Hawkeye

 

Clint Barton takes center stage in Hawkeye. He is one of the less flashy Avengers because he doesn't have super powers per se, so his character typically is in the background and doesn't get as much attention as the other Avengers. However, he clearly had a close relationship with Natasha Romanoff, and with the recent release of Black Widow, it makes sense to make Clint's Hawkeye character the main protagonist in this story.

Clint's actions as Ronin in Avengers: End Game catch up to him in this series. He murdered the father of mafia member Maya/Echo, and she is out for revenge. We're introduced to Kate Bishop, a college archery student and fanboy of Clint. Kate's mother is in debt to mafia ruler Kingpin. Her fiance (Jack) is a sword collector, and Kate stumbles upon a black market auction where Jack buys Ronin's sword. The auction is interrupted by members of the Tracksuit mafia, who is run by Kingpin, looking for an Avengers Rolex watch. Ronin's costume is also up for auction, and Kate puts it on as a disguise to escape the auction and the Tracksuit mafia. The mafia, however, discover her identity and think Kate is Ronin. Clint becomes aware of the situation after seeing a Ronin story on the news, and joins Kate to protect her and calm the situation with Kingpin and the Tracksuit mafia. To complicate matters, Natasha's sister Yelena shows up (as foretold in the credits scene of Black Widow), trying to kill Clint because she believes Clint killed Natasha. All of this occurs in a brisk, 6 episode series that takes place over a week in New York City during Christmas time. 

Hailee Steinfeld plays Kate Bishop. She is a person I've heard of before, but prior to Hawkeye I've never seen her in anything or heard her music. I initially found Kate's character a bit annoying, but as the series evolved, so did her character, and as she transformed from fanboy to an actual superhero, I found her less annoying and liked her more. As the series ends, Kate is searching for a superhero nickname for herself, and Clint hints that she could use Hawkeye as her alias. When you read about Kate's character, she is referred to as Hawkeye in the comics, so I get the feeling that we will be seeing more of Kate Bishop as the MCU progresses. Additionally, I hope they put Natasha's sister Yelena in every MCU project moving forward. Florence Pugh nearly stole the show from Scarlett Johansson in Black Widow, and she was fantastic in Hawkeye.

The biggest mystery remaining surrounds the Avenger's Rolex. Apparently it belonged to Clint's wife Laura. But the number on the watch was associated with a different person from Agent Carter, so maybe more to come on this topic and Laura's standing as a SHIELD agent.

The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois

 

This episode was vintage Top Gear from the guys. They spent most of the episode taking a proper dump on French car culture. They don't sell French cars in the United States, and thus I don't have a huge opinion on them, but France isn't known for their cars, and so probably most of what was said about them is true. I was literally laughing out loud during the segment where they were driving their sedans up the hillside to prove the point that French car manufactures don't need to make SUVs because their cars can go off road without trouble. So silly, yet entertaining.

City Journal: London, An Introduction

 One of the few complaints that I have with SimCity 4 is the few number of regions to develop that come with the game. Sure, you can customize and build your own region, or import a user created one, but it would be nice to have a bigger selection out of the box. I've built cities on most of the default regions over the years. The biggest exception to this is the London region. The London region is large and flat, with the River Thames the only large geographical obstacle to navigate. With that being said, it is a region that is prime for developing a large city.  I usually pick my cities based on previous visits to the actual city or because of some affiliation with the city. None of this is true for London. While I think it is a cool city, I've never been there and thus don't have any real connection. In this case, I selected London just because of the region availability on the game.

When viewing a map of London, it appears to be an incredibly complex city. Unlike most cities in America, and unlike most cities I've developed in SimCity, its city streets do not follow a grid. This isn't surprising as most European cities don't follow a grid. SimCity is setup to follow a grid (there is literally a grid on screen when you build) and I think it is the best way to maximize space, so I decided to nix the European layout for a more familiar grid. You don't have to build in a grid layout, but the buildings are squared and don't always line up to the street correctly if you build diagonally. 

The region has a larger, central plot where London proper will be located. I will use the surrounding plots of land to build the boroughs of London, using a map to approximate their location. I also plan to build the major landmarks found within London and its boroughs, though the exact location will be of my choosing. The highway system will be based on my own design, not following the real highway system of London. I've decided to omit the Underground and rail system until later when the city is larger, but it will likely be of my own design as well. The Underground in London is incredibly complex, and I don't know if I could follow it even if I wanted to.

In terms of gameplay, I've decided to use a few enhancements. I don't consider this cheating at all. I've played this game for 20 years, and at this point I feel like I can do what I want. Plus, the regions are so large it takes forever to build even with the enhancements, let alone if you have to wait for money to be generated. The biggest optimization I use is the bank mod that I downloaded, which gives you a cool $50 million in cash. This is plenty to build everything you need/want in your city, without having to wait for your city to generate the money through taxes. It also allows you to build infrastructure like highways when your city is small, which is much easier because you don't have to navigate around structures if building later when your city is populated. Currently that is the only mod I am using. I have used numerous mods in the past, but at the present time this is the only one I have loaded into the game. I may search for more as I further develop the city.

The other big enhancement I am using is the "howdryiam" cheat, which removes water requirements for buildings. This region has numerous plots of land without any water, so supplying those cities with water would require a complex water infrastructure linking city-to-city until you reach a water source. This is incredibly cumbersome and complex. I've done it before, and don't really enjoy it, so for this city I decided to use the cheat instead.

Below, I've posted a few pictures of my city. There's a regional map and satellite view, as well as an aerial view of London and the north London borough of Hackney. As I develop the region and individual boroughs, I will provide updates in these City Journal posts.

X-men: Days Of Future Past (2014)

This movie also had several interesting talking points, so I'm scrapping the idea of lumping all of these movies together into a single post like I did with the first three X-Men movies.

The movie starts in the distant future, where a war pitting Sentinel robots against humans and mutants has developed. The humans and mutants are losing, so the X-Men develop a plan to send Wolverine back into time to stop the event that allowed the Sentinel's to be created. The war is so bad, Xavier and Magneto actually work together to allow Wolverine to time travel.

Wolverine travels to the 1970s to stop Mystique from murdering Dr. Bolivar Trask. Trask is developing Sentinel robots to fight mutants, and Mystique is trying to stop him to protect mutants. During this process, Mystique is captured and her DNA is studied, allowing for the creation of Sentinels that can adapt and acquire mutants powers, similar to how Mystique can change her appearance. 

When Wolverine arrives in the '70s, Xavier is a drug addict (using Hank McCoy's serum to block Xavier's ability to listen to people's thoughts, which also gives him the ability to walk) and Magneto is in prison for killing JFK (wait, what?). To make a long story short, Wolverine is able to convince Xavier and Magneto to work together to prevent Mystique from being captured. This despite their hatred for each other because of their feelings for Mystique and different opinions on mutants. 

I've listed a few additional points of interest below.

