I think I’m inclined to agree. Certainly personally, no show has ever managed to grip my attention, get me to think about the world around me, and sustain that intellectual interest for as long as BSG.
I dunno. While I enjoyed BSG, and it certainly had its high points, I felt that some of the issues the show explored were contrived. You have to take yourself out of the story to have the debate - trying to debate it in story is ridiculous. Like the abortion debate. In the real world, this is a serious debate, but should it have been in the BSG world? It's a similar discussion regarding representation of women in Warhammer 40k - this is a very serious discussion in the real world that would not be an argument at all in the 40k world. In order to think about it and have the debate, you have to take yourself out of the world, you have to remove yourself from the immersion. Star Trek often did a better job.
The worse implication however is that, for me to truly develop this point, I would have to rewatch BSG. I have all the dvds, I could do it - and I don't want to. I enjoyed BSG and I may rewatch it some day but as time has gone on I don't feel it has truly withstood. That, I feel, is a more damning criticism.
Game of Thrones is different. I feel there are very few shows ever that stand up to it. The discussion about Jaime's behaviour is absolutely properly on how out-of-character it seems (but then, we're saying he too much of a nice guy to rape Cersei, but he happily tosses children out of windows) but the redemption story - maybe we're forgetting to keep ourselves in the Game of Thrones world when we hope for redemption. He's going to become a good guy by Lannister standards, not our own.
Finally, though - there's really not much else. I'd probably make an argument for anime to be a better vehicle for discussing events around us than tv, the vast majority of shows are absolute shit. Some neat things are going on, for example the way Agents of SHIELD tied directly in with Winter Soldier - I consider that something other production studios should note and perhaps emulate. Flash grew from Arrow, if the Justice League movies just took those characters to the big screen DC wouldn't need to re-do the back stories - but then, DC has already said there's no connection between their tv and movie departments.
Vikings I will continue to watch, but I really don't expect a show that's relatively closely following Ragnar's saga to spend time giving us life lessons for our world.
Hey Mr. Green!!! Okay so I have been doing some research and from what I can tell in my measly 15 year old brain, the situation in North Korea seems very similar to the situation in Germany during the 1940s, and perhaps even worse. My question is, how do places like the United States, who claim to stand up against evil in the world, stand for this? I am a proud American but as I became more immersed in this problem, I started to question my country. Also, how can I get involved to change this???
Arguably the innovation that has saved the most lives in the last 1000 years is the universally recognized sanctity of the nation state. The vast majority of wars have been fought over contested borders or in attempts to conquer territory. And so respecting all nation states (even evil ones) has proved to be a net positive for the world.
Though, occasionally, we convince ourselves that we have the right to invade a country and thus we know how terrible we are at building governments once toppling regimes. The average citizen of North Korea knows nothing about the outside world and is loyal to the current system. Even if we knew for sure that it would be a net positive for the world, a war with North Korea would cost, at minimum, hundreds of thousands of lives. Probably millions.
We stand for it the way we stand for a child dying of an incurable cancer…because there is simply no other choice.
There are a great number of less dangerous, less expensive ways to help people in this world…In your home town and across the world. That starts with compassion and caring, and you have obviously got a great start there.
I’m kind of honing in on one aspect of the question, so this doesn’t speak to the “why do we not do something” bit, however, I’d suggest that one should be quite careful about drawing too many comparisons between North Korea and Germany circa 1933-1945. I think comparing dictatorships is fine, but as you study some others, you’ll also come to see that dictatorships, while they share a lot of similarities (limited/no civil rights/liberties, one party/figure rule, mass observation, arbitrary penalties, among others), there are even more differences, and one dictatorship does not always match another.
For instance, the comparison with Nazi Germany is made quite a lot - and understandbly so, since it’s a readily available dictatorship that everyone knows at least *something* about. But there are huge differences. First, Nazi Germany was “fascist” (as historians we generally have to also specify that “National Socialism” is also unique within facism, but we’ll get to that), and North Korea is (officially) Socialist/’Communist’ (I’m not sure which stage N. Korea considers itself to be at currently). “Fascism” and “Communism” are complicated ideologies, and we’d need more space than a Tumblr post to really go into them, but they’re not at all the same thing.
