'Legends of Tomorrow': Crisis on Infinite Earths Hour Five

 

Well, it took some time, but I did finally get "caught up" with the other Arrowverse shows and was able to finally dive into the "Crisis".  Thus, I can dive back into this show after a lengthy hiatus.

Much like "Crisis on Earth X", this episode doesn't really showcase much of the Legends.  Instead, the focus is on establishing the new status quo and giving the heroes their final confrontation with the Anti-Monitor.  It is a better final showdown than the one that came before it, but it is a little tacked on in some respects.

The differences are intriguing, but I don't know if the shows are going to do anything with it.  Even though Barry forms a superhero team, I know that they never reunite.  It will be interesting to see how things move forward for both Supergirl and Black Lightning, as they have the biggest shakeups to their home turf. A part of me thinks that their arcs are going to resume, but at the same time, I don't see how they can do that.

Still, the spirit of the show is very present, as this is definitely the lightest and silliest of the crossover episodes.  The confrontation with the giant Beebo was actually a highlight of the episode.  It was a nice breather after seeing the multiverse fall, and having team Arrow be there to remark on how freaking weird it is definitely added something, though even Barry and Diggle (who are at least a little more acclimated to weird occurrences) are still thrown by the bizarre nature of what's actually happening.  

Unlike before, the absence of the team goes beyond structure and becomes a factor in universe.  For reasons I don't know, Sara promised that the team wouldn't partake in anymore "crossovers".  Them rejecting the call made sense before as they were "out of character" at the time, but shrugging and saying no when existence itself is in danger seems like a weird move.  You have to wonder if there's going to be any sort of aftermath on that element.

Sara does reflect on how without Oliver around anymore, she doesn't really have any ties to her old life anymore.  She hadn't really popped back all that much anyway and she says that the Legends are her family now.  Couple this with the fact that this was the last of the Arrowverse crossover events, we might not see Sara interacting with any of the present day characters anymore.  I could be wrong, but we'll have to see.  

It'll be good to dive back into this.  Now I can move into the fifth season proper.

'Attack on Titan' Season 3, Episode 11: 'Bystander'

 

After some sidetracks, this episode brings the focus back to the scout regiment.  It turns out that they've been running experiments that have yielded positive results.  Eren is getting a better handle on his titan abilities.  Said abilities have allowed the city to bolster its defenses so that they can kill titans without having to endanger human troops. 

This brings the fact that titans are transformed humans into focus as Eren starts to wonder just who they're fighting and why they're doing what they're doing.  The discussion triggers a flashback of sorts for Eren, who suddenly remembers a man who may or may not have known his father.  As it turns out, that man is Eren's former drill sergeant, Keith Shadis.

It's a bit of a contrived coincidence, then again, it is a fairly small-town like setting, so I suppose it's not outside the realm of possibility.  It still seems rushed and forced, though there are some positive aspects to the development.

A lot of the episode is a flashback, as Shadis tells Eren how he came to know Eren's father and the impact that the association had.  

We see that Shadis first came across Eren's father, named Grisha, after finding him outside the walls.   Grisha had no real memory of who he was, but he did know that he was a doctor and offered to work in that capacity.  I'm guessing that memory loss is a result of the Reiss', but we'll see if they elaborate on that at all later.

It turns out that Grisha is a very skilled doctor and he becomes something of a town hero.  In the wake of this, Shadis becomes convinced that he too is special.  He is soon disavowed of this notion and takes the opposite mindset, that he is nothing but a bystander (title drop!)

This episode had some good character elements.  It was kind of a surprise to see such a minor character make a return and we are getting new information about Eren's father.  Still, this episode didn't move things all that much and I was a little thrown when the credits just started rolling when they did.  I wouldn't be surprised if the information shown here comes back in bigger ways later on down the line, but I don't know if this will go down as one of the season's more memorable episodes.  

'Daredevil' Season 3, Episode 1: 'Resurrection'

 

Time to dive back into the MCU and continue the process of getting caught up.  It's somewhat fitting, what with "Born Again" currently in production and the Netflix shows officially being declared canon.  That fell a little flat for me as I always saw these shows as canon.  That was the whole point, but regardless, here we are.

This picks up right where "The Defenders" left off.  We see how Matt managed to "escape" the building collapse and how he came to be taken in by the orphanage where he grew up.

Just as Matt's last showdown with the Hand ended up breaking Matt's spirit, so too does this one.  Not surprisingly, his body is in bad shape as well, and the explosion has even thrown his powers out of whack.  He reveals that he's deaf in one ear and he later reveals that he can't taste or smell either.  As a result, he is actually blind now.  

Couple this with the loss of Elektra...again, and Matt has basically thrown in the towel.  Even his faith is broken.  

Luckily he has a sassy nun who takes him under her wing.  Not gonna lie, Sister Maggie was the show stealer this episode.  Matt's no slouch when it comes to snark, but she really does stand as one of the more memorable elements of the episode.

While you know that Matt will eventually get his groove back, it is still satisfying to see the process start.  His senses start to come back and he starts to train to fight again.  It's a slow process and it's clear that the work isn't done, but it is still satisfying to see the change in direction.  A lot of that is somewhat subverted by the episode's closing scenes, but like I said, he's not fully back yet.  

The episode only touches on Karen and Foggy.  The prior has been doing her best to keep Matt's apartment and financial affairs in order.  Paying twice the bills has naturally taken its toll and this is what prompts her to call Foggy for help.  

