Wind Chaser

Atlanta got me a good net win on DraftKings. Not the biggest Harvick fan but it felt right with him winning after Dillon, going back to where he got his first win.

15 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:

@PathfinderCS To add to that, there's a comment from someone who was a trial juror that deserves mention (coming from Teradyne Ezeri, in reply to "Epic-Fran!"):

People were absolutely justified to be hurt, angry, and outraged at what TK did. But the armchair lawyering, mob mentality of the Internet, and people scapegoating his friends (even some of Toon's own victims) of enabling him created such a clusterfuck that TK was able to delete his original social media, go into hiding, and probably start over. Recently, someone spotted him on Skype under a brand-new name.

I was never a selected juror, and I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know if Teradyne is telling the truth, but I give them the benefit of the doubt. I hope the mob mentality (ranging from TK being doxxed to bronies petitioning to ban Josh, Wolf, Silver, and others from cons) doesn't hurt his chances of justice being delivered.

It's so true. The fandom was pretty ready to let the cooler heads prevail and handle this situation as it should have. But now it's gone into flinging accusations and insults based on flimsy evidence. I won't dare link the petition here because I believe it's an immoral attempt at character assassination; the only evidence backing this are a couple of poorly-worded videos (one of which was clarified and apologized for) and accusations of a cover-up by observers with secondhand knowledge of the situation. I won't consider it differently until firsthand evidence comes out proving this otherwise.

What was meant by "forgiveness" was not to let emotions control you and act out in a way that could ultimately damage the case. But of course because of the wording used the message was misinterpreted. And now any attempt to understand what it even means is being flat-out contradicted in action.

Josh Scorcher is such a man of character, I'll probably say he's at least five times the man most of us in this fandom will ever be. It's unfortunate that his plan for the good of the fandom and the victims fell apart but that's the nature of the Internet, and the man is just not afraid to come out and admit his mistakes and even praise his rivals when he needs to.

If people are going to leave the fandom over this, I totally understand it. Everyone's expected to assume the risk that there are predators in the fandom but the handling of this incident just shows that it might as well not be worth the risk not only from the predators, but to the related fallout and other personal issues.

Take any character within the Bumbling Dad archetype except Homer Simpson. Pretty much everything you can do with this character has already been done by him alone. You saw this on pretty much every sitcom through the 2000s and in a lot of commercials, too.

I love The Amazing World of Gumball, but in a lot of ways it burns me that they have a character like Richard considering there is almost nothing new you can do with him, the way he's written.

I think all of this goes without saying that while there may not explicitly be laws that prohibit "dating" per se, getting involved in such a relationship is like walking a tightrope over a minefield. You are fraught on all sides by potentially illegal behavior, where one false move could put you in violation of the law. There's a reason why, even though in most cases there isn't a specific applicable law, they almost always arouse suspicion. In addition, some states have broad state laws that could apply responsibility to the adult if the minor commits an illegal act.

You can track an individual's behavior on one site, but it's hard to track them everywhere and ascertain whether any additional contact is happening off-site.

My only hope is that when these issues do come up, intervention can happen early enough that it can stop potentially illegal behaviors from happening, and that when people who get involved in these relationships are dealt with, that those involved have the good judgment to tell whether the person being dealt with is a person with a clear pattern of predatory behavior or if they're a relatively young adult with other issues that made an error in judgment and needs a different kind of intervention.

"Overrated" is subjective, and you really have to have a damn good reason to call something overrated.

I've seen the film, and what I will say is it did exceed my expectations as far as the dialogue writing and the visual creativity of the world, which shows the usual care and research that Disney puts into crafting immersive settings. Their research having studied real animals, cities, and police departments really paid off for the most part. To all of it, however, it's far easier for a Disney or Pixar film to extract praise for the setting and immersion because the bar has been set relatively low by the rest of the animation industry, and there is an obvious and deliberate tinge of familiarity running throughout the whole thing because it's a Disney product specifically made with regards to their heritage. It doesn't discount the hard work, but it shows how much they run rings around their competition.

As for the writing itself, it tells a surprisingly well-balanced variation of the classic "American Dream" story arc. Zootopia isn't the utopia that young, optimistic Judy promised herself it would be. At her lowest point, it seems like hell, but as she matures beyond it, she finds it's neither and she has to learn to make the best out of what things are. The movie makes the point in its dialogue, which is very natural, sharp, and timely.

