Iron Man 3: More of What We Love

** Contains spoilers for Iron Man 3, the previous Iron Man movies, and The Avengers **

If you're anything like me, then the main reason you went and saw Iron Man 3 was to see Robert Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow return to their roles as Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. It helps that there was plenty of action, a brisk pace, and humor, but that was just an added bonus. As the third film in the series, and the fourth to feature these characters, the characters we see in Iron Man 3 have grown and changed since we first met them. Tony Stark became a hero in the past movies, but now his decisions are catching up to him and he has to deal with the consequences.

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

BVC's suggestions for Star Wars VII

In my previous post about the upcoming Star Wars movies, I gave some reasons for optimism. Now that I have had more time to think about it, I would like to make some suggestions for ways in which the new films can be as good as, or even better than, the ones that came before. We have had several decades to enjoy the original trilogy and think about what else we would like to see in the Star Wars universe.

Let's talk about Discworld

Great A'Tuin, by Paul Kidby

Sir Terry Pratchett's birthday was a few days ago, so I think now is a great time to talk about his most famous creation, the Discworld and the series of excellent novels set on it! Discworld, as fans know, is a flat, circular world, born on the backs of four enormous elephants, who in turn stand on the back of Great A'Tuin, a giant turtle who swims through space. The disc is home to people, trolls, dwarves, gnomes, and dragons, though the dragons tend to be small, snivelly creatures who explode when they get excited. It's a fantasy world, but it's also surprisingly familiar. And I love it!

Young Justice Season Two goes wrong where Season One went right

** This post contains spoilers. Also, it turned out quite long. I guess I needed to rant. **

The first season of Young Justice may not have been perfect, but it made for a satisfying, consistently entertaining superhero cartoon. Earlier, I wrote about why I preferred Young Justice to Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Based on the strength of the first season, I bought an iTunes season pass for the second season. This means that I committed to paying for the entire second season before watching a single episode of that season. That turned out to be a mistake.

The Walking Dead: Telltale Games' Masterpiece

I remember back when 2012's video game awards were coming out, The Walking Dead seemed to be dominating. Then, a friend got me an iTunes gift card for the holidays, and he encouraged me to buy all five episodes of the game with the gift card. I bought the game, and from the first time I played it, I was pulled into the story. The best thing about the game was its characters. At first, I wondered how the game was going to make me care about a cliched relationship like the tough guy protecting the little girl. About five minutes later, I was ready to do whatever it took to keep that little girl safe.

Update: The Reward - Tales of Alethrion has added more backer rewards!

So many rewards! Click to view larger.

In my previous post, one of the things that I lamented about the Kickstarter for The Reward - Tales of Alethrion was that there weren't enough rewards. The people behind the Kickstarter must have heard that a lot, because they have now added a lot of new rewards to entice people to pledge, or to raise their pledges if they had previously pledged. Even better, a lot of those rewards are quite reasonably priced!