A Cringey ad for an Awesome Sounding Experience

 While it may be way out of my budget range, next year Disney is going to open their new totally immersive Star Wars themed hotel, Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser. You go for a two-day interactive Star Wars themed experience with a unique storyline playing out around you as you get to make choices that change your own experience.

Everything about this concept just sounds as amazing as it gets.

When it was first announced the big criticism was over the price point, which does sound costly. The best deal is for a package for four that comes out to about $1500 per person. Now that does include your two day stay, all your meals and the interactive live show you will take part in. Having recently been to Disney World, I can tell you it not hard at all to spend much more than $1500 person if you want to take part in all the various special experiences they have for meals and such if one breaks down all the charges. In some was this is Disney being far more honest and open about your costs.

The big story now though is that with the opening of the hotel getting ever closer, Disney is trying to get more out there to promote it all, even though they are already sold out for the first few months.

Disney put out a promotional video on youtube that was not well received and got quickly pulled. However, anything posted on the internet is hard to kill, so the video is still out there in many different forms, most of them filled with unflattering commentary

Here is one that is just the promotional video itself with no commentary:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4gXSn6umSQ

Yes, the video is very cringy, although that is nothing new for Disney promotional videos which too often play it over safe.

I got what they were trying for with the video, but I will agree it does not do a good job of selling the concept. Of course when they are not open yet and still working on the final touches, there are limits to what they can put together for such promotions. Once they get some real crowds there and have it all going, chances are they can do a much better video. I'd be more than willing to fly out there for a few days and put together a better video for them, but I doubt Disney will give me the chance.

I love everything about the idea of the Galactic Starcruiser, as it really complements Galaxy's Edge and I love that experience. If I ever can get to the point of justifying the cost, it is a vacation I really would love to take. I see no sign that this is going to be a flop, as I already pointed out they are fully booked for their first few months and once people start giving accounts of their personal experiences, chances are that will create even more excitement.

It is really crazy that so many supposed fans are already going out of their way to not give this a chance, looking for any small detail they can be critical of instead of waiting to see how it all comes together and works out once it is up and going.

Let's Talk About Locke and Key

Last year I cheeked out season one of the Netflix series 'Locke and Key' based of the graphic novels by Joe Hill of the same name.

I really enjoyed the show. Lots of interesting magic being used, with a complex backstory and system in use that slowly gets explored. So many intriguing ideas.

And the keys themselves are just a really awesome take on an old concept.

I really could use the Anywhere Key (A key that when used on a door makes the doorway open on any other door you can picture) myself.

Recently season two came out and I enjoyed it as well. A lot of storylines from season one were finished up with new plots and twists being introduced so that there is clearly a story set up for a third season.

At that point I was able to hunt down a good on a set of the original six graphic novels and read them.

The base story is the same more or less between the two formats, but there are just so many differences in the details.

The comics were more direct horror stories, while the live action toned down the horror, although it is still there and still a vital part of the story, just not the dominating element. There were surreal aspects to the comics that might have been interesting to see in live action, but I don't think would have transferred well or helped the story, that they did not use, focusing on a more realistic atmosphere.

Both are enjoyable stories and worth experiencing.

The comics were able to use more keys and give a larger view of the world, while the show did a much better job with the characters (In the comics most of the characters, both main and minor, are not highly likeable, even the protagonists)  and the family's struggle. Of course seeing the keys being used in live action was just so much more awesome than depiction in the comics. Although the shadow creatures were more impressive looking in the comics, as were the demons and the whispering iron and were most likely simplified in the show for budget reasons.

I know there are a lot of Locke and Key comics out there that I will slowly be trying to hunt down as I go, so that I can learn as much as possible about the universe, as I am really enjoying it so far. I did pick up issue 1 of the crossover they did with Neil Gaiman's Sandman universe and will be licking up issue two, as the two universe do seem to blend together well.

There is a lot to look forward to as this franchise is still on going in both print and live action formats. It looks like the live action will however now be going way out on its own story wise, as the set up for season three is not connected to anything we saw in the graphic novels, making it so we could have two differing stories going it the two formats, which would not be a bad thing.

As a note of interest, creator of Locke and Key Joe Hill's real name is Joseph Hillström King and he is the son of some guy named Stephen King.

This Just Might Be The Time To Start Collecting

 I have talked a few time in the past about collecting and my main advice to everyone being: Never collect with value being the main concern, only collect what you have an actual passion for and want to collect. The best example to defend this idea is Beanie Babies, where people have lost thousands of dollars on them, being left with a bunch of worthless little plush figures that they really don't care about, yet had invested a big chunk of money on.

Never invest in fad collectable for any manner of long term investments. Most of the time you will lose a lot of money.

Now with that being said, I look at trends and I really am thinking right now is a great time to take some chances with collecting.

What is it that makes collectable valuable? It is all based on supply and demand of course, rarity vs popularity. The 90s killed the collectable market by over producing collectibles to a truly insane degree, with so many people believing that they could make a lot of money by buying up all these over produced items. Most of the stuff from the time are not highly desirable because it is not hard to get a hold of.

Now however actions figures are not being produced in those kind of numbers, in no small part due to kids not being as interested in them as much as in past decades, in no small part because of the rise of video games.

