#I did try and incorporate Forces of Destiny however a lot of those episodes take place during other episodes and it got too messy

[horatio-fig]

STAR WARS Chronological Order.

STAR WARS ORDER.docx

A few years ago I went through every episode page on Wookieepedia and put every episode of STAR WARS into a chronological order. It was mostly because The Clone Wars is not chronological, but then I kept adding to it with every new show.

I will continue to update it as more series come out.

[beybladefanboy]

Beyblade Seasons Ranked

Here is my personal ranking, from worst to best, of the seasons of Beyblade Metal Fight: Metal Fusion, Metal Masters, Metal Fury, and the awkward spin-off Shogun Steel. Yeah, let’s get into that:

4 Shogun Steel

Honestly even if I did like Shogun Steel for what it is, it would still be at the bottom just by default. It can barely be considered part of the Metal Saga. The main characters in the last three seasons are either absent or reduced to supporting roles in favour of new characters who aren’t nearly as interesting or likeable. It is by definition a spin off. It feels very disjointed from the rest of the series because of these factors along with the lighter tone, the changes to the Beyblade system, and even some continuity errors particularly with Fury. Bringing back Doji again was also the biggest leap in logic this whole series made and feels downright lazy. The whole story just feels like a watered down Fusion with many of the story beats being similar and some characters never growing past mere echoes of the old characters. Some of the bey battles are fun and Ren and Takanosuke are decent characters but there’s a reason this show doesn’t get much attention. It falls into the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy trap of being overly dependent on original series sucker punches for its appeal and not putting as much effort into the new stuff. So as a result, the new stuff, some of which has potential, isn’t as fleshed out as it should be. This show is honestly fine on its own but awful when compared to the Metal Saga and it is comparing itself to the Metal Saga. This show intentionally put itself in the Metal Saga’s shadow and seemed content with being just that: a shadow of greatness.

3 Metal Masters

Okay, this is where I’m gonna start pissing people off. Don’t get me wrong, Masters is great and I don’t think it’s clearly worse than the other two seasons or anything. I think the main three seasons are very close in quality and putting them in any kind of order was incredibly difficult. However, I do think Masters is slightly weaker than Fusion and Fury. First off, it introduces Masamune. I don’t like Masamune. I find his whole “I’m the number 1 blader” shtick incredibly obnoxious and he’s everything I don’t like in real Americans: self absorbed, disloyal, big mouthed, entitled, and just annoying in general. He did have good character development over the course of the season but I personally can’t stand him. The pacing of this season also isn’t the best. With the exception of the Dark Tsubasa arc (which I’ll get to!), the season is just a normal world tournament until they get to America, which I don’t find very interesting. Kenta is also criminally underused. In Fusion he was basically a second main character and there are some episodes specifically following him. Then in Masters, he’s pushed aside in favour of side characters. People say Fury underused characters, and I’ll get to that, but holy crap, Masters gave Kenta no room to grow. Aside from him though, the other characters are used really well. I particularly like how Kyoya and Ryuga are incorporated. This is actually the season where I grew attached to Ryuga during my viewing in December. I was starting to like him in Fusion but this season cemented my newfound attachment. This season also gave us the dark Tsubasa arc, which is one of my favourite plot points from the show overall. It’s a fascinating look into the mind of a character I already really liked and it allowed Tsubasa to develop a lot. I love the conclusion that you cannot drive out the darkness in yourself, you have to accept it as part of who you are in order to properly control it. It’s brilliant, and I can personally relate this message to my own life. The dark Tsubasa arc is probably the strongest part of the season overall as the rest of it until we get to the HD Academy conflict kind of drags for me. However, when we do finally get to the HD Academy conflict, it is very fun. The whole “spiral energy” thing was actually pretty creative and while brainwashing isn’t a new concept for this show, I think they went more in depth with it in this season and it was pretty interesting. So yeah, still a really good season.

2 Metal Fusion

If I was ranking based on nostalgia, this would be number one. In fact, it probably deserves to be number one. However, I do have a few problems with this season that hold it back and it’s not the pacing. Actually, out of all the seasons, Fusion probably has the best pacing. The main villains, Doji and Ryuga, are introduced early in the season and all the characters are developed throughout the season, building up to the final tournament: Battle Bladers, which is also set up fairly early. The story is predictable but very well-structured. My biggest problem with this season is the plot twist with Gingka’s dad. Not only is it painfully obvious, but the reveal of the twist drags the plot to a screeching halt for nearly an entire episode, hurting the pacing and making an entire episode an exposition dump. It also made Gingka’s dad a terrible character. You can argue that him abandoning his teenage son and making him believe he was dead was for the greater good, although I personally still think it’s messed up, but breaking Gingka’s point counter like that was a step way too far. That moment serves to further the story by forcing Gingka to work harder to get into Battle Bladers. But did it have to be his dad who broke the point counter? I argue it didn’t. Gingka’s dad was flat out abusive to his son on that occasion and was pretty cold to him in general as Phoenix and yet the plot and even some of the characters praise Ryo for doing this. Why?! The way the story is structured puts Ryo in the right for abusing his son which disgusts me. That is my biggest problem with this season and possibly the whole series to be honest. I hate it that much. However, apart from that and those random filler episodes with Sora that in my opinion were boring, this season was really solid. Like I said, the story is told well and the characters are all introduced and developed well. Battle Bladers is definitely the highlight of this season, having the most intense battles and hardest hitting moments. Those episodes are exhausting to watch, because of Reiji and Ryuga. Reiji was randomly introduced in Battle Bladers and decided to try and rival Ryuga in how much he could traumatize the characters (and younger me). I have no idea why they decided to do that, but it worked. Ryuga in this season is the best villain in the whole series. He has such a presence to him: his (dubbed) voice, his sadistic expressions, his abilities, the music that plays when he’s onescreen. He’s over the top but in my opinion, Ryuga is the perfect balance between entertaining and intimidating. He’s even slightly sympathetic by the end of the season when he gets taken over by dark power and is seen trying to fight its control. They managed to both make Ryuga an irredeemable psychopath and found a believable way to redeem him. I love that in the end, Gingka isn’t fighting to defeat Ryuga, he’s fighting to defeat the dark power, which came from the greed and hatred of humans. Basically, the problem isn’t humanity, it’s humanity’s greed/hatred and being consumed by these feelings lead to evil. That is genius. This season also had two of my favourite battles in the entire series: Kyoya vs Ryuga, and Gingka vs Ryuga.

