Arrow S04E18 Review: A Death in the Family

Arrow, Season 4, Episode 18: Eleven-Fifty-Nine

Oh, hey, we finally know who is in that grave in the season's prologue flash-forward thing. Damian Darhk finally comes back as a big threat, and, well, finally manages to kill someone after eighteen episodes in and it's not the one you thought was going to die. It's a huge catalyst for getting Team Arrow to finally, well, stop dicking around with romantic subplots and finally gear up to fight HIVE and Darhk. I mean, you'd think after three seasons' worth of experience under their belt it would be obvious, but no....

I didn't follow the promotional material (which honestly were quite frontal in going all 'someone gun die!') and the episode honestly played out quite normally, with the focus of it seemingly being on Andy Diggle. Who's a great plot device to shove in between John Diggle's loyalty to his estranged brother, or to his team. It's a nice way that the episode keeps even the audience second-guessing on whether Andy is an actual HIVE spy, or if Oliver is being extra-paranoid... and let's be honest, it would totally be an Oliver thing to be extra-paranoid. John Diggle gets a fair amount of mileage after once more being underused for a good chunk of the season, with his newly-repaired friendship with Oliver being once more torn asunder due to his insistence that Andy Diggle is on their side despite all of Oliver's paranoia...

And you know what? Oliver was right for once! Andy Diggle was Merlyn's inside man, and wasn't double-double-agenting on Team Arrow's behalf. Except that for a moment it seemed that Oliver and John had pulled a fast one on Andy, going all 'you were right, Oliver'... except, they didn't do anything. And, whoops, Laurel died as a result. The scene was sudden, with Damian Darhk stabbing Laurel in the chest with an arrow... and honestly Laurel did have a couple of death flags with her going all 'I need to go out one last time as the Black Canary'. But, well, I don't know who I expected to die, but it sure as hell isn't Laurel Lance.

They had to pull a dick move too, going all 'yeah, she survived' in the hospital... before Laurel signed her death warrant by talking about how she has always loved Oliver all along... and, whoops, she subsequently goes into shock and dies. And... it honestly doesn't strike me as the boldest choice to make. I mean, it will probably utterly destroy Quentin and I bet we'll get a lot of heartwrenching scenes from both Quentin and Oliver next episode, but as far as the audience is concerned she's never really been the focus of the season (the fact that she's such a controversial character all throughout the first three seasons doesn't help either), relegated mostly to just another fighter in Team Arrow. She wouldn't have the same impact we would get if, say, Felicity kicked the bucket in the mid-season episode way back when.

Laurel was still a big character to kill off, though, I just felt that she really could've done more in the season to build up to this more. I mean, all she got was some 'man I gotta get Sara back' moments, and the raw, unbridled conversation she had with Oliver in this episode about their complex relationship that's gone long enough to be difficult to qualify into just a single word. She was a big enough character who went through so much in the first three seasons, it didn't feel right that she didn't have a proper character arc in the season where she dies. It isn't nearly as bad as Sara randomly getting shot for shock value, and it was drawn out rather agonizingly. I've grown from hating Laurel in the first two seasons, to laughing at her when the show made her butt monkey, to eventually liking her once she embraced her role as Black Canary... and I can't say that I don't feel sadness with her touching final conversation with Oliver.

Now the question, well, is that how long will Laurel Lance's death stick? With so much supernatural mumbo-jumbo in play throughout this season, and considering all dead characters other than Tommy Merlyn and Moira Queen eventually do find their way back to life, how long with Laurel's death stick? It's a beautiful, poignant death scene that finally paints the mortality of the characters fighting against Darhk, and it's not that I particularly hate Laurel, but I would like this death scene to at least stick.

Meanwhile, in the sub-plot side of things, Thea once more fights with Malcolm, and in the flashback, Reiter's forces and Oliver continue to shoot it out. The audience rolls their eyes with boredom. The flashback does give us another heartwrenching moment about Oliver calling Laurel his 'home', which honestly was a bit telegraphic of what was going to happen in the present day, but eh, it made the flashback a wee bit more relevant. 

Yeah, Laurel's death scene was great, and Laurel's scenes in this episode was great, but the events that facilitated said death -- the whole Andy Diggle business, Darhk's escape, the stupid business about the idol -- not so much. But hey, you get your victories where you get them, and the second Black Canary death is definitely far better-written and well-executed than the first Black Canary death.

