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 among yourselves.

The British Government (using the term loosely) is now looking into increasing preparations (using the term even MORE loosely) for a no-deal Brexit as complete paralysis and confusion sets in. There's the deal the PM wants that no one else likes, the deal that others think they can get that the EU has said "Not happening" to, several times, and the no-deal that will likely cause unprecedented levels of chaos.

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, POTUS45 is considering allowing the US Government to partially shut down this week if he doesn't get approval for a $5 billion allocation to build his border wall. Considering some of his comments about when that happened before one does realise, yet again that a primary failing of his is a serious irony deficiency.

Meanwhile, the US Senate has released a report that states categorically that Russian meddled in social media in the run up to the 2016 election, with a special focus on targetting conservatives with stories focussing on immigration, race and gun rights.

In what sounds more like a sitcom subplot than an actual thing, A hunter in Missouri has been sentenced to watch Bambi at least once a month whilst he's in prison for poaching "possibly several hundred" deer.

In more optimistic world news, because we could dowith some, a ceasefire in a key Yemen port seems to be holding.

And in Iraq, reconstruction of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri at Mosul, where Daesh declared their new "caliphate" in 2014, has begun.

Voltron: Legendary Defender came to an end after 8 seasons, I'll try to avoid spoilers since not everyone will have had a chance to view all thirteen episodes. Things maybe didn't end the way fans would have liked (though I was not on board at least one of the major ships, acres of delightful fanart to one side), but such is life. I did enjoy one particularly geeky Voltron easter egg in the final montage, and it ended with a final scene which would have been completely unthinkable a mere handful of years ago, so I'll give it some props for that.

Tumblr's new TOS start today, and have been greeted with an arctic level of warmth. I think I'll hang around there for a while yet, see how things go.

Late addendum: Caught up on the "Elseworlds" Arrowverse/Supergirl crossover, and that was a lot of fun, even if the nominal villain was a little underwhelming. On the other hand, we got to see the Flash of Earth-90, and Grant Gustin and Steve Amell in matching outfits with black leather jackets and cute little bandanas as "The Trigger Twins"? Woof! We might have just achieved maximum implied gayness here!)

Expect an an announcement shortly about our festive/anniversary theme.

Comments

[skjam]

Took the day off Tumblr yesterday to aid the protest, will be going back today to see what's left.

Over at my blog, I review a manga about the art of rakugo storytelling: http://www.skjam.com/2018/12/17/manga-review-descending-stories-volume-1/

[icon_uk]

Likewise took the day off, and haven't noticed much difference now I'm back, at least not yet. i guess my tastes are more vanilla than I thought (Though my lack of prurient interest in "female presenting nipples" probably helps)

[tripodeca113]

Well I spent quite a lot of time saving images I thought would be purged on Tumblr. I was feeling kind of content. Then I realized I missed some from a ship I really like, and now it's probably gone forever. Because now I can't see the image, the post, the artists name or any kind of information that could help me find it ,if it was posted somewhere else.

I suspect that after shooting themselves in the foot like this, Tumblr will stumble around, before bleeding to death.

I was thinking of making this a profanity ridden rant, but I just feel too drained to bother with that.

[sigh]

In other news short summaries and titles of the first three episodes of Young Justice Outsiders have been released. Along with some images.

So Plastic Man, Katana, the Flash, some guy I don't recognize and Batwoman. Neat.

Of course you can only watch it on DC Universe, which isn't available where I live so...

I also found $20 on the ground last Friday. I used it to buy Unavowed. It's a good point and click adventure game. Has good writing and characters. Enjoyed the nine hours I spent playing.

Also the preview for the latest A:TLA comic came out. It looks interesting.

[dewinged]

I think the unknown gent is Milestone's Hardware?

[thezmage]

Is that confirmed Plastic Man? Looks like Vibe to me

[kore]

That's a nice Batwoman.

[stubbleupdate]

The Health Secretary proudly announced that he had become the biggest buyer of refrigeration in the world.

This extra capacity gives the country an additional six weeks of stockpiles of medicine when No deal Brexit happens.

It's mad.

[cainofdreaming]

So, six weeks after Brexit it's going to be a 28 Days Later scenario?

