Random Stuff X: Something Weird

[Kaymyth she/her]

3 minutes ago, Sunbird said:

Not as lost as you'd think. Many kinds of gulls will hang out wherever there's a large body of water, regardless whether it's actually the ocean.

There...are a couple of ponds within a mile or two? Our metro area is really about the closest major city to the center of the continental United States. Those gulls (or their progenitors) had to travel a long way to get here.

I mean, maybe they followed waterways farther and farther inland, but the closest turn of the Kansas River is about 8 miles away. The Missouri River is about twice that distance.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

Ugh, stressful day with annoying people doing annoying things. Makes me want to follow the battle cry of the Daleks and....

Spoiler

 

[A Budgie she/her]

4 hours ago, Orlion Determined said:

Ugh, stressful day with annoying people doing annoying things. Makes me want to follow the battle cry of the Daleks and....

  Reveal hidden contents

 

That is just...beautiful.

[marsoupial they/them]

6 hours ago, Orlion Determined said:

Ugh, stressful day with annoying people doing annoying things. Makes me want to follow the battle cry of the Daleks and....

  Hide contents

 

STRESS-IS-AN-ENEMY-OF-THE-DAAAAAAAALEKS

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

When Bruce wants to play a game, he hints by going into the other room and staying there. 

Spoiler

 

 

[Quiver he/him]

23 minutes ago, TwiLyghtSansSparkles said:

When Bruce wants to play a game, he hints by going into the other room and staying there. 

  Hide contents

 

 

Well hey, so far as hints goes, it beats appearing on a monitor with a tiny puppet and inviting his owner to play a game of "Saw your leg off". So. 

[Left he/him]

So crazy news everyone, Netflix is making an American version of Death Note. They just released the trailer, link Here . 
For those of you who don't know what Deathnote is, it's one of the most famous manga/anime and is probably the most famous manga/anime pyschological crime series. It's about a young high school grad with a supreme sense of justice who is suddenly given a notebook. If he writes a person's name into the notebook, that person will die. He decides to use his new power for good, or at least what he sees as good. 

I'm hopeful about this remake. I didn't especially like the anime, but this trailer looks promising. There's a lot of ways they could screw it up, but Netflix has a good record with grim psychological shows/films. At the moment I'm looking forward to it  more than Ghost in the Shell anyway. 

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

2 hours ago, Left said:

So crazy news everyone, Netflix is making an American version of Death Note. They just released the trailer, link Here . 
For those of you who don't know what Deathnote is, it's one of the most famous manga/anime and is probably the most famous manga/anime pyschological crime series. It's about a young high school grad with a supreme sense of justice who is suddenly given a notebook. If he writes a person's name into the notebook, that person will die. He decides to use his new power for good, or at least what he sees as good. 

I'm hopeful about this remake. I didn't especially like the anime, but this trailer looks promising. There's a lot of ways they could screw it up, but Netflix has a good record with grim psychological shows/films. At the moment I'm looking forward to it  more than Ghost in the Shell anyway. 

Mhm yes, Ghost in the Shell looked a liittle eh.

@TwiLyghtSansSparklesWhy'd you go ahead and post a bruce video just when I was about to post a meme of it XD

https://imgflip.com/i/1lsnaj

 

 

[Quiver he/him]

2 hours ago, Left said:

So crazy news everyone, Netflix is making an American version of Death Note. They just released the trailer, link Here . 
For those of you who don't know what Deathnote is, it's one of the most famous manga/anime and is probably the most famous manga/anime pyschological crime series. It's about a young high school grad with a supreme sense of justice who is suddenly given a notebook. If he writes a person's name into the notebook, that person will die. He decides to use his new power for good, or at least what he sees as good. 

I'm hopeful about this remake. I didn't especially like the anime, but this trailer looks promising. There's a lot of ways they could screw it up, but Netflix has a good record with grim psychological shows/films. At the moment I'm looking forward to it  more than Ghost in the Shell anyway. 

Hmm.

Okay first off: a movie? That's odd. I know there are three two Death Note movies live-action films already... but that story is one which, in my opinion, is better suited for a serialised medium. The point of it is watching how the characters and the world changes in response to this supernatural phenomenon... which, yes, you can do in a movie, obviously, but doing it as a series of 13 episode seasons seems like the more effective way to get that done.