• Peter Dinklage is great as Dr. Trask. I've never seen anything that he is in where he wasn't fantastic.
• Peter Maximoff makes an appearance as Quicksilver, helping Wolverine free Magneto from his Pentagon prison. Sadly, there was no Wanda.
• We're introduced to a young William Stryker, and learn how Stryker acquires Wolverine to enhance his body with metal. When Stryker turns to the camera after discovering Wolverine, it's revealed that Stryker is actually Mystique. I'm a bit confused by this as I know Stryker isn't always Mystique, so I don't know the complete meaning of this.
• The scene at the end where Magneto picks up the old RFK Stadium in Washington and places it around the White House seems completely random and unnecessary.
• Magneto claims he didn't kill JFK on purpose, he was actually trying to save him because he was a mutant. Interesting.

The Golden Era of Streaming Is Over

 We switched from Dish Network satellite TV to streaming in 2019 and I haven't regretted it once. The main reason was cost. Our Dish bill would go in excess of $200 per month at times. The straw that broke the camel's back is when Dish got into a contract dispute with Bally Sports, making it impossible to watch the Pacers. YouTube TV had all the channels we wanted, including Bally Sports, at a fraction of the cost so we made the jump. YouTube TV eventually lost Bally Sports as well, so that point became moot. Regardless, I've found the YouTube TV (YTT) experience and streaming in general to be better than traditional TV.  The DVR on YTT is the best DVR I have ever experienced. It never misses any recordings, and is smart enough to adjust the time if the show is extended or starts late. The biggest advantage streaming has over traditional TV, however, is the large volume of content available through various apps. As it turns out, this has also become streaming's biggest disadvantage.

YTT is now in a contract dispute with the ESPN family of channels. Last night, the contract ended and the channels went off the app. This is a reminder that despite being a streaming app, YTT acts and functions just like cable. While it used to be cheaper to stream and the apps could avoid such contract disputes, that era has come to an end. The interesting thing about streaming that makes it different from traditional TV, is that when these disputes happen, the content is usually still available. Previously, if a dispute happened, you'd be forced to switch TV providers if a contract wasn't agreed upon. Now, if ESPN is pulled from YTT, you can just subscribe to ESPN+. To YTT's credit, they actually discount our bill when these contract disputes happen, which is unheard of. But while the content is still available, the fear is that apps like YTT, which is great, will cease to exist because the channels will push their content to their own streaming apps. We've already heard rumors of this happening with NBC Sports shutting down and that content being pushed to Peacock. This gives the channels a lot of leverage in these negotiations, leverage they didn't have when they relied on cable distributors to deliver their content. The fear is that while the content will be available, it will be fragmented across several different apps that will require a subscription, making TV watching more complicated and possibly just as expensive as traditional cable. If this occurs, maybe traditional TV wasn't so bad after all?

SimCity 4: City Journal

 

I have been playing SimCity 4 off and on since it was released in 2003. I've had it on several different computers and operating systems and have been lucky that it has been ported and thus remains easy to play. It's been my favorite version of SimCity, and the biggest reason is the regional gameplay. Previous versions of the game focused on one individual city that was built on a square of land represented as a floating island, and thus had no connection to the rest of the world. In SimCity 4, instead of developing individual cities, you develop entire regions. This allows you to build cities in the context of the rest of the world, and thus develop urban vs suburban areas, plan transit systems accordingly (my favorite part of the game), etc. The regions are huge, too. I've spent years developing an individual region, and I've never completely built a region because typically I get a new computer or just lose interest before I have time to build everywhere. There have been newer versions of SimCity, and though I haven't played any of them, I have read that they are a bit of a disaster, and thus have never moved on to a newer version. I have Cities: Skylines on Steam (I think) but haven't started playing it, yet. That has been the only subsequent game that has tempted me to leave SimCity 4.

One of the cool aspects of SimCity 4 is that it has (or had) a large modding and online community. This allows the game to remain fresh with new buildings and landmarks, as admittedly building the same buildings over and over again can become a bit dull. I've used the Simtropolis site numerous times in the past to download new buildings and regions. One of the interesting aspects of the site is the City Journals message board, where people upload updates to their cities. This is a great way to track progress as your city expands and updates arrive. I've always thought about doing this in the past but never have done so. A recent trip to Chicago has inspired me to play the game again, and I've decided to do a bit of City Journaling to track progress as I build and expand my city and region. Chicago is a great inspiration for this game, as it has a complex highway and rail system. The best city I have ever built on the game was named Scien and based loosely on Chicago.  It had 4.4 million people if I remember correctly. I am basing my current city on the city of London, and my goal is to build a larger and more complex city than Scien. More to come as I introduce my city of London and update as it grows and expands.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Part one of my X-Men series covered the Hugh Jackman films. Part two was supposed to cover the Jennifer Lawrence films up to the most recent X-Men film. However, after watching First Class, I had a lot to say about the movie, so I decided to do a dedicated post just for it.

First Class tells the origin story of X-Men. There are several interesting events that occur in this film, starting with a young Charles Xavier discovering a young Raven/Mystique (what a coincidence) when she is breaking into his house to get food. Charles welcomes Mystique into his family and they essentially  become siblings. Xavier and Raven join the newly formed CIA Division X for mutants. They cross paths with Erik/Magneto, and go after a common enemy - Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon). They have different reasons for going after Shaw, however. Erik wants to get revenge for killing his mother. Xavier, working with the CIA, is trying to prevent Shaw from starting World War III to allow the mutants to rise above the humans. Shaw creates a helmet to prevent Xavier from reading his mind.  Erik gets his wish and kills Shaw, stealing his helmet and becomes Magneto. This occurs during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fearing the mutants, both the United States and the Soviet Union fire their missiles at the mutants. Magneto uses his powers to turn the missiles around to land on the US and Soviet boats. A CIA agent tries to stop Magneto, but he deflects her bullets, one of which hits Xavier in the spine causing paralysis, thus ending their friendship as they do not share the same view of the relationship between humans and mutants.

Mystique, unhappy with her blue appearance and disagreeing with Xavier's view on mutants, leaves Charles to join Magneto. Also on Magneto's team are Emma Frost (January Jones) and Azazel. Frost is a mutant telepath, similar to Xavier. This is the first time I've seen Jones in anything besides Mad Men. I enjoyed the Frost character, and hope to see her in upcoming X-Men films, though I though Jones seemed a bit robotic.

The teleporting Azazel is also an interesting character. None of this was explained in the movie, but when reading about the character he has an interesting backstory. Apparently he is the father to Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler seen in X2 and the mother is none other than Mystique.

The final portion of this film I want to talk about is the X-Men's plane. The movie is set in the Cold War era, so it makes sense that their plane would be the spy plane SR-71 Blackbird. For my money, the Blackbird is the coolest plane ever made. Everything about it is just awesome, from its looks to its speed and construction. I've always been a big fan of the plane.

