This week Star Trek Online had a big update with House Divided which featured two big missions and a number of changes to the Klingon Empire, and here are my unscripted off the cut opinions of them!
Saturday, July 4, 2020
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Off-Stream Duets July 1 2020
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Fact Fiend's Karl Smallwood Was Right: The 1966 Batman Is The Most Accurate Version Of The Character
(Note: I was considering making this my video commentary for the week, but after seeing Mr. Smallwood tweet about his displeasure of people making videos based off his work, I figure I’d just leave this as blog post)
Recently I’ve been watching a lot of videos on the YouTube channel ‘Fact Fiend with Karl Smallwood’, a channel that sees Mr. Smallwood deep-dive into fascinating facts and trivia about whatever topic interests him, with a good portion of the videos being based on articles he wrote earlier in his career. It really is an awesome YouTube channel, and I personally will load it up when I’m doing off-stream gaming, and while there were many videos of Fact Fiend with Karl Smallwood that I found really fucking cool, the one that caught my attention was the one titled “Batman Really Does Carry Shark Repellent Spray’ which was posted in 2019 and based on article Mr. Smallwood wrote in 2015. The video was of course a deep-dive into the 1966 Batman film starring Adam West and the often-mocked scene of Batman using Shark repellent and actually having it at the ready in the Bat-chopper, but what got my attention was Mr. Smallwood’s comment about that version of Batman being the most accurate live-action portrayal of the character.
And you know what, Mr. Smallwood is actually more right than anyone would actually believe here in 2020, after all most people view the likes of either the Tim Burton or Christopher Nolan films of being what a ‘live action’ Batman would be like. And if you’re talking about the actual tone of the film, I’d agree with you in the case of the Tim Burton films (as the Nolan films can fuck the right off), but when you think about the common trope of Batman being prepared for anything because he’s always several moves ahead, then the only live action version of the character that does that is the Adam West version.
So now of course comes the time for me to ‘prove my work’, well it’s easy, with the Batman 1966 film being a continuation of the television series that debuted that same year (how crazy is that fact), one must take note that television series didn’t open with an origin story. No the first episode “Hi Diddle Riddle’ shows that Batman has been operating for quite some time, already has a working relationship with the police and that he’s crossed paths with the Riddler before, but there is a scene in it towards the cliffhanger ending, where The Riddler tries to steal the Batmobile, but activates an anti-theft device. Now think about how the Batmobile looks in the 1966 TV series, it doesn’t have a roof and anyone would have easy access to try and steal it, then realize that the suped-up Batmobile in Batman Returns basically was hacked and sabotaged by the Penguin's clown brigade in Batman Returns. Add on to that, in that same scene, The Riddler tries to destroy the Batmobile, and activates an anti-fire device that puts out the flames. So Batman was prepared to make sure that his car was basically impossible to mess with.
And this is just the top of the iceberg as it relates to how prepared this version of Batman was. He had a translation device to translate ancient Egyptian into English, the Bat-chopper for obviously flying around the city, the Bat-boat for anything that required him to go out into open water, an unfold-able bulletproof Batshield… hell the 1966 series version of Batman is so-prepared that he even has a voice-modulator that enables Alfred to sound like him in case the butler has to done the Bat-suit for a brief period of time. Other items included a portable lab-kit, homing transmitters, lie-detectors, brain-wave analyzers, ear plugs, magnifying lens…. But the real sign of how prepared Batman in the 1966 series was a three-dimensional restorer.
Seen in the season three episode “The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra”, this device restores Batman, Robin and Batgirl back to the normal selves after they were flatten when blasted by a ray gun that converts three-dimensional objects into two-dimensional variants. Think about how over the top-prepared Batman had to be to have such a device on stand-by. Now you could say Batman thought of this based on the fact in the 1966 films he had a device to restore the United Nations ambassadors to normal and anticipated that maybe someone someday could make him into a literal cardboard cutout , still there’s being prepared… and there’s thinking up every possible problem imaginable to where you have a device at the ready to counteract it. Hell at this point I'm thinking it's this version of Batman that could pretty much prepare to deal with Superman and if you consider that Frank Miller 'Dark Knight Returns' is often credited for erasing the 'campy nature' of Batman popularized by the 1966 series, then one would have to make note that level of preparedness Batman showed in that comic was basically taken from the television series and its film.
