The Dragon Prince Season Three Review: Best Season Yet.

I enjoyed the first two seasons of The Dragon Prince.
While I did find the first season to be flawed in its animation and some of its story telling, I found season two to be a real improvement.
Well, season three continues to improve on its animation and story, becoming the best season so far.
Created by Aaron Ehaz and Justin Richmond, the story now follows Callum (Jack DeSena) and Rayla (Paula Burrows) on their journey to deliver the Dragon Prince Zym to his mother and end the war.
While this is going on, Callum’s younger brother Ezran (Sasha Rojen) struggles as the new king of Katolis, with Viren (Jason Simpson) and the mysterious Aarvos (Erik Todd Dellums) scheming to take power.

Aarvos 3.jpg — Aarvos is just as mysterious and threatening as when he was first introduced in season two.

The first thing I have to praise the third season of The Dragon Prince for is its scale.
The story now feels like an epic, and after the final enthralling last episode, “The Final Battle,” I have no idea where the series is going next.
Just as good as the story are the characters who are more investing than they ever have been.
A perfect example of this is my new favourite character Soren (Jesse Inocalla).
Honestly, I did not care much for Soren prior to this season but he really blew me away here with his character development.
This culminated in a scene is the final episode that left me both feeling shocked and having a lot of respect for him.

Soren really surprised me with how heroic he became this season.

Almost as good are Callum and Rayla, with their relationship being a primary focus.
When the possibility of a relationship between the two was first hinted at last season, I was actually unsure if it could work.
However, the depiction of their relationship definitely proved me wrong because the two are perfect for each other.
Along with these characters, others like Viren, Aarvos, and Claudia (Raquel Belmonte) all have standout moments.
I also really enjoyed Amaya’s storyline and I was very happy to see she got more screen time than last season.
And then there is Ezran whose storyline, unfortunately, has a problem.
As well as this, there is also a deus ex machina in “The Final Battle” that I found to be particularly egregious.
I think these two problems could have been easily fixed, but to explain why I will need to get into spoilers so I will leave that for the end of the post.
However, although these problems do stick out, they are not enough to ruin the season, which has plenty of things to make up for it like the story, other characters, and the animation.
Speaking of, the animation this season is amazing.

amazing animation.png — The animation, particularly in “The Final Battle” looks spectacular.

Unlike season one there was no moment where I was taken out of a scene because of poor animation.
As well as this, the season also manages to be incredibly funny with one reference to Avatar: The Last Airbender leaving me laughing harder than I have in a while.
So, all in all, the third season of The Dragon Prince is definite the best so far.
It has a great story, great characters, amazing animation, funny jokes, and I cannot wait to see where it goes.
There have been some concerns that Netflix may cancel it but, hopefully, these fears turn out to be for nothing.

Spoilers:
So, I want to discuss the two big problems I have with season three and state how I think they could have been fixed.
The first issue is Ezran being usurped as king by Viren and then going back to help Callum and Rayla in the span of a few episodes.
This made his subplot of learning to become king feel kind of unnecessary.
The second problem I have is the dues ex machina in “The Final Battle” where Queen Aanya (Zelda Ehaz) shows up out of nowhere with her army to save the day, apparently being convinced by Corvus (Omari Newton) and Opeli (also Paula Burrows) to come and help.
The thing is that Aanya seemed to be pretty against fighting in season two so it really does not make sense for her to come and help now.
In order to fix these two things I would suggest a change in the story.
Instead of Ezran immediately going back to Callum and Rayla when he is dethroned, he instead travels with Corvus and Opeli to meet Aanya and ask for her support.
We could see Ezran learn to negotiate with her and maybe Aanya decides to help him because she sees the good in him, unlike Viren who she could tell was untrustworthy.
This would both make Ezran’s king storyline more important and make Aanya showing up to help make more sense.

His Dark Materials Episode Four Armour Review: Great Character Interactions.

Directed by Otto Bathurst, the fourth episode of His Dark Materials “Armour” is definitely the best episode so far, introducing two new central characters that look to be some of the most interesting of the series.
The first of these is Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Joe Tandberg), the iconic armoured bear of the series.
Iorek was definitely the character I remembered the most from the film adaptation so I was excited to see him return.
And he did not disappoint, with the build up to him joining Lyra being perfectly handled, unlike in the film where I remember him joining up the moment he met her.
Tanberg also does a great job voicing the character, giving Iorek’s voice the animalistic feel it should have.
The CGI for the character is likewise fantastic.

Iorek CGI is perfectly handled, with him not looking out of place at all.

