Arrow S3E10 Review: Team Arrow Without Arrow

Arrow, Season 3, Episode 10: Left Behind

Not quite a huge, eventful episode like the Flash or Gotham episodes this week, but still, after some time without Arrow we finally return to see the aftermath of Oliver Queen's apparent death (spoiler alert: he will return) and most of the episode deals pretty poignantly with Felicity, Diggle and Roy, especially Felicity, simply just breaking down from the pressure of maintaining Star City without Oliver. It's kind of a slower chapter compared to the last one, with several plot threads running along at once -- the rise of a new villain, Merlyn's attempts to do whatever the hell he is planning, moving along the Hong Kong flashback plot with Oliver and Maseo going after Alpha, Felicity basically just falling apart, and Laurel finally donning the Canary garb.

I do like how the episode doesn't bullshit too much about Oliver being dead... to the audience, at least. Felicity, Diggle and the rest reacted pretty badly to the news of Oliver dying, but us, the audience, are greeted with numerous shots of a hooded figure dragging Oliver's corpse away from the cliff. It's actually in trailers and the two main contenders being speculated for the role are Merlyn or Maseo, and the episode reveals that it is, in fact, Maseo. And at the end of the episode Maseo recruits the help of the apparently-still-alive Tatsu to bring Oliver Queen straight back into the land of the living. Not sure how they did that. Lazarus Pit, perhaps? Whatever.

Felicity gets a lot of spotlight here, what with her breaking down, but I think this episode John Diggle and Roy Harper ends up really standing out, since Diggle in particular hasn't really done jack shit this season and to be honest Roy hasn't been doing much other than replacing Sarah as Oliver's backup. Diggle even dons the Arrow costume for the opening shot! It's apparently way too tight for him, though. I do like how they're just going on with the fight and it's a nice change of pace to see the two of them working together and beating people up and stuff like that. They're fun. We get a lot of cool Roy acrobatics... the action scenes in this episode were pretty awesome.

Felicity shows a lot more of the emotional side of things as she initially refuses to believe that Oliver is dead, and the show kind of tells us that it's only been 3 days so we're a bit behind the Flash in the timeline and this places this episode in December 2014. Felicity is just so... broken, I guess. She tries so hard to function both among Team Arrow and in Ray's company, but she ends up just breaking down. There was that scene where she just breaks down in front of Ray and telling him that she can't help him 'commit suicide', and she kind of fucked up the whole operation against Brick by calling in the cops and leading to their escape.

Ray is still fun even if I think he gets a bit too much screentime. He's continuing to work on the Atom suit, namely the gauntlet, though it's a bit too close to Iron Man scenes for my tastes. There are some troubles with chips and whatnot (and Felicity is refusing to help) and I do like the scene when he basically uncharacteristically tells Felicity to not pull the 'this is what Anna would've wanted' card. Which is definitely something a lot more fictional characters need to do, because using dead people you don't know as justification for emotionally manipulating other people, as good as your intentions are? That's disrespectful.

Meanwhile, we seem to have the rise of yet another major villain, Brick (a.k.a. Daniel Brickwell), who is one of the few DC villains that uniquely belongs to Green Arrow. I admit I'm completely unfamiliar with Brick himself and thought that he's just a big mafia boss dude, but there is apparently more than meets the eye to Brick. Not only is the guy playing him pretty charismatic and hammy... and hammy is good... he does feel threatening and when Diggle shot him in the head, apparently he has really hard skin or something going on. Mirakuru? A metahuman from Central City? He's building up an army of criminals with a grudge against Team Arrow by tearing down the legal system and destroying evidences and whatnot and, well, I'm not exactly paying much attention to all the legal stuff being waved around, but I guess Brick is going to be an arc villain similar to Brother Blood in season two.

And as much as I dislike Laurel, I must admit her build-up to taking up the mantle of the Canary (or rather, the Black Canary) is done pretty well. I do like how she's the one who keeps hanging on to hope that Oliver will return as one by one Felicity and Diggle's resolves are broken down by how ineffective they are. Though if we don't know Oliver will be coming back, I'm sure Laurel's crusade will be another in a series of self-destructive decisions. But she's apparently going to take the mantle of Black Canary at least for now, and she finally dons her costume... which, while still being black form-fitting leather, is actually different from Sarah's. Only the mask and the wig are shared. She kicks ass in one scene and I do like how she's playing it smart with Sarah's Canary Cry grenade things now.

Shame she kind of ruined her big entrance by not saying 'I'm the Canary' but some silly 'I'm the justice you cannot run from' or some cheesy thing like that.

Merlyn was pretty awesome in this episode too, stealing every scene he comes in. His sparring and constant manipulation of Thea's emotions, showing up in the Arrow Cave to deliver the bad news and everything... though I did feel that he moved from one place to another was way too fast with little to no transition. He basically moves back and forth from the Arrow Cave to Nanda Parbat and back with not much interlude in between. And for whatever reason he wants Thea to leave Star City and never return (which was what Thea said in season 2's finale, but, y'know...)

Thea was pretty strong in the few scenes she showed up in, and that scene with Roy where she's just so scared about what's happened to Ollie and asks Roy to ask the Arrow for help... that was heartbreaking for the two of them. And I do like how Thea, while still clueless about Oliver's alter ego, is at least not stupid enough to let Arsenal get past him.