The new Star Wars film are a perfect possibility for long term value. The films did well and have a following, even if there are a pocket of the fandom who dislike them. Looking at patterns, there is a good chance that these films will actually be more appreciated in a decade or so, as which point there will be a fans looking for collectibles. With how low the production runs have been for Star Wars toys over the last few years, that has the possibility to create a demand for the action figures that were put on clearance because they weren't selling. Just because something does not sell now has nothing to do with there being a demand for it in the future.

Also, comic books right now are having some of the lowest production runs ever, as the market is hurting due to various factors that have been around for some time and I have written about in a past post here. And since you never know what new characters or events will be considered significant until years later (Deadpool and Squirrel Girl are two great examples of this), there is a chance for all levels of significant issues to be put on the market and not have a high production run and that is how you get valuable comics. But once more, there is no perfectly accurate way to really know which issues are going to be considered significant for a few years.

So while I do not collect for value, I am aware of what pieces I own that are valuable and am aware of what makes them valuable. Right now seems to me to be a great time to take some chances and build up a collection that has a high potential to become valuable for not a high monetary risk. The logic I have talked about her is not going to change my collecting habits and it will be some time before we know if I was right. 

I just enjoy collecting and will keep on doing it as my situation allows.

An Interesting Revelation About Fans

Dealing with other fans of various franchises I enjoy can be at times trying and stressful, as there are those out there who don't seem to care about respecting the idea of differing opinions, so they will go after anyone who disagrees with the their views in a truly hostile and insulting manner. I have been told I was delusional, stupid, clueless and some more crude titles, all because I liked or disliked something and politely expressed my views.

Of course a huge issue right now that is bringing out some of the worst toxic attitudes I have ever seen in a fandom has been those who dislike the Star Wars Sequels trilogy. These fans are outright vicious in their attacks against people who say they enjoyed the films.

I recently had to deal with a toxic fan who never once was able to counter any of my statements, but continued to mock me directly, questioning my intelligence, flinging insult after insult and just telling me I was wrong because I was wrong. He really seemed to enjoy making fun of me for my view above defending why he did not share them.

In dealing with him and looking at other such toxic fans I have had to deal with, I came to a realization as to what is going on. So back in the day I was a popular target for bullying. It made my years in Junior High the most miserable time of my life. One thing that often happens, was the kids would join in the bullying of me all because that is what everyone else as doing. They wanted to be included as part of the crowd, so often you would get these kids joining in on being mean just because that was show you fit in. In fact I had a former friend at one point go out of the way to focus on bullying me because he thought that was how to make himself more popular even though he was not well liked in general.

And this is a big part of what is going on right now. The big time toxic fans on youtube that I have talked about before, like Doomcock (Yes, he still geos by that truly cringe worthy name) openly make attacks in their videos towards fans who do not share their views (Even when they claim they do no such thing right after they call the fans stupid for having different views, yes Doomcock has done that many times in his videos). They also go off on insult filled rants that often lack anything in the way of constructive criticism, ending up being nothing more then a form of bullying.

So there are groups of toxic fans out there (A popular one calls themselves the Fandom Menace and they have become a noticeable group), doing little more than bullying the creative forces behind films and shows they dislike for all manner of petty reasons. These toxic fans will also openly make insulting comments about fans who do not share their views in their videos. It is no surprise that if you read the comments on these videos you will find a lot of degrading comments that are only there to insulting to towards others. Nothing constructive to be found there. If a fan goes into one such comments section and tries to have a meaningful exchange to defend differing opinions, 9 times out of ten that fan is going to become a huge target for personal attacks.

With all that is shouldn't be surprising that it really is a popular thing to take part in mocking and attacking those with differing beliefs in such a bullying manner all because it makes these toxic fans fill like they are part of a larger community. I have seen it many times now, where they have nothing at all to say, nothing constructive to express, these toxic fans just want to join in on mocking others because everyone else is doing. It really does often feel as if the toxic fans come together over their shared bullying. This does appear to be a driving force for a lot of the toxic comments that get made and the attitude behind them.

This is just historically how humans work, but it does help one to better understand just how to deal with such toxic fans, which is not as easy to ignore as one would think it to be. A person wants to believe their views are the most popular ones and so joining in with others who share their views, even in a toxic manner, helps to reinforce this concept. Communities are built over such toxic mentality uniting such people. If you look you really can see that is so often what is going on. A person will make toxic comments and keep the toxic fights going just to feel like they are fitting in with others who share their views.

Having the revelation is one thing, but I can see no real solution to the problem. The toxic fans have made being toxic too much a part of their identity, so chances are they are going no where any time soon. Just as those who feed off that toxicity and attack anyone who states a differing view, in order to feel like they are part of a larger group is not about to fade away. Now that should not cause anyone to back away from expressing their views and defend those views. If you are part of a fandom you need to learn how to not take personal attacks as a  personal thing. You can enjoy what you enjoy while ignoring those who wish to mock you for doing such..

Be a fan, be yourself, express yourself and be respectful in general. That really is the best counter to the toxic fans.