Then, perhaps the most significant difference to bear in mind would be the distinction in National Socialist Germany of a racialized ideology. *Everything* about Nazi ideology must be considered in terms of being a racially motivated regime-including the War. The Nazis attempted to create a racially pure “Racial Community/National Community” (Volksgemeinschaft) by removing all people it deemed to be undesirable. Yet we must also remember that for those people who were deemed racially desirable, and thus a *part* of the Volksgemeinschaft, the regime bent over backwards to try and genuinely create a utopia for them. (so the short of it is, the Nazi regime was a highly oppressive one—to those it deemed unworthy—but was actually quite inclusive for those it felt racially pure. Germans were not oppressed, nor were they living under the threat of a police state.
In other words, Nazi Germany’s dictatorship cannot be understood without the racial aspects of its ideology, whereas in North Korea, this plays a far less significant role, if it plays any role at all. North Korea may be more easily compared with the former Socialist countries of Eastern Europe, or to North Vietnam circa the 1980s. Even here, comparisons will reveal as many differenecs as similarities; but the lack of a racial ideology in these countries make the comparison more fruitful.
North Korea's actually extremely racist, effectively to the point of saying that North Koreans are superhuman, or at least so far superior, to everyone else. There's arguments made that "the guiding ideology of North Korea is a race-based nationalism derived from Japanese fascism." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cleanest_Race
I'll have a go at my library for more to confirm this, but even Hitchens noted how North Korea basically sees itself as the purest exemplars of humanity. In that sense, I'd say they're probably closer to the Nazis than you argue, as there is a definite racial ideology.
To the right, a company of Ultramarines. To the left, terminators, Honour Guard, and the assembled seven captains. Painting is slow, but coming along. Will it be done in time for the Apocalypse?
Not all the models I have shown, just the most presentable. Which is saying something.
Took forever. I lost momentum, no lies, and painting scouts - even converted scouts - gave me no real inspiration. I used the opportunity to experiment with skin tones.
Rainy day today so lighting is worse than usual, maybe better ones later.
I'll own up to not making the bases special - sue me. I still used the texture paint, I still washed and drybrushed so they do look nice. And maybe the Ultra symbol isn't the greatest, but I don't like transfers and I was really excited to get this done - I might've rushed. Maybe I'll get back to it someday.
What do I like - the sergeant! I was worried about how he'd turn out, since I scraped all the Blood Angels stuff off him, but I'm enjoying him the most. Even though I did the same process for every model - sprayed blue, washed, highlighted - it shows best on the sergeant. That may be because of the extra details, which is something I should keep in mind for later Terminator models: Add stuff so the colours really stand out.
I stuck to my theme of ensuring every model has red, gold and silver by making the crux terminatus gold. No, I didn't pick out every detail, because I didn't feel like it and I want the Honour Guard to stand out most (along with the characters they guard).
Hobby Progress Challenge - March completed! And April showcase.
I said last time that I wanted to try and get ahead since I know the scouts are going to suck, bad. Why did I commit to ten? Why didn't I do five? And do more honour guard!
Alas. Here's the terminators, which I've since primed (Technically, by timing, I shot the terminators before the dreadnought. I was still working on the freehand Ultra symbol, and realized I had forgot the ... camera? on the heavy bolter arm). It's so much easier to spray blue over red! So easy to see where I missed....
Rather than a few more posts I just want to talk about some of the most recent Horus Heresy book releases and my thoughts. There will be spoilers, so we'll see if I can remember how to hide them. Specifically, I want to touch on: Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden; Angel Exterminatus by Graham McNeil; Vulkan Lives by Nick Kyme; and what I've read so far of Unremembered Empire by Dan Abnett. In reality, I'll be hitting stuff farther than this in my thoughts, so if spoilers of anything in the Horus Heresy series are something you're opposed to, perhaps best to not continue this post.
What I've really loved about the Horus Heresy books is the information they've given me about the character of the legions themselves. The Space Wolves, for example - are they just the same as any other space marine legion? No, they're not, and as far removed they are from the Ultramarines they're equally far from the Death Guard. The background provided in the codices and rulebooks are all well and good, but the novels really can give us a sense of the day-to-day character of the legions. And the Primarchs! If the legions have a certain character, the Primarchs really ought to be the epitome of that, shouldn't they? In one of the earlier books, don't they even say as much, that each Primarch is like a manifestation of an aspect of the Emperor, and the legions are moulded after their Primarch?