The flashback side of the plot was pretty fun, with Amanda Waller being a gigantic chessmaster as always, and both Maseo and Oliver really wanting to mount a rescue for Tatsu while knowing the importance of placing priorities. I do like how Oliver helping Maseo out by placing a tracer on one of China White's goons ended up earning him the life debt, and the two scenes are placed pretty well next to each other. Oliver still has some problem killing people, and it's interesting what's going to happen in between Hong Kong and the start of season one that turns Oliver from the reluctant assassin that he is here and the cold-blooded killer he will become. I also do like how this allows Oliver to still have a presence in the episode while being almost entirely absent in the present-day scenes.

Also, interestingly, both Maseo and Tatsu survive Hong Kong in the present day (and Maseo isn't a gender-swapped version of Katana like many people speculated), but they are living apart. And Katana's comic-book backstory involved the deaths of her entire family. So maybe something bad is going to befall their son?

It's a pretty strong episode, if not particularly a spectacular one. But for a more emtion-oriented episode with several nice action scenes, it's one that lets the supporting cast shine. Granted I thought the pacing could've been better as Merlyn seemed to be a pretty quick way just to get the plot from points A to B, and the flashbacks do take up a fair too much of the episode's runtime, but in my opinion it's still a pretty solid episode.

One PIece 774: Pointless Tontatta

One Piece Chapter 774: Leo, the Tontatta Troop Leader

Remember how I said in the last chapter how we should be wrapping things up now with the big fights? Of course we fucking don't, and we cut away to the most filler-worthy and least interesting of everything that's going on in Dressrosa right now: the Tontatta rescuing their princess and apparently Jora's still up and about. I just find that I don't really care all that much.

The cover story has Jinbe scolding Wadatsumi, and I guess in another couple of chapters the cover story will finally be done?

The chapter starts of kind of strongly, with Diamante facing off against Robin, Rebecca and Kyros. Robin notes how Diamante is handicapping them too much, presumably with the flowing ground, but Diamante is apparently confident that he has the upper hand against the three people there. Apparently Robin isn't going to get in the way of Kyros' vendetta, promising to protect Rebecca while Kyros takes down Diamante. Which is... acceptable, I guess, but I wanted to see Robin fight...

We cut away to random soldiers who are taking Gladius' unconscious body away, and Bartolomeo, instead of, y'know, barrier-ing them to death, just lets them leave. Why, Bartolomeo? Why aren't you doing any of your crazy ultra-violent things? Jeez.

Sadly, we cut away to the Tontatta, who are being contacted by Viola. Viola has seen that Jora has taken ahold of Princess Mancherie and apparently wants to force the little Tontatta to make use of her abilities... because of course she has one. It's apparently the Heal Heal Fruit, which kind of makes sense that they want to lock her up... though wouldn't it be more practical to kill her and have the fruit respawn? Eh, whatever.

Leo and the Rhinoceros Beetle Tontatta are charging through the pirate mooks, while Jora is doing her annoying thing of saying -zamasu at the end of everything and going all 'who are you calling Boa Hancock?' and all that. We get our first look at Mancherie, who of course is just a little girl and all that who doesn't want to fight. Jora orders Mancherie to use the powers of the Heal-Heal Fruit on the defeated executives... Machvise, Dellinger, Lao G and Sugar. How did Dellinger get there so fast? Also, no one gives a shit about poor Buffalo, apparently.

Jora also notes that Mancherie was the one responsible for Sugar's recovery earlier. But Mancherie has discovered (somehow) that, gasp, the Donquixote Pirates jailing her up are bad people! Jora and the others are stricken by her cuteness before Jora kind of... tries to twist Mancherie's head off or something, but that causes her to cry and her tears apparently revive a random mook.

Viola tells Leo that Jora is basically PG-torturing Mancherie to get the tears out, and Leo is, of course, just being all heroic and shit and I don't care about the damn Tontatta. We get Usopp freaking out over the idea of Sugar getting resurrected, which is kind of funny sort of, but then there's a drawn-out sequence of people screaming for Leo to help, Jora squeezing the tears out, and Kabu knocking the unconscious bodies of the other executives away with 'Beetle Upper'. Kind of boring, honestly.

Leo uses his stitch-stitch fruit, which I honsetly totally forgot he had, to stitch everyone of the wounded to Jora, and pulls their bodies as projectiles to squash Jora flat in 'Auto-Couture: Patchwork'. It's kind of an interesting attack if I cared about Leo, and we get a heroic moment where Leo catches Mancherie and jokes about her weight... well, I still don't care about the Tontatta. What about that bee Devil Fruit girl Tontatta? Where did she disappear off to? Also, Leo's Stitch-Stitch fruit is kind of a shitty version of Doflamingo's String-String Fruit, isn't it?

Bah. I don't care. The Tontatta is dealt with in as well as they possibly could've been, and I really wished this was dealt with far earlier in this arc. It's kind of even more pointless than the lesser executives being taken out, and I'm just antsy to get to the good parts of the climax.

Gotham S1E12 Review: Electrocutioner vs Maroni; Fish vs Falcone

Gotham, Season 1, Episode 12: What the Little Bird Told Him

After a wobbly past few episodes, Gotham proves that when it comes to Big Events, it can pull it off pretty well. It's kind of like Agents of Shield in that aspect, actually. Anyway, the big thing this time is two-fold. Fish finally makes his move against Don Falcone, while the Electrocutioner takes the battle against Don Maroni. Meanwhile, Gordon is tasked to take down the Electrocutioner with his career at stake. Also, the Penguin.

