#I tried Direct vs Devising before

[reds-burrow]

I wanted to take a moment to organize my thoughts further on the divide between Lion and Badger secondaries vs Bird and Snake secondaries. Right now, we have them divided between Inspirational vs Situational. While it's clear to see the difference between Built vs Improvisational or Solid vs Fluid, Inspirational vs Situational always struck me as odd. Don't get me wrong; Inspirational and Situational are still valid descriptors. But I think we can dig a little deeper into how these secondary pairs compare and contrast.

To me, the divide comes down to how Badgers and Lions tend to push through obstacles while Birds and Snakes are more likely to reassess their path when they hit resistance.

The way Badgers and Lions push through obstacles emphasizes their straightforward commitment that people find Inspirational. Their intentions are clear, and they can be depended on to follow the path they've chosen. Socially, they are just as straightforward: they are exactly who they present themself to be. When a Lion or Badger has a strong primary, it shines through. If a Lion or Badger is already charging or building towards something, their primary has already deemed it worth charging or building towards. Being so open, fully meaning what they say and do, and putting their self into their work are all naturally inspiring qualities.

In contrast, Birds and Snakes are flexible and versatile in how they solve problems while also circumventing trouble. They may look at the straight path Lions and Badgers are taking and ask why they're spending time and energy on a path that has already met resistance. Why continue with Plan A when Plan B is easier? The thing about Plan B is that it is more likely to be outside of what is considered the normal solution for a problem. This can mean anything from bending the rules, to repurposing something outside of its original design, to inventing a completely new tool.

Birds and Snakes take on socialization in the same way as other problems, with roles and masks crafted to circumvent resistance from other people. Which role an Actor Bird will play or what mask a Snake will put on is chosen to fit the situation and the audience, to get what the Bird or Snake needs from the people around them. In some Birds and Snakes, this is a calculated move, and when their audience senses this, it can give the impression that Birds and Snakes are colder than Badgers and Lions. However, if a Bird or Snake is comfortable with their audience, if they are tired or upset, or if they come across something they cannot misrepresent, particularly if it grates against their primary, they will stop circumventing and shed their mask or role.

So, how are Circumventing secondaries Situational? This is perhaps most obvious if we compare them to Straightforward secondaries. The Straightforward secondaries have a natural forward momentum. This momentum may not be as obvious in Badgers as in charging Lions, but it just needs time to build. In much the same way Rapid-Fire Birds can look like Snakes when all their collected resources line up just right, a Badger can look like a charging Lion when all their hard work falls into place. Snakes and Birds, however, tend to lack this momentum because they need a situation react to first. This is why the secondaries explode like they do. When Lions and Badger secondaries explode, they throw their entire being against the obstacle, often self-destructing in the process, Lions in a spectacular show of force and Badgers by grinding away until there’s nothing left. Meanwhile, Birds and Snakes are paralyzed by a lack of situation to react to. Without a problem to circumvent, they can stall out, Snakes left adrift and Birds left to perpetually collect but not react.

tl;dr – Lions and Badgers are Inspirational because they’re Straightforward. Snakes and Birds are Situational because they’re Circumventing.

EDIT: Erased a sentence that accidentally implied Actor Birds are Fluid. They are not.

[yuraimi-lee-bunny]

Gray's Character Analysis Part I. Introdution

Well, the day has come, here begins the analysis of Gray as a character throughout the series. I had previously done character analysis, but this is the longest in analysis writing I'll do, but it's worth it. I hope you enjoy it, don’t hesitate to comment on everything you believe or even add other examples or characteristics that I have not noticed. I’m very excited and nervous hehehe.

Here we go!

There are 3 important facts you need to know about Graham/Gray/Crackle to fully understand their personality and worldview:

1.- His name is Graham Calloway (let's put aside that we FINALLY have his last name, it will be important and symbolic later)

2.- He’s an orphan

3.- He wants to be successful.

Gray enrolled in the “Vocational School” being actually VILE. Maelstrom mentions that he currently works at the Sydney Opera House as an electrician and will soon be promoted to Stage Lighting Technician. Let's start with the fact that Graham wasn’t working in a simple place, we’re talking about a place like a lot of prestige and tourism, light and electricity being extremely important, therefore, really professional and prepared people must be hired. That tells you how Gray besides being a great electrician, he wants to work at the best of the best to earn as much money as he can. And with that promotion, Graham is doing very well, he is succeeding. But as he said: "I feel like my talents can be put to more ... lucrative ends"

Something that from the first time I watched the serie and that I could notice in Gray is that he's curious, he always wants to see and do beyond what is presented and has. He likes new experiences, learning things that help him with his purposes, challenges and showing that he can overcome them (I consider that he only shows it to himself, not to someone or others). Even in the first book of "Who is Carmen Sandiego?" it's mentioned that he spent a lot of time with Dr. Bellum creating and devising new things. This boy always has ideas in his head as to what he likes the most, which is electricity. He's really passionate about it.

He realized that he could make more money by stealing from the rich and not just being an electrician. Gray always points up and wants to show himself that he can do it. He's always calm, relaxed, with a mischievous look, as if somehow he's always ready for everything and nothing surprises him. Until then a girl named Black Sheep arrives. When Graham first meets Black Sheep it was because of a tease he did to her, showing that he’s too naughty, he likes to make jokes, however, he tends to underestimate people. Black Sheep fights back and well, we all know the scene.

Something that surprised me a lot and at the same time I loved it (it was from then on that I said "You have all my attention boy") is that I believed that because of the way Black Sheep defended herself, he could take it to heart, get angry or something similar, but no! Graham appeared very calm before her to greet her with a handshake, as if nothing had happened. What makes me interpret that Graham is someone who is going to recognize and respect people who really show him that they're capable and that they should be respected. At the same time, it seems that he doesn't like people who are too smug, who have simple goals, and appear to be the best but with their actions doesn't show it, the best example is Sheena/Tigress, both in the book and in the series shows that although he tolerates her, deep down he likes to make fun of her, he has no compassion on her and according to the book "Graham rolls his eyes when Sheena says she likes shoplifting."

He wasn't afraid of Black Sheep or her attitude, on the contrary, he liked it and she won his respect. At the same time that Graham really isn't someone to hold grudges or get angry easily, but rather someone who tries to keep things calm and under control, he stays out of the unnecessary drama. He was almost always the mediator between Tigress and Black Sheep (there are more such moments in the Book) And he isn't someone who is afraid to say things as they're, he is very frank and direct.

When he makes a mistake, he doesn't get frustrated, he just lets it go and moves on: Sheena calls him "Lame" and says nothing, his friends make fun (in the case of the book) of his nickname "Graham Crackle" and he say nothing. Even Carmen Sandiego on the train beats him in the fight, knocks him unconscious and there isn’t a hint of frustration in him. He knows how to deal with his own mistakes and doesn’t let them affect his self-esteem or image. He keeps going. His self-esteem in fact is seen to be normal, he may perhaps appear to be "cocky" for his looks, but in reality he's never seen to be affected by what others think of him, nor does he act as if he were better than everyone. But he himself knows that he's good at what he is, and as he already said "I want to be successful", he knows that he can achieve it, and will do it, even with chaotic actions. There is an interesting phrase in the book that isn't mentioned in the series, is when Black Sheep proposes a nickname of Gray, she says "Electrical Failure" to which Gray replies "Failure? No, I don't think so" which gives me a certain idea of how Gray doesn't consider himself a "failure", perhaps he makes mistakes, but even so he doesn't believe that for this reason he's belittled in such a way, much less for it "a fail", as I said, He has healthy and secure self-esteem.

Another interesting point is how expressive he's in looks and gestures: those eyebrows almost never stay still! This point is curious because as some say "a look says more than a thousand words" and he's a great example of this. I actually consider that that touch makes Gray have a mysterious air next to the long eyes that he has. He doesn't talk much, only what is necessary, causing all eyes to express what he thinks/feels. But other times you don't know what's on his mind. But most of the time, his expressions are a clue that he happens to him and feels. Remember this, it will be important.

He also has a certain "gift of the word" or rather knows how to use the correct words to address people (In addition to making word jokes) which these two characteristics together achieve many things: calm situations, ensure that Black Sheep isn't expelled, have an almost date with Carmen Sandiego, among others. It seems that he's someone who is direct, transparent and pragmatic, he doesn't try to complicate his life, but if he likes to make intelligent movements, play with people and show that "he's one step ahead of you" (although that doesn't work almost never with Carmen)

In general, this is what I have managed to analyze about Gray's personality. However, as I said, it’s an introduction, some things will remain, while others will change a little or even a lot throughout the analysis. I hope you liked it and for the moment, it will be 5 parts in total for the entire analysis. I will leave the parts with their titles in each post (Maybe the titles will change depending on if something better occurs to me as I write.), and I will leave an analysis that I had already done before but it complements a little to Gray and his personality. Maybe every two days I will get the next part, depending on my time, but also so that you can take your own time to read, reflect and comment on your points of view.

Part. I Introdution (HERE)

Part. II Empathy vs Ambition

Part. III Amnesia and it’s Future Consequences

Part. III.5 Graham Calloway: The Walking Enigma

Part. IV Integrity At a high (and unfair) price

Part. V The final decision and a new beginning

Plus 1. Gray and his strange habit of explaining things

Plus 2. Crossover: Sabrina And Gray: New Beginning

Plus 3. Crossover: Hawk/Eli and Crackle/Gray: Redemption

[rosheendubh]

On Dathomir...

ArtManip:

Dathomir, after Yana has taken Luke as a hostage, her negotiating chip with the Witches, ensuring he doesn’t pursue her as she tries obtaining access to a wormhole capable vessel. Alas, b/c Leia is so honored by the Ladies, and Luke’s her brother, the hostage tactic sort misfires on Yana. The Witches adore him, and he charms the Ladies. At the time, they’re cohabbing under-cover with the Witches in their seasonal Rancor migrations—and it‘s birthing season for the Mama-Rancors (I sort of envision them like matriarchal elephant herds). Thus, it’s spring, passions and hormones are flowing, all sorts of Witchy celebrations ignite between the Ladies, including the return of Yana’s past/current lover, K’hlinda (who works as an info-scrubber and private contract cyber-security intel, multi-system....). Various mishaps occur to distract Yana from her prime objective. K’hlinda and her uninhibited sensuality between myriad species and genders, including a flirtation with Luke. Luke, intent on convincing Yana he’s her ally, also manages to aggravate her unceasingly by trumping any situation where imminent danger or catastrophe threatens—and seems to be basking in the adventure like a joy-ride (other than the rather strained rendezvous with his father, residing on Dagobah with Ashoka—angst, past regrets—some real SmashingPumpkins, ‘Killer In Me Is the Killer In You‘-kinda agst), while Making no secret as to his growing attraction to her across their multi-planet escapade. Basically, she wants to find the source of biohacked gene-sequences, and he wants tail. Basically, this becomes a ‘PrincessBride’/“As you wish”-scenario-with Yana ordering him (since he is a hostage after all) to perform onerous, time-consuming tasks in the course of tending Rancor. And Luke, not overly flustered, caters to her with a playful, teasing gentility which irks her more. As they labor with the Witches moving between the Rancor birthing sites, K’hlinda becomes the fulcrum around which Yana and Luke teeter. One night, as she starts making love to Yana, K’hlinda invites Luke to partake by ‘shared visualization’, opening a mental/emotional link, a bridge of intimacy through their particular Force capabilties (for Yana-what she knows as hypercognitive awareness)—like a psychic peepshow—since he’s not in their immediate presence. A tantalizing experience of arousal, sharing their pleasure as his own, and leaves him wanting Yana even more. And allowing her a tender courtesy, the patience to let her sort her own feelings toward him, conflicted in her attraction, her simultaneous distrust of his loyalty to her cause vs Republic Alliance lateral motives. Also, she has a trust issue with Jedi, going on her past in Palpatine’s inner-sanctum of service, and with Vader—her only standards by which to judge their Order. Thus, the art-manipulation is a reference to that moment where Luke shares the intimacy between Yana and K’hlinda...

##Backstory...one day, I might compose these broad outlines of the cosmic space (some smut) rock opera into a coherent tale..

Tracking the source of corrupted plasmid sequences utilized in black-market and biohack modification consumes Rhyanon/Yana. From Coruscant, to Tatooine, Engadi, Dagobah, and Geis. The last, the site of a Reaver massacre where Yana and her sister had been visiting in the time before the Battle of Yavin-she and her sister brutalized-her sister murdered before her eyes-Yana taken prisoner by a slaver. Eventually, An Imperial cruiser Commanded by Vader boards the slave vessel-and Vader-deciphering Yana’s unique talents for psionic biomolecular manipulation of organic structures-recruits her to the direct service of Palpatine. In exchange for restoring his wasting body, ravaged by decades of Dark Side corruption, Palpatine offers to alleviate the trauma of Geis, submerging the memories of a traumatized adolescent from conscious recall, and allowing her training to develop her talents, meaning to utilize them eventually for a newly rehabbed cloning program of super-soldiers. With Palpatine’s death (which occurs in a slightly different fashion than in RotJ), Yana discovers the deceptive influence of Palpatine’s involvement with the Massacre of Geis. And begins to form a suspicion that Geis wasn’t a random attack, but a strategic strike masterminded to target her and her sister as part of a larger conspiracy involving quadrants on both sides the Wormhole (read: Serenity and Miranda and RiverTam).

Freed from the weight Palpatine imposed upon her mind, blurring memories of that tragedy, she tracks down her sister‘s killer—the slaver from Geis-finding a humanoid vastly reformed from his previous life of villainy and pillage. Indeed, a hero of the Rebellion, who’d retrieved the plans of the 2nd DeathStar with the Bothans, enabling the Alliance’s victory at Endor. Undeterred by remorse, Yana follows through on her vendetta killing her old captor, and with her sister’s death punished, flees to the most remote Imperial outpost she can find, near the Wormhole.

Taking on an assumed ID, she works as a medic in the prison on Dathomir, befriending an aged inmate-scientist with whom she designs a mock-up, Wormhole capable ship in order to return to her home quadrant. An independent fringe sector called New Celtica (based roughly on the Keltiad), which has grown in prosperity and influence, their human inhabitants, like many dispersed through the stellar ways, exhibiting hypercognitive/precognitive abilities for centuries, and establishing economic and cultural ties with various other Fringe star-systems choosing to reside beyond the direct rule of the Terran Federacy/Inner elite systems of the Core. It’s at the point of the Conduit prototype ship nearing completion for a test-run that the RepublicAlliance enters Dathomiri space, and in a highly revised restructuring of ‘TheCourtshipofPrincessLeia’, Yana falls into Republic custody. B/c Luke blows her out of the sky as she’s trying to escape in the battle with the Zinj dude who’s the ImperialWarLord referenced in ’Courtship’. The discovery of her existence, the Wormhole itself, a WildCard that shifts the dynamics of destiny for the Republic, Empire, and the Terran Federacy...

Dathomir, lying near the Wormhole, and Yana, having resided with the Witches after escaping Coruscant upon Palpatine’s death (thus, already having cordial relations with the Ladies, along with a lover-K’hlinda-who works as an information scrubber/cyber-security private contractor), Yana devises a ploy, with Luke as her hostage-leaving him in the custody of the Witches in order to gain access to the only spatial-anomaly ship capable of withstanding the wormhole conduit...

[wrestlingisfake]

Hard to Kill preview

Kenny Omega & Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Rich Swann & Chris Sabin & Moose - When Kenny Omega won the AEW men’s world title on December 2, he completed a long-simmering heel turn by forming an alliance with Impact Wrestling executive Don Callis.  Omega and Callis began showing up on both Impact and AEW programming acting like Omega is “the real world champion,” which irritated Impact world champion Rich Swann.  Omega also reunited with Impact’s men’s tag team champions, Gallows and Anderson, who had already been having issues with former champs Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley.

This match was originally booked as Omega/Gallows/Anderson vs. Swann/Sabin/Shelley, but the day before the show Impact announced that “unavoidable circumstances” prevented Shelley from traveling to the show in Nashville.  Shelley’s last-minute replacement is Moose, who has recently been feuding with Swann.  For over eight months, Moose has been calling himself the “TNA world champion,” presumably to set up a “who’s the real champion?” match with the Impact world champion.  But that seems kind of silly now that Omega and Swann are kind of doing the same thing, but with more credibility.  So I was hoping they’d get Swann vs. Moose wrapped up before Swann vs. Omega got going.  I certainly wasn’t expecting Moose to be involved in this match.

