#He is a Lore character in league and this is a prequel

[applebuttercringe]

Arcane Episode 6 Immediate Thoughts

Spoilers

-Give me the doomed Jayvik content, I'm ready. Jayce is an off the wall murderer hell bent on destroying Arcane and Viktor is the new Herald of the Arcane.

-Viktor is a full on magical girl transformation dimension. The floating and glowing, start patterns, glowing hair.

-Huh

-So Viktor is straight up God?

-This Caitlyn training scene is dope

-OOOH they're gonna go to Viktor to cure Vander. Thats a cool way to tie all these stories together. I wonder if any of them will recognize Viktor. Did Caitlyn or Jayce tell Vi about him?

-Look at Jinx's face, she does not give a fuck about Vi and Hucks stand off.

-Man the council didn't know shit, Viktor should have been in charge this whole time.

-Man Jayce is gonna show up and destroy it. 🥺

-HAHAHAHAHA VIKTOR IS SO JESUS, the long hair, the robe, the staff.

-Viktor has his original eye color in the Hexcore universe.

-cookie

-Even Jinx knows Viktor is a straight up snack.

-Fortune cookies are canon? What Americanized Chinese food restaraunt is Jinx going to? Is there a Panda Express in Zaun?

-Viktors Steel Oasis is realized

-Oh hey it's the kind of plant that he experimented on the hexcore with

-So is this real Sky and we were all wrong in thinking the Hexcore was just using her image?

-Does this take several days? How long is it taking Jayce to come to the undercity? He seemed in a hurry when we last saw him.

-I don't care if these animatic style visuals are the result of a mismanaged budget. Arcane's 2d music video style visuals are so good when you aren't being told they are just for cost saving.

-"We"

-This is nice, this is what I wanted for Thor and Loki

-Singed has a Vander tracking compass. Like the Vampire compass in Vampire Diaries.

-Does Caitlyn know the Herald is Viktor? How will she react?

-Ooh the Singed-Viktor reunion!

-Why is Viktors voice more metallic than before?

-"Evolution has a destination" I mean technically no, you're a scientist Viktor c'mon. Thats a common misconception.

-GLORIOUS EVOLUTION MENTIONED

-And he had the voice distortion when he said it, this is the desire of the Hexcore not of him?

-Is Viktor dating a ghost?

-OH DAMN, the Caitvi reunion is a violent one. Not looking good for the Caitvi stans, or the future of this ship. They're doing a Catradora.

-Caitlyn is a dictator who is offended by being called a mongoose, and by her ex-gfs new style. Be glad she didn't get bangs Caitlyn.

-"Cupcake"

-Ambessa eating an entire raw meat hunk with her hands.

-Oh damn, the betrayal.

-HOLY SHIT JAYCE, ITS HAPPENING, IM NOT READY!

-The music, is this the start of the inevitable end of a three episode arc music montage fight scene that cuts between the plot points while a pop-rock song plays?

-SPIT ON HER

-Oh no, this is the sweet conversation that happens to make everything happy so they can rip it away by killing one of the characters isn't it? Is Isha gonna die soon?

-OH, the Caitvi reveal! Caitlyn did a good! Nice. All it took was to be in her ex-gfs presence one more time and she completely flipped. Poor Maddie.

-The blind fold is kinda kinky tbh

-is Caitlyn gonna see Jayce? Will they talk? Has Caitlyn seen Viktor?

-Now Jayce has a leg brace, my how the turn tables. I little ableist maybe that a leg brace is used to show who is powerless in the dynamic but still.

-I wish we knew more about what Jayce went through, or how long the time skip is, to have context. C'mon writers what was it?

-Once again Jayce is about to nuke a child with the Hex Hammer

-Is Jayce gonna come be healed?!

-The come to Jesus music when he goes to meet Viktor.

-Viktor is the Avatar, or a Jedi

-Caitlyn will be saved by Jinx! Will this cause another snap change in her alignment. Who knows!

-Its honestly shocking this is the first time someone has tried just grabbing her uber long hair in a fight.

-JAYCE NUKED VIKTOR!

-IS HE DEAD! MY BLORBO! JAYCE YOU BITCH!

-UNREAL

-Vander is crying lava?

-No Viktor Jayce is the reason your commune failed.

-Jinx crying on the floor after being struck by a loved one like when she was a child.

-Aw this is cute

-Isha better not die, don't you dare show. Don't you DARE.

-They did!

-They killed Viktor and Isha in one episode, Now Caitlyn is just chill with both Vi and Jinx, why. Awful. How dare they. First genuinely bad episode.

Final thoughts: AAAAAAAAAH! I'm actually mad. They killed Isha, they killed Viktor. Both in dumb and unnessecary ways. Jayce's motivations have not been explored in any depth or meaningful way this season which would justify the story move. I was fully ready to call this a flawed but good show till the second half of this episode. I think this arc release will genuinely divide the fandom. Beginning of the end. Oof. Sorry boys. Arcane is Fumbled.

Let me in the writers room, I just wanna talk.

[warsamongthestars]

What I make of Star Wars...

Okay, time for the fun bits. Let's start with a analysis, and then we get into the imagination.

The Prequels and the OG don't fit. Yes, I know the Prequels are meant to fit, but they don't. The narrative tone, mixed the difference of lines and scripting between the two trilogies, as well as the mentality and historic differences between the late 90s-early 00s vs late 70s-mid 80s, and the simple differences of lore set up between the two--utterly ensures that the Prequels are more of an Alternate Universe to the OG.

Vader was just a guy who fell from grace. OG Anakin wasn't a chosen one, he was more or less the fallen knight adhering to a dark lord in a twisted idea of feudal chivalry in space.

PQ Anakin is an ex-slave chosen one backstreet boy, with far more anger issues than Vader ever had, and absolutely does not have a sense of chivalry, and is more akin to a lawman whose abused his position of power. If he fell, it wouldn't have resulted in Darth Vader, it would've resulted in someone worse.

It kills me that, with context of the Prequels, that characters would say "Oh but there's good in him I feel it!" like... no, PQ Anakin Skywalker was one evil motherfucker, far evilier and insane than Darth Vader. When OG Vader killed people, it was either rebels who knew what they were getting into (So enemy combatants) or it was other imperials (effectively making the good guys' jobs easier). When PQ Anakin killed people, it was whole sail, inexcusable slaughter of the innocents. Vader was a soldier and a knight, Anakin was a maniac.

OG Vader and PQ Anakin are vaguely alike in position, but do not share the same values nor the same histories, and Vader has far more humanity and honor than Anakin does. (No that doesn't stop him from being the powerful antagonistic Dark Knight and Dragon to the evil space wizards, but those traits are there. )

So... How does one reconcile the two distinct different characters, whilst keeping the good bits from each trilogy intact, without totally turning the Prequels into the strange Alternate Universe that might vaguely lead into the OG?

By making them separate characters, and recreating the Prequels based directly off of what the OG goes by. No retcons, no missing elements, no "Oh but its just Early writing!", --that's what drafts is for, mate-- and definitely no "we'll just edit in the poor CGI later!". We now have over 40 years of stuff, plenty of easily accessible public information so plenty of material to remake one of the big leagues.

And it starts by splitting the two Anakins.

So..

[Ahem]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, there was Anakin Skywalker (OG Anakin) and his little brother, Eliland Skywalker (PQ Anakin).

( The name Anakin reminded me of a few mesopotamian god names, such as the god name Enki. And I kind a figured that, that an alternative nickname to Ani, could be Anki--so why not make the brother's name something similar? Instead of Enki, his name is based on Enlil. )

( Ani and El )

Anakin is inducted into the Jedi Order at the elder age of... 5. He was found during a slave auction on Nar Shadda, the moon of Nal Hutta (The heart of Hutt Space) with his heavily pregnant (8 or 9 months or so) mother, Shmi Skywalker, by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Padawan Obi-wan Kenobi. Kenobi at the time was 15.

Anakin showed great unusual force powers, albeit basic ones. He was unusually powerful at telekinetics and empathy. By the moment he met Obi-wan he glued himself to Kenobi's side, and it was actually Kenobi who "stole away" both Anakin and Shmi.

( This goes to follow two lines of thought. 1) that Kenobi was just as spirited as Luke when it came to causing trouble and reacting out of emotion, as stated by Kenobi himself to Yoda during Empire strikes Back... 2) to mirror New Hope's story, that Kenobi is always going to rush right into danger to save a Skywalker kid. )

It was Kenobi who had to convince Qui-Gon into saving the Skywalker family, much to Qui-Gon's disapproval, but Qui-Gon would convince the Jedi council that it was his idea... and frankly, what were they gonna do? Give the family back to the hutts?

Shmi Skywalker would be, by technicality, set free and given amnesty at the Jedi temple. As it turned out, her unborn son (who would be named Eliland) was even more powerful in the force, and in fact, had been giving the force equivalency of unborn baby talk the entire venture.

( This would be shown in odd feelings in the force. Maybe an odd baby giggle in the ether here and there, or something would get moved, making the first remade Star Wars Prequel into half ghost-story... but considering its an unborn baby, its probably a pre-ghost tale )

Anakin could hear it just fine, and has been hearing it for the past few weeks... which was why he was trying to find a way to escape the auction and slavery in general with his mother. He just figured that unborn babies could talk in telepathy when they're grown enough, and had to be gently explained that no, normally, unborn babies don't' actually "talk" in spirit at all.

"Your brother is just really fucking weird"--said by someone who obviously wouldn't have put it like that.

Eliland would be born at the Temple, and about a year later, thanks to both traditions and politics, Shmi had to make the decision to allow the Jedi to train Eliland though she wouldn't be allowed to remain at the temple for "fear of attachment" for both Eliland and Anakin.

( They would, however, give her a starting package to start life elsewhere. She would choose a planet she once lived at as a young girl, Tatooine. There she would marry a human man by the name of Cliegg Lars, and adopt the then young Owen Lars. They would spend their time officially as moisture farms, but unofficially as apart of the Whiterun Movement that freed local slaves. )

( Anakin was allowed to call her frequently, of course. He and Owen did not get along, and would spend most of their youths giving each other lots of shit--that's how you knew they were perfect as brothers. )

Now...

The reason why Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi were on Nar Shadda, was to investigate the odd transportation of Sith Artifacts. During Kenobi's rescue of the Skywalkers, Qui-Gon Jinn would find evidence that yes, there is a Sith or at least, a Sith Cultist, that has been active. But the rescue of the Skywalkers has caused the trail to go cold.

But while this story doesn't outright tell the characters who it was... there would be direct hints that the sith cultist is actually, Darth Maul and we get our first view of the soon to be Emperor at the end...

Overall, this is just the starting story of this idea of story-progression. Its meant to be a slower pace, unlike the Prequels proper, primarily introducing what the Jedi were like during the days of the Republic, from within the Temple.