Side note: One could argue that maybe the Batman seen in the 1997 Joel Schumacher directed ‘Batman and Robin’ film is probably a close second in terms of being as prepared as the 1966 version, but a lot of the gadgets seen in that movie come across more as they were created as a reaction to dealing with Mr. Freeze (as it’s established early in the movie he’s been an on-going menace). This version of Batman had ice-skates built into the boots and a portable heat laser to defrost Robin when he was frozen… and these seems like things Batman would have made after the first run-ins with the chilliest of villains. The only device I recall in that film that seems like Batman had the fore-site to plan for was a remote kill-switch to shut down the engine of Robin’s motorcycle because of how reckless his partner was being. And of course there is the Bat Credit Card, which makes sense that maybe Batman needed to get something he didn’t have already on hand (or wanted to buy a woman at an auction).
So let’s bring this rather long rant to a close, that in my opinion, the 1966 TV Series / Film version of Batman is the most-prepared live action representation of the character ever seen.
Recently I’ve been watching a lot of videos on the YouTube channel ‘Fact Fiend with Karl Smallwood’, a channel that sees Mr. Smallwood deep-dive into fascinating facts and trivia about whatever topic interests him, with a good portion of the videos being based on articles he wrote earlier in his career. It really is an awesome YouTube channel, and I personally will load it up when I’m doing off-stream gaming, and while there were many videos of Fact Fiend with Karl Smallwood that I found really fucking cool, the one that caught my attention was the one titled “Batman Really Does Carry Shark Repellent Spray’ which was posted in 2019 and based on article Mr. Smallwood wrote in 2015. The video was of course a deep-dive into the 1966 Batman film starring Adam West and the often-mocked scene of Batman using Shark repellent and actually having it at the ready in the Bat-chopper, but what got my attention was Mr. Smallwood’s comment about that version of Batman being the most accurate live-action portrayal of the character.And you know what, Mr. Smallwood is actually more right than anyone would actually believe here in 2020, after all most people view the likes of either the Tim Burton or Christopher Nolan films of being what a ‘live action’ Batman would be like. And if you’re talking about the actual tone of the film, I’d agree with you in the case of the Tim Burton films (as the Nolan films can fuck the right off), but when you think about the common trope of Batman being prepared for anything because he’s always several moves ahead, then the only live action version of the character that does that is the Adam West version.
So now of course comes the time for me to ‘prove my work’, well it’s easy, with the Batman 1966 film being a continuation of the television series that debuted that same year (how crazy is that fact), one must take note that television series didn’t open with an origin story. No the first episode “Hi Diddle Riddle’ shows that Batman has been operating for quite some time, already has a working relationship with the police and that he’s crossed paths with the Riddler before, but there is a scene in it towards the cliffhanger ending, where The Riddler tries to steal the Batmobile, but activates an anti-theft device. Now think about how the Batmobile looks in the 1966 TV series, it doesn’t have a roof and anyone would have easy access to try and steal it, then realize that the suped-up Batmobile in Batman Returns basically was hacked and sabotaged by the Penguin's clown brigade in Batman Returns. Add on to that, in that same scene, The Riddler tries to destroy the Batmobile, and activates an anti-fire device that puts out the flames. So Batman was prepared to make sure that his car was basically impossible to mess with.
And this is just the top of the iceberg as it relates to how prepared this version of Batman was. He had a translation device to translate ancient Egyptian into English, the Bat-chopper for obviously flying around the city, the Bat-boat for anything that required him to go out into open water, an unfold-able bulletproof Batshield… hell the 1966 series version of Batman is so-prepared that he even has a voice-modulator that enables Alfred to sound like him in case the butler has to done the Bat-suit for a brief period of time. Other items included a portable lab-kit, homing transmitters, lie-detectors, brain-wave analyzers, ear plugs, magnifying lens…. But the real sign of how prepared Batman in the 1966 series was a three-dimensional restorer.
Seen in the season three episode “The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra”, this device restores Batman, Robin and Batgirl back to the normal selves after they were flatten when blasted by a ray gun that converts three-dimensional objects into two-dimensional variants. Think about how over the top-prepared Batman had to be to have such a device on stand-by. Now you could say Batman thought of this based on the fact in the 1966 films he had a device to restore the United Nations ambassadors to normal and anticipated that maybe someone someday could make him into a literal cardboard cutout , still there’s being prepared… and there’s thinking up every possible problem imaginable to where you have a device at the ready to counteract it. Hell at this point I'm thinking it's this version of Batman that could pretty much prepare to deal with Superman and if you consider that Frank Miller 'Dark Knight Returns' is often credited for erasing the 'campy nature' of Batman popularized by the 1966 series, then one would have to make note that level of preparedness Batman showed in that comic was basically taken from the television series and its film.
