Captain America: Civil War

I watched it! It was awesome. Great movie. Everyone and I do mean everyone got great moments. Great action scenes. New characters got character arcs without taking too much screentime. Tony, Steve and Bucky all get proper character arcs. Overall a great movie. Will have a proper review when I stop fangasming.

I mean, I probably go kyaaa over the Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman stand together in live action thing far more than this because DC fanboy but objectively this is definitely the stronger movie of the two 'vs' movies of this summer.

Holy fuck man this movie is awesome.

Daredevil S02E06 Review: Elektra and Matt Have A Date

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 6: Regrets Only

Last Daredevil episode review this week, I think. We'll do another batch next week.

This episode is a lot slower and honestly less good than the previous five episodes, though that's nothing to be ashamed about. The show just kinda has a bunch more plot lines to juggle, and as a result some of them felt lackluster for it. Our screentime (and Matt's attention) is split between Elektra's crusade against the Not-Yakuza, and the Punisher trial. Again, I want to say just how genius it is to have Punisher be involved in the obligatory lawyer plot, especially after a whole four-episode arc dedicating to building up his character.

Matt, perhaps somewhat foolishly, volunteers his law firm (much to Foggy's indignance) to represent Frank Castle, if only to find out just what the hell Reyes is hiding and how much of a hand she has in fucking Frank Castle's life up. Reyes looks like she's about to be set up to be the season's villain, or at least one of them, anyway -- the Elektra side of the plot probably is going to have a different main villain. Matt talking Karen and a reluctant Foggy to the plan to defend Frank was a great moment, and Karen having investigated Frank's story and finding a lot of discrepancies with what Reyes is telling them and forcing them to say is a believable way to get her on Matt's side. Reyes (and her assistant Blake Tower) is a compelling enough of an obstructive bureaucrat style antagonist that it's fun enough to have her around, even if she's nowhere as interesting as Kingpin, Kilgrave or Punisher himself.

Of course, Matt's attention is split between his two insane clients -- Punisher and Elektra, who's mostly just going all 'Matt, meet me here and help me infiltrate the Roxxon company' with no regard to Matt's life. 

And while the moments with Punisher is understandably more serious and grim, we did get a bit of a bonding moment between Karen and Frank as she tries to understand Frank as a person, telling him that they could at least figure out just who is responsible for the death of his family. It's definitely a really strong moment for Karen, and both Karen and Frank really have some great dialogue -- not as well-scripted as Matt/Frank, perhaps, but still great. In addition to Karen helping Frank remember his family, there's also the oblique hints to Karen's ultra-super-duper-mysterious past, which she is still hiding. 

There's of course the court scenes, which is awesome. Frank deciding to cooperate with Karen and going to trial, if only to give Reyes a big 'fuck you' and to uncover Reyes' secrets, was a great moment. I don't really give two shits to the trail scenes of Daredevil's first season due to, well, not really being interested in lawyer-style settings (more power if those kind of stories interest you, though), but throw a character I care about like Punisher into the mix and suddenly everything becomes so much more interesting! Also you can't help but note that Karen's motivations in helping Frank definitely stems from her identifying with Frank more, having killed a criminal herself last season.

The highlight of the episode is still Matt and Elektra infiltrating the Roxxon party, with Matt acting as a bumbling blind man, their pretending to be a drunk couple having sex to avoid security, and generally just them sneaking around to steal the ledger is a lot of fun. Again, just as how he did it with Punisher, Matt is forcing Elektra to not be lethal and it's fun. Their target is this rich jackass Stan Gibson and, well, he's just a butt monkey throughout the episode, isn't he? It's a nice break that Matt goes from beating up mafia dons and random street punks and decides to go up against corrupt businessmen for a change.

Up until the end, until this Mr. Hiroshi fellow, who previously has been portrayed as a generic Japanese businessman, kills the two bodyguards that failed to protect Stan Gibson, delivering the wham line 'who says we are the yakuza'? Yup, the Hand is here. Also, it's cool how the two bodyguards are tying up their fingers in preparation for the yakuza finger-cutting ritual only to find out that, nope, shot through the heart. 

It's more of a set-up episode, really, and it kinda suffers for not really delivering much on the characterization (Karen/Frank conversation aside), backstory or action quota, but we need slower breather episodes like this in a series. It's a strong, if relatively unspectacular episode, but being less good than its predecessors is really nothing to really be ashamed about. It's just building up the Hand, the Punisher trial, Karen's backstory, Frank's backstory and Matt having to choose between his two identities all at the same time. 

Foggy really needs something to do beyond being the 'please don't do this stupid thing' to Karen and Matt, though. He's easily the least interesting of the main cast, and he really needs something to justify the amount of screentime he receives. 

Daredevil S02E05 Review: Elektra Drinks A Tequila

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 5: Kinbaku

We get a change of pace and tone as we switch our secondary Marvel superhero from the Punisher to Elektra. Elektra is a character who is extremely closely-tied to Daredevil's lore that basically everyone is calling foul that she didn't already show up in the first season beyond an Easter Egg. Elektra is one of those major Marvel characters that everyone wants to see in live-action, and while I'm not familiar with the character from the comics, I do like the Elektra here.

Whereas Punisher was all fiery and hot, a force of nature that rampages through Hell's Kitchen and is a physical adversary that clashes heads with Daredevil as much as he helps him out, Elektra feels far more cold and calculating. She knows how to get into Matt's head, she knows how to manipulate Matt and get her to do what she wants her to do, by spinning half-truths and appealing to the side of Matt Murdock that wants to beat criminals up.

The pacing of this Elektra-centric episode is also different. While the Punisher's arrival on the scene was bombastic and dramatic, with stakes being high as Matt races to stop the Punisher, Elektra is content to take things slow and let Matt do his own investigation. Also for the audience, whereas the Punisher's backstory is vague and a mystery up until the last episode of his mini-arc, we're treated to a series of flashbacks to immediately demystify Elektra somewhat... while still raising a crapton of questions about this hot Greek ninja chick.

And, well, Elektra's flashbacks are quite insane. We see Elektra and Matt in their college days, where the actors strike some really great chemistry together as there is an excellent blend of classiness and devil-may-care attitude to the two of them. Both of them clearly are struggling with their personal inner demons in the past, and while Matt initially just finds Elektra as a spoiled-rich girl who just happens to be able to match him in martial combat, she turns out to be... well, something more. Elektra tricks Matt to hanging out in the home of the man who ordered the hit on Matt's father, Roscoe Sweeney ('Fixer' from the comics, which had a short appearance in season one)... which does the dual purpose of showing us what kind of character Elektra is, whilst at the same time answering the question of just what Matt did against the man who murdered his father.

And Elektra? Well, she's pulling an Emperor Palpatine as she tells Matt to give in to his anger and kill Sweeney. Except unlike Star Wars there really isn't anything to lose if Matt gives in to the dark side except for his morality, and considering Sweeney is responsible for killing Matt's father, and we get the additional complication that he knows that Matt Murdock is the one responsible for beating him up... but, of course, despite Elektra's tempting 'kill him' speeches and obvious getting-off on the torture, Matt's inner angel wins out, and he doesn't kill Sweeney. His fate is kinda left ambiguous, though I assume the cops got him in the end. It does show just how much of an impact Matt's short stint as Elektra's boyfriend turned out, though, and it's a great, great scene.

Again, while the heart of the argument is the same, whether to kill the villain, Frank and Elektra have a distinctively different approach to the fact, with Frank being clinical, indiscriminate (if explosive) manner regarding the villains he kills, while Elektra opts for a more personal and cold-blooded torture.

All the great flashbacks kind of detract from the more mundane present-day plot, which I think is the weaker link of the Elektra focus. She's dragging Matt into a war with the yakuza, who are apparently not all wiped out when Nobu died in season one. Also the fact that we're all expecting the yakuza (*coughhandcough*) to return after all the ominous foreshadowing from season one. We get yet another appearance from the corrupt Roxxon oil company (which previously made appearances in Iron Man 3, Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter) as Elektra hangs out there while Matt tries to shadow Elektra and investigate, and I really liked how Elektra just clinically draws Matt into her business, eventually culminating in the two vigilantes ready to face off against a yakuza hit squad... though the episode ends before we get a big fight scene.

Despite the big Elektra focus, though, I'm also pleased that the Punisher isn't just shunted elsewhere and locked up until we need him for like the season finale or whatever. The DA, Reyes, is apparently involved in whatever conspiracy that transformed Frank Castle into the Punisher, and she is extremely enthusiastic to bury Frank under red tape and sue for the death sentence. And, well, finally, we get some relevance from the lawyer side of things, as Nelson & Murdock's client is shaping up to be, well, the motherfucking Punisher! As likable as that old lady from season one is, her sideplot is ultimately filler and only serves to go 'OMG Kingpin is evil for killing this likable character'. Defending the Punisher from the mysterious agendas of the government is certainly a far more interesting plotline.

Also, Karen has became more and more interesting as she recruits the help of New York Bulletin's chief editor, Ellison, in hunting down more information about the Punisher. They bond almost immediately regarding Ben Urich, and while I'm still kinda pissed about this news reporter sideplot, it still ties to the bigger Punisher conspiracy plot so I can't really be mad about it. It's just less interesting than Elektra and Frank, is all.

There's also the thinly-veiled comparison of how Karen likes the mild-mannered blind lawyer, while Elektra likes the violent vigilante. It's going to be your classic 'which is the mask and which is the real Matthew Murdock' paradigm, but this one at least has some buildup, and Elektra trying to draw out the 'real' Matt in the past by trying to goad him to commit murder is certainly a great powerful scene.

We get a couple of nice continuity callbacks not just with Roxxon, but to both the first season of Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Marci Stahl, Foggy's ex-girlfriend and ex-rival from the first season, shows up and she's apparently hooked up with Jeri Hogarth's law firm... which is absolutely a great way to reference Jessica Jones. Also the New York Bulletin, as always, is filled with clippings referencing the events in prior MCU movies, like Avengers, Captain America: Winter Soldier and even Agents of SHIELD. Cybertek was apparently brought to court, which is a nice little loose end that got tied up there.

