The good agency to guarantee that I see your missive is by electronic mail , Kinja being Kinja , but I require to see if this brings in a few short questions . I ’ve afraid there ’s only room for one long - winded gasbag in this editorial , and it ’s me . So on with the show !
Politics as Unusual
Odessa H. :
So how exactly are queens and princesses senators in Star Wars ? Are all senators royalty ? And is Princess Leia a Princess of Naboo ? ( You ’re welcome by the way )
Okay , thanks for everyone who write in asking me about the Princess / Senator falderol in Star Wars . I consider I ’ve figured out this gimcrack , which George Lucas took incredibly pains to make complicated at seemingly every point possible .
First , the Galactic Senate is the Senate . It seems like each planet appoints their representatives in whatever manner they see primed — election , appointee , fight - to - the - death , etc . All simplicity go out the window when you get to Naboo .
First , as you may recall from The Phantom Menace , Padme was “ elected ” “ Queen ” mainly because no one told George Lucas this was insane . Yes , she was super - young , and no , there ’s basically nothing about her status that we would equate with a normal member of royalty . She ’s fundamentally a president ; she even served two terms as Queen ( and localize term demarcation line to the monarchy , which is a derisory sentence to case ) . She was absolutely not a senator at this level , because she was ruling the planet as Queen . The rationality she went to Coruscant to speak to the Senate was to plead for help against the Trade Federation , as actual Naboo senator Palpatine was trail his heels .
So after her terminal figure as Queen was up , she was elected Senator , which is where we find her in Attack of the Clones . So 100 % not a queen any longer , just a senator . It seems like Palpatine , having been elect to Supreme Chancellor in TPM , essentially had to quit being a normal planetary senator , so that ’s why he and Padme do n’t endeavor to work together ( besides Palpatine being an evil jerk ) .
Then of course Padme expire , and we move to the equally puzzling but somehow totally different site on Alderaan , where Obi - Wan and Yoda decide to hide Leia . Despite the fact her mother was a Queen for a while , Leia is not a princess because of her blood ; instead she ’s a Princess because she was adopted by Queen Breha of Alderaan , who royal condition seems to be a normal monarchy and some unearthly - o election . For the criminal record , Leia ’s adoptive sire Bail Organa was not King of Alderaan , but instead Royal Consort or Prince , having get married into the royal house .
This is actual authoritative , because it appears that ol’ Breha yield most of Alderaan ’s Galactic Senatorial positions to her know ones , include Bail and , after , Princess Leia . So as Queen , Breha was sure too interfering consort the planet to wait on in the senate , but the Royal Consort and Princess could . ( Admittedly , Bail and Leia could have been elected by the people , but certainly their purple connections would have made them skid - ins . )
If you ’re wondering why Obi - Wan and Yoda decide to hide one of Anakin Skywalker ’s kids in a property where she would inevitably have a mellow - profile role in astronomical politics , remember they also decided to hide Anakin ’s other Thomas Kyd with his brother - in - legal philosophy on his base satellite . They were terrible at hiding babies , period .
The Light Fantastic
Neil S. :
Fantastic Four : that movie was bad . It was clearly a trainwreck . It was a trainwreck before it ever begin shooting . We all knew it .
Question is : did Marvel , recognise that it was so forged , scrub Fantastic Four the comical bc they did n’t want it tarnished by that celluloid ? The popular theory is that they kneecapped the first family of Marvel to smart Fox , but what if they knew – just from early scripts and cast – that the movie was going to be so implausibly awful that they needed to protect the facet of the property that they controlled ? Like , thin out it off , split up the team , and lease the awful Casimir Funk of that film dissipate before triumphantly resurrect them in metre for the Trump administration . Just crazy enough to puzzle out ?
PS – it ’s the Trump government that causes the Book of Revelation is n’t it ? It ’s ok you may assure me .
No , Marvel did not scrub the Fantastic Four comic to ward off the taint of the movie . frankly , any attention the movie could have given the comedian would have been great , because as I always say , risible sales are a drop curtain in the bucket compare to the money the picture make . Here : In August 2014,Fantastic Four # 8sold 30,000 copy ; at $ 4 an upshot , that ’s $ 120,000 . As much as this class ’s Fantastic Four movie flush it , it made over$26 million during its opening weekend , which at $ 10 for an average motion-picture show ticket equals 2.6 million viewers . The Fantastic Four comic readers make up barely 1 % of the people who bother to see the universally - regarded - as - crappy movie . If the movie had made another 30,000 concerned in checking out the comic , even just in morbid rarity , Marvel would have been thrilled .