The only thing I'd consider overrated, IMO, is some of the other dialogue. I personally found much of the metaphor pretty obvious and heavy-handed in parts, but this is a very "your mileage may vary" situation, and it's a hard thing to veil into subtlety without confusing the message. Much of the success of the film comes from timing; it just came out against the right political climate for its message to stick.

The only part of the film I really take issue with is how it negatively portrays Judy's parents talking about "settling" for their lot in life in an incredibly forced and caricatured way, as if to portray people who don't achieve or strive for their dreams as Debbie Downer-esque dream killers or somehow less legitimate than people who do so. A lot of people make a good living and are perfectly happy with settling or going with the flow rather than taking charge. This could have been portrayed better in the film as a looming temptation for Judy to return to the comfort of her previous life but to reject to show just how committed she is to her ideals. It's such a minor part of the film that a lot of people miss, but it would have meant more to me if they would have handled it better.

All in all, I think Zootopia is animated filmmaking at one of the finest degrees it can be in this day and age. I don't like it as much as most mainstream critics, audiences, and especially furries do, and there are a handful of other animated features to have come out since 2010 that I've enjoyed more. But I've outlined what I like more or less about it and I can definitely see what others got out of it more than I did.

On 6/4/2017 at 1:16 PM, LugiaFan249 said:

I've heard that a bunch of furries dressed in "fursuits" went into a theater when Zootopia was released, and caused a LOT of trouble, and they were forced to leave!

[citation needed]

Great idea from a marketing standpoint, and if it was any franchise other than Sonic it would get more praise. I count myself among the many fans that wanted a feature like this. Of course the jokes are easy to make; they're so easy they became dead to me within hours of the announcement (what Twitter will do to you).

For the skeptics, I get that there's reason to be skeptical because of previous modern Sonic games having relied on gimmicks to cover up shortcomings in game design. But to trash the concept itself is foolish; character customization worked really well for a lot of other game franchises recently and it's about time Sonic caught up with the huge community calling for it. The community's reputation itself is humorous but irrelevant to the concept itself; it would be like saying the Edsel was good because Ford made it even though it was a failure.

As for the execution, it's obviously too early to tell.

I'm not as big on MLP as I used to be, but there aren't that many other toons on these days that I'm all that much into. The only one currently running that I could really say I like more and find better than MLP in some aspects is The Amazing World of Gumball. The show goes a lot further with its humor but I still find most of MLP's characters more enjoyable.

As for other shows that are now gone but ran concurrently with MLP, I'd have to give mention to Gravity Falls, Wander Over Yonder, and The Legend of Korra.

I stopped following pretty much every MLP analyst except for Silver Quill and Tyandaga. I've kept those two because they feel very genuine, they love their work, and especially in Silver Quill's case, are thoroughly researched and thought out. I've been losing interest in the show over time and as a result, I don't really feel the need to watch those videos to help enjoy and understand the show as much anymore, the lone exception being Silver Quill because of his wide-ranging knowledge and tackling of topics most other analysts wouldn't be as good at handling.

Catchy stuff from Sonic games:

I'm much more a fan of "All Bottled Up" than "Celestial Advice". Both back-to-back episodes by the same writing team (Lewis & Songco) show some consistent tendencies and where these writers seem to put in their best work. The second episode seemed to put them more in their element; the narrative's use of fourth wall humor (foreshadowing the song) and the comedic editing (using Ironic Echo Cuts almost to the edge of their capacity) bolstered what Trixie could do on her own by messing everything up. It fits better for writers whose background comes from animated genre comedies like TUFF Puppy. In the first one, you could tell they had much more fun writing Spike (the snarky version decided to show up for this one while the helpful one did the second) and Discord than most of the other characters.

The first episode really felt more like a cap on what Season 6 was doing with its Starlight appearances, mainly setting up her new role alongside Twilight. The second one really felt different from a Season 6 episode and I hope it sets the tone for this season. It really proved to me that Starlight and Trixie can continue to carry episodes and that Starlight's comparisons to young Twilight aren't just blowing steam. The best thing she could have going forward, however, would be a more regular supporting cast beyond Discord and Thorax, who are unlikely to be any more than recurring characters. It will give her more of an independent identity, rather than keeping her as the Sixth Ranger of the main group, and will reduce their reliance on the same character pairings multiple times over.