1 Metal Fury

Yeah, I said it. Fury is my personal favourite season. It probably has more wrong with it than Masters and Fusion but honestly, Fury’s strengths more than make up for its weaker parts for me. The only problem I have with Fury that actively hinders my enjoyment is Kyoya’s poorly handled arc, which I’ve been over multiple times and wrote a whole fanfiction rectifying. To sum it up briefly: it was rushed and weakened Kyoya’s character when it had the chance to develop him. I will admit this season also had too few episodes. I don’t think it was rushed per say, it just feels like parts are missing. There should’ve been more leading up to Nemesis’ revival and an actual epilogue episode because as it stands now, Fury ends really suddenly without much actual confirmation of where the characters we know and love ended up. It’s kind of jarring. Overall however, I really love Fury. I love the adventure style story and there's so much variety to the bey battles this time around, both in terms of the beys themselves and the stadiums. It’s just more interesting to watch. It also did a great job giving all the major characters victories, not just Gingka. This is something Masters also did well and a gripe I have with Fusion: Gingka gets all the major victories in Metal Fusion and pushes the other characters to the wayside. Well, Masters and Fury fixed this issue in my opinion. The very final fight of Fury against the shadow Nemesis could’ve been executed better in my opinion. However, it hits all the right emotional beats for a final battle and still grabs my attention rewatching it, so I can put aside my criticisms of it while watching it. Also, I like that “destiny” is something these characters are controlling themselves and can go either way rather than being some unstoppable force that they will all give in to eventually otherwise they’re villains. Because that’s how Yugioh does it and it’s probably my biggest problem with that show. In that series, it feels like the characters are all just blindly accepting “destiny” and those that don’t, Kaiba and Marik most notably, are deemed villains for wanting to take control over their lives and not be governed by some invisible force. Yes, I know Marik went to some horrible extremes using this logic but it still bothers me that the only characters in that show that don’t throw their lives away blindly following someone else’s whims are deemed villains. It’s just kind of messed up. Fury thankfully subverts this. “Destiny” is not an unstoppable force in Beyblade, it’s the will of the characters and those characters are allowed to make their own choices. It makes the story more interesting and the characters more likeable because the characters are the ones driving the story, which feels so much more natural. Yeah, I really like the characters in Fury. Honestly, I’m more attached to Yuki, King, and Chris than anyone introduced in Masters and the other legendary blader characters all bring something different and interesting to the table that I don’t think older characters could have. I also like how the old characters are used. Sure, Tsubasa and Yu are underused this season. But guess who also got a lot of focus last season? Tsubasa and Yu. And some of the characters who were underused in Masters, Kyoya and Kenta, get more focus in this season. They did mess up Kyoya’s arc in my opinion but the effort is there and I appreciate his presence before and after that. Kenta especially was severely underused in Masters so this season decided to make him relevant again and they did it in such an endearing way. You all know how much I love Ryuga and Kenta’s friendship. It’s one of the things that should have gotten more focus but what we do get is good enough build up. This season was the one that drew the most emotion out of me during my most recent viewing and that was because of Ryuga and Kenta. I was devastated by Ryuga’s death (even if he may not actually be dead, that’s certainly what it felt like in the moment) and the scene where he gives Kenta his power was the most touching moment in the entire show for me.

Well, that ranking probably pissed some people off. Again, I love the classic three seasons. (I’m not a fan of Shogun Steel but it has its moments.) Choosing between the three of them like that was incredibly difficult, especially Fusion and Fury. In the end, I just had to go with my gut.

[briangroth27]

Netflix MCU Wish List (as of 2017)

Since Marvel’s Defenders premiered, I’ve been thinking about how the Netflix corner of the MCU could evolve from here. I can’t wait to see Daredevil season 3 (still my favorite of these series), and Luke Cage & Jessica Jones’ second seasons are also highly anticipated. If Iron Fist learns from its missteps in Season 1—namely, decide whether he was supposed to stay in K’un-Lun or seek out & destroy the Hand and start writing him like he’s had 15 years of training & study instead of playing him like a novice who doesn’t know basic details about his enemies...or that they still exist—the more the merrier. I’ve never been a huge Punisher fan, but I really liked him as a foil for Daredevil and I’ll give his show a shot as well. Here are some things I’d like to see as the shows enter the post-Defenders landscape.

Full spoilers…

Embrace “Filler” Episodes While Defenders makes sense as a single serialized story, the Netflix solo series are feeling increasingly worn thin by forcing a limited number of plots to stretch over 13 episodes. I think these series could break up their seasons and include a few “cases of the week” instead of making 13-hour movies. All four characters have ready-made jobs to provide this structure: Matt’s law clients, anyone needing Jessica’s detective skills, and everyone needing to hire Luke and/or Danny as heroes can open doors to a wide variety of enemies and conflicts. I’m glad Jessica is opening up to the world around her, but I really wish Luke would finally start his own hero for hire agency to embrace his destiny as a helper for his community in an official capacity. Throwing in other, largely unconnected plots can help flesh out the elements of these characters’ worlds more fully than focusing on one group of villains or one plot over 13 hours. You can also explore minor villains’ thematic connections and parallels to the heroes without tying them directly into a season-long arc. “Filler” episodes let us live in the world created by big moments and twists instead of just rushing from twist to twist, and I’d much rather live with these characters as they grow by facing a wide variety of challenges than watch them solve one super-long plot.

