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So far, I've seen the Supergirl episode and a few minutes of the Arrow episode.  The story is much more homogeneous than the previous crossover (i.e., the Supergirl episode doesn't center on Supergirl, etc.).

I don't think this will be a spoiler:  Harrison Wells points out that there are NOT, in fact, 52 earths, but 53.  "Earth-X" is so bad that no one enumerates it with the rest.  Really? :rolleyes:

I hope we get to see the Freedom Fighters (especially, of course, Phantom Lady).

George

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On 12/2/2017 at 11:11 PM, GeorgeStGeorge said:

So now we wait for WW...:rolleyes::wave:

George

Sorry. We hustled and finished before the weekend.  We're current thru "Crisis on Earth X."  (I'm already falling behind after.)  Getting ready for Summer, plus end-of-year school bs is really eating up a lot of time. 

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So, assuming you've seen the crossover, here are my comments:

General story line good.  It was interesting to see that "good" GA and "evil" GA aren't that different.  In fact "good" GA kills "evil" GA, just before the latter kills him!.

Characters:

Zoom:  Okay.... so he's Earth-1's Thawne, in his Wells disguise, somewhere before being killed?  And Barry lets him go, why?  Because he knows Thawne will go back in the past and get killed anyway?  Couldn't it have simply been Earth-X's Zoom?

Captain Cold:  Glad to see him back, even as a "good" guy.  But why make him homosexual?  I think it's in CW's charter that every show has to have at least one.  (Oh, and, apparently, they can never be villains.)  His relationship to the Ray didn't improve the plot (nor, for that matter, did Alex's dalliance with Sara).  I guess if you're going to have two heterosexual relationships, you have to have two homosexual relationships.

Firestorm:  Bummer.  Of course, I had a suspicion that something was up when Victor Garber showed up as a regular on "The Orville."  The last time I saw an actor as a regular on simultaneous shows was Stephen Culp in JAG and Enterprise.*  And he died on both shows, in the same week!  More resolution  for Martin and Jax occurs in the fall finale.  I AM delighted with who will replace them!

George

*Actually, I forgot that Dominic Purcell was in the Prison Break miniseries at the same time as LoT, though I think LoT was in a season break when PB aired.

 

 

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I will have a more complete answer later, but allow me to ask you a question.

Why did you have no qualms at all about alt-Oliver and alt-Supergirl being in a romantic relationship, but you wonder whether Captain Cold being gay was necessary to the plot (you know, aside from the fact that it's the reason he and his boyfriend were on the wrong side of the Nazis)?

One relationship gets away without a mention. The other is questioned.

I found Sara and Alex hilarious.  Sara is a conquer-her, Alex is vulnerable and on the rebound. What, you thought nothing would happen? CAMMAN!!! (say it out loud).

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Since a main reason the Nazis invaded Earth 1 was to get Supergirl-X a new heart, SOMEONE had to have more than a passing interest in her, and since there was no apparent Monel-X, why not Oliver?

Your point about CC and the Ray fighting the Nazis because they were gay makes sense.  I just thought they did it because they were good guys.

As for Alex/Sara, I was actually happy to see Alex's remorse, basically telling Kara, "No, it's NOT OK.  I'm not that slutty."  (I would have felt the same way if it had been a heterosexual booty call, as well.)

George

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Why not have a Monel-X? Why not Barry? Why not Wells? Why not just make them close friends? 

I get that it served the plot, but the plot would have proceeded just fine with them as close friends and allies. Would Barry do less for Killer Frost? 

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I think part of the point of portraying gay relationships in such a matter of fact way is to "normalize" them, to show that they are just a part of the fabric of life. This couple is a couple. So is that couple. And that one. And only one of the three is a heterosexual couple. Got a problem with that? Watch a different show!

In a different context, we used to refer to it as "mainstreaming." For example, the family featured in a newspaper article about small business growth or tax credits for private school education just happens to be black or Hispanic or Asian. The article is not ABOUT the fact that they're b/h/a. They're affected by the issue. The article is about the issue.

Did you see the last Rocky movie, Creed? It's a black movie. Well, not really. It's a movie. It just happens to be about black people. And Rocky. No one thinks of it as a black movie, but it is.

(My prediction, by the way, is that in the Creed sequel, Rocky dies).

Where was I? Oh, mainstreaming. The idea behind mainstreaming is, for example, that not every movie about a black man's struggle has to be about The Black Man's Struggle. Not every article about Latinos running small businesses and navigating the system has to be about Latinos Running Small Businesses. Not every storyline featuring gay people is about their homosexuality. It's about the story. The characters in it just happen to be gay. Or not.

