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.

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!

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.

The Grinch (from, duh)

Apologies for my lengthy pause, finals and holidays and what not caught up with me, so I kinda spaced out, forgot about this place (as does the world).

Of course, since it is the holidays, we need to examine that character iconic to Christmas.  A literary work that decades after its publication still shapes the Christmas holiday today. Of an old man whose heart is touched by a child and the spirit of Chritsmas that changes him forever.  I am of course referring to, the Grinch.

Like many Seuss stories “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (or, the Grinch, as I’m not paid by word count) is a satire and call to action on the part of his younger readers.  Seuss was often writing about environmentalism, family values, responsibility, even philosophy.  And yet because he bundled it all in silly rhymes and cute little characters, most parents give him a slide without actually considering the value (or in some cases, outright hatred) of his books. The Grinch is no exception and tapped into all the worst parts of the Christmas holidays, the commercialization, the profiteers, and the general Scrooges of the world (dibs on next year’s review).  

Number 17 (Dragonball)

When one thinks “character development” one rarely thinks of Dragonball.  Actually, that’s probably the last thing we think about.  Dragonball is to characterization what High School Musical is to entertainment.  Yeah I went there.

But there are exceptions.  I’d wager…four or five.  Three of them are all villains from the Androids arc: Number 16, Number 17, and Number 18.  Though I will refer to it as the Android saga, I refuse to use the dubbed names because even through GT, the dub perpetuates a big misunderstanding of the androids, more on that later.

Davy Jones (from Pirates of the Caribbean)

When someone says the name “Jack Sparrow” what do you think of? Do you remember that break out character, the first comic relief character to recieve an Oscar? Or does the name equate “failed franchise” along the lines of Jar Jar Binks, Captain Archer, or the like?

The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels will probably long stand up as the prime example of how NOT to make a film franchise.  From the get go, shooting the movie without a complete script, for instance, the project was riddled with problems, and ultimately it all comes back to one central storytelling problem: Consistency of Character.

Roxas (from Kingdom Hearts)

This is a character study to the importance of the Roxas character, a character that is tarnished and plagued by fangirls who obsess over the quasi-yaoi implications he brings to the Kingdom Hearts series.  The Roxas character is in fact one of the most tragic in the entire series, and quite possibly if our primary exposure to him wasn’t in a Stage One, Little Rascals styled introduction similar to the first game with quirks and references and in-jokes to distract us from the primary plot elements, Roxas might be too dark for a Disney game, who knows, the project might not even have been greenlit.  Not to say that Disney and Square have ever heard a “Ka-Ching” they didn’t slobber over.