( I'm feeling a bit like, it should be Ghibli like. Like, Star Wars meets Spirited Away )

It cuts out most of the problems brought up in Phantom Menance. We can allow the story to breath a bit, and allow the hints of politics here to develop into the Star Wars Politics in the next "Film".

[ultraericthered]

BIRTH BY SLEEP, BEYOND THE DOOR

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, possibly even far more so than Kingdom Hearts III, is a game I dearly love and vehemently hate at the same time. Yes, its story is overall a poorly written, shamelessly unimaginative Star Wars Episode III ripoff, and the elements that got introduced into KH lore in this game are what just ate away at the series narrative and its universe for the next decade until there was nary a thing resembling what KH had began as remaining. I hate it.

What I still love it for is how dang good and effective the stupid Star Wars prequel story ended up being in execution as a prequel to the pre-existing KH Trinity, far more than it had any right to be, and we really have Daisuke Watanabe as largely to thank for this being so. The execution is so solid that it always gets me wishing to just leave the BBS-introduced characters and details where they fell by the end of the main story and let the prequel just be a nice, tidy prequel. And even among the game makers, I think this was the desire of some.

Big example of what I mean: back in 2007, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix Edition came out and truly, properly introduced the armored characters seen in KHII's secret ending as characters in the series lore. In fact, it added two more so there were now five characters we knew to have existed in what ended up revealed as the time period before the events of the KH Trinity - Terra, Aqua, Ventus, Vanitas, and Master Xehanort. Those are the key players in this footage.

Ultimately, they all needed to meet their fates. And y'know that one tune that plays in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy whenever the main villain (Ras Al Ghul, Joker, and Talia Al Ghul + League of Shadows people RIP Bane) faces their ultimate defeat? BBS opted to do something similar with the OST track titled "Beyond The Door."

When we see Terra's fate at the end of his story:

When we see Ventus and Vantias' fates at the end of Ven's story:

And when we see Aqua's fate in the Final Episode:

So Terra, Ventus, Vanitas, and Aqua got sent off set to this same musical theme. Who does that leave us? Oh yeah, Xehanort! At the end of the game, as seen in that video, he's still inhabiting Terra's heart and so Terra's body is still his, but he's lost all memory of who he even was save for the name "Xehanort", in essence having to start his existence over as a new person. And that's where the game leaves him. Because he's the one character where we already knew what his fate would be, as he goes on to become the overarching villain of the KH Trinity and the true Big Bad in KH1, whose turn into a Heartless birthed his Nobody, Xemnas. And when his time comes?

(When you clicked the vid, you probably weren't ready for Sora's sudden puberty, my sincerest apologies if you got startled by that.)

Xehanort - THIS Xehanort - had his fate sealed in the first game, and adding the demise of Xemnas to the equation gives us the last thread of the BBS prequel narrative being definitively wrapped as of KHII. And to me, no amount of effort to cheat fate on Nomura's Xehanort's end could ever be more compelling and satisfying than that.

Silly Sora! Kingdom Hearts doesn't do "real characters" anymore!

[seolvair]

So one of my big problems with Arcane Season 2 might boil down to the fact I'm a League Lore Fantic but ultimately it feels like thinking back to the ending it felt like the ending to the journeys to these champions, their finales as characters from Pre 2015 and such.

BUT the problem is THEY DIDNT DO ANYTHING!!! Viktor and Jayce's stories end before they become who they were in the lore so it feels hollow??? I want to see more of Jayce and Viktor and now I get nothing?!?!?! After a Fucking Decade I got the equivalency to their Bios being updated and thats it?!?!

Jayce and Viktor literally just do what they did in their Bios, invent Hexgates, invent Hexcore, have a falling out, Jayce attacks Viktors hide out and Viktor becomes the Herald and then it's over?!?!?! I get nothing else?!?! Nothing!?!?! I get their Bio stories updated and then its over?!?!

Jinx and Vi atleast finally had their stories told cause that one was barely even talked about, all I had for those was voice lines.

Seeing Ekko's story was the only one that felt good AND THATS BECAUSE HE HAS MORE STORIES!!! This was a prequel for Ekko and a good one at that but most of the characters just got their backstories updated thats it.

And the worst part its written just like any other League of Legends Universe story. The character gets a bio, they get a bit of flavour, MAYBE, and then once Riot is done with them they don't exist anymore.

They literally just remade what I already knew about Jayce and Viktor added a tiny bit of twists and then killed anything in the future they could do!! What happened felt stupid, pointless, and like they knew Riot would never go back to those characters for another decade so they wrote them out of the story and give them a retconnable scene for when Riot back tracks on them! SO. RITO.

Im sick and tired of this shit.

[northerngoshawk]

Tell me a little about your most recent fic (make sure to link it!): what was your inspiration? Favorite line you wrote for it? How do you feel this piece shows your strengths as a writer?

so ig i'll be talking a bit about my very very niche AU that superimposes the lore of another media onto atla lol ty hotwife for this opportunity luv u 💖

so my most recent fic that i posted just yesterday and is sitting at 19.2k words (help me 🥲) is The Darkened Path, which is the prequel to a fic i wrote one and a half to two years ago, The Dishonored Blade. these two fics are set in an AU that combines the ATLA worldbuilding and characters with the lore of two League of Legends characters. in particular, it centers around Aang and Zuko and deals with themes of regret, shame, guilt, and forgiveness. while "The Dishonored Blade" focuses on Zuko and how he grapples with his guilt over killing Aang, "The Darkened Path" focuses on Aang, his journey through the Spirit World, and how he manages to come back to life.

the number one "inspiration" (nothing short of copying lololol) for the plot of this fic was this animated cinematic, similar to how TDB was derived from another animation. however, the main reason why i was finally motivated enough to write this prequel was because @chocomd read TDB and really enjoyed it. i’ve always wanted to write the prequel for a while now, but then life and other ideas pushed their way to the forefront so i put it on the backburner. not to mention, since this au is really only for me, i was never expecting a lot of engagement on these fics anyways; i’m even surprised i managed to accrue 26 kudos on the first fic. so to see someone enjoy something that i enjoyed as well really helped in terms of motivation and inspiration 🥺

as for my favorite line, i’ll have to add a paragraph preceding it for context:

At some point, he realized, firm arms that could only belong to Sokka had wrapped around him, but this time, it was not to restrain him. This time, it was to hold him. To let him fall apart and break to pieces before he inevitably had to put himself back together. Because that was what the war had made of them.

i think i just really enjoy that last line because in addition to the shameless self-indulgence, it really hits home the stakes of war. because when you’re fighting in a war, there’s no time to grieve properly---you can only let yourself mourn for a brief moment before you had to shake it off and get the job done. i just think that’s really tragic, and that last line really hammers down on that thought.

finally, strengths this piece showcases... i think this fic really shows how i can weave in various themes into something that can be very action-packed and plot-heavy and self-indulgent. in addition, i also think that it shows my ability to be able to write various relationships with different characters, since there are flashbacks that feature Aang’s relationship with Sokka, Toph, Katara, and Zuko individually. also fight scenes, because i really enjoyed writing the fight scenes here lol.

anyways i really did enjoy writing this fic, and while i’m not expecting much in terms of engagement, it’s still thrilling to see a universe i created from my mind have two fics already existing and out there.

thanks for the ask, hotwife!!

[shinobi-illuminator]

I finished Arcane and here are a few things I'd like to say...

The Ending instantly hit Me (I wanted to cry so bad around that ending due to feels)

Am I the only one who can relate to Jinx? Cuz part of Me feels like I can at least relate to her in some sort of way

WHAT!? Sky instantly gets killed right away?! I was hoping for some potential between Her and Viktor and that gets instantly thrown out right away?

So far, I really liked the show and some of its characters. I play not have played League of Legends as much as you do but as I've read, LoL came out like long before Arcane sooooo you don't suppose Season 2 is gonna end up much like the Game, right?

Yeah. It’s always ep3 and ep9 that always hits you where it hurts. I now cry when Silco dies.

I’m not surprised with your feelings with Jinx. She’s easily one of the juiciest characters in the piece and she is given nuance to her struggles.

Yep! And I have a hunch as to why. First— Viktor now is faced with a dilemma, his efforts to push progress to save his skin got Sky killed. And he never even knew she loved him until he read her diary. It’s a mirror back to Jayce too after he raid’s the factory and accidentally kills Renni’s son. Both men of progress have now got spilt blood on their hands.

But! Lore wise as a prediction for season 2, we never get to see what Sky’s project was. I think it’s Blitzcrank the robot. Once Viktor survives the nuke, he’ll take what he needs and completes her work for her. Sort of making the son they never had. In lore, Blitz sort of treats Viktor like a dad.

Funny enough I have NOT played League of Legends. Most folks I’ve spoken to who have told me if I love Arcane I SHOULD NOT play the game. But I love the folklore, so I’ve listened in on that to get possible hints on what to expect for later. It’s not one for one. Arcane is a prequel of sorts, but it takes liberties to rewrite stuff to fit as a show instead of a game. Which I love.

All and all, “All I want for Christmas is season 2” 🎵 🎶 — which is coming hopefully next year!

[thehauntologicalsociety]

A Field in England — A Film by Ben Wheatley

A Field In England is almost like an unofficial prequel to Kill List anyway. We started thinking of it in those terms. So the grass in the field and the straw masks of the cult in Kill List are linked together – and the unseen “master” character who’s controlling all the events behind the scenes in Field is a sort of mirror of The Client character in Kill List.

Q: Where did the idea for the film come from?

I’ve had the idea for a long time. I was shooting documentary footage in the early 90’s and I’d read that Paul Verhoeven started his directing career by making films for the Dutch military. He’d get to shoot these huge battle scenes during troop manoeuvres so I started shooting living history re-enactments and eventually came across The Sealed Knot. They’re a re-enactment group centred around the English Civil War. I think it’s a very interesting and admirable thing – and I guess a very English thing - but it’s unique and keeps the history alive. English people tend to be quite anti-history or at least not very adept at dealing with the past and these people have found a way to do that which isn’t musty and academic. It's fun! I’ve always been interested in that time period and the idea that it was an attempt by the people to kill the King – or effectively kill God. It’s radical thought and lots of people were radicalised at that moment in history. It was also a time when “magic” became “science”, where paganism and Christianity were confused, so it felt like a rich kind of magical world where any possibility could happen.

Q: So how did this interest translate into the film A Field In England?

I shot a lot of footage of the Sealed Knot and even started writing a script based in that time period but never finished it – but the idea never went away. Laurie Rose, our cinematographer, had done a shoot at a historical village. We went down and took a look and it brought the whole idea back to life. With my first film Down Terrace we built the whole film around the house location because that was something we knew we could get. The village was the catalyst to start the Civil War script but when Amy Jump and I started to write it we realised we’d done the woods in Kill List so decided to move the location. I do a lot of travelling and a lot of looking out of train windows at fields. We started thinking about how two groups would fight in a very small space – something like Alan Clarke’s Contact for example. Again – a pragmatic decision that would work with our budget. Once we had the scenario we started researching the folklore and mythologies of the time and Amy wrote the script from that point.