I'm going to talk about the Fish/Falcone bits first because those are more interesting to me. After being built up for half the season, Fish's BIG MOVE turns out to be pretty... pathetic, actually. After her rather smart manipulation of people during that armoury job, her masterstroke apparently involves her just forcibly kidnapping Lisa and forcing Falcone to step down. Really, Fish? I expected more from you. Though I did like the little speech that Fish gives about Falcone being weak and this way at least he can be happy... I kind of believe that, somewhat.

Lisa is... well, she obviously is starting to like Don Falcone's treatment of her, and how much of a gentleman Falcone is that she keeps asking Fish to not really hurt Falcone. And it's obvious that Falcone doesn't really have that much of a beef with Lisa personally.

But Falcone, despite actually looking like kind of a weak old has-been earlier who only has Zsasz and Penguin truly supporting him, ends up gaining a fire at the end of the episode. We get him wistfully remarking about how nice it would be to actually retire, about how Fish might have actually deserved her spot and whatnot... and then he fucking chokes Lisa to death, which was the most surprising scene period in Gotham. I did not expect that, and that was a brutal yet awesome twist. Falcone's turned pretty awesome by trusting Penguin's words enough to at least have his forces stationed as backup, while he confirms Lisa's betrayal himself by looking into her eyes or some shit like that. And, man, that choke-to-death? That was brutal. And freaking sad, somewhat.

To her credit, Fish tries to move in but she really can't do much.

So Fish and Butch are being kept alive because Falcone apparently has plans, but I don't see them surviving really long considering just how absolutely angry Falcone was for them desecrating the memory of his mother.

Victor Zsasz also makes a reappearance, being his usual creepy self, and that alone really makes him fun. He's hella loyal to Falcone, though, shutting up quickly after suggesting that he can take out Fish's entire crew by himself. And I absolutely believe him, that crazy psychopath.

The Penguin... he's been having a pathetic series of scenes lately, hasn't he? Last episode he was a massive butt monkey that's a stark contrast to his normal planning, and all he did in this episode to ensure Fish's downfall (which I had thought to be some elaborate, well-thought-out-plan) ends up being him just telling Falcone at the right time... which I guess was when Fish and Lisa make their move, I suppose? Granted it does make some sense with Falcone probably going to be obstinate and distrustful of Penguin if the kidnapping hadn't gone down, but when I watched the episode it was kind of confusing.

Penguin shows up first in this episode at a big lunch session with the Maronis, at which point Falcone orders him to come back. Going off with the excuse of his sick mother, he ends up getting zapped by the Electrocutioner, and apparently being shocked into unconsciousness by a gajillion volts of electricity causes him to randomly go into spasms and shout that he's working for Falcone right in front of Maroni. And then he gets lugged around like trash, gets confronted by Maroni, and then gets electrocuted again. He's all smug at the end of the episode but unlike his previous appearances there's nothing that he did that's particularly noteworthy in his normal massively planned-out playing-people-against-each-other schtick. It's a shame, really. I expected Penguin to do more than just rat Lisa to Falcone at the right time...

Though I guess all that's well ends well? For Penguin, at least. Fish, not so much. Lisa? Definitely not.

Maroni kind of looks like a moron. Not only is he just being subservient to Gordon telling him to go into custody, Maroni realises that Penguin is working for Falcone, but doesn't let him off with any more than a stern talking-to. Granted I'm going to assume Penguin made a deal with him, but really? Well, I guess we know why Maroni's name sounds a lot like 'moron'. He's being a big funny ham, though, and him just swaggering in the police station was fun.

We also meet Commissioner Loeb, who appears to be a corrupt stern bastard. He gets head-to-head with Gordon, but Gordon manages to push the right buttons to give him one last chance to get reinstated. Gordon was kind of awesome in how he just refuses to back down, but he's kind of outshone by Bullock, who is just so damned hilarious the entire episode. He's basically dragged into Loeb's deal without doing anything wrong, and Gordon doesn't even have a proper plan. He's hilarious, he's pissed off at Gordon yet kind of impressed by him at the same time. Bullock's just fun all around.

The Electrocutioner dresses up in kind of a nice little getup with some kind of crazy electrocution gauntlet and machinery strapped onto his person, and actually gets called the Electrocutioner several times on-screen. Also, he's apparently not Jack Gruber, but Jack Budchinsky, so he's definitely related to the comic Electrocutioner. And apparently he wants to get into Arkham Asylum to observe stuff or something? Eh, dude's kind of crazy. And I like him! Electrocutioner is just such a massive ham. He's basically out for blood for his four partners that screwed him over. He lobotomized one and forced him two write 'I shall not betray my friends' over and over like a vegetable, and is out for Maroni, which leads him into the path of our heroes.

We get some actually awesome scenes that would feel right at home in a more sci-fi heavy show like Agents of Shield or the Flash, with the Electrocutioner zapping up the entire building, launching weird Transformer electricty-bombs and even somehow using electrical whips to swipe off Gordon's gun. Somehow. And, naturally, since he's the Electrocutioner he gets taken out in the most anticlimactic way possible, by Gordon pouring a cup of water on his gizmo, at which point he just blinks and goes 'oh' with such a hilarious expression on his face.

That was freaking awesome and hilarious. And absolutely appropriate for the Electrocutioner. Apparently being taken out like a bitch in less than two seconds is something that runs in the family.

Amygdala is just a thug, and is apparently Aaron Denzig instead of Aaron Helzinger, but for all intents and purposes is basically the same dude, which is 'dumb muscle without a moral sense'. He gets taken out quite quickly, but I liked that someone remembers he exists.

