jedi_of_urth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jedi_of_urth) wrote2016-04-09 11:47 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote2016-04-09 11:47 pm
Entry tags:
A little rl update, some baseball, and three weeks worth of DC-CW show reactions
So I was on vacation there for a week of so, my and my folks went to Phoenix for the tail end of spring training and caught opening day between the D-back and the Rockies. This brings my parents' total of baseball stadiums they've been to to around 20 and mine to three, but I'm less on a mission to go to them all. None of us had ever been to an opening day before and it was actually a lot of fun (the last few years most Rocks games we make it to are not so well attended), and that game at least the Rockies won in handy fashion.
One thing I look forward to this season already is watching Story grow as a player. He hit the ground running with all the home runs, but he's got plenty of room to grow, and it looks like it'll be good to watch. I was already wondering whether the Rockies higher ups would want to keep Reyes around as they're not real big on scandal, and with Story doing so well to start, I'll keep asking that until things are resolved.
I would like to complain abut most of the changes made to the game this year.
-The inning breaks are now too short for me to get up and do things like go to the bathroom or move laundry along and it really doesn't speed the game up that much. I also have a problem with it for the players, as in both leagues the catcher and in the NL the pitcher now have to worry about getting back to the dugout from the bases in what I think is too little time. I thought it was already shorter than it needed to be before they made it even shorter.
-I still don't really approve of replay at all and I called when it was introduced that it was going to be the death of the neighborhood play and it is now. While I admit the neighborhood play was always kind of an iffy thing, I already don't like what it's doing to play on the field without it. And next they're almost certainly going to have to introduce some version of the home plate rule (which I also still mostly disapprove of) to made sure they limit injuries at second, when they already had a working system for doing so. It's especially frustratingly hypocritical when combined with the time adjustments that seem done to make the game 'faster and more exciting,' when double plays actually are exciting and now they're making them more difficult.
-I also don't like the changes at Coors Field, the new outfield fence is ugly and needs to go away, in addition to just being a hazard to play on the field (although I haven't seen it happen yet it obviously will be). Several years on and the added seats behind home plate are still ugly too, but that seems less easy to fix.
Now some TV reaction reviews.
The Flash 2x16
I didn’t dislike the episode, but I also didn’t exactly like it that much. It feels more like a necessary-to-the-arc episode than good on its own; it was certainly moving a lot of pieces around on the game-board. Plus it was a little bland as a coming back from hiatus ep. It might be a little early to say this, as I don’t know what could happen in the next few episodes, but I don’t like that they literally put Jesse on a bus; I know the cast is pretty big already but as she was actually with the team there’s way more she could do for the show than Wally. On the flip side I kind of liked Iris’ plot, up until they decided to throw romance into it; it certainly felt too fast to bring it in. If this had been treated as laying the foundation, getting to know each other and their different views on heroes, I could see it happening down the road, but it’s too fast for me to have them already be acknowledging they’re doing that in the context of potential romance...I still don’t think I’m explaining myself very well, but that’s my view. I’m also still a little confused since I thought that Zoom-Jay was carrying dead-Flash-Jay at the end of the last episode, like there actually were two of them, so I need more explanation. That said, I’m chill either way since Jay was pretty suspicious to me and I’m still okay having that validated.
Arrow 4x16
Well I’m full of feelings now. Both sides of the plot were pretty much all about giving me a case of feelings that I’m not really prepared to deal with. I should have been prepared for the feelings of the Oliver/Felicity plot, I knew they weren’t just going to undo the breakup straight away and this was all the things they really needed to say to each other last time but didn’t have time for; but I wasn’t really prepared to have it all out so quickly. And I really wasn’t prepared for the trial side of the story to be so full of feelings, a very good use of the Lance characters that we’ve gotten fairly few of this season. Though I was a little weirded out by the fact that they never called Felicity to testify, but the episode hit so many big notes with me that it didn’t bug me too much. As always, the flashbacks were dumb, but I almost forgot they existed between the other stuff. I’m not sure if it was actually a good episode, but it sure made me feel lots of things and I’ll take that over technically good just about any day.