Arrow S04E17 Review: Bee-con of Hope

Arrow, Season 4, Episode 17: Beacon of Hope

So, yeah, Felicity quit Team Arrow, and this episode focuses on her trying to strike out as her own as head of Palmer Tech. A full civilian and no longer Overwatch of the Arrow Team. It's far more reasonable now that the recent crisis of Damian Darhk is apparently contained with the dude spending time in prison, so you can't fault her for that. I'm curious what the direction for Felicity is going, and she certainly is a lot more fun to watch now that she's no longer strangled by the Olicity ship, having some shades of her old fun old geeky-competent hacker return to her in this episode. I'm curious if the writers are intentionally writing Felicity out to push for the (comic-canonical) Oliver/Laurel ship, though the two's dialogue throughout this exhausting ordeal really only shows mutual friendship more than romance. Maybe they just want Felicity out of the way for... reasons? For her to have a slightly less role until she becomes a supporting guest star in future seasons a la Roy Harper?

Well, regardless of what direction Felicity is taking, Beacon of Hope is a more than welcome break from all the drama-strangled doom and gloom we're getting from Arrow, and all it takes is shifting the focus away from all the darkness and instead have Felicity, Thea and Donna face off against Brie Larvan (a.k.a. the Bug-Eyed Bandit), the criminal who Felicity and Ray helped Team Flash to put away way back in a crossover episode last year. The three of them worked really well, play off each other well as Donna is just confused at all this secret elevator, supervillain and bee robot thing going on. Man, remember when Donna was an annoying necessity to the show? She's definitely grown on me.

Having Curtis Holt get a big role as he struggles with his infection, his fanboyism over the superheroes and Oliver being aggressive towards his light-hearted demeanour is another great part of the episode as well, with the future Mr. Terrific seemingly poised to replace Felicity as the team's resident mission control. Curtis is indeed one of the best parts of season four, and his outing here, helping to hack Brie Larvan's bees, figure out what's going on with them, and fighting against a single drone with Quentin is hilarious, and I can't fault the show swapping out Felicity for Curtis.

Brie Larvan is happily dispensing bee puns all throughout the episode, and her swarm of bees and that Yellowjacket knockoff gestalt bee fighter-man (who's totally not a man in a suit, honest) are pretty impressive visual effects. She also gets some sympathy because her big assault this time around is precipitated on her wanting to gain the same walking technology that Felicity possesses, but I felt that they missed an opportunity by having Larvan have actual enmity against Felicity. It's odd that they acknowledge Felicity's role in Larvan's capture in her previous outing, but they don't really build up on it much. 

Also, Andy Diggle is apparently working with Malcolm Merlyn, a welcome wrench in the whole HIVE situation. What is Merlyn planning, and is he trying to once more usurp the role of the main villain? Darhk isn't completely idle in the prison, too, pulling off a Kingpin and basically dominating the prison bullies who tried to shiv him by threatening their families outside. And we also get a welcome return of another past villain, Murmur, who seems set up to be Darhk's main flunky now that HIVE has apparently disowned him. Murmur doesn't do much here, but Darhk displaying superiority even without magic totem powers really helps to build him up as being dangerous even without his magic powers.

Speaking of totem powers, the flashback... is really stretching scenes, yeah? This episode's flashback is just Reiter tapping into totem powers while Oliver and Taitana tries to survive and figure out what's going on. Just have an episode devoted to the flashbacks and be done already, stop distracting us with one-fourth of a scene every fifteen minutes!

But other than that, yeah, this is a pretty decent episode of Arrow! A fun outing, showing off a lot of great scenes from a lot of characters. It builds up the bigger and darker HIVE conflict, reintroduces a villain from the past and shows how Felicity and Curtis can be viable as characters in the show's future. What can I say? Remove the tired shipping plots, and even without the extra-wacky factor that this episode has, Arrow still has enough juice in its tank to deliver good episodes.