Now That is Some Odd Criticism

It is right now unquestionably the time of the Super Hero Movie, as for over a decade now movies based on comic book Super Heroes have been dominating the box office, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) becoming one of the most, if not the most, successful film franchises ever. and despite some rather random claims, there is no sign of this winding down any time soon.

As a fan of the MCU, having seen every one of the films in the theater opening weekend, I have enjoyed them all.

Some time someone trying to be bluntly critical of the MCU film started using the term 'The Marvel Formula', making the blanket claim that most of the MCU follow the same story telling formula for each of the their films. The basic ideas is that all the MCU films share the same structure, trying to imply a lack of creativity in the films.

So here is what is claimed as being the marvel Formula:

Having a villain similar to the hero - Yes this does happen, but it is far from being in every film and it also fits with the basics of comic book rivalries. The idea of Iron Man fighting villains who are also armored has been there since his comic started. Thor fighting Loki... Gods fighting other gods... Yeah that's been around for some time now, a little while before comic books if I am correct. The Hulk fighting another gamma powered giant monster... A good deal of Hulk's villains have always been behemoths just like him. Dr. Strange fighting another sorcerer, well that just sounds like any movie about a sorcerer. In westerns gun fighters almost always seem to fight other gun fighters. Of course in over half the films there are villains that are not at all similar to the heroes, but that is ignored by those who wish to use this criticism.

The stories are comprised of three acts, with the action escalating in each act - Ok??? I am fairly certain that is just the basics of action movie. How many great action films use that formula? Could you make a enjoyable action film without that formula? That is really just a outline, that you can then fill it in with a lot of ways to create a great story. If you do not escalate the action, escalate the danger, then the story would get boring real quick.

The use of humor - Yes, they do use humor in the MCU films and they do a great job with it. The humor works with the story, not against it. I cannot at all figure out why this is something that people are critical about.

Protagonist is met with insurmountable odds, protagonist overcomes insurmountable odds and wins the day - Once more, is that not a basic idea for just about all action movies? If the hero gets an easy battle to end the film with, the audience is going to feel cheated.

There is no feeling of anything at stake - This is the idea that due to the predictable nature of the stories, you know the hero is going to survive so there are no real stakes involved... That is true of 99.9999% movies ever made. You kind of know form the get go that the vast majority of the time your heroes are NOT going to die in the film. We get a lot of drama, even knowing the hero is going to pull through their near death experiences and save the day.

The films always end with a big battle - Right, and once more that is a standard for action films.

The Marvel formula really is just a basic formula for telling stories that is seen all the time, not just in film but in all forms of entertainment. As is not too uncommon, this is just trying to find flaws in what is popular just to be critical of for the sake of being critical. It benefits no one and only serves to fuel the toxic fan mentality.

I and many millions other MCU fan will keep on enjoying the brilliant films, ignoring the unfounded claims that fall apart fairly quickly with just the slightest level of common sense applied.

The Big 200th Post, It Has The Power

One of the few Christmases I really remember well is the Christmas of 1982. The plan was for the family to drive out to California for a few weeks on Christmas day. A nasty snow storm was moving in on Christmas Eve and the decision was made to start the drive at midnight instead of the next morning to stay ahead of the storm. Which paid off. We ended up spending a few weeks in sunny California while those back home got the fun of a really bad blizzard.

I very much remember that as I waiting at the kitchen table that Christmas Eve, I was playing with my new Christmas presents, He-Man and Battle Cat. This was before the cartoon, so there was only my first mini comic to follow and I don't really remember being worrying about following it. After the vacation I used my Christmas money to get Skeletor and Castle Grayskull. In a few months I had all the figures and the battel ram. I didn't stay interested in the line at that time, although I would every so often get back into it briefly. In Junior High, when I was not supposed to be into toys (I have never actually not been into toys through out my whole life), I acted out a full on story line that ended with the death of He-Man (And many other characters) leaving Skeletor being victorious, as King Randor (A figure that is one of the more valuable ones today) went into hiding in with the powersword in hopes of finding another worthy to wield it. This inspired me to plot out a trilogy of books based on the concept, although I obviously could not use the Masters of the Universe, so I had to comes up with my own universe for it. I have notes and such about it and maybe one day I will actually write it all out.

The point being, I was a fan of the Masters of the Universe (MotU) from the beginning and while I went in and out of interest in the franchise over the years, I was still a fan.

In 2002 (Known as the 200X line by the fans) they did a reboot that was brilliant and got me back into the franchise. I collected the toys. Regretfully it was short lived.

Not too long ago my oldest got interested in the franchise and the two of us got together a impressive collection of vintage and a line they called Classics, as well the retooled line of figure based off the idea of improving the original molds called MotU Origins, as well as the Mega Bloks line. We now have four versions of Castle Grayskull in the house.

We were excited about the MotU: Revelation series, especially with how big of fans we are of Kevin Smith, who was announced as the show runner. 

And he did not let us down. MotU: Revelations was extremely well done, despite the nonsense being put out by toxic fans.

The story was just great. They took chances, going against over used tropes (Even though they use classic tropes as well), keeping things interesting with some noticeable surprises. They give us a fun, unique adventure in we world we are familiar with.

