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!

FH: Nuxia - Oct 14

Firstly, real life sucks. It sucks in different ways, and for those people who died during hurricane Michael it sucks worst of all, because of obvious reasons, but for the rest of us? We got all sorts of issues, each of our own, and they are not very pleasant, because change usually always hurts – someone. On one of the sides, at least…and very often they are unavoidable. You can try to figure out ways to soften the blow, but as often as not they do not work, especially if you do not want to make things worse and to break the criminal code of your country. On the other hand, maybe you do, on both counts – in which case, good luck to you, you are a greater and/or braver person than I am…

What next? Leaving my life/real life aside, (the mess with/in the Saudi Arabia is growing nastier by the day), we got, well, ‘Iron Fist’. The show got cancelled. The end. Moreover, no one really knows why. With P: NW a while back, at least, you got the entire ‘Impossible Pictures’ getting cancelled/annulled by BBC because reasons. Considering that ‘Impossible Pictures’ was good, this was a bad decision by BBC; certainly after the not-very-impressive ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ movie, they didn’t try anything new with dinosaurs any time lately…

Back to ‘Iron Fist’? We don’t know, again, as why Netflix ended the series; ‘Daredevil’ is coming back for S3 later this month, ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘Punisher’ seem to be returning too, ‘Luke Cage’ is up for grabs…

Maybe it is just the matter of money – there is just not enough of it to allow Netflix keep all of their Marvel shows…at least for now. Apparently, they made a statement that ‘the immortal Iron Fist never dies’ or something similar. What does that mean I have no idea.

On that note, let us get to FH. Earlier this week they released the Nuxia, one of the new characters. In real life, Nuxia is a genus of plants that grow in Africa, Middle East, and on some islands in the Indian Ocean, meaning that this word does not have anything in common with China or the rest of the Far East region of Asia…

Now, I must admit, I was genuinely surprised – I have never heard of these plants…and given the sparse information about them, I am guessing that this is because these are some of the more obscure plants, not much known to people outside of professional botany, such as myself. Ergo, let us not stay with Nuxia proper for now, and move onto her signature weapons – the hook swords.

They were shown in DW, S1, as one of the weapons of the Shaolin monk, (who is also featured in FH – or will be, soon enough, properly). As it was mentioned before, that episode – ‘Shaolin monk vs. Maori warrior’ – was one of the more bizarre/lopsided episodes: the hook swords were the only Shaolin weapon that were better/scored higher than their Maori counterparts did, and they were the one who won the day for the Shaolin monk via points – they scored higher than any other weapon on that episode, Shaolin or Maori. Why, how so – the field-test of the hook swords was not that impressive, honestly – remained unknown, though on that episode follow-up, none of the team Maori showed up. Again, we do not know what went behind the scenes of that episode, but something certainly did, though it did not affect DH at that time…

Back to FH? Why not. Nuxia uses her twin hook swords very efficiently, and ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ should be mentioned here too – we’re talking the original TV cartoon series, not the travesty of the movie that Mr. Night Shamalayan did: one of its’ recurring characters, Jet, also used twin hook swords very efficiently, making himself stand out of the crowd, (since he wasn’t a ‘bender’, by the way). So, I guess – go twin hook swords!

Anything else? No, not really. Nuxia does appear to be an interesting character, and FH is clearly upgrading and redesigning itself, doing its’ best to make itself even better, so good luck to them. Ergo, as for us – see you all soon! (Hopefully).

The Gifted: coMplications - Oct 9

‘The Gifted’ continues to try its’ hardest to impress the viewers; ‘coMplications, this week’s episode, is a good example of that.

What is going on in ‘coMplications’? The better question would be – what isn’t? This episode deals with the following storylines: John and Clarice are trying to communicate with the Morlocks’, who are giving them some info on the Inner Circle, but in exchange, their leader wants Blink to spy on the Mutant Underground, such as it is. Secondly, the Struckers, ‘minus Andy’, are getting their act together as Reed confesses that his powers have manifested at last to his wife and daughter. Thirdly, Marcos met his daughter and helped the Inner Circle cure her jaundice, (a real life disease, incidentally). And, finally – Jace is trying to get into the mutant-fighting action again, but it is not easy as he may think.