Because of Omega and the AEW interpromotional angle, this may well be the biggest show Impact has run in years.  So Impact is motivated to deliver the best they can for whatever new audience this match will attract.  The big question is whether AEW is invested enough to send a few of their guys to appear on this show for a hot angle.  Any unadvertised AEW wrestler causing any kind of ruckus on this show will get people talking.  But AEW and Impact seem to be taking their time with this storyline, and they may not think now is the time to drop the next bombshell plot point.

To me, the likeliest finishes are a) Omega’s team dominates and wins to get more heat, or b) Swann scores the winning fall to set up an Omega vs. Swann singles match.  The best setup for that match would be Swann pinning Omega, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.  But if they sell it like Omega’s team are the heavy favorites, and that Omega’s ego is bruised by an upset even if he didn’t lose the fall, then that can still work.  But then again, that was my gut feeling before Moose was added to the match.  Now it feels far more likely that Moose will turn on his partners or walk out on them, which could change the entire complexion of the match.  That uncertainty has me pretty interested in how things unfold.

Eddie Edwards vs. Sami Callihan - This is billed as a “barbed wire massacre” match, so the ring ropes will be replaced with barbed wire, and objects wrapped in barbed wire will be provided at ringside to use as weapons.  Obviously, in this sort of match nobody is going to be disqualified or counted out. 

I can’t say I understand the storyline leading up to this.  Edwards and Callihan had a vicous feud following a 2018 incident where Callihan botched a spot and hit Edwards in the face with a baseball bat.  Then they seemed to go down separate paths, and then recently Sami and Ken Shamrock started picking on Edwards and his wife for some reason.  The idea now appears to be that these two will never be able to settle it, except that they both clearly put it all aside for the better part of a year.  In any case, they’ve run out of hardcore stips to use in their matches, so here we are.

I believe this is the fourth “barbed wire massacre” match Impact has booked.  The first two were on pay-per-view in 2005 and 2008.  The third was taped for television in 2018, but was only streamed on Twitch because it was “too violent for TV.”  I remember watching the first one (Abyss vs. Sabu) in 2005 and being too squeamish to enjoy the performance.  In matches like this you have to hope the wrestlers know what they’re doing and don’t go too far just to create a “moment.”  But with Callihan and Edwards, that doesn’t apply, so I just have to hope the match was taped in advance, so that if one of them was gravely injured we’d have seen reports about it by now.

Both of these guys are pushed as top acts in Impact, but Callihan always seems to come up short in big matches like this.  I can’t see either guy accepting defeat and letting the feud end.  But if this is really the final chapter, then I think Edwards needs the last laugh more than Sami does.

Deonna Purrazzo vs. Taya Valkyrie - Purrazzo is defending the Impact women’s championship. Valkyrie held the title from January 2019 to January 2020--the longest single reign in the title’s history--but after losing the belt she spent 2020 preoccupied in comedy stuff with Rosemary and John E. Bravo.  So Taya’s doing the whole “you’ve only done so well as champion because I haven’t gotten around to facing you” bit.

I haven’t been able to get into Impact’s women’s division.  I suppose it’s because so many of the characters seem superficial and unserious.  Like, Purrazzo is presented as a solid in-ring performer, but outside the ring she’s the kind of self-absorbed chicken heel who plots with her sidekick to devise ways to duck upcoming challengers.  Impact is full of characters like that, but the women’s division in particular has almost nothing else.  Hell, Taya was playing that role when she was the heel champion.  So I can’t say I’m very motivated to see these two fight.  I also don’t really believe we’re going to get a title change at this point.

Manik vs. Chris Bey vs. Rohit Raju - This is a three-way match for the X division championship, so whoever scores the first fall over any opponent will win Manik’s title.  This story started with Bey as champion and Raju as his crony, but Raju was the one henchman in wrestling history who managed to manipulate his boss to his advantage, so Raju won the title from Bey in a three-way with TJP.  Raju was so worried about losing his belt to TJP that he arranged a stipulation where TJP could no longer challenge him.  Then Raju issued an open challenge answered by Manik...the masked man character originally played by TJP.  So now Manik is the champion and definitely not TJP, but Raju and Bey aren’t buying it.

I don’t really care who wins this.  Every time they do a multi-man match for the X title, they demonstrate that multi-man matches don’t settle anything, because there’s always somebody who’s like “Well I wasn’t pinned, so I should get another match!”  So if, for example, Bey pins Raju, you know it’s just going to lead to Bey vs. TJP and/or Manik later.  Except Raju is going to weasel his way into the situation, for another three-way.  (Unless Crazzy Steve is free that weekend, and it’ll be a four-way.)  There’s no direction here. The best thing that could happen to the X title (aside from retiring it as an obsolete relic) is if some AEW guys came in to fight for it.  And I don’t expect that to happen soon.

Havok & Neveah vs. Tasha Steelz & Kiera Hogan - This match is the tournament final to decide which team will be awarded the Impact women’s tag team championship.  The title was originally introduced in 2009, but a lack of interest in booking it properly led to ODB teaming with Eric Young to win the belts in March 2012.  The last title defense I can find was in May 2012, although it took over a year for Impact to officially abandon the championship.

I can see why Impact was motivated to bring the title back, since throughout 2020 most of their women’s roster was paired off in various alliances: Taya Valkyrie & Rosemary, Deonna Purrazzo & Kimber Lee, Kylie Rae & Susie, etc. But just because most of the women on the roster have a natural partner doesn’t mean there are enough women to fill out a tag team division.  I suspect these two teams are going to end up rematching a lot for the tag belts, while the teams they eliminated in the tournament go back to focusing on singles action.  If just having women’s tag titles automatically meant expanding the women’s roster and pushing more women, then that would be great.  But we’ve seen that it doesn’t work that way, not only in WWE, but also the last time Impact tried it.

My gut feeling is that Steelz and Hogan have more future potential, so I’d probably prefer to put the title on them.  But Havok and Neveah have the edge in size and meanness, and I could easily see Impact wanting them to dominate as the champions a la the Road Warriors.

Eric Young & Cody Deaner & Joe Doering vs. Cousin Jake & Rhino & Tommy Dreamer - This is being called an “old school rules” match, which is Impact’s way of saying “ex-ECW guys are in this so we want to say ‘extreme rules’ but WWE trademarked that.” Basically there are no count-outs or disqualifications.  Cody and Jake were a tag team until Deaner became obsessed with proving himself against Young; when he failed, he turned on Jake and joined Young’s group.  Rhino tried to help Jake out, but it wasn’t until Tommy Dreamer got involved that they were able to even the odds.  I’m pretty sure Young’s faction is just getting started and they are going to destroy the babyfaces here.

Ethan Page vs. The Karate Man - Page is one half of The North, which spent most of 2019-2020 dominating the men’s tag team division.  Karate Man is the alter ego of...Ethan Page.  So he’s fighting himself.  That’s always fun.

The backstory here is that the North struggled to recover from losing the tag title earlier this year, and Page grew increasingly desperate to convince Josh Alexander that they could regroup. The tipping point was when Alexander was wrestling Brian Myers and Karate Man interfered, causing Josh to get disqualified.  Page did a skit where he tried to get therapy from Karate Man, before they decided to fight instead.

The bigger story behind all this is that Page’s contract with Impact Wrestling reportedly expired at the end of 2020, so he’s technically not even with the promotion anymore.  Reportedly, this “match” was taped weeks ago.  Just because Page is a free agent doesn’t mean he won’t simply re-sign with Impact at any moment.  But this looks to be his swan song before he moves on...or the pivotal angle that sets up how he’s staying.

Obviously this is going to have to be pre-taped with Patty Duke Show special effects.  I’m not sure if that means it’ll be a ~*~cinematic match~*~ though.  They could do a weird brawl in a weird location like the Boneyard Match or Stadium Stampede, or they could just do it on the normal set in a normal ring and not do anything weird except the split screen effects.  I honestly don’t know what to expect.

Rosemary & Crazzy Steve vs. Tenille Dashwood & Kaleb with a K - Rosemary and Steve used to be in The Decay together years ago, and occasionally Impact remembers that and has them interact.  Tenille is formerly Emma from WWE, playing a stuck-up Instagram influencer gimmick with Kaleb as her personal assistant.  Rosemary already beat Dashwood in the setup to this match, and I don’t think Kaleb is going to last long against Steve, so I guess the weirdo babyfaces will triumph.

Josh Alexander vs. Brian Myers - This is scheduled for the pre-show.  As noted above, Alexander and Ethan Page had some issues that came to a head when Page caused Alexander to lose a match to Myers.  So Josh wants to avenge that loss.  It’s kinda funny to me that the serious match about wins and losses and professionalism is on the pre-show while the “Ethan Page beats himself up” comedy is on the main show.  But anyway, it seems like Alexander is headed for a singles push, so he might as well get that started with a win.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Fusion Reborn (4/6)

The problem: An accident at King Yemma’s has mutated one of his ogres into Janemba, a creature with incomprehensible power.   Janemba has sealed Yemma’s domain within a spiritual barrier, which has disrupted the boundary between the living and the dead.  On Earth, Gohan tried using the Dragon Balls to fix things, but not even Shenron has the power to undo Janemba’s mischief. 

Neither can Pikkon, since the barrier seems to resist even his most powerful attacks.

Goku has lured Janemba away so that Pikkon could rescue Yemma without distraction, but so far that hasn’t done any good.  Frustrated, Pikkon shouts at the obstacle.   

And a bit of it breaks away.

This is never explained, but I’m not sure an explanation is really needed here.  Scolding the barrier and calling it names seems to damage it.    Maybe that says something about the nature of Janemba and his power.  Big J is basically rebelling against the most fundamental rules of creation, like an impudent child.  The spiritual waste that made Janemba represents all the bad things done by a bunch of bad people who got sent to hell by Yemma.   My working theory is that Janemba represents their collective outrage at being held accountable for their bad behavior.   So maybe when Pikkon yells at the barrier, it reminds that evil ki that it really is bad and all this Janemba business doesn’t change that fact.

All that matters to Pikkon is that it works, so he tries screaming more verbal abuse at the barrier.

The trouble is that he’s only chipping away about a quarter-inch off the surface each time.   He’s gonna be at this for a while.

Down in hell, Goku is trying to fight Janemba, but he’s having some trouble figuring the guy out.   Earlier, he sent an army of mini-clones to dogpile Goku, and he managed to get rid of them fairly easily.  This time, Janemba waves his hand, and causes a bunch of these jellybean looking things to fall down on Goku’s head.

Then he charges into the pile like a bowling ball hitting a bunch of pins.

You’d think Janemba would have a hard time hitting Goku, since he’s such a small and quick target, but Janemba’s quicker than he looks.

He also has this ability, where he can make portals.  He sticks his fist through and it comes out on the other side, right next to wherever Goku is.

Also, he can kick really high.  I guess when your body is roughly spherical your center of gravity makes things like this pretty easy to do.   

I almost wonder if the portal thing was devised as a way to cope with Janemba’s design.  Someone looked at this absolute unit and asked how he’s supposed to reach Goku with those stubby arms.  

Worse, Janemba seems to know exactly what Goku is going to do before he does it.   I’m not sure why this is presented like some sort of mysterious ability.  If Janemba can sense ki like most of the characters in this franchise, then he can track Goku’s movements and offensives pretty well.   But it would make a lot of sense if Janemba had some sort of precognitive power on top of all his other weird abilities. 

But it’s a two way street.   After Janemba uses the portal trick enough times, Goku has it scouted, and managess to fire a ki blast at Janemba’s fist, and sending it back through the portal to hit the rest of him.

Then he goes for a Kamehameha while Janemba’s guard is down...

... and then Janemba does whatever this is.   Is that an illusion of Goku, or some sort of time warp of Goku’s actions from a second earlier?

All Goku knows is that it’s weird, wild stuff.  

Janemba doesn’t seem to know what he just did either, and he finds this very amusing.

So Goku decides that he’s going to have to settle this quickly.   He turns Super Saiyan 2, probably thinking that would be enough, but then Janemba fires big ki blasts out of the four holes in his belly, like some sort of anti-aircraft gun.

And here Goku wanted to wrap this up quickly.  Turns out he’s still on the defensive.  Even at Super Saiyan 2, it’s all he can do to stay ahead of the blasts.

And Janemba can fire at any angle, because he can just roll around to point his, uh... holes any which way.

From above, Pikkon can sense Goku’s struggle, and he probably wishes he could join in.

Or maybe he doesn’t, because Janemba’s a lot stronger than he and Goku realized.   So Goku’s decided to pull out all the stops.

Hell yeah!   See, this is the sort of stuff that Movies 9, 10, and 11 were sorely missing.  Those films all had to contend with the fact that Goku was dead and unable to participate in the story directly, and none of them really found a good solution to that problem.  Movies 9 and 10 just gave up and had Goku show up to help at the end, which is incredibly dumb, because if you’re going to do that anyway then why not have him be there from the start?    Movie 11 teased the idea that Goku would be off having another, much cooler adventure off-screen.

What makes Movie 12 so great is that they finally figured out the Gordian Knot of Goku staying dead.  If we can’t bring Goku to the fight, let’s just bring the fight to Goku.   They should have just done that from the beginning.   Just have Bojack attack Goku on the Grand Kai Planet.    Have Broly cause trouble in hell, just like Movie 11 suggested.  They went to a lot of trouble to have Broly miraculously survive his death scene in Movie 8, just so he could appear in Movie 10, and it wasn’t even worth it.   They could have just kept him dead and let Goku fight him for two movies in a row. 

But we all know Broly ‘93 would be no match for Goku ‘95.  That’s why you send in Janemba, because he’s the big gun we need.

Look at how bad ass this is.   Goku to everybody: Come get this work.

Grimly, Goku praises Janemba for being only the second person to push him this far.   So I guess that proves the Buu Saga happened in this movie, even though Goku’s still dead afterward. 

Then he just looks at Janemba, and in the fansub from when I first saw this movie, he says “It’s a fight from here on.”   That’s my favorite line, right there.

Then it’s go time.   No more tricks, no more games, Janemba’s in Goku Town now, and he’s about to get taken to the city dump.

Janemba can’t do shit against Super Saiyan 3 Goku.  He just starts clubberin’ him and Janemba has to take it.

Then he flies really high up and Janemba wonders what he’s going to do....

... and Goku just dives fist-first into Janemba, just driving his ki right into the dude.    Brutal!

It’s not really clear what all of this is doing to the guy, but all of these explosions can’t be good.

Goku flies clear of him, and it sure looks like he’s won.   Janemba convulses a few times, but he seems to be getting weaker...

But then his flesh begins to reassemble itself somehow...

Goku isn’t sure what that means, but he can sense that something is terribly wrong.

Uh-oh...

Uh-oh....!

Uh-ohhhhhh!  Yeah, that’s not good.

So Janemba’s alive, and he’s taken on a new form.  This never goes well for the other guy when this happens, so Goku’s probably in trouble now.

Back on Earth, we don’t really see what Gohan and Videl are up to, but we do follow Goten and Trunks, who have gone back to confront Hitler’s tanks.  

For some reason, Goten seems discouraged by these odds, even though they can punch tanks into other tanks very easily.  The boys haven’t even turned Super Saiyan yet...

Oh, well now they have.    What was Goten so worried about?

I mean, I guess the soldiers can’t really be beaten, since they can just come back to life indefinitely, but you’d think that if Trunks breaks a tank, it stays broken.   Where did Hitler get all these tanks anyway?  

Never mind that shit, because now Janemba’s gonna fight Super Saiyan 3 Goku.   Team Four Star did a countdown of the best fights in 2018, and this was the only fight from the classic movies to make the cut.  Funny how Goku vs. Wheelo didn’t make the list, even though they ranked Movie 2 ahead of this one on their 2015 movie countdown.  Don’t mind me, I’m still bitter.

I can’t do this fight justice with screencaps, and it’s tough to gif a lot of these shots, too.  Both guys are moving around so much and the action is so fluid and skillfully choreographed.   One of my favoirte bits is when Goku rolls away and plants his hand on the ground, then pushes off....

... to kick Janemba right in the mush.  Cool!

But this new red Jameba is tougher than the previous version, and he still has all the powers he used before, like the portals thing.   Goku tries to shoot a ki blast at him...

And he has to dodge his own attack as it’s directed back at him.

