It’s been a long time since I read the series, but I don’t recall the main cast ever actually fighting Brakiss themselves during the first arc of the series - only Luke does. While Brakiss obviously outclasses them individually in terms of skill, I feel like all five of them teaming up against him would at least be enough to ensure their survival…
Peter notoriously got called out for a lot of stuff in this run, and whether or not such criticisms were justified has been a hot topic issue among readers, so I thought I’d bring it up here since I’m… honestly not too sure if I want to read this run myself.
So, with StormClan’s Folly, we have now seen two (failed) attempts at a merging between two Clans - Stripestar and Galestar unifying ThunderClan and WindClan to create StormClan, and Tigerstar I and Leopardstar unifying ShadowClan and RiverClan to create TigerClan (with plans of integrating WindClan and ThunderClan into TigerClan as well). Both of those merged attempts ended in disaster, and StarClan specifically ordered that StormClan never be mentioned again lest future generations try to create something like it. But this does make me wonder - both StormClan and TigerClan were a disaster, but is there any way that two Clans could successfully merge into a long-standing singular Clan? If so, how?
Claudia Gray has discussed the possibility of writing a sequel to this novel for almost a decade at this point, but nothing definitive has ever been given on the subject. So assuming this idea hasn’t been abandoned, what would you like to see in a hypothetical Lost Stars 2, given that this book has been an unexpected hit among Star Wars fans?
An interesting factor when you think about how Maul’s story ended is that even though he never met Luke, he believed he was the Chosen One (with Obi-Wan telling him so, likely as a means of giving Maul a sense of closure), with Maul believing that Luke would avenge everyone who suffered at Sidious’ hands. But if Luke and Maul had actually met each other, what do you imagine their interaction might look like? Because I feel like depending on what point in the Original Trilogy you’re talking, Maul might have some very different reactions.
Something that I recently learned is that many Greek-speaking people from the Eastern Mediterranean - territory that once lay in the Byzantine Empire - continued to call themselves ‘Romans’ until the early twenty-first century. With this in mind, how do you imagine the Byzantine Empire would have evolved as a nation had it managed to survive all the way to the present, aside from likely preventing the Ottoman Empire’s emergence as a noteworthy power?
Something that I recently learned is that many Greek-speaking people from the Eastern Mediterranean - territory that once lay in the Byzantine Empire - continued to call themselves ‘Romans’ until the early twenty-first century. With this in mind, how do you imagine the Byzantine Empire would have evolved as a nation had it managed to survive all the way to the present, aside from likely preventing the Ottoman Empire’s emergence as a noteworthy power?
Like, okay, I get it, Marinette’s freaking out because another girl is getting close to Adrien. But here’s the problems with that approach for this episode. One, it fits much better with Kagami since unlike Lila she’s not a lying sociopath who’s genuinely out to cause harm, so that portrayal of jealousy better illustrates how Marinette is being irrational. Two, they felt the need to shove the love square - once again! - at the centre of an episode where that wasn’t necessary. I mean, some girl is going around not only falsely claiming to be Marinette’s best friend, but actively trying to rope her friends in on her scheme for attention by giving Alya that interview and then trying to deceive Adrien with the fake Fox Miraculous to impress him. Feelings for Adrien aside, that alone should have been enough to provoke aggravation from Marinette and have her investigate - not only is Lila using her secret identity to gain personal clout, but she’s also risking putting her friends in danger should Hawk Moth ever find out about it. Having it just be yet another thing to do with Adrien makes Marinette’s character feel more flat and it was entirely unnecessary to use this as a motivation - if anything, Lila trying to weasel her way towards Adrien should have just amplified Marinette’s frustration, not been the root cause.
Let’s say that you’ve got a body swap story where the original inhabitants of the body’s soul is still in their body as a passenger, but their mind is transferred somewhere else. Since stories tend to depict the consciousness as representing both the mind and the soul, how would you distinguish between those two when they’ve been separated?
