Category: Musings

Never Give Up, If You Still Wanna Try – THE FANFIC CRAZE HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD or not

The latest edition of Eric “Asalieri” Tellah’s Masterpaint Theater features his interpretation of a Twilight fanfic called Never give up, if you still wanna try (no, that’s how it’s written out) by CheetahBlackCat. And well, it was rather funny.

What wasn’t funny was the aftermath, in which a bunch of people left some rather hostile

I read some of the story in question and it is poorly written. I can sort of understand that the person doesn’t speak fluent English, but using that as an excuse for why your writing is below par can only take you so far.

Anyway, among the more hateful criticisms, I posted the following review on her page – carefully worded so that I don’t come off as dickish but still critical.

“I have to be honest – I actually read through the first couple chapters before I gave up and lost interest. The story does nothing for me – either because it’s a Twilight fanfic or because the writing is generally poor. A combination of the two would be more accurate.

“I can understand that English isn’t your first language and so I can tolerate some mistakes in moderation and for generally short stories. But for a long epic such as this, that simply isn’t a good enough excuse for generally lackluster writing. If I were to jump ahead to one of the later chapters, I’d find the same problems that were prevalent in the earlier bits: some words not being capitalized when they should, improper use of punctuations, grammatical issues, just to pick out a couple general issues.

“People enjoy your story and you know what? Good for them. You’re producing something that’s garnering some interest, but the thing is some people can overlook poor writing if the story works for them and others will crap all over you regardless of how good your story is. Having a bunch of people proclaiming “your story awesome, please write more LOL” while saying NOTHING will not help you get better and only serves to make you not try harder to improve upon your work. It’s nice to have since it shows some interest in your work, but if someone points out some flaws in your writing and offers some constructive criticism, you should at least try to use the criticism to improve upon your writing style because they took the time to give you some advice in hopes that it’ll help you get better. That’s a good thing to have.

“As for the more hostile people out there? Just ignore them. Lashing out at them isn’t going to make them go away – it’s just going to encourage more of the same attitude and quite possibly make things worse.

“My intention is not to discourage you from writing. In fact, I read your other story and I enjoyed that one for the most part, but it did have some of the same problems that plague this one. The only advice I can give you would be to read some other stories, see how they’re written and structured, and compare it with yours to see if there’s any way to improve upon what’s already written. Just because a lot of people like your story doesn’t mean you can’t make it better and improve upon it.

“I hope this was helpful. Good luck and take care.”

Now I anxiously await the backlash… or actually, no I don’t.

IMPACT SPOILERS: Back To Thursdays

I’ve yet to see the final Monday show and I’m discussing the Impact tapings for their grand return to Thursday. If you don’t want to get spoiled, don’t click this post. For the rest, my thoughts after the commercial break.

So Eric Bischoff declares that Jeff Hardy is leading fan polls at the moment… hey, wait a minute. Didn’t you already have a World Title match between RVD and Nigel Mc… er, Desmond Wolfe on your live show? Oh right, it was only three minutes or something. Anyway. rather than have RVD/Hardy II before Hardy goes back on trial and faces fourteen years in jail, AJ Styles somehow gets involved and we have a three-way booked for the show.
The Outside… er, I mean, DA BAND comprising Hall and Nash win the TNA World Tag Titles. Um, okay. I guess it’s better than Matt Morgan and… Matt Morgan.
Oh yeah, AJ wins the three way, Hogan comes out, Jeff does a Swanton. I lose interest before the show even AIRS.
Oh yeah, guys. That’s real smart booking.
Bite me.

COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #2 (Hamilton Comics)

If there is one aspect to Hamilton Comics’ Mighty Morphin Power Rangers run that is readily apparent as you dig into each issue, it’s the rotating artists. In our second issue, the art duties fall to John Heebink and Aaron McClellan. And I’d have to say that the artwork is a step up from the previous issue, settling for a clean-looking style typical of a comic book and yet managing to catch the likenesses of the various characters rather well. This would be the art crew that would eventually draw the later Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Saga mini-series that would serve as the swan song to Hamilton’s license.

As for the storyline, Ernie wants the Power Rangers’ autographs and decides to dress up as a Goat Man to get their attention. However, Zedd has Finster create a Goat Man of his own to fight the Rangers. It’s a fairly harmless story that’s a bit on the goofy side, but it’s actually the kind of story that would translate well to TV.

