Ward

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What an absolutely superb episode. This is what the phoenix saga should have been all about. Most of both phoenix saga's so far were pretty generic and not good. But then this episode just completely flips the table and delivers something outstanding.

We get all the team discussing this moral dilemma of whether Jean should be alive, about their role in the fight and their thoughts about the phoenix. It's all really good dialogue. We see some of the team training for the fight. We see Cyclops and Jean discuss the moral dilemma and what's about to happen, and their heartbreaking romantic words and feelings for each other. We see Rogue having some good dialogue in talking to Cyclops. We see professor x trying to convince Leandra multiple times in different ways. It's all so damn good.

And then, it gets even better. The battle is amazing. We get cool fight scenes with all of the team, and i gasped when the x-men started going down. The x-men lost, even, but they took down a few of the enemy. It was all so good and felt realistic, like the x-men weren't overpowered. It was a proper good battle, and they fought well. And then with Jean left, and seeing Cyclops down, in a mix of anger and probably deliberate choice, she unleashed the phoenix to save him, to save them all. And then professor x uses his mind powers to revive them all, which felt a bit forced as a moment, but i rationalized it as he forcefully revived them and they were all still injured, and it's dangerous to forcefully revive them, but this is an emergency. And then we see the struggle Wolverine and Cyclops have with making the killing blow on Jean. But Cyclops actually does it. But still, the phoenix is too powerful. Then Jean, in her last moments of strength, sacrifices herself. Well done.

And then, after we think she's dead, the phoenix itself comes out, pure and alive and changed, and revives Jean. And the x-men have to sacrifice some of their power to revive her, meaning from now, the x-men are all going to be a bit weaker. Wow.

I'm an absolute sucker for a happy ending, and this was just great.

Most of the pheonix saga's were utterly generic/barely above average (like in this season we had the secret society rubbish and boring pheonix personality, and the previous pheonix saga felt like a generic x-men in space adventure). But this episode is completely different, and is amazing. Best episode of the show so far. Just an incredible episode. If it had better buildup, this could have been a 10/10 for me. But it's still a fantastic episode that was a great change of pace. Utterly fresh, bringing the depth that the saga needed.

I mean, even the trial by combat was interesting, like a team fight to decide the outcome of what happens to Jean. And you even had Beast talking about the morality of such a thing, of such a competition of fighting to decide the outcome of what happens, and not using reason instead. I agree with both points of view. Just a fantastic episode.

Wow. The show went from one of if not the worst episode to the best. Yes, this might be or is the best episode in the entire show so far. Wow, that was amazing. An amazing 20 minutes. There's too many things to mention why it's amazing. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, i hated even blinking because i just wanted to keep watching what happened, it had my full attention. And yall see that great long take, oh yes. This episode felt like a proper warzone. So many clones were killed this episode, all the time. There was even slight horror elements when they went up against the geonosians (if that's what they're called). This episode isn't about a character study, or intimate moments between main characters, or cool jedi sith lightsaber sights, or intricate political machinations, this episode is just a straight up showcasing of a warzone. As a single episode it fits in with the show and the themes and it's name perfectly. An amazing episode. Anakin showcases his skills again as a young general. I liked the banter between him and ahsoka in this warzone, almost as if to mean if they didn't have this it would all be too serious and it'd drain on them too much if you know what i mean. I mean anakin is only around 20 here and ahsoka is around 15. I liked that moment at the end anakin saying not now. He understood the causalities or rather the grittiness of what just happened, but the second time he gave in to ahsokas banter, and then so did mundi which was nice. I liked that little nuance or moments there. So much good stuff in here like i said too many things to mention almost, i could go on for ages. I liked how we were shown the actual plan of attack too like, nice, thanks, and it actually stayed there for a good while so we could properly understand it and know the plan.

I remember loving this and i love it even more now. Cried when Handles died, cried my eyes out at the ending.

I liked the chemistry between 11 and Clara, and i think they would have been good for each other. It's a shame their time together has been cut short.

Here it's revealed the importance of the doctor's name, in that it's also a message for the hidden time lords on Gallifrey to home in on location/universe, his signal, his name, to then come through into the universe, through the crack in reality, and they made a truth field to also make him say his name, whether on it's own or to force the doctor to say his name as backup against the enemies that would be coming for the time lords.

The doctor is torn between wanting to save his entire people vs starting another time war.

And of course, the planet being Trenzalore, the planet the doctor defended until his death, until the timelords intervened, and now the doctor is free from that fate.

