Raithe

Also, given the amount of sexism conversations that have been going on of late, I thought this one might be worth a throwdown. (Plus I'm sure our resident SJW might enjoy it). TheMarySue - The Story of Eowyn This got distilled down to “I am no man.” Look, I know they couldn’t have just put this in verbatim, it’s got an old-timey cadence and they’d already tweaked other dialog to be less formal. But. There is so much more here than “I am no man.” First of all, he didn’t just threaten her with death. He threatened her with horrifying, endless torture and mind rape, basically. And she laughs at him. And then she stabs him in the face. What’s more? She makes him afraid before she does it because up until then, he thought he was immortal. Whoops! I think you lose a lot of important nuance by over simplifying it to “I am no man.” Still, I could have lived with that except for what comes after. See, in the book, she’s falls over onto her enemy because he’s so evil that his death nearly kills her. She’s found later on the battlefield and they think she’s dead. Eomer is incredibly upset (understandably) and ends up going off in a foul, suicidal mood, where he and the other riders chant “death, death, death” as they cut a swath through the enemy. It’s pretty bleak. The movie, for no reason I can fathom, decides that Eowyn can’t just kill the Witch King. Nope. After this huge showdown she also needs to be chased by Tumor the Orc, an enemy we got introduced to that isn’t A. interesting B. even in the same category of terrifying as the Witch King. He’s completely beneath her as a foe at this point. So far as I can tell he exists so that Aragorn can kill him and “save” her, without actually knowing he did so. Which is just…weird. Why would you have this amazing moment where Eowyn defeats an enemy literally no one else in Middle Earth could have…and then have her crawling away from a generic, malignant orc in the aftermath? And why does Aragorn need to save her? What does this do for either character? Other than undermine her achievement, of course. It’s one of the most perplexing character and narrative choices/changes in the films. What’s more: I don’t think it occurred to anyone that, along with making her overly lovesick, they inadvertently damsel’d her. For me, it’s a frustrating example of casual sexism creeping in. It’s even more frustrating when you realize Tolkien, writing in a time that was quite a bit less progressive than now for women, did it better. Sticking closer to the original narrative and character would have solved this issue neatly. It stands out as pointless and tacked on. After all of this, Eowyn ends up in the Houses of Healing and eventually meets Faramir. They develop a strong bond, one based on compassion and understanding, and we see that Faramir truly appreciates her for who she is. He knows she’s a warrior and a queen in her own right, he never talks down to her or treats her as less than his equal. We get a hint of this in the extended edition of Return of the King, and I know they didn’t really have time to do more. Yet I still miss that relationship because it says so much about both characters. Eowyn ends up discovering what real love is and finally being seen by someone for the amazing person she is. I guess what bugs me most is that they took a legitimately “strong” female character, and by that I mean a complex, flawed, brave, and ultimately a triumphant warrior woman who has her own major arc…and reduced her down to something less than that. To me, strength in a character is about more than their ability to hit or kill things, and while Eowyn’s big moment is certainly defeating The Lord of the Nazgûl, it’s her defiance in the face of insurmountable odds that truly makes her “strong”. I wish the film version had honored that more. Because that would have been honoring the proto-feminist character Tolkien created.

I half wonder if they couldn't have run it with Sean Patrick Flanery now.. He did a pretty good showing as Young Indy in the Chronicles, and with his current age now, you could probably work nicely to do some Pre-Raiders of the Ark stories.. Unless they're doing it as a total reboot.

"It's not like they're ruining your childhood memories, so much as sidling up in a suspicious manner, putting their hands in your pockets and molesting them somewhat..."

Yup. It's a little bit disturbing. But, different cultures, there's always going to be weird things from someone's perspective.

