“Who can take a sunrise and wrap it in a bow?” Why, Willy Wonka can and has for the last 45 years. Now, it’s time to take a look back at this whimsical cult classic and see if it’s as scrumdiddlyumptious as many remember.
Writing
Thought it was dismissed by its creator, Roald Dahl, the story of the film still reflects the plot of the original novel very closely. Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), a reclusive candy maker known throughout the world holds a contest to allow people into his factory. He distributes five golden tickets and those who find them will be allowed into his factory. A young boy named Charlie (Peter Ostrum) dreams of winning one of the tickets, but is impoverished and unable to buy enough truly participate in the contest. Until he buys one candy bar and finds the last golden ticket inside.
The story is solid and has a lot of themes which serve as great lessons to not only children but parents as well. The plot focuses on the importance of imagination, honesty, and doing what is right. Values which are still integral today. It’s light, yet powerful storytelling is part of what has made this film a favorite of many.
Directing
The director’s changes to the book are what led to this movie being disowned the first place. Changes such as making Slugworth into a spy and the infamous boat scene were his call to make. Thought the first could be forgiven the scene with the boat is unnecessary nightmare fuel in an otherwise pleasant and whimsical film. The director needs to be held accountable for scarring many children for life. Yet at the same time he introduced the scene where Wonka makes Charlie think he doesn’t get the lifetime supply of chocolate, which featured one of the best rants ever by an actor in a film. This one is kind of a toss up.
Music
The music of this film is iconic in many ways. Even songs like “Golden Ticket,” sung by Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) thought he doesn’t have the best voice ever truly has found its place in history. Just staying the line, “Who can take a sunrise,” will get easily cause a majority of those nearby to immediately recall the song “The Candyman” in an instant. This movie has some of the most memorable songs ever and are so essential, owning the soundtrack is a necessity for fans of not only the film but of musicals as well.
Acting
The acting in this film is spot on. Ostrum’s performance as Charlie makes him feel like a real kid instead of an actor pretending they know how a child acts. The other four Golden Ticket winners act as obnoxious as possible to the point when their unique punishments occur, the audience is glad to see them leave.
The person who really steals the show is Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka. He comes off as a mixture between an artist, a con man, and a genius all at the same time. When he starts to act odd his behavior models a supervillain, yet everyone is put at ease moments later as he shows off a new invention or concoction to them. It’s a shame he was never nominated for an Academy Award for the performance he gives.
Production
The production of this film perfectly contracts the difference between the imaginative world of Willy Wonka’s factory and the drab world of the mundane. It offers a feeling of being in a dreamworld, much like the scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy opens the door and finds the world filled with color and life. Entering into Wonka’s factory feels like something out of a storybook, complete with candy growing on trees, chocolate rives, and tiny magical creatures to help make it all possible.
The film is cult classic for a good reason. It possesses just as much fun and joy as it did when it debuted back in 1971. It is a film which is truly integral viewing for all who enjoy a heartfelt story filled with candy, catchy songs, and a feeling of a golden ticket being right around the corner waiting for them.
Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory was presented by Fathom Events as part of their TCM Big Screen Classics event.
The Season three premiere of Outlander airs on Starz tonight, September 10th. For those who don’t remember, Outlander Season 2 saw some serious changes to the show’s formula. Outlander started out as a show about a woman out of time, but it has steadily developed into a show about the ongoing exploits of a time traveler attempting to right historical wrongs (emphasis on “attempting”).
Since Outlander has covered so much ground in its 13-episode second season, I present the Complete Guide to Outlander Season 2 for those who need a refresher. Read on, fellow Jacobites …
Claire and Frank see the new world in Outlander Season 2
Outlander Season 2 started off with an unexpected visit to the 20th century. Claire stumbles out of the forest and into a paved road. A car nearly hits her. The driver informs Claire that it’s 1948 and the English won the Battle of Culloden. Claire’s reunion with Frank proves tense but he agrees to raise her and Jamie‘s unborn son. Frank demands that Claire never investigate the life of Jamie Fraser. The reunited couple fly to the US and Claire has a flashback to her time in France (where Season 1 left off). Jamie and Claire take up residence in Jamie’s uncle’s house. They become wine merchants who seek to covertly undermine the Jacobite uprising. We meet le Comte St. Germain and Claire demands that the authorities burn his smallpox-infested ship and cargo.
