One Piece 777 Review: More Zoro-Pica Buildup

One Piece, Chapter 777: Zoro vs. Pica 

In which we do get some Zoro versus Pica, but only in the second half of the chapter. It's a bit boring, really, since like the Kyros/Diamante fight, we've already gotten a fair amount of Zoro and Pica's fights ever since the big Dressrosa finale begun and all of it amounted to 'Pica does stone things, Zoro slashes Pica's big stone form like butter, whoops that's not his true body' and frankly it's been dragged on for way too long.

The Jinbe cover story seems to be coming to a close with the random sea creatures apologizing. I cannot possibly elaborate because I have no idea who these things are other than Wadatsumi.

We start off with a couple of flashbacks of how Scarlet's death affected King Riku, Viola and Tank LePanto, before we see Diamante finally falling down and apparently slamming his head (and cracking his neck?) on Scarlet's grave. Which is a nice, excellent way for Diamante to be taken out, I must say. Robin's apparently wounded because the flowers didn't get all of Diamante's spiky balls and she was protecting Rebecca with her real body. Dammit Robin do something cool!

We get a fair amount of unnecessary recapping on the part of Viola and King Riku about 'four more executives are left' which really isn't necessary at all. (Granted, Bleach got two chapters recently just recapping, so) King Riku and Tank and some others go down to try and help the people, Usopp and the two samurai are just lying around, Fujitora is helping the people too...

Pica is then just bursting out of the ground practically everywhere. First near where Kyros, Rebecca and Robin are. Robin even lampshades how long it takes Zoro to take down Pica. Pica mocks Diamante for a bit, and then takes a fair while to just mock King Riku and blame him for Kyros and Rebecca's suffering, which doesn't really make sense but whatever. Pica apparently does this to confirm that, yes, popular opinion is in King Riku's favour, and doesn't even finish off the two wounded people there and just heads back to Zoro. What.

Pica then just pops up everywhere and summons rock spikes to beat up the injured combatants. Hajrudin, Don Chinjao, Ideo, Baby 5... Sai gets squished in between two spiky walls to protect Baby 5, though he activates his armament Haki so I'm sure he's going to be fine. Pica's giant head tries to eat Zoro with 'Bite Stone', but Zoro unleashes a single sword attack, Ittoryu Baki, which cuts him... just like every freaking time they tangled. And apparently by attacking the wounded, Pica has driven Zoro far away enough so he can just reappear as a giant close by and crush the king because he's a Doflamingo fanatic, it appears.

Because he's so afraid of Zoro, that's why. I'm not sure why he doesn't just appear right next to the king and do his Charle-stone thing over and over, but eh.

He reforms as a far more gigantic stone giant than before, and we get a lot of people reacting from Robin to Bartolomeo to Sai to Chinjao to Usopp... while Zoro is just thinking about plans. Plan A: send a slashing attack, which is too far. Plan B: jump and climb Pica, which Zoro might not be able to reach. Plan C: shout to warn Usopp. Plan D: call Usopp on the Den-Den Mushi... except Zoro doesn't have one. Oh Zoro, you complete ditz. Zoro finally decides on Plan E... which is a combination of plan A and B. He basically wants to fly and slash Pica. Uh... great plan?

Zoro opens his eye and for a moment I thought he opened his left, scarred eye. But no, it's just the regular right eye. And Pica just looks gross with all these weird tentacle-veins on his back.

But it seems that Zoro/Pica will end next chapter, which is about enough pacing to make the Zoro-Pica fight not feel too dragged out. I just wished this chapter was stronger, though. It's got way too much time spent on just talking and dragging it on with Zoro's plans and Viola playing as a commentator and Pica just asking Kyros about what he thinks of Riku... we should've just moved from Diamante getting taken out to Pica and Zoro's fight and him going off to kill Riku on his own volition. But whatever the case, I am excited to see Zoro completely fuck Pica up next week.

Also I have to remember Pica has a really high-pitched chipmunk voice. That isn't something that works well in a manga setting, I'm afraid.

Pokemon Rants: Lost in Translation

Translation is an odd thing. There's a lot of cultural references and puns in a certain language that will be lost once it is translated into another language, and while translators do their best to replace puns when translating a Japanese-originated work into English, sometimes what seemed to be innocent puns end up being a large oversight when said pun is referenced some fifteen years down the line in the franchise's life. Or when a certain aspect of the franchise simply doesn't really make sense unless you understand some parts of the original Japanese culture.

I could go on for days just explaining some of the more odd pokemon and how they actually have rather obscure origins heralding to Japanese culture. Like, say, Meowth, his original sprite pose and the coin on his head and its signature move of Pay Day is a reference to the Maneki Neko, the lucky beckoning cat that many Japanese people put in shops to welcome in fortune and money. Or how Dunsparce is based on the Tsuchinoko, a cryptid that is basically Japan's equivalent of the Chupacabra. Froslass is based on the Yuki-onna, a snow demon from Japanese mythology. Mawile, Electabuzz, Shiftry, Lombre and many more are all based on yokai from Japanese culture. I could go on and on about pokemon that make sense only if you understand some Japanese or Chinese culture, but I'm not going to. I'm going to talk a bit about the things that are lost in translation.

See, when they translate pokemon from Japanese to English, everything gets translated. The names of towns, the names of pokemon, the names of attacks, all those dialogue... a shit ton of things get translated and sometimes oversight during translation makes some things kind of wonky in English.

Not to mention that the Japanese language sometimes gives names to things in English. So for example, the move that is known as Gravity in English is 'Juryoku' in the original Japanese, which is the Japanese word for 'gravity'. But on the other hand, Energy Ball is 'Enaji Boru' in the original Japanese translation, which is just the English words 'Energy' and 'Ball' read in Japanese. It's a part of the Japanese language that can never really be translated elegantly into English, and while everything is still the same, some of the more exotic sounding attacks in the original Japanese ends up just being simply another in a long list of attacks.

This is not going to be an exhaustive list of every single thing that is lost in translation from Japanese to English, nor is it a critique on poor translation because god knows there's a shit-ton of dialogue in a game.