Also, a short bit of trivia, the title of this episode, 'kinbaku', actually means a form of bondage (yes, the sexy kind) which, um, considering the connotations that Elektra brings with her....

Overall, Elektra is mysterious, alluring and interesting. Both her flashback and present day scenes really helped to paint her as this big figure in Daredevil's life, and it serves as a great introduction to the mind of Elektra. We'll see where the plot goes from this, but with Foggy and Karen tackling the Punisher problem, the next episodes will definitely be more jammed with content.

Daredevil S02E04 Review: Frank's Dog Gets Kidnapped

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 4: Penny and Dime

Trying to keep on schedule!

Well, mostly because I really like talking about the Punisher segments of Daredevil. This episode serves like a small end-note to the first 'arc' of this season, which is the Punisher arc. He's obviously not going to just be a once-and-done villain, but these four episodes does a really great job at introducing the Punisher, making him badass, making him scary and making him likable at the same time. Man, I can see why you Marvel dudes really like Punisher!

Also, the Punisher is played by the same actor who played Shane from the first two seasons of Walking Dead, which, holy shit, I didn't even recognize until around this episode. Man, dude's a pretty great actor, isn't he? Not that there really is a bad actor in Daredevil per se, but Punisher and Kingpin are both particular exceptional ones. 

The initial premise of this episode is honestly refreshingly comic book-y for such a down-to-earth brutal gangster vigilante show. We are introduced to the family of one of the Irish mobsters that the Punisher killed, one Finn Cooley, who, despite existing for a grand total of one episode, was a pretty memorably hammy and insane villain. (Also, I am told that Finn Cooley was an actual villain from the Punisher comics, which is cool.) And what does Cooley do in his big grand plan to avenge his son get his money back? Kidnap the Punisher's dog.

Yeah. This episode, the Punisher's poor dog gets kidnapped.

The premise was sort of hilarious enough on its own, especially that absolutely pissed-off 'you gotta be kidding me' face that Frank has when he figures out what happened, but it quickly turned to a darker side as Frank gets overwhelmed by sheer numbers, eventually tortured with a power drill, before finally fighting his way out of that mobster compound with some help from Daredevil. It's a cool action scene -- doesn't top last episode, definitely, but still cool nonetheless. We've got the shotgun blast, we've got Frank hiding a blade in his arm, we've got Punisher blowing up a bunch of mobsters with a money truck loaded with a bomb, we've got Daredevil stopping Punisher from killing a couple of times during their team-up....

What really sells this episode was the long origin speech by the Punisher at the end, though, which tells us of the Punisher's backstory. It gives us enough details to see how much he has been broken from the once family-man Frank Castle into the murderous Punisher. Real kudos for the actor to portray the perfect balance between still maintaining the Punisher's hardass attitude while still delivering enough emotion for him remembering how his little kids were massacred that day. I mean, holy shit, there are origin episodes, and there is this.

It really helps that I have no idea that the Punisher's backstory involved dead family. It's an all-too-common trope in superhero land, and it's far easier to list the few superheroes with living parents. But Frank really sells his story. From his allusions to being in the war from the last episode, to his cracking breakdown at the end of this one, as he recalls how he returned from Afghanistan and is scared about returning to civilian life, about how his daughter held him up, how he should've told his beloved daughter that bedtime story (Frank's 'penny and dime' mantra) the night before she died, how he held the ruined corpse of his daughter after the incident...

Holy fuck, that was a painful speech to hear, moreso due to the fact that the scripting was just on point in showing a really hard and stoic murderer like the Punisher break down at remembering how his family died without turning into a pathetic blubbering mess... yet still display enough grief for us watchers (and Matt) to feel a crapton of sympathy for this dude. I actually teared up a little for Punisher, and works of fiction generally don't get that reaction from me. Especially not when it's just a backstory instead of a beloved character dying. How the fuck did the Punisher of all characters get me close to crying? How the fuck did they do that? 

Meanwhile, parallel to that, also in this episode Karen is definitely devoted herself into carrying Ben Urich's torch, and manages to, on her own, discover Frank Castle's old house and discover some tantalizing backstory as well. There are also some information that she discovers about Frank's near-death experience, including a mysterious John Doe that disappeared from the site of the shootout (the carousel that was involved in Frank and the Irish mob's fight) and, well, it seems that Frank's near-death experience has some involvement with a government organization. It's a nice little side plot that is nice enough to let her do, because, I mean, who wants to see Karen and Foggy defend some random schmuck of the week in a boring-ass trial? Not me. Having Karen investigate the Punisher's backstory allows her to do things and for the show to reveal things without resorting to Frank introdumping everything. 

The police capture the wounded Punisher near the cemetery, with Daredevil giving officer Brett (hey Brett!) the credit to help restore the police's credibility, which is a nice little wrap-up to that Punisher mini-arc. Obviously he's going to show up later on, but it's still a nice spot to tie up Punisher's first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

We also get a highly-welcome slower scene as Matt talks to Father Lantom, whose return was definitely welcomed. They discuss Grotto's death, and it's yet another subtly great character moment from both characters involved and a testament to how much Daredevil is a narrative that explores the characters' growth and motivations instead of just 'oh, how do we get this plot device and then chain to that action scene'. Lantom says some pretty hard yet sensible truth about how a man's death does not invalidate the bad things he's done in his life, and gives Matt some well-needed encouragement and some sage advice regarding guilt. Again, it helps to differentiate Daredevil from similar vigilante-style heroes like, oh, Batman or Spider-Man.

Melvin "Gladiator" Potter shows up again here. I think he showed up in one of the earlier episodes of this season and I forgot to mention it, but it's cool to see him! I really like him, and I really like how he's just this costume-upgrade dude for Daredevil. 

Oh and Karen and Matt kinda get a couple extra moments. This season's been quite blatant about shipping them together, though thankfully, unlike some shows (Legends of Tomorrow, I'm looking at you) they're taking it somewhat slower and gradually, which is definitely far more believable and actually nice to look at instead of 'hey Atom and Hawkgirl are totally a couple now haha'.  

Also, boom, surprise Elektra at the end of this episode, which will definitely throw a wrench in that Matt-Karen thing. Who shows up randomly in Matt's house. The two know each other from the past, and we've had an Elektra cameo-reference in season one. Plus, we get the subtle note to people who don't know about Elektra that she's a badass... because she snuck past Daredevil's world-on-fire super senses. Woo. So, yeah, the next four or five episodes are probably going to be Elektra-centric. I'm not sure how well this formula of having an entire season be split up into mini-arcs starring Daredevil with a guest-star, but if it gets us the quality of this Punisher arc, I certainly am up for it. It also sets up a nice, different setting from having just our hero climb all the way to the 'final boss' the way they handled Kingpin and Killgrave in Netflix-Marvel's previous two installments. We'll see. 

Overall, a very, very solid episode. Again, Frank steals the episode though Matt and Karen got some great moments as well, and episode-villain Finn Cooley was a surprisingly awesome addition to the show... pity he, y'know, got punished. By a shotgun blast. To the face. 

Daredevil S02E03 Review: Frank and Matt Have a Discussion

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 3: New York's Finest

Ah, back to Daredevil's second season! I will try to deliver this, as well as other superhero TV shows, semi-regularly, because this is a Netflix show and you're really supposed to binge-watch this, but hey, whatever. It's also like nearly two months old at this point, so I'll try to be more concise so I can cover all the episodes in a less amount of time. 

Also I'll probably make it a running gag that the Daredevil review titles will be called 'Frank Does X' or something like that. 

Anyway, with that bit of a promise which I can hopefully keep out of the way, let's talk about episode three. And the elephant in the room... the super-awesome one-shot ten-minute-long action scene. Because holy balls, that definitely tops that one hallway fight from season one. That fight was beautifully choreographed, was brutal, and every single fucking moment of it was awesome. The stakes were real, too. Punisher blew up the Dogs of Hell biker gang's bikes to set them up to fight Daredevil, and Matt himself was hurt in a prior fight with Punisher last episode. All the while he's still trying to capture Punisher and at the same time stop the Dogs of Hell from killing the vigilante. There were a couple of moments with the chains or just jumping in that stairwell that was just holy fuck straight-up awesome.

But that's nowhere the strongest moment of the episode. No, because if we rate episodes and movies by action scenes alone, then the likes of Transformers or Age of Ultron would probably be considered masterpieces. But Daredevil's season two isn't afraid of setting up actual philosophical discussions about this whole vigilante thing, about morality, about pragmatism versus naivety... in other words, everything Batman V Superman thinks that it is doing but relatively flunked at. Holy shit, Daredevil and Punisher's conversation at the beginning of the episode really made the episode. Just having these two characters not beat each other up but actually just... talk, trying to understand this other vigilante that operate with different methods. Daredevil thinks that the Punisher's way too dangerous, Punisher thinks Daredevil is a kindred spirit but is too soft... both understanding the other yet disagreeing completely with the other's methods...

Of course, the fact that there is a sadistic choice moment thrown in there helps too. Punisher is adamant that he's only out there to kill the worst of the worst, not believing that the small sliver of redemption is worth risking sending a mass murderer back into the wild... which to some degree everyone who isn't a 7-year-old would agree, but on the other hand, as much as Punisher insists that he's only killing the evil guys and not ever going to hurt civilians, how much do you believe that he can hold up that end of the promise and not accidentally blow or shoot the wrong person in the head? Was the threat to that war veteran real (despite Frank later brushing it off as a way to scare Matt)? Is hunting down criminals and administering justice via bullets worth terrorizing every decent folk that got in their way? Showing Karen escaping from Punisher two episodes ago and the police being totally fucked over by him, even if none of those innocents technically died, is a great way to show what a destructive force of nature that Frank Castle, the Punisher, is. 