Agents of SHIELD S03E12 Review: Hive

Agents of SHIELD, Season 3, Episode 12: The Inside Man

It's another great episode for Agents of SHIELD. The plot of the episode seems to be a simple Scooby-Doo game of 'who is Gideon Malick's inside man among the international representatives?' The new world government or whatever they're called are trying to lobby for creating a Inhuman 'sanctuary' which is just another word for prison. Both Coulson and Talbot are forced to work together for wacky hijinks as they infiltrate the summit, with Coulson having to deal with Talbot's lack of tact and unsubtle racism... only for the traitor to be revealed to be Talbot. It's not him being a xenophobic twat, though, but rather because his son was captured by Hydra and used as leverage. It's most likely the reason why his wife left him last episode. As a jackass as Talbot is, he really delivers whenever he talks about his son in this episode.

Other than Talbot, we also get the return of Carl "Crusher" Creel, the Absorbing Man, who shows up as Talbot's bodyguard. It's cool, and like Hunter (who holds a grudge against Creel for killing Hunter's two buddies on the opening to season two) it's hard not to have an immediate distrust for Creel. It's interesting that despite being a metahuman brute, Creel's biggest impact to the main cast is psychological instead of physical in manner. After all, all we had was Talbot's words that Creel is working for the ATCU now. Creel's unorthodox origin and his awesome powers are on full display in this episode as in addition to being Talbot's secret weapon against Hydra -- Talbot's understandable position of distrust meant he had to bring in a third party -- Creel's unique state of being a metahuman without also being an Inhuman also ended up being the source of a possible cure against the Inhumans (welcome to comic book logic, folks!). At least those who haven't been exposed to terrigenesis, anyway. 

There is definitely a mutant/X-Men vibe with Lincoln and Skye arguing against the viability of the cure. Lincoln is not opposed to terrigenesis being controlled, because after all that was the whole point of Afterlife, where candidates for transformation were carefully selected. Meanwhile, Skye is drunk on a 'Inhumans are cool and should be treated the same' and is incensed at the fact that they're thinking of curing Inhumans as if it's a disease. Ultimately, my stance on it is similar to the argument that Storm and Rogue had in X-Men 3... the lady that can create storms at her fingertips shouldn't talk about how mutation is a blessing to someone who can't have physical contact without killing the other fellow. I mean, Skye and Lincoln and Joey and Giyera have pretty awesome Inhuman powers, but what about Lash, who can't control his rage and is in danger of losing his humanity and original personality? What about that one dude whose Inhuman powers is 'get an allergic reaction if an Inhuman is nearby'? It's an interesting argument, and another reason to why we really should have an X-Men TV show. Fox, make it happen!

Speaking of Lincoln, I still find him bland, though to be fair beyond being a POV token-good character for the Afterlife Inhumans, Lincoln never really got that much to do character-wise. This little conflict with his beau might actually turn him into something interesting instead of just being Skye's love interest. 

We get some great moments for Hunter, where his paranoia against Creel, and, well, his paranoia in general is highlighted. There's a bit of a conflict between May and Hunter, where the two badass agents are in argument about professionalism and selfishness, how Hunter lets his feelings go over the mission, or how May has a similar blind spot regarding Andrew. May and Hunter are both under-utilized characters, and despite them having some moments with May's conflict regarding Lash and Hunter's vendetta against Ward, we never really get to explore their character flaws like this. 

Meanwhile, we get a name for Not-Ward, so I can stop calling him that. He's called Hive, and is apparently a villain from the comics! (Not to be confused with the organization called HIVE from DC's Arrow). He does have a power that shoots out a blast of dust-like substance that seemed to be implied to be parasitic alien insects, from his name... it's still ambiguous what his full powers are beyond possessing dead human bodies and stealing their memories. I'm not sure what he does to Giyera and Lucio when he does what he does to them, because while the two are obedient to Hive, they are still very visibly shocked when they listened to... whatever Hive did to those poor humans in that room. Whatever happened, though, he strips those poor folks into nothing but bone and blood and Grant Ward's body is fully rejuvenated.

There are a bit of plot holes here and there with what's going on, with why Malick would leave the hostage in a van near the summit, but other than that, despite being ultimately a filler episode it's extremely enjoyable to watch, and I think that's Agents of SHIELD's biggest strength in season three. The ability to deliver plot progression in otherwise solid episodes. 