One-off cases could also allow for easier connections between the heroes, allowing them to explore the bonds that were forged in Defenders. Matt and Jessica had fun banter and good chemistry I’d like to see explored, maybe even in a relationship. Luke made Danny likable to me and opened his eyes to some truths about the world. Mixing things up and teaming Matt with Luke and Danny with Jessica would also be fun: I’d love to see what wisdom Luke has for Matt (and any conversation between the two of them about the law) and Jessica not having any of Danny’s supernatural craziness will always be entertaining. I don’t need season-long team-ups, but interactions over an episode or two would be welcome. A wider variety of cases could also lend itself to a wider variety of tones, and I’d definitely like to see some Daredevil adventures in the vein of Mark Waid’s tenure on the comic. That optimistic Silver Age-style could make a lot of sense as Matt continues to work out how to be a good hero. A Silver Age-styled adventure could also drive Jessica bonkers, which would be a lot of fun.

Dive into the Marvel Universe While they don’t need to go as far as Agents of SHIELD did in its first season, where The Battle of New York was brought up all the time, the idea that the Netflix characters almost never refer to the Avengers by name has gotten ridiculous. Even moreso, there’s no reason Claire Temple couldn’t just say “Daredevil” when she told Danny Rand about her friend with experience fighting the Hand (or that she wouldn’t try calling him; his retirement explains that a bit but not enough that she wouldn’t ask him to help). Why bother creating a shared universe if proper names can’t even be invoked? On the other hand, I really like how elements of the MCU have touched the four series—the Battle of New York reverting Hell’s Kitchen to its pre-gentrification, crime-ridden identity and bootleg copies of the Chitauri Invasion being sold on the street, for example—but there’s still a palpable disconnect that doesn’t seem necessary and has gotten distracting.

One aspect that should definitely come into play is the Sokovia Accords. As I saw mentioned on IGN, Luke, Jessica, and Danny should’ve definitely been forced to sign them after the destruction of Midland Circle. The Accords’ absence not only feels strange but like a major missed opportunity to increase the pressure on the Defenders and to police what they can and can’t do to help people. Once Matt comes back, Daredevil being hunted by the government (since he’s violating the Accords) could be a perfect way to raise the stakes each time he goes out and to explore Matt’s view of the law when he’s flagrantly violating it for the right reasons.

Get the Villains Off the Ground! I get that the Defenders are designed as the street-level heroes of the MCU. That’s fine, but I’d love for them to face some street-level supervillains instead of just non-powered gangsters. We’ve seen all four heroes outmatch human gangs many times and it feels like it’s time to level-up the enemies, particularly now that they’ve taken down a supernatural ninja cult. Speaking of the Hand, if their agents are still implanted throughout the city, that’s a perfect opportunity for one of them to take control or to have Madame Gao return and attempt to maintain the status quo. And like I realized when writing my Defenders review, there’s no more perfect enemy for heroes who represent the downtrodden than the entire societal system. The hidden Hand agents would personify that perfectly.

Back to supervillains, the Purple Man and The Hand as they appeared in Daredevil are a good start (and Diamondback was a fun example of a villain with tech upgrades), but I’d love to see costumed super-villains. Villains like Bullseye, Mr. Fear (who is also a lawyer, so he’d be able to confront Matt everywhere), the Owl (Junior, here), Typhoid Mary, Echo, Lady Bullseye, Death-Stalker (maybe a former Hand agent with a deadly touch in this version…perhaps he’d be a better enemy for Luke), Ikari, Ox, and even Stilt-man would all provide unique challenges for Daredevil to overcome, necessitating a wide variety of action scenes. Kingpin can certainly try to get his revenge, but I don’t want all of Daredevil Season 3 consumed with just him and it’s time Matt started fighting enemies outside his weight class.

I’m not familiar with Luke, Jessica, or Danny’s rogues galleries, but I’m sure they’re extensive and I’d love to see what unique challenges each of them brings to the table. For example, Danny could and should dig into the supernatural side of the Marvel universe villains. The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s superheroes aren’t a new phenomenon anymore, so there’s no reason not to embrace the proliferation of powers and technology in Netflix’s corner too. In fact, I’d love for the next Defenders miniseries to give us a supervillain team-up after introducing them in the heroes’ solo series!

Play Up the Powers I’d love more scenes from Matt’s point of view with his radar vision, for example (an area Ben Affleck’s Daredevil film outdoes the Netflix series). It’d also be great to really explore Matt’s unique relationship with the world around him due to both his blindness and his powers. How do those unique aspects shape his worldview? While we’re at it, Defenders was a good start, but I’d definitely like to see more of Matt’s acrobatics and parkour travel put to use!

Luke Cage’s potential vulnerabilities were brought up in his first season, but the villains never tried drowning him, electrocuting him, or hitting him with knock-out gas (though Stick successfully gassed him). As perfect and relevant a metaphor a bulletproof black man is nowadays, I’d like them to challenge his limits through other threats as well. Matt and Danny have distinctive fighting styles; can Luke and Jessica develop their own as well? I do see the connection with Luke’s unbreakable status with him just letting guys get tired hitting him or just barreling through legions of enemies, so perhaps that works for him as his style.

Jessica could stand to get a style of her own, however; maybe she could start tearing up the environment around her and using it against enemies. Furthermore, I’d love clarification on what Jessica’s limits are. Two seasons in, we should be beyond “vaguely strong and can kinda maybe fly.” Perhaps this stems from her disdain for her abilities, but with Jessica opening up and letting people in, perhaps she’ll also want to know just how much she can do.

Can Danny focus his chi to do anything besides punching hard and healing himself? Does he have villains that use supernatural forces in different ways than chi manipulation? Are there literal monsters he needs to vanquish?

Support the Supporting Characters Now that the Defenders have come together and her purpose as their foundation is fulfilled, what new role is Claire going to take on? Where does she go next? I’d like them to find something totally distinct for her instead of becoming a hub of information, since that seems like such a stock superhero position these days. I love that she’s always there to talk sense into these heroes and ground them, so something that incorporates that is a must.

