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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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Mutant Monday: X-Men: Evolution Season One Episodes 1-2 Reviews

Howdy, folks, it’s Mutant Monday and I am definitely not posting this a week late. Mm-mm. Nope. I have no idea what you’re talking about. ANYWAY, this is my review of the first two episodes of X-Men: Evolution. Oh, and also, I want to say that if you are interested at all, you should go watch the show. The entire series is available on YouTube, so you can watch it yourself if you want to avoid spoilers.

Episode One is called Strategy X, and, first of all, what? What kind of a name is that? What does that even MEAN? I don’t know, you don’t know, nobody knows. I’m pretty sure whoever titled the episode just wanted some way to incorporate “X” and this was all they could come up with, so… Awesome creativity, guys. Great job. *slow clap*

Right, anyway, the show starts off at a football game, where Scott Summers and Jean Grey are present. No, Scott is not a football player, he’s just part of the audience, and Jean is a photographer. Apparently. Yeah, then Todd Tolansky (this show’s version of the Toad) is going around swiping people’s wallets. Resident jerky jock Duncan and his buddies go after him, although probably not out of concern for upholding the justice system. They start roughing him up, but then our great hero Cyclops comes in and tells them to knock it off. Toad beats a hasty retreat, but Scott and Duncan start fighting. Eventually, Scott’s glasses accidentally come off, and his optic blasts blow up a nearby propane tank which just, you know, causes everything to go nuts.

Afterwards it all works out though because ol’ Dunc hit his head and can’t remember anything, so Cyclops gets off, uh, shall we say… SCOT-free? Eh? Eh? No? ...Okay…

Ahem, then Professor X and Storm take a train to meet the newest ‘recruit’ to the “Xavier Institute”: Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler. His blue, fuzzy appearance makes it a little hard to blend in in public, so the Professor gives him this thingy called an image inducer, which makes him look like a normal dude as long as it’s on.

Meanwhile, Toad meets with Raven Darkholme AKA Mystique, who is the school principal, for some reason? Anyway, she recruits him to infiltrate the X-Mansion, and he… succeeds? Kind of? Well, he gets in and fights with Nightcrawler for a while before they decide to go with the old “trapped in the Danger Room” trope and then Toad leaves. Awesome infiltration job. Ten out of ten, would recommend.

That’s about it, except for a shadowy figure appearing in Mystique’s office and saying ominous things while making her paperclips float. Gee, I wonder who that could be.

...it’s--it’s Magneto, that’s who it is. I can’t really talk about his character here since he’s there for, like, 2 seconds, but I do like the musical motif that they use for him. It recurs throughout the show and I like that they use it consistently.

This episode… isn’t that great, if we’re being honest. I like the animation and music a lot, and I think everyone is pretty well cast for the most part. Wolverine’s voice isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I think “Wolverine’s voice” but it’s not awful and it grows on you as the show progresses. But, even though the casting is good, the voice acting and writing are weak. Well, except for Toad’s actor, of course. That guy is flawless.

Seriously, though, it’s kind of just so mediocre that you forget about it entirely. In the end, it’s not terrible, but it’s not an episode I come back to very often. If at all.

Episode Two has a similarly nonsensical name in “The X-Impulse,” whatever the heck THAT’S supposed to mean, and this time we meet Kitty Pryde, the Shadowcat to be. She’s just trying to get through life and she suddenly has super powers, which really puts a damper on her day. And to make matters worse, this weirdo named Lance Alvers (this universe’s Avalanche) is constantly trying to convince her to commit crimes.

Jean comes along and tries to recruit Kitty for the X-Men, but Kitty doesn’t want to be a hero and she decides to go commit crimes with Lance. Then Jean and her parents show up and are like, “Don’t commit crimes,” and Lance is like, “YOU’LL DO WHAT I SAY WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT” and he decides to bury everyone under a ton of rubble, but with the combined force of Jean’s telekinesis and Kitty’s phasing power everybody gets out safely. Kitty decides that being a hero doesn’t sound so bad and joins the X-Men.

Episode Two unfortunately follows in Episode One’s path of mediocrity. The music and animation are still as good as before, but the writing is still poor, and Kitty’s voice actress… Just, like, why did they decide to make her a valley girl? She’s from Chicago, last time I checked, and correct me if I’m wrong, but… I don’t think that type of speech is particularly common in Chicago. And the overall voice in general, it just… heh heh, it kind of grates on the nerves a bit, you know what I’m saying? Granted, her voice does get better as the show progresses, but here it was bad enough that my sister literally quit watching. So, overall, another average to below-average episode that isn’t unwatchable, but definitely not the best use of your time.

That’s all for this time, I will see you next Monday when we will be back on schedule. Goodbye.

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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S. H. I. E. L. D. Sunday: AoS Season One Episodes 9-14 Reviews

Annnd we’re back once again at the start of a new week and it’s S. H. I. E. L. D. Sunday! WHOOP WHOOP! Today we’re reviewing the next four episodes of AoS, nine through twelve. When we last left our daring agents, they had just had a crazy run-in with some pagans and an Asgardian. But the very next morning, in a small town in Utah, a woman named Hannah Hutchins starts Magneto-ing as a result of harassment by the locals. See, she was the supervisor of the local particle accelerator, and the town blames her for an accident there which killed four men.

The team flies in from Dublin to perform the Index intake and assessment on Hannah (the Index is S. H. I. E. L. D.’s list of powered people), or, as Skye prefers to call it, the welcome wagon. Their efforts are interrupted by the still ticked-off locals, and the situation is only made worse when Hannah’s supposed telekinetic powers send a police car driving into the mob. To put an end to the tension, May tranquilizes Hannah and the team takes her on to the Bus.

The team is puzzled by the situation, since Hannah really seems like just the nicest person who would never use her uncontrollable abilities to hurt people. Skye is incessantly annoyed with May for pretty much the whole episode because of her lack of people skills, arguing that her methods just scare Hannah more and make the situation worse. Phil finally opens up about why May is called the Cavalry, revealing that years ago in Bahrain, they were trying to be the welcome wagon to a powered individual but it went horribly wrong. A bunch of agents and a little girl were taken hostage. May went in and neutralized the threat, but the girl died, and May was never the same.

Meanwhile, weird things are happening on the Bus, and the team eventually finds out that Hannah actually isn’t telekinetic. It turns out that one of the men thought to have died in the accident, Tobias Ford, isn’t dead; he’s just trapped between dimensions. He had a crush on Hannah and so he would purposely mess things up so that she would came to investigate and he could see her. One time he messed things up too badly, which led to the whole thing exploding, three of his co-workers dying, and him being trapped between dimensions.

All of those accidents that were happening were actually just him trying to protect Hannah from being harassed by the other people. He causes the Bus to lose power and they crash in a field, but May drags Hannah off the plane to lure Tobias away. They meet in a barn and May persuades him to let her go. He agrees and dissipates into nothingness. I actually don’t know if he’s dead…? He could be just trapped in that other dimension forever… which would be kind of sad…

I like this episode all right, it’s kind of another average one, but we start to learn a little bit more about May, which is cool. It also gets a little philosophical with Skye’s conversation with Hannah about God and His mercy. They actually get it kind of right, surprisingly? I don’t appreciate perpetuating the stereotype of evil nuns that run orphanages, but when Skye brings up how God is love and that He does forgive… that’s right. “That’s the version I like,” she says. That’s the only version!! Oh well, it’s still nice to see them get some of the truth.

