Category: Opinion

When Is A Villain Not Truly Villain?

Not long ago @torstenvblog and I were talking about nerd stuff as we always do and we got to talking about the bad guys in comics and movies, and when maybe they aren’t really the bad guys. Some of them are quite cut and dry, like Jason Vorhees or  Freddie Krueger. One wears a hockey mask and kills horny teens and the other was basically a child molester that later killed people in their dreams. No sane person will ever make a real argument for them and say hey he was just misunderstood or those campers deserved it. There are however villains that, maybe aren’t quite villains, at least not in the traditional sense of they are bad guys, just bad from the perspective of who the hero of the story is.

A good example of this, however, is Magneto from Xmen. He isn’t really a bad guy, he simply disagrees with Professor X on how best to protect mutants. Sure he does some questionable things, but if someone was trying to hurt you and everyone you cared about and your people wouldn’t you be willing to do some less than honest and moral things to protect them?

Another solid example is Ocean Master in the Aquaman movie. All he really wanted to do was stop the humans from destroying the ocean his people live in, and sure while he did steal a submarine and kill a ton of people to start a war under a false pretense but his heart was in the right place. He wasn’t doing it because he wanted to hurt people or he hated anyone, he thought he was doing what was best for Atlantis.

So really, at what point are people no longer villains? Is it when they can reasonably and appropriately justify what they are doing to a reasonable person? Or is it when they give up their quest and die for the greater good like Loki? I’m not sure there is an easy answer, and everyone will have a different one but for me, a big part of it comes down to intent. Look at Thanos from the MCU. Nobody would argue what he was doing was truly good, but he wasn’t really wrong. It would have saved his world, and it did help other worlds he had conquered. Most importantly his intent is good, he wants to make sure what happened to his world doesn’t happen to others. While he is quite misguided it isn’t really fair to say he is evil or a villain, he is just a bad guy from the perspective of the heroes. A future blog we will discuss what makes a hero, and why Captain America wasn’t truly a good guy recently. Until then tell me what you think, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Batman: White Knight

batman white knight

If you’ve been following our humble blog lately, you’ve likely noticed the villain posts lately, including such as 5 great Superman villains and 5 great Flash villains . Well, let’s face it, when it comes to super hero and villain relationships, none are more enigmatic, traumatic, and psychotic than Batman and Joker. But White Knight asks the question, what if Joker went sane, what would become of Gotham’s Dark Knight?

After the millionth or so go between the iconic figures, enough starts to seem to be enough. The collateral damage Batman inflicts on Gotham is huge but the day is saved; Joker bets Batman he he can be a greater hero and idol in Gotham than him. In Arkham Asylum he begins taking an experimental medication that does the impossible- makes the Joker sane. As Jack Napier, he wins his freedom back in the court of law and begins his long road to saving Gotham. He reignites his relationship with Harley, while breaking the second Harley Quinn’s psyche in the process and begins aiding the police. Meanwhile, Batman is riding the line as Alfred lays dying and he has become more quiet and violent than normal. Not even Mr Freeze’s aid can aid him and his anger is affecting Nightwing and Batgirl, who fight amongst themselves what to do with Bruce. If that wasn’t enough, a horde of Batman’s deadliest villains is running amok and the second Harley, now christened Neo-Joker, is out to get her psychotic hubby back but who be the one to save us and the one to damn us, the former clown prince of crime or the Batman?

