This is a video a friend linked me to , it's about the potential for depression when you've cast off superstitious beliefs and magical thinking (aka: religion). While at first he sounds a little dismissive, he does actually make some really good points later in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBBWMo8ISe0&feature=colike
Here's the text if you can't watch the video:
Believers and non-believers alike have asked me about the potential depression that comes with a life free of the belief or faith in a purpose granting, paradise promising deity. It's old hat for theists to accuse me of being miserable and depressed due to my life without God, but recently I've also heard from atheists who seem legitimately depressed as a result of their delusion free world view. They've tried to explain to me that they can now understand why the religious people so desperately clutch to illogical, nonsensical, and absurd beliefs. They explain that it makes sense to do so, being that their lives of free thought have exposed to them just how pointless and empty life must be.
In my opinion the meaning of life question is a trite and trivial one- and no, the answer isn't 42. The decision of life's purpose belongs entirely to the individual. The evident understanding that our lives don't have a pre-determined meaning or a guaranteed afterlife waiting for us shouldn't be depressing. I prefer being the lone drafter of my life goals and evaluator of my success. This preference, however does not dictate my position. I didn't decide to take a path of free thought, skepticism and atheism because I like being personally accountable for what I do with my own life. Even if I took the position of those depressed skeptics who consider life meaningless without the illusion of God-given purpose, no level of desire for that perspective could allow me to convince myself of that for which I can see no actual evidence or logical presence of, and if I was genuinely convinced a god exists, no level of desire to the contrary would allow me genuinely disbelieve my own convictions. I might really want to believe that when I wake up tomorrow I'll have a job as Beyonce's personal masseur- but my desires do not inform my actual beliefs.
So, I'm perfectly happy to enjoy the many things life has to offer, even though it also offers plenty of things to be upset about. One of my favorite teachers taught me that nature craves balance. There are emotional valleys and plateaus to suffer through and be enthralled by. We are fortunate enough against all odds to be living beings, to enjoy a sliver of time as a part of this colossal cosmos with an intellect just strong enough to be self-aware, and capable of appreciating the majesty of all existence around us. I consider it a privilege to have the atoms and molecules that make up our physical existence temporarily taking the form of sentient beings with conscious brains.
As living beings with those complex brains, we're able to experience the emotional jolts of terror, love, hope, victory, defeat, and wonder in a way the overwhelmingly vast majority of molecular compositions throughout the known galaxy ever could. In my opinion, the ability to hold those experiences, and the understanding of just how rare and finite they are make this life very special, and I'm humbled and appreciative to partake in it. So no, most other people living their lives don't see eye to eye with me, and I think they'd be better off if they did- and no, life doesn't come with a neat little instruction booklet, or a gift-wrapped objective meaning. But, from my perspective, life is just too short to spend it in depression because of it.
Showing posts with label Links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Links. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Voltron, Sex & Gender... A Thought Experiment.
The new Voltron Force TV show is great... it exists (roughly) within the same continuity as the original series, it simplifies the cast (or more specifically, their uniforms) to make it more obvious which pilot controls which giant robot Lion, slim-lines and individualizes the Lions for a more satisfying aesthetic, and introduces the very cool gimmick of having the Lions each take turns as the torso of the titular Voltron robot. Two of the new characters, cadets Vince and Daniel, are from minority racial groups, Black and Asian respectively, without any sort of fuss being made about the fact, and Vince especially proves himself to be at the heart of the new show and not just the ‘token’ Black (although it would still be nice to see a few more skin tones represented, but it’s a step in the right direction). Pidge is no longer the incredibly annoying character he once was, and in fact he sorta sets my gaydar pinging... I find myself wondering if this will be a Thing in the show (it’d be great if Voltron Force broke that particular new ground). To top it all off, we have environmental awareness entering the narrative, and not in some preachy, over-the-top way, but just as a part of the team’s regular code of practice. It’s a cool, slick and timely production that I’m sure kids are going to love. I sure as hell do.
And yet there’s one thing that still kinda gets my goat. Despite the show’s overall awesomeness, the sex-ratio is still definitely askew. In a regular cast of thirteen, we have only three female characters, and one of these was killed off/turned into a monster-of-the-week in what - the third episode? Leaving us with two girls, Princess Allura and her niece Larmina. New Allura is a HUGE improvement over Original Allura, whereas before the Princess of Planet Arus was your stereotypical pretty princess in pink, insecure, naive and a bit weak (although admittedly, she did take to piloting one of the five Lions after Sven, the original pilot, was injured), now she’s strong, rational, confident, capable of looking after herself and rescuing the boys, the very heart and soul of the team. I think I’m in love with a cartoon character, is what I’m saying. Her niece Larmina is another Strong Female Character, though in an altogether different way, and one that seems calculated to contrast with the weak and fragile depiction of women in the original cartoon. Larmina is physically strong, a much better fighter than the other two cadets, she’s the fiery redhead with the smack-talkin’ and sarcasm... a little less interesting than her aunt, in other words, kinda cliché. She was obviously written in to include the girls in the audience, to say ‘Hey! Girls can be badass too!’
But the fact remains that there are only two major female characters, and with such a paucity of females in the cast each has to be more a statement of female capability and strength than an actual character. It’s also worth noting that both Allura and Larmina are attractive, slim, White girls. Now, if it had been up to me, I’d have dispensed wit the annoying Cadet Daniel completely, or better yet, replaced him with another female character to try and balance those sex-scales a bit more, that would have given us a 4:9 ratio instead of a 3:10, which while better than the original show is still less than ideal.
Now, there are bound to be some of you out there who think I’m making a big deal out of nothing, and others who will have never given this sort of thing a second thought. The problem is, it happens ALL THE TIME... females are marginalised in pop culture, so much so that in any five-man-band in movies and TV, if there’s even a girl on the team at all she will be The Chick - her sex will be her defining characteristic. But why should girls be forced to identify with male role-models? Why should women be excluded from Action/Adventure stories like this? To me, it smells like ‘putting women in their place’ or just good old fashioned sexism - meaning that women and girls just aren’t ‘real’ people. So, as a thought experiment, I decided to reverse the sexes in Voltron Force, just to show what the Voltron universe might look like if men weren’t the ones hogging the limelight. To do this, I’ve taken the Premise and Opening Voice-Over from Voltron Force’s Wikipedia page and the character profiles from the combined Voltron/Voltron Force List of Characters page and changed all the names and personal pronouns. So, without further ado:
Premise
The exact relationship of Voltrix Force to the original 1980s Voltrix series is unspecified, as there are several visual and character inconsistencies (most notably, Prince Adonis having a teenage nephew who has lived "a lifetime on Arus" even though Adonis is unmarried and has no siblings), but the characters are five to seven years older than those in the original series, and the general concept of the original series is mostly accepted as back-story. Continuing the back-story, Princess Lotus was killed when Voltrix destroyed Doom Castle. Voltrix is being celebrated on Earth for the destruction of Queen Zarkis along with her forces (led by Lotus). However, due to the actions of Sky Marshall Warde, a corrupt official in the Galaxy Alliance, the Robot Lionesses go haywire and virtually destroy a city during the festivities. The Lionesses are immediately condemned, stripped of their duty as Defenders of the Universe and separated, with the Black Lioness locked away in Galaxy Alliance HQ and the other Lionesses sealed away on the planet Arus, the home of Prince Adonis. Though officially disbanded, the Voltrix Force secretly act to get the Black Lioness back while gathering three cadets (Danielle, Val, and Adonis’ nephew Lawrence) to train them to become future Force members and Lioness pilots. With the cadets by their side, the reunited Voltrix Force are needed once more not only to combat a resurrected Lotus and a new form of energy from another old enemy of theirs, but also to expose Warde's criminal actions.
Opening
The series intro is narrated by Danielle:
“Evil is back. The Drule Queen Lotus has returned with a dark energy that can destroy the galaxy. Our only hope, the Voltrix Force: a team of five heroic pilots that control five awesome robot Lionesses. When Lotus's Robeasts attack, Lionesses come together to form...Voltrix, Defender of the Universe.”
Characters
Commander Kelly: Commander and leader of the Voltrix Force, who pilots the Black Lioness that forms the bulk and head of Voltrix. Kelly wears a red uniform in the original series, and a black uniform in the new series. Kelly is a quiet individual who spends much of her time pondering her decisions, thinking up new strategies, and simply being a leader. She also has a hobby of reading books and can often be found doing so either in the pilot's lounge, or in her room. She seemingly cherishes Prince Adonis and is thought to be somewhat protective of him; her worst fear is that he would be forced to marry the evil Princess Lotus.
Lois: Second-in-command of Voltrix, who pilots the Red Lioness that forms the right arm of Voltrix. Lois wears a blue uniform in the original series, and a red uniform in the new series. She is a tall woman, both wiry and wily, and is always cracking jokes and teasing others whenever she gets the chance. She is the only one in the group who contests any of Kelly's commands. She is a flirt and a great pilot, though reckless at times.
Penny: Penny is the youngest, smartest, and smallest of the group; she pilots the Green Lioness that forms the left arm of Voltrix, and wears a green uniform. Her home planet Balto was destroyed by nuclear missiles from Queen Zarkis. Penny graduated from the academy at a young age, and her specialty is science. Like the others, she is well-trained in martial arts, and uses her size and agility to her advantage. Penny is not afraid to speak her mind, especially to the villains. Her heart is often in her words.
