I was lukewarm on the first Guardians of the Galaxy (too many jokes), but then really liked the Gamora, Nebula and Rocket featuring scenes in Avengers: Infinity War, so I went back and watched the second Guardians movie, which I liked better, and now I've seen the third one, which, awwww. At some point I must have really fallen for these characters without ever noticing. Also I had a few fears after the trailer and knowing this was supposed to be the third and last GotG movie, and was much relieved that these fears were unfounded.

( Spoilers are all about the friends saving )

Having enjoyed the MS Marvel tv series enormously, I was delighted by this trailer:




Bring on the Kamala-Monica-Carol movie, I say. This one I'll try to catch in the cinema again.

Saw it, and really liked it. Actually, forgive the heresy, I liked it better than the first movie, or rather, it spoke to me more. The Black Panther had been an excellent film, but I thought the one problem with it was that the main character, T'Challa, had had his emotional development in another movie (Civil War, which he'd been great), and thus had remained static in his own film, as opposed to everyone around him. (I also thought it was odd no one either among the characters or in the narrative questioned the monarchic principle as such, but okay.) Whereas here, in Wakanda Forever, all the main characters - Shuri, Ramonda, Okoye - as well as the supporting characters - Nakia, Riri Williams - shone, and the MCU take on Namor remained firmly in the "morally ambigous antagonist" region where Killmonger had been ultimately put in the "tragic villain" category. Above all, though, the way this movie was very much about grief worked for me. (As opposed to devoting the first twenty minutes or so to grief and then letting everyone be fine for the rest of the movie.) I'm not always of the opinion that you should kill off the character if the actor dies, but in this case, in retrospect I have to say it really was the right decision, both because the grief for Chadwick Boseman and for T'Challa could become one, and because it meant that the main characters - except for Namor - were all women, interacting with each other. Which would not have been the case if they'd simply recast T'Challa. Incidentally, having now googled where previously I kept myself spoiler-free, I see that if Chadwick Boseman hadn't died, the movie still would have dealt with grief, but of a very different type. ( Spoilers for a movie which never was. ) There's also some set up for the next MCU phase, but it's not done in a way that makes this film feel imcomplete.

( More spoilery observation on the film which does exist )

Fairy Tales:

The tale you tell: this is a crossover with Into the Woods, and a fantastic take on the Baker's wife and her backstory. To say more would spoil a great twist.

There were several lovely takes on the Six Swans fairy tale, and these two are my favourites:

roses and sentiments, drowning in the sea of clouds: Character study of the youngest brother. Co stars several other hybrid mythological creatures, and pushes my emotional button about siblings with its take on his relationship with his sister.

The sound of silent wings: this one has a truly original take on the King, and is the first one to make me truly root for his relationship with our heroine and see him as worthy of her.

Ladyhawke:

Restless Creatures: what our three heroes died next. Funny, charming and deeply felt.

The Last Kingdom:

Losing End of Time: a beautfiul study of the friendship between Hild and Uthred.

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

The same damn thing that made my heart surrender: Disa, Durin, and Elrond meet in the middle. Disa pov, and as awesome as her.

Only blood can bind: How Adar decided to turn against Sauron.

Ms Marvel:

Three times Kamal thought about revealing her identity, and one time she didn't Three times Kamala Khan thought about revealing her secret identity and one time she knew better.

She-Hulk: Attorney at law:

pro hac vice: Matt Murdock needs help on a case; Jennifer Walters doesn't mind taking a cross-country flight on short notice. Flirty banter and shared rage about injustice ensues.

Baggage that goes with mine: in which Jen visits Matt in New York and gets to know Daredevil's circumstances. Witty and charming, and I'm really glad the MCU came up with this pairing.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Shopping Trip: lovely slice of life story about Uhura and Una/Number One.

To Fix What Is Broken: Hemmer pov of the time between the end of Discovery's second season and SNW's first, in which not only the Enterprise needs to be repaired.

Twelfth Night:

(love,)without retention or restraint: wherein Sebastian, aware he hardly knows his new wife, befriends the woman who knows her best - Maria. Great take on the relationship between Olivia and Maria, and, I think, a rare use of Sebastian in a story that's not about his relationship with Antonio.

