#but seriously the scene where the nightmare men are used to create a shield is so confusing to me like that’s a person? Apparently not ig

[stormingfrost]

What’s most interesting to me about the description of the nightmare men and the fearlings is that they are seemingly both not-people and people at the same time. They talk and have full armies and have clothes and weapons. They end up becoming an amalgamation of shadows with one voice and can be used as material to create weapons and shields.

They are both the Bad Guys and shadows, strange imitations of people. They aren’t real. 

When Kozmotis turns into Pitch Black, it’s treated as a good man falling. He was good up until the very moment he opened the door.

Kozmotis is allowed to have his revenge on the nightmare men and fearlings not only because he was the Good Guy, but also because of what the nightmare men and fearlings are seen as, both within the minds of the people of the golden age and the narrative: corrupted souls at best and inhuman beasts that need to be destroyed at worst. It only happens because they are seen as something less than human. 

Kozmotis Pitchiner won, he got his vengeance, he killed every last Dream Pirate on that ship, beheaded every single person who had a hand in the attack on his home, the death of his family.

It wasn't enough.

He fought a war, left a trail of destruction so wide through the ranks of the enemy that the battle that had lasted for centuries was over in a few short years. Every Dream Pirate and Fearling not brought to ruin under his hand was corralled in a prison so deep no crack of light or drift of fresh air could enter.

It wasn't enough.

Kozmotis Pitchiner wanted vengeance, and he got it. He wanted to see them dead, and killed them, wanted to see to it that no one would ever be hurt by them again, and succeeded. He wanted to place himself at the door of their prison and bear witness to their eternal torment, sure in the fact that they could never be free from the fate he had personally sealed for them. He was granted such.

It was never going to be enough.

Kozmotis Pitchiner is the hero who won, the man who saw his family slain and fueled that rage and grief into his quest to destroy all evil, and he did it. No one stopped him, no young plucky protagonist stood in his path and told him sliding his sword through the necks of every last Pirate wouldn't bring his family back, no good natured lifelong friend talked him down from that ledge, no one on the side of the Just and Noble and Right ever tried to stay his hand.

Kozmotis Pitchier eradicated the Dream Pirates in their entirety, and it simply wasn't enough.

He didn't lose his daughter and suddenly decide to burn the whole universe to the ground. He got his vengeance, and it wasn't enough, he protected everyone else in the living realm from suffering the same fate, and it wasn't enough, and finally when the war was ended and he should be at peace he placed himself in the position where he could watch the endless suffering of his enemies, and even that wasn't enough.

Pitch Black is a being crafted from a man who at every turn won, but all that slaughter never did the one thing he needed most, it didn't bring him peace.

His daughter was alive, adrift in space, and he never looked for her because he never stopped to question the information he had been given. Never stopped to investigate their deaths, never noticed the missing schooner, the missing life-sized doll, never tried to recover their bodies? Just believed the words of the captured Dream Pirates without question and lost himself to the quest for his vengeance.

In every possible way Kozmotis Pitchiner has been losing the war inside himself, and instead of stopping to wonder if maybe he has been wrong all along he continues on, pushing further and further into the darkness.

Pitch Black murdered his way across the cosmos precisely because Kozmotis Pitchiner could never be satisfied with vengeance alone. There was no point to a universe where his daughter no longer lived.

Learning she was alive the whole time?

Well.

That's enough to drive anyone mad.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The Man Behind the Shield (4x14)

I fully admit I was a little distracted when watching this episode, so I apologize if I don't go into too much detail. That being said, I think this episode was a great success!

Cons:

Were I to complain about one thing, it's the villain. We've been hearing rumblings about the Superior all season, and I already mentioned in my last review that meeting him was a bit of a letdown. Here, we learn through a series of flashbacks that Coulson and May once went to retrieve an 0-8-4 from a base in Russia, and said Superior was one of the men also tasked with getting to the alien object. Due to his men's failure to retrieve it, all of them were killed, and the Superior has sought revenge against Coulson for this. There are two problems here. First of all, there's the fact that the character himself seems ridiculously boring and generic. Giving him a personal vendetta against Coulson doesn't really count as giving him a personality. And secondly, that personal vendetta feels kind of strange. This whole time, we thought this was a battle between the Watchdogs and the Inhumans. But apparently the leader of the Watchdogs was just after Coulson? It's a little convoluted, and it feels like it came out of nowhere.

This is a bit of a nitpick, but I do have to mention it: Fitz and Mack have a conversation about ethics in scientific advancement. Mack makes the argument that all the bad things Aida has done are Fitz's fault, and that May is trapped in the Framework because Fitz is the one who made it. Fitz mopes about this briefly, and then Simmons makes a speech about how scientific advancement is net-neutral, and that Fitz creates things to help people. He's not responsible for what Radcliffe has done with that technology. Fair points, and a lovely little moment of Simmons encouraging Fitz, but still. Isn't this a bit overdone? Are we really going to have the cliche "what have we created?" message be spelled out for us? We're already embroiled in an ethical tornado when it comes to the LMDs. I really think the audience could figure out the conflicting feelings going on here, without having an after-school-special style moment to explain it to us.

