CRISIS ON EARTH-X review

Suck it, Drumpf.

Legends of Tomorrow 2.17 "Aruba"

Season finale. Hrm.

Spoilers.

Legends of Tomorrow 2.15: "Fellowship of the Spear"

So you might remember that I did a rant earlier about how every time-travel show eventually does the HG Wells episode. And Legends of Tomorrow brilliantly played with this by doing a George Lucas episode.

Well now they're back, with a frickin' J.R.R. Tolkien episode.

See, our heroes have finally acquired the One Ring Spear of Destiny, an artifact of untold power that corrupts the minds of anyone nearby, tempting them to use its power, which - supposedly - they can't control. It glows when magic stuff is nearby. Normal fire reveals writing on it, and it can only be destroyed by being flung into a huge fiery pit (okay, that's the next episode). Well, it can also be destroyed with the blood of Christ, and JRR happens to know where we can get some. So it's off to World War One - you know, Mordor - for wacky fun adventures in the middle of Hell on Earth.

Oh - they can't go to the Crucifixion itself because the CW doesn't want to insult unbelievers there are some points in history that even the Legends simply Do. Not. Want. to f*ck with. Possibly getting Tolkien killed in the middle of one of the stupidest wars in history? Eh, it will save everyone nine hours of their lives circa 2001-2003.

So obviously Lord of the Rings references abound. The quotes got a little excessive, but this was better than the George Lucas episode, if only because it didn't end on "clap your hands if you believe (in yourself)."

Apparently we're getting more Eobard Thawne soon.

Yay.

I think I've said this before, but I'm still waiting for Matt Letscher to get a chance to shine with the character the way Tom Cavanagh did in, say, the "you've been dead for centuries" scene in The Flash Season 1. I still get chills just thinking of that scene, actually. Brr.

Arrow 5.10, "Who Are You"

There is no way to discuss this without les spoilers.

Legends of Tomorrow 2.09

...I actually don't want to put the title up there, because it's a giveaway to something I want to build up to.

Every science fiction show, if it lasts long enough, will eventually do an episode where the cast meets some historical figure, usually a writer. If it's a time travel show, that historical figure is more likely than not going to be H.G. Wells. Heck, Legends already met H.G. Wells last year. (Come to think of it, the way they hid Wells's identity until the reveal suddenly looks like foreshadowing.)

And that makes sense, right? I mean, H.G. Wells is pretty much the father of science fiction, so of course he'd get honors in every show ever. But the Arrowverse has gotten pop-culture overdosed in recent years (thanks Cisco) and it's not surprising that they did this eventually.

Some random links

Apparently liberals progressives made a big deal about Trump not having a poet at his inauguration. To which I can only suggest that perhaps Trump himself should have quoted William Shakespeare:

Tickle us, do we not laugh?
Prick us, do we not bleed?
Wrong us, shall we not throw people from helicopters?

Just trying to have a little fun here, folks. But in all seriousness, progressives don't seem to get why this happened, and I'm not holding my breath for them figuring it out by 2020.

Okay. First off... are you sitting down? Okay, good. Get this: there is going to be another Terminator film. "Oh," you're saying, "That's just the studio milking the money tree. I mean, it's not enough to just have a franchise now, there has to be a whole cinematic universe, so you can expect a spinoff starring Lance Henriksen's character from the first film within six years." Yeah, let me stop you there. James Cameron is involved. And it's being called "a reboot and a conclusion." Whatever that means.

Here is TvTropes's page on the new Justice League of America title, noting that the lineup seems to be a massive sop to Arrowverse fans. I can't help but notice this will be the third ongoing title Black Canary's in. (And I stand by my earlier analysis that this is the Dinah Laurel Lance incarnation of the character, which means she was re-integrated into comic continuity the same year her show version was killed off.)

Speaking of the Justice League, here's a Watchmen reference in Justice Leave vs. Suicide Squad #5. Given the whole bloody point of Rebirth, I have to assume this is a deliberate reference... but then, I thought the whole bloody point of Rebirth was that Watchmen is not a how-to rubric for how every comic story since 1986 must be written. So go figure.

Here's another political one: Private Manning should never have made it out of basic.

Nathan "Malcolm Reynolds" Fillion managed to bring some levity to today's events.

Here's a British (I think) guy explaining why Fallout 3 is garbage and, you know, he's not wrong. My problem with the Fallout games - well, to be specific, the Fallout 3 and 4 games - is that... look, Skyrim is basically my baseline for a Bethesda game, because it was the first Bethesda game I played. It had six factions, and you could join five of them (two of them were mutually exclusive), and you had to join zero of them to finish the game. As far as I know, 3 doesn't give you any sidequest-factions to join, and 4 requires you to join one of the three factions and wipe out the other two. It makes the world feel a lot smaller and more forced. Hell, in Skyrim, those two factions that are mutually exclusive? You don't need to join either! You can convince them to set a truce that will last until you, the player character, break it. Incidentally, here's someone who thinks that 3 offered him choices, but 4 did not. (Granted, he obviously had not gotten two-thirds of the way through the plot, but he's right about it just being a shooter.)

Here's a new trailer for Arrow 5.10, which airs Wednesday. Let's just say that Laurel, or whoever she is, does the city a public service. And here's the trailer for Legends 2.09, which airs Tuesday. No trailer for Flash because I'm not caught up yet, but that comes back Tuesday as well.

Another reason why LEGENDS is basically the Sara Lance show now

not that there's anything wrong with that

Two of the three main villains this season are personally responsible for wrecking her life - Malcolm Merlyn destroyed the Queen's Gambit, sentencing her to six years in hell, and then later orchestrated her murder; Damien Darhk murdered her sister - but none of the three have a personal connection to any of the other characters.

Here's another reason Prometheus is Tommy

The show likes to forget it's not Batman With a Bow, yeah?

Hush...

Legends of Tomorrow could just rename itself Sara Lance Murders/Seduces Everyone

And it is excellent.

Season highlights: basically every episode that isn't 2.04, "Abominations," but especially 2.05, "Compromised," 2.07, "Invasion!," and 2.08, "The Chicago Way."

Season lowlight: 2.04, "Abominations," easily.

Prometheus is Tommy Merlyn, right?

I'll tell you the theory first, and then the evidence:

Arrow's Season 5 villain, Prometheus, is a resurrected Tommy Merlyn. After he died in the Season 1 finale, Talia al-Ghul stole his body and dipped him in a Lazarus Pit, with the intention of turning him into a weapon to use against his father, League of Assassins apostate Malcolm Merlyn. But Tommy didn't play entirely according to the script, and went off-mission to hunt down Oliver. (Church telling Prommy Oliver is the Green Arrow (Arrow 5.05) is a red herring; Prommy already knew.)

Arrow Season 5

is a surprising improvement, yay.

All the throwbacks to Season 1 made me worried this was the end, but no, the show got renewed for another year. Also yay.

Am I behind on my blogging? Oh dear I am behind on my blogging. Well. I'll work on that. Where are my keys?

Guys we need to have a talk about Season 2 of THE FLASH

For a quick introduction to what The Flash is, watch this. I agree with probably 80% of everything until he starts talking about Season 2. Season 2 of The Flash is bad.

Really bad.

Spoilers, obvi.