Beyond My Geeky Life

 I will try to be good and keep this all spoiler free, but I make no promises. If you are big on keeping spoiler free, best not to read on. This season of The Mandalorian has been really good. The story has developed well, with a lot of connections being made with other Star Wars storylines such as the two animated series Clone Wars and Rebels as well as getting to see the first live action versions of characters from those series. They did deal with the Mandalorian Helmet issue I talked about a few posts back and I was very close to being correct about how it all works. They just keep doing it right to make the show a solid part of the Star Wars universe and in this last episode, they did what needed to be done for forty years. While it was really awesome, it was no surprise that Boba Fett was going to be back and be used in a significant way. When you start off the season with an episode all about his armor and giving him a brief cameo at the end of that episode, there was no way...

 In honor of Marvel comics hitting the 80 year mark, Marvel released many publications to celebrate the historic milestone. One thing they did was set of graphic novels to celebrate each decade by highlighting whatever it was they felt best displayed that era.  For the 50s they picked Captain America. I ended  up with a copy of that graphic novel and have been reading it lately. It has been a very interesting read. So first off you have to understand that at one point every story in this collection became non-canon as a decade later the Avengers would reveal that Cap was actually frozen during this time period, so none of these stories could have happened. This was then later ret-conned to make it a different man having taken on the role of Captain America because the government wanted to keep the legend alive. Even with all that knowledge, this post will be about the stories on their own, completely independent from any continuity issues. The first item of notice, as wit...

 We are just a few days from the premier of season two of The Mandalorian. It should be an interesting ride to see where the story goes. Now one big thing from the first season was that the Mandalorian did not remove his helmet in front of others, as was the way for all Mandalorians we saw in the series. This was clearly a very big rule for them, as it was mentioned many times throughout the series. Now if one is into Star Wars and watches everything like we do in this house, you will find that in both cartoon series,  'Clone Wars' and Rebels', we see a lot of Mandalorians going around without their helmets for long periods of times, very openly in public, for all to see. As all three of these are technically Star Wars canon, there pops up some obvious issues over this area of Mandalorian customs. I've seen a few articles talking about the helmet mandate being part of the aftermath of the Empire decimating Mandalore in an attempt to wipe of the Mandalorians. There are a...

So to repeat what I titled this post, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is NOT the worst Indiana Jones movie, that honor undeniably goes to Temple of Doom. So the first real issue is Indiana's love interests. Out of the three he is given in the four films, Willie is by far the worst. She is fully  useless through out the whole film, mostly used for comedy relief as she is just annoying, spoiled and whiney, nothing else. I don't believe for one moment Indiana would be attracted to her, as she lacks common sense and is just unlikable on ever level. There really is no doubt he ditched her as soon as possible and most likely forgot about her, hoping to never see her again. Then we have the plot.  The story for Temple of Doom is not compelling, you just don't care. Which is a big problem, since it has Indy doing his most noble of missions, yet there is something lacking. I can't explain it, but of all his quests, this one I really didn't care if he completed it or not. Helpin...

 Now each Star Wars Trilogy had one featured hero who has the dominating story arc. Classic trilogy it is Luke, prequel trilogy we're following Anakin, and sequel trilogy we're with Rey. Luke's story is a fairly straight forward hero's journey. Anakin is a forced story of the rise and fall of a hero. Rey is more or less back to the basic hero's journey. Other characters get their stories told, but most of them are not that well played out, with some characters really getting the screwed over. However, there is one character storyline that to me stands out as the best and that is the story of Ben Sols/Kylo Ren. The only child born to Leia and Han Solo, legendary heroes of the rebellion, nephew to Luke Skywalker and grandchild of Darth Vader. So before he was even born, the whole weight of the universe was on his shoulders. The insane amount of stress of being a child in the that family, with that legacy being forced on you, would be unbelievably unfair. There was no ...

 Mattel has put out a new series of Masters of the Universe toys called the Origin collection. They are taking the classics figure, adding more articulation and some slight cosmetic changes, but making sure they have the basic aesthetics of the original figures.  It is a great collections. Leave it up to a fan to go and really makes something awesome with the collection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fHmubBPJnA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBDYMRueM4k Those are unofficial commercials for the new line done in the style of toys commercials from the 80s. That is just awesome. With modern technology fans really can do so much in the way of being creative. With all the toxicness I see on youtube from so many, it is really pleasant to see something like this. It is celebrating and having fun with a fandom in away that should be enjoyable to everyone. No attacking going there. I want more of that. 

