- Personal

Art mirroring life again...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:23:19 +0000

My 12-year-old daughter recently shared similar opinions regarding Justin Bieber. I had a similar reaction.

Link is to Jay Naylor's Original Life.

Finally, a fitting review...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:25:36 +0000

UPDATED:

A few more HP series links and debates. I'm not necessarily agreeing with all of the content of all of these links, but all of them have interesting things to say.

R.U.I.N.S. Can't Stand Deathly Hallows thread. An ongoing forum discussion of Deathly Hallows and the other books from several angles. Small but thorough. The link takes you to the 7th topic, you can move back and forth from there.

Daniel Hemmens at Ferretbrain comments on Chapters 1 - 12 of Deathly Hallows. I don't agree with everything Hemmens says, but it's humorous.

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Red Hen Publications essays on the Potterverse. Mostly very long treatises on what was left OUT of the books. Conjecture and implication, not fanfic. Hard site to navigate, check out the sidebar.

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I have been searching, ever since the last book came out, for other Harry Potter fans who disliked Book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I've read the book through a few times, and it gets worse every time. It's garbage. This is not the kind of thing you say on even the most neutral HP fan site. You will get death threats. But surely I could not be the only HP fan on the planet who didn't like the final book and didn't think it was even written very well?

Finally, I found via the Confused Matthew forum a link to a Youtube review of Book 7. These guys pretty much nail my thoughts on Deathly Hallows, except for the section on scenes Rowling left out that they would have liked to see. I don't care about that, whether I agree or not. There's also a section in the second video with one of the reviewers upset that his fanshipping didn't turn out the way he wanted. But the rest of it is right on.

A subculture legend...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:20:26 +0000

Just read over at J-List side blog that Carl Macek died Saturday. Macek is most famous for creating and producing the animated series Robotech in the mid-eighties. Robotech was an English dub of a slightly-to-moderately (to severely, in some cases) edited mash-up of three Japanese animated series: Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. Carl Macek created a single, epic story out of three disparate sources and was therefore able to get anime on the air in America at a time when most anime series would never be purchased for broadcast. Although anime had been aired in America sporadically for decades, Robotech was the first series that didn't "dumb down" the content, which included several mature themes and relatively graphic violence. This formula demonstrably hooked a large group of children in the '80s on Japanese animation, and was a major part of the foundation for the large amount of anime available in the U.S. now.

Macek took a lot of abuse in later years (and still does), for modifying the stories of the three Japanese series, especially Southern Cross and Mospeada. The English voice cast performance isn't great, but as with almost every other "mediocre" or "poor" aspect of the production, was amazing compared to the other animated programs available at the time. And that's really where a lot of Robotech's charm still resides: At the time Carl Macek produced Robotech for American television, it was light-years beyond whatever was in the timeslot before and after. To a lot of us, seeing Robotech for the first time was a lot like seeing Star Wars for the first time. That's why I take the Star Wars prequel trilogy so personally, and why I never understood the level of dislike many had for what Mr. Macek had done.

And, it's why I mourn now, for the man who created what would become one of, if not the biggest, stepping stone to an acceptance and abundance of anime available in the American media market. Carl Macek truly deserves the title of "Visionary" and will hopefully always be remembered as a founder and father of American anime.

Status and Links...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:33:38 +0000

This is the longest I've gone between posts in quite a while. I've been pretty danged busy, though; and the last few weeks especially have been nothing but constant headaches. My wife and I (btw, Happy Birthday, Love of My Life!) made a quick trip to the nearest Gamestop two weeks ago, but I just now got around to updating the games lists and playing one of the games. Specifically, I picked up Lego Batman and X-Blades for the 360; Wild Arms 4 and and the original Lego Star Wars for PS2. When I bought my 360 I got Lego Indiana Jones in a pack of used games and really enjoyed it, so I went back and played Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy on PS2. I wanted to get the Complete Collection for 360, but it was cheaper to just pick up a used copy of the original game for PS2. I've done a couple of levels in Lego Batman, and so far I'm not really getting much enjoyment out of this Lego installment. My wife, who for some odd reason enjoys watching me play video games, says the game isn't nearly as much fun to watch as LSW and LIJ; so I may not stay with this one.

In the meantime, I play a little Street Fighter 4; and, thanks to Steam and Impulse, I've loaded up on some classic sim and strategy titles for only a few bucks. I'm almost done with Railroad Tycoon 2's Campaign in Normal mode...I've made it this far before but I'm having trouble with the last few scenarios. Still haven't tried Sword of the Stars or Making History, but I've heard a lot of good things about them.

In other news, I'm still not completely caught up on Naruto Shippuden. After the Atomic Bomb Ninja Technique, recurring Deus Ex Machina Sasuke started the biggest dumb-ass subplot I've seen in the series so far...(details under the fold, spoilerific). It's takes a lot for me to work up enthusiasm to keep watching. But I'm sooooo close....

Crunchyroll has also started streaming The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I haven't checked to see what order the episodes are in.

I've made it through episode 11 of Chu-Bra! (with my wife...I was too scared to watch it alone.) If I can ever organize my thoughts on this series, it deserves a short amount of commentary. For those who have avoided...yes, it's squicky. Really, really squicky.

Mark finished Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and has started A's. I'm refraining from any comment until he finishes that series.

The 2010 F1 season has begun, which means Wonderduck has started his wonderful F1 Updates again.

Noah Antwiler, aka Spoony; the man responsible for a hilariously savage review/commentary/let's play of Final Fantasy VIII, is going to try Final Fantasy X.

Linkara is producing and narrating a "History of the Power Rangers", which is actually pretty interesting if you're into absolutely useless information, like I am.

I've completely forgotten by this point if I had any other point to make in this post...so I guess I'll stop here.

EDIT: Oh yeah, details about the Sasuke subplot below the fold.
Continue reading "Status and Links..."

My two recent unexpected reversals...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:20:00 +0000

UPDATE 3:

Ok, starting with episode 25 things get quite a bit better. Seems like the studio decided they needed to stretch the story out a bit, and so 15 - 20 move really slowly and are very repetitive. Sakura finally get's her very own crowning moment of awesome. The writers tried, and I think are still trying, to take it away from her (can't have a woman beat the bad guys, can we?); but anything they do at this point is going to seem like complete bullshit if they try to back out.