Also, there are some puns that I'm sure the English translators intentionally left out. Such as Nugget. The name for Nugget in Japanese is 'Kintama', which, depending on how you read it, can either mean 'golden ball' or 'balls'. As in testicles. Which is why sometimes characters try to make a joke when you get a Nugget or whatever and tell you not to snicker, it's because of this pun. Or, in Generation II, how the gym leader Clair gives you the TM for Dragon Breath and tells you that her breath isn't bad? That's because Clair, in Japanese, is named Ibuki. And Dragon Breath is 'Ryu no Ibuki' in Japanese, because ibuki can mean 'breath' in Japanese. The original dialogue was about her saying something along the lines of 'no, I didn't give you this TM because of my name'. There is a lot of these lost-in-translation moments in the anime as well.

But that's just a couple of examples of dialogues being changed into a different joke, and the essence of the puns aren't necessary for anyone experiencing the game. There are several translations such as pokemon names that kind of make people go 'whoops' when future games add on that pokemon and they realize they made a goof while translating names. For example, Togetic was Togechikku in the original Japanese. And while Togetic was a valid translation and romanization for Togechikku, a more appropriate one would be Togechick, which admittedly does sound stupid... but that kind of makes Togetic's sudden transformation from the weird pixie-thing into a bird-plane odd if you didn't realize Togetic is supposed to be a slightly-grown chick.

Or Ampharos. Ampharos the odd bipedal sheep-giraffe thing has been around since Generation II, and in Generation VI Ampharos gains a mega evolution... that makes it a part-dragon type. A significant portion of the English-speaking fandom is utterly baffled? Why? Well, apparently it's a pun that took nearly 15 years to come into fruition. You see, while Ampharos' English name is a combination of 'ampere' and 'pharos', the Greek word for lighthouse... the Japanese name for Ampharos is Denryu. Which, depending on the kanji used to write the name, can either be 電流 Denryu, electric current, or 電竜, Den Ryu, meaning electric dragon. And if you think this is a dumb pun... homophone puns is something the Japanese really, really likes.

Also, ever wonder why Mr. Mime... isn't an entirely-male species? There are female Mr. Mimes out there. It's a bit of a bad translation, since back in Generation I pokemon genders wasn't a thing in the games other than the Nidorans, so the English translators just picked the name 'Mr. Mime' and popped it onto this pokemon... whose Japanese name was the perfectly gender-neutral Bariado, a bastardization of the English word Barrier. So when Generation II introduced gender, whoops, it seems that Mrs. Mimes do exist, and Nintendo really doesn't want to change anything they've already established unless they absolutely have to.

A good portion of the bad translations come from the original Generation I games, where thanks to them just, y'know, starting out, they don't have as large a budget as they do have. And there are things to take into consideration such as the letter limitations that the Game Boy has. For example, people cried foul when the classic Generation I item 'Itemfinder' suddenly changed names abruptly in Generation IV into the 'Dowsing Machine'... when, in reality, it has been constantly named Dowsing Machine (Daujingu Mashin) in the original Japanese versions ever since day one. The games themselves never put letters on the Poke Balls other than the Master Ball, but some manga and TCG cards put the letters S and H on Great Balls and Ultra Balls, referencing their original Japanese names: Supa Ball (Super Ball) and Haipa Ball (Hyper Ball) respectively.

Generation I even has some mismatching of translations. The badges weren't named Boulder Badge, Cascade Badge and such in the original Japanese translation, simply being called based on their official artwork's colour. So Sabrina's badge was called the 'Gold Badge' (Gorudo Bajji), and Koga's badge was called the 'Pink Badge' (Pinku Bajji). The English translations did well in giving the badges far more colourful and awesome-sounding names, but there ended up being a mix-up somewhere along the line, giving the psychic-type Sabrina the 'Marsh Badge' and the poison-type Koga the 'Soul Badge'. Whoops!

A well-known oddity in Generation I is during an in-game trade where you can trade a Raichu for an Electrode, upon which the NPC trainer will claim that the Raichu has evolved, causing so many people to think that there's a hidden or canceled Raichu evolution somewhere. And while Nintendo isn't afraid of building up on things introduced way back from Generation I (the Generation V pokemon Munna has been referenced all the way back from Generation I), this is just a translation error where, in the Japanese version of Pokemon Blue, the in-game trade was for the player to give him a Kadabra, which would evolve by trade. The localization team used the alternate trade from the Green version of the games, which changed the trade, but used the dialogue from Red/Blue.

A bit of an obscure one, this time. Back in Generation I, practically the only pokemon that could learn 'Double Kick' was the Nidoran families, plus Hitmonlee (who can learn every single 'kick' move) and Jolteon. Why the Nidoran family? They were these weird poison rabbit-porcupine-rhinoceros hybrids, you wouldn't think that they would rely much on kicking. Well, it turns out, the Japanese words for Double Kick is 'Nidogeri' and it's just a pun because it sounds a lot like the Nidoran families' name.

Ever wonder why, despite the advancement from the Game Boy's iffy graphics to the spectacular 3D graphics of the Nintendo 3DS, some moves still look... odd? Swift is still represented by golden stars that shoot out at the enemy. Lovely Kiss and Sweet Kiss are still represented by a little cartoon devil or angel coming out of nowhere. Well, that's because in the original Japanese translation, Swift is originally named Supido Suta, literally 'Speed Star' in English. Damned if I understand what it means for Normal-typed to use a 'Speed Star' attack, but that does explain why Swift has been extremely constantly been rendered as the pokemon spitting glowing stars at the enemy be it in the cartoon, manga or games. Likewise, Lovely Kiss, which is the rare Jynx's signature move in Generation I and thus a move that you're extremely likely to not know existed while playing through the Generation I games, was originally called Akuma no Kissu, which translates to the Devil's Kiss. And since Nintendo did their best to not refer to any kind of religious references in the Pokemon games (another example would be, Sky Attack which was Goddo Bado, or God Bird, in the original Japanese), it's translated into Lovely Kiss. Innocent enough, right? But come Generation II, and the move Sweet Kiss is introduced, which is basically Lovely Kiss, but with confusion instead of sleep. It's basically identical, and indeed in the original Japanese, it's called Tenshi no Kissu, translating into, you guessed it -- the Angel's Kiss. It's a bit of a relationship between two moves that is lost because of an unexpected connection.


Haze and Mist are another pair of attacks whose relationships are gone thanks to translation. Haze and Mist always has similar animation, and that's because Haze is Kuroi Kiri, meaning Black Mist, in Japan, wheras Mist is Shiroi Kiri, White Mist. Though unlike most other examples, the relationship between Haze and Mist isn't particularly evident since Haze eliminates stat changes whereas Mist protects the team from status moves.