To this end, the Punisher tries to force Daredevil to come around to his way of thinking, by chaining the Devil of Hell's Kitchen up, taping a gun to one hand. While Punisher himself gets ready to kill Grotto from the past two episodes... who despite what Daredevil tries to do in defending the dude, is revealed to be someone who's killed an innocent random old grandma simply for witnessing him doing gangster stuff. I really love this moment. Too often these kind of shows and stories are just too optimistic, giving our hero a coincidentally squeaky-clean 'villain' who's not at all wrong. Yet he's also not entirely unlikeable since we got to know the dude for the past two episodes as someone you can at least sympathize with. Here Matt is faced with trying to defend a murderer with the flimsy excuse that he can be redeemed (where, really, the only reason he seemed to want to seek redemption at all is because the Punisher's coming for his ass), while the only way he's only able to stop Punisher from killing Grotto was, well, to shoot Punisher before he does the deed. It's a tense moment, it's a great moment, and I'm told it's an adaptation of an iconic moment from the comics as well. 

And it's a great debate, too. He killed an innocent woman, and probably would kill several more if he was left alive. He's definitely not just some chump who picks up the mafia's laundry or whatever. But does every murderer deserve a chance at redemption? Or does redemption and mercy only work if it is administered evenly to every criminal out there? Daredevil's arguments of how important saving lives is definitely far more meaningful considering the struggles he went through in Season One on whether he should kill the Kingpin, but there's always that appeal of the simple black-and-white Punisher worldview of cutting the problem at the root. It's a very complex and well-written dilemma, something that Batman V Superman just barely touches on (though the main topic there is how accountable are godlike beings) but didn't really had the chance to explore. 

The great scripting is also totally on-point on this scene as well, and I honestly can't really do it justice without quoting it word for word. The scene where Punisher tries to play nice, the moment where that Vietnam War veteran* shows up and Punisher shows to be able to maintain a social front (even if that gun is just right next to the door)... that entire sequence was just as fluid and wondrous as the fight scene that capped the episode. 

*Who, I'm told, is a reference to the Punisher's original comic-book backstory as a survivor of the Vietnam War. This incarnation of the Punisher is more up-to-date so his war is the Afghanistan war. 

The Frank/Matt scenes really stole the show that I honestly got a bit mad whenever we cut away to the supporting cast. But while a good chunk of Foggy's flustered running around was hilarious I really want to see more Matt and Frank. Foggy does finally get a badass scene of himself, defusing two fighting gangsters in the hospital (in a surprisingly well-done portrayal of an ER room) with lawyer powers. That was a great scene too. I think it's easily the best-written Foggy scene in this entire series. Claire "Night Nurse" makes a return, making a couple of references to her role in Jessica Jones. She's cool. Probably not going to be super relevant, but it's kinda nice to see her again.

Oh, also, Karen is like looking into stuff all Lois Lane like. I honestly don't particularly care about her side of the plot since it feels way too much like a rehash of her stint with Ben Urich from season one, but she does discover that x-ray of Punisher's head with a bullet to the head. Interesting, and a nice homage to the Punisher's skull logo, but nowhere as interesting as Matt and Frank having a talk.

All in all, though, this episode is definitely one of the best Daredevil episodes of the season, if not in the history of superhero TV shows. It's faithful to the comics, it features intelligent discussion, we get absolutely great characterization from the main character and the villain anti-hero, we get a couple of dramatic moments, even the secondary characters get their moments, and to top it off is the insane fight scene. Yeah, it's that good, even if a good chunk of it is just a conversation.

Game of Thrones S06E01 Review: Resolving Cliffhangers

Game of Thrones, Season 6, Episode 1: The Red Woman

Holy shit, how long has it been since season five ended? Before I started this blog, I think. To those who don't know, I am a big fan of Game of Thrones, or rather, if you prefer the series by its full name, A Song of Fire and Ice. Because while I have watched all five seasons of the TV show, I'm also reading the novels, around partway through book two now... and Game of Thrones is one of those good adaptations where they changed a good chunk of things from page to screen, yet tries to economize and improve on the source material.

And because, well, they ran out of novels to adapt, with the writer's blessing, season 6 is going on with uncharted theory unknown to both book and TV readers. Now season five left us with nothing but a barrage of cliffhangers, in probably one of the biggest cockteases in all of television. We got (to recap), Brienne about to execute Stannis, Myrcella apparently bleeding from her nose possibly being poisoned by the Sand Snakes, Daenerys surrounded by an army of Dothraki, Daenerys's court going off to search for her, Sansa and Theon jumping off the walls of Winterfell before the Boltons return, Arya blinded by the Faceless Men as part of their insane cult initiation, and also Jon being stabbed for the Watch.

To some extent, we visit all of our main players bar Littlefinger, Sam and Bran, the latter who's absent last season as well if I recall. Some of our characters we just get some acknowledgement what happened to them, and it's really nothing more than just seeing, well, that they exist. 

The shortest and least interesting scene this time around is Arya Stark, who's reduced to a blind beggar thanks to her being blinded by the insane assassin cult of the Faceless Men. She gets confronted and beaten up by the Waif, and, well, it's definitely some training from hell so she can develop Daredevil powers and be the Devil of Winterfell or something like that. There's really nothing much to this part until they decide to advance it, really.

Likewise, King's Landing also only got a short scene, as we get full confirmation that, yes, Myrcella bleeding from her nose right after her heartwarming confession that she acknowledges Jaime as a father figure... was in fact the last thing Myrcella will ever do in her life as yet another innocent young girl is claimed by the Game of Thrones. Cersei's humiliating quasi-triumphant return last season is immediately rewarded with this scene. Her expression and her grief is palpable as she realizes that Jaime is returning with a coffin instead of her most beloved daughter. If there is one redeeming quality about Cersei it's her love towards her children, and seeing her so heartbroken as she just sobs about the futility of going against the prophecy, sobbing about how Myrcella was the only good thing she has ever made, how Myrcella was so different from her... Cersei breathes pride and self-loathing in the same breath, but rarely does the latter show without a hint of the former, and Myrcella's death well and truly broke her. She's not even thinking of revenge against the Dornishmen. She is just heartbroken as she refuses to not grieve, and keeps describing in morbid detail how the body of her beautiful daughter will decompose.

Jaime is more than willing to pick up the slack of waging revenge, however, and Jaime swears revenge against all who have wronged the incest twins. That means striking out against Dorne, something that is exacerbated by, well, the Dorne scenes which I'll talk about later. Granted, as Roose Bolton later notes in the Winterfell scenes, there's also that particular rebellion to quash. And I highly doubt a grief-enraged Cersei Lannister will stand for that stupid Faith Militant.

We also get to see Margaery Tyrell, who doesn't look like she's been abused quite as much as Cersei has. She adamantly refuses to confess, though the High Sparrow and Septa "Confess" Unella is trying to goad a confession out of her by playing good cop bad cop. Notably, we don't see any sign of either Loras Tyrell or King Tommen, despite Margaery asking for both. I highly doubt Cersei would be so calm if anything happens to Tommen, but at the same time being alive doesn't mean he's all right. With the show being so shy of showing King Tommen for the later half of season five and this episode, I think they're hiding... something.

Loras, too. Maybe they already extracted a confession from him? Or are they doing something more... brutal to the poor dude? I mean, Loras is a proven homosexual and these dudes don't look like they tolerate that thing quite well. I don't think he'll die offscreen, but I wouldn't be surprised if they broke him physically or mentally, especially if they took other people's confessions as 'evidence'. 

Meanwhile, in Dorne! We're definitely setting up a big war between King's Landing and Dorne. See, Prince Doran Martell is a gigantic idiot for sparing Ellaria and the Sand Snakes despite being proven assassins. News of Myrcella's death reaches Doran, and, well, Ellaria and the Sand Snakes (whose I can never really tell apart) murder Doran and his bodyguard Areo Hotah. I mean, well, Doran is suing for peace, and he definitely has a point -- yes, Elia Targaryen-Martell was raped and killed, while Oberyn Martell had his head squeezed like a tomato...  but both were done by the Mountain. Kill the dude and be done with it. But apparently Ellaria and, well, apparently everyone else in Dorne's higher ruling class sees it as weakness for them not to avenge members of the royal family.

...so they kill the remaining members of the royal family. Doy, Ellaria, your logic makes no sense!

Well, at least the Sand Snakes carry Oberyn's bastard blood. Despite Doran begging for them to spare Prince Trystane, he gets killed too. So at least he goes off to join Myrcella in death, poor starcrossed lovers that they are. Though I must admit Trystane's death was nothing short of hilarious. Areo's was shocking, Doran's was tragic. Trystane trying to be all badass while the two Sand Snakes (Nymeria and Obra, I think?) corner him, and Trystane is fooled into thinking that they were going to fight him one-on-one before Game of Thrones logic sinks in and the other Sand Snake just spear-stabbed him through the face... that was so sudden. And so darkly funny.

Meanwhile, in Vaes Dothrak, Daenerys is captured by a big-ass Dothraki Horde. We get a bunch of random riders talking about raping Daenerys, but thankfully it does not come to that. She is brought in front of Khal Mogo, who, after a hilariously long discussion about whether seeing a naked woman would rank on the 'top five lists of best experiences' with his bloodriders and wives, is about to claim Daenerys as his own... until Daenerys drops the bombshell that she can speak Dothraki. And when her long titles mean nothing, she drops the Khal Drogo name. Six seasons in, and Khal Drogo's still looking out for her from beyond. Yeah, Khals are forbidden to lie with another Khal's widow... so Daenerys is safe from being raped.

Problem is (and it's something foreshadowed from the very first book) is that all Khal widows are supposed to join with the Dothraki crones, widows of fallen Khals, like in a sacred monastery or something, and the Mother of Dragons don't want that. She can't really say anything about it, though. Her only real hopes of rescue are her two knights, Ser Jorah "Friendzone" Mormont and Daario Naharis, who manages to track down the remains of Drogon's last lunch and the big footsteps of the Dothraki horde. They somehow manage to find Daenerys's earring in that giant clearing, and Daario seem to be more interested in discussing Jorah's friendzoning more than anything. Also Jorah has that rock-skin disease thing, which he reminds the audience about. 

Man, all we need is Drogon to come down and scare the shit of the Dothraki. 