Actually wanted to finish the storyline last night, but quantserve stopped working around 11:45. Again.

UPDATE 2:

Not sure how long I"m going to be able to stick with Naruto Shippuden. I'm on episode 24 now; there have been TWO good episodes so far in the new series. Each episode is getting slower and more repetitive. The story is pure deus ex machina, with no regard for internal consistency. Looking ahead, this story arch apparently ends around episode 33; it needed to run maybe 13 or so AT MOST. The Chuunin Exams and Sasuke Retrieval archs were faster paced and better timed. Hell, the Zabusa arch was faster and made more sense.

I'm going to try to finish this first story, but if Shippuden doesn't get any better, I won't be able to keep watching. I'm already spending two thirds of each episode saying "What the hell," "that doesn't make sense," and "yes! We know! You've already said that TEN TIMES!!!"

Talk about stumbling out of the starting block...

jeez.

I had to vent to my wife (who thinks I'm nuts for watching Naruto in the first place) for 45 minutes before I could go back to watching.

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UPDATE:

Pete at Ani-Nouto comments on my Naruto viewing. Thanks for your comments! I hadn't dug through the archives and noticed all of his posts on the subject.

To update: I finished the original Naruto series last night and started the second series, Naruto Shippuden. The original series ran for 220 episodes, from October 2002 through February 2007. The second series began airing the same month and is still in production; episode 150 is scheduled to air this week. The Naruto manga storyline runs through episode 135 of the original series, which is where the original manga storyline ends; episodes 136 through 220 are "filler" episodes, and the original storyline for second part of the manga series is followed in Naruto Shippuden.

You see quite a few recommendations to skip episodes 136 - 220, but there are a few good storylines in that section. Unfortunately, the worst storylines are also present in the final 85 episodes.

Pete mentioned Sakura's improvement in Shippuden. The results of her training with Tsunade start showing up in the filler episodes and movies, but the Sakura of Shippuden is a good leap beyond. It's especially nice seeing the confidence and attitude she has...she's finally a character equal to Naruto and the more interesting second-tier personalities.

And regarding Temari's legs; I don't love the Sand Village stories because of Kankuro's winning personality.

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I was pretty close to buying either a PS3 or a 360. I had been leaning towards a PS3 for about a year, but in the end bought a 360 Arcade from Gamestop. Don't have it hooked up yet; needed a component cable and I wasn't about to spring for what they cost retail. Got one off of eBay, and while I was at it picked up a 60GB hard drive, too. Probably should have bought the Elite when Gamestop was offering a $50 Gift Card with purchase; that would have been a better system with more games for only a bit more money than I ended up spending...but I hadn't made up my mind at the time.

The other recent oddity is that, completely out of the blue, I decided to watch Naruto on Crunchyroll. I never, ever thought I would do this. I've never had anything against Naruto, per se...just against the ~~people~~ kids that watched it on Cartoon Network. I had to give it some respect, of course...Naruto brought a whole new generation of Americans to anime; but I watched a couple of episodes and it just seemed; well, silly and more than a little stupid.

That may have something to do with the dub or editing, I don't know for sure. I've heard of many complaints about Naruto's English voice acting, but only marginal gripes concerning editing or censorship. The version available on Crunchyroll appears to be either a Japanese TV or DVD rip; the Japanese sponsorship splash is still present after the OP but there's no text or logos. I'm assuming that means these rips are probably from the DVD. The subtitles are mostly pretty good, but prepositions seems to disappear in waves; usually one or two episodes at a time every ten episodes will have poor sentence structure and obviously missing words. Whoever did the subtitles also selectively used the "Believe it!" catchphrase for dattebayo, which I've always had a problem with. It seems possible that only certain translators used this convention, as the phrase appears heavily in some episodes but is left entirely out of most.

Anyway, I started watching two weeks ago and I'm just about 100 episodes in, now. I was surprised early on, after a few episodes, to discover that I was enjoying myself and wanted to know what happened next. Sixty or seventy episodes in I was completely floored to discover that I hadn't had as much fun watching an anime series in *years*. Yes, this series has it's problems; especially in pacing. Early on there is a story arch that's at least twice as long as it needed to be; almost half of one episode is literally a repeat of the last half of the previous episode. Naruto doesn't really do "filler", at least until, I'm told, the last part of the original series. Instead, the action is slowed down and you get lot's of repetition. The segment I mentioned is the only one that's really bad, but these techniques show up every now and then just to stretch an episode or two out.

Beyond how ridiculous the premise of the show is, the story maintains consistency and characterization. Unlike most recent shonen protagonists, Naruto is actually someone I like and want to root for. He's a bit of a spaz, but he's not a jerk or an asshole. He's not too bright or quick, but he's not stupid, either; and he has pretty good insight. The series does a good job of establishing and maintaining his character and making his actions believable and consistent. The two main supporting characters don't get quite as good treatment; genius student Sasuke is whipped around like a rag doll by the plot...early in the series you get the feeling Sasuke is actually the protagonist; later on he's a massive deus ex machina. The female lead Sakura is present, so far, just for Naruto to have a crush on. She doesn't do anything. Even when she does something, she doesn't do anything. She's likable enough, but she really needs some more depth to her character if we're EVER going to start caring about her. I've read that she get's better later on in the first series...here's hoping.

But, yeah...I really like Naruto, and I never thought I would say that.

Return of 360 vs. PS3

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:35:37 +0000

Very shortly, I will have $100 in Gamestop credit. I'm not the biggest fan of Gamestop in the world, as I mentioned in a Twitter post not too long ago. But, I get credit there easily.

I've got a huge list of games for last gen systems that I need (want) to get, but I'm way behind on games anyway. As $100 is not a small amount, I started thinking once again about picking up a 360 or a PS3. I had been planning to get a PS3 if I ever got anything, but some recent research, and events in general, have complicated the decision again. Here are the relevant facts, my handful of readers may chip in with their thoughts (I would appreciate it, in fact.)

