Quiver

Remember how I said I was going to start watching Rwby, and would give my thoughts and analystical opinions about the characters? ...Blame work. I haven't had a chance to watch the series yet. Saw the trailers for volume one, though! Of the four, I think Yang might be my favorite (just from the teasers). Though Blake had the most elaborate one, so, there's that.

Can't say I have. I haven't read any fimfiction lately, actually... (And i sxtill have ltos I want to write, too...) Damnation I wish I could be that cool.

You know that meme about passing a point where we should stop? And you just keep going to see what will happen? I think that meme describes Oregon perfectly. And it's beautiful. i love/hate you guys so much. This thing is so insane, and emotion wrenching, and it's great. (The hate comes from the feeling of inadequacy I have every time I try to post. You guys are just so much better.)

Hey, so, I'm looking for a quick opinion on something. It's comic related, sort of, but I'm sourcing opinions from a few different fields. Okay. So. I picked up my weekly books, which is why my wallet hates Wednesdays. One of said books was the new Supergirl series. I was curious about it anyway, thanks to the show and general improvement the Superman line has had, but also the bookfeatured a long lost Kryptonian werewolf, so you can see why that became a must buy. (Not sparking or exaggerating, either. This is a Kryptonian who literally transforms into a Wolf, triggered by the full moon.) Anyway. Supergirl has had her status quo reset to something closer to the shows, which...okay. Corporate synergy, and Kara has never really managed to keep a consistent status quo. Shells had her costume changed which...makes sense. Rebirth has all been about going for the classic character looks, and that's the look she had other show... But, I dunno. I always found it kind of generic, and I appreciated her New 52 look. It was more sci-fi, emphasising that Kara was an alien. Which, to me, makes sense; Kara grew up on Krypton, so her wearing a Kryptonian uniform made more sense to me.. But, I view Kara as the darkest, most tragic member of the Superman family. My opinions are the outlier in that regard. So. Which do you think looks better, the New 52 or Rebirth? (I maintain that New 52 has the coolest cape though.)

I. Yes. I can back this line of thought up very well. I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I think the Dalles is becoming some kind of bizarre social experiment.

Thing is, you have to be a certain level for your death to really matter much. Event comics seem to have a tendancy where they'll kill off someone -usually a C, maybe a B-lister- and use that as a motivator, or as an indicator of how bad the threat is, but that death isn't really referenced much. (See, the original Civil War). On the other hand, if a major character dies, you can expect that fallout to be cited for years and years afterwards as a huge defining thing, a death that has left an indelible hole in their lives... which then makes it awkward when the character comes back. See, Captain America. Frankly, at this point, the heroes of the Marvel Universe should be emotionally burnt out. They have friends die, come back to life and die again constantly. I'm not saying they should be sociopaths or anything, but at some point, you have to assume the heroes are just going through the motions, which makes the attempts at milking the death seem all the more shallow. ...I am not even kidding. Considering what a huge Harry Potter fan you are, I'm expecting a lot of headscratchers, fridge logic edits, and for you to tear this play apart, and it will be glorious to watch. I'm adding that page to my bookmarks, just so I can watch the edits in real time.

Sort of noticed that while I was writing that. But yeah, Jean has a reputation which is more mimetic than fact as this point, in my opinion. Oh yeah, forgot Infinity Gauntlet. Guess we can add a death count to Jean's score then. I'd just settle for their editors at this point. Or whoever it is that mandates yearly events before the effect of the last one has worn off. but, yeah. Death in comics -at least the mainstream books- is a weird thing, because it opens a lot of questions, and changes how the world works. I think that's why DC, generally, will go the dead-and-resurrected trope, while Marvel tries to wave it away with "not really dead". DC is generally about the higher fantasy tropes; when your main characters are the Best Detective in the World, and the Most Powerful Superhero Ever, that sets a tone. Marvel has always been about the premise of "the real world, but with super powers", so their storytelling has always been more about the soap opera. (which isn't an insult; it's just that Superman and Spider-Man have different underlying story models) A hero died, beat the odds and cane back fits with DC's power fantasy. A hero died, but not really, fits with the soap opera reveals of Marvel. (which causes problems for Marvel, because they keep being explicit in their kills -we watched Cap bleed out on the steps of a courthouse- then they have to nackpedaled to explain how it didn't really kill them)

