Two endgames to discuss in one post! MTG War of the Spark and Avengers Endgame spoilers ahoy!
Endgame #1: War of the Spark
The latest Magic set has been a home run in terms of lore and flavor and storytelling, bringing the last three years worth of MTG lore to its conclusion as the villainous dragon planeswalker Nicol Bolas aims to complete his plan to achieve omnipotence over the multiverse. The set is packed with planeswalkers summoned to Ravnica by Bolas’s schemes, which means mechanically that a lot of new planeswalker design space is being explored. The spoiler season was well-executed (despite some leaks during the last week), allowing us to see the story unfolding through the cards in a clearer way than ever before: from the dreadhorde invasion of Ravnica, the counterattack by the guilds, the arrival of the Amonkhet God-Eternals, and the death and betrayal that soon followed. It remains to be seen what impact the set will have on the gameplay and the meta, but from lore and flavor alone it’s already a win.
Endgame #2: Avengers Endgame
First, the spoiler-free review (mirrored from Tumblr, I figured there’s no reason to publish there exclusively):
Avengers: Endgame spoiler-free review!
- I watched Endgame exactly 365 days after watching Infinity War! (And also 3 years to the day after watching Civil War)
- I approve of this movie as a fitting end to the last decade of Marvel films. This is a slam dunk ending. They could end it here, with no additional MCU movies/shows coming out and that would be completely fine
- I approve of how little information about the movie managed to leak, I approve of the trailers and the marketing campaign: just enough to get hyped but nothing too spoilery
- There is a lot to unpack, but its impossible to cover anything without getting into spoilers, but I’m very happy with the movie and the fan service, especially as a comic book fan.
- the plot starts out slow and moves quickly at the end. If you have to pee, better to do it sometime during the first hour; I found myself holding my pee for the last hour of the movie and not wanting to miss anything, it was not pleasant
- Imax was fine, but without probably also would have been fine
- There is supposedly no post-credits, I wouldn’t know as I couldn’t hold it much longer and left mid-credits. The first half of the credits was nice though
- Magugustuhan ba ni Mama: No, same issue as Infinity War, too many characters to follow
- They’re going to earn a bajillion dollars with this one
Spoilers follow:
(Spoilers)
There are some timey-wimey concerns, but nothing a bunch of nerds wouldn’t be able to rationalize quickly. So much to unpack here, so many easter eggs and fan service: Widow’s death, Fat Thor, Smart Hulk, revisiting several previous movies, Steve wielding Mjolnir, Steve and Peggy’s last dance, Pepper rocking the Rescue armor, the Tony Stark final sacrifice and sendoff, all the cameos from previously lost characters and villains (did they actually get Natalie Portman to shoot new footage?!?), and finally that scene where when all hope was lost, I was wondering what deus ex machine they would use to get out of the situation, and when Sam made contact I was like, that’s right, everyone’s back, then we get all the Avengers, Wakandans, Asgardians, Sanctorum dudes, etc and Cap going “Avengers Assemble!” (Hey, wheren’t they already assembled?!?)
Worth the wait, very happy with the movie, and even tempted to watch it one more time.
There is of course a third endgame that kicked off in April, and that’s Game of Thrones, but it’s not yet done, so I’ll cover that another time.
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