One in a million: Why you'd rather be Luke Skywalker than Han Solo

 Taken from starwars.com

As my colleague Baron von Chop pointed out, it's hard to pick between being Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Maybe it's because they each exemplify so much of what makes for a good hero. One of them is the classic farm-boy-turned-hero, who undergoes the Hero's Journey to find not only glory but himself. The other is the Scoundrel with a Heart of Gold, who discovers that there are depths to himself that even he didn't know about (and gets the princess, too). But we have to look beyond some of the obvious things, too. These characters aren't just archetypes, and there is plenty to recommend them both beyond the roles they play. But let's start with the obvious.

XBox One: Playing a Bit of Devil's Advocate

People act like what Microsoft did with the XBox One's intended policy for game ownership was a transparent cash-grab that came out of the blue. In truth, we already have virtually the same system in place with games on PCs. Since consoles are really just PCs in a smaller box, why the different system? If Microsoft would have said "Every user has to buy a unique CD key to play a game," people would have understood what Microsoft was trying to do. They want the ownership of a game to be tied to accounts (ie, individual people) rather than to a physical copy of a disk. Instead, we're going to continue to have a system with two different methods of ownership:

1. the disk-based version will continue use the physical presence of an official disk to make sure the company got paid for the game (meaning you have to have the disk in your system to play, even if the game is installed on your hard drive).

2. the digital version will be linked to account ownership, meaning everyone who plays it on a different account will have to buy a unique copy (since it's the only way to make sure people using torrents or file hosts don't just share the game with ten thousand of their closest friends without the company who made it making a red cent from it).

So to everyone saying that they don't want to have to pay separately for every account (ie, every person) to play a game: you're already doing that for digital games. The only difference is Microsoft wants (or, I suppose, wanted) to extend that system to all games, regardless of the physical presence of a disk. They don't want to continue with two different methods depending on whether you installed the game from a disk or through digital download. (And maybe, just maybe, we could have gotten to the point where we could play on a console without having to have the disk in, meaning no more disk-swapping.)

Bluefish's Ideas for Star Wars VII

I drew up a comment to the last post, but  it wound up even longer than the original, so I thought I'd post it as its own entry.

I've been thinking about this ever since last night, and I've decided to narrow down my answer in a few ways to keep it from getting to be book-length (or at least fanfiction-length). First, I'm going to write about Star Wars VII, not just a new Star Wars movie. I hope that Disney--as they have hinted--will put out side movies in addition to the regular storyline of VII, VIII, and IX, just like they're putting out individual films for the Avengers in addition to the main plot. So as much as I'd love to watch a Star Wars movie that plays out like a horror movie with the main characters entering an ancient Sith temple on a forgotten planet where a hidden evil lurks, or a movie in which an outcast Jedi is hunted by the enemies she's made in the criminal underworld, those ideas will have to wait until later. And I have lots of ideas. Only a few involve Twi'leks and are rated R.

Picture source: Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game, picture by Kieran Yanner

Cyber City Oedo 808: bluefish's thoughts

Like my friend Monsieur le Baron, I enjoyed Cyber City Oedo 808 for the flawed gem it is. With only three episodes, it's short enough not to outstay its welcome. I don't have too much to add to his review, but I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on the show.

Produced in the early 90's, Cyber City Oedo 808 comes a little after the first cyberpunk books came out. I can't call myself an expert, but it seems to me that cyberpunk in Japan is often about cops and crimefighters: Ghost in the Shell, Bubblegum Crisis, AD Police, and Appleseed. In my mind, cyberpunk should have an anti-authoritarian edge; after all, it's the megacorporations that tell us what to do, what to think, and what to feel. You shouldn't be protecting them and the social order. But my definition is probably too narrow. Like any genre, you take a setting and a series of tropes and you tell your own story with them. The way you shape the fantasy world often expresses even more than how you talk about the real world. Perhaps it says something that in the minds of these storytellers, change is best made from within, by organized groups of right-thinking individuals holding the line. It's an inherent trust that the system isn't flawed, individual corporations and people are. And sometimes you fix them with bullets.

People Love Star Wars: Star Wars Fan Films

Chances are, I don't have to explain to you what a fan film is. If you're reading this blog, you may well have even considered making one yourself. The fan film comes from a pure well: people love Star Wars. When that passion gets to be too much, fans join in the saga by adding their own stories to the stories they love from the films, comics, video games, and books. People put weeks, if not months and years, of their lives into a fan film. It's a big love letter to the franchise that gave us so many happy memories.

Also, people want to see themselves holding lightsabers.

But the fan film has changed since I was a teenager. There was a time fans would put on bathrobes, go out into the woods behind their houses, and hit each other with lightsabers that they later added cheap glow effects to on their computers. Then came an age when fans would share their work with each other and collaborate on things like special effects, sounds, and music. Now, we have come into an age when fan films actually have budgets (albeit small ones). With a little imagination, you can feel like you're actually watching a new Star Wars movie (or, if we're honest, at least a TV show).

Who wouldn't want to be the hero of Star Wars? (from Dark Horse)

Snow White and the Huntsman: Keep Hunting

"Mirror... mirror............ onthewall," says Charlize Theron, pacing back and forth, when she first addresses her magic mirror in Snow White and the Huntsman. It's as though she knew she had to deliver the most iconic and necessary line in any Snow White movie, but didn't want to do it that way. You know, the way pretty much anyone would have said it. She tried to do it a different way, a dramatic and tense way. And it just kind of made me snort with stifled laughter. This is pretty much the pattern for the whole movie: it's like they're trying to do things their way, but something keeps getting in the way

Discovered on the Intertron: Two Best Friends Play...

