While I’ve never fantasized about being a woodsman on a murderous rampage against the gang who left him for dead, Bloodroots sure makes that specific scenario a bloody great time. With a well-written revenge story as its wrapper, developer Paper Cult delivers a fast, furious, and fun action game that consistently finds new ways to surprisingly take advantage of its simple setup.
Bloodroots follows in the shoes of Hotline Miami and Ape Out by presenting a seemingly straightforward premise – you, as Mr. Wolf, go through each level killing enemies with one hit while trying not to be killed yourself, also with one hit. Kills can be chained together, with grades awarded at the end of each level that frequently convinced me to give them another try in the hopes of bumping that C+ up to at least a B.
What sets Bloodroots apart from similar score-chasing action games, and what Paper Cult makes great use of in each level’s design, is the weapon arsenal Mr. Wolf has at his disposal – and it includes pretty much everything. An axe with a heavy slice? Obviously a murder weapon. A light-but-deadly fence post that whacks an enemy? Murder weapon. A chain-chomp homage that slingshots Mr. Wolf through the air from one enemy to the next? Definitely a murder weapon. A flimsy carrot? The deadliest of vegetables in town.
This arsenal is put to consistently wacky use level after level during Bloodroots’ three-act, roughly eight-hour campaign – that length will likely depend on how often you’re dying. Playing out like a Jackie Chan action film mixed with an art style reminiscent of Samurai Jack, Bloodroots is an unrelenting assault on the poor souls standing in Mr. Wolf’s way. New weapons, like scythes, different guns, and more pop up throughout the campaign, but recurring favorites like those I’ve mentioned and a handful of others are such a delight to master and implement in every level.
Most levels, unless intentionally designed otherwise, are replete with all these and more improvisational weapons, and Bloodroots always felt like it gave me the freedom to wield whatever tool of destruction I deemed worthy for the task at hand. Replaying through whole levels, or even just sections of them, usually revealed an ideal path with specific weaponry, and nailing those sequences did consistently feel empowering. But I never felt like my weapon choices were restricted in any way if I wanted to stray from that path, and the delight of its mayhem is always enhanced by some key details. Every killing blow has a certain oomph to it as blood spatters out of the pour soul you hit; Mr. Wolf’s speed, at first a bit unwieldy, allowed me to practically glide through woodland terrain like an unstoppable force meeting many moveable objects; and a death sequence highlights your final kill in any given area with a spectacular and silly little cutscene. Never has a fish slammed down on an enemy’s head in such spectacular fashion.
Finding a satisfying way, if not the optimal one, to chain attacks together through a level always felt rewarding. Bloodroots can look like chaos, but it’s a controlled chaos I generally felt like I was dictating. But even when unexpected deaths came, and they did aplenty, every loss felt like a learning experience – enemy behaviors are consistent enough that mistakes almost always came because of my overeagerness or lack of planning. The only aspect that felt unfairly weighted against me was the darn icy patches. When every hit means doom, Mr. Wolf’s slipping and sliding occasionally felt brutally punishing just for the sake of it and never all that fun, rather than an experience to learn from and master.
Those small moments aside, Paper Cult continually finds creative ways to put its run-grab-kill gameplay to use in new and interesting scenarios. And the levels all act as great learning experiences for the fantastic boss fights that cap off each act. They put all of my skills to the test in wildly different scenarios, from an elongated chase sequence to an arena fight. Responsible for most of my deaths in the overall campaign, I loved inching my way through these ultimately satisfying battles.
And even after I bested the final boss, there’s been plenty left to do apart from just trying to climb each level’s leaderboards – there are a hidden series of wolves to collect, as well as additional hats to find for Mr. Wolf so he can be Mr. Bear, Mr. Dog, and more. And beyond just cosmetic changes, these different hats offer Mr. Wolf enhanced abilities in previously played levels to keep those replays feeling fresh.
The entire experience is wrapped in a gorgeous, stark aesthetic. Buildings, characters, and weapons are all brought to life by vibrant blocks of color, prominent lines, and a variety of woodland, arid, and frozen climates. Bloodroots can even take unexpected left turns into a nightclub aesthetic or a more Roman coliseum-esque locale, but it all feels cohesive with the overall art direction. And each is backed by the thumping jam of a soundtrack that often acted like a renewing catalyst for my mayhem.
Bloodroots, at its core, is a revenge story, and the stoic, single-minded Mr. Wolf often offers little more character in his dialogue than demanding to know the whereabouts of his prey. But his former band of outlaws who left him for dead are all distinctly despicable and interesting to learn more about, like a cast pulled straight from a Quentin Tarantino movie. Mr. Wolf’s character more comes through in what other characters tell us about him, but Paper Cult also finds inventive ways to express his mental state through the gameplay in some particularly intriguing bonus levels. And while Mr. Wolf’s story comes to a somewhat predictable, telegraphed ending that isn’t all that satisfying, the consistent thrill of its buildup isn’t squandered as a result.