Financial overextension pops up again with a subplot regarding a new character, Agent Rahul Nadeem.  We learn that he lives a well off life: nice house, big yard and all that.  He's even been covering the costs for his sister in law's cancer treatments.  Alas, it's been taking its own toll.  His credit cards are maxed out and his wife is convinced that she'll have to take on another job if they're going to dig themselves out of this hole.  

For his part, Nadeem does go to his boss and ask for an early performance review.  It turns out that his have been perpetually delayed for years due to his financial situation.  Supposedly, a promotion would make him vulnerable to "recruiters" and this is why they won't do it.  If these recruiters target people in dire financial straits, wouldn't giving him a raise make him less vulnerable?  

The whole thing does seem a little "Breaking Bad"esque.  It becomes even more apparent when Nadeem is assigned to question Fisk.  Again, you think he's vulnerable to being compromised or manipulated and then send him to go talk to the Kingpin?  Consistency, people.

As it happens, Fisk is actually willing to make a deal.  After hearing that Vanessa could be charged as an accessory, he is willing to make sacrifices to ensure that she doesn't suffer for his wrong doings.  

All in all, this was a solid opening to the season.  It gave Matt a clear arc both in terms of this episode as well as the season as a whole.  It also planted other seeds for plotlines to come.  It was well paced and was able to balance the darker elements with just enough humor to keep from negating the weight of what was happening.  

'Attack on Titan' Season 3, Episode 10: 'Friends'

 

This episode picks up where the last one left off, with Levi finding Kenny near death.  We do see a snippet of the prior being alerted to the latter being found, which helped mitigate one of my quibbles with the scene in the last episode.

With Kenny on the verge of death, it should come as no surprise that this is largely a flashback episode that tells us his story.  It's a little weird that he gets the most development just as he's dying, but it does still work out pretty well.

We come to see how he came to become in league with the Reiss family and what his reasons for doing so were.  We also see how he came to take Levi, who is actually his nephew, under his wing. Some of this was hinted at here and there, but we get a much fuller picture here than we had ever gotten before.

While Kenny takes center stage, the real show stealer is Uri Reiss, Rod's younger brother.  He is one of the wiser characters we've seen in the show.  He also has a pretty eerie introduction as he is able to go into a sort of quasi-titan form that gives him the monstrous power, but also allows him to maintain full control of his actions.  The style they use for his eyes really helps sell the weird effect.

Despite his creepy appearance, Uri is quite compassionate, even going so far as to bow and apologize to Kenny for the persecution his family has suffered. It's what allows Kenny to put aside his cruder impulses and begin to form a genuine friendship with the man.

Said friendship is what sets Kenny on his path to try and obtain the titan serum.  Interestingly, while he craves its power, it isn't so that he can unleash more bloodshed.  On the contrary, after seeing Uri, he wonders if compassion is a luxury for those who have power.  As such, he wants to see if him obtaining that power will give him the same sort of empathy that Uri has.  It's an interesting subversion of the usual tropes involving the acquisition of power.  It gave the episode a more layered approach to the story and allowed it to stand on its own rather than retread all too familiar territory.

There isn't too much forward progress in the overall plot.  Kenny hands Levi the serum and reveals their connection before he dies.  Historia takes her crown and is universally respected and admired.  We also see a quick stinger where the Beast titan looms over a beaten colossal titan and reveals that they will go through with his plan to obtain the coordinate rather than try to rescue Annie.  It would have been cool to see the fight, but the quick scene we get tells us all we need to know.  It was just good to see the Beast titan again after such a lengthy absence.  It seems like he's coming back to the forefront.

While I did like this episode quite a bit, this probably isn't an area where you want to take a lengthy hiatus.  Having the family mechanics and history fresh in your mind will help you enjoy and appreciate this episode a lot more.  I was able to get by on my broad strokes recollection of certain details, but it's looking like more regular viewing is going to be required if I'm going to move forward into the series.

'In the Tall Grass' Movie Review

 

This had been sitting on my Netflix list for some time now.  I figured it was time to start cleaning house and finally knock it out.  I read the original novella back when it was originally published in Esquire, but that was some time ago.  I did write about it, but those articles were lost when Examiner shut down.  I do remember not being particularly blown away by it.  That was probably one of the reasons why I kept this one on the backburner for as long as I did.

To the movie's credit, it actually is a stronger work than the source material.  Where the story felt pretty thin, the movie has time to flesh out certain elements and give the characters more time to shine.  While the characters are still daft for never thinking to use their car horns as a way try to help get others out, they do act more intelligently here than they did in the story.  One character attempts to leave himself a trail by tying some of the grass stems in knots and he later uses a child as a sort of periscope to try to keep them oriented while they try to make their way back to the main road.  Neither effort works, but still, credit for clever thinking.  Surprisingly, nobody tries to set the field ablaze.  We see one character smoking early on, I thought for sure that it was going to be a "Chekhov's Gun" situation, but nope.  Even when they're convinced that they're not getting out, nobody suggests taking the field with them.

Speaking of, the field itself gets more to do.  The disorientation and relocation are still present, but we see that the field can even distort time itself.  It adds to the eerie, alien element of the field and gives the movie some interesting "timey wimey ball" elements that end up playing a pretty critical role in the plot.  The rock also gets more detail and focus brought to it.  We're never told what it is exactly, but we get a lot more detail as to how it works and what its attempting to accomplish.

That being said, despite the movie being well under 2 hours (an hour, 40) it still drags quite a bit.  The director does get a little over-indulgent at certain points, especially as the movie gets closer to the climax.  It also gets tough to care when you see characters die repeatedly only to pop back in later.  It makes sense, as it's shown that the characters have gone through several loops and they're all intersecting at various points, but it does undercut the tension quite a bit.

