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maxwell-grant · 4 years ago

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So, you've stated that, contrary to popular opinion, you don't think Batman counts as a Pulp Hero. Which then begets the question, what superheroes DO you think count?

I don’t think “Batman is a pulp hero” is that much of a popular opinion, since the popular opinion regarding pulp heroes is largely that they are just the guys that came before Batman and after Sherlock, which is a very simple and not really inaccurate way of looking at it, even if that obviously leaves out a lot and isn’t how I or others use the term. Batman’s primarily a superhero, the 2nd biggest figurehead of the superhero as a concept, and DC’s even published at least two stories that exist largely to demonstrate that Batman isn’t one but is also totally better than all of them put together, which is part of why I get a little iffed when Batman’s called a pulp hero like he doesn’t have enough going on for him already.

I think Batman (and Superman), James Bond and Star Wars are three very clear examples of fiction that’s inspired by pulp, clearly exists in reference to it, but also clearly belongs to different forms of storytelling and have grown into separate cultural institutions. There’s a very clear point where Batman stopped being a Shadow knock-off and grew into his own character, like there’s a clear point where the pulp sci-fi influence on Star Wars ends, and the paperback heroes were part of what killed the pulps to begin with.

I’ve said before that there isn’t that much of a difference between a superhero and a pulp hero besides the medium they were made for and what the terms imply and the central conceits across the two, and part of that is because, while superhero is a vague term, it still operates by certain rules and definitions and molds, where as pulp hero, when you get down to it, is kinda of a non-sequitur term that only really exists to try and frame the characters of the pulps (from the 1900s to the 1950s) and the like into a similar frame as the superheroes, and that in itself doesn’t really hold up the more you start to pick at it (if we stuck to pulp magazines only, like we should in theory, Green Hornet, Rocketeer, The Spirit, The Phantom, Dick Tracy, Indiana Jones and countless others would not be pulp heroes, for starters, and yet clearly they are popularly considered such).

Still, we have to draw the line at some point, and Batman is one of those points where I think a line needs to be drawn. I don’t think pulp heroes and superheroes are mutually exclusive, but they are not the same thing, and I’d argue much of what truly defines pulp heroes is the ways in which they are not like superheroes, or the heroes that came before them.

In that regard, the first character to really be both a pulp hero as well as a true superhero, is clearly The Phantom.

The Phantom’s status is a complicated one, and the question of whether or not he is the first superhero probably deserves a separate post. The Phantom is essentially a combination of the archetypes embodied by The Shadow and Tarzan, who broke from tradition by wearing a colorful costume and by having adventures in comic strips instead of literature. There’s no standard that defines Batman as a superhero that The Phantom does not meet and then some, and if The Phantom had been created by DC Comics shortly after Superman, if he switched places historically with Batman, he'd be considered just as integral to the whole superhero concept as Batman is, and it probably wouldn't even be that different. Batman was just lucky he got to be there at Superman's side when the superhero was born (well, repackaged and given a fancy new name, mostly)

Sometimes a character’s status in history has less to do with how innovative or popular they were, and more with just being at the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time. Like Golden Bat, the forerunner of all sentai heroes. If he'd been created in America, and was as popular in it as he was in Japan, if he was as instrumental to spawning the existence of a superhero genre and superhero characters as Superman was, he would be pretty indisputably the first superhero.

But putting that aside, The Phantom provides a very clean, very clear look at what it looks like when you combine pulp heroes and superheroes. He is a pulp hero at his core, but with unique traits that break from tradition and have become common place in superhero stories, who lives in comic strips that are closer to comic books than the pulps that inspired him. You can almost tell exactly where The Shadow and Tarzan end with him, and where Batman and Superman begin. He’s a pure transitional fossil, and that particular combination of Dark Avenger, Jungle Hero and Super Hero rolled into one wouldn’t be seen again until Black Panther.

There’s a lot of characters across the superhero landscape who tend to be much closer to the pulp heroes than their contemporary superheroes, usually because they are directly referencing the pulps or pulp-adjacent time periods, more often than not specifically because they are referencing The Shadow or Shadow-influenced characters. A lot of public domain superheroes tend to inhabit the same spaces as pulp heroes. There’s a weird line where these characters have so much in common with pulp heroes that they barely even resemble superheroes, but because they live in superhero universes, they cross those lines as well. The Question, for example, is an almost textbook pulp detective, with his mask and odd gadgetry not even being that much more super than something a character like Moon Man or Green Hornet would have, but The Question also sometimes hangs out with the Justice League and gets into multiverse shenanigans.

