I'm genuinely shocked by how much of a Kerfuffle there is on the internet in reaction to the recent reveal in the most recent Captain America comic book, that Cap is (and apparently always has been) a Hydra sleeper agent. I think it comes down to the fact there are a lot more people getting into comics now thanks to the MCU, and these new readers don't understand the history of storytelling in the medium, and just how weird those stories get.
They don't know how the Marvel universe is brimming with characters who can accidentally reshape reality and history because they woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Or that someone with no powers can do the same because they sneezed on the wrong magical macguffin.
But this is being treated like its permanent. I think its because people have been trained by TV shows like Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, to expect sudden unexpected turns of events, death's of, or betrayals from characters they used to love. They expect to have their emotions toyed with by the storytellers.
But People don't understand that many of these shocking twists are ALMOST NEVER PERMANENT in comis, and are a result of new writers looking to do something new with characters who are (In Cap's case) 70 + Years old!!!!
So yeah, today Cap is a Hydra sleeper agent, probably because (according to a good fan theory) someone made a wish to a sentient magic artifact and rewrote history to make that reality. Tomorrow, Cap will probably be Cap again. And yesterday? Pfft yesterday Cap was a Werewolf. No really look it up. Cap turned into a Werewolf one time. Comics....am I right?
Having a rich sense of history is one of the fastest ways that any story can get me invested in its world. However many Anime, movies, TV, etc often do it in the clumsiest ways possible. The worst of which is when a large chunk of the story’s intro is an exposition dump giving out backstory that ends up killing the tension in the early part of the story while we wait for the characters who weren’t part of the back story to learn what we already know.
Meanwhile, Iron Blooded Orphans takes the opposite approach. It starts us off by showing and cementing the most important relationship in the show, between Orga and Mikazuki. Young Mikazuki has just shot a man while a young Orga leans against a wall from behind with blood on his face. Some kind of paper currency is scattered all around the body of the dead man and just like that we know the most important thing about this story, that, it takes place in a world where there are children that have to kill in order to survive. Soon after that were shown that this is taking place on Mars, instantly informing us that this is far into the future, even though a specific date is never given.
(The First Episode of Iron Blooded Orphans on the official Gundam Youtube Page)
By far though, IBO does most of its world building through near constant reference to “The Calamity War” a conflict that occurred 300 years ago. Now just by hearing the name “Calamity War” we can be pretty certain that it was a very bad time for all of humanity. So bad in fact that during the flashback to Kudelia’s speech in episode 2, we learn how the war was ended by a truce that had several groups divide up governing rights for Earth and its colonies throughout the solar system. It's heavily implied that humanity was so desperate for peace that the hasty formation of new governments sowed the seeds for a poverty stricken Mars and a near serfdom like existence for the working class on Earth’s colonies.
We learn early on that Gjallarhorn is responsible for a good deal of the turmoil on Mars. In the very first episode we're shown that they are a corrupt, brutal organization, filled with people who will do anything to hold onto the power they have. As viewers were made to hate Gjallarhorn in the very first episode when its soldiers are shown to have zero hesitation when sniping the those poor kids on patrol around the bass. Then these assholes are being led by an even bigger asshole, who strait up disrespects his sensei. Not cool man not cool. If it wasn’t for Sensei Crank, Gjallarhorn would look even more like the Galactic Empire.
But just when we really start to hate Gjallarhorn, we’re told how they are the ones who banded together and put an end to the Calamity War 300 years ago. Their founders WERE the heroes, and probably could have been the main characters in their own Gundam series.
To top it all off, we get Barbatos. Pretty much every other Mobile Suit in the series is very practical, drab, and militaristic in its design, even the ones piloted by the flamboyant Turbines are all one color and still look designed for function first. But Barbatos is shining white, with blue, red and gold accents and an intricate headpiece. While every other mobile suit looks like it just walked off an factory assembly line, Barbotos looks like it just jumped out of a piece of ancient Japanese art. It looks mythical, almost magical, like it made to be a suit of armor for a god, not to be puppeteered by us tiny humans. And when were told that Barbatos is one of the 72 Gundam Mobile Suits that Gjallarhorn built, and which allowed them to end the war, were left to imagine just how epic and disastrous the Calamity War must have been if it took dozens of Mobile Suits as heroic and mythical looking as Barbatos in order to finally bring the war to an end.
