#Was it also a wretched hive of scum and villainy? sure but there was music and dancing and drinks to be had

[corellianhounds]

Saw one of those posts where someone was like “Boba Fett was only 37 in Return of the Jedi?? He shoulda been at the clubbb” and like. I cannot stress enough how much he was at the club. He was chilling in the corner but he was AT the club. Max Rebo was there and everything

[themonkeycabal]

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, ep 3

Good morning!

Spoilers! of course

Previously on:

The new Captain America is a massive tool, but his buddy, "Battlestar" (lol), is a little bit adorable. They work for something called the Global Repatriation Council, which sounds like a bureaucratic delight and joy.

Bucky got arrested for skipping his therapy appointment to go to Germany (nothing good ever happens to you in Germany, Bucky. Stop going to Germany.) on a mission with Sam (the mission went badly). And once he's sprung from the clink, he and Sam are suckered into the most awkward team therapy session in many an age. Things Are Said and everybody ends up mostly feeling pretty bad about everything.

Speaking of feeling pretty bad about everything — we discover there was a black super soldier in the US Army during the Korean war who was repaid for his service by being imprisoned and made a lab rat for thirty years. Just as awful as it sounds.  

Also our pseudo-terrorists from the first episode turn out to be a pack of idealistic kids who grew up in a blipped world and whose goals are probably as murky to them as they are to me. They, however, have pissed off somebody much bigger and badder (probably by stealing super soldier serum). 

To find just what in the sam hill was going on with the super soldier serum being out in the wild, Bucky suggested they go talk to that very stable and rational repository of Hydra knowledge, Zemo. I'm sure this will go swimmingly.

I've got my chips and guac and beer, it's 12:30 a.m., and I'm ready for some good ol' fashioned fisticuffs! Bring it, Marvel,

And we open with a sunny, smiley propaganda ad for the Global Repatriation Council. Helping you get back to the way things used to be. Reset. Restore. Rebuild. Cut to a shady black police van with the GRC logo and militarized police hop out along with Captain Massive Tool and the shield that really shouldn't be his. They seem nice.

"Don't give them a second to delete, shred, or breathe," says Captain Biggest Bestest Hero Ever as they prepare to breach a graffiti covered building. Ah, it's the hideout in Munich where Karli and the flag stompers gang were bunked last episode. The owner refuses to give up any info, calls them brutes, spits in Captain Tool's face, and Captain Biggest Bestest Hero Ever roughs him up and yells "Do you know who I am?" The owner replies for us all, "yes, I do, and I don't care."

Captain Tool leaves and grumbles about not having intel on that super dangerous criminal 12-year old, Karli. Battlestar (lol) points out she's giving shelter and meds to displaced people, and so they're loyal. And I'm just going to let that go at this point, because last ep she was on about how the GRC only cared about helping the returning people and not the people who were there all along, and the Flag Smashers wanted to return the world to how it was during the blip. But now suddenly they're all about helping the displaced, who I thought were the ones who were gone, thus, you know, being displaced when they come back to a world that's moved on without them. And I'm letting it go …. now.

Or not. I mean, I guess we could say that they're helping the displaced the GRC doesn't want to help, because they're not politically useful or the GRC is funneling its massive resources somewhere else. Or … something. Like I said, it's all very murky at the moment. I could keep watching and probably discover the answer. And I'm sure the GRC is corrupt as hell, so you go Karli! Though, she's like 16 (okay, maybe early 20s), and I'm not sure how she's managed this level of pull and resources in the few months since the great Un-Blippening and also she's got like a team of 8 (or 7, one died last ep) and she's not exactly oozing charisma. But, never mind. Moving on. For real this time.

That's all my way of saying that 3:48 into this episode and I'm already super done with Captain Massive Tool.

In Berlin, Bucky and Sam are visiting Zemo in prison. How'd they get permission? The guard seems very chill about them being there, he even leaves so Bucky and Sam can go to Zemo's cell alone. Which is so very weird. Are they hoping somebody will shank the weirdo who sits in his cell listening to opera and playing chess all day? "Oh no, he's dead, how sad. Heinrich! Get the mop!"

Anyway, Bucky says he'll go in alone, because Sam's an Avenger and Zemo doesn't really have warm fuzzy feelings for Avengers. Sam, who is currently in possession of the duo's one (1) brain cell, remembers how Zemo literally stalked Bucky and tried to frame him for a bombing and mass murder. "He was obsessed with Hydra. We have a history together," is Bucky's very questionable counter-argument. Well, I mean, technically yes, I guess.

Seriously, they just let him walk right in. Wow.

Zemo steps out of the improbably dark recesses of his cell and immediately starts reciting the Winter Soldier control words. "I just wanted to see how the new you reacts to the old words." By staring. It's his thing.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. It was never personal." I don't know why, but this made me laugh. His delivery is great. It's just like "hey man, good to see you again, hope you got past that whole framing you for murder and the global manhunt thing. Sorry and all. I just really hated your BFF for that time he dropped a city on my family. Bygones, amiright?"

Bucky skips the chat. "Somebody recreated the super soldier serum. I need to find out who." Ah, Zemo is super interested. But, of course. He killed all the other Soldiers, he wouldn't be keen on others around, would he?

Zemo knows where to begin looking for the answer. Cut to Sam and Bucky walking around in a dark room full of some sort of vague equipment (ah, it's a garage), Sam regretting every life decision he's ever made that led him to this point "what are you talking about you want to break Zemo out of jail? Where the hell are we? Buck, have you lost your mind?" Stupidity, who knows, and yes.

"Zemo's going to mess with our minds. Especially yours. No offense." "Offense." lol idiots.

Bucky finds the lights. They argue some more about Zemo. "Super soldiers go against everything he believes in. He is crazy, but he still has a code." Sam's like, yeah, I saw his code, it was blow shit up and kill a lot of people. Sam cannot believe he is hearing this crap right now and he's got to be like "steve rogers, if you weren't 106 I would beat your ass for leaving me with this moron".

"Let me just walk you through a hypothetical. Can I walk you through a hypothetical?" Sam, feeling those cold, tingly chills, the slowly creeping horror of realization, "What did you do?" "I didn't do anything," Bucky lies like the terrible liar he is. Wow he's a bad liar.

Cut back to Zemo's prison cell. Zemo ticks another off the "creepy euro villain" checklist, when Bucky randomly asks what he's reading and Zemo says Machiavelli. But of course. He's hiding something in his book. A key card.

