House of the Dragon season 2

 Well, I can't say I was wild about the first season, being slow paced and, well, felt half and half.

Which is in a bit like the latter seasons of it's parent series Game of Thrones, and not a good thing for that matter...

But never the less, we are giving this internal strife between the House Targaryans a second try, and how it comes to be.  Though I often raised eyebrows, something doesn't feel right in the timespan of when it is supposed to set, and what I know from A Song of Ice and Fire lore.  But that is one matter, let's see if this was an enjoyable watching experience.

With the two sides of the house now facing off against each other, they both have to look for troops and power.  Cregan Stark promises Rhaenyra 2000 men in front of the Wall.  In the meantime, Daemon's command to kill Aemond and Vhagar in revenge for Luke is refused.  Aegon II strives to be a benevolent king, but his Hand, Otto Hightower, urges restraint to keep resources for war.  Daemon sends out two assassins after Aemond, but as they fail to find him they murder Aegon's son Jaehaerys instead.

This causes chaos, as Aemon wants revenge.  Rhaenyra worries her popularity will suffer, and suspects Daemon of ordering it in case Aemond was abscent.  Daemon, denying it, flies of to Harrenhal to recruit alliances amonst the River Lands.  Aegon orders the hanging of all rat catchers, but Otto is furious about this, fearing public revolt.  Aegon dismisses him, instating ser Criston as Hand instead.

In the River Lands the feuding Brackens and Blackwoods fight out a battle over a minor dispute.  Criston proposes a bold plan to capture Harrenhal, as it's warden, ser Simon Strong, has pledged alliance to Daemon.  But he also meets a strange witch there, Alys.  When Baela, riding Moondancer, spots Criston's forces, Rhaenyra's council urge her to bring the dragons to war, but she refuses.  Instead she infiltrate's King's Landing herself and meets with Alicent, but they can't reach a peaceful resolution.  Upon her return to Dragonstone, she agrees to set out the dragon's into the war.  Rhaenys volunteers with her dragon Meleys, as a drunk Aegon sets of on Sunfyre to Rook's Rest.  

Rhaenys burns ser Criston's troops, as Aemond and Vhagar wait in ambush, delaying his attack when Aegon and Sunfyre arrive.  As Meleys mauls Sunfyre, Aemond flies in, ordering Vhagar to burn both dragons alike.  But Vhagar kills Meleys in the air, causing Rhaenys to fall to her death as ser Criston find Aemond near Aegon, who lies motionless next to the heavily wounded Sunfyre.  As Meleys head is paraded through King's Landing, causing consternation amongst the people, Aegon has seemingly survived but is severly injured, unable to rule.  The Small Council don't elect Alicent but Aemond as regent. 

In Dragonstone, as politics are set in motion to gather more allies, Rhaenyra laments that the only dragons large enough to challenge Vhagar, namely Vermithor and Silverwing, don't have riders, and a plan is formed to look in the other houses for those of Valyrian descent.  As Criston marches on Harrenhal, and Tyland Lannister must ally with the Triarchy to break the Velaryon blockade of the seas.  Ser Steffon Darklun, a distant Targaryan descendant, is brought before Seasmoke... and is incinerated.  But one of Corlys bastard sons, Addam, is pursued by Seasmoke, who accepts him as his rider and he pleas fealty to Rhaenyra.  Rhaena is looking for a wild dragon near the Eyrie that is seemingly killing the herds around the lands.  Bastards of Targaryen descent are then brought before the dragons, and while many are killed, Hugh, a blacksmith, and Ulf, a drunkard, are accepted.  Vermithor becomes Hugh's mount, as Ulf gets to ride Silverwing.

Tyland Lannister succeeds in allying the Triarchy to his cause, as Aemond destroys Sharp Point.  Rhaenyra finally declares war on them, hoping that having more dragonriders would have opened more peaceful venues.  Rhaenyra and Addam fly to Harrenhal, where Daemon reswears fealty after a vision involving White Walkers and Daenerys Targaryen.  As the armies mobilize for war, Alicent travels secretly to Dragonstone, but Rhaenyra tells her Aegon must die in order for the war to end...

Okay, so this was better then the first season for sure.  Not the greatest of fantasy series, but it was very engaging watching as the two factions struggle with how to take each other on in the best manner.  And it had some epic moments for sure, the dragon battle above Rook's Rest standing out.

Okay, so let's wait for the third season and see how it rolls then...