1) I have a pretty good computer (rather, a really awesome computer). The only game, oddly enough, that I have been unable to run at maximum settings recently is the Champions Online Demo. Had to set everything just about to minimum. I think that might be a bandwidth thing, though. If a game is available on PC, I have no doubt that I would be able to play it, and play it better than either the 360 or the PS3. BUT, not everything is available for PC. It would be nice if I could find a list of which 360 and PS3 games are published for PC.

2) I will not pay for Xbox Live Gold. Period. There are rumors that the Playstation Network is going to start charging, but at the moment, it's free.

3) I don't care about the BD drive in the PS3. I have a great HTPC, and GPL BD drivers and software are finally showing up for media programs to use. I figure I'll add a BD drive to my HTPC before the end of the year.

4) Unless the title is programmed well, the 360 usually provides a better game experience with it's more capable graphics chip. What mainly impresses me is that the 360 seldom falls below 30 frames per second on any game, while the PS3 seems to run around 20-25 fps in the same games. To be clear: neither system's visuals look "better" to me, but the 360 does seem to run more smoothly most of the time...

5) when it's running, anyway. I can't find firm numbers, but the newest 360s are supposed to be much more reliable than older models, but that's a hell of a record to overcome. I never bought the anecdotal stories that the 360 had a first-year failure rate of 50%, but the more-likely rate of 15% is beyond bad enough.

6) Do I need both? I don't want to spend that much money, even with $100 in gift cards.

Maybe I should just ignore it all for another six months. Again.

The Rise and Fall of the History of Star Wars...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:00:06 +0000

Just finished reading The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski. Fairly well-written and exhaustively researched, the book does a good job of addressing a few issues relating to the history of the writing of the Star Wars Saga; or as George Lucas now calls it, The Tragedy of Darth Vader.

The intent of the book is to address the claims by George Lucas that he had both trilogies written out before-hand in some form or another, and that what transpires in the films is pretty much what he intended from the very beginning. While most long-time fans can (and have) stood up to refute these mostly ridiculous claims, Kaminski's book collects, for the first time, all available info addressing the argument. Most specifically, Kaminski targets the specific claim that Darth Vader was always written as Anakin Skywalker, the father of Luke and Leia. Second to that issue, the book also directly addresses the claim that Leia was always written as Luke's twin sister. The final, compelling conclusion is that until Lucas took on the re-writes of the script for The Empire Strikes Back (following Leigh Brackett's death from cancer), Vader was always written and thought of as a separate character from "Father Skywalker." Likewise, the reveal of Leia as Luke's sister was used to close a thread tossed out in Empire that was added when Lucas was still planning a sequel trilogy as well as a prequel trilogy.

Beyond including references to actual rough drafts, scripts and notes, Kaminski quotes Lucas himself on dozens of occasions contradicting his current claims. Thankfully, the author also includes a ton of insight into George Lucas himself, and does an admirable job of answering, if indirectly, the third-most famous question regarding the origins of the Star Wars tales: What happened?

What most people mean by that question is, "What happened to George between Empire and Jedi? What happened in the interval between Jedi and Menace? Why is the new trilogy so bad?

First, a couple of house-cleaning issues. I present the following as, hopefully, objective statements that all fans can at least attempt to agree with:

1) Star Wars was intended as a light action-adventure in space.

2) It's phenomenal success was derived partly from how new and different the movie was from recent theater fare.

3) There was no way Empire and Jedi could have lived up to fan expectations.

4) Like many sequels, these two movies appeal more strongly to Star Wars fans than casual viewers.

5) The prequel trilogy probably could not have lived up to fan expectations under any circumstances.

6) The prequel trilogy was very successful financially. Critically it was reviewed similarly to the original trilogy at the time.

With that out of the way, the rest of my comments will primarily be addressed to those fans of the original trilogy who feel as if Lucas has given them a wedgie.

The first bit of fundamental knowledge that one needs to know is that George Lucas, by his own admission, is a poor writer. In addition, he doesn't really care about characters and dialogue; he feels they are largely unimportant to the stories he is telling. Or at least less important. Most readers are probably saying, "No duh!" right about now, but these things are important to remember.

Something that may make a lot of long-time fans feel a bit better is that George Lucas really is the foundation of the Star Wars story. No, he didn't write the whole thing back in 1973 and then just film it, but he did write all of it; the good and the bad. I think he does deserve a lot of credit for his story-creating ability, if not his story-telling ability.

One of the most important things to know about the writing of the Star Wars movies is how much of the final product of each Lucas wrote himself. For Star Wars, Lucas wrote each draft, but each copy was extensively reviewed and criticized by Lucas' circle of friends at the time, including Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, John Milius, and others. George's wife Marcia also provided significant input on characterization and dialogue, and before shooting George had his friends Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck specifically work over the dialogue in the shooting script. The final script was therefore the product of a collaborative effort involving some of the best filmmakers of the era.

The writing of Star Wars 2 is quite notorious and interesting. While Star Wars was still being made, after he had negotiated rights involving potential sequels with Twentieth Century Fox, Lucas met with noted author of fantasy and sci-fi Alan Dean Foster to write two sequels. Fox was willing to commit to two low-budget sequels for Star Wars, and Lucas wanted the novels ready to go. Lucas and Foster worked out the story for the first sequel, which was eventually published as Splinter of the Mind's Eye. The book was well-received, but discarded as the basis for a sequel when Star Wars broke box-office records.

