#although he has great potential as an antihero.

[vilochkaaa]

just silly thoughts

...

I always like to think that Morris is actually a rather kind person with a soul, capable of showing empathy for others. And before he started working for the mega corporation, he was... just an ordinary humble guy, with ambition, good friends, classmates, and most importantly, loving parents who invested love in their child.

but it was his work at Joja Co. that made him what he is today. For the sake of such a prestigious job, according to others and a heap of publicity from the corporation itself, Morris had neglected everything he had and everything that made him what could be called human.

and I think he realizes what he's done to himself. but it's too late.

.. too late.

but despite all that, he still has a little, little piece of that same kind and empathic persona hidden behind the mask of a brash, arrogant manager

[taraljc]

every time I watch the scenes of SCORPIA training their operatives it's really driven home how much they don't want leaders they want soldiers who will blindly follow orders.

When Alex refuses to shoot the silhouette of a person, everyone tells him he has to get over it. but actual intelligence gathering organisations full of operatives who practice their tradecraft treat any individual as a potential asset.

It makes absolutely zero sense not to try to turn someone instead of just killing them out right.

I think that's why Julia was blindsided by John Rider. And also every single time someone fails in their mad plan to rule the world it's because of ego. Greif, Cray, Julia--even Kellner (Home Secretary), all of them fail because of hubris and ego. And the thing that I actually like about Yassen as an antihero is that you really see that he has zero ego about his work. He knows that he is good at his job and he takes pride in his skill but he feels no need to peacock at all. he has nothing to prove to anyone. he makes decisions and he doesn't second-guess them and that includes deciding to be an incredibly homicidal guardian angel for one Alex Rider for as long as the kid keeps popping up in the middle of SCORPIA missions.

just the look on his face when Damien Cray showed him the footage from the pre-launch and you can see the gears turning as he's trying to play it off his it's a kid don't worry about it no big deal and he's like you can see the little hamster on the wheel trying to figure out if the Department is actually investigating Cray or if Alex has just managed to once again blindly wander directly into an active operation and then he jumps through flaming hoops to make sure Cray doesn't kill the kid at the airfield.

I kind of wonder if Syl was written to be a foil for Yassen specifically. The Rider boys continue the proud tradition of corrupting the next generation of SCORPIA agents by showing them kindness and compassion and basic human decency.

Also the thing that I love the most about series 3 is seeing Kyra and Tom working together to save the day. It is possibly my favourite thing. Tom has gone from how dare you you have stolen my dream (top of the Feathered Serpent leaderboard) and are clearly trying to steal my best mate (not to mention shooting one-handed baskets over and over again in the school gymnasium) to really trusting her and liking her because they both know that the most important person in their life is Alex and that they will both do anything to keep Alex safe.

Kyra has finally internalised the idea that other people can be objectively good. that they can continue to choose to be good no matter how much it infuriates her because she simply cannot wrap her head it not because she's antisocial but because she has never been cherished and cared for this way before. When Tom is trying to explain to her that she and Alex have a thing for each other and she just looks at him like he's doing another stupid Star Wars quote and he just realises that she really doesn't know and instead of teasing her about it just drops it.

However long they've been traveling around the world (and I'm not entirely sure thousands of miles makes any kind of sense Europe's just not that big) they have at least spent their school holiday together without killing each other and that's pretty amazing when you think about it.

I also really hope that Jack and Mrs Jones get to know each other better not because I 'ship them although I am not going to lie I have my moments (I also have extensive headcanon about Ian and Mrs Jones that may or may not ever actually go anywhere.) but I really like the fact that Mrs Jones goes out of her way to go find Jack and be like hey this is a really great time to go on holiday I think you should visit your family as far away from the UK as humanly possible ok bye.

I think Mrs Jones and Jack understand each other and even like each other and are definitely bonded in their mutual desire for Alan Blunt to not be such a dick. and I love that Smithers is also on team our boss is a dick let's protect our teenagers.

[northsealight]

Hey, when you said RHATO Jason is the worst version on your last ask, were you referring to the first comic, second comic, or the Webtoon? (Honestly annoyed the Webtoon took that name, makes things even more confusing)

I have problems with all 3 (Webtoon most of all for sure, with the second and first switching places behind it based on what characters or plots I’m thinking about tbh), but I was just curious haha

oh. oh. oh you're not ready for this. I've been trying this entire week to find a good time to air out my thoughts:

so! in my opinion (again, this is not shaming anyone for liking what they like! if you happen to like RHATO!jason all the more power to you! dont read this!) all three reiterations of RHATO!Jason .. are not great. the one I think might have potential to be salvaged is the second one with Artemis and bizarro! (although roy harper is in my heart of hearts)

the way Jason is written in rhato... the rhato written by Scott Lobdell anyway, (who is actually a sexual predator and when you start to think even a LITTLE about how the women are written in RHATO makes so much sense) portrays Jason as yet another cookie cutter anti-hero-deadpool-esque personality who's mainly confined by the narrative restraints of his character.

I say this because hes so.... the way he goes about his vigilantism is so .. shallow. It's like the narrative is finding excuses to make him violent so the reader can be stimulated with Michale Bay explosions lol. You hardly see any stories in there where Jason is an actual champion for the people, and you hardly see his background as a street kid come into play... its like... he became... a vigilante because....he knows how the system can fail those... alienated and forgotten by those sworn to protect them... and thus channels his energy into said people through acts of radical protection... (also because the whole bruce thing yeah I know)

I keep thinking about injustice!Jason's monologue where he literally says something along the lines of "while bruce and clark were fighting I fought for the people who were being caught up in the whole thing" like if that doesn't just tell you who he is idk what will! and sure, injustice isn't Jason source material, so look at under the red hood! he literally becomes a drug kingpin TO CONTROL crime ... and then instead of getting these immense shows of care he has for the community in RHATO, we get panels like this:

like ok get it I guess 😭😭😭😭

this is the new and improved Jason!! he's suave.. hes American... he's... just like every other antihero now!!

I don't know how to explain it without sounding like an idiot- best bet is to read the comics yourself to kinda get what im saying! but even rebirth Jason is (kind of) getting what RHATO Jason doesn't-- he's a product of his huge heart. rebirth Jason has countless stories where we see how Jason ACTUALLY operates as red hood, and what his symbol means to the citizens of Gotham!

if you pour too much grit and "edginess" into Jason, then you kind of miss what he's all about- he can still be silly and sarcastic! in fact, one of my favorite Jason moments is from red hood: lost days, a series where he's portrayed as an edgy, "misfit" ruffian:

like. hello this is hilarious. and we can still have moments like these while balancing his emotional range as a vigilante that's motivated by his big fat heart! (ignoring the fact that he slept with Talia in the next issue 😭 Jason fans can't have shit 😭)

but anyway! ill likely add more when I'm not feeling so tired, but god!! is it so hard to show Jason's propensity for kindness!! is it so hard to realize that his character to the core is revolved around a deep understanding for others based on personal experience!!

there's a reason why DC (in the rare moments when they know what to do with his character) always writes stories with Jason consoling children, or Jason being good with kids in dangerous situations!

it's because he's been there before. he's felt the grief and confusion of being helpless in a situation of his control. he's felt the consequences of adults who were supposed to protect and raise him! he's been killed for daring to cling on to the notion of trust even after all he's been through!

and I don't know, I think his dedication to the people, children especially, is his way of forgiving himself- his way of telling little Jason that it wasn't his fault.

[buckevantommy]

Rating these tropes from fave to least fave for bucktommy: omegaverse, modern magic, sentinel-guide, soulmates, alternate universe - different jobs, alt universe - different first meeting, super powers, werewolf, vampire, fairytale retelling.

1 - alt universe - different first meeting

my fave!! tommy never leaves the 118 OR they meet on a call before season 7 because tommy is flying the chopper - he's been around so much already - or one of them is injured or trapped/stranded. i just really love them both being firefighters but meeting at an earlier point in canon.

2 - alternate universe - different jobs

not a big fan of their jobs being completely different - like actors, doctors, athletes, ceos etc. (although i have seen a few tumblr ficlets that have me wanting to read 50k of a particular dynamic) but i do love when their jobs are different threads taken from canon (or related media) so: swat!tommy (thankyou swat!lou), mercenary!tommy (thankyou Outer Banks lou), 118!tommy, seal!buck, armypilot!tommy, mechanic!tommy, chef!buck, ranchhand!buck, bartender!buck..

BTW: going to add Royal AUs in here because holyshit i love the potential (and oliver being in Into The Badlands makes me wanna watch) whether set in medieval times or modern times gimme arranged marriage or forbidden love or anything i just need some royal boys or one royal boy and one civilian or soldier or something i need them all.

3 - vampire

i have envisioned a few vampire au ideas sparked by some of lou's photoshoots and an audition video he did for a vamp role? but i haven't found any vamp fics yet. i love the idea of older vampire!tommy with human buck. a simple yet delicious concept.

4 - super powers

maybe i'm a little swayed by the fact lou has played a superhero, and also there's a Percy Jackson AU going around that i was surprised by how much i enjoyed it, but yeah gimme superpowers: either one or both of them have powers, could be an X-Men type thing or The Boys or something. i'm very much into the whole antihero and vigilante thing so gimme some angst, maybe some Daredevil or Jessica Jones vibes. i'm also a fan of the clark/superman secret identity thing and the two-person love triangle thing.

5 - sentinel guide

this is the first i'm hearing of this trope but i googled it and i like the sound of it: it would have elements of a Fantasy or Superpowers AU but with the specific dynamic of buck having a power or purpose and either not feeling up to the task or going overboard or needing help and tommy being his guardian or guide, and for their relationship to shift into something romantic even though it's not supposed to, i love that.

6 - modern magic

i don't really like modern magic - i'm more into fantasy worlds and pre-modern magic. something about mixing magic with the digital technology era just doesn't spark joy in me. HOWEVER: i would be into witchy stuff set in the 90s or earlier (i've seen talk of a Practical Magic AU on the dash and i would be all over that even though i haven't watched the movie yet i know enough about it to want it).

7 - soulmates

being a Supernatural fan meant developing a loathing for soulmates and fate because in canon they're tied to a controlling asshole god, so i'm sort of conditioned to evil-eye soulmate tropes. HOWEVER: i absolutely adore the invisible string theory for buck and tommy, but i don't think there's much there to focus on fic-wise. it works as a satisfying narrative thing in the show, but idk.. i'm open to good fic recs for this trope if anyone has them?

8 - fairytale retelling

i confess i don't really understand this trope? i tried googling it and i kinda get it, but i think it would be a struggle to make it bucktommy without getting too ooc? idk. if anyone can give me an example with our boys that'd be great because right now i'm just confused and don't see it.

