Techwright

Good start to season.

Season 2, Episode 11: "Metamorphosis" Finally got back to main storyline stuff and man was this good. Dark, creepy, and black ops Empire evil with a new villain. To top it all, it answers a mystery left hanging for years from The Clone Wars.

I'm re-watching season 2 in preparation for tomorrow's season 3 premier, and it occurs to me there's a very big unanswered question from the end of Season 2:

Amalgam Comics these are not. There's some bizzare choices there. The Batman/Ironman one makes sense, but many of the others fused hero (or anti-hero) with villain. And many I don't even see the characters as being in the same room, let alone in a fusion. I will say the Flash/Hulk fusion would be well nigh unstoppable, lacking only flight and space flight.

Smallest change? This powerset: Think about it.

I first encountered the arcade version back when I was a college arcade rat, and was previously unaware there was any unusual backstory. I'm curious about the movie, but worried too. Hollywood doesn't have the greatest track record for accuracy in historic films, and these edgy, spy-like scenes in Tetris appear to be continuing that trend. Glory, one of my favorite Civil War movies, made up whole characters and scenarios, and I'd really have rather been introduced to historically accurate representations of very courageous men. It's my one grudge of the amazing book The Killer Angels and its companion movie Gettysburg. Rather than use the real sergeant of the Maine unit, whom I understand was a well-documented person, the author opted to remove him entirely and put a fictional "everyman" character in his place, compiled from the experiences of several soldiers. The worst such violation I've heard was the movie Zulu, another favorite of mine. One of the bravest men of Rorke's Drift had his sterling reputation torn to shreds by that movie which took his name but not his character, casting their version as antagonistic and cowardly. His poor family went to see the film but stormed out in protest when they saw how his reputation was forever violated. If Hollywood wants to make substantial changes to a historical person or events, take a page from John Ford's The Horse Riders, bill it as a fiction only influenced by real events, and change the names of the characters to protect the real people and their families. Then they can do with the fictional characters as they will. Here's hoping Tetris will either toe the line with accuracy or change the names to protect the innocents from defilements of fiction.

I am SO GLAD I opted not to watch The Eternals. Your stated opinion matches a host of others I've read. Phase 4 already has felt largely flat to me, though with a few great moments, notably the Spiderman movie, but others as well. I didn't need it to go into a deficit. Marvel largely did fantastic with the first 3 Phases, so I'm a bit puzzled why they've felt so off in Phase 4. I do wish someone would compile any bits from The Eternals that will have an impact in the overall MCU storyline and post a YouTube vid of them. Solely because I don't want to be blindsided if something related comes up later. I wonder how long it will be before The Film Theorists take Quantumania to the woodshed like they did the DCEU? My personal favorite was the tank keychain.

I'm not thrilled the TV show is ending, The Flash has always been one of my favorite comic characters, but considering how problematic the writing has been off and on for years, and that at 9 seasons in, actors are usually wanting to move on lest they be permanently typecast and out of work, I'd say it is time. It's too bad the Arrow-verse seems to have grown more juvenile over time (though it still had its moments). Another series or two with a harder edge to them, akin to the first seasons of The Flash and Arrow, might have been appreciated. I for one, forever hope someone would develop a gritty noir around The Question.

I thought they were trying to portray Atomic Skull at first, and finally realized it was meant to be Derek Powers. If they were going to do a Batman Beyond, Keaton is at the right age to play Bruce. Tom doesn't really strike me as Terry though. Terry's much edgier.

I'm most interested in this:

Season 2 Episode 9: "The Crossing" Mixed-bag episode. This started out poorly, but improved towards the end and appears to have some input into the major story arc.

To each his or her own, I guess.

I put my other gaming on pause to try out a host of demos during Steam's big demo event this month. Of the many I've tried so far, I keep coming back to Dreadful River. Just in the few days that I've played it the game's team have made a host of improvements, including increasing the number of opponents on the river. In talking with the devs, their goal is to unlock landing for fighting and exploration in the next few days. They seem to be very responsive to feedback right now, and one of the four suggests I made was responded to and in the patch the next day. I've never seen that kind of speed before. I've read some gamer comments referring to this as a "tower defense on a river" game. There is that, but when fully functioning, it will also act similar to classic hero questing games. Here's a link to one person's sampling of the demo. Keep in mind their version of the demo is 11 days old now (as of this writing) and many improvements have been rolled out in just that short time. I've found the tactic here is to not just float into a fight, but to keep the raft constantly rotating/revolving to spread out damage, and add it speeding up, slowing down, strategically dropping anchor or running aground, even tacking back upriver. At the first town you stop at for supplies, they will give you a sail to improve speed and maneuverability. They hope to roll the full game out before March 1.

Season 2, episode 8 - "Truth & Consequences" (mid-season episode) Wow. Major main storyline episode taking the Bad Batch storyline into several unexpected directions, and changing the Batch probably forever. Spoiler talk:

Season 2, episode 7 - "The Clone Conspiracy" Back on track with the main storyline (sort of). Disney+ dropped 2 episodes on us today, probably due to the 8th being the mid-season point. I'm watching the two separately and commenting on each separately as a result. Episode 7 marks a strong comeback to the main storyline, and it is notably more intense than the previous three episodes. It features the return of a fan-favorite character from The Clone Wars, more dialog from a certain villain character than I can ever remember them having, and short appearances by a couple of long-standing favorites. Oddly, they apparently decided to take a page from The Book of Boba Fett, and what the episode does not have are the title characters. It does appear to be telling a long set-up story for their next action, however. Spoiler talk:

Just started playing the free survival game Arid. Other than the fact that my character has the jumping/climbing ability of a legless horse and at times seems to have their eye level set to that of a hobbit's, I'm quite enjoying it so far.