Other things of note: it's great to see Celestia be a bit more of herself, but an abundance of expository dialogue early and an overall slow progression show that Songco/Lewis' talents lie more with exploiting the self-awareness of the episodes themselves than the continuity. While it's still a bit of a bummer that none of the original writers from the first two seasons are around anymore, promoting Songco/Lewis into the story editor role gives hope that some things will change from Season 6.

My favorite cartoon on TV right now is The Amazing World of Gumball. Other than that, I watch mostly older stuff. I recently finished a binge of The Legend of Korra and I have been rewatching episodes of Hey Arnold, Doug, Sonic X, TUFF Puppy, (which I consider my guilty pleasure) and classic SpongeBob. I've also been trying to catch up on Samurai Jack and haven't watched the new ones yet. I also watch Sonic Boom out of a bit of morbid curiosity (and as a Sonic fan) even though I don't like that show.

The Internet: A Love Story

This is the first we're seeing of the new animation style, for which I can say ToonBoom Harmony looks like it'll work pretty good for this project.

But I swear I could just feel the computers frying up rendering those shadows.

I'm going to go relatively obscure (but not a lot, really) to start this: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but not the one you're thinking of. Specifically, a 2D-animated version of him done by Rankin-Bass that showed up in Rudolph's Shiny New Year (starts at 1:21 in this video).

Also Arrow and Rudolph from the 1998 Rudolph film.

There's also Rebound from Pound Puppies, she's got a lot of energy and just doesn't stop.

Roxanne from A Goofy Movie.

Sawyer from Cats Don't Dance.

Kitty Katswell from TUFF Puppy. (lol @ both having that same smug cat face)

Shady Daze is my favorite from this show. I know, so obscure.

There are a number of others I'd also list, but many of them are from other media, and there are others that I like better in fanart than in canon, so I'd save them for another list.

Over the past few years, I've gravitated so much more to the Internet that I probably only watch at most about two to three hours of TV on a weekday, mostly news. I'm sure it would be just as much if Hulu was included because I'm not a binge watcher. I'll probably watch upwards of four or five hours on weekends because I am a motorsports and American football fan. The only time I find myself willingly watching more TV than normal during the week is during the holiday season to catch many of the Christmas specials.

It just boils down to the simple fact that artists draw whatever they feel. Most people who draw MLP fanart do it out of a simple love of the show or the fandom. However, for those artists who want to go professional, being associated with fanart makes it hard for them to build up an audience for their original stuff because of that prior association. It would be like trying to get MLP fans to watch Littlest Pet Shop; some of them are going to come along, but others aren't going to go with them.

When a majority of fans follow an artist for a certain kind of fanart, they care less about the other stuff unless they're also fans of those other works. This goes double for original projects; unless there's a certain air of familiarity about it, watchers aren't really going to care. On top of that, creating original characters and original settings take a lot more effort at greater risk for potentially less reward. It's simply easier to do stuff with characters and worlds you already know.

Thus, some artists genuinely feel the love for MLP so much that they don't mind only doing MLP stuff, and others probably continue to do it because they're doing it mostly for the people and probably can't get that kind of attention anywhere else.

Character designer Brookes Eggleston makes a good video about "The Fan Art Trap", when good artists are either inextricably linked to fan art or feel the need to keep doing it against their own judgment.

Song of the Sea, an Irish product to watch on St. Patrick's Day. Beautifully-designed movie, one of the few hand-drawn movies to come out in the 2010s with a unique art style blending Irish folklore, nature, and the modern world.

Rather than any pre-existing character, I'd rather have a character who is down on their luck, unsuccessful, and unhappy with their cutie mark to balance out the other successful characters on this show. Like Troubleshoes, but better.

The first preview is out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-LNgU4e1rE

 

It's also been renewed for second season.

http://www.animationscoop.com/new-clip-disney-xd-orders-second-season-of-ducktales-ahead-of-its-summer-premiere/

 

The nephews' voices are going to take some getting used to, but otherwise, I like it so far.

I do agree with you on the voices. This show, on the whole, really looks like the kind of kick in the ass TV animation as a whole needs amidst today's reality of declining ratings, the rise of digital, and fragmenting audiences. Frankly, I don't see a lot of people getting too excited about the other new cartoons coming up (except maybe Samurai Jack), but this show looks like a hit in the making, and I did see the trailer hit #3 trending on YouTube yesterday hours after its release. That's something everyone in the industry would definitely die for.

