Brandon Sanderson has often said (and I have quoted ad nauseam) that any author who grew up on Robert Jordan has a great epic of their own to tell. Without a doubt, The Way of Kings is Brandon’s. We have grand battles, both arcane and new magics, compelling characters, and a strange new world called Roshar.
[A little more spoiler free discussion foiled by mega spoilers after a disclaimer]
Well folks, here we are: the true end of the “Re-watch.” I’d like to take this moment to say I’ve enjoyed having you all along, and I hope you will join me when I talk about the further comics. (Also, here is a direct link back to the first half, if you missed it. )That being said, below is my continued three-time-frame analysis of the movie, and obviously, spoilers abound. And, um, sorry for the length of this thing. I had a lot to say.
I have two lovely and wonderful boys, aged two and four. It is my dearest hope that they not only grow up happy, but that they grow up nerds. I am, of course, stacking the deck in my favor.
And here we are. It feels almost sad, getting to the last of the Firefly Re-watch. Yeah, I’ll still have some comics to talk about after this (in a bit, they are in the mail), but I’m going to format those a bit differently than I did with Those Left Behind, if for no other reason than to save the taxonomy of “re-watch.” I am breaking this up into two parts, though, splitting right about halfway through the movie. Even more, this is going to be a little different, so hang on as I stream-of-consciousness this baby!
[It’s like what River would get if she read my mind while I wrote!]
And here we have the thrilling, if delayed by moi, conclusion to our episode in comic form. We have Judo, we have heartbreak, we have snark, and we even have a sword. What an issue. Past exploits are here. Spoilers are obviously below.
Issue Summary:
Aboard the primary derelict from the Battle of Sturgis, Jayne looks at the numerous corpses, Alliance and Independent both, and mutters that it just doesn’t seem right. Mal pauses a moment in respect, then tells them to keep moving as there is a job to be done. Outside, the blue-hands sneak up under Serenity in their small shuttle and establish an airlock and prepare to breach.
So, fancied we’d have a little second issue, eh? Maybe a spot of tea along with it? Well, isn’t that just bloomin’ dandy. Guess you’ve forgotten what happened last time we did this, eh? We’ll, I’ll be sure to spoil any and everything while I’m at it.
Issue Summary:
On Whitefall, the blue hands smile down at the guard they have just murdered when a bullet impacts near their feet. They look up and express their gratitude for the warning shot, and a man with a cybernetic eye tells them don’t; his depth perception just isn’t what it used to be. He asks what they want.
Blue-Hand 1: The same thing you do . . .
Blue-Hand 2: Agent Dobson.
On this glorious day, my friends, I have come here to talk to you about Those Left Behind, be they friends or foes. Of course, a strong recollection of where we have already been is important. But know also that a thorough, and a spoiled, understanding of the present and even the future is important as well.
Issue Summary:
On a bright day on the moon Constance, Book is finally plying his trade and giving a sermon to the whole town. And as he speaks to his flock of giving, not taking, and the worth of not valuing material things, Mal is in the nearby bank, robbing them all blind.
So I went back and read all my comments, and aside from realizing I need to proofread better and probably go back and fix some formatting issues, I am at a bit of a loss of where to start. I definitely look at Firefly differently now that I’ve critically watched it, and I have plenty to say, but I have a feeling I will be very, very stream-of-conscious in doing so. So, just to be administratively sound, here is the archive, and I will be whole-hog spoiling on the series and not shying from spoilers on the movie and possibly the first comic book, Serenity: Those Left Behind.
So, with there being no Firefly post this week, I suddenly found myself with some free time. What did I do with it? I went to a local small theater and pub called The Browncoat. I am not pulling your leg, this place does exist, and it is awesome, from having drink specials such as a Firefly and a Sihnon Sunset, to signed pictures of the Firefly cast, to tourism posters for the different worlds of the ‘verse.
And what did I see in this shiny pocket of geekdom? A home-grown production called Catastropolis, by Justin Cioppa. In the city of Catastropolis, being a super-hero or super-villain is just another job, and the story focuses on seven particularly bad super-villains. That is to say, they are bad at what they do.
[Strap on your shiny pants, because you’re in for a world of trouble.]
I need to preface this blog with some information. I am not a “metal head.” Nor am I a person who even normally goes to concerts. I do enjoy music, and I can get into some of the fringes of hard rock and trance or techno, but still, metal in and of itself is not something that I usually listen to. Yet, when my friends insisted I come with them down to Myrtle Beach for a GWAR concert, I was perversely interested. I mean, I had heard of GWAR, and I knew there was something to do with monster-aliens and lots of blood and gore and a strange stage show. But oh, how little did I truly know.