The Haul Report 412: kicking off the new year

 A new year, so time for new heaps of loot to be added to the piles.

And the first episode are mainly things that arrived during the holiday season, but only recently gotten round to opening.

First of, we have a parcel from the last wins of last year on TokyoCatch, including the gacha bunny figure that I didn't know what it would be.

From Vinted, some Mordheim Marienburg Youngbloods arrived, who will go on duty as champions in my Escalation force.

More bases came in from AliExpress as well during the period, to base up the cavalry forces.

 

 

 

 

 

More stuff arrived through Vinted, with some scenery pieces. Both first pictures are some 3D printed ones with a medieval house and a guard tower and some ruined parts, as well as the ruins for Spearhead so I can complete those as well before the tournament in march.

From War House Games I shopped the one item that didn't come from my christmas list, namely a 2x2 game mat for some solo adventures.

Another very cheap Vinted find was this Circle Orboros starter box.  Even though it is the italian edition, I just wanted it for the excellent models as I am restarting my WarmaHordes force this year.

Another BIG haul came from Vinted as well, as no less then 6 boxes of Runewars "wood elf" archers where obtained... for 25 euro.

I also obtained some beers and Efteling christmas hangers from the family on New Years Day!

 

 

Finally, an order from Warbases came in, with some needed 3" round MDF bases and a small house for the Empire setting.

And that's it for this week, a nice pile to start of the year with for sure!

On the Painting Desk 311: and we are off for a new year of painting

 Here we are, with the first update into 2025 and the battle against my very ambitious goals for the year.

And we did get off to a good start in the past week at least.

Both the Crossbowmen unit and the Doomseeker have been based up for the Escalation League, and on the side I have also finished painting the endless spell to represent a vortex in the game.  Aside from that, I have been painting on more "round 2" for the league with the command groups, and on a giant rat to be the final needed enemy for the first game of Rusty Dagger.

I hope to have all those finished and based by the end of the next week, as the new BATG on Chaos Dwarf Online will also be starting and get that gray mountain counter running for the new year.  A year where a lot of figures are under way as well, as you will see soon in a Haul Report... with big lots of Runewars figures bought cheaply, and a Warlord Games mystery box coming my way end of the month.

So it seems before we can dwindle the pile this year, it will first swell quite a lot, but I am confident that in the end I will be able to break the limit of painting more then buying...

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

 I'm not that horror movie watcher, but I do like my Dracula from time to time.

And this movie is based on a single chapter from Bram Stoker's novel, "The Captain's Log".

 

Now, often movies that linger long in development hell are rubbish, but this one is actually greatly enjoyable, especially as the idea for making it was formed... with Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1992, only to come out in 2023, 31 years later!

 

Even though the movie was a box office bomb, I guess that has more to do with the genre and blockbusters seemingly need to include the Hulk these days, then the actual quality of the film...

 

In August 1897, the merchant ship Demeter washed up on the shore of England, and in the wreckage investigators find the log of it's captain, Eliot, and the doomed voyage they endured.  One month earlier the vessel had taken cargo aboard in Bulgaria, delivered by local Romanian workers.  But the workers don't want to stay and go along with the vessel, declaring they must make haste before sundown.

 

Seeking more crew, Clemens, a doctor and Cambridge graduate, is enlisted after an other candidate refuses the job for seeing the mark of the dragon on the crates.  When an accident threatens to crush Eliot's grandson Toby, Clemens saves him and earns the gratitude of the captain.  Aboard the ship another crate falls and reveals a woman inside buried in dirt.  Clemens performs a blood transfusion on her, saving her life.  Later in Aegean sea, Clemens and Olgaren, one of the crew, spot a mysterious figure shrouded in fog on the deck.

 

 

A night later, all the livestock and the ship's dog are found dead, as the woman, named Anna, awakens and warns them of the "monster of Transylvania" that feeds on human blood.  She tells him it is known as Dracula and she was offered as a Slave of Blood by her village in order that he left them alone, revealing several bites on her body and telling he is already on board the Demeter.

 

Olgaren gets bitten, turning him into a thrall.  He escapes and starts hunting Toby, trapping him a room together with Dracula.  The young boy can't escape and is bitten by Dracula, as Olgaren, bound to the mast of the ship now, bursts into flames upon sunrise.  Despite blood transfusions from his grandfather, Toby dies and is wrapped in cloth for a burial at sea.  But Eliot believes that he sees him still moving, opening the cloth.  The now thrall-stated child attacks him, bursting in flame by the sun and burning the captain before being tossed in sea and sinking to the bottom.

