One Piece 786 Review: Luffy Falls, Sabo fights Burgress

One Piece, Chapter 786: Gatz

Well, this chapter was pretty good. I'm not sure I like using even more minor characters to kind of lengthen out the fight instead of bringing in pre-established ones like Don Chinjao and Hajrudin and the others, but it seems that they're not really going to be worth a damn thing. But I do like how the climax played out. Luffy falls, temporarily at least, so it isn't a too-easy victory for him and from the looks of it Luffy may not be the one to deal the final blow to the enemy in this arc, which is definitely a welcomebreath especially since I wanted Law to be the one to do it. And we finally bring in Sabo and Jesus Burgress, two characters who have kind of been just a hanging knife waiting to do something.

We start off with people reacting to the bouncing Luffy having beaten Doflamingo, apparently, and just cheering. Some people have weird misconceptions that Luffy is some giant or whatever, which is kind of funny. We get Viola reporting it to King Riku (of course), but both Luffy and Law realizes that Birdcage hasn't disappeared, which is what everyone thought would happen. Luffy Geppo's up to where Doflamingo is and is about to launch yet another attack... but suddenly he just falls out, mid-flight, because Gear Fourth has hit its time limit. Luffy falls to the ground, exhausted...

And we cut to Jesus Burgress! He just hops down all happy and shit, planning to kill the weakened Luffy and steal his Gomu Gomu no Mi. Apparently he's just been waiting in the sidelines to steal Devil Fruits, the bastard. Burgress jumps down from the highest levels and just lands on the ground near Luffy. Random citizens all get scared and shit and it seems like we're going to have Burgress fight a weakened Luffy... when the giant moutain suddenly cracks apart in an awesome two-page spread because Doflamingo is still alive. Well, so much for Gear Fourth! It was awesome, but Doflamingo isn't taken out that easily. Did... not expect Doflamingo to stil be in fighting shape, honestly.

I mean, I kind of thought Luffy and the rest of the good guys will have to deal with Burgress, CP-0 and/or Fujitora after beating Doflamingo, but Doflamingo is still in the game. Luffy keeps falling while Doflamingo is just smirking... and then this random dude, Gatz, the MC during the colloseum fight, shows up and helps Luffy up and says some generic inspiring things. Really... would be more of an emotional 'yeaaah' moment if it was one of the more prominent people we actually know about who he helped out, but whatever. Luffy wants ten minutes so he can recover his Haki and launch one final attack.

Doflamingo floats down, while Gatz and the gathered gladiators all charge Doflamingo, wanting to buy ten minutes. Spoiler alert? They'll probably fail until actual named characters show up. I mean, some of these guys are named (the dude with a leopard hoodie is definitely named, I remember him being taken out in the arena), but they're the ones that, like, get a couple of panels before the actual characters like Cavendish or Chinjao or Bartolomeo beat them up. Basically everyone who hasn't already joined up with Luffy now does. And as they charge Doflamingo, well, Jesus Burgress, giant of a man that he is, charges through a building and gets ready to stab Luffy with a knife... and gets kicked in the face by Sabo.

Now hopefully Sabo's fight with Burgress is a lot more climatic than his 'let's fight for three pages and get resolved by talking' fight against Fujitora. This chapter is more of a get-from-point-A-to-point-B chapter, but having Doflamingo still alive and having Sabo and Jesus Burgress participate in the finale is certainly awesome. All these parties with their own agendas clashing and shit... just a shame that the guys holding Doflamingo back isn't, like, actual people. Would rather have Zoro or Franky or Bartolomeo or some of the other actual characters instead of a bunch of generics be the one that fight Doflamingo.

I guess Luffy's still going to deal the finishing blow to Doflamingo after this 'ten minutes' thing. Maybe with a Gear Fifth? He seemed pretty sure that his next attack can one-shot Doflamingo. Or maybe with an awakened devil fruit ability?

Agents of SHIELD S2E17 Review: The Origin of May

Agents of SHIELD, Season 2, Episode 17: Melinda

I’ve made it clear in my capsule review that I really liked this episode. Agents of SHIELD has been widely criticized because of its way-too-many plot threads and poor handling of them… and it’s definitely not an unfounded criticism. But as I mentioned before, sometimes all the plot threads just come along together nicely and creates a pretty focused episode like this one. Now whether this quality will stick for future episodes is a different matter entirely, but for now it’s a great episode.

Episode 17 puts the spotlight back on Melinda May, who I’ve been complaining about being left out of the spotlight throughout season two. And not only does it deliver a pretty awesome backstory about May, it also somehow ties in to the current situation regarding the Inhumans (and Skye’s little situation with her mother) as well as the whole Real SHIELD internal civil war. Plus May’s loyalties and her being angry that Coulson left her out of the loop regarding this mysterious Theta Protocol. Now whether Theta Protocol is going to be explained well is not this episode’s fault, but for the moment it’s just this wonderful little episode telling the story of May both in the past and present. All these plot threads clicking together and working together like a smooth machine? A rare sight in TV shows overburdened with multiple plot lines, and especially in Agents of SHIELD itself.

For an episode that’s for the most part just talking and flashbacks, it sure works in dividing the characters even further, developing bonds between characters and just… telling stories about these characters. We get to see Skye bond with her mother, and the revelation and the little emotional scene worked really well. Not that this emotional moment sacrifices progress, of course – we see Skye training to control her powers, first by causing an avalanche at a hopefully unpopulated mountain, and later finer control by trying to vibrate those wine glasses.

And I do like just how much Jiaying wants to hug Skye and go ‘I’m your mommy’ but tries to hold back right up until the moment when she can’t hold back any longer. Jiaying just breaking down and apologizing for moving on and not trying harder to find her daughter? Man, this episode really loves tugging at our heartstrings. Skye’s ranting about family problems is also well done, as is the final scene when Jiaying finally convinces Skye to have one dinner with Cal. And that look on Cal’s face when he tells Skye this whole story about her birth – and it’s a nice moment since Skye and Jiaying are playing along with it even though Skye already heard the story before. Cal, despite all his dickery and villainy before, really wants to desperately have his family back and you can’t really help but feel some sympathy for him.

