Wacky
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Posts posted by Wacky
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This entire revelation took approximately 45 seconds to work out and 5 minutes to type.
Yes, my brain tends to work on overdrive figuring out useless shit like this.
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This completely blew my mind.
After having the Star Wars "Rule of Two" for the Sith explained to me (As I was never a fan and know the series only in passing- but strangely enough because they are awesome games I know the KotOR universe far better than I do the movies) The thought that Anakin Skywalker, that is, Darth Vader, would bring "Balance" to the force strikes me thus:
1. Assume there are 2 Sith at any one time.
2. Assume there are >2 Jedi at any one time.
Through episode 3, Anakin Skywalker goes nuts and kills every other Jedi except for Obi Wan and Yoda and turns to the Dark side, that is, turns Sith, so:
2 Sith = 2 Jedi by the end of the 3rd movie.
Where the next 3 go,
2 Jedi vs. 2 Sith
1 Jedi vs. 2 Sith after Obi Wan Dies, but because of Vader's actions, Luke becomes a Jedi, so
2 Jedi vs. 2 Sith
And then in Return of the Jedi Yoda dies, so
1 Jedi vs. 2 Sith
Vader kills Palpatine, so
1 Jedi vs. 1 Sith
And then Vader dies, and can't affect the number of Jedi vs. Sith any more.
Anakin Skywalker has, indeed, brought Balance to the Force! Every time he's acted, he has balanced the equation!
You would think when the Jedi outnumbered the Sith by several thousand they'd not want Anakin around, but clearly they don't teach enough Jedi discrete Mathematics or Logic systems and instead teach them kumbaya and that "balance" is always good.
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The Star Trek cannon is bloated, and was built upon limited special effect technology. A reboot is not a bad idea.
(Plus I can't wait to hear the Kirk vs Kirk debates...)
Yeah because 40 years of time lord continuity can't be remembered and worked on and referenced without having to reboot the entire series oh wait
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Well for one, Star Trek always played that game of "Prime Directive is holier than thou" and then ten minutes later Kirk is banging the alien princess he's supposed to ferry to her arranged marriage.
I love the TNG episode with this wrinkle on it called "The Perfect Mate." It's the perfect counterpoint to explain why TNG is different from TOS. Whereas Kirk would have called off the wedding for some stupid reason and then hammered down on both sides to "just freaking agree on the peace treaty because it makes sense" that he does all the time (Also rooting Elaan), Picard learns that Kamala had bonded to him and wants him for all time. And it's Famke Janssen, so it's not like I'd say no. But he says no, because he has the will to resist his animal urges.
She also learned of his iron will and patience and because she has learned of his reticience and wisdom, she will go along with her arranged marriage. So in fact, instead of being an intergalactic semen sprinkler and caused a few headaches along the way, Picard has taken the route requiring temperance, wisdom and self-control.
Is there any other indication that Picard is the best Captain because of "Chain of Command?" He survives torture that would break just about any other man, refuses to cave in his principles or even what he sees in front of him because that to him is what he sees and believes, and then has the greater courage to admit that every man has his breaking point and he was very close to it.
Can you see Kirk admitting that? No, not even to himself. Sisko? Maybe, but we've seen the measure of the man in "In the Pale Moonlight." Picard would NEVER have made the Sisko lie. Janeway? Well... Sometimes I have no idea what her given reaction in any situation would be, because she's a little psychotic to be honest.
Archer... well, Archer seems to be very Kirky, but he's a very "Ends justifies the means" kinda guy. He also has absolutely no "aura of command" unlike the other four captains. Like seriously, you'd never shit Kirk because he'd beat the crap out of you, you'd never shit Picard because he would look at you funny and scare you to submission, you'd never shit Sisko because he'd find a way to ruin your life and no one shits Janeway because she's frankly psychotic and may very well go postal. Archer? None of these things.
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Somebody PLEASE shoot Brannon Braga, as I just saw the Voyager episode "Threshold" and it is so MINDBOGGLINGLY stupid that I am lost for words, other than he should be shot.
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Also, in this technological utopia, Energy would be currency.
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We should be celebrating the death of Manichean universes in fiction.
It's not really manichean. You have an idealistic, free society which is merely the backdrop for a series of stories, the stories of which are a way to explore what it means to be human, what you could find out there in space. Wars are meant for Babylon 5. The Inner Light is a pure Trek Episode, and it's possibly the most beautiful ever made- and nowhere in it is there a good guy or a bad guy.
I mean, what are the best 10 Trek episodes I can think of off the top of my head?
