On 2024 Marvel better come up with something good to re vindicate, this new miniseries called “ECHO” will premiere on Disney+ and Hulu on January 9, and it is causing some what “sensation”, if they are any good, fans are in luck because the studio plans launch several television series, where we will see action, drama and also a lot of violence, I hope so. This miniseries shows us Kingpin and a Daredevil rivalry once again since ECHO actually show up from from Hawkeye and focuses on the character Echo from the Marvel comics. She’s a deaf Native American with an incredible gift, she can copy any move or skill she sees. As always this is my opinion from a regular viewer perspective not from a comic or Marvel expert.
Alaqua Cox plays Echo an actress I haven’t seen much before, went through her IMDB page and found nothing than Hawkeye and ECHO probably I didn’t look enough on top I’m not a Hawk eye fan so this is my first time, on the other side we have to well known actors Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk playing Kingpin and Charlie Cox known for his role as Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, well known duo, blast from the past.
I’m the type of viewer that don’t like to spoil things before hand but I got to say I know nothing about the ECHO story just few details that she can basically mimic or learn powers just by watching them? interesting Skrull type?. There is not much that the trailer explains about her story but seems she had a rough time at New York and now is coming back home to Oklahoma trying to embrace her roots and grip some of that power, find a place for herself between her community, I wonder if that’s where her powers comes from if its some kind of powers she inherited from her ancestors?.
After a rough 2023 for Marvels, Disney put their hopes on producers Marion Dayre and Sydney Freeland for this miniseries, from interviews I found online seems like they are looking for that fresh start, a fresh vision focusing on the theme, identity, culture, but I hope they don’t go the woke path trying to propagate “messages”. ECHO begins phase five of the MCU called Marvel Spotlight.
Launching this mini series or any other production on 2023 was not an easy task at all with the Hollywood Strike full force for the most part of the year, the uncertainty of writers, actors, studios it was a mess. Both Disney and producer Marion Dayre had obstacles along the way too keeping the mini series delayed, it was originally planned to be released in the summer of 2023 and then date moved to January, 9,2024, I have seen some trailers and websites saying its the 10th although IMDB says its the 9th. Dayre commented on a podcast “The Writers Panel” how she became the head writer and how hard it was to deal with all the delays and Marvel itself, sounds like Marvel is the Diva type IMO.
To me Alaqua Cox brings authenticity to her role since she have quite the similarities to the ECHO character been both deaf and use a prosthetic leg so this is no joke, me myself I’m deaf on my right ear btw so can only imagine what is to be fully deaf, think about it a deaf super women and a blind agile no fucks given Dare Devil, she have not publicly reveal how she lost her leg, quite interesting she still keep it a secret but that is great in my opinion, everyone has the right for personal life no matter how famous you are.
ECHO went through so many changes during 2023 and one of the was Daredevil, at first it was so fucking weird and different from, IMO; its best version that’s the Netflix version, both now played by Charlie Cox but still quite different from the exterior, there is public reason why? is this a better improve version of Daredevil?. On Netflix version he was younger, probably a less polished version but it does intrigue me how close their stories are and which is the one closer to the comic or is this kind of situation where the same character can have different versions? I will give it a watch to Netflix version in the coming days just to have a familiar image before watching ECHO, probably even watch Hawkeye for some background.
The trailer looks cool and as most Marvel productions it promises a lot of action, there is some excitement behind it and I hope it is one of those side small stories that kick ass and not many knew about, as mention there is also this Daredevil “new version” and obviously cant leave behind Kingpin, big bad ass gangster.
What Was Meant to Be, episode eight of The Wheel of Time Season Two, for me; could be the best episode of a TV series on 2023, everything that was meant to be happen, not necessary as Moiraine thought it would happen since Selene (Lanfear) had a lot to do with it, in fact she was the reason all this happen, she fool Ishamael all the time, she rescue Rand from Amyrlin Seat setting on fire the town as a distraction, took Moiraine and Lan to the exact spot where she could attack Lady Surtoh ships and all this because she loves Rand, really the OG dragon; this time seems she is focus more than ever to help him but at the end her goal is to have him for her but this is something not clear for me because when she was going to do something about it a few episodes back Moiraine show up and cut her through, I have not read the books so all I know is what I have seen so far. Another interesting topic is how Ishamael was imprison with the rest of the forsaken by Lews who was the reincarnation of The Dragon, they were “friends” but had different opinions about The Wheel, Ishamael wanted to distroy it probably he has a similar kind of though like Thanos, why suffer when he can end it all while Lews knew this was not the way, season leaves me with quite a few questions of whats next on season three, at this point everyone has a good control of their power including Perrin, Mat never had any powers he was just destine to do certain things since he was part of Rand inner circle.
Season two started very slow for that getting some what low scores of 7/10 but after episode three things started to pick up the pace rapidly to the point that every episode was a hit, out of the eight episodes it average a score of 8/10 on IMDB, considering the first episode got a 7.1 and the last episode a 9/10 showing in numbers how good this episode was its just pure and constant dopamine rush that kept me to the edge, it is in fact so good of an episode and has so many details that I saw it more than twice.
To this day I don’t know who free Ishamael but at least now I know who imprison him, good old Dragon back in the day who was his “friend” knew Ishamael was a serious problem to deal with and the rest of the forsaken so he put them inside rocks that serve as prison where they will be alive but not aware of time, this seal was suppose to be so strong that not even Lews would be able to break it so how Ishamael got out and then how did he free the rest of the forsaken including Lanfear??
Once again Lanfear shows Rand she is the only one who really care for him but specifically told him the rest only care for what he can do when she doesn’t so this clear out the question she is not after his powers? because that would be the most obvious answer, during this entire process as I mention, Lanfear was the one pulling the strings and putting all the pieces in place so Rand can win this battle, Lanfear still have bone to pick with Moiraine, if she provoke Lanfear and Rand is not there to get in the middle I’m sure she would not hesitate to take Moirinae life, once again Lanfear helps Moiraine and Rand, dropping Moiraine close to Falme but far enough so she could claim the Dragon with a fire banner on the sky as she mention but this distance also gave her the perfect strategy to attack the city from far away, on top she now has Lan to cover her back again.
I just love how Lanfera manipulate Ishamael, he knows it but has no other option on the other hand Rand tries to manipulate her with cheap tricks and even having all that power she agrees every time he ask for help and she likes it, so hilarious. Now I understand Ishamael wanted more time, from the start he was trying to make Rand feel everyone abandon him because that story that the Dragon eventually kills everyone so far doesn’t fit with Rand, he was not going to kill his friends so Ishamael had no other option to separate them, for some time it work but Ishamael worst mistake was to awake Lanfear thinking she was going to kill Rand.
This is one of the best Karma scenes I have seen this year, on previous episode Egwene told Renna, “I’m going to kill you” and Renna did nothing, but the worst of not doing anything is that she didn’t realize Egwene just went over the adam, she though of ways to hurt her suldam, that’s rule number one you cant hurt your suldam or even think about it. Renna keeps provoking Egwene, the city is under attack and all suldam and damane need to defend it, when a damane refuse orders during battle first punishment is cut her tongue and second her hands, Renna cut Egwene hair to show off her power while still holding the leach, Egwene was like bitch did you just cut my hair?? That look on Egwene before she start attacking the white cloaks who are invading the city said it all.
Ishamael is highly suspicious that Lanfear is going to betray him mainly because he feels she is rushing things and been so sure that Rand is going to switch sides on top of that Turak the leader of seanchan was murder by Rand but he has an ace with him, Mat is “suppose” to kill Rand but Kim did said many times that her visions not always become true, temptation knocks at Mat’s door, Padan Fain brought him the dagger that once posses him and the one he will use to kill Rand, Mat knows he is not strong enough not to touch it so went around and made a spear out of it, problem solved right? not really.
