New Blog!

I realize the slow schedule this place necessitates may be somewhat confusing to hear me say I’ve opened a NEW blog when this one is so neglected (I have a big project comin up for here! Don’t worry, as soon as my school projects are squared away x.x).

But, I really did put this off.  I opened it upon two milestones: 1)  My 2,000 view mark, thanks all viewers! And 2) passing 50 views a day.

I have finally entered the WoW-blogging scene, and while those posts are a BIT of effort, it’s really NOTHING compared to these.  I can pump out a post in an hour or two, hardly the long, research involved process that I try to put into here.

Point being, I will see you all there!

http://grindingincircles.wordpress.com/

Next review: Old vs. New: Homunculi

The Eleventh Doctor (from Doctor Who)

I’m going to do something I’ve ragged on people for.  Well, it’s still in the SPIRIT of my original intent, but there’s stuff that needs to be said.  In the end, I blame Welshy.  I’ve been responding a bit to some commenters on his video countdown of his Top Ten Eleventh Doctor moments (find it here).  And since I don’t want to write books about it, suck up his page, and otherwise be a pain in the ass, I’m going to bring those points here.  This is more of a personal post, which I never really wanted to do (more than just, personal motivations for reviewing something).  It’s also about an “in-progress” character, which I also never wanted to do.  This is also probably the most “persuasive” styled post I have ever written, so far.  Weird, right?

But, really, I have left the job half finished.  There are two halves to “The Point” that I wanted to get across with the Tenth Doctor review.  One half of that point is with Doctor Ten and David Tennant and RTD.  I think I managed to get about 90% of that across.

But the other half lies with Steven Moffat, Doctor Eleven, and Matt Smith.  And while I did kind of lean heavily on them in my “here’s what other Doctors do” points, I don’t think that that review can stand as complete as I wanted it to be, without DIRECTLY confronting these three factors in the current run of Doctor Who.

So, here I go.  You might want to read the Tenth Doctor review first, but I’ll try to keep this stand alone. Wish me luck.

The Tenth Doctor (from Doctor Who)

A topical note, Nicolas Courtney, aka Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, passed away yesterday.  He will be missed.  Now, let’s get back into our normal swing with a BANG!

That brings us to the BBC’s version of Chris Metzen, Russel T. Davies.

Not so much in that RTD plays fast and loose with his own canon (though some would argue otherwise), but in that his fans have a love/hate relationship with his written work.

It’s a strange thing that people who adore certain aspects of RTD’s creations despise other elements as “the worst thing EVAR”. And the biggest symbol of his legacy is the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant.  And, no, I will not be having it both ways here.  The good parts of the Tenth Doctor are not the work of David Tennant, and the bad parts are not the work of RTD.  They both have equal credit, and equal BLAME in this blog.

Illidan (from Warcraft)

This will be the last in the belated Warcraft-Month postings, there are some other details I can touch on, but I can save them for later in the year, I bonked it this time.  This will be part of a double feature, tomorrow I expect to be done with my review of the Tenth Doctor.  That’s right.  Onto topic!

I don’t know what the original plan for Illidan was.  Maybe he was supposed to become a sort of Night Elf messiah to get their heads out of their butts.  Illidan’s story was originally one about obsession.  It was a parallel to run side by side with Maiev in Frozen Throne.  The old Nietzsche quote about staring into the abyss for too long is a nice sum up here: Illidian was driven to do dark things because of his obsession and, as the Night Elves saw it, baseless trust in magic.  And Maiev would disobey orders, lie, cheat, and eventually go half insane chasing Illidan.  And unintentionally or not, the irony in Illidan’s title, “the Betrayer”, had a huge impact on me, and several people I know regarding his character.  He was a tragic hero, one you couldn’t help but feel sorry for, even root for up until his introduction in World of Warcraft.

And then, we saw a great hand, the Hand of Metzen, reach out and crush him.

I should explain that phrase by the way…entering random tangent mode!

Garrosh Hellscream (from WoW)

A quick apology for the lateness and out-of-sync posting (see newspost).

