next big breakthrough is in a matter of days, on February 14. They are already putting an extra mile in contacting – and contracting – ‘Awe Me’ group. Good luck to them, and – I can hardly wait for the next development. 

The Librarians - Jan 22

‘The Librarians 2014’ S3 has ended. It was good, as ‘The Librarians’ were before, the only issue was the limited budget and special effects, but otherwise? It was still good. Not too scary, not too childish, the titular heroes saved the day, Apep is gone, as is the rest of pure evil that he tried to conjure up, (it was just shown as a generic black smoke cloud, with some blue lightning – not very evil, actually), and DOSA will probably disband…or at the very least, it won’t be mentioned, (or be making appearance) in S4 at all. (Or maybe it will, if ‘The Librarians’ need some sort of a villain that isn’t very original – it could happen).

‘The Librarians’ are a good show, but neither are they ‘that’ good. You can watch them when they return in S4, (if they do – this sort of thing is fickle), or you may not, it all comes down to your taste. ‘The Librarians’ don’t captivate; they entertain and amuse, and sometimes this isn’t enough.

…Oh sure, they have tried changing the formula here, as I written regarding the previous episode, but they did it in a half-hearted way; Ezekiel’s new love interest Cindy has disappeared, completely, and Charlene seems to be coming and going sporadically, playing only a minor role here. Odds are, the limited budget affects more than just the special effects…

…Also ending is ‘Salem’ the series. It was a very good horror show, and it will be missed, but to counterbalance it, I suppose, ‘Riverdale’ is coming to TV – mainly to the CW, but still. As I have also written before, it is yet another adaptation of ‘Archies’, this one with plenty of changes, especially secondary ones, but the main character depictions are the same, although if Archie ends up with a new and younger Ms. Grundy, now that will be a plot twist.

…The truth is that ‘Archies’ regularly tries to go beyond its’ comic book limits. Aside from the already mentioned ‘STTW’, that didn’t really have any characters beyond the ‘Sabrina’-related ones, but was still set in Riverdale, there had been an ‘Archie and friends’ cartoon show, where the gang was in junior high school rather than high school, and Dilton was replaced by his Afro-American counterpart named Eugene. I think that it vanished after a single season.

‘Archie’s Weird Mysteries’ lasted for 3 seasons. It was another cartoon, one about the supernatural – ghouls, werewolves, especially vampires – and its’ episodes usually held some sort of a moral lesson for the viewers. Other cartoons, like ‘Guardians of Legends’, also tried the same approach; at least AWM didn’t go for specifically Christian values as ‘Guardians’ did, even though the latter were actually about Greek myths, (and mangled them terribly, especially the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Argonauts’ story arcs); plus ‘Guardians’ had aired their S2 before S1, so nowadays they are found mostly on the Internet, and they aren’t very popular.

With AWM it is somewhat different – ‘Archies’ is deliberately keeping AWM off YouTube and the like; they really don’t like to share, which makes ‘Riverdale’ only more surprising – this is a major breakthrough for them, especially now. Of course, it should be remembered that ‘Archies’ do best with a limited series, such as ‘Archie vs. Predator’, (yeah, that predator), while when it tries to do something longer, like the series where a grown-up version of Archie married Betty in universe, and Veronica in another, the result just fizzles out, as that particular series had. Who knows if ‘Riverdale’ will not experience something similar?

Finally, ‘For Honor’ is also beginning to beta tested for real this January. As people know now, it is going to be a platform game with three factions – the Samurais, the Vikings, and the Knights. On one hand, all three factions may fight for the sake of it, (it is this sort of game, after all), on the other – there were spoilers of an official Apollyon game path, where the titular villain plans to set off ‘an age of war’ between the three nations, so there is that. Maybe this game path will be beta-tested too.

So that is it for tonight; I will see you all soon, probably with another AoS review, yeah?

S.H.I.E.L.D., Patriot - Jan 17

‘The Patriot’ was aired yesterday; was it good?

On a certain, technical, level – yeah. ‘The Patriot’ promoted the series plot further; it gave Jeffrey Mace, (the titular patriot, technically speaking), character development, and it brought back general Talbot…

Well, actually, it brought back Hydra. Right now, they are still not back to being 100%; they are still being dominated/integrated into the Watchdogs, (and is anyone surprised? Really?), but they are back, and at least one of them has this oversized machete – apparently, he is setting himself up to being Mack’s nemesis…maybe.  

This has happened before; in ‘Primeval’, they killed-off their number one villain, Helen Cutter, at the end of their S3…and quickly realized that they didn’t have anyone to replace her; they brought her back, sort of, at the end of S5, and-

-And then they got cancelled; both them, and P: NW, (the spin-off), which is a pity; both shows had plenty of problems of their own, especially the original ‘Primeval’, which replaced about 80% of its’ main cast by the final, fifth, season: even AoS isn’t that bad – they really just replaced Brett Dalton (Grant) with Henry Simmons (Mack), while Nick Blood (Lance), Adrienne Palicki (Bobbi) and Luke Mitchell (Lincoln) just left – Luke in particular is doing well over at ‘Blindspot’ as Roman…

Pause. Stop babbling. Try again.