Where to elaborate? ‘The Gifted’ are setting the Morlocks up to be the anti-Inner Circle: the Inner Circle are the patricians, (yes, the Ancient Rome symbolism is deliberate), while the Morlocks are the lowest of the plebeians, with the Inner Circle being immaculate, prestigious and orderly/lawful, (evil, but still), and the Morlocks are the other way around. Now, nothing may come out of it, but the general opposite symbolism is still there. Are the Morlocks enemies of the Inner Circle/the Hellfire Club? Right now, they are doing their own thing instead, so go them? The Mutant Underground is still in shambles, and though the Struckers are getting their act together, (at least in the short term), none of them have anything real to offer the Morlocks right now; maybe later, but with Marcos/Eclipse on the warpath, and John and Clarice developing relationship issues, because ‘The Gifted’ needs drama!

On a more serious note, Jace’s new problems of fitting in into the ‘normal human society’ of ‘The Gifted’ aren’t unlike what Reed had faced back in S1, when he went against the main mass of the machine: people were sympathetic, but the bureaucratic machine just wasn’t budging, and while it was potentially possible to work the system somehow, he was unable to: he and his family got arrested all the same, regardless of whatever achievements Reed did in the past. Same for Jace here and now, in S2, save that it is not as extreme: he is not arrested, just – rejected. He needs to get back into Sentinel Services, (or into the federal system, period), whether into his old place or start from scratch, (and he is an impatient man, it seems), or else start his own thing; according to the next week’s spoilers, he might try his luck with the Purifiers (basically, a fictional take on KKK) next.

Now, again, Jace was never particularly sympathetic to mutants, but in S1 he was depicted as a sympathetic character to the viewers instead, a more morally ambiguous character than an outright evil one. Ergo, if he starts to flat-out gun down mutants in the following episodes of S2, it will go against his built-up back in S1 and even now, so that isn’t too likely. This does place Jace into something of a limbo – he cannot be good, (not yet, anyhow), but he cannot be overtly evil either, because otherwise he becomes kind of generic and not as interesting as he was before. Since the numbers for ‘The Gifted’ currently are not as high as they were in S1 yet, the show hopefully will not rock the boat yet either – but again, we will have to see.

Anything else? Yes, the Morlocks’ leader in this universe is a gender-bent Callisto, who usually leads the Morlocks in the Marvel comics. Again, this might be some sort of an opposition, (even in symbolism) against Reeva who leads the Inner Circle so far, but we’ll have and see the future episodes to learn if the Morlocks ever take-up arms against the Inner Circle.

Speaking of the Inner Circle? Right now, it is mostly Reeva and the Frost girls, with Andy and Sage only occasionally appearing, (of all ‘The Gifted’ characters who had left the Mutant Underground for the Inner Circle at the S1 finale) to flesh it out. Anyone else is more of a cameo than a character, and Lorna, of course, is out of circulation, being busy with Dawn. As such, so far the Inner Circle may be competent, but it is also underwhelming; of course, so’s the Mutant Underground, but it is supposed to be the underdog, and right now they actually appear to have equal, (if not slightly superior) numbers to the Inner Circle. Yes, Reeva so far seems to have the strongest mutant powers on the show, but if Lorna and Marcos ever get over their tiff and became a couple once more, Reeva may find herself on the ropes instead. And moreover, the point is that the Inner Circle is supposed to be so much more formidable than the Mutant Underground is, and right now, it just seems to have more money, that is it. And money, while important, is not always critically (and exclusively) so…

The other point of criticism are the not-so-special effects of the Morlocks’ sewer lair. The rats that John and Clarice encountered were certainly adorable, but the lighting… it appeared to be more in the fashion of a Halloween funhouse than anything else. Budgetary restrictions or just bad choice? Either way, it did not really work, and just subtracted from the atmosphere of the Morlocks’ lair, and if it is a budget issue, we are stuck with it. Ouch.

…Well, this is it for this time; see you all soon!

Venom - Oct 4

Now then, ‘Venom’.

Straight away, the movie has problems, because it is not MCU per se, but in ‘Sony something-something Marvel something-something’. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue even if you aren’t sarcastic, now does it? And the same thing goes with the movie, literally – it doesn’t quite have the same roll as the MCU movies do…but then again, it isn’t supposed to: it was made by Sony, not by Disney, so to judge it by the MCU standard is just flat-out wrong. To continue.

