As long as there have been comic books, there have been retcons. For all that they have acquired a bad reputation, retcons can be an incredibly useful tool in comics writing and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Done right, retcons can add an enormous amount of depth and breadth to a character, making their worlds far richer than they were before. Instead, I would argue that retcons should be…
@racefortheironthrone , our resident Cap-ologist writes the definitive takedown of Nick Spencer’s new issue of Cap and how it betrays the Simon and Kirby legacy and fans alike.
Look, I’m fully prepared for this to all pan out to be implanted memories but this is an awful way to set that up.
Apparently not. Which is even worse.
friends, friends, friends. There is no way, none, zero, no way at all, that Marvel has made Steve Rogers a racist Hydra agent, seriously and straightforwardly and permanently, forever and ever amen. Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Come on. In other news, Superman is not still dead.
Sean, I’m sure that it’s not going to be “permanently, forever and ever amen.” It’s the seriously and straightforwardly I have an issue with, because, as I lay out in my essay above, it’s still not a good twist even if that was the case.
All it does is piss off a whole bunch of people who care about Steve Rogers because he’s an anti-fascist, who (on the 75th anniversary of Cap’s creation) identify with Jack Kirby and Joe Simon because they were Jewish comic book creators who put Cap socking Hitler in the jaw in 1940 when it got them death threats from the Bund, and it does it as a cheap advertising gimmick to drum up controversy and more sales.
But years from now, the only thing that people will remember about this run is “oh yeah, that was the run where Cap was a Nazi.” And that really sucks.
As long as there have been comic books, there have been retcons. For all that they have acquired a bad reputation, retcons can be an incredibly useful tool in comics writing and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Done right, retcons can add an enormous amount of depth and breadth to a character, making their worlds far richer than they were before. Instead, I would argue that retcons should be…
@racefortheironthrone , our resident Cap-ologist writes the definitive takedown of Nick Spencer’s new issue of Cap and how it betrays the Simon and Kirby legacy and fans alike.
Look, I’m fully prepared for this to all pan out to be implanted memories but this is an awful way to set that up.
As long as there have been comic books, there have been retcons. For all that they have acquired a bad reputation, retcons can be an incredibly useful tool in comics writing and shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Done right, retcons can add an enormous amount of depth and breadth to a character, making their worlds far richer than they were before. Instead, I would argue that retcons should be…
1. Technically speaking, King’s Landing isn’t a harbor. A harbor is a deep body of water along the coast that ships can dock at, that’s protected from the winds and waves. King’s Landing is a riverrine port, with its docks in the Blackwater Rush, as opposed to out on the bay itself. (Compare the geography of King’s Landing to say, Volantis or Braavos)
2. According to WOIAF, it seems largely due to political disunity: “in the days of the Hundred Kingdoms, many petty kings had claimed dominion over the river mouth, amongst them the Darklyn kings of Duskendale, the Masseys of Stonedance, and the river kings of old…Towers and forts had crowned the three hills at various times, only to be thrown down in one war or another. Now only broken stones and overgrown ruins remained.” As a result of war, therefore, King’s Landing remained undeveloped and you didn’t get enough of a concentration of people necessary to attract trade.
So I have a longer version of this that’s part of the Kickstarter bonus essays, but here’s the short version.
I have indeed read the Second Apocalypse books. I only really like the first trilogy, which did a really interesting job of adapting the First Crusade into an epic fantasy series. The second trilogy has gotten successively less interesting as we depart further from historical analogy and more of the material becomes about R. Scott Bakker’s particular interests and hangups.
And it’s those last things where I start to get tired of Bakker’s writings. As I have said, GRRM makes the lows lower to make the highs higher. But Bakker, and a lot of other “deconstructionist” fantasy writers, seem to just go for the lows and stay there. And to me, that lacks the variation that is the basis for sustained novelty and interest.
I think it’s a necessary evil. If the Maester wasn’t sworn to be loyal to the lord of the domain, no lord would accept a Maester in their service, which goes against the interests of the Citadel.
As usual, thoughts are below the cut to avoid spoilers:
Castle Black:
– it was really, really good to see Sansa comprehensively smackdown LIttlefinger.
– OTHO, while trusting LF is a bad idea, so is turning away 30,000 knights. Although I think I know why they’re doing that and I feel kind of meh about it.
– Well, the Boars, Gore, and Swords guys are very happy right now!
– And I’m happy that Brienne is going to the Riverlands, because that means LSH!
– I’m more happy that I think Davos is going to White Harbor!
House of Black and White:
– seriously, this much stick fighting was not necessary.
– I did like the backstory of the Faceless Men coming into the show.
– GRRM did “Mercy” better, and their more farce than Shakespeare version was ironically self-critical, but I think I know where they’re going with it. Batman doesn’t join the League of Shadows, after all.
Kingsmoot:
– I liked Asha and Theon together, Euron’s speech was not as cool as in the book, and I missed the horn.
Dany:
– while I don’t really care about Jorah, that was a nice sendoff.
Meereen:
– I thought the discussion with the R’hllorites was very interesting, although I don’t like the Rh’llor = burning unbelievers reductionism.
– I especially liked seeing Varys shaken by the High Priestesses’ knowledge.
Beyond the Wall:
– Well, that was eventful. I still think I’m right about the White Walkers – this version has some major sequencing problems, like the War between the First Men and the Children, and the Pact that ended it, coming before the Long Night, and the Children fighting against the White Walkers during the Battle for the Dawn. However, evil magic turning against its masters is still evil.
– Bran getting the mark of the Night’s King was interesting, although the whole not ready/dead mentor thing was very very Hero’s Journey in a way that GRRM is more deft with. Hope he’s learned everything he needs, because he’s not getting another chance.
– Bran causing Hodor’s condition through time I could definitely see; the whole thing about Hodor being “Hold the Door” seems a bit small potatoes.
– Meera killed a White Walker!
– Benioff and Weiss must be tired of dealing with the animal wranglers, because they really are on a direwolf-killing rampage.
– the whole staging of the zombie movie sequence was very dark and confusingly staged on the TV I saw it on.
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