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February 16, 2023 at 4:01 pm #293903

In reply to: Star Trek: Picard Season 3…Is this what fans have been hoping for?
xdax
It’s shit.

-“STAR TREK” brand title drop. Trying to follow in the footsteps of modern Star Wars is just embarrassing.
-Crusher’s phase rifle holds about 20 rounds when Kirk-era phasers could be used on “thousands”. Also, why does the weapon of war announce to enemy combatants that its rounds are exhausted?
-It was smart of Paramount to retitle the series “Star Trek Picard” at the last minute, general audiences probably wouldn’t understand the subtleties of the Starfleet naming convention “1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1”. (Ha ha ha.)
-The mementos during Picard’s house cleaning were all chosen specifically to reference Red Letter Media. The Generations review is over a decade old at this point, but referencing it is akin to the Juggernaut line in X-Men: The Last Stand.
-Raffi’s script got mixed in with an old episode of 24. At least they had the decency to not put her in Section 31.
-Was there a huge budget cut this season? The starbase and some establishing shots aren’t up to previous quality.
-Transwarp factor nomenclature would have an in-universe revision if ships were to accelerate to warp 9.99 out of space dock. Cute reference to Threshold, but the idea doesn’t feel lived-in.
-Frakes deserves an Emmy for stepping back into the Riker role. The man is single-handedly carrying both Stewart and Ryan through this series.
-Are they really bringing back Picard’s brain disease despite the fact he’s a robot? Does Paramount think its audience so disposable that they are ignoring everything from the first season? The dramatic sting in the score does not inspire confidence.
-Raffi, when Nordberg said “The Red Lady”, he was telling you the name of the ship.
-Shaw wakes up from the auditory rumble of the cloud. In space.
-“Quantum tunneling” is a well-defined concept in physics and has nothing to do with sling ring portals straight out of Doctor Strange.
-Picard made a classical music mixtape for Crusher consisting only of songs from one single decade. I had a good laugh at this point formulating an improv where Jean-Luc imparts on Beverly the auditory beauty of Skrillex’s Purple Lamborghini.
-Picard’s British accent is apparently hereditary. One rung up the ladder from “Picard’s son is also bald”.
-Main credits right out of the MCU. They REALLY wish they were Disney.
-Should they get credit for including the classic soundtrack? Even though Rings of Power‘s music didn’t always work, at least they attempted to make new tracks.

4/10. 7/10 as a sci-fi soporific for senior citizens who want to be swaddled by a multi-billion dollar media company.
October 29, 2022 at 6:34 am #285333

In reply to: Tales of the Jedi
comicsgate
REVIEW: Tales of the Jedi Season 1 (2022)

Virginia wrote a review here.

No word from Roas yet. I do agree with his other comments about what is Star Wars and what isn’t. How Disney seems to almost refuse to give fans some key characters from the books that would have been nice to see.

Anna did reviews by episode and story. She watched the first three episodes.

The animation is good. Not sure about the story-telling. Definitely agree with Virginia that the episode with Dooku and Yaddle was the best one. I like that there is a pause period between animation releases because you can see the growth with each generation of chips, or whatever is going on, as the visuals get better.
October 26, 2022 at 8:25 am #284902

In reply to: The Peripheral
comicsgate
https://readysteadycut.com/2022/10/21/the-peripheral-season-1-episode-1-recap/

Recap – what happened in The Peripheral season 1, episode 1?

Episode 1 opens in 2099 in London, with enormous, towering statues dominating the skyline. A man nervously waits at a park bench. He is soon met by a young girl who walks barefoot over to him. She speaks with a wisdom that doesn’t quite match her years and talks of saving the world. It’s an intriguing opener that I’m sure keen viewers will be smart to remember.

Then we cut to Blue Ridge Mountains, 2032, where Flynne Fisher (Chloe Grace Moretz) looks after her blind mother in a large, rural house. She checks up on her brother Burton (Jack Reynor), who makes a living playing immersive VR games in his airstream. Flynne worries that Burton has been stealing his mother’s pills and goes to give him a good telling off. Burton convinces Flynne to play in his game instead though, so he can afford to pay for more medicine. Flynne happens to be a bad-a*s pro when it comes to these particular games and eagerly enters the VR experience. The game play is beautifully realized, feeling fresh and visually unique. Flynne of course wins Burton some money and goes to the cash machine to withdraw her funds.

Director Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Westworld) sculpts a believable and well-thought-out future as Flynne bikes to work. These subtle hints to a near-future make for excellent world building. Flynne is an employee at a 3D printing shop, where she gossips with best friend Billy Ann. They discuss Flynne’s infatuation with police officer Tommy, who is soon to be married, and Flynne’s squandered endeavors. She’s clearly capable of much more in life, but prefers to live within her means, instead of selling out in Burton’s fantasy worlds.

That very same morning, Flynne is handed a futuristic headset from an elusive, Colombian company. Burton has been offered to test out this cutting edge technology for a generous fee. They were impressed with his VR gaming skills and believe he is the ideal candidate. Of course it was Flynne’s services that they were really after and Burton asks her to test out the kit in his place. She’s hesitant at first, but accepts, struggling to contain her excitement.

The game takes Flynne to London, 2099, as witnessed in the opening scene, with those looming historic statues. Flynne inhabits Burton’s avatar and rides a motorbike through the city streets. A narrator directs Burton towards Buckingham Palace and a swanky party. His first task is to seduce a mysterious woman and then kidnap her. There’s a tense sequence that follows involving Burton fighting a knife-wielding robot that hints at the cinematic qualities of the series. And then Burton gets to meet the woman who was ordering his avatar about all this time. She is Aelita, played by Charlotte Riley (Peaky Blinders).

Flynne returns to the real world and explains the experience to a rather jealous Burton. In the game, Flynne can feel everything, even pain and she raves about the ultra-realistic game play. That night, she journeys into town to retrieve her mother’s pills. Here she has a run in with some vulgar gangster types and is heroically saved by Conner, a drunk, triple amputee with nothing to lose. He helps her to complete the transaction as intended, making enemies with the thugs in the process

The next day, Flynne finds out from her mother that Burton was in fact gifting her with his extra pain meds not taking them away from her, and she is quick to apologize. Flynne then re-enters the game for an entirely different experience. She finds herself on an operating table as Burton. The woman that she kidnapped, Mariel, was needed for this important piece of surgery. They replace Burton’s eye with Mariel’s. Flynne feels everything during this excruciating and gruesome operation, but manages to control her heart rate to cope with the pain. It’s a terrifying slice of body horror thrown into this sci-fi thriller that likens the series to Black Mirror.

