Other Games Hyrule Warriors (2014) Wii U, Switch, 3DS A spinoff of the Dynasty Warrior game series from Koei Tecmo, the series follows several well known Zelda Characters in their efforts to push back the evil forces.  While the story is loose, the major draw of this game is the Dynasty Warrior game play, which sees hundreds of enemies being defeated by a singular individual over a large battlefield with ever changing objectives.      CD-I Games In 1989, Nintendo and Sony partnered together to create a CD based addon for their upcoming Super Nintendo System, set to release sometime in 1991 or 1992.  Prior to the announcement however in 1991, Nintendo decided to dump the contract with Sony and instead went with Phillips to develop their CD based addon.  The sudden announcement from Nintendo just prior to Sony’s announcement eventually led to the Playstation system in 1994.  Nintendo however, seeing the poor launch and reception of the Sega CD, pulled out of the agreement with Phillips for a CD based SNES Addon.  However, with the agreement desolved, Nintendo agreed to allow Phillips to develop games based off the Nintendo Licenses, which included Mario and Zelda.   As a result, three games were created by Phillips for their CD-I machine: Link: The Faces of Evil Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon Zelda's Adventure   All three games are largely Action Adventure titles and not consider canon within the Zelda Timeline.  Both Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon were released at the same time, featuring Russian animation that universally hated by the fans.  Zelda’s Adventure, released 8 months after the first set of game, featured a top down perspective, and replaced the animation with live action, which is still considered horrible by today’s standards.  All three games are largely unplayable in the sense that they are not fun and are frustrating to play.        In Other Media The Legend of Zelda Cartoon During the height of Mario Craze, there was The Super Mario Bros: Super Show, which aired during day time syndication in 1989.  A part of the original run was a series of Super Mario Cartoons, referencing at the time Super Mario Bros 1 and 2, with Super Bros 3 episodes later pushed to a 2nd season.  The cartoons themselves were only about 12-14 minutes long, and were inner spliced with Live Action Mario and Luigi, played by Lou Albano and Danny Wells respectively.  The Mario Cartoons ran from Monday through Thursday, but on Friday, was a Legend of Zelda Cartoon instead.   The Legend of Zelda cartoon, much like the Mario cartoon, last only about 12-14 minutes, and a collection of thirteen were created for the series.  The events of the series largely related around the time between The Legend of Zelda and The Adventures of Link, and often related to Link battling the remaining forces of Ganon to defend the land.  The series was not without its comic attributes, as Link was constantly trying to get a Kiss from Zelda, along with the Tagline, “Excuse Me, Princess.” with the word ‘excuse’ exaggerated for comic effect, usually used when ever Link was sarcastically apologizing to Princess Zelda.  Contrary to most princesses as well, Zelda was actually very capable on her own right, often being engaged and participating in the action.   The series is mostly well known for Link’s Catchphrase, but was often a big interest among kids of their era, mostly due to the fact that it only happened once a week, and due to this, the episodes rarely looped upon themselves, so if you missed it, you wouldn’t get the chance to see it again for 3 months.

Topic: Legend of Zelda     What is it? Nintendo’s Big Three, as of NES days, consisted of Super Mario, Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda.  Taking place in a fantasy world of goblins, monsters, castles, and princesses, this series had transformed some of the landscape of videogames and being a bench mark for many later games and series, with some hallmarks that continue to this day.     Development During initial development of the Famicom(Family Computer, also known to the west as the Nintendo Entertainment System(NES)) addon, known as the Famicom Disk System, two major games were being developed.  The First was Super Mario, while the second was Legend of Zelda, however their creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, didn’t know how either game would shape up.  During the planning process, the two games were created in tandem, with Super Mario coming out first due it’s more linear nature, and Zelda coming out afterwards.  Ideas when developing the games were split between the two games, with some ideas being more favorable for Mario over Zelda.  Zelda’s design necessitated less linear game play and forced players to think about what to do next.    Elements of the initial story were taken heavily from J R R Tolken’s Lord of the Rings, primarily the setting and world in which the antagonist lived in.  The initially hero, dubbed ‘Link’ was meant to be a time traveler, along with the plot device, the Tri-force, being made up to circuits/electronics, thus Link would be a Hyper-Link, or a Link to the Past, Present, and Future.    Released on the Famicom Disk System, The Legend of Zelda was a huge success.  With the Disk System, save states could be created, which acted as back ups for your progress.  Along with new weapons/items, additional armor, and various secrets waiting to be found, the game was a block buster upon release.  Due to the North American market not having the Disk System for their NES, the game was ported instead to a standard game cartridge of the time, with new chips being created to hold the majority of the game on.  US released copies featured a Gold game cartridge over the typical gray that was offered with all other games.   After the success of the first Zelda, a second follow up went in to work.  Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, took a different turn in the game play, offering a top down map for which to explore, but offered a 2d platform style action that Link would fight in. Released 2 years after the first, gaming critics cited it as a masterpiece, with many western audiences feeling somewhat indifferent to the game at the time.    With the coming of the next generation, the Super Famicom and Super Nintendo saw their own version of Zelda coming out, returning to the original Legend of Zelda roots, but also added a feature that would eventually become a staple of many Zelda game, a Light and Dark World.  Initially, the Super Nintendo games held an initial allotment of half a Megabyte, but Zelda began the trend with a full Megabyte to incorporate all the features.  In The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, a Light and Dark world exist, where Link can travel between the two to gain new weapons, powers, and transverse the world in ways other than the initial ways.  Released in 1991, the game was a classic and is to this day, still highly rated, and one of the best selling games for the Super Nintendo.   Following the success of Zelda as a generational Title, a new Zelda game has come out for every Generation of Nintendo’s consoles, including the Mainline Home Console and Hand-held Console.  In 1998, The Legend of Zelda saw game series move in to 3d, just as Mario had done a year earlier.  Even during the Wii, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was a launch title, instead of a traditional Mario title.        Initial Story The initial story of the Legend of Zelda is not very straight-forward or linear at all.  Described as a multi-timeline series, the main series had an initial timeline, before branching off