(Plus, that way you don't have to do a time skip, which was a problem for lots of reasons)

I have to admit, the first time I saw Light there, I laughed; my browser froze on his face when he found the notebook, so he looked sort of goofy. But...
But I like that. He doesn't look like the kind of guy who would go nuts and commit mass murder... which is very much part of Light's character. Honestly, if I have a complaint, it's that the Light they have here looks more like an everyman character than an Honor Roll student.

(That might be the angle they are going for though; how would an "ordinary" person react to the Daeth Note rather than someone who was "exceptional". Ryuuk claimed that a normal person wouldn't have written so many names... but going mad with power IS kind of a thing.)

If I have a complaint, it's that the trailer shows a lot of big flashy scenes... when the appeal of Death Note was it's psychological mind games. Again, a reason why I would have preferred it as a series.
Still... I'll probably get around to it eventually. Have the Marvel Netflix and Sense-8 to watch first.

[aeromancer he/him]

3 hours ago, Left said:

So crazy news everyone, Netflix is making an American version of Death Note. They just released the trailer, link Here . 

I have two thoughts about the trailer. First, what's with all the action sequences? That will eat up precious time that can be used for inner monologues. Second, where are the potato chips?

I'm going to have to echo chamber @Quiver here, and say that a movie isn't a good medium for conveying the full story or impact of Death Note. If I had to stake a guess, I'd say that they aren't using Light as the protagonist, as really nothing in the trailer remotely reminded me of Light. Especially if they make the protagonist an American (which seems to be the case), which means the glorious irony of his name would be completely lost.

[Kaymyth she/her]

OK, we are officially a month out from JordanCon. No Brandon this year, but other members of Team Sanderson will be in attendance. I am now in costume planning mode! What to wear, what to wear? I'm going with one new costume this year, two already-existing.

Friday:  Mistborn costume. This will be my new one; I have some ideas on how to assemble my mistcloak.

Saturday:  Victorian Twilight Sparkle (I never did get the hat done last year; I think I can have it ready for this.)

Sunday:  Zelda: Warrior Princess (Since my hair is short now, I will be adding a wig to this ensemble. And a friend is going to be 3D-printing me a new set of Zelda hair baubles, cause the ones I made out of Sculpey are just too heavy and hard to attach.)

[Quiver he/him]

20 minutes ago, Kaymyth said:

Sunday:  Zelda: Warrior Princess (Since my hair is short now, I will be adding a wig to this ensemble. And a friend is going to be 3D-printing me a new set of Zelda hair baubles, cause the ones I made out of Sculpey are just too heavy and hard to attach.)

Given the recent Zelda release, I'd say go with this.

[Mestiv he/him]

4 hours ago, Left said:

So crazy news everyone, Netflix is making an American version of Death Note. They just released the trailer, link Here . 
For those of you who don't know what Deathnote is, it's one of the most famous manga/anime and is probably the most famous manga/anime pyschological crime series. It's about a young high school grad with a supreme sense of justice who is suddenly given a notebook. If he writes a person's name into the notebook, that person will die. He decides to use his new power for good, or at least what he sees as good. 

I'm hopeful about this remake. I didn't especially like the anime, but this trailer looks promising. There's a lot of ways they could screw it up, but Netflix has a good record with grim psychological shows/films. At the moment I'm looking forward to it  more than Ghost in the Shell anyway. 

Well, I wanna know who will they choose for L. And I agree that a movie is risky choice,  a series would be better. 

[Oversleep]

1 hour ago, aeromancer said:

I have two thoughts about the trailer. First, what's with all the action sequences? That will eat up precious time that can be used for inner monologues. Second, where are the potato chips?

 

[Kaymyth she/her]

51 minutes ago, Quiver said:

Given the recent Zelda release, I'd say go with this.

Oh, I'm going with all of them. A different costume for each day.

[marsoupial they/them]

1 hour ago, Kaymyth said:

Sunday:  Zelda: Warrior Princess (Since my hair is short now, I will be adding a wig to this ensemble. And a friend is going to be 3D-printing me a new set of Zelda hair baubles, cause the ones I made out of Sculpey are just too heavy and hard to attach.)