Tyrion and Varys are just hanging out in Meereen, being awesome and trading great lines of dialogue. I would watch a show just starring these two. There was a fun moment where Tyrion's bad Valyrian language skills caused a beggar woman to think he's going to eat her baby, and it's fun. The Sons of the Harpy are still a big problem, though, and where Varys is content to gather information, the Sons of the Harpy are going around burning Daenerys's fleet. So much for invading Westeros, then. 

In Winterfell, Theon and Sansa... escape as well as you think two people jumping off the side of a castle would be. Theon's more or less crippled, and Ramsay's hounds and knights catch up to them pretty quickly. Theon tries his best to draw away the hunters, but that goes as well as you'd expect it to go in real life -- which is not at all. It would be dumb to have them escape just to be captured and tortured for an entire season again, though, so Brienne and Pod come in to the rescue and just lay waste to the Bolton knights with great soundtrack and awesome fighting skills. Pod tries his darnedest, but in the end Theon (who grew some figurative balls to replace his missing ones) stabs Pod's foe from behind with a spear. Good on you, Theon!

Sansa finally accepts Brienne as her knight, and it's clear that she's really, really glad for the woman knight's rescue, as well as finally accepting Theon Greyjoy as her ally. I mean, Sansa's spent a good chunk of the series being helpless, and somewhat failing whenever she tries to do anything, but with allies like Brienne and Theon, as unlikely as the latter would be, maybe she can mount an offensive against the Boltons? Roose does mention that none of the Northern Houses really support the Boltons, especially if they don't have Sansa Stark. Plus there's the fact that Theon might rally Yara and the rest of the Iron Islands or something like that. I doubt this would be the focus of the season, though.

The show is also vague regarding Stannis Baratheon's fate. Brienne mentions nothing about it to Sansa, and both Roose and Ramsay mention that he's dead, but we don't see a body and we do know that the Boltons really like displaying the bodies, so it's a bit of a conspicuous absence that makes me think Stannis is... not dead? Maybe? I dunno. Maybe that's just because I like the dude.

Ramsay actually shows some emotion about Miranda's death, mourning her in his own twisted way... before telling her body to be fed to the hounds because it's good meat. Oh, Ramsay, you over-the-top twisted motherfucking piece of shit, I hope you die horribly. Roose notes that what Ramsay did was to ambush and use hit-and-run tactics on a weather-beaten Baratheon Army, and it wasn't so much a victory as a rout. Roose notes that without support from the Northern forces and the Iron Islands, they won't stand against a proper Lannsiter army from King's Landing. Though considering said army's probably far more concerned about exacting revenge on Dorne...

Roose threatens Ramsay in no uncertain terms that if he doesn't manage to re-obtain Sansa and Theon, then he's no good to produce an heir and his new son with Lady Wanda would be the heir instead. ...noooot your smartest idea there Roose, because Ramsay would definitely kill a pregnant woman and her unborn child. Poor Wanda! She seemed like such a pleasant woman.

The A-plot here really is in the Night's Watch, bookending the episode, though even that really didn't amount to much. We have confirmation that Jon Snow is dead, as if last episode's final scene wasn't final enough. We get to see that, well, Alliser Thorne's supporters kind of number few, and a good chunk of the Night's Watch mooks are still pissed as all hell. Thorne manages to deliver a speech where he's thinking of the Watch as a whole, and how he's loyal to the Watch and he never disobeys an order, and it's Jon Snow that's disrespecting the Watch... but really, that's the kind of logic you would make to cover your sins. Thorne, you shit. And I thought you were actually cool when you fought the Wildlings back in the climax of season four! Thorne's basically put himself in charge, although in a more diplomatic way than most, and tells Jon Snow's few supporters to stand down.

Jon's few supporters number Dolorous Edd, Ser Davos Seaworth... and a bunch of others I don't recognize. Edd buggers off to try and recruit wildlings or something, which will totally not end well and will possibly fracture the Night's Watch, while Ser Davos tries to stall things with fake diplomacy. And mutton. Davos is ready to ask Melisandre for help, which is something considering how much he hates the Red Woman...

But Melisandre is all shell-shocked at realizing her predictions regarding Jon Snow and Stannis Baratheon have both been utterly mistaken. Of course that doesn't discount some crazy black necromantic magic or whatever, but we saw what happened to Khal Drogo last time someone tried to bring a dead person to life.

And, well, Melisandre's big secret is revealed, as she strips down in your obligatory fanservice scene... and then she takes off her bracelet and reveals herself to be a naked, old, wrinkled hag. Oh kay that whiplashed so hard. Yeah, Melisandre's a super-old witch lady who's using Rhllor's magic to look hot and sexy. Which means, um, yeah, Stannis totally fucked this old decrepit lady. That's certainly a big revelation, and it also is a nice metaphor to just how defeated the previously always-proud and confident Melisandre is.

Overall it's a somber episode, just setting up all the things that's going to happen. It looks like we're going to have confrontations at the Night's Watch and against Dorne, though I'm also quite interested to see what's going to happen in Meereen and Vaes Dothrak. I don't really think the Winterfell bits will extend that much, but who knows? This is uncharted territory, and I'm just happy to have my weekly/monthly dose of Westerosi politics. 

One Piece 823-824 Review: All Around the World

One Piece, Chapter 823: A World Abuzz

I immensely enjoy One Piece chapters that show what's going on all over the One Piece world. That's one of those things that make One Piece so good as a manga. It really wins out in worldbuilding by getting old supporting characters out of the way while still making them relevant to the plot. This chapter goes around showing a lot of characters. We get a good chunk showing Vivi, Cobra and the rest of the Alabasta supporting characters being escorted by the marines under Hina to the Reverie, and we get some funny moments where everyone has to keep remembering that, hey, Vivi being a pirate temporarily is not cool with the marines. Cobra talks a bit about how he needs to attend the reverie to find out the truth about the poneglyphs.

We get King Stelly, otherwise known as Sabo's asshat brother, and while we don't see his face he's still a smarmy elitist twat. Apparently the Kano Country's war is over, and since Sai and Chinjao aren't back yet they won't attend the reverie. We get to see other kingdoms. Wapol, Dalton, Kureha, Viola, Rebecca, Mansherry, King Elizabello (whose castle's roof is a flexing man and that is hilarious), Shirahoshi... we also get a montage of other kings who we have never seen before, but it's cool seeing how many allies the Straw Hats have amongst the kingdoms. Who knows, maybe we'll have a big civil war? We also see the positive effect that the Straw Hats' liberation efforts have done to Drum Kingdom, Dressrosa and Alabasta, as well as allowing the Fishman Islanders to join the reverie for the first time. 

Carrot stows away on the Thousand Sunny and just acts cute and she's just so out of touch with actually how big the world is. Her antics are funny, I guess, though it's something I could do without. Then a News Coo drops in a newspaper saying that the Revolutionary HQ, Baltigo, is in ruins. 

One Piece, Chapter 824: Little Pirate Games

This news about the Revolutionaries being defeated -- they're not killed, of course. Captured or routed, but this is One Piece. We don't resolve series-long arcs off-screen. What do you think this is, Toriko? We get a hilarious moment where Luffy is like 'oh, shit, this is my dad?' He knows that this Monkey D Dragon dude is his father, but it's natural that Luffy doesn't care nor does he ever consider looking up what Dragon looks like. There's a bit of a discussion about Sabo, and apparently Brook has met Dragon before? Dammit Brook, why are you so mysterious in these recent chapters?

But apparently by the time Cipher Pol showed up, the Blackbeards had escaped. Pedro notes that if Dragon or Sabo had been captured or killed, they would've mentioned it. We get some funny stuff with Luffy's attempts to cook, but that's mostly fun filler. 

Jack survived, and apparently he's just stuck at the bottom of the ocean because he's... a fishman or something? He's got shark teeth, and maybe those horns on the side of his head are actually from those bull fighting fish? Maybe he's a half-fishman like Dellinger, since Vander Decken can walk around the seafloor just fine. So he can sink and breathe underwater, but he can never drown... man, what a sad life!

Meanwhile, Kaidou is just being drunk. It's hilarious to see him crying over the loss of the Smile project, then he goes on a drunken rage and whacks a bunch of stupid mooks into the sky for daring to insinuate that the Straw Hats are a problem. Kaidou is angered, and blames Doflamingo for being weak. He also notes how Law and Luffy are from the supernova generation, and tells Eustass Kidd, who's beaten up and imprisoned, to go tell Luffy and Law that 'up until this moment we're only playing little pirate games'. And Kaidou just doesn't give a fuck about everything, viewing something like taking out Shichibukai members as trivial. And, yeah, considering how Doflamingo is scared shitless of Kaidou...

Meanwhile, we finally see Sanji in the flesh, and he's talking with Baron Tamago. Sanji refuses to join with Big Mom pirates and only wants to talk, and makes it clear that he has burned his bridges with the Vinsmoke family. Sanji is pissed about how they left Pekoms to die, but it's an offhanded remark instead of something that Fairy Tail would make into a big 'moment'. And going all 'I will only cook food for my friends' is one of the most badass yet hilarious things he can say.

Vito shows up and brings up a picture of Sanji's bridge-to-be, Charlotte Purin, and, well, she's the cute three-eyed girl we saw all the way back during the Fishman Island arc next to Big Mom. Except her bangs are covering her third eye. Sanji's in looove though and that's fun.

Yeah, a pair of satisfying chapters, all things considered. 

Daredevil S02E02 Review: Frank Goes Shopping

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 2: Dogs to a Gunfight

We pick up right where we left off, Punisher shooting Daredevil in the head. Daredevil survives, of course, which is a bit stretching it, but that Melvin Potter makes some really good head protection, I guess. We quickly get a far more brutal and extended fight between the two, and more importantly Punisher himself gets a fair amount more screentime. We don't learn about his backstory yet or what turned Frank Castle into Mr. Gorefest, but he clearly isn't interested in hurting non-criminals. 

I think my favourite scene in this episode has to be Frank going into that shop with the sleazy dude and just buying everything he needs from guns to hacking devices to paying the shopkeeper to wipe his cameras... before the (weaselly but otherwise nice-guy) shopkeeper starts trying to sell Frank child porn, upon which Frank beats the fucker to death with a baseball bat. We also gets short scenes of Frank apparently adopting the dog left behind by the criminals last episode, which is a short moment that apparently was taken straight out of the comics. Aw, puppy!

