 |
 |
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Kyou Kara Maou 90
posted at 8:15 AM  
Plenty of spoilers in this post. You've been warned.
We're well into the sword-stealing plot now. Yuuri and his retainers (minus Gwendal, Gunter, and Murata) are in Caloria for a celebration for the defeat of Soushu. They run into Alford, who has a unique sword in his possession along with the holy sword. Janus (I'll just go with that spelling for now) shows up with a huge monster and demands they hand those swords and Morgif over...or he'll start destroying Caloria!
Yuuri makes what to him is an easy choice: hand over the swords. He makes this decision not only for himself, but for Al, who reluctantly agrees. After the swords are taken--just like that!--the monster and Janus disappear; they had simply been an illusion.
"It couldn't be helped," Al says. "You didn't make the wrong choice, Yuuri."
But I'm not sure if I agree with that sentiment!
You can always argue that hindsight is 20/20, and it really does seem like the most noble thing to do to try and save the people of Caloria. But you have to remember that this isn't just a matter of giving up their personal swords. The three swords the White Ravens wanted aren't just any swords. Al's has holy power, Morgif obviously has demon power, and the third, rusty sword has some as-yet-unexplained effect on people with maryoku (and probably other powers). You have to weigh the dangers. Is it more dangerous to let a monster rampage a city-state, or to let an amoral group have three ridiculously powerful magical items?
To be fair, the person who should have spoken up--Flynn--did not. I can't imagine Conrad or Josak recommending against saving people, even though Josak seemed to have the whole deal figured out from the beginning. Wolfram's the logical one to do it, but Yuuri rarely listens to Wolfram's advice even if he had said something. The person who speaks for Caloria should have protested on behalf of her people. That she didn't either means she didn't understand the enormity of the situation, or she's still "following" Yuuri, even though he told her he doesn't want to be followed.
Come to think of it, I'm not sure if Flynn has ever gone against what Yuuri said since the box incident.
It would be hard for a leader to argue for the possible destruction of her country and deaths of some of her people. But I feel that if she'd looked at the situation objectively, she would see that this decision could have repercussions not just in Caloria, but across the entire world.
Someone should have been there to point that out. But no one was. Murata was either back at Shinou's temple or on Earth. Gwendal was at the castle. And no one else stepped up.
I guess what's strange to me about this is that everyone just did what Yuuri said without protesting much at all. In the past, they'd challenge him, make sure he was looking at all sides of the issue. He'd usually go ahead and make the exact same decision, but at least I felt comfortable that he knew what he was doing. Not so in this episode.
Another thing that seemed to be curiously lacking was the strategy behind the scenes. Typically when Yuuri makes decisions with big consequences, his retainers have a plan to bail him out. Maybe this plan exists and it'll be revealed in the next episode. I sure didn't see a hint of it in this one. "Let's go get our swords back" isn't much of a strategy.
Here's hoping there's a purpose to all this. I've been feeling somewhat weird about the general conceits of the show all throughout the third season. It seems to me like Yuuri's standard decision-making is being demonstrated time and time again to be flawed. I don't know if that's on purpose, and if Yuuri is going to grow, or what.
On the one hand, I don't want Yuuri to lose his drive to protect. But on the other, I wish he would temper that with a little more common sense. Now that he's been in this world awhile, he can start making judgments based on his knowledge of its rules, rather than Earth's. It should get to a point where he can start thinking of the consequences, instead of having them pointed out to him by someone else.
* * *
Random shot of Sara from the end of the episode! What can I say, I like him.
Labels: anime, kyou kara maou, screengrab, writing
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Saturday, January 12, 2008
|
|
|
|
|
Bodycount
posted at 8:09 PM
  I borrowed the four-issue TMNT Bodycount series from a guy at work a few weeks ago, and just got around to reading it today.
Was there a point to this?
It seems like creators think they have to legitimize things they enjoyed when they were younger by making them "dark". Why do they feel this is necessary?
Then again, I guess the turtles started out "dark". But this is "dark" for the sake of "dark". There's no reason for it other than to make the turtles more badass, to distance them from the cartoon.