The timelords were keeping the crack open after the previous event of the tardis exploding. When that was prevented there was still scar tissue from the impact it had on reality.

The silence is also explained. The silence were so intent on stopping the doctor was because of this event. To stop him from speaking his name to let the other timelords through and starting another time war.

This is actually really good, although it feels a bit late, and the silence creatures are still not good, but i like the reveal of them as priests.

So it all does go someway to reasoning why the a sect of the silence were so intent on trying to kill the doctor in the past. And the main branch were defending him on trenzalore.

They also blew up his tardis, the sect, but how? Was that explained?

Tasha Lem and The Doctor have an unspoken history. I feel like she might be River in some way. Especially that psychopath comment and their chemistry.

Seeing the doctor so old was emotional, and we saw Clara going through various emotions in this episode, trying to stay with the doctor, being sad he left her and lied to her again and again. But once she saw how old and borderline senile he was, she understood. Clara played a big part in convincing the time lords to help.

And 11, seeing Amelia again. He really cared for her. Those scenes were really emotional. It would have been so many centuries since he last saw her. The first face he saw. He remembered her so much. He cared for Clara too, his companion, but he hadn't known her that long. He still showed his care for her though. But him hallucinating Amelia was really emotional. In all the time he had lived, more than any other doctor, he thought about and remembered Amelia Pond.

It was all extremely emotional.

His change into Capaldi was sudden. It undercut the emotion. But it's understandable why he changed so fast. 10 didn't want to go, and he clung onto himself and that power so much and made a huge explosion of time lord energy, more than any other doctor. 11 had fully accepted himself and his death. Even in his final moments you could hear his acceptance of his death, and change. He knew he was dying but that he wouldn't fully be dead, because his life, his consciousness is about change. There will always be one 11 though, and it is a form of death for him, 10 knew that too.

But 11 fully accepted it, it's why he didn't struggle when he was regenerating.

I'm going to miss 11. He was good, even though he was very manipulative and deceitful. He also had a lot of darkness within him. The thing with 10 is that if he got too dark, he wouldn't know when to stop. It would be about his supreme power to do whatever he wanted in the universe, most likely in the sense of doing anything he wanted in order to serve the greater good.

If 11 got too dark, he would use his power to serve his own ends in any kind of good, whether it's the greater good or his own individual battles to protect his friends, but he'd never go too far, because he knows what happened to 10, what he was like, and 11 didn't want to be like 10, he wanted to avoid that, and it would be on his mind. The desire to not let the darkness go too dark, to not go too far, and he had the guilt of his actions of 10 in wanting to stay, and some of that ego went along with 11.

He carried with him more darkness than 10, but he let a lot of that go and moved on after Amy and Rory left. He left a lot of that darkness and anger and deceit go.

10 was defeated, he wasn't smart enough to survive, so 10 regenerated into someone who could be smarter, who could also use his power and knowledge more deceptively in order to achieve victory. As Davros said, 10 (unknowingly) fashioned his companions into weapons, and 11 didn't do that because he wanted to take the burden of the danger more on himself, and to do that he had to be more deceitful and lie more to protect them. By doing that, it's why Amy and Rory were taken from him. He learned his lesson a bit and changed with Clara, who is a smart and capable companion.

I'm going to miss 11. The madman with a box. He also won, didn't he? In the end, while he accepted his death from old age, he won. No one defeated him, it was only his old age. It shows that through all his deceptions and godly allusions and power, he won.

This is one of the best pieces of Doctor Who content ever.

Wow. So many amazing things this episode. And another 9/10?. Wow. What the hell is this show now. I'm laughing with a huge grin on my face at the awesomeness this show seemingly is now. Alright i'll try to give more info in this comment. Alright so, again great story and characters and dialogue and camera work and animation and pacing and character work. Alright so. Wow where do i even begin, there's so much to talk about. First off, the continuation of the previous arc, wow that was a surprise. In the previous episode we saw the mother might have died when the rocks fell, so i was thinking eithers shes dead or she might be alive some day for a future episode or something, idk. And then they go and do this. I thought she was alive due to some of those little creatures surviving, but i guess she's actually dead and those were survivors. Then we see master fisto. I like how over the previous arc we saw more of master luminara and was introduced to her apprentice, both good characters and it was nice to see more of luminara. Does anyone ship luminara and obi-wan?, they seem to have good chemistry. Though, you know, in season 1 i was kinda shipping obi-wan and ventress, man they do have some chemistry and what with also calling eachother dear. Oh god who have i turned into with this shipping lately. Anyway it was nice to see master fisto again. I kinda like these recurring/side characters of the jedi masters, and getting to know or see some of them a bit more. Kai mundi too we saw and he seems good. Yeah good dialogue between ahsoka and bariss, especially the part i remember is talking about theirs and their masters views in regards to peacetime etc.