9 - werewolf

despite being an og Teen Wolf fan, i don't like werewolf AUs for other shows. outside of Teen Wolf i'm just not into it, which is odd i think.

10 - omegaverse

i'm not into a/b/o at all, so.

[back-and-totheleft]

30 Minutes on Talk Radio

Barry Champlain, the main character of 1988’s “Talk Radio,” is a Dallas-based, left-wing “shock jock” whose rants are little arias of outrage. Sometimes a caller who’s obviously suffering will bring out his humanity for a moment, but his default mode is scorched-earth combativeness. It would be misleading to call him a “provocateur” because the word is elegant and Barry is not, and because Barry doesn’t provoke; he attacks, and continues attacking even after his adversary has folded. Sometimes when a caller tries to take a piece out of him, Barry will not just verbally beat them down but cut off their audio feed without telling the audience he’s done so and then rip into them for another few seconds, which makes it seem as if the person that used to be on the other end of the phone line was stunned into silence by his words. He’s a virtuoso of rage, and that’s more than enough to make him a local star and get a national radio syndicate interested in picking up the show.

But Barry can’t turn the rage off. He directs it at his coworkers, his supervisors, his romantic partners (currently his producer Laura, played by Leslie Hope) and himself. I know a lot of people who gave this movie a try but had to turn it off because Barry was too much to take. I get it. Even when you agree with him, he’s miserable and angry. Exciting, too, but not in a healthy way.

Star Eric Bogosian created Barry Champlain for the stage in a same-named play that debuted on Broadway in the late 1980s, where it was seen by film producer Ed Pressman. Pressman called one of his regular collaborators, director Oliver Stone, who’d had a three-film winning streak with “Salvador,” “Platoon” and “Wall Street” but had recently been told that his next movie, the antiwar drama “Born on the Fourth of July,” would be delayed eight months while his star Tom Cruise finished making “Rain Man” with Dustin Hoffman. Stone filled his schedule gap with “Talk Radio” and combined Bogosan’s play with elements from the nonfiction book “Talked to Death,” about the murder of Alan Berg, a Denver-based, Jewish talk radio host with progressive politics, by a member of a neo-Nazi terrorist group.

Everything about the movie feels unstable and potentially explosive, so much so that when Barry launches into his most paranoid and unhinged monologue yet, cursing the world itself and attacking his listeners for listening to him, and the main set seems to rotate slowly around Barry, it’s as if somebody is winding up a timer attached to a bomb. Although Stone didn’t create the character, Barry is a consummate Oliver Stone hero, a creature of nearly mythological force, shouting prophecies and curses at a burning world. When a right-wing listener sends him a dead rat wrapped in a Nazi flag, Barry’s reaction is a mix of fear, disgust, and wonderment, as if he’s realized that if he’s pissing off these kinds of people this much, he must be great at his job.

This aspect of Barry’s story is why I became obsessed with “Talk Radio” 36 years ago after seeing it in a Dallas theater. He was an antihero in the tradition of so many ‘70s film protagonists: somebody you weren’t supposed to like, but to find interesting, even when he was at his most loathsome.

The parts of the movie that I didn’t like and that frankly didn’t think was necessary or interesting were the flashbacks to Barry’s rise to success and the corresponding disintegration of his relationship with his wife Ellen (Ellen Greene), which are tied into a subplot about Barry swallowing his pride over destroying the relationship and asking Ellen to come to Dallas and counsel him the weekend before the show is supposed to go national. Ellen’s ease with diving into the old dynamic (even after Laura answers the phone when Ellen calls, and Barry lies and claims she’s his secretary) didn’t seem plausible to me back in 1988. When Ellen called into the show in the present-day part of the story, throwing a life preserver to a man drowning in a sea of his own bile, I think I might’ve rolled my eyes, because it seemed like more grownup version of a male fantasy of a woman getting turned on by a man’s hatefulness. Barry used and abused her at every stage. I never saw anything I recognized as real love flowing from Barry to Ellen, only from Ellen to Barry.

Did you already figure out that I was 19 when I saw “Talk Radio” for the first time and had yet to begin my first long relationship with a woman? Well, that’s why I didn’t get it. Angry young men are drawn to films like this, perhaps more so than other types of viewers, because they center the antihero and put you inside his head at least part of the time, and while they aren’t forcing you to identify with them, they make it pretty easy. But this movie is more subtle, I think, which probably seems like a strange assertion considering how unrelentingly intense it is.

Stone gets criticized for being less interested in female characters than male ones, and having a misogynistic streak. Setting aside the particulars of why I think this is complicated (i.e. not entirely fair or unfair) I don’t think it applies to “Talk Radio” at all. It’s observing a dynamic that’s real. There are a lot of guys like Barry who take their partners for granted or just plain use them (women can do this, too) and there are absolutely a lot of female partners of dynamic/abrasive men who spend their lives lugging a fire extinguisher under one arm in case their man flips out and starts trying to burn things down. (Sometimes you see a relationship like this where the typical gender roles are flipped. Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones in “Blue Sky,” for instance. Or my mother and stepfather.)

The Barry-Ellen relationship rings progressively more true to me the older I get and the more experience I have as a significant other—and, frankly, as a human being who has spent a lot of time observing other relationships and has gotten to the point where I can spot codependency from the other side of a room before a couple has even been introduced to me. Barry and Ellen are codependent in a complicated, real way. That’s why they don’t struggle before slipping into old patterns.

At one point, Ellen calls into Barry’s show and lies down on a black table in an unused studio as if she’s waiting for a lover to walk in and get busy. It’s theatrical–not a complaint, just an observation–and I wonder if that’s why I thought it was reductive or silly on first viewing. It’s closer to a kind of expressionism or symbolic choreography, like the kind you see in the staging of plays or dance numbers, where people pose in a way that embodies an idea or metaphor.

This is a brilliant movie, one that not only gets better and richer the more often I revisit it, but that’s filled with truths about the human condition, not just the media or America or sociology or history. You can see yourself represented in it, whether it’s as Barry, Ellen, another character at the radio station, or one of Barry’s listeners, who love him even when they hate him, and the reverse, and spend way too much time wondering if he’ll save or destroy himself, or if that’s out of their hands, and Barry’s.

-Matt Zoller Seitz, "30 Minutes On: Talk Radio," RogerEbert.com, October 11, 2024

[aella-targaryen]

Don’t get my wrong, I love Matt…but these last two episodes, Daemon’s entire persona just isn’t a vibe. Again, I love him & he’s my favorite character so far. But the lack of screen time during pivotal scenes between him & Rhaenyra…he feels like he’s just there, ya know? I really just thinks it’s the directors fault, though!

Daemon and his vulnerability

Dear anon

Well in the ep. 6 he was clearly depressed and that may be the explanation for his behavior but in the ep.7...

I'm pretty sure Matt is following orders from the director because that's the only explanation for so many people seeing him that way during the episode 7.

Like Emma, ​​Matt has a natural charisma and a magnetic aura of sensuality. They may not be the most pretty people in the cast (again, it's all because of the media guys) but they are definitely the most attractive actors. Anyone can be aesthetically beautiful, but only a few can be attractive and that is more important than physical appearance.

But apparently Sapochnik went to great lengths to hide that attractiveness.

Do you remember that scene in episode 5, when Daemon suddenly walked into the banquet looking like a god because his strong sex appeal? That scene left us all breathless and it was just Matt walking into a room, it shouldn't be a big deal, but HE MAKES IT A BIG DEAL.

Matt in ep. 7 looks dark, sexy, romantic and seductive but you, me and almost everyone know that is not his true potential.

And do you know why I think Sapochnik made him behave like that?

Because he wants Daemon to be a cool guy, a handsome bad boy and a cold antihero, the typical hollow stereotype. Someone who doesn't quite show his feelings of vulnerability because he's "too cool for school".

Although many say that he was sad about Laena's death (something completely understandable) to many people it does not seem so. To most of us he seemed only cold and indifferent. Even for me, a huge fan of Daemyra and Matt.

Do you know which characters remind me of Daemon? Prince Philip from The Crown and Loki.

Both characters are cheeky, sexy, charismatic men with grumpy personalities who are often seen as the stereotypical cool and bad guy. But both Loki and Philip were very well written and developed characters precisely because they showed their vulnerability and their feelings.

They are both strong men (Philip is very masculine) but in emotional moments they show their vulnerability.

Matt tries at all the time to express that vulnerability because he knows his character perfectly but Sapochnik ruins it by moving the camera away from his face and not showing us his facial and body expressions in the most critical moments. All because he wants to make Daemon look like a "tough guy".

It would have been wonderful for me to see Daemon cry. Cry just a little or with only slightly teary eyes. For his years of sadness and depression, for losing his friend Laena, for the pain of his daughters, for having left the woman he loved alone with her enemies, for his brother, for happiness perhaps for marrying or having sex with Rhaenyra.

Even Rhaenyra lets out a small tear when she watches her childhood friend try to gouge out one of her children's eyes and then that friend spits all her hate in her face.

Expressing vulnerability is one of the most attractive things about a person.

We've already seen Daemon's vulnerability when he tenderly rests his head on the shoulders of Viserys, Misarya and Caraxes or how he looks confused and overwhelmed by his emotions when he kisses Rhaenyra.

Daemon seems to only come out in the wedding scene and I hope it was to show from that point on that he will no longer be the cold, tormenting man we saw in the ep. 7 and instead he will be presented like a strong man who can command an army but who can also show a little affection to his wife and children.

[porkums-my-beloved]

Some thoughts on how Wilbur being American influences the Dream SMP:

So, now we know that Wilbur is from Utah. This lends itself to a lot of reflection on how exactly, this part of his identity lends itself to the way he acted in the events of the DSMP.

Firstly, it brings up the question of why, exactly, he was involved in l'manburg. Joining a country that stands against oneself is strange, no?

Well, it can easily be explained with a single phrase: internalized Americanophobia. It's become more and more common with the development of the internet, but hatred of one's own country is a very normal feeling, especially for younger people.

Now, Wilbur's character absolutely fascinates me. He seems to simultaneously not understand himself, and hates the bits of him that he believes he does understand. This aspect easily lends itself to Americanophobia, and his intensity is explained by his love of personas.

Wilbur is a character who is obsessed with personas. When he finds a trait that he identifies with, he goes all out- a key example of which is his insistence that he's a villain, post-exile. Regardless of whether this has any basis in reality, Wilbur is so insecure in his identity that he latches onto things his mind deems as "stable" (also explaining his attachment to Tommy, but that's for another time).

Even after he was revived, and decided that he wants to improve as a person, Wilbur still finds a persona. This persona, of course, has been a conflicted antihero. Although it's far more complex than those before, Wilbur still plays into a character.

