Star Wars Celebration Begins With a Major Announcement!

When Star Wars Celebration arrives, it’s always exciting as a fan of this franchise, but if I’m being honest, I wasn’t very enthused about the special day. With The Mandalorian leaving me with a sour feeling in my stomach and Star Wars movies being canceled left and right, my enjoyment has definitely waned. And then, I woke up this morning.

There were a lot of exciting announcements, reveals, and details about the upcoming series, but the news that thrilled me the most was the return of none other than Daisy Ridley to this franchise. Do I have problems with the sequel trilogy? 100%. Do I think there were some poor choices made with Rey’s character (retconning her chance at being special without being connected to a legacy character?) Absolutely. Did my heart skip a beat when I learned she would be in a new movie set fifteen years after The Rise of Skywalker? Yes, it did!

The Striking Parallels of the Black Panther’s Journey and What It Means for Shuri Moving Forward

If you’ve been following my blog or my Twitter page recently you will know that I LOVE Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I was already excited about the movie but when I actually sat in my local IMAX theater and watched it I was blown away by its profound storytelling and awe-inspiring moments. Shuri commanded the screen as the film’s lead and Namor pierced my heart with his searing performance, instantly joining my personal pantheon of favorite Marvel characters.

The movie, now having received five Academy Award nominations including Best Supporting Actress for Angela Basset, is filled with layers upon layers of details that make the film all the more rewarding. But a striking detail that I actually discovered several months ago but have only now decided to share is the fascinating parallels between T’Challa and Shuri’s journeys as the Black Panther. Let’s dive deeper.

Namor is the Best New Character in the MCU Since Black Panther

The MCU has a lot of characters. I’m talking a lot, a lot. Heroes perish and ten or more new characters appear to fill the void they’ve left behind. But there are those characters whose grandeur surpasses the crowd surrounding them. There are some apparent standouts regarding new characters who made their debut in Phase 4; Shang-Chi, Sylvie, Eternals Thena and Makkari, Yelena Belova, and Moon Knight. And then there’s Namor.

Yesterday I shared my updated MCU ranking with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever becoming my second favorite movie in the entire franchise! I never thought I’d see the day when I would enjoy a film more than Captain America: The Winter Soldier but the impact this movie had and is still having on me is truly special.

The heart of this film is a story about grief but in the midst of all that grief is a wealth of fascinating characters whose stories impact the movie in exciting ways. And while Shuri is the lead character I’m finding myself drawn to the antagonist of the film in the same way that happened when I watched Black Panther four years ago.

In Black Panther, we were introduced to Erik Killmonger, a one-off villain whose impact was so special I refused to believe he had died. Michael B. Jordan took the character to incredible heights with the screentime that he had, becoming my favorite character in the movie and the best villain in the MCU…until Thanos arrived a few months later in Infinity War.

Well, Ryan Coogler has done it again by creating another well-rounded, three-dimensional antagonist in Namor.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

Halbrand: Unraveling the Mystery

There are a lot of characters in The Rings of Power. So many, in fact, that we haven’t even met all of them yet in the first couple of episodes. But there’s one character that is one of the most intriguing in the series so far and that is the original character created by J.D Payne and Patrick McKay called Halbrand.

From the very first image that was released featuring Halbrand, it was obvious that he was the new Aragorn-type human character in this story. There weren’t many details to grasp from his character, considering that the writers have steeped his story in mystery. Now that we’ve seen the first two episodes and have met Halbrand my theory on where his story could lead in this show has become more and more apparent. So, let me share that theory.

The theory that I first entertained was that he was, in fact, Sauron in disguise. This would’ve been an interesting dynamic if he had befriended Galadriel only to eventually betray her. Her disdain for him would’ve been even deeper and therefore that connection would’ve become something far more interesting than we originally thought. But I have a better theory, one that doesn’t involve Halbrand being Sauron which would honestly be kind of lame.

My Weekly Short Story: Her Tiny Breaths

Mestra Galerunner would’ve never thought she’d be a mother. As a young elven girl, she flitted about the Asrana Forest after running away from home, getting into trouble, and causing her elders endless grief. As an adult, she learned the ways of the assassin, choosing to exist as a solitary being and elude companionship. And then one day, on a stormy night, she found Pil and everything changed.

My Weekly Short Story: “All in a Day’s Work.”

Being an assassin could be difficult but for Mestra Galerunner it was just another day.

Despite having lived for over 700 years it was still momentous visiting cities throughout Adalor. She was currently living in Nottinglot Square, one of the finest cities not just in the land, Hayward, but in all of Adalor. It was a ravishing city filled with the wealthy and the powerful as well as some of the finest Haywardian architecture found anywhere.

The skyline was filled with towering steeples atop grand castles crafted from marble or white granite. These castles were then covered in mosaics, intricate paintings, or the finest stones mined from the Glittering Caves found in the deep gorges located within Toldan.

Citizens rode along the gold-lined white stone streets atop striking steeds covered in glittering armor and fine velvet or in gilded carriages pulled by various exotic animals. Such as the large cats with their shimmering, golden fur from the lush grasslands of Toldan or the massive horned Elki from the deep forests of Asrana.

The citizens of Nottinglot Square were all about image. There was not a beggar in sight or a poor peasant anywhere to be found. It was often referred to as the “City of Royals.”

And in this “City of Royals” lied not only the wealthy but the wicked, and it was the wicked that Mestra was hired to dispose of.