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I'm really not sure what this final season of the Flash is supposed to be.  The showrunner complained that they only got 13 episodes and then proceeded to waste so much of it.

Episode 1 was good/fun.  The next four were...fine?  I don't think the Red Death needed to be two episodes.  I think Red Death is a cool idea and I'm glad they got to play with it, but it felt like a bit of a waste.  The "interlude" episodes were a waste.  I don't think Dreamer needed to be on this show (even though I like her).  I didn't like the luck episode.  I didn't think the time bandit episode was great.

I loved the Oliver episode.

And now we have this 4-part finale.  But what is this story?  Why is it four episodes?  Couldn't this have been a two-parter?  It's been two hours of television (not including commercials) and I'm not sure I could tell you much about what happened in parts two or three.

This is their show, and they were allowed to end it however they wanted.  Maybe they're really proud of this season and how it ended, but it feels like such a dud of an ending.  Maybe everyone will come back for the finale, but where's Cisco?  Where's Wells?  We get Eddie Thawne, but he's the big bad for the whole show?  And they kept talking about having to get Barry's story right, but Barry is barely in any of these episodes.

I know it wouldn't have been fair to the Flash, but I wish they'd had a 13-episode season of a show called Arrowverse.  Wrap up the Legends, wrap up Batwoman.  Give us glimpses into the world of Supergirl and Arrow.  Bring back who you can and make whatever work.  And then end with Barry and his story.  Or give the other shows one episode each and give Barry 6-7 episodes.  I don't know.

But if Grant Gustin can really only be there for 25% of 13 episodes then they shouldn't call this show the Flash.  And with so many stories left to tell, why are we wasting so much time on this?

I'm sorry.  I stood by the Arrowverse for a long time, and it's sad that it's ending this way.

So the Oliver episode.  Some quick thoughts:

- I don't know the constraints that Stephen Amell was under, but I wish we could've gotten a couple more episodes with him.  I think his role was cool.

- I guess I'd forgotten how much I missed him.  I thought he was great.

- I think Wally West is one of the big misses for this series.  Keiynan Lonsdale isn't a problem.  Not at all.  But I wish they could've either found a place for him or picked an actor who could've been a part of the series for longer.  I would've watched a Wally West show.  I thought he was fun on Flash and great on Legends.

- The Barry/Oliver stuff and the Oliver/Diggle stuff was fantastic.  I'm glad it ended the way that it did, and I'm actually pretty glad that it wasn't a time travel thing.

Is there a real-life explanation for why DS9 doesn't get as much love from the producers of modern Trek?  I think it's overwhelmingly thought of as the best Trek, but it's also overwhelmingly the black sheep of Trek as a whole.  Worf's DS9 ending was ignored essentially and he simply showed back up in the TNG movies with less and less explanation.  Chief O'Brien was essentially a TNG castmember (50 episodes) but showed up in none of the TNG movies and none of the seasons of Picard. 

The show is happy to borrow plot elements from it (mostly the Dominion War), but in terms of actual appearances, the only DS9 castmember that got any love is the Defiant (showing up in First Contact and season 3 of Picard).  I know some of the producers of DS9 rubbed people wrong at the time, but that was over 20 years ago, and I assume most of the people have left the franchise by this point anyway.

I get why Enterprise is ignored - it was a massive prequel and wasn't as beloved.  But DS9 takes place at the same time and is beloved.  Why no love for Deep Space Nine?

Interesting.  I watched the special and assumed they'd used archival footage of Kimberly, Jason, and Tommy.  But I guess watching them back to back was a little disorienting.

I was sad that they couldn't get all the original actors back, but I was happy with the special.  My friend was sad to find out that it wasn't a 10-episode series.  I think it would've been a good show if they had gone that route.

I actually missed this line on my initial watch and only went back after episode 9.  But here's the problem: Shaw is not a reliable witness.  And Shaw has no idea - he's speculating.  Just like he refuses to acknowledge Seven's Borg-ness, I think he refuses to acknowledge that the Borg might have evolved.  Even if the Jurati Borg were the real Borg, I think Shaw would've said it.

Now it's obvious that it was intended to be the truth.  But I would've felt better if this were delivered by someone with a little less Borg baggage.