Goku seems to be able to hurt Janemba, though, so it’s not a total mismatch...

... Until Janemba starts disassembling his entire body to avoid Goku’s attacks. 

I’m not sure why this is more effective than simply moving at super-speed, but it seems to really have Goku stymied.

Also, he can shoot enormous ki blasts out of his mouth.  So maybe this is a mismatch after all.

Back at Yemma’s Pikkon’s made some respectable progress on the barrier, but he’s not even close to finished, and he’s got Yemma griping him out the whole time, and Goku’s having all the fun.   At least he can take out his frustrations on the barrier.

Here’s one of my favorite shots from the movie.  Goku looks trashed here, but he’s not beaten yet.   Remember, when he used Super Saiyan 3 before, in the Majin Buu Saga, he explained that it used up a lot of his stamina in the living world.  The implication being that it was much more effective in Otherworld, where he couldn’t tire out as easily.   So in theory, we’re seeing SSJ3 applied to its fullest potential, and Goku’s still losing.   Well, uh, he can still use Super Saiyan 4, right?    No, this is Movie 12, we don’t serve that GT crap here.

As Janemba stalks towards Goku he notices an ogre club on the ground and scoops it up.  I don’t know why it’s so small, but I assume it belonged to one of the ogres who run things in Hell, like Goz and Mez.

But Janemba can transform the club into an awesome sword.   I get the sense that Janemba can do way, way more with his powers than what we actually see, but he just hasn’t figured out what he’s capable of yet.    He just figured out the sword thing on impulse.  

Goku keeps trying to hang in there, but he’s outgunned now.  Every time Janemba slashes the sword, it shoots out a thin wave of ki along the arc of the swing, which cuts anything in its path.  So Goku has to dodge the blade as if it’s got an infinite length.

And his best shots aren’t hurting Janemba at all.

Goku tries taking cover behind those jellybean things, but Janemba can just cut through those as well.   

The attack is just relentless, and it’s all Goku can do to run away now. 

And this leads him in the direction of the blood pond, which is one of the key features in DBZ hell.  Somehow, all the blood is now floating in midair in a cone shape.    I have to assume that’s another side-effect of Janemba’s powers. 

But it’s still fluid, as Goku demonstrates when he falls in.

As he does, he reverts back to his base form, and he doesn’t seem to be able to move or escape.   I can’t find any information on the mythology surrounding the bloody pond, but I kind of got the sense that in DBZ, it might act as some sort of means to incapacitate unruly spirits.   When the Ginyu Force tries to escape Hell in the Frieza saga, they fall into the pond, and that’s pretty much the end of that.   When Cell leads a revolt in Episode 195, Pikkon tosses them all in the pond, then uses Hyper Tornado to pull them back out so he can fling them into the needle mountain.   So I got the impression that falling into the pond saps your strength.   Of course, Goku could just as easily be worn out from fighting Janemba, so this may be a coincidence.    But I sort of wonder if Janemba didn’t herd Goku into this spot just so he could take advantage of the pond.

With Goku apparently helpless, Janemba starts slicing off bits of the cone, which then splash away as normal liquid.  I really did this scene, because we can’t see where Goku is inside the pond, so it’s impossible to tell if Janemba has hit him on each stroke.

Finally, Janemba has whittled the cone of blood down to a Goku-sized piece, so the next swing of his sword will surely cut him in two.

I’m not sure whyu Janemba is dragging it out like this, but he is comprised of evil spirit waste, so it’s not like he’s above this sort of sadism.

But then, as Janemba’s ki slice approaches Goku, a ki blast comes from out of nowhere and disrupts the whole thing!

And Goku tumbles out of the blood somehow, which is a lucky break.

But who saved him just now?   Who could have saved him?

Who indeed?

[nellie-elizabeth]

Supernatural: Moriah (14x20)

Well then! Yeesh!

Cons:

I wish we could do a bit more to sort out this whole Cas vs. Dean thing. Now that we've got bigger fish to fry for next season, it seems like Dean and Cas' pretty intense disagreement will likely be pushed aside in favor of... you know... surviving the end-times. But maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, and their relationship drama will continue to be a factor as we enter into the final season of this show.

I really, really like the direction this is going, but I can't help but wonder if there were re-writes once the decision was made that Season Fifteen would be the end. It seems to me that several elements of the story, especially the stuff with Lucifer coming back, wound up being scrapped in favor of the ridiculously awesome reveal that Chuck is our final Big Bad. So while this finale on its own kicked some major ass, there were definitely some elements that didn't add up for me in terms of the buildup from the rest of the season.

Pros:

What a smart episode this was, though. Honestly. Usually the finales of Supernatural have to escalate things to some new extreme height so that we know what's coming in the next season. Oh no, we've started the apocalypse! Oh no, all the angels have fallen from Heaven! Oh no, the Darkness has been released! This season is, in some ways, no exception to that. Apparently, God is the villain. And he's done playing nice. While this might seem like just another classic Supernatural power-creep escalation, it's actually something a little different. And I love it. This is an opportunity to pit early show vs. late show against each other, by bringing back old villains, but letting Sam, Dean, and Cas handle it in the way they've learned to do over their many years of being hunters. It's an opportunity for nostalgia while at the same time a chance to focus on the one and only true central theme of Supernatural: free will. Honestly, this show goes all over the place with its plots and messaging, but at the center of it all, from day one, has been the idea of free will, and I love that we're setting up the final season to be a direct reckoning of that theme.

This episode was also a lot more down-to-earth than some other finales we've got. It's very focused - Jack is out there. Dean wants to kill him. Sam admits that killing him is maybe their only option. Cas is not on board. Three different approaches to one big problem. Meanwhile, Jack is trying to do the right thing without a soul to guide his conscience. And then God is there, and we learn once and for all that he truly does view the Winchesters as a story. That they've been puppets all along, dancing for his amusement. The end. I love that a lot of this episode really was just sitting around talking things out, making plans. It felt real, and grounded, in a way that I really appreciate from this show.

Let's talk Dean and Sam for a minute - I loved the scene when Dean said he was going to take the shot at Jack, effectively killing both Jack and himself. They don't even need to have the full conversation, because they've been there so many times before. And Sam says no - he's not going to be okay with a plan that makes him lose Jack and Dean in one fell swoop. He's lost enough as it is. Dean, who has over the last few seasons grown into a person who actually respects his brother's right to make his own decisions, has been having a bit of a relapse on account of Mary's death. He takes the gun and leaves without telling Sam. It's predictable, and frustrating, and it was easy for me to feel Sam's pain.

I love how angry Dean is, how his tight grip on his control seems to be in constant danger of snapping. He loves Sam, he loves Cas, and he loved Jack, but he can't bring himself to process those emotions in a healthy way right now. He needs to be a man on a mission, otherwise he'll fall apart. Jensen is doing such a great job with this. There's the moment in his conversation with Sam where he talks about the fact that God told them that Jack needed to die, so that's the end of the discussion. It's just so Dean to be such a hypocrite about this. Billie tells him that locking himself in a box is the only way to save the world? Cool. He'll do it. God tells him to kill his foster son? Cool. He'll do it. Because Dean Winchester kind of hates himself. And he definitely hates himself for Mary's death. It's just that in this case, he can kill Jack, the person who he outwardly blames, and himself, the person who he blames for everything, in one fell swoop. Yeesh. Poor Dean.

The moment when Dean shows up to kill Jack, and Cas is there and tells Jack to run? I fucking lost my mind. I am so in love with the way they've positioned Dean and Cas on opposite sides of this debate. These are two men who would die for each other - who have died for each other in fact. And in this moment, they are as opposed as they've ever been. Not since Season Six have we seen Cas and Dean at such odds with one another. There's this delicious tension to knowing that Dean is going to kill Jack at any cost, and Cas is going to stop Dean from killing Jack at any cost, and yet the thought of either of these people doing anything to hurt the other is so ludicrous. This is the stuff good drama is made of.

Then there's Sam Winchester, who easily gets MVP from me for this episode. We've seen, from the very early stages of this show when angels were considered an unrealistic fairy-tale, that Sam has always had faith. Maybe he hasn't quite understood the specifics of his own belief, but he's believed in a higher power and he's believed in the essential goodness of that power. We saw the way he behaved with Chuck when they met the last time. He was worshipful. Dean didn't quite understand it, but Sam... even when Sam was annoyed or frustrated with Chuck, he actually believed in him. So the moment when Sam says "hey, Chuck," and shoots God in the shoulder is honestly just... exquisite.

Sam spends this episode trying to contextualize everything that's been happening to them recently - he blames himself for Mary's death, because he's the one who brought Jack back without a soul. He tries to understand why Chuck hasn't been showing up to help them before now. He tries to explain himself to Dean, to make his brother hear him. He tries to reconcile his love for Jack with what Jack has become. And then he picks up a gun and he shoots God, even knowing he'll hurt or even kill himself to do it. And it's not a brave sacrifice play, or a planned moment - it's done in anger, in desperation, in fear. The realization that Chuck doesn't care about them is the biggest betrayal Sam Winchester has ever faced, and that's saying something, given the life he's lead. It's so hugely important to me that Sam is the one to make this move, and not Dean. It represents a breaking point for his character that I cannot wait to see play out next season.

Obviously I figured that Dean wouldn't really kill Jack, but I admire how much tension they still managed to put into that scene, and how, as Cas says "writers lie." The magic gun doesn't kill Jack; Chuck does that directly once he realizes that Dean isn't going to play the little game he's devised. We get this final shot of Sam, Dean, and Cas all standing back to back, ready to fight against the hoard of returned villains that are closing in on them. Cas has the angel blade, but Sam and Dean are practically unarmed, and Sam is bleeding from a gunshot wound to the shoulder. It's bleak, and on top of it all there's Jack's corpse just sitting there, a reminder of their failure.

We see Jack awaken in the Empty, and Billie seems to have plans for him, so now we've got a Billie vs. Chuck situation, with Jack, Cas, and the Winchesters as potential pawns. I am beyond excited to see how this plays out, and where Team Free Will lands in this battle for their own agency.

Before I finish this review, I want to praise the episode for suggesting the apocalyptic scope of Jack's powers. This show has never managed to really convey the way the whole world is affected by the various apocalypse-y type things that have come up over the years. But here we see that Jack's order to "stop lying" actually throws the whole world into chaos. If Chuck had wanted to see that play out, he would have; it's only his ability to reset things that saves the world. We see how people's inability to lie leads to instant resentments and chaos. It's actually a pretty great trope to explore some inter-character drama, so at first I was a little surprised that Sam and Dean didn't accidentally drop any uncomfortable truth bombs on each other when they both lacked the ability to lie. But then I realized - while Sam and Dean are having a rough time because of Mary right now, they are firmly on each other's sides and fighting to preserve their family at all costs. They actually aren't hiding anything from each other, and they haven't been for quite some time.

As a plus, all of this stuff is actually pretty humorous too - I loved the Celine Dion bit, and Dean going on and on about internet gossip, and the guys fighting about yogurt, the newscaster confessing his love, and the not-so-subtle dig at Trump.

Okay. This review is long, but I think that's allowed, given that it's for a finale. I greatly enjoyed it. I thought the smaller scale and the more character-driven story worked in its favor, and I love that everything from the plot to the framing is placing Castiel on equal footing with Sam and Dean as a protagonist for the finale season. I can't wait to see what we get next year! This time in 2020, I'll be sobbing my eyes out as "Carry On Wayward Son" plays over one last montage... it's going to be a wild ride.

9/10

[emblemevents-newyear]

Set 1: Howling Wyverns vs. Pride of Hoshido

        "Good morning, everyone! We've seen some very...entertaining matches so far, haven't we? So let’s get right into it! Next up we have..."

        HOWLING WYVERNS VS. PRIDE OF HOSHIDO

        "Everyone, take your places...On your marks, get set, go!"

        "Preparations comes first, of course! Captain Nora's giving everyone a good glance-over, while Adal on the other team is checking his side. Swampy seems to have missed the memo, though, as she attempts to fire a nonexistent ball...Remember, you have to load the cannons yourself!”

        "Now Gaius loads up his cannon with alarming speed, firing straight ahead -- or so he thinks?! It goes straight for Bat instead! And Yuuto’s cannon hits Tiki’s chest...er...I hope you guys warm up to this soon.” (Bat [HW] and Tiki [PoH] eliminated!)

        "First Mate Morgan attempts to load her cannon and fire straight at Cap -- I mean, Lord Admiral Corrin -- and she misses...Now, she's trying again, but she forgets to turn the cannon around! That's the wrong direction, Morgan! Oh no...Maybe she should take it a little slower next time..."

        "On the other hand, Lydia blows a ball through the enemy ship's mast. A good try, but that's not worth any points...And First Mate Corona responds in kind. Now we have both ships with holes in the mast -- and not a point for either..."

        "Er, anyway, Vevela looks very focused as she prepares to aim, releasing a shot with such force, it's hit First Mate Morgan AND Clara before it bounces away! I wonder how she did that...through sheer force of will? (Morgan [HW] and Clara [HW] eliminated! +6 to PoH)

        “Carrie hits Aqua’s leg. (+1 to HW) And now, uh...I'm seeing some friendly fire here. Haru misfires and hits Nora's leg, Admiral Corrin gets Yuuto's leg instead of...wherever he was firing, and...Karin and Captain Nora bump into each other very awkwardly. Rather than hit the rest of Mikoto, Captain Nora's ball hits the...foot. Gaius also gets Adal’s foot...Is that good aim?" (+4 to HW)

        "Pride of Hoshido is scrambling to get a few hits back, but I don't think this is working out too well...Admiral Corrin is trying to see how everyone's doing and -- Oh, gods, Laegjarn's got her cannon the wrong way! R-right in the head...Sorry, you won't get points for that!"

        "Uh, with that, to the next round -- Yuuto attempts another quick load, and this time he's landed one on Captain Nora’s torso! (+3 to PoH) Swampy tries to fire off again, but it’s another bust -- she hits herself! (Swampy [PoH] eliminated) Laegjarn aims again and -- hits Vevela instead. Yuuto and Mikoto bump into each other while rushing to load the cannons, Aqua misfires onto First Mate Corona, and...well, let's just say Hoshido's teamwork needs some...er...work. In the chaos, Carrie lands a hit on Admiral Corrin's arm, but the poor ship masts are taking hits instead...Maybe we need a little break."

        "Lydia loads up a cannon just waiting to fire and -- Oh no, Captain Nora gets caught in it! Friendly fire, guys...Well, at least Captain Nora and Laegjarn manage to hit each others' arms! (+1 to HW, +1 to PoH) Gaius gets Admiral Corrin's foot...again with the feet? (+2 to HW) At least it seems the Wyverns are learning to watch out for their friendly fire, as Karin and Haru duck safely out of the way as their teammates’ shots fly past them and into the enemy ship. Hoshido, on the other hand...Yuuto and Vevela bumped into each other heading for the same cannon, and First Mate Corona loads hers all too hasty! She's firing all over the place, and it's spun -- back towards her! Not only does the cannonball bounce off First Mate Corona's torso, it hits Aqua on its path too! Sorry Aqua, you're out! Guys, I'm getting kind of worried about you...!" (Aqua [PoH] eliminated)

        "Mikoto reloads quickly and...hits herself in the torso instead. Oof. (Mikoto [PoH] eliminated) Haru, trying to hit someone amidst the gauging and scrambling, hits Karin square in the chest instead... (Karin [HW] eliminated) And it is not Laegjarn's day, as she’s ending her rather disastrous career with a self-destruction to the torso! (Laegjarn [PoH] eliminated) Meanwhile, Adal and Carrie exchange arm hits, and Captain Nora barrels a ball towards Admiral Corrin's hand. (+3 to HW, +1 to PoH) And oh -- Vevela and Gaius look like their trying to hit each other, and they...hit themselves instead. That's a double knockout...!" (Gaius [HW] and Vevela [PoH] eliminated)

        "Now we've only got four members of each team left...Captain Nora, Haru, Carrie, and Lydia of the Wyverns...Against Admiral Corrin, First Mate Corona, Adal, and Yuuto of the Pride of Hoshido. We're in the last stretch, everyone! Give it your best shot!"

        "Well, actually, I guess everyone is cooling down for a second. Carrie and Lydia observe the situation from the crow’s nest, then scramble back down to discuss their strategy, while Pride of Hoshido eyes the other team and reloads their cannons. Who will make a move first...?"