Fantastic 4

This post is about the 2005 film Fantastic 4, 2007's Rise of the Silver Surfer, and the 2015 reboot of the Fantastic 4. I didn't watch any of these films expecting to see a good movie. They are all well known to be bad movies. I watched them primarily for character introduction, and the first two films did a good job of introducing the Fantastic 4 as well as the villains. Dr. Doom - a great villain with a great name. I played the Silver Surfer game on the NES as a kid and remember it being quite difficult but had no idea Silver Surfer was a Marvel character. I had no idea that the character Galactus existed, but apparently Galactus is one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel universe and appears in multiple storylines. To this end, watching the films accomplished my goal of learning the characters.

I want to briefly discuss discuss the cast of these movies, because in retrospect there are some interesting actors playing the characters. Chris Evans, who plays Captain America in numerous Marvel movies, plays Johnny Storm. Michael B. Jordan, who plays the awesome villain Erik Killmonger in the Black Panther, also plays Johnny Storm in the 2015 version. It was also cool to see racing reporter Jamie Little make an appearance.

I don't want to spend too much time discussing how bad the movies were, because that is well publicized. The first two movies featuring Jessica Alba and Chris Evans were simple and featured a lot of childish humor and generally weren't memorable. However, they do a good job of introducing the characters and you get a good sense on how they interact with each other and form a team. From what I've read, these movies relate well to the comics. The existence of the 2015 reboot is ultra confusing to me. It begins with the Fantastic 4 characters as kids, and shows how they came together as a group. This is interesting enough. However, the story changes in terms of how they get their powers. Johnny Storm is now black, while Sue remains white. They don't really seem to be a team, more of a circumstantial group. As you watch the film, you keep waiting for the plot to unfold, until you're finally at the end and a forced villain and ending occurs. While the first two movies were bad, they were no where near as bad as the 2015 reboot. At least the first two introduced the characters and gave a good sense of who they were and how they interacted with each other. I'm lucky I watched them when I did, as Disney+ removed them just a week after I watched them due to contract obligations.

Thrawn

 

I was first introduced to the Thrawn character in the animated series Rebels. On the show, he was portrayed as a brilliant military leader who studied culture and art to get an advantage on his competition. It was also noted that he was not good at playing the political game. Rebels takes place after the Clone Wars but prior to the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. Having never appeared in the movies, his character in Rebels comes a bit out of nowhere. In last season's The Mandalorian, it was revealed that Ahsoka Tano is looking for Thrawn, who was last seen floating off into space with Ezra Bridger. So the character continues to play an important part in the Star Wars Universe, and will likely make its first live action appearance soon on Disney+.

Zahn's newest Thrawn trilogy, Thrawn Ascendancy, describes how Thrawn rose up the ranks of the Chiss military. This occurred prior to the Clone Wars, and took place outside of the galaxy, beyond the often referenced outer rim, in a place called wildspace. I've read books 1 and 2 of the trilogy. The third book was just released and thus I haven't had a chance to read it yet. The above book, just titled Thrawn, is also the first in a trilogy of books. It takes place between the events of the Clone Wars and A New Hope, around the same time as the series Rebels. It describes how Thrawn was able to climb the military ranks of the Galactic Empire's military. I had not thought of this until the book pointed it out, but it is rare for a non-human to hold rank in the Empire's military. For some reason that may be explained at a later date, Palpatine embraces Thrawn and helps elevate his career. Thrawn uses essentially the same skills to climb the ranks in the Empire as he does in the Ascendancy trilogy - superb military strategy based on study of culture and art.

This book is well written and easy to read. It is lengthy, over 500 pages, and spans a large period of time (many years). The book's main theme is following Thrawn's rise to Grand Admiral. This does not happen because of a single event. Instead, a number of seemingly unrelated events occur where Thrawn has military success that cumulatively contribute to his promotions. To this end, it is unclear who the antagonist actually is, or if there is one. Nightswan comes to mind. Nightswan is a smuggler and insurgent leader who often crosses paths with Thrawn, who is shutting down Nightswan's operations. Because of this, Nightswan sees Thrawn as an enemy. But once they finally meet, Thrawn offers him a job with the Chiss Ascendancy, which he declines. Nightswan ends up dying in an explosion, rather uneventfully. Other than Nightswan, Thrawn's other big adversaries are other members of the Empire's military, who are not that memorable. There is some shenanigans between Moff Tarkin and another Moff, but nothing really plays out there. There is a side story where Arihnda Pryce has her family's mine on Lothal taken from her. She desires revenge and works to climb the Empire's political ladder, eventually striking a deal with Tarkin and becoming governor of Lothal. Governor Pryce and Thrawn work together on Lothal in Rebels, trying to thwart a group of rebels that contain the main protagonists of the show. I suspect this is where the plot of the remaining two books is going. We shall see, but this book ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, with Thrawn asking Palpatine about the top secret Death Star project.

Grand Theft Auto - The Definitive Edition

 

It is such a disappointment that this release has been such a disaster. The games in this trilogy are some of the very few games I've ever played through more than once, and I was looking forward to playing them again in HD. I was even interested in playing them on the Switch, as the portability increases the chances that I would sit and play a bit in the middle of the week. The games have been ported to the Unreal Engine, which was the first warning sign that I read about prior to the game being released. Apparently, previous ports to the Switch using the Unreal Engine have had issues with performance. Not a problem, I'll just buy it for the Playstation 4 (still awaiting my PS5, over a year later...). Then I started reading about how the game was made by the same company that ported these games to smart phones about 10 years ago and had bad reviews. I thought there is no way they will base this version of the games on the mobile version. Then the game was released, and got terrible reviews. It turns out that the game is at least partially based on the mobile version of the games released in the early 2010s. Why would a game company release a game for modern consoles based on a game made for mobile phones 10 years ago, a platform that doesn't even utilize a controller? Why would Rockstar allow this? I know I am only reading snippets of information here and there, and don't necessarily have all of the information, but on the surface this looks really bad. Rockstar says it will release patches to improve the game, and so I continue to read reviews and articles about the game, hoping it will improve, but I am not holding my breath. This makes the second major game in a year that had an absolute horrendous launch, the other being Cyberpunk 2077.

Kid A Mnesia, Now Streaming in HD!

Kid A Mnesia is Radiohead's first album in several years. A triple disc set, the first two discs are re-releases of Kid A and Amnesia. Both albums are among my favorite Radiohead albums. They were the beginning of when things started to get weird, when Radiohead went from a mellow 90s grunge rock band to whatever you would call the music on these albums. It's somewhat difficult to define in words, but fantastically weird comes to mind. Kid A was my introduction to the band, which I like a lot, but of the two albums I like Amnesia even more. The third disc contains new music. Some of the songs are new versions of previous songs on the albums, while others are brand new. I'd say its pretty good overall, definitely worth a listen if you're a Radiohead fan.

