S.H.I.E.L.D., laws - Dec 6

Last night, AoS’ S4 mid-season finale was aired. And?

In some ways, it was different from S3 mid-season finale, for example. In ‘Maveth’, Coulson rescued Fitz from the alien planet in question, and there was this huge-scale explosion of a castle (belonging to Malick and Hydra?) and in general back then AoS tried to recreated the ‘Avengers’ atmosphere, both then, and at the end of S3 proper, when Hive was destroyed by a nuclear explosion in space. It did ignore the fact that a screen in a movie theatre was a different beast from the screens on a TV or a typical domestic computer/laptop, so the final result wasn’t quite ‘Avengers’-like; plus Luke Mitchell’s departure from the series caused more damage – and now?

The S4 mid-season finale, ‘Laws’, was much smaller in scale; in fact, in terms of special effects and all, it was more like ‘The Librarians’ S2 finale, with few special effects, (if any); but ‘The Librarians’ really aren’t into special effects, (though the first two episodes of their S3 were something different). AoS, on the other hand, was – after all, it is a part of MCU, so there!

However, as I may have written before, this time, with S4, AoS is possibly working on a tighter budget than it did in the first 3 seasons. In part it is because Elena ‘Yo-Yo” Rodriguez (NCB) is getting her own mini-series, (available on Dec 13, 2016), online – fair enough, but AoS/MCU already did something similar between S2 and S3, and it didn’t prevent S3 from trying to go epic, as it was already written.

On the other hand, the ratings of AoS S3 began to fall down very fast, and right now, they do not appear to be recovering, regardless of the presence of the Ghost Rider. The latter, of course, is his own kettle of fish; in S4, AoS tried to do what DC’s ‘LoT’ did with Jonah Hex – something of a special guest superhero on top of the regular team. It worked in ‘LoT’ because ‘LoT’ is a better (right now) TV series compared to AoS, plus-

In addition, ‘LoT’ is a part of the bigger DC’s ‘Arrowverse’ TV-verse, which also includes ‘Arrow’, ‘The Flash’ and nowadays – ‘Supergirl’ (2016 onwards). The four TV shows are not exactly a smoothly functioning machine, they have problems, but as the ‘Invasion’ of last week has shown, their casts and crews can work together without any problems, with each show having its unique identity in the greater DC ‘Arrowverse’ TV-verse.

On contrast, AoS’ cast and crew have constantly problems – with each other and with other people, I would guess. As promised, Skye/Daisy and the Ghost Rider/Robbie Reyes didn’t have any romance or any sort of a relationship between each other, which is one of the reasons why Robbie (and his uncle) just went off somewhere else in the third quarter of ‘Laws’ – so far there is no final and definite idea as to how to properly integrate Robbie into AoS and S.H.I.E.L.D.

Again, this is nothing new – throughout the series Skye/Daisy had a problem with having ‘an opposite number’ – Grant, Trip, Hunter, Lincoln – they all came and went for different reasons and in different ways, Robbie Reyes is just the latest, and while the writers may think that this helps Daisy’s character development, the audience may just feel irritated instead.

Now, the interactions between a show and fans is important, but it is also less straightforward than people may think. Take, for instance, ‘The Flash’, where people have been giving Iris flak. Now, it may be so because in this incarnation Iris is Afro-American, but in truth, she just is not very contributive to the show, not how Laurel is, or how Felicity is in ‘Arrow’. A crew of a show may have views about how a show is supposed to work, and fans also may have views about that same issue – different ones, so hello – conflict.

It is argued that not ALL the fans are offended when a character gets ‘racebent’ or changed in some other way, as Ms. Rowling tends to do with her characters (the original HP-verse, not the new ‘Fantastic Beasts’ expanded one), just the most vocal and obnoxious ones. Perhaps, but as AoS has shown, ignoring them is not so easy, either…

Well, no, not just AoS – the entire MCU. Hydra is supposed to be one of the bad people, yet there is a strong support for it online (at least). They may not be the biggest faction, but they are there, and they are well prepared to fight-off any opposition – and they have plenty of opposition, because pro-Hydra is pro-evil (sort of). Moreover, since the Internet is that sort of a marvelous invention, any arguments can very quickly either die-out or grow to great proportions.