Jamie has night terrors involving Black Jack Randall. As a result, he’s unable to be intimate with Claire. Claire learns the intricacies of running an 18th-century house. We meet Mary Hawkins, a freshly waxed Louise de La Tour, Master Raymond, Charles Stuart, and Alexander Randall in this episode, all characters that figure largely in Outlander Season 2. Jamie and Murtagh‘s first meeting with Stuart confirms their suspicions: he is a ponce who won’t accept good counsel. The Frasers secure an invitation to King Louis XV‘s court in order to try to curry favour with the French king.
We see Louis attempting to take a dump and Jamie suggests the king eat porridge. Claire spurns the flirtations of Joseph Duverney the French finance minister. He begs to help her in order to keep his extra-marital advances secret from his wife. We see the return of the Duke of Sandringham who reveals to Claire that Black Jack is still alive after his run in with a herd of cattle in Season 1.
Jamie and Murtagh develop a plan for stopping the Jacobite uprising and Claire realizes that the stammering Mary Hawkins is actually her 20th-century husband Frank‘s ancestor. Claire’s inner monologue describing the implications of Mary Hawkins’s lineage represents another brief return for Outlander to the Fantasy genre, back from Romantic Historical Fiction. And, Claire and company meet Mother Hildegarde (Frances de la Tour), the harpsichord-playing nun with a keen medicinal sense, and her dog Bouton who can apparently smell infections (woof). Oh, and Claire tastes pee.
Jamie Fraser goes full Riker, hoisting Claire up like she weighs nothing at all
“La Dame Blanche” contained a revelation of royal adultery and a long-awaited sex scene featuring a pregnant Claire. “La Dame Blanche” also covered some disturbing ground, specifically Mary Hawkins’s rape at the hands of a Parisian brigand. Also, viewers finally saw Jamie and Claire form a concrete plan on stopping the Jacobite rebellion: they want to discredit Charles Stuart in front of his recently revealed potential financier, the Duke of Sandringham. Unfortunately, things don’t go according to plan and Jamie is arrested while St. Germain suggests to Stuart that they retire to a less boisterous environment.
“Untimely Resurrection” featured the long-awaited return of Black Jack Randall. Jamie and the duke discuss “horses”. Claire and Jamie both suspect St. Germain is responsible for Mary Hawkins’s rape but, as a whim of Charles Stuart’s demands, Jamie and St. Germain are now the most begrudging of business partners. And, Claire tells Jamie that Frank is Black Jack’s descendant. She bargains with Jamie to allow Randall to live for one year.
I lost my wine, I lost my money, and my wig is itchy!
“Best Laid Schemes” threw viewers some curveballs. Murtagh learns the origin of Claire’s unique perspective on 18th century life. Claire has her first real conversation with M. Forez who describes the process of drawing and quartering to her. Claire comes up with a concoction that will make it look like another of St. Germain’s shipments has been infected with smallpox. Murtagh successfully stages a robbery of St. Germain’s shipment of wine and we see Stuart break into tears at the thought of returning to Poland. Fergus learns the hard way not to go anywhere near Black Jack Randall, and Jamie, avenging his young ward, duels with Randall. As a result of the duel, Jamie is arrested and Black Jack is stabbed in the groin. A miscarrying Claire watches from the sidelines, screams, and keels over.