It'd be funny if it wasn't so freaking borked.

Tumblr's measures to stop people seeing NWS content

[stubbleupdate]

Re: Tumblr's measures to stop people seeing NWS content

[kore]

This weird thing happened when I tried to view a friend's "sensitive material" (self-declared I think) Tumblr -- I was logged in and entered the URL, and was told "this is sensitive, go to your dash," and I expected it to pop up in dash view there like it usually does. Nope.

[dewinged]

I enjoyed the end of Voltron. Bittersweet, but I was okay with how it all panned out.

But looking at what some of the louder fandom was saying, the level of entitlement they have is vile. Their ship didn't sail, so they're going out of their way to nitpick, read way too far into things and attacking (verbally, so far, this is a group of fans that have made actual death threats to the showrunners over their imagined ship) people who liked the show or who worked on the show.

I dread which show these toxic brats are going to migrate to now.

[icon_uk]

Agreed, I think it was a good/sad ending and it felt like an ending for this group.

Where the toxic fandom will go without tumblr, I dunno, but as for their next show, I suspect Saint Seiya/Knights of the Zodiac would be a prime candidate. Lord knows there have been slash shippers for that since the late 1980's (Though their Shun/Shaun choice derails several of the main ones from the outset)

[scorntx]

Think Friday's episode of Dead Ringers summed up the general mood on British politics rather well.
Either in May stating "I'm currently sitting in a burning room, quietly saying to myself "this is fine"", or depicting everyone on Gogglebox just up and leaving (either destroying their TVs, or just mutilating themselves to get away from it all).
Because there is no escape. It's an all-consuming black hole.
And once again, it is a shame that a satirical radio program offered explanations for the week's madness that make more sense than reality ever would.

... but on a non-politics note, the final sketch was appropriately bonkers, once it became clear where they were going with it.
(Shame they didn't do like they did with the TV show, and actually have Jodie Whittaker.
They probably couldn't afford her on a BBC Radio 4 budget.)


Netflix keeps trying to suggest I watch Voltron, but from everything I've seen over the internet, it doesn't sound like it's worth the effort.

(Also, on a Slightly Silly Note, checking the radio times for the week, couldn't find any sign that the Muppet's Christmas Carol was on.
Bad enough They take away Doctor Who, now there's no even a sodding Muppets. There's always Muppets! It's, like, the whole point of it being Muppet's Christmas Carol! It's shown before X-Mas!)

[icon_uk]

I find Dead Ringers patchy at times, but I'll give last week's a go!

I'd say Voltron is well worth a try, just ignore the fandom as best you can.

No "The Muppets Christmas Carol" is an affront to human (and Muppet) decency!

I mean "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a terrific movie in it's own right, but it's not "Michael Caine as the big screen's second best ever Scrooge" (Alastair Sim still reigns supreme there, but only just).

[commodus]

I've only seen the odd bit of the Voltron fandom, and mostly it's been complaining about the lack of representation. And whilst I do want more representation of LGBT relationships, I can sympathise with the creators because it's still a far more taboo subject than you might think. I'm a writer myself, and in my mind I want to pair up two characters, but I can't do it because I'm not really out, and would be afraid if anyone knew of my orientation.

[obsidianwolf]

VLD was complicated by the fact that the remianing executive producers (most left after season 2) and the Dreamworks executives were on different pages as to what they wanted. There is currently a lot of back and fourth on who is to blame for what.

It isn't helped by the sheer toxicity of the fan base or the fact that the remaining eps before they left dream works after vld was finished made several statements that amounted to one of the most popular characters being boring and that they wanted to kill him off several times and were happy in season 7 because they finally got to take him out of the black lion.

[obsidianwolf]

I am in the camp that was not happy with how season 8 of vld ended(but then I expected it) but I just don't care enough to get into why on here. As to tumblr well to cut down on running into a lot of the pro censorship crusade I flagged my blog as nsfw a while ago so now it's filtered and I can't even search my own blog.

So I get to spend the morning setting up a new blog with all the head aches that entails since I'm a stubborn person and will probably be sitting on tumblr until it collapses under verison/yahoo incompetence or a better social media site for fandom shows up.

