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.

It's a fairly grim set of news this time around, alas.

In the same week we've had Easter, Passover and Earth Day, and at the same time, it's impossible not address the tragic events in Sri Lanka at the weekend. Co-ordinated terrorist attacks have left over 300 dead and over 500 injured.

Likewise the murder of Lyra McKee, a journalist in Northern Ireland, has political significance far beyond the tragedy itself. The fact she was a prominent LGBTQ+ rights activist was not directly related to her death, but it is a loss that should be acknowledged.

The Kingdom of Brunei has written to the EU trying to explain/justify their newly implemented laws involving death by stoning for homsoexual acts, amputation and the use of the lash, saying that it probably wouldn't happen every often due to the evidentiary requirements. It went down about as well as you might have expected it to.

POTUS 45 has been invited for a State Visit to the UK on June 3, which would involve attending D-Day commemoration ceremonies. I can only imagine how THAT will work out, but let's just say that no one other than Theresa May seems terribly keen and we've seen how well that's played out for her in recent months.

A fuller, but still redacted copy of the Mueller report has been released, and can now be searched for specific text. Happy hunting, though be warned it's a 130Mb PDF which is quite the achievement.

On lighter news...

"Star Trek: Discovery" ended it's second season, with a deal of continuity tie ups (like why certain things are not mentioned in TOS which otherwise might be expected to be), and an exit from the series for Anson Mount's Captain Pike (Who I hope we see more of somehow, because I am seriously LOVING his character).

"The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" is back on Netflix with Part 2, and I'm getting to the point where I'm finding Sabrina to be the least interesting character in the series, since quite so many of the problems she faces are of her own creation. That's not to sell the performance of Kiernan Shipka short, it's just that so many other characters are doing much more interesting things.

Maybe a little late to the party, but more details of the Disney streaming service have been announced including several MCU spin-offs;

Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie in a "Winter Soldier and Falcon" series.

Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen in "Vision And Scarlet Witch"

Tom Hiddleston in a "Loki" series.

Also an animated "What if...?" series, which is a bit of a surprise.

Comments

[scorntx]

Really felt like the end of Disco's second season was made before they got a season 3, from the various wrapping up of story-threads.
Not even a cliffhanger showing what Discovery itself was doing. Or even a stinger.
Also, pretty darn focused on the Enterprise crew. Makes you wonder if the people wanted to make some kind of rebooted version of the original Trek, but with modern production values.
... but that'd be crazy talk.
(Was half expecting them to do something like a "who's this Kirk guy" moment in there.)
Did think it was a bit silly that Spock finally shaving that beard is treated as a Big Moment.

Suppose season 3 might be Discover buggering around the other side of the galaxy, far away from home and human contact, meeting new species which will inevitably want to kill them for no good reason.
... ... hold on, that sounds familiar somehow...

also hoping for more Mount as Pike, if only so that he somehow avoids his cannon fate.
Which, after getting to see this version of Pike, is even more horrific and cruel than it was fifty years ago.


Also also, been reading IDW's new Transformers stuff.
It's... well, early days so far, but there's definitely interesting concepts in there.
Gosh, though, a Cybertron that isn't horrifically awful and corrupt just feels weird.
And it's nice that there are apparently factions around that aren't just Autobots and Decepticons Yet Again.

[laughing_tree]

The Discovery finale came off just the opposite for me. The complete lack of closure for the Discovery crew, their fate left so open-ended, felt like a season finale from a team that was absolutely sure they'd get to continue the story.

[locuatico]

I saw a trailer for the upcoming "Kengan Asura" anime and... I don't know how I feel. the CG animation definitely helps to animate the high-octane action of the manga... but at the same time the characters feel too much like action figures.

on the other hand, Netflix has this adorable stop-motion anime called "Rilakkuma and Kaoru" (Which is an entire brand in japan long before the anime was made)

I also finally watched the "Addam's family" trailer and... I am actually looking forward to it.

[nightauditguy]

The first reviews for Endgame are out and they are overwhelmingly positive.

[janegray]

I'm incredibly disappointed that Unravel 2 is local co-op.

I liked the first one, and when I heard that the sequel is co-op, I was really looking forward to playing it with my best friend.

Turns out it's only local co-op. My friend lives in another country, and I don't know a single person IRL who likes videogames (except for my boyfriend, who is currently living away because he had to move for a job).

[onsokumaru]

I'm not a fan of either of those characters from the MCU spin-offs. But I hope those series will be used to introduce some less exposed Marvel characters who could make their way to the big screen.