        "It’s Yuuto, who tries to get a sneaky hit on the enemy team, but Adal happens to be rushing by! Sorry, Adal, you’re out! (Adal [PoH] eliminated) While the others stand by, Captain Nora aims low, but...I think that’s a little too low! The ball bounces rather miraculously and hits Haru’s head... (Haru [HW] eliminated) Then, suddenly the barrage kicks up again! I'm having trouble keeping up this back and forth, there's cannonballs everywhere...and I think a return of our all-too-friendly fire. Lord Admiral Corrin and Yuuto manage to crash into each other and knock themselves out...(Corrin [PoH] and Yuuto [PoH] eliminated) While Lydia misfires gravely into her own torso...” (Lydia [HW] eliminated) 

        “And I think, seeing these mishaps, everyone is a bit on edge. First Mate Corona, the last  one of her team remaining, eyes the other two hesitantly, and Carrie and Nora get a bit too hasty, their shots both hitting the deck, but not Corona. Still, two against one doesn’t look to good...”

        “Corona’s doing pretty well dodging where she can and attempting to aim at the Wyverns, but we’ve got nothing so far! Captain Nora’s shot barrels through the mast...Oh, and Carrie -- just barely hits Corona’s leg, that is. (+1 to HW) Corona’s still in, but things are looking dire...”

        “I couldn’t really hear it over that cannon blast, but I think Nora just taunted Corona about something? Huh...Well, meanwhile, Carrie’s run up to the Crow’s Nest, perhaps devising a plan, while Nora keeps trying to aim for Corona, who’s hanging in there! There’s a chance! Nora and Carrie get too hasty, and they bump into each other trying to rush towards the same cannon! Corona tries to capitalize on the moment, loading the cannon and aiming as quick as she can, but -- Oh no!”

        "She misfires, and the ball fires back at her torso!” 

        (First Mate Corona [PoH] eliminated...)

        “That’s, er...I’m sorry to see it happen, it seems like everyone panicked a bit there -- but that’s a wrap! Nora and Carrie are the last ones standing for Howling Wyverns, so... congratulations! I think.” (+5 to HW) 

        “Now, let’s tally up all the points...”

Howling Wyverns: 12 + 5 = 17 Points! MVP: Weaponmaster Carrie Pride of Hoshido: 11 Points! MVP: Queen Vevela

        “Just barely and saved by the last-one-standing bonus...Howling Wyverns takes the lead! That was quite the conclusion...or lack of...but good job, everyone! Take a well-needed rest until your next battle, alright?”

(( Simulation results are under the cut: ))

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT 3X01 - The Heart of the Truest Believer

Finally, I can start Season 3! It’s been so long that I can HEART-ly believe it!

...Did you miss the puns? I missed the puns. I don’t think Emma did, because I’m just hanging on by a thread! 

(Ha! Snuck two in!)

Anyway, let’s get under the cut and see what this episode has to offer!

Press Release Emma, Mary Margaret, David, Regina, Mr. Gold and Hook enter Neverland to search for a kidnapped Henry, they’re greeted by a school of not-to-friendly mermaids who threaten to end their search before it begins; Henry finds himself on the run from the Lost Boys with another escapee from Peter Pan’s encampment; and Neal, recovering from his wounds, travels through the Enchanted Forest with Mulan in an attempt to learn the fates of Emma and Henry.

General Thoughts - Characters/Stories/Themes and Their Effectiveness Neverland Seas ”I blame you.” Yeah, I disagree, Emma. For one thing, this plays a pretty small part of the overall story. For another, while they tried to convince her of what to do, it was Emma’s ultimate decision to do it. As she says, “We’re the same age. We have equal amounts of wisdom.” For a third, their decision, while endangering Henry, saved Regina. For a fourth, the only people’s faults for Henry’s capture are Greg and Tamara. *sighs* Look, I get Emma’s grief and worry, but this writing direction doesn’t feel genuine for her to deflect blaming Snow and David. It feels like a conflict was thrown in so that there would be more of a disconnect between her and her family.  I love Emma, but I can admit when a scene makes her completely unsympathetic despite the framing telling me otherwise, and this is a prime example. And here’s the thing: This never comes up again! Emma doesn’t apologize to them. This moment is utterly pointless!

The importance of teamwork is the big theme of this segment and once we get over that hiccup of a scene as I just mentioned, it’s delivered incredibly effectively. The conflicts between the characters, both internal and external, are incredibly real and no one is holding back. And the twist of those conflicts causing the storm is handled well! Rumple presents the bare essence of the theme, about Emma’s lack of belief, and because he chooses to go off on his own, the narrative has him fail by putting him into a traumatising position, whereas Emma’s belief in their abilities as a team and, in correlation with Rumple’s speech, herself, allows for the rest of the Nevengers to succeed.

Neverland Island So I have a nice bit to say about this segment, but it all applies to my “Favorite Dynamics” segment, so you’ll see that down there!

Enchanted Forest There’s not really much to be said about the story other than I liked it. That’s not to say that I didn’t like it or I didn’t appreciate the characters re-introduced or the interactions between them, but it was rather simple and that just doesn’t leave me a lot to talk about in terms of a breakdown of themes of major character actions. Still, the pacing was nice and the story was engaging!

Insights - Stream of Consciousness -So I didn’t realize that Emma giving birth to Henry was the first scene of the season. For some reason, I was under the impression that it happened at the start of “Coming Home,” but I honestly love it being here. Immediately, you get the sense that this arc was well planned so that it could return to this moment at the end of “Coming Home.”

-Also, I love that flicker of light as Emma gives birth! Such a special part of Emma’s life -- one filled with both joy and misery as she decides to give Henry away -- deserves the magical treatment!

-I seriously got choked up as Emma denied her chance at being Henry’s mother from the start. There’s so much love for him from the start and while it’s causing her so much pain, she’s doing what she thinks is best for him. And the gentle and yet powerful way the theme plays in the background just kills me. Swan Believer forever!

-Damn, what a cool way to go back to the present! We’re put right in the action, not missing a minute of the adventure.

-I will NEVER get over how much I love hearing Killian say “Neverland.” Whether in “The Crocodile” or here, Colin puts so much energy into the word, encompassing the danger and adventure to be found there.

-”It’s a good thing you guys don’t ask any questions.” My sentiments exactly, Henry!

-”More time than I care to remember trying to leave this place to kill Rumplestiltskin.” This provides some interesting insight into Killian’s character. It implies (to me) that he devised his Dreamshade plan with quite a few years to spare before his escape, whereas I always assumed that the planning took most of the time and that the escape was just a pinch of time towards the end.

-”Villains don’t get happy endings.” It’s incredible that this line, said by a character that left so little of an impression, is what follows Regina, Rumple, and Killian throughout basically the rest of the series.

-”That’s a great use of our time. A wardrobe change.” To be fair, Killian, Rumple’s not going to be in fighting shape sporting a Calvin Klein suit. This...honestly weird ass outfit makes the most sense.

-”You don’t believe in your parents, you don’t believe in magic, or even yourself.” Talk about a kickass line of foreshadowing of all that she’s going to overcome by the end of this arc!

-”When have you ever taken a real leap of faith?” Give it about a half hour, Rumple!

-So I must say, it’s funny that a lack of evidence is brought up as such a big story element here, but once Tink enters the picture, it’s her need for evidence as to the safety of their voyage back that secures it. A bit of dissonance, but nothing too severe.

-I love how Rumple spins his cane as he disappears. Rumple is the most beautifully extra person across the realms.

-I probably should’ve discussed this last time, but I love the design for the Lost Boys. They give off this air of being lost souls and their numbers stand to make them very intimidating.

-So going off of Greg’s death as well as the events of “Awake,” I’m gonna say that a shadow rip doesn’t necessitate death unless the shadow ripper wants it to mean death.

-”No time for questions.” I like that subtle line that’s in tune with Greg and Tamara’s line of no asking questions, foreshadowing the revelation about him.

-Damn! JMO is strong!

-The dialogue in the scene with Neal, Mulan, Aurora, and Phillip flows so naturally!

-”How long was he with you?” ”Long enough for me to know that I miss him, too.” I normally don’t make timeline jokes, but...come onnnnn!

-”I will not be capsized by fish.” This may be my new favorite David line.

-Also, any pretense that murder leaves any long-lasting effects of Snow and David go the fuck away when David tries to kill mermaids.

-Why didn’t Regina get rid of them earlier?

-”If Pan wants you, he WILL get you.” This line is delivered so well. Pan is not only just barely holding out from outright bragging, but is trying to deteriorate Henry’s belief and seeing that it isn’t working, cementing his part to play in Pan’s ploy.

-”Lead the way.” Am I the only one humming “Follow the Leader?”

-I like how, until Rumple enchants her, Tamara physically can’t talk. Very realistic.

-You know, everyone talks about heart colors when it comes to Rumple, Regina, Snow, and Killian, but does anyone notice how Tamara’s heart was pretty freakin’ red when Gold crushed it?

-Did no one read “Lord of the Flies?” Get the conch shell away from your enemies!

-”Filet the bitch.” I’m starting to think that all of my favorite character lines in this show have to do with aquatic life.

-”We need to think this through.” Emma, that why they’re shouting at each other. They’re discussing the matter.

-Okay, so I’m not the biggest Robin Sr. fan (And I’m hoping that this rewatch changes that for the better), but this was a solid entrance. It feels iconic, plays to the character’s power and good nature, and the more neutral yet noble tone that the scene requires plays well to Sean’s strengths.

-”See these markings? He was keeping track of me growing.” Awwwww!!! Papafire moment! That was necessary and beautiful!

-I just realized, this is our intro to blood magic! Cool!

-”I ruined YOUR life?” Regina, please. I thought we were past that…

-”Don’t call my wife a slag!” Yeah, Killian. You deserved the fuck outta that punch.

-I love the music that plays during the flying sequence! It’s gorgeous, distinct, and whimsical!

-CAPTAIN CHARMING BROMANCE!!! We have taken off!

-So I’m guessing that Rumple has encountered Felix at least one or two times.

-”Each of us have been too busy being at each other’s throats to be believers.” Those things aren’t correlated.

-”We need to do this the right way.” “No, we don’t. We just need to succeed.” YESSSS! Emma! That is my girl! She gets her tactics from her mama!!

-”It’s easier to get people to hate something than to believe.” That’s...incredibly accurate.

Arcs - How Are These Storylines Progressing? Everyone Working Together AND The Mission to Save Henry- ”It’s time for all of us to believe, not in magic, but in each other.” Emma’s speech took a sentence to get going, but once it did, DAMN did it get good! Now, as one gleams from this episode, these two arcs are one and the same. The only way Henry is saved is by working together, and this episode completely captures why that’s so important.

Emma Accepting Her Parents - This second-part-of-an-arc got off to SUCH a weak start, and that’s frustrating because I KNOW it gets better from here. But what I said above does apply.

Greg and Tamara - “We don’t ask questions. We just believe in our cause.” Holy crap. Tamara and Greg went from being two pretty intelligent and well designed villains into being total morons. I will say, part of me is glad that they did because if not, their conflict would’ve been way too close to a science vs. religion debate for comfort. But they also die here. To be honest, if anyone but Rumple was to find one of them, I’d rather it have been Greg who got the additional moments of life to speak and allow for Henry to get away. His story, well, was actually a story, whereas Tamara’s connection to Neal is loose at best.

Killian’s Redemption - Killian’s redemption takes an honest-to-goodness step forward. He’s acting on his decision to care about someone other than himself (And that shows through the two people aboard the ship that can stand him), but still has quite a bit of his verbal firepower and contempt (Towards David and Rumple) that reminds us of his villainous past and that his redemption won’t be all sunshine and rainbows.

Rumple’s Redemption - Rumple takes what is a realistic step back, though I’m not even certain I should call it a step back. Despite being his Rumple-y self, the narrative makes it very clear that his decision to dessert the group and chastise them beforehand are made on behalf of the mission to save Henry. And as we see the personal trials he’s already taken on in this pursuit with the confrontation with Pan’s minion, there’s so much power that grows with these decisions.

Regina’s Redemption - Regina also takes a step back into some of her more vicious tendencies: hating on Snow, defaulting to magic and violence for all her solutions. I personally like this because while there’s an understanding that these people are family, the anger and resentment between Regina and them is still present and in the heat of the moment, Regina won’t forget it. I will say, the Regina Blames the World trope is back and it still annoys me, though slightly less so here because the framing wasn’t going for sympathy in that moment.

Favorite Dynamic Henry and Pan. Pan’s dynamic with Henry sets up perfectly the kind of monster he will be for the rest of the season. He’s an incredible manipulator and plans out everything he says in order to activate Henry’s belief just when he needs to. Look at the way he set up the pixie dust and how that moment pays off! It’s makes for a triumphant moment that becomes terrifying in hindsight. But what makes this dynamic work so well is how it is set up. In the few minutes we see before Pan’s disguised appearance, Neverland has shown itself to be a cruel place. The location itself is darkly lit and the two villains of the previous season are violently murdered. Because of that, we as an audience clutch to Pan just as Henry does and because of that, for the first time, our belief causes suffering as the deception is exposed.

Writer Adam and Eddy, as usual start up the season! And I honestly like it. A lot of it is good! I’d compare it to the Season 1 finale where it’s a good mix of story and character moments (And just like in the Season 1 finale, has a completely pointless and aggravating moment, but thankfully, this one doesn’t mean a lot)! I feel like the characters were put in a solid place where they have room to grow and are put somewhere that keeps them intimate and gives them opportunities for great dynamics!

Rating 9/10. This episode is a great way to start off the season! The settings and themes have been set up well, and the characters are in good form! It’s exciting and adventurous, but nerve racking all the same. It makes me super excited for what’s to come!

Flip My Ship - The Home of All Things “Shippy Goodness” Captain Swan - Look, season 2 was not Captain Swan’s golden time for shipping (For me, at least), but Season 3 is here and they are glorious! Killian is incredibly respectful of Emma, comforts her over her worries, addresses underlying grief she has for Baelfire, and supports her as she prepares for Neverland’s horrors. It’s honestly amazing! Also, Emma and Killian are sailing the Roger together during the storm!! They’re working together and it is the BEST!!! Ship of dreams...quite literally! Swanfire - And don’t think I forgot about Swanfire! Both Emma’s grief and Neal’s devotion to getting back to her is such a big presence in this episode. “Tell Emma I’m alive, and that I love her.” Letting Emma know that he’s both okay and loves her is Neal’s main priority and that’s just incredible! And I loved Neal’s scene with Mulan as he discusses his regrets leaving Emma. <3

-----

Woohoo! Season 3 is off to a solid start and I can’t wait to take the rest of Peter Pan’s Flight! Thank you for reading and to the fine folks at @watchingfairytales!

Next time...I don’t know. Reader, help me out, cause I’m lost...girl… ;)

See you guys then!

Season 3 Total (9/220)

Writer’s Scores: Adam and Eddy (9/60)

Operation Rewatch Archives

[yesterdanereviews]

King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)

Film review #338

SYNOPSIS: Pacific Pharmaceuticals are having trouble coming up with some successful advertising. Mr. Tako, the head of the company, is told about a monster that exists on a remote island, and sends Sakurai and Kinsaburo, two of his employees, to capture it so he can use it as the new mascot for the company. However, another monster appears: Godzilla is back and goes on the rampage, and a plan is devised to bring Godzilla and this new monster, King Kong, together in the hopes they destroy each other before they destroy everything else...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: King Kong vs Godzilla is a 1962 monster film and the third film in the Godzilla series. Given that King Kong is a Hollywood character, and Godzilla a product of Japanese cinema, this film is a true crossover of east vs west. The film starts off showing the failed marketing of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, and their boss Mr. Tako tearing his hair out trying to get attention for the company. A doctor tells Mr. Tako about a remote island in the South, where an indigenous tribe worships some kind of monster. Mr. Tako somehow concludes that getting this monster to advertise his products as a mascot would lead to the company dominating TV ratings, and so sends to marketers Sakurai and Kinsaburo to the island in order to capture the monster and bring it back to Japan. This monster turns out of course, to be King Kong, and the opening act of the film focuses on his origin story. It’s pretty similar to earlier incarnations in that King Kong is worshipped as a God by an indigenous tribe, who make various offerings to him. The film slowly builds up to his appearance then engages in a fight scene with a giant octopus (really just a regular-sized octopus on a model set), which establishes King Kong’s strength and showcases his power before the inevitable meeting with Godzilla. It doesn’t add much to the character of King Kong, but it doesn’t need to: some characters just don’t need to be more complex or have a motivation to smash stuff.

