Links and Updates

 Before we get to the pop-culture stuff, I just want to say that the March 15th shooter, who took fifty-one innocent Muslim lives last year, was sentenced yesterday for life imprisonment without parole. There were some stirring stories within the courtroom, and the survivors were permitted to address the terrorist directly – whether in anger, grief or (amazingly) forgiveness.

A small mercy was that he plead guilty and had nothing to say in his own defense. I have no idea what spurred this decision (and I don’t much care either) but at least it spared the families the pain of a trial. Now he has nothing to look forward to but a life of empty monotony; void of human companionship or love, and the rest of us can forget his worthless carcass ever existed at all.

However, I do want to say that the news outlets of this country have been exemplary. Refusing to indulge in sensationalism or in giving this monster the notoriety he craves, yesterday was the first time he made the front page of any publication – even then The Star deliberately pixelated his face, and The Press published a caption that explained they were demonstrating how pathetic and weak he was (sure enough, the unflattering picture emphasis his tiny stature and thinning hair).

I’m profoundly grateful that New Zealand journalism has handled this event with so much compassion and common sense; elevating the voices of the survivors and diminishing the stature of the terrorist. As was said so often throughout the victim statements: he tried to scare and divide us, and only succeeded in bringing us together.

Though it will never bring back those innocent lives, I hope at least that the day provided some closure for the families most affected.

I’m afraid the rest of this post isn’t going to be any more cheerful, though the subject matter will certainly be less grim…

So…um… there’s a new Twilight book out. It’s the long-awaited novel that tells the story from Edward’s point of view, and has been received (over a decade after its initial announcement) with a hearty shrug from all and sundry. Obviously Meyers is under no obligation to please anyone but herself, and I’m sure she’ll make a profit from this, but wow – talk about delivering on a product long after your original fanbase has ceased to care. The Hunger Games prequel was more hotly anticipated than this, and even that was rather tepidly received.

(Apparently Edward compares Bella to Persephone eating the pomegranate while he’s watching her scarf down pasta. Coming from the author who tapped the inherent eroticism of a high school biology class on mitosis, this checks out).

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The first trailer for the second season of His Dark Materials is out, and however lukewarm I was on the first season (as discussed in my episode reviews) I’m still excited to see more of the adapted material. Now that it’s come out from under the shadow of the dismal 2007 film, I can hopefully start to enjoy it on its own terms rather compare it to a truncated adaptation that nevertheless had a much bigger budget.

And there’s some good stuff here: Cittagazze! Mary Malone! The Subtle Knife! The material between Lin-Manual Miranda’s Lee Scoresby and Andrew Scott’s Stanislaus Grumman could be extremely interesting; likewise it looks as though they’ll be delving a bit deeper into the tribal politics of the witches. I’m all for that.

And of course, Lyra and Will teaming up with each other. Admittedly, I’ve never been a huge shipper of these two, and Pullman’s attempts to sell me on the great and world-changing love story of two thirteen-year olds simply didn’t work for me at all – but perhaps the chemistry of Dafne Keen and Amir Wilson can help introduce a new angle to the proceedings. If I can squeeze out a single tear I’ll call that a win.

There is one face missing and that’s James McAvoy as Lord Asriel. I read an interview with the writer a couple of months ago, and apparently his absence is a casualty of Covid-19. They were all set to film a full-length episode that depicted Asriel’s whereabouts and goings-on throughout the course of The Subtle Knife (he doesn’t appear in that book either) but had to call it quits when the virus took hold. Hopefully they’ll be able to deliver on that idea for the third season, especially if Pullman contributes in some way.

The only downside are the lines: “The time has come to act. I believe we have no choice.” “Witches have always known more than they should.” “There’s something evil here.” “The fate of many worlds may rest on you.” Urgh. Why is such an original and fascinating story saddled with such trite dialogue?

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This is old news by now, but… they’re releasing the Snyder Cut of Justice League. What seemed like a complete castle in the sky is actually going to air as a four-part movie on HBO Max sometime in 2021. I managed to completely avoid the on-line drama that surrounded fandom’s campaign for this material (the closest I came was seeing it parodied on the animated Harley Quinn series) but the implications of its release are difficult to parse through.

I’ve no doubt that many of the fans involved acted with aggression and entitlement, and God knows I’ve seen plenty of films and shows that have gone downhill the moment they start pandering to niche groups, but I’m also aware that they raised thousands of dollars for suicide awareness (the reason Snyder had to step back from the project in the first place.

Still, in the wake of the announcement I’ve read a couple of articles that claim the Snyder Cut sets a dangerous precedence in how it caters to the worst corners of internet fandom. I mean, I think we can safely say that this cut of the film would not be seeing the light of day were it not for the backlash against the theatrical release.

And yet… I’m looking forward to what this has to offer, even if it’s purely on an aesthetic level (you gotta admit, Snyder knows how to frame an image). I want to see Kiersey Clemons as Iris, I want to see what Snyder had planned for Wonder Woman, and I definitely want to see how Cyborg is the “heart” of this film, as has been so widely discussed (apparently Ray Fisher was the first person Snyder called once he got the green-light on this project).