Wait, isn’t this the sort of an argument that ‘socially-challenged’ nerds can only get involved in? Anyone sane will avoid this sort of a discussion by a mile? Yes, and they avoided the fandom by the same mile too, it seems, as AoS’ viewers’ ratings fell.

MCU instigated controversies – both unintentionally, as it was with Hydra in general and with Grant Ward and Kara Palamas in AoS specifically, and intentionally – Steve vs. Tony in the CA: CW film and Steve becoming Hydra in the Marvel comics. The most…intense part of MCU fandom reacted heterogeneously to these new developments, and sales fell. Viewers ratings’ (especially for AoS) – ditto.

In addition, it is always tricky to calculate a sale – there is no rule of thumb: people may buy-out a comic book issue/series of issues/etc. in one area and ignore the same piece in the other. Just look at ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ transcript book – it may not be a comic book, but the principle is still the same: in some Russian cities it was completely sold out, while here, in Toronto, Canada, I never saw people buying it, or any other books in Harry Potter series, including the latest edition of ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ with its magnificent new illustrations (by Jim Kay, I think). ‘Cursed Child’ was sold at a flat rate of 15 dollars – cheaper than a novel set in the Pathfinder™ game-verse, and people still weren’t flocking to it…unlike in Russia. Bet you this is not what Ms. Rowling expected when she had realized the transcript…

‘Cursed Child’ is relevant to the discussion about MCU, AoS, DCEU and etc., because it also tried to be culturally diverse, as ‘The Flash’ is, for example. In ‘The Flash’, Iris West is an Afro-American, and people are displeased by this; with ‘Cursed Child’ Hermione and her daughter, Rose, had the same issue. (They got over this by their acting skills, period). Ms. Rowling promptly called them racists and that was the end of that, as far as she was concerned. The same thing is happening in MCU, as Zendaya may be the new Mary Jane in the new ‘Spider-Man’ movie, and-? Racism?

Well, on some level – certainly yes. However, on another – no. It is somewhat ridiculous to treat characters from books, comics, TV series, movies as real-life people, but without this treatment these characters become, well, products that need to be sold and bought, period, and they are usually being sold to, and being bought by, a specific audience, which, in case of AoS (and the rest of MCU, maybe), isn’t really interested in this sort of thing, not entirely, not anymore.

There is also the option of putting a show onto Netflix, for a flat rate. But again, not everyone can afford it, and even among those who can afford it, there are those, who are still uninterested in watching it, and if there are enough of such people – the ratings plummet, and the show goes further downwards, now further depowered by the people who are somewhat interested in watching it, but cannot afford it – but AoS isn’t worried by them, because it is a free show that is steadily losing popularity for the reasons discussed above – it was too controversial for too long and now investors are losing interest in it or getting worried.

Shows hate controversy: when one of the ‘background ponies’ on MLP: FIM began to be controversial, it was showed into background as far as possible, and began to re-emerge only recently, now that the controversy is long gone. AoS did not do the same approach (pragmatic, if not sensible) to Grant and Kara Palamas, and paid the price.

Speaking of Kara… The S4 mid-season finale had Melinda May gotten replaced by a robot double – which was exactly what Hydra did via Kara back in S2. Back then, Coulson very quickly recognized the imposter due to intimate, personal details that Kara just could not know about May. Now… he is fooled, but that is not the point, the point is that AoS is back to recycling its’ ideas; S3 (especially post-‘Maveth’) had recycled many ideas from S2; S4 is not as bad, but it still shows, and that also diminishes its’ chances to be renewed (for S5 and beyond). ‘Agent Carter’ was cancelled after just two seasons, remember?

