Michael Gibson 11/26/22 Michael Gibson 11/26/22

Can a Story Save Gameplay? -or- God of War Ragnarok Review (Non-Spoiler)

original image from IGN

Right off the bat lemme say this: I loved God of War Ragnarok a LOT. It’s a serious contender for game of the year, an amazing sequel to a beloved Playstation exclusive, and one of the best story-driven games I’ve played, period. BUT . . . that does not mean it is bulletproof and beyond critique/criticism. So for the record, I give this game a 9/10. That being said . . .

A Quick History

The 2018 God of War was a reboot/re-imagination/continuation of the 2005 God of War franchise created by David Jaffe (Twisted Metal) at Sony's Santa Monica Studio. The initial series introduced us to anti-hero protagonist—and murderous edgelord supreme—Kratos, who cut a bloody swath through ancient Greek mythology. I say edgelord because it’s true. He was a provocative, extreme character whose exploits ranged from cold-blooded murder to in-engine sex mini-games. BUT, this is not necessarily to insult Kratos’ early work, but so we as an audience can see how far he’s come as a character. Sure, they attempted to humanize Kratos early on in the series by explaining that he accidentally killed his wife/daughter, was then cursed to wear their ashes on his skin, and thus became the Ghost of Sparta. Kinda cool, right? Well… let’s be honest, that’s a typical D&D character backstory created by an angsty youth high on Mountain Dew and 2000’s Nu-Metal. Ya feel me? Edgy for the sake of edgy. Ahh, we were all young once.

2018 God of War Gameplay

So when the 2018 God of War came out—helmed by the GoW2 director and former lead animator Cory Barlog—I was amazed to see how Kratos, now living in Scandanavia, had matured. Not just his glorious beard, but as a person. Recognizing the pain and grief he had caused, Kratos has put away his past, choosing to be better. He was once again a father and as we soon learn, a widower. A very recent one in fact as the game opens with Kratos preparing the funeral pyre for his late wife Faye. Ouch. This—this was not what I was expecting. Like the action-comedy Guardians of the Galaxy, I was not expecting such an emotional, weighty start. When Kratos’ son Ateyus stood before the flames of his dead mom, Kratos’ hand hovers over his son’s shoulders, but doesn't rest there. He does not give comfort. Fuck, he doesn’t know how to be a dad. That moment stuck with me.

Instead of traditional mourning, Kratos takes Atreyus on a hunt, forcing him to bottle his feelings. This hunt then leads is the first plot step which culminates in an incredible adventure spanning the Norse Nine Realms. And I loved every damn moment. The Leviathan axe and the new combat system were freaking DOPE! Then came the puzzles, the open area design, and the MetroidVania style of returning to areas w/new equipment to do new things. And all of this “game” was wrapped around a tight, yet simple, narrative of a father and a son connecting, really for the first time. Sniff.

SIDE NOTE: Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t bother hiding my daddy issues, and I’m a mark for such stories. Still, I’m not ashamed to admit I cried a couple times during GoW18. By this time, I too was a father now. I too had been an edgy young man. And I too now had a son and was desperately trying to not repeat the sins of my youth and be a better man for my child. Playing Kratos, the former edgelord murder hobo, who had all that violence and rage still in him, but was using it to protect his son? MWA! Chef’s kiss. All that hit me in the fee-fee’s.

original image from Entertainment Weekly

God of War Ragnarok

Image from hyperxgaming

Like I said in the preamble, this sequel is SOLID. Picking up a couple years later, Atreyus is a little older and right in that sweet spot of mid-teen angsty, emotional, sweet, awkward, and annoying all at the same time. Hormones . . . am I right? Parents back me up here. I saw some reviews from folks who were irked by Atreyus. And no offense to those folks intended (seriously I know how condescending this can sound, so please know it isn’t condescension but context,) but those of us w/kids know this as fact and deal with it daily.

The story of the sequel goes deeper. Not just in lore, but in character connections. Rivalries from the past, goals and ambitions, furious conflicts, heartbreaking reveals, and even young love are all there, just waiting to be explored. I LOVED IT. Through the campaign, amid the blood, battle, and intrigue, Kratos and Atreyus’ connection was tested to the point of breaking, yet masterfully told, came out stronger . . . if a little melancholy. You’ll understand if you play. Not all endings are happy, but many feel “right.”

god-of-war-ragnarok-cast-character-models-brok-sindri.jpg

Images from hyperxgaming

Classic characters like Brok, Sindri, and Freya return and are vastly more fleshed out in this game. A couple take narrative turns I was not expecting. Bravo! The new characters, like Thor, Odin, Sif, Agraboda, Heimdall, and Thrud are incredibly welcome additions. Each has a uniqueness all their own and enough character growth to avoid being two-dimensional. And I’d be a liar if I didn’t say that Ryan Hurst’s (Remember the Titans, Sons of Anarchy) portrayal of Thor wasn’t one of the best ever.

