Darna (ABS-CBN, 2022)

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five_red
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In the red corner, the People's Champion of Nueva Esperanza... Darna..!!
In the black corner, the Terrors from Marte...Xandra and General Borgo..!!
Now we want a good clean contest. No turning invisible; no duplicating yourself into clones; all laser shots should be above the belt.The first one to transform into a bird and fly away will be considered the loser.

Fight...!!



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There's speculation that Ding's teacher will become Ang Babaeng Manananggal. This villain already made an appearance in the 1991 movie (alter ego was a teacher also), and also in the 2005 TV Series version.
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I'm a little bit behind watching with the English subs, so I've only just discovered Valentina's snakes each have their own names: Varda, Corra, Berlie, Mokie, and Stontong.


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five_red wrote:
1 year ago
In the red corner, the People's Champion of Nueva Esperanza... Darna..!!
In the black corner, the Terrors from Marte...Xandra and General Borgo..!!
Now we want a good clean contest. No turning invisible; no duplicating yourself into clones; all laser shots should be above the belt.The first one to transform into a bird and fly away will be considered the loser.

Fight...!!



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Unbelievable they show the opening credits during the episode's most important action scene. :thumbsdown:
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If you want to see more of these videos, thank this post so I know if there's a demand.



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As Red 5 demonstrated above:

Episode 51- crucial to watch because of the battle between Darna and Borgo/Xandra (who is called 'Ishna' in the series?). Don't miss that. Or watch it above - either one.

Episode 52 - nothing much happens. Ali goes apeshit on a bunch of random dudes in a bar because he's so insanely jealous that Bizarro Brian is kissing
Regina. Bizarro Brian torments Actual Brian, who is trapped in a prison room, by means of a closed-circuit TV. Xandra is injured and lost in the woods, and rejected by Borgo, left to die I would assume...while Darna and Hergis (Claudio) try to track her down. Janella Salvador is in top hotness. Skip it if you need real action, though, since this is mostly drama.

Episode 53 - Great stuff here - as you can see from the clip R5 posted above. Catch this one!

Regina becomes Valentina inside her apartment - Ali sees her in her costume - and then she climbs out her window.
The XTriad kids decide to torment some helpless security guard, and Darna spots them from the sky (how does she do that? super hearing or super sight, or a combination of both?). But then Valentina shows up, determined to kill the Extras (as opposed to Darna, who wants to help them become normal, I guess). The battle is joined between Valentina and Darna in earnest for the first time!

This is some powerful stuff, as Darna does a bunch of snake-head punching, while the XTriad kids just stand around looking (instead of running away to save themselves, as they should?). Darna gives Valentina one big wallop, landing her on her back. Finally the kids come to their sense, get in a car and start driving away, while Valentina gets up and begins to constrict Darna's body with her snakes. Valentina gets her in a peril grip for a moment, but then Darna breaks free. Valentina retreats from the fight scene, back to her apartment, where she writhes around sexily in her tight costume as she looks at herself in the mirror and Ali talks to her. Then, Valentina transforms back to Regina, only to find she has a wicked face bruise where Darna hit her in the battle: "Look what she did to my beautiful face!"

But the next morning, Regina wakes up to find that she can heal her wounds quickly like a snake sheds its skin. She tells Ali she's really starting to enjoy being Valentina. Meanwhile, the TV station airs some footage that some bystanders took of the Darna/Valentina battle, and the TV reporter literally tells his viewers to "text 6969" to vote on who they think is better: Darna or Valentina. (Yeah, that sounds a little bit like the plot for a Battle for Earth custom, doesn't it?). The X-Triad kids fight amongst themselves, while Actual Brian keeps trying to break out of his prison.

Good week so far.
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The rematch...


That's three major fight sequences, and the week isn't even over. (Our friend at the FB group isn't going to be happy to see the bracelets in action again.) :laugh:

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Episode 54 - this is the best extended battle yet, if rather inconclusive. So much sexy.

But I have some questions:

1) Why did the X-Triad invade the hospital in the first place and cause everyone to cower in fear of them? Are they just 'living in a society', or was there an actual purpose to their mayhem?

2) Both Narda and Regina slink away to become their powerful alter-egos, but we don't see either of them transform. That would have been quite impressive. Budget restraints?

3) How does Valentina use her snakes to glide up and down those steps when she can't fly or levitate? Do a couple of snakes (possibly Kodo and Podo?) grip onto the ceiling and pull her up and down? Seems a bit unclear.

4) How does Severed Hand Man control his detached limb around corners when he can't watch it operate? Is there a telepathic link?

5) At 11:33 (not shown in Red5's clip) Darna and Valentina meet again and have a little heart-to-heart (I don't know the translation, but I'm guessing it has something to do with their differing methods of handling the Extras). First of all, why is Valentina still there - why hasn't Regina already changed back? And why does Darna just let Valentina walk away instead of defeating her and taking her in, since the police are already there to deal with it? (Is there some kind of mutual crimefighting respect?)

6) The police know full well that Acid Spitting Man spits acid. So why do they put a simple mask on his face when it's quite obvious he can spit right through, and also spit on his chains to dissolve them? They certainly aren't well prepared. I mean, the Mayor goes on TV to announce that Noah's Extra Rehab facility is "finally ready", but it's obviously not ready if they don't have a proper way to contain their powers.

7) It's already embarrassing that the two neighborhood goofballs (Oleg and Pansho) do a better job of subduing Acid Spitting Man (excuse me, 'Dragonmouth') than armed police. But after they knock him out, and Darna thanks them for their help, why does Darna leave Dragon King there on the ground, instead of taking him back to jail?

8) This is just an Easter Egg type of question: we see clearly the names of all the neighborhoods on the wall map of Nueva Esperanza. Are any of those names insertions of people on the cast or crew, or friends of the writers, etc? Or was there a previous map used in one of the Darna comics that was just as detailed?

Signed, President of the Oleg and Pansho Fan Club.
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shevek wrote:
1 year ago
But I have some questions:

1) Why did the X-Triad invade the hospital in the first place and cause everyone to cower in fear of them? Are they just 'living in a society', or was there an actual purpose to their mayhem?
It was either the hospital, Narda's home, or the Mayor's office. There's only so many filmable locations in Nueva Esperanza. That's why Regina went into the public toilets to remove her head scarf -- that door to her office's private washroom in reality leads into the ABS-CBN camera operator's supply closet. :laugh:
2) Both Narda and Regina slink away to become their powerful alter-egos, but we don't see either of them transform. That would have been quite impressive. Budget restraints?
There's also the problem that the transformation sequences take up valuable time, and interrupt the pace of a dramatic sequence, particularly if you have dual transformations, and Regina's involves a lot of angst-ridden screaming and shouting. But yeah, obviously, I'd like to see more transformations, and for them to have fun with different secret identity dilemmas. (The cleaning lady locking the toilet window so Darna couldn't slip back inside the building and become Narda was hysterical -- more of that please.)
3) How does Valentina use her snakes to glide up and down those steps when she can't fly or levitate? Do a couple of snakes (possibly Kodo and Podo?) grip onto the ceiling and pull her up and down? Seems a bit unclear.
I assume it works like Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man, but it is unclear. Certainly to flee and reach Regina's bedroom window before Darna could clear her eyes of the venom, Valentina's snakes have to be acting something like telescopic arms. If you look carefully at the top of the frame you can see two of the snakes pulling Valentina up to the top of the staircase, then quickly retract.