Legends of Tomorrow S01E14 Review: Useless Hawkgirl

Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1, Episode 14: River of Time

This episode had shades of Loki being captured by the Avengers in, well, the Avengers before his mere presence and the idea about what to do with him, plus Loki's own silver tongue, got the Avengers to turn against each other. In this episode, it's more about Rip's own stubbornness, the utterly moronic love triangle and, well, the Legends continually going into Vandal Savage's cell to talk to him despite knowing that, oh, he's the bad guy.

This episode was a slower one, with almost the entirety of it being spent abroad the Waverider and a bit at the end changing locations in the (admittedly pretty-looking) Vanishing Point, most likely due to the show's budget of effects being used up in the slightly-disappointing big robot fight last episode. The episode tries to offset this a bit by having Clarissa Stein, Felicity Smoak and Nyssa Al Ghul have guest star roles in short flashback sequences for Martin Stein, Ray Palmer and Sara Lance respectively. Also, Jax's mother shows up for the first time. I think Kendra/Carter got one too, but I don't really care enough to check. The flashbacks showed the respective characters saying goodbye in their own way before leaving off to join the Legends team, with various degrees of heartwarming levels -- the Steins and the Jacksons were melancholic but heartwarming.

Nyssa's appearance in the flashback sequence is cool, too but it's at odds against her most recent appearance in Arrow, where we had Laurel inform her of what happened to Sara. Though Nyssa might just be playing along and pretending she doesn't know because... reasons? Nyssa telling Sara to move on from the League and her makes Sara cheating with that one hot nurse less dickish on her part, though.

The team is asking questions that I've been asking throughout my last review: why not just fucking kill Savage outright? Captain Cold and Heat Wave have the same idea that I do -- fuck Carter, he can reincarnate, kill Savage already! But no, everyone is an idiot. Even when Carter actually does get his fucking mind back in the latter half of the episode, no one puts Hawkgirl's enchanted mace in her arms with which to bash Vandal Savage's head in. If she's too much of a wimp to do it, I'm pretty sure Evil Carter will do it for him. 

The stupid love triangle is just handled utterly badly in this episode moreso than any previous episodes, which spent all this time building up that Kendra Saunders does have a choice independent from fate and previous lives... so the first thing Kendra does when they rescue Carter? Read a love poem to him, and give passive-aggressive comments to Ray that soul mates are a thing. Even without Savage goading Ray on with his anecdotes of how Chay-Ara always returns to Khufu, it's badly written and generally stupid all around.

Also, Hawkgirl is honestly the biggest reason no work gets done. It's her decision that Vandal Savage is even alive to poison their minds and turn the crew against each other -- as everyone points out, their whole mission was to kill Savage. If she had the patience to interrogate Carter later on instead of causing tensions to spring high and drive a wedge between herself and Ray, or if she at least had the decency to talk to Ray about her romantic problems, then Savage wouldn't have gotten free. She even had kind of a shitty showing in battle, and honestly if Savage hadn't been distracted with gloating over stabbing Carter (again) she wouldn't even get a hit in. But no, Rip treats Kendra winning with a cheap shot as having saved the entire crew. CW's Kendra Saunders, you're the worst and you bring shame to the Hawkgirl name.

Also I find it stupid that despite it being established that the Hawks have reincarnated numerous times with numerous children all over the timeline, Kendra is just super-fixated on Aldus Aldus Aldus despite not remembering the dude until like an hour before his death. I guess she's the person who's stupid enough not to realize that Evil Carter is also just a Carter Hall from a timeline. And it's just dumb, really. 

Evil Carter Hall, or... whatever the hell his future McCool name is... is a lot more entertaining than the original bland Carter Hall. Definitely far more interesting than Kendra. 

Ray's also an idiot, and evidently close proximity to Kendra has caused some of it to rub on him. Yeah, I know the dude's angry, but you'd think he would know better than to try to duke it out with Vandal Savage, immortal tyrant who has lived over a thousand years... with fisticuffs. Not even with an Atom suit. And while fighting Savage later on he doesn't even shrink down. What the hell, man? Ray's character arc, despite him getting this Felicity flashback... amounts to... 'I need my heart broken so that I can move on from my dead wife to find love again'. What in the hell? It's just cheap justification to bring Kendra and Carter back together, meaning all that time wasted for painful scenes of Ray and Kendra interacting without any semblance of chemistry whatsoever was... well, a fucking waste. Ray, go crawl in a corner and feel ashamed of yourself.