Lyra eventually convinces Iorek to join their cause by helping him find his missing armour, leading to the memorable scene where he emerges in it, ready to fight the Magisterium’s soldiers.
However, although this scene is great, it does raise a bit of a plot hole about why the soldiers don’t just shoot where Iorek isn’t armoured?
Still, this does not completely ruin the scene.
The second interesting character to be introduced in “Armour” is Lee Scoresby, played in a charismatic performance by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
An airman who exceeds in thievery, Lee’s eventual decision to ally himself with Lyra is just as well built up as Iorek joining her.
Originally coming to Trollesund to find Ioreck, Lee and his daemon Hester (voiced by Cristela Alonzo) have many humorous interactions with Lyra as she misleads him about the Gyptians being after his services.
The moment he realizes this and still manages to convince the Gyptians to hire him and Iorek is comedic gold, and the two joining shows just smart Lyra is in gathering allies.

Miranda does a great job of portraying both Lee’s comedic and serious side.

Speaking of allies, Farder Coram seems to succeed in gaining the support of the witch he had a child with, Serafina Pekkla.
This leads to a moving performance from James Cosmo as Farder Coram tearfully tells Lyra the story of how he and Serafina lost their child and grew apart as a result.
All of the scenes in Trollesund are great, with amazing character interactions that can also bee seen in the scenes with Mrs Coulter, who is as manipulative as ever.
She manages to turn her demotion around, convincing Cardinal Sturrock (Ian Peck) and Father MacPhail (Will Keen, Dafne Keen’s father) to send her North because she has Lord Asriel.
Not only this but she is allowed to ask the alethiometer a question and asks it who Lyra is, most likely referring to the prophecy surrounding her.
Although, one problem I do have with Coulter’s manipulation is that we never see her force of armored bears capture Asriel.
I heard we don’t see him get caught in the book either but we saw his expeditions in the North researching Dust so I don’t see why we couldn’t have got a scene of his capture.

coulter manipulates.png — Despite not seeing Asriel’s capture, the scene where Coulter manipulates the Cardinal shows how smart she is with Ruth Wilson doing an amazing job.

Coulter’s manipulations also leads to the scene between her and Iofur Raknison, the king of the armoured bears, where she offers him a baptism in exchange for his help.
I have to say, I think the design of Iofur’s armour is excellent, giving him a real menacing presence that kind of makes me wish Ioreck’s armour had got an update from the movie.
So, overall, despite a few minor problems, “Armour” is a fantastic episode of His Dark Materials and my favourite of the four episodes we have got so far.

Watchmen Episode 6 This Extraordinary Being Review: The Beginning of Justice.

Every episode of Watchmen just gets better and better and the sixth episode, “This Extraordinary Being” is no exception, being the best episode of the series so far.
Directed by Stephen Williams, the story follows a young Will Reeves (Jovan Adepo) as Angela experiences many of his memories due to the large amount of Nostalgia drugs she consumed in “Little Fear of Lightning.”
It is though her experiencing her grandfather’s memories that the fan theory of Will being Hooded Justice, the very first superhero in the Watchmen universe, is confirmed.
I was on the fence about this theory before it was finally revealed.
Although, I knew that it would make sense for the story thematically and that Hooded Justice’s costume could be representative of a black man surviving a lynching, I was skeptical because it would make no sense for everyone to think Hooded Justice was white if he was Will.
Thankfully, this did not turn out to be a plot hole because Will is shown to be applying makeup to make himself appear to be white, knowing that if the white public knew he was black he would be labelled a criminal.

Everyone believing Hooded Justice was white was the one thing that kept me from believing the theory that Will was him so I’m glad they explained it with the makeup.

This racist ideology of the community is proven time and time again by Will’s experiences, leading up to him becoming Hooded Justice.
We are given a front row seat at how corrupt and racially charged the police force is.
However, the truth of the matter is even darker because many of the police are revealed to be part of a secret KKK society known as the Cyclops.
This is slowly revealed through a member of the group named Fred (Glen Fleshler), who was arrested by Will for burning down a Jewish shop, being released without charge.
It is Will’s arrest of Fred that leads to the Cyclops targeting him, with him nearly being lynched by the racist cops.
Stumbling home, he then comes across a couple being attacked and, driven by his trauma both old and new, dons the hood and hangman’s noose and charges in to help, becoming Hooded Justice.
While in most stories this would be the start of an inspirational story of Will triumphing over evil, this is not how it works in Watchmen‘s world.
With the exception of his wife, June (Danielle Deadwyler), who was the baby Will rescued after the Tulsa Massacre, he is very much alone in his fight.
Even his fellow heroes will not help, with Will’s lover, and leader of the Minute Men, Captain Metropolis (Jake McDorman) caring more about publicity than actually helping people.
As the years go by, the situation with Cyclops gets worse as no one listening to Will eventually leads to the organisation carrying out an attack by brainwashing a black audience watching a movie to riot.
Metropolis once again brushes Will off about the threat the group poses and this, combined with more racist taunts from Fred, causes Will to take matters into his own hands, killing Fred and many members of the group.
He even steals one of their brainwashing devices to fight back, only to find that he has alienated June and his son, with them going back to Tulsa because of his anger.
From here, the episode cuts to many years in the future to reveal that Will really was the one who killed Judd, using his brainwashing device to have him kill himself.
This is one of the most interesting scenes of the episode because it shows a lot about both characters.

