#it also leaves no room for morally grey choices or storytelling

[ladylightning]

the thing that bothers me most about dabb era supernatural is that he treats the audience like we’re stupid. he makes the brothers caricatures of themselves so this brother is SMART and that brother is STUPID and this brother is RIGHT and that brother is WRONG. the moral lesson of every episode is spelled out for you a hundred times in giant blinking neon letters that you must B E L I E V E in YOURSELF and TRUST your FAMILY. the audience is incapable of reaching any conclusion about what they just saw without being handheld so characters are constantly saying “well what does this mean for us” “what happens now” etc.

like sure kripke thought we were stupid but at least he invented new ways to break the fourth wall and tell us that to our faces. dabb patronized us, which is somehow worse.

[9worldstales]

MCU What if Ep 1-2-3: My two cents

So, I’ve been watching the “What if” series. I won’t beat it around the bush, I’m enjoying it but at the same time I get the feeling this series is aimed at younger audience, younger audience which isn’t deeply familiar with the movies and needs to be feed a simpler storyline.

In fact from the way they present it in each episode 1 single change should be the one which gives life to a parallel universe in a sort of domino effect… only, from what I could see in those 3 episodes, there are actually multiple unconnected changes, 1 presented more markedly as if it were the one starting everything and the others… just there for unknown reasons but they aren’t remarked and might easily be missed by who doesn’t remember well the movies.

Characterizations are also simplified, with heroes more black and white than grey, and a general toning down of the drama. This isn’t necessarily tied to the short time, 30 minutes in the hand of a good storyteller are plenty of time to construct a complicate, adult, emotionally engaging story… but a complicate story requires an audience willing to put its mind to understand it, or capable to handle a more morally nuanced plot or that wouldn’t be too distressed by a more emotionally engaging one.

This kind of audience is clearly not what those stories are aiming at.

This isn’t meant to say they’re bad, they’re perfect for young audience, passing on a good message, being overall funny and giving them the chance to enjoy the heroes they love in a different setting.

Dialogues are nice, their voice actors so far delivered good performance, the art isn’t bad and the stories can feel still intriguing enough.

However, if you think too hard at them, especially in comparison to the original movie, the story tends to crumble or feel morally poor or mess up the characterization or some other thing.

Overall I think the “What if” so far are more enjoyable if you don’t really remember well the movies and, anyway, judge them as stand-alone more than “What if” based on how a single divergence from the plot could create a new timeline.

Some examples?

Pick “What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?”

The divergence supposedly happens when Peggy decides to stay in the room.

Erskine: Agent Carter, wouldn't you be more comfortable in the booth? Peggy: No, I'd prefer to stay. Watcher: There. That's the moment that created a new universe. When asked to leave the room, Margaret "Peggy" Carter chose to stay. But soon it would be her venturing into the unknown and creating a new world.

Only, in truth, it’s not just Peggy who was meant to go to the booth and didn’t.

EVERYONE was meant to go to the booth… only they all stay and Kruger, the spy from Hydra, who was seated in the booth BEHIND Peggy in “Captain America”, in the “What if” episode attacks the lab during Erskine’s explanation and not, as he did in “Captain America”, after the experiment took place, using as a distraction a bomb he left in the booth, and not on the floor of near to where the experiment was taking place so that it can kill Erskine.

And, to be really accurate, Erskine, in “Captain America”, asked Peggy to move to the booth when Steve was already lying down for the experiment, while here we see him asking her so while the two are standing next to each other and he hadn’t started undressing yet.

And there’s a reason why in the movie things were done like that.

Of course in the movie everyone was in the booth, it was safer should something go wrong with the experiment.

Of course Kruger waited for the experiment to be carried on, if it didn’t work there was no point in stealing a vial of a serum that didn’t work.

Of course Kruger left the bomb in the booth and made it explode when he was outside of it, so that he was sure it would create distraction but not harm him.

Overall, it’s not just Peggy that acts differently, it’s Erskine, who asked her to move in advance, it’s all the people there, who didn’t move to the booth, it’s ESPECIALLY, Kruger, who originally aimed to see if the serum worked and, in this case, steal it and kill Erskine so he couldn’t produce more and instead he now doesn’t check if the serum works and kills, for unknown reasons Chester Phillips, who didn’t even have a weapon in his hand and so didn’t pose a threat.

Even the placing of the bomb is poor because, since there was plenty of mechanisms in the lab, it could have triggered a series of explosions that were to destroy the whole place, himself and all the serum included.

But how many young viewers noticed all this or worry for the risk of everything exploding or realize that causing an explosion outside of the room in which the serum was worked as a diversion so as to take people away from that place, while if the bomb were to explode there, everyone would converge in that place, with hydrants possibly as no one worries about fire spreading but they should… even if there’s magically not as much as there should be.

