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. 

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.