The character development in MotU: Revelation was remarkable. They took Orko and Cringer, two characters that were little more than basic comic relief in the original series, and made them meaningful with some serious depth to them. They are not sidekicks here, but fully realized characters.

One of the real displays of inspired story telling is that He-Man is not the focus, so we get to see the world of MotU with other characters being guiding the story, including Prince Adam. Not that may sound a little weird, as Prince Adam is He-Man, but with Revelation they make Adam worthy on his own, without the power of He-Man. After death, when most heroes choose to be the most heroic visions of themselves, Adam stays the unimpressive looking Adam. How much character development is shown in that one revelation? When you look at what they did with Adam you get to see a truly heroic character that is not in it for the glory and fame and is willing to make serious sacrifices for those he cares for. By removing He-Man and letting use get to see Adam at his best, we are given a inspired look at who the character really is without needing muscles to be a hero.

I do have a few complaints.

They made a big revelation about Castle Grayskull, showing us its true form and that did not work. Castle Grayskull needs to be this old, run down looking castle of mystery, not some shiny, new age castle. I have no idea where such a bad concept came from. This was one thing I am surprised Mattel let happen, as it does against their established stories of the castle and effects the greater mythos of the franchise. It is one retcon that I personally will ignore and pretend was only a dream.

Another part that really bothered me, although it was regretfully very much playing off of the original cartoon, was that the only scene of any interaction between King Randor and Prince Adam, was Randor making it clear, in a very condescending tone, how disappointed he is in his son. It was a harsh scene early on that was not needed. The thing is this was how Randor treated Adam in the original cartoon. Adam took a lot of abuse from his father and Teela back then. Both of them were highly guilty of being out right cruel to him and it did bother me to see it done again this time around. That was an aspect of the original cartoon that is best moved on from. While it was there in the 200X show, it did not feel as harsh or as over done.

I have started reading the prequel comics for Revelation and have some issues with the story line, especially the attempt to rewrite Skeletor's history, going against a far stronger and more interesting origin that has been put together over decades. Not going to go into details on that as there are still a few issues to come out to finish that story, but so far I am not impressed with it.

Of course the five episodes they gave us left off at a major cliffhanger, so we are waiting patiently for them to get the other five episodes out to finish up the storyline. I have faith they are going to keep the same level of story telling and inspired character development going. By the end of it all, I foresee it being an exciting, enjoyable ride

I so Hate How Over and Wrongly Used the Term 'Mary Sue' Has Become.

I had an exchange with someone on Youtube and in every comment they made to me they seemed to have to go out of their way to proclaim that Captain Marvel is a Mary Sue. I had only defended the film once, but this person felt they had to express those feeling in all the half dozen comments in our exchange, and they fully ignored anything I said to counter their statements. I truly have no clue why they were so aggressively out to put down the movie (And Brie Larson, as they made sure to add negative comments about her every chance they had) and it really seemed to be a broken record after a point.

But is Captain Marvel really a 'Mary Sue'?

So here is the Wikipedia page about 'Mary Sue' - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue. 

Oddly enough, the original Captain Marvel (Now known as Shazam) is a 'Mary Sue', as were so many heroes form that era, including Superman, who very well may be the more pure and famous 'Mary Sue' out there.

So why is Superman a 'Mary Sue'?

Well, he was first and foremost just powerful all because he was powerful. Because he lived on Earth the radiation from our yellow sun made him powerful. He naturally just was able to use these powers, with no real training needed. He is morally perfect and the whole population of the Earth loved him because they loved him. One of the many bad, poorly thought out aspects of Justice League is that Superman, who really had not done that much, with his most famous actions in the DCEU not being very heroic, somehow having a huge monument to him with all manner of praise left there by his adoring public after he 'died'. While that might have made some sense in the comics, where he had a lot of time to earn such a following, in the DCEU films, it really does not work. And his 'Mary Sue' status is only emphasized in the film by the fact the team can't seem to do anything of value until he shows up and saves the day in the end. The film really is about a bunch of useless heroes who can't save the day without Superman doing 99% of the work.

Superman is the perfect example of a 'Mary Sue' and that is one of the major reason I find the character boring. However, you will never find those who claim Captain Marvel to be a 'Mary Sue' using the same criticism towards Superman.

Right there we see one of the biggest problems with the term, as it is almost always used as criticism towards female characters, not male characters.

But let us look at Captain Marvel as shown in the film of the same name.

The character while on Earth goes through Navy training. So to start with she is trained and has skills she has built up. She is then blasted by alien energy (Yeah, not the best power origin, but it is comicbook logic) and she gains powers, while her memory is wiped. She is then taken to the Kree homeworld where she is given their military training as well as taught how to use her powers, even though they are being regulated by the Kree to keep her under control. So by the time we meet her in the film, she has worked to get to the skill to fight and to use her powers. At no point has anything just come easy to her. She is skilled because she had trained.

This is significant, as when she is able to access her full power, she has already been trained in using her powers, so to use those same powers when amped up is not that unreasonable. We even she that she does have some issues of control at that point even, not being used to having that much power available to her.

So next up in the 'likable' aspect. In the film Captain Marvel has to actually put work into earning people's trust. No one just automatically likes her. At one point her former teammates even rag on her.

