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At this point you really have to ask: Why couldn’t these rich people try to use their money and all other resources they have to prevent a catastrophe from happening in the first place?

Part Eight in our series with Reveal on inequity in the time of pandemic. Interview by David Ritsher, script by Sarah Mirk and Amanda Pike.

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The Parabot, a mecha designed after the Paramount Group’s Mbombe 6 armoured vehicle and made to raise awareness of rhino poaching.

http://www.janes.com/article/43211/poachers-beware-parabot-is-after-you-aad141

http://www.janes.com/article/60125/parabot-on-guard-sofex16d1

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For anyone who don't know, the revolver which Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki uses in Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu is a Smith & Wesson Model 1, which in real life was also among of the earliest weapons the American sold to the Japanese.

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So, this bring us to another question: Is Fire Emblem best tuned for handheld device? To me at least, the whole TBS/RPG genre is not very well adapted for consoles - Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, etc needs to play with consideration. You deliberately slow down the flow of the game to play, and that is where the handheld comes in: You play a few turn, put the machine to sleep so as to think about your next move while doing something else, and then resume. Yes, I know that the Switch can be called a “handheld”, but to me it is more like a quick and community experience.

I really don't like how SoV is the last main series game for the 3Ds. I understand that they can accomplish more on the Switch (bigger maps, better graphics, ect.), but by making the main series Switch exclusive they are alienating a good portion of the fan base who can't afford The Switch.

I’M PART OF THE FAN BASE WHO CAN’T AFFORD A SWITCH SO I FEEL THIS

sighhhh like I understand why they’re doing it, and it will be really cool to see all the improvements, and since it’s on the switch you can still carry it around like a 3ds… But I liked having my own personal copy of the game for my 3ds. I always share consoles with my brother, but my 3ds is my own and I liked having my own copy of Awakening and Fates to play when I wanted so I could have my own Robin or Corrin. If we ever get a Switch, which isn’t likely already, we’d have to share it and that means no more personal game for me to play whenever I wanted. :(

I’m really sorry that this answer wasn’t as objective and general as my other answers, but that was a bit of a personal point for fire emblem that I enjoyed and will be sad to see go.

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Which villain has the silliest outfit, and the villain with the silliest power, in Sentai history? And do you think that in earlier series, these silly villains are some kind of experiments (as producers have no idea what to do), while in later series they are mainly comic relieves?

Thanks for the question!Also thank you for asking about the divide between the earliest shows and the later ones.  I really do feel like the early shows should be given a bit of slack for having smaller budgets and limited resources (most of the Tsuburaya series notwithstanding because of their experienced staff who cut their teeth on Toho’s kaiju films). Sure, a lot of the monsters from shows like the early episodes of Kamen Rider:

Or the original Kikaider:

Or heck, look at just about any of the monsters from P Productions’ Spectreman!

They are incredibly silly and cheap looking but these were new productions companies using limited resources to produce the best things they could and what they lacked in budgets and sometimes talent, they made up for in imagination.  I can forgive a lot of shoddy design work in the early shows because of just how much fun and creativity is on display with what they did with that they had.  

You can actually see the quality of monsters improve over the course of the early 1970s so that by the time we get to 1975, Kamen Rider had monsters like this:

These display a lot more technical skill and higher budgets, allowing the ideas of the monster makers to more easily translate from paper to suits.

Himitsu Sentai Goranger’s monsters of the week are sometimes intentionally silly but at the same time well designed. This was a more kid-friendly series after all following the parental backlash that got the previous year’s Kamen Rider Amazon removed from the air.  Still, even for something less serious it had it’s share of REALLY weird villains.  Such as:

Fork Mask

Glasses Mask

and YoYo Mask

It’s really hard to take these kinds of villains seriously.  However, we are still early enough in the history of the franchise that they are forgivable, if still EXTREMELY goofy.

There will also be no monsters from a surrealist comedy like Gekisou Sentai Carranger or a straight up parody like Hikounin Sentai Akibaranger discussed here.  When the show isn’t taking itself seriously, there’s no way the monsters should be. 

However, when dealing with a more serious series like 1991′s Choujin Sentai Jetman, some of the more humorous monsters seem to come out of left field and smack you across the face.  A perfect example is the God of Ramen a.k.a. Noodle Dimension from episode 10.

That’s silly and downright hilarious, especially considering all of his powers and his weakness are directly connected to him being a cup of ramen noodles.  He can use his noodly appendages to attack, hold and drawn people in.  He tosses exploding shrimp bombs and uses fish cake disks like throwing stars.  His weakness is running out of hot water.  He is entirely thematically designed around the concept of instant noodles and it’s frankly GLORIOUS!

