Lupin season 3

 Omar Sy is back with the third season of Lupin, the story of a gentleman thief Assane Diop, who plans his heists inspired by the books of the french book character Arsene Lupin.

And a year after the show-down with Pellegrini, he lives incognito in Marseille, putting aside for now his ways.

But his ex-wife Claire and his son Raoul are constantly harrassed by media, as he still is the most wanted man in France, as well as having unintentionally become a cult figure.  He contacts Claire, telling her to escape together, but she rebukes him, that the only way he could redeem himself is by turning himself in.

Not planning on doing that, he decides to steal the Black Pearl, stage his own death and use the money to flee the country with his family instead.  He plans the robbery in detail, including staging an accident where he falls of a 16 meters high roof killing him apparently, only to escape from his grave through a tunnel.  But his plan is on hold when he receives a phone call from his long lost mother Mariama, whom he had last heard as she was in prison and he was a young boy.  She asks for his help as she has been kidnapped and her captors want the pearl as ransom.

Guedira and Raoul, both in their own ways, investigate Assane's death, refusing to believe it is real.  Mariama's kidnappers order Assane to steal a painting for them.  Using a tracker, he follows his contact to whom he delivered the painting, finding out that the leader of the kidnappers is a ghost from his past that came back to haunt him.  Keller, the leader, used to be a social worker boxing trainer in his youth, where he and Bruno trained together.  But soon they where used for a robbery during the finals of the 1998 world cup which France won.   However, during the escape, they are forced to shoot a police officer and Keller is taken to prison for this as the two boys made their escape.  

Assane steals a valuable bracelet at a gala for his captors, working together with Benjamin.  However, he frames his best friend to shift the attention away from him, but Guedira doesn't buy it.  He is contacted by Assane, proving the theory he is still alive, and even decides to work with him to sell the painting, in order to frame the kidnappers of his mother.  Claire figures out Assane is still alive, and was near her disguised as Raoul's basketball coach, due to a ketchup bottle put back in her fridge.

With Keller's girlfriend arrested in the sale of the painting, he orders the assassination of Claire and Raoul, while Assane's mother manages to escape.  Claire and Raoul manage to escape a break-in by Keller, and rejoin Assane and his mother in the "Hollow Needle", Assane's studio where he makes his disguises.  They make a plan together to get Benjamin out of jail by confronting a corrupt minister, before setting up Keller for the pearl and having him arrested.  Assane makes good on his promise to Guedira, allowing him to be arrested without having told his family who are waiting at the station for him.  When Benjamin instead turns up with the fourth train ticket, they realise he turned himself in, just as Claire told him to do at the beginning...

But in his sell, he receives an enveloppe containing a picture of him as a youth holding an Arsene Lupin book, send by none other then his fellow prisoner Pellegrini...

Now it is only a wait and see if there will be a fourth season, or that this would be a fitting ending: his family and friend safe, and he doing the time for his commited crimes.  Either one would be fine with me to be honest.

Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3

 I always likes the Guardians entries in the Marvel universe, as these films where funnier and less serious in tenure then the regular one, so together with Noshi I sat down and watched the final instalment.

But I must say before I do the synopsis, while this is seen as a great farewell movie to the series, it just wasn`t that funny as the previous ones.

Surely it had it's moments, mostly with the Drax one-liners and Kraglin trying to master Yondu's whistle arrow, but overal, it just was more serious and "deep" then the previous films featuring our space-adventuring misfits.

Residing know on Knowhere, the Guardians are attacked by Adam Warlock, a Sovereign warrior that has been created by the high priestess Ayesha.  Rocket gets critically wounded, and the medpacks only endanger him more due to a kill-switch embedded in his body when he was created at Orgocorp, helmed by the High Evolutionary, all those years ago.

