Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' Reviews

Please- Do Not Send Unsolicited Books

noreply@blogger.com (SQT) — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 11:16:00 +0000

This blog has been inactive for awhile. My last post was published in 2017, but I still receive books I didn't ask for. This is a good problem to have but I recently moved and the books don't find their way to me anymore despite my address forwarding. I'm grateful people still seek out this blog and maybe I'll return to reviewing one day. But, until then, I am not accepting books for review.

The Last Jedi and the Star Wars Cinematic Universe

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 09:19:00 +0000

Fittingly, I’ve discovered that Rogue One is now on Netflix and have turned it on to rewatch it while writing this. It still feels both incredibly weird and incredibly cool to me that it is now possible to legally stream something that’s been out of theatres for under a year.

On to the feature event, then: The Last Jedi. This film came out in the middle of finals for me and it took a few weeks of finishing term papers before I got to see it. As a result, my expectations were driven down by seeing many, many posts on social media about how terrible it was.

My verdict? I had fun.

Everybody has different expectations for Star Wars. My expectation? Well, it isn’t Star Wars. Well, it is and it isn’t. The Last Jedi went a long way toward helping solidify the line in my mind. Even Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa are different people than the ones I grew up with. That’s okay. I’m able to call it the Star Wars Cinematic Universe and get past it. The point is, I no longer hold it to a higher standard because the work that so tirelessly built up those standards isn’t part of it. The end result is something sort of like watching the DCEU: I’d like it to be good, it has the potential to be good, but my worldview doesn’t depend on it being good.

Was The Last Jedi good?

You know, there are a few things people take for granted with Star Wars. The Last Jedi had probably one of the best musical scores I’ve ever heard. Much of it was taken from past movies, so it shouldn’t exactly be put on a pedestal, but each of those pieces were used perfectly. There are a lot of reunions in this film. There are also some notable reunions that aren’t in this film, one of which brought a tear to my eye early on and one of which hung like a shadow over everything they’d built.

And no, I’m not talking about Lando Calrissian. I have nothing against him, I just never found him to be all that pivotal. The main thing he seems to be viewed for is as the token black character, which has its ups and downs. Would he feel like less of a token in a film next next to Finn? Perhaps. Perhaps it would be better if the cast was consistently diverse enough not to have tokens.

No, I’m talking about the fact that Denis Lawson still hasn’t come back. His absence is a perfect example of why I think the SWCU is inferior to the MCU. Wedge Antilles was a minor character in the films who had the distinction of appearing in all three episodes of the original trilogy. He was the most important character not to get his own novel; even when the Rogue Squadron novels started to be released, it was a while before his personality truly became a factor.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe would have seen a character like Wedge, seen his cult following, and been determined to give him a post-Jedi status in onscreen. An Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.-style show about Rogue Squadron would have been pretty cool, but having him feature as a secondary character in The Last Jedi would have been a close second. It would have been great to have a character who can function as a realistic mentor to an ace fighter pilot while simultaneously having a strong connection to Luke Skywalker, right? (This goes right along with the fact that there was more reason than not to include Natasi Daala and maybe even Prince Xizor and Garm Bel Iblis in Rogue One.)

The reunions that did happen, I loved. I even loved the hints at Leia’s adventures off-screen with a character that we didn’t know before this film. And, to me, these were far more important than the MacGuffin search and all the flaws in it. After all, these scenes usually exist only to bridge between major character moments, and they do that functionally. Sure, there were problems with the story, but I didn’t see them as more substantial than, say, Loki wasting his time possessing a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with no powers. At least something interesting was happening at pretty much all moments, and nobody did anything wildly out of character.

Speaking of characters, I mentioned Luke and Leia. One of the things that stuck out to me is how different they were from the EU. Over the decades of constant conflict, of each victory bringing a new enemy, the EU Luke and Leia had grown weary. They had their light moments, but they were relatively few and far between, and mostly with families. They weren’t sticks in the mud or annoying, but usually the comic relief came from other people, or at least banter between them and other members of their close family.

By contrast, Luke and Leia of The Last Jedi feel a little bit as if Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher improvised some of the lines. They both had an attitude, and had a blend of angry sarcasm and mood-lightening humor. It reminded me of the banter between Anakin and Obi-Wan, in a good way. Not only did this make a marked distinction between the SWCU and the EU, it also made the movie more enjoyable. Both of these characters shined at the right moments.

I suppose the best way to rate a Star Wars film is to do a saga ranking. I haven’t done of these in a few installments, so here goes:

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)

Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)

Rogue One (2016)

Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Holiday Special (1978)

I’ll be going a little deeper into some specific items that I liked and disliked in a later post on my personal blog, Insomniatic. This link will be updated after the post is up.

An Unusual Way to Break Chains (Game of Thrones Season 7)

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 06:14:00 +0000

I’m going to be simulposting this on both blogs at the same time. As much as I wanted (and still want) to do a post on each episode of the end of Game of Thrones Season 7, it’s pretty clear with my schedule that it’s not happening. This will be my last (for the time being) post about Game of Thrones Season 7.

For those who have forgotten or haven’t read my blogs from the summer, I’m doing my best to avoid repeating what others have said unless I feel I have something to add or really need to get off my chest. It does no good for me to talk about fast travel, poor character motivation, Aegon and Jaehaerys, or any of that, if I don’t have anything to say. If I had reread A Dance With Dragons recently, I might have some worthwhile comments.

So instead this article, like much of the discussion about this season, will be about Daenerys. The next episode I was to write about involved a widely discussed scene: Daenerys Targaryen ordering the executions of Randyll and Dickon Tarly. The discussion about this has been pretty varied – that this made her as bad as Stannis, or Aerys, or Cersei, or that this proved there was no good choice, or that she was power mad – but none of it seems to touch on what I think are some key points.

Let’s start with a brief refresher of Dany’s history. She attempted to inherit her husband’s kingdom when he died, but the culture immediately discredited her claim, and almost all of his loyal forces abandoned her. She traveled with a small band until, through an act of deception, she obtained a force that was both large and loyal. She conquered her way through a number of cities, finally settling in the last in the line as her seat of power. Within a short amount of time, each and every one of the cities she conquered returned to the hands of those she had taken them from. It quickly became apparent to her that she could not retaliate without opening her new seat of power to the same threat. She went through a series of trials, consolidating her power before deciding it was time to conquer Westeros. Within days of her first offensive, she lost effective access to all of the fully stocked castles she expected to have access to.

Much like when Drogo’s forces abandoned her, Daenerys lacks the personnel to do anything other than drive forward and conquer. Much like in Mereen, Daenerys’s power is focused in one place, and any meaningful assault is likely to cost her this place. The Targaryen forces completely lack the logistical capacity to hold prisoners. Unless they’re going to be chained and dragged behind one of her armies, a constant escape risk, they need to either be let free (to attack her from the rear) or disposed of.

This moves on to her choice of execution method. I’m fairly certain it was brought up around the time Rattleshirt was burned in Mance’s place (or perhaps earlier) just how terrible of a death it is to be burnt at the stake. You burn by degrees and the flames slowly climb higher – I believe flames licking at your genitals was mentioned; there is just nothing redeeming about the experience.

Not only is this not technically what Daenerys did – she had her prisoners executed by dragon rather than burnt at the stake – but, more importantly, it’s not functionally what she did. Drogon’s flames are much hotter than even a bonfire; the Tarlys – Tarlies? – were incinerated within seconds. I’m not saying their death was completely painless – even that it’s as painless as a beheading would have been – but it’s certainly one of the least resource-intensive executions possible. While the Dothraki certainly could have killed the . . . Randyll and Dickon . . . they lack the culture of execution of Westeros. An honorable Dothraki probably would have freed Randyll and fought him to the death rather than kill him while in chains, and that would have ended poorly for everyone. Ned Stark might have allowed this . . . but there’s also a good chance the campaign would have fallen apart there on the Rose Road.

Is it possible that Daenerys is taking a dark turn? Absolutely. She fought in Essos with noble intentions, but now she’s looking upon something more primal: a land where slavery was already illegal (meaning her noble goals matter little) and that she spent her entire life being told was her birthright. It’s entirely possible that she will lose sight of the mission and come to believe the ends justify the means. There’s not enough evidence here to tell the future, but my point is just that: this doesn’t tell the future. Desperate measures in desperate circumstances do not a despot make; she has thus far avoided killing non-combatants. Whether she will continue to do so may be in the air (though I think her alliance with the Starks will finally seal that), but this one action is far from an act worthy of condemning her.

Many Things Happened (GoT: Spoils of War)

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 16:00:00 +0000

“The Spoils of War” was one of the most explosive episodes of the season – definitely the biggest episode in the first half. Figuratively, this is largely because of Arya Stark’s long-awaited return to Winterfell. In a more literal sense, this is because of Daenerys, Drogon, and the Dothraki’s battle against Jamie, Bronn, and the Lannister soldiers. No matter how you look at this episode, though, it is an incredible and dense episode (especially considering it is the shortest of the season).

With me being both a psychology student and a huge fan of both Arya and Daenerys, I am uniquely suited to look at one specific critique of this episode, focusing on two scenes. Prior to being interrupted by Jon Snow (all the more amusing if you look at Jon as Daenerys’s annoying nephew, despite them both being born around the same time), Daenerys is walking with her best friend, chatting happily and attempting to inquire into the topic of the “many things” that happened between Missandei and Grey Worm just like any pair of friends who have not been through the death, destruction, and slavery they know. In the North, Arya Stark came across Brienne of Tarth sparring with Podrick and was overjoyed to encounter a female soldier that she could spar with as an equal, gleefully challenging her and dueling with the same grin on her face that a similar girl in the real world might display during a heated game of football/soccer.