At the end of the film, yes she is powerful enough to hold off the Kree fleet, but you do get the idea that she went through a lot to get to that point. Just being an over powered character is not the same as being a 'Mary Sue'. In Avengers; Endgame, while she was powerful in fighting Thanos, her being there is not the main event that made it so the Avengers won. It still took all the other heroes fighting and having some level of effect on the battle.

So I would not call Captain Marvel a 'Mary Sue', as she basically does not fit with any of the description of such a character.

And to prove just how misogynistic the term is with those who are using it all the time now, just look at Star Wars. They call Rey a 'Mary Sue' when she is shown to be equal to both Luke and Anakin before her. The three of them really have similar stories (Which was done on purpose) and all three show themselves to be powerful in the Force with little or no training. So why are Luke and Anakin not labeled as being 'Mary Sues'.

So while I understand the essences of the term, I very much dislike how much it is used now days because it really is all about a misogynistic attitude towards strong female characters that are viewed as competition for male characters.

It is a term that due to the overuse of it, in all the wrong ways, is best avoided. Those who use the term very often are telling you much more about themselves than they are the characters they are criticizing.

Next post here will be my 200th, what topic should I write about?

Why is Manga Out Selling Traditional Comics?

 On-line now there are a large amount of people who are pointing out that at this time in the USA Manga (Japanese comicbooks) are more popular than the new issues of traditional comicbooks by Marvel and DC. Their claims as to why this is focuses on their beliefs that the comicbooks have become 'woke' over the last few decades and that has driven away the fans. They are openly ignoring that both Marvel and DC have been doing 'woke'/political storylines for well over five decades now, only focused on the 'wokeness' of todays' comics that they disagree with.

For the record, Manga is as 'woke' as it gets. LGBTQ+ characters have been in Manga for decades. There are so many gender fluid characters, as well as countless androgynous characters and that is nothing new. 'Mary Sues' are everywhere in Manga. In fact just about everything that is being claimed as the problems with traditional American comicbooks right now, can be found in Manga and has been there for some time.

However the facts are the Manga is out selling the big two comicbook companies at this time. So why is that?

Manga has been growing in popularity over the last few decades and the availability of Manga here in the states has also been growing as well, making them cheaper and easier to get a hold of than they were a decade ago, with a far greater variety than ever before.

Also, it is easier to get a complete run of a Manga series, as most Manga series have an actual end point. With only few that are on-going, most do not hit the triple digits in volumes. Compare that to Spider-Man, in which the main series 'The Amazing Spider-Man' nearing issue 900 right now, and then you have over a half dozen other Spider-Man series that have been put out over the years that are directly connected to that same over-all storyline, making it a good two thousand or more comics that are part of that nearly 60 year old (Next year is the big anniversary) history. It is not cheap or easy to hunt all that down. Same kind of thing with other big time, long running heroes like Superman and Batman. Manga on the other hand, it is far cheaper and far easier to get a complete run of the series, making it much easier to get into the story and feel as if you are not missing out.

Both Marvel and DC have been aware of this problem for some time and have been doing all kinds of marketing to try to get new fans. DC has reset their universe a few times to try and create a new starting point for fans to jump in, which have not paid off the way they had hoped. Marvel keeps ending series and then starting them back up with promise of that being a perfect point for new fans to jump in, but it has not attracted the numbers they had hoped for. It really is just that hard to get new fans interested in such long running storylines and there really is no method to fix this.

I think one reason the MCU has been as successful it has been, is because you can jump in easily and get caught up with little effort. There is no feeling of being overwhelmed with all that is out there, although given time this could happen.

Manga for the most part plays out it storyline with a solid conclusion. You do not need to be invested in several thousand issues/volumes.

There are real, known issues that are helping fuel this change and it really has nothing at all to do with Marvel and DC being 'woke' or political. regretfully I am not sure if there is any real solution to this, as the decline in sales has been happening for some time now and it looks to only be getting worse. It is possible that we may be close to the end of super hero comics as we know them. And this is not a new revelation.

Go and enjoy your comics and your manga, which ever best fits your interests. The market is going to do what the market is going to do. This could just be a fad that will past in a few years, or not. It doesn't matter really and these trends have nothing to do with the nonsense reason being put out there.

What to Wish For: A Georgie and Armand Vacation story

I know it has been some time since I have posted here. 

I have been real busy lately.

Had a great vacation to Disney World and Galaxy's Edge and I do plan to do a full post about it soon.

Got back from that and published the second Georgie and Armand's Place novel, 'Georgie and Armand’s Place Under Siege' (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095WDZPXM).

I then did some promoting of the book.

Nerd Alert News (https://nerdalertnews.net/celebrate-pride-month-with-an-interview-with-author-ian-brazee-cannon/) posted an interview with me on their website.

Then 5280 Geek (https://weekendgeekupdate.podbean.com/e/weekend-geek-update-1623186267/) had me in the studio for an audio interview as part of their podcast.

Now here on my blog I am going to give the readers of my blog a little treat.

I do a series of short stories in the Georgie and Armand's Place called the Georgie and Armand Vacation stories. These are fun stories following Georgie and Armand as they explore various worlds on their vacations. The following is one of those stories I am posting here for free. If you enjoy it, I hope you will go here and check out more such stories.

