Ward

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8

The ending was later game of thrones stupid.

Daemon running out there like an idiot, and the dozens of archers firing at him miss, again, again, and again, and again, and again, and then oh now finally they hit.

All the while he's fighting against opponent, after opponent, after opponent, against multiple opponents, as the crab feeder sends out dozens of his men.

It's just stupid. And his dragon stayed back because? No reason. Could have been attacking the archers.

And it turns out Daemon didn't do this solely to try and kill the crab feeder, but to try and bait him out so he/his allies can kill him and his army?

But wait. Allies said they had around 700 men. They're in a war. So crab feeder must have hundreds or around that number. Crab feeder wouldn't be stupid enough to send out a big force just for daemon, especially because he was wounded by arrows and on the ground, and still being attacked by them. Plus, we saw him send out what two dozen of his warriors? Against Daemon. For some reason.

Then when allies show and dragon attack, Crab Feeder and his allies don't go back in the caves? Which was their usual tactic each time for literally years during the war.

Even though they're in a losing war, Daemon and his allies win at the end.

None of this makes sense.

Writing quality across the whole episode is lower than the previous two, and we have now reached later game of thrones level of stupidity.

Would Daemon have really done that stupid run? Oh and we also see more of his dishonorable nature by nearly beating a messenger to death, and then betraying the white flag of truth. Even though he at least seemed to have some honorable aspects to him in previous episodes, even though he was brutal. Was this all in the book? The stupid suicide run, the dishonorable actions. And was it in the book when Daemon charged right in the middle of battle on his dragon and got pounded by arrows and almost died? He got lucky because one went into his shoulder. This is stupid. Even on the run he could have been killed by the first volley of arrows. I'd be very surprised if any of this was in the book.

Edit: And we don't get enough info about things regarding the status of armies, and the numbers we do get don't make sense. So Valeryon's forces have 700 men left? Eh? That low? And you're waging a war? Been in a war for years? How many forces does Daemon have? Does he have any left? He had goldcloaks right? For some reason. I guess he had so much of their loyalty is what it said in previous episodes. Yeah i guess they just followed him to Dragonstone and then into war. Where are they? Are they still a part of his army? If not, then it's just him? Why did the Valeryon guy say Daemon is helping them lose the war, he has a dragon. He's consistently helping, especially so if he's contributing his goldcloak forces, and i assume that's all Daemon would have, since we don't know if he's the lord of anywhere and able to conscript people.

So many questions like that. All through the episode about things. When an episode is a mixed bag like this, you start to see and question many other things. I still enjoyed the episode overall though.

Edit 2: Since a lot of people seem to agree with me, i thought i'd go into more detail. The show hasn't completely broken down yet like later Game of Thrones, nor has the logic been twisted too much like middle Game of Thrones. The previous 2 episodes i thought were really good, but this episode you could tell had a different writer, and that's not good, because it makes you less immersed, like sometimes you feel these characters shouldn't be saying what they're saying. Contrast that to Game of Thrones season 1, and i couldn't tell who was writing what episode, as it was good across the board. So early into this season and i'm seeing a mismatch in writing is not a good sign.

I think we have a lot of interesting characters in this show and i'm looking forward to continuing. I'd rate this episode a 6.5/10, but 6 or 7 is valid to me. Most of this episode i thought was pretty good, but there were too many things for me to choose 6. The mismatch in writing, the timeskip, the brattiness of Rhaenyra, the white deer heavy handed symbolism, the end of the episode and the anticlimactic nature of the crabfeeder. The king feeling a bit too lost in his soul, when he's supposed to be king and has been king for a long time, and has a queen and children. I understand the reasoning, i just don't buy it much. But i still like the many conversations, politics and intrigue in the show, and the characters and story.

Why didn't Rhaenys kill them all and end the whole situation? Then there would be no war. Was that her saying she was on their side?

If not, then this is one of the most stupid moments in the whole show.

But why would Rhaenys be on their side? When Rhaenyra is the true heir (and also will be the first queen, like she would have been).

And she might have got Driftmark for her granddaughters in a negotation with Rhaenyra instead of it passing to her bastard. But even besides that, she just had her granddaughters betrothed to Rhaenyra's sons, further sealing their alliance.

Even if Rhaenys was going to be on the greens side, she could have stopped an entire war by killing them.

How did she even get to the dragon pit past the guards.