Meanwhile, in the garage Bucky is explaining things to Sam. "The weakest point of any system isn't the software, or the hardware, it's the meatware." lol elegantly put, Bucky. "The human element."

Anyway, to sum up, Bucky's already broken Zemo out of prison. Poor Sam, the look on his face as Bucky hypotheticals through all the steps of the breakout, I laughed so hard.

Sam: “i hate everything, especially this asshole”

"And where are we?" Sam asks, very fed up with Things. 

The door opens and here comes Zemo in his purloined guard's uniform.

"You're going back to prison!" "We need him, Sam." Zemo, politely, "If I may—" "NO!" "NO!"

Argue argue argue. Bucky makes a weird pitch about how Steve didn't sign the Sokovia Accords and neither did Sam and, they went all illegal and on the run, they did it for him and so he's asking Sam to do that again. I mean, Sam's still slightly cheesed about that, Bucky. But, it seems to work, and Sam agrees with A Great Deal Of Reluctance.

Zemo's just standing there all quiet and well-mannered as they go through this, like he's their little pet whackjob.

The garage is full of classic cars belonging to Zemo and they're full of weapons and other goodies. He says he spent years tracking down all the Hydra people who might know how to make the serum, because if it's out there, then somebody could create an army of people like the Avengers. He's taking clothes out of one of the cars and finds a purple ski mask, which he stealthily slips into a bag. Nobody cares about your weird purple mask, Zemo, I've thought that thing was dumb for 30 years.

"To do this, we'll have to scale a ladder of low-lifes." heh

Next they go to an airfield. In Germany. You guys, come on.

Anyway, Zemo owns a plane, he's rich, his family was royalty, he's a baron. Sam's like 'wtf?' Bucky just rolls with everything. Or he does until they're on the plane later and Zemo has somehow lifted Bucky's book of amends and decides to read through it. "Who is Nakajima?" And Bucky's got him by the throat.

Sam's all hey that's Steve's book. "I told him about Trouble Man, he wrote it in that book. Did you hear it? What did you think?" "I like 40s music, so…" "You didn't like it?!?!?!?!" "I liked it." Zemo chimes in, "It is a masterpiece, James. Complete, comprehensive. It captures the African-American experience." lol wtf

"Everybody loves Marvin Gaye," Sam is so offended. "I like Marvin Gaye," Bucky says, probably trying to remember 'who is Marvin Gaye?' "Steve *adored* Marivn Gaye," Sam insists. lol. I like Marvin Gaye, Sam.

Zemo starts going off about Steve, and how the danger with those heroes and super soldiers is they're put on a pedestal and we forget about their flaws. And while he's not wrong, he also clearly wants Sam to throw him out of that airplane.

"Do we want to live in a world with people like the Red Skull? No. That is why we're going to Madripoor." Ahh Madripoor, I haven't thought about that place in a long, long time. A wretched hive of scum and villainy, iirc. Ah, yes, Zemo and Bucky confirm.

Zemo says they can't go as themselves and Bucky's going to have to "become someone you claim is gone". Bucky looks Deeply Unhappy.

On to a GRC resettlement camp in Latvia. Karli is playing soccer with some young kids. Because of the good-natured idealism. She's summoned to a hospital bed, in a ward stuffed with beds in an old, fancy building that's seen better days. Somebody is dying and she's crying at their bedside. Her mom maybe?

Back to Madripoor. It's a glittering city of colorfully-lit skyscrapers. The trio are walking across a bridge to give us a picturesque view and exposit about what they'll be doing. Sam is wearing a very questionable suit with like a black and red floral pattern and yellow-green circles. Or something. I can't tell what's going on with that thing. He says he looks like a pimp. Well no, but it is a terrible suit. Zemo calls it fashion forward, but Zemo wears a great coat with a fur collar and a purple ski mask. Don't take fashion tips from Zemo.

He says Sam will play a "sophisticated, charming, African rake, named Conrad Mack. Aka the Smiling Tiger." Sam is still not thrilled, "even has a bad nickname." Though, yes, the original dude does dress that poorly and he looks like Sam, so suck it up, Sam.

Fortunately they don't have to walk all the way across the bridge (it is a long ass bridge), they're met by a car about halfway and Zemo says they have to super duper stay in character no matter what happens.

The car is surrounded by elaborately decorated motorcycles ridden by very armed people. Hell of a welcome wagon. They're escorted to a graffitied, crumbling underpass, presumably the entrance to Low Town. It's part Macao, part Kowloon, part Jakarta, crammed full of neon and people and ramshackle buildings piled together in a maze of narrow streets, rails, and weird building-to-building bridges. Good set design.

Everybody is "fashion forward" and very heavily armed. They pass a wall with the words "Power Broker Is Watching". That's the charming fellow Karli and her do-gooders stole from.

They enter a bar decorated with golden baboon skulls and koi fish. Zemo asks "are you ready to comply, Winter Soldier?" he's attracted attention from unsavory sorts. I mean, more unsavory than the already unsavory sorts who fill the bar. The bartender is surprised to see Zemo and the Smiling Tiger. Zemo asks for Selby.

Somebody at a nearby table pulls a hood over her head, and by somebody I mean Sharon Carter. NOT SUBTLE SHARON!

Bartender asks the Smiling Tiger if he wants the usual and Sam silently nods. The bartender seems suspicious, but he takes a pickled snake out of a jar, cuts something out of it, drops it in a glass and places it in front of Sam who's like 'what in the actual I am going to puke'. lol Sam bravely tosses it back and does not puke no matter how much he really wants to and he really wants to. Bucky's being the Winter Soldier and is not at all laughing in his head about this.

A power broker minion comes over and tells Zemo he's not welcome there. Zemo says if PB wants him to leave, he can talk to him himself or bring Selby. The minion looks at Bucky and asks if he got a new haircut. Bucky gives him pure murder face. So the Power Broker and his minions know the Winter Soldier, so they were Hydra? Or, I guess, they all ran in the same shady circles.

Anyway, PUNCHING AT LAST! Power Broker minions approach to remove Zemo and Zemo tells the Winter Soldier to attack. Bucky is not pleased, but I am, because now there's punching. It's just been the sort of week that needs punching to improve it. Bar brawl! It's a lopsided fight, Bucky's wiping the floor with these dudes and the suspicious bartender is moving away to make a call.

"It didn't take much for him to fall back into form," Zemo tells Sam. Shut your pie hole, Zemo.  Aw, now the guns come out and the fight's over. Zemo calls off the Winter Soldier and the bartender tells them Selby will see them.