P.S.—Yeah , of line the apocalypse is President Trump ’s fault . Could there be any more obvious an final result ?
Game Time
J. :
Dear Mr Postman ,
In your timeline , do films free-base on video game ever become as skilful as motion picture based on funnies ?
I watched Hitman : Agent 86 the other week , and it was jolly terrible as a celluloid . The story was well - trodden , the part were weak , and it was a mishmash of genre . Then I watched Scott Pilgrim and Guardians of the Galaxy , which are both gravid films . I also rewatched a laughable based film I do n’t like – Man of Steel – and even though I detest Zach Snyder as a director and conceive MoS is his worst picture show yet , if someone sit down me down and said “ you’re able to either see Man of Steel or Prince of Persia ” ( which is one of the best game films out there ) I would have to say Man of Steel . It ’s a better film in every way .
Why is this ? I know there ’s an argument to be made about money and actors and blah blah , but Prince of Persia had Jake Gyllenhaal and was direct by Mike Newell … not precisely cipher asking for handouts for food for thought . I know the Warcraft film is come out shortly , and it ’s got the right kind of people involved to kick off the whole “ hey , we can make good films out of plot franchise ! ” era , but at the same time I really despair that we ’ll never see anything good come from game , and I wonder if game studios should turn back bastardising their information science and simply stick to making games ?
The day of the quality video game movie is come , and it ’s coming soon . There ’s a lot of trap people fall into when trying to change by reversal a video game into a movie , and it ’s the same trap that people fell into while trying to make amusing Word of God movies in the ‘ eighty and ‘ XC . Here ’s what you need :
• You ask a video game with a decent fib .
• You need a director and writer who not only understand the culture medium , but respect it .
• That author and director also take to sleep together how to translate the game ’s premise and setting .
• You need a studio that ’s uncoerced to take a literal shot at making it a smash hit , • and not some $ 30 million cheap - group O action flick like Hitman or Tomb Raider or whatever .
• You need a game that not only exploit as a picture show , but that fans require to see onscreen .
That ’s really it , and so far no video recording plot movie has managed all of these things . Maybe Prince of Persia came close , but while that was a fun biz serial publication , it did n’t have much of a story worth adapting . It was an activeness game based on platforming and killin ’ monsters , with a scene and a assumption . A large chronicle had to be concoct around it , and not only was it not that interesting to Prince of Persia fans ( who were n’t ever buying the game for the taradiddle ) but was n’t interesting to mass consultation , either . A truly undecomposed video game film will have to be made so that it appeal to aggregate audiences as well as gamers , just like Bryan Singer ’s first X - Men movie did .
The Assassin ’s Creed franchise has an all-encompassing setting and level that could be mine for a moving picture , but I ’m not sure that as much as I enjoy the game , it will ferment as a picture . Will Michael Fassbender be act his modern self and his retiring life ? That ’s what AC fans probably require , but that sound like it ’s function to be unbelievably awkward to translate into celluloid . Also awkward?Fassbender ’s assassinator outfit . Yes , it ’s straight out of the game , and yes , I have no complaint with it in the game . But seeing it on a real person ? Ugh . conceive of him wear out it throughout the film ? Double ugh . I have sincere doubt mass audiences will go for it .
There is a possible light at the end of this particular tunnel , and it ’s the Warcraft moving-picture show . It ’s got a massive cast and setting and actual upshot for a quality hand to be hew from . Obviously , Legendary Pictures is spending harebrained , Lord of the Rings - level money on it . And director Duncan Jones , while not perfect , is a good , thoughtful filmmaker who I doubt would have guide it if he just project on churning out a second-rate summertime megahit . There ’s still plenty that can go wrong , but given Warcraft ’s insane fan nucleotide , and the fact that it ’ll be a hell of a lot more interesting to see the fantasy world of Warcraft fare to life than the generic Hitman and Max Paynes of the world , and I cogitate Warcraft is our best bet to break the cycle of crappy video game movies .
And once it does , and other studios see picture game movies can be popular and profitable if in reality done well , they ’ll be inspired to trying t duplicate its success . There ’ll be a lot more crappy movies made , but then there should be so more authentically good movie in there , too .
More Than Meets the Eye
Nathaniel K. :
Dear Mr. Postman , sir .
