Why I Write

Hey y'all. I've been thinking a lot about what I want this blog to be. Back in January, I created it as a way to talk about things I love and am interested in. And to release my pent-up creative energy. Of course, this was done on a whim. I knew I had to go ahead and do it or I wouldn't. I have a hard time taking risks and stepping out of my comfort zone. I actually had the graphics commissioned early last summer, but never put them to use. So, I created this blog with only an inkling of what it was going to be.

The reason I chose to do a blog in the first place is because I love writing. I always have, but in the past five or so years, I had fallen out of the habit. As a child, I had designs of publishing a book. Today, I do want to do that, but not for some time. My skill is not high enough to consider it. So, I want to get better. And this is my practice. It is also where I order and share my thoughts.

Now, I have no intention of writing full-tie. As of now, I do not intend to make any money at all. I may consider adding adverts in the future, but only one or two small ones. And that is contingent upon having enough readers to be worth it. I am here to become a better writer and have fun. Whether anyone reads this blog or not (Although I know people do. I have metrics), I will continue for as long as possible. Because I have thoughts and ideas. I don't plan on changing the world, but I do plan on putting my voice out in it. And who knows? Maybe something will come of it one day. Until then, I'm just here for the ride. And I hope you will join me.

What I want from Arrow Season 8

               Heading into its final 10 episodes, both Arrow and its titular hero are in an interesting place. Their stories have essentially ended. The finale of the seventh season wrapped up all but one of the loose plot threads. The future is safe. The present is safe. Oliver and Felicity’s children are safe. But Oliver owes the Monitor for helping him save the Flash and Supergirl during the Elseworlds crossover. So, what could the Monitor possibly need from everyone’s favorite Robin Hood-themed hero? I don’t know. But I do know what I want to see: Oliver traversing the Multiverse.

               Maybe the Monitor needs his help deciding which heroes are best suited to help in the coming Crisis. They could make stops in all the universes the Arrowverse has introduced thus far. And maybe some they haven’t. The duo could check on Jesse Quick or The Ray. I would for characters like that to show up. It would also be nice to see how those Earths are doing since they were last seen. The creators could also demonstrate how those heroes have grown and changed in the meantime.

               I would also like to see the Monitor use Oliver to test the heroes of the various universes. Again, this is a way to reintroduce characters like The Ray, Jesse Quick, or Jay Garrick. Having Oliver pose as a villain would be incredibly fun and entertaining. It could also serve as the final test of his skills before he probably perishes in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Show that Oliver is capable of handling most things on his own, but when things get too big, he’ll need help.

               Most of all, I want a compelling character arc for both Oliver and the Monitor. I have no idea how much of the cast of the show will return. Or if any of them will. I expect those two to be the focal point though and I hope they give some explanation and reasoning behind the Monitor and the things he has chosen to do, especially during the season finales this year. Oliver has basically reached the end of his character arc so I’m not sure where they will take him, but I hope it maintains the steady growth he has displayed throughout the series. Do right by my guy and I’ll be happy.

               Also, Diggle as Green Lantern please.

Comic Reviews 05.26.2019

               Welcome back to a splendid week in comics! It was really good all around. Even the Age of X-Man: Next Gen issue I read was good. I also get to start reviewing The Flash from now on. That’s pretty great. In other news, Tom King is leaving Batman for a separate maxiseries so maybe I’ll give Batman a try when it begins. I also started reading Injustice. That comic is really good, y’all. Go read it. But I digress. Onto the reviews!

Comics Reviewed: The Flash #71, Miles Morales: Spiderman #6, Action Comics #1011

Some Fun Trailers Came Out

               I’ve got two trailers that I want to discuss today: The CW’s first Batwoman trailer and the State of Play Final Fantasy VII Remake trailer. First up, FFVIIR!

               I am very excited for this game. Like, way more than I should be if you consider that I don’t like the game it is remaking. That’s right, I said I don’t like Final Fantasy VII. It’s boring. The remake, however, is beautiful and the short glimpses of gameplay look interesting. It looks very similar to the Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Tetsuya Nomura era Final Fantasy XV gameplay. That’s probably because Nomura is in charge of this game. And I will follow Nomura into the depths of whatever game he wants to make. Also, I hope Barret isn’t a Mr. T caricature.