Yeah, other than that everything’s pretty normal, the subplot with FitzSimmons trying to prank Skye and pretty much failing is funny, and… yeah. It’s good.

Next up is The Bridge, and in it we see the return of ya boi Mike Peterson from the first episode. Not surprisingly, this episode is connected to the Centipede program. This weird dude named Edison Po who cannot go ONE FREAKIN’ SECOND without shoving food in his face was broken out of prison by a bunch of soldiers juiced up the the Centipede serum. He’s a former Marine and acts as their organizer with Raina, so… that’s--that’s why they broke him out of prison. Anyway, the team eventually tracks down one of their facilities, a warehouse in California, but they’re too late. Po and Raina already split, but a few soldiers stayed behind to thwack anybody who showed up. Ward, May, and Mike manage to fight them off, and they discover that the soldiers have exploding camera eyes just like Akela Amador did.

Suddenly, Raina kidnaps Mike’s son Ace, and she meets with the team on a bridge to negotiate an exchange, hence the name. Everyone assumes that she wants Mike in exchange for Ace, but no no no, she actually wants Phil. *gasp* Of course, since Phil is a nice guy and he doesn’t want an innocent little boy to get hurt, he gives himself up.

Mike gives Ace to Skye and then immediately runs to rescue Coulson, but the bridge suddenly explodes, and Mike is caught right in it. Po and Raina escape with Coulson in a helicopter, informing him that they reason they captured him is because they want to know how he came back to life.

This is, like, the third episode that I feel like I forget about. I don’t really know why, since it’s, like, really important? Mike comes back and Coulson gets kidnapped, which leads directly into the next episode, and yeah. It’s another one that’s kind of average, but still not bad. I don’t think we’ve had a bad episode yet. It moves really quickly and it keeps you interested for the time you’re watching it, not to mention that crazy shocker-cliffhanger ending. Oh, and also Ace is adorable, so it’s all worth it.

The next episode is The Magical Place, and as you might guess from the title, in this episode we learn some more about the T. A. H. I. T. I. project. Since Coulson was kidnapped last episode, Victoria Hand is leading a task force to find him and hopefully destroy Centipede for good. Skye tries to hack into S. H. I. E. L. D.’s database to find information, but Hand is none too pleased about this and she kicks her off the Bus. Thinking on her feet, Skye employs an elaborate plan to pose as an agent and blackmail a corrupt businessman into helping her, since she can’t use any computers without them locking down. She traces Raina’s purchases and discovers where they’re keeping Coulson, then regroups with the rest of the team to go find him while Hand and all her agents go in the entirely wrong direction.

While all of this is going on, Phil is being held hostage in an abandoned town. Po interrogates him to try and uncover the secrets of his resurrection, since the Clairvoyant is veeeeerry interested in that. For all his vaunted “clairvoyance” he can’t see what happened, so Po uses a mind probe to try and see into Phil’s brain. His methods ultimately fail and the Clairvoyant kills him remotely with that same paralyzing technology from Iron Man.

Raina then takes over and uses her wicked manipulation skills to get Phil to willingly go into the machine. It awakens a bunch of traumatic memories and he starts screaming, “Please let me die!”

Right at this moment the whole gang shows up to rescue Phil and they arrest Raina. In gratitude for what she did to save him, Phil removes Skye’s bracelet, and he declares that their new mission is the track down the Clairvoyant. He also goes to see one of the doctors who worked on him, and discovers that he was dead for days before they figured out how to revive him. Since the experience was so painful, they replaced his memories with a beautiful island.

In the end tag, we see that *gasp* Mike is alive! But OH NO he’s missing half his leg and he has one of the eye cameras implanted in his head! AAAAAHHH

But seriously though, my heart just sank when I saw that for the first time. Poor Mike. He didn’t deserve what he got.

Overall I like this episode pretty well. I think the highlights are the time spent with Phil and Raina and it’s really cool getting to learn about the secrets of T. A. H. I. T. I. and all that. The other parts of the episode with Skye doing her thing is fine, but I don’t think it’s really the part of the episode that matters. It winds up being kind of forgettable in the end.

Episode Twelve is called Seeds, and it starts off with a couple cadets of the S. H. I. E. L. D. academy going swimming at night. Suddenly, the entire pool starts to freeze, and it looks like one of the kids, Seth Dormer, is going to be trapped, but he’s rescued at the last second by Donnie Gill. (who, for the record, was not originally with the swimming party. He was sitting in the corner like a loser.) Fearing that this may have been a murder attempt, Principle Anne Weaver contacts Fitz and Simmons to consult in the investigation, and Skye and Ward come along because… because of course they do.

Meanwhile, Coulson and May head off to Mexico to find former agent Richard Lumley, who may have information about Skye’s history. He reveals that he and several other agents were sent to China to retrieve an 0-8-4, which turned out to be the infant Skye. Her entire village had died protecting her from some kind of monster, and several of the agents were killed as well. She was finally hid inside the foster system to protect her, with protocol ensuring that she be moved around from house to house frequently.

Back at the Academy, FitzSimmons give a talk to try to encourage everyone to remain calm, but just as they’re doing so, Donnie is suddenly frozen in the same way the pool was. But, of course, Fitz and Jemma are there to save him, and so they do. Fitz tries to befriend Donnie to try and find out if anyone would target him, while the others go to collect intel from the other students.

Fitz, trying to be friendly, gives Donnie advice on his inventions, but then Ward discovers from one of the cadets that Donnie and Seth actually staged the freezing events to lure FitzSimmons there so that they could help them perfect their freezing device. Of course, he discovers this information too late to help Fitz (good job Ward) and the two boys, with parts supplied to them by Ian Quinn, successfully make a giant weather machine.

Quinn wants a demonstration before he seals the deal, and so they turn the machine on, causing a crazy superstorm to start around the machine. But since Quinn is a scumbag, he leaves the two gullible kids to deal with the problem themselves.

They fail in that regard, and lightning strikes the device, electrocuting both of them. Seth dies of cardiac arrest, but Donnie gets cryokinetic powers. He is incarcerated at the S. H. I. E. L. D. facility called The Sandbox and Coulson tells Skye what he learned about her past. She is understandably upset at first, but she finally says that she is comforted by the fact that S. H. I. E. L. D. has been protecting her her whole life.

In the little end tag thingy Phil calls Quinn to make threats, but Quinn is a smooth scumbag, and so he smugly replies, “The Clairvoyant says hello.” *gasp* What? It’s all connected? Woooowww

I feel like I always forget about this episode, but I’m not sure why, since it’s pretty good. It’s kind of different from anything else in the season and I like it. We learn a good chunk about Skye’s past, which is always nice, and Donnie Gill is a cool character. (pun 100% intended) There isn’t much to say and it isn’t spectacular, but it’s a solid episode.

All right, now it’s catch-up time for last week. Behold, the next four episodes!