“Faith” exposed the hypocrisy of King Louis XV’s sorcery trials, ended the life of Season Two’s de facto villain St. Germain, presented a moment in Claire’s 20th-century life, and showed an emotionally overwrought Claire mourning the death of her stillborn baby. Claire gets it on with the constipated king in order to secure Jamie’s release from the Bastille (also an orange). And, with Jamie exonerated, the Frasers are able to return to Scotland. Jamie and Claire say a tear-filled farewell to their unlucky firstborn at her grave and set their sights on Lallybroch.
“The Fox’s Lair” gave viewers a break from Outlander’s regular fare of misery. Although “The Fox’s Lair” did contain threats of rape and execution, standard fare in Outlander, no one was actually attacked in this episode aside from Lord Lovat‘s seer Maisri, and that was just yer run-o-the-mill servant whooping. It seems that, unsurprisingly, Fergus may have abandonment issues. And, still very much in love with him, Laoghaire MacKenzie craves forgiveness from Jamie after having accused Claire of practicing witchcraft in Season One. An unforgiving Claire takes advantage of Laoghaire’s guilt: Claire, seeking to embolden Lord Lovat’s son Simon Fraser, instructs Laoghaire to show some interest in young Simon.
Young Simon, emboldened by a flash of Laoghaire’s boobs, stands up to his father and demands that he pledge men to the Jacobite rebellion. And, though Colum succeeds in convincing him to sign a neutrality pact, Lord Lovat unofficially provides a small force to help his son fight in the rebellion.
“Je Suis Prest” operated as an intermediary between the events of Seasons one and two. We saw some old friends who stayed behind in Scotland while Jamie, Claire, and Murtagh went to France. The battle tactics and pecking order of Jamie’s troops were challenged by one of those familiar faces. And, viewers were given a rare look at Claire’s time as a World War II combat nurse by way of a her reliving those events through PTSD flashbacks.
“Prestonpans,” contained some long-awaited action. The battle scene gave viewers a graphic sense of what being involved in this early-morning raid may have been like, and a couple of characters introduced in Season One didn’t make it through the battle. Fergus‘s mental health is at no risk of spontaneously improving, having just gotten a taste of what being involved in a Highland charge is like. It was bloody. It was gory. It was Prestonpans.
Murtagh used a bit of the ultra-violence to wrap up a loose end in “Vengeance Is Mine”. Wrapping up that loose end, though, involved Murtagh doing away with one of Outlander’s best guest stars. Claire and Jamie seem to be no closer to stopping the Battle of Culloden: the other generals disagree with Jamie’s (and Claire’s) advice to push on to London rather than retreat to Scotland until spring. And, Rupert‘s in a bad way. Already mourning the death of Angus at Prestonpans, Rupert sustains a potentially fatal injury at the hands of the redcoats.
“Hail Mary,” featured the inevitable return of the complicated villain Black Jack Randall. “Hail Mary” also cleared up a question viewers may have had about Claire’s 20th-century husband Frank‘s lineage. And, viewers said goodbye to two recurring characters in this episode, one who’s been around since Season One and one who appeared in Season Two.
“Can we clone Highlanders from this and open a theme park?”
Claire and her daughter Brianna meet Roger Wakefield at his father Reverend Wakefield’s wake. Brianna and Roger get close as the episode goes on, and Roger is eventually revealed as the descendant of Gaellis Duncan, who Claire and viewers previously saw burnt at the stake in the 18th century. But with no visible signs of having been burnt alive, Gaellis appears in 1968 calling herself Gillian Edgars! Claire, after proving by way of a DNA test that Roger is actually Gaellis’s (Gillian’s) descendant, resolves to try to stop Gillian from passing through the stones. On top of trying to stop her from being burnt alive after traveling back in time, Claire also discovers that Gillian intends to sacrifice someone in order to make the trip back.
In the 18th century, Jamie’s got his own problems after murdering his own uncle to cover up his conspiracy to kill Charles Stuart — Claire and Jamie hatched the ill-fated plot in an effort to prevent the Battle of Culloden. Sigh, life’s tough for a Scottish revolutionary and his time-traveling wife.