Q: What’s the reason for the tableaus in the film?

The tableaus came out of looking at woodcuts that reflect that time period, obviously flat and two dimensional. It was a way to reference those but also a way of using a film language that wasn’t traditional. There’s nothing in the film that specifically dates it and no explanation of the world we’re in – so the tableaus help frame that.

Q: The field is a magical place. Time and space don’t have conventional meanings do they?

That’s part of the mushroom circle folk lore. Within it time moves at a different speed. The lore is that if you go into a circle it takes four men and a rope to pull you out and although you feel that weeks may have past – it could be minutes in real time.

Q: What happens in the tent?

Something appalling! It’s like Orwell’s Room 101 – Tent 101! Reece Shearsmith surprised us all when he emerged from the tent doing what he did. We were all horrified - for real! Reece has a very deep understanding of horror cinema and that scene is a great example of how he’s able to change into these characters. I always found characters like Papa Lazarou from The League of Gentlemen very very scary but there’s echo’s of Lon Chaney in Phantom of the Opera in there for example. When we first watched the slomo shot back we realised that we were going to have to use it in one shot because to cut away spoiled it.

Q: You and DP Laurie Rose built lenses for the film?

I’d been intrigued by these cheap plastic lenses that were for sale on the internet. Because they’re so badly made they create a lot of artefacts, flares and misting that gives a really interesting – almost antique feel that really worked for the film. We shot with the RED EPIC camera too so there’s a constant shifting of quality throughout the film which felt like it reflected the constant shifting of the characters perspective after they’ve taken the mushrooms. We made other lenses from cheap children’s toys – gluing them together to see what would happen. There’s something about the “handmade” nature of the lenses that reflects the time period when obviously everything was hand made.

Q: Why shoot in black & white?

We started wanting to make a black and white film and in the most basic sense it fits the time period. It also shifted the emphasis to textures rather than colours which make the field and the grass for example work in a completely different way.

Q: Can you tell us about how the film was cast?

I’d worked with everyone apart from Reece Shearsmith, but I was a huge fan of his. We’d wanted Michael Smiley for O’Neil from very early on and he’d worked with Reece on John Landis’ Burke & Hare. He took Reece to see Down Terrace so we got to meet. He said he was interested in doing something so Amy wrote the part for him. Ryan Pope I knew from Ideal – a UK TV series that I directed. It has amazing casting and we’ve used a lot of people from that show over the films. Ben Crompton & Emma Fryer from Kill List for example were on it. Peter Ferdinando we’d met at Sundance where his film Tony was screening. It was such an amazing performance that we didn’t even realise the person we were talking too was the guy on screen! Richard Glover was of course in Sightseers so Amy & I had spent a lot of time watching his performance during the editing and Julian Barratt – well we asked and he said yes, which was a really nice surprise.

Q: One of the common themes in your films is mysticism and folklore. Where does that come from?

I don’t really know where it comes from. It wasn’t in the script of Down Terrace but I guess the music reflected that to an extent and the idea of the family line. In Kill list it made sense because that film came from nightmares I’d had as a kid. Sightseers again had elements in it. A Field In England is almost like an unofficial prequel to Kill List anyway. We started thinking of it in those terms. So the grass in the field and the straw masks of the cult in Kill List are linked together – and the unseen “master” character who’s controlling all the events behind the scenes in Field is a sort of mirror of The Client character in Kill List. I like the idea of continuity across the films but I think this is the end of that now.

[frozen-odin]

Arcane Review

Ok I know it’s been a while since the show came out but this has been on my mind recently so I wanted to get some thoughts out. 

Premise: 

Arcane is a tale of two cities, but more than that it’s a tale of two sisters. Violet and Powder (later called Vi and Jinx) were orphans in one of the many civil wars between Piltover, the shining city on the hill, and Zaun, its irradiated underbelly. Both sides of the city are technological marvels in their own right. We even see innovations in this technology when Violet and Powder steal from a young Piltover man, Jace, who seeks to combine technology with magic. The ensuing devastation leads both cities as well as both sisters into a new conflict with no clear heroes. 

Overview:

  Arcane is a beautifully animated series based on the League of Legends video game. Don’t worry if haven’t played the games, I haven’t either. And as expansive as the world of Runeterra is, Arcane made the smart decision to go deep instead of wide. Almost all the action takes place in the split city of Piltover/Zaun and the show serves as a prequel to their conflict that happens in the games. It only ever starts to mention one other location in the latter half of the show, which we gradually learn more about through a handful of secondary characters. 

There were very few times I actually felt like I had to look up background knowledge from the games to understand the show. Even then it was mostly cameo appearances or hints certain characters may not be who they seem. The vast majority of the lore is exposited through the character of Heimerdinger, a two foot tall furry immortal who helped found the city of Piltover. As strange as he is, it’s clear that Heimerdinger and his history is meant to be as distant to us as the audience he is to the other characters, making it easy for them to dismiss his council to ill effects. 

Characters:

The team behind Arcane instead decided to focus on a deep character-centric story and was able to balance fleshing out many familiar faces from the games as well as adding new ones that are central to the story. The focus characters are of course Vi and League of Legend’s flagship character, Jinx. Despite their popularity, their in-game lore was largely left open to interpretation. The fact that they’re sisters was only speculation before Arcane came out. Both also underwent overhauls to their designs and story. 

Jinx has been the go-to mascot of League of Legends since her creation in 2013. In that time she had largely been a one-note manic pixie nightmare girl who takes Harley Quinn-esque glee from her explosions and the other pranks we see her play around Piltover. Her official bio hints at some dark tragedy in her past that drove her mad, it’s not until Arcane that we see her mental illness treated with respect and tgravity, especially as we learn what the tragedy was that caused it. Yes she still does grow up to be the manic explosives expert we see in the games, but there’s a lot more beneath that which she tries to hide. To see the difference in her character look no further than the 2013 Music video “Get Jinxed” and compare it to the promo-video put up just before the release of Arcane, “Enemy” which features Imagine Dragons. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nlJuwO0GDs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9G1VOjN_84

Obviously not every character from the games can make it in the show, even those native to Piltover/ Zaun. However almost every character who does make it in are amazing in their own right and I can’t go into them all. Vi is one of the simplest as the archetypal big sister who retains her “punch first, ask questions later attitude” from the games, but now must balance that out as she’s put into a buddy-cop romance with the well-born enforcer, Caitlyn. The scientists that the sisters stole from, Jace and Victor, mirror much of Vi’s and Jinx’s relationship as the application of their technology and Jace’s new-found fame also push them apart. The show also features several new characters such as Vander, Silco, and Mel; all of whom give us more insight into the political turmoil that dual city is in, while protecting their own more personal interests. 

A few minor characters do stand out as  weaknesses in the writing though only by comparison to how well-developed the other characters get. Another fan-favorite from the games, Ekko, gets very little exploration despite one of the best fight scenes in the show. There is also one clear incident of fridgeing in this show, which is a low point in otherwise seamless writing. A good number of mysteries are left unanswered and which I hope to see better down in season two. 

Art and Music 

The French studio, Fortiche, did an amazing job with this series. The stylized 3D animation blends quite well with the the limited 2D animation used for the many explosions and other effects, helping to give the series that comic book/ video game look. Piltover and Zaun and very visually distinctive with the former being bathed in sunlight in almost all the shots and covered in gold and royal blue. Zaun by contrast gets almost no natural light, so it is instead bathed in the artificial green or bisexual lighting that helps display the irradiated nature as well as contribute to the feeling of a shunned society looking up to heaven. 

Bisexual lighting is hugely important as it also matches the cotton-candy blue and pink hair colors of Vi and Jinx. Most notably, the main two novums of this world are also colored blue and pink. By the end of the series the pink-haired Vi relies on hex-tech power sources made in Piltover which are colored blue. Meanwhile the blue haired Jinx gets deeper and deeper invested in the Zaunite drug, Shimmer, which is colored pink. 

I’ve already pointed out the fantastic music video prepared by Imagine Dragons, but sound track has plenty of other bops as well. “Playground” is great backdrop to our introduction to Zaun that makes us see the protagonists’ love for it despite all it’s flaws. “Snake” is a wicked action scene that furthers the since of paranoia and betrayal central to the series, and “Misfit Toys” is a departure that nonetheless reinforces the alternate views and the plurality of the series. 

Final thoughts: 

Watch this show. I don’t care what you think of League of Legend or arcano-punk settings. It’s a unique and visibly distinct world with very real characters leading it. The art is beautiful and the team did an amazing job balancing the huge cast into a comprehensive and satisfying character work even if it does leave a lot unanswered. Just be prepared for the darker tone and reinterpretation of traditionally more light hearted characters. There’s a lot of places season two can go, whether if it’s continuing the Piltover Zaun conflict or bringing in the Noxus setting we learned about near the end of last season. There’s so many more stories to tell. 

[bedknees]

Thank you so much for the clarification!!! I'm not familiar with LoL or any of the lore that goes along with it. Arcane was my first exposure to any of it. I've read a lot of fic that tends to blend LoL and Arcane together, especially in the Divorce-Era stuff. It was really hard for me to tell what is true to canon, fanon interpretation, and what is a blend. I'm not at all saying that it's an author's responsibility to make those things clear!! But I do greatly appreciate people more knowledgable than me taking time to explain it. I have found actual LoL lore to be quite overwhelming and haven't taken the proper time to explore it let alone see how it relates to Arcane. So thank you!!! 💜

absolutely! I know how confusing it is. I have been playing League for a long time, started shortly after Viktor was first released. So I got to witness the changes in real time. Even then, determining what's accurate canon and what isn't can still be a little crazy, especially since Legends of Runeterra (another Riot game) came out. That in itself is a 'soft' canon, but that's an aside.

For Arcane, I've mentioned this before but it is written as a League prequel... except the amount of broad strokes it takes and how much it has changed the backstory and characters is something to consider. The writers have stated that they are telling their own story, to the point that champions that exist in-game may not even be safe from death. That, and Viktor is not the same character as he is in League. That's not even a question. Same with many others. So tl;dr, Arcane is its own separate thing within the League multiverse. Whether or not Riot will update champions to match closer to their Arcane characterizations remains to be seen, but if they did it probably wouldn't be until after the show is finished.

[aion-rsa]

How F9 Brings Back Justice for Han and Asian Inclusion

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This article contains F9 spoilers.

One thing is for certain about the Fast and Furious film franchise—it has been a wild ride. Other aspects of the Fast Saga are less certain. Although the F9 title definitively labels the latest film as the ninth installment, it’s actually the 10th film. Or the 11th. You could even say the 12th if you include the short film. It depends how you want to count it. For a franchise laden with car chase clichés, the Fast Saga makes a lot of long, winding detours.

