Mod Post! Off-Topic Tuesday

[icon_uk]

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like. Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat amongst yourselves.

There has been an incident at Westmister in London this morning, involving a car driving into a security barrier. It may be terrorist related, but it's not clear as yet. No deaths, but some injuries amongst a group of cyclists who were also in the drivers path. The driver has been arrested and investigations continue.

In sad news for Star Trek fans, Nichelle Nichols (recently honoured by San Dieo Comic Convention with a Lifetime Achievement Award) has been diagnosed with dementia. We wish this most gracious of ladies such peace for the future as is possible and hope she always remembers how much she is loved and respected.

In other, happier, Trek news Sir Patrick Stewart announced he would return as Jean Luc Picard for a new Star Trek series. Given the man hasn't seemignly physically aged since the mid 1980's this should come as no surprise.

Tokyo Medical University is embroiled in scandal following the revelation that it had systematically and deliberately been lowering the grades of female applicants in order to bar women from entering the field of medicine. This may lead to a wider assessment of gendre discrimination in Japan

Chris Hardwick has had his name returned to the website nerdist.com, and has returned as a presenter of the Talking Dead podcast. he had been rmeoved from both following allegations of abuse by his ex girlfriend Chloe Dykstra (Who did not name him specifically, but it was clear who was refered to). Nerdist issued a statement;

"Last week, our parent company completed its investigation into the allegations against Chris Hardwick and issued a statement on our site that reinstated a mention of Hardwick as the founder of Nerdist, which is factually true. This statement is not intended to imply any change in our ongoing support of women and victims, nor does it change our business relationship with Hardwick, which concluded in 2017.

Our shows and stories are created by a team of people dedicated to making nerd culture and the internet a more positive, inclusive, and thoughtful place. We hope to continue to embody that mission with our content, our community, and most importantly, our actions."

A female executive and several female staff members have resigned in protest at this action.

I'm not going to report on anything White House related this week (I have my limits), but will note that more than 100 newspapers will be publishing editorials opposing Trump's constant "the press are the enemy of the people" rhetoric on Thursday 16th August.

New surveys now show that over 100 seats that voted for Brexit, would now vote Remain. So a brief gasp of sanity there then... whether it will do any good is less certain.

To the surprise of absolutely no-one, newly fired Minister Boris johnson is now lobbing controversial soundbites to appeal to the more extreme right wing with depressing regularity. The fact Steve Bannon (yes him) appears to be advising him should be cause for concern, but no surprise.

Vienna has been named the best place to live in the world, supplanting last years winner, Melbourne.

In Sweden, a strange spate of car burnings by young people would sound like the start of a dystopian novel were it not so disturbing. Even the Prime Ministers repsonse was a fairly directl "What the hell are you doing?"

Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 7 dropped on Netflix and reaction to major character development has been somewhat divided. The creators have confirmed that Shiro is gay, but the way the flashback to his relationship with his partner Adam (in events prior to the start of the series) was shown was, at best, diluted, and subsequent events do seem to fulfil the "Kill your gays" trope.

On the one hand I'm old enough that the fact we get gay characters in Americna broadcast cartoons is still fairly novel, but in a world where Steven Universe exists, I can understand those who feel that Netflix of all places could and should have been a little braver in their depiction.

Leaving that to one side, it was an fairly intense season as the team try to return to Earth before the Galra can reach them... wanna bet how well THAT goes? And the finale involving the Atlas is too nuts to spoil for those who haven't reached it yet!

The latest episode of Duck Tales was, not to put too fine a point on it, extraordinary! Funny, tragic, dramatic and unexpected as certain plot points were finally revealed and backstory was filled in. Season finale next week I think!

Comments

[dewinged]

Voltron. The thing is the creators talked it up a lot when the news dropped at SDCC this year. As usual, it seemed to be all talk. The promotional stuff on Netflix played it up a lot as well, which made the end result a lot more jarring for people.

Examples: https://goo.gl/images/d5W24q

It doesn't help when Bex Taylor-Klaus (VA of Pidge) says something like this. https://yikeskogane.tumblr.com/post/176866197051/thats-the-tea-sis

Then she turns around and says this. https://therainb0wpaladin.tumblr.com/post/176961148528

Compile that with SU's news. I don't watch the show, the designs make my eyes hurt and Steven's voice makes nails on a chalkboard seem pleasant.