Side note: One could argue that maybe the Batman seen in the 1997 Joel Schumacher directed ‘Batman and Robin’ film is probably a close second in terms of being as prepared as the 1966 version, but a lot of the gadgets seen in that movie come across more as they were created as a reaction to dealing with Mr. Freeze (as it’s established early in the movie he’s been an on-going menace). This version of Batman had ice-skates built into the boots and a portable heat laser to defrost Robin when he was frozen… and these seems like things Batman would have made after the first run-ins with the chilliest of villains. The only device I recall in that film that seems like Batman had the fore-site to plan for was a remote kill-switch to shut down the engine of Robin’s motorcycle because of how reckless his partner was being. And of course there is the Bat Credit Card, which makes sense that maybe Batman needed to get something he didn’t have already on hand (or wanted to buy a woman at an auction).
So let’s bring this rather long rant to a close, that in my opinion, the 1966 TV Series / Film version of Batman is the most-prepared live action representation of the character ever seen.
Monday, June 29, 2020
Off-Stream Twitch Sings Solos
Shepard Meets Samus, The Bunny meets Nintendo Characters
This past weekend I had an idea for two new art pieces, and of course I went to Daemonswolf (www.darkwolfcreative.com) to see what she can do with them. As always, she comes through with in a big way. of course The first piece is the first non-Bunny commission I sent to Daemonswolf features Commander Shepard of Mass Effect meeting Samus Aran of Metroid. The second sees The Bunny dressed as Luigi getting photo-bombed by the likes of Mario,
Yoshi, MetaKnight and Kirby, and its a great silly piece to celebrate
the fact that my gaming lineup has expanded to include Nintendo games
Rant: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Don't get me wrong, up till before Captain America Civil War, the majority of the films were enjoyable and actually focused on character development. Hell, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor basically showed not only the origins of the characters but their gradually growth towards the heroes they eventually become at the end of each film, and while the sequels to those films certainly have been a mixed bag, the development of the characters continued forward but all that pretty much stopped when someone at Disney or Marvel realized that they can sacrifice good story telling, character and world building with pretentious preaching and even more flashy visuals and really bad comedy because the 'herd' was going to pay to see it... and if they weren't, hell Disney could just buy mass-bulk of tickets for any first weekend showings that didn't have sell out crowds to inflate the numbers while also claiming they haven't made an actual profit on any MCU film since Captain America Civil War.
So what killed my interest in the MCU, well it was two films... the first being Doctor Strange and the second being Captain Marvel. With Doctor Strange it was an overly long drawn out mess of a movie that tried to cram what was essentially all the character development Tony Stark got over several films into one, because they needed to not only have the character of Doctor Strange introduced to the general public but to get him established firmly and show how powerful he can be as a literal Deus Ex Machina. Then you got that pretentious and preachy mess of Captain Marvel which not only had the same problems as Doctor Strange while also being longer, but also was a prequel to the entire MCU that basically undermined 10 years of continuity to say at the last minute that the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe revolves around the character of Captain Marvel, who established in their own origin film as to be nothing more than basically another Deus Ex Machina. Between those two films I basically said fuck it with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because I really got the impression that those overseeing the MCU really didn't have a clue of how to get themselves out of the literal corner they were writing themselves into with the debacle that ended up being Infinity War and Endgame, where everything felt rush in an effort to pass the torch to the 'next phase ' of films while rewriting and erasing even more continuity to make things more in line with a vision of style over substance.
But the real sad thing is, because of the unique status of Sony having the rights to Spider-Man and Universal having the film rights to the Hulk, their presence in the MCU basically have been regulated to being side-characters, they are part of the ensemble because Disney/Marvel can't make solo films involving them... which means they have to be teamed up with other characters. You know who else basically was used in that same format within the MCU, Black Widow, Hawkeye, War Machine and Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Falcon, Vision, Scarlet Witch, all of whom are introduced were or are apart of the on-going narrative, actually ADDING the proceedings while not being a detriment to what's going on, they either have a plot of the film (or two) revolve around them like Winter Solider or help advance the story going forward while eventually getting their own film like with Black Panther. If Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel were used like this, basically integrated into the MCU where one felt rushed and the other basically had everything re-written to be all about them, I probably would have better feelings towards the MCU going forward.
Unfortunately we got what we got, and well I don't trust those over seeing the creative aspect of these films to want to waste my money on them going forward.
Commision Piece By Luunastra
The great thing about knowing many different artists, is actually wanting to see what they can do with a base concept, in this case my mascot, the infamous Bunny. This time around I went to Lunnastra, an artist who I've met through Twitch as a regular on the channel for FluffyWuffie. Lunnastra does some great character work and seeing their spin on the Bunny really turned out wonderfully in my opinion.
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Since lately I've been playing the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect I can't help but have a slight issues with some of the controls w...
