#but it was certainly a choice on dc's part given the skills of his parents

[scintillyyy]

i actually think it's pretty funny dc writing dick growing up the son of literally famous, show selling out performers that literally everyone on the planet has heard of and really kind of poor growing up actually because the latter really says a lot of what dc thinks of extremely skilled circus performers and is. a little racist & classist if you think about it. and somehow manages to reflect really poorly on both john and mary grayson and haly's circus.

because i think it's like. they take the roma retcon + itinerant lifestyle + grew up in a rv + circus folk are basically carnival workers who get paid under the table, right? and add that up to = ergo dick grayson must have been very poor growing up despite the fact that. literally everyone on the planet has heard of his super famous parents.

and i'm not just talking modern day, where everyone and their brother seems to have gone to haly's circus (or was there that night). but even in post crisis, people like bonnie's mom were casually name-dropping "oh, like the flying graysons". they were pretty casually known, actually.

like yea, in a lonely place of dying mr. haly mentions that even back then (when they had the flying graysons as an act), the circus was "barely breaking even" but also does this make sense for a circus that would sell out whenever the flying graysons performed. like there's almost a dissonance between how well the circus is always shown to be doing in it's heyday (constant selling out, employing extremely famous acrobats) vs how well they're told to be doing (barely breaking even).

and like. if it is true & they were paid poverty wages despite the fact that they were literally the extremely world-famous headlining act of the circus, then either john and mary are completely incapable of negotiating themselves a fair salary for their skills &/or mr. haly is probably exploiting them.

because like. the flying graysons being a act for haly's circus means they would have to have a contract with the circus for their pay and benefits in return for their act--even in a lonely place of dying the other performers mention their contracts with the circus. because, again, circus performers are skilled workers. so being extremely skilled acrobats who are super famous, john and mary have. a LOT of power on the negotiating table given they're the only three people on the planet that can do a quadruple somersault and other circuses are probably salivating to offer them a lot of money to work for them instead. to buy their world famous act outright would probably cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to avoid paying them royalities for everytime they performed it. if their act wasn't bought outright for a lot of money then their contract probably stipulates a certain percentage of profit from the shows they sell out as the headlining act OR should be more than enough to cover their yearly expenses, food, gas for their rv, insurance, etc. in fact, they may stipulate certain stipeds for gas and food. they might stipulate the circus cover their life & disability insurance given the inherent danger of their act.

so if they're completely unaware of what they're worth and being underpaid for their skills that are literally selling out shows, then you're implying that they're completely clueless & unable to negotiate a fair price for their skills and mr. haly is taking major advantage of them and dick grayson should tell that man to kick fucking rocks.

or they're just. okay? with being completely and totally underpaid for their skills given they like mr. haly so much?

idk. the more famous dc makes the graysons, the more dissonant this actually gets. like in modern day if they're so famous why don't they also have a monetized youtube of their acts & practices with millions of views. if they're that famous and still poverty level struggling, then why were they incapable of advocating for their worth as the only 3 people who could perform a quadruple somersault. like either the circus was a niche thing that struggled a lot and they shouldn't be famous (tim drake should be their only fan) or they were extremely famous and mary and john grayson. should have probably done decently well advocating for themselves, actually.

#anyways i looked up circus salaries and. like these acts have skills. they're worth money. #the headliner isn't getting paid 15k a year #circuses aren't carnivals y'know... #idk. i don't mind dick growing up poor #but it was certainly a choice on dc's part given the skills of his parents

[backtodc]

As fun as it is to throw salt at Gosho I think this could be a good time to talk about some good DC cases. So, which are your top ten cases so far?