When King Kong is sedated and on the way back to Japan, Godzilla awakens from being trapped in ice, and heads off on the rampage. The Japanese Self Defense Force tries a number of operations to try and stop it, but all of them fail. The only option left to them is to get King Kong and Godzilla to meet and destroy each other. It should be noted that the whole tone of this film is a lot lighter than the previous two Godzilla films. The story being based around using these monsters in a war for TV ratings shifts the focus from the horrors of the destruction to more of a satirical look at human’s and corporation’s response to tragedy to use it to maximise attention and ratings. This ultimately makes the film a bit more goofy and silly than the original two films, which were very dark, and had powerful messages about Japan’s relationship to destruction and nuclear technology in the aftermath of the Hiroshima bomb. It’s not a bad move that the film takes, it’s just something different, and it is the direction the film series takes after this one to appeal more to younger viewers. Again, we get the basic plot points of King Kong condensed into this film, with him being captured, breaking loose, and going on a rampage in a city, while kidnapping a woman and climbing a tall building. The people that made this film clearly wanted to tell King Kong’s story in full, but also in their own way, making him feel almost at home in the setting of Japan, by which I mean trashing their cities...

When we eventually see King Kong and Godzila face off, Godzilla manages to overcome King Kong easily thanks to his atomic breath meaning King Kong cannot even get close. In their second meeting, King Kong fares better thanks to having absorbed electricity form power lines and an oncoming lightning storm: it is hinted that King Kong has the ability to summon storms and has an affinity with lightning, but it’s not explained very well. So while King Kong eventually emerges the winner in the end, Godzilla gets a victory as well, so it should satisfy both fans. Apparently King Kong was even more popular than Godzilla in Japan at the time, so having him win at the end obviously satisfies more people. The monsters are played as in previous Godzilla films by men in suits rampaging over model sets. The suits look decent, and the fighting is carefully choreographed, but does get a little silly at points, such as when they’re throwing rocks at each other. Some of the plans to deal with Godzilla are very cartoon-ish too, such as literally digging a pit and covering it up, so that Godzilla will fall down into it. Also airlifting King Kong by tying balloons to him looks pretty silly.

This is the first time we have seen Godzilla and King Kong in colour, since their previous films were in black and white, and the addition of colour definitely makes them look less threatening anyway. One thing that stands out is Godzilla’s big eyes that are almost cartoon-like, whereas King Kong looks extremely messy and primal, which sets up a good contrast between the two. The effects are pretty decent, but there’s not as much destruction as the previous films, probably because over half the film’s budget went to securing the rights to use King Kong in the film. Overall though, while it is a little different in tone to previous Godzilla films, it changes things enough to keep it fresh, and is structured well to tell the story of two monsters alongside giving ample screen-time to both. Some people may not like the goofy human stuff, but all in all it’s a decent offering.

[fullmetalirin]

Fullmetal Alchemist OG vs. Brotherhood: The Fifth Laboratory (OG 20-22, BH 08)

And now we enter the Fifth Laboratory. OG added a ton of content here, extending this into a full arc.

Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 20: "Soul of the Guardian"

The Elrics learn that the guards are souls bound to empty suits of armor. Ed struggles in his battle against Number 48, a serial killer known as Slicer, When his automail arm malfunctions, the result of Winry forgetting to add a small bolt. Ed is troubled to see that his opponent is a pair of brothers, where the younger one controls the body. Ed manages to defeat Slicer by use of Scar's destruction technique, yet he refuses to finish them off, due to seeing Al in the same manner. Al realizes that Number 66 is Barry the Chopper, who tries to suggest that Al never truly existed, saying he was a doll made for Ed. Contemplating on the possibility, Al recalls that Ed was afraid of telling him something.

We open by recapping the fight openers from the end of last episode. This really reeks of padding for time. It's reasonable to show the whole fight, but then why did they show a little bit of them last episode? BH had a much cleaner break.

Apparently the seals work by forming a connection between the iron in the blood and the metal in the armor.

There's a relatively comedic soundtrack during the battle. Why?

Ed leaps back to just barely dodge one of Slicer's attacks, but lands awkwardly and falls.

Ed seemed to get tired out awfully quick compared to the fights he's been in before.

Barry is portrayed as a comedic oaf in his battle, a far cry from the horror villain he was before. I much prefer the latter version. Having Barry show up earlier was a really cool idea, but they probably should have changed his personality here as well. (I also do wonder if it might have been stronger to make him go up against Ed instead, but Ed does need to form a connection with Slicer for what happens later to have the proper impact.)

Ross keeps her cool and takes charge when Armstrong intimidates them.

Ed really shouldn't be able to keep landing on his injured arm like that. I guess maybe the cut was light, but it's bleeding an awful lot.

Slicer cuts through Ed's created spear in a single attack, while the automail's still holding up.

Slicer is talking an awful lot. I guess if he's certain he'll win it's a bit reasonable, but if his entire strategy is tiring Ed out, he shouldn't be pausing to give him opportunities to rest.

Ed is in really bad shape after the second wound.

Slicer throws Ed's "all's fair in war" back at him when he complains about the two souls. LOL.

Slicer interrupts Ed before he can transmute. Good to see someone finally doing that.

Slicer tells Ed to kill them because they're not people. Obviously Ed does not agree with that.

I don't understand how Al can fall for the idea he's not real. They have photographs showing Al existed.

Slicer loses it at the discovery that it's only now that they've become soul-armor that they're treated as people.

"Do you have any proof you really existed???" PHOTOGRAPHS

Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 21: "The Red Glow"

Scar luckily arrives and helps a disadvantaged Al defeat Barry. This causes Barry to set off explosives, freeing an imprisoned Greed as well as others around him. The older Slicer agrees to take Ed to the interior of the laboratory, but the younger Slicer breaks his blood seal after Ed calls him human. Solf J. Kimblee, the "Crimson Alchemist", and several other prisoners are led by a fake Grand to be ingredients for the philosopher's stone. Ed and Slicer are attacked by mutant chimeras until they are called off by Tucker, who, after his death was fabricated, has become a chimera himself. As Al and Scar travel into the laboratory, Scar reminisces about his brother and Ishbal, but they are attacked by Lust and Gluttony, who Scar reveals to be homunculi. Tucker shows Ed around the laboratory, who realizes that he has been given the opportunity to create the philosopher's stone.

Barry continues to get played for comedy.

Barry recognizes Scar's arm but doesn't want to say anything about it.

Greed has been imprisoned for 130 years.

The younger Slicer insists there's no life for them so Ed should just kill him. Ed tries to argue by saying if he gets the Philosopher's Stone he'll restore them too, but they just say they'll be executed again, unless he wants to shelter serial killers.

Ed tries to stop him from killing himself, including leaping onto him and restraining his arm. I feel like he should be tearing his wounds open by doing that. Ed looks really horrified when he kills himself.

Ed agonizes over what he could have done. Slicer says there are many problems in the world with no answer.

Why is Envy disguising himself as Grand? They did say the laboratory was under his control, but has news of his death not reached Central?

They foreshadowed Tucker brilliantly, I must say. We were told his execution was rushed, Ed calls it a coverup, and then we learn supposedly executed prisoners were actually funneled into the laboratory. It makes perfect sense.

Tucker looks nicely creepy. His human body is grafted on upside-down. How are his glasses staying on, though?

Ed immediately confronts him over Nina. I am pleased that that is continuing to matter.

Al says he heard Ishbal was destroyed for coming too close to a Philosopher's Stone? When?

Scar flashback! We see his human transmutation attempt. It looks even worse than the Elrics'. But what did he lose in the attempt?

Okay, so apparently they were doing all this to "verify" Marcoh's notes were true? How exactly did they plan to do that? Kill a ton of people and see if anything happened?

Ed tries to ask who runs the place, but doesn't get an answer.

Tucker turned himself into a chimera trying to make a Nina chimera? How does that work? Possibly rebound, if he’s working with flawed Stones.

Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 22: "Created Human"

Hughes organizes an expedition to rescue the Elrics in the fifth laboratory. Envy, in the guise of Grand, gathers the human ingredients and forces Ed to attempt to transmute a philosopher's stone. Bradley joins the expedition and mobilizes the military in the rescue mission. Kimblee sets off an explosion, causing the prisoners to fall into the room below. Ed questions the prisoners for their reason being in the laboratory, though this results in a short fight against Envy before Lust intervenes. Lust takes Al hostage, giving Ed the ultimatum of transmuting the philosopher's stone or watching Al's blood seal be broken. Ed fails in his struggle to transmute the stone. Suddenly, Ed's body begins to react after being doused in the incomplete stone, destroying his surroundings. The homunculi escape as the military invades the base and Ross calms Ed down.

Mustang complains about his lack of screentime. Sorry, Mustang, this anime actually cares about its ostensible protagonists.

We cut to Scar fighting Gluttony. He is slammed through a wall and then falls two stories into Greed's prison. How is he surviving all this?

Al says the homunculi aren't people. Interesting, considering how much time we spent on that theme last episode.

Gluttony takes a bite out of Al.

Tucker says Marcoh left the Philosopher's Stones in this lab behind. That seems negligent when he said he was going to take the Stones in the flashback, but it does look like these ones would be harder to steal.

Tucker points out it's not like Ed can turn them back into people; flashback to Nina.

Slicer tries to sunk-cost fallacy it up, saying that the sacrifices' lives will have no meaning unless Ed completes the Stone.

Team Hughes runs into Bradley, who covers himself by saying by golly, he just didn't know what his direct subordinate was doing, and never bothered to ask! He somehow already knows Ed and Al are in there, and agrees to come with everyone for the rescue. The other soldiers are pleased, but Hughes looks suspicious.

Tucker seems to be tricking Ed into thinking he only needs to work on the liquid, and not that there will be additional deaths.

We get some nice science from Ed with him devising a strategy to refine the Stones.

Kimblee explains how he makes bombs: he transmutes the trace metals and organic compounds in the human body into explosives.

Ed doesn't joke when Envy calls him a pipsqueak. Thank you.

Ed tries to fight, but his automail arm goes limp. Envy beats him up.

Ooh, Envy suddenly gets angry at Ed for "carrying his blood". So we're foreshadowing that, too.

The homunculi promised Tucker they'd teach him how to bring Nina back to life.

Ed points out he won't have Nina's soul, but Tucker says he can place all his memories of her into the body and that will, in fact, be even better than the real thing. Cut to Al looking suspicious.

Lust says the homunculi can't use alchemy, which is why they need Ed. Why couldn't they just have Dante do it, though?

Ed pieces together that he's been dancing to their strings the whole time and has a breakdown. Apparently they taught Marcoh as well. What I want to know is why they wanted to destroy his research if they wanted someone to follow it? Were they worried that their prospective alchemist would have a crisis of conscience if they learned too much?

Lust invokes equivalent exchange: we give you the Stone, you use it to make us human.

Slicer moans in pain when Lust scrapes his seal. Ed looks horrified and screams at her to stop.

Al screams at Ed to stop, saying he doesn't want this if it's at the cost of human lives. Envy laughs and points out he knew that when he tried to transmute Trisha, but he did it anyway: only a human life can pay for a human life. Lust chimes in that they knew they were becoming dogs of the military, and they accepted it. They've always been willing to make sacrifices for this goal, so what's one more, really? Ed actually looks like he buys into it, saying if he gives up here they'll never get their bodies back.

But Ed can't bring himself to do it in the end.

ONLY NOW does Scar come to the rescue. Why was he waiting until the last second???

Bradley orders the rescue team to kill all non-civilians, makes a scary face. So I guess he's writing this off as a loss, perhaps planning to move everything to a new location later.

Ross hugs Ed and this somehow stops the runaway reaction. He passes out afterwards, so it could just be that that was going to happen anyway and they just needed to calm him down before he blew anything up.

Ed thinks Ross is his mom before he passes out, which is a little weird but hey, he's had a really bad day. And it’s another reminder on the child soldier thing.

Sloth tells the homunculi good job. Uh... why? They failed, and seem to have wrecked their supplies in the process. This seems like it should actually be a big setback.

We end with everyone clapping as Armstrong brings out the unconscious brothers. I found it a powerful visual: the brothers just went through Hell and barely made it out alive, and everyone’s just overjoyed the rescue was a success.

FMA Brotherhood Episode 8: "The Fifth Laboratory"

At the fifth laboratory, Alphonse fights Barry the Chopper outside, and Edward faces Slicer inside. It is revealed that both opponents are souls of murderers affixed to armor. Edward struggles in his battle when his automail arm malfunctions. Alphonse initially has the advantage in his fight, until Barry suggests that Alphonse never truly existed, claiming he was a doll made by Edward with false memories, causing Alphonse to contemplate the possibility. Edward is particularly troubled when his opponent turns out to be a pair of brothers, each controlling a different part of the armor. Edward manages to defeat Slicer by use of Scar's destruction technique, but before he can extract any information from the two brothers, they are killed by Lust and Envy. Edward demands to know who they are and tries to use alchemy, but his automail arm breaks and he is knocked out by Envy. Outside, Barry almost gains the upper hand over Alphonse, but Alphonse is saved by the arrival of Brosh and Ross. Lust and Envy destroy the lab to cover up the evidence of the philosopher's stone, but not before carrying Edward outside and handing him over to Brosh and Ross, commenting that he is a valuable resource.

Slicer's arena looks very different, much brighter with warmer colors. There's a Philosopher's Stone transmutation circle in it.

Slicer zooms forward and then pauses for like three seconds to give a one-liner. This is something that works in comics but not in animation. They're adapting the manga way too literally.

Ed doesn't need to see the bloodseal to figure out Slicer is animated armor. Slicer actually shows him his bloodseal once he figures it out and outright tells him he'll win if he destroys it. Ed lampshades how dumb this is, and Slicer says he "likes a little tension". I hate this trope. Let the heroes earn their victories, don't just give it to them, please.

Mustang still hasn't found Scar, and says he's believed to be dead.

Cut to Ross and Brosh finding the brothers escaped. Cartoon face.

They head to the 5th laboratory without consulting Hughes or any of that.

We still get the bit about Ed's shoulder being loose, but the only explanation is Winry saying it's lighter, not that she forgot a piece.

Ed still gets cut on the shoulder, but it's way less gruesome. It just looks like he's got a red tattoo under his jacket, it's not even bleeding.

But he does get blood on his head somehow? Brotherhood really likes doing that.

Cartoon face when Slicer calls Ed a monkey. I don't think it's appropriate, but I'll concede this one is more subjective.

Ed doesn't look nearly as exhausted. In OG he's covered in sweat by this point and visibly staggering with every move.

We get a flashback story about Barry since we don't know him in this continuity. There's just comedy as Al says he's never heard of him.

Same skit where Barry demands Al be freaked out about his body, only more cartoonish.

Al gets an anger mark placed… in midair…

Bit where Barry makes Al doubt his memories is pretty much the same. Once again, no one brings up photographs.

The guard from before tries to interrupt them and is killed by Barry. So… why couldn't Barry and Slicer just break out at any time? The only thing stupider than mad scientists creating an unstoppable supersoldier that will inevitably turn on them is it not turning on them for no given reason.

I hate the way the blood is drawn. It looks so fake. It's overdetailed, with clearly-defined outlines. It looks like it's just red goop.

Ed doesn't create a fake Al for his trick, which I think is more reasonable – the whole point was that Slicer wasn't giving him time to use alchemy in the OG fight. The fake Al was really only there as a fakeout of the audience.

We're speedrunning the fight. Ed gives his same line about blood loss making him woozy, but without POV cam to show it it's a lot less effective.

Cartoon face when younger Slicer starts flailing around.

Barry tells Al to break his bloodseal to find out if he's real; if he isn't, he should still be able to move. This is just getting more and more implausible. There'd be no need to add a useless bloodseal if Ed wasn't actually binding a soul.

Same bit where Slicer loses it at only now being called a person.

Slicer is about to tell Ed about the Philosopher's Stone and who ordered them to guard the place, but the homunculi show up and kill him, saying they can't let him tell Ed too much. So I guess the homunculi are also running the 5th laboratory in this continuity? So we still have the plot hole of them not trying very hard to keep Ed alive. Also not sure why they care so much about spilling the beans? Are they afraid knowledge of Philosopher's Stones can be used against them, since they're powered by them? Doesn't seem like they have any cause for that – you don't need to know anything about Philosopher's Stones to kill them, and fighting them is still a challenge.

