Legends of Tomorrow 2.15: "Fellowship of the Spear"

So you might remember that I did a rant earlier about how every time-travel show eventually does the HG Wells episode. And Legends of Tomorrow brilliantly played with this by doing a George Lucas episode.

Well now they're back, with a frickin' J.R.R. Tolkien episode.

See, our heroes have finally acquired the One Ring Spear of Destiny, an artifact of untold power that corrupts the minds of anyone nearby, tempting them to use its power, which - supposedly - they can't control. It glows when magic stuff is nearby. Normal fire reveals writing on it, and it can only be destroyed by being flung into a huge fiery pit (okay, that's the next episode). Well, it can also be destroyed with the blood of Christ, and JRR happens to know where we can get some. So it's off to World War One - you know, Mordor - for wacky fun adventures in the middle of Hell on Earth.

Oh - they can't go to the Crucifixion itself because the CW doesn't want to insult unbelievers there are some points in history that even the Legends simply Do. Not. Want. to f*ck with. Possibly getting Tolkien killed in the middle of one of the stupidest wars in history? Eh, it will save everyone nine hours of their lives circa 2001-2003.

So obviously Lord of the Rings references abound. The quotes got a little excessive, but this was better than the George Lucas episode, if only because it didn't end on "clap your hands if you believe (in yourself)."

I have so many thoughts about the Batgirl movie

So Joss Whedon is in talks to direct/write/produce a Batgirl film. The film will be based on the "New 52" incarnation of the character.

This strikes me as such a stupid, idiotic, numbskull, insane, moronic decision.

• Joss Whedon is known to Fans Of A Certain Age (hi) as the genius behind Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. This sounds encouraging, but Joss Whedon is also the guy who made Dollhouse, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the script for Alien Resurrection.
• The "New 52" was a colossal mistake and the comics are literally right now in the process of fixing it. But more specifically for our purposes, it is beyond illogical to follow a "too dark" Batfilm with a Batfilm where the main protagonist is suffering from heavy PTSD. 

And you're also going to annoy a portion of the fanbase that believes that films about women must be directed by women. I disagree but I'm throwing that out there anyway because hey, maybe something will stick.

Don't do it. This twerp thought audiences wanted a Hulk/Widow romance where Widow thought she was a monster because she couldn't have children. Don't do it because the New 52 is the last segment of Batgirl's 50-year history (other than, y'know, The Killing Joke itself) you want audiences to see when you need to make your franchise lighter and softer.

Don't do it because to my generation, Cass is Batgirl - but that is the last and least reason not to do it.

Just don't do it.

A not-inexhaustive (but probably close) list of reasons I'm "glad" Trump won

Don't worry. This won't take long.

• Justice Gorsuch. Hello, rule of law!
• Leftists will allow Liberals to say they don't like big government.
• Leftists will pretend they don't like big government.
• Instead of a batshit insane globalist warmonger, we have a batshit insane nationalist warmonger. Since we're spending our blood and treasure either way, let it be spent on our own interests.
• Every single institution would be lined up behind Hitlary, but is opposed to the Trumpenfuhrer. I know which way I prefer it.
• There's a miniscule chance of scaling back the tyranny of the administrative state.
• Watching the Democratic Party try to figure out what happened to it has been pretty entertaining so far.

...yeah that's about it.

Arrow news

SPOILERS

Jim analyzes the JUSTICE LEAGUE trailer

They made a trailer. I watched it.

Star Wars deleted scenes

And when I say Star Wars, I mean Star Wars, not "crummy cash-in two decades after the fact," nor do I mean "the Force turning tricks for the Mouse."









I'd seen the one with the "wormy" girl before, and I think one of the other scenes - but without sound. Interesting stuff. I particularly like the bit about the Empire nationalizing some of the inner systems' economies. So... not the USA, then.

So I have an un-PC thought about the upcoming WONDER WOMAN film

aaaaaaand I'm gonna step into a yuge can of worms here.

So. The Wonder Woman comic book is ridiculously feminist, to the point of being straight up misandrist. (Earth One, I am looking straight at you.) Without going too deep into it, the guy who came up with the idea was kinky, and that was probably the least insane thing about him.

Anyway. The movie features an athletic model (man points) kicking ass (man points) in a miniskirt (man points) and a metal corset (man points). There's a lot of things for guys to like, right? And, hey, maybe the WWI setting is so that the evil evil socially-backwards "Man's World" won't have obnoxious political subtext. Yeah, things sucked for women 100 years ago when Woodrow Wilson (D) was president. We can all agree on that.