A well-known example would be the move Splash, which can only be learnt by Magikarp in Generation I, and is famous for... doing absolutely nothing. Now translating it as 'Splash' for a fish's move sounds like an improvement and probably would work well... except that come future generations and other non-fish pokemon like Hoppip and Spoink can learn Splash, and it becomes confusing until you realize that Splash's original Japanese name was Haneru, which more accurately translates to Hop or Jump.

Aerial Ace, introduced in Generation III, is odd because a lot of random non-Flying-types can learn it, but the original name for Aerial Ace is Tsubame Gaeshi, roughly translating into 'Swallow Return Strike', which is a swordfighting technique. The Flying-type is only added into it as an additional pun. Acid Armor is another one that Generation I got wrong. Again, it's a seldom-seen move, only learnable by Vaporeon and the Grimer line, and the Generation I animation didn't really made it clear what's happening... but if you watch the anime or read the manga, or looked at the prettier animations of future games, Acid Armor's animation has the user literally transform into water. That doesn't sound very armor-y, or acid-y. That's because Acid Armor's original Japanese name, Tokeru, meant Liquefy.

Ever wonder why the Generation VI ability Mega Launcher affects pulse moves (Water Pulse, Heal Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Dark Pulse).... and Aura Sphere, randomly? Because in Japan, Mega Launcher affects all moves with the word 'hado', and that could be translated as 'pulse' or 'aura'. And indeed Aura Sphere's Japanese name is Hadodan, which makes the Hadoken reference even more evident. But since the placement of Hado isn't as evident as the others (Water Pulse is Mizu no Hado, Dark Pulse is Akuma no Hado, etc) it just got lost in translation, since it's a combination of multiple moves that have been introduced differently over multiple games with no indication that some random ability is going to treat them as a set.

Double Team... why do pokemon using Double Team create these afterimages? Especially in the comics and cartoons, where they outright pull off a Naruto and create all these shadow clones? Well that's not too far off, because Double Team's Japanese name is literally Kage Bunshin, or Shadow Clone, which is apparently the ninja skill in Japanese pop culture even before Naruto popularized it for the rest of us non-Japanese.


Ever wonder why Spore and Stun Spore has such similar names, but has such different effects? Spore is a sure-hit attack that puts the enemy to sleep, whereas Stun Spore is basically identical to Poison Powder and Sleep Powder, except with paralysis? Well that's because Spore's Japanese name is Kinoko no Hoshi, meaning Mushroom Spores, which also explains throughout Pokemon's history why only pokemon with mushrooms can learn it. Stun Spore is Shibire Gona, meaning Numbing Powder, to go with the same naming themes of Doku no Kona (Poison Powder) and Nemuri Gona (Sleep Powder)... but I bet Paralyze Powder doesn't fit in the Game Boy's attack slots, nor does it sound particularly catchy in English. And the alternative would be PARLYZ Powder which is equally stupid. But it did make me kind of confuse Stun Spore and Spore for years, so...

Why does Double Slap hit you two to five times? Don't they realize that 'double' means twice? Well that's because Double Slap isn't even named Double Slap in the original Japanese. It's called Ofuku Binta, which apparently translates more closely to Round Trip Slap or more accurately translated to Series of Slaps.

A particularly funny example comes with the name Comet Punch. Comet Punch is a move originating from Generation I, translated from Renzoku Panchi, which means roughly consecutive or repeated punches. Comet Punch sounds a lot catchier, right? I mean, they did change a lot of names to sound better in English. Blind-idiot translations wouldn't sound good in English. Toxic would've been "Poison-Poison", Screech would be "Unpleasant Note", Body Slam would be "Lean On", Skull Bash would be "Rocket Headbutt"... no wait, that last one is awesome.

Anyway, Comet Punch seems like an awesome translation of "Renzoku Panchi" that still keeps the essence of the attack... until Generation III rolls along and introduces a move that is literally Kometto Panchi in Japan. Welp. This Kometto Panchi eventually got translated into what we know as Meteor Mash instead of renaming the original Comet Punch, but it's certainly a rather interesting event where the translation they chose ended up being used for another attack's name.

I could go on and on and I'm sure there's loads more things that are lost in translation, but I guess this will do for now. It's been fun, and I haven't done these non-review articles for a while. It's interesting to see that despite Nintendo's relatively high quality of translations from Japanese to English, lots of things lose their contextual meaning when future games bring up the puns and original cultural references from the original Japanese names.

Gotham S1E15 Review: Scarecrow! Iceberg Lounge!

Gotham, Season 1, Episode 15: The Scarecrow

Despite the heavier focus on Scarecrow, there's so many things going on in this episode. There's Penguin renovating Fish's nightclub and turning it into the Iceberg Lounge. There's Maroni and Falcone doing their little negotiation talk. There's little Bruce Wayne heading off into the forest for this... weird pilgrimage thing that has more than a little Batman Begins vibe to it. There's Fish Mooney and the whole weird thing regarding what the fuck has gone on with her.

The Scarecrow stuff is definitely the most engaging of the many subplots running throughout the episode, though I may be biased for being a big Scarecrow fan. Basically it's still a big investigative thing on the part of Gordon and Bullock, and we learn more about Gerald Crane, or Scarecrow Sr. He's apparently harvesting those adrenal glands from people with intense terror in order to get enough concentrated cortisols and adrenalins and all the juicy fear hormones (this being based on a comic book, the doctors said Crane Sr added in an extra chemical they can't identify) in order to create a human being without fear, and Gordon finds out the motivation that Gerald Crane let his wife die in a fire because he's too afraid to save her.

It's mostly formulaic, though at the end it kind of takes a nasty turn as Gerald Crane gets more obsessed with completing the 'procedure' of injecting his little fear cocktail into himself and his son Jonathan Crane, who, of course, comic-book fans will know as the Scarecrow. He's still a kid in this show, though, and thanks to Gordon's arrival, Daddy Crane panics and injects Jonathan with too high a dose... right underneath this fucking creepy scarecrow that I thought wasn't going to be any more than just a hint-hint background fixture. And holy shit, the CGI of the scarecrow moving with glowing eyes looks downright fucking demonic.