As best as can be verified, Lucas began writing what would become The Empire Strikes Back with Leigh Brackett during a story conference. Lucas wasn't satisfied with her rough draft, but learned of her death when he tried to contact her to discuss revisions. Lucas decided to undertake the writing of the subsequent draft himself; it was at this point that he (as he himself said at the time) hit on the idea of combining Luke's father with Darth Vader. Following the completion of the first draft, Lucas, producer Gary Kurtz, screenwriter Lawrence Kasden and director Irvin Kershner collaborated on subsequent drafts all the way to the shooting script. The actual shoot of Empire is legendary among Star Wars fans: Kershner slowly and methodically created a slower, deeper, more character driven movie than Lucas had in mind. Gary Kurtz is seen by some as enabling this creation by running interference between Lucas and Kershner, almost always siding with director Kershner over executive producer Lucas. The result is one of the few motion picture sequels frequently cited as better than it's progenitor; a movie that, like Star Trek's The Wrath of Kahn, is even considered one of the best sci-fi movies ever created. Even today, Lucas claims Empire is his least favorite Star Wars film, and has commented to many over the years that the Star Wars sequel was "better than it needed to be"; it would have made just as much money with less effort and a smaller budget (budgeted for $15 million, Kurtz and Kershner eventually spent $33 million...all of which was borrowed personally by Lucas. You can understand his consternation, if not his story telling vision.) In fact, Lucas hated the final product so much that he frantically tried to re-edit the movie into a faster-paced, less-talky film. In the end, Kurtz talked him down and persuaded Lucas to let Kershner to another cut. The rest is history. Kurtz and Lucas parted ways, Empire eventually became the most beloved of the original trilogy (not initially, though) and George Lucas apparently still dislikes this movie. On a side note, contrary to popular belief, Irvin Kershner was actually invited back for Jedi...most likely before Lucas saw the finished movie. Kershner turned the offer down, though.

After the blowout success of Star Wars, Lucas had conceptualized doing either twelve episodes of serialized Star Wars as a New Wave project for directors; or more commonly a nine movie series consisting of the current trilogy (which did not yet have an ending), a prequel trilogy based on young Obi-wan Kenobi, and a sequel trilogy that would conclude the Rebellion versus Empire story. A line was even added to Empire to possibly point to the sequel trilogy. Following his ordeal with Empire, Lucas resolved to finish the current trilogy, then quit. He also resolved to work with a producer and director who would follow his wishes. Again, Lucas wrote the rough draft then collaborated with producer Howard Kazanjian, director Richard Marquand and Lawrence Kasdan for the Jedi scripts. An interesting observation is that while Empire's shooting script was changed during filming by director Irvin Kershner; the last notes and edits of Jedi's script were made by Lucas. Although the rough draft was written after Lucas had decided to end the series, during the writing process Lucas and the others found many storylines that needed to be closed, mostly because of the changes made in Empire. After reading the rough drafts, my advice to Star Wars fans is to be thankful for what you got in Return of the Jedi...the original plans were much, much worse. Kasdan seems to be most directly responsible for the final story, although as usual Lucas provided many of the more loved and loathed details.

When Lucas decided to make the prequel trilogy following the Star Wars renaissance of the early-nineties, he made two important decisions: he would direct the movies himself and he would write the movies himself. Of the original movies, Lucas directed the first only; and all of the screenplays were collaborative. Although Lucas would plan to have another screenwriter do a "polish" of his final drafts, he eventually only does this for the second movie. Ironically, Lucas' rough, revised rough and first drafts are, more or less, the story that many Star Wars fans had been expecting. However, the second draft would introduce the film as it was eventually filmed. The first draft is very similar to the filmed plot, actually...just replace Qui-gon Jin with Obi-wan; Obi-wan with nothing; characterize Obi-wan somewhere between the final Qui-gon and Obi-wan; elevate Anakin's age a few years; don't include midichlorians...see where I'm going here? Qui-gon does appear in this draft as Jedi Knight Kenobi's friend and mentor (not master) who accompanies the return trip to Naboo. He is killed by Darth Maul as usual, which is one of the two reasons Lucas went back and added him to the rest of the movie: to build some sympathy for the character. Unfortunately, Obi-wan is clumsily pushed aside by this addition, leaving no screentime for he and Anakin to bond. The midichlorians are added because Lucas felt that the Jedi Council would not agree to allow Anakin to be trained based on the recommendations of Qui-gon and Obi-wan; they needed a more compelling reason. However, I felt the rough-draft version of this scene played perfectly with the council washing their hands of the boy, Yoda specifically recommending against training, but leaving the final decision up to Obi-wan.

Lucas handed off his first draft for Episode 2 to Jonathan Hales, who would create the second, third and fourth drafts. Lucas would edit the fourth draft, and then change and add several scenes during and after filming. While the editing and SFX of the second movie does make it fun to watch (some of it, anyway); I think the dialogue and story speak for themselves.

Lucas completed the first draft of Sith after pre-production for the movie was complete. Lucas would complete several more drafts before filming, but would significantly alter the script several times during filming. After the film was completed, Lucas re-wrote the script, filmed additional scenes, re-looped several audio tracks, and re-edited the film into something almost completely different. I would love to see what it looked like before. The pivotal change was Lucas' decision to soften Anakin's fall in order to make him more likable and tragic.

What's pretty clear is that, especially with the prequels, what you see on screen is what Lucas wanted you to see. His dialogue is almost universally terrible, and without any form of peer review or collaboration he tends to override his own best ideas. His visual sense is quite keen, and he is a good editor, but Lucas just doesn't have the story-telling ability that he thinks he does. Or that a lot of fans thought he did. In making the prequels, Lucas became more and more focused on the visuals above all else. The flow from movie to movie was hampered by story decisions he made in the first movie not being compatible with the original trilogy. The post-production rewrite of the third movie made Attack of the Clones even more nonsensical than it already was.

*********

It should be noted that people frequently complain about George Lucas "juvenilizing" Jedi and the prequels, but I personally don't see any compelling evidence. Lucas has been consistent in stating that the movies were targeted at kids, and beyond the Ewoks and Jar-jar, there's a lot of violence and adult content in the new movies. I won't spend time defending either, I'm just saying that nothing I've read so far indicates that anything in particular was added to the movies that Lucas was most responsible for because that addition would appeal to kids or sell more toys.

As far as the "dumbing down" of the movies that some people complain about, I think it's perfectly clear that when left to his own devices, that's just how George Lucas writes.

I strongly recommend picking up The Secret History of Star Wars and Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays. Between those two books (and The Jedi Masters' Quiz Book), just about any question you might have about Star Wars can be answered.