Topic: Falcon and the Winter Soldier Review   New Characters   Jonathan F. "John" Walker – Captain America / US Agent – Protrayed by Wyatt Russell In the comics, at one point in time, Steve Rogers gives up the title of Captain America a number of missions that seem corrupt to Steve, including being called upon for the ‘Commission on Superhuman Activities’.  The US appointed John Walker as the new Captain America for a period of time, embodying the spirit of a more militant and conservative America, in contrast to Steve Roger who was seen as been more progressive for the time.  The stress of being Captain America however becomes too much for John Walker, which forces Steve Roger, who has been known as just ‘Captain’, to take back the Captain America role.    John Walker later takes on the identity of the US Agent, donning a similar costume to Captain America, and is appointed by the US Government to various teams and mission, acting as heads of the West Coast Avengers and other teams.  He’s described as a loose cannon version of Steve Rogers, but still a relatively good guys in many cases.   Similar to Captain America, he was experimented on by a character known as the Power Broker, which gave him super strength, to match his Olympic level athletic skills.  He is similar trained as Steve Rogers, and possesses similar skills and abilities.   Lemar Hoskins – Battlestar - Clé Bennett The Bucky to John Walker’s Captain America.   Karli Morgenthau – Flag Smasher - Erin Kellyman In the comics, Karl Morgenthau was the son of a wealthy Banker turn Diplomat, and even dreamed of becoming a Diplomat himself, until his father was killed in a riot.  He believed that nationalism made people they were superior to others unnecessarily, and that removing nations would make everyone happier, removing the unnecessary barriers between everyone.  He was a frequent villain of Captain America.   In the MCU, this is the 9th character to be gender-swapped.  Others include The Ancient One, Mar-vell, and Morgan Stark.   Isaiah Bradley - Carl Lumbly Elijah "Eli" Bradley - Elijah Richardson In the comics, following the events of Dr. Erskine’s death, the secrets of the Super Soldier formula were lost, and only within Captain America.  Still wanting the army of Super Soldiers, in the 1940s, they forcibly recruited 300 black men and began experimenting on them with a new Super Soldier formula.  Only a few men survived, and were placed on the front line in WWII.  On his last mission, after learning he was the sole survivor and meant to go on a suicide mission, Isaiah stole a Captain America Costume and shield, and then went in to battle.  Though his mission was successful, he was captured, but eventually freed by German revolutionaries.  Upon his return to America, he was imprisoned for life, and placed in solitary confinement for 17 years, prior to a presidential pardon.  After leaving prison, he led a relatively quiet life, though met with several notable Black Civil Rights members, aiding them.  His grandson, Elijah, in the comics, goes on to become Patriot, a young Captain America, after he partly inherited the flawed Super Soldier Formula.   The story is an allegory for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, where black men were forcibly experimented on to develop a cure for Syphilis.     Baron Zemo – Previously of Captain America Civil War - Daniel Brühl       Sharon Carter – Evil? - Emily VanCamp In the Comics, Sharon Carter is also known as Agent 13, where she often has dubious moral leanings that can affect various parties.  While usually on the good guy side, her lack of morality that don’t otherwise affect her tend to get individuals either hurt or tend to hind her on opposite sides of heroes.   Valentina Allegra de Fontaine - Julia Louis-Dreyfus In the comics, she was a SHIELD agent, who was in many cases a double or triple Spy for organizations.  She ultimately, rose to deputy director of SHIELD under Nick Fury, before falling back to be a spy o

Topic: Falcon & The Winter Soldier Tutorial     We begin our Discussion on the Newest Marvel Show, Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which is our newest Marvel series.  Does it live up to Wanda Vision, check out next episode to find out.     Who is The Falcon?   Comic History First introduced in 1969, Samuel Wilson was rescued by Steve Rogers, Captain America, from a Caribbean island where the Red Skull had planned on experimenting on Sam.  After fighting the Red Skull, Sam would go on to continue working with Captain America.  It was during this first outing that he was given the power to telepathically communicate with Birds, especially a falcon her name Redwing, but the Red Skull and a Cosmic Cube.  It wasn’t until 5 years later that he was given a pair of wings by Black Panther that allowed him to fly.   Falcon remained a loyal partner to Steve Roger, even helping train his replacements during time in which Steve stepped down as Captain America.  During this time, Falcon learned to command other birds beyond Redwing, and became capable of command multiple types of birds.  Falcon was also of the people to Steve Roger’s Secret Avengers, opposing the Super-Human Registration Act, the main catalyst of the Civil War in the comics.    A major turning point in the character came in 2014, when Steve Roger has his Super Soldier serum neutralized, causing him to rapidly age to the age of 90.  Without the power of the serum, same passed on the shield and mantle of Captain America to the Falcon.  Falcon would go on to act as Captain America, utilizing the wings of Falcon and the Shield of Captain America.  His numerous adventures led to a new Avengers team, along with for a time, leaving SHIELD due to their work on a New Cosmic Cube.    SHIELD would eventually make their new Comic Cube, which took on the vestige of a young girl named Kobik.  During these eventually the original Captain America was dying, but Kobik revitalized Steve Rogers, allowing him to retake the title of Captain America.  This version of Steve Rogers however was a fascist version that was actually a sleeper agent for Hydra.  While Falcon’s faith in American Government had wavered, he return the title of Captain America to Steve Rogers(Fascist), and departed the country to help elsewhere.    Upon Falcon’s return, he learned that Steve Rogers(F) had taken up the mantle as the leader of Hydra.  Falcon returned to being Captain America once again, and assisted the Avengers in rebuilding the Cosmic Cube to help Kobik, who actually had the real Steve Rogers inside her.  Completing the Cube, freed Steve Rogers, and allowed him to beat the Steve Rogers(F).  Understanding that Steve Rogers could do more benefit as Captain American than he could, he returned the Mantle of Steve Roger, and returned to being just the Falcon.  Falcon, then working for a Veteran’s Assistance group came across Bucky Barnes, and aided him in helping find soldiers that had gone missing.     Powers Avian Telepathy – Ability to communicate and commands birds. Master Martial Artist – After having trained with Steve Rogers, Falcon became a proficient fighter in various fighting styles and forms. Peak Human Condition – Including peak strength and endurance. Master Aerialist – As a flying hero, he is an amazing fighter in the air, some would say better than Ironman or Captain Marvel. Falcon Wings – A Set of Wakandan created Wings that give Falcon the power of flight. Captain America Shield + Uniform – Former     MCU Version The MCU version of Falcon Finds him as a former Rescue Paratrooper, who upon returning home find himself working the VA until he volunteers to help Steve Rogers during the events of Winter Soldier Movie.  He continues as an Avenger post Age of Ultron, and is the first to be on Steve Rogers side during the events of Civil War.  He is snapped out of existence at the end of Infinity War, only to return at end of Endgame.       Who is The Winter Soldier?   Comic History First intr

A Nerdy Move   It’s out with the old, and in with the new place.  I spent probably 2 months looking for the right place, and I found a pretty good one, and so after setting up the place, Mom and Me talk about moving and the trials and tribulations regarding it.   Before Moving: Take pictures of your collections If you have a display or set up you like already, taking a picture of it will ensure you can return to that display sometime in the future. Pictures can also help keep track of what things you might be missing later on.   Boxing Collectables Bubble wrap is your friend. Try to keep stuff together of similar genre/display. If you have small parts, box them up and keep them with your other items. If you have pieces with parts that can fall off in a move, make sure package them up with all the parts taken off. Tupperware can be your friend for keeping small parts together and organized.   Boxing DVDs & Books Consider your collection and pack according to your groups Consider if you have duplicate or stuff you no longer enjoy that you might want to get rid of Books are heavy, so don’t put them into big boxes, smaller boxes are your friends on this one   Boxing Costumes/Props If you’re costumes can fit in a Space Saver Bag, it might be an easier way to travel with yours stuff. Box your props comfortably in boxes. Weapons and sword are best left in boxes. If you have the original packaging, all the better.   Getting rid of stuff Consider where you’re moving, and if you have stuff you no longer enjoy/use. If you have things in your closet you never use or show off, consider getting rid of them.  Craig’s List, Facebook Market, and eBay can be your friends.   Consider Personal Transportation If you’re using a moving company or traveling far, if you have things that are awkward or unusually sized, or considered too valuable, put them in your own vehicle. If you can’t afford to pack your personal vehicle, make sure each item get boxed by you to ensure its safety.   Consider Blue Painter’s Tape Because it’s intended to be a very temporary solution to problems, I found it invaluable when wrapping stuff and keeping it organized, especially as I could write on it.     The Move: Take careful account of your items and where you put them If you have movers coming to get your stuff, make sure you track where stuff is being put and where stuff is at the end of the day. If you’re doing your own move, make sure you label stuff well. Nothing sucks more than missing a vital part of your home and then not finding it for a few days.   If you are moving close If you’re move is close, and you have the ability to move some stuff over early, DO IT. This can be very valuable for props and other collectables that you want to keep from getting damaged in a move.   Plan for where you are moving to If you’re moving closer to the ocean or more inland, consider the climate you’re moving to and how it might affect your collectables. Some things may not react will to be chilled in the winter, or baked in the summer. If it’s a long move, presume you won’t have access to your stuff for a while. Pack spare clothes, expect most of your entertainment to come from podcasts or other media.     Unboxing: Get stuff in place Decide where furniture is going to go first. Once you start putting stuff on bookshelves or desks, those items aren’t moving any time soon. Make sure you know what each box contains so you can decide where you want to start first.   Have a spare table/work space As you’re unboxing, you may need to rest stuff on to other places temporarily. Get a folding table, or some temporary table to prop stuff on to, so you can organize it before you put it up.   Have a System for Boxes/waste Having a system for all your boxes and where you’ll put them/collapse them is important Having set locations for where garbage and stuff Know where your garbage bins are. Cut handles in to your boxes, it will honestly help a bunch     My Hardware store runs: PV