The crew of the La Sirena has finally arrived at The Artifact in Star Trek: Picard‘s sixth episode, “The Impossible Box.” Bringing Jean-Luc Picard back in close proximity to the Borg stirs up a lot of feelings about what happened to him back on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and we finally get to see Picard interact with Hugh, someone the former captain hasn’t seen almost since liberating him from the Borg Collective.
There’s a whole lot of history flying around in Episode 6, and not just from The Next Generation–we also get a few tidbits from Star Trek: Voyager and Deep Space Nine. Here are all the Easter eggs and Trek references you might have missed in “The Impossible Box.”
]]>
1. Romulans’ Many Names
As Narek and Soji get closer, we get another dose of Romulan culture–the idea that Romulans have several names, some of which they share only with people they’re closest to. We’ve never really gotten this look at Romulan society in the Star Trek series before, but the idea that Romulans use different names for outsiders, family, and their closest loved ones is something that has come up in Star Trek novels. Now it’s canon!
]]>
]]>
2. Dahj And Soji’s Reason For Being
It was only mentioned quickly and in passing, but now that we know Soji’s approximate age, Bruce Maddox’s reason for creating the android twins and sending them out into the galaxy makes a little more sense: He’s trying to use them to discover the real reason behind the ban on synths. Star Trek: Picard seems to be building toward a deeper link between the Borg and the Romulans, and if we factor in the fact that people keep calling Soji “the Destroyer,” it seems like Bruce had information about the whole situation that Picard and his crew have not yet uncovered.
]]>
]]>
3. Insidious Borg Nanoprobes
As Episode 6 establishes, nobody is ever really free of their Borg assimilation. Star Trek: Voyager went pretty deep on the inner workings of the Borg, and when Hugh mentions Borg nanoprobes, this is what he’s referencing. A big part of Borg assimilation is done by microscopic nanomachines that live in the bodies of the assimilated, and they’re still present even in former drones who have been freed from the Collective. In Voyager, we even see latent nanoprobes getting reactivated and restarting the process of trying to assimilate their hosts, as well as other technology and people.
]]>
]]>
4. Picard’s History With The Romulans
Picard notes that he won’t be able to sneak aboard The Artifact because he’ll likely get recognized by the Romulans. He’s got a deep history with the people and it goes beyond his role as their would-be savior during the rescue period 14 years ago. Before that, Picard was the captain of the Federation flagship on Star Trek: The Next Generation and had repeated run-ins with high-ranking Romulans. He even once had his appearance altered to appear Romulan so he could visit their homeworld in an attempt to find Ambassador Spock, who had seemingly defected from the Federation. And the plot of Star Trek: Nemesis is all predicated on a defunct Romulan plan to clone Picard and replace him on the Enterprise, in order to get a spy into the highest echelons of Starfleet.
]]>
]]>
5. A Member Of The Collective
A former drone’s connection to the Collective can be severed, but as we’ve seen with Borg nanoprobes, it never totally goes away. Picard knows that other Borg will recognize him as Locutus, his drone name, and we’ve seen in other series that former drones retain some of their Borg information and memories–something that plays a major role in Episode 6.
]]>
]]>
6. How Hugh Got His Name
Hugh and Picard have an emotional meeting when the latter arrives on The Artifact, and Hugh mentions how important even having a simple name can be for the recovery of former drones. He’s referencing his experiences on the Enterprise, when the crew discovered Hugh as an injured drone after a Borg ship crashed. Geordi La Forge and Dr. Beverly Crusher nursed him back to health, and he was then known as Third of Five. Geordi ended up giving Hugh a name so the pair would have something to call him, and that experience was the beginning of Hugh separating himself from the Borg Collective and establishing an individual identity.
]]>
]]>
7. False Memories
The idea that Soji’s memories might not be real is a pretty well-established idea in Star Trek. When he created Data, Noonien Soong implanted the memories of all the colonists of Omicron Theta, where they lived, and Data later was able to recall those memories and share them with others on The Next Generation. We’ve also seen memories implanted in non-androids, like when Miles O’Brien experienced a lifetime in prison in a matter of hours on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
]]>
]]>
8. “Our New Queen Is Romulan”
In Star Trek: First Contact, we learned that while the Borg consists of a giant collective consciousness made up fo all its components, it’s not without a leader–the Borg Queen. Picard and Data defeated and seemingly killed the Borg Queen at the end of that movie, but she reappeared on Voyager, suggesting the Queen’s consciousness could be transferred to other bodies. We don’t know the current state of the Borg Collective or the Borg Queen’s whereabouts post-Voyager. Meanwhile, even though Hugh and the other former drones have been liberated, they’ve traded a Borg queen for a Romulan one.
]]>
]]>
9. A Free Borg
We’ve seen a few former drones throughout Star Trek series, but Star Trek: Picard is expanding on the idea much more than we’ve seen in the past. Life for former Borg isn’t great–they’re exploited for their technology and despised throughout the galaxy, which is a far cry from how Picard, Seven of Nine, or Icheb were treated after they were saved from the Collective.