The only character development we got was in book 4 when Raphael sees Casey get shot and suddenly doesn't think guns are quite so cool. But even then he doesn't really seem to be in character--he starts crying immediately, for example. I don't think Raph is all talk; I don't think he's the type to bawl like that. Regardless of the fact that he's a teenager.
The series is supposed to be funny, in a macabre way, and it's full of homages to Hong Kong action flicks, but ultimately there was nothing there that moved me. Did I expect more out of it than I should have?
Final thought: for a story about a ninja turtle, Raph didn't get as much face-time as I would have expected. But I guess that's a good thing, because the artist sure made everybody ugly.Labels: comics, tmnt, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Saturday, January 5, 2008
|
|
|
|
|
I found a new blog
posted at 1:29 PM
Damon Cline writes a blog called Scuttlebiz about area businesses and the economy and such for the Augusta Chronicle. He usually focuses on one story and then ends the post with a few nuggets. This cracked me up:
I'll bet my left index finger (you can't have the right; it's my trigger finger) that Loco's Grill and Pub, the casual dining chain that closed last week after two years in operation, will be converted into Augusta's 213th Mexican restaurant. Mexican is the new Chinese. Maybe you have to be a local to realize that this is hilarious because it's true? When Mom visited I took her to Acapulco's, the restaurant that replaced Fazoli's on Washington Road. They had a few microwaved Italian and "American" options, and were otherwise very much a Mexican restaurant, down to the free chips and salsa.
Damon's sharp and funny and seems to know his Augusta. Blogrolled!
(Edit: Apparently Acapulco's has closed, after about a two month run. Heh.)Labels: augusta, blogging, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Saturday, September 22, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Why does everyone love Lana?
posted at 2:55 PM
Okay, so she has some "exotic" looks (for much of the US, anyway), but she's not particularly bright, whenever she's said "leave it to me" she's ended up failing, she passes out all the time, she makes decisions based on pride...no matter how much she wants to claim that she's not a prize or a trophy, that's really all she is. Her personality sucks, and she'll completely turn her back on her friends rather than admit she could be wrong, and it's okay because everyone inexplicably loves her anyway.
Also, she lives in Kansas and somehow doesn't know the proper way to react to a tornado? :>
Also, she'll choose to be with someone on the rebound, and then marry them within a year. What's the rush, toots? Afraid you'll be an old maid if you aren't married before 20?
I also hate it when she tries to be a badass, because she totally sucks at it. It's like she's trying to grow up, but instead of just, you know, maturing, she decides to play all these games. But in the end, her games are pointless, and she's still the scared wide-eyed little girl who gets victimized every week.
I don't know if all of this is supposed to prove that she's inferior to Lois, but if it is, producers, you can stop now. It's been proven, time and again, since season 1.
Can you let her be a real character now? After all, there's got to be some reason Pete ends up marrying her. (Man, I bet dinners at the White House with President Lex are awkward...)Labels: smallville, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, September 20, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Sclaundres
posted at 1:07 PM
It always takes me awhile to get through one of Geoffrey Chaucer's posts, because, you know, I don't speak Old English, generally. So when I saw he had a new post up I refrained from reading it, saving it until I had the time to really hunker down.
Today, however, I accidentally loaded the post. As I was going for Bloglines' "keep as new" button, I glanced down to what seemed from the fact that it was all uppercase to be a particularly emotional sentence...and I saw:
STOP YOUR SCLAUNDRES OF BRITNEY!
Yes. Yes! Chaucer, I love you.
(And I admit it: I love Chris Crocker, too. That video has brought such delight to my life. After all she's been through!)Labels: funny, pop culture, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, August 24, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Never mind
posted at 8:13 AM
So I got involved writing a critique of a poem Jered wrote (actually I gave him the poem as a "homework assignment"), and now the sun's like way up and I'm sure it's hot as hell out there. I think what I'm going to do is just stay in, work on lunches and dinner, maybe watch some anime, and try to go over to the Y on my lunch break. ;P
Tonight's going to be interesting; I'm supposed to do some work for my regular job at around 11:30pm. This will happen every Friday for the rest of the football season. Originally it wasn't going to be me doing it, but I'm a control freak and ended up volunteering, since it involves using my work computer.