The ending

Next, Aelita and Burton drive to a secret location and use Mariel’s eye to scan their way into the building. An elevator takes them down 95 levels to an unusual structure. Here, Burton uses his own eye for another retina scan. This one is equally painful, although they are interrupted mid-flow by an intruder. Aelita orders him to fight, but he is quickly apprehended, whilst the unknown enemy moves on to Aelita. Burton somehow squirms out of his ties, revealing a robotic arm underneath his prosthetic skin. The killer asks Burton for his real world name and location, strongly suggesting that this game has real world consequences. Burton is then killed by a sonic weapon and Flynne wakes in her reality.

Flynne vomits and declares that she is never playing the game ever again. At work the next day, she is contacted by Milagros Coldiron, the company that paid for her services. Wilf from the opening scene is the man on the phone and he warns her that she is in imminent danger. A bounty has been put out on the dark web and Wilf believes that Flynne and her family are the targets. She races home to find Burton throwing a small gathering with his friends. He laughs off her story, but Burton’s friends send out a precautionary drone to assess the situation just in case. The drone picks up on a gang of gunmen heading for the home.

https://readysteadycut.com/2022/10/21/the-peripheral-season-1-episode-2-recap/
The Peripheral season 1, episode 2 recap

We commence in the future timeline, with Research Institute boss Cherise Nuland (T’Nia Miller) discussing her company’s breach with the gunman Daniel, who we saw in the previous episode, where he shot Burton’s avatar in the head. Daniel is blamed for this infiltration. Quickly responding to his own mistake, he’s traced Burton’s operator and has a bounty out on his enemy’s head already. A gang of ex-military personnel are on their way to eradicate this problem as we speak.

This seamlessly segues to Flynne’s timeline, where her home is under attack. Burton’s friends hack the enemy’s drone and are able to pinpoint the killers’ exact locations. Flynne rushes into the house to protect her mother, whilst the men fight back outside in synchronized fashion. A shootout ensues as the two teams battle one another. It’s a darkly lit fight, with the good guys ending victorious.
The Peripheral season 1, episode 1 recap – what happened in the pilot?

In the future, Wilf is contacted by a mysterious man called Lev (JJ Feild). Lev updates his ally, stating that Flynne was attacked by bounty hunters the previous night, but thankfully escaped unharmed. Flynne somehow happens to be the only one who can help them locate their missing Aelita. When Flynne re-enters the game she awakens in her own avatar. Wilf explains her next mission, although Flynne has more pressing issues, such as, what the hell is going on? Wilf admits that Flynne isn’t playing a simulation, she is actually inside a ‘peripheral’, a robot body. She isn’t physically in the future, but has been involved in ‘quantum tunneling’, a data transfer of some kind, which places her mind in the future world, while her body remains in the past. OK that’s a lot of scientific techno mumbo-jumbo, but let’s just run with it, shall we?

Wilf proves his statements true by allowing Flynne to step outside the building. She sees a scarce London and those looming eye-soars throughout the cityscape once again. He then produces a newspaper and points out Flynne’s mother’s obituary. She will die in four weeks time from a brain tumor. Wilf promises that they can cure her of this illness and will send across the medicine if she helps them find Aelita.

Flynne exits the game, which is now revealed to be a future reality, not a simulation as first advertised. She sees Burton and the gang piling up the dead bodies after the shoot-out. Flynne tells Burton to bury these bodies and then heads off into town to retrieve her mom’s new meds. Flynne administers the medicine herself and talks openly with her mother about the disease. The mother had kept the seriousness of the illness a secret to protect Flynne.

Meanwhile, Deputy Sheriff Tommy Constantine unintentionally finds the invisible trucks, which may very well have belonged to the bounty hunters now buried on Flynne’s land. He asks Burton for his military expertise with a bullet he found inside the truck. Burton assists, but Tommy is highly suspicious of the man and his friend’s midday gathering. Burton just about manages to cover his tracks though.
The Peripheral season 1 review – slick sci-fi with cinematic visuals

Flynne travels to an eerily quiet London in 2100, where she hopes to find some answers. Here, she meets with Wilf again and is introduced to the other members of the gang: Lev, Ash and Ossian. Flynne notices extinct animals brought back to life, moving tattoos and many other future technologies, yet she isn’t impressed by any of it. All she wants to know is what is going on and this sequence tries its best to explain somewhat of the backstory, laying on the expositional dialogue a little too thickly. They talk of parallel timelines and of Aelita’s involvement. She worked for the Research Institute and had access to the past world. Without Aelita they have no ties to this past society, she is therefore a crucial component in their own secretive plans. Flynne asks about her own future and her mother’s illness. They seem vague or defensive about Flynne’s fate and admit that her mother’s illness may not be curable. Flynne demands certainties on her mom’s illness before she will assist in the hunt for Aelita.

The ending

Burton asks for Conner’s help in fortifying their land, so they can protect themselves from further bounty hunters. Then, a local crime boss named Corbell is offered ten million dollars by futuristic bad guy Daniel to kill Burton and Flynne outright. He thinks this is one rather nasty joke, but finds 2.5 million has been transferred into his account as a good will gesture.

As if by magic, that very same night Flynne hears noises coming from downstairs and discovers her mother rifling through the fridge. When they turn on the lights, her mother’s sight has fully returned to her. It would seem that the people from the future are desperate for Flynne’s help and have fulfilled her wishes.
October 19, 2022 at 11:32 am #284319

In reply to: My contribution to mocking ROP
comicsgate
https://arkhavencomics.com/2022/10/17/avoid-like-the-plague-amazons-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power/

Antithesis /anˈtiTHəsəs/

Noun

Definition – : the direct opposite.