I’m eager to explore the dark past Karen’s hinted at. Her reporter career could also open up interesting avenues; it might be cool if she hunted down the embedded Hand operatives throughout the city now that Matt can’t fight them. Maybe not the full-on Death’s-Head, but if Karen’s father appeared as a villain, he’d be a cool foil for Matt’s mom in Daredevil Season 3. I hope that Matt’s supposed death doesn’t drive her or Foggy—especially since he gave Matt the suit—into darkness. It might be cool if Kristen McDuffie from Mark Waid’s run on Daredevil appeared and somewhat replaced Matt as the defender of the downtrodden until Murdock gets back; maybe Foggy will go back to that style of law too to honor his friend.

Will Trish take up her Hellcat mantle as a superhero? Trish reporting on the earthquakes in New York felt like a classic superhero/journalist connection for Jessica and I’d like to see that played up in Jessica Jones Season 2 whether Trish becomes a superhero or not. I wonder if Malcolm will have a larger role at Jessica’s detective agency than her secretary too. It’ll be interesting to see how he and Jessica work together once she’s more open to the business.

How will Harlem react to a Luke who doesn’t have to look over his shoulder to watch for his past coming for him anymore? I love that he takes the time to get to know the people he helps; aside from a great character trait it’s an easy way to flesh out his neighborhood and I hope it continues. What have Mariah and Shades been up to in his absence? Even if they’re lying low, they’ve got to be planning something.

What hijinks are Misty and Colleen going to get into as Daughters of the Dragon? I like both of them a lot and I’d love for them to team up! I hope we get to see Misty getting used to her robotic arm instead of jumping to her being even somewhat experienced with it. Will Misty become a vigilante, and if so, how will she balance that with her job as a police officer? How extralegal can she let Colleen get without feeling she’s aiding and abetting her crimes? Will Colleen take down the Hand assets she helped to train? Does she feel responsible for putting them into the world where they can harm others?

New Series I’m sure the Netflix world will extend beyond The Punisher, and I’ve got a few ideas how. They don’t have to join the Defenders full-time and solo “one-shot” seasons would be fine too, though it’d be cool if they did get to interact with Matt, Jessica, Luke, and Danny.

Steve Rogers: Nomad The Captain America films are among my favorites of the MCU, but one thing I wish we’d seen was a deeper exploration of Steve as a man out of time. With Infinity War looming (and Kevin Feige saying endings are coming for the heroes), I’m a little worried we won’t get a chance to see Steve trying to make a life for himself in the present without some MCU-shattering event happening. I’d love a miniseries set between Civil War and Infinity War that explores Steve’s time on the run as a fugitive. Let’s see him really experience the differences in our era from his beyond pop culture. Would he help superheroes (and Inhumans?) escape the Sokovia Accords, like an Underground Railroad? What does he think of our current political climate (or one similar to it)? Does he struggle to reconcile the idea from Age of Ultron that he can’t live comfortably in peacetime with his generally peaceful and optimistic nature? I’d love to see a show where Steve just travels the country, getting reacquainted with the world and helping out whenever he comes across trouble. If he’s going to call himself Captain America, he should know what and who he’s standing for; do the people live up to—or even just aspire to—the ideals he embodies anymore? The movies have touched on several of Steve’s comic book villains, but they could be fleshed out—and the rest of his rogues gallery could come into play (Red Skull could finally return!)—in a miniseries like this. Perhaps Nuke shows up here and his pills are revealed as part of a modern super-soldier project. I’d design the plots as intentionally low-key, because Steve would be concerned with the people on the ground, not on the global implications. Maybe Sharon Carter comes with him to develop that relationship beyond what little we got in Winter Soldier and Civil War. Maybe Sam Wilson comes too, to give Steve an insight into the modern world and its problems that a white guy from the 40s simply can’t fully understand (Sharon can provide him with a woman’s perspective as well). Luke Cage could also add to any discussion about modern society, and I’d love to see these similarly good-natured heroes meet and bond! Captain America’s one of my favorite characters and I’d love to see what Chris Evans could do with him if given a broader, more personal canvas to play with.

Black Widow This is so far overdue it’s ridiculous, especially with Jennifer Lawrence seemingly playing a Black Widow character in Red Sparrow. If they won’t give Scarlett Johansson a movie, give Natasha a Jason Bourne-esque miniseries! Since all her information was released in Winter Soldier, let’s see all her enemies come after her at once, so we get to learn her past through flashbacks and see her clear her Red Ledger once and for all. There’s still so much story to her and I can see her leaving the Avengers to finally settle her past on her own terms, by herself. Maybe let Hawkeye come along, since they have a well-established friendship. Natasha had a significant partnership/relationship and eventually friendship with Daredevil in the comics, so getting to see her meet and interact with Matt would be excellent.

Elektra Elektra killed both her mentors in Defenders, clearing herself of her past and symbolically readying herself for a new future. I’d definitely like to see her forge this new path in a Netflix season (if not in Daredevil Season 3)! I suppose she still wanted to stay immortal and lead the Hand, but I’d like to see what her endgame was. Was she just out to maintain the status quo, only with herself in charge? If so, leading the Hand’s remaining hidden army within New York (if Gao doesn’t do that) would be a cool way to play the Defenders against the system in a literal way. Perhaps Elektra could reshape the way things work in a way none of the Hand’s leaders wanted or even thought of. On the other hand, she could become a full-fledged assassin like in the comics. She could even be employed by SHIELD to take out enemy combatants; making her a government-sanctioned killer could make her an interesting foil to Matt (and the law backing her immoral activities would give Matt a different ethical conundrum than Punisher’s vigilante vendetta). Maybe she could be an asset used to track down those who evade the Sokovia Accords. Whatever they decide to do with her, she’s very deliberately a blank slate and I can’t wait to see what she chooses now that no one is controlling her. Despite saying the fight with Matt and leadership of the Hand was what she wanted, if she saved him he wasn’t completely wrong about her. Perhaps there’s still hope for her after all.

