Quarantine Control #82: Cells at Work Dune It with Endwalker
Halloween 2020 was perhaps the most bizarre in recent history, with the pandemic still in full bloom and people still justifiably concerned about how contagious the virus could be outdoors and especially indoors. That is, assuming they weren’t among the group that didn’t think the disease was fake. It was a small consolation that most people and children would be masked, particularly if they choose a costume to match it. It’s a little calmer this year thanks to the wonders of science, but the rise in anti-vaccine sentiments (including outside the United States) and misinformation is perhaps more frightening than any scary story anyone could tell this year. At least that’s some improvement, though.
Geoffrey Barnes
Dune: Part One (2021)
Source: HBO Max
Episodes 1 movie (of at least two)
A sci-fi story is special when it’s received three different adaptations over the course of less than four decades — as long as I’ve been alive, in fact. Yet, a new one was necessary because none of the previous adaptations felt complete or could be classified as “definitive.” We now live in a time where a worthwhile audience exists for high-budget sci-fi and fantasy adaptations, which made it a perfect opportunity for a reimagining of the main Dune saga with modern production values. Director Denis Villeneuve, previously responsible for the first Sicario film and Blade Runner 2049, was the perfect man for the job, and the movie itself is proof.
The tale is set in a far-off fantastical future where protagonist Paul Atreides (Timothée Chamalet) of House Atreides is thrust into a war he’s hardly ready for while staying on the planet of Arrakis. The movie establishes how Paul is still training and inexperienced at combat and using his power of the Voice for light mind control. But he has no choice to go with his family, helmed by his father Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) and mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), to relocate from the ocean planet of Caladan to Arrakis. Leto is ordered to take over the planet, itself a source of the rich substance of spice (which must flow, as you might have heard), and ally with its people. They unsurprisingly aren’t the only ones interested in the spice, which leads to war breaking out.
Dune’s world is one rich with not only spice, but lore, and the movie spends a lot of time establishing that alongside introducing and developing its central characters in the first half. It’s slow-paced for anyone more adjusted to action-packed recent and semi-recent sci-fi works, despite the movie skipping some worldbuilding from the novels. But it justifies this by being interesting right from the start, and only getting more entertaining as the movie progresses. And man does it look beautiful while doing it, with some of the best cinematography I’ve seen in a film. Both the key planets of the water-filled Caladan and sand/spice-filled Arrakis are a sight to behold through the indoor and outdoor locations. It makes other sci-fi works look amateurish in comparison.
The acting is similarly solid. Timothée Chamalet, for instance, is well cast as Paul, despite being about eight to nine years older than the character was in the Dune novels (Chamalet was between 23 and 24 while filming, while Paul is supposed to be 15). But it helps that Timothée actually looks the part compared to, say, Kyle MacLachlan from the 1984 movie adaptation. Zendaya is good as Chani too, but I feel bad for anyone who saw the movie specifically for her. They did get a good sci-fi movie out of it, in fairness.
The movie’s story feels like a generic sci-fi tale even though not every twist is predictable. But that’s for good reason. The first Dune novel released in 1965, enough time for plenty of other sci-fi tales to take serious inspiration from it and use that as a base for their work. Star Wars is one of them, in which Tatooine could be considered a stand-in for Arrakis (albeit not spicy), both have young protagonists with important fates, and there’s mind manipulation in common. (Villeneuve, funnily enough, described Dune as being Star Wars for adults before full production began, partly as a way to bring attention to it.) They aren’t that identical, however.
Outside the slower pacing in the first half and how the biggest tale is only just unfolding by the end, I’m struggling to say anything bad about the movie. Stories don’t have to be the most original concepts around to be entertaining, and Dune is an example where the character development and worldbuilding make up for any of the shortcomings it ran into through no fault of its own.