And tragic scenes get tamed down, we don’t see Erskine die, we might not even realize he died in the explosion, young viewers might not remember or not like Chester Phillips so when he’s shoot he doesn’t leave an impression and Kruger’s shape gets shoot down by Peggy so we don’t have him committing suicide.

It’s not a complain, it’s a logic choice to make the series more palatable to a younger target by toning down the violence and the drama in it.

And so we reach the big event of the episode.

John Flynn would want Stark to get the serum injected in himself (forgetting there were men of the MP around him who shouldn’t be all dead) but starts to complain when Peggy volunteers to take the serum herself. Peggy does anyway and again things are tamed down, as Steve ended up screaming so loud in “Captain America” Peggy feared they were killing him and they considered stopping the experiment but Peggy doesn’t scream at all.

Sure, in had been scientifically proved women are built to handle pain better, but very likely Peggy’s lack of scream isn’t because she’s tougher, it’s again to not upset young audience.

So, while Steve lies on the ground and no one comes to help him, Peggy comes out of the experiment enhanced. But here we’ve the real core of the episode, John Flynn decides the experiment is an absolute failure. Why?

Flynn: Sixty million dollars and all the hope in the world down the drain. I was promised an army. I was promised peace and salvation. Instead, I get a girl.

Basically the real core of the episode, the real theme is that Captain Carter will have to fight discrimination based on sexism.

Peggy: You have a Super Soldier. Flynn: Women aren't soldiers, and they sure as hell don't fight on the front lines. They might break a nail.

Undoubtedly this is an important matter, it’s a good topic to make an episode about, to give young girls an heroine, to show to them and to the boys what an absolute moron Flynn was in discriminating Peggy, also presenting boys being supportive of Peggy and trusting her. Howard Stark, Steve Rogers, and then Bucky and everyone else, all the men who see Peggy fighting are ultimately supportive and admiring of her. This is important. But Flynn’s sexism is better remarked if we don’t remember what happened in “Captain America”.

Steve Rogers: Sir, if you’re going after Schmidt, I want in. Col. Chester Phillips: You’re an experiment. You’re going to Alamogordo. Steve Rogers: The serum worked. Col. Chester Phillips: I asked for an army and all I got was you. You are not enough. Senator Brandt: [to Steve] With all due respect to the Colonel, I think we may be missing the point. I’ve seen you in action, Steve. More importantly, the country’s seen it. [to his aide] Paper.[the aide shows them the news paper (‘The New York Examiner’ Vol. XCVII No. 33.634, Wednesday, June 23, 1943), headlines: "Nazis in New York - mystery man saves child"] The enlistment lines have been around the block since your picture hit the newsstands. You don’t take a soldier, a symbol like that, and hide him in a lab. Son, do you want to serve your country on the most important battlefield of the war? Steve Rogers: Sir, that’s all I want. Senator Brandt: Then, congratulations. You just got promoted.

I mean, Rogers was a male and he too was judged ‘not enough’. Brandt has him tour the nation in a colorful costume as “Captain America” to promote war bonds, while scientists study him and attempt to reverse-engineer the formula.

Chester Phillips was likely killed because otherwise they would have no reason to deal with Peggy the same way he dealt with Steve ‘one is not enough’, only it wouldn’t have been a sexist problem, just math (though it could be argued Phillips never trusted Steve to begin with). This causes the message ‘sexism is dumb’ ends up feeling forced because it’s basically pasted over a previous narrative of ‘not being enough’. If you want, you can read it as always discrimination and discrimination it’s always bad, but it still cheapens the message.

All this not to say that the episode isn’t awesome if seen as a stand-alone… it’s just that when you compare it with “Captain America” it feels weaker.

And then there are the other discrepancies, like the Hydra bringing the Tesseract to Berlin and not to Azzano (a sign somehow Schmidt and Hitler didn’t have a fall out) with Stark using it to power up an “Hydra Stomper” suit that proves if he had had the right power sources and technologies he could have built “Iron Man” too.

They’re not bad points (actually I loved the “Hydra Stomper” suit and how Peggy rode it the way Tekkaman from “Uchu no Kishi Tekkaman” used to ride Pegas in my childhood memories) but again they’re divergences without a clear reason. Schmidt and Hitler shouldn’t get along better solely because Peggy got the serum.

And that’s the first episode.

“What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?” is also clearly aimed to a younger audience but with a goal different from “What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?”

Watcher: What you call destiny is just an equation, a product of variables. Right place, right time, or in some instances, the wrong place at the wrong time. As fate would have it, at that very moment, a Ravager spacecraft was arriving on Earth to abduct the spawn of the Celestial, Ego. But in this universe, Yondu outsourced the assignment to his subordinates. Yondu: You morons grabbed the wrong kid!