There was also a lot more Riddler than normal, though it wasn't as grating as his previous large screentime. He gets to be useful and helpful for a good chunk of it, introducing the rubber boots, and the scene where he creeps on Kringle ran for a bit too long. We get people calling him a weirdo and a creep and he seems definitely bothered by it, so we may get to see the Riddler's descent into darkness sooner than later, I suppose? (The cupcake riddle made absolutely no sense, though)

At the end of the episode Gordon gets his job back, which is fun and good even if that kind of makes the mid-season cliffhanger of Gordon being deported into Arkham pointless since it's resolved in less than two episodes. Beyond putting Gordon into conflict with the higher-ups, at least.

And I guess there is Barbara's scene. She goes home to her parents, who I'm sure aren't pleasant people despite looking pleasant right now. Or they may be. Either way my sympathy for Barbara will still be non-existent and I still don't give two shits about her.

But I'm not going to go into a five-paragraph rant about that bitch, and leave this review on a happy note. It was a good one, if slightly uneven.

The Flash S1E10 Review: I really love this show

The Flash, Season 1, Episode 10: Revenge of the Rogues

Yeah, that was quite a long wait for the Flash. It's back, though, and, man, what an episode to return to! We get the reappearance of Captain Cold, my favourite character in the series, and he's brought his buddy Heat Wave. And, well, mother of hells, they do make the two of them really feel like their comic book counterparts. Heat Wave in particular. And not only that, we also get a few more intriguing details about the whole Firestorm thing, which is apparently F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. and is related to one Martin Stein and one Jason Rusch. There's also some foreshadowing for future characters, as well as a wee bit on Iris, Eddie and Wells.

Of course, being a Flash episode there's bound to be a moral, though again this is executed rather beautifully even if they do spend a wee bit too much time on it at the climatic battle. The moral this time is basically 'going faster is not always the answer' and indeed Barry is obsessed with outspeeding the Reverse-Flash at the beginning of the episode and it's only by slowing down that he and Wells manage to outwit the Rogues. Barry is still in tiptop shape, doing general Barry stuff, and I do like how he tries to make priorities and put the Reverse-Flash over the Rogues, and that ends up costing the policemen pretty dearly.

There are some cool sequences like the opening battle with that crazy sci-fi attack drone, which is a lot more beautiful than what I would expect from a throwaway opening sequence. And we get a massively awesome battle of Flash just zipping around while tongues of flame and ice beams shoot around. It's just random beams of light moving around a screen and Barry's obviously going to win, but for whatever reason I was just smiling all throughout the battle and felt just so freaking happy that they're just doing this comic book thing without any pretense of being overtly gritty or realistic. Also, those are quite well-done fire blasts and ice beams and whatnot.

And, of course, thanks to Captain Cold and Heat Wave, the Flash is now revealed to the entire world. Yay! Also he gets called the Scarlet Speedster, which is a nice nod to the comics as well.

Captain Cold and Heat Wave are just hamming it up this episode and they are freaking glorious. New arrival Heat Wave has gotten a more urbanized version of his classic costume, though he still keeps the goggles and the heat gun is a lot more faithful than I expected it would be. There's the weird little fuel tank just hanging out there, and the triangle-shaped barrel... and Heat Wave is as much a pyromaniac that has a love-hate relationship with Captain Cold as his comic book counterpart. We get some sequences of him just looking into matches and infernos and saying about how it's beautiful and everything, we've got that scene that shows that he has burn scars all over his body and he rants about how being burnt has freed what he really is... it's a nice depiction of pyromania that highlights all the psychopathic tendencies yet doesn't go too overboard.

Also, I do like Heat Wave being portrayed as a dumb thug, yet not one that's brainless. He's ready to face off against Cold during that terse moment in the base, he's ready to call Cold out when they were just baiting the Flash by robbing the exotic car expo, and has that moment where he talks to Cold and thinks about what to do before burning the painting...

Also Heat Wave is just a big ham, isn't he? "I don't understand why they call you cops the heat. I AM THE HEAT!" That scene just cracks me up.

Captain Cold also brings more awesome to the table with his micro-managing and his anger at Heat Wave for losing control, but he definitely respects and appreciates Heat Wave a lot more than the random thugs he killed (and spared) in his debut episode. I do like Cold. It's more of the same compared to the last episode with the added obsession with taking down the Flash... as well as the subtle parallel to how Barry himself is obsessed at taking down the Reverse-Flash. Cold is a pretty cool villain, if you'll pardon the pun, and plays off Heat Wave extremely well. I still think Heat Wave stole the show this time around, but Cold is still very very awesome. Not really much to say about Cold, really, other than the fact that he is still freaking awesome.

Also, even if they get captured by the police at the end of the episode, we know it's not going to last as they're broken out almost immediately by Cold's sister, Lisa Snart... otherwise known as the supervillain Golden Glider. We don't get to see most of her, just her hand, but that is truly unexpected! I was honestly expecting Pied Piper to come to the rescue considering how he's everywhere in the trailers and his parents had a cameo in this episode, but no! Plus, I'd think the show would introduce the other 'main' members, Mirror Master and the second Weather Wizard. But Golden Glider is cool.

Also, Pied Piper's parents, the Rathaways, make an appearance as the rich upper-class people who Cold and Heat Wave steal that painting from. The father rejects a call from his son Hartwell Rathaway and claims that he doesn't have a son anymore, and I'm going out on a limb to say that it's because of his, y'know, gay-ness. We'll see. Pied Piper's slated to appear in the next episode or something and I certainly want to see him. MORE ROGUES!

