Just on my annual re-watch of the show recently, and this flashback during the season 1 finale fight with Nolan and Mark made me more emotional than before. I think knowing where the show goes now and understanding the themes/tone of Invincible, this scene IMO best encapsulates all of that.
This scene was maybe one of the most horror-inducing sequences in LoK or TLA, loved how mysterious and scary Amon was (before we found out he was essentially just a super-powered waterbending prodigy).
Since the Avatar Aang movie came out, I’ve been feeling like we need more standalone films about the other members of his group during that early Republic City Era, and I’m betting I’m not the only one. I personally would love to see an adult Toph movie, about her forming the Republic City police force and becoming chief of police in the city.
I’m personally so tired of modern adaptations of old books/comics/games/cartoons and even older films constantly making fun of the source material of the movie they’re adapting. I think sometimes if used sparingly, it can work, as it does in the old James Gunn Guardians of the Galaxy films or parody films like Galaxy Quest or Spaceballs, but it feels sometimes like a lot of modern writers really dislike the source material and write in very specific jokes just to show how dumb things in the original work are. The jokes are usually not very well thought-out and often come across as more mean-spirited and lazy than actually enhancing the adaptation.
I just recently watched the newest Masters of the Universe film, and while I’m not the biggest fan of the original “He-Man” cartoons (didn’t grow up in the 80s) I still felt like the constant jokes about characters and character names felt a bit lowbrow, not to mention annoying. Every time Fisto was on screen, you can be sure there was a joke about how his name was Fisto and how he liked to “fist people”. It was maybe sort of humorous the first time, but after the third wisecrack, it was just tired. There were elements of the film that were well done in my opinion, but the overuse of this trope made watching a bit of a chore by the end of the movie.
I was re-playing the Telltale Batman series recently (one of my favorite OG Telltale games) and forgot that both Laura and Erin voiced the two most prominent female characters in the game. You can even romance Selina like you do Invisigal, convincing her to leave a life of crime and reform as a reluctant hero, and although you can’t romance Vicki (for obvious story reasons) Bruce Wayne does have the opportunity to flirt with her a few times. Pretty fun coincidence
For me, the greatest video game music is still the OST from Majora's Mask, as it hits on so many different levels. On the surface and when first listening to a few of the more basic overworld tracks (like the Clocktown or Termina Field themes), it feels very standard Zelda, with the motifs and melodies that you'd expect from such a game. But then you start listening to the Clocktown theme as it progresses from Day 2 to Day 3, and you can begin to hear the depth of the music. The Day 2 Clocktown motif is similar to the Day 1 theme, but it's far more restrained and much smaller in sound, with only a few woodwinds and string instruments utilized. The Day 3 theme is entirely different; you can still hear the original motif playing, but there's an added undercurrent of menace and urgency, showing that time is almost up, and the cheery indifference to everything going on is nothing but a facade against the coming apocalypse. The Final Hours theme, which plays as the moon finally falls on Termina, is a theme completely devoid of hope or joy, and instead is a mournful dirge or requiem that sounds the end of the world, the utter desolation and despair of the realization that the end is nigh.
There are a few other themes in the game that I think also show that depth, like the Oath to Order, which is a very solemn and haunting track that exemplifies the desperation to protect a world doomed to destruction, or the small mysterious motif that plays during the intro of the game and in the very finale, as Link leaves Termina and a father mourns the fate of his child. For a Zelda game and a Nintendo title, Majora's Mask was very mature and handled a lot of darker themes than normal, and I think the music was a big part of that.
Honorable Mentions:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - That was one of the first big open-world RPGs I ever played, and the music was absolutely enchanting and magical in the best way, drawing me deeper into that fantasy world with just a few notes from the track "Harvest Dawn".
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Probably one of the best modern fantasy games made in the last few years, and the soundtrack is excellent in setting the mood of a violent, more gritty grimdark fantasy world than many are probably accustomed to. The OST for the Blood and Wine DLC is great too - it sets itself apart from the rest of the game by establishing a lighter and much more high fantasy tone that fits the setting.
An interesting deleted scene restored by the Brothers In Arms mod, showing Emhyr discussing the fate of the assassinated King Foltest with one of his former servants.
The Avatar film showed a slightly older Toph compared to the original series, but we've still yet to see her years as the head of Republic City Law Enforcement outside of the few flashbacks in Legend of Korra. I think it would be amazing to get a Law and Order-type miniseries focused on Toph becoming the Police Chief and helping form the fledgling city into the organized industrial center it was by Korra's time. As a Toph fan, it would be amazing to see her root out crime using a combination of clever detective work and her mastery over earthbending.
I wanted to see more of battle armor Toph
It takes place right after another removed scene where Padme along with a number of other allies from the Senate petition Palpatine to stop amending the constitution and sue for peace. Perfectly foreshadows the dynamic between Vader and Sidious later on; I’m still mad they didn’t put it in the film.
The movie itself was alright, not good and not terrible. But this scene, when Toph suits up to go ham on the enemy, is probably one of the most badass displays of bending I've seen, earthbending or otherwise. She truly is the greatest earthbender to ever do it
Out of all the scenes in the later seasons not taken from the books, I think Olenna's death was by far one of the best moments. Her savage mic-drop reveal that she was behind Joffrey's murder, paired with Jaimie's reaction of mixed anger and shock is so well done. It's one of my favorite death scenes in recent media, a prime example of going down with the last laugh.
It's sad whenever a good person dies in media, but it's even more tragic when they are completely innocent, when they aren't involved in the main conflict, but still end up as collateral damage anyway.
Howard Hamlin (Better Call Saul) - He and the two main characters, Jimmy and Kim, had somewhat of a troubled relationship, to say the least. When he went over to their place to confront them about all the hijinks they had pulled against him to try to ruin his career as head of a law firm, he ended up getting killed by the Cartel Kingpin Lalo Salamanca, as he unfortunately came to confront Jimmy and Kim about much more serious matters. Howard had no awareness of any of this - he might've known that Jimmy had represented Lalo once, since that was big news, but he surely didn't suspect anything beyond that.
Drew Sharp (Breaking Bad) - Breaking Bad had a few characters that could arguably fit this trope, but the kid Drew Sharp probably fits it the best. He was a simple kid on a dirt bike who happened to stumble into Walt and his crew as they pulled off their very successful train heist, and was subsequently shot by Todd, who had no issues with killing a witness, child or otherwise.
Owen and Beru Lars (Star Wars) - Though Owen may have had some connections to Anakin through his mother (Shmi was Owen's stepmother when she re-married his father), they had no connection to Vader much less the rest of the empire or rebellion, living as simple moisture farmers in the deserts of Tatooine. That fact unfortunately didn't stop the imperial troops from burning them alive with the rest of their farm when they couldn't give up the information about the protocol droids that the empire was looking for.
Cedric Diggory (Harry Potter) - He was an ordinary Hufflepuff student who had the misfortune of competing in the Triwizard Tournament the same year as Harry, and was known to be one of the best competitors of that year. He had no knowledge of Voldemort or the Death Eaters, and yet, that didn't stop Pettigrew at Voldemort's command from killing the boy. His death in the Harry Potter series is the first noted student death.
As someone who loves fables and old folk tales like Grimm’s Fairytales, this place in the Blood and Wine DLC I think is the best modern recreation of those stories. It’s absolutely beautiful and magical, but not whitewashed like Disney films and other modern adaptations of those old stories tend to be.
Jolee foreshadowed one of the greatest Star Wars tv shows over 20 years ago. What a legend