One more thing I forgot to add to my list:

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The Frontier Day stuff and the "whole fleet" being there.  Ummmm....what does that mean?  The entire Starfleet fleet?  Every ship everywhere?  That can't be what they mean, right?  Because I assume Starfleet exists both as a peacekeeping force and a deterrent to other forces, right?  If the entire US military decided to have a big celebration in Washington, DC...I imagine there are a handful of nations/rogue nations/terrorist organizations that might take advantage of that.

Maybe it is simply all their non-essential ships?  Maybe it's all their ships that were going to be in Sector 001 anyway?  I have trouble visualizing what the entire fleet would even look like.  I assume it would be thousands of ships, no?

So I really loved Picard Season 3.  I have a bunch of very spoilery thoughts and some nitpicks

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- I guess I'll start with the future.  I think Terry Matalas gets Star Trek, and I think he hit the right nostalgia notes for most of the season.  Setting an episode at the fleet museum so we got to see all the classic ships...great.  Bringing back the Changelings and the Enterprise D...chef's kiss.  The episode with Ro and the awkwardly poetic end for Shelby...great touches.  If he wants to do Captain Seven and the crew of the Enterprise-G for another series, sign me up.  If he wants to do pretty much anything else, sign me up.  I'd love to see him get another show.

- I was surprised that we didn't get more cameos.  I think Chief O'Brien would've worked well on the show.  Someone like Bashir would've fit in nice.  Janeway would've made a ton of sense.  I know they didn't want to step on Prodigy's toes...but I don't see how Janeway being on two shows at the same time steps on anyone's toes.  They referenced her as being alive so it can't be "well what if we want to kill Janeway on this kid's show".  I do wonder why DS9 is the black sheep of the universe.  They retconned Worf's DS9 ending and he's never spoken of it again.  But since the story focused on Changelings for so long and involved Seven as a key figure, I figured we'd get more than just Tuvok as cameos.  Where's the Doctor???

- Season 3 made me so mad at Seasons 1 and 2.  It's so obvious that this show needed to be Picard and his crew.  Not that I didn't like the new characters - I liked a lot of them.  But it was so much more fun to have the whole cast there, and I can't believe they waited until season 3 to do it.  This is what season 1 should've been, and we could've had two more seasons with this as the jumping point.

- Speaking of that, Matalas didn't seem to have a ton of love for the first two seasons either.  They essentially abandoned the Laris storyline after the season premiere even though that was a huge part of season two, and the rest of the season 2 storylines (the Jurati Borg and Q's "death") got "Rise of Skywalker" level retcons.  I liked season 3 better than Seasons 1 and 2 but it's weird and confusing to re-write continuity with a couple one-off lines.

- I loved the character moments, but the plot this season doesn't hold up under much scrutiny.  One thing I thought I liked about season 2 was that the Borg seemed like a nullified threat.  Maybe they could be villains again, maybe not.  But for the Borg to essentially be the main villain for all three seasons is pretty lame in my opinion.  And to be fair, I didn't even like that the season was about Starfleet being infiltrated again (since it was technically a storyline in all three seasons if you count the Evil Starfleet from the beginning of season 2).  Changelings on a ship being chased by Changelings could be a cool story, but I'm a little tired of Starfleet command always being evil or replaced or infiltrated or whatever.

- So why did the Changelings work with the Borg?  Is it just an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation?  What did the Changelings get out of the Borg being rebuilt?  Wouldn't they hate the Borg just as much as they hate any other solids?  How did the Borg Queen even find the Changelings and how is it better revenge to assimilate Starfleet than to simply take over themselves (which they'd already done).

- The whole Enterprise D thing was cool, and I feel like the explanation made sense?  I don't know how difficult it would be in the 25th century to rebuild a ship by yourself, even if you're a master engineer and you have 20 years to do it.  But maybe when he says he rebuilt it, he means he had low-level grunt help.  I saw an article saying that maybe he used the outlawed "slave androids" from season 1 since they would've been legal for some of that time.  Since he references drones, maybe that's all he needed to do.  And to be fair, maybe the D wasn't as damaged as we think and it just needed a decent amount of cleanup (which could be done in 20 years).