[dewinged]

Bucky and Sam might be hilarious.

I am here for WandaVision, because anything that might get Billy to exist in the MCU is aces in my book.

[scorntx]

So long as we get Billy and Teddy, 's good.

Improbability of Teddy's conception at this point be damned.

[dewinged]

I'm still annoyed they had to go and mess that up.

[icon_uk]

Given how little attention the comics seen to pay Teddy's background compared to Billy, I'm sure a work around would be fairly straightforward.

[scorntx]

Given what tends to happen to members of the Vell family, all things considered, them not paying attention to Teddy's background might actually be for the best...
(even if it is a shame.)

[tripodeca113]

Zak Gramarye is a jerk.

Bayonetta’s son was added to Smash Bros. I was at a friends house when we tried to download it. It timed out a few times before it started to actually download.

Terrible satirical political mascot Captain Getup has found himself in controversy. Basically there’s a liberal organisation called Getup, but a conservative group made Captain Getup to parody their ‘radically left-wing agenda’. Anyway they made a video where Captain Getup rubbed his crouch on the poster of a woman political candidate. This has served to put Captain Getup in the public eye and highlight how shit he is. The first issue, is that he’s meant to be a superhero, but instead of the voice you’d expect, he has a really winy voice. He also looks to much like a real mascot, rather than a parody.

Oh yes and the released a World War Z game, more than five years after the film came out.

Oh look Ubisoft is giving away a free copy of Assassin’s Creed Unity. Sadly you have to get uplay, and at this stage they patched out the amusing glitches, leaving no real reason to get the game

[janegray]

...Bayonetta has a son?

[tripodeca113]

That's what some people have been jokingly calling Joker from Persona 5, after it was announced he'd be added to Smash.

[zachbeacon]

I'd never heard about that but most of the Smash chatter I've seen is related to the stage creator. Apparently Nintendo is censoring stages that are "too political" (notably ones with pro-trans messages) while unable to keep up with the wave of penis levels being made.

I'm simultaneously impressed and disappointed with the paid DLC bundle. I love that the character packs come with the unexpected bonus of a new spirit board but I hate that they exclude the new Mii costumes (most of which relate to the Persona franchise) from the "season passes".

Also Nintendo's rollout of this was a mess. They announced the 3.0 update the day before it came out (which is very typical of them). Then they waited until extremely late in the day to put the update out ... which immediately caused their servers to crash under the strain of the traffic. I think most of us were able to get it the day after that but Smash was already having online problems so surely they saw this coming.

I get that these things happen but it happens way too much to companies like Nintendo and Sony - who are already making people pay to use their online services. Now if anyone needs me, I'll be pointing and laughing at Google for thinking a streaming-only video game service is a good idea.

[locuatico]

after Joker had been announced, it became a meme to call him "Bayonetta's son" due to slightly similar character designs and... jojo posing? as well as the fact both games have Sega as Publisher.

[stubbleupdate]

Is Gemini Man just another version of Nathan Edmondson's Dancer?

[thanekos]

It's definitely not a remake of the 1970s " secret agent who can turn invisible " show.

[icon_uk]

Ah yes The Gemini Man and his funky digital watch! One of those shows I have fondly vague memories of and I'm slightly nervous about going back and rewatching.

I mean, even for 1978 that was a LOT of denim for one outfit

[deh_tommy]

*ahem*

MORTAL KOMBAAAT

That is all.

[skjam]

I went to Minicon 54 over this last weekend. For the first time, I was staff--to be precise, the nametent guy who makes sure all the panels have their name cards set up, clears away used water glasses and other detrius, and sets the chairs back if they were disarranged by the last activity in the room. Light work, but one of those jobs that makes the convention run smoother.

I'll have a more complete report on my blog later.

Speaking of my blog, I review the latest sequel to "The Lives of Tao"! http://www.skjam.com/2019/04/18/book-review-the-rise-of-io/

[deh_tommy]

My apologies for my ignorance, but what's the deal with "Easter Worshipper"? Why not just say Christian?

[icon_uk]

Because it's a specific reference to the fact they were in the middle of Easter worship art the time they were killed, be they Christian our otherwise.

Most of them would be Christians yes, but Easter Sunday is when a lot of usually non-observant Christians or just people visiting might attend church because it is the most significant religious festival of multiple Christian faiths.

[junipepper]

For example, some of us non-Christians attend with our elderly, widowed mothers-in-law, out of kindness and affection.