Tracer stirred up some emotions // rip Carrie Fisher

While i was writing this post i read that Carrie Fisher died from what it looks like right now complications as result of a earlier hearth attack, So let me pay my respects to the first lady of Star Wars. While i have no personal connection to Carrie Fisher, her work both as an actor and outside have been a inspiration to me and many others. She will be missed but it is in a way fitting that she ended her career working on the same franchise that catapulted her in to the spotlight and in the long run gave her a platform (and that maybe in it´s own way claimed her life in the end) Rest In Peace. 

Now back to your regular scheduled programming

I held off on making this post because i wanted to get a better image of any impact it might have. You see in it´s latest free comic for Overwatch Blizzard presented us with Tracers girlfriend. This in it self should not raise many eyebrows, after all characters are presented as having partner all the time in the entertainment medium. But you see, Tracer is ofc a girl. So this is political in many ways. Not only is it a pretty much unseen example of representation, a character that is not only well established and given a rich backstory but that is also the face of the brand. Tracer is the de facto poster girl for Overwatch, having been not only in the initial marketing material but also on the standard box art. Now i am a very cynical human being that honestly do not trust humanity at large to handle anything more dangerous then a sponge without trying to hurt them self or someone else. So i walked in to the Blizzards and other forums expecting to see a full and utter shitstorm... And to my delight and surprise i found very little of that (if one does a signal/noise analysis) sure you had some trolls trying to fan the flames and some people who seemed outright sad. But for the most of it people where either indifferent or positive. Most felt that the introduction by the way of a comic with family as the theme was fitting and not forced. Many like me also felt that the act it self carry a lot of weight but that it does not really change the character. Tracer is still Tracer. 

So Blizzard have issued a challenge of sort, proving that you can make someones sexuality a non-issue even if it breaks the typical mold. Tracer is not defined by her sexuality, she is defined by her personality (and that she is sort of unglued from time... As one tends to be. ). Who she dates is at the same time not important but also very important from the perspective of representation. Because the more exposure something gets, the more "normal" it becomes. This is an aspect i feel some people miss when they say thing like "we do not need the Pride movement" or "why can´t we just keep things like that in our homes." 

Rocking the boat is always going to create people who want to get back to status quo. Even if they are part of the community doing the rocking. But if nobody ever rock the boat, people in general will never know they are actually on the boat. 

So thank you Blizzard for doing this and... well... Cheers luv, the cavalry is here. 

So 2016... People seem to be upset with you.

This year the tune in my social feed pretty much went like this "Hey 2016.. Why did you do X" with the implication that it has been a shit year. This i think says more about my age than it does anything else. You see the way i look at it is that my generation have been getting its first real taste of A: mortality and B: reality.

You see everything is cyclic, and much like the sweet summers children that we are we have been riding one such cycle that we now see coming to a close. All the "greats" are dying and the world is hitting "the shitter". Only that if we compare this to many other years in western society's long and storied past, 2016 have been a fairly good year. But that is of course  besides the point, after all compared to the black plague this year have been one of blissful bathing in milk and honey.

But the sheer naked fear that have been the reaction to the world (and by world i am talking about the US and north + central Europe... you know.. the world) changing. That is what has sort of taken me aback. Now i saw my fair share of bullying back in school and i am no real stranger to people being irrationally cruel or spiteful. But Jesus fucking Christ in a playpen.... The unstable nutjobs that usually occupy the sort of fringe where people have relatives who in the 50´s moved from Germany to Argentina or enjoy dressing up in white sheets and pointy hats, these people have not moved in to center stage and they look like a mix between a smug Garfield and Jimmy Cricket after a week on acid... Worst of course is that they infect the general population with their own brand of paranoia. This in turn makes things look a lot more shit than it really is. This in turn leads to things like the Swedish Democrats or Trump in politics and violence in the society.

Personally i used to give these fringe elements and the people they inspire a bit of slack, understanding that for many it is just a matter of society changing to fast for them... And in all honesty most people do not have the flexibility to constantly re-evaluate their morals and values. But i have had fucking enough. 2017 will be a year of me leveraging all my education, ability to do research and.. well... intelligence to grind people like that in to paste. I´l take every last shred of foul play and suppression techniques i know to run them in to the ground. They have had about 5 years to get their shit in order and if they refuse to do that... Why should i be the nice and polite one trying to cushion their emotional fallout as i deconstruct their arguments.