Daenerys has been through an almost unbelievable number of ordeals. She has been at the mercy of the dothraki many times, sold to a culture where rape is as common as breathing. She has lost her husband, her unborn child, and most of the people she knew as friends. She has been forced to risk her life in desperate bids to survive more than once. And she has been responsible for ordering many deaths, often by the method of burning the victim and/or feeding them to her dragons.

Arya has been through similar ordeals. She was present when her father was executed, which began a period of several years of desperately dodging the authorities. She was taken prisoner by the enemy, watched people being tortured while awaiting being selected herself, and escaped. After discovering that her mother, brother, and other relatives had been murdered, she was kidnapped and forced to travel around the countryside with an enemy who had given her ample reason to fear for her life, before she proceeded to train as an assassin and suffer life-threatening injuries. At multiple stages of her journey she ordered deaths, personally killed people, and mass murdered using poison.

What is the connection? Well, it has been argued by fans that the ordeals these two have been through make it highly unlikely that either of these two women would be likely to enjoy these activities. This article from Psychology Today gives some information why to expect that. Based on the article, soldiers are likely to risk their own lives to avoid killing others, and that those who have been forced to kill another are often subjected to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (a disorder that both Arya and Daenerys have been placed at risk for with the numerous severely traumatic events in each of their lives).

Some of the risk factors involved are seeing the victim as you kill them and your distance from them. This explains how someone like Cersei Lannister, who often has her victims killed from a distance where she doesn’t have to see them, is at less risk of psychological trauma. (It’s also noteworthy that Cersei is one of the biggest alcoholics on the show, something that is often used as a form of self-medication for PTSD and other disorders.) Arya has by far been the closest to her victims, killing with her sword, looking her victims in the eye as she poisons them, and even going so far in one case as to butcher two of her victims and make a meat pie out of them. Daenerys isn’t much better, when it comes to physical distance and faces; while her victims are rarely killed by her hand, she is usually close enough to make eye contact when they are executed on her command. The fact that Daenerys rarely kills by her own hand is unlikely to make a difference; prison wardens and others involved in executed prisoners also suffer mental distress.

Dehumanization by other means is difficult to wager. At one point I speculated that Arya would become the cold assassin trope common in science fiction and fantasy: the person who has become so hardened by trauma and killing that they have become a sociopath, barely recognizing their victims as being the same species as them. However, the genuine enjoyment and empathy that she displays at several points in Season 7 indicate that this is not the case. Daenerys, too, indicates a capacity for caring for the emotional well-being of others (she noticeably reacts when realizing that she is speaking ill of someone’s stature in front of someone much shorter). It’s possible, however, that both have managed to psychologically dehumanize their enemies, causing the Freys to be little more than animals in Arya’s mind. (If this is so, her encounter with Ed Sheeran actually made her more vulnerable, demonstrating to her that soldiers working for the Lannisters are as human as are her allies.)

Daenerys may have more trouble. Her equity and humanity have long been traits of hers: she views Dothraki and Westerosi as equal and campaigns against rape and slavery. An observation of social media indicates that there is a possibility that the actions and views of slavers are enough to dehumanize them in her eyes, however she still encounters them face to face and does not have the benefits of internet anonymity.

However, there is a silver lining in these two cases. PTSD risk has been demonstrated to have a genetic component that may account for as much as one third of the difference between individuals with similar experiences. Arya’s father was known to both fight (and kill) during war) and to execute criminals with his own hand, and by the time of his death he appeared to be not only relatively mentally healthy, but more to the point fully capable of enjoying laughing and joking with a good friend. The Starks were wardens of the North for hundreds of years, and one would expect that maintaining this post likely required a family history of similar mental fortitude.

Daenerys’s family is in a similar position. The Targaryens ruled Westeros for hundreds of years, in what was most likely a more high-stress position than that in the North. The Targaryens were never exactly known to be pillars of mental health, susceptible to Narcissistic Personality Disorder (as seen in Daenerys’s brother, Viserys), paranoid delusions, and other conditions that aren’t exactly favorable in your rulers, but one thing that was never referenced in family histories was a Targaryen who demonstrated signs specifically pointing to post-traumatic stress. This is even less conclusive than Arya’s family history, but again, maintaining rulership for as long as the Targaryens did most likely indicates a family that is resistant to the stresses of executing one’s enemies.

Since none of the evidence above is conclusive, let’s look at the worst-case scenario. If both Arya Stark and Daenerys Targaryen were sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder, would they be able to enjoy sparring with a friend or talking about boys?

The answer is yes.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, of course. If Arya had a PTSD trigger related to someone swinging a sword at her because of her wound in Bravos or of simply taking any sort of aggressive action, then clearly her duel with Brienne would have a very high risk of causing flashbacks and other psychological distress. If it was related to meat pies, it may be a reason for her relatively brusqueness when speaking with Hot Pie (though I don’t really think it was). Obviously, talking about sex is less likely to cause killing-related stress symptoms, though there are other complications in Daenerys’s life that could raise other questions. A sample of self-reported data on a PTSD forum like the one here can quickly demonstrate that frequency of symptoms varies wildly, but the key takeaway here is that even one good day – one good hour – can lead to what we saw onscreen. Mental illness can be debilitating in many ways, but it doesn’t mean that someone can no longer experience any enjoyable things.

So, do Arya and Dany have PTSD? They may, they may not. Either way, I’ve come up with little reason to think that talking about sex with Missandei of Naath or sparring with Brienne of Tarth have any great likelihood of being completely out of bounds.

That says nothing of Jamie Lannister’s chances of having dragon flashbacks for the rest of his life, though.

For more thoughts on “The Spoils of War”, don’t forget to listen to The Podcast Without Banners:

The Unjust Queen's Justice (GoT)

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 19:00:00 +0000

It’s very telling how I started the previous essay about how everything would hinge on Daenerys’s decisions. Prior to “The Queen’s Justice”, Cersei was more or less written off. She wasn’t completely gone as an antagonist, but her defeat seemed imminent.

By the end of her eponymous episode, Cersei’s defeat doesn’t seem nearly as imminent. She’s abandoned the home of the Lannisters (at least for the moment) to consolidate her power on the fields of war and in King’s Landing. She’s removed what seemed to be her biggest threat: the unpaid debt to the Iron Bank.

Despite as much of a pure villain Cersei is, I do sympathize somewhat with her decision regarding Ellaria and Tyene Sand. As much as the narrative encouraged us to side with Ellaria due to both opposing the Lannisters and supporting the Targaryens, but as Cersei reminds us, Ellaria poisoned a girl to death for no other reason than being related to people she hates. Tyene becomes collateral damage.

I predicted that Jon would bend the knee as long as Daenerys agreed to help fight the army of the dead. I was a bit off. In fact, Dany tried to use that as a tactic, almost as if she’s pleading for proof that someone will bend the knee to her. Jon, meanwhile, is perfectly willing to stand up for the demands of the Lords of the North even when they’re not here to argue their case.

I had predicted how Arya and Sansa’s reunion would take place…but I didn’t think it would be Bran instead. Nothing has really inspired me to invest myself in Bran’s fate. Sure, he was an energetic child that could have been going places, and I didn’t want to see him die of depression-induced malnutrition as he almost did in the books, but since then there simply hasn’t been much to encourage me to take his point of view.

In this episode, he becomes almost antagonistic. He starts with the baffling inability to explain “I inherited a title from the person who trained me to take his place”. He then proceeds to “it’s a shame you were raped here” and then to “you were beautiful the night it happened”. By all indications he has lost all of his humanity; with it would likely go his agency and his relatability. This seems like a baffling direction to take a character on a TV show (unless, of course, the intent truly was to make him into a villain, as one theory suggests), so I hope this is leading up to something.

The only thematic takeaway I can apply to this episode is that it really wasn’t much of anything that I expected. Which is a good thing! I definitely prefer a Game of Thrones where there is something interesting to talk about every week than one that just fulfills my expectations.

If you want to hear more, don't forget to listen to the third episode of the revived Podcast Without Banners, featuring yours truly!

The Stormborn Hath Arrived (GoT: Stormborn)

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 16:21:00 +0000

At the time of writing this, it is currently four hours before Episode 3 airs. Everything hinges on how Daenerys will react to this coming episode; she is the unpredictable fire in this coming song. Daenerys Stormborn has many advisors, but tends to keep her own counsel, which occasionally makes her decisions seem chaotic.

In “Stormborn”, Daenerys summoned Jon Snow, King of the North, Lord Commander in absentia of the Night’s Watch, to come south to Dragonstone and “bend the knee” – to swear fealty to her. This is a common move; both Lannister and Baratheon contenders for the Iron Throne demanded the fealty of the North in order to restore the concept of the Seven Kingdoms. Contenders for King (or Queen) of the Iron Islands made no such demands because they never had the authority in the first place, but Balon Greyjoy did attempt to conquer the North.