Star-Lord decides to go to the Orgocorp and find the override code, as an unconcious Rocket relives his tragic past and how he came to be, as an antormorphic experiment for a new world called Counter-Earth.  He befriends the other creatures from Batch 89, the otter Lylla, the walrus Teefs and the rabbit Floor.  The High Evolutionary was at first impressed with Rocket's development, but took a hating to him when he started to exceed his own, and wants to harvest his brain to see how this came to be.

Rocket wants to free his fellow redundant batch 89 friends before they get destroyed, but in the ensueing fight they are killed as he makes his escape with a rocket ship.  In the present, the Ravagers, with an alternate version of Gamora, help infiltrate the Guardians into Orgocorp, but find the code had been removed from Rocket's files.  They depart for Counter-earth to retrieve the code from the advisor that has it stored in his memory upgrade, but are followed by Ayesha and Adam.  

As they manage to confront the High Evolutionary, Star-Lord questions him and as the High Evolutionary tells him of how dissatisfied he is with Counter-Earth, destroys the planet and it's inhabitants.  Peter manages to obtain the code and restart Rocket's heart as the kill switch goes into motion.  On the High Evolutionary's ship, the Guardians find several genetically modified children, and a rescue mission is staged, including the bringing in of Knowhere itself, before a battle breaks out on the giant headshaped spaceship against the High Evolutionary's Hellspawn.  

Star-Lord nearly is killed, but is saved by Adam who came to see the error of his ways after being saved himself by Groot.  In the aftermath, Peter decides to leave the Guardians and rejoin with his grandfather on earth, as the other members pursue their own personal agenda's and a new team is formed with Rocket as it's leader.

And so the story ends for Star-Lord and his excentric group of unlikely heroes.  As I said at the beginning, a great farewell to the team, but alas some more "fun" as especially the first instalment had would have been great!

Warhammer Underworlds: Elathain's Soulraid

 The latest warband I painted up for the excellent Warhammer Underworlds, I always had a soft spot for the Idoneth Deepkin.

So much I`ve finally decided to make work of my Age of Sigmar army for them in the coming year, but that is for another blogpost.

But the Soulraid as such.  First of all, I love the models, and even though looking at the fighter cards, it seems they lack both a bit of body, as well as damage output.  Luckily though, that is not all there is to a game of Underworlds, as objectives and the ability to score are just as important as the fighters themselves.

And the band has some farely do-able objectives it seems, even though some require serious aggressive play, so that will be something to master.  They also have a special, tide based, Inspire mechanic, and then there is the fish.

I will be taking them along when I manage to get out for some casual gaming, and try to get the hang of them, but I will enjoy putting them on the table.  I must say, I like all the models and their style, their bases are lovely sculpted, and the crab remains epic!

 

 

And I can actually take them in AOS as well, so in a way they are the unofficial first unit ready for that army as well...

Saintia Sho volume 4 - Masami Kurumada and Chimaki Kuori

 So, time for some french reading this time round, as the volumes are either difficult to find, or sheer ridicilous in price, for the english tomes.

Guess that's a benefit of being belgian then...

We ended volume 3 with the threat of Eris being overcome thanks to Scorpio Milo, but something bigger looms behind the scenes.  While Xiao-ling receives her cloth of Ursa Minor, Saori goes to visit Shoko in the hospital at the eve of the Galactic Wars tournament.  Here she tells her she no longer needs to fight for her, and says her farewells to Shoko, as she tells her the tournament is a rouse to pull out a bigger evil out of the shadows.

She confers with Mi about this, telling her that Shoko suffered to much pain with the two-times loss of her sister Kyoko to be clear of mind to fight for the peace on Earth, just as Xiao-ling arrives at the mansion.  Sanctuary has heard of the Galactic Wars tournament, and send agents to stop it, with Silver Saints Yuan of Scutum and Georg of Southern Cross, together with one of the saintia, Katia of Corona Borealis.  