All in all, I thought it was a great sendoff for the Next Generation Crew.  I acknowledge that the series wants to move forward with new blood, but I would love an anthology series where we get an episode for different TNG/DS9/VOY castmembers (either main cast or even smaller roles like Naomi Wildman).  Let's see what everyone is up to and get cool little one-off stories for Bashir and Quark and Tom Paris and even Harry Kim.  Let's see the Doctor again!  I know a lot of these guys could come back for the already-announced Starfleet Academy but I want an anthology show to put some of these characters to bed.  Then we can either do a time jump again (like Next Gen did), pick up from Discovery, or whatever.

Yeah, that's what I mean it's written for middle schoolers.  I watch a lot of TV and when two characters like each other, someone makes a move and it's accepted and then they're in a relationship.  There might be minor issues when it comes to major steps in the relationship and I assume that Allegra might have a little apprehension about those that get close to her dying, but these characters are adults.  They can get over the simple fact that they like each other.

The problem with some of these storylines is that they're repetitive.  Chillblaine and Khione are doing the same thing, it seems.  Barry and Iris have similar issues to Joe and Cecile.

Maybe they should've had Chester switch powers with Allegra and she has to help him navigate it.  And maybe he teaches her about running point so he can be out in the field.  Now they're spending time together but it's not "Do You Like Me: Check Yes or No" - they're literally stepping into the others shoes and learning the other's deepest interests.

I just don't understand what this season is doing.  I would think a final season would be about legacy.  Or moving forward from having a fun superhero life in your 20s to having a family in your 30s.  Maybe Barry starts actively working for Team Flash to replace him (for the most part) so he can be a father?  Or maybe he looks to transfer his speed to someone else so that Central City can still have a Flash without Barry constantly putting his life on the line? 

Maybe they do the Azrael story where Barry finds a new Flash and he ends up being a psycho.  And Barry, no speed, has to take down the Flash.  Or maybe we spend the whole season with Barry working to find a new Flash and realizes that he doesn't have to give up his speed to be a good parent.  I don't know, I'm just spitballing and I've only been thinking about it for five minutes and the CW isn't paying me

But training a replacement allows Grant Gustin to be gone for a certain time, allows for the other castmembers to grow, and allows for fun new stories that make season nine feel like season one.

But, sure, let's keep figuring out if people in their 30s know how to navigate a crush.

I'm interested.  But I'm mostly interested in seeing what kind of response this ends up being because I think most of Star Wars is a studio reaction to what came before.

George Lucas did his prequels, and they were, especially at the time, ridiculed.  Some of that might have been because George Lucas (and team) thought that people liked Star Wars because of the lightsaber fights.  The prequels ended up being a overly complicated political drama in the Star Wars universe with a lot of lightsaber fights.  Although sentiment has flipped a bit since then, the main thought ended up being prequels=bad and Lucas=finished.

So Disney got their hands on Star Wars and decided to make a new Star Wars film.  Since prequels=bad and Lucas=finished, they got new blood in and went as far away from the prequels as possible.  Instead of trying something new, they redid the original movie.  They leaned on established characters and imagery and got as far away from politics as possible.

And while the Force Awakens was a big hit, people didn't like the fact that it was so close to A New Hope.  So Rian Johnson went with the most non-Star Wars film yet.  Johnson tried to defy expectations and made a movie where the great Luke Skywalker doesn't do much and doesn't believe in the Jedi.  Reception was very mixed and the fanbase was split.

In the meantime, Star Wars had a fun little story with a prequel set during the original trilogy.  Maybe the fans don't love the sequel trilogy but they could create tons of spinoffs.  So they banked pretty heavy on Solo, which they shot twice, and it wasn't warmly received.  Reaction: no more spinoffs.

Then came Rise of Skywalker which went back to the Original Trilogy mold.  Brought back the Emperor and Lando and Darth Vader's helmet and tried to undo and redo as much of Rian Johnson's movie as possible.  And even though people hated The Last Jedi, they really hated Rise of Skywalker.

Then came the Mandalorian.  Again, someone tried to do something new - A Star Wars TV show!  There were things that people liked (Mandalorian armor!  Yoda creature!) but not many lightsabers or Star Wars.  It was a western in the Star Wars universe.  And it was a big hit!  And they brought back Yoda and Boba Fett and a lot of fun stuff.  Reaction - movies are bad.  TV is the future.