There is one thing that makes this seem unexpected: Upon meeting the Greyjoys, Daenerys did indicate that there was potential for the other Kingdoms to seek independence. This is partially because she seeks to be a just ruler: she does not wish to be “Queen of the Ashes”. This may also be because, unlike the Lannisters, who are equally new to ruling but with several generations of arrogance stacked on top of one another, Khaleesi Daenerys knows that she would be out of her depth in a Civil War. She struggled to carve an empire in Esos, and in the end, succeeded only in holding Mereen. The Seven Kingdoms would be easier to hold onto, but only just: they’re used to being ruled by a single monarch, even a Targaryen one, but they’re not exactly of one mind or leaping to her side.

Westeros has been in a state of Civil War more or less since Daenerys was born; she was born in exile because of a Civil War. The Seven Kingdoms only simmered for the following years before Cersei was ready to kill Robert. Since then, two more Kings of Westeros have died (four if you count the would-be kings rightly challenging Joffrey’s right to rule), plus a King of the North, a King of the Iron Islands, a Khal of the Great Grass Sea, and I’ve more or less lost count of the number of Lords slain by the various factions, including Dany’s. It’s exhausting for everyone, except maybe Jon, who has stayed away from all of it and is still more of a Lord Crow in goal than a king. As one of the few who has truly been fighting for a better life for her people, it’s likely to be more exhausting for Daenerys than the others.

Because of this, if the Lords of the North present a truly united front, there is a strong case that Daenerys will allow the North to remain independent. Of course, that’s not the all of it. Yara Greyjoy didn’t simply ask Daenerys to leave the Iron Islands alone; they agreed to help one another, and once Daenerys Targaryen has replaced Cersei on the Iron Throne the promise will go into effect. It’s not unreasonable to suspect that Daenerys will work out a similar deal with Jon: march South, be as effective in battle as his adopted brother was against the Lannisters, and the North will be left to rule itself. There is, of course, absolutely nothing in this agreement that suits Jon’s ends, so he will ask for dragonglass, and possibly the aid of the dragons.

Daenerys, like any southern monarch, will be difficult to convince of the army of the dead. She will be skeptical, and she won’t promise Jon an army, but she may want to come in person. We may see Daenerys (along with, perhaps, Tyrion and Varys) at the Battle of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.
Ultimately, I don’t think much is going to drastically change what I’ve just said. There may be a few factors. Daenerys is not all business and no fun, and Kit Harrington is not without his share of fangirls, so Dany may be…let’s just say, inclined to find a reason to help Jon.

Varys may also reveal the truth of Jon’s parentage. It’s almost impossible to tell how this will impact the possibilities in the previous paragraph. On one hand, the Targaryen timeline, like Egyptian pharaohs, tended to wed brother-to-sister, so it’s unlikely that Daenerys will be disgusted by the idea of a family relationship. There’s also the fact that, even when sibling-incest is frowned upon by a society, cousins are sometimes seen as fair game (though the Cersei-Lancel affair indicates it may be viewed as a fairly similar offense within the Seven Kingdoms). On the other hand, Daenerys is not blind when it comes to her family. She knows that even her closest supporters see her father as just short of a demon, a madman who deserved the death he received. She also knows that the same incest-ridden bloodline produced Viserys, her own Mad King, whom she despises with every fiber of her being. It’s not unlikely that she will see intra-family marriage to be yet another chain that she must break.

I’ve been focusing on Daenerys’s mind-state, but let’s look at Jon. As I’ve suggested above, Jon is not interested in ruling a kingdom. He’s left it temporarily in his adoptive sister’s hands, but like Daenerys, Jon Snow is impulsive, ruled by morals and a single goal rather than long-term strategy. If Dany tells Jon that he must bend the knee before he can plunder Dragonstone, he will not hesitate. Whether he still considers himself beholden to the vows of the Night’s Watch is another question.
There are a lot of fan theories related to Jon and Daenerys and related topics. I read one last night that speculates that Daenerys and Sansa will wed in a political marriage. Personally, I think this is not remotely possible. I have no problem with shipping or fan fiction; for that matter, I encourage it. Ship whom you want; in the TV universe where they’re functionally adults, I’m a Danarya shipper. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. In the novels, Daenerys has had some encounters with women, but it’s as a very last resort and she is much more interested in men. In the show, Dany’s handmaidens had a reduced role and she has not had so much as a single sexual or romantic encounter with another woman. Sansa is a bit more of an open possibility, but at least in the theory I’ve read, the reasoning given behind it is proof that it’s a shaky theory.

The reasoning I’ve experienced is that Sansa’s abuse at the hands of Ramsey may cause her to lose interest in men and become interested in a same-sex relationship. That is simply not how sexual or romantic attraction works. The negative experiences may cause Sansa to be less openly intimate or to avoid placing herself in situations where she might be vulnerable. If she was already interested in a same-sex relationship, then she might feel more inclined to trust a woman than a man, but it wouldn’t just spontaneously pop into her head.

I’ve also seen the idea that anybody who has been involved in incest, whether willingly, unwillingly, or pre-conception, may be barred from the Iron Throne. Again, this is ridiculous. Certainly, people might rally against it, having experienced a grand total of one incest-free monarch on the Iron Throne in the past century, but if any army has the power to take and hold the Iron Throne, this detail will not prevent them, especially after Cersei activated the nuclear option dealing with the Sparrows.
Ultimately, while there may be some figurative dick-measuring, I think Jon and Dany will work together to beat both the Night’s King and the Lannister Queen. What happens after that will involve a few other players, but it’s important to remember that Jon and Dany, at least, are working toward very different ends. Once they understand this, they shouldn’t see one another as rivals.

Want to hear more? Starting with "Stormborn", I've been invited to join The Podcast Without Banners. Hear the first episode below!

Be Kind to Strangers (GoT: Dragonstone)

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 16:07:00 +0000

I’ve been posting some articles about Game of Thrones Season 7 on my personal blog without seeing many new movies. I figure fans of this site will be just as interested, so let’s start with episode 1. In this series of articles, I’ve been doing my best to avoid recaps and echoing the thoughts of the internet in general and instead to comment on whatever stood out to me as remarkable in the episode.

With “Dragonstone”,
I want to draw particular attention to two scenes that everybody seems to be talking about, but for the least interesting reasons. The two scenes are the argument between Jon and Sansa, and the encounter between Arya and Ed Sheeran.

For those who don’t remember (or are, for some reason, reading this without watching the episode), the conflict between Jon and Sansa comes from what to do with the Karstarks, the Umbers, and their respective ancestral homes. Sansa wants to punish the families for their late parents siding with the Lannisters and the Boltons; Jon chooses not to, believing that the deaths of the traitors in battle is sufficient punishment.

The reason why I find this to be of particular significance is the reason for the defection of the Karstarks. I had believed the Umbers to be included in this, but if the Game of Thrones wiki is to be believed, the cause of the Greatjon’s death is unknown, so I’m less certain about this. In Seasons 2 and 3, Catelyn and Robb Stark had a series of disagreements with Lord Rickon Karstark; the latter demanding revenge for the deaths of members of his household and the Starks more or less ignoring this for their own reasons. This eventually led to Karstark murdering two Lannister prisoners and being executed in turn by Robb.

Considering the nature of this conflict, it’s only natural that the Karstarks would expand the cycle of vengeance to include the Starks. Sansa’s decision would have continued punishing the Karstarks, causing them to seek the Starks out when they least expected it. Jon’s decision has the potential to end the cycle – if it’s reciprocated. More on that later.

There’s also another factor in play here. Jon mentions not punishing a son (or daughter) for their father’s actions. He speaks from experience here: every time he was called “Snow” or “Bastard” or treated as lesser than his six adopted siblings (yes, lesser even than the Prisoner of War), he was being punished for his father’s indiscretions. This has stuck with him, and he will never forget it, or choose to pass that punishment onto another.

For Arya’s scene, she runs into a small band of soldiers. They were sent by her enemy to keep the peace, and when she was still recognized and known to be alive, they would have also been instructed to kill her if they found her. She is wary, but after they share their food and drink, and she sees their rookie earnestness, she warms, giving the soldier who made the wine a smile and complimenting him before deciding to be honest.

Last season, my biggest concern with Arya was that she would no longer be recognizable as a complete person: that any traits of empathy, kindness, or passion would be gone, leaving only Ned’s honor, the Hound’s rage, and Jaqen H’gar’s cold and merciless skill. This scene counters that: while Arya is cold enough to butcher a villain’s sons and feed them to him, then pretend to be him long enough to find the guest list to a past event, call everyone back, and kill them, she’s also warm enough to have kindness for a stranger who bears her no ill will.

These two sequences are mirrors for one another. Both are acts of kindness that would normally be unforgivable in Game of Thrones; yet, as we’ve begun to see, acts of cruelty are just as punishable. In Arya’s scene, she is told “be kind to strangers, and strangers will be kind to you.” Sansa tells Jon to be “be smarter than [Ned and Robb]”. These lines, coupled with the actions in these scenes, lead me to think that these may be the two most important decisions in the season when it comes to the survival of Jon and Arya. I’m not sure if Arya will meet these one-off characters again and their actions will decide her fate, or if the theme of “strangers helping strangers” will recur, but that moment had power to it that I couldn’t ignore. Similarly, time will tell if the Umbers and the Karstarks repay Jon for his kindness with their own, or punish him for it.

