Elizabeth Sandifer

It is, of course, crass and ostentatious spectacle less interested in dramatically earning its major beats than it is in making sure they are explosively propulsive. Which is to say that it unapologetically plays to Game of Thrones’s strengths in a way that does not so much minimize its weaknesses as renders them largely irrelevant in the face of the giant fucking wildfire explosion that is the onrushing plot. Everything here is sufficiently thrilling, its implications generally punch-the-air triumphant, that their sheer momentum and the bald confidence with which it’s all carried off makes it work. This is what Game of Thrones’s aesthetic ultimately exists to do. It’s not a subtle pleasure. But, as Cersei would put it, it does feel good.

If there is a problem with it all, it’s that in the ludicrous din of it all moments that should have had real weight get swallowed. The biggest problem, of course, is the way in which the revelation of what actually happened at the Tower of Joy fails utterly to be a significant takeaway from the episode. The decision to save the revelation for this episode, as opposed to putting it in “Oathbreaker” where there would have been room to let Bran gawk at the fact that Jon’s a secret Targaryen, is in several regards baffling. And it highlights the extent to which this episode is overstuffed at the expense of previous ones. What on Earth, for instance, is the purpose of the four minute excursion to Oldtown? Surely Sam, who has spent the season blatantly being a plotline more than Benioff and Weiss actually wanted to deal with, could have been given a scene with actual weight, as opposed to one that exists purely to show the white ravens being sent out. Surely there was room for a third Benjen scene instead of having his second appearance be him leaving again. (Arya’s murder of Walder Frey is an interesting counterexample though. I admit, I didn’t think she’d be in this episode, since “No One” worked just fine as an ending, and the short nature of the scene and her appearance would have made it easy for it to end up as one of the swallowed moments. Instead Maisie Williams single-handedly kicks the scene into one of the best moments of the episode, because she is a fucking boss.)

But what minor quibbles. Let’s be real here. This is stunning, from start to finish. The opening set piece is majestic, due largely to Sapochnik’s direction. The decision to abandon the show’s normal visual storytelling in favor of heavy cross-cutting, further emphasized by a bespoke musical cue (which is subsequently mixed to satisfying effect with “The Rains of Castamere” for Cersei’s coronation) gives it a strange and unsettling quality that allows the realization of what’s going to happen to slowly build over the sequence’s frankly majestic length. The handling of Cersei this season has been one of its real high points – she’s been positioned relatively sympathetically and allowed to mostly be a rational, sensible character.…

Continue Reading

Neoreaction a Basilisk ebooks went out to Kickstarter backers yesterday. The first sentence never seemed so apt. I doubt I’ll find myself writing anything substantial on Brexit before the Capaldi volume of TARDIS Eruditorum, and thus with the benefit of a couple of years’ historicization. It’s obviously never a good thing when this many fascists are this happy, though. I honestly didn’t believe Britain would vote for the side that’s literally got Nazis gunning down its enemies in the streets. But then, as I noted last week, I honestly didn’t believe Britain would be a place where Nazis would gun down a politician in the streets. But of course, there’s always been more to Britain than the bits I love and have written at length about. Equally, that doesn’t mean the Britain I write about isn’t there. It’s always been a Britain of the margins. It’s still a land of madmen – poets and snake-worshippers and yes, of course, with boxes. It’s all still there, and still as important and central to what Britain is as it ever was. And if there’s one thing it’s lurking in the margins, ready to flood back in. 

That doesn’t make it any less of a depressing day, though. And I know I have a lot of readers for whom this was a particular gut punch. So consider this your open thread to vent, make fatalistic jokes, or cobble together fleeting optimism. 

Game of Thrones review will be Monday morning again, followed by Brief Treatise in the afternoon. Take care of yourselves and each other.…

Continue Reading

From worst to best of what I bought.

She Wolf #1

Nothing wrong with this comic as such – the art is tremendously striking, the themes are interesting. But there’s also nothing that particularly draws me in or makes me invested. By the end of the first issue I still wasn’t entirely clear on the premise. Will probably read interestingly in trade, but this doesn’t look like a single issue sort of thing to me.

