The Gang of Five
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => The Party Room => Ask Me => Topic started by: aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) on August 12, 2009, 08:49:02 PM
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I'm not positive what anyone would want to ask me, but might as well give them the opportunity. Fire away!
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What's the meaning of life?
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I know you kept asking people, "Do you love Star Trek?"
Now let me ask you..."Do YOU love Star Treck?" :lol
And if so why?
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What is it exactly that attracted you to the Darwin's Soldiers universe? I mean out of so many RP's here you chose one of the newest (at that time) and an RP by a first time RP'er (at least here and at that time).
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@Dash: A Klondike bar. Better yet, 42 Klondike bars!
@Rat_Lady7: Well, the first sci-fi I was ever exposed to was Star Wars. I loved it, but something troubled me; it's focus on battle and war (duh). I had always disliked war as a subject and violence as a solution, and it troubled me that none of the characters ever tried any solution other than to kill each other.
Then I found my dad's old Star Trek tapes. The quality was crap, but I soon realized that this was exactly what I had been waiting for; a show where things like logic, diplomacy, and compromise were used to prevent a violent ending and keep both parties better off! It was science fiction, but with a positive outlook on human nature, and the belief that peace was the future.
I've since discovered other sci-fi shows and loved them too, like Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, but all of them were the same in that they showed the future as a war-torn dystopia, where only the fittest survived and the innocents died. Star Trek alone saw the future as a utopia.
@Serris: Several things.
1) it's premise. A team of scientists trapped in a laboratory, enemies slowly closing in. I've always loved trapped stories, as it forces quick decisions, innovation with the tools given, and nowhere to run. Such situation are my element as a writer, and you'll notice in my stories the characters are almost never given everything they need to solve a problem, including space and time. It's why I'm a master at online escape the room games, and love "bottle episodes" in TV. We don't need a guest star or some new technology; let's see them get out of this with the stuff they've already got.
2) It's original: It's not a Land Before Time RP. It's not a Half Life RP. It's a Darwin's Soldiers RP. None of the RP'ers have an advantage because they've seen more of the show, or are playing their interpretations of characters some scriptwriter thought up. We were all on the same playing field, creating our own world from the ground up. (And then destroying it room by room).
3) It's science: It has Darwin in the freaking title, it's gotta be good. You and I in particular tend to keep our science, if not perfectly accurate, at least grounded in some sort of feasible realism. Call-outs to Einstein, Double Helix, C6H12O6, are like in-jokes. Better yet, as a scientist, I can play in a military RP while not pretending to have any more military experience than I actually do (which is none).
4) it's furriness: Don't tell anybody, and while I'll never admit it, I do have a slight affinity for the aforementioned story group. Growing up reading Animorphs and having a best friend into Sonic probably helped. However, I don't create furry characters, as I can't really think using the mindset of anything other than a human. I do enjoy being a human within a multi-species cast better than the homogeneous alternative.
So I'd say you pitched it pretty dang well, at least to me. :cheers
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@Dash: A Klondike bar. Better yet, 42 Klondike bars!
:exactly :spit :lol Oh yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about.
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Have you ever watched Doctor Who?
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No, and I am extremely bummed about that. :( I don't have television, so the only stuff I can watch is what I rent from the local store or find on Youtube. And this being America, nobody knows anything about British television. I do know a lot about the show's premise, as I participated in a rewrite of the Wikipedia page, and the show is the top of am short list of things I plan on watching once I've got my own house and more leisure time.
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Who is your favorite LBT character?
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Ducky. First child character in the original film to show no signs of racism, immediately willing to adopt an orphan she'd never met before, and brave enough to take on the Sharptooth somewhere other than safely atop a 20 story cliff (brave, guys. Brave.) These points are rendered slightly moot in the sequels, as none of them are racist anymore, and they all throw themselves into danger, but Ducky did it first :) .
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You mentioned liking Twilight Valley. Again, I ask what do you like about it?
Also, do you like the sandwich shown in your avatar?
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Ducky.
:cheers
Anyway, what's up with your name? Does the "LBT" have anything to do with it? (I'm probably the only one that doesn't get it or something)
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Alex: Yup, that's it. I basically sat there on the "create account" screen trying to come up with a memorable username. I realized the sandwich BLT could be scrambled to make the acronym LB&T. It was one of those little strokes of genius I seldom get, and it got me a delicious-looking avatar too! Double-plus!
Serris:I love the sandwich in my avatar. I just wish I could get rid of the words "iStockphoto" which is still kinda visible, but whatever. Basically, after registering my account, I googled "Bacon Lettuce&Tomato" and scrolled though the pages until I saw one that looked really really delicious. Even today I sometimes ask the cashier/waiter for a Lettuce, Bacon and Tomato, and they look at me like I'm weird!
First story about Twilight Valley was that the first time I read through a bit, I kinda skimmed, decided it was okay, and moved on to the next fanfic. This was back before I actually knew you. Then, I recently read your signature, and thought, "I know that Threehorn quote from somewhere." Yes, it said where it came from right next to it, but I didn't notice that, I just kept sitting there racking my brain. It wasn't one of the movies, it must have been a fanfic. . . . . . .oh! That war one! I logged back into fanfiction.net and reread Twilight Valley, just to double check. This time, I had to read with a fine toothed comb to find the part where he said that line, but slowly I realized that I was focusing less on looking for that line and more on enjoying the story. You seem to have a knack for three-dimensional (i.e. flying) battles, but your ground battles were good too. Do you read TV Tropes? Because sometimes I could have sworn that there was some extremely subtle lampshading, the kind that pleases the astute reader because the author is showing that he has complete control over his story, and knows the art of writing.
Your use of semi-technological weapons (i.e. sharp sticks, rocks, fire) stays just within the realm of belief. The weapons are rudimentary enough that you can picture the dinosaurs figuring it out, but not advanced enough that the reader's like "oh come on."
Also, your characterization is spot-on. Many fanfics have the characters very close to their canonical counterparts, but yours was one that seemed to hit the nail on the head. Every decision made by the characters, every line of dialogue, it was exactly what I'd expect them to say or do. You've got that down cold, to the point where you don't even have to worry about it.
I'm gonna end on the affirmatives, cause if I got into the number of pitfalls you didn't hit, i.e. "You didn't start with an irrelevant five-chapter playing scene" (said fanfic that did this will remain unnamed :anger ) but just take my word that you avoided a lot of stuff that drives me nuts cause I see it all the time.
In summation, i like it because it's awesome!
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What is your favorite genre of music?
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Also on the Twilight Valley aspect:
In all honesty, when I first wrote it, I didn't think anyone would like it... It strayed VERY far from the movies.
Yes, there was only one lampshade and I do read/write TV tropes, there's an article on Twilight Valley there. Would you mind telling me (in a PM or however you see fit) other lampshades you see?
Also, I did rather extensive research on Paleolithic technology in writing the story. On a side note, slings (the kind that David used to kill Goliath) do appear.
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What's your favorite movie?
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Serris: I'd need to go through the story again to find specific examples, but one that comes quickly to mind is the fact that anyone who's not a main character seems to get killed off soon after their introduction.
Also, my favorite genre of music is synthpop, the Pet Shop Boys and whatnot. They're my favorite band, and I'm stoked about their new album, Yes!
Rat_Lady:This question has always been a hard one for me, since I never got to watch any movies or television except kid shows like LBT until I was almost out of high school. The folks just weren't into that kind of thing. The first non-kid movie I got to watch was Jurassic Park, so that's probably it.
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What was your inspiration behind your Darwin's Soldiers spin off trilogy (besides the obvious!)?
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I'm not sure. Maybe it was the fact that we created this awesome time-and-space-travel device, and then we never got to use it! I started thinking, what if we had? What adventures would our team face? How would each character add something important?
The band planet idea came from a physics problem describing exactly that. The question gave a bunch of dimensions for a giant band of dirt rotating around a sun, and asked how long a year would be on that planet. The answer was 9 days, which I also mentioned in the story :)
The antimatter universe was added because I wanted some way to link the Furtopia RP and our own. I liked having everything in the same continuity, as well as the added bonus that now the Furtopia RP is kind of an Origin story for the antimatter base in my story, which we otherwise don't learn much about.
The twist ending just fell out of the sky onto me when I was in the car driving home from a very long, enjoyable trip. I loved it, and it provided a great ending to the whole epic. I'm immensely satisfied with how it all wrapped together.
Scroedinger's Prisoners was almost completely a dream I had, just substituting me for Shelton and unnamed soldiers for everyone else. It was the most awesome dream I'd ever had, and the whole story was written in the day following.
This coming story, Pavlov's checkmate, is based on me wanting to wrap up the stories of the final three teammates: Shelton, Zachary, and Dr. Joe, and how they tie back to our real characters. It'll also include my first anthro character, as the villain :) It's almost done, I just need to type it up and then I can start posting!
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Do you like darker or lighter LBT fan fictions?
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Hmm. I'd have to say darker. I've never seen any reason to read fanfics that follow the source material exactly. If I wanted a light-hearted LBT story, I'll go watch a LBT movie! I want the fanfics to be something I can't get from the actual franchise, like a war fic or a crossover. That's why I like yours, and jedi472's.
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You appear to have Googled Darwin's Soldiers.
Any reason why you used the name from my failed RP (on Bulbagarden)?
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I think a lot of people have googled Darwin's Soldiers. When you start typing it on google it'll fill in the second half of 'Soldiers' for you.
I love in-jokes and references to other aspects of a franchise. I remember a Star Wars fanfic I wrote about a renegade clone, every weapon, piece of equipment, or other character encountered by the protagonist was from a different Star Wars book series, movie, or video game. I like when everything ties together, and for the Nigel reference, I thought it would be fitting since Nigel Munroe was obviously supposed to be James Zanasiu, so in my story, Nigel was James Zanasiu!
My stories are full of these. Remember the secret passageway in the walk-in freezer of Shroedinger's Prisoners? O'Neill used it in the first RP! Neku's regenerative abilities in Card of Ten? Never used in the RP, but it was mentioned in the bio Starfall posted! Hans has a deck of cards in Card of Ten? This one's both a reference to the story title, and to the cards Werner had in the first RP! It's my way of showing that I read and remember what other people write, and that nothing ever just appears and then is quickly forgotten.
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In depth based question of Rat Lady's question and your answer struck me with a question; since you've watched Jurassic Park, have you read the book as well or only just watched the theatrical version?
The first non-kid movie I got to watch was Jurassic Park, so that's probably it.
And just to be silly, have you invented a cloning device that allows the genetically modifiying technique of bringing dinosaurs yet? ;) :lol
Also, do you have any pets? Or if not, would you like one?
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I have read the book, and was astounded at the number of changes there were compared to the movie. Muldoon was the biggie for me ("Clever Girl,") because he's like a major character in the book (with a steel grey mustache!) who quickly became my favorite book character. He was seriously watered down for he movie. The fate of John Hammond surprised me too, since in the book he took Muldoon's place as a survivor. Ian Malcolm also would never shut up, despite being mortally wounded and dying (but coming back in the sequel???)
So yeah. I liked both versions, but have problems considering them the same storyline due to the massive changes. Same with the book and movie versions of Lost World. Dodgson, anyone?