One of AoS’ main issues is its’ inability to move forwards, (something that is also plaguing the new SW movies, BTW). The S3, (especially the second, post-Maveth, half) felt like a continuation of S2, with Andrew/Lash being the male counterpart to post-Terrigenesis Raina. (They even looked similar, gender differences aside). Now, with Talbot back, and Hydra back, and Radcliffe & Aida Mk II acting almost like a softer version of Whitehall and agent 33, the LMD arc feels almost like AoS’ S2 revisited…again.

No, seriously, I wrote about this. In S2, Hydra tried to capture May and replace her with a doppelganger – Kara Palamas, wearing a photostatic veil. Coulson uncovered the truth within an episode: guess these days his Maydar is on the fritz or something. However, the point is that Radcliffe and Aida (is Aida Mk II even an android or what?) have done the same thing, and AoS itself has done the same thing: it has Ning-Ma Wen, (i.e. May) play two characters at once – May and agent 33. In second Maya Stojan took half of S2 Kara’s role…but AoS handled Kara’s plotline very badly, so I’m not getting in-depth into this.

What I am getting in here is that the ‘LMD’ plotline follows a similar premise, save that the LMD May does not have the same scarred face that Kara-as-May had. Seriously, was May supposed to be a villain on AoS? She even had her own flashback back in S2 – so far the only other people who had it were Grant in S1 and Gideon Malick in S3, both villains. By contrast, ‘The Patriot’ did fill-in the gaps of Jeffrey Mace’s backstory, but without a flashback, and he is being presented as a sympathetic and not-really-evil character, so yeah?

…Of course, odds of Mace dying at the end of S4 are still fairly good, as AoS has real life problems of holding onto cast members ever since the pointless kill-off at the end of S2, so there is that.

In addition, I confess – I am mentioning AoS’ S2 excessively often, but as far as I am concerned? AoS itself just cannot let go and returns to it, plotwise, repeatedly, so S2 cannot be avoided if you are talking about AoS, so let us talk about something else. ‘For Honor’, maybe.

Not only its’ beta testing starts this month, (Jan 2017), but the final three playable characters were unveiled. They are the Valkyrie, the Lawbringer, and the Nobushi. All three of them are armed…not with ranged weapons, but with weapons that have reach – greater reach than the weapons of the Raider, the Warden and the Kensei, for comparison.

The Valkyrie, (named, naturally, after the Valkyrie of the Norse myths), is armed with a specialized buckler and a spear. It is an ordinary spear, unlike the Nobushi’s naginata, which is also a spear, technically, but with a proportionally longer blade, which is also designed for slicing, (as a sabre would), rather than for stabbing. DW S1 featured, compared and contrasted the two weapons both in the episode 1x02, ‘Viking vs. Samurai’ and in the first part of its’ ‘Back for Blood’ special, where the Samurai faced off with a Spartan, also armed with a spear, (and lost). While the Europeans used their spear for directly forward, straight thrusts and stabs, the Samurai used his naginata almost like an axe, or even a polearm, using more sweeping moves, (similar to the greataxe used by the Viking in their battle).

Speaking of polearms? This brings us to the Lawbringer’s poleaxe, which is basically a halberd, (also used by various fighters in DW, in all three seasons, BTW). A poleaxe has an axe head for slicing, a spearhead for stabbing, and a hook for grabbing and pulling down enemy cavalry fighters. This makes it different from such weapons as the bardiche and the Dane-axe, (used by the Raider of ‘For Honor’), which are just axes on extra-long handles. This sort of brings as back to AoS, where Mack just uses axes as his signature weapon for no particular reason, but hey! He now probably has an archenemy of his own, armed with a machete, (a signature weapon?), and-

That fight was important in other ways. First, LMD May discovered that she is an LMD because of it, (also, her metal flesh is tough enough to bend saw blades), and second, she fought the machete-wielding Hydra agent with a shovel. WTF with that? It is probable that initially it was Adrienne Palicki, Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird, who was supposed to be Coulson’s team in S1, while May would have joined it in S2 as part of Gonzales’ crew - or maybe as the initially brainwashed, but later redeemed agent 33…who knows? This did not happen, S2 handled Kara’s plotline very badly, and right now, NCB/Elena ‘Yo-Yo’ Rodriguez is playing a recurring Latin-American character on AoS instead…

(Of course, the position of AoS and the rest of MCU in the acting world is somewhat ambiguous in itself: recently, CNN released a mini-series called ‘Creators’, featuring Ruth Negga – Raina of AoS. AoS was not mentioned at all. WTF with that? It is not so bad.)

To conclude: just like ‘Broken Promises’, ‘The Patriot’ was a good and solid episode, which isn’t necessarily what the AoS needs right now. It tried a partial reboot with its’ S4, but it needs to complete that reboot, or else it will not work. Conversely, ‘For Honor’ is shaping to be an awesome wargame; regardless, this is it for this talk – see you all later!