As someone who already watches the Arrowverse, and the fact that wlw gets so much screen time when mlm couples are rarely allowed to stand closer than 3 feet from each other, I'm just annoyed as fuck. Grow a frigging spine and put something onscreen.

I'd have said something about Ladybug, but, well... The fact that it's the networks apologizing for not airing the episodes as opposed to the creators explaining why is rather telling.

DuckTales' "The Last Crash of the Sunchaser" has to be one of the best episodes of an animated series I have ever seen, period. No villains, not a whole lot of 'action' but so many people felt like their heart was torn out by the end, Mortal Kombat-style. I honestly feel like the finale this week with Magica is not quite going to measure up, no matter how good she and Christina Tate have been so far.

[icon_uk]

Yup, the heart-breaking moment happened at LEAST twice with me.

It'll be a tough one to follow up, but I have faith that David Tenant and Catherine Tate will make it worth the effort.

[malurette]

That the design made my eyes hurt was my biggest block against watching SU (the second one being, the first and most insistant person to rec it told me "oh don't worry the beginning feels like a lot a fillers but after 40 episodes or so it becomes really good" WHAT--thankfully, no, it took less that 40 episodes to get me hooked, but what, reccing person, that's NOT how you sell a show!!). Over 70 episodes later Steven and Amethyst and occasionally other characters' desing still make my eyes hurt, a lot, and yet I keep watching.

What is it to say about Ladybug, please? (I tried watching but stopped after the first episode because beginning in medias res with no backstory, no explanation, annoyed me, and all the voices made my ears hurt.)

[zachbeacon]

Why would anyone expect Voltron's gay couples to be treated any better than Voltron's straight couples? Keith's parents are a tragedy just like Shiro's relationship, Allura/Lotor turned out to be political manipulation, and it's best probably to not even talk about Lotor's insane parents. The only prominent happy couple I can think of are Pidge's parents and they had to suffer through a lot.

(Also maybe an implied lesbian couple among the Galra but I'm not counting it until it's confirmed even though it seems more plausible than most ships I see.)

I thought season 7 was awesome. I'm not going to go into spoilers but ... wow...that ending. I was also surprised we got 13 episodes since three to six each had half that; I ended up staying up pretty late Friday (early Saturday?) because I had to finish it.

[obsidianwolf]

IMO the biggest problem with Voltron is that the first 26 episodes set the bar really freaking high as far as reboots go and every season since the series has drifted further away from what those first twenty six episodes implied the show would be.

Add to that the absolutely appalling shitty fanbase and the fact the creators are constantly going on about things that aren't happening on screen in interviews and it sets up for a real disaster.

Personally, I wasn't bothered that Adam was killed off but it did bug me that we saw absolutely nothing of him as a person. If your going to go on in interviews about how good his and Shiro's relationship was before the problems started then you could at least spare five minutes to give us some glimpse of his personality. Honestly if he wasn't Shiro's ex there would be no reason to notice him any more than any of the other redshirts, Which makes the claims he was killed to show the realities of war seem really fishy. I'd say it is far more likely he was killed off since they could only imply a relationship because two exes meeting up would force it to the surface and they wouldn't be allowed. I'd be fine with that if they'd just say it and had actually given us a few scenes of him during the holt flash backs to establish some actual character to the guy.

I mean there were so many other back ground Garrison characters who got way more development and whose death would actually resonate with folks.

I will watch the final thirteen episodes when they drop but I'm not expecting a great ending to the series or even a really good one. I'd settle for just okay at the moment because I can't see how they are going to resolve the various plotlines in just thirteen episodes when IMO the show has had recurring pacing problems.

[informationgeek]

Enter the mouth of madness, the annual coverage of Trump and his administration in profile form has been completed for now. Feel free to look at his full timeline from his early years up until two days ago. if someone ever tells you Trump ain't that bad, whip this out


Also, within the past day, Trump mailed a reporter back his news article and said:
“Jonathan - You are the racist, not I. Get rid of your 'hate.' Best wishes, Donald Trump.”

It's just so hard to keep up.

[icon_uk]

Welp, that's something to bookmark for the net time I feel TOO effervescently bubbly and filled with entirely too much love for all mankind, so thanks for that.

[spider_man6]

A shame about Nichelle. My prayers are with her.

Schools starting up in a couple of weeks again. I won't be getting that comic artist I promised a while ago as my mentor for drawing, but I still am getting comic education and skills, which is GOOD.

