Category: Nerdiness

After Marlo and I saw Revenge of the Sith for the second time we realized that R2 and 3PO were responsible for Padme’s death. We wondered, how did the droids move a human body? 3PO is pretty useless and can’t really bend over, and R2D2 can only push a body in front of him, rolling the body over and over, or shoot that grappler thing out the back (which plunges into her rib cage) and then drag the body along. So they probably did that last thing, and her head kept bumping into the walls of the ship. Then R2 reprogrammed the medical droid to say “she simply lost the will to live.”

Recently, while drawing, I’ve been watching Tony Robinson (Baldric from Black Adder) talk about – and do – the worst jobs in history on the History Channel. Not only was it interesting to learn what the oldy timey people did to get by, but I learned the origins of a whole bunch of idioms, like “show you the ropes” and…okay I forget all the other ones. But it’s okay because I taped the entire 6 hour series. The best stuff was in the dark ages.

Down with the pope: Did you know that in 2001, Pope Benedict Whatever ordered Catholic bishops to hide allegations against pedophile priests from the public? Let’s hear it for the church.

Also, A papyrologist at Oxford University announced that new techniques in spectral imaging, which make it possible to decipher previously illegible ink on papyrus fragments, have yielded parts of a lost tragedy by Sophocles, a novel by Lucian, and an epic poem by Archilochos; researchers also applied the technique to third- and fourth-century manuscripts of the Revelation of Saint John and discovered that the number of the beast, contrary to popular belief, is 616, the area code of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I watched A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi over the past couple of days (while I’ve been drawing, of course) and after having watched Revenge of the Sith, the end of Jedi has a little bit more of a punch.

Also it made me want to watch all my episodes of Samurai Jack.

Tomorrow is the free Drexoll 24-hour game-a-thon at the Marpole Curling Club. What possible reason could you have not to go?

Last night Taylor, Mike Jackson, Nathan, Marlo and I played Spaceship Zero (Web of the Space Bee). It was my playtest for the Cloud City gaming convention this coming weekend. Some of the bits went pretty much exactly as planned, but as always, lack of proper pacing is my downfall. We probably would have gone for another 2 hours (after the prescribed 4 hour block) to finish the scenario properly at the rate we were going, so I’m going to have to make sure I don’t dawdle on periphery when I run it next time. Marlo said that this adventure and the last one (Bring Me the Head of Dr Quisling) were her two favourites so far, so that’s good, and it looks like I’ve made a SSZ convert out of Mike.

I watched all of the episodes of the Clone Wars cartoons recently. I had the first ten on tape for a while, but Teletoon has been airing the last 15 lately. It’s actually getting me pretty fired up for the movie. I went to starwars.com and looked at all the little commercials for ep iii as well. I sure hope it’s good. Or at least as good as Attack of the Clones, I don’t think that’s too much to ask. I heard Kevin Smith gave it a good review, but considering I hated Dogma, I’m not taking that too much to heart. Anyway – Clone Wars. Pretty good. The animation is good all around. It’s pretty clear that they used computers to animate the ships, but it’s clear because they move so fluidly, not because the style is different. Like in Futurama, the computer animated object style matches perfectly with the traditional animation. I wish they’d do that on Justice League.

The one thing that bugs me the most in the cartoons is that the jedis seem overpowered, and their abilities are a little inconsistent with the films. Yoda, for example, uses the force to smash a big droid battle cruiser (the things that landed on Naboo and carried the droid army) into another one. Mace Windu piloted a droid ship by punching his hand into it and using the wires as reins. Stuff like that.

One thing that cartoons often fail at is interesting fight scenes – like sword fights. You just don’t get the ballet-like …what’s the word I’m looking for? Not orchestration. Anyway, that’s one thing that Genndy Tartakovsky seems to be pretty good at (see Samurai Jack). Sometimes (and not just in cartoons) you can clearly see what’s going on in the fight, but it’s too static. Other times the fight is dynamic, but you can’t tell what’s happening (like in movies where the actors actually have no fighting skills so they just use quick edits and CG). Tartakovsky uses interesting angles and interesting environments and interesting moves, all mixed up, and it’s good. It suffers a little bit from G.I. Joe syndrome, in which droids get mowed down but clones rarely get hit, but it’s not too bad. You do get the sense that living things are killed, which is what war is all about.

