Author Archives: Caliban

About Caliban

I'm a long time fan of science fiction, fantasy, comic books, gaming and the like. Also a former Employee of Wizards of the Coast, and one of the founding members of the Camarilla Fan organization. Follow me on Twitter @caliban1227.

Death Threats in Geek Culture

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amanda-abbington__130328102433A sad state of affairs currently plaguing geek culture is the wave of death threats that are being made with increasing regularity.

Seriously, we seem to have lost our ability to just disagree about things. Now, if something happens that people are not happy about, you can bet there will be a death threat. And the examples, of this, can be really mind blowing.

Anita Sarkeesian: received death threats as well, as rape threats and constant harassment, due to her web series Tropes vs Women.

Adam Glass: Writer of the New 52 relaunch of Suicide Squad. The reason for the death threats was the Suicide-Girl-like redesign of Harley Quinn. As a side note, the redesign was done by DC co-publisher Jim Lee, but the threats were made to Glass as he was the writer assigned to carry out the story.

James Gunn: The Writer/Director of the upcoming Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy. The reason for the death threats is that actress Karen Gillian (best known as Amy Pond on Doctor Who) shaved her head to play the villain Nebula, angering some fans.

Amanda Abbington: Actress and longtime partner to Martin Freeman (with whom she has two children), is getting death threats because she has been cast as John Watson’s fiancé Mary in the upcoming season of Sherlock. The reason behind this is that having her character in the show interferes with some fans speculation that Holmes and Watson are lovers.

I’m sure Zack Snyder and Gal Gadot are receiving threats over the casting of Gadot as Wonder Woman in the Superman/Batman movie.

We also see this problem in varied places around the video game industry. Dragon Age II senior writer Jennifer Hepler received death threats to both herself and her children, because some fans did not like the game.

And it isn’t just big names. My friend Mickey Schulz (who writes for the web site Geek Girls Rule) regularly receives both death threats and rape threats, simply for being a female who writes about feminist issues in geek culture.

I know that this is not limited to geek culture, but it sure seems pervasive here.

So why is this happening? How did we end up in a place that making death threats for minor inconveniences and disappointments appears acceptable to some people?

Well I wonder if Louis CK didn’t hit on a truth in this video. Start at 1:30 in the video.

But, basically, I think online interaction has reduced people’s ability to feel empathy, and embolded them to say whatever they want. Add to this their desire to vent their frustrations, no matter how irrational they may be. And finally, they want to influence the behavior of the person they are targeting. Add a shot of immaturity, and you get people who go straight to the death threat.

This leaves us with the question of how to deal with it. The answer is basically the same as dealing with misogyny and convention harassment; we have to speak up as a community, and make it loud and clear that this behavior is not acceptable. We have to make it a mark of shame to do so, and make it so bad that the people who would engage in this behavior are too scared of being branded over it to do it in the first place.

Do I expect this to work right out of the gate? Of course not, but we have to start making the effort if we have any hope of changing this at all.

I’ll admit this may sound harsh, but honestly it will be more effective than trying to encourage empathy.

I’ll leave you with a quote from a friend of mine, game designer JD Wiker:

“There’s a line. All you have to do is NOT cross it.”

Fanboy News Network Episode 1

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Fanboy logoThe First Episode of The Fanboy News Network Podcast

Trigger Warning: This episode will discuss a sexual assault at the end.

This episode Jeff goes over recent news in geek culture.

The Casting of Wonder Woman in the Superman/Batman movie.

Subscribers not getting issue #27 of DC Comics.

DC’s success with the TB series Arrow.

The events surrounding the alleged sexual assault at Aki Con in Seattle.

The Arc of Thor

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thor

As the year comes to a close, it has been announced that Disney had broken a box office record. In 2013 its worldwide box office was over 4 billion dollars. This was achieved almost exclusively by the performance of this year’s two releases from Marvel Studios; Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.