On the other hand, S4 shows a notable decrease in InHumans – right now they are mostly plot devices; there are Daisy and Yo-Yo and director Mace himself (clearly influenced by Steel from DC’s ‘LoT’), and that is it. Oh, and there is also the senator’s brother, but right now he is a no-show, so who knows? Instead, we are going to get the invasion of robot body snatchers, spearheaded by Aida and Dr. Radcliffe, (who immediately knew that there was something wrong with Darkhold, unlike May or even Fitz, for comparison). It is possible that AoS is downplaying the InHumans specifically, especially at least their own TV show airs (in the upcoming years), but with InHumans being largely a no-show, and Hydra gone (cough), AoS is lacking two of its major elements since the beginning of S3. Again – not good.

So, in conclusion of the rant: AoS’ S4 is still going strong, but not strong, as it was in the beginning. Will it be enough to rescue AoS for the future seasons? Who knows…?

S.H.I.E.L.D., Devils - Nov 29

AoS is back. Yay!

…As it does happen with this show, it did deliver on the latest episode – it introduced Hell (Dr. Strange’s Dark Dimension?); it pushed Coulson and May closer together (the two had an one-on, one-off relationship since S2); it gave much more backstory to Robbie Reyes/the Ghost Rider; it introduced senator Nadir’s InHuman brother; and etc. And?

And nothing. AoS was/is one of those shows that when its’ episodes work, they really work, and when they do not work, they really do not work. Here, in case of ‘Devils’, we got the former, but! It is a case of too little, too late: the next episode, 4x08, is the mid-season finale, meaning that the odds are that the entire S4 will be just 16, rather than 22 episodes long, are very good. ‘Course, there’s always a chance of the second half of S4 being 14 episodes long, but given the still-low ratings, I am not betting on it – we will just have to wait until 2017 to see.

As it was written before, AoS had problems, and starting from S2’s finale, AoS was unable to handle and resolve them, at least until the S3 finale. S4 is doing its’ best to have a clean break, but it has not quite succeeded in accomplishing this earlier, as I have suggested earlier. Moreover, with fewer episodes in S4 it has less space, and possibly less money, to accomplish this break as well.

Where does it live AoS with its’ S4 (and beyond)? Possibly in the same boat as the book ‘PRIMATES of the world’ by Jean-Jacques Petter and Francois Desbordes – it is a wonderful and initially impressive book, featuring numerous (nearly 300) species of lemurs, monkeys and apes on 72 colored plates, and is very aesthetically pleasing. But!

…But there is all that is too it, really. It does contain information about the primates, scientific rather than fictional, but it is generalized, unsorted, and is delivered at a compressed and rapid pace: minimum written information, maximum of illustrations and depictions. This approach is homogenous too, which makes things worse.

To be more precise, there are other guidebooks that have drawn illustrations rather than photographs; Luke Hunter’s guide to the carnivorous mammals of the world is one of them. Again, it uses drawings rather than photos, but the textual content of Mr. Hunter’s book is very different from that of Mr. Petter: it is heterogeneous – the textual entries are clearly of very differing lengths, as it should be. Both the snow leopard and the brown hyena, (for example), are predators and are related more closely to each other than to the grizzly bear, but they are just as different from each other as they are from the grizzly. Ergo – the entries of different lengths.