Svana: Svana, a Norwegian pilot, was the original second-in-command. She piloted the Blue Lioness and wore a black uniform at the very beginning of the original series. In Episode 6, she was badly injured during an attack by the sorcerer Hagar, and was sent away to the planet Ebb for medical treatment. Ebb was attacked and raided by Lotus' forces, and Svana was captured. The prison ship on which she was transferred accidentally crashed on Planet Doom and Svana went into hiding, becoming a hermit within the caves. She eventually encountered Adonis’ cousin from the Planet Pollux, Prince Roman, who had been sent to the slave mines after he rejected Lotus’ advances. During Svana's time on Planet Doom she witnessed Zarkis and Lotus' cruelty to their slaves, which drove her to the point of madness. She recovered thanks to Roman's emotional support and helped him escape Doom. Svana was later reassigned to the Planet Pollux with Roman and his sister Princess Banda. Svana eventually fell in love with Roman, though she was reluctant to pursue her feelings because she felt he was unworthy of him. She was always very quiet and reserved, and spoke only when she had something important to say. Though she may not show it, she is a very emotional person, and her heart is always leading her mind in any decision. Although Svana no longer pilots the Blue Lioness on a regular basis after Episode 6, she continued to be featured as a pilot for the Voltrix Force in the opening credits of the series while Adonis appears in the closing sequence. However, Svana piloted the Blue Lioness into combat on one more occasion, during the second season episode "Who's Flyin' Blue Lioness," and quickly demonstrated that her time away had not diminished her formidable combat piloting skills.
Prince Adonis: Prince Adonis of the planet Arus is the ruler of the Kingdom of Altair, as well as de facto ruler of the entire planet, and is also the object of Lotus’ affections. Son of the late Queen Alfin, Adonis inherited his mother’s authority on her death and is commander in chief and head of state for the planet Arus, and thus Commander Kelly’s superior. However, later he takes over for Svana as the pilot of the Blue Lioness that forms Voltrix's right leg, and defers to Kelly during operational engagements. Adonis wears a pink uniform in the original series, and a blue uniform in the new series. Though a bit naïve, especially with matters of romance, Adonis is a strong-willed person, and is very capable of ruling his planet, though some like Royal Advisor Corrine tend to doubt this ability. He is capable of invoking the dead, particularly his mother, the late Queen Alfin.
Hetty: Hetty is the strong-woman of the group, piloting the Yellow Lioness that forms Voltrix's left leg. She is shown wearing an orange uniform in the original series, and a yellow uniform in the new series. She may look tough and mean, but she has a soft heart, especially when it comes to children and puppies. She is never late for a meal. Though her friends tease her about her appetite, most of Hetty’s bulk is muscle. It is revealed that she eats "'Fruit Loops' (almost) every morning".
Cadets
Danielle: Exclusive to Voltrix Force, she is one of three new cadets for the Voltrix team. She and Val were once cadets for the Galaxy Alliance, but were selected to be cadets for the Voltrix Force due to their piloting skills. She also has a liking for going fast. She’s kind of impulsive, always getting into trouble; though sometimes her antics are beneficial to the success of Voltrix Force. She sometimes gets jealous of Val and Lawrence because of their connections to Voltrix, and tends to feel left out of the group.
Val: Exclusive to Voltrix Force, she is one of three new cadets for the Voltrix team. She and Danielle were once cadets for the Galaxy Alliance, but were selected to be cadets for the Voltrix Force due to their piloting skills. She also has impressive technical skills and appears to have some kind of power that links her to Voltrix. The reason of why Val has it is currently unknown, but recently it has been revealed that the Voltrix Lionesses have programming that enables them to use Val’s power as a "Key" to allow Voltrix to accomplish special functions when the situation calls for it, particularly to make new formations of Voltrix with new powers by reconfiguring with a different Lioness forming the main body while having the Black Lioness form a limb. This explains the true nature of Val’s power, particularly why it tends to act on its own. Val can use her power under her own will, but it takes a lot of concentration and effort.
Lawrence: Exclusive to Voltrix Force, he is one of three new cadets for the Voltron team. He is highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and is Adonis’ nephew. While Adonis is unmarried and an only child, the original Voltrix series twice featured Adonis’ surviving Uncle. It is possible that this man is Lawrence’s father, with 'Uncle' being a title of respect to an elder cousin.
See? Male characters not only dominate pop culture, but they’re much more fleshed out than female characters, on the whole. By switching the sexes, we get a great variety of female characters with different body shapes and sizes, skills, interests and preferences (I’ve NEVER seen a female character on TV or in a movie being individualized to the extent of having a favourite food - have you?) It just goes to show, doesn’t it?
Now you can make fun of the names I chose if you like, I’m not committed to them I was just trying to prove a point, and that point required changing the obviously or implicitly male names to obviously female ones. I tried to keep them as similar as I could, but honestly, sometimes it was hard to think of a substitute. There is no female version of ‘hunk’ that starts with an ‘H’, and ‘Pidge’ isn’t even a real name. On the other hand, ‘Svana’ is, funny enough, an actual Norwegian girl’s name, so I was pleased with that one. And changing ‘Daniel’ to ‘Danielle’ was just obvious. ‘Voltrix’ sounds a bit silly, but I figured the gender of the robot had to change as well, because Voltron is male by default (Incidentally, turning all or even just four of the Voltron Lions into Lionesses makes a lot of sense, because in a pride of real lions, the lionesses not only outnumber the males, but they do the ‘lion’s share’ of the work, too. Just sayin’). I chose to change Allura’s name to ‘Adonis’ because her name emphasizes her attractiveness, she may as well have been called ‘Generic Pretty Princess,’ in fact. If that’s acceptable to do to girls, it should be acceptable to do to guys too, and the name of the mythical Greek character ‘Adonis’ has basically come to mean ‘handsome man’ in contemporary use. As for not changing the characters’ uniform colours... whoever said girls had to wear pink in the first place? Who said guys can’t? When I’ve asked my female friends their favourite colours, none of them have answered pink. Girls’ colour preferences are as varied as boys’. And besides, in this adaptation, where women make up the majority of the cast, colour-coding girls as pink is kind of meaningless. Happily, my lone male pilot ends up in the blue Lioness, so the same basic gender-coding effect is achieved :)
"You can tell I'm a girl because I wear pink tee-hee!"
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
And Now, For Your Viewing Pleasure...
Fuck You, Penguin describes itself as a blog where people "tell cute animals what's what." And with 8,238 followers (so far), it's one of the best and most popular blogs I've come across... it's pretty damn funny.
Here's a selection of some of the quotes from the Orca/Killer Whale page (which you can find here):
"I get it, Whale, you're busy. I've only been on this FUCKING BOAT for three and a half hours waiting for you, and the only thing I've seen so far is my lunch from earlier. It's not like you spend your entire goddamn life in the ocean, so I see why you would only come up for basically a split second. Personally, if someone was going to all this trouble specifically to see me, I would take time out of my BUSY ASS SCHEDULE to at least stop by the boat and make some small talk, maybe have some salmon. But I understand, Whale, places to go, 500 pounds of food to eat. I'll be fine. The real question here, Whale, is will you be fine? Can you really live with yourself? Maybe you need to make a change."
Jennifer said...
Whales have an enlarged ego. Ever since "Free Willy" they think they're the shit. Especially those orca bastards. Fuck orcas. They are so fucking vein. They should spend a day in a sperm whale's shoes and see how it feels to be ugly bastards.
RandyG said...
Whales are selfish manipulative bastards...acting all extinct, like oooooh save me, save me!
Fuck you whale.
The Rougman said...
What sort of self respecting mammal drinks water that fish have shat in?
You ain't all that, Orca. Bite me.
Dunesdreamer said...
Wait a minute...what's that I see in the background? A Japanese tuna boat?
Say good-fucking night, Gracie.
Ryan said...
What I'd like to know is where the fuck this DOLPHIN gets off calling itself a WHALE in the first place. A toothy cetacean does not a whale make. Asshole.
Jaywalker said...
Also, call that a "song"? I don't fucking think so. My ears are bleeding. Who do you think you are, whale? Britney fucking Spears?
I'm not angry. I'm just so damn disappointed.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Ecco Summary from TV Tropes Wiki
Retrieved from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EccoTheDolphin
Ecco The Dolphin
"Man, maybe they should have forgotten the name Ecco and just called the series Jesus Christ There's Sharks And Aliens Everywhere." - Anon.
A Sega video game series about a time-travelling bottlenose dolphin who fights space aliens. His friends include a pteranodon, a telepathic strand of DNA, and flying dolphins from ten million years in the future. Or, if you ask some people, a telepathic crystal and various alternate future dolphins.
The games feature notoriously difficult gameplay, which focuses on solving puzzles with the ever-present Oxygen Meter hanging over the player, and surreal storylines focused on a dolphin's perspective on alien invasions (that don't involve leaving with a thank-you note). Despite the apparent silliness of the premise, the alien (sometimes literally) setting, atmospheric music and minimalist dialogue create a lingering sense of eeriness.