Will Reeves.jpeg — The scene between Will and Judd was probably my favourite of the episode.

For one thing, it raises a whole lot of questions about Judd and his involvement with the Kalvary, which appears to be descendant from Cyclops.
Judd tells Will he is trying to “help you people” but the “you people” part does seem to have some kind of racist implications.
Still, I think there may be more to Judd than him just being a completely evil Kalvary member.
As for Will, I love the moment when Judd asks who he is and Will replies “justice.”
In the years since we last saw him, Will has thrown away the hood, no longer hiding, and this line perfectly portrays that.
Now, as to what happened between the time Will killed the members of Cyclops and his killing of Crawford is a complete mystery.
There is a lot of years between these two points so it will be interesting to see how he became involved with Trieu.
Speaking of her, Angela wakes up in her care but how she got there is unclear right now as well.
From the promo for next episode, I can guess we will learn more about Angela’s past in Vietnam, which could also lead to us learning more about Will and Trieu.
Back to “This Extraordinary Being” I have got to say that the direction of the episode is incredible.
The representation of the trauma Will has with the constant colored in hallucinations of the Tulsa Massacre is very disturbing, especially when Will hallucinates that the car driven by Cyclops police members is dragging dead bodies.
Along with this, the passing of time is also portrayed brilliantly, as are the transitions between Will and Angela as she experiences his memories.
Probably the best example of this comes when the memory literally freezes in place as Laurie and Cal try to get Angela out of there but fail to do so.

freeze frame — This moment when the memory freezes as Laurie and Cal try to pull Angela out of it is a great shot.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find just how many historical elements have been thrown into this episode, like the first black police officer of New York, Samuel J. Battle (Philly Plowden), who makes a brief appearance.
“This Extraordinary Being” is easily Watchmen‘s best episode so far.
The only issue I have with it is that it doesn’t really make sense for Will to be kidnapped by three Cyclops members so easily, only to be beating them to a pulp with relative ease not long after.
Other than this minor problem, though, “This Extraordinary Being” is a fantastic episode that manages to be dark, depressing, and full of many great character and historical moments, supported by the top notch direction.

My Hero Academia Season Four Episode Six, An Unpleasant Talk Review: The Dark Truth.

The sixth episode of My Hero Academia‘s fourth season, “An Unpleasant Talk” sees the beginning of the formation of the plan to take down Overhaul, along with the reveal of the dark truth behind Eri.
It is a exposition heavy episode, which may not please some, but is necessary to pushing the story forward and also gives us insight into many of the characters, specifically Deku, Mirio, Nighteye and Overhaul.
Starting with the villain of this arc, the reveal of Overhaul’s cruel nature is adapted perfectly with the great image of him symbolically looming above a captured Eri, with the viles containing her blood floating around them.
This symbolic image is undoubtedly one of the series’ darkest visuals with its reveal that Overhaul is experimenting on Eri to create a drug that will remove people’s quirks.
Along with this, it really goes to show how cruel and uncaring of a person Overhaul is, as he is willing to hurt anyone, even children, if it furthers his goals.
The affect this has on Deku and Mirio is immediate as they are both instantly full of guilt upon realizing what is happening to Eri because they failed to rescue her.
The weight of the guilt they now have on their shoulders will now drive their story throughout this arc, as proven by Deku being so distracted that he cannot continue his school work properly.
Along with him and Mirio, Nighteye also has a heavy burden, refusing to use his foresight on any of the task force members he has assembled to take down Overhaul and rescue Eri.
The reasons for this are clear, based off episode four’s flashback to his fight with All Might.
Nighteye predicted his eventual gruesome death and he does not want to risk predicting any similar fate for his fellow heroes.
However, such a fate will need to be risked by these heroes if they want to save Eri.
Her situation is made abundantly clear in the post-credits scene with one of Overhaul’s minions trying to win her trust with gifts and fake affection.
However, Eri can only think of Deku, having never experienced the kind of warm embrace that he gave her.
Thankfully, the rest of the episode is not as depressing as this because there are some light hearted moments towards the beginning.
Moments such as Tsuyu and Ochako saying how cute Fat Gum is, only for him to offer them candy, brought a smile to my face.
One bit that also made me laugh was the Beatles reference where Deku, Ochako, Tsuyu, and Kirishima are shown walking across the street just like the band did on Abbey Road.
I wonder what brought on that reference?
In any case, “An Unpleasant Talk” is a solid episode of My Hero Academia that, while mostly exposition, sets up the goals and fears of its characters very well.