(The mythical looking Barbatos (Left) compared to the drab, militaristic design of Gjallarhorn's Mobile Suits (Right) )
Were left with the feeling that this is a world of remnants, of faded glory. A world that humanity has had to rebuild with scraps, and which has left most people living in the dirt, where the saviors of the past, are the oppressors of today, a world whose only hope for heroes, is a bunch of kids who are forced to kill for every meal.
Daredevil Season 1 was eagerly anticipated by all fans of the Marvel MCU and it was pretty damn good. It had some cool action, a great villain and some likable protagonists. But without Kingpin, the show had to fill the void with something other than more tonal references to Batman Begins, while it waits for the inevitable Defenders team up series. Their answer is The Punisher, and he manages to fill that void....partially. Jon Bernthal is surprisingly good as Punisher. He impressed me in Fury (A Move You Need To See) and now he's really proved himself to be a genuinely great actor here. Now whether or not there is range in that greatness is still unknown, because if they really do give Punisher his own series, he's gonna need to show a lot more than what we see of him here. That, or he might end up being the Hulk of Hell's Kitchen, great in a supporting role, but not always the main focus (For the record Incredible Hulk is one of my favorite MCU films hands down like...top 5 maybe 3).
BUT, something that really subtly irked me in Daredevil season 1, and has now really come to fruition in season 2, is that neither really feels like they are part of the MCU. Sometimes it almost feels like its embarrassed that it is, and wants to pretend its in its own (Totally Not Batman) universe. And the problem isn't the violence. The mind blowingly good Jessica Jones has many scenes of horrible violence and still feels like its taking place in the MCU, but down on the streets of New York from the perspective of everyday people.
Meanwhile even though he lives in a city that got attacked by Aliens a year ago, and lives in a world where a Nazi Cult almost took over the USA, and a city in Europe got lifted up into the sky, Matt Murdok continuously rolls his eyes in disbelief, when he's told that two Ninja Clans that have been fighting for centuries are about to duke it out in his city for a super natural power. "That's just a fairy tale" He says
Really????
Its all contributes to this weird sense I get that the show doesn't want to acknowledge the fantastical world that its characters live in, and instead is more interested in trying to replicate the successes of other popular TV shows from the past few years. Game of Thrones, other violent crime dramas, and even a little bit of Arrow.
One thing is for sure, its gonna feel REALLY weird if the Netflix MCU shows that come after the release of the new solo Spiderman movie, don't acknowledge or have camoes with Spidey or some of his villains.
Think about it. How cool would it be if Daredevil had to fight Mysterio In their first encounter DD wipes the floor with him because he can "see" through all of Mysterio's illusions with his super senses. But then in the next fight, Mysterio uses illusions based on Sound and Smell instead of Sight, and Matt really has a hard time determining what is real and what is fake.
Ok enough of that. Good Night All! May your dreams be filled with Ninjas.
Well, it's been long, drawn out, and painful, but the slow motion creative train wreck, that has been Lionhead Studios since the release of Fable 3, appears poised to finally grind to a quiet pitiful halt. Microsoft has officially announced that it has canceled Fable: Legends, the 4 vs 1 multiplayer spin off of the titular franchise, that has consistently succeeded in making fans of the 12 year old series say “Huh?” “Ehh?” “The Fu-?” and asking the question “Why aren’t you making Fable 4?” every time it's shown off at an event.
To me, this is good news. Think about it, an Asymmetrical multiplayer game where the player chooses from a cast of pre-made characters with set personalities and abilities, based on a series that became popular for letting the player make their own character. Who is that game even supposed to be for? Microsoft seems to have finally come to a similar conclusion and canceled the troubled project.
