#flint perhaps THE most pirate in fiction

[llycaons]

I'm not even particularly into Flint as a character, I just hate Stede so much

[chibivesicle]

How GK should have ended. Looking to a similar piece of media - Black Sails

I’ve been meandering around various series as of late and finally found one that really stuck a similar chord with me and GK - the mid- 2010s drama - Black Sails.  It is a series that had so many similar themes to GK, the level of violence and brutality, a similar level of outcast/criminals/convicts to colonial powers in a territory that is intended to be tamed for a distant power.  The theme overlap is so great that if you liked all the stuff going on in GK, this show will be your jam. Most importantly, the creative team for Black Sails kept CONSTANT characterization for everyone and it paid off so well.  They make each character so clear that when they go off and do a dumbass/rash thing, you only slightly groan b/c you know that Jack Rackam cares about his identity, that John Silver wants to belong and be accepted despite pushing people away, that Max is tired of the cycle and feels guilt for having to chose between two shitty decisions, Eleanor will not allow anyone to change her mind and that Captain Flint is a carefully crafted fiction/tool for James McGraw to exact revenge upon the very nature of the British Empire.  And Woodes Rogers is just such a good guy to dislike when he enters the story. After finishing Black Sails, I just thought about how Flint/McGraw was so much better that Tsurumi and Sugimoto.  The thing that always fell short with Tsurumi’s motivations about the death of his wife and child were the feelings that were associated with that loss.  It always felt hollow to me that we still never got the full Tsurumi back story to really push his motivations.  We know he came from a family who became wealthy and then lost it and it was never resolved.  His overlap with Sugimoto is his similar tendencies to go to extreme lengths for someone who has not actual input into those motivations (aka I’m doing this for Umeko vs Thomas).  He also has that reckless ability to be shot in the shoulder with a musket and then swim, one armed to a Spanish man-o-war, board her and take the ship over is as equally unlikely, but he pulls it off so much better than Sugimoto.  I noticed that Charles Vane is the one who is more likely to use a musket as a blunt weapon while Flint does a calculated mix of precision musket shot, then sword, and then it degenerates into whatever it will take to kill his opponent - cannon ball, fists etc.

So, if you are looking for a series that is under the radar to fill that void that GK left in your soul with that last arc and flat ending - go watch Black Sails.  Season 1 is a bit lame and over the top at times but after they stopped trying to be ‘Pirate Game of Thrones’ it shines as an excellent series. This show might just make me want to scratch that itch to meta-nerd out again, perhaps doing more GK comparisons.  Plus, I can clearly state that Flint was my favorite character the entire time in Black Sails.  Which is saying a lot for me since I rarely love a MC this much.  There is no real Ogata character in Black Sails as many more of the cast are dealing with lifetimes of trauma, abuse, guilt and moments where suicidal types of behavior are necessary.  Which is a relief for me, since the thing which ruined Ogata for me in retrospect is that he should have died on that damned ice floe.  And Black Sails will not shy away from killing someone with Ogata level involvement to serve the story and motivations going forward and they feel like they make sense to the viewer.

That’s it for now, if you want to see a series that really gets it and nails it - go watch Black Sails. 

[battendownthewhatsit]

@aflamethatneverdies replied: Wait, I need more info of Silver 'dying' in S1. Which episode/scene was it, I don't remember. This show has so much happen in all the seasons that I think I have forgotten s1 stuff already.

There is SO much happening all the time!  I keep wishing I could just flip back a couple pages and reread this or that scene!

I’m assuming you meant the time I’ve got him dying on his own, not the time with Walrus crew (which is when the Walrus loses the fight with the warship and sinks ; the only reason that has an asterisk is there’s no one really there to report  on their death,though I suppose the Spanish probably take it as a given, since they don’t seem to be looking for survivors...)

So for that one: the first potential death for John Silver is in the very first scene, when Flint’s crew take the ship.  Very simple version:  Silver definitely sheds his old role and old life when he joins Flint’s crew, under the pretense of being a cook; something like Billy did, maybe, when he joined the pirates. I think changing identity/roles after a near-lethal experience is probably enough to count-- but I also think it’s possibly, even probably, a much more dramatic change, and much more full Symbolic Death, than it could first appear.

This one is really interesting to me, bc we know nothing  about who anyone is when the fight scene starts.  We hear from the prize-ship crew on deck that the attacking ship is Captain Flint’s Ship; below decks, we get told that the two men hiding consist of a cook and.... 

Well, and who?   

I didn’t even realize this at first (or second or third) , but the actual  cook never calls Silver by name. Which would have been so incredibly easy to do! Just change “ What are you doing?”  (the cook’s line when Silver? barges into the cabin) to “ Silver! What are you doing?”   But the cook doesn’t say that. And then the cook is dead. 

Flint is introduced to us by the crew he’s attacking. Gates is first named by other men in the crew getting his attention. This is the easy way to introduce characters for the audience’s edification! But Silver? Silver introduces himself, like so:

Hello! He couldn't handle the thought of what you might do to him. I, on the other hand,would very much like to join your crew. My name is John Silver. And I happen to be a very good cook.

and we know most of that is a lie.  Silver is no  kind of cook, and the actual cook did not kill himself; he was actually pretty sure that he’d be spared and expected to join the pirates. Silver killed him (admittedly in self defense)!  Nor does Silver want to join the pirates, he only wants to Not Die (and perhaps to get away from his former crew).  The only piece of info in this intro that even might  be true is “ My name is John Silver.”  But is it?  The show deliberately withholds any outside confirmation of this!

Silver-the character we call Silver-- is not stupid, and, unlike a lot of other smart characters in fiction, he doesn’t count  on other people being stupid. He’d know the ship would have a crew list, and that it would almost certainly be read, if only to search for people with rare qualifications (trained doctor, carpenter, etc). He wouldn’t count on the entire pirate crew being illiterate.  

Would the Silver we know take the time to think about this in the seconds before the door crashes in? Almost certainly.  Would he count on a potentially lethal enemy seeing the entry for “Ship’s Cook”  and the entry for “ John Silver”  don’t match up?  I doubt it. 

What I’m saying is, I’m pretty sure John Silver, Ship’s Cook is left dead , belowdecks, on the ship that gets attacked. Which means whatever name and ID our Silver was using before, it’s gone now. That Man Is Dead, too, along with Silver The Cook. That last probably has a burial in the sea, with any of the crew’s other dead,  long after Flint’s crew has left-- carrying with them John Silver, Nothing and Nobody From Nowhere.

I know I’m hardly the first person to think of this (it would be weird if it was!) . I’ve seen some people suggest that Silver’s “ original”  name was Solomon Little, the person he names in several of his stories-- and maybe it was, once, but I’d bet it wasn’t the name he used for the crew we first see him with. 