I consider this a modern Batman classic but I have some tiny issues. The story is complex and exciting, raising some good points about Batman and exploring the relationship between the two enemies. There is a really good villain cast and Mr Freeze has some good character moments. Napier steals the show for the book and that’s actually refreshing because he’s a separate, flawed character in his own right. The artwork is cool and there is a lot of action. An issue I have is that the story takes a few liberties with Batman’s lore that don’t outright piss me off but one I feel can be used to make a tired ass sequel if followed. In the end, it’s a great story and I consider it to be one of the better Bat stoies. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

5 epic X-Men villains

classic xmen

Whether you were a 90’s kid and grew up with X-Men the animated series or were like me and grew up in love with the first X- Men movie. So today, let’s cover the badasses that dare to bring trouble to Xavier’s School beginning with a character I loved, got butchered in X Men: The Last Stand but thankfully got the treatment he deserved in Deadpool 2 …

juggernaunt 1. The Juggernaut-

He’s big, mean, and literally unstoppable in almost every way possible. Kane Marko is the angry step brother of Professor X, having his latent mutant ability unlocked from a mystical artifact, as his name suggests he became a powerhouse. Foes like Wolverine, Colossus, and even the Hulk have a hard time stopping him, his only weakness is his mind which is protected by the large dome shaped helmet he wears. Good luck getting it off cuz he’s the Juggernaut bitch.

sentinels 2. Trask and the Sentinels-

X-Men: Days of Future Past covered Trask pretty well and how much damage a human man could do to a world full of super powered mutants. Bolivar Trask designed and created the Sentinels, machines specifically created to at first handle mutant threats and would eventually run amok, running to a future where both humans and mutants are near extinct. Isn’t it swell how one man can make a difference?

phoenix 3. The Dark Phoenix-

Here we begin hitting the truly devastating entities of not only the X-Men universe but the whole Marvel universe. The Phoenix force is a wandering cosmic entity that came across the seemingly deceased Jean Grey, one of the original X Men who gave there lives trying to save the world. As the Phoenix, her power is multiplied nearly a thousand fold. In fact, she has destroyed planetary systems with relative ease. What makes her a great villain is the emotional toll she takes on her friends, loved ones, and the amount of sheer destruction she causes. Beware the Phoenix.

apocalypse 4. Apocalypse-

You know the saying “survival of the fittest”? Apocalypse is one of the first mutants in recorded history, a figure so powerful he was seen as a god in his native ancient Egypt; thousands of years later he’s pissed at the state of mutant kind and yearns to enslave man and lesser mutants to serve him and those he deems fit. The ones he finds most exceptional, he makes his Horsemen, donating some of his enormous power to radically increasing there’s. Apocalypse has super strength, speed, durability, telepathy, telekinesis, energy projection, shape shifting abilities, and is extremely intelligent with thousands of years of knowledge under his belt.

magneto and the brotherhood of mutants

5. Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants-

Of course I have to talk about Magneto if you talk about X-Men. After surviving the Holocaust, Erik Lensherr ( we’re using his movie name, I’ve never been a huge fan of his comic name) realized history would one day repeat itself  so he made what are essentially the anti X-Men, bent on mutant superiority. With an army of some the most nefarious mutants he could gather including the likes of Mystique, Sabretooth, Pyro, Blob, and Toad just to name a few. Magneto has the ability to control metal and magnetic waves, which let’s face it, in our modern world means we’re pretty screwed. Even Wolverine with his adamantium skeleton and claws is rendered useless and the helmet Magneto wears protects him from telepathic intervention from Xavier. Time and time again, whether as there arch enemy or unlikely allie,  Magneto and the Brotherhood is a force to be reckoned with…

I hope you enjoyed my list and not to be forgotten is a shout out to Mr Sinister, the Morlocks, Onslaught, The Hellfire Club, and Vulcan who are badasses but I just couldn’t fit them here. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Why I Am Ignore Next Gen Console Rumors

I am sure you have seen them by now because they are everywhere. They have been for a while now. The new PlayStation can do this, the new Xbox will be named that they both will be in 16k. That last one I made up for the record, nobody quote that. Honestly however that is why I am ignoring them. Specs are always subject to change, so at this point even if the leak is real, and it probably isn’t it is far to early to know how real it is.