The series was originally for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, and began with Ecco the Dolphin. In this game, Ecco's pod was snatched from the seas by a mysterious storm, so he set out to find them, helping other dolphins along the way.
As the storyline went on, it got progressively more bizarre: first, Ecco went to see a blue whale for advice. The blue whale didn't know much, but sent Ecco to talk to the Asterite, the oldest being in the seas with the appearance of globes arranged on a double-helix. The Asterite, with no explanation, recognised Ecco and told him it could help him, except it was missing a globe and thus not at full power. The solution: travel to Atlantis and go back in time 55 million years to retrieve the wayward sphere. In Atlantis, Ecco discovers that the source of the storm was a species of hiveminded alien who had lost the ability to make their own food and was thus harvesting from Earth's seas every 500 years.
In the end, Ecco saves his pod and destroys the Vortex aliens - or so he thought.
Ecco: The Tides of Time picked up where the original left off. Turns out the Vortex Queen was Not Quite Dead and had followed Ecco to Earth, whereupon she killed the Asterite and began a takeover. On top of that, Ecco's time-travelling in the first game had split the timestream in two. Whoops. The second game, then, followed Ecco's adventures as he sought to save the Asterite (also Not Quite Dead) and the good future of Earth. It ended with Ecco vanishing mysteriously into the "Tides of Time."
Then, save for an Edutainment Game called Ecco Jr. and a few remakes, the series vanished from the face of the Earth for several years.
Its return came in the form of Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future for the Sega Dreamcast, which brought the series to three-dimensions and completely ignored the universe and storyline that came before it. About the only things it had in common with the original series was the protagonist being a dolphin named Ecco, aliens, and time travel. It also introduced a dolphin/human (and /whale) society, where the original games relegated humans to backgrounds in Atlantis and the odd background sunken ship. Fan reaction was mixed.
In Defender, the plot centered around the Foe aliens breaking the timestream by stealing dolphinkind's "most noble traits" - Intelligence, Ambition, Compassion, Wisdom, and Humility - in the past, before they could unite with humans. It was of course Ecco's job to get these traits back, over the course of three different alternate futures: Man's Nightmare, Dolphins' Nightmare, and Domain of the Enemy.
One was a dying world with polluted water, no humans on account of them having gone extinct in their war against the Foe, and stupid-but-still-sapient dolphins who either worshipped men as a benevolent force which had uplifted dolphinkind from being mere animals and eagerly awaited their return or regarded them as a nasty species that had enslaved dolphinkind. It turns out both factions were probably right.
The next reality happened after Ecco sent back Intelligence and Ambition, turning dolphins into a surly bunch of warlords who drove humans from the seas. Arguably the prettiest section of the game, since the dolphins used a lot of organic-looking technology, and since it includes Hanging Waters, aka "Let's See How Many Mythology Gags Can Fit In One Level".
The final alternate reality saw every trait but Humilty restored to dolphins. In this one, the Foe took over and turned Earth into Mordor. And... that's... about it...
All in all, Ecco is a very bizarre, haunting, frustrating, and strangely charming series. Don't expect to see any more of him in either the Genesis or Defender storyline anytime soon.
________________________________________
This series provides examples of:
• Adaptation Decay or Adaptation Distillation (Your Mileage May Vary) - The comic book adaptation in Sonic The Comic, which preserved the basic plot elements, well depicted the setting and characters, but cut out most of the time travel elements (for example, Ecco retrieves the Asterite's missing pearl from a giant squid and the abyssal plain in the present, not Atlantis).
• Bad Future - Central to the plot of Tides and playable in a few levels. Defender of the Future has three Bad Futures to go through in total during Ecco's quest to restore the timeline to its proper state.
• Bag Of Spilling - You start Tides with the powers the Asterite gave Ecco in the first game, but they are lost when the Asterite is killed. Which of course occurs just before the first real level of the game.
• Bull Fight Boss - The Globe Holder from Tides has elements of this in the second phase, although it's not really a "boss." The great white shark in Defender is a somewhat straighter example.
• Crowning Music Of Awesome - The Sega-CD & PC versions all versions have an epic soundtrack, though the CD/PC ones are for the most part completely different.
• Crystal Spires And Togas - "Atlantis Lost" of Defender.
• Discontinuity - Quite a few fans of the Genesis games hold this attitude about Defender, although the plot has almost nothing to do with the first two games anyway, so take that as you will.
• Dolphins Dolphins Everywhere - And orcas, and whales, and porpoises...
• Doomed Home Bay - Jump really high to trigger the apocalypse!
• Downer Ending - One interpretation of Tides of Time. You spend the Playable Epilogue chasing the Big Bad through Atlantis, trying to beat her to the Time Machine and destroy it before she uses it to mess up the timeline you just spent the whole game fixing. When you get to it, you use it instead. A scrolling title card (set to the rather chilling title theme) tells you the Vortex Queen beat you there and warped into prehistory, you went after her, and you were never heard from again. This Troper was in tears at the ripe young age of seven.
• Escort Mission - Each game (even the edutainment one) has at least one, though in the original they are optional. They're also not too bad as escort missions go; in the Genesis games, your charges are invulnerable, and the Defender one isn't killable. They're arguably not even true escort missions, since you don't have to protect them or even keep them in sight, they just follow you automatically and unerringly.
o Defender had an irritating glitch during the most difficult escort mission (there were several, but only one required any real effort). You were meant to protect a dolphin so he could lead you to a door and open it for you. Sometimes, after going through a short tunnel, he would manage to swim inside a rock on the other side and become stuck. Made irritating by the fact that a Power of Sonar gem would have made him obsolete anyway.
• Everything Is Even Worse With Sharks - Well, naturally. Sharks are some of the tougher enemies, often taking three to five hits to kill. Ecco himself is transformed into a shark several times in the second game, mostly so he can rampage about the level eating everything.
o And for an excuse to choose between getting munched by One Hit Kill sharks, or turn yourself into one and proceed to get attacked by other dolphins.
• Everything Trying To Kill You - Ecco's enemies are fairly reasonable for the most part, but the prehistoric levels of the first game feature Goddamned Trilobites and seahorses who shoot their young at you.
• Floating Continent - In the Good Future. The flying dolphins say they were "born of the great eruptions", whatever that means.
• Flying Seafood Special - At least, if they don't have dolphin-safe tuna millions of years in the future.
• Gainax Ending - The other interpretation of the Tides of Time ending. It is implied the Vortex Queen, upon arriving in prehistory, got stomped by the local wildlife (goddamned trilobites!), and was unable to dominate Earth's ecosystem, instead integrating into it and evolving into stuff we already had. Not weird enough? According to a Word of God interview — god only knows how reliable the source, but it sure sounds cool and it's not like we're going to see another game — Ecco knew this would happen and didn't even bother using the time machine to chase the Queen at all! He used it to go to the time of the Atlanteans, for "specific reasons reserved for the 3rd game."
• Genius Loci - The ocean in the good future, according to the future dolphins.
• Goddamned Crabs/Pufferfish/Trilobites - There are quite a few enemies in the Genesis games that make you see the positive side of driving things to extinction.
• Hailfire Peaks, naturally all with an Under The Sea twist:
o Green Hill Zone - The first level in every game.
o Underground Level - The Undercaves would be the first example.
o Slippy Slidey Ice World - In which Ecco can literally slip and slide around on his belly atop the ice.
o Prehistoria - And how.
o Eternal Engine - Welcome to the Machine
• Heroic Mime - Ecco does use his voice as a general problem-solving tool, but the player's never privy to anything he says beyond "Queek-queek-queek" and "SQUAAARK!!"
o He also chatters when you press the sonar button out of water in Defender.
Interestingly, one of the scrapped ideas involved being able to see what Ecco's sonar translated to by singing at a mirror (Defender).
• Hive Mind - The aliens in both storylines.
• Horde Of Alien Locusts - Again, the aliens in both storylines.
• Humans Are Bastards - In Defender, when they take over without uniting with the dolphins. Of course, the dolphins from the Dolphins' Nightmare section are some pretty nasty customers as well, so maybe it's more like Unchecked Dominant Species Are Bastards.
• Locked Door - "SEARCH FOR THE KEY-GLYPH"
• The Maze - At least one in each game, some more frustrating than others.
• Make Me Wanna Shout - Ecco's sonar gets various weapons-grade upgrades throughout the games.
• My Own Grampa - Variant: while retrieving the Asterite's globe in Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco encounters some proto-cetaceans and accidentally gives them the idea to take to the seas.
• New Age - Self-explanatory, really.
• Nice Job Breaking It Hero - "You are the Stone that splits the Stream of Time in two."
• Nightmare Fuel -
o The entire game is a claustrophic, haunting experience. It gets worse. Do not let the fact that the protagonist is an adorable dolphin fool you. Seriously. ◊
o Welcome to the Machine. Not only does it feature a pukish green background and some really unnerving music, but it's also pretty long, even for a level with automatic scrolling.
And thanks to a surely deliberate plant on the password screen, it's easy to be transported to it accidentally with no knowledge of what awaits you there.
• Nintendo Hard - Controller-throwingly so.
• No Ontological Inertia - The Asterite's powerup only works when it's alive.