The episode is about Rand been declare as The Dragon but in my opinion this was Egwene episode, Nynaeve is suppose to be way stronger than Egwene something that might come up on season three but for how the one that has shown her powers more than anyone else is Egwene, she is not only strong and pretty but so fucking smart, the tower gets hit badly by the White Cloak army, a big rock hit them and some suldam and damene die but not Renna and Egwene, she use the opportunity to gram an adam collar from a dead sedai and wait for the exact moment to put it on Renna’s neck, so they are both suldam and damane, takes the big risk to hang Renna by the collar and waits to find out who will die first or who forfeit and release the other from the adam, eventually Renna accept because she doesn’t want to die expecting Egwene to release her from the adam and to my joy she doesn’t and watch Renna die kicking and screaming while hanging from pilar.
During previous episodes I constantly complain about some characters that basically do shit, two of them are Mat and Perrin, well Mat in fact hurt Rand badly, it did not play out exactly as Ishamael though but he did set a trap so Mat tries to kill him from behind but Ishamael some how predict it and it was an ilusion, ends up stabing Mat and almost kill him if it wasn’t by Egwene, Perrin and Elayne, btw Nynaeve did’t do shit during this episode, yes its me complaining again but its just so stagnating with some of this characters, I wonder if on the books its like this?
Egwene stand against Ishamael taking almost all his attacks so thats shows she might go hand to hand with some of the forsaken, until Perrin shows up with a shield that was giving to him by Uno who is now one of the Heroes of the Horn so there must be something special about that help Egwene hold the attacks until Elayne is healing Rand, there is a scene I did not show and thats Moiraine attacking the Seanchan ships with damane holding down Rand, after the ships are destroy and Elayne heal Rand he was then able to kill Ishamael.
The scene that sets Season 3, the seals for the rest of the forsaken are broken, every single one is free now, Lanfear is the only one on Rand side, she is suppose to be the strongest one of all them but there was something about Moghedien, another forsaken; that scare the shit out of her or was it the fact that they are all free against Rand? Lanfear thought everything went according to her plan but she never thought Ishamael could or would free the rest of the forsaken.
Ishamael is gone now, Seachan’s are done too but there is a bigger threat and that is the other forsaken together after The Dragon now that everyone knows its Rand, truth is that Rand and his friends now know how to control their powers way better that the start of the season but how powerful the forsaken are? Egwene and Rand can exchange blows with them but is the White Tower and Aes Sedais be on their side too? considering Moiraine and the Amyrlin Seat are not in good terms? this puts Rand in the middle of multiple battles on top of this a small civil war against the White Cloaks, this make think they might be surrounded, more powerful than before but more direct enemies than before so it won’t be easy to stay alive, another question that is left hanging is on what side will Lanfear be? what are her true motives to be with Rand? she keeps saying she loves him and is the only one not after his powers? I’m sure season three will be as explosive as season two.
There are some TV series and movies that when it comes to make my post about it, a recap trying to narrate the events that I consider the most important or make the more impact for me, there could be so many details that I kind of hate the process of creating the post although once it is done it feels very satisfying, WOT is one of those TV series probably why it took me some time to create the post, didn’t want it to be short and cover my favorite events during this episode, same thing happens to me with For All Mankind.
Going Home, Episode Six of Daryl Dixon, Season 1; in my opinion almost fall too simple towards the end too predictable but its expected that they reach their destiny but when Carol show up probably because I have seen her from the OG series it was a rush got to say, as always she looks so calm and now older that you would never expect her to kick your ass but also out smart you but she can. The episodes starts where it left with Daryl facing Zombies in an arena now that Genet got them all including Laurent, her main idea is to show off her power and make others believe Laurent and her are working together to unite people but that’s just not true, she is really looking to establish her regime all over France and Daryl has become a stone on the road after he single handed almost destroy one of her ship with a ton of Zombies they were running experiments on, particularly one who was very strong and agile to be a Zombie, I wonder were this experiments go on season two if she will finally raise a Zombie army and it is already known that Laurent has some sort of influence over Zombies most likely because when his mother was on labor she was already bitten, infected with the virus but it never fully went into Laurent, reason why they kept saying he is a miracle, his mother turns into a Zombie right after labor when she died.
Compare to Dead City, Daryl Dixon was way better probably because it was a bit more rudimentary not sure if that’s the word, Dead City was in Manhattan and Daryl Dixon happens on so many places, the go through France to reach The Nest, from open fields to a rusty Paris with the Eiffel Tower swinging from side to side almost singing, really enjoy this series and now finally make my last post about season one.
The fight scene was a great opening to the last episode of season one, at first Genet thought she was going get away with killing Daryl in front of all this people and show off her power to increase the support from Paris population, how many times have we seen Daryl fight more than three Zombies at the same time although this are not normie Zombies, Genet had her scientist develop some kind of drug that jap the Zombies making them go 0 to 100 real quick, more like Zombies from World War Z, if we can get those in masses for season two would be sick!!!
Probably Genet best chance was to tire Daryl fighting Quinn and then let go the Zombies but she was so sure her plan was going to work, look at her smug smile, well that change real quick after Daryl and Quinn started to work together and annihilate her Zombies, there was one with metal around his head that even attack another Zombie, its still very grey area how to control them properly to know who the enemy is.
So far Daryl Dixon has another thing that is very similar to the OG series and that’s the tones and colors of scenes, its always that dark greenish theme on all scenes, I remember with the OG series at some point the intro made me sad just listening to the song and all the dark green color makes you feel sad about the thing but you still wanted to watch it, obviously Daryl was not going to die on season one there still gas in the tank but who did had to die Quinn, after all he was brought from the death after Isabelle abandon him when Zombies started to pup up, Quinn had to pay a high price.
Karma, Irony and Coincidence kick in hard on episode six, this is when I think the episode started to became too predictable and then what are the odds some of this things to happen to Quinn? probably was the perfect Karma payback
Karma is a bitch!! the amount of payback in a single episode, consider he confess Isabelle he was fucking her sister, Laurent’s mother; he also told Isabelle to get rid of her sister and drop her at a near hospital so they can move on to then many years latter when he realize who Laurent is try to claim him as his son and asks Isabelle to be with him, even force her to do it leaving her without many options in exchange for a ticket on a ship or some how get Daryl into a ship to USA, the irony on all this was that Laurent had to kill him and that sux because imagine a kid under that circumstances he basically killed both his parents, his mom during labor and then had to stab Quinn on the head to protect Isabelle, none of those were his fault but still if we go to numbers he is 2-0.
I didn’t like how easy Daryl escape the compound, that’s the magic of TV; the first car he check on he finds his back with all his stuff even his blade and “medieval flail”, I had to look that up lol; on top meters close to him was Fallou to help him get a truck running, he knows mechanic because his uncle had a shop??; it became so predictable and unreal at this point, who didn’t imagine Quinn was going to turn and attack them I think that was obvious.
I always like to think that every TV series and even episodes themself have a gas pedal that writers and directors use to control the excitement, you cant keep people producing dopamine indefinitely during 45 minutes episodes, you might be able to do it on one episode and not at 100%, after Daryl escape with Isebelle and Laurent their truck broke down and Codron track them down, when he had Daryl at his mercy he could not kill Daryl or Laurent for some reason, Laurent did told him “God loves you” but still I don’t think that mean anything to Codron, he kills the rest of Genet’s goons and let Daryl go away, even figure out where the nest is and told them to walk north, less than a day, Mont Saint Michel after he picks up Daryl watch from the floor and he kept it, I wonder if latter on Genet will figure out that’s the Nest??, at Mont Saint Michael the entire town was expecting Laurent. Not much happen after they arrive but to me this part of the episode was not boring since the place, the castle, the scenery was beautiful, sometimes I imagine all the people that work to build places like that and even live for so long there while my country still had nothing similar, this is for many other countries, Europe was WWWAAAYYYY more advance back then.