She-Hulk Jennifer Walters deserves to be introduced into the MCU somewhere. There are precious few heroines who enjoy their power onscreen (usually that’s reserved for villains, though The CW has been working to counteract that trend), and Jen would be fantastic here. She’d also provide some levity to the Defenders’ world…though her legal career might be a little redundant with Matt’s in play as well; ditto her super strength with Luke, Jessica, and sorta Danny having that power. On the other hand, that’s just a reason to show how differently they approach their jobs and how she uses her brain as much as her brawn. Jen sees her power as a gift, and seeing your “damage” as an asset could be a perspective the Defenders sorely need. I once wanted Jen to deliver this message to her cousin Bruce in a Hulk movie, but it’d be just as meaningful if she and Jessica met and discussed their powers, which neither of them asked for. My dream casting would be Gina Torres. Play Jen as an Erin Brockovich type, called into a small town where people are getting sick and people are seeing monsters (“but that sort of thing only happens in New York, not the heartland”). I’m definitely thinking a modern take on a 50s/60s monster movie here. Jen’s kidnapped by The Leader and given Banner’s blood, like all the rest of the “sick” people he’s been experimenting on, which can provide not only her origin, but that of any number of Hulk foes. If She-Hulk is allowed to break the fourth wall (maybe explain it as a side-effect of Leader’s tests), it’d be a fun opportunity to put some Deadpool into the MCU and to comment on the restrictions behind the usage of the characters.

Peggy Carter and the Agents of Atlas I’d love to see more from Peggy in any form; she’s one of my favorite MCU characters and there are still lingering plot threads from her series that need to be wrapped up! What about exploring her time with SHIELD in the 1950s? The Agents of Atlas are a lesser-known government team composed of heroes representing classic sci-fi pulp tropes from that period (a Uranian alien, a robot, a siren, a gorilla-man, etc.). Maybe Peggy worked with them back then. This would obviously be a departure from the Netflix shows, both in terms of scope and subject matter (though the Agents do have a dragon advisor…), but a pulpy trip back to Marvel’s past could be a fun way to spend 8-13 episodes. Jimmy Woo—the Agents of Atlas’ leader—is going to be in Ant-Man and the Wasp, but this could be a prequel series. Perhaps Peggy’s seasons could function as an anthology series, with each season taking place in another era of her life. Maybe she met Namor, the robotic Human Torch, and any number of pulpy Marvel vigilantes in the 40s too! That would allow them to finish off Agent Carter’s story threads while fleshing out the MCU’s history.

Blade Daredevil, Spider-man, Punisher, and Ghost Rider have all reentered the MCU, so it’d be cool if Blade got a chance to bring a horror vibe to its Netflix segment. I’d definitely play up scares rather than superheroics with him and they could introduce all manner of monsters for him to protect people from (or begrudgingly team up with). Marvel’s got the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula, a Living Mummy, the Werewolf by Night, and a trans-dimensional swamp monster in Man-Thing (who has been mentioned on Agents of SHIELD), among many, many other creepy creatures! I’d send Blade against all of them. With all the powers of a vampire (including their thirst for blood) and none of their weaknesses, he just might stand a chance against these Marvel monstrosities. Since the supernatural’s been introduced in Daredevil and Iron Fist, it wouldn’t be that big a leap to monsters, even if they are initially presented as more grounded than monsters generally are (to lay low in modern society, of course). Maybe they’d be the logical step up from supervillains in terms of raising the bar on adversaries.

 What do you want to see from the Netflix corner of the MCU?

[nazih-fares]

A while ago, I finished an interesting written by my colleague Jason Schreier over at Kotaku called Blood, Sweat and Pixel, telling the stories and problems of 10 different AAA and indie developers faced when creating their games. One of the chapter was all about Destiny, and it got me realize how much one of the biggest commercial successes of recent years, was a flawed title that took almost three years to get on solid grounds, numerous studio creative changes, but yet became something that involved a huge community of players all around the world including myself (proud hunter right here). Despite somewhat lukewarm criticism and negative feedback from early adopters, this shooter like no other has found its way, after a series of free updates, 2 DLCs and 2 expansion packs (The Taken King and Rise of Iron). Now almost 3 years after its first release, comes the sequel, Destiny 2, a way to fix many core issues from the original and hopefully start off fresh.

To say that the first Destiny was criticized by the press and players is something lots know already. This merge between MMO and FPS had lots of flaws during the past three years: a story badly written and incomprehensible unless you visited the Bungie site (to read Grimoire cards), grindy, too expensive with all the DLCs, and let’s not forget about the plethora of bugs that whether were abused for good intention or not is a different story (I’m looking at you all Raid cheesers). Nevertheless, players stuck around, and devout Guardians continued to voice their discontent at the game, in hope that Bungie will listen, but it seems they had other plans: create a sequel that will become a fresh start for everyone. Now clocking more than 35 hours of play in Destiny 2 (a shy number in comparison to my 923 hours on the first Destiny), trying a plethora of activities, finding new loot, I’m pretty sure there is still much to discover, but at least I can say one thing: Destiny 2 deserves your time, because it finally fixes some of the core issues of its predecessor.

Throughout my reading of Blood, Sweat and Pixel, I learned the main issue behind Destiny’s rather lack of story. Months before the first planned release of the game, Bungie studio executives had asked that the script be rewritten, due to a lack of clarity from the original one. Too linear, according to them, this new change of order had consequences on the development of the game, as one could imagine, and sadly Bungie gave birth to game that was praised for its shooting mechanics but pretty much nothing else. As sad thing, coming from the studio that create epic stories of challenges and rise to power (the Halo series), but throughout the 3 years of the first Destiny, The Taken King and Rise of Iron became a testing ground to put some sense in the lore of the game and its rich story (and plus we got amazing content creators like My name is Byf decrypting and explaining the lore better than the game makers). With Destiny 2, the studio had the chance to start on a good foundation, almost reminding us of the days of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, a clean wipe for everyone, so they build upon what worked and what needed to be fixed.