Kicking things off with the thirteenth episode, T. R. A. C. K. S., which I have to preface by saying, this is my favorite episode of Season One. Why? Well read on…

Everyone’s favorite dirtbag Ian Quinn has made a purchase from a company called Cybertek Industries, and a secret team of mercenaries has been hired to escort it through the Italian countryside. Guessing that the package is important, and wanting to apprehend Quinn after discovering that he’s allied with the Clairvoyant, Phil and the gang go undercover as normal passengers on the train transporting the package.

May goes in pursuit of the package, but the comms suddenly short out and Phil and Ward get kicked off the train and stunned by a dendrotoxin grenade. (dendrotoxin is what’s in the night-night guns. So… it’s makes you go to sleep.) May abandons the train to continue hunting down the package, but she is captured by the local police chief, who has been accepting bribes from Cybertek to make sure their shipments go through safely.

Back on the train, chaos happens and Jemma gets stunned by one of the same grenades that got Ward and Phil. Skye and Fitz stash her in a luggage carrier and get off the train, following the mercenaries to Quinn’s mansion. In the meantime, May escapes from the dirty police chief and kills him, regrouping with Ward and Phil, who recovered from their temporary stunned… ness. They get back on the train and find Simmons, who has also recovered.

Skye and Fitz have arrived at Quinn’s mansion, and Skye goes in alone, looking for the package in the basement. She instead finds Mike Peterson, and he has… uh, he’s looked better, you know what I’m saying? Quinn then shows up and reveals that the package is a bionic leg, which he attaches to Mike. He receives orders from the Clairvoyant and leaves, but Quinn, THE FILTHY LITTLE SCUM THAT HE IS, shoots Skye. In the stomach. Twice.

Coulson and the team arrive just in time, arresting Quinn and rushing Skye to the nearest S. H. I. E. L. D. medical facility. In the end tag, we learn that Mike’s leg was developed by Cybertek as part of Project Deathlok. And then all the comics fans lost their minds.

I seriously love this episode. I love whenever the team does more traditional spy stuff, like going undercover, and all of their fake roles are a treat to watch. It has an unconventional structure but I really like it, because I think it helps build the tension very effectively. We also get hilarious scenes like Fitz and Skye pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend and Ward utterly failing at using the holotable on the Bus, which may be the best part of the episode.

Of course, all of the comedy dies (quite literally) at the end, where the tension is crazy. It’s legitimately shocking when Quinn shoots Skye, and I remember how it just hurt my soul to watch it happen. It was all so well done, in my opinion, and I just… it’s great.

So yeah, obviously I have nothing but praise for this one, and it’s one of my all-time favorites.

In the next episode, T. A. H. I. T. I., the team is rushing Skye to the hospital. The doctor soon tells them that there’s nothing they can do, and it looks like all hope is lost--

Well, no, not all hope is lost, and Phil is determined to save her. He decides that if doctors brought him back from the dead, then they must be able to save Skye. As they’re flying to find one of these doctors, Phil discloses the nature of his resurrection to Fitz and Simmons, stating that whatever was used to heal his fatal wounds can be used to save their fellow teammate.

They’ve also got resident slimeball Ian Quinn aboard, and S. H. I. E. L. D. orders that Coulson deposit him at a facility, but Phil doesn’t want to waste time on silly things like orders, and so he keeps Quinn in custody. Since he, y’know, disobeyed a direct order, they are quickly boarded by agents John Garrett and Antoine Triplett, also known as Trip. They’ve been hunting Quinn for a while, but since Phil and Garrett are old pals, they agree to let Quinn stay on the Bus until they save Skye.

Garrett interrogates Quinn, who reveals that the Clairvoyant ordered him to shoot Skye, the goal being that Phil would be forced to find out how he was brought back from the dead. The Clairvoyant is obsessed with finding that out, although it’s curiously the one piece of information he doesn’t already know.

It turns out that their original destination was a dead end, but FitzSimmons dig through some files and discover an old World War II bunker called the Guest House, which appears to be connected to Phil’s resurrection. They fly there instead, but they don’t know the countersign to get in. Phil still doesn’t give a flip about anything and busts in anyway with Garrett, Ward, and Fitz, killing the guards. That’s morally questionable, but it backfired anyway because there’s a failsafe installed which is going to blow up the whole base.

Phil and Fitz find the drug that healed Phil’s fatal wounds, GH-325, and Fitz rushes it back the bus. Phil, however, decides he wants to wander around for a little while, and he just barely makes it out in time with Ward and Garrett. As they get back on the bus, Phil suddenly screams at Jemma to not give the drug to Skye, but it’s too late--she’s already injected into her.

Everything works out fine anyway, and Skye stabilizes and shows signs of recovery. May asks why Phil was being a freakin’ weirdo and shouting not to administer the life-saving drug, and he claims that he just didn’t want Skye to suffer like he did. That is a LIE, however, because the real reason is that while he was wandering around in the Guest House, he discovered the source of the drug: the corpse of a blue alien. (which is a Kree, by the way, but he doesn’t know that.)

In the end tag, a mysterious woman named Lorelai shows up and convinces a man to abandon his wife for her. Exciting.

Yeah, there’s a LOT going on in this episode, and it all goes pretty well. It’s pretty intense, and it continues to reveal more about the oh-so-mysterious T. A. H. I. T. I. project. I’d probably rank it higher than some of the earlier episodes of this season, but it’s not one of my personal favorites. There’s nothing wrong with it, it just doesn’t come to mind first when I think of stand-out episodes of Season One.

I didn’t review all of the episodes I was supposed to, but I’m tired and nobody’s reading this so why does it matter. I will get fully caught up next week. Good night.

#agents of s.h.i.e.l.d.#sunday #s. h. i. e. l. d. sunday #reviews #tv shows

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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(music) Fanatic Friday: The Great Owl City Analysis Part Two

Welcome back, my good readers, to (music) Fanatic Friday, where the Great Owl City Analysis continues. Today we’re actually talking about two songs, the first of which is the second track on Of June, Captains and Cruise Ships. First off I want to say that I really like this song; it’s probably tied with Designer Skyline as my favorite from this album. It has an almost swing-like feeling to it, and even though it has a bit of a sad feeling to it, it feels really hopeful at the same time. My favorite part is the line, “Though I feel so sad, I can’t believe things are really that bad.” Words to live by right there, folks. It’s something I’ll remind myself of a lot whenever I’m depressed.

Now the meaning for this song is pretty straightforward--his girlfriend went on a vacation and he can’t wait to get away from his job and be with her. Really simple and easy to understand, especially as Owl City songs go. I have thought, though, of a much darker meaning: that his girlfriend is actually dead and he can’t wait to join her in the afterlife. Yeah, a lot darker. Like I said, though, it has a hopeful feel to it so I don’t really consider that meaning very much.

And another weird thing, this song makes me think of Elrond, since, you know, his wife Celebrian left for Valinor before he did, and I kind of like to think of this song from his perspective, as in him thinking about her and wishing he was with her. So yeah, just a weird little side note there.

I don’t think there’ll be any lyric-by-lyric analysis this time since the meaning is so straightforward. So, since this one was short, we’ll move on to the next song, Designer Skyline.

