Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker First Impression

I saw the final film in the Skywalker Saga yesterday, The Rise of Skywalker and I think it was a good ending to this saga and to this trilogy. I am still collecting my thoughts on the movie because it is so dense and there is so much going on throughout. There were some story decisions that I wasn't a great fan of, but overall I liked most of what this movie did. The movie was directed amazingly by JJ Abrams and the effects were absolutely great. John Williams' music is once again magnificent, but there were some moments when I think that some tracks were a bit weak and when there wasn't really any music and they could've played a track from one of the other movies that would have worked very well. There was a lot of fun action and comedy moments in this movie. All of those moments came with the characters, which were the best thing about this movie. They introduced a few new characters that I really liked. The returning characters were excellent, this movie really is all about this adventure that they go on together and I couldn't like it more. It's also about Rey and Kylo's relationship and the conflict that they have in the movie. Of course, the Emperor also returns and I felt that he was used well, but his return could have used more explanation. Carrie Fisher is in this movie as Leia from unused footage and I think it worked very well, for the most part. I didn't much like how the film was just unnecessarily dark throughout and it was just stressing me out about what would happen. It also happens that this movie never slows down it starts and ends with so much action and plot. It is pretty easy to follow but just feels quite choppy and the scenes don't transition well. I also have a few unanswered questions from the movie about things that were brought up but never answered by the end. The final scene for this movie was great and the perfect way to end this saga even if the film wasn't entirely perfect. The Rise of Skywalker was a very funny and action-packed movie that I would recommend to anyone that likes Star Wars and I think that it was a nice ending for this saga and trilogy. I think at this point I'd give it a 8 or 9 out of 10 and rank it as my 7th favorite Star Wars movie, overall (which sounds very low until you realize that there are 11 of them.) I know that this movie is receiving mixed reviews from critics and fans, but I think that it deserves more praise than it has gotten. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was a very good ending to the 42 years of this saga and I can't wait for what's more to come from this franchise. I will probably make a spoiler review soon, after I see the movie again and have time to process my thoguhts, either here or on the YT channel. I will also be reviewing The Mandalorian season one sometime after next Friday. So stay connected and may the force be with you, always.

Top 5 Marvel Grand Design Comics I want

Marvel has a series of comics called Grand Design, which are retellings of long comic series like X-Men and Fantastic Four. Those are the only two series they have so far (the X-Men series has 3 volumes, FF has 1 so far.) I just finished reading the second X-Men volume, Second Genesis. I really like this series and how it makes it easy to understand the long and complicated history of these series. So there are definitely many other Marvel characters who could have a Grand Design series. Multiversity Comics did an article about the top Grand Design comics that them and their readers want. So I thought I could do a list of the top 5 Grand Design series that I want.

Top 5

5. Eternals
The Eternals would be a great group to do a Grand Design series as they getting a movie next year. It would a great introduction to them for people that don't yet know their history. And I would love this series because I love these characters and I have only read Neil Gaiman's series and their appearance in Jason Aaron's Avengers, so I would like more on the rest of their history from other series. Plus the continuity is very confusing, so it would be good if they were to streamline it more for the canon. The Eternals would also go with the theme of grand  design because they (along with humans and deviants) were designed by the Celestials.

4. Cosmic Marvel/ Guardians
I would very much like to see a series with the Guardians of the Galaxy and the entirety of Cosmic Marvel History. From Infinity Gauntlet to Annihilation. Personally I just want to see all of this history, that I haven't read in the form of Grand Design. As for the Guardians, they have a very long history which doesn't even include the current team from the beginning. They can include things like Guardians 3000 and characters like Nova. I just want to be able to have all of the history of these characters in a digestible way.

3. Inhumans
Inhumans, like Eternals is another series that works very well with grand design. The Inhumans were designed by the Kree. They do have a very interconnected history with the Fantastic Four and I'm not sure how involved they are in the FF's Grand Design series. But even if they are, Marvel could spin it off from that. The Inhumans and the lore is so big and is a great story. There are some plot holes and discrepancies in their continuity. Those could be filled in for this and other series as the narrator for Grand Design is The Watcher. So we could get more adventures from these characters that happened off-panel. I love the Inhumans and I really want to know more about them.

2. Avengers
The Avengers are one of the most popular and legendary teams in Marvel, with so many comics spanning so many years with so much history. The giant cast of characters that the Avengers includes would make for an amazing book. There is a lot of history to go over that would make this book very fun and awesome. Avengers assemble. Nuff said.

1. Spider-Man
Spider-Man is my favorite Marvel character and he is definitely the most qualified character to have their own Grand Design series in terms of amount of lore in my opinion. There are so many complicated events and storylines centered around just this one character, the Clone Saga, Absolute Carnage, Spider-verse, Superior Spider-Man, Kraven's Last Hunt, and I can go on and on. Chip Zdarsky had a series called Spider-Man: Life Story, which told the story of Spider-Man's life if he actually aged reguarly. But I would love a series about Spider-Man 's life in the canon and the history of the character and lore. RIP Juice WRLD, rapper who worked on Into the Spider-Verse died. :(
I really hope that Marvel makes some of these series. Thank you for reading and stay connected.
Links: http://www.multiversitycomics.com/previews/reader-poll-results-grand-design/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/bzyazx/xmen_grand_design_and_spiderman_life_story_give/

The Mandalorian Chapter 5: Mystery Character Identity?