For start this episode doesn’t try to rewrite a single movie, but by taking pieces of assorted movies “Thor: The Dark World” (for Tivan) “Guardians of the Galaxy” (for the idea of the setting), “Black Panther” (for T’Challa), “Avengers: Infinity War” (for the Black Order), “Captain America” (Tivan has his shielf), “Thor: Ragnarok” (TIvan has and uses Hela’s headpiece, talking of her as if he knew her and we can see he also has Thor’s hammer), “Thor: The Dark World” (Tivan has Malekith’s dagger) creates a completely different timeline by changing something that happened in 1988 and then jumping straight in… 2014, I presume, where a lot is different but we aren’t meant to see the process due to which things were changed, just to accept how T’Challa, kidnapped as a kid by the Ravagers, managed to make the difference.

In fact the whole theme of this episode is that T’Challa is a hero and a role model that gets success and admiration by TALKING TO PEOPLE AND PERSUADING THEM TO DO THE RIGHT THING. He’s meant not to have a character arc but to create a world that’s the best possible for people.

In fact we’re told just by talking with Thanos he persuaded him to stop his whole plan without using violence.

Korath: How exactly did you stop Thanos, the Mad Titan, from decimating half of the universe? Oh, no. Thanos: I'm a big enough man to admit when I'm wrong. T'Challa here showed me there was more than one way to reallocate the universe's resources. T’Challa: Sometimes the best weapon in your arsenal is just a good argument.

I mean, he doesn’t just turn the Ravagers into Robin Hood’s “merry men”, he talks with Thanos and Thanos decides to change his ways.

This is great, a wonderful message, a message against violence, a message about the power of the words and it makes T’Challa a real hero who, just by talking, saves the universe from Thanos but… but T’Challa from the movies was maybe not so good at persuading people from not doing wrong but he still had something amazing that made him very human and, at the same time a role model.

T’Challa wasn’t perfect, he made mistakes… but then he would admit them and correct them.

In “Captain America: Civil War” he wants to kill Bucky in retaliation for what happened to his father…

Natasha Romanoff: T'Challa. Task force will decide who brings in Barnes. T'Challa: [He clenches his fist.] Don't bother, Miss Romanoff. I'll kill him myself.

…but then he understands killing his father’s murder would be wrong and even stops Zemo from committing suicide.

T'Challa: Vengeance has consumed you. It's consuming them. [He blinks ruefully and retracts the claws in his gloves.] I am done letting it consume me. Justice will come soon enough. Helmut Zemo: [Holding a gun Zemo smiles thinly.] Tell that to the dead. [He tries to shoot himself but T'Challa grabs him just as he fires.] T'Challa: The living are not done with you yet.

And the same goes in “Black Panther”. At first he doesn’t want to ask Killmonger his name because he knows he is his uncle’s son and this would give him the right to compete for the throne as well as expose what his father did…

Killmonger: Oh, I ain't requesting nothing! Ask who I am? Shuri: You are Eric Steves. An American black operative. A mercenary nicknamed Killmonger. That's who you are. Killmonger: (LAUGHING) That's not my name, Princess. Ask me, King? T'Challa: No. Killmonger: Ask me. T'Challa: Take him away.

…but then he’ll acknowledges they had wronged him, will show him Wakanda’s beauty and will change things in Wakanda. T’Challa in the movies isn’t as perfect as T’Challa in the “What if” episode. He can’t solve everything and make the world perfect. He isn’t always right. He gets angry, vengeful, afraid of the truth. But then he rises above this and does the right thing.

“What if” T’Challa is a model of perfection that’s admirable… but that sits simply too high above the original T’Challa who also had to deal with Thanos but didn’t even think he could change his mind just by giving him a talk… and with good reason.

Younger kids might not realize because they might have not fully grasped how Thanos was a genocidal maniac, who massacred millions even prior to the snap, tortured his daughters and even removed body parts from Nebula. They might swallow it was just that easy to talk him into not doing the snap, and Thanos only needed someone to tell him it was wrong… and that in truth he loved Nebula… but for older viewers while beautiful, this is simply unbelievable.

And what about Yondu and the Ravagers? Just because they had T’Challa they became good and righteous. This is how Peter Quill described Yondu in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” which still gives a sympathetic portrayal of Yondu:

Quill: He wasn't my father. Yondu was the guy who abducted me. He'd beat the crap out of me so I'd learn how to fight and he kept me in terror threatening to eat me.

But T’Challa doesn’t seem to have such complains against Yondu.

Now… In Quill’s case Yondu kept Quill so as to protect him from Ego…

Yondu: Once I figured out what happened to the other kids, I wasn't gonna just hand you over.

…yet he kidnap him and tells him his home was destroyed so as to manipulate him into staying… but this is so easily forgotten by T’Challa to the point children might not even realize it was there. Yondu was a good dad for him, he kidnapped him because T’Challa was basically wasted at home.