But again, with Kratos and Atreyus being the leads, there were many moments in the game that bookends the series with such a delicate touch that I had to pause and appreciate the craft. Like the 2018 GoW, Ragnarok is ultimately a story of father and son. And like all good parents, they can admit when they are wrong and tell their children that they shouldn’t be another version of the parent, but the best version of themselves. But that’s the writer in me. Sadly, the gamer in me was a little disappointed.

See, not much—if any really— gameplay was changed. That’s both good . . . and bad. The puzzles were there, but felt fewer and more of the same. Tacked on really, borrowing heavily from the previous game instead of making new ones that felt inventive. The new playable areas came across to me as more maze-like and less exploration based, choosing instead to funnel the player from point A to B. I got to go to more realms this time, but they felt somehow . . . smaller? Shallow perhaps? Maybe I’m being hyper, or overly, critical, but I swear the new locations didn’t have the same build craft as the worlds in the 2018 version. And, I’m sad to say a couple were just . . . meh? The land of the Dwarves kinda looked like any generic southwestern US state. The home of the Vanir was basically just an idyllic Poison Ivy rainforest. But maybe that’s me being picky? To be sure, the character animations and combat graphics were on point (beyond really), but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed in the set design.

But all that aside, the plot was SO DAMN GOOD! Yet that’s the real sticky wicket for this review, the plot-to-game imbalance. While I won’t go into spoilers, there are several times when Atreyus has to go off on his own, as young people do. In the interim, Kratos is accompanied by an old frenemy who fills the Atreyus role of the “shoot that so I can do X” mechanic (at least it did in my play though, don’t know if that’s by design or order of events is optional.) And while it’s good, and the drama that unfolds in said time with the frenemy is solid, my (well, Kratos’s) goddamn son is out there! I don’t need to be doing side plot! Who gives a crap about breaking pots, banging bells, bringing ghosts their . . . whatever McGuffin so their spirits can move on?! They had their chance. MY SON IS MISSING! I NEED TO GO! NOW!!

Whew . . . got a little heated there.

Point is, if you liked the 2018 God of War core story, then you will LOVE the story of God of War Ragnarok. If you liked 2018 GoW just for Kratos killing everything and couldn’t give a crap about the plot, then there’s more of that. But, it’s just the same killing. Valkyries are replaced by Berserkers. You can do the challenges if you want, just like before. Combos and weapons play galore. But aside from a new weapon, there is very little that’s different overall.

A fair comparison would be The Last of Us transition to The Last of Us II. Both series sequels (Ragnarok and TLoU 2) had nearly identical gameplay as their predecessor. Ragnarok, however, I find to be a better narrative. Come at me all you want, but I did not care for TLoU 2’s story as much as the rest of the internet.

In the end, I gave God of War Ragnarok a 9/10. That was an average between a 10 for story, 9 for graphics, and an 8 for gameplay. While I wasn’t ga-ga for the gameplay, that freaking story had me riveted.

What did you think? Did you play the game? What are your thoughts?

As always, live long & strong!

~Gibby

Michael Gibson 10/30/22 Michael Gibson 10/30/22

Fantasy TV Burnout -Or- Why Am I So “Meh” about Rings of Power/House of the Dragon?

No matter how old I get, part of me will always be like Bastian, that kid who lived in a land of make believe w/their head in the clouds. Kind of a “no shit” statement considering what I do/write for a living. So when the Sci-fi & Fantasy (SFF) media revolution began in the late 90’s/early 00’s, you can imagine how I, along with the rest of the nerds of the world, rejoiced. Like the Goonies, this was OUR TIME. And over the last two decades, SFF remained the dominant entertainment media.

And I’m—I’m kind of getting tired of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I still consume SFF as much as the next nerd. But the sheer volume of pop culture saturation has me just kinda . . . burned out? Desensitized and apathetic. Maybe it’s like a porn thing, you know? The adage that the more you consume the more you become numb to the medium, thus forcing deeper searches for either the truly excellent or the truly bizarre to pique your interest. Eh, who knows? Anyway, when the media heralded the coming of Rings of Power and House of the Dragon, I just kinda shrugged. So with that burnout filter in mind, here are my quick reviews of the latest entries of prestige fantasy drama. (If you don’t want to hear a middle-aged dude rant, then skip to the end where I try to redeem myself by listing shows I really like/recommend)

House of the Dragon (HoT-D!!)

So right out of the gate, this show is obviously going to be compared to its predecessor. Impossible to separate them due to nerd zeitgeist. But considering how GoT ended, metaphorically like a stinking, loud wet fart after what had been some great sex, all the show had to be was better than that. And as such, my overall opinion was . . . it was safe. New actors doing and saying the same old thing in the old same places we’ve already seen. “Oh . . . look, it’s King’s Landing, the Red Keep, the Iron Throne, the Small Council, the Hand of the King, Maesters, family/house names we know, and . . . oh boy, white-haired Targaryen women with dragons wanting to be queen . . . again.”

And this is just me talking, but once you’ve seen Tyrion, Tywin, Littlefinger, Varys, Queen of Thorns plotting and sniping, or the sheer self-serving malevolent insanity of a Geoffrey, then the best HOT-D had to offer was little league at best by comparison.