(Wait a damn minute. Underclad action girl(s) in a film with a mildly feminist subtext and Zack Snyder's involvement? Friendly reminder that I liked Sucker Punch, so...)

So aside from the subject matter, the other thing that's really encouraging about this film so far is that it's lacking the marketing campaign Fake Ghostbusters had. You remember - "See this film or you're a sexist asshole!"

So yeah, looking forward to it.

Please don't suck, Wonder Woman.

Is INT overrated in New Vegas?

Okay, so the internet will tell you that Perception and Charisma are dump stats and Intelligence and Endurance are the most important SPECIAL stats to have.

Yeah, a pox on that. Well, with respect to Intelligence, at least. 

So here's the deal. Whenever you level up, you get a certain number of skill points, determined by how many Intelligence points you have. The formula is 10 + (INT/2). Now, you might notice that this doesn't necessarily yield a whole number; the extra half-point is held over and awarded on your even level-ups. So if you have, say, 7 INT, when you hit level 2, you'll get 14 points, but when you hit level 3, you'll only get 13.

Okay, so at level 4, there's a perk called Educated. The entire internet swears by this, and they're right to do so. It awards you an extra 2 skill points per level. That's like having 4 extra INT!

So if you have 2 INT and Educated, you get 12+2/2, or 13 points per level. If you have 10 INT and don't have Educated, you get 10+10/2, or 15 points per level. It's a measly two points per level, and frankly, some of those skills you don't need to push past 50 - or even lower.

David Ayer tweets photo of Black Mask

Sorry, that's "David Ayer, director of Academy Award(tm)-winning Suicide Squad.

Anyway the frame in question is from Under the Red Hood. Oh. Joy.

Bill Paxton dead at 61

Paxton was John Garrett in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fred Haise in Apollo 13, and Pvt. Hudson in Aliens, among many other roles. (He's also the "f*ck you, asshole!" punk at the beginning of The Terminator.)

D'ja ever notice - and this is not to diminish the man's skills as an actor or anything - that Hudson and Haise are pretty similar characters? They're both cocky aces who eventually lose their shit, get in a petty argument during a crisis situation, and spend the last third of the film huddled in a ball in the corner (of course, the difference is, Hudson turns out to be a coward whereas Haise... well, let's just say the poor guy misinterpreted an order and got a really nasty health problem as a result. The movie's courteous enough not to go into detail). Since Aliens and Apollo 13 are the two films he's in I've seen the most, that connection has always really jumped out at me.

How to get to New Vegas quickly

Basically, go from Goodsprings to Sloan to Neil's Shack. Then very carefully sneak around the outskirts of Black Mountain. In order to do this, head north from the Shack, keeping the winding path on your right. Don't go down off the ledge until you run into a mountain wall. Then carefully drop down onto the winding path, but at the switchback (where the path curves back towards the south) go off-road, past the NCR corpse and the bear traps. Dodge the falling rocks. From there it's a straight shot to Repconn Headquarters, and you're in the clear.

Then comes the part where you actually have to get into New Vegas. You have numerous options.

1. Have 2000 caps. The most straightforward way. Go all the way around Vegas and enter from the north, through Freeside. Present 2000 caps to the Securitron guarding the gate to the Strip. Note that the Securitron does not actually take your caps; it just makes sure that you have 2000 caps.
2. Have 80 Science. Talk to the Securitron guard and override it. You're in.
3. Kill all the Securitrons. Not recommended.
4. Obtain a pass by going to the King's School in Freeside (2nd segment) and doing the Kings' first quest, G.I. Blues. (Note that this is likely to negatively affect your NCR reputation.) You can pick from several different rewards. Choose access to the Strip.
5. Obtain a pass by going to Mick & Ralph's in Freeside (1st segment, near the East Gate). Pass a 50 Speech check to make the pass available. From there you can pass a 50 Barter check to get a discount, or have a high NCR reputation to get the pass for free (you still need the 50 Speech, though).
6. Sneak into the Strip via Camp McCarran. Instead of heading north from the Repconn building and passing around the east side of Vegas, head west until Vegas is directly north of you, then head north. You'll run into Camp McCarran. In order to access the monorail, you'll need one of the following: 
1. a high NCR reputation (there are quests you can do there) 
2. an NCR uniform
3. the patience to wait until the shift at the monorail terminal changes.