This is my favourite of the Disney+ MCU shows I've watched so far. (The other ones being Hawkeye, WandaVision and Loki, which 've liked in that order.) Iman Vellani is ridiculously charming and endearing as our teenage heroine, Kamala Khan, who is a credible teenager (and fangirl) graduating to heroine. The show feels to this non-Pakistani American deeply anchored in the vibrant migrant community which surrounds Kamala, and in the backstory. (More about this in a moment.) There's an interesting contrast to how the Netflix show Luke Cage went through much effort to anchor the show in Harlem, which worked, but ironically Luke himself to me on his own show was of far less interest than as a guest star in other shows, with the major character development on Luke Cage going to the supporting cast like Misty or to the villains like Mariah and Shades. Meanwhile,Ms Marvel manages to both provide Kamala with an endearing characterisation and coming of age story and present a good supporting cast. (Villains, less so, but that's not a breaking point for me.) Her parents are adorable, and at the same time, changing the origin of Kamala's superpowers and making the Partition (of India and Pakistan) trauma central to the family's backstory (while pointing out that "every Pakistani family as a Partition story) is one of many details ensuring that Kamala's story really is specific to her as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants.

Then there's the present, with Kamala's friend Nakia compaigning for a place at the Mosque board and everyone all too familiar with being searched when the cops show up, while Kamala's cousins tease her for being too bland in her foot tastes when she's visiting Karachi. But I was especially thrilled by various formulaic things NOT happening which I had completely expected to happen, to wit:

( Now it gets spoilery )

Seriously, the only complaint I could make would be that the villains are underwritten. ( Spoilers alert. ) But you know, I was okay with that, because the show suceeded in all other departments, and ultimately Kamala, her family and friends being of interest to me and making me root for them was far more important to me than whether not I found the villains well done.

Also: after being subjected to the relentless jokathon that was Thor: Love and Thunder and starting She Hulk which is also on the joke joke joke side (though has Tatiana Maslany, goddess of acting, so I'll probably continue), it was such a relief to encounter a Marvel product which gets the balance of drama and humour in a way that really works for me. There's emotional room to breathe, is what I'm saying.

Lastly: this also is that rarity, a Marvel show without any supporting roles for already established characters that trusts its own characters to carry the story it wants to tell. At an age when there are fewer and fewer standalone stories in this franchise, this was very welcome.

oracne asked me about my recent month on Disney plus: likes and dislikes.

This was the third month in as many years, because I already subscribe to two streaming services and am just not willing to subscribe to Disney full time. Otoh if I do it once a year or so, enough stuff I really want to see has accumulated, and I can add some things which weren't must watchs but which I was curious about. Which was true this time around as well.

My main reason for paying the Mouse near the end of November as the Peter Jackson edited three part documentary on the Beatles project that started out as Get Back and ended up as Let it Be, and for that alone, it would have been worth it, see my reviews for part 1, part 2 and part 3. The Fab Four epic in three installments remained my overall favourite. While I was there, I also marathoned two Marvel shows I wasn't curious enough about to return to Disney before this point, i.e. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki, and watched Hawkeye in real time. (The last episode was dropped a day before my month ended.)

All three were enjoyable, though not as original an attempt to experiment with the format as WandaVision had been. Otoh, WandaVision didn't stick quite stick the landing, and also, the changing sitcom through the tv ages gimmick was not something repeatable. Mind you, the ending was something both Loki and Falcon & Winter Soldier had problems with as well. Hawkeye may have been less ambitious in what it wanted to achieve, but it told exactly the story it wanted to tell from start to finish and was the perfect pre Christmas fluff to consume while also selling the serious emotional undertones (and the new characters, like Kate and May/Echo). So in terms of new-to-me Disney Marvel since the last time I joined, Hawkeye wins.

Lastlyl, I discovered Disney plus also offered The Last Duel, and while I can see why this wasn't something people wanted to see in their spare time, and mocked Ridley Scott for being upset it flopped, I thought it was actually pretty good. For those who've never heard of it, it's based on the last officially recognized judicial duel fought in France, in which one Jean de Carrouges, Knight, challenged Jacques Le Gris to a duel to the death after Carrouges' wife Marguerite had accused Le Gris of having raped her. The story is told from three povs, Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) and Marguerite (Jodie Comer), with an obvious nod to Rashomon, but that only goes so far. The stories in "Rashomon" widely diverge when it comes to the bandit and the Merchant's wife. In The Last Duel, there's no question for the aiudience as to whether or not a rape has taken place (even in Le Gris' pov, though it's also pretty obvious why he is kidding himself on that count); where the pov diverge most blatantly is actually on the three takes on Carrouges - in his own pov, he's the stern-but-fair type, an honorable knight who's tender to his wife; in Le Gris' pov, he's a blustering, ridiculous buffoon; for Marguerite, he's a cold selfish tyrant who cares only about his own glory and constantly has to placated. It's also telling that Marguerite notices the world around her, the servants, the other women, while Jean is only focused on the slights against him (the trial by combat is only the last of a whole series of law suits he engineers), and Jaques the medieval frat boy only cares for his pleasures, which more often than not happen in the vincinty of his boss (and Jean's arch nemesis), Pierre d'Alencon (Ben Affleck enjoying himself enormously as a perpetually bitchy character prone to have threesomes with Jacques). Because neither guy remains sympathetic while their delusions about themselves get narratively skewered, the tension doesn't come from wanting either of them to win but from Marguerite's life being at stake if her husband gets defeated. There titular duel not withstanding, it's a medieval court room drama, and I found it captivating to watch.

In conclusion, I didn't have any dislikes last month. But I'm still not subscribing to Disney full time.

The other days

Star Trek: Discovery 4.06: ( Spoilery cut for a few remarks )


In other news, my month with the Mouse ended, but not before I saw the Hawkeye finale. ( A few scattered thoughts. )

Lastly: There are still a few days and topics available on the January Meme, if you want me to ramble on, say, which of the Disney Plus series is my favourite, or how if JMS had gotten Doctor Who as a showrunner I'd think he'd done it, not to mention: Hannovers versus Hohenzollern: who wins the 18th Century Dysfunctionality stakes? And what about that AU where William of Orange does adopt young Friedrich Wihelm as he briefly wanted to and thus Britain gets the dubious joy of being ruled by a different German dynasty?

More results from me paying the Mouse one month:

1) Legion. As in, the third and final season of same. I had loved the first season, and had extremely mixed feelings about the second season. The third season slipped off my radar, and then I had no chance to watch it. However, it seems the Mouse has it along with everything else Marvel based, and so I could watch it. In general, I like s3 far more than s2, though a part of me still thinks Legion is one of the shows which should have remained one season. (Forever all hail Watchmen and Damon Lindelof sticking to his guns. That was perfect, and it should remain this way.) Otoh, I did like, minor nitpicks aside, how they wrapped it up in s3. It remained stylish and visual original to the end - the most extraordinary of all Marvel based tv shows in this way - but as opposed to s2 didn't inflict lengthy Jon Hamm monologues on the audience, and provided more focus, felt far less meandering. The final conclusion was one that speaks to my inner optimist-against-the-odds. And rarely outside of DW have I seen a show so unabashedly unafraid to marry the silly to the deeply disturbing. Meaning: sometimes you get scenes of mass slaughter, and sometimes you get a scene in which a deceased character winning a Rap battle against the Big Bad Wolf on the Astral plane.

Also: Harry Lloyd now joins Patrick Stewart and James MacAvoy in the exclusive circle of hot British actors playing Charles Xavier, telepath with good intentions and dubious results extraordinaire. Which is never a bad thing.

Dan Stevens as the title character (and offspring of the above named) continues to demonstrate he was seriously underchallenged as Cousin Matthew in Dontown Abbey , bringing on the scariness, the pathos, and the incredible damage. This final season was also when Sydney as a character really won me over. And I really really hope Cary and Kerry Loudermilk, the mutants who as far as I know were original characters this tv series invented, will show up elsewhere in the Marvelverse, because they were my favourites to the point where I thought, okay, show, I'm ready to take all you throw at me as long as Kerry and Cary remain!