Without a looming threat like the White Walkers or a legitimate external threat to give the internal strife context, and the fantasy elements just being “hey look, a dragon . . . neat,” then the show boiled down to elite 1%’ers fucking and fucking each other over. The Real Housewives of Westeros if you will. I know that’s reductive, but it’s my opinion.

Then there were the time jumps, where whole sections of the cast were changed, leaving them without enough screen time to care about, let alone giving a damn when they have “a shocking death.” You want me to feel something for brown-hair generic son #2’s grisly dragon-back demise? Seriously?! Please, I was cheering for his death. When Ned Stark died it had an impact because we spent an entire season (1st book) with him (seemingly) as the main protagonist. Subsequent deaths in the OG GoT show followed the same formula: spend copious amounts of time with them, get to know their multi-faceted character, then kill them. Brown-hair generic son #2 (not gonna bother looking up the name) may have been cool in the book, dunno, didn’t read it. But on screen, he and most of the kids were as captivating as room-temperature water paired with unsalted crackers. And when the king died it was a goddamn blessing as we watched him literally fall apart for most of the season.

Now all that being said, I still gave this show 4 out of 5 dragons. For my gripes, I can’t deny the production and the acting skills of Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Eve Best, Rhys Ifan, Olivia Cook, or Milly Alcock. Each of them played their respective characters with gravitas as they wove a The Crown-like level of royal storytelling strife. So, I’ll watch season 2, but man I hope they give us something new. Again for the record, no I did not read the book . . . books? Are there more than one? I don’t know and I’m not gonna bother looking that up either. Mainly because if a show is going to be a show, you shouldn’t need a companion guide. Speaking of which . . .

Rings of Power (RoP)

Oh dear lord, where do I start? Do I need to have read outside the Hobbit and Lord of The Rings proper to know what’s going on? Because I didn’t and I don’t know or care what a Silmaril is. I do care about how the show constantly cherry-picks lines and rather specific turns of phrases from the LoR. And man does it ever feel, what’s the word I’m looking for . . . cloying? A saccharine, excessively sweet play on nostalgia that filled the screen with Peter Jackson ‘member-berries instead of crafting a world of their own. Well, that’s not true is it? According to Screenrant, Amazon has the rights to adapt The Hobbit and the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, but not The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. So the showrunners made their choices on how they want to tell their tale which came off to me as mostly piss-poor character archetypes that border on stereotypes, plot contrivances, and boredom.

So. Much. Boredom.

So let’s address the elephant in the room. Galadriel. To me, she’s an asshole. Maybe in 3000 years, she’ll be the Cate Blanchette version, but here in the 2nd age, she’s kind of a prick. They might have been going for strong and stalwart, but somewhere between the writing and the acting, they ended up with prick. I mean, if you’re gonna milk archetypes, then go for Steve Rodgers from MCU. A constant, dedicated, and capable character sure. But most importantly self-aware vice self-righteous. Humility, even a touch of self-depreciation, endears an audience. Now with all that said, Yes, Galadriel was a driven, capable warrior. And yup, she was 100% right that Sauron had survived and was out there despite everyone telling her no. And boy I’m so glad the plot let her realize who Sauron was at the very end for . . . like, no discernible reason, considering she was thirsting for him hard for most of the show.

This version of Galadriel is a villain pretending to be a protagonist. Aside from leaving troops to die (to which I don’t blame said troops for their mutiny one bit,) remember when she performed a soliloquy to a captured Adar? The one where she will keep him alive just so she can kill every orc in middle-earth, only to then tell him that all his children are dead and then kill him? Yeah, that’s called genocide.

Man, wasn’t there an internet movement a while back about Tolkien and D&D, where certain “monster” races, which were considered “evil,” being coded as basically non-white people in fantasy? And here we have Galadriel talking about exterminating them all? I’m not one to whip up an angry twitter mob or anything, but umm . . . like, you know? Moving on.

As for the rest of the characters, I honestly didn’t care about them. Not the Scottish dwarves, the Irish Hobbits (Harfoots?), the Stranger who is clearly Gandalf (too soon arriving in middle earth I hear? Maybe its actually Saruman?), the discount Aragon/Sauron, and not this version of Elrond who looked like Neil Patrick Harris’s inbred cousin. Oh, and the one healer lady/single mom who led the southland humans, you know how I knew she’d be the leader of that group? Not because she was brave, fearless, or whatever they were trying to convey, but because she was the only person in the village not covered in mud, had all her teeth, and spoke like she went to an Oxford finishing school. In fact the only characters I liked were: Ismael Cruz Cordova’s Arondir, Sophia Nomvete’s Princess Disa, and Joseph Mawle’s Adar. Their respective tales and POVs I actually found myself enjoying.

images from Den of Geek, British GQ, and Epicstream respectively

But like the above review, I have to give credit where it’s due. It’s clear Amazon sunk a buncha money into RoP. The show looked mostly great and yes, there were some actual cool moments. I don’t care if that’s how volcanoes are made, that whole ep was pretty solid. And like HoT-D, I didn’t hate RoP. I was . . . whelmed. Not over or under, just whelmed. But by the end, for me it was sadly just another generic fantasy show without an identity of it’s own. Middling writing with fancy production to hide the lack of actual multi-dimensional characters. A very weak 3 out of 5 Balrogs for me. And I’m not alone. Check out The Guardian’s review HERE.

