TWD in a nutshell!

The TV adaptation recreates the journey of Rick Grimes as he journeys to Atlanta after waking up from a coma, running into a horde of walkers, being saved by Glenn Rhee and a group of survivors, T Dog, Andrea, Merle Dixon and brother Daryl and Rick old partner Shane Walsh and reunion with his family, Carl and Lori Grimes. Season 1 was a short six parter. Season 2 saw the aftermath of the discovery at the CDC and the meeting with the Green family after Carl Grimes is accidentally shot  by one of the Greens. It also highlights the growing tension between good friends and partners Rick and Shane Walsh. This all comes to a head in the finale.We also witness the blossoming  romance between Glenn and Maggie Green.  

Season  3 finds the survivors on the road again, seeking a safe haven. This season adapts, the prison storyline from  graphic novel where Rick and gang secure the ground by clearing walkers, some clad in prison riot gear. The group encounters some surviving inmates while killing walkers. We also get the introduction of a fan favourite character, katana wielding Michonne as she saves Andrea who got separated from the  group.They end up at Woodbury, after checking out a downed copter.

The next seasons follows the Woodbury arc. We meet their leader Phillip, more well known as the governor. When everything appears perfect, there is always something rotten underneath. Indeed he has a sadistic streak and after being rejected by Andrea, he proceeds to abduct and torture Maggie and Glenn, and subsequently wages war on the prison. With the prison breached and overrun, the survivors are scattered and end up encountering another community, Terminus. Again our unfortunate group discover that their hosts are cannibals and they have luring survivors to be slaughtered by promising rest and a safe haven for stragglers. Our heroes almost become meat. Carol steps up to the plate and saves our heroes.

The next major plot involved our group arriving at the Alexandria safe zone after being recruited by Aaron. Our crew gets  interviewed by Deanna, the leader of Alexandria. The group are also exposed to the Saviors, who bully the neighbors into giving them with provisions for protection. Not buying into the thought of  being subjugated, Rick leads a team to attack the Saviors outposts, where they murder the Saviors in their sleep. The Saviors will have the last laugh however. Desperate to get a very ill Maggie to Hilltop, they get cornered, seperated and ambushed. The group is devastated when they get captured and key members of the group are executed brutally by Negan. This results in an 'All out War' as the communities come together to defeat the Saviors.

The last there seasons sees our group deal with the threat of wild Whisperers and their walker horde, lead by Alpha and the mountain of a man Beta. It's only with an old reformed antagonist that they are able to overcome the Whisperers. All this is happening while Eugene makes radio contact with a potential new ally. Ezekiel leads a small team out with Eugene. They run into a colorful character known as Princess. She joins the group and eventually run into white armor clad soldiers from a settlement called the 'Commonwealth'. They are taken to the community and interviewed. Where have we seen this before? I felt like this trope has been used too many times in the series. The only difference is that the governor was a politician, Pamela Milton. The Commonwealth is the closest thing we have seen in the show with a government, a proper defensive force and the amenities. Of course things goes awry and our newly assimilated group discovers people going missing and the high handed way they take over the other broken settlements after they refuse to work with them. Internally the disgruntled residents discover secrets about the missing people and the Milton family, thanks to Eugene. Again our crew manage to overcome the impossible to emerge victorious  and there you have it, the TV show in a long nutshell.

The Mando

So here we are with me writing about some of my current favorite TV series.While we had the sequels, my faith and trust in the franchise was restored with the introduction of The Mandalorian. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are THE GUYS to bring that original Star Wars spirit back. The secret sauce that has been missing all this while from the Disneyfied Star Wars was a deep love and an in-depth knowledge of the lore. We needed real fans of movies at the helm, and we finally got them in the form of  Jon and Dave.

So just how good is this space western about an antihero who was based on a certain bounty hunter? In short I rank this right up there with the original trilogy, ahead of the prequels. It has all the elements of a great Star Wars movie, and many fans still believe that this project came about when the planned Boba Fett movie got the axe due to the failures of the movies. Same scenario for the Obi Wan Kenobi series that was supposed to be a full length feature movie, but that's a discussion for another day.

The story follows the exploits of bounty Hunter and Mandalorian Din Djarin who starts as a hired hand. After taking up a assignment and getting attached to his bounty, a little 50 year old Yoda youngling, aka Grogu or Baby Yoda, he has a change of heart.Din is all business in the beginning and delivers his bounty to the client, only to discover that they work for the empire. He also realizes that he can't take on the Imperial forces by himself. In fact he only makes it out of Nevarro with the aid of the Mandalorian's who are on Nevarro. He makes several allies along the way, Greef Karga, a former acquaintance of whom he gets his bounties from, Kuiil, a Ugnaught that helps Din repair his ship after it was pulled apart for spare parts by offworld Jawas, and Cara Dune, a tough survivor from  Alderaan. He makes this his mission, to protect and to get Grogu home to his people.