No celebration of Cataclysm could be remotely complete without discussing Garrosh.  He is perhaps the most polarizing figure of the expansion. Oh, a minor note.  To keep the tin-foil hats on, you know how I’ve mentioned how Warcraft rips A LOT from Babylon 5? Well the Orcs are similar to the Narn in B5, a warrior race that was conquered and enslaved by an enemy (the Humans/Centauri).  Once their freedom is gained they are led by a leader who is deeply spiritual and tries to teach them to un-hate every other race (Thrall/G’Kar).  Upon leaving his people, the pacifist leader turns control over to a more militant leader (Garrosh/Ta’lon).  G’Kar actually puts it more eloquently, “To represent our people one must be equal parts warrior and priest.  As of late I have been more priest than warrior.  Perhaps it is time for one who is more warrior than priest.”  Just something to think about when you want to praise the “genius” of Metzen.

Newspost, 2-11-11

Okay, obviously, wow-month bit the dust.  Blog would have done so either way, I assure you, the theme had little to do with it.  Personal life has really taken a turn for the worst, and franky, I just didn’t care.

I am more concerned with “How can I keep this blog going?” than “How can I rigidly adhere to the rules that were working four months ago?”  I have no desire to abandon it, but neither do I think that I can keep it up at the pace I was trying to stick to.

Thusly, I am retroactively extending our Warcraft theme for a bit.  Once that is completed, you can expect bi-weekly entries, instead of each and every week, until further notice.

As I said, my life is all kinds of messed up right now.  So I will be trying to do whatever I can to salvage this place.  Right now that just means cutting back here.  Believe it or not, I’m kind of worried about exhausting my material here.  I want to avoid characters I only have a passing interest in.  Thus, I need to REALLY buckle down and study, and restudy, for each of these reviews.  As such I really don’t have the time to A) FIND a unique character that I have lots of points to make that ISN’T just a rehash of a previous review, and B) most of those are in long-running series, and I can’t rewatch them all just to get it done for a non-profit blog when I have schoolwork and VSP problems and my trans issues crushing me at the same time.

I am sorry it’s come to this, but I hope maybe this will keep things going for a bit longer.

Sylvanas Windrunner (from WoW)

You know you would...don't lie

This does not only encompass Sylvanas, but many of the undead factions.  However, because Sylvanas is the biggest face to this problem, here goes.  Oh, wait, I lied.  One complaint right away: I HATE THE ZOMBIE NANNY VOICE!   I know that’s probably not something Blizzard has responsibility for, and her old voice is hard to top, but there it is, it can STILL bother me.  We good? Great. Moving on.

We first meet Sylvanas in Warcraft 3, where she is the Ranger General of Silvermoon.  Her duty is to stop the undead from conquering Quel’Thalas and gaining access to the Sunwell.

As a side note, the Sunwell is kind of like the Ring from Lord of the Rings, isn’t it? It always gains new powers and becomes more important expansion to expansion (until we hit Wrath, where it has become a useless macguffin).  Moving on!

Random Ravings 1

So to start out the month, this is simple stuff that I will be posting about the characterization in Warcraft.  This is for things not-specific to characters (such as races), characters where my beef is only so small, or issues with characters so insignificant they don’t warrant their own page.  Ready? Begin!

Naga:

I love the Naga.  I have been hoping for playable Naga for years, since Warcraft 3 was out and WoW was announced.  As such I was grateful that Azshara was scrapped for this expansion, as the original releases indicated that she would be a killable boss in Cataclysm.  But, the main boss now is Deathwing. No sir, no sir, no sir.  Azshara, the being who, as a Night Elf, was as powerful as Archimonde?  Playing second fiddle to a bipolar dragon? Never.

Now, on the plus side, I am glad they are treating the Naga with their demographics.  Previously, lore always stated that Naga were matriarchal, with few females who ruled over countless peon males, where females were decidedly more intelligent and cunning than males.  However, in expansions past, female Naga are everywhere.  In Cata, they are a rarity, and I am glad for it.  We even have new face skins for the Naga (including a much softer-looking female…Troll much?), which not inherently a positive, but it means they’re playing with the models, and playable Naga might not be too far away.

Now for the story bits.