However this news also came with the announcement that Microsoft is considering closing down developer Lionhead Studios as well (But Lionhead is basically closed already). Which personally has me worried about the future of the Fable series. But while closing Lionhead doesn’t automatically mean the end of the series, (since they could have another studio develop future sequels) neither MS, nor Lionhead have shown in the last half decade, that they understand what made the first two Fable games special, and haven’t yet developed a game that builds on those strengths. If this is the case, perhaps they no longer see any value in Fable as a brand.
But the record breaking success of Witcher 3, and Fallout 4 in 2015 proved that there is still a massive audience for single player only, open world RPGs, and if Microsoft and Lionhead follow these 5 easy steps, Fable is likely to succeed as well.
Step 1: Make Fable 4 a Reboot
Part of what makes the first Fable my favorite game in the series, was its bright, beautiful world based on European fairy tales, overflowing with magic and monsters. The world felt positively saturated with magic, which made it a joy to be in, and explore.
Fable 2 decided to throw most of that out the window, putting us into a darker, more dreary world that had destroyed a Hero's Guild that had grown corrupt. I will admit, I can’t fault them for trying something different, and they had a good idea, but as a result the world was just a little bit less fun to explore, and had a bit less potential to surprise. Fable 3 made this even worse by stripping even more of the magic out, as Albion entered an age of industrialization and almost every enemy was a humanoid with a sword, with almost no monsters in sight.
Fable 4 needs to wipe the slate clean, get rid of the now muddled continuity, and start fresh with a world bursting at the seams with magic, monsters, heroes and villains.
Step 2: Keep Legends’ Art Style
The one unquestionably good thing about Legends, were its graphics. A bright and colorful world with well designed characters. It’s the art style of the original games reaching its full potential thanks to the power of modern consoles. Seriously just look at this trailer, its gorgeous!
Step 3: Steal the combat from Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
One thing that Fables 1-3 struggled with was combat. They gave you the choice between 3 Archetypal fantasy combat styles that were basically Knight, Rogue and Mage, with Magic usually proving to be overpowered. It all worked, but it was always a bit clunky and not the most fun to play. Then in Fable 3 they tried to “Streamline” the combat mechanics in one of the few instances where player’s accusations of developers “Dumbing It Down” were warranted. Trying to give players choice in their combat style while simultaneously making the combat easier to execute resulted in Fable 3’s combat being boring to play.
Then in February 2012 a little game called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning came out. It was an open world RPG with 3rd person combat that felt like Devil May Cry or God of War. It also gives you the same three combat archetypes that Fable does.But, the controls were easy to learn and there was still depth with the way you could combine powers from different talent trees to make a unique fighting style. But most importantly the combat made you feel powerful, it made you feel like a hero. Sadly Reckoning’s publisher went under, and no one has iterated on its genius combat system. Fable has the chance to do that with Fable 4
Step 4:
Have an open world more along the lines of Witcher 3 or Skyrim instead of the narrow corridor zones of 1-3.
Fable 1 and 2 were fun to explore, but ultimately the world’s were pretty small and ironically didn’t offer much choice in how they could be explored. Which was fine, Lionhead still made two fun games with the resources available to them. But by Fable 3, the small game world became boring with all of the magic stripped out of it. More recent Fantasy RPGs like Witcher 3 and Skyrim have demonstrated how to create an RPG open world that the player can explore however they choose. It doesn’t need to be exactly like those games, but putting less emphasis on a primary plot, and giving players a larger world where they can be whatever kind of hero should be a major part of Fable 4.
Step 5:
Don't make all the moral choices so clearly Black and White.
This has been a problem with other series like Mass Effect or Infamous, where your only real choice is be Fully Good or Fully Evil, with no incentive to take some kind of middle ground, or alternate path. It became especially problematic in the Fable games where the only real choice the players had was to act like a Heavenly Saint who helps everyone in need, or the spawn of the Devil who leaves trails of dead puppies and spilled ice cream cones in their wake. Fable 4 needs to let the player take a road somewhere in between light and darkness.
However!This does not mean they should try to be like the Witcher series, where many times there is no right or wrong choice to make. Albion needs to be a world full of righteous heroes and malevolent villains, but it also needs to have characters that fill out the spectrum in between, and give the player the choice to be one of them.