Marvel’s Night Raven is for all intents and purposes their take on The Shadow as an urban icon of grim justice, except he’s a Marvel character, so naturally he leans heavily on horror and people’s moral failings. And on that note, a lot of Alan Moore’s work on America’s Best Comics, like Tom Strong and Top 10, as well as some of his other projects like V For Vendetta (he named The Shadow as one of the major inspirations for the central character) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, also goes strongly into pulp material as well as his work on superheroes. DC’s Wild Dog was literally conceived by his creator as a modern Shadow, with the caveat, in his own words, being “today, if you want to strike fear into people's hearts, don't dress like the Shadow, dress like Jason!”. And Spider-Man Noir has gradually become Marvel’s most popular equivalent to a pulp hero, with Into The Spiderverse going fully into the idea by giving him a trenchcoat and fedora and over-the-top dark mannerisms and lines courtesy of Nick Cage.

One character I think serves as one of the most prominent examples of a true combination between a pulp hero and a super hero is Moon Knight, a character that used to be derogatorily known as Marvel’s Batman but thankfully has been receiving greater appreciation recently, partially thanks to dedicated memes and a greater usage in comics. Doug Moench infused Moon Knight with a lot of similarities to The Shadow, as @orionstarb0y lists here, and one time he even tried out ripping one of The Shadow’s catchphrases

Moon Knight is a character who has sort of straddled lines as the years went by, from his first appearence as an antagonist in Werewolf by Night, to solo outings trying to carve out a niche for himself, to brief and lame attempts to really make him Marvel’s Batman, to excellent runs that took the character down to the gritty bones of his archetype, and everything in between. Moon Knight’s superpower is that his brain is supernaturally batshit, and just how batshit and supernatural he is varies depending on the story. Sometimes he’s just a guy with too much money and training who has to contend with his own demons, and sometimes the moon god he serves gives him enough superpowers to fight an Avenger for a week. Sometimes he rips people’s nipples off, sometimes he practices poses in front of the mirror, and sometimes he goes fishing with his split personalities. It’s that kind of variety show weirdness that ultimately makes me consider Moon Knight a pulp hero-super hero hybrid, traits from both remixed together in a interesting, if inconsistent, new package.

Superheroes have become such an omnipresent aspect of pop culture over the past decades that pretty much every modern character that could reasonably be considered a pulp hero also has aspects that cross over into superheroics, with the few examples that are more “true-to-text” consisting of smaller scale characters like Lavender Jack or Grendel. I’d argue it’s not so much the definitions themselves that matter, so much as whether interesting things are done when playing around with the archetypes. That’s ultimately what’s always going to be what makes or break a successful example of pulp hero or superhero, or everything in between.

#pulp heroes #pulp fiction #superheroes #comic rambles #moon knight #the phantom

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lestatslestits · 5 years ago

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Phantom of the Opera/Sherlock Holmes Crossover Masterpost

@wheel-of-fish and @jennyfair7 requested a master post of all of the Sherlock Holmes and Phantom of the Opera crossovers that I know of, so after a few days of compiling, here it is! These books range from the (fairly) well known to the rather obsessively obscure, and include any books I know of where the Holmes and Phantom universes overlap. I’ve taken this as a chance to review the ones I’ve read, and I’ll hopefully be able to update this post with more info on the others once I finish them. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Note: this is only a list of crossovers published and available for purchase, and of which I am aware. If anyone else knows of more, please let me know!