]]>
]]>
10. Two Strips Of Latinum
There are a few different currencies floating around the galaxy, but the one we’ve heard the most about is gold-pressed latinum, the preferred money of the Ferengi and used in Quark’s bar on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Rios says Raffi owes him two strips of latinum for the bet they discuss while Picard is off the ship–not a ton of money, but decent winnings.
]]>
]]>
11. Squidgy The Doll
We’re still puzzling over what that doll of Soji’s is–whether it’s the Salt Vampire from Star Trek: The Original Series or the Drakoulis ice creature from Star Trek (2009)–but at least now we know it has a name. During Soji’s flashbacks of her dream with Narek, she states the name of the doll she remembers having in childhood: Squidgy. That doesn’t really give us any new clues as to what the thing is, though.
]]>
]]>
12. The Dahj Orchids
Back in Episode 1, Dahj explains to Picard that she remembers her father splicing together two kinds of orchids, yellow and pink, to make a new hybrid flower. He named the new species for Dahj, and it’s a pretty fair bet this is all a big metaphor for the android daughters that might hint more at their origins. In any event, Soji’s dream finds her going into her father’s lab, where you can see a bunch of pink and yellow orchids–suggesting Soji is accessing something from before the hybrid was created.
]]>
]]>
13. The Borg’s Chronometric Particles
We know those pesky Borg have some time travel know-how–in Star Trek: First Contact, Data talks about detecting “chronometric particles” as the Borg ship opens a portal to the past. Those particles are still present on The Artifact, as we can hear over the loudspeaker as Hugh and Picard enter Soji’s quarters. Seems like living on a decommissioned Borg cube has a lot of interesting hazards, like the possibility of spontaneous assimilation, or of spontaneous time travel.
]]>
]]>
14. Soji As Pinocchio
Soji’s dream gives us a few tidbits about her character, but the most meaningful one is what she sees in her father’s lab when she’s finally able to push through to the end of the vision. What she sees is herself in pieces, rendered as a giant wooden puppet. The image conjures up the story of Pinnochio, the wooden puppet who wanted to be a real boy. In the first episode of The Next Generation, Will Riker refers to Data as “Pinocchio,” since the android has the same ambition to be more human. Picard is deepening the metaphorical connection between Soji and Data, since the former is about to grapple with figuring out who she is in light of what she’s learning about herself.
]]>
]]>
15. Sikarians And Their Spatial Trajector
On Star Trek: Voyager, Captain Janeway and her crew encountered a race of aliens called the Sikarians, who had a technology called a Spatial Trajector that could transport people and objects huge distances almost instantly–a total of about 40 lightyears. That would have helped knock a ton of time off of Voyager’s trip home from the Delta Quadrant, but the technology proved incompatible with Starfleet’s. According to Hugh, at least some Sikarians eventually ran across the Borg, who also originated in the Delta Quadrant and were assimilated. Along with the culture, the Borg got the Spatial Trajector technology, which the Borg Queen apparently planned to use for quick getaways during emergencies.
]]>
]]>
16. Nepenthe
Picard tells Rios and Raffi to meet him on Nepenthe, a planet within the range of the Spatial Trajector. We’ve never seen Nepenthe in a Star Trek series before, but the system did get a mention in the video game Star Trek: Bridge Commander. It was there that Starfleet first took note of a race called the Kessok in that game. That story isn’t technically Star Trek canon, but now Nepenthe itself is.
]]>
Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
Have you ever seen an old cartoon where a fight breaks out and the brawlers turn into a cloud of punches that flips tables and breaks everything it touches? Bloodroots, a breakneck action-puzzle game from Quebec developer Paper Cult, lives inside that cloud. A short, speedy tale of mayhem and revenge, Bloodroots dares you stab, bludgeon, squash, and otherwise murder dozens of thugs with the ruthless efficiency of the Wild West’s greatest outlaw and the zany gusto of Bugs Bunny trolling Yosemite Sam. Whether you do this for the sake of its well-written story and/or the thrill of a score chase, Bloodroots can be stylish, graceful (once you know what you’re doing), and surprisingly easy to pick up despite demanding a tremendous attention to detail. In its pre-release state, however, its most elating moments are easily and frequently disrupted by technical issues, keeping you from really hitting your stride as often as you should.
Bloodroots puts you on the warpath with the Wild West outlaw Mr. Wolf, who’s out for revenge against his gang, the Blood Beasts. The Beasts, who all wear animal skins and go by Reservoir Dogs-style code names like Mr. Boar and Mrs. Crow, betray and nearly kill him after murdering an entire town in the name of their new leader, Mr. Black Wolf. From the moment he recovers from his attempted assassination, Mr. Wolf has one goal: to kill his former gang and anyone who gets between them.