[owlbrigade1]

I know that feeling, I'm still blogging on livejournal. My resistance to change is strong.

[informationgeek]

So I saw Mortal Engines the other day. It's derivative of so many other fantasy/sci-fi series and is very overblown but the thing is... it was still a good time. Enjoyed the drama, the characterization, the effects both real and CGI, and such. This wasn't 28% Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes. I say it was a good 6.5 out of 10.

Shame it is bombing hard.

[owlbrigade1]

In much, much more depressing news. Anti-trans activists have managed to get a charity lottery grant to a transchildren charity yanked, and apparently have regular meetings with government officials. Just when you think the tories and that appalling Graham Linehan cannot be more childishly evil.
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/12/17/big-lottery-fund-grant-mermaids/
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/12/17/uk-government-anti-trans-activists/

No surprise that it has all been organised by the internet's latest cesspool of hate, mumsnet.

[icon_uk]

Well, isn't HE a treasure... (/sarcasm)

What a thoroughly unpleasant person he seems to be. And I've probably said it before (Though probably about her ongoing feud with EL James) , three cheers for Mara Wilson! (I followed the link to their twitter exchange)

[janegray]

All I'm gonna say about Voltron is that I've been despising it with all my heart since Season 6, so I'm comforted that most of Fandom has caught up. This is the first time in my life I've ever felt genuine contempt not just for the work, but for the producers as well. I'm never touching anything JDS and LM get involved with ever again. And yes, I'm aware that includes the Into The Spiderverse sequel. Shame, I would have liked to watch it.

Mind you, the most exposure I've ever had to Voltron were those parody skits on TMNT 2012

[deh_tommy]

Sheesh, seriously? What did they (the Producers) do wrong? Does anything really warrant the kind of vitriol and hate that's spewing out?

[kore]

We had to put our 18-year-old cat to sleep last week because after nursing him through a couple of years of chronic kidney disease, his kidneys hit the tipping point and were starting to completely fail. He was a total snuggle hound and very talky and our house seems very quiet and sad without him.

It has not been a good year.

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

My condolences.

[deathcrist2000]

The Last War in Albion returns with its continued look into Watchmen.

[thezmage]

We’re getting Batman on Titans this week. The preview makes it pretty blatant that this will be a Raven/Trigon induced hallucination, and I’m willing to bet cash money that it turns out to be Dick himself under the hood, but they’ve already in the preview done more to indicate Batman’s rogues gallery than the entire Arkham Asylum scene in Elseworlds

[thanekos]

Minor Elseworlds disappointment: Black Suit Superman with the book did not turn out to be Ultraman calling on Mandrakk.

Minor Elseworlds surprise: that implement from part 3 was " the solar hammer from the cosmic anvil. "

[icon_uk]

I thought the 90's Flash music was a nice touch for the Flash of Earth 90 (I know they also do it for Hamill's Trickster theme in his appearances, but this is the first time I've heard the Flash theme), but I confess I did wonder for a moment when we saw the Kent Farm and heard Smallville's "Save Me!" playing whether they might have managed the impossible and worked out a way to get a cameo from Tom Welling! :)

[joetuss]

Arrowverse Superman is a damn joke. He only exists to shill and job for Kara. I hope Batman NEVER shows up, because God only knows what they'll do to him now that Batwoman has made her appearance.

[icon_uk]

I think you're going to have to clarify what you mean by "shill and job for Kara". He shows up, he's Superman to a tee, he's a pretty much perfect Clark Kent...There's no animoaitty between them, just mutual respect and affection.

Is she higher profile than he is? Well, yes of course she is, because it's her show set in her city.

[deh_tommy]

The worst part of this whole Tumblr ban in my opinion is that's only really going to affect actual people with accounts (regardless of how suitable they are for work), and not the pornbots (which, by the way, are still showing up).

[lilacsigil]

Yeah, I got three today which is more than I've ever got in one day. Meanwhile, my friend's baking tumblr is gone. Too much pink icing maybe?

[lissa_quon]

Long hiatus- japanese light novel series 12 Kingdoms announces the first new volume in 6 years

Not sure how many folks are 12 Kingomd fans but I'm hyped.