I’m sure every studio took notice. At this stage Marvel seems unbeatable at the box office and I’m sure that there are some very smart people trying to figure out how to duplicate that success.

There are, of course, several factors that have led to this success. But I want to focus on two that I feel other studios are going to have a hard time copying, and the sad thing is that one of those shouldn’t be a problem.

The one that is problematic to copy is the interwoven nature of the Marvel films. As far as most fans are concerned both movies were part of the same series, and they only had to wait months for them, not years. And next year we get two more. I’m sure studios would love to get something like that going, but only Warner Brothers with the DC franchises have a shot, and they seem determined to shoot themselves in the foot with regards to that.

The other, that should be easy to copy but won’t be, is how Marvel handles character arcs. In short, Marvel does not back track on their character development. Whatever changes a character goes through in one movie are still present at the beginning of the next. It seems simple but it is not that common.

To illustrate this point, I want to focus on Thor as he has one of the most dramatic arcs in the series. Warning, there will be some Dark World spoilers in here.

In the first Thor movie he is brash, headstrong, and hungry for glory. He nearly provokes a war needlessly and is punished by being stripped of his powers and exiled. During this exile he learns humility and, after seeing destruction from a human level, is more tempered in his approach, throughout this process he learns to care for people.

In the Avengers, he is no longer seeking glory and regrets the destruction he can cause, but he is still headstrong as shown in his first meeting with Iron Man and Captain America. Over the course of this film, he learns to not just rush in and be a team player.

At the beginning of Dark World we see Thor no longer rushes in, and even gives his enemies a chance to surrender. When the rest of the warriors are celebrating their victory, he is sitting quietly, no longer concerned with glory. By the end, he embraces his destiny as guardian of the nine realms, and chooses to live on Earth.

At no point does he lose any of the lessons he learned between movies and his character is constantly moving forward.

Let’s compare this to the rebooted Star Trek movies. In the first movie Kirk has to learn to not be bull headed and work with his crew, especially Spock, to save the day. In the end, he is awarded command of the Enterprise.

In the sequel, he starts off making a bull headed move that has him lose his command and he needs to find a way to work with his crew, especially Spock, to save the day, eventually getting his command back. Basically, in the second movie things were reset to how they were in the first movie in an effort to give the audience something familiar.

Of the two, which do you prefer?

For me, the big test of this is going to be when Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes out. This is because it will feature the Black Widow, who is a character that has been moving around the Marvel Cinematic Universe rather than attached to one specific franchise. It will be interesting to see where she is after the events of The Avengers and how that has changed her.

Of course they could just give us a Black Widow centric movie.

Anyway, I look forward to where the Marvel movies are going, and can only hope that other studios learn this lesson.

Fanboy News Network Podcast Episode 0

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Fanboy logo

An introductory episode for the new Fanboy News Network podcast.

I introduce myself, give my background in geek culture, and outline my basic goals for the podcast.

This is my first effort so feedback is appreciated.

Feedburner Information: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FanboyNewsNetworkPodcast

 

The Hole Behind Midnight Episode 4

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hole behind midnight cover sketches.inddAnd here is Episode 4 of the Hole Behind Midnight audio book podcast. Book by Clinton J Boomer. Audiobook produced by Julie Hoverson

Don’t you hate it when you come home after being framed for murder and find uninvited guests waiting. Yeah, Royden Poole’s night just keeps kicking him in the nards.

The Hole Behind Midnight is meant for Mature Audiences and contains strong language and adult themes. There we warned you.

You can find the main sight for the podcast here.

And is you are interested in the book, you can find details here.

Review: Dracula TV show

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dractv

Reviewing the new Dracula TV show has been an interesting process for me. If you follow me on Tumblr, then you know that on the night of the series premier I live blogged my sister’s reactions to the show as she live blogged watching it. It was an interesting night that led to my sister repeatedly thumping one of her copies of the original novel on the coach while yelling NO!, and drinking enough that she declared that she could not feel her feet.