This is one is my other favorite on Of June, I really like the beat and pretty much everything about it. My favorite line in this one is “Like mountains in the Midwest!” I know that’s kind of weird, but I just like how he delivers it. I don’t know, it’s just always been my favorite part.

I feel like in a lot of interpretations of it, though, people will really over-complicate it. Like, I’ve seen people say it’s about a relationship with a girl, which I don’t really get. To me it’s pretty clearly about the creative process--for anything. It speaks specifically in terms of building, like architecture, but you can think of it for art or music or writing or whatever, which I appreciate since I’m a writer myself. Like the last song, pretty straightforward, especially when compared to some of Owl City’s other songs, so no lyrical analysis for this one either. Hope you enjoyed either way, and I’ll see you next time.

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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Theology Thursday: Why Undertale is Very Christian

So, a little indie game came out in 2015 called Undertale, and it took the Internet by storm. Everybody was talking about it, but me, being the person that I am, didn’t know anything about it until 2017 or 2018 when I finally decided to look into it and I watched Damien Fate’s playthrough. And, not that surprisingly, being the person that I am, I was hooked. And I definitely don’t listen to the soundtrack almost every day.

But yeah, the game’s pretty great, as all of you know. Oh, and by the way, if you don’t know, then either go watch a playthrough or play it for yourself because I’m going to be talking spoilers in this post. And seriously, this is not a game you want spoiled for you.

So yeah, I now assume that all of you who don’t know the story have gone and now I will get into the actual point of the post.

Obviously, Undertale has a lot of great themes in it: love, mercy, determination. But I want to talk about how those themes and the story can be seen in a uniquely Christian light.

To explain my point, let’s start with the story. This is an area where I’m more just drawing interesting parallels, I’m pretty sure it’s not an intentional allegory, but there are some very interesting elements. First of all, we have a race trapped, underground, sealed off from the light. It seems hopeless, but then, a savior falls down into the world, becomes one of them, and sets them all free through the power of love. Sound familiar? Kinda like salvation history, if you think about it. Humanity fell, we were sealed off from heaven, and it seemed like we had no hope of salvation. But then, Jesus came, as an innocent child, to become one of us and set us free, give us hope again, and save us all.

Obviously, the comparison isn’t perfect, since the monsters were essentially innocent and trapped underground for no reason, not for their sinfulness like humans were. But I just think that’s an interesting thing to think about.

The thing I want to talk about more are the themes, one of which I think is the power of transformative love. See, when you play Undertale the way it’s SUPPOSED to be played (all of you who played genocide are heartless monsters don’t @ me) you go through the Underground and you make friends with everyone, even the people who are seemingly the most awful, terrible, and irredeemable. And through the force of your determination, of your refusal to stop loving them even when they seem too far gone, you change all of their lives, for the better. That’s what Jesus does for us.

Let’s face it, humans are pretty awful. Another point made in Undertale! But what I mean is, we’re fallen creatures. We sin, again and again and again, over and over and over, and sometimes it seems like there just isn’t any hope left. Like some people can’t be redeemed. But Jesus never gives up on us. He never abandons us, He never condemns us to Hell because we make mistakes. And this is a whole other post in and of itself but I just have to point out here that God doesn’t send you to Hell because you “broke His rules” it’s because you’ve made it eminently clear by living the way you have that you don’t love Him, therefore you don’t want to be with Him, therefore you don’t want to go to Heaven, THEREFORE you go to Hell. Anyway.

Jesus gave up everything for us. He endured the most painful, humiliating death possible to save us, to give us hope, to help even the worst person change. And that love, that all-powerful, sublime love, has touched the lives of millions of people.

That same love is what you show in Undertale. You die, over and over again, just so you can come back and do it again and show that you truly care about whoever it is your fighting. And your love, your refusal to hurt another person, actually changes people. All the monsters who attack you out of hate and fear give up the fight because of your kindness and patience. They come to understand that you won’t hurt them and that you want to support them. You give them friendship, you teach them understanding, you teach them to believe in themselves, you give them hope, and then you set them free.

And even Flowey, Flowey the frickin’ Flower, is changed by your influence. When he turns back into Asriel, your stubborn refusal to leave him and resolve to SAVE him inspires him to break the barrier and free the Underground. And if you boot up the game after finishing a True Pacifist run, Flowey straight up begs you to go away, the one thing he had been so determined not to let you do. He gets it now. You taught him how to love again. And love isn’t a feeling. Love is to will the good of another, and that’s what Flowey’s doing. In an effort to preserve everyone’s happiness, he’s asking you to stay away and not reset everything. Your love changed the most irredeemable character in the whole game.

So yeah, that’s my point. Undertale masterfully showcases the power of love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. It encourages you to show mercy, to forgive. And, in the end, love prevails. Love changes everyone’s lives. Love saves the world.

And now I have to end this by saying that I’m pretty sure that the Christian elements weren’t intended, I mean, I don’t even know if Toby Fox is religious in any way, shape, or form, but it’s like I always say, if you look for God, you can find Him almost anywhere. It’s kind of His job.

Obviously, I didn’t talk about the genocide route at all because that’s an entirely different thing and I also choose to exist in a world where the genocide route isn’t a thing and they all lived happily ever after, the end. I actually might talk about it in the future, but that’s for another time. Also, as another disclaimer, I understand that they are elements of Undertale that are very, y’know, not Christian. Same-sex relationships, anyone? But yeah, overall, the game’s pretty great, and you should check it out for yourself if you can. I highly recommend it.

#undertale #christian #theologythursday

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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Whatever Wednesday: The Incredible Hulk Review

Here is another MCU review for Whatever Wednesday that is definitely coming out on a Wednesday. Uh-huh. It is DEFINITELY Wednesday today and the Theology Thursday post coming out after this doesn’t mean anything.

SO! This movie is the second one to come out in the MCU, in the same year as Iron Man, directed by Louis Leterrier. The story features the scientist Bruce Banner on the run from the army who wants to capture him and use his raging green alter-ego the Hulk for their own purposes. Along the way, arrogant soldier Emil Blonsky wants the power for himself and turns himself into a Hulk-like creature called the Abomination, who dukes it out with Hulk at the end.

If you thought that was a very small plot summary, that’s because there isn’t a whole lot that happens in this movie. The plot is pretty simple and straightforward, not that that’s a bad thing, but it does move kind of slow. There is very little dialogue all throughout, and a good chunk of it is text and subtitles which can make it a little hard to be engaged. I prefer the later design of the Hulk to this one, but I do think that Edward Norton actually does a better Bruce Banner. I like Mark Ruffalo well enough, but Norton just looks more like Banner to me.

The villain is pretty meh, he kind of just wants power because power, but the final fight between him and Hulk is pretty cool, if a little long. Overall the movie just feels kind of depressingly average when compared to the other MCU films. It’s not awful, but I really don’t ever feel the desire to watch it. It’s just kind of… boring. I know it has a decent sized fanbase who think it’s really underrated and everything, but it just didn’t appeal to me.

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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Tolkien Tuesday: Addressing Some False Claims About Middle-earth

Hiiiiii. Yes, I know I didn’t post anything yesterday or on Sunday. But, you know, I only have one follower and its my sister so WHY SHOULD I EVEN CARE. I’ll post double next week. Whatever.

