S.H.I.E.L.D., Maveth - Dec 8

And so, AoS mid-S3 finale had come to a conclusion. Was it shuttering? Yes and no. Not unlike “Purpose...” (ep 3x02), AoS aimed to depict the agents as a well-oiled team, a machine, and now, since the finale of S2, it has done it. Lincoln is with Daisy, Mel is going to be with Phil, and the FitzSimmons are the FitzSimmons. For further drama, Andrew/Lash is out there, acting the villain not unlike how Ward had done it before, since the beginning of S3, Simmons is going to be mad at Fitz over Will, and, well, Brett is going to be now playing some sort of a space monster, now that Grant is dead (as a canon character). It is simple, straightforward, and predictable.

Boring, basically.

The greatest strength of AoS was the unpredictability of its’ characters, the breaking of the comic-book canon in S1. By making Grant a villain with a chance of redemption, they made it interesting. Then S2 happened, and the show’s script writers went all over places, fiddling with Grant’s redemption (until the last 3 eps of S2), trying temporarily to pair Skye/Daisy with Lance, trying to figure out where Raina fit in, etc.

Then the S2 finale occurred, Grant finally became purely a villain, the rest of the team – purely heroes, and S3 rolled in. Predictability rolled in. The characters got settled into their roles as people, not just as agents. Marvel™, backed by Disney™, is a powerhouse in terms of the finances, which allows them to play out their films (MCU), as well as AoS, on an epic scale, if by ‘epic’ you mean ‘expansive’, ‘extensive’, and ‘large’. The TV-medium does not allow the same mass media depictions as the movie screen does, so even “Maveth” did not have the same impact as any of the MCU movies would. The music delivered, the actors delivered, but the old, unpredictable S.H.I.E.L.D. of S1 died. What is left, what will appear for the rest of S3 and beyond is predictability; in fact, given the ‘grand musical number’ at the conclusion of “Maveth”, AoS could’ve ended right here, with a bang – the Earth is saved, the agents are (mostly) happy, etc.

...Oh wait, Grant Ward had been resurrected by the alien horror. Of course he was – Brett’s from the main cast, so he cannot disappear the same way that Trip did, for example. He has to remain on the show, even with a new role, driving forth the agents as the antagonist to their happiness and family values. Hooray!

...This had been done before, in ‘Primeval’, made by Impossible Pictures™. There, Helen Cutter, too had evolved from an ambiguous, and even helpful, character into a pure villain...that proved to be the main driving force of the show: she was killed at the end of S3 (Ward made it barely to the middle), but she still had to be brought back post-mortem by the end of S5 as she almost destroyed the world even from beyond the grave. Remind you of anyone?

As for the other Ward scion, Thomas...AoS was always about killing off the guest stars. So far we see no sign of him joining the main cast, so odds are is that he will die by the end of S3 if not sooner – Grant’s resurrected corpse is going to get him, most likely, or perhaps Lash/Andrew will. His showdown with May was very reminiscent of Grant’s showdown with Skye back in S1, and AoS showed that it isn’t above ‘recycling’ the old characters into new – Rosalind was reminiscent of S1 Raina, Lash was clearly based on her S2 second half, etc. Thomas is going to be the redeemed Ward, most likely, which is sad – couldn’t they have found a way to redeem Grant? Ah well, it was obvious that he was going to die since the end of S2, when Kara died. His heart died with her, after all.

So, from now on, it is going to be a completely different ball game. AoS has put behind the chaotic and ill-defined S2, the embarrassing episode 3x01 and has become solid, powerful, predictable. The critics say that S3 had revitalized the show...yet the ratings still are nowhere high enough to what they were in S1, and now there is a big break – until March – so odds are that the ratings will go down, as they did in S2. So for now we will wave farewell to AoS and wait for March with more reviews.

(Or not, if the show will prove to be too predictable at that time.)

S.H.I.E.L.D., Closure - Dec 1

And so, the mid-winter mid-season AoS finale has come upon us, and once more there are twists. More precisely, ATCU was taken out; both Price and Banks are gone. The fusion of the plotlines – Hydra, InHuman, alien – is coming to a head, with both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra boasting gifted people among them, while Coulson is going after Ward (and, unknowingly, Fitz) through another portal to planet/dimension X. It is only a matter of time until Thanos gets involved, as the final shots at the Age of Ultron had indicated.