(1): the rhetorical contrast of ideas by means of parallel arrangements of words, clauses, or sentences (as in “action, not words” or “they promised freedom and provided slavery”)

(2): OPPOSITION, CONTRAST the antithesis of prose and verse. The second of two opposing words, clauses, or sentences that are being rhetorically contrasted

(3): philosophy : the second stage of a dialectical process

Example: Amazon’s the Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power is the very antithesis of every aspect of the author J.R.R Tolkien’s complete body of work, aesthetic principles, personal belief system and the totality of his religious faith.

Avoid Like the Plague is my lowest rating, I’ve only given it two other times, and it takes a lot to get it. A production really has to work for it before I’m willing to put my ultimate seal of disapproval on it. I mean you got to dig deep and put your back to the wheel before I stamp that label on something. A show must do everything it can to earn it.

And this one did just that.

Throughout ten hours of runtime this travesty never let up in its determination to win my abject hatred for every aspect of its very existence.

It consistently fails on so many levels that you can’t help but be fascinated by its relentless incompetence.

This show is absolutely, and in all ways, the exact opposite of what J.R.R. Tolkien achieved with his life’s work.

There have been other attempts to subvert Tolkien. Writers who at the core of their work were trying to write an editorial reply that would somehow disprove Truth to be found in the works of men like J.R.R. Tolkien.

George RR Martin set out to invert the tropes that were established in the Lord of Rings, and it ended in the most hilarious series of failures of all time. At this point Martin is undoubtedly hoping he can run out the clock before he has to display the completeness of his artistic bankruptcy.

A better example is His Dark Materials. Phillip Pullman set out to create an atheist Chronicles of Narnia. The Golden Compass has been frequently remade in films and TV. It ends in debacle every time. Read John C. Wright’s review if you want a complete evisceration by a writer who leaves me in the dust.

But none of them come close to equaling the magnitude of the disaster that is, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. These attempts to present the Lie as the Truth always fail like this.

The aesthetics of this show were the opposite of J.R.R. Tolkien’s.

The series has been both gaudy and cheap throughout. The grand CG scenes were simply garish. There was no attempt at tasteful restraint. The ship designs were absurdist, (split sails aren’t very good at catching the wind). Except for those very few scenes of grand CG vistas (which were only in half the episodes) everything else looked like it should have been on the CW.

The sets were either green screens or confined. The grand invasion of the Southlands was a lousy three ships because it kept the expenses (but somehow not the price) of this billion dollar production down. The costumes looked like something from a 1980s tits and sandals, straight-to-video quicky shot in Mexico.

Despite it being twenty years older, every aspect of Jackson’s epic, from costuming, to props to CG effects look incomparable better than this ludicrously more expensive production.

This show is also the antithesis of J.R.R. Tolkien’s belief system. Which is kind of an achievement given that it is incredibly obvious the showrunners have NO belief system of their own. A storyteller needs believe in something if he wants to get anyone to listen to his stories.

“We had reached a point — we’d been writing movies for 10 years that should have gotten made,” McKay says. “Movies where the director was right, the cast was right, the script was right, the title was right and it was a big IP — and it still wasn’t happening.”

Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results but it’s usually a reliable indicator. Those directors all moved on to successful projects. Their cast members got rich on other acting jobs. The IPs got made into films (although no good came from it). The only continuing element that seems consistent in this decade long parade of failure is McKay and Payne.

Inconsistency and moral bankruptcy are the hallmarks of this show.

In an earlier episode Elfagorn says that the Elves don’t have doctors because most wounds to their bodies heal themselves and what healing they do need must be done to the soul. Not Tolkien, but okay, whatever. Then in the 7th episode Galadriel says that Not-Sauron’s open gut wound can only be healed by Elf medicine. Which this show has explicitly stated: Does. Not. Exist.

The show needed to get Galadriel and Not-Sauron to Eregion, and they couldn’t do it organically, so they came up with a contrivance that flatly contradicted something they already established in another episode.

At one point Galadriel says to Not-Sauron you saved me for drowning on the raft. To which he replies, “and you saved me from drowning.” No. No, she didn’t do any such thing. At no time was Not-Sauron remotely in danger of drowning. Setups are not only completely forgotten about but frequently have payoffs that do the opposite of what the setup clearly intended.

Granted, the first example is the kind of corner any writer can paint himself into, (although, some editing in post-production would have solved it). But there is no such excuse for the second. Two things are in play here.

One: McKay and Payne fell in love with one cheesy line of dialog and didn’t want to give it up even though it contradicted a clear event that happened in an earlier episode.

And two: YOU TWO DIDN’T THINK ANYONE WOULD BE STUPID ENOUGH TO WATCH ANOTHER EPISODE OF YOUR GODDAMN SHOW, DID YOU?!?!

Unquestionably, the worst violation of Tolkien’s belief system was in the antithetical iteration of Galadriel. She was the opposite of everything Tolkien intended his heroes to be. Vain, haughty, prideful, driven by rage and determined to follow her own will.

And she is constantly praised and validated for this.

McKay and Payne started with the assumption that the audience would love Galadriel despite doing nothing to earn that love and in truth, behaving with malignant arrogance to every character she interacts with.

When she arrives with the wounded Not-Sauron at Eregion, Elrond asks Galadriel, “what are you doing here?”

She bitchily replies, “what are you doing here?”

So far as the events of this series is concerned, she is supposed to be in Valinor and Elrond is supposed to be right there in the place their king ordered him to go. He has business being there, she doesn’t. She was specifically ordered to go somewhere else and stay there. She has no conceivable reason to be acting like he’s a hypocrite for asking a legitimate question.

But this show assumes she is always in the right no matter the circumstances. When ordered to return to Valinor, she disobeys the lawful order. When she arrives in Númenor she breaks her word, repeatedly breaks the laws of the Kingdom and finally drags the kingdom off to a foreign war and none of that was to do good for the sake of good. It was all to satisfy the demands of her thousand year old rage against Sauron.

When Adar is shown to hold paternal affection (we may as well call it love) for the Orcs, she threatens to torture them by dragging them out in the sunlight. She tells Adar that she will keep him alive so he can know she has killed all of his children.

Every single action Galadriel commits in this show is evil. Yet we are expected to accept her actions as morally justified, without any justification being provided for them.

Excusing evil is the fundamental antithesis of Lord of the Rings.

This brings us to this series being the opposite of Tolkien’s faith.

So, about Halbrand being Sauron?