So there’s an asterisk there because while I’m pretty sure  that John Silver dies on that first ship, along with whoever Our Silver used to be-- we don’t know for sure. No one gets to know for sure.  That’s part of the point of the character.  But either way, the person Silver was is left behind in some sense when he joins Flint’s crew, so...the “ death”  stays on the board.  

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Toby Stephens and Luke Arnold on Black Sails Season Two

“Black Sails” returns for its second season on Starz on Saturday, January 24. Picking up right where the first season left off, Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) and John Silver (Luke Arnold) are stranded with their crew on an island. I’ve seen the first two new episodes and got to speak with Arnold and Stephens when they were at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.

Some light spoilers for season two follow, as it entails Flint and Silver boarding another ship, battling with other boats in their quest for gold. The action is only going to get bigger, the actors say, but we’ll never quite know whether to trust Flint or Silver, names you’ll also recognize from Treasure Island.

ComingSoon.net: Are Flint and Silver pretty inseparable now?

Toby Stephens: Yeah.

Luke Arnold: Yeah, we do. Season one, we had little bits to do with each other, but especially second season, we got to spend a lot of time together and luckily we don’t hate each other.

Stephens: You were sick of me by the end of the season.

Arnold: No, it’s been pretty nice. It is one of the great things in the show for me is to work with this guy.

Stephens: Mine as well.

Arnold: A big highlight of the season.

Stephens: It’s a lot of fun, because they’re such a mismatch. It’s a great relationship between the two of them stuck together. Circumstances have thrown them together. They don’t trust one another, they don’t like one another and yet they need one another. That’s kind of a cool dynamic.

CS: Is there less duplicity now that both of their agendas are right out in the open?

Arnold: It definitely begins that way. Without saying too much, I think that’s where they start. They’re very much on the same page. They go, “Well, we both want the same thing so let’s team up.” But I think their alliance is very dependent on that remaining true or remaining the same as the season goes on. So yeah, I think it constantly changes. From moment to moment they can be honest with each other and then you see maybe one of them. They’re never sure who’s going to cross whom.

Stephens: It’s also trying to work out what the other one’s bigger game is, because they’re both people who think ten steps ahead of the next person. It’s the reason that they kind of actually are similar. They’re chess players, but it’s trying to work out where are your ten steps ahead compared to where my ten steps ahead are. They’re both trying to figure out, okay, when you get this gold, what are you going to do with the gold? Do you really intend to get the gold? Where are we going with this? So they’re constantly trying to second guess each other. It’s not that they’re lying to one another. It’s just that we’re very economic with the truth.

Arnold: And it’s quite strange because Silver knows as much as anyone, if not more so, what this man is capable of and what happens to the men who are close to him. So he knows he has to be on his guard the whole time because he was in the room when Gates got choked out. So he’s very aware not to put too much trust in this man’s world.

CS: Do you catch up at all to Treasure Island this season?

Arnold: I think the shadows of Treasure Island start to hang over “Black Sails” much more in this series, which to me is my favorite thing about it. Plotting that chart for Silver between this young kid we see at the beginning of season one and the man we know he has to become. That’s both with Flint as well. You only hear about Flint in the book. Definitely the ghost of him is so strong.

Stephens: There are more references to the book, but what’s great is that it doesn’t become tied down by it as well. I was saying earlier, it’s like Robert Louis Stevenson saw “Treasure Island” from this vantage. We’re looking at it from this vantage. So it’s the same story, they’re the same characters but perceived in a totally different way. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote it in this kind of romanticized children’s almost naive point of view. We’re looking at it from a very 21st century adult way. It’s the same kind of thing but from a different angle.

CS: Speaking of literature, did you have a preference for Captain Flint or Rochester in Jayne Eyre?

Stephens: That’s really hard to say because they’re such different characters. Rochester is a literary archetype. He really is. I was very nervous when I played him because it was like am I going to be able to do Rochester right for all of these women out there who are totally obsessed by this character in fiction? But it was a very satisfying part to play and I loved doing it. In a way, Flint, we’re creating a character totally because he’s not in “Treasure Island.” He’s talked about. He’s referred to. We don’t know who this guy is so I’m starting afresh with the writers. That’s what’s really cool is creating this character. I’m not trying to avoid the question. It’s just really hard to compare the two because they’re satisfying in totally different ways. I would say they’re equally satisfying.

CS: How is the fencing training going?

Arnold: Training kind of adapts as we go. It really kicked off with our boot camp and got our basic sword skills under our belt. After that point, much more happens really fight by fight. There isn’t a time. Unfortunately there isn’t the time to keep getting us in the stunt room just for general training. We are in the gym pretty much every day but the fight training really comes a month or however long we can before the scene.

Stephens: Getting you in, choreographing the fight so that on the day… The problem was at the end of last season, the schedule got so constant that there was no time. There was absolutely no time, and it ends with this epic sequence which I won’t get into, but it’s a really epic sequence at the end of the season with loads of various fights with me and Zach McGowan fighting…

Arnold: Don’t say too much, man, come on.

Stephens: I’m not, and we had no time, so it was kind of like on the day, okay, this happens, this happens, then you do this and then we go to that. It’s all a bit last minute but that was kind of fun. It kind of added an edge to it that perhaps wouldn’t have been there.

Arnold: Like everything, it always happens in shooting. You’d always love more time with the training and preparation, but once the wheels start turning, that rehearsal and training time starts to disappear.

CS: The season starts out with a big naval battle, so does the pace keep up action-wise?

Arnold: Absolutely. There was plenty of action in season one but that is dwarfed time and time again in season two. While it is still the focus of “Black Sails” being a character-driven drama, there is so much action in the second season and the scale of it just gets bigger and bigger. If people want a bit more action, you definitely get it served up in the second season.

Stephens: The thing is, you’ve got to ration out. If you just have sea battle after sea battle, it’s boring. It’s like oh, another sea battle, they blow the sh*t out of each other, there’s a load of cannons coming. But there are all kinds of different action sequences that you can have within the context of this show. So it’s not necessarily just about ships. And I love the fact that we go back to London 15 years before. We reveal this whole other kind of world. Really, the kind of center of that world because that’s where it all comes from. All of the power comes from England. The reason that they’re there comes from England, so it’s cool that that takes us there and that opens up a whole other world for us.

Arnold: What I love about the first episode, and it’s where the writers are getting inventive in a great way is that we see a ship takeover in a completely different way, your and my little mission. There’s a really inventive, interesting, tense way to take over a ship rather than blasting it with cannons and throwing the hooks over and doing that thing. I think lots more of that where we start to see pirate action in not the cliche way you’ve come to expect.

CS: You’ve already got a third season.

Arnold: We’re in the middle of it.

CS: This whole time have you shot seasons back to back?

Stephens: We have a five month hiatus between where they have to write them. They start writing them.

Arnold: And also because the visual effects are so huge, that’s why we have to be over a year ahead. Even though we’re shooting season three now, they’ve only just put finishing touches on the end of season two ready to air. The post-production is so massive we have to be ahead of the game.

