Star Wars: Dark Disciple

 

After spending the last two books in Timothy Zahn's Chiss Ascendancy galaxy, I was happy to return to the traditional Star Wars galaxy with its familiar planets and characters. Dark Disciple takes place towards the end of the Clone Wars, and focuses on a plan the Jedi come up with to end the war. The Clone Wars era is my favorite time period of Star Wars. After watching the animated series, I was introduced to so many new characters and additional context was given to better explain the events of the War. A lot of the characters in the Clone Wars play huge roles in the Star Wars story, and many of them were not even mentioned in the movies. Two such characters were the main stars in this book - Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress.

Quinlan Vos is a Jedi Knight, a bit of a renegade who played by his own rules. His biggest storyline prior to this book was a mission he went on with Obi-Wan to capture the escaped prisoner Ziro the Hutt, which failed by the way.

Asajj Ventress has a more complicated story. I won't go into details, but briefly she is a Force-sensitive human who was raised as an orphan and trained as a Jedi Padawan. After her master died, she was picked up by the Sith Lord Count Dooku and learned the dark side of the Force. Afraid she was growing too strong in the dark side of the Force, Dooku tried to eliminate her. After Asajj unsuccessfully attempted to kill him, he murdered her family the Nightsisters on Dathomir, so she obviously is not a fan of Dooku. After her relationship with the Count ended, she spent her time as an assassin and bounty hunter.

As the war continues, the Jedi decide that the only way to stop the war is to assassinate Dooku. Dooku is in charge of the separatist military and responsible for many of the conflicts. The true Sith leader is Palpatine, but the Jedi are not yet aware of this. I have a major issue with this idea, because the Jedi are not assassins and generally try to avoid conflict. I can't think of a single other time in the Star Wars Canon where they've went out of their way to specifically kill someone. Their idea to send Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos undercover to team up with Ventress is fine enough. The Jedi don't think they can eliminate Dooku on their own and figure Asajj knows him better than anyone and thus will be able to help them accomplish their goal. Vos commonly works undercover and Ventress surely has enough motivation to kill Dooku. All of this is fine and dandy. However, what comes next is difficult to swallow. During the process of working together, Vos and Asajj fall in love. This is a major problem for two reasons. The first is that Jedi aren't allowed to fall in love. Anakin is the best example of when this was allowed to happen, and we all know how that worked out. Obi-Wan had "feelings" for Duchess Satine, but nothing more. Then there is Asajj's side of the story. Every part of her story revolves around the fact that she is a strong, independent character who works alone. So the likelihood of this happening seems so small and unrealistic that I honestly couldn't get into the story. I was willing to accept the plot to kill Dooku, but the love story was too much. During the process their relationship grew, then the typical event happened where they broke up, but who cares? Add to the fact that Vos, I think, briefly joined the dark side and teamed up with Dooku, but then was allowed to stay with the Jedi seems like a far stretch as well. He maybe joined Dooku to help infiltrate the Sith and learn Sidious' identity, though he may have also joined because he was tempted by the dark side. It was kind of hard to tell. Either way, he returned to the Jedi after a probation period. Again, seems like a stretch.

The book ends with Asajj being killed by Dooku's force lightening after throwing herself in front of Vos to save him. I would have rather seen Vos take the force lightening. While Asajj has been on the wrong side of the force at times, generally I like her character and she has worked with the Jedi in positive ways in the past. I don't have much attachment to Vos, and after his actions in this book, I actually kind of don't like his character. Dooku got away, by the way, so this whole story was for nothing. 

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

 

This show takes place soon after the events of the Avengers: End Game. Captain America Steve returns to his original timeline to be with Peggy, and thus ends the movie as an elder. This leaves the position of Captain America vacant, and the US military soon finds a soldier to fill the position. This frustrates Sam (The Falcom) and especially Bucky (The Winter Soldier), as Steve gave the shield to Sam who subsequently gave it to the government. 

Meanwhile, a group of anti-nationalists called the Flag Smashers are causing trouble. They are obsessed with returning life back to the way it was after the blip. After the blip, they got used to certain privileges and presumably a better life. However, once Bruce Banner restored the blip and half of the world's population was restored, it strained resources and impacted the life they are now used to. Oh, and the Flag Smashers have become super soldiers after injecting super soldier serum.