The story, though simple and predictable, is made compelling through strong dialogue that forges complex characters. Though Mr. Wolf rarely speaks, you learn a lot about him; his story and the history of the gang are told in carefully constructed interactive flashbacks and through his encounters with the Beasts. You don’t spend too much story time with any one character–this is an action game and the gameplay comes first–but in tracking down each former partner, you come to understand and savor your time with them. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in Bloodroots is a bad guy, but you come to see that every character has their own perspective on how the gang rose and fell. In hearing about Mr. Wolf’s past from the Beasts, in their own unique voices, you not only understand the situation better, but come to understand that there’s more in their lives than a single act of vengeance. That isn’t to say you won’t have reservations about your mission–they’re bad guys through and through–but you understand why they made their choices, which makes your hunt more satisfying.
That hunt is really more like a series of wild bloodbaths. Each of the Bloodthirsty Beasts has their own gang now, with camps and forts full of henchmen. These henchmen are easily dispatched: Often a single blow with a weapon or even a punch will do, but there are a lot of them and Mr. Wolf is just as fragile, so you need to work fast and keep moving, otherwise they’ll take you down. Each challenge in Bloodroots boils down to an improvisational whirlwind of violence. You run around each arena, grabbing whatever you weapons you can find that will give you an edge over the opposition, and clear it out as fast as you can.
While there’s nuance to the story, Bloodroots is, at its heart, a challenge meant to be mastered. You build up a score multiplier for killing enemies in rapid succession, pushing you to prioritize speed and efficiency. Each level–which strings together a set of challenge rooms–ends with speed and high-score leaderboards, encouraging you to retry levels in the hopes of improving even further.
Whether you make a precise plan or simply go with the flow, the key to navigating each arena revolves around finding a path from one weapon to another. Most weapons break after anywhere from one to three kills, so you are constantly swapping out one for another, and finding a path from the most effective weapon to the next is just as important as finding a quick path between kills.
Luckily, every level is littered with killing tools. Nearly every benign object, from a fence post to a giant fish, can be a weapon. You can jump on rolling objects like wagons and barrels, both conventional and red explosive, to bulldoze your enemies until you crash. There are conventional, Wild West-style weapons like hatchets, knives, and pistols scattered about–plus unconventional weapons like golden spears, flamethrowers, land mines, snowballs, and cannons that shoot you up in the air so you can fall back to earth and clear out an area like a human mortar shell. The feeling of flying, bouncing, dashing, and jumping from one weapon to the next creates a wild, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants energy.
To really master Bloodroots, you need to not only recognize each weapon on sight, but have an intimate understanding of what they do. Every weapon works a little differently; the axe is simply a quick strike, while the cavalry sword is actually a short dash attack. Some weapons also give you traversal options: Long weapons like ladders and fishing rods, for example, let you pole vault to a higher area by pressing jump. There’s a fair amount of overlap, especially among “families” of weapons–swords, axes, etc.–but each one moves a little differently, lasts a different number of strikes, or swings at a different speed. There are no bad choices, so moving from weapon to the next is always thrilling. Every new weapon creates a slightly different situation and a new point of view, and the constant changes make each moment feel like you’re teetering on the edge of control… in a good way.
Though killing quickly is key, there’s a fair amount of platforming involved as well. Many of the levels are multi-layered, with gaps to hop and pits for you to fall into. Since many weapons also give you extra movement options, choosing the right weapon for the next few seconds may have as much to do with reaching an enemy as it does killing them. To be efficient, you need to grab and use a series of weapons in an order that lets you make progress without hoarding or backtracking. At the same time, there’s very rarely a time when you’ll be limited to a single tool, so it’s always easy to try a new approach. There are also occasionally literal rewards–useful weapons hiding in out of the way places. Playing around with different paths through each space can be just as fun as going for a high score or fast time.
The levels also benefit from a camera that’s primed to maximize the impact of your killing choreography. The majority of the challenge areas are shown from an isometric perspective, with the camera panning in or out in spots to show you more or less of your surroundings. Sometimes that means getting up close so a specific path fills the screen; other times the camera moves out to show the wider scope of an area, which may help you see the chaos you create more completely. From time to time, you get something a little more playful–one early room shifts to a top-down perspective as an homage to Bloodroots’ design ancestor, Hotline Miami. The camera always seems to shift with intention and helps you get the most out of the chaos you create.
You’d think it would be very difficult to get a handle on dozens of different weapons and how they work, but moving from one to next starts to feel like second nature very quickly. It helps that every level in the game from start to finish introduces new weapons, often one or two at a time, so you’re learning at a steady, digestible pace. And as you learn their quirks, paths through the levels start to form in your mind. When everything starts clicking, planning and improvisation almost feel like the same thing.
Every new weapon creates a slightly different situation and a new point of view, and the constant changes make each moment feel like you’re teetering on the edge of control… in a good way.
Of course, you’ll only get to that point after dying many, many times. Bloodroots is very difficult. It’s one touch and you’re dead, so a single mistake will kill a run more often than not. Luckily, Bloodroots is saved by the fact that it resets almost instantaneously. It is almost too easy to die and immediately throw yourself into the fray again.