Pros:

In many ways, this episode is only of vital importance for one reason: the twist at the end. The crew goes on a rescue mission to get Mace and May. They break in; Coulson and "the Superior" have their showdown. They get Mace, but May is not there. They leave. Then, Fitz and Simmons put together a troubling truth: there's unaccounted time when everybody on the mission lost contact with one another. They discover, to their horror, that the rest of the team - Coulson, Mack, Daisy, and Mace  - have been replaced with LMDs.

There was a part of me that wanted to roll my eyes at that twist, because, I mean, come on. How many times can you turn a main character into a secret robot and still have it be a surprise? But I actually was surprised. This has turned into a regular pod-people nightmare, and that's always fun. To have not just May, not just Radcliffe, but suddenly virtually every main character not be themselves? I trust this show to do something really cool with the concept. And it makes for some really intriguing possibilities for next week's episode. Fitz and Simmons are going to have to find a way to definitively prove to one another that they haven't been replaced, too, and if it's possible to program somebody to not know they're an LMD, that might be tricky. I hope they're both really themselves, because it would serve us right. I feel like the whole fandom suspected the next secret LMD to be Fitz or Simmons. If it's everybody but them, we instead get to watch the two of them team up to protect each other. That's never not going to be great.

This episode gets especially high praise from me because it didn't have to do as much as it did. Like I said, the twist was pretty much the only important thing going on here. It would have been all too easy to just mark time until the end. Instead, we got a number of other really interesting elements to take up the hour, so that the twist felt like an extra treat on top of everything else, instead of the only reason for the episode to exist.

The flashback material between Coulson and May was every different kind of adorable. It was kind of a punch to the gut to see this version of May - a younger, happier, very flirtatious woman who knows she's great at her job, and who definitely has a thing for Coulson. A mutual thing. We learn in these flashbacks that the two of them very nearly got together a long time ago. They talk about how if things don't work out with the guy May has just started seeing, maybe they'll go out for drinks. That guy ends up being Andrew, and the whole Coulson/May thing ends up as a big what-if. This season has been laying on the romantic tension between these two characters pretty thick, and this series of flashbacks was just the thing to make us understand just how far back these two go. All of the things they've been through, all of the pain they've suffered... pretty much the only consistency they had was each other. It makes the fact that May has been imprisoned, and that Coulson has now been replaced, all the more tragic. The moment at the end when LMD-Coulson wakes up LMD-May was heart-wrenching, because you just want the real people to both be there. You want them to be okay, and to be together.

While I wasn't thrilled about the Superior and his origin story, I did love the way that Coulson reacted to it. There's something so interesting in having the hero of a story be the trigger for a bad guy's whole life mission. We often see the reverse, having a hero vow revenge on a villain for something the villain doesn't even really care about. But Coulson is the one who doesn't care about the Superior's whole situation. He tells him so, quite plainly: "Cool origin story, bro. But this means nothing to me." While the Superior has been focused on Coulson, Coulson knows that this is Daisy's fight, not his. It was cathartic to see Daisy come face-to-face with the head of the Watchdogs, after everything she's suffered in trying to track these jerks down.

Mace gets MVP for being a way better person than he ever needed to be. In this episode, we see him tortured, but he never cracks. Despite the fact that his abilities were artificial, he doesn't back down and beg for his life. He's an exemplary S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, through and through. Now that he's been replaced by an LMD, it might be a while before he gets the recognition he deserves. I was seriously impressed with him this week.

Comedy shout-out: There's a very cool scene at the start of the episode where Daisy and Coulson fight hand-to-hand inside of a training simulation. Once they come out of it, Coulson remarks that it was a little cold in there. Fitz says he wanted to make it realistic, and that Coulson always leaves the AC blasting: "I exaggerated it. Kinda like a silent protest." I love you, Leo Fitz.

I'm really thrilled with the way everything has been going this season. I gather that this show isn't exactly a lock-in for renewal, but I hope it can eke out another season at least. I'm still a big fan!

9/10

[bethliveblogsmovies]

The One in Which I Torture Myself With Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