There were a couple of B-plot running alongside the main Rogues plot, most of it focusing on Caitlin finding out more about Firestorm before being captured by Cold. I honestly expected Captain Cold to leave behind an ice grenade that'll kickstart the whole Killer Frost thing, but I guess we can take our time with that.

Anyway, in an attempt to research Firestorm, Caitlin and Barry both discover that 'Firestorm' is, in fact, an acronym for 'Fusion, Ignition, Research Experiment and Science of Transmutation Originating RNA and Molecular Structures'. We get a quick explanation from the two of them regarding Firestorm's nuclear powers, and it's nice to see that they're not just dumbing Firestorm down into what's basically the Human Torch and is actually acknowledging the geekiness of Firestorm's chemistry textbook powers.


Caitlin tracks down the author of the paper, Jason Rusch (Firestorm II in the comics), and after a bit confronts him about the Firestorm project. Rusch explains that his professor, one Martin Stein (hint, hint) has gone missing after the funding for the Firestorm project was shut down and he apparently received help from an unknown benefactor. Well, I know Stein and Ronnie are going to be Firestorm and there are going to be some weird personality stuff involved, but throwing in what I'm assuming to be Wells into the fray... plus the whole conspiracy thing... it certainly makes me get all excited for the Firestorm. This is an excellent take on the character's origin, keeping it extremely faithful yet making me so interested in it.

Caitlin herself, for her credit, isn't afraid to stare down Heat Wave, though I can't help but think that the whole bomb situation ends up being too much of a distraction especially with the constant cutting back and forth between the Flash/Cold/Heat Wave triple battle.

Wells is still being a kind mentor, in a fashion, despite the reveal to the audience that he is the, or a, Reverse-Flash. He almost stands up in the opening sequence to rescue Barry from that one missile (which is yet another cool sequence) and gets some rather ominous lines in the episode, though he lightens the mood up by acknowledging some of Cisco's nicknames like Captain Cold and the Reverse-Flash.

Cisco does his nicknaming thing, of course, coming up with Heat Wave (of course), and name-drops Ghostbusters and crossing-the-streams, but he actually gets a pretty cool moment when he demonstrates the anti-Cold riot shields and gives that speech about making up for their past mistakes. Surprisingly mature there, Cisco.

Eddie gets over the fact that the Flash tries to murder him a couple episodes back, and manages to save Barry by blocking him with Cisco's riot shield for the few crucial seconds for Barry to get up and speed them to safety. I guess most is forgiven between the two of them? They get a cool shot together while arresting the Rogues. Granted I'm not quite sure why Barry doesn't just zip towards the Rogues and tear the guns away from them in super-speed, but I guess we can't have a cool fight if that happens.

Iris gets a couple of harmless scenes where she's preparing to move out and Barry later makes peace with the fact that Iris and Eddie are going to be together, and there are a couple of touching scenes between Iris and Barry, as well as Iris and Joe. And apparently Barry moves back into Joe's house to at least keep his foster father figure company.


Man, this episode was awesome. I like it so much. It's such a comic-book show, it's got such nice characters, and it has pretty great self-contained pacing while still building up to larger things.

Gotham S1E11 Review: Leslie Thompkins! Amygdala! Electrocutioner!

Gotham, Season 1, Episode 11: Rogues' Gallery

There are many things in this episode that I can easily divide into the good and the bad. Rarely have I been so divisive with an episode before, where I really like the inclusion of some things, and just don't give a fuck about everything else.

I dunno. I've been cranky lately.

Anyway, the biggest thing for me here is the introduction of longtime Batman supporting character, Dr. Leslie Thompkins, which is actually a pretty sensible choice to include in Gotham which I never really thought of before. She's pretty likable, even if her personality is the generic 'likable person in a sea of assholes'. Granted, her personality never really grew beyond that in the comics I've read, but I don't mind having Leslie around. She's got a fair amount of scenes, but I don't think there are anything particularly noteworthy. I could rant about how she should be the age of Alfred instead of looking as young as Gordon, but honestly that doesn't bother me too much.

Jack Gruber, the only smart and sane inmate in Arkham Asylum, of course, escapes to survive another day. I do like Jack Gruber, who, as the internet informs me, is meant to be a new incarnation of the Electrocutioner. He's an extremely minor Batman villain who shows up to die in Arkham City. Gruber is definitely a different Electrocutioner from the one in Arkham City (who's named Lester Budchinsky or something like that), and goes around with a pair of gigantic electric gauntlets and shocking people around. This Electrocutioner is a soft-spoken dapper psychopath who goes around doing electroshock experiments on Arkham inmates to bend them to his will. It's a rather interesting villain and one that I think has almost as much staying power as Zsasz or Penguin does.

Of course, the other theory is that he's possibly going to become the Joker in the future because his name is Jack and he's crazy and being built up as a villain. Yeah no.

The third comic-book character in this episode is one that I am extremely happy to realize without having to look up, which is another minor Batman villain, Amygdala. Known only by his first name Aaron in the episode, Amygdala here is shown in a relatively faithful depiction as a really mentally ill man who is unable to tell lies or have a proper moral compass, so he follows the orders of anyone who seems smart... which happens to be Gruber, here.

I'm also a rather big fan of the scene where Bullock just storms in all swaggering to help out his buddy, arresting that asshole head warden or whatever and generally being so happy to help Gordon out. Bullock is fun.

That's about all the really good things I like about this episode, though. It's an atmospheric one, setting up the Arkham Asylum and what seems to be a recurring villain, but at the same time it's so padded out. The whole cop show routine of Gordon trying to figure out what's going on, who's the killer and interviewing the crazy inmates and failing, and the supervisor being a gigantic obstructive douchebag... It's just really boring and it just drags on and on and I am entirely bored in any scene that doesn't have Bullock or Gruber in it. Did we really need that extended sequence of them doing that stupid play in the beginning?