Briann’s skepticism about her mother’s mystical time travel story vanishes upon seeing Gillian disappear into the stone after lighting a man on fire. So with her faith in her mother restored, Roger and Brianna show Claire a document that implies that Jamie Fraser survived the Battle of Culloden. Credits roll as Claire gazes optimistically at the stones.
Next Steps …
I’m interested to see where season three takes us. Will Claire be the same age she was during the Season Two finale, or will she somehow revert back to the age she was before she traveled back to the 20th century? Will Roger or Brianna travel back in time as well? What’s going on with Fergus? Will Jamie and Claire get to meet up or will viewers be forced to wait until the Season Three finale for their reunion? These and other questions will hopefully be answered this season, but, as usual, I’m sure other questions will pop up along the way.
Old Style’s unique label is rife with history … and bunnies!
It’s Canada Day weekend! Celebrations may vary from town to town but it’s a safe bet that a few Canadians will drink a beer or two this long weekend. And, what better beer to drink on Canada’s 149th birthday than a beer that’s 90 years old itself? Though it can’t be considered a craft beer, Old Style Pilsner is a well-made brew that, as its website states, hasn’t changed much since Fritz Sick first brewed it in 1926.
One change that Old Style did go through was its purchase by Molson in 1958. According to wikipedia, Molson Coors continues to use Sick’s Breweries Ltd.’s original formula to make Old Style Pilsner. I picked up a 24 of this tasty Canadian brew in an effort to be frugal, ten dollars less expensive than a 24 of my usual beer. But Old Style isn’t just good on the pocket-book, it’s just good.
Old Style Pilsner – First Sip
Old Style Pilsner is nearly clear with a lot of carbonation (similar to the kölsch I reviewed last week). An inch-thick layer of foam forms as I pour it into my pint glass. I don’t notice a strong smell as I take a big gulp of this brew. Old Style has a noticeable taste though. Best described as an acquired taste, it has a smooth grainy taste with a tart finish. And, Old Style Pilsner’s relatively high carbonation level strengthens its watery mouthfeel.
Old Style Pilsner – Last Sip
Although some picky beer drinkers may turn their noses up at this 5% ABV macro-brew, I recommend it over lots of other similarly priced beers. Old Style plays the sweet-and-sour angle well. I like to drink Old Style from a glass but you’ll enjoy Old Style directly from the bottle or can. Pouring into a pint glass allows Old Style Pilsner’s frothy head to dissipate a bit. Enjoyed straight from the bottle, the foam can overpower Old Style’s flavour.
The Neon Demon composer will write the score for the new Wolverine movie
Film composer and musician Cliff Martinez is branching out into comic book movies. He will create the score for Twentieth Century Fox’s Wolverine sequel.
According to Collider, Martinez is confirmed to be writing the film score for the X-Men spin-off. He replaces Marco Beltrami, who scored Mangold’s 2013 flick The Wolverine. Harry Greyson-Williams did the score for 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Martinez’s body of work includes Steve Soderbergh’s Solaris, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, and The Neon Demon. He also composes music for The Knick. His current projects include Martin Campbell’s The Foreigner and Todd Phillips’ War Dogs.
As a composer, Martinez is known for his layered textures and rhythmic sounds. His scores use ambient sounds and audio manipulation. He is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee because of his drumming work on two Red Hot Chilli Peppers albums.
Can Cliff Martinez create a score appropriate for Wolverine? Snikt!
Mangold’s Wolverine sequel is now filming. It will be a loose adaptation of Old Man Logan. The plot is currently unknown, but it is said to take place in the distant future of the X-Men universe. Reports indicate the flick might be a revenge movie, because Wolverine wants to shut down the Weapon X program for good.
Hugh Jackman says this is the last time he plays Wolverine. The movie’s cast also includes Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant and Elizabeth Rodriguez. Liev Schreiber is reported to be in talks to reprise the role of Victor “Sabretooth” Creed.
The Wolverine sequel is set for release on March 3, 2017.