• Nostalgia Level - Defender includes two hidden sidescrolling levels based on the Genesis games; one is actually called Passage from Genesis. Also, the Hanging Waters levels are one big Mythology Gag reference to the Good Future water tubes from Tides, although that doesn't change the fact that they look awesome.
• Oddball In The Series - Ecco Jr.
• One Hit Kill - So many things do this you wonder why they bothered letting you keep the life meter for the last few levels.
• Paranoia Fuel - So you've just started Tides of Time. You're zooming around one of the first levels, enjoying the better controls, and suddenly you see a terrifying mass of blue chitin that kills you instantly. It was one of the alien enemies in the first game that you never saw till the last level. One the one fin you don't want to go that fast ever again in case more of them are floating around, but on the other...you have to. Eep.
• Pass Through The Rings - Those goddamn teleport levels from Tides. Predictably, some of this in Defender as well, since it's the only 3D game in the series.
• Playable Epilogue - Tides has one three levels long.
• Poison Fish - Seen in Defender; Among the many health-restoring fish there is one specific kind that'll hurt instead of heal you.
o These Poison Fish are the only way to heal you from a slow death due to Jellyfish Poison. If you're poisoned and eat this fish, you won't take damage and your health won't increase, but the poison will be gone.
They can also be mildly useful after you learn the Song of Fish. Sharks don't want to eat poison fish, so having a little cloud of them following you around makes a nifty living shield. The downside? Fish are slow, so said living shield is only effective when you don't need/want to swim quickly.
• Porting Disaster - The GameGear version of Tides. It is now thought it was based on a prototype of the Genesis/Mega Drive game. The Game Boy Advance port of the original Ecco isn't quite so atrocious, but removed almost the entire soundtrack, replacing it with a 30-second loop heard during the time travel sequences in the original game.
• Scenery Porn - Lovely shots of the ocean, in both the Genesis games and Defender.
• Scrappy Level - Every game has at least one. Inevitable given the general difficulty, really.
o Ecco the Dolphin features Welcome to the Machine: Five minutes of twisting, turning, auto-scrolling Hell. And just to make things even better, if you lose to the final boss you get to go through again!
o Subverted with the Hanging Waters level in Defender of the Future. It has all the makings of a Scrappy Level, but it's generally forgiven because the concept behind it is so awesome and said concept is executed flawlessly.
• The Sky Is An Ocean: The Tides Of Time features flying dolphins, a giant flying jellyfish, and ocean paths in the sky.
• Somewhere A Palaeontologist Is Crying - The prehistoric levels of Ecco the Dolphin include trilobites, pteranodons, and proto-cetaceans cohabiting.
• Space Is An Ocean - Defender seems to make it apparent that both man and dolphin prefer the "space fetus" method of interstellar travel from the end of 2001: A Space Oddyssey.
• Stable Time Loop - Ecco is sent back in time to find the Asterite's lost globe, but ultimately ends up stealing it from it in the past, and thus being the reason the Asterite doesn't have said globe in the first place. The Asterite itself comes to this revelation when you first meet it, but of course, you're not likely to understand a word it's saying at the time.
• Stalking Mission - Defender. There's a deadly version in Tides.
• Surprise Creepy - You wouldn't think a game about a dolphin could possibly be this eerie, would you?
• Sword Of Plot Advancement - The special powers the Asterite gives Ecco in the first and second games, the dolphins' noble traits in Defender.
• That One Boss - Again, given the general difficulty almost all the bosses are well-hated, but the final boss of the first game deserves special mention. She actually isn't all that bad herself, but if you die you have to pick your way through Welcome to the Machine again. Worse, she has a move that will kill you instantly or even freeze the game forever if you have infinitie life.
• They Just Didnt Care - Arguably Defender; the guy who wrote the storyline has never played the Genesis games, and the original creator of the series was not part of production.
o They cared enough to hire David Brin, the writer of the Uplift series, to pen the script for the new game rather than just getting a staff writer to do it. Just because it disregards the story of the first two games doesn't mean it sucks. Then again, he apparently can't tell the difference between the Genesis games and Defender, so he may only have cared about getting a paycheck. The "arguably" above is well-justified, and it's worth noting that gameplay-wise Defender of the Future wasn't half bad.
• Time Travel - In every single game, apart from Ecco Jr.
• Underwater Ruins - Doubles as Scenery Porn.
• Unpleasable Fanbase - On the other flipper, perhaps this is the only "problem" with Defender.
• Womb Level - Defender's final boss.
• Xen Syndrome - Defender gets hit with this bad during Domain of the Enemy.
• Xenofiction - At least, the Genesis games are.
Ecco The Dolphin
"Man, maybe they should have forgotten the name Ecco and just called the series Jesus Christ There's Sharks And Aliens Everywhere." - Anon.
A Sega video game series about a time-travelling bottlenose dolphin who fights space aliens. His friends include a pteranodon, a telepathic strand of DNA, and flying dolphins from ten million years in the future. Or, if you ask some people, a telepathic crystal and various alternate future dolphins.
The games feature notoriously difficult gameplay, which focuses on solving puzzles with the ever-present Oxygen Meter hanging over the player, and surreal storylines focused on a dolphin's perspective on alien invasions (that don't involve leaving with a thank-you note). Despite the apparent silliness of the premise, the alien (sometimes literally) setting, atmospheric music and minimalist dialogue create a lingering sense of eeriness.
The series was originally for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, and began with Ecco the Dolphin. In this game, Ecco's pod was snatched from the seas by a mysterious storm, so he set out to find them, helping other dolphins along the way.
As the storyline went on, it got progressively more bizarre: first, Ecco went to see a blue whale for advice. The blue whale didn't know much, but sent Ecco to talk to the Asterite, the oldest being in the seas with the appearance of globes arranged on a double-helix. The Asterite, with no explanation, recognised Ecco and told him it could help him, except it was missing a globe and thus not at full power. The solution: travel to Atlantis and go back in time 55 million years to retrieve the wayward sphere. In Atlantis, Ecco discovers that the source of the storm was a species of hiveminded alien who had lost the ability to make their own food and was thus harvesting from Earth's seas every 500 years.
In the end, Ecco saves his pod and destroys the Vortex aliens - or so he thought.
Ecco: The Tides of Time picked up where the original left off. Turns out the Vortex Queen was Not Quite Dead and had followed Ecco to Earth, whereupon she killed the Asterite and began a takeover. On top of that, Ecco's time-travelling in the first game had split the timestream in two. Whoops. The second game, then, followed Ecco's adventures as he sought to save the Asterite (also Not Quite Dead) and the good future of Earth. It ended with Ecco vanishing mysteriously into the "Tides of Time."
Then, save for an Edutainment Game called Ecco Jr. and a few remakes, the series vanished from the face of the Earth for several years.
Its return came in the form of Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future for the Sega Dreamcast, which brought the series to three-dimensions and completely ignored the universe and storyline that came before it. About the only things it had in common with the original series was the protagonist being a dolphin named Ecco, aliens, and time travel. It also introduced a dolphin/human (and /whale) society, where the original games relegated humans to backgrounds in Atlantis and the odd background sunken ship. Fan reaction was mixed.
In Defender, the plot centered around the Foe aliens breaking the timestream by stealing dolphinkind's "most noble traits" - Intelligence, Ambition, Compassion, Wisdom, and Humility - in the past, before they could unite with humans. It was of course Ecco's job to get these traits back, over the course of three different alternate futures: Man's Nightmare, Dolphins' Nightmare, and Domain of the Enemy.
One was a dying world with polluted water, no humans on account of them having gone extinct in their war against the Foe, and stupid-but-still-sapient dolphins who either worshipped men as a benevolent force which had uplifted dolphinkind from being mere animals and eagerly awaited their return or regarded them as a nasty species that had enslaved dolphinkind. It turns out both factions were probably right.
The next reality happened after Ecco sent back Intelligence and Ambition, turning dolphins into a surly bunch of warlords who drove humans from the seas. Arguably the prettiest section of the game, since the dolphins used a lot of organic-looking technology, and since it includes Hanging Waters, aka "Let's See How Many Mythology Gags Can Fit In One Level".
The final alternate reality saw every trait but Humilty restored to dolphins. In this one, the Foe took over and turned Earth into Mordor. And... that's... about it...
All in all, Ecco is a very bizarre, haunting, frustrating, and strangely charming series. Don't expect to see any more of him in either the Genesis or Defender storyline anytime soon.
________________________________________
This series provides examples of:
• Adaptation Decay or Adaptation Distillation (Your Mileage May Vary) - The comic book adaptation in Sonic The Comic, which preserved the basic plot elements, well depicted the setting and characters, but cut out most of the time travel elements (for example, Ecco retrieves the Asterite's missing pearl from a giant squid and the abyssal plain in the present, not Atlantis).
• Bad Future - Central to the plot of Tides and playable in a few levels. Defender of the Future has three Bad Futures to go through in total during Ecco's quest to restore the timeline to its proper state.
• Bag Of Spilling - You start Tides with the powers the Asterite gave Ecco in the first game, but they are lost when the Asterite is killed. Which of course occurs just before the first real level of the game.
• Bull Fight Boss - The Globe Holder from Tides has elements of this in the second phase, although it's not really a "boss." The great white shark in Defender is a somewhat straighter example.