Topic: Godzilla vs. Kong Review   This week, we return once again to review the colossal thrown down, the greatest ironman match, the titan clashing against each other, the… greatest fight ever?  Godzilla vs Kong was a fun romp, not as good as Kong on Skull Island, but I think it’s still a great movie none the less.  Come find out what we thought!    

Topic: King Kong     The move is over, and we’re back with new episodes.  And we pick ourselves back up with one of our more recent topic, on our way to their epic faceoff, we’re studying King Kong, The Eighth Wonder of the World.  Unlike his nemesis, Godzilla, King Kong has a far smaller collection of movies by comparison, but his impact on American pop culture and history and certainly been around in America just as long as his Japanese Counter Part.  And as we await their epic battle, we learn a bit about the massive ape, and study his movies to see what we can gleam off the future encounter.     Creation Created by Merian C. Cooper for his title movie, King Kong (1933), young Cooper was fascinated with primates.  Upon growing older, he eventually started working in the motion picture industry and after production finished on The Four Feathers(1929), he started thinking his next picture would be something to do with Primates.   A year later, he found himself at RKO, a major movie studio, and Cooper began development on what would be King Kong, deciding that his primate would be giant sized.  He had actually decided the ending of the film first, liking the idea of his giant primate fighting war planes atop of the New York Insurance Building.  Famously, Cooper liked the idea of pitting a giant primate against a dinosaur, but decided to focus on one main character instead.   The name for King Kong took some development however.  Cooper originally like names that started with a K, but found himself having a difficult time coming something that sounded mysterious and catchy.  In original scripts, the title monster was only referred to as ‘The Beast’, but the studio did not like the generic name.  Eventually, after notes from the studio, Cooper landed on the name ‘Kong’, but in worried it would sound like a docudrama instead, like other one word films at the time.  He added ‘King’ to differentiate it, thus became King Kong.     Fictional History King Kong is a massive Monster Primate, who originates from ‘Skull Island’, a mysterious island that King Kong lives with other prehistoric mammals and creatures.  The island is thus named due to the skull shaped mountain that lies at the center of the island.  The island is also home to the ancestors of a once highly civilized nation that previously built a wall to keep in the monsters on the island.  Though the name was never used in the original 1933 film, the name was featured in the novelization that came out two months prior to the movie, and has since stuck.   Though described as prehistoric Ape, King Kong has a number of human like qualities, notably, his ability to walk upright in an anthropomorphic manner.  He is described as being upwards of 40-50 feet tall, he was later rescaled to be 18-25 feet tall in the original 1933 film.  In most initial western versions, King Kong is roughly 25 feet tall, however in later Japanese versions, he was scaled in size to be similar to Godzilla.  Most recently, in the 2017 film, he was 104 feet tall, and finally 337 feet tall to fight against Godzilla in 2021.   In most early versions of the character, King Kong is a villain, however, in more recent films, he’s given a sympathetic story, and is even the hero in some of these movies.      History While a major film icon in the west, the character’s intellectual property owners have been split between various parties through history, making the character a difficult character to track.  Initially, the rights were thought to belong with Cooper, but in 1962, when the character was licensed to Toho to make King Kong vs Godzilla (1962), Cooper sued RKO.  Even though there was quite a number of evidence in Cooper’s favor, some key documents were lost between his time in the military and his return home, which the courts found that RKO owned the character.   Eventually, concern over the rights would come up again in 1975 when Universal Studios were trying to make a King Kong Film.  Eventua

Topic: Movies and Franchises about the Future   This week, we’re looking at a collection of media about the future that either has yet to happen or never happened in our lifetimes.  In a lot of this, we really talked about what we all thought the future would be, and how quickly we thought it would happen.  Would you agree that the progress of the future is slowing down, or would you say we were just too unrealistic with the future?     Futures that Should have Happened:   Star Trek Tells of a war between 1992 to 1996 about the Eugenic War; a war where genetically altered humans attempted to take over humanity, causing nearly 37 Millions deaths. This is the same Eugenics Wars as Kahn Noonien Singh.  2053 - World War 3 ends after a nuclear exchange 2063 - We develop the First Major warp ship, which gets the attentions of the Vulcans and begins the early foundations of the federation and exploration. 2103 - Mars is colonized.   Thundarr the Barbarian 1994 – Premise tells of a runaway planet that drifts between the Earth and Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction and radically changing the Earth’s climate and geography   A Clockwork Orange 1995 – A future Britain is laden in crime, and a new technique that reforms prisoners with aversion therapy.   V for Vendetta 1995 - 1996 – In the Comic Version: Series of events highlight how a nuclear war year in the 1980 that leaves much of Africa and Europe devastated. While Britain is not bombed itself, it feels the effects and the corporations and fascist groups take over the country, leading to the series of events. 2025 – 2026 – In the Film Version: As a result of the United State’s Second Civil War, a worldwide disease began to spread. Britain is taken over by a neo-fascist, police state government which rounds up undesirable individuals, including political opponents, immigrants, Jews, Muslims, atheists, homosexuals, and others to be imprisoned and executed.   Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1997 – Tells that an AI will take over all computers and cause a war, leading to the near end of humanity.   Escape from New York 1997 – Humanity’s crime rose by 400% in 1988, and forced Manhattan island to be turned into a massive   Lost in Space 1997 - Jupiter 2 was said to launch due to overpopulation of the world.   Demolition man 1996 – Cryogenic freezing of Criminals is established 2010 – A great Earthquake merged parts of Northern and Southern California 2032 - San Angeles, a merging of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara is a major megalopolis, and a utopia for the setting.   Knight Rider 2000 2000 – Predicts a future with Sonic Pistols, and talking Cars   2001: A Space Odyssey 2000 – Space travel itself is common place, with advanced AIs that help manage all the functions of these ships and people.   Mega Man Franchise 200X to 20XX – Stories tell of a Robotic evolution and development that replaces a lot of common jobs and functions with robots, leading to a peaceful future. Mega Man battles with Dr Wily and his rogue Robots, which are often reprogrammed from their original function order and turned to terrorism. 21XX – Later version of the game sees X, the successor to Mega Man, being used to create the first series of Reploids(Replicated Androids) that have human feelings and personalities. X fights against Mavericks Reploids, Reploids who have turned to crime or been infected with a virus, in order to protect humanity.    Time Cop 2004 – Time Travel exists as a means of stopping Crime.   Transformers: The Movie 2005 – The Autobots, giant transforming robots that turn into various vehicles and devices, have helped advanced human’s technology to the point of being similar to the Autobots.   Bicentennial Man 2005-2020 – Androids have become sophisticated butlers and house hold tools.   Freejack 2009 – The super wealthy have figured out immortality, by traveling back in time to just before a person dies and using their bodies as substitutes. This is due to most of the population

Topic: Robots Review   So Mom and me are back talking about robots, and all the strange tangents we can come up with.  Admittingly, this is more of rant podcast as we take LOTs of tangents in this episode, so while not entirely robot driven, it certainly was a fun diversion in to some other topics.     Big Hero 6 (2014) Scott Adsit - Baymax Ryan Potter - Hiro Daniel Henney - Tadashi T.J. Miller - Fred Jamie Chung - Go Go Damon Wayans Jr. - Wasabi Genesis Rodriguez - Honey Lemon James Cromwell - Robert Callaghan     Bicentennial Man (1999) Robin Williams - Andrew Embeth Davidtz - Little Miss / Portia Sam Neill - Sir Oliver Platt - Rupert Burns Kiersten Warren - Galatea Wendy Crewson - Ma'am     Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.  

