Watchalong commenary: Samurai Surprise

[akinoame]

Akino Ame 2:50 pm
Okay, the Emperor IS in this
So what the hell happened to Vrak?

Kaitou 2:51 pm
yeah

Akino Ame 2:52 pm
Pfft. Jake's in love with Mentor Jii's bike
Noah meanwhile recognizes him
'Cause he does his fucking homework

Kaitou 2:53 pm
I think the general consensus (until proven wrong) is "Vrak died on earth"
or "It's too dangerous to look for him"

Akino Ame 2:53 pm
No, he survived

Kaitou 2:54 pm
no I mean for the villains motivations

Akino Ame 2:54 pm
I know they assume he's dead, yeah
They said as such in the first episode

Kaitou 2:54 pm
Knowing these guys, we'll possibly find out soon

Akino Ame 2:54 pm
But I mean in general, what happened to him?
How are they bringing him back?
I really hope they were lying about him not being Basco

Kaitou 2:54 pm
he went into hiding as suggestions. Who knows, he might be Basco's monster form

Akino Ame 2:54 pm
Because that's the best possible answer

Kaitou 2:54 pm
yes

Akino Ame 2:54 pm
They'd said no, Vrak won't be Basco. But PLEASE
I mean, it's PERFECTLY IC with Vrak

Kaitou 2:55 pm
honestly, Saban is "lying" about everything right now. there's so much subterfuge with this season it's incredible

Akino Ame 2:55 pm
Everything that happens to Sally? That's Vrak's THING
Yeah, I know

Kaitou 2:55 pm
The stealth voice actors
not announcing Ji or Jayden at ALL...

Akino Ame 2:55 pm
JASON WROTE IT!

Kaitou 2:55 pm
yes
it is fucking amazing as a result

Akino Ame 2:55 pm
Yeah, they announced Jayden AGES ago. Jii was a shock

Akino Ame 2:57 pm
I really, REALLY thing that Vrak was the one everyone wanted on the throne
Older, younger, doesn't matter. He was the son the Emperor was proud of

Kaitou 2:57 pm
yeah

Akino Ame 2:57 pm
But no. Vrak's "dead" and VERAK is the heir now

Kaitou 2:57 pm
Can I just say I really like Verak's voice work?

Akino Ame 2:58 pm
Vekar, whatever
I LOVE IT
Best VA
It's like "Oh, whiny royal? I CAN DO THAT!"

Kaitou 2:58 pm
yesss

Akino Ame 2:58 pm
Also, he's got the Royal Canterlot voice or something


Akino Ame 3:00 pm
And Jason was having the time of his life writing this episode
It's legitimately funny
None of this forced humor crap that plagues PR. It's WITTY

Kaitou 3:01 pm
I'm damn sure he lifted some of the lines from Gokaiger

Akino Ame 3:01 pm
Oh yeah
And is that the RPM theme playing in the background for no fucking reason?

Kaitou 3:02 pm
because you can SEE the actors expressions lighting up in their eyes when they do this

Akino Ame 3:02 pm
Yeah
Troy especially
It's like he's finally given some MATERIAL

Kaitou 3:03 pm
I looked at the writing team for the last one

Akino Ame 3:03 pm
WF?

Kaitou 3:04 pm
considering how awkwardly delivered the episode was, I wanted to check the authors and apparently they were known for the most deadpan episodes of Megaforce and Samurai

Akino Ame 3:04 pm
Ah
Gonna be honest: It sounds like the Rangers are trying to MATCH the MMPR voices
Line delivery from Troy and Emma sounds almost identical to Jason and Kim

Kaitou 3:04 pm
the same infliction is there
yes

Akino Ame 3:04 pm
Yep
Down to yelling every goddamn word
Maybe THAT'S the MMPR ultimate power
SCREAMING EVERY LINE LIKE IT'S THE LAST THING YOU'LL EVER DO
So I hope that means Space means Troy keeps getting into bar brawls and Galaxy means he keeps losing his shirt

Kaitou 3:06 pm
if Jason writes it, I would not be surprised

Kaitou 3:06 pm
honestly, it seems like they put Jason on the biggest episodes thus far

Akino Ame 3:06 pm
I'm glad they've put this much trust into him, when he's basically a rookie

Kaitou 3:06 pm
Noah's ascention to badassery, Samurais' tribute...
yes

Akino Ame 3:06 pm
It's like he walked in, said "I'm a former PR myself, I know how exactly what the actors are going to want to say and do, AND I watched the source material."