Anyway, it’s Tolkien Tuesday and I’m sharing another think-piece (is it really a think-piece?) on Middle-earth. One of the complaints I’ve seen lobbed at The Lord of the Rings and other such works is that it’s “racist” in that only white people are in it, and also because Sauron and his followers are consistently described as “black” and such. I am here to argue that that is not the case.

So the first point, about how there are only white people in the books and never any inclusion of any other races whatsoever. There is a reason for that, however. The reason Tolkien originally started writing the Silmarillion (which he wrote first and which became the basis for all of his other works) was because he had read mythologies from other countries, like Greek or Norse mythology, and he wanted England to have something like that. Out of that came the legendarium of Middle-earth. It follows, then, that in the mythology of a country predominantly composed of white Anglo-Saxons, the characters would be all white. It wouldn’t make sense for an English mythology to have black people in it, just as it wouldn’t make sense for an African mythology to have white people in it. Therefore, I don’t think it was a willful non-inclusion so much as it was just a logical turn of events.

Now, on the subject of Sauron and the Orcs. People argue that the Orcs are racist in nature because they are bad simply because of their species. Orcs are evil because Orcs are evil and they can’t change. HOWEVER, there is a in-canon reason for that fact. You see, Morgoth, the OG Dark Lord before Sauron, created the Orcs by taking Elves and corrupting them with his dark magic over hundreds of years. He couldn’t create life on his own, he could only copy and pervert it, and so that was how he created his servants. The Orcs have then reached a point of no return; they aren’t bad necessarily because they’re Orcs--rather, the process of corruption and descent into depravity is what made them Orcs. Death and pain are truly all they live for.

Oh, and as for the use of the word “black” I’m pretty sure that’s just because of nature of “light” being a force for good and “darkness” being a force for evil. It’s a common trope that everyone understands. I don’t think Tolkien harbored any ill will towards the African race and I don’t think he was trying to incorporate a racist sub-text in his works.

People also claim that Middle-earth is sexist because the characters are predominantly male and men do all the fighting and stuff. First of all, that’s not sexist, that’s simply the nature of the times. The stories of Middle-earth are set in a medieval world, a world where men fought the wars and women held down the homestead. That’s just how it was. Not to mention the fact that Tolkien also lived in a time where men had more rights than women. I’m not saying that’s right, but you can’t fault the man for writing things the way he knew them.

And another thing, it would be flat-out stupid to say that Tolkien’s works are disrespectful to women in any way. Yes, The Lord of the Rings has very few prominent female characters in it, and The Hobbit has, like, none at all, but if you read The Silmarillion then you’ll find a bevy of immensely powerful female characters. Half of the Valar, also known as the gods of Middle-earth, are women, all with huge amounts of power, and then, of course, there’s Luthien, the women who sang Morgoth to sleep. Morgoth. That is no small feat, my friends. Obviously in the Lord of the Rings there’s Eowyn, who defeats the Witch-king like a total boss, and also Galadriel, who was so powerful that she could read Sauron’s mind but he couldn’t read hers.

Tolkien’s attitude towards women in the books is always one of extreme respect, and I, as a woman, feel in no way belittled or excluded when I read his works. So, in conclusion, the stories of Middle-earth are not racist or sexist. Good night.

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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Spontaneous Saturday: Life at the Pond

It’s Spontaneous Saturday, ladies and gents, and the thing which I am spontaneously speaking of is a very obscure Christian audio series called Life at the Pond. Like I said, it’s super obscure so you’ve probably never heard of it. I don’t even know how my parents found it, but I’ve been listening to it for almost as long as I can remember.

The premise is that there are four creatures living at a pond, hence the name. There’s Tony the Frog, Bill the Duck, Methuselah the Alligator, and Floyd the Turtle, and a few other characters who recur throughout. It’s very simple, just teaching kids basic life-lessons, like how to share, how to be a good friend, stuff like that. The thing I love about the show, however, is how utterly hilarious it is. Seriously, the jokes in this show are so funny, and my sister and I quote them pretty much every day of our lives. They don’t have any immature or potty humor, and none of it really feels forced or tacked on. It’s just… funny.

The show also has a charming simplicity to it, in that it’s never really dramatic or bombastic, it’s just these four guys who are friends going through their life and learning lessons along the way. You shouldn’t expect some epic tale from The Pond. It really feels like just hanging out with your friends: lots of laughs and sometimes an insight.

Obviously I have massive nostalgia with this show, so I may be blind to any flaws it might have. Most of the time I feel like I can look at something critically even if I like it, but I really can’t think of any major flaws that drag the show down. The voice actors are really good and the writing is sharp. Simplistic, yes, but very entertaining and enjoyable.

The only thing kind of like a flaw that I can think of is its inconsistency within its own lore. As in, sometimes the creatures act like just wild animals who can talk and other times they act entirely anthropomorphic. Also, sometimes they act more like children and sometimes more like adults. It really just changes to whatever the writers want it to be for that episode. I don’t think that damages the show though; it’s still just as enjoyable.

To finish off, I won’t be posting any individual episodic reviews because I feel like I would just be reiterating the same points over and over. I might post some of the great quotes from the show from time to time though.

If you can, you should listen to the show because it’s great. I think you can enjoy it even if you’re not a kid.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and I’ll see you next time. Bye!

#spontaneous saturday life at the pond thepond

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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I am writing a book, and I would be greatly touched if you took a look at it. It’s called Dire Warnings and can be found on Wattpad under my username Sunfrost23.

reblog if you’re currently writing a book or if you someday hope to write a book.

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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(music) Fanatic Friday: The Great Owl City Analysis Part One

Welcome! It is (music) Fanatic Friday, my dudes, and we’re going to kick it off with *clears throat* THE GREAT OWL CITY ANALYSIS! *cue fanfare*

I will be going through all the albums of one of my most favorite artists and reviewing and analyzing all the songs within. It should be a lot of fun, so, please, do join me. Starting at the very beginning (a very good place to start), there is Adam Young’s first album, Of June, and the first song on there is Swimming in Miami.

I’m gonna be totally honest with you… I have no idea what this song is about. I like it okay, but the lyrics are really cryptic and I haven’t really discerned a meaning for it in the time that I’ve listened to it. I’ve seen people say that it’s about drugs, but people say that every Owl City song is about drugs and I’m pretty sure they aren’t, soooo… Yeah. Not about drugs. I’ve also seen people saying that it’s about relaxation and imagination, and I can see that. It definitely sounds very dreamy, as a lot of his songs do, and it has some very nice poetic lyrics. So… yeah. I don’t really have a personal interpretation of this song, but I pretty much agree with the whole relaxation angle, so we’ll go with that.

I’m alone above the atmosphere And no one looking up can find me here ‘Cause I can close my eyes and disappear (Falls in with relaxation. He takes a moment to detach from the world and rest.) When I climb the stairs to watch the sun Above the station walls, the colors run To fill the swimming pool, when I am done. (Not entirely sure about this part, but “climbing the stairs to watch the sun” does go in with taking a break and relaxing.)

I am the captain of an oil tanker that travels through your veins. (...Literally no clue what this means.)