On cloning: I'm working on it. :lol All I need to do is get a sizeable amount of Phlebotinum and it'll be ready!
I have had many pets, though they were all back in middle/high school, when I lived in a house (UCSB doesn't allow pets). My favorites were the dogs, a sheepdog/German shepherd hybrid, and a dachshund. When the dachshund died, we got a cocker spaniel/poodle (techincally called a cockapoo), who's adorable and always goes crazy when I visit home on vacations.
At home I also have an antisocial cat who refuses to come inside, hates humanity, and is the only cat on the block who's managed to survive the coyotes for over five years. They just can't catch her :)
The other pets are three spade foot toads, who are morbidly obese and have astoundingly lived for over ten years, way longer than they're supposed to. We have no clue why they're still alive. They're names are Xavier, Felis, and Lisa, after an amusing incident at a fast food store where me and two of my mates decided to give the cashier fake names. It went something like this:
Cashier: Your order will be ready in a few minutes. What's your name?
Me: Xavier.
Cashier: (gives change) Have a nice day.
(I walk off)
1st friend: Hey, Nick! Wait! You forgot to give me the change!
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Cashier: What's your name?
1st friend: Felis.
Cashier: How do you spell that?
1st friend: Uhh...I don't know.
Needless to say, I think she had us figured out by then, because after that...
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Cashier: What's your name?
2nd friend (who's male): Lisa.
Cashier: Yeah, right. What's your real name?
2nd friend:(gives his real name)
We named the frogs (fittingly two males and one female) after this incident. Sadly, Felis escaped about a year ago and we never found him, but Xavier and Lisa are still doing great!
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:lol
I understand what you mean about the books. I don't want to ruin it for people whom haven't read the books...so I may create a thread about it. But there were too many changes for me. Considering since I read the books after the movies.
Sadly, Felis escaped about a year ago and we never found him
Perhaps Felis escaped because he couldn't spell his name?:p
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How many DS spin off works are you going to write?
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Whenever I come up with a good idea, I start to write it. If I manage to finish it, I start posting the sections, about two pages to the next cliffhanger, per day. I never thought I'd write anything other than Card of Ten, but the more Darwin's Soldiers that gets cranked out, the more ideas pop into my head!
So, I don't actually know. I've never really planned anything out.
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What is the significance of the titles of your spin off novels?
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Card of Ten being my first, I didn't really pick a title that was very significant. It was when I was trying to come up with a title for my Shelton-oriented story that I realized I should follow the style of Darwin's Soldiers, and I've stuck with that since.
The actual title Card of Ten is taken from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew:
A pestilence on your crafty with'red hide! And yet I have faced it with a card of ten!
I thought it fit because no matter what is doled out to James and his team, they keep fighting on. Also, excluding Siberys, who essentially breaks off from the team, and Werner, who by the time he's rediscovered considers himself a Gaman, James has ten people on his team.
Also kinda interesting: The thread was originally called something like "Darwin's Soldier's Story", not really a title. I Pm'ed Malte and asked his to replace the title with "Darwin's Soldiers:Card Of Ten" which he did. but he accidentally added a period to the end, just like the makers of the First Folio (the first published collection of Shakespeare's plays) did; they added a comma to the end of the title of Antony and Cleopatra. Also kind of relevant!
But not really. In hindsight, fitting the naming style of the others, I think Russell's Butterfly would fit better symbolically. Russell's teapot is a popular analogy which goes as follows:
If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
This covers both the space travel aspect and the fact that the religions of Gamas and Sapaar are both based heavily off faith.
The butterfly would be a reference to the Butterfly Effect, which shows that a small event can cause massive repercussions; because our team got trapped in the anti-matter universe, an entire race of people populated a distant planet in our universe. Also, Shelton's research equipment being left behind became the impetus for the Sapaar takeover and later destruction of said civilization.
I guess Russell's Butterfly could be considered an alternate title.
Schroeinger's Prisoners refers to Erwin's Schroedinger's famous thought experiment where a hypothetical situation can cause a cat to be simulatenously alive and dead. The characters in the virtual reality machine face the same issue; they die in the machine, but are still alive in real life. They're trapped in this double existence, like the cat. This is why Shelton is the only one to escape Schroedinger's prison; he was the only one who didn't die in the machine.
Pavlov's Checkmate refers to Pavlov's discoveries of stimulus and response. He found after some conditioning, a dog will salivate when he hears a bell. The dog experiences a stimulus and unconsciously initiates a response. The characters in the story react similarly; Either Ricky's team or James' team will do something to the other team, and then that team will react. "Checkmate" makes a statement that the fight between Ricky and James is much like chess, with pieces of varying importance being alternated to an end. Also, of course, that means that in the end, one team is going to win and the other is going to lose.
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2 questions
Would you buy a novelization of DS I and DS II if they wasn't written by me? (Don't worry, they will be written by me.)
If Hollywood came out with a DS I movie, would you want to watch it?
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I would buy any Darwin's Soldiers books, and watch any Darwin's Soldiers movies. I'd also play any Darwin's Soldiers video games. That would be awesome if Darwin's Soldiers broke out of the online community and reached mainstream audiences! :goodluck
(I'd be a little bummed if Shelton was cut out of any of them, but I'd understand that movies, books, and video games have drastically different requirements to make a good story, and not everything fits in each genre.)
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Do you like waffles?
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I do! (http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?&next_url=/watch%3Fv%3Dergxf2I_ilM)
This may sound funny, but syrup makes me feel sick, maybe too concentrated sugar or something, but I eat waffles only with powdered sugar. Looks kinda weird, but it's pretty good! Fruit's good on waffles too, or vanilla ice cream and brown sugar, but I eat waffles like that much more rarely.
(I can eat scrambled eggs with syrup though, maybe because the syrup doesn't pool into the little squares like in waffles.) :confused
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^^ yum, too bad for me, I feel a bit sick whenever I try to eat certain waffles or other american breakfasts. But that sounds REALLY good right now, and it's 11 at night! :lol
Do you like French Toast?
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I have it much less often than waffles, mainly because wherever I can get french toast I can also get pancakes (which I can also eat with light syrup :P:) but I do like the unique texture and style of French toast. I really should get it more, but the only few breakfast houses around here have so many combos and meals for pancakes, and then french toast just thrown on the side :(
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^We just had French toast available at the dining commons. Made me think of you, Rat_Lady. :lol
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Do you like heavy metal?
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What kind of books do you like?
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Serris: I actually have never heard it. I like "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Rage Against the Machine.
Noname: I'm a bigger fan of fiction than nonfiction. I like series based off of the many scifi shows I watch, and classic authors, like Bradbury, Steinback, Miller, and Shakespeare. My favorite book is Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.
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Do you like Hamlet? It says something about in your sig.
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While I enjoyed Hamlet, it wasn't my favorite Shakespeare play. That would be Richard III. I picked Hamlet to translate into LBT because I could easily match many LBT characters to Hamlet characters, and it is arguably Shakespeare's most famous play. Who knows? Maybe in the future I might LBT-ize more Shakespeare!
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That would be interesting to see alright... :)
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Which Darwin's Soldiers RP did you like the most?
Which one did you feel delivered the highest octane thrills?
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Well, I like the second one because Shelton's been somewhere other than the control room :) Also, I've felt the action scenes are more intense. We've got helicopters, humvees, and a giant car chase at the end. The first was much more limited infantry-oriented.
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Where did you find the call out to C6H12O6 (glucose)?
On an unrelated note,
Who is your favorite science fiction author?
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I'm not positive what you mean by the glucose question. As for the science fiction author, Ray Bradbury. He's written a staggering amount of short stories, and many of them, including A Sound of Thunder, All Summer in a Day, and The Utterly Perfect Murder, are among my favorite short stories of all time. His writing has had a profound effect on my own work as a writer, probably more than any writer except George Orwell.
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What is the significance of the titles of your spin off novels?
As Nietzsche's Soldiers:Will to Power hadn't been written at the time of this question, I'll add a continuation:
The title was chosen because I wanted to highlight Dragonstorm, rather than the main focus of the RPs, James' team. I wanted it to serve as an 'anti' for the first RP. Unfortunately, it's kinda since diverted back into a story about Shelton and Kerzach, but the title stays because it's still relevant. If James' team is represented by Darwin, then Dragonstorm would be Nietzsche. Nietzsche believed that humanity occasionally produces "super men" who are destined to do great things to further humanity; he also proposed that "God is dead" and that men are driven mainly by their desires for power. These are all philosophies I believe Dragonstorm would agree with, hence they are his 'soldiers.' And the "Will to Power" is both a direct quote highly associated with Nietzsche (like SOTF with Darwin), and a parallel to how Shelton, Kerzach and Eddie are operating mainly on the will to not get discovered, against Dragonstorm whose operating under a lust for power. The good guys represent the 'will,' and the bad guys are the 'power.'
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What's your favorite music?
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Where do you think the DS universe sits on the Mohs Scale Of Science Fiction Hardness (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness)?
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Rat_Lady: My two favorite bands are Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode, which are both synthpop, but most of the time I listen to alternate rock, because I have loads of bands who I like that are in that genre. If you want to see how varied I am:
Favorite song: "Save Me" by Remy Zero
Favorite band: Pet Shop Boys
Favorite album: "When the World Comes Down" by All-American Rejects
Favorite music video: "Imitation of Life" by REM
Favorite live performance: "Wake Me Up When September Ends" Green Day at Foxboro, MA 9/3/05
@ Serris: We kinda run the gamut, similar to Doctor Who. Somethings, such as Tinner's virtual reality machine and the Dragonstorm process for creating experiments, are explained and use realistic or at the very least probable realism. They're probably a 7.
On the other hand, the Einstein-Rosen Bridge is never explained how it works, and fits the bill for 1, Imported Alien Phlebotinum; even though the terrorists aren't alien, it's never explained how the hell they learned to build one of those. The Gamanian technology, with the shuttlecraft, hits 4 or 5, as will Cautizer's Phase Tank once it's introduced.
To sum it up, since the ER Bridge adds a bit of Space Travel, I'd give us a 6.
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I was actually thinking of calling it the "Optimal-Camo Tank"
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That name's pretty cool too. :yes
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Do you have a favorite animal? If so, what kind?
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When I was young, I decided what my favorite 'things' were, and have stuck to them. :) Despite the years, the list has not changed from:
color: red
animal: lobster
number: 25
food: cereal
The only change to the list was favorite fruit, which changed from nectarine to pluot, once I discovered what those were. :P:
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Are you interested in TVTropes?
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I'm addicted to TV Tropes. I've actually referred to tropes in real life and am constantly aware of them in my writing and when I watch stuff. Whenever I watch a movie or something, I go see what TV Tropes has on it, and add anything I think they missed.
Of course, I find it hard to believe that anyone who's ever viewed the site has done anything different...xkcd says it best: http://xkcd.com/609/ (http://xkcd.com/609/)
(Note the alt text references cracked.com, another seriously addicting site, though once you've read all the content you're thankfully free)
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What tropes do you see in the Darwin's Soldiers universe?