With ‘Primates’ it is different; the text is generalized as much as possible, and the format shows more creativity than common sense; I mean, you can put down the primates’ family tree in not a straightforward, back-to-front format, but rather a radial, left to right manner, but it doesn’t work as well. Or, you can sort the primates out primarily by continents rather than by infraorders, suborders and families, but it doesn’t work as well either – there is a reason why the Catarrhini are usually called the Old World monkeys and apes – they are found in both Africa and Asia; the Old World monkeys (Cercopithecidae) superfamily have subfamilies whose members are found both in Asia and Africa; while the apes’ family contain several genuses that are found in Africa and Asia as well. Mr. Petter did the best he could, but even so, he had to distribute his ‘flavor text’ about the Old World monkeys, the great apes (orangutans, gorillas and chimps), even about the Lorisoidea primates (aka the non-Madagascan lemurs) between African and Asian groups; it works, but not as well if he and Mr. Desbordes had sorted the entries evolutionary style – the lemurs, the tarsiers, (the link between the lemurs and the higher primates), the monkeys and the apes. Straightforward and simple. Mr. Hunter actually did this with the carnivores – one biological family after another, from cats to weasels. Mr. Petter and Desbordes just did not do it – well, history will judge them, if their contemporaries will not.

How does this relate to AoS? Well, as I tried to explain, ‘PRIMATES’ tried to create an aesthetically pleasant and scientific guidebook, (well, a quasi-guidebook, maybe) and failed. ‘PRIMATES’ is not much more than a picture book instead. AoS has tried to become an accessory/supplement to MCU – and failed. It tried to tackle ‘real-life’ issues in the second half of S3 (racial, international, etc.) and it did not work. S4 has new elements, but it also has a lack of any real-life issues, though it tries to do so with the InHumans as ‘the other’ in this season, but it does not really work. Of course, Marvel itself had thought that presenting Captain America (Steve Rogers) in comics as Hydra would be some sort of a clever anti-Trump statement, but it didn’t work, and just caused further friction among its’ fans.

In other words, AoS is back to being just entertainment – and for a while, (S3, S2 too), it was not even very good entertainment, and now that it has been sent to ten o’clock in the evening, things aren’t looking good for it. Yes, starting from S3 AoS tried to be good (as a TV show), but apparently it was not enough. In real life, bad guys sometimes win, and good shows are cancelled. ‘Course, being caught between the Netflix’s ‘Defenders’, who are coming up nicely, and CW’s DC ‘Arrowverse’ AoS is the underdog and it shows, especially in the ratings.

However, what about ‘Dr. Strange’? Can the latest MCU movie not help AoS and etc.?

‘Dr. Strange’ itself is primarily an entertainment movie, not unlike Disney’s ‘Moana’ that appeared in theatres not so long ago, only without ‘Moana’s’ depth. Okay, that was uncalled for, ‘Dr. Strange’ and ‘Moana’ have the same amount of depths – these days Disney owns Marvel as well. ‘Dr. Strange’ is a Disney movie with the main character become a hero, and a typical hero at that. At least CA: CW utilized the talents of its’ cast rather than special effects to carry it forth – and it worked. ‘Dr. Strange’…did not, and while it also worked, CA: CW is still the better movie by right.

Therefore: AoS is in trouble off screen, regardless of what it does on screen and things will not get better anytime soon, it especially with the midseason hiatus coming forth – this sort of thing is always bad for the ratings. Pity. 

Egyptian myths & etc take 2 - Nov 27

So the second episode of ‘The Librarians’, S3. As I expected, they continue to run amok over the Egyptian mythology – what gives? In the season’s opening, they appeared to have confused Apep with Set; now, as I suspected, they have thrown Anubis into the mix.

First, who was Anubis? Anubis was an Egyptian god of the dead; a gatekeeper and a subordinate of Osiris, who was its’ ruler. Think Charon from the Greeks, but with a good deal more of responsibilities and oomph. Unlike the various monotheists, the pagans – Egyptians and Greco-Romans at least – put their entire afterlife into the underworld, and that was okay. For the Greeks and the Romans most of their dead spent the eternity on the asphodel fields in a limbo of sorts; for the Egyptians, if you were not good enough to live in paradise, Ammut, the devourer of souls, would devour you and that would be the end. Appropriately, Ammut was a creature that was part lion, part crocodile, part hippopotamus – the Egyptians knew just what creatures they feared, and they had very healthy imagination.