Sam and Bucky try to intervene to stop the Flag Smashers. However, so does the new Captain America. Captain tries to work together, but Sam and Bucky do not approve of his more aggressive tactics. After fighting the Flag Smashers and Sam and Bucky, non-super soldier Cap figures he is out-powered by the super soldiers and after obtaining a vial of the super soldier serum, injects himself giving him super power strength. In a public display of violence, the US Government strips the new Cap of his title. Meanwhile, Sam and Bucky also rely on questionable tactics, freeing terrorist Zemo from prison to get his intelligence on the locations of the Flag Smashers and the development of the super soldier serum.

The show ends with Falcon becoming the new Captain America while the previous new Captain America transforms into US Agent. US Agent is a character from the comics I am unfamiliar with, as is his new ally played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Apparently her character in the comics has questionable allegiances, and thus it remains to be seen what happens with the two of them. Meanwhile, Sam and Bucky successfully stop the Flag Smashers attempts at preventing the GRC vote. However, it is agent Sharon Carter who kills the leader of the Flag Smashers. She had been in hiding on the crime island of Madripoor since being on the run from the US government for helping Steve Rogers in Civil War. It is revealed that she is the Power Broker, a crime lord who was financing the research and development of the super soldier serum. As the series ends, it is revealed that the government forgives Sharon of her crimes and lets her have her former government job back as a way to say thanks for killing the Flag Smashers leader. 

The series leaves plenty of open-ended questions and plots to be discovered, either in an upcoming second season or to play out in future MCU movies. While the show was good and a return to traditional Marvel storytelling when compared to the wonderfully wacky WandaVision, I feel as if the show lost its edge as the season progressed. Sam makes the government out to be the bad guy, not the Flag Smashers. Or is Captain America turned US Agent the bad guy? Or is it his new boss? Or is it Agent Carter? Who knows? Regardless, the show was entertaining as is and sets up several new plot lines moving forward in the MCU.

Apple Pay

 

Despite being heavily invested in Apple products, I never took the time to set-up Apple Pay. The main reason for this was that I don't do a lot of retail shopping, and thus didn't really think it was worth my time. On a couple of occasions I have tried to set it up on my iPhone, but for whatever reason it wanted me to call my card issuer to verify the set-up and I stopped at that step. This past week, however, I realized that Apple Pay was already set-up on my iPad. I think this got set-up while buying books from Apple, as it always asks me to "double click" to confirm the purchase. Once I realized it could be set-up without calling the bank, I was inspired to try to set it up on my Apple Watch. Since I have a watch, I am more likely to use it at retail stores over my iPhone anyway. After getting it set-up on my watch and using it a few times, I am glad I took the time to look into it more.

Setting it up on Apple Watch was super easy. I'm not sure why my iPhone wants me to contact my bank. I was able to set-up two cards on my Watch (including the same card the phone wants me to call the bank for) within seconds with no phone calls or confirmation emails needed. Once set-up, any retailer that supports contactless pay (which Apple says is 85% of retailers) also supports Apple Pay. When ready to purchase, you just double tap the side button on the watch and hold it near the card reader and voila, the payment will process. 

I should have done this years ago. The payment process is nearly instant and is significantly faster than the traditional process of whipping out a credit card. Apparently it is more secure, as well, as it uses unique transaction and device ID numbers instead of credit card numbers. As Sarah said, it is like PayPal, except it can be used beyond a website. 

I remember the first time I went to Disney World as an adult and was amazed at what the Magic Band could accomplish. From purchases to Fast Pass and park tickets, you could accomplish so much with the little wrist band. Little did I know that I already had the ability to do the exact same thing with my Apple Watch outside of Disney. I think this will become more common as Apple just announced you will be able to store your drivers license in the Apple wallet. We used Apple wallet to get into Disney this past week, and the last time we went to a Pacers game we used Apple wallet as well.  Per usual, I am years behind the times as none of this is new. However, with the speed and convenience of using Apple Pay on the Apple Watch, I am glad I took the time to set it up.