What to Wish For

A Georgie and Armand Vacation story

By

Ian Brazee-Cannon

Based on

Characters and Concept 

Created by

Bryan Hineser

Georgie moved his hand in a smooth motion. The illumination orb that hovered in front of him moved forward with the motion. The light revealed the crumbling structure of the ancient temple’s buried ruins.

“Oh, this is beautiful,” Georgie commented as he looked over what appeared to be a room of worship, with a large stage and altar as the dominating features. The walls and pillars were covered with hand carved artwork. “Just look at the detail in those carvings. Such magnificent, hand crafted masterpieces, hidden from this world for so long.”

“Very impressive work,” Armand agreed. “If those crafters were still alive, I would be hiring them for our hotel. Many of our lobbies would benefit from some artistic details. I will be making images of them once we get closer for inspiration.”

“Everything down here is inspiring,” Georgie remarked as he walked to the center of the room. His attention was drawn to the grouping of statues that lined the chamber. Each one was a detailed depiction of a noticeably different creature with nearly lifelike auras to them. “Just look at those sculptures. I say we talk with the locals and see if they’d let us display these incredible works of art back at The Hotel.”

“It was difficult enough to get permission to explore this area,” Armand reminded his life partner. He was turned away from his lover, closely examining one of the statues, a depiction of a being with insect-like features standing on its hind legs, holding an uniquely designed sword. “I can’t see them allowing anything to be removed. We may have to settle for reproductions based off the images we create.” Armand stood back and cast his image capturing spell with the statue as its focus.

“Now look at this,” Georgie said as he prepared his own image capturing spell. “This one has a medallion on it.”

“And why is that of notice?”

“Because it is not part of the carving, but a real piece of jewelry that has been placed on it.”

Armand joined Georgie to inspect that statue himself.

“This seems to be the only statue that has been added to in any manner,” Armand remarked after looking around at all the others. “Was this being their high god? Or high priest? King maybe?”

“The amulet is of a copper/bronze-like material not fitting with anything else about this temple, covered in lettering that is not translating,” Georgie noted. “I so love such mysteries.”

Goergie took the talisman in his hand and gave it a good rub to try and clear off the layer of dust on it in hopes that clearing up the lettering might help with the translation magic.

“Now this is unexpected,” Georgie commented as he stood back. The medallion was shaking with a thick cloud of blue smoking seeping out of it.

“Did you not sense any magic from it?” Armand asked, his hand to his chin as he watched events unfold.

“That wasn’t my focus.”

A large blue cloud was forming above the statue, with a tail clearly connected to the medallion. A crackle of energy echoed through the chamber as a physical body took shape with-in the cloud.

A booming voice announced, “Do not be afraid, for you have awoken Royin, the great genie of Willsim. I grant you...”

“I would not have expected to find a jinn here,” Armand remarked.

“That was rather rude of you,” Georgie rebuked. “It was in the midst of its ‘awakening’ speech. You know how they enjoy putting on a show.”

“Right.” Armand turned towards the genie, nodded his head in apology and said, “Please feel free to continue.”

The purple form of Royin floated silently in the midst of the cloud with a puzzled look on his face. His gaze moved back and forth between the unassuming human forms of Georgie and Armand in puzzlement.

“You seem unimpressed with my appearance,” Royin said, his voice still booming.

“Well, it’s not like this is the first time we’ve met a genie,” Georgie explained. “While not common, if you do enough traveling they seem to pop up. What kind of jinn are you? An imprisoned demon being kept from harming the world? Or a nature spirit that has wrongly been captured by someone for their own gain?”

“Uhh… wait, what?” Royin stuttered, clearly not used to being questioned.

“I guess we are a little better traveled than most beings who have awoken you,” Armand remarked. “Now what is your knowledge regarding the builders of this temple? We run a hotel and would like to…”

A flustered Royin emerged from the blue smoke, his glowing purple body was massive and impressive. “I need to be allowed to finish my speech so I can tell you about the wishes.”

“Oh, you’re one of those genies then?” Georgie remarked with enthusiasm. “I’ve heard the stories, but never encountered a wish granting jinn before…”

“Now why does the wishes of a genie always have to come with some manner of  trickery to it?” Armand asked. “All the tales give the impression that the jinn are jerks.”

“I assure you that any of my wishes…”

“It would be rather easy to get around that though,” Georgie commented. “All you would have to do is use your first wish as a safeguard wishing that there were no unintended issues with your future wishes.”

“That seems a bit wasteful,” Armand replied. “I mean if one were to think out the wish fully beforehand, it would be easy to fix that problem as well as give yourself practically unlimited power.”

“It might seem like a waste of a wish for those of us who would think the situation out before wishing. You know most beings would blindly jump into the whole wishing game,” Georgie remarked. “But if you get three or five or as many as you want… So how many wishes do you grant?”

“Ummm, three,” Royin answered. “Now if you would just let me get back to my introduction…”

“I told you jinn were big on the show,” Georgie said, giving Armand a stern glance.

Armand let out an unamused groan. “Beside the fact that you have been interrupting it as much as I have, I am not sure we need a whole little show now.”