Yondu: Sometimes you need to hear a lie to see the truth. You're just like me, T'Challa. T’Challa: I am nothing like you. Yondu: You're an explorer, Star-Lord. And for people like you, like us, the past ain't nothing but a prison. You don't belong down there with them. You belong up here with us, with your family.

Although T’Challa doesn’t seem to agree at first… in the end all is forgotten.

Yondu: Look, T'Challa, I just wanted to say... T’Challa: There's no need. I was the one who told you I wanted to see the world. All you did was show me the universe.

and

T’Chaka: (Voice shaking) My son, my son. I knew you would find your way home to us. T’Challa: I'm sorry it took me so long. Let me introduce you to the family I made along the way.

All this is to basically excuse the premise, something horrible like kidnapping a child is passed as not really something terrible so that kids wouldn’t deal with its emotional implications and can even think that it was a pity that, in the normal universe, it was Peter Quill that was kidnapped… without realizing that kidnapping is bad and that in T’Challa’s case Yondu wasn’t even doing it because he wanted to protect him. Actually it’s unexplained why, all of sudden, Yondu felt the need to keep T’Challa and completely forgot about Quill, didn’t even care about making sure Ego wouldn’t find Quill despite, thanks to T’Challa, becoming a better person. It’s another change, one that people knowing the movies is bound to notice but not kids.

So again, for who knows the movie well, the story ends up being weak and this is also because, while T’Challa could persuade Thanos off screen not to commit genocide… all of sudden his persuasive power isn’t even really tested out with Tivan. Tivan is the big evil… yet he’s somehow less fearsome than Thanos because we clearly don’t want to scare the kids.

So again, wonderful for young audience who doesn’t remember well the movies… not so solid for who’s older.

And so we move to “What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” which is absolutely my favourite so far. This one at a first glance seems to be a “What if” of a comic named “The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week”.

The awesome thing of this story is we don’t know what changed the universe, we only discover that someone is killing off the Avengers before they could become the Avengers, starting with Tony Stark.

The mystery is, at a first glance, cool, the idea original, Natasha gets a big role as she investigates and even fights things along with Fury and, again, children will likely not really realize how the “What if” is actually changing the settings even when they’re supposedly not related to the change that caused this parallel reality, the death of Hope van Dyne. I mean, we can start our list of changes with the random funny things that has no reason to happen because Hope’s death shouldn’t have made Coulson and Barton to be so appreciative of Thor’s hair, something they never bring up in the movie…

Coulson: Whoa. I got visual on the intruder. He's a Caucasian male, mid-twenties with... really great hair. Fury: Excuse me? Coulson: It's an accurate description. Sir, he's gorgeous. Fury: I need eyes in the sky. Barton. Barton: Already on it. He's making a move on the hammer. One shot, one kill, sir. Just say the word. Fury: Hold your fire. I wanna see this. Barton: Whoa. Coulson wasn't lying about the hair. That's nice.

…to continue with more plot related matters like how Betty should have known Banner had intruded in her lab dressed up as a delivery boy and was now hiding in a wardrobe… but if we want we can forgive them. Maybe Hope’s death really changed some things in weird ways we couldn’t predict… but the place with the biggest revolution seems to be Asgard… which actually shouldn’t have been affected by by Hope’s death AT ALL and instead the situation is completely different from how it were in “Thor” to the point I could write a 20 pages meta on the changes. But, if we assume this episode is aimed at children, it works because the “Thor” situation was complicate and here instead they show solely some random and confuse elements that children might have picked up from talks about the movies… but that weren’t like that in “Thor”.

And again we have messages that can be good for children, how a father will love his little girl, how Nick Fury will save the day even without the Avengers, how:

Fury: S.H.I.E.L.D. is people, people willing to give their lives for something greater than themselves to save the world from men like you.

…and how in the darkest time new heroes will always come to save Earth as when Loki take over because it seems there are no more Avengers, Fury can still count on Carol Danvers and Steve Rogers.

Coulson: The Avengers fell before they had a chance to rise. May they rest in peace. Fury: They can, but we won't. The Avengers were always meant to be more than a team. They were an idea, the affirmation of humanity's need to believe that in our darkest hour, we will find our heroes. Watcher: I believe that in this universe, as in every other, hope never dies. As long as someone keeps their good eye on the bigger picture.

It’s a good message about hope… but again, it’s something for children. We’re meant to believe Earth could be conquered in one day time without struggle whatsoever… and that only the heroes could save it. Children might not remember it but in “The Avengers” humans tried to nuke New York to stop Loki… the idea they would just sit and say ‘whatever’ to Loki’s domination makes it look as if they actually agree with him to an adult… but, of course, the battle of New York is something we might not want to show to a little child.

And now… something else that’s relevant.

I said the “What ifs” are good stories for children… but we’re talking of young children here because if the child is a little older they can end up passing a completely wrong message.