When the satellites hang all around And I can finally hear the lovely sound When all the engines in the back room die down (Goes even more with peace and resting. Once his work is done, he pauses and takes the time to appreciate the beauty of the day.) All the airships move across the sky And my equipment just keeps standing by The planets glow and intensify. (This part sounds kind of like daydreaming. He stops in the middle of his work to stare at the sky and imagine things.)

I am the pilot of a cargo airplane that travels through your veins. (...Well that’s even weirder than the last one.)

When you are lying half-asleep in your room Unaware if it is midnight or afternoon Because the water doesn’t flood the stairwell It could be raining but then you can never tell (Sounds like relaxing once more. You’re detached from everything, you just drift off in your room and don’t even know what time it is or whether or not it’s raining because you’re in a half-asleep haze.) If you’re alone in this awful downpour Then struggle free and paddle out the cellar door. (Now this part could be saying that there is a time to stop relaxing and be around others. You can’t just laze around in your room all the time, after all.)

In the evening light the boulevard Conceals the the night with disregard For all the workers in a west coast shipyard (Not sure, but it could be talking about how people in those manual labor type jobs don’t really get a break, even when the sun goes down.) When I rearrange the silverware And re-install the lights and captain’s chair I’ll lift the ceiling off to breathe the ocean air. (He’s excited to finish his work so that he can take a break and just enjoy the ocean, to escape from the general mundanity of his life.)

I am the engineer of forty freight trains that travel through your veins. (...)

When you are lying half-asleep in your room Unaware if it is midnight or afternoon Because the water doesn’t flood the stairwell It could be raining but then you can never tell (Same meaning from above applies.) When you are swimming in Miami at night I’m all around you in the traffic and city lights… (I’m not really sure about this part? Could mean anything, really…)

This song could probably be called one of Owl City’s most confusing and cryptic, and considering how many songs he has of this nature… that’s saying something. It’s a recurring theme throughout Of June, as will be made evident in my reviews, of very dreamy, unclear lyrics. As for the song itself, however, apart from the lyrics, I like it well enough. It’s not my favorite song and I tend to forget about it sometimes, but I still enjoy it whenever I hear it. And it is kind of special, being the first Owl City song ever and all. So yeah. It’s good.

#owl city of june swimming in miami music lyrics analysis lyrical analysis review friday

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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Theology Thursday: Why the X-Men are the Most Christian Superheroes

Hello there, everyone, it’s Theology Thursday and I hope you’re all having a delightful day. As has been made eminently clear at this point, I like superheroes, and mostly Marvel ones. (please don’t hate me DC fans) And the Marvel superheroes that I have taken the greatest liking to are none other than the mutant crime-fighters known as the X-Men.

Now, I’m not an expert by any means, but I’m at least moderately well educated on X-Men lore. I’ve read a good chunk of the comics, I’ve seen all of the movies except for Deadpool and Logan but what do you expect they’re rated R and I’m sixteen, and I’ve seen all the episodes of the 90s X-Men: The Animated Series, X-Men: Evolution, and Wolverine and the X-Men. So, as a result of all of this X-Knowledge, I have determined why I think that the X-Men are quite possibly the most Christian superheroes you’ll find.

Now some people might be confused by this. Wouldn’t a superhero like Daredevil, a professed Catholic, or even Captain America be more Christian than the X-Men? Well no, because my point isn’t that all of the X-Men are professed Christians. As most people probably know, they’re not. While some of them do profess a belief in Jesus Christ, such as Nightcrawler or Wolfsbane, we also have a great range of other religions, or lack thereof. Storm is a pagan, Colossus is an atheist, Shadowcat is a Jew, Dust is a Muslim, and there’s a bunch of others who may not have explicitly stated any belief or otherwise, but they certainly aren’t acting like they devoutly follow the religion of Christianity.

So what do I mean by the X-Men being the most Christian superheroes? Well, the first reason I thought of is also the most superficial one: their name. X is traditionally used as a symbol for Christ, so, technically, the X-Men are in fact the Christ-Men, or, maybe, the Christians??

Now of course that isn’t a real reason, the X-Men are so named because of their eXtra power, as stated Professor Xavier in the very first issue, but I do actually have valid reasoning as to why the X-Men are so Christian. And that is because of their mission.

The X-Men are all mutants, Homo superior, a string of humanity born with extraordinary powers who are hated and feared by the world around them. They are persecuted, looked down upon, mistreated, and sometimes even killed just because of how they were born. This could cause any person to turn their back on humanity and become bitter and vengeful, as we see with people like Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But the X-Men don’t do that. Instead, the X-Men choose to protect and serve a world that hates and fears them, even if they get no credit, even if they will always be shown as the villain, they do it anyway. And that is exactly what Christians are called to do as well.

As Christians, our prime directive is love, unconditional love that never gives up no matter how many times we are rebuffed. Jesus promised us persecution, and He was right. Christianity is the most persecuted religion ever, the only ones who would have us beat are Jews simply because they’ve been around longer, but Christians are just fulfilled Jews so it’s really all the same thing. We have been tortured and mistreated and killed for no reason other than that we profess a belief in Jesus Christ and His Church, but we continue to love and serve and pray for a world that will never truly accept us, because if we didn’t we would be denying our true purpose.

As stated before, there are some qualifiers to this because the X-Men aren’t all explicitly Christian, and sometimes they have very unChristian behavior. *cough cough* Wolverine *cough cough* But they do their best not to kill unless absolutely necessary and to never give up on humanity, even when it seems like its too far gone, and that is about as Christian as you can get.

And I know there might be some people who are upset by me saying this; the X-Men and mutants in general were always supposed to be a stand-in for any oppressed minority and some people might be offended by me trying to say they represent just one group. First of all, that’s not what I’m trying to do, I am not trying to alienate you in any way if you disagree, and also the diversity aspect of the X-Men really just shows more of how Christian they are. Like I said, love is our primary directive as Christians, and loving someone means you accept them no matter their race or gender, and even if they are of a different belief system than you, or if they live their life in a way that you disagree with, that doesn’t mean you stop loving them.

So yeah, that is why, in my humble opinion, the X-Men are the best example of Christianity in a superhero team. Obviously this probably wasn’t intentional considering the fact that neither Stan Lee nor Jack Kirby, their creators, are Christians, this is simply the way I chose to interpret it. And before we go, I just want to let you know that if you aren’t a Christian, that does not mean I hate you. Not at all. I know Christians are perceived a lot as these angry bigots who hate anyone who doesn’t fit into their box of perfection, but that’s not what we’re like. It’s not the way we’re supposed to be like, anyway, even if there are some unfortunate people who have tarnished our reputation. I love you no matter who you are because you are a beautiful child of God, fearfully and wonderfully made to do great things. We all deserve love and we can all be heroes, just like the X-Men.

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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Whatever Wednesday: Iron Man Review

Ayyy guys, it’s Whatever Wednesdays, although for the next few months it’s actually going to be like… What I Think of Marvel Movies… Wednesdays. Basically, Avengers: Endgame is only fifteen weeks away, if you can believe it, and so I want to review all TWENTY of the MCU movies in preparation. Now you probably asked, “How can you review twenty movies if there’s only fifteen weeks?” Basically there’ll be some weeks where I review more than one movie. It’s that simple.