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What other fandoms (in books, movies, tv shows, etc) do you like besides Star Trek and LBT? :)
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@Serris: Hoo boy. I've actually been thinking of starting a TV Tropes page on Darwin's Soldiers, since I both find tropes constantly and consciously use them in my stories. I'd been meaning to ask your permission to do so. If so, I'll post them there.
@Rat_Lady: I'm a big Shakespeare fan, but I'm not sure if that's really a fandom. My favorite webcomic is Freefall (http://freefall.purrsia.com/), and that's the only other forum I'm active on. I'm a fan of many sci-fi TV shows (Star Trek, Stargate, Firefly, Babylon 5, Smallville), but I only talk about Star Trek because regular people know what that is :)
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@Serris: Hoo boy. I've actually been thinking of starting a TV Tropes page on Darwin's Soldiers, since I both find tropes constantly and consciously use them in my stories. I'd been meaning to ask your permission to do so. If so, I'll post them there.
Permission is granted.
Here are the tropes I see:
Badass
Badass Bookworm
Badass Labcoat
Morally Ambigious Doctorate
Non Action Guy
James Bondage
Took a Level in Badass
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What do you think of my futuristic rendition of Serris' Twilight Valley fic?
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What do you think of the Insane Cafe series?
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I haven't really followed it. I know very little about the happenings of any RPs except Darwin's Soldiers, though if I had unlimited time I would want to read the Insane Cafe series, Noname's fantasy series, and that ungodly long "Sowarkard" one, just to see what the hell they found to talk about for 300 pages :)
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This might be an odd question, but do you believe in the term "guilty pleasure" as in having "LBT as a guilty pleasure" due to certain circumstances of what seems to be socially acceptable in society, or do you kick out the labels and just like what you like even if other people would call them guilty pleasures?
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I have one question for you. If you could have a chance to meet one person in the world, anyone famous sort of thing.....who would you wish to meet and why?
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@Noname: No, I pretty much call it a guilty pleasure. I wouldn't admit in public that I'm a 22-year old Land Before Time fan. I wouldn't go to Comic-Con dressed as a LBT character. Therefore it's a guilty pleasure.
However, I openly admit in public that I'm a Star Trek fan, and a D&D player, and I wear a redshirt uniform when I go to Comic-Con, so those aren't guilty pleasures. That's how I define them.
@MrDrake: It depends on if we get translators, like so that we could understand each other. If we couldn't communicate, it wouldn't make a conversation with Sun Tzu or Alexander the Great very interesting :)
If translators are a problem, probably Shakespeare. Mind you, it still would be hard to communicate, but I've been in enough of his plays that I think I could glean enough of his meaning to make the conversation worthwhile. Ask him about the plots to Cardenio and Love Labour's Won (two lost plays of his), and maybe get my copy of Richard III signed. :cheers
If we get translators, probably the Chinese guy who stood in front of the tanks at Tienanmen Square. Find out what his name is, if he's still alive, and why he decided to be brave enough to risk his own life just to make a statement for liberty. And, most important, find out what was in those bags he was carrying :)
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Ah, awesome, defiently sounds like a plan ^^
One other question.....why did you just call Rat_lady7....Noname? :lol:
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^Oh, oops :oops I guess it sounded like something Noname would say, plus the last time I ventured into the Ask Me forum it was to post a question on his, so I figured he reciprocated. Plus Rat_Lady's new avatar is vaguely familiar to the Chi Rho symbol he once had, being a black symbol on a white background.
But yeah, my mistake. :lol Sorry, Amy.
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Hehe, people make mistakes like that....just had to point it out is all :lol
Another random question, out of the Alien (Xenomorph) and the Predator alien (forget it's real name), which one would you pick to say, fight against? As in, the Alien for killing your crew members, or the Predator for killing your friends....although I don't think there's much of a difference there :lol:
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Do you mean which one would I pick if I wanted to win? 'Cause it didn't matter which one I fought, I'd still die a gruesome death...but if I had to fight one, it'd be predator. I mean, it only took a few commandos to kill it, whereas an entire ship of marines died fighting Alien.
If you mean which one would I fight if I was guaranteed victory, based on which I felt "deserved" it more, I'd pick Alien. Predator at least had a bit of chivalry; it wouldn't kill unarmed civilians, and in the end it challenged Schwarzenegger to a one-on-one duel, which was very sporting of it. Alien killed everyone, and used really disturbing methods like oral impregnation, whereas Predator's kills were usually quick.
As Roger Ebert put it: "Why would a creature so technologically advanced need to bother with hand-to-hand combat, when it could just zap Arnold with a ray gun?"
Because it's a good sport, that's why.
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Yeah, it was for the latter, killing it yourself, but a rather interesting answer you had given there, love how you had put it ^^
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^Oh, oops :oops I guess it sounded like something Noname would say, plus the last time I ventured into the Ask Me forum it was to post a question on his, so I figured he reciprocated. Plus Rat_Lady's new avatar is vaguely familiar to the Chi Rho symbol he once had, being a black symbol on a white background.
But yeah, my mistake. :lol Sorry, Amy.
Oh wow, I didn't even know this happened. :p :lol It's okay though. :yes
Let's see....what is your current occupation?
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Right now I'm a student cook at a dining commons, which basically means I have to do whatever someone isn't doing already. I actually cook very little; most of the time I'm cleaning pots or wiping down walls, but hey, a job is a job :)
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What rating would give each of the Darwin's Soldiers works?
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How are your Darwin's Soldiers stories coming along?
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What rating would give each of the Darwin's Soldiers works?
On a scale of four stars...
Furtopia (first) - Two stars. Yes, I read this entire RP, and most of it was good. It certainly seemed to be much more dark in tone than the GOF ones ever got, and most of the characters were interesting. Dragore was utterly insufferable, at least to me, and is currently my least favorite character in the entire Darwin's Soldiers universe.
Furtopia 2: I never read it in its entirety, so I cannot rate it.
Darwin's Soldiers 1: Four stars. This was my first ever RP, and it had everything I could have wanted in an RP; action, combat, and I felt like my character was making a difference on the storyline.
Card of Ten: Three stars. This was my first ever story, and I can see that there are several things wrong with it. It doesn't have the same atmosphere of the other Darwin's Soldiers stories, and the time stuff gets a little confusing even to me.
However, I did do a good job making sure every character on the away team gets a moment or two in the spotlight, while keeping James as the main character throughout. And the twist at the end is still one of my favorite twists I've written for any story, Darwin's Soldiers or not.
Schrodinger's Prisoners: Four stars. This is my favorite of the stories I've written, and looking back it's the only one I wouldn't make any changes to. It's perfectly Darwin's Soldiers.
Survival of the Fittest: Four stars. I know I missed the first 20 pages, but once it started it didn't slow down until the climactic finish. I only wish I could have been there for the beginning.
Pavlov's Checkmate: Three stars. This one is a good story in its own right, but it shouldn't have been written as a sequel before the third RP existed. Once the 3rd RP is over, I'm going to go back and fix any continuity errors that may have formed.
Nietzsche's Soldiers: Three stars. Good start, okay middle, anti-climactic end. Eddie also never really was fleshed out as well as I'd hoped, and I thought it was too predictable that he was going to die. But I was glad I wrapped up Dr. Tinner's story arc.
Fool's Gold: Four stars. I was excited to see Kerzach get his own story, and it didn't disappoint. Fast-paced, high-stakes, and with some touching moments as well, it also gave Montgomery the chance to be the lead villain, something he hadn't ever really been. All in all, a good story, and I hope more will come.
How are your Darwin's Soldiers stories coming along?
Still typing them up, though they're both finished handwritten. they should be up soon. I'm starting to consider posting the first part of both stories, and that'll force me to find time to continue typing them up or face a schedule slip.
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Which Dragore (character or the RPer) do you see as the Scrappy and why?
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The character, definitely. I have nothing against the writer, except perhaps his butchering of the English language and disruptive use of first person. And the fact that he used his avatar name instead of coming up with an original character name.
The character is the one I found really, really annoying. Every single one of his posts was about "please love me, love me mister, nobody's ever loved me, don't let them hurt me..."
"human sir can you please not take me back to the other humans they are not nice to me they keep making me fight and keep hurting me the put stuff in me and keep testing me" dragore said like a scared little boy he looked barely over 6 years old "please sir i think i look like this because of them i think i was a boy before this"
dragore teard up "you guys don't want to kill me do you. i don't know how i git this way i was human once. and all i want is to be a kid" starting to cry a bit sobbing with tears welling up in his eyes
dragore clinged to the marines leg "mister marine who are those people there is a scientest i don't like them" he shook as the marine was walking twards the two figures "you won't let them hurt me will you mister marine will you" dragore said as he looked up to you with his radiant green eyes
still crying "why did this happen to me i don't even know what it is like being a kid" sobbing loudly "all i want to do is play and not have to be poked and prodded and made to kill" shaking with tears streaming down his face "i want my mommy"
Okay, we get it. Move on.
And, as the rest of the characters moved through the RP and contributed to the storyline, Dragore just kept going on and on about his tragic past and asking Garrelli to protect him.
Or going on about stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the story at all. Check out this great post, right in the middle of a firefight:
dragore walked back as garrilli took the mine "i am gonna eat my foods" he sits and eats the food he found. his belly expanded as he ate "mmm this is so good" he heres the gun shots but ignores them as he eats "mmm my tummy is now full" he ate all the food he found and seems to be stronger than before "daddy can i help you now"
Plus once the character started fighting, he obtains cliche-levels of power.
dragore was shivering as he walked with the man "sir i smell more of those bad men let me show you what i was made to do" dragores eyes go red and he rushes around the corner and savagely kills the terrorists rending them with his blades "i wont let you hurt my friend never he is a nice human" finnishes the last one off "there sir i won't let no one hurt you" he said as his eyes go back to radiant green and his blades retract back into his arm "i like you mister human sir" he said as he hugged the humans leg
DADDY!!!!!" Dragore yelled as he saw garrilli get hit his eyes went red and the blades popped out of his arms "daddy i won't let them hurt you no more" he screamed as he bounded out the door that garrilli was shooting from. he jumped on the walls bounding from each slicing the terrorist's chest and throats taking a few hits but nothing fazing him. "this is what you get for hurting my daddy" the little dragon setting a terrorist on fire with his breath and stabbing both blades into a terrorist's chest and flipping and throwing him at another terrorist then falling to the floor completely spent of energy.
These posts are not hard to find. I could go on all day.
I just felt sorry for Sgt. Garrelli. One of the most well-written characters in the RP, and he got stuck with this thing calling him 'daddy' (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheCatCameBack) that won't leave him alone.
Course, I found the author's other characters annoying too, the "bad" scientists who had created Dragore. Mainly because they were poorly-written and had no defining personality traits except "evil."
There were two of them. The first one:
dragore calms down "the pain is gone" he sways back and forth "uhg i feel funny" he flops forward a combat knife sticking out of his back and a scientist standing in the doorway "heh found one of my creatures that should not exists why did you guys let this one live" the guy standing there with a angry look on his face "you know what the piece of trash is capable of" walks over with knife going to cut dragores head off "time to end what i created"
Note this well-rounded and realistic portrayal of a military scientist. Also note, once this one is killed, how different he is from the second scientist the author introduces:
a scientist walks in ((he was in there the whole time just hiding)) "well i see one of the flawed 00 models is still alive. and zach i still see you sympathize with trash seance you haven't killed the little dragon yet. he may be cute but he is garbage. a failed experiment that is all 009 is now hand him over so i can dispose of him quickly and painlessly". the scientist grinned. dragore just layed there and moved a little. he was sleeping next to garrilli lightly purring.