Codron was stupid enough to go back alone to Genet with the story on his hand that everyone got killed except him because he was chasing Laurent and Daryl killed the rest of Genet’s goons, cmon that was stupid as fuck, she came up with this story of how she work for a long time as security at a museum and learn to read paintings, who was lying just by looking at their eyes.
At The Nest, the got Daryl a ride back home and he decided it was time to go home, on his way he found the his grand father tomb, he was a soldier who died in France during war, close to that field Daryl had to fight Zombies and from there with the episode so close to finish if you look at the time left it was uncertain was going to happen but those Zombies were really looking for him because of Laurent, he was close and Zombies following WTF!! after all the kid does seem to have some power or control over Zombies that he has not develop obviously because no body have though of that, to make things even better there is a small scene when Carol shows up after following a biker who had Daryl’s bike, he never saw it coming but in matter of minutes she already had him tight down in the trunk of her car, he tells where he got the bike and now she is on her way to the same guys who put Daryl on the ship in the first place.
Episode six left us with a couple of hot topics hanging for next season
Laurent powers over Zombies, what they really are? will he develop it?
Genet caught Cordon who has Daryl pocket watch, will she figure out where is the Nest and attack?
Carol is on her way to the camp where Daryl got imprison, will she fucked up?
Season one of Daryl Dixon was just awesome, the entire season got an average of 7.7/10 with the last episode an 8.6/10 at IMDB and numbers do make sense compare to what I saw, it was way better than Dead City, more action, more similar to the OG series from the theme of the scenes, colors, even the intro was on a similar vibe and that is very important for the brand to go on and keep fans interested, I think that’s probably why Dead City didn’t got that much acceptance and to be honest Daryl Dixon spinn off at first I was a bit skeptical because are they really going to release two spinn off the same year so close to each other considering Fear The Walking Dead was still running but it turn out to be more successful than I expected, this series goes against what I have mention of a minimum of 8 episodes but it is very rare to be this successful with very little episodes, consider it had one of the bad ass characters from the OG series, on 2024 there will be the continuation of Dead City and Daryl Dixon plus there will be another spinn off “The Ones Who Live” where there will be Rick and Michonne as main characters, I have higher expectations for this next spinn off.
Slowly but surely I’m almost done with Special Ops Lioness, I got so use to watch content on VR that either sometimes I’m too tired to put on the headset when I have time to watch series or I’m lazy and just don’t but watching at my computer is not the same anymore besides a very long time I stop using Tv’s I just don’t anymore, probably should buy a big ass TV this year and get use more to it.
Special Ops Lioness is a little under cover agent/army drama series that will most likely will get a second season, haven’t seen any news saying that it has been cancel or there wont be a season two although the mission does complete from what I have seen on IMDB episodes descriptions, anyways it should get a season two after such good performance through rating sites but it could also be a one season deal, that would sux but that just how it is with the industry, never get to attach to series although some times its inevitable.
Second episode pick up some action towards the end but for the most part its just fun to see Joe mad for the most episode, she is mad because how her team got heat on their ass because of the ops at the south on top Cruz gets into a mess situation at a bar, other than that it was a very girly episode, btw Joe’s daughter broke her deal of top off only.
I can see how the girly scenes between Cruz and Aaliyah can ruin the episode but lucky it doesn’t repeat that often and its the only way the series can represent how Cruz takes information from her, for the most part the entertaining side of the episode is when Joe, her team members and Kaitlyn her boss jump into the scene, so far Joe had now clue who Aaliyah was getting marry with but since Cruz is getting closer to the group they have manage to get some intel on the guy although the are been extra careful since she already experience how fast Cruz can fuck things up and this was not the exception, on previous episodes Aaliyah would prefer to chose who to marry with but that’s just a cliche of this kind of story, not saying its fair or not but you know what I mean, again the boring side of the episode.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Choice of Failure – Season 1 – Episode 4 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Even Joe and her crew felt the same way about them monitoring the marker, “spying on spring break”, Aaliyah had everything she could dream about except “freedom”, many would think different since there are levels of money that can buy you happiness but we are still human and at the end its the simple things that matter the most, this scene was the ramp up of the shit storm that was coming to Joe, not only the one she knows about this is with the shitty work Kyle pull with her team on the south. I like the tough attitude of Joe but some times Zoe Saldana exaggerate a bit and goes over board making it look force, some might consider this show silly or waste of time because of the girly scenes and its a cliche to see undercover operations happen overseas when it comes to Arabic characters, IMO I think it does make it more entertain, watching a totally different culture and not the American way makes it more interesting.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Choice of Failure – Season 1 – Episode 4 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Exactly as Tex describe it to Joe, the job at the south was a shit show and I got a problem with this, I still don’t know why the hell Joe accept to lend Kyle part of her crew, been a special ops team already working on a mission, so far they haven’t give any background between Kyle and Joe, they both are special agents who met at a restaurant, well Kyle was following her and she agree to give him a few men for his unplanned suicide mission?? makes complete no sense, Kyle almost pull the job but the EMP bomb was not big enough to shut down cameras around him so how his ass is on the line and by consequence he sets Joe ass on fire too, it seems like the asset had some good intel on terrorist but until that’s proven they both Kyle and Joe are deep on this, if the media gets the footage.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Choice of Failure – Season 1 – Episode 4 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Liar Liar Pants on Fire, since when the fuck that’s a good advice, top off is fine just keep your pants on when dry humping?? does that really work now days?? for sure never work with any of the women when I was young that’s just how a young human brain works, selfish ass Kate got into a car wreck badly, not her fault but my mom always told me at the end the truth comes to the light, always. Sadly for her his dad not only finds out she is pregnant and she is very very fucked up, but she also betray his trust that’s probably that hurts the most when you are a father but he was very naive too, Kate been pregnant is on him, he knew who Joe was when they got together and her work line so Joe not been at home is not the excuse, that’s the problem with anyone who works with that kind of confidential information for security agencies.
Special Ops: Lioness – The Choice of Failure – Season 1 – Episode 4 – RECAP – www.skiptvads.blog
Remember how I said Joe knows Cruz can fuck up things any moment, well she did again, this is becoming a thing, Cruz getting in trouble during the mission for any random reason and I feel its not the last time it will happen, although Joe did got her once on a tough situation at Aalyah house the first visit, this time Cruz went to bar with Aalyah and her friends, there she meet a guy who drug her and almost rape her if it was not for Joe who thought it would be good idea to keep close to Cruz, I wanted to put the scene when Joe caught the guy, Cruz was laying on the floor in the woods, think about it Joe was already pissed at Kyle and her daughter Kate got into a bad car wreck, she busted the guy badly, went all savage mode destroying the guy balls, then brought Cruz back to the hotel where she is still trying to fight the drug effect to wake up and Kailtlyn just arrive to talk to Joe about the Extraction Ops at the South between Kyle and her team, this episode was a total shit storm for Joe.
I’m still on Episode four with another four to go, this are not very long episodes so probably I will just keep charge my VR headset with my headphones and burn down four hours of Special Ops next week since this weekend is Xmas, for far a series that I have really enjoy, I hope all episodes were like the first one but its kind of a good contrast and I hope one or two episodes get to that level of dopamine, if not it will feel like they burn all their gunpowder on the first episode, yeah the girly scenes kill the excitement but it also feels nice that not much character introduction has happen, they cut it out on the first two episodes and that gives more room for the rest of the story to spread its wings, you get more for your time invested on watching the series, others are slower at first a good example this year was Wheel of Time Season two was extremely slow at first to then blow your brains out with the last three episodes, Special Ops Lioness seem to be a more leveled series in terms of pace of the story, really enjoy this episode.