So yeah, maybe it’s me. Maybe these are amazing shows and I’m just burned out. But I have a feeling I’m not the only one feeling the SFF burnout. No shade being tossed to Top Gun: Maverick, as it’s been dominating the box office. But I have a sneaking suspicion that if that flick had come out even 5 years prior during peak MCU, Star Wars, etc, I think it would have been a blip. But as it stands now, folks are raving about this movie. My guess is that folks are hungry for something else. Something simple with as many practical effects as possible. Wonder why?

Recommendations

NOW, so I’m not a total asshole, here are some “recent” shows (SFF and standard fiction) I’ve greatly enjoyed for their writing, character work, and having a unique identity. Arcane being the current gold standard of where storytelling and visuals meets solid AF character work.

Images from their respective parent sites.

As always, feel free to leave a comment of message me directly on Facebook or Twitter to tell if I’m right, wrong, or somewhere in the middle.

Live long and strong

~Gibby

Michael Gibson 8/9/22 Michael Gibson 8/9/22

PLAYERS, the Show I Didn’t Know I Needed -or- Damn that Nerd Comedy-Drama for Making me Misty!

How many times has someone recommended a book, movie, TV show to you with such glowing passion that . . . well, you just nod your head and hope they SHUT THE F’ UP?! Gods above and below, please, stop talking about whatever the hell it is you’re blah-blah-blahing about! I get it, you like it. But you look like an epileptic kitten while gushing over this thing I HAVE NOT SEEN AND HAVE NO CONTEXT FOR!

. . . Just me then? Huh, maybe I am a jerk. Hmm. Anyway.

I think that despite being modern people, we still have that hunter/gatherer mentality. Finding that online deal. Finding a unique restaurant. And even in our entertainment, man . . . sitting there just scrolling through various streaming services until finding that niche thing that just catches you? Wow, what a feeling, am I right? Sure sure, sometimes we take recommendations but almost never right away. If you’re like me, months later you stumble on said media and deem it worthy of your time. Well, that happened to me with an amazing show called Players on Paramount+. A friend of mine named Adam couldn’t shut up about it. And I ignored Adam for weeks.

I was a fool.

DO NOT SLEEP ON PLAYERS!

The Non-Spoiler Pitch: Players is an amazingly deep and complex comedy-drama mockumentary on Paramount+ that follows the fictional e-sports League of Legends team, Team Fugitive. Using classic sports-style storytelling, Players flip-flops from 2015 through the present showing the team’s formation, ruination, and redemption as they seek to claim their first national title. (Side note: Between Players and the awesome Arcane on Netflix, League of Legends is growing into the greatest TV empire based on a game I’ve never played.)

The Gush: Borrowing from classic rivalries turned begrudging respect and love like Magic Johnson/Larry Byrd . . . or even Zoolander/Hansel, Players showcases two main characters: Trevor AKA Creamcheese and Percy AKA Organizm. Creamcheese is 27, basically an aging dinosaur in the gaming community. Despite being a great player, he is loud, obnoxious, a bit of an insecure prima donna, and in truth . . . a raging asshole. He’s never won the big championship and is known throughout the community as a choke artist. When the big game is on the line, Creamcheese crumbles. Note: You need to endure his personality in the beginning. Trust me, it’s worth it.

The other lead main character, Organizm, is 17, the youngest player to be drafted, and is the complete opposite of Creamcheese. He is quiet rage with obsessive-compulsive levels of focus. He wants to be the best, yet has love for the people that came before him. Even if he has to go through them. Through the 10-episode 1st season, the layers are peeled back to show why Creamcheese/Organizm are the way they are, and then the show evolves these one-note characters into painfully, yet beautifully, realized human beings, flaws and all.

The supporting cast is also amazing as through them, the larger gaming community, with all the dirty secrets and heart-warming relationships, are revealed. The show expertly shows you one thing in order to evoke an emotional response from the viewer, only to show you the same scene a few episodes later with context, altering your perception. Brav-freaking-o! Special shout-outs to Holly Chou and Ely Henry as April and Kyle Braxton, the married couple who serves as manager/coach for the team. They are the parental soul of Team Fugitive.

The Meh: The only real negative for me was the tertiary characters who are simply present. There are a couple members of Team Fugitive who fill seats, have a scene or two, but have no real bearing on the overall narrative. Maybe they’ll be fleshed out in the (hopefully) following season(s).

Final Thoughts: To me, Players is an outstanding 10 episodes of television. If you can stand abrasive language and people who say “bro!” way too many times, then you will find levels of character work and emotional development I haven’t seen in a long damn time. I’m talking early seasons of Game of Thrones when it comes to the audience flip-flopping on who is a villain and who is a hero. No, Players doesn’t have the threats of dragons or white walkers. But it does have the eternal themes of redemption, desperation, despair, and bittersweet victory. And, just perhaps, the eternal hope of reunion.