• Crowning Music Of Awesome - The Sega-CD & PC versions all versions have an epic soundtrack, though the CD/PC ones are for the most part completely different.
• Crystal Spires And Togas - "Atlantis Lost" of Defender.
• Discontinuity - Quite a few fans of the Genesis games hold this attitude about Defender, although the plot has almost nothing to do with the first two games anyway, so take that as you will.
• Dolphins Dolphins Everywhere - And orcas, and whales, and porpoises...
• Doomed Home Bay - Jump really high to trigger the apocalypse!
• Downer Ending - One interpretation of Tides of Time. You spend the Playable Epilogue chasing the Big Bad through Atlantis, trying to beat her to the Time Machine and destroy it before she uses it to mess up the timeline you just spent the whole game fixing. When you get to it, you use it instead. A scrolling title card (set to the rather chilling title theme) tells you the Vortex Queen beat you there and warped into prehistory, you went after her, and you were never heard from again. This Troper was in tears at the ripe young age of seven.
• Escort Mission - Each game (even the edutainment one) has at least one, though in the original they are optional. They're also not too bad as escort missions go; in the Genesis games, your charges are invulnerable, and the Defender one isn't killable. They're arguably not even true escort missions, since you don't have to protect them or even keep them in sight, they just follow you automatically and unerringly.
o Defender had an irritating glitch during the most difficult escort mission (there were several, but only one required any real effort). You were meant to protect a dolphin so he could lead you to a door and open it for you. Sometimes, after going through a short tunnel, he would manage to swim inside a rock on the other side and become stuck. Made irritating by the fact that a Power of Sonar gem would have made him obsolete anyway.
• Everything Is Even Worse With Sharks - Well, naturally. Sharks are some of the tougher enemies, often taking three to five hits to kill. Ecco himself is transformed into a shark several times in the second game, mostly so he can rampage about the level eating everything.
o And for an excuse to choose between getting munched by One Hit Kill sharks, or turn yourself into one and proceed to get attacked by other dolphins.
• Everything Trying To Kill You - Ecco's enemies are fairly reasonable for the most part, but the prehistoric levels of the first game feature Goddamned Trilobites and seahorses who shoot their young at you.
• Floating Continent - In the Good Future. The flying dolphins say they were "born of the great eruptions", whatever that means.
• Flying Seafood Special - At least, if they don't have dolphin-safe tuna millions of years in the future.
• Gainax Ending - The other interpretation of the Tides of Time ending. It is implied the Vortex Queen, upon arriving in prehistory, got stomped by the local wildlife (goddamned trilobites!), and was unable to dominate Earth's ecosystem, instead integrating into it and evolving into stuff we already had. Not weird enough? According to a Word of God interview — god only knows how reliable the source, but it sure sounds cool and it's not like we're going to see another game — Ecco knew this would happen and didn't even bother using the time machine to chase the Queen at all! He used it to go to the time of the Atlanteans, for "specific reasons reserved for the 3rd game."
• Genius Loci - The ocean in the good future, according to the future dolphins.
• Goddamned Crabs/Pufferfish/Trilobites - There are quite a few enemies in the Genesis games that make you see the positive side of driving things to extinction.
• Hailfire Peaks, naturally all with an Under The Sea twist:
o Green Hill Zone - The first level in every game.
o Underground Level - The Undercaves would be the first example.
o Slippy Slidey Ice World - In which Ecco can literally slip and slide around on his belly atop the ice.
o Prehistoria - And how.
o Eternal Engine - Welcome to the Machine
• Heroic Mime - Ecco does use his voice as a general problem-solving tool, but the player's never privy to anything he says beyond "Queek-queek-queek" and "SQUAAARK!!"
o He also chatters when you press the sonar button out of water in Defender.
Interestingly, one of the scrapped ideas involved being able to see what Ecco's sonar translated to by singing at a mirror (Defender).
• Hive Mind - The aliens in both storylines.
• Horde Of Alien Locusts - Again, the aliens in both storylines.
• Humans Are Bastards - In Defender, when they take over without uniting with the dolphins. Of course, the dolphins from the Dolphins' Nightmare section are some pretty nasty customers as well, so maybe it's more like Unchecked Dominant Species Are Bastards.
• Locked Door - "SEARCH FOR THE KEY-GLYPH"
• The Maze - At least one in each game, some more frustrating than others.
• Make Me Wanna Shout - Ecco's sonar gets various weapons-grade upgrades throughout the games.
• My Own Grampa - Variant: while retrieving the Asterite's globe in Ecco the Dolphin, Ecco encounters some proto-cetaceans and accidentally gives them the idea to take to the seas.
• New Age - Self-explanatory, really.
• Nice Job Breaking It Hero - "You are the Stone that splits the Stream of Time in two."
• Nightmare Fuel -
o The entire game is a claustrophic, haunting experience. It gets worse. Do not let the fact that the protagonist is an adorable dolphin fool you. Seriously. ◊
o Welcome to the Machine. Not only does it feature a pukish green background and some really unnerving music, but it's also pretty long, even for a level with automatic scrolling.
And thanks to a surely deliberate plant on the password screen, it's easy to be transported to it accidentally with no knowledge of what awaits you there.
• Nintendo Hard - Controller-throwingly so.
• No Ontological Inertia - The Asterite's powerup only works when it's alive.
• Nostalgia Level - Defender includes two hidden sidescrolling levels based on the Genesis games; one is actually called Passage from Genesis. Also, the Hanging Waters levels are one big Mythology Gag reference to the Good Future water tubes from Tides, although that doesn't change the fact that they look awesome.
• Oddball In The Series - Ecco Jr.
• One Hit Kill - So many things do this you wonder why they bothered letting you keep the life meter for the last few levels.
• Paranoia Fuel - So you've just started Tides of Time. You're zooming around one of the first levels, enjoying the better controls, and suddenly you see a terrifying mass of blue chitin that kills you instantly. It was one of the alien enemies in the first game that you never saw till the last level. One the one fin you don't want to go that fast ever again in case more of them are floating around, but on the other...you have to. Eep.
• Pass Through The Rings - Those goddamn teleport levels from Tides. Predictably, some of this in Defender as well, since it's the only 3D game in the series.
• Playable Epilogue - Tides has one three levels long.
• Poison Fish - Seen in Defender; Among the many health-restoring fish there is one specific kind that'll hurt instead of heal you.
o These Poison Fish are the only way to heal you from a slow death due to Jellyfish Poison. If you're poisoned and eat this fish, you won't take damage and your health won't increase, but the poison will be gone.
They can also be mildly useful after you learn the Song of Fish. Sharks don't want to eat poison fish, so having a little cloud of them following you around makes a nifty living shield. The downside? Fish are slow, so said living shield is only effective when you don't need/want to swim quickly.
• Porting Disaster - The GameGear version of Tides. It is now thought it was based on a prototype of the Genesis/Mega Drive game. The Game Boy Advance port of the original Ecco isn't quite so atrocious, but removed almost the entire soundtrack, replacing it with a 30-second loop heard during the time travel sequences in the original game.
• Scenery Porn - Lovely shots of the ocean, in both the Genesis games and Defender.
• Scrappy Level - Every game has at least one. Inevitable given the general difficulty, really.
o Ecco the Dolphin features Welcome to the Machine: Five minutes of twisting, turning, auto-scrolling Hell. And just to make things even better, if you lose to the final boss you get to go through again!
o Subverted with the Hanging Waters level in Defender of the Future. It has all the makings of a Scrappy Level, but it's generally forgiven because the concept behind it is so awesome and said concept is executed flawlessly.
• The Sky Is An Ocean: The Tides Of Time features flying dolphins, a giant flying jellyfish, and ocean paths in the sky.
• Somewhere A Palaeontologist Is Crying - The prehistoric levels of Ecco the Dolphin include trilobites, pteranodons, and proto-cetaceans cohabiting.
• Space Is An Ocean - Defender seems to make it apparent that both man and dolphin prefer the "space fetus" method of interstellar travel from the end of 2001: A Space Oddyssey.
• Stable Time Loop - Ecco is sent back in time to find the Asterite's lost globe, but ultimately ends up stealing it from it in the past, and thus being the reason the Asterite doesn't have said globe in the first place. The Asterite itself comes to this revelation when you first meet it, but of course, you're not likely to understand a word it's saying at the time.
• Stalking Mission - Defender. There's a deadly version in Tides.
• Surprise Creepy - You wouldn't think a game about a dolphin could possibly be this eerie, would you?
• Sword Of Plot Advancement - The special powers the Asterite gives Ecco in the first and second games, the dolphins' noble traits in Defender.
• That One Boss - Again, given the general difficulty almost all the bosses are well-hated, but the final boss of the first game deserves special mention. She actually isn't all that bad herself, but if you die you have to pick your way through Welcome to the Machine again. Worse, she has a move that will kill you instantly or even freeze the game forever if you have infinitie life.
• They Just Didnt Care - Arguably Defender; the guy who wrote the storyline has never played the Genesis games, and the original creator of the series was not part of production.
o They cared enough to hire David Brin, the writer of the Uplift series, to pen the script for the new game rather than just getting a staff writer to do it. Just because it disregards the story of the first two games doesn't mean it sucks. Then again, he apparently can't tell the difference between the Genesis games and Defender, so he may only have cared about getting a paycheck. The "arguably" above is well-justified, and it's worth noting that gameplay-wise Defender of the Future wasn't half bad.