And who the hell is Kodo and Podo? I'm a week behind on the English subs, but the only snake names I've seen so far are Varda, Corra, Berlie, Mokie, and Stontong. Don't tell me there's been a line-up change in the band already -- Valentina hasn't even recorded her first album. (Although now I mention it Stontong was always threatening to leave for a solo career -- he was definitely the Geri Halliwell of the medusa world.) :)

5) At 11:33 (not shown in Red5's clip) Darna and Valentina meet again and have a little heart-to-heart (I don't know the translation, but I'm guessing it has something to do with their differing methods of handling the Extras). First of all, why is Valentina still there - why hasn't Regina already changed back? And why does Darna just let Valentina walk away instead of defeating her and taking her in, since the police are already there to deal with it? (Is there some kind of mutual crimefighting respect?)
I think we have to chalk this one up to Bond villain syndrome: "But before I kill you Darna... I want to have an extended dialogue where I outline my entire plan, and we talk about how I wasn't breast fed as a kid and was bullied at school."

A more serious answer is that maybe Darna is still trying to convince Valentina to come over to the light side of The Force. Remember, Narda was pretty freaked out by Valentina, and even had nightmares about her, so perhaps she's trying to avoid a fight if possible and use persuasion. I guess I'll find out when I catch up with the English subs for that episode.


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Hoo boy - Episode 55: not much going on (unless you're into watching two dudes fight in an elevator) but definitely don't miss the end!
(Hint: there are several regular posters on here who will be significantly excited about it.)

As for Kodo and Podo, Red 5, they are the two ferrets in Beastmaster. I was making a funny.
I actually kind of doubt she's going to name any of her snakes in this series, because she has about seventeen of them.

Looking forward to next week's Regina peril as well.
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shevek wrote:
1 year ago
I actually kind of doubt she's going to name any of her snakes in this series, because she has about seventeen of them.
Actually there are five dominant snakes that actually do have names. They introduced themselves to Regina as the voices she hears in her head, and the subtitles actually name them when they speak so the audience know which snake is talking.
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Two of them sound female, Corra and Berlie, while the rest sound male.

Larry, Curly, Mo, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, and Bashful are yet to have speaking parts.

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shevek wrote:
1 year ago
Hoo boy - Episode 55: not much going on (unless you're into watching two dudes fight in an elevator) but definitely don't miss the end!
One nice little touch for transformation fans is when Regina is kidnapped, as the chloroform soaked rag is held over her mouth it is clear from her eyes that she's struggling to transform into Valentina but can't focus long enough to sustain the transition. It reminds me of those times in Wonder Woman when knock out gas would thwart Diana from completing her twirl. Frustrating the heroine's attempts to become their super alter ego can be fun, like when Kara couldn't get away from Lena long enough to become Supergirl. As much as it is cool to see the transformation, occasionally it is funny to see the rug pulled metaphorically from under the heroine's feet. :D


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Episode 56 and 57 focus primarily on romance, but there are some good moments.

EP56: There's a long period of peril where Regina is tied up in a chair, against a pillar in the empty house where Mirror Universe Brian is holding her. He taunts her for quite a bit. Apparently, as Regina, she doesn't have super-strength, but she can summon the snakes to bite her ropes apart while he's distracted. Meanwhile, Darna arrives to free Brian from his prison, and yet she is already Narda when she opens the door. Which means the door didn't take superstrength to open from the outside.

At the end of the episode, there is some nice "Martean art" showing Darna in peril as she is strangled by Valentina's snakes, and then she is unconscious and prone as Borgo attacks her with a glowing mineral (possibly stossium, combined with other stuff?). Perhaps this is foreshadowing of episodes to come? It's all in comic book form, though.

EP57: Some of this is taken up with the physical battle between Evil Brian and Good Brian, as the police look on. Darna arrives to save the day.
Everything is fine again, and we finally get to see a kiss between Brian and Narda. Two problems: the kiss is accompanied by overwhelmingly loud
romantic music (a trope in these telenovelas, I guess) and it's also filmed awkwardly - Narda really doesn't look like she's into it. She seems to have anxiety and shyness which doesn't allow her to fully express her feelings. So, that's interesting, and prolongs the will-they-won't-they plot.

Just one procedural question, though: (maybe Red 5 can help, if he's watched the translated version)
When they breach the gate, Good Brian tries to call Darna a couple times on the Darna-Phone. But it goes to a message saying that the party can't be reached. But isn't Darna's phone also Narda's phone? (Certainly, Darna hasn't taken out a second cellphone plan?) So, wouldn't the phone in Narda's pocket ring, revealing her identity? Or, did Narda turn her phone off on purpose, knowing that Brian would try to call?

No complete Valentina costume in these two episodes. Hopefully she'll be back in action in that tight outfit very soon.
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shevek wrote:
1 year ago
Two problems: the kiss is accompanied by overwhelmingly loud
romantic music (a trope in these telenovelas, I guess) and it's also filmed awkwardly - Narda really doesn't look like she's into it. She seems to have anxiety and shyness which doesn't allow her to fully express her feelings. So, that's interesting, and prolongs the will-they-won't-they plot.
You're missing the most important part: Regina is watching on, glowering as her so-called 'boyfriend' embraces Narda and not herself. Narda is having to do a tricky little dance around Regina's jealousy, not helped by the fact that Brian has been romantically linked to both her identities; to Darna thanks to social media shipping, and to Narda thanks to Brian always being with Narda whenever Regina phones him. It isn't helped by the fact that her EMT colleague (the one that is pals with Noah) gossiped to Regina that Brian was smitten with Darna, not long after Narda had white-lied to Regina that Brian hadn't expressed any interest in the heroine.
Just one procedural question, though: (maybe Red 5 can help, if he's watched the translated version)
When they breach the gate, Good Brian tries to call Darna a couple times on the Darna-Phone. But it goes to a message saying that the party can't be reached. But isn't Darna's phone also Narda's phone? (Certainly, Darna hasn't taken out a second cellphone plan?) So, wouldn't the phone in Narda's pocket ring, revealing her identity? Or, did Narda turn her phone off on purpose, knowing that Brian would try to call?
In episode #22 when 'Darna' first calls Brian (after Narda receives a text from Ding about Killer Ghost), Narda is in the hospital and is seen ducking down a corridor and fumbling with her phone in a way that suggests she is swapping the SIM. In later episodes she just answers her phone, so either she has upgraded to a dual SIM phone, or separate phones for Narda and Darna. Given that she doesn't seem to carry two phones, we can assume she uses a dual SIM model, although who knows(?)
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Some caps from last night's episode. For some reason, they like showing the more interesting scenes along with the opening credits...
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Apparently a second season is coming.

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brdiy wrote:
1 year ago
Some caps from last night's episode. For some reason, they like showing the more interesting scenes along with the opening credits...
There was also a lot more bullets 'n' bracelets in episode 61, so our friend at Facebook will no doubt be all over social media complaining. :D

Reports about the second season are conflicting. Originally fans said season one would be 70 episodes, now the consensus is that it will be 65 episodes and will end this Friday. The show has been dialling the psychotic levels of Regina/Valentina up to 11, but I somehow don't see them being able to resolve the complicated relationships Regina has with other cast members in just five episodes, especially if there's Borgo to be dealt with. So I'm assuming Valentina will take over as lead super villain in season two, with season one effectively acting as her origin story.

Fan theories suggest that the Extras will be replaced in season two by more traditional Darna villains from the comics. We've already seen the re-introduction of Ding's school teacher as an occasional supporting character, and Ding seems to have acquired a new girlfriend, so presumably both these characters are being set up to play central roles in season two.