Props to portraying the insane inmates as actually insane instead of just angry prisoners, though.

And we cut off to a lot of other scenes, because so much is going on yet nothing of significance is really happening. We have a little B-plot where the Penguin fucks up and spends the episode in jail, we've got Fish slowly inching her plot for domination forwards, we've got Fish's second-in-command Butch wrestling with his loyalty to a close friend or to Fish, we've got Selina helping out Poison Ivy, we've got the grand return of Barbara who proves to nestle straight back into "alpha bitch" territory, plus the stupid romance with Renee...

There's just too much going on, but nothing really does happen beyond the introductions and the setup. The main Gordon/Arkham plot is basically just a glorified filler episode that really is padded out, with some cryptic hints to whoever is really running the city and has a lot of agendas, of course. And a lot of the people introduced in this episode on the Arkham side ended up being red herrings. The black supervisor jerkass dude who 'knows stuff' ends up getting killed by Gruber at the end of the episode, and the not-Leslie nurse who at first seemed to be the villain-of-the-episode gets trampled right after the big reveal. (There really was no tension to that reveal, though, since Leslie is a lot more obviously a good guy even without prior comic knowledge.)

Also, how in the flying fuck can an inmate pose as a nurse without anyone realizing it? Even the boss, as much as a jerk he is in trying to get Gordon fired, would have thought that the moment someone gets lobotomized the first suspect would be her. It took a long while of Bullock grilling him that he finally relents. Jeez.

Though I guess this is Arkham Asylum.

Anyway, the other characters... Penguin started off well, with the whole 'I'm the Penguin', seemingly having embraced his identity... and then spends the entire episode waffling and generally being submissive and having fucked up, getting torn apart verbally by Bullock and later by Maroni, which is kind of jarring considering just how entertaining and how much of a 'I have a plan' he has been these past few episodes. And I just don't see the point of everything, beyond driving a rift between Penguin and Maroni, which really could've been done far more elegantly. It really begs to question if this is going to mean something down the line, or if it's just showing Penguin for the sake of showing Penguin... in which case it's the first time in the series that it falls really flat on its face.

The Fish/Butch angle was kind of obvious. I mean, it's done kind of well and Butch does get some personality, which I like. Butch has to choose between his close friend Whatshisface and his loyalty to Fish... except if, y'know, it isn't so blindingly obvious what Butch's answer is going to be. Felt kind of dragged out, but nowhere as much as all the other B-plots in this episode.

I did like how Selina is nice enough to help out the dying Poison Ivy despite Selina being scared shitless of Ivy last episode... but knowing Ivy's backstory, Selina really should've known better than to bring her to Gordon's apartment to recover. Ivy's really playing the creepy child card really well, and I guess she's going to have a personal vendetta against Gordon somehow despite being a scrawny little girl? She seems to have discovered the identity of the house's owner anyway. Also we totally needed that ten seconds of the camera panning on a shot of Selina perching on the balcony. Because that's totally necessary.

Ivy is, apparently, a vegan when she was a child. I find this darkly hilarious.

And, of course, there is Barbara, who really needs some goddamned therapy. Firstly she's a gigantic bitch to Renee simply for her trying to look out for her best interests. Secondly, she's a gigantic bitch who refuses to address all her problems like a mature woman. Thirdly, she apparently cannot tell a ten-year-old girl's voice from what I assume to be her thinking that it's Gordon's new girlfriend. (Also, damn hypocrite if she gets pissed if Gordon moved on when she left him to sleep with Renee in the same night). Fourthly? She's a gigantic bitch.

Technically it's a pretty serviceable episode, sufficiently engaging enough, but it's so padded out and the general premise is kind of boring at times and that kind of eclipses all the good vibes I would've otherwise gotten. I get the same feel that I did from the Agent Carter pilot where beyond a couple specific points, I just can't bring myself to care about much that's going on.

Or maybe I'm just sleepy. Eh.

Agent Carter Episode 1 Review: 'whelmed

Agent Carter, Pilot: Now is Not the End

As a testament to the fact that one shouldn't read reviews before watching or reading something, I was absolutely freaking underwhelmed with Agent Carter's pilot episode, despite all the rave reviews it's received. It's actually a pretty okay pilot, certainly a stronger one than, say, Gotham's pilot... but I just can't bring myself to really care.

I don't particularly care about Agent Carter as a character even before I watched the pilot, and indeed I find it really, really hard to care about any of Captain America's supporting cast that were introduced in his first movie. Partly because they're all too dead to matter in the present day, and being set as a period piece isn't really impressive for me. And that's really a problem that a lot of 'Zero' stories done in manga have, or even some parts of Arrow or Gotham. I don't particularly care for some random plot introduced that doesn't have a bearing on the present-day plot. And, y'know, a lot of things have already revealed to have happened. We know Hydra will infiltrate SHIELD, we know Carter will marry someone, we know Howard Stark will end up getting murdered by Hydra, we know his name will be cleared, we know Peggy Carter won't die anywhere throughout the show, et cetera, et cetera.

Overall the pilot was... beautifully produced, I have to give them that. It's got all the post-WWII atmosphere or whatever going on and it's just that, y'know, I don't really fucking care. All the sexism will probably appeal to a lot of feminists out there, how Carter is going to step over all the sexism that is rampant in that period, but I thought the show is just being so unsubtle with the sexism, like the completely needless, distracting and cringe-inducing scene of Carter threatening to rip out a random douchebag jerk's brachial artery for being a misogynist... which is all nice and well, but does it have a place in the episode? I'm all for a strong female lead and sexual equality, of course, but there is a line between portraying sexism and being really, really painfully obvious about it.