#TheDarkHeraldWasRight

In the season finale Galadriel finally does what she should have done and asks for the genealogical records for the Southlands Royal family. It turns out the Royal family (that they couldn’t be bothered to give a name to the family) died out a thousand years ago.

Galadriel uses her angry bitch-face to demand what Halbrand’s real name is. Menacing music rises and Not-Sauron replies that he has had many names, one of which is obviously Sauron. She points out that he was wearing the royal sigil of the Royal house of the Southlands. He points out that he said, “I took it off a dead man.”

This is the one setup throughout the entire series Payne and McKay were consistent about preserving no matter what, because it was the only setup they truly cared about. Sauron never out right lied about anything. Galadriel is such an idiot she just took his half answers and built elaborate fantasies around them. But the important part is that while Sauron was deceptive, he never outright lied.

The only reason to do this was to give Sauron credibility with the audience. When he states something as fact the audience is obliged to accept it because he’s the only one that never lied.

Sauron then says that when Morgoth was cast into he was finally free and he just wanted to heal the world. He wants Galadriel as his queen. And that with her at his side he can keep from being totes evil.

Sauron: You bind me to the light. And I bind you to power and together we can save this Middle Earth.

Galadriel: Save? … Or rule?

Sauron: I see no difference.

Galadriel (Being fierce and brave): And that is why I will never be at your side!

You can tell Payne and McKay were running around the writer’s room high fiving each other. They are so convinced that that this was super profound.

This iteration of Sauron is entirely colored in shades of gray and JRR Tolkien painted that character in jet black. Sauron was in no way ever meant to be a sympathetic character. That is opposite of the authorial intent of J.R.R. Tolkien which Payne and McKay nakedly violated. It’s hardly a surprise that students of Abrams would reject the concepts of absolute good and absolute evil by claiming The Truth is always somewhere in the middle. This is the biggest lie there is. It was designed as one a very long time ago. If there is no dividing line between good and evil, it’s easy to drift into moral relativism.

It’s easy to say, I know it’s wrong, but…

Instead of just saying, I know it’s wrong (and a put a period right there).

This last brings us to the series’ most fundamental problem. The moral impairment of its creators. What they believe to be morality is nothing more than fashionable aesthetics. Every single one of Karen Galadriel’s choices were dictated by her own will not what was the right thing to do. All of the worst things that happened to the Númenóreans were the direct result of her actions and the showrunners can’t see it.

Every single event that took place in all four books of the Middle Earth books, from the death of the Great Wyrm Smaug, to the glorious restoration of the rightful king of Gondor, and finally the destruction of a fallen angel who served a evil god. None of these things would have happened had it not been for an act of mercy by Bilbo Baggins. This was Providence as addressed by Gandalf at the end of the Hobbit. “You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?”

In contrast, all of Karen-Galadriel’s adventures and escapes were managed by absurd contrivance. Usually, the result of some evil act she had performed. And they were unquestionably for her sole benefit. Manwëknows it never helped anyone else.

And Sauron is presented as someone who just wanted to stay on his island paradise and create things on his forge. Galadriel pulled him away from all that with no regrets because it served to further her ends.

In this series, Sauron is the penitent, not Galadriel.

Consequently, the Dark Herald pronounces his Doom upon this entire wretched series.

Avoid Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Like the Fucking Plague!
August 30, 2022 at 9:51 am #279966

Topic: House of the Dragon (spoilers with opinion)

in forum Television
Mustangride1
Moderator
Well in non-spoiler reviews it’s hard to really get across the problems and points so from now on I will be doing Spoiler reviews with my points why.

I am going to start now with a review of Episodes 1 and 2 and start off with a qualifier, I am a book reader and know the Lore, but even at that would love some twist and turns and true intrigue, so much so it makes me questions if they will stay with the books or actually change things.

Let me start with King Viserys I Targaryen;

His appearance is different from the books, but that is not a problem, so was Tyrion’s. My issues are Killing off the Queen, then in the same episode less than 5 minutes we already know who he will remarry.

Come on, take an entire season and build it up, have multiple houses jockeying to have their daughters be the next, give us plotting and maneuvering between the houses. Things that made GOT s-1 through 4 grate to watch. Do it in a way you have even book readers questioning if you had changed it.

But instead, we get a walk through the gardens that was extremely uncomfortable, not just bordering pedophilia but actually openly talking about it (she is 12) yes, the actress is older 22, but none the less cringe. Some have said they were uncomfortable and that is a good description, to me this was over a line when they talked about the “bedding”. That was not called for, we all knew without it being discussed.

Now comes the announcement, were any of you shocked? Surprised? No, of course you were not, this was seen coming from miles away, even the actors did not seem surprised.

Now let turn to Otto Hightower,

They are trying to make him a combination of Varys, Littlefinger and Tywin Lannister. Well first to anyone thinking he is even close to Tywin is a fool. Tywin would never have been so stupid as to go to Dragonstone with 20 house guards, 2 Kings Guard and a handful of other redshirts. There is possibly 1,000 Gold Cloaks on the island, and let us be honest A DRAGON. This fool was about to be dragon doodoo.

Nor is he in the same league as Varys or Littlefinger, they can try to put that lipstick on this pig but its still a pig. Do not get me wrong “Rhys Ifans” is a good actor, but the writing has him less than meh and in fact acting like a Villain and Fool. Again, this could have been fixed by simply not rushing the first season and have many houses trying to marry off a daughter. Also, by not having him try to go up against a dragon that was stupid.

Alicent Hightower;

Meh that is really all I can say about her. She reminds me of a Sansa from GOT, not the books and is being used by her father Littlefinger… I mean Otto. There is not that much there for me to like or be invested in. The actress to play her older-self better bring something to the table or she will be very forgettable.

On to Rhaenys Targaryen;

Is their any doubt in anyone’s mind they are trying to make her Lady Olenna Tyrell? That vibe hit me instantly in her talk to the Princess.

And that brings me to Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen;

In the first episode she was “ok” at best, but knowing they are going to bring in a second actress to play her “older-self” had and still has me concerned if it will work. I would like to get invested in her as the story is really about her in many ways. Yet I do have pause knowing the other actress will be coming in. Aging her up with make-up might have been smarter, but we will see.

I did enjoy her youthfulness and her clear ability to think and be herself. She was being a young girl in a court as a princess. No issues there. Her interaction with her uncle in the throne room was nice and I appreciated they spoke in High Valyrian, it did add to the scene.