Topic: Robots   We Love them, Crave them, and occasionally, Fear them.  The week, we dive in to the topic of Robots, both what they mean to us in Fiction, but also in real life, and perhaps where does the fact and fiction blend together or doesn’t?  Robots are really cool though.     How Define a Robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer— capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.  Typically, Robots can appear human in nature, but come in many shapes and forms.  We almost always see them as tools, rarely as individuals and almost never as people.   In our real world, they’re basically machines that do specialized mechanical tasks, as opposed to calculations or executables like a computer; but we expect these machines to be piloted by a computer, or atleast act based off one, but can also be piloted/controlled by humans directly.     Robots in Real Life In our modern world, we adore and want Robots.  The ideal for modern society is to have Robots do all the hard and difficult physical tasks for us, while we do either less, or nothing at all.  It’s a dream world, as I’m certain we’ll still very much be a part of interacting and being a part of the world, but it will take some time to get even close to it.   As it is now, our common modern days Robots can be found in a number of places: Our Home – Rombas and other vacuum robots Hospitals – there are some robotic surgery machines Food Service – There are some robots that actually make your good, while others clean dishes Farming – There are some robots and automation in the Farming Sector Warehouse and Factories – For years, we’ve been simplify tasks for robots to do for us that would otherwise be too dangerous, to difficult, or too slow for a human to do.  But in a number of our warehouses, it’s robots that managing the inventory, stacking and putting it away as necessary. Military – Various Drones and bomb disposal robots exist to aid the military and keep humans out of harm’s way.     Uncanny Valley The Idea of the Uncanny Valley is this notion that as things, particularly robots, are particularly less human, we tend to like them a lot more, but as time goes on, and the Robots become more human in quality and nature, we tend to like them a lot less, to the point of down right hating them.  But as time continues, and robots get more sophisticated and advanced, our like for them begins to rise once again.  The low point, when humans actually start dislike and are disgusted by the robot is like a valley, and thus where the term comes from.    The notion as to why we like them when they aren’t that human, is that their human like qualities stand out much easier, and we tend to imprint ourselves on to the robots, allowing us to empathize with them.  It’s why R2D2 is one of the most popular Robots in fiction, despite having very little human characteristics in form and shape.  This is why Robots tend to look simple in nature in cartoons, and early robots aren’t too human on any particular level.   Conversely, when we try to make human like robots, we tend to dislike them, and are even hateful of them.  The reason for this is that when we get to more human looking robots, as humans, we’re able to see the difference and able to notice when something isn’t quite right.  It could be the way they move, the texture of their skin, their little gestures, and potentially even their eyes.  It looks off and we can’t put our finger on it.  When it’s less human looking, we’re willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, even see its positives more than its negatives.  Its why I think some models and actors look too good, and it’s off setting to me, like they look too good.   Eventually, as the robots get more life-like and sophisticated, the elements that once made us hate the robots begins to disappear, as the boundary begin to disappear and the human qualities are like our own.    This Uncanny Valley is also seen in a lot of early C

Wanda Vision review   So, there’s this show about a magical woman and he robot husband… and it take place in 1950s… no wait 1960s…. or was it the 90s?  This was a very strange series to watch, but one that was very much a desired fleshing out for the Scarlet Witch, and also for Vision.  And we both has a blast watching it.       Spoilers – This show will spoil elements and Episodes of Wanda Vision, so you have been warned.     Wanda Maximoff – Elizabeth Olsen An avenger who was previously altered by the Mind Stone, increasing her latent magical powers.  Officially now known as the Scarlet Witch, a moniker for the type of witch that can use chaos magic.  Wanda is initially not entirely aware that she created this reality, but has slowly figured out that she has.  She depart at the end of the series, but it rumored to return during Dr. Strange’s next movie, possibly as a villain.  It is revealed that the reason her altered reality mimics sitcoms is because she loved them as a child, watching them with her family.  The character’s growth however has been mostly resolved around her repeated losses of a family, either her parents, Pietro, Vision, and now her altered reality family.   Vision – Paul Bettany An android and former Avenger.  He is fact not the actual Vision, but a creation of Wanda’s magic within her reality.  A later nod to the white Vision, or ‘The Vision’, later appears and they duke it out, but in the aftermath, the second vision disappears and is unknown where he is.  Paul Bettany sited his performance was based off Dick Van Dyke and Hugh Laurie.   Billy and Tommy Maximoff – Julian hilliard & Jett Klyne Manifestations of Wanda’s imagination and powers within the ‘Hex’.  They twins are similar representations as first seen in the comic when they were made up of both Wanda’s magic and the Marvel Satan/Devil: Mephisto.  Similar to their comic origins, both boys have the powers of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, mimicking their comic book origins.  In the comics, both boys come back at Wiccan and Speed, whose souls are the same Billy and Tommy, and though not brothers, share a familiar bond.  Both children’s soul may continue to exist in some form, something which may motivate Wanda in the future.   Monica Rambeau – Teyonah Parris Character was last seen in Captain Marvel, as the daughter of Captain Marvel’s best friend.  As a cause of going through the ‘Hex’ barrier, she has absorbed some level of powers, which gives her super powers.  Which ones are unknown, though in the comics, she has the ability to change in to energy of any kind, which grants her some abilities, but which is unknown and haven’t been properly explored.  The character will return in Captain Marvel 2.   Jimmy Woo - Randall Park An FBI agent who happens to be the first to report to the ‘Hex’.  He was last seen in Ant Man and the Wasp (Ant Man 2), previously as Scott Lang’s parole officer.  One joke returning his time during Ant Man is the card trick he first displays for Monica Rambeau when they first meet.   Darcy Lewis – Kat Dennings An astrophysicist previously seen in both Thor and Thor 2, originally an intern following around Jane Foster for student credits.  She has since upgraded to a full on Astrophysicist in the many years and is now a full time scientist with her own qualifications.  She is the first to discover the TV show hidden in the background radiation.    Ralph Bohner/Pietro Maximoff – Evan Peters Initially appearing as the twin brother to Wanda, Evan Peters was the X-men version of Quicksilver, who was cast and portrayed as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver in X-men: Days of Future Past.  It’s interesting for him to be cast as this version’s Pietro, as a wink-and-nod to how sitcoms would recast character without any storyline reason for them changing all the sudden.  It is eventually revealed that he was given his powers by Agatha Harkness and mind controlled in believing he was Wanda’s brother.   Agnes/Agatha Harkness – Kathry