MONARCH could easy be one of the best TV series of 2023, the scores are not crazy high across sites like TMDB, IMDB and RTT but it has been everything I hope from the start, that was introduce a good story about all the characters this means Keiko, Shaw Lee, Cate, Bill and now their grand child and on top good monsters with an S scenes and not just Godzilla, this TV series has also push me to watch the three movies related to it so I could have a better understanding of why things happen in certain way and there is still one scenes I cant get why, that’s when Bill is been chase by a giant spider filming ask someone to forgive him for all he “Bill” took from him.. still probably one of the best TV series of 2023 with great contenders like Silo and The Wheel of Time, no doubt the Hollywood Strike hit hard the industry but there are still some gems from 2023 and MONARCH is one of them.
Episode two Departure is still part of that stage of knowing why things are happening and it will be like that probably until episode four when things settle down and it covers for the most part the present time, but I think this season main focus is to explain how things started back on the 50’s with Kieko, Bill and Shaw, that is exactly what MONARCH is after now, the youngsters Cate, Kentaro and his ex-girlfriends May have discover some files from audio and video at his father office, Hiroshi is suppose to be missing or dead but it might not be the case and there is only one person alive that might help them figure out exactly what happen and that Shaw Lee.
Recently read about an interview that was done some time ago to Wyat Russell and how he didn’t want to work with his father until he makes it out by himself, they both are very similar and I guess many other productions have though about them to be included for the same purpose of going back and forward in time lines of the same character, it work out great for MONARCH.
It was the late 50’s in Japan, Dr. Keiko Miura was probably not taken serious by many for a couple of reasons, I guess men were very dominant on her field of work and second she was basically chasing a ghost so when Shaw Lee the III was assign to her as military escort he didn’t take her serious neither and paid a great price right from the start, not only he was cocky but he was kind of pissed been assign as an escort probably as punishment after getting into a bar fight, he even though she was trying to hook up with him when they met, he thought Dr. Miura had to be a men and he was so wrong, this got him more than once to be ashamed of his actions until he started to understand what was going on and why her work was so important despite been almost along on this journey.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Departure – Season 01 – Episode 02 -RECAP – www.skiptvadas.blog
Moving into the present we know Kentaro and Cate found some files at their father office in Japan but had no clue what they were about, Kentaro ex-girlfriend knew how to handle some of this old format of data storage and decided to dig into it but this alert MONARCH about it, this are probably OG Bill Randall and Keiko Miura files, how everything started, this documents are important and MONARCH want them back.
On a second trip to his father office Kentaro started to look at some files and found a video tape too, between the files came up Shaw Lee and a document that mentions how he has been admitted at a retiring community that latter on end up been a prison for MONARCH related people, they need to keep their secrets tight even though G-day already happen they don’t want the population know that there are more than just one massive monster going around, this would cause huge panic. Kentaro latter on said his mom told him about how to locate Shaw but it is not true, he got the place name from the documents at his father office.
The entire Kentaro / May relationship is kind of boring and annoying because it has not been properly explain, we know he dump her but why? besides she is hiding something and that could be the reason why he dump her but he was not brave enough to call her out? this is just me making conclusions.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Departure – Season 01 – Episode 02 -RECAP – www.skiptvadas.blog
Cate is traumatize by what she went through on G day at San Francisco, I mean who would not if you see face to face good old GOJI!!! she had front row seats at the San Francisco Bridge when Godzilla show up and start screaming its lungs away so now every time she starts feeling claustrophobic her first though is GOJI is coming, that’s what happen when Tim try to soft kidnap her after she denied to talk to him, Cate starts to scream and scramble inside the car and kick the Duval in the face who was driving and then crash badly, not sure how Duval and Tim got out of that crash like it was nothing.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Departure – Season 01 – Episode 02 -RECAP – www.skiptvadas.blog
That same night after the crash they raided May apartment and went looking for Kentaro, not only they were very close one place to the other but Duval and Tim look fresh, not like they have gotten out of a bad car crash something I find annoying after watching the episode again, making this post makes me realize things I didn’t on the first watch, that’s another reason I like this posts recaps. Again WTF is May hiding and why she look like running away from something, she catch Cate out of her apartment and brought her to a restaurant where she is hiding a bag with supplies, money and multiple passports like she is ready to disappear anytime if needed. I also like how Kentaro mom help him to escape, was very cool how she look all naive even asking Duval if she was single an available for Kentaro LOL, making time for Kentaro to run away.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Departure – Season 01 – Episode 02 -RECAP – www.skiptvadas.blog
Episode Two explain how the three person who started MONARCH met, Keiko, Bill and Shaw, latter on Bill and Keiko become a couple, not sure if they get married because how long did it pass after they met and episode one when Keiko die? weird, I like Randal always creative and running his mouth, but he did see things different than others and had a big imagination, and Shaw as sarcastic as usual.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Departure – Season 01 – Episode 02 -RECAP – www.skiptvadas.blog
This pattern right here will come up multiple times on the series, same as Skull Island was a mythical place surrounded by a storm it seems this side of the Philippines has host for very long time a monster that only natives talk about but why governments haven’t notice, it was late 50’s so I guess nobody give a shit about it, G-day only happen until 2014 so the public didn’t know about titans until then, everything else that happen was just stories and legends that no body believe, Bill describe this as a migration pattern.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Departure – Season 01 – Episode 02 -RECAP – www.skiptvadas.blog
It feels nice how the series presents a goal, that is looking for monsters and right there they find what they were looking for, the scenery on VR is awesome, the rusted big ship in the middle of a field, the dark scenes thanks to the vintage camera stile of Bill make it look cool since it was not your classic dark scene I can’t see shit and suddenly monsters pop up, you could see details of the ship from inside and what look like the crew who was some how turn into solid material cover by mucus?? or saliva?? This ship was the Lawton that sink close to Pearl Harbor on 1943 more than seven years ago and Bill was on that ship, he didn’t know it was going to be there but he hope for it, this time was also when Shaw started to believe on Bill and Keiko theory about this monsters when he was driving away after been dismissed by Keiko from his duty when he try to tell her what to do, Shaw saw on the sky exactly what Bill describe as “path of fire in the sky” or a path of radiation left behind, so he drives back as fast as he could and help them out of a hairy situation, present to you The Dragon, at the cover image.
This episode was great, just the second episode and we already have another monster that has been reveal, I doubt it will be the same on every episode but this ramps up the hype when finally glorious GOJIRA shows up to wreck one of them, may be not may be on season one it doesn’t fight anyone and they show Keiko study its behavior, on previous movies Godzilla has been describe as the Titan that brings balance to the system thats why Dr. Ishiro on Godzilla 2014 ask the admiral to let them fight and figure it out, something that for MONARC was a bit dumb. The Russell duo works great for MONARCH and now we are going to watch Shaw Lee in the present reveal some of this secrets Keiko and Bill kept with them so it makes easier for the story to unfold and faster, Kentaro and Cate doesn’t have to look for their father along wondering but now they have Shaw help so I think the balance between characters story and monsters showing up is working out great, from the start the main thing I kept reading was people saying it was going to suck if Godzilla didn’t show up or fight but with all this monsters been reveal I think is crafting more the tittle of the series “Legacy of Monsters” in plural and not just Godzilla.
Not only me but many had high hopes on Secret Invasion, things on the MCU were going from bad to worst but there was still some hope but it all make sense when they announce the MCU reboot my first impression was like OK they ran out of ideas but the truth is that I think they already knew how fucked up it was going to get after End Game, seems that Secret Invasion was one of those last fucked up productions that had a big chance of been great, I also have to admit that there is a slight probability that the Hollywood strike had a big impact on it but still the right decision was probably to wait and do things right but on the entertainment industry this is the example of taking the hit and move on, this is nothing for them so it is easy to just release a mini series with a crappy ending, because its the last two episodes that fuck it up, that is how it got such low scores everywhere, even someone who some what enjoy the first five episodes they got to the last one and think WTF just happen?? The worst mistake on this episode was the fact that they constantly interrupt the main fight that had good special effects, kept pause/play with a stupid argument between Fury and Rhodey at the hospital when Fury was trying to safe the president, I think their intention was to increase the dopamine levels of viewers, like who is going do die first?? Giah at the fight? the president at the hospital? c’mon the fight between G’iah and Gravik was the main event of the evening how could you just kept interrupting, this let to very confusing and blurry scenes during the fight, If you take the entire fight alone without the interruptions it was not bad.