Back in 2017, a few colleagues of mine went to see Justice League over the weekend, and when we all met up again the next working day, the consensus was: “it was good, but I wanted it to be great” (though in all honesty, it wasn’t really good either). And after some of the reports emerging from Joss Whedon’s time on the set (Ray Fisher clearly wasn’t treated well, and Gal Gadot refused to do the stupid gag in which Barry falls into her cleavage – a gag Whedon already did back in Age of Ultron) I’m curious to see what this story looks like in different hands. Avoiding the fandom makes that easy.

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In other DC news (this time pertaining to the CW television shows) we have a double-whammy of cast changes: Ruby Rose is leaving the role of Kate Kane/Batwoman (to be replaced with Javicia Leslie was cast as Ryan Wilder) and Hartley Sawyer (Ralph Dibney/Elongated Man) has been fired from The Flash after some racist/misogynistic tweets resurfaced.

In the case of Hartley, it was the right call to make, even though his character had improved by leaps and bounds in season five (and I’ll remain astounded that public figures continue to publish such career-ending garbage on social media) but it’s harder to lose Rose. Granted, she wasn’t the most versatile actress of all time, but of the episodes I’ve seen (still trying to synchronize all those shows so I can watch Crisis on Infinite Earths) I’ve really enjoyed her low-key intensity.

That said, I definitely want to give Javicia a chance, and it’s not like this is the first time a show has swapped out protagonists (does anyone else remember Hex back in 2006?) The biggest challenge will be integrating Ryan Wilder into the established cast, which is largely made up of Kate Kane’s family members, so perhaps they’ll be able to coax Rose back for a few “transitional” episodes before passing on the cowl.

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Sadly, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have left Netflix’s production of Avatar: The Last Airbender, citing the usual “creative differences”. Honestly, I don’t think the world needed a live-action take on an animated show that was as close to being perfect as human beings are capable of achieving (just look at any live-action Disney movie of the Renaissance period for proof of that) and so much of the beauty and intricacy of the story is to be found in its animation (the bending for example, is going to be well-nigh impossible to depict – as that other live-action adaptation of the show proved).

WHY this obsession with live-action remakes? Oh right, they make money, because people would rather watch something they’ve seen before in a new medium than seek out new ideas, new stories, new experiences. Urgh. On that note though, perhaps it means Bryan Konietzko will get back to Threadwords, because damn I want to read that!

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The Skywalker Saga has come to an end, but with Disney at the wheel, you can be guaranteed of more Star Wars related content for years to come. Already they’ve announced a new animated series based on the clone Stormtroopers known as the Bad Batch (honestly can’t think of any characters I’m less interested in), a live-action film written and directed by Taika Waititi (okay, but is he going to get yanked from the project halfway through and get replaced like the last two sets of directors were?) and a Lego Christmas Special in which Rey acts out the plot of A Christmas Carol (I thought it would be a bit of fun, then read that Kylo Ren was in it. Hard pass).

If TROS taught me anything it’s that toxic fandom has this franchise by the balls. I’ve zero interest in watching anything that’s eventually going to cater to whatever fuckwits are making the loudest noise on Twitter – but just in case you’re sick of me complaining about Star Wars, here’s a compilation of X-Wing pilots set to Danger Zone:

I may have sworn off Star Wars for a while, but there’s truly something so stirring about the X-wings. Those moments when their wings spread out into X’s is such an emblematic symbol of goodness and heroism – you know the bad guys are about to get their asses handed to them whenever they turn up.

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Two good articles: Enough Already with the White Warrior Women Worship and Black Leading Ladies, a Threat to Fandom’s Status Quo, which explore the issues I’ve touched upon recently on this blog – that genre stories are dominated by white women, even when the likes of fantasy, sci-fi and horror should be the friendliest ones to people of colour, especially women. After all, what’s stopping them but their own baked-in prejudices?

(I will say however, that of the recent shows/films cited in the first article, The Old Guard and Cursed both have women of colour in important roles: Nile in The Old Guard and Morgana in Cursed – though in typical fandom fashion, they’re largely ignored).

But on that note, an announcement was just made that Kelly Marie Tran is going to voice Raya, the latest Disney Princess in the upcoming Raya and the Last Dragon. God knows Disney owes her steady employment for the rest of her natural life after the way she was treated in TROS, and becoming a Disney Princess is certainly one way to make it up to her (though I feel sorry for original voice-actress Cassie Steele, who seems to have been unceremoniously dumped).

So I’ve got my fingers crossed that despite this behind-the-scenes shuffle – it looks like they’ve also got a new pair of co-directors – they’ll deliver on a film that’s actually worthy of her this time.

Finally, in keeping with the recent tradition that requires absolutely everything that has ever existed to be rebooted in one form or another, Saved by the Bell is back. And I bring it up only because their song choice is truly a level of audacity that somersaults into pure genius.

(Seriously though, don’t watch this).

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In the middle of writing up this post, I learned the tragic news about Chadwick Boseman. There’s really nothing I can say that’s of fitting eloquence or weightiness – only that before 2015 I had no idea who or what Black Panther even was, but after Civil War and Black Panther, I’ll remember the character forever as one played by a gifted actor with charisma, intelligence, dignity and grace. It’s a terrible loss to the world.