Topic: WandaVision Tutorial   With the much anticipated return of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the next major collection of material for the universe is scheduled to be TV shows, primarily featuring the other Avengers, and not the main set.  And having missed out on Black Widow, which has been very patiently waiting since the summer of 2020, the first new installment in the Phase 4 is a TV series about Wanda and Vision.  So lets get mom up to speed.     Where did we leave off? Last major production was Spiderman Far From Home, set a few weeks in theory after the end of Avengers: Endgame. At the end of Endgame, everyone originally blinked out of existence by Thanos, known as the ‘Blip’ or the ‘Snap’, returns and the world is going through the process of healing and getting back to normal as nearly half the population returns from a five year absence.    In the case of Wanda, she had only recently returned from being blinked out of existence, fighting with Thanos and memorializing Tony Stark after his death.  Her exact whereabouts after the events of End Game are a mystery.   In the case of Vision, Vision is considered dead at the end of Avengers: Infinity Wars, having first been up in the devastation left behind when Wanda Destroyed the Mind Stone, only for Thanos to reverse time, bring vision back, and kill him a second time in front of Wanda when he ripping the Mind Stone out of his head.  Its presumed that his pieces were picked up in Wakanda and transported to the Avenger’s facilities for safe keeping.     Mutants in MCU To really walk about Wanda is also to talk about Mutants and the X-men in the MCU.  During the late 90s, Marvel was actually in a fairly bad position, having filed for Bankruptcy protection in 1997.  It was during this time, that marvel began selling the rights for their character to other movie studios, in an effort to infuse cash in to their holdings.  This led to movies such as Blade (1998), X-men (2000), Spiderman (2002), and The Hulk (2003).  As a part of the deal, X-men franchise’s TV and Film rights were sold to FOX, but not just the X-men, but the concept of Mutants as well.  This meant that any character that was a Mutant was considered fair game for FOX to make movies out of.   Enter 2006, and Marvel Studios begins preproduction on Ironman (2008), their first solo Superhero flim, and the kick off what we know today as the MCU.  During the this time, X-men movies were still coming out, but the juggernaut of what Ironman started in 2008 couldn’t be fully realized.  Numerous film rights began returning to Marvel, however, mutants were not among them.  By 2015, Avengers Age of Ultron (2015), there was an agreement that both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were shared characters with Fox and could be in the MCU, denoting that they weren’t mutants, but were instead, individuals whose powers were given by the Mind Stone.   By 2009, Disney had purchased Marvel outright, the Film/Television side was put under different management from the Comic Book/Print side. For the next few years, the Comic Book side began to deemphasize the X-men and Mutants, focusing more on characters they owned out right.  There was a push for ‘Inhumans’, a variation on mutants, for a while, along with most major stories only including a few major Mutant characters that were main stream.  This culminated it a number of major storylines, including House of M, and even with the death of several major X-men, including Wolverine, Cyclops, and Professor X.    By 2015, the leadership of the Comic Book/Print side of the business was ousted and all major developments from all of Marvel were in the hands of Kevin Feige, who has been leading the Film/Television side of the business.  And now as of 2019, with Disney now owning FOX media, the rights to the X-men and Mutants are owned once again by Marvel.  Fan expectation is that either Marvel will make their own outright X-men movies, or potentially add them in to the MCU in some

Topic: Godzilla Movies Review   This week, we watched a giant Lizard smash a building… lots of buildings in fact.  And lots of Lizards too.  I think a few had wings even… so many monsters, so little time.  But a fun time at that, lots of it!  And both mom and me would agree that they’re a lot of fun.  So we’re back with two American Godzilla, and the most recent live action Godzilla from Japan.   Godzilla (2014) Directed by: Gareth Edwards Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson as U.S. Navy EOD LT Ford Brody Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishirō Serizawa Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham David Strathairn as Admiral William Stenz Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody Monsters: Godzilla Muto (Male) Muto (Female) This movie felt like a proper disaster movie, but at times, it doesn’t feel like a movie, more like we were following a narrative and series of unfortunate events. Almost like a found footage piece. Depictions of Japan, of the fictional city Janjira, were very comical. Rather than looking like a suburb of Japan, it looks like an American suburb with Japanese aesthetics. They even driver cars on the left side of the car, which is typical of America.  While Aaron Taylor-Johnson may be a decent actor, he felt very disposable in the film. At the time of Casting, Elizabeth Olsen hadn’t been cast as the Scarlet Witch in the MCU yet, but her role felt fairly disposable as well. Looking at the role now, she’s only memorable because this was what she was in prior to the Marvel movies. Ken Watanabe always adds gravitas to a film he’s in, especially in this case of Godzilla. Godzilla is talked about and seen sporadically in the film, but major brunt of destruction is from the Muto monsters. Godzilla has a proper fight at the end of the movie. While critics praised the tone and direction, many criticized the under developed characters, lack of thematic depth, turning Godzilla into a secondary character, and insufficient screen time for the title character. Japanese critics liked the film, but felt the same way. Toho  liked the film so much, they decided to reboot the series with Shin Godzilla.     Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019) Directed by: Michael Dougherty Starring: Kyle Chandler as Dr. Mark Russell Vera Farmiga as Dr. Emma Russell Millie Bobby Brown as Madison Russell Bradley Whitford as Dr. Rick Stanton Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham Charles Dance as Alan Jonah Thomas Middleditch as Sam Coleman Aisha Hinds as Colonel Diane Foster O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Jackson Barnes David Strathairn as Admiral William Stenz Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishirō Serizawa Zhang Ziyi as Dr. Ilene Chen Monsters: Godzilla Mothra Rodan King Ghidorah And many more, including King Kong Unlike the 2014 Film, this one felt more like a Movie than the last. Perhaps it’s the bigger sets and more sightings of Godzilla. It was nice to see some of the cast from the 2014 Godzilla return. It’s a shame Ken Watanabe’s character was killed as the film leave the possibility of a third Godzilla movie in the near future. Nice to see Bradley Whitford in work. American Critics were not impressed by the film, remarking that the script was ‘laughable’, the monster battles were either too numerous or boring, and that the film was paper thin with no real drama.     Shin Godzilla Directed by: Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi Starring: Hiroki Hasegawa as Rando Yaguchi, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary. Yutaka Takenouchi as Hideki Akasaka, Aide to Prime Minister. Satomi Ishihara as Kayoco Anne Patterson, Special Envoy for the President of the United States. Film used the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake/Tsunami & Fukushima Daiichi nuclear Disaster as inspiration. Film is considered political, mostly in the sense that it’s a scathing depiction of Japanese bureaucracy and its politicians. Often seen as trying to manage the in pending fall out, rather than trying to manage the actual situation, and tied up in various meetings. Did very well i

