The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E6 - The Founder

 

I am Nostradamus!

Do You Believe!

Esteban and Zia is brought in front of the French king Francis I that seems to be the protector of the Order of the Hourglass that Esteban's father, Ambrosius and Leguerra founded after their mentor, Leonardo da Vinci. And the scared priest or something was in fact also a member of the Order of the Hourglass named, Nostradamus... how interesting. Ambrosius in his Zares costume follows and attacks the children and the Order, seen as a traitor by the other members of the Order and is able to take the artefact the children found. He jumps back to Africa and is on his way.

Meanwhile Mendoza have infiltrated the airship and is reunited with Leguerra, but she stays behind since she must stop Ambrosius somehow. Mendoza returns to the city but is knocked out by Gaspard, but both gets captured by the city guards.

Sancho and Pedro lets the gold fever gets the better of them and is caught by the city guards, but they are able to escape and ends up in the hut belonging to the sister of the king that seems to take a very special interest in the two, so much so that they find it's safer to run to the guards. They are all brought before the king, but before Sancho and Pedro is given the capital punishment the king's sister intervenes and takes Sancho and Pedro away. Mendoza and Gaspard almost begins fighting until Ambrosius returns, leaves Gaspard behind and heads for the airship. Esteban follows, but is too late as he watches Ambrosius fly away with Gaspard having escaped and now hanging on for dear life on the airship.

And the documentary was on Francis I and Leonardo da Vinci and his inventions.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E5 - Gate of the Elders

 

I don't think we're in Africa anymore!

Our heroes are flying over Zimbabwe, which roughly lies where I thought the Drakensberg was supposed to be so I was clearly wrong. Instead we end up at the capital of the decendents from the people of Sheba. The Condor crashes into the walls of the city so the children allows themselves to be kidnapped in order for the adults to hide and come out during nightfall. They are shown to the king of the town and he, for some reason shows them around and when he notices Zia's medallion takes them to the gate of the Elders. A monument in gold (or probably Orichalcium) where the children places the medallions and open up a portal where they enter, ending up in the Chatau de Chambord, a French castle were another gate lies as well as a lot of other artefacts from all around the world. They scare a priest or something that calls the guards. Tao escapes and ends up in a room filled with the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci that also appears in his book (maybe hinting that Leonardo got those ideas from a Mu pyramid that seemed to have been stored there as well, which feels a bit reversal off non-European civilisations got their tech from aliens). Apparently some sources believe he designed parts of the castle as well.

Ambrosius picks up the Olmecs and travels to Zimbabwe and are quite shocked to see the Condor there before him and the children already passed through the gate. He already knew what the gate was for having seen the French one as well saved the people from an epidemic in Zimbabwe. He gears up and prepares to jump through the gate. Mendoza corners Gaspard that reveals that Leguerre is captured and that she works for Charles V, Gaspard is then knocked out. Leguerra finally breaks out of her prison (did it earlier in the episode but had to return when Gaspard came to tell her about the Olmecs).

The documentary was about Chatau de Chambord and the second part is about the unfinished part of the Castle in the show. Apparently it took 30 years to build it (sounded like a 100 when I tried to read the subtitles).

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E4 - The Great Escape

 

Foiled again!

Esteban and Sancho stands face to face with Gomez and he confirms that he knows the location of the city of Ophir, Estaban and him makes a deal to join forces so he and Sancho heads back to the others. Gomez meanwhile asks his soldiers to tail them and capture them all. As the others are preparing the escape of the slaves Esteban tells the others about Gomez which alerts them to the soldiers following Esteban, Esteban and Mendoza stays behind while the others run off to enact the plan. Sancho, Kokopetl and Zia distracts a crew on a ship so that they can get their hand on gunpowder while Tao and Pedro buys up all rum they can get their hands on. Mixing them apparently creates a laxative of some kind which they plan to give to the garrison during the celebration, not of the wedding I thought in the last post, but birthday celebration?

The plan goes well and they rescue the slaves. Mendoza and Esteban meanwhile was captured by Gomez men and talk about the city of Ophir. Apparently Gomez have a map showing the city in a mountain straight across from Madagascar which by a map I pulled from Google seems to be named Drakensberg, which I guess means Dragon's Mountain... AWESOME!