Hmmm, this took some thought–presented chronologically because I couldn’t pick preferential order XP

Billion Yen Robbery (013-016): Even disregarding its long-term impact on the plot, this case on its own had a good twist in how Akemi disguised herself and the lies she told to track down her robbery partners. I’m always a fan of people, rather than going for big heavy-duty disguises, just using little details of makeup and presentation to completely change their appearance. Ran’s big heart was evident in this case and how strongly she felt about “Masami”‘s safety after just meeting her twice, and this one also what is still one of my favourite ninja-Ran moments to date. Potential kidnapper/murderer across the street? Maybe we should call the police, or run down the stairs OR I GUESS WE COULD JUMP OUT OF A FIRST FLOOR WINDOW AND CHASE HIM ACROSS THE STREET AND DO A FLYING KICK TO DESTROY HIS CAR WINDOW AND ALSO HIS NOSE

Akemi’s death opens up a shitton of plot, and, despite how it gets slightly overused later on (not quite to “did you know Bruce Wayne’s parents got murdered” levels but definitely a biiiiit overused) it’s still one of the most genuinely tragic deaths, especially since Shinichi admitted his real name to her to try and offer her some comfort as she died. TEARS Q_Q

A Haunted Mansion Murder Case (017-019): The case that introduced the Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta. I always think of this one quite fondly. It had a genuinely creepy atmosphere–the “haunted” mansion looks the right side of cliche-creepy, especially once it turns out there’s actually someone around, and honestly I can forgive the incidents of the kids wandering off alone and vanishing because they’re six, of course they’re gonna do silly shit like wander off alone in a haunted mansion. And the truth of the matter is something that’s vanishingly rare in Detective Conan, something I wish we saw more often: a crime of passion. 

There’s no clever trick to the murder: the son, Akio, just loses the rag under a torrent of verbal abuse and smashes his father’s head in with a candlestick. There’s no clever trick to the cover-up, either; his mother messed with the crime scene a bit and reported it as a robbery, and given that the family’s obviously very wealthy, money probably changed hands if any investigating officer did think to suspect anything other than a robbery. All she’s thinking about is protecting her son from the consequences of his crime; all he can think about is his guilt and horror over the murder he committed. The case goes from genuinely creepy to honestly tragic. It’s a proper emotional story, and at no point do any six-year-olds have to witness a human corpse, which I’m always in favour of. And I like Genta, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi and I’m glad they were introduced shut the fuck up

The Hatamoto Family Case (020-025): This was another case with good creepy atmosphere, a solid closed circle situation, classic big fucked-up family situation but at the heart of it, Natsue and Takeshi are a genuinely sweet couple who really don’t deserve all this bullshit and you spend the case really hoping for them to be safe and things to turn out okay for them, the traumatic deaths of several close relatives aside. The murderer is pretty sad, though I feel like Gosho intended him to be more sympathetic than he actually was–he certainly could’ve done with less abuse from his grandfather and been allowed to emotionally invest in his art more, but the cousins thing aside, murdering multiple people over a girl you’ve never even approached marrying somebody else with whom she’s had an actual relationship and is in love with is… not sympathetic. But I’m also glad that the nice chef uncle came out alright too, and that all three of the sympathetic family members reappeared in later cases since they were all very likeable characters. 

Moonlight Sonata (062-067): This one sticks in a lot of people’s minds, and I think it’s for the same reason that the haunted mansion case sticks in mine; atmosphere. This is another one with a good, genuinely creepy atmosphere from the immediate sense of “small town with a dark secret” we get as soon as the Mouri Detective Agency arrives on the island. Gosho was very good at building these atmospheres once upon a time, I would’ve liked to see him write a horror manga. The case is deeply tragic from start to finish, from the murders of the Asoh family, to the fact that Seiji/Narumi got the idea for the “curse” from playing a funeral song for a man who’d just had a heart attack after admitting to murdering their family, to the complex nature of Dr Asai’s grief and guilt that they felt the need to avenge their family but simultaneously called for a detective in the hopes that they’d be stopped, to their suicide at the end because they can’t live with what they felt obligated to do. There are Gosho’s usual… issues… with gender, and given the bigotry that became obvious later he probably had no clue at all what he was doing with Dr Asai’s gender, but I feel like they weren’t handled unkindly for an AMAB character living as a woman? I could be wrong and I wanna open this one up to the trans folk in the audience because I’ve never found a trans fan’s commentary on Dr Asai and how they think they were handled, but goddamn I still cry thinking of their suicide at the end and I appreciate that this was a one-off case that had a visible long-term emotional impact on Conan.