Godzilla   A giant sea creature, that walks on its back legs, shoot radioactive breath/laser from its mouth, and vaguely looks like a dinosaur, and no I’m not talking about mom.  We begin our talk on Godzilla, and learning about the nearly 50 year old King of the Monsters.  Another series mom may have a greater affinity for than even me.     Kaiju – Literally meaning “Strange Beast”, the term originated for just about any mythological creature or monster from Japanese legends, but after opening up its boarders to the west, the term has also meant any legendary creatures that exist outside of Japan as well.    In Modern terms, we use the term Kaiju to reflect creatures of science fiction or fantasy that are relatively the size of Godzilla, multiple stories tall creatures.  Western example can include King Kong, Monsters from Power Ranges, namely and inspirationally, from Pacific Rim.  Even Steven Spielberg got inspiration for Jurassic Park from Godzilla and other Kaiju movies.   Godzilla is considered the first Kaiju movie.     History   Debuting in 1954, and created by Toho, in his own self title film, Godzilla has been a fixture of Japanese and American media for nearly 70s years.  Though no official individual is the one that birthed the creation of the creature, he was initially intended to be an allegory for Nuclear Weapons as seen by the Japanese.  Others have likened Godzilla to the United States, as a terrible beast awakes from its slumber to take vengeance on Japan.   Despite his first film of being the villain, later films would actually see him being an Anti-hero and possibly a protector of humanity, along with being a less serious and more campy.  As time has gone on, Godzilla has faces other kaiju and had a rotation collection of villains and enemies in which were trying to destroy humanity.    Toho Co, the company that created Godzilla, is previously well known for Kaiju and Tokusatsu(Japanese special effect films) films, but also release many directed by Akira Kurosawa, along with the anime films of Studio Ghibli.  They also work with other anime companies to get their movies released in to theaters.   Eiji Tsuburaya, the individual in charge of special effects for the first Godzilla film, developed the technique that would be called ‘Suitmation’.  This was the act of creating latex/rubber suits for actors to wear and become the monsters.  This was further developed by shrinking the sets down to miniatures, to give the scale to the actors in the suits.  The camera was then placed low to the ground and filmed at double speed, to get the aspect of the Monsters as being huge, but also create smooth movement as the actors moved slowly in their costumes.  Special Effects were then substituted with Puppetry or other models to give the effect of swinging tails or mouth movements.  Even as CGI has become more prevalent in the Japan, Suitmation is continuing to be used on certain levels, with the suit actors doing motion capture to film the actions and translate them to CGI.     Characteristics Original Japanese name was Gojira, from combining the two words Gorira (Gorilla) and Kujira (Whale) in Japanese. It later Romanized into Godzilla upon appearing in the west.    Inspired by Ray Harryhausen’s film ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms’, Godzilla was conceived as a reptilian, sea creature, loosely based on the concept of dinosaur.  He has various spiked plates along his back, which is the source of his power in some films. His body’s texture is said to be based off Keloid scars that were often seen on survivors form Hiroshima.  While initial seen as green in comics, cartoons, and on movie posters, Godzilla is actually charcoal grey.   Godzilla’s signature weapon is his Atomic Breath, a beam of nuclear energy shot out like a laser from Godzilla’s mouth.  Godzilla is also known for his physical strength and muscularity, along with being amphibious.  He is shown to shrug off conventional weaponry thanks to his rugge

Topic: Mandalorian Season 2 Review   We’re back at it for the second season of the Mandalorian, as things get crazy.  Mom enjoyed this, and we had quite a bit to talk about regardless, what with Breaking News from the Week!  But Yeah, the Space Western Rides again!   Updated News: On February 10th, LucasFilm announced that Gina Carano, former MMA fighter who played Cara Dune, was no longer employed by the company and would no longer appear in any future Star Wars projects.  LucasFlim decided not to work with Carano on any further projects after posts on social media that related American Conservatives with Jews in Nazi Germany.  This comes on the tails of earlier posts, where the actress ridiculed COVID-19 Mask mandates, falsely suggested that the 2020 US Presidential Elections had widespread Voter Fraud, disparaged the Black Lives Matter movement, and was accused of transphobia for her mocking of the preferred gender pronouns by transgender individuals and their allies.  At the time of writing, conflicting information suggest that Cara Dune was not intended to appear in the 3rd Season of The Mandalorian, but was instead to star in Rangers of the New Republic.    In the wake of Lucasfilm deciding to remove Carano from future productions, many of the conservative voices in America have demanded that Pedro Pascal also be removed the show, due to him having written disparaging things about conservatives and right wing media figures/events.  The #canceldisneyplus has also begun trending on twitter, with those upset about the removal of Carano from future Star Wars projects asking people to cancel their subscriptions to Disney+.    As of writing, Season 3 of The Mandalorian is in pre-production, with no release date confirmed.     New Characters Giancarlo Esposito - Moff Gideon One the remaining high ranking Imperial officers left after the fall of the Empire, he leads his own squad of Imperial Remnants.  He participated in the Great Purge that wiped out the Mandalorians from the planet of Mandalore and scattered the remaining survivors to the stars.  He is also the wielder of the Dark Saber, a weapon he presumably claimed during the Purge through unknown means.    Temuera Morrison - Boba Fett The original Actor for Jango Fett returns to play Boba Fett, his cloned son.  It’s fitting as the actor was an unaltered clone, and by the time of the Mandalorian, Boba Fett would be in his early 40s, though the actor is in his 60s.  Presumed the Cloning process isn’t perfect.  Boba Fett in the series does not consider himself a Mandalorian, and never has, with the name of his armor being ‘Mandalorian Armor’, thus where the title and name presumably comes from.    Mercedes Varnado - Koska Reeves Also known as Sasha Banks in the WWE.  The character is a member of Bo-Katan’s Nite Owls, a primarily Female group of Mandalorians, former members of Death Watch, who are seeking to reclaim Mandalore.  The wrestler purposefully chose a hair style that could be mimicked in Cosplay, and preformed most of her own stunts, including some Wrestling moves.   Katee Sackhoff - Bo-Katan Kryze Last known wielder of the Dark Saber prior to the events of the Great Purge of Mandalore, she leads her Nite Owls in dismantling Imperial targets and collecting weapons/resources for her team, in the efforts to reclaim Mandalore.  Her former sister, Sabine Kryze, was the ruler of Mandalore prior to Death Watch’s interference and political coup of the government.   Katee Sackhoff is no stranger to Sci-fi series, having previously played Kara "Starbuck" Thrace in the series Battlestar Galactica.  She has also previously voiced the character of Bo-Katan in the Clone Wars tv series.   Rosario Dawson - Ahsoka Tano Original debuting in the CG animated Clone Wars, she is the former padawan to Anakin Skywalker, who left the Jedi Order after she was framed for a crime she didn’t commit.  Though it was later discovered that she was framed, she left the Jedi Order, feelin