• Time Travel - In every single game, apart from Ecco Jr.
• Underwater Ruins - Doubles as Scenery Porn.
• Unpleasable Fanbase - On the other flipper, perhaps this is the only "problem" with Defender.
• Womb Level - Defender's final boss.
• Xen Syndrome - Defender gets hit with this bad during Domain of the Enemy.
• Xenofiction - At least, the Genesis games are.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Ecco The Dolphin - Greatest SEGA Game Ever
As I've said elsewhere, I love Ecco. It was my absolute favourite SEGA game, and not because it's about a dolphin. It's beautifully rendered, well mapped out, the challenge is in solving the puzzles throughout the levels before you run out of air, rather than in violently bashing or shooting everything in your way, it spans a whole ocean and features a huge range of marine creatures, has a great score (with the exception of that AWFUL victory tune at the end) and -- most importantly -- it tells an imaginative and moving story. The ending was actually a real surprise, and it was enough to give me nightmares as a kid. The Machine is f*cking creepy.
Here it is in all its original 16bit glory (Ah, the good old Mega Drive days...) played by cubex55 over at Youtube. Enjoy.
Of course, as this is just a recording of someone else’s game, it’s not going to be as engaging as if you were playing it yourself. You don’t get to explore each level in your own time, it’s all done for you so you don’t have the satisfaction (or frustration!) of having to work it all out for yourself, you don’t get the nasty surprises when the sharks and crabs come at you out of nowhere, or when the ice cubes and rocks come flying out of the walls at you. You also don’t get to play around doing all the somersaults and leaps at the surface that you can when you’re playing it.
I kinda feel cubex55 has cheated a bit in places, most obviously in the Open Ocean stage, where he’s just zipped along at the bottom of the screen, avoiding all the challenges on that level... but I guess if your goal is just to get through the whole thing as fast as you can without dying then that’s to be expected. I prefer to play at a slower pace, paying attention to the details as I go.
This game was always going to appeal to me – I’ve always had something of an obsession with the ocean, and Ecco combines that with time travel and aliens, two of my other favourite themes. It’s all very Aliens meets Cocoon. I think it’s slightly hilarious that Ecco inspires his own distant ancestors to leave the land and return to the water, to eventually evolve into his own species. I love how the oldest living creature is a giant DNA double-helix. (I also LOVE the backwards-flying pteranodon!)
One of the things I really appreciate about the game is that you only get anywhere by helping others. Throughout the game, Ecco has to reunite families and locate the precious things of others that they have lost. I think it’s a good moral.
The PC edition of the original splices in some great cinematic animations to tell the story as you go. It was followed by the even more beautifully rendered Ecco the Dolphin: The Tides of Time and Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, which lack some of the charm of the original, in my opinion, but have much better graphics and ditch the traditional left-to-right scrolling format.
Here it is in all its original 16bit glory (Ah, the good old Mega Drive days...) played by cubex55 over at Youtube. Enjoy.
Of course, as this is just a recording of someone else’s game, it’s not going to be as engaging as if you were playing it yourself. You don’t get to explore each level in your own time, it’s all done for you so you don’t have the satisfaction (or frustration!) of having to work it all out for yourself, you don’t get the nasty surprises when the sharks and crabs come at you out of nowhere, or when the ice cubes and rocks come flying out of the walls at you. You also don’t get to play around doing all the somersaults and leaps at the surface that you can when you’re playing it.
I kinda feel cubex55 has cheated a bit in places, most obviously in the Open Ocean stage, where he’s just zipped along at the bottom of the screen, avoiding all the challenges on that level... but I guess if your goal is just to get through the whole thing as fast as you can without dying then that’s to be expected. I prefer to play at a slower pace, paying attention to the details as I go.
This game was always going to appeal to me – I’ve always had something of an obsession with the ocean, and Ecco combines that with time travel and aliens, two of my other favourite themes. It’s all very Aliens meets Cocoon. I think it’s slightly hilarious that Ecco inspires his own distant ancestors to leave the land and return to the water, to eventually evolve into his own species. I love how the oldest living creature is a giant DNA double-helix. (I also LOVE the backwards-flying pteranodon!)
One of the things I really appreciate about the game is that you only get anywhere by helping others. Throughout the game, Ecco has to reunite families and locate the precious things of others that they have lost. I think it’s a good moral.
The PC edition of the original splices in some great cinematic animations to tell the story as you go. It was followed by the even more beautifully rendered Ecco the Dolphin: The Tides of Time and Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, which lack some of the charm of the original, in my opinion, but have much better graphics and ditch the traditional left-to-right scrolling format.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Tides of Time
I love this theme, it's from Ecco the Dolphin: The Tides of Time, sequel to my favourite game ever, Ecco the Dolphin. GMCmusic2008 over at youtube re-recorded it, did a beautiful job of it too, you can find it here.
Fishy... For Tom
Have any of you played this? I found out about it through a review over at http://awesomerthanthou.blogspot.com/009/11/game-review-fishy.html
It's addictive, and fun!! The game itself can be found at http://www.freeonlinegames.com/fun-games/fishy.html
Ecco the Dolphin - Book of Days (Enya)
I found this video ages ago... I've watched it hundreds of times, it's a fave. Ecco the Dolphin was my favourite SEGA game, I loved the story (which was essentially a mystery), and it was beautifully rendered with a stunning soundtrack. It was also a largely nonviolent game, the challenge coming from puzzle-solving instead. This clip combines footage from the various Ecco games with one of Enya's better tracks, making it doubly awesome :D
From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFWTCBrLfpU
From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFWTCBrLfpU
The Ticking Clock
The modern Doctor Who has perhaps the most thrilling soundtrack of any television series I've ever watched, it's one of the main reasons I love the show so much. This track's called This is Gallifrey, Our Childhood, Our Home, and it's probably my favourite piece from the new series. Murray Gold's done some fantastic stuff, but I think this is probably one of his more evocative pieces. I just love that ticking in the background.
My thanks to youtube's dannyboy2k6, from whom I stole this. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idQRiLZukG0&feature=related
My thanks to youtube's dannyboy2k6, from whom I stole this. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idQRiLZukG0&feature=related
Stealing the Enterprise
This is my absolute favourite scene in Star Trek. Ever. Again, it's largely because of James Horner's brilliant score. It's cheeky, dramatic and exciting. Here it is with the dialogue taken out (thanks to timefilm, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzZBZKqEE-4 )
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Sound of My Childhood
This movie is one of my all time favourites, as a kid it scared me half to death and probably traumatised me for life with the death of Littlefoot's mother. The opening few minutes are magnificent. But what made this film really, really special, beyond anything else, was James Horner's stunning soundtrack. Just a few notes brings it all back to me, it's absolutely beautiful.
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO06EdQt9sA
The Most Frightening Piece of Music You'll Ever Hear
This is Clint Mansell's Requiem for a Dream. You've probably heard parts of it, it gets used a lot in film trailers these days, but listen to the whole thing, it's a horror film all on it's own. Epic.
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2Ma4BvMUwU
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Nightmare Fuel
Nightmare Fuel [...] means those things that scared the pants off you as a kid, though they weren't meant to. It's something that was meant to amuse, entertain, or be only slightly scary to the audience; but in execution, they're so trauma-inducing that they may cause adults to void themselves in terror [...] Things that are supposed to scare the pants off you fall under High Octane Nightmare Fuel.
- Tv Tropes Wiki
Made by Flameknight7, Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-db9qgn99o
- Tv Tropes Wiki
Made by Flameknight7, Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-db9qgn99o
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
*SIGH* If Only...
I'd love to see this made into a full movie. I've never been a fan of anime, but this guy's work is pretty good and, well, it's Doctor Who :D
Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPCrGsya1ZI
The Power of Porn, by Christopher White
I regularly recieve links and updates from the National Sexuality Resource Center (NSRC) through my work with the local sexual health service providers network, here's one I got today that I thought might raise a few eyebrows.... DR
Retrieved 4/11/09 from http://nsrc.sfsu.edu/dialogues/blog/view/3539/6241?utm_source=NSRC+News&utm_campaign=f910b24a6d-NSRC_Newsletter_November_03_2009_draft_211_3_2009&utm_medium=email
I believe in the Power of PORN!
Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 02:50:09pm
by Christopher White
Today, I'm writing in honor of the the Morality in Media's (MIM) WRAP Week: White Ribbons Against Pornography, which is also supported by one of my favorite anti-gay organizations, Concerned Women for America (CWA). According to the MIM website the event, which is being held all week from October 25 through November 1, "WRAP week is intended to educate the public about the extent of the pornography problem and what can constitutionally be done about it." The CWA goes on to point out the truth about all of us "Pornography advocates" who apparently claim that porn is a "victimless crime" are delusional and spreading lies - I'd like to point out that I am a proud advocate and voracious consumer of pornography, particularly of the online and amatuer produced variety and I have NEVER stated that it is a victimless crime. Mainly, because pornography is no longer a crime in United States - either producing it or viewing it. Of course, I know there are legal issues regarding the production and distribution of porn and that these laws may vary from state to state. I'll let my lawyer friends weigh in on this one.