Of course Gordon being a gigantic douchebag to the poor fellow helps to give him some sympathy.  

But overall, all the scenes with Skye do hit all the right emotional buttons and kudos to the show for that. I’m really into Skye’s character now after being iffy about her being the Mary Sue of the team for a good part of season one, but so far she’s been really good.

Also it’s kind of great to tie in the whole ‘Skye’s family has a dinner’ thing with Raina. She’s been ranting throughout this episode and the previous about seeing dreams about her being tormented while Skye gets to have a dinner with her family. Gordon makes it clear that her physical transformation is not her Inhuman ability – one Inhuman only gets one, which ties into the flashback, incidentally – and by the end of this episode, Lincoln realizes that Raina’s power is to see into the future… a clairvoyant, if you will, which is fucking ironic considering the events of the first season.

Of course, though, the main focus of this episode is May and not Skye. Though it ties in really well with Jiaying not being able to reveal that Skye is her daughter considering a mother-daughter Inhuman team has caused a gigantic incident… an incident that, as it turns out, involves May and her obtaining the ‘Cavalry’ nickname. And the whole Cavalry incident has been teased all throughout the first season as this big badass thing that May did, and now that we see it in clarity it’s brutal. There’s also a stark contrast between May at the beginning of the flashback and at the end, where she’s just this cheerful married woman in the beginning. She’s planning on having a baby with her loving husband, she’s borrowing walkmen from other agents, laughing and generally being, well, not a robot. It’s a nice, stark contrast to the May of the present who, well, is a robot. I also like how Bahrain was mentioned a couple episodes ago by May’s husband and the previous episode by Gonzalez, showing that this episode is at least planned for a while.

Anyway, while on the hunt for this metahuman called Eva Belyakov (who was established early on to have super-strength, cluing in to the fact that the whole mental madness thing isn’t her fault). Coulson and May’s attempts to defuse the metahuman situation, of course, went south as Eva Belyakov apparently recruits a small army of local thugs and takes several people – including an agent and a little girl – hostage. A small SHIELD army that went in also basically disappears like a goddamn horror show, and May, of course, has to go in alone without backup thanks to red tape.

And after May broke into the facility that ate all the other agents, she quickly discovers that they’ve been mind-controlled or zombiefied or what-have-you, going all ‘we want your rage’ or some shit like that. It’s a bit surreal, and May fighting Eva Belyakov with her super strength and her chandelier flail… only to discover that it’s the little girl, Katya Belyakov, who is the real threat, able to brainwash and leech emotions off anyone she touches. And Katya? Poor Katya apparently went through the Terrigenesis mist before she was ready, and basically lost her mind. She alternates between being pretty fucking scary and just being confused, and she was the one responsible for killing all the ‘hostiles’ simply at a whim. Kudos to the child actress who played Katya, you really worked on looking fucking terrifying. The moments leading up to May mercykilling Katya is tense and emotionally charged, and the scenes of May just crying after being forced to kill Katya and everyone else misinterpreting the fact that May just rescued all the SHIELD agents present by killing all the threats? Man, that’s tragic. And we see her basically transformed into a paper-stamping shell that we see her in early in Agents of SHIELD’s pilot. May, why you make all the feels?

There are some little nice nods to things we know previously in the story. May really hates her hand being touched after the events of Bahrain (even by her own husband), which caused Coulson to know Agent 33 was not May back when she first impersonated her. May wanting a child before might also explain why she’s so protective of Skye.

Also like the little continuity nod of Coulson introducing himself as part of the Strategic Homeland blah blah thing because this happened before the first Iron Man movie. And Coulson describing the Avengers Initiative as ‘gathering Earth’s mightiest, to see if they can be heroes’.

It’s pretty damned effective storytelling, and makes it relatively clear that while they might not have recognized the Inhumans, they’ve been around since always. Who knows, maybe some of the unexplained metahumans – Scorch or Blackout or whoever else didn’t get a backstory – are Inhumans as well?

In the present day, Simmons reveals her plan to May and is kind of disappointed that May has betrayed their little Team Coulson by bringing it to Bobbi… because May herself has grown suspicious of Coulson keeping a secret from her. Namely, this mysterious Theta Protocol (which we heard about a jack total of once when Coulson told one of the Koenigs about it), which is draining a shit-ton of resources and has been going for quite some time. And, well, being kept a secret from May. No doubt Coulson isn’t, y’know, evil, but it’s going to be interesting to see just why Coulson kept this a secret from his trusted confidant and just how this will unfold in regards to May. She seems to be of the point of view of ‘uncover it, see Coulson’s reasoning’ though she does seem relatively pissed that Coulson left her out of the loop. It does make Real SHIELD somewhat more sympathetic because Coulson was really hiding that big of a secret, though it still doesn’t excuse Gonzalez’s behaviour.

Fitz, meanwhile, manages to contact Hunter and Coulson by the end of the episode, wanting to hang out with them and give them the Toolbox and stuff, with Hunter promising some hijinks by telling Fitz to escape with the aid of some hand dryers or whatever.

But overall the May stuff was great, the Skye stuff was great, all plotlines linking together was great… this may be my favourite Agents of SHIELD episode for a long, long time.

The Flash S1E19 Review: Gearing up for the finale

The Flash, Season 1, Episode 19: Who is Harrison Wells?