Overall: 9 out of 10.

Last note: If you watch this show and completely disagree with me, thinking it a waste of your time . . . blame my friend Adam. :)

Michael Gibson 2/19/22 Michael Gibson 2/19/22

Why Arcane Succeeded Where Wheel of Time Struggled -or- Don’t You Just Love it When a Middle Aged-SWM Talks About Female-Led Stories?

A critique/review of Netflix's Arcane and Amazon's Wheel of Time. What worked and what didn't.

Put down those pitchforks and lower the torches please, I’m not here to talk shit . . . well, not exactly. But as the title suggests, this thought experiment will be covering Netflix’s Arcane and Amazon’s Wheel of Time, specifically focusing on their respective female-centric characters, through the lens of my own biases. So, apologies for a few paragraphs of self-indulgence and spoiler warning for both shows.

via GIPHY

- My Personal Biases

I wasn’t a fan of the Wheel of Time books, not in the beginning. When The Eye of the World was published in January of 1990, I was a typical fantasy reading 14-year-old dork. I saw the Jordan books in the bookstores but ignored them. Mostly due to the cover art (I know, I know) despite my friends swearing that they were good. It wasn’t until mid-1998, two years into my Air Force career and stationed at a joint Air Force/Army detachment, that I started reading the series. My Army supervisor was reading book seven, A Crown of Swords, and offered to let me read book 1. I burned through all seven books in time for #8, The Path of Daggers. I was a fan ever since, both the highs and lows of the series.

See, it wasn’t the fantasy element that’d hooked me. It wasn’t the Tolkien rip-off (heavily) “inspired” elements of book one. And it wasn’t the classic Joseph Conrad Hero’s journey arc of Rand ‘al Thor. No, it was the multi-cultural, masculine/feminine dynamic of the story. That push/pull, yin and yang, which drove the story for me.

Many critics, professional and amateur, have praised/damned Jordan for either being progressive or doggedly sexist in his gender norms. I grew up firmly in the “battle of the sexes” era of child-rearing. Men were from Mars, girls were from Venus. Girls were sugar and spice while boys were frogs, snails, and puppy dog tails. It took time for me to deprogram myself from that rhetoric to really understand the impacts of nurture v. nature. But, years spent in martial arts taught me that a girl can kick you in the face, or the nuts, as well as any guy. Once you’ve been (metaphorically or literally) choked out by a better opponent, you don’t give a shit about what is/is not between the legs. You just wanna breathe.

But it was my time in the military that really shaped me. Over my 20 years of service, from age 20 to 40, I’d had the distinct pleasure of having led, and have been led by, amazing humans that were of every race, sexuality, gender identity, economic upbringings, religious affiliations, and several different nationalities. And during this time, I learned that our differences give us perspective, and our unity through diversity gives us the power to get the job done. And that is what the Wheel of Time books meant to me. When the characters from all over the world set their ideologies and dogmas aside: Shit. Got. Done.

When 4th wave feminism rolled out around 2012, we saw a growing change in our fiction. We saw a steady decline in the super-guy action dude trope. Underrepresented people were pushed into the spotlight. More female-led action shows/movies/video games/books gained attention. And I said: “Cool.” Because that was the world I already knew and believed in. Many “progressive” ideas were things I’d come to know as standard in the military. We were paid by our rank and time in service, not by our gender, while housing, healthcare, and hunger were covered by either financial allotments or on-base facilities.

Now, did I roll my eyes when some voices came off as pandering to look righteous online? You’re goddamn right I did. For I had known/worked beside/cherished far too many strong “minorities” who did the job some loudmouth--Left or Right--couldn’t or wouldn’t do. But I digress.

- Amazon’s Wheel of Time

I was excited for the Wheel of Time show while being naturally nervous. The book series is huge and has a rabid fan base. And when the first few eps dropped on Amazon Prime … man, I was pretty underwhelmed. As the show continued, it fell firmly in the “it’s fine” bracket of television. It had some high points and more than a few lows. But it never really had its own voice, seemingly a visual blend of Game of Thrones, Shannara, and The Witcher. Nothing unique. And that irked me.

When Rafe Judkins set out to adapt Wheel of Time, he had this quote in Polygon: “[…] there’s no way to bring a carbon copy of fantasy author Robert Jordan’s expansive world to screen.” He also added, “I feel a special burden laying me down, crushing me, of just wanting to deliver for this thing that I love, and my mom loves, and so many of the women in my family love.”