The only piece of significance in regards to the Hamilton run is that this issue marks the first and only appearance of the Green Ranger in these main books, only appearing the short-lived MMPR: Saga miniseries that ended the Hamilton run (more on that down the road). Tommy no shows the next issue and by the time he appears in issue 4, he’ll be the White Ranger AND we’ll have the big cast switchover, with no explanation for either in the comics.

Roger Ebert HATES 3D… and so should you.

Roger Ebert wrote an article on why he hates 3D and so should you. Click here if you want to read it.

As for me? I always felt that 3D was purely a neat little gimmick to give people incentive to watch movies in theatres rather than wait for the inevitable DVD or Blu-Ray release. And I have to say that Avatar in 3D made for a much better experience than it would have in 2D (because let’s face it – as great as it is visually, Avatar’s story is paper thin).

But do I want 3D as a regular function? Nope.

I like my movies and tv and video games to be 2D… as in on a screen and without the use of glasses. The only 3D I want to see is on a holodeck and that’s it.

Although I have to disagree with Ebert on one thing; Titanic sucks.

Austin 3:16 Watches IMPACT So We Don’t Have To.

You can never go wrong with live Twitter updates on the recent episode of TNA Impact, especially when it comes from Stone Cold Steve Austin… so we know who NOT to thank for RAW’s 3.1 rating.

For those who want to read clean text, here’re the tweets that he wrote.

“Great promo from Ric Flair!!!! The greatest professional wrestler that ever lived!! And thats the bottom line cause SCSA said so…”

“on another note–Jay Lethal kills me with his Randy Savage inspired promos…very entertaining!”

“i love the Shark Boy gimmick…highly entertaining and a good worker too.”

“Flair with the brassnucks to the balls…truly the dirtiest player in the game…still. Hogan to the ring…time to change the channel.” (No joke, he actually wrote that.)

“to those that asked…of course im going to watch WWE next…i have many friends at TNA. and lots of memories with WWE…my home.”

For the record, I’m going to be watching both shows and posting musings on them later… god knows why.

Needs More RAW Emotion In Your RAW Show

I’ve been reading Steve Austin’s book, The Stone Cold Truth, and found a chapter that was pretty interesting. The chapter – Stone Cold’s Bottom Line on the Wrestling Business – basically outlines some of the things Austin would do if he ran WWE. It’s actually a pretty decent read (along with the rest of the book, mind you)

One of the things that Austin mentions (and teases constantly throughout the book) is that he believes performers should go back to doing unscripted promos and coming up with their own ideas. Just a couple points here and there to cover, the rest is up to you, champ. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t find the current product appealing – everyone is simply following a script or regurgitating what’s been fed to them. I honestly feel that nobody in WWE, outside of the guys still around from the Attitude Era and maybe a couple other exceptions, are particularly noteworthy and can be easily interchanged at random without anyone noticing the difference.

But if you just let these guys cut their own promos – give them a couple points and go from there – they might either surprise you with a good idea or they may fade away. I’m not exactly saying that they should just say whatever they want or anything, but suffice it to say, backstage writers would have never come up with Austin 3:16… crap, they couldn’t even come up with a good name for the guy.

I liked RAW better when it was RAW. Anyone remember the original premise of RAW; uncooked, unscripted, uncensored, or whatever that dumb slogan was. And that was still during the relatively PG-esque early-1990s before the Monday Night Wars when everything turned into Crash TV. In the words of Stone Cold, “RAW is so damn slick right now, it ain’t even raw.”

I have to agree.

This mentality applies to one time Stone Cold Steve Austin’s speech on Mr McMahon Appreciation Night was completely ad-libbed by him as he rejected the script Brian Gerwitz had written for him. God forbid Austin follows a script supplied by Brian Gerwitz or anybody else.  Then again, given the scripts Brian usually writes, it’s probably a good thing Stone Cold came up with his own words. Much more effective.

The Real Tommy Ship

More often than not, I come across a question that has plagued Power Rangers fandom since the dawn of time; Tommy/Kimberly or Tommy/Katherine? There doesn’t seem to be an in-between in this scenario; you were either with one side or another.

However, I propose another possibility that is not only much more likely, but also factually correct in this regard.


See, the one commonality with both of these relationships – besides both girls’ names starting with the letter K – is that both girls happen to be Pink Rangers at the time of their run. Kimberly was the original Pinky while Kat was the replacement Pinky. And when Kimberly broke up with Tommy via production-mandated Dear John letter, the first person he tried (and failed) to rebound and hook up with was a skiing champion named Heather, who wore a pink coat.