Her coming in to save Otto was just bad writing. But the scene with her and her uncle was very well done. Again, High Valyrian spoken added to the scene as did the clear affection the two have for each other. Oh yes in that Very Targaryen sort of way.

But when she returned and the scene with the King being mad at her for all 30 seconds, it was unbelievable to me. He acted (and might I add bad acting) anger or was it concern? I sure could not tell, as she quickly dismissed him and it and went and sat down.

Let’s do this, Prince Daemon Targaryen:

Matt Smith was born to play this part. He has nailed every bit of the Book and Lore of Prince Daemon Targaryen. A quote I loved about him from the cannon’s is this:

“Over the centuries, House Targaryen has produced both great men and monsters. Prince Daemon was both. In his day there was not a man so admired, so beloved, and so reviled in all Westeros. He was made of light and darkness in equal parts. To some he was a hero, to others the blackest of villains.”

This sums him up and we have seen it. His love for his family and even to the people, yet his ruthlessness toward criminals and those opposing him. He brings High Valyrian to life (Imo better than even Emilia Clarke) It is much more polished from him and his delivery is Nobel.

He has the arrogance of a ruler yet the compassion of a loving Brother and Uncle. Let’s face it Matt is the true star of this series so far.

Every scene he is in he nails and makes believable, the chemistry between him and the Princess is there and hinted subtly at. This is how it should have been done between King Viserys and Alicent. Build it up take your time and surprise the viewers.

So that is the characters I want to make mention of. On to the other aspects. Onto the other parts.

Starting with pacing;

Have you guessed I am no fan of the speed they are moving this at. It is to fast and really heading for a S-8GOT disaster if they do not slow down and tell a good story building up suspense, intrigue and getting us invested in what should be key players and motives.

CGI;

For the most part it is good, however twice I have been less than impressed, both times with Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon. They better fix the look of riders and dragons before the Dance or it will be laughed and destroyed on every social media platform and what Youtubers will do to it will make even Rings of Amazon look pale in comparison.

Music;

Not much to say, it is GOT quality. Very well done and fitting for the show.

Acting;

Meh, that is it “meh” with the exception of Matt smith and a little bit of Milly Alcock starting to shine when they are together. The rest is seeming the writers looked at the original show and are trying to make these actors hybrids of the characters we loved on it, instead of giving us new characters to love.

I am not knocking the actors; I am knocking the hell out of the writers. I cannot be the only one to see this, though right now it’s a new shiny thing that is pretty and people are wanting to like it. But sooner or later the shine will age and people will see through it.

Action;

I am really not looking for much action, until we get to the Targaryen Civil War (aka) “The Dance of the Dragons.” I am perfectly fine with great story and intrigue, give me twist and turns I could not see coming. Have build up and pay-off. Make me question things and speculate.

But Action, I can wait for the massive dragon battles or even some decent use of the Dragons. This is the height of Targaryen power. Many are Riders and we can be given little bits of their power, so when that civil war comes, we understand the power of the dragons and how dangerous it really can be wielded by true dragon riders, well bonded with their mounts and in control of them.

The tournament was well done and had they stuck to it instead of the death of the queen, it would have been hundreds of times better. I dislike cut-a-ways like that, it might be just me personally, but give me action and stick to it. Give me other scenes and do them well, but do not do the mingling of them it Detracts from both.

I want to like the show as I did enjoy the Dance of the Dragons and the lore to it. Even going in knowing this is like the Titanic and what happens in the end. I do have a massive distrust for HBO, they proved they can screw up a wet dream more than once. And again, they are so far making me have concerns for that to happen again. What is it they say about insanity? Doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different outcome. How many times will we trust HBO? I also have a bad taste in my mouth now from recent comments from people associated with the show. Did y’all not learn your lesson from D&D? Tell these people shut their cock-holsters about “identity politics and social agenda” You are going to put off the fans quickly by shooting your mouths off.

Two episodes in and “Meh” is the best I can say. Barely scraping a 5 on a scale of 0 to 10. Without Matt Smith it would be a 2.5 to 3 at best.
April 11, 2022 at 2:34 pm #264362

In reply to: What anime are you currently watching/just watched?
theanimatedgamers
Just finished Season 1 of the Rising of the Shield Hero yesterday. I watched the first episode of the Rising of the Shield Hero season 2 today.

Initial reaction: Great main character in Naofumi, supporting cast has both its good moments and bad moments (For the good, Raphtalia is a good character with a tragic backstory and pivotal importance. As for the bad, the three heroes outside of Naofumi [the Shield Hero] are annoying and very generic to the typical secondary arc’s antagonists to turn out to be good guys later cliche.) The setting is a medieval in nature with RPG stats and power-ups for the characters to develop in power. The weakness of the show is the antagonists of the king, the first princess, and the main antagonists during the “Waves” (which are apocalyptic events). The usage of time is also a problem in the show when it comes to the timeline in the story and how the secondary characters develop over time. Overall, the story beats follow the shonen tropes to the letter which may not suit audiences that want both complex and complicated stories such as an seinen animes like Berserk. However, if your expectations are low to average on this anime, at least give it a first time watch. For a score, I would give the anime an 8/10.

As for anime reviews, I have not been in the forums in a while, but I will give anime review videos a try and release them at a later date. For a disclaimer, be prepared that the videos I make are not going to be high video quality and the audio of my voice is a bit more southern in accent. In other words, my videos can be in high definition (HD) but I do not have the ability to make them at 60 FPS or 4k. In terms of release, I will make it a new forum for each review and create a link in a new post when I am finished.
April 7, 2022 at 9:26 pm #263856

In reply to: What anime are you currently watching/just watched?
theanimatedgamers
Let me know if you want a reaction or review to one of the series that I listed in my updated timeline:
- My Dress Up Darling
- Attack on Titan Final Season part 2
- The Genius Price’s Guide to Getting a Nation Out of Debt
- Akame Ga Kill! the series (Season 1 and Season 2)
- Demon Slayer series (Season 1, Season 2, Mugen Train)
- Cowboy Bebop
- 86-Eighty Six series (Season 1 and Season 2)
- The Rising of the Shield Hero (at a later date when catch up to Season 2)
- This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by theanimatedgamers.
January 3, 2022 at 1:52 pm #253020

In reply to: [REVIEW] Wheel of Time
comicsgate
Just for laughs. Thought Roas might get a chuckle.

full article at link. ONly posting intro and end.

https://winteriscoming.net/2022/01/02/why-the-wheel-of-time-succeeds-as-an-adaptation-and-the-witcher-fails/

Not all adaptations are created equal. For every Game of Thrones, which translated its source material fairly faithfully (until it ran out), there are legions of adaptations like The Golden Compass or The Legend of Earthsea, where the soul of the original work has been sucked out, not to mention groan-worthy cash grabs like The Hobbit trilogy.