The Flash 2x17
I have kind of mixed feelings about this one. I liked a lot of it, but I don’t like changing the history of the story all willy-nilly and contrary to what the show says Barry sucks at playing at other versions of himself, and both collide in the fact that writers do not think through the full ramifications of time travel when invoking it like this. It ends up in a lose-lose situation because I can’t help feeling like they’re going to use it as a crutch allowing them to get continuity details wrong, and yet I’ll feel annoyed by it if all the details stay the same save the minor ones deliberately made a point of being changed here. But like I said, for all I dislike the way things are handled here, I enjoyed having old-Wells involved again, and seeing him in this context was quite a treat. And for all Eddie’s video bit was so unnatural for him to say, it was a nice emotional beat for Iris; though I confess this season has not done a great job acknowledging her loss of Eddie. I don’t want her to go on a Laurel spiral after the death of Tommy, but I had pretty much forgotten that might be a factor for her. It does provide some context for why the sudden dating prospect last time was written; I still have issue with the way that was handled, but as a narrative setup for a real emotional punch like this...it’s at least something. So I’m still not quite sure how to take this episode; I want to like it, if only I didn’t have so many reservations about it instead.
Arrow 4x17
I liked the episode, but it feels like it’s going places that I can’t quite see yet, so we’ll how that affects my ultimate opinions later. It’s clearly an important piece in building the overall narrative, some of which seems plainly on screen and some of which I know I’m not seeing yet; either way I don’t know that I see much to say about the episode. On the grave speculation report, now that Laurel’s getting some character focus I’m moving her back onto the potential list; although depending on where Andy’s loyalties actually turn out to be (I assume we’ll deal with that pretty soon) it may be setting up for Diggle (although considering the timeframe LoT offered for when Digg dies I’m not sure what to think). Also I’ve sort of decided I ship Thea/Laurel, it’s sort of been growing with them living together all season but I’m only now just over the line to call it even a kinda-sorta-ship. I have no expectation of it going anywhere near that in canon and I don’t really want it to, but that’s part of where my brain went this episode.
Legends of Tomorrow 1x09
I ended up liking that more and more as it went on. At first I was feeling let down with the handling of the fallout from last time, but once they actually settled in and started dealing with things it got pretty good. I still wish this series was written by someone who understood time travel stories better than the writers they have seem to, but that’s apparently just a personal issue they don’t feel much need to address. I feel a little cheated that they skipped over s much development for Ray and Kendra, both as individuals and a couple, but maybe the writers really miss having flashbacks (for some damn reason when they clearly have no purpose on Arrow anymore) so they’ll go back and fill in some things later. And now that the show has introduced that Talia does exist in this world, how long until she shows up in the main story? I also had dome interesting thoughts about how this works with what we already knew about Sara’s relationship with Ra’s, and I realized that we never really saw Ra’s care that much about Sara, most everything done to try and bring her in was really done by Nyssa (who this show finally remembered existed as part of Sara’s story so maybe we’ll get some follow through with them finally). And yes as soon as they drew attention to the fact that Kronos had taken Snart and left the rest of them, I figured out the reveal of Kronos, plus I’d pretty much been expecting Mick survived and would turn up again somehow, so it wasn’t as shocking as it might have been.
Arrow 4x18
Well, those of you that have been following my grave watch speculation all season know I’ve rarely had Laurel pegged as the one who would die, but this episode was laying it on real thick; while I still wasn’t exactly thinking it was this episode she had definitely shot to the top of my list. I’m also bad at calling things very far in advance as I was mostly thinking HIVE was playing Andy through this instead of him actually being on the other side; that was until they all got in that room with Darhk and I was pretty sure Andy had found the missing piece of the idol (where had Digg hidden it that it was found so quickly?) and was bringing it, but that wasn’t much warning. I thought that was pretty well masked as Oliver’s explanation to Diggle felt a lot like he was projecting and letting his own current problems decide his view of Andy. As a side note, I wish the picture at the end had been Laurel, Oliver, and Tommy, maybe with Sara (or maybe they say Sara took the picture) all hanging out in a simpler time, that would make a lot more sense and actually be a lot sadder than Laurel carrying around a picture of herself. Plus the show has entirely been written as if Oliver stopped being the love of Laurel’s life ages ago (like even in season 1 she kind of knew they were holding on to something that was long since over) and it was the memory of/guilt over Tommy that had kept her from moving on the last couple seasons, so that retcon rubbed me all the wrong ways. Also about the end, somebody go hug Lance, or at least try to as he might not accept it right now. Now, as much as Laurel has never been my favorite character, in fact pretty near the bottom as far as regulars go, I’m going to have to think for a while about whether I think this was an acceptable way to kill off the character; my gut says no, but that may just be initial reaction and I know I need some more of how the fallout is handled before I know for sure. It does feel a little like throwing in the towel on a character they had never really figured out what to do with, and I’m not sure how to even define how that makes me feel about it.
