Testing Chat V: The Final Mysterious Island: Miami Beach

[Ralin]

Elephants are much more like people and seem fully self-aware (much like apes, dogs, and dolphins), they mourn over their dead and feel grief like we do (and a cute elephant baby that nearly got stamped on by its mother and rejected by her, was seen literally crying for hours afterwards).

Then they will mourn that much more when we kill their parents and take their sweet, sweet ivory.

I also support extinction for whales, dolphins and those damned dirty apes. It's high time that certain species be reminded who really owns this planet.

[evilsoup]

you're making me nostalgic for captain planet man
what with that great Looten Plunder impression
are you getting into character for a cosplay or something

[Ralin]

I dream of a day when every animal that does not serve humanity has been eradicated and every ecosystem has been destroyed. When the dead seas are boiled away to expose the barren deserts underneath. And then, once we have extinguished even the fires at the Earth's core our great work will begin as we mod out our planet with mighty engines. And magma cannons. And then, secure beneath mile thick armor in our mighty dome cities we will pilot Warworld Earth out into the greater galaxy, to lay waste to filthy xeno (not a Warhammer 40K reference) species. And let's see those Independence Day aliens take our planet away from us then.

[evilsoup]

OK fine, you got me
well done

[Ralin]

Seriously, if elephants want me to care about their welfare they should be more like cats. Cats are awesome.

Except my grandmother's stupid cat who thinks she's smarter than me.

But she's not. I am smarter than the cat.

>: (

[Big Orangutan]

I dream of a day when every animal that does not serve humanity has been eradicated and every ecosystem has been destroyed. When the dead seas are boiled away to expose the barren deserts underneath. And then, once we have extinguished even the fires at the Earth's core our great work will begin as we mod out our planet with mighty engines. And magma cannons. And then, secure beneath mile thick armor in our mighty dome cities we will pilot Warworld Earth out into the greater galaxy, to lay waste to filthy xeno (not a Warhammer 40K reference) species. And let's see those Independence Day aliens take our planet away from us then.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0

[Straha]

I am smarter than the cat.

>: (

Jury is still out on that.

[Ralin]

Jury is still out on that.

The cat doesn't have three degrees and she doesn't speak Chinese

Besides, driving animals to extinction makes me feel big, you know? Like I have a large penis.

[Infinity Biscuit]

stop

[Straha]

Jury is still out on that.

The cat doesn't have three degrees and she doesn't speak Chinese

But can you do this with just two paws:


http://youtube.com/watch?v=_2oH9dGr1sE

[adr]

so i watched three shows tonight

one was an anime called "sword art online". it was ok and made me miss playing all the good old games

the second was revolution on nbc. i saw a few episodes of that last season and mostly lold. haven't seen it again since then. soooo now america is back? and boy wizard is performing miracles? and they have unlimited ammo, no reloads? what the fuck happened in that weird ass world? i'm so confused :S

and the third was an episode of law and order special victims unit. i didn't even know that show was still on the air. and omg it kinda pissed me off.

it started off with a lot of victim blaming. that's nasty shit, but that's also awfully realistic.... but then it really cranked up the weirdness.

the victim blamers? totally justified according to the narrative. and the conviction at the end was on the victim for murder one. why such a severe charge? even if things happened as the prosecution alleges (something i wasn't convinced of at all), it sounded more like a regular murder 2 in NY.

bottom line, ugh. nbc only has one good show. COMMUNITY.

[Infinity Biscuit]

sword art online is a good show if you think feminism is one of those things that's just gone too far damnit

[adr]

i only saw a couple episodes myself (and i don't think they were in order either, it was what my friend had on his dvr) so i can't really say too much, beyond that i was entertained enough to not hate it

...but the internet tells me it gets worse pretty quickly. ugh, damseling? blargh.

[Infinity Biscuit]

vague spoilers

at one point the two major male characters literally wager over the female main character as property and no clue is given that this is not a good thing

and season 1 is way better than 2 in regards to how it treats girls :L

[adr]

wow.

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

The second season of SAO is bizarre

Because in the first season Asuna is a totally cool and talented and strong person with a strong sense of duty and justice and who goes off doing her thing and even rescues Kirito in a bit of a reversal of the norm (and in the original version of the sequence just ices the guy behind it). Also their relationship has chemistry so their hooking up felt pretty natural, though they were seriously taking an online romance too seriously

Then the ALO arc starts and it's a bit uh



That said I really liked the ending with the dancing and the reappearance of you know what. That was pretty strong.

[>:3]

watch simoun

[Straha]

sword art online is a good show if you think feminism is one of those things that's just gone too far damnit

I had such issues with that show. I hated every opportunity it missed (the chance for telling stories in that universe is epic), the one-dimensional villainy, the way every 'front-line' character was a buff dude in real life, the fucking hero worship the main character got, and how all the characters who showed any emotional spectrum were all women who either died or ended up only valuing their lives through the main character.

Fuck that show.

.Hack//sign = so much better.

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

Honest question: what do you mean by 'showing emotional spectrum'?

[Straha]

It's a clumsy phrase, I suppose I mean that people who showed any depth of character and the possibility of changing their emotional state. The characters who cry, show disgust, and/or affection at different times are all women. All the male characters can be defined in a few words, they're almost all absolute cliches. There's the wily supportive trader, the obsessive guard who tries to kill the main character to steal the love interest, the jokster warrior, all the burly grunts, etc. etc. etc. In fact, going from memory, the only male character who ever showed a different emotional state (a guy who went from up-beat to suicide) did so off-camera.

[F.J. Prefect, Esq]

The characters who cry, show disgust, and/or affection at different times are all women.

Look Kirito doesn't look that much like a girl

[timmy]

Here's something Anders pondered on facebook:

Is it still a Bechdel test failure if the man they're talking about is a terrorist and the talk is about how to abduct and torture him?

Well?

[evilsoup]

yes
but then the Bechdel test isn't really meaningful when applied to only a single work, it's more a comment on the general sexism of the prevailing culture

[Infinity Biscuit]

the bechamel test's primary value honestly isn't as a tool of examination but just the fact that it exists, that it is even something we NEED to look into

[Galvanized]

My biggest problem with season 1 of SAO, aside from the bland uninteresting characters, was how unlike an MMO it was. Being a former WoW addict I thought the premise of being trapped in an MMO was pretty intriguing. Going in I looked forward to an examination of the people who play the games and culture develops. Maybe even some emergent gameplay that's completely counter intuitive to the real world way of doing things, but makes perfect sense when stuck in a game.

Instead the story might as well have been set in a "real" fantasy world for all the effect being in a game had on the show. All the players look like they do in real life, physics works normally, pain is real, death is permanent, most players got regular jobs and rarely left the towns. It was so normal I really wondered why the writers even bothered framing the story in a matrix style illusion if they were going to ignore all the implications of the setting.

If they had just rolled with the unreality of video games I think the show would have been much more memorable. Like, what if Asuna had a male avatar since she didn't want to be hassled about being a girl. Or if the Frontliners had a bunch of Hot Girl members, but when asked they'd just say "Oh, yeah I'm a guy. I made this character cause just prefer looking at women. I didn't know I'd get stuck in this body" A character like that could have a subplot about having to deal with constant advances and harassment by men. And there was none of the reckless disregard for danger you see in actual games. Changing dying to only be permanent in total party kills would fit with the MMO setting, and make Kirito's insistence on soloing much more insane in the eyes of all the other players. The show didn't even have any sight gags like someone needing a horse and pulling one out of his pocket.