I cite Linkara and Edgedancer as comedic influences. ...but I disagree with some stuff here. Firstly...yeah, death is cheap in comics. But, I think actual deaths and resurrection are actually rarer than people think. For instance: Collosus dies disseminating a cure to the legacy virus!...Actually, he was teleported by aliens, so he never died. Captain America died in Civil War!... Actually, he was shot by a time bullet which caused his consciousness to disconnect from his body. He never really died. Superman was killed by Doomsday!... Actually, his body just entered a Kryptonite healing coma which very closely resembled death, but actually wasn't. Maybe. Deaths absolutely happen, and are presented as such; the explanations for most resurrection, though, seem to be along the lines of "they weren't actually dead to begin with". (And again...there are exceptions, and characters who really did die, and really did come back; Has Jordan, Barry Allan, Thor. But that's a separate point) ...though I do contest Jeans reputation in that field as being fairly unearned. She died in the Phoenix saga (which wasn't actually her), then during the Morrison run, and she's stayed gone. That's basically her total. Granted, the writers tease her resurrecting a lot, and for a dead character, she has had a near disproportionate amount of influence on the books. The entire status quo of the books Pre-secret War only really worked because she was gone, and she still got occasional teases of a resurrection, or visits from beyond the dead.. But really, aside from having a name associated with death and rebirth, Jean hasn't really died any more times than a regular X-Man.

His brother had a black hole for a brain. I think the official line at this point is, "Magneto was not Xorn. He likes people to think he was Xorn because it's a reminder of how much of a villain he can be if they cross him". Xorn is, probably one of the messiest retcons in the X-books, I think, right up there with "Jean was never Phoenix". Or the whole "Third Summers" thing. Which was actually an interesting plot hook screwed over by the terrible "Deadly Genesis" retcon. (There is an entire subset of X-Men retcons under the topic of "Charles Xavier's is a Jerk")

Very much this. A world ending plot is completely at odds with the tone and setup for a Suicide Squad movie. A small scale, black ops style supervillain flick? Cool, that'll be a very unique vibe! ...but that's not what e git which...undermines the impact of the film some. It turned what should have been something very different into just another superhero movie.

I think the cartoon simplified it by just saying the Phoenix empowered Jean? So, the Phoenix saga minus ridiculous retcons. Oh boy! Okay, so. Xorn. Around 2001, Grant Morrison started his X-Men run with a bang; by destroying Genosha (the mutant equivalent of Israel by that point) and killing Magneto. A big part of his run was the idea that mutants were expanding as a species and a culture, so he introduced a lit of new characters and mutants. One of those characters was Xorn,a mutant from China who had a healing ability. He also had a star for a brain, meaning he had to wear a steel helmet mask. Xorn became anX-Man, and took over as the teacher of the remedial class at Xavier's. He fixed Xaviers' spine, allowing him to walk again; he saved mutants and helped the X-Men. Naturally, he turned out to be a traitor. Xorn was revealed to be an identity that Magneto adopted to infiltrate the X-Men. By that point, he was under the influence of a sentient drug, Sublime, which jacked up his powers and megalomania...to the point where he very explicitly was converting New York into a concentration camp for humans. (Morrison's opinion of Magneto is that he is a 'mad old terrorist', rather than the anti-hero more typically associated with him) As part of that scheme, Magneto killed Jean Grey by inducing a magnetic stroke. Wolverine returned the favor by beheading Magneto, killing him. So, Magneto was Xorn and is now dead? Nope. See, even ignoring the popularity of Magneto ad a villain, Marvel wasn't really happy with the way the character was portrayed. So, very shortly thereafter, they revealed that Magneto was still alive! Hooray! He was also never Xorn, so we don't have to worry about that whole situation...except that it left the question of "who was Xorn, then?" Well, a while later, we got an answer to that. As it turns out, Xorn was actually... Xorn. He was a mutant who fell under the influence of Sublime who decided to pass himself off as Magneto so as to hijack the latter's name and reputation for his own reputation. So we went from "Xorn is secretly Magneto" to "Xorn is secretly Xorn who is pretending to be Magneto who is pretending to be Xorn". Added bonus, the above was explained to us by Xorn's brother. Xorn's brother is also named Xorn.