I became interested in music at the end of the cassette tape era. I had a small tape collection, most of which was given to me by my uncle. Mix tapes were a big deal as well. I lived through the entirety of the CD era, and had a fairly large CD collection, including a 200 disc CD changer. Entering the MP3 era, we sacrificed quality for quantity, free quantity at that. For the first time, I had access to essentially any song I could think of for free. At the time, I had a PC connected to dial-up internet, connected to a component stereo through a mini-plug that could go loud enough to shake the house. A song would take a half an hour to download, and the quality of music was pretty bad, especially at higher volume levels. Somewhat recently, 2018 I think, I advanced to listening to music through a paid streaming service. There was hesitation on my part because such services lack any form of ownership. As someone who used to have 100s of CDs and thousands of MP3s, it was a bit difficult to wrap my mind around the idea of listening to music without owning anything. The benefits of having access to millions of songs far outweighs those concerns, and eventually I decided to pay for the service, which I am glad that I did.

I bring all of this up for one simple reason. A few weeks ago, Amazon Music Unlimited started playing most of their music in HD or Ultra HD. I had to look this up to determine what it meant. Essentially, HD is equivalent to CD quality, and Ultra HD is even better quality. Living in multiple eras of music consumption, I've experienced the pros and cons of all types of music media. I can say without question that I haven't listened to music on any media that sounds as good as the compact disc. The sound is so rich and full, especially when listening on a nicer stereo at higher volumes. One of the big drawbacks of streaming is that it is typically a compressed music file. I don't usually notice this when listening at lower volumes or on simple speakers, but when you stream it to a larger stereo it just doesn't pack the punch of a CD. You'd have to turn the volume up louder to achieve the same sound levels and typically the poor sound quality stands out. That's why when they made the announcement about streaming in CD quality (or better), I was super excited to return to the era of CD-quality sound. Now I get the best of both worlds, in terms of CD quality and streaming's large music library. 

No Time To Die

 

No Time To Die is Daniel Craig's final performance as Bond, and is a fitting end to his tenure playing the famous international spy. It wraps up loose ends from his previous movies, and embodies everything that has been good about the Craig-played Bond movies. It is gritty, raw, and emotional. You can't help but to feel attached to his character as he goes through the highs and lows of being an international spy. When Craig was originally announced as the next Bond actor, I had neutral to negative feelings about it, mostly because I had no idea who Daniel Craig was. Despite some of his Bond films being not so good, when thinking about his Bond portfolio, Craig is probably the best actor to ever play the character. Connery will always be the most memorable Bond actor, and that is fine because history is on his side. But Craig's performances in No Time To Die, Casino Royal, and Skyfall were more memorable than the movies themselves. On a side note, I will always have a soft spot for Pierce Brosnan as Bond as he was the actor when I was introduced to the character as a kid. But Brosnan is third in my list of best Bond actors, behind Craig and Connery.

I want to briefly talk about the premium rental experience. I'm more into movies than I used to be, but luckily I've been able to watch most of the movies on my list on Disney+ without any rental fees. However, we decided to go ahead and rent No Time To Die at the premium rental fee of $20. On the surface it seems outrageous, but with the challenges of finding a babysitter and time to go to the theater, plus the likely additional fees of eating dinner at a restaurant, $20 isn't so bad to stay at home and watch the movie from the couch. It is likely something I will do for future movies as well.

I'm not going to spend anytime on the plot of this movie. However, I will say a lot happens to the main characters by the end of the film, so it will be interesting to see where the franchise goes from here. Whoever plays Bond will have big shoes to fill. My only complaint about the film is that there was too little of Ana de Armas. Despite being heavily featured in the previews, she was only in one scene in the entire film and really didn't play much of a role in the story, which was disappointing. Otherwise, this film was quite good and a fitting end to the Craig-era Bond films. 

X-Men - Part 1

 

Despite being mostly up to date on the MCU Marvel movies, several other movies remain that are a part of the Marvel universe (but not the MCU) that I have not yet seen. Most of them were made prior to the development of the MCU, while others were developed during the MCU when other companies held the rights to the franchise, such as Spider-Man and Sony. I've decided to go back and watch the other, non-MCU Marvel movies in order to get a better understanding of the Marvel universe. This is within reason, of course. I probably won't watch any movie that came out before 2000. I reviewed a list of all the Marvel movies, and with a couple of exceptions, most of the movies that came out prior to 2000 looked pretty bad. I have access to around 10 non-MCU movies on Disney+, as well as several other movies that I can DVR from TNT, FX, etc. I may have to rent a couple of the others, which is OK. I decided to start with the X-Men movies. I have access to them on Disney+, and the first one came out in 2000, which is the beginning of my non-MCU timeline.

There are several X-Men movies, not to mention the related Wolverine and Deadpool movies. This is why I decided to split my posts into parts for these movies. Part 1 of the posts consists of the movies X-Men (2000), X2: X-Men United (2003), and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). I had previously seen X-Men and X2, but remembered very little from the movies. I had never seen The Last Stand before so it was new.

To begin with, in true Marvel fashion, the cast in these movies is fantastic. I won't run down the list of actors in these movies (you can always search IMDB yourself), but a couple stood out in my mind as noteworthy. I always remember Rebecca Romijn as the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, but her role as Mystique reminded me that she has had a fairly successful actor career, including credits on IMDB through 2022. When I originally watched these movies, I had no idea who Anna Paquin was. She jumped on my radar a full 8 years later when she became the star of True Blood.  The other surprise was Kelsey Grammer as Beast. Kelsey Grammer in a Marvel movie...who knew? I don't even have to mention Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, etc. The cast is absolutely stacked. The last person I want to mention is David Hayter, who was one of the writers for the movies. I am most familiar with David from his voice acting of Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid games. Snake? Snake!! Seeing his name on the credits made me smile.

X-men and X2 were solid movies. The Last Stand was just OK. The biggest thing all of these movies did was introduce the audience to a combination of cool and not-so cool Marvel characters. Wolverine, Magneto, Professor Xavier, Phoenix, Cyclops, Mystique are all super cool characters. Halle Berry is great, but Storm is kind of a "meh" character to me. Sabertooth, Toad, Nightcrawler, Beast, and several others are just goofy.

While the first two movies were good, I want to focus a bit on the final movie. The Last Stand wasn't great, I'd give it a C rating. However, several important characters met their end in that movie. Patrick Stewart's Prof. X died. Phoenix, who apparently dies at the end of X2, but doesn't, dies at the hands of Wolverine in the Last Stand. She seems very similar to the Scarlet Witch. She is a super powerful character who could cause chaos in the MCU if introduced. Magneto loses his power by receiving 4 injections of the anti-mutant medicine (or does he? The final scene shows him gently using his power to knock over a chess piece.). Mystique is also shot with the anti-mutant medicine, losing her power. Sarah brings a great point - why didn't they use at least one of those injections they used on Magneto on Phoenix, to at least save her? Multiple big name characters either die or loose their power at the end of this movie. It's a rather spectacular ending, one that asks where does the X-Men go from here. There are several subsequent movies, so we will have to watch and see what story they tell!