Lust's fingernails bend.

Younger Slicer is upset when older Slicer dies.

Envy tortures younger Slicer to death by slowing cutting away at his bloodseal.

Envy admonishes Slicer for nearly killing one of their sacrifices. So… why didn't you… stop him earlier…?

Ed doesn't joke about Envy calling him pipsqueak. Congrats on restraining yourself for once, Brotherhood.

Aaand as soon as I say that, there's comedy when Ed's arm goes limp.

The homunculi say they're allowing Ed to live, but also that they can't have him sniffing around the laboratory again, so they're going to burn the place down. I still don't understand why they're trying so hard to keep this secret.

Ross and Brosh rescue Al from Barry. They're alone.

Envy just… delivers Ed and runs off.

We get a small scene with Kimblee, but he doesn't escape.

Ed doesn't see Envy transform, so he's not aware of that ability yet.

Conclusion

This is the first major divergence. OG has massively expanded the 5th laboratory plot into a full arc that establishes the villains' motivations, greatly furthers the hero's character development, and brings it all to an intense climax that engages with the driving question of the narrative. OG has finally committed to making its own plot, and the quality has skyrocketed as a result.

Almost everything I complained about in the OG episodes was there in the source as well. The Elrics having no clear reason to do any of this? In Brotherhood too. Lulzy serial killers? In Brotherhood too. Al forgetting photographs exist? In Brotherhood too. The villains supposedly needing Ed alive but not doing anything to keep him that way? In Brotherhood too.

Meanwhile, everything I liked about this arc was added by OG. Scar showing up? OG only. Tucker? OG only. Realistic fight choreography? OG only. Ed actually getting a chance to engage with the morality of affirming the humanity of murderers? OG only. Ed showing humanity and compassion for them? OG only. Awesome midpart cliffhanger? OG only. Interesting villain motivations? OG only. Actually menacing villains? OG only. Ross and Brosh actually acting like soldiers, and the military being functional? OG only. Something of narrative significance actually happening during this arc? OG only.

The good parts of the OG episodes are in spite of the source material, not thanks to them. The flaws were there because the writers weren't quite good enough to fix everything wrong with the disaster of a plot they were handed. And this is a disaster. No one's actions match their motivations. Ross and Brosh don't behave anything like actual soldiers. The heroes gain absolutely nothing of value. It is a complete waste of our time. The wheel-spinning that will characterize this entire series has already begun.

About the only substantive criticism I can give of the OG episodes is that the first half is a bit too slow even for me – but the Brotherhood episode is too fast, I'd say. It'd have been better for them to strike a middle ground, maybe spreading it into two episodes instead of three. 22 is pretty solid, but 20 and 21 could probably have been combined without losing much. But again, we just come back to the same point: OG would have been better if it had been even more irreverent to the source material and diverged even sooner.

On representation: Ross is once again the more important of the two by a mile. Brosh is barely a presence in OG. Her cooldown hug plays into some problematic feminine tropes, but the framing makes it clear that it was a truly brave act – even Armstrong hesitated to wade into Ed's storm. That alone makes Ross a truly strong female character in my book. Whether or not she can shoot stuff good isn't the only criteria that matters. Is she smart? Is she brave? Is she treated with dignity by the narrative? OG says yes to all three, unequivocally. Brotherhood says no to the former and latter, and a "yes, but not any moreso than her male comedy buddy" to the second.

[razieltwelve]

How did you come up with FR RWBY's power levels and abilities vs what we see in canon? Ruby seems much weaker in canon than in Final Rose, and canon writing hasn't done much to show her leadership abilities vs in FR where it's emphasized in a few snippets. Weiss on the other end of the spectrum has demonstrated a far greater range of abilities in canon but is usually depicted as fairly weak in FR.

They are basically projections and theory-crafting from seasons 1-3 of RWBY. I basically ignore everything canon-wise from Volumes 4 and 5 for RWBY because they are a mess that basically killed my desire to watch the show. You might even have noticed that the writing of Final Rose accelerated with seasons 4 and 5, partly due to my dissatisfaction with them.

One of my major issues is that the composition of the teams makes almost zero sense in RWBY. They just throw people together and hope it works. In Final Rose, the teams are designed to fulfil certain roles. Team LFSC is a sledgehammer. Team DAYR is infiltration/assassination/sabotage. Team RWBY is a balance team designed to be able to handle a diverse range of mission. They’re rarely the best but almost never the worst at anything they do.

More annoying to me was the lack of development or expansion on Semblances, Aura, and the mechanics they need to function. They’re just thrown out there. Heck, the fact that Ruby doesn’t know (and never seems to ask) about her silver eyes is just mind boggling. It is entirely possible that the writers don’t know how Ruby’s silver eyes are supposed to work, so they’re just putting it off. We might as well give her a Sharingan and call it day because at least then it would make sense (well, more sense since the Sharingan is also a disaster zone from a logical standpoint).

If I sound a little aggravated, it is because I am. Of course, I am not aggravated at you. You have asked a very good question, and it’s certainly one worth considering. I am, however aggravated at the RWBY show because so many of these issues come up and are never addressed or are just glossed over. It’s hard to comment on the internal logic of the powers in RWBY because there doesn’t seem to be any.

Honestly, the fact that Ruby appears to conserve momentum while using her Semblance in some shots but then never uses it to augment her attacks in other shots is bizarre. Likewise, the nonsensical and fluctuating threat level of the Grimm is beyond aggravating. They are supposed to be this big, existential threat, and nobody has anything remotely resembled a unified military response except Atlas? 

And don’t even get me started on the weird twists and turns going on in the backstory with regards to maidens, gods, and whatever else they come up with next. 

Personally, they could have kept it simple. Semblances are fuelled by Aura, and Aura stems from the soul. The Grimm could have just been the result of civilisation’s collective soul, a twisted amalgamation of all of civilisation’s negative emotions and darker tendencies that was animated through the power of Salem’s Semblance. Oh, did I say Salem had a Semblance? Why not. I’m just going to make stuff up here.

Salem wasn’t just a former huntress. She was the former huntress, the greatest ever. She is the original progenitor of the silver-eyed warriors from an era where there were no Grimm, merely humans and Faunus endlessly waging war on each other. She eventually grew sick of that idiocy and devised a way to end it, activating her Semblance that let her turn thought and emotion into tangible, real things. 

Thus the Grimm were born.

If civilisation couldn’t stop being stupid, she would teach them the folly of their actions herself. She created the Grimm to destroy the civilisation she viewed as corrupt and no longer worth fighting for. That is why she can control the Grimm. She created them. That is why the Grimm are drawn toward fear and negative emotions. They were born from them. And that is why Ruby’s silver eyes can stop them, she is a distant descendant of Salem’s, and those same eyes that created the Grimm can also stop them.

The reason Salem doesn’t have silver eyes anymore is because the effort of creating the Grimm permanently mangled her eyes, resulting in the eyes she has now.

Summer? She didn’t die on a mission. She went mad after realising the truth of the Grimm and her own relationship to Salem. Her death came after Salem approached her and revealed the truth. Driven mad with the realisation of the truth, Summer tried to kill Salem and failed. Salem, however, did not fail to kill her.

The maidens? Do we want to keep these? Sure. Why not?

Let’s tie them to the moon or something because, damn it, the moon being broken makes me curious. They were the original founders of the four kingdoms (there are always four kingdoms), and they themselves began the great conflicts that Salem was so resentful of. They only allied later when they realised what a big threat Salem and the Grimm were.

As for the moon, they were the ones who broke it. The reason not everybody has large amounts of Aura or Semblance is because not everyone has the same origins. Remnant’s moon was originally home to another civilisation that destroyed it in their internecine battles. The maidens and their followers were the last survivors of that civilisation, and they came to Remnant to continue the battle millennia before Salem was born. Salem, and others with powerful Auras and Semblances, are descendants of those people. 

That is why Salem hates them so much. They used their power only to continue the battles that destroyed the moon instead of bringing peace. It’s why she wants to steal their power and kill them all.

Now, Salem might have started with noble intentions, but dealing with this for centuries has basically driven her insane. She and Ozpin are connected because he is one of the only other people from Salem’s time who is still alive (due to his Semblance). He actually agreed with her on the creation of the Grimm but not what they would subsequently become. Beacon and the other schools are his attempts to create a new society free of the problems of the civilisation he and Salem destroyed but without the Grimm.

But, hey, I’m just some random koala mashing a keyboard. At some point, I’ll get over my aggravation long enough to watch more.

A few other points are worth expanding on. In Final Rose, Weiss occupies a somewhat different role. To put it into video game terms, Weiss is a glass cannon. In terms of single-target and area-of-effect DPS, Weiss tops her team. The reason she seems weak in Final Rose is because her Semblance is somewhat different.

In Final Rose, the Glyphs that the Schnees have access to are composed of ‘shards’. These shards are akin to a programming language with each Glyph comparable to a simple program executing a simple set of commands (e.g., reverse gravity, increase momentum, etc.). As shown in some of the snippets, Weiss eventually works this out, as well as how to restructure the shards to create entirely new and customisable Glyphs that can be combined with Dust too.

As a result, Weiss takes a much longer time to achieve proficiency in her Semblance than her teammates, but the end result is terrifying. Ever seen what happens when you combine earth Dust and fire Dust with Glyphs that regulate pressure and momentum? Imagine bolts of what are basically lava being fired at speeds comparable to a rail gun. That’s the kind of thing that Weiss will eventually be able to do, to say nothing of her AOE stuff.

I chose to take Weiss this route because I thought her Glyphs were badly unexplored in canon, and I thought it would be a fun direction to go in.

[negotiatedbriefbmcnair]

Focus Group

As I am now back at my University house I took the opportunity to host a focus group with my housemates as they have not seen the development of this project. Two of them have been Vegetarian for some time now as they are eco-conscious so between them and my other housemate they do bring a good balance to the sample. Ideally I would have liked to include more people in this focus group but of course due to Coronavirus social distancing laws this isn't possible currently. I thought about hosting a focus group on zoom but it was hard to get and orchestrate enough people and find a time that worked for everyone, so I will use my questionnaire to continue collating data from the people I couldn't include in this. But I did get some really useful feedback from this focus group. Before the focus group I devised some questions I wanted to ask so that I could lead the discussion where necessary and to make sure I got everything I needed out of the session. 

As I mentioned one thing I really wanted to get out of this focus group was insight into the emotional impact of the video, I wanted to know if people felt inspired by the video or if any or multiple factors clouded or watered down the message in any way. As well as this I asked some obvious questions like were there any problems either visually or in terms of content, would they have liked any areas to be looked at in more detail or any areas that may have had too much screen time. I really like the focus group method as it allows space for the development of answers through conversation which you don’t get from data based research methods. I made notes during the focus group as even though I could easily have done this whilst reviewing the footage post session, I wanted the participants to feel that their points were valued and that I was interested in the things they had to say. Thankfully this was also a lot more efficient than reviewing and making notes later as I could make a note of anything that was interesting there and then. With regards to the data I collected I was really happy with the comments of the participants as they praised and and criticised all of the areas I expected them to. 

The main criticism which I expected to hear from at least some people was that the speed at which the text goes by is slightly too fast. I expected this might be a problem so I made sure to leave space at the end of the soundtrack incase I needed to extend the video at all. The participants did also communicate that they really like the alignment of some parts of the video and they didn't want extending it to take away from those parts which I totally agree with, I think the alignment of some parts with the soundtrack is what makes it inspiring at points. I could fix this by going into the composition and editing sections part by part, but as I am not working with any camera based footage I think I may just be able to pre-compose my entire composition and time remap it from there, stretching and squeezing some parts. This would allow me to keyframe the points I do not want to change, and blend the rest in accordance with that. This was the only real direct criticism that was communicated through the focus group although there were some parts where reading between the lines a little I think I can make some amendments. I was expecting there to be a possibility of illegibility but I showed them this demo on a television and myself noticed the drop shadow being a lot more effective than it had been on Mac screens making the font a lot more readable. I think that although it wasn’t mentioned in this focus group this is something that will be mentioned in my questionnaire as people view it on more devices.  Some points they made that I was really happy to hear included praise of the tone. More specifically they liked that it was communicating climate crisis problems in a way that ‘wasn’t too in your face or depressing’ and instead tried to be ‘encouraging’. I was so happy to hear this as this is exactly what I have been trying to execute, the participants themselves agreed that climate based projects that are too doom and gloom often lose the interest of the average viewer, someone who isn't very eco-conscious; and this is who these videos should really try to be targeting, the people who are on the fence or unaware of how small things can make a big difference. The participants also all directed praise towards the section looking at emissions as a result of home appliances, more specifically the consumption of laptops vs desktops and also the emissions as a result of emails. They really liked the comparisons between data and scenario, for example the Eiffel Tower, as this helped to bring the scale of it into perspective more. There is a lot I took from this focus group that I won't detail in this blog but these are just some of the many things I have learned. This was definitely a useful exercise for me as it is always beneficial to hear what other people think and with my findings I can now go and make some changes to my project. In the future when I am working in focus groups again I would definitely like to increase my sample size and variety but of course this wasnt possible in this case. Also although I had prepared questions prior I wish I had taken control of the discussion more and made sure there was more equal inclusion, which would be especially important with an increased number of participants. All in all though I am really glad I got to hear the feedback from this group.

[trentteti]

Marshall, the film: Our Review

Thurgood Marshall: Second-ever Special Counsel to the NAACP. All-time record holder for most civil rights cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, where he boasted an impressive record of 29-3. The guy who successfully extended voting rights, ended racially restrictive housing covenants, desegregated law schools and grad schools. Oh, and later public schools in general in a little case called Brown v. Board of Education. A titanic figure in public interest law and impact litigation. The first African-American Supreme Court Justice, a position he used to tirelessly defend individual’s constitutional rights from the bench.

In other words, it’s crazy difficult to pick which of the many accomplishments in his long and storied legal career is his most significant. But it’s easy to pick one that probably isn’t his most significant: Thurgood Marshall has been mentioned by name on the LSAT more than any other historical figure. And really, that means there have just been a couple Reading Comprehension passages about him and a few Logical Reasoning questions that mentioned him.

Nonetheless, we at Blueprint have developed a semi-healthy obsession with him based on his semi-ubiquity on the LSAT. We use Thurgood as an example several times throughout our classroom curriculum. Our instructors sing his hosannas while we teach Reading Comprehension passages about him. We used to proudly feature a Thurgood Marshall action figure on the cover of one of our coursebooks.

So when Marshall — the new film about a case a young Thurgood tried as an attorney for the NAACP — came out, we were first in line to see it. OK, we were not actually first in line. Chance the Rapper — who bought all of the tickets to the film at a few Chicago theaters and invited fans to see it for free — was first in line. He was even more stoked than we were about the film, but that dude is positively gleeful.

Anyway, we were still very excited to get a hit of uncut Thurgood Marshall on celluloid this weekend. And I am eager to share my review: It’s a well-acted and briskly-paced courtroom drama with far too little Thurgood Marshall in it.

From the very first scene, in which Thurgood dons a freshly ironed white button-up shirt like a cape, Thurgood is a dude you want to spend time with. Throughout the film, he’s more or less presented like a legal super hero. Charismatically played by Chadwick Boseman (the guy you call when your film is about an important 20th-century African-American figure, even when the historical figure in question looks nothing like Chadwick Boseman), his young Thurgood is dapper, supremely confident, and sardonic, but with a pithy one-liner for every legal query that comes his way. Basically Tony Stark, Esq. There’s even a running joke involving Walter White, head of the NAACP, firing up the equivalent of a bat signal whenever a new case requires Thurgood.

So Chadwick is a lot of a fun getting some pre-Black Panther reps in as Thurgood the Legal Eagle. And some of the best scenes — whether it’s him at jazz club teasing quasi-rivals Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston (both of whom are also subjects of Reading Comprehension passages) or joking about the apparently-true story about the time he lost one of his, uh, Thurgoods — just involve him holding court, being funny and open and engaging. Or the little comic grace notes that find Thurgood blithely ignoring racially instilled expectations of him, whether it’s directing a white attorney to carry his bags (full of his traveling legal library) or blithely walking into the dining room of a members-only club.