It’s a pretty awesome episode as we gear up for Flash’s season finale. I can’t lie, Flash’s season finale has me more hyped up than Age of Ultron, or the finales of either Arrow or Agents of SHIELD. And this one is awesome! It’s primarily a villain-of-the-week episode starring DC Mystique – I mean Everyman – and it’s a bit of a riot as our heroes have to deal with someone who can pretend to be members of the main cast, but we’ll talk about that in a bit. Last episode was about bringing Cisco and Caitlin on the same page regarding Harrison Wells, but this episode was more about gaining their trust – especially Caitlin’s – regarding Barry’s suspicions of Harrison Wells. And having an enemy that can masquerade into anyone in plain sight as the villain of the week? There’s some thematic appropriateness there.

And while Everyman doesn’t really get much development as a character (he robs banks!) he does manage to pose enough of a threat to the cast by impersonating them, and framing Eddie for the murder of two policemen. And I do like how Everyman pretended to be a little girl in that scene when Iris and Caitlin and managed to escape by pretending to be a kidnapped girl. That was some nice usage of abilities there. We get to see some nice ramifications of the law getting confused by all these fancy metahuman powers, and it’s always fun to see Team Flash trying to figure out what Everyman’s power is and its limits – will he copy Barry’s speed when he touches him? All that stuff. And it’s absolutely hilarious when Everyman copies Barry Allen and impersonates him and interacts with Caitlin. Everyman misreading the situation and kissing Caitlin? Bloody freaking hilarious. (Of course, Caitlin does reciprocate that second kiss…) I am also a fan of Barry and Eddie making fun of Everyman’s real name – Hannibal Bates. No wonder the kid turned out evil!

Of course Everyman doesn’t get that much of a personality by the end and it appears that he’s actually forgotten who his original identity was. Kind of creepy. And, naturally, it fits thematically with Eobard Thawne adopting the face and identity of Harrison Wells. How much of the kindly Harrison Wells we know is an act, and how much of it is really Eobard Thawne’s personality showing? It’s one of those rare times that a villain of the week fits with the overreaching theme of the episode instead of just being ‘oh look it’s this dude from the comics’ like the Bug-Eyed Bandit or Deathbolt or Murmur.

(Kind of a bit convenient that Everyman was a leftie, though, isn’t it?)

This episode also co-starts Quentin Lance and Laurel Lance from the Arrow show. Not quite sure when in the Arrow timeline this plays out beyond, say, episode 19, maybe? I’m not quite caught up on Arrow just yet. But they are great guest stars, and again I do like how Quentin and Laurel appearing in this show doesn’t really have that much ramifications on Arrow’s show beyond Laurel getting some new equipment and Quentin getting a bit of an epiphany. There isn’t a plot thread that gets resolved in the Flash and leaves people only watching Arrow hanging or anything like that.

Anyway, Laurel only shows up to talk to Cisco, and there’s a bit of Cisco fanboying over the fact that he’s talking to the Black Canary (yep, they’re calling her that on-screen now, not sure if they did so before). Laurel gets Cisco to build a ‘Canary Cry’ weapon, which was what everyone thought was going to happen sooner or later – Black Canary in the comics had the ability to create a sonic scream from her vocal chords. And Cisco did have experience with sonics, what with the encounter with Pied Piper a while back. So Cisco creates this little necklace he actually calls the Canary Cry so Laurel can actually pack some punch. Nice way to intro that ‘power’, and I did like the fact that Cisco’s payment was a photograph with her in costume.

Joe and Quentin working together to investigate a case actually makes thematic sense within this episode, since Joe has to consult with Quentin to dig up bodies and whatnot, and they do get a little bit about daughters and secrets. Quentin has a rift because his daughter kept a secret from him, while Joe is keeping a secret from his daughter. There’s a nice sense of irony that Quentin might be considering to actually give in and make up with Laurel because Joe managed to get through to him… and Joe? Joe doesn’t try to make it up to Iris despite seeing just how keeping secrets can ruin a father-daughter relationship. Not in this episode, anyway.

Oh, also, Joe and Cisco find the real Harrison Wells’ body buried not far away from the site of the car crash. I understand Eobard Thawne was depowered and he didn’t really have much time several years back when the accident happened, but couldn’t he have zoomed in, relocated the body somewhere in the twenty years between the accident and the present day? That’s weird.

Eddie gets a fair amount of screentime here too, notably the moment when he and Barry are just hanging out being policeman and just being awkward while investigating Everyman’s “grandmother”. I don’t really care that much about him being passive-aggressive with Iris and vice versa, but I do like how cool and collected he is when he gets imprisoned, how he’s level-headed enough to tell Barry to clear his name properly (and he did, by catching Everyman doing his shit on camera) and realize that Barry might be projecting his daddy-in-jail issues. Also I do like the ‘let me tell the truth… partly, anyway’ moment where Eddie tells Iris that he’s working with the Flash. Not quite the whole truth… but the truth. I imagine Iris will explode at everyone when the real truth gets revealed.

I do like how Caitlin didn’t just trust Barry straight from the get-go. Cisco had been recruited to helping Joe investigate the death of Nora Allen several times, and he had that weird timey-wimey vision to boot. Caitlin? Unlike that doctor from last episode, she didn’t know Harrison Wells from before. Eobard-Harrison is the only Harrison Wells she knows, and he had been a mentor, a father-figure, she knew Wells before she knew Barry and someone who helped her get Ronnie back. Granted by the end of the episode she gets damning evidence, but I do like her moments of doubt throughout this episode

Also, at the end of the episode, the big stinger scene is Team Barry finding Eobard-Wells’ room, complete with Reverse-Flash costume and that news report about Flash and the Crisis! That was unexpected of them to run across the room so abruptly… I expected them to do so next episode, or as part of an episode’s major plot. Fun! Can’t wait to see the next episode. And the next. All the way up to the finale.

