Originally posted at the DL April 2015
Helloooooooo DCAU. The true question here for me is, is this peak DCAU, or will it instead go to JLU Season 1, because it's a nuanced and difficult question. One I'll probably have to come back to after a healthy rewatch of JLU 1, despite having seen that a lot more times than the Justice League seasons. Anywho, episodes in this season, excepting one set, fall into two basic categories: great and SUPER great. As always in DCAU works, we come back to continuity. We start off resolving lingering plot threads from Superman TAS, draw heavily from extant continuity from the last season of this show, feature the last appearance (in production order) of The Joker, and retroactively have the two parter that sets the foundation for ALL of JLU but we'll get to that in due time.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
Cartoon Corner- My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Season 3)
Originally posted at the DL April 2015
So short season is short. I get the sense in this one they were essentially trying to change the format of the show from one-shots that acknowledge continuity to ongoing continuity-driven storytelling, so the shortness of the season was them finding a balance they liked. Or they had to steal the budget of this season for the first Equestria Girls. One of the two.
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Cartoon Corner- The Legend of Korra (Book 4: Balance)
Originally posted at the DL April 2015
Best season of Korra.
Best season of Korra.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Cartoon Corner- Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Season 2)
Originally Posted at the DL April 2015
The season has a major downside which I want to address first. While the really overt "oh this team member is off in another country today" nods in season 1 were kinda distracting, they also tended to be, y'know, just for a couple episodes. Season 2 has, variously, Cap, Hank Pym, Thor, and Hulk disappear for 10-13 episode stretches. ie half the damn season. Now while they do provide story justifications for all these, in a show whose primary appeal was team dynamic spending essentially the entire season with the team missing at least one major member is pretty lousy. Cap being gone by itself is fine, it's setting up a long-term plot they pull a lot of drama from, and watching Skrull!Cap's attempts to emulate the original kept the overall team dynamic from breaking down too much. The others are less workable. I know Hank's thing is being an empty husk of a human being but you could have... y'know, not put that in this continuity. Something more productive than "spend 20 consecutive episodes sulking" over the whole Ultron thing could have been thought of. Thor and EMH Hulk are my favorite characters in the lineup so just having less of them in general is sad times.
The season has a major downside which I want to address first. While the really overt "oh this team member is off in another country today" nods in season 1 were kinda distracting, they also tended to be, y'know, just for a couple episodes. Season 2 has, variously, Cap, Hank Pym, Thor, and Hulk disappear for 10-13 episode stretches. ie half the damn season. Now while they do provide story justifications for all these, in a show whose primary appeal was team dynamic spending essentially the entire season with the team missing at least one major member is pretty lousy. Cap being gone by itself is fine, it's setting up a long-term plot they pull a lot of drama from, and watching Skrull!Cap's attempts to emulate the original kept the overall team dynamic from breaking down too much. The others are less workable. I know Hank's thing is being an empty husk of a human being but you could have... y'know, not put that in this continuity. Something more productive than "spend 20 consecutive episodes sulking" over the whole Ultron thing could have been thought of. Thor and EMH Hulk are my favorite characters in the lineup so just having less of them in general is sad times.
Friday, January 27, 2017
Justice League (Season 1)
Originally Posted at the DL March 2015
Hello again DCAU. So Justice League plays differently from any other DCAU entry, due to all episodes (well, except the Christmas one, but that's next season) being a multi-parter. Kinda a feel of always trying to be epic. Although with the premise of the show, a certain amount of that is needed. Logically speaking, every enemy has to be so threatening that Superman cannot beat them alone, which automatically sets the bar high. By and large they get that part right even if other stuff sometimes goes wrong.
