An important video

0 Comments

If you want more context, try here and here. There are clearly decent people in the country, like Marcus Rashford… but the government on the other hand-

Niantic reveals first images of Galarian Ponyta in Pokémon GO — Pokémon Blog

, 0 Comments

Niantic is continuing to host a wide variety of events and announce new features for the millions of Pokémon GO players around the world. The developer of the immensely-popular mobile game has confirmed that Galarian Ponyta and Galarian Rapidash will soon make their Pokémon GO debuts. Galarian Ponyta is indeed the “beautiful, colorful Pokémon” that […]

Niantic reveals first images of Galarian Ponyta in Pokémon GO — Pokémon Blog

[excited intake of breath]

October 16, 1793 Let them eat Cake — Today in History

, 0 Comments

At first the people liked their new Queen-to-be, but the Royal Court was another story. A shark tank of grasping ambition, this crowd had promoted several Saxon Princesses for the match and called the Dauphine “The Austrian Woman”. She would come to be called far worse.

October 16, 1793 Let them eat Cake — Today in History

Here is a fascinating post about Marie Antoinette, a historical figure I always felt intensely sorry for.

Harry Osborn’s Comic Appearances: Amazing Spider-Man #34 – #38

, , , , , , 0 Comments

Welcome back, true believers! Okay so the other day this happened in the spideycomicsverse and it reminded me to kick this little project back into gear.

So! Last post we met Harry for the very first time and he was, to be honest, incredibly meh. But only SO FAR! Because the man who would end up being the Big Bad of the Spiderverse is coming and Harry just so happens to be his son and heir.

But before any of that takes place, here’s ASM #34, in which Harry continues to be Flash Thompson’s rather uninteresting henchman.

In case you’re wondering who Mao Tse-Tung is, that would be Chairman Mao. In the year this comic was written, 1966, he started the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. So… uh… yeah.

Harry thinks Peter is a snob, which is kinda weird seeing as Harry is the son of a wealthy businessman and Peter is a broke orphan. You’d think it’d be the other way around. (I suppose he means intellectual snobbery.) Geez you’d never expect them to end up with one of the most enduring friendships in all Spider-Man media would you?

On to ASM #37 and this is the VERY FIRST TIME (I think) Norman Osborn is ever named. Humble beginnings and all that.

But first we meet Gwen’s Giant Hand.

Original Pre-Death Gwen is almost completely forgotten but she was hella cool. In amongst all the giggle-worthy Sixties slang you get the idea that geez it must really have sucked being a female science student in that era so no wonder she’s angry all the time.

Hereeeeee’s Norman!

And he’s a PRICK!

Even taking the very different approved fatherhood qualities of the ’60s into account Norman’s just a kinda a dick to his son here. Of course, we’ve barely scratched the surface of that yet, we have many issues and many increasingly disturbing modern-day retcons to go.

Now, in ASM #38 we’ve got Norman being more affable to his kid, and then dressing as the guy from Breaking Bad before Breaking Bad existed.

But this is primarily about Harry so what’s going on over at the college? Well, there’s a protest it seems.

This little scene remains a complete and utter mystery to me. What are they protesting about!? Based on the dialogue given to the student protestors Stan Lee does not seem to like them? For some reason? But there were SURE AS HELL things to protest about in the ’60s so this bit just comes off as really uncomfortable and Old Man Yells At Cloud.

(This is Lawrence Welk, by the way, and I don’t know what that insult is supposed to mean either.)

Man you sure can be clueless about a lot of history via comics! (No I’m not American.)

Anyway Harry in this issue is just a regular old weaselly coward, nothing’s changed there-

-but things are ABOUT TO! Stuff happens next issue which shaped ALL of Spider-Man comics to come!

a bad Harry Osborn update

, 1 Comment

I don’t read comics anymore because they are Very Expensive. However I do tend to google how my faves are doing every now and again and it turns out that a few days ago Harry went back to being a supervillain again.

(just not the Green Goblin this time. Also Norman is good or neutral now for some reason.)

So I’ve talked before about why Harry is important to me in terms of presenting characters with mental illnesses. And that still very much stands. Making him an evil supervillain again after he’s already overcome the dark side of his nature ruins everything. This reddit comment I thought summed up nicely why this is a terrible twist even if this Harry isn’t “our” Harry right now…

(comics eh)

Okay I’ll admit that chances are this will all be resolved pretty quickly, heck Norman saying “my son” could also refer to Gabriel Stacy (remember him?) which would make more sense. But right now I’m disappointed. :/

Why Palpatine’s return made perfect sense (+ redeeming the Jedi Order)

, , 6 Comments

Hey it’s time for the the Star Wars Blogathon!

And I decided to write about a Star Wars twist I very much liked.

So…Palpatine’s return in The Rise of Skywalker was… a point of contention among most Star Wars fans, I know. And some of the criticisms I agree with! It wasn’t executed well at all. (If you have to both read the novelisation and play Fortnite to get the whole story, something’s gone wrong.) But…

Palpatine actually being there in the first place? In terms of the overall Star Wars story, it makes sense!

Palps has always been the Big Bad of Star Wars. He’s not really a person in a way, more just the embodiment of evil in the world. (Sometimes I think of him as the Star Wars equivalent of the One Ring.) But the prequel trilogy makes pretty clear that the Jedi allowed that embodiment of evil to rise, via neglect, ignorance, arrogance or all three. Like – the individual Jedi are great people, but their system is so very broken. They don’t free slaves, they don’t intervene where they should, they don’t understand Anakin’s connection to his mother… they’re part of the reason for Anakin’s fall. Not on purpose obviously, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

This gifset sums it up really well I thought:

https://counterpunches.tumblr.com/post/160895833382/anakinskydala-insp-i-meanthe-gun-is

And in the movies – I’m not counting all the secondary material here – it’s something the Jedi never really get to make up for. Anakin’s throwing Palpatine in the pit is a redemption for him but it doesn’t quite redeem the Jedi for their part in things. They just get to die.

Until The Rise of Skywalker! The Jedi are able to finally redeem themselves by assisting Rey. It’s a wonderful scene because it does the thing Star Wars has always been about, making up for the mistakes of the past.

Windu: Feel the Force flowing through you, Rey.

Anakin: Let it lift you.

Adi Gallia: Rise, Rey.

Qui-Gon: We stand behind you, Rey.

Obi-Wan: Rey.

Yoda: Rise in the Force.

Kanan: In the heart of the Jedi, lies her strength.

Obi-Wan: Rise.

Qui-Gon: Rise.

Luke: Rey, the Force will be with you. Always.

I dearly wish we had seen the Jedi in uh… the flesh? In physical form. But hearing their voices was powerful as well. When Rey says “And I am all the Jedi!” to Palpatine it feels deserved, to me at least, because now these other people have finally got the same thing Anakin got – a chance to make up for their mistakes.

And that’s why I liked Palpatine’s return. :)

1 2 3 4 5 >»