But what does this all have to do with the repression of his American-ness? Well (and this is getting more into theory than analysis), his hatred of America is not new. It isn't too unrealistic to picture a young Wilbur, stuck in a dead-end job and studying a part of the world that he views as superior. His accent, after all, is convincing enough to make people who are truly British think that he is one of them. That doesn't happen quickly.

Despising America is also a rather simple way to convince the people around him that he's not from there. For example, referring to most parts of the U.S. with the blatantly inaccurate term "Ohduidaho" (pronounced oh-dew-eye-dah-ho) makes the people around him think that he knows very little about America, and doesn't care enough to learn.

Now, let's picture Wilbur's choice to lie about his home country. He had recently found a new land, one where no one knew him and he had a fresh start. Most of the people around him were European, and he had a great opportunity to begin anew. He introduces himself with the accent he's spent years perfecting, and everyone believes him. It's all he's ever wanted, but it also primes him to lie to his new friends.

When he decides to make a new country, he uses his new persona as a way to convince everyone just how non-American it is. He's finally 100% British.

Now we get to potential plotholes. As we all know, Philza is Wilbur's father. So why, exactly, would Philza not call out his son for lying about his identity?

He doesn't know that it's a lie.

Wilbur craves the attention of his father. A good explanation for this is a strong separation between the two. Maybe Philza has been separated from his wife and son for so long that he sees it as entirely plausible that they could have moved to England since he last saw them. Just because he left them in Utah does not mean that they've stayed in Utah.

There's a lot more to get into on this topic, but I have to grab dinner and then read the entirety of Dante's Inferno for the seventeenth time. I hope you appreciated my take on the new information we got on Wilbur's DSMP character.

[san-fics]

Why the authors of Miraculous Ladybug hate Felix so much

It’s obvious that Felix is important — and they can’t deny it, and couldn’t even resist making him to be the reason of a big Ladybug’s failure in season 4 finals. And they left him in that scene looking at the burning Paris side by side with her anyway (the scene from PV-trailer, where Ladybug looks at the burning city together with Felix-Chat Noir).

Funny dynamics, isn’t it?

But why? Couldn’t they use Lila as a villain-type role? Or even Chloe?

And why did they even brought Felix back after saying that he won’t appear in the show?

On my opinion, the answer is purely psychological.

Felix is like a first born son to show, that they had to give away and someone else raised him...) — and that is why we often see Felix as an older sibling in fanfictions — because the fans intuitively feel his status.

Felix is more mature in comparison to a playful and sheltered Adrien, who of course took some hardness from his father (that we saw for example when he made Lila get Mari back to school and some other moments), but still much softer then Felix.

Adrien has his feminine side a little too developed sometimes. That’s how he gives the ruling role to Ladybug, for instance, although they start out as equal partners. And even when she becomes a Guardian, Chat Noir whines and suffers from her secrets instead of making a firm stand.

But also being so soft as Adrien! They even made him a princess to be saved! Come on! Is this what you expect from the leading male character?

So while Adrien is nice and all, he can never reach Felix’s potential of freedom and inner strength (not to be confused with the bravery, ‘cause that he has).

I think the authors of the show hate Felix for this, for being strong, self-sufficient, extremely smart, playful in his own way, but strict at the same time, taking from life what he wants and making decisions that he considers necessary. And with all that inner depth and outer freedom they had to refuse him. Give him up for sweet Adrien.

So now that they were aloud to bring him back to the show, they can’t stand but show his strength and importance, even making him an antihero (not the villain, btw, ‘cause he didn’t actually hurt anyone directly, but left to the hero’s fight their own fights, and played on their weaknesses in order to get what he wants.

After all — nobody asked Ladybug to give him that miraculous.

Felix also has a great relationship with his mother, which makes him potentially much more adequate in building relationships with a girl, while Adrien's position would be distorted by rigidity (taken from his father) on the one hand and infantilism on the other.

To naive children for whom this show is made, Adrinette couple seems perfect, but in practice the two would not last long together. At the same time Felix would found the way to conquer Mari if he wanted to and found how to build a deep relationship. And with passion everything would be good as well.

That’s why I love to write Canon Felinette much more then even PV. I mean, PV are sweet and classic, but Canon Felix, who returned to the show as an antihero has just SO MUCH MORE potential.

I can see him as a strong man next to Marinette, with this girl changing the direction of his actions with her warm heart, and he can be that internally strong support that she really needs. Because while Adrien-Chat says the encouraging words based by his belief he n good, Felix would make sure that the good would happen, no matters the ways of reaching it.

He also wouldn’t stop by her rejections like Adrien did if he fell for any of Mari’s guises — I’d rather expect him to trick her into falling in love with him — until it wouldn’t be important why and how their romance started.

Because we saw that he is ready to play till the end to reach his goal, and not only with honest and direct methods that both Marinette and Adrien mostly use.

And Mari herself — who can still phones and dress funny to sneak to Adrien’s house — much closer to Felix’s way of acting, so honestly — they would understand each other much better then the “go the higher road” boy — once they would have a common goal.

So I see I went a little further then just the “why the MLB-authors hate Felix” topic, but it’s all about the same. Felix has a strong position to be at the leading male role in this show, and they feel it, and they’ll use him as such, even if they will have to turn him to the other side of the barricades.

Just because they cant let him go from their mind.

Drama of life)

[lumilasi]

Decided that I need to make at least something for this Pride Month, and since I have lot of LGBT+ ocs....anyway. Drawing multiple oc portraits at once always results in some not coming out that well ugh. Well I tried.

Hope I got the flags right, there’s so many and I’m not familiar with all of them OTL Also the comments included for the characters are kinda random.

I actually have another set I could make a second rainbow out of, although IDK if I have enough redesigns ready to fill all seven spots..?

More info of each character below:

Konjou: Antagonist/neutral, Belladonna’s estranged son, summons vines from his body as his primary weaponry. Boyfriend named Jinchou

Ayame: Hero side character, Snow-woman who’s basically the honorary mother figure of the family she’s a guardian of. Currently single (potential GF pending)

Yaguro: Antihero/minor antagonist, corrupted moth-spirit (I.E, more powerful and violent type) has personal vendetta against Belladonna due to BG story reasons. Yume’s companion & love interest. 

Belladonna: One of the main villains, A forest witch who made some terrible choices with her parenting due to pride, girlfriend Amalia Marek

Yume: Antihero/neutral side character, A shadow witch who was tasked by her great grandma’s spirit to stop Belladonna’s antics. Yaguro is her companion and love-interest. She also often has innocent fan-crushes on other women

Yuushi: Important side character, A “Death Vestige” (kind of a soul-reaper) which is basically just a hive mind creating a mortal body to fulfill a mission. Outward appearance of the vessel depends on the person they are searching for, in this incarnation, the vessel “Yuushi” is biologically male, but the hive-mind itself doesn’t have one, and changes how the vessel appears each mission. Love interest Jurou. (Jurou chose the bows to him, trying to pick something that’d be closest fit)

Yoruga: Minor antagonist, A normal moth-spirit, often acts childish and like he’s some funny weirdo, in truth he’s quite intelligent and really skilled with sharp pointy things. No romantic interest, but close platonic bond with his best friend Kiyoi, and Kiyoi’s BF Kouya. 

[lokiondisneyplus]

No character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has the staying power of Loki. Portrayed with just the right amount of smarm and charm by Tom Hiddleston, the impish trickster with the ability to shapeshift and cast illusions is a favorite among fans despite the fact he's betrayed friends and family multiple times since debuting opposite Chris Hemsworth in 2011's "Thor." The most predictable thing about him might be his unpredictability. And yet no one thought the character would return to the MCU after being killed by the all-mighty Thanos (Josh Brolin) in the opening scene of 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War." However, we're now on the cusp of the character leading his very own show.

Debuting Wednesday, June 9 on Disney+, the six-episode "Loki" follows a past version of the character, though it's not a prequel. This Loki is the man who successfully stole the Tesseract, aka the Space Stone, when the Avengers traveled to the past in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame." His actions that day ultimately created a branched reality — the very thing the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) warned the Avengers about when they attempted to gather the stones in the past. So when the show picks up, Loki will find himself being forced to work with the Time Variance Authority, an organization dedicated to protecting the proper flow of time, to help restore the main timeline he broke when he fled with the Tesseract in 2012.

It remains to be seen whether or not the series is one of the shows Marvel's Kevin Feige said was developed with additional seasons in mind. But with this particular setup — and assuming the show operates independently of the main overarching narrative of the MCU — this is the type of series that could easily run for multiple seasons should the people involved desire it. And given his comments over the years, Hiddleston definitely seems game to portray Loki until he's too old to do so.

But what is it about the character, a Frost Giant who was adopted by Odin (Anthony Hopkins) as a baby and raised as an Asgardian, that has allowed him to persevere – especially when Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and even Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) have not? What gives Loki, a character who has been both villain and antihero, such longevity in the MCU? Is it Hiddleston himself? Is he nurturing goodwill with his enchanting performance? Is it the character's unpredictability keeping things fresh? Or is it the potential of a flawed man still searching for an identity and purpose?

Over the last decade, Hiddleston — whose name was once bandied about as a possible James Bond candidate after a stellar turn in "The Night Manager" — has won favor with Marvel and its fans thanks to his continued dedication to the role of Loki and his support of the extended universe. Some actors have been happy to say goodbye after fulfilling their contracts, but you'd be hard-pressed to find an actor who loves his job with Marvel more than Hiddleston. (Never forget the time he dressed up in character and took over Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013.) But in addition to his acting chops and commitment to the role of Loki, Hiddleston is also just an effortlessly charming individual, and some of that natural charisma bleeds into his performance, making the character a richer and more complex character as a result. And it's a good thing too because a character like Loki — someone ruled by his emotions, whose only allegiance is to himself, and who wouldn't think twice before double-crossing his own brother — runs the risk of becoming either very annoying or quite tired rather quickly. Luckily, Loki is neither.

After learning the truth of his origins in the first Thor film, Loki's anger toward his family and the betrayal he felt put him on a path to finding his purpose, which resulted in him becoming the mouthy and manipulative, power-hungry antagonist of the first Avengers movie. At the time, no one outside of Feige and other decision-making executives likely knew what was in store for the future of the MCU.

But now we can look back and see Hiddleston's captivating turn in "The Avengers," in which he attempts to take control of Earth using an army of Chitauri forces, was more than just the catalyst for the various heroes recruited by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to finally team up. It was also the beginning of what might be the best character arc in the entire MCU. No one save perhaps Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, has had a more complicated or effective emotional personal journey throughout the entirety of the Infinity Saga (and beyond). Perhaps that is why when Loki was eventually killed several films later in the middle of his redemption arc during the opening scene of "Infinity War," the heartbreak seemed to extend beyond the edges of the frame and into the real world.