While it is easy to just keep playing, death can often be very frustrating in Bloodroots. Whether because of input lag or technical issues, it sometimes feels as if you’re moving faster than the game can. There were many instances when I pressed a button to grab a weapon only to discover that I didn’t pick it up and didn’t have the attack and/or movement I expected to. And with long-range weapons like guns and bows, you have to rely on an inconsistent directional auto-targeting system.
There are also times when Bloodroots’ penchant for cinematography can actively put you at a disadvantage. At times, the camera will pan out too far, making it hard to see where a jump will land. From time to time, the camera will shift to a horizontal view that appears to be a 2D plane but isn’t, which can cause you to take a poor angle when approaching an enemy and miss an attack. This game demands precision, so it can be very frustrating when the camera and level design add extra hurdles.
And yet, like so many challenging score chases, Bloodroots is still incredibly satisfying when you’re eventually successful. At its highest heights, you’ll find your way around, bouncing from weapon to weapon, kill to kill, to string together a perfect run. Better yet, there are so many ways to approach each area that, no matter how well you do, you can always do it better, faster, crazier. Even when playing Bloodroots is painful–like throw your controller so hard it bounces off the ground, hits you in the head, then breaks your TV painful–there’s always a wildly fun run within reach.
The Simpsons executive producer Matt Selman has teased the show’s upcoming MCU crossover episode by sharing a new poster that parodies elements of Avengers: Endgame.
Selman unveiled the poster on his Twitter account, as he promoted the special episode, titled Bart the Bad Guy, which is set to air on Sunday, March 1 at 8 pm (ET) on Fox.
Bart takes the spotlight in the centre of the colourful image, where he appears alongside a Simpsonized version of big bad Thanos, who goes by the name of “Chinnos” and will be voiced by Marvel boss Kevin Feige. On the opposite side, there are two grinning movie executives, who will be voiced by Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo in the episode.
Meanwhile, Homer, Marge and Lisa take their rightful place on the cinema seats at the forefront of the image, surrounded by an eclectic cast of new characters, though Maggie is notably absent from the poster. Fox has since clarified in a tweet that “she’s a little too young to watch superhero movies.”
In the episode, Bart sees an unauthorized early preview of an unreleased sequel from an extremely popular Vindicator superhero movie franchise. After his advanced screening, he realises that he wields the power to spoil the movie for millions of people who have yet to watch it, while the studio execs desperately try to silence the Springfield youngster.
Warning! Full spoilers ahead for Season 2 of Netflix’s Altered Carbon. Be sure to check out our spoiler-free review of Season 2 right here.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
The thrilling finale of Altered Carbon’s second season, titled “Broken Angels,” features some surprising twists and turns as Takeshi Kovacs sacrifices his Anthony Mackie sleeve (and stack) in order to save the people of Harlan’s World from death by Angelfire, via the Elder orbitals surrounding the planet. A few scenes later, we see a newly repaired Poe (Chris Connor) chatting with Dig 301 (Dina Shihabi) — or Annabel as she prefers to be called now — about a bit of code that happens to house a human DHF.
But what does this all mean for the future of Altered Carbon if the series gets picked up for Season 3 by Netflix? To find out the answers to these questions, we spoke to Season 2 showrunner Alison Schapker to help us break it all down.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Altered Carbon Season 2: Will Anthony Mackie Return for Season 3?
DHF stands for Digital Human Freight, which is the equivalent of a human soul or consciousness — basically, everything that makes you you. According to Schapker, that particular DHF is Takeshi Kovacs, which Poe is able to write down just before Kovacs’ stack is destroyed by Angelfire. Here’s what Schapker had to say about that final scene and whether or not we’ll see Anthony Mackie again:
“We all loved the end of Season 1, where Kovacs gives the sleeve of [Elias] Ryker back to Ortega and then all you see are these boots walking out of the elevator, and you’re like, ‘I think Kovacs is coming back, but in what sleeve?’” Schapker told IGN. “And we wanted to make that promise to the audience in Season 2. And we also just loved the idea of Poe, who’s been fighting deterioration the whole season, to then have his own moment of nobility where he basically sacrifices himself but manages to copy Kovacs at the same moment. So that’s our promise to the audience, there is his stack, there is Takeshi Kovacs’ consciousness. But in what sleeve… we’ll have to see.”
Another factor to consider is the fact that Joel Kinnaman did not make a Season 2 cameo apart from a few Season 1 flashbacks. While Kinnaman’s absence could be due to a simple scheduling conflict or various other reasons, lead actors typically demand top billing for each episode they appear in. Anthony Mackie reportedly made $475K per episode for his work this season, so any appearance in Season 3 could be costly.
Altered Carbon: Season 2: Will We See More of the Elders in Season 3?
Where Season 1 of Altered Carbon merely hinted at the Elder civilization that made stack technology possible in the first place, Season 2 delves deeper into their mysterious history, and we even get to see one out in the open. But there’s still so much we don’t know about the Elders, so we asked Schapker if we’re going to see more of them in future seasons.