By now, most people have come to the conclusion that Tom Hardy, who plays the titular role, has largely altered and shaped the movie; ‘Venom’ is all about him…and he deserves it, since he plays both Venom and Brock, who’s Venom’s host. Go Tom! However, it also raises, (sort of), the issue as to why he wasn’t ‘in sync’ with the rest of the cast, and why no one called him out on it, because while he does save the movie, (in a manner of speaking), he’s also the reason as to why it is ‘out of sync’ – because he is clearly moving to a different drum than the rest of the cast.

Big deal? Well, it sort of is, because this ‘dissonance’ is one of the reasons why ‘Venom’ isn’t considered great unanimously, and considering that Sony had had problems with films in the past, (remember the dictator mess?), it’s anyone’s guess as to where it will go now…and yes, the mention of Kasady, (who’s the host of Carnage in the comics), is a great big honking clue.

This is the next point: so far, Venom’s world is extremely limited, especially by Marvel standards – it only has symbionts and that is it; they did not really make a mention or make a tie-in with the greater MCU. By contrast, ‘Cloak & Dagger’ TV series pointedly did at their S1 finale, tying their universe with both Disney’s and Netflix’s corners of Marvel. ‘Venom’ didn’t do anything like that; so far, this Sony-Marvel universe appears to be self-contained, and while it can be self-sustaining, the audience doesn’t like that. People got used to Marvel movies and shows, how they are all interconnected – ‘Runaways’ S2 is coming in December 2018, so it’ll be interesting to see how it fits in with MCU now – so something different, and not necessarily in a good way, is instinctively raising their hackles, so to speak. So far, there is no indication that Sony-Marvel will embrace the greater MCU – the relationship of Sony with Disney was never very easygoing, and people are instinctively upset about that as well.

Now, there’s no overwhelming reason as to why Sony should throw in with Disney/Marvel, and not do their own thing, for the Spider-Man universe is quite big, Venom is only a part of it, so who knows as to who will appear next – Michael Morbius is the best candidate so far, but still – yet this brings us to ‘Titans’.

‘Titans’ are a DC TV show, not a Marvel, (a fact that probably won’t stop the fans from crossing the ‘Titans’ over with the ‘Avengers’ and who knows who else from MCU, as opposed to DCEU, which is another story), but so far it is shaping to be very interesting – yet already people are unhappy, because ‘Titans’ are splintering DCEU even further – there’re the movies, the ‘Arrow-verse’, (with ‘Black Lightning’ being adjunct to it, sort of), there was ‘Powerless’, (which got cancelled mid-S1, the only DC TV series to become cancelled at all, but that is another story), and now – ‘Titans’. They are coming and not everyone is accepting that they are going to be a separate universe – and the same goes for Sony. Not everyone is happy about them trying to do something separate here; in fact, most people are upset about it; plus…

…when I was younger and did not realize just how much life could suck on occasion, (and on other occasions it actually works – go figure), we had a CD game, Maximum Carnage, in which Spidey and Venom raced forwards and beat down bad guys. Not the most complex of games, but it worked. As a game, that is – in real life, it proved to be not quite compatible to our computers, so we had to give it away to our friends… never mind. The point is that ‘Venom 2018’ here feels like a version of this game, just without Spider-Man – Eddie and Venom raced around, beat down bad guys, the end. The villain, (actually, both of them) look and act generic, Eddie’s love interest – ditto, so at least some people are underwhelmed by the movie, especially after you look past the special effects and Hardy’s acting, and people did. By now, they agree that it is not necessarily a bad movie, but not necessarily a good one either, especially if you look at all of the abovementioned points. But to those who still want to go to the movie theaters and look at it all the same – go for it, Tom Hardy makes a generic, though atypical, superhero, (or rather – antihero) going to save the world look good.