Ambrosius meanwhile takes the airship to a ravine and a cave which leads to a hidden city and as Gaspard and Ambrosius leaves the airship three Olmecs appears and greats Ambrosius that hails them as old friends... It was hinted back in season 2 that they would appear again and here they are! Leguerra meanwhile spent her time trying to unlock her door.

The documentary was about how they built the fortress of Saint Sebastian with the ballast from the ships and the mini-documentary was about how you travelled through the city with tuk tuks. I guess, the auto-text is rather limited.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E3 - Chained Up

 

He's back!

Well, Ambrosius catches up to the Esparanta and as Leguerra notices that she accuses Gaspard, who insist he is innocent and Ambrosius confirms this and Leguerra and him have a duel until she is knocked out. Gaspard convince Ambrosius to let her live so she is locked in to the airship. Ambrosius and Gaspard attacks the Esparanta and fires a harpoon that catches on to the ship and then Ambrosius begins pulling the rope and... begins lifting the ship up in the air... I assume it might be that Gaspard at the same time is steering the airship so that it would work, otherwise I have a really time believing that could happen. After some fighting Ambrosius corners the captain and gets a chest containing the item Leguerra had and a letter addressed to Charles V. With this it's revealed... I think if Ambrosius just didn't jump to conclusion, that Leguerra is a spy working for the Spanish king. The item was a holder for liquid orichalcium that he uses to blow the Esperanta leaving the crew swimming in the ocean and flies away, effectively dooming them if no other ship sails past.

Meanwhile our heroes ends up in Mozambique and the Fort Saint Sebastian where the portuguese slave trade is in full parade. Seems to be a wedding ceremony as well. They split up with Pedro and Tao sitting at an inn trying to get information on the Portuguese, Mendoza and Zia helps some slave girls that tried to steal items from a black smith in order to break free some other slaves and Sancho and Esteban ask some ruffians and are lead to the Governor I think who turns out to be Gomez, one of the main antagonists from the first season and I thought presumed dead at Eldorado as Gomes and Gaspard's boat with gold collapsed as the world shock as the thermal reactor was on it's way to the Earth's core. Well, Gaspard survived so I shouldn't be that surprised. And the fact that the preview from the last episode clearly showed his coat.

The documentary was on the fort and its use for the slave trade and the second part was about cannonballs since it was used by the Esperanta trying to repel Ambrosius. Overall the close caption got worse since it's auto-generated and I fear from this way on then I assume. So the text only gives bit's and pieces.

The Mysterious Cities of Gold - S4E2 - Zia's Dream

 

She's sleeping on the job!

Well, had to continue sometime and I got the craving and there was still no physical release of the thing (or even streaming or digital release either) so I had to make it with the France dub on youtube. At least the english subs are fairly decent, except at some point. There's a point when Leguerra says canaille, which roughly translates to scoundrel, but it was translated here to fucker... I don't think this is what they where going for cause it's so out of place in a children show. And then I haven't studied French but I least I know that word.

Well, story continues where the last one ended. Tao and Esteban is trapped under the rubble from the earthquake and the others tries to find them. Zia uses her mind powers to speak with some mole rats (you know, Rufus from Kim Possible) and gets them to help locate the boys. The village elder helps with the digging and they are able to uncover the children, but another quake collapses the rubble over them again and then Zia turns super sayan and lifts all stones with her mind long enough so that they can escape and then she falls into a coma. And the music is back!

As the other stands guard over Zia the village elder tells them the story of the Queen of Sheba that lived during the age of Solomon and apparently lived in a golden city with a mine, the city of Ophir and apparently had the worlds largest diamond. Zia meanwhile have a prophetic dream and sees a mask in the sky and a vision of the city of gold. More musical callbacks... although the scene would have been better with some technicolor hallucinations like in the first season, although I suspect that it is a callback to that very moment. She wakes up and they set out looking for a Portuguese that have studied the city.