“For me, to be doing a show in space, to only have humans feels also not adequate to what I imagine the future to be,” Schapker explained. “So, whether or not we’re going to see more of the Elders, I think is very much an open question because we certainly now understand them a bit more. And what happens at the end of Season 2 really leaves its mark on Harlan’s World. So you go from having a planet that’s ringed by these Elder orbitals, to having a giant explosion, and now there’s a gaping hole over the planet, so they continue to influence how things are going to happen.”
Altered Carbon Season 2: What’s the Deal With Quell’s Visions of Kovacs?
“We’ve always played with this idea of ghosts and the people you carry around with you,” Schapker said. In the same way that Kovacs saw visions of Quell in Season 1, and then his sister Reileen (Dichen Lachman) in Season 2, Quell is now seeing a version of Kovacs that she’s carrying around in her head. Schapker also pointed out that these ghostly visions are not caused by a technologically embed device, but used as “a poetic device for the show.”
Altered Carbon Season 2: Does Will Yun Lee’s Kovacs Fit Into Future Seasons?
Will Yun Lee’s return to Altered Carbon in Season 2 as a version of Kovacs who never killed his sister and never fell in love with Quell is one of the season’s most interesting storylines. And now that he’s decided to stop working for the Protectorate and help Quell restart the uprising, we’re curious if his story will continue if the series is renewed for a third season.
“I absolutely think that Will leaves Season 2 with a purpose and a mission,” Schapker told IGN. “He’s sending a team to pick up [Quell’s] sleeve, she’s casting off somewhere. She’s not saying where, and he has clearly turned. Now whether or not he’s going to stay that way, where we’re going to find him, how far in the future… But in my mind, yes, I would hope to continue exploring that Kovacs as well.”
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He’s also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.
The Silence of the Lambs TV show that will focus on the character Clarice Starling has found its lead. Australian actor Rebecca Breeds (Home And Away, Pretty Little Liars) has been cast as the FBI agent for the show that takes place after The Silence of the Lambs. Only a pilot episode has been ordered at this point, so there is no word yet on if the show will be picked up to series.
Star Trek bosses Alex Kurtzmann and Jenny Lumet are the showrunners for the CBS TV show, which will focus on Clarice’s “untold personal story.” Following the traumatic events of The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice goes back into the field to hunt down other serial killers while also dealing with the politics of Washington D.C. (via The Hollywood Reporter).
Breeds said in a post on Instagram that Clarice is the “role of a lifetime” for her.
Jodie Foster played Clarice in the 1991 Silence of the Lambs movie, and she won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Clarice returned in 2001’s Hannibal movie, though Foster elected to not return; instead, Julianne Moore played Clarice.
The TV network Lifetime announced a Clarice show of its own in 2012, though the project never got off the ground. Additionally, the NBC TV show Hannibal wanted to introduce the character Clarice, but the rights-holders had other plans.
The Australian show Home and Away has served as a launching pad for many famous Australian actors who have since made it big in Hollywood. Other actors who appeared on the long-running soap over the years have included Margot Robbie, Chris Hemsworth, Isla Fisher, Naomi Watts, and Heath Ledger.
Diablo IV is handling enemies a bit differently from before, sorting them into “family” groups that are divided by their feel, look, and combat style. The families will better flesh out the game’s open world, making it feel more cohesive. This is all explained in Blizzard’s new quarterly update for the game, which dives deep into a newly announced family of enemies–the Cannibals.
There are four members of the Cannibal family, all of which, true to their name, delight in eating people–if you spot dead bodies “riddled with bite marks” in-game, the Cannibals are likely nearby. Diablo IV is returning to the series’ dark roots, and the cannibals are certainly creepy. Each member has a unique weapon, as well as a “significantly different silhouette or stance” so that they can easily be told apart.
Two of them are fairly traditional melee enemies, one with a cleaver and the other with a lighter halberd. There’s also a tank-like bruiser with a spiked club that can potentially stun players, and smaller swarmer enemies that attack with incredible speed. The family has no ranged units, but will “spring at the player with supernatural swiftness”. They’re also able to jump over obstacles, including other enemies, which means that if you think you have a large group under control you need to be careful of them slipping through.
Diablo IV is still a while away yet, with no specific release date, but you can look forward to the Cannibals trying to strip the flesh from your bones when the game launches for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
The same update that revealed the Cannibal family also detailed Diablo IV’s UI changes and talked about controller support for the PC version of the game. There’s also, reportedly, a Diablo anime series in the works for Netflix.
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is the second movie for the popular superhero shonen anime, and it features several references and Easter eggs to the rest of the series. Our full list is outlined in the following article. That said, if we happened to miss one, please let us know in the comment section below.
As a warning, Heroes Rising takes place several arcs ahead of where the anime currently is and thus makes references to events and character developments that have yet to be seen outside the manga. If you’re all caught up on the manga, then you don’t have to worry about a thing. But if you only watch the anime, you may want to steer clear, as several of the characters and events in Heroes Rising reference back to story beats that likely won’t appear in the anime until Season 5.