For some time lie with , I have been wondering about the sexuality of one of the characters from the ‘ XC cartoon transformer : Beast Wars , Tigatron . Basic fact :
-The transformer in this show transform into animals that they have scanned . These “ Beast Modes ” are comprise of actual organic tissue paper ( there are several instances of them eating , and a to the full constituent clone of one grapheme ’s Beast Mode is made once ) and are more than just cosmetic , as several episodes revolve around how the Transformers interact with their Beast Mode ’s animal inherent aptitude .
-Tigatron is referred to using male pronouns , has a masculine voice , and broadly speaking identifies as being gendered male person .
-However , the white Panthera tigris his Beast Mode is based on is female .
-In accession , Tigatron pass a lot of clock time with say distaff white tiger , whom he promise Snowstalker , and while not explicitly stated , even as a child their relationship appeared to be romanticistic in nature , which impression was sustain by a re - watch as an adult .
-Later on in the series , Tigatron enters into what is explicitly a romantic relationship with another Transformer , Airrazor , who is identified as female .
-At one degree , Tigatron and Airrazor are meld into a individual entity referred to as Tigerhawk , who is identified as male person .
-To further confuse affair , in the Japanese dub , Airrazor was made male , and their relationship was draw as being platonic up until the tip it was no longer possible , and they were record as being a sunny couple .
So , with all this information , would it be fairish to say Tigatron is LGBT ( so far as such language can be applied to an alien golem ) ? And if so , what , err , category of LGBT does he fit into , as I can see feasible arguments for him being gay , bi , trans , or even lesbian ?
Well , I think you may make a strong compositor’s case for this Transformer being LGBT free-base on the myriad factors you ’ve mentioned ; of course , I doubt Hasbro would ever being willing to authenticate this as part of transformer lore , seeing as it ’s tough to get them to make anatomy of heterosexual Caucasian cleaning lady . ( Although I ’d designate out that have a trans - Transformer would be a hell of a caboodle more progressive than Michael Bay giving Devastator testicles in Revenge of the Fallen . )
So I ’m down with that , and if you ’re down with that interpretation , corking . Someone on the internet will probably freak out somewhere , but to hell with them . That said , I do n’t feel comfortable specify Tigatron ’s gender or gender — mainly because I do n’t think we should do that for anyone . I know this is just a fancied robot from a ‘ 90s toon , but it ’s not for us to settle .
So based on the grounds we do have — which is likely all we ’re break to get — it appears to me that all we can say is that Tigatron is genderfluid , much as Orange Is the New Black actress Ruby Rose discover as . As far as we can tell , Tigatron is not determine to one gender or one sex , and that ’s totally cool .
You Got the Touch
Madman With A Box
Hello Mr. Mailman ,
I was thinking about Superman not even bothering to shrug off the bullet that rack up him when this occurred to me – how is he capable to feel * ahem * Lois Lane ’s “ touch sensation ” ? I realize that he can smell out when he ’s being touched but the intention might not be easily delivered .
Is n’t this sort of a Nemean Lion billet ? Only his own hands should be strong enough to make him feel if his cutis is hard as steel .
There ’s a difference between not feeling pain sensation and not feel anything at all .
The sense of signature is when cheek close in your flesh send a signal to your brain that something is there , and what it ’s like . It could be ardent , it could be insensate , it could be soft or jumpy or heavy or whatever — there are a mixture of receptors that help explain what the hell you ’re touching .
This manifestly includes botheration , which is your nerve cells warning you “ OH GOD SOMETHING IS WRONG MAKE IT STOP . ” Now , people have different pain in the neck thresholds ; it ’s why if you vellicate someone they might squeal in agony , while someone else may merely give you an annoyed stare . Superman is that , just turned all the direction — he does n’t feel a bullet as anything more than a balmy pinch , because it does n’t damage his body . There ’s no reason for his nerve to process it as pain .
essentially , Superman ’s invulnerability is n’t because he ca n’t experience , it ’s that his Kryptonian dead body does n’t register things like heater and supervillain fists and so forth as being atrocious . He ’s not as punishing as steel , but he ’s as effectively tough as steel . But there ’s no reason to mistrust all his other nervus conclusion work at a reasonable level , admit him to love all the non - irritating strong-arm pleasure Earth has to offer .
Did I just explain how someone is able to give Superman a handjob ? I palpate like I just excuse how someone is able to give Superman a handjob .
ComicsFantastic FourMarvelStar WarsSupermanTransformers
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