Dragnet TV Question...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:59:52 +0000

I don't really watch TV, and haven't for quite a while, but somewhere towards the end of my TV watching existence I remember there was going to be a new Dragnet series with Ed O'Neil. Now that internet TV, cheap slimpacks and BR is making TV a little cheaper and more convenient, I was wondering if any of my TV-watching friends and acquaintances had any thoughts on this series.

Thanks in advance!

Son of a...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:27:23 +0000

I was working on a document to help me decide what order I wanted to do the planets in (in Knights of the Old Republic 2), but AbiWord crashed. The reason this is a significant choice is because which order you visit/complete the planets in determines which party members you gain earlier and later.

Well, that's in theory. In actuality, you collect all of your party (except for one mandatory and one conditional character), typically after the intro section and one other planet. While the choice of planets should be important, I've always felt that it's pretty clear what Obsidian intended:

1) You start out on the Peragus Mining Station
2) You travel to Telos Citadel Station; no choice. You now have Atton, Kreia, and T3-M4 available.
3) Surface of Telos; no choice. Bao-Dur is a mandatory addition to the party, plus you have to take him along for this section.
4) North Pole of Telos; no choice. If you are male, you will add Handmaiden after leaving Telos.

Those four stops are all linear and mandatory.

You may now travel to Nar Shadaa, Dantooine, Dxun/Onderon, or Korriban.

Which NPC's can you add at/from each planet?

5) Dantooine - Disciple can be added to your party if you are Female; instead of Handmaiden. I don't believe he is mandatory in any way, nor must you complete the planet story to get him.

6) Nar Shadaa - During the course of the "final act" of Nar Shadaa, you will add Mira (Light Side/Neutral) or Hanhaar (Dark Side) to your party. Upon completion of the final act, you will add G0-T0. You can also complete HK-47 after finishing Nar Shadaa.

7) Dxun/Onderon - Mandalore is a mandatory addition to your party before entering the plot door from Dxun to Onderon.

Korriban - Nothing.

Onderon 2 - Nothing.

Dantooine 2 - Nothing.

End Game - Nothing.

Plot character - Visas Marr will arrive on your ship after you become clearly Light Side/Dark Side AFTER you travel to another OPEN PORT, leave your ship and re-enter it. For most players this will occur on the second free planet they visit. (unless you're strictly playing neutral)

So assuming you want to get each character ASAP, you can do the planets in the order listed above. You don't have to finish Dantooine if you're female, and if you're male, you can skip it entirely in favor of a direct trip to Nar Shadaa.

The conflicting issue: Influence.

KotOR 2 added the game mechanic of influence. You can gain influence with your party members in order to learn more of the back story, learn about each character's personal story, gain skill and ability increases for yourself and the NPC party members, and turn several of them into Jedi. I don't want to get into an influence guide, but there are a couple of salient points that affect who you take to which planet.

Mira, Handmaiden, Disciple, Hanhaar and Visas can nearly or completely max out on influence through conversations and actions on the ship. If you need extra influence, they are all most influenced on Dxun/Onderon.

Mandalore gains most of his influence on Onderon, where he is a mandatory party member. Like all of the dark side NPC's, there are also several people in the game that you can murder for influence. However, Mandalore is broken and you CANNOT max influence with him. What you get from Mandalore is a significant piece of the back story and stat bonuses.

Bao-Dur has no conversation influence options, he must witness you performing good deeds. He is most influenced on Dxun/Onderon, but also shares several influence points with the others on Nar Shadaa, and has a unique influence point on Dantooine. It is possible for Bao-Dur to "break" and become unavailable.

Atton has a couple of influence points while he is forced into the party, plus you have to take him off the the ship on Nar Shadaa at least once. You then have to navigate a conversation map with him to finish out his influence and story. I think you have to complete Nar Shadaa first, but I'm not sure.

Atton, Bao-Dur, Handmaiden and Visas share several influence points on Nar Shadaa and Dantooine. You must have ONE of these NPC's plus Kreia in your party.

HK gains the most influence by witnessing you threaten and murder innocents.

GoTo as well, to some extent; but more importantly he has several plot related doors.

T3-M4 has a few influence points in the early game and on the ship, but is most influenced by your ability to upgrade him. You need a computer skill of 15 and a repair of 20, if I remember.

GoTo, HK, Hanhaar and Mandalore are all evil. You must do things that will result in Dark Side Points in order to gain influence with them. Very easy if you're evil, go find a list of killable NPC's and go to town.

Handmaiden, Visas and Mira can all be maxed out through conversation (I think...or close to it) but (I think) all of them have "level gates". I know you can't finish out your story with Handmaiden until you reach level 18, regardless of how much influence you have with her. I think the same is true of Visas and Mira.

You must seek out some influence points for Bao-Dur, as you can't influence him via conversation. He has either a location gate or a level gate himself, although I'm not sure what it is.

Kreia - I think you can get all of the influence you need through conversations. Just always agree with her. If you have her in your party, there are several places that will gain you influence with Kreia while losing influence with the other party member, and vice versa.

So, the influence guide would seem to indicate the order listed above.

So what's the problem?

Nar Shadaa is almost half of the game. Doing it second, after the railroad of the the introductory sequences, is a major drag. To be sure, I went to Nar Shadaa after Telos the first time I played the game, but this time I got so bored by the time I was halfway through NS that I reloaded from an earlier save and went to Dxun instead. The problem now is actually an obvious one: I'm now getting 3 characters one planet later than I would otherwise. Since I'm playing light side, and two of them will be evil, only Mira is a possible loss. But we'll see. Getting Mandalore early isn't really much of an advantage. Taking Bao-Dur and Handmaiden along on Dxun/Onderon, however has definitely maxed Handmaiden's influence and I think has maxed Bao-Dur's as well.

So, basically, unless you do the game in one particular order, you only make things harder for yourself.

I'd be glad to hear from others who have played the game regarding what order they did the planets in and what they think about it.

The most wonderful and stressful time of year...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 12:53:36 +0000

No, not what you think. With few exceptions, the "holidays" aspect of the Fall and Winter is a stress-reliever for me. What I'm referring to is that my financial year usually starts in March, April or May; and ends in December. I start getting some income in December. So, the period from November to the end of the year is filled with making every dollar count. Plus, you never "really" know how good a job you did during the year until this final huge, expensive effort.