Consider how these movies treat death. Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) set the precedent by ‘dying’ back in Fast & Furious (aka Fast & Furious 4) only to return in Fast & Furious 6, working for the other side. Coincidentally, at the end of that film, there was a major reveal about Han (Sung Kang). The character was introduced in the third film in the series, The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, but dies about three quarters of the way through the film. Yet he then reappears in the next three Fast and Furious movies, which were set before Tokyo Drift. The circumstances of his death were clarified in Fast & Furious 6. Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw killed Han. Now those events have been clarified even more in F9, thanks to returning director Justin Lin. As it turns out, Han didn’t die at all.

F9 is the fifth Fast and Furious film directed by Lin, and by design, Han Jue’s story arc is the central thread for all five Lin installments. Tokyo Drift was Lin’s first Fast film, as well as the franchise’s sharpest turn. It was almost an entirely new cast in a new setting. Lin stayed on to direct the following three installments. To keep Han’s story going, he shifted gears and jumped back in time. Just like with Star Wars, Fast & Furious through Fast & Furious 6 comprised a prequel trilogy, so the order in which the Fast Saga films were released doesn’t match the story’s timeline. The second film, 2 Fast 2 Furious, is followed chronologically by the fourth, Fast & Furious. The next two are in order: Fast Five followed by Fast & Furious 6. Then comes the third release, Tokyo Drift where Han dies. Fast & Furious 6 and Tokyo Drift take place more or less at the same time. Even the beginning of Furious 7 overlaps with the final events of Tokyo Drift.

After stepping away from the franchise for its seventh and eight films, Lin is back in the driver’s seat in F9, which is why Han is also back. However, Han has always been riding with Lin, even predating his involvement in Fast and Furious lore…

High School Han

In 2002, Lin directed the critically-acclaimed Better Luck Tomorrow. That film also starred Sung Kang in the role of Han. It was a story about four overachieving Asian teenagers who start selling cheat sheets and subsequently fall into the gangster lifestyle of drugs and crime. It was loosely based on the murder of Stuart Tay. Tay was an Asian teenager who was killed by his fellow high schoolers when they thought he would betray a computer heist they were planning. The murderers were college-bound with Ivy League potential, and the story was branded as “the honor roll murder” by the Orange County register. In Lin’s interpretation, Han is one of the murderers.

Widely hailed as a benchmark film for Asian-American representation, Better Luck Tomorrow won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance where it was rigorously celebrated by Roger Ebert, which led to MTV acquiring it. 

When Lin took on Tokyo Drift, he wanted to add a cool Asian character into the mix. He tapped Kang to reprise the role of Han, albeit an incarnation of Han that was tailored to the franchise. The Better Luck Tomorrow Han is young and brash. Han is a teenager, although Kang was 30 he first played him. In Tokyo Drift, Han is older and wiser, a mentor to the film’s protagonist Sean (Lucas Black). Nevertheless, there are connections that make the character whole. The Better Luck Tomorrow Han is a chain smoker. In Fast Five, Han’s girlfriend Gisele (Gal Gadot in her first feature film). She attributes Han’s constant need to occupy his hand to being a former smoker. Tokyo Drift was only four years after Better Luck Tomorrow but the character of Han aged considerably.

Why Han Matters

The Fast Saga currently ranks as the seventh highest grossing film franchise in the world. And unlike the other top-earners,  these movies were arguably the most diverse and inclusive from the onset. While the MCU has Black Panther and the upcoming Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Star Wars introduced Finn (John Boyega) in its third trilogy, those casts remain predominantly white. In fact, the top 25 top grossing global franchises are all led by white casts. Fast and Furious is the exception. This makes Han the most prominent Asian character in a Hollywood franchise in the world.

What’s more, Han is cool. Until very recently, most Asian Hollywood roles were stereotypical or tokens. Han a richly developed character, even if Better Luck Tomorrow is disregarded. In Tokyo Drift, he’s a wealthy elite street racer with his own garage packed with awesome cars, attached to a club where he’s surrounded by gorgeous women. That was an unprecedented role for how Asian characters were presented in mainstream Hollywood entertainment in the 2000s.

Han’s relationship with Giselle is also extraordinary. While there is a long cinematic history of white men hooking up with Asian women, it was extremely rare for an Asian man to kiss white woman in Hollywood cinema. Han and Giselle become an item in 2009 with Fast & Furious. The following year, it was a huge deal for Jackie Chan’s interracial kiss with Amber Valletta in The Spy Next Door.

Jackie claimed it was his first onscreen kiss and he was already well past a hundred films to his credit at that time, although most of them were China-made. Han got to snog Wonder Woman onscreen before anyone else, including Chris Pine, and if that’s not cool, what is?

Lin carried another actor over from Better Luck Tomorrow. Jason Tobin played Virgil Hu, Han’s cousin and another one of the murderous teens. Virgil is the biggest punk of the gang. In Tokyo Drift, Tobin plays Earl Hu, one of Han’s friends and a master mechanic. Is the Hu surname a coincidence? Not likely for Lin. Tobin also appears as Young Jun in the Bruce Lee inspired TV series Warrior, where Lin is an executive producer alongside Lee’s daughter Shannon. Again Tobin plays a punk gangster. Tobin reprises Earl in F9. 

Beyond Hollywood inclusion and representation where Han really matters is global box office. Hollywood was another COVID casualty. During the pandemic, the United States was dethroned as the biggest box office in the world. As of right now, China claims that title. Perhaps this is one reason F9 premiered there first, as well as in other Asian regions along with the Middle East.

Read more

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It’s been out for over a month and has already grossed $203 million in China alone, plus an additional $8.8 million in the other markets at the time of the U.S. premiere. Thanks to this, F9 is already the fourth highest earner in the world in 2021. It is right behind Godzilla v Kong, but both of them are trailing behind two Chinese blockbusters that most American are completely unaware of yet, Detective Chinatown 3 and Hi, Mom. 

The Fast Saga’s rise has a lot to do with its international appeal, culminating with winning over Chinese audiences. It was under Lin’s steady hand that the franchise became a global player. Adding Han brought Asian representation to an already diverse cast. Tokyo Drift passed an international milestone where the film made more outside of the U.S. in the foreign markets—$33.9 million more. This disparity widened with each successive movie, so by the time Fast & Furious 6 rolled around, the international earnings accounts for nearly 70 percent of the total box office, and the door was open to that lucrative Chinese market.

Furious 7 was the first of the franchise to be shown in China and blew up there with a record-setting $390 million take, earning the title as the biggest non-Chinese film in the country at the time. That helped to elevate the worldwide box office past $1.5 billion, with over 76 percent of it coming from international earnings. The Fate of the Furious did even better, breaking its own record as China’s top-earning foreign film with $392 million, and the international box office accounted for 81 percent of the worldwide take. 

Lin is smart to bring Han back. And if he really wants to appeal to that Chinese market, he’ll boost Virgil Hu’s role in F10. Han is Korean. Hu is Chinese. Tobin has appeared in Chinese films previously, including Jackie Chan’s Rob-B-Hood so the Chinese audience is familiar with him. 

Justice for Han

At the end of the previous installment, The Fate of the Furious, Shaw is awkwardly accepted into Dom’s cookout. Fans of Han Jue and the franchise were outraged. How does Han’s murderer become part of the club? This triggered the Twitter movement #justiceforhan. Now that we know Shaw didn’t murder Han, it’s up to Lin to decide what happens in F10, which he is slated to direct next (it still doesn’t resolve Shaw’s acceptance at the barbecue because Dom’s gang still believed Han was dead then).

Perhaps it’s all some grand scheme by Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell). With the Fast Saga, so much is uncertain, even Han’s name.

For F10, a confrontation between Han and Shaw seems inevitable, especially with F9’s post-credits cameo showing Shaw. Perhaps the next film will finally give enough closure for Shaw to earn his seat at the table, or for Han to banish him from it.

At the end of F9, when the car drives up to fill the empty seat at the barbecue table, it’s uncertain who the driver is. Maybe it’s Jakob (John Cena), Dom’s newly introduced brother in F9. Maybe it’s Shaw coming back for seconds, or maybe Brian O’Conner (although reviving the late Paul Walker digitally again would be tacky now). Maybe it’s even Giselle (sure, Giselle ‘died’ in Fast & Furious 6 but if Gadot came back, just think of how many tickets they’d sell). Fast and Furious is full to twisty turns, like any good car chase. But with Lin in the driver’s seat, Han is sure to get the justice he deserves.

F9: The Fast Saga opened only in theaters on Friday, June 25.

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[rooneywritesbest]

It’s Pennyworth Alfred Pennyworth

The new guilty pleasure of the summer goes to the honor of Pennyworth. Many will sit and wonder what is Pennyworth?. Pennyworth is the tale of Batman’s butler. Alfred Pennyworth in the early 1960s. A character whose backstory and history is shrouded in mystery and changes from incarnation and variation of the duo. Batman and his surrogate Father his Butler Alfred. In the Nolan films, all we know is that Alfred was ex MI6. In the GOTHAM universe on fox. The thing that made Gotham stand out was the ability to peel back the consistency and thread of the Batman lore. So on the show, he was part of the secret service and worked for British intelligence. So for years, fans wondered who was really Alfred. Of course many had the thought and narrative. He helps Bruce on his crusade and mission that intertwines both of their lives together. 

The answer would soon come to light in the summer of 2019. When the interesting thing to coin and justify is that the summer was lacking the “IT” factor of movies. Well, you know what wasn’t lacking passion and vision of direction from scripts and actors. The platform of television and the path of streaming. Local theaters near me were dead and barren during this summer due to many staying at home and turning on firesticks and computers, and consoles. Nobody wanted to watch hits like “The Kitchen” or “Hobbs and Shaw”, or even “Dora”. 

A smoke screen was about to occur and it did it dropped on July 28th. I had no idea what to expect from watching the trailer and laughing it off as a joke. The concept was actually spoofed and brought to light in last years Teen Titans Go To The Movies. In all honesty, I thought it was going to be Epix\s version of Krypton from Syfy. Krypton is the tale and serial novel of Superman’s Grandfather Seg-El. I was wrong Pennyworth blew all my expectations out of the water. 

In addition to it being coined as a prequel and the feedback that term garners. Pennyworth trudges through the mud and takes center stage on the channel and broadcast service Epix. Epix is usually an American streaming service that lacks the inclusion of original series but makes up for lack of content by dropping older movie titles that appeal to a different older demographic. Epix however still stays afloat in the ocean of streaming service juggernauts with competition such as Netflix, or Amazon Prime, and now Disney and DC. 

Epix had an ace up their sleeve when the producers and writers of Gotham. Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon came to the service with the unorthodox idea of Batman prequel. A completely new direction and an era of time never explored in various DC comic IPs. The big question everyone in that meeting should have been asking why or will people actually care? Interesting enough it was a gamble that paid off. 