Magic Lovers’ Murder Case (192-196): As well as being an interesting murder involving some quite sympathetic characters, this is a really good case for seeing what Kaitou Kid’s like under the mask (or was like; I feel like he’s lost depth since this?) as expressed through Katsuki Doito. He came along to investigate suspicious user activity, but he joined the magic-lovers’ forum because he is a nerd for stage magic and stage magicians and enjoys nerding out about stage magic and stage magicians. He gets to unapologetically fanboy over his late father with other magicians, with is pretty goddamn cute imo. He also gets to show off knowledge and fondness for other magicians, and his knowledge of magic tricks is useful in solving the case, even though, by his own admission, he’s no detective, and it led to tragedy. We don’t really see how Kid felt about being unable to prevent that murder, since he was still being played as pretty mysterious at the time, but it was a good choice for his second appearance in DC imo since it cemented him as Not A Bad Dude. Also, Conan gets to be one of Those Shonen Protagonists by running across a burning bridge, which, y’know, is always cheesy, but also always kinda cool (the artwork was particularly effective imo)

Twilight Mansion (299-302): I genuinely enjoyed the gathering of the knock-off famous detectives and was pleasantly surprised by Hakuba’s appearance (back when I still held out hope that that kind of thing meant that Kid would get more involved in the plot). The mansion itself is actually quite gorgeously designed and rendered, especially at the end when the exterior crumbles, and again, DAT CREEPY ATMOSPHERE. I guess it’s officially plot-important now, too, which I just wanna say, I officially called nine years ago, but also I was hardly the only one calling BO involvement with Karasuma. 

Most of all, in general, I just really like watching and reading things involving skilled people being very competent at what they do, so the fact that ALL of the gathered detectives (save that one dead one) figured out what was up and were able to communicate and come up with a plan without revealing themselves to the brilliant detective BEHIND the whole thing, and the execution of that plan, were all very, very good and I liked it. I might reread this one right now, actually, while I’m thinking about it, I really do enjoy it top to bottom.

Golden Apple Case (350-354): PEAK interesting backstory on the part of Vermouth and Yukiko, a reasonably interesting murder, Yukiko’s RAD driving scene, and one of my favourite Ran moments ever. The confrontation with the serial killer/Vermouth is tense as hell, and the fact that Ran reacts instinctively to save his life and just can’t bring herself to drop him and let him die, to be responsible for a death, no matter whose, is a very powerful statement on the integrity of her character. She’s just to her core, and Shinichi does steal the moment a bit by helping her pull the serial killer up and getting the really good “you might need a reason to kill, but you don’t need a reason to save a life” line, but this still feels entirely like a Ran moment for me. We find out later that this incident had a profound effect on Vermouth, too, and is possibly the entire reason she’s hiding Shinichi’s secret from the BO and explicitly the reason she doesn’t want Ran to come to harm. Shame we haven’t had much Vermouth character development in a while because this stuff was JUICY.

Two Cases Under One Moon (429-434): An ICONICALLY good Bo-fightin’ case where everybody involved is putting in Maximum Effort. Heiji puts on an extremely good show as a fake Shinichi (the boy’s an extreme drama queen and Heiji does that very well), Yukiko’s disguise skills are valuable and well-used, we finally get the revelation that Vermouth has been Dr Araide for a while AND that she’s maybe immortal (…not… that we’ve gotten ANYTHING on that since..) AND we get the VERY interesting nature of her feelings concerning Shinichi and Ran. Also, we get Ran so concerned about Ai’s wellbeing that she hides in a car boot and then jumps into gunfire in order to protect her, GOD that’s SUCH a good Ran moment. Shinichi, Jodie and Akai all also get to be very brave and very smart and very badass, and ugh really I just wanna go back to everything about Vermouth in this case and explore more of that forever. Please. Also more Jodie, whose backstory we finally got in this case after revealing that she’s not Vermouth. What is it with interesting women disappearing as soon as their backstory is out MOVING ALONG 