But those scenes are less plentiful than they should be for a movie bearing Thurgood’s surname. Which, by the way, Marshall? Terrible title. I get that going with the much more awesome sounding Thurgood would risk confusion with the 2011 HBO film of the same name, in which Morpheus played the eponymous judge. But Marshall risks confusion with We Are Marshall, U.S. Marshals, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Marshal Law. They may as well gone with Thurgod or ThurGREAT or That’s Some Thurgood Lawyering.

Anyway, the plot: It’s 1941 and Thurgood is the only attorney at the NAACP, which has the legal mission to represent those falsely accused of crimes because of their race. Which brings Thurgood to the case of Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown of This Is Us and The People vs. OJ Simpson, and the most compelling screen presence here), a black man with a checkered past who has been accused of the rape and attempted murder of Greenwich, Connecticut socialite Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson). You’re expecting that we’re going to get to see Thurgood dunk on some racists in the courtroom and exculpate an innocent man and, if you hold the real-life Thurgood in as high esteem as we do, you’re hyped.

Except, as a result of the wonders of state bars, Thurgood has to team up with a nebbish local attorney named Sam Friedman (Josh Gad) to represent Spell. And due to deeply ingrained institutional racism, here represented by the judge (James Cromwell, channeling the appearance and demeanor of Gregg Popovich at his grumpiest), Thurgood isn’t permitted to make arguments in the case — only offer advice and support to the decidedly less charismatic Friedman, an insurance attorney who has never tried a criminal case before.

Yes, you read that correctly. In the major motion picture about one of the greatest litigators of all time, we don’t get to see our titular protagonist litigate, really at all. Seems like an unforced error. In fact, Thurgood disappears from the movie for large stretches of run-time. Director Reginald Hudlin and screenwriters Michael and Jacob Koskoff devise a few clever work-arounds to show us how effective Thurgood was in the courtroom, but nearly the entire legal showdown in Marshall pits Friedman against the smarmy blue-blood prosecutor Lorin Willis (Dan Stevens). And the big Oscar bait-y climactic speech of the film goes to Sterling K. Brown, not Boseman.

So the movie’s biggest blunder seems to be the case it chose to serve as its subject matter. At the NAACP, Thurgood argued hundreds of cases on a near-constant basis, as this movie makes clear. The one they chose has Thurgood sitting on the sidelines. The movie could uncharitably be interpreted as not a snapshot of one of the great legal minds of our time, but as a story about a white attorney who learns to be brave and stand up for civil rights. And, while this is obviously not the filmmakers’ fault, now is maybe not the moment when Hollywood should put out a movie in which the plot turns on whether a woman accusing a man of sexual assault is lying. So there’s that, too.

But overall, the movie is an enjoyable legal drama about an early case for two legal figures, Marshall and Friedman, at various stages in their developments as civil rights attorneys. And the movie’s most interesting ideas also stem from the film’s choice of case, such as showing how the bigotry of this era was not limited to the Jim Crow South, whether its the institutional racism confronting Thurgood and Spell or the anti-Semitism facing Friedman. We could have used some more Thurgood in our Marshall, but pretty much every movie gets an expanded universe at this point, so perhaps we’ll get that in Marshall II.

159/180.

Marshall, the film: Our Review was originally published on LSAT Blog

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 5: Cooler’s Revenge

Movie time again.   This time it’s Cooler’s Revenge, which premiered on July 20, 1991, between the airdates of Episodes 99 and 100.    The original title was “Dragon Ball Z: The Incredible Mightiest vs. Mightiest“

I found the timing of this movie very strange, because the whole plot is direct sequel to the events of the Frieza Saga, which didn’t end until Episode 107.   In Episode 99, Frieza is still fighting Goku on Namek, and he feels pretty confident about his chances.    A few days after that episode airs, you go to the theater and see this movie, where Frieza’s already dead and his brother goes after Goku to take revenge.  

On the other hand, the manga had already moved on to the next arc by this time.   Chapter 333 was published on July 16, 1991, and it features Goku meeting Future Trunks, right after he finished killing Mecha-Frieza.    So this movie apparently presumes you read the comics.    Or, if you’re anime-only, maybe it assumes you kind of know which way this Frieza thing is going to turn out. 

The movie opens with the destruction of Planet Vegeta.    You know, they really got their money’s worth out of that Bardock TV Special, didn’t they.    I think this is the fourth of fifth time they used this footage for flashbacks, and it was less than a year old at this point.  

From a distance, a second spaceship observes Frieza destroying the planet.   They apparently have really great cameras if they could get such a good close up of Frieza’s face.

The crew also notices a single spacecraft escaping the planet’s destruction.    I guess they patched into some camera inside the ship?   Their leader orders them to destroy it, but then their boss belays that order.    He sees this Saiyan baby as an oversight on Frieza’s part, and he refuses to clean up Frieza’s mess for him.    As Cooler puts it, Frieza planted this seed, so he can reap the harvest, whatever that might be.   

And there’s the title card.    We’re underway.

On Earth, Goku’s parting the ocean outside Roshi’s house, and Roshi thinks about how much stronger Goku is since he returned from Namek.   

Back at Goku’s house, Chi-Chi brings Gohan some Tang and tries to chase Icarus away, but then Goku does that last one for her.    He’s all “Hey, don’t bother Gohan, Icarus.   He’s gotta do his homework!”  Chi-Chi assumes this means Goku has a fever.   

She’s so worried about this that she drinks Gohan’s Tang.    Rude.

Turns out Goku does have a fever, and the only prescription for that fever is camping.    He want Gohan to hurry up and do his homework so they can goof off in the woods somewhere.    I guess the TWO camping trips from Movie 3 didn’t scratch that itch.  

Meanwhile, on some other planet, Cooler’s men report that Frieza was killed by a Saiyan named Son Goku.   Cooler is astonished and outraged, and he resolves to go to Earth and kill Goku as soon as possible.    Not because he cares about Frieza, but because he insists on restoring his family’s honor. 

Flash ahead to the camping trip, where Krillin is making curry over a campfire.    He sends Gohan to get some more firewood and.... does Gohan have his tail?    Huh.

Elsewhere, Goku catches a big-ass fish that Krillin’s gonna fry up to go with the curry.    This does sound like a fun time, actually.  

But then the bad guys show up.   The big green one, Dore, grabs him by the tail, and questions how this kid could have killed Frieza, since his power level is 50.   Salza, the blue one, notes that his reading it probably low because of his tail being grabbed, but that’s still pretty weak.  

Then Goku shows up, and they introduce themselves as Cooler’s Armored Squad.   The brown one is named Neiz, by the way.   

Goku fights all three of them at once, and does pretty well, but then their boss shows up and he mistakes him for Frieza.   

Then Cooler tries to shoot down Gohan, who’s flying nearby, so Goku has to go save him...

... only to take a ki blast to his back.  

Despite this, he manages to fire back at Cooler, who deflects it.     Then Goku nd Gohan fall in the river and get lost in the water.    Cooler’s men are satisfied that they must be dead, but Cooler isn’t convinced.    Goku survived his attack, and had enough power to strike back, which means he’s tougher than most Saiyans.   He orders his men to find Goku no matter what.

Gohan manages to get Goku into a cave, but he’s still in rough shape.

Making matters worse, Cooler’s men decide to carpet bomb the whole forest to flush Goku out.   All the end up doing is sealing off the cave Goku’s hiding in.

Later, Cooler’s goons report that they must have vaporized Goku by now, but Cooler won’t be satisfied until they bring him a body.   He notes that he could have just blown up the whole Earth and killed Goku that way, but he wants to kill Goku in person, as he feels this would be the only way to satisfy his family’s honor.  

That night, Krillin, Oolong and Icarus search for Goku, and Icarus manages to sniff out Gohan’s hiding place.    Krillin digs them out, being careful to suppress his ki so the bad guys’ scouters won’t pic them up.    Goku insists that he should take care of the animals first.

But Krillin has already delegated that task to Oolong and Icarus.   Only trouble is that Oolong starts a rockslide while he’s freeng that bunny rabbit, so Krillin has to use a ki blast to save him.

Fortunately, Neiz nearly collides with a pterodactyl as he chases down the scouter blip, and he decides the pterodactly must have been the source of the disturbance.   

So Krillin sends Gohan and Icarus to Korin’s Tower to get some senzu beans.   Meanwhile, Goku sleeps on a deer while a bunch of otehr animals gather ‘round him to make him look cuter, I guess.

Gohan makes the trip via Icarus, because if he flew on his own power it would tip off Cooler’s guys.   But when he makes it to Korin, Korin chews him out for not climbing the tower like everyone else i supposed to do.   Gohan started about halfway, because he was riding Icarus.   This scene is kind of weird, because Gohan’s never even been here before, and Korin seems pretty content to mess around while Goku’s life is at stake.    Does he not sense Cooler’s presence on the planet?    This is an emergency.

So Gohan agrees to go back down and climb the tower from the ground, but then Yajirobe tosses him a whole bag of senzu beans.   He and Korin argue about it, and eventually Korin admits that he was just going to give Gohan the beans for being honest, so Yajirobe just stole his thunder.

On the way back, Icarus is pretty worn out, so Gohan gives him a senzu bean to rejuvenate him.   But it works a little too well, because Icarus ends up flying so fast that he creates a signal on the bad guys’ scouters.

Gohan tries to fight the Armored Squad by himself, and he doesn’t too badly, but there’s three of them and one of him, and soon the numbers game catches up with him.    It’s a really well-animated scene, though.   

Then Piccolo shows up to help, because by now it’s become a DBZ Movie tradition.

Piccolo sends Gohan on ahead, but the squad sends Dore after him, so Piccolo shoots a ki blast at Neiz.   Neiz can suck his entire head into his chest, though, so the blast misses him...

Only Piccolo wasn’t aiming at him in the first place.    The blast locked onto Dore and followed him until it killed him.    Piccolo, you magnificent bastard.

Neiz manages to catch Piccolo in some sort of paralysis field, so Salza heads after Gohan, leavng Neiz to finish Piccolo off.

That turns out to be a huge mistake, because Piccolo somehow manages to turn the attack back on Neiz, killing him instantly.  

Then Piccolo chases after Salza in the forest.    You know, this movie’s really good.   Even this middle part has plenty of cool visuals and action sequences.

Piccolo does some stretchy arm stuff, and Salza makes a ki blade on his arm that can cut through trees, but ultimately Salza only survives thanks to a timely assist from Cooler, who zaps Piccolo with ki beam.

Later, Gohan returns to his dad with the senzu beans... but then Salza shows up and zaps them into ash before they can use them.    Whoops.

While Krillin fights Salza, Gohan remembers that he still had one more bean in his belt, so he digs it out and feeds it to Goku.   

Salza makes short work of Krillin and Gohan, and then he checks for Goku... when his scouter explodes.

Goku’s back and he’s pissed.   

Then Cooler shows up and sets off an explosion under Piccolo.   What a jerk.

Salza tries to punch Goku while he’s distracted, but it does absolutely nothing.   Welcome to Goku Town, jackass.

Salza gets knocked into some rocks when Goku powers up, and then Goku and Cooler fight.    It’s mostly even, though it looks like Cooler is holding back somewhat.   Once he’s satisfied that Goku really is strong enough to have beaten Frieza, he decides to step things up a bit.   

He reveals that while Frieza had four forms, Cooler has a fifth, which means he can become even stronger. 

I mean, I get the idea of having your new villain one-up the last villain, but this sort of goes against the notion of Frieza’s transformations.    The “final form” he used was his natural state, and the weaker forms were ones he devised to help suppress the bulk of his immense power.    Cooler is starting out in his “final form”, and he claims to have a transform that will make him stronger instead of weaker.   I think Toei might have gotten it backwards.

Still, the fifth form looks pretty cool.  

Cooler just beats the shit out of Goku at this point.    Goku can barely do anything against the guy.   At one point he tries the 20x Kaio-ken Kamehameha he used against Frieza, but Cooler just leaps into the blast, swims through it, and comes out the other side to punch Goku in the face.    Wicked.

Satisfied that he’s beaten Goku, Cooler decides to go ahead and blow up the planet.   

Goku collapses onto the ground, and then he spots a bird that must have been hurt during Cooler’s invasion.   

Then Goku gets up and heals the bird.   How the hell did Goku do that, you may ask.  

Because he’s the Legendary Super Saiyan, that’s how.

Cooler tries to fire a blast down at him, but before he can even bring down his arm, Goku’s already floating next to him and grabs him by the wrist.  “Bitch, you thought--?”

Then he tries to punch Goku, and that does absolutely nothing.    Welcome to Super Goku Town, you grape-flavored dumbass.

Goku only hits Cooler a few times before he gets the picture.    This was the power Goku used to defeat Frieza, and Goku is about to use it on him.

So Cooler fires a huge blast at Goku.    It doesn’t hurt him at all, but that wasn’t the point.   The point was to use it as a diversion...

... so Cooler could make a big energy ball to destroy the whole planet.   Baically, Cooler is a lot like Frieza, only he’s much more direct.   He doesn’t waste nearly as much time on this stuff, although he could have done this half an hour ago and saved himself some trouble.

Instead, Goku stops the attack before it hits the ground, and then he mucles it up and launches it back on Cooler with a Kamehameha.   If you’re watching the dub version, “Revelation” by American Pearl plays over this, and it’s petty awesome.

Cooler ends up getting launched into space, and eventually he realizes he’s headed for the Sun.  That’s what you get for hurting innocent birds in Super Goku Town, you lowlife.  Also, Piccolo and so forth.  Mostly birds.

As Cooler dies in just about the most awesomest way possible, he realizes that he made the same mistake Frieza did.    Frieza failed to intercept Goku’s spaceship when he was a baby, but Cooler let it go too.   And now Goku’s defeated them both.    So their whole family  is a bunch of losers.  

I really dig this.   It’d be good enough to see the bad guy blasted into the sun like this, but on top of that, we see him realize the extent of his folly.   Cooler believed he was even more cruel and ruthless than Frieza, but in the end he was brought down by he same sloppiness that plagued Frieza.    He insisted on searching for Goku and giving him a chance to recover when he could have just blown up the planet from the start.    And look where it got him.  

Somehow, the explosion causes the whole sky to light up and then go dark before everything goes back to normal.  

Everyone congratulates Goku on his victory, but they wonder what happened to Piccolo.    Then they hear someone digging out of the rubble...

But it’s Salza.     He’s like “I lived, bitch.”   Then a Special Beam Cannon comes out of nowhere and kills him.

Elsewhere, Piccolo takes a drink of water and goes “No you didn’t.” 

How did Piccolo recover from his injuries?   He didn’t get a senzu bean, and Cooler worked him over pretty badly.   Oh well.

And that’s the end.   

Just to touch on continuity a bit, this one almost fits into the canon, because you could set it right after Future Trunks warns Goku about the Androids. It doesn’t seem too unlikely that Goku would take a camping trip as a break from training for the Android menace.  

The only real continuity problems that arise are things like Gohan still having his Namek-era bowl cut, and growing his tail back.   It’s not impossible, but it seems rather unlikely.   

More importantly, it doesn’t add up that Goku seemed to wait until the very end of the movie to turn into a Super Saiyan.    In the Future Trunks episodes, he revealed that he could transform at will.  In this movie, it feels like he couldn’t transform until the situation became desperate enough.    Also, it seems odd that Frieza’s brother invaded Earth and Tien, Yamcha, and Vegeta didn’t get involved at all.    When Mecha-Frieza came to Earth, everyone sensed it immediately.

Nevertheless, this is one of the better entries in the movie series.   The animation is really excellent, the visuals are pleasing and colorful, and the plot is satisfying enough to compensate for the somewhat unoriginal villain.   Frieza has an older brother who’s stronger than he is?    And where was he until this movie happened?    Why doesn’t he rule the universe instead of Frieza?  It’s the sort of thing a fan would make up as a gag, like El Hermano, Jiren’s evil brother from the Latin American DBZ fanbase.   Only Cooler really hapened, and he got to be in a movie.  Two movies.  

Still, Cooler does have a certain charm to him as a guy who wants to be a better version of Frieza.    My only complaint about him is that he’s voiced by Ryusei Nakao, the same voice actor who played Freza.    That makes sense, sure, but it’s also pretty dumb, becaue the character was already a Frieza clone to start with.    Giving him the same voice just makes things worse.   Funimation got it right by casting a completely different person to play the part, and punching up Cooler’s self-esteem issues.   Also, the dub had the cool soundtrack.    If you want my advice, watch the dub version, but the original Japanese is still a good experience.