"see thats the thing i can't stand you should know 009 was a boy at one point in his life" he reaches into his pockets and gets out pictures of a little boy about 5 years of age playing at a park "he was a war orphan. so he had no family i grabbed him while he was asleep and brought him here put him a stasis tank then me and my colleagues went to work. you remember when i asked you for those viles of dragon DNA that is what i needed it for to see if i could make a human turn into a dragon anthro. it worked we wiped his memory. he would be the perfect weapon if he would turn but he just won't" he frowns "for a orphan he has a strong will i can't stand it. all i herd from his was *i want a daddy and mommy they will save me you just see it they will hurt you and make you say sowe for hurting me* then i would proceed to beat him and laugh at his pitiful crying. it would make me so happy to hear him cry i was hoping his eyes would turn red and his blades come out but he would just fall asleep crying" he stopped "but knowing you you are stuck on the fact that you helped me turn a little boy into a weapon"
Note that the above scientist had been told several times by *armed* characters that they cared about Dragore, so either this idiot has no survival sense, or his only function in the plot was to spout background information on Dragore and then be killed as vengeance for being so 'evil.'
But I digress. To sum it up, I dislike Dragore because he suffers from Sympathetic Sue (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SympatheticSue), God Mode Sue (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GodModeSue), Wangst (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Wangst), Angst Dissonance (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AngstDissonance), Deus Angst Machina (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeusAngstMachina), The Load (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheLoad), The Wesley (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWesley) and Too Dumb to Live (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TooDumbToLive).
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Here's a little random question, what do you think of the "zombies" in the Darwin's Soldiers RP....well, not zombies, more what I would call, just the infected?
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Are you going to continue updating your Darwin's Soldiers stories?
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I've been meaning to do that! I'll get on that now!
The problem is I have to type them up, which has been going very slow. I wish I had some voice-typing program that would type what I read aloud.
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Not to be a bother, but your Darwin's Soldiers stories have become a "dead fic" for lack of a better term.
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Has anyone ever told you that your avatar makes people have an appetite? Including me?
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@Serris: Not to worry, they are finished on paper, I just have to type them up. They are still going to be finished. You'll notice I've been sparse in the role plays and everything, that's because the familykeeps going on trips in real life, so I'm not home very much. Alos why I didn't notice your post here.
@oogaboo: Yes, I actually get that a lot. Lots of users have mentioned that I have a very tasty looking avatar :yes It makes me glad that I searched as long as I did to find the best looking BLT on Google Search.
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MERRYCHRISTMAS!!!
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An extremely belated thanks :) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you! :birthday
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You mentioned an upcoming Darwin's Soldier's story in a PM.
Also, I'm working on another story, and this one is going to include several of your characters from the Furtopia role play (specifically, James Zanasiu and Ken). Is that all right?
What continuity is this in?
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First of all, let me say that it'll be a while before this story starts getting posted. I want this story fully conceived, written, and typed up before I start posting it, to avoid the "dead fic" thing that happened with the last two.
But it's going to be the last of the Card of Ten sequels, explaining what happened to the remaining members of the away team, namely Hawkeye, Snow, and Neku.
As the PM shows, they eventually meet up with the two aforementioned characters (and one more ;) ) and learn more about the anti-matter Earth they're currently stuck in, like why everything looks like a nuclear fallout took place.
And again, since I realize that nobody except me cares about the characters from Card of Ten, I'll simultaneously write another Dragonstorm-based story, the last one of the Nietzsche's Soldiers series. It'll show how the core cast of Dragonstorm met up in their university years, as was established in the 1st RP.
Neither story is very far along at the moment, but progress is slowly being made in both of them, and they will be finished some day, no doubt before the third RP ends. :)
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Whats your favorite sandwich? Other than the avatar. :lol:
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Ooh, that's a tough-un. The BLT is indeed my favorite sandwich, but if it's not available a black forest ham foot-long with avocado from Subway is pretty awesome.
In fiction, I love to give my protagonists a predilection for Swiss cheese-and-ketchup sandwiches, mainly because its the most disgusting sounding sandwich I've ever heard of, and its a Calvin and Hobbes reference :yes
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I am guessing once this DS story is finished, there will be no more from you?
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I am debating writing another (much shorter) story starring ROSS. After that, I don't have anything planned, but who knows? Something might inspire me.
But even if this is my last story, it was a pretty good run. Altogether, my Darwin's Soldiers stories at this point add up to about 320 pages of material. I never thought this universe would provide me with such a breadth of material. I'm eternally grateful Serris! :celebrate
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You're welcome!
I consider Darwin's Soldiers to be my finest creative endeavor.
Anyways, are you going to continue playing RPs or no? You're really, really quite a good RPer.
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I agree with serris. i'd like for you to join some of the other rps, like insane cafÈ or toon world.
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You never answered this question: are you going to continue RPing?
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Dunno if this has been asked before, but what is you favorite comic? :3
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On RPing: to be perfectly honest, I was going to say no. Darwins Soldiers was my first, and Id planned to make it only, online RP. But I found that it was tougher to say that once it was over. So now here I am!
Strut: Used to be Freefall, but its Soooooooooooo sloooooooow ................ useless conversations take real-world months, and its not that funny. So now I'd have to say Order of the Stick. The author is developing a truly intricate story, complete with plenty of humor and very interesting characters. Even people who don't play DnD can love that comic.
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What is your favorite Star Trek series and why? :)
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Whoa, I’d completely forgotten about this old thread. And most of these answers, haha!
I’m positive it’s mostly nostalgia talking, but I’ve always loved the Original Series most of all. It was my first, and it opened my eyes to the possibility that sci-fi could be philosophical, non-war-focused, and optimistic. Everything I’d seen before was either combat-focused (like Star Wars) or kiddy (like Lost in Space), and the original Star Trek was a landmark moment in my personal development. I’ll throw the Animated Series into this slot too, it’s a great series and I highly recommend it to anyone into Star Trek. The writers made great use of the animated medium to create more fantastical aliens and tell stories that would have too expensive in live-action, like underwater exploration and massive pre-Colombian city-planets.
TNG is my next favorite, and it’s probably a better overall show than TOS. The characters are more three-dimensional, the writing was more cerebral, and it had enough seasons to really come into its own. I’ve only seen a bit of Voyager, DS9, and Enterprise, so I probably haven’t given them a fair enough shake, but Voyager was my favorite of the three.
Lastly, I’ve been watching Lower Decks with my free month of CBS All-Access, and I’m pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable it is to watch. The writing is good, the jokes land, and the creators are clearly massive trekkies because they pepper a ton of subtle references into every episode. The characters are all likeable and the plots work both comedically and within the confines of the Trek universe. I didn't go in expeccting much, but now I can't wait for the second season.
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Fun going through all the answers again huh? :P
Thanks for the thorough answer! I have been meaning to check out Lower Decks, but haven't found a legit way to access it yet over here. Looking forward to it.
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Have you ever visited Spain?
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Thanks for the question! :D
I sadly have never gotten to visit Spain, though I really want to someday. I've visited a fair amount of European countries (England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Norway, and the Vatican) and actually will be moving to Germany in about a year with my boyfriend. (Spain was actually on our shortlist for where to move, but the tipping point was that Spanish citizenship requires giving up your previous citizenship, and we'd rather be able to return to the US if we ever need to.)
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What's your favouite thing at McDonald's food item?
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What's your favouite thing at McDonald's food item?
The mythical Rolo McFlurry, which I've never had. Rolos are among my favorite candy, and the McFlurry version came out as a limited-edition in 2012, but the one time I was able to visit McDonalds during the event I was told they'd run out of Rolos. So I got a generic M&M McFlurry instead.
Funny enough, I got a second chance when I flew to Great Britain later that year and discovered the event hadn't ended over there! But when I went to British McDonalds, that restaurant was out of Rolos as well! In the end I can only imagine what one would taste like, haha
(The other funny thing that happened was when I ordered an M&M McFlurry at the British McDonalds and they said they don't sell those. So I asked what they did sell, and they listed several candies, including Smarties (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties). Being American, I thought, "Smarties (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties_(tablet_candy))? Those would be disgusting in a McFlurry! I've got to try one." So I ordered it, and imagine my surprise when they hand me an M&M McFlurry!)
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am im annoying? pls say no.
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No, you're not annoying, you remind me a lot of myself when I was younger. Mostly looking for people to reply to or acknowledge you, also very creative and churning out a lot of different media (videos, memes, GIFs, animations) trying to figure out what people will pay attention to. They're good instincts, they're the same ones that led to me developing a YouTube channel and eventually getting hired as a fulltime video editor. So keep doing that, figuring out what content you enjoy making and expanding your online portfolio. The views will just keep coming so long as you don't stop, and before long you'll be getting tens of thousands of hits on your content. Lord knows you're starting out earlier than I did
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omg thank you.
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Disney or Warner Bros?
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Don’t really have a strong opinion on this one, I admit, they both have a lot of incredible media. I’m definitely more familiar with Disney, recently saw and really enjoyed Encanto, especially the soundtrack. I think “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is gonna win the Oscar for best original song this year
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Do you prefer wired or wireless earphones/headphones?
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I bought my first pair of wireless headphones in 2013 and they were just awful, constantly cutting out and losing connection. Haven’t used ‘em since, though I assume the tech is vastly improved. I just want to be able to rely on my tech to do its job when I need it to
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would you rather be in level ! or level fun.
(do you know anything about the backrooms)
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Modern movies or pre-21st century movies?
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would you rather be in level ! or level fun.
(do you know anything about the backrooms)
I pick whichever level Mr Clean (https://mwac.itch.io/mrcleanexe) is on.
(For reals, while I'm not at all versed on any lore, I do like the original image as one of my favorite creepypastas, mainly due to its simplicity and the unsettingly-drab origin image. The stained-yellow filter and tilted camera angle are subtle changes that nonetheless do a great job enhancing the off-putting intention of the scene. I'm legit sad we'll never know where the original photo was taken, even though that's the whole point.)
Modern movies or pre-21st century movies?
Man that's a tough call. Modern movies have gotten truly incredible with their special effects, graphical fidelity and envelope-pushing stunts, but pre-21st century movies (at least the ones that withstood the test of time) are truly remarkable because they had to work within the technological limitations of the time. The incredible accomplishments of artists like Georges Méliès, Buster Keaton, and Ray Harryhausen are all the more incredible considering how their films pioneered never-before-seen levels of cinematic spectacle. I consider Twelve Angry Men to be my personal favorite film, so I think I'd have to go with the latter, but I do consider myself blessed to live in a time where I get to enjoy both.
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Do you like the song La Bomba?
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Hell yeah! Funny enough, I'm more familiar with Enrique Iglesias' version because my parents attended the Festival de Viña where he performed it in Chile 1999:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVIa8veU6JI
My family was a huge fan of his music so I heard them constantly growing up, "Miente" was probably my personal favorite.