Clash of Red and Black (595-609): This case is a cracking case. This one was long and complicated and many-layered and everybody involved was on their highest gears and it was great. Akai and Conan work as a fantastic team and Conan gets free reign to do some very good detective work for the FBI (I still believe he told Akai who he was during this case, it would make sense and undercuts how concerned I am with all of these grown adults letting a six-year-old run all around an active incident). We get a good look at the incredible power and cruelty of the Black Organization when they cause immense collateral damage just to flush the FBI out. We get the story on both Akemi and Akai’s relationship AND the Hondo family, and OH BOY THE HONDO FAMILY.

It’s also one of the most interesting Eisuke cases, imo, where not only does he do some solid investigation to find Mizunashi Rena, we get a glimpse of some real deep trauma over losing his last family member that’s driven him to be willing to attack Rena with scissors out of desperation to get answers about what happened to his father and sister. I mean, I am most definitely not advocating stabbing coma patients, but for Eisuke a lot of the trauma of your whole beloved family dying or disappearing was just implied and not explored, and then he got booted from the series immediately after things got interesting with him, so bleh. We also barely see Hidemi after this, and ?????????? because she’s a CIA agent who’s in DEEP to the BO after surviving a HORRIFYING situation where she has to proudly boast of murdering a man who was secretly her FATHER, who SACRIFICED HIS LIFE TO PROTECT HER… why are we dicking around so much with Mystery Family instead of exploring this one??? This case is kind of the last hurrah for anything interesting happening with the Hondos so I love it for that.

And I love the complicated counter-bluff involved in delivering Kir back to the Black Organization without looking like they were delivering her. Again, this was apparently in exchange for her assisting the FBI and she barely appears after this…? Nope this isn’t about salting at Gosho moving on

The Life-Threatening Broadcast of Love (804-808): I love this one solely and 300% for the part where Miwako Sato jumps out of a helicopter, shoots a noose off of her boyfriend’s neck, grabs him, wraps her coat around him to protect them and knocks both of them out of the range of a bomb blast at the last second, like the goddamn action hero that she is.

So in no particular order, those are my top ten: how about the rest of you?

#peggaboo #detective conan

[aion-rsa]

Stargirl Episode 13 Review: Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two

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This STARGIRL review contains spoilers.

Stargirl Episode 13

Stargirl’s first season, on the whole, is one of the strongest ever attempted in the DC television universe. There’s so much to love about this series, from its sunny, optimistic vibe and charming characters to its willingness to push boundaries, trust its audience, and make bold storytelling decisions. That its Season 1 finale doesn’t entirely stick the landing is probably expected – honestly, most of the Arrowverse shows never do finales terribly well anyway – but the emotional moments are as top-notch as ever, and “Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two” does a decent enough job of tying up loose ends and putting some intriguing new pieces in place for Season 2.

The sudden return of Joel McHale’s Sylvester Pemberton will probably drive the bulk of conversation following this episode – whether he’s the real Starman, back from the (presumed) dead, a brainwashed clone or something else entirely – but, honestly, all I want to do is talk about the emotional impact from those scenes in which Courtney refers to herself as Pat’s daughter and it breaks through his Brainwave-conditioning.

Stargirl’s first season is Courtney Whitmore’s superhero origin story, but it’s also Pat Dugan’s too. And that moment is so darn earned and so satisfying and just, everything it needed to be. Again, this is the kind of thing that makes watching superhero stories so worth it, and why we stick with this genre even when it can sometimes feel like it does nothing but churn out clunkers. (See also: Yolanda’s sudden turn to the dark side, but we’ll get to that in a minute.)