As for silly powers, it’s really hard to beat Bara Printer from 1995′s Chouriki Sentai Ohranger.

He had the ability to make anyone fall in love with anything he scans, including a woman falling in love with her refrigerator:

And a schoolgirl wanting to get more up close and personal with her copy machine:

That’s a pretty goofy power.  Sure, these days we have monsters that make you fat from eating their extremely caloric food and monsters that steal your birthdays but those are from slightly more light-hearted series.  Jetman and Ohranger were intended to be more serious and these episodes and monsters really stand out, especially in Ohranger which had such a dark and serious start before events derailed it.

So, even though they are obvious choices, those are my picks for silliest looking monster and silliest powers for a monster.  There are others I could pick but these two spring instantly to mind.  

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Writing advice: Forging a sword

Let me say upfront that this list is meant to fit a wide variety of settings, from high-magic to low-magic. And it is NOT the ONLY which you can make an awesome sword. In fact, your character can simply pick up any tree branch laying on the side, enchanting it with a multitude of spells, and there you have something which can take on the likes of Dragons.

What I am about to say is, however, gathered from my real-life experience (as both a sword affectionado and amateur blacksmith,) mixed with a very low amount of fantastic elements. As I said above, what listed here can be put in almost any campaign and would not look completely out-of-place. You can expand the list, or choose to remove elements from it, it depends on how you are going to play.

So, let’s us begin

--

I. MATERIALS & TOOLS

- Steel: Meteorite ore gives that “Oomph”, but if it is not possible I recommend Magnetite (Fe₃O₄). In some cases, you may want to have a sword which was made from several types of steel (more on that bellow.)

But Ore is not the only type of steel you can use. Recycling steel is something which blacksmiths have been doing since the dawn of their carrer. Any steel, even those have rusted, will do as long as it is homogenous (made from one type of steel only) such as a hovel or a pot (cast iron is fine, too.)

Sometime recycling steel also has spiritual meanings. The most obvious one is scourging the battlefield for broken blades, but you can really made a spin on this idea - for example, a sword which is a tribute to a god can make use of the steel from the nails which are taken from a shrine dedicated to that same god

Also, never use stainless steel, unless you’re looking for a knife. Use steel with high carbon content

- Coal: Good old fat coal, or if coal is not available then use charcoal, which is normally formed by slow-burning wood or (sometimes) bones. If you want to add some more “Oomph”, considering the coal is fossifulized from the remains of an ancient magical forest or bones of magical beasts.

[Unconfirmed sources tell that in the pre-Medieval time, people did use the bones of their ancestors/enemies, not as the primary fuel source, but for the carbon content gained when burning the bones while smelting the metal.]

- Tools: The older the tools are, the more prestigious they carry (and, work like the extension of an arm.) If possible, then have a dragon to substitute for the furnace (so as to raise the temperature as high as possible, therefore pushing out more impurities from the iron during smelting), and let a spirit possessing you and guiding your hammer hand

- Steel types: Hagane/Shigane/Kawagane (edge steel/core steel/skin steel used in the making of Katanas,) Crucible, or Damascus (essentially a variation of Crucible) steel. You can see that these types of steel all consist of several layer of steel of different strength, which gives the sword both strength, sharpness, and flexibility.

Steel-working in the ancient days was also more advanced than we thought. For example, the 2nd century Romans used naturally occurring metal alloys (Molybdenum from Dacian iron ore) as cores, with soft iron sheathing. It was basically a sandwich forge-welded together with a hard edge and tough exterior

- Wood: For the grips, blacksmiths has always favor straight-grain woods (oak, ash, etc with teak the most expensive of them) for easy shaping and durability (it’s much harder to break a straight-grain wooden stick when you put it on your knees and break)

- Enchantment: Ofuda or any other types of paper talisman to wrap around the still-hot ingot (Japanese steelmakers still do this today.) Having a priest (or any supernatural entity) blessing everything also help, too

II. STEPS TO FORGE A SWORD

- Smelting the ore into steel (or buy already-made steel)

- Drawing out the shape of the blade: Heating the ingot till it is red, hammering it, reheating the ingot again, hammering again. Repeat the process until you have the basic shape of the sword in your hand. Then it is all about grinding which you create the profile of the blade, which includes its point and edges. All engraving should be done by now

- Hardening the blade: Heating the blade till it glow, then quenching it in a liquid. Please note that curve swords (like the katana) only become curved after they have been hardening

- Tempering the blade: Heating the sword (at a temperature lower than the temperature which the Hardening happened), then quenching it again. Repeat the process for several times. This is one stage where the skill and experience of the swordsmith is invaluable. It takes trained hands and sharp eyes to understand the properties of the metal

- Finishing the sword: Polishing and applying finish to the blade, then adding hilt, guard, pommel, etc to the sword.