Why aren't there any dragons protecting the kings coronation, don't they have like 5 of them?

The white worm part was rubbish.

I've been on the blacks side for a couple episodes now, and i don't like how much the show has painted the greens as the bad side and the blacks as the good side. Rhaenyra is the legitimate heir, and would be a good queen. Alicent wants Aegon king because of a misunderstanding of Visery's last words, and Aegon would seem to be a bad king. But ok, that's how things go.

If Rhaenys was undecided, then she still could have averted an entire war by killing them.

I'm guessing since she didn't say anything and flew off, she's on Rhaenyra's side.

It was a good episode overall, but the ending was stupid.

I like this episode, and i think this season has been consistently very good.

But there's so much to resolve for the final 2 episodes?

It feels like we should get another season to explore all that's happened and see how things kick off. Like the rogue terrorist faction of changelings have infected star fleet at all levels, how is that going to be resolved in 2 episodes? And then there's the whole thing going on with Jack, and some kind of alien entity that's inside or around him. Who is it? What is it doing? What is going on with Jack? What is the relationship between this entity and the rogue faction of changelings?

And the big enemy that is behind the scenes is only going to be resolved in 2 episodes???

We saw it twice and it spoke a few lines of dialogue. Or whatever it was. Maybe it was the presence around Jack or not.

The main villain of this season is Amanda Plummer, and she doesn't feel like a main villain. She either should have been dispatched after episode 4, or we needed another season to fully explore what's going on and the mystery around the main villain behind the curtain.

I really like these characters and the ongoing story, i just want to see MORE story, MORE answers and MORE scenes with all of these characters. We needed another season! But this is supposedly going to be the final one.

And with Amanda being the main villain of the season, she's now dead, and we've got 2 episodes left? Ok i guess, but it feels a bit like she's been stretched out through the season, even though i enjoyed her backstory and like her as a character. Maybe we should have got another episode in the nebula, and did the boarding, backstory and death there.

But still, i'm really enjoying the season overall, and can't wait for the final 2 episodes. I'm just still so surprised that we are finally getting good writing for Star Trek, and legacy characters actually feel like legacy characters. WHAT HAPPENED? How did this show become so good? It's a dream come true. I'm going to rewatch all the episodes right now, because i just can't wait. It's rare for me to rewatch things so soon, but i just can't wait.

As for this episode, i really loved the melding of Data and Lore. It just makes sense and is a good way forward for the story, characters, and also respecting the earlier decision by the original Data to end his life, as this new Data is full of life. It's just so good. And Data being able to win over Lore with the memories was just a great decision and strategy by Data.

I'm really interested what's happening with Jack, what is going on? His powers seem a bit OP, and there's something to do with his and Picard's irumodic syndrome? Eh??

It was nice seeing them all gathered together again, the original team. Man that was good and SATISFYING. Seeing the original cast back together again, brilliant.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This. THIS, is what Doctor Who should be. Trust Moffat to knock it out of the park with his standalone episode.

THIS is what Doctor Who should be like. Impactful, emotional, good story, good characters.

I loved this episode. I loved it. This shows that Doctor Who can survive, and even thrive in the new era. But i fear this is going to be the exception in this season. The old-school Moffat delivering a classic style of episode that is probably going to end up the best in the season.

When do you ever see a doctor leave their companion at the start? I thought that was interesting.

The kid was kind of annoying.

Doesn't make sense Ruby was on a timer to stay alive instead of being killed.

Doesn't make sense that guy beat the whole AI algorithm.

But apart from those quibbles, i quite enjoyed this episode and felt emotionally impacted from it. The Doctor was good, though i would have liked him be a bit more persuasive or powerful, like if he ended up proving to the Anglican soldier that he had knowledge or support of the higher ups or he had some special kind of clearance. I just wanted a bit more from the Doctor in this situation. But i still liked what he done and how he was this episode, and i liked Ruby as well in some of the things she did, but i just wanted more from her too. Maybe i'm a bit greedy when it comes to what i want these days, but i still enjoyed the episode, and i liked the banter between the Doctor and Ruby, and i liked The Doctor calling her kinda stupid when he would get off the mine, which surprised her. That moment gave us some of the classic early Doctor moments with their companion, and it shows us a bit more of this incarnation's personality, though of course we know he's a more positive incarnation in general still, which i like actually, as it's quite different to previous ones. But this incarnation still has some of that darkness like what he expressed towards the Anglican soldier. I guess i wanted more darkness though, more anger, or maybe if there was a conversation between the Doctor and the AI, and then we'd see some of that darkness and anger, especially towards such a powerful being/algorithm as he was up against here. Instead, this planet wide algorithm barely had a personality. There were some seeds of a personality or sentience (which should have been compounded by the showcase of the AI of the cannisters) but instead it pretty much turned out to be nothing and the algorithm AI was beat in seconds.