Not so much any more. I have spent 5+ years at a university learning how to look at the world from outside my little box, i do not demand that you do that.... But using Google and some common sense is not to much to ask.

Anyway... Next week we will be looking at my top picks from the entertainment media for 2016.

cheers

Random rants and musings

So the year is coming to a close and while i am not going to post my retrospect yet, saving that for the holiday. But i am starting to feel like this year has worn out its welcome. Not only have it been a utter shit show in the politics... domestic as well as abroad (thanks USA) but it has also been a fairly hit and miss in the cinemas and on TV. At least the gaming scene have had some good offers. More than a few "better than expected". But i´l get back to that later in the month. 

Now the thing that have made the most impact in my consumption of entertainment media came about this black Friday, i finally upgraded my computer... Or more correctly.. Replaced seeing as most components were 6+ years old, Any way this new machine is a monster compared to the old machine and for all intents does the job it need to do. It is sort of VR ready and play almost anything i need it to play without missing a single pace. Sure it will not do 4K anytime soon but i have no real need to go there at this point. But i can say this, it is pretty funny to see how much better one does when one does not have to fight the computer and the framerate. Overwatch is a dream right now and PvP in the Crew finally works.

I had a theory before in regards to PvP in the Crew. I did not notice it until Wild Run brought in the Summit PvP. In that everyone get the same car at the same level with the same parts. In short.. it is all about the driving (in theory) but i kept falling behind in every race. Not skipping or rubber-banding, just going slowly. I had my suspicions about why but now it is confirmed. I´l actually start recording some nice PvP action to show of my not so stellar driving skills.

Beyond that i have just had a blast going back through the old library and see what this new rig does to the games i have. Also making plans to pick up a few new ones like Watchdogs 2 and Titanfall 2. But for now i am just enjoying buttery smooth gameplay.

Anyway... That will be it i think. Apart from the upcoming quick look at Rogue One  sometime after Christmas i have no solid plans on content right now. Will do a top ten and retrospect around new years and sort of looking forward. 

As always, be kind and stay safe. 

/T

It felt fittingly random. Hetty for president. 

Some small changes

Going forward updates will happen Tuesdays due to real life getting in the way... And with that PSA.. On to the news... or well.... you know.



So while there have been a lot of news for games that i play and enjoy, i feel i need a bit more time to digest and reflect on these news.

One thing i do not need to reflect over is the news of a new Mechwarrior game, now i have been playing MechWarrior Online for a good long time and i am eagerly awaiting the strategy-ish game from HBS. But my first and most enduring encounter with the Battletech universe was Mechwarrior 2 back in ye olden days. Since then i have played most of the iterations of the Mechwarrior franchise, only missing out on some expansions here and there... Also Mechassault... Missed out on that... not very sad.

But now comes a brand new single player story driven MW game. But to add frosting to my delicious mech cake, it is Piranha Studios that are developing it, the same people who brought about MW:O. So MW5 will be sharing models with  MW:O, and this is good because no matter what one feel about how MW:O plays. They have done a great job turning the often fuggly line art of the old tabletop rulebooks in the awesome 3D models.

Anyway.. if you at this point is feeling a bit confused as to what i am talking about... Have a teaser trailer.

Updates as they will happen in the coming years.

Misplaced stories and what to do with them. (Fantastic Beasts spoilers)

First off…

Spoilers ahead…

You have been warned…

So in my Fantastic beasts review I mentioned that there were some minor scenes that felt out of place… .. . These where any scene that contained the unmasked Gellert Grindelwald aka Graves. They literally bookend the story and have no impact at all. This is very much a done story being shoehorned in to a multi movie narrative. Now before someone says to them self “that filthy muggler has no clue of how important Grindelwald is to the story” This is partially true, it has been close to 10 years since I read the last in the core series and have not really revisited them since. Sure I did watch all the movies but they never stuck. So in many ways I had but the vaguest grasp of Grindelwald going in to this movie, add to that my active avoidance of spoilers and previews. I was as close to a blank state as I have ever been going in to a franchise movie. (compare with my encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel and DC lore that have me going in to any such movie with more knowledge than I care to think about.) So I did not really care about the opening scene and once the end scene comes rolling around it was more of a… dafuk… But I am aware of the importance of Grindelwald, I was just expecting them to push that in to the next movie.