Just for the Geekness... Observation Deck - The Pryde Scale (Or Fun with Aging in the Marvel Universe)

So is tapdancing on broken glass. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it. And then sold the resulting piece at a fine art exhibit. Don't laugh so much about that until you've travelled on the metro train in Mexico City. You actually have the panhandlers get on the train, put out a small cloth full of broken glass, and basically cut themselves up on it , and they stop and move on when people give them loose change.

To put it in perspective with a quote from the film Plunkett and Macleane: Macleane: Still swinging both ways, Rochester? Lord Rochester: Jamie, I swing every way.

Or all about maximising your space..? In a 258 square feet apartment... http://youtu.be/juWaO5TJS00

It's all about the nature of community? A "town" in Alaska where the majority of the population live and work within the same building that can only be entered through a miles long tunnel... http://youtu.be/naPguX84Amg

Hm, well the doctors are still hemming and hawing a bit, waiting on test results, but they now think that one of the shadows on my mothers lungs are likely to be a tumour, so...potentially cancer. On the upside of things, they're now saying that since the infectious influenza, most of the fluid in her lungs, and such is gone, that she's likely to be treatable as an outpatient. So after about two months in hospital they might release her around Friday... Also, after over 10 years spent as her primary carer and receiving the associated carers allowance and income support, I've been summoned to a "Local Compliance Interview" just to ensure that I am who I say I am, and have been told to bring my passport, drivers license, and bank statements to prove that I'm not independently wealthy and have a job that gives me mucho money. So that looks like it could be interesting.

Hm, have to say I'm not sure what to make of the finale to Galavant. Didn't seem to have the magic or punch of some of the earlier episodes.

Having grown up with a sister who was obsessed with 21 Jump Street when it was on tv, I finally got around to skimming through the movie. While it had some amusing bits - especially the "Tom Hansen and Doug Penhall" reveal, I found most of it rather tiresome. Basically trying to stretch the whole joke about them not looking like high school kids into an excuse for stupid behaviour more then funny. I guess I can only take so much of stupid as funny, and an entire film hinging on that doesn't really work for me.

Since there's always time for Minions.. especially musical ones.. http://youtu.be/icViP-RZDy4

It works so well. Both because who doesn't like watching sword fights? And it's set well to the music... http://youtu.be/n1l5m-h6Ugo

Well, I've spent about 10 hours playing Gat Out of Hell, and just finished it. I have only this to say... Nathon Fillion is the Voice of God....

Sometimes, it's all about enjoying that musical number in the middle of your game... http://youtu.be/OvAJIVSLqK4

Gat Out of Hell. It's both a lot of fun and a bit of a let down. The environment is fresh, and the angel wings flying is really good. They've definitely done something good with that combination. It's full of general, cheesy fun and games, and nice humour. There is absolutely no message, morality, or political edge to it. It's all just good, clean, silly fun. But... there isn't a big push of story to it. Or at least, gameplay wise it's being pushed by you doing random side things, rather than any campaign-centric missions. It's still a lot of fun, and I can see myself spending quite a few hours just poking around, but it lacks something without that. Saints Row was always good at creating interesting, quirky, and generally well written campaign missions, so it's noticeable when that's missing.

I'm just having a short poke at Gat Out of Hell. I have to say, got plenty of chuckles in the first 10 minutes.

And to have the general upfeel... Since who doesn't love Princess Bride? LA Weekly - Cary Elwes Tells Behind the Scene Princess Bride Stories in his Memoir

Eh, it doesn't really matter in the long run. No one really came to the Obs boards to look at ladies, it was just one of those amusing threads that started randomly and kept going with odd diversions of thought and discussion here and there. Along with Oby's wanderings into racial superiority, and poking fun at Woldan's very masculine women.. I don't think anyone took it that seriously, so as the official policy gets turned to tighten up some of the loose regulations, we can expect such things to get tidied out. It's not going to destroy the community, and that's pretty much why folk lurk around and throw things into threads.

So.... io9 - King Tuts Mask Has Been Damaged Telegraph - King Tuts Beard Hastily Glued Back On