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Have you ever listened to The Beatles?
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I daresay everyone has, haha. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is probably my favorite song of theirs as it was playing on the radio when I first met my boyfrend in 2009, we met up at the Panda Express in the UCSB rec center to study together, as we'd each taken the Dinosaurs class to fulfill our college's math requirement. (I still wonder if the college meant for that class to fulfill the math requirement, there was barely any math in it)
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What do you think of the band Queen?
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Too many timeless classics to list, they'll forever be one of the world's greatest bands. My favorite song by theirs has to be a tie between "Don't Stop Me Now" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", even though I know that's the most cliche answer anyone could possibly give. Their music is just too good, man
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Have you seen the 1978 film Grease?
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I haven't, though I did sing lead vocals on the song "Greased Lightning" in high-school choir
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Listen to the song Beauty High School Drop-Out. It's my favouite song from the soundtrack and movie.
Do you like Do-Wop?
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That is a good song! I’d actually never see the movie till last night. I see now why Travolta was a 70s-80s era heartthrob
I don’t think I’ve ever listened to do-wop except incidentally
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Ever heard of the song Breakfast in America by Supertramp?
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I have not heard of that song, sorry.
Update: Did just give it a listen, and I definitely recognize it, I just didn't know its name before. It's a good song, reminds me of Lindsey Buckingham
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what is your favorite book series?
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Man, that's a tough call. There are some seriously good book series out there. As a kid, I loved Animorphs, but I tried rereading them as an adult and they didn't hold up nearly as well as I remembered. On the other hand, Artemis Fowl was a huge influence on me growing up and you can see the influences it had on my own writing. (Emilena from our RPs took at least a bit of inspiration from Holly Short).
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If you were to write a letter to somebody, would you write it in Spanish?
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No hablo español muy bien, yo solo tomado tres años en escuela. Si yo escribiera una carta, probablemente lo escribiria en ingles ;)
[I don't speak Spanish very well, I only took three years in high school. If I wrote a letter, I'd probably write it in English. I did write the above though!]
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Have you ever watched Tron from 1982?
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Nope, my only experience with the franchise was the game Armagetron, which was a low-poly racing game that came pre-installed on every computer in the rec room at a tech camp I attended in junior high. Me and the other students played the hell out of that game because it was on every computer, I wasn't terribly good at it myself but I did score a few wins here and there. For those who haven't seen Tron, the game's main mechanic was that the "race" took place on a grid and every car was constantly emitting an endless wall of solid light behind them, and anyone who collided with a wall exploded, making the gameplay essentially multiplayer Snake. Very addicting for such a simple premise
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Favrouite cartoon?
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On any other board I'd say Land Before Time, but I figure you'd like a more interesting answer :P
The first candidate that comes to mind is Batman the Animated Series as it's one of my favorite iterations of the Batman character. Writing was great, many characters like Dr Freeze and Clayface had their identities crystallized from this show, and it gave birth to Harley Quinn who's now one of the most famous members of the entire rogue's gallery. However, I hesitate to declare it my favorite cartoon ever as it's just one part of the Batman franchise, which is what I'm truly a fan of. It's a commendable part of what makes me a Batman fan, but there are so many elements and reasons that extend beyond this one show.
So I think I'll have to give my vote to Scooby-Doo in all its runs. The core Scooby gang is iconic, with each bringing a different thing to the table, and for a saturday morning cartoon the mystery element was reallly refreshing. Shows back then tended to be light, fluffy, and wacky, so the spooky decrepit caves and run-down ghost towns was a really different vibe from what else we had to watch back then. The mystery element furthermore required an element of cleverness on the writer's part, using either misdirection, scientific explanation, or detective work for the protagonists to resolve the plot, and again this was a stepup from the usual cartoon writing that otherwise relied on laser guns, wacky hijinks, or the power of friendship to resolve problems. Mystery Incorporated is my particular favorite iteration, one of the best examples of a 'series reboot' I've ever seen, with fresh takes on the characters that heighten each of their narrative roles (it invented the now-commonplace interpretation of Fred being enthusiastically addicted with traps, a much-improved characterization over the 'generic everyman leader guy' personality he had before).
Edit: I suppose My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic deserves a mention too, as it had a huge impact on my life in multiple ways. Anyone online in the early 2010s remembers the insane wave of popularity that swept the internet when that show first released, and my boyfriend and I capitalized on it to get our first game-writing jobs for Legends of Equestria. It wasn't an accident that show was so popular; the core 6 characters were incredibly well-defined, with unique personalities that even the most casual fans could understand at a glance. The writing was above-average for 2010s cartoons, and without trying it bridged the gap between male and female-oriented cartoons. Even today, its impact is everywhere in the cartoons being released today, you can look at shows like Steven Universe, [Star Vs the Forces of Evil[/i] and the new She-Ra and see them capitalizing on the trail MLP:FiM blazed. Furthermore, it has probably my favorite cartoon character of all time, Starlight Glimmer, who I really related with due to her resourcefullness as a fighter, her mastery of emotional/behavioral manipulation as a villain, her checkered redemption arc that really put her through the ringer over the years, and her social awkwardness despite her extreme technical competence. These are four different character archetypes I'm a huge fan of, and MLP:FiM crammed them all into a single character.
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Have you seen The Sound of Music from 1965?
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My family played that movie CONSTANTLY growing up! I have the entire soundtrack practically memorized. It was part of a small set of movies we watched over and over, along with The Music Man (1962), Mary Poppins (1964), and Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang (1968). My parents were really into live-action musicals from their childhood, haha
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Have you heard any Phil Collins?
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Of course! The Tarzan soundtrack is definitely the music I've heard from him the most, followed by that "On My Way" song from Brother Bear that played ad nauseum in that early 2000's Coca-Cola commercial. My favorite song by him has got to be "He Lives in You" from the bonus music CD for The Lion King
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What do you think of 1980s Thrash Metal?
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I don't listen to old-school metal as much as I should, it's a really incredible genre. I think "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath is probably my favorite song from the era, with "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden being a close runner-up as it was one of my dad's favorites. (Very lame answers I know, I need to go listen to lower-profile stuff and not just the turbo-classics that endure even today)
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What to you think of Disney remakes?
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I've only seen a few of them, Mulan was really disappointing compared to the original because it completely misunderstood the reasons Mulan was a strong character (she wasn't a sword-slinging mystical warrior with abnormally-high chi, she was an ordinary woman who used her wits/guile to think her way out of intense situations), and Alice in Wonderland didn't really bring anything new to the table, plus it proliferated the now-widespread misbelief that the jabberwocky was an actual character in the original novel.
The only one I liked was The Lion King but not as a movie, more as a tech demo. It feels like one of those surreal YouTube videos you'd stumble across with the name "If the Lion King were live-action" by a well-respected solo animator and the comments are all ironically saying "Disney should make this a real thing" because it's such a bizarre idea. I'm glad it exists and I got to watch it, but don't think it was a good movie by any typical metric.
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Did you watch Inside Out?
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I did and I wasn't terribly impressed. The plot just seemed really predictable and it moved really slowly. Though I do have to say, I have several friends who say it helped them come to terms with their own emotions, so it's apparently a film that did good things for a lot of people, but I'd already heavily-explored the concepts they touched on and found their treatment of the subject matter surface-level at best. So I ultimately just think it wasn't the film for me.
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Favourite Beatles album?
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Haha our answers are finally in sync again :P
I know the White Album is a really cliche answer, but it has some of my favorite songs by them, including my second-favorite Beatles song, “Obla-Di Obla-Da” (my favorite, “A Hard Day’s Night”, wasn’t for any specific album but a feature film they produced)
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Ducky or Ruby? :RubyCurious :ducky
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I gotta go with Ducky, she's my favorite character in the series. Always so chipper and a voice of positivity among the core gang. Ruby's great for what she is, I'm just not sure the gang needed a "mentor figure", though I can't deny she's convenient as a mouthpiece for the moral of every episode. It's also kinda cool to have a babysitter character who actually goes on the adventures, usually they get sidelined or are locked out of the loop in children's media.
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Have you ever seen the series Redwall?
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I haven't, though I've heard really good things. I really should try it at some point, it's got a ton of different things I really enjoy in fiction (though I admit I usually go for sci-fi over fantasy, there are plenty of fantasy worlds I nevertheless enjoy)
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Where is your favrouite country to go on holiday to?
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Scotland was so great, we visited Hadrian’s Wall, the site of Braveheart’s Last Stand, and many famous locations from folk songs and historical figures. Was definitely my favorite country for seeing historical landmarks. To say nothing of the Highlands with its adorable long-haired cows!
For tourism/relaxing fun times, Venice was such an incredible sight, we saw it on the same trip as Rome. Riding the canals and attending festivals was such an incredible sight to see.
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I have some close links to Scotland.
Have you ever been to the USA?
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Have you ever watched Animaniacs?
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I haven't, but I really should, any clips I see from the show are hilarious and it's my exact style of humor. I wasn't allowed to watch TV growing up so I'm woefully under-exposed to classic cartoons, it was one reason I first got into LBT as I was allowed to watch animated movies, so it was the closest thing I had to a "TV show" in terms of sheer volume of content.
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Have you ever listened to the rock band Kiss?
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Sadly I know next to nothing about Kiss. You have any songs of theirs you’d recommend? The only thing I remember about them is that extended Dr. Pepper Cherry campaign they were part of in the ‘00s
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Rock and Roll All Nite, Detroit Rock City and Shout It Out Loud.
Have you seen Ghostbusters 1984?
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For sure! Great movie. I've watched pretty much everything with Rick Moranis, he was my favorite actor for a while. I could do a Top 10 of my favorite Rick Moranis films if I had to
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What do you think of 80s Music?
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Have you ever watched Dink the little dinosaur?
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Howdy fellow Ducky enjoyer :duckyhappy
What do you know about 6teen (my brand, lol) and Total Drama? :smile
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Do you like Black and White movies?
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What do you think of 80s Music?
I love 80's music! My parents had tons of 80's CDs so I heard it constantly at home. My favorites songs from the 80's are probably 'Opportunities' and 'Rent' by Pet Shop Boys, 'Shake the Disease' by Depeche Mode, and 'Whisper to a Scream' by The Icicle Works. (Though you can take almost anything by those bands from the era, they're just so good)
Have you ever watched Dink the little dinosaur?
Haha I watched the entire series as a kid! My brother would actually have debates on whether Dink or LBT was better, he preferred Dink and I liked LBT. (His main argument was that Dink was a TV show. If only the LBT TV show existed at the time :p ) Dink was very good, though I can't say anything particularly stands out and I can see why history's mostly forgotten it. Also Scat was almost as annoying as Petrie
Howdy fellow Ducky enjoyer :duckyhappy
What do you know about 6teen (my brand, lol) and Total Drama? :smile
I haven't seen them myself, but there was a Gang of Five user named MrDrake who loved Total Drama. He was an avid story-writer and roleplayer in the RP section and we used to chat on Skype all the time. He went full radio-silent one day and we never heard from him again, I have no clue what happened to him but I hope he's doing well wherever he is. (I actually made a video game (https://aabicus.itch.io/gamer-2) concluding his final unfinished story, starring his OC Hailey. TBH I miss him a lot and check his socials occasionally to see if he reappears.)