In conclusion, I'm glad I watched it, and can now re-embrace the show without the mixed s2 feelings.

2. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: I now feel smug because I already thought Helmut Zemo was interesting in Civil War, check out my review back in the day, and that his final scene with T'Challa was one of the movie's best. Anyway, Daniel Brühl has so much fun with this fleshed out version of Zemo. As for the titular guys, after several movies that didn't do anything for me re: his character, I think I finally have developed a mild fondness for Bucky. Sam, whom I already liked, has some good character scenes here, but most of them are early on - with Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley, especially -, and he's easily as good at the earnest final speech as Chris Evans, the problem is that the politics of this show are, well, not the best. There's the general US tv problem that poitical protest either shows up as terrorism or not at all, with activism, political parties, the media, social media etc. etc. etc. non existing. (In this case, this means you have yet another ominous global council on the one hand, and Karli and the Flag Smashers on the other, and no one but Sam in between.) Not to mention that by presenting the Flash Smashers as the sole people protesting against the plans, the show inadvertendly presents our heroes in a bad light. (Since they don't seem to care about the situation until Karli gets violent.) There's the wanting-to-have-their-cake-and-eat-it-ness of the MCU which ascribes a kind of film star status to its heroes on the one hand, but on the other wants us to believe Sam has difficulties getting a loan from the bank instead of a contract for advertising. And given how incredibly difficult it is to get concensus on any given G7 (and definitely G20) summit, I really don't buy everyone agreeing on a policy until Sam gives them a stern talking to.

Still, by and large, this was entertaining to watch. Though the MCU guys still have no idea about German geography. (The streets "behind Munich" aren't as bewildering as, say, the fact that Steve springs Bucky from goal in Berlin and then evidently decides the airport to flee to with him is Leipzig/Halle, not Berlin Tegel, because it's not like he's in a hurry, evidently. But I still am somewhat confused by the lonely countryside roads in the Munich neighborhood.

Darth Real Life continues to keep me busy, but I've been meaning to rec a few more stories I keep open, from two recent exchanges (only one of which I managed to participate in).

Rare Male Slash

Star Wars

Though the wind pried with its stiff fingers charming hurt/comfort vignette, in which Lando and Luke, post ESB, talk about what happened on Bespin.

The Exorcist (TV)

My secrets are all I own: I don't actually ship Marcus/Tomas in the romantic sense, but this story captures them and their dynamic so well that I handwaved my inner non-shipper and was a most captivated reader; set between seasons 1 and 2, when they're on the road.

Every Woman

James Bond (Craig Movies)

Calling the King to Heel: a fantastic Vesper Lynd character exploration in the guise of a missing scene from Casino Royale that manages to show what a terrific character she was, in all her facets.

Mythology

A Hedge of Roses: Persephone, and not a story about Hades! (Nothing against him, but I really like that this story tackles another aspect of her.


The Defenders

Helping Hand(s): Claire interacting with Colleen, Jessica, and her plants. Which is awesome.

Star Trek: Discovery

Deep Breaths: Keyla Detmer, Discovery's pilot, has slowly been fleshed out through the seasons, with s3 providing the most material, but this story goes to another level with its character portrait. Beautifully done.

Just because I don't participate in ssrconfidential anymore - after writing the "Five times Peggy Carter compromised" story on the one hand, and the James Bond crossover on the other, I felt I had said all I had to say fictionally in the fandom - doesn't mean I'm not still fond of the Agent Carter corner of the MCU, so I checked out the new tales, and liked many of them very much indeed, especially:

The only thing I've plenty of: which is a delightful vignette on Peggy, Jarvis and the absent Howard.

Interrogator: Peggy, posing undercover as Dottie, has to interrogate Jack Thompson. Excellent case fic, and the solution to her dilemma lies in how well the two of them have come to know each other by now.

Not from the ficathon, but only recently discovered by me:

trust me, mister agent (my papers are fine): Howard Stark is a thorn in Jack Thompson's side, especially when he kidnaps one of his best agents at every given opportunity. (But he has to admit, the guy isn't half bad sometimes.)