1. The Inner Light
2. All Good Things
3. I, Borg
4. His Way (yes, I like DS9 too)
5. In the Pale Moonlight
6. For the Uniform (The really good in universe critique of the Federation. Also shows off Sisko's somewhat obsessive character as well)
7. Data's Day
8. Mirror Mirror
9. Lower Decks
10. Field of Fire
These aren't "Good vs. Evil" scenarios. They all are about how humans interact with each other and deal with each other. Hell, two of them don't even involve bad guys, strictly speaking (And I do not think Q is a bad guy, so All Good Things is also another one of these.) And who can't feel for Michael Eddington when he screams at Sisko that the Federation wants everybody to be happy and safe and all kumbaya, and to the Maquis that's worse than any living hell you could think of?
I mean, you don't have to make the Federation "Bad" to make it "Bad," if you know what I mean.
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Indeed. To be fair though, they are doing the equivalent of taking the USS Enterprise (As in CVN 65) and having a constant look at it. When Starfleet is the combined "mega agency" of the United Federation of Planets, you've clearly got the various disciplines, which is why people wear the different coloured shirts. But that's basically irrelevant. The reason why you only see military personnel is simply because you're on a military ship. The actual non-militariness of Starfleet actually strikes me as quite odd. Have you ever seen anyone answer the Captain back? Yes, all the time. Have you seen Chief (Who is probably a CPO) O'Brien dress down an Ensign? Yep, all the time.
Also: It actually grates me that fully half of the main cast of the Next Generation was a lieutenant commander. Lieutenant Commanders captain destroyers and other fairly significant ships. Sure they'd give the flagship a full Captain and a few commanders, but they freaking GIVE AWAY those rank pips, man. Also- Miranda class ships getting full Captains to captain them. There are 100 people on the ship- a Lieutenant Commander will do. Christ, even Lieutenants are capable of commanding vessels.
There's a really awesome Star Trek book series about a lawyer plying his trade in the Federation. There should be more books like that. That and the one which was "West Wing in Space." That wasn't so bad but I always had the feeling the Federation was more United Nations than the United Planets of America. That is, the only reason why Starfleet did everything was that the Federation was so loosely governed it was the ONLY agency with a truly Federation wide jurisdiction. It also explained why, until DS9, the Enterprise would be the ONLY ship for light years around.
In essence, DS9 tried to import the USA into the UFP and it translates BADLY
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Everyone knows the Federation is good, right? The Federation is a utopia and in it Starfleet officers don't lie or cheat, and if they do, they are classed as bad, no matter what reason. It was this liberalism and moral objectivism, that really attracted me to Star Trek, especially when Picard can go badass and say that it doesn't matter even if Simon Tarses IS a Romulan spy, he must have a fair trial. It so happens that I no longer think the Federation is the shining ideal of right it used to be (with the glorious exception of Picard and possibly Kirk), for the following reasons- The Federation now acts as if the means justify the ends, which never used to be the case.
I comment on the poor experiences of the Romulan Senator Vreenak, who apart from his anti human bias is a perfectly reasonable elected Senator of a Galactic Republic (The Romulan Empire.)
1. The Tomed Incident- In 2311, the Romulan Empire and the Federation are about to go to war when a Federation protoype vessel explodes and causes the Star Trek equivalent of a nuclear explosion (subspace explosion destroys an entire sector of space and renders it inoperable to warp travel.) A Romulan nationalist on the flagship Tomed rigs his warp core, powered by a black hole, to fail while in warp while aiming it at a line of Federation outposts. Four Thousand starfleet officers are murdered, and the Klingon Empire allies with the Federation in the face of such a cowardly attack. Senator Vreenak, a diplomatic aide at this time, comments that while a patriot and bigot, the nationalist would never act in a way contrary to Romulan interests, which he has just apparently done. He gets yelled at by everyone, including the Romulan ambassador.
The only problem is that Vreenak is RIGHT. The entire incident was a plot by the Federation to get the Klingons onside so there would be peace. All the people on the bases were actually people who had died over the past year on classified missions and were "sent" there, their sensor readings faked with equipment. The nationalist's ship was in essence hijacked by a group of Starfleet officers, one of whom tricked a Romulan diplomat into transporting his men onto the ship. In total, 6 people died, although only one is truly murdered by a starfleet officer.