The exceptionally fun 2017 film "Thor: Ragnarok," which immediately preceded "Infinity War," saw Loki forced to confront his past and make a decision regarding his future. The death of his father and the return of Hela (Cate Blanchett), the Goddess of Death and the sister neither Loki nor Thor knew existed, ultimately meant the end of life as he knew it. But rather than fleeing at the first chance like everyone assumed he would, Loki accepted his place in his family and returned to his brother's side after the destruction of Asgard. Of course, he also pocketed the Tesseract before the planet was destroyed, a seemingly innocuous decision that would unfortunately lead Thanos right to him. But learning to care about something more than his own immediate wants was a redeeming moment for Loki, as was his attempt to save Thor from Thanos, so his death was both an effectively heartbreaking moment that resonated with fans while serving as a harbinger of what was to come.

It also felt like closure, so when a past version of Loki popped up in "Avengers: Endgame" when Tony, Cap, and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) traveled to 2012, it was a pleasant surprise. That the new series "Loki" follows this branched-reality version of the character and won't erase the character's original narrative arc is what makes the show such an intriguing new chapter. When the show premieres, Loki hasn't gone through any sort of character evolution. He is still the angry man who tried to force all of humanity to kneel before him in a desperate attempt to find his place in the world. He has yet to go through the events of his mother's death or the destruction of Asgard. He's a man out of time, a man without a home. And it's the chaotic, still-in-progress nature of Loki and the inability to guess what he might do when an organization like the Time Variance Authority, which is dedicated to order, tries to force him to do what they say that makes this new chapter so exciting.

Each episode of the show, which also stars Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Judge Ravonna Lexus Renslayer, will see the character travel through time and space on a mission to restore order to the timeline. But will this Loki follow the same path as the man we know and love? Or will this version make different choices without Thor by his side? More importantly, will he find what he's looking for?

Loki is a man driven by insecurity and an ongoing struggle with his identity, though he deftly covers up his deficiencies with a devious wit and charm. The constantly shifting logo in the show's trailer represents both the character's shapeshifting ability as much as the idea that he doesn't know where he belongs or who he is yet. And although the beats of such a character arc are hardly new territory for Hollywood — you could argue they've even been done to death at this point — the potential for greatness still exists as Loki remains pleasantly unpredictable. It means anything can happen, and with Hiddleston promising a show that is unlike anything Marvel has ever done, there's no reason to believe Loki the man and "Loki" the show won't continue to endure and evolve even beyond this first season. After all, he certainly has the staying power.

"Loki" premieres Wednesday, June 9 on Disney+.

[supergirlfansworld]

So far, it looks like Supergirl's sixth and final season will be the end of the line for not only Kara Zor-El but also her Super Friends, including fellow superheroes Brainiac-5/Brainy and Nia Nal/Dreamer. Although there's potential for a Supergirl spinoff on The CW, showrunners Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller have confirmed they've yet to broacht the subject with the series' parent network. Of course, there's an alternate way to keep some of the Super Friends around.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow originated as a spinoff of The CW's Arrow and The Flash, but has since taken on an exceptionally wild life of its own. At the same time, the show has remained faithful to its original mission statement by featuring a rotating gallery of misfit superheroes and eccentric antiheroes, in addition to its core group of time-traveling do-gooders. That also makes it the perfect place for Brainy and Dreamer to go, assuming the pair are still alive and well by the time Supergirl Season 6 wraps up.

As the Season 6 two-parter "Prom Night!" and "Prom Again! illustrated, Brainy and Dreamer make for a great couple of time-travelers, even when they're not actively dating. More than that, the pair fit Legends of Tomorrow's ethos: they're both outcasts with emotional baggage, much of which can be attributed to their complicated relationships with their families. Plus, between Brainy's struggle to regulate his feelings in a healthy manner without his personality inhibitors and Dreamer's ongoing attempts to fully master her powers, they stand to benefit from having a support unit like the Legends.

They also wouldn't be the first heroes to jump from one DC TV show to Legends of Tomorrow. For example, Matt Ryan's John Constantine became a series regular during Season 4, giving the unconventional magician/occult detective a second lease on life after NBC's Constantine TV show was canceled in 2015. He's since gone on to become a fixture of the series, even now that it's delving well beyond the realm of the supernatural with its alien-oriented Season 6 storyline.

(xx)

[introvertguide]

In Honor of Bogey

Born on Christmas Day at the turn of the century, the acting legend Humphrey Deforest Bogart is considered the greatest male acting icon of the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was an early Christmas gift to the 20th century and eventually was recognized by the AFI as the greatest male star of classic American cinema. This is quite a title to hold with all the great actors of the last one hundred years, so I wanted to take a little space in my analysis of the AFI top 100 to recognize this acting icon.

He was a kid with a lot of potential and intelligence, but his parents were not very affectionate (according to him) and he grew up with a chip on his shoulder. He went to some prestigious East Coast schools but was expelled or left on many occasions and ended up in the Navy. He joined up following the end of WWI and was part of the time of American Military glory. He loved it. He even tried to re-enlist when WW2 broke out, but he was too old and was instead registered as a volunteer reserve with the Coast Guard. He didn't get started in films until 1930, but started stage acting after his naval service in 1921. He might have gotten his trademark scar on his lip while in the Navy, but he got in a lot of scraps so it is not really certain where it came from.

Scars aside, Humphrey Bogart was a very good looking person that just exuded the ideal of manliness for the time. He started playing roles of young impetuous men and moved on to gangsters and villains. He did some work with James Cagney in a film called The Roaring Twenties. He met many woman with his star power and brutish manliness, marrying 4 times over his life before finally settling down with the fabulous Lauren Becall in 1945. He was part of the famous "Rat Pack" of the 50s. He was just so cool.

Since this is part of the AFI top 100 review, I want to cover the four movies on the list he was in as well as a couple other American classics:

High Sierra (1941) - Nominated for AFI Top 100 but not ranked

This was a big opportunity for Bogart because it was a leading gangster role written by his drinking buddy John Huston. The part had been turned down by some of the great actors of the time, including James Cagney. Bogart had been getting a lot of small roles and appeared in as many films as he could at the time (he is credited in 20 movies between 1937 and 1939), but this was a big break as a leading man. He worked alongside Ida Lupino, which caused jealousy issues with his wife at the time, Mayo Methot.

The Maltese Falcon (1941) - AFI #31

This was a career starter for Bogart as the no nonsense anti-hero with a chip on his shoulder and a heart of gold. This film was also turned down by other more established leading actors (George Raft) because it was a remake of the same story that was done in 1931. He played the part of Sam Spade (great name), a detective in search of a bejeweled object while getting in way over his head. Bogie had a great smoky voice and his film noir narratives set the standard for the genre. It was also the directorial debut of John Huston. Humphrey Bogart was known for downplaying his work (such a hipster), but this was a film for which he openly showed pride.

Casablanca (1942) - AFI #3

This was Bogart's first real romantic lead as an expatriate in Africa at the outbreak of WWI. As far as my generation is concerned, this is his most famous role and cemented the man as a Hollywood icon. This movie won Best Picture and got him nominated for Best Actor, vaulting Bogart past James Cagney as the highest paid actor in Hollywood at the time (half a million a year; that is nothing to sneeze at now much less right after the Great Depression).

The Big Sleep (1946) - Not on AFI Top 100

This was arguably the most well known of the four movies that Bogart starred in with Lauren Bacall. His wife at the time, Methot, was jealous and was afraid that Bogart was cheating on her. He was. He and Methot got a divorce and he almost immediately married Bacall. Bogart also got a little bit weird at the time because he tried to sign up for the Navy and then bought a yacht, allowed use of it by the Coast Guard, and then patrolled around the California coast with numerous weekends around Catalina. The film was actually scheduled to be released in 1945, but had a bunch of scenes of sexual innuendo added in to play up the real life relationship of Bogart and Bacall.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1947) - AFI #38

This was a film that showed the genius of Huston's writing and Bogart's acting. It was a chance to for Bogart to show off his grittiness and willing to suffer for his art. He character was one of three greedy men with stake on a gold claim that was more than enough for all three, but constant fear of backstabbing (literally and figuratively) causes problems. The movie was filmed in the Sierras during the summer heat and Bogart looked pretty bad. The movie lacked a love interest and highlighted dissension amongst a group, so Huston and Bogart (an outspoken liberal democrat) were mentioned in the Un-American Activities trial that was looking for Communists. Bogart wrote an article entitled "I'm No Communist" and distanced himself from anyone accused, but still had a slight reputation for being outspoken about first amendment rights.

Key Largo (1948) - Not on AFI Top 100 but nominated for AFI Top 10 Gangster Films

The last film that featured the couple. In this movie, their characters were stuck in a Florida hotel during a hurricane. It was another John Huston directed film noir and featured Bogart's character boating around and taking out gangsters one by one. There is a somewhat racist subplot of hunting down some wanted Native Americans that a known gangster pins a murder on. That aspect of the movie always bothered me. A real standout that somewhat upstages Bogart (interestingly enough with his help) is actually the gangster's girlfriend who sings a song for the group to earn a drink. She plays a great part as a woman attracted by the villainous lifestyle and then becomes trapped in an abusive relationship. Actress Claire Trevor, who Bogart liked very much and encouraged throughout the film, won Best Supporting Actress for her part in the story.

The African Queen (1951) - AFI #65

Maybe the film with the most star power during the Old Hollywood Era, this film starts Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, perhaps the two biggest stars of American film. It was his first film in Technicolor and the role won him his one and only Oscar for Best Actor. The film was shot in the Belgian Congo and once again proved Bogart's toughness. This was again a John Huston directed film and it is interesting that both of the stars of the film had friends in very high places that kept them acting in great roles: Humphrey Bogart had John Huston and Katharine Hepburn had Howard Hughes. I want to note that, in my humble opinion, this was neither actors best work but they both were given a lot of credit for braving the elements and appearing on screen looking haggard.

The Cain Mutiny (1954) - Nominated for AFI Top 100 but not ranked

This was the last film that Bogart was relatively happy with, although he had to drop his salary to get the part and he was bitter about it. The part of a paranoid captain earned the actor his final Oscar nomination, but it did not really bring the same satisfaction as earlier roles. Huston wrote Bogey's characters as a loner and an antihero with an internal warmth and humor. This character did not have the charm that exuded from Bogart, the person.