Legends of Tomorrow 1x10
I’m getting to a point that, while I’m enjoying the series, I definitely think it’s going to be a lot better on rewatch; and I think that has to do with the radical swings in setting and tone with each episode. It’s probably part of why Arrow remains my favorite of the shows, it feels like such an ongoing story that I want to see continued. Also this episode raises some points about the nature of this as a time travel story that I hadn’t really put into solid form before (or maybe I did in the 2046 episode, but probably didn’t point out); but at this point, the moment these characters rejoin their own timeline, the entire future after 2016 isn’t going to be what Rip’s files say it is. Ray goes back, retakes control of PT and makes sure the robotics don’t fall into the wrong hands, bam, future changed. Actually I have several Ray thoughts this episode, for one he continues to be off-brand-Oliver just as he was back in A-s3; he does eventually come clean to his girlfriend about thinking he has a child out there rather than letting the lie fester, but he doesn’t exactly jump to tell the truth; it’s perfectly understandable behavior, it just stands out considering what’s going on on Arrow. Also, how was Ray seeing anyone before going off on this adventure when he’s still supposed to be dead as far the world in 2016 is concerned? At least not without doing so under a false identity in which case I don’t think the hypothetical kid would go on to know that Ray Palmer as its father. I also want to comment on Kendra, who no one asks to be part of their team at the beginning, apparently sensing that she has her own subplot going on. But also, I continue to hate Kendra and Carter together, they never have any chemistry so I continue to get the impression Kendra’s kind of been wanting to break the cycle for several lifetimes now but kept having Carter push her into maintaining it (which sure is basically what happened in this lifetime) but is able to break it this time because he died so couldn’t make her keep living a life she no longer chose (she said just last week that she finally, for the first time in lifetimes, made her own choice about who to love, and that sounded legit to me); which makes her attitude her towards her memories where she doesn’t seem happy at all ring really false. I feel like I should have something to say about Rip’s plot/the main plot of the episode, but I can’t seem to think of what I want to say just now.
One thing I look forward to this season already is watching Story grow as a player. He hit the ground running with all the home runs, but he's got plenty of room to grow, and it looks like it'll be good to watch. I was already wondering whether the Rockies higher ups would want to keep Reyes around as they're not real big on scandal, and with Story doing so well to start, I'll keep asking that until things are resolved.
I would like to complain abut most of the changes made to the game this year.
-The inning breaks are now too short for me to get up and do things like go to the bathroom or move laundry along and it really doesn't speed the game up that much. I also have a problem with it for the players, as in both leagues the catcher and in the NL the pitcher now have to worry about getting back to the dugout from the bases in what I think is too little time. I thought it was already shorter than it needed to be before they made it even shorter.
-I still don't really approve of replay at all and I called when it was introduced that it was going to be the death of the neighborhood play and it is now. While I admit the neighborhood play was always kind of an iffy thing, I already don't like what it's doing to play on the field without it. And next they're almost certainly going to have to introduce some version of the home plate rule (which I also still mostly disapprove of) to made sure they limit injuries at second, when they already had a working system for doing so. It's especially frustratingly hypocritical when combined with the time adjustments that seem done to make the game 'faster and more exciting,' when double plays actually are exciting and now they're making them more difficult.
-I also don't like the changes at Coors Field, the new outfield fence is ugly and needs to go away, in addition to just being a hazard to play on the field (although I haven't seen it happen yet it obviously will be). Several years on and the added seats behind home plate are still ugly too, but that seems less easy to fix.
Now some TV reaction reviews.