Anything else? The writing team put their best effort into this, this is no hackfest as it was at the season finale of S2, this time everything makes sense, the plot is solid, as is the action...pardon me, the acting of the actors, it is also solid, without any gaps as it was in S2, especially in the beginning of that season, and even the setting, the scenery is very well done – but it had been so since the “Purpose...” episode and yet the ratings have continued to fall.

Now, we’ve talked about this; the problem is in repetition (the mid-season finale, for all of its good points, is very reminiscent of the finale of S1 – even John Garrett was mentioned), as well as in recycling – Price was based on S1 Raina, while Lash was more of a second-half S2 Raina; and then there are all of those ‘imitations’ – “Killjoys”, “Dark Matter”, “Blindspot”, perhaps even “Supergirl”, some of which are quite successful in their own right, especially “Blindspot”, with Kurt being a Ward-like character, and Jane/Taylor being a Skye-like character, and now their mid-winter finale introduced Oscar, a Lincoln-like character – someone on “Blindspot” is clearly an AoS fan, who wants it done right – never mind that those are all TV characters; anyone remember their 50^th episode featurette? Brett and Chloe did their best to point out that they were not Skye/Daisy and Grant, while trying to give ‘SkyeWard’ fans a bone – got to appease the viewers somehow, but we talked about this in a previous installment. This relationship is obviously finished, we got StaticQuake here now, but this is not the point.

Well, ok, the other fact is that the ship Philinda is back on – Price is dead, and so’s Andrew, but considering that Andrew, for one, had killed plenty of innocent people in his own right, as Lash, yeah, May is better off with Coulson anyways. The FitzSimmons? The show is clearly referencing back to S1, when Fitz and Simmons were underwater – sometimes Ward acts like a crazy, messed-up Cupid – but speaking of messed-up? There is the show’s site that is updated relatively irregularly; there are the comics, which have nothing to do with MCU; and then there the upcoming “Civil War” movie – AoS is trying to tie itself to it: the FitzSimmons got captured in an abandoned Stark facility.

That probably is not good – ‘Laws’ did its best to tie itself into the greater MCU, and as a result the writers delivered a very hackneyed, clichéd episode that they tried to bury themselves in the following episodes very successfully, so hopefully they won’t try to do that in ‘Maveth’ (does this word even mean anything or is it just a name) or in post “Agent Carter” S2 episodes. (That is right, Carter is coming back in January, so yay!) That sort of cliché can kill a show, you know?

But the upcoming “Civil War” movie (in May 2016)? Yes, that is something else. So far MCU had delivered beautifully, and this trailer promises this to be just as good. So let us buckle our loins, hanker down and wait – for the next week for AoS mid-S3 finale, for January for ‘Carter’, and for May for “Civil War”. Until then – peace out! 

S.H.I.E.L.D., tale - Nov 17

And so, keeping in mind that next week AoS is taking time off, let us recount as to what they have done in this episode.

They brought the strands together. Until now, the episodes tended to treat InHumans and Hydra separately, but now, they are bringing them together. Will is...sort of Hydra, just working for NASA and possibly not knowing this. Fitz and Simmons have finally kissed and are finally getting back together, because in worst-case scenario? Will is another knock-off of Ward, meaning a wolf in sheep’s skin. Ward himself...he is starting to play a greater role in S3, actually learning what Hydra is, what it stands for and what it does. The episode’s script is integrating the Avengers’ second movie into the plotline, and it is giving a new, bigger dimension to the show itself as well. Remarkable and Hydra nowadays is something more than just a Nazi death cult, something possibly worthy to go toe-to-toe with S.H.I.E.L.D., and especially Ward, since the next episode (actually aired in December) is going to put the end to ‘Ward’s revenge’ storyline once and for all, because S.H.I.E.L.D. needs something new and exciting to keep itself afloat, ratings-wise.

It is already doing that, mind, with making Rosalind not evil (supposedly), and Andrew – alive. Of course, as it may have been written before, redemption in S.H.I.E.L.D. is something of a select piece, almost anyone but Ward gets his or her chance of it so frankly, if Coulson puts Ward out of his misery in the next episode? It might be the better choice. It might also be the only choice, since the next month, December, is wrapping up the first half of AoS S3, for January? This is where ‘Agent Carter’ takes over. Agent Carter is a good show, though not as exciting as AoS...was, for now it is getting more straightforward and less unpredictable, and Carter is apparently going to Hollywood. You cannot get bored in Hollywood!

