If you enjoy this post, please retweet it.
Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s a mashup of two great things.
Does the roll actually matter?
Star Trek >> Star Wars.
If you enjoy this post, please retweet it.
This identity theft is both meta and not.
It’s not a joke . . . or is it?
Follow me at @gsllc
Follow Star Trek @StarTrek
Follow Star Wars at @starwars
If you enjoy this post, please retweet it.
Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s both. Just like in the prequels, we’re constantly learning about the extent of R2-D2’s utility.
I swear I like Star Wars, but . . .
Star Trek >> Star Wars.
If you enjoy this post, please retweet it. For other entries in the Good Watch category, click here. For other entries in the Classic Movies category, click here.
A couple of days ago, I pointed out two, unassuming songs that filled me with dread for some unknown reason. Today, I’m going to try to remember the movies for which the trauma they caused to me endured the longest.
The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
This is the earliest movie I remember generating a long-lived fear. We saw it in the theater upon its release. For the life of me, I don’t remember a single frame from this movie. I could watch it in its entirety on YouTube, but I doubt it’s worth two hours of my time. I still haven’t watched Archive 81 or the final season of Ozark. I have higher priorities. Here’s the entire movie.
The Fly (1958)
This was the one movie that traumatized me the most and for the longest period of time. I was fine throughout the entire movie, but this final scene is what wreaked havoc on my elementary school psyche.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
This movie is perhaps not as bad, but it road on the coattails of The Fly. This scene was the kicker.
Alligator (1980)
Do you know how you handle a monster like this? Shoot it in the head. Problem solved. But nope, “once it escaped, there was no way to stop it.” This has to be the dumbest one on this list, but I was 13. I sincerely thought that there was no way to stop it. I remember trying to calm my nerves and fall asleep after watching it, but I heard breathing from under my bed. (There was nothing under there but dirty laundry.) Here’s the trailer. Try not to laugh at it or me.
Exorcist III (1990)
At this point, I was too old to be afraid of movies, but I’ll be damned if this scene didn’t freak me out. Go to 0:40.
Seriously, the only scene that made me uncomfortable was an elderly lady crawling atop the roof unnoticed. I guess that it’s because I’ll never feel safe knowing that elderly ladies are capable of kicking my ass.
I also remember seeing a TV documentary on astronauts and suddenly being afraid that gravity would stop working. I didn’t want to float off into space. And while the Alien franchise didn’t particularly scare me even as a 9 year old watching it for the first time at the Uptown Theater in Washington, DC, one of my few recurring dreams are nightmares of the Xenomorphs chasing me. Some things just stick with you.
I wish I know what made each of these movies scary for me. At some point before I was 9 years old — I remember I was still living in Silver Spring, MD — being the rational intellectual I always was, I realized my fear was irrational. I said to myself, “Even if such a creature exists, how would it know to come to my house to kill me only after I saw a movie about it? Why didn’t it show up last week? In the case of a phenomenon, why would it not manifest until I was made aware of its existence? That makes no sense. So, be afraid. Eventually you’ll fall asleep, and when morning arrives, you’ll wake up alive and well, showing you how stupid it is to be afraid of such things.” I was between 5 and 9 years old when I thought about this, and it kept me from being afraid of the dark for most of my childhood. But these movies still rattled me. There’s got to be a pattern, and it’s clearly not as simple as bugs (or even animals generally). It probably involves immediate circumstances of the time lost to my memory.
But it’s okay. Unlike the songs, these movies no longer have any effect on me. In fact, I find them (and all horror movies) silly considering the relatively primitive movie-making technology they use (not to mention the premise and execution of horror movies generally), but there you go. That’s what made me uncomfortable.
Again, I should see a shrink. if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity.
If you enjoy this post, please retweet it.
Short answer: The whiny fan base.
Ahhhhhh, back to controversy.
Episode 3 of The Book of Boba Fett (“TBoBF“) touched off a storm of discussion on social media, and it’s continued through episode 4. I’ve engaged in that discussion quite a bit but am collecting my thoughts here.
First off, you can hate TBoBF. This post isn’t saying otherwise, which would be really stupid. You like what you like, and you can’t help that any more than I can help that I liked the Green Lantern movie. You can explain why you hate it, but that explanation might serve as the reason I like it. Different strokes and all that. I also don’t see anything wrong with expressing your opinion. Expressing hate is no or less moral than expressing like or love. It’s just your opinion, and if I open the door to hearing it, I shouldn’t shut it because I don’t agree. Frylock’s Gaming & Geekery is bubble-free.
But if you can state your opinion, I can state mine.
Here’s what I don’t get: Boba Fett isn’t a character. If this were a copyright suit, and I were the judge, I’d throw you in jail (even without the power to do so) just for suggesting otherwise. He has four lines of dialogue, six minutes of airtime, and a really cool-looking suit. Okay, maybe five lines if you count a childish scream.
Of all of that, his suit is the sole reason we liked him as kids. In copyright terms, he’s not a character; he’s a sculpture.
So in what way does this show “ruin” the character of Boba Fett?
It doesn’t. There’s nothing to ruin except the suit, but the suit’s still there. What it ruins is the head canon that you’ve created, representing your assignment of various traits to him, most of which contradict the few traits we see in him. For example, the one time we see him in combat in Return of the Jedi, he gets his ass kicked. He’s not the bad ass your mind extrapolated in childhood. To a child, no one in such a cool suit could possibly be so pathetic, but as an adult, you should know better.