Due to the nature of the source material bringing forth the spotlight to various supporting characters who usually fall into the shadow of other platinum rank characters. For example, did you know Thomas Wayne had a sister or he had a sketchy dark past? Another hidden truth revealed from the pace of Pennyworth is that Alfred. Or Alfie was a SAS soldier in the British military for 10 years. The biggest reveal, in‌ ‌my‌ ‌opinion, the realistic element of Alfred being plagued from the internal disease of PTSD. In all honesty, what are you still reading this review go watch this show!. The writing is on par with the pinnacle of Superhero Television Daredevil. The set design and direction of the series is a period piece highlighting the underbelly of the 1960’s London. Jack Bannon plays Alfie like a James Bond film unfolding before your eyes. Sprinkle in a few secret societies in the presence of the Raven Society and The No-Name League. Both fighting for the same vision ultimate control of the leadership and prosperity acclimating to the future of London.  

The casting is another highlight of the series. The direction of the character of Alfred is perfectly cast by the hard grit and soft temper of Bannon. Bannon just brings a sense of emotion and tenacity to the very breath of Alfie. However, you would think the way the trailer zoned in on the spy espionage element. The show keeps you guessing and cliffhanger endings keep you anxious waiting till Sunday for another chapter of the memoir of Alfred unfolding before your eyes. However, Alfred is not a spy. He is a seasoned vet who comes home inflicted with PTSD locked behind years of special training that make him into an ultimate badass. He goes into the private security business and then stumbles into Thomas Wayne Bruce Wayne’s father. Then Alfie gets roped into the darker web bleeding London dry and splitting the population to take arms and choose sides. I don’t want to dive into spoilers but I give this show a 9/10. After witnessing what unfolded in the first five episodes. The quality will just keep increasing and the pace will keep me guessing. 

Due to the fact that it reflects and adds to the skill of a damn good show harnessing all main factors to keep the audience engaged and guessing. In the words of Chrisitan Bale from Batman Begins “That’s just Damn Good Television”. So Move over Bond yes that Bond, James Bond. A new British icon is rising to take the mantle his name is Pennyworth, Alfred Pennyworth.

[duhragonball]

Talkin’ ‘Bout Star Wars

I just realized someone might see this title and think it’s a review of Episode IX, which I kind of forgot about.    Actually, I was gonna talk about this Count Dooku audiobook I bought, but I guess I only got back into Star Wars books because of Episode IX, so maybe I should back up.

I liked Rise of Skywalker.   I went in unsure of what to expect, because a lot of people hated Episode VIII, and I thought it was awesome, so when I saw scathing criticism of IX, I had no idea whether to take that seriously.    “Man if you thought VIII was bad, IX’s even worse.”  Stuff like that where I didn’t know how to interpret it.    

The fundamental problem with IX is that they were going to do a Leia-centric movie and Carrie Fisher died before they could get started.    I’m pretty sure this had a lot to do with why Darth Sidious is all over the movie, but maybe he would have been in it regardless.   He definitely brings a lot of star power to the movie.    He makes it feel more important than it would have been if it was just Kylo Ren horsing around as the main bad guy.    And while I enjoyed Carrie Fisher as the hardboiled-but-sensitive General Leia, she never seemed quite as comfortable on-screen in the sequel movies as Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.   I mean, she was in VIII, but she spent most of it in a coma, and Laura Dern seemed to be her understudy.    Maybe Carrie was just waiting for the spotlight of Episode IX, and maybe she would have risen to the occasion, but if not, they would have done well to have the Emperor in the same movie, just to carry some of the load.  

I’ve seen complaints about how fast-paced Episode IX is, and how ridiculous some of the revelations are, but you know, Episode IV realllly drags for the first half-hour, so I’m happy they made a new one that caters to six-year-old me’s desire to get on with things.   As for the whole Rey Palpatine thing, I don’t know, was that any less absurd than whatever fan-theories were floating around in 2016?

I liked Rey’s character arc in this movie, where she goes from having no family to being terrified of her pedigree, to declaring herself to be “Rey Skywalker”.    Also, I dig her yellow lightsaber, even if she never got a chance to use it in the movie.   In fact, let me get a picture of that up here....

Niiiice.   Whenever I look this up, I see all these links to fan theories about what this means, or how it’s a callback to eight other characters from the comics who had yellow lightsabers, but I’m pretty sure she only ended up with this color because they wanted to give her something different and uniquely her own.    If she had a blue or green blade, fans would think she took the crystal out of one of Luke’s old lightsabers, but this indicates that she built her own from scratch.   Also, Rey even having a lightsaber is probably intended to demonstrate that she still has a mission in the galaxy, even after the First Order and Sidious are defeated.   

Anyway, the main issue I have with the movie is that it does play fast and loose sometimes.    It felt like they had a plan for Finn and a plan for Poe, but both plans sort of got lost in the shuffle, and we sort of have to take their big victory as newly minted generals to serve as a finish to their character arcs.    Leia’s big moment is basically her lying down to take a nap, and I get it, that was probably the best they could do, but still.    I read Nein Numb got killed in the movie, and that kind of pisses me off.    

Mostly, it just doesn’t hold up as well as “The Last Jedi”.   I think part of the reason “Revenge of the Sith” is the most popular prequel movie is because it pays off the thing everyone wanted to see: Anakin becoming Darth Vader.   I remember the first time I saw “Attack of the Clones”, and I was kind of surprised to see Anakin kill all the Sand People, like they were turning him evil a little too early, so that had me wondering if he might turn to the dark side in that movie, which sort of distracted me from what was actually happening on the screen. With Episode III, you knew exactly what you were getting, because they couldn’t save any big moments for “Revenge of the Sith, Part 2.”    In a similar vein, I think the big thing audiences wanted from the sequel trilogy was to find out whatever happened to Luke, and Episode VIII answered that question completely.    It sort of undercut Episode IX, and I guess that was what J.J. Abrams was complaining about.

Darth Sidious’ whole comeback is kind of a problem.   I love the character, and it makes sense that he could somehow survive and come back.    In the movie, he just quotes his line about “unnatural” abilities and that’s the only explanation we get for how he survived Endor, built his new fleet, and made Snoke.    People call it a cop out and they’re not wrong, but he’s the one character who can get away with it.    That said, his return raises far more questions than answers, and somehow he’s even stronger than he was before, which raises even further questions.    I mean, if he could just go to this secret planet and build a fleet of planet-destroying ships, why did he bother running for public office?     

I’m sure there’ll be a novel that tries to tackle some of those issues, but the bigger problem here is that Episode IX made me realize that I missed the more vulnerable Darth Sidious from the prequels.     What I love about Episode I is how you’ve got the Sith, looking very similar to the Emperor and Vader in Episode VI, except they don’t have the might of the Empire behind them.    In Episode I, Sidious can’t just force choke his subordinates when they displease him, because he needs those guys.  Darth Maul can’t send a legion of troops to capture Queen Amidala; he has to do it by himself.  They have to be sneakier and trickier than they are in the original trilogy, because they’re still trying to get the Empire set up, and that’s really fascinating to me.   Even in the original trilogy, Palpatine is supreme, but still vulnerable.    He dissolves the Senate, but only once the Death Star is available as an alternative.   He worries that Luke Skywalker “could destroy us.”       

In Episode IX, he seems to have no worries at all, I guess because he’s counting on Rey to murder him for whatever essence transfer he was planning.   I suppose this was why he finally died to his own Force Lightning, with Rey deflecting it with two lightsabers.    Critics ask why he didn’t just stop shooting lightning, but that’s kind of his deal.    He kept shooting at Mace Windu, even when it wrecked his face, and he kept shooting when Darth Vader turned on him.   I mean, if he stopped shooting lighting at Rey, what then?    His fleet would lose the battle, and Rey would refuse to kill him, and he’d just be stuck.    The Sith crave power, and power only matters when you exercise it, so it makes sense that all the Sith characters get wrecked because they bit off more than they could chew.   If you asked Sidious why he didn’t just turn off his lightning, he probably wouldn’t even understand the question.

I think it might have been cooler if Darth Sidious had been a ghost, or maybe an electronic backup of his brain, or something like that.   He looked pretty cool hooked up to that life support system, and I liked the idea that he was reduced to a shell of his former self, but even that would still be a grave threat to the heroes, especially if he got Rey or Kylo Ren to take orders from him.    Maybe he should have actually gotten to possess Rey, and then he would finally get all the gonzo powers he displayed in the movie, and Rey would have to kick him out of her body.   I dunno, maybe that’s not so different from what we actually got.   

I see fans talking about all these alternative versions of Episode IX, like that leaked script, or the concept art, etc.    They lament “Why didn’t we get this movie?” and I think that misses the point.    Maybe one version or another would be better, but in the end you really only get one movie, one shot at telling the story.   At some point, someone has to make the decision as to what makes the cut and what doesn’t.   The problem with writing a story is that the version in your head always looks better than it does in print, because in your head it’s this nebulous, ever-changing thing.    When you sit down to write it, you have to commit to one version, and decide whether to do this or that.   In this day and age, it’s a lot easier to find out about alternate versions and unused drafts.     You can watch the “This” version of a movie, and then go on the internet and see details about the “That” version they didn’t use.    And it’s easy to complain that they made the wrong call.    “Justice League” fans are convinced that there’s a secret “Snyder Cut” of the movie that would somehow be better than the version that actually made it to theaters.   That’s kind of sad, because they clearly must have enjoyed the theatrical cut to some extent, or they wouldn’t care about some other version of the same movie.   But instead of appreciating what they got, they obsess over a supposedly better version that may not even exist.   

I’m probably no better, because I sort of went into Episode IX figuring that it didn’t matter if it was good or bad, because there would be comics or novels that might expand on the stuff I wanted to see.     I think what I really want is a story of how Sidious survived Endor, and how he got set up on Exegul or however you spell it.     That, and Rey buckling some swashes with that yellow lightsaber.   Everyone’s mad about Rose Tico getting a small part in Episode IX, but to me it almost doesn’t matter, because she can be in whatever Rey comic series they make after this.   I mean, that doesn’t do Kelly Marie Tran any good, but I think she’s got a good career ahead of her, with or without Rose Tico. 

I don’t know, maybe this is why I don’t watch movies very much.   I’m mostly into franchises, where the movies themselves are just tentpoles for all the other media.   They don’t really need to be good, so long as some good lore comes out of them that someone else can use.    I was thinking the other day about how Episode II is widely considered one of the weakest Star Wars movies, but every Clone Wars story that came after it was directly inspired by that film.   And there’s a lot of good Clone Wars stuff out there.   It just makes me wonder if Episode II can really be as bad as they say it is.   Then again, it probably doesn’t make sense to say that spinoffs can retroactively fix what should be a standalone work.  

