Animation and Comics

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrZG1J6VG2o

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz6OHX924DM

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnvX1Y95Qzc

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbZxjfq1Exc

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cW7AAHC7Zo

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uRRKqQbmw4

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe26UAtNHyo

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mc4q85SXSU

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89JWRYEIG-s

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tWdzcAmz5E

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctUiQSAYOTo

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

https://twitter.com/ManucciFabio/status ... 7663671301

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd1rOtu4SMI

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-MtIYImERI

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_dCEd5QRZg

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D9c3bY2UrA

[Dragaros]

Primal season 2 finished its last episode, what could possible be the last episode of the whole series if it doesn't get picked up for a third.

► Show Spoiler

--flashback to Spear as a child, he originally was a member of a much larger tribe, we see his father, and he's much more ape-like than Spear; maybe Spear was a hybrid between an earlier breed of human and a slightly more modern one, but not as evolved as a Homo Sapiens like Mira.
--Spear's father sacrificed himself to protect the tribe from saber tooth tigers
--they reach Mira's homeland, but her people are no where to be seen
--after a flashback seeing how Mira was captured, they head further inland
--Fang wakes up to go hunt the next morning while she lets Spear babysit her babies, only to run into another human, one of Mira's old friends
--she takes them back to their city, a village built into a mountain, presumably for more protection against raids
--Mira vouches for Spear and the dinos, and the town accepts them
--Spear tries to be a part of Mira's culture and religion, but he struggles with it and can't fit in no matter how much he might want to. He's happy that she's happy, but all this more modern stuff is alien to him, disconnected, brings him no peace or purpose, reminds him of how alone he is truly is in the world, that he may very well be the last of his kind, and the world has moved on without him. He feels more kinship and peace with Fang and her babies and leaves the party to go sleep with them
--Mira, seeing how Spear is struggling, tries to get him to sleep in a house; Fang and her babies follow
--Spear paints his life's story on the wall, which Mira finds the next day, and seems to finally grasp the depths of Spear's plight, that he's a stranger in a strange land and alone and all the hardships he's endured
--Demon Viking finally catches up and Spear and Fang go off to stop him, but quickly realize they are no match against his power; he can shape-shift like Aku, conjure weapons, throw out blasts of fire, and seems pretty much immune to any damage they could deal to him
--they run up a mountain and get cornered, Fang gets set on fire and screams in pain, Spear flies into a rage and charges, which gets himself set on fire even more severely than Fang, but his unbridled fury is so primal he ignores the agony and suicide charges the Demon Viking off the cliff, pummeling him as they fall down the mountain like Gandalf vs the Balrog, but when they reach the bottom, Spear is mortally wounded from his burns, and the Fire Chief is no worse for wear
--Fire Chief having found his vengeance satisfactory means the terms of the deal are complete, and to his surprise and terror, the Dark God comes to collect his soul in payment right then and there and drags him down to the underworld
--Fang survived, and Spear is still alive but dying fast, and Mira takes him to her people's shaman to heal him
--Despite their best efforts, he is beyond saving and declare him dead; Fang loses her shit and storms off in grief with her children
--Spear somehow still isn't dead yet, and Mira seems to want to give Spear the one thing his heart truly wants, a family, a legacy that will live on beyond him, and fucks his charred and ruined husk of a body before his finally succumbs to his injuries
--timeskip: Mira got pregnant, had Spear's child, who is now an adolescent girl, Fang stuck around, her two kids are now adults, and Spear's daughter is riding one of them

Primal’s finale was more satisfying than Samurai Jack’s was, but it was still very, very rushed, and that hurt it. I didn't hate it, but it is flawed. For a show that usually takes its time with slow, methodical pacing, it sprints to the finish line much to its own detriment. The final battle is over way too quickly considering all the build-up it had, and the aftermath is given no time to breathe or focus on the what truly needs focusing on. This should have been a two-parter. Annoying, frustrating and disappointing that Genndy fell into the same trap twice. Genndy clearly has a weakness in his storytelling: endings. This is why Primal Theory pisses me off: it wasted precious and valuable run-time from the main story on unneeded filler that would have been so much better served here. Those 20 minutes could have been used here to great effect. The overall plot points in this episode aren't bad, just the execution from lack of time. This ending lacks fulfillment because it didn't cook properly. The first two-thirds of the episode was great, but the moment Fire Chief entered the quality dropped because it rushed. This ending should have left me in tears, instead I feel cheated. No time for the proper closure.

I have no problem with Spear dying. I think he got an epic death, sacrificing himself to protect those he loves, saving his new adopted family when he couldn't save his old one, going out like a beast, giving one final fuck you to this monster. And to be honest, I'm glad if someone had to die, it was him and not Fang or her babies. RIP and godspeed, Spear. I'm gonna miss ya. Best caveman character ever.

After all that teasing, the fight with the Fire Chieftain was really on the short side. Cool, but really short. For a second there, I thought Spear was gonna transform into that Hulk monster again from Rage of the Ape-Men, like he still had some leftover black goo in his system and the Fire Chief’s demonic magical assault triggered it. That might have been neat to see, if there was time for a more protracted fight. With how quickly things go down, it feels less like a satisfying payoff for a story arc with a bittersweet conclusion and more like a Diablous Ex Machina designed to prevent a happy ending for no real reason at the last minute. Feels like we got robbed out of the badass but tragic climax the episode was going for but didn't quite live up to due to not fleshing it out properly.