I love doing this kind of recaps because it helps me to not let slide those details you usually miss because of the dopamine rush but I do hate when the flow of the story gets interrupted so much becoming erratic.
Even after we already know the outcome of this episode if you still decide to give it a try like me, after all I had to close this chapter I’m not the type of person that build my opinion on what others say or think, I might watch the worst movie ever but if I like it still say it.
Episode started OK, Fury went to Skrullos, Gravik’s HQ, consider that everyone on that compound is a Skrull so for Fury they were all enemies, no hostages, anyone on his way is going down, things between Priscilla and him are a bit sour after he find out she was in contact with Gravik, true she is a Skrull but Fury decided to become his husband no matter the species differences, we are not talking anymore culture or religion, she is from another planet so that’s a lot of trust from him and she decided to stay in contact with his enemy and even denied so he is on the fence if trust her again or not.
The only thing that I like from this dialogue up here was how Rhodey was dropping bombs on the Admiral, it was also disturbing since if you have watch other movies when he shows up you know that’s not him, the way he was pushing the bombing on Skrullos forcing the president to take action, but I still like this Rhodey with a lot of attitude not the passive guy we see on Avengers, always a secondary character, he was still on Secret Invasion but had that I Dont Give a Fuck attitude, at the end he ran out of time since Sonya set him up, messing with his mind, making him think Fury was after him and the President so they had to scramble and try to take the President out of the hospital.
This was probably my favorite part of the episode, it was not all bad, the range of the score was from 5 – 7 out of 10, so you can still watch it and say meh could have been better, I have seen worst. This series look like a fucking movie, it had everything to be great, you got Fury trying to out smart a Skrull general who have millions of them on earth and just Fury without any supper powers but very slick. Truth is that Fury is a selfish mother fucker, but I think there are some professions that you have to be like that if not you wont make it to the top, this time been like that was about to byte his ass, Gravik pull up with a lot of revelations like the skin he was wearing was the first human he killed working for Fury and how that consume him and how Fury basically pimped them as a cheap whore, all Skrulls, so this make Talos his main bitch?? massive mic drop.
I bet this is not how things happen but its a mediocre TV adaptation so you can’t ask much, but it was this moment when Super Skrull was going to become a reality, the possibilities were infinite and the way they try to setup a trap I think was good, before it happen I knew Fury was not giving the Harvest that easy, it had all DNA samples from Thanos, Hulk, Captain America, all DNA that was not human was there but still the concept to have it on a single bottle I think made no sense, besides who could take that kind of mutation on a single hit, this was probably worst than trying to handle all the infinity stones, it would never be as easy as I gave you the Harvest you get the fuck out of planet Earth.
The fight was wild, well if it was not getting interrupted every two minutes, I think if you take all the fight scene and put it together would then be a great fight, but again all that interruption cut a lot of cool scenes, I realize this when I was taking all the screenshots for this post from the video, there were scenes that left a lot on the table since you could not really appreciate the punches and wounds, but the fact that Gravik was no match for G’iah also got me thinking that they put it easy for her, on a situation when both have the same powers, too many to use at the same time because G’iah even pull a Mantis move and put Gravik to sleep; this fight was more about who was more creative to combine all this powers, Gravik for the most part was all brute force and G’iah was way smarter to use other powers like the frost blade, she also went all Captain Marvel first and then he imitate her.
Unfortunately the episodes was some what ok until the end of the fight, the rest was very vague and felt the most rush it has been from all other five episodes, party is over everyone home just like that, Fury goes back to space now with Pricilla, Sonya is now working with G’iah but everything is presented in small snippets scenes, this is why I keep saying at least two more episodes and the outcome of this mini series would have been different, been a mini series is something that piss off viewers who at first thought this would be a full TV series with probably two seasons not every one has time to be checking the Twitter MCU account to know what to expect from this Movies and Series, I started posting about tv series and movies about a year ago, nothing journalistic about it but just putting my opinion as a normie viewer and I have no clue what to expect after the trailer came out, I thought it would be a great watch but the last two episodes destroy it.
I have been giving more though about why things like this happen and I landed on the idea that scrapping out a show like this is nothing for the entertainment industry, unless its on very early stages they stop it without releasing a crappy show but when there already episodes film and some what marketing out they go with it despite it been a low effort production, I wont say its the actors fault because I felt actors were fine, the Gravik part at the reactor with Fury, expressing how he felt about him, how Fury pimped them LOL that was funny, that entire scene was great from Gravik so it was more of a moronic production decision to rush things out instead of finding the budget and time to give it a few more episodes and let the story spread its wings a bit more.
REACHER season two brings more context to the story, it feels nice when you watch a TV series with proper story structure, season one was full of action with very little of who Reacher really is, all we knew was that he was in the army, he is fucking tank you don’t mess with and is one of the good guys, but there were a few questions like why really he stop giving a fuck about everything and decided to disappear, no phone, no address, travel light, on his own words that is all Reacher was.
Season 2 brings more context by starting to develop what that part of his life was, Mayor Reacher had a crew, he was running a team of special investigators who he selectively hand pick, at first things did not make sense to most of the but everyone was there for a reason and not just random guys from all over the army, Reacher is like the final version of the Hulk, when Bruce Banner finally understood Hulk as an improvement and not a disease, that’s Reacher, the final version of the Hulk and it would be nice to see him working hard than usual, suffer a bit, may be would be nice to see some one giving him a proper fight one to one, season two starts with the death of Calving Franz, member of this old crew the 100th unit, Franz was torture and then thrown off a helicopter, not a cheap death so must be a high profile case he was after, Reacher now comes in to get to the bottom of this murder and make sure justice is serve in the name of his friend.
It would not be a Reacher episode without a proper kick ass, Reacher was minding his own business, buying a change clothe at a local store by the pound, it was funny that he even change clothe there and the puts the old one on the counter LOL, he sees this women doing multiple withdraws from an ATM and simple ask her if she has been carjacked, not sure how he got to that conclusion but most of the time you don’t care, when you watch this type of series or movies like John Wick all you want is massive shooting, kick ass fights, break some stuff and that’s is what Reacher is all about, they complement with a story but this is the perfect sample of a proper Reacher kick ass scene, if not the series would be very boring watch a big guy like him just doing investigator job. Reacher is like Bruce Banner transform into the Hulk but with a bit more of attitude and sarcasm, at the end he ask the kid if he wants to see his mom? jajajaja very funny scene.
An old friend and crew member, Frances Neagley; was trying to reach him since he had no where to be contacted at, as a last resource she use a clever way to send a distress call using his bank account, so when he pick up the recipe from the ATM, a deposit of $1.10 and then balance went to $1,030, this are the kind of things only people from the army of where the use this codes frequently are aware of on their daily routine, its like if I see 127.0.0.1 on my mind that’s HOME. Neagley the women with Reacher at the phone wanted to notify him Franz was murdered.
Episode one brings Mayor Reacher, Special Investigator crew to the scene, they were few but very well selected by Reacher himself, trying to be as efficient as possible, some of the them like young blood David O’Donell had no clue how such team will work out, Reacher had his doubts too but things started on the right foot after they all witness Reacher had their back no matter what.
Reacher catch up with Neagley during breakfast after he flight to New York where she is at, a lot has happen since he has been out, this crew probably understood he wanted to be alone or that he didn’t care anymore, its either one of the two so they didn’t put that much effort to contact him but this time was different, one of them has been torture and murdered, not an event to swallow that easy so Neagley did everything she could to contact him. Episode one was either very predictable or its a trap for the viewer, right out of the start they are been follow everyone and two guys monitoring them, we see the one following them with the list of Reacher crew members, who do they work for? are they government? are they with the people who kill Franz? who the fuck they are?, if you ask any viewer the first though would be they are with the bad guys.