One of the biggest weaknesses of fiction is not making your villain interesting enough. It's far too easy to make a villain menacing -- all you have to do is go full on Darth Vader or Sauron. Making them interesting is a whole different beast entirely, though, and it's something that very few superhero TV series got right, but as Kingpin and Kilgrave have attested, Marvel's Netflix series put way more effort into their primary antagonists than they do the supporting cast, which is definitely the right way to go in my books. It humanizes Frank and makes me want to know more about him. I mean, heck, he's the freaking Punisher, but let's pretend I don't know my comic book shit (and honestly I don't, since it's Marvel -- I just know that he's the Punisher) and I'm looking for a reason to give a shit about the Punisher. Softer scenes like showing him interact with the shopkeeper pre-pedophilia-salesman-pitch and caring for the dog are great moments to humanize the Punisher without being overt about it. Show not tell. Scenes like this are what sell a character as a character and not as a plot device. 

(You hear that, Zoom? Get your shit together!)

Meanwhile, as the audience sees these surreal moments where the lead villain (anti-hero, whatever) does these... mundane tasks such as adopting a pet and buying groceries (granted, said groceries are used for a street war), our heroes are hard at work trying to decipher what the fuck is going on. Foggy and Karen are quickly embroiled in a pretty awesome little plot by D.A. Reyes, who tricks them and their client Grotto into helping out in a 'sting operation' to find out information about the Punisher... when really Grotto is nothing but a trap to draw out the Punisher. I guess Reyes is going to be a thorn in our heroes' side, but the way that scene was played out was certainly awesome. Reyes apparently had a short cameo in Jessica Jones, but he certainly is a far more important character in this series. 

Also, Punisher, by the way, circumvents this trap by duct-taping the half-dead body of this random gangster onto a truck and using it as a battering ram to fuck the police people up.

Matt himself actually doesn't get much to do other than your classic vigilantism and bouncing dialogue off Foggy and Karen. We get some argument between Foggy and Matt, and it's nice to see Foggy worrying about Matt, running through various apartment buildings, and finding him half-dead on that roof and whatnot. Foggy was great fun this episode, by the way! The way he stood up to Reyes to defend Grotto was great, too, giving me far more of a reason to care for Foggy, which was something that I have a bit of a problem with last season. All his dialogue was pretty funny and organic, which was definitely an improvement over the previous season. I thought Matt suddenly developing ear-piercing pain was a bit sudden -- makes sense due to the gunshot, but still sudden narrative-wise, but it gives Daredevil enough of a handicap to make him believably lose the fight against the relatively more inexperienced, if more brutal, Punisher. I hope this doesn't really last that long, though, because having Daredevil keel over from ear pains in ever fight will get old real fast. 

Speaking of Foggy (and Karen), I did like how the lawyering stuff has been mostly hoisted over to Foggy for this episode. Last episode all Foggy and Karen did were shuffle papers around, do research and be Matt's less competent sidekick. With Matt pre-occupied with the whole Devil of Hell's Kitchen thing, it's actually quite sensible for Foggy to pick up the slack, and hey, he's a lawyer himself! Why not let him be actually competent?

The episode ends in a similar way to the first, with Punisher getting a one-up over Daredevil, but he apparently wants to have a chat. It's going to be an interesting chat. Reyes and Foggy both bring up themes that Daredevil running around in Hell's Kitchen is inspiring copycats (and apparently Matt put away some actual copycats between the two seasons) and it's certainly a nice little thing that's probably going to add to Matt's pile of things that he feels guilty about.

Overall, another really strong episode. Frank's a great villain and a very interesting character, and from the titles of my reviews it might seem that the show focuses a lot on him... but it really doesn't. Frank gets as much screentime as any main antagonist deserves, but at the core of the show is still Matt, Foggy and Karen, and I like the balance of handling the characters' screentime. Great episode. 

Daredevil S02E01 Review: Frank the One-Man Army

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 1: Bang

Man, Daredevil's second season was an insane ride. At this point in time I've finished the entire second season, but the reviews I'm writing will be based on scribbled-down notes of my impressions while watching the episodes in question, so it'll be like I'm surprised at how things are happening in the second season. See, Daredevil's first season was really good. It wasn't perfect, of course, but the performances by a lot of the characters -- main antagonist Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. Kingpin) in particular -- really sold me that, hey, the concept of a blind vigilante with radar sense and a lawyer day job might actually work as a TV show.

One of the weaknesses of a season two is that they risk just repeating the same things that worked in season one, only bigger. They're kinda afraid of changing things too much, and that can end up as being kinda boring. It's a problem that Agents of SHIELD's second season was trapped in before the big Inhumans plot, and if Deathstroke wasn't so motherfucking awesome it would certainly be a valid criticism for Arrow's second season. 

But Daredevil's second season certainly knows its fanbase. See, the trailers (and this first episode) make it clear that the antagonist for Daredevil's second season? It's going to be the Punisher himself, who has returned to the folds of Marvel Cinematic Universe from whichever studio last got his film rights. (Played by Shane from Walking Dead, which is hilarious for me) The Punisher is probably one of the most popular characters from Marvel comics on account of being the most brutal motherfucker who will murder the shit out of every single villain, basically embodying a lot of the tropes of the dark'n'gritty era of superhero comics. Will this live-action adaptation make him likable enough for me? Or will he end up being a silly parody? Will we explore the fact that this maniac is a danger for civilians? Will we get a moral debate against putting villains down and crossing the line and whatnot? A live-action adaptation will certainly allow for more fleshing out of character than a movie, and having him be contrasted with Daredevil's more idealistic worldviews certainly would be a great way to stop it from being a gore-fest. 

Well, the first episode of Daredevil's second season certainly built the Punisher up. We haven't heard his name yet, but he certainly is a one-man army, literally showing up at the doorstep of the Irish mob that's trying to fill in the vacuum left by Wilson Fisk's arrest. And he just shows up (off-screen) with like a gatling gun or something and guns down literally the entirety of the Irish mob's leadership. 

See, while the setting of a group of other mobs trying to take over the vacuum left by Wilson Fisk, these other mobsters and criminal groups (including the Dogs of Hell, the biker gang controlled by Lorelei in that early Agents of SHIELD episode) aren't the one that Daredevil is going to have to fight this season. Rather, they have to contend with the new 'hero', who runs on the code that villains are evil and therefore they have to be killed, lest they break free from prison and murder more people. It's something that a lot of people might agree with, but that runs contrary to... well, all the goodness and whatnot that superheroes are supposed to embody. 

And this episode juxtaposes both Daredevil and Punsiher's methods really well, with Daredevil taking down the group of robbers at the opening of the episode with non-lethal efforts -- a violent beatdown, but non-lethal -- but that ended up with a hostage being kidnapped halfway through the chase. Meanwhile, the Punisher just shows up, bullets fly, villains die.

Of course, not every single one of the Irish mobsters die. One of them, Grotto, ends up in the hospital and rather predictably Nelson & Murdock gets involved with him. The dynamic between Matt, Foggy and Karen is still really fun, especially now with Foggy being really worried about Matt's nighttime life as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen (you guys can say 'Daredevil', you know). We get a bit of Matt and his buddies' daily routine, we get a short cameo of Turk as Daredevil beats him up, but really, they come across the Punsiher quickly enough. The Punisher's still portrayed as the boogeyman here, trying to snipe Grotto, shooting up the Irish mobsters and the hospital. He's the Batman to Daredevil's Superman, and we don't get a full shot of him until the end. It's nice, building him up as this super-violent vigilante that we all know, yet still noting the realities of his brand of insanity when we get the policemen canvassing his handiwork or when Karen and Grotto are running the fuck away in that hospital. I really have faith that they're going to do the Punisher justice as a character. 

It's a really nice opening, building up the Punisher with everyone wondering if this new player is an army or not... nah, all they're dealing is with the Punisher. And Daredevil does do battle against the Punisher at the end of the episode, and while I highly doubt it's their only confrontation in this season it's still quite entertaining! I mean, when two heroes fight... that's like the entire premise of how Batman V Superman got so many viewers. It was a great fight right up to the titular 'bang' when Punisher shoots Daredevil in the head. 

It's overall a really solid opening episode to the second season, setting a lot of the tone. It's definitely going to be faster-paced than the first season, where we don't even get Kingpin meeting Daredevil until slightly before the halfway point. The Punisher is awesome. Daredevil is awesome. Having the two of them fight is extremely awesome. More please. 

The Flash S02E16 Review: Not the Speedster You Were Expecting

The Flash, Season 2, Episode 16: Trajectory

The dates between the reviews don't show it, but Episode 16 returned after a month-long hiatus after the King Shark episode, which left us with the half-hearted reveal that Zoom is Jay! Or Zolomon. Or someone else who shares their face. This episode, extremely surprisingly, introduces another speedster into the mix and it's not Wally West or Jesse Chambers, but rather, Trajectory! Who is a character I am not familiar with from the comics, so no paragraph about me talking about the stuff I liked about her from the comics. But she's a fun enough (and psychotic enough) villain of the week, threatening enough but still nowhere as distracting from the character arc in this episode.

Barry's obsessed with becoming faster to battle Zoom, but he's not really sure how to accomplish his goal -- his attempts at jumping over a gorge (thank goodness Cisco has drones) was hilarious, but when the supervillain Trajectory starts to do some high-speed robbery, Barry has to contend with the fact that there's a third speedster that's faster than him. While Team Flash speculate about the origins of Trajectory, Caitlin inadvertently reveals the existence of Velocity-9 and its destructive side effects. It then ends up being a bit of a 'don't do drugs' allegory as Barry had to fight Trajectory, while the poor girl has to deal with an insane split personality and an increasing dependence on Velocity-9. That Jekyll-and-Hyde bit was a bit too on the nose, perhaps, but she was an entertaining villain nonetheless. 