The next season sees Din trying to locate  clues to the surviving Jedi's. He discovers that a fellow Mandalorian holds the key to finding the Jedi. He seeks out a familliar bounty hunter Boba Fett, but finds Cobb Vanth donning  Boba's beskar armor instead. He does end up reacquiring the armor after helping Vanth with Krait dragon. He also manages to locate the Mandalorian's on the watery planet. These Mandalorian's are led by Bo Katan Kryze, who knows the Jedi Din is seeking. This is none other than Ahsoka Tano,  Anakin Skywalker's former padawan. She however refuses to train Grogu after assessing him and discovering that he has a deep attachment to Din. She sends them to a sacred Jedi nexus on the planet Tython.

Din and Grogu aren't the only ones making their way there. Boba Fett and his partner Fennec Shand, seeking to reclaim his armor, and Moff Gideon and the empire, who are after Grogu, also make a beeline for Tython. Boba gets his armor back and forms an alliance with Din after a face-off. And Grogu gets abducted after successfully sending a signal to surviving Jedi. With Boba's help, and old allies Cara Dune they discover the location of Moff Gideon's cruiser. They enlist the help of Bo Katan, who wants to reclaim the Mandalorian artifact,the Darksabre. Din manages to defeat Moff Gideon and save Grogu. The group are, however cornered and trapped by the powerful Dark Troopers. Moff Gideon, now a POW snickers at his captors. To the surprise of the crew  they see a lone X Wing fly in, and the Dark Troopers stop their relentless pounding on the blast doors. We see a hooded figure stride into view on the screens and ignites a green bladed lighsabre, as he quickly cuts through the horde of Dark Troopers. Holy hell it's Luke Skywalker. This is the version of Luke hard-core fans like me have been waiting for all our lives. This turn of events sees an emotional farewell between Din and Grogu.

So the season ends on a sad note, and we are still waiting for the premier of season 3 in March. But we do see Din and Grogu again in The Book of Boba Fett, which I will cover in a future blog. Stay tuned!

We are The Walking Dead

Yet another show that is near and dear to my heart (yes I am a SciFi fan which has recently added the horror genre to my likes) is The Walking Dead. My fascination for gore and macabre started late in life. I was introduced (more like force fed) a steady stream of zombie movies by my good mate Gusler aka Damian Morgan whilst working for Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology in 2008. We shared this passion, alongside with UFC and had these running discussions about life in an apocalyptic world. I remember people laughing at us since zombies were not the "in" thing back in 2008 (yeah take that vampire crap and throw it out the window). I watched Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead so many freakin times. That was before zombies (or walkers, or roamers, or biters) were even cool.

 

Then in 2010, a little know cable network, AMC decided to take a chance on an award winning comicbook series by Robert Kirkman entitled The Walking Dead. The season premier was a 6 parter, introducing us to the world of Rick Grimes, and his post apocalypse family. Whilst the premise was a world filled with the undead, the core of the story revolved around how people cope under dire circumstances when the world as we know it is taken away from us. There are no governments, no rules, and everyone basically has to learn how to survive in a savage world. its literally dog eat dog, and the dog with the biggest most vicious bite rules the roost. The story follows our survivor, a county sheriff, Rick Grimes. These days everywhere you turn, there is a TWD fan. My how times have changed. I have even have made some close friends through cosplay and comic cons. Heck I am even friends with some of the cast.We are a very close knit family.

The TV series follows me comic book core stories, with some important departures that would take the  series down  interesting avenues. The big changes include the introduction of fan favourite  Daryl Dixon, the survival of Carol Pelletier till the end of the series, the deaths of Andrea and Carl Grimes and the apparent death of Rick mid season  10.. All these lead to alternate timelines that see different characters fall into the comic roles. Notables include expanded roles for the mentioned. Carol becomes a badass and saves the group on several occasions. She is also romantically linked to Ezekiel, effectively taking on Michonne's role. They adopt Henry,, who fills in for Carl's in the  Whisperer War' arc. Michonne's close bond with Andrea in the TV series foreshadows her role as  Rick's strength and partner. Daryl, being the wildcard has the best story arc, from redneck to leader!

I will do do a mini recap of the entire TWD TV Series in a future post. Till then hang tight and stay tuned!

My love affair with Star Wars

Its amazing how some movies are so ahead of its time that they transcend time and space. One such movie is Star Wars. I grew up on Star Wars in the late 70's and it is indeed encouraging to see that Star Wars still exist so many years later. We now have a new generation of Star Wars fans, literally echoing Luke's words in the movie, 'I are a Jedi, like my father before me'. The fact that I can now share my love for Star Wars with my 12 year old daughter means everything to me. I felt The Force Awakens as truly an awakening of a new era of Star Wars, with the old guard still present (Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Peter Mayhew as Chewie, Anthony Daniels as C3-PO, Kenny Baker R2D2), we now have the next generation (Rey (Daidy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver)). Even though the next two movies would fall flat and be divisive, I still believe in the force.