On top, Reacher calls O’donnell and told him where is he and Neagley are staying, latter on he shows up after Neagley’s room was turn apart, so it’s either some one else who is listening to their calls who did it or O’donnel is with the bad guys? see all the possibilities and outcomes of episode one? I’m 200% sure we will see some sort of treason against Reacher in the upcoming episodes, because some one who knows him and his ex crew is after them, Franz was the first victim.
Reacher is all about been just and defending the little one, even though the entire crew is mention on episode one there is very little known about them besides Neagley and O’donnell, she even mention Karla Dixon from Reacher crew that he liked her but never had anything with her because he was running the team, seem wrong for him, that kind of just guy. The rest of the crew only fill the space even Franz didn’t said much during the episode.
Remember how I said Reacher had their back? it was this scene where they got into a bar fight because it was a “officers only” bar and Neagley was Sergeant, that evening started boring, they didn’t know each other, O’donnell was constantly running his mouth about the rest, even Dixon said leaving after her first beer but it was that fight that make the crew stick together and bond at a camp fire, singing, drinking, that night Neagley probably became Reacher right hand, after all that is what he was looking for, a tight crew that stick together not a bunch of military police doing what they were told to do at the military.
Within the possible bad guys there is Mr. Mount who is always reading a comic book, using fake passports as he burn the one he was holding during this scene to then buy a few more from a random guy who makes them, it even makes me think he he has nothing to do with the other two guys from before, on this episode their names were not mention but I look them up on IMDB, there is also O’donnell who for the time is with Reacher but I don’t trust anyone other than Neagley for now.
After some data they found on a USB that Franz left behind, btw the USB had a password and it was Reacher, Franz always wanted to be like him. Reacher comes to the conclusion that they are after his old crew so they decided to get in contact with who ever they could, decided to visit Swan and found his dog Maisi dead, dehydrated, makes Reacher think Swan is dead too because he would not let this happen if he was able to come home.
Episode 1 of Reacher, Season 2; was great, not only we got two short kick as fight scenes, I would like the bar fight to show more but it was only to make a point, there is even a third fight, not really fight, where Reacher jump some local drug dealers just to release some steam, still great episode and I think the rating of 8.5/10 talks by itself, the entire season two has been release and most episodes have high scores, for me it is only and indicative although I don’t make my opinion out of review scores, after all something that I think can be solve if this sites run on a blockchain but that is a project I have in mind for the future since I’m not a developer.
Going back to the episode since I was getting out of track, this episode leaves a lot of questions, different than your traditional first episode where new characters are presented properly with some background, this time its a bit different since they were all mention but besides Neagley we are left knowing very little about the rest, it was a nine member crew, there is a lot to be unfold for the next seven episodes and this is something I have been thinking about, the amount of episodes for a good story is at minimum eight, best if its a ten episode season but I have notice that anything below six sux most of the time. I’m glad season two is this good, yes it still has that cliche of the big dumb guy who brakes stuff but not really, its different, smart big good guy who brakes stuff, not your usual army related tv series.
This post is a mix of things, first I got curious about all three movies that link to MONARCH TV series
Kong: Skull Island
Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
By the time I made my first post about this new Monsterverse TV series I had only watch the latest Godzilla movie, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and it was very good in my opinion for the time, when I say for the time I mean there was not much interest on Godzilla and I would say it was one of the only movies when Godzilla and other monsters/titans show full body, clear image, during daylight because let me tell you this is the love and hate relationship with this movie, IT FUCKING SUX when it comes to showing Godzilla and the two other monsters in it that no body knew what the hell they were, my hope is that MONARCH make things right bringing a good story, few side stories from secondary characters and clear full body scenes from the monsters with details about from where the hell they come from and what type or category of monsters they are.
I could not post images of some of the scenes because they were dark as hell, even with my vr setup I had a hard time in a few occasions to identify the monsters and tell what was going on, I didn’t watch the movie because I’m a Godzilla fan, well I think I’m becoming one now; mainly watch this movie and the others because MONARCH is suppose to tie them up all together and that to me is interesting.
It’s interesting to see Tomatometer higher than the audience score, usually is the other way since the Tomatometer reviews are more harsh and professional meaning they might find and criticize a few things regular viewers like me wont, to me it was a 6.5/10, so I agree with a 66% or acceptance, problem with audience score is that there is always someone who shits on the score giving a 1/10 to that screw everything up for the average ratio, between 6 and 7 is fine but no more than that.
It feels very refreshing to watch this movie after watching a few episodes of MONARCH since this are the very same images and this is episode two, when they try to use a bomb to lure in Godzilla, at first the deal was to bring him close to the shore to study him, proof it exist but the ARMY decided to destroy it, detonating the bomb when it was close enough, after all they were funding MONARCH but no body expected Godzilla would survive the explosion absorbing all radiation so making the TV Series match exact scenes of the different movies is very cool and what everyone was expecting I think.
The movie starts with Dr. Ishiro Serizawa and Vivienne Graham, at first I confuse Ishiro with Hiroshi from the TV series but they are not the same person, Ishiro was way before Hiroshi although the MONARCH founders do not appear on this movie, Dr. Keiko and Bill Randa, see where I’m going with this post, I’ll be making reference to both the TV Series and the Movie like telling you watch the movies before the TV series.
Ishiro and Vivienne got a call from something they have found on a mine, inside a cave there was what look like a cocoon, there were two of them; but one of them was recently open and what ever came out of it left a huge hole on the side of mountain and a long trace, look like it either took off or got into the ocean, all this inside a way bigger skeleton probably the thing that put them there, Dr. Ishiro confirm it has to be a titan since there was a trace of radiation, second cocoon was inactive so they took it and put it a warehouse with other nuclear waste, stupid idea.
Next there was the couple of Joe Brody and his wife Sandra Brody who had kid name Ford, latter on Ford turns into a bad ass, Joe and Sandra work at a nuclear plant in Japan, sensors at the plant has detected some signal, they think its an earthquake but its not, this signal is important to the story because is what so far everyone recognize as the first indication that Godzilla might show up, what they call the signal of G day.
The Brody’s story is one of the cool things about the movie, they give it proper continuation and closure, when Joe detected this signal it was too late, the titan was already getting closer and the target was the nuclear plant, it was after the reactor, Sandra was a technician at the plant and in this case she was in charge to check there was no breach, again too late, worst part is that Joe had to close the door on her to avoid all that radiation to come up and watch her die, same time young Ford had to watch the nuclear plant collapse very close from school.
Ford latter on gets into the army, went on his first tour, had a wife and a kid, I feel Elizabeth Olsen aka Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlett Witch, mf hottest women on the MCU, could had a better part on this movie, she is a great actress in my opinion, she was Ford’s wife.
After the accident in Japan where Joe’s wife died he got obsess with the what and why it happen, they were taken out of Japan with the excuse that it was not safe because of the radiation, several times got arrested for coming back and Ford had to take care of him but he agree to go back one last time to help his father finish this, no surprise to Joe there was no radiation, it was all a lie, he also found old 3.5 inch disks, those things are so fragile; kept saying in there was all his data, come on by the time he came back and the bad environment those disks were trash.
For years after the attack the titan stay in a cocoon stage, so probably when it escape the island it didn’t had wings that’s why it left a trace on the ground and after it absorb all the radiation at the plant started his evolution.
Dr. Ishiro had a program where they were studding the cocoon, the reason MONARCH exist is not to kill this monsters but to study them because there is way more to know about them, specially where they come from, Joe and Ford got arrested at the base and while all this happen the monster got out of the cocoon and escapes but Joe got hit by a crane in the process and latter on dies when he was taken out of the island.