On a related note, Joj Agpangan announced that she was pregnant earlier this year -- she play's Narda's best friend Mara who sells clothes online. Given that a large part of season one was probably shot before August, it is perhaps no surprise that she doesn't look pregnant in the show. But expect to only see her from the shoulders up in seasons two, standing behind conveniently placed potted plants, unless they recast the role with Joj's identical(?) twin sister Jai. :laugh:

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five_red wrote:
1 year ago
brdiy wrote:
1 year ago
Some caps from last night's episode. For some reason, they like showing the more interesting scenes along with the opening credits...
So I'm assuming Valentina will take over as lead super villain in season two, with season one effectively acting as her origin story.

Is it just me or is this version of Valentina weak as hell ? Every time she has an encounter with Darna she gets punched or thrown around quite easily. For someone who likes to see superheroine peril this has been one of my main complaints of this show. All the villains seem physically weak against Darna. Same with Xandra. Only Borgo seems to be evenly matched with Darna but then he is also seen kicked around by her in the preview of what seems like the last episodes of the season. I think he will either be back for season 2 (maybe with a fleet of aliens) or he will be wounded after his fight with Darna and betrayed/killed by Xandra. Or another theory I have moments after he is mortally wounded he transforms into Regina's dad and makes Regina believe Darna was responsible for 'his' death; making her transformation to Valentina complete. Anyway I hope the villains of season 2 get a power upgrade. The strongest villain we've seen thus far was in episode 1.
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Supergirl763 wrote:
1 year ago
Is it just me or is this version of Valentina weak as hell ? Every time she has an encounter with Darna she gets punched or thrown around quite easily. For someone who likes to see superheroine peril this has been one of my main complaints of this show.
Darna is a family show, on a mainstream network (or what used to be a mainstream network before former President Duterte decided ABS-CBN were too critical of his regime), at primetime. The odds of Darna being seriously defeated are the same as seeing Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman being seriously defeated. You have to temper your expectations to fit within the nature of the show. For mainstream audience shows like Darna, or Supergirl, or Star Girl, or Wonder Woman, you need to accept them for what they are, and not spend your time wishing they were something they never intended to be.

I mean, we've had 60+ episodes, yet you can count the number of on-screen transformations we've seen on the fingers of one hand -- yet I'm not complaining. (Literally, back in the 70s there were single episodes of Wonder Woman that had more tf's than entire seasons of modern shows like Darna or Supergirl..!)


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Excellent!
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So beautiful, so powerful - isn't it great that we can all watch this classic heroine series unfold together?

Week 13 starts out strong, making me think that hopefully there won't be *any* episodes that you'll want to miss!

Episode 61 - Lots of action: Starts out right away with Darna fighting first Ishna/Xandra and her gun-toting minions, then Valentina,
and then finally Strong Metal Guy. Valentina ties her up with snakes for a little bit, and then Metal Guy tosses her around a bit, but
she is too strong.

Also, she shows clearly that her whole body can stop bullets wherever they hit, making the whole bullets-and-bracelets
thing superfluous. When it happens later in this episode (the first battle against the telekinetic extra, Eli Torres aka Levitator) it really looks more like they're trying deliberately to make associations to Wonder Woman. Also, I'm wondering: why do all the cops hesitate so much to shoot
Levitator? If they shot at him quickly, before he was able to levitate them or their guns, they could kill him, but instead they just stand here
and let him use his powers. Repeatedly.

There's also a short scene where we see Janella Salvador in tight bra and spandex pants practicing some wrestling moves with her assistant Ali
(who of course has a crush on her and would gladly engage her physically any way he can). I wish that segment could have been extended a bit
more so we could have gotten more of a "heroine wrestling" showcase, a la our hero George Perez (RIP). Janella's hair also looks very different
in that scene - more like a braided Valkyrie warrior woman than her upscale Tulsi Gabbard style hairdo.

Episode 62 - Darna pulls no punches here: she flies after Metal Man, leaps on top of him and crunches him good, then flies up in the air
holding him upside down demanding "where is Borgo?" If you like girl power, like the Taurus Productions stuff, this is right up your alley.

Other than that, not much happens: Levitator turns himself in to the the police (not sure what he has planned), and Xandra disguises herself
first as the food seller Mara and then as Grandma, to get into Narda's house. The episode ends with dramatic turning and looking.

So, you can probably scan through the rest of this one.

Episode 63 - When Ishna/Xandra invades Darna's home, she takes Grandma hostage with her space gun. We get a brief but full Narda-to-Darna
transformation (as Red 5 has said, it's quite rare in this series). Darna smacks down Ishna (flying through her own house!) to rescue Grandma,
then pursues Xandra-in-bird-form to a warehouse where she stands over the villainess who is exhausted and knocked out. Then Darna leaves her with Claudio who takes her away in a limp OTS carry (for those interested in that).

Claudio keeps Ishna in a confined outdoor cage - he stands over her while she looks bruised and battered from the fight with Darna. But that's not enough for him - he now gets to take revenge, and he beats the shit out of her face. This is some Battle for Earth level brutality - something you would normally see only on SHIP videos, and certainly not on DC or Marvel TV shows or movies (well, maybe a bit on Titans). She spits blood and everything, making it convincing.

Near the end, Regina seems to have another mental breakdown about how much she wants Brian to love her. That triggers her transformation into Valentina, which is shown in full (very hot). Then she eats a cute little parakeet! (For some reason, I keep thinking of scenes from the 1980s sci-fi show V, when Diana eats little Earth creatures like a mouse or a bird). No actual birdies were harmed, hopefully.

Right after that in the very last scene - we see something unexpected: a sadistic scientist (I guess he's from Noah's Extra Institute?) is torturing an Extra on his laboratory table with electric shocks. He looks on with a grin of evil as the male subject writhes in pain. This reminds me a lot of the scene from the recent Stargirl episode where the Helix Institute is trying to contain Todd Rice/Obsidian's powers, also on a similar lab table.

Episode 64 - We begin with Darna entering Claudio's cage, where she interrupts him beating the hell out of Ishna, trying to get information on Borgo's whereabouts. Ishna spits on the ground, refusing to tell Darna, too.

Then we see Valentina appear out of nowhere, using her snakes to do a full somersault over the top of a van. She hunts down a "biznissman" who has been accused of "sexual harrassment and tax evasion" while he is hanging out with three beautiful women, and kills him right in front of the girls.
I like the way that Janella moves around so sexily like a snake in that costume - it makes her deeds more deliciously evil.

So next, to impress Narda, Noah gives her a tour of the Extra Institute, bragging about the security systems and the power dampening devices keeping the Extras docile. (This reminds me a lot of the TV show Powers, which had power-dampening prison cells for two seasons. That was where I got the idea for Heroineburgh's own 'Quexxon' power-dampening cuffs. It's also a bit like the cells in the DEO from Supergirl, or Belle Reve from Suicide Squad). In order, we see Darna's entire Rogues Gallery: The Seductress, the Silent Shocker, Bouncer, Levitator, Miguel (Limb Separator),
Human Urchin, and Dragonmouth. I kind of get the feeling that this presages a big prison breakout where all the Extras go up against Darna at the
same time...but we'll have to see if that pans out. Narda and the Professor also meet the evil scientist in charge of the facility.