In his quest to prove that as much stuff as possible is taken from Babylon 5, one of the sister races of the elf Minbari (that is, Night Elves, they are totally Minbari) now has a warrior caste.  This is brand new, thanks Metzen for making me have even less faith in you.

-Lord Darius Crowley

This guy is okay, but, does he really have to sound like a caricature of the REALLY fat guy in a frat movie.  I never hear him speak without rolling my eyes or giggling.  I mean, it’s Warcraft, I don’t expect Chris Sabbat every single time, but some voicework with a LITTLE effort would be nice.  Some standards, maybe?  It is hard to make a dramatic character your audience can’t possibly take seriously.

-Knights of the Ebon Blade

Metzen says that the Knights are resurrecting their own death knights now.  Added into Sylvanas and well, just because the Lich King’s dead, doesn’t mean we can’t have the Scourge still right? Yeah yeah, Bolvar’s the new Lich King.  But, as far as we know he’s just keeping them bottled up as adventurers come and kill them, not adding to their numbers.  This has just turned a Neutral-Good/True Neutral organization into an evil organization.  The Knights were never evil, pragmatic, yes, but never evil.  But hey, Necromancers are okay dudes after all.

((Note))

Expect the following in future posts, as I didn’t lay out a plan before:

-Sylvanas

-Deathwing

-Alexstrasza (maybe)

-Gallywix

-Genn Greymane

-Varian Wrynn update (probably just in a random ravings post)

Announcement!

So, what is the big announcement Anna?  What do I want to read from your blog in the coming month? Are you hiding something from us? How do I get girls like you to like me? Is there hope for us?

In no particular order: No. Yes. The best stuff possible.  Get on your hands and knees.  And that next month is going to be themed.

That’s right! In celebration of the newest expansion (oh god no! Why that!?) I will be doing a Warcraft Month.  Specifically, now that Cataclysm is out, I want to analyze a few characters who were butchered, didn’t work well, and the general weaknesses in the characters and storytelling that have emerged within the past 30 days.

Further, as an experiment mostly, I will be abandoning my “schedule” for the month (hence the change in title) to experiment with just doing the regular blog thing and updating when I feel like it, for several reasons.

First: I am lazy.  But due to the way I write, I kind of write up two or three of these at a time when I’m on a roll, and then say “oh, I don’t have to work for two more weeks. I have a backlog”  Then two or three weeks comes and if I end up having trouble, I go psycho and put out crap just to keep the deadline when I could really use the extra day (strangely, the Varian Wrynn review was an example of rushed, by coincidence, sandwiched between three or four far better reviews).

Two: Because I want to get these out while the anger still seethes inside me.  As the Emperor said, you have to let the hate flow through you.  If I try to get ALL of these little nitpicky character pieces out, I’d have to A) space them out, as I don’t WANT this place to become a WoW blog (I could DO it, but I’d feel like I took the easy road), and if I did that, I might not have the sharp wit and endearing sense of nerd-rage that makes me the amazing creature I am due to the Stockholm syndrome that anyone who roleplays in Warcraft needs to develop or be dragged away to the loony bin (in my case, multiple times).

Three: Because despite being utter crap, the Varian Wrynn review is my most popular.  Go figure.  But if I AM going to be getting the Warcraft-nerd visitation, I will make damn sure that they are seeing the good stuff.

So yes, check back daily, because there may be times I post three days in a row, and I will be sure to keep my current schedule (once a week) minimum.  But there are so many little things to address I should have plenty to update every 2-4 days all month.

Hope you all have as much fun with this as I do. ^_^

Childermass (from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel)

This is going to be a rather short review.  It will be short for two reasons: One, I’m feeling kind of lazy as I prepare for the coming month (see today’s announcement), and two, I realize most of you haven’t read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel.

I would instruct you to commit horrible pain on yourself if you haven’t, but if you continue reading what I write, well, I’m only so BIG a sadist.

For those unfamiliar, JSMR (again, I’m not paid by word count) is a brilliant story about magicians.  Not only that, but it’s such an incredibly well concieved world and fantastic pacing and banter that’s in the style of Jane Austen or those other Victorian-styled British novels of the high period of the Empire.  Which is fitting, I suppose since it takes place in the Napoleonic Era.