Wonder Woman #1

Elsewhere in the wide world of uninspiring #1s, an issue of Wonder Woman that makes no real effort to sell a new premise or direction for the book. Rucka’s in typically competent mode doing the things he does well, which is to say soldiers and special ops stuff. He’s writing Wonder Woman in much more of a warrior/force of nature mode as opposed to the diplomat of his first run. Which is to say it’s lacking what made his first run interesting, and hasn’t really added anything to replace it. But it’s inoffensive and reasonably solid Wonder Woman, and I’m going to stick around for at least a few issues.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #8

A perfectly pleasant body swap issue that doesn’t really go anywhere, and ends with no real forward momentum into the next issue. Odd and a bit disposable, but still good fun.

The Ultimates #8

A tie-in that’s far better than the series it’s tying into, this is the first take on the big Thanos fight that kills James Rhodes that’s actually been well-done. Good character stuff for Monica and Adam. Needs more Ms. America, of course, but every comic Marvel publishes needs more Ms. America. Art is still gorgeous. All told, a solid issue that makes quite the silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Cry Havoc #6

This is an incredibly intelligent and well-done book, and I look forward to its eventual return (tragically not currently scheduled). I’m going to have to sit down and reread all six issues in one shot, because it’s definitely the sort of book that’s going to reward that, but its themes and approaches are both genuinely brilliant. The trade’s out in August, and I strongly recommend checking it out. 

James Bond #7

Ellis starts a new arc here, and at the outset at least it’s playing to his strengths much more than the first one did. I’m sure he’ll kind of annoy me by throwing in an all-action-sequence issue or abandoning all sense of single issue plotting, because that seems to be what Ellis does on James Bond, but for the moment I’m excited about this book again.

Bitch Planet #8

The most unapologetically social justice oriented book on the stands doubles down on that yet again, and as usual that’s not even the best part. The scene with Makoto realizing what’s happened to his daughter is heartbreaking, while the scenes between Cam and Whitney are full of twists and humor. Both are long on emotional nuance to boot.…

Continue Reading

Let’s start with the good, a phrase that pretty decisively tips my hand as to the overall shape of this review. The direction is largely solid – Sapochnik’s sense of composition is reliably impeccable. The wide shot of Davos after he’s discovered what happened to Shireen is probably the most straightforward of them, but it’s hardly the only one. His shots emphasizing the absolute carnage are things we haven’t seen the show do with violence before. The long take of Jon in combat is exquisite, as is the scene of Jon crawling his way out of the crush. 

Many of the small moments are similarly strong. Sansa riding away from the parlay is delicious, a beautiful setup for the final scene, Sophie Turner getting to play imperious badass and absolutely nailing it. Her smile as Ramsay is ripped apart is perfectly poised, at once capping off a long-awaited bit of narrative payoff and letting it go just a little too far. Davos and Tormund’s version of “the men chatting before the battle” is delightful. And pretty much everything in Meereen is fantastic, from Peter Dinklage’s understatement to the basic satisfaction (and intelligence) of opening an episode that had been promoted as if it was another “Blackwater” or “The Watchers on the Wall”-style single location battle with a scene in Meereen, and more to the point with a spectacle-laden battle scene in Meereen. And then of course there’s “I never demand, but I’m up for anything really,” which is straightforwardly the best line of the episode, and probably of the season.

The problems, then. Sapochnik’s direction is mostly excellent, but his taste for visual perversity, so effective in “Hardhome” when he was doing zombie horror battles, is just irritating here. Things like the gratuitous shot of Rickon’s body being riddled with additional arrows, or the decision to play Wun Wun’s death as a punchline with an arrow going through his eye are just crass – the worst instincts of the Red Wedding distilled into singular shots, included for no other reason than the fact that Game of Thrones is a show that is apparently fundamentally obliged to include tawdry spectacle.

