I have been watching some kids' shows (which is something that I get to do quite often given my occupation). I thought I would give some of them some reviews. My qualifications? I'm a writer. And as such, I will judge them on their writing, and possibly a bit on their acting. And perhaps my poor opinion on their art.
So here it goes.
Netflix's The Dragon Prince
(with very mild spoilers)
I was pleasantly surprised. You might look at this and see its animation as modern-day rotoscoping, but to be honest it works. And as such, I expected it at first to be nothing more than a simply fantasy with dragons and elves.
But it is so much more.
First, the writing is truly exemplary. The villains are good people in their own eyes, as they should be, and it is more than possible to see their points of view. Some are even capable of heroic acts. But they are capable to truly villainous acts that you wouldn't normally see in a kids' show. The heroes are also flawed, but in very human ways. However, it's the ways in which the characters are strong, and represented, that make this show extraordinary.
Like Avatar: The Last Airbender, and The Legend of Korra, The Dragon Prince pushes the boundaries of what is allowed in childrens' programming. We start out with an interracial royal family, nothing too major... only to fid that the king's sister-in-law is deaf. Yet, despite being deaf, she is strong. She's a general who takes on foes even when she is at a disadvantage, because it is the right thing to do. We have Queen Sarai, the closest advisor to her husband and a warrior like her sister, but who stands up against her husband when it is the right thing to do - and then supports him even when she disagrees with him. Then, there are the two queens of the neighboring kingdom who are in love and even share a kiss on-screen.
The show deals with some heavy issues as well. Sacrifice, the loss of loved ones, betrayal and redemption, trust, loyalty, truth, broken families, love. Actions have real consequences, something rarely seen in a show for kids. Halfway through Season 2, one of the characters gets paralyzed. The characters almost all have to deal with real grief, and they do it in realistic ways.
Beyond that, the writing deals with the fae in ways that you usually only hear about when reading stories as an adult. I am truly impressed at the research and ingenuity. Magic is not just something that you do - there is sacrifice. I do not wish to go into details, as I do not wish to post any real spoilers, but I am simply in love with how they write the elves. Especially Aaravos. And I really like Rayla. She's the sort of hero that is perfect for the story and for today.
It also is funny, not just to kids but to adults. It makes modern references for the sake of jokes, but not enough to bring you out of the story. It can make fun of itself, as well as you, the audience, without being insulting. The epitome of this is "human Rayla" where she pretends to be a human and in doing so points out all the ridiculous things that we do. As Ezran puts it, I am a big fan of human Rayla.
A little on the animation and acting. They really are both good. The animation is different, but it's not bad. The characters have incredible expressions. The magic is awesome. The character design is wonderful. And the voice acting is wonderful.
So, in short, I highly recommend watching this show, even if you don't have kids.
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Age after Age
Yes yes, I'm still alive and all that jazz.
And I'm sure I've lost all my readership.
I've been trying to write, but it has been a slow thing. I don't want to make excuses. Suffice it to say, getting overwhelmed with work is a vicious circle.
I plan on getting back into the grind of things this week.
So I thought I would make this post today to bring to light some news on one of the passions my wife and I share - the environment.
Call me a tree hugger if that's what floats your boat, but in this day and age, it would be remiss of you to ignore the overwhelming evidence that the environment is changing, and we are the cause.
But this post isn't about trying to convince you that the environment is changing. If you want to argue it, I point you to this resource. Just look up whatever argument you have, and see how it has been thoroughly and completely debunked by actual science.
No, the point of this post is actually names. In particularly, the name of the age.
Some of you might know that Mesozoic Era, that of the dinosaurs (another subject I am very passionate about), consisted of the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods (which are also split into numerous stages). A few of you might know that after the Mesozoic came the Cenozoic, the current era, and that we are currently in the Quaternary Period. But, as I said earlier, these periods are broken into small stages, or "epochs." A very select few of you may say that we are currently in the Holocene Epoch, or even the smaller subdivision of the Meghalayan Age (did I mention I'm a nerd?). If you are one of those people, I commend you!
But you might be wrong.
The scientific community is currently debating on the first change of epochs since, well, science. From what I can tell, the only thing stopping them is determining the exact year of the change, which is currently likely to be somewhere between 1945 and 1964. That means a good portion of you may have been born in a different age and epoch, as we may now be in the Anthropocene Epoch and the Homogenocene Age (though I may be wrong about that second one).
Why this change? Anthropos is Greek for "man." This is the Epoch where man has changed the environment to the point where every part of it has been influenced by our actions. Since the mid-twentieth century, more than half of all wildlife on the planet has died, and 90% of all large fish have died. The cause? Pollution, climate change, and over-hunting. We, humans, have affected the Earth so much that we now have an Epoch. Most of these epochs are marked by extinctions, and this one is no different. We are, indeed, in the middle of the 6th major extinction-event of the planet, and we are the cause of it. If we aren't careful, we'll be marking the end of the Cenozoic as well, but let's hope it doesn't get that bad.
Which leads me to a final point. There is another "age" we are in, supposedly. We live in the "Information Age." This is a 20th and 21st century historic age defined by a rapid shift from an economy based on industry to one based on information (computers and the like). At this point, I'm sure I've bored you and you've moved on, so now I can get to the real point of this blog post - a secret letter to my wife.