The first part of Dune is the best sci-fi movie, and perhaps the best overall sci-fi work, to arrive in a good while. It’s a shame it had to release when the deck was stacked against it, during a perpetual pandemic and with a simultaneous release on HBO Max to make its box office numbers look pitiful in comparison. But all those rumors about Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures fully intending to green light Part Two fortunately panned out, due for release in fall 2023. It’s now possible to watch this without worrying about getting invested in a story that may not finish; there’s no excuse. You can also stream it right from home and not feel guilty about it, like me.
Angela Moseley
Cells at Work, Season 2 (2021)
Source: Funimation
Episodes: 8
Cells at Work! was a breakout success when it aired in 2018. Produced by David Production (best known for their work on the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure series), this show was both entertaining and educational. It took place inside of a human body that very much looked like a regular city and all of the cells were completely anthropomorphized. The show revolved around Red Blood Cell as she gets started with her new job delivering oxygen and nutrients to regular cells. Unfortunately, she’s prone to getting lost. While lost she’s attacked by a pneumococcus bacteria, but is saved by White Blood Cell aka Neutrophil. The first season of the series revolves around Red Blood Cell learning the ropes at her job and having a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thankfully, Neutrophil is always there to help her.
Cells at Work! is adapted from a manga of the same name written by Akane Shimizu. The first notable thing about Shimizu’s work is that she’s diligent in her research. Every part of the body’s cells she writes and illustrates is based in reality down to character designs. The same goes for invading pathogens, how they affect the body, and their overall designs. Even the depiction of artificial medicine such as anti-histamines and steroids are well-thought out as they often take on a mechanical shape and function. Considering how much fiction can be poorly researched, it is refreshing when an author and a studio do their homework. Even medical doctors enjoy reviewing episodes of Cells at Work! to point out what is and isn’t completely accurate.
With high expectations I eagerly awaited season two of this anime. However, a curious turn of events happened. Season two of this show aired at the same time as Cells at Work! Code Black, a spin-off series featuring different characters and a much darker story. Just take everything from the original Cells series and place it in a middle-aged man’s body that is in poor health. In comparison season two of Cells at Work! felt like more of the same, but less interesting.
For starters, the season only had eight episodes. The first two episodes focused on Red Blood Cell taking a more senior position and guiding her juniors. She goes about doing her job as the body has to fight off diseases such as Dengue Fever. That was a high point for me, as its spread was shown much like putting on the stone vampire masks from the first two seasons of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure in a brilliant homage. Sadly Red Blood Cell spent less time with Neutrophil and their dynamic was one of the most enjoyable parts of season one.
The middle of the season then focuses on Ordinary Cell Boy and his desire to do more with his life. His wish is granted when he comes across a bunch of young bacteria and can’t bring himself to take them to the immune cells to be destroyed. It turns out that they are actually beneficial bacteria cells and we learn about good and bad bacteria contained in the body’s gut. Unfortunately, I found Ordinary Cell Boy quite whiny and annoying as a character and resentful that the story focused more on him versus other characters.
The only saving grace to this season came in the final three episodes as a returning villain made his appearance. He sought out revenge on Neutrophil. The animation got a notable boost in quality as Cancer Cell spread in the gut and Neutrophil, along with Memory T-Cell and NK Cell set out to fight him. As Cancer Cell spreads, the imagery used during the fight felt right at home in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Also, the fact that harmful gut bacteria can actually aid the growth of cancer was an interesting fact to learn.
All and all, I liked Cells at Work! season two, but it wasn’t the masterpiece of season one. It wasn’t even as captivating as Cells at Work! Code Black. It was a slightly above mediocre affair. If there’s a season three I’d love if the series covers timely issues such as COVID and cytokine storms. Better yet, I’d love a crossover with the surviving characters from Code Black. Ah, a fan can dream.
Joseph Daniels
When your company’s name gets dragged through the mud over and over again, apparently the solution is not to fix your problems, it’s to just change your name and pretend nothing ever happened. That’s all I have to say about that.