Trajectory runs too fast, her lightning becomes blue, and she goes poof leaving nothing but her clothes behind. Running too fast and being consumed by the Speed Force, is, of course, a familiar trope to DC comic book readers, but for the sake of anyone who doesn't wish to be spoilered while reading these reviews, I will keep my mouth shut. It certainly poses some questions about Zoom's own blue lightning, and just how Barry might weaponize this against Zoom... even if 'overload the villain with the energy he wants' is yet another in a list of sci-fi tropes that shouldn't even be a thing anymore. 

Also, Jesse gets stabbed by the Velocity-9. Astute comic-book readers or show-only people who are up to date with social media will know that Jesse Chambers is destined to become the superheroine speedster Jesse Quick... yet she doesn't become Jesse Quick in this episode and instead just hops town. We get a bit of a 'daddy stop smothering me' moment with Earth-2 Wells, though, which was a nice moment to build Jesse up. Wally shows up in the bar they were hanging out with to flirt with Jesse a bit, and... Jesse's metahuman warning watch beep-beeped. Is Wally already a metahuman? Or is that just Barry/Cisco being close enough to Jesse? In any case, it would be weird for Wells to give Jesse that watch and have it beep beep all the time in response to two people that she'll be spending a relatively close distance with so yeah, maybe it's an oblique foreshadowing? 

...also what the fuck Wells how did that recording end up in your metahuman radar watch? That felt like a pointless bit of drama. 

Also, thanks to Cisco's Vibing, the cast Vibed Jay's helmet and ended up realizing that Jay is Zoom. Or someone pretending/looking like Jay is Zoom. It was a bit too similar to season 1's Harrison Wells for my taste, though I'm just shrugging and going along with this for the moment. 

It's mostly a strong episode, punctuated with some hilarious character moments from the main cast (especially in that club -- Cisco's stupid dance moves are hilariously fun), though relatively marred by giving Iris a very weak subplot with her new editor, Scott Evans... who's basically a poor man's J. Jonah Jameson/Perry White, being all 'rawr Flash is evil because that one time I exposed a well-liked authority figure as evil', with a piss-poor attempt at building some romantic/sexual tension... though Iris herself lampshades it as being 'wait what', so there's that. Iris's earlier scene with Barry talking about their 'what-if' married life on Earth-2 is also... strange. 

Overall, though, other than that one bit, a very fun episode nonetheless with a good villain and some buildup to the larger plot. 

Arrow S04E14 Review: Pre-Wedding Blues

Arrow, Season 4, Episode 14: Code of Silence

Man, it has been quite some time since I last watched Arrow. I kinda forgot that Darhk has been taken out of the plot in a ridiculous plot excuse, but he's back with a bit of a vengeance! The filler plot for the vigilantes involves a group of elite HIVE groups that go around blowing shit up, and they deliver more of a fight than, well, most villains do! I think Team Arrow worked far more against the staple gun HIVE agent than they did while fighting Anarky, and definitely outshone that pathetic Oliver-v-Merlyn rematch we got in the last episode. Apparently these dudes are the Arrowverse incarnations of the obscure DC villains the Demolition Team, but they are certainly colourful enough to be memorable, even if they don't have enough personality among the three of them to amount for a single character.

Which is just as well, because the fighty scenes are honestly a big distraction from the far more emotion-laced plotlines that abound. The stakes are higher as Malcolm Merlyn has revealed Oliver's weak point -- bastard child William -- to Darhk, earning him a spot in HIVE's little meeting. We don't get to see much of the other HIVE leadership, but Darhk's basically gone full Darth Vader and goes around choking people he doesn't like even through monitors. Apparently the other HIVE higher-ups don't have a Trigon idol to worship, no sir. Whatever the case, though, with Darhk advancing his assault with attempts to kill the traitorous Quentin Lance (I honestly am surprised Darhk didn't show up personally) or to take Oliver Queen out to ensure Ruve's victory, he's at least doing something and being all classy while doing it.

Ruve's a nice little villain all on her own, exuding a nice sense of menace whether she's faced with the Green Arrow or with Oliver Queen... though Oliver's cocky puns about how he knew Ruve is behind the explosions might probably backfire. HIVE, after all, unlike the villains of the past two seasons, are not privy to the Green Arrow's secret identity. Despite Merlyn. Who has returned to being a wildcard while using the extremely flimsy excuse of 'I'm doing this for the betterment of the long term plan'. Uh-huh, sure you are. 

Oliver and Quentin both get great moments, especially during their confiding about keeping secrets from their loved ones. The bit with Quentin and Donna felt really tacked on and disjointed, but Quentin's acting is so great that I can't fault the writers for wanting to facilitate that scene. I'm just worried that the whole 'Oliver has an illegitimate son' thing is going to be an inevitable source of angsty drama between Oliver and Felicity. It ran for like five minutes in the Flash/Arrow crossover and I am already sick of it. There's a nice difference between the moral of the story -- Quentin goes all honest, in a fashion, to Donna, but Oliver continues to bury the secret about William from Felicity... though Thea ends up finding out and, well, is now an accomplice in hiding William from Felicity. It's going to backfire in a big, messy drama and I don't like it.

Also Felicity's going to get this machine stimulant thing from Holt, which will in theory allow her to walk. So she's not going to be Not-Oracle for too long, I guess. If it was anyone but Mr. Terrific that built the device I would've called foul, but eh, I'll take it.

The island bits also added more intrigue as that subplot gets a kick on the arse. After dicking around with Conklin and Tatiana and whoever the fuck else, Oliver finally gets a reversed version of the 'if you're so evil, kill this innocent being' sadistic choice, and he finally kills that twat Conklin... who gives an ominous warning that Reiter is going to kill everyone on the island. Considering that Oliver didn't return to Star City happily banging Taiana or with Baron Blitzkrieg in chains, well, that probably rings true. Still don't particularly care that much, though.

The end of the episode shows that Darhk already has William in hostage, even if hostage means 'introduce William to my daughter and let them play'. Overall, it's a decent episode that picked up steam after a series of filler-y episodes. The Darhk plot bits were good, Quentin was good, Ruve was good, hell, the action scenes were nothing short of phenomenal... it's just the secret bits that drag this episode down. I just wished they would tone down on the obviousness of the William thing backfiring on the Olicity romance and it's a bucket of tears I could do without.

The Flash S02E15 Review: Jaws

The Flash, Season 2, Episode 15: King Shark

One of the biggest gripes I had with the Flash's second season is that King Shark literally only showed up for a minute before being shot in the back by Harrison Wells of Earth-2. We don't even get an explanation to what happened to him. Is he dead? Is he captured? Is he in the Pipeline? And more importantly, why didn't he get an entire episode to himself?

Well, all of these are answered in this episode, as we get the follow-up to the Earth-2 two parter. And honestly, despite the focus of this episode centering around King Shark, it is a great follow up to the Earth-2 stuff, with King Shark being a legitimate threat whilst still being filler-y enough to not be distracting from the more emotional stuff. 

Da King

The big reveal that Zoom was Jay Garrick (or Hunter Zolomon, really) ended up being kinda bad, though. We really could've done more with Hunter Zolomon, make him do some red herring thing before dismissing him as a candidate for Zoom, but no. We just have Zoom unmask himself and boom Jay Garrick. It came kind of out of nowhere, too, and it really could've been done better in a more dramatic environment. 

But hey, King Shark!

We get some nice tie-ins with John Diggle and Lyla Danvers having to hunt down King Shark. Apparently before her (*cough*WB*cough*) death Amanda Waller had captured King Shark and probably intended to use him in her own Suicide Squad or whatever. Diggle and Lyla are trying to inspect this when predictably, King Shark breaks loose. King Shark is just an awesomely weird and surreal villain as this big-ass musclebound shark man, and yes, he poses a threat! And his awesome speedboat-style speed-swimming near the end is awesome, as is Flash creating a giant water tornado and lightning bolting him in the face. The hunt for the elusive big shark-man was fun as ARGUS agents end up inevitably becoming fodder, while Lyla gets some nice development as the show paints her as a competent ARGUS leader, and Diggle's just always fun to be around. 

Man, that last battle, though. I think I liked it more than the big Doomsday battle from Batman V Superman, as far as superheroes fighting a giant CGI muscle monster goes. 

My happiness regarding all things King Shark aside, though, the rest of the episode was unexpectedly filled with darker character moments. We've got Barry being your guilty-feels superhero, regarding him opening the portal between the two Earths, and feeling (rightfully) responsible for Earth-2 Joe's death. We get a lot of nice moments about Barry feeling guilty, threading the fine line between good guilt and emo shit. But Barry and Joe in particular got a lot of great scenes together.

The bit between Barry and Wally is a bit iffy, but I still mostly like it. Wally is somewhat needlessly hostile against Barry at times, and I groan a bit when he doesn't realize that, hey, Barry just disappeared, Flash shows up, Flash disappears, Barry reappears and doesn't put two and two together. 

Thanks google for the gif

Cisco's little subplot with an ice-cold Caitlin is also nice, as he is worried that the loss of Jay would drive Caitlin into embracing Killer Frost, and I do like how Caitlin tells Cisco that it's a stupid idea... for the moment, anyway. Maybe with further character development? I dunno, I like my happy go lucky Caitlin Snow. The two get really great moments throughout the episode, with Caitlin being exasperated that Cisco's carrying this ridiculous theory for so long, and trolling him at the end of the episode, being really great moments. 

So yeah, really not a lot to say beyond the fact that I really liked this episode. King Shark is awesome.

One Piece 822 Review: Reverie

One Piece, Chapter 822: Descending the Elephant

Overall a mostly mellow chapter. Not a lot really happened, and we just get a recovery from the whole Zunisha-fucks-Jack-up thing. Team Chopper heals Zunisha, and we get them splitting up proper. We get a 'oh that Luffy, what a crazy dude' moment when he hops off the giant elephant-island grabbing everyone that's going to go with him. Brook and company are just freaking out, Pedro (who tags along, and judging from last chapter's cover page Carrot probably is joining them as well) just has this hilarious expression of 'eh wait what' on his face, whereas Team Dressrosa isn't even reacting at all and are just 'yeah bye bye' as if jumping off a mountain-sized elephant is everyday work.