Back to AoS...there is not much left to discuss. There is hope for Andrew and May, Rosalind and Coulson, and Lincoln’s setting down. There are signs that Ward may be Hellfire, (which is a pity, he was a cool villain so far all on his own), though maybe they are just another plot twist and Fitz and Simmons finally kissed. Hooray! Go FitzSimmons! Lincoln and Daisy...they did not get too much time on this ep, but at least Lincoln has bonded with May, which is good for both of them. So yes, this is it for AoS this time around – a very exciting and informative episode to be watched.

S.H.I.E.L.D., Chaos - Nov 10

And so, the 50^th episode of AoS went past. Now it is time for the 51^st – and it still delivered, a very tense, dramatic episode. The Lash plotline had come to a mid-term resolution, as we learn what has happened to Andrew – or rather how. This is a story of a good man succumbing to darkness within, of becoming a monster and unable to stop it, of dragging his loved ones into this- Oh wait. Ward did in the second half of S1, and Cal actually underwent something similar throughout S2 – and this brings down to ratings.

Take this episode, “Chaos Theory”, for example. Both the main and the supporting cast did their parts without a hitch; the plot in many ways was as solid as it was in the episode 3x02 (the episode 3x01 should be killed and buried, BTW), and the conclusion of the episode’s finale was equally heart wrenching... spoilers alert – in this episode May got her heart broken, in the next – it’ll be Coulson’s turn, as the InHuman and Hydra plotlines appear to collide and yet the ratings continue to plummet. Why?

Because repetition. It began already in S2, as Gonzales infiltration of Coulson’s part of S.H.I.E.L.D. was reminiscent of Hydra’s actions in S1, save that it was done on a liter scale; the emphasis here is on ‘lite’. Yes, Mack and Bobbi seem to have made their peace with Coulson, (though their friends on Gonzales’ side, including the man himself, had died because of Coulson’s ideas, BTW), but this still was a repetition of what Ward and Garrett and other Hydra agents had done back in S1 – so it was up to the InHuman plotline to carry the day...and they failed. S2 finale was a bloodbath – an unnecessary bloodbath, and it did not get better in S3. Ward’s plotline doesn’t get resolved (he may be a villain, but not a very formidable one, if the site information is correct), the show is struggling with balancing InHuman and Hydra plotlines in general, and Andrew is really a repetition of Ward & Cal from the previous seasons – this isn’t very original, frankly.

And his resolution...it is something else. AoS was dealing the whole redemption angle rather badly, ever since the end of S1. For a while the show’s writers made redemption sound like a big deal, right out there next to teamwork, but then...

No, it is not about Ward, though the way Coulson had handled him in mid-season 2 was not very smart or logical. This is about Jiaying too – Coulson did offer her a chance to solve things peacefully with Gonzales and co., and she threw it back into his face and in a very nasty way too, not to mention deadly. Yes, she was killed, but Lincoln came back, or rather – helped in the first place – of his own will, S.H.I.E.L.D. got nothing to do with it...

By S3 AoS seems to have abandoned the redemption plot altogether. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad...and they die. Kebo in particular, though von Strucker seems to have gone into a coma instead. This is simple, this works, but it is somewhat disappointing, in a simplified way. AoS already has to deal with competition that was inspired by its initial success, from ‘Killjoys’ to “Dark Matter’, from ‘Supergirl’ to ‘Blindspot’, and those shows are quite successful and dramatic, especially ‘Blindspot’, but none of them have any excessive plot twists as AoS does. ‘Blindspot’, for example, has a very ‘noir’ feeling lately, but it is not dependant on plot twists as AoS is.

And speaking of repetition, drama and relationships – Will, Jemma’s new cough friend cough back from ‘4722 hours’ is some sort of an evil doer? Gasp, shocking. Seriously, how this is (or will be once Will is back on Earth himself) different (if you look past the secondary details) of what Skye went with Grant or Melinda with Andrew? Not really. This is more of the same, and the same is not always good. AoS’ ratings continue to go down, and this is very sad, for it is a very good show – but all good things must come to an end...let us just hope that AoS will not end any time soon.

So: the Lash situation is resumed, and now it seems that it will be Ward’s turn next. Hopefully, the scriptwriters will do something more original to him rather than turn him into Hellfire. 

S.H.I.E.L.D., 50 ep - Nov 3

And so, S.H.I.E.L.D. celebrated its 50^th episode. Let us start with that.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is a great show, with many well-developed and thought-provoking plot twists. Tonight’s twist, which revealed that Dr. Garner is actually one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s new enemies, proves this is true. It also shows agent Morse recovering from Ward’s shot, Hunter living with the consequences of his recklessness, and Ward, well, Ward actually has been offered redemption. Since for him the word has some very unpleasant connotations...no. Just now, Malick has probably judged him correctly, but who knows? The show’s writers have not finished with him yet, because his big showdown with Morse and May hadn’t occurred in this episode – instead, the younger von Strucker seems to be gone, and so’s Kebo. The show’s scriptwriters have done it to perfection! That anniversary video on YouTube has depicted it very neatly. (Ward may be a villain, but Brett and Chloe still go around; it's cute, in a weird way, and there's the talk of redemption...yeah).

Sadly, the other aspects of AoS universe lag behind the visual/auditory ones – i.e. the show itself. The comic is...actually not related to the show; rather, it is a series of adventures, mostly of Coulson himself (Daisy/Quake actually appears to have a series of her own) that deals with saving the world. So far it is only him and May, Fitz and Simmons – and that is it. Ward, Raina, Whitehall, Garrett – they are all gone, at least for the moment and probably are not making a proper appearance; Hell, the regular Hydra villains are not making much of an appearance, and the latest comic installments seem to lack a common story arc (the first 6 issues had that at least). Plus, unlike some other comic series, (“Arrow” for example), the S.H.I.E.L.D. comic is not really a part of AoS universe, it is just inspired by the series...and only loosely so. Ouch.

And as for at least one of the show’s sites (marvel190 dot com), it suffers from irregular updates...and just plain sloppiness; one of the last season’s clips is described as having Ward and May...going after Ward. Somehow the site got Lance and Grant, aka Nick and Brett confused, and considering that the two of them are two very different-looking people, which are just sad.

But in any case, S.H.I.E.L.D. has delivered a very beautiful episode number 50, which was very pleasant to watch, to put it lightly. Hopefully, the following episodes will keep this up, and the ignominy of ‘Laws’ (episode 3x01) will be put behind us.

Something different - Pathfinder 3

And so I decided to add the souldrinker class to another monster from the Inner Sea Monster Codex - the cyclops oracle. I think it works, no?

Cyclops oracle 8/souldrinker 8 CR 15

NE Large humanoid (giant)

Init -1; Senses low-light vision; Perception +16

AC 21, touch 8, flat-footed 21; (+6 armor, -1 Dex, +7 natural, -1 size)

Hp 198 (10d8+8d8+8d6+136)

Fort +15, Ref +7, Will +17

Immune ingested and inhaled poison, no longer needs to eat or drink

Defensive Abilities ferocity

Speed 25 ft.

Melee +1 quarterstaff +17/+12/+7 melee (1d8+7), bite +11 (1d8+2 plus grab)

Ranged heavy crossbow +11 (2d8/19-20)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

Spell-Like Abilities

At will – bestow curse (DC 21)

SA energy drain (DC 21, 2/day), summon cacodaemon, summon ceustodemon

Oracle Spells Known (CL 8^th; concentration +11)

6^th (3/day) – animate object, mass inflict moderate wounds (DC 19), symbol of fear (DC 18)

5^th (5/day) – commune, dispel chaos, plane shift, slay living (DC 18), unhallow (DC 18)

4^th (5/day) – arcane sight, divination, dismissal (DC 17), inflict critical wounds (DC 17), summon monster IV

3^rd (6/day) – bestow curse (DC 16), detect thoughts (DC 16), inflict serious wounds (DC 16), protection from energy, speak with dead (DC 16)

2^nd (7/day) – aid, cure moderate wounds, inflict moderate wounds (DC 15), silence (DC 15), true strike

1^st (7/day) – command (DC 14), comprehend languages, detect poison, divine favor, obscuring mist, shield of faith

0 (at will) – bleed (DC 13), create water, detect magic, guidance, know direction, purify food and drink, stabilize, virtue

Mystery ancestor

Str 19, Dex 8, Con 17, Int 14, Wis 15, Cha 16

Base Atk +17; CMB +22; CMD 27

Feats Alertness, Brew Potion, Combat Casting, Extra Revelation, Fleet, Improved Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lunge, Power Attack, Scribe Scroll, Skill Focus (Knowledge [history]), Toughness