I'm not going to get into a major debate about feminists or sexism or whatever. All for gender equality. But I certainly dislike just how painfully anvillicious this aspect of the show is, and at points it takes away from Carter's character and the whole spy plot, and it kind of signs something that's pretty m'eh if half of Carter's personality is going to be just her showing that she can be competent in spite of being in a men-dominated workplace. Era-oriented realism aside, that's kind of... eh, I dunno. It's a gigantic can of worms I'd prefer not to open.

There's also the 'ladies' matters' excuse that Carter gives the male agents, and the reactions from the male agents were quite funny. I guess sex ed weren't that great back then?

It's not my major complaint, though. There is a big plot going on about how Carter is going to go around and gather all the 'bad babies' that has been stolen from Howard Stark's vault, and she comes into contact with this mysterious organization Leviathan who apparently makes its members be mute so they can talk through some weird mechanical translator thing. All the while Carter has to work with Edwin Jarvis, Howard Stark's butler, who is freaking hilarious. Both Carter and Jarvis are strong personalities on their own to make me like the episode a lot more than Gotham's pilot, and Jarvis in particular is rather fun for his constant henpecked trying-to-hide-the-spy-life-from-his-wife antics.

There's that moment where it's kind of sad that Carter's roommate got killed off-screen, which I thought was a pretty jarring turn from the rest of the episode, which was pretty well done.

Pacing wise they could've done better. I thought the typewriter thing that the Levianthan dude did to communicate with his superiors is kind of a cool concept, but after they take the time to clickety-clack through every single line being talked back and forth you'd think they would trim it down a bit. Also thought Peggy infiltrating the casino was dragged on a fair bit as well.

There were also some nice little shout-outs to other Marvel movies, like the Vita rays, the entire concept of Jarvis, Anton Vanko showing up, and some other stuff too.

The supporting cast is... well, they don't do much other than Jarvis or Stark, since it's the first episode, but we've got the competent boss of the SSR, the sexist misogynist douchebag, and the nice crippled dude who stands up for Carter. I don't know if any of them are people in the comics since I'm not a big Marvel comics geek, so I don't particularly care.

But overall I just can't really bring myself to care about Agent Carter's show. I mean, more power to the people who do, since it's a beautifully crafted show and I'm sure it'll appeal a lot to people who like period pieces and whatnot, and it's cool we're getting a show starring a woman... but, y'know, a lot of stuff make me just don't really care about this show enough to follow it regularly.

There's just too much things that are just random generic stuff. It's like Agents of Shield with its generic evil sci-fi technology organization, only they swapped out 'Centipede' with 'Leviathan' and super-cyborg-implants with neon orange globe-bombs. There really isn't much promise of anything really superhero-y like Agents of Shield or the Flash, and... well, I dunno. It doesn't feel like something I would really like. It's a solid pilot, and I just, y'know, don't particularly care. I will probably give episodes two and three a shot, but I don't particularly care about Agent Carter or indeed anything in the setting of the show enough -- the post-WWII era, the founding of SHIELD, the whole premise of yet another big evil organization -- to feel guilty about not following the show at all. I dunno. I'm not hating on the show just because it has rave reviews or whatever. It's just that I'm pretty underwhelmed unless some big game-changer superheroes or whatever gets in play.

It's like... I watch Arrow and the Flash because they are adaptations of comic book superheroes, and I didn't even care about the Flash enough to check it out until the second or third episodes before it became my all-time favourite superhero TV show, and the only reason I watched Arrow was because of Deathstroke. And Agents of Shield, as much as I like it, is an unevenly paced show... but it stars Coulson, someone I care about, and runs in the background of a movie series I really adore. Gotham, for being such a bland show, is, y'know, about Batman characters.

Agent Carter? I don't care about her as a character. Not because she's a woman, because I will watch the shit about a show starring Catwoman or Black Widow or Wonder Woman or Mockingbird or Starfire or the Wasp or any of the many female superheroes out there. I don't care about Agent Carter specifically, nor do I care about Howard Stark or Edwin Jarvis. Or the Post-WWII setting. I just... don't. And the pilot isn't really impressive enough to budge me off my indifference. If I'm really bored, I'll probably watch the next episodes. Apparently there are only going to be eight? It's really hard to care about just some random plot that happened in the past that can be resolved in under eight episodes.

TL;DR... it's cool that this show exists. It's awesome that a woman is finally being a main character in a TV show. Good that we're addressing sexism. It's a beautiful pilot. It's just that... the entire premise and setting of the show just doesn't click together with me enough to bring me to care. More power for all of you who do, though, 'cause it's a well-done show and I liked what I saw.

One Piece 773 Review: Bartolomeo's Spotlight

One Piece, Chapter 773: Half and Half

Finally! It's been quite a while since we have had a new chapter of One Piece (and Bleach, and Toriko, and Magi...) but it's finally back. We open with a cover story, and apparently Wadatsumi, who has been revealed as the one behind all the missing buildings and whatnot, is doing so in return for the offerings on a shrine because, uh, uh... shit, I don't even know what's going on. Maybe Wadatsumi is just being dumb and shit? Once all this is over I'll have to read everything in one sitting to make sense of it.