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Humphrey Bogart continued with high profile roles like starring with Aubrey Hepburn in Sabrina (1954) and Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Contessa (1954), but he was starting to get sick from a life of smoking and drinking. He was also in his mid 50s and couldn't play that charming young loner that he was so famous for. He had started to come across as old and didn't have his youthful charisma. He really hated working with Billy Wilder and didn't want to be the distinguished older gentleman in Sabrina. He didn't want to work with Ava Gardner because she had just broken up with his drinking buddy, Frank Sinatra. These films were successful and Bogart was a true professional, but I would not call it his best work by any means.

Humphrey Bogart was a great actor and a true Hollywood icon. Through research and watching interviews, I don't think that he would have been somebody that I liked personally because he drank and smoked heavily while enjoying arguments and confrontation. He came off as a bit of a contrarian in his later interviews and that is something that has bothered me. Don't meet your heroes. It does not lessen his accomplishments as an actor nor does it reduce the number of great films he has starred in. Just because he wouldn't be my best friend doesn't mean he wasn't a great man. I still believe that he deserves the AFI honor of being Hollywood's most famous actor. Check out some of his works and see what you think.

[delianam]

Hola que tal XD, Como mencione en la publicación anterior este Fanart está basado en una historia mía que estoy escribiendo de un Universo Alternativo de DP. (Idea que se me paso por la mente gracias al “Multiverso” jejeje está de moda últimamente XD; aunque esto viene de hace algunos años atrás, y actualmente los científicos de hoy en día están estudiando y es unas de las Hipótesis más aceptadas y que están en proceso de confirmar). Este fanfiction esta centrado en DanxSam de diferentes universos alternos, mi ship favorito <3…

Sinopsis:

Esta historia se desarrolla en otro Universo alterno de DP, en donde los eventos de la explosión de Nasty Burger ocurrieron pero en vez de morir la familia y amigos, el que muere es el propio Danny al protegerlos de la explosión T_T, y por lo tanto en su memoria, ahora son ellos los que protegen ambos mundos (la zona fantasma y la tierra). Han transcurrido 10 años desde entonces, hasta que cierto día fatídico ocurre una nueva amenaza se presenta, ocasionando no solo la destrucción de ambos mundos sino del universo y de todas las dimensiones que existen. Por lo tanto Clockwork ya tenía previsto esta gran amenaza y por el cual ya tiene a su Héroe para la tarea, o mejor dicho un Antihéroe solo que esa persona no lo sabía aun.

Y esta es la pequeña sinopsis quiero que mi héroe en esta historia sea Dan Phantom, a pesar de que originalmente es malo me gusta este personaje y tiene mucho potencial para explotar, en esta versión de Dan quiero darle la oportunidad de ser el héroe que una vez fue, porque si Danny tuvo su segunda oportunidad de cambiar su destino porque no su yo del futuro!?, a pesar de haber hecho cosas terribles y bien quien no lo ha hecho?, errar es de humano no todos somos perfectos. Y para mi muy en el fondo Dan sigue siendo Danny fenton y en esta historia será su redención...

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Hello how about XD, As I mentioned in the previous post this Fanart is based on a story of mine that I am writing about an Alternative Universe of DP. (Idea that crossed my mind thanks to the "Multiverse" hahaha is in fashion lately XD; although this comes from a few years ago, and currently scientists today are studying and it is one of the most accepted hypotheses and that are in the process of confirming).This fanfiction is focused on DanxSam from different alternate universes, my favorite ship <3…

Synopsis:

In short, this story takes place in another alternate Universe of DP, where the events of the Nasty Burger explosion occurred but instead of the family and friends dying, the one who dies is Danny himself by protecting them from the T_T explosion, and therefore Therefore in their memory, now they are the ones who protect both worlds (the ghost zone and the earth). 10 years have passed since then, until a certain fateful day occurs, a new threat appears, causing not only the destruction of both worlds but also the universe and all the dimensions that exist. Therefore Clockwork had already planned this great threat and for which he already has his Hero for the task, or rather an Antihero only that that person did not know yet.

And this is the small synopsis I want my hero in this story to be Dan Phantom, even though he is originally bad I like this character and he has a lot of potential to exploit, in this version of Dan I want to give him the opportunity to be the hero that one Once it was, because if Danny had his second chance to change his destiny, why not his future self!? Despite having done terrible things and well, who has not done it? To err is human, we are not all perfect. And for me deep down, Dan is still Danny Fenton and in this story it will be his redemption...

[danwhobrowses]

MCU: 10 Ways WandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier are the Same

So now we have 2 of Marvel's Phase 3.5 shows in the books, and both have been pretty great. In the 7 week wait for Loki though we'll have time to mull things over.

When watching the Falcon & Winter Soldier finale though, I started to notice that there were some patterns between it and Wandavision. While two completely different stories they did share some similar beats, so here's 10 I spotted and thus 10 to look out for when Loki comes around.

Spoilers for WandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier, give it a watch before you give this a look

10 - Villains become Memes

While one can contest that Zemo acts more as an antihero in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, he still provides an antagonistic edge in the story. However, both he and Agatha became villains that had charisma to charm the audience, and their actions brought about multiple memes. On Agatha's side there was the wink, Agatha All Along and her in the fitness outfit, while with Zemo there was the 'it captures the experience', his iconic dancing and Turkish Delight. While not a story beat on the shows, the writers must've known that fans would gravitate to these characters to give them such content to use. Also add a hat tip to John Walker who got his own memes too with him about to embed the shield into a dude's chest, and Wanda herself for her nose scrunch being used as a meme alongside Thor's 'is it though?'.

9 - The Government aren't exactly helpful

While the Government aren't entirely the enemy in the show, they don't do well to stay on our heroes' good side. In WandaVision, they enhance Wanda's grief in the fact that she can't even lay him to rest, SWORD instead deciding that her lover is government property and they are harvesting his 'organs' and vibranium skin as a resource to use for weapons. On Falcon & Winter Soldier, the US Government deliberately deceive Sam by having him hand over the shield to put in a museum, only to then take it out and give it to John Walker without even telling Sam or Bucky about it. In addition when they disavow Walker they try to reclaim the Shield - which, as the Contessa does reveal, isn't technically their property either. While Falcon & Winter Soldier delved deeper into the government's lack of help through the GDC subplot motivating the Flag Smashers, there were still similarities found with how SWORD - which is quite different to its comic version - antagonizes Wanda. In the end all this escalates because of them, and in the end neither of them get to keep the Vibranium.

8 - 'Good Person' is Bad Guy

Although there's a more supernatural threat in both stories, the characters end up having their trust betrayed by people they believed to be decent. For WandaVision it is current Director of SWORD, Director Hayward, who appears adamant in silencing Wanda after using her as a means to power up White Vision as a programmable weapon. For Falcon & the Winter Soldier, it's Sharon Carter - descendant of Steve's beau who he also made out with - the discarded agent who gave up a lot for the heroes only to not get it in return, remaining enemy of the state and becoming the Power Broker. The shows can also have this reserved for 'Agnes' and John Walker but in the end people expected them to break bad from day 1. You could make a statement for Wanda since she looks to be an antagonist for Doctor Strange 2 though.

7 - The MCU add a little history

Marvel has had a habit of changing Wanda's (and Pietro's) origin on a whim, the MCU deciding to source their powers on an Infinity Stone. Doing this however left a gap in the fact that Wanda is a Witch, which they cleaned up in WandaVision. Treading back on the Scarlet Witch being a mantle (though cutting her mother being a Scarlet Witch before her) as it is in the comics, they changed Wanda's powers from being latent and amplified by the stone rather than gifted to the stone itself. Falcon & Winter Soldier added to their history with the impactful Truth: Red, White and Black story, adding Isaiah Bradley into the MCU to further layer the conflict and tragedy Sam faces with being Captain America. Both are welcome additions to the MCU timeline, setting up for newer things to come in Phase 4 Movies.

6 - The hero wins the fight, but not the day

Winning isn't always winning, as Wanda and Sam would discover upon the finale of their respective shows. Wanda defeats Agatha and Hayward is forced to face his crimes, but she has also come to terms with the face that the Hex must go, and in turn her family with it. While the Hex has freed all its residents, Wanda knows that she's not on anyone's good side either with the people she subconsciously enslaved. Sam gets it a little better, he's recognized himself as Captain America and given a patented 'Cap-speech', but he was unable to save Karli Morgenthau from being killed, someone who he was once so close to reaching and sympathized heavily with. Although the Super Soldier threat is neutralized, the Flag Smashers' ideals will live on to further radicalize itself, and its vision will further sow conflict and division.

5 - (Mostly) Bigger Roles for old MCU Side Characters

Never one to shy past their crossovers, Wandavision and Falcon & the Winter Soldier both brought back side characters - some more obscure than others - from older films to gel into the plot. WandaVision brought back Darcy from the Thor franchise and Jimmy Woo from Ant Man & the Wasp to great comedic effect, fans already wanting a spin-off with them and possibly Monica - who may also count but technically not the same actress, the same can be said for 'Pietro' too. Falcon & the Winter Soldier stayed primarily in their lane of Captain America movies; with Batroc and Sharon both debuting in Winter Soldier and Dora Milaje's Ayo debuting in Civil War, while it was less comedic, the story was more interwoven with them since they all had ties to the main two characters.

4 - [Person] is obviously [Character]

Possibly a bit of a narrative backdrop, or maybe years of MCU has clued us in on a plot twist a mile away, but both shows also were unable to hide well that Agnes from WandaVision and Sharon from Falcon & Winter Soldier were in fact Agatha Harkness and the Power Broker. It's not to say that knowing ruined the story, it just felt more of a 'when' rather than an 'if'. The main difference though is that Sharon managed to keep her villainy secret, and remains that way, while Agatha went too far in trying to take Wanda's power rather than help her with it and has now become stuck as Agnes instead.

3 - New Blood coming on the Hero Scene

While the shows already did their job in setting up Wanda and Sam as big league heroes, they also looked a bit more in establishing new blood too. WandaVision established the potential for the twin Maximoff boys to grow into Wiccan and Speed - once Wanda finds a way to re-canonize them, Falcon & the Winter Soldier also made sure to introduce Elijah Bradley, Isaiah's grandson, which may also aid in establishing a Young Avengers team - what with Kate Bishop also soon to appear in Hawkeye. WandaVision also created the origin for Monica Rambeau, having her body altered by the Hex, which will likely be furthered in Captain Marvel 2, Falcon & the Winter Soldier also established John Walker as the US Agent to leave a potential for Thunderbolts, as well as introducing Joaquin Torres - opening the possibility to have a new Falcon. While not a bad thing to set up for the future, it is interesting that both shows had exactly 3 names that could become future heroes.

