Q is Chekhov’s Gunman

I’ve currently only seen three James Bond films in their entirety, the first two Daniel Craig movies and most recently earlier this year The Man With The Golden Gun.  But I’ve seen clips of other movies before and I watched a bunch of Bond relevant Video Essays on YouTube this year because they simply were what was trending a few times.

Bond has been a very influential franchise,  so I can see Bond’s fingerprints on plenty of other media I’ve consumed.  Lupin III has been called the James Bond of Japan, a few of the 60s and 70s Godzilla films are referred to as being James Bond influenced.  There are direct James Bond references in the Anime Moriarty The Patriot. 

What’s interesting though is how one of the key signs that something is really leaning into the Bond influence structurally is if there is a Q analogue. When Batman Begins was being hyped up Nolan was very open about the James Bond influence, and a key factor always pointed out was Lucius Fox as played by Morgan Freeman being Bruce’s Q.  Nolan's love of drawing on Bond continued with Inception and Tenet which also both have their Q analogues. 

And a thing I’m sure I’m not the first to notice about Q is how his role is essentially to provide Chekhov’s Guns.  Professor Agasa has been referred to as Detective Conan’s Q, and it's in several of the movies that it's really on the nose, just like Q he introduces some new invention early on which then plays a key role in the climax. 

The wording of Chekhov’s Gun is that because something is seen early on it should be used.  But no sane person is really going around criticizing every time some innocuous detail from act one doesn’t come up later. No it’s considered good writing advice for the opposite angle, anything that plays an important role in the resolution should be set up earlier, that’s how you avoid a Deus Ex Machina accusation. 

So Bond style movies without a designated Q character still have a scene or two that like Q serve the purpose of introducing something in the protagonist's arsenal that will be important later. Maybe the protagonist themselves invented whatever gadgets they’re going to use, like many non Nolan versions of Batman. 

And this is why I struggle at being an actually interesting blogger. I make lots of observations like this I want to share, but they don’t always lead me to any profound revelation or theory.  Rather than continuing this Chekhov’s Gun train of thought I kind of want to share other random Bond related thoughts I’ve had this year. 

Ya know the Obi-Wan Kenobi parts of Attack of The Clones could be compared to a Bond movie just as much as they can to Film Noir Detective films. Ewen McGregor has a similarly dry sense of humor to Roger Moore and Christopher Lee is the villain.

I watched a Book YouTube video that separated all the Bond Novels both by which they felt were the good ones and which ones’ namesake films are a reasonably faithful adaptation of at least the same basic sequence of events. And the only novel that was both good and doesn’t have a close enough adaptation is Moonraker, which is interesting for in the Book having a villain who is a surviving Nazi War Criminal, not the most original idea for a Pulp Villain but they annoyingly keep staying relevant. 

When it comes to the various pitches Bond fans keep saying they want for the next movie, I kind of hope the Period Piece idea is the one Amazon doesn’t do.  Because when the Bond Novels (except maybe Thunderball) enter the Public Domain pretty much everywhere but the United States in a decade, period piece films that directly adapt those novels distinctly unlike how the Movies have typically been are exactly what people independent of Amazon will most easily be able to make without Amazon shutting it down.  

So I say an old fashioned Black and White mid 50s set Moonraker adaptation is exactly what some independent filmmakers should right now begin preparing to make. In fact you can already do it in Canada. Maybe give it a different name since Pop Culture now associates that name with something distinctly NOT in the book. 

My other advice for people planning to make their own PD James Bond projects in a decade is if you want to avoid Spectre because of the question mark that might still hang over Thunderball, just use Paul Feval’s Les Habits Noirs translated The Blackcoats as your international criminal secret society. Their English branch is sometimes called The Gentleman of The Night and it's leader The Lord of The Night is sometimes plotting to liberate Ireland from British rule which I mention because another Bond video I saw talked about the lack of Ireland in the Bond movies.

In some small ways certain writers have always gotten away with treating Bond like he’s quasi PD.  Like incorporating the Mycroft Holmes was the original M fan theory.  Is there any fictional character from the same era whose name happens to begin with the letter Q who was also a scientist/inventor?