Since the success of HBO’s fantasy phenomenon, we’ve seen a swell of companies adapting fantasy and science fiction stories that they might never have had the daring to before. At the end of 2021, two big ones dominated the conversation: Amazon’s The Wheel of Time, based on the 15-book series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson; and the second season of Netflix’s The Witcher, based on the bestselling short stories and novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. While both adaptations include large changes from their respective source books, one managed it far more successfully. We’re here today to discuss why.

A note before we begin: Opinions and tastes are subjective, especially with reviews like this. Both of these shows have done things that some fans have liked and others have loathed. I’m not here to try and convince you that you should or shouldn’t like a show; enjoy what you enjoy. What I am going to do is dissect how these shows are in conversation with their source material.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about why The Wheel of Time succeeds as an adaptation while The Witcher fails. Of course, you should be warned that there will be SPOILERS for both shows as well as their respective book series below.

Blight and cutting out two of the Forsaken. But again, they were mostly understandable since the show is playing up the ensemble nature of the story. The first book, The Eye of the World, focuses extremely heavily on Rand’s point of view, while the rest of the series is told from many perspectives. The show made the conscious decision to be an ensemble piece from the get-go, to give viewers a more honest idea of what to expect from the show overall.

In conclusion, it feels an awful lot like the changes and choices made by The Wheel of Time team were done with a lot of care and reverence for the source material. There was never a feeling that they were changing things for the hell of it, but because they were doing the best they could with the medium in which they were working.

Sometimes, the changes even ended up working out better for the story, as with the mystery over who the Dragon Reborn was. This was something the show played way up, and it worked really well. In the books it’s far more obvious that it’s Rand, since we spent more time with him. Here, first-time viewers could plausibly be in suspense.

There’s still a sense that The Wheel of Time is finding its footing…but to my mind it has never been a question that the show is trying really hard to do its best by Robert Jordan’s story.
December 18, 2021 at 11:05 am #251846

In reply to: The Witcher
Roas
I have watched the first two episodes of season two and have enjoyed it. “shrug”. I really liked the tragedy of the cursed man. I know people like Az have bashed it on Friday Night Tights, but I am having a good time so far.

I agree for the most part with what you are saying. I don’t quite understand Az’s rage last night. I’m 6 episodes in, and while I see some of what he’s talking about, I don’t see it on the levels to enrage him. Then again, I’m a borderline normie when it comes to the Witcher having only played the first game, while Az I believe is a more hardcore game fan, so he may see problems I do not.

As a preview to my review video that will probably happen tomorrow, right now the biggest sins of the show as I see it are 1) anything not involving Geralt and Ciri is boring…really boring, 2) still not enough monster killing, 3) still not enough Cavill/Geralt as there should be, 4) pacing and narrative is kinda a mess in the first half of the season, 5) everything surrounding the elves feels agendaish to me.

I’ll of course go into more detail in my review, but over all I don’t hate it, but I wish I liked it more, and I understand already why I don’t like it more.
August 22, 2021 at 5:57 pm #238147

In reply to: The end of the MCU?
comicsgate
What If Marvel Wasn’t a DISASTER?
Marvel’s What If..? Season 1 Episode 2 Review | What If T’Challa Became a Star-Lord? In a Marvel Cinematic Universe of infinite possibilities Marvel has decided to ignore them for the most part and do what they are doing in the ‘regular’ MCU. Race and gender swap everyone. First it was what If Peggy Carter was a better Captain America and now it’s What If T’Challa was a better Star lord. More boring subtle and not so subtle deconstruction.
February 2, 2021 at 8:56 pm #207810

Topic: Team Knight Rider

in forum Television
Emrys
Ten years ago all it took was one man and one car to get the job done. Now, the foundation for law and government has assembled five highly skilled operatives and paired them with the most advanced state of the art vehicles to take on a new breed of outlaw. They are…Team Knight Rider.

Set a decade after the original series, Team Knight Rider (TKR for short) ran for one season of 22 episodes between 1997-98. Here in the UK, it went out on the ITV network on Saturday afternoons. It would be fake news to say that Team Knight Rider was a success. It wasn’t. But I don’t actually lay the blame on the production team nor its cast of actors. I just think people lacked the imagination to give it a chance + were so hung up on the original Knight Rider series to accept anything different + NBC gave it little to no promotion. I’ll return to the topic of NBC later. TKR had a lot going for it and revisiting the series on my VHS recordings ( sadly no physical media release to speak of at this time) I feel very strongly that this show is often overlooked/underestimated and still stands up well 24 years later. Recently I watched an episode titled Bad Seed in which a mad scientist creates a killer virus and releases it around the world causing the population to wear masks and protective clothing until, eventually, TKR finds a cure. Sound familiar? In another episode ( actually the season debut) Fallen Nation, the team rescues a supposed kidnapped General, only to uncover he is behind a plot to detonate a nuclear bomb over Washington D.C all in the name of progressive politics.

In some respects, Team Knight Rider actually dealt with global catastrophes far more than the original Knight Rider did, but still kept the mythology of the original series and the legend of Michael Knight and KITT going as well as Michaels presence being felt across the season. There are corners of the Knight Rider fandom that refuse to acknowledge TKR as cannon and only see it as a failed reboot. I see it as a continuation. If you doubt that, well there’s a lot to argue the contrary. It is heavily implied that TKR team member Jenny Andrews is the daughter of Hasselhoff’s Michael Knight character and the whole series builds up to villain Mobius flushing Michael out of hiding which results in a cliff-hanger that I still remember till this very day.