Remember "What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?" and how it tackled sexism as an absurd behavior to keep? How Captain Carter overcomes it? By using her supersoldier powers to beat the Nazi. She shows as a supersoldier she works.

Does she turns over the concept that ‘Women aren't soldiers, and they sure as hell don't fight on the front lines. They might break a nail’?

At most she proves she can be a soldier. She doesn’t fight using the fact she’s a woman as her strongest point, she fights using her super strength as her strongest point… where Steve Roger’s strongest point wasn’t his enhanced strength but his moral values. Peggy proves as a super soldier she’s equal to Steve… but Steve as a super soldier proved he was better than Red Skull. Peggy’s actions in the story doesn’t cause people to revalue women in general, just her. People either aren’t sexist and accept her regardless of her genre (Howard, Steve) or they’re sexist but accept her because she is strong.

It’s meaningful that when she thinks Steve is dead Flynn goes back to his old mindset…

Flynn: She should never have been in the field in the first place.

… because the truth is he never changed it. Peggy had only yelled at them to stop calling Steve “Hydra Stomper” as his name was “Steve Roger” and Flynn decides she, not Steve who actually died, should have never been in the field.

They don’t show how Peggy got information from Zola, which seems to imply all she did to get them was to beat him up. Chester Phillips in “Captain America” manipulated him into talking with his intelligence only.

Do you know which were Peggy’s abilities in the universe in which she isn’t a super soldier? She’s a Master Martial Artist, an Expert Marksman, a Master Spy, an Expert Tactician, a Thief and can speak and read English, Russian and German fluently as well as use a convincing American accent.

This is hardly noticeable though in her own story.

Howard: Should we not have a plan? Peggy: Who needs a plan? I have a shield. Howard: A shield is not a plan. Oh, Carter...

She was a tactician!

Now… she has a shield. But whatever girl wants to be like her won’t have a shield, nor a super serum. To be a real role model for girls who aren’t anymore children Peggy needed to have qualities they too could have that would empower her. The only good moment is when she understands what Howard plans to do:

Howard: If I can get to the controls, I can transpose the ingress and do science stuff. Peggy: You mean transpose the polarity and reverse the suction? Howard: Being the genius is my thing.

But again, the irony here is that this is no genius plan, middle school students had probably seen him being done in movies and cartoons already. It might seem genius idea to kids, but when you’re older it hardly sounds like one… and when Howard complains all in the machine is written in German they don’t have Peggy show her knowledge of it, and translate the words as she fight, she just fight and he’s supposed to figure things out.

“Captain America” is a role model for what he has inside. I’m sure Peggy Carter has plenty of things inside her as well… but “What if” makes it more about the super strength she has gained.

Where Steve gains Phillips’ respect, Flynn’s respect is more a façade due to her successes thanks to her super strength, and that respect gets pulled back as soon as she gets upset by his behavior. Sure, Flynn is a worse person than Phillips in this black and white world but this too is part of the narrative. If Peggy can’t permanently win over sexism in one person, it’s not real victory at all. If what’s remarkable about her is how she fights (due to the serum) then who didn’t have it, will never have a hope. Peggy Carter was more of a female model when she wasn’t supersoldier, she felt more of a role model in “Captain America”, when she got to do this with her own strength:

Peggy Carter: Put your right foot forward. Gilmore Hodge: Mmm… We gonna wrassle? Cause I got a few moves I know you’ll like. [suddenly Peggy punches him hard in the face. Col.Phillips drives up] Col. Chester Phillips: Agent Carter. Peggy Carter: Colonel Phillips. Col. Chester Phillips: I see you’re breaking in the candidates. That’s good!

…than when she punched Nazis thanks to being a super soldier. Peggy has never been a fragile Fräulein, but this episode seems to remark she’s not one merely because she has taken the serum.

As a result… she sets an impossible role model for girls. If the key to be (partially) respected and accepted by males is to get the super soldier serum and/or the shiled… well, that serum doesn’t exist, not does the shield.

And a similar problem exists in “What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?”

Teaching a small child he can solve problems by talking and not by hitting is important… but passing the message that you can stop bullies or worse just by talking to them is again setting an impossible role model. People like Thanos can’t be stopped with just words. People like Yondu and the Ravagers wouldn’t become Robin Hood and his merry men merely because they have with themselves a young boy who tells them the right things… and what Yondu does to T’Challa is worse than what he did to Quill and having been kidnapped as a child shouldn’t be waved off so easily. We’re not talking of Yondu finding an orphaned T’Challa and raising him, if he had picked up N’Jadaka after he lost his father it would have been different, but here, he just ripped a child from a loving family, a family he loved back. And it’s almost presented as a good thing because this causes the universe to be saved by Thanos, Yondu’s lie giving T’Challa the motivation to try to to make the universe a better place.

Nebula: You lost your home, and now you save everyone else's.