Then there's another brief "harsh justice" scene where a criminal and his crooked lawyer are killed in a parking garage by Regina. She makes yet another sexy transformation on the spot into Valentina to do the dirty deed - the criminals take that knowledge to their graves. But then Regina pays a visit to her Dad (for some reason, she wears a tight low-cut dress) where he tells her to find out Darna's secret identity and exploit her weakness
by attacking her family (at least, that's what I think he said in Tagalog). I guess she doesn't realize her Dad is also Borgo yet.

A bunch of civilian stuff happens, and then we see Claudio yet again torturing Ishna, this time crushing her ribs with his foot. Meanwhile, Mr. Vanguardia (aka Borgo) launches some kind of ritual missile thing into the sky, which (if I understand correctly) is going to cause some kind of 'extinction' event via extreme climate change, and somehow he thinks that's going to get him Darna's power stone. I'm not sure about the logic of that, or how that works, so maybe Red 5 will want to explain it.

Pretty good week so far. You'll definitely want to watch considerable parts of all 4 of these episodes. Let's see what the final episode of the
week brings tomorrow.

I have a procedural question for any Filipinos & Tagalog speakers who are watching this (or anyone who has a good translation):
So many of the dialogue lines begin with the word "hindi", which I understand in Tagalog means "no" or "not" or maybe "it isn't".
Do real Tagalog conversational sentences normally begin with that same word "hindi" very often, too? It just seems like it's being used an awful lot.
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five_red wrote:
1 year ago
Supergirl763 wrote:
1 year ago
Is it just me or is this version of Valentina weak as hell ? Every time she has an encounter with Darna she gets punched or thrown around quite easily. For someone who likes to see superheroine peril this has been one of my main complaints of this show.
Darna is a family show, on a mainstream network (or what used to be a mainstream network before former President Duterte decided ABS-CBN were too critical of his regime), at primetime. The odds of Darna being seriously defeated are the same as seeing Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman being seriously defeated. You have to temper your expectations to fit within the nature of the show. For mainstream audience shows like Darna, or Supergirl, or Star Girl, or Wonder Woman, you need to accept them for what they are, and not spend your time wishing they were something they never intended to be.

I mean, we've had 60+ episodes, yet you can count the number of on-screen transformations we've seen on the fingers of one hand -- yet I'm not complaining. (Literally, back in the 70s there were single episodes of Wonder Woman that had more tf's than entire seasons of modern shows like Darna or Supergirl..!)


R5
I mean Supergirl was filled with peril, she got her butt whooped almost every episode and it was all about her "team" bailing her out. One of the reasons I could never get into that show, Supergirl was always getting rolled and beat up by B-list villains...I mean Livewire completely dominated her before interference from her friends and Livewire is a joke in the source material, etc. I almost feel like a heroine peril fan helped write that show given how much she was beat up, restrained, exposed to kryptonite and just downright made to look weak and useless compared to her supporting cast. Very stark contrast to the versions of Supergirl we got in the comics that were capable heroines able to go toe to toe with some of DC's strongest.
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The final episode of the season reinforced my main criticism of the show. A 2 second fight scene with Darna's arch-nemesis who gets knocked out by one kick; followed by a 5 second fight scene against the main villain.
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Supergirl763 wrote:
1 year ago
The final episode of the season reinforced my main criticism of the show. A 2 second fight scene with Darna's arch-nemesis who gets knocked out by one kick; followed by a 5 second fight scene against the main villain.
I've not watched the episode properly, just skimmed through it after downloading, and it did seem somewhat underwhelming for the finale of a major story arc. The show still hasn't beaten the drama of the parking garage shootout sequence, and that was half way through the season. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing the series as a whole. There's been many great moments, but really for a finale you'd expect a level of emotion that aspires to what we saw in that shootout sequence.

On the plus side it looks like the next season will focus on a female super villain, and Darna's back catalogue of villains has some good prospects (fans seem to want Dark Darna), so hopefully we'll be able to move beyond Extra-of-the-week syndrome.

R5
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five_red wrote:
1 year ago
Supergirl763 wrote:
1 year ago
The final episode of the season reinforced my main criticism of the show. A 2 second fight scene with Darna's arch-nemesis who gets knocked out by one kick; followed by a 5 second fight scene against the main villain.
I've not watched the episode properly, just skimmed through it after downloading, and it did seem somewhat underwhelming for the finale of a major story arc. The show still hasn't beaten the drama of the parking garage shootout sequence, and that was half way through the season. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing the series as a whole. There's been many great moments, but really for a finale you'd expect a level of emotion that aspires to what we saw in that shootout sequence.

On the plus side it looks like the next season will focus on a female super villain, and Darna's back catalogue of villains has some good prospects (fans seem to want Dark Darna), so hopefully we'll be able to move beyond Extra-of-the-week syndrome.

R5
I see the same complaints on twitter so it is not from us SHIP fans only. It's almost starting to become a running gag : Valentina randomly shows up near Darna and Darna easily throws her around. They could have showed us some kryptonite peril with Borgo and his weapon but again Darna was never in any real danger. The show isn't afraid to show some hard scenes like Ishna being tortured. Of course she's a villainess so it is less daring for a mainstream show than if it happened to the heroine.

And yes that shootout sequence was very well done. I wonder why they aren't able to recapture that same quality during the fight scenes. Maybe they got a more famous/experienced director/editor for that sequence only. I would say the first fight with mother Darna also felt more cinematic than the fights we got with Jane de Leon.

It seems like the Extras will still play a big role for season 2. They escape the facility and team up.
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The final encounter with Borgo turned out to be a dud. I guess the good thing is that we don't really have to wait too long for season 2. I just hope the long game they're playing with Valentina pays off big time, though.
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So, I missed a few things regarding Episode 64.

- The evil scientist was actually meeting with Madame Victoria (another form of Borgo) in order to help her/him develop a serum that could be dosed onto hundreds of people, turning them into an Extra Army with which Borgo could conquer the Earth.

This, of course, begs the question of what happened to the army with which he conquered the planet Marte? Why didn't he bring them with him? Did they all get killed?

- And then other thing was that the ornate missile that he launched wasn't about causing climate change. It was a device called the Agrix, which was designed to extract the white stone from Darna's body - in other words, an absorption device. Borgo launched the Agrix to test it, and apparently it absorbed an entire island. (He says the word 'isla' many times.)

Nobody answered my question yet about the word 'hindi' (no, not, isn't). Why does it appear at the beginning of sentences so often in the dialogue?

Episode 65 - Yes, a very inconclusive episode which leaves a lot of things up in the air, not the least of which is Valentina.

As mentioned above, it was an episode with disappointingly short fights between first Valentina and Darna (lasting under a minute),
and then between Darna and Borgo lasting maybe two minutes, where Darna stops the Agrix from absorbing an airplane full of people
which was super easy, barely an inconvenience. I have to agree that Darna is not challenged in the least in this finale.

Ishna was back in the mix, joining up again with Borgo, in one of her tightest black outfits yet. But at the end of the episode we don't know if Borgo
and Ishna are really destroyed or not.

And then finally at the end, we get some hints at what's coming in Season Two:

- The Extras definitely break out and team up to cause mayhem.
- A new alien commander lands on Earth - a female in a dark opaque helmet whose identity we don't know yet.
- There's some kind of new villain who shoots powerful green energy blasts.