The cast all do a good job.  Patrick Wilson is probably the stand out, as he gets to play both friendly and menacing, sometimes at the same time.

As far as King adaptations go, this one's solid.  It's faithful enough, but it also goes in its own direction.  It does have problems, so I don't know if I'd call it a must watch, but there's enough good stuff here to say that it doesn't warrant a hard pass either.

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'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 4, Episode 16: "Hey, World!'

 

It's been a bit since I dived into this one.  You might think that this was just another instance of epic schedule slip (see Attack on Titan for an example).  However, there actually was a somewhat valid reason to keep this one on the back burner.  The episode after this is the finale of "Crisis on Infinite Earths".  As I still have quite a bit of other things to watch to build up to that, I figured I'd wait until I got closer.  There's still more to watch, but I think it's time to finally knock this off the to do list. 

All in all, I found it a little underwhelming.  Part of it is the gap, but as a finale, it was pretty lackluster.  It has its moments, but I don't know if I'd mark this as a highlight of either the show or even the season as a whole. 

It turns out that Neron's real plan isn't to rule Hell, but to use people's fear of monsters and magical creatures to open a portal to it.  Or, as he so originally and subtly puts it, "Make Earth Hell Again".  

To counter this, the Legends decide to revive Nate's dad's idea for a creature theme park as a way to show people that the creatures aren't to be feared, only be better understood.  It leads to more than a few cornball moments and speeches.  Some work OK, others, not so much.  The stage show they put on is cringe, but that fact is mitigated by the fact that the in-universe viewing audience boos and is just about to walk out before the big dragon shows up.

This is an element that has been foreshadowed quite a bit via the egg.  It finally hatches and we finally get to see it.  Interestingly, it starts off rather cute and cuddly.  Young Zari and her classmates all take a liking to it and a video of that goes viral.  

This actually marks one of the few instances where the Legends' time travel has lasting consequences for both the present and the future.  As a result of both the video and the amusement park, Zari has a better childhood and her family is saved from future calamity.  This means that she never joins the Legends, who are instead joined by her brother.

Sara had earlier vowed that they weren't going to lose another Legend, but Nate seems to be the only one aware of any change to the timeline, which just adds salt to the wound.

Speaking of Nate, he comes close to biting the bullet, sacrificing himself as a way to get Neron to break his contract and get sent back to Hell.  The moment worked well and the cast all did a good job of showing the necessary grief and shock. 

This leads to one of the aforementioned cornball moments as the spirit of Nate's dad uses music to trigger the power of love, which can be channeled into magic to revive him.  Ray's point about love being channeled the same way that Neron was fear gives it at least some legitimacy, but there's a part of me that wishes that the death had stuck.  It was a noble hero death.  It's good to see he and Ray reunite, but still backpedals like that are a mixed bag.

Did anybody else find it odd how they sidestepped the whole Heaven thing?  You've established Hell, the existence of souls, and the divinity of Christ (through the Spear of Longinus in season 2) in this universe, I think you can just say "Heaven".  

I did like the Monitor cameo.  He doesn't actually do anything and considering the next episode is the crisis, it's not that surprising.  It was cleverly done.  It was a way of teasing what's to come without outright saying it.

The Vandal Savage appearance was also a curveball of sorts.  I don't know if it was an intentional nod to an episode of "Justice League" where Vandal turns over a new leaf, but I did get a similar vibe.  It's another instance of Ray's positivity being infectious.  Had they known, the Legends could have used that to stop his evil plans back in season 1, but hindsight is still 20/20, even when you have a time machine.

As noted, I've still got some watching to do before "Crisis", so there will likely be another gap, but I can at least move forward on those shows and check this season off the to-do list.

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'Attack on Titan' Season 3, Episode 9: 'Ruler of the Walls'

 

Rod Reiss' giant titan makes its way towards the city of Orvud.  As established at the last episode's cliffhanger, Erwin declares that they won't be evacuating the city.  

The others are rightly perplexed and angry, but Hange jumps into explain that abnormal titans are drawn to large, crowded areas.  Not only would evacuating not solve the problem, but it would also put people in greater danger.    Having them stay put to draw the titan to where they want it to go is the better play.

Risky and callous as it may seem, this aspect of the plan makes sense.  Erwin's confidence that the perimeter cannons will be super effective is another story.  Have they ever worked?  Maybe it annoys them or causes them some degree of pain, but it seems like the only real way to take a titan down is through the nape slicing that the scouts do so regularly.  

The episode paints the cannons not working as some big surprise, but they do have a plan B.  It's a little peculiar, but it works.  

Eren's fit of self doubt was a little forced and didn't really add anything to the episode.  I know the last few episodes put him through the ringer, but his whole, "I suck, I'm useless, and not anything special" felt a little forced.  Shouldn't what he learned about his father make him more driven to at least try and make things right?  While he doesn't "verbally" express guilt, we do see him beat himself up...literally, he starts punching himself "Fight Club" style.  On the plus side, it got all that out of his system (for now, anyway) and he's able to focus on the task at hand.

Historia herself is especially determined.  Not only is she eager to fight and stop her father, but her reasons for fighting show a degree of political savvy.  She recognizes that people won't readily follow a new queen due to bloodline alone, so by fighting on the frontline, she wants to prove herself and show that she's someone worth following.  It's commendable, and for his part, Erwin does see her reasoning.  He still protests, but notes that he can't really stop her, so that settles that debate.