After it was over, I declared that I was going to write a full review. However, to be fair to the show, I could not just review the pilot; I needed to watch several episodes in order to do this properly. She said I was braver than she, while clutching her fanged bunny Clovis for support.

So here it is. Fair warning, there will be spoilers, so enter freely and of your own will.

For those not in the know, the new Dracula series is a reimagining of the tale. Still set in Victorian England, the story now has Dracula pretending to be an American inventor and industrialist, named Alexander Grayson, in order to promote a new type of energy. His goal is to undermine the financial might of his ancient enemies, the Order of the Dragon, by reducing the worth of their oil holdings.

I think I pulled something writing that last sentence.

Having watched the first few episodes I have drawn the conclusion that this show was pitched as something other than Dracula and that it was repurposed, probably due to executive demands that it be based on a familiar property.

Of all the characters only Lucy Westenra acts anything like her counterpart in the original novel, and even she has significant changes.

Starting with Dracula, he is far from the monster in the novel, in fact he seems more of the noble monster trope here. He is out for revenge on the Order of the Dragon for killing his wife and turning him into a vampire. The show has also gone with the reincarnated lost love angle that has been used so often it almost seems a must for vampire stories.

Speaking of that reincarnated love, Mina has gone from a school teacher to a medical student studying under Professor Van Helsing.

Her Fiancé, Jonathan Harker, has gone from being a solicitor to a journalist hired by Dracula to investigate his rivals.

Lucy is still a rich high society girl, presented as a Victorian party girl. The one change here is that she harbors secret romantic feelings for Mina.

In one of the biggest changes from the novel, Renfield has gone from a madman whom Dracula enslaves to a trusted manservant who can counter Dracula’s instructions for Dracula’s benefit without repercussions and whose advice Dracula values.

But that pales in comparison to Van Helsing. In the novel he is Dracula’s arch nemesis and in media his name is synonymous with monster hunter. Here he is the one who frees Dracula from his tomb as he also seeks revenge on the Order of the Dragon for killing his family, and needs the vampire as his partner to accomplish this. He even goes so far as to try and find a way to allow Dracula to walk in the daylight.

For the order of the Dragon they are so generic in being bad guys that even reading a synopsis of episodes it is difficult for me to tell who is who.

The one exception is the order’s female vampire hunter, Lady Jayne Wetherby. Not suspecting that Grayson is in fact Dracula she starts an affair with him, while the order wants to ruin him as a business rival. She seems to serve the dual purpose of having a female vampire slayer in the show, and to have a character Dracula can have sex with every episode.

Another issue I have is the anachronisms throughout the show. In 1881, when Van Helsing frees Dracula, he uses a battery powered flashlight. In a scene in 1896 you see Dracula wearing s modern style wristwatch. You also have the female characters wearing off the shoulder dresses to society events. I think a lot of this is due to the show having a very steampunk sensibility, with Dracula as a pastiche of Nikola Tesla and his goal of bringing broadcast power to England. I think more of it is due to the show being more concerned with eye candy than any kind of accuracy.

Overall, this show feels like it was meant to be an entirely original franchise and it had Dracula tagged on for name recognition. The sad thing is I would probably be more tolerant of it, had it been an entirely original idea. One of my biggest issues with it is the complete rewriting of the classic characters. Were Renfield and Van Helsing original characters I would have no problem with their behavior. I would also have been just fine with the struggle between an American industrialist vampire and a Victorian secret society were the industrialist not Dracula.

Also, not everything is terrible. The production designs and cinematography are both terrific. The show looks incredible.

In the end, this is a show that could have been great, had they made it anything other than Dracula. As it is, I cannot get past that fact as it is too distracting.

I give Dracula a D on the Fanboy News Network grading scale. It is a very disappointing effort.

The Hole Behind Midnight Episode 3

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hole behind midnight cover sketches.inddAnd here is Episode 3 of the Hole Behind Midnight audio book podcast. Book by Clinton J Boomer. Audiobook produced by Julie Hoverson

Royden Poole’s night isn’t getting any better, but he might have a little help now, provided he has enough cash on him.