Rip Hunter isn't stellar himself, and considering he's the next member of the Legends team to have the most screentime in this episode, it's damning this episode even further, isn't it? They are time travelers, so why the hell does Rip need to literally put the pedal on the metal to reach the Vanishing Point faster? That led indirectly to, well, Jax getting hit with some crazy-ass time wave thing causing him to age quickly, which is kind of dumb, honestly. And the crew doesn't pull off a mutiny? This is worse than any of the other times that the crew and Rip had came to a disagreement. And, no, telling your crew that you'll abandon them for the sake of saving your family isn't quite redeeming, and I'm surprised Sara hadn't clocked him in the face then. And taking a bullet for Kendra? Even if I liked Kendra, that doesn't do you any favours. It all culminates in Rip Hunter being locked up because, shockers, the Time Masters are in league with Vandal Savage! Whoops, bet you feel like a total tit, don't you, Rip?

Savage, meanwhile, is probably the sole redeeming factor of this episode. I mean, well, the trio of Sara, Rory and Snart are always entertaining with their snark, and Jax and Stein get a decent (if too-short) sub-plot showing what a crappy captain Rip Hunter is. I'm 100% sure Jackson being shot back to 2016 is how a rescue team will arrive to save the Legends.

Vandal Savage, after several episodes' worth of getting his ass handed to him and only escaping due to technicality on how to murder him and circumvent his immortality, is the true star of this episode. Admittedly it doesn't take a particularly ingenious mind to outwit the likes of Kendra and Ray, considering the lack of common sense they have, but his speeches to Rip and especially Ray, preying on the latter's insecurities and generally playing devil's advocate, managed to paint him as a psychologically far more threatening villain. Savage challenging the Legends team in a corridor is far more suspenseful and visceral than any of the open-area laser fight we had with him before.

Besides, it leads to this immortal exchange that is definitely the best series of lines uttered in the history of superhero cinematic universe:

"Who are you to stand against me, Vandal Savage, the Destroyer of Empires?"

"Leonard Snart, robber of ATMs!"

Other than Savage and that excellent exchange, though... yeah, this is easily the worst episode of Legends of Tomorrow. And, well, I never liked pinning a series' problem on a single character... but, well, this series would be infinitely better if Kendra Saunders wasn't in it.

Legends of Tomorrow S01E13 Review: Giant Man

Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1, Episode 13: Leviathan

Okay, this episode is kinda weak. We finally go into the future mere days before Rip Hunter's family gets murdered by Vandal Savage, and, well... it's kinda messy, honestly. The fact that they are so fixated at that point in time, and how conveniently close by the piece of Egyptian jewelry that allows them to kill Savage is, and how quickly Scandal Cassandra Savage turns against her (apparently adopted) father all ended up feeling messily plotted. Also, shockers, one of Vandal Savage's troops is a brainwashed Carter Hall! Or a future reincarnation of him!

And Kendra, well, doesn't want to kill Vandal Savage. Despite, y'konw, Carter possessing reincarnation powers. And this is a future incarnation of Carter anyway. This certainly doesn't help my opinion of CW's version of Hawkgirl and solidifies her as the weakest part of this show. And to think she actually broke out the mace to whack people in the head this episode! Ah, Kendra, such wasted potential. And she was so close to being awesome, too, with her coming in all mace-wielding and whacking heads and ready to deliver the killing blow to Vandal Savage only for her to break thanks to seeing Carter's face, thus dooming thousands of people to die (including Rip's family, as well as potentially themselves being wiped out of timeline) because she doesn't think of the fact that, hey, this is just one of the many Carters in the timeline. And Carter can reincarnate. Kendra, you're stupid.

The big robot fight against the Leviathan with the Atom taking a page off Ant-Man's playbook and going giant also ended up feeling... weak. Sure, the giant robot slugfest looks convincing enough on a TV budget, but never gave me the sense of immersion that the flying Atom robot army or the spaceship battle ever did. Both Atom and the Leviathan all moved so slowly, and having Jackson play commentator in the background really kinda screwed the pacing somewhat. (In the comics, the Atom only had these growing powers for a limited time thanks to some wacky time-travel hijinks.) It's ultimately filler, though, and this entire episode had just that sense of fillerific quality. Also, why the hell is it when someone grows big they have to move in slow-motion? Come on, people.