Destiny 2 takes place a small year after the SIVA crisis introduced in Destiny: Rise of Iron. Crota and Oryx are just bad memories (or good memories for you accomplished raiders), and the game recounts a short summary of your past exploits in the previous version, if you played it. It recalls the date of your rebirth on Earth Cosmodrome; the day you triumphed over the Darkness in the heart of the Black Garden, your first victory in the Vault of Glass raid; the day you reached the Lighthouse on Mercury; when you became an Iron Lord; and so on. It is also an opportunity to remember with whom some of these accomplishments have been done, and like many Destiny players around the world probably believe: the experience is not necessarily to know how you play, nut with whom you play. This small introduction was therefore quite moving, I must admit, enough to almost shed a tear among those who spent hundreds of hours on the first opus. The newcomers though, will be introduced to the universe of Destiny by a summary of the previous events in a well done, if not better than actually playing the first game. Destiny 2 did well to differentiate between the veterans and the beginners, adapting the numerous dialogues of the game; incorporating the enormous – hidden – lore of the series in an easier way for new Guardian, who can thus discover a brand new world. The others, who have known the horrors of The Dark Below, fought the blight of the Takens and saw the snowing peaks of Felwinter are treated as they should: as Destiny Veterans.

The script of Destiny 2 is finally quite simple in its own way. The last city on earth, still standing since its creation, is suddenly attacked by the Red Legion, an elite faction of the Cabal Empire. Encountered in the first game, the Cabals had until then constituted only a vague threat; a few outposts on Mars were filled with exhausted troops, but never truly a representation of the terrible power of this military empire. The Guardians are rapidly outnumbered and the city falls into the hands of the invader; the player, in a final desperate attempt, tries to attack the mothership and falls head-to-head with Dominus Ghaul, the leader of the Red Legion. You then understands that Ghaul’s aims is to seek out the power of the Traveller, a divine entity that has been dormant for centuries, after protecting humanity and to whom the Guardians owe their powers. What happens next is that Ghaul encloses the sphere god in a sort of gigantic harness, which has the effect of depriving all the Guardians of their Light, becoming vulnerable and mortal, and are eliminated one after the other, while the few survivors are forced to retreat.

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In short, Destiny 2 tells the story of the Guardians’ long struggle to get back their City, free the Traveler, and triumph over the Red Legion while getting back their lost powers. Without telling you too much, know that the adventure will lead you to four corners of the solar system, like the first episode, but this time to organize the resistance or counter-attack. Overall, the game has some solid good writing and offers some of the most epic moments of the series, probably because of a switch in creative writing leads, including Senior Narrative Lead Jason Harris. Well served by numerous cinematic and plenty of dialogues with new and old characters, the plot progresses at a good rhythm and remains clear, from the beginning to the end. Screenwriters also had the good idea to include the point of view of the other side; with a set of cinematics that show what’s going on with Ghaul while you progress through the story, and obviously helps understand the Red Legion’s intentions, and their final goal. If it never really surprises, this campaign has the merit of being straight to the point and even emotional, recalling what the studio did better back in the early 2000s, as we remember the epic stories of Halo to Halo Reach. The first moments of this defeat against the Red Legion reminded me of Halo Reach’s eight campaign mission New Alexandria, in which the Noble-6 landed wounded and almost unarmed, in a city invaded by the Covenants forces. Destiny 2 however, retains its own identity, avoiding to pour the theme too much into the suffering of humanity, with dramatic moments, well served by an excellent soundtrack done by Skye Lewin, Michael Salvatori and others… Some tracks are fit of epic movies, and I can’t stress on how amazing they are in terms of composition but also variety, so I’ve included a sample of one of my favorite one which you can hear below. Plus, I’d like to thank whoever was in charge of the sound effects this time, as the weapons aroused my senses, like the low throbs of the Graviton Lance pulse rifle, or the volley of rockets coming out of the Wardcliff Coil rocket launcher.

While Destiny 2 is all about a fresh start, the game still uses key characters known to fans, such as the trio of Zavala, Ikora and Cayde-6, but also introduces some new ones, all rather well done, starting with my personal favorite called Failsafe. The latter is an AI, one of the only survivors of a golden age mission on Nessus (roughly 500 years before the event of Destiny), which now suffers from a multiple personality disorder that makes it rather amusing. Sometimes jovial and helpful, Failsafe can be more squeaky and sarcastic without any logical transition. On Io, the player will meet Ashar Mir, an awoken scientist whose personality is closer to your grumpy uncle than a helpful nerd, then on the EDZ (which we’ll explain more later on), you’ll meet one of Bungie’s first ever gay characters, Devrim Kay. These characters aren’t just there for show, but important to each planet as they give the player many information about the places but also dedicated quests. In the end, the Destiny 2 campaign finds a certain balance here, with its epic clashes, its moments of doubt and its hard blows, without taking itself too seriously. It’s a formula that may not please everyone, but the regulars of the studio production will recognize the Bungie tone, which likes nothing more than drop fun jokes even when the end of the world is near.

Dominus Ghaul, leader of the Red Legion

It easily took me around 10-15 hours to see the end credits of Destiny 2, which followed a sort of linear path that is at the choice of the player. Technically, Destiny 2 guides the player to concentrate on key story quests, but you have the choice to do other things like sidequests called Adventures. On the other hand, since some story missions are only accessible when the player has reached a certain level, it was necessary for me to go into PvP or Strikes (matchmaking cooperative missions with three players) to get enough experience and obviously better gear and weapons.