CS: What are Flint’s and Silver’s most redeeming qualities?

Arnold: I think Silver’s honesty about his intentions. I think even though he can be so duplicitous and can lie and has the gift of the gab, he’s also really able to just say, “Don’t trust me. Don’t rely on me for anything more than what I’m telling you. I’m only teaming up with you because we both want this. As soon as we get it, I’ll see you later.” And I think that clarity of his intentions is actually a really redeeming feature.

Stephens: I think Flint is that he’s brilliant at what he does. He’s an incredibly good seaman. As we find out, he was in the Navy so he’s properly trained. He is a really good captain and generally his decision making is sound. It’s just that it isn’t particularly perhaps the choices that his crew would want him to make. But his judgment is very, very good and rational. I think that’s his saving grace. 

- ComingSoon.net

[tinypiratebastard]

ALRIGHT LADS BUT WHEN FLINT FIRST GRACES OUR SCREENS IT GOES LIKE THIS...

The sail comes first, the disembodied concept of pirate. Then the name of Flint, of course: the sailors recognise his sail, and it scares them.

You know who that is out there? That ship flies the banner of Captain Flint.

Then we see his crew, or rather first of all we hear them. (I think this is important because so often in art that which is without words/is incomprehensible carries the greatest meaning, especially in revolutionary art and Black Sails is nothing if not a song for the revolution).

We see the blasts and death and violence, and then we hear their cries. An organised crew who know the power of fear and the unknown, who use their perceived monstrosity/otherness to deliberately intimidate - yells and rhythmic thumps, teeth, warpaint, bare muscled chests etc. It’s a carefully designed sensory assault.

[Incidentally, what I find most interesting about the crew in Episode I. is that almost immediately we are shown that being a pirate is not who you are or even what you do, it is a fiction designed to deliver to you the outcome you seek. A means to an end.]

Back to the captains perspective, and we see Singleton slicing and murdering as hard as he can. To the captain, this man is the embodiment of the idea that he has most feared; this man is a ruthless pirate captain. It is this idea of a pirate that he thinks will be his death, and this idea that we are, for a heartbeat, meant to think of as The Dread Pirate, Captain Flint.

This is where I come to the point of my ramble.

Because the thing is, whenever I watch Black Sails it makes me so happy and stunned to see the threading of themes right from the start of Ep. I. - themes of identity, legacies, the myth of the monster, what ‘monster’ means, to whom, and why.

This one scene alone shows, in a burst of action, the freedom and protection these men represent, how they live in reality and fiction, and demonstrates the power created by the clever manipulation of both.

It is a wonderful, allegorical portrait of Captain Flint.

Speaking of - finally, we meet the actual Flint.

First, we see his action; the thrust and clash of a cutlass.

We then hear his voice. ‘It’s done’.

We see his head, a splash of colour, shrouded except for his eyes.

It’s terribly enigmatic and honestly, the green, his calm voice and his reason appear like a drop of beauty and steel in amongst the smoke and bloodshed.

Then he pulls away the cloth and we see Flint, finally (though of course neither we nor the captain actually know what Flint looks like, so he is still just his actions, shouts, the fear he musters and the men he commands).

So now we have the juxtaposition of a reasonable, articulate man - wouldn’t you agree? - and the chaos of pirates behind him, and yet despite appearing nothing like the frantic, bloodthirsty captain they’ve been fearing, he’s clearly in command, and terrifying. So again, the apparent dichotomy of Civilised Man and Feral Pirate is shattered and muddled, the clear identity of this enigma is lost, blurring fear and reality and clarifying nothing.

Of course I love this because it plays right into Black Sails’ whole thing re. Legends and Monsters and Stories but I also love it because to me, this is a demonstration of the layers upon layers in which James has wrapped himself, in order to protect himself from the world, become Flint, and survive.

His first visible interaction is physical, and it’s violence. (Come close, cross me, touch me and you will die).

His first words are spoken by a literal disembodied voice (I have no body, I have no identity).

He turns and is seen, finally, yet he is still hidden except for his eyes (and the eyes are symbolic of truth and protection all over the world. Perhaps the eyes belong to James but they see you far more clearly than you see him, and they see your cracks before you see his). (Also, and perhaps I am reaching here, but it struck me that green is often associated with safety and ambition and that is Flint. That’s just exactly why Flint exists).

He has so carefully removed himself from the actual person that he is, that even when we see and hear him, we are really seeing the concept, not the man.

He’s a flag, the terror of the high seas, death and blood, a monstrous pirate, the clash of swords, ruthless, powerful, unknown.

Anything to be anyone other than James.

And that’s how we meet Captain James (McGraw) Flint and it breaks my fucking heart.

All credit to @jamesflintmcgrawhamilton for the beautiful gif, without which this post would just be a terrible, weighty block of nonsense.

[placetobenation]

Treasure Planet

Release Date: November 27th, 2002

Inspiration: “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson

Budget: $140 million

Domestic Gross: $38.1 million

Worldwide Gross: $109.5 million

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%

IMDB Score: 7.2/10

Storyline (per IMDB): In this science fiction rendering of the classic novel “Treasure Island”, Jim Hawkins (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a rebellious teen seen by the world as an aimless slacker. After he receives a map from a dying pirate, he embarks on an odyssey across the universe to find the legendary Treasure Planet

Pre-Watching Thoughts: We continue our trek through the 2000s with another film that much like Atlantis: The Lost Empire has slipped through the cracks and this is one that the majority of people have probably never even heard of. Obviously, “Treasure Island” is one of the more popular books of all time so to see a unique take on it seemed like an interesting idea, and this is another film that I have never seen before and hopefully this one proves to be on the same level as Lilo and Stitch.

Voice Cast: For the first time in quite a long while, we have a cast that is in essence all newcomers with the exception of one actor and that is Tony Jay who voices the narrator at the beginning of the film in one of his last roles prior to his death 4 years later. Aside from him, the entire cast is brand new to Disney films and we start off with Joseph Gordon-Levitt who voices Jim Hawkins as he was starting to come into his own at this point in his young career, and then we have Brian Murray who voices John Silver in one of his lone film roles of his career. We then have David Hyde Pierce who voices Dr. Delbert Doppler as he was transitioning from film to TV and theater, and then we have Dame Emma Thompson who voices Capt. Amelia as she was starting to hit the peak of her career. Next, we have Martin Short who voices B.E.N. as he was in the prime of his career to this point, and then we have Roscoe Lee Browne who voices Mr. Arrow as he was nearing the end of his career. We then have Laurie Metcalf who voices Sarah Hawkins and this wouldn’t be her lone appearance in a Disney film, and then we have Dane Davis who provides the sound effects for Morph. Next, we have Michael Wincott who voices Mr. Scroop as he was also hitting the peak of his career at this point, and then we have Patrick McGoohan who voices Billy Bones in his final film role and finally we have Peter Cullen who voices Capt. Flint in a minor role though he will forever be remembered as Optimus Prime in the Transformers series. It is pretty refreshing seeing brand new casts in each film while also occasionally bringing in some familiar voices, and we will see going forward if this approach continues on or if we go back to having a more balanced cast.