Sure enough, Historia is the one who delivers the killing blow.  It was a good moment for her and it got her her desired results.  She's still not sure what her role and purpose are, but she seems closer now to finding herself than she was before. 

The episode offers a nice parallel to the first, with a set of kids witnessing the titan rising above the walls the way the colossal titan did way back in the day.  Not only does Eren vocally acknowledge the parallel, but a lot of the imagery mirrors what we saw before.  As Armin notes, though, this time they're ready for it, and thus a much better outcome is achieved.

Levi himself also manages a victory as he finds a wounded Kenny out and about.  I'm not sure how he knew where to find him or what he was doing out there, but it does give the two a small scene as Kenny starts to succumb to his wounds.  Before he dies, though, he unveils a syringe with the titan serum in it, thus marking the end of the episode.

This episode was fairly solid overall.  It was straightforward, but it did give several characters a moment to shine.  It also provided some nightmarish imagery as the eroded face of Reiss' titan will likely haunt the dreams of many a viewer.  We'll see where things go from here.

  

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'It: Chapter Two' Movie Review

It's been a while since I watched the first part of this adaptation of Stephen King's book, but with it coming off of Hulu pretty soon, I figured it was about time to finally check out how this concludes.

I was a little surprised by the runtime at first.  The movie comes in at just under three hours.  Most of the meat of the story occurs in the childhood portion and it seemed like that was covered in the first film.  This one actually takes a more balanced approach, going back and forth between seeing the characters as children and as adults.  The script actually manages to justify it pretty well, as they are remembering things about what happened that they had forgotten.  It allows them to flashback, but not rehash scenes that were already seen in the first entry.

As was the case before, the movie is well cast.  Everybody does a solid job, though Bill Hader as Richie was pretty inspired.  His is probably the most memorable performance.  He does a good job with the wisecracks, but the movie actually gives him more to work with, so you get some solid emotional scenes from him as well.

On a similar note, Skarsgard gets more to do as Pennywise.  I was a little whelmed in his first outing, but he did a much better job here.  His depiction here still fits with what we'd seen before, but it feels more like the Pennywise from both the book and the original mini-series.  He taunts the characters a lot and the scene where he lures a girl under the bleachers is well done.

It's strange, as much as the movie hammers in the idea that the losers have to work as a group, a majority of the movie is spent showing the characters on their own individual fetch quests to retrieve personal items to be used in the film's version of the ritual of Chud and to reminisce (leading to the aforementioned flashbacks.)  You'd think that it would make the movie feel padded or repetitive, but they actually managed to avoid that.  The fact is even more surprising given how things play out later in the movie, but that's spoiler territory and while the movie is a couple of years old, I don't want to give everything away.

Sadly, no real mention of the turtle.  We see a shot of a turtle statuette, but that's it.  I guess it's not surprising that it was cut, but it would've been cool to see that element brought in this time around.  The movie does provide a unique mechanism for us to see Pennywise's arrival on Earth, though.

Then again, given some of the special effects on display here, that's probably for the best.  The CGI here was a little on the lackluster side.  There's one scene where it's actually used to somewhat comedic effect, but there were quite a few misses.  This movie did a better job in terms of horror, as it wasn't entirely reliant on jump scares, but the special effects did somewhat undercut the tension.  The good news is that the giant spider is much more impressive.  I'd guess that the final confrontation was the focus for the effects team and it did at least pay off on that front.

Overall, I enjoyed this quite a bit.  It actually improved on things from the first one and gave elements from the book that didn't make it to the original mini-series to get adapted.  

 

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'Attack on Titan' Season 3, Episode 8: 'Outside the Walls of Orvud District'

 

Alright, gotta get back on the ball here, can't have another multi-year hiatus with this thing.  The episode picks up where the last one left off, with Reiss transforming into a titan.  Even by titan standards, this one's a big boy.  His transformation alone is enough to have the ceilings start caving in, threatening to crush both the scouts and Kenny's troops under the rubble.

Despite declaring herself an enemy of humanity, Historia does still make a valiant effort to break Eren free.  She sees a kindred spirit in him, even if his own spirit is pretty much broken.  The revelations of the last couple of episodes prove too much and Eren is convinced that his own death is the only thing that can fix the situation.

Anime protagonists do have a tendency to get pretty angsty, but Eren takes it to a whole other level here.  Even the other characters repeatedly tell him to stop whining and get his act together.  

He ultimately does, at least enough to drink a potion that not only allows him to trigger a transformation, but to also develop crystal armor similar to what the female titan had.  This not only allows him to create new pillars to keep the caverns intact, but Levi later notes that he'll be able to restore the walls and give humanity a new glimmer of hope.

Eren muses that this will also allow him to finally get to his father's cellar.  I did find it amusing how Sasha hung a lampshade on how that plot point was important for a while, only to be forgotten, before springing back into relevance now.  

Eren is also thrown another bone when the others realize that his father did what he did, not out of greed or lust for power, but to give humanity a chance to fight back against the will of the founding titan's legacy.  

The fact that Historia can claim her rightful place on the throne also gives the remnants something positive to focus on.  The others point out that this may be awkward, as Historia had renounced her father.  The fact that she views herself as an enemy of humanity doesn't come up.  It might make things weird later on, but she does still agree to do it.  She even seems resolved to play it straight.  You don't get the impression that she has some ulterior motive here, at least not yet anyway.