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On 12/6/2017 at 3:33 PM, GeorgeStGeorge said:

So, assuming you've seen the crossover, here are my comments:

General story line good.  It was interesting to see that "good" GA and "evil" GA aren't that different.  In fact "good" GA kills "evil" GA, just before the latter kills him!.

Characters:

Zoom:  Okay.... so he's Earth-1's Thawne, in his Wells disguise, somewhere before being killed?  And Barry lets him go, why?  Because he knows Thawne will go back in the past and get killed anyway?  Couldn't it have simply been Earth-X's Zoom?

Captain Cold:  Glad to see him back, even as a "good" guy.  But why make him homosexual?  I think it's in CW's charter that every show has to have at least one.  (Oh, and, apparently, they can never be villains.)  His relationship to the Ray didn't improve the plot (nor, for that matter, did Alex's dalliance with Sara).  I guess if you're going to have two heterosexual relationships, you have to have two homosexual relationships.

Firestorm:  Bummer.  Of course, I had a suspicion that something was up when Victor Garber showed up as a regular on "The Orville."  The last time I saw an actor as a regular on simultaneous shows was Stephen Culp in JAG and Enterprise.*  And he died on both shows, in the same week!  More resolution  for Martin and Jax occurs in the fall finale.  I AM delighted with who will replace them!

George

*Actually, I forgot that Dominic Purcell was in the Prison Break miniseries at the same time as LoT, though I think LoT was in a season break when PB aired.

 

 

We were annoyed about Earth-1's Thawne showing up AGAIN. This is tiresome. Why not an Earth-X SOMEBODY?  Wally? Jay Garrick? Jessie Quick?  Thawne and Damien Darke, in our opinions, have long outstayed their welcomes in the continuity.   And really, letting him just go away?  There was no better solution?

Ok, Earth-X's Cold. I figured it was something the actor requested-to make this version gay- and given the alternate Earths, was not a problem. Different versions of people are different.  Winn in Earth-X is an Alpha Male, not an Omega, and so on.  Where I had the problem there was in the writing. Both the Ray (why not Ray-X?) and Leo were portrayed in ways I might consider insulting if I was gay.  I thought it would have been a LOT more effective as a "things are different, remember?" moment if Snart seemed EXACTLY the same as the Lenard we know right up until he started chewing on Terrill's face.  As it was, it was NOT a surprise to EITHER of us. Mrs caught his comment about "partner" (which could have simply meant "teammate" because that word is used that way among others), but his tone of voice was higher, and he actually stopped in the middle of a firefight to discuss FASHION? THIS is the Cold whose plans never go awry even against a global army?    (BTW, Pied Piper WAS a villain but is now nominally with Team Flash's reserve list.)   

On Firestorm, this IS a bummer. I'm glad we got to see Jax and the Steins actually grieve, but I was hoping we'd at least keep the Firestorm Matrix operational. (Mrs Wolf speculated that they're going to replace Firestorm with the Ray sometime this season, since they even used the same animation software for both flying.)  I'd heard rumours that Garber wanted to leave, but was hoping things would unfold differently.   It WILL be interesting to see Leo interact with the Legends- but I hope they make him seem more like Lenard than we're seeing in CoEX. 

On Alex and Sara,, I have mixed reviews, and they concern the whole series'.  On Sara, they kept up lazy writing that matched the stereotype that bisexuals are some sort of sex maniacs that bed-hop (Sara kept nailing female characters off-screen when not with the team.)   They seem to have lightened up on that the past few months, but not entirely. Considering her current attitudes, I'm not shocked she'd have a one-night-stand.  I'm pleasantly surprised that the scripters seemed to remember that the character actually DOES have interest in men from time to time, if not 50/50- lately, it seemed as if they'd completely forgotten.

On Alex, I have a long-standing complaint. She's supposed to be both SMART and COMPETENT (responsible enough to run the DEO at any moment, etc.) We're supposed to believe that she went thru college and grad school, and the subject of women liking women never came up? She was in college in the US! Especially when she was supposedly in school, it was trendy for women to "experiment" with women for different reasons- thus the terms like "lesbian until graduation" and "hetero-flexible" and so on. There's even girls who will kiss other girls in sight of guys in an attempt to excite the guys. Seriously, those were all "things" before she went to college, and were moreso when she went. (And if they weren't on Earth-29, then that Earth would be LESS cool with it than ours, not MORE. Everything affects everything.)  So, she never even CONSIDERED whether she might like one or more females ever.  I'd have trouble buying that if she was younger AND less smart AND less of a thinker. 