Hero/Prince: Our hero of the film is a pretty interesting character and that is Jim Hawkins who as a child is enthralled by the stories of Treasure Planet, but as a young adult he is a rebel and an outcast due to his father leaving and he shuts his mother out of his life. After Billy Bones crash lands at his feet, Bones urges him to protect something important as pirates arrive and destroy his mother’s inn while Jim, his mom, and their friend Dr. Doppler escape to safety. They learn the item is a map to the planet so Jim and Doppler commission a crew to sail there, but Jim is relegated to being an assistant to the cook John Silver who takes him under his wing with Jim unaware that Silver is a pirate planning to take over. When they do, Jim, Doppler, and Capt. Amelia escape the ship and land on the planet where they meet B.E.N., and Jim returns to the ship to retrieve the map though they are captured by Silver and his men. They learn the map opens up a secret portal which leads to the treasure though they trip a booby trap that leads to the destruction of the planet, and Jim takes the lead as he manages to bring the ship to the portal and reach their home in time before the planet explodes. Jim lets Silver leave and Silver gives him some of the treasure that is used to rebuild the inn while Jim also becomes an interstellar cadet. Jim is a classic case of an underachiever who is considered a loser to the point that he begins to believe it himself, and he feels responsible for the destruction of his mother’s inn so he makes it a point to redeem himself. He comes to see Silver as a father figure despite Silver only using him for his plan though he ultimately comes to his senses, and Jim becomes a hero as he finally becomes the man he was destined to be. I don’t know how he will end up ranking against the other heroes in the canon, but it will be interesting to see.

Princess: N/A

Villain: This is perhaps the most interesting situation we’ve had to this point because there isn’t a clear-cut villain for this film, but instead we have someone that might somewhat fit the description that is John Silver. He is assigned to be the cook for the ship though he secretly is the leader of a gang of pirates who plan to steal the treasure when they arrive on the planet, and he is given Jim Hawkins as his aide and he first tries to grind him down to a point where he won’t be a factor though he begins to warm up to him. After Jim learns of his plans, Silver leads the revolt and nearly kills Jim though he can’t do it as Jim escapes with Doppler and Amelia, and they follow them to the island where Silver tries to deal with Jim who refuses and Silver threatens to kill him if he doesn’t have the map. Jim retrieves the map and leads Silver and the pirates to the center of the planet where the treasure is, but they trip a booby trap and the planet begins to destroy itself. Silver tries to steal a ship from Jim to escape as Jim is nearly killed, but Silver decides to forego the treasure and saves Jim as they guide the ship to the portal and escape just before the planet explodes. Silver decides to take a ship and leave as Jim gives his blessing and Silver leaves him some treasure for rebuilding his mother’s inn before leaving into space. Silver is an interesting character as he has only one goal and that is treasure like a typical pirate, but after meeting Jim he starts to sway in his beliefs though he tries to continue on his path only to finally do the right thing in the end when he saves Jim. Obviously, he is not a typical villain so he will not rank high especially since he redeems himself in the end, but I do have someone else to talk about and that is Mr. Scroop who is part of Silver’s crew. He has a confrontation with Jim and nearly kills him until Silver stops him and then when the ship is nearly sucked into a black hole, Scroop causes Mr. Arrow to be sucked into the black hole. After Silver and the pirates take control of the ship, Scroop is left to guard the ship and duels with Jim which leads to Scroop being tangled up in the pirate flag and he drifts off into space. While Scroop is more evil than Silver, he is just a typical henchman as opposed to the main villain so he won’t rank high either.

Other Characters: Given that this film takes place in space, you would figure that there would be a lot of characters involved since they would visit numerous worlds though we ultimately don’t get that and there are only a few characters to talk about. First, we have Jim’s mother Sarah who runs the Benbow Inn and is losing patience with her son and the direction he is going, and after Billy Bones crashes at the inn a group of pirates chasing him destroy the inn. When Jim and Doppler learn they have a map to Treasure Planet, Sarah is hesitant to see them go though Jim assures her that he will make things right, and after they return he uses the treasure to rebuild the inn and they become close again. We then have Dr. Delbert Doppler who is an astronomer and close friend of the Hawkins’ as he takes them in after Sarah’s inn is destroyed, and after they find the map he commissions a voyage and puts together a crew to find Treasure Planet. He becomes smitten with Capt. Amelia who comes to like him in return and after Silver leads a mutiny, they escape to the planet and Doppler nurses Amelia back to health. As the planet starts to explode, he takes the helm of the ship and is able to lead the ship to the portal in time, and eventually he marries Amelia and they have four children as they continue to be friend with Sarah and Jim. Next, we have Captain Amelia who helms the ship heading to Treasure Planet and she initially is cold to Jim and Doppler, but when Silver leads a mutiny she battles back until they escape to the planet though she is wounded. Doppler nurses her back to health and she starts to fall in love with him, and after they escape the planet and return home she marries Doppler and they have four children. We then have the creature called Morph who can take any form and he is loyal to Silver though he befriends Jim, and it stays at Jim’s side during the mutiny and in the end Silver asks Morph to look after Jim which he does. Next, we have the robot B.E.N. who lives on Treasure Planet though he has no memory and he has been left behind on the planet, and he assists Jim as they retrieve the map and they reach the center of the planet and the treasure. Jim finds a piece of B.E.N. that restores his memory though he is too late to tell them about the booby trap, and he helps them escape the planet just before it destroys and he remains friends with Jim as he helps Sarah at her inn. We then have Mr. Arrow who is Amelia’s second-in-command and he is fiercely loyal to her and when they try to escape the black hole he works to keep the sails in tact though Scroop cuts his lifeline and Arrow is sucked into the black hole. Next, we have Capt. Flint who we see in the story at the beginning where he steals various treasures and leaves them on a hidden planet, and finally we have Billy Bones who crashes at the inn and entrusts Jim with the map before Silver and the pirates destroy the inn. We also have minor characters throughout the film like those that stay at the inn, the numerous sailors at the port, and the other members of the crew that are mostly part of Silver’s crew. This seems to be becoming the norm in that we have a lot of characters show up and only a handful of them are totally important, and I have a feeling that is going to stay the same going forward.

Songs: I wanted to make a clarification so that there is no confusion going forward in that if a song is put in a film that was released previously, it will not be counted and an example of this are the songs by Elvis used for Lilo and Stitch as well as the orchestral pieces in both Fantasia films. On the flip side, if a song was written specifically for the film even if sung by a major artist, it will be included in this category. Case in point, we have two songs that are in this film with the first being “I’m Still Here” which is heard during the voyage when Jim and Silver start becoming friends and it is a fine song for the moment. The other song is “Always Know Where You Are” which is mainly heard at the end of the film and as the credits start, and again it is a perfectly fine song though both of them are fairly forgettable in the long run.