The Angel of the Opera by Sam Siciliano

This is the first Phantom/Sherlock crossover I ever read. For me it’s a bit hit or miss. The author decided to forgo including Watson, and instead included a character named Doctor Henry Vernier, a cousin of Holmes’, as the narrator. I believe that Henry Vernier is most likely a reference to Doctor Verner, Holmes’ cousin who ended up buying Watson’s medical practice after the death of Mary Watson. Which is to say, it’s a book written by a person who seemingly remembered a single line from a single Sherlock Holmes story about Holmes having a physician cousin named Verner (presumably made into Vernier for the purposes of the book’s French setting, and to reflect Holmes’ French heritage), but still managed to confuse the Grasshopper and the Scorpion, and occasionally spell Erik as “Eric.” It makes some sense, though, as Siciliano is mostly a Sherlockian, with several other pastiches under his belt. For my money, he’s not my favorite interpreter of Holmes as a character, although it could be that his choice of narrators impacts how Holmes is portrayed. Although it does tend to fall into some Phantom-centric tropes that I don’t care for, overall The Angel of the Opera is long enough to flesh out the story more fully than some Holmes/Phantom crossovers manage, and in general the style feels consistent with what you would expect from a Holmes story. It absolutely pulled me in when I read it at a young age, and I’m hoping to have the chance to revisit it soon.

The Canary Trainer by Nicholas Meyer

The Canary Trainer is the second book (chronologically) in a trio of Holmes novels that take place during The Great Hiatus, the years between “The Final Problem” and “The Empty House,” during which time Holmes is assumed dead. The first book, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, involves Holmes meeting Sigmund Freud and undergoing psychotherapy to cope with his drug addiction. The Canary Trainer finds Holmes in France, taking a violinist position at the Opera House and coming face to face (so to speak) with Erik. Nicholas Meyer is perhaps best known for directing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution is a well-known Holmes pastiche (which I will admit I’ve never read). The Canary Trainer is a bit more obscure.

The Canary Trainer takes on a lot of cool concepts (a story that takes place during The Great Hiatus, perspective on Erik’s time as an architect and builder, etc.), but it also makes a lot of baffling choices, such as having Gaston Leroux show up as a character, and including Irene Adler only to under-utilize her as little more than a love interest for Holmes (her lukewarm friendship with Christine is one of the most disappointing parts of the book, in my opinion). It also barely allows Erik and Holmes to interact. Erik is such a profoundly sympathetic antagonist and Holmes is capable of such extreme empathy that it’s a shame to not let them engage with each other.

Rendezvous at the Populaire and I Will Find the Answer by Kate Workman

While most Holmes/Phantom crossovers focus on Leroux’s novel, Rendezvous at the Populaire, as its name suggests, pulls heavily from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. So heavily, in fact, that a major chunk of the dialogue and descriptions comes directly from lyrics, which can be distracting. Stylistically, Rendezvous at the Populaire reads differently than your typical Holmes pastiche, drawing from multiple points of view instead of one narrator. It can feel rather rough around the edges, but I ultimately found it a fun read. It’s nice to read a crossover that features Watson, and Holmes and Erik have a nice dynamic. This book prompted a sequel, I Will Find the Answer, in which Holmes, Watson, and Erik join forces to solve the Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde. In the same way that Rendezvous at the Populaire draws primarily from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, I Will Find the Answer draws more heavily from Jekyll and Hyde than from Robert Louis Stevenson’s book. Workman’s style progresses nicely between books, making I Will Find the Answer a bit easier of a read, less reliant on song lyrics for its text. If she ever decides to publish her proposed third book featuring Holmes and Erik solving the Jack the Ripper murders, I’ll be interested to read it.

Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Opera Ghost by Steven Philip Jones and Aldin Baroza

This is two part comic is part of a series pitting Holmes against various gothic literary icons and monsters. It draws heavily from Leroux and Kay. The comic takes place after The Great Hiatus and the death of Mary Watson. The story had to be pretty heavily condensed to fit the two issue format, but it accomplishes a lot in a short space, hitting high points in the story. There is a subplot that heavily focuses on Watson mourning Mary’s death, which leads to a unique twist on the end of the story. The art style is cool and has a nice vintage black and white look. I would love to see this concept extended into a longer series, but as it stands it’s a nice, quick read. Due to its brevity it does get a little confusing at times, including a point where Mary appears to call Watson “James” instead of John (although it’s hard to fault the comics for a mistake Doyle himself occasionally made), but it’s a lot of fun and definitely worth checking out.