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I don’t really feel like watching much Halloween-type stuff this year. I think it’s partly because I already watched literally the best thing ever in the supernatural horror genre last week and don’t really feel like watching anything else. There’s been enough Halloween stuff on television too, that I’m beginning to feel burned out on the entire thing. I’m honestly beginning to understand why most people feel burned out on Christmas, because television channels go overboard and don’t know how to rein themselves in.
In a way, it’s a blessing that Americans don’t have Thanksgiving until late November, because y’all are the only thing standing between us and two months of Christmas. As soon as there aren’t any holidays standing between us and the biggest gift giving season of the year, the oversaturation of Christmas usually begins. As someone who loves Christmas, I don’t mind as long as I stay off mainstream radio stations and bring my own music to malls, but as someone who has gotten a bit tired of Halloween this year, I can easily sympathize with everyone who gets thoroughly sick of Christmas after barely a week of it.
It doesn’t help that mainstream radio stations overplay the worst Christmas music every year and start it up as early as they can possibly get away with. I don’t know who decided it’s what everyone likes, but someone out there made a lot of money convincing everyone that John Lennon, Mariah Carey and Paul McCartney are good at Christmas. They’re not.
But I am getting way ahead of myself. I know there’s slightly less than two months left until Christmas, but Halloween hasn’t happened yet and the United States hadn’t had Thanksgiving yet, either. Black Friday also has to occur and there still needs to be a sweeping ad campaign for it before any Christmas sales start to happen. Personally, I’d prefer if Black Friday were to die in a fire, but capitalists worship at the altar of Black Friday and after a year and a half of the pandemic, there’ll probably be rioting in the streets if they’re told not to hold their annual sales event.
There’s something else I’m looking forward to in November, and it’s not Black Friday. Well, there’s two things, but I talked about Desert Bus For Hope last year and I might still talk about it this year, but this week, I’d like to talk about Final Fantasy XIV and the expansion that for us is going to be like Wrath of the Lich King was for World of Warcraft.
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (2021)
Release Date: November 23 (early access for pre-orders starts on the 19th)
Do you remember how you felt when Final Fantasy X-2 was announced and you realized you’d be returning to the world of Spira, and when Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was announced, and when Final Fantasy XIII-2 or the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings were announced?
I know how exciting it is to be able to return to the world of your favourite Final Fantasy when another story comes out, and I know how disappointing it can be if the game falls short of expectations. Final Fantasy X-2 has been criticized for being a Final Fantasy version of Charlie’s Angels and which requires completing it twice in order to get the best ending if you don’t use a guide. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings ended up being baby’s first real time strategy game in the sky. Final Fantasy XIII-2 pulled Lightning out of existence for no real reason and pretended that saving the world like they did in the original was a bad thing for the fabric of time. Final Fantasy IV: The After Years basically stuck too close to the original at times, acting more like a fan’s rom hack sequel than anything truly original. Even the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII has its criticisms, from the complete destruction of Cloud Strife’s original characterization to the overcomplication of the original game’s expanding universe, and there are some plot threads from Crisis Core that were ultimately never resolved because the company promised there’d be more and then never developed anything else until the first part of the Remake project (which, I might remind everyone, we’ve yet to hear anything about a second part, since they’re currently promoting The First Soldier instead).
Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings aren’t bad, and I feel like they’re sequels done right. X-2 takes the bittersweet ending of the first game and comes up with a way to turn it into a happy ending, while at the same time, gives fans a way to return to the game world they love and play something truly original. Revenant Wings pays homage to the original and doesn’t go out of its way to destroy whatever the characters did in the first game.
The same can’t be said about The After Years, since it mostly recycles the first game and its episodic structure makes playing it in the first place a chore, and I’m not looking forward to replaying it for the Retrospective project. Like it or not, very few people bonded with all of the characters of the original, since there are so many and most of them are in and out of the party very quickly.