Less than one year to go until we see Wolverine again
This week’s episode of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure features a manga artist. As always, with any series based on a manga features an episode where a creator of the media appears it serves as means for said creator to show the eccentric behavior they can’t do in real life. In this case though, eccentric is an understatement.
Koichi and Hazamada go to a manga creator they admire named Rohan Kishibe. Wouldn’t you know it, he turns out to be a Stand user. His Stand, Heaven’s Door, peels people apart like books so he can learn a person’s darkest secrets. It’s a very unpleasant sight to see. Still, compared with some of the other Stands the antagonists have had this season such The Lock or Show Off, this one showcases its purpose, use, and effectiveness as a tool all in one episode. With any luck their might just be more to Rohan’s abilities than what he has displayed so far.
Despite his disturbing abilities, this new character and his motivation is interesting and hopefully hew I’ll be sticking around a bit more than previously introduced characters. It’s the first episode of two part storyline so Rohan will at least be back in the next episode.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable is streaming on Crunchyroll.
Pop Dutchess Fergie Surprise Releases A Guaranteed Hit!
Were you expecting the Black Eyed Peas singer and mother to release this? Because the latest Fergie single comes as a complete surprise to me.
Now, she’s always been sexy and pushed boundaries but the visuals to accompany the song Milf Money (stylized as “M.I.L.F. $“) is one of her most provocative to date. Fergie missed Mothers Day by a few months but the summer just got a new club hit. This will be the first single off her upcoming album “Double Dutchess“.
With some of the sexiest mothers in entertainment as co-stars, this sexually empowering women’s anthem has an interesting target demographic. Not only is this for any girl to enjoy while partying it up, Fergie pushes the message of moms needing to feel sexy as well. There was even a not-so-subtle message about the controversial issue of breast feeding. Many will find the song to be too pop for their taste and that’s fine but the song’s visuals tackle many different issues.
Don’t get me wrong…there’s still a lot of sex appeal for the sake of sex appeal.
Right before the release of the single, Fergie began hinting at new material but the single and video just came out of no-where. Sonically, “M.I.L.F $” is a typical Fergie song through and through; everything is there from her spelling of words to strong vocals. Even the hip-hop influenced sound has been her thing for years. I’m intrigued for her new album and look forward to seeing what else she has to offer.
There is no official release date for “Double Dutchess“.
What did you think of Fergie’s new single Milf Money?
Guts, The Black Swordsman has finally returned. After the popularity of the Berserk: The Golden Age Arc trilogy, a new TV series picks up after the end of the last movie, and takes the series farther than any adaptation previously has. Unfortunately so far the new adventure is off to a rocky start.
How bad it it? This episode has the same plot and outline of the original TV series’ first episode, complete with Guts walking into town, being tortured by his curse mark, killing a bunch of demons, and winning the battle at the end by using the cannon in his mechanical arm. The only new addition is Puck, the genital lacking naked elf who adds a lighter tone to the show. Sadly, Puck feels like a character who will get annoying very quickly if any episode focuses on him for too long.
You’d think this new series would have the benefit of looking better with modern animation but this is another flaw in the new show. The animation leaves something to be desired. It looks like it’s trying to imitate the look of the recent movies but budget can’t be as big as a movie for every individual episode. This leaves the CGI to look awkward at times.
Still, this new series isn’t without its perks. It contains just as much, if not more over the top violence than not only the first series but many of the more adult animes which come out today. How over the top violent is it? Flies crawling across severed heads over the top. This will hopefully make future episodes of the series at least bearable.
The new Berserk is off to a rough start but with any luck it will be able to turn itself around from here. If not, then the fans who have been waiting over 15 years for a sequel will be sorely disappointed.