We see a bit of the rather common sci-fi trope of 'someone without fear doesn't know when they're mortally hurt', and while Gerald Crane indeed doesn't fear guns and is extremely triggerhappy, he is still extremely vulnerable to them and the fact that he doesn't dodge them or care about his wounds, well... long story short, Bullock and Gordon put down Gerald Crane like a rabid dog, while Jonathan Crane, the man who will be the Scarecrow, ends up convulsing because despite the hormones having worn off, his brain is in a constant state of terror and all he can see is the scarecrow reaching out towards him.

Which is interesting, because Scarecrow's classic origins basically involves him being afraid of bullies (and his psychotic grandmother, depending on who's telling the origin story) and reveling in the fear he can inflict on crows. This new addition to his backstory is a welcome one for me, and actually makes him a slightly more tragic and less 'ooh he's obsessed'. Both Cranes get some actual story and development, and it's awesome that way.

So he probably conquered his fear and dons the Scarecrow mask, the symbol of his greatest fear, as an adult... and is either gassing people out of fascination or simply to 'cure' them? I dunno. I don't know if we'll see more of Scarecrow in this show, but I sincerely hope so. Not anytime soon, but, I dunno, maybe in season two or something? Because as far as these 'early years' villains go, Scarecrow is giving the Penguin a run for his money as my favourite origin so far.

There's a couple of added intrigue to the 'main' Scarecrow plotline on the side of Gordon, the biggest of it being Leslie Thompkins being transferred into GCPD to replace that medical examiner that Riddler so hilariously and inappropriately drove out of a job. There's a bit of them squibbling over displays of affection in work, and I thought those were sweet enough and didn't take up too much of the screentime and were nice little distractions from the overall crime plot. There's also both Penguin and Bullock coming in at different points asking Gordon to get Penguin's resources to find out where Crane is, and while thankfully they manage to track Crane down fast enough, Bullock's argument that there might be another dead body while they dilly-dally and grasp at straws is a fair one.

There's a bit more of Riddler in this episode, and other than the expected 'Nygma has no social skills' and 'Nygma keeps asking riddles' and 'Nygma is unhealthily fascinated by horrific science stuff', he actually gets some great screentime that doesn't involve creeping up on Ms. Kringle. Edward Nygma confronts Penguin as he goes into the GCPD to give Gordon his invite, and there's a tense yet absolutely fucking hilarious exchange between the two of them. Emperor penguins! I'm not quite sure that the point of Riddler's possible threat to Penguin is, but I guess these two freaks are going to fight over who gets to be Jim Gordon's friend? Or something? Or is there something in their backstories that intersected?

Gordon definitely is distancing himself from Penguin, despite Penguin really wanting to make a friend to cope with his fucked-up, crazy life. It's kind of like... Londo Mollari from the later seasons of Babylon 5, not at all helped by the fact that other than his hair, Londo is kind of a dead ringer for the comic-book Penguin appearance-wise.

I also do like how Penguin is just so fucking flustered about Maroni early on in the episode, while Falcone gives him Fish's lounge and tells him to run it... which practically everyone had called out. There's really not much difference visually other than tearing down all the fishy fixtures and replacing the lamps and drapes, but Penguin's installed this neon umbrella and it's basically the Iceberg Lounge in all but name.

Meanwhile, Maroni is still out for Penguin's blood, but Don Falcone manage to somehow get him to show up for this little negotiation... and it seems to be an overly-convenient excuse that Maroni really wants to get to this judge we never heard of before and Falcone has captured in a room with a dominatrix. Which is just a weird scene all around. I do like how Maroni, while not gunning for Penguin, isn't afraid to quickly tell Penguin that he's not about to let Penguin off the hook, and the moment Falcone is out of the picture, he'll be gunning for Penguin.

Both the Gordon and Penguin sub-plots in this episode were great, but the other two were... just gigantic distractions that in my opinion takes up too much space and time. Granted, there's this poetic juxtaposition about how both Bruce Wayne and the Cranes are facing their fears, how both Penguin and Fish are taking over their respective establishment... but the B-plots just take way too much time.

Bruce Wayne is basically going off on a hike and gets to show his... perseverance, I guess? Embracing his fear and grief by destroying that stone memento that he made with his father, which is another weird scene? Of course, Alfred is just sitting, drinking tea nearby without Bruce knowing, making sure that if the situation really calls for help, he can show up. (Note to parents: not good parenting. If your kid isn't Batman, he'd be scarred for life) It's a bit of a harsh-love variant of Michael Caine's Alfred's "why do we fall, Master Bruce?" and the little heartwarming moment with the sunrise... it's a lot less obvious than the previous Bruce scenes of boxing and mock-fencing and balancing on stairways and jumping across buildings and stuff, but I liked it. It just took too much time is all.

Apparently the people who abducted Fish Mooney wasn't working for Falcone! She finds herself in this fucking weird little prison or Battle Royale style facility where she basically throws her weight around as a named character and scares the fuck out of the random thugs and makes a friend and kills the top dog. I don't... I just don't fucking care, really. It's not that I don't care about Fish Mooney, because the past few episodes have made me grown to not dislike her, but this random plot change seems to happen just to give Fish Mooney screentime in the episode, and unlike Bruce, where we actually get character growth, absolutely none of these distractions needed to happen. I just don't care.

But still, can't complain. I was so happy with the Scarecrow and Penguin business, and it's in my opinion one of the more solid episodes in Gotham.

The Flash S1E13 Review: Firestorm's Split Personality

The Flash, Season 1, Episode 13: The Nuclear Man

This is the Firestorm plot-heavy episode, and it delivers so much. I am amazed at just how faithful to the comic book incarnation of Firestorm the show is, and yet it still puts its own spin on this fusion of Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein. It's a more emotionally-tense episode since the metahuman of the week isn't some random criminal like Peekaboo or Rainbow Raider, but someone we're actually emotionally invested with, and isn't just 'oh he's an old friend but we've never mentioned him before' like the Pied Piper was. I personally am quite impressed by just how much Firestorm is in the show, how this particular plot thread is basically the second-biggest main plot next to the Reverse-Flash business.

And the focus this episode is indeed on Firestorm. There are a couple other B-plots running in the background, namely Joe and Cisco's little team-up to try and solve the ever-befuddling Reverse-Flash mystery, as well as even more of Barry's love life... which, in this episode, is more cringe-inducing than charming.