No hint of Dark Darna in those previews, sorry. Would love to see it, though. OK, time to make a new thread for Darna Season 2!
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So is Borgo dead ? The main Darna fan seems to say he is. All that 65 episodes planning and build-up just for a quick fight scene and Darna easily throwing his secret weapon back at him.. that is just bad planning and storytelling; no way around it. Especially as he had a lot of scenes. Same with Regina/Valentina being build-up for so long and not even being a threat to Darna. She’s like an annoying fly to her. All the Extras were non-threats also. Hate to say it but the screenwriters are not up to par for what was a show with great potential. The final episode of the season sealed the deal for me. If the makers can’t understand the basic rule they also need to show their titular heroine struggle to make for a compelling superhero show that’s on them. Even non-SHIP fans are starting to complain.
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shevek wrote:
1 year ago
Nobody answered my question yet about the word 'hindi' (no, not, isn't). Why does it appear at the beginning of sentences so often in the dialogue?
I think Tagalog/Filipino is one of those languages where the ordering of words is very different to English depending on the context. For example the phrase "Darna is not defeated" is translated as "Hindi talo si Darna" -- note how the negation becomes the first word of the sentence when it is reversing the meaning of a verb. Meanwhile "Darna is not Narda" becomes "Si Darna ay hindi si Narda" -- so the structure is different for two nouns.

According to Google Translate:
  • "I'm not going to transform into Darna" => "Hindi naman ako magpapalit sa Darna".
  • "I can't transform into Darna" => "Hindi ako makapagtransform kay Darna".
  • "Valentina's on the prowl, but Darna can't fight her" => "Si Valentina ay gumagala, ngunit hindi siya kayang labanan ni Darna" (Note the ordering of "hindi" and "Darna" compared to the English.).
  • "Valentina isn't going to win" => "Hindi mananalo si Valentina".
So it looks like depending upon the structure of the sentence, Tagalog favours putting the negation word at the start in many cases. So it doesn't mean the characters are beginning every sentence "No..." -- they are just saying something negative which causes the sentence to begin that way in Tagalog.


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five_red wrote:
1 year ago

So it looks like depending upon the structure of the sentence, Tagalog favours putting the negation word at the start in many cases. So it doesn't mean the characters are beginning every sentence "No..." -- they are just saying something negative which causes the sentence to begin that way in Tagalog.

R5
Yes, thank you for the explanation - I already kind of figured that all of those sentences had some kind of negation in them, and that the practice in Tagalog is usually to put the negative part (hindi) at the beginning. ('not transforming is Darna' = English 'Darna is not transforming'). Linguists call this
VSO and VOS; Tagalog can be both; while modern English (at least) is usually SVO. Languages interest me greatly, so I was very much into noticing this.
(and also that Tagalog tends to turn a lot of written 'k' letters into 'kh' in spoken form).

I was just incredulous about how many negatively-based sentences all of these characters are always saying. It's a lot. Sometimes it seems almost the whole series is about "not this" / "this will not happen", etc.

I guess that kind of goes along with some people's complaints about the series - i.e. that not a lot is happening. :)
They do need to step it up with more action and higher stakes in Season 2. I mean, the only truly memorable scenes in the entire Season 1
are really Zora's battle against the Cyborg, and Darna/Narda's battle in the parking garage during the shootout.
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Random questions I have after watching Darna:
  • How big is Nueva Esperanza? It seems to have a healthy population (judging by social media), a good sized police department, its own mayor, and yet only one tv news reporter. He not only reports stories in the field, but acts as news anchor and presumably sports commentator and weatherman too(!)
  • Where are Brian's apartment and Regina's office? The views from inside looking out the windows show tall buildings, but scenes outside the buildings show a large wood. When Ding and Narda sneak into Brian's apartment building during the Mirror Man incident, we see woodland beyond the door leading to (presumably) the fire escape. Brian's apartment is right next to that external door, yet the view from his window looks like a cityscape.
  • Where does Darna go after she transforms? A number of times now we've seen Narda run off and switch identities, but then take a couple more minutes before she shows back up at the action. Classic examples are the shopping mall bomber, and the fight with the Mirror Man.

R5
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five_red wrote:
1 year ago
Random questions I have after watching Darna:
  • How big is Nueva Esperanza? It seems to have a healthy population (judging by social media), a good sized police department, its own mayor, and yet only one tv news reporter. He not only reports stories in the field, but acts as news anchor and presumably sports commentator and weatherman too(!)
  • Where are Brian's apartment and Regina's office? The views from inside looking out the windows show tall buildings, but scenes outside the buildings show a large wood. When Ding and Narda sneak into Brian's apartment building during the Mirror Man incident, we see woodland beyond the door leading to (presumably) the fire escape. Brian's apartment is right next to that external door, yet the view from his window looks like a cityscape.
  • Where does Darna go after she transforms? A number of times now we've seen Narda run off and switch identities, but then take a couple more minutes before she shows back up at the action. Classic examples are the shopping mall bomber, and the fight with the Mirror Man.

R5
3 words: Suspension of disbelief :P

I believe the makers of this show are too focused on coming up with material daily, they don't really care about the feasibility of their world.

Watching the show, one could easily think the Nueva Esperanza was a whole country by itself, as there seems to be little or no interaction with a central/national goverment. :)
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Season two kicks off with a big fight, and the introduction of a potential new heroine ally.


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I'm a little late to the party, meaning R5's clips, but let me say they're spectacular! Much better than the ABS-CBN's. Please keep 'em coming!
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Yea thanks for the video!

So season 2 started straight away??? No gap between s1 and s2?
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five_red wrote:
1 year ago
Season two kicks off with a big fight, and the introduction of a potential new heroine ally.
R5
Wow, thanks Red5 for being the 'hero' of this thread - I had no idea that Season 2 was coming in so fast.
Great costume on that new heroine, and she is cute! Notice the multiple times in one dialogue line she uses the 'hindi' term.

SEASON 2!

Episode 66 - A New Leaf

About half of the content is recap from the last season. Then we get into some new stuff, and there's a decent amount of Darna in the costume,
but no fights yet.

- Darna and Brian band together to investigate the distribution of the 'Sparkler' drug by the criminal cartel (of which I assume the Mayor is a member). Apparently, Brian's father was killed when he was also trying to look into the cartel.

- Darna defends a new Extra, "Rubber Woman", from a mob that's trying to hurt her.

- Regina makes a sexy transformation into Valentina. Then she crashes a celebration for a rapist who got off scot-free in her courtroom.
Dropping her green reptilian spit-slime into his victory drink was a nice touch.

----------------------------

Episode 67 - Luna

So, the new superheroine character is named Luna, and she is a new warrior from Planet Marte who was apparently trained by Zora.
She arrives on Earth to possibly supplant or take over the position of Protector from Darna - I think all the 'hindis' are her telling Darna
'you are NO protector', 'you do NOT deserve the stone', etc or something similar.

Luna is played by the very lovely actress Kira Balinger, who says that she goes 'way back to 2014' with Jane DeLeon from acting 'workshops'.
Here's an interview with Kira for those who can understand it.



Unfortunately, for some reason Kira does not get to keep her beautiful long hair, but she is still quite cute with her short hair when her helmet is
removed at the end of the fight. And, as you can see from Red5's clip above, it is quite a long fight. The production has stepped up its game to the point where the action now rivals Batman vs Superman (I've never even seen a fight that long in a CW show). Good going!

Highlights of this episode:

- Valentina steps up her powers. She doesn't just use her snakes to attack - she also has super strength which she uses to punch and crush'
the guys with guns. She is also bulletproof - they try to shoot her but the bullets just bounce off. This is a very hot sequence of Janella
just dominating everyone with her power.