               This trailer got the nerds big mad. It leans very heavily into female empowerment-based quips. As a huge fan of Supergirl (The best Arrowverse show), this doesn’t bother me, and I get a kick out of some of them. Just… Don’t read the comments on this (Or any other YouTube) video. Anyway, I think this show looks good. I quite enjoyed Ruby Rose’s turn as Kate Kane in the recent Arrowverse crossover. The beginning of this series will be set prior to that event though. It will air in the fall and probably be a pretty good replacement for Arrow as the street-level show in the series. Unless Black Lightning counts, then there’s two series.

Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne Thoughts

Robb Stark seemed puzzled. “Is this some trap, Lannister? What’s Bran to you? Why should you want to help him?”

“Your brother Jon asked it of me. And I have a tender spot in my heart for cripples and bastards and broken things.”

               This is from a fairly early passage from A Game of Thrones. It is also, I believe, George R. R. Martin’s guiding principle as he writes A Song of Ice and Fire. Cripples, bastards, and broken things have always been at the heart of his story. Whether it was Bran Stark, Jon Snow, or Tyrion Lannister. Or any number of other characters you can say are broken like Arya, Daenerys, or Jaime. Those are Game of Thrones the television show’s central characters. And many of them were failed at the end. None more so than Daenerys and Bran.

Comic Reviews 05.19.2019

               Hey y’all. Welcome back after our week off. You may notice that this series has undergone a slight rebranding because I realized that I am not reading very many comics at the moment and occasionally may not have a comic to review. Its small potatoes though. Let’s talk comics and the relatively good week it was for. Except Uncanny X-Men. That comic is so bad I am not going to review it. I also am not going o buy it anymore. Its just Age of X-Man stuff until Jonathan Hickman arrives for me.

Comics Reviewed: Superman #11, Naomi #5

The New Batman Rumors

I like that suit, Nick.

               Hey y’all. Looks like we may have a new Batman in town. According to Variety, Robert Pattinson has been cast (pending final contract negotiations) as the newest actor to play the role. He is set to star in the Matt Reeves-directed The Batman film. Let me tell you how interesting I think this news is. Because Pattinson is a pretty good actor. No, I am not basing that on his turns in Harry Potter or Twilight, but rather on the smaller films he has done since the conclusion of Twilight. Films like Cosmopolis. Pattinson has really turned his career into something completely different than what it was while I was in high school. He has become an actor that I believe is to be respected and can have an interesting take.

               The other rumor is that if contract talks with Pattinson break down, Nicholas Hoult is the choice. I have exactly zero feelings about this rumor. Hoult seems to be a fine actor, although I have not seen most of his catalogue. About a Boy, Clash of the Titans, and the various X-Men films are not enough to judge his quality as an actor. The one I remember clearest his his turn as Beast and he is good in that role. Hoult pulls off nerdy and charming very well. But a Peter Parker-esque charming, not a Bruce Wayne-type. It certainly would be interesting, but not as exciting for me personally. Either way, the new era of Batman films seems to be shaping up as something I can maybe get invested in.

Game of Thrones: The Bells Thoughts

               Game of Thrones is gonna go down as the most disappointing ending a show has ever had, huh? I’ve been expecting that, but by Sunday every week I manage to to convince myself otherwise. And this episode was no different. It also suffered from the same problems as the last few episodes (And seasons as a whole): Pacing and poor writing.

               Might as well focus on the only thing of import that happened this week: Daenerys finally went all Mad Queen. It’s been obvious for a while and set up throughout the show. So that’s nice. It also happened so quickly that I’m not really sure why it happened. She saw the Red Keep and freaked out, but didn’t destroy it for like 45 minutes. How does that make any sense? Also, have dragons on this show always had this much concussive force behind their fire? Have I just not noticed or is this like Cyclops’ eye lasers/not-lasers? Either way, why did she need the largest army ever assembled? Who cares if she lost two dragons when one is this powerful? I get they were her “children” but still. Also also, Dany needs to amend her title to Mother of A Dragon.

               Cleganebowl also happened this week, but I honestly don’t care. I like the Hound and think he’s an interesting character so its nice that he got some resolution with his brother. It was a neat fight that looked cool (As does almost everything on this show), but who cares at this point? There’s so much shit to get down and we’re wasting time on these tertiary characters? Why not show something relevant to anything?

               Jaime came back to King’s Landing to be with Cersei and they both die like chumps, crushed by a rock. My girl Arya survived a bunch of rocks so what was their issue? Varys got dracarys’d because Tyrion couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He probably got himself and Jon killed next episode too (Except I think Jon is gonna go live with the wildlings).