 

The remainder of the crew want to sink the vessel to prevent Dracula from arriving at his destination and causing further chaos, but they fail as they are killed one by one by the vampire bar Clemens and Anna, who does suffer a fresh bite.  They think they succeeded when they trap the vampire under a part of the mast as they jump ship, but the vessel runs aground, allowing him to escape and scream victorious for arriving in England.  Anna herself starts to turn to a thrall, and sails off on a piece of wreckage into the sun, burning up, as Clemens makes way to the coastline.

 

 

Later, Clemens hears the typical "all clear" knocking of the Demeter in a pub, and spots Dracula, dressed as an aristocrat.  He gives chase as the vampire disappears into the night...

 

Yes, I truly did enjoy this hunter and prey movie, even though we all knew from the beginning that it would end in victory for the vampire.  It had suspense, just enough darkness without becoming annoying, and the score by Bear McGrady helped a lot setting the atmosphere.  

 

I recommend it, even though it might have bombed, it deserves better!

Fantasy Anime League: fall 2024 results

And so the game was on again this Fall, to predict which anime series would do well and score some serious points.

 

 

Like the previous seasons, I aimed to end within the top 50%.

 

So, how did my picks perform this season?  And did my restricted ones perform on top level as hoped for?  Did my wild guess gut feelings pay off?  Let's have a look!

 

Bleach Thousand Year War 3: This came in at 1st place, so a solid score

DanMachi season 5: Hitting 3rd, this meant I had the top 3 of the season predicted

Ao no Hako: The 2nd most viewed anime, and I managed to ace all top 3 for a great score

You are Ms Servant: Ending finally at 20th place, it was a good series for the first weeks before swapping it out

Ranma 1/2: Nostalgia scores my gut feeeling told me, and it came out at 5th place so I was right

Dragon Ball Daima: Always a stable score, the series ended 7th overall

From Common Job Class season 3: Not used in the end, it was a good 8th place

Ao no Miburo: My bad choice, but it didn't get used anyways, as it came in only 44th

 

So, that is a bit of a great result I guess, my 5 main anime's ending with the first 7 spots!

 

On a weekly level, it went like this:

 

Week 1: 306th place with 135461 points, succesfully aced Ao no Hoko

Week 2: 78th place with 355560 points, succesfully aced Bleach

Week 3: 41st place with 678514 points, swapped Ms Servant for Dragon Ball

Week 4: 28th place, 893541 points, succesfully aced DanMachi

Week 5: 285th place, 1104327 points

Week 6: 290th place, 1256897 points

Week 7: 315th place, 1622149 points

Week 8: 326th place, 1756307 points

Week 9: 381th place, 2012409 points

Week 10: 400th place, 2364727 points

Week 11: 418th place, 2530409 points

Week 12: 480th placce, 2785429 points, used Wild Card points bump

Week 13: 287th place, 3636325 points, succesfully aced Ranma 1/2

 

So, I went out solidly out of the gates, scoring some strong points in the opening phase, even getting to 78th place in week 2.   

This allowed the unavoidable fall down the ranking to be post-poned a little, but I kept hovering around the top 1% this edition to my own amazement.  Thanks to being able to ace Ranma 1/2 in the final week, for the nice 75k bonus points, I climbed almost 200 spots on the finish line, putting me in 287th spot in the end, and the top 1%.

So a really good season of predicting for sure, and that of course sets the bar for future seasons on this guessing game!

 

 

 

 

Lord Ipsqueek's Adventures: Plopsaland De Panne

 Hello loyal subjects to the King under the Mountain!

Do I have another epic adventure to share with you today.

You see, two days ago my godmother, Auntie Shefaly, took me along to Plopsaland De Panne (that is near the Belgian coast should you not know the map of my kingdom), and I brought Moeke, mommy and daddy along to serve my every need.

After a ride in what daddy called "it's a Beemer yeah, but a toy version on batteries" we arrived at the amusement park, basically a step up from the Plopsa Indoor Antwerp that I visited twice already.  

And so we entered this realm of stories and tales, ready to explore.  Though I must admit I was a bit tired the first part of the day, but luckily I pulled through to be my own joyous self again instead of a pocketsized copy of grumpy dad when he sleeps not enough hehe.