And problems continue with “What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” because there, the solution, the hope, is presented solely by the superheroes. No one opposes to Loki, the whole Earth is expected to be saved by Captain America and Carol Danvers. The one who refuses to kneel to Loki is Fury, who’s considered special. We don’t have in this story a lone old man who’s standing stubbornly despite the threat.

LOKI: Kneel before me. [The crowd ignores him. Three more Loki's appear, surrounding and blocking the crowd from escaping.] I said KNEEL! [While the crowd quietly kneels, Loki embraces out his arms with a wide smile] Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel. ELDER GERMAN MAN: [As the words resonate to the kneeling crowd, an elder German man refuses to kneel and stands, heroic.] Not to men like you. LOKI: There are no men like me. ELDER GERMAN MAN: There are always men like you. LOKI: Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example. [As Loki is about to execute the man with his scepter as the light glows blue. Right as the energy beam shoots out, Captain America arrives, diving in just in time to block the blast with his shield, and knocking down Loki]

So basically in this series heroes set impossible standards… and are the only ones who can save the day. It can be fun for an adult, as he doesn’t need role models… but for a boy who’s no more a small child but not yet old enough to do without viewing heroes are role models, the heroes presents a standard that is something unattainable. And this is bad because he too might enjoy watching the show, but the show gives him no hope… where ironically, Marvel movies were about giving positive role models in which you could identify.

Overall I stay my case, the “What if” series is definitely enjoyable… but the bar for the target audience is set to a very young age, they don’t really follow the idea that one small change can realistically change everything because they actually intrude plenty of small changes for their setting to work, and might end up not giving the right message if you’re in between a age between a small child and an adult. Of course future “What if” episodes might change, and I will probably still love them because I adore what if… but I would love them even more if they had aimed to a target audience a little older… making their heroes, more realistic role models which can be emulated and if they had respected their own premise, that ONE SINGLE CHANGE can create a completely different new reality.

What changed in the Peggy episode wasn’t just Peggy not sitting on the booth. What changed in the T’Challa episode wasn’t just Yondu sending his subordinates to pick up a kid. What changed in the mightiest heroes episode wasn’t just Hope dying.

The fact you need more changes in order to make the difference makes the initial point that one change can make the difference void. You destroy your own premise… and this is not really a great idea.

But whatever, I guess if the idea is that the audience is really young, they didn’t expect the audience to pick this up but just to swallow their idea that ‘a moment created a new universe’.

MEDIA MENTIONED:

Movies: “Iron Man 2” (2010), “The Incredible Hulk" (2008), “Thor” (2011), “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011), “The Avengers” (2012), “Thor: The Dark World” (2013), “Captain America: The Civil War” (2016), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” (2017), “Thor – Ragnark” (2017), “Black Panther” (2018), "Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), “Captain Marvel” (2019)

Comics: “The Avengers Prelude Fury's Big Week” (2012)

[keyofjetwolf]

Carmilla Final Thoughts

Firstly, and generally, I had a really good time liveblogging the show! And before I get too deep, I want to thank @cello-moon​ for sponsoring this for all of us. Your enthusiasm for me doing the show has been infectious from the beginning, and has brought me some of my biggest smiles every month. YOU ARE THE ANGLER FISH MONSTER OF MY HEART

I mentioned this in today’s liveblog itself, but there’ve been a lot of elements I’ve been interested in watching develop throughout this, both as a creator and a consumer. The (professional) webseries format isn’t one I’ve delved into very much. (The only one I can bring to mind that isn’t Carmilla is The Guild.) It’s an interesting storytelling structure, one that I think hasn’t yet seen its full potential, and it’s been cool to see the ways it works, and doesn’t, for Carmilla, at least for me.

Now I’ve gone through the whole series, I admit to some disappointment with many of the major plot choices and direction. Most of that disappointment, though, is fueled by frustration at how we came so so so close to doing something I felt was new and interesting AND OH HOW I WANTED. That’s the stuff that really makes you want to scream, the moments of near-brilliance just out of reach. Adding to that, I’m not sure we COULDN’T have done it! Perhaps not in all instances, but in some!

Which is actually, I think, the beginning and end of my frustrations with the show: when all is said and done, in those moments, I was rooting for it to be something it never had any intention of being.

At some point along the way, I said how Carmilla was like fanfic. I meant then, and I mean now, that in a largely positive sense. It’s very emotion-forward, it likes to have fun, it knows what it’s here to do -- and to NOT do -- and it’s 1000% devoted to doing it. It also, however, comes with the fanfic (general!) tendency to not be especially interested in much outside of its very specific view. CARMILLA/LAURA OTP5EVA DON’T LIKE DON’T READ

Which isn’t ...... okay, it IS a criticism. But also not! There’s room in the world for all kinds of stories, and gods know, this is an area where stories have come few and far between. AND IT WENT HARD. There was no ambiguity about it whatsoever, it totally fucking went there in an assortment of ways so many stories just DON’T, and it’s long overdue.