III. TIPS

- Metalworkers were rarely specialized in the way we think of having a "job" today. The local blacksmith was also the dentist, not because he had medical training, but because he had tools. Metalworkers often had a toe dipped in alchemy, which is not surprising since they appear to transmute "dirt" into metal and then tools

- Choose the type of blade: Look online for “Oakeshott Typology” and see for yourself what kind of blade you are going to make. Stranger types of blades, such as the Flamberge, also work but you must first think of the setting which your characters stuck in. Is it a period where full-body armor prevails? Are you more likely to fight against men-at-arms, thugs, or knights, etc.

I notice that the most commonly used blade style is a hybrid Viking sword/Arming sword style with little taper and a wide fuller (in practice, however, depend on the sword you may have to adjust the size of the fuller.) Artists tend to exaggerate the width of the blade, though.

- Sharpness: European longswords were never much sharper than a butterknife. They didn't need to be sharp to cleave armor and limbs, and a sharp blade will be more likely to warp, chip, and shatter. Rapiers and other quillion-hilted swords take this to the next step – as they are mainly used to thrush and lunge, the edge are left blunt

- Hardness:

The hardness of the steel can be determined when you are grinding and polishing it: The more spark it creates, the harder the steel is. Normally, with swords which just have been quenched, you will have the outermost layer of steel quite soft. You must grind the edge down so as the now-hardened edge can reveal itself

- Fuller: Depend on the type of the blade, the number, length and width of fuller will change. You should do some research first before coming to your decision

- Folding: The primary purpose of folding the ingot is to beat out the impurities. The "wavy" pattern on Damascus swords are only a byproduct of folding. That said, never fold the steel over 5 times, unless you're really sure what you're doing. Long short story, the molecular structure of steel is messed up so bad it can no longer be used to draw out a sword

- Tempering: Use either oil or water for tempering, but in any case DO NOT use blood. Medieval sources tell that blacksmith once quenched their blades in rendered lamb's fat

If you use a single type of steel for your blade construction (most likely the case with modern steel. Most of the “backyard knife/sword/etc making videos you see on Youtube are actually like this, with the maker traced their sword on a sheet of steel and then cut it out), quenching the blade in oil will make the blade lost its curve. The opposite happened with cruxible steel, as the sword curves more when quenched with oil (for example, the shape of the Katana is formed like so.)

- Blade decoration: The sky is your limit, but remembers that any carving must be done before the blade is tempered, and even then the blade can still be weakened if not properly treated. Inlaying gold or silver, however, is done after tempering but before polishing. If you want to inscribe something after tempering, use acid and stencil. DO NOT attempt to use a chisel on a finished blade

A lot of times gold, silver, ruby, and other precious materials have magical and/or religious meanings, so make sure you know what you’re doing.

- Grips, hilts, guards, and pommels: Once again, go with the Oakeshott classification. The hilt, guard, and pommel are actually the part where all of the “Blings” will go, and whether a sword is visually impressive depends on these parts. That said, do not try to “hang” everything on the three of them. In some cases they will make the sword impossible to be used.

Do not have the grip rounded, for when your character wielding that sword, he won’t known which is the front and which is the back of the blade (wrong blade alignment.) Have the grip quadrilateral, hexagonal, or octagonal.

For the wrapping of the grips, hilt, guard, uses cured hide of a monster, or its dried tendons. If necessary, boil down bones to make glue

- Finishing: Choose between browning, bluing, blackening, Parkerizing (the last three methods are recent inventions, and while they may not give the most aesthetically-pleasing look, they certainly protect the metal surface weel,) or just a simple layer of oil.

A traditional and effective method was to warm the blade and melt beeswax over the surface. It will protect the blade until rubbed off, and it has a good look.

Remember that your sword will certainly rust, considering the amount of blood you are going to douse it with, so if your game has a “Breakable Weapon” system, remember to clean and sharpen your sword after each engament

+ Case hardening: In case you want to make your sword fancier, there is the Case Hardening method which turn the polished blade into the color of translucent rainbow (seriously, Google it up.) There are two plausible way Case Hardening can be done in a medieval-fantasy setting: dunk the parts in a bath of boiling cyanide, or, packing the metal parts in a box along with charcoal, leather, and bits of bone (you can add some copper coin for an even shinier finish,) then heat everything up for several hours, and then quench it in water.