Selby is lounging in her backroom, listening to 50s french pop, and hanging out with lizards and piles of cash. As you do. She'd like to know why Zemo is there and by the way wasn't he in prison? She makes a weird purring sound at Sam. lol. I like her. The actress looks familiar but I can't place her. Anyway.

Zemo says if she tells them what she knows about the super soldier serum, he'll give her the Winter Soldier and his control words. Then Zemo weirdly fondles Bucky's face and like rubs at the cleft in his chin. lol. fucking weirdo.

Selby is charmed. She says she's glad she didn't kill him straight away. Weirdos of a feather, I suppose. Anyway, she says the serum is in Madripoor and developed by Dr. Wilfred Nagel. He was working for the PB. She won't give up Nagel's location for free, though. …and Sam's phone rings. Pro tip, Sam: turn off your phone when you go into meetings with deeply shady crime bosses.

Everybody stops and stares at him and he just sort of lets it ring. It's his sister. Dude, just turn it off. Too late. Selby wants him to answer it on speaker. Okay, well, she'll kill you either way, so just refuse the call and get ready for punching and running. So, he answers it.

Sarah says she needs to talk to him about the situation and he wants her to say exactly what situation. So, she says the one with the boat, dummy, and are you high? So he's going to play this off as a Doing Crime phone call. And it kind of works until Sarah calls him Sam. Selby's like wtf kill them and then she gets shot in the chest by … I don't know who? somebody from the outside. Now this trio of geniuses is going to get blamed for it. Immediately a bounty for them goes out to like everybody in Low Town. lol. That went well, guys.

And the shooting starts, they run. Except not so great for Sam who we just discovered is wearing heels. "I can't run in these heels!"

Here come the bikers. And they get picked off by somebody in a nearby warehouse. Oh, is that Sharon? Yep. And she's salty .When asked what she's doing there, "I stole Steve's shield, remember? I also took the wings for your ass so you (sam) could save his ass (bucky) from his ass (zemo)." lol. She didn't have any backup so she's off the grid in Madripoor. Did nobody think to clear her after everybody was all heroic and then pardoned after the Un-Snappening? Come on, guys.

She's better than they deserve and despite being bitter, she says she's got a place in High Town they can hide.

Sharon runs a gallery selling stolen masterpieces and other hot craft goodies. The creators of this show bless us with a long shirtless Sam scene as he changes out of this Smiling Tiger duds and apologizes to Sharon. She says she'd be arrested if she went back to the States and Madripoor doesn't allow extradition. Besides, she muses, heroing is hypocritical bullshit. Right Sam, since you gave up the shield and all. And Sam's all "bwhu?"

Then she turns her bitter on Bucky and asks how the new Cap is and Bucky's like "i hate him the most" and she's all 'come on', she knows he buys into all that heroic bullshit, "before you were his (zemo) pet psychopath you were Mr America, Cap's best friend." Well, no before that he was the Winter Soldier long before Zemo.

"Wow, she's kind of awful now," Bucky tells Sam. lol. You really get a sense of how much Bucky lucked out with his goat farm. Thanks Wakanda!

Sam gets them back to the point and wants to know where Nagel is, though Sharon says they should stay out of it to be safe. Sam presses, he says he can help clear Sharon's name and she's like 'wow, bargaining with my life?' but he gives her a Cap-worth speech about trying. "They cleared the bionic staring machine and he's killed almost everybody he's met." "I heard that," Bucky says from ten feet away. "I don't trust charity." You just tried to guilt him about bargaining with your life, Sharon!

Anyway, they strike a deal.

Zemo's being suspiciously quiet.

Then they go to a rave. Madripoor is party central. Sharon's gallery is hosting a party for clients and whatnot. She'll see what she can find. For some reason she invites the boys to join her at the party because hiding from the bounty on them and probably also from the Power Broker means walking into parties packed full of the sort of people who buy expensive stolen goods in Madripoor, like say, the Power Broker or his wealthier minions.

Zemo's just happy to be out of prison. The shot of him dancing. lol.

Sharon finds a lead on Nagel and the next day this quartet of galaxy brains heads to the docks. Nothing bad ever happens when you go look for scientists at the docks. No sir. And he is apparently hanging out in a shipping container. Sharon's like hurry up you've got a bounty on your heads and I'm sick of you three already.

The container is empty, but Sharon insists it's the right one. Zemo goes in and finds the false back which leads to a set of stairs going up. "Comin' Home Baby" is playing in the distance. I know I always listen to Mel Torme when I'm tinkering on gene-altering serums in my secret shipping container lab.

They find Dr. Nagel, who is not keen on chatting but he's willing to maybe listen to offers. He's definitely the mad scientist type.

Sharon, keeping watch outside, spots trouble. Some bad guys heading towards the container. She attacks! Moar punchies! Or beating the shit out of people with a baton. It's eleventy zillion bounty hunters. How did they find them? Did that Very Wanted Trio maybe go to a very popular party the night before, or something?

Bucky attempts to persuade Nagel with his gun. Nagel says he was brought in to Hydra to work on the Winter Soldier program. Then he was recruited by the CIA. They had blood samples of a subject (Isaiah? the black super soldier from last ep), and he was able to recreate the serum off of that. "I was a god! I did what no other scientist since Erskine was able to do."

Zemo is pacing around like a very, very angry psycho about to shoot the mad scientist. Guys, maybe it wasn't a good idea to bring Zemo to the person who could create the super soldier serum, given that is the opposite of what he wants. Kill Nagel, no more super soldiers. This is gonna end bloody. Zemo seems to have found a gun hidden in the lab. Yep.

"How have we never heard about this?" Sam asks. Well Sam, it turns out Nagel was blipped. Thanks, Thanos! Anyway, when he came back the CIA project was abandoned but the Power Broker was happy to help fund him. He made 20 vials and Karli stole those. And then Karli being a super duper genius, called him a few days earlier and asked if he could help somebody dying of tuberculosis. Karli … don't call the bad guys and ask for help after you stole from them. That's like day one stuff, kiddo.

Meanwhile, Sharon is still fighting every bounty hunter in Madripoor. She's killed like twenty guys.

Sharon runs in "guys we're seriously out of time" and Zemo takes the distraction to shoot Nagel. Who didn't see that coming? Oh yeah, Sam and Bucky and Sharon. Nobody was using the one (1) brain cell today. Or Zemo was. That's what you get for loaning it to the lunatic.