WandaVision

 

I saw previews for WandaVision before watching any of the Marvel movies. Even before I knew who Wanda Maximoff or Vision was, I was intrigued by this show. I find the 1950's and '60s decades interesting, and knowing the show was set in that time period was enough to peak my interest. Also, it seemed odd that a superhero show from Marvel would have such a setting. After watching the Marvel movies and learning of Wanda's and Vision's backstories, I was ready to watch WandaVision. This show is fantastically odd and entertaining. I liked it quite a bit.

From the very beginning, you know something isn't quite right about the town of Westview. It seems almost too perfect. Wanda and Vision are leading a seemingly perfect life, while the neighbors all act like they're in a TV show. The flow of time is quite rapid, with a week in our time corresponding to a decade in Westview. The first few episodes are spent setting up the scene. You know something is off, but it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what is going on. It feels a bit like watching Lost, which is a good thing.

As the show progresses, layers of the illusion are peeled, increasingly revealing the true nature of what is going on in Westview. Essentially, Wanda has turned the town into her own ideal life with Vision. The townsfolk's minds have been infiltrated by Wanda, making them think and act as if they are part of the show. Vision, of course, is dead. He died in Infinity War, making him a complete illusion. Meanwhile, those in the real world, including the FBI and government agency SWORD, have become aware of the situation and attempt to enter Wanda's illusion to put an end to it. Oh, and did I mention a second witch becomes aware of Wanda's actions and enters Westview to learn of Wanda's powers?

Over the course of the season, the show progresses from a sitcom focusing on Wanda and Vision's life, to a mix of sitcom and traditional Marvel viewing when we get SWORD's point of view, to essentially a Marvel show by the end. SWORD creates a new version of Vision based on parts from the previous Vision that were recovered, Wanda ends her control over Westview to give the citizens their lives back, and in the process ends Vision's life once and for all (or has she?) and transforms into the Scarlet Witch. The show also introduces Wanda's twin boys, who also have super powers and appear in the comics. This could have future implications for the MCU, though the twins' characters were underplayed and thus not developed in the show.

WandaVision was a treat to watch. It was wonderfully done and a unique MCU experience. In fact, it has been one of my favorite MCU watches thus far. I applaud Marvel for taking the risk with this show. It turned out fantastic.

Time Machine - Part 1

 Ever since the great hard drive crash of 2014, I have been a big proponent of backing up data. I've used different methodologies in the past, including getting help from software. Currently I have two systems going. For pictures and video of the girls, I use a cloud service to back up that data. For that data and everything else, I have a mirrored hard drive. For pictures and videos that we take, they are then saved in three different locations. Everything else, including data from the internet and files we create such as spreadsheets, is saved twice. The way that I mirror the hard drive for my backup is where the problem lies.

I backup my system once per month. I figure that is enough time that if a crash happens, I haven't lost too much information while at the same time not driving myself crazy doing nonstop backups. Every month I plug in my backup drive, completely erase its contents, and copy my system in its entirety to the backup. I do this because it is easy and requires little manual input from my end. The problem with this method is that it leaves you vulnerable after you erase the backup drive if there are errors on the main drive. That is exactly what happened this past month.

At sometime during the past month, the main drive would not save files correctly. They were mostly JPEG files, and they acted like they save fine. But if you tried to access them, or move them in anyway (including to the trash), Finder would completely lockup, sometimes even forcing a system restart. So I was stuck. I had no way of removing the files. Apple's blog has documents about files like this, but none of the suggestions were helpful, though I didn't bother going to the terminal. In a very cumbersome manor, I was able to find the locations of the rogue files, and copy around them to the backup drive. But what if I could not have done that? I would have been screwed. 

After I had my backup saved again (I estimate I only lost a handful of files over the past month or so), I completely wiped my main drive to get rid of the rogue files and started from scratch. I was able to restore my main drive from my backup. Everything seems fine, but there is this thought of what if the main drive is trying to fail? We will see how it acts in the upcoming month or so. In the meantime, this situation has got me thinking of different strategies to backup my system. Strategies that do not involve completely wiping my backup every month, leaving me vulnerable to complete data loss. This is where Time Machine comes into the conversation.

Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy - Greater Good (Book 2)

 

Much like the first book in this series, Greater Good isn't really about Thrawn. This is disappointing as I was hoping to get insight into Thrawn's past and how he became the powerful military leader for the Empire portrayed in the Rebels series. We've learned that he is a military genius (which we already knew), he likes art and culture (which we already knew), and he is bad at politics (a newly learned characteristic). I suppose it is possible that in the third book, which releases this November, the story of how Thrawn joined the Empire will be told. He has already met Anakin, prior to becoming Darth Vader, so that connection has been established. 

While we haven't learned much about Thrawn, we have learned quite a bit about his culture. The book picks up where the previous book ended, with Thrawn investigating a potential threat to the Chiss Ascendancy. Zahn introduces a completely new galaxy in these books, so reading the first book does make understanding what is going in this book more easy. The Chaos is positioned outside of the lesser galaxy, and contains the Ascendancy as well as numerous other alien planets. On the one hand, being introduced to a new galaxy and setting in the Star Wars universe is exciting. However, the Chiss have a complex society with powerful families battling for political power and difficult to understand nomenclature. This, combined with the fact that there is no emotional attachment to this world from previous Star Wars stories, makes the Chaos feel distant. Thrawn is investigating a potential threat to the Ascendancy. That much I understand, but the details of who and where are a bit fuzzy and really turn out to be irrelevant. 

While investigating the potential threat to the Ascendancy, Thrawn & crew come across a group of refugees from a war-torn planet. Meanwhile, a group of aliens meet up with Chiss teenagers in an attempt to infiltrate their society. This forms the main plot of the book, and was intriguing because you never really knew their motives until the end of the book, and even then it remains questionable. As it turns out, they were attempting to disrupt the Ascendancy by luring a few of the powerful political families to a valuable mine on an abandoned planet that actually didn't exist, in hopes that the families would fight each other until a winner arose to claim the mine. Thrawn intercepts the plan and prevents all of this from happening. The reasoning for the aliens to create a civil war was never explained. Additionally, the main alien characters interact with an alien named Jixtus, who appears in a few scenes but is portrayed as a mysterious behind-the-scenes character who is pulling the strings of this elaborate play. His character is never developed and nothing is ever said about his motives, leaving me feeling a bit meh about the main villain of the story. 

Overall this is a book about Thrawn which isn't really about Thrawn, and describes an elaborate story of an alien race infiltrating a new planet in order to tear them apart. The story itself is fine, but it is hard not to feel a bit underwhelmed. This is book 2 of a 3 book trilogy, so likely more will be explained in the final book. Until then, we will just have to wait to find out more about Jixtus and his motives, as well as how Thrawn ended up working for the Empire.

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 3

Captain America: Civil War was an enjoyable movie overall. The world's leaders attempt to reign in the Avengers due to multiple and very public catastrophes (see the events of the previous movies). This attempt splits the group, as some accept it as the right choice and others disagree. As the split is occurring, a bomb explodes and the main suspect is the Winter Soldier. Captain America suspects the Winter Soldier was framed, and so he along with the other Avengers who oppose giving up their autonomy chase Bucky to protect him and find out who was behind the bombing. 

My favorite part of the movie was the introduction to a new villain, Zemo. He was played brilliantly by Daniel Bruhl. He was quite mysterious, and you were left trying to figure out his motivation until the end of the film. Essentially, he wanted to turn the Avengers against each other in order to destroy them. He knew Captain America would try to protect Bucky, which is why he framed him. He also knew this would be an unpopular decision for many of the Avengers, and used it as the catalyst for their fighting. The icing on the cake is when Tony learned that the Winter Soldier is who killed his parents. It will be interesting to see how the Avengers move on from the events in this film, as their relationships were pretty strained by the end. We also learned that the Winter Soldier can go from a normal person to a psycho killer if the correct Russian trigger word is said. Obviously the Winter Soldier continues to have a presence in the MCU as he know has his own show on Disney +, but Zemo also continues to stick around as I saw screen caps of him from the new Winter Soldier show, so we will be seeing more of them for sure. This film also featured a lot of Audi vehicles, which I liked as well, including an A4, Q7, and of course Tony's R8.