Arrow S3E20 Review: Lazarus Pit Fuck Yeah

Arrow, Season 3, Episode 20: The Fallen

Okay, that was a weird episode. Some good, some bad. Let’s talk about the bad first and just how weirdly convoluted season three’s arc has been. Let’s not touch the whole Malcolm Merlyn drugging Thea to get her to kill Sara to manipulate Oliver to fight Ra’s to remove both parties from being a thorn in his side, because if Malcolm’s endgame is to live in peace with Thea, that’s just monumentally stupid. But just how crazily coincidental that Ra’s Al Ghul knows just how to stab Thea Queen so that it’s fatal (we see her actually flatlining) but enough so that when brought to the hospital (he wouldn’t have any idea when Oliver would get there) she survives… but is in a coma so Oliver will have to seek the help of the Lazarus Pit? Ra’s has been kind of awesome in forcing Oliver Queen to take his place as the new Demon’s Head, by forcing his hand after engineering Captain Lance’s giant manhunt and the subsequent destruction of Arrow’s reputation in Starling City, but this is just kind of convoluted and coincidental.

Also while I do adore the comic-book usage of the Lazarus Pit and Thea Queen jumping out like a demon possessed, I would’ve liked for Thea to either be psychotic for a while and not… so specifically amnesiac to forget about Oliver but only until the end of the episode. What the hell was up with that? That portion is just weird, especially since Thea regains all her memory by the end. What was all the talk with ‘she’ll be a changed person’? Granted I would hate for amnesia to be a complication especially after all of Thea’s growth throughout this season, but this just seems unnecessary.

The Lazarus Pit being actually used in a live-action setting just makes me happy, though.

It’s a good thing we went from Thea being in a coma (not actually dead, mind you) straight to her resurrection and not beating around the bush about it. We get some really effective emotional punches in the gut courtesy of Malcolm Merlyn and Oliver Queen, and then we go straight to Nanda Parbat to dip Thea in the Lazarus Pit in exchange for Oliver finally joining the League of Assassins.

Malcolm Merlyn joins Team Arrow in their little run into Nanda Parbat, and is kind of just taking orders first from Oliver and later from Felicity when she forces him to help find a way out of Nanda Parbat. Maseo also gets a nice scene with Diggle, and Maseo confirms that -gasp- Akio is dead. It is a really effective counter to Diggle’s “you’re a coward you should’ve joined the good guys” speech because, no, John Diggle, new parent, does not understand how the death of a child can affect a person. Maseo of course shows up to help Team Arrow escape in the end, but it’s kind of naught since Oliver decides to stay anyway.

Maseo offers his life to Ra’s Al Ghul who is pissed that three of his men were killed, but the fact that Maseo (or ‘Saraab’) is willing to offer his life as penance convinces Ra’s that the mistake was because of ‘Maseo’ and not ‘Saraab’. And I think a theme going forwards with Oliver being part of the League of Assassins is the separation of identities between ‘Oliver Queen’ and ‘the Arrow’, or as Ra’s calls him, Al Sah-him. Which is actually a clever way of having Oliver eventually adopt ‘Green Arrow’ as opposed to just the Arrow.

Also, Felicity finally breaks up with Ray Palmer kind of randomly – it’s kind of poorly handled and rather sudden in my opinion. And Felicity gets into a speech with Ra’s Al Ghul of all people who tells a story about how he was forced to leave his wife and two children without saying goodbye when he ascended into the title a hundred years ago, and how the opportunity he’s given Oliver to say goodbye to his family and loved ones is a lot better than the ones he didn’t get. It’s a surprising little backstory we get to this version of Ra’s Al Ghul, who I’m liking more and more other than his weird chessmastery.

He’s apparently fathered a son and a daughter with his wife prior to becoming Ra’s Al Ghul. It may be a reference to Talia Al Ghul, but considering the fact that Ra’s left them behind and they most likely didn’t take dips in the Lazarus Pit, I don’t think it’s the case. Or, well, Ra’s may have fabricated the whole sob story just to make his machinations feel like a mercy gesture to Felicity and have her come to terms with it and not pressure Oliver too much.

That said, while I’ve always disliked the whole ‘Ra’s Al Ghul is immortal because it’s a name passed down through several powerful men’, I do like that Arrow at the very least keeps the whole Lazarus Pit thing and he gets to live for a hundred years, so he is the Ra’s Al Ghul, even if having precursors is necessary to make sense of the ‘Ra’s wants a heir’ thing.

Felicity, of course, ends up having a sex scene with Oliver – the first time they do the deed on-screen, if I’m not mistaken. Though while it’s a nice little romantic scene, whatever is in that strange drink they found in Ra’s Al Ghul’s room, it must’ve addled their brains a bit. Really, Felicity, your big plan is to drug one of your strongest fighters and then expect Diggle and Malcolm to think up of a plan to get them out of the fortress, carrying one unconscious man and one amnesiac girl? Whatever the case, Oliver stops them from bringing them away, gets a sad goodbye scene and dons the kickass League outfit.

It really would’ve had more impact if the second half of this episode has been about exploring Oliver’s goodbyes instead of the completely unnecessary ‘let’s kidnap Oliver and escape with the jet’ sideplot. There’s just been some odd pacing in this episode, with the Felicity romance being jerked this way and that, Thea being reduced to a plot device after having a big character presence previously and some really odd plotting from Ra’s part. But we finally got Oliver into the black suit, so hopefully we get to see some interesting stuff from it.

Also Oliver gets branded with the three-pronged arrow that the show’s arrow symbol has evolved into this season, which is nice in a meta sense.

Oh, and flashback plot. Right. It’s just a couple of great action scenes as Oliver, Maseo and Tatsu attack Shrieve’s men. Nice to see Tatsu adopt the whole ‘Katana’ thing and stabbing people left and right, though the ‘if you don’t help other people you’re just a shell’ thing being repeated for Maseo in the flashabck and present is kind of on-the-nose. Team Oliver steals the vaccine, though I’m not sure if they got it to Akio in time. At the end of the episode, the Alpha-Omega virus canister gets smashed and that’s a big cliffhanger. It’s sorta interesting and fun to watch, though again the whole Hong Kong plot is just a big distraction and would’ve worked a lot better as a two-parter or three-parter of itself.

