Quarantine Control #150: Forever a Legend
The 150th Quarantine Control entry is a milestone for this feature, ongoing for nearly three years now. It also means it’s been nearly three years — three years! — since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the catalyst for this series starting. But we’ve now been at it for so long that this doesn’t feel like a special occasion. Just as COVID has become a normal part of our lives that we’ve adjusted to (though more out of force than desire), this feature has become so normal for this blog that it would feel wrong to ever end it. Unlike dealing with COVID, though, this feature’s actually been fun. Considering how enjoyable of an outlet this has been for many of us, let’s hope it truly never ends.
Geoffrey Barnes
Look, I’ll be honest here: I forgot the 150th entry was this week. I should have spent the last several weeks planning something special, but it was too late by the time I remembered. Fortunately, I did plan something for another special occasion this month. It is February in the United States, you know.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Source: Disney Plus
Episodes: 1 movie (the sequel to 2018’s Black Panther)
I didn’t envy the creative team behind Black Panther: Wakanda Forever or producers at Marvel Entertainment for everything they had to venture through during the film’s production. Chadwick Boseman, who played T’Challa aka Black Panther in the Marvel films, passed away from cancer in 2020. Plans for this sequel, along with likely a good chunk of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future, had to be significantly changed as a result, thus altering the path of the story. It was unfortunate for Boseman’s family and all who loved him. Despite the direction it seems like this post is going in, I’m not making excuses for this movie’s quality. It’s actually very good, a remarkable achievement given the aforementioned perils director Ryan Coogler and the production team were faced with as it was being made.
There was no way Wakanda Forever couldn’t acknowledge the passing of its passing star. Character T’Challa was laid to rest with him, the movie starting off with highlighting how he passed because of a mysterious illness, with a ceremonial funeral being held in his honor. Despite capable leaders remaining at the helm within the country, Wakanda has been left ostensibly vulnerable to outside attacks. Several countries are after the African territory’s vibranium, the biggest eventual threat being Namor (Tenoch Huerta) of the underwater Talokan race. Namor and his people wage war with Wakanda to protect their way of life, fearing it could be under threat if Wakanda itself similarly is. The Wakandan people and forces get little time to grieve T’Challa’s passing, to put it one way.
There’s a lot to like about Wakanda Forever. Wakanda itself and its people are left in as downtrodden a state as those outside the film following Boseman’s death, but it’s Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) who takes charge and keeps the country together, letting other countries know that threats against them won’t be tolerated. It’s accompanied by one of the best acting performances I’ve seen from Bassett herself, the clear reason why she’s been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (a first for a Marvel film).
The main story’s protagonist, however, is Shuri (Letitia Wright), daughter of Ramonda and younger sister of T’Challa. She, to no surprise, has the most trouble coming to grips through her brother’s death, and a significant chunk of the film is focused on her establishing what she believes is best for her and Wakanda’s future stability. Her fate has already been revealed through too many other sources, including Marvel themselves; but don’t worry, I’m not an asshole. I’ll just say that her ultimate fate is accurate to the comics, even if the circumstances that led to it occurring changed. Her character development is so well done that I almost forgot about the actress herself being a possible antivaxxer.
As an MCU film, Wakanda Forever also has to fulfill the task of advancing the overall story. There’s a reason why this movie is damn-near three hours long, the second longest Marvel film following Avengers: Endgame. But most of it segues in with the story this movie needs to tell. This marks the debut for Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), whose usage of technology as Ironheart attracts the attention of the Wakandans… and federal law enforcement. Yet, her appearance and assistance doesn’t detract from the film itself. It does the job of advancing the larger story while simultaneously being worthwhile as a standalone film. Not everything needs to feel like the newest in a long saga, which risks diminishing the importance of individual films.
(That is to say: Yes, I’ve seen the reviews for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which reportedly falls prey to this issue. That’s not something to look forward to.)
I’m noting again that “most” of the attempts to advance the story at large fit in with the movie, because not all of it fits in the movie. The filmmakers didn’t have much to do for Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), who returns from the last film, outside one scene. The rest focus more on establishing what’s ahead for the MCU, the issue a number of MCU works have run into. Even though I do like the character (and actor) he interacts with, his scenes added nothing to the overall film’s story in a subplot that goes nowhere, parts of which are set to be resolved in already-announced films. This is a notable complaint considering just how damned long this movie is.