Man though, in a perfect Jet Wolf-shaped world? It would’ve been all that AND MORE.

I wanted so so so much for the show to say a little more, to do a little more. I wanted Laura to have a real significant dose of growing up and have that stick in a way that was meaningful (or at least meaningful in my own definition of the word). She got her impossible fairytale ending where everything Just Worked Out, and so consequently didn’t really have to learn anything, which is I think the biggest itch I can’t scratch. Also though: Danny’s anger at sacrificing herself but not being martyred the way she wanted was fucking BRILIANT, and could’ve led to so many interesting ideas about the nature of sacrifice, the purity of it, the sanctification of the dead, SO MANY AVENUES. Perry’s legit-ass PTSD meaningfully explored (WITH BONUS DEAN-POSSESSION JESUS WEPT), LaF walking that continual moral grey line and having to come to terms with (or absolutely refusing to pay) its cost, HETEROSEXUALITY ENDING THE WORLD

But with all this -- and I know it sounds weird, but it’s true! -- comes the fact that my frustration is evidence of how invested I became in Carmilla. I really came to love the characters, even as I wanted to shake and scream at them. I think they could’ve carried so much of what I wanted from them, and I’ll regret that we didn’t get the opportunity to see it.

Brass tacks and all that, though, I had an awesome time liveblogging the adventures of these kooky kids, and I hope you had just as much an awesome time with me. Full thanks once again to @cello-moon​​, whose sponsorship brought the show to us all. And if you had a bit of fun watching this show with me and want to toss a thanks my way? Well, here are some suggestions!

Tell me! Your comments and participation help fuel my enthusiasm, particularly in whatever weird ass timeline we now find ourselves.

Sponsor me at my Patreon! It’s that sponsorship that keeps my puppy fed and allows my job to be entertaining you. Not only does becoming my patron let the content flow here, but you can get some pretty fucking sweet bonus exclusive shit, too!

Tip me at Ko-Fi! If you really enjoyed my liveblog of Carmilla, this is a great way to let me know. All tips this month (and several months to come) will go toward something I can’t share yet, but desperately want to make happen, and will share if I’m able to accomplish it!

Send me love/hate mail! I’ve got a shiny PO Box, after all, might as well use it. (Doc and I share it, by the way, so you can send her stuff there too!) If you’ve got a thing you’d like to send my way, I’d super fucking love to receive it!      Jet Wolf (and/or Doc Holligay)      PO Box 1621      Billings, MT  59103

I leave you, friends, with this final very important Carmilla thought:

WHERE WAS THE TIARA YOU COULD’VE HAD DEAN ALMOST ANYA WEARING IT AS SHE TRIED TO END THE WORLD IT WOULD HAVE BROUGHT IT ALL FULL CIRCLE WHAT KIND OF MISSED OPPORTUNITY IS THIS JUSTICE 4 TIARA 2K20

[dragonprincefan]

It’s one week until The Dragon Prince will be available for everyone on Netflix.

Haven’t heard of it yet? You’re in for a treat.

The Dragon Prince is a new animated series created by Aaron Ehasz (Avatar: The Last Airbender) and Justin Richmond (Uncharted) as the debut creation of their new story and play studio, Wonderstorm Inc. Adding to that prestigious team, we have Giancarlo Volpe (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Green Lantern: The Animated Series) as the Executive Producer for the animated series, and his experience in telling nuanced stories with complex characters is already shining through in the three episode preview.

Don’t worry. No spoilers here.

Let’s start out with the trailer if you haven’t already seen it.

I’ve seen a few people worried about the animation style, but having seen it in action, I can safely say there’s not much to worry about. An article over at Polygon did a good commentary on it, but it bears repeating. While there are a couple of moments where small details can seem a bit stuttering, they really are small moments (flags flapping in the wind in a wide shot, or a nod here and there) and easily overlooked or a matter of stylistic choice. The action, and there is so much action, flows smoothly and keeps you on the edge of your seat watching the interplay. (I could do an entire post on the creative weapon designs and will later.) The changing frame rate used in some scenes over others is put to good use, punching up some moments for extra effect.

The first three episodes introduce us to a world on the brink of war. There were originally six types of magic (Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, Sky, and Ocean), but 1,000 years ago, a Human mage discovered Dark Magic. The horror of the newly invented magic caused the Elves and Dragons of Xadia to banish the Humans to the West, setting up a border guarded by the Dragon King, Thunder. In more recent history, the humans killed Thunder and destroyed the egg containing his sole heir, The Dragon Prince. This is what has brought Xadia and the Human kingdoms to the edge of war.

