Mod Post - Off-Topic Tuesday

[icon_uk]

(Gosh three posts in a row, that may be a record for me)

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.

POTUS 45 announced that he was going to sign an executive order that would ensure that pre-existing conditions were covered by Health insurance... and had it noted by pretty much everyone else that the 2010 Affordable Care Act already ensures that.

He's also signed economic relief orders, though it seems likely that he can't actually DO that, since Congress controls spending, not the President.

Russia has claimed the first COVID-19 vaccine, though international experts are still somewhat dubious about it's testing.

The disastrous explosion in Beirut has led to the mass resignation of the Lebanese Government, though many are still doubtful this will lead to any significant changes.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the opposition candidate in the Belarus elections has fled to Lithuania after an election which saw President Alexander Lukashenko receive 80% of the vote, though this has been widely held to be by fraud.

In infinitely more trivial news, the UK is swelterng in 35C + heat (that's over 90 Farenheit).

I watched Transformers: War for Cybertron - Siege on Netflix... It's adequate, though I'm not quite sure the world needed yet ANOTHER iteration of the Autobot/Decepticon conflict, and this one didn't seem to take enough of a unique POV to make it particularly memorable (Beyond making Bumblebee less "The smallest and scrappiest Autobot scout" and more "Unaligned mercenary trader"). It's reuse of the same models repeatedlt for crowd scenes is perhap unavoidable, though Refraktor (Reflector as was) is perhaps a little too unique in his design for that to used too freely.

The New Mutants movie's UK release date has been delayed... My surprise could not be detected by the world's most powerful microscope.

Caught the season finale of Doom Patrol, and yes this did look like it was the ninth episode of an originally planned ten episode series. But it was one heck of a cliffhanger to end on, and Cliff's imaginary friend was... unexpected, to say the least1 :)

In the good news/maybe not-so-good newsm Tron has a new director in the shape of Garth Davis, and a possible new star in the form of Jared Leto (Hope he doesn't start sending corrupt floppy discs to his co-stars)

Random question (again influenced by this weeks Jay and Miles X-plain the X-Men). Favourite childhood movie.

Comments

[skjam]

The Shounen Jump series Act-Age has been cancelled after the writer was arrested for molesting teenage girls...again. The artist, who was completely uninvolved in his activities, is getting an outpouring of condolences.

Over at my blog, I review the Jackie Chan/Michelle Yeoh movie Supercop http://www.skjam.com/2020/08/11/movie-review-supercop/

Favorite childhood movie: Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments.

[scorntx]

Big Finish announced that after fifteen years (oh gosh feeling old now) Christopher Ecclestone will be reprising his role as the Ninth Doctor in a series of audio dramas.

Though given the supposed short run Nine had, where are these adventures fitting in?
(Also, there's Big Finish's habit of stripping every piece of flesh they can off any horse they find...)


Recently watched Invasion of the Dinosaurs with the family (having bought the DVD back at the end of last year. Can't rush some things, y'know.)
And, uh... wow. Just... wow.


In a fit of madness definitely not brought on by heatwaves or anything, I may have bought that new War for Cybertron Scorponok, and uh...
Well, he's big.
Actually still getting over just how huge a toy he is.
(I mean, being told is one thing. Seeing the box is another, but... he's worryingly gigantic.)


Any tentative excitement about another sequel to Tron is mirrored by the total antipathy at the thought of Jared Leto being in it.
(And I liked Tron Legacy...)


Favourite childhood movie?
... I think maybe Mulan?

[icon_uk]

I cannot BELIEVE I forgot to put in the paragraph I had planned about Chris Eccleston coming back!!!

Naughty Icon_UK, NAUGHTY!

Nine had a LOT of adventures we never saw, remember Rose and Jack telling Mickey about all the places they'd been too (like "Woman Wept") in "Boom Town".

And considering how much better the 5th Doctor/Peri BF adventures are than anything they managed in do on screen, I'll give BF some wiggle room there.

[cygnia]

Plus, there's any pre-Rose adventures too.

[icon_uk]

There's been a lot of discussion about whether, given the Doctor's fascination with his own appearance in "Rose" when he see's his reflection;

"Ah, could've been worse. Look at the ears. "

He was newly regenerated, but nothing set in stone, so yes, that too.

[scorntx]

... loath as I am to give the man credit for stuff, but Moffat in his novelisation of Day of the Doctor suggested that, just after regenerating, the Ninth Doctor smashed every mirror in the TARDIS because he couldn't bear to look at himself after what he thought he'd did.
Which would be a good, if mildly over-the-top, explanation as any for why he didn't know what he looked like.

[donnblake]

I've seen suggestions that, in addition to the unseen adventures with Rose (and possibly Mickey and/or Jack) we don't really have a timeframe for how long, subjectively, he was gone between vanishing after Rose turns down his offer to go adventuring and reappearing to pitch time-travel.

It really doesn't work for him to have had another companion in that time, though.