With Eren safe and the government coup successful, the team turns its attention to Rod's giant titan, which seems to be made of molten rock that prevents the scouts from getting too close.  It's heading for one of the walls, which they know from the jump will do nothing to stop it.  Oddly enough, rather than evacuate, Erwin says that he wants to keep everybody where they are.  It's a puzzling move, to say the least, and it makes for a decent enough cliffhanger.

It was nice to see Hange survive, though it was also a bit surprising.  More surprising is the fact that her injuries are presented as minor.  She was just impaled, thrown into a wall, and fell a pretty good distance, but somebody actually says that she's in pretty good shape.  Maybe it is more of a relative thing, but it was still a weird line.

All in all, this episode was OK.  It was easy to follow, even after a good-sized break, it was well paced, and it moved the plot forward.  It was good to get back into it, hopefully I can maintain the momentum this time around.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 10: 'A Duel of Iron'

Thus, another chapter in the MCU comes to a close.  While the show was not as well received as some of the others, this season was a step up in a lot of respects and this episode pays off quite well.

Not surprisingly, the first order of business is putting an end to Davos' reign of terror.  While Colleen did take some of the Iron Fist's power, because Davos interrupted the ritual, the two are now put in mortal peril.  While both parties are in a great deal of pain, Davos does escape, forcing them to pursue.

The agony doesn't seem to hinder them too much, however, as they end up in an impressive fight scene.  At first, it was a little weird that the main character wasn't facing his "enemy" in the big showdown, but he does step in later and gets a chance to throw hands for a little while.  Heck, Davos is even able to briefly fend off both fighters at the same time.  Considering what he had been through up to this point, you really can't fault the guy's determination. 

Walker and Misty even get in on the action.  I don't know if it's quite as good as the final confrontation with Bushmaster, but it did succeed in giving everybody something to contribute and a highlight moment on which to end the battle.

The fight is all well and good, but the episode balances it out nicely, devoting the second half of the episode to character moments.

Ward gets quite a few highlights.  He starts to mend fences with Joy, and even tries to step up and be a father to his impending child.  The offer on the latter is gently rejected, but it was still a pretty impressive gesture in its own right.  It's especially impressive as the Meachums were the weak link for me back in season one.  They fared a lot better this time around and the show certainly benefitted from it.

While it was certainly possible for the show to get a third season, this does feel like a pretty organic end.  Even the opening voiceover, which turns out to be a..."dear Jane" (?) letter talks about endings and new beginnings.  The episode even wraps up by showing us how they are all starting new chapters in the hopes of achieving various goals. 

Colleen has taken on the mantle of the Iron Fist, though it turns out that Danny retained some of his power as he is able to use chi himself.  On the one hand, it makes some sense.  Once you've learned to master and control your chi, you should be able to do so despite a ritual.  On the other, it kind of negates the crux of the season's conflict.  It seems like they could have saved a lot of trouble if Danny and Davos could have both had the power.  Still, it does allow him to keep fighting the good fight.  The MCU roster of heroes is adding a new member, not replacing it, and that seems like the better way to go.  Will either of them ever actually show up again?  Posssibly, Marvel does seem to be trying to tie the older stuff back into the larger narrative, so we'll see how things play out.

 Hopefully there's something as Walker's story demands a follow up.  She confronts Joy and basically does the exact same thing Davos did, forcing an extension of the arrangement due to new factors that have come into play.  On the plus side, Walker's goals aren't quite as violent.  She's aware of a third alter and wants to find out who she is.  Yes, danger is still involved, but it still seems much more amenable than working with Davos and helping his mad crusade.

Speaking of, Davos lives to fight another day.  He wants to be killed, but the heroes don't grant him that request.  He may not have powers, but it is possible for him to do something later on down the line.  I'm not sure his speech about inspiring others and creating a global perspective shift rang true.  He enlisted some street hoods.  This isn't like one of the Joker's endeavors.  You could see what they were trying to do, but it fell flat for me.

Overall, though, this episode worked well.  Still, I am glad to move on to the next series.  I've got several to go.  Up next, the return of Daredevil.

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'Attack on Titan' Season 3, Episode 7: 'Wish'

 

This episode picks up with the scouts storming the caverns in their attempt to free Eren.  It's a pretty glorious action sequence as the team uses tactics and teamwork to gain the upper hand against Kenny's forces and maintain them for a majority of the fight.

Even the fact that their adversaries are now human doesn't seem to deter them the way it did before.  They're all ticked off and want some payback.  

The tide does start to turn when Kenny himself shows up.  He and Levi have another showdown where the two appear to be evenly matched.  

In the ruckus, Hange is...killed, I think? At the very least, she's severely injured.  I'm guessing the next episode will provide a more clear cut explanation of how that panned out.  

Despite the scouts' best efforts, their enemies are able to escape and put down a barrier to keep them from making chase.  

From there, the episode jumps back to Eren and his captors.  Rod, Historia's father, goes on to say that her sister is alive, sort of.  The way he worded it, I was almost sure, they were going to go a "Princess Bride", "only mostly dead" route, but instead, he says that Freida lives on via memory and that he can restore those memories by turning her into a titan. 

More specifically, he wants Historia to eat Eren so that she can regain the family power to control titans that Eren's father stole from them back when he killed Freida, along with most of the other family members.  He says that only their family can use the power and the fact that it was stolen is why everything has gone awry in the world.  Historia herself seems rather eager to do it.  Apparently, there's no sense of loyalty on her part.  If eating Eren is what she has to do, that's what she's going to do. 

My first impulse was to think that he was just lying, but Kenny the Ripper shows up, outraged that no one outside the bloodline can take the power.  He, rather nonchalantly, reveals that he himself is a titan and that he wanted to be the one to claim it.