The other issue is many times these rumors and leaks come from off-handed comments like the one I made earlier. Someone says we wanted to aim for X standard and people want to take it as fact or report it simply because people want to know and they know it will get them clicks or views. For me, the only real option is to more or less ignore them completely since focusing on them won’t make them come any faster. How do you guys deal with the rumors? Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Welcome To February

Welcome to February, the month of love. This month has a few happenings for me you can see here. Happenings In February That being said, this month around oh I guess the 14th I will probably review some movies about love for no reason in particular. Maybe there is a holiday there. Anyway, January was a great start to the year and played a lot of great games, like Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (PS4) which is a game I had great experiences with years ago and experienced again now. I haven’t had the chance to try out Resident Evil 2 or Kingdom Hearts 3 yet but I am sure I will soon enough. This year in gaming has already been great, and I am enjoying The Start Of Distant Worlds Two as well. So everyone enjoy this month, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Why Married With Children Wouldn’t Work In 2019

Every so often someone asks the question, why don;y we have a Married With Children Spinoff like Married With Grandchildren? Well, truth be told, for the same reason The Office wouldn’t work according to Steve Carell. Except even worse as the show is much older and possibly even more offensive by the standards of today.

For the younger readers, and those that lived in a cave from 1987 until 1997, the show was about the Bundy family. The middle-class family in Chicago is the American dream, husband and wife, one son and one daughter owns a home and a dog. Don’t ask me how they are middle-class, Al Bundy is a shoe salesman and his wife doesn’t work. He tells us this constantly that he hates his job and the fat slobs that come in there. By the way, this is a recurring theme. He routinely insults the women that come in. Here is a clip.

As you can see, while funny this would probably piss a lot of people off. Don’t get me wrong, if a person acted like that in real life he would rightfully get punched in the face and so would half the women, but it still wouldn’t likely go well today.

Other issues are his relationship with his wife Peggy. Now they obviously love each other, hell despite his claims of hating her he had multiple chances to cheat and never did and rarely truly disrespected her. But the jokes today would be a huge line many wouldn’t like being crossed.

He also has similar things to say about his female neighbor tho he is best friends with her husbands. (She has 2 throughout the show)

The show is just full of humor that by today’s standards would be viewed as degrading towards, well everyone honestly. Even Al, who is constantly made fun of for being a loser shoe salesman whose best days were in high school. The show is literally built around insults, but they are used to show that while they talk to each other a certain way they are a family that loves each other. Al has multiple chances to cheat on Peggy but never does. Peggy while lazy and insulting to her husband actually does cook him dinner and make sure he is taken care of, and later on, when she wants to get a job Al supports her even tho half the show is him making fun of feminist, tho admittedly the over the top feminist most people make fun of. Sadly however in today’s world shows like this and The Office won’t really do well on T.V. without upsetting people, and a lot of companies won’t want to risk it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Almost Podcast time

Ok now Admittedly I wanted to get this started by now but with the holidays and some technical difficulties, things got pushed back a bit. That being said we are getting ready to start recording these things.  The plan is for them to be about an hour long and them to be released every 2 weeks until we see how they go. They will be the pretty standard format of just gaming and nerd related stuff much like the blog itself is tho we want to have a sort of questions and answer time. So please feel free to shoot us a message on Twitter or facebook or even an email and we will answer your questions as time allows. Feel free to ask about anything you want and unless you say otherwise we will keep all names and such private. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Birds Of Prey: Harley Quinn Outfit

For those interested in the Birds Of Prey movie, Screenrant has shared a look at what Margot Robbie shared about Harley Quinn’s new look for the movie and what is being said about it. Now personally I feel like the movie will most likely be a dumpster fire of epic proportions, not because of the topic or the people in the movie. Ms. Robbie is insanely talented, DC just has a habit of not doing well with this sort of movie. After all, there is a reason Justice League and Suicide Squad didn’t sell as well as Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Their team-up movies never seem to do well, and this will probably be another example sadly. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Green Lantern: Earth One(V 1)

lantern earth 1

Sometimes I love long ass wait times on games to install. While doing just that I picked up a story I’ve been much anticipating, the Earth One version of Green Lantern. During my Man of Steel review I talked about how much the movie took from the first volume of Superman: Earth One. What makes the Earth One series unique is it is a more grounded re-imagining of our favorite DC heroes, so I was really curious how Lantern would turn out.