But let's not talk about those for now and let's talk Firestorm. As Team Flash does their little investigation into Firestorm after the information given to them by Hartley last week, they track down Martin Stein's wife and after a bit of a face-off between Firestorm and the Flash, they finally discover that while Firestorm has Ronnie's body, Martin Stein's mind is the one in control (although Martin has conflicts with Ronnie's emotions and memories which is apparently comparable to multiple-personality disorder), which is a nice little twist from the comic formula. Kudos to Robbie Amell, who's trying his best to do an impersonation of Victor Garber.

I also liked Harrison Wells just eating munchies while on a stakeout. Here's the Reverse-Flash, people!

There's a couple of iffy moments like Barry apparently having met with Martin Stein on a train before... which could've been really been shuffled into an earlier episode to feel less rushed, but otherwise I thought it was kind of great. We get a bit of backstory on Martin Stein's part, and he's apparently a bit of a humanitarian in addition to researching transmutation and shit... and he may or may not have killed that dude in the opening. It's not made clear. They manage to get Martin to cooperate by bringing his wife into the fold, which is pretty heartwarming.

I do like how Caitlin is just all confused at this Ronnie-Martin creature and trying to come terms with it. But things escalate quickly because apparently the fight with the Flash has caused the fusion to go out of whack and Martin Stein's atoms and Ronnie Raymond's atoms are rejecting each other. I do like how Caitlin is hell-bent on not losing Ronnie again (something that Harrison Wells was perfectly willing to do) and forces the rest of the team to use the remaining hours they have to do what they can do. Wells finally relents and pushes back his timetable to save Ronnie (although there's the justification that, y'know, there won't be a Central City left if Firestorm goes boom), and takes one of the gizmos from his Reverse-Flash chestpiece and does things to it to become another scientific-sounding thing.

Firestorm has gone off to the Badlands in the meantime, a land of snow and ice, and Barry and Caitlin go off after him. Caitlin follows under the justification of Barry not being able to operate the machine, which I guess is kind of fair even if all she did was slap it on Firestorm's chest. Caitlin sets up Wells' device on his chest (which expands into a shape akin to Firestorm's comic-book insignia) and then there's a big damn kiss between that dirty old man Martin Stein Ronnie within the Firestorm entity. But Firestorm apparently erupts in a fucking gigantic nuclear explosion while Barry and Caitlin runs away. And I do like how Firestorm's flaming-ness suddenly disappears for a moment, which is a pretty cruel 'false hope' moments.

Is that big explosion of Firestorm-y combine-things power going to combine Caitlin with all the snow and turn her into Killer Frost? I dunno, just throwing it out there.

Granted I'm sure Firsetorm is not going to die just yet, judging by the abrupt ending of this episode, the title of the next episode and the Stinger... of General Wade Eiling setting his eyes on Firestorm and ready to retrieve it. You go, General.

Overall pretty awesome shit on the Firestorm front, but for a good part of the episode, Cisco and Joe team up and go back to Barry's childhood home to re-investigate the crime scene. That lady that constantly hits on Joe aside, it's a pretty straightforward investigation as they discover this mirror that was left behind and Cisco using some sciency stuff to extrapolate the camera-like images on that mirror and then discovering a bloodstain... which contains two blood samples.

There's a bit of Joe asking Cisco to run the blood sample against Harrison Wells which goes too far for Cisco... but he does it anyway. And it doesn't match Wells, but matches that of an older Barry, which is basically what most people speculated was the case for the second speedster was -- Barry travelling to the past and fighting against Reverse-Flash. But that means Harrison Wells isn't the Reverse-Flash that killed Barry's mother... and this sort of debunks the rather out there theory that Harrison Wells is a Barry Allen from the future. Granted Wells could've manipulated blood databases and forged his identity, but I dunno.

So there is a second Reverse-Flash out there, who may or may not be Eddie Thawne, who himself may or may not be the show's counterpart to Hunter Zolomon, a.k.a. Zoom, who may or may not have travelled back in time after getting transformed himself, who may or may not be a time traveller from the future that Wells hails from... there's so much speculation going on right now in my head I just can't even. This kind of shakes up every single theory I have regarding the Reverse-Flash. Man.

Other than all that plot-heavy stuff, there were a couple of fun moments in this episode. Barry trying on outfits on his date, and then Joe threatening to shoot Barry after being shown so many choices? That was fun. Barry stopping a suicide and delivering the suicide-r down to Eddie? That was funny as hell. (Also, Eddie's been missing since... Revenge of the Rogues, I think?) Cisco guilt-tripping Barry with dead old ladies, puppies and nuns to get him to zip out of his first date? That as fun too.

Barry and Linda's date is an opportunity for the show to make puns on having the relationship move too fast (we get an almost-sex-scene by the second date) as well as veiled premature ejaculation jokes, but otherwise serves as a rather annoying interruption to an otherwise engaging show. Early on Linda isn't that bad and we get some nice geeky-Barry moments. But the big conflict that Linda doesn't want to date Barry anymore because she doesn't want to waste her time for Barry going off with the excuse of police emergencies... which she has the excuse of at least finding out that Barry is lying by calling the police department.

The whole Iris-is-maybe-kinda-jealous thing kind of makes things heat up as Linda jumps into what is possibly the right conclusion of Barry still being hung up on Iris, and Barry reasserting that he doesn't have those feelings anymore seems to... spark some of them in Iris? Whatever. It's the 'unrequited-first-love-realizes-they-have-feelings' that's going to end painfully for both Barry and Iris, though at least Barry calls Iris out for nearly fucking up his love life with Linda.

The most cringe-worthy scene, though, comes from Barry eating that ghost pepper in front of Linda and all her colleagues to get her to date her one more time. And then vomiting. Even though all they had going for them were two dates, one of which was interrupted. Jeez Barry. That is borderline emotional blackmail, even.

There's a couple of hints of Barry's superpowers activating while he was getting all sexy with Linda, which may or may not bear ramifications in the future, which is really the only thing I took out from the whole Linda subplot.

What else do I have to talk about? There are a couple of comic references, of course. The title, 'the Nuclear Man', is Firestorm's epithet. Flash saves the suicide jumper at 52 and Waid, a reference to Mark Waid, writer of the New 52 series. Flash asks Firestorm to not 'flame on', referencing Fantastic Four's Human Torch.

All the Linda meh-ness aside, it's a pretty grand episode. I am just so happy with it.