Since he can't, he decides to give Eren a gash on his forehead in the hopes of triggering a transformation.  In his mind, this will at least make it a fair fight and provide some degree of spectacle.

While this showdown never comes to fruition, it still gets pretty intense.  Eren decides to throw in the towel out of guilt, but then Historia turns on her father and goes to free Eren out of spite.  She even goes on to declare that she doesn't care if the titans do wipe out humanity; she's done with everybody's crap.  It's a pretty jarring shift as she had been a pretty sweet kid up until this point.  I don't know if this is a full heel turn or if she's just venting, I guess we'll have to wait and find out.

The episode ends on a big cliffhanger as Rod himself decides to ingest some of the serum to become a titan.

I really enjoyed this episode.  It was well balanced, providing rousing action, as well as compelling character bits.  If the season had started off this strong, I probably wouldn't have taken a multi-year hiatus.  On the plus side, it does make me glad I made the effort to get back into it, as things really seem to be kicking into high gear.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 9: 'War Without End'

 

We've come to the show's penultimate episode.  While things do appear to be gearing up for a big showdown, the first issue at hand is whether or not Colleen accepts the fist.

Initially, she doesn't.  Danny tries to convince her that it's the right move, even taking her to that abandoned closet that he went to in the premiere to whale on things.  It was nice to give that scene some more context and show what Danny was really going through.  I kind of feel like it should have been brought up before, but better late than never.  Nevertheless, Colleen declines, saying that Danny is the Iron Fist.

On other fronts, everybody is gearing up to take down Davos.   The two gangs have formed an alliance, Misty was able to acquire a task force, and Walker and Ward buy some firepower of their own.  It would have been awesome to see all these forces converge to take down Davos, but alas, that big showdown never happens, and it falls to Danny and Colleen to end things.

On the plus side, we do get to see Turk again.  That's always fun.  Another highlight is Walker completely ignoring Ward's talk about his father being "repeatedly undead".  It wouldn't surprise me to find out that she didn't care, but at the same time, you could see it as a subtle nod to the fact that this does take place in the MCU and stuff like that is just par for the course at this point.

The climax isn't without its highlights.  Danny does come out with the win, with some help from some a stash of neighborhood narcotics.  It doesn't take him nearly as long to down Davos as it did back in K'un L'un, so props there.  Even Davos' attempts to use his fist come up empty, as Danny is able to counter and deflect before any damage can be done.

The more impressive fight, though, is Colleen vs the gang of kids whom Davos had taken on as disciples.  Considering they're relative novices, they don't do terribly, but Colleen is still able to down them all with little trouble.  

The confrontation serves not only to provide a cool action scene, but to give Colleen a prompt to change her mind and ultimately take on the mantle of the Iron Fist.  

While Davos is sedated, you have to figure that he's going to wake up before the ritual's done.  There's still an episode left, after all.  It happened later than I expected, but sure enough, he does.  We see that he uses the power of the fist to break himself out of his bonds, but the episode's real kicker comes when Colleen reveals that she has fist power of her own.  I guess it makes sense, as the ritual wasn't completed, but you'd think it would be an all or nothing deal, not a 50/50 split.  

Next episode will be the big finale, then it'll be on to Daredevil season 3.  Who knows?  I might actually make it to the Disney+ era of MCU shows before the year is up.

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'Attack on Titan' Season 3, Episode 6: 'Sin'

 

With all of the political machinations seemingly out of the way, the show begins to shift its focus back to the titans.  Technically, none appear directly, but they do have a more overt role in the plot than they've had for quite some time.

The episode is light on action, but more than makes up for it with big reveals aplenty.   There's still a lot of talk about character family bloodlines, but it is a lot more interesting than the scouts vs military conflict.

Not only do we learn that Eren was the one who killed his father, but that Eren's father killed a majority of the Reiss family.  While the plan was to kill Eren to steal his power anyway, it does give them a much deeper motive for going after Eren, as there is a personal grudge.  The aforementioned aspect of the plan also negates the fact that Eren did inadvertently give them some degree of vengeance.  Even if Eren wasn't bound and gagged, bringing that up really wouldn't have helped him.

What's really crazy is that the key that Eren was given way back in the show's first season gets brought back to the relative forefront.  We still don't know what the key is for, but the fact that the writers didn't just forget about it after all this time is worth commending.

Historia herself has some revelations of her own, as she learns that she had a half sister.  Said relative, named Freida is the polar opposite of Historia's mother.  Freida's kind, friendly, and does what she can to give Historia some degree of proper guidance.  Considering how crappy Historia's mother really was, it was nice to see somebody actually care for her for once.  It is rendered somewhat moot by the fact that she is no longer living, but still.

A lot of this information is brought to light via the fact that the Reiss family has the ability to manipulate memories.  They can mindwipe people and restore said memories at will.  It's not perfect, Historia, for example, is unintentionally given some of her memories back when she and her father attempt to enlighten Eren about the history of their families.

While we're on the topic of family histories, Mikasa's also gets a bit of time in the limelight.  She learns of her possible ties to Kenny the Ripper and we learn through a flashback that the Ackermans are immune to the memory manipulation of the Reiss family.  

Yeah, this episode is a bit of an exposition dump and while all of this sounds convoluted, it never really lost me or my interest.  While the episode may not be the most eventful, it's easily one of the more impactful ones as far as the show's narrative goes.  