Plot: As I mentioned earlier, “Treasure Island” is one of the more recognized books in history and since its release in 1883, it is perhaps one of the most adapted novels of all time as there have been numerous visual adaptations of the novel since 1918. Now most of those adaptations follow the actual novel while this one takes a unique spin on it and while the plot is mostly the same, it takes place in the future in a distant galaxy. In this version, Jim Hawkins is an outcast that stays with his mother at her inn and a pirate named Billy Bones crashes near the inn, and he entrusts Jim with something important as a group of pirates arrive and destroy the inn. Jim and Dr. Doppler learn the object is a map that leads to “Treasure Planet” which houses all the treasure stole by legendary pirate Capt. Nathanial Flint, and they bring together a crew and obtain a ship as they sail to find the planet. Jim is placed under the command of the cook John Silver who is secretly a pirate along with the crew who plan to steal the treasure for himself, and he befriends Jim though sticks to his plan as they take over the ship and Jim, Doppler, and Capt. Amelia flee the ship and land on the planet. Jim meets B.E.N. and after recovering the map from the ship, they are captured by Silver who has them use the map to lead to the center of the planet. They learn the map opens a portal that can lead to anywhere in the galaxy including the center of the planet where the treasure is being kept, but they trigger a booby trap set up by Flint which causes the destruction of the planet. Silver ultimately saves Jim from death and along with Doppler, Morph, Amelia, and B.E.N., they escape through the portal just before the planet explodes. Silver leaves Jim with some treasure and departs on his own journey as Jim returns home, and he uses the treasure to rebuild his mother’s inn and he becomes an interstellar cadet. It is always interesting when they take a novel that is set in one location and they transport it to a new location which could work though sometimes it feels out of place, and while taking this novel into space and the future felt like a bit of a risk it was one worth taking to add another dimension to this beloved novel.

Random Watching Thoughts: No fancy opening logo for this film; If there is one thing that I wish they would’ve explained at some point, it is the fact that these creatures can travel in space and breathe normally despite there being no atmosphere; Another thing that is never explained is what happened to humanity as Jim and Sarah are the only humans we see in the film and everyone else is an alien; We are either far into the future or in a different galaxy where technology is far advanced as Jim has a book that instead of pop-ups, it has holographic pictures; You can tell that Sarah still believes it to be a legend, yet tells Jim that it’s real to appease him; Again, we are in a world where hover surfboards are a thing yet it is never revealed what timeframe it is; Did Jim really think he wasn’t going to get in trouble by flying through that field; The Benbow Inn literally looks like a standard building from Earth that was transplanted onto this planet and given upgrades on the inside; So on this planet, doughnuts are spheroids and eggs are lunar eclipses; That frog kid was totally disgusted with the doughnuts and eggs while indulging in his bowl of jelly worms; So Doppler is basically a humanoid dog and Sarah gives him his food in dog bowls; Why are the parents of the frog girl just letting her go up to a random table and take that person’s food?; Doppler was right the first time as kids can be deplorable at times; Sarah assumes that Jim is getting better as he is escorted into the inn by the robot cops; They’ve arrested him so many times that even Jim knows the exactly rules that he has broken; That awkward moment when everyone is listening on the conversation and then they go back to their business like they haven’t been paying attention; He’s willing to just stay on the roof while a thunderstorm comes rolling in; Bones says they’ll have to pry it from his cold, dead fingers as he is literally dying from his injuries; So when the weather’s bad, they can just change the windows to showcase a beautiful day; That’s a pretty small object to keep in such a large chest; They even have a futuristic horse and carriage; Doppler says it will take years to unlock the sphere yet Jim does it in a matter of seconds; Sarah’s only decision to keep them from leaving is to ground them both; At least Doppler was honest with Sarah that he really wanted to go; So the planet’s moon is essentially a space port, but wouldn’t there need to be a port on the planet to get to the moon and if so, can’t they just have a port on the planet?; Everything feels very futuristic yet the ships still look like they were built in the 1800s; Doppler is dressed like they are going on a deep sea adventure when they are going into space; So in case anyone is interested, the callsign R.L.S. is a tribute to the author Robert Louis Stevenson; There is an actual language called Flatula which deals with speaking in flatulence; Amelia is right to be a bit paranoid given how quickly a crew can turn on someone if treasure is involved; “A ludicrous parcel of driveling galoots”, Amelia certainly doesn’t mince her words; I feel like Jim knew immediately that Silver was the one that attacked the inn; I guess being a cyborg does have its advantages; Bonzabeast stew, just sounds so appetizing; I don’t know Doppler, does an active galactic nucleus have superluminal jets?; Jim is trying hard to get Silver to crack though Silver stays committed to being oblivious; At least they were smart to include that the ship has artificial gravity so they can’t float away in space; Space whales because yeah, they’re a thing too; A mop and a bucket, just the friends that Jim wanted; That one member calls Jim weird as his head crawls onto the barrel; I feel like we saw Mr. Scroop at the beginning of the film as a member of Flint’s crew; He tells Morph to keep an eye on Jim and Morph decides to help him a bit; Silver was intending to run Jim ragged so he wouldn’t learn of the plan yet he becomes attached to him, and of course we need a montage for that; Silver is now clearly conflicted as he has become close to Jim yet still wants to stick to his plan; Of course they would happen to come across a star that turned into a supernova; They go from one extreme with a supernova to another extreme with a black hole; They went through all the trouble to secure the sails only to have to turn around and release them; They fall into the abyss of the black hole only for an explosion to blow them away to safety; Scroop was smart to untie the lifeline because if it was still attached, it would’ve drawn some suspicion; Instead of yelling at Jim, Amelia puts over Mr. Arrow as a sailor which was the right thing to do; Again, Silver has clearly become attached to Jim even though he still has his plan; Whack-a-Morph; Aliens even have their own pirate flags; Is Morph actually trying to get the map for Silver or is just wanting to play with Jim?; Doppler is like of course, I totally aimed for that thing; Morph is just acting like a dog wanting to play not aware that lives are in danger; That was quite the crash landing for them to escape relatively unscathed; B.E.N. has clearly not seen any life forms in many years which is why he is so happy to see Jim; He obviously hasn’t lost all of his memory if he can remember some of the details, albeit very vaguely; It’s not often that you see a dog and a cat in love with each other; Even being promised treasure doesn’t sway Jim because he feels betrayed by Silver; B.E.N. is just way too loud to be on a stealth mission with Jim; He tells B.E.N. to wait there and B.E.N. randomly decides to shut down the laser cannons; Find the one little wire amongst the hundreds of little wires; I don’t think now was the time for Morph to turn into a pie to attack Scroop; He would just happen to pull the wire to turn off the gravity; Amelia tells him not to do it and Doppler tells him to before changing course and agreeing with Amelia; If it’s not B.E.N.’s life passing by his eyes, whose life is he seeing?; If she didn’t knock him to the ground, he would never have found where the orb goes to unlock the portal; Of all the things to set off the booby trap, of course they would go with the common trope of a laser on the floor that sets off a chain reaction; “Jaws” reference; So Flint just sat in his ship guarding his treasure until his death; If only B.E.N. had gotten his memory back before they tripped the booby trap; He tells the crew to come back even though he knows the planet is destroying itself; Of all the times to have thin wrists, it would be so Doppler could slip out of his restraints; That moment when Silver realizes he has to choose between the treasure and Jim; Silver is confident that he will get over a lifelong obsession; Of course, we have to have one last bit of drama right before the ending; Jim’s space surfing skills finally come into play; Amelia being a backseat captain; I didn’t know robots could cry; Jim would’ve been a pirate at the start of the film, but now he is responsible and needs to go his own way; Morph was all too happy to stay at Jim’s side when Silver asked him to; So apparently when dogs and cats have babies, the girls are cats and the boys are dogs; The officers went from calling Jim a loser to shaking his hand and saluting him; A robot doing the robot dance; Honestly, that visual of Silver in the clouds is a bit creepy.

