The Testing Chat III: The Time of Great Chatting

[RogueIce]

You guys remember when those twins from full house were about the turn 18 and people started making timers and shit for it?

That was creepy as fuck.

Yeah. I mean they were famous for being babies and even at best, their "stardom" ran out at what...12? And I doubt most of the people who did that gave two fucks about those shitty movies and were all about how the Full House girls were now 'legal' so yeah...creepy fucks.

[Straha]

Of course re-reading some of the comments they're making about a 17 year old, maybe I do need to call Chris Hansen.

Not to defend people drooling over female celebrities, which gets creepy enough in its own right...but if they're 18/19/20 years old or around that age, I don't think it makes it extra creepy just because she's 17. I mean would you still think it's that horrible if they waited however many months until her 18th birthday, or would it just be the usual creepy factor of "OMG ANGELINA JOLIE SOOOO HOT"?

Now sure if they're mid-20s or older I guess that starts getting weirder and ups the creep factor, but then I'd likely say the same if it was a bunch of dudes in their late 30s and older drooling over 18/19 year old celebrities, even if they're considered adults in the eyes of the law.

I think there's another aspect to it too. The people that the media set up as desirable are of ambiguous age, and the questions of what makes someone desirable are murky at best. I'd say that, arguably, the two most successful recent movie franchises in terms of cultural reach and profitability are Twilight and Harry Potter, the first revolved solely around a century old man's psycho-sexual obsession with someone in the terminal stages of puberty, the second around a cohort of youngsters who grew up together, all while finding mates inside their selected group. Any number of other high school movies play into this (see: the entirety of the John Hughes canon), people are shown that young adults are sexually attractive and active, and that sexual encounters with them are no socially big deal. In that context I don't find people salivating over 17 year old characters or character actresses in TV shows/movies uniquely disturbing. It's weird, I don't like it, and I find it incredibly off-putting, but it's not them it's what they've been exposed to all their lives and to condemn them for it strikes me as sisyphean.

Hate the game not the players is the message I'm going for, I suppose.

[Questor]

Hate the game not the players is the message I'm going for, I suppose.

I don't find that part creepy, especially in the context of that photo - which was almost certainly taken to elicit precisely the "Wow, she's hot!" reaction. (As an aside, the pose is familiar, maybe something from Marilyn Monroe?) What's creepy in this context is the instant context shift to "Ohhhh! She's legal in the UK!"

The creep factor comes precisely from the idea that at some magic instant in time, now she's perfectly fair game to be turned into this sex object without any real value beyond how she looks, and that this group is awaiting that magic moment with bated breath.

Seeing an obviously post-pubescent woman pose seductively really shouldn't elicit the response of "I'd better check her age to see if it's illegal for me to have sex with her." If it does. you're already WELL on the way to stalker town, and that's creepy. Exceptions exist, but those exceptions already put the interaction into different categories anyway.

[Darksi4190]

aaaaaaaaaaaaand now the SBers are creeping over Emma Watson, which I guess is slightly less creepy since she's a full adult now, but it's still a disturbing amount of obsession over someone that they are never going to meet in real life.

That's the one thing i've never really approved of in nerd culture. Like they see someone from their favorite franchise in a coffee shop or on the street and they will just fucking mob them. With females, it's extra creepy because of the pervert factor but they still do it with dudes too. I mean they do not have any connection whatsoever to these individuals. Can't people separate the characters they like from the actors who portray them?

[RyanThunder]

Today we learned that there is a large subset of people who are irredeemable idiots lacking even a single iota of common sense. Which is a useful thing and not the "[...] collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." by the way.

[Oxymoron]

What do you mean by "common sense" here ?

[Questor]

No, they can't. That's what's so freaking creepy. That's why so many even moderately successful actors (and especially actresses) often have bodyguards.

Of course, throw in the longstanding characters that do sort of merge with the actor, or at least become influenced enough by the actor that there's a lot of the actor's voice there, and there's a certain amount of logic in that. Those characters are few and far between though. Spock*, Jed Bartlet, O'Neal on SG1.

* Read I am not Spock then I am Spock for a really interesting perspective.

[RyanThunder]

What do you mean by "common sense" here ?

Common sense not to rape, murder, steal, have total disregard for the feelings of others, etc.

[Darksi4190]

Man watching clips of that new Space Battleship Yamato re-make really makes me wish that TCW had done an episode or two with a proper space battle. I'd like to see a show with ships duking it out that's in a language I can actually understand.

[Veef]

*subtitles*

[Darksi4190]

Why didn't I think of that. Oh wait, I did.

I've never liked subs. Maybe it's just my ADD but it feels like that when I focus on reading the words to understand what the characters are saying, I end up missing or not getting the full impact of the events on screen. That's why I only watch subs of shows that don't get translated.

[Veef]

learn japanese

[RyanThunder]

When I watch subbed stuff I tend to end up remembering the characters saying what I read in the subs instead of... whatever it was they said in their language.

[Darksi4190]

Not to mention with the Yamato show it's a fansub instead of an official translation so you never really know if it correctly captures the nuances of what people are saying.

Also, Veef, have they ever made any games about this show? It seems like prime material for a flight sim or ship sim that would be really fun to play.

[>:3]

Not to mention with the Yamato show it's a fansub instead of an official translation so you never really know if it correctly captures the nuances of what people are saying.

You never really know that with official translations either.

[RogueIce]

And this is why Dubs > Subs.

[timmy]

Hell yeah drop the bass

[Zablorg]

wubwubwubwubwubwubwubwubwub

dubdubdubdub

[timmy]

Ohhh yeah that's music

Bangarang

[Veef]

Not to mention with the Yamato show it's a fansub instead of an official translation so you never really know if it correctly captures the nuances of what people are saying.

i thought you said you were watching the remake? that one is released with official subtitles because Japan is catching on to just subbing their own region free blu rays and making foreigners pay their prices. i doubt the fansubbers are ripping those blu rays without just taking the subs too.

Also, Veef, have they ever made any games about this show? It seems like prime material for a flight sim or ship sim that would be really fun to play.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=avuLm2vJpao

ps1


http://youtube.com/watch?v=k98kOi1icoc

ps2

yeah they made a few games

[Phantasee]

DON'T STOP POP THAT POP THAT POP THAT

[Phantasee]

(yes that song is terrible)

[RogueIce]

So I finally saw The Hobbit and I have to say that scenes with Sméagol still bore the shit out of me. It hasn't gotten any better since TTT.

Also lol @ IE 10 for adding the accent mark for me.

[RyanThunder]

Gandalf is a badass in that movie, at least.

[RogueIce]

Yeah, he did rock the magic more than I felt like from LotR. Felt like a wizard.

Overall I enjoyed the movie and will certainly see the rest of them, but those Sméagol scenes...I watched them once in TTT and RotK and after that pretty much hit the scene skip button to get back to whatever Aragon and Company are doing, which is way more interesting. In this movie I cared more about the dwarves and their hijinks, though Bilbo is still plenty good and I wouldn't mind his solo scenes (better than Elijah Wood looking mopey and falling down a lot) but Sméagol just bores me.

I think I'm still scarred from how those parts utterly stopped the movie in the Extended Editions, though. Or at least that's the way it felt to me.