2 - 'Villain' character partly redeems themselves after a Grief-Fuelled Mistake

Make no mistake, technically speaking Wanda is still a villain in WandaVision: she enslaved an entire town and suppressed them as side characters of a tv show. But the thing is that she didn't really intend to cause pain, it was an impulse action triggered by her grief. The same can be said for John Walker in Falcon & the Winter Soldier, he was already pressured by the standards being Captain America would entail and he was feeling the stress of a string of failures, a Dora Milaje humbling and a frosty reception from Steve's two close friends, juiced up on Super Soldier serum, and then his best friend just got killed because he didn't back him up, in a rage he killed a Flag Smasher with the shield - even though they were fleeing and not the one who killed Lemar, which he would lie about to Lemar's family. Despite this though, they managed to find some form of redemption, even if it was small. Wanda released the Hex and stopped Agatha from going haywire with her chaos magic, John gave up on his revenge seeking to save a truck from falling. Even though it doesn't entirely make up for what they did, it was at least a sign that they had not completely gone off the deep end...yet.

1 - Comic-Accurate Costumes

Comic costumes are always a tough one because some of the older costumes were borderline atrocious. WandaVision at the very least managed to poke fun at it with them dressing up most of the Maximoff/Vision family in their comic-accurate costumes, Speed getting a few more nods in the finale alongside Wanda's revamped and quite on the money look. In Falcon & Winter Soldier, there was accurate costuming for John Walker's US Agent look and Sam's Captain America costume, not to mention Lemar's Battlestar outfit, Zemo's mask and Batroc's jumpsuit.

Overall, it's not a bad thing that they kept these story beats, but it may be worth trying to avoid some of these in later tv show plot points so that it doesn't appear repetitive and formulaic. These shows have been great, so let's keep that momentum going.

[myevilmouse]

In Defense of The Rise of Skywalker

Or...how I learned to stop hating and enjoy a movie

Spoilers and random thoughts below the cut.

I hate the abomination that was/is The Last Jedi.  Let’s get that out of the way.  I’ve already explained the hundreds of reasons why, the biggest and most unforgivable being the character assassination of Luke “I call him Jake” Skywalker and the invalidation of every victory of the OT.  I resent this making people lump me into a “gatekeeper” sect, or accuse me of racism (Rose was annoying and ruined Finn’s heroism, jeopardizing hundreds of lives for her own selfish reasons without building up a convincing romance and blah blah etc).  It has nothing to do with her gender, race, or anything.  It has to do with poor character development and inconsistent motivations/messages. 

I’m also not a huge fan of The Force Awakens, mainly for its lack of originality and the treatment of Han/Leia, but otherwise I thought it was OK.  I liked Finn, wanted him to become a Jedi, found Poe to be a worthy heir to our antihero mold.  Rey left me indifferent and Kylo Ren was a temper-tantrum throwing teenager, but anyway...

Let’s keep that as background/context and not get bogged down.

Since they announced the title of this movie, I have been livid with rage. How dare they use my man’s name to sell their disgusting imitation of a beloved universe?  I was certain, ever since it was announced, that Rey would take Luke’s surname, despite having treated him so horribly in TLJ, despite having done nothing to earn it, despite having spent far more time with Leia, so if anything a Solo/Organa family name would make more sense.  It was just to sell tickets and I was furious.

I read all the spoilers.  Worst fears:  confirmed.  I looked at leaked photos.  I raged over the inanity of the plot and the sad conclusion to the Skywalker Saga, which in my mind will always end with ROTJ.

Still, I love Mark Hamill, and I decided to treat this film as a MH film. The completist in me required theatrical viewing.  Rare to get our man in a cinematic release.  So I went, ready to hate watch, prepared to dull the bitterness and betrayal with wine.

But….JJ Abrams directed a fix it fic.  And it’s good.  This film not just address the real injustices and horrible story decisions of TLJ, but also addresses some of the major problems of TFA too. 

I tried to go in with an open mind, but obviously I had many preconceived notions, and already knew almost every single story point and character beat.  I was ready to roll around in my hate and slam the abomination.  I want to emphasize that I am one of those people that was COMPLETELY prepared to hate EVERYTHING about this.

There are flaws. 

But there is so much that is great. 

I really really liked it. 

No one is more shocked than I at my own reaction.  I was ready/willing/wanting/primed to hate everything about this.  Please keep that in mind.  Hahah and no one is paying me to write this post 😉

I decided to write this because I also read all the negative critical reviews online from the pro critics yelling FAN SERVICE.  And I’m like…damn straight?  Ever since George Lucas made Han shoot second, fandom has understood that we understand this franchise better than film executives.  We aren’t concerned with adding an extra dewback or improving special effects.  We love these films the way we first experienced them, and they cannot and should not be “improved” to the ultimate detriment of the brand.

I’m here to tell you that the critics are not being fair.  The spoilers on reddit were true, but the movie works. Let’s accept, before we go further, that Abrams couldn’t entirely rewrite the mess that he stepped into/helped create. So I can’t defend the fact that Finn isn’t a Jedi yet or the mess that is the new Rebellion/failure of the old. I, like many fans, wish we had been given a different/better story from the beginning.  Sadly, we were not.

That is something we don’t have to accept (I certainly don’t consider these films “canon” in my mind—Mara Jade forever!) but let’s approach this film in the spirit it seems to be intended:  An attempt to address the very valid criticisms loudly voiced about the others in the trilogy, with the caveat that we are stuck with TFA and TLJ no matter how much we hate them.

First, the music is amazing, as we all knew it would be.  The acting is stellar.

Some of the things Abrams “fixed:”

“Rey is perfect/Mary Sue/good at everything”.  There is a conscious effort in this film to show her training, with Leia as her Master.  There is a good scene foreshadowing her final struggle, where she strains to hear the voices of Jedi past and fails.  There are several signs that she is not a Jedi yet, including how Palpatine talks about her, and perhaps my favorite, when she tells Leia she hasn’t earned Luke’s lightsaber.

Me: Damn straight you haven’t.

And Leia AGREES, keeping Luke’s weapon because Rey isn’t ready for it. She’s still learning.

Further proof of her non-Jedi status, when Rey is killed, she doesn’t join the Force.  She is a corpse.  On the other hand, Ben Solo, once redeemed, disappears as we would expect a good Jedi to do.  A clear distinction between the two of them.

And speaking of Leia:

Leia’s character:  TFA and TLJ Leia is weak and sends other people to fight, whereas our brave Princess from the OT is volunteering for suicide missions, grabbing weapons from the hands of her rescuers, and running into danger for a good cause.  It always bothered me that she didn’t go after Kylo herself (or with Han).  In this, we see her as a Jedi Master, training Rey, with her own lightsaber.  Leia is once more a badass, true to her character.  A legitimate Jedi who also joins the Force (although not sure why it took her so long post-mortem, that was weird).

Luke’s character:  Hello, I am A LUKE FANATIC.  The biggest sin of TFA and especially TLJ was this idea of Luke hiding out and becoming the disgusting, pessimistic coward he was shown to be.  Abrams ignores this pretty much entirely, starting with the revelation that Luke was actually going on missions with Lando to hunt for a Sith artifact to help the Rebellion.  Luke kept notes, he was busy and ACTIVE.  He wasn’t giving up; he was leaving a trail to help anyone who followed.  The best ‘fuck you’ in the whole movie was Luke catching Anakin’s lightsaber when Rey throws it away.  The ultimate rejection of his TLJ characterization.  

Luke’s conversation with Rey echoes very much the ROTJ “you must confront Vader” conversation.  There are many echoes of ROTJ but given the restrictions on what we are working with, I accepted this parallel.  Much like Luke had to face his unfortunate inheritance, so must Rey.  It’s not terribly original, but these films aren’t.

I also loved the simple line “I was wrong” when Rey asks why he did what he did in TLJ.  This to me is simply “Rian Johnson was wrong/The Last Jedi was wrong.”  There is no excuse that is acceptable, but this is a filmmaker acknowledging an injustice, and I appreciated it.  (Did I mention these films are not canon for me? They aren’t, just giving credit for this attempt.)

Han’s character:  I hated SO MUCH how they turned Han into a failure in TFA.  A buffoon, not even a good smuggler anymore, a failure as a father, a husband.  When I heard he was going to be in this I was like HUH?  But this “memory” of his father that Kylo Ren sees after Rey heals him and departs, after he’s lost his mother, is another attempt to redeem the injustice to Han’s character.  Han is the one in the movie who brings Kylo Ren back to the Light, not Rey.  It is a very short scene, but effective.  The acting is poignant, with the “Dad” working for me.  Maybe I’m a softie.  But I appreciated this brief proof that Han Solo, in the end, didn’t suck as a father, and ultimately, even as a hallucination, inspired the love that saved his son.

Chewbacca got a medal:  I said Abrams was fixing things in the sequels, but I admit I was choked up to see this fixit from A New Hope.  Finally Chewie gets the medal he is LONG overdue.

Team dynamic with the new characters:  Finally we understand why these people care about each other.  They go on shared adventures, they have banter (and some good jokes, not the stupid bathos of TLJ), and there is finally some sense of camaraderie that was discarded in TLJ.  There are several references to Rey’s “new family,” clearly referring to this band of Rebels, and it was far more compelling than in earlier films.

Finn’s Force Sensitivity:  I, like many, desperately wanted Finn to be a Jedi.  Since TFA, it seemed inevitable!  I loved how he used the lightsaber, how he seemed to have Force abilities (that were never really explored).  TLJ ignored that potential completely, sidelining him on that stupid Canto Bight quest and pulling him away from Rey.  There are so many signs that he is destined to be a Jedi in this film, I was thrilled to see them.  Knowing things without explanation, doing amazing things, sensing things, trusting his feelings, it’s another ‘fuck you’ in my opinion, to RJ for ignoring this former stormtrooper’s destiny in favor of overblown set pieces and pointless CGI theatrics.  When he says, towards the end “I can feel it,” I wanted to fist pump.  YOU GO BE A JEDI FINN!  THE FORCE IS WITH YOU.  Personally, I would have loved for Finn to be the main protagonist of all three films, but I appreciate us getting what we got, since we can’t get what we want.

Stuff that worked:

The Wedge cameo:  Yeah.

Lando:  Wonderful. His dialogue, especially at the beginning, does a lot to fix our view of Luke.

Kylo’s redemption:  See above re: Han.  I’ve seen a lot of criticism about the kiss.  I get the whole “female character’s purpose is to validate the evolution of the male” criticism, but I want to point out a couple things about this. First of all, it’s not a “Reylo” kiss. Kylo is gone.  This is well after Kylo is redeemed.  He’s been of the Light for a while before this, it’s clearly Ben at this point.  It’s also obvious Rey knows that, and like Luke forgave Vader for his abuse, she forgives Ben Solo for his.  So I understand also the criticism that is making people puke about Rey kissing her abuser, but again, Luke sheds tears for the father he loves, who maimed and traumatized him.  Star Wars is about redemption and forgiveness that accompanies it, and I don’t have the same issue with this.  If she kissed KYLO without him being redeemed before he died, for example, I would be disgusted.  This is not that.