Gender Equality in Movies Part II: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol II and Wonder Woman

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 19:06:00 +0000

(Miss part one of this article? Check it out here!)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. II is the only sequel on the list, so the conversation gets to be a bit difficult. Our dyads here are Elizabeth Debicki’s Ayesha and Kurt Russell’s Ego as the antagonists, Karen Gillan’s Nebula and Michael Rooker’s Yondu as former antagonists being redeemed, Dave Bautista’s Drax and Pom Klementieff’s Mantis, and the leads, Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord and Zoe Saldana’s Gamora. This film, partially because it’s a sequel, has a huge cast with complicated relationships between characters. Compared to her immortal counterpart, Ayesha is a relatively incompetent character, but she is also more of an authority figure. This dictates a very different sort of relationship between her and the heroes. Ayesha has a stereotypical “ice queen” demeanor, however, her femininity is never seen as a reason for her failure. Instead, her struggle is the unthinking conformity of her culture, which makes it nearly impossible for Ayesha and her underlings to react to the chaotic tactics of the Guardians. Star-Lord and Gamora are a more traditional love interest pairing than is present in the other films in this comparison. Like Ayesha, Gamora falls somewhat into the “ice queen” role, which causes her to struggle to acknowledge her feelings both in relation to her counterpart/love interest Star-Lord and her sister Nebula. (This is a common struggle in the film and is heavily emphasized in the Rocket/Yondu subplot.) Star-Lord himself lacks this problem, if anything being a bit too forward with his feelings toward Gamora. Perhaps because she’s not the primary lead (that role goes to Star-Lord), Gamora bucks the “male veteran, female rookie” trend that we’ve seen thus far; however, the Gamora/Star-Lord dyad continues the trend we’ve seen in Enchantress/Incubus and Waller/Flag of the woman being more intelligent than her male counterpart.

The dyad of Nebula and Yondu is about villains who chose to become anti-heroes. Both of them have a past in which their gentler emotions (Nebula’s desire for a true sister in Gamora, Yondu’s pity on a child he believed he was bringing to his death) caused them to act in different ways. Nebula is the one hurt for her tenderness while Yondu’s actually prevents Ego from taking over the universe, which is a nice counter to the standard line that emotions (other than anger) are a distraction for men and a strength for women. The final dyad, Drax and Mantis, takes a variety of turns but ultimately becomes that of the male veteran (similar to Cassian, Deadshot, or Steve) encouraging a rookie (similar to Jyn, Harley, or Diana) to have faith in her abilities. Drax’s immediate turn to “I didn’t think she can do it” may be a commentary about performative progressives (or “white knights”), but it is hard to tell if this was intended.

Moving onto Wonder Woman, one thing that stands out about this film is that it is much closer to standard superhero fare than any of these before were. Like the previous three films, Wonder Woman stars a racially diverse cast led by a female/male dyad, but unlike the others it is primarily about a single character’s Heroic Journey. Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy are both marketed as ensemble pieces about anti-heroes, the former closer to the “anti” side and the latter closer to the “hero”. Rogue One has a central character, but it is nobody’s origin and is not about superheroes in the traditional sense.

The dyads of Wonder Woman are Danny Huston’s Ludendorff and Elena Anaya’s Maru, Gal Gadot’s Diana and Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor, Ares and Robin Wright’s Antiope, and Lucy Davis’s Etta Candy and David Thewlis’s Sir Patrick. A noteworthy aspect of the film is that while the latter half is nearly as overwhelmingly male as the other three films (like Rogue One, Guardians of the Galaxy, and arguably Suicide Squad if you don’t count Katana as being on equal footing with the convicts), the core team consists of one woman and a group of men, Wonder Woman is also overwhelmingly female in the first half, thanks to Themiscyra. Looking at the film and the dyads I described results in one female character who has no true male counterpart (No male character in the film holds a truly equivalent role to Connie Nielsen’s Hippolyta), and one male with two female counterparts. Like Suicide Squad, the female antagonist is the brain and the male is the brawn, though Dr. Maru is never Ludendorff’s superior. This also takes a bit of a hit when it is hinted that love might solve Maru.

Antiope and Ares present Diana’s greatest challenges, one to prepare for the fight with the other. Antiope and Hippolyta are presented as being no better or worse than Ares, beyond not wanting to be enslaved and killed. The Mary Sue did a whole article on Steve and Diana’s relationship, but it basically comes to Steve having more experience of the human world, Diana being a better fighter, and the sense of mutual respect between the two of them that is on a much more equal footing than that of Star-Lord/Gamora and also more of one than Deadshot/Harley Quinn (Deadshot didn’t quite respect the chaos that is Harley Quinn). The closest comparison here is actually Rogue One, but more time is spent on the relationship between Steve and Diana than between Jyn and Cassian. Etta and Sir Patrick may be seen as a strange couple to include, but they’re a unique dyad of supporting characters. Both work from London. Etta adheres to local customs but doesn’t exactly bite her tongue and isn’t looked down on much for being a woman despite the era. Sir Patrick, despite being an authority figure in Georgian England, doesn’t treat Etta or Diana any differently based on their gender.

It seems the largest difference here is the amount of give and take to the relationship. Steve and Diana respect one another and contribute different things. The fact that she bucks the stereotype of the woman being the brains and the man doing the work is just a minor bonus. Both Steve and Wonder Woman help one another grow, with Diana providing hope and Steve providing understanding of the world, as contrasted with the Joker who tears Harley down in a way that we never see her recover from, or Gamora seeming to stand as being perpetually smarter, wiser, and more skilled than Star-Lord.

All of these films make strides toward achieving equality, but none see us all the way there. Keeping in mind that challenging any sort of inequality is essential to improving any form of it, we can see such details as the fact that all four films feature racial diversity that is rarely seen in Hollywood and may be the result of fan demand. However, despite racially diverse casts, only one Suicide Squad features non-White human women in a major role (though something can be said for Guardians casting Zoe Seldana as one of the leads). Apologists tend to reference alien characters as an example of diversity, but as far back as Star Trek we can see that green women don’t activate the same prejudices and knee-jerk reactions as human women of color do.

Suicide Squad is also the only film of the four to feature a woman as the main antagonist, though the male Ego and Ares are by far the more interesting and developed of the ten antagonists in these four films, not counting Nebula or Yondu. (This isn’t saying much; if there were a scale of the most developed and engaging villains in film, all of these would likely rate a 5 out of 10 or lower.) Only one of these films explicitly excepts non-heterosexual lifestyles, and that is as a joke to bring down the ego of the man more than out of any serious effort at equality.

Gamora, Harley, and Nebula experience psychological, neurological, and physical signs of abusive relationships. Harley fails to recover from this (as mentioned above, probably the biggest mis-step of her character), and Nebula has become consumed by revenge as a result. Only Gamora can be seen as having recovered; she’s formed permanent friendships and struggles with the help of others to develop healthy emotional responses.

The presence of these four films within a short period of time of one another is indicative of major steps toward gender equality in film, but they give us some clear items that need to be worked on in the feature. Just as believable antagonists are a challenge in most forms of storytelling, including believable female villains is twice as much of a challenge for us to overcome. Similarly, racially and background-diverse characters are becoming more common, but it is still a challenge for more than one or two women to be included in a team of five to seven heroes.

The variety of relationships between men and women are nearly as varied in these films as they would be among a similar sample of real people, but here, too, there is some room for work. The trend suggested by the dyads examined here is that women tend to be younger, less experienced, more naïve and smarter than their older, more experienced, and stronger male counterparts. There are women among this group of characters that buck some of these trends (for instance, the veteran warrior Gamorra), with none bucking all of them. Similarly, there is no young, naïve, smart man working counter to a strong, world-weary veteran woman. By varying our approaches to male and female characters we can hopefully reduce automatically activated stereotypes about men and women; hopefully future films will also take this approach with less common or less easily described characters as well.

It seems that inclusiveness is destined to improve. Black Panther has begun to produce trailers, fans are more hyped than ever for Captain Marvel. In terms of non-traditional orientations and identities, a film for something like Alpha Flight would have seemed beyond the realms of possibility less than a decade ago, whereas now it only seems a matter of time before one is pitched. The road is poorly lit and will be difficult to traverse, but hopefully we will continue to make strides along the path to more inclusive films and, as a result, better ones in the future.

Bill Silvia is a regular contributor to Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' Reviews. You can find more of his work at his personal blog at williamsilvia.net.

Gender Equality in Movies Part I: Rogue One and Suicide Squad

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 19:51:00 +0000

There are three primary kinds of feedback about Wonder Woman going on right now: one, that this is a breakthrough for female-led superhero movies; two, that that is a lie; three, that this is a massive change in the DC Extended Universe. After watching the film, outside of enjoying it, I personally struggled to come up with what the breakthrough was. In this article, I’m going to compare four recent Sci-Fi/Fantasy action films to show how Wonder Woman is a positive step for feminist movies as well as some steps that filmmakers should address in the near future.

For each of these films, I’m going to be looking primarily at male/female dyads: instances where there are a female and a male character that act as counterparts to one another. There are other comparisons that can be made without these, but I’m focusing specifically on gender equality and male/female interaction. Only male and female were compared; all major characters in these films were either male- or female-coded. This analysis, on top of the female-hero, male-villain formula of the Alien series, is what caused me to exclude Alien: Covenant from this analysis.