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In Vietnam the biggest and most memorable Sentai to us (or at least children growing through the early 00s) is Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, for it is also the first one to be dubbed Vietnamese. But I wonder how popular was it at its release, and how is it now? What is the fandom's opinion of it? And how do you think of it?

Hyakujyuu Sentai Gaoranger was REALLY popular when it first came out.  According to the sales figures I can find, the toys sold fantastically well (which is really how you can tell a Super Sentai series is succeeding). It has 11 Billions Yen in toy sales when it was out, which was a HUGE boost from the 6.4 billion of the series before it, Mirai Sentai Timeranger.

Today, I think it’s faded a bit in popularity as there have been series that came after with greater sales and ratings but it is far from forgotten.  After all it. had it’s own game on the original Playstation:

created the first massive crossover to include ALL previous Sentai series including Himitsu Sentai Goranger and J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai:

and one of its main villains, Tsue Tsue consistently makes the list (including mine) of favorite female antagonists in Super Sentai!

It was also super important because while the CG hasn’t really held up very well, it was one of the first to make heavy use of it for the robot battles and to animate the robots themselves.  There were still suits and props of course but a lot of the dynamic fighting was done with CG, lending it a fluidity that the bulkier costumes could never achieve. This is not a total defense of CG of course, I always prefer practical effects but there are some things that just -can’t- be done practically on a TV budget.

In addition, it really brought in the multiple, multiple mecha idea with different combinations for different situations. This would later leave to what I refer to as cluster mechs like the final combined mecha from Engine Sentai Go-Onger and Samurai Sentai Shinkenger.

So, while the triumphant roar of Hyakujyuu Sentai Gaoranger may have faded, its echoes can still be felt today.

Thank you for the question and also, thanks for letting me know this was the first series dubbed into Vietnamese!  I love to find out about firsts in other countries!  

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I notice that Sentai has re-used several theme (dinosaurs, ninas, etc) throughout its run, while KR has a new theme every year since the Heisei era. Is it because the team-structure of Sentai limiting which theme can be chosen?

My personal theory is that the themes that get used over and over (three dinosaur team, three Ninja teams) are ones that are very popular with the target audience, children. 

Children tend to be really into things for a while and then grow out of them with only a few hardcore fans sticking with the shows they liked as kids into adulthood.  That means a constant revolving door of an audience who will be really, really into something for 5-10 years and then move on to something else.  As a result, what may seem rehashed to us older fans who have stuck with the Super Sentai series year after year would be fresh and new for the members of the target audience just being introduced to it for the first time.

So, repeating a theme that had proven popular in the past for a new audience makes sense from the point of view of marketing. 

When it comes to Kamen Rider though, the audience tends to skew a bit older. The series is written to appeal to almost all ages, with more complex plots, dramatic moments and ongoing stories that take multiple episodes to resolve. It doesn’t have the same kind of revolving, aging-out audience that Super Sentai does.

This is, in my opinion, why Kamen Rider has to work to come up with fresh, new ideas every year and almost never repeats a motif.  The fans don’t grow out of it and would get bored if it kept doing similar things over and over.  Kamen Rider makes more money for Toei right now and they can’t afford to rehash things in fear of losing ratings and toy sales.

However, this is just my opinion based on a little research and my own thoughts on the matter.

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News about Chechnya, 04/13

PLEASE BOOST THIS. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

I’ve just checked the official website of Russian LGBT network, and there are news from today:

“We receive alarming reports from Chechnya that unknown people are calling those who are now hiding from persecution and offer help with traveling abroad. These people call themselves the employees of the LGBT organization and invite to come to Krasnodar and discuss the details.

The Russian LGBT network officially states that our representatives in the regions do not communicate and are not authorized to call someone. All communication is conducted ONLY through the Hotline and mail kavkaz@lgbtnet.org. We warn that such proposals for assistance are not related to the work of the Russian LGBT network and may pose a threat to life.”

“Мы получаем тревожные сообщения из Чечни о том, что неизвестные люди звонят на телефоны тех, кто сейчас скрывается от преследований и предлагают помощь с выездом заграницу. Эти люди представляются сотрудниками ЛГБТ-организацией и приглашают приехать в Краснодар и обсудить детали.

Российская ЛГБТ-сеть официально заявляет о том, что наши представители в регионах не ведут связь и не уполномочены кому-либо звонить. Все общение ведется ТОЛЬКО через Горячую линию и почту kavkaz@lgbtnet.org. Мы предупреждаем, что подобные предложения о помощи не связаны с работой Российской ЛГБТ-сети и могут представлять угрозу для жизни.”