As I mentioned before, the initial arc of the Wheel of Time books was a textbook example of Joseph Conrad’s Hero With a Thousand Faces. Rand al’ Thor was the central character, the pastoral chosen one, and according to this WoT Fandom Page breakdown, the POV for 44 of the 53 chapters in Eye of the World. But the showrunners opted to remove focus from Rand and placed it firmly on the talented shoulders of Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine Damodred Sedai character, thus altering the fundamental flow of the story. But, that’s not a bad thing. By restructuring the format, the mystery of the Dragon Reborn allowed Moiraine to play detective. The show even altered the story so that the Dragon could be male/female and all five of the kids, Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nyneave, were ta’vereen, chosen ones, and potential Dragons. The show continued to make changes, adding scenes that weren’t in the book. Such scenes (which were actually my favorite parts of the show) included: Moiraine/Siuan’s love, Siuan’s backstory, The Warder encampment, the Warder funeral. They even opted not to open on Rand as the first kid from Emond’s Field, but rather Egwene and Nynaeve at Egwene’s hair braiding ceremony (also not in the book), where they delivered that banger line “To be a woman is to be always alone and never alone.”

But when you step back and look at it as a whole, that’s when the threads unravel and weave falls apart. The episodes loosely followed the plot of the book, running from spot to spot, dumping exposition, getting into/out of dangers, pausing only to let the new material (not book material) breathe. And by choosing to focus on Moiraine for the heavy lifting, with assistance from Madeleine Madden and Zoe Robbins’ Egwene and Nyneave respectively, the show has something of a feminist slant, possibly something to do with Mr. Judkins wanting to provide something the women of his family would love. And you know what? That was kinda cool. Sure I grumbled a bit. But from what the show was (seemingly) developing, I was hoping for a change in the narrative, something different from the books. But that didn’t happen, did it?

Cut-away edits were tricksy, like the bathtub scene which cut to Egwene after Lan asked who Moiraine thought the Dragon was. The amazing explosion-of-healing-power moment by Nyneave in the cave w/Logain (which made me eat my words in THIS post of mine) made me wonder if she could be the Dragon. Especially considering she was the only one of the five to kill a trolloc by herself on the night they invaded Emond’s Field. But no, at the end of the day, The Dragon Reborn was still Rand, the show’s least developed character. Ginger Pale, Sad-Boy McPouty Lips was the real chosen one. And frankly, that sucked. It sucked that the show used every storytelling technique to present the audience one thing, then pull the rug out from under you. And not in a “subversion of expectations” bullshit kind of way. In a way that hurt. JK Rowling feelings aside, imagine if the story of Hogwarts had been reframed to focus on Hermione doing her brainy thing, overcoming adversity, and defeating challenges, just to have Harry step up and be the chosen one? Stings, doesn’t it?

Side note: making Egwene and Nynaeve ta’vereen was a mistake. Full stop. In the books, these characters like the aforementioned Hermione didn’t need to be deemed worthy by some supernatural force. Both Egwene and Nynaeve achieved nigh-impossible feats by their own wit, guile, grit, and merit. Not because they were born special. Quite the opposite in fact.

And at the end of the show, when I looked back, I was left with the conclusion that the plot drove the characters, not the other way around. And that is the worst kind of storytelling. Plot happens and the WoT characters react. Rinse, repeat, and sigh. Just like the final seasons of Game of Thrones. And the changes made, while sometimes brilliant, felt bolted on and not integrated into what could have been a brilliant show. Maybe things will be better in WoT season 2? I do hope so. I haven’t given up, but my expectations have been lowered.

- Arcane on Netflix

After the success of WandaVision on Disney+, specifically the stellar performances by Elizabeth Olsen as the troubled and tortured titular Wanda/Scarlet Witch (my all-time favorite MCU character) and Teyonah Parris’ strength as Monica Rambeau, I was hoping for more quality, female-led fiction programs. I do have a soft spot for flawed-yet-enduring female characters which I try to showcase in my Hammer of Witches novels.

So when the nine episode animated Arcane came out of nowhere it blew me away with it’s visuals, storytelling, and social themes. Why? Simple, these near perfect characters, with their incredible connections, heart-breaking relationships, and difficult choices, drove/affected the plot. If you have not watched the show, I cannot recommend it enough. This is how storytelling should be.

Set in the video game League of Legends universe, Arcane is, at it’s core, the story of two sisters, Vi and Powder who love one another, but are torn apart physically and emotionally. Orphaned during a class-warfare revolt led by a man named Vander, Vi and Powder are then adopted by said Vander, who throws down his weapons and chooses to focus on protecting, not destroying. But the wake of Vander’s revolt, the villain Silko was created. Raised in the slums of Piltover, Vi and Powder do what they must to survive. And those actions have consequences. While in the erudite district of Piltover, a young scientist named Jayce, pushes for his advancements in magic and technology to help society. But, are these advancements for all, or just those with money/power? Denied his chance and stripped of his title, Jayce stands over a figurative and literal precipice, wondering if jumping is the best solution. A helping hand at a moment of personal low is all that spares Jayce’s life.

Vander does his best to maintain the tenuous peace between the two sides of Piltover, but Silko is waiting in the shadows to usurp his one-time friend and rule the under city through fear, power, and drugs. During the emotionally-fueled confrontation at the end of the first arc, the might Vander falls, Vi blames her sister, and Silko embraces the now emotionally/mentally broken Powder.

