Home ›
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE
Comments
Importing drama? Or exporting sanity?
Brace yourself for the sword derail by the eighth post, which shows no signs of stopping six pages in. IJBM that I received such heavy criticism for criticising Paolini's general conduct when dealing with deadly weapons and the glorification thereof.
And I mean, when I think someone's glorifying swords too much, you know there's an issue.
Paolini really does trivialise the danger in owning a lethal weapon.
Anybody else up for robbing Christopher Paolini? =D
If that guy ever comes to Melbourne, I'm going to borrow the best two blunt steels from my training group and challenge him publicly to a duel.
Probably not, actually. But it's a fun thought.
Paolini is like a blueprint of everything wrong with fantasy fiction. I mean, while people calling The Night Angel Trilogy and the works of Simon R. Green pappy isn't untrue it's a hell of a lot more imaginative and intelligent than anything Paolini puts out and people lavish that with tongue baths.
Gah. Can't even finish that thread.
Why is Rick Astley's Together Forever so addictive? It has one of the laziest rhyming choruses possible. Maybe it's that hypnotic rainbow background.
An artist's responsibility is to art, in an ideal world. However, in our world, artists influence people with their works. An artist who has a fairly large dedicated fan following needs to not do stupid shit like buying a sword, going on about how awesome and cool it is without even knowing how to use it safely and responsibly.
The largest point about this is just how much he goes on about swords in his book, giving people the impression he knows what he's going on about.
Absolutely, Cygs. Thanks for being understanding, 'cause that thread has really drained me.
Man, where to start?
Also, one has to wonder what kind of literacy standards have caused Inheritance and Twilight to both become so popular in such a similar timeframe. As far as I can tell, it's pretty unique to have two awful series getting major mainstream attention at once.
It reminds me of a discussion I had when I said I was frustrated with how irresponsibly guns were treated in fiction (and I'm not even that big on guns) and I was asked why it was so bad to have someone use a pistol to his someone in the head from 500 feet away.
And I don't think it's wrong so long as there's a clear distinction that this is ridiculous spectacle and such things aren't possible in the real world. Unfortunately I don't thin artists communicate this enough.
Personally, it bothers me more with guns since more people here in the states actively try to get their hands on them.
I would have thought it was fairly evident, but no.
...
I mean I'm not some model train enthusiast who demands realism at all times. I mean, Devil May Cry 3 is one of my favorite games. However, I think what makes DMC work is that it knows that what rules it's breaking by and large, so it plants itself firmly in audacity.
You don't need to adhere to reality. Just realize and note you're breaking from it.
Yeah, I certainly agree with that. Stuff like DMC never even pretends to be realistic. So when someone like Paolini spends ages talking about sword construction and Eragon's training, then he's evidently trying to link it to reality.
For fuck's sake, even the Conan the Barbarian movie had elements of realistic swordplay and it's the definition of stupid, ridiculous pulp.
(And a lot of fun, but that's neither here nor there.)
The newest Conan was really dumb but I had fun with it, and it was a Christmas present to my dad so it helped me get brownie points with him.
I haven't seen the new one. I enjoyed the old one, but I wouldn't exactly call myself a "fan". It's a fun movie to whip out from time to time.
So sleepy
One of you will be skinned and turned into a pillow
I can't speak for swordplay obviously, but it's fun enough for a torrent, even if the term 'Thud and Blunder' came to my mind a few times.
Well, the original Conan's swordplay wasn't exactly stellar, but it was sometimes pretty close to the real thing. Pretty significant, given that medieval swordplay was an unknown thing when it was released.
Of course, it obviously drew a lot of inspiration from kenjutsu, which is similar enough in most aspects.
I hear the new one has a lot of "reverse grip" silliness. That's not a dealbreaker or anything. I'll just bitch about it a lot.
From what I know, Reverse Grip only really makes sense with knives...
In any case, I noticed stuff like flynning and broad strokes, but it looked good and of course I wasn't expecting practical martial combat from the shirtless dude in a loincloth.
-reads-
Christ, some of the people in that thread are idiots. Joe doesn't surprise me, but I never realised inane had such a stick up his ass. Props to you for putting up with it, Alex.
I'll freely admit I was on the edge there for a while.
^^ Yeah, reverse grip is knife-only. Broad strokes and flynning are things I can deal with if they're not ridiculously heavy, because there are safety reasons for doing that kind of thing with inexperienced practitioners.
Wow, I'm...I'm amazed it took me as long as it did to leave TV Tropes.
Anyway, It's late, and I have stuff tomorrow. Night. Probably. I might lie awake for awhile because it's before 2 AM, making me getting to sleep unlikely.
Meh, I have a blunt, cheap-ass Japanese arms set on the closet. They're good caphangers, cutlery when we run out of forks and I'm too lazy to do the dishes, plus it's fun to see LARPers try to hurt themselves with it whenever I bring them along to a costume party*. I fully concur it's irresponsible and idiotic, but that sort of loses its impact if you're surrounded by bigger idiots.
*Note: scenarios may be written in plural when they occurred as singular instances, and may be exaggerated to push people's buttons
Rereads thread: People making it an American/Australian cultural thing rather than actually basing it on arguments and making bizarre analogies. This certainly is amusing.
In other news, there's still a limit of 4 medicine research gigs a year even if the study in question doesn't even use medication at all. A tad annoying.
Honestly, the whole "Respecting the sword" thing vibe kinda bothers me. Of course, I do agree that flaunting that shit around, where people who are unaware of how it works and inspiring them to get one is pretty bothersome.
Overall, can't say I care about it.
It's more to do with respecting weapons as a whole, but the sword is a particular case because not a whole lot of people know anything about how to deal with it properly. You can bet, if it were a gun, that Paolini would've got himself some training. But a sword? He probably doesn't even know the name of Liechtenauer.
The new LMFAO hit vid has an "arrow to the knee" reference. *fill in misplaced nerd pride about 'geek culture' being accepted into 'the mainstream'*
Damn dead horses.