Breath of the Wild: DLC - Part 1

 

Breath of the Wild (BotW) was released at a time when I wasn't posting much, and thus I never had a post dedicated to the game. This is despite the fact that BotW is not only one of my favorite Zelda games, it was one of my favorite games of any genre or series. BotW is the exact opposite of many previous Zelda games, especially Skyward Sword. Most Zelda games show you locations you cannot access initially because a rock is in the way, or the grass is too tall, or there is a wall you cannot scale, etc. From the moment you start BotW, you are allowed to explore the entire map, including Hyrule Castle. The map is huge and the environment is beautiful. It's my favorite version of Hyrule, so much so that it is the only Zelda game I've continued to play after finishing the main story, without restarting the game. Despite finishing the game nearly 4 years ago, I still return to my original game to play because the environment is so fun. This is actually pretty unique for me for any game (the one big exception is Sim City 4), which goes to show how much I like this game. Despite playing BotW for over 140 hours, and finishing the main storyline by defeating Calamity Ganon, I only completed 33% of the game. After finishing Skyward Sword, I was in the mood for more Zelda, so I decided to return to BofW's Hyrule, but this time with a purpose. That's where the downloadable expansion packs come into play.

BotW is a fantastic putzing game. It is very easy to launch the game and wander aimlessly, waisting time and accomplishing nothing. It's easy to do this because the game environment is so good. I wanted to complete more of the game, but do so with objectives beyond finding Korok seeds. The downloadable expansions add a number of side quests and trials, and is a great way to return to the game with some objectives to accomplish. I started this process a couple of weeks ago and thus far have enjoyed my return to Hyrule, finding various rare treasures and helping locals with various tasks. Part 2 of this topic will update you on my progress on the game and my thoughts on the two DLC packs.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - Final Thoughts

 

After playing through the HD remake of this game and publishing several posts about the game, where does Skyward Sword stand in the grand realm of the Zelda series? I'm going to cite this review from Polygon because I completely agree with what it has to say, and I am going to base my final thoughts on their review. The short answer to the question is that I think Skyward Sword is very good.

Looking at this game from a 2021 perspective, in the era of Breath of the Wild, it is a bit easier to digest some of the game's faults. I haven't discussed Breath of the Wild much (I have an upcoming series of posts planned about the game, so more to come.), but it is the complete opposite of Skyward Sword.  It released in 2017 and was the first major game to follow Skyward Sword, which released in 2011. Breath of the Wild is a completely open-ended game which requires exploration and does not utilize hand-holding techniques commonly employed in previous Zelda games (such as Fi). Knowing that Breath of the Wild exists and is a fantastic game is important in how to view Skyward Sword, because from a 2011 perspective you get the feeling that Zelda games may have lost their way. The exploration and discovery elements, two aspects that the series is famous for, are non-existent in Skyward Sword. Instead, we are placed in a game which essentially forces the player through the various regions in order to tell a very specific story. This is interesting because for me, the story in Zelda games is something I don't usually pay a lot of attention to. Typically there is the enemy, usually Ganon, who is after the Triforce, and Link has to acquire the Triforce to save Zelda and Hyrule. Any details beyond this are moot, as the gameplay becomes the important aspect of the game. In Skyward Sword, the story is the main element of the game, and it is a very important story as it tells how Hyrule was created and is the beginning of the Zelda timeline. In 2011, there was fear that Zelda gameplay was changing. We now know this isn't true based on Breath of the Wild's release.

Many of the negatives that I remember about the game continue to exist, but aren't as bad as I remember them being, with two big exceptions: the Silent Realms and the re-visiting of locations multiple times. The Silent Realm trials loose their appeal after the first trial, and yet you have to go through 3 additional trials. The re-visiting of the locations the second time isn't bad because you access new areas and temples and I think helps to advance the story. The third visit to learn portions of the Song of the Hero, however, seems completely unnecessary and feels as if it were added to the game at the last minute simply to extend the game. The multiple battles with the Imprisoned are annoying as well, though I get that the game was using the battles to increase the urgency of Demise's growing power. The HD remake attenuated Fi and got rid of motion controls, two other aspects of the game that commonly get criticized, so it is difficult to analyze those portions of the game.

Despite the blaring negatives, there are many positives about Skyward Sword that deserve praise. The game looks fantastic. The music is great. There are many memorable temples and items, as well as memorable characters. Elements of gameplay such as collecting items and upgrading weapons are introduced to the series. The linear, story-driven gameplay is easier to accept now than it was in 2011, knowing that Breath of the Wild exists. The game still doesn't make my Zelda podium (Which consists of the following games in no particular order: Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, and A Link to the Past.). However, it has went from a game that I remember not liking very well, to a game that I think is actually quite good. I might even play it again at some point. 

Clarkson's Farm

 

Jeremy Clarkson, from Top Gear fame, owns a farm. He previously hired a farmer to work the land, but for some reason that person isn't available, so Jeremy decides to farm the land himself. This is the basis of the show, and it follows Clarkson as he struggles to be a farmer. Despite being a buffoon, I enjoy Clarkson's antics. His tractor is a perfect example. Instead of buying a reasonable tractor, he buys a massive Lamborghini tractor that is complete overkill. He knows nothing about farming, which is relatable, because if I were in his position I would be just as lost. He hires a local contractor named Kaleb who becomes his main aid. Kaleb is a local country boy who never leaves his hometown, and is a good addition to the show as he busts Jeremy's balls often, which is humorous. I have to mention Gerald as well, as he was unintentionally funny with his barely understandable speech. 

I started watching this show exclusively due to Clarkson. I wouldn't have been interested in a farming show otherwise. For me, the series started out as being decent and progressed to being quite good as the season moved forward. I rather enjoyed the discussion on the complexity of farming with Clarkson's antics thrown in for good humor. I've been told that there will be a season two of this series and I will watch once it is released.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - Other Aspects of the Game

 There are a few other aspects of this game that I wanted to discuss that didn't fit into my breakdown of the game as the plot progressed. 

Music: The music in this game is fantastic. Zelda games are known for their music and I will commonly play a game soundtrack or mix on YouTube as the songs get stuck in my head. However, I had minimal recollection of the music from the first time I played Skyward Sword. For whatever reason, it just didn't stick with me as being memorable. A few weeks prior to playing the game, I started listening to the soundtrack to get me in the mood to play the game. What I discovered is that this game's soundtrack is fantastic. It is the first time a full orchestra was used to create the music, which results in a full and rich sound. It's become some of my favorite music from the series.

Collecting bugs and other items: This game introduced the concept of collecting bugs and other items such as tumbleweeds and enemy parts like tails. The first time I played this game I didn't pay much attention to this portion of the game. However, this concept carried over to Breath of the Wild and was expanded so this time around I was used to collecting and the benefits that come with it. I think the first time I played the game I found it to be an unnecessary nuisance. I've mentioned before that as I've aged, I have become more interested in completing as much of a game as I can. With this being said, this time around I collected every bug and item in the game. There is a sense of completeness by doing so and you get to use the items to upgrade your beetle and shield, among other things. In this sense the items almost act as a form of currency, along with rupees. I think this concept overall was a positive aspect of the game.