Do you like Black and White movies?
Some of my favorite films are from the B&W era, including my favorite film of all time 12 Angry Men. Just a masterclass in telling a compelling story with minimal props, settings, and just a handful of riveting performances. Other B&W films I enjoy are High Noon, Some Like It Hot, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Dr. Strangelove, and the original Twilight Zone series with Rod Serling.
(Ironically, I really didn't enjoy Casablanca when I first saw it in film class because I was far more invested in the subplot regarding Viktor Lazlo and the secret papers. I couldn't fathom why there was so much screentime ignoring the Allies securing a piece of intel that could help win the war. When the film was over, I asked the other students in bewilderment why the story kept focusing on Rick and Elsa instead of 'the main plot,' before the class helpfully informed me that their romance was the main plot! It was one of the earliest signs I was aromantic, haha)
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Are there any cartoons you despise?
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Man, I’ve spent a few days trying to come up with something, but I have a very high tolerance for weak animation. Some of the worst animated media are still intensely enjoyable, even if it’s a train wreck on the eyeballs for plot (the animated Titanic trilogy), craft (CG-I Zelda intros), tastelessness (Judas & Jesus) or artstyle reasons (Ugly Americans). One of my favorite movies is Secret Of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue just because it fails in literally every aspect and should never have been made. You also have to remember that animation is intensely time-consuming, so when something doesn’t feel animated as well as it should be, I’m likely to give them a pass if the production team was small (Aero-Troopers: The Nemeclous Cloud) or especially a single person (the Rainbow Dash Presents webseries.)
And then there are lots of poorly-animated media that overcome their shortcomings by embracing them (Sealab 2021 or Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman are not well-animated media, but they overcome their weaknesses through earnest writing or a memorable core gimmick.) There’s a reason animation classes all start with “your current artistic skill level is good enough for animation, no matter how well you can draw.”
Now, I must confess that my forgiving taste does not extend to 3D animation, so it’s far more likely I’ll abandon a poorly-animated 3D snoozefest, especially if its main crime is being boring rather than laughably bad. So I think I’d have to give Father of the Pride the title of my personal least-favorite animated thing. Awful writing, awful characters, awful premise, 12½ episodes were far too many.
Update: Actually, I’d completely forgotten about it, but I was definitely not a fan of Happy Tree Friends. I guess the exact same joke, over and over, relying on nothing but grossout humor and with no variation or meaningful cast characterization, got pretty tiring after a while. It felt like the sort of thing that only took off because people who thought animations are only for kids got offended. I was also the only person in my friend group who didn’t like Steven Universe, mostly because the main character aggravated me to no end, the songs felt forgettable, most of the side characters were unmemorable, the plots were paper-thin and the episode runtimes were too short to actually get into any meaningful storylines. Much like how Dear Evan Hansen subsisted entirely on a wave of fervor looking for “the next Hamilton” and nothing to do with any actual artistic merits of its own, I feel like Steven Universe exploded because everyone collectively decided it was “the next My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic” despite it lacking most of the things that made FiM so groundbreaking. I know everyone talks shit on Steven Universe nowadays, but I wasn’t a fan from the very beginning, for what little that’s worth.
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What do you think of social media in its current form?
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What's the biggest city you been to?
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Do you like fast food?
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delete, double post
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What do you think of social media in its current form?
Not a fan. I can't help but feel it mostly brings out the worst in people, and leads to increased tribalism as people surround themselves in bubbles that reinforce their pre-existing world views. I have an account on most social medias, but I don't really use or check them because I have very little to say and I find my mental health declining whenever I read other people's posts.
The two exceptions are YouTube and reddit, which I like because of their anonymity. Nobody knows who I am, and nobody in the comment section cares about the usernames, they're just having an honest conversation with random internet people. On YouTube I have a channel dedicated to gaming walkthroughs (https://www.youtube.com/c/TheSPUFOfLegend) and I appreciate that my audience has no clue who I am in real life. And on reddit, I appreciate that there's no system ensuring I only see content by people I already agree with. Every time I post on reddit, the viewers have no clue who I am and will happily downvote me if my take sucks, so it keeps me objective and I can never let my guard down and succumb to delivering low-qualty content that only supportive viewers will see and upvote nonetheless.
What's the biggest city you been to?
Not the most exciting answer, but New York City. I visited in 2014 to see the ball drop on New Years, and I also briefly visited as a kid during a tour of Civil War battlegrounds. (Obviously there were no battles that high north, but we started high and traveled low until we reached the far south). I've been to about a dozen different countries across the planet, but I never visited any of the cities on Wikipedia's list that are larger than New York City.
Do you like fast food?
I gave up fast food a few years ago. Every year, my New Year's resolution is to give up some unhealthy food, and by this point I've weaned myself off of alcohol, caffeinated drinks, sugar drinks, candy, fried food, beef, and this year I'm slowly giving up pig products. (It hasn't been easy, I miss my bacon). The rise in "impossible" plant-based meats has been a godsend, the tech has finally advanced to the point these meats are very good and almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
The one exception is Panda Express, which I will occasionally visit for a special occasion. Orange Chicken is my favorite food of all time, and if you get the mixed vegetables for a side it's not a terribly unhealthy meal so long as it's eaten in extreme moderation.
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Twitter or Facebook, which one is worse from your perspective?
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Twitter or Facebook, which one is worse from your perspective?
Definitely Twitter, for a couple different reasons:
1) The brevity forces people to constrain what they say, often leading to missing nuance and an increased chance people misunderstand what they say. It's gotten a bit better since they doubled the character count, but I've never seen as many overly-simplistic ignorant takes on Facebook that very easily rile up everyone who reads it.
2) Their comment algorithm is garbage, it's always the worst comments at the very top. Every time I click on a tweet (on any topic, from any source, of any level of popularity) and scroll down, I'm instantly presented with hurtful/butthurt/gotcha comments from rude people who make me lose a little more faith in humanity. Facebook comments, on the other hand, are usually lighthearted or generally happy, if a bit boomer-oriented, unless you seek out inflammatory content like politics.
3) Their UI is terrible. Why does it only show you the first 4 comments of a thread before silently transitioning you back into showing random tweets having nothing to do with what you were just reading? Every time I get started reading a twitter thread, I feel like I'm having a stroke when suddenly none of the comments are related or sensibly cohering with each other. And if you click the blue-on-blue unhighlighted "See more" button, Twitter grants you two more comments before instantly dragging you out of the thread again. I know you want to inflate your impressions, Twitter, but stop disrupting my reading experience to do it. Facebook actually lets you read the whole comment section of the thing you're on without constant interruption.
4) The "Trending" tab is a cesspit of angry, political, and irrelevant topics, never anything I actually care about. From celebrity drama to flamebait political taglines to (worst of all) billionaire gossip. And then if you actually click one, all you see is 500 tweets going "anyone who uses this hashtag is an idiot! Stop the astroturfing!" I mean, Jesus, is every side on Twitter just mad about everything all the time?
5) Everytime I login I have one unread notification. If I click it, it's a completely random tweet that Twitter has decided to show me. It's never someone I'm following, or a topic I care about, and often there isn't even enough context for me to understand what they're talking about, like Twitter's trying to bait me to click it to find out what they're trying to say. I usually just block the person instead. Show me something I remotely care about (and maybe stop abusing the concept of a "notification") and we'll see, Twitter.
Facebook doesn't have most of these problems, though it's still a terrible site and I don't think I've logged in for over a decade. But Twitter is easily my least-favorite website on the planet, and I hate that everyone tells me I should be marketing myself on there. I'm well aware I should be, but it's such a negative and pessimistic cesspool of ignorant vitriol because every single design choice was optimized to shove your face in the worst content the site has to offer.
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Do you have an early 2000s memory?
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I actually remember the Stroke of the New Millenium! I was a bratty little tyke, and my parents invited a bunch of their old college friends over to form a massive bonfire and burn a bunch of old furniture/paperwork/possessions to symbolize the end of the old millenia and the shedding of unwantted baggage. For whatever reason everyone was also wearing loincloths and covered in warpaint, because my parents never do weird stuff halfway. (In hindsight I don't think we were legally allowed to do this sort of thing in our backyard, but we got away with it!) I remember I burned some of my old school binders, though they had me take the notes out first in case I'd want to reuse them in high school. Then after midnight I think everyone jumped in the neighbor's pool to "cleanse the old millenium from our bodies"? Honestly, the more I'm remembering and reciting that night, the more bizarre I'm realizing it was.
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What do you think of the Rio films?
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What do you think of the Rio films?
Haven't seen them, sadly. Should I?
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They look visually nice but the plots are not ground breaking. The generic hero vs villain storyline.
Favourite Disney movie?
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Probably Hunchback of Notre Dame. Such a dark story, but with amazing music and a script that touches on very adult themes for a Disney movie, plus Frollo is a very complicated villain. It also pioneered new animation techniques regarding flames (such as Esmeralda dancing in the fireplace, or the burning church in the finale) that were just incredible to see as a kid.
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Have you watched Zootopia?
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Haha I love Zootopia. You can honestly look at the furry fandom pre- and post-zootopia and see a huge thrust towards furry normalization in common culture, arguably the largest one since Disney’s Robin Hood. Hilarious the same animation studio did it twice.
That being said, I could write literally a 5-page essay on why the line in the end where Nick is mentioned to be the first fox cop is absolutely awful on every level and breaks everything the movie and script was trying to say, symbolize, and add meaning to, on both an in-universe, textual, and real-world-historical level. The whole movie would literally be better if that line was cut with nothing replacing it. I care way more about this than I should, and I’m happy to go into detail if anyone wants, but I don’t want to talk your ear off if nobody cares. Just let me know if you want the rant.
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Who are your favrouite animals in cartoons?
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Not gonna count Ducky from LBT here, since we all know and love her already.
Starlight Glimmer has to take top spot as my favorite character in MLP:FiM and probably my favorite animal character in any cartoon. I loved her stint as a villain and her struggles to overcome her sociopathic tendencies to become a better person, and her friendship with Trixie breathed new life into both characters and let them become one of the best duos on the show.
Second place has to go to Mrs. Brisby from The Secret of NIMH. She's thrust into such a violent world and a harrowing storyline despite being one of the most vulnerable characters in the movie, but she pushes ever-onward through her fears to help the people she loves. She's resourceful, caring, and selfless, and 100% earned that happy ending the hard way.
And finally, I know this one's weird, but I love how the "Inspector Javert" role in Tangled is played by Maxwell the horse. The fact that the human constables won't listen to him, so he decides to go off and catch Flynn Rider all on his own adds a great dynamic to his narrative role and the challenges he has to overcome in his investigation. I wish they'd given him more to do in the series, they did a great job finding ways to keep Pascal the Chameleon relevant (another animal character I really like), but Maxwell was often relegated to the background.
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Favorite digimon?