- Darna and Valentine then engage in a physical battle with blocking, kicking and punching. Valentina restrains Darna's wrists with two of her
snakes, but that doesn't last long. Valentina then uses her snakes as *projectiles* (I think this is new, too) but Darna blocks all of them. Then
Valentina flees as the police arrive and the ambulance comes to tend the wounded.

- While Darna is out looking for the fleeing Valentina, she comes upon Luna, and they begin the classic 'superhero misunderstanding' battle that you saw Red5 make a clip out of, above. Meanwhile, Valentina is hiding out in a tree, and she goes into an internal monologue where she assures herself that she is THE MOST POWERFUL. Then, she attacks a hapless bum on the street and apparently sucks out either his blood or his lifeforce (so she's basically a vampire/succubus at this point). Ali discovers the victim's body and is obviously concerned for Regina.

- Then, the second part of the extended battle between Darna and Luna takes place (as also seen in Red5's clip). There's so much power and peril,
throatlifting and getting punched through multiple walls of a building. And then (Maskripper take heed) there's an unmasking where Darna reveals Luna's face!

- After this battle, it looks like Luna and Darna have at least *two* heart-to-heart discussion scenes where it seems as if they have resolved to work together as Protectors (correct me if I'm wrong here). I'm not sure why they talk so long, but I think at least part of it involves Luna bringing viewers up to date on her backstory about how Zora trained her. Then Narda introduces Luna to the Custodio family, and we get a couple of nice body scans of Luna's beautiful tight costume. Luna has a way of turning off her powers using some twist of her glove - the blue parts of her costume disappear and it turns completely brown. It also looks like Ding has a crush on Luna (or, that might develop more as the season goes on). Who wouldn't?

- Regina admits to Ali that she is 'getting stronger', and warns him about 'stalking' her while she's out doing Valentina things. He's so pathetic - you can see he's totally in love with her, worships the ground she walks on, and she just treats him like a servant, calling him 'useful'.

- Episode ends with yet another heart-to-heart between Narda and Luna (now in civilian clothes, in her cute short hair). They reminisce about Zora.

So pumped to keep following the Darna saga, especially with the addition of this great new superheroine character.
Can anyone confirm: is Luna a brand new character in the Ravelo-verse? There's no listing at all for her on the Darna Fandom Wiki.
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shzam wrote:
1 year ago
Yea thanks for the video!

So season 2 started straight away??? No gap between s1 and s2?
Tis always the way in these telefantasya series. :D Darna 2005 had two seasons, 70 episodes each IIRC, and they were screened back to back. For 'season' read 'chapter', were one set of storylines comes to a close and another set begins. They are breaks in the storytelling, not production or broadcast.


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shevek wrote:
1 year ago
So pumped to keep following the Darna saga, especially with the addition of this great new superheroine character.
Can anyone confirm: is Luna a brand new character in the Ravelo-verse? There's no listing at all for her on the Darna Fandom Wiki.
She appeared to be an original for this series.

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Week 1 of Darna Season 2 is over.
And the slow soap-opera pace of the series continues unabated.

Episode 68 is mostly skippable. The only significant thing is that Narda (once again!) gets kidnapped. As I understood it (correct me if I'm wrong),
for some reason Narda is wearing a short blonde wig and hanging out with her transvestite friend Oleg in some sort of drag/club show situation
when they are grabbed by traffickers (probably the same gang that grabbed her the first time). Not the best idea to repeat this trope so soon,
and there's no effort to display peril.

Episode 69 is notable and watchable for several reasons:

- The kidnapping is resolved, as there's an extended shootout between Brian's police force and the traffickers. Halfway through that, Brian shoots the chains off Narda (in wig) and Oleg (in full transvestite makeup), which seems a bit dangerous. But of course, this allows Darna to join the fight against the remaining traffickers. Here we see once again that Darna is completely impervious to bullets fired from any angle. so there's no need for her to play bullets-and-bracelets like Wonder Woman. And here, she doesn't do that at all (leading some credence to our Facebook friend's complaint that she should *never* do it).

- Narda has a brief dream about being tightly held aloft by Valentina's snake appendages. You can capture a nice still of it for your peril collection.
Immediately upon waking, she describes the dream to Luna, mainly because *they are now sleeping in the same bed*. Attention Batgirl1969 for lesbian fantasies that will never happen: it's perfectly acceptable in the Philippines to depict a badly made-up transvestite, but apparently not to show two beautiful women kissing. Ah well.

- After that, we have a nice Narda-to-Darna transformation in her room, while both Luna and Ding watch. It's not very dramatic - she simply transforms because she has to go and check on a report about Valentina - but it's there.

Episode 70 is a bit of a weird end to the week.

- Regina doubles down on her resolve to find out Darna's weakness (i.e. her human identity) but she still doesn't manage to do so. She does
manage, however, to pretty much kill a victim every night in her pursuit to become 'stronger'. By this time, it's all over the news that there are at least 36 'missing persons' in Nueva Esperanza, but nobody ever discovers the body husks that Valentina is creating by sucking her victims dry, and it doesn't seem as if anyone suspects Valentina as being behind it.

- Yet another character develops a crush on Luna at first sight. Luna visits Narda's workplace for the first time - they have lunch there (there is a *lot* of sitting at tables and eating food in this series!) and Narda's co-worker Richard (with the little topknot) is attracted to Luna. Meanwhile, it's clear that Ding has a steady girlfriend/teenage female companion, Patricia. They are seen hanging together a lot, and she's getting more lines. It's obvious that this is an effort to give Ding more of a friend base, similar to how Mike and Jakeem form the "Young All-Stars" in Stargirl. Ding and Patricia mainly just sit around and talk about Extras. Meanwhile, there's a training sequence where Luna and Narda test each other in battle.
It's nice to see, but of course no costumes.

- Narda-to-Darna transformation on a rooftop, and then she almost immediately changes back to Darna. Not sure why they put that in in there.

- Noah continues to be utterly pathetic. He is outright rejected by Narda, in front of her whole family. He even brings her a huge bouquet of flowers and a gigantic teddy bear, and she still won't give him the time of day (she's obviously fond of Brian only). He slinks outside with a sad puppy dog face. You'd think that with all of his daddy's money he's spending on buying Narda gifts, he could just go out to bars and spend it on other women who are way hotter, but apparently not.

- The weirdest thing is that there is a fight, but it's not between Darna and anyone. Instead, after Noah is outside Narda's house, he gets attacked by Valentina. Don't get me wrong, watching Janella Salvador in that tight green costume, squirming around and flipping over with her snakes, is very sexy. But because Valentina is right there in front of Narda's place, neither Luna nor Narda can transform (or they would be found out) and so they *literally attack Valentina with two sticks*! And they basically beat her. So my question is this: Regina has eaten THIRTY-SIX PEOPLE in the last week to supposedly "get more powerful" so that she can eventually attack Darna and beat her, and yet here she is defeated by two (supposedly) ordinary
girls with sticks? Apparently the leveling-up idea makes no sense, and "Many Bothans died" for nothing. Regina's likely to be in yet another sour mood, taking out her frustrations on poor smitten Ali, once again. Ah well.