Momonosuke's going to stay behind with the Minks while his samurai troops go with Team Zoro and Team Law to Wanokuni. We get some confirmation regarding Pekoms' Kame Kame no Mi, which is what everyone guessed -- also his shell is apparently as hard as diamond. There's... something... odd about him that makes Pedro want to tag along to keep him in control. It's really not too far off to think that Pekoms and Pedro are related in some way -- they're both cats and their names start with Pe. And since Pekoms, like, joins the Big Mom pirates, of course he's going to be not entirely savoury of a character.

What else is there? Oh, Vivi shows up at the end! It's been like half the series' worth of chapters since Vivi last made a non-cameo appearance. Yay for the Reverie! Nami gets a new upgraded dildostaff weather sorcery climatact thing.

Overall a slow, but still relatively fun little chapter. Reviews for other manga may be a little late.

Agent Carter S02E10 Review: Honestly Anticlimatic

Agent Carter, Season 2, Episode 10: Hollywood Ending

That was... a very functional ending. The main villains are all taken out, and while there are enough plot lines to strike intrigue for the third season, so much has been built up across Agent Carter's second season that it really feels like a letdown that very little of what has been seeded really came to fruition. I still have a lot of questions regarding what's going on -- like the ancient Hydra pin, and it's really annoying that it was built up in the first two or three episodes as this big conspiracy that's going to drive the second season, when in reality it's just laying the groundwork for season three. We've got the redacted files that Thompson discovered two episodes ago... season three. We don't get any answers to what Zero Matter is (apparently it's an adaptation of the comics' Darkforce?), just what is the voice that Whitney and Wilkes are hearing, just what the Council of Nine is beyond the couple of executives we saw, why did the Zero Matter pick Wilkes over Whitney, et cetera, et cetera. 

And really, the big cliffhanger at the end of the first season, a team-up between Arnim Zola and Dr. Faustus ended up not factoring in anywhere, and for all the entertainment factor that Dottie Underwood gave us in the mid-season episodes, she also ended up not appearing at all -- I half expected her to be a wildcard or hanging out with Team Frost, at least as a secondary threat so our characters don't just stand around talking and waiting for Frost to walk to their trap.

Really, it's a shame since Agent Carter's second season was actually pretty good. It isn't super-duper excellent, but it's a definite improvement over the first season, it's got solid storylines and fleshed-out characters, and despite being very pessimistic regarding the quality of the first season, I really enjoyed this second outing with Peggy Carter. But this final episode of the second season? Yeah, it's easily the weakest of all 10 episodes. 

The ending really felt like 'oh well, it's the final episode, let's set a trap and catch Whitney Frost and yay it works'. Whitney Frost herself has grown so insane and unstable that even her one ally, Joseph Manfredi, ends up seeking out Team Carter to help 'fix' Whitney Frost. She just doesn't really... feel like she's a threat, a cunning intelligent schemer with black hole powers... she's just this erratic animal that needs to be put down (we even get Jarvis running her down with a car rather hilariously), and it is really far removed from what made Whitney Frost so interesting in the first place. She spends nearly the entirety of this episode just mumbling and pulling a Phil Coulson and sketching random equations on a whiteboard, then she gets the bait, and then she gets the Zero Matter sucked out of her. 

From then on it's a matter of one-thing-leading-to-another and they save the day. Yay. 

And, well, Howard Stark shows up for the requisite final episode appearance, and he was fun, I guess? But not even Howard (or, really, Jarvis returning to his snark-mode) really made this episode be anything more than a mediocre, lackluster ending. Though seeing him trying to play golf with a freaking hole in the universe was hilarious as all hell. 

After that sequence where everyone wants to be a hero, Jarvis shoots Howard's flying car (Lola nooo) into the Zero Matter portal and pop it goes off. Whitney Frost goes insane, trying to claw her face off and imagining herself with Chadwick while Manfredi is forced to visit her... maybe her being alive will lead to more answers regarding the Zero Matter thing if we get a third season? 

Oh, and after everything is okay and it looks like we're going to have one of those 'where are our characters now' epilogues (including Sousa and Peggy being an official couple -- not a long stretch since Wilkes was boring as all hell), suddenly Thompson gets shot by a mysterious man who took the redacted document about M. Carter. Whoops! Cliffhanger for season three. A bit of a pooper there, though I don't really mind this that much. 

Overall, though, while this final episode was a bit of a disappointment, season two of Agent Carter really was far more exciting and definitely stronger than the first season. Now, it really could've benefited from a lot more improvements -- making sure that some secondary characters were more relevant, like Dottie Underwood and Jason Wilkes, who received a lot of attention but ultimately ended up only paying off for a single episode for the former and being absolutely underwhelming for the latter; and, y'know, not building up so much for the third season and use some of the buildup you've done for the plotlines this season. But, eh, can't really find the energy to complain that much. I did have fun watching this season, after all. 

The Walking Dead S02E13 Review: Don't Split The Party!

The Walking Dead, Season 2, Episode 13: Beside the Dying Fire

Ah, well, after the show had two strong main character deaths in Shane (which was really well done) and Dale (not so much, though it was impactful), I guess it's time to trim out the lesser characters. So this episode we've got Jimmy, Patricia, Dale's RV and the Barn become casualties of the huge zombie attack. And the last two are definitely side-characters that I will miss.

It's definitely a strong episode and a grand season finale, though, as the status quo of them hanging out in the relative safety farm and talking ends up getting torn to the ground somewhat fierce. We get the explanation that a helicopter (the same one from season 1?) attracted the zombies in Atlanta towards the direction of Hershel's farm, which was why Carl's gunshot attracted so many zombies.

What followed is a pretty awesome and hectic action scene. We've got vehicles running around with Andrea shooting zombies from within moving vehicles, we've got Carl and Rick setting up a fiery trap for a horde of zombies, we've got the two of them hopping form a burning barn to an RV, we've got Hershel's one-man-stand against a horde of zombies with naught but a shotgun with unrealistically unlimited shells, we've got Andrea going all close up and personal... it's great, cool and pretty awesome. Throw in the gory deaths of some of the lesser characters...

Jimmy driving the RV and then getting overwhelmed and ripped apart within minutes of the little war starting is a stark reminder that, hey, this was the same show that killed off Dale with a random zombie attack. Jimmy's hardly shown up after he asked to be taught how to shoot, and I don't think he even appeared in the latest few episodes, and I actually mistook him for Carol when the zombie swarm overwhelmed him... yeah. Let's just put it this way. If Beth didn't go "Jimmy is my boyfriend for a couple of months" when she was doing her suicide rant, I wouldn't even remember there was a Jimmy.

Hershel seemed to be the obvious one to die, he had that emotional moment with passing down his pocketwatch to Glenn a couple episodes back, and he's quite obstinate about the farm being his home, and he was doing a heroic last stand with his shotgun, he's kind of a nihilist after the whole barn incident... except, y'know, he ends up pulling himself together and finds new purpose protecting Carl.

Patricia died, though. I fully thought it was Beth since they're both long-blonde-hair, but nope, it was Patricia. Otis's girlfriend. Who, like Jimmy, had less personality than Dale's RV. Which was also a casualty and was overrun and blood-stained by the zombies. Jimmy, you have failed the RV.

Andrea being left behind... twice... by two vehicles who simply didn't notice her was kinda hilarious in a morbid way. I was honestly sure that she was going to die when that zombie jumped her, and Carol seemed to be an obvious one too considering, y'know, I already thought she died in the RV when it was overrun but nope Jimmy.

And then the Sophia meeting point, as faded-off as the message on the car window for Sophia (a nice poignant shot) may be, ends up being an impromptu rendezvous point for the group. Rick was definitely ready to give up, giving Lori up for dead so long as he can get Carl to safety, but nope. Convoy! And then come the questioning of leadership, of course. Daryl, surprisingly, goes all "Rick's done no wrong by me" and is one of the more supportive ones of Rick's new dictatorship. I guess a bit of Shane rubbed off on him? Rick's definitely not in a stable mental state, after surviving a zombie attack and most definitely after the murder attempt by Shane and being forced to kill his best friend. Thus, "this is not a democracy". I mean, Carol is kind of being an asshole by basically trying to undermine Rick's dictatorship and trying to push Daryl to taking over for no good reason other than them hanging around waiting for Andrea for a bit and they're low on fuel. Carol... did you miss half the fucking season when Rick fought for the group to wait for your daughter?

And this vote of non-confidence from Carol (and briefly from the others) stems from Rick keeping Jenner's magic whisper a secret, which is that everyone is already infected, and the virus or whatever apparently just doesn't take root on the survivors until they die, hence Randall and Shane immediately becoming zombies upon death. It's odd that Rick kept this information from them, but honestly, like Rick said, it doesn't matter.

Lori's the only thing that really didn't work at all in this episode. She started off well enough, just doing her own thing during the zombie escape and getting a glorious reunion with her family near the end... and when Rick starts to talk about the events of last episode... she goes more and more shocked, and, uh, straight-up furious and refuses to be touched by Rick? What in the actual hell? Did you miss the part where Shane killed another man in an elaborate ruse to get Rick alone to be killed? Or the whole possessiveness thing? Hell, Lori was even the one that told Rick to watch out for Shane a couple of episodes back! Character conflict that makes sense, driven by something that I can understand even if I don't support -- like Shane and Rick last episode, or Dale and Shane two episodes ago -- are great. This one? This is just drama inserted for the sake of drama and it makes jack shit sense.

Andrea rungs through the jungle and gets saved by an awesome hooded person with a anime samurai knife. Fuck yea. And she's got two armless zombies chained up behind her. Whoever the hell she is, she looks awesome.

So yeah, definitely strong finale. Alongside the previous two episodes it's certainly shaken the status quo. They leave the farm. Rick's an angry dictator. There's some crazy samurai ninja hooded figure running around. We have no idea where Rick's team would go. Randall's big army of rape-happy assholes are still out there. Yeah, this is definitely a far more exciting season finale than this season deserves, considering a good chunk of it is just standing around in a farm talking. 