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SkullMeramon! He’s the only one I’ve ever owned, I haven’t played the games or watched the show but I somehow got ahold of his holographic trading card and stored it with my Pokémon cards. It was a running gag where I’d play him in the middle of Pokémon TCG matches against my friends just for a quick laugh before playing my real turn. That card’s probably still in my childhood desk at my parents house.
Is he any good? I have no idea how digimon plays, is he like a powerful card or meta relevant in any way? Lol
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have you ever listened to Chalino Sanchez?
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Can't say I have, no.
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Have you ever seen The Wild from 2006?
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No, I haven’t. Should I? Been looking for other animated films of that ilk, I really enjoyed Back to the Outback and The Sea Beast and was planing on watching The Bad Guys next.
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It depends, it's not as bad as what people say it is but it's not terrific either.
The Wild has the same plot line as Madagascar but the idea for The Wild was thought of before Madagascar. The film The Wild came out a year year though so people think that Disney stole the idea from DreamWorks when it was actually the other way round.
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If you could be friend with any cartoon character, who would it be?
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Probably a Rotom from Pokemon. Not only can he inhabit appliances, powering my computer during a powerout etc, he could join me in cyberspace and we could play games together or hang out online. And in the realm of pokemon battling, he's got amazing typing (Electric/Ghost) and can even inhabit 5 different appliances to shuffle around his secondary typing, plus his ability (Levitate) makes him immune to Electric's primary weakness, Ground. In later games he can even possess Pokedexes, cellphones, and bicycles to give them additional noncombat functionalities!
Just an all-around kickass Pokemon, I considered Rotom my favorite long before Sun and Moon massively boosted Rotom's profile and now he gets the same level of representation as Charizard or Pikachu across the canon.
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Do you like more scaled, or feathered dinosaurs?
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Have you ever watched any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?
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Do you like more scaled, or feathered dinosaurs?
I have to say scaled, but only because I remember them from my childhood so I have a soft spot for them even if they’re scientifically inaccurate. They’re just so visually striking as giant murder reptiles, I love stories that revolve around them.
Have you ever watched any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?
I think I saw the first one way back in the day, I’ve been meaning to watch the others. I heard it’s a good series, and I don’t remember any problems with the one I saw
What's the biggest city you been to?
Just wanted to update this answer, I totally forgot my parents took me to Dubai when I was very young. I don’t remember anything of the trip, but apparently I really liked the Burj Khalifa even though it was only just starting construction at the time.
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Do you prefer Digimon or Pokémon more?
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What strategy games are you currently playing, if any?
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Do you prefer Digimon or Pokémon more?
Gotta say Pokémon, mainly because I have a long and seasoned career in various Poképroperties whereas I’ve never even played Digimon, and only owned a single Digimon card in my whole life. In contrast I’ve played every generation of Pokémon, was a professional Pokemon GO journalist for a few years, and am the first ever person to beat Pokémon Red with only a Magikarp. (https://spuf.org/2020/12/26/beating-the-first-game-with-the-worst-pokemon-part-1/)
What strategy games are you currently playing, if any?
Fire Emblem Three Houses is my current Switch game of choice, and man is it a great game. Blown away by how many different dialogue options they have, and the cutscene capability to just handle major characters being killed off in previous battles. It really makes your playthrough feel different from everyone else’s. I’m also replaying my favorite RTS of all time Impossible Creatures, and it’s so great, you get to construct your own units using the body parts of various animals. Some of my favorite inventions are antobsters (lobsters with ant heads that can burrow underground and regenerate health), killeenas (hyenas with killer whale heads that have a ranged sonar attack and can swim), and scortures (scorpion vultures that fly, sting, and get pack bonuses.) I made all those, your creatures are gonna be completely different! Everyone should play it at least once, it was so ahead of it’s time.
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Fire Emblem Three Houses is my current Switch game of choice, and man is it a great game. Blown away by how many different dialogue options they have, and the cutscene capability to just handle major characters being killed off in previous battles. It really makes your playthrough feel different from everyone else’s. I’m also replaying my favorite RTS of all time Impossible Creatures, and it’s so great, you get to construct your own units using the body parts of various animals. Some of my favorite inventions are antobsters (lobsters with ant heads that can burrow underground and regenerate health), killeenas (hyenas with killer whale heads that have a ranged sonar attack and can swim), and scortures (scorpion vultures that fly, sting, and get pack bonuses.) I made all those, your creatures are gonna be completely different! Everyone should play it at least once, it was so ahead of it’s time.
In that case, there's another game called the Eternal Cylinder (https://store.steampowered.com/app/865680/The_Eternal_Cylinder/) you might enjoy. It has a lot of LBT-esque themes as well.
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Dude this looks awesome, I bought it and I'll let you know what I think!
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Do you think Ducky is the cutest character in the Land Before Time franchise?
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Do you think Ducky is the cutest character in the Land Before Time franchise?
Definitely! Was my favorite as a kid, and still my favorite as an adult :D Chomper's pretty cute too though, especially as a baby, but Ducky still takes first place
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Worst Land Before Time character?
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Have you watched TV show Moment of Truth, where people answer questions while being connected on lie detector? Did you like it?
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Worst Land Before Time character?
Oh man that’s a tough one. As a kid I’d say Petrie, as I’m super sick of his scaredy-cat act and his constantly forgetting he can fly, and having to overcome his fear of flying every episode, and his creepily fervent sun-worshipping in that one episode. As an adult, I’d probably still say Petrie, but I have to give a shoutout to…uh…
Crap. I was sure if I racked my brain I could think of a side/guest character who I liked less than Petrie. Maybe Loofah/Doofah, Rhett, Dinah/Danah, Tippy’s mom, etc. But all of them filled roles in their plot and added narrative stakes and fleshed out the world more, I just can’t do it. Still gotta say Petrie.
Have you watched TV show Moment of Truth, where people answer questions while being connected on lie detector? Did you like it?
I watched the first episode but I had some pretty serious problems with the core premise. Lie detectors are largely discredited, and most of it seems to be just fishing for scandalous answers. It seemed to be largely random when they got kicked from the chair, and I’m highly suspicious of the fact that no contestant ever won the top prize even though it’d be trivially easy to just be ‘honest’ and win every time. Reminded me too much of reality TV with all the outrageous drama designed to provoke audience reactions, and it’s impossible to come away not feeling it must be either scripted or the guest is playing it up for attention.
I also hate how much this sort of media relies on cheating/sex/keeping secrets from one’s partner for shock value. As a polyamorist, it’s incredibly annoying how every show/book/movie on the planet automatically assumes monogamy is the only possible way to live, and that love triangles/jealousy/unfaithfulness/poor communication are all fascinatingly interesting because there’s no way you can love/sleep with multiple people at the same time and just fucking tell them and work something out.
(And finally I tend to get annoyed at game shows that don’t require actually being smart or skilled at something. Many shows require deep trivia knowledge, others require reflexes or game theory or outwitting other contestants. This show has none of that, literally anyone could go on this show and do passably well.)
Would you personally pay a large amount of money for a signed autograph on Ebay from any actor/voice actor who you are a fan of because of their work?
I admit I’ve never really put much stock in physical merchandise like that. I do have a few though, entirely from staffing conventions in my youth (specifically Leonard Nimoy/Spock, Brent Spiner/Data, David Hewlett/Rodney McKay, Amanda Tapping/Samantha Carter, Peter Mayhew/Chewbacca, and Alex Kingston/River Song.) Those are most of my favorite actor/characters in their respective franchises, so I’m pretty happy to have them!
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Windows Vista or XP?
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Vista was such a trash fire lol, it and 8 were both insanely annoying with all its app-ification. 10/11 is much more manageable, but I think XP was my favorite and I miss it even nowadays :P
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Have you listened to Rush?
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Can’t say I have, no
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Ever watched any Warner Bros films?
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Of course! There are so many I imagine everyone on the planet has at some point, whether they know it or not. I can't say there are many that leap out at me as favorites or overly-incredible movies compared to their competition, but there are plenty of enjoyable decently-good flicks like Lego Movie, The Batman, Inception, Harry Potter etc. And I know they have some all-time classics in their repertoire too, like 2001 A Space Odyssey, but I haven't seen nearly as many films as the average person so I can only speak on them from experience.
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seen any good movies lately?
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Have you seen any Doctor Who?
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seen any good movies lately?
Netflix's Nemona was awesome, just saw that the other day and I highly recommend it. Very interesting worldbuilding, awesome shapeshifting protagonist, and gay protagonists where their gayness doesn't even factor into the plot, which is shockingly rare in animated media even these days.
Have you seen any Doctor Who?
I saw every episode of the 9th through 11th doctor, I think I watched the first episode of the 12th but I was in a busy part of my life and fell off the boat. Been meaning to catch up but I just never got into the new doctors like I did those three, they (and their companions) were all so great in their own ways
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What did you think of Shorty from Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration?
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I know a lot of people didn't like him but honestly he never bothered me. Homie's spent his whole life with his dad, and suddenly his dad drops him like a hot potato for some random kid he's never met, just because the kid's biologically related to him? I can totally see him finding that unfair and out of his control, and in the end he comes around to Littlefoot of his own volition, he didn't need to be shamed into better behavior like (for example) Rhett did. All in all I think he handled himself well enough as an immature little kid going through some rough life-altering issues
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Why do you think Rhett is the worst character in the TV series by far?
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I think the main reason people don't like Rhett is that the writers dropped the ball on Ali. She's one of the most beloved guest characters from a well-regarded sequel movie (which even drops a hint at the end that she'll return for future adventures.) So there's tons of hype for Ali to finally appear for her second time, but then she's basically just a naive wide-eyed groupie for some stupid little snot-nosed brat. Rhett could have worked as a character, but they butchered Ali's character to make his (very lazy and cliched) storyline function so that's all anybody remembers when they think of him, and rightly so.
That being said, I'd say he's only the second-worst character in the TV series, behind sun-cultist Petrie from "Bright Circle Celebration".
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What do you think of Ruby's thought up existence in the TV Series?
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I'm not quite sure what you mean by the question, but if it's "why did they add Ruby to the series and do I support it", I'm honestly on the fence. I get why they added a teenager/babysitter character who was more mature than the gang but still young enough to enthusiastically participate in their adventures, and they gave her enough personality quirks and a unique species that helped her stand out from the pack, but from a writing standpoint she spent most episodes either doing nothing or simply spouting the moral at the end. IMO she was kinda a crutch to make it easier for them to churn out formulaic episodes, but the standout episodes (like the one where she remembers her family) are very good and I think she lives up to the potential of her role. If I had the chance to delete her from the show, I wouldn't.
I also think they made the right call with her cameo in LBT 14. A lot of people were complaining that she didn't have more to do, but you have to remember the movie series is way more famous than the TV series, and was always about the core five. Chomper and Ruby would have been out of place as focal characters in a movie, especially that one which focused on Littlefoot's dad and didn't concern them in the slightest, and I appreciate they got a cameo and weren't deleted entirely. That's about all that could be done with them while still staying true to the movie motif of "spiritual recreation of the first movie and its story beats."
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Do you think Meghan Strange and Anndi McAfee did a good voice impressions of Tress MacNeille when doing Mama Swimmer and Mama Flyer respectively?
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Yeah, 100%. Honestly I had no clue the role was ever recasted
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Do you think that furries existed as far back as the 70s or 80s?