Rogue One is the simplest film in this analysis. As a film that was heavily marketed based on its female protagonist (Felicity Jones’s Jyn Erso), it has the smallest amount of female representation. Erso and Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor act as counterparts, the inexperienced female lead and the experienced male lead. Without getting into screentime and dialogue analysis (others have done this, and if I find the time I will link a few), the film views them on fairly equal terms, with both making decisions and influencing the plot. Erso is the only woman who features in the main cast; the supporting cast of her mission includes Cassian and four other male or male-coded characters.

All antagonists of Rogue One are male, with Ben Mendelsohn’s Orson Krennic even taking over roles filled by the male/female dyad of Administrator Tol Sivron and Admiral Natasi Daala in the Legends universe, and returning characters Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader having been historically male. The only other dyad worth discussing is Genevieve O’Reilly’s Mon Mothma and Alistair Petrie’s General Draven, who each give different sorts of orders to the Rebels. The male in this dyad is notably more destructive, callous, and therefore antagonistic, but both are fairly minor. As a result of this, Rogue One struggles the most with one of the most simplistic and least ambitious bars of gender equality in a film: the Bechdel Test. Jyn Erso and Mon Mothma speak, but only very briefly. (All other films in this comparison have multiple conversations between an array of male and female characters, passing both the Bechdel Test and the male equivalent multiple times over.)

Suicide Squad was DC’s previous film, and there are four dyads worth mentioning: Enchantress and Incubus as the antagonists, Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller and Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag representing A.R.G.U.S. and the government, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Will Smith’s Deadshot as the action leads, and Jared Leto’s Joker and Deadshot’s daughter Zoe as Harley and Deadshot’s motivating characters back home.

First off, this film gets an honorable mention for being the only film on this list to have two women in the main action cast. Of course, Katana gets little more in the way of diversity points than Slipknot, but she’s still more than Rogue One, Wonder Woman, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. I get (Vol. II I’ll get to later). It’s also the only film that has a female primary antagonist. From there, we move onto the dyads. In the case of Enchantress/Incubus and Waller/Flag, both of these feature the woman who does the thinking, planning, and manipulating, who is allied with a man who performs the violence. Harley and Deadshot repeat the dynamic we saw during Rogue One: the male veteran and the female rookie. While Harley isn’t a rookie during the main plot of the film, she is the only character whose origin is related to their character arc, implying more of an emphasis on her being “new” to villainy than is present in any other members of the Suicide Squad.

This emphasis on “newness” is the prime cause of the difference between the members of the final dyad (there’s a reason I saved these two for last): Zoe and the Joker. Let’s start with Zoe. She’s very clearly much, much less experienced than Deadshot. She’s a very passive character, in the sense that she stays back at home and works to motivate Deadshot to earn his freedom. She’s intelligent and has potential, but doesn’t have much space to develop this; her importance is primarily through Deadshot’s importance.

The Joker, on the other hand, is a very active character. His primary purpose is to strip Harleen Quinzell of her agency, first by literally capturing her, and then by forcing her to take actions that result in chemical brain damage. This is far more than a counter to Enchantress and Waller having authority over their respective counterparts; both Incubus and Flag have something to gain from the arrangement of their own accord, as compared to Harley having only the Joker’s affection to gain. The relationship between Harley and Joker is by far the strongest source of gender imbalance in an otherwise fairly balanced film – a film that is, in some ways, significantly more balanced than Wonder Woman. This origin is pulled directly from the comics and from Batman: The Animated Series, so I don’t necessarily think it should have been changed; however, a much more powerful film would have resulted if Harley was able to complete her arc, regain her agency, and reject the Joker at the end. This would have maintained Harley’s agency, weakened the overwhelming effect of the Joker, and maintained a balanced relationship between the male and female characters.

This is a very involved topic, so I’ve split the post into two parts. Come back tomorrow for part 2, in which I look at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. II and Wonder Woman!

Death Note trailer

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 18:39:00 +0000

The first trailer is in for 2017’s American remake of Death Note, which is being prepared for a Netflix release this August. See it below!

Predictions about this movie are understandably mixed. This follows the trend that we have seen from The Ring to Gracepoint and in many other titles of taking a foreign property and adapting it to be about Americans, in America. I had actually mistakenly thought that the original anime (which is a gem, and I encourage anybody at all interested in this trailer to look up) to have been adapted multiple times; in fact, it has been adapted once, in Japanese, and that has spawned sequels. The cultural touchstones of Shinigami and the like cause a lot of people to prefer this to remain set in Japan, but I don’t see any reason why a well-written version can’t be adapted to the new setting MCU-style. This trailer doesn’t show much, but I think it’s fairly promising; definitely a far cry from the Light in the anime. What do you think?

How Much Comedy is Too Much? (Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2)

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Tue, 30 May 2017 05:20:00 +0000

The prevailing thought among people I’ve spoken with is that Guardians of the Galaxy 2: Volume 2 is better than the first one. Interestingly, I find that this school of thought doesn’t always match up. At the time of writing this, Rotten Tomatoes users and critics have rated the original as being fresher than the sequel, and IMDB users have rated the two films as equal.

Clearly, the amount of people who love this film don’t seem to outnumber fans of the original as much as my personal experience would indicate. That, or for every two people who rate the sequel five points higher than the original, one person rates it ten points lower.

All of these reasons are speculation, of course, but suffice it to say that I am one of those people that rates Volume 2 ten points lower than Guardians of the Galaxy. Why? Well, let’s look at the first movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy focused on Peter “Star-Lord” Quill (Chris Pratt). Star Lord is a comedic character. He’s probably closer to Lone Starr than he is to Han Solo. This was balanced out by Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Drax (Dave Bautista), who were intensely serious, and a dire, no-nonsense threat. Characters were more complicated than this, of course, but the end was a balanced film, teetering on the edge between comedic action (The Avengers in space) and parody (Spaceballz). The final result was a fun movie with an intense soundtrack, high stakes, and great action.

So what’s different in Volume 2? Let’s start with one of the earliest things I noticed in the trailer: Drax is being intentionally funny now. There was always some comedy about Drax. He effectively has a communication disorder, which is presented in such a way that we tend to be laughing more at the speaker than at him for misunderstanding. However, in the Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 trailers, Drax said two words that concerned me greatly: “Screw you”.

For a character who doesn’t understand metaphors, “screw you” should literally only work if he is attacking somebody with a screwdriver. This line indicated a major change to his character, and a similar change is confirmed early in the film, when Rocket makes a joke that Drax should have found confusing but instead finds hilarious. He’s no longer the guy who doesn’t get metaphor; instead, he’s something half-way between Thor and the Hulk (does that make him Volstagg?).

This is an example, but it demonstrates my issues with this film. It was still a good movie, but it felt either dumbed down, or too much like a parody. Scenes that weren’t too far removed in tone from the original Guardians of the Galaxy struck me in this one as too much because there were too many of them. It wasn’t until the climax that a serious reveal wasn’t followed by a punchline, and even then I had trouble taking it seriously because I was expecting it to.

So I’ll say this: Guardians of the Galaxy was a gorgeous movie, it included some great character development, had at least one very dark scene (which was needed to justify what occurred next), and also had some very funny moments. It was only hurt by being slightly inferior to the previous movie in the writing and music departments, and having a few too many gags.

Comedy, of course, is subjective, and the study of it is an entire sub-field of Psychology, so who am I to say if people in general will feel the same way about this film? The general conclusion I can draw is that if you enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy you will probably enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2; your own opinions on comedy will be the deciding factor in which you like more.

Bill Silvia is a regular (I use the term loosely) contributor to Fantasy & SciFi Lovin’ News & Reviews, long-term Sci-Fi and Fantasy fan, and a Psychology and Creative Writing student at Western Connecticut State University. You can see more of his writing at Insomniatic.

White Hot (Hidden Legacy #2) by Ilona Andrews

noreply@blogger.com (SQT) — Tue, 16 May 2017 03:29:00 +0000

Don't let the cover fool you, "White Hot," by the husband and wife writing team that goes by Ilona Andrews, is considerably more than a romance.

Known primarily for the Kate Daniels series of paranormal fiction, Andrews has staked out a solid spot in a genre that is populated by popular authors like Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong and Kevin Hearne. And, as much as like all of those authors, I think I'd consider Andrews my favorite simply for the consistent quality of their work and the imagination they bring to every series.

"White Hot" is the second book of the Hidden Legacy trilogy set in an alternate version of Houston, Texas. Magic and technology coexist thanks to a serum developed in the late-1800's that awakens latent magical talent. As time goes on, and new generations are born, potent magic users are separated into Houses that seek to increase their power through selective alliances that increase the number of Primes- the most powerful magic users- in the family. Nevada Baylor is a private investigator who has the useful talent of detecting lies- a power she keeps secret from everyone except her employer and the powerful Prime Connor Rogan who has expressed more than a passing interest in Nevada.

The first book in the trilogy, "Burn For Me," revealed a conspiracy of very powerful mages allied among many Houses that almost resulted in the total destruction of downtown Houston. And while Nevada and Rogan managed to uncover the identity of a couple of players in the scheme there are still other, even more powerful people, plotting something big that threatens to be even more catastrophic than they ever imagined. No one knows what the endgame is in these alliances- but Nevada and Rogan are clearly in the way.