Attack on Titan Chapter 124 Predictions.

Eren’s motivations and goal for unleashing the Rumbling was finally revealed in Chapter 123 of Attack on Titan, with him announcing his intention to use the Wall Titans to eliminate all life outside the walls.
The Rumbling is definitely going to be the final battle of the story so the question is how will it go?
Will Eren succeed in his plot to destroy the world or does he have other intentions as one fan theory suggests?
In my first prediction for this post I will be tackling that theory, which is,

Will Eren Pull a Lelouch?

Lelouch is a character from the anime Code Geass, and in order to state how Eren’s plan might be similar to Lelouch’s I need to spoil the ending for that anime.
So, if you have not seen Code Geass just move on to the next question I pose.
At the end of Code Geass, Lelouch ends the war consuming his world by becoming the most hated dictator in that world.
He then has his best friend assassinate him so everyone can come together and establish world peace.
And now, many people are theorizing that Eren intends to do the same, propping himself up as the enemy of the world so his friends can kill him, showing the world that Eldians are not so bad and establishing peace between the two groups.
But do I think this will happen?
No, I don’t.
More than that, I am completely opposed to this happening because it would both rip off Code Geass’ ending and also make no sense given what has been established.
In Chapter 123 we get a flashback to when Eren and his friends first visited Marley and during their stay they witnessed a group of Marleyans about to kill an immigrant child because they suspected him of being an Eldian.
The hatred for Eldians is so strong in the world that even if an Eldian, like Armin, succeeded in stopping Eren it would change nothing.
If anything, Eren almost destroying the world would serve as proof to them that the Eldians need to be exterminated.
Eren would have to be incredibly stupid to believe this plan would work.
So, no, I don’t believe Eren has some kind of ulterior motive.
I fully believe he intends to destroy the world, which leads me into my next question.

Will Eren Succeed in Destroying the World?

Whether Eren succeeds in his plan will determine the entire ending of the manga.
Either he succeeds in wiping out all, or at least most, of life on earth and we get a bittersweet ending with Paradis being safe but the entire world is destroyed, or he fails and we get a tragic ending where the world wipes out Paradis.
Personally, I think the former is more likely because we know Eren has seen a part of his future because of the Attack Titan.
However, a lot of people think his plan to use the Rumbling is flawed because of one key thing, the ocean.
Many seem to think that the Colossal Titans will sink into the ocean, where they will be without sunlight and unable to move.
Contradicting this is the Attack on Titan Anthology where, in one story, Colossal Titans are seen coming out of the ocean.
And even if the Colossal Titans will sink, I am sure Eren will find a way around it.
For example, Eren could use the War Hammer Titan abilities, amplified by the Founding Titans powers, to make a bridge for the Titans to cross the ocean.
The one thing that I am at a loss to explain, though, is the airships.
Marley has been shown to have quite a number of these and they could easily pack survivors in them and fly above the Wall Titans’ reach.
So, maybe Eren will not succeed in destroying all of life beyond the walls, just most of it.
Although, one interesting thing to factor in on the idea of Eren being stopped is the possibility of the Scouts and the Warriors teaming up.
They could temporarily put aside their differences to stop Eren, or could just be working together without realizing it as both sides attempt to stop him.
Either way, I am sure that Kyomi’s sea plane and the remaining airships that Marley have left for evacuation will come into play here.
Still, with the extent of Eren’s power, I don’t think anything short of a nuke can stop him but I doubt any nation is at that technological stage yet.

Will Annie, Levi, Hange, or Historia Show Up?