The Hole Behind Midnight is meant for Mature Audiences and contains strong language and adult themes. There we warned you.

You can find the main sight for the podcast here.

And is you are interested in the book, you can find details here.

If your looking for me in this episode forget it, I’m not back for a couple of episodes, but listen anyway, this is good stuff.

A visit to Night Vale

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NightVale_2718653bI think it says something about the nature of Welcome to Night Vale that I had no idea how to start out this column. Do I try for witty and meta like the show itself? Do I just pass as it is rapidly gaining a huge fandom? Or do I just write the column, working from a base assumption that some of you are familiar with it, while others might need some background?

Yeah, lets go what that last one.

For the uninitiated, Welcome to Night Vale is a Podcast produced by Commonplace Books, that takes the form of a community radio show from the small town of Night Vale. That seems simple enough.

Okay, but Night Vale is a place operating in its own reality. All conspiracy theories are true, unnatural horrors are commonplace, and everyday mundane truths (like the existence of mountains) are considered mythical.

Imagine Prairie Home Companion as if it was written by Rod Serling and directed by David Lynch.

Welcome to Night Vale is the brain child of Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, who write all the episodes (although they have had a few guest writers recently). The show’s single regular performer is Cecil Baldwin, with most episodes having only his performance. Guest actors have recently started appearing, but are infrequent. The show’s theme song, as well as all background music, is performed by the band Disparition.

The show in many ways has a very straight forward format. Each episode is 20 to 30 minutes long, and is basically a new broadcast from Night Vale Community Radio. Our news broadcaster Cecil starts the show with a cryptic statement that ends with him saying “Welcome to Night Vale”. After the theme song Cecil begins the show proper. The first story is the major theme of the episode, usually detailing an event occurring in town that will be revisited several times during the episode. There will also be a word from the sponsor, traffic, community calendar (which fans now know usually foreshadows upcoming episodes), and (of course) the Weather (which is a musical performance from an independent artist).  After the Weather is a final report tying up the episode’s main plot, and Cecil’s signature sign off “Good Night Night Vale, Good Night.” This is followed by credits and a proverb read by an unnamed female voice.

The show has several ongoing storylines related through Cecil’s reports. There is the ongoing mystery of the Man in the Tan Leather jacket whom several people have met, but no one can remember any detail about him except the jacket and his deer skin suitcase full of flies. There is also the upcoming election for the position of Mayor of Night Vale. Mayor Miriam Winchelle has decided to not run again, and two candidates have stepped forward to run. The first is Hiram McDaniels (voiced by Venture Brothers creator Jackson Publick), a character first introduced while being sought by the Sheriff’s secret police. Hiram is an 18 foot five-headed dragon, and his crime? Fraud. The other candidate is The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home (voiced by former child star Mara Wilson). She is exactly what she sounds like, you never see her, but she is there. She knows all about you, and thinks that this makes her uniquely qualified to be Mayor.

These are just a small sample of the growing story. But one thing the fans have latched onto is the growing romance between Cecil and Carlos, the leader of a team of scientists who have come to study Night Vale.

At no point is there any mention of the sexual orientation of either Cecil or Carlos. It is just presented as a romance between two people just like you would encounter in real life. In fact the relationship is honestly the most normal thing that ever gets any regular mention in the show. With the exception of the episode detailing their first date, it is normally just a subplot mentioned in passing during the episodes, but the fact that it is very normal has become a favorite subject of the fans.

What makes Welcome to Night Vale stand out is the writing. Fink and Cranor have a very distinct sensibility (as bizarre as it may seem), and it means that you never know what to expect from the show. Be it a mysterious glowing mind controlling cloud that becomes head of the Night Vale school board, or invasion of a tiny race of people leaving under the local bowling alley, Night Vale has a unique voice. And it looks to be inspiring a new generation of podcasters to explore the format of audio drama.