So where does Star Wars go from here?  They haven't made a Star Wars movie since Rise of Skywalker, cancelling project after project.  Do they go back to the Original Trilogy well?  Do they try to do something original?  Do they make it like the Mandalorian?  If the first movie does well, will they do more like it?  Keep trying new stuff?  If it does poorly, does it become a one-off?  How much of Rise of Skywalker do they try and undo or ignore?

It will all be very interesting.

*****

From a narrative place, I wonder how they will do it.  We won't be far enough in the future that characters from the Mandalorian will be too old to show up.  If the Mandalorian is the new gold standard for Star Wars, will we see Rey added to those stories?  Will we see Ahsoka?  Ezra Bridger?  Din?  Thrawn?

*****

And like I was saying before, why would Rey's next Jedi school work out any better than Luke's?  Did Luke's school fail because Luke was too devout to the old ways of the Jedi?  Luke implies this but....how?  Was Kylo turned to the dark side because he wasn't allowed to love?  I don't think so.  Kylo had the biggest expectations in the history of the galaxy with a darkness inside him that no one was able to reign in.  It was bad but I don't think the old ways of the Jedi are to blame.  Luke probably should've learned that lesson but he didn't and passed it on to Rey.

But I'm unsure on why I should believe this next school will be better than the last.  Or why anyone in the galaxy should buy into a New New Republic considering what happened to the last two.

So the indictment on Trump in New York feels like a nothingburger.  Granted, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know any more details than anyone else outside of the Grand Jury.  Maybe there's something in there that will both lead to a conviction and even jail time.  But most legal experts I've read, even left-leaning ones, think that even if he's convicted, he's looking at a fine and no jail time.

This coming from a very liberal city and a DA that ran on a campaign to get Trump.  Yes, it would be embarrassing to lose, but his job literally depends on him giving it a shot.

But does that matter?  Does it matter if the first case that goes to trial against Trump is a dud?  Or did someone need to go first, and this one is as good as any to accomplish that?  I feel like the Georgia case is the one that has the best chance of doing something - it's a recording and clearly shows Trump was trying to influence the election.  That one feels like a slam dunk, even though I also don't know what the penalty would be for that.

Also...does it matter?  Will Republican voters turn away from Trump post-indictment?  Some will.  I don't think everyone would.  And we've become so "anti-them" that I don't know if even matters who people are voting for.  Just who they're voting against.  If this were Hillary Clinton running as a republican against Joe Biden, would 75 million Republicans vote for her?  I think maybe they would.

Trump can run while under indictment.  He can serve as president from jail (although I wonder how that would even work with the secret service having to protect him).  He could also be convicted, go to jail, and constitutionally have to be released so he can be president.

Does any of this matter?  I really don't know.  Trump's campaign isn't really going great, depending on which polls you believe.  He's either crushing DeSantis or he's getting crushed by him.  Doesn't seem like it's one or the other.  And I think DeSantis just needs more name recognition and he'd beat Trump.  And if he does, Trump will do something to sabotage DeSantis' chance. 

I think that's the best way Biden wins.

I don't know where I'm going with this.  I just can't get excited about this indictment.  Having a mugshot of Trump could be funny.  Will he be mad?  Will he do that stupid smile of his?  Will he try to look tough?  That's the only part I care about.

That's a pretty good summary.

I think one of the themes of Star Wars is survival against the odds.  It's more exciting when David beats Goliath so to have a ragtag group of rebels beat an overwhelming Empire is fun and impressive.  We like an underdog story.  And even the title "A New Hope" is an inspirational message against something that seems invincible.

And even in the prequels, Lucas does this.  The Jedi and the Republic have all the numbers, but even then, Lucas is able to paint the situation as hopeless.  Palpatine is in charge of the Senate and is ten steps ahead of the Jedi.  Because we know the end, the story still feels grim.  And even though the Republic falls and the Jedi are wiped out, Obi-Wan and Yoda saving themselves and the twins feels like a win against insurmountable odds.

And then JJ Abrams gets the ability to make a new Star Wars movie.  But he doesn't want to make a movie about a fledgling Republic and a new enemy.  He wants the Rebellion vs the Empire.  And not only that, he wants the stakes to be increase significantly.  There is no Luke.  The Republic can't help because it's destroyed without fanfare.  But all the other faces are the same - the stormtroopers and ships and weapons are all basically the same.  They even have a new more powerful Darth Vader and Death Star.