 

Furthermore, she just jumped completely into a relationship with someone (Sawyer) and never COMMUNICATED with her about what they both wanted. (A relationship with 2 women, no guys, and there's no communication? I can accept flying Kryptonians but some things are ridiculous.;)  )   It's interesting that she's given LOTS of thought to wanting to raise a kid, worked out lots of little incidents in the kid's life, and has not even considered the possibility of what to do if she has a SON.  (Listen to her talk to Kara about that. Kara never called her on it, either.) Would that have changed how she felt about raising a kid, in any way? I'm sure it would have changed SOMETHING of SOME kind.    

 

Ok, Alex is on the rebound and drinking. Supposedly, she's a responsible drinker and not in college. She gets SMASHED, completely HAMMERED.  I'd think that people who are federal agents would not get THAT messed up EVER because they know they're never 100% off-duty, no matter what, and an emergency can strike at any time. (Applying for the position, you have to answer questions about how much drinking you do, and so on.)   She apparently also never considered she might have a one-night-stand, and how she'd deal with it. Honestly, she reacts to all this like she's in college, not a full adult.  The most FASCINATING thing was in her diatribe to Kara about what a horrible thing it is to have a one-night-stand.  She mentions it's something guys do, and that guys avoid relationships.  I'd mark that as an interesting statement about her state of mind, dropped into the middle of a horribly-written situation.   So, as you can see, I think Alex is a problematic character, overall.

 

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14 hours ago, Raf said:

I will have a more complete answer later, but allow me to ask you a question.

Why did you have no qualms at all about alt-Oliver and alt-Supergirl being in a romantic relationship, but you wonder whether Captain Cold being gay was necessary to the plot (you know, aside from the fact that it's the reason he and his boyfriend were on the wrong side of the Nazis)?

One relationship gets away without a mention. The other is questioned.

I found Sara and Alex hilarious.  Sara is a conquer-her, Alex is vulnerable and on the rebound. What, you thought nothing would happen? CAMMAN!!! (say it out loud).

Olver and Kara in a relationship, IMHO, was lazy writing. They wanted to confine the number of roles and actors, and keep it focused on the main characters no matter how silly that made the plot.  (BTW, in the comics, MORE solar energy makes for a more powerful Kryptonian. Check out "DC One Million" and how Superman is after hanging out IN the Sun for centuries.)

There's plenty of reasons to hate the Nazis. Mrs Wolf pointed out the enormous flaw in the setting. We have Nazis who have been doing their Nazi thing for DECADES.  Yet, there's still young people wearing the symbols for Jews and others still around. Why?  They're letting them live? And letting Jews have kids?  I speculated on whether they had them alive for slave labor, but it doesn't explain the KIDS.  It doesn't track for people who HATE a people to go out of their way to keep them around and reproducing, over decades.  As to why there's still gays around, I'd have to check if Ray really was the only one around wearing the symbol, or if others were also kept around.  For that matter, I'd wonder how they found out The Ray was gay if it was wildly illegal and rigidly enforced. I mean, in certain Muslim countries where they can be beaten up, they keep a VERY low profile.  Was Ray TRYING to be caught? Lots of questions I suspect the writers never considered and we'll never know.  

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14 hours ago, GeorgeStGeorge said:

Since a main reason the Nazis invaded Earth 1 was to get Supergirl-X a new heart, SOMEONE had to have more than a passing interest in her, and since there was no apparent Monel-X, why not Oliver?

Your point about CC and the Ray fighting the Nazis because they were gay makes sense.  I just thought they did it because they were good guys.

As for Alex/Sara, I was actually happy to see Alex's remorse, basically telling Kara, "No, it's NOT OK.  I'm not that slutty."  (I would have felt the same way if it had been a heterosexual booty call, as well.)

George

I would have preferred a Monel-X.   Supergirl-X sees herself as SUPERIOR.  Really, she went for a human with zero powers, whom she can powder with one hand?  Seems inconsistent.

There's lots of reasons to fight Nazis, just like there's lots of reasons to dislike bullying.   I'm a little curious why the Ray went to possibly the least "tolerant" Earth possible. He does NOT show the signs of a zealot-someone who will live just to take down the Nazis, he would seem a LOT more driven, more obsessed, something like Win-X.  We may never know.  I have a quibble about some comic book-related things, but they're not directly germane to the show.   

I'm fine with Alex having some morning-after regrets, but the degree to which she freaks out strikes me as ridiculous. She's HOW old?  She hasn't made any "Oh crap!" mistakes in her life before now?    Then again, I don't know if it would have been worse if she tried to suggest something serious with Sara since they slept together. After all, she said guys avoid relationships, so by her internal logic, neither she nor Sara should be against the idea (until someone mentions it to Sara.)  BTW, Alex is a trained SHOOTER. There were lots of chances at the wedding for her to grab a Nazi rifle- and she avoids grabbing one.  I find that amazingly inefficient.  On the other hand, Sara's use of a thurible as a thunder-hammer was rather clever, kudos to whoever realized the incense-burner resembled the chain-weapon. \

Oh, and the chick refilling Barry's drink before the ceremony. I'm pretty sure she's the Arrowverse equivalent of Jenny Ognatz, aka "XS", a future decendant of Barry and Iris who is also a speedster.  Her entire scene reminded me of the end of the ST:DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", when Sisko stopped to meet Kirk before going home.