Here is when things start to get salty, fucking monsters are always on a very dark scenario, it was just a few times that I could get a proper screenshot of the monsters.
Military gets involve when the monster at Japan got out so they were tracking it down, they were not the only ones, Godzilla was also tracking down this monster so they met each other at sea where Ishiro insisted the Marine to leave Godzilla alone and let them fight, in the process cities would be destroy.
In fact the bat-type monster attack Hawaii in the process of meeting with the female monster of the same specie, it was a mess all scenes were so dark, to give you an example this were probably the only clear shots from the monsters I could get from this fight scene, most of the fight scene become irrelevant as you cant see shit but then there were few moments specially from Godzilla that compensate things so imagine the roller coaster of WTF WHY SO DARK, CANT SEE SHIT!! and then HELL YEAH GODZILLA IS A BEAST!!!
Remember how I mention it was stupid to put the second cocoon next to nuclear waste? fact it ate all the fucking nuclear waste absorbing radiation and getting huge stupid size to the moment the make bat monster was fully grown, this second monster escapes from the warehouse inside a mountain in Las Vegas to now meet with the male, destination San Francisco.
This are the scenes that I mention that compensate, form the monsters, it look like it was on porpuse, like it was a budget thing, first was the attack on Hawaii that was dark as fuck, couldn’t see a thing on top was at night, then when they arrive San Francisco everything was grey including the bay area like it was about to rain, I get it that when they started to move inside the city there was a lot of dust in the air from all the buildings that were getting destroy so is the part of the movie that compensate all the other dark scenes, although it is about to get WORST.
This is another killer shot, army send out soldiers to disarm a bomb that they were going to use against the monsters but its now on the city after the male bat got it, that’s the scene where it dive into the ocean grabbing the bomb from one of the army ship, soldiers jump from a plane with red flares, clouds of dust form staying below the sky so there was a air gap and all the red lines falling from the sky it was sick, another point for the movie, its going to fucking need it.
WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL, this is when you end the movie so pissed off at it, the entire fight scene at San Francisco was so dark, sometimes gray some times just dark but in any case you could not fully seem them fight, obviously Godzilla kills both of the other monsters but as you can see on the image above before he killed the female Godzilla grab her by the head and shoot radioactive blue flames inside it melting the rest of the monster ripping its head off, bad ass ten seconds but over all very very very crappy fight scenes in my opinion.
If I had to split the movie into two parts, I could say that 50% of the movie was very cool with the clear monster shots, the soldiers falling from the sky, Joe quest to find out what really happen at the nuclear plant was very interesting, if you have watch MONARCH you would notice that it does makes sense with the Movies, there is continuation so for me it was not that bad because this movie was informative and entertaining but if MONARCH didn’t exist and I only watch it or say went to the movies I would end thinking that all Godzilla movie sux and its piece of shit, it is not but it would be my first reaction probably after half of the movie was dark
Episode Seven has start an event I was waiting for some time, everyone including Rand and Egwene start using their powers at will, there is one thing I never consider is that Moiraine will recover her ability to connect again with the one power, not only that its exciting to see all this characters using their powers there is also Lanfear trying to show Rand she cares for him although it is still not clear when and where her “love” for Rand, The Dragon; goes off the cliff, they keep saying its always the same story that never ends and never change, Lanfear herself mention it “after 3000 years here I am…” when she was trying to help Rand escape, she is so powerful she feels been there creating a distraction for Rand is a waste of her time but she still did it because she loves Rand although he doesn’t remember anything from his previous life.
There is also a good amount of the episode that gives more details about Siuan and Moiraine love story, on season one there was an episode that shows them sneaking out to a small house next to the river, I always ask myself why was that and where was that, but this episode gives more context of why they sneak out and where, things have change drastically when Siuan finds out Rand is the Dragon and Moiraine kept him from her and The White Tower, Siuan is piss at her badly to the point she demands as her superior and not as the women once loved her.
Let me tell you Moiraine looks so weird smiling, specially with such a big simile, all her teeth showing, for the most part on season one and two she have never laugh or smile like that I can remember, her dream and hope was to be with Siuan, get out of the tower and start a life together now that the ongoing war is over, Siuan thought the same but something more quiet, a house next to the river like she had when she was child, her dad’s house, Moiraine even call herself Siaun Fishwife, I really don’t give two fucks if the series was trying to push a message or not, it is very entertaining. It was at this point on her life that Moiraine would be destine to find the Dragon after she hold on her hands Sister Gitara, Ais Sedai; who had a vision of The Dragon Reborn, it was Rand’s mother giving birth after battling for her life caring him inside.
This scene they divided in like three parts but mostly was Rand trying to be tough but at the same time docile, he finally meet with Amyrlin Seat, Siuan Seday, after all this entire party is for him, I wonder how much of his power will he be using on this season because he has no control over it, he is suppose to be the most powerful of them all but when ever he tries to use his powers it consume him, in this scene Siuan cut the bullshit and tells him straight up that The White Tower has rules and procedures, one of them put The Dragon in a cage and use him as a weapon to this Rand tries to fight back but it only took her a single wave of her hand to put him on his knees, at his point he has the potential but no control over his powers I think he cant even beat Moiraine on a one on one fight.
Moiraine is called by Siuan, she kept Rand from everyone else with the assumption that The White Tower was corrupt so she must kept him out of danger until he was ready, this got her no where, she “lost” her powers, Rand was found first by Lanfear and he cant even beat Siuan so they have got no where and Siuan feels the same, its time for things been done The White Tower way.
It is true that I have mention on this post how Rand has no control over his powers but he now has discover a way to communicate with Lanfear without having to actually sleep?? Lanfear is a dream walker, she can enter anyone’s dream and kill him if she wanted. Rand is send to the dungeon to keep prisoner until Siuan says, he is been watch by Leane Sedai and at this point Moiraine still can’t use her powers so there is no way out for Rand until he ask for Lanfear help, she is so fkn hot on her leather dress, obviously she accept to help him escape but not after a little foreplay, she likes to be “manipulated” by him like she wants him to be in charge but its not his time, things might be different in the future and this is when I think Rand will be tempted by the dark side, once he is able to fully control his powers, makes me think that at some point he will have his doubts and might side with Lanfear.
After I’m done with this season I might rewatch the entire thing including season one because I think I’m missing when may be Moiraine or some one else explain why Lanfear wants Rand so badly, at first I thought it was for his powers or to kill him but that was never the case, that time Moiraine cut Lanfear throat at the cabin she was about to do something with Rand, he was tied up to the bed but then Moiraine show up and ruin the hole thing, Lanfear creates the perfect distraction and set the town on fire so Rand could escape, Siuan had to team up with other sisters and create rain to put off the fire.
For the most part this episode was pure action, it was all about Lanfear, Rand, Moiraine and Siuan trying to make things work out, well except Lanfear she will just go with Rand but things went south when Siuan got Moiraine against the wall.
When Rand finally got the time to look at Moiraine and knew that her powers were taking he saw something in her, Ishamael put some sort of tie, a spell; that limits her so she could not use the one power and he had to gently destroy it, as they explain it was risky because if he use too much power could kill her but that was the boring part, it was Moiraine reaction to feel the power again that was really cool, it was a mid point of happy, cry and laughing at the same time, she opens a gateway, portals to travel through space and time; old dark passage, the moment Siuan caught them she force Moiraine to close it against her will using her power but everything came down for Siuan when Lanfear appears, I think Siuan is been blind by the fact that she is the Amyrlin Seat and by the White Tower laws, I don’t want to say power got her overestimate Rand and Lanfear but its actually lack of understanding of what she is dealing, who she is dealing with, she thought could beat Lanfear and got drag around like it was nothing, falling and had to watch Lanfear open the gateway with Rand and Moiraine following her, WTF she must be thinking at that moment, who would have knowing a forsaken, the dragon and Aes Sedai getting into a gateway.