Along the same line of random items, the stamina meter and sailcloth were huge in this game as well. Admittedly, the stamina meter was underdeveloped in this game. It essentially served as a way to limit how long you can run but really didn't play any important role in gameplay. The sailcloth was a logical choice for allowing Link to land softly when descending to the surface, but otherwise was a bit underdeveloped as well. However, both items carried over to Breath of the Wild and played very important roles in gameplay, and for that I give Skyward Sword kudos for introducing the items to the series.

Fi: Link's assistant Fi was always a source of complaints for this game. Her knack for pointing out the obvious and generally interrupting gameplay was second to none. Nintendo toned her down in the HD version which was welcomed. Despite this, even my kids complained when she would appear to say something obvious, but generally she wasn't too bad this time around and I thank Nintendo for that. Also, in the original version of the game there would be an announcement every time you collected an item, even if it was your 100th dust relic. This time around, there would be an announcement only the first time you collected an item. This was a welcome change as well.

Motion Controls: The motion controls frustrated a lot of people in the original game. I honestly don't remember them being bad, but Sarah said I complained about them at the time and anytime you read about this game they are mentioned as a pain point. The HD version had a hybrid set of controls, where you could use a joy con for motion or the pro controller if you wanted to omit motion. I used the Pro controller for the entire game, choosing to omit motion. However, motion controls were so imbedded into this game that it was impossible to omit them completely. For instance, you had to fight enemies based on how they were blocking and even choosing answers to questions on screen utilized motion controls. Nintendo compensated for this by using the right directional stick to control your sword instead of a traditional button. You would swing your sword based on which way you pushed the stick. This took a bit of getting used to, as the right stick is typically used to control the camera. However, after a few hours I became comfortable with this control scheme and I think it is a little bit of the best of both worlds in terms of mixing motion without having to deal with centering the cursor all of the time. It was interesting because you had to think about how you were going to swing your sword when attacking an enemy, which is unique. I will say that most of the time I just mashed the control stick like I would do a button and I was victorious regardless, but the idea of swinging where the enemy isn't blocking is a good one, at least. Also, for what it is worth, the camera's position was never an issue so not having the control was not a problem. I think Nintendo did as best as they could with the controls.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - Part 3

 Part 3: Learning the Song of the Hero

The Sealed Grounds, the Thunderhead, and the Sealed Grounds again: After you collect the three Sacred Flames, Fi upgrades your sword to the Master Sword, which is awesome! Not only does it look cool, it is super powerful as well. Unfortunately, this is the part of the game that I remember negatively the most (beyond the Silent Realms) - the revisiting of locations now multiple times. Now you are tasked to find the Triforce. Your journey starts by traveling to the Sealed Grounds and battle the Imprisoned (again), this time with arms and Groose's help. I will give Groose credit for the Groosenator invention, which is amusing.  After defeating the Imprisoned, you deliver pumpkin soup to the dragon Levias in the Thunderhead, who has been infected by the ocular parasite Bilocyte. What follows is a cool boss battle that takes place in the sky. After defeating Bilocyte, Levias tells you that in order to locate the Triforce, you have to learn the Song of the Hero. The dragon that lives in each of the three previously visited lands holds a portion of the song (along with Levias). You can guess what this means - traveling to all three regions again. You start at Faron Woods, but when you try to land there the only landing position is the Sealed Grounds,  where you guessed it again - the Imprisoned has escaped and you have to fight him again, this time with arms and a tail...If the Silent Realms are my least favorite part of any Zelda game, the Imprisoned is my least favorite boss. For no other reason than the ridiculousness of having to fight him three times. I get what they are trying to accomplish by showing how he is growing in strength by escaping more frequently, which puts a sense of urgency on finding the Triforce. But it would've been nice to represent this in a more enjoyable way. 

Faron Woods: After defeating the Imprisoned for a third time, you travel to Faron Woods. Groose launches you there in the Groosenator, and when you land you learn the entire woods have been flooded by the region's dragon in order to get rid of all the bad guys. She will teach you her part of the song, but only after you collect her 17 tadtones, which are little fish shaped like musical notes. She already has the tadtones in her possession, but instead of just giving them to you, she scatters them throughout the flooded woods. Whatever, dragon. After finding the tadtones (which isn't difficult, just a bit tedious), she teaches you her part of the song and drains the woods, returning it to its pre-flooded state.

Eldin Volcano: When descending to the volcano surface, the volcano erupts, blowing Link off course where he is captured and all of his items are taken from him. You have to escape his cell and collect his items without being caught by the guards. I didn't mind this as much as collecting the tadtones. The stealth was kinda fun and reminded me of Metal Gear Solid. I usually enter areas with my sword a-blazin', so this gameplay was unique to most of the play experienced in Zelda games. Though the guards are not intelligent at all. You can literally pelt them in the face with arrows and they won't see you unless you enter their spotlight.

Lanayru Desert: The cool thing about this area is the dragon's corpse is laying on the ground in front of you once you reach a previously unreachable area of the desert. This is the first section in Part 3 of the game that is new, which is nice. Your goal is to navigate a timeshift stone to the corpse's location, making time move to the past and the dragon come to life, which is really cool. Unfortunately, when he comes to life he is quite sick and requires medicine. You then have to take a seed from the nearby Life Tree and plant it at the Sealed Temple. Once the seed grows into a tree, you can take one of the tree's fruits to the dragon in the desert as it has medicinal properties. This takes some clever time traveling through the Time Gate in order to get the tree to grow quickly.

Skyloft Silent Realm and Sky Keep: After you learn the Song of the Hero, you travel back to Skyloft, where you encounter another(!) dreaded Silent Realm. After completing this trial, you unlock the game's final temple, Sky Keep. Interestingly, I have no recollection of this part of the game from my original play. Sky Keep is hiding right in front of your eyes, directly below the massive Statue of the Goddess in Skyloft. Each room of Sky Keep represents a previous temple. While this concept is cool, the temple itself is a bit of a pain because you have to arrange the rooms in certain ways in order to advance. I used a strategy guide for this because it was rather a pain figuring it out on your own. Once the rooms where in their correct locations, the temple itself wasn't difficult. I think the fact that each room represents a previous temple, while cool on the surface, actually makes the temple less memorable as it causes it to blend with memories of the previous temples. There is no final boss battle either. Your goal is to search and find the Triforce, and once you have it in hand you return to the Sealed Grounds.

