...his was the most... human.

There's a rumor, I honestly don't know how true it is, that goes like this:

The "Kobayashi Maru" scenario at the beginning of The Wrath of Khan was thrown in there because Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, wanted to quit the franchise, and word had gotten out that Spock was going to be killed off. So the scenario was thrown in at the beginning of the film, fake-out killed not only Spock but the entire crew, and (apparently) threw movie-goers off the scent.

I don't believe that story. Or, rather, if that story is true, then it certainly wasn't done at the last minute. The Kobayashi Maru is essential to all the goodness of The Wrath of Khan. Kirk is this space-cowboy character who laughs in the face of danger because he, as Saavik tells him at one point, has never actually faced death. Kirk cheated on the KM test, survived the Original Series on luck and balls (see, e.g., "The Corbomite Maneuver"), and thought he was invincible. By having the KM test, the film can incorporate the fact that Kirk cheated - has never faced the no-win scenario, ever. He straight-up says he doesn't believe in it. Even when he's in the Genesis Cave right before the final battle, Kirk still thinks he can simply outsmart Khan again.

He can't.

He got lucky with the computer codes during their initial encounter. But it's Spock's idea to run to the Mutara Nebula. It's Spock's observation that Khan has mistook space for an ocean and is just operating in two dimensions. And it is, of course, Spock who sacrifices himself at the end.  

The Wrath of Khan is so great because it shows never-grow-up Kirk* coming face-to-face with mortality, both in the "midlife crisis" subtext running throughout the film, and in Spock's death at the end. Cut out the references to the Kobayashi Maru, the no-win scenario, and all of that is cheapened.

*Let's not forget that Kirk's final line in The Undiscovered Country - and therefore in the entirety of the Original Series adventures - is a quote from Peter Pan.

So as I said, I don't believe that story.

The Wrath of Khan is one of my favorite movies ever. One of the things that's particularly (sorry) fascinating about it is that even though it's Kirk who has/suffers all the character development/deconstruction over the course of the film, Spock is the film's actual hero. (Another think I like, not particularly pertinent to this post, is that because they thought it was going to be the last one, they were willing to do two things they'd never done before: damage the Enterprise model, and kill off a major character.)

Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015

He lived long, and he prospered.

Well, that's sad.

Google's changed its policies, and won't allow pr0n.

Now, you may have noticed, this, despite its title, is not a pr0n blog. Still, this troubles me.

Note: We’ll still allow nudity if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts.

Oh, good. What, precisely, is an "artistic" context? See, it used to be (and will be until fairly late in March) the case that "adult content" blogs had a little warning screen, and you had to click "I am 18 and I wish to continue to this adult material page." That was good. It allowed consenting adults to see what they wanted to see, and afforded The Children more protection than, say, Tumblr does.

I can't claim to like this "artistic" qualifier. Come on, The Children know where to find the pr0n if they really want it, and adults should be able to decide what they do and do not want to see.

Will I migrate this blog to Wordpress or something? Probably not. But I'm starting to not like Google. I've been frustrated with Chrome in these last few months and will probably start using a different web browser, for all the symbolic good that does.

March 11th would have been Peter Hunt's 90th birthday if he was still alive. As you might know, I'm a wee bit of a fan both of his editing style and his masterpiece. I'll mark the occasion, probably by live-tweeting the film. Details eventually.

A Blog of Thrones (Chapter 60) Jon VIII: Jon, I Am Your Great-Great-Great-Uncle

Previously on A Blog of Thrones, I ran out of ways to say what Catelyn's doing is really really shortsighted and dumb.

No, James Bond is not a sodding Time Lord

Every few months I end up doing a post like this.

So there's this (old) post on Tor about how Bond evidently must be a Time Lord because the car from Skyfall is the one from Goldfinger.

Sigh.

Mansplaining female protagonists, part 1: "Female Characters" versus "Characters With Ladyparts"

Receptionist: How do you write women so well?
Melvin Udall: I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.
-As Good as It Gets

Okay, so, there's an article on Polygon (archive link) saying, essentially, that only women can write great female characters "in gaming."

Now, I personally wonder what makes a female character in a video game different from a female character in a film or a TV show. The only difference I can think of is that a male audience can interact with her, either by directly controlling her if she's the PC, or via his virtual avatar if she's an NPC. I don't think that really matters.

From the article:

Yes, writers are required to create convincing characters who are different from themselves. But in video games, writers have tended towards idealized versions of themselves.

1) citation needed, and 2) that's a case unique to video games all of a sudden?

So let's talk about female characters.

Hold up. In order to talk about female characters, we're going to have to talk about "female characters." I know that sounds kinda circular, but bear with me. In typical male-viewpoint binary* form, I think there are two kinds of female characters: female characters, and characters who happen to be female.

*A note to all sociology people: I'm sorry-not-sorry for interchanging "sex" and "gender" throughout this piece. Deal with it.

Let's do some case studies:

No, but seriously, Brianna Wu's favorite videogame character is a violent psychopath who, in terms of characterization, is completely indistinguishable from her male counterpart.


Addendum: are you fucking kidding me with that Mario question? Yes. Yes you fucking are. Because anyone who looks at that scenario for more than one picosecond understands that there is no choice there. Either the Mass Relay explodes and takes the star system with it, or the Reapers arrive and destroy the entire galaxy, including, you know, that star system. It's not an either-or scenario. It's a scenario where in one outcome you have three hundred million killed, and in the other outcome you have exty zillion killed, including the three hundred million who would have died in the other outcome! THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY TO SAVE THE BATARIANS IN THAT SYSTEM. THERE IS NO GOOD CHOICE OR BAD CHOICE. THERE IS THE UGLY-BUT-NECESSARY "CHOICE" OR THE FUCKING RETARDED ONE. SO DON"T TELL ME THAT MARIO WOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT. FUCKING SUPERMAN WOULD HAVE DONE IT!!!!!!!!!!

A Blog of Thrones (Chapter 59) Catelyn IX: It’s a Double castle, over a Crossing. Get it?

Previously on A Blog of Thrones, Ned Stark ruminated on some terrible life choices. Today on A Blog of Thrones, Catelyn makes a terrible life choice.

I'd be willing to bet that various online forms people need to fill out for various ends are deliberately obtuse and complicated because the gatekeepers of those ends want to weed out those who aren't "serious" about obtaining them.

E.g., the Illinois Bar admission forms.

I seriously hope that's not the mentality surrounding access to "essential" (government) services.