This episode was a big letdown from the great previous episode. A redeeming factor is that they came up with an acceptable reason for War World. It was still contrived but at least it had some semblance of a reason outside of Joy & Nolan just wanting to explore these other locales.
Using a simulation to get Maive to reveal the secrets of the forge was a fine idea but I found it derivative of a lot of Season 2's story arcs. In addition, the plot of her escape wasn't only thematically the same as the entire rest of the show but it was called out as the same by Maive herself. Outside of Italy being a pretty locale I found the war world time to be rather uninteresting, even the Lee turn wasn't surprising from the moment he explained he had lived.
Continuing with beauty, the location for Maive's awakening was a gorgeous location. I found the man who woke her to be poorly acted and comical in his arrogance. He made little to no attempt to persuade Maive to help him. This makes me worried about the part she'll take in the future of the season.
In episode one Delores entered the real world and started building alliances with real world people. It was an interesting extension on the themes of the show that excited me. This episode felt like a poor copy of the past two seasons of the show.
What an absolutely botched ending to an otherwise strong show. Spoilers: Monica and Darcy are completely tossed aside, Evan Peters is entirely wasted as Quicksilver in favor of a dick joke, the writers show zero creativity in leaving characters to die and Wanda has ultimately learned nothing about her magic, ending the show exactly where she stood 8 years ago before 'Age of Ultron'. What a complete mess devoid of consequences, leaving characters storylines wide open for projects years away instead of tying character arcs up. Wanda apologises to the town members after tortuing them for weeks and we're supposed to feel bad when her fake children are erased? No, sorry, you're responsible for that. Monica really told Wanda the town should be grateful.... after she released them from their torture slavery. Wanda belongs on the Raft, Avengers need bodycams after this abuse. This is exactly what the Sokovia Accords were for. This isn't a show, it's a promotional ad to go see the next Marvel thing. I thought they were doing something special when the show began, embracing the wierd and unexplained magic in the MCU, but by the end the Marvel formula is intact and the story falls into laziness.
Who the hell was the missing person Jimmy Woo had in witness protection to begin with?
Very very poor episode, again. Characters' motivations were all over the place, with bad explanations of why they went against form. (Why would Saru, not under any compulsion apart from fear, which he admits he has lived with his whole life, suddenly do what he did in this episode? Why would pretty-nail-shop-uniform Klingon suddenly want to defect, and then make such a terrible job of it, and when she discovers the bodies not just leave with the admiral as she'd planned?) Contrived conflicts and artificial setups with, once again, bad motivations/explanations. (Why would the Disco need to defend the dog-virus-planet from the Klingons next week on STD? The Klingons know nothing about the planet, and if the Disco acts casual would have no reason to attack it, right? Why would tree-spirit-planet call 2 warring factions together if it wants peace?)
I also question SMG's acting chops, and whether she can cut it as lead, although being given multiple lines of exposition every episode, and very little else, surely doesn't help. The most interesting character by far is the captain and the series should have been developed around him, with Burnham taking a more Tom Paris type role IMHO. The Michael Burnham as focal point just hasn't worked for the entire season so far (with the possible exception of initial double-ep) and doesn't seem likely to as the show goes on either.
Wow. They actually ended it on the last panel of ch. 116!!! They basically didn't show you guys anything, yet. Damn, that's just brutal.
But also hilarious. I was sure that in order to put all the important info from 2 chapters they would have to cut some small stuff for good. But nope! Not even the smallest thing was cut from the manga... except for the panels revealing what happened to Levi and Zeke afterwards. Which I assume everyone wanted to see the most)
Brilliant move. Instead of 1 cliffhanger this way they got 3 cliffhangers for anime fans.
I freaking loved the Passing. And to be fair they archived it thanks to cutting two major plot points from the manga. They probably gonna start Part 2 with Levi and Zeke scenes. There is just no way around it. They have to show it eventually.. Oh and the dialogues this episode all hitted the right note except for infodump between Pixies and Yelena.
I can't believe that Porco was shown in the manga too before Jaw appears and I didn't notice him back then. Too be fair it wasn't as in your face as in the anime. But still https://official-complete-2.eorzea.us/manga/Shingeki-No-Kyojin/0116-027.png
Eren vs Pieck - their whole interaction couldn't have been done better.
"Show us. Where's the enemy? There. - I was waiting for this scene. It was perfect.
https://official-complete-2.eorzea.us/manga/Shingeki-No-Kyojin/0116-034.png
Anime fans in week or two manga will officially end. So spoilers would be everywhere. Be careful. And goodluck!
To summarize part 1 of Season 4:
Blessing in disguise. Characters, their mindset and themes were handled right. Marley's arc in particular. Manga had more gradual reveal of some plot points, but I'm not sure that in the end Zeke's plan suffered from it for example. Cuts and rearrangements worked most of the times. Especially in episodes like Children of the Forest as well done set up. Hell, Gabi and Falco focused chapter was almost unbearable to read through. But with some small tweaks to timeline and pushed around storylines Gabi and Falco focused episode was actually enjoyable in the anime.
They managed to get passing under control and let scenes breath after 4 or so episode.
Action did suffered. Well, Levi action scenes suffered alot in my opinion the rest was decent to good. Certainly not worst than Eren vs Reiner in season 3 I'm not a fan of soft retcon with the Ackermans. Purpose of it just seems unclear in regards to the future storyline changes. Oh and there is definitely moments where animation felt way off. Not even season 3 had this many derp faces)
Ok, so Part 1 covered 25 chapters in 16 episodes. Only 22 chapters left. Here's hoping that it would give us at least 14 episodes. That would be ideal passing. Apparently Part 2 would came out around January 2022.
p.s. I can't believe that final chapter will drop in like a week. Hope, it won't dissapoint.
Once again the most interesting part of this whole fucking show is the stuff that gets the least amount of time. I could not care less about the sitcom shtick and I wish they would stop ripping off other shows when it serves little purpose except to make this all ridiculous when it could've been so much better.
In the movie Far From Heaven, you get this practically picturesque town and home life of a housewife in Connecticut. It's gorgeous and full of colors and 50s/60s "retro", what have you. It looks so perfect and lovely yet hides all sorts of ugliness underneath the perfect veneer of "All American Dream". Imagine that kind of set up but with horror and mindfuckery and that could've been THIS FUCKING SHOW.
Each episode continues to disappoint.
Each episode shows me how this would have been better served in a binge-watch (if they ever fucking do anything with the reveal).
Each episode annoys me with a pointless, obnoxious laugh track.
And each episode has me not giving a single damn about this couple or buying into any of their "chemistry" or love. This relationship was developed completely offscreen, and now I'm just supposed to believe they are some shining example of True Love because Marvel clearly wants Young Avengers? Nope. Not happening. I demand better writing and pacing, thank you.
Olsen and Bettany are very talented and capable actors in other projects but here, I can't buy anything between them.
The pacing is just painful and not at all suspenseful. There's tension and then there's annoying the shit out of your audience. This show is the latter.
This show continues to be the epitome of "my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined".