Heroes Rising sees Izuku “Deku” Midoriya (Daiki Yamashita/Justin Briner), Katsuki Bakugo (Nobuhiko Okamoto/Clifford Chapin), and the rest of the superhero-in-training Class 1-A temporarily take over a hero agency on an island with a low crime rate. The hope is that the experience will teach the high school class how to behave as heroes without adult supervision. Though the job is fairly easy to handle at first, Class 1-A finds themselves cornered when the island is attacked by a group of powerful supervillains.
As written in GameSpot’s My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising review, “Though the last few moments of Heroes Rising erase the character development between its two leads and deprive the story of concluding on as high of a note as the rest of the movie, the vast majority of Heroes Rising is good. The movie takes the time to contend that being a hero doesn’t always mean beating up bad guys, while also delivering on a satisfying multitude of well-animated fights.”
Endeavor’s Scar
Now father and son match!
At the very start of the movie, the League of Villains happens to run into a team of heroes, which includes Enji “Endeavor” Todoroki (Tetsu Inada/Patrick Seitz). Eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that the Flame Hero has a massive scar across the left side of his face.
This scar is from Endeavor’s battle with High End, a powerful Nomu, during the Pro Hero arc (manga chapters 184-193). This arc will likely conclude My Hero Academia Season 4.
The Identity Of Past One For All Users
Daigoro teaches Midoriya the secrets of One For All.
As seen in Heroes Rising, Midoriya now sees most of the One For All users as who they were instead of as shadowy outlines. Most notable is a bald, Hellboy-looking man: Daigoro Banjo.
First seen in the Joint Training Battle arc (manga chapters 195-216), Daigoro is the one who explains to Midoriya that as One For All has been passed from one person to the next, it’s mutated again and again and inherited the characteristics of every Quirk it’s come in contact with.
The identity of Daigoro is the furthest point in My Hero Academia’s story that Heroes Rising showcases, implying that–at the very least–the movie takes place after the events of the Joint Training Battle arc. This arc will likely be the first part of My Hero Academia Season 5.
Nine’s Nine Quirks
Nine’s (Yoshio Inoue/Johnny Yong Bosch) whole deal is that he can steal and store up to nine different Quirks at once. He himself has one Quirk and then we see a police report say that he’s stolen the Quirks of four heroes. He also steals the Quirk belonging to Katsuma Shimano (Yuka Terasaki/Maxey Whitehead) and Mahoro Shimano’s (Tomoyo Kurosawa/Dani Chambers) dad, putting him at six over the course of the movie’s runtime.
Though Nine can use nine Quirks, we don’t actually ever see him do so.
That said, we only see Nine use five Quirks throughout the whole movie. This makes sense, given that the Quirk he steals from Katsuma and Mahoro’s dad is useless to him–that’s the whole reason he has to steal Katsuma’s Quirk. Katsuma and Mahoro’s dad’s Quirk doesn’t affect type B blood (which Nine has), while Katsuma’s does.
Heroes Rising doesn’t specifically name the five Quirks that Nine uses, but each are distinct enough to differentiate them. The first one he uses is likely Nine’s original Quirk: the ability to tell what type of Quirk someone has by looking at them. We also see Nine use Quirks that allow him to manipulate air (both to create nearly indestructible shields or fire powerful blasts), shoot piercing lasers from his fingertips, control the weather, and produce powerful crystal-like serpents from his body.
The Actual Reason Nine Can’t Steal Midoriya’s Quirk
When trying to steal Midoriya’s Quirk, Nine is unable to. Nine shrugs it off, believing that Midoriya’s Quirk is a mutated composition of multiple Quirks and thus he technically doesn’t have enough room to steal all of them–as he’s already holding six at this point.
This is only half right. Midoriya’s Quirk, One For All, is in fact a mutated composition of multiple Quirks (as many as eight, though only four have been identified). However, during the Vs. Hero Killer arc (manga chapters 45-59, anime episodes 26-33), All Might (Kenta Miyake/Christopher Sabat) explains to Midoriya that One For All can’t actually be stolen by others–it can only be given or forced upon someone.
Air Force Gloves
Midoriya has gloves that you may not recognize if you only watch the anime. The gloves were created by Mei Hatsume (Azu Sakura/Alexis Tipton)–the same pink-haired student that crafted Midoriya’s Iron Soles–during the UA School Festival arc (manga chapters 169-183, the current arc in the anime).
Midoriya’s entire costume will be redesigned by Hatsume at this rate.
Much like the Iron Soles, the Air Force Gloves are designed to augment Midoriya’s Shoot Style by giving him long-range options in combat. The gloves funnel the force created when Midoriya flicks his fingers, allowing him to pull off a concussive wind blast without having to use One For All at 100% and breaking his hand.
Shoot Style: St. Louis Smash
During the UA School Festival arc, Midoriya develops a new super move that he then uses during Heroes Rising. The move is a powerful downwards roundhouse kick–it has a long wind-up, but delivers one of the hardest hits that Midoriya’s Shoot Style can produce.