Here’s a show that nobody probably paid any attention to this season. Even if you are one of those “try everything” people, you likely clicked the “remove from queue” button as soon as you finished the first episode of Netoge No Yome. I did the same thing actually. Knowing clearly what this show’s intention and what it was going to entail turned me off right away. And yet, here I am, doing a review of Netoge No Yome. What has happened to me? Well I’m gonna tell you. But to preface this article with what you actually probably came here for, no I didn’t enjoy this show. Astonishing I know, but let’s get into it.
So I said before that I dropped Netoge No Yome after the first episode, and sadly after seeing gifs and screens of the shows female lead Ako in super sexy poses and situations, I was caught up in the primitive rational that I needed to watch this show just so I could see this girl do practically anything. Honestly I didn’t care. Luckily I so happened to fall into a rather interesting show. Definitely not good mind you. If this didn’t have my poor heart hooked by the female lead I would have never touched this show again, but I did.
First off lets talk about the male lead, and it should snowball into this shows problems from there. I feel that some of these light novel writers can’t write females that don’t have some kind of love feeling towards the main guy. Because clearly this story is about the main guy Hideki and Ako. Unfortunately that doesn’t really go anywhere. One of the reasons is that Hideki is adverse to girl’s that are into him. A trait definitely not rare in light novel adaptations, but still unforgivable. This time though his rational is pretty relatable. Given that Ako is a social outcast and weird I see the hesitation of him not wanting to get into a relationship with someone who can’t differentiate reality from the online game they play. And for the most part, these first few episodes where he and the rest of the girls in the Net Game club help Ako, are kinda compelling. It gives us a barrier to break that seems obtainable in the shows eyes and Hideki, while unwilling, is pretty proactive in helping Ako. They even get to the point where he acknowledges that he loves her and makes attempts to confess. But the confession is totally lost on Ako because she already considers them married as per the Net Game they play. His confession is now adequate with her feelings and I’m left to wonder, whats the problem? He loves her, she acknowledges it and she loves him back.
But wait, there’s that whole differentiating reality between the game problem she has, that must be the reason right? Well yes, in the shows eye’s it is. But at the point of confession Ako has already started to integrate back into school life and the real world. The disconnect here should be nil, but they keep it up to keep the joke going. And that’s ultimately what’s wrong with this show. Not the way it portrays its female characters, not the way it portrays people who play online games, and not the way it treats social outcasts. It’s the way this show always feels it has to have everything be a freaking punchline even when the mood in the show clearly is pointing in any other direction. It’s a sort of cock tease attitude that doesn’t even fit well with the other jokes that are actually funny. There are plenty of gags about Ako being a nerd/outcast that work in context with the scene. Actually most of the funniest moment are Ako saying something that would make you cringe to even be around her, which her fellow club members do, and is why its hilarious. These are all accompanied by a right time, right place attitude. However any romantic scene or serious moment ends up with the same wacky punchline.
So yeah, the tone screws up at times, but is that alone enough to make this a bad show? Not necessarily, since the humor is the main focus of the show anyway I can forgive its failed romance and drama, only on the fact that I’m watching this show for no other reason than to look at Ako in motion. However this show also has the added bonus of just being so boring at times. Weirdly enough the beach episode where Hideki confesses to Ako sort of felt like the climax of the show. But this happens at episode seven, and the show really doesn’t intend on progressing past this point. So we change the show to focus mainly on things happening with the video game and mostly all of it is presented in a boring and cliché manner, while at the same time halting any progression with any of the characters. They even have the gall to throw in the final conflict being tied to their clubs School Festival project. Oh my god, kill me now. Now while these episodes do have the same type of humor that is funny, the in-between bits aren’t as engaging as the first half of the show. And that first half wasn’t even that engaging, so it literally went from bearable to unbearably boring.