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 8: 'Citadel on the Edge of Vengeance'

 

The final battle between Danny and Davos looms just over the horizon.  As such, both parties begin preparations.  Danny and Colleen train so that Danny can get back into shape while Davos trains his recruits.

Interestingly, Danny's training is just as much mental as it is physical.  Colleen knows that Danny's connection to Davos is a "blind spot" and she also knows that Danny can get a little hot-headed.  She takes considerable time and effort to remedy these so that Danny will be properly equipped to face the oncoming challenge.

For people who don't care for Danny, I'm sure you'll like having his flaws laid out like that.  It would have been nice to see this be a more gradual growth rather than something that is shoved into one episode near the end of the show's run. Sadly, we won't get a third season to see how the development pays off, but that's just how the cards are dealt sometimes.

While Colleen's training gets rough, it's a cakewalk compared to Davos, who takes more of a Cobra Kai approach to training.  He almost quotes that dojo's mantra, it's not quite verbatim, but he's definitely carrying that spirit with him in his approach.

Joy does try to appeal to his better nature and convinces him to try and present a kinder face so that the city will embrace him rather than brand him a crazed criminal.  She does raise a good point, even if she is just playing him to stall.  Again, though, there was an opportunity to allude to other heroes and the script doesn't do it.  Even if they don't want to mention the Avengers, you'd think that Daredevil, Luke Cage, or the Punisher could be brought up as examples for Joy to help make her point.  I guess it's moot as his effort doesn't really go according to plan and he scraps it almost immediately.  If anything, the effort seems to make him crazier.  

On a similar note, Walker has a pretty stunning revelation after viewing the video that Mary left for her.  It turns out that Mary thought that Walker got her out of that Sokovian prison, which to be fair is a safe assumption given Walker's combat prowess.  Walker, on the other hand, thought that Mary was able sweet talk other people into getting them out.  As neither is true, it means that there is a third "alter" in there somewhere.  

I'm not sure if we'll get to see the third persona in action.  There's only two episodes left, but it's possible.  It would be a shame to throw that out there and never get the chance to utilize the plot point.  The same goes for all of the gangs deciding to band together to take down Davos.  Danny's convinced it's a suicide mission, but I think it'll make for a big and exciting showdown to precede the one between Danny and Davos.

This was a solid episode.  There were several strong character moments and the plot advanced on several fronts.  There was no big action beat to close out the episode, but the sparring match between Danny and Colleen was well done enough that it satisfied on that front.

I'm not sure about Danny's assertion that Colleen should be the one to take the power of the fist.  I know viewers have been clamoring for this for a while, so maybe the writers were trying to appease viewers on that front.  In universe, it is a little weird considering that Colleen has repeatedly said that she wants to walk away from that life.  This seems to be doing the opposite.  I mean, training Danny is one thing, but inheriting the mantle of a superhero is another beast entirely.  We'll see how things play out though.

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'Attack on Titan' Season 3, Episode 5: 'Reply'

 

Boy howdy, it's been a looooong time since we last talked about this one.  Part of this is the usual schedule slip.  I did lose interest in the show's new direction. Though before deciding to continue, I did go back and rewatch it from the beginning and that took a bit of time as well.  The good news is that this won't be an "I haven't seen this in forever, so I have no idea what's going on" type of post.

Here we see the scouts start to gain their credibility back through the trial of Erwin.  He pleads his case and says that humanity needs the scouts to act as an offensive means against the titans.  Apparently, the government just wants to hunker down.  This would be a viable option if it wasn't already abundantly clear that the walls don't really act as an adequate defense against the monsters.  Oddly enough, this never comes up.  The officials seem to think that the wall will work and that the titans will eventually lose interest as their food supply dwindles.

Sure enough, the council does get word of a titan attack that has resulted in the breach of Wall Rose.  The soldiers in the room get ready to gear up and roll out, but the higher ups order that the gates be sealed and that those outside the wall be left for dead.  After all, if they got in, they could start an uprising.  

This decision ends up biting the council as the whole thing is revealed to be a ruse.  Still, it is all the proof Erwin needs to show that they are acting in their own interests rather than those of the people.  They have an official law that says that you have to put humanity above yourself.  It was something Erwin himself was being charged with and the turnabout is quite satisfying to watch.  I have to admit, implementing a similar law for government officials might not be such a bad idea.  The death sentence is a bit much but having a similar protocol at least in general concept could theoretically yield positive results.  That's neither here nor there, though.

It's a pretty dramatic and triumphant moment as several characters get to deliver big speeches to rousing music.  The looks on the council's faces (a mix of shock, anger, and fear) help sell it.  The real showstealer though is the king.  He looks utterly bored.  His facial expression doesn't change at all, and he just rests his face on his palm through the whole thing.  It actually becomes a little amusing to see, as it stands in stark contrast to everything happening around him.  The reveal that he was actually asleep gives some explanation, though the guy's eyes were clearly open. 

Oddly enough, Erwin starts to question his plan once they end up winning.  He starts to think that this new path is uncharted and maybe sticking with the "devil they know" might have been better.  It was a little forced, but maybe the writers were trying to plant a seed for future plot development, who knows?

The scouts themselves are happy to be free and clear.  Now that they aren't fugitives anymore, they can set their sights on getting Eren back.  

It is at this point that Hange drops an exposition dump about Historia's family and the circumstances surrounding their deaths.  We got some of this before, but with new information, Hange thinks that they may have ties to titans.  It's a pretty well done scene, with ominous organ music to accompany the whole thing.  It is clearly meant to set the stage for the next couple of episodes, but it does help tie the government stuff with the larger conflict.