One key to the success of all of Andrews' books, in my opinion, is the consistent focus on family- and "White Hot" definitely builds on that tradition. Everything Nevada does is motivated by concern for her family. And though she does get herself into some situations that might be better left alone, for the sake of her family, she also believes in being able to live with her conscience- something her family understands and respects.

But when you pick up a paranormal romance you want magic and flirty fun, and here you get a whole lot of both. The magic system is well realized and I'm going to quote directly from the author's page to give a summary:

Magic users are segregated into five ranks: Minor, Average, Notable, Significant, and Prime. The difference between Minor and Prime is enormous. For example, a pyrokinetic is considered Average if he can melt a cubic foot of ice under a minute. In the same amount of time, Adam Pierce, a Prime, can conjure a fire that will melt a cubic foot of stainless steel.

Magic is everything in the world of Hidden Legacy. It brings power, wealth, and security and most families try to maximize it. Because magical talents are passed on through the bloodline, marriages between Primes and Significants are often the matter of ancestry and genetics rather than love.

Part of the push-me-pull-you of the romance between Nevada and Rogan are the different classes they inhabit in their world. Rogan isn't your typical Prime- he isn't interested in marrying for power. But he does recognize that his feelings for Nevada may not be in her best interest. Nevada, for her part, is juggling so many responsibilities she hardly has time to deal with her feelings for Rogan but "White Hot" finally gives us the heat the name promises-- something only hinted at in the first book.

There's plenty of action- so much so that I almost lost track of all the things that happened to Nevada in one day at one point as Nevada was musing about her hectic life, but it keeps the pages turning and it's always entertaining. The secondary characters are fleshed out pretty well. We do learn a bit more about Nevada's sisters and their powers, though we don't get to spend too much time with them in this book. Nevada also learns some things about her own powers and where they came from- something that was a mystery to her to this point- and that brings a whole new level of trouble that will be addressed in the third installment due later this year (can't wait).

So many paranormal romance books, in my opinion, can be over-focused on trying to be clever and cute that they forget to give you some substance. And while it's easy to excuse the tendency in a genre known for being brain-candy, I appreciate it when authors take the time to build a story on a solid foundation that can still offer lots of action and humor. If this genre is your cup of tea- I definitely recommend "White Hot."

4 out of 5 stars.

I Am One With the Force: Rogue One

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Fri, 23 Dec 2016 19:43:00 +0000

There hasn’t been a Star Wars film released in American cinemas that I haven’t seen there. While Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor were not released state-side, in 1997 I had the luxury of watching the original trilogy for the theatrical release of the Special Editions, and in the intervening years I watched all 5 of the new film releases, usually within the first week. So there was really no question of whether or not I would see Rogue One, and really no need for me to watch any of the trailers.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was advertised primarily as the origin of the Death Star plans that were in Leia’s possession at the start of A New Hope. The film stars Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, a novice rebel with some handy skills (presumably from her time as a criminal, the film’s one concession to the underworld). She is joined by Rebel agent Cassian (Diego Luna), reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), blind Force monk Chirrut (Donnie Yen), ranged tank Baze (Wen Jiang), and defected pilot Bodhi (Riz Ahmed).

Like A New Hope, Rogue One is split into three acts: the team meeting up on a dessert planet, the first mission in which a character that matters to the team dies, and the final, impossible mission that the film is primarily known for. Jyn is “recruited” by the Rebellion while she is en route to an Imperial prison due to her connection with both her father – an engineer on the Death Star’s superlaser – and the leader of an extremist cell based on the same planet where, coincidentally, the Death Star is being completed. Bodhi is recruited by her father to visit the same Rebel leader, and you can guess where the team meets up.

I was a little skeptical about this film, only for the reason that I didn’t think there was enough content here to make a movie out of it. I should have known LucasFilm better than to think they would focus the entire film on a single battle. The battle that the film based its promotion on is about half of the film, in some ways mirroring the set-up and execution of the Battle of Endor. I can’t fault the pacing of this film at all; there’s less downtime than A New Hope with just enough slow moments for a cinema-goer to refill their $20 soda from time to time.

Rogue One feels derivative, but in a different way than The Force Awakens. While TFA seemed almost a mirror of A New Hope, with a bigger Death Star and recasting all of the original roles, Rogue One does everything in its power to tie together and homage the rest of the saga. Dialogue was ramped up, but other than a few speech cadence issues of the returning characters it doesn’t feel as chatty and distracting as it could. Stormtroopers borrow from battle droids’ chattiness in a way that feels authentic to their group character. Scenes and locations are recreated perfectly, but not so often that it feels like they lack original material.

Interestingly, two areas where Rogue One was not derivative of other entries were the score and the opening crawl. The soundtrack is mostly new, with several of the film stings that I expected (and would have helped to sell the recreated characters) not appearing, at least where I expected them. Another thing that didn’t appear was the opening crawl, presumably in an attempt to keep the crawl to episodes only. The score didn't completely do away with the originals, just enough to throw me off a bit.

The characters fall a little flat for me, but not as much as they do in The Force Awakens. If anything I think it’s the quantity – there was just too much going on to develop Cassian, and Chirrut and Baze, and Bodhi. This is rather unfortunate, because there are plot developments that rely on you not seeing these people as redshirts, but it’s not fatal. Rogue One is still a good movie, probably objectively better than The Force Awakens, and at the least a fitting entry to the Star Wars film saga.

We're the Bad Guys: Suicide Squad

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 21:28:00 +0000

I haven’t been doing reviews much, but even if I don’t do any more, Suicide Squad is something that needs a bit more of a thumbs up/thumbs down...or a petition to close down a movie review site that was always biased and anti-genre so why does it get this attention now? I’m going my best to avoid major spoilers, but don’t go past the second paragraph if you want to go in blind.

On paper, Suicide Squad sounds like a very, very bad movie. The plot is all over the place, it’s overburdened by an abundance of exposition, and the villains are less effective than the final boss of a video game. But it’s also fun, visually gorgeous, and created by actors and a director who either loved or were at least incredibly amused by what they were creating.

These strengths and flaws are immediately evident within the first twenty minutes of the movie. Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) each have scenes where they get to portray their personalities (Will Smith and PG-13 Harley Quinn) and just what it will be like with these characters, which is every bit as fun as it sounds. We then continue to what is more or less a half an hour of Amanda Waller giving exposition about the backstories of these characters.

I can’t help but compare this to Guardians of the Galaxy. In Guardians, we get a few minutes of backstory about one character, and then the movie starts. Throughout the movie, we see more clips of Starlord’s backstory, and we get hints at the other members of the main cast. Sometimes this could be a bit shallow (I’d have loved to see some scenes of Gamora and Nebula when they were younger), but it was generally very well received and hurt the plot much less than too much backstory would have.

Three of the six members of the Suicide Squad get bits of their backstory sprinkled in where relevant. Harley, Deadshot, and Diablo all have pretty much enough. Captain Boomerang really doesn’t need this, and in fact he only has what backstory he does for the sake of the cameo included in it. One character’s fate might not have been so obvious if they had actually included him in the exposition dump, and another could have used this just so as not to become Generic Squad Member.

All of this makes the massive exposition dump about how each member was arrested particularly pointless. It doesn’t treat all of the Squad equally, and it detracts from other things that could have been included later. Interviews have indicated that both cannibals and crocodiles were studied in order to make Killer Croc stand out, yet all the movie gives him is that he was bullied because he was ugly.

From the portrayals in the film, though, I can believe that both David Ayer and the actors really did do all

they could to make each character unique. And I wouldn’t mind the dark action scenes if not for the fact that Killer Croc is even harder to see in them than your average character of his ethnic background. Add this to the fact that they were fighting literal faceless grunts that would make the Putty Patrol seem like well fleshed-out characters and you get a film that is losing any reason to have these action scenes other than, you know, just to have action scenes.

Which brings us to the villains. Again, mixed bag. Wonderful effects. There were moments where I was transfixed by what was going on on-screen. Of course, they clearly couldn’t afford to keep all these effects up – or was the studio worried the audience would forget who the actress was? I can never keep these meta-reasons straight – because they dropped off the effect used to make the Big Bad scarier pretty early on, leaving to an endless torrent of people posting on social media about how unscary the actress's regular face is. I wouldn’t have even noticed it without these two aspects, though looking back I do think she could have piled on the “possessed by an evil spirit” acting...yet would that have undermined her whole “join me, as only I understand you” schtick? Funny thing about that, as somebody who didn’t see multiple takes as the Director surely did, I don’t know the answer to that.

Still, I’m qualified to criticize the villain’s plan. The villain resurrects her brother to fill in some of the holes in her plot and add more visual appeal, makes minions by making out with people, and sits working on something that she alternates between referring to as a spell or a machine. Her brother apparently just hangs around watching her instead of actually trying to stop the people determined to kill her, but you probably knew that already, didn’t you?

