'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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