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(https://i.imgur.com/tBEv1Ag.png)
Yes. :p
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Who's your favrouite Dalmatian in 101 Dalmatians?
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Can't say I feel too strongly about any of them, tbh
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What's your definition of Furry?
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Way broader than Nick's :P I think anyone who's a fan of content starring anthropomorphic animals is at least displaying furry tendencies. I know most people draw the line more specifically to like "People who have fursonas" or "people who consume niche internet content" but I know furries who do neither of those things, and if I were to have to encompass the entire gamut of people I know who are all definitely furries, the only line in the sand that encompasses all of them is the former.
Do note that "is a fan" goes a bit further than "has seen it and/or likes it." Someone who saw and thought Zootopia was a good film isn't necessarily a furry, especially if they forget about the film and quickly move on with their lives, but if they get immersed enough in Zootopia culture and community that they consider themselves a "fan", I think they've crossed the line. I suppose it's possible that someone can be a fan of something furry while not taking any interest in the anthro aspects, but said aspects are so intrinsically integrated into the whole of the product I would still nonetheless categorize them as a furry whether they like it or not.
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Is it OK to call voice actors who enjoy voicing animal characters furries by technicality?
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Eh, not really, everything changes when you're making money. I've done some unusual things to avoid homelessness in my day, financial incentives really muddy the waters on what someone 'wants' to do and what's just proved to be an efficient way to keep yourself fed and housed without hating your job.
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Do you think that Cody Arens gave Littlefoot more character development in the TV Series than any of the Land Before Time movie voices combined?
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Yeah Littlefoot's voice was one of the highlights of the TV series. I think the main relief was that whoever voiced him in the later movies had outgrown the part, they didn't really sound right for the role, so having it return to a new voice within the proper age range was a welcome change
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How's life been recently?
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It's been okay but not great, things are doing better in my friends' and family's lives so they aren't looking to me for as much emotional support as they used to, but my work's been riddled with shakeups and I'm usually working till like 7pm. I can't really complain since it's remote work so at least I don't need to travel to/from an office, but it is draining me pretty badly. Been finishing extra work in preparation for taking the last week of September off just to give myself some time to relax without interrupting all the pipelines that rely on my video editing
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Glad the people around you are doing better. And oof working to 7 surely sounds exhausting. Hope there is an end in sight for that kind of overtime. Glad you are getting some time off.
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Did you know that Cody Arens was a teenager by the time of the Land Before Time TV Series?
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I did not! I know barely anything about the LBT voice actors, haha
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Are you surprised that his voice was that high for a kid going through puberty at the time?
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tbh I've worked with a lot of voice actors, myself included, and changing your voice to suit a role comes with the territory. He did an incredible job, but as a professional voice actor he's literally being paid to be able to do that. Still I think he did a very good performance considering his age and the large quantity of voice lines for the character
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Do you like Cannon Young as Chomper?
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Can't say he's had much of an impact on me, but he certainly didn't do a bad job or anything. Fit the role perfectly well and all
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Do you like hiking?
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Definitely! Great exercise and a chance to immerse yourself in nature and break free from the rat race for a while. When I was younger, my dad would take me and my little brother deep into the Sierras for weeks on end. It's kinda weird to think he's now too old to do hikes that anymore, he always loved them.
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Would you boycott a CGI version of Land Before Time?
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Whoof. Man, that's a tough call. I really hope that wouldn't come to pass, but I wouldn't be able to resist seeing the final product, kinda like how I had to go see the live action Lion King just for the uncanny fascination of it.
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Have you seen The Lost World?
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I have! I've seen the first 4 Jurassic Park's, and while nothing can compare to the original, they are guilty pleasures for me. I'm kinda suprised I never went to see 5 and 6, they didn't get good reviews but it's unlikely they're going to fail at the reasons I go see Jurassic Park films. I should really do that at some point.
My favorite character from Lost World was Nick because we share the same name, plus I can't believe he survived, homie had no plot relevance or reason to escape the island whtsoever, and he's like the only protagonist character from any of the movies I can think of with that distinction.
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Whoof. Man, that's a tough call. I really hope that wouldn't come to pass, but I wouldn't be able to resist seeing the final product, kinda like how I had to go see the live action Lion King just for the uncanny fascination of it.
I still haven't seen the lion king remake. I'm almost surprised by how well I've managed to stay away from it and forget it exists haha.
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Do you still watch the Simpsons?
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I actually never really watched it back in its heyday, my parents didn't allow TV when I was a kid and it had already kinda slipped off the public zeitgeist by the time I went to college. I can absolutely respect what the show's accomplished and how world-famous the five family members are, but I don't know as much about the show as most people. I've certainly seen a few episodes here and there though, over the course of my life
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What did you think of Aaron Spann's voice as Littlefoot in The Land Before Time XI: Invasion Of The Tinysauruses?
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Can't say I have any strong opinions on it. Was that the one where everyone thought the VO was too old for the part? I just watched some clips on YouTube and tbh he sounded fine to me
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No! I just wanted to hear your take on his voice after Thomas Dekker and Alec Medlock.
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Ah, fair enough! Yeah I think he did a fine job
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Have you ever read something so stupid that you lost faith in Humanity?
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Pretty much anytime someone sends me something on Twitter and I make the mistake of scrolling down to the replies, tbh
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Have you heard the Land Before Time TV Series song "Oopsies"?
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Yup, I've seen the whole TV Show! It didn't have a huge impact on me, in general I find the songs pretty poorly written, and only a few episodes really stood out from the chaff.
Update: Holy crap, "Oops-Eeps" was from a TV episode? I thought it was from one of the movies, and then the show just repurposed it like they did to "Adventuring" and "Lone Dinosaur". Regardless, I'd consider the song middling at best, it's not terribly great to listen to but it's not offensively bad. The fact that I misremembered it as a movie song (Which are usually far-better written) is honestly a massive plus point in it's favor I didn't expect, haha
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What did you think of Meghan Strange as the voice of Tricia?
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I thought she did great! Was also nice to have another important family character, after pretty much nothing but Topsy and a handful of nameless parents for however-many movies. Glad she stuck around after her inaugural movie.
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What do you think of the Winnie the Pooh franchise?
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I remember watching it as a kid, no particularly strong feelings for it but it certainly wasn't bad. I do know that it had two particular moments that probably barely registered for anyone else, but:
1. As a kid, I was traumatized by the episode where Rabbit ordered the bluebird to leave. This was so unbelievably sad that apparently I cried so hard I couldn't finish the episode, so for the longest time I had no clue that they get back together by the end. Genuinely not sure why it affected me that bad, I've rewatched it as an adult and it seems pretty tame, as does:
2. I was fucking terrified of the Horse Thief in that one western episode, and once again my adult self truly doesn't understand why. He was goofy as hell but apparently I was incredibly intimidated and once again unable to finish the episode due to fright. (Both of these would probably have been a lot easier on me if I'd actually watched to the end where their conflicts were resolved, lol)
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What's your favourite game of 2023?
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Oh man, Buldur's Gate 3 for sure. It's insanely good, so much content and the writing/voice acting is next level. I highly recommend it to anyone, it deserves all the accolades it's getting and it's 100% moddable meaning there's gonna be third-party content to enjoy forever. I'm firmly convinced it's gonna be another Skyrim in the long run!
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What do you think of Steamboat Willie being in the public domain?
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It's crazy, I never thought it would happen! I think it's very good for the health of the western canon, works should enter into the public domain eventually, we are an inherently innovative species and we like having tried-and-true springboards to draw inspiration from.
I understand why everyone's hyperfocusing on Mickey, but in truth I think the more interesting opportunities come from the background characters who were never seen outside this specific short. While Mickey and Minnie are still protected by trademark, Ukelele Goat is genuinely 100% free to use now, you can do whatever you like with a bona fide Disney-original character. If I ever felt a need to interact with the opportunity, that's what I'd do, some sort of Flashman-style "further adventures/untold story" anthology for one of them.
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Why did you write 17 letters to Universal knowing you were never gonna get a reply after the first or second?
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Lollll because I was a naive little kid obsessed with the Land Before Time, and I figured if I just kept sending letters they’d have to reply eventually. Most of them were my childish ideas and suggestions for future movie plots, which in hindsight I now wonder if that was actively working against them, as replying to any could legally be seen as acknowledgment and would have hypothetically given me a case to sue for payment/credit if any of those ideas had coincidentally happened to appear in future movies.
Ironically the thing that made me give up wasn’t Universal’s silence, it was sending a single fan letter to Hasbro and receiving a $5 coupon for GI Joe merch. That fact that anyone had gotten back to me sated my easily-distracted prepubescent mind haha
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Would you ever write to any voice actors?
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I really should! Some of them have had incredible performances, and they never get as much fan love as screen actors.
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Have you ever headbanged to a Rock or Metal song before?
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Rammstein! Its impossible not to :D
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What’s the most fun or exciting moment you’ve had this year thus far? :ChomperOhhh
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Favourite My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season?
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What’s the most fun or exciting moment you’ve had this year thus far? :ChomperOhhh
I got to run a short campaign of Call of Cthulhu for my friends, it was really fun :D I'd run D&D before but CoC is so fun with its 1920s San Francisco setting and mystery/Lovecraft elements, been wanting to play it for years.
Favourite My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season?
Definitely season 6, after Starlight Glimmer joined the main cast and got a bunch of dedicated episodes. She's my favorite character and I feel she added a really fresh dynamic to the main cast. Every subsequent season she was less and less relevant in storylines, so season 6 was really the golden era for glimfans :D
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Did you ever watch Krypto the Superdog?
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I haven't, is it good? I enjoyed Smallville back in the day, but I've always gravitated towards Batman content when I'm in the mood for classic superhero content
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It's certainly very good.
Have you seen the film Pirates of the Caribbean?
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Haha, so I've seen the first half like a dozen times, it was one of three DVDs my high school gym coach would cycle through every time we were trapped inside due to weather (The others being Remember the Titans and Flyboys.) Since gym class was never long enough for the whole movie, I've seen everything but the resolutions and have no idea how the climaxes of those three movies end. Does Jack beat Barbossa? Does the football team win the championship? Does the flyboy survive his final dogfight? Couldn't tell you!
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What do you think about the Human Race only being a fraction of the Universe's existence compared to the Black Hole Era or forever in darkness at the end of the Universe?
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Pretty bummed cause I don't think I'm ever gonna get to see humanity meet aliens, haha. We need aliens, save us from global warming please!
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Have you watched any of MLP G5? If so what are your thoughts?
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It’s pretty weak, I honestly have mixed-to-negative feelings on most of it. The initial movie was great, but they clearly frontloaded it with overly-expensive animation and an all-star cast and never had any intention of bringing all that forward, so it’s hard to even count it towards what came after. And what came after was stiff low-grade animation, wooden writing and literal years to catch their footing, and I’d dropped out long before it started getting even remotely good. Make Your Mark and that 2D show where they all have CalArts mouth were both really bad when I checked them out, and in general I don’t think any of it lived up to Gen4 even at it’s lowest points.
(https://i.imgur.com/OxHS1b4.png)
Actually hideous, btw
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Have you watched Monsters inc?