Kaitou 3:07 pm
and he had said when he first announced he was writing for it was "I watched Gokaiger AND Go-Busters"
and I have no doubt he's watched the Dinosamba too

Akino Ame 3:08 pm
Oh he did

Akino Ame 3:08 pm
That got me VERY excited
Because while I might not be into Kyoryuger and I might not be into MMPR, I LIKE Jason's writing

Kaitou 3:08 pm
If they actually y'know, mix a few elements of GB into Dinosamba, I would love it if he used J to the HILT

Akino Ame 3:08 pm
And Troy and Jake sound a bit like Leo and Damon here. Nice
I wouldn't be surprised
Thought, to be honest? He might have helped talk everyone out of GB
If only because yeah, it's VERY hard to adapt
I wonder if he's watching ToQ now

Kaitou 3:09 pm
Yeah. From a writing standpoint, it's a bloody nightmare

Akino Ame 3:09 pm
You've ALREADY got a lot of PR elements, and then you add the fact that you have to cut SO MUCH footage? It's an RPM level nightmare

Kaitou 3:10 pm
yes, definitely

Akino Ame 3:10 pm
The zord footage is fine. But it'd end up being a very expensive production

Akino Ame 3:10 pm
Like RPM started
Okay. Nice way to handle it
Instead of a straight-out demorph, Noah keeps dropping levels
Out of LG mode, out of Super mode, down to Mega only and if he loses there, he's screwed
THAT IS A GOOD WAY TO ADAPT THIS WITHOUT DEALING WITH JOE'S BACKSTORY

Akino Ame 3:12 pm
We ALREADY know that Noah doesn't take his failures well, ESPECIALLY against superior swordsman

Kaitou 3:12 pm
yep

Akino Ame 3:13 pm
I can honestly see every loss resulting in people duct taping him to the crow's nest to keep him from going off and nearly killing himself training
FUCK YEAH, NOAH! SAVE YOURSELF!
...I MAY be a little biased in favor of Noah

Akino Ame 3:14 pm
And Jason went all out on Prince Whinesalot
Too dizzy to stand. Disoriented while teleporting. I LOVE IT
...Jayden, great entrance
SOMEONE has learned to relax
"What? You've never seen a Ranger order a froyo before?"

Akino Ame 3:17 pm
Okay, I'm betting that it's Tommy who's got this whole thing set up
If Jayden can keep track of the Mega Rangers and have a disk ready for them? Tommy

Kaitou 3:20 pm
exactly

Akino Ame 3:20 pm
Because let's face it: Tommy's surveillance of the other Rangers is a little bit creepy
And I think it's nice that instead of focusing on just one particular Ranger (Noah again), they're spreading it out among the guys
All three of them are taking this loss hard
The girls not as much

Kaitou 3:22 pm
I noticed that, mostly I think though is because they had to work with the footage at hand

Akino Ame 3:22 pm
Yeah
And honestly, a LOT of Gokaiger focuses on either Marvelous or Joe

Kaitou 3:23 pm
yes

Akino Ame 3:23 pm
At least as far as tributes go
I wonder if Jason's going to write the JF tribute. They'd be fools not to let him

Kaitou 3:24 pm
yeah no doubt

Akino Ame 3:25 pm
I sense a new fan term
Gia calls out "Legendary Ranger blitz" before using Maskman. So I'm guessing that'll get referred to as the Blitz Rangers in fanon

Kaitou 3:26 pm
yeah

Akino Ame 3:29 pm
Jayden got a bike too. Nice

Kaitou 3:30 pm
yep

Akino Ame 3:30 pm
I like the idea of Mentor taking him on a crosscountry trip
It's great fic fodder too

Akino Ame 3:33 pm
VA this time was Kamdor in OO and Snapper in JF