Eh, overall it's a bit of a toss-up as an episode. I’m just happy to see the Lazarus Pit used at all.

Arrow S3E19 Review: A Death in the Family

Arrow, Season 3, Episode 19: Broken Arrow

That was a pretty awesome episode! Coming off a ‘big event’ episode that was episode 18, this episode is a pretty solid one with two great plots running concurrently alongside each other. A good chunk of the plot focuses on Roy Harper taking the fall for Oliver and Oliver Queen having to ‘learn to let other people help him’, as is repeated multiple times throughout the episode, whereas the other chunk, while having the same moral going on throughout it, focuses on the Atom hunting down an ersatz metahuman who seems to have stumbled into this show from the Flash.

Oh, and the flashback scenes, of course, but they’re not quite that interesting.

Let’s talk about the Roy plot first. He’s just been kind of there, standing around in his kickass Arsenal costume and saying a couple of lines here and there and joining in some fights, but he never really got the same amount of screentime or development that Laurel, Thea or Felicity got. He did get a couple of moments earlier this season with his ‘what have I done’ moment when he realizes he killed somebody, and that scene where he fought Wildcat’s evil sidekick, but that’s about it.

Well that changes this episode. Roy not only proves himself enough of a mastermind to cook up this plan of pretending to be the Arrow, and then engineering his own ‘death’ by being stabbed by a cop friend of Diggle, he also manages to pull off a really convincing act of pretending to be an atoner and sort of a death-seeker when confronted by Captain Lance and the Queen siblings. And he’s got a really awesome fight scene, unarmed, against a couple of inmates which is awesome. And the buildup that Roy is going to bite the dust was really well done, too, and I actually bought it. After all, the Lazarus Pit is in play, and other than the fact that Roy Harper is a big comic-book character, he is kind of disposable – and Roy as a character himself knows it.

And I do really like the development going on for him. Roy going off on his own to atone for his sins is as much about Roy himself developing as a character, atoning for the sins of killing the policeman, as much as it was to help clear Oliver Queen’s name. He also leaves the show for the forseeable future, going off on the run… which kind of dwindles Oliver’s allies even more.

And, of course, the cliffhanger to this episode is pretty awesome too. With the subversion of Roy’s death, we also get an actual implied death as Ra’s Al Ghul finally makes his move, fights Thea (who, to her credit, does a pretty good job defending herself) before stabbing her straight through the chest. She may or may not get resurrected next episode – again, the Lazarus Pit is still in play and Thea hasn’t quite became Speedy yet – but either way this is going to be a gigantic blow to Oliver Queen, as much as Moira’s death would be.

Also just think about the ramifications this would be for Malcolm Merlyn, since all of this shit happening is his fault. Stupid failure of a chessmaster that he is.

Captain Lance is ramping up the asshole levels in this episode, just tearing apart Thea’s apartment and the Verdant just to find proof, being relatively cold when he tells Oliver that Roy’s death was his fault (why didn’t Lance move Roy to isolation or something?) and being kind of a dick to Roy… though he does try to get Roy to be truthful and not throw his life away for Oliver. And he’s not that much of a dick to Thea either. Still, I do like Lance just hamming it up here on his bloodhunt for Oliver Queen.

This episode also makes it clear that despite Roy’s efforts to clear Oliver’s name as the Arrow, Captain Lance has already broken down the Arrowcave. While Roy and the rest of the team did cause the entire cave to be draped only with Roy’s fingerprints, the episode makes it clear that Lance is still out for Oliver Queen’s blood and they can’t resume operations quite as easily – hence needing the Atom to fill in the superhero quota of the episode.

Which brings us to the second plot going on in here. The Atom is kind of an odd character – he always felt kind of like a guest star or a distraction in nearly every episode he shows up in, never really feeling like part of the main cast, not like how Firestorm felt in the Flash show… but his crazy bubbly energy is a welcome injection to this episode. It also kind of establishes that both this episode and the previous one (since they happen immediately after each other) happens after Ray and Felicity visit Central City in that Flash episode with the Bug-Eyed Bandit, since Felicity knows not to bring Barry into the fray because they’re dealing with Harrison Wells… not that it should be a problem, though… it’s just an out-there excuse so they can have the Atom beat up a villain that’s a threat to him.

Anyway the Atom fights the villain of the week, Jake Simmons a.k.a. Deathbolt, who is a generic angry metahuman with Cyclops eye-powers. Except he doesn’t just shoot eye lasers, he’s also able to absorb energy and create energy gauntlets to do battle with the Atom. It’s some standard superhero stuff. The Atom loses his first battle, and on the second uses the Chekov’s Gun of neural uplink so Oliver can help use his superior fighting skills to engage Deathbolt in combat with superior fighting skills. And, of course, there’s a bit of a too-cheesy ‘your true power comes from within your heart’ and ‘the clothes don’t make the man’ speech that lets Ray beat Deathbolt on his own. It’s an okay little distraction that makes Ray Palmer seem relevant, and having this little minimal crossover is a fun little thing without overexposing either show to the other. Which is fine.

Also, is it not refreshing to have Brandon Routh actually just act without any Superman jokes? Man. It is so refreshing.

We, of course, get a little Cisco scene at the end as Ray delivers Deathbolt to the Pipeline, and they bond as crazy science people. But they get a little unexpected discovery that leads to its own cliffhanger – despite hailing from Central City, Deathbolt was in Opal City (home of the Starman for DC comic book geeks) when the particle accelerator went boom. So there are in fact more ways than the particle accelerator for you to get crazy superpowers. Interesting! I’m not sure if this plot thread’s going to be explored in the Flash or Arrow, but when the Pipeline villains eventually break free (they’re going to – it’s a universal constant that every supervillain prison is going to have all its villains break free at least once) I just hope Deathbolt gets an explanation so people who don’t watch Arrow won’t go ‘WHO DAT?’

More importantly, Ray asks some pretty damning questions about both shows. The first question being just how many abandoned warehouses are there in Starling City, and the second being just how do the villains in the Pipeline eat and shit. None, of course, get answered. Dammit, show!

A nice little in-joke is Cisco mentioning that the particle accelerator exploded on 11^th December, 2013… which, after looking it up, is indeed the airdate of the Arrow episode ‘Three Ghosts’, where the particle accelerator explodes in the end and turns Barry Allen into the Flash.

Ray also seems to notice just how supportive Felicity has been to Oliver as of late, and the little arm-hug Felicity gave Oliver at the end of this episode doesn’t go unnoticed. Ray also goes all ‘I didn’t really  mean that I-love-you I said before’ which seems to be an abrupt backpedalling of the Ray-Felicity shipping, further showing just how tacked-on the whole Ray-Felicity thing is. They’re just trying to shove in some friction between the pre-established Oliver-Felicity romance and this just feels kind of annoying.

The flashback plot has Oliver and the Yamashiros discover that General Matthew Shrieve plans to unleash the Alpha Omega virus upon Hong Kong because of racist ‘we’re afraid China is going to be a superpower’ reason. Of course Amanda Waller isn’t completely evil, otherwise Oliver won’t be working with her in the present day. She’s just ambiguously so. There’s also some ‘trust your allies’ thing going on in the flashback plot, naturally, because the morals of the flashbacks by chronology just happen to fit the events of the present day. Honestly don’t particularly care anymore… it’s already blindingly obvious that they’re going to take down Shrieve but it won’t happen until the season finale, and somehow Akio will die in the ensuing firefight. Whatever.

Overall it’s a pretty great episode. Great stuff, especially with Roy Harper. Granted I did get a bit of Age of Ultron flashbacks regarding Roy Harper and the big foreshadowings leading to his death, but it’s well executed. We get some great stuff with Oliver and Ray. And, of course, that ending! Great stuff.

One Piece 785 Review: Awakened Devil Fruits?

One Piece, Chapter 785: Even if your legs break

The Dressrosa arc would be pretty spectacular and would easily be my favourite One Piece arc if not for one big factor: it keeps wasting pages showing random citizens and these Z-lister characters reacting to shit. Like, oh, Zoro is fighting Pica! Franky is fighting Senor Pink! Let's waste three pages letting Viola recap last chapter for us which is totally unnecessary. Or have random citizens point out what is already obvious in the art. With some characters introduced with gigantic fanfare but already not doing much -- Jesus Burgess, Sabo, Fujitora -- and half of the main cast (Team Sanji) already missing for nearly a year, it's kind of bad pacing all over. Dressrosa's got a lot of great stuff, a lot of awesome shit with Law and Doflamingo in particular, but a combination of an overload of guest stars that get in-depth backstory (Rebecca, Kyros, the Tontatta) and generally too many characters...

I mean, I'm all for world-building. I like Don Chinjao's crazy fleet and Cavendish's split personality and Jean Ango the stupid bandit and Ideo's weird explosive shoulders and Orlumbus' epic beard, but does that mean we need to see them react to every single thing? Give then scenes that are actually necessary, scenes that actually matter... we don't need them showing up every single chapter just to remind us that they exist.

With that rant out of the way, though, this chapter is pretty good other than the gigantic distraction that is the King Riku speech. The Jinbe cover story finally ends for good with Jinbe going off with Wadatsumi to parts unknown. Maybe they can help Team Sanji out?

We start off with a re-shot of Luffy hitting Doflamingo with his Culverin attack... and then cut to random people reacting. And then cut to Cavendish and Law reacting -- and this is one of the more relevant bits. Law comments that Luffy is overusing his Haki. There's a limit to the Haki one can use? That's interesting. Then we cut over to Jesus Burgress, who I forgot was even in this arc, just thinking about what to do -- he's gunning for Luffy, apparently -- while Koala watches Burgress. We then go to freaking Viola reporting to Riku the same thing she's been reporting for the past few chapters. We then cut over to the factory, which is being moved by the threads because it's made out of Seastone, and the Tontatta running.

Zoro and the two samurai, riding on Kanjurou's ugly bird, pass Franky and for once Zoro is going the right way. They apparently plan to stop Birdcage. And knowing Zoro, it will involve cutting. And more cutting.

Doflamingo, fallen, notes how Luffy is controlling the expansion and contraction with Armament Haki, while Luffy himself thinks about Gear Fourth's time limit. Luffy launches a Double Culverin, but Doflamingo blocks it with 'Off White', which are just gigantic tendrils made out of a shit-ton of threads. Doflamingo's starting to get his cocky speech back on, noting that while Luffy has a good grasp on his abilities, Gear Fourth has a time limit... and how, 'beyond the powers of a little baby', there is another world of power known as Awakening. According to Doflamingo, Awakened Devil Fruit users don't just affect their own body, but also their surroundings...

So does that mean Devil Fruits have, like, a Bankai form or whatever?

And Doflamingo can apparently transform the buildings around him into strings. And Luffy mentions how this isn't even like a Paramecia user anymore.

But Awakening! What the hell is that? I mean, we've got these 'Awakened Zoans' way back in the Impel Down arc that may or may not be foreshadowing, but those are kind of jokes that got one-shotted by Luffy.

So maybe awakened Paramecia can transform things around them into their element? I mean, we've already got Paramecia types that affect things around them -- Robin makes arms sprout of anything, Blueno makes doors out of thin air, Sugar's powers affect freaking everyone, Foxy slows other people -- but I dunno. We need more information.

Is Awakening his Devil Fruit what made Blackbeard so special that he can absorb a second Devil Fruit?

Then we get seven pages of bullshit as we see random civilians giving up and then King Riku talking at exhaustive length about how this country is a lie and how this pirate Monkey D. Luffy is fighting the false king Doflamingo. Which is nice I suppose because now the citizens of Dressrosa know what's going on, but really I think they figured out Doflamingo was evil when, y'know, Birdcage started. Really, they couldn't have done this announcement anywhere before Luffy's big fight against Doflamingo? They must shove it in this chapter? Bad pacing. Wouldn't it work better as Pica was about to squish King Riku, or right after Sugar's curse is broken? Jeez.

Doflamingo, meanwhile, continues to use his 'White' attacks as giant waves to attack Luffy who's just bouncing around, and then uses Billow White, transforming a good chunk of the city into waves of strings. Luffy then, uh, retracts his head so deep into his body he basically transforms into a cannon. His hat is only hanging on to his back by sheer force of will, I think. Luffy does this Gear Fourth Gomu Gomu Bell or whatever and headbutts Doflamingo's Billow Whites, and does this gigantic 'Gomu Gomu no Leo Bazooka' that hits Doflamingo straight in the chest and sends him flying and crashing into Pica's spirally tower thing.

And I would say that Doflamingo is out for the count... if not for the Awakening thing. I feel like Doflamingo's definitely going to get up. And whether Luffy will need help or not -- like, y'know, Sabo -- well, we'll see next chapter, I guess? Shame the Riku speech takes up just so damn much of this chapter.

Agents of SHIELD S2E16 Review: Inhumans and DEATHLOK

Agents of SHIELD, Season 2, Episode 16: Afterlife

Finally, after a bit of dilly-dallying, we’ve finally started touching on the Inhumans and their society and whatnot. And really, writing this review after watching the two episodes after this, well, it’s been a really solid set of episodes that both builds up the SHIELD Civil War and the Inhumans… and freaking Deathlok shows up as a surprise guest star. Who the hell expected Deathlok to show up?

This episode was more setup, but it really comes off last episode’s backstory regarding Real-SHIELD’s creation quite well. And with so many factions in play – Coulson’s SHIELD, Real-SHIELD, Hydra, the Inhumans, and the individual characters’ own loyalties brought up into question, it’s setting up to be really good if handled properly.

And the characters whose loyalties are bought into conflict this time around are Fitz and Simmons. The two of them are tasked to crack open Fury’s Toolbox, and initially we seem to be bringing up the Simmons-is-an-extremist line and how she’s going to fully join up with Gonzalez and the against-Coulson team. And Fitz, well, he’s just making a stand and that little fight with Simmons is a bit hard to see… except it wasn’t a fight, but rather both Fitz and Simmons are still united and are actually putting up a pretty awesome show to fool the rest of SHIELD to smuggle the Toolbox to Fitz as he gets discharged, only to be on a mission to deliver the Toolbox to Coulson. It’s nice to see that their relationship isn’t irreparably destroyed. It was a pretty nice fake-out, though, one of the more well done ones in this show. I totally bought that Fitz was actually just done with SHIELD and Simmons and everyone and is going off to rejoin Coulson. Simmons… is a pretty damn great actress, that’s for sure.

Oh and he gets a sandwich from Simmons! The same one from way back in season one, I believe. That was cute.

We also get Fitz telling Mack just what he thinks of him, while both Mack and Bobbi, well, they actually do believe in Real-SHIELD’s intentions about how Coulson might be stockpiling metahumans and creating an army. Bobbi is being a lot nicer about it than that jackass Mack, though. Though Gonzalez is a different matter entirely. The old man has some great points in his argument. A united front, the fact that Coulson is hiding things, and all sorts of other things… and at the same time, he’s ignoring all the counter-arguments regarding Skye that Bobbi is giving him, calling Skye ‘Coulson’s powered pet’ or something along those lines. He’s just being a big cockhole of a racist. Or xenophobe. Or whatever. Gonzalez’s big fear-induced prejudice is a nice contrast to how mostly-harmonic the Inhumans society was and how really accepting of any kind of powers that Lincoln and the rest of the Inhumans society did.

I thought they handled Gonzalez quite well as an anti-villain or anti-hero or whatever group he falls into. He’s got really, really valid points – both Bobbi and Mack to a lesser extent embody what Gonzalez’s views of a united SHIELD and a SHIELD without secrets should be. And Gonzalez has shown to be reasonable and a decent person when his little blind spot of powered people isn’t touched upon. Also ignoring the whole Hydra threat thing. And ignoring the fact that Coulson wants to work together with him. And ignoring the fact that the agent wounded by Skye disobeyed orders and used live rounds. The fact that he’s such a dick makes us safely root for our heroes. Granted, with Coulson throwing Deathlok into the field, he’s not really helping to ease Gonzalez’s fear about powered people.

Also, speaking of loyalties, that scene with the gun with May, offering her a spot on the diplomatic head of Real-SHIELD while giving her a loaded weapon? That was kind of badass. Gonzalez has balls, if nothing. May’s loyalties might be called into question, especially with the revelations that the next few episodes will give us. That was a pretty badass scene, though – Gonzalez giving May that ‘Nazi-seeker’ gun, May calling it a bluff and Gonzalez revealing that it wasn’t. Also, ‘you don’t need to look for Coulson. When he’s ready, he’ll find you’ is one of the most badass lines ever. We also get a bit more hints about some incident in Bahrain first alluded to by May’s ex-husband which we’ll see in vivid detail next episode.