And then somebody fires a freaking rocket at the shipping container lab. Man. But, can you collect a bounty if all that's left are unidentifiable, charred corpses? Nobody in Madripoor is using the brain cell today.

Now they're trapped in a burning lab that's full of probably very bad explosive chemicals and o2 tanks. And yep, it partially blows up. Zemo gets away. Or seems to have, anyway. It's a gun battle now and also arguing. lol. Sharon's like "FOR REAL YOU IDIOTS?"

Oh, here comes Zemo, stomping along the top of a shipping container, carrying his purple ski mask. He fires at a gas line, the explosion distracting the bounty hunters and giving the trio time to run. Zemo beats up some bounty hunters and then finds a convertible muscle car in a container and swings by to pick up the others. Sam is very grumpy "you're going back to jail". lol.

Sharon's like 'okay, buh-bye!', she's had enough. Aww, is she really only in one episode? Well, Sam does promise to try and get her that pardon, so …

Anyway, Bucky calls shotgun and refuses to move the seat up for Sam. Payback is sweet. Heh.

Oh, not done with Sharon yet. She meets a minion and says they've got a couple of big problems.

Lithuania. Karli and one of her pals are stalking a GRC depot. Karli's sad. Her buddy says she should take some time to mourn. But, no, she's got do-gooding to do. They chat for a bit about what they'd be doing if they weren't do-goodering. She'd be a teacher or some such. They were all in Madripoor, washed up there during the blip, put then put out when everybody returned. Hmm. Lots of expositioning. Blah blah, scary taking the serum. "But it was worth it, because this world is ours." And they're going to give it to the kids in the displacement camps. … alrighty then.

Anyway, she's convinced that now that Nagel is dead, the Power Broker will come to her begging for the rest of the serum. No, sweety, I really don't think a person like that begs. Yikes.

"So we've got the one fight ahead of us then? I'll take those odds," says her very dim buddy.

In the prison in Berlin, Captain Massive Tool is talking to the guards about how Sam and Bucky where there when Zemo escaped and the guard's all "you … you don't think they had something to do with him getting out…." World class security. I find it really grating that Captain Tool calls Sam and Bucky by their first names. It's just so weirdly familiar that it almost crosses into dismissive. Completely unearned familiarity.

Lemar says they can't just accuse Sam and Bucky without evidence, but Captain Tool seems to think they can just, you know, make it up or some shit. "If we get the job done, do you think they're going to sweat us on the how?" Fuck you, Captain Tool.

Back in Zemo's plane, Bucky's fastidiously cleaning his metal arm, like a big grumpy cat. And Sam is trying to get a lead on the person (Madani) Nagel told him Karli wanted to help. He's got Torres on it.

They get to talking about the shield and how many people died or got messed up because of it/the serum. Sam says he made a mistake giving it up and he should have destroyed it. Bucky says, "Look that shield represents a lot of things to a lot of people, including me. The world is upside down, we need a new Cap, and it ain't gonna be Walker [preach]. So before you destroy it, I'll take it from him myself." Kick his ass, Bucky!

Torres gets back to Sam just as Zemo brings them lunch. Such a good host. "They found Madani. Dead. She died in Riga, a city near the Baltic Sea." … was that last bit really necessary? Like Riga is such a mystery? Even if you don't know where it is, like, that's so weirdly clunky. Somehow I think if you don't know Riga, you probably don't have the Baltic in the map in your head, either.  'Have you ever been to London? A city on the River Thames.' 'I've always wanted to go to Los Angeles, a city near the Pacific Ocean.'

Bucky should have said "oh yeah, i love Riga. I killed a diplomat there back in '64. Great beer."

Zemo's got a place they can go and he's looking forward "to coming face to face with Karli." Not creepy at all, Zemo. Nope.

Meanwhile, the kids are raiding the GRC depot and chatting way too much and calling each other by name. Oh dear.

"Filthy Flag Smashers" grumps a soldier tied up on the floor. I can't take them at all seriously with a name like that. Karli says they had six months of supplies just sitting there. "Don't you understand, we're fighting for our lives." Are you? Why and in what way?

Okay, so this is my continuing issue here. They're trying to build up this un-Blipped world, which is great, but they're doing it through So Much Exposition and so much of it is vague. We're supposed to think the GRC are probably shady, but are they? I don't know. Could be. They're sitting on these supplies! Evil! Maybe they are, but why? Why stockpile all that? Is it being sold on a black market? Or diverted to other people? Who knows! I don't. You don't.

We're supposed to sympathize with the Flag Munchers, but they're so vague in their goals. They want the world back how it was during the Blip. Okay. How was it? I don't know. What was so great about it? What we saw in Endgame didn't look all that great. But, we saw it from a different point of view, to be sure. So, what was it like for the average person who survived? Hell if I know. Also the Munchers want to help the people in the displacement camps. Okay. So do those two goals go together? I don't know. Are all the displacement camps bad? We're meant to think so, but I don't know. Is it just some of them? Is it regional? Who, exactly, are the displaced? It seems to be a mix of those who were blipped and those who weren't. I guess. I don't know.

It's just all taken out of the Big Book Of Cliched Assumptions for Lazy Worldbuilding. Why actually do the hard work of details, when they can just fall back on tropes, make vague pronouncements about how 'bad' things are, and let us assume the answers. This might bother me less if we didn't have to spend so much time with Captain Tool and the Flag Munchers. I cannot tell you how much I currently don't care. I find this all very frustrating. I don't mean to spoil the fun. Let me look at Sam's face again:

That was better. But, I stopped too soon. We're still with the Munchers. 

They're leaving the building they just looted, and there’s a bit of business I don’t care about, involving Karli’s car and how she’s not taking it, she’s going to just leave it parked, completely unsuspiciously in front of the building. And, she’s going to ride with her pal Mr. Dimbulb. 

She tells him to put his seatbelt on and she's very insistent. And then her car blows up and the building catches fire and it’s very dramatic. 

Her buddy's like wtf there were people in there and Karli says, "This is the only language these people understand." ARGH. Who people? Why is bombing them the only language they understand? Like, in this show, the GRC have literally DONE NOTHING. Nothing we’ve seen and nothing we’ve heard. At least have people chat about dark and dire rumors or something. Hell, they haven’t even been accused of doing anything other than ‘caring more about the people who returned than the ones who never left’ which is literally their job. sighing all night long. Maybe they’re horrible and evil and the Worst Thing Ever. But I DON’T KNOW THAT, because nothing in the show has bothered to establish that. 