Cassandra Savage felt like an elite lieutenant, and the revelation that she was apparently just duped by Savage, who was the real killer of her parents, felt weak and undeveloped. Any attachment the two have ended up being glossed over in a mechanical state, and Cassandra's betrayal ended up feeling weak. Cold, of course, tries to inject some levity in comparing his own villainous father with Cassandra's, but it's still far-fetched to have Cassandra betray her father after being shown a video and some sick refugees. You'd think the daughter of a tyrannical despot would at least be aware and resist enemy brainwashing tactics.

Yeah, the episode had the buildup to be a finale-worthy episode, but the general execution with Kendra, Cassandra and even the giant robot battle all felt way too inconsistent and filler-y. Hopefully the next three episodes can at least bring this to a satisfying conclusion. 

Arrow S04E16 Review: Rings

Arrow, Season 4, Episode 16: Broken Hearts

Yeah, I'm definitely putting off talking about Arrow. The episodes I'm not talking about is such a mess, even moreso than its sister shows. I'll try to be as short and not rant as much as I probably will if given the opportunity, but damn, these series of episodes are honestly just the definition of messy and bad writing.

This episode focuses on the return of a villain, Cupid... who really isn't the type of villain to have that much of an appeal to hold an episode on her own for a second time. Sure, she goes around kidnapping celebrity couples instead of stalking Green Arrow this time around, but there's only so much you can do with these gimmick-villain characters, especially in a live-action setting. Especially in a live-action setting with such a dark tone. Cupid's antics really fell flat, and the attempts to gel Cupid's celebrity wedding assaults with Olicity fake-wedding moments ended up being truly cringe-worthy.

Granted, I'm not entirely opposed to romance plots, and I do admit that there are a couple of sweet moments as the actors for both Oliver and Felicity deliver quite well in their lines as they try so hard to pretend that they are truly in love and devoted to each other... but this time there's no going back since their relationship is broken so badly. Also Oliver's constant adamant refusal to say sorry and beg and whatnot, instead preferring to wallow in grief and say his vows in the setup to possibly get Felicity to try to re-accept him. It's annoying, but at least it's mostly contained to this episode. And honestly I'm happy that they didn't just repair the schism after an episode or two's worth of screentime, because that would just be even more pointless drama for the sake of drama. Preferably I would rather the shipping business not really touched at all, but this direction is probably preferable to the alternative if Olicity had to shatter. 

The courtroom scenes were a bit better than the Cupid scenes, but they happened way too quickly, and Quentin's big sacrifice, admitting his role in Darhk's schemes, as well as Laurel being a good lawyer, are both decent, even if it came a bit too late. Quentin's big moment of 'I'm going to betray Darhk' happened so long ago, and for it to have the resolution so late after the fact ended up feeling extremely weak. Also, um, how is it that a lawyer with personal connections with one of the major witnesses and the accused is allowed to handle the case? I mean, yeah, Laurel being present is more emotionally riveting than if some random dude acts as the lawyer, but still.

Honestly, the flashbacks end up being more compelling as the action heats up and shows that Reiter is hunting for the same voodoo idol that Darhk uses in the present, but they never really get the amount of screentime they deserve, and the fact that, as with all Arrow flashbacks, it is a given that events will end up being a tragedy with Oliver the only survivor, kinda makes being invested in these flashbacks really moot.

Overall? It's a weak episode, mostly due to its focus on the Olicity relationship. It's not that romance is bad... it's just how weakly it's handled, with the Cupid and her half-assed love-related dialogue bit being a poor way to try to make it relevant, makes the whole thing kind of come apart at the seams. Speaking of coming apart at the seams... I'm not reviewing the second half of Gotham's second season. It's not particularly bad or worse than the CW shows... it's just not quite my cup of cake, and while I'm kinda watching it half-heartedly I'm not going to review it. Too much on my plate at the moment, and I'd rather talk about Agents of SHIELD or Supergirl, even. Maybe one big catch-all review after that season is over.