Legion of Doom is the last episode of the series and is stuffed with show lore and fan-pleasing goodness. When that last episode went out and a character, who had been looming in the shadows across the season (SPOLIER COMING UP) reveals himself to be Michael Knight (not played by David Hasselhoff) my whole body was pulsating. I actually didn’t know it was the season finally as the TV Guide had Team Knight Rider listed for next week as a brand new episode titled Apocalypse Maybe. If that doesn’t sound like a season finally title I don’t know what dose. This is going to be epic I thought. All week at school I was going on about this episode and even told my teacher (who used to watch Knight Rider when she was a child) that Michael and KITT were going to be in it. Boy did I look dumb! Apocalypse Now goes out and something is not right. Where is Michael? Why is the Team driving around in Arizona and not on the hilltop where they found Michael? In fact, there is no reference to anything that happened in the previous EP. WTF? Turns out this episode was actually EP 20 and was shown out of order by ITV. Hate it when networks do that. I later found out that TKR was canceled after just 1 season of 22 episodes and Legion of Doom was the last one. Great! Now I’ll never know what happens.

The series was axed due to poor ratings and frankly a total lack of promotion by NBC. Such little faith did NBC have in Team Knight Rider that it was moved from a prime time slot, midseason, to a midnight slot on a Monday morning. Screw you NBC. I still long to know what happened after Legion of Doom. Fanfics have been written and I am considering following up the story myself once I reach the end of the season. I have not seen Legion in 24 years and will almost be seeing it fresh. It will be brand new all over again. Yes, I think I will write my own fanfic to the season conclusion, maybe it’s better that way? Leave it open for the fans to decide what happens next. Regardless, this is an amazing show. If you loved the original Knight Rider then I think you will find enough in this to grab your interest. Don’t expect the Hoff or the original Kitt car (although they are referenced a lot) but a new take and a continuation of the story of one man making a difference with his talking car. However this time its 3 men, Kyle Stewart (played by Brixton Karnes), Duke DePalma (played by Duane Davis) Trek Sanders (played by Nick Wechsler), and 2 women, Jenny Andrews, (played by Christine Steel) and Erica West (played by Kathy Trageser) with their 3 talking cars + 2 motorcycles…

Danté (voiced by Tom Kane) a modified Ford Expedition sport utility vehicle driven by Kyle. Danté’s AI expresses himself in a haughty British manner and has no misgivings about making his driver and passengers feel uncomfortable. He is the de facto leader of the vehicles (if they’d ever listened to him) and he usually speaks on their behalf. Domino (voiced by Nia Vardalos), is a modified Ford Mustang convertible driven by Jenny. The AI’s manner is sleek, sexy, and flirtatious. She is also talkative and likes to gossip to the annoyance of the other vehicles. Attack Beast (voiced by Kerrigan Mahan), is a modified Ford F-150 full-sized pickup truck with off-road capability, driven by Duke. Beast’s AI has a stubborn and argumentative attitude that talks tough and is not afraid to stand up to a fight. Much to Duke’s embarrassment, Beast also has a fondness for the music of Alanis Morissette. His favourite tactic is to crash through walls and surprise the enemy. Beast does not like to take orders from Duke or anyone else, but he is fiercely loyal and gets the job done. TKR member Jenny is the only one Beast will listen to, and his aggressive nature softens when she is around. Kat, (voiced by Andrea Beutner), is a high-tech motorcycle that merges with her twin, Plato, to form the advanced High-Speed Pursuit Vehicle, capable of high speeds and incredible maneuverability. Kat is driven by Erica and her AI has a polar opposite personality to that of her driver. Kat is always concerned with rules and regulations and is in constant conflict with Erica’s amoral traits. She acts more like Erica’s mother than her partner, but she will do whatever is necessary to get Erica out of a jam. Plato (voiced by comedian John Kassir), is the other motorcycle that merges with his twin Kat to form the High-Speed Pursuit Vehicle. Plato is driven by Trek and, like his operator, Plato is a nerdy Brainiac completely consumed by facts, figures, and data. Plato likes to quote television commercials and famous movie lines and talks in sort of a code that only Trek can understand. The two have developed a strange symbiotic relationship that the other TKR members can never figure out.

So there you have it, folks. Team Knight Rider. One of the most underrated shows of all time. I personally think it a crime that this series is not out on physical media but from what I understand NBC Universal doesn’t even obtain copies within their archives anymore. Apparently, it was junked after a certain period due to not being commercially viable. Thank Wilton Knight (fan ref) that I never recorded over my VHS tapes. I highly recommend this show. You can check it out on YouTube for a complete season of $12;99 or per EP $1:99 http://www.youtube.com/show/SClaXpmLOw0crGubT26pglwQ?season=1

If you remember watching Team Knight Rider please do comment as I would love to hear from other fans, assuming I am not the only one. And if you didn’t see it, but want a preview, check out the video below
December 22, 2020 at 12:56 am #202241

Topic: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Miami Warmth: video game preview, start off season