The show even tries its best to incorporate Ako’s themes of being an outcast back into the show, considering that is the only “sort of good” part of the show. They fail though, it’s clearly them retreading things that she has gotten over episodes ago, but if they didn’t retcon it during the show they wouldn’t have a second half, woop-tee-du. Up to the last couple seconds of this show its clear that there was never any romantic intention with this series or genuine mental illness issues being addressed, and I have come to realize that’s the conclusion that a lot of shows like this face. They play with genuine concepts but don’t incorporate them in a genuine way. If anything they use them to take advantage of the viewer, by being relatable. Of course this relateablity is relating to someone’s perception of themselves. And if you have ever known someone with a mental illness or social anxiety, you’ll know that they rarely even are able to identify the real problem. This show doesn’t identify the real problem, period. It has a cool idea, but is bogged by its self-fantasy to actually be able to progress into anything. This ultimately leaves people like me who don’t seek such escapism out in the cold. Netoge No Yome, does have something to offer just like every show, but whats its offering is rather shallow and potentially harmful to the right people. Even if I watched it for the pure pleasure of seeing Ako, I felt kind of bad knowing the reason this kind of stuff is made and who is watching it. For me Netoge No Yome was a wash, but I am glad that I watched it. As a reviewer I find that getting in a rut of preference is ultimately blinding and will lead to cynicism. So while I did get burned by this show, I now understand it and the genre better than if I hadn’t. And there is at least value in that.
Jon Snow still knows nothing, but this could change in Season 7
After last Sunday’s finale, the HBO network confirms the long-standing Game of Thrones theory about who Jon Snow’s real parents are. Of course, several fans of the show managed to figure it out years before.
Tangled Web
HBO just released a detailed infographic on its website. It depicts the surviving Game of Thrones characters and their relationships. Lyanna Stark is listed as Jon’s mother, but the question of Jon’s father is complex. Fans know Rhaegar Targaryen fell in love with Ned’s sister, but Lyanna’s naming of the father is not audible. It is known Lyanna had a fear Robert Baratheon would kill her baby, hence Ned’s choice to raise the boy as his own.
The cast of characters is getting smaller
In fact, Jon’s parentage won David Benioff and D.B. Weiss the rights to adapt the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series for television. During a meeting with George R.R. Martin, the author asked them “Who is Jon Snow’s mother?” The duo guessed with the “R + L=J” theory.
Where Do We Go From Here?
As it stands, Jon is the newly-declared King in the North. Although Bran Stark knows the truth, Jon will need proof of his heritage if he bids for the Iron Throne. The only one who could help him is Howland Reed, because he stood alongside Ned at the Tower of Joy. However, Jon’s aunt Daenerys Targaryen is now preparing to take Westeros by force. Both of them could very well be the “Ice and Fire” of Martin’s books. This will make for a great Game of Thrones endgame. And the plot thickens…
Marvel has released new information and images for their upcoming U.S.Avengers series. Following a new counter terrorism unit, the U.S.Avengers appear to be a spiritual successor to the New Avengers.
The team comprises a new Iron Patriot, Cannonball, Thunderbolt Ross, Pod, a Captain America from the future, and the unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Heading the team will be former X-Men Sunspot, who still has control of the A.I.M. organization.
Al Ewing will write the series while Paco Medina tends to the artwork. Both creators show enthusiasm on taking these characters in a new direction.
The initial story arc will focus on an enemy of the future Captain America. Being the daughter of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, this version of Captain America will find an old foe following her into the past.
The group will be based in Washington D.C. and will still have connections to the reformed A.I.M. organization, another important carry over from the New Avengers title.
The series will certainly be dealing with the wake of the ongoing Civil War II, seeing Carol Danvers undoubtedly working to stabilize ongoing problems.
The recent failures of S.H.I.E.L.D. will only add to the stress under Captain Marvel’s shoulders. Of course, the New Avengers were a foil to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the American government during the recent Avengers: Standoff event this spring.
It will be interesting to see how long this relationship will last before the U.S.Avengers and their government counterparts come to blows. Another element Ewing discusses is the tension between Sunspot and Ross. Ross, an experienced military officer, will have little patience to being bossed around by a man younger than him.
Slated for a fall release, fans will see and judge the series for themselves under the upcoming Marvel NOW! initiative.