Last night I misbehaved and allowed myself to participate in an auction the Gnarly Toybox (You should check out this shop as the guy who owns is really cool) was doing via Facebook. In his first set of items he had a vintage Darth Vader costume from Ben Cooper Inc. I had been wanting to add one of these to my collection for some time, as I remember from my youth as well as it being Star Wars and decided to spoil myself. I won the auction and got a good deal in the end. The picture above are not the one I won, the box is in a lot better shape. After I won I kept watching to see what else they had and how much everything was going for. The vintage Star Wars figures did real well and went for about the prices you'd expect. They were obviously still in demand. Most of them I already have, so I was not too interested, even the ones I didn't have are not that hard to find. There was nothing hard to come by for vintage figures. He also put out some of the 90's Power of the Force f...

The following is an actual e-mail I sent to Disney Corporate (TWDC.Corp.Communications@Disney.com) and while I do not know if anyone will actually take it seriously, I felt with all the toxic fans being vocal and calming Disney is listening to them, someone needed to try to convey an alternate voice to all the toxic nonsense. I do encourage people to go out and let their voices be heard to counter the loud voices of the other side.   This is a general letter to the heads of Disney, although I have no idea if this will get to the hands of anyone who can really make a difference and ensure some level of common sense remains with-in Disney as a whole. There are several youtubers who are right now making some rather frightening claims that I truly hope are just rumors based on their own childish biases.   The idea that someone is actually considering redoing the Star Wars sequel trilogy is just insane. Throwing out what was done and replacing it with a new one based off of Lucas’ ...

 A few posts back I was going off on Doomcock (That name still is so stupid and idiotic. How can he even take himself seriously?) and his his poorly thought out, toxic ideas. If you watch his videos, it becomes clear he is a true toxic fan. He dislikes everything that does not fit with what is clearly a narrow view of the world. It is clear if he were alive at the time of the original Star Trek, he would have hated it because it was too political and was forcing a 'woke' (Yes I know the term did was not in use at the time) narrative down everyone's throat. If he had his present attitude and went to see Star Wars for the first time in 1977, he would have found Leia to be forcing a feminist agenda on us as she talked down to Han Solo who was only trying to rescue her. And the famous cantina scene was clearly just an unneeded political statement about accepting diversity. If you listen to his statements, this is very much the kind of logic he uses to say the modern releases of...

With all the rumors flowing around about Star Wars right now, the batch of toxic fans who basically are the ones responsible for any troubles the franchise is going through right now, as there is some logic to say they helped make Solo perform so badly in theaters. (All the other Disney Star Wars movies have made blockbuster level returns.) It was the failing of Solo that has caused Disney to look at the franchise and think about doing some drastic, unneeded changes. With Star Wars, the ultimate toxic fan, Doomcock (Emperor of the dumbest name a misogynistic a-hole could come up with) is spreading rumors about Lucas' return as the head of Lucasfilm as the divine savior of the franchise. Outside of the fact that Lucas gave up his company for a reason and I've seen nothing to suggest he has changed his mind, there are so any flaws to embracing this belief. Those like Doomcock (How can anyone take an seriously someone who choose to be called by such a lame-ass name?) are able to...

So at Wal-Mart right now the most expensive Transformer figure on sale is: A sixty dollar figure, but you don't get to see it or even know who it is, all because it is a spoiler for some reason. Now of course this is the day and age of the internet, so this secret lasted all of five seconds. And the big reveal was the figure is none other than, yet another Ultra Magnus. Not only is this a character that has been around for some time with dozens of figure made of it, this is just a repaint of one they released last year with a special mini figure that is also a repaint. So the big question is 'how is this a spoiler?' It is a character that makes sense to be in the new show. There is nothing new to its transformation. By labeling it a 'spoiler' figure, I am now speculating that Ultra Magnus will be doing something more significant than I would have thought. If they did not label it as being a spoiler, then it would have been easy to just see ...