Sealed Grounds and Final Battle with Ghirahim and The Imprisoned/Demise: After finding all three parts of the Triforce, Sky Keep falls from Skyloft and lands at the Sealed Grounds, where I half way expected to have to fight the Imprisoned again. Instead, Sky Keep's landing kills the Imprisoned once and for all! However, Ghirahim takes Zelda through the Gate of Time to restore The Imprisoned. Traveling through the gate to chase after Zelda, Ghirahim sends hundreds of bokoblins after you at the Sealed Grounds. On the one hand, this is a bit pointless as Link is significantly stronger than a bokoblin at this point with the Master Sword and the game is very generous with giving hearts, so you essentially end this massive battle in the same place you start. On the other hand, there is something very satisfying about the Hyrule Warriors-style epic battle. After defeating the bokoblin army, you once again have to fight Ghirahim. The visuals of the battle at the Sealed Grounds are very cool, but the battle itself is pretty straight forward and similar to previous Ghirahim battles. After defeating Ghirahim for a third time, he is able to summon his master, who this time instead of appearing as The Imprisoned, appears in his humanoid form Demise. Demise looks an awful lot like Ganon, and through research I learned that Demise appears in different forms as the Zelda canon unfolds, often times as the beast Ganon or the Gerudo thief Ganondorf. The best part about Demise is his hair, who has flowing orange hair that changes shades of orange as if his hair was made out of neon sign material or were on fire. Simultaneously cool and cartoonish. The final battle is epic (although I don't remember it at all from my previous play), as you are transported to this arena with shallow water surrounded by dark clouds that form thunderstorms in the second half of the battle. After defeating Demise, he promises to return as a reincarnation of evil (hence the reoccurring Ganon character) and Zelda decides to stay on the surface, setting the events in motion to form Hyrule Kingdom.

Black Widow

 

Black Widow is the first Marvel movie in two years, and I've always liked Scarlett, so I was excited to watch this movie. I figured I'd have to rent it but I waited patiently and was able to watch it on Disney+ without additional fees, which was excellent. 

The most recent Marvel content includes Loki and WandaVision, two shows that were eccentric but I liked a lot. This movie was the exact opposite of those TV shows. Natasha is on the run as a fugitive for violating the Sokovia Accords. She comes into possession of the antidote to the mind controlling substance used in the Black Widow program, a Soviet-era female soldier training program. This reconnects her with her sister, who recently escaped the Black Widow program. They go on a hunt for the Red Room Academy in order to kill the program's leader and shut it down.

In this sense, the movie feels more like a James Bond spy film than a superhero film. We follow Natasha from Norway to Budapest, Morocco, and Russia. It's complete with motorcycle/car chases, snipers, and even a Q-like character who helps Natasha with supplies, including a helicopter and jet. The Red Room Academy feels like a villain's secret lair that you would see in early Bond films. The closest thing to a superhero we see in the film is the washed-up Red Guardian and an underdeveloped Taskmaster, played by previous Bond girl Olga Kurylenko. What a fantastic name, by the way - Taskmaster. It sounds like the name of a productivity App.

The movie begins with Natasha as a young girl in Ohio, surrounded by her "family" which includes her sister and two parents. Her parents are Russian spies undercover in the States. In order to find the Red Room Academy, Natasha and her sister track down her previous undercover family, which includes the Red Guardian as her dad and her mom who is a Black Widow herself. Obviously there are some hard feelings between everyone, as the adults were the only parents Natasha and her sister ever had, and they essentially dumped them once the undercover assignment ended. The movie has a decent enough plot for a superhero/spy film, and the action is great. The best part of the movie, however, were the scenes with the family together and the banter that occurs. In fact, Natasha's sister Yelena (played by Florence Pugh) nearly stole the show with her comedic relief and busting of Natasha's metaphorical balls. 

The post-credits scene shows Yelena visiting Natasha's grave (she died while retrieving the Soul Stone in Avengers: Endgame). Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character Valentina Allegra de Fontaine appears, offering Yelena an assignment to kill Clint Barton for allowing Natasha to die while retrieving the Infinity Stone. Here's hoping we see more Yelena in the upcoming Hawkeye TV series.

Tarkin: Star Wars

 

Grand Moff Tarkin (or is it just Moff, or Governor, or General? It's all a bit confusing.) is portrayed in the original trilogy as a stern and brilliant military leader, serving the Emperor at the highest level. Possibly third in terms of chain of command in the Empire behind Palpatine and Vader, Tarkin is famous for his actions at the Battle of Alderaan, where he used the Death Star to blow up the planet.  Despite his high ranking and importance in the Star Wars universe, very little time is spent developing his character. This is where this book comes into play. 

Tarkin grew up on an outer world planet (read: the boonies),  where his family had developed a military presence to help deal with smugglers and criminals. As a teen, he went through Tarkin family rituals on a remote area of his home planet, where he learned survival and military skills. Lessons learned from these rituals greatly influenced his career, as he was able to use them to sharpen his military and battle problem-solving. He eventually became the leader of his home planet (hence, Governor) and developed a relationship with Sheev Palpatine. This relationship began during the Clone Wars (I completely forgot that he was the one that prosecuted Ahsoka Tano), and progressed after the Clone Wars as it was becoming increasingly apparent that advancing the Empire's influence in the outer rim was important for various reasons. 

The majority of this book's plot takes place in the period between the Clone Wars and the original trilogy. Tarkin's loyalty to the Republic and then the Empire, as well as his military brilliance, elevated him to the top ranks of the Empire.   He was one of the first to acquire the Moff designation, and became the first person to be named a Grand Moff, where his assignment was to rule over the outer rim planets.  During this time he is in charge of a top secret military base (the Death Star) being built at Geonosis. While overseeing the project, a group of bandits stage a fake attack using deep fake video. While investigating the "attack" to determine who would have the ability to stage such a fake attack, Tarkin's ship the Carrion Spike gets jacked by the bandits. The remainder of the book is spent following Tarkin as he chases the bandits.  He works side-by-side with Vader during most of the story, as well as interactions and flashbacks to his childhood trials and previous conversations with Palpatine.

Like most of these Star Wars books, the plot is decent enough. The most interesting part, however, is the back story on how Tarkin's career developed, as well as his relationship with Palpatine. It fills a back story of a major character in the Star Wars universe not previously described. Interestingly, Tarkin worked with Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars, and suspected Anakin was Vader, but did not know that for sure.  

