Because I’m too lazy to write a real article.
Going to early vote tomorrow. Think I’m going to vote Cruz. Favorite son and all that, but the real reason is I can chill and watch Trump through the general election and see if he’s going to say or do something stupid… not that there’s a chance I’d vote Dem in the general election, but there’s no way in hell I’m voting for “Amnesty” Rubio, so Cruz is the only anti-Trump left. Never been so happy for a long primary season; I’m not sure I trust Trump; man of conviction or demagogue? I know which way I’d bet…and a long season gives him time for the mask to slip.
Edit: I’m just too slow. I’m always getting to Steven’s place after he’s locked the thread, or said “no topic drift!”
After that, I’m going to Grand Prix Houston, for Magic the Gathering. Not competing in the main event as I’m not actively buying cards (it’s a Standard event
, meaning only the last two years of cards are legal). Might play some side events, check out the vendors and just waste time. And then I just might swing over to the other end of the George R. Brown Convention Center. I’ve never gone to Anime Matsuri, but I can think of a few reasons…. Maybe I’ll grab a bite while I’m there. Interestingly, the prizes are better for MTG at Anime Matsuri, except for the big events.
Not doing any more Everquest. Finally got tired of the skewed effort/reward. Still doing lots of Minecraft.
Havent’ watched the last episode of RWBY yet. I kind of dread it, since I made the mistake of reading the writeup over at Brickmuppet’s. Not surprised though; anyone who paid attention to the OP visuals and song knew that a bad end was coming.
Bought the first few episodes of Lord Marksman and Vanadis (see the LN writeup here). Disappointing. One good thing: Lim wasn’t the cutesy girl; that turned out to be Titta. Overall, they made the same mistake as in GATE, in that a lot of the story was cut to speed it up and cover as much as possible. This really hurt the first episode, which should have been two parts; it stripped some of the personality development. Worse, the animators decided to tell, not show, the battle tactics. Well, they sort of showed –they replaced the soldiers with abstracted chess pieces, with some of them resembling the main characters, and then narrated it. Ugh. Female knights don’t seem to wear much armor, and there was much gainaxing to be had. The animation and CGI quality was pretty decent though, the horses looked a little wonky.
Reading the afterwords of a couple of the LN’s tells me how much the Japanese publishing system is messed up. The author’s original plan was for a guy archer and girl swordswoman; which was the case. However, the other Vanadis (girls with magical weapons) were created because the publisher demanded them. This changed the entire tenor of the novels, IMHO, and introduced a class dynamic that the author ignored. Specifically, the Vandis are all young girls (roughly teens/twenties), chosen by the (intelligent) weapons. There are no old Vandis; the draconic weapons move to new wielders of their own choice. By Zhected tradition, this makes them nobles, the rulers of duchies and second in authority only to the King. Of course, there is a strong bureaucracy to help them, but the reality is that they’re term-limited by the weapons, and there’s lots of other nobles to counterbalance them.
So what happens when their term is up? What’s the retirement plan? Either they’re all dying in battle, or going into a convent. What you’d think would be happening is that they’d be politicking for husbands. Given that the weapons only seem to pick cute, athletic (mostly) girls, they should be fairly eligible brides. It’s totally ignored.
I hate inept world-building…