2. The Sisko Lie- If you've seen In the Pale Moonlight of DS9, one of my favourite episodes, you'll know how this goes. Captain Sisko lies, cheats, murders, acquiesces in murder, and condemns both Vreenak, who has found out that the alleged information given to him about the Dominion is a fabrication by Starfleet, and several million innocent Romulans to die JUST SO the Federation has a CHANCE of winning the Dominion War. It's nice how they still remember Starfleet is meant to be morally objectivist, so it has Sisko not being able to live with himself, and that he can't truly justify why he did what he did, but that's what the Federation has sunk to.
3. Star Trek: Insurrection- granted this time the good guys are Starfleet, but the bad guys are Starfleet too. The Federation advocates forcibly removing a colony of several thousand from a planet with regenerative powers so it can be strip mined and turned into medical treatments for the rest of the Federation. It also allies with a nascent warp civilisation just as an extra ally against the Dominion (Whereas without the alliance the Dominion would have just left them alone.) This is akin to France asking Luxembourg to ally with them because Germany just declared war on them.
And you ask yourself... Is Optimus Prime truly the only unambiguous good character left in this world?
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The scene which really affected me the most?
The one from the vignettes at the beginning, which was what you'd think was a perfect example of progress and simple cuteness on VJ Day...
And then a few seconds later reminding us that it's still the 1940s.
The other favourite is "All along the Watchtower" at the appropriate place.
I do, however, dislike that Ozy gets turned into a complete dick. I personally think that Rorschach was completely right (There's a rather large moral chasm between letting a person die because of someone else and killing "innocent" people in order to preserve life somewhere else.) BUT Adrian has a good point. If he didn't do what he did, there'd be billions of dead people, not millions. In the comic, he actually genuinely hates having to kill each time he does it, but in the movie he might as well be a Bond Villain.
Also, get over the wang. I see it every day when I shower, and girls see it fairly often too. It's nothing to be ashamed about. It's precisely the exact point that shows Doc Manhattan is beyond human and truly Nietzschean- he doesn't even recognize that clothing matters to humans, something which just about every culture accepts.
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I'm going to have to second this. I don't have the patience for comics, but the Ultimate Spiderman videogame is great. And the Spectacular Spiderman TV show (which seems to be based largely on the Ultimate continuity) is good. Does Parker deal with teenage angst? Yes, he's a teenager. But what's really good is that they take the time to originate all the villains (unlike Spiderman the Animated series... god, what crap that was) and give them somewhat intelligible reasons to be pissed off (usually because they were wronged in some way). So yeah. I'd recommend that show.
"Face it, Tiger... you've just hit the Jackpot." This line in Spectacular is infinitely better than almost all other versions.
Guaranteed to get me randy if said by Girl in appropriate voice inflection.
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The whole point of Spider-Man from the day he was created was to be an angsty character. He was angsty before the word really even came into popularity. Superheroes prior to him were basically all "perfect" in some way, but with Spider-Man came a generation of heroes with definite imperfections. Peter Parker has super strength, but can't get a date, and gets picked on at school. Etc. That's what made him such a great character.
Characters grow and change if their creators want them to be decent characters. When Peter managed to, you know, grow up and find something in himself that made him more than the geeky loser he was at the beginning, that's character growth, and that's what makes good comics and good literature. Watchmen, for example- see Dan Dreiberg realize that normal people have dreams, that Dr Manhattan loses all interest in humanity, that Ozymandias has actually gone unhinged because no one has adored him for years- and you had what Peter had just before his entire backstory got nuked. I mean, I didn't really care that MJ was his wife, but the mere fact that Peter managed to learn, over 20 years, how to talk to a girl and grow to love her, meant that he was a character who grew and let you appreciate him. To pick another Spidey Villian- Kingpin. If you didn't know that Kingpin would do ANYTHING for his wife, and truly loved her, you wouldn't find it interesting that he's such a complete dick. If Doctor Doom was simply some asshole in a metal suit, there wouldn't be the actually really interesting character analysis that Doom is simply a man who thinks he is never wrong. Writers really tried to fuck with him to make him pure evil, but that's not why he's so popular- he's so popular BECAUSE he's a multifaceted character who keeps his word and treats people with the respect they deserve. You don't EXPECT that from villains, so when you see it, it's good. I'd pick Doom over Darkseid any day.
In the same vein, I really liked the Supergirl run when Guedes was drawing her. Something as simple as making her cape too long, and then having her drape it around her legs when she sits down as a sign of modesty, says so much about her personality (read: she's a teenager, and a pretty realistic one in her mannerisms) that you can see it far more than the constant Marvel Wangst you get from everyone. I could pick more about the character from the way Guedes draws Supergirl than I could about all the X Men spouting streams of consciousness at once. Deadpool is awesome because I know what he's thinking from what he does, not what he says he does or thinks. The Green Lanterns are all different (And I loved that John Stewart is an architect) that you can relate to each one differently (hint: Hal Jordan is a dick.)