What happens when this fails?
Why on TERRA is Vulkan a perpetual? I know this isn't in proper order, but - sweet jebus. How does this make any sense? I love that we got an idea of Vulkan's commitment to ordinary humanity, but I'm kind of getting tired of John Grammaticus, and now a PRIMARCH is one of them?
Well, at least we know he'll be able to return when the Salamanders find all the relics.
But seriously, I bought the Salamanders omnibus - I was expecting more from Nick Kyme. Vulkan trying to deal with Ferrus' death, and dealing with Konrad's insanity, plus the loyalists' attempts to stop the Word Bearers - those were all solid parts of the story, I felt. Where the whole thing fell apart for me was Vulkan being a perpetual. Holy Throne does that need at least another novel to make sense.
Rewinding to Betrayer - Angron is going slightly mad. I'll give Aaron Dembski-Bowden his due, he's an awesome space marine writer. Lorgar's machinations, the "No, brother - I built three" line was epic, Angron's transformation/ascension, and Roboute! Dan Abnett made Roboute and the Ultramarines awesome in Know No Fear, but the throw down between Roboute and Lorgar, then Angron, I thoroughly enjoyed.
What don't I like about Betrayer, is a weakness I feel the whole series suffers from - how large is a legion? From Know No Fear we get this idea that the Ultramarines are almost a quarter million strong, and the bulk of the legion is mustering at Calth, and they get stomped by the Word Bearers. Sure, many more survive than anyone thought, thanks to them being complete badasses, but surely tens of thousands were lost at a minimum. At Armatura, a training base for more Ultramarines, we get this sense of how the Ultramarines might survive - by being organized. It naturally gets razed, with many more Ultramarines perishing.
All of this says nothing about the losses the World Eaters take! How can they lose so many and still be around for the assault on Terra? How can Alan Bligh write that a legion that ENJOYS suicidal frontal assaults have 120,000 marines? They fight each other in gladiatorial contests, sometimes to the death!
And what happened to the Shadow Crusade between Betrayer and Unremembered Empire? Roboute just kicks back and starts rebuilding? So many loyalists are just lost in the warp for TWO YEARS? I love Dan Abnett's work, but this is getting a little much for me. Roboute, in Unremembered Empire, is also kind of off - what makes him unfit to be Emperor, let alone Warmaster or Regent? Before, it was hinted that Roboute just lacked charisma, he was too analytical, but he suffers from none of that here.
Why does Lion el'Jonson get so much praise? How can anyone feel he'd make a good Warmaster? When did he get good at ANYTHING, other than being almost as mysterious as Alpharius? Ok, good in combat, but they all are; good in strategy - how? Tactics? How could he reasonably stand up to Roboute, or Alpharius, or Horus? And if he could, as well as being handsome and a kick ass fighter, why was Horus then chosen? How could Roboute even be a contender?
I love what Angel Exterminatus did for the Iron Warriors, and I enjoy Dan carrying a bit of it into Unremembered Empire. I also love that Perturabo's an architect who just dreams of beautiful buildings, it's so much the worse for the lot he has in life. The glimpse of the Iron Warriors as a legion, this I enjoyed very much, even if it got a bit weird with the Emperor's Children.
I love the books, I can't wait for Scars to come out in May, but sometimes some of the stuff that comes up just drives me crazy. Why is Vulkan a perpetual? Seriously.
Kind of figured I'd post things like this from now on. My games are still infrequent enough to clutter up anyone's dash.
Played a three-way, 1,000pt Zone Mortalis game, used my HPC list as is so I wasn't expecting too much, but then for all three of us it was our first try with the rules. The other space marine player took a Chapter Master, Tigurius, a three-strong Honour Guard, five thundershield Termies, and two five-strong tac squads with flamers (mainly due to a mixup with the rules). Our other player took three twelve-strong Bloodletter units, Skulltaker on a Jugger, some bloodcrushers, a few Flamers, and a Great Unclean One.