So if you have a taste for the strange, and a half hour to spare now and again, check it out.

And try not to think about the Faceless Old Woman who Secretly Lives in Your Home, unless you intend to vote for her, in which case I’m sure she won’t mind.

 

NightVale_2718653b

The Hole Behind Midnight Episode 2

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hole behind midnight cover sketches.inddAnd here is episode 2 of the Hole Behind Midnight audio book podcast. Book by Clinton J Boomer. Audiobook produced by Julie Hoverson.

Royden Poole’s annoying trip to the police station has taken a definite turn for the worse. So of course he needs to figure out why everything has gone to hell, oh and not get killed by the murderous clown.

The Hole Behind Midnight is meant for Mature Audiences and contains strong language and adult themes. There we warned you.

You can find the main sight for the podcast here.

And is you are interested in the book, you can find details here.

And I do show up in this episode. See if you can guess who I am.

Surprisingly good TV Shows

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sleepyhollowEvery TV season the networks hope to lure in viewers for their new programs, and that will require a lot of pre-publicity on the shows. When deciding what you are going to watch, a lot of judgment goes into trying to decide what you are going to watch and what is not worth your time. Over the last three TV seasons, I have come to learn that I cannot trust my initial assessment of shows based on preview material. I can name six shows, two from each of the last three seasons, that I was convinced were going to suck, and now are shows I don’t want to miss.

These shows are Once Upon a time, Grimm, Arrow, Hannibal, Sleepy Hollow, and The Blacklist.

So what was it about these shows that caused my initial dismissal of them, and what do they have that has made them appointment viewing?

Let’s find out.

For the first question, my answer is that I didn’t think any of them would be a sustainable series and be able to get up to nine episodes. For everything, but The Blacklist, a big part of my negative view was due to their being adaptations. Once Upon a Time and Grimm took it a step further, in that they were both shows using fairy tales as their basis, and I figured one would eventually cannibalize the other. In the case of Arrow, it was another superhero show on the CW and so I was expecting another watered down and drawn out story like Smallville. Hannibal was doubted because I didn’t see how a network TV show could possibility go to the dark places that the story would demand. With Sleepy Hollow I will admit that I assumed it was going to be a Twilight like take on the story. Finally, The Blacklist just seemed to be a thin premise that I could not see sustaining a season believably.

Clearly, I was wrong on all counts.

Once Upon a Time and Grimm are nothing alike, I don’t even think of them as having a common origin point anymore. Arrow is not watered down in the least. Watching Hannibal I am regularly shocked at how far the network has allowed this series to push the imagery. Sleepy Hollow, while nothing like the story that inspired it, is not following in the Twilight path. And The Blacklist is a fun series that teases at a greater mystery.

But I think there is more to it than my being wrong in my initial assumptions. All of these shows have two things in common that make me tune in week after week.

First is the fact that there is focus on characters and their story arcs. I am invested in what happens to these people and want to see where they are going. Even the worst written of these six shows (Once upon a Time) has me hooked by this, even for the villains.

The other thing is the overall story and series mythology. Each show is going somewhere and doing it at a good pace. To use Smallville as an example again, they dragged out their main arc, Clark Kent becoming Superman, for 10 years. By the end, it just felt ridiculous. In contrast. Arrow dealt with its main arc (Oliver going after the people on his father’s list in the first season) and wrapped that up; Once Upon a Time also wrapped up its main arc (breaking the curse on Storybrooke) in the first season. Both of these series then went on to have new arcs in their following seasons.

So good characters and good story pacing, really this is what we should want from any series.

And to wrap up, I would like to point out that I am not always wrong. I had bad feelings about both Dracula and The Tomorrow People. I was not wrong. In fact the only reason I am still watching Dracula is to give it a fair shot for when I review it, so you have that to look forward to.

If you have not checked out any of the series I have focused on here, I would recommend giving them a try. Of course, we will have to see how the rest of the season plays out. And maybe we will visit them again after this season is over.