Got my 5-hour training for driving, but the road tests in my area are so far ahead that I have to wait to til my first couple of breaks to get it.

[locuatico]

Personally, I thought season 7 was a marked improvement over the last few seasons. Sendak may be a more generic villain than Lotor was, but it works given what the season 7 plot is.

Adam's death was my biggest problem with the season. not helped by the fact they did a made deal about it weeks before the season came out.

By far the most annoying reaction of the Voltron Season 7 has ben the Klance shippers. Which wouldn't be so annoying if not for the fact they have begun claiming the show has been queerbaiting them.
To make things even better, a subset of them have started claiming that Klance WAS supposed to be endgame, but the EEEEEEEVIL Dreamworks told the Voltron Staff to make it straight, which gives me flashback of the way the Narusaku shippers reacted to the ending of Naruto...

[icon_uk]

I can honestly say I never saw Klance as a thing, but queerbaiting with it? Really? Wow...

I'm not even sure I ship Sheith. I mean, if that's the way it ends up then it works, praise the lord and pass the representation, but if it just turns out they are that close and platonic, with Shiro gay and Keith not, that also works fine for me.

But them, I'm not a particularly big shipper full stop.

And yes, I liked Sendak as the villain too, a lot more straightforward baddie. I just wish the Earht military could have been a litlte more nuanced rather than dancing around waving big red flags from the moment they first showed up.

[zachbeacon]

Sort of seems that Voltron ships boil down to pairing random men with either Allura or Keith. Any evidence for the first seems to be one sided and there doesn't seem to be any for the second.

Personally I'm just hoping they don't pair up Pidge and Hunk. I feel like most shows would have made them a couple by now.

[obsidianwolf]

Personally I thought Season 7 was more of the same that it has many of the same problems seasons 3 through 6 had which mainly come down to pacing and problems focusing on more than one thing at once.

The Lotor arc though I agree with you was a bit of a mess again IMO because of pacing. He was introduced didn't do much and then changed sides and then betrayed them. It was as if the writers were checking off a list of actions instead of doing any real building to set it up.

Which reminds me of my biggest complaint over all with the whole series. They destroyed the Alfor hologram early on cause the writers said they had to cause he had all the answers. However, since then every time they've needed to reveal something about the past they've had the paladins simply told the answers by someone else.

As to the klance shippers there is a very large subset of them that are simply the worst aspects of all fandoms condensed into one large plague on the fandom and unfortunately are probably going to be Voltron's legacy. Everyone is going to talk about the crazy fanbase that is epitomised by them.

[captainbellman]

Saw "Incredibles 2" the other day. Did not care for it; especially the overall message apparently being that the best way to effect change of the law is for the super-rich to interfere with it based on their whims, their wealth and a hefty dose of spin.

Yes, that's how the system often works these days. But it shouldn't be presented as an unquestionably good thing.

[cyberghostface]

I thought it was underwhelming as well. The opening short was better than the actual film.

[nightauditguy]

In other Star Trek news, they may have lost both Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth due to salary disputes

Ruby Rose quit Twitter because people have been bashing her about her being Batwoman

Wally West is going to be in three eps of the upcoming Flash season

And apparently Psylocke is going back to her old British body

In personal news, I need a new computer because I tried to play WoW and it couldn't handle it.

[icon_uk]

Ooh, you mention a few I was goign to pop in, but forgot about hen typing things up, thanks.

The Ruby Rose situation seems to be the new norm in terms of toxic fandom, which is reprehnsible.

I haven't seen any mention of Psylocke going back to her old body outside of the Disassembled poster, and I thought that was just time travel shenanigans or something, but little surprises me these days.

Though I know others have different opinions, as I was never really comfortable with the bodyswap business "We want some Asian female representation on the X-men, so instead of actually creating an Asian character let's take an Caucasian woman and MAKE her Asian through magic." I have no beef with this idea, though it would be nice if we ended up with both Psylocke and Revanche on the team.

[dcbanacek]

The Ruby Rose thing is really strange in my opinion. She's "not lesbian enough"? She's not a "Jewish lesbian"... And so attack her for getting the role? As Icon_uk points outs its a new norm of toxic fandom, but instead of the "Right" it's the "Left" going after one of their own. (I'm assuming she's on the Left, if she isn't, my apologies.)