Meanwhile on Ambrosius ship Legueera seems ready to rebel so while Gaspard steers the ship and Ambrosius have hidden himself in his secret lab Legueere sneaks in and finds his Grimoire that tells us that the diamond that the Queen of Sheba have is really the philosophers stone, the stone that can turn lead into gold, cure every disease and thwart death itself. The stakes are high now! Another tussle between Leguerra and Gaspard also reveals that Leguerra had given an item to the captain of Esperanta back in the last season and as Ambrosius overhears that he plots the ships course and then decide to follow, eager to get the item back.

The mini-documentary is about the food the heroes ate in the Ethiopian village and I had actually eaten that in an African restaurant in my city, but they closed half a year ago or something. Fascinating taste of the bread, but maybe to sweet for my taste (and I'm frankly one who like sweet). And then it followed with the mole rats and that they actually had added fur to them since the designer thought they looked ugly which Kokapetle call bullshit on... here I think yet another translation problem arise, but this time I didn't know the word instantly.

Pikmin 4 (Switch)

 

Who let the dog out?

Latest Pikmin game and for the Nintendo Switch, last game for the summer 2023 although I got and finished it after my vacation was over, still work is so slow during those weeks so I could get home after 16:00 without problem. And my co-workers doesn't do anything but talk about gardening and this is the closest I will ever get to it.

Basic story is that Captain Olimar from Pikmin 1 is redoing his adventure and this time ends up in a house on the planet where he finds a radio transmitter that allows him to send out a signal to space. The signal is picked up by the intergalactical Rescue Corp that sets out to save him... and promptly crashes themselves. So they send out their latest recruit, you, the player!

And you set off rescuing the rescue corps with the help of the pikmin you find and a dog that will help you fight and traverse the areas. But you aren't alone, other travellers have stranded as well, there is a school class, some tourists and so on. And a strange leafling that runs around with a dog himself... the same dog Olimar had in the beginning... It's Olimar isn't it?

Yes, while trying to escape the planet he unfortunately crashed back to earth and to save him the pikmins did what they could to save him, they brought him to an onion and it spat out the leafling, more or less the bad ending of the first game. Now he's obsessed with efficency and tries to bring the other stranded people into leaflings so now you gotta do that as well. To cure them you need to do nightly raids where you play sort of a tower defence game as crazed beasts attacks some luminknolls that produce a sap you need to cure the leaflings with. For help you have glow pikmins that seems to be ghost-like pikmins that are created from crystals that the luminknolls use to spew out them. Or if you have rescued Dingo the Ranger he can auto-complete the mission for you if you fail (which I used on the final mission since I was feed up by that time). You save Olimar and are about to go home, but before entering the warp hole your dog grows sick and seems to have caught the leafling bug himself and you have to go back to find a cure.

So you look for a veterinary among the other stranded, but she have been kidnapped by Louie that have taken up Olimars leafling habits. Get the veterinarian back (which is a copy of Brittany from the last game, and copies of Alph and Charlie is here as well) and she confirms that you need the cells from an unaffected dog so you look for Louie until you find him hiding in a 20-level cave with a big dog at the bottom you gotta fight. Well, before that I had to do the Sage Leafs trails to get the onions for the white and purple pikmin to have enough to get through every levels (which made me think out solutions while showering, maybe I'm a bit obsessed at the moment). And then fighting the dog was almost a complete failure. Should have gone to the level before and had diversified my army a bit, or just use red, yellow and ice since that seemed to be the most dangerous phases, especially when I got in with purple white and blue. White helped when he ate them which killed him a bit faster, but it was a really bad deal, but I managed.

Cured the dog and went home, the end! Took me 40 hours pretty much and it was fun... it felt like they changed the timer for the days. I think it was 1 hour in the original, but I still felt I made more progress in the old game. You also have a mode where you play as Olimar that got 15 days to find the 30 pieces of his ship which tells how he got here. There is a remaster of 1 and 2 on the Switch and when I get the physical version I might play that. I actually did finish the original on GameCube, and the sequel on Wii, but there is apparently a bit of QoL improvements that might it even more fun. 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Movie)

Crack that whip!