Anyway, I started this post because I wanted to talk about how YouTube keeps recommending me Star Wars meta videos, mainly about the Sith, because that’s what I’m into, and they’re usually covering stuff I already knew.   There’s at least three channels devoted to recapping stories from comics and books, or just straight up repeating information that was directly stated in the movies.    “Did you know Palpatine wanted to KILL Darth Vader?”   Yes, I’ve known since 1983.   He told Luke to kill him and he wouldn’t do it.  Then he and Vader killed each other.   It’s not complicated.   The funny thing is that I watch all these different Star Wars videos, and I can tell they’re narrated by different people, but they all sound like the Burger King Foot Lettuce guy.  

I got bored with these, so I started listening to the Dooku audiobook that came out last year.     It’s been pretty decent, but I was hoping for more Sith lore, and this book seems mostly focused on Asajj Ventress learning about Dooku’s Jedi career.   I’ve only got a half hour left in the book, and Dooku hasn’t even resigned from the order yet, so I don’t think I’ll see much of what he was up to between Episodes I and II.  

[wazafam]

After four long years of waiting, hoping, and campaigning, the Snyder Cut of Justice League has finally been released and fans across the world can enjoy the definitive live-action team-up of DC's greatest heroes. Beyond that, those fans may want to transfer their excitement to the best Justice League video game they can find.

RELATED: Zack Snyder's Justice League: 10 Videogames To Play While You Wait For The Snyder Cut

While there is no definitive game with Justice League in the title (as of yet), the best game with the whole League that carries on several of the themes of Zack Snyder's Justice League is Netherrealm's Injustice 2. Then again, Daybreak's DC Universe Online might be a more appropriate choice.

10 Injustice 2: It Was The Basis For The Knightmare Timeline

One of the biggest deals in Zack Snyder's Justice League is the return of the apocalyptic "Knightmare" timeline, as previously seen as Bruce Wayne's premonition in Batman V Superman. This features a corrupted Superman, traumatized by the death of Lois Lane, enforcing his brutal rule on Earth with the help of his own black-clad stormtroopers.

This is exactly the plot of the Injustice games, right down to Batman being Superman's main opponent, and it's not a complete coincidence - Zack Snyder actually consulted on it with the team at Netherrealm.

9 DC Universe Online: The Setup Is The Same As The Planned Justice League 2

The general plot of DC Universe Online is summed up by the fantastic opening sequence, which features Lex Luthor's Legion of Doom outsmarting and defeating the Justice League. They swiftly regret this when the cosmic evil Brainiac invades with no heroes to fight him, so Lex has to go back in time to warn the Justice League so they can defeat Brainiac together.

As revealed by the leaked storyboards for Justice League 2, just swap Brainiac for Darkseid and this is essentially the plot of the planned movie. Fans may never see Justice League 2, so DC Universe Online may be the only way to experience it.

8 Injustice 2: An Epic Cinematic Storyline

As its own Mortal Kombat series has proven, Netherrealm loves to create fighting games with exciting and deeply engaging storylines. The Injustice series is no different. Mostly written by beloved comics writer Tom Taylor, the plot of the second game is arguably even more exciting than the first.

RELATED: Gotham Knights: 10 Villains We Need To Face In The Game

Superman is imprisoned and his Regime is disbanded, with Batman ensuring a fragile peace - which is shattered when Brainiac invades, with the help of the new Secret Society lead by Gorilla Grodd. The story involves the introduction of Supergirl and a fantastic uneasy reunion of the Justice League, plus it has an alternate ending depending on what character the player chooses.

7 DC Universe Online: An Ongoing Storyline In A More Recognizable DC Universe

One of the biggest problems with Injustice 2 for fans looking for the ultimate Justice League video game is that the story is deliberately set in an almost-unrecognizable DC universe. The first game at least had a crossover with the regular DC timeline, but Injustice 2 solely features an Earth where Superman was a brutal dictator, Wonder Woman is cruel, and many characters (including Shazam and Nightwing) are dead.

DC Universe Online features far more recognizable versions of these beloved characters, and the storyline continues to be added to even ten years after its release.

6 Injustice 2: Play As All The Major DC Heroes And Villains

What needs to be the vital hallmark of the greatest Justice League video game is being able to play as all the fan-favorite characters, including all the members of the League seen in the movie, and they need to be fun to play. Injustice 2 definitely qualifies here, with a playable roster that includes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman, and The Flash.

It's even possible to unlock their movie costumes too. Playable villains include Harley Quinn, Joker, Black Adam, and even Darkseid, who's now finally been added back into Zack Snyder's Justice League. It's truly the ultimate DC experience.

5 DC Universe Online: Play As A New DC Hero Or Villain

While it's certainly compelling to play as the beloved members of the Justice League, it's more involving for the player to create their own hero (or villain) in an RPG-like way, take on threats such as Brainiac and Bizarro, and finally be able to join either the Justice League or Legion of Doom themselves.

RELATED: Justice League Snyder Cut: 10 Biggest Differences From The Original

It's one thing to be able to inhabit a role, but it's arguably far better to actually bring a fresh creation into the DC universe. If that's not good enough, DC Universe Online also features many missions where players can play as the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman too. It's the whole Justice League package.

4 Injustice 2: Excellent Comics Expand The Lore

In general, tie-in comics for video games are merely okay at best. Batman: Arkham City was fortunate to get a series by writing legend Paul Dini (as he helped write the game), but most aren't so fortunate, which is why no-one was expecting the Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic to be any good.

Thanks to the skills of writer Tom Taylor, who penned the first few series and the more recent Injustice 2 and Year Zero comics, the tie-in became a must-read property that expanded the lore in exciting ways, as well as giving plenty of depth to Superman's fall from grace.

3 DC Universe Online: It's Still Going Strong And Will Receive Enhancements This Year

It's hard to believe but DC Universe Online launched on the PS3 in 2011, so it's an incredible ten years old this year. What's even more impressive is that it's still extremely popular. Head into a server on PC or console and every area will be full of players. Developer Daybreak even launched a Nintendo Switch version this year, which is doing equally well.

Even better, the game's clunky systems and outdated graphics will get a revamp in time for the next-gen launch later this year. If any Justice League fan wants to jump into DC Universe Online, 2021 is the perfect year to do it.

2 Injustice 2: One Of The Best Fighting Games Around

The almost unheralded secret of what makes Batman: Arkham Asylum (and the rest of the Arkham series) so good is that they're great games first and great comic book games second. Likewise, part of the reason Injustice 2 is one of the greatest DC Comics games around is that it's actually one of the best-designed fighting games ever made.

The Mortal Kombat series is already excellent and Injustice shares the same design but is a little easier to play so it also makes these hardcore fighting games fun for less-experienced players too.

1 DC Universe Online: A Full Open-World To Explore

Probably the fact that makes it the most difficult to completely recommend Injustice 2 as the best Justice League game is that it's a fighting game, and consequently all of its gameplay is tied to a small arena. Players want to explore the likes of Gotham and Metropolis and take on enemies in exciting stories, which is where DC Universe Online comes in.

It's a full open-world that players can traverse at will - even fly over, if their character has that power - with many missions and side-quests to uncover and take on. It's a proper Justice League RPG, which is just what many fans are after.

NEXT: 5 Reasons The Justice League Theatrical Cut Is A Worthy DC Movie (& 5 Why You Should Wait For The Snyder Cut)

5 Ways Injustice 2 Is The Best Justice League Video Game (& 5 Ways It's DC Universe Online) from https://ift.tt/3d6nAqm

[smokeybrand]

This is Snyder

I don’t care for Zack Snyder. I don’t hate his craft as much as i hate Michael Bay, Snyder actually tries to make good movies, but i don’t find his schlock entertaining. He’s not a bad director, i guess, but his movies are always scatter-brained messes. I think Snyder is more a creative than a crafter. He’s the guy you want in your development stages, throwing out ideas and boarding those massive action scenes. If i were to equate him to a sports analogy, Snyder is the Offensive Coordinator on an American Football team. He’s the guy that builds the visual aspects of your scenes, the car who sets up the set pieces. He’s Mr. Battlemaster, the Attack Master, the guy you call in to adds little spice to your drama and conflict laden plot, not the guy you give the keys to an entire cinematic universe where you have to humanize godlike heroes. Emotional subtlety has never been Snyder’s strong point. Since the only DCEU film that was passable was Wonder Woman, the one flick that Snyder didn’t really have his hands on too much, i wanted to take some time and kind of dissect why i hate almost everything Snyder has ever made.

Dawn of the Dead

It’s been years since i’ve seen this movie but i recall enjoying it considerably. But it’s a zombie movie. And it wasn’t written by Snyder. That’s going to be a running theme in this; Other people’s stuff, Snyder is okay. His own stuff, not so much... Zack was only a Director on this flick which meas he just got to bring a script to life. He just got to pick the best scenes and build a cool looking movie. That’s Snyder at his best and it shows. For my money, DoD is his best film.

300

This was his breakthrough. 300 lends itself to Snyder’s style even more than DoD. The comic it’s based on is literally revisionist history written by 80s comic madman, Frank Miller. It is literally a series of splash pages with cool sh*t on them. In comic book speak, it’s literally a series of action set pieces. Splash pages are used to fill every inch of paper with dynamic, poignant, information. When every page of your book is a splash page, it conveys a sense of aggressive action. That is right up Snyder’s alley. There’s no room for plot or character development but that slow-mo buster kick to that persion dude was crazy dope, son! “THIS! IS! SPARTA!” It’s also a superficial, special FX laden, popcorn movie that is borderline sexist with all of the half naked dudes about but still, i had a good time.

Watchmen

Watchmen was the first Snyder movie i saw where i realized he was kind of out of his depth. Dude did his best to bring this unfimable story to the screen, and in some spots i think he did a really good job (Comedian’s arc was okay and that change toward the end made all of the sense to me) but overall, it lacked the emotional, philosophical, and political depth from the source material, you know, literally the reason why Watchmen is so goddamn brilliant. Snyder shot this movie like a mid 2000s cape flick. Think Raimi’s Spider-Man or X2 but infinitely more superficially, which is ridiculous because the Watchmen novel is infinitely more rich. WB kind of let up on Snyder’s leash a bit and he focused way too much on the sh*t that shouldn’t have been focused on. At it’s core, Watchmen is a character study of those old timey 80s archetypes and an indictment of the destructive materialism infecting society at that time. There’s a visceral moral question that my brother and i argue about all of the time and i believe Snyder stuck the landing, but he kept falling off the bar to get there.

Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch is one of the worst movies i have ever seen. The mechanics, the technical aspects of this movie, are just the worst. I can go into how this is basically a shittier version of Inception with the dream in a dram aspects or how that sh*t doesn’t make any sense in the movies established lore or timeline. I can go into how this thing technically takes place in between the five minutes that Babydoll is being moved from her cell to the lobotomy chair so none of it matter or how f*cking ridiculous it is that this woman’s name is f*cking “Babydoll”. Sucker Punch is wildly problematic and i’ve written at length about how i feel about it before, i think, but my point with this entry is to high light how messy this movie feels. This is Snyder wit h no brakes. This is Snyder unleashed, When left to his own design. THIS, Sucker Punch, is the type of movie Zack Syder wants to make. He wanted to explore the psychology behind being in such dire straights, the emotional and psychological rationale of those terrible circumstances but he also wanted naked chick, a dragon, and giant robot samurai in it. How does that work? You can’t put Nazi Zombies in Girl, Interrupted, man. that dog don’t hunt. i know because Sucker Punch tried it and IT was AWFUL!

The DCEU

I thought about doing these thing individually but considering he basically directed all of these f*cking movies (except Wondy) i can lump them all into one entry. WB mistook the success of the Grimdark Nolan Batman Trilogy as audiences wanted a bunch of edgelord superheroes. So they gave the Batman Begins treatment to f*cking Superman. And, to bring this car crash of an idea to the big screen, they give the reigns to Snyder. I don’t like Superman. I think he’s a terrible hero. How do you right him? What aspects do you focus on when the guy and turn back time by flying real fast? How do you make that asshole compelling? Snyder’s solution? Uncle Ben his ass! Guilt trip him into becoming the world’s savior! sh*t’s lazy son! Man of Steel was adequate though. it was good enough for the WB suits to hand the entire reigns of the DCEU over to this asshat and, oh boy, was that dumb! My chick is the biggest Superman fan and she hated this movie. For her, someone versed in the Kal-El mythos, this was an affront. From what little i know about Supes, i’d agree.

SO Snyder double-downs on his Batmanfication of Superman by literally introducing Batman into a Superman story. BvS is an abortion of a film. It destroys the archetype of what all of these heroes represent. Batman is a psychopath killer. Superman is a morose pussy. Lex Luthor is the goddamn Riddler from Batman Forever. It’s a goddamn mess. Which sucks because, at it’s core, there are a lot of good ideas here. I liked how Luthor was more Zuckerburg than Rockefeller. I liked the introduction of Wonder Woman, even if it felt a little forces at times. I liked at the whole “Punished Messiah” story line for Supes, even if it never got deeper than a puddle. I hated everything else. Everything was just too Snyder-y. Cool sh*t to look at as opposed to deep sh*t to identify with. But that’s what happens when you forgone character development for mech fights and a Doomsday story line that should have bookend a phase one of pictures. Seriously, Doomsday in the second goddamn movie of your fledgling franchise? No! no, im not going to get into that. We’ll address that later.

Suicide Squad was a goddamn mess. I know David Ayer directed that, and one day i hope we get to see that sh*t, but the studio brought Snyder in to fix what they felt was an unwatchable film. Seriously, Snyder is considered a “guest Director” on that film and it shows. Justice League is the same way but Joss Whedon kind of added a bunch of levity to this ridiculous film. While i think Justice League is trash, i also believe it’s the second best that the DCEU has produced, mostly because there was reprieve to ll of Snyder’s grimdark bullsh*t. Whedon was able to bring out the best of these characters. I eve liked Superman in this and i f*cking hate Superman. But that’s kind of my point. If you remove Snyder from the equation, you get solid sh*t! like Wonder Woman!

Everything about Wonder Woman screams dope. It reminds me of a Phase one MCU outing, which is a fitting tone for Diana’s adventures. It’s not a perfect movie, there area ton of issues with it, but overall, it is a delight. I think Gal Gadot gave her best performance and someone finally used Chris Pine in an advantageous manner. I think going full on Ares was a mistake but, in the context of the world, i get it. I thought this was a decent ride until the end. The climax was whack. Seeing as how Snyder is credited as a writer, i assume he wrote this part because it feels wildly Snyderish. Literally the worst pat of this film is the ending. Tonally, it’s ridiculous. It doesn’t fit. It’s poorly executed. But it’s fun to watch, i guess. That’s Snyder in a nutshell.

Ultimately, putting this guy in charge of the entire DCEU, which wanted to be a direct competitor to the MCU, was a mistake. His vision is ridiculous. He has too many ideas for any one film and with no one to reel that in, you get the mess that we have now. There are certain things that needed to happen in order for the DCEU to be relevant, to be good. Snyder doesn’t have the patience to execute like this though. He doesn’t want to put in the time to world build. He just wants to throw awesome looking sh*t on screen and move on. That, a good movie, does not make. If i had a say, i’d probably loosely follow the MCU Phases. That sh*t worked and gave ample time to develop a proper story. As an example, i’d have done something like this:

Phase One - Trinity

Movie 0: House of El. Prequel to the entire DCEU set in the final days of Krypton. You could establish all of the requisite Supermann necessities while also planting seeds for Brainiac, Doomsday, Apokolips, and Darkseid. This would be the backbone for the first three phases of your DCEU. Think Star Wars but with Krpytonians instead of Jedi.

Movie 1: The Batman or Gotham, dunno about that title yet, Definitely a Year one or Year Two Bat-story. I’d want to introduce The Long Halloween arc. Make it a noir, focus on the assumed Batman doing his detective thing, until the climax which would be an amalgamation of No Man’s Land and The Man Who Laughs. Like, Joker is holding the city hostage and all of the holiday murders were a distraction while he planted his trap. Batman would have to choose between his morals or vengeance in the end.

Movie 2: Superman Sequel. Calling this one Man of Steel as it would have both Superman and Metallo as the primary antagonist. I figure having Clark and Corbin duke it out makes for a clever title, you know? You can introduce Luthor as the mastermind, secretly collaborating with his miraculous AI that turns out to be Brainiac. Deathstroke could be hired muscle. Cadmus can be introduced. You get to see the introduction of Superman on a world wide scale as he and Metallo duke it out in the open. This would feel like that old Superman cartoon on the WB way back when. Light-hearted yet serious tone. Actual stakes. Sub plot of Lois figuring out Luthor is the reason all of the trauma occurs.

Movie 3: Wonder Woman. It will probably be a period peace set against WW1. It would pit her against Aries and the preconceptions of women during those bleaker times. The battle would be against disillusionment; trying to find a reason why Man should be defended or something of that nature. Wonder Woman would be more or less what we already got from Patty Jenkins, with a much better ending. Like, an actual pgysical fight with Aries seems dumb. If we have to go that course because of executive meddling, at least cast a better Ares. Make him more menacing and less inept. Motherboxes and a bit more of Apokolips will be introduced in this movie.

Movie 4: World’s Finest. Basically Batman against Superman while WW actually solves the real issues behind the scene. Like, she uncovers the underlying plot of the Motherboxes and actually tries to prepare for the coming of Steppenwolf. I really like the idea of Wonder Woman adapting her skill set to covert ops kind of like Motoko Kusanagi does. Also, you know, dudes is dumb and punchy. While Supes and Bats are having their tiff, Steppenwolf actually appears and engages the two of them. Ultimately, Wonder Woman arrives and the three of them, the Trinity, send ol boy packing back to Apokolips and the Motherboxes go dead. The Trinity is established, the seeds of Apokolips have been sown, and we can move into Phase Two - Justice League with the first movie of the lot; Death of Superman. Opening with the sidelining of the most powerful hero opens up a reason for Batman, having an established relationship with Winder Woman and Superman, realizing there are bigger things out there and a team might be necessary to combat them.

See, four movies, five if you count the Krypton prequel, and you’ve established the world, the main characters, the underlying conflict, and you have room to grow. You’ve developed characters, established the backbone to your entire universe, and given each of your principal heroes, Batman, Superman, ad Wonder Woman, their own outing, in the vein of their own themes. Grimdark works for Batman because he IS grimdark. Sh*t doesn’t fly with Superman or Wonder Woman. Diana is a warrior, set her story to the backdrop of a conflict to showcase her strengths. Superman wold spend his time trying to save Metallo, not murder him at the end of the goddamn movie because Supes is about believing in the good, not killing troubled assholes. Snyder didn’t have the patience to do this. He wasn’t building anything. He just wanted to put cool sh*t on the screen while trying to make everything dark and deep. He failed at both.

In closing, i don’t think Zack Snyder is a terrible director. I don’t. I think he has too may ideas and no one to reel him in when left to his own devices. When he is making someone else’s material, when he has a guidelines to follow and people keeping his rampant creative energy in check, he can be pretty good at his job, a la DOD or 300. Hell, i’d even give him Watchmen. But, left to his own devices, we get nonsense like Sucker Punch and BvS. Zack Snyder is everything that’s wrong with modern American cinema and it galls me to the core.

[thenightling]

All the DC / Vertigo crossovers involving Sandman (that I know of)

Get ready.  This is going to be a long list...

List under cut.

1.   The Magdalene Grimoire.  First the Magdalene Grimoire, shown in issue one of Sandman.  This is used to summon Morphus  In 2002 this grimoire is brought up in Green Arrow.  A character in the Green Arrow comic book saw Morpheus while he was a captive of Roderick Burgess and the grimoire gets used to raise Oliver Queen from the Dead.    (Type of crossover - Sandman into DC proper long after Sandman became Vertigo.  Pre-New 52).

2.    Lucien / Mr. Raven.   Lucien, Morpheus’s librarian is from the 1975 “Ghost Castle” where he was one of the horror host characters.  (DC to post Crisis DC / Vertigo).

3.  Ghost Castle.   Ghost Castle was used for Dream’s castle in Sandman.  (DC to Post Crisis DC / Vertigo).

4.  Cain and Abel, Gregory The Gargoyle, and the House of Mystery.   These characters are from the DC horror anthology series “The House of Mystery.”  The House of Mystery adn the House of Secrets are byproducts of the 1970s when DC attempted it’s own Tales from the Crypt-style line of comics drawn by the great Bernie Wrightson.    The House of Mystery is where you first see Swamp thing’s origin.   These characters become a fixture all through Sandman as The House of Mystery and House of Secrets now exist within The Dreaming. (Type of crossover - Pre-Crisis DC existing in post-Crisis DC thanks to Sandman.)

5.  House of Mystery: Part 2:   In present day DC and Vertigo lore (both versions) Constantine resides in The house of Mystery, which is still inhabited by Cain as it’s caretaker.   Cain and Abel’s Sandman related canon is left in tact as Abel is often trying to collect escaped and rogue nightmares. (Because apparently Daniel’s incompetent...)    (Type of crossover Pre-Crisis DC becoming Post Crisis DC then Vertigo and then back to DC proper- New Earth).

6.  Constantine.  John Constantine appears in issue 3 of Sandman to assist Dream in finding his pouch of lost dream sand.  It turns out the one who has it is a former lover of Constantine.   Both Constantine, Chas, and Chas’ taxi appear in this issue.  (Type of crossover Post-Crisis DC crossing over with Post Crisis DC). 