Agent Carter S02E09 Review: Crazy Musical Numbers & Thompson's Scheme

Agent Carter, Season 2, Episode 9: A Little Song And Dance

The penultimate episode to Agent Carter's second season is... well, a decent episode, but that's about it. It doesn't really build up the threat or the big confrontation any more than any of the previous encounters did. And while I do appreciate the hilarity of seeing the entire cast going in for a bit of a song and dance routine, it went on for a bit too long to be anything but distracting. I liked the sequence enough to laugh at it, but it kind of came out of nowhere and really wasn't what I expected considering the tone that the last episode ended in. It was, ultimately, a big distraction.

There's a lot of content to make up for it, though -- Peggy and Jarvis's argument through the desert is one of the best moments either character has offered throughout all two seasons, and how both Peggy and Jarvis are absolutely brutal with their choice of insults, with Jarvis pointing out how people die around Peggy, while Peggy pointing out that all Jarvis wanted was the thrill of the adventure while hoisting the blame when his wife got shot (and not killed), and then the devastating revelation from Jarvis to Peggy that, well, Anna can't have children. Ever. It even concludes with Jarvis accepting his own weakness and cowardice (especially involving not telling Anna about her not being able to have children anymore), and they did make up at the end of it. It was a really great scene -- and I do like it when conflicts like these are brought to their boiling point but not dragged along for entire seasons. Ehm, Arrow?

The rest of the episode is just a race to whether they can get to Whitney Frost before he dissects Wilkes and uses all the Zero Matter to blow up the city, and, well... as much as I like Whitney Frost as a character, she really doesn't feel that big of a threat with everyone -- now including a gang-pressed and tricked Vernon Masters -- gunning after her. I think Thompson, after an entire season of being this jackass who's looking out for his career, finally gets his time to shine. The gambits and the fact that he's ultimately on the side of the angels is utterly obvious from the get-go, but there's enough 'will he or won't he' to make it somewhat interesting.

And just how he plans to take both Whitney Frost and Vernon Masters out with a bomb? I mean, as viewers we know there's one more episode to go, but it would have been a really good and practical plan. They were in a dump (sorry, sanitation facility...) and Thompson wasn't even trying to martyr himself in the process. Vernon and Frost would die, and maybe Manfredi and a couple of his goons -- really, other than the fact that Wilkes is inside (and Thompson does make a good point that Wilkes betrayed them once before) there's really nothing to stop them from pressing the trigger and ending both villains. Thompson's double-crossing and eventual triple-crossing of the two villains in this piece is fun.

Plus, speaking of not killing Vernon and Frost thanks to Wilkes being around... didn't Peggy just give a long spiel earlier to Jarvis about how emotions are clouding his judgment? Well, you're being a bit of a hypocrite there, aren't you, Peggy? I mean, yeah, a case could be made for this action preventing the death of an ally, whereas Jarvis driving down and shooting Whitney Frost in the head won't save Anna, but still.

As it is, it ends up with Whitney Frost consuming Vernon, Wilkes showing up probably blowing up, and all members of Team Carter still mostly accounted for. It's a strong episode... just not a whole lot happened since it was mostly focused on the big Thompson gambit. It just ends up feeling a bit unfocused and honestly nowhere as threatening or attention-grabbing as the conflicts in the episodes prior. I can't really put my finger on just what this episode is lacking, though. 

Agent Carter S02E08 Review: Angry Jarvis & Gamma Cannons

Agent Carter, Season 2, Episode 8: The Edge of Mystery

I really need to be stepping up this TV show reviewing thing, but, y'know, real life. Blah blah blah. Agent Carter's been over since a month ago, and by my count I have like a-dozen-plus episodes from the assorted TV shows I'm reviewing that I haven't written reviews for, plus the entirety of Daredevil's second season, which will probably be a massive undertaking... oh, near late April, I guess.

Mind you, I've finished watching Agent Carter around two weeks ago, as well as catching up to at the very least The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Daredevil. I believe out of Arrow, Agents of SHIELD and Supergirl, I have like two or three episodes outstanding. Doubtful that I'll catch up and review Gotham, at least in the near future.

Anyway, this episode was pretty good! We've got Edwin Jarvis slowly going slightly more and more erratic, which I thought was easily one of the highlights of the episode. Throughout the second season, Jarvis has been even moreso than before reduced to a hilarious sidekick. Which was still fun and entertaining, but it's great to see the actor and the character explore the ramifications of his wife getting shot. It was a heartbreaking moment as he sits there cradling Anna's hand and making promises to... just change and do everything and anything and promise everything just to get her back. And, well, there's really no telling what's going to happen to Anna Jarvis, who I honestly thought was going to buy the farm this episode.

Except that, well, she doesn't. She recovers, which made me go 'yay!' because as much as I hate cheaping out on death scenes -- Felicity's relatively recent bout in Arrow's fourth season being a prime example of me throwing a hissy fit over it -- Jarvis just looked so miserable and broken that, well, Anna waking up and making a joke just feels me with the warm feelings. Of course, though, next comes the revelation that Anna will never be able to have children... and the expression change on Jarvis's face is just so... heartrending.

It also, in a way, paints just why antisocial little Tony Stark is sentimental enough to name his AI butler Jarvis after, well, the human Jarvis. You'd imagine that Tony, who we knew from the first two Iron Man movies to have a shitty relationship with his father, would find a surrogate father in Jarvis... who would be childless and definitely yearning for one.

And it culminates in an amazingly awesome moment as Jarvis just walks up to Whitney Frost and shoots her point blank in the face. Of course, Zero Matter powers meant that it ends up being more of an annoyance than anything, as well as a complication, but Jarvis flipping out and taking the initiative into his own hands after losing what he lost was awesome.

We've got some more hints with just what the whole Zero Matter thing is as both Whitney and Wilkes talk about this... supernatural voice that's talking to them. I don't particularly care enough for Wilkes to be surprised about his betrayal (he's easily the weakest link in the main players of this season), though him phasing out of the truck was a pretty slick and awesomely-CGI'd moment. I guess the voices did get through to him after all. This unholy alliance led Whitney Frost to finally be able to re-enact the big Zero Matter nuke portal explosion thing, but the Zero Matter or whatever force/being/Cthulhu is behind that portal, it chose Wilkes instead of Whitney. 

And while Team Carter came through with bringing up a gigantic Gamma Cannon (hey Bruce Banner!) and shooting it into the rift and deactivating it, Wilkes came back with a crapton of Zero Matter within him. 

Manfredi was also awesomely funny, especially in that scene in the restaurant where he's just arguing with his grandmother of all things about recipes and soups while Carter and Sousa are kung fu fighting outside. His grandmother might be my new favourite character -- lady was about to take a knife to stab the fuck out of the two agents if Manfredi hadn't told her to calm down! 

The rest of the cast is exciting too, though not to the degree that Jarvis was. Despite being a dick with a file on (Michael?) Carter's war records and trying to blackmail Carter, Thompson's better nature wins out, and I love how conflicted he was about it. Him overhearing and eavesdropping on Vernon Masters all on his own, and finally decides that he's gone one step too far (and hilariously getting mindwiped off-screen) and finally throwing his lot in with Carter and Sousa and the rest is well done. 

There was some shipping moments between Peggy and Sousa though it was kinda muted by all the far more interesting things happening with the rest of the cast. And despite the darker tone, it still manages to be a fun episode still, with Aloysius and to some extent Sousa carrying Jarvis's torch as being comic relief. I might've glossed over a couple of things, but y'know, I've got a crapton more episode reviews to write. 

One Piece 821 Review: Elephant Wars

One Piece, Chapter 821: Understood

Can I just say this Japanese-artwork two-page mural that they made, with Gear Fourth Luffy as this crazy thunder god, and everyone else drawn in old-Japanese style, is probably the best cover page we've ever gotten? Hell, that insane-looking yokai-Brook alone is awesome as all hell! Anyway, this chapter is... pretty simple, yet pretty awesome.

A good chunk of the chapter is just showing off Jack's sadism as he just orders his crew to cripple the giant elephant and describes all kinds of gruesome ways to murder Zou (or, well, Zunisha, as the elephant is properly called). He keeps insulting the big elephant as they cannon-shot one of his legs. Meanwhile everyone on top of Zou is just panicking as Zunisha is moving around in pain, and, well, like the cliffhanger implies, both Luffy and Momonosuke are able to hear Zunisha's voice, where the giant immortal elephant literally talks to them. Zunisha even transfers what he is seeing directly to Momonosuke, and reveals that apparently Zunisha committed a grave crime, upon which it was sentenced to walk for all eternity. 

What kind of crime did the poor elephant did to make it walk for all eternity with those sunken eyes? Man, this void century thing's getting more and more mysterious!

But Zunisha begs to be allowed to fight, and, well, Luffy tells Momo to say the orders. And Zunisha... stands. Man, the artwork is awesome, depicting Zunisha's scale and decrepit-ness with a great grainy quality that makes him stand in stark contrast to the sharper and more-defined lines of Jack's crew. The scene of Zunisha finally moving his trunk, casting a dark shadow over Jack's ship... I honestly expected Jack to be able to hold back the trunk because he was built up as a badass and all, but boom! One shot. He's done.

Kind of anticlimactic, sure, but holy shit, that was an awesome way to end Jack. I mean, as awesome as Jack is as a villain, we really need to be getting to the far more interesting plotlines with Sanji, Big Mom, Kaidou and Wanokuni, and in any case while Jack's fleet is sunk he's gonna be back. I guarantee you. It was freaking awesome. I mean, I would love for Luffy and Zoro to go berserk and wipe Jack out, but this is even better! And more likely to be plot relevant. What exactly is this 'voice hearing' ability? Is it an ability of Conqueror's Haki? Or something else?

Oh, and the last panel shows Apoo (that can't be anyone else but Apoo on the Den Den Mushi) contacting Kaidou himself that they've lost all contact with Jack. So Apoo's definitely became an underling of Kaidou, though whether Kidd and/or Hawkins have thrown their lot in with Kaidou since we last saw them remains to be seen.