Overall, this episode was OK.  I'm still not all that vested in the nuts and bolts of the city's political landscape, but this was well paced, had some highlight moments, and it does seem like we're moving back towards the show's main conflict.  We'll see how things play out, though.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 7: 'Morning of the Mindstorm'

 

Despite his injury, Danny is still determined to regain the power of the Iron Fist, stop Davos, and reclaim his title as both Iron Fist and defender of the city.

Oddly, the episode tries to paint Danny as being in the wrong.  Colleen says that he's obsessed with getting the fist back, but Danny's statement that Davos needs to be stopped is accurate.  Even if he did want the power back, is that a bad thing?  He was helping people with it.  It's only natural.

In any event, before this, the two do actually have some good scenes together.  Colleen does a good job of lifting Danny's spirits when he's at emotional low points.  

Despite her reservations, she does ultimately agree to train Danny.  It's painted as some big deal and the way Colleen talks, it's supposed to be some big game changer that alters their romantic arrangement.  It's a little forced. You'd think that it would be a good couple bonding experience.  I mean, Goku spars with people all the time and he manages to keep an element of fun to it, why can't they?

Admittedly, Danny does seem to be enjoying it, or at the very least, he's happy to see his fighting spirit come back as the two spar.  Sure, Colleen knocks him down a bit, but he does improve with every round, so it makes for a great uplifting moment.

Speaking of uplifting, Davos recruits the gang of street kids to be his proteges to aid in his war on crime.  Like Mariah before him, he does a pretty good job of delivering a rousing speech about how he's going to change things for the better.  No joke, there were times where it seemed like Davos was channeling Nick Fury the way he was talking.

It just made the lack of superhero references a little bizarre.  You'd think the kids would make reference to either the street level heroes or the Avengers themselves, but nothing.  The kids do agree to join, though judging by the look the two kids gave, they may have some ulterior motive?  I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Luke does get a mention when Misty tries to get the cops to help deal with Davos.  Unfortunately, they're OK with him dealing with the gangs the way he is, so they are on their own.  Oddly enough, when Danny says that he needs help to confront Davos, Luke's name still doesn't come up.  I know, I've brought this up before, but it's still weird.

The episode does devote a lot of time to the bowl that was used in the ritual.  It is apparently a key component, but the search does allow seemingly forgotten elements from earlier episodes to spring back into relevance, which was a nice touch. 

All in all, this episode was solid.  It managed to give each character some progression and juggle several sub-plots without feeling overcrowded.  There's only three episodes left in both the season and the series.  While there's still a lot to cover, there is still a good chunk of time left, so we'll see how things play out.

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The 'Garlic Jr.' Saga IS Canon

 When it comes to "Dragon Ball Z", the fans can be sticklers for what is "canon" and what isn't.  Certain sequences, even an entire mini-arc, can and have been dismissed as non-canon.  The test is largely based on whether or not it happened in the manga.  If it happened in the manga, it's canon; if it didn't, it's filler.

The big problem with this is the fact that this isn't how canon works.  The anime and manga are two independent things.  Liberties are taken with adaptations all the time.  Changes are made for various reasons, but the canon of the adaptation remains its own thing.  This holds true for the anime just as much as it would an adaptation of any other movie, comic, or book.  These changes may not be canon for the manga, but why wouldn't it be canon for the anime timeline?   For that matter, why is this franchise the only one burdened with this condition?  You don't see other franchises endure this particular method of scrutiny to determine canon validity.

Furthermore, this really doesn't make any sense.  What about instances where story arcs play out differently?  You see this in "Super", where both the Goku Black arc and the Tournament of Power arcs play out in wildly different fashions.  The events as depicted in one really have no effect on the other and it would be weird to ask fans to view or read it that way.   

By this logic, you could dismiss just about any adaptation.  A good chunk of the MCU or "Game of Thrones" would be thrown out because that's not how it played out in the source material.  Admittedly, from what I've heard, a lot of people have "non-canoned" the last season of the latter, but that's more a criticism of quality than anything else.

This is another angle that can fuel plot point erasure.  This one is a bit more understandable, if there's a thing that you really don't like, you choose to ignore it.  Going back to the MCU, this happened with "The Inhumans".  It was very poorly received to the point where neither the fans, or even the creators, really acknowledge it all that much.

Even here, though, the events will usually still have an impact on the story.  You may or may not like it, but it's still there.  You can say that it isn't part of your personal "head-canon", but its canon status still remains intact.  For example, a lot of people don't like how the Goku Black arc ended and choose to go with Trunks being the one to score the final win against the omnicidal adversary, but the Zeno/deus ex machina ending is still the ending.  If everybody picked and chose what counted and what didn't in terms of storytelling or story adaptation, the whole process would be rendered moot.  The whole concept of "canon" would be thrown out the window with this approach.

It would be one thing if the anime and manga were more synchronized.  "Star Wars" for example has a single canon that spreads across multiple mediums.  Well, two canons now, what with the erasure of the original "expanded universe", but you see my point.  If the anime and manga were meant to be part of one cohesive universe, then arguing canon or non-canon makes more sense.  That's not really the case, though.

Between the multi-verse and alternate timelines, you could easily have your cake and eat it too by saying that it happened, just in an alternate timeline.  That seems to be the case with "GT".  Sure, it wasn't very well received, but you could still easily view it as an alternate timeline where Beerus didn't wake up.  

So, in summation, unless directly stated, canon is self-contained to its respective medium.  As such, we can conclude that the title of this post holds true, despite the ardent assertion to the contrary.

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