The problem is that there's no growth in that story.  It's not a sequel, it's a reboot.

And besides being lazy, it does a disservice to the stories that came before.  It's a 90s sitcom where they have a Very Special Episode about pill use or suicide and the next week everyone's going to get frosty chocolate milkshakes as if nothing happened.

I think there were ways to do the kinds of stories that Abrams wanted to tell without dismantling all the thematic progress the stories had made.  Maybe the remnants of the Empire escaped to the far reaches of the galaxy.  Maybe they licked their wounds and combined with a greater threat, and they come back.  Maybe Jakku is the furthest planet out in the New Republic and this new threat attacks there first.  That would certainly feel hopeless.  The Jedi and the New Republic are too far out to come, and First Order has Empire ships and loads of stormtroopers.

Maybe they continue this story with the First Order being welcomed on places like Jakku which are too far away to get the protection of the New Republic and are now struggling to survive without the support the Empire used to provide.  That would feel hopeless.

I don't know.  Thinking about it just bums me out.  I don't think the movies are terrible, and I think they have a lot of good parts.  I think they get Star Wars (1977).  I just wish they understood Star Wars (the overall universe that evolved significantly since 1977).

Thoughts on the first 60% of Season 3 of Picard.  First just a general "I really love this show" because I think it's really great.  I think it's as well done as Strange New Worlds but with a level of nostalgia that I appreciate more as a bigger fan of the TNG/DS9/VOY era.  I don't know if it's definitely the best of "new Trek", but it's miles ahead of the first two seasons of Picard and a lot of Discovery.

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I'll start with my negatives.  As much as I *love* that the Changelings are back because I think they're a really cool villain...are we really doing a "Starfleet has been infiltrated and is the real bad guys" season again?  Didn't we basically do that in season 1 and then show it again in the alternate future in season 2?  I get that Starfleet is supposed to be this rock, but TNG went to this well a hundred times too.  Essentially 90% of the admirals we've ever met are evil or corrupt or secretly a (insert evil species).  The Changelings are cool, and if this is going to be their sequel story, this is probably how they'd go about doing it.

But couldn't we just have this be the TNG cast reuniting to go on one more adventure?  Does it have to be the End of Starfleet (TM) or the End of the Federation (TM) every time?  95% of Trek isn't about saving the entire galaxy.  I don't know why New Trek has to be almost entirely about that.

Okay, enough bad stuff.  I love the crew getting back together.  And I love that the space between Nemesis and this season feels lived in.  Worf, Geordi, Crusher, even Data...it feels like time has actually passed.  I know there's some weird timeline stuff (season 3 should be way further removed from season 2 if I understand the timeline correctly), but I feel like they put some thought into how these characters would react and grow.

And I'm really liking the nostalgia stuff, like I said.  Episode 6 is essentially an easter egg factory, and as corny as the scene at the shipyard with Seven and Jack could've been, it was beautiful.  Playing the theme for TOS/DS9/VOY as we saw each ship was great.  Having Seven discuss her life on Voyager as the Voyager theme played was amazing.  I've rewatched that scene several times.

(Side note since I've rewatched it so many times - Jack has heard of the Defiant but not Voyager?  Does that make sense in-world?  I get that the Defiant was a big part of winning the Dominion War, but people know the Titanic before any military ship, right?  Voyager made it seem like the ship was big news for civilians so I would think Jack would be familiar with Voyager before anything from the Dominion War.  But maybe I'm wrong?)

I also think it's interesting that if you look carefully, you can see the proposed refit from the cancelled season of Enterprise.  So they built a model for it, but they didn't mention it?  I know Enterprise has no connection to this show, but you'd think they could've added a line of dialogue about it.

Anyway, I'm still hoping to see more cameos before the season is over....or that the "Star Trek Legacy" show comes about.  I still think there are so many characters that I'd like to catch up on.  And if everyone comes back but Chief O'Brien doesn't....come on.  We need to see some of Seven's old family.  We need to see Dr. Bashir.  We need to see Quark.  I'd love an anthology series where we catch up with each of these guys properly.

And Picard has been so good that I actually started watching Prodigy.  I needed a bit more Trek in my life.  So far it's very kiddie but I hear that it gets a bit more mature as time goes on.  Anyone else watching it?

