The Spectacular Professor

Be sure to update if there's a need for that, I'd be happy to contribute.

Boy it's been a while. And I wish this reunion were under better circumstances. (This is Ace, by the way. Why the butts did I change my screenname and why did any of you let me do it what is this pretentious mess.) This came as a pretty hard shock to me, and I'll probably be affected for a while, as will everyone. Des was a fantastic guy, always quick with a joke or a kind word or an anime screenshot so eerily suited to the occasion that I'm still convinced he was conjuring them like some kind of cartoon warlock. Seriously, I tested him once with like three of the most ridiculous and impossible statements I could come up with and he had a screenshot for each one. It was a superpower. I also remember him being a real stickler for video quality and insistent that his friends always had access to the best of it. I actually still have a DM from him on Twitter from back when I was looking to get into HappinessCharge Precure. He ripped the subs from one translator and manually overlayed them over another group's rips because the first group had compressed the video poorly, and then linked me to all the resources necessary to do it myself. It was a very above and beyond gesture and yet that sort of thing was entirely typical of him. It goes without saying I miss him. And I'll be missing him for a long time. But the time I knew him will stay with me forever and I'm grateful he shared so much with me as he did so many other people. As a way of weird little tribute I started a new Link to the Past file in his name and I've been sporadically posting Miiverse updates on my progress. I know it was one of his favorite games of all time and I'm pretty sure he'd be a bit secondhand embarrassed at seeing how bad I am at it but it's a nice way to keep his memory fresh for me. Mrs. Goudy, thank you for reaching out and contacting us. We all loved your son and it's hard for all of us, and certainly none more than you and your husband. But if we've done anything to help share the burden we're glad to have. He gave us a lot, it's only right we pay the favor forward.

Seems alright, although the status updates make the sidebar hang down way below the forum list now, which looks a little odd.

[font=comic sans ms,cursive]I've recently started buying the Ultimate comics from the first volume in the Marvel iPhone app. It's an interesting take on the mythos. I'm not much a fan of the way they handled the Green Goblin and his line of spinoff supervillains, but I actually kind of prefer the Ultimate version of Venom.[/font] [font=comic sans ms', cursive]Oh, and The Amazing Spider-Man (film) is a much more faithful adaptation than Sam Raimi's trilogy, so be sure to give that a look if you haven't yet and you're a webhead.[/font]

[font=comic sans ms,cursive]I liked it better than the other two. Am I exiled from society now?[/font]

[font=comic sans ms,cursive]Gotta recommend Ride Back. I haven't actually seen the dub yet, but it's FUNimation, so it's most likely quite good, and it's a fantastic show either way.[/font]

[quote name='Gavin' timestamp='1341111983' post='712116'] [font=tahoma,geneva,sans-serif]I really didn't like the revelation of Amon's identity, it stripped away so much respect I had for the character.[/font] [/quote] [font=comic sans ms,cursive]Really the entire thing felt like it was a bunch of good ideas marred by terrible execution. I love the idea behind Amon's identity, but the way they pulled it off just drained him of his dignity as the Equalist figurehead.[/font] [font=comic sans ms,cursive][spoiler]A self-loathing bender who understands the lengths to which bending can be abused to oppress the common folk makes perfect sense as the leader of the Equalist movement, but Noatak's motivation went right out the window the second he decided to rely on bloodbending so heavily in that final fight. That was when he became an outright, unsympathetic hypocrite. This is a shame because the Equalists have a damn good point and [i]that was never once acknowledged[/i].[/spoiler][/font] [font=comic sans ms,cursive]The entirety of the finale just managed to leave a sour taste in my mouth because it left me completely and utterly aware of how much better it could have been. It's like every cool concept they dished out had to be immediately crippled by some intense need to play it safe.[/font] [font=comic sans ms,cursive]Hell, I've spent the last month and a half hating the crap out of Mako, and I can actually envision a perfect way to pick up his character from as late as right before Aang hits the reset button and make him likeable and sympathetic right there.[/font] [font=comic sans ms,cursive][spoiler]Speaking of Aang and his magical fix everything asspull, that's probably the single most infuriating thing this finale did. It's right up with that one Naruto arc where Nagato killed himself and magically brought back everyone he killed because Naruto had a name that resembled his. Before they did that, there were at least consequences for the events of the story. People suffered, we could relate to the loss the characters were experiencing, and it left open infinite possibilities for continuation. There was so much room to grow for Korra and everyone else with the concept of the Avatar herself losing her bending. It could have been amazing.[/font] [font=comic sans ms,cursive]But no, all we get is Aang popping in and being all CONGRATULATIONS ON CONTEMPLATING SUICIDE KID HERE YOU WIN THE PRIIIIIZE. She just gets everything handed to her because she got sad for a few minutes. Aang had to willingly give up everything important to him to truly unlock the Avatar State. How was this even written by the same people?[/spoiler][/font]

[font=comic sans ms,cursive]That finale just could have been so much better. Like, all of it.[/font]

[quote name='chibi-master' timestamp='1336644806' post='711714'] Thisthisthis One thing I've found is that the villain in this series seems genuinely more frightening than any in the first. Azula was pretty much the only antagonist in TLA that I ever thought was worthy of being called one, in my opinion. Maybe Zhao at some point, but not for long. Amon, however, creeps me the heck out every time he shows up and [spoiler]his powers scared me half to death when they were revealed.[/spoiler] I've also noticed that things seem to be handled more realistically. [spoiler]Korra was caught by police, something that never really happened to Aang unless it was a plot device. Plays the Avatar Card? Toph's daughter doesn't care about your status, she just knows you wrecked a neighborhood. But on that note, it seems to me that Lin Beifong is being kind of overly-hostile toward Korra.[/spoiler] [/quote] [font=comic sans ms,cursive]Hama must have slipped your mind, then. Hot damn The Puppetmaster was a demented episode.[/font] [font=comic sans ms,cursive]I think the biggest reason for the general attitude shift in this one is that there's no obvious need for the Avatar in the day and age of Republic City. The world is getting more advanced and people are starting to rely less on bending. The world isn't at war anymore, either, so there's no need for her as a soldier like there was for Aang. On top of all that, Korra has a nasty tendency to pick fights at the drop of a hat and she doesn't exactly clean up after herself. Besides having a city to run, Lin's old enough to have met Aang and remembered it, so I imagine she looks at Korra and just sees some snot-nosed, hotheaded little punk tarnishing the legacy of the man who saved her mother from a lifetime of house arrest.[/font]

[font=comic sans ms,cursive]I'll just diffuse that incoming patriot missile by going right after Osama's obvious fatal weakpoint.[/font] [font=comic sans ms,cursive][img]http://i49.tinypic.com/2mg2s5h.jpg[/img][/font]