Outside the hospital, Shoko meets Seiya, the Pegasus saint, who tells her he fights to find his lost sister back.  She attends the tournament, seeing him win (his epic) battle against Shiryu of Dragon.  As Katia and the Silver Saints arrive in Japan, they go to the Colloseum where they confront Saori and her maidens Xiao-ling and Mii.  Xiao-ling quickly attacks Katia, but proves no match for the ice saintia, and is quickly frozen in the spot.  As she explains to Saori her loyalty to the Grand Pope comes from him saving her life, she challenges her to show her cosmo, but still recovering from the fight with Eris Saori is unable to.

Shoko intervenes, having decided that she will put her life on the line to defend Athena at all costs, like she did for her.  She blocks Katia's attack, but as she wants to retaliate the Silver Saints step in, having far greater power then Shoko.  But just as they are about to attack, Saori and the girls are whisked away thankt to Peacock Mayura, the blind woman that trained Shoko before and the strongest of the female saints.  She easily brushes the other Silver saints aside, as in anctuary the Grand Pope has a bout of inner turmoil.

Shoko needs to restart her training as her cloth is being restored, as she is told the story of the struggle between Athena and the Grand Pope, but as they are about to return to the city, Pisces Aphrodite arrives to take Athena back to Sanctuary.  Awakening there, she is met by a crying Grand Pope at her side...

So that was a volume with a lot of explanation, especially if you haven`t seen the original OR the Saintia Sho animes, this clears up already a lot of things, without the major plot twist being revealed yet.

November 2023 Loot

 Just one more month to go and the year is again behind us, time does fly.

And what time that did also fly, was the release date of my Lunamaria Hawke scale!

The links:

Lunamaria Hawke: this lovely figure came through AmiAmi to my collection.

So a limited amount of loot, but what great stuff it has been.

Next month, the ultimate episode in this series that ran for 2 years on the blog, so check it out as it will contain some nice thingiemajingies!

On the Painting Desk 258

 Okay, so I did finish at least one of my two targets for november, as Elathain's Soulraid is all painted up.

Now to get some games in with them before the end of the year!

That means moving on to the remaining target for november, the magma thrower cannon.  Good going, from the first month of planning things to finish every month, I already get overspill hehehe.

Other targets for the last month of the year are the Fomoroid, and a figure still under way which I will be calling Heikki the First, but more on that in a future blogpost I guess.

Now to try and get some brushwork in, because apart from the holidays busy-ness, there is a lot on my plate for the coming two months!

The Haul Report 382: Tournament Loot

 This weeks haul report brings tournament loot, which certainly has been a LONG time since that happened.

From february 2020 to be precise...

And just like that time, it is loot for Warhammer Underworlds.  Having played last week in the GW store's event for Deathgorge, I ended up with some sets of alternate art cards for both Deathgorge starting warbands, as well as the objectives.  Add to that the lovely acryll wound tokens to replace the plastic ones, and I think this is some awesome stuff for the game.

Might not be the most spectacular haul, but the fact it is tournament gained makes it great for the inner gamer's fire hehehe.

On another note, and tournament related, is this Empire figure who will serve in a special unit for my Chaos Dwarfs, more on that once he is painted up though.

He was, by the way, a cheap find on Vinted.

 

So, a nice week with some cheap loot this time round.

Service announcement, Crisis wargame show is back

 It has been a few years due to circumstances.

It will have a shift in focus.

But the Crisis wargame show is coming back in 2024, at the 2nd of November.

I can`t say much more yet of location, format and more, apart from the message the club shared with it's members yesterday evening.

But it looks like I will be busy in a short years time wandering a show and doing some bargain hunting!

The Devil is a Part-Timer season 2 part 2

 Our beloved MgRonald's hamburger place managing evil overlord is back, with the second course of the second season that saw him, amongst others, become a father.

Well, technically, watch part 1 to see how it all came about that he and the legendary hero Emilia suddenly found themselves with a cute daughter, Alas Ramus.