Normally, of course, I would be asleep at that time. So we'll see how this goes!Labels: life, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, August 17, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Fabulous Deathly Hallows spoof
posted at 8:59 AM
Snape: Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, and tell you how I became the half-blood Prince of a school called H-warts. In Spinner's End born and raised, in the playground is where I spent most of my days, chillin' out, maxin', relaxin' out cool, shootin' some quaffles outside of the school. This and much more awaits in this parody of the final Harry Potter book. Those of you who have finished reading, check it out! It's a hoot.Labels: comedy, funny, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
ReBoot rebooted
posted at 9:23 AM
So, you may have heard that one of my all-time favorite TV shows is supposed to make a comeback. A publisher I've never heard of called Zeros 2 Heroes is apparently taking over the franchise. (Edit: Actually, Zeros 2 Heroes is a "social media company" that is handling the community part and possibly the webcomic part of the new effort; the actual production company is Rainmaker Animation, which apparently bought out Mainframe Entertainment.) Five different groups have presented concepts on their website, and fans are rating and commenting on them.
I looked them over and wasn't very happy, but I didn't expect to be. Maybe a cool show will come out of all of this, but it's not going to be the ReBoot I fell in love with. Hell, season 4 wasn't, either. In seasons 1 and 2, Bob was Han Solo, perfectly willing to delete Megabyte if he got the chance, but in season 4, suddenly Greedo shot first. (And Dot had apparently lost her mind.)
Some of the new incarnations don't bother to give us our old characters, or when they do, it's in a vague, "in the past" kind of way. The ones that do "continue" the story completely destroy the characters...Bob becomes a big bruiser in one of them, and Mad Max in another. Isn't this what games are for? And also, it's been done. Even if we ignore season 4 hippie Bob, I can't see Guardian 452 turning into a musclehead. It's just not...him.
In one incarnation, Dot is actually described as "just a girl". What? In another, somehow she is married to Megabyte and the mother of a child with two fathers. What?
After season 4, I've had about enough of Dot getting the shaft, thanks. I'd like to see her kick some ass, like she did in the first three seasons.
There is no way Dot would ever think of herself as "just a girl", and there is no way she would knowingly and willingly marry Megabyte, regardless of whether or not she had "code growing inside her". (Bleh.)
Matrix and AndrAIa, who probably fit these new "hardcore" (snerk) concepts better than our original cast, are curiously absent, though one of the concept creators promised they'd show up later.
In most of these stories, Mainframe has been destroyed. In some of them, the city doesn't even appear at all. Mainframe is kind of like one of the main characters of the original show, and the search for it was the entire point of season 3. Plus, Mainframe is awesome. Why would you ever get rid of it?
And then, oh and then, there's the art. All but one of the designs goes completely off from the look of the original show. Honestly? I don't think the show needed an updated look. Smoother animation, better textures, maybe. But it doesn't have to look world-realistic...it's happening inside a computer. I think season 3 was as far as they should have gone with tweaking the look. Season 4 crossed the line--somehow, the characters looked like action figures who didn't quite seem to be placed properly in the scene, like they were filmed on a green screen. Now these new concepts are telling me that my beloved characters won't even look like themselves.
What reason do I have to watch this new incarnation, really? I can't seem to find one.
I think I will just have to write this off. And while I'm at it, I'll write off season 4, too. Season 3 had a perfectly good ending. Sure, they didn't beat Daemon, nor did they meet "the User", but they saved Mainframe and they were all reunited. It ended with a sense of hope. I'd rather leave ReBoot there than with all these new, "darc" incarnations--season 4 included.Labels: reboot, tv shows, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Saturday, June 30, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Rockin' Girl Bloggers
posted at 11:17 AM
Brooke has, for some unknown reason, named me a Rockin' Girl Blogger.