This doesn’t mean that it would have been wrong to make him something other than a conflicted anti-hero. He could have been written as a straight-up villain, and even I’m getting a bit annoyed with Hollywood’s obsession with the anti-hero. There are so many of them that they collectively paint the cinematic world as a place with no heroes. That’s too close to reality. But Disney doesn’t give a shit what you’ve extrapolated onto the character. They can’t. There are too many of you, and you all have different extrapolations, ranging from subtle to monumental differences of opinion. They have to do their own thing, and so far there’s nothing inconsistent about the character because there isn’t enough “character” to contradict.
Now, if you want at least some character development, you could go to the prequels. Did you want this to be about Boba Fett as a child? Because that’s how you get a series about Boba Fett as a child. (Actually, some of you nerds would probably like that. Freaking nerds and your child protagonists.) I’m also aware that he appeared in one or more of the animated series, none of which I’ve watched. I can’t comment on that, but neither I nor (apparently) Disney care. My only concern is live-action media. In light of that, everything I said above stands.
The bottom line is that Disney has created an interesting character and story, and some (not all) of you could appreciate that if you didn’t place your head canon above all else and instead could just enjoy the ride. I appreciate that many of you would still not enjoy it. Well . . .
The world doesn’t revolve around you. If you don’t like it, you’ll just have to watch something else. I am, and I’m not angry at Paramount for it.
Follow me at @gsllc
If you enjoy this post, please retweet it.
Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s both. Here’s a nice story about Keanu Reeves. You’ve probably heard the story before, but you should read it again. It helps the punchline land.
This was in my Facebook stream, so that’s me that gave it a laugh reaction.
Star Trek >> The Matrix.
Follow me at @gsllc
If you enjoy this post, please retweet it.
Blog posts cannot substitute for legal advice. If the topics discussed in this post are relevant to a real case you have, please consult an attorney.
Note: This post was written almost two weeks ago, but last Thursday night, this topic came up again with my friend, Stephen Radney-MacFarland. It’s an issue that just won’t die, especially in the gaming industry because of WotC’s ridiculous OGL claims.
I read two online posts in as many days making a persistent claim that continues to astound and annoy me. One article here.
Let me make this clear once again: You can’t copyright a single word.
Yeah, that even includes supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The music can be copyrighted, and the lyrics as a whole can be copyrighted, but not that one word. You may trademark a single word, but the protection for trademarks is different. There’s a lot more flexibility when it comes to using a word that’s trademarked.
I completely understand that you don’t understand copyright law. That’s no crime; it’s complicated. However, if you don’t, you should be asking questions, not making authoritative statements on the issue. I don’t know the first thing about performing brain surgery. I’m not ashamed of that, nor should I be, but the day I give advice on how to perform it, please call me out for those ignorant ramblings.
If you’re making an argument relying on the copyrightability of a single word, name, or title, your argument is legally and logically invalid. If your conclusion is correct anyway, it’s mere coincidence.
Follow me on Twitter @gsllc
Follow Delve RPG @delverpg
Follow Inside the Magic @InsideTheMagic
If you enjoy this post, please retweet it.
Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s about a recent conversation. Strangely, a coworker asked me just this past week whether I enjoyed the Genesis concert from 11/18/2021. I told him . . . yeah.
But as you know, I also love Star Trek.
A perfect mashup.
Follow me on Twitter @gsllc
Follow Phil Collins @PhilCollinsFeed
Follow Tony Banks@tonybanksmusic
Follow Mike (+ the Mechanics) Rutherford @officialmatm
Follow Genesis @genesis_band
Follow Star Trek @StarTrek
If you enjoy this post, please retweet it.
I was hoping she’d make 100. She was only 17 days away from that.
RIP, Ms. White.
Follow me on Twitter @gsllc
If you enjoy this post, please retweet it. For other entries in the Good Watch category, click here.
Reviews for the latest Matrix movie have been all over the place as far as my social media streams go. I’m adding my voice to the choir: It annoyed me. Note, however, that there’s something I find interesting in my reaction to it. I really hate the pretentiousness of the wardrobe and dialogue. The latter is made even more grating by the fact that everyone is either whispering (presumably to sound cool) or yelling (presumably to force dramatic tension without necessarily earning it). There’s rarely any in between, or at least so little of it that I took it for granted. That kind of movie makes me want to punch everyone involved, both in-character and out-of-character. And who wears sunglasses indoors and at night? Someone I want to punch, that’s who.
Except Corey Hart. We cool.
What I find interesting about this reaction is that I had the same reaction to the other Matrix movies, but with the exception of a few notable quotables, over time the pretentiousness slowly disappears from my memory of them, leaving me only with the parts I liked. That’s a lot, which meant that my honest emotional reaction to those movies was overall positive. (Yes, all three of them.) Resurrections may not be so lucky, though. Part of what I liked about the original were the groundbreaking special effects and visuals, as well as a relatively new story. Resurrections doesn’t have that luxury. There was nothing I noted in there that could be deemed “groundbreaking” by today’s standards.
I’ll mention something that I did like about it quite a bit. Avoiding spoilers, I’ll simply say I liked how meta it was. I also liked a callback to a past character who’s all grown up. So, while the story was good enough, it was marred by a tone that always makes me sick to my stomach. I’m glad I watched it on HBO.
I’ll probably like it more someday. As always, YMMV.
Follow me on Twitter @gsllc
Follow the Matrix Movies @TheMatrixMovie
Follow HBOMax @hbomax
Stories and photos from Scotland
Don't Take This Too Seriously. I Don't.
An Ennie Nominated D&D Blog & Podcast. Home of tutorials, advice, and downloads for new DM's
No rules but my own.
The Official Blog of Obsidian Portal
A site about all things bound up within me.
Play What You Want 