SO, starting off we have Iron Man, coming out ages ago in 2008. I was five years old, can you believe that? From what I’ve seen, people usually praise this film as one of the MCU’s best, and while I don’t entirely agree, I do believe that it deserves a lot of credit. I mean, it kicked off the whole entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. If it hadn’t succeeded, none of these other great movies that we know and love would even exist.

As for the movie’s plot, we start out with self-centered billionaire genius Tony Stark in Afghanistan to show off a new weapon that he’s invented: the Jericho Missile. On the way back, however, his convoy is attacked by terrorists and he is kidnapped. After he’s been tortured and locked up in a cave, they force Tony to build a Jericho Missile for them, but he manages to escape with the help of his cellmate Yinsen, building an iron suit to fight his way out. Sadly, Yinsen dies during the escape, but Tony makes it home safely.

His entire perspective now changed by his experience, he decides that he will no longer make and sell weapons, and he decides to refine the design of his iron suit. He uses it to take down the terrorists, but his greatest threat comes from within his personal life.

Obadiah Stane, a man that Tony considered his friend, is actually evil, and he tries to kill Tony by stealing the arc reactor, an electromagnet that both powers the suit and keeps Tony from dying from the shrapnel embedded in his chest during his terrorist adventure. Obadiah makes his own giant version of the iron suit, powered by the stolen arc reactor, and after Tony works his way out of his sticky situation, the two duke it out in an epic fight that ends with a big explosion and Obadiah dies.

After all that craziness, Tony appears at a press conference to address all the commotion surrounding this “Iron Man.” He’s supposed to cover it up by saying that it’s just his bodyguard, but Tony doesn’t give a flying crap about anything, so he just comes right out and admits that he is Iron Man.

Even though this isn’t my favorite MCU movie, it’s still really good, and probably the best one of the Iron Man trilogy, in my opinion. Obviously Robert Downey Jr. was pretty much born to play Tony Stark, and I think the film did a good job of portraying him as a likable character. Like, he’s a jerkwad, but at the same time, he’s a good man, you know? You know that he really wants to do the right thing and you root for him, even if his social skills leave much to be desired. All of the other actors do a great job as well.

The action is really good all throughout, and I think the special effects still hold up, even after almost 11 years. A lot of it feels very real, and I think they did use more practical effects in this film, which is always nice. It also has its fair share of epic moments, from the first appearance of the Mark I suit, to Tony suiting up in the red and gold suit for the first time, to the tank missile, to the now iconic “I am Iron Man.”

I also like the music a lot, there’s a lot of electric guitars which I think is fitting for the character. The main theme goes with him really well also. An unfortunate re-occurrence throughout the MCU is failing to maintain a consistent theme for each character, and I wish they had kept using this one for Iron Man, but oh well.

I can’t think of that many negatives, honestly. The villain, Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger, isn’t really compelling, he’s just kind of your typical evil businessman. There isn’t really any explanation for why he goes crazy at the end, although he’s probably just acting the way any of us would if we got a giant Iron Man suit to use. Although that makes me think of another thing: how did Tony survive the explosion at the end? He’s right there next to Obadiah when the giant arc reactor blows up and there is this, just, colossal explosion, but Obadiah, who is the bigger suit and therefore theoretically more protected, dies while Tony survives. And, like, without a scratch. You wanna explain that one? Because he’s Iron Man, I guess.

So yeah, to conclude, this movie doesn’t usually come to mind when I think of my top MCU movies, but it honestly is really good, and I certainly recommend it. It’s the best way to start in to the MCU, and it’s holding up even after a decade.

That’s all for today, folks, thank you ever so much for reading, and I will see you tomorrow.

#ironman movie review wednesday mcu marvel

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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Tolkien Tuesday: Why I Love Middle-earth

Welcome, all, to the (very late) Tolkien Tuesday post! I would start reviewing the books or the movies, but… I’m not going to do that yet because I don’t think I’m adequately prepared yet. So instead I’m going to talk about why I love Middle-earth so much.

The first thing that always comes to mind for me is the sheer size of the world. Most of the time when you read a book the world feels rather small and self-contained, and once you’ve read all the books, you pretty much know all you can know about the world. But in Middle-earth, it all feels so huge and developed. It feels real, because there’s so much history that goes into it, and you’re never going to learn it all but you know that it exists. It makes the experience so much more immersive.

I also love the feeling of magic and wonder that I get from reading Tolkien’s works, especially The Silmarillion. There’s just this pervasive sense of majesty and awe that goes into it. It really feels like another world and it’s perfect for escapism.

Another thing is how much love Tolkien himself poured into all of it. Often times when I write, I’m always worried about what other people will think of it, and I think lots of other writers feel the same way. But Tolkien didn’t write for other people, he wrote because he had a story inside him that he wanted to tell. And let’s be honest, books like The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion break tons of the writing rules I learned in high school, but LotR became the second best-selling book after the Bible. That’s pretty great, and goes to show how it has affected so many people all over the world, which I think is because of the purity of the writer’s intentions. He didn’t write it to make money, or even to push a message or agenda. He did it to tell a story.

Although I mentioned above that Tolkien wasn’t trying to push a message, yet another thing I love about his stories is all the lessons you can learn from it. Most people call The Lord of the Rings an allegory, but it’s well-known that Tolkien despised allegories, but the great thing about how he wrote is that he had such strong beliefs that they permeated his writing whether he was trying or not. At the same time, however, it didn’t feel forced at all. Everyone has their own interpretation of what the Ring represents, and I’ll mention my own feelings in a different post, but what I’m trying to say is that I love the powerful sense of sheer morality in the stories. These days it seems like everybody’s going for moral ambiguity in everything, and yeah, that can make for compelling stories, but it’s really nice to see a world where there are heroes and there are villains, and where good wins. Lots of people will say that that way of thinking is childish and primitive, but the simple fact of the matter is that there are some things in this world that are black and white. Sometimes, people are just bad. I generally like to see the best in people and I don’t believe that anyone is beyond redemption, but it would be silly to act like there aren’t people in the world that are nasty and cruel most of the time.

And it would also be silly to act like Tolkien’s characters aren’t layered and realistic. They aren’t all a bunch of goody-two-shoes all the time. Which, by the way, is yet another reason why I love Middle-earth: there’s so many great, interesting characters! Just saying, but Aragorn is one of the best and most epic characters in all of fiction, don’t @ me.

So yeah, in conclusion, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien had way too much time on his hands and somehow ended up making one of the greatest fiction epics in history. See you tomorrow.

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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X-Men: Evolution Abbreviated Review

Hi everyone! It’s Mutant Monday and I love the X-Men. The way I discovered the X-Men was through the films, like most people, but the way I really became a fan was through the cartoons. I watched the entire series from the 90s with my sister and absolutely love it, I’ll be reviewing that in the future, but the show we’re talking about today is the adaptation of the X-Men from the early 2000s: X-Men: Evolution.

Here’s the review in a nutshell: I love the show, but it definitely has flaws and is not for everyone. If you are a diehard comics purist, then you will almost definitely not like this show. The premise is of the majority of the X-Men being de-aged to teenagers, an attempt by the show to return to the X-Men’s roots as “The strangest teenagers of all!” So with the exception of Professor X (obviously), Wolverine, Storm, and Beast, all of the main cast are between the ages of 14 and 18. So naturally our merry mutants go through all of the angsty struggles that teenagers do, including going to a public school.

