Links and Updates

This morning a work colleague asked me how I was doing, and I replied that I was trying to focus on all the shows and films that were coming up this month, to which he replied: "it's the season of distraction."

It surely is, for since my last Links and Updates post, we've got trailers for Stranger Things, Avengers: Endgame, Game of Thrones and She-Ra, not to mention a very strange poster for Star Wars Episode IX.

Between the struggle to get back to normality and the awareness that things will never quite be the same in New Zealand, people are looking for different outlets to distract themselves, and April is certainly going to be a time for that given the final season of Game of Thrones begins, The Avengers: Endgame is out in theatres, and Netflix drops season two of She-Ra.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm looking forward to that last one the most.

When it comes to Stranger Things, I'm in a weird headspace. While I'm watching it, I'm totally consumed. During the hiatus, I barely give it a second thought. Since its first season, there have been dozens upon dozens of films and shows that pay tribute to the eighties in one way or another, so they'll have to up their game if they want to stay fresh and relevant (let's be honest, they coast a lot on nostalgia).

But this trailer certainly suggests the Duffer Brothers know what they're doing. It's vibrant, it's dreamy, its funny, and it picks the perfect song to reintroduce us to the gang. There's so much going on here, and yet nothing about the actual plot is given away.

Highlights include the cute hand-holding between Eleven and Mike, little Erica crawling through a ventilation shaft, Mrs Wheeler getting some at the pool, Steve still in mother-hen mode, and of course, Eleven and Max being friends. Clearly this development is to this season what "justice for Barb" was to the second, as I definitely wasn't the only one eager to see their first meeting mellow out into something more enduring.

Having come this far I have to say I'm looking forward to Game of Thrones wrapping up, and despite only being a casual fan, there is something weighty about seeing the end of a story that started way back in 1996. I'm pretty invested in several of the characters, and even when the story stops making sense (people can teleport at will now) I've always been a fan of the show's incredible spectacle.

As has long been suspected, the armies of the dead are going to attack Winterfell in a skirmish that will inevitably go south for our heroes, though I've no idea who's going to pull through and who will fall. The show has been pretty slack on taking out important characters lately (Jon, Bronn and Tormund should by all accounts be dead by now) though perhaps they were just saving the the slaughter for this last big face-off.

What sticks out in the trailer is the contrast between Arya's devil-may-care speech and her frightened demeanour in the tunnels of Winterfell, Cersei's realization that she's truly alone now, and the suggestion that Jon is about to go dragon-flying.

On slightly trollish note, I have to admit I'm also super excited about the shipping drama that'll inevitably go down. It's mostly between those who want Jon Snow to end up with Daenerys and those who want him to end up with Sansa, which is hilarious for two reasons - firstly that they're campaigning for the guy to end up with either his aunt or his sister, and secondly that Jon is easily the least interesting character in the whole damn show. You're fighting over him why exactly?

(Okay I know why, because shippers have projected themselves onto either Sansa or Dany, and a longstanding relationship with the male lead will make them "the hero's girlfriend" and therefore solidify their own importance in the narrative. It's complicated, but it hangs together psychologically. God I love this stuff).

She-Ra is also back this month, with this fantastic poster to whet our appetite:

Hordak who? The show knows perfectly well that their drawcard is the fraught relationship between Adora and Catra, which will no doubt be kicked up a notch this season (though apparently it's only seven episodes long? Down from thirteen? That's not a good sign, unless they're breaking it in half for some reason).

The trailer is good too, with more of what we love from our heroes: that despite magical swords and flying horses, it's their genuine love and friendship with each other that gives them the edge. This is the kind of thing I need right now.

On the subject of posters, there was a pretty big stir in the Star Wars fandom last week when this poster was leaked, with plenty of speculation about whether or not it was official, or just a very good fake. I'm leaning more towards a preliminary poster than was never going to be distributed, as a lot of what's pictured here has been rumoured in various reports.

For instance, the detail that most people point to as proof that it's a mock-up is C3-PO toting Chewbacca's bowcaster - though believe it or not, this was an established rumour well before this image saw the light of day. It's also undeniable that these aren't stock photos of the cast from previous films; they're wearing new clothes with new hairstyles. A change in Finn's hair has long been rumoured, as has Rey taking on white robes.

So if we take this as an accurate depiction of what will probably appear in the third and final film, then there's a lot to unpack. Like, where is Luke, Leia, R2-D2 and Rose? Is that Daft Punk character Kerri Russell? And what the hell is the yellow alien standing next to Finn? Gotta say, I'm excited about the Knights of Ren finally showing up, and it's interesting that Kylo has repaired his helmet (another rumour that's been floating around for a while).

Not long now, and hopefully we'll get to see some footage soon.

Last of all, the newest Endgame trailer, which gives away a surprising amount of emotional beats (Tony/Steve, Nebula/Rocket, Tony/Pepper, Tony/Peter - hmm, a lot of Tony here) while still keeping the story under wraps. All we know is that they're going up against Thanos for the second time, and in doing so are finally living up to their name of the Avengers.

A range of posters have also been released, with the survivors of the snap in colour, and the dead in black-and-white. The good news is Valkyrie is officially alive and kicking and in this movie (as well as Pepper, Happy and Wong), the bad news is that Shuri got dusted. Dammit. It would have been amazing to see her step-in as the ruler of Wakanda - but who are we kidding, they were never going to explore that angle anyway.

And I guess I better let go of my hopes of seeing Sif, Sharon or Nakia, even in tiny roles. Ah well.