ANYWAY

Riga, a city on the Baltic Sea

The trio are walking down the street, Zemo expositing for us again. Sokovia was apparently swallowed by neighboring countries, erased from the map. "I don't suppose any of you bothered visiting the memorial? Of course not. Why would you?"

Bucky's looking not happy. Probably remembering '64. They get to Zemo's place and Bucky says he's going to go on a walk. Zemo and Sam go on ahead and Bucky watches until they're out of sight and he circles back and finds a beeping thingy on the ground. He notices something across the street. Ah another round beepy thing. Now he's collecting them. He steps into an alley and says, "You dropped something". Nobody immediately appears.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up." And he turns around and it's one of the Dora Milaje. She looks unhappy and she’d like to know where Zemo is. Yeah, the Wakandans are not just gonna let Zemo wander free. That's a sticky situation you got yourself in, White Wolf.

Credits.

Well, I really enjoyed the bits that didn't contain the Flag Munchers or Captain Tool. Do better with your world-building, people.

[disneyplusfan]

The Mandalorian - Chapter 5 - The Gunslinger - Reaction Post as I watch

Who’s chasing him already?!

Aw baby Yoda has a milk crate car seat. Did he have that before?

LOL Baby Yoda is reminding me of Leia or 3PO while Han was flying the ship.

“That’s my line.” LOL gotta look into copyright Mando.

Ouchies, his ship took some damage but not as much damage as the other guy.

“The Gunslinger” Great title, since I love how Mando does some gunslinger movements and also the general Western and Buck Rogers vibe of the show.

Oh they’re losing fuel and power… but who cares Baby Yoda is laughing and being really cute. Is he happy that they are losing fuel? Does he know they are going to have to land somewhere?

Tatooine! Well that’s a familiar looking planet.

Aww, Baby Yoda fell asleep.

Ha there’s his gunslinger shooting style taking a shot at those prequel pit droids.

This mechanic lady reminds me of Reah Perlman’s character from Cheers.

Mos Eisley is looking kinda quiet as he does his Western gunslinger walk down the street.

Isn’t she supposed to be fixing the ship and not playing cards?

OMG Baby Yoda coming down the ramp. I want my very own Baby Yoda. And this lady voices exactly what we’re all thinking about Mando leaving him alone in the ship. Like stop doing that. He looks so sad, and anyone can grab him. At least this lady has good intentions.

Mos Eisley Cantina… You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Also this no droids thing of his is kinda funny and a throwback to the sentiments expressed in the original film… and here we are in the cantina with droids working there.

Who’s this Han Solo wannabe? 

Also can’t wait to see Ming-Na kick your asses.

“Out beyond the Dune Sea” already one of many shout outs in this episode.

Oooh it’s his first job.

Aw I love Mando’s freak out at missing Baby Yoda. 

You go lady for giving him a piece of your mind about the kid. Things like him thanking the lady, and his concern for Baby Yoda are what make The Mandalorian endearing.

Not sure they should be letting anyone else see Baby Yoda, especially a hunter type.

What is this music over the speeder bike racing? I’m normally a fan of the music on this show but this sounds like something that should be on DWTS. LOL

I like the sign language to communicate with the Tusken Raiders.

And this new guy is like the naive version of Luke Skywalker trying to be a Han Solo. Even has a Han Solo type blaster.

Oh is that Ming-Na on the dewback? That isn’t her. Definitely not her unless she grew a beard.

And there she really is, giving us a demonstration of how Mando’s beskar armor stands up to blaster rifle fire. 

“She’s got the high ground.”  LOL

I think I like the dynamic between these two. It’s different from that of Mando and Kara in last week’s episode. Could be fun if all of these characters that have prominent roles in each episode come back to form a band of misfits allied with Mando. 

Oh and here he goes showing his moves with the blaster. I guess New Guy is “The Gunslinger” from the title, maybe?

And here comes the ass kicking courtesy of Ming-Na.

I guess she didn’t account for the beskar.

And she’s making cryptic comments about him getting off easy from someplace (Navarro?)  where things didn’t go so well for Mandalorians.

“She’s no good to us dead.” Shout out, after shout out. Even looking out over the desert with the binoculars...

Oh boy… how long before she gets the better of this New Guy?

Uhoh.. she knows about what Mando did. Let’s see what this guy does with this new info.

OH shit… are they going to go after Baby Yoda to confirm?

OH crap he shot her point blank… So is his naivete more of an act? He seems much more hardened as soon as she gives him “the tip”.

I half expect little Anakin Skywalker to pop out of one of these houses.

Oh crap New Guy has Baby Yoda and the babysitter mechanic lady.

“You’re smarter than you look.” LOL

A ton of fire around Baby Yoda again. Where’d he go? Baby Yoda is Force Quick. Kinda hoping this lady ends up being part of a ragtag mix of Mando’s group.

Pit droids have a bad job, having to clean up dead bodies and all. Haha Beggars Canyon reference.

Aha, didn’t expect that would be the end of Ming-Na. Too easy. So who is stopping to collect her? Did Mando double back? Different Mandalorian? Carl Weathers?

Love these concept art drawings that end each episode. And of course the theme and overall music of this show is awesome. 

Good episode overall. Decent twist with the betrayal of the supposed young and inexperienced guy. Well I guess he was still inexperienced. He got taken out after all.

Also Baby Yoda was ultra cute in this episode. Who else is buying that Funko Pop?

[mst3kproject]

1002: The Girl in Gold Boots

 Didn’t I just recently do a Ted V. Mikels movie as an Episode that Never Was?  Yes, I did.  That was the Corpse Grinders – I do actual episodes further in advance than the EtNWs, so it’s only been about a week since I watched it.  Do I want to see another Ted V. Mikels movie?  No, I don’t. Am I gonna do so anyway?  Yes, I am, because I hate myself.

Fish-lipped Michele wants to be a dancer – and an opportunity to do so (and to escape her abusive and drunken father) walks into her life in the form of Buzz, whose sister Joanie is the star attraction at a sleazy LA nightclub called the Haunted House.  After some misadventures that might be intended as comical but I really can’t tell, Michelle lands the job only to discover that the Haunted House is, of course, a Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy.  The club owner is selling drugs, all the dancers are junkies, the janitor’s a draft-dodger, and the band sucks.

Girl in Gold Boots is to Ted V. Mikels what Beast of Yucca Flats was to Coleman Francis.  It’s a painfully bad movie that fails at almost everything, but it’s better than anything else he ever made.

