Concerned Bystander

Banned because Adam is clearly not a non-blonde.

Banned because Man-E-Faces conquered it already.

Banned for trying to bring Masters Of The Universe back.

They are both excellent films, and both prove that Disney can still bring the magic when they stick to their core strengths. Some people will always say that Frozen is overrated but the fact that is became a cultural phenomenon says otherwise, after all, what determines rating if not the success of the film? I'm not trying to take anything away from Tangled here, it's still up there on my list of favourite Disney films but in terms of cultural impact Frozen just managed to tap into something that put it on a whole different level. I only need to look at my shelves to make my decision. I have a gorgeous Showcase figure of Rapunzel, as well as a couple of Pops. But I have a lot more Annas. And an awful lot more Elsas. Of course none of this will change which one you like more, but with regards to which is better, with both being of roughly equal quality I would say that the measure of success... is success.

Azalea, the Mastermind Creations version of Arcee. I don't have many Transformers, but I've been looking at this one for a while and she'll look pretty good on the shelf next to my Prowl and Optimus.

I have only really seen the Star Wars films so far, I've never really ventured into the expanded universe but I do intend to, I have the Thrawn trilogy on my bookshelf waiting for a space in my reading schedule. I love the original trilogy, there is very little to the story really, but there's nothing wrong with a simple story well told and with engaging characters. Now, the prequels, oh boy... the prequels. The prequels tried to tell a far more complex and interesting story, with a huge reliance on CGI and some questionable casting choices. I wasn't a fan of the prequels originally, but I have gradually made my peace with them over the years, for all their many faults the story was at least coherent and deepened the lore of the original films. Then came the sequels and where do I even start with these? TFA was little more than an inferior remake of ANH, it completely ignored the resolution of the story at the end of ROTJ and started the story from a point that made no sense in relation to the previous film and made no attempt to explain what had happened in the intervening 30 years. In its defence though, it was always going to be the first film in a trilogy so it gets a degree of leeway as it needs to set up things for the following film so not everything needs to be explained or resolved immediately. Then TLJ came along and continued to explain absolutely nothing whilst abandoning most of the plot threads that were seeded in TFA and reducing the First Order to an organisation that is so farcical and incompetent that the fact that they have somehow become a power in the galaxy is actually a plot hole. I haven't seen TROS, TLJ was so bad and disconnected from TFA that I have no appetite for this trilogy, and no desire to see how that story ends. I'm also not a big fan of Solo. I don't think this film was needed and even before it came out I knew that they were simply going to take every single nugget of information that has been established about this character and cram it all into the course of the film leaving nothing to the imagination and reducing Han Solo's entire background to little more than the events of a few days. I wasn't wrong. It's not to say that Solo is a bad film per se, it would have made a fairly serviceable sci-fi heist flick, it was just a bad Han Solo film. That leaves Rogue One. Of all the Disney Star Wars films, this is the one that I actually like. Yes, the characters all felt fairly expendable, and yes, it was riddled with fan service, but that isn't inherently a bad thing. I really enjoyed the scene at the end where we see Darth Vader at the height of his power doing what you would expect a Lord of the Sith to do. My main gripe with RO is that the way they ended it doesn't mesh well with the start of ANH, there needs to have been more of a gap between the two films. Leia's claim to Vader that she was on a diplomatic mission doesn't really hold up well when the Tantive IV was literally followed from the battle of Scarif to Tatooine and immediately intercepted by the Empire. On the whole I do enjoy Star Wars, the amount of clones, stormtroopers, Imperial offiers and battle droids that adorn my shelves is testament to that. However I am not a fan of what Disney has done to the franchise. The fact that they knew they were making a trilogy of films and did so without any plan to ensure cohesion between one film and the next is unforgivable, not to mention the utter disrespect with which the characters from the original films were treated, but I won't rant about that here, I'll save it for another day.