I really liked it.  I'm a little surprised it was nominated for best picture (let alone won) because I think it dipped into being too silly at times.  But I'm glad it did win, and I hope it inspires Hollywood to do more stuff like it.

Yeah, the villains for Flash have always been a problem.  And even then, I don't understand the fight scenes in the Flash.  Barry usually just runs around people in a circle.  I rewatched the first fight between a corrupted Barry and Oliver (in the very first crossover), and if you think about it, Oliver should have literally no shot.  Barry is just running around in circles giving Oliver a mathematical chance of hitting him (however small it would actually be).

A speedster should be able to easily kill Oliver without Oliver even knowing about it.

Even when it's speedster vs speedster, I think some sort of "Flashtime" fight scene would've been better, but it's usually just the two speedsters running next to each other across a CGI city.  For the most part, I just tune out when action scenes happen in the Flash.

One thing I'm shocked about is that they only did a couple episodes with a depowered Barry.  I think slowing down Barry should've been a major storyline for an entire season.  Let Barry face someone like Mirror Master without his speed.  Let him fully show he's a hero without it.  I know it's the Flash and that's his thing but come on.

I'm also sad that they never adapted this storyline - they could've easily done it with Oliver or Joe.  (Credit to TF or you, whoever told me about this.  It's now one of my favorite comic stories ever).

https://comicnewbies.com/2017/04/20/bat … h-rebirth/

I know that titles, especially in the MCU, don't necessarily mean that they're borrowing from similarly-named comics....but wasn't Karen crucial to the Born Again storyline?  Or am I thinking of something else?

At the same time, maybe the storyline is that Matt gets exposed as Daredevil and has to go on the run.  Maybe it doesn't take place in New York.  I think there are some reasonable explanations for them not to be involved story-wise.

Of course, there are very easy narrative ways to include those characters.  Maybe Kingpin strikes while the three of them are on an apple-picking excursion in upstate New York, and now they're on the run together.  It is disappointing.  I thought the three of them were very good together.

Yeah the "let's get nuts" one was especially awkward.  And I guess maybe Javicia is playing Ryan a little extra crazy, and she doesn't know how to do that?

But I read a good point on one of the TV blogs - maybe they didn't have the budget for it, but it would've been really cool to see flashbacks for Ryan's story.  Even if it wasn't true, it'd be cool to see Flash attacking Batwoman with an army of Rogues behind him.  They could've used the same Rogues that were already in the episode to save money so it would've just been a matter of getting the Batsuit (or altering the Red Death suit) and using the actors for an extra scene.

I'm doing the same thing.  While I thought the first episode was silly, I think it was a milestone on Barry's adventure.

This didn't seem to accomplish anything.  If Caitlin is gone, it's a really rough way to write off someone who was on the show 8 years.  If she's coming back, what was the point of this?

Although I like that it was essentially Tuvix but this time Tuvix gets to live.

This is really interesting.  I watched Supergirl in between season one and season two, ahem, via a website.  I remember it being good, but I don't have the eye for noticing stuff like you do.  There's just about a 0.0% chance I ever rewatch Supergirl, but I am enjoying remembering a lot of the early stuff.

I do wonder how things would've gone if Supergirl had been a huge hit for CBS.  I guess she still would've had crossovers?

Yeah, it's fine.  I think when you deal with Barry, this was another lesson he needed to learn.  If he can't change the future, at least he can chronicle it to keep people safe.  I don't think this was an hour wasted of Barry's story.

What's weird about these time loop episodes is how often people die.  We've seen it on Star Trek, in Supernatural, in tons of sci-fi shows like this - do characters let up their guards because they know they're in a time loop?  Is this just all their bad luck crammed into one pocket universe?  Because whether it's Sam and Dean or Barry, they always are killed in these time loop episodes much easier than they would be in other episodes.  I don't think this challenge was unique or dangerous enough to kill Barry again and again and again.

I know it's fun to kill off the Flash a bunch of times knowing that there are no stakes.  I just think it's a weird situation because, narratively, it feels forced.

I realized something.

When Gunn announced his slate, he said that we're getting a younger Superman.  That's why Cavill had to be recast.  But he also said that they're doing a Batman that is dealing with his son.