The making out with people is a strange touch and a topic I need to touch on. There doesn’t seem to be a reason beyond titillation for this, but it’s an extremely short cut. It’s as if there was somebody in the editing room setting a limit on potential male gaze scenes, as if to say “yes, there are straight men in the audience, but there are other people too”. A lot of people have criticized two scenes in particular, both relating to Harley Quinn (though oddly enough, the scene where she’s cage-dancing doesn’t get much attention). First is the scene in the trailer, where she strips down, puts on her brightly colored, non-prison-issue underwear and then her outfit, surrounded by staring soldiers. What people don’t realize is that there is literally about one second or less or Harley in her bra while she pulls her shirt down. There is a small amount of titillation in the scene and I’d be a fool to pretend there isn’t, but it’s a short scene focusing on how she (ignorantly or manipulatively) ignores social customs while focusing on her own needs (what some would call the definition of empowerment). Frankly, the only thing that disturbed me about this scene is when I was trying to find images for my Harley Quinn article and found multiple Youtube videos looping this scene on slow motion. Finally, there is the scene in which Harley is walking and gives a bit of a jiggle as her booty walks past the camera. Again, an extremely short cut. This draws the attention of the audience...but that’s why women in real life make the same gesture. They want someone to look at their butt. Except in this case, you don’t have the chance to stop and stare the way you would if someone did this in the mall...and you definitely don’t have a chance to take this to creepy levels. I guess what I’m saying is that there is some male gaze here, but it’s no more than real life, and it definitely didn’t give me the heebie-jeebies the way some of the scenes lingering on Gamora’s butt in Guardians did.

Thus far, I’ve described Harley in two ways: wanting attention and either unaware of social norms or manipulatively acting as if she is. One thing I find interesting is that Robbie mentions how Quinn uses her psychological training to be manipulative, which indicates that her childish behavior (which I’ve otherwise been treating as a form of dissociation) may all be an act (which is, intentionally or coincidentally, an ongoing discussion about dissociative conditions in the first place). The point here is that Harley is just as fun and interesting to watch as she was in Batman: The Animated Series when she was introduced. She is pretty much the same character without adhering to cartoon physics (although she may still have access to hammerspace). Deadshot is pretty much Will Smith from every Sci-Fi movie with a hint of sociopath added in for fun. I don’t think I’m doing a very good job of describing it because watching these two work – especially around “civilians” – is just pure fun. They pretty much make the movie. Even when they’re taking a few minutes away from doing nothing to do nothing before doing nothing for no reason.

And uh, the Joker. He’s in this movie too much, almost to the point where it feels like not enough. He’s in two or three scenes that are important to Harley’s backstory (which only highlight the fact that Harley is the star of the film) and then another three or four scenes in which he reminds the audience “hey, I’m still here”. I can’t help but wonder given some of the things that were obviously influenced by studio concerns if there was some demand to feature a “better known” character more frequently, thereby breaking up the already choppy plot even further. That’s all speculation though.

If it’s not clear, I love Suicide Squad even though it’s a deeply flawed movie. If there was a show about Deadshot and Harley going on a road trip and just meeting people, I would watch it, except it would never happen because TV can’t afford Will Smith anymore. Every minute, with or without these two, was usually entertaining, and I have no complaints about any of the visuals or the cinematography. The story is fairly straight-forwarded, just presented in a very clumsy way, and if you’re looking for a popcorn flick it’s a great experience. It’s just not something to watch for deep story, unique problem-solving, or powerful allegories, but it’s a great time if you want to see anti-heroes coming together and overcoming a powerful foe. Considering this is a very popular topic right now (and I could speculate as to reasons why, but instead I’m just going to point to Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, and even Daredevil and Jessica Jones), it’s certainly found the right time to come out. I just hope the seeds it’s planted can come to fruition in Batfleck and turn out something really cool...like a Harley and Ivy movie.

For more of my thoughts on Suicide Squad, check out this piece I wrote about Harley Quinn on Insomniatic.

Rogue One Story Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 17:07:00 +0000

The latest Star Wars trailer has been released!

A lot of people I know (myself included) aren't completely sure what to make of Rogue One. It's a very different type of Star Wars movie, hopefully in a good way, but we're just not sure whether or not to be optimistic.

This trailer does look good, though. It's worth noting that it's pretty amazing to see a Grand Admiral uniform in a Star Wars trailer. For a long time there was a sort of canon treadmill, where everything on paper was written to meet new advances in canon but films and TV shows more or less ignored the comics and novels supposedly set in the same continuity as them. The Grand Admiral was invented in the old timeline, but it's one of many concepts that the new story team is carrying over into the new, more unified Star Wars. While I'm not a fan of everything that occurred in the reboot, this is a tremendous improvement and a way to show that all fans are valued, not just the ones that prefer the movies. The fact that a character from The Clone Wars is going to feature in the movie is just more evidence of this.

It's still hard to pre-judge Rogue One, so I'm not going to try to. I'll wait for the release, see it in theatres, and decide from there.

Pokémon Go: State of the Game

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 17:31:00 +0000

I had originally intended to write a different Pokémon Go article in this slot - one about the thematic discrepancies between the Pokémon brand and the mechanics of Pokémon Go - but due to the very loud discussion out there I thought it best if I take a look at the state of the game itself. I do have several articles not about Pokémon in the pipeline, but as they require a little bit more preparation than this I'm going forward with this first.

So what's the deal with Pokémon Go right now? That's a difficult conversation to have, partially because there are a lot of over-reactions. The tracking system wasn't working, and in fact had not been working for weeks. People recognized that it was not working, and they did not rage about it. Niantic did two things to fix this: they removed the visual representation of failure (the footprints that would have been the tracking system had it worked) and blocked the excessive drain on their servers caused by third-party tracking systems. Naturally, people reacted calmly...except they did not at all, at least not the vocal minority. This decision has been declared by some "the death of Pokémon Go" and other things that don't make much sense.

Much more damaging is the fact that while wild Pokémon encounters seem to have increased ("seem to" being the operative word; I haven't started a new low-level account to see if this was universal or not) it's become much more difficult to capture them. Even the green-tier 'mons (the easiest to capture) are now sometimes breaking out of Pokéballs. In my experience, this has had a pronounced change on the game: I haven't seen a lure model in use in my city since that changed. At least once a week I will go on a two hour walk specifically to get more Pokéballs in areas that are otherwise out of my way. Despite that, I'm scared to use an incense out of concern that I will run out of Pokéballs while it's active. (By comparison, the only time I've ever run out of Pokéballs before this was a time when six lures were used in rapid succession and I was back up/span>to 80 by the end of that night).

When accused of increasing the difficulty in order to encourage players to engage in more microtransactions - specifically purchasing more Pokéballs instead of only using the ones at PokéStops - Niantic claimed this was a mistake. There is of course no way to verify this, and this has become partially fixed over the past week. Still, one would think this a relatively simple bug to fix.

Ultimately, it's not a surprise that a game that swept the nation a month ago is undergoing a bit of a lull right now. While it's become less frustrating to play - it freezes much less - it's also become slightly less fun. The "newness" is also gone. When you're wasting Pokéballs on a regular basis, it's a lot less enjoyable to lay down lures and go hunting. The gyms have developed into a sort of rotation, and this is not helped by the fact that at higher levels there seemto be more opportunities to injure your Pokémon and use items than there are to actually pick up new items. The discussion of adding PokéCenters could fix this, but as they haven't come out yet (I don't think there's been a single update that wasn't fixing a bug, reinforcing the statements of beta testers that the game wasn't ready yet) that's not a fix we can rely on.

I think the game is settling from its position of worldwide phenomenon to MMO. Unfortunately, if this happens it will be among the least successful games in the Pokémon franchise. Still, there are a lot of updates coming. Over the next few years there will be six (probably seven by the time it comes) additional generations of Pokémon to add. How this will function with how difficult it already is to evolve some Pokémon will be a problem for Niantic to decide. As it is, I still think Pokémon Go is a fun game and one that still encourages community togetherness and exercise...but Niantic will need to put in serious work to keep it doing these things rather than becoming a forgotten curiosity.

Pokémon Go Gyms

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:13:00 +0000

When Star Wars: The Old Republic was announced – wait, don’t go away, this has a point! – they talked about a system in which you and your friends might conquer a base, the rival faction might conquer it back, and you (or other people) would repeat. I envisioned many things from this promise, but unfortunately, none of what I pictured from that claim made it into the game.
I say this not to criticize a game that has nothing to do with this topic (though if people are interested I will write more on my experience with The Old Republic) but because Pokémon Go meets my hopes and expectations for this system in every way.

For those who aren’t familiar with Pokémon Go, I’ll explain what I’m talking about. Players who have reached level 5 have the option to choose a team. The teams have a symbolic meaning, reinforced by their colors, but that’s not important right now other than the fact that they are Red, Blue, and Yellow. To conquer a gym, you must first find a gym that is owned by a different team. There will generally be 1-4 Pokémon stationed there, although one near my house has 9 (due in part to the extremely powerful Dragonite that acts as Gym Leader). Using your team of six, you battle the gym in a Punch-Out simulator complete with Pokémon standard type matchups. If you win, you place your own Pokémon to guard the gym, and the cycle begins anew with other members of your own team being able to help you in the initial fight and to help guard the gym.

This system is built for a constantly dynamic gym experience. Very rarely does the same team remain in control of a gym for a twenty-four hour period. At first look, this would appear strange in a setting such as mine where Team Valor is mainly known for driving around in cars with mostly C.P. (Combat Power) 1800 or higher ‘mons while the other teams tend to be much lower and more frequently on foot.
What makes this so dynamic is a feature that is very similar to the main series Pokémon games. While I mention that very few gyms defeat enough challengers to reach level 6 or higher (meaning they can be guarded by that many ‘mons), most gyms have significantly less than 6 team members. This means that the attacking player, who almost always has a full team of six, does not need to be as powerful as the Gym Leader or even the weaker ‘mons guarding the Gym. Add in the dodging aspect and type matchups, and even a significantly weaker team in the hands of a skilled trainer can conquer a gym. The catch, of course, being that they cannot guarantee they will hold the gym.