The amount of work that goes into a harvest and all of the stress mentioned above means, as I posted last year, that I don't really have a lot of time for posting...and when I do, I don't feel like it. I don't want to just do more re-posting from other blogs. I like to try to keep blog mentions confined to other bloggers' original work rather than contributing to another round of viral videos. OTOH, Wonderduck comes up with some of the more unique and entertaining examples I've seen, there are currently two good videos on his front page.

So, just to force myself, I'll just run through some randomness.

Recently found the Let's Play Archive. This particular LP got me wanting to play KotOR 2 again...he made the game sound pretty good. As I tweeted recently; though, I actually think the writing is WORSE in 2 than in one. Different, yes. The story certainly has the basis for something MUCH deeper and more complex than KotOR. Unfortunately, the writer(s) didn't know what they were talking about half the time. Obviously, somebody made it through the first chapter of the Pop Guide to Chaos Theory and a Psychology 101 primer, but missed out on War Strategy and Tactics That Anyone Can Understand and Principles of Leadership: A Common Sense Approach. Then there are the "moral choices." Bioware games and western RPG's in general have become well-known for their "black and white" moral choices. KotOR 2 was made by Obsidian rather than Bioware, and a lot of players felt that Obsidian did a better job of making those choices more like "multiple shades of gray." I don't see it, myself. Most of the choices are still "Save/Eat Puppy", they just word them differently. Most of the "gray" choices are actually railroading by the plot...which is to say, rather than "Save/Eat Puppy" you get to choose "Eat Puppy Now/Eat Puppy Later." See, the writer(s) don't really give you a lot of freedom in "defining" your character. Sure, you can level and play your Jedi as Light/Dark Side, Neutral or Insane; but KotOR 2 goes well beyond KotOR's "this is who you are and what you did, now what are you going to do?" KotOR 2 says, "this is who you are, what you did, why you did it, who you did it with and for, and what you thought of them. Now what are you going to do? Oh, and you're still mad about this, so you should probably choose A, and even though we've made it perfectly clear to you repeatedly, and you have high intelligence and wisdom, you don't really understand B, so we'll just fill in "duuuuuuuuuuuh" for that answer.

And so on.

End the end, it still comes down to "side with/kill bad guy". But there's so much arrogance and ignorance in the story, and the frequent Character Development railroading make the game less enjoyable than KotOR...at least to a certain degree. On the other hand, the story IS more complex...not better, just deeper. The game is bigger, the mechanics are a little better, the crafting system is much improved, and the animations and graphics are much better. On the third hand, the rushed development time means that something like 20% of the game got cut before release, and you see a lot of the resultant broken bits still in the game. I don't bear any hard feelings about that, though...13 months is not enough time to develop a game like this.

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I'm just about tired of my iPhone. Getting sick of what I can't do with it. It's a decent multimedia phone, but it just can't compare to a full smartphone with better desktop integration. Add to that the number of ways that Apple WON'T service the phone, and the dreaded iTunes. Think I'll switch to THIS.

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Thought about playing Dwarf Fortress. Got over it.

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Can't think of anything else, right now. Although this is good:

Just what I needed...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:25:27 +0000

Checked google webmaster tools. By far the most popular page on my site now is the post I did about the Stephanie from Lazytown bed; i.e. "Pedobed".
Which means either tons of pedos are visiting my site and leaving disappointed, or I've been turned in by worried mothers. If you never hear from me again, this is the most likely reason.

Busy

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:20:30 +0000

It's that time of the year again. I'm gonna be busy with harvest for the next several weeks at least, and have been for the last couple. Which means very little posting, or anything else for that matter. Hopefully have things going well enough that we'll be done by Christmas this year.

Nanoha Sidenote - Skip original and start with A's?

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:47:49 +0000

This discussion has happened before, and it's happening again. And rather than move the comments in the "Top 5" @ Chizumatic into a subject change without Steven's blessing, and since I've already been posting about Nanoha recently, I'll add my answer here.

The question, posed this time by Mark from Kaedrin:

"...I notice that Nanoha A is actually the second series... does that matter? Or is it easy to jump into the middle like that?"

Of course, the common sense answer is "Start from the beginning, duh..." but there are a couple of issues involved with the Nanoha franchise that makes this a valid question. The first is that, as I mentioned in the previous post, the first five or so episodes of the original series are very stereotypical of Magical Girl anime. If you don't have a tolerance for that kind of show, you will probably get bored. Second, the action kicks in about episode 6, and even then the pacing is irregular; generally you get an action oriented episode followed by a slower, exposition oriented episode. If you haven't taken an interest in the characters or the plot, there really isn't enough "action" to keep you floating.

I was somewhat fortunate in that I hadn't really kept up with Magical Girl anime at all, and my most recent experience prior to Nanoha was Cardcaptor Sakura. Most people agree that Sakura is a pretty good show all around, and it maintains interest while staying very close to the classic MG tropes. The early parts of Nanoha were different enough from Sakura that I didn't get bored the first time through...although I tend to skip through the early episodes now. I also have learned that there were several anime series released in the years prior to Nanoha that used some, or even several of the ideas present in Nanoha. If you have been one of those anime viewers that constantly keeps up with current series in Japan, you may not find Nanoha to be nearly as fresh as I did. Caveat: I'm basing that last bit solely on what I've read on several forums and blogs over the past few years. I have not verified any of those claims myself.

There are a couple of other problems that could discourage someone in the original series. There are, of course, the non-explicit nude loli transformations. Keeping in mind that the Japanese have a different cultural view, and the popularity of lolicon imagery, I gritted my teeth and dealt with it. It's not that much content overall, but some people may not be able to take it. There are also a couple of scenes of violence that some have found difficult to watch. They don't last long, they are not explicit, and in my opinion, the idea of what is going on is more horrible than what is depicted. The first of these two scenes has made at least one blogger I read hit the "stop" button and quit watching the series. On the other hand, my wife and I both accepted the scene for what it was, in our opinion: THE defining scene of characterization of the relationships between the Big Bad, the primary antagonist and the antagonist's lieutenant.