Well, I watched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in cinema back in the day, would be a waste to miss this one so I went together with my parents and sister while I was on vacation during the summer of 2023. And I enjoyed it. Starts out at the end of second world war as Indiana Jones together with a friend is looking for the Spear of Longinus, also known as the spear of destiny, that is said to have pierced Jesus Christ as he was crucified and the nazi's wanted it to rule the world. First heard about the spear when reading Phantom comics as the Phantom in the 17th-century found the hidden ruins of Lemuria and together with his brother-in-law picks it up, but the spear curses the brother-in-law to become a monster as he want's it's powers to rule the world. Then it appeared in Castlevania and other stuff as a normal occult item, Gabriel Knight 3 also mentioned it for example.

Some occult things at least goes on since they deep-faked Harrison Fords face to look like he did back in the 80's and its uncanny. Still sounds like an old man, but the looks. My sister said at times she got out of it as it wasn't seamless all the time, but I kinda enjoyed it. The spear is taken on a train and Indy's friend gets taken by the nazi's. Indy saves them, finds that the spear is just a fake, but they find one part of the dial of destiny, an item said created by Archimedes that could predict the future. It belonged to a nazi officer and played by Mads Mikkelsen. They stop the train and rescues all the artefacts and treasures in it as the allies comes in. Now we skip to 1969 and Indy is retiring from his professor job when his friends daughter shows up in search for the dial part Indy have hidden away after his friend went mad over studying it. But with it follows CIA goons that are working for Mads Mikkelsen that helped the Americans put man on the moon. 

Turns out Mads Mikkelsen is still a nazi (who would have thought that, he looked so nice?) and is looking for the dial in order to use it to travel through time back to before the war and replace Hitler and make the nazi's rule the world. Indy together with Helena (his friends daughter and his god-daughter) travels across the Mediterranean together with her child friend Teddy in search of map to the second piece that sank on a roman galley which they need the help of a Spanish diver (played by Antonio Banderas). They get it, but at the same time the nazi's catch up with them and kills the crew off their ship. They get away with the map and deduce that the second piece lies in the grave of Archimedes back in Syracuse. Teddy gets kidnapped and escapes on his own while Helena and Indy gets to the treasure with the nazi's right behind. Indy is shot while the other heroes escape. Mads drag Indy to the airfield where they fly away on an airplane while using the dial to pinpoint a wormhole through time. Helena gets on the plane while Teddy gets another plane and follows. 

Now, the portal doesn't take them to Germany circa 1939, instead they end up in Syracuse during the roman siege of the island. Apparently the dial was sent out by Archimedes to get help. The nazi plane is shot down by the romans and Helena and Indy parachutes down. The planes scares the romans away and is hinted about as a tale of dragons seen in a puppet show earlier in the film. Nice touch. They meet Archimedes and Indy is determined to stay since his relationship with Marion is failing after Mutt died while enlisting in the army. Helena knocks him out and drags him back to New York in "modern times". She also ensures that Marion comes by and Sallah (which helped Indy earlier in the film) ending the movie on a happy note and the series as well.

As said, I really liked this movie. The beginning felt like the old movies (shoddy CGI non-withstanding) and it felt like references to other Indiana Jones media. Saw one person on Twitter that shared a picture from Fate of Atlantis that also had a boat sequence looking for Plato's texts. Now, I recall another diving segment from an Indiana Jones comic when Indy looked for treasure and is attacked by an octopus that kills pretty much the whole crew (that deserved it since they where on mutiny to kill Indy and the captain and a mutual friend). Something like the Sea-Devil or whatever. The Spear of Longinus was also a sequel story to the Last Crusade where nazi's are looking for the spear in Ireland where Henry Jones Sr. gets involved. Seeing Sallah and Marion is nice (although we saw Marion last time as well). The only thing missing is a fisticuff battle with the main muscle of the nazi's, but I assume Harrison Ford can't really do those stunts anymore. It's also somewhat more gruesome with deaths (and that's coming for a series where the heads melts of, hearts are ripped out and so on). The death of Indy's coworker was abrupt, same for the diver crew and I would say the drowning of the muscle is somewhat worse than being dragged into an ant-nest. Probably the last Indy movie we will see, waiting for the blu-ray release so I can have the whole collection.