The Flash 2x16
I didn’t dislike the episode, but I also didn’t exactly like it that much. It feels more like a necessary-to-the-arc episode than good on its own; it was certainly moving a lot of pieces around on the game-board. Plus it was a little bland as a coming back from hiatus ep. It might be a little early to say this, as I don’t know what could happen in the next few episodes, but I don’t like that they literally put Jesse on a bus; I know the cast is pretty big already but as she was actually with the team there’s way more she could do for the show than Wally. On the flip side I kind of liked Iris’ plot, up until they decided to throw romance into it; it certainly felt too fast to bring it in. If this had been treated as laying the foundation, getting to know each other and their different views on heroes, I could see it happening down the road, but it’s too fast for me to have them already be acknowledging they’re doing that in the context of potential romance...I still don’t think I’m explaining myself very well, but that’s my view. I’m also still a little confused since I thought that Zoom-Jay was carrying dead-Flash-Jay at the end of the last episode, like there actually were two of them, so I need more explanation. That said, I’m chill either way since Jay was pretty suspicious to me and I’m still okay having that validated.
Arrow 4x16
Well I’m full of feelings now. Both sides of the plot were pretty much all about giving me a case of feelings that I’m not really prepared to deal with. I should have been prepared for the feelings of the Oliver/Felicity plot, I knew they weren’t just going to undo the breakup straight away and this was all the things they really needed to say to each other last time but didn’t have time for; but I wasn’t really prepared to have it all out so quickly. And I really wasn’t prepared for the trial side of the story to be so full of feelings, a very good use of the Lance characters that we’ve gotten fairly few of this season. Though I was a little weirded out by the fact that they never called Felicity to testify, but the episode hit so many big notes with me that it didn’t bug me too much. As always, the flashbacks were dumb, but I almost forgot they existed between the other stuff. I’m not sure if it was actually a good episode, but it sure made me feel lots of things and I’ll take that over technically good just about any day.
The Flash 2x17
I have kind of mixed feelings about this one. I liked a lot of it, but I don’t like changing the history of the story all willy-nilly and contrary to what the show says Barry sucks at playing at other versions of himself, and both collide in the fact that writers do not think through the full ramifications of time travel when invoking it like this. It ends up in a lose-lose situation because I can’t help feeling like they’re going to use it as a crutch allowing them to get continuity details wrong, and yet I’ll feel annoyed by it if all the details stay the same save the minor ones deliberately made a point of being changed here. But like I said, for all I dislike the way things are handled here, I enjoyed having old-Wells involved again, and seeing him in this context was quite a treat. And for all Eddie’s video bit was so unnatural for him to say, it was a nice emotional beat for Iris; though I confess this season has not done a great job acknowledging her loss of Eddie. I don’t want her to go on a Laurel spiral after the death of Tommy, but I had pretty much forgotten that might be a factor for her. It does provide some context for why the sudden dating prospect last time was written; I still have issue with the way that was handled, but as a narrative setup for a real emotional punch like this...it’s at least something. So I’m still not quite sure how to take this episode; I want to like it, if only I didn’t have so many reservations about it instead.
Arrow 4x17
I liked the episode, but it feels like it’s going places that I can’t quite see yet, so we’ll how that affects my ultimate opinions later. It’s clearly an important piece in building the overall narrative, some of which seems plainly on screen and some of which I know I’m not seeing yet; either way I don’t know that I see much to say about the episode. On the grave speculation report, now that Laurel’s getting some character focus I’m moving her back onto the potential list; although depending on where Andy’s loyalties actually turn out to be (I assume we’ll deal with that pretty soon) it may be setting up for Diggle (although considering the timeframe LoT offered for when Digg dies I’m not sure what to think). Also I’ve sort of decided I ship Thea/Laurel, it’s sort of been growing with them living together all season but I’m only now just over the line to call it even a kinda-sorta-ship. I have no expectation of it going anywhere near that in canon and I don’t really want it to, but that’s part of where my brain went this episode.
Legends of Tomorrow 1x09
I ended up liking that more and more as it went on. At first I was feeling let down with the handling of the fallout from last time, but once they actually settled in and started dealing with things it got pretty good. I still wish this series was written by someone who understood time travel stories better than the writers they have seem to, but that’s apparently just a personal issue they don’t feel much need to address. I feel a little cheated that they skipped over s much development for Ray and Kendra, both as individuals and a couple, but maybe the writers really miss having flashbacks (for some damn reason when they clearly have no purpose on Arrow anymore) so they’ll go back and fill in some things later. And now that the show has introduced that Talia does exist in this world, how long until she shows up in the main story? I also had dome interesting thoughts about how this works with what we already knew about Sara’s relationship with Ra’s, and I realized that we never really saw Ra’s care that much about Sara, most everything done to try and bring her in was really done by Nyssa (who this show finally remembered existed as part of Sara’s story so maybe we’ll get some follow through with them finally). And yes as soon as they drew attention to the fact that Kronos had taken Snart and left the rest of them, I figured out the reveal of Kronos, plus I’d pretty much been expecting Mick survived and would turn up again somehow, so it wasn’t as shocking as it might have been.