We start off picking up where we left off last year, with Cavendish-Hakuba having taken down Dellinger in one slash. And indeed Dellinger is basically just out. Bartolomeo is freaking out over the weirdness of Cavendish's transformation, noting how his face has changed and how that was what happened during the Coliseum match. Then we have Bartolomeo just being an idiot and going all 'he's not Cavendish, he's some other dish! I wonder what dish that is!' Hakuba then slashes at Bartolomeo's barrier and freaks him out, but the barrier holds fast. Hakuba then catches sight of Robin and goes after her, but Robin, after being in a passive role for quite a while, manages to finally show some of her original badassery by summoning a shit-ton of hands to hold Hakuba in place.

And Bartolomeo, naturally, is just fangasming in place going all 'how impertinent I was to think that she needed protecting!'

Cavendish and Hakuba reveal themselves to be actual split personalities, and since this is One Piece they come into conflict in the most hilarious way ever. Cavendish apparently is aware of Hakuba existing within him, and for a moment Cavendish takes over and apologizes, before Hakuba takes over again and goes 'I WILL CUT YOU UP!' And then they just argue with each other while Robin and Bartolomeo just watch and go '......' It comes to a head when Cavendish and Hakuba pulls off a Two-Face, spouts Rinnegans and just, y'know, be like that.

Also, is Hakuba equipped with Armament Haki? His skin seems to be done in that same sheen effect done for Armament Haki. Just a random observation.

Cavendish asks Robin to release him since he's okay now, but Robin isn't an idiot. The comedy moment is cut short because Gladius finally makes his move, implanting a gigantic explosion onto the rock wall that Robin was creating arm-stairs on. It's a super gigantic explosion that will engulf Robin and Cavendish if it blows off, and Bartolomeo charges in towards Gladius with his fist engulfed in a barrier bubble. Gladius confirms that if he gets taken out, the explosion will be cancelled (which is kind of a stupid thing to happen in any kind of fiction, but hey, this is manga.

Gladius then launches his hair like a freaking dart machinegun at Bartolomeo, and apparently his hairs contains some numbing poison. Because freaking why not? Also he gets bald in one section of his head which I thought was hilarious.

Gladius then proves to be even more hilarious by transforming into a gigantic balloon, which is absolutely freaking ridiculous. He gives Bartolomeo an ultimatum. If Bartolomeo defeats him in time, the wall bomb gets defused, but his body will launch super-poisonous hair needles up at Robin. And if he doesn't defeat Gladius, the wall will explode anyway. Bartolmeo gets a generic recap panel, before going 'oh right, that guy I don't care about is up there with her!' and then calls out for Cabbage to shield Robin with his body. Of course! But the abrupt transformation makes him unreliable, so Bartolomeo takes a third option.

He tries to do a kamikaze attack and creates a giant 'Barrier Ball' bubble around himself and the hilarious balloon Gladius. Bartolomeo pulls out a dagger and slits Gladius' throat, and Gladius apparently explodes in a gigantic 'Fashion Punk' and the explosion kind of rips Bartolomeo up a bit since this is a manga and explosions don't unleash a storm of heat waves and death. Robin goes all 'no!' and stuff. But Gladius reveals that Bartolomeo has mistakenly stabbed his shoulder instead. Also, Gladius is all bald now, which is hilarious.

As the stone wall is about to explode, Cavendish-Hakuba has kind of became split and promises to bring Robin up with his speed, and as Gladius rips up the wall with 'Punk Rock: Super Arena' and kind of mocks Bartolomeo since he's protected from the giant explosion by being inside Bartolomeo's little bubble. But of course Cavendish-Hakuba has saved Robin, even though the Cavendish half has to stop the Hakuba half's sword, and they make it up before Cavendish falls asleep.

Gladius is all surprised, but Bartolomeo gets all serious and his coat has apparently gotten ripped up in the explosion. He leaps into the air with some cool monologue about how he's lacking power and will some time be a man Luffy-sempai can rely on. He covers his fist in a barrier bubble, which is apparently 'Homage: God Fist', before jumping into the air and fucking punches Gladius's face into the rocks. Bartlomeo unleashes an absolutely awesome Bari Bari no Pistol, which is obviously an attack he tries to emulate his beloved Luffy-sempai, and, well, what can I say? Bartolomeo's freaking awesome. I mean, Cavendish, too, but he's kind of overshadowed by Bartolomeo.

That's Gladius out, and other than Senor Pink and Bellamy, who are fighting Franky and Luffy respectively, we only have the executives left. Zoro versus Pica, Luffy and Law versus Doflamingo and Trebol... and Rebecca and Kyros versus Diamante. Which we see again.

Diamante's ability to screw up the ground has apparently made it unstable enough for Rebecca and Kyros to retain their footing, and Diamante sends his sword snaking towards Rebecca, and for whatever reason Kyros doesn't jump in the way and tells Rebecca to run for it instead. Robin, however, arrives and does a 'Mil Fleur: Moth Orchid', which... does something. There are arms sprouting out from Diamante's sword like a pinwheel and a shit ton of hands arranged together like butterflies or whatever just sprouting out from the air. What does it do, and how does that stop Diamante's sword? I have no fucking idea, but I am extremely pumped at the idea of Nico Robin being awesome.

Robin promises to protect Rebecca, and while part of me wants Rebecca and Kyros to bring down Diamante, the man who has fucked up their lives... it has been forever since Nico Robin has been a badass and actually brought down someone, and I am super-pumped about Robin possibly bringing down a main villain like Diamante. Maybe they can all have a shot at Diamante? Robin is awesome and she's been criminally underused since the timeskip.