Arrow S03E13 Review: All Your Secrets Undone

Arrow, Season 3, Episode 13: Canaries

In this episode, two big secrets that's been dragged on for a while are finally brought out into the open! Oliver finally tells Thea about his secret identity as the Arrow which went a lot better than I expected, and at the end of the episode Laurel finally breaks down and tells Quentin about Sara and good god that was a punch to the gut. A fair amount of things happen in this episode. We've got Oliver and Thea's little dynamic. We've got Laurel wrestling with a couple of issues: Oliver refusing to accept her as the Canary and facing her inner demons courtesy of the return of Count Vertigo the Second. We've got Roy and Merlyn both attempting to win back Thea's favours. We've got the slow buildup once more to Ra's Al Ghul... who apparently works very very slowly. Merlyn establishes that it's been a couple of weeks since Oliver returns. Where are the army of ninja assassins and Ubus? Jeez.

The flashback was another 'get from point A to B' moment, where Amanda Waller threatens Oliver Queen to spill the beans about where Maseo has disappeared off to on the threat of faking Thea's death. Oliver did spill the bins... but Maseo was savvy enough to lie to Oliver, although he gets himself captured trying to rescue Oliver. Waller doesn't kill them (even though we get a bit of Waller's men torturing Oliver and some threats about killing off Moira and Thea) but brings them to... Starling City. To catch China White. I don't... particularly care I guess. Especially in the face of all the big plot-heavy things that happens in this episode.

And secrets have been a big theme of this show, and this season in particular. And while Quentin does confront Laurel in a 'eh, y'know that Canary isn't Sara?' and when Laurel goes into his office at the end of the episode all teary-eyed, Quentin is kind of proud to say that he figured out the secret of Laurel being the Canary... but that's the wrong secret. And it is fucking depressing to see Quentin just break down again when he learns of Sara's death. Mother of fucks, man. I am sad.

Laurel is, I think, has been on a steady way to redemption ever since she donned the Canary mask. I am still ambivalent about her, mostly leaning to the 'seek psychological help already' side, but this episode certainly helps me get attached to her somewhat. I do like the little beef of Oliver trying to control Laurel... even if it's for her own good, and I do like how Laurel actually does have a point in her big arguments this time instead of being a hypocrite. Granted, she nearly got herself killed by going off on her own (does she forget she has Sara's old canary cry grenade things?) and I find that pretty dark how she's just beaten to a pulp all the time. Hella realistic, though, since all the training Laurel had are boxing lessons from Ted Grant. Who I'm going to assume to be alive after the events of last episode. And the little hallucinations brought to life by Vertigo's Scarecrow-drug, how she just sees Hallucinatory Sara yelling at her and beating her to a pulp for pretending to be her... and the second time around, an extremely horrifying angry-Quentin yelling and screaming about how Laurel had no right to hide Sara's death... it's pretty brutal for Laurel, and thankfully Laurel ended up maturing through the experience and finding her own identity as Laurel-the-Canary not Laurel-pretending-to-be-Sara. Which is nice. There's even Ghost-Sara (or possibly another hallucination) nodding at her in approval. Which is nice if not for the soul-crushing Quentin scene that follows soon after.

I thought Felicity suddenly plopping in and talking about how Laurel had a light that Sara never had... made no absolute goddamn sense. What the fuck, Felicity? Sara was one of the happiest people in the show and she was talking about how Oliver shouldn't let the anger and the mask consume him. In contrast, Laurel is a self-destructive adrenaline junkie who jumps into the deep end and somehow didn't get herself killed simply because she's got competent friends.

Though it works to help Laurel deal with her inner demons, I guess.

Count Vertigo himself is still doing his 'dangerous but hammy' attitude that's a stark contrast from the first more insane-dangerous Count Vertigo, but while he gets away at the end of the episode he really is more of a plot device to get Laurel to face her demons and all that. There's that whole filler-y moment where Count Vertigo basically forces a reporter to blow himself up by threatening his family, which I suppose is a parallel to how Maseo and Oliver both would do everything to protect their respective families in the flashbacks except, y'know, it isn't really necessary.

Also, to note, Ray Palmer is completely absent in this episode. Curious.

There's also a big point in this episode about how Team Arrow is more than just Oliver's crusade. Laurel points out how Oliver has been doing the same thing as she is to escape from grief, Diggle points out that Oliver isn't just gone to them, he was dead. And with both Felicity and Roy standing up to Oliver's attempts to throw his weight around regarding Thea and Laurel's involvements... at the end of this episode Oliver seems to have come to peace with the idea of the team being able to operate on their own. Which is nice.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, Oliver finally reveals his identity as the Arrow to Thea, and she's absolutely cool with it, and she doesn't break down about how everyone's keeping secrets to her. She's just so... happy and chill and all like 'you actually are helping people' and stuff. In the opposite direction, she does a big 180 towards Malcolm Merlyn after learning that Malcolm has been actively poisoning her with lies and that there are actual people out there that are protecting her other than Malcolm. Also, y'know, Oliver is her brother and she knew Malcolm for like half a year, blood relations notwithstanding.

Thea also gets to fuck DJ McDouchehole, and right after their sex, Douchehole tries to poison Thea with red wine spiked with cyanide. And Thea realizes it because Malcolm had told her about it... and instead of just stabbing Douchehole right in the gut the moment she realizes what's going on, she goes into this long tirade about how red wine can mask cyanide. Oh, Thea. Douchehole and Thea grapple a bit and he's about to kill her... except Arsenal and Merlyn burst in one after the other to shoot Douchehole one after the other, at which Thea finally realizes the threat of the League of Assassins.

Pretty fucking conveniently for Merlyn's newly-found thou-shalt-not-kill vow, instead of fighting to the death and trying to do some damage to Merlyn or Thea, Douchehole just pussies out and drinks his own poison. Yay, Douchehole is dead!

Also apparently Roy and Malcolm just happen to be hanging out near Thea's apartment while she's getting down and dirty with DJ McDouchehole? That is creepy.

I thought the scene transition with Thea walking down to see Oliver, and the Oliver telling her to go upstairs because, y'know, Laurel is fucking bleeding to death while Oliver and Roy argue about whether Thea is a big girl and Felicity is doing her spiel about how Team Arrow is more than Oliver. The sentiment is good, yes, but, y'know, as much as I hate Laurel you guys shouldn't really be leaving her to bleed to death while arguing.