Well, I finished Kill la Kill, and... I admit, I'm not sure what my thoughts were for it. Upon reflection, aside from the transformation sequances, I don't think there actually is a lot of fanservice. There are a lot of traditional fanservice stuff involving women... but the contexts surrounding all of it are enough that it turns it into the opposite of fanservice. (Fanrepellant? I dunno.) I have thoughts on some of the stuff the series presented... I'm just not sure if the open forum is the best place to talk about them, the same way I'm hesitant to talk about Utena's themes and imagery. Not sure if it falls under "appropriate" or not. But the series itself... I think, overall, I liked it. It could have been better; the villain is sort of generic, for instance, but overall, I don't feel like I wasted my time or anything. (And, honestly, I kind of want to write a Kill la Kill/MLP crossover fic now, so... missions accomplished?) Well, I think Kill la Kill is definitely lampooning the genre, just not really in a way that is played for comedy. Virtually the entire back half of the series reminds me of Neon Genesis Evangelion, for instance, but the context surrounding it is so absurd that I feel Trigger is just trying to highlight how ridiculous everything about the former show is. (And considering how big a deal Evangelion is, lampooning it is significant.) Out of interest, which Fate/Stay Night series are you watching? I've been meaning to watch or read Fate/Zero for a while now, but I know there are a few versions of Fate/Stay Night in anime form. I saw the original a while back, and thought it was alright; haven't seen the new series, though.

I picked up the first issue of Monstress, and found it a little hard to follow. It's definitely a fleshed out world, right off the bat... so you'd recommend picking up the trade, then? ...oh, right. Books I bought. Uh... Well, I've been buying comic books, but only as singles, so I don't think that counts. So far as actual novels go, though, I picked up an english copy of the first Baccano! novel. Haven't started it yet, though.

Dalles post. 1) Urgh. So much rust. I need more writing practice. 2) ... I don't think I sold it right in the writing, but I'm hoping the last line of my post isn't... inappropriate? I don't think it is -I'd say it's pretty tame- but I'm hoping that the sentiment behind it isn't too dark or anything. What I'm kind of aiming for, I guess, is... well, you guys pointed out earlier that I don't do characters who are physical very much. (A consequance of my OCD, I think. The thought of touching things is a great big NOPE for me.) Lyla is in that same category is not really being a huggy, touchy-feely kind of person. It's part of why she hikes up her hoodie, or fiddles with her camera, instead of touching people. So, despite her copious amounts of LOUD ENTHUSIASM, she isn't a person whose immediate reaction to meeting a new person is to shake their hand. So, ordinarily, the amount of affection Shiny is showing her -and the way she's expressing it- would make her uncomfortable. In fact, it kind of is. But... But Shiny is an Epic. And she's an Epic who likes Lyla, whose approval Lyla wants. And she's a grown up. And she obviously knows more than Lyla does. And she's an Epic. And she's already positioned herself as Lyla's surrogate big sister. And she's an Epic. (That last point is an important, and subtle, underpinning feeding into all of Lyla's decisions. Throwing it out there in case it wasn't made clear) So... yeah. Lyla is not exactly comfortable with what's happening, but she's young enough, and emotionally invested enough, in what's happening that she's going to side with BIG SISTER SHINY over BORING NON-EPIC DOCTOR. Even if Games is voicing stuff closer to how she feels. Also, she has spectacular powers of rationalisation, so... yeah. She's convincing herself to go along with it, basically.

Adorable? Shiny thought she was adorable? Lyla's face crumbled in an instant, her smile fading. No, she thought. No. Nuh uh, no way. She was not adorable. Puppies? Puppies were adorable. That brief, startled pause someone had when Lyla started talking about how cool epics were was sort of adorable, before they started talking about how wrong she was. But Lyla? Lyla was not adorable. Absolutely, one hundred percent not adorable. Because the only time that anyone ever used the word 'adorable' in relation to people, it was when they were talking about kids, usually when they were talking about babies, and Lyla was neither of those. Lyla was an articulate (mostly), independant (by necessity) young woman (more or less). Sure, she wasn't an epic -a fact that still rankled- but that just made the whole thing worse.Shiny was confident, and a grown up, and an epic, and she clearly had experience. Lyla had to admit that she wasn't quite sure what 'experience' meant, exactly, but whatever it was, Shiny exuded it by the bucketloads. And Shiny thought Lyla was adorable, like some little kid running at her apron strings? The photographer couldn't begin to put into words just how much she didn't want that impression. She was about to voice that opinion, actually, when the doctor gave his. If Games thought that it was helpful, or welcome, on the other hand, he was pretty sorely mistaken. Okay, so maybe Shiny thought that Lyla was ador- thought Lyla was her apprentice. Yeah, she decided, that sounded more along the lines of it. Shiny had already said she was like her big sister and -much as Lyla disliked the comparision- it probably made sense that an older sibling would view younger ones as cute or adorable. Maybe. Lyla hadn't had an older sister before. The point was that Shiny was clearly giving advice on how a person should act. Considering the source, it was probably advice on how an epic should act, and that was the sort of advice that should always be welcomed, wasn't it? Games was just butting in (at best), trying to take away the first epic who actually genuinely appreciated Lyla's company.... She couldn't help it; her button nose had scrunched as she glared at the doctor, before looking at Shiny. "Yeah!" She dropped the scowl; that was an ugly expression, and the last thing she wanted to be in front of Shiny was ugly. Lyla wanted Shiny to like her, so she should be funny, or witty or something instead, right? "I love getting attention!" She could have done with a less physical expression of attention, maybe, but that was just a part of being a grown-up, wasn't it...?