So, I am back from a short bit of time gone from this blog, of course to talk about what very quickly is becoming my favorite television series, Star Wars: The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. I was super hyped leading up to its release and the first live-action Star Wars television show doesn't disappoint. But I will save the review for after the end of the season. I haven't felt a great need to write about the show yet, there isn't really much I have to say that hasn't already been said. Just know that this is a great series that you should be watching. I don't have too much to add for this either, but I'm pretty much sorting my ideas and using ideas from around the net (shout out to Reddit!)
If you haven't watched The Mandalorian yet there are major spoilers ahead! 
With that out of the way, shout out to Baby Yoda, he's great. Although I'm sure that there's almost no one who doesn't know of him yet.
In Chapter 5: The Gunslinger, the Mandalorian gets into a whole ordeal with a young bounty hunter, Toro Calican and a assassin named Fennec Shand on Tatooine.  Long story short, the Mandalorian leaves Toro to watch Shand and she reveals to him that the Mandalorian is worth more than she is so he kills her and leaves her there. The Mando kills him after the gunslinger jumps him and the Mando leaves the planet. The final stinger that we get at the end of the episode is someone, whose identity isn't revealed walk up to Shand's body on Tatooine. We hear the person's footsteps which have a spur-like sound effect to them. There is also a very visible cape that they are wearing. And up to this point that is all we really know. Here I'm going to give some options for likely candidates of who this person is and how it will effect the series and Star Wars as a whole. Let's go.

Greef Carga
Let's get into the most likely options first. Greef has already appeared in two episodes of the show and since many other bounty hunters are trailing the Mando it would follow that he is too. He would also likely have a personal vendetta against the Mandalorian because the last time Greef saw him, he was shot and left for dead. The cape in the shot is also like Greef's, torn and long enough. I'm not sure about the spurs when he walks though. It would be slightly interesting, but I sort of already assumed that Greef was after the Mando. I hope it isn't him because why would they tease and not fully show a character that is already in the show and wouldn't majorly surprise anyone. And I would basically be writing this all for nothing.

Moff Gideon
This is another more likely character, because we already know that he will be in the show. But if that's the case why tease him like this. This would be better than Greef because we haven't seen Moff Gideon yet. I feel that it might not be him for three reasons, 1. He is an imperial warlord that we know has a guard of death troopers, so why wouldn't they be there, 2. From the images I can see his cape is likely in much better condition than the one shown from the person in the show, although I can't find an image showing the bottom of his cape, 3. I doubt as an imperial that he would have boots that look and sound like that. The reason that he could be there is that he was meant to meet up with Shand, who he hired to take out the Mandalorian which would explain why she knew so much of the story about what happened with the Mando. This one would be fine, but honestly I would be disappointed because of my raised expectations for the craziness that this scene could potentially spawn. Maybe I should temper my expectations for anything on the list other than these two, but that's just a thought, you know that I'm not gonna. This is the greatest mystery in Star Wars rn and half the fun is to speculate. Plus I love writing this blog (even though I don't post quite enough.)

Cad Bane 
Could this fan-favorite character from The Clone Wars animated series show up? I want to say yes, because Dave Filoni is running the show, but that could also mean no at the same time. The boots, spurs, and cape heavily line up. But that said at Star Wars Celebration 2017, they released Clone Wars footage which isn't technically canon (yet), in which Cad Bane was killed by Boba Fett. It isn't recognized as canon by Wookieepedia, but the question that will determine if he shows up in this show is: Is Cad Bane's death considered canon by Dave Filoni? It would be reasonable for him to show up since he is a bounty hunter. But is he the best choice for the plot moving forward? I don't know, but I would love to see him show up.

1313 game concept art. Not actually Vanth. Cobb Vanth doesn't have any images because he is a (mysterious) book character. This gets the general idea.

Cobb Vanth
Cobb Vance is a character from the Aftermath books by Chuck Wending, he lives on Tatooine and posses a Mandalorian armour which may or may not be Boba Fett's. He acquired this armor from trading with the Jawas. He has a baby hutt with him that he is taking care of, so he is very similar to the Mando. They would have to introduce the character for a new audience. I haven't read the Aftermath books, but I pretty much understand the character from videos and articles online, so I don't think his intro would be very hard. Having Boba's armor (if he does) would line up pretty well with the character we see here, on Tatooine nonetheless. The cape is quite a bit shorter than the one here, but after the Sarlacc pit and several years on that plus Boba's cape was already ripped in Empire and Return of the Jedi, he could've replaced it with a new longer one.  There is also a fan theory that Vance is actually Boba Fett using an alias, all of the chapters that he is in are told from a different perspective so you can't be sure. If it is Boba than they could introduce him as Cobb and then try for a reveal later on that he's really Boba, honestly everyone would see that from a mile away. They could just bring back Boba and not really address the Cobb Vance thing, but say that it was him in passing. But on to the next character and we'll talk more.

Boba Fett
Be honest, even though some people don't like it Boba escaped that Sarlacc. George was inches away from including it in the special edition. He would be hugely popular if he returned, it's the Mandalorian show, pay respects up to the first Mando in Star Wars. The kid from Attack of The Clones, Daniel Logan is perfect to play him at this point. The show went to Tatooine, whether he's Vance or not it makes since that he would be there and check out what was happening in his territory, plus he is a bounty hunter so at this point he would naturally be against the Mandalorian since he gets a reward for it. It would be really cool to bring him in at the end of the season and set him up as a villain for later. What I'm really hoping for is that we go to Mandalore and deeply explore the culture and see how Boba Fett and the Mandalorian tie into that in season 2. The evidence for this is pretty big, go back to Empire and listen to Boba Fett walking, the sound effect is practically identical to what is here. I really think that it's on purpose. But see we will. Connected stay Yoda Baby says.