I want to counter their claims (and misuses of research) with the idea that pornography is actually the opposite of "dangerous" and can actually be beneficial to helping individuals and couples practice lifelong sexuality education and explore their sexual pleasures, fantasies, and desires in a safe and practical way. First, I want to point out that my own research has shown that young men tend to claim that pornography is one of the main resources for understanding the realities of sexual behaviors. That fact may frighten some of you because you might be concerned that what they see in commercial porn may not be truly representative of what happens in real life. To that, I suggest that you give them a little credit for having the critical skills of being able to distinguish between highly produced movies and reality. I would also suggest that this is one more reason why it is so very important that schools and parents provide the necessary education to make sure they have critical thinking skills when it comes to being media consumers. Then, think about it. Where else are young people (or adults for that matter) going to turn to get the graphic depictions that enable understanding of the physics and mechanics of behaviors if not pornography? I am pretty sure there are not many health education books or biology books that provide the actual details of intercourse much less oral sex, anal sex, playing with sex toys, rimming, mutual masturbation, and I could go on and on and on.
Next, I want to ask you to consider the reasons that adults consume pornography. Let's say that it's because we get tired of the same old sexual activities we've been doing since puberty and allow us to consider what the anti-porn people refer to as needing more and more to be able to achieve sexual arousal and pleasure. So what. I think we might want to openly acknowledge that our sexuality and our sex lives change over time, whether it's due to age and changing bodies or because we are in long-term relationships. We crave novelty just as we do in other parts of our lives. Contrary to the idea of porn being dangerous, I suggest that porn is one of the best places to explore your sexuality, to learn new things to try out, and to fulfil your fantasies. It is not an accident that every time a new technology emerges that one of the first things we do is make new, more easily accessible forms of pornography or perhaps that it is actually the desire for new and more easily accessible pornography that drives technology. Most of us love to access porn and want to do so without any fear, shame, or guilt for doing so.
Finally, let's consider ways in which individuals, couples, or even groups of people can have safe, consensual sexual experiences without having to leave the safety and comfort of their own homes. Of course, I am not in anyway suggesting that porn or any kind of online interactions become a replacement for actual live human interactions. But I do think it can be a safe alternative for some people who may want to explore and have a little fun but aren't necessarily interested in picking someone up at a bar, going to a sex club, or cruising in a park or highway rest area. Then there's the individual or couple in a committed relationship who may want to have other types of sexual encounters but have agreed to a boundary that live, in the flesh sexual encounters are off limits. They may choose to engage and interact with others online by chatting, camming, exchanging photos and videos, or even just going online to look at user-generated porn on amateur sites.
For all of these reasons, I think that we ought to consider promoting greater pornography consumption (and production in this user-generated content world we live in) for people of all ages as a way of learning about sex and sexuality throughout our lives and as a way of expressing and exploring our sexualities. We hear a great deal of discussion about the blurring of the virtual and real worlds as more and more people participate in online social networks and other sites on which content is produced by users - photos, blogs, music, videos, and even live video streams from our offices and homes. So why not think the same way when it comes to our sexual lives?
On that note, I encourage all of you to celebrate WRAP by getting off online just a little bit more than you were probably going to do anyway. Have fun!
Retrieved 4/11/09 from http://nsrc.sfsu.edu/dialogues/blog/view/3539/6241?utm_source=NSRC+News&utm_campaign=f910b24a6d-NSRC_Newsletter_November_03_2009_draft_211_3_2009&utm_medium=email
I believe in the Power of PORN!
Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 02:50:09pm
by Christopher White
Today, I'm writing in honor of the the Morality in Media's (MIM) WRAP Week: White Ribbons Against Pornography, which is also supported by one of my favorite anti-gay organizations, Concerned Women for America (CWA). According to the MIM website the event, which is being held all week from October 25 through November 1, "WRAP week is intended to educate the public about the extent of the pornography problem and what can constitutionally be done about it." The CWA goes on to point out the truth about all of us "Pornography advocates" who apparently claim that porn is a "victimless crime" are delusional and spreading lies - I'd like to point out that I am a proud advocate and voracious consumer of pornography, particularly of the online and amatuer produced variety and I have NEVER stated that it is a victimless crime. Mainly, because pornography is no longer a crime in United States - either producing it or viewing it. Of course, I know there are legal issues regarding the production and distribution of porn and that these laws may vary from state to state. I'll let my lawyer friends weigh in on this one.
I want to counter their claims (and misuses of research) with the idea that pornography is actually the opposite of "dangerous" and can actually be beneficial to helping individuals and couples practice lifelong sexuality education and explore their sexual pleasures, fantasies, and desires in a safe and practical way. First, I want to point out that my own research has shown that young men tend to claim that pornography is one of the main resources for understanding the realities of sexual behaviors. That fact may frighten some of you because you might be concerned that what they see in commercial porn may not be truly representative of what happens in real life. To that, I suggest that you give them a little credit for having the critical skills of being able to distinguish between highly produced movies and reality. I would also suggest that this is one more reason why it is so very important that schools and parents provide the necessary education to make sure they have critical thinking skills when it comes to being media consumers. Then, think about it. Where else are young people (or adults for that matter) going to turn to get the graphic depictions that enable understanding of the physics and mechanics of behaviors if not pornography? I am pretty sure there are not many health education books or biology books that provide the actual details of intercourse much less oral sex, anal sex, playing with sex toys, rimming, mutual masturbation, and I could go on and on and on.
Next, I want to ask you to consider the reasons that adults consume pornography. Let's say that it's because we get tired of the same old sexual activities we've been doing since puberty and allow us to consider what the anti-porn people refer to as needing more and more to be able to achieve sexual arousal and pleasure. So what. I think we might want to openly acknowledge that our sexuality and our sex lives change over time, whether it's due to age and changing bodies or because we are in long-term relationships. We crave novelty just as we do in other parts of our lives. Contrary to the idea of porn being dangerous, I suggest that porn is one of the best places to explore your sexuality, to learn new things to try out, and to fulfil your fantasies. It is not an accident that every time a new technology emerges that one of the first things we do is make new, more easily accessible forms of pornography or perhaps that it is actually the desire for new and more easily accessible pornography that drives technology. Most of us love to access porn and want to do so without any fear, shame, or guilt for doing so.
Finally, let's consider ways in which individuals, couples, or even groups of people can have safe, consensual sexual experiences without having to leave the safety and comfort of their own homes. Of course, I am not in anyway suggesting that porn or any kind of online interactions become a replacement for actual live human interactions. But I do think it can be a safe alternative for some people who may want to explore and have a little fun but aren't necessarily interested in picking someone up at a bar, going to a sex club, or cruising in a park or highway rest area. Then there's the individual or couple in a committed relationship who may want to have other types of sexual encounters but have agreed to a boundary that live, in the flesh sexual encounters are off limits. They may choose to engage and interact with others online by chatting, camming, exchanging photos and videos, or even just going online to look at user-generated porn on amateur sites.
For all of these reasons, I think that we ought to consider promoting greater pornography consumption (and production in this user-generated content world we live in) for people of all ages as a way of learning about sex and sexuality throughout our lives and as a way of expressing and exploring our sexualities. We hear a great deal of discussion about the blurring of the virtual and real worlds as more and more people participate in online social networks and other sites on which content is produced by users - photos, blogs, music, videos, and even live video streams from our offices and homes. So why not think the same way when it comes to our sexual lives?
On that note, I encourage all of you to celebrate WRAP by getting off online just a little bit more than you were probably going to do anyway. Have fun!
The Right Words
Retrieved 4/11/09 from http://amerinz.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-dont-have-time-for-this.html
I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS
By AmeriNZ
I don’t have time for this. This is the busiest week of the month for me, and I have a lot of work to do, so I don’t have time for a blog post. But that’s not what I’m talking about: I just don’t have time for the bullshit anymore: Tonight Maine repealed marriage equality.
This came about because our opponents ran a campaign filled with lies and distortions made possible by millions of dollars in out-of-state contributions. This came about because of out-of-state agitators organised by a prominent national organisation quietly backed by the Mormons.
The people fighting for our side were brilliant: They ran a strong grassroots campaign involving thousands of ordinary Maine folks who made phone calls, went door-to-door and did all they could to keep equality in Maine. However, they had one major handicap: They were in the reality-based world where facts and reason matter, something our opponents know little about, but, apparently, didn’t need to.
Our opponents played on people’s fears, as they always do. They played on people’s ignorance, as they always do. They played on people’s prejudice and hatred, as they always do. And for good measure they just made stuff up, as they always do. Our side couldn’t match the millions of dollars the right’s churches collected to promote the lies and hatred, so it was always an uphill fight.
It’s time to make one thing abundantly clear: Our opponents don’t have a minor disagreement with us—they hate us. It’s not the word “marriage” they have a problem with—it’s that we have any rights whatsoever.
In California, they claimed their problem was with “activist judges” (a term they only use when they disagree with a ruling). If “the people” don’t enact it, it’s not legitimate, they said. Then when Maine’s elected legislature enacted marriage equality, and its elected Governor signed it into law, the religious extremists tripped all over themselves to repeal the law the people’s representatives had enacted. Apparently, by “the people” the religious extremists meant only themselves.