“Don’t listen to him Royin, go ahead and give us your best awakening speech.”

“There really isn’t much point to it now,” Royin said in surrender. “So you have three wishes.”

“Well I have no need for them,” Georgie replied.

“Really?” Royin asked in puzzlement. “In all my centuries of granting wishes, no one has ever declined them.”

Georgie gave the genie a reassuring smile before saying, “We don’t need them. We’re master mage dragons and there really is nothing of value for us in such trivial and unpredictable things as wishes.”

Royin looked between the two of them, obviously confused as he tried to process what he had just been told.

“Here let us revert to our natural forms if that will help,” Georgie suggested.

The two of them transformed into their dragons bodies. That did not seem to help Royin gather his thoughts. He stood there looking up at the grand forms of the red and black dragons before him with a new level of mental fog.

Without saying a word the two dragons changed back to their human forms.

“I’m not sure what to do now,” Royin said when he was finally able to speak again.

“Actually I believe that we might be able to make effective use of one of those wishes,” Armand commented.

“And what might that be?” Georgie asked, giving his lover a questioning smirk.

“We do know the long and rather complex ritual to break a jinn from their item of bonding,” Armand commented. “I do believe we may have found a far simpler method with this one.”

“Oh, of course,” Georgie said with an energized sense of realization. He turned towards Royin, who had been standing there in silence. “I wish for you to be free of your enslavement, as long as you are not going to be a danger to anyone upon your freedom.”

“Wish granted,” Royin said reflexively before realization came to him as to what the wish was. “Wait a moment, I have no idea what that will do…”

There was a bright flash of light from the medallion as Royin was engulfed in a cloud of blue smoke.

As the smoke cleared, it revealed a much smaller form that still had the purple skin, but was not as imposing looking as before. Royin was now a furry humanoid with pointy ears, and long slender arms and legs.

“That feels a little anticlimactic,” Armand observed.

“I think it’s a fine ending,” Georige countered. “Royin, in its true form, free to go out and follow its own way in the universe. It has a grand sense of hope to it.”

“Actually I have no idea what I’m going to do now,” Royin explained, looking over his fury arms that felt unfamiliar to him. “I was a genie with a purpose. Now I’m...lost.”

“As we must accept a good deal of the fault with this, you should return with us to The Hotel,” Armand offered. “We can help you find a new purpose there.”

“What would I be doing?” Royin asked.

“There are so many wonderful jobs,” Georige explained with enthusiasm. “And we are never not in need of more staff. If you wish to work for us, I have no doubt you will find something you will enjoy doing.”

“Now let us finish up with our exploration of this place,” Armand suggested. “While this little distraction was amusing, I still would like to see what other wonders are down here.”

“Yes, yes, back to exploring,” Georgie replied gleefully. “Hopefully you’ll join us, Royin. I am curious as to what you know about the civilization that built this place.”

In an absent-minded reply Royin said, “They called themselves the Bements. This temple was built in honor of….”

“I think we might have found a tour guide,” Georgie whispered to Armand as the two of them followed Royin deeper into the ruins.

Toxic Fans Hit Rock Bottom

Right now it seems like the toxic fans are getting worse every day. With all the youtube channels dedicated to promoting counterproductive attitudes as they promote and encourage aggressively destructive toxic actions, we are seeing a growing darkness expand over fandom in general right now.

I'll start off by trying to explain the basics of what it is to be a toxic fan. Just disliking a show or program or some creative choice in a franchise is not being a toxic fan. You can dislike something and just say 'I don't agree with what they did' or 'I didn't enjoy that show/movie' without being toxic. You can have opinions and express them in non-toxic ways. That is 100% fine. Toxic fans on the other hand dislike something and instead of just respectfully expressing their opinions, they go and try to burn the whole franchise down. They often resort to childish, personal attacks at a specific person that undeniably cross a line and have at times chased talented people away from social media and have made people suicidal or self destructive (Look up the life of Jake Lloyd to see a good example of this). Toxic fans also seem to think it a good idea to scare away new potential fans for the franchise they claim to be fans of, but are now acting like enemies of, basically ensuring the failure of the franchise.

So that is the kind of people I am referring to when I say 'toxic fan'.

The title for this post comes from e recent wave of titles on various youtube videos that were takes on 'Lucasfilm has Hit Rock Bottom'. All these videos by the toxic fan were all using almost that exact same title in their videos as they made some oddly ignorant attacks for the sake of making attacks against Lucasfilm, which the toxic fans are really being aggressive against right now. Not too long ago Lucasfilms announced the coming of a multimedia expanded universe event called Star Wars: The High Republic, a storyline that takes place 200 years before the Skywalker saga. In a typically and purely toxic response, all those fans went off on how horrible The High Republic was without having read a single story from it, all they had been given was the basic concept and a few character bios and they knew this was going to ruin the franchise and be an event that there was no recovering from as there won't be any 'real ' fans buying any of the books. The first books get released and they each keep becoming a #1 best seller as the toxic fans keep proclaiming the whole thing a total failure, somehow ignoring the sales and the reviews of every book. Then there is a announcement about the book 'Star Wars The High Republic: Into the Dark' and a character named Geode. Geode is a sentient rock. This is far from a new concept for sci-fi, although you wouldn't know that listening to all the toxic fans attack the idea. The went off on Geode being lazy and uncreative, showing just how big a failure The High Republic is if they have to use such lame concepts. Not single one of them spent any time reading the actual story they were attacking, because that would just be them actually showing integrity and giving the idea a chance, which goes against the beliefs of the toxic fan.