[deh_tommy]

Wiccan and Hulkling got married, a new TRON is in the works AND Christopher Eccleston’s coming back all announced in the same week? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I hope this is something Christopher Eccleston actually wants to do given his general antipathy towards Doctor Who. I also wonder how TRON’s going to work since Bruce Boxleitner has said he’s done with the franchise after Ascension was scrapped.

[icon_uk]

HIs opinion of Who has been noticeably shifting over the past couple of years, with his appearance at Gallifrey One last year, which saw him being lauded like royalty, seemingly much to his own surprise, helped significantly.

[zachbeacon]

I survived a round of layoffs last week. That's ... something. It sure is good that the government gave all that money to companies and not people.

I'm not sure I can think of a single favorite childhood movie but I remember watching Disney's Robin Hood a lot as a kid. In hindsight, its amazing that its taken so long for me to realize how far to the left I am.

[icon_uk]

Well, congraulations on still being employed!

[zachbeacon]

Thanks, I am filled with anxiety.

[dan_ingram]

I wonder if Russia's vaccine for Covid cures the local symptom of defenestration or not

[cainofdreaming]

I just wish I didn't live so close to the inevitable zombie hordes. The Russian border looms large.

[dan_ingram]

Buy some piano wire. Memorize the locations of sturdy posts or thick trees.

Boom, done.

Well, you will need a mop.

Childhood movie

[cyberghostface]

Probably Disney's Hercules. Still one of my favorites.

Stephen King's IT and the first two Spider-Man films also come to mind in terms of stuff I'd rewatch.

[leahandillyana]

The rubber bullets used by police against protesters in Belarus were produced in Poland. While it's not illegal to sell arms to Łukaszenko dictatorship, it is at least immoral. Speaking of Poland, honestly I cannot say at this point it's better than Belarus though. I described recent mass arrests here: https://leahandillyana.dreamwidth.org/2020/08/10/ Since I posted, it turned out that 60% of the planclothes 'policemen' were civilians from a paramilitary organisation and thus it's impossible to find the people who did most harm. Those 'policemen' are visiting houses of people present during the protests, thretening with ambiguous 'consequences'.
And my favorite childhood movie was the compilation of Rose of Versailles, unsure whather it's Japanese or Polish recap though.

[stubbleupdate]

This week I have mostly been playing Control, which is like X-files meets the Middleman, but told as a third-person Bioshock.

It looks SO good and is a huge amount of fun to play

[icon_uk]

Well, that looks cool!

[pteppic]

Favourite childhood movie - Ghostbusters.

That well known childhood movie about systemic problems in academia, small business ownership, government regulation, market pricing, product development, advertising and marketing, somewhat problematic issues around relationships and dating, and having adequate public liability insurance.

[zachbeacon]

Ghostbusters is one of those things I enjoy despite its terrible politics

#WalterPeckWasRight.

Also guessing Peter Venkman would not do well in the "Me To" era.

[deh_tommy]

I wasn’t too gone on the Cyberverse toys at first, mainly because despite loving the Prime Wars stuff (or at least what little was actually stocked in our toy shops) I’m a bit burned out by everything having to be G1 now, but I’m loving the look of their new stuff like Wildwheel and Thunderhowl. I only wish the prices themselves didn’t keep climbing, even on the supposedly cheaper Cyberverse stuff (seriously, €25 for a Deluxe/Warrior class?).

Speaking of Transformers, when are they going to make a Titan Master/War for Cybertron Sideways?

[scorntx]

That would require acknowledging anything beyond G1.
And that's never gonna happen.

[deh_tommy]

Studio Series says otherwise. I guess Earthrise could be seen as an Armada homage given the Leader classes come packaged with not-minicons.

I’d love to see a decent Airachnid figure one day, too.

[iamrman]

My childhood movies were Short Circuit, Flight of the Navigator and Inner Space. We had them recorded off the telly.

For some reason it was always my headcanon that Warlock talked like Number/Johnny Five.

We do not talk about Short Circuit 2 (childhood trauma).

[mastermahan]

In the world of animation, Disney's The Owl House drew attention by confirming that its main character is bisexual with what can only be described as a big gay dance. It's a step forward for Disney, which tends to be notoriously shy about using LGBTQ+ characters in anything beyond easily censored cameos.

Creator Dana Terrace worked on Gravity Falls, Alex Hirsch voices two of the main characters, and the episode was written by Molly Ostertag, who is also Noelle Stevenson's wife.

The dance is gorgeously animated and worth watching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG8-9kOBS-4

[bolindbergh]

Definitely Flåklypa Grand Prix. Where else can you see a car so fast it needs two speedometers, connected in series?

[icon_uk]

I confess I've never heard of it before, but that's some nifty stop motion for 1975!

[malurette]

I was super excited last week for ToA: Wizards... then I remembered that my fav character got Put On A Bus at the end of 3Below and most likely won't be back. Now I'm not so sure I really want to watch it anymore?

[icon_uk]

You mean Eli? I miss him too.