Ameku M.D. so far

House M.D. was a show I was somewhat of a fan of, I never actively tried to watch every single episode but I saw a lot and usually enjoyed them.  The currently airing Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective has been hyped by more than just me as House but an Anime Girl and that hook worked in getting me to watch it. 

Of the episodes I’ve watched so far (those Dubbed already as usual) episode 3 is the one most comparable to a typical House episode.  It seems like the creators in Japan are more independently doing the Sherlock Holmes as a Doctor idea. And so like most Anime mystery shows Detective Conan comparisons are inevitable.

As a Sherlock Holmes Homage it’s more like it’s source material then House in more ways than just involving actual Murder Cases more often.  

One aspect of Watson’s role in the original stories is sometimes being the Muscle due to his Second Anglo-Afghan War combat experience. My remembering this is why I’m the only Detective Conan watcher who sees Ran Mouri as the Watson., but it’s something this show includes as well.  Only in Anime would the male character being the Bodyguard ever feel like a Gender Subversion.

However what really bugs me about modern takes on Sherlock Holmes is the desire to assume he must also be a cynical Atheist and hyper Materialist and House was perhaps the most extreme manifestation of that.  Holmes as written by Doyle explicitly believes in God and in Hound of The Baskervilles does not out of hand rule out the possibility that a Supernatural explanation could be real.  So seeing Ameku be outright excited at the possibility of encountering some kind of Curse is a refreshing change of pace.

But let’s return to the matter of episode 3.  For being the one episode that does follow the structure of a House episode I actually found myself lamenting its shorter runtime, feeling like the Case was solved when it was just getting started.

That doesn’t usually happen, I watch Anime desiring to enjoy them as much or more then their double length Western TV counterparts all the time and am usually satisfied.  Whether it’s comparing Conan to Detective Shows, Witch Hunter Robin to both Nikitas, Magical Girl Anime to Buffy, Teen Dramas, SciFi, Fantasy ect.  Why is the less runtime per episode only a handicap here?

House episodes were usually equal parts actually investigating the case at hand and relationship drama involving the cast and so it feels like that’s the issue, with less runtime there's less character stuff.  But the same can in theory apply to all those others?

With Detective Conan a very large percentage of episodes are at least two parters, but nowhere near all of them, and that’s usually not the case in Magical Girl shows and wasn’t for most of Witch Hunter Robin.

Maybe in my head I was simply making a more 1 to 1 comparison than usual? I kinda was just wanting more House but Animated.

Or maybe it is something in the execution that they will hopefully get better at in future episodes.

Update a Week later: I should also note that when interacting with the Cops this show has both a Gregson and a Lestrade which is rare even for Holmes adaptations.

It's funny that I made that "only in anime' comment and the next episode does reveal the other female Doctor in the cast to have Combat usefulness as well.

And it seems episode 5 is the second episode of at least a 3 parter.  I have to remember that Manga is so often written in Arcs that a single cour mystery show may give us only 2 or 3 casses.  If this was an older show I'd be starting to suspect episode 3 was an Anime Original Filler episode.

Well, I'm hooked on Detective Conan now

The people following me on Twitter are aware of this already, but I figure I should mention it on my Blog.

How much I like the Mystery Genre itself seems to fluctuate.  But I now think Conan really is the modern Sherlock Holmes.  

I have been aware of this show for awhile, I knew it was one of those Anime super Popular in Japan but has been very limited in it's ablity to catch on in the States.  The show wasn't what I expected, I was expecting the Anime version of something like Nancey Drew, and indeed some of the one off episodes have that vibe.  But the show can get pretty serious and "dark", it also involves duel identities and a super secret international crime syndicate that keeps making me think of Paul Feval's Les Habits Noirs/The Blackcoats.  But most importantly has fun likeable characters.