I support this fully. 

[ThirdGen]

3 hours ago, Quiver said:

He doesn't look like the kind of guy who would go nuts and commit mass murder... which is very much part of Light's character. Honestly, if I have a complaint, it's that the Light they have here looks more like an everyman character than an Honor Roll student.

(That might be the angle they are going for though; how would an "ordinary" person react to the Daeth Note rather than someone who was "exceptional". Ryuuk claimed that a normal person wouldn't have written so many names... but going mad with power IS kind of a thing.)

Adapting it to an American cultural context would mean a few things:
- "He seemed like such a nice boy with a bright future ahead of him."  This is what we say of school shooters.  When they don't look like social maladjusts in a visually obvious way (like that bowl-cut thing a certain recent mass murderer had), they look like ordinary

white middle-income suburban

teenagers.  He's not the well-scrubbed, upper-crust Light that would be produced in Japanese or British society (a British adaptation would be slick and socially cutting, BTW).  He's in America, where we feign ignorance of class divisions and are taught a higher emphasis on individual responsibility for actions(something that will make the question of Light's motives a little blander).

- This is L:

I've only seen him impersonating Snoop Dogg in Straight Outta Compton, but he's been an up-and-comer in middlebrow arthouse movies for years.  I hear he's really good in Short Term 12 and Atlanta.  Perhaps there'll be a racial rather than classist implication in Light's choice of victims?

- In the reboot live-action series from a couple years ago, Light doesn't jump right into using the Death Note.  Ryuk edges him into it a bit.  It's probably an easier angle to take the beginning from than the original.

 

I think a feature film length version can work fine.  There are implications in the manga and anime about the world's reaction to Kira, but not a lot of aspects of society are shown changing from it.  From day one, Death Note has been more about plot mechanics, mind games, reversed expectations.  You can do that just fine with a pared-down pool of characters (please no Near or Mello) and a plot arc that will probably have the ending of the live-action movie from about 10 years ago.  It'd be great if it ended with the midpoint of the anime instead, but that's more just my personal bias.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Does anyone have "Deflect Flirting Without Causing Damage" installed? 

[Orlion Blight he/him]

17 minutes ago, TwiLyghtSansSparkles said:

Does anyone have "Deflect Flirting Without Causing Damage" installed? 

Kirk defeated the Kobayashi Maru test by cheating.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

5 minutes ago, Orlion Determined said:

Kirk defeated the Kobayashi Maru test by cheating.

So....you're saying I should go out and get an emergency significant other...?

[+Slowswift]

On 3/21/2017 at 9:08 PM, Kaymyth said:

We have a small flock of seagulls that hang out nearby.

I live in Kansas.

Those seagulls are very, very lost.

Seagulls are actually Utah's state bird. We're also landlocked.  

Though, for us it makes a little more sense that they'd be hanging around because there actually are two quite large lakes in the area. Also, there's that cool story where the pioneers' crops were being totally obliterated by crickets, and after much praying, a bunch of seagulls came and ate them all.  

[Sunbird she/her]

1 hour ago, Slowswift said:

Seagulls are actually Utah's state bird. We're also landlocked.  

Though, for us it makes a little more sense that they'd be hanging around because there actually are two quite large lakes in the area. Also, there's that cool story where the pioneers' crops were being totally obliterated by crickets, and after much praying, a bunch of seagulls came and ate them all.  

Speaking of Utah's state bird, I remember finding a list once of "Why each state SUCKS" and the reason for Utah was that its state bird is named after California (California Gull). XD

[Quiver he/him]

This is one of the funniest comic book pages I have ever seen:

I think the best part of it is the everything. 

[+Slowswift]

11 hours ago, Sunbird said:

Speaking of Utah's state bird, I remember finding a list once of "Why each state SUCKS" and the reason for Utah was that its state bird is named after California (California Gull). XD

There's also the fact that, for the longest time, our state tree was the Colorado Blue Spruce.  

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Heh. If Oregon was honest, they'd make their state bird the mosquito.