Okay, so the reception of the final season has been… mixed, so I thought I’d take a shot at trying to address some of the issues left over from the final season and hopefully give the show a more fulfilling ending:
Homelander’s fall from grace starts out completely differently. After acquiring the V-1 in either the first or second episode of the season, Homelander starts fully embracing the idea that he is a wrathful god, inducting Oh-Father into the Seveb to serve as his prophet as he proceeds to rampage across America and take out any potential threat - the Pentagon, international communications, and yes, even destroying Annie’s hometown like he promised. However, it becomes clear that while many Americans follow and worship Homelander, most do so out of fear and not belief that he is a true god, which enrages the narcissistic supervillain enough that he decides he’s just going to straight-up conquer America by overthrowing the government and becoming its immortal, dictatorial deity… before moving on to the rest of the world.
Rather than being placed back into stasis, Soldier Boy ends up being killed thanks to separate encounters with both Homelander and the Boys (MM especially), with his corpse and DNA being salvaged to create a new virus - one that functions similarly to the Godolkin Virus, but merely purges Compound V from a Supe’s cells instead of killing them, with Hughie and Annie leading this initiative to create a third option even as Butcher goes on a solo genocide route.
After losing control of Homelander and realising that all of her plans are crumbling apart thanks to her underestimating both the extent of Homelander’s narcissism and how emotions can compromise rational judgment, Sage finds herself working with the Boys to create the new virus, hoping to use it on Homelander and then come up with a new plan to seize power once he’s powerless and out of the picture. However, Sage’s arrogance proves to be her downfall as the Boys - not trusting her to not betray them - expose her to the virus at a higher than recommended dose, not only erasing her super-intelligence but leaving her intellectually handicapped (so she actually gets some proper karma for her crimes).
While the Boys go for their final confrontation with Homelander, the Deep and Oh-Father at the White House, the Gen V cast are tasked with taking down the army of psychics and other Supes who’ve flocked to Homelander’s cause. This battle ends with the group being forced to use one of the few samples of the anti-Compound V to depower their foes (who are promptly swarmed by an angry mob) at the cost of sacrificing their own superpowers and dreams of becoming heroes, though Marie at least is content with this (and Jordan resolves to find a way to handle their gender fluidity now that they can’t shapeshift into male or female forms anymore).
Kimiko uses the anti-Compound V in a gas attack that strips herself, Butcher, Homelander and Ryan of their superpowers, leaving Annie as the only remaining Supe on the Boys’ side. Homelander still dies in the very satisfying way that he does in canon, but when Butcher goes to release the Godolkin virus and eradicate all Supes on the planet, Hughie reveals that he swapped the Godolkin virus with the anti-Compound V, ensuring that all Supes will be de-powered while allowing them to be spared from unjust execution thanks to Butcher’s crusade. Hughie is ultimately forced to kill Butcher, and with Homelander’s fall, Vought’s collapse in the midst of his rampage and the virus ensuring that all Compound V-enhanced people will soon lose their powers, Frederick Vought’s legacy has officially been destroyed.
As part of the sequence at the end, we see MM remarry Monique, Kimiko travelling to France in memory of Frenchie, Stan Edgar tossed in prison as a result of Vought’s downfall and him and Ashley becoming the only living scapegoats for the company’s crimes, and a news broadcast revealing that all remaining super-terrorists and foreign Supes have either been arrested or disappeared from public view as the anti-Compound V spreads throughout the world and strips them of their powers. The series ends with Hughie and a now-powerless but content Annie working at Hughie’s new store, eagerly awaiting the arrival of their baby daughter, Robin. Annie also reveals that she’s considering applying to the police academy once she’s given birth and had proper leave - deciding to take Stillwell’s comments from the first season and still being committed to helping make a difference - and Hughie smiles as the two of them head down the street similar to him and Robin in the first episode, looking forward to a bright future that won’t be snatched away from them.
Thoughts on this? This is pretty rushed and pretty sappy for a series like The Boys, but I hope I at least managed to fix some of the issues associated with the final season and how it left a lot of loose ends.
Setting aside the mixed response for the Three Jokers limited series that followed this plot line, I actually found this to be an interesting (if bold) twist by Geoff Johns and DC editorial. Though I am a little confused on why the Möbius Chair didn’t just tell Batman the names of each of the three Jokers (aside from comic book logic, that is).