While the first Destiny was finally quite simple in its unlocking system, players gradually unlocked new planets, and from space he could choose a mission, whatever it was, or go for a stroll on the planet of his choice to do patrols or just farm for ressources. Bungie has thoroughly reviewed the way its game was built, and now every Destiny 2 planet has several landing zones, but also different missions and quests, which are all up to the player to decide what to prioritize. Story missions are even located on the map, so you have to go there to activate them, but you’ll end up finding other things to do on the way, such as Adventures, which act as smaller scripted set of missions, or explore Lost Sectors, (secret zones which house mini-bosses and loot boxes), or a plethora of public events that guardians in the area can join, and of course returning patrol missions. Destiny 2 broadly resumes the basis of what its predecessor did, but constantly enrich the experience, like The Lost Sectors, for example, are only an evolution of these small dark caves in which sometimes there were no real interest in discovering.

The planets themselves follow the same logic of evolution of Destiny 2. Larger in size, they are also richer, with vast areas filled with varied visual elements, enemies, secret chests and all sorts of loot to discover. The game makes the effort to propose even more complex levels to invite the player to explore each planet, and succeeds on all front with some interesting verticality notably on Nessus and IO. If the first Destiny had us visit Earth’s Cosmodrome, the Moon, Mars and Venus, Guardians in Destiny 2 will visit previously mentioned IO, Nessus, and Titan, one of Jupiter’s satellites. Gone are the Russian plains of the Cosmodrome, as we discover the lush forests of the European Dead Zone, well known to PvP enthusiasts; in fact, several maps of the first Destiny were located precisely in the EDZ, like the Widow’s Court. In general, each destination has its own identity, almost making it a character of its own: Titan is a hostile planet, abandoned by humanity, home of methane research centers and arcologies.

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The latter have unfortunately been invaded by a well-known enemy of the players, the Hive, which almost gives a sort of Alien movie side to Destiny 2. Nessus on the other hand reminds me of Venus, full of warm colors and impressive alien vegetation, home to vast vex ruins. IO finally is know as the last thing the Traveller touched before the Collapse, a “religious” place for Warlocks, and home of the biggest vex building you’ve ever seen.

You will spend plenty of time on these new planets as the game offers many missions. If I liked them to be higher in count in comparison to the first Destiny, I must admit that the developers have learned the lessons of the past. Destiny 2 stands by itself with the current content, even though expansions are planned for the months to come. With a total of 35 hours of play with the core game, I still have a lot of things to do and endless grinds, as the most hardcore of us fans will seek to reach the highest power level of 350, and without the need of replaying missions and other tedious tasks from the original game. Because yes, if anything, Destiny main problem was this weird cycle of having to replay story missions with different modifiers such as harder difficulties (Heroic missions). Numerous games do the same like the Diablo franchise, but these mechanics were not something that players really liked, and throughout the Destiny cycle these were pushed to the side. Instead the Destiny 2 introduce different weekly and daily activities that surely will have you venture in the same locations of the games, but without a feeling like you’re doing the same thing every time, namely Milestones and Challenges. The later are small secondary tasks that are dependent on either the game mode you are playing, or which planet you’re on. For example, it could be a task to kill 75 Fallen enemies on Titan, or maybe kill 5 Guardians with heavy weapons in the Crucible. There’s basically 3 challenges per activity (Crucible, Raid, Strikes) as well as per planet, giving you the chance to build XP and rewards faster. The other more important tasks are Milestones, which are usually more complicated, but will give you larger rewards such as powerful gear (usually higher power level than the one you have), and usually are linked to the most challenging part of the game like finish the Raid, Nightfall Strikes, newly introduced Flashpoints and Lord Shaxx’s Call to Arms (I’ll get back to all these later in the review)

All this mention about loot made me realize that we should probably talk about its new system, and especially how it affects the character that adorns and wields it. Like in the first Destiny, players will be able to pick one of the three classes: Titan, Warlock or Hunter, which will each have, after several hours of play, three different sub-classes. While most expected a new class or at least sub-classes to be added in the game, Bungie’s choice makes sense as it would be too random to add it at this point. Instead Bungie introduces redesigned subclasses, especially on the front of the starting ones like the Titan’s Sentinel, Warlock’s Dawnblade and the Hunter’s Arcstrider, which ultimately are an evolution of respectively the Titan’s Defender, Warlock’s Sunsinger and the Hunter’s Bladedancer.

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This does not mean that the subclasses haven’t really changed since the original Destiny, but on the contrary, have completely different skill trees. While the logic is still to have a cooldown ability of a grenade, your subclass skill, and a Class Ability Modifiers on top of your Super, the changes are dramatic for Destiny veterans, which will need to revisit their strategies. In my case, as a Hunter, I had to learn the hard way that gone are the invisibility perks of the Arc class, but instead, the Arcstrider is an agile high-risk subclasss with numerous tricks to lower your cooldown timers for all abilities. On that front, cooldowns are no longer subjected to the stats of your armor, since the trinity of Discipline, Strength and Intelligence have disappeared, instead relying on your nodes activated in your skill tree. This is a great thing for skilled players, especially when it comes to PVP, as they will be able to reload their skills fairly quick and inflict more damage because of the way they play, instead of betting on the armor stats like in the previous Destiny.

On the other hand, improving your character still depends on your loot and gear. The good news at least is that the system is much clearer than in the first game (and trust me, I’ve seen numerous changes in the past three years). In Destiny 2, loot can be found almost everywhere and in all activities, with revised drop rate on all front, so it won’t take you days before you find a legendary engram. The same thing applies in crucible, where I got my first exotic after a mere 8-10 hours of. On top of that, the original Destiny reputation system has been scratched, in favor of a system of tokens that are more interesting. The Vanguard have their own led by Zavala, Shaxx for Crucible, but also each planet’s key character has their own “ranking” system. Basically, the more you do task that help each person, the more you get token which you can hen redeem and level up your “allegiance” to eventually unlock Legendary Engrams, which decrypt into a series of themed weapons and armors (shaders and other cosmetic loot as well). Plus you can now join actual clans with all your friends (the old groups), which has its own reward system on a season basis, as well as buffs throughout period of time.