Speaking of anti-heroes? ‘Daredevil’ S3 is also coming to Netflix this October. In it, Wilson Fisk the Kingpin is out of the big house and is poised to take over NYC in a plot… that is already similar to him becoming the city’s mayor in the Marvel comics. That was ‘the Defenders’ comics miniseries, (about a dozen issues or so), where the Defenders fought…Copperhead, or Diamondback, as well as the Hood, as the two villains fought each other, (supposedly), for the title of NYC’s Kingpin, (with Fisk backing Copperhead/Diamondback/etc.). Black Cat had also thrown her hat into that fray, but eventually backed out, after she got killed – and the Hood resurrected her. Apparently, he has mystical powers, and so the Defenders summoned practically every other Marvel superhero that is associated with NYC and – the series ended. Sometimes Marvel is like that – but we got sidetracked, the point is that if Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ will be influenced by this story arc, then maybe the rest of Netflix’s Defenders will appear in it as well? Yes, Danny Rand is in Asia right now, but he can always come back – TV can be weird like that. We will just have to wait and see instead.

This is it for now – see you all soon!

The Gifted: unMoored - Oct 2

‘The Gifted’ continue to deliver. Yay?

Well, yes. This week’s episode, ‘unMoored’, has delivered to us, its’ viewers, several interwoven plotlines: the Struckers’ quest to redefine themselves with Andy gone, (but still sharing Lauren’s dreams), the Underground’s continued search for Lorna, (and now the baby), as well as for Christine’s sister, the Inner Circle’s own plans, (regarding Andy in this episode), and now – we also got Jace. Applause – pause?

Jace went through just as much as the mutants did in the six months’ hiatus between the events in S1 and now. He put the Sentinel Services behind and did his best to embrace civil life – in his case, he is working in some office now. Not unlike Andy, he tried to go cold turkey on his old life – and it works just as well for him as it does for Andy. Spoiler alert – it does not, and they do not. Until tonight’s episode at least, Andy has been in touch with his mother, sort of, while Jace has kept his old fact files in the attic or wherever. They were unable to move forwards, but after the events in ‘unMoored’, they can. Sort of. At least Andy does, with Reeva’s help. Reeva, of course, has her own agenda, but so far one can get a feeling that for the last 6 months or so it had been put on hold until Lorna’s baby was born…and now she is sick. The baby, that is, not Lorna, though it is anyone’s guess if what the baby Dawn has is contagious. Judging by the next week’s spoilers, it is not.

…In an off-note, apparently both the Inner Circle/Hellfire Club and the Mutant Underground are in D.C. now, technically within the sight of each other, kind of how Aladdin’s regular hovel and Jasmine’s/the sultan’s royal palace were also within the sight of each other in ‘Aladdin’ the movie. Moreover, yes, now the mutants, (and FOX?) are also a part of Disney, just as ‘Aladdin’ is, but still. Weird. Marcos’ version of the bat-signal, shown in the end of ‘unMoored’ is kind of bizarre-looking too, but if it works for him and Lorna, got for it, you magnificent bastard! …The only odd man out so far is Jace, again, who is down in the state of Georgia, (the devil went down to Georgia?), but again, this will probably change – the reason as to why Jace had been such an effective Sentinel Services agent, is that he honestly believed that he was on ‘the right side’, doing the right thing, and the mutants here were the villains. Regarding the Hellfire Club/Inner Circle, he was not wrong, actually, but those people appeared only in the second half of S1, and cannot fully justify everything else that Jace and his team, his people did to the mutants.

…These days, Jace does not have his own team or people anymore. However, this will likely change, because without them opposing the mutants, (and especially the Mutant Underground, but in a pinch, any mutants will do), ‘The Gifted’ don’t work as well anymore; yes, the old black-and-white dichotomy of S1 seems to be vanishing, replaced by the new Mutant Underground vs. Inner Circle rivalry, but with the Sentinel Services, (or something similar) thrown into the mix, the series might come back to their old S1 glory, or be even better, because right now? ‘The Gifted’ feel lost instead. In part, this is intentional – the old mentor of Johnny, (and Lorna, and maybe the others), who got them into the Underground in the first place, has admitted that she (and maybe her own cohorts?) have messed-up, there’s no hope, and the Mutant Underground is going nowhere fast, so what now?