Moving into the second arc, the show then jumps a few years. Powder, now Jinx, is an unhinged-if-brilliant mechanical/chemical engineer and Silko’s daughter. Vi is a convict, released by the unerringly upbeat police marksman Caitlyn in order to track down the ones responsible for a series of heists. Although agreeing to help, the physically powerful Vi is still a broken girl who only wants her sister back. Vi will go through anyone to get to Powder. But, is Jinx still Powder? Jayce has become the herald of the new age, thanks in part by his partner Viktor, and the ever-plotting councilwoman Mel Medarda. Silko, now troubled with the burden of knowledge, comes to understand the late Vander’s ideals, that keeping the peace is its own kind of war. I dare you to watch this scene, even out of context, and not want more. (turn the music up!)

Season one culminates in the third arc, where conflict between all the cast members comes to a head in all its cinematic yet heart-breaking glory. And I cannot wait for season 2.

- Conclusion

Both shows, Wheel of Time and Arcane, have incredible representation and diverse peoples. Both shine a light on inequality, exploring what those with less are willing to do, while those with more fight to maintain control. Both shows reportedly had a writer’s room with unique voices and people. So why did I herald one’s brilliance while bemoaning another for floundering to find itself? Because one (accidentally or brilliantly) focused on telling a unique story that for me, allowed the characters to be flawed, beautiful, broken, kind, and cruel. Said characters created/drove the plot of their respective show. The other show, to me, seemingly aped the CW’s style of brooding drama and non-romantic romance while the plot moved unerringly onward, regardless of choices made. It reached for greatness, gained notoriety, but fell into middling popcorn entertainment. I’ll let you figure out which was which.

As with all my critiques/reviews, let me caveat the above with this: don’t let me yuck your yum. If you loved Wheel of Time, then great! Don’t let some asshole on the internet tell you differently. Love what you love.

Special kudos to WoT’s attempt to create his own “Toss a Coin To Your Witcher” song. Hope they sold a few downloads with Thom Merrilin’s “The Man Who Can’t Forget.”

Michael Gibson 4/2/19 Michael Gibson 4/2/19

Review of Captain Marvel: A Midling Movie -or- The Benefits of Being the Butt of the Joke

Right off the bat, let’s address the elephant in the room concerning this movie. While promoting the movie there was a plethora of comments and sound bites from Brie Larson about diversity and white male journalists. And naturally the internet exploded with vitriol. Who knew the internet was an opinionated place? But, I ignored it. I only cared about two things: the movie . . . and why is Brie Larson slowly transforming into Diane Kruger?

Before moving into spoiler territory, this is my brief, IMO, spoiler-free, TL;DR review: The movie firmly falls into the “It’s Fine” category. Nothing special. Nothing horrible. Nearly every story beat is predictable with minimal twists on the superhero movie formula. It has neat action. It has some jokes. It tries for heart, but misses. Captain Marvel follows in the wake of Wonder Woman, but without a seasoned hand like Patty Jenkins to guide the movie, it falls short of what it could have been. Influenced by other Marvel movies like Guardians and Captain America, but ends up in the mid-tier.

Okay, with that out of the way, the rest of the review will have some spoilers. Cool?

Marvel has always impressed me with casting, seeing something in an actor that could shine. If you look back, they cast the unstable wild card to be Iron Man, the banana in his ass comedian as Captain America, the unknown dead George Kirk to be Thor, and the pudgy schlub from Parks & Rec as Star Lord.

Images from Daily Mail, Not Another Teen Movie, Star Trek, and NBC

So when Brie was announced, I was excited. I loved her in Scott Pilgrim, The United States of Tara, 21 Jump Street and Kong: Skull Island. I was wondering what the Marvel casting team saw in her. But, after watching the flick, I think what they saw was her left shoulder, constantly pointing towards the camera, in a 3/4 square stance. The below pics don’t do justice. She loves to run/storm into frame, put her left shoulder forward, and make fists.

The movie is a pretty good action flick. It tries for comedy, and some jokes hit. But, you can also tell that the movie tried to be like Guardians, but with the 90’s instead of the 70’s. But, it never quite hits. (There’s even a scene where we’re in her head and Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” is playing. But since she disappeared from earth in 1989 and returned in 1995 . . . she shouldn’t know that song.) James Gunn brought a pathos to Guardians of the Galaxy and to his characters. A deep, personal pain to each of them which was masked in comedy. Something we the audience can relate to. But, the Captain Marvel movie is devoid of such depth.

The movie also tries to be a buddy cop flick with Marvel and Nick Fury, and that never really gels. And while Mr. Jackson is perfectly fine, the Fury you know from other movies is gone, and is replaced with this younger, dorky version who is the butt of Carol Danvers’ jokes and jibes. This self-described Retired Colonel turned Spy turned SHIELD Agent gets all gooey whenever that stupid cat is on screen “Who’s a widdle widdle good kitty kitty?”. (Yes, he says crap like that. A lot. And it sucks. And I have a cat.) The other sticking point is that Jackson and the rest of SHIELD, accept alien existence really, really quickly. I know the story needed to keep going, but as the directors/writers hand waved that bit away, I knew I was just along for the ride. Stuck in the backseat and forced to suffer bad choices. (see Fury’s missing eye here). This choice also retcon’s Fury’s speech in Avengers when he tells them that SHIELD is developing new weapons and tech because of Thor, and up until he arrived, they thought they were alone in the universe.