With MgRonald's back in business and upgraded, he decides to follow a barista course to be able to serve customers even better.  But the girls keep meeting together, making him and his two generals, Urushihara and Ashiya, suspicious.  One day they follow them to the bath house "on accident", learning that Emilia and Bell are actually training Chiho at her request.  She wants to be ableto mentally link with the others in case of danger, or to be able to aid them better.

Suddenly, as Maou and Emilia have a discussion due to Emilia being depressed for no longer being able to blame the devel for everything of her past, two strange people appear.  Farfarello is a demon of the Malebranche faction, who wants the devil to return as they occupied the Eastern Continent on Ente Isla, while Erone is seemingly a human kid with great mental powers.  Thanks to Sariel, who is down as the MgRonald's manager has refused him entrance in her restaurant, they break through the mental barrier erected, and Emilia overcomes them.  But Alas Ramus refuses to strike Erone, claiming him to be the same as her.

During the barista course, Chiho is taken before Farfarello by Erone, luring Maou to him and to explain the sitution in Ente Isla and why they need him there.  But Maou lays down his plans, powered by the celestial energy of Emilia and Bell to take on his true appearance, and how he wants to conquer this world without the use of violence.  Farfarello returns as such to the other world, to bring forth his orders and wishes.

In order to have Alas Ramus sleep over, Maou and Emilia have to go out shopping for a futon, actually making them look like a true family.  But Emilia decides to go to her parental home on Ente Isla for a while, to trace her mother's steps.  But as the days pass without any news from her, her friends start to worry.  As Maou goes for his moped license, a girl named Tsubasa suddenly comes over to sniff him, accompanied by a man looking as Emilia's dad. 

Apparently Emilia did call her collegue, miss Suzuki, but the others have doubts it was actually her, but then Chiho sends an SOS, causing Bell and Lucifer to fly off, forgetting that Suzuki is present and leaving Alciel with a lot of explaining to do.  Tsubasa turns out to be Alas ramus younger sister Acieth Alla, while the man is indeed Emilia's father, Nord.  But at Chiho's school, a Malebranche demon called Libicocco wants to cause some rampage.  Bell and Lucifer confront him, as Acieth Alla and Maou are on their way to help out as well.  But soldiers surround their house, Alciel realising they are actually after him for some reason.

In her hometown, Emilia and Alas Ramus soon miss the luxuries of Japan.  She is 'invited' by Olba who now has her dad, to do his bidding as a figurehead in the war against the demons.  Maou, who together with Bell go to Ente Isla to find Emilia, confesses to her he only accepted becoming the demon ruler to make the world a better place for them, but as they needed magic to sustain themselves needed to invade the human lands.  Alciel is told by Gabriel what their plans are with him and to get the war going with him as a puppet leader for the demons.

Back in Japan, miss Amane reveals to Lucifer that she and her aunt are actually half-sephiroth, the species of Alas ramus and Acieth Alla.  Back in Ente Isla, Acieth Alla can't fuse with Maou as for some reason the magic isn't returning to him.  Emilia, feeling powerless to stop the killings of the demons, struggles with her feelings towards Maou, but rejoices in the news that he has arrived and coming for her.  

Joined by their friend Albert, Bell infiltrates the castle of the Emperor, but Gabriel stops them and teleports them across the lands.  This does give them the chance to end the faux-trial against Emeralda and put the church back on order unknown to Gabriel.  As Maou and Acieth Alla charge into battle on honking scooters, they save Emilia's dad, and the two sephiroth siblings reunite.  Maou gets a fitting shard of Yesod, and now Acieth Alla can fuse with him as his magic reawakens, quickly taking down the angels and overthrowing Olba.  The lands restored for now, they all return to japan (including Nord and Acieth Alla), and enjoy a good meal together as miss Amane and the landlord lady arrive to collect Gabriel.

So this was great fun, the scooter charge was hilarious, and now I wonder if there will be a final season (3 or 4 depending which numbering you follow) for the last volumes of the manga.  Hopefully just not 9 years like it was between season 1 and season 2...