Wakanda Forever maintains the feel of its predecessor by having better writing, character development, and cinematography than its MCU brethren, along with less of the typical MCU humor quips that seemingly have to accompany every film. Best of all, though, it remains a celebration of Black excellence in terms of the actors, themes, and the characters given the chance to shine. It’s a stunning achievement given the hindrances the film’s production ran into. It would be nice if Coogler could be retained for future Marvel works, like the Wakanda show announced two years ago that there’s been little movement on; but it’s understandable if he might have other priorities.
Angela Moseley
The Legend of Vox Machina, Season 1 (2022)
Source: Amazon Prime
Episodes: 12
For a number of years I knew about Critical Role. The concept was interesting. A variety of video game and animation industry voice actors who are also friends play through Dungeons & Dragons campaigns while livestreaming to Twitch under Geek & Sundry’s banner. The whole concept was started with Liam O’Brien and Sam Riegel playing D&D and sharing their experience. That expanded to more players (Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jafee, Matthew Mercer, Orion Acaba, Marisha Ray, and Ashley Johnson) and the game shifting to Pathfinder in late 2012. Fast-forward to 2014 and Felicia Day asks the group to stream their campaigns to Geek & Sundry. In preparation the game played was shifted back to Dungeons & Dragons. The series would air in 2015 and that first campaign was Vox Machina.
The group consists of:
- Vex’halia (Laura Bailey), a half-elf ranger
- Vax’ildan (Liam O’Brien) Vex’s twin brother, and a rogue
- Percival de Rolo (Taliesin Jafee) a human gunslinger
- Pike Trickfoot (Ashley Johnson), a dwarf war cleric
- Scanlan Shorthalt (Sam Riegel), a dwarf bard and sex addict
- Grog Strongjaw (Travis Willingham), a half-giant berserker
- Keyleth (Marisha Ray) a half-elf druid with some confidence issues
- Trinket (Matthew Mercer), a regular bear who’s also Vex’s companion
Vox Machina ran from 2015 to 2017, had 115 episodes and over 370 hours of gameplay. In March 2019 the cast of Critical Role launched a Kickstarter to fund a 22-minute animation called Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina Animated Special. The Kickstarter campaign was overwhelmingly successful. By the time the funding campaign closed in mid-April it had raised over $11.3 million with 88,887 backers. This included all stretch-goals meaning that backers got not one, but ten 22-minute episodes. The series was produced by Titmouse, Inc and everyone reprised their roles except for Orion Acaba. Acaba’s character, Tiberius was dropped completely. In late 2019 Amazon announced they had acquired the rights to stream The Legend of Vox Machina and had ordered an additional 14 episodes. Each season would be 12 episodes long. The series was slated to air in 2020, but was delayed for two years because of the pandemic. Season 1 would premier on January 28, 2022. Season 2 started in January of this year, and a third season is slated for release.
Tal’Dorei is in trouble as an unknown beast ravages the countryside. Multiple mercenary groups are sent to learn about and kill the beast, but they all end up dead. Desperate, the Tal’Dorei Council decide to officially put up a substantial bounty for anyone who can slay the mysterious creature. Wind of this bounty reaches the mercenary group, Vox Machina when they’re at their lowest after a rowdy bar fight. Broke and on the verge of breaking up, the group accepts the mission. The Tal’Dorei Council is less than impressed with them, but they don’t really have a choice. With tepid blessings, the diverse group set out to find the beast.
Vox Machina quickly discovers the beast is a blue dragon, and they manage to survive the encounter. The dragon known as Brimscythe has infiltrated the Tal’Dorei Council and weakened the country. Vox Machina finds a cryptic poem that describes how to defeat the dragon. They follow him back to his lair, confront him, find his weakness and actually win. Just as the group gets used to their roles as the protectors of Tal’Dorei, another threat rears its demonic head. This time, vampires known as the Briarwoods from Whitestone have made their move and seek to take over the entire realm, using Tal’Dorei’s Sovereign Uriel as a puppet. Worse yet, this power couple are the ones responsible for killing Percy’s entire family, the rightful rulers of Whitestone. As Vox Machina digs deeper into what the Briarwoods are up to, they discover the vampires want to set a plan in motion that could spell the end of not just Tal’Dorei’s realm, but the entire world.