I can sorta/kinda if I squint really hard see the outrage that was made with the whole Scarlet Johannsen being cast as a trans. This one not so much. If it was a concern for her acting skill, okay, but not EXACTLY fitting the niche the character represents is a fairly stupid thing to get up in arms about.

Honestly surprised ANY celebrity stays on Twitter.

[kore]

In sad news for Star Trek fans, Nichelle Nichols (recently honoured by San Dieo Comic Convention with a Lifetime Achievement Award) has been diagnosed with dementia. We wish this most gracious of ladies such peace for the future as is possible and hope she always remembers how much she is loved and respected.

That is very well said.


Due to wildfire smoke pouring in from British Columbia, California AND other parts of Washington state, the sky over Seattle right now is very orange and hazy. Fairly apocalyptic-looking.

Unapologetic voltron spoilers

[long_silence]

Voltron season 7 was good. I'm glad that Hunk finally got his own multi episode sub arc. Though I feel like Pidge and Lance got a bit short changed this season as a result. Maybe they could have cut down on the Keith wank a little.
After hyping up that Shiro was gay so much, I'm definitely not crazy about how they killed off Adam so nonchalantly and the subsequent five seconds of mourning on Shiro's part before he just continues on the same as before makes the whole thing even more baffling, why bother killing Adam if it wasn't going to change Shiro's character arc at all? Same with Ezor and Zethrid, hint that they're together and then kill them a few minutes later?
The death for the new character Veronica had more weight and tragedy to it and that was almost immediately revealed to have been a fake out.

[nightauditguy]

And in further Star Trek news:
https://www.newsarama.com/41357-new-spock-cast-for-star-trek-discovery.html

[icon_uk]

Good bloody luck to him.... the way casting decisions are being greeted at the moment I suspect he'll need all the luck he can get.

I mean I just found out about the furore over the Charmed reboot, and a deal of that is from the old cast...

[stubbleupdate]

I've finished Halt and Catch Fire.

Season 1 really wasn't good and made me hate all of the lead characters until very late in the run. By then I had realised that it was a much deeper show than it looked, full of heart and I actually cared about the characters and their relationships to each other.

The four episodes that ended the run were actually quite moving.

The computer isn't the thing. It's the thing that gets us to the thing

[tripodeca113]

Tenth anniversary of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars films, where I live. It was okay I guess.
Re-watching it the series really did improve. The downplayed the droid humor, the voice actors got more comfortable with their roles, the animation improved and they never again, slightly awkwardly edited four episodes into a movie.

[starwolf_oakley]

The Razzies are the "awards" most annoyed by the Oscars doing a "Best Popular Film" category.

Dear Academy:

The Razzies don’t always get it right. We get called on it. We usually ignore it because well – who takes the Razzies seriously? But seriously we’re not the Oscars. The Oscars are not the low-brow $4.97 statuette that reminds otherwise good talent they done bad or the talent-free they done made too much money.

The Oscars lowering themselves to “honor” popular fare just to get more eyeballs is not conducive to their brand. Everyone depends on Oscar to point out the good stuff that might not otherwise be seen. We sift through bottom-of-the-barrel mindless popular and sometimes unpopular entertainment. The Razzies invite the “dis-honored’ to humble themselves and “own their bad.” That’s our job.

So a tip to our older more distinguished bald brother: You are our inspiration – don’t fail us now. The Razzies are co-dependent on Oscar. If you are devalued – so are we.

https://screenrant.com/worst-razzie-nominations-of-all-time/

Where this Best Popular Film thing will lead, I don't know. I understand ABC wanting more people to watch the Oscars, which is hard when so many have "cut the cord."

[zachbeacon]

"Best Popular Film" just seems like another excuse to continue snubbing great movies people actually watched for Best Picture. They've been ignoring masterpieces since the 40s so that a very small circle of people can congratulate each other on pretentious garbage. I don't know of any nominee better than the Third Man. Heck, I'm not sure there are many better than the Dark Knight and that's one of those filthy genre movies they hate so much.

Meanwhile I can't help but agree with those who point out there's still no best voice actor category.

[deh_tommy]

Power Rangers (2017) might be getting a sequel, so hurray!

[skjam]

I have now created a Facebook Page for my SKJAM Reviews blog with the obvious title.

Over at the blog itself, I talk about one of Dr. Manhattan's ancestors: http://www.skjam.com/2018/08/10/comic-book-review-doctor-solar-man-of-the-atom-volume-01/

[junipepper]

I like your blog.