So recently, I stumbled across a series of YouTube video calls Two Best Friends Play.... The premise is simple: two dudes in their twenties record themselves talking while playing a video game. It's all about the hilarious banter, usually revolving around making fun of the game, making fun of each other, and hilarious tangents they go off on. Matt is has a gentle, kind of naive soul, and Pat has anger management issues. Naturally, they're both playing up these personas, but the clash of personalities is comedy gold. I should warn you that the things they say are at times misogynistic, vulgar, and crude. Some of their jokes are about harming women or are blatantly racist. That genuinely bothers me, and if they wouldn't go there, I could enjoy their videos much more.

I first stumbled across the videos when I was doing my usual search for ponies, and I found this:

Why You Really Should Give Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes a Watch

 There are some spoilers ahead, but I'll try to keep them to the first part of the show.

One of my cohorts recently threw down the gauntlet (or possibly spandex glove) by comparing Young Justice to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. As he pointed out, they are for different age groups, so it might not be entirely fair to compare them. While YJ gets to have complex storylines full of brooding and woe (and veiled references to drug use, with Red Arrow's latest story arc), A:EMH is much more about fighting bad guys and stopping cartoonishly evil schemes that usually consist of "taking over ____," revenge, and theft. This isn't to say that it's completely silly: Captain America still mourns over the loss of his entire world, Hawkeye and Black Widow have tension while going back and forth on just how evil Widow is, and at one point the Hulk is rejected and goes off to be alone. These moments are great, but they're fairly rare, because the show is about something else: it's about saving the world, and being mighty while doing it.

 The Hulk must go / So you cannot see the depth / Of his loneliness.

Planet Hulk: Sword and Planet and Hulk

Stop me if this plot sounds familiar. An Earthling finds himself on an alien planet that is ruled by a cruel despot who oppresses his own people. The level of technology on the planet is a mixture between ancient and futuristic, combining flying ships with swords and shields. The Earthling finds himself on the wrong end of that despot's regime and winds up in a fight for his life. During that fight, he ends up crossing paths with a resistance against that ruler. The people of the planet who turn to the Earthling as the prophesied savior who will overthrow their leader and restore peace to their planet.

Oh, and the Earthling is the Hulk.

 "Hulk crush puny planet in giant hand!"

Film Review: The Avengers

In comics, I have a feeling that for a while Loki was the villain in most of the schemes the Avengers had to foil. When the Avengers caught on, they'd just send the Hulk to punch Loki whenever a scheme went down, because they knew sooner or later they'd connect him to it anyway, because Loki was just about always involved. After a while of getting his face rearranged by a giant green fist, Loki thought, "Screw it, if they think I'm always involved and punish me for it anyway, I will be always involved." After that, whenever any Avengers-related crime happened, Loki would haul ass as soon as he heard about it to join in. HYDRA attacks New York? Loki flew one of their ships. Crimson Dynamo? Loki gave him a magical power source. Some local hoods knocking over a 7/11? Loki held the door. If you're gonna do the time, you might as well do the crime.

Of course, that's only a theory, and as you can tell this isn't exactly a serious review of The Avengers. My serious review would be very brief: it's a great movie; go see it. It's some great action peppered with plenty of humor, and a theater filled with people laughing is the perfect environment for it. It's loud, wild, and full of the kind of huge emotional turns only a movie with killer aliens, Norse gods, and super soldiers can provide. In one tense moment that led to a huge moment of shining heroic glory, a kid in a row in front of me jumped up with one fist in the air. In another scene, the kid sitting directly in front of me hunkered down in fear covering his ears. It was just that kind of movie. Or maybe the speakers were just turned up too high. Deep down, this film speaks to what we love about superheroes. Yes, the weight of the world is on their shoulders. Yes, they are flawed and deeply human, despite being superhuman. And yet, at the very bottom of it, we all know that being a superhero would be fun.

 Superhero carnage, just like mom used to make.

Mass Effect: I Did It My Way

 We must live with the choices we make.

Much has been made of the romance options in Mass Effect. There has been speculation and rumor about whom you can have a relationship with, arousing all sorts of responses from fans. I used to think this was just about fanboys getting their kicks. Now I'm not so sure. I'm starting to think that it's a reflection of something else: just how deeply we get into the act of participating in storytelling.

Mass Effect: Who Is Shepard?: A Reaction

**WARNING: Some Reaper-sized spoilers ahead!**

I haven't used my power to post on this blog yet, but I thought I'd add something to the ongoing conversation about Mass Effect 2. I haven't played through the game three times the way his Lordship, the Baron von Chop did. I have only done so once, and to tell you the truth, as much as I love the characters and the story, I don't relish the thought of doing three times the hunting for raw materials on planets, playing the world's most boring metal detector simulator. I feel that if the game let you launch probes rapid-fire, instead of making you wait for each one to load, that mini-game might almost have been tolerable.

Because a game can only be so different, I had pretty much the same playthrough experience the Baron did, with one obvious exception: I had my own Shep. His life story is one filled with hardship and a remarkable change of heart. He was born in space, and his mother was (and still is) an officer in the Alliance Navy. At the beginning of the war with the geth, Shepard was best known for his heroic defense of a colony under attack, holding off the assault single-handedly and earning himself the reputation of a war hero. This experience, along with a long service in the Navy, made him think of himself as a career soldier, one who follows orders and does what is expected of him. He wasn't afraid to do what the mission required. Though obedient to his superiors, he also expected a lot of those under his command, and wasn't afraid to yank them back when they stepped out of line. He believed in heavy armor and bullets, especially his sniper rifle/assault rifle combo, and thought biotics are fine... for other people.

Shepard's method of dealing with obstacles: "Did you shoot it? And it's still a problem? Are you sure you shot it ENOUGH?"