Another thing that impressed me is the voice acting. Not that the dialogue was particularly amazing (it was good), or that the delivery was bone-chilling, but that considering that Anthony Daniels was the only original voice from the films the voices were well cast. Yoda sounded like Oz, Windu sounded like Jackson, and Anakin sounded like Christensen – only better! They also introduced General Grievous, who [SPOILER SPOILER] will be in the movie and who is a jedi-whoppin’ cyborg sith.

At work, all of us had to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the new Harry Potter book. We’re not allowed to open the boxes or look at the insides until the release date, which is a little silly. I guess if anyone asks me to pick 10,800,000 copies of Blood Prince I can say “screw you, I signed a piece of paper promising I wouldn’t. I’m going home”

The Cloud City gaming convention is at the end of the month. I know you want to go…and you can! So buy a ticket. I’ll be running 2 games of Spaceship Zero. www.vancouvergamingguild.com

Tonight we played part 2 of the 2nd episode of the D&D cartoon campaign. Billy the barbarian came sort of close to dying, as the two-headed lava dragon and the collapsing castle threatened them all. Afterwards we watched the “Servant of Evil” episode that it was based on and compared the two experiences. I know exactly what episode I’m going to run next, and it should be even better, but I won’t get to it until after Cloud City.

Marlo, Stewie, Taylor and I went to see Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy at the new Paramount Theater downtown. The theater is so-so. They have a Taco Bell and a KFC and all manner of unpleasant fast food options, with the added attraction of the employees still trying to get the hang of their new jobs. I bought a bubble tea, which was about 50 cents too expensive (for the size) and harbored too much ice for this sailor. The theater seats were good. All in all – it’s no Tinseltown.

The movie was great. Lots of fun. Sam Rockwell’s performance made me realize how much of a one-dimensional character Zaphod Beeblebrox is. That’s not to say that Rockwell’s performance was bad. It was good. He did as much as he could with the role, I thought. Ford Prefect kind of took a back seat to the Arthur/Trillian angle. That’s not really a complaint, just a surprise. Like Marlo, I wasn’t thrilled with the design of Marvin. I thought it was almost anime in design, and out of place, but I tolerated it well enough. I really liked the design of the Vogons, the graphics on the guide itself, and all the stuff with Magrathea was highly enjoyable. The falling whale voiced by Bill Bailey is a modern classic. I was also greatly gratified that the used the original music for the opening credits. Now every time I see one of the HHGTTG books at work, I start whistling it. 7/10. Wished it was longer.

Oh yes, and Marlo and I both brought our towels to the theater.

At the last Star Wars Celebration, George Lucas announced plans for a live action Star Wars spinoff TV series. I actually think this is good news. Look what happened with the backlash of Phantom Menace – things got a lot tighter in Attack of the Clones. To wit, very little Jar Jar. Am I using “to wit” properly? Anyway – I think there is a new hope (pun intended) in a more or less separate medium and story. It’s a chance to wipe the slate clean, make some better casting choices than in eps 1-3, and hopefully send the directing chores out to somebody competent. As a storyteller, Lucas is not bad. As a creative visionary, he’s great. Hopefully enough people have been yelling at him that he’ll start to wise up.

“I’m going to get it started and hire the showrunners and all of that, then I’ll probably step away.”

Hopefully that ‘probably’ becomes a ‘definitely’.

Of course if Revenge of the Sith is worse than Attack of the Clones, my optimism may sag. But still – even if this TV series does suck, so what? It will join the ranks of the ewok adventures. The franchise has already been pissed on so much, I don’t really see how much more damage could be done. I look forward to the opportunity of seeing more old British actors mucking about in star destroyers.