Wednesday, May 30, 2012

My problems with Science Fiction and Fantasy books

I love science fiction and fantasy, don't think that I have a problem with them, I love immersing myself in Tamriel and Middle Earth, the ideas of weapons and beings beyond our imaginations makes me giddy. The problems I have aren't with the genre itself, it's mainly with the writers and the readers. Allow me to explain.
1. Taking themselves to seriously 
So I couldn't get into science fiction or fantasy in middle school, because they tend to recommend incredibly serious, heavy stuff. It was quite a switch from Wishbone and Animorphs.
Tell me a time where being a starfish would help you save the world.
In fact, if it wasn't for Douglas Adams, I might have never gotten into the sci fi/fantasy realm past supernatural love triangles.(Another time maybe). And I'm not saying that all science fiction needs to be as delightfully random as Douglas Adams, I'm saying that there needs to be more authors like Adams and Robert Asprin. There needs to be more options for those who want a light-hearted, but not kiddy, science fiction/fantasy to read. 
2. Where are the women writers?
I know, you can't blame the famous male authors for doing well. And I'm not, I love Tolkien, Asprin, Adams, Moore (even if some don't say his stuff is Sci fi, but I think if you read Fluke you'd call it Sci fi) Millar, and I'm starting to read some Alan Dean Foster. And I know there are women writers in both of these genres, but a good amount are young adult novels and the others I haven't heard of. And I'd be willing to try some of the young adult novels if it wasn't for the force of the love triangle. I was told about The Hunger Games a while a go, but I couldn't bring myself to read it. Not that it didn't have an interesting idea, but the back of the book made the love triangle front and center instead of a side note.

Screw political commentary, Peeta and Katniss forever. 
3. Re-used tropes 
Games have slowly been getting better at this but Douglas Adams and Christopher Moore are offenders of this. The Damsel in distress and/or sexpot. And my favorite in fighting, they either tend to be hyper-masculinized or hyper feminized. And I'm not even getting started on fantasy armor. That started out in books and it hasn't ended yet.

Look all in all, I love the sci-fi/ fantasy genre. Just the books are sometimes not very female friendly. 

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Elder Scrolls Online

So I'm not sure what to think of it. At first I was like this:
but with online, but the more I think the more skeptical I am. On one hand, going through dungeons with friends and being able to possibly do a market thing and sell my wares to other than just shop keeps I like the idea of.
 But the open world feel and the sociological density can't be like that on Morrowind through Skyrim. It says on the wiki they have up that you can look up here that right now they only have plans on the three provinces. I can understand that in the quality over quantity idea. And the plot seems pretty cool, but some of the race characteristics they've built well, will probably go away.
For example, Altmers are jerks. In every game since Morrowind, they will act superior over you. But since you have people playing as all races,the snobbishness is going to rub away.
It also sounds like they're bringing back classes, which unless they're doing XP based I'm not too excited about, but that's for another post.
I'm also guessing it'll be a monthly payment kind of thing, so I won't be able to play it. But I'll comment as more is revealed.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Participation not needed.

So I saw the whole movie marathon except for Iron Man And Some of The Incredible Hulk. See last post about class if you're wondering why. So I want to start off  with the fact that most people in the theater saw all the movies. And even if they didn't Captain America was right before The Avengers. But then I hear this:
"Why is Captain America still young?"
Both my boyfriend and I were dumbfounded. We just saw the movie and it was explained. But anyways, the movie was good. My problem after this great episode was with the rest of the audience. The action scenes are good, and the lines were well written, but I don't see the need to applaud after every funny line or during good action scenes.
It kind of seemed like this:
"Just keep clapping, it proves we like this," The scenes were good but I don't think that you need clap every time the hulk or your favorite character is on screen. It just got tiresome. But other than that I enjoyed the movies.


Thursday, May 3, 2012

In Preperation for The Avengers

So I'm going to a movie marathon that leads up to The Avengers. But I'm only going to see half of the movies.   Damn class that will dock me half a grade for missing.
Anyways, I'm still super excited to go to Thor and Captain America before the midnight showing.So last night I was shown this awesome video from when Lou Ferrigno was the Hulk.
 
Oh mullet Hulk and shoulder pad Thor. If this doesn't get you pumped for The Avengers than maybe this person who designed fashion inspired by The Avengers.
If you like this, you might want to check out Kaciart on her Tumblr. The only one I don't like is the Hulk one, it feels too simple. But I love the other ones so much. Especially Thor and Captain America.  And also eye makeup. You can't say that it's at least impressive. If I had the talent, time, and not cheapo makeup I might have tried something like that. Or pay to have it done if I had the money. So now I wait until I can go to the marathon.