So there you go Microsoft, there is a fool proof way to bring Fable back out from Franchise Purgatory. Now go out there and do it! Yeeeeeaaaaah! Wooo........*Sigh* R.I.P. Lionhead, you never got the chance you really deserved.
Should you buy the House of Wolves Expansion for Destiny? Well are you one of the two following types of people?
Person A: Someone who plays Destiny regularly with friends and / or with a group of regular players.
Person B: One of those weird people who is strangely obsessed with collecting every Exotic in the game
If you are one or both of those people then go buy House of Wolves, you'll probably love it. Everyone else? Just don't, really just don't. Here's why.
I sit here typing this mere moments after deleting Destiny from my PS4 Hard Drive for the second time. The first time was for a funny video I made for Youtube to express my frustrations with the game's shortcomings its only 3 minutes so watch, cause, it funny.
After that it was actually a few weeks before I started playing again. I had stopped because my one friend who I had actually played the game with had stopped playing because he'd gotten bored of the game and wasn't interested in the Expansions. I kept playing when Dark Below came out because I was listening to the IGN FireTeam Chat Podcast, their enthusiasm got me to keep playing. But I still never got into a regular group of Raiders because well, I kinda didn't care. If I wasn't playing with my friends then I really didn't care. The Loot didn't mean anything to me. In general I'm still flabbergasted by this modern shooter landscape where players have to be rewarded for every stinking bullet they fire. My fondest memories are still of Halo 2 and 3 multiplayer, where my friends and I spend hundreds of hour playing purely for the fun. We didn't need any level ups or weapon and perk unlocks. The satisfaction of victory from a well executed plan and our own skills (Not thanks a crutch like a killstreak or a super), or the drive to improve that comes from a defeat. But now apparently its all about playing the same thing over and over again in order to obtain a new piece of gear, which you then use to.....unlock more pieces of gear. You could argue that people are just playing for the fun like Halo MP and that the loot is a cool bonus to spice things up. If that is the case, then why does the entire Destiny community always swarm like ants to dropped candy whenever some exploit that removes the challenge but speeds up the loot acquisition process? Well that's for you to answer, because I just don't understand it. I won't lie, I just deleted Destiny again because I think I really was addicted in my own way. I'm not sure why, maybe because the controls are really good, and Crucible is sometimes fun when you're dominating the enemy. I was pursuing loot, trying to get a higher level, but then I stopped and asked myself...why? I knew I was never going to reach the level cap because I don't have friends to play with regularly so why was I still trying to level up? Burnie Burns has said on the Rooster Teeth podcast a few times that he didn't understand why people kept saying that Destiny was bad game, but that they were all still playing it. I guess its the same question one could ask of a gambling addict that keeps pulling the lever at the slot machine. I believe now that at the end of the day I really do think Destiny is a bad game with great controls and a good gambling hook, like a slot machine. I was hoping that Destiny would be Skyrim but with combat that was fun, its not, and that's ok, I'm just going to stop wasting my time with it.
James and Ben return along with newcomer Randy to discuss the climatic-ish finale of the Naruto manga, our thoughts on Naruto as a whole, and what it means to the Anime/Manga industry. There will be full spoilers of course. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!
Link to podcast which is also on iTunes if you search OmegaBobCast
Also the awesome Intro Outro song is an awesome cover of one of the Naruto anime openings. Can't remember which one, only that the cover is SICK!!! Check it out here.
This past week I had to mourn the passing of Monty Oum, a man who I didn't know personally, but who was hero in so many ways. I've been following his works since High School, and his most recent work on the web series RWBY, which has been a constant source of inspiration in the past 2 years. 2014 wasn't a good year for me, nothing I can really complain about since I have more blessings than I count, but I didn't really do anything, and just let my life drift along. Now more than ever I've been galvanized to put all that I can into my writing and my other creative pursuits, hoping to one day do as Monty Oum strove to to do. To inspire others, so that one day they can create something way cooler than you ever could.
Below is a list of some of my favorites of his work.