Topic: Star Wars – The Mandalorian Season 1 Review   Is it really a Western form the 1950s and 60s?  Yes, Yes it is. Mom explains in details why that’s the case.   Setting 9 ABY(After Battle of Yavin)(Episode 4).  For context, Luke Skywalker was born on 19 BBY(Before Battle of Yavin), and the Battle of Endor on 4 ABY(Episode 6).  5 years after the death of The Emperor, the Galaxy is slowly returning to order with the New Republic, however, the outer rim is like the wild west.  Republic Officals/Law exists, but isn’t common and vastly under manned, and those seeking to hide from the New Republic.  Many Imperial officers and outposts exists in the Outer Rim as the Empire was seeking to control the entire Galaxy.  As a result, most Imperial Officals are attempting to gain power and influence, in order to say they are the next leader of the Empire after Darth Sidious.  The Outer Rim is also home to a number of other races and factions biding for control over their own territories, including bounty hunters.  Famously, the original Trilogy of Star Wars (Episode 4-6) take places within the Outer Rim, including Tatooine(4 & 6), Endor(6), Hoth(5), and Dagobah(5).   Creator: Jon Favreau A mainstay of the film industry, he stared and featured in various movies including Rudy (1993) & Chef (2014).  He’s arguably one of the major players in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), having directed Ironman(2008) and Ironman 2 (2010), and Executive Producer for nearly all movies dealing with Ironman and Spiderman, and acted alongside as Happy Hogan.  He’s directed a number of movies, including Elf(2003), Chef(2014), The Jungle Book(2016), and The Lion King(2019).  He serves at the creator, one of the executive producers, and director of The Mandalorian.    Cast: Pedro Pascal      The Mandalorian / Mando / Din Djarin Famously in a number of roles, including Kingsman The Golden Circle (Agent Whiskey), Wonder Woman 1984 (Maxwell Lord), Game of Thrones (Oberyn Martell), & Narcos (Javier Pena).  While Pedro Pascal primarily voices the character and does a fair amount of scenes as him, a bulk of the stunt work is done by stunt actors. He prepared for the role by watching Akira Kurosawa's samurai films and Eastwood's Spaghetti Westerns.   The Child / The Kid / Baby Yoda The character is fan named ‘Baby Yoda’ to better describe the character, as he has no known name.  Yoda Species is never specifically called any such name, and only the fan derived name for the species of Yoda and other characters that appear like Yoda.  The character is largely created using puppetry, with some CGI used to accent.  Famously, in order to preserve the character’s appearance and not give away their existence, Disney did not prepare toys or other merchandise for the character.  The lack of Toys and other merchandise for the 2019 Christmas season was a potential loss of 2.7 million dollars for Disney, but the decision was supported by Bob Iger, Disney CEO, who believed the company was a story making company first and foremost, and supported John Favreau’s decision.   Carl Weathers   Greef Karga Apollo Creed   Werner Herzog The Client Famous Director, known for his movies featuring ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unique talents in obscure fields, or individuals who are in conflict with nature.   Omid Abtahi      Dr. Pershing The Doctor is an interesting character for a number of reasons.  Firstly is that his outfit and actions in the series depict that may be from the planet of Kamino, where clones are created, seemingly setting up the notion that he is out to clone The Child.  Secondly that he is wearing glasses.   Nick Nolte          Kuiil An Ugnaught male, seen previously in Cloud City, as the little guys that were trying scavenging C3PO and seen during the freezing of Han Solo.   Taika Waititi      IG-11 These are a series of Droids that were initially developed during the Clone Wars, but later rebelled against their creators and dis

Topic: Star Wars: The Mandalorian Tutorial   This week, Per Mom’s request, we begin the topic of The Mandalorian .  It’s a series that has been touted some years ago, but has morphed over time in to something completely different, and we’re going to do something different as well.  Instead of start from the past and going forward, we need to instead, start from the end and get to the beginning of Mandalorian  lore and culture.  To better understand our topic.     Boba Fett To truly understand why the Mandalorian even exists, is really to begin back at the beginning with the original Bounty Hunter and what spawned the Series, Boba Fett.   Boba Fett first seen in ‘The Star Wars Holiday Special’, a two hour special that came out during Christmas, and seen as an animated character during one of the segments.  His next appearance was in Star Wars V, Empire Strikes Back, as among various other Bounty Hunters sent to hunt down the Millennium Falcon.  He appears in only a hand full of scenes, less than 10, and spoke only 4 times in total:   “As you Wish.” “He’s no good to me Dead.” “What if he doesn’t survive?  He’s worth to me.” “Put Captain Solo in the Cargo Hold.”   By the time of Star Wars VI, Return of the Jedi, where is first actually named by another character, he was even fewer scene and never said anything, outside of a scream upon his famous death of falling into the Sarlacc Pit.   Despite the character’s apparent death, he seemingly survived and made his way to various ‘Legend’ media, including books, comics, and video game series, where he continued to be an anti-hero and occasional villain depending on the story.  The character’s cult like following, despite the limited time on film, that lasts less than 5 minutes in total, has him a fan favorite, and is what spawned the Mandalorian  name and concept.    Originally, Mandalorian  was just the name of his armor, which was set to be a Commando style all white trooper, known as a Super Trooper, alongside Storm Troopers.  The idea eventually became a bounty hunter and a single individual, named Boba Fett.  Additional Lore Element began being developed in media, which included the world of Manadolore, the world of the Mandalorian s, which were now a race of people.      Jango Fett The next seen Mandalorian  is Jango Fett, Boba’s father.  Boba himself is an unmodified clone of Jango Fett, with Jango Fett being the genetic template for what would be the Clone Trooper, and be the name for the eponymous Clone Wars.  Despite being in only one film, he has far more scene than his son Boba, and is considered a major antagonist during Star Wars Clone War.   Behind the scenes, the fan favorite nature of the character led to his inclusion in the second Prequel movie.  Boba Fett’s armor comes from his father, who after dying, is taken up by Boba in memory of his father, albeit, recolored in to the green and red armor instead of the steel and blue accent look.      Extended Media, Legends With Disney purchasing Lucas Films, they rebranded all created material in the Star Wars extended media as being non-canonical, eliminating hundreds of authors work that has shaped the Star Wars universe and the stories in this world.  All new material was dubbed ‘Legends’.  While most of this became non-canonical, some of the history and world building has bled in to the new canon of the Star Wars franchise.   From this Legends content, it included that       Clone Wars A good portion of lore and world building outside of the Legends series was developed during the Clone War Tv Show.  Clone Wars, not be confused with the movie, was a CG Tv Show that took place between the when Episode 2 and 3, which followed Obi-wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano, the padawan(Apprentice) to Anakin Skywalker, during the intervening years of the war.  The TV show spent a good bit of time, following the Republic and developing the world.    Because the TV Show came out between 2008 and 2014, much of t

Topic: Cosplay Making   This week, I wanted to talk to Mom about some of the Ideas I’ve had for cosplay, and such.  Any good nerd has wanted to dress up as their favorite characters.  And a lot like any good addition, it just takes the one time to get hooked.  But at a certain point, you might have to just make it yourself because it doesn’t exist anywhere out there.       Personal projects   Work Wizard Hat This is a hat for work.  Intend to be kind of like Gandalf’s wizard hat.  The major difference being that the front and back will have stitched Lettering appropriate for work.  I also intend to hide a pocket into the top of the hat in order to hide stuff for fun.   Magic Book The idea here is to make a sort of magical tome, that when you open it up, it lights up and shoots out light from it, giving the impression that fantastical magic would come out.  Ideally, you’d hollow out large book, something maybe the size of 2 phonebooks stacked on top, and then, have the middle pages with a sort of sheet paper with cut outs for the various glyphs and such.  Underneath, in the hollowed out section, you’d have a series of lights that shined in an order to give it that impression.    Piranha Plant Puppet (Super Mario Bros) This originally started as a Chain Chomp from Mario Bros, but I’ve since re-imagined it as a Piranha Plant.  The idea is a roughly 2 foot in diameter Ball, constructed like a beach ball, but with one of the 6 sizes missing. The missing space is the mouth, which will open and close with teeth and a tongue.  The intent here is for myself to be Mario, but my right hand is the Piranha plant.  I’m going to gimic my right arm and have my actual right arm in all black.  My arm is in the Piranha Plant head, and the fake arm is holding a potted plant with the Piranha plant stem coming out.  The real hard part for this is coming up with the pattern so I’m consistent with the shape of the ball shape, then from there, creating the fake arm.  I imagine the sewing of the white spots on the plan will add some challenge too.   Lakatu Puppet This is the one for shooting the moon.  The idea is a puppet that looks like Lakatu, the Turtle in the cloud that follows you.  The idea was to have a full puppet, and have it riding on an actual cloud, filled by a beach ball for simplicity and weight concerns.  From there, Lakatu would also have a fishing pole, and it would suspend stuff from it.  One object being a small camera that I could actually take pictures with.  This one is more logistics and putting it together, but it will take time.     Skills for making Cosplay Sewing Foam Work Gluing Wood working Repurposing Junk Browsing Goodwill/Second Hand shops Painting Understanding materials Lots of Creativity         Cosplays I want to do:   Doctor (Arknights) Arknights the game is fairly big still, and while it is still big, I figured a costume of the Doctor would be good.  The character itself doesn’t talk, and their face is obstructed, so I would do the same, and carry around a bunch of gimic stuff as well, just to have fun with it.  Never talking ever!   Warlock Tier 2 (World of Warcraft) Making the costume will be a bitch, especially because it’s a flowing robes, and the shoulders and helm are so big.  I’d want the helm and shoulders to either light up and create a smoke effect, but my skills are well out of that range.  I need to get MUCH better and working with rigid foam for that.  Plus, I kind of want to have smaller Imps hanging off me, as though I’ve summoned too many.  These would be MUCH harder to make, considering I wouldn’t have the faintest idea how. There’s a person who HAS made them previously, but is charging a lot for them.  There’s that and the staff…   Draenei Paladin Tier 6 (World of Warcraft) This is one of those costumes that if I figure out Foam, I’ll be in business.  Just lots of foam… It’s the notion of making armor, a weapon, and figuring out a latex sort of prosthetic for my face.  These are blue