…This is all very good, but what did it have to do with werewolves? The short answer is – nothing at all. The Egyptians did not have werewolves, because there are no wolves in Africa, not even in the ancient times. There are so-called ‘Ethiopian wolves’, but these are more like jackals, and jackals are the Old World’s answer to the coyote, not the wolf. They just are not as scary as wolves are, not on the obvious level at least. Basically, when ‘The Librarians’ decided to tie lycanthropy to ancient Egypt and throw good old Anubis into the mix, they had no ties with the real-life Egyptian mythology and just came with something of their own, out of the blue.

Again, this is no problem, it is just strange behavior for a normally professional and precise show – seriously, the folks over ‘The Librarians’ and TNT in general were too lazy to read Rick Riordan’s ‘Kane Chronicles’ trilogy? Who knows…?

In other news, while ‘The Librarians’ appear to be revamping their show in general, possibly for the ratings, ‘River Monsters’ (RM) is coming back in 2017. Sadly, I find much less excited about it than before. For a long while, approximately for the first six or seven seasons, RM was awesome; now, it is still very good, but it has clearly jumped the shark. JW rocks, but he has exhausted his potential in exchange for ratings, and now it shows. S8 of RM has ended with a whimper, and it was focusing on marine life, rather than the freshwater one. RM still works, obviously, but it is equally obvious that it has jumped the shark and no matter what it will do, it will be unable to change this state of affairs.

Finally, AoS is returning this Tuesday, so yay. Of course, Arrowverse is launching its’ own major four-shows ‘crossover’, so Marvel, AoS and MCU are still the underdogs in the realm of television, but perhaps the expanding ‘Defenders’ can do something about this balance…

Therefore, until next week, then!

Egyptian myths & etc - Nov 21

Last Sunday, I began to watch the third season of ‘The Librarians’ (2014). As always, it is a rather enjoyable show – much more friendly and non-conventional than most other shows that I watch on TV; the titular heroes still have to defeat various villains with teamwork, but unlike, say, ‘Blindspot’, they do it not through violence, but through thinking and brainwork, and while there is SOME angst, usually there is more humor instead.

Also, unlike AoS, the cast and crew of ‘The Librarians’ treat their characters with respect and don’t appear to be rewriting the plot on a regular basis – they are as solid as AoS would like to be, (though AoS IS cleaning up its’ act in S4 – somewhat), which is why their treatment of the Egyptian myths is rather surprising.

Or perhaps it is mistreatment instead? (Feel free to make your own pun). Right now, one of the villains that the titular heroes have to defeat is Apophis, a monster from the Egyptian mythology. Surprisingly, the crew and especially the scriptwriters of the show had confused him with Set.

Now, Egyptian mythology IS somewhat confusing: just look at Ra/Re (the archenemy of Apophis or Apep) and Horus (the archenemy of Set). Both of them are falcon-gods, both of them have solar attributes, and both are depicted as either falcons or falcon-headed humans. Both have solar attributes, both had been chief deities of ancient Egypt at some point in time, and at least for some time they formed a single deity – Horus-Re. (Or Ra). Yeah, only professional Egyptologists would be bothered to distinguish between the two gods for real at this point.

Yet, while Set has something similar with another Egyptian god – Anubis, Apep is actually NOT really a part of this confusing imagery problem – he is a giant snake that awaits Ra nightly at the Tenth Hour of the Night and Ra has to defeat him, or else the sun, and the world, is doomed. The first episode of ‘The Librarians’ S3 has a depiction of Set (or Anubis), but it is inappropriate: Apep is a giant snake without any human or humanoid features, (unlike the rest of the Egyptian deities). He cannot really be confused with Set, or Horus, or any other Egyptian god or goddess – in no small part because he was not one, but rather a demon that must be warded and worshipped against instead.

I honestly hope that ‘The Librarians’ will be able to sort this unexpected and strange confusion between Set and Apophis out in the future episode, but don’t count on it, especially as the episode 3x02 promises ‘Egyptian werewolves’ instead, which implies Anubis instead. However, you know what? This sort of Egyptian confusion does not diminish one’s enjoyment of ‘The Librarians’ and their non-standard approach to various challenges.