I'm just gonna say it: Mira and Spear should have fucked BEFORE he was a dying and overcooked husk. Doing it after was a super weird choice. I understand what Genndy was trying to go for, but still bizarre and unnecessary. Just one step removed from fucking a charred corpse. Not to mention, that probably would have hurt like hell, not felt enjoyable, being covered in horrific and fresh burns that were killing him. Either that or all his nerve endings were so ravaged he couldn’t feel anything. Surprising Mira could get pregnant with him being in that condition. And I see people online are already making jokes and memes and debating on wether Spear could consent in that moment.

I’m also mad that Fang wasn’t with Spear in his last moments and they didn't exchange any final goodbyes. The heart and soul of the entire show was their friendship, this unique bond they’ve forged. Not giving that its due in the end, especially when it could have easily been milked for some real tear-inducing tragedy, and highlighting the thematic throughline for both characters, was a mistake. Fang was with Red during his final moments, and her grief over him dying was not only shown, it carried over to a whole other episode. Having Fang storm off in sadness before Spear actually dies just so Mira could fuck him in private is an example of wrong priorities and a failure to focus on the two leads. Having Fang be so divorced from Spear on his deathbed feels wrong, especially after all they've been through. Her perspective matters too, not just Mira’s. She's not a pet or side character, she's the deuteragonist. And to be clear, I don’t hate Mira. Just that the narrative focus shouldn’t have been put on her in those final moments. The last thing Spear saw before dying should have been Fang.

As much as I enjoyed season 2, I liked Season 1 better. I think the more episodic, monster-of-the-week formula worked better. In Primal's case, simplicity is best.

[Alienmorph]

Yeah, I'm still digesting the finale myself. I can see what they were going for, and it would have worked... IF they took the time to make it a 2-parter and flashed out the conclusion more. Maybe leave out of the random antologic episode and use all the time you got to tell the main story, next time. And I still liked Primal Theory, but in retrospect now it really feels like it just wasted precious time for no good reason.

[Dragaros]

Yeah, I'm still digesting the finale myself. I can see what they were going for, and it would have worked... IF they took the time to make it a 2-parter and flashed out the conclusion more. Maybe leave out of the random antologic episode and use all the time you got to tell the main story, next time. And I still liked Primal Theory, but in retrospect now it really feels like it just wasted precious time for no good reason.

► Show Spoiler

Upon a rewatch, I found my feelings remain the same, and the issues of this being two episodes worth of material being squeezed into one becomes even more apparent.

Genndy said in one interview he scrapped his original plan for season 2 and started over from scratch at some point in development; I'm super curious now what his original outline for the season would have been.

I will say that the emotional beats for most of the episode's run time do hit, the flashback to Spear's father really drives things home, Fang's children are adorable, you feel the struggle Spear's going through, you do have a palpable sense of dread hanging over our duo's heads when the Demon Viking finally catches up to them, and its really sweet to see that Fang and her children stayed with the village in the epilogue (they could have easily gone anywhere they liked, but obviously Fang wanted to watch over Spear's kid the same way he watched out for hers and to honor his memory) but everything else goes downhill fast. Splitting this into two parts would fix this so easily:

Part 1 could fill up its remaining runtime by going deeper into Spear's pain of feeling alone and unneeded, perhaps having both Fang and Mira try to help Spear get out of his funk in their own ways. Maybe Fang takes Spear out hunting, just the two of them like old times, while Mira babysits, wordlessly letting him know that just because she's a mother again, doesn't mean their relationship has changed or that she doesn't need him anymore. And Mira would have her romantic night with him that gets her pregnant, showing that she wants Spear to have a home and a place here, no matter the gulf between him and her. Then have part 1 end on an ominous note after all that hope with Spear seeing the smoke on the horizon.

Part 2 would be the desperate struggle against the Demon Chief with our duo being constantly pushed back and running, like the Plague of Madness episode, attempting all sorts of things to hurt or impede him and failing, like trying to crush him in rock slides or trapping him in a canyon, before finally being cornered on the mountain, and giving more time to flesh out the aftermath. Mira points to her belly or adds her own drawing to his wall art, letting Spear know he's a father, and having Fang curled up around him and he pats her snout one last time before he finally slips the mortal coil. I'm just spitballing ideas.

Browsing online, I'm surprised to see there were a lot of people were hoping for a lot more supernatural elements to come to into play; I've seen folks wish that Mira's moon god would have be revealed to be real and intervene in some capacity to level the playing field, to others who were hoping Spear and Fang would get sucked down to Hell and would have to fight their way out like Kratos or Doomguy.

Considering how little weight the Viking Chief's demonic power really had in the narrative--its only really there to make him so tough that one of the characters has to die--I wonder if the same ends could have been met with something more simple than "Viking makes a deal with Satan and becomes an nigh-unstoppable fire elemental", like maybe just have the Viking Chief be allies with a dragon, furthering the thematic parallels between him and Spear, and that way you have an opponent that's mighty enough to pose a real challenge and be a suitable final boss, Fang can actually contribute to the battle, and Spear can still be fatally burned in the end.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT8QtXL4GSs

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4yLeNt-kCU

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJrPKN8rSWM

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv3ZhzxtbQY

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvIpeYZGH_4

[Dragaros]

Zack Snyder showed up on Teen Titans Go. This was the result:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtAzCg2Nqxw

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

I like how just because Godzilla was willing to team up with the Power Rangers, the moment the danger was over, he was like "Now where were we? Oh yes, I was kicking your ass!"

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

The Black Rage is a hell of a thing.

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

I'm surprised episodes like Plague of Madness, Terror Under the Blood Moon, and A Cold Death aren't higher.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS6rsy-tVNU

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pwe6gAUY-M

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YBL7fx94RU

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk7v4MdUh4M

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJPSNYVSehU