Category: Commentaries

All my commentaries – written or video – collected under one parent category.

THE BITE COMMENTARIES #15 – Star Trek Through Apathy

Star Trek is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary. The original series first aired in 1966 and has been on a roller coaster ride of sorts since that time, having seen multiple motion pictures, feature films, and animated projects under its belt. It has ridden the wave of fan support that produced a multitude of side material such as novels, comic books, interactive games, action figures, starship models, and other things. And it currently has a hit show on the Paramount+ streaming service. It should be a great time for Star Trek.

“Oh, but here comes crusty old Dave to rant and rave about how the current product sucks and how he misses the old days.”

Well, you’re half right. I do miss the old days when I actually looked forward to new Star Trek shows and movies. You’re kinda wrong about the show sucking, though. I’ve yet to see Starfleet Academy – never been big on young adult fare and me being a not-young adult anymore doesn’t help matters either – but I’ve heard generally favorable things from those who have. It’s hard to be invested in a franchise whose future seems to be in a state of flux, what with all the rumors surrounding ownerships and mergers. Will there even be new Star Trek after this current crop ends? Should there even be new Star Trek at this point?

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Whom You Hate And Refuse To Support… Or Something

Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2026/03/saudi-investment-firm-acquires-a-significant-number-of-capcom-shares

So the Saudis now own a bit of Capcom… or rather their Public Investment Fund owns a bit of Capcom, which adds to their list of video game stakes including EA, Nintendo, Activision/Blizzard, Take-Two, and others… and also they own SNK wholesale. That’s the controversial one because that apparently means Fatal Fury gets real-life soccer players and anus-relaxing DJs with funny accents as “guest” fighters. So does that mean we can’t enjoy Capcom games anymore because they’re partly owned by folks from a country who has a spotty history with human decency? Do we boycott them the same way we boycott SNK… or is it just business as usual?

My answer is… meh.

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How Many Of EGM #100’s Top 100 Games Of All Time Have I Actually Played?

About a decade ago… but not quite a decade ago because 2016 was a leap year… I did a quick lookback at The 100 Best Games Of All Time from the 100th issue of esteemed publication Electronic Gaming Monthly. For those who want to read said lookback, click here.

Today, we’re doing something different and we’re going to list how many of these games I’ve actually played. A lot has happened in ten years and I’ve played slightly more games than I did originally, so… yeah, here we go.

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THE BITE COMMENTARIES #14 – The Malaise Of Modern Wrestling

So the Royal Rumble happened last month, emanating from the benevolent and progressive kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is the first time that WWE has held the Royal Rumble event outside of North America, where citizens of the benevolent and progressive kingdom of Saudi Arabia bore witness to the usual extravagant event that had already been paid for by the prince.

Normally, around this time, I would post some thoughts on the Rumble event under the Royal Ramble banner of this blog… but this year I’m going to do something a little bit different. See, a funny thing happened this year that I didn’t think would ever occur in all my years of watching wrestling. The Royal Rumble came and went… and I completely forgot about it.

Perhaps this had been due to the fact that last year’s event was held in February rather than its usual end of January slate, but the fact remained that I was rather busy that weekend and when I got on my computer late Sunday, I noticed that there were news bits on the Rumble and that’s when I went “Oh wait. That was today.” It’s not even a matter of forgetting it was taking place early (other side of the world, after all). It was a matter of forgetting that it was even a thing.

It was at this point that I realized… wow, I missed the Rumble. And I didn’t care.

What happened?

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THE BITE COMMENTARIES #13 – John Cena Gives Up

Yes, we’re talking about this a month after the fact. And yes, the dust has settled a bit. And yes, there will continue to be discourse surrounding the end of John Cena’s legendary WWE run. And I had not really planned on giving this subject matter much more thought than the one post I did last month… but a couple things occurred that caused me to give this more thought than necessary and this, along with a message that came my way a short while ago, sort of dawned this epiphany of sorts as it relates to this whole deal.

Unfortunately for those hoping for another voice in the “John Cena Shouldn’t Have Lost” or “John Cena Shouldn’t Have Given Up” camp, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you. In fact, I’m going to highlight something that you folks SHOULD have figured from the very beginning of this whole Last Time business.

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THE BITE COMMENTARIES #11 – The Force Undead

So, if all goes according to plan, today’s post should publish on the very same day that, ten years ago, the first Star Wars film of the Disney ownership era as well as the start of a new Star Wars sequel trilogy – The Force Awakens – hit movie theaters to usher in a new era of Star Wars that is new and different… although you wouldn’t have been able to tell from watching the movie.

At the time of release, people considered it to be a return to form after the polarizing prequels. For some, it felt like Star Wars again… for others, it felt too much like Star Wars; to the point of almost being a carbon copy of the original film from 1977.

And then The Last Jedi came along and pretty much shat the bed that The Force Awakens set with its dogged insistence in subverting your expectations; something that has become a meme over the years in and of itself. Regardless of your opinion on the film – and I’ve made my feelings perfectly clear – the fact is that the second chapter of the new trilogy was a divisive film and brought about an air of uncertainty among the Star Wars faithful. And then Solo came along… and finally, The Rise Of Skywalker ended the sequels and any subsequent hope for further annual Star Wars feature films, relegating the franchise to limited series runs on Disney+.

What began as a sign that things were going to be okay… turned out to be anything but… and when one revisits The Force Awakens ten years removed from its initial release, with all these other films out there and everything that has happened, is the movie as good as it was? Has it aged poorly? Was it ever that good to begin with?

The answer is… complicated.

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THE BITE COMMENTAIES #10 – Sith At 20

This past May marked the 20th anniversary of the third Star Wars prequel film, Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, which finally paid off its long-running story of how Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side and eventually became Darth Vader. And if you want to me to tell how I felt about the film at the time, I thought it was the only really good film out of the prequel since everyone died. And I wasn’t the only one who thought that because a bunch of people I went to see the film with thought it was the only really good prequel out of the bunch because everyone died.

Now we all know that statement is a bit of a fib. Not everyone died, obviously; this isn’t Rogue One, for cryin’ out loud. But the cast of characters that were introduced in prior prequel films were either killed off or cast aside to make way for the characters that people actually cared about to come along and have the adventures they had back in 77 and the circle would be complete or some deal like that.

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Why The Avengers Worked (And Nothing Else Does…)

A couple weeks ago, the new Thunderbolts movie came out. As per usual, I did not watch the film due to lack of interest. And then they did a thing for the sake of marketing because… I don’t know why. But they did it. I was still not compelled to watch the new movie in theaters.

But you know what I did watch? The Avengers. The first movie from 2012. Sweet Sassy Molassy, that’s a great movie. And it still holds up. But more than anything, as I was watching this movie, it just sort of clicked that they tried a thing with this movie and it worked. It simply worked. To the point where others have tried similar things and those didn’t quite work.

And I got to thinking… why? Well, here’s my thought on that.

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