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To be fair, I’d probably be more interested in Sylvester’s apparent return if it had happened before Courtney realized Starman wasn’t her father. But there’s an equally interesting emotional tug-of-war in the offing for Pat, who will doubtless have to choose between the life – and BFF – he had before, and his new status as a simultaneous sidekick and dad.

The finale picks up right where “Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E Part One” left off, with the adults of Blue Valley paralyzed by Brainwave’s rip-off Cerebro machine. Thanks to some clever hacking by Beth, they free Pat and Justin from the mind control just in time for the much-hyped face-off between the new Justice Society and the old Injustice Society that we’ve been waiting all season to see. As such, the fight scene between both groups is honestly great, feeling both epic and immediate all at the same time. The show pulls out all the stops for this final confrontation, unleashing Solomon Grundy, putting Jordan Mahkent in the middle of the action for the first time, and giving Justin the chance to get medieval on the Dragon King.

Though, in the most entertaining surprise of the show, it’s Cindy who offs her father, stabbing him through the chest as payback for keeping her in an underground dungeon for the past few episodes. To say I am excited for her rise as the new leader of the ISA next season is perhaps the understatement of the year.

Here’s hoping she fares better than Jordan, who gets the most ignominious supervillain ending possible, shattered into pieces in his ice form by none other than…Mike Dugan, driving Justin’s truck. The show’s sudden dedication to clearing the board of the ISA parents is interesting, as it looks as though Cindy, Isaiah, and probably Cameron now that he’s a vengeance legacy himself will be stepping into the supervillain void their parents have left behind. There’s something to be said for giving the teen JSA some rivals that are closer to their age group �� the optics of Brainwave’s treatment of Courtney have always been fairly gross – but the show will certainly miss  Neil Jackson, who was its most skilled performer at making his ISA leader feel both wildly evil and fully human.

In other news, it’s possible that Yolanda Montez has suddenly become Stargirl’s most controversial hero, slitting the throat of a boy who looked like the one she used to love, all the while knowing he was actually his supervillain father, Brainwave. Her decision is certainly understandable – Brainwave was a monster who killed his own child, planned to aid in the murder of millions more, and certainly would have done the same to her and all her friends if given the chance.  But watching Yolanda mercilessly kill someone who looked like Henry was incredibly jarring, and definitely seems like the kind of character shift that will – or should, at least – have lasting ramifications for her going forward.

Particularly given the fact that something like four scenes prior, we saw her telling Rick how wrong it was to kill in the name of vengeance. Yolanda, it must be noted, it also the only member of the JSA that appears to be demonstrably religious, which adds another layer to her decision to commit an act she would clearly view as a grievous sin. Will she tell Courtney and her friends what really happened to Brainwave? Or will it fester insider her until she makes some sort of dramatic and dangerous error?

The Yolanda twist is even more interesting when contrasted against Rick’s decision to spare Solomon Grundy after weeks of insisting he’d kill him as soon as he got the chance. It’s the first moment where he’s truly behaved like a hero, and swallowed the rage that’s powered him through virtually every other moment of the season. It’s a choice that, for once, actually made Rick feel interesting, even if it’s not entirely clear that the show did the work necessary to get his character to this point. To be fair, the same could possibly be said of Yolanda, but at least we’ve seen her struggling with her grief over Henry’s death and her guilt and anger over how their relationship ended.

Where Stargirl goes from here is anyone’s guess – the show is headed to The CW exclusively for its second season, which may or may not have the budget to pull off some of the extended fight and special effects sequences we saw this year. (Though, truly, The Flash pulls off some stuff that can look comparable when it tries.) But whether or not that’s the case doesn’t really matter – the wonder of Stargirl isn’t its fight sequences, it’s its heart. Bring on Season 2.

The post Stargirl Episode 13 Review: Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two appeared first on Den of Geek.

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