On the one hand, nostalgia sells and reboots are all the rage, therefore there is already a built-in audience. On top of that, this show looks to be setting itself apart from other reboots by relying on genuine effort rather than resting on its laurels and going the easy way like Sonic Boom or The Looney Tunes Show did, pandering to the young crowd like The Powerpuff Girls, or actively chasing away the older fanbase like Teen Titans Go. The art style definitely looks like it was devised by people coming from a background in comics who studied classical animation in-depth, and Disney definitely went out of their way to find the best talent they could for it. Then you add Disney's name on top of it. For a long time it looked like Disney treated their TV stuff as second-class behind their feature films, now it looks like at least one of their TV properties is getting the respect it deserves. This could pave the way for the next Gravity Falls or even be the next Gravity Falls. There's plenty of reason to be excited for it.

"Fake news"

This used to be a legitimate term referring to outlets that published knowingly false and unverified stories for the ad money and traffic. Now it's used by alt-righters and Trump himself anytime they whine about or pick fights with news organizations they don't agree with. It's gotten so bad that even FOX News had to stand up for CNN amidst every ideologically blinded pundit crawling back to that safe space because they can't hear anything bad about the golden boy, although to be fair CNN has turned into the Washington version of TMZ.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58b0f48be4b060480e083d19

The whole deal with Twilight is just a simple "uncanny valley" effect, when something tries to replicate another thing and bears a strong superficial resemblance but becomes off-putting when the differences become obvious. This is a fact that's been plaguing builders of animatronics and robots of all kinds for decades. People commonly apply it to humans, but I believe that it applies to animals, even cartoon characters and other machines as well.

The Skynet and The Matrix comparisons are unwarranted as anything other than a joke, and even as a joke they're old as dirt by now because of popular culture's strange, long-standing fascination with strong AI destroying humanity, and consequentially humanity's fear of the other (a continuation of past fears about aliens). Even beyond the realm of the mainstream, the landscape of science fiction is absolutely full of dystopian stories about AI and more positive ones are hard to find. I do wish we did have more positive ones to really introduce the idea of machines being a benefit to society to the mainstream rather than the abundance of Luddite fearmongering we have now, because with big things coming over the next few decades, we are in for a hard time.

For now, all we can do is play with our toys.

This is only possible because of the Internet and the way it has democratized information. Because anyone can say anything on the Internet, in addition to becoming the greatest tool for the storage of mankind's information, it has also become the largest collective paranoia and disinformation machine in our pathetic 6000 years of civilization. We live in a day and age where people not only fail at critical thinking en masse, but actively reject it in favor of their own biases. Even when presented with straight facts, they'll twist it in a way that protects the precious beliefs of their fragile primitive minds.

Believing in a flat Earth is just another way of people trying to justify their existence on Earth by making it all about them.

I'd love to see some of the 90s Disney cartoons make a return; with a modernized DuckTales on the horizon, I'd definitely like to see that followed up with at least TV movies of Recess and Pepper Ann and maybe even stuff like TaleSpin or Darkwing Duck.

I'd also like to see the crew behind the 90s Warner Bros comedies, like Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and Freakazoid! get back together to work on an original project in the same style. A lot of them are still active today, but they've worked on more corporate stuff like Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures and The 7D. What's amazing is that we have kids' cartoons that really push the envelope as far as adult and reference humor goes these days, but very few of them where that is actually the focus of the show like with Silver Age WB stuff. We really need them back.

Although I don't fall into that show's fanbase, I'd also love to give a shout-out to Invader Zim. The show was criminally cancelled and fans have continued to show great support for it, and I think the fans deserve to see more, even if it's just one last TV movie. I just hope out-of-touch Nickelodeon gets the memo on what classic shows people actually like.

I'm from NYC, where suggesting that chain or frozen pizza is in any way better than local pizza makes you liable to be punched in the face.

But Domino's is really good for when you're on a tight budget or want something you can reheat in a microwave. Little Caesar's comes close and Pizza Hut is good for those little pan pizzas (they only have express Pizza Huts around here).

On the film side, definitely Toy Story and Shrek (only the first two and Puss in Boots).

On the TV side, I want to say Avatar but I only know Korra. I haven't seen the original series yet.