Arrow 4x18
Well, those of you that have been following my grave watch speculation all season know I’ve rarely had Laurel pegged as the one who would die, but this episode was laying it on real thick; while I still wasn’t exactly thinking it was this episode she had definitely shot to the top of my list. I’m also bad at calling things very far in advance as I was mostly thinking HIVE was playing Andy through this instead of him actually being on the other side; that was until they all got in that room with Darhk and I was pretty sure Andy had found the missing piece of the idol (where had Digg hidden it that it was found so quickly?) and was bringing it, but that wasn’t much warning. I thought that was pretty well masked as Oliver’s explanation to Diggle felt a lot like he was projecting and letting his own current problems decide his view of Andy. As a side note, I wish the picture at the end had been Laurel, Oliver, and Tommy, maybe with Sara (or maybe they say Sara took the picture) all hanging out in a simpler time, that would make a lot more sense and actually be a lot sadder than Laurel carrying around a picture of herself. Plus the show has entirely been written as if Oliver stopped being the love of Laurel’s life ages ago (like even in season 1 she kind of knew they were holding on to something that was long since over) and it was the memory of/guilt over Tommy that had kept her from moving on the last couple seasons, so that retcon rubbed me all the wrong ways. Also about the end, somebody go hug Lance, or at least try to as he might not accept it right now. Now, as much as Laurel has never been my favorite character, in fact pretty near the bottom as far as regulars go, I’m going to have to think for a while about whether I think this was an acceptable way to kill off the character; my gut says no, but that may just be initial reaction and I know I need some more of how the fallout is handled before I know for sure. It does feel a little like throwing in the towel on a character they had never really figured out what to do with, and I’m not sure how to even define how that makes me feel about it.
Legends of Tomorrow 1x10
I’m getting to a point that, while I’m enjoying the series, I definitely think it’s going to be a lot better on rewatch; and I think that has to do with the radical swings in setting and tone with each episode. It’s probably part of why Arrow remains my favorite of the shows, it feels like such an ongoing story that I want to see continued. Also this episode raises some points about the nature of this as a time travel story that I hadn’t really put into solid form before (or maybe I did in the 2046 episode, but probably didn’t point out); but at this point, the moment these characters rejoin their own timeline, the entire future after 2016 isn’t going to be what Rip’s files say it is. Ray goes back, retakes control of PT and makes sure the robotics don’t fall into the wrong hands, bam, future changed. Actually I have several Ray thoughts this episode, for one he continues to be off-brand-Oliver just as he was back in A-s3; he does eventually come clean to his girlfriend about thinking he has a child out there rather than letting the lie fester, but he doesn’t exactly jump to tell the truth; it’s perfectly understandable behavior, it just stands out considering what’s going on on Arrow. Also, how was Ray seeing anyone before going off on this adventure when he’s still supposed to be dead as far the world in 2016 is concerned? At least not without doing so under a false identity in which case I don’t think the hypothetical kid would go on to know that Ray Palmer as its father. I also want to comment on Kendra, who no one asks to be part of their team at the beginning, apparently sensing that she has her own subplot going on. But also, I continue to hate Kendra and Carter together, they never have any chemistry so I continue to get the impression Kendra’s kind of been wanting to break the cycle for several lifetimes now but kept having Carter push her into maintaining it (which sure is basically what happened in this lifetime) but is able to break it this time because he died so couldn’t make her keep living a life she no longer chose (she said just last week that she finally, for the first time in lifetimes, made her own choice about who to love, and that sounded legit to me); which makes her attitude her towards her memories where she doesn’t seem happy at all ring really false. I feel like I should have something to say about Rip’s plot/the main plot of the episode, but I can’t seem to think of what I want to say just now.