Yes, I know. That fact alone is enough to get purists in a tizzy, and I do admit that it’s a little weird. The students all live at the X-Mansion, but they go to school somewhere else--a detail that especially bothered my sister. I am, however, able to look past that, as I believe that the show is good enough to ignore that one slightly annoying detail. It does lead to some fun interactions, after all, and helps to keep the X-Men from feeling quite so isolated.

This is really random but if anything the thing that bothers ME more is that the town where they all live is called Bayville. Like, what? Where did that come from? The town they live near in the comics is called Salem Center. Would it really have been that hard to just call it that? Okay, sorry, mini tangent there. Yes, I know, I’m weird. Anyway!

I’ll be posting episodic reviews like with Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D., but they’ll be a lot shorter, since, you know, the episodes… are shorter… Yeah, that’s what’ll happen, but I’m too lazy to post any today so stay tuned for them next week! Bye!

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sunfrost23 · 6 years

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Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. Season One Episodes 5-8 Reviews

All right, here we go, we’re trying out our new schedule, so I am reviewing not one, not two, but FOUR whole episodes of Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. Amazing, right? So we start off with “Girl in the Flower Dress” and in this episode we meet the titular girl in the flower dress, Raina, who will plague our lives for the next couple seasons so get used to her. I’m joking, I don’t mind Raina that much since she’s well acted, but she can be annoying at times. Anyway, in this episode she cons some poor sap with fire powers named Chan Ho Yin, aka Scorch, into being a lab rat for the Centipede project from episode one. He ends up going crazy and the S. H. I. E. L. D. agents are forced to kill him. Along the way, we meet Skye’s boyfriend Miles, another hacker who leaked information about Chan’s location which allowed Raina to find him. Skye gets into trouble for secretly collaborating with them but Miles helps them take down Scorch in the end. Skye then reveals to Coulson that the only reason she joined S. H. I. E. L. D. was to find information about her parents, whom she was separated from as a baby. Phil lets her stay and agrees to help her, but he puts this bracelet thingy on her which keeps her from accessing electronics without permission. I feel like this is another episode I forget about a lot, because outside of it being Raina’s first appearance there isn’t too much that happens. Well, like, there is, but I feel kinda like a lot of it is set-up for the future. Viewed isolated on its own, it’s not terribly interesting. Scorch isn’t a super compelling character, although the special effects for his fire do look pretty cool. Overall, I’d say it’s just average. It’s not a pain to watch, it isn’t boring, it’s just not the first episode I’d recommend to anyone.

Next up is “FZZT” and yes, the name is weird. In this episode the team finds out that some firefighters who were at the Battle of New York picked up a virus from a Chitauri helmet, and it is always fatal. Tragically, three of the firefighters die, but it seems that now that they’ve isolated the source, no one else will catch it and there’s nothing to worry about, right? WRONG! Simmons was infected when she came close to one of the victim’s bodies, and she’s got about 2 more hours to live unless she and Fitz can come up with a cure. Their efforts seem to be in vain, so Jemma decides to jump off the plane rather than endanger everyone on board, since, upon death, the carriers of the virus set off a huge electrical surge and they would definitely cripple the Bus and send everyone into the ocean. Literally right as she’s jumping off though, Fitz discovers the cure. Ward jumps after her and injects her with it, saving the day at the last moment. Yay! This episode is cool because it’s the first one that focuses on FitzSimmons and their relationship, which is one of the best parts of the entire series. I don’t think it’s my favorite FitzSimmons-centric episode, but it’s still nice, especially since, like I said in my review of episode one, the actor and actress who play them are both really great. There isn’t much more to say really, it’s a solid episode even if the tension isn’t that high because, come on, did anybody really think they were going to kill a main character in the sixth episode?

Now we’re at episode 7, “The Hub,” which is where the team visits the high-level S. H. I. E. L. D. base called… the Hub. Everybody’s all hunky-dory about being there, except for Skye who pretty much feels like a complete fish-out-of-water since she doesn’t really have anything to do other than follow Phil around like a lost puppy. While there, high-ranking agent Victoria Hand gives a mission to Ward and Fitz: travel to Russia and disable a thing called the Overkill Device which can activate weapons from long distances away. They go out and do so, but Skye is suspicious, so she hacks into S. H. I. E. L. D. and discovers that it’s actually a suicide mission; there’s no extraction team involved, but no one told Fitz and Ward that. She confronts Phil about it, and he tells her to trust the system. “Trust the System” could have been an alternate title for this episode, because Coulson goes to Hand and asks why she didn’t tell him either, she tells him the exact same thing. Obviously Ward and Fitz don’t die, because Coulson decides he’s had enough of Hand’s shenanigans and the rest of the team flies in personally with the Bus to rescue them. Oh, and Skye starts to find out some information about her parents along the way too. I enjoy this episode, mostly because of Fitz, who’s always amazing, and there’s some nice bonding with him and Ward, although Ward was a total jerk to just throw away Fitz’s sandwich. Despicable. The sequence where Simmons tries to help Skye hack into the S. H. I. E. L. D. mainframe is pretty funny too. In the end, another episode that’s kind of average, but not bad by any means.

Last but not least, we have “The Well.” Oh, this episode. Some paganist weirdos are looking to find the pieces of an Asgardian artifact called the Berserker Staff, which gives the wielder enhanced strength and extreme rage. Since they’ve already found one piece, Coulson meets with Elliot Randolph, a professor of Norse Mythology, to see if he has any historical clues as to where the other two pieces might be. He directs them to Baffin Island, but the team quickly discovers that this was a misdirection and they instead follow the clue to a crypt where they discover the professor trying to steal the piece of the staff. In trying to stop him, Ward accidentally touches the staff and immediately experiences painful, suppressed memories from his past. His older brother forced him to shove his younger brother down a well, and the memory torments him for the rest of the episode. Coulson arrests Professor Randolph, and they discover that he is actually an Asgardian, the fabled Berserker who originally wielded the staff. He tells them that he hid the last piece of the staff in a church in Ireland, and the team goes there, but the pagans got there first. Ward defeats the pagans with the help of May, who can control the rage she gets from the staff since she already learned how to live with her bad memories. Skye offers to talk with Ward and comfort him, but he decides to turn down emotional conversation for carnal pleasures, and instead joins May in her hotel room. Oh boy. This episode is a tricky one. I actually enjoy it quite a bit, but rewatching it after seeing the whole series is just… mm, you just have to see it for yourself. It reveals a few more tidbits about Ward’s past, and Brett Dalton’s acting is very good at making you sympathize with him. This is also one of the times when the show ties in directly with the broader MCU, which is always nice to see. So overall, a pretty solid episode. This is one that usually sticks out to me from Season One, which is a good thing since some of the other episodes can be kind of forgettable. I don’t know what it is necessarily about this one, but I like it.

All right, that is it for today, ladies and gentlemen, there will be more reviews of Season One next Sunday, so stay tuned for episodes 9-12 then. Have a lovely night, beauties!

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