Overall Thoughts: Overall, this was a fairly average film that was a clear step down from the previous film and so far, the 2000s films have not been faring too well which is pretty disappointing. Having never seen any of these films, I was hoping that perhaps I would be pleasantly surprised by them especially since some people consider these films to be underrated though so far that has not been the case. After the last decade of really good films, the 2000s have not gotten off to a great start and looking ahead at the upcoming films, I’m not feeling good about this changing though I will remain optimistic because that’s how I am. As for this specific film, it is a fairly average film that ranks on the lower end of the films in the Disney canon.

Final Grade: 4.5/10

[mexcine2]

Post-Apocalyptic Fashion Show: "Let Out the Beast" (1950) and Planet Comics 35 (1945)

What does one wear after the apocalypse (assuming you’re one of the survivors, of course)? Pop culture has some suggestions, from “whatever you were wearing before the apocalypse” to “rags & furs” or, perhaps, “futuristic outfits.”  Today’s essay takes a look at two extremes, the 1950 Canadian paperback “Let Out the Beast” and Planet Comics 35 (March 1945). 

“Let Out the Beast” was written by Leonard Fischer, about which little is known (one website gives his birth/death dates as ?1903-?1974), and who doesn’t appear to have written any other books, at least under this name.  Although I’d never heard of this novel before, it’s apparently rather well-known, as least among post-apocalypse literature aficionados, although it doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation: “There are tons of novels and short stories better than this effort…” , “badly written…inept” and “I tried to read this but it was, without a doubt, the worst novel I've ever started” are typical comments.  

The book was published by Export Publishing Enterprises in January 1950, in both Canadian and U.S. versions, and does not seem to have ever been reprinted.  The highly readable and informative Fly-By-Night website indicates Export published 28 paperbacks in U.S. editions, and 20 of these had dust jackets, a rare but not unknown phenomenon.  The dust jacket for “Let Out the Beast” is a stylised image of an explosion, with the tag-line “The World Destroyed by Atomic Blast in 1965,” whereas the cover of the actual paperback is what we’ll examine here (where the tag-line is much smaller and simply reads “The World Destroyed by Atom  Bombs”).  Most of the Export dust jackets featured similarly toned-down and symbolic images as opposed to the representational art on the covers of the books themselves, presumably to allow these rather lurid, exploitative novels to be sold in more conservative venues.

The actual cover of “Let Out the Beast” was the work of artist D. Rickard; Fly-By-Night discussed him a number of times, but concrete information is hard to come by. It seems his name was Douglas Rickard and he probably worked for a Toronto advertising agency at one time.  “He was one of only two artists to have worked for the big three publishers” of the era, painting numerous covers in the 1949-53 period but apparently vanishing afterward (possibly because his market dried up: Export went out of business after a fire in late 1950, White Circle ceased publishing in 1952). 

The cover of “Let Out the Beast” depicts two men fighting over a woman in the middle of a post-apocalytic, ruined landscape (or possibly a municipal garbage dump…or maybe Detroit).  The man on the left is clad in what appears to be a sports jacket, buttoned for modesty’s sake, since he doesn’t seem to be wearing anything underneath it. So, you found a coat but you couldn’t find any trousers?  His blonde opponent wears a toga and tennis shoes, although it’s just as likely that the “toga” is a repurposed table cloth.  This is a better look than jacket-no pants, however: at least a toga is a recognisable article of clothing, whereas Blackbeard resembles a pre-apocalypse flasher (who is also wearing tennis shoes or--given this is a Canadian novel--“runners”). 

Let’s stop to consider the no-pants world of “1965” (when “Let Out the Beast” takes place).  In the modern Western world, trousers have been popular for quite some time (even the Scots generally wear kilts only for ceremonial occasions now), and if the atomic cataclysm of 1965 destroyed the world’s supply of pants, this would be one more source of anxiety for the (male) survivors.  It’s going take some getting used to, all this fighting for survival and such, especially if you’re going commando, the full Monty, free-balling, whatever.  

The unconscious redheaded woman on the cover wears a standard (for pulps, paperbacks and other pop culture literature) dress--which is to say it exposes her shoulders, 50% of her bosom, and her legs--not much the worse for wear.  Perhaps Blackbeard is battling Toga-Man for the right to claim her outfit (alternately, one might cynically speculate that she’s dead and the men are fighting for the right to barbecue and consume her corpse).  

Attire aside, there are some other things to like about this cover.  Notice their weapons: Toga-Man has a barbecue fork, while Blackbeard is wielding what looks like a microphone stand.  Also, Toga-Man apparently believes a bird in the hand is worth two on the barbecue fork.  The background features mostly indistinguishable garbage, but a bed (on the left) and a toilet (on the right) can be glimpsed, which unfortunately only reinforces the impression that this cover doesn’t really depict desperate men struggling to survive the apocalypse, but a confrontation between two impoverished people in a landfill.  Or, as they might say in Mexico, a pleito entre pepenadores (a clash between trash scavengers). 

The art on Canadian original paperbacks in this era, whether by D. Rickard or anyone else, tends to be less polished than contemporary U.S. paperback covers.  This is not necessarily a negative value judgement, since Canadian publishers were drawing from a smaller pool of artists, selling to a smaller potential audience, and were thus constrained financially and technically.   Nonetheless, and contrary to the opinion of some people, I like the cover of “Let Out the  Beast.”  It’s a bit “naïve” but isn’t artistically incompetent, does convey the basic theme of the novel (mankind reverting to savagery), and is rather eye-catching.