Hello again DCAU. So Justice League plays differently from any other DCAU entry, due to all episodes (well, except the Christmas one, but that's next season) being a multi-parter. Kinda a feel of always trying to be epic. Although with the premise of the show, a certain amount of that is needed. Logically speaking, every enemy has to be so threatening that Superman cannot beat them alone, which automatically sets the bar high. By and large they get that part right even if other stuff sometimes goes wrong.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Nothing can possibly go wrong (Part 1- Abortion)
So I try to make a conscious effort into tricking Facebook and other feeds into seeing the bulk of my list. I mean, I intentionally keep the circle small y'know? And half of the people on it are dead or near-dead accounts best as I can tell.
So I've found that my feed mostly doesn't have what you'd call Movement Conservatives- that is, the sorts of folks who toe the Republican Party line on economics, foreign policy, the shebang. Instead, you can boil down Republican support to four main issues.
So I've found that my feed mostly doesn't have what you'd call Movement Conservatives- that is, the sorts of folks who toe the Republican Party line on economics, foreign policy, the shebang. Instead, you can boil down Republican support to four main issues.
Cartoon Corner- Batman the Animated Series (Season 3/The Adventures of Batman and Robin)
Originally posted at the DL March 2015
So everyone knows Batman:TAS. Season 3 is a bit tame overall, although in part I think it's because the later DCAU got considerably more sophisticated than Batman really had a chance to. That said at least in this season you can really see why they decided to go with the revised animation style in later shows and the last season of this one. There's a lot of off model moments, especially with more kinetic characters, that don't happen much in later stuff like Batman Beyond.
So everyone knows Batman:TAS. Season 3 is a bit tame overall, although in part I think it's because the later DCAU got considerably more sophisticated than Batman really had a chance to. That said at least in this season you can really see why they decided to go with the revised animation style in later shows and the last season of this one. There's a lot of off model moments, especially with more kinetic characters, that don't happen much in later stuff like Batman Beyond.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Cartoon Corner- Avengers: Earth's Mightest Heroes (Season 1)
Originally Posted at the DL March 2015
Probably the biggest takeaway from EMH is that it's uneven as fuck. There is quite a lot of good stuff going on in this show, with a rock solid cast dynamic and in particular an especially nice take on the Hulk, as well as being the only adaptation I'm aware of that features Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne so prominently. At the same time there's a lot of relative duds in the episode lineup too. The five introductory episodes are... just not terribly interesting, much focused on name-dropping elements for future use without being terribly interesting in how they do it. The Cap episode, having an actual plot rather than being all "Named villain! Important quest object! SHIELD!", is alright but nothing too great. After that point they kinda alternate between small arcs for a major villain to fight, and single episodes that are adding up to the season ending conflict. Those are fairly split on quality; Kang and Ultron are pretty good episodes, while the Leader's Gamma World bits can go jump in a hole. The Masters of Evil episodes range from 'please don't tell me we are playing this storyline so straight' (Everything's Wonderful) to 'wheeeeee' (Masters of Evil), although the final payoff is about right.
Probably the biggest takeaway from EMH is that it's uneven as fuck. There is quite a lot of good stuff going on in this show, with a rock solid cast dynamic and in particular an especially nice take on the Hulk, as well as being the only adaptation I'm aware of that features Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne so prominently. At the same time there's a lot of relative duds in the episode lineup too. The five introductory episodes are... just not terribly interesting, much focused on name-dropping elements for future use without being terribly interesting in how they do it. The Cap episode, having an actual plot rather than being all "Named villain! Important quest object! SHIELD!", is alright but nothing too great. After that point they kinda alternate between small arcs for a major villain to fight, and single episodes that are adding up to the season ending conflict. Those are fairly split on quality; Kang and Ultron are pretty good episodes, while the Leader's Gamma World bits can go jump in a hole. The Masters of Evil episodes range from 'please don't tell me we are playing this storyline so straight' (Everything's Wonderful) to 'wheeeeee' (Masters of Evil), although the final payoff is about right.
So there's this song in Avenue Q...
There's a story that's been on my mind since... well, roughly November 10th, let's be real. Nothing I find interesting happens much in my daily life, and I hate posting links or memes unless I can add further context to them, so if I post at all it will tend to be related to political philosophy.
But, story time.
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