…Speaking of standards and standardization, this reminds me of ‘Deadliest Warrior’ (DW), and especially the third and final season. Whether we are talking about ‘Teddy Roosevelt vs. Lawrence of Arabia’ or ‘Crazy Horse vs. Pancho Villa’, you are faced with a standard, two-person team for each character – one being the book expert, and the other doing all of the hard physical work.

…This sort of thing had not diminished the enjoyment of watching DW, especially not while the show was not cancelled. However, it might have contributed to the diminished ratings and to the reasons why DW became cancelled after S3. Of course, ‘Vampires vs. Zombies’ might’ve contributed to DW’s downfall as well – but that is another story…

Finally, AoS is returning to TV on Nov 29, so keep up and be ready to enjoy the series again, for as long as it has time to left…

Gray Jay - Canada's national bird? - Nov 17

Taking a break from Pathfinder & Worldscape, let’s get back to the real world. It seems that Canada has chosen its’ national bird this week, and it is the so-called gray jay, or the whiskeyjack.

So far so good, but if you are thinking that this is a differently colored version of the blue jay, you would be wrong. The gray jay belongs to a completely different genus of corvids than the blue and the Steller’s jays do, (or the pinyon jay does, for that matter). It is a long-tailed, medium-sized bird, colored more somberly than the most other American jays are – not in blue, but in much more somber coat of different shades of gray, with some whites and blacks thrown in for contrast and variation. It has no crest either, and its appearance is more delicate and songbird-like than a blue jay’s, for example.

Moreover, like many other corvids, the gray jay is an opportunistic and resourceful bird – it lives in Canada, rather than in U.S., (well, duh), but it does not fear people, and will sometimes steal their resources without any apprehension or anxiety for itself. Basically, it is a bird analogue of the gray squirrel from eastern Canada and U.S. And – it has a sticky saliva.

Gerald Durrell had encountered this bird and wrote about it in his book ‘How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist’ – read it. It is a good book, especially for the fans of wildlife and animals. He depicted how a gray jay would take bits of food offered by him and his crew and stick it to nearby tree branches with its’ saliva. Go jay!

That said, while most of the American jays are exclusively American birds – (whether it is the blue and the Steller’s, the pinyon, or the scrub jays), the gray jay’s immediate relatives live in Asia: the Siberian jay that lives in Siberia, Russia, and the Sichuan jay that lives in Szechuan, China. Regardless of being closely related to each other, each of the three birds has a very distinctive look from the other two – they are individual species, not subspecies or any other variants, but…so what? Nowadays, there are plenty of people, never mind birds, who want to go to Canada, which brings me to my last point.

John Oliver, of whom I am normally a fan, has been in a dark place lately, since he proved to be a seer of some sort – he had foreseen not just the Cubs’ winning, but also Donald Trump, so now he, and most of the U.S. media will have to work with a president who is pointedly NOT a friend of theirs; they’d been humbled, and by whom? Donald Trump. So now John Oliver got vitriol coming out of his ears, (and so do the rest of his coworkers and counterparts), and it is understandable. But – the only reason to come to Canada if it is spring and you are a Canada goose (or a similarly Canadian bird)? Mr. Oliver, that is out of line.

Yes, as some Canadian author had written, if it was not for the American democracy, there would not be a Canadian one either, but he had also written that no one in Canada really knows how the U.S. democracy actually works. Put otherwise, U.S.A. and Canada might be neighbours, but they got two different ways of making a society work, and you know what? I am putting my foot down and saying that Canada is the better one. I am not comparing Donald to Trudeau, this is like comparing apples to oranges turned crazy, I am comparing the Canadian election to the American one: the stakes weren’t THAT lower in the former, but it was done with much more decorum than the latter, so, please excuse me, but Donald’s victory is symbolic – it’s symbolic of the fact that it was the American society in total, all social strata and variations has degraded its democracy so much; and Donald Trump – no. This is about the gray jay, and the other birds, and the fact that for once John Oliver is wrong: Canada is a fine country to live, and if you do not like the new president-elect, or any other features of the ‘new’ U.S. so badly, then it just might be the country for you.