The second entry in our Post-Apocalyptic Fashion Show is the cover of Planet Comics 35 (March 1945).  Planet Comics was published by Fiction House, a company that put out both comic books and pulp magazines.  In both media, Fiction House specialised, although not exclusively, in certain genres: science fiction (Planet Stories and Planet Comics), jungle tales (Jungle Stories, Jungle Comics, Jumbo Comics), and aviation-themed (Wings pulp and Wings Comics).  [They also put out Fight Stories and Fight Comics, but the pulp was boxing oriented and the comic was generic action.]  The pulp magazines were certainly aimed at a somewhat older, presumably more literate audience, but Fiction House comics--as evidenced by their cheesecake-laden covers--were also a bit more "adult" than many of their competitors' works.  

Planet Comics ran from 1940 until 1953 (Fiction House got out of the comic book business in 1954).  Although most of the Fiction House titles were genre oriented rather than "starring" a single character, there were recurring series in their comics.  Planet Comics featured space heroes like Flint Baker, Reef Ryan, Gale Allen, Star Pirate, Mysta of the Moon, and Auro, Lord of Jupiter.  Another continuing strip was "The Lost World" (issues 21-69), set in the 33rd century: "Civilization on Earth died--crushed by the inhuman Volta hordes--but Hunt Bowman and Lyssa lived and roamed the devastated planet."

The cover of Planet Comics 35 is based on "The Lost World" strip, and depicts Lyssa in the grip of a Volta Man, while (in the background) Hunt wields his bow-and-arrow (his name is "Hunt Bowman," after all) against the despotic conquerors of Earth.  Since we're concentrating on post-apocalyptic fashion in this essay, let's admire the wide variety of costumes on display here.  But first, a few words about the cover artist, Lily Renée.  One of a relatively small number of female artists who worked on comic books in the "Golden Age," Lily Renée Wilhelm was born in Austria in 1925 but her family fled the country after the 1938 Anschluss which left the country under Nazi domination (the Wilhelms were Jewish).  Eventually, Lily and her parents wound up in the USA and the artistically-talented teen went to work for Fiction House, which was trying to replace male artists drafted into the armed forces.  Renée worked for Fiction House and other publishers until the mid-1950s.  She was (much later) re-discovered by feminist cartoonist Trina Robbins and feted by comics fandom.

On the right-hand side of the cover is a Volta Man.  The primary menace in most (but not all) of the "Lost World" saga, the Volta Men appeared in the very first series story (Planet Comics 21) but looked considerably different than their later incarnation: their faces were yellow and skull-like, and they wore space-type helmets with spikes on the top.  However, it was not until the next time they showed up (Planet Comics 25) that their classic "look" emerged--sort of a green, mummified Creature from the Black Lagoon-ish face, and a helmet definitely reminiscent of the German military pickelhaube.  This story was drawn by Graham Ingels, best known for his later work for EC horror comics in the 1950s, and subsequent artists, including Lily Renée, would follow his lead.  [It's probably not a coincidence that the change in the appearance of the Volta Men--from generic aliens to quasi-German soldiers--occurred in 1943, right in the middle of World War II.]

The Volta Men on this cover are garbed in their familiar outfits, although the unknown colourist went wild, giving the main figure a golden helmet (instead of grey), a yellow tunic and blue leggings (instead of uniform military green) and absolutely fabulous fuschia boots (rather than the boring black ones seen inside the comic).  It might also be noted that one of the other Volta Men in the background has a blue tunic--in the actual series, the Volta Men were rarely individualised and were garbed identically.  Still, it's a jolly look for the normally sinister alien invaders.

Lyssa, Hunt's main squeeze, is the primary focus of the cover of Planet Comics 35.  Although her usual costume in the interior stories was a tight blue top (exposing lots of cleavage) and a red miniskirt (sometimes skin-tight red shorts--she later switched to a tattered red mini-dress), Lyssa obviously dressed up for her rare cover appearances.  She's wearing a red mini-dress on the cover of issue 33 (also drawn by Lily Renée), and a tattered skirt & blouse combo on issue #30 (Joe Doolin art--he also changed the spike on the Volta Man's helmet to a shark fin!).  For Planet Comics 35, Lily Renée went all out to create a slinky emerald green dress that showcases Lyssa's lithesome lines (although, ironically-- given the plentiful cleavage on display in the interior art--she's technically covered up to her neck).  

In the background, Hunt is garbed in his usual leather suspenders and kilt outfit, proving that Planet Comics was not averse to beefcake in addition to cheesecake.  It's amusing to compare the always clean-shaven, short-haired Hunt with the shaggy, scruffy looking battlers on the cover of "Let Out the Beast"--apparently an alien-invasion apocalypse is less disruptive to personal grooming than an atomic-war apocalypse.  

[If you're interested, the cylindrical object partially obscuring the word "Comics" in the masthead is a reasonable facsimile of a Volta spaceship, pointy protuberance (which resembles the Volta helmet spike) and all. I'm not sure why the craft is shooting, given that Volta soldiers are clearly in the target range.  One assumes the warlike Volta are not averse to sacrificing their own troops to "friendly fire" if they can eradicate the pesky Hunt and Lyssa.]

The covers of "Let Out the Beast" and Planet Comics 35 share a similar but not identical vision of the future.  Both covers depict deadly struggles in a post-apocalyptic, ruined landscape.  While D. Rickard clothes his disheveled opponents in cast-off rags, Lily Renée presents a future where the opposing sides are both stylishly clad.  In "Let Out the Beast," the survivors are armed with makeshift weapons, but Planet Comics shows that alien high-tech (ray guns, a spaceship) can be effectively countered with a traditional Earth weapon (a bow-and-arrow).  On the cover of the Canadian novel, we see a fight for survival  between two humans: symbolic, because humanity has destroyed itself in atomic war between "Americanada" (probably pronounced "Ameri-Canada" rather than "American-ada") and "Europasia."  Planet Comics, on the other hand,  is about the aftermath of an alien invasion of Earth, and the opposing forces--humans and Volta Men--are the antagonists in the artwork as well. 

The media are different: "Let Out the Beast" is a paperback book with a serious theme: "... clearly intended as an awful warning..." about the moral consequences of nuclear holocaust.  The novel was aimed at an adult audience and the cover, while mildly exploitative, reflects that.  Planet Stories 35 is pulp-light, a space opera comic book whose readers would have been, on the main, younger than those for a text-heavy pulp magazine, let alone an actual novel.

So, a similar premise, depicted differently: but in both cases, the colourful, outré artwork is intended to catch a buyer's eye and hint at the fantastic content within.    

[inexcon]

RSI Comm-Link: This Week in Star Citizen

Greetings Citizens

We had an eventful last week in Star Citizen.