As I draw close to my 3000th post and wonder what exactly it is I'm doing here, it makes me feel good that someone out there has a use for it all.
The thing to do here, as I understand it, is to pay it forward and name five Rocking Girl Bloggers of my own. Brooke also didn't do any repeats, meaning I shouldn't use her or anyone on her list.
So, with those guidelines in place, here are five girl bloggers I think are awesome.
V, of Violent Acres: I am consistently impressed and intrigued by this woman. She has no problem telling it exactly how it is, and her essays are often a much-needed jolt of common sense in this crazy "how can I be a victim today?" world. There are things she's said that I disagree with, and there are times that I wonder if she's really okay or not, but ultimately I find her posts refreshing and enlightening, sometimes touching and sometimes funny. She's brutally honest about some things that you need to be anonymous to be brutally honest about, and I can respect that. And she's smart, and she's taking care of herself instead of expecting someone else to do it. That last is one of the hardest things in life; despite my own independent spirit, I struggle with it daily.
Merujo, of Church of the Big Sky: One of the funniest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting online, and certainly one of the best writers, Merujo inspires me with her fierce refusal to let life trample all over her. It knocks her down, repeatedly, especially lately, but what does she do? She gets right back up, usually with a snarky comment or two. But I was her fan before her current predicament--I like her style, I like her outlook on life, I like that she is so nonchalant about all the amazing things she does. Confident but never proud, Merujo is a model that any woman would be wise to aspire to.
Marie Mutsuki Mockett: Marie is a professional writer who blogs at her own space and on Japundit, which is where we met. I love her because she thinks like me, like an anthropologist. She's aware that there are often numerous reasons for why things are the way they are, and she's interested in exploring them all. Her specific interest in Japan, due to being part Japanese and growing up visiting Japan frequently, makes her writing extremely relevant to me, but anyone can write about Japan. Writing about it thoughtfully and objectively while adding personal perceptions and emotions is why I keep going back to Marie's blog. She takes in as many resources as she can, she evaluates the facts fairly, but she also explores what it all means, both to who she is and to society. It's that sort of critical analysis paired with emotional insight that draws me to a writer.
Sunshine, of Days of My Life: A teenager living in Mosul, Iraq, Sunshine has to fight to enjoy the things most of us in the US take for granted. She can't go into her bedroom now because it has large windows that face the street. When school starts again, she will be in danger of terrorist attacks--or friendly fire from coalition soldiers!--en route to her classroom building. She can't go anywhere or do anything and is essentially a prisoner in her own home, studying as best she can, reading ravenously, making handicrafts, and taking care of her younger siblings. But this is a girl who knows that if she gives in to her fear and depression, then she has already lost. This is a girl who steps out into her war-torn world with a smile on her face. Read this post for an example of what Sunshine lives through and how she has decided to live through it. If Sunshine is Iraq's future, then despite the helplessness and despair I feel with every news story about the war, I can still have hope. She's not just the pillar of support for her family...she's supporting her entire country, her entire world.
Mama, of Emotions: Where Sunshine tries to keep positive on her blog, her mother offers full-on, visceral reactions--which is probably why she doesn't post very often. There are no punches pulled at Emotions. This is a young mother who is hurting. Her country is a mess, her children can't go to school without being in danger of being shot or blown up, she sometimes can't get to her place of work as a dentist, and when she can she doesn't have the proper equipment. She has so little control over her situation. This is a true victim; this is a person who can't simply pull herself up by the bootstraps. And she tells us so. Look at what's happening, she says. Feel my pain. Something needs to be done. Her message is the message that people need to hear--without spin, without remorse. Because despite it all, she is determined to live. And she deserves to live free of fear.