Just listen to the gray jay and its distant blue-colored cousins: they whole-heartedly agree. 

Pathfinder: sample green martian - Nov 16

SAVAGE MERCENARYCR 1/2

XP 200

Green martian barbarian 1

CN Large humanoid

Init +1; Senses Perception +5, detect thoughts

DEFENSE

AC 14, touch 9, flat-footed 14 (+6 armor, +1 Dex, –2 rage, -1 size)

hp 17 (1d12+5)

Fort +6, Ref +1, Will +3

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee greatsword +7 (2d6+9/19–20)

Special Attacks rage (6 rounds/day)

STATISTICS

Str 23, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 6

Base Atk +1; CMB +7; CMD 16

Feats Cleave, Power Attack

Skills Climb +7, Knowledge (nature) +4, Perception +7, Survival +5, Swim +7

Languages Common

SQ detect thoughts, ferocity, fast movement, muti-armed

Combat Gearpotion of cure light wounds, potion of remove fear, alchemist's fire; Other Gear breastplate, greatsword, sling with 10 bullets, 5 gp

From the second Pathfinder/Worldscape story arc, here is a sample green martian - from Barsoom. How does it look?

Pathfinder: Sword-devil ranger - Nov 12

SWORD-DEVIL CR 19

XP 204,800

Human ranger 20

CE Medium humanoid (human)

Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +25

DEFENSE

AC 36, touch 18, flat-footed 26 (+8 armor, +3 deflection, +4 Dex, +6 dodge, +5 natural)

hp 184 (20d10+70)

Fort +20, Ref +22, Will +13

Defensive Abilities improved evasion; Immune fire (120 points), poison; Resist cold 30

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.

Melee+2 longsword +28/+23/+18/+13 (1d8+11/19–20)

Ranged oathbow +28/+23/+18/+13 (1d8+8/19–20/×3)

Special Attacks death vow 7/day (+10 weapon attack and damage)

STATISTICS

Str 22, Dex 20, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 14, Cha 8

Base Atk +20; CMB +26; CMD 45

Feats Bleeding Critical, Blinding Critical, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Deadly Aim, Dodge, Endurance, Improved Critical (composite longbow), Improved Initiative, Improved Precise Shot, Manyshot, Point-Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus (composite longbow)

Skills Acrobatics +15 (+19 when jumping), Climb +19, Handle Animal +12,Heal +15, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +8, Knowledge (geography) +13, Knowledge (nature) +18, Knowledge (planes) +5, Perception +25, Ride +18, Stealth +28, Survival +25, Swim +14

Languages Common

SQ avatar of vengeance, camouflage, hide in plain sight, inspiring example, second combat style, seething fury, slashing fury (longsword, short sword, dagger, rapier) swift tracker, track +10, untouchable, wild empathy +19, woodland stride

Combat Gear+1 anarchic arrows (5), boots of speed, +1 flaming arrows (5), +1 frost arrows (5), +1 shock arrows (5), +1 unholy arrows (5), potions of cure serious wounds (2), potions of delay poison (2), scroll of neutralize poison, adamantine arrows (5), purple worm poison (2), smokesticks (5), tanglefoot bags (5); Other Gear+4 mithral chain shirt, +2 longsword, oathbow (+6 Str) with 30 arrows, belt of physical might +4 (Str, Dex), cloak of resistance +5, efficient quiver, ring of protection +3, ring of sustenance, 4,195 gp

Basically, I took the 20th-level ranger from the NPC gallery and re-built them as a sword-devil from the new Worldscape comic arc. How do they look?