The Astro-Zombies and The Corpse Grinders both began with apparently unrelated scenes and weird emphases that confused me far more than they intrigued me, and put me off the films that follow.  The opening of Girl in Gold Boots is nice and straightforward: Michele is dancing to the jukebox when Buzz comes into the diner where she works, and he offers to make her a star.  From there the story progresses in a very linear fashion, confirming our suspicions one by one.  Buzz comes across as deeply untrustworthy, and sure enough he turns out to be the second ickiest elf I’ve seen doing this blog (Elves wasn’t that long ago, either).  Critter the hitchhiker seems like there’s gotta be more to him than a wandering hairy beatnik, and yep, he’s on the run from the army.  The Haunted House looks like it’s gotta be a front for something and it’s exactly that.

This means that nothing in Girl in Gold Boots is surprising to us – we saw all this coming from miles away, but the movie works.  It tells a story that we understand, and the narrative never smacks us upside the head with anything so confusing or irrelevant that we stop and lose our place. That alone makes it better than anything else of Mikels’ that I’ve seen.

But man, it’s bad.  It looks and sounds terrible – the music is not among the worst ever to disgrace our ears as MSTies, but it’s not great.  The songs are okay while they’re actually playing but you forget them quickly. There are two different prints of the movie available, one of which has the weird skip in the footage which leads to Buzz teleporting back to the restaurant table – the other has similar skips in other places.  The dancing and singing sequences are repetitive and dull.

Worse than that, Girl in Gold Boots breaks one of the biggest storytelling commandments: Thou Shalt Show, Not Tell.  Other MST3K movies have done this, of course: Atlantic Rim told us about rather than showing us a ‘ship graveyard’.  Teenagers from Outer Space told us rather than showed us that there was a fleet of spaceships about to land.  Girl in Gold Boots does worse, because it tells us something that is directly contradicted by what we see.  We’re told over and over that Michele’s dancing is an extraordinary talent, when the self-evident truth is:

Actress Lesley McRay has some rhythm, but only barely.  She’s better than most of the dancers in MUZ but only because she moves around rather than standing in one place.  Mostly she just kind of sways back and forth and waves her arms languidly, like she’s at her first school dance and didn’t bring a date.  In a way this helps her fit right in, since almost none of the dancers at the Haunted House is any better.  They all appear to have been cast on the basis of having abs that would look good in a Sexy Baked Potato costume, actual talent secondary.

The closest thing to an accomplished dancer in the movie is Bara Byrnes, playing Joanie.  She’s still not great, but the second time we see her dance, she manages to walk a very fine line of showing us that her drug abuse is interfering with her work while not actually being melodramatic about it. We can believe she’s gotten to this point while still being allowed to dance, but she’s right on the brink, and it’s no surprise that her boss decides to replace her.

Does this story have a moral?  Sure does.  It’s give up on your dreams, they aren’t worth it.

No, seriously.  We’re following three main characters here: Michele is our primary protagonist, who dreams of stardom.  She finds that the price of doing so is mixing with criminals, with Joanie for an example of where this path will lead her, and so she gives it up.  Critter dreams of a peaceful, free-spirited lifestyle – the army is pretty much the exact opposite of that, but it is to the army he eventually goes. Buzz wants to be a wealthy drug dealer and have Michele all to himself, and that doesn’t work out for him, either.  In the end Michele and Critter accept their own mediocrity while Buzz and Joanie are destroyed by their refusal to do the same.

Maybe that analysis is too cynical.  Maybe this is actually supposed to be a story about avoiding shortcuts.  Everybody here wanted a shortcut to their dreams. Michele seizes upon a suspicious offer because she thinks it’s all she’ll ever get.  Critter runs away because he can’t stand the idea of soldiering (excuse me) through.  Buzz kills a man in his attempt to climb the ladder.  In each case, it’s this attempt at a shortcut that brings them down, ushering Michele into the world of drugs, forcing Critter to find a hole to hide in, etcetera.  Maybe in the end, Michele and Critter have learned not that their dreams aren’t worth it, but that there are no shortcuts – in order to get to the top, you have to climb the hill.

And yet that’s not what we see.  The ending scene, with the happy couple partying all alone on a beach, seems to suggest that this is it: Critter will go off to war and Michele will sit and wait for him while living off his soldier’s paycheques.  The idea of what they will do after his service is completed never comes up.  There is no hint that Michele will continue to pursue a career in dance through other avenues.  They both just settle for being average.

This is realistic, I guess… you guys have heard the story about how I wanted to be an archaeologist until I accidentally broke an ancient skull open with my trowel when I mistook it for a rock.  I’m happy enough in my current career, but that’s not what fiction is for.  If I’m watching a movie about somebody chasing a dream, I want to see it end with at least the hope of achieving it!

Maybe Michele has decided that dancing was just an excuse, and what she really wanted was to escape her father, but after she leaves the diner that is never mentioned again.  The father was just a plot device, something needed to make going with the obviously slimy Buzz seem like a good idea in comparison.

Respect for women is a fairly major motif in this movie, which raises a few eyebrows when the camera spends so much time looking down their bras and up their skirts.  The bad guys in this movie are the ones who treat women poorly.  Michele’s father shouts at and hits her.  Buzz manipulates her and drags her into a world of crime. The owner of the Haunted House drugs her and also abuses Joanie, his own girlfriend.  When Buzz is posing as an inmate his supposed crime is domestic violence.

We’re supposed to contrast this with Critter, who loves and respects Michele.  When he begs her to leave the club, she tells him that if he says he loves her, she’ll elope with him – but he refuses to do so because he has his own crimes to run from and doesn’t want her involved in those.  Michele should want to escape for her own sake, not for anybody else’s, and he would rather break her heart than get her in more trouble.  At the end, when he has joined the army after all, I think we’re supposed to assume that he did it so that she can be secure, rather than Tom Servo’s analysis that he’s learned he enjoys violence and is ready to kill like a man oughtta.

This is emphasized enough that I’m pretty sure it’s intentional, and while the sentiment is admirable, in a film like Girl in Gold Boots it reeks of hypocrisy.  We cannot respect Michele while also drooling over her in a fur-trimmed bikini.  Maybe we’re meant to view Michele giving up dancing as a form of self-respect, not letting herself be degraded anymore.  But what about the other dancers?  Does Joanie deserve to be treated as a sex object because she’s an addict?  We never get to know the backup dancers, but should we assume they’ve all committed similar sins?  As with Hollywood After Dark, the movie seems to suggest that virtuous women should be treated with respect, but sluts are deserving targets.  No.  That is not how it works.