The cinematography/pacing/story:  So many critics and the spoilers made it sound like this was a convoluted mess.  I went to see it with a non-native English speaker and neither of us had any trouble following the plot.  Yeah, a lot happens, but it all is linear and consistent within the film.

The humor/dialogue:  Felt way more Star Wars-y and better placed than the last two films.

The Jedi Helping Rey:  As much as I thought I would hate this, it was really well done, largely, I think, due to the foreshadowing during her earlier training.  When Palpatine says all the Sith live in him and we know what she’s gonna say but it still works SO WELL.  I was rooting for her and I’ve never been a huge fan.  But at that climactic moment, I was a believer.

Major flaws

Of course there are some.  For me the most major:

A Jedi Strikes Not In Anger: In every single lightsaber battle (pretty sure, I only saw the film once), Rey is the first to strike.  She always seems to be fighting from anger and with negative emotion.  This is not at all Jedi-esque and I found it particularly jarring in her duels with Kylo Ren.  This bothered me more than almost anything else in the film because it is never addressed.  She fights ANGRY and she fights FEARFUL and then somehow when she’s supposed to strike down Palpatine, she has it in her to resist.  This, above all else, makes me not like her as the “heir to the Jedi”.  I thought it was a real problem, and makes her ultimate evolution at the finale less convincing.

Rey Skywalker:  I get why they did it, but I stand by my earlier thoughts regarding taking the Solo or Organa name.  I have nothing against adopted families.  And I found it SLIGHTLY more palpable because since the Emperor refers to Ben as “the last Skywalker” and then since he transfers his entire life force into her, you can argue that she has “Skywalker” literally in her spirit now.  OK fine.  But I still don’t really think she earned it.  She came CLOSER than I thought she would and I didn’t ultimately want to burn down the cinema as I expected I would want to.

Force Resurrection:  No. Just no.  This changes so much and makes so much of the earlier films moot. Why wouldn’t Anakin just resurrect Padme?  Don’t get me started.

Other random new Force things:  Like Force Ghosts touching shit.  Yeah I know Obi Wan sat on the tree in Dagobah, I know, but we keep learning new and more powerful Force shit each film.  Teleportation of objects (that lightsaber?!), astral projection, rapid healing, and now playing catch with your ghost friends.  I get they are important to the story but it feels lazy.  But my exception here was Luke catching the saber because FUCK YOU RJ. 😊

Redemption=Death:  I wanted Kylo Ren to die for his sins too, but I recognize this strange thing we have going on in the GFFA that if a baddie goes good they die.  It’s the equivalent of the horror movie “fuck and the killer gets you” trope.  I didn’t necessarily mind Ben dying, but it seemed … lazy.

The final shot:  It was a mistake to even touch this iconic moment.  It wasn’t earned.  Make your own legend/iconic moment and leave my farmboy his.

Something no one can fix:  The sucky destinies of Luke Jake, Han, and Leia.  They didn’t live happy lives, they didn’t see the end of tyranny, they all died with only the hope of success.  I will never forgive the attempted destruction of the legacy of the OT (attempted cause it’s still how it all ends in my world), this disregard of the triumph of the Rebellion over the Empire, and I will never believe that the New Republic failed so completely and miserably.  Bring on the EU/Legends and forget this shit.

Final thought:  I went to this expecting the cinematic equivalent of a back alley abortion and instead I got what felt like an apology.  An entertaining and polished and sincere apology.  We deserved better, and I think the people who made this film realized that and did their best.  TROS had to wrap up something that was divisive and imperfect and misguided, and tried as hard as it could, in my opinion, given what they were working with.

It was a good movie.  Ambitious, with flaws, but I am glad I saw it, and I hope you will be too. <3  May the Force be with you.

[that-shamrock-vibe]

TV Review: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Spoilers)

Parts 4 & 5: Arrow & Legends of Tomorrow

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day after the episodes air in the U.S, so if you haven’t yet seen the final two parts of the crossover then don’t read on until you have.

Overview:

Wow! I can’t decide if it’s the fanboy in me but I am really impressed with how Warner Bros/DC and The CW were able to finish telling this ultimate crossover story. I will draw a lot of parallels to Avengers: Endgame in this review because you can’t really not but while obviously Infinity War and its conclusion in the comics was a massive event, Crisis is seismic, it is the event...in many respects it is Event One. So the pressure was on to not only payoff the last 8 years of storytelling in essentially 5 hours, but also honour this iconic comic-book event.

And did they do it? Well after a slightly shaky start with Arrow, in my humble opinion yes and, with Legends of Tomorrow no less, I think left audiences and fans especially with one exciting feast of food for thought...potential. There is so much potential and so many doors opened not just to our now core four shows, but for shows to come and even shows affiliated.

But with the doors now burst open for the future of the DC Multiverse, because after this I can’t just call it the Arrowverse anymore, just exactly where does The CW go from here?

Disclaimer: Because this was a two-part finalé of sorts and I am time-constrained with other responsibilities, I will be saying what I loved, what I hated and what I thought was “meh”, because there is still some “meh”.

The Great:

Earth-Prime:

So of course the first great thing for me was this new reality that all our main heroes find themselves now inhabiting, save for Oliver who I will get to. But yes, after the events of Arrow which saw our seven Paragons, and Spectre Oliver, supposedly defeat the Anti-Monitor and reboot the universe, they create Earth-Prime...as well as a new Multiverse but getting to that.

Earth-Prime now hosts not only the original inhabitants of Earth-1 (The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman etc) but also combines them with Earth-38 (Supergirl) and even Black Lightning’s Earth...which we never had an official designation for which is annoying.

So now, it’s widely speculated which state all of these relatively fictional cities are in, but from what I know you have Star City in Washington, Central City in Missouri, National City in California, Gotham City in New Jersey, Metropolis in New York and Freeland in Georgia. All of which are now in the same reality as they should have been from the start but I digress.

This is possibly a novelty that will soon wear off, particularly when our individual heroes face off against a big-bad and cannot call one of their new allies for help, but for the time being it is really awesome to see that not only has this happened, but it is a direct ramification of the events of the crossover that is permanent...this doesn’t get retconned and isn’t temporary...Earth-Prime is now the main setting of the Arrowverse.

Justice League?:

Right at the end of the episode when our main heroes (Genuinely everyone who is the main character of a current series or future series as well as Martian Manhunter are lined up) to mourn their fallen friend Oliver, it turns out that where they have decided to do this is the same S.T.A.R. Labs Hall that the first major team-up first assembled in.

The reasoning for this is because Barry has decided to make this all-star team-up official for “future missions” (meaning future crossovers) and even has brought in a round table with chairs for every member there as well as an empty seat for Oliver.

This is clearly either a nod or an introduction to the Justice League of the Arrowverse. Obviously here the founding members are The Flash, Supergirl, Martian Manhunter, Superman, White Canary, Batwoman, Black Lightning and, posthumously, Green Arrow.

Although on that note, I feel that Green Arrow slot may soon be filled by Mia Smoak given that she is set to become the new Green Arrow. Although how she gets back from the future remains a mystery even if she does.

Regardless, this is something that has been either preluded to or wanted by fans since the all-star team up first came together during the Invasion crossover. I love the logos on each chair representing each character, I love the characters that are involved. I mean it may seem a bit biased to have three characters from Supergirl involved but not only do I feel this is because Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman is getting his own series but also you can’t have a Justice League-style founding team without Martian Manhunter.

Also, it’s unclear as to exactly how large this team is. Yes these 7/8 are the founding members but do the rest of Teams Arrow, Flash, Superfriends and the Legends act as subsidiaries akin to Justice League Unlimited? Only time will tell.

I mean we know that both Black Canaries are heading over to Green Arrow and the Canaries with Mia but I would love to see Elongated Man, Mister Terrific, Vixen, Brainiac 5 and Ragman being part of this team going forward.

Going Meta:

Tying into this Justice League scene, I did love how Meta the last episode got, not so much Part 4 but definitely Part 5. I will admit the constant Meta-References on Legends of Tomorrow is one of the reasons why I’m so annoyed with the show recently but because I guess Legends hasn’t been on until now in this current run I guess I missed it.

Also on a side-note the very term of “Meta” is bemusing to me in regards to this series of shows because of course there’s meta-referencing but also here metahumans that are also called “metas”.

But anyway, there’s been a running gag throughout the crossover about how the Legends don’t want to be a part of the crossover, yet Ray seems to be excited that there was a crossover. Sara seems to want the crossover to finish as soon as possible despite she, and Barry, being the de-facto leaders of the all-star team before Barry formally forms the Justice League team.

I also enjoyed the interaction between Kate and Jefferson, who essentially are the two relative newbies to the Arrowverse with Batwoman joining last year and Black Lightning officially joining this year.

When Jefferson clicks that this whole saving the world situation will be a recurring thing, Kate tries to reassure him by saying she was “the new kid” last year.

It is interesting because, aside from Supergirl, the newcomers in the year of the crossover usually sit it out or are barely in it. Nate and Amaya during Invasion! for example were only in it during their episode.

Here we of course only have Black Lightning representing because as I understand it there is something going on his his show with his team which is why they’re not active here but still.

Also on the subject of Meta references, Rene’s corrolation of Mick’s surname being Rory as a similarity to a Rory that was once on Team Arrow, being Ragman, just makes me miss Ragman on the show. I know Joe Dinicol is returning for the Arrow finalé so I am thrilled for that.

Heat, Frost & Lightning:

This does sound like I’m only loving this last episode rather than the two episodes but I’m getting to that.

Anyway Prime-Earth Heat Wave reunites with Killer Frost after two years and I am thrilled. I love these two together, I think Mick and Frost really bounce off each other well and Dominic Purcell and Danielle Panabaker do have good comedic and antihero chemistry together.

But also, they have added and somewhat unwanted assistance this time as Black Lightning shows up. I knew Cress Williams would be back in the crossover after his minor appearance in Part 3, it was also a sign that all The CW shows now inhabit this one Earth and to have three elemental heroes working together (it pains me that both Heat Wave and Killer Frost have become heroes) was very cool. I hope there’s more of this trio down the line.

Lex Luthor - Paragon of Deception:

I am not Jon Cryer’s biggest fan but I really enjoy him as Lex Luthor. While I thought his mission to kill all the Supermen was fun, him becoming the Paragon of Truth replacing Kingdom Come Superman at the last minute, as I said in my last review, was a stroke of genius that I did not see coming.