The new loot system is redefined to reduce endless grind

In short, the possibilities of the new loot system are numerous and if you were already addicted to that in the first Destiny, then the sequel will probably eat all of your spare time as you hunt for the best. There is however a small change that will not please all Guardians and especially devotees of the RNG gods: the rolls on weapons are no longer random. If in the first Destiny you could have three completely different scout rifles for example, with their own perks, and the most hardcore of all Guardians would keep on playing until he gets that god-roll. With a fixed roll for each weapon, this hunt is over, but at least we don’t need to spend a bunch of glimmer (the in-game currency) and farm for resource to upgrade everything anymore. Another small detail that also makes a big difference in terms of weapons and gear, is the addition of the mod system. First of all, since weapons now are split into kinetic (non-elemental weapons), elemental weapons and heavy slot, your loadout is now more strategic than before, since you can literally equip anything in all three spots. Are you more of a long range shooter? Then put on a Kinetic scout rifle, an elemental one in the second slot, and maybe a sniper rifle in the heavy slot. The choice is yours, and once you start playing around with the mods, which can drastically alter a weapon core to the point of turning an Arc rifle into a void one, the possibilities are endless. Finally I’d like to end a note on the front of the weapons with the simple fact that I’m glad to see that overused original Destiny weapons like Sniper Rifles and Shotguns are now considered heavy weapons, which changes drastically the way Guardians have been playing online competitively, and I welcome the new weapon types which are the submachine guns and grenade launchers (Machine guns on the other hand are gone).

Speaking of competitive gaming, Destiny 2 offers its dedicated PvP game modes, known as the Crucible. At launch, it allows the player to choose between two dedicated playlists: Quickplay or Competitive. The first is undoubtedly the more casual, with a compilation of classic game modes like Control and Clash; while the Competitive playlist focus on more complex modes. It’s thanks to the latter that two new game modes have been introduced. The first is directly inspired by Counter-Strike, known as Countdown, requiring a team to place a bomb on one of the two spots on the map; while the other team must either defuse the bomb or kill their opponents. The second game mode – Survival – pits two teams in a classic death match, except each side has a limited number of respawn.

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Even though it’s lacking custom games, or the ability to just play specific modes, Destiny 2’s crucible marks a real good evolution when compared to the first game. The first reason is that since weapons have fixed rolls, it brings an easier way for developers to put balance in the game, even when it comes to each class strengths and weaknesses. If, at first glance, the Striker Titans or the Warlock Dawnblade seems dangerous, they are counterbalanced by weaknesses and key changes which shouldn’t be overlooked. For example, a Titan Shoulder Strike does not kill instantly, but actually can slightly imbalances its wielder, who must yet quickly chain the charge with a headshot in hope to defeat his enemy. Very often, the defending guardian has enough time to respond even before the Titan may have deal the fatal blow.

The other important change in the game’s crucible is the change to a 4v4 system, which is closer to what competitive shooters are opting for nowadays (with the exception of Overwatch of course). This decrease of set teams has helped Bungie to shrink the size of their Crucible maps, but turning them more complex and full of key clash area

The bravest of all guardians can now try their skills in the Trial of the Nines

All this would be a real pleasure if there were no defaults, and sadly the first one is important for me: when it comes to design, some maps seems like they were done better than others. Without really being bad, Vostok is a map located near the Iron Temple, which is too large and sadly constricts Gaurdians to clash in the middle area, within the corridor path in the mountain. Players are also scattered away from each other at each respawn, which often results in a second, fast but painful death, alone against two enemies that are going in a rotation. The second issue is that even though weapons are rather balanced on paper, auto rifles seems to be everywhere, due to their higher than normal reach and unbelievable accuracy that makes the use of slower weapons such as Scout Rifles or Pulse Rifles obsolete (unless you have the Mida Multi-Tool). Yet, I’m not worried on that front, as Bungie has always been very responsive and quickly balancing the Crucible, so I’m pretty sure it will happen soon.

Back in Destiny, the Trials of Osiris was the ultimate test for PVP, pushing guardians to go through an intense challenge of winning 9 games in a row of elimination mode, to eventually be granted access to the lighthouse on Mercury for some of the hottest armor and weapon loot (all themed after ancient Egyptian mythology). This time in Destiny 2, our challenge is the Trial of the Nines, which change every week, with a challenge to pass through 7 consecutive wins, and discover some strange prophecies from mysterious Nines.

The new Levathian Raid bring all the best from the previous edition in one package

Before we wrap this up, shouldn’t I talk about the raid? This ultimate test of teamwork still requires squads of six players, in order to overcome the numerous events in a large scale mission and eventually beat the final boss. This first raid – since I assume more will come with the upcoming announced two DLCs – is really well done. Directly linked to the lore of the Cabals, the Leviathan raid took the best of the four previous original Destiny raids and merged them into one. This raid is staged with relay systems as was the case for the Oryx one, and even a stealth phase like the Gorgons Maze of the Vault of Glass. The game also added two features that makes the job harder for those used to cheese things around. First of all, the Raid are now free of checkpoints, meaning there’s no way of coming back to any part of it after returning to orbit. The second key thing added is on the front of respawn mechanics. Each player has one resuscitation token for each area in the raid, and once the token has been used, he cannot revive anyone else. This makes things complicated, because if one member of your party stays dead for more than 25 seconds, then the whole team is wiped.

Finally, take the time to thoroughly explore the raid as it seems that the developers have hidden many secrets and some of them have yet to be discovered. Note that it is now possible to use a matchmaking system, and join another squad to do the raid via something called guided activities, led by “shephards” which should allow solo players to do all activities more easily.

Destiny 2 was reviewed using an Xbox One digital copy of the game purchased by the writer. The game is also available on on PlayStation 4 and coming soon on PC via Battle.net. We don’t discuss review scores with publishers or developers prior to the review being published.

Without aiming to revolutionize the recipe, Destiny 2 does exactly what you’d expect of it: to correct the numerous defects of a game which had the base of becoming a legendary experience. A while ago, I finished an interesting written by my colleague Jason Schreier over at Kotaku called…