I feel like the second part of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy is unnecessarily hostile towards the first. It purges Lightning from the world and makes it her sister’s mission to navigate through time and space to repair the damage, but it ultimately ends in failure and the world’s pretty much falling apart in the third game. And oh, by the way, the third game’s story is structured such that players pretty much have to replay the game a number of times in order to figure everything out. Plus, many of the characters from the first end up at odds with one another again in the sequels and it just feels unsatisfying.
And let’s not start on the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. There really are no sequel hooks in the original game, and I feel like the ambiguous ending works well enough for a game that’s trying to push the envelope in the way it tells its story. Then in the Compilation, Crisis Core tries to add sequel hooks into the universe so that more games will be guaranteed to come out, since we still don’t know what ultimately happens to Genesis, but we likely never will, unless Square-Enix intends for the “to be continued in Final Fantasy VII” message at the end of Crisis Core to now refer to the Remake project, somehow.
I feel like most of the sequels I’ve mentioned were made in worlds where the original games’ stories were whole and complete. There were no sequel hooks, baiting players to continue. Any new material had to be made from whole cloth. Final Fantasy XIV, though, structures its story in a different manner.
After the original version of the game crashed and burned and Yoshi-P had to take over, a massive amount of new lore was created and A Realm Reborn was crafted using this new lore. You might be familiar with Xenogears and the amount of lore that was ultimately never explored, so you know how much of a risk it is to come up with an entire series worth of games, when the success of the first game is in doubt.
Some of the deepest lore of Final Fantasy XIV is hinted at in the final dungeons of A Realm Reborn, where the ultimate villains of the setting, the Ascians, try to convince the player that Hydaelyn, the supreme being the player meets at the beginning of the game, is everything that’s wrong with the world and must be removed in order to fix all the problems. Anyone running the Main Scenario Roulette has a 50/50 chance of running the dungeon where this lore is first suggested to the player.
Through Heavensward, the player runs afoul of more Ascian plots to destabilize the world, and in Stormblood, the Garlean Empire (the game’s other main antagonist) is fought in several skirmishes, but in the lead-up to Shadowbringers, the player finds out things about the relationship between the Garlean Empire and the Ascians that change the nature of the game entirely.
And speaking of changing the nature of the game, all of this leads into Shadowbringers, a game which returns to the lore from the final dungeon of A Realm Reborn and finally reveals to the player what’s going on behind the scenes and why the Ascians are desperate to remove Hydaelyn from the world. It also tells the story of a world brought to the brink of destruction, hanging on by a thread, and moved me to tears several times.
Here’s the thing about Final Fantasy XIV: the seeds for each expansion are planted early. The building blocks for both Heavensward and Stormblood are introduced in content patches that take place during the epilogue of A Realm Reborn. So much is set up for Shadowbringers in the final dungeon of A Realm Reborn, in the Crystal Tower, Alexander and Omega raids, and even in the epilogues of both Heavensward and Stormblood, and it isn’t even the final chapter of the story.
It’s for this reason that I’ve been looking forward to the actual final chapter of the story, Endwalker. I’ll be leveling a few alternate classes in the next few weeks and completing some unfinished business in anticipation of taking the fight to Garlemald and to wherever the Ascians call home in order to once and for all defend my home from those who would mean to destroy it.
And do you want to know the best thing about the game? The queue times for DPS in dungeons are so long that I still have plenty of time to work on my next few Retrospectives!
There’s no point in telling anyone how to stay safe for Halloween regarding the pandemic. Anyone who’s displayed even the slightest bit of common sense is likely vaccinated and aware of their surroundings, while others who think the pandemic is fake and believe vaccines make you magnetic will be just as foolish as anyone expects. (It might be the perfect year for a Magneto costume, though.) Just don’t go out while having nonsensical concerns like edibles being intentionally put into Halloween bags, the newest bit of inane fearmongering from police forces and the local news types who don’t question them.
About The Author
dcstaff
The collective will of the Damage Control staff combined into a single article.