I’m admittedly not very familiar with her character, but from what little I understand, Jean DeWolffe was a corrupt cop who replaced George Stacy as sort of the ‘main’ police character for Spider-Man after the latter’s death. Given how all of the other significant deaths in Spider-Man’s mythos have been people Peter held close to his heart, why does Jean’s death get counted among them?
“Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?”
This line is said by Andrew Ryan in Bioshock as a means of explaining his extremist libertarian and objectivist philosophy, with him having gone to the American and Soviet governments as well as the Vatican for an answer. The American response was, as he quotes, “No, it belongs to the poor,” while the Soviet response was “No, it belongs to everyone.” Assuming the quote is meant to reference man’s entitlement to the fruits of one’s own labour, what would the proper response to this question be by the very definition of capitalism and socialism? Keep in mind that Ryan’s question in the game is meant to be a stance against collectivism in general, whether it be through tax (capitalism) or distribution of public property (socialism).
When we see the giant projection of Snoke speaking to Kylo Ren and General Hux, it looks much more realistic compared to what we’re used to seeing from Star Wars holograms, to the point that I actually thought we were seeing Snoke in the flesh at first. Is there any explanation as to why the hologram looks so different compared to every other time we see Snoke? Especially when you compare it to his holographic projection in The Last Jedi, which matches how Star Wars holograms usually look.
Let’s say that Tomoe either got ahold of the Butterfly Miraculous instead of Cerise or eventually betrays Cerise and starts wielding it on behalf of the Kingdom. How do you think Tomoe might approach using Nooroo’s powers, and what do you see her calling herself as a supervillain? Because I’m not going to lie… I would like to see her wield the Butterfly Miraculous at least once before the show ends.
I get that many of the iconic martial arts are of Asian origin, but the way several works seem to suggest that Asians inherently know these techniques is… pretty racist, when you think about it.
Sabine Cheng (Miraculous): Sabine has a lot of unfortunate cultural stereotypes associated with her (though it could be partially excused as her being a first-generation Chinese migrant to France), but several episodes such as Troublemaker and Riginarazione have shown her utilising martial arts, despite having never alluded to or demonstrated any martial arts knowledge outside of those moments.
Epicanthix (Star Wars): This near-human species has some very unfortunate implications due to them possessing many traits commonly associated with people of Asian descent, yet being described as a separate species instead of being human. Part of their lore is that they’re a ‘race of warriors who trained their minds and bodies in preparation for war’, and the Asian parallels are worsened by how their name sounds similar to the epicanthic fold, a feature of human eyes commonly associated with East Asian people.
Francine Smith and Hiko Yoshida (American Dad): One episode of the series has these two mothers engage in unarmed combat, and Hiko (who is Japanese-American) proclaims that Francine doesn’t stand a chance because using Asian weapons is her culture, only to be shocked that Francine was raised by Chinese adopted parents, meaning she apparently also developed skills with Asian weapons as part of her ‘culture’. Both women prove to be highly adept martial artists.
Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning (DC Comics)
Jennifer Pierce/Lightning (DC Comics)
Virgil Hawkins/Static (DC Comics)
Max Dillon/Electro (The Amazing Spider-Man 2/Spider-Man: No Way Home)
Ororo Monroe/Storm (Marvel Comics)
Seriously, how is this pairing so common… I’m sure these are only just some of the examples, too.
Prior to the division of Germany as we know it, each of the four main Allied powers (Britain, France, America and the Soviet Union) occupied part of the country, with the American, British and French portions later merging into what became West Germany? But what if that never happened? What if, for whatever reason, the borders between each of these four zones remained, leaving four German countries instead of just two? How would this impact the Cold War and eventual German reunification?
“Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?” That was the question that industrialist Andrew Ryan asked three different sources - the United States government, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the Pope in the Vatican. None of their answers satisfied Ryan - the Americans proclaimed it belonged to the poor; the Vatican proclaimed it belonged to God; the Soviets declared that it belonged to everyone. Desperate to free himself from those opposing his extreme libertarian and objectivist philosophy, Ryan gathered up other members of the wealthy elite to create Rapture - an underwater utopia aimed at allowing the ‘great’ to prosper without interference from society and those beneath them. So how does the existence of this underwater city and the marvellous technology and science on which it relied to survive impact the rest of the Cold War and onwards?