What prediction post for an Attack on Titan chapter would be complete without wondering when the hell Annie, Levi, Hange and Historia are going to show up?
We have been speculating for so long about when these characters will return but they still have yet to do so.
And, with so little time remaining in the story, if these characters are going to play a major role then they need to return soon.
Starting with Historia, I think I have a clear idea of what role she will play in the ending.
Since I think she will give birth to the reincarnation of Ymir Fritz, I don’t think we will see her until the epilogue, although we will probably get a flashback to Eren’s conversation with her, before he left for Marley, and see if he is the father of her child or not.
Then there is Levi and Hange who I am both pretty unsure of.
Levi is badly injured so it seems unlikely he will return until the end but both he and Hange have ongoing storylines so I figure they have to show up somehow.
And then there is Annie.
Oh, Annie, Annie, Annie.
Fans have been theorizing about when she will come back for years and those theories have only intensified with her being brought up so often in these last two arcs.
However, there is still no sign of her.
Personally, it has got to the stage that I no longer care about Annie.
However, I still want her to return so it at least seems like Isayama had an idea of what he was trying to do with her character.
Many have speculated that she will have heard Eren’s message from Chapter 123 and this will cause her to wake up and, honestly, I think this is her last chance.
If she does not return in the next two chapters then I will be convinced that she will not return until the epilogue of the story.
If this happens then she will be a wasted character would should have died in The Female Titan Arc instead of just being locked away, never to return to the story.
Fingers crossed that Isayama will find an interesting way to bring Annie back that somehow gives her an interesting role with so little time left in the manga.

His Dark Materials Episode Three, The Spies Review: Parental Twist Number Two.

The third episode of His Dark Materials “The Spies” is the weakest of the season so far.
Not to say that it is bad but there are just a few things holding it back from the quality of the first two episodes.
For starters, “The Idea of North” ended with the cliffhanger of Lyra and Pan being kidnapped by the Gobblers, only for them to immediately be rescued by the Gyptians at the beginning of “The Spies.”
It kind of made it seem like they had just made a contrived cliffhanger to get viewers to tune in next week, as opposed to doing it naturally by perhaps having the Gyptians finding Lyra after she escapes Mrs Coulter.

lyra kidnapped.png — The ending to episode two should have been the Gyptians rescuing Lyra not the Gobblers pointlessly kidnapping her.

Directed by Dawn Shadford, the rest of the episode is pretty good, detailing Lyra’s time with the Gyptians nicely.
In particular, I liked her growing bonds with Ma Costa (Anne-Marie Duff) and Farder Coram (James Cosmo).
It is from Ma Costa that we get the second parental twist in two episodes that Coulter is Lyra’s mother.
While expected, both because I have seen the movie, and by Coulter’s obvious dodging of the question about Lyra’s mother in the previous episode, I found the explanation of Lyra’s birth to be very interesting.
The backstory of Asriel and Coulter’s affair, leading to Coulter’s husband trying to kill Lyra which forced Asriel to kill him, adds complexity to both characters and their relationship with their daughter.
Not only does it again show how far Asriel is willing to go to protect Lyra, despite his coldness towards her, but it also explains both Coulter’s love and disdain for her.
She loves Lyra because she is her daughter but, on the other hand, she hates a part of her because Lyra’s birth led to the death of her husband and damaged her reputation.
This also shows how cruel the Magisterium is because Ma Costa explains that Coulter’s husband murdering Lyra would have been legal their eyes because of the dishonor to his wife.

mother twist.png — The reveal of Lyra’s mother leads to interesting character revelations about Asriel, Coulter and the Magisterium.

And so, the explanation about Lyra’s parentage and birth is the most interesting part of the episode, even if it is a bit obvious.
The second best scene is easily Tony (Daniel Frogson) and Benjamin (Simon Manyonda) breaking into Coulter’s apartment to find information about the kidnapped children.
Thankfully, Tony escapes but Benjamin is captured, leading to a great cut where Coulter mimics her daemon in her attack pattern on Benjamin.
Before she can get any information out of him, though, Benjamin sacrifices himself by intentionally falling down the elevator to his death.
It is through Lyra’s attempts to figure out what happened to him and Tony that we get the first usage of the alethiometer as she uses it to try and find them.
From this, it looks like the alethimoter will be different from the movie because it does not give the holder visions, like in the adaptation, rather it just points to an image.

alethiromet-oh whatever.jpeg — Lyra learns to use the alethimoter quicker than any expert and without books. I wonder if there is a reason she was able to do this or is just because she’s special? It will seem like a reach if she just randomly figured it out.

However, despite learning to use the compass-like object, Lyra is not completely on top of things because Coulter sends soldiers to find her.
It is here that my other problem with the episode comes in because it is a bit ridiculous that the highly trained soldiers with dogs cannot find Lyra or the Gobbler the Gyptians kidnapped.
While this and a few other moments are distracting, the rest of “The Spies” is solid with Boreal continuing his search for Gruman and learning he was from our world rather than his, raising some interesting questions.
Coulter also knows who Lyra is with at the end of the episode because of her spy beetles, which adds more danger for our lead characters.
Overall, “The Spies” is a good episode of His Dark Materials which, while not quite as good as “Lyra’s Jordan” and “The Idea of North,” is still very enjoyable with a lot of character building moments.

Watchmen Episode Five, Little Fear of Lightning, Review. The Trauma of Looking Glass.