I didn’t really remember this episode, so when I watched it again in preparation for this review, I was surprised by how funny it was.  The riffs are top-notch and the host sketches are pretty good, too – my favourite is the bit where Pearl starts just wailing on Brain Guy with the film canister while the guy from the Mad Science Certification Board nods approvingly.  Paul’s giggling really sells it.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Well this week is going to be all kinds of horrible.  Oh sure, it’s nice to get together with family and feast at Thanksgiving.  Buuuuuut I work in a grocery store, which means the days leading up to Thanksgiving are going to be full of frantic people lined from one end to the other trying to get ready and then coming back the next hour/day because they forgot something.  This week is going to be hectic and loud and aggravating.  So.  How about some Mario before things go down?

 The live action portion this time around is “Do You Believe In Magic?”  Word is out on whether that refers to spells and rituals or the contents of a young girl’s heart (though I’m pretty sure that’s just blood and muscle tissue).  Oh, apparently it’s referring to “Magic” Johnson.  Don’t ask me who that is, I couldn’t care less about pro sports. Which means this is a pointless celebrity shill episode.  Wee. Anyway his old high school trophy is dented and he wants a repair job.  Luigi agrees and goes searching for a repair manual.  While he’s out Mario comes home and not knowing what all the junk on the table is tosses it all in the furnace.  I wonder what the laws regarding trash burning in Brooklyn were like back then?  Anyway, after the cartoon they have to frantically try and beat the now partially melted and thoroughly crushed piece of metal back into shape.  Luigi actually succeeds in remaking a player of the year trophy… but Johnson calls him out on having brought them his bowling trophy. But it turns out it wasn’t destroyed after all, just stewing in marinara, which managed to make it all nice and shiny again.

 The animated segment is “Pirates of Koopa”.  You know, considering how many Dry Bones Mario has taken on over the years and how many ghosts Luigi has busted they would probably do pretty well confronted by the weird stuff in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  Er, getting off topic.  Anyway, Mario and the others get jobs on a ship to pay for their passage back to the Mushroom Kingdom, as all the actual sailors have been scared off by Blackbeard Koopa.  Who sadly does not have a beard when he shows up to attack.  Seriously, not even a bad looking fake one.  I call shenanigans on him calling himself Blackbeard while clean shaven.  I don’t care if he isn’t a mammal.  There are standards, sir.  Still, I will give Koopa credit, he is tough enough to take a bomb-omb to the face. Not many who can say that.  And hey, we actually get an instance of Toadstool defeating a Koopa Troopa by jumping on them and then grabbing the shell and chucking it.  But eventually they just end the fight in a way that leaves one with the distinct impression of a missing scene or two.  Now that’s just lazy writing.  Though I do approve of Koopa countering Toadstool’s argument that he agreed to leave the others alone if she went willingly with the fact that he had to send his men to fight and capture her (which must have happened in that missing scene), and thus it was not willing.  Rules-lawyer pirates are always fun.  Plus, you know, the entire point of presenting those kinds of terms of surrender is making it so you don’t have to spend the ammunition and manpower that Toadstool made him spend.  She really doesn’t have a leg to stand on here.  Anyway, Koopa’s ship pulls up to a wretched hive of scum and villainy, where he plans on selling her to the highest bidder.  Meanwhile Mario and the rest escape from their bonds on their sinking ship by Mario using one of the cartoon stars circling above their captain’s parrots head after it bonks it as a Starman to power up.  What.  Um, anyway the powerup runs out before they reach the port, so they have to disguise themselves to sneak in.  Luigi manages to win the auction by bidding one billion gold coins for Toadstool (and Koopa at the time was only asking for a million).  But after Toad sneaks over to rescue the Princess while Koopa counts his gold they get discovered and have to make a break for it, leading to a fight scene with entirely inappropriate music.  I mean seriously, you have no idea if you don’t watch this thing.  I guess I can best describe it as low key “goofy” background sound effects with a couple of notes here and there.  This is the kind of screw up that should result in lost jobs.  It completely ruined the scene.  And then Koopa is beaten in battle off-screen and sent flying as the Marios commandeer his ship.

 This one was pretty bad. I mean the live action segment was just typical cameo fare, nothing new there.  But the cartoon?  That one hurt.  Because there were several things there that could have been good if they’d actually finished the episode.  But between a beardless Blackbeard, two fight scenes without conclusions, and the sound department obviously asleep at the wheel you could just feel the fun potential of this episode die an agonizingly painful death.

 Lesson of the day:

Apparently this show didn’t just predict future Mario memes.  It also predicted the weird trend of people trying to figure out other stuff they could make pasta out of.  And yes, I know gnocchi is a thing, but that ain’t gnocchi, that’s just potato spaghetti.

[plusplayerpage]

The MegaMania schedule is here!

MegaMania 2018! 

Saturday, July 14, 1-5pm Pima Community College Downtown Campus, 1255 N. Stone Ave. (NW corner of Speedway and Stone)

Happening all day!

Cosplay Show off your costume or make your own. In the Roosevelt Building.

Video Gaming Have fun playing Worlds VR, Super Mario Kart 8, and many other favorites!! In the PCC Library.

Tabletop Gaming Compete, collaborate and get creative. Try out our collection of fresh board and tabletop games! Play with friends or learn how from local experts. In the PCC Library.

Tucson Comic-Con & Constant Con! Come to the 2nd floor loft for a Cool-Con experience! Giveaways, Super Heroes, and Comic life Galore!  In the CC Building Loft.

Tech Toys! Blast your creativity into the future. Drop in for a ninja-quick demo and leave with samurai-level skills! Test out Ozobots, MakeyMakey, Cubelets, & Botley robots. In the PCC Library.

Crafts! Crafts! And more Crafts! Get in touch with your creative side! Make hats, magnets and paper crafts to take home. In the Roosevelt Building.

Paper Crafts Floral Origami & Interactive Origami with Mary Ellen Palmeri. In the Roosevelt Building.

Minecraft & Roblox Visit the gaming area and play your favorite game with lots of other fans! No account needed! In the PCC Library.

Giant Games You may be a PvP Master onscreen, but what about in real life? Get your team together and test your skills in a real-life game of PvP! In the Outside courtyard. 

Cantina Join us for FREE pizza, drinks, and snacks in the Cantina! Not exactly a wretched hive of scum and villainy, but you never know who you’ll meet in the Cantina. In the PCC Building Café

Photo Booth Take MegaMania fun and fandom home with you by capturing your experience in print.  It’s free—a gift from us to you!