               This was a visually awesome episode, just like every other episode (except “The Long Night”). Drogon is cool and everything it did (i.e. mass slaughter) looked really cool. Cleganebowl had cool visuals and I really liked the choice to show the city burning from the street level. The “siege” (Do they even know what that means?) wasn’t much of a battle. The Lannister army literally surrendered. I really liked that and thought expectations were about to be subverted and the rest of the episode was going to be a chill resolution of the Cersei plot. It was not.

               Overall, I didn’t hate this episode. I could see this battle so that was nice. It just suffers from what so much of late period Thrones does. Also, this is an 80-minute episode with virtually nothing of consequence outside of the fact that Dany is now EVIL and Cersei is dead occurring. Hopefully the final episode can at least have something important happen. This episode did lead to a pretty good meme though:

Detective Pikachu has arrived!

Detective Pikachu is out today! Critics have been pretty mixed, but everyday people seem to be enjoying it. Everyone should go see it just because it looks so strange and interesting. Alternately, you can find the full picture above. But I really feel like the theater is the place to see this one y’all. I know I’m going.

Top 5 Flashes

Hey y’all! Let’s talk about my favorite superhero: The Flash! Of course, anyway that regularly visits this website is probably aware of the fact that there is more than one character to have used the codename. In fact, I can think of about a dozen characters off the top of my head. This list was a ton of fun as it made me really put into words, maybe for the first time, what I love about these characters (Hint: I love characters that surpass expectations placed on them). So, let’s dive in!

Honorable Mention: Jay Garrick, the OG.

Game of Thrones: The Last of the Starks Thoughts

               This was an entertaining episode of television. It was a middling episode of Game of Thrones. At the core of A Song of Ice and Fire and the early seasons of its adaptation is the attention to detail. It takes time to go places and actions have consequences. These is the biggest problem facing latter day Thrones. Cersei blows up the Sept? She’s queen. Cersei decides not to help fight the ARMY OF THE UNDEAD. She’s right not to. Now her enemy is severely weakened, and her army is none the worse for wear. Jon and the gang create one of the most comically stupid battle plans in the history of television? Everyone is fine except Lyanna Mormont, Beric Dondarrion, and Jorah Mormont. Harsh consequences. There is also the infamous “jetpacking” the show has utilized in recent seasons. Characters seem to just teleport from place to place. How long would the trip from Winterfell to Dragonstone have taken in Season One? Probably an episode and a half to two episodes. That’s how long it takes Ned and the gang to reach King’s Landing. It takes about three scenes in this episode. The accelerated pacing has left the physicality and relations between locations on the show confusing and borderline nonsensical.

Spider-Man: Far From Home Endgame Spoiler Trailer

               I am unbelievably excited for this film. I love Spider-Man. I love Tom Holland as Spider-Man. And it looks like he is getting to showcase some more of his acting chops than in previous films (Not like he was a brick wall in those though). My big problem with the trailer is the assertion that the world needs another Iron Man. Because I feel like that is missing the point. The world had an Iron Man. He saved the world. Now, they need something else, someone else. If the plan is to shove the newer Marvel Cinematic Universe characters into the roles of the older ones, I’m not sure how positive my outlook will be on the future of this endeavor. My hope is that the climax of the film is Peter realizing there is no new Iron Man. He certainly isn’t it. He needs to be himself. Peter needs to be the best Spider-Man possible, not the next Iron Man. I think that would truly setup the future of these films. Give Peter (the audience) the moment every legacy hero (Which the MCU Spider-Man essentially is) needs: They aren’t the old heroes and they can’t do things the same way. They must stand as their own people and heroes. And the world will be better off because of it.

Also, more Zendaya please.

Comic Reviews 05.04.2019

               Hey y’all! Not a ton of comics this week. The big DC events start here so we’ve got the introduction of those as well as the continuing of the incredibly fun Young Justice. I also read Uncanny X-Men #17, but I just don’t have anything left to say about it. Matthew Rosenberg still doesn’t understand the characters and the art is still good. Jonathon Hickman can’t get here fast enough. But let’s get into the other comics!

 

I needed somewhere to throw this dope Francis Manapul spread

Comics Reviewed: DC’s Year of the Villain Special, Young Justice #5

Avengers: Endgame Thoughts