I can easily say that the fifth episode of Watchmen, “Little Fear of Lightning” is the best episode of the series so far.
Directed by Steph Green, it mainly centers around the character Looking Glass, who was a character I had been intrigued by since the first episode, and this episode definitely makes him my favourite.
His arc in “Little Fear of Lightning” is just fantastic, with Tim Blake Nelson doing an amazing job bringing his trauma to life.
This trauma was created in 1985 when Looking Glass was just Wade Tillman, a young, conflicted and naive Jehovah’s Witness, played by Philip Labes.
His nativity is proven by how he literally approaches the most aggressive looking people at a carnival and is then dragged into a house of mirrors by a female member who manipulates him into getting undressed and then steals his clothes.
Ironically, this ends up saving his life as the mirrors seem to save him from the psychic blast unleashed by the alien squid Ozymandias drops on Manhattan, killing half its population.

threatening people.jpg — Wade somehow chose the most threatening people to approach but, hey, at least it saved his life.

The squid is then shown in all of its glory and I was honestly surprised by how well it is incorporated into the story.
I had always supported Zack Snyder’s decision to make Ozymandias blame Dr Manhattan for the attack in his adaptation because I felt the giant squid would not work on screen.
Well, “Little Fear of Lightning” proved me wrong with a perfect portrayal of the hoax.
The effects the event had on Wade is also perfectly displayed, hinting that his truth telling ability may have been generated by the blast that traumatized him.
Wade’s trauma is so great, in fact, that it is the reason he joined the police force after the White Night because it allows him to wear a mask made of a material that will supposedly protect him if another giant squid were to attack.
It seems that Laurie’s speech in the previous episode about people wearing masks to hide from the pain and trauma applies more to Wade than it does Angela.
Unfortunately, the Seventh Kavalry are fully aware of this trauma, using it to manipulate Wade by sending one of them to his support group and then purposefully alerting him to her Seventh Kavalry affiliation to lure him into a trap.
Inside their base, Wade learns that they are experimenting with teleportation and is quickly apprehended when he confronts them.
Following this, we get the reveal that Senator Joe Keene is involved with the Seventh Kavalry.
While this was expected, it did led to some interesting comments from Keene about his and Cheif Crawford’s connections to the Kavalry.
One especially interesting thing to note is that Kenne calls the Kalvary racists, implying that he is not on their side ideologically and may just be using them for a greater purpose.

wade and keene.jpeg — It will be interesting to see what Keene’s true role in the Seventh Kalvary is.

What this purpose is remains to be seen but it is clearly not aligned with Trieu and Will’s because Keene wants to know who murdered Crawford.
So the Seventh Kalvary, and Will and Trieu have different monstrous goals that our main characters will have to stop.
Sadly, Wade looks to have impeded this because he turns Angela in to Laurie at the end of the episode, both to protect her from the Kavalry and because he learns the truth behind the squid attack.
Keene gives him a video of Ozymandias confessing to how he hoaxed the squid attack, killing millions of people to create world peace, destroying Wade’s entire perception of what is real.
He also somehow planned for Robert Redford to become President so it will be interesting to see how he managed to figure that out.
From here, the episode goes to Ozymandias’ story where he begins his escape attempt.
Shooting himself out of his prison using the catapult, Ozymandias is revealed to be on one of Jupiter’s moons and uses the dead bodies of his clone servants to create a message for a satellite, “SAVE ME D-”.
We don’t to get to see the entire message before Ozymandias is pulled back into his prison by the game warden but it is most likely either Dr Manhattan or Dan AKA Night Owl.

distress signal.jpg — I wonder who Ozymandias sent his message to and if they will even be willing to help.

Although, considering Dan is supposed to be in prison this seems unlikely.
As for Dr Manhattan it is highly implied that he is the clones’ creators after Ozymandias is arrested by the game warden and declares that their god has abandoned them.
Why Dr Manhattan would leave his creations, though, remains to be seen, if he is their creator that is.
Either way, the ethical questions about the concept of clones is something Watchmen is tackling very well, as displayed in this episode both through Ozymandias’ servant clones and the pet clones that Wade’s ex-wife is shown to be experimenting on.
This leads to the incredibly dark scene with her supposedly incinerating the clone of a dog.
Funny, how I have seen Ozymandias mercilessly dispose of hundreds of clones and yet it’s the dog that gets to me.
In any case, “Little Fear of Lightning” ends with the Seventh Kalvary converging on Looking Glass’ property, ready to kill him because he has served his purpose and knows too much.
I was horrified when I first saw this because the episode had made Looking Glass my favourite character and I do not want him to die but, after thinking about it, I am sure he is probably safe.
After all, if he was going to die this way the episode would not have ended before his death, as the death itself would be the cliffhanger.
That said, we will probably have to wait a few weeks to know Looking Glass’ fate because it seems we will primarily be getting Angela’s point of view next episode, as she experiences her grandfather’s memories through the Nostalgia drugs she took after Looking Glass turned her in.
I would have to say that “Little Fear of Lighting” is my favourite episode of Watchmen so far, exploring trauma brilliantly through Wade Tillman and his alter ego, Looking Glass.

