Odds and Ends Oct 3 2014

This was originally supposed to be the FIRST October Rant, but Internet problems forced some September Rants to become October Rants.

So, Shailene Woodly, the Former Cut out Mary Jane Watson in the Amazing Spider-Douche and Protagonist of Divergent... Eh... She feels to me like a Store Brand version of Jennifer Lawrence. Yes, I recently saw Divergent. Aside from feeling like a Hunger Games Knock-Off with a little bit of Hogwarts minus the magic, it was somewhat OK. To be honest, I wasn't hooked on the premise. I also was bored to tears and banging the remote against my face to stay awake while watching it. A few performances felt a bit stiff... Not going to make a wood pun with Shailene Woodly. That would be the obvious joke. I have to say that Ms. Woodly is able to show way more emotions than Kristen Stewart. Kate Winslet had a decent performance though it felt like she was phoning it in. (I guess this is where I make a joke about Ms. Winslet's boobs not being shown, but that would be bad and wrong, because of Me Soggy Knee!)

After seeing Divergent, I can confirm that Cutting her out of Spider-Douche 2 was an excellent decision:

-She looks more like Plain Jane than Mary Jane.
-Her career is not tarnished by Spider-Douche 2.

Now, keep her away from the role of Teela and I can be happy.



I've been playing Final Fantasy XIII, at last. I'm not going to fully review the game since I have not beaten it and I'm currently stuck at the ARK Boss Battle... (And no, it does not involve badly autotuned songs and Fat Usher)

Here's the thing:
-I hate Oerba Dia Vanille's voice. I think her VA is British and I don't have an issue with that. It's just that Vanille's voice is annoying and I'm not sure if the VA is trying to mask her accent and failing miserably, or if she's going for a weird exotic accent by mangling her own accent.

-Whenever Hope opens his mouth All I can see is Phineas, without Ferb.

-During the first 20 hours of playing, Sazh went from annoying character that I wished that he died to best character (storywise)

-If we had a drinking game every time Snow mentioned being a Hero, save Cocoon, or Serah; We'd be freaking wasted pretty fast.

-Lighting is basically Disc 1 Cloud (Pre-Temple of the Ancients) with pink hair, boobs and stealing Squall's weaponry.

-About 16 Freaking hours to get an ACTUAL FINAL FANTASY TRACK and Actual Final Fantasy characters that look closely to their traditional looks. Carbunkle plushie doesn't count. It's a stuffed animal, not an actul character. Weird Shiva sisters that turn into a Motorcycle that Snow Rides by sittin in their crotches Does NOT Count!!

-This game feels so not-Final Fantasy like. I've had the game for over a month and I keep looking for excuses to NOT Play it. 1990s me would be completely surprised if I told him that I'm looking for excuses to not play a Final Fantasy Game that I've not played before.
To be fair, it's not a horrible game, it just feels to restricted compared to most JRPGs I've played... Especially those who share the name Final Fantasy. It feels like I'm following a straight line with no room for sightseeing. "Leveling Up" feels castrated since There are Actual Caps to what skills, growth for HP and other stats. Hell even Grinding on this game is no fun. Mostly because it's very limited (at least it has been up to the point I currently am stuck.)

Maybe I should just accept reality and stick to 16 and 32 bit JRPGs...


Saturday Morning Cartoons are dead... This blow stung me harder than it should. While to be fair, I wasn't watching the CW's Cartoon block, I admired the CW's effort of keeping Saturday Morning Cartoons for as long as they did. Sure, kids today have CN and nickelodeon, but the demise of Saturday Morning Cartoons is a horrible thing. The tradition of waking up early in the morning each Saturday, grab a bowl of cereal, sit on the floor and watch saturday Morning cartoons all the way until noon is now gone! Basically, if you don't have cable and have kids, you're pretty much out of luck! Better buy those DVDs and be ready to watch and rewatch the same movie again and again until they finally get bored of it.

Then there's the Hub issue that Discovery wants to have more control over it. The slight worry I have is related to MLP. It's almost as if there;s a war against cartoons and non-educational entertainment... or educational entertainment that hides the education well inside a tasty entertaining shell. Akin to Broccoli being hidden in a tasty layer of cheese sauce. Mental note, should not rant while hungry.