And this is where my main gripe comes in, I think the people making the movie had the same idea until some focus group came in and had their say. The scenes with Grindelwald are sloppy and pointless. They serve no purpose at all in my mind and while I get that people new to the franchise need some anchoring for this character seeing how it is obscure to say the least, and that trying to launch an entire movie series built on him would be risky. They did not have to be so bleeding lazy about it.

I still love the movie that sits between these bookends and I think that a movie about Grindelwald will be interesting especially if they perhaps play up the by fans suggested romance between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. Mostly because it would explain a few things about ol´ Albus. It just pokes me the wrong way that this was the way we got introduced to the character.

It was also fun to see Ezra Miller seeing how he is the new Flash, trying to fill the place that Grant Gustin have in my heart… 

Fantastic beasts: A spoiler free review

First off, sorry about the lateness of this post but i simply fell asleep before i could write it up. It is also good to digest a movie a bit before writing about it in my mind. 

Fantastic beasts and where to find them, for the people unfamiliar is the latest movie in the Harry Potter universe. It is a prequel of sorts and is set during the roaring 20´s. As the title suggest it is about the the author of the in universe book "Fantastic beasts and where to find them". This book has been presented as a end all be all source of best knowledge. I am going to leave the story of the movie at that and simply say that it is a very good story. 

Now the movie it self is well crafted, if one discount a handful of scenes, but these does not really impact the movie so that is something i am willing to overlook. Both the female and male lead are likeable and especially Redmayne have that perfect adrokable vibe. But as good as they are they are almost upstaged by the supporting cast, human and beast alike. It is also nice to see the movie break a few tropes that plagues most average blockbusters. 

Now no movie is flawless, and in the case of this movie, outside of those errant scenes most problems in this movie have to do with how the action scenes are cut, they are messy and the use of a first person view in some of them really does not work. Add a rather lackluster use of 3D and you have what sometimes feel almost Michael Bay-ish. I´l go in more detail about my thoughts regarding what worked and not in my spoiler review. 

To sum things up i think Fantastic beasts and where to find them is a great movie and i felt my money was welt spent. But it does touch on some subjects that will leave people who have just read the books or even more just seen the other movies a tad bit confused. Go watch Fantastic beasts and where to find them, you will not be disappointed. 

/T

Trailers... Trailers everywhere.

So... 

This weekend-ish i caught two new trailers, both live action remakes of animated movies and both really good. First was the Ghost in the shell trailer. As someone who have not really read the manga, just watched the animated movie and the series. That trailer is looking really good and it seems to be doing a good job in capturing the feel and look of the source material. There have been accusations of white washing and i am sure they are not uncalled for. But there have been some fairly angry voices raised against the casting of Scarlett Johansson as major Motoko. 

Pisswash... That is what i say about that. Sure the character have a Japanese name but her design have always been "race" agnostic in that way that many anime and manga characters are. In fact i´d say the casting is eerily close to the source material. 

There seem to be a tad bit less nudity than in the original anime, but to be fair that was a smart choice as it did not really fill any real purpose beyond "boobies"... Well the in-universe logic was solid, but while you might need to be naked for the optic camo to work.. there is no need to create a universe where you need to be naked for optic camo to work. Especially when the same universe have  full body prosthetic. 

Now in way this is Ghost in the shell coming full circle, at least in Swden as there at one point was plans for the animated Ghost in the shell to go up on the silver screen. That never came to be, and here we are. 

Anyway.. go look up the trailer and if you have the time give the original animated movie a look.  

Next up is the answer to the question, what will Disney do when they run out of formats to re-release their movies on. Live action remakes seems to be the next thing. With Maleficent, Cinderella and the Jungle Book doing a more or less good job of masking this idea... Beauty and the Beast looks to be a more or less scene by scene recreation with some minor alterations to (i would assume) get away from some of the worst legacy sins of the original one. After all once one peeled back even the thinnest of layers in that movie, shit got dark.. quick. All in all things look good from the trailer and while i think the animated Beast look about... 10 times better, he ofc did not have to contend with reality in any shape. For what it is a like it. Will be interesting to see what they do (if anything) to adress the shortcomings of the old movie. After all you only need some very small tona shifts to have huge impact in that movie, Toss in some extra lines of dialogue and you might create a entirely new story.  Will also be interesting to see Emma Watson break away from her previous character of a witty and strong book-smart girl that sets her own path.... Yeah... Never mind. 

Still again watch the trailer for the nostalgia kick if nothing else. Just avoid the commentary field... It is... sad. 

Until next time, be safe and play fair. 

/T