(written 3/27/2016) 1. I had NO IDEA Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered. I've NEVER EVER seen this on film before, like, you know, in almost every other Batman movie. 2. The gun breaking the pearl necklace was actually a cool visual. Give credit to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns for that. In fact, go read that right now if you want to see an older, bitter, more brutal Batman done right. TDKR is probably the greatest Batman graphic novel of all time (not for the kiddos, though). 3. Little Bruce getting swarmed by bats. Another visual we've NEVER SEEN BEFORE! 3 minutes in and I'm already cranky. Step it up, Zack and hack scribes. 4. 9/11 imagery amidst an alien invasion in a superhero movie... mmmkay. 5. Sure, Batfleck. Run into the debris/particulate cloud without attempting to shield your eyes/nose/mouth. Whatever. 6. That little girl looked an awful lot like a doll when The Batfleck saved her from becoming an IHOP breakfast special. Perhaps the budget wasn't big enough to make that look better? Pfft. Yeah right. Laziness or incompetence. You pick. 7. I at least appreciate the effort to acknowledge the wanton destruction and mass civilian casualties that were the result of the over-the-top, moronic, seemingly interminable, and unintentionally hilarious Kryptonian Super Fight in Man of Steel (aka Man Is This Fight Steel Going On?) 8. Lois can't stay out of trouble: sand edition. 9. You know the secret to a long and injury-free life? Threatening Superman's girlfriend. Said no one ever. 10. Holly Hunter sounds just like Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs. 11. Get it, Lois. Flood that bathroom. 12. Batman gives out free autographs with a branding iron. Nice. 13. This version of Lex Luthor is just irritating to watch. Prop up Gene Hackman and let him give some life and charm to the role. 14. Hans Zimmer phoned this score in. A bit of overkill on the Lex Luthor walk into the Kryptonian ship/body area. Almost a parody. If so, well done Hans. 15. There are 2 more hours of this. I'm in cinematic hell. 16. Change.org petition to create a Lex Luthor-free version of this film. Sick of him. 17. Was I supposed to laugh out loud at The Batfleck's nightmare? Because I did. 18. Lois Lane in the men's room. Because she's ballsy. A Strong!Woman. 19. More Jeremy Irons, less Batfleck. Make it happen, DC. 20. There you are, Wonder Woman. Save us from this film! 21. Stop talking, Superman. Shirt off. Take it off. Back in the bathtub with you. 22. This messiah imagery is so subtle and nuanced that they go as far as to say it literally. Hmmm. Might he meet Jesus' end? A movie that came out on Good Friday. Gee. It's all so deep. I just can't guess where it's going................ 23. How convenient. The Batfleck has visions. The Flash comes to him speaking of Lois Lane. Mmmkay. 24. Seriously, Hans. Ease up on the score. 25. I'm bored. Batman is in action in the Batmobile and I'm bored. Not good. 26. "Tell me, do you bleed? You will." Bad dialogue for $100, Alex. Groan-worthy. 27. I get the feeling that explosion was supposed to be meaningful. Didn't work. Bored as hell. On the bright side, it's half-way over! 28. Batman works out! This was apparently worthy of a montage? It's not like Batman Begins where he's learning to fight; this is just a shirtless Batman swinging a sledgehammer against a large tire and other such details ESSENTIAL to the narrative. 29. More visions. This time Supes talks to Ghost Dad. Writers, we need to have a long talk. 30. In my opinion, The Batfleck is the crappiest looking Batman in the suit since the Clooney Bat-Nipple disaster. 31. I appreciate that Superman didn't abruptly stop Lois' descent when he rescued her from falling to her death. Yay for no broken necks or backs! 32. Cavill is so wooden as Superman. Good lord. 33. Shut up, Lex. Your philosophizing is tiresome and idiotic and extends the running time. 34. Well that brief scene between Lois and Clark was purely for plot contrivance so Lois knows where to chase him. --------Begin scene *Superman flies in* 'Hey, honey, I have angst. I have to fight Batman in Gotham. No one stays good.' *Flies away* End scene.------- WRITERS! WE REALLY NEED TO TALK! 35. Shoehorned intro to the future members of the Justice League. Can't wait for that one..................... (which actually makes me sad because I loved watching TJL as a kid). 36. This fight is so dumb. No suspense. Supes doesn't even want to fight so doesn't give it full effort and Batfleck ain't killin' Superman. 37. Batfleck stops fighting Superman because their mothers have the same first name. I'm not kidding. Mmmmkay. 38. Leave Diane Lane alone! Under the Tuscan Sun wasn't that bad. 39. Did one of the henchmen quote a Cole Porter song to Diane Lane? Smooth. 40. OK. I legit laughed at Batman bouncing that crate off of one of the henchmen's heads. Nap time for naughty people! 41. Doomsday looks like the Poo Monster from the X-Files episode Arcadia. Uncanny. 42. They were nice enough to inform us multiple times that the area of the fight was civilian free. The true legacy of Man of Steel. 43. Wonder Woman is here to kick some Poo butt! She looks pretty cool in costume. 44. Lois is in trouble again, but under water this time. No happy endings in the bathtub this time, sadly. 45. It would be nice to actually see what's going on and know who's who during this fight. 46. Kind of cheesy-bittersweet Lois and Clark moment, but I'll allow it. 47. Down goes Doomsday! Down goes Doomsday... and Superman. Ruh roh, Shaggy. As I predicted. The Messiah Sacrifice. 48. We have some not so subtle quasi-Pietà imagery with Lois and Clark. 49. Luthor gets prison-shaved and is finally bald. Good riddance rats nest! 50. Superman was going to propose. Poor Lois. 51. He won't be dead for long. He still has to be in the Justice League. Will he be resurrected with a mullet like in the comics? Let's hope.