In between this entire awesome episode that got an 8.2/10, anything above 8 is fucking great; the cherry on top was Egwene, Rena and her got to a training session, there were a few things that got my attention, when they were about to execute an attack Rena told her “don’t worry for this one I dont need anything from you” then Egwene explodes in power creating a huge expansion wave but the BEST part probably from the entire episode is when Egwene told Rena TO HER FACE, wearing her collar “I will kill you”, this is HUGE, the reason is because women wearing the A’dam can not even THINK about hurting the one holding the leach, the fact that Egwene was able to do this says a lot of her power, how she had dominate and control her feelings, mind and powers is insane.
As usual WOT episodes end up on long posts, there were a few things that I try to resume from this one, now that I’m changing the format of my posts I try to bring a more graphic representation of my writing and I really enjoy but its way more work than previous posts, for those who support my content I really appreciate it.
This episode was crazy and from what I have seen the next, last episode is probably even better; finally every one is going to meet at Falme for the final of this season, I wonder who dies, I have to assume Lanfear doesn’t because I think she will stay close to Rand until he is able to control his powers, so far seems that season three is on its way for 2024, now that Moiraine has her powers back things are going to change drastically but for how long she will stay close to Rand, after all Lanfear hates her.
Perry side story is still very insignificant for the main story but has become way more interesting than it was, same goes for Mat but those two are characters to fill up.
From all the TV series of 2023, WOT season two had the most dramatic come back in a season after people were constantly complaining for the first half how slow, boring, it was, while I was on the other side of the fence thinking this is going to get wild towards the end and it did.
Its not very often that I make a post about a trailer although this is a game adaptation to a TV series that many have been waiting for and past weekend drop a few trailer from other very popular TV Series, I have recently read a few post online and watch videos about how good or bad could this series be, for me it has not started so I can not tell if it will be any of the two, although I can give my opinion of my first impression and how I think some people feel about it based on what I have read or watch.
Fallout TV Series might fit, didn’t want to say fall; into a problem that seem to be eating alive all kind of good story or character now days, for example very recent Bob Iger from Disney said about their productions
“movies should “entertain first, not [push] messages”
Fans, that’s not me; want to watch a production as close as possible to the original story, Fallout has six games in total with probably plenty of material to make more than three seasons but there are already signs that the story is far from what the games are on top signs that the TV series will be pushing messages of awareness instead of focus on a post apocalyptic fiction story at the same time making it as close to what the game is.
From my understanding and it makes sense to give that suspense to the story no body knows who drop the first nuclear bomb but as it is shown on the trailer it was not one but many of them, by now nuclear shelters were a thing that there were many faults, on the TV series the main character Lucy, was on Vault 33, number on their uniforms and at the end on first image; I don’t know if the first episode starts with her going out because latter on the trailer she is shown inside the vault, probably they tell the story with a moving time line going back and forward, that is a common thing now days, point is she wants out and some of her partners did not like the idea, probably try to stop her as there is a guy on the floor and her lip has blood, this tells us Lucy probably knows how to throw her hands.
Different that most vault or silo TV series, Lucy makes it out of the Vault and starts exploring the Earth, everything is destroy, almost a huge desert although there is still water oceans exist, anything that remain out of the Vaults was most likely affected by radiation or climate, this is going to be a creepy show, look at the size of that cockroach, that’s what they call a rat-cockroach, things are the size of a Dog, there will be all kid of mutant creatures, some bigger, some totally different, production will let their creation fly with this creatures for entertainment purpose.
These scene right here is suppose to be off the game timeline, the explanation for this is that California can’t be this bad at the time the TV Series is happening, this speculations come from the fact that at the time of the series there is already a new order taking place, the NCR (New California Republic); trying to reestablish society, Fallout world is full of multiple tribes or groups of people from raiders, mutants and there is the NCR trying to bring everyone together under one regime, we won’t know if there is a timeline issue until the series release on April 2024 but fans need to understand and this is for everyone watching anything on TV, if its not a documentary it won’t be 200% accurate or not even close, that seem to be a new trend, I understand those who dream about watching their favorite character on a Movie or TV series but entertainment is first and by entertainment I mean money for the studios who produce them, I don’t make the rules.
There is going to be a lot of shooting on this series, from scenes inside the vault, things are not great, people are loosing their minds, not sure if its because they are sick of been lock down because everyone goes wild, like the women on this picture with a fork on her eye shooting at everyone, this images gives me vibes that this will be a very cynic type of series meaning might be the perfect scenario to push “messages” even during the trailer Lucy mention how she never imagine things would be like that outside the vault, she always had everything to survive inside and things are very different outside. For me most of this behaviors from a character don’t matter as long as its entertaining but the problem with that is they tend to deviate from the original story and that’s when true fans who have play the game in this case get piss off because the character is not acting as on the game, this is the production using the movie as a way to promote certain social messages trying to fix the world but shitting on the TV Series that is suppose to be a Game adaptation.
The Steel Brotherhood look very bad ass, this probably going to be one of the great attractions of the series, seen them shooting massive guns, fighting all kind of bandits, mutants and raiders, with their main porpuse as describe on Fallout Fandom Page, paramilitary order with chapters operating across the territory of the former United States … core purpose is to preserve advanced technology and regulate its usage; so I’m not sure if they are going to make tech illegal for others to use, after a nuclear war, holocaust like what is shown when all the Nukes hit USA, tech will become rare and powerful to have, most people will be riding animals or walking while the Steel Brotherhood transport using vehicles like the Vertibird.
The men or in this case based on game description Ghoul above, describe as The Ghoul on IMDB; might turn to be one of the main characters, hard to say if he will be friendly to Lucy but he will have his own story of how was his past life before the holocaust, there is a scene of him riding a horse wearing a Cowboy uniform yellow and blue with a girl most likely his daughter, the moment nukes hit the ground, on the game Ghoul are describe as men who survive the wasteland, feeding from radiation.
Bellow The Ghoul they show Maximus, at first he is seen flying on a Vertibird and now running after they get attack, he is the only one not wearing a Steel Armor, that factor makes him special to the story, as a regular viewer and not a fan who knows the story this tells me right from the start there will be multiple stories that at some point come together, so going back and forward on different timelines means to understand the series you will have to pay attention to it.
From the point of average viewer the series seems great, I expect a lot of comedy since when things are over exaggerated tend to funny and some times gross, action scenes look very cinematic, on the trailer its mention that the studios behind The Boys, if they can tone down the series it probably gets to that perfect balance where anyone can watch the show and don’t feel like its too cynic because that’s the main topic here, its everything goes on the wastelands and Lucy now has to survive, she wanted out and now has to learn this new world and find a safe place to stay to adapt, my opinion is DO NOT expect Fallout to be a top tier series like The Last of Us or House of Dragon.
The story might not be 100% as the games
They probably will rush things out
But if you are only looking for a series to kill time, laugh, a few dopamine rush and have that desire of exploring a new place, what would be Earth after a world wide nuclear bombing then I think Fallout will be an ok show, from the start a 7/10 its not crazy, probably a similar case like The Rings of Power where its not 100% as the original story but the action scenes, the production, the actors make it up to be an ok series.
Personally I don’t care if a Movie or a TV Series is “Canon” or not, I’m a fan of many stories and characters and if someone makes content that is good, entertaining out of this character and changes a couple of things as long as I have a good time I personally I’m fine with it, people have to accept, they don’t have to understand but to accept that is how the entertainment business works, games, comics, most adaptations wont be exactly as the original story for many factors, budget, time but a the same time producers, writers, they have to be very cautious not to rush things or deviate too much, for example Secret Invasion to me was an ok TV Series until episode five, shit hit the fan on episode five, they totally screw up the ending and I’m sure many Fallout fans will be led down by this tv series because the script and the story might not be the same as the games, six games that’s a lot to digest.