I like the scene near the end where it's shown Ahsoka is clearly still a padawan to her master skywalker and she seeks his advice and counsel on her recent experience, that was really nice. What was also incredibly great was anakins interrogation of that thing, oh yes that was good. Another thing to add to his turning to the dark side and also questioning the jedi ways, because the jedi or most jedi wouldn't have done what he did. If fisto hadn't arrived etc then yeah everything would have failed. So it also shows the kind of naive error in the jedi ways, being so akin to the light side, when really it would be better to be in balance, like anakin just was. I bet anakin is starting to realize that. Right now anakin is still a good guy, but sometimes uses dark side or rather balanced side methods in what he does, which is to success that he probably finds. It's just in episode 3 he's probably been so affected by the war, and manipulated by palpatine and also have anger at the jedi ways which really are flawed. And the padme situation. He just tipped too far off the edge into the dark side eventually.

Yeah loads of good things in this episode, just amazing. Also agree with the analysis from andrew.

Ho, ly, jesus. What an amazing episode. Grin all the way through except the beginning but it quickly became amazing and got more great and subverted my expectations. What an amazing episode. Holy jesus. Wow. Wow. Lol. So, the start. Was good, and then it jsut subverts expectations and kill off falcone. It changed convention hugely with that, if he's even dead of course. But taking it as it is. Wow. I can't believe they did that. Amazing. Makes my previous comment about convention make me look a bit like a fool. And sofia, wow, amazing what they did here. She was more intelligent than i thought. Like i had a feeling that she might be being better than she was than in the previous episode, and she's actually more capable, but this was more than i thought, and i'm so glad they did this. God and that wheelchair scene was great, and also makes pygs identity have meaning and weight and when she killed him it was great too, and the ending of pyg was great. The dialogue between gordon and sofia was great and satisfying too. I still ship them though it's likely it won't happen. Mabye she planned that gordon would protect her and use the police after she killed carmine. She did really good here.

Ah but yes this is only part of the amazing episode. So the spoiled bruce thing continues. A few episodes ago or a while ago i was thinking but never said, that i kinda wish alfred beat the crap out of bruce to really teach him. And omg, it happened. He beat the crap out of bruce. Not really but yes. In a great scene. First, they went at it in hand to hand skilled combat. It's an amazing dynamic to have the young batman in here. And it was a good line saying oh hes rusty isn't he, but even if he weren't alfred still would have won. All the dialogue is great here. But in a test of skill in hand to hand, alfred easily beat him. That was so satisfying to watch, because it also shows stuff that will be cemented in the canon kinda. Even thoguh bruce is a teenager, he's still he young batman, and beat down thugs and that talon fighter iirc. And let's face it, bruce needed a bit of a beating. Not really and not that i mean that, but you know, what happened basically, that's exactly more or less. And it actually happened, it was amazing. The hand to hand and then the punch, that great punch, yes yes yes. Bruce fights thugs and all that so the punch is fine really, it was necessary and fine, plus he must be nearly an adult now. Anyway point is, it was all great and amazing. And the whole, alfred being fired and having to leave, and bruce still being as he is, it's all still great drama, and it will be even more satisfying when bruces eventualy comes around and alfred comes back, it will make all that even greater, that's why i loved this drama.

Riddler bit was good. Harvey bit was good. Didn't really like the whole riddler loves lee though, eh. The actor who plays penguin is great as always. And what happened to the character was good and i like what they did with zsasz. I also liked what they did with solomon grundy/butch at the end there. He came through for a second in that fight and when he reverted i thought it was bit of a letdown/cheap shot, but i also thought that, now it was possible he's there, they might bring him back soon, because if he didn't then it would be kinda cheap to do that. And so i liked all those scenes with butch and tabitha trying to get through to him.

And to top it all off, that great joker scenes. Yes, yes, yes. What they did there was great and just made an amazing episode even more sweeter and i so so look forward to the next episodes but i just feel like, this is such a highpoint, you can't keep maintining these mabye. But damn, right now, this was amazing, so highly enjoyable. One of the best episodes of gotham. Look how much ive wrote about this. Amazing.