Things look up for next week when the Extras apparently run rampant at a public Fiesta. Can't wait to see Human Urchin and Seductress in action again! (even if they're only wearing orange prison scrubs, and not sexy costumes)
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shevek wrote:
1 year ago
Immediately upon waking, she describes the dream to Luna, mainly because *they are now sleeping in the same bed*. Attention Batgirl1969 for lesbian fantasies that will never happen: it's perfectly acceptable in the Philippines to depict a badly made-up transvestite, but apparently not to show two beautiful women kissing. Ah well.
Looking at the Philippines from the outside through the lens of its tv output, it is certainly a strange place. The country is deeply Catholic -- you may even have spotted the "To God the Glory!" caption right at the end of Darna's extended season finale (episode 65) end credits. Yet their entertainment shows, and even their drama shows aimed at a family audience, frequently show gay and drag presenters and characters. If you look at some of the entertainment shows were Jane and Janella were interviewed in recent years, you'll see 'glammed-up' male showbiz news presenters who are very camp. But you don't see any reference to any LGBTQ issues or lifestyle. There's even transgender superheroes (Zsa Zsa, Captain Barbie,...), some aimed at kids tv. So the audience seems to be quite comfortable with strongly hinted gay and trans characters, so long as they aren't explicitly showing gay or trans issues or lifestyles -- a fair bit of cognitive dissidence. On the plus side, however, these presenters/characters don't appear to be the butt of any jokes. The audience isn't laughing at them or looking down on them as far as I can tell, in the way that -- say -- the audience was encouraged to laugh at some of the camp/effeminate characters in classic Britcoms and comedy sketch shows of the 60s and 70s.

After that, we have a nice Narda-to-Darna transformation in her room, while both Luna and Ding watch. It's not very dramatic - she simply transforms because she has to go and check on a report about Valentina - but it's there.
What's interesting about that tf is that they clearly had to film it in two parts and glue them together (doesn't look like they used any green-screen trickery), yet the lighting in the room from the transformation effect works well across the join. The digital effects team have gotten stronger and stronger with each month. In early weeks Valentina's snakes always had a thin halo of light around them that made them look superimposed rather than part of the natural lighting in the location. But that halo has gone now, and they blend into the surrounding lighting and shadows pretty well, looking far more real.
- Narda-to-Darna transformation on a rooftop, and then she almost immediately changes back to Darna. Not sure why they put that in in there.
That was there simply so that Valentina come within a whisker of seeing Narda transform into Darna. They needed to engineer a situation that created a bit of secret identity peril, and a spurious de-transformation and then re-transformation for no other reason than "oh, my phone is in my other identity's clothes" was the best they could come up with. :D
- Noah continues to be utterly pathetic. He is outright rejected by Narda, in front of her whole family. He even brings her a huge bouquet of flowers and a gigantic teddy bear, and she still won't give him the time of day (she's obviously fond of Brian only). He slinks outside with a sad puppy dog face. You'd think that with all of his daddy's money he's spending on buying Narda gifts, he could just go out to bars and spend it on other women who are way hotter, but apparently not.
If there's going to be a happy ending for Regina, then my guess is that it will be with Noah as her boyfriend. I think they are being set up as a love match, possibly so that Regina's story can end on a positive note once her Valentina identity is defeated. (Assuming she survives.)
Regina has eaten THIRTY-SIX PEOPLE in the last week to supposedly "get more powerful" so that she can eventually attack Darna and beat her, and yet here she is defeated by two (supposedly) ordinary girls with sticks?
When no one was looking Valentina took thirty-six innocent people. She took 36 people. That's as many as three twelves. And that's terrible. (Yet Narda and Luna still whooped her ass..!)


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five_red wrote:
1 year ago
Regina has eaten THIRTY-SIX PEOPLE in the last week to supposedly "get more powerful" so that she can eventually attack Darna and beat her, and yet here she is defeated by two (supposedly) ordinary girls with sticks?
When no one was looking Valentina took thirty-six innocent people. She took 36 people. That's as many as three twelves. And that's terrible. (Yet Narda and Luna still whooped her ass..!)


R5
Ha ha! My comic book creator friend Marvin and I (we share tables at Comicons together, and he's also my second cameraman quite often) have developed a jargon, and one of our main terms is "FOUR TENS" for anything that's terrible. :)
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Darna covered in slime (after getting momentarily swallowed by a snake!). Now this is something you don't see everyday.

Seems like Valentina is getting less of a pushover now. :thumbup:
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Check out my superheroine-related short stories here:

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shevek
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I'm getting more and more the hang of lots of small Tagalog words and phrases from watching Darna!
"saken" (pron. 'sakhen') = matter pasimpa = curse lakas = strength sakanya = of him wala = nothing akho = you
pasensya = sorry dadaanan = pass through ngayon = now kamusta = how are you mabuhay = alive
It's a fun way to make good use of the time spent watching soap-opera conversations.

Episode 71 -

The aftermath of Noah getting bit by Valentina.
You really have to wonder: he's the Mayor's son. And the Mayor doesn't play games. Not only does he have the police force at his command, he also has the secret drug-dealer gang. He knows exactly who bit his son - there were many witnesses. Why doesn't the Mayor order a Gestapo-like house-to-house search for Valentina using all the men at his command? And why isn't he a lot more thankful to Narda and Luna for saving his son from death by snakebite? (beyond just briefly thanking Narda at the hospital) In the end, he barely visits Noah in the hospital.

Basically nothing happens in this episode beyond the soapy love quadrangle: Regina is trying to push Noah and Narda together so she can have Brian to herself. Darna's in costume for maybe a minute while she searches for Valentina to no avail. She surprises a young couple who are making loud noises while making out in the park!

Skip this one unless you want the romantic drama. There's no superheroics.

A funny moment happens when Regina holds up two slinky black dresses and asks her poor simp Ali which one is more sexy.
I'm sure he just wants to say, "You know what, what would be sexy is if you ripped it all off and took me right here. I'm so in love with you, I don't even care if I get five snakebites." But he doesn't even get to answer her question. Later on, we see Regina in a tight shiny black dress with a bare midriff, so he's probably at least happy about that.

Episode 72-

Borgo is back! He and Ishna slunk away from the explosion as little monitor lizards - a bit worse for wear, but fine to get back to their ship.

There's a scene with the drug gang guys in their bar. I wonder why the bar is so tranquil. You see the people drinking, but nobody's carousing, nobody is clinking beer bottles, and there is no thumping music in the background, like there would be at any bar in the CW Arrowverse. Let alone no hot chicks to be seen anywhere. Are bars in the Phillippines really that quiet and well-behaved?

As the slimy photos indicate above, there is some interesting peril for Darna in this episode. But first, some questions about her quirky powers:

- She saves a man from being stabbed, and then accepts a loaf of bread from his wife as a reward. I have no problem with that, but as soon as she launches back into the sky, the bread is gone! Did she eat the whole loaf? Or did she quickly donate it to a poor family off screen?

- Then she stops a candy seller from getting hit by a car. His candy flies off his sales tray up into the air in every direction. So how was she able to
catch all the candy and have it fall exactly back into the tray, nested and sorted perfectly? Some sort of Flash-lever super speed that we also don't see on screen? I didn't know she was that fast, let alone that organized.

And now to the peril: we indeed see Darna totally swallowed and inside one of Valentina's snakes, all covered in slime. It's one of the more unusual perils yet. But I have three questions:

- How did Valentina suddenly create a snake big enough not just to squeeze Darna but to swallow her whole? Is this the "getting more powerful" that she's been talking about? The ability to make bigger snakes?

- Darna escapes in an interesting way from the snake belly (I won't reveal it, you'll have to watch). But why didn't Valentina know this was going to happen? it's a pretty glaring weakness. Doesn't she know the limits of her own bodily functions?