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - Part 2

 Part 2: Obtaining the Sacred Flames

After completing the Lanayru Mining Facility, you finally catch-up with Zelda and Impa, who instruct you to return to the Sealed Grounds adjacent to Faron Woods. There you encounter the Imprisoned, a large black beast that has escaped its sealed cage. Additionally, you learn that in order to open the time gate to get to Zelda, your sword needs to be enhanced with fires from the previously mentioned three regions, which involves revisiting the areas you just left, which is mildly annoying. However, once you arrive in the region the real annoyance begins: the Silent Realm trials. All three regions require you to go through a trial where you collect 15 tears, and have to do so without getting caught by the guards. If you get caught, you have to start all over from the beginning. The Silent Realms are on of my least favorite parts of any Zelda game. They produced huge amounts of anxiety when I played the game initially, and this did not alleviate on replay. I'm (somewhat) more willing to accept the revisiting of regions now compared to the first time I played this game. This was one of my major complaints of the game initially.  However, I think what is accomplished on the revisits fit the overall story being told, as they wouldn't let just anyone open a time gate - it has to be someone who passes the trials, so this makes sense. But the Silent Realms themselves seem unnecessary.  To be fair, once you pass the Silent Realm trials, a new area of the region is opened, so the majority of the gameplay during this part of the game takes place in a previously unaccessible area. This is where the game shines the most, in my opinion. The landscapes opens up a bit and feel more natural. The temples are quite good and memorable. At this point in the game you really feel like you are on an epic adventure.  Starting with Lake Floria that leads to the Ancient Cistern and its boss, Ancient Automaton Koloktos. The Fire Sanctuary is a gorgeous temple, built within volcano peaks on Eldin Volcano. Perhaps the most memorable is the Sandship with its squid boss Abyssal Leviathan Tentalus. After you finish the awful Silent Realms, the pre-temple tasks to get to the temple in this section of the game feel relevant and much less tedious, and the temples are really quite fantastic.

The Imprisoned, a recurrent boss in Skyward Sword (more on it in Part 3).

Despite the annoyance of the Silent Realms, they look fantastic.

The Ancient Cistern in Lake Floria and its boss, Ancient Automation Koloktos.

The Fire Sanctuary, where you meet Ghirahim for a second time.

The Sandship with its squid boss Abyssal Leviathan Tentalus.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - Part 1

 Part 1: Introduction and Locating Zelda

Skyloft: The game begins in the town Skyloft, where a teenage Link is preparing for the Wing Ceremony to become a Knight. Like many previous Zelda games, the beginning of the game is used as a tutorial to get aquatinted with the controls and explain the plot. Compared to other Zelda games, Skyward Sword's tutorial introduction does a good job of introducing Skyloft and some of the main characters without doing too much hand holding. Zelda clearly has feelings for Link, while in classic fashion, Link seems aloof and lazy. We are introduced to many of the town's residents, many of which we will interact with as the game proceeds as some are involved in the main plot and many others are involved in side quests. The most memorable resident is Groose, who is a bully of sorts to Link as he is jealous of the attention he gets from Zelda. Groose is one of the more memorable characters in all of the Zelda games and ends up playing a part in the main story beyond being a bully. Initially (in 2011) I wasn't a big fan of Skyloft, mostly because it wasn't Hyrule. On replay, I'm fine with the town being different from Hyrule. It acts as a central hub of sorts, as you return to the town numerous times to upgrade items and progress the plot. The only negative I see with Skyloft is that since it is a floating island in the sky, the town and its residents seem quite removed from the actions that take place on the surface. In fact, I think most of the residents have no idea what is happening and think the surface below the clouds is a myth.  According to legend, three Goddesses created the Triforce. The Demon King Demise destroyed the land searching for the Triforce. The Goddess Hylia (who places her soul into Zelda's mortal body) gathered the survivors from the attack and moved them into the sky. After the Wing Ceremony occurs and Link is awarded the winner, Zelda gives Link a sailcloth she made as a gift. This allows Link to safely fall to the surface. This is the first time in the series the sailcloth appears, and is an instrumental tool for travel in Breath of the Wild (the same can be said for the stamina meter). After the ceremony, Zelda falls to the surface after crashing her loftwing in a tornado. This sets the game in motion, as it is determined that Link is the chosen hero destined to defeat Demise. Link is guided by Fi, who tells him to go to the Sealed Temple, where he meets an old woman who instructs Link to track Zelda. This leads Link to the three regions listed below as he searches for his friend.

Faron Woods: Faron Woods is my least favorite region in the game. While there are parts of this game that are stunning visually (mostly the temples), Faron Woods has a cartoonish appearance. Even worse than this, it feels like a man-made playground, not a forest. You are essentially funneled through trench-like hallways with very little opportunity to explore. One of areas that opens up a bit has large, fictional-looking mushrooms that look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. We are also introduced to one of the game's most common villains, the bokoblin for the first time, which are more goofy looking than intimidating. In the woods you meet a race of people called Kikwi, and here is where the find-and-retrieve portion of the game begins. You help the elder Kikwi find three of his friends, and in exchange he gifts you the slingshot, which allows you to knock down a vine and proceed to a new area of the woods. While these find-and-retrieve portions of the game were remembered as being annoying and cumbersome, and hindsight maybe I was a bit harsh on this portion of the game. It's not like the game could just give me the slingshot. From here you proceed to the Skyview Temple, which is a small but memorable temple. Here, you get one of my favorite items in the series: the beetle, which is a flying contraption that allows you to pick-up items, drop items, and visualize areas where you cannot explore. This temple is also where you first meet Ghirahim, a Demon Lord who is trying to free Demise.

Eldin Volcano: The next area you visit is the Eldin Volcano, which similar to Faron Woods, feels a bit man-made. Here you meet the Mogma race of civilized moles. On the one hand, they are incredibly weird. On the other hand, they are quite memorable, though I completely forgot about the part later in the game where Link can actually dig under the ground to get to different places thanks to the Mogma mitts. These characters live in the Eldin Volcano region, but appear at various points throughout the game. Beyond the digging mitts, the other big item introduced here is the bomb, which is a classic item in the franchise. You ascend the volcano to reach the Earth Temple, which is a fantastic looking and memorable lava-filled temple. The temple is the highlight of this region, as most of the other aspects are not too memorable, except for meeting the Mogma people.

Lanayru Mine and Desert: The Lanayru region is my favorite region in the game. It is the most open region, and thus feels less man-made and more natural. Beyond that, the region features timeshift stones. When you first arrive, you travel through a mine before getting to the desert. The mine has been abandoned and left in ruins, likely the consequence of Demise's search for the Triforce. However, when you activate a timeshift stone, a time portal to the past opens, and the immediate surrounding area comes to life. This completely transforms the look, going from a dark and bleak theme, to a vibrant and lively feel, with mining robots working feverishly to get their product. Not only does the look and feel of the region change when a timeshift stone is activated, it also provides an intriguing gameplay element. Traveling to and from the past provides useful ways to navigate the region, and often times you have to figure out how to move the stones in order to access new and important items. It is one of my favorite aspects of the game because it is so unique. Here, your Beetle gets upgraded to the Hook Beetle, which allows you to pick up items like bombs and drop them in far off locations. While in the past, you activate power generators which causes the Lanayru Mining Facility to rise from buried sand. The mining facility serves as the region's temple. It is larger and a bit more challenging than the previous two temples. As with the rest of the region, it is desolate until activating the timeshift stones, which causes the facility to come to life. Here you get the Gust Bellows, which is essentially a leaf blower, that allows you to blow sand (and other objects) to reveal items buried below. As far as I can remember this item is unique to this game, and while not too memorable, does provide an interesting gameplay element. At the end of the temple you fight a cool boss in the form of a large scorpion.