We played the mission where you start with half your army and the rest is in reserve, and the objectives were kill points. We chose to have our first half walk on, which was neat for theme and atmosphere but basically meant we had to discount turn 1 - it became turn 0, it was just some units wandering around. The action itself didn't start until turn 3. In the end, I narrowly won, 5 kill points to 4 (with the daemon player claiming 1), but I was more surprised by what did what.
I did not fire the plasma on my combi-plasma when I shot up one of the tactical squads, reasoning that I would rather have those plasma shots against either the terminators or honour guard - when my squad was thus charged later by the bloodcrushers, it was wasted. If I had used the plasma, I could have, potentially, killed the entire tac squad and earned a kill point. As it was the lone survivor survived the game.
My assault terminators did squad, but I guess I should expect that from lightning claw terminators going up against 2+ armour. The dreadnought I literally, and stupidly, threw away against the thundershield terminators - why on earth did I do that? It handed a kill point to an opponent.
But the bright side was definitely my honour guard which simply annihilated two units of bloodletters, one in each round of combat. These guys are hardcore, and I'll likely be adding more, and maybe a Chaplain (and possibly a Land Raider Crusader to carry them). Just so killy.
I won, but I don't feel great about it. My tactics are basically opportunistic and reactive and too many units are being thrown away. Gotta work on that.
February is DONE. Tactical squad, complete. Lighting is meh, but it was 11pm, I might try to retake the image tomorrow when it's hopefully lighter.
March commitment - Dreadnought. I figure April's will be the Terminators, which will hopefully allow me to get a bit ahead. The Scouts will be May, leaving the Chapter Master and Honour Guard for June. The five scouts I did previously really dragged me down, and I didn't even do that much detail, so I'm hoping to get some extra time on my side with a big model like a dreadnought and then the Terminators, and really buckle down for the scouts.
Hobby Progress Challenge commitments. Top image is everything (less half the devastator squad and the hunter tank, also missing from the bottom image), middle image is the part 1, bottom is part 2.
Alas, no hobby progress to show, though I have done some painting. A combat squad of tactical marines is done, the support half is mostly done. Most importantly I've decided to join the Independent Characters' Hobby Progress Challenge for 2014!
Rules are posted on their website, but briefly I'll need to paint (showing regular progress) 1000pts of Zone Mortalis force between February and June, inclusive, and then increase it to 2000pts of whole army through November. For me, this is mainly to be an infantry force for the first half, and adding allies and vehicles for the second half.
I'm discounting (to be fair and comply by the rules, which say I have to show the models unpainted at the start date) the three Ultramarine tactical squads, the Ultramarines scout snipers, the two Salamanders tactical squads and the Salamanders thunderfire cannon. For the HPC, then, I decided to continue to work on my Ultramarines, adding to my force.
1st part, Zone Mortalis:
HQ - Chapter Master, Shield Eternal, Artificier, Power axe
Honour Guard - five strong, Chapter Banner
This will give me quite the hammer unit.
Elites - Assault Terminators, for more hammer.
Dreadnought, for fun. Have to double check that these are allowed in Zone Mortalis.
Pedro Kantor stood his ground as the Ork Warboss charges, this is a warboss like none others, towering over everyone in the battlefield. But Pedro will never retreat, not against this hated enemy.
His Iron Halo crackled and the conversion field activates, deflecting the Power Klaw, and with his power fist risen and ready, Pedro is ready to return the blow
~Artist note~
Been wanting to do a bigger scale 40k piece for a while, and inspired by my good friend Kelvin Chin and his amazing work for Games-Workshop. This will probably be one of the most epic piece I had done so far,so I thought why not I do a piece with 2 of the traditional match up.
Initially, I planned to have a Terminator Captain with a thunderhammer and stormshield slugging it out with the Ork warboss, but after deciding to go with the Crimson Fists Chapter as Chapter of choice in this piece, I ran into a little problem… They don’t really have a 1st company captain…. that role is held by their Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, who I checked, don’t wear Terminator Armour, non carry Thunderhammer and Stormshield, so as a result the sketches had to be changed.
You can see the changes along the way on the youtube vid I made from the WIP files I kept