Finally, a couple of minor nitpicks. The animation is a little rough sometimes, especially early in the series. The producers apparently tried some kind of CG animation process in a few scenes and it's fairly obvious. However, most of the animation problems disappear by halfway through the series. And lastly, as hard as the American cast obviously tried, unless you just have to, I strongly recommend watching the series in the original Japanese instead of the English dub. It's not that bad, in my opinion, and I certainly recommend a rewatch with the dub so you can focus on the visuals. The Japanese dub is outstanding...the English dub, especially Nanoha's voice actress...not so much.

Now, for why I STILL recommend watching the first series first.

Actually, this is pretty straightforward. One, this IS the series that establishes a lot of the rules and concepts of the world...there isn't a lot of rehashing done in the second series. Secondly, the action in A's starts right out of the gate, and it's in the nature of of 1) showing how much Nanoha has improved since the first series (so you really need a frame of reference) and 2) The first episode features a "Here comes a New Challenger!" moment...and in my opinion you need to see the first series in order to grasp how significant this first battle is.

Finally, (and once again, IMHO) while A's improves on the original series in almost every way, many of the things that make A's great are what made the original Nanoha worth watching. If you can't at least tolerate Nanoha in the first series...well, she's still there in the second series and she hasn't changed much. If you don't form some kind of sympathy with Fate in the first series, her appearance in the second series will be no big deal to you. That is, in fact, one of the methods that several people use to supply a newcomer with a "gauge" they can use to measure how much they will like the Nanoha series'. If you don't want to finish the series in order to find out what happens to Fate, you probably won't get much out of A's. A's has a similar character "gauge", which I won't mention right now because it would end up being a bit of a spoiler.

So that's basically my argument. I'm probably forgetting a ton of stuff (I usually do), and I'm sure there's a lot of poor grammar and spelling. For what it's worth, based on purely anecdotal evidence, if you like the original series, then A's will probably make your top ten list. If you don't like the first series, but watch A's anyway, it seems that responses are about 50/50. And if you absolutely HATE the original series....well, you probably wont' watch A's anyway, and I don't blame you. A's doesn't really take out any of the stuff that some have found objectionable in the first series. The violence is a little more subtle, but not significantly. And of course, it's still a Magical Girl show at heart...it just loads up on the Shonen-style action sequences.

I'll try to incorporate a lot of this post into my longer article on Nanoha StrikerS sometime soon.

When you run out of books...

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:30:29 +0000

...re-read your webcomics' archives. Went back the past two weeks and re-read Darths & Droids, Better Days, and El Goonish Shive. In addition, I recently added Eerie Cuties and Menage a 3. Trying a handful of others right now, but haven't made up my mind yet.

Not sure I'll stay with Eerie Cuties, it's not really grabbing me. Started out pretty good, but just doesn't have that really unique spark, IMO. Menage a 3 has a lot of promise; helps that it's got a pretty good archive despite being fairly new...lot's of updating. Great art, vaguely reminiscent of Archie Comics (which is acknowledged a few times in the comic, heh). Good story, humorous and sexy slant that keeps the laughs going without relying on joke-of-the-day. I read several joke of the day comics, but they have to hit the right level of humor for me to follow a joke comic regularly.

For example, I don't read Penny Arcade (regularly, and I've never made it all the way through the archives). What? How can a quintessential computer/gaming/child-of-the-80's nerd not like Penny Arcade? I do. Just not every day. And to be fair, I find most of the comics to be pretty flat and predictable. Lowest-common-denominator stuff while still being well-written and intelligent. Face it, you usually know what Gabe and Tycho are gonna say or do about any given subject. But yeah, they pop out some really great gems sometimes.

I like well-written fantasy/adventure with good dramatic elements and poignant, witty humor. CTRL-ALT-DEL, therefore, fails miserably...at least after the first couple of years. The angst of angst will usually turn me off, too. E.G. Sorcery 101, which I read up until about a year ago. To be fair, the story really started slipping, too.

After years of defending Megatokyo from the naysayers, I have to admit that I've been having a lot of trouble keeping interest up during the latest chapter. The end of the previous chapter was pretty hard to follow at times, and the current chapter has been nearly impossible. It would help if Fred could get the update schedule AT LEAST back to a reliable twice a week, but it seems more like once every 7-10 days now. I have been willing to give him some leeway, especially with the amazing job he's done with the art for the past year or so...but it sure feels like MT is trickling down to a slow death.

Oh, and I really didn't enjoy the latest Dr. McNinja story, although the ending (I presume it's the ending) was good.

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So what's been good in my webcomics reading?

Questionable Content, after spending several months wandering around and screwing with characters, has started holding my attention again. I actually started skipping QC for a while and just flipping through the archives every other week or so. What's so good? Hannelore has really come on strong as a character, and Jeph has introduced a new lucky friend for everyone (as part of the recent storyline bringing Angus into the main continuity), Marigold. I LOVE Marigold.

I already mentioned Original Life recently.

Going through the EGS archives this week, I was reminded once again why El Goonish Shive would probably be my choice for "If you could only read one webcomic for the rest of your life, which would it be?" Dan Shive has created something powerful and enduring in my opinion; something equal parts gentle social commentary, quirky melodrama and dead-series straight-up drama, humor, and bizarre fantasy/sci-fi. The writing started out good and has improved. Shive manages character interaction and exposition equally well. Art is always a personal choice, but as far as perfecting his chosen style, I'm not sure he could get much better...even though his twitter comments and comic commentaries make it clear that's one of his primary goals.

The story, of course, is what really shines in EGS. The original silly concepts and jokes have morphed into a humorous but serious real-world fantasy setting. Internal consistency is surprisingly rigid. External consistency uses just enough technobabble and faux-science (and, occasionally, real science) to keep from spinning off into a pure-phlebotinum-inspired state of reality-rejection. You know, other than the fact that the fundamental conceits of the comic are utterly bizarre. And beyond all of that, the characters are likable, interesting and so well-written that the reader can really identify with and root for them.