Henceforth, the real answer to this conundrum is Tommy/Pink Ranger. Which Pink Ranger? Precisely.

Midway through Power Rangers Turbo, the old Rangers get replaced with new Rangers save for Justin the kid Blue Ranger. The veterans were given about as much of a graceful exit as you could ask for and the new kids were off to a fantastic start. That means no more Tommy.

However, let’s change that scenario a bit and let’s make TOMMY the one who sticks around while everyone else gets replaced with newbies (and yes, Justin is replaced by TJ as the Blue Ranger.) So, now Tommy, the most popular Ranger of all time according to people, suddenly has no girlfriend because Kat is long gone.

But… somewhere along the way, Tommy receives another production-mandated Dear John letter from Katherine. And so the first person Tommy tries to hook up with… Cassie, the new Pink Ranger.

Much like the relationship with Katherine, the Tommy/Cassie relationship doesn’t go as far as the Tommy/Kim relationship and even less so, since the Power Chamber is destroyed and the now former Turbo Rangers have to go after Divatox and search for Zordon. Tommy, unfortunately, can’t join them along for the ride for some production-mandated reason. And so Power Rangers In Space plays out pretty much as you expect.

And then we get to Lost Galaxy, where instead of Leo being the Red Ranger, we get TOMMY as the Red Ranger. And the first person he hooks up with is Kendrix Morgan, who eventually becomes the Pink Ranger. The relationship, again, doesn’t get very far due to conflicting personalities, but Tommy still manages to love Kendrix until she eventually dies.

Tommy is distraught… but this lasts for a short while until Karone eventually becomes the Pink Ranger and then he hooks up with her. THIS relationship sort of works based on a common ground; both were once evil and both are atoning for past sins. We don’t see if this develops beyond a date here and there because by the end of the series, they end up on Mirinoi.

At some point, Tommy makes his way back to Earth and somehow earns himself a PhD in palaeontology. He eventually hooks up with Hailey, a tech geek who never wears pink and thus is just a trusted friend rather than a shipping friend. Eventually, three kids find dino gems and become Power Rangers. None of the kids or gems are Pink Rangers. Tommy considered turning the yellow gem into a pink gem… but then by his very nature, he would be forced to hook up with Kira, holder of said yellow gem who is in high school.

And that’s why you should be shipping Tommy getting raped by the tree from The Evil Dead.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Now A Thing… Cool

Found this on Joystiq.com.

So now PS3 and Xbox 360 owners will now have FRESH, NEW Capcom goodness to call their own while Wii owners are happily enjoying Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom.

The best part about MvC3? No recycled spritework!

Maybe by the time this one comes out, I’ll have one of the two hi-def machines in my shelf.

Looking forward to this one.

Dirk’s Never Happy

First, he’s not happy with new Battlestar because Starbuck is now played by a woman… also something about re-imagined Coke and special sauce or whatever else. Now he says he has no hope for the new A-Team movie.

You want to know the funny thing about it? He made a fucking cameo in that A-Team remake. It’d be one thing if you said the movie had no chance and left it at that… but how much cash did you take to have to make that move?

Damn, I think I know what the problem is.

This isn’t the original Dirk Benedict who stuck to his guns. This is the re-imagined one with double standards.

Har, har.

Comments on Mega Man 10 DLC

Downloaded the Mega Man DLC on Monday and had some time play the thing. So here’re my thoughts:

– Special Stage 1 is essentially a nice little remake of the final levels of the Game Boy classic, Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge. It’s not the exact same thing (because it’s wider and has different enemies), but if you’ve played the older game extensively, you’ll know what to expect somewhat. The boss fight with Enker is a bit tougher than before (his speed and reaction time is quicker, not to mention he has a couple new tricks), but eventually he is beatable.
– Oh yeah, you get the Mirror Buster when you beat the Special Stage and it becomes a default weapon when you start the game. A nice feature for an otherwise worthless weapon for the most part. I’m sorry, but the only time I ever used Mirror Buster in the old game was against the final boss. Oh well.
– The cream and crop of the recent DLC is the Bass mode, which is something that was locked away until you paid for the code (or you know… crack it). Basically, the guy plays similarly to the way he did in Mega Man & Bass; can shoot in any direction except straight down (but shots are weak and can’t pass through walls), can dash, can summon Treble to fly around anywhere and shoot more powerful shots, and can even break the shields of certain enemies. It certainly makes for interesting gameplay and so far he plays fairly well enough.
That is all. We’ll talk later once the second half of bonus stuff goes through.