Season 1 of The Legend of Vox Machina much better than I was expecting. What I enjoyed most about the story is how the group is already formed at the start. It’s nice to jump right into the group’s character dynamics instead of having a drawn out session where they all meet and form a mercenary group. It’s much more fulfilling to watch the characters all bounce off each other and grow in interesting ways as the season progresses, not unlike those original Critical Role streams.
Season 1 isn’t an origin story for Vox Machina, but instead tells how the group went from a bunch of rouges barely working together, to a band of mercenaries willing to put their lives on the line for others. Before taking down Brimsycthe the group was renown for running away from their problems, but they managed to stand up and find a sense of justice. Likewise, the story delves deeply into Percy’s backstory as it is central to much of season 1’s plot. (Don’t worry, other characters receive more of a focus in season 2.) In addition, this premier season kicks off mechanisms that will plague Vox Machina into the second and third seasons. This shows how forward-thinking the writers and producers were with the series, and it helped that this show was conceived long after the Critical Role campaign ended.
The animation is spectacular, and as fluid as any high-budget anime for key action scenes. The show strikes an interesting balance between being a violent fantasy, and having enough humor to keep things from getting too dark. The standard violence, sex, and strong language elements found in most adult animation is present here. This series isn’t unlike the animated Castlevania series on Netflix. Of course, this series has its roots firmly in D&D.
Speaking of fantasy, it’s nice to see this series have a diverse cast of supporting characters. Way too many franchises insist their fantasy worlds are purely European in origin, when the reality is actually way more colorful. The diversity also includes a variety of sexual orientations which is another pleasant change of pace from everyone must be straight.
You don’t have to follow or have played D&D to understand any of The Legend of Vox Machina. Let’s be real, D&D is so ingrained into RPGs and fantasy in general that, you can understand the classes without ever having played the tabletop game. This show works well as its own fantasy tale about how a group of unreliable mercenaries began their march toward being some of finest warriors in their realm. Fortunately, it does seem like Amazon will finish this series out at three seasons. This particular story won’t be the end of animated tales from Critical Role, as Amazaon announced it would be animating the group’s second campaign, Mighty Nein. Of course, I still need to get through another two seasons of this show first. And you should as well.
So we’ve been doing this for a hundred fifty weeks, huh? Which means that COVID-19’s been around for about three years at this point. This column’s actual three year anniversary is coming up real soon, but for post 150, I figured I would remind everyone of a few of my past recommendations and point out the rabbits for the Year of the Rabbit. This isn’t going to be everything, because there are rabbits everywhere. They’re very common compared to tigers. I’m especially not going to rewatch all the nature documentaries to search for rabbits.
That’s not to say that certain individual rabbits aren’t awesome, because they are. Here’s a quick rundown of some rather notable rabbits showcased in my contributions to Quarantine Control.
A few updates before I begin:
The PonyASMR Project from QC #29 released a new trailer yesterday, the first new upload in more than three years. I briefly talked about Aggretsuko in QC #30, and the fifth and final season released to Netflix today. In QC #120, I discussed Bungo Stray Dogs. The fourth season is finally airing, and is being uploaded to Crunchyroll weekly. Speaking of new seasons, I talked about Last Week Tonight in QC #133, and its new season starts this Sunday.
QC #1
Beastars (2019)
Source: Netflix
Rabbits?: Haru, mainly
I have a theory about season three. Nothing’s been announced yet, but since there’s still about half the manga left to adapt and also since it’s taking them until next year to finally release the third and final season, I’m going to assume that it’s going to consist of 24 episodes, possibly split into two half-seasons. I’m a little worried that if they have to condense everything left in the manga down into twelve episodes, it’ll end up being a badly paced mess. I guess we’ll see.
QC #5
No Evil (2012)
Source: YouTube
Rabbits?: Wrip, mainly
After an eight month wait, the next video in the series was released this month and unfortunately, they’re getting shorter. The new video says it’s the start of “season three”, so I hope this means there won’t be as long a wait for the next one.
I am trying to be fair to the series because it’s an independent project and those take a lot of time. It is easy to lose track of what’s going on, though, due to the wait between episodes. It’s a relatively short series, so I don’t mind rewatching the whole thing again whenever the mood strikes me, but that’s still a long time to wait.