In doing so, the religious extremists glossed over the gross immorality of the majority ever being allowed to vote on the rights of the minority, as if it’s ever proper for voters to decide who has full equality and who does not.
Maine’s governor—who formerly opposed same-sex marriage—was a strong advocate. So were many other prominent Mainers. But the national Democratic Party, including President Obama, were absent. The president issued a mild, vague statement but never said, “vote NO”.
The mainstream news media failed miserably. They treated it as an interesting, possibly significant, curiosity. They never once called out the religious bigots on their lies; maybe they’re too frightened of them.
Still, despite all that, we'll win because we’re on the right side of history. Those who oppose us will be remembered like the famous bigots of the near past—Thurmond, Wallace, and so on—and that day is fast approaching.
So, I refuse to give up on America. Despite all the hate, despite all the money and power being deployed against us, despite the evil being done in the name of their god, I know we will win. I have that hope because America gave it to me as a birthright. I have that hope because generations of Americans have fought and died to nurture it. I have that hope because at this moment, all across America, millions of people are hanging their heads in sadness or shame over how GLBT people are being treated—again. I have hope because, as the president once said, “In the unlikely story that is America, there is nothing false about hope.”
An activist friend suggested the song in the video at the top of this post as an antidote for those filled with sadness from this defeat. I love how very gay it is to take courage from a song by Liza—Judy’s daughter—but I also love the sentiment.
This isn’t the end: It’s just the beginning. We will win—if not tomorrow, then the day after that.
Posted by Arthur (AmeriNZ)
AmeriNZ writes some brilliant posts commenting on life in both in New Zealand and the USA, check out his blog at http://amerinz.blogspot.com/
I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS
By AmeriNZ
I don’t have time for this. This is the busiest week of the month for me, and I have a lot of work to do, so I don’t have time for a blog post. But that’s not what I’m talking about: I just don’t have time for the bullshit anymore: Tonight Maine repealed marriage equality.
This came about because our opponents ran a campaign filled with lies and distortions made possible by millions of dollars in out-of-state contributions. This came about because of out-of-state agitators organised by a prominent national organisation quietly backed by the Mormons.
The people fighting for our side were brilliant: They ran a strong grassroots campaign involving thousands of ordinary Maine folks who made phone calls, went door-to-door and did all they could to keep equality in Maine. However, they had one major handicap: They were in the reality-based world where facts and reason matter, something our opponents know little about, but, apparently, didn’t need to.
Our opponents played on people’s fears, as they always do. They played on people’s ignorance, as they always do. They played on people’s prejudice and hatred, as they always do. And for good measure they just made stuff up, as they always do. Our side couldn’t match the millions of dollars the right’s churches collected to promote the lies and hatred, so it was always an uphill fight.
It’s time to make one thing abundantly clear: Our opponents don’t have a minor disagreement with us—they hate us. It’s not the word “marriage” they have a problem with—it’s that we have any rights whatsoever.
In California, they claimed their problem was with “activist judges” (a term they only use when they disagree with a ruling). If “the people” don’t enact it, it’s not legitimate, they said. Then when Maine’s elected legislature enacted marriage equality, and its elected Governor signed it into law, the religious extremists tripped all over themselves to repeal the law the people’s representatives had enacted. Apparently, by “the people” the religious extremists meant only themselves.
In doing so, the religious extremists glossed over the gross immorality of the majority ever being allowed to vote on the rights of the minority, as if it’s ever proper for voters to decide who has full equality and who does not.
Maine’s governor—who formerly opposed same-sex marriage—was a strong advocate. So were many other prominent Mainers. But the national Democratic Party, including President Obama, were absent. The president issued a mild, vague statement but never said, “vote NO”.
The mainstream news media failed miserably. They treated it as an interesting, possibly significant, curiosity. They never once called out the religious bigots on their lies; maybe they’re too frightened of them.
Still, despite all that, we'll win because we’re on the right side of history. Those who oppose us will be remembered like the famous bigots of the near past—Thurmond, Wallace, and so on—and that day is fast approaching.
So, I refuse to give up on America. Despite all the hate, despite all the money and power being deployed against us, despite the evil being done in the name of their god, I know we will win. I have that hope because America gave it to me as a birthright. I have that hope because generations of Americans have fought and died to nurture it. I have that hope because at this moment, all across America, millions of people are hanging their heads in sadness or shame over how GLBT people are being treated—again. I have hope because, as the president once said, “In the unlikely story that is America, there is nothing false about hope.”
An activist friend suggested the song in the video at the top of this post as an antidote for those filled with sadness from this defeat. I love how very gay it is to take courage from a song by Liza—Judy’s daughter—but I also love the sentiment.
This isn’t the end: It’s just the beginning. We will win—if not tomorrow, then the day after that.
Posted by Arthur (AmeriNZ)
AmeriNZ writes some brilliant posts commenting on life in both in New Zealand and the USA, check out his blog at http://amerinz.blogspot.com/
Monday, November 2, 2009
Weep, Weep For Future Generations...
Here's a short list of some of my favourite quotes from the atrociously spelt and narrated Harry Potter fan-fic 'My Immortal' by Tara 'Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way.' You can find the full hilarious story at http://myimmortalrehost.webs.com/chapters122.htm Just for a bit of context, Ebony/Enoby/Eboby is a vampire goth in Slytherin House at Hogwarts, her bisexual vampire goth boyfriend is Draco/Drak/Darko Malfoy, Harry Potter has changed his name to Vampire and... yes, he's a bisexual vampire goth... noticing a trend? A good third of the story is actually incredibly detailed descriptions of vitually indistinguishable black outfits and identical emo concerts, there's sex, drugs, murder and bad grammar. My Immortal also has perhaps the biggest fanbase of any internet fan-fic - nobody can quite decide if it's serious or a vicious parody. So without further ado (and without any editing)....
Dumbledore: "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU MOTHERFUKERS!"
Snake and Loopin were in da middle of da empty hall, doin it, and Dobby was watching!
"STOP IT NOW YOU HORNY SIMPLETONS!" shouted Professor McGoggle who was watching us and so was everyone else.
"I MAY BE A HOGWARTS STUDENT"" Hargirid paused angrily. "BUT I AM ALSO A SATANIST!"
"Hey bitch you look kawaii."
"The Dark Lord shall kill all of you. Then you must submit to him!!!!" Snape ejaculated menacingly. "You fucking preppy fags!" Serious shouted angrily.
"Volfemort has him bondage!"
"You fucking bustard!" yelled Draco at Vampire. "I want to shit next to her!1"
"VAMPIRE POTTER, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" I yelled.
"Why did you do such a thing, you mediocre dunces?" asked Professor McGonagall.
"YOU ARE NOT FIT TO BE THE PRINCIPAL ANY LONGER!" yelled Rumbridge. "YOU ARE TOO OLD AND YOUR ALZHEIMERS IS DANGEROUS! YOU MUST RETRY OR VOLDEMORT WILL KILL YOUR STUDENTS!"
"CUM NOW!1!" Preacher McGongel yielded. We did guiltily.
"Suddenly an idea I had. I clozd my eyes and using my vampire powers I sent a telepathetic massage to Drako and Vampire so they would destruct Snape."
"THE BARK LORD IS PLANNING TO KILL THE STUDENTS!" yelled Cornelia Fudge.
"Crosio!" I shited pointing my wound. Snoop scremed and started running around da room screming.
"OMFS, letz have a groop kutting session!11" said Profesor Trevolry.
A chapter after Loopin "masticates" outside of Enoby's window, Tara took a second stab at it: "You saved me from getting a Paris Hilton p- video made from your shower scene and being vued by Snap and Loopin." Who MASTABATED (c is dat speld rong) to it he added silently.
"Abra Kedavra!" he yelled at Snape and Loopin pointing his womb.
"Noooooo!11" she screamed. All the preps in da theater screamed but everyone else crapped koz Satan and I loked so cute 2gether.
I smelled happily.
"Hey haz aneone fuking seen Draco?" I asked gothikally.
"No Draco told me he wood be watching Hoes of Wax." said Profesor Trevolry.
Dracola used to be called Navel but it tuned out dat he was kidnapped at birth and his real family were vampires. They dyed in a car crash.
"Rid my sight you despicable preps!"
Snoop laughed meanly. He polled down his pants. I gasped- there was a Dork Mark on his you-know-wut!11!
"But it was to late. I knew what I herd. I ran to the bathroom angrily, cring. Draco banged on the door. I whipped and whepped as my blody eyeliner streammed down my cheeks and made cool tears down my feces like Benji in the video for Girls and Bois (raven that is soo our video!). I TOOOK OUT A CIGARETE END STARTED TO smoke pot."
"I laffed statistically."
"We went sexily to Potionz class. But Snap wasn't there. Instead there was…………………………………………Cornelio Fuck!11111"
"“OMFG!!! Im back in Tim again!!!!111” I screamed loudly."
"“Oh my fukking god!!!! Voldimort! Voldimort!” screamed Hedwig as his glock touched Voldemort’s."
"then suddenlyn………………. the floor opened. “OMFG NO I SCEAMED AS I FEEL DOWN. everyone looked At ME weirdly.”"
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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