There is an internet personality who calls himself Overlord  Dicktor Van Doomcock (DVD), yes that is the name he goes by and I believe he believes it is a clever name. He has a whole Youtube channel dedicated to him being a toxic fan and putting down anything and everything that does not   live up to his beliefs of what is worthy   entertainment. He shows himself to be a true misogynist. For as he puts down anything that has the slightest essence of female empowerment, he claims he is all for powerful female characters as long as they fit into his little box of female characters. The basic idea is that he knows better than everyone else how stories should be told and   that all he is doing is trying to safeguard our modern myths, painting himself as a heroic force here to save us all. Understand, this a is guy who is upset with the   questionable   science of only the newest seasons of Doctor Who, the ones starring Jody Whittaker, the first female Doctor....

Self Discovery By Ian Brazee-Cannon How many times have I died now? After being in pain for so long, you have no choice but to get used to it. Every moment is pain now. I remember the rush and panic, everyone pushing to get to the escape pods. The engines had gone critical. I was already suited up, ready for work. I ended up in an airlock somehow. Then in space. The ship exploded. I was floating directionless. I watched the stars, thousands of brilliant points of light breaking through the dark reaches of eternity. It was glorious. I accepted my fate, decided to enjoy the sights I was seeing. I would be the only one to ever see this exact arrangement of the universe. Then I died. When I woke up from death, lost in pain, I was cold and hungry, couldn't breath. How long have I been out there? Have I become one of those immortals I have heard about? Immortality hurts. I would rather have just died. I’ve gained a great respect for death. I...

I have never hidden my dislike for the character Batman here. The more I see of the character the less I like him and the more annoying he becomes. He is one that I feel is mostly popular because of his look, since he really is a poorly conceived character no matter how you look at it. The big Batman trilogy was really the story of how incompetent the Gotham Police force is, which was the only reason Batman came off as heroic. If at any point the police themselves, acted as a real police force does, there would have been no need at all for Batman. Seriously, none of the movies would have made any sense at all if even half the Gotham police were able to do their job. And as a whole, they were completely useless and idiotic. So lets take the basic concept of Batman. The city of Gotham is overwhelmed with crime to such a ridiculous level, way beyond anything rational, and it needs one man, who dressed up as a bat to make all the difference.  Yes, we are going with the rational bef...

A big issue I have with fiction is when a franchise 'kills off' a character, then goes through the whole 'are they really dead, it seems like they are' for a while, and then finally make a big (Oh so shocking) reveal that the character is not really dead. In comics, just about all your big heroes have been there at one time or another. So many shows have done this, some devoting seasons to the mystery, when all along you already know the character is not going to stay dead. It is one over played, extremely cliche, story type that has stretched way past being enjoyable or shocking. I knew that Superman, Spider-Man (regular Marvel, as they did keep the Ultimates Universe Peter Parker dead) and Wolverine would all be back from the dead after the big deal that was made about them dying. I had hoped Marvel was going to keep Captain America dead and make his perfectly done death in the after math of their Civil War event mean something. Nope, he was brought back a few yea...

A standard challenge for the geek communities is to pit two characters from different franchises against each other and then debate who would win in such a battle. The Magazine 'Wizard' did this fairly regularly and there is a series of youtube videos called 'Death Battle' that do this. There is also a card game based off this concept, called 'Superfight'. These debates can get really intense and detailed, as we geeks have way too much knowledge of our characters at times. I have seen some people get way too passionate about, overwhelmed with certain biases that make it hard to have real debates with them. Sometimes these can get really crazy. At Denver Comic Con a few years ago Larry Hama was there. He is famous in the comic book world for basically creating G.I.JOE as we know it today, having written most of the original run of the Marvel Comic Book. He also wrote Wolverine for a time.  On his table he had a sign going over commonly asked questions, one wa...

Just watched the first two-part adventure of the new Thundercats Roar... I seriously am unable to describe just how awful it is. From horrible dialogue, complete lack of plot, insanely stupid fight scenes and nothing in the way of  actual characters. It is pure crap with no real entertainment value to it. I think it is supposed to be humorous, but there is not a single joke that is funny in it. The writers clearly believe they are being witty and clever with some of the self aware jokes, but it all falls flat with every scene. When I saw a clip for it some time ago, I predicted it was going to be bad, but I was truly not ready for the awful, unamusing mess they put out there. It really lacked any spark of quality. I do not see this attracting anyone to the shows. Old fans like me are going to check it out and find it lacking. Potential new fans are going to see it and be puzzled by how it ever got made. There might be those out there who will enjoy it (I've seen a lot of bad ...