Hal Jordan was just another crew member on a mission to mine materials from a rock in space, escaping his past on Earth and wishing he wouldn’t have to return. During this mission, him and Volkov discover the remains of a destroyed vessel. Inside the wreckage they discover corpses, a metal skeleton, and a glowing green ring and what appears to be a battery. On there way back to the rest of the crew, Volkov places the ring on his finger and destroys there’s lander but in the mysterious artifacts keep Jordan alive in dead space. The metal corpse attacks him and almost instantly Jordan destroys it before blacking out. He awakes on another world with a alien named Killowag who explains these are the weapons of the long gone Green Lantern Corps that once protected the universe, before the mechanical Manhunters exterminated them, leaving relics and myth behind. It’s up to Hal and Killowag to cross the oceans of space to find more lanterns and answers while being hunted and survive with what little powers they have dying. Can the Green Lanterns resurface and destroy the machines?

I was in no way disappointed by this story and I can’t wait for volume 2, which we have some great teases at the end of book 1. I really like how much of the superhero pretext is stripped away and we get a dark sci-fi epic. I enjoy the changes to the characters and I enjoy how the story is layered to keep you guessing what really caused the Lantern’s downfall. The art is bleak with ques to scenery from the first Alien as well as Star trek (reboot) . My only real complaint is the action scenes can be a little confusing and there’s a rough story transition into the third act but otherwise it’s some of the best Lantern I’ve read in a while. I really recommend this story to fans and new comers alike. May the gaming gods bring you glory and beware Green Lantern’s light…

Why the IGN “Mistakes” Are A Big Deal

Recently in the gaming world, IGN has been talked about quite a lot. This is normal considering they are pretty much the biggest name in gaming news. And yes they have been the subject of many memes and jokes over the years such as the Pokemon too much water incident. For those that don’t know back in 2014 IGN reviewed Pokemon Omega and Saphire a game in a region known for having lots of water and gave it a 7.8 with only 2 main downsides. Too many HMs and too much water.

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And since the internet gives approximately 0 fucks about anything this set off a sandstorm of memes making fun of IGN.

Now obviously that is a bit minor compared to more recent mistakes, such as having to fire a reviewer for plagiarism after he stole a Dead Cells review from a much smaller Youtuber. You can read on that at Forbes.

And according to many sources, including oneangrygamer they used the default controls for Ace Combat 7 which give the game a more arcade feel, then complained about the game having an arcade feel to it. It, however, doesn’t end there. They also apparently only played half of Resident Evil 2 Remaster before releasing their original review. They later retracted large amounts of it and bumped up the score tho not by much. Check out more on that over at mainmenu.

Those are just some of the more popular or recent examples of issues over at IGN, and honestly, my title says “Mistakes” because I don’t believe these count as mistakes. A mistake implies you made a conscience misguided decision or didn’t know you were wrong and that doesn’t seem to be the case. Anyone that has ever written a paper in school knows plagiarism is wrong, and having played the original release of Resident Evil 2 they are quite clear about how to start a new game as a different character and even if they weren’t you are a professional reviewer, you have been around games enough you should know what you are doing.

I also can’t in good conscience give a pass on the  Ace Combat 7 incident because any reviewer should be playing games on multiple difficulties at the very least to see how they control. Now for smaller places mine or many of the others on WordPress that are run by one or 2 people chances are there is nobody to check over your work, but IGN has no excuse why two people aren’t playing each game, at least partly for a second person to make sure they aren’t totally dropping the ball.

The sad part of all this is, and I believe Dreamcast guy over on Twitter and many others have said this already, this is happening because they are in a rush to get content out and get their views and clicks and don’t actually care if the content is good, and that will eventually be the downfall of IGN. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.