It also doesn't really make sense about these soldiers just fighting against their own technology. It doesn't make sense from an individual soldier point of view, nor futuristic technology point or view, nor corporate, societal or cultural point of view. Basically it doesn't make sense at all if you think about it even a little bit, except in the only sense of the story as in it being the theme of anti-capitalism. That we see the portrayal in the story of unchecked futuristic capitalism, which is nonsensical realistically, but it makes for a good and interesting story, and i did enjoy watching it and seeing the themes of capitalism and religion explored somewhat.

But even with that story and the themes, we still have the emotional heart of the episode, as the Doctor is stuck and people are dying. I enjoyed it, it's a really good episode.

While i loved moments like Gambit admitting his love for Rogue and kissing her, and the X-Men getting their powers back and the theme tune playing, this was a pretty generic episode overall. Half-baked savage land plot through the entire season. Boring Xavier and Magneto plot with occasionally good dialogue between them, but Xavier's presence was missed overall, and the writing didn't get through enough the theme of "The X-men are missing their mentor, and now they struggle but also have to work together more" Nor did it get through enough the struggle of leadership in the group. It mostly felt like they were just leading themselves, when in the previous season we saw a clear chain of command with Cyclops in 2nd and Storm as 3rd. We should have had more spotlight moments for them in their leadership journey this season.

This episode has the boring Wolverine and tribesman interaction and his plot, which i didn't care about. The Mr. Sinister plots through the show have all been half-baked. And then there's little things like why aren't Mr. Sinister's henchman stopping Wolverine properly instead of flinging him about, and why flinging him near the important machine and prisoners that he could help escape with his claws, and why not stop him as he's releasing them. Why aren't they stopping them all even after they have been released, since they have no powers, Wolverine is kinda injured, and they are right next to the important machine which stops their powers. Why are the prisoners even next to the important machine. Why isn't Mr. Sinister interfering personally. There's a lot of little annoyances like that, that help to make the episode kinda generic.

The whole season has been like that really. I mean, it's above average overall, but a clear step down for me since season 1. Season 1 did the mutant debate a lot better, and the stories were overall stronger. In this season they explored the characters backstories more, but most weren't that interesting. Plus, the time travel plots in this season felt half-baked and convoluted too, moreso than the first season.

Xavier was a missed presence, and so was Magneto too in a way, since his presence is so large when he's on screen, projecting an aura of godhood. It's scary how powerful he is and what he's capable of. And as with Mr. Sinister, it felt like the Apocalypse plot was kinda half-baked too. Mr. Sinister as the end villain kinda fell flat. I mean he had a strong healing factor and some plans, even though they were half-baked, and besides that he was pretty weak and lost control quite quickly and easily.

I like that Alicent and Rhaenyra reunited in the beginning.

It does not make sense that Rhaenyra would want to have sex with Daemon like that.

And then Daemon couldn't get it up? No.

Then she has sex with the king's guard??? No, this is stupid.

And the queen doesn't like having sex with the king. Even though she's been doing it for years and he's not an evil man. It makes sense with modern sensibilities, but for medieval times it doesn't make sense.

She gave a little romantic affection towards Daemon, but having sex with him? No, doesn't make sense. Especially for medieval times, and especially moreso for the king's guard.

And the kingsguard going through with it? He knows if he was caught it would mean death or torture. Stupid. And if the king's guard was also found out or confessed, that would also spread through the realm.

Would Daemon have really tried to have sex with Rhaenyra? When they haven't had much romantic tension or interest. If he was rejected then that would damage their relationship, or if the king found out then it would damage his relationship with him, which happened in this episode. It doesn't make sense.

I ain't team Rhaenerya anymore, and Daemon doesn't deserve my support, so i'm team Alicent's children.

Past episodes have shown Rhaenyra to be our virtuous hero. This episode shows she isn't, and with her behavior towards the queen and king later in the episode, shows her manipulative nature, and apart from getting rid of the hand, she's not quite clever in regards to politics, as she wouldn't have done the things she did in this episode.