On a small negative note, the film featured a somewhat lengthy fight scene between the Avengers that I could have done without. I get why it was there - this is an action movie, people like to see the superheroes fight, etc. The whole thing just seemed unnecessary and didn't do anything to advance the story. But hey, Spider-Man showed up, which was cool.

I had no idea who Doctor Strange was prior to watching the film. I had never heard of his character and thus had no expectations. Overall I enjoyed the movie and its unique approach to the superhero. The film is super psychedelic. The visuals are amazing. So much so, I found myself getting borderline dizzy at times. I find Nepal and the Himalayas interesting, so Dr. Strange seeking a hidden society of sorcerers in Katmandu is appealing. Of course, he is searching for a cure to his hand injuries from his car wreck. He ends up discovering an entire different universe of dimensions and magic, and must use his newly discovered powers to save the world. And of course, they found a way to sneak a Lamborghini Huracan into the film, which is excellent. Overall I enjoyed this movie and thus far ranks as one of my favorite Marvel movies and characters.

I had no idea what to expect with the first Guardians movie, and thus left the film a bit confused. The characters were funny, the music was great, but I didn't understand where the characters or the villains fit into the greater Marvel universe. However, I thoroughly enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2. From the moment Groot started rocking out to ELO's Mr. Blue Sky at the beginning of the film, I was entertained. I was already familiar with the characters, and though I am still a bit fuzzy on where they stand with the greater Avengers group, they were so damn funny in this movie I honestly don't even care. On several occasions I was laughing out loud, especially the comments by Quill and Drax. This movie was so funny, at several points throughout I was questioning if this was a parody movie. I think the main villain was forgettable, but their relationship with Nebula and thus Thanos obviously ties them into the larger Avengers story. The music was just fantastic as well. I've been listening to 70s Gold all weekend. This was also one of my favorite Marvel movies thus far. Quite enjoyable.

Thor: Ragnarok was quite good as well. While not as funny as Guardians 2, it had plenty of laughable moments to lighten the mood. Thor finds himself teamed up with Loki and the Hulk, of all people, trying to protect Asgard from his sister Hela. Along the way, he finds himself enslaved on the odd planet Sakaar who is led by a flamboyant leader played by Jeff Goldblum, who is fantastic in the role. On Sakaar, Thor meets the Hulk, and they join forces to fight Hela after fighting each other. The team also has help from Heimdall. There was also a short appearance from Dr. Strange. A much better movie than The Dark World, Ragnarok also has been one of my favorite Marvel movies thus far.

 

Similar to Doctor Strange, I appreciate Black Panther's unique approach to superhero story telling. I enjoyed this movie, but felt like it spent as much trying to set the stage for future movies as much as it was telling the current plot. Killmonger was a great villain, and I wish he had more screen time. Regardless, I enjoyed the film. I can absolutely see where Wakanda, and its rich supply of Vibranium, could play a large part in the MCU moving forward. I think there will be exciting things to come as T'Challa moves Wakanda out from its invisibility cloak (or whatever they are using to hide its existence) and into the world's view. I imagine the bad guys will be chopping at the bit to get their hands on the Vibranium.

Avengers: Infinity War is your typical Avengers movie, with the smorgasbord collection of all the Avengers characters fighting a war of massive proportions. The Avengers are attempting to prevent Thanos from acquiring all of the Infinity Stones and enacting mass genocide. The movie was decent enough, up to the points where (A) Dr. Strange just gave Thanos his Infinity stone and (B) they fought this huge battle at Wakanda to protect Vision's stone. Dr. Strange saw 14,000,000 outcomes of this battle with Thanos and only one had the Avengers winning. Presumably the one outcome where they won had him just giving Thanos his stone. The battle at Wakanda just seemed absurd as it was inevitable that Thanos would get the stone. Why not just give it to him instead of destroying Wakanda? Other than these two points, I enjoyed the movie. It did get me thinking, however. Do I enjoy the Avengers movies with all of the characters more, or the movies that focus on individual characters? After doing some thinking, I believe I enjoy the individual movies more. While entertaining, the Avengers movies tend to be about massive battles, whereas the individual movies focus more in-depth on the characters and story. The Avengers movies do play an important role in progressing the overall storyline of the MCU, however, and thus are must watches. This movie also made me think about Guardians of the Galaxy again. When I first watched that movie, I was quite confused by the story. I didn't understand how the characters fit into the larger MCU story. It's now pretty clear, as they were dealing with the Infinity stones as well and Gamora being Thanos' adoptive daughter. Guardians has since become one of my favorite parts of the MCU.