Thus far I have still only seen a small percentage of episodes, at the moment all Dubbed content but that includes some Fandubed episodes.  That range of what I've seen is a lot of stuff from the earliest years including the first 6 movies dubbed by Funimation, and the most recent movies which have been Dubbed by BangZoom.  I am willing to try watching episodes Subbed, but suspect this genre is going to be difficult to watch Subbed, it demands since one has to pay close to all the little things.  Speaking of which especially when Dubbed this franchise often goes under the altname name Case Closed.

My very first introduction was watching the theatrical crossover with Lupin The Third, and I would have to say that is a pretty ideal crossover movie.  It deliveries plenty of the kinds of fun interactions someone already a fan of both would want to see, but can also serve as a good entry point to either franchise for fans of the other.

But also for fans of Lupin The Third and the genre he represents any Kaitou Kid/Kid The Phantom Thief story should be worth checking out.  Of course in many key ways Kid is more like the original Arsene Lupin then Lupin III.

I might do a follow up post on my Detective Conan experience in the future, for now just know it's a show I recommend.

Detective stories seem forbidden from breaking their Genre rules more than any other Genre

And I find that funny because of just how recently those genre conventions were codified, even Holmes didn't finish the process.  I've read some Detective Novels from the 19th Century that were very popular in their time but would be considered rule breaking abominations today.  That includes virtually everything written by Paul Feval.

This is another post I've been wanting to make in some form for years, it kind of first entered my mind after watching a video some AniTuber did on Lord El Meloi's Case Files while that show was still airing (I only watched the show this year when the Dub came out and I loved it).  I don't think I even know how to find that video again.

But what finally prompted me to throw down was OverlySarcasticProductions Trope Talk on Detectives that dropped today.  Red is usually all for acknowledging the flexibility of the Tropes she talks about.  But in this one she went pretty hard on the "it's bad writing if it's impossible for the audience to figure it out on their own" idea.

And I realized something.  People critique mystery stories regardless of the medium like they do Video Games because they treat them like games.  They see them as a challenge to figure it out before the detectives in the story and if they can't they call it cheating.  And that's fine when that is what the writer was going for.  But when I watch these kinds of stories I'm never trying to solve the mystery myself, that's not my job that's the Detective character's job. 

The main thing I care about in fiction are the characters, even in fiction that doesn't fit the literary definition of "character driven".

When it comes to your Great Detectives in the vain of Sherlock Holmes, it's about selling me on their over the top super deduction powers that I know don't exist in real life, make me believe it anyway.  And what sells me on that is ultimately the charisma of the character rather then the actual facts of the case or plausibility of the deductions they make.  And in a dramatized medium like Movies, TV and Anime that comes from the performance of the actor more so then anything the writers can write.

For Film Noir style Hard Boiled Detectives, or just following normal cops on a standard cop show, what character traits you're trying sell me are different but the gist is the same.  Though in recent years I have slowly lost interest in any fiction that wants me to actually root for actual cops.

So no I never feel cheated by not being given the means to solve it myself.  And this genre is in fact the one who's codified rules and conventions I most want to see shattered.  That's why I enjoyed the Anime In/Specter which you can watch Dubbed on HBOMax, it gave us a Holmes style character who's objectives are completely different.

Update March 2024: Here's a follow up post I've made.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2024/03/let-detective-stories-do-what-they-want.html

Still not watching any actual 2020 Anime yet.

But I need to vent about how episode 11 of Kabukichou Sherlock aka Case File nº221: Kabukicho betrayed me.

I was liking the show, recommending it as on par with Elementary, the BBC Shelrock and the RDJr Sherlock Holmes movies.  I was thinking of writing something specifically on Episode 10.  This episode I was enjoying even as I guessed who Jack actually was, finding that trope on it's own annoying but tolerable, then they began revealing why.

If you're familiar with when I used to talk about Pretty Little Liars, well this is that all over again, the sin that forever tainted PLL's legacy was repeated here.  I was naive enough to think that Anime would never do this, at least not since the 90s ended.

I was recommending this show on my twitter, where I have followers who are Trans and Non-Binary.  They might have watched this show because of me and got to this episode weeks before I did because they aren't Dub Scrubs like I am.  And that makes me feel guilty.