My Hero Academia Season Four Episode Five, Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot Review: Rise of Kirishima.

I said in my Top 10 My Hero Academia Characters post that Kirishima became one of my favourite characters because of the Overhaul arc and the fifth episode of season four “Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot” is the start of that.
This really was Kirishima’s episode, building up his development for this arc nicely with a great starting point as we see him begin his work study with the hero Fat Gum and Tamaki.
Speaking of these two, they are also two characters who I am excited to see more of as they grow as characters and use their quirks.
Fat Gum’s quirk is absorption, which allows him to entrap enemies, and Tamaki’s quirk is manifest, which allows him to take on the qualities of whatever he eats.
It is Kirishima’s quirk that takes center stage this episode though, with him developing a new technique Unbreakable to fight a minor villain (which may be a reference to the M. Night Shyamalan film, or maybe I’m reaching).
This villain takes quirk enhancing drugs, forcing Kirishima to use his new move to protect civilians in an epic moment that was perfectly adapted from the manga.
The music and animation here are stellar and the only problem is that it is a bit distracting at how stupid the civilians are by not getting out of the way.
Although, this does not take away from Kirishima’s achievements, thankfully, with him beginning his development for the season upon remembering some advice from Bakugo.
This also goes to show just how much Bakugo has changed because he most likely would have yelled at Kirishima when they first met rather than give his friend the advise he needed.
Back to Kirishima, after Fat Gum manages to successfully capture the villain we get brief flashes to Kirishima’s backstory, which will play out in a future episode.
I also like how vague these flashes are because they will probably leave many anime only viewers wondering what they are seeing until it is officially revealed.
Along with Kirishima’s development, we also get our first look at the quirk removing bullets developed by Overhaul, which the minor villain uses to temporarily remove Tamaki’s quirk.
This bullet is revealed by Shigaraki in his meeting with Overhaul, which leads to Shigaraki agreeing to a form of partnership, though under very tense circumstances.
Less tense is the opening fight sequence where we see Ochako and Tsuyu on their work study with Nejire and the pro hero Ryukyo.
Their scene was mainly used to show what the two Class 1A students are doing and to highlight Nejire’s quirk but it has fantastic animation in the opening fight.
It is also here that a meeting between many pro heroes led by Sir Nighteye is first brought up.
This meeting to discuss the threat Overhaul poses will appear next episode and fully unveil the disturbing truth about his quirk removing bullets.
Overall, “Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot” is another solid episode of My Hero Academia with a great starting point for Kirishima’s character arc.

Dr Sleep Review: Well, That Was Unexpected.

2019 is the year of Stephen King adaptations.
Pet Semetary, IT Chapter Two, and now Dr Sleep; all are books that have been adapted to films in 2019.
However, Pet Semetary and It Chapter Two are decent films rather than the exciting and intense novels King delivered.
This is not the case for the Dr Sleep adaptation, though, because I was genuinely surprised not only by how good of an adaptation it is but also by how it successfully deviates from the source material.
Directed by Mike Flanagan, the film takes places decades after the events of The Shining, with Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) having become an alcoholic.
After becoming pen pals with a young girl named Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), who has the strongest shining he had ever seen, Dan learns from her of a cult of vampire-like creatures called the True Knot that feed off children with the Shining.
Both McGregor and Curran do great jobs as their characters, especially Curran who gives the best performance of the film in a scene where she is in a car.

Dan and Abra.jpg — The bond between Dan and Abra is key to *Dr Sleep* and, thankfully, both actors do a great job as their characters.

Another highlight is Rebecca Ferguson as the sinister Rose the Hat, the leader of the True Knot who manages to make the simple sentence, “well, hi there” terrifying.
Adding to this terror is the film’s score, one of which is the True Knot’s theme of a heartbeat which is very fitting because it got my heart going a mile a minute in fear every time I heard it.
Likewise, the cinematography is great with Flanagan mixing his own style with that of The Shining‘s perfectly.
What really surprised me about Dr Sleep, though, is the twists it brings to the story.
Having read the novel, I thought I knew what was going to happen but I was dead wrong.
For example, I fully expected one horrific scene from the novel to be cut or left vague but no, they go all out on it, creating the most terrifying scene I have seen all year.

horror of rose.jpg — I was incredibly surprised the most disturbing scene from the novel was kept, and in graphic detail. It was genuinely horrifying.