Furthermore, while sloppy plotting vulnerable to refrigerator logic is a standard feature of Game of Thrones that I’m usually not bothered by, this episode is particularly egregious. Many of these are small things that can easily be ignored – the degree to which the starving dogs comply with dramatic pacing in exactly when they devour Ramsay, the fact that Sansa wasn’t actually there when Ramsay said he hadn’t fed them, or Ramsay’s mysteriously improving aim as Rickon recedes. Their aggregate is perhaps a particularly bad run of sloppiness, but none of it is outside the realm of what the show’s basic narrative engine depends on the viewer being willing to forgive.

But the Rickon scene also starts to get at some of the larger problems. Ramsay’s supernatural archery skills are highlighted by the fact that the scene is a drawn out spectacle of unpleasant anticipation.…

Continue Reading

Burn Goreman finally lands a job more ridiculous than Torchwood.

Review of “Battle of the Bastards” will be along later today – I’ve got an early morning, so can’t get it up the night before I fear.

State of Play

Continue Reading

I’ve successfully moved, and even unpacked most of the boxes. So that’s nice. Settling and finally getting back to work, at least when I can avoid being horribly distracted by the book I’m reading. (It’s a really good book, but alas I can’t mention the title.) Finally back to work on Last War in Albion, both revisions and new material. Just had cause to crack open How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way. And the Neoreaction a Basilisk copyedits are almost done. So life is largely good. 

“Battle of the Bastards” review will probably be up Monday morning, as Jill’s first day of work is Monday and I’m somewhat disinclined to stay up til 2-3am reviewing Game of Thrones the night before that. 

In other news, friend of the blog James Wylder is running a Kickstarter for Goblinpunk, a Pathfinder and D&D compatible adventure. They’re just under $270 from goal with just over a day remaining, so if that’s a thing that interests you, well, do the obvious thing.

And that’ll do for this week, I reckon.…

Continue Reading

From worst to best of what I read, with books that I wasn’t willing to pay money for.

Lazarus #22

I may be putting this at the bottom for my own failings as opposed to the book’s, given that I discovered an entire plotline I’d apparently completely failed to understand in the recap pages. (I’d been parsing the scenes of the second Forever as flashbacks for some reason.) Anyway, this is a fine issue of Lazarus, but I have to admit, there’s not a lot that’s fresh in this book at this point, and not only on the level of “what happens all feels pretty standard and expected,” but on the level of “it is difficult to even imagine how the book could surprise me.” Which I suppose is an odd question to ask, as it wouldn’t be a surprise, but all the same, this just isn’t a book I’ve got much excitement for right now and is becoming a bit of a loyalty read.

Spider-Gwen #9

I have a much easier time with Spider-Gwen when she’s in conversation with the rest of the Marvel Universe, as opposed to when she’s doing stories in her own bubble, and started this book mildly annoyed and a bit underwhelmed by it and wondering if I was going to keep going. I ended the book much more enthused and interested, after some good character notes. There’s a mild impatience for the silly and obviously temporary “Gwen only has a finite number of doses of power left” status quo to go away so that the book can get back to its actual premise – it’s exactly the sort of plot superhero comics are slightly crap at. But for the most part, fun superheroics.

Mercury Heat #10

Missed that this came out and just snagged it. A very “gets the job done” sort of issue, the job being a pseudo-conclusion that gives way to a nice big cliffhanger that will presumably close out this arc. There’s not a lot new to introduce, though, and most of the intriguing questions left by previous issues have resolved into answers that, while perfectly fine and good storytelling, are, as is often the case, somewhat less interesting than the open-ended questions. So nothing wrong with it, but not an exceptionally gripping issue either.

Klaus #6

The Morrisonia really hits in full, with the sort of symbolism-infused vision quest you expect from Morrison. On the one hand this is a bit sad, the book seeming to give up most of what made it feel fresh and innovative in favor of predictability. On the other hand, this book has been wheel-spinning, and even if Morrison is leaning hard on old favorites here, it’s still providing the book with a new momentum that it hasn’t really had since issue #2 or so, making me at least a bit interested in the conclusion, even as it’s pretty clear how everything is going to shake out. This remains Morrison’s best work in a couple years, for better and for worse.…

Continue Reading

I really find myself wondering what Jack Gleeson thought of that scene.