Recipro Turbo
Midoriya isn’t the only one to show off a super move in Heroes Rising that hasn’t been seen in the anime yet. While fighting Chimera (Shunsuke Takeuchi/Greg Dulcie), Tenya “Ingenium” Iida (Kaito Ishikawa/J. Michael Tatum) uses Recipro Turbo–a super move he first utilizes during the Joint Training Battle arc.
During the arc, Iida learns from his older brother that his family has a trade secret: when the mufflers are removed from their Engine Quirk, their bodies will regrow new ones. The process is extremely painful but it results in a significantly more effective engine that allows for new types of super moves.
As opposed to the 10 seconds of speed granted by Recipro Burst, Recipro Turbo grants 10 minutes of enhanced speed. This is currently Iida’s most powerful super move–though the speed boost is so strong, Iida still struggles to control his movements while Turbo is activated.
Black Fallen Angel
In order to save Mashirao “Tailman” Ojiro (Kosuke Miyoshi/Mike McFarland) from Chimera, Fumikage “Tsukuyomi” Tokoyami (Yoshimasa Hosoya/Josh Grelle) utilizes the super move he learned under the tutelage of Keigo “Hawks” Takami (Yuichi Nakamura/Zeno Robinson) during the Joint Training Battle arc. Called Black Fallen Angel, the move allows Tokoyami to fly–he puts his sentient Quirk, Dark Shadow, beneath his cloak to give it the necessary darkness to spread its wings and carry Tokoyami through the air.
It was under Hawks that Tokoyami grew more accustomed to close-range combat as well, developing the more muscular build seen in Heroes Rising. This combat training is also why he’s able to at least hold his own against Slice (Mio Imada/Lydia Mackay) with support items during the final battle without the need to rely too much on Dark Shadow.
Absolute Zero
While fighting Chimera, Iida uses Recipro Turbo in order to distract the villain and give Shoto Todoroki (Yūki Kaji/David Matranga) the chance to use a new super move of his own. Unlike the moves used by Midoriya, Tokoyami, and Iida, Todoroki’s attack isn’t named–it’s really just a different variation of something he’s done in the manga.
During the Joint Training Battle arc, Todoroki takes some advice from his father and superheats his flames to their limit in order to fight against Tetsutetsu “Real Steel” Tetsutetsu (Kōji Okino/David Wald). In Heroes Rising, Todoroki goes for the opposite effect and lowers the temperature of his ice powers to such an extent that he freezes everything around him–including Chimera.
Chill out Todoroki, it’s just a supervillain.
Explode-A-Pult
When Midoriya’s St. Louis Smash isn’t enough to break through Nine’s defenses in the final battle, he’s sent flying back. Bakugo manages to catch Midoriya, however, and flings him back at Nine with Explode-A-Pult.
As you might surmise, this is yet another super move first seen in the Joint Training Battle arc. Occasionally also shortened to X-Catapult, Bakugo uses this move to grab opponents and then fling them with tremendous force. Because of One For All, Midoriya just so happens to be one of the few people who can withstand the force behind the attack–so Bakugo uses it in Heroes Rising to give Midoriya an extra boost, enhancing the overall force of Midoriya’s next kick.
The Origin Of A Brand-New Hero
In the final battle, there’s a moment where it seems like Class 1-A is no match for Nine and so Mahoro sacrifices herself to save her younger brother, telling him to take the chance to run. Katsuma is clearly terrified–frozen in place and crying as his sister begs him to run.
Before he has a chance to think about it, though, Katsuma runs out in a (stupid) attempt to save his sister. For a brief moment, the music stops and the scenery fades away as the camera cuts down to focus on Katsuma’s feet–the background goes completely white to solely highlight the brief moment that a young boy decided to run towards danger instead of away from it.
If you’ve been following My Hero Academia since the very beginning, the scene is likely familiar to you. It’s almost, shot-for-shot, a direct reflection of the scene of Midoriya trying to save Bakugo from the slime monster at the very beginning of the series. That scene features a scared, crying Midoriya (also stupidly) running towards danger, the shot lingering on his feet while the background fades to all white. Later, All Might tells Midoriya that every great hero throughout history has had a moment like this–a point in their youth where their bodies moved towards saving someone before their mind had a chance to process the danger of the situation.
Might+U
During the final moments of the final battle, the song “Might+U” (by Makayla Phillips) plays. Its somber melody may seem familiar to you if you watch the anime–it’s first played in Season 4, Episode 13 during the scene where Midoirya is trying to reach Eri (Seiran Kobayashi/Emily Neves) so he can save her from Kai “Overhaul” Chisaki (Kenjiro Tsuda/Kellen Goff).
Referencing back to this moment was a wonderful way to end the final battle in Heroes Rising.
Todoroki Lets Endeavor Hug Him
The concluding chapters of the Pro Hero arc mark the beginning of Endeavor’s redemption, which is why in Heroes Rising, the anti-hero isn’t nearly as much of an asshole as he currently is in the anime. In the final moments of the movie, Heroes Rising showcases how Todoroki and his father have become closer, featuring a scene where Endeavor hugs his son and cries with joy that his child is safe-and-sound.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