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The only protest I have is that the Economist should have been moved back to the left by a bit more, and Fox News further right. Note: Anyone realize which one of the two is garbage?

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I did see a 4koma with that same premise on danbooru.

How does Shigure react when Kana starts getting interested in boys? Does he become the overprotective older brother and team up with Papa Corrin?

Oh, definitely. I think he (and Corrin) would get worn down by Kana’s needling (”Daaaaaad, broooooo, stop treating me like a kid!”) and would tone down the overt macho-ness, but secretly co-conspire to make sure their precious princess is safe. That means staking out every single guy who takes an interest in her.

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BBCF Console - Jin arcade mode.

What the hell?! Did Jin just lost to Izanami by default?!

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Exploitation and violence against Filipino women is not entertainment! NBC’s “Mail Order Family” is slated as a half hour “comedy” following a widower who purchased a mail order bride from the Philippines. “Mail Order Family” is the most recent example of how the exploitation and violence women face is normalized in U.S. mainstream media. The mail order bride industry in the Philippines is rooted in historical U.S. colonial occupation of the Philippines, feudal-patriarchal view of Filipinas, and current neo-colonial economic policies that have impoverished the Filipino people.

The mail order bride industry exploits and trafficks women who are economically disadvantaged and living in poverty. Filipino women make up one of the largest segments of mail-order brides in the world. Due to an economy ravaged by U.S. imperialist economic policies dictated upon the Philippines, Filipino women lack employment opportunities in the country and are forced to leave their homeland to support themselves and their families.

Mail order brides are victims of human trafficking as they are forced into sex slavery and domestic servitude. Mail order-brides are vulnerable to violence because of the fundamentally unequal nature and imbalance of power where money is exchanged for an arranged marriage. Many mail-order brides become vulnerable to violence because they may be financially dependent on their husband, are isolated in a foreign country, and husbands can easily threaten them with deportation.

The reason why Filipina women are sought after is because they are seen as subservient and domesticated. This is rooted in the history of U.S. and Philippine relations where Filipino women were subjugated and used for sex slavery, debt bondage, and domestic servitude.  US imperialist culture mirrors the unequal relationship between the Philippines and U.S. via the mail order bride system, by promoting a feudal patriarchal view of Filipina women, where they are seen as mere commodities who can be bought to serve the whims of men overseas.  

We must remember Susana Blackwell, a Filipina mail-order bride who was shot and killed at point blank along with two of her Filipina friends by her abusive husband at a divorce proceeding in 1995 in Seattle. Members of GABRIELA Seattle have participated in an annual vigil for the past several years, remembering the lives of Susana Blackwell and her unborn child, as well as Phoebe Dizon and Veronica Laurete Johnson–Blackwell’s two friends who were also killed. “Human trafficking of mail order brides and outright abuse and murder of Filipinas here in the U.S. must not be forgotten and must end,” stated Precious Butiu, GABRIELA Seattle member and GABRIELA USA National Executive Officer.

We must also remember Estelita Villa Reeves, a Filipina mail-order bride, who was brutally murdered by her husband. Her husband was also found guilty of murdering his two previous wives whose deaths were previously ruled an accident and suicide, respectively.

GABRIELA USA condemns NBC for making light of the exploitation and violence against Filipino women via the mail order bride system and calls for the immediate cancellation of “Mail Order Family.”

We acknowledge that the widespread poverty that forces Filipina women to leave their homeland and become mail order brides is rooted in the colonial history of the country and the continued domination of the Philippine economy and politics by US imperialism, which has impeded the social and economic development of the Philippines. GABRIELA USA calls for an end to the unequal and neo-colonial relationship between the Philippines and the U.S.  

When we end the poverty and suffering of the Filipino people and uphold the national rights, interests, and welfare of the Filipino people, women will no longer have to leave the country out of a need for survival. Filipino women and women everywhere have the right to raise their standard of living for themselves and their families and be free from exploitation and violence.

CANCEL NBC’S “MAIL ORDER FAMILY” NOW!

EXPLOITATION AND VIOLENCE AGAINST FILIPINAS IS NOT ENTERTAINMENT!

STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN!

please sign/reblog!

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I haven’t seen anything, so let’s begin. Reblog to everywhere you can. The message has to get through.

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Robo Blade Fantasy...

Not bad!

So…Vampire Princess Detectives?

…ngl I’d watch the FUCK out of that series.

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Fire Emblem Fates Birthright - Part 21 | Paralogue 6 - Herbal Remedy! [E...

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Fire Emblem Fates Birthright - Part 20 | Paralogue 5 - Bold Approach! [E...