Skills Bluff +7, Diplomacy +17, Heal +7, Knowledge (arcana) +20, Knowledge (geography) +9, Knowledge (history) +21, Knowledge (local) +11, Knowledge (nature) +10, Knowledge (nobility) +10, Knowledge (the planes) +11, Knowledge (religion) +11, Linguistics +9, Perception +16, Perform (oratory) +5, Profession (soothsayer) +13, Sense Motive +26, Spellcraft +15, Survival +7; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception

Languages Aklo, Celestial, Common, Cyclops, Draconic, Dwarven, Giant, Orc, Terran

SQ cacodemon familiar, daemonic patron, damned, flash of insght, oracle’s curse (hunger), revelations (assume fate [3/day], brutal trance [8 rounds], doomsaying [3/day], wisdom of ancestors [commune, 1/day]), soul pool

Combat Gear: potions of cure moderate wounds (2), potions of invisibility (2), potion of protection from chaos, scrolls of dispel magic (2), scroll of locate object, scrolls of remove curse (2), scrolls of tongues (2), wand of cure light wounds (15 charges), wand of inflict serious wounds (8 charges), wand of lesser restoration (9 charges), holy water (2)

Other Gear: +2 hide armor, +1 quarterstaff, heavy crossbow with 20 bolts, headband of alluring charisma +2, antitoxin (2)

Something different - Pathfinder 2

And so, I created another Pathfinder character - a shaman dryad (the shaman class is introduced in ACG). What do you think?

Dryad shaman 7 CR 9

XP 800

CG Medium fey

Init +4; Senses low-light vision; Perception +11

AC 17, touch 14, flat-footed 13 (+4 Dex, +3 natural)

hp 50 (7d8+6d6+13)

Fort +7, Ref +11, Will +12

DR 5/cold iron

Weaknesses tree dependent

Speed 30 ft.

Melee dagger +7 (1d4)

Ranged masterwork longbow +8 (1d8)

SA hexes (crystal sight, fetish), touch of acid (1d6+3, 7/day), wandering hex

Spells (CL 6^th)

4^th—wall of stone

3^rd—magic circle against evil, meld into stone

2^nd—remove paralysis,resist energy, stone call

1^st—hex ward, magic stone, stone shield, thorn javelin

0—arcane mark, bleed, create water, dancing lights

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 6th)

Constant—speak with plants

At will—entangle (DC 15), tree shape, wood shape (1 lb. only)

3/day—charm person (DC 15), deep slumber (DC 17), tree stride

1/day—suggestion (DC 17)

Str 10, Dex 19, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 15, Cha 18

Base Atk +8; CMB +8; CMD 17

Feats Craft Wondrous Item (B), Dodge, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Stealthy, Weapon Finesse

Skills Climb +9, Craft (sculpture) +18, Diplomacy +10, Escape Artist +15, Handle Animal +17, Knowledge (nature) +18, Perception +11, Profession (shaman) +10, Spellcraft +9, Stealth +15, Survival +8; Racial Modifiers +6 Craft (wood)

Languages Common, Elven, Sylvan; speak with plants

SQ spirit animal, spirit magic, spirit (stone), tree meld, wild empathy, woodcraft

Environment temperate forests

Organization solitary, pair, or grove (3–8)

Treasure standard (dagger, masterwork longbow with 20 arrows, other treasure)

Tree Meld (Su) A dryad can meld with any tree, similar to how the spell meld into stone functions. She can remain melded with a tree as long as she wishes.

Tree Dependent (Su) A dryad is mystically bonded to a single, enormous tree and must never stray more than 300 yards from it. Most dryad trees are oak trees, but other trees function as well (often having subtle influences on a specific dryad's personality and appearance). A dryad who moves 300 yards beyond her bonded tree immediately becomes sickened. Every hour thereafter, she must make a DC 15 Fortitude save to resist becoming nauseated for an hour. A dryad that is out of range of her bonded tree for 24 hours takes 1d6 points of Constitution damage, and another 1d6 points of Constitution damage every day that follows—eventually, this separation kills the dryad. A dryad can forge a new bond with a new tree by performing a 24-hour ritual and making a successful DC 20 Will save.

Wild Empathy (Su) This works like the druid's wild empathy class feature, except the dryad has a +6 racial bonus on the check. Dryads with druid levels add this racial modifier to their wild empathy checks.

Woodcraft (Ex) A dryad has a +6 racial bonus to Craft checks involving wood, and is always treated as if she had masterwork artisan's woodworking tools when making such checks.