On Tuesday, we launched our first Valentine’s Day sale. It was a fun way to bring some limited time ships back to the fold, and it looks like many of you took the opportunity to pick up some Origin 85x, Starfarer Gemini, a variety of Vanguards and more. As always, we appreciate your continued support of Star Citizen with your pledge dollars. You make everything we do possible.

Thursday saw an incredibly detailed look at the new Multi-Region Server support in Around the Verse that launched with Alpha 2.6.1. I’ve never seen a segment like it from another game company, and being able to share things like that is one of the many things that set’s Star Citizen apart from other crowdfunded games. ATV also had our first look at the MISC Prospector live in engine, and I speak for myself personally when I say the ship team here continues to impress me each and every month. I only saw it a couple hours before you did, and it was thrilling to see.

Friday saw the launch of our new communications platform Spectrum 0.3.0 to our LIVE testing environment. I won’t bore you with too many details with that, as we already have posts where you can learn all about our newest offering in our post here as well as the FAQ.

Also on Friday we published to our LIVE testing environment Alpha 2.6.1 with the aforementioned Multi-Region Server Support. You can find the post with all those details here.

Whew, that was a bit of a recap, but we had a lot of stuff going on last week. Here’s what’s going down This Week in Star Citizen.

Right now there are two questions threads for Subscribers-Only up on Spectrum. The first thread is for the upcoming February Subscribers Town Hall that will air next week. The subject of this Town Hall is Flight Balance changes, and our special guests will be Lead Tech Designer John Crewe and Ship Balance Designer Andrew Nicholson. Remember that Spectrum lets you upvote which questions you want to see answered, and will influence which questions get picked for the show.

In addition, there is a second thread for the next 10 for the Chairman staring Chris Roberts and Tony Zurovec, where they’ll be answering your questions about professions in Alpha 3.0, with a special emphasis on Cargo and Mining. Don’t forget that in addition to adding your questions, Subscribers can also vote on the ones they want to see answered most.

Monday’s latest episode of Citizens of the Stars includes Quantum Questions with Will Weissbaum, where he answers questions about our next concept ship, questgivers in Alpha 3.0, and which lore characters you can already read about make appearances in Squadron 42. It also sees Tyler Witkin introduce our third Community Manager, Tyler Nolin. I know… I KNOW… Two Tylers… I’m doomed.

Wednesday and Thursday this week bring another edition of Loremaker’s Guide and Around the Verse, respectively. Remember, that while many of our shows are a fun behind-the-scenes look at our community, our lore, or our programming, Around the Verse is your place for the latest development updates each and every week.

Then on this Friday, end the week with Tylers and I on another edition of Happy Hour, where we take an hour at the end of our week to sit back and hang out with the Star Citizen community and developers.

Additionally, this Friday will also see the launch of our first concept sale of 2017, the Anvil Hurricane. Check back on Friday for the official reveal, and the subsequent Q&A thread on Spectrum.

With that, we’ll see you in the ‘Verse!

Jared Huckaby “Disco Lando” Community Manager

The Weekly Community Content Schedule

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20TH, 2017             Citizens of the Stars   (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21ST, 2017             Weekly Lore Post   (http://bit.ly/2jn6tmR)

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22ND, 2017             Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy!   (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23RD, 2017             Around the Verse   (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)             Vault Update   

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24TH, 2017             Star Citizen Happy Hour @ 12pm PST / 8pm UTC   (http://bit.ly/2afL3VB)             RSI Newsletter

Community Spotlight: February 20th, 2017 – Stream Citizen

There are many ways to spread the word that Space Sims are back, be that in webforums or chatrooms, news articles or reviews, but perhaps one of my favorite ways to share our mutual love of Star Citizen is through streaming. There are many folks out there that showcase Star Citizen to others through their streams on a variety of platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, and Beam, and you can get a real sense for how the game is progressing by watching the reactions of players live. This week, we shine the spotlight on these industrious individuals who share their love of Star Citizen through streaming.

Visit the Community Hub

Grittspitter

Relatively new to streaming, GrittSpitter has a fun and excitable demeanor when streaming, and his enjoyment of what he’s doing can be infectious to viewers, and he’s broadcasting his climb up the Star Marine leaderboards several times a week.

Check out his Twitch channel here.

TheAstroPub

Welcome to your space bar at the end of Twitch! Come on in, kick back, relax and enjoy the show with the only Star Citizen streamer named after a fictional location. TheAstroPub streams Star Citizen several times a week, as well as hosting The Captain’s Table where he chats recent developments in the game with other citizens.

Check out his Twitch channel here.

DocPasty

DocPasty is a variety streamer that has streamed Star Citizen for some time now. When playing Star Citizen, you’ll often find her working to improve her racing skills on one of Arena Commander’s racetracks, and comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the 350r or M50.

Check out her Twitch channel here.

Capn_Flint

Capn_Flint commands the good ship Narwhal in this pirate-themed streaming adventure. With plenty of themed overlay events and sound clips, Capn-Flint’s streams add a unique touch to his broadcasts that match his humorous personality.

If you stop by, tell ‘em Disco sent ya, and he’ll do a fun dance live on stream.

Check out his Twitch channel here.

$(function() { Page.init(); window.Page = new RSI.Game.About(); }); (function( $ ){ var $window = $(window); var windowHeight = $window.height(); $window.resize(function () { windowHeight = $window.height(); }); $.fn.parallax = function(xpos, speedFactor, outerHeight) { var $this = $(this); var getHeight; var firstTop; var paddingTop = 0; //get the starting position of each element to have parallax applied to it $this.each(function(){ firstTop = $this.offset().top; }); if (outerHeight) { getHeight = function(jqo) { return jqo.outerHeight(true); }; } else { getHeight = function(jqo) { return jqo.height(); }; } // setup defaults if arguments aren't specified if (arguments.length < 1 || xpos === null) xpos = "50%"; if (arguments.length < 2 || speedFactor === null) speedFactor = 0.1; if (arguments.length < 3 || outerHeight === null) outerHeight = true; // function to be called whenever the window is scrolled or resized function update(){ var pos = $window.scrollTop(); $this.each(function(){ var $element = $(this); var top = $element.offset().top; var height = getHeight($element); // Check if totally above or totally below viewport if (top + height < pos || top > pos + windowHeight) { return; } $this.css('backgroundPosition', xpos + " " + Math.round((firstTop - pos) * speedFactor) + "px"); }); } $window.bind('scroll', update).resize(update); update(); }; $('.parallax-1').parallax("50%", 0.1, true); $('.parallax-2').parallax("50%", 0.1, true); $('.parallax-3').parallax("50%", 0.1, true); $('.parallax-4').parallax("50%", 0.1, true); $('.parallax-5').parallax("50%", 0.1, true); $('.parallax-6').parallax("50%", 0.1, true); $('.parallax-7').parallax("50%", 0.1, true); })(jQuery); http://bit.ly/2lGmEAp