Pokemon: Generation VII

Oh, hey, the seventh generation of pokemon games are announced! We know nothing but the titles and a sneak-preview legendary in an upcoming movie, but we finally get a proper trailer. Here.


Yay Pokemon! They're skipping Pokemon Z, it seems, though honestly with such a varied response to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire... which really only got people hyped for like a couple of weeks after its release thanks to nostalgia factor, and after trying out the new megas and playing the story, it ended up being filled with repetition and just 'hey, all these legendaries are around' without any real reason. Hopefully they do better with Sun and Moon.

We don't get to see much of it, of course. The proportions of the human CG models seem to be more realistic insted of chibified like they were in the sixth generation, and there's a bit of a Hawaii tiki feel to the new region, which is totally unsubtly named 'Alola'.

We get to see the starters and legendaries. The legendaries are... weird but decent. They're not as eyecatchingly majestic like Xerneas and Yveltal were when XY was announced, though. The Sun Legendary is this white lion that looks like that Zoids Ligerzero thing... though certainly a far, far superior lion pokemon compared to Pyroar and his embarrassing fashion disaster of a mane. The Moon Legendary is an insane skeletal bat-thing that seemed to be the secret love-child of Cresselia and Yveltal.

Bowtie owl!

The starters are a bit underwhelming, to be honest, and even though I say that with every new generation there usually are one or two that catch my attention. I do like that, as with generation VI's (non-mega) pokemon, they have dialed back on the flagrant complexity that creeped up from generations III through V. It's simpler, yet at the same time... also kind of boring. But hey, at least they're cute!


The grass starter, Rowlet, is an owl. It's a cute owl, and out of the three I find him the cutest, I think? It turns its head around and around and it's cute for that. It's a grass-flying dual-type (like Jumpluff!), making it, after 20 years, the first starter to have a secondary typing after Bulbasaur, the OG himself. The fire starter, Litten, is a black-and-red cat. Some people think he's a tiger, which is totally on the table. The water starter, Popplio, is a clown seal. Like Oshawott. But a seal. All three are kinda cute!

Fire Hairball cat!

I think one of the biggest underwhelming factors is, well, they literally look like animal babies with palette swaps... though possibly moreso because we already had pokemon based on these animals before (Hoothoot for owls, a crapton of other cat pokemon, the Seel and Spheal lines for seals). Hopefully their final evolutions will prove to be far more interesting. Not sure if the pattern of starters will continue to hold up, though. I mean the 'grass starter must always be a prehistoric reptile' streak was broken in generation VI with the chipmunk-based Chespin, and the 'fire starter is based on a zodiac' streak (which doesn't hold true for Typhlosion anyway) was broken in generation VI again with Fennekin. So, um... yeah, whatever. Rowlet will probably remain grass-flying like, forevermore. Litten seems like she could be fire/dark but who knows? Maybe we'll see her grow to a cat-man and be fire/fighting. Popplio looks like a seal version of Oshawott so maybe another boring pure-water?

Not sure about the two legendaries' typing either. Sun-Mascot could be pure fire or fire-something. It's a sun lion, after all, and it's got red highlights. Moon-Mascot... seems to be... Ghost/Flying? Psychic/Flying? Dark/Flying? It's such a crazy-looking motherfucker! It's got bones, darkness, wings, a generally insane look and I think you can make an argument for it being, well, any type.

So I guess the whole silly Zygarde multiple forms thing will not have its own game, but rather be a sub-plot in Sun and Moon or something. Which is fine. I don't care, like, literally, at all, about Zygarde and his ugly alternate forms. Magearna or whatever she's called is definitely a Gen VII Pokemon as well.

Circus Seal!

In any case, yay Pokemon! I haven't played the game or really even touched my DS for like months, but Pokemon will always hold a dear place in my heart no matter what happens. Hopefully they introduce more memorable pokemon than Generation VI, though, which focused way too much in making the region cool-looking and making a crapton of mega evolutions... which are honestly mostly hit-and-miss.

So yeah, Pokemon Generation VII is coming. In the following months, after I get through my backlog of TV episode reviews, I'll probably do a couple of Pokemon-related articles that I always meant to do. Top ten legendaries, top ten megas, top ten awesome pokemon by type, top ten ugliest shits, top ten weirdest mothefuckers... that's the dream, anyway.