The movie is in essence a discovery of personal strength. You know, “the power was in you the whole time, you just had to believe” trope. As Cap Marvel AKA “Vers” discovers her past on earth, she starts to remember her old life, and there are actually very touching moments between her and her old wingman, Lashana Lynch’s “Maria Rambeau” and Maria’s daughter, Monica. When her best friend comes back, after 6 years of presumed death, Lynch’s reaction and performance is amazing

. . . and then, then they had to ruin it.

You see a few scenes later, the dialogue forces Larson to say something like “I don’t even know who I am anymore!!” Ugh. To which Lynch is forced into the other dead horse of bad writing by listing the protagonists superlatives. “You’re Carol Danvers! The bravest, strongest, and most amazing person I’ve ever known!”

I literally had my hand over my face during that scene in abject shock and cringe during this stilted scene. And for some reason, I couldn’t get the scene out of my head from Face/Off when Sean Archer is now wearing Caster Troy’s face and freaks out. His (Sean’s) best friend and partner Tito, has to remind of who he was. “You’re Sean ARCHER!!” You know, another black character reminding the white lead of their inner strength. Blah.

***Special shout out to Ben Mendleson as Talos, leader of the Skrulls. He chews the scenery and has some of the best lines and scenes. His character is given oodles more comedy, pathos, and depth. All this despite being forced to wear a mask that forced him to mumble and slur. Truth be told, if he was a new addition to The Guardians, I would totally be down.***

But since watching the movie, I’ve been trying to figure out what about Captain Marvel didn’t work for me. She was strong, she had some humor, she was snarky, she was committed. So what was it that made me, at best, iffy? And then it hit me. She, or likely the writing/directing team, refused to allow Captain Marvel to have humility.

What do I mean by that? Well, IMO, one of the reasons that the MCU characters have been so accessible, and thus successful, is because of their relatability and their humility. No, we’re not gods, super soldiers, or billionaire tech geniuses. But we are people who seek our father’s approval, feel weak, or mask our inferiority complexes with humor and narcissism. But beyond that, the characters are willing to be the butt of the joke.

Tony Stark blasted himself into the ceiling learning to fly while his robot sprayed him with an extinguisher. Thor was knocked out several times by being hit by a car, and even got a hypodermic needle in the ass mid-tough guy speech. Steve Rodgers was a scrawny, virgin, twerp who never learned to talk to women. Even in later flicks, Peter Quill is perpetually the butt of the joke. Steve Lang is constantly being mocked. Even T’Challa gets laughed at by his sister and his closest allies.

Carol Danvers doesn’t. She’s like a white-girl Vin Diesel who isn’t allowed to look foolish.

Think back on Wonder Woman. In DC’s first female led flick, Diana embodies power, poise, grace, and duty. But, she also has scenes of tenderness and humility. Remember laughing at her when she sees a baby? When she’s trying on dresses? Or when she marches out of the dress shop with a sword and shield? Funny stuff. Because the character was a fish out of water, there are moments when its okay to laugh at your protagonist. Because they kick so much butt later.

Now maybe there’s a scene or two I’m forgetting which refutes these thoughts, and I’m willing to give the flick a second shot. But I think that by trying to make her a cinematic icon, they did a disservice by not allowing us to laugh at her, then cheer her later. I mean, even Rey got made fun of.

Another perfect example to illustrate my point in recent memory is Spider Man, Into the Spiderverse. The movie follows the standard superhero formula of newbie, incident, learning, falling, then succeeding. And Miles Morales is CONSTANTLY the butt of the joke. But, his story has style, flair, development, action, humor, and it will heart-punch you right in the feels. That’s why it beat Pixar for best animated movie in 2018, and why it will long be remembered when Captain Marvel is in the discount bin.

I wondered if I was off base with my opinion of Captain Marvel. I am, after all, a white male (wocka wocka?). But once I started sifting through the reviews, I noticed a trend in the “left-leaning”/progressive websites. Some of them were not happy with the movie; seemingly upset that the movie was not what they had wanted it to be. On Metacritic, sites like Slate, Vox, Slant, The Guardian, Time, and the NY Post all had Captain Marvel in the 60% or below category. Some had titles like, “Finally, Women Have Their Own Mediocre Marvel Movie” (Slate), or “Captain Marvel Deserves a Better Movie” (Vox).

Ouch.

But they aren’t wrong. 60% is about where it falls for me. I think there was a lot of potential in the movie But IMO, the short development cycle to get it out before Avengers: Endgame hurt the movie.

But, these are just my opinions. If you like the movie, GREAT! Don’t let me, or anyone else, tell you otherwise. Like what you like, love what and who you love.

Live long and strong

~Gibby