Mr_Squid

Probably Evil But Kinda Also Cute?

The New Jedi Order, while being WAY too long (19 books? REALLY?), is still a damn fine read. The most notable thing about it IMO is how much it shook up the established status quo of the Star Wars universe. Anyone could die, no planet was safe, and the effects of it were still being felt in future books. It also is probably the only series in the entire franchise that accurately captured the feel and effects of a galaxy spanning war (the jury is still out on the Clone Wars series).

The Legacy of the Force on the other hand was...mweh... I don't want to spoil too much but it plays it way to safe, somehow reenacting the plots of both the Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy at the same time and resetting almost everything back to square one at the end. There are other problems too (the Mary Sue Mandalorians being one that comes to mind), but my biggest gripe is that for a nine book series it never seemed to accomplish much.

The jury is still out on the Fate of the Jedi series, but I do have to agree with Memphis Bill and say that it is a SLOW series. For a franchise that was founded on spaceship battles and lightsaber fights there is a lot of talky bits. I do like that it introduced the first real Lovecraftian horror the Star Wars universe has seen though. There are still three books in the series left to come out, so hopefully the pace will begin to pick up soon.

I always wanted to see a great modern remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I loved the book as a kid and I loved the 1954 Disney film, but nowadays it comes off as pretty hokey. Seeing as how the Steampunk genre has been creeping into the mainstream recently I think it's high time to give this one another shot.

So among the cool stuff I got for Christmas was a Kindle, which was totally unexpected and much appreciated. However, upon booting it up I realized I had no idea what to actually read. This is mostly my fault though, as I have done a terrible job at keeping up with what books are actually out there. My usual strategy for picking books out was usually "go to the library and see what looks cool". So if you could toss a recommendation or two my way it would be greatly appreciated.

So what do I like exactly? A couple of suggestions. These are just rough ideas though, so feel free to suggest things that don't conform to any of these catagories.

-World Building. Characters and plot have always ended up being secondary to a really cool setting to me. I mean the characters and plot are still really important, but if you put them in an interesting and unique setting then a story goes from "hrm, neat" to "WHOA HOLY CRAP I GOTTA READ THAT NOW!"

-Things just beyond our current understanding. The real world is fascinating as it is, but I've always loved stories and speculation about what might lie right beyond the curtain of common knowledge. Ghosts, Aliens, Cryptids, Paranormal stuff, I lap that crap up.

-Lovecraftian themes. Lovecraft is amazing. Yeah, his characters had as much personality as a block of wood, he tended to write an entire page when one sentence would have sufficed, and he couldn't write a single sentence without using the words "squamous", "gibbering", or "cyclopean", but the IDEA of there being beings out there so incomprehensibly alien that we would go mad with their very presence awes me. Bonus points if the story involves introducing said Eldritch Abomination, and then finding a plucky group of individuals to go right up to its face and beat the crap out of it.

FINALLY, a movie Megatron mode in which his head is not sticking out. I'm glad. I'm also digging the tarp thing, gives him sort of a "Disgraced warrior" vibe. Perhaps in DoTM Shockwave actually succeeds in taking over the Decepticons and Megatron is cast out? That would be a pretty cool shake up IMO.

As for the toy, I'm similarly digging it (it seems like I say "digging it" a lot more on this forum. Must be Sho's influence), but will hold out until I see the Leader Class version. Though considering that the Voyager RoTF Megs was vastly superior to the Leader RoTF megs I might grab this one after all.

Oh, and also put me in the camp of not liking Megatron as a gun. I mean why would a tyrannical leader character have an alt mode that he can't even use on his own? Megatron always struck me as more independent then that.

I was surprised by a lack of a thread for this, so I figured I would make one now.

So anyways, Transformers Prime just wrapped up the first five episodes about a week or so ago, and so far the outlook is pretty dang positive all things considered. Now granted, like the rest of the Transformers franchise your mileage may vary from series to series, but I implore even the most curmudgeonly G1 fan to check this one out. The action was well done, the characters were (mostly) given depth far beyond what you would normally expect in a Transformers series, and the animation was very good for a CGI TV show (though not at the level of The Clone Wars but what TV show is?). But really, all my yapping about this series isn't going to do it justice, so just go watch it for yourself. Thankfully, all five episodes are currently online!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Enjoy!

YES. YES. YEEEEESSSSS.

I've been a fan of the Shard since it debuted, and anything that hints towards its expansion into its full potential is music to my ears. I just love the crap out of cosmic horror and general, and have long thought that something on par with Galactus or the Anti-Monitor or Unicron or Azathoth is something this game has needed for far too long.

Well I mean, technically it already had it, it just wasn't any sort of threat.

Actually might be better to hold it off for a bit. I wouldn't want I19 dropping right in the middle of my finals week...

...because, you know, the issue release schedule totally revolves around my personal life. No seriously, remember when issue five was released in a still buggy state? That's because I was in a bad mood and the devs figured that giving me a new issue of CoH would cheer me up, bugs be damned.

Went to a Masquerade Ball hosted by my school on Friday. It was a ton of fun, had a bunch of people compliment me on my costume, and also had more than one girl just randomly come up and hug me while gushing something like "OHMYGOD OPTIMUS PRIME I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

Another clip, Arcee beats up some Decepticon Troopers! (A.K.A. Eradicons).

Oh, and it will be a full series. It's just going to start with a five parter that leads into the full season. It's like "Five Faces of Darkness" leading into season 3 of G1.

You know, except not as lackluster.

Coming November 29th to the Hub! (Oh god please have episodes online DAMN YOU COMCAST!)

A LOT of my characters are some way godlike in nature, but my KM/SR scrapper Kronaros especially comes to mind, especially since he was made with the Incarnates system in mind. Just check out his bio:

Well at least knowing that the Hub is putting episodes of My Little Pony online is good, since it means they'll probably have episodes of Transformers: Prime online when it debuts this November!

I've found that the quality of my costumes seems to depend on how long I've had the look in mind. A character concept I come up with in five minutes is going to look a lot worse than one I've had in mind for a while. My favorite example of this effect is my KM/SR scrapper, Kronaros, whose look I've had in mind for EIGHT YEARS (he's a pre-CoH creation), and I waited until GR gave me all the costume pieces to pull off the look I had in mind.