There's still the big secret about how Thea was the one who killed Sara under mind-controlled drugs, and I can imagine that will be the big fallout between Thea and Malcolm (plus Oliver, maybe). But she's gone a long way from being a prissy little bitch. She's matured a lot in this season, and I like that. And by the end of the episode Thea has finally accepted both Oliver and Malcolm, the latter at least as a necessary evil. And I guess with the amount of times that Oliver calls Thea 'Speedy' -- which is a lot more than usual -- I guess she's going to pick up that mantle sometime soon?

And at the end of this episode, Oliver and Thea head off to Lian Yu to train, because apparently Ra's al Ghul is kind enough to give them whatever time they need to train... but I personally must say that I don't give a fuck because NEXT WEEK IS SLADE WEEK.

It's not a smooth episode and there are parts that I thought could've been done better. Like the whole business with McDouchehole, which I thought was kind of shoehorned in. And the flashbacks were m'eh. Also Felicity's really stupid speech. But a shit-ton of secrets get spilled on the table, we've got a lot of progression both character and plot wise, and I'm definitely pumped for Slade next week. It's a pretty kickass episode.

One Piece 776 Review: Kind of a Generic Fight, Honestly

One Piece, Chapter 776: The Colosseum's Hero

I dunno, I just feel that the recent batch of enemies just seem... underused? Doflamingo aside, they're all just one-trick ponies despite having some of the wackiest powers ever. Baby 5 only summons guns, Senor Pink only does suplexes, Dellinger only does random high heel and bull helmet stabs... and Diamante with his Flutter-Flutter Fruit is definitely one of the most exotic powers in One Piece. But while he does display some additional attacks beyond making himself, his sword and the ground all fluttery and shit, for something that's been builded up since what feels like forever, the final battle between Kyros and Diamante just feels... so fucking generic. It's like every other generic anime fight scene, and definitely towards the end it feels like one of the cliched 'Friendship is power' fights and 'Redundant flashbacks we've already seen' from some animes.

Granted, I don't really have that much problem with the chapter itself despite my ranting. It's just that the end of the Doflamingo arc has been dragged on for quite some time with most of the minor enemies' fights being done one-per-chapter and while it's cool, it's also so formulaic that when a theoretically major and personal villain like Diamante gets taken out in a single chapter as well, it kind of loses any tension it should have.

Anyway, the chapter starts with another of Jinbe's cover story where he explains stuff to the Sea Kings. Whatever. We also get a bit of Franky, around one page, ordering the Tontattas to tear the SMILE factory down before collapsing in exhaustion himself.

Diamante then does this big attack called "Half Moon Glaive", which has the interesting visual effect of slicing Diamante's own word bubble into half-moons, but otherwise is just a big slash. Diamante himself is just kind of reduced to a generic 'mwahahahaa I'm so evil I killed your wife mwahahahaa' big hammy villain that, while entertaining... is not quite that interesting compared to the many, many colourful characters in One Piece and indeed this current arc. He's just been reduced to generic petty villainy and that makes me not really care for him at all.

Diamante flutters away from Kyros's slashes, before mocking his one-legged-ness and acknowledging that he only has one leg, has been running around the country, and is fighting on uneven ground... and then pulls out a bunch of thin papers that transform into firework mortar things, which launches confetti that is actually flutter-ified spiked balls, which is called 'Death Enjambre', I think. Which is kind of cool! I expected more of this kind of application of Diamante's powers, not just big sword slashes because not everyone can make that look cool.

Robin remembers that she's, you know, around, so she does this big Mille Fleur thing where she slices off a shit ton of the sunflowers and makes it into a big umbrella to cover herself and Rebecca. Which is odd that it actually works, but I guess it'll stop the momentum? Kyros is all under the power of BURNINGU SPIRITU and plot effects, however, so he just slashes away all those spiked iron balls and charges Diamante. Diamante then pulls out a gun and shoots Kyros in the leg, which would be a big 'damn that cheap fucker' moment... except later on Diamante completely forgets he has a gun, doesn't think of finishing Kyros off by shooting him in the head... and just watches as the spike-balls rain down on Kyros.

There's a bit of screaming on Rebecca and Diamante and generic 'I killed your mother mwaha' dialogue, Kyros just getting pelted by iron balls, Kyros standing back up, Diamante not doing anything, and then flashbacks! Kyros does have the little dialogue saying how Rebecca's hands must not be sullied by blood since up until now they have been Scarlet's hands, similarly unsullied by blood... which is kind of makes the whole 'no Rebecca you cannot fight' comments actually make some modicum of non-sexist sense. Kyros charges Diamante, talking about how he's the anger of Dressrosa personified and shit, and when Kyros is down Diamante is about to unleash his Half-Moon thing again, but Kyros charges and does this 'Trueno Espada' attack and takes Diamante down.

It could've been a lot better, y'know? Obviously Kyros is going to win, and while I thought this would work better as a two-parter I also appreciate wanting to wrap this up quickly. But at the same time... Robin could've used her flower fruit to distract Diamante while Kyros is standing up. Or slap away the gun. Kyros could've been less 'NOTHING CAN HURT ME EVERYTHING ONLY SLOWS ME DOWN A LITTLE' and actually use some strategy beyond just tanking everything Diamante throws at him. And Diamante can definitely do more with his flutter flutter ability.

Eh. Whatever. I assume next week's going to be Zoro versus Pica, which I hope will wrap up in one chapter as well because there's really not much emotional attachment to that particular fight and it's been going on for a while.

The Flash S1E12 Review: All the Feels. Also, Grodd.

The Flash, Season 1, Episode 12: Crazy For You

The Flash proves that it doesn't have to rely on big villains every episode to make things interesting. This episode had the quintessential example of a filler villain, yet it still manages to give an impressive amount of characterization to Cisco and Caitlin, manages to advance the plot on the Firestorm end, all that while being absolutely hilarious and explores a couple of deeper, emotional topics which I certainly was not prepared to see in a Flash episode.

The main villain plot this time around stars minor villain Peekaboo, who's basically Nightcrawler, who breaks her boyfriend out of jail, but gets roped in to be the henchmen of a bigger mobster. I do like how Caitlin is the one that names Peekaboo. It's funny. We finally see a bit of Barry's father, Henry Allen (played by the original actor of the Flash from 1990's short-lived Flash show) and it's nice to see him again. Henry Allen is fun. And I do like how he just keeps getting himself in trouble, getting beaten up and shit, just to make himself feel useful for his son. And he basically figures out that Barry is the Flash at the end of the episode, and while Barry denies it, his father is smart enough to figure things out and goes 'I mean, if you say so, but y'know if you are the Flash I am proud of you and stuff'. Which is nice. In addition to the passing-the-torch feels, there's also the lack of "YOU KILLED MY WIFE" identity mixup which I thought was going to be the case when Henry Allen first saw the Flash back during episode three or whatever.