State of Play

The choir goes off. The board is laud out thusly:

Lions of King’s Landing: Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Tywin Lannister

Dragons of Meereen: Daenerys Targaryen

Direwolves of the Wall: Jon Snow

Mockingbirds of King’s Landing: Petyr Baelish

Roses of King’s Landing: Margaery Tyrell

Ships of Dragonstone: Davos Seaworth

Burning Heats of Dragonstone: Stannis Baratheon

Direwolves of King’s Landing: Sansa Stark

The Direwolf, Arya Stark

The Dogs, Sandor Clegane

Archers of the Wall: Samwell Tarly

Bows of the Wall: Ygritte

Paws of the Wall: Tormund Giantsbane

Flowers of the Wall: Gilly

Shields of King’s Landing: Brienne of Tarth

Spiders of King’s Landing: Varys

With the Bear of Meereen, Iain Glenn

The Dreadfort is abandoned.

The episode is in eight parts. The first part runs fourteen minutes and is in three sections. The first sections is four minutes long; the opening image is identical to the closing image of the previous episode. The second section is two minutes long. The transition is by implication, from one of Joffrey’s murderers to the other. The third section is six minutes  long. The transition is by dialogue, from Olenna talking about Joffrey to his corpse.

The second part runs six minutes and is set in the Riverlands. The transition is by hard cut, from Jaime raping Cersei to some hills.

The third runs three minutes and is set at the Wall. The transition is by hard cut, from Arya to the yard at Castle Black.

The fourth runs four minutes and is set on Dragonstone. The transition is by hard cut, from Sam to the table in Dragonstone.

The fifth runs two and is set in Molestown, just south of the Wall. The transition is by hard cut, from Princess Shireen writing to Sam and Gilly riding through a street.

The sixth runs eleven minutes and is in two sections; it is set in King’s Landing. The first section is six minutes long; the transition is by image, from one brothel to another. The second section is five minutes long; the transition is by family, from Tywin to Tyrion Lannister, and by dialogue, with Tywin and Oberyn talking about Tyrion’s trial.

The seventh part runs five minutes and is set at and around the Wall. The transition is by hard cut, from Podrick departing to an babbling river.

The last runs eight minutes and is set in Meereen. The transition is by family, from Jon Snow to Daenerys Targaryen. The final image is of a slave landing on a ladder as he looks at a broken collar.

Analysis

For the most part, “Breaker of Chains” is a standard-issue bit of transitional play, primarily concerned with placing the season on its forward course following the ridiculous fireworks of “The Lion and the Rose.” And yet look at that State of Play: eight parts. That’s insane. The only Season Three episode to have that few parts was “Valar Dohaeris.” All told, the only other episodes in the first three seasons to come in under ten are “Winter is Coming,” “The Wolf and the Lion,” and “Blackwater.”…

Continue Reading

Hm. I freely admit, this is a slightly tough and weird one for me to review. Not for anything having to do with the episode – just that I watched it twenty-four hours after moving house and socially instead of my previously standard Game of Thrones ritual of pizza and relative solitude. So I don’t know if my sense that it was an oddly disjointed and directionless thing was simply because I was disjointed, or because this was actually an odd and slightly off-kilter thing for an eighth episode. I suspect at least partially the latter – the odd structure of a Lannister-focused episode with a pair of Hound/Arya scenes bolted onto each end (via hard cut in each direction) harkens back to some of the weird and half-baked approaches of Season Three. And there’s a relative absence of driving and climactic momentum that jars for an eighth episode.

