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The Phoenix and Thematic Unity
The final in a series of three posts about how Avengers VS. X-Men was, objectively, an abysmal and abject failure of storytelling, ideas, execution, continuity, and progression of a macro-narrative. There will be an awful lot of spoilers after the break, for a book that is only a few days old, so let it be that you’ve all been fairly warned.
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Japan’s Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger saw its finale this recent weekend and, though I would very much like to, I cannot say that I am totally satisfied by it.
That is not to say that I’m disappointed by it. To describe how I felt at the end of that episode (despite not yet returning to the episode with those subtitles that are so integral to my comprehension of the narrative) as disappointed would be a gross misnomer. I was left feeling very pleased by what I had just watched. The last four episodes had achieved a perfect balance that is rarely reached by the final act of any real kind of story. (Considering that Gokaiger is a genre piece) we were exposed to a very carefully constructed balance of resolutions (of plot elements in episodes 48, 49, and 51; or character arcs in episode 50; of the core concepts and conceits of the show in episodes 49, 50, and 51) and action (the best mecha sequence in all forms of media in episode 50; the most satisfying fight sequences in episodes 49 and 51 (satisfying for different reasons).
I realise that a lot of what I just said makes very little sense to anyone who hasn’t seen the show (and I’m kind of assuming that anyone who has committed themselves to read this far at least owns the interest in eventually watching the full series) but I ask you to bear with me. Because, what I’m trying to say is that Gokaiger was perfect insofar as the constraints placed upon the show, in production and distribution, would allow it to be.
These constraints were potentially damning to the show and I think it’s a testament to the people behind this show that these constraints actually didn’t break that show.
There’s only one episode of glee that I’ve not seen.
I don’t really know how I managed to miss it. I was marathoning the whole of season two a few months ago and I somehow just, skipped this one episode. I realised – not that I’m anything even close to fully aware as to how I realised – about two-and-a-half episodes later that I’d skipped this particular episode and went into a mad panic featured around the idea that I’d missed some pivotal and vital piece of plot that I simply couldn’t live without, destroying my experience of the show proper as a whole and ruining everyone’s chance at happiness.
So, naturally, instead of stopping (or finishing) the episode I was, at the time, currently watching and just going back to that episode I’d missed, I went to wikipedia to read the plot synopsis. I think, I think I did this to see if the plot synopsis felt at all familiar to me, as a strange kind of way of confirming to me that I either had or had not watched this particular episode. It made sense at the time. It was easier than putting the episode on, I had doubt that my doubt that I’d missed the episode was genuine. [Yep].
The synopsis of this episode read such that one character (Blaine), having transferred to McKinley High to be closer to his boyfriend (Kurt), develops something of an innocent and flirtatious crush on another character (Rachel). By “innocent and flirtatious” I mean, they get raging drunk and get their mack on in front of Kurt. Blaine, then, starts to question his sexuality and blah blah blah long story short: Kurt denies the existence of bisexuality.
So I didn’t watch this episode.