Our first visit was to Maya Land, where I went in a merry go round of flying flowers with mommy.

While daddy was taking some overpriced, limited edition and as he would call it by the end of the day, the only disappointment, coffee.

There was also still a small house that remembers Meli Park, the amusement park from daddy's young days (did they already invented rollercoasters back then????) and which later beame Plopsaland.

I also met my fierce mount for when I grow up!

After which I gave driving lessons to auntie Shefaly, can't beat a good tractor after all.

Mommy also took me on a balloon flight, from which I could see a lot of the park from up high.

Then it was time for lunch, and we went to the lovely Prinsessia Castle for a sandwich.

Even though daddy's seemed to come in a bottle... he mumbled something about Untappd...

I then went with daddy into the spinning Koffiekopjes, which is like Sindbad in the Efteling and something I really love riding in as they twist and turn around.

It even snowed in the park!  Though apparently it wasn't real one but foam, but it was fun to play with while daddy went to take a Big Splash.

We then took the train around the park, so we could see all there is to the place and what we definitly needed to visit still for me!  And there where even dinosaurs in the park!!!

The park was also dressed up nicely, with lovely houses and a heap of fun looking figures from television.

I then went to sail on some ducks with aunti Shefaly...

after which I went to ride some rabbits with daddy...

 

 

and hop along in some frogs with Moeke.

 

 

 As the evening set in, I took the ladies out for a nice sailing trip on the Tik Tak boats.

It was pretty with all the lights I must say.

The final ride we took sailed us through the forest of Kabouter Plop in a great animatronics darkride.

As auntie Shefaly's car still needed some charging before going home, and my tummy grumbling, we went to a little frituur nearby the park for some haute cuisine...

... and then we drove back home after a fantastic day in the amusement park.

Thanks eveyone for taking me there, it was another great adventure I had, and I look forward to the next one for sure!  Daddy will be putting some more videoclips of the day on his channel as well, so you can see me there in action as I brave the various attractions of the park!

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

 Well, guess it's time to finally catch up on all those Marvel and DC thingies, and that is a LOT I still need to watch.

So totally at random, I began with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which follows on End Game (and which I haven't watched either).

Six months after receiving the shield from Steve Rogers, Falcon stops Batroc and his terrorist group above Tunisia.  But he struggles with the legacy of the shield, and decides to hand it over to the government instead.  But they use this to announce a new Captain America, John Walker, much to the fury of Bucky Barnes.

As Barnes and Wilson travel to Munich to stop a terrorist group called the Flag Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau, the new Captain appears but the Flag Smashers make good their escape.  He wants to work together with the duo, but they refuse in turn to do so.  Barnes introduces Wilson to Isaiah Bradley in Baltimore, another veteran of the Super Soldier serum, and who fought the Winter Soldier during the Korean War.  As he refuses to give information of other serum recipients, they turn to none other then Baron Zemo instead.

He agrees to help them and escapes jail, to travel with the duo to Madripoor and seek for the Power Broker.  He is rumoured to have hired former Hydra scientist Nagel to recreate the serum, and together with refugee Sharon Carter they learn Karli stole 20 vials of the serum that he made.  The Wakandans also arrive a bit later, out to seek Zemo for the killing of their king T'Chaka and make him pay.  Wilson catches up to Karli, but Walker intervenes as they talk, throwing it all into chaos.  Zemo destroys most of the serum in the ensuing fight, before he is arrested by Walker.  When Walker's friend Hoskins is killed in the crossfire, he enrages on one of the terrorists, killing him with his shield before the eyes of all the people in the street.

As Zemo is handed over to Wakanda, Walker is discharged from his role and the army.  Wilson in the meantime, deciding there can be no black Captain America, retreats home to repair the family boat.  But he changes his mind and starts training with the shield, as the Flag Smashers plan an attack together with Batroc on the GRC conference in New York.  Together with Barnes, Carter and Walker, Wilson, now having taken the Captain America name, stopping the attack.  Carter reveals to Batroc she is actually the Power Broker, killing him.  Later on she also kills Karli, as Walker receives a new uniform and codename after the incident: US Agent.  Barnes makes his ammends as Carter, her identity still secret from the others, receives a pardon from the government, rejoining the CIA.

Not to bad of a series, mostly focussed around the problems Wilson sees should he become the first black Captain America, and the struggles of Bucky for his past acts.  But it wasn't to shabby to get going in these series I guess, onwards to the next!