Angels of Music by Kim Newman

This is a crossover that breaks the mold! Instead of pitting Holmes against Erik, this book features Irene Adler (among other fictional woman, including Christine Daaé and some of Newman’s own characters from other books) working with Erik as a sort of spy. It’s Charlie’s Angels by way of The Phantom of the Opera, and I’m only a few pages into it, but I’m certainly excited to read more. In some ways Irene Adler is a more natural fit into Phantom than Holmes himself is, so I’m always interested to find crossovers that include her. I’ll likely update this post once I’ve finished the book.

The Phantom of the Opera Carmen by Regina Goncalves

I had to do a lot of digging to find any information about this book and I’m still not entirely sure what it’s about, but I wanted to include it for the sake of thoroughness. Hopefully I’ll be able to read it and provide an update later.

The Phantom of the Opera Carmen is one story in a series of educational books for young readers. The stories focus on a time traveler named Caius Zip who travels and learns about the connection between art and science. This story features Caius teaming up with Sherlock Holmes and H.G. Wells to solve the mystery of our favorite ghost while the opera house attempts to mount a production of Carmen. There also seems to be a story about Caius and Sherlock meeting some of the masters of Impressionism and learning about their art. How, if at all, this ties in with the Phantom plot isn’t clear. This book is on my list once I finish Angels of Music, so I hope to be able to report back later.

Sherlock Holmes contro il Fantasma dell’Opera by Antonella Mecenero

Sherlock Holmes contro il Fantasma dell’Opera is an e-book short story/novella in which Sherlock Holmes once again takes a position as a violinist at the opera house in order to solve the mystery of the Phantom. I know very little about this book as it exclusively available in Italian, which I don’t read or speak. Special thanks to @letyourfantasiesunwind1981 for pointing out this story to me!

#the phantom of the opera #poto #sherlock holmes #irene adler #jekyll and hyde #arthur conan doyle #gaston leroux #phandom #phantom history #long post

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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Power Rangers: The Version of In Space We Never Got

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Power Rangers in Space was a revolutionary entry in the Power Rangers franchise. The show had certainly evolved over the previous five seasons but In Space was a quantum leap forward. Airing in 1998 on Fox Kids, the series featured serialized plots, character arcs with depth, and gifts for longtime fans in the form of returning Rangers and villains. Nearly 25 years later, the series remains highly regarded, many elements of it even making their way into the current Power Rangers comics.

But it all could have been so very different. Imagine a version of In Space where Astronema wasn’t the big bad, Red Ranger Andros didn’t exist, and Power Rangers Turbo’s Justin is a a main character! At one point in time these were real possibilities.

To discuss all this we need to go back to May 1997, back around the time the second half of Turbo was beginning to be written. As production continued on the current season, preliminary plans for the next season were already in motion. The producers had access to half of the source footage they’d be working with, Denji Sentai Megaranger, and memos were going back and forth on how to utilize it for Power Rangers.

Amongst these was a pitch for a season concept by executive producer Shuki Levy, a proto version of In Space. The pitch was in part intended for the production team so work could begin on designing sets and those designs could later be sent off to toymaker Bandai to start work on playsets. This pitch and accompanying materials were acquired by a fan from a production staff member at Power Morphicon in 2010. This is what we’ll be taking a deep dive into.

The Turbo Set-Up

In the show as aired, In Space was set up in Turbo’s finale where the Rangers’ base was blown to smithereens. Discovering their old mentor, Zordon, had been taken captive by the forces of evil, Rangers T.J., Cassie, Carlos, and Ashley all blast off into space without their powers, with Justin staying behind. In Space’s premiere has the four Rangers join up with Andros, the In Space Red Ranger, and gain new powers to fight against the evil Astronema (replacing Turbo’s main villain, Divatox.)

The proto version of In Space would have set up events for the season across the final four episodes of Turbo. A running subplot would have featured the Phantom Ranger (a mysterious ally to the Turbo team) investigating a meeting called by the evil Dark Specter. The Phantom Ranger would have discovered that a group of past villains, including Divatox, Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, and more were being ordered by Dark Spector to kidnap Zordon.