Star Wars has, and will always be a big part of my life. I grew up watching the movies, I played with the toys and I even live by some of the teachings derived from the movie (Do or do not, there is no try!). I have cosplay characters from the movie, collect action figures/comics/books/etc etc (you get the picture). In fact I have met some really cool people (and have even become very good friends with them). I am also astounded as I find Star Wars fans everywhere (I have yet to work at a place that did not have a single Star Wars fan). Such is the power of Star Wars.

I remember the dark times as a kid, after the last (so called) Return of the Jedi was released. I felt hollow. Thank god for the expanded universe and writers such as Kevin J Anderson, Timothy Zhan and Barbara Hambly for greatly expanding on that universe during the "dark ages". All we had back then were novels, comics (Dark Horse comics Dark Empire saga was the bomb back then, and it's still my perfect sequel to the original trilogy) and our action figures, the original vintage figures from way back, and the muscly beefed up POTF line by Kenner. Ah the good old times.

Its interesting to see how far Star Wars has evolved over the years. The second coming for me was when George Lucas announced the prequel trilogy. We all knew George had originally had 9 movies in his mind, but chose to start in the middle with episodes IV, V and VI, and decided on not doing the continuing saga after ROTJ. The prequels to me were pretty meh. The only one I actually liked was The Phantom Menace (yeah bite me ;) It was the anticipation of a new Star Wars movie that fulled my desire. While they stuffed up Yoda (he looked all weird and sickly with the puppetering), I felt the best part of the movie was Qui Gonn Jinn (Liam Neeson was the ultimate Jedi Master), the Pod Race at Boontha Eve and Darth Maul (mad props to Ray Park). After Vader, the next best Sith was Maul.

Fast forward to 2023, we now have the conclusion to the Skywalker saga, for better or worse, as well as an expanded universe with the back story of the rebels led by Diego Luna's Cassian Andor in an effort to secure the plans for the Death Star in Rogue One, as well as the Han Solo story. The advent of streaming and Disney+ brought us the excellent Favreau and Filoni helmed The Mandalorian. Pedro Pascal plays the mysterious bounty Hunter Din Djarin with the heart of gold.And we are introduced to the adorable baby Yoda aka Grogu. This series also set up several others such as Ashoka and the completed Book of Boba Fett. We also have Obi Wan Kenobi and Andor. Watch this space for my thoughts! 

Welcome to the weird and wonderful life of a geek

Seeing that this is my first posting on an all new blog, I though I first give you a background on me, the blogger. I am a BioTech professional (read GEEK) that grew up on popular culture. By that I mean feeding myself a staple of Saturday morning cartoons, comic books from Marvel, DC and a host of independant companies, SciFi, the works. I have always had a passion for the out-wordly, so it was no surprise that my first major love was Star Wars. The madness started when I was just 5 years of age. It was one of the first big screen experiences for me with my dad and mum (who are also rabid Star Wars , Vader in particular). From then on I soaked up everything Star Wars, from joining the official Star Wars fan club and receiving an autographed picture of my hero, Mark Hamill, and the newsletters titled Bantha Tracks, coloring books, to the action figures, vehicles, comics. Still have some of the original action figures from my childhood. Just wished mum hadn't chucked out my beat up X Wing!

As I got older, I indulged in other genres not so distant from the galaxy far far away. My constant companions through my youth were mutants (X-Men), human's with enhanced abilities (Batman, Ironman) and aliens with extraordinary abilities (Superman and Green Lantern, Optimus Prime and his Autobots). I tried to get my hands on anything my amazing parents could afford. I must confess I was very lucky as my dad and mum supported my lust for such geek sundry. With their blessings, I collected action figures (I still have my original, cast in metal G1 Optimus Prime, Hound, Jazz and some Insecticons). However, being a kid, you always wanted more.....

When I graduated from university and obtained my PhD, I finally had a disposable income. With this I started doings things I only dreamt of as a child and teen. I attended comic conventions (and yes I have cosplayed on a few occasions as farmboy Luke Skywalker, Glenn Rhee from The Walking Dead and my all time favourite Tony Stark from Ironman 3), bought collectible figurines and autographed paraphernalia, limited run comic books and even met and talked to some of my cildhood, and adulthood heroes. So yes this blog is all about my journey into the fandom......the quest to be the ultimate geek. Will you join me on this crazy mad capped journey? As Arnie in the Terminator would say "Come with me if you want to live :)"