I confess Steve's prominence in Wizards is one of the low points to me (so far, maybe it will). I find Steve vaguely amusing as a background character in an ensemble, but any attempt to focus on him shows how... limited he is.

[obsidianwolf]

Yep and Steve's part of wizards just brings home how unbalanced the focus was in Wizards. Douxie had a pretty good story and Claire always a writers favorite got another but there were definitely issues with providing enough focus for others and one note Steve getting as much attention as he did showed it.

Which is what really worries me about the movie cause if everyone is coming back for a finale film and they couldn't even balance thins in a ten episode series how are they going to give enough focus to the whole cast.

[malurette]

Yep. (I have this thing for nerdy characters.)

I could like Steve as a main character... provided Eli was here to balance things, and Steve actually apologized to him on screen for his past bullying behaviour. But Eli isn't in the picture anymore so...

[tripodeca113]

Discwolrd show The Watch, has been pushed back to January 2021. Rhianna Pratchett has stressed that it’s “inspired by the books”, and followed it up telling people to read between the lines. This doesn't bode well.

Well those were a nice few weeks of lessened restrictions. Now a lot of cases have sprung up, and I suspect everything will be closed again.

Man, The Witcher franchise is getting a fair number of spin-offs. An animated prequel movie and a prequel series.

For my university course we watched Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, compared together you can find all sorts of similarities. Like how easy it would have been for the writers to add lesbian relationships to them. “Best friends” suurrree.

[zachbeacon]

Have you seen the promo photo for The Watch? Its looks terrible. Only Vimes and Detritus look remotely recognizable.

There's a skinny young axe-wielding red-headed black woman in the front. It first I figured she was some sort of gender-swapped Carrot but I've seen reactions that indicate that she's supposed to be Lady Sybil. Somehow that's worse.

[tripodeca113]

I've been following The Watch since mid 2018, and not a single piece of information released has been encouraging.

I should stress it's not the fact that they changed Sybil's ethnicity that's bad, it's that they made her a "chaotic vigilante".

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, she's supposed to be an eccentric older lady that raises dragons not ... whatever this is.

At least when I thought it was Carrot ... well I've gotten used to "adaptation turns white character black" and "adaption turns male character female" and I could have rolled with it because the race and gender aren't the important parts about Carrot anyway. The image conveyed a red-headed fighter who is right there on the front lines leading their people by example. Carrot is all of those things. Sybil is not.

[cyberghostface]

Biden picked Kamala Harris for his VP.

[zachbeacon]

Yes, I just visited the alternate reality (my parent's house) where she is a "radical leftist".

I really need to time those visits better.

[bruinsfan]

Her voting record in the Senate is considerably more progressive than her public image would lead one to believe. I regard that as a pro rather than a con, of course.

[werehawk]

Its a great choice! Especially with rumors that Biden only wants one term (or will want not to run at 81!)

Childhood movie (ROT 13)

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

"Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown".

Gur fnqqrfg aba-qrngu fprar V'ir frra jnf jura Jbbqfgbpx naq Fabbcl frcnengrq nsgre gur oynfg arne gur evire. V guvax vg jnf orpnhfr gurl jrer bcraavat hc n qnz.

[leahandillyana]

Current situation makes me feel paranoid. Like, most of Polish manga publishers have published BL at some point and the one that didn't, published GL and other manga with LGBT themes. Is it reasonable to see the publishers as "safe" for LGBT readers, at least in the meaning they don't subscribe to anti-LGBT propaganda of government? So many writers, actors, singers and other celebrities are openly LGBT-phobic now in Poland, it makes me afraid to touch anything. Almost every scifi/fantasy writer is openly homophobic and pro-government, Sapkowski is one I can thing of that isn't, and I am just scared.

[iamrman]

Anybody remember an old kid's tv show called Byker Grove? It was about a Newcastle youth club.

More specifically, the paintballing episode where Ant off of Ant and Dec's character got blinded.

'He canna see, man! He canna see!'

[zachbeacon]

I don't have high hopes for the Netflix Avatar project. ..

https://news.avclub.com/avatar-the-last-airbender-creators-exit-netflixs-live-1844701485/amp

You're going to laugh when you read this...

[roguefankc]

But my favorite childhood movie is "Watership Down".

Despite the blood and gore, I loved the music and the character Fiver (I could relate to him somehow) and the ending, though I was too young to understand, really left a mark on me.

Regarding the layoffs at DC, I remember "Beyond the Trailer" on YouTube pointed out that HBO Max didn't get as many subscribers as they hoped, and Grace Randolph pointed out something that completely blew my mind:

Why didn't they package the DC Universe streaming service with HBO Max?

Had they done that, Warner Bros. wouldn't have had to split viewers between choosing either streaming service, they could have bundled all their WB and DC shows together, and still could have made original movies that would have appealed to both comic and non-comic readers.

I was shocked and then when I thought about it, I had to admit had they done that, despite me already have subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix, I would have easily bought another subscription to HBO Max.