Johnny has no idea, and the show helpfully shares with us his flashbacks of Gus, and Sonya, and Lorna & Andy leaving the Underground, so he is in just as dark a place as the Struckers are, (and maybe Jace – somehow he does not come across as a sincerely happy man in this episode). What will happen next, now that baby Dawn is sick and according to the spoilers, the Inner Circle needs Marcos’ help to cure her? Anyone can guess.

Oh, and one more thing. Apparently, the lawyer’s mutant powers is the ability to turn into a dragon-human hybrid of some sort, both in the comics and here. There is really no rhyme or reason to mutant powers, is there?

…This is it for ‘unMoored’; see you all soon!

Pathfinder: tengu swordmaster - Sep 30

For a change, since this was that sort of weekend, here's a tengu swordmaster, (a rogue archetype):

Tengu rogue (swordmaster) 9

CE Medium humanoid (tengu)

Init +4; Senses low-light vision; Perception +15

DEFENSE

AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 15

hp 50 (9d8+9)

Fort +4, Ref +11, Will +5

Defensive Abilities evasion, improved uncanny dodge, uncanny dodge

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Melee mwk rapier +11/+2 (1d6+1/18-20/x2)

Ranged mwk composite shortbow +10 (1d6+1/x3)

Special Attacks sneak attack +5d6, trances (crane trance, leopard trance, tiger trance)

STATISTICS

Str 12, Dex 18, Con 11, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 9

Base Atk +6; CMB +7; CMD 21

Feats Acrobatic, Aquatic Combatant (B), Empty Threats, Lovable Scoundrel, Tengu Wings, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (rapier)

Skills Acrobatics +17, Appraise +14, Bluff +11, Diplomacy +5, Escape Artist +15, Fly +9, Intimidate +11, Perception +15, Sense Motive +13, Sleight of Hand +15, Stealth +17, Swim +8

Languages Common, Elven, Tengu, Undercommon

SQ gifted linguist, rogue talents (befuddling strike, combat trick, fast stealth, finesse rogue), swordtrained

Combat Gear potion of invisibility; Other Gear +1 chain shirt, mwk composite shortbow (+1 Str) with 20 arrows, mwk rapier, cloak of resistance +1

Comments? Criticisms?

More Marvel - Sep 27

…To continue the issue of Marvel and mutants, because real life sucks – just ask Judge Cavanaugh and Dr. Ford – two more things should be mentioned, perhaps. One is that ‘Daredevil’ S3 is coming to Netflix in October 2018. This is Marvel, but not mutants – usually Daredevil stays separate from the X-Men and their crowd, though in the comics he did team up once with Wolverine and Jubilee to stop the Hand and their latest plot, but right now, on TV – not so much. Rather, from the trailers that we have seen, he might be going against Wilson Fisk/the Kingpin once again. (Maybe Punisher could help, but so far, there is no new info about him).

And the second? The ‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ film has released its’ first trailer.

Now, here is the thing: ‘Dark Phoenix’ has nothing in common with ‘Insatiable’ – do people still remember that damn mess? Hopefully, it had been forgotten by now, but one of the things that contributed to its’ failure was its’ poorly designed trailer, which was badly put together, chaotic. The trailer of ‘Dark Phoenix’ has a similar feeling – it is chaotic, unintentionally designed to overwhelm the audiences with maximum of info in a minimal amount of time, just as the trailer of ‘Insatiable’ sought to do, also unintentionally. The result? While undoubtedly the ‘Dark Phoenix’ movie will be good, and maybe even better than the previous ‘evil Jean X-Men’ movie, where Wolverine had to fix everything, as he always does, because Cyclops and Xavier got offed by Jean earlier in the film, right now, the first expressions of ‘Dark Phoenix’ are mixed. Good luck to team Disney/FOX in sorting it all out.

Finally, speaking of movies – ‘Venom’ is coming to the movie theaters in October 2018 too. It will be interesting to watch, (plus its’ trailers were all done correctly, off topic). As it was already established, Carnage will not be in the movie, but some other symbionts – especially Rampage – will be, and Venom might be unable to defeat them through sheer physical strength alone, some more sophisticated strategies might be required. Since Venom tends to go more with its’ instincts than intelligence, Eddie might have his work cut out for both of them – but again, we will have to wait and see as to what will develop in the movie.

…Well, this is it for now – I will see you in the future.