Which means, essentially, that the DCU is going to have the same dynamic as the DCEU did in terms of Clark and Bruce.  One will be young and inexperienced.  One will be a veteran.  Because by the descriptions that Gunn used, Clark should be fairly young.  I'm thinking early 20s.  Batman, if he has a crimefighting son, can't be any younger than 30, right?  Mayyyyybe late 20s if he had Damian at 16 and Damian is now 12?  Either way, Bruce and Clark probably won't be contemporaries.  And for whatever reason, I want that.

But I am excited to have a Bat-Family and that seems to be the direction that Gunn is going.  So I'll accept it.

It's.....fine?

I haven't had any technical issues, really.  The hardest part for me is that there's not an easy way to purchase comics on the app.  So I generally just read stuff that's already included in my subscription (which has been, recently, Sandman, Y:The Last Man, and the IDW TMNT current run).

The other issue is that they changed the way my reading queue is set up, which was a minor issue.  And a lot of times, I have to restart the app completely if I want something new to pop up in my reading list or my wish list.  And occasionally the search won't really work.

I'm almost caught up on TMNT (which has *all* been included, which is cool), and I have a decent number of DC titles in my queue.  But when I'm done, I might (at least temporarily) switch to the Marvel unlimited plan.  That will give me all the Marvel stuff and all the Star Wars stuff, right?  A lot of the Star Wars stuff is on Comixology, but either I read too fast or they've essentially stopped at War of the Bounty Hunters.

Budget and timing is one thing.  But they *have* the Legends.  Scheduling worked.  Why not do a couple episodes and give them a proper wrap-up.  Especially since the Legends can absolutely be silly.  Maybe the time jail looks exactly like Star Labs for some reason so you can use the sets.  If they can't get Donald Faison, let Tom Cavanaugh do it and say it's a time disguise.  It doesn't really even matter with the Legends.  Just have fun.

What about 1.5 full seasons?

That's a relief.  Although I'd probably feel better about Oliver's story if he didn't die when he did, and if he were somehow resurrected and could patrol Star City again.  But it's probably unfair to Arrow to do that.

ireactions just made me think of something.

Did anyone ever write a fanfic where they land on a world where Quinn *did* invent anti-gravity?  Its funny that Quinn seems to be the most ubiquitous slider, but he never really even did what he was trying to do.  So did we ever write something where Quinn actually achieved his goal?

One thing I would've liked better would've been for the universe to stick the landing a little better.  It would've been nice if the whole universe could've ended on a big crossover event.  Maybe Crisis - maybe something else.  I know this stuff is impossible to predict, but if they'd known things were shutting down, I wish we could've made this feel a bit more cohesive.

And that's why I'd use Flash as a series finale to the whole universe, not just the Flash.  But I also get letting them finish however they want.

I think that's probably fair.  If I were Berlanti, though, I would probably try and set up some mini-arc where Barry has to travel to Gotham, to Star City, to National City, and to the Waverider to collect McGuffins.  And in those episodes, bring back as many of the characters from Arrow/Supergirl/Legends/Black Lightning/Batwoman as possible, and make those episodes essentially "Flash guest stars".  Give us updates for the shows that finished themselves, and give us wrapups for the shows that couldn't. 

It would relieve pressure on Grant Gustin (although maybe 13 episodes is more manageable), it would eliminate "freak of the week episodes (again, maybe 13 episodes is the right number to avoid that), and it would give the fans what they want.

I don't know if any of those shows need more wrapup than you said, but I'd like to give each show their due since this will almost certainly be the end of the Arrowverse as we know it.

Stephen Amell (and two others) have agreed to return for Flash's final season.  Hopefully there are a lot more others who can guest star.

Which leaves the question - is he The Spectre?  Will it be a flashback?  A parallel Earth?  Or will Oliver be resurrected?

This is why I was a fan of my fanfic season of Supernatural.  I think it would've been cool if something the boys did to save the world actually broke the fundamental laws of the world.  What if Dead Man's Blood didn't work against vampires?  What if silver didn't work against werewolves?  What if the Colt didn't work against *anything*?  Because I think at some point, the monster of the week stuff got stale because none of the traditional monsters were much of a challenge.  John's book essentially was a cheat code.

But if the boys had to start fresh?  Find new ways to kill vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, etc.  Write their own book.  That would've really reinvigorated the show, especially in the later years.

The movie that starts out in Dallas featuring very prominent mountains in the background?