[spn-and-daddy-issues]

Real vs. Not Real

A/N - Some language and mentions of torture in here, be aware. Not entirely sure where this came from, but I ran with it when it popped into my head. 

“Better start talking, sweetheart.” The menacing voice brushed your ear.

A shiver of anticipation went up your spine, causing your wrists to chafe uncomfortably against the rough rope that bound them behind your back.

“Fuck off, Winchester.”

The man circled back in front of you, his eyes filling with black at your words. “Want to try that again?” He pressed a knife up to your throat.

“I. Said. Fuck. Off.” You spat each word as if it were poison, the anger running through your veins thick enough to outweigh the fear that logically should have taken over long before.

He lowered the knife, an even more wicked grin filling his face. “So you want to have some fun then, do you Y/N?” He leaned in so close you could feel the whisper of his breath on your face, “Let’s play.”

The ropes binding your wrists were cut free from the thick pipe you had been tied to, but they were gripped tightly in one of Dean’s large hands, still keeping you very much restrained. He shoved you over to a pair of shackles on the wall and before you could even try to maneuver your way out, had you fastened into them, arms dangling above your head.

“Last chance, where is my dear old brother hiding out?”

Figuring it was the best way to show defiance, you didn’t even respond. You tried to keep a neutral look on your face and simply look bored. Maybe pissing off the demon who was rearing to torture you wasn’t the best choice to make, but you surely weren’t going to give him any information either.

“Wrong answer.”

Using one hand Dean turned you so you were flush up against the wall, and with the other he dragged the knife across your back, down from shoulder to hip. It was deep enough to elicit a muffled scream from you, but you unsuccessfully tried to bury your mouth into the meat of your arm to hide it.

“Having so much salt and water, even if of the holy variety, comes in handy too. I just have to make sure I don’t actually touch the stuff, and presto. Another option for our fun little bit here.”

Before you could comprehend his words, there was a splash across your back and the wound he had left felt like it had been lit on fire. Of course, trained by Alistair, Dean wouldn’t just inflict the damage, he’d find every way to make it more painful. Even with something as simple as salt water tossed on top.

You grit your teeth against the pain, knowing full well that it was nowhere near over, but also knowing full well that Sam was either going to rescue you and cure Dean, or Dean would end up killing you to try to get info on his brother. Either way, you had a long way to go.

“You see, I know my baby brother is looking for me, but it would be loads more fun if I could just catch up with him first. Rid him of any of his romantic notions that I can be changed back into a lousy human. Teach him a thing or two about this new and improved me, and how I’m never going back. I just want to let him know that, Y/N, isn’t that fair?”

Deciding to go with stoicism again, you remained silent, still pressing your face into your bicep to try to hide the pain that you were in.

“Come on sweetheart, I don’t like being ignored.” Dean yanked your hair backwards harshly, a small cry escaping your lips. “Where is Sam?”

The cycle went on, Dean switching between a few of his favorite blades, even bringing the First Blade out to make its marks on your skin a few times. He knew just how much blood he could draw before you’d get light headed, how to make the smallest incisions the most painful, where to strike with a palm or fist to reopen old wounds as if they were fresh once more. You lost track of time, only realizing that the more torture that went by the less the chance you’d be rescued, but the longer Sam had to run and hide from Dean. That the busier Dean was with you, the less attention he was giving to spreading harm elsewhere. It wasn’t a bad way for a hunter to go out.

“Fine, let’s see what we can do to that pretty little mind of yours, body’s too far gone to do much else to right now anyway.” Dean’s eyes were black as he growled at you and shoved a large syringe into your neck, pumping its contents directly into your blood stream.

“Hey, hey. Come back to me, Y/N.” Sam was bending down to be at eye level with you, concern masking his expression.

“Sam?” Your voice cracked and sounded even more ragged than you expected it to.

“I’m gonna get you out of here, Y/N. Just hold still for me, okay?” Sam’s large hands went to work with the cuffs that you had hung from since your first day here.

“Sam, where’s Dean? You’ve gotta get out of here, it’s you he wants.” You squeak out, determined to protect Sam.

“He’s fine, Y/N. We’ll take care of it, I just need to get you out of here.”

“No, Sam, it’s a trap, he wants you!”

Dean chucked from where he stood against the opposite wall, watching you cry and scream out into thin air. It had taken quite a bit of testing, but his newest concoction made the hallucinations strong and hit right at the core of the one experiencing them. He’d broken your body but it hadn’t done the trick, the mind could be far more fragile.

“See, he came to got you, I found him, and I didn’t even hurt him. Come on, where would he go next?” Dean was practically purring next to your ear as you faced the wall once again. He had taken to starting you in this position to dress some of your deeper wounds, telling you he wanted them to heal so he could have his beautiful canvas back to make his artwork on. He’d then turn you around so you were facing forward before jabbing another syringe into your neck, bringing a new round of hallucinations.

He'd cycled through trying to get your mind to believe Dean would be perfectly nice to Sam when he found him, that somehow you guys would get away, and a million other situations that Dean hoped would crack you. None had worked, but this one, this one was special. There was a pride he took in doing quality work, and this was a fine example of it.

“Lights, camera, action.” Dean smirked from where he leaned against the wall as always to watch your reactions to the images your mind was projecting just for you.

“Sam! Sam!” your voice was strong, but tears streamed down your face.

“Y/N?” Instead of rushing over to comfort you, check your wounds, undue your bindings, Sam simply stood away with a confused look on his face.

“Sammy, hurry and help me, Dean will be back any second.”

The confusion turned to disgust, “You think I’m here to help you? Why would I be here to help you? I’ve been with Dean this whole time, Y/N. Listening to your pretty little screams, watching you fight your inner demons and lose over and over again. And you think I’m here to, what, break you out?” Sam’s classic chuckle as he shook his head and looked down away from you was what sold it. “I’m just here to join in the fun in a more direct way.”

Your legs gave out from under you and your entire weight was being supported by your wrists in the cuffs above you. “What?” you whispered. Your anchor for every second you’d been here was that you were protecting Sam, that you were keeping Sam away to keep him safe. That Sam loved you, and you loved him back, which was why Sam had to stay as far from Dean as possible right now.

“You heard me,” Sam sneered, “I’ve just been dealing with the behind the scenes parts, now I’m here to jump in on the real action and have some fun!”

Your heart rate slowed at his words, dread rather than fear consuming you. If Sam really was working with Dean than the only reason you were here was to torture for the sake of torture. There wasn’t any info for you to give, anyone or anything for you to protect. “Sam?” it was a barely audibly whisper that slipped past your lips.

Dean grinned from his spot for the show. Based on your reactions and what he had devised the spell to do he could clearly deduce what was happening. Next up was for imaginary Sam to carve into Y/N. It would’ve leave actual marks so Dean could still have his fresh canvas tomorrow, but Y/N would have that ingrained fear of Sammy and with that extra doubt it might be enough for her to spill the beans.

“Enough, Dean.” suddenly the real Sam was in the room, demon blade and holy water at the ready. “Let her go.”

“Hahaha! Sammy! Finally showed up!”

“You wanted me, here I am. Let her go.”

“But Sam, where’s the fun in that?”

You picked your head up and heard the exchange, but it was illogical. Sam was standing in front of you grinning at a knife, Sam was with Dean the whole time, he had been here. Why was there a second Sam over there? What were they talking about now?

You listened to some more taunting back and forth, then registered the fury that was growing with intensity on Dean’s face. You had experienced that look and the black eyes plenty of times, you weren’t looking forward to witnessing it escalating further, especially when you were still very much restrained.

“Enough.” Suddenly Cas’s gruff voice echoed through the room and he grabbed Dean tightly from behind, also banishing the second Sam that was still standing in front of you. His angel strength was enough to contain Dean and get him back to the bunker safely.

Sam turned to you and instantly reached to unlock the cuffs, but you flinched away from him.

“Hey, Y/N?” he asked quietly, trying to meet your eyes. “We got Dean, Cas has him back in the bunker ready to begin the cure. We got him. And I’m going to get you down now, check what needs to be stitched and cleaned up.”

You refused to meet his eyes, and flinched away when his skin came in contact with yours as he released the cuffs, then offered his arms to catch you when you stumbled. He reached to pull you in for a hug, and when you backed away another concerned look passed his face.

“Y/N, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

You took a step back away from him, questioning reality. What was real. What was part of the pain. What piece went to what reality.

“It’ll take a while to filter out, I understand. But right now, can you let Cas get you back to the Bunker where we’ll all be safe?” Sam held his arms open in a relaxed stance as he made his request. He’d been in Hell, he knew physical torture wasn’t the worst that was thrown at you.

Your only response was to nod slightly, there were hands on each of your shoulders, then with a quiet flap of wings you found yourself in your bedroom at the Men of Letters bunker, Cas’s arms gentle around you. “Sleep, we’ll talk when you wake up.” A soft touch to your forehead was the last thing you remembered before slipping into the most relaxed state you had been in a very long time.

Sam gently nudged your shoulder, rousing you from your angel induced sleep, “Y/N, come on babe, wake up.”

You tensed up as you opened your eyes to see him sitting right next to you, still having difficulty discerning reality from the hallucinations you had endured at Demon Dean’s hand. It would take some time, but you’d have to put the work in to get used to Sam again. He wasn’t something you were willing to give up, not for anything, especially not things that had never even happened. 

[emblemevents-newyear]

Set 4: Fate’s Blade vs. Howling Wyverns

“The winds howl, as fate is decided upon the seas... with less wyverns and blades.”

“Welcome back to another match for the ages! Braving the seas this time is Captain Ron leading Fate’s Blade against Captain Nora of the Howling Wyverns! Will there be less misfiring and more back and forth trades!? Let’s find out...”

“Knowing the routine by now, both teams move into readying their cannons while considering the possibility of, well... having it explode in their faces. Everyone busies themselves at their stations, but Azura finds it in her to immediately open fire, which manages to strike Morgan in the chest (Fate’s Blade+3 Points!). Noire waves over to signal her fellow team members to direct their fire onto one target, but this brings attention from the opposition as Lydia strikes her down in the head (Howling Wyverns+5 Points!). Seeing already one of their own go down, Tharja aims her cannon and follows with her daughter’s attempt to signal the team, but Azura ends up striking her in the head by accident. Not a great start here for Fate’s Blade...”

“The first onslaught begins right away, with Robin already landing a clean shot on Carrie’s chest (Fate’s Blade+3 Points!), followed by Peri dealing some extra damage in close succession by hitting Nora in the hand (Fate’s Blade+2 Points!), and then Azura finishing it by hitting Clara’s hand (Fate’s Blade+2 Points!). Talk about OHO A TRIPLE. There’s a few friendly fire exchanged among the opposing team, but they finally retaliate with Gaius firing at Aidan, striking him by the hand (Howling Wyverns+2 Points!).”

“Moving back, both teams begin reloading their cannons for the next round, as orders are barked and the masts are scaled to spy on the enemy ship. Karin and Nora move to load up more ammunition for their own cannons, but they get distracted talking to each and end up blasting themselves in the torso. In the ensuing chaos of their crew members livid that such a mishap occurred, Ophelia takes advantage of the confusion by firing at the Howling Wyverns, knocking out Lydia by the torso (Fate’s Blade+3 Points!).”

“Now with their cannons reloaded, both crews move forward to take aim at their opponents, but the oncoming winds and rocking of the boat causes them to hit each other in the process. Unfortunately, Cordelia takes a shot and doesn’t realize Aidan in her line of sight, knocking him out by the head! Riled at this, Cynthia tries showing off to how it’s supposed to be done, managing to hit Haru right at the foot (Fate’s Blade+2 Points!), followed by Ron taking an example and striking at Clara’s leg (Fate’s Blade+1 Point!)! However, Bat decides to avenge his teammates by open firing at the ship with no particular target, though one cannonball manages to hit Ophelia in the arm (Howling Wyverns+1 Point!).”

“Their ammunition again running out, the remaining crew members from both teams retreat to a corner of their ship to regroup. During times like these, you’ll need to be careful reloading as someone would be rogue enough to keep open firing! And how -- Haru rushes back to his cannon to fire it off, which hits an unsuspecting Cordelia in the torso (Howling Wyverns+3 Points!). Fate’s Blade sounds off and move back to their positions with those climbing aboard the Crow’s Nest to see where most of the attacks were coming from. Peri, fueled by another fit of wanting to slaughter someone, quickly reloads her cannon and opens fire... only it hits her in the torso. I guess, what did you really expect?”

“After much deliberation and planning, it looks like the teams have something up their sleeves to gain leverage over the other! And... nope. It all turns out to be for naught, as they continue smacking each other yet again in another fit of friendly fire. At least Cynthia and Bat gathered themselves to hit the opposing team -- as in, each other in the arm (Fate’s Blade+1 Point & Howling Wyverns+1 Point!)! But hey, somethin’ happened.”

“The crews go back to reloading after wasting their ammo on each other, but they look resolute as they huddle about the next plan of action. However, Azura believes she heard the enemy ship already on the verge of open firing, to which she swiftly moves to shoot first... but then, poor Robin is smacked right in the torso as a result.”

“The sounds of cannons firing and war like cries of the crew members can be heard across the ocean, as shots are trade and ship hulls are damaged, err... booped. Ophelia hits Morgan in the arm (Fate’s Blade+1 Point!), but it’s soon traded off by Gaius striking Azura in the leg (Howling Wyverns+1 Point!). At this point, it could really be anyone’s game! I was totally keeping count...”

“In the midst of reloading again, many misfires are to be had, at the expense of torsos -- Haru’s cannon betrays him, followed by Cynthia’s from the opposite team. Nora finishes reloading her own cannon, and hoping it doesn’t misfire on her, she aims right for the enemy ship -- hitting Azura straight in the, well, torso (Howling Wyverns+3 Points!)! Can we get a shout out for all the torsos out there...”

“The storm continues, with now reloaded cannons, the remaining crew members open fire again. Azura sneaks one on Gaius’s leg who I still wonder whether he was looking for candy (Fate’s Blade+1 Point!), while Morgan offsets it by hitting Ron square in the foot (Howling Wyverns+2 Points!). Unfortunately for the poor captain, Ron’s cannon misfires on him to add insult to injury, or uh, injury to injury? At the same time, Clara’s cannon misfires too, which scares the other crew members into thinking they’re next...”

“With their numbers dwindling, the crews retreat to reload yet again, devising up strategies for gaining the quick advantage in a game where anything could happen. However, Ophelia is unsuspecting of the looming danger about to befall her -- even as someone who would be able to do. And just like that, she’s suddenly struck in the torso by a sneaky Gaius, ever the shifty one (Howling Wyverns+3 Points!).”

“At last, everyone still standing finally come to a ceasefire, taking refuge to a corner where they would be obscured from potential attacks. The wind blows alongside the sea air, the ocean blue... as blue as my hair.”

“After finally collecting themselves for the nearing climax of the battle, the teams mobilize back to their cannons and into the fray once more. Nora leads the charge for her crew and opens fire, managing to hit Azura square in the chest (Howling Wyverns+3 Points!). It’s followed by an order for Morgan to follow up with an attack, but... she decides to arbitrarily aim for Gaius, which misses, but ends up hitting Nora in the torso!”

“Not wanting to stand with this nonsense, Nora immediately tries to reload and make up for the blunder, but instead, it backfires on her -- yet more insult to injury with a side of injury! And... insults? In any case, it’s up to her fellow crew members to carry the day. As with Ron, he’s the lone captain standing for his own fallen shipmates.”

“The crews are thrown into another barrage, with cannon fire being traded left and right. In the midst of all this, Gaius tries aiming for Ron to finish him off, but his cannon backfires as if luck had switched on them for that moment! Afterwards, they ships continue shooting at each other with no clear winner... they’ve all wised up to each other’s patterns!”

“However, it soon ends as both Morgan and Bat have their cannons simultaneously misfire, and knocking them both out in the process! I don’t believe it... by a fit of luck, Ron manages to pull through! Of course, I’m sure it was from sheer willpower and not getting hit more in the torso. Anyway, that earns em’ a bonus (Fate’s Blade+5 Points!). Great job, everyone! Now let’s get back to shore before more cannons misfi-... B O O M

Fate’s Blade: 24 points Howling Wyverns: 24 points

**see below the cut for all simulation results!