The macarons are good. Take some with you to work.
Now, back to the blog post, just in case someone really was paying attention.
I propose that we have left the Information Age, as of 2016. I propose that we are entering the Misinformation Age - an age where truth has become harder and harder to determine, where news is formed by lies and social media, where governments make entire entities dedicated to influencing people through fake news and propaganda (such as the Russian-based Internet Research Agency).
There is a new Artificial Intelligence software that has been implemented to write simple news stories with language that makes it indistinguishable from human writing. I worry about this because I am trying to make it as a writer, and I don't want some computer muscling me out of the market. Experts worry about this, because it could be used to flood the internet, and even news shows, with entirely made up news that would be almost indistinguishable from real news - lies that you couldn't tell were lies. This could topple governments. For now they are trying to keep this AI under guard.
The problem is, history tells us that attempts to prevent progress always fail. It will happen. Combine this with the increasing levels of complexity in photo- and video-manipulation, with the computer programs that can put any words you like into anyone else's mouth (yes, these are real), and I fear for the future. We know there are agents out there whose sole purpose is to sew discord, to fan the fires on both sides of any argument they can. This sort of thing should scare all of us. And it both follows the model of Orwell's classic 1984 as well as puts it to shame.
The victor may write history, but the anarchist writes the future.
And I'm sure I've lost all my readership.
I've been trying to write, but it has been a slow thing. I don't want to make excuses. Suffice it to say, getting overwhelmed with work is a vicious circle.
I plan on getting back into the grind of things this week.
So I thought I would make this post today to bring to light some news on one of the passions my wife and I share - the environment.
Call me a tree hugger if that's what floats your boat, but in this day and age, it would be remiss of you to ignore the overwhelming evidence that the environment is changing, and we are the cause.
But this post isn't about trying to convince you that the environment is changing. If you want to argue it, I point you to this resource. Just look up whatever argument you have, and see how it has been thoroughly and completely debunked by actual science.
No, the point of this post is actually names. In particularly, the name of the age.
Some of you might know that Mesozoic Era, that of the dinosaurs (another subject I am very passionate about), consisted of the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods (which are also split into numerous stages). A few of you might know that after the Mesozoic came the Cenozoic, the current era, and that we are currently in the Quaternary Period. But, as I said earlier, these periods are broken into small stages, or "epochs." A very select few of you may say that we are currently in the Holocene Epoch, or even the smaller subdivision of the Meghalayan Age (did I mention I'm a nerd?). If you are one of those people, I commend you!
But you might be wrong.
The scientific community is currently debating on the first change of epochs since, well, science. From what I can tell, the only thing stopping them is determining the exact year of the change, which is currently likely to be somewhere between 1945 and 1964. That means a good portion of you may have been born in a different age and epoch, as we may now be in the Anthropocene Epoch and the Homogenocene Age (though I may be wrong about that second one).
Why this change? Anthropos is Greek for "man." This is the Epoch where man has changed the environment to the point where every part of it has been influenced by our actions. Since the mid-twentieth century, more than half of all wildlife on the planet has died, and 90% of all large fish have died. The cause? Pollution, climate change, and over-hunting. We, humans, have affected the Earth so much that we now have an Epoch. Most of these epochs are marked by extinctions, and this one is no different. We are, indeed, in the middle of the 6th major extinction-event of the planet, and we are the cause of it. If we aren't careful, we'll be marking the end of the Cenozoic as well, but let's hope it doesn't get that bad.
Which leads me to a final point. There is another "age" we are in, supposedly. We live in the "Information Age." This is a 20th and 21st century historic age defined by a rapid shift from an economy based on industry to one based on information (computers and the like). At this point, I'm sure I've bored you and you've moved on, so now I can get to the real point of this blog post - a secret letter to my wife.
The macarons are good. Take some with you to work.
Now, back to the blog post, just in case someone really was paying attention.
I propose that we have left the Information Age, as of 2016. I propose that we are entering the Misinformation Age - an age where truth has become harder and harder to determine, where news is formed by lies and social media, where governments make entire entities dedicated to influencing people through fake news and propaganda (such as the Russian-based Internet Research Agency).
There is a new Artificial Intelligence software that has been implemented to write simple news stories with language that makes it indistinguishable from human writing. I worry about this because I am trying to make it as a writer, and I don't want some computer muscling me out of the market. Experts worry about this, because it could be used to flood the internet, and even news shows, with entirely made up news that would be almost indistinguishable from real news - lies that you couldn't tell were lies. This could topple governments. For now they are trying to keep this AI under guard.
The problem is, history tells us that attempts to prevent progress always fail. It will happen. Combine this with the increasing levels of complexity in photo- and video-manipulation, with the computer programs that can put any words you like into anyone else's mouth (yes, these are real), and I fear for the future. We know there are agents out there whose sole purpose is to sew discord, to fan the fires on both sides of any argument they can. This sort of thing should scare all of us. And it both follows the model of Orwell's classic 1984 as well as puts it to shame.
The victor may write history, but the anarchist writes the future.
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