The only down-side to EGS is that Dan Shive has had to cut back on the frequency of his updates over the past year. This is primarily hard to take because Shive started out keeping an aggressive schedule of daily updates, and even posted an additional short comic for a while of non-canon side stories. He kept this up for several years, but has cut back lately to one or two comics per week. This has been doubly-frustrating lately because he started another dramatic story arc late last year, so readers have had to wait occasionally for very intense story elements to be continued or resolved.

Still, I rank EGS as my favorite comic in that list to the left, and I can't wait to see what Shive has planned next. EGS doesn't usually show up on many "top-ten" lists, but it's quality and diverse appeal can easily be noted by the fact that it regularly shows up on multiple "top-twenty" and "top-fifty" lists. Quite an achievement considering the internet now hosts an estimated 15000 (or many more) regularly updating webcomics, by many estimates.

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Anyway, just wanted to share.

Attention, Texans! October 2nd is Come and Take It Day!

nospam@example.com (Ben) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:40:34 +0000

The Texas Revolution began on this day in 1835 in Gonzales. The relevant Wikipedia article isn't very good (wikipedia is like a box of chocolates...sorry), but their page on Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna has a decent summary of what led to the incident (and the war):

(Mexican President) Valentín Gómez Farías carried out many reforms, introducing anti-military and anti-clerical reforms. He reduced the size of the army and worked hard to root out corruption in the military. He also changed some rules reflecting[sic] the power of the Church. Clergymen would be allowed to preach only on religious matters. He reformed education into a fully secular system. The mandatory tax for the support of the Church was abolished. These drastic reforms angered many of the powerful among the military, wealthy landowners, and the Catholic Church. When there was rebellion and violence against the reform that Farias had made, Santa Anna changed his side, again. Santa Anna reversed his support for the liberals and joined the conservatives, dismissed Farías, declared the (1824) Constitution suspended, disbanded the Congress, and worked to concentrate power in the central government. This was applauded by some conservatives, but met with considerable disapproval from other sectors. He established a Catholic, centralist dictatorship and replaced the Constitution of 1824 (the one that Farias (helped) establish[ed]), with a new document, called “The Seven Laws” – which became the Constitution of 1836. The regime was a centralized dictatorship led by the military.

Several states went into open rebellion: Coahuila y Tejas (Tejas {Texas} was a province of the State of Coahuila), San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Durango, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Yucatán, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. Several of these states formed their own governments, the Republic of the Rio Grande, the Republic of Yucatan, and the Republic of Texas (separate from Coahuila). Only the Texans defeated Santa Anna and retained their independence. Their fierce resistance was possibly fueled by reprisals Santa Anna committed against his defeated enemies.

THE BATTLE OF GONZALES

On January 1, 1831, Green DeWitt, who originated the colony at and around Gonzales, requested from the Mexican government that a cannon be provided to Gonzales for protection against hostile Indians. A bronze six pound cannon was delivered to a colonist in Bexar on March 10, 1831.

As part of Santa Anna's defederalization of the Mexican government, the Mexican military made an effort to clamp down on the ability of Mexican citizens to fight back. In September 1835 Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, the military commander at Bexar, sent six soldiers to retrieve the cannon at Gonzales. The Gonzales colonists took the soldiers prisoner. The cannon was then buried in George Davis's peach orchard for reasons that I've never adequately understood. The colonists then sent out word to other settlements about the incident and requested armed support. Ugartechea responded by sending 100 troops to assure the return of the gun. The gun was dug up and mounted on a pair of cart wheels. The colonists and Mexican detachment faced off on October 2nd. The colonists declared the Guadalupe River the skirmish line, and threatened attack if the Mexicans attempted to cross the river. They did, and the colonists fired on the Mexican dragoons. The altercation was very brief, and the Mexicans soon returned to Bexar.

The phrase "Come and Take It" refers to the motto adopted by the Texian colonists. When the Mexican soldiers demanded the return of the cannon on October second, a colonist is said to have pointed to the cannon and said, "There it is. Come and take it." Of course, there were approximately 140 armed Texians guarding the crossing of the Guadalupe at the time. Several ladies of the settlement subsequently created a flag, the story of which is recorded in colonist Creed Taylor's memoirs:

"Some of our leaders wanted to march and fight under the Mexican national colors; others wanted the eagle, cactus, and snake, eliminated from the flag and in their stead a star. But it was soon ascertained that the boys wanted nothing that bore the slightest resemblance to the flag of Mexico. At a meeting of the officers a committee of five were appointed to select the design for our flag. This committee was to report by three o'clock the next day. And this gave the occasion for the loftiest display of patriotism on the part of the women of Gonzales. They knew that material for a flag was scarce. Before ten o'clock the committee in council was overwhelmed with offers of material of all shades, textures, and fashions. A few silk dresses that had doubtless been worn on state occasions 'back in the states' and were now faded and tattered---but religiously treasured as sacred mementoes of happier days---were brought forward and freely offered. One heroic mother whose sons went down in the Alamo the following March, brought her only pair of green window curtains. It was finally decided by the committee that it was the duty of the Consultation to design and adopt a flag of the new nation; that any action in regard thereto would be premature and not binding; but in view of the present conditions it would be right and proper for the army to have a banner under which to march during the present campaign, and that in keeping with the simplicity that characterized the general make-up of the army the said emblem be as follows: a white field without border, in the center a picture of a cannon, unmounted and without any fixtures whatever, directly over the cannon a five pointed star. Under the cannon and near the lower margin in large letters extending nearly the length of the flag, this inscription: 'COME AND TAKE IT.'"

The cannon itself is lost to history. While some claim the cannon was never dug up again (with attendant stories that the cannon was a dud), or that the cannon was re-buried in Gonzales or elsewhere; others report that the cannon was abandoned en-route to a muster of Texians at Bexar. However, the fate of the cannon is most likely found in the claim that it was turned over to the Texian army and taken, with other cannons, to the fort at San Antonio. Following the re-taking of Bexar with the defeat of the Texian defenders of the Alamo on March 6th, 1836, the Mexican army reports reclaiming and melting down several bronze cannons captured with the fort.