Shows that are first and foremost mystery shows generally aren't my thing, the last 3 seasons of Anime have had an inordinate amount of them and this was the only one I watched because I have a thing for modern stuff directly drawing on Victorian through WWI era pulp.  And PLL was the only murder mystery of the American 20tens I was highly invested in.  So why am I cursed like this?  Why are the few mystery shows I get into the ones actively trying to hurt the Trans Community that I want to help?

I'm not sure I'm going to drop it yet, I feel like at least watching episode 12 and finishing it's first cour.  It's advantage over PLL is that arguably this villain isn't the only Trans representation.  But the show is unclear on what Hudson's actual gender identity is, and either way largely treats them as a joke.  So I am certainly done recommending the show, unless I report back that it somehow redeemed itself don't watch it.

Fortunately I don't have only Bad News to report.  I completed Assassin's Pride and am giving it an 8 for now.  If you're interested in a show that at first looks like a modern Light Novel Anime but is really a covert throwback to 90s Shoujo then this is for you.

Episode 10 of Fate/Grand Order: Babylonia was hilarious.  And the Isekai shows I'm still following are also holding up.

And tonight will also be the Toonami/Adult Swim debut of Sword Art Online Alicization War of Underworld.  I intend to update this post once I've seen and have an opinion on it.

Update.  I saw it and it was a pretty good start.  My main issue with Alicization part one was how it ended.  So we'll see how things go.

John Devil Expanded Universe

I want to talk here a bit about my personal plans for expanding on the John Devil universe in future writings.  

Spencer Hastings has the same initials as Sherlock Holmes.

It is in fact meaningful when a fictional characters has the same initials of an older more well established fictional and/or historical and/or mythological character.  There is a reason countless fictional spies have the initials J.B.  And John Conner has the initials J.C.

It shouldn’t have taken me this long to notice this.  I’d been comparing Spencer to Sherlock Holmes for awhile, especially after she deduced a phone number from a parrots chirping (I also thought of Batman of course).  And last season's stimulant addiction storyline just further codified it.  She’s the real modern Sherlock Holmes, not Elementary, not that BBC show, not Robert Downy Jr. not even Gregory House.  Spencer Hastings is truly the greatest Great Detective.

And then there is her older sibling and also possibly the only person on Earth smarter then her, Melissa Hastings also has the same initials as Mycroft Holmes.

I suppose that makes her Watson the other 3 Liars, and Tobey her Irene Adler.

If you want to really chase this analogy down the rabbit hole, it shouldn’t be to difficult to guess who would be moriArty.

I have seen all 9 episodes of Sherlock

I enjoyed it, my favorite episode was probably a Scandal in Belgravia.  All the actors do a very good job.

I really like Molly, who I don't think is based on anyone from the original books.

It's interesting how Artistic inspiration goes in circles, House M.D. was clearly based on Holmes a great deal, and it's also clearly influenced the Holmes Adaptations that have been made since.

On the question of how Sherlock survived the fall.  We're kind of supposed to see the third answer shown at the real one, but it's still a little ambiguous.  I found the the 3rd scene shown the most absurd frankly, there is no way that couldn't have had witnesses who weren't in on it.

All 3 theories start with the same wrong assumption I think, that Sherlock surviving means he didn't hit the pavement.  It could be a simply matter of him doing something when he landed to minimize the damage.

Now the big mystery is If and and if so How did Moriarty survived.  Which I find interesting because he killed himself the same way Henri Belcamp did in John Devil.  And while Feval never made a sequel to that I think he was going to if the novel had been more successful at the time.

People accidentally survive shooting themselves through the Mouth like that quite often.  Anything you can do by accident someone as smart as Moriarty could probably do on purpose.

I found the show's take on Charles Augustus Miverlton (Magnussen) interesting.  He's a total control freak and literally marks his territory.

The reveal of how his "Files" actually work reminded my of The Colonel's Treasure a little bit.  It's Psychological rather then Supernatural, but the premise is the same, it kind of doesn't actually exist.  He is the Treasure.