Coulson and Hunter get a few fun scenes of mucking around with fooling Real-SHIELD’s forces, holograms and all. That was quite fun. Snarky-Hunter is a lot more fun than angsty-trying-to-rebuild-a-relationship Hunter. And, of course, Deathlok! Upgraded! And kicking all sorts of ass! In retrospect it kind of made sense for Deathlok to throw his cards in with SHIELD off-screen, and while it would be nice to have some foreshadowing for Deathlok to be the cavalry instead of, y’know, May-the-cavalry or Nick Fury or Maria Hill or someone, it does make sense in context. And Coulson is totally the type of guy to withhold such information just to surprise Hunter. So. On their part, they discover just what happened to Skye. And while Coulson is inclined to give Gonzalez and the others the benefit of the doubt, Hunter gives us the age-old pearl of wisdom: ‘good guys don’t stab you in the back’. Granted Hunter’s still extremely pissed regarding the whole Bobbi situation, but can you blame him?

We get a bit of information here and there – Deathlok has been tracking down Dr. List, who, if you forgot, is Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker’s right-hand man who appeared a couple of times in Agents of SHIELD. And apparently Von Strucker’s faction of Hydra has been recruiting powered people… y’know, like Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

Speaking of Winter Soldier references, Real!SHIELD borrows the battering ram weapon thing that the Hydra agents used to attack Nick Fury’s car in that movie.

But really, the main appeal for me this time around is the introduction to the Inhumans society. We learn about what the Inhumans society really look like – a pretty nice little paradise and haven for these Inhumans… and apparently those who undergo terrigenesis are a really select few so it isn’t a gigantic society of powered people like the X-Men. Like, a really select few. Raina and Skye are real exceptions to the rule because not only did they forego the whole selection process, they go through it in a Kree Temple instead of whatever modern version of it that the Inhumans Society use. And, of course, as been alluded to several times, there are rules upon rules upon rules that are hanging over the Inhuman society’s head though we don’t really see much of it beyond ‘Lai Shi is segregated from the world’. There is, of course, something quite off about Lai Shi and I thought the show makes a pretty good job making it seem idyllic but suspicious at the same time. Of course we all know that the Inhumans kind of operate on a cult-esque system so.

And, y’know, the fact that they lock Cal up somewhere. I mean the guy’s a dick and all, but that seemed unnecessarily cruel especially since we know that Cal will be extremely docile once you shove Skye and/or his wife in front of him.

Also between Lian Yu (purgatory) and Lai Shi (afterlife) what is it with superhero shows and super-secluded islands named after Chinese words relating to a state of not-quite-death?

We get a new character in the form of Lincoln the electrical-manipulating Inhuman who also happens to be a medical student. He’s quite fun, and I’m sure there are loads of people shipping him with Skye right now. Lincoln is fun, he’s not annoying. Don’t particularly like him, but he’s kind of cool. He’s nice and he’s got electrical powers and shit. Gordon also gets quite a few more scenes just giving his funny dry humour (he brings in pizza every week!), but the big surprise comes in the revelation that Skye’s mother, Jiaying, is still alive and well even though last we saw she was vivisected and left as a pile of organs by Werner Reinhardt. She’s got pretty evident scars all over her body, though, and we know she’s basically immortal and Cal is a bit of a mad scientist, so beyond the slightly bad taste of yet another character dying-but-not-really in the Marvel Cinematic Univrese it really isn’t that bad as far as explanations go. Also, I’ve watched a couple of episodes after this one at the time of writing so there isn’t going to be much speculation. We don’t quite get a lot of Skye/Jiaying scenes yet, but the following episode will certainly deliver.

There are still some questions about Jiaying, though, especially the fact that she’s alive. She’s clearly not being supportive to Cal at all beyond keeping him alive, while Cal has gone through hell – going through experiments to turn him into a knockoff Hulk (which we haven’t seen yet), gone crazy, made deals with the devil like Hydra and whatever, faced off against SHIELD and whatever just to get to his daughter… and Jiaying just doesn’t really give a fuck. Also Gordon is being a wonderfully gigantic douchebag to Cal that is both hilarious and quite depressing to see.

Also, Raina appears! She’s like, all thorns and shit (‘thorn’ seems to be a recurring word that Raina likes to use. Maybe a hint to her future supervillain codename or whatever?) but it’s hinted either in this episode or the next that the physical mutation is not Raina’s gift. I mean, sure, she gets these sharp spikes and claws and the ability to pierce SHIELD agents through the stomach, but that is not her Inhuman gift. Gordon gives a little information dump that physical changes are normally not the gift, and each Inhuman can only get one. And as we seen, it’s mostly been consistent – Skye’s vibration-earthquake powers, Gordon’s teleportation, Lincoln’s electricity and Jiaying’s immortality healing factor thing.

Also Skye was totally ready to murder Raina on the spot with is equal parts disturbing and awesome at the same time. Good thing (because I like how Raina continues to be a wild card in this series) Jiaying interferes, and kind of shows a different side of moral myopia compared to Gonzalez. Jiaying refuses to acknowledge that fact that Raina is a known murderer and a criminal before obtaining her powers, and operates under the rule of ‘she’s one of us, so we protect her until she proves hostile’. Is it that much different from Gonzalez insisting that powered people be controlled so that his own people, the normals, are safe? And, in the same vein, just what amounts to redemption? We see two former antagonists (albeit under starkly varying circumstances) be portrayed in a positive light this episode: Deathlok and Raina. Just how much can someone suffer, just how much shit can they go through, before they are considered to be redeemed?  Just how much change can someone like Fitz and Simmons go through before they snap? Though for those two, at least, it’s a bit of a subversion. Again, the same questions apply to Coulson and Gonzalez’s differing point of views. Two good guys at each other’s throats because of differing point of views and going through a different series of shitty situation.

Of course, meanwhile the remnants Hydra is still operating mostly unchallenged, and Grant Ward has been MIA for quite some time.

Overall a pretty great episode. It’s really heavy on the talking parts, but you know what? I am totally fine with it. It’s not quite as strong as the previous or the following episode, but it does deliver quite a few introductions regarding the Inhumans and the Civil War.