In the PCC Library

Travel to the stars in a Portable Planetarium!! Shows will begin every half hour. Seating is limited and no late entry is allowed, so make sure you make it on time. Location: PCC Library.

1:00 Harry Potter Astronomy

1:30 Doctor Who’s Universe

2:00 Comics in the Cosmos

2:30 Cartoons in the Night Sky

3:00 Harry Potter Astronomy

3:30 Doctor Who’s Universe

4:00 Anime Astronomy

4:30 Harry Potter Astronomy

Escape Room He-who-must-not-be-named is on the rise (AGAIN) and we’ve recently discovered that he has locked a Horcrux in Dumbledore’s office—we beg you to find it before Voldemort comes to claim it!  Work with your team to figure out a series of clues and solve puzzles to open the locked box. 

1:30-2:30

3:30-4:30

Tech Toys

2:30-3:30

Author & Artists Workshops & Panels CC Building (2nd floor)                                                                                         

1:00pm  Slam Poetry! With Writer in Residence Logan Philips! Learn to write and perform poetry with our writer in residence! CC255

1:00pm  Art Class: The Secret of Art with James Owen Learn how to draw ANYTHING easily and awesomely (but especially dragons). CC254

1:00pm Researching your book Jeff Mariotte, Marsheila Rockwell, and K.S. Merbeth talk about what kind of research they’ve had to do to write their books, what some of the weirdest things they’ve learned are, and which Google searches might have put them on an NSA watchlist. CC251

1:00pm Signing Table – Kathleen Glasgow

2:00pm Writing Comics Jeff Mariotte, Lee Francis, and Adam Yeater talk about writing comics for big press, small press, and indie press. CC255

2:00pm Art Class: Fundamentals of Coloring Learn the basics of color and coloring with painter Jenn Hopkins. CC254

2:00pm Writing for Young Adults Janni Lee Simner and Kathleen Glasgow, two very different authors, discuss writing for young adults.  Get some writing advice from the pros! CC251

2:00pm Signing Table – James Owen & K.S. Merbeth

3:00pm Drawing Out the Dragons James Owen talks about his experiences in living the creative life, and how you can too! CC255

3:00pm Art Class: Basics of Drawing Characters Learn about drawing characters from comic author and artist Ross Demma. CC254

3:00pm What should I read next? Poet and Writer-in-Residence Logan Phillips, YA author Janni Lee Simner, scholar and comic book author Lee Francis, and librarian Maureen Kearney share some of their favorite reads with you and invite you to do the same. CC251

3:00pm Signing Table – Jeff Mariotte & Marsheila Rockwell

In the Loft Space

1-5pm TUCSON COMIC-CON & ConstantCon The Superheroes of yesterday, tomorrow and today are here to say hey! Come check out the action! Meet Tucson’s very own Frank Powers the conductor of Constant-Con, and get a sneak peak of Comic-cons to come with Tucson Comic-Con! Giveaways galore! CC Building Loft

Cosplay Workshops Roosevelt Building

1:00 & 3:00 Rainbow Storytime In Rainbow Storytimes we read stories that include LGBT themed stories, and also themes of family, love, and friendship, being different and belonging, being unique and being accepted, colors and rainbows, and, of course, fun – fabulous fun! RV 124

2:00 & 4:00 Storytime with Hagrid Hagrid will be your guide through a magical world of kings, queens, monsters, mermaids, and unicorns. For all ages, children 8 and under require parental participation. RV 124

1:00-2:00 Cosplay Origins in the Making Just picking up an interest in cosplay, costuming, or hobby building in general? Been in the convention world for a few years? No matter where you are, it’s always helpful to build new relationships with the amazing people in this community. Come join us to converse about breaking into the scene for newbies and veterans and play a few games together. RV 112

2:00-3:00 How to Make Prize Winning Costumes and Props Find out the basics of where to start when it comes to crafting EVA foam into amazing costume pieces and props. Learn which tools you’ll need from our master crafting artists Gilbert Espino Jr. and Gabriel Espino of TinkerCosplay to begin your costuming journey. RV 112

3:00-4:30 Creating Original Characters to Cosplay Tap into your own imagination using event themes, props, and makeup to create an ORIGINAL character to cosplay at cons and maybe even market yourself as a character! Take it from living cartoon cosplaya FRANK!Powers “don’t just be another cosplayer. Be ORIGINAL!”   RV 112

1:00-3:00 Floral Origami Learn to make colorful flowers that brighten up your day and never need water! RV 113

3:00-5:00 Interactive Origami Fun origami models that move! Fold a hopping cricket, a jumping frog, or a wing-flapping Pteranodon! RV 113

1:30-3:00 Introduction to Foam Crafting for Cosplay and Fun A hands-on workshop on cutting, forming, gluing, and painting EVA foam with a Q & A Panel. RV 116

3:00-4:30 Costume DIY Make your own costume! You provide the creativity and we will provide the materials and embellishments. RV 116

1:00-5:00 Kids Crafts! Design and make your very own paper hat or make a comic magnet. RV 125

Cultural Workshops & Performances Amethyst Room

Stage Presentations (approximately 30 minutes each)

1:30-2:00 Mariachi Corazon de Tucson Enjoy the lively and uniquely borderlands sound of this youth group.

2:00-2:30 Gertie and the TO Boys Chicken Scratch comes to Megamania: Enjoy listening to the Tohono O’odham Waila music. Who knows, you may even want to dance to their polkas and mazurkas!

2:30-3:00 Costume Showcase Show off your costume!

3:00-3:30 Capoeira and Latin Dance Capoeira is part martial arts, part dance and all amazing to watch. Learn about this Brazilian art and some Latin dance moves as well.

3:30-4:00 Costume showcase Show off your costume!

Workshops

4:00-5:00 Chinese Calligraphy Learn about this ancient Chinese art and how it can increase your focus and serenity.

MegaMania!! is made possible through generous partnerships with:

  Additional Thanks to:

Tucson Comic-Con (coming this November!)

ConstantCon and the Comic Bookmobile

Isle of Games Toy Store

R-Galaxy Pop Culture Comic Bookstore

Ashling Studios (formerly Tucson Zombies)

501st Legion (Dune Sea Garrison)

Arizona Ghostbusters

StarTrek Tucson

Tucson Dread Fleet

The Rebel Calico

The MegaMania schedule is here! published first on https://medium.com/@SteampunkPCGames