Also, it's nice to see how Barry does his most jerkass-y thing this episode to get back at the asshole who beat his father up. It's a nice form of interrogation, where he super-speeds the asshole prisoner out of prison, thus activating alarms and shit, and forces the dude to spill his information otherwise he'll get extra years added to his sentence... and then leaves him behind. I laughed so hard. Superpower abuse? Definitely. Well deserved on the prisoner's part? Hell yes.

The Peekaboo plot is frankly quite generic minor supervillainy stuff. After Pied Piper's iffy sonic booms last week, however, the CGI for Peekaboo's teleportation is phenomenally awesome! There's also Flash pinching a bullet and stopping it from penetrating his neck (it did graze him) which is also quite awesome, and I laughed my ass off at the 'I'm way faster than a speeding bullet' joke. Take that, Superman!

The whole episode is all about how Caitlin and Barry need to learn to move on and let go, and it ties in beautifully to the Cisco/Hartley/Firestorm plot and Peekaboo herself, who despite working as a Bonnie and Clyde team for a good part of the episode gets left behind to be captured by her boyfriend when Flash figures out her weakness and plunges that underpass into complete darkness.

And it really could've been a big 'meeeeh' episode with Caitlin and Barry dealing with their feelsy stuff, too, but the writers decide to tackle it head-on. And it's glorious! Alternating between downright hilarious moments to some truly feelsy moments, Barry and Caitlin show a shit-ton of chemistry together. Like the (non-canon by comic book) Oliver/Felicity and Gordon/Leslie pairs from Flash's sister show and, uh, cousin show, Barry and Caitlin have a lot more chemistry than the canon hookup, Barry and Iris. Which, in this continuity, is kind of creepy as all sorts of hell.

And it is absolutely fun! From Barry and Caitlin realizing that their social lives are poop, to Caitlin showing up in a pretty nice, leggy dress, to Caitlin getting drunk and singing badly on the stage... Barry sings well, of course, his actor being a Glee alumnus. And it's lampshaded by everyone from Caitlin to the crowd to newcomer Linda Park, who gives Barry her phone number. There are some more fun-slash-aww moments that follows, like Barry zooming Caitlin out so she can puke outside the club, Caitlin drunk-stripping to her bra and basically slurring about how Barry can take a peek if he wants to, Barry speed-stripping Caitlin from her dress to her pajamas and later just sitting next to her bed while she's sleeping....

I do like it. It humanizes Caitlin Snow a lot and gives her a lot more to go on than just 'super smart hot science lady' and 'Ronnie died in the past'. It's also freaking hilarious. Also at the end of the episode, while Barry goes off on a lunch date with Linda Park, Caitlin has this goofy smile on her that seems to indicate that she's... fallen for Barry? Maybe?

It also ties in to Cisco eventually coming clean about how he had sealed Ronnie in the reactor and naturally everyone doesn't blame him. But before doing that, Cisco has his own adventure of appeasing his guilt by making a deal with the devil Hartley Rathaway, and actually shows a lot more characterization that 'funny geek clown', which is absolutely awesome. In addition to us getting some foreshadowing about how Cisco doesn't seem to have a good relationship with his real family, we also get Cisco talking about vibrations. Y'know, Vibe... geddit?

Anyway, Cisco basically takes Hartley's offer up, and I do like how he's not too trusting and actually gets physical (which was a big whoa moment for me) when Hartley tries to run away after showing the bomb shadows. Hartley overpowers him, but Cisco shows he's not above being ruthless by activating a big sonic scream that drops Hartley on the ground. We quickly delve into the fact that, as Hartley shows Cisco, Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein have been merged together into one entity by the big explosion, which is great because holy shit who'd think someone would adapt Firestorm seriously? I do like how the Firestorm plot is being developed, but the mystery and Caitlin's own angst aren't dragged on too long. We get a little payoff every episode or two.

Hartley himself actually shows that he's not all evil. He does kick Cisco when he's down both figuratively and literally, but he also waits until Cisco gets all the information he needs about Firestorm before pulling out that evil hearing aid (which makes me cringe every time he fucking does that) and making his getaway.

Iris' little plotline gets a teensy weensy bit of focus as Barry tries to help her out for her article... but no she is going to meet Eddie's parents. And that adds up to Barry's angst about how he keeps thinking she needs him to catch her every time she falls, when she doesn't. The Flash does show up later on to drop some material for Iris so she can write an awesome article, and that nets Iris a sneaky photo. Also, newcomer Linda Park, who apparently has this pick-up app that downloads your phone contacts into someone else's phone, works at Iris' place and is apparently a thing with Barry now. At least for the time being. Linda Park in the comics is the love interest and eventual wife of Wally West, Barry's successor and Iris' cousin or nephew or something, and IIRC has cameo'd as a news reporter in Arrow played by a different actress.

The final scene, of course, is the wholly unexpected return of fucking GORILLA GRODD, who I did not expect to show up until much later. But these two sewer maintenance dudes come upon a lot of writings of GRODD on the walls and ground, and naturally gets assaulted by this gigantic barreling gorilla who looks pretty awesome for a CGI'd monster. I guess they took some cues from Planet of the Apes? King Kong Optimus Primal Gorilla Grodd is awesome and the scene at the end is straight out of a horror movie. Or Jurassic Park, really, considering how the last worker was pulled from that corner. Are we getting him next episode? Exquisite. Grodd is one of the more... interesting of Flash's enemies, being this telepathic gorilla from a hidden society of smart gorilla-men, but considering the show isn't afraid to tackle Firestorm, the unlikeliest of heroes to be adapted into live-action, I have high hopes that their reinvention of Grodd is going to be awesome.

Overall, yet another in a strong series of Flash episodes. No, it doesn't have a big comic-book character like Reverse-Flash, Pied Piper or Captain Cold attached to it. No, the big fighty plot isn't particularly important. But it shows that Flash can be more than just a geeky superhero show that references a lot of comic book shit, but can actually make me pretty fucking invested in the characters as well, and this episode is proof of that.