in forum General Sports Discussions
Williams
The Cleveland Cavaliers are again at it upon Thursday with a 600 pm ET matchup with the Miami Warmth. I assuming the early commence consists of everything toward do with the Space soccer staff enjoying at house upon the exact same night time, as I can picture the website traffic would be pleasurable for the metropolis in the direction of offer with as 100 some thousand folks generate their path downtown Terrell Brandon Jersey. For a ton of persons, the Cavs will offer a pleasant appetizer in direction of the finish dinner of the Browns-Steelers competition, however the employees alone contains one more chance toward mature and increase. Who Cleveland Cavaliers Miami HeatWhen 600 p.m. ESTWhere Rocket Home loan FieldHouse Cleveland, OhioWhere towards check out Fox Athletics Ohio, NBA League PassThe Miami Warm incorporate stunned early upon this time; for no matter what Jimmy Butler provides inside words and phrases of annoyance, he continues to be a actually beneficial basketball participant. The staff members incorporates dealt with harm and drama as Dion Waiters, Justise Winslow and Butler himself contain disregarded period for distinct causes. In spite of inconsistency within text of who includes been readily available, Erik Spoelstra proceeds in direction of impress any time he presented a 50 %-first rate roster with which in direction of exertion. They haven scored primarily nicely yet they are protecting at an elite issue. This may well spell issue for the Cavs who comprise absent for spells this time wherever the offense devolves into Collin Sexton and Tristan Thompson operating much too tough towards develop for them selves although the bench system struggles. As a substitute, despite the fact that, the Cavs contain established adept at establishing Great a few stage options, and incorporate regulated the forums for highest of the time. Only as the matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers delivered an attention-grabbing examine, hence as well will the Miami Warm. And let speak more than that 76ers match. Naturally there a tanking conversation that we contain the total time for, however it looked together with a video game that experienced nearly anything you require. The Cavs will be equipped toward master in opposition to what unsuccessful in the direction of perform within the very last 5 minutes of that match, and they just take self-confidence towards being familiar with they competed the complete year. The Cavs are an athletic, if not specially educated workers. Quite possibly that unfair, however they quickly will contain challenge acquiring offense separately and as a result will have to have toward have confidence in John Beilein thoughts. As a result much, as a result Great, as even at 4-6 I say the coach acceptance position would be within the higher 90s. I in addition noticed some individuals that ended up dissatisfied Sexton didn get the final shot. A person, I believe that it major towards understand he wasn taking some extraordinary evening. We was battling in the direction of discover general performance, which is toward be demanded. The Cavs acquired Kevin Delight in, their excellent offensive participant, a broad open up search. I don recognize what the grievance of that would be. It continue to a mastering expertise for Sexton inside of that it a crunchtime problem that resulted inside of a fairly substantial-proportion shot as soon as they demanded it utmost. Resorting toward hero ball against a participant that isn an elite writer would contain been a even worse consequence. I have an understanding of why ethical victories are lame for some, nevertheless I choose aggressive signs and symptoms of improvement. Ideally that carries on versus Miami. Worry the Sword Fearless Prediction I feel we perspective, possibly, a video game which includes the decline in direction of the Celtics. It not the worst season for the staff towards be humbled in just some lower path. Yet hey, I choose a gain far too.
October 9, 2020 at 11:23 am #194226

In reply to: Deaf U….seriously…what???
Roas
@DigiCat yeah….I realized that twenty minutes later in the car. In my defense, my attention is divided atm over a possible personal problem that I can’t get settled until tomorrow, now, so my focus is not totally 100%. Sucks, but that phrase is radioactive, and I know I lost a point for using it.

@Shiftygism I’m not gonna go point by point to what you said, so I’m going straight to some meat.

First, I gotta say what is up with you taking shots at me? Typical G&G poster? What is that supposed to really mean? Yeah, you can go through my post history and clearly see I lean conservative and don’t like the woke, but so what? My history shows I also show respect to everyone I debate with or disagree with. I don’t throw out cheap shots and degrade my opponents. Everything I have to say comes with a purpose and meaning and even when I disagree I don’t demean.

Anime dingbat? So, because I happen to enjoy anime/manga as a hobby, I’m a dingbat? You don’t know me, dude. You wanna discuss classic American Cinema from 1920’s all the way up until 2000? You wanna talk American television from the 1960’s all the way up until today? Maybe some American cartoons/animation .vs. Japanese animation? How about a few foreign films here and there? Wanna talk videogames? Classic Literature, mayhap? My point is, I have a wide and varied accumulation of entertainment knowledge, appreciation, and general love, so please do not call me a dingbat. I’ve got 40 years worth of experience as a consumer of entertainment, so I think I have enough of a personal resume to analyze and make assessments.

You go on and on about reality TV and how it’s a perfectly reasonable medium for everyone to enjoy, and how things have to be given a chance. Firstly, once upon a time, people created content to feed to the masses, because the masses demanded it, wanted it. Yes, reality TV continues to exist because the masses want it, because frankly, people can totally turn off their brains to it and enjoy the stupidity. I’m guilty of that in the past myself. God damned Animal Planet and freaking Orangutan Island had me all those years ago late at night when I had nothing to watch and I was brain dead at the end of the day, but don’t serve it to me on a plate and tell me it’s fine cuisine. I always knew it was gas station chicken salad sandwich and I risked my brain/health watching it. As the old adage goes, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Just because you can make a show about something “new” and “fresh” doesn’t mean you need to, let alone waste money on it.

Which leads to my next point. Let’s say for a moment that I’m right, and this show ends up being nothing but virtue signaling wokeness. We are in the middle of the height of a culture war to save entertainment. By your stance, we should allow the woke nonsense to be put out there to make people even dumber and feed the woke SJW agenda. What we should be doing is creating, supporting, and following entertainment that is just that…entertainment. No message. No woke. No agenda. A show like this has a better than average chance, if you ask me, to be mostly agenda driven, because it’s singling out a particular minority community and foisting it on the public as something they have to watch and appreciate.

And even though I was a little addled this morning when I first posted, my subconscious knew to use Anime as an example, because know why? Anime as a whole has depth and variety without the woke. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of stories out there told and being told without agenda. There is a reason consumers are flocking to manga and anime, because at this moment it is the pure escapist entertainment. You can sit down, watch any kind of anime genre you like, and lose yourself. I just finished watching Uzaki Chan Wants to Hang Out Season 1, and good god damn, Uzaki and her bountiful “assets” were a joy to watch because it was a harmless silly show that just wanted to make you smile. I escaped. It didn’t try to make me think. It didn’t try to tell me something.

Deaf U, until I’m proven otherwise, was likely made to make viewers “think” and “understand” and “get in touch with” what that world is like. Make you think and appreciate that someone different than you…blah blah blah. Agenda. Created to make a point, reality TV or not, to drive agenda and not to truly entertain.

So maybe in the end I’ve answered my own initial question. Who wanted this? Who asked for it? Those who want to review it and say it’s so wokey great with its messaging. Those who want to say, “I watched this and I feel better about myself for doing it. I’m so great. Praise me.”

Until I’m proven otherwise, I’m sticking to my stance. If I end up being wrong, I’ll take it aaaaaaaaall back, because my ego isn’t so over blown that I can’t admit I was wrong about things.
September 30, 2020 at 2:10 pm #192722

Topic: J’s Reviews YouTube Channel

in forum YouTube
Greg777
Batman the Animated Series Season 1- Defining a Generation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M97vzzVHLFg&list=PLVpPMdR6Ba_RjuLoOEsDd1OBFUBWoAgvv
- This topic was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by Greg777.
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