Everything comes to an end, but just because it has ended, does that really mean it has stopped? Does the thing simply cease to be because it has played its course? Or does its history, the very fact that it has existed, and the very fact that there are spoilers below, make that thing live on? If it doesn’t, that just doesn’t seem right.
Episode Summary:
From outer space, we zoom through the small spaces of Serenity until we see River, asleep, and hearing a strange man’s voice. She awakens suddenly and goes out to the lounge, where Simon is regailing Kaylee with a story of drunken shenanigans that took place just after he became a surgeon. In the middle of the story, they both look over and see River, who is smiling and watching them. River then sees a strange flash of Simon looking at her, regretting his life choice to save her. Instantly Kaylee and Simon are back to laughing over the story, and River goes upstairs, obviously confused.
So, this fellow named Nicholas Carr wrote a book called The Shallows. I have not read it (but I want to, I want to suggest anyone interested in the points below do so as well). I have read a review of it called “So Many Links, So Little Time” by John Horgan over at the Wall Street Journal, though (and I’d link it ‘cept it is the WSJ, and they are all “register or die” and I’m not even registered, I just had the article “guest linked” to me.) Anywho, so I read this review, and it is pretty easy to see what it is about: the Internet is turning our brains into mush!
There was a time, in the wild west, when men were men and the women were, too. Where a person had to cut out what little bit of land there was to be had, no matter the spoilers, and hold onto it with the fierce determination that only a long memory would provide.
Episode Summary:
At a tin-foil covered house in the middle of a desert, a man and woman are hanging laundry out when they see an approaching hovercraft and horses. They call for Nandi, and she comes out calmly and tells them to go inside. The man in the hovercraft, Rance Burgess, ignores her declaration that he isn’t welcome at her brothel and sends his men in to fetch a pregnant prostitute, Petaline. He forcefully extracts a sample of the fetus’ DNA right there, and promises her that if it matches his own he’ll be back for his baby, even if it means cutting it out of her. The prostitutes wonder how they could stand up to Rance and Nandi looks off in the distance, thinking.
[Regretfully, the plan she thinks up isn’t out of a seventies movie about Amazons.]
You all have really carried me through this thing. It’s funny, looking back, I don’t think any of us went into the re-watch expecting to be affected by spoilers, but it was the southern accents that I just couldn’t survive. But, well, you know the old saying. When you can’t watch, re-watch, and when you can’t do that, well . . . you know the rest.
Episode Summary:
On a rather television-screen-heavy space station, a man pitches like a carnie that he has a dead alien for the public to see. Inside, Simon and Kaylee look at it, and Simon identifies it as a cow fetus. They have a kind of flirty moment where Simon realizes Kaylee’s core truth, namely that she finds the bright-side of everything, and she in turn is somewhat forward, commenting how they are alone in the room for another five minutes. She asks him to compliment her more, and he awkwardly proceeds. And, being Simon, he bungles it and points out that she is the only romantic possibility for him period. This, of course, is a major turn-off, and she storms out. Zoe and Wash come in, and Simon confesses to Zoe.
SIMON: Uh, this may come as a shock but I’m actually not very good at . . . at talking to girls.
ZOE: Why, is there someone you are good at talking to?
And at last, my friends, we come to the end of my JordanCon interviews. And as is fitting with our beloved series, our ending interview shall be with the man who was tapped, to his own surprise, to bring the Wheel of Time to an ending. Not the ending, mind, we know those don’t exist. And, a reminder requested of me by anonymous sources, this was an audio interview, which is why it reads like . . . well, like it was spoken, and not written and polished. Without further ado, my interview with author Brandon Sanderson.
RF: What would you say has been the most difficult part of working on the Wheel of Time?
BWS: I would say keeping track of all the multitude of characters and subplots. I thought the hardest part might be writing the characters, and indeed that was kind of difficult. It was definitely the most important part: making sure they felt like themselves. But there’s so many different Aes Sedai, so many different Wise Ones, so many different named characters, and so many different sub-characters with smaller plots, and they all have different ways of speaking and ways of thinking, and tracking it all is a real challenge.
So, there was this girl I hadn’t seen in a while. We didn’t part on the best of terms, and I sure as hell remembered what those terms were. But there she was, asking me to trust her again. Despite spoilers, I decided to. Shows what I know.
Episode Summary:
In a desert, Mal sits alone and naked on a rock, looking around. To no one, he says, “Yeah, that went well.” Seventy-two hours earlier, he is on a rock in space doing a cargo swap with an old friend, Monty. He notices some obvious changes in his friend, and finds out that Monty is married. Bridget, his wife, shows up, and wouldn’t you know it’s Saffron. Mal and Saffron pull guns on each other.