The movie wasn't a total loss. Having Marian back was a blast, and having Cate Blanchett as the villain was great. The mini documentary on surviving an atomic blast with only temporary disorientation by hiding in refrigerators was quite useful as well. No more Burt the Turtle with "duck and cover", and no need for expensive survival rooms buried in the back yard.

Never heard of it, but looking it over, it seems very interesting.

It's Lucasfilms, so it's also Disney. Do you think they're going to let that cash cow go to pasture? I can see a few years off, but I can't see Disney letting go of Indiana Jones permanently. There's one possibility that might allow them to have cake and eat it too: introduce a new Indy actor, but also retain Ford. Kind of like Leonard Nimoy in 2009's Star Trek reboot. In the case of Indy, there's the major point in the TV show The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (which I'll call "soft canon" though it was originally intended as canon, I'm told), that the stories of his past are told by a 90-year-old Indy. Translated to the movies, that might allow Harrison Ford to take on the old storyteller mantel, while introducing his replacement. Depending on Ford's health and, well, continued existence, they might be able to squeeze out a couple of films with this motif. There is a theory out there that Indy's goddaughter in this film will be the focus of an Indy-like series of films going forward, though I'm not sure if the 1970s as a setting will hold the mystique and storytelling potential of the Nazi-era 1930s and 40s. I for one might be interested in early Cold War-era films surrounding Short Round, Indy's kid sidekick in Temple of Doom. It could bring an Asian lead to the larger Indy-verse and might focus on stories in Asia or the entire Pacific. I'm merely guessing where S.R. ended up, since he's not mentioned again. (I'd really like a cameo or some reference to him in this final film.)

Vidiotmaps and a few sound mods, mostly to temper or block annoying sounds thought a few I use to enhance or change a sound.

Wood you say you...staked...out a place? I say, is that the exit? *Heads stage left*

I'd have eliminated War Walls. I know the game necessity for having them but they make no lore sense. First they are walls on the scale of dams. Dams that take years and years to build properly. These supposedly went up in short order in the middle of a short but powerful war. Second, we're fighting an opponent that can fly. One that had an active mothership as well. And we build massive concrete walls. That's like creating the barrel to shoot fish in. Second, I'd do a better job writing the rest of the world into the story. I realize the game's name is defining, but that didn't have to be so in the beginning. No city is an island unto itself (Even Praetoria has several islands.). While we do have the Rogue Islands as "elsewhere" and we have stories that reference other places, I'd have like to have seen a better integration into the state, the region, the country, and the world at large. We could have had task forces that of necessity sent us to London , or Cairo, or Ayers Rock for that matter, to deal with something that would have grave consequences for Paragon City if left unchecked. for that matter the current lore states that the invasion was global in its scope. We should have seen more of the fallout from that. I'd also have written a clearer history of the heroes and villains. I've managed to piece together bits here and there, but even with the plaques and markers, I'm left feeling a bit disjointed. I pointed out in another thread some time ago there's some seemingly contradictory information on those plaques about the timeline of Mayor Spanky for example.

Enough to open a lunch counter Got an low sodiu...uuuh, wait a second...isn't SPAM supposed to be pink? That stuff looks like tofu.

While I could see it, and he'd be good, I think that would fall under @ThaOGDreamWeaver's comments about filling the role with one who always plays the same parts. Beside, I've hope against hope that someone will realize that Pratt could be the next Indiana Jones. I realize that hope hangs by a thread finer than spider silk, but maybe this is the world in the multiverse where it happens. 😉 Cena - I still am not past the images of him suiting up in a battleframe suit portraying one of the main characters of the failed game Firefall (which the game didn't fail, the owners did. The game was glorious until the new ownership gutted it). Cena had been hired to promote the game while it was still in early beta. If he's lucky, no pictures still exist, though I've not checked the Wayback machine. Blue Beetle - I'm open to the possibilities. But what I don't want to see is Jaime Reyes as some "Yakky Duck" character running a motor mouth of shock at the battlesuit's antics. Yes there will be discord between the two, but it can be handled with better writing choices. Aquaman 2 & Flash - I'm wondering how much the off-screen antics of stars in these two will hurt their performance. There's not been a lot of love for Amber Heard since the court case, and well, you already mentioned Ezra's ...um...situation. As to whether this new DCU will succeed or not, well, it has always been the same thing in every franchise: the script has got to be outstanding first and foremost. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, for example, had the right stars and the best special effects money could buy at the time. What success it had, though, came from fans desires to see anything Star Trek back on the screen. It was a tepid film otherwise. The real powerhouse was The Wrath of Khan, and it was so because it had a humdinger of a script as foundation. This is not a new concept, but Hollywood seems to keep forgetting how crucial it is. I could watch a movie with paper-mache monsters, cheezy spandex costumes, and good but unknown actors in the lead roles if the script were powerful. The rest is icing. Icing is important to the cake, but it is not foundational. DC will need to figure this out like Marvel did in phases 1 to 3. (Marvel might need to rediscover it in parts of their franchise as well.)