I'm not personally inclined towards furrydom, the whole anthro thing doesn't really do it for me. That being said, I very much enjoy watching things like Disney's Robin Hood, Zootropolis and more recent offerings like Netflix's Beastars and BNA. I enjoyed Beastars enough that I am currently working through the manga. On the whole I view furries pretty much the same way as I view any other fandom. It's perfectly fine as long as the people in question aren't being obnoxious about things, but it does have its fair share of loud, badly behaved and sometimes downright degenerate members, just like every other fandom that exists from Sonic to Marvel to MLP to sportsball fans. As much as I love to see people being passionate about their hobbies and interests, just keep it in check and don't go shoving it down other people's throats if they have made it clear they're not interested.

Would I date a female version of myself? I'm not sure how much we'd really have to talk about and I can't help thinking and level of intimacy would get really weird. However, I shall include below, for your enjoyment, a relevant song I found years ago in a book of science essays by the great Isaac Asimov, goes to the tune of 'Home On The Range'. Oh, give me a clone Of my own flesh and bone With its Y chromosome changed to X. And after it's grown, Then my own little clone Will be of the opposite sex. Clone, clone of my own, With its Y chromosome changed to X. And when I'm alone With my own little clone We will both think of nothing but sex. Oh, give me a clone, Is my sorrowful moan, A clone that is wholly my own. And if she's X-X, And the feminine sex, Oh, what fun we will have when we're prone. Clone, clone of my own, With its Y chromosome changed to X. And when I'm alone With my own little clone We will both think of nothing but sex. My heart's not of stone, As I've frequently shone When alone with my own little X. And after we've dined, I am sure we will find Better incest then Oedipus Rex. Clone, clone of my own, With its Y chromosome changed to X. And when I'm alone With my own little clone We will both think of nothing but sex. Why should such sex vex, Or disturb or perplex, Or induce a disparaging tone? After all, don't you see, Since we're both of us me, When we're having sex, I'm alone. Clone, clone of my own, With its Y chromosome changed to X. And when I'm alone With my own little clone We will both think of nothing but sex. And after I'm done She will still have her fun, For I'll clone myself twice ere I die. And this time without fail, They'll be both of them male, And they'll each ravage her by and by. Clone, clone of my own, With its Y chromosome changed to X. And when I'm alone With my own little clone We will both think of nothing but sex.

Banned for...

I doubt any of the songs from The Little Mermaid would feature in my own top ten Disney songs, but I would certainly agree that even in the absence of any real stand-outs the soundtrack as a whole is consistently solid and none of the musical numbers feel like filler that's only there to pad out the runtime. It's one of only four Disney soundtracks that I recall ever having listened to independently from the film.

Banned for banning without a banning permit.

Banned for starting a new page whose number divided by three is the title of a cult science fiction film.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson, following on from the Gap Series by the same author. I have read the first book of the series previously but never managed to get any further at that time, so this time I'm going for the full trilogy, and perhaps the second chronicles after that.

Banned for being anti-competitive.

I'm fine with violent video games, most of the games I play feature some degree of violence although I don't pick them out specifically for that reason. I've enjoyed the Grand Theft Auto series since the very beginning and also games like Hitman, Fallout, Assassins Creed and the most recent crop of Tomb Raider games in which Lara Croft is an absolute steely-eyed murder machine. My response to those that complain about violence in games will always be that if you don't like it, then don't play it.

BNA. Perhaps not as good as Beastars but thoroughly enjoyable in its own right and I'm certainly all-in for season two, assuming there will be one.

Alien life certainly exist somewhere in the universe, the sheer mathematical improbability of this one planet alone carrying life makes it hard to argue against. The chances of that life being as technologically advanced (or more) then here is going to diminish somewhat the higher up the tech tree you go. I'm not what the odds are of a civilisation advanced enough to have developed faster-than-light travel is, and whether or not any alien civilisation has visited Earth is very much up for debate. Paranormal creatures, ghosts, demons etc. I couldn't dismiss the possibility of entirely, however, I remain very sceptical and I've never heard any account of such things that inclines me towards believing in them. The human mind is a very strange thing which has a multitude of ways of tricking you into thinking that you have perceived something that wasn't actually there. As for cryptids, some are undoubtedly sheer fantasy, some are the result of tall tales which grow with each telling, and the rest? Well, no creature was known to exist until it was known to exist, and new species are discovered all the time. Maybe one day I'll find out that fairies are real, and my world will be forever changed.