Yeesh. Typical, right? A comic question, and I go AWOL... Anyway, yeah, those are both definitely Jean Grey. Rachel Summers used the Pheonic codename, but her costumes have always been radically different from the classic green Pheonix one. Similarly, Maddy has had her own costumed identity which does not correspond to the Pheonix at all. Since most of those guys are from the 90's show, I'd say they just threw both Jean and Pheonix in there since both have very distinctive, and iconic, looks. (Though, if you want a rationalisation, there IS the fact that when Jean first became the Pheonix, she didn't. The Pheonix Force just adopted her shape, mind and personality while she recuperated from the effects of space radiation at the bottom of a river. So, technically, one could argue that the Pheonix character there is the Pheonix-Force-Posing-As0Jean, while the Jean picture is Jean as the the real Jean.) And if you think that is complicated, then you don't even want to know about Xorn. You don't even wanna.

Thanks, both of you! I'm... probably gonna try and do something, with some of those, as soon as possible. (Probably a vanilla, since... I like vanilla's. They don't shift the balance of power as much an an epic does, which is good for when I -inevitably- fall behind; there isn't anew player that needs to be accounted for in terms of epics :ph34r:) ...Saying that, though, I did have what I thought would be a neat starting point for an epic character? So, from what I can tell, most epics -in the books, as well as the RP- seem to have been middle class before they got their powers. Which, makes sense. There's a reason it's the middle, after all; extremes on either end are... well, extreme. ...So, saying that... I'm kind of wondering if it would be interesting or fun to show epics from either of those social extremes, and how becoming epics affects them. Let's say you have a homeless guy, who suddenly develops epic powers; what does he do with that? Or, a member of the ultra-rich suddenly discovers that, in addition to her social and monetary advantages, she now has superpowers. I dunno. Spitballing ideas which, I think would be fun for epic character concepts... For vanilla's, I'm a little more interested in characters who... whatever skills or carear they had before Calamity, they suddenly find themselves, basically, useless. After all, there aren't enough computers for an IT Tecnician to get steady work, no one is looking for financial advice, the only fashion in Newcago seemed to be neo-noir, so that industry probably shifted a lot.

So...gonna try begging you guys foe information. What is the absolute OPPOSITE character type you think of when you think of me? Realised both my characters in this Rpg seem... similar, in terms of being eccentric, broad characters, and figured I ought to try and at least attempt something different...

Hmm. Not exactly WRITING, but... Sentry, I imagine, would be paranoid about it. She's built around a smug sense of knowing exactly what is going on, everywhere, with everyone, everytime. So spontaneously becoming afraid of the outdoors? Aside from inconveniancing her "benevolent, social dictator" role, it would probably lead her to assume some epic is plotting against her. Again. I mean, her power doens't require her being outdoors to begin with... but I figure it would descend into a dangerous minds, newspapers-connected-by-strings style room pretty quickly. I'm... not exactly sure how Lyla would react.

Welp. I've got a test this morning, to be able to continue doing my job. I'm...I'm sure it'll be fine. Almost definitely, it'll be fine. things aren't fine I'm gonna do so badly and lose my job help

Yeah, those were the ones I meant. Son of Batman, Batman vs Robin and Bad Blood. I'm a big fan of the Morrison run, but I've heard they weren't great adaptions

I never heard of Thay before, so I Google. Is...is that a real life Mudkip? Are we living in Pokemon Go? (If so, I call foul and demand a respawn! Johto please!)

Hmm... fair enough. (The idea, if anyone was wondering, was basically Bonnie and Clyde, or Thelma and Louise; a romance between two vanilla's on the run.)

We are the 3%! As for the big three... is one of them H.G Wells?