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8 hours ago, Raf said:

Why not have a Monel-X? Why not Barry? Why not Wells? Why not just make them close friends? 

I get that it served the plot, but the plot would have proceeded just fine with them as close friends and allies. Would Barry do less for Killer Frost? 

My answer? Lazy writing, and thinking the audience has to be hit over the head to get anything.

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On 11/27/2017 at 5:05 PM, GeorgeStGeorge said:

Supergirl and Arrow, tonight (in the US).

Should be fun.  I just wish they would use J'onn J'onzz.  (Speaking of whom, I'm getting a kick out of Carl Lumbly as his dad.)

George

I was very disappointed about the refusal of people to call in all back-up. Once we had the exposition of what was happening.

Standard speech:"Sorry to bother you, but Nazi-Earth is invading ours. If they succeed, they'll go after yours.  Mind coming here and helping us stop them? Feel free to bring friends."

Kara: Why not call in Clark, J'onn AND Monel?   Sure, she's angry at Monel.  Send him to work directly with Ollie or something.  Even if someone has to stay on E-29, at least Jónn OR Clark couild accompany Monel. (Preferably J'onn.) 

Flash: Jessie Quick? Jay Garrick? 

Vibe: Gypsy, Breacher, and one or more members of their team?  At the very least, Breacher would think it was sound to do all the fighting where their Earth wouldn't suffer, and would think the Earth-Xers would need to be stopped, so him and at least one other from his Earth.

 

BTW, if this REALLY got into a war, I would have notified DeVoe about these Nazis. He wouldn't want them taking over his Earth.  But, again, we got a full invasion ended in 4 episodes.

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Along the same lines...

Possible spoiler here, but in the "mid-season finale," Supergirl gets beat up by another Kryptonian.  Again, you have another Kryptonian, TWO Martians (maybe three -- I forget where M'gann is, currently), and a Daxamite to help out*; but none of them help, nor does Supergirl ask for them.  Now, Supergirl does appear to be going through an "It's me, and me alone" phase, but I would think at least J'onn would show up, whether called upon or not.

George

*We haven't see Imra Ardeen display any powers yet, but having a strong telepath involved might have been more useful than the others, combined.

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  • 1 month later...

It appears that this Imra Ardeen is a telekinetic, not a telepath. 

I like the Brainiac 5 version.  I have to say, though, that before the battle, I could just see Westley (from "The Princess Bride") saying, "A Coluan? Why didn't you list that among our assets?"

Black Lightning looks interesting.  Newsfeeds seem to peg his ex-wife, Lynn, as John Stewart's sister, although DC's database only lists one sister, Rose (deceased).  There have been plenty of Hal Jordan "Easter eggs" in Arrow.  I wonder if a GL Corps show could be in the offing?

Sorry if this "spoiled" anything.  I'm glad the new episodes are back on!

George

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  • 1 month later...

Ah, yes.  The "time loop" episode.

This time, it's Legends of Tomorrow.

Ah, yes.  The "time loop" episode.

I think pretty much every sci-fi show has one.

Ah, yes.  The "time loop" episode.

I thought it was cute that Steel thought about "Groundhog Day," while Ray Palmer thought of the STNG episode "Cause and Effect."  (The latter is the one that I thought of, because of the ship being destroyed with every iteration.)

Ah, yes.  The "time loop" episode.

Off the top of my head, I can think of, in addition to the STNG episode mentioned above, time loop episodes in Stargate: SG1 and Dark Matter.  There was at least one other, which has slipped my mind for the moment.  The S:SG1 episode even had a "no consequences" sequence, as in the LoT show.

Ah, yes.  The "time loop" episode.

Feel free to mention your favorite "time loop" episodes.

BTW, am I the only one who thinks that LoT is getting a bit TOO silly?

Ah, yes.  The "time loop" episode.

George

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  • 2 weeks later...

DC tips its hat to Marvel in this week's Flash:

Cisco to Kaitlin, explaining why Harry SHOULDN'T make a brain-enhancing cap: "Hello!  Becomes super-evil genius!  Haven't you seen "Spider-Man 2?"

(In a similar line, a recent Action Comics has Booster Gold joking calls his droid Skeets "Alfred."  When Skeets objects, Booster says, "Would you prefer "Jarvis"?  Never mind.  That's a whole different timeline!")

George

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