7.  Lucifer.  Lucifer was first introduced in Sandman issue 4 “A hope in Hell” and later became the catalyst for the storyline “Season of Mists” when he quits ruling Hell.  Lucifer eventually gets his own Vertigo Spin-off Series that is currently still running.  (DC comics turned Vertigo to Vertigo comics.)

8.   Lucifer: Part 2:   Lucifer occasionally flashes back to Morpheus around the time Lucifer quit ruling Hell.  (Type of crossover DC comic turned Vertigo spawning Vertigo comic).

9.   Lucifer and other Angels in Sandman reference The Silver City which is later used on both Vertigo and DC lore, including being the original home of an angel that joins The Justice League of America in the mid-2000s.  (DC to Vertigo to Vertigo and DC).

10.   Etrigan The Demon.   Etrigan The Demon is who guides Morpheus through Hell when he’s there to collect his missing helm.    

11.  Doctor Destiny.  Johnny Dee AKA Doctor Destiny.  Doctor Destiny is an old school Justice league villain who had Morphsus’ Dreamstone.   (type of crossover.  pre-Crisis DC into post-Crisis DC).

12.   Mister Miracle.  Mister Miracle (Scott Free) from Superman lore helps Morpheus by taking him to Martian Manhunter.  (DC to DC)

13.  Martian Manhunter.   Martian Manhunter assists in locating the Dreamstone. (DC into DC).

14.   Arkham Asylum.  Arkham Asylum (Batman lore) is where Johnny Dee was confined before his escape. (DC to DC)

15.  The Scarecrow.  Scarecrow (Jonathan Crane) was at the asylum with Johnny Dee at the time of his escape. (DC to DC)

16. Joker is mentioned.  Scarecrow name drops Joker (DC to DC).

17.  Pre-Sandman Dreamstone.  The Justice League of America had stored the dreamstone in a warehouse after an old defeat of Doctor Destiny (Johnny Dee (Pre-Crisis DC to Post-Crisis DC).

18.  Mocking The Bat.  During Death’s first appearance in Sandman a comedian dies on stage while cracking jokes about Batman. (DC to DC).

19.  Matthew Cable / Matthew the Raven. Over in the Swamp Thing comics (which originally were a spin-off from House of Mystery) the character Matthew Cable is finally killed off but his soul (which was in The Dreaming) is given the opportunity to remain there as a raven to serve Morpheus. Matthew agrees to stay and becomes a permanent fixture in Sandman... until he’s killed off in the crappy The Dreaming spin-off just to give Daniel a matching Raven...).   (DC to DC).

20.   Dead Boy Detectives. During “Season of Mists” two little boy ghosts become detectives.  These are The Dead Boy Detectives, who spawn their own successful comic book series in the 1990s.  (DC to DC / Vertigo)

21.  Elemental Girl.   A C list hero called Elemental Girl longs for death in an issue of Sandman. (Pre-Crisis DC to Post-Crisis DC).

22.  Thessaly.    Thessaly AKA Larissa was a pivotal character in the storyline A Game of You and later The Kindly Ones.  She later gets her own comic book series called Witch for Hire.  (DC / Vertigo to Vertigo).

23.   Foxglove.  Foxglove the rock musician from A Game of You storyline and her former lover (who appeared in the issue 24 Hour diner, issue 6) also appear in Death’s comic “Time of your Life.)  (DC / Vertigo to Vertigo).

24.   Death.  Death actually has had a few short comic stories including Time of your Life and The High Cost of Living.  And The Girl who Would be Death (that one is not by Neil Gaiman). (DC / Vertigo to Vertigo)

25.  Death: Part 2.   She had a “semi-Canon” appearance in an issue of Marvel’s Incredible Hulk.  (DC / Vertigo to Marvel)

26.  Death: Part 3:  Death appeared in Lucifer’s own comic book series. (DC / Vertigo to DC / Vertigo turned DC.) 

27.   Death also had a recent brief appearance in Lex Luthor’s comic book.  (DC / Vertigo to Vertigo.

28.    The Corinthian.  The Corinthian (A Nightmare being) got his own short comic. (DC / Vertigo to Vertigo).

29.    Merv Pumpkinhead.    Merv Pumpkinhead gets his own one shot comic called Merve Pumpkinhead: Agent of D.R.E.A.M. (DC / Vertigo to Vertigo).

30.  The Hecatae (who appear in issue 2 of Sandman and are later big players in The Kindly Ones and make an appearance in Sandman: Overture) get their own comic book series called Witchcraft.

31.   Lyta Hall is an old-school DC heroine and mother of Daniel (the newest incarnation of Dream).   (Pre-Crisis DC to Post-Crsis DC / Vertigo)

32.   Hector Hall (Lyta’s husband) and Daniel’s father was the second incarnation of the golden age hero called Sandman.    He is Daniel’s father.   (Pre-Crisis DC to Post-Crisis DC / Vertigo.)

33.  Brute and Glob.  Brute and Glob are two old school DC characters retroactively introduced in Sandman as having been Nightmares escaped from The Dreaming all alone and manipulating the superhero called Sandman in order to create a new Dream Dimension during Morpheus’ captivity.  (Pre-Crisis DC to Post-Crisis DC.)

34.   Wesley Dodds.   In Midnight Theatre (published by Vertigo / DC) it was revealed that Wesley Dodds (the Noir style Sandman character from DC) had a psychic link with Morpheus during Morpheus’ captivity which i what gave Wesley his ability to see crimes in his dreams.  Wesley’s gas mask may have been modeled to resemble Morpheus’ helm (while behind the scenes it’s the other way around.  Morpheus’ helm was modeled after Wesley Dodds’ gas mask).  (Pre-Crisis DC to Post-Crisis DC / Vertigo).

35.   The Dreaming:  Cain and Abel, Goldie the Gargoyle, Gregory The Gargoyle, Death, Daniel, Matthew The Raven, Eve, Nuala, Lucien, Merv Pumpkinhead (and other characters considered to be Sandman characters) had their own spin-off series in the late 90s and early 2000s called The Dreaming. (DC / Vertigo to Vertigo).

36.   Destiny (The only one of The Endless not created by Neil Gaiman) had many, many, many crossovers into other DC properties over the years, before and after Sandman.

37.  Yup. Still Canon:  At Morpheus’ wake Clark Kent, Batman, and Martian Manhunter made appearances. This is important to note because this was after Sandman had transferred over from DC to Vertigo but it established that Sandman was still part of the Post-Crisis DC lore. (DC to DC / Vertigo).   

  38.  Justice League of America (2000s version):   In JLA (2008) Daniel showed up at the JLA Watchtower to help with an invasion of Starro.  (DC / Vertigo to DC pre-New 52).

39.    Yup.  Still Canon: Part 2:   Lucifer starts off his 2016 comic book by saying he was wandering The multiverse and thus he was protected against New 52 shenanigans.  All of his Sandman related lore was left in tact just as it was for Cain and Abel, The House of Mystery and Constantine.  This also seems to ignore Demon Knights.  (Post Crisis DC / Vertigo to post Rebirth Vertigo while acknowledging DC New 52). 

40.   Sandman: Overture:  Sandman Overture was meant as a prequel (with some present day content). The publication was repeatedly delayed and the whole thing was not compiled into graphic novel form until November 2016.  This established that Sandman (Morpheus and Daniel, The Hecatae, Lucien, Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, and Delirium were still canon to Vertigo despite New 52 and Rebirth. (DC / Vertigo to Rebirth Vertigo).

41.  Carter Hall. Daniel, the current incarnation of Dream is Daniel Hall.   Daniel Hall’s grandfather is Carter Hall.   That’s Hawkman.   So Daniel’s lineage include’s  Father, Hector Hall (The sucessor of the silver age superhero The Sandman) Mother, Lyta Hall (Fury), and Grandfather, Carter Hall (Hawkman).   (DC to Vertigo to post-Rebirth DC)

42.    Dark Nights: Metal.   This is the first time since rebirth that Daniel (Dream of The Endless) has appeared in the main DC continuity.  It is the first time Batman has appeared in anything Sandman related since JLA in 2008.  This thoroughly confirms that Sandman is still DC canon (not just Vertigo) post Rebirth.  (DC / Vertigo to DC Rebirth). 

[ramajmedia]

How Smallville Adapted The Flash With Bart Allen | Screen Rant

The Flash's Barry Allen isn't the first live-action version of the Scarlet Speedster, or even the second, as nearly 15 years after the 1990 Flash TV series, Smallville brought Bart Allen to the small screen in 2004. Bart Allen became the first DC Comics character outside of the world of Superman to appear on the show.

Superman prequel series Smallville told the story of a young Clark Kent and his journey to become the Man of Steel. The show, which originally aired on The WB (before becoming The CW), famously had a "No Tights, No Flights" rule, which meant that Clark Kent couldn't suit up and fly as Superman until the very last scene of the series finale. Regardless, Smallville dug deep into Superman and DC Comics lore. Though Clark didn't become Superman until the very end, the show's ten-season run allowed him to experience some of Superman's most iconic stories and meet some of the most important people in the DC Universe.

Related: Crisis On Infinite Earths: Why A Smallville Crossover Is So Difficult To Do

Throughout the first three seasons, each episode generally dealt with Clark going up against a super-powered enemy who received their abilities from being infected by Kryptonite. Smallville season 4, episode 5, "Run", broke from the traditional format and introduced a character who didn't get his powers from Kryptonite. In this episode, Clark meets metahuman Bart Allen (Kyle Gallner), the fourth version of the Flash in DC Comics and the grandson of Barry Allen. In the show, Bart uses his super speed to live life to the fullest, without caring about the consequences of his actions. Clark tries to set Bart on the right path and keep him out of trouble.

A particular scene in the episode provides a fun reference to other, more recognizable versions of the Flash. When looking at Bart's fake IDs, Clark notices the names "Jay Garrick", "Barry Allen", and "Wally West". Also, Bart doesn't initially wear a costume, but he does keep the Flash's red color scheme. In his first appearance, his red backpack contains a yellow lightning bolt symbol. Clark tries to race Bart, but at the end of the episode Bart proves that he's the "Fastest Man Alive" by easily outrunning Clark. Bart eventually returns in-costume as a member of the Justice League, under the name "Impulse". In the comics, "Impulse" is Bart's original superhero identity.

Bart Allen's guest-starring role in season 4 was a game-changing moment for Smallville, as the character became the first of many DC Comics heroes to cross paths with Clark and his friends. A season 5 episode introduced Aquaman, and before long, Smallville began bringing the characters together for large scale team-up episodes that involved heroes like Bart Allen, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Cyborg, and more. Green Arrow even became a series regular. So for Smallville, Bart Allen was the beginning of something huge.

More: How The Arrowverse Can Make Smallville Canon

source https://screenrant.com/smallville-series-flash-bart-allen/