Topic: Wonder Woman 1984 Review   Mom and me both had concerns over the movie, but not that we couldn’t agree that some stuff in it was great, and other stuff wasn’t.  It’s an interesting movie none the less, especially when you look at some of the aspects that we thought were lacking.   Patty Jenkins - Director Gal Gadot – Diana Prince / Wonder Woman Chris Pine – Steve Trevor Kristen Wiig – Barbara Minerva / Cheetah Barbara Minerva is the 3rd known Cheetah in the Comics.  Movie Presents the powers as being the Apex Preditor, which happens to be a Cheetah, vs in the Comics, was due to an Ancient Plant God Urzkartaga.  Pedro Pascal – Maxwell Lord As depicted in the Comics, Maxwell Lord IV is a powerful business magnate and eventual manager of the Justice League International.  In the comics, he eventually gains mind control powers due to a gene bomb granted non-powered humans super powers.  He’s been a major bad guy in DC Comics as the guy who kicked off the events of Infinite Crisis by killing the Blue Beatle, infecting people with a cyborg virus, and eventually mind controlling Superman to beat up Wonder Woman and Batman.  Maxwell was eventually killed by Wonder Woman in order to save Superman from mind control, but not before a satellite called ‘Big Brother’ showed Wonder Woman killing him, a move that ostracized Wonder Woman for a time.  He was eventually resurrected during the Blackest Night event, and permanently resurrected during the events of Brightest Day.   Pascal claimed he was going for a Gordon Geko by ways of Gene Hackman’s portrayal of Lex Luthor.  Comes off more like Donald Trump.     Tangent Blackest Night (2009) This was an event in DC Comics which was meant to explain why Super Heroes and Villains kept coming back from the dead.  In DC Lore, Green Lanterns are merely one of 7 various Lantern Corps that operate around the universe, with each having various focuses and based off feels, IE Love, Willpower, Fear, so forth.  DC Rationalized that there was an 8th Lantern Corps, a Black Lantern Corps which controlled death, led by a bad guy named Nekron, who secretly allowed Super Heroes and Villains to keep coming back from the dead.  The intention was to seed the world with sleeper agents and activate them, turning anyone who HAD previously died in to a bad guys, including individuals like Superman, Green Lantern, and other Heroes and Villains.  This led to various non-previously-diseased super heroes taking up various other Lantern Corps in order to defeat them.   Brightest Day (2010) After all Super Heroes dawn White Lantern Rings and join the White Lantern Corps, the following events post Brightest Day deal with the fallout from Blackest Night, partly dealing with resurrected individuals who had been dead for some time.  This also included Maxwell Lord, who goes about wiping his existence from everyone in the world, only to settle back in to his life of monitoring Super Humans and trying to keep them in check.     Release Wonder Woman was originally slated for November/December of 2019, but was moved in order to avoid competing with Star Wars Episode 9, before being moved to June 2020 after seeing how well the first film did in the summer.  This also had an added effect of giving the studio more time to tweek and edit the film, but also to see it going head to head against Black Widow, another super hero movie.  The film would later be delayed multiple times due COVID 19 shutting down movie theaters: first moved to August 2020, then to October 2020, and then finally released in Theaters and Home Media via HBO Max in late December.    Concern over Re-writes/edits There’s been plenty of Rumors regarding the editing, re-writing, and changes made by the Film Studio producing the film.  The Film itself was shot back in 2018, and spent time between then and release, making various edits to the film.  The true scope isn’t fully known at this time, but it’s presumed that heavy editing changed the nature of

Topic: Wonder Woman Tutorial   In route to discussing Wonder Woman 1984, we need to do a Tutorial on Wonder Woman herself.  And her creation is amazing!  I was surprised by it and so was Mom.  You have to listen just to find that part out.   Creator:   Created in 1941 by William Moulton Marston, pen name: Charles Moulton. Marston was a unique individual, a Harvard PhD psychologist who also helped created the lie detector.  He believed that Comics had ‘great educational potential’, and was hired by All-American Publications as an educational consultant.  The Publication would late merge with another company creating DC Comics.    He lived with his wife Elizabeth Marston and also Ms. Olive Byrne, of which they had a consenting polyamorous life together.  Marston’s research and stuff focused heavily on gender, with him at one point studying all Female communities, ie observing the rituals and behaviors of Sororities.  It led him to believe that women were the superior gender, but was only being held back from power due to the difficulties of giving birth and raising children, but also housework.  He eventually theorized that eventually both child rearing and housework would get easier, allowing women to get educated, gain power, and take their rightful spots as leaders of the world.   When he set out to make Wonder Woman, he did so consciously, deciding to create a female super hero in a male dominated landscape.  Marston would later write:   "Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power. Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.   Wonder Woman is also loosely based off Elizabeth and Olive, with Elizabeth inspiring her attitude, and Olive inspiring her appearance.  Apparently Wonder Woman’s bracelets was inspired because Olive liked to wear big bracelets.     Comic History: Since staring All Star Comic #8 in 1941, Wonder Woman has had her own on going Comic Book ever since then.  Marston would initially write for the series, with H.G. Peter doing the artwork until his death in 1947 at the age of 54.  Later writers would pick up the character and run with it.  Early stories focused on feminist agenda, and for the times, push a radical, progressive women’s agenda.   After Marston’s Death, new writers toned down some of the Wonder Woman elements from earlier comics.  This included the remove of more bondage related elements, toned down some of the radical feminist agenda, and eventually adding Hellenic and mythological elements and roots to the character.    By the late 1960s, Wonder Woman lost her powers, owning to stay in the world of man, and for a time, picked up martial arts and weapons combat, and gave up being a super hero for owning a boutique.  She participated in various story lines that focused more on espionage and mythology.  Eventually, due to the 1970s TV show, Wonder Woman was repowered into a super hero.  However, by 1985, Wonder Woman’s comic was losing popularity and the character was written out.    During the Crisis of infinite Earth, Wonder Woman was depicted as originating on Earth Two, a second Earth to the main DC Continuity.  As a result of the event that wiped out the Multiverse and all other Earths, Wonder Woman was to be written out.  However, at the end of the series, Wonder Woman was given a new origin story, as an ambassador from her home land of Themyscira.  This is how she would be portrayed in the modern age.   By the end of Flash Point event, the New 52 reimagines Wonder Woman again, this time also carrying her now iconic sword and shield in to battle.  The character was redesigned again in 2016, bring her more in line with her original creation.     Crisis Events DC ha