Because of this toxic attack I went and got a copy of the book and am almost done with it. I love Geode and love how cleverly written he is and how he is used. He is a minor character, but he is memorable. Every actual review I can find from people who have read the book has been very complimentary of Geode, including a two star review that talked about issues with plot and pacing, but loved Geode. So those who read the book enjoy Geode, those who try to prejudge it with next to no knowledge are being insulting about the concept. This is the toxicity that shows us how shallow and counterproductive those fans truly are.

Now I could go into so many other examples, but right now there is one major, massive toxic fan movement that is just so petty and self destructive that I have to talk about it.

Warner Brothers just released the Snyder Cut of DC's Justice League on HBO/Max. I'm not going into the the details of the movie and the history behind it. I though it was actually worse than the theatrical release, but I am not the target audience of the film as I am not a huge DC comics fan. The Snyder Cut itself was to some level giving into the toxic fans, which may be why it has stirred up the toxic fans to go to the next level as they now have.

The Snyder Cut gets released and a large batch of the DC comic fan proclaim it to be the greatest comicbook film ever, as it gets some impressive reviews (Although if you read the reviews, even though a lot of the 'good' ones are not that positive, being critical of it and giving it 3 out of 5 stars, which is one problem with the Rotten Tomato scoring system, where mediocre films often get good scores). With this new found artificial sense of righteousness, the toxic fans were on a new mission with #restorethesnyderverse, a movement to get WB to go back to following Snyder's vision for the DC comic films. That by itself would not be a big deal, but their movement is following a truly toxic strategy that is a burn it all down mentality. These toxic fans are going to sites like IMDB (They can't do this on Rotten Tomato, as after the toxic fans attack the Star Wars film Solo in this manner there, changes were made to keep it from happening again) where they are leaving 1 star reviews without seeing the films, for big blockbuster films like 'Godzilla vs Kong' (Which had been doing great over seas as well as highly positively reviewed by all who have actually seen it) where they openly leave #restorethesnyderverse as their review and are encouraging others to do the same. They are trying to take WB hostage unless they get their way. So yes, these toxic fans are using terrorist methods to force studios to give in to them. This is what the toxic fans are all about. They would rather see WB as a whole fall than accept that not everyone agree with their opinions.

While toxic fans have always been there. I could do several posts on the history of toxic fans and the harm they have done, right now they seem to be seeing a new growth in popularity thanks to the role social media is playing in people's lives. Several toxic fans put out some really obviously fake rumors, stories that have no logic to them, and there are more legitimate news sites who go and quote them, giving an illusion of legitimacy to their toxicity.

I am a critical fan and will openly break down aspects of movies and shows that I enjoy when they do something I dislike. You can be a fan and not like everything put out in a franchise while still building up the franchise as you are critical of aspects within it. But once you decided to try and burn the whole franchise to the ground, that is when you have crossed a line from fan to toxic fan.

The Nightmare Knock-Off Figures I Have to Add to My Collection

 Just saw the date of the last post here and I didn't realize it has been that long since I last put up a post.

I've been busy working on my writing. My second novel, 'Georgie and Armand's Place Under Siege' is almost finished and will hopefully be out by summer.  Of course you can go and pick up the first novel 'A Day at Georgie and Armand's Place' if you have not done so yet. (https://www.amazon.com/Day-Georgie-Armands-Place-ebook/dp/B07YK6C8N5).

Now on to the topic of this post.

Knock-Off actions figures are an interesting market. There is a lot of odd stuff out there. A lot of it is straight forward poor quality reproductions of existing figures that often are just humorous, especially with whatever odd title the figure is given, that often suffers from translation issues.

I have a few knock-Offs in my collection. The Aliens Fighter is my favorite.

So you have a X-Wing fighter from Star Wars, with the wings put on backwards and a standard grey alien in the cockpit, with 'ALIENS FIGHTER' on the sides. It's also a pullback car, so you can put it on a smooth surface, pull it back and once you let it go it will speed off on you.

It really is an amusing little piece.

Yesterday while messing around on-line I learned about 'Heroes of the World Fighter'. I am still trying to process just what this line is.

This is the card all the figures come packaged on. It is very clearly trying to copy the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles style. The figures themselves are basically bootlegs of the 80s Advance Dungeons and dragons action figures, but painted and some have new, really badly molded heads, to make them kind of look like Ninja Turtle figures. All the weapons look to be from the AD&D line.

And there you have the Turtles themselves. The bodies and heads look to be fully new, really bad sculpts. The arms and legs are from two different AD&D figures. All the weapons are from AD&D figure.

I can't find much on this collection though. No idea what year these came out or where they were available, although on ebay most of them are shipping from various European countries.

While it would be amusing to go and hunt down the whole collection, right now I just want to get one of them for the conversation piece it would be.