This system of the gyms constantly changing hands does a lot to even the playing field. While I may not be powerful enough to conquer a certain gym on my way to work, it may change hands several times during that shift and leave it open for me to take it on the way home. Considering that you only need to conquer a gym once every 20 hours to get the in-game rewards (rather than needing to hold it for the entire 20 hours) this allows lower-leveled players to still participate in this system (not to mention the emotional benefits of besting a C.P. 1600 gym with your C.P. 1200 team). This ensures that there will always be an opening for new players to get involved in the game, which makes a major difference when looking at the game’s longevity.
For more of my articles on Pokémon Go, make sure to follow Fantasy & SciFi Lovin’ and comment with what you’d like to see. If you’re interested in my thoughts on Pokémon Sun and Moon, head on over to Insomniatic and get involved in that discussion. If you want to commission a specific article from me (or just to help me study in Spain next summer) you can also check out my GoFundMe campaign.

Go B A Master: Pokemon Go

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 19:45:00 +0000

While my computer recovers from open heart surgery and the world is abuzz about Sci-Fi and Fantasy news, I am trying to get back into blogging on a regular basis. Judging by the emails I get, I know people are waiting for me, so I want to thank you and get back on with it.

It just so happens that in the world of Pokémon, there are two major topics being discussed right now. I want to give them both their due, without confusing anybody looking for one and not the other. I will be posting articles about Pokémon Go here on Fantasy & SciFi Lovin', and I will be posting articles about Pokémon Sun and Moon over on Insomniatic. Virtually all of these articles will be of editorial rather than news nature.

Let's kick off the discussion of what everybody on the internet these days is expected to have an opinion on: Pokémon Go. This mobile game may be the future of gaming; alternately, it may be a flash fad, nearly forgotten by this time next year and 2016's equivalent to the Half-Blood Prince and Y2K frenzies.

On the side of the future of gaming: Pokémon Go continues the Pokémon tradition of innovation in portable gaming. In the late 1990s, it was one of the first major exclusive Game Boy games (excluding games that were part of a series which shared mechanics with their console versions). It was by far the most successful advocate of the link cable, and probably the reason why most people who owned one did so.

With each successive generation, the multiplayer capabilities would be expanded, to the point where the current generation is widely considered to be an MMO for non-MMO players. Players of Pokémon X, Y, Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire can trade, battle, exchange power ups and secret bases, and more with any player on the planet with access to a Wi-Fi connection.

Let's move on to Pokémon Go. To start with, it's a mobile game - it is accessed via Google Play and the App Store, not a Nintendo handheld system. Unlike most mobile games associated with Pokémon, however, it has all of the staples of a Pokémon game (catching Pokémon, leveling them up, battling) albeit in a simplified form. The end result is that it is accessible to more people than ever, without being so simplified that it loses its appeal.

My writing partner while working on this article.

The next step is its functionality with the real world. Again, this is rather simple, but it is more than most games are able to pull off. Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire already experimented with the idea of taking photos with your Pokémon, but Pokémon Go allows you to do this any time, and with a device capable of sharing it to Facebook. The combination of photo opportunities is as endless as there are locations with a mobile signal, which almost guarantees going viral.

This all appears to be just the beginning of this technology - it is an experiment that has attained massive popularity. Mobile technology - both hardware and software - is improving by leaps and bounds every year. The fact that Pokémon Go falls short of high fan expectations for Augmented Reality (such as using individually placed Pokémon rather than reinterpreting camera input) comes more from the time it would take to program a more extensive game than hardware limitations. As long as innovation is profitable, there is no reason not to expect it to continue.

On the side of Go being a fad...I should mention Ingress. Ingress is the game Niantic was known for prior to Pokémon Go. By all accounts it is a more complicated, original AR game with the same concept...and almost no publicity. Many Pokémon Go players never heard of Ingress until Pokémon Go came out, and it certainly did not make headlines, result in police warnings, or anything of that nature. It has a lot of downloads on the Play Store, but for an innovative game it didn't make a lot of waves.

Another reason to think Pokémon Go is likely to fade away is that we live in a culture of short attention spans. Outside of serious competitive battlers, the most recent main series games have largely fallen off the radar - and the non-remake Generation VI games even moreso. Pokémon Go simply doesn't have the mechanics to support a serious battling scene. Are its days numbered? It may be doomed to fall off the radar after the release of Sun and Moon - at least, without a serious update schedule for new content.

I plan to write several more of these articles, and have at least two ideas for things I definitely intend to address. I appreciate your comments and look forward to hearing what you want me to talk about!

Suicide Squad Offical Trailer #1

noreply@blogger.com (SQT) — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 17:32:00 +0000

I think I am looking forward to this movie more than anything else this year.

Batman v Superman

noreply@blogger.com (SQT) — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 05:51:00 +0000

2016 appears to be the year of warring superheroes..... Cool.

What is Slave Leia About?

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 04:00:00 +0000

The term “Slave Leia” is frequently thrown around certain parts of the internet. Still, there are likely many people not familiar with this term. Generally speaking, “Slave Leia” refers to the character of Leia Organa during the second half of Act One of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and any depictions (including cosplay, or costume-play, of this costume). Nobody seems quite sure where the name originated (the earliest name that I can find for it is “Jabba's Prisoner”), but it has largely become a cosplay movement. It is very rare that a Science Fiction or pop culture convention with wide attendance will pass without one to two dozen attendees, male or female, donning the metal bikini for some stretch of time.

Why is this? At first glance, there is nothing remarkable about this costume. Many film, television, comic, and video game costumes have similarly revealing costumes, yet this one stands out to us. Why do people choose this costume? What reasons could they have? More well than you can imagine.

Let me start with the obvious, and the not-so-obvious attached to it. Jabba the Hutt, the notious gangster of Return of the Jedi, chose this costume for its sexuality. In many parts of the world, Leia's metal outfit is as little clothing as a woman can wear in public – particularly to avoid a PG-13 or higher rating. Cosplay – both on holidays such as Halloween and at conventions – is often seen as a time to relax those standards. A person is less likely to be judged for wearing a Slave Leia costume at Comic-Con or a sexy nurse costume on Halloween than they would be wearing similarly revealing clothing at the mall.

But there is more to that, too. Not only are you less likely to be judged for showing skin in the first place, but in many cases, it provides a safe zone around the nature of the body itself. Society can sometimes be a difficult place for those who do not match stringent and fickle expectations about what the ideal body is and about what those who don't have one are allowed to wear. Most of it is complete rubbish (Give me a break; I'm trying to keep it PG and at least I refrained from using “balderdash” or “poppycock”) but that doesn't prevent people from believing it at least some of the time.

The widespread knowledge of the Slave Leia costume provides some protection from this. It is a standard costume and a natural thing to wear, much like a speedo for the swim team or shorts for the track team. It's almost a uniform, placing the wearer in a group where being proud to represent your team replaces feelings of shame about those love handles you just can't get rid of. While this does not prevent the worst abusers from coming forward, it does allow for some measure of peace where there otherwise may be none. The costume may not place you in 1983 Carrie Fisher's skin, but it is the next best thing.

This measure of peace runs deeper than just the willingness to show more skin than you might be comfortable with otherwise. Whether as a way for a woman to assert sexual independence, a means to demonstrate pride in your body, or a way to overcome your insecurities by facing them head on, the cultural phenomenon of Slave Leia gives you an outlet. While many young girls have begun their cosyplay in the pure and virginal white dress of Leia in A New Hope, some will find the next stage of their growth once they'd rather kiss a Wookiee to be the bikini, and the fact that these represent different stages of a heroine says a lot in a society that still feels the urge to tell youg women to cover up when their bare shoulders may entice the Jabbas around them. Even if many – even most – of the male Leias at a convention wear the costume ironically, it is still a statement that they are more comfortable with their own body than I am.

There are a lot of reasons that somebody might choose to wear a Slave Leia costume, with the only compelling reason not to being that the person does not want to. Keeping up so far? Great, kid; don't get cocky. This article has addressed the aspects of Slave Leia relating to the fact that it is a popular costume from a well-known franchise, but there is more to it than that. I talk about how the Slave Leia costume tells a story that makes it one of the sexiest thing in Star Wars on my personal blog here.

An Unearthly Podcast: Day of the Daleks

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 04:00:00 +0000

In our 106th episode, the AUP crew warps into the next Doctor, as we talk about the 3rd Doctor's first run in with the Daleks!

An Unearthly Podcast: The Evil of the Daleks

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 04:00:00 +0000

In our 105th episode, the AUP crew tackles David Whitaker's second Dalek episode and the final one in the black and white era!

An Unearthly Podcast: The Daleks' Master Plan

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Fri, 29 May 2015 04:00:00 +0000

In our 104th episode, the AUP crew tackles the longest undisputed Doctor Who story of all time - the 12-part "Daleks' Master Plan"!

An Unearthly Podcast: The Chase

noreply@blogger.com (William Silvia) — Wed, 27 May 2015 04:00:00 +0000

In our 103rd episode, The Daleks are at it again as they chase after the Doctor in a new TIme Machine.... that they got some where... *shrug* Join the Unearthly crew as we talk about "The Chase"!