As promised, my eager beaver readers, I give you the Red Eagle Games interview, in which Larry Mondragon and I discuss the video game potential of our beloved Wheel of Time.
RF: You mentioned that the second project you are working on is video games. Why don’t you tell me a little about that?
REG: Well Richard, in addition to our work as producers of The Eye of the World motion picture, my partner (Rick Selvage) and I are building a world-class video game business from the ground up. We have launched Red Eagle Games, a new company that will produce a family of Wheel of Time branded video games. We are really excited about the prospects for bringing to life the wonderful characters and world that Robert Jordan has given to us in an immersive video game experience.
Yeah, I can tell you about what it was like back in the war. It was horrible! People forgot how to be people back then, and never knew how to look at the past. No, they were just looking to a future that wasn’t there, full of spoilers and perhaps SciFi series that have satisfying endings, if they have them at all. What, bitter about Lost? Whatever do you mean? This is the Firefly Re-watch! Get off my lawn, you durn kid!
Episode Summary:
In the infirmary, Simon looks over the neural-scan information he acquired on Ariel while Book chats with him. Book asks if he has ever read the works of Shan Yu, who Simon recognizes as a psychotic dictator, but Book reveals was also a philosopher, if a demented one. In particular, he comments about how only by bringing a man to the edge of death could you truly meet him. Simon wonders why Book even knows about this Shan Yu’s writing, and hopes he isn’t a fan. Book says that he isn’t, but he wonders if the people who cut into River might have been. Simon turns to him.
SIMON: The government did this to her.
BOOK: A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned.
SIMON: Now you’re quoting the captain.
Simon assures Book that the damage speaks to a specific purpose, not just to push River to her limits. Book asks if she is doing better, and Simon says that she is sleeping better, but nothing really stable. At least, though, he has a large store of medicine on hand now. Book is less than pleased with how the medicine was obtained and asks Simon if he has his next heist planned. Simon’s response is less than apologetic.
An external shot of the ship zips around the moon they are orbiting to a familiar skyplex. Inside, Niska is torturing a man, mentions Shun Yu, and then is informed that Serenity is in orbit. He dispatches a team to intercept.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have summoned you here for a very specific purpose. I have a job for you. As you will tell from past work, this is unlike anything else we have done thus far. It is on a core planet. It only really involves half the crew. It is a good plan, provided everyone can actually stick to it. If you will open the dossiers I’ve placed under your chairs, you will be warned of potential spoilers for the whole series, and the presence of a traitor amongst us.
Episode Summary:
In the galley, Jayne is cleaning a gun, Inara and Kaylee are playing a card game, and Simon and River are making some not-so-molded protein mush. Wash and Zoe walk in, with Wash demanding they go somewhere while on Ariel, the core planet they are about to visit, but Zoe is having none of it. Inara and Simon try to convince Zoe that it will be alright. Mal then barges in and lets everyone know in no uncertain terms that no one is getting off the ship except Inara, who has to go get her annual physical, thus the reason for the visit. Jayne complains, and Mal says he could have gotten off with Book at the Bathgate Abbey, which kind of shuts him up except for some disgusting noises that Simon takes offense to. The crew starts talking about Inara’s imminent hospital visit, and River calmly takes a butcher’s knife and slices Jayne across the chest. Jayne backhands River, and everyone jumps to action: Zoe, Kaylee, and Mal to Jayne; Wash, Simon, and Inara to River.
[Good to know we can always count on River to flip out in the beginning.]
And now, for a change of pace. As many of you know, but I am guessing many of you don’t, Red Eagle Entertainment is the production company that acquired film production rights for The Wheel of Time and its affiliate company, Red Eagle Games, also holds rights pertaining to the production of video games. I had the great pleasure last year of meeting Larry Mondragon, one of the main brains behind the operation, and actually had several interesting casual conversations with him about the effort being made to present The Eye of the World as a live-action feature film. Well, Larry once again came to JordanCon, and this time, I got our conversations on my voice recorder. Below, I talk with Red Eagle Entertainment about The Eye of the World movie.
RF: So, tell me, what kind of projects do you have going on?
REE: Well Richard, we have two projects we are currently pursuing. The first is a live-action motion picture based on The Wheel of Time; more specifically, an adaptation of The Eye of the World. Our second project is a family of video games similarly based upon the themes, characters, and storylines of The Wheel of Time.
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I Can Has Ray Gunz! Cat-People in Science Fiction by Ryan Britt
Writing Hurricane Katrina by Suzanne Johnson