Why can Rhaenyra force the king to act against the hand? This makes no sense. The hand was just doing his duty.

And the king goes against the hand, even though he's trying to unite the realm, and the hand is a strong ally? Makes no sense. Oh but the sense is that what tips him over is because he sent Alicent to him. So what? Realistically i don't think the king would care too much, and it's an understandable decision to advance your status that many others would have done. It's bad decision when you think of it in modern sensibility terms, but not medieval times. The hand even denied doing it, so the king doesn't even know for sure.

When you tack on modern sensibilities into a time period that is supposed to be reminiscent of medieval times, you know things are probably going to go wrong. Modern sensibilities can be entered if they don't go against the realism of the backdrop. Writers these days don't seem to get this, and the content suffers for it. They also struggle with thinking ahead, and in adaptations are often either naively slavish to the source material or vary too much from it. Talented writers know how to reach a good middle ground while also creating good content on their own.

Why did Michael not leave immediately or soon after securing the baby. Because then there wouldn't be an episode.

Why did Michael not secure Taylor and/or the baby inside the puddle jumper they came in.

Why did Michael secure Taylor and the baby in the main office. Why are Taylor and the baby together. Why did Michael leave a headset in plain sight.

Why did Michael not think about the whole of Atlantis trying to get into his room and that it would make him even more wanting to leave the city quickly. He did acknowledge them trying to get in, but it didn't change his plans much.

Why did Michael not bring in my more hybrids from the outside.

It seemed too easy for Michael to infiltrate Atlantis, and then fry the power throughout the city.

Why did Michael not have Taylor and/or the baby heavily under guard to make absolute certain that the baby would be under his control. Why did he not keep the baby near him.

Why didn't Taylor put down the baby down and go help her allies attack Michael.

So Michael already had the baby's DNA? Why not leave then. Is he so paranoid that Atlantis might find him in a random corner of the universe? Because they found his initial base he was going to keep the baby in? But we don't hear that in the episode.

Why was Michael so focused on the self-destruct. I get destroying Atlantis, but once he had the baby and enacted his plan he'd win the war and get to Atlantis eventually. Maybe he was so focused on stopping them from trying to find him? But we never hear that in the episode.

Why did Michael try to kill Ronan, when he knew time was against him, as he knew he has underestimated his enemies as they attacked him and the baby got away. Plus, Ronan was going to be killed by the self-destruct anyway. Why did he walk to the puddle jumper for the same reasons. I guess because it's shown he has a large ego, plus dramatic effect.

There's so many questions in episodes like this that just making it boring to watch for me.

The episode was contrived and Michael was dumbed down.

I wonder if Michael has clones, since he knew how to make them since he cloned Carson.

This was a good film, though i was nearly always on mother's side.

Really one of the only ethical problems was the whole her killing the children that were "imperfect" though we don't get any clarification.

What if she was killing children who had inoperable brain defects which would make them murderously violent in later life. And now that the human girl will allow any child to live, that may happen. Even if mother may later tell her that will happen, daughter won't do anything and let it happen or keep the person contained in later life, i guess. I don't know.

But yeah it's most likely she was killing children who weren't perfect in other ways, which of course is wrong and mother should have known it was wrong for logical reasons, but the writer wanted the story or this aspect to be more against mother's side, so it's written this way.

So if you take away mother killing the imperfect children, you don't have much reason to be against mother's plan.

Restarting humanity as a utopia. With the best education and resources. And even if the mines were real, it would be full of flawed humanity and they may all starve to death or destroy each-other. Plus, in the facility, they would have the technology to one day research maybe how to destroy the droids (if mother was actually just an independant care droid).

So i was nearly always on mother's side as the movie progressed. The final twist didn't alter much.

The line of dialogue "I saw them (the droids) torturing babies" doesn't make sense given mother's plan and personality. Especially given it's supposed to be one consciousness, or something.

I kinda liked that mother planned for that woman to arrive at the facility. That cleared up a contrivance that the woman just happened to arrive at the facility at that specific time.

Mother's plan was a bit convoluted. But still, it was alright. I don't fully buy the independance angle at the end, from daughter's or mother's side, but i'll roll with it. I still think humanity would be better guided by mother, and as humanity grew she would take on a more advisory role, or something.