Incidentally, this is why I like SMLMJ.
I thought Civil War was going to be absolutely AWESOME. And then it turned into a shitfight.
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I tried reading stuff after the Brand new Day storyline and to be frank, it doesn't really work for me. There could have been so much stuff concerning how Peter can't hide behind his secret persona anymore because EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT IT IS, and perhaps turn Aunt May into something more than a damsel in distress. But the people at Marvel seem only to be able to write wangst, so there it is. And that lovely extra bit of sadism towards women by making MJ remember that she was married to Peter. Yeah. Great. Fuck you, Marvel. Why don't you just stuff her into a fridge too?
It's rather sad that my borderline-effeminate fangirly crush on Spiderman Loves Mary Jane is the only reason I buy ANY spidey comic nowadays. It's just as wangsty as everything else, but at least that's expected from a 14-5 year old girl.
This is doing my head in and even Shulkie isn't a lawyer any more. Thank god they cancelled the series, but really, that's like removing the entire reason why she was awesome- She was smart, wasn't just the Hulk, and had a lawyer's snark and ability to see beyond the fourth wall.
I'm just going to buy Terry Dodson Black Cat issues and SMLMJ from now on. Marvel, you are dead to me.
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I'm looking forward to a superhero movie where Ozymandias can be treated like the evil dickwad he is.
Of course, people will just say "mwaaah he saved heaps of other people."
Rorschach was right. Damn him, but he was right.
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I love how all this talk in Crisis Core about how special the sword is, and then a few years later Cloud is just like, dragging it on the ground.
What a dick.
Clearly he was renting it.
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Also I thought he was a woman
Fucking Japs messing with my sexuality
In Japan it's like men look like women and women look like naked porn stars just so people can tell whether a character is female or not
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The main character of Final Fantasy Versus XIII is named Noctis Lucis Caelum, and he has what looks like an engine block on his sword.
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/fabula/versus13/
Anyone want to take a stab at (pun intended) trying to figure out what it does?
The latin is bad also.
"Sky of Night light?"
I mean I suppose it's supposed to be all badass, but it really isn't. That's the lamest name I've heard since "Cloud Strife."
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PC, Gamecube, PS3, PS2, Game Boy (Like, 1980s Game Boy), N64, NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM OMG
Although the PS2 is not mine, neither is the PS3. The PS3 is owned by one of my flatmates, and the PS2 is allegedly mine but is used by a squealing fangirl who can't get enough of FFX and its descendants.
Edit: I just realised I am a complete Nintendo Fanboy
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Its easier to just change the names.
No it isn't. The libelee can claim true innuendo.
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Don't publish. If you never publish, you have the defence of triviality.
Truth is also an absolute defence to libel.
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Everything HK-47 says is amazing.
We should bug Bustatunez to bug some other people to make "Star Wars: HK-47 Unleashed"
The best thing is that Chris Avellone knows just what words to use. I'd have personally said "Some new atrocity" instead of "a new atrocity" but otherwise the tone of the quote is exquisite.
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I grow tired of yelling battle cries when fighting this mage! Boo will finish your eyeballs once and for all so he does not rise again!
EVIL, MEET MY SWORD! SWORD, MEET EVIL!!!!
Also:
"Statement: Just when I believe my photoreceptors have recorded the last potential aspect of your cruelty to my memory core, you commit a new atrocity that leaves me analyzing its impact for days.
You are like a delightful random cruelty generator, master, poisoning all you touch with your presence. You are a testament to all organic meatbags everywhere."
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A band with strong jazz/funk influences with a guitarist and bassist who like going into psychotic rock riffs every now and then calling themselves
"You had me at Hello."
Good name or not?
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Really though, if you look at Chun Li in comparison to the other characters, she's impossibly tall for a genetically 100% Chinese girl. I mean it's nitpicky, but she's almost as tall as Guile, Ken and Ryu while squatting in her ready position. Just thought I'd point that out.
Sorry to double post, but my ex was 2 inches shorter than me, so if she wore heels she'd actually be taller.
I'm 6 feet tall. Average, I suppose, but that's tall for asian.
So Star Wars pops into my head...
in General Discussion
Posted
Dude, Star Wars isn't Science Fiction, it's Science Fantasy. Replace Jedi with Wizards and and stormtroopers with uruk hai and so on and so forth and seriously, would anyone notice the difference?