I would go as far to say that the film adaptation is way more darker than the novel, especially when it comes to the fate of the characters.
I honestly have no idea why people are saying this film is not scary.
It makes no sense to me how people can watch the Bradley Trevor (Jacob Tremblay) scene and not be horrified by it.
Another twist to the story that really surprised me is not only that the film manages to be a great Dr Sleep adaptation while being a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, which King infamously hates, but also that it manages to adapt The Shining novel as well.
This creates an ending very different from the Dr Sleep novel that left me with an entirely different experience that I did not expect but really enjoyed.
However, this is where my one issues comes in, and that is how this ending feels a bit like a different plot to the main one with the True Knot.
It kind of felt like it switched storylines pretty abruptly and that was a bit jarring.

The final 15 minutes of the film felt different to what came before.

The change was still really good but the difference in storylines was noticeable.
So, overall, I have good and bad feelings about the changes to Dr Sleep‘s ending.
Still, I found the film to be the best Stephen King adaptation of the year as Flanagan did a fantastic job adapting and changing the novel for the screen.
It is just a shame that it is currently failing at the box office because it is a really good film.
If you have not seen Dr Sleep yet I advise you to check it out.

His Dark Materials, Episode Two, The Idea of North, Review. Don’t be Molded Lyra.

“You must let me mold you” Ruth Wilson’s Mrs Coulter tells Dafne Keen’s Lyra over lunch, serving as the the first of many warnings signs of the possessive and almost psychopathic behavior she displays.
Again, directed by Tom Hooper and written by Jack Thorne, the second episode of His Dark Materials “The Idea of North” focuses on the growing cat and mouse game between Lyra and Mrs Coulter as Lyra slowly comes to realise her true intentions.
Having seen the first adaptation, I knew Coulter would not turn out to be a good person and Wilson does a great job portraying her complex personality and the abusive bond she forms with Lyra.

coulter and lyra 2.jpg — Coulter’s friendship with Lyra quickly turns volatile and Lyra refuses to be molded.

Although, Coulter is shown to care for Lyra somewhat as seen by her crying outside of Lyra’s door, however, she is not above hurting Lyra to get her to act the way she want, as seen by her having her daemon attack Pan to hurt Lyra.
Through this it is made clear that if Coulter cannot convince Lyra to be molded then she will do it by force.
This manipulative trait is also made clear through how she acts kind to the abducted children like Roger and Billy (Tyler Howitt), making them believe the letters they write will get to their loved ones, only for her to burn them when she leaves with a satisfied look on her face.
Such a look is also apparent when she tortures Lyra through Pan before accidentally revealing that Lord Asriel is her father, and this reveal does seem to bring a temporary moment of humanity to her, the only moment in the episode that her affection for Lyra seems genuine.
Basically, what I am saying is that Wilson steals the episode with her great performance as the manipulative Coulter.

evil coulter — Wilson pulls off Coulter’s abusive character perfectly, portraying both viciousness and weakness.

That is not to sell Dafne Keen short, though, because she is also amazing as Lyra slowly coming to the realization of how cruel Coulter is and refusing to be molded.
This results in great scenes like when Lyra throws her knowledge of Dust in Coulter’s face.
However, her big revelation about Coulter being connected to the Gobblers does not come through her own investigation but through a random journalist named Adele (Georgina Campbell) informing her, leading to her escape.
Said journalist is then immediately captured and killed by Carlo Boreal (Ariyon Bakare) when he crushes her daemon in his hand.
Seriously, though, how unlucky is Adele to have a butterfly for a daemon?
All it would take is for someone to accidentally step on it and she’d die.
Talk about bad luck.

Adèle_Starminster — Adele is killed very quickly upon being discovered showing the brutality of the Magisterium.

As well as killing the journalist, Boreal plays another interesting role in the episode by traveling to another dimension which appears to be our own.
He is looking for the man Asriel claimed had been murdered in the first episode by presenting his head, which Boreal now believes was not him.
Boreal hires someone to track the man down, showing his snake daemon to appease him.
Now that I think about that, though, it is kind of funny how the villains of this series are all telegraphed by their stereotypically evil daemons.
A snake, a bug, a lizard, what’s next a rat?
Anyway, other characters that the episode focuses on are the Gyptians whose hunt for the missing children remains unsuccessful, although they are getting closer.
Sadly, Lyra now looks to be one of the children they have to save because she is kidnapped by the Gobblers at the end of the episode after escaping from Coulter.
All in all, I found “The Idea of North” to be just as good of an episode as the premiere episode, making His Dark Materials look to be another hit show this year, quality wise.