Ant-Man and the Wasp was an enjoyable movie, but my opinion of this film isn't much different than my opinion of the original. I think Ant-Man's (and now Wasp's too) abilities are cool, but in the grand scheme of the Marvel movies he isn't one of my favorite characters, despite enjoying Paul Rudd's performance. This movie's plot overall seemed irrelevant. At the moment, I don't have much emotional connection to returning to the quantum realm to save Hope's mother. It seems especially irrelevant given the fact that she is immediately killed by Thanos' genocide plan. Obviously Dr. Pym is a genius and has SHIELD ties, so I would imagine his quantum technology will continue to hover around the Avengers moving forward. The real issue with this movie is identifying the actual villain. The guy trying to sell Pym's technology isn't convincing in any way as an actual villain. Dr. Pym and Hope actually seem like the bad guys in this movie, as they seem to have no care at all for Scott's need to stay out of trouble to avoid violating his probation. They are just not very likable people. I don't know if that was done by design, but it makes it confusing to know who to root for. 

Captain Marvel was one of the first MCU movies I watched, when I was watching them in chronological order and not in MCU phase order. I could probably stand to go back and watch it again, as I am sure it will make a bit more sense now that I have a better understanding of what is happening in the Marvel universe. In fact, I've discussed that I could probably stand to re-watch all of the movies as I am sure I would pick up on things now that I missed the first time around just because I have more knowledge about Marvel in general. Time will not allow for this, however. It was my introduction to Nick Fury and SHIELD. I enjoyed the throwback to the 1990s as the setting and the fact that Carol rocked a NIN t-shirt during a lot of the movie. I always find characters who can shapeshift to be creepy, so I enjoyed that aspect of the film as well. I am sure the battle between the Kree and Skrulls has a larger significance in the Marvel universe that I am missing at this point, having watching this movie prior to watching most of the other films, but that will have to remain for future discovery at this time.

Avengers: Endgame was my favorite Avengers movie. What a way to wrap up the saga. Seeing the Avengers down in out in the post-Thanos world was a unique look for the usually strong Avengers. Introducing time travel to a movie's plot always has potential for confusion, and this was the case for me for this movie. Ant-Man quoting the rules of time travel from Back to the Future was hilarious, and while those rules may theoretically be incorrect, they are definitely easier to follow than the rules in Endgame. Regardless, with some pausing and thinking (and help from Sarah) I was able to figure it out. The biggest confusion is the role Gamora plays. She was sacrificed by Thanos to get the Soul Stone, and her 2014 version was what was left in the current time. This explains her absence at Tony's funeral as 2014 Gamora doesn't know the current Avengers. Presumably locating Gamora will be the plot of Guardians 3 when it comes out. Speaking of Tony, I had no idea his character dies in the movie, which is a bit disappointing as Iron Man is one of my favorite characters. The other part of this movie that I really enjoyed was the concept of the Thor Lebowski character. His fall from leader of Asgard to leader of New Asgard was hilarious, gaining all of the weight and drinking all of the time, worried about getting his cable fixed. Classic. His interactions with Quill and the rest of the Guardians (calling Rocket a rabbit, for instance) were funny as well.

As I've wrapped up Phase 3 of the MCU, I will be transitioning to the next phase which for now includes the new TV series on Disney+. I'm really looking forward to WandaVision and the Loki series. WandaVision looks like it is set in post-World War 2 America, a time period I enjoy. I have no idea how they plan to bring Vision back into this story. For what it's worth, phase 3 of the MCU was my favorite. Dr. Strange, Ragnarok, Guardians 2, and Endgame were some of my favorite movies. I think movie per movie, phase 3 was the best.