I do love the fact that, rather than becoming a good guy through becoming a Paragon, he is still Lex Luthor and still self-serving while also trying to help restart the universe.

The fact he gave himself powers with the Book of Destiny which allowed him to fend off Supergirl, I would say “and Ryan” but really Ryan Choi didn’t really do much until Part 5.

Lex also had possibly my favourite line of the two episodes which was “In the contest of Mind over Muscle, Mind wins every time”. It’s a very Eobard Thawne type of line but I can imagine any version of Lex I’ve seen saying it which makes it so classic.

Also, if they are in fact doing a Justice League-style team, they need some sort of Injustice League with Lex and Eobard. I mean they’ve had the Legion of Doom but that didn’t work out so maybe this would?

Also, I’m sorry, the fact he was the one to figure out how to save the universe and yet ends up not only back being alive but as National City’s good guy as well as the owner of the D.E.O, I am most excited to see what happens in Supergirl next because of this development.

Parallel Earths for Non-Arrowverse Properties:

So in this new Multiverse, Earth-Prime is the Arrowverse Earth. The reality where Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman and Black Lightning all take place.

The other Earths this time around seem to be Earths for other shows that aren’t Arrowverse inclusive. Earth-2 seems to belong to the upcoming Stargirl series, Earth-9 is still Titans, Earth-96 is still Kingdom Come Superman’s Earth which combines the Christopher Reeves Superman with Routh’s Superman Returns, Earth-21 is Doom Patrol which many fans believe is the same universe as Titans but despite both being DC Universe shows, they’re separate universes.

Earth-19 is where it gets interesting as what we see is the planet Oh, meaning this is a universe the Green Lantern Corps exist on and is most likely an allusion to the upcoming Green Lantern series in development on HBOMax produced by Greg Berlanti. However, originally Earth-19 was the home of the Collectors such as Gypsy and the Accelerated Man, so whether or not they cohabit I do not know

I liked this set up because Earths 2, 9, 19 and 21 are all the main settings for either current or upcoming shows. This echos the comics beautifully as now the Arrowverse is one Earth, and the affiliates are different Earths.

Also the fact that Kingdom Come Superman was shown in this line-up is probably an assurance to fans that he either could or will return at a later date. The Superman and Lois series is definitely based on Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch’s versions of the characters but Brandon Routh is stepping down from Legends this season so while he may be pulling back on The Atom he could appear as a guest or recurring guest on that show maybe?

It is also fair to assume, because of these Earth designations being the same as they were Pre-Crisis (love being able to say that), that Earth-666 is still the Earth that Lucifer is based on, Earth-89 is still the Burtonverse Batman reality, Earth-66 is still the 60s Batman reality and Earth-167 is still Smallville’s reality. Just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Also it’s unclear about how Earths established on The Flash such as Earth-3, Earth-90 and Earth-X fit in to all of this. Because Pre-Crisis Earth-2 isn’t confirmed to be part of Earth-Prime so Earth-2 Laurel could easily cohabit the same universe as Stargirl, it can be assumed that the 90s Flash is still a separate reality and Jay Garrick still exists on his own Earth.

Wonder Twins:

While not featured directly in this crossover, the very end of the final episode features the sound of a monkey the floor above the main S.T.A.R. Labs Hall, and while the team go to investigate, the camera reveals a cage with a busted open door and the name “Gleek” on the side of it.

Gleek, as far as I am aware, is the pet monkey of Zan and Jayna better known as the Wonder Twins. Also apparently as this commotion was going on the theme music from the Wonder Twins animated series was playing over it.

I only know of Zan and Jayna primarily from Smallville in their one appearance but I do also know of them as a duo that they are.

From what I know, the Wonder Twins are alien members of the Super Friends and Justice League, so for them to be alluded to just as the Arrowverse’s Justice League are forming is quite poetic.

Whether or not they are being saved for the next crossover or if they will be featured in upcoming episodes of Supergirl, The Flash or Legends of Tomorrow remains to be seen, but I do imagine the fact that characters from these main shows, and Black Lightning and Batwoman, will not be mentioned in the next episode of each series.

The Bad:

Spectre:

Alright so I mentioned me being a fanboy at the start of the review, however I am not as familiar with the comics as I am with the movies and shows. Because of this, I still to this day have no idea who Spectre actually is and what his role in the larger DC Universe is.

For instance, when Emmett J. Scanlan was introduced in Constantine as Jim Corrigan, I understood in the comics he was supposed to become Spectre and the fact those premonitions preluded to that was interesting...but then he became Lobo on Krypton and I really wanted to see Lobo here but didn’t.

Now with have this other Jim Corrigan from some random other Earth, because Constantine made it clear that this wasn’t the Corrigan he knows, but this one has become the Spectre of the Multiverse because there can only be one Spectre at a time.

Simultaneously, Oliver dies, is brought back by the Lazarus Pit, but his soul becomes the new Spectre after Corrigan passes on that burden so now Oliver is Spectre. Which is where we find him here...sparingly.

Honestly, in the episode dedicated to him, Arrow, it is criminal how little he is actually used particularly as it’s his second death episode of the crossover.

But in regards to who the Spectre is and what he does, people can tell me to read the comics or watch other shows with Spectre in, but if this current show that I am watching doesn’t explain what this Spectre is or does, that’s bad and, in my opinion, a waste of time.

From what I gather Spectre is a lot like Pariah, he is there to bear witness to events. However, like Pariah, Spectre’s power set is never really explained, he’s just there.

He can travel interdimensionally, okay how? He had the power to ignite the flame for the new universe...okay how? The Spectre can be passed on from person to person...okay how? None of this is ever truly explained and then he dies...so does Spectre die? Will there never be another Spectre?

Speed Force Scavenger Hunt:

So I am sure this was supposed to be poignant for the fact it was the Arrow episode and all but one of the Speed Force scenes are essentially flashbacks to previous scenes from Arrow. However, the way they were filmed was completely distracting.

How do you use previous scenes while incorporating new footage? Cheat and film a new scene and clumsily stitch the two together with “clever” angles. You literally had the one scene that the Paragons were witnessing, then their own scene which were never shown together. You always have the characters talking at the camera as if they’re talking to each other, it’s disconcerting and really uncomfortable to watch.

The aim of this mission was for all the Paragons to come back together after they were scattered through the Speed Force...why? Because.

Also the scene from Invasion! with Oliver and Kara, Kara is clearly present day Kara but surely in the memory of the scene she should be wearing the suit she wore back then and had the hairstyle she had back then?

Speaking of Invasion! because it was mentioned in this scene, the Arrow episode from Invasion! celebrating 100 episodes and being another Batman rip off, was a lot better and tugging the nostalgic heartstrings than this.

The only two new scenes we get both involve Barry, the first is an odd inclusion and involves Arrowverse Barry Allen coming face to face with the DCEU’s Barry Allen, Ezra Miller.

This was the most unexpected and bizarre cameo in the entire crossover. This also calls into question how DCEU Flash is still alive considering the entirety of reality has been wiped out. They could have explained that the Vanishing Point and Speed Force were the only two places Antimatter cannot reach, but they didn’t.

It was still fun to at least see Ezra Miller’s Flash, not just because Ezra Miller agreed to appear on the TV series, but also because after Justice League I feel he needed a second chance before his movie comes.

The second new scene was after Sara is murdered and brought to the Arrowcave, John is there telling Laurel to take Sara’s place and become the new Canary...despite not being too happy that she becomes the new Canary in episodes that follow this scene but I digress.

Barry shows up, and because John and Laurel don’t know of The Flash at this time they don’t know who he is, but he electroshocks Sara back to life and she is revealed to be the modern-day Sara.

This is what I don’t understand, Marc Guggenheim made it quite clear that Earth-1 Laurel would have be a major plot point in this crossover, but all she did was extend her original emotional scene into what is, in my opinion, a plot-hole. 

Giant Beebo:

Can someone please explain this freakin’ toy obsession. I know it’s not real, yet for some reason it is all Legends of Tomorrow usually resort to for a cheap laugh or a cooky villain.

Here, Giant Beebo is back, but it’s not actually Giant Beebo it’s an illusion. However, the very fact this gave the freedom for the show to reference the time the Legends transformed into a giant Megazord-like Beebo to defeat Mallus, there’s so much epic stuff happening in this episode so why go back to what makes Legends of Tomorrow so bad.

The most part of this final episode was where I want Legends to be at, not resorting to cheap gags.

The Meh:

Weather Witch:

Alright so before getting into the biggest “meh” point of this conclusion for me I do need to touch on the fact that the minor threat that started the ball rolling on discovering Earth-Prime was all-inclusive in the final episode was by Weather Witch...why?

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Weather Witch...but what was the point in Weather Witch being there? You could have had quite literally any other villain still living from Arrow, Flash, Supergirl or Legends...have the New Rogues as a team being the conflict. It just makes no sense.

Rules of Earth-Prime:

Alright so with this new Multiverse now comes potentially new rules. For example, John and Lyla (who by the way never got a comeuppance unlike Nash) now not only have JJ but also Sara is back, as if she never left as she seems to be the same age as JJ...so does this mean they’re now twins?

It’s also stated that Connor is gone, and because we never see Mia or William it’s implied they’ve gone back to the future ready for the next Arrow episode which is also the Green Arrow and the Canaries backdoor pilot.

However, with Sara being back, what does that mean for the rest of reality? Clearly Flashpoint never happens in this reality so with Sara and JJ in the same universe are others back from non-existence? Is Cisco’s brother Dante alive? Reverse-Flash clearly can’t die but where was he during all this?

What about others who were previously dead? Captain Cold, Earth-1 Laurel? I know some of these things will probably be explored over time or at the convenience of the writers but some revelations in this episode other than Sara Diggle would have been nice to see.

Also, for some strange reason, Superman and Lois of Supergirl now have two sons rather than just the one...why? 

Overall I rate the entire crossover a strong 9/10. Part 4 did let the crossover down a bit but Parts 1-3 and especially Part 5 were just so good that I cannot mark it down too far.

This was the crossover every DC fan was going to be watching and critiquing not just because of the comic-book story it is based on but the fact it is the most ambitious TV crossover to ever exist crossing over not just the five main shows, but other shows past and present and even movies.

I loved the nostalgia that played into seeing Smallville, 1989 Batman, 1960s Batman, Kevin Conroy, all of the cameos and additions were just so well done.

So that’s my review of the conclusion to Crisis on Infinite Earths, what did you guys think? Post your comments down below and check out more DC TV Reviews as well as other TV Reviews and posts.