Let's roll some dice, watch some movies, or generally just geek out. New posts at 6:30 pm ET but only if I have something to say. Menu at the top. gsllc@chirp.enworld.org on Mastodon and @gsllc on Twitter.
We were all disappointed to hear James Gunn insist that Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 would be his last entry in the MCU series. As long as he includes Strawberry Letter #23 in soundtrack, I won’t hold it against him. However, we all wanted to understand why he made this decision. Well, I have breaking news for you. It turns out that he’ll be working on a spin off for Marvel Studios.
I have no idea if anyone has ever discussed this before, but my uncle and I had this conversation during the Next Generation run (I’m guessing around 1991). His idea was that the shape of these ships was influenced by their need to maximize combat efficiency. As a result, the best chances a starship had of winning an encounter is to be oriented face first towards the opponents. The problem is that the opponents had the same design characteristic, and it was difficult to get either ship into a bad position when facing off before combat started. That seemed reasonable to me.
However, it was really about things not looking stupid, or more generally making sure the viewers understood what they saw. For example, there was an episode of Next Generation called Power Play in which the Enterprise approached the “southern polar region” of a moon. In space, the “south pole” is really meaningless, but okay, fine. They approached the south pole. Why did they orient themselves like this?
Look, I couldn’t find a screenshot, and all I have is MS Paint. (Dave, please let me know if you have a problem with me using this modification of your work.)
The ship was shown underneath the planet, still right side up, but up and down make no sense in space. Why isn’t the ship upside down? In the alternative, why isn’t the ship right side up but above the planet (thus reversing the y axis of the shot)? The answer, of course, is to communicate to the viewer that the ship is at the south pole without disorientating them. It’s just a TV show after all.
So yeah, it’s probably about things not looking stupid.
Going forward, Sundays are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I acknowledge a startling revelation.
I know what you’ll be thinking after some quick googling: “But he’s currently 24 years old.” Well, if the average spider lifespan of a spider is 22 years, then Tom is currently at 1.09090909% of his expected lifespan. The average British male lives to be 79.4 years old (from 2016 to 2018). What do you think when you learn about a Brit that’s over 86 years old? Q.E.D.
Today’s the premier of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness! Who’s coming with me tonight?
Wait, what? What pandemic?
Today was supposed to be the day the Dr. Strange sequel was to be released. Despite my concerns, I’m a big fan of the original (and the superhero cinematic genre in general), so I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, as of this writing, we have another 10 months to go. If I’m cursed with this knowledge, I just wanted to make sure you guys were as well. I hope it’s worth the wait.
Not that this is a surprise at all, but clearly Star Trek exists in the MCU as a TV show and, most likely, movie intellectual property. So, for this fake Star Wars week, I link to a Reddit post with a couple of cels from a comic (which I don’t read) giving an example of this. I link because I don’t want to infringe copyright.
So what about some substantive content? Ok, I’ll come up with something.
Did Star Trek have an in-comic crossover with Marvel? Or was that DC or some indie comic company? If so, shouldn’t these references throw the Marvel universe into complete chaos? If so, would any of the characters even notice? It’s already pretty chaotic in there.
That’s all I’ve got. I’m really posting it because it’s new to me, and I found it funny. And relatable. I’m Dr. Doom in that cel.
These are my favorite two intellectual properties, so why not?
Going forward, Sundays are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I note that some people have complained that Disney bought Star Wars, because, let’s face it, people want to complain. Here’s a reminder that things could always be worse.
Cool thing about Mandalorian is it's Disney so you know nothing bad is gonna happen to Baby Yoda. HBO might've put that adorable fucker thru a wood chipper.
Play What You Want 