That’s the simple explanation. The one that makes the Humans out to be the unquestionable and unrepentant villains of our tale. However, life, and this story, are not such simple matters of black and white, and we quickly start to see that in the show as it presents the things that have happened thus far as shades of grey and a result of complex choices with wrongs committed on both sides. A lot of time is spent reinforcing that choices are rarely simple nor purely acts of good or evil and how violence can quickly become an unending cycle. It addresses honor and loyalty and how quickly it can become a mess when you start seeing the other side of a conflict as full people. The story is setting up complex and nuanced morality and views of history that I’m really excited to see where it goes.

It looks like family of various types is going to be a major over-arching theme of the story with step-siblings Callum and Ezran, the contrast of a more antagonistic but playful relationship between siblings Soren and Claudia, Callum’s complicated relationship with his stepfather, King Harrow, and Soren and Claudia’s relationship with their father. This is also set against Rayla’s relationship with Runaan and the other Moonshadow Elves and what is sure to be her burgeoning friendship with the two Human princes. I expect found family and other relationships not forged by birth to become increasingly important as the story continues.

Additionally, we have a beautifully diverse cast. King Harrow (Luc Roderique) is clearly a black man while his step son Callum (Jack DeSena) appears to be white and crown prince Ezran (Sasha Rojen) appears to be mixed. Despite initial screenshots of Rayla (Paula Burrows) and Runaan (Johnathan Holmes), not all of the Elves are pale skinned and white-haired. The crownguard is specifically stated to be comprised of men and woman, and we see a variety of skin tones and hair types of multiple genders. We even see a primary character with a visible limp who requires a cane much of the time. There was a lot of set up and introductions to get through in the first three episodes, and as we see our three leads (Callum, Ezran, and Rayla) traverse the world of Xadia, I expect to see even more visible diversity come in since it was stated as a specific goal of the crew during the San Diego Comic Con 2018 panel.

The writing itself walks a nice balance between those heavy themes of moral greys and smatterings of humor. The characters are quirky and believable. It would have been so easy to set up Claudia (Racquel Belmonte), Soren (Jesse Inocalla), and Viren (Jason Simpson) as purely antagonistic characters, but instead they aren’t. Viren’s motivations and loyalties are complex and you are left uncertain of what to make of him. Soren varies between clever and foolish, and while he teases, doesn’t seem to be genuinely ill-intentioned, helping as often as he jokes. Claudia too walks a fine line between airhead and genius with a fierce sense of caring and loyalty. Ezran and Callum are both young, and far more aware of the complexities of their world and position than they’re generally given credit for while still being kids who want to have fun and want the world to be simple. They’re all complex characters and seeing how they will grow and mature over the course of the story is exciting.

In just the first three episodes, The Dragon Prince has introduced multiple plot threads that promise a lot of potential and all threads that I’m fascinated to see not only how they end up, but how hey get to that ending. 

If there’s one criticism to be had from the first three episodes, it is just how much happened. There’s a lot going on, a lot of nuanced motivations and relationships introduced, and a lot of world-building set-up. It could easily be overwhelming. I think they overall did a good job of parceling it out in small pieces at a time to prevent it feeling like you’re getting huge info dumps, and leaving you fascinated to learn more at the end of each episode.

Side note: Watch the credits for every episode, the illustrations change each time, and I feel like they show even more of a glimpse into the characters and cultures of Xadia.

I really believe this is going to be the new show to watch. A complex world full of nuance, adventure, magic, dragons, and elves that doesn’t let the fantasy elements overwhelm creating strong characters that I think everyone is going to be able to find one or more that they can personally identify with on some level. 

All this is done while showing that the wider events of the world don’t leave children untouched no matter how much you try to protect them. With the themes that loyalty and honor, right and wrong, differ based on your position and perspective on the course of events while asking the questions of whether or not the ends justify the means and how you can end a cycle of violence makes it look like we’re in for some truly poignant story telling.

Remember how I mentioned that Wonderstorm is a “story and play studio”? That means this animated series is just the beginning of our introduction into a deeper world. While the wonderful team at Bardel Entertainment animated the series, the storytelling and direction comes from Wonderstorm which is also actively developing a connected video game. We don’t know yet what platform or play style to expect from the game, but we can probably safely expect it to be fully integrated with the story and world presented in the animated series, and the animation style of the show will translate very well into the 3D models of a game. Those seven different kinds of magic and various creatures and races create a lot of room for exploration in a game, and the history provided at the beginning of the first episode means games could be set at various places or times within Xadia, adding even more depth to the world-building.

I look forward to jumping into the truly immersive franchise the Wonderstorm team appears to be building, and I hope you all will too.

Remember to watch all nine episodes of the The Dragon Prince when they’re released Friday, September 14th. (Go ahead and add it to your Netflix list here.)

Join us on twitter to make #TheDragonPrince trend on September 14th. Starting at 2pm PDT, and going for at least an hour, make and RT posts with #TheDragonPrince in them. (Get your local time: link)