- Why isn't Luna out in the field flying around with Darna while she's looking for Valentina? Wouldn't they have double the chance of winning a fight if they work together?

OK, so next: what is the point of the super-long training sequence involving Luna, Narda and Claudio? Is it just to fill some time with some meaningless combat moves? Are these people working together to stop Borgo and Valentina, or are they just there to boost Narda's confidence?

No sooner are Borgo and Ishna safe and sound at Rex Vanguardia's pad..then Borgo abuses his assistant again, this time holding Ishna's own knife
to her throat! And she just stands there and takes it. When is she going to stop doing that?

Anyway, that's about it for this episode. Not much to watch except for the snake-slime peril, so don't forget to catch that.
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five_red
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shevek wrote:
1 year ago
No sooner are Borgo and Ishna safe and sound at Rex Vanguardia's pad..then Borgo abuses his assistant again, this time holding Ishna's own knife to her throat! And she just stands there and takes it. When is she going to stop doing that?
I'm a little behind with the English subs. Doesn't Ishna know Narda is the Stonekeeper? Does that mean Borgo now knows Darna's true identity?

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brdiy
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five_red wrote:
1 year ago
shevek wrote:
1 year ago
No sooner are Borgo and Ishna safe and sound at Rex Vanguardia's pad..then Borgo abuses his assistant again, this time holding Ishna's own knife to her throat! And she just stands there and takes it. When is she going to stop doing that?
I'm a little behind with the English subs. Doesn't Ishna know Narda is the Stonekeeper? Does that mean Borgo now knows Darna's true identity?

R5
No, she doesn't. I believe Claudio did something to make her forget...
Check out my superheroine-related short stories here:

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(Goes from bright afternoon to dusk in about 30 seconds -- the perils of having to shoot to meet a five-episodes-a-week schedule.) :laugh:

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Gotta say, it was a pretty uneventful week, as Darna things go. Basically, you only have to watch the final episode of the week
(Episode 80) if you really want some good action and to catch up. But here it goes:

Episode 76 - As Red5 shows above, real Darna fights fake Darna. This happens a couple times, and the second time
there are some minimal stakes as she must save the audience at a (sparsely attended??) basketball game.
But since she realizes almost right away that the fake Darna is BORGO (who else could it be? the only other shapeshifters would be Ishna or Claudio)
literally nothing develops from this. Nothing. It's also not explained how Borgo has Darna-level powers while cosplaying as Darna.

And it's rather pathetic that this all leads to nothing, because after watching the Darna/Darna fights, you realize how much extra time it took for them to carefully place every shot so that only Jane's face is seen (and her body double's face is never seen). All of that, and no real
payoff for the concept. Does she follow the fake Darna back to Borgo's ship to track him down? No, that doesn't happen.

Other things that happen this week:

Luna leaves in her spaceship. Why was she even there in the first place? She didn't help Darna in any battles. Her costume was OK, but it wasn't really sexy. She has a brief flirtation with Richard, but nothing comes of that. Not sure of the purpose of this character who only lasted a couple weeks. Maybe she'll be back?

Valentina gets madder at Darna for reasons. She kills a whole bunch more people in Nueva Esperanza for no reason - they're not criminals; one pair of victims is just a couple enjoying a campout. Why she does this is not clear: does she need to 'feed'; is she still trying to get more 'powerful'; or is she just evil and resentful? Whichever reason it is, the mayor, the police and even Darna remain utterly unable to capture her. I mean, all she has to do is provide a little distraction, and she can escape. Nobody ever sees Valentina coming in and out of Regina's window, either. There are some sexy scenes with Valentina in costume, and a couple of Regina-to-Valentina transformations, which you might want to check out. Janella is amazing in this role.

One of Richard's friends at work gains a extra power: he can blow up a basketball!

Darna gets into a bit of a public relations mess when it is revealed that the powers of the extras all come from the Cyborg crystals, and the arrival of the Cyborg years ago is associated with Darna's arrival on Earth. Hence, the public now associates Darna directly with the creation of the extras. Regina gets mad about this, too, because she realizes she has become Valentina because of that same incident. Nothing much comes of this, though, at least not yet, because......

Episode 80 - Suddenly, Dr. Ibarra becomes a major threat. Team Darna finds out that he is responsible for the rash of missing persons around town - he has been kidnapping people and holding them as test subjects for his experiments in a underground lab beneath the Extra facility. So, Darna invades the facility and rescues the innocent prisoners. One cool scene has her tear down an entire wall of jail bars, clearly showing her level of super-strength. The folks at Superwomenmania will love that one.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ibarra gazes diabolically at a glowing green vial (I've used this trope in Heroineburgh myself, with Serpenta and Chlorina) and you know that's never good. Feeling that he's out of options, he injects himself with the liquid, and becomes a deformed Super-Extra, with powers of telekinesis, force fields, and breathing fire.

A battle with Darna ensues, and it lasts a long time, while they are pretty evenly matched. Then, suddenly, Ibarra pretty much defeats himself.
It's a bit anti-climactic. But hey, at least it's an extended fight to finish out the week.

Aftermath: Noah gets in trouble with his Dad (Mayor) for not knowing about the underground lab in the facility he's supposed to be in charge of.
Tough break, kid. Meanwhile Doctor Rolando Villalobos is selected as the facility's new director. Hopefully he will be a kinder gentler director,
and also hopefully stop wearing that fisherman's hat. Rather undignified for a scientist.

So, if you're short on time (and I had to scan five episodes in one night to catch up, so I can understand) just watch Episode 80.
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five_red
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shevek wrote:
1 year ago
Luna leaves in her spaceship. Why was she even there in the first place? She didn't help Darna in any battles. Her costume was OK, but it wasn't really sexy. She has a brief flirtation with Richard, but nothing comes of that. Not sure of the purpose of this character who only lasted a couple weeks. Maybe she'll be back?
From what I can tell from the interviews she did (as best as I can understand them), Kira Balinger was apparently up for the role of Valentina, but missed out. But they liked her enough to create a part specially for her. The other thing I found out is that they use lock-in taping, where the cast and crew work in a bubble for long stretches without going home or having in-person contact with anyone outside the production. This pretty much means supporting actors have to be there all the time, or for blocks of episodes at a time. So Luna may be back, but only when they have a storyline that justifies her being in a long run of episodes.


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shevek
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five_red wrote:
1 year ago
shevek wrote:
1 year ago
Luna leaves in her spaceship. Why was she even there in the first place?
From what I can tell from the interviews she did (as best as I can understand them), Kira Balinger was apparently up for the role of Valentina, but missed out. But they liked her enough to create a part specially for her. The other thing I found out is that they use lock-in taping, where the cast and crew work in a bubble for long stretches without going home or having in-person contact with anyone outside the production. This pretty much means supporting actors have to be there all the time, or for blocks of episodes at a time. So Luna may be back, but only when they have a storyline that justifies her being in a long run of episodes.
R5
Thanks for the great answer. You seem have to all the deep info on these things! Very glad they picked Janella Salvador instead, then. I think everyone can agree that Kira is cute, but Janella is a sizzling beauty at a level rarely seen on television. Creating a part for Kira isn't a bad thing, it's just that it didn't seem to go anywhere.

And as for "lock-in taping", I googled the term, and all the articles about it that came up referred to Asian television from either the Philippines or China. It seems to have been instituted (or accelerated?) in response to Covid. I wonder if that's a societal practice that people in that region have a certain tolerance for, as long as it's not taken too far? (e.g. with the current China situation)
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