This Rockin' Girl Blogger thing is everywhere. Just tracing back through my nomination at Brooke's blog to her nomination and the nomination of the person who nominated her, I've found fifty gazillion girl blogs. I'm having trouble determining where it all started, but regardless, it seems like a really good way to expand your reading material, if you should have a need for that. *eyes her ever-expanding sidebar*Labels: blogging, iraq, japan, rockin girl blogger, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friday, June 22, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Reasons Earth 2 was brilliant
posted at 11:25 PM
1) The utter disdain in Devon Adair's voice as she reproaches the interrupting O'Neill, "I'm putting my son to bed, Commander!"
2) They never do tell you who it was Bess thought about. Because that wasn't what was important. Here was a show where when there was trouble in a marriage, it didn't automatically end. Here was a show that dealt with choice and consequence. Here was a show with people with real feelings and real emotions who made real mistakes and then had to live with them--and who chose to fight instead of taking the easy road.
3) Terry O'Quinn.
4) Tim Curry.
5) Devon and Danziger. Especially the scene where they're tied up and Devon has to grab the canteen with her mouth.
6) Real children, and real parents. These aren't adorable, model children. These aren't scenery. These are kids with real personalities and motivations, who don't always know what's right, and who react extraordinarily realistically to being stranded on a planet with none of the luxuries they were used to. These are kids whose actions often drive the plot. These kids are characters!
7) Alonzo grinning when Danziger asks how old he is, and responding, "A hell of a lot older than you, kid."
8) Deadly viruses that come not from the new hostile environment, but from something that happened years ago and light years away.
9) The Grendlers. They could have just been boring, stupid, and ugly. But they're complex, motivated, friendly with a twist--their love for the taste of human blood. And then there's that episode where their "humanity" is incontrovertibly shown...
10) Danziger's apology to True. I cannot describe how attractive a good father is.
11) The amazing shot framing. I am constantly impressed by how plot elements will stay framed in the background, even when the action is in the foreground, or how receding action will remain framed by something related in the foreground. And then there are scenes that are just pretty.
12) The concept of a planet's life forms having direct symbiosis with it. Sure, it's an obvious environmentalist statement...but it's also rife with story possibilities. Especially when you throw in the human factor.
13) How a story that seems fairly simple continues to become more and more complex, yet retains the themes that make everything still seem simple.
14) Fantastic props and costumes and set pieces. And who knew New Mexico was that beautiful? (I've never been there--sorry New Mexico!)
15) Morgan Martin, one of the most interesting characters I've ever seen. He's not a hero in many ways, and yet in other ways he is. Most of all he's real. He's real and he makes all kinds of mistakes. But he's not comic relief--or if he is, that's not all he is. He's a main character. (Side note: the actor who plays him is named Gegenhuber...was the writer of Kyou Kara Maou a fan?)
16) Exploring what it means to be genetically designed for something and to have other, seemingly baser motivations. Exploring various ways of dealing with criminals--exile, mind wipe--that aren't really possible currently, but are just as rife with ethical dilemmas as the procedures we have now. Exploring so many science and social possibilities, all within the framework of real people stuck together on a mission gone sour.
17) Discovering things we take for granted about planetary life for the first time: wind, rain, snow.
18) The VR. I know, it seems to randomly appear after Julia uses it to contact Reilly...but it's just so cool!
19) Reilly: You must tell me where you are so we can come and collect the child. Who knows? When you do, maybe the Council will name an entire continent after your family.
Julia: Yeah. Maybe they'll call it Hell.Labels: earth 2, tv shows, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thursday, February 8, 2007
|
|
|
|
|
Why can't people write?
posted at 1:04 PM
I'm not talking about injecting voice into prose; I'm talking about spelling things correctly, using correct verb tenses, and having enough of a vocabulary to not misuse common words. These are professionals, people with important jobs, community residents who want to get their voices out there. These are PIOs for nationally-affiliated organizations.
Has it always been this way? Have I just been shielded from it by not working in large organizations or seeing dozens of horrendous news releases every week?
Japanophiles like to make fun of Engrish, and to haughtily suggest that in this 21st century, Japanese companies could surely hire a native speaker to write their copy.
But I wonder if a native speaker would truly be any better.Labels: education, engrish, writing
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ARCHIVES |
|
|
| |
|
|