QC #7
Watership Down (2018)
Source: Netflix
Rabbits?: …you’re kidding, right? You need me to tell you there are rabbits in Watership Down?
I don’t think there’s anything I can really say about this show that I didn’t already say. Basically, if you’re into rabbits, this is the show to watch.
QC #80
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (2020)
Source: Netflix
Rabbits?: Mega Bunnies
After Watership Down, we jump more than a year to the next entry featuring prominent rabbits. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts’s rabbits are large, but not a large part of the story. I still decided they’re notable enough to mention here. That’s about all I really have to say that hasn’t already been covered in column #80.
QC #82
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker (2021)
Rabbits?: The Viera race
I’m only really mentioning this here for completion’s sake. This is a video game and not a movie or television show (or podcast), but I devoted an entry of Quarantine Control to this, so here we go. The Viera were in the game since Shadowbringers, by the way, and their design (as well as their accent) is lifted directly from Final Fantasy XII.
QC #95
Winnie the Pooh (2011)
QC #97
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988)
Source: Disney+
Rabbits?: Rabbit
Next week, I’m going to talk about a specific episode that I feel is a defining moment in Rabbit’s life, and which is also one of my favourites. I’m almost certain I’ve mentioned it on the blog before, but I’d really like to talk about it again in a bit of detail. For completion’s sake, I should also mention that Rabbit is present in the entire franchise, but these are the ones I mentioned previously in Quarantine Control.
QC #111
Sing (2016)
Source: Netflix (Canada), Prime Video (Canada)
Rabbits?: Unnamed rabbit trio
Since posting about this film last year, it’s popped up in a couple different places for me here in Canada, although it’s still missing from American streaming. You can rent or buy it, but that’s about it. This is a sad reality of on-line content distribution in that it comes and goes like the wind, based on the whims of whoever owns the copyright. This is the same for Sing 2, although here in Canada, it’s available on Crave instead of Netflix or Prime Video, and in the United States, it’s available on Netflix even though the first movie isn’t. I mean… why?! It’s ridiculous.
QC #123
Etotama (2015)
Source: Crunchyroll
Rabbits?: Usa-tan
QC #124
Juni Taisen: Zodiac War (2017)
Source: Crunchyroll
Rabbits?: Rabbit
QC #125
Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger (1995)
No Official Source (it’s on YouTube, though)
Rabbits?: Cream
Anything that has to do with the zodiac is going to feature rabbits of some sort or another, and this trio of zodiac-related anime all feature a character representing the rabbit. Every one of these rabbits are incredibly different, too, owing to the vibe of each show. I’d say my favourite of this trio of shows is probably Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger, but that’s not to say Juni Taisen isn’t worth watching. Etotama… eh, I could take it or leave it. I still haven’t watched any more of it.
QC #136
Zootopia+ (2022)
Source: Disney+
Rabbits?: Judy Hopps and her large family
It’s interesting to note that Nick and Judy aren’t featured very heavily in this series. The focus is mainly on the city itself, and the characters who call it home. The first episode is the one you’ll want to pay attention to if you’re a fan of rabbits in popular media, due to its focus on Bonnie and Stu Hopps and their frantic attempt to rescue one of their babies. Admittedly, I’m curious what the focus of the new movie is going to be, and maybe I’ll post my speculation soon.
QC #138
The Book of Once Upon A Time (2015)
Source: Disney+
Rabbits?: Various, especially in the “Disney Bunnies” episode
Given that one episode features bunnies prominently, and there are several episodes that focus on the Winnie the Pooh franchise, there are rabbits aplenty here for younger viewers to enjoy.
And that catches us up to the start of the Year of the Rabbit. There’s not much more to do now except show you this week’s short film.
This Week’s Short Film:
(Edited)
Astute readers probably noticed a different film here for the first couple hours this post was live. Given that the person who uploaded their short film didn’t allow for embedding, it left an ugly notice here that no one on staff liked. Rather than let such a thing slide, I’ve decided to remove it entirely and post a different one in its place.
Reversal of the Heart (2011)
Here’s something that couldn’t be clearer: Quarantine Control is going nowhere. Here’s to many more entries over the next several weeks. We’ll reach the 200th entry before anyone realizes it, both the readers and contributors.
About The Author
dcstaff
The collective will of the Damage Control staff combined into a single article.