The most obvious thing to point to in that regard – and it’s a genuinely peculiar move – is that Jon and Sansa aren’t in it. The preview makes it pretty clear that we’re doing a single location battle episode for our penultimate one, which is good and exciting, but it’s positively bizarre not to include a scene along those lines that might gesture towards the sense of impending climax. Instead the plot leaves that out, which gives the episode an oddly hollow feel, especially since its only vague contribution to that plot is the thoroughly anticlimactic killing of the Blackfish, a move that both departs somewhat abruptly from the books and that raises the question of why the hell we set out on this particular plot line in the first place. He just turns a corner after a dumb line about how Brienne will serve Sansa better than him (as though it’s an either-or choice), and that’s apparently that for a character we went to great length to bring back after three years.

It’s not a total loss – the Jaime and Brienne scene is delightful, and the Jaime/Edmure scene is quite good as well (especially the use of the “things we do for love” line) – but the Riverrun material this week is at once lengthy and mostly tedious. Even Bronn and Podrick don’t really work. And yet a huge chunk of the episode is spent there. Not only that, a huge chunk of work across the season has been spent making it so that we actually remember who the hell Edmure and Brynden Tully are. And yet it seems for the most part to amount to nothing. It’s possible that the tenth episode will manage to find something to do with this plot that redeems it, but right now it seems utterly pointless.

And this isn’t the only moment that plays out weirdly. Daenerys’s return to Meereen is inexplicably limp, coming as it does after a two minute “and now the Masters welch on the deal from four episodes ago” siege that, while a fair amount of money was spent making it look nice, still feels ridiculously perfunctory.…

Continue Reading

From worst to best of what I bought. At the end is a list of my planned purchases for next week. Anything you’re gutted to see absent from that list, take it up in comments.

Wonder Woman: Rebirth #1

A hot mess, but potentially a forgiveable one – certainly I’ll continue with the first issue or two of the actual Rucka run, as I have historically liked his Wonder Woman. But this barely deserves to be called a comic – the overwhelming majority of it is simply an internal monologue on Wonder Woman’s part. And not an internal monologue with tension and drive, nor, for that matter, with much artistry. It’s mostly just a restatement of the fact that Wonder Woman’s origin story is thoroughly and completely fucked. Then Wonder Woman punches a mirror and goes to Olympus for answers, only it’s apparently not really Olympus and there aren’t any answers given. Or, actually, questions asked. Seriously, I don’t think Marvel and DC have managed a feat of synchronized suckage as bad as Rebirth and Civil War II since Zero Hour and the Clone Saga were bowing at the same time twenty-two years ago.

New Avengers #12

There’s nothing particularly wrong with this issue, but there’s not much that’s massively compelling about it either. The character bits are fun – Ewing does some excellent Squirrel Girl bits, a great Hawkeye beat, and some nice setup (it’s good to see the Maker back, for instance). But on the whole, it’s kind of dismaying for this to already be caught up in another crossover I’m disinclined to read, and I suspect this’ll be my last issue barring reader intervention.

Darth Vader #21

Solid rising action, with the requisite things you expect from Darth Vader. Vader intimidates and kills people, Aphra and Triple-Zero are funny, everything moves inexorably towards a conclusion. but Gillen’s Darth Vader arcs have all been end-loaded, and his last one looks like no exception. 

The Wicked + The Divine #20

Hm. I can’t say I’m overly thrilled with this issue, mostly because it handles the “how Laura survived” issue in a way I generally dislike, which is to reveal that what we saw was presented in an actively misleading manner. It’s not a bad issue – the entire “Nergal” section is absolutely hilarious, Cassandra is consistently delightful, and Matthew Wilson is doing some really cool, weird stuff with the colors. But as big reveals go, this one is at the moment leaving me a bit cold. Although I’ve high hopes that it’ll work out, because it’s Gillen and WicDiv.

Injection #10

The second arc ends with lots of chilling, meaty stuff, beginning with Ellis doing the classic detective “bring everyone together to explain the plot” resolution, and ending with a nice, disturbing sequence of strange horrors inflicted upon the world by the Injection. In the middle is some fun discussion of money, magic, and religion, and also discussion of sex with ghosts. I hope the break before this comes back isn’t too brutally long, as it’s an utter delight.…

Continue Reading