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The Power Rangers Turbo Deleted Scenes That Could Have Saved the Movie

By Shamus Kelley

Dark Specter’s plan is to drain Zordon of his good energy and turn his powers evil, in the process making Zordon cease to exist. The Phantom Ranger is discovered and just manages to get a signal to the Rangers before he’s captured. The villains combine their powers and use the energy to capture Zordon in front of the terrified Alpha-5. With Zordon gone, the Rangers are faced with their toughest challenge yet. Traveling into deep space.

Fans of In Space will recognize that this plot was dramatically condensed and used as the opening scenes of the first episode of that season, “From Out of Nowhere.” That episode gave us the big meeting of evil and introduced Dark Specter to the audience, but instead of the Phantom Ranger it was the new Red Ranger Andros that observed the meeting. Unlike the Phantom Ranger, Andros was able to escape.

It’s a shame more of this didn’t make it into the show, especially the sequence of Zordon getting captured. This never made it to screen in the final version of either Turbo or In Space, relegated to an off-screen event the characters simply talked about.

The Lost Arc of Power Rangers in Space

The proto In Space begins with the entire Turbo team intact, Justin included. At night the team meets Dimitria, still the team’s mentor, “upon a flat mountain top” called The Power Dome. This would be the team’s base of operations for the season, the dome floating in space not too far from Earth. Within it was “a giant pyramid made of silky material” that would be the entire set. The Rangers would also be given a space station that would be “floating further in the dark deep of space.” In the show that aired that space station would be called the Astro Megaship.

In what seemed to be a set up for a typical episode, the Rangers would use their “Power Gliders” (an early name for the Galaxy Gliders) to travel from Earth to the Power Dome to the space station. The Rangers would also pilot “flying machines” across space but they have a major drawback. They have limited power and can only be “re-energized” by “the Command Center on Earth.” This probably meant the Power Dome or the space station, since later documents state the set for the command center would be repurposed as sets for the space station.

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Each Ranger would need to watch the energy level of their vehicle closely as they searched for Zordon. They’d discover clues along the way but the journey wouldn’t be a straight line, since they’d continually have to be racing back to Earth to re-energize not only the flying machines but their weapons as well. Occasionally they’d have to stay and defend Earth all while “the clock is ticking on Zordon’s destiny.”

It’s unclear what the “flying machines” were intended to be. Perhaps they were supposed to be the Galaxy Gliders but considering the documents alternatively refer to them as vehicles? Maybe the plan was to create all-new machines that weren’t from Megaranger. While these machines never made it into the series, an echo of the idea lives on in the subsequent season, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, where the Rangers piloted the American exclusive Jet Jammers.

As the Rangers are off in space the Earth would be unprotected… except for Bulk and Skull, the loveable bumbling duo. They announce to everyone in Angel Grove that they’ll lead a group of volunteers and form a “Citizen Force Group” to protect the city. Eventually this was whittled down to just Bulk, Skull, and new character Professor Phenomenus investigating aliens.

While In Space eventually had episodes where the Rangers searchedfor Zordon, this early take on the arc features it far more prominently. The season also would have had more of its episodes set in outer space. In Space as aired did feature the team traveling to different worlds but the team ended up on Earth far more than what the proto version planned.

This probably came down to budget; it was simply more effective to shoot scenes set on Earth than to stage locations as various alien planets or try to explain away the Earth-bound Sentai footage. It also makes more practical sense to just have the Megaship and scrap the Power Dome. Why have two bases?

A lot of Turbo’s core cast remains in place, including Dimitria as their mentor and Justin as the Blue Ranger with T.J. continuing on as Red Ranger. In the series Justin left and T.J. went from being the Red Turbo Ranger to the Blue In Space Ranger.

This marks one of the bigger changes from the aired season. There’s no mention of Andros. In Space was largely defined by the new Red Ranger, an alien from KO-35 whose back-story formed the core arc of the season. Without that, would In Space have featured as strong a character arc for say, T.J.? He is the best Red Ranger of all time, at least according to us, so the thought of him getting even more screen time would have been welcome.

On the other hand, having a season set in space but none of the Rangers are aliens feels like a missed opportunity. Sure Andros was human (remember, not all humans are from earth in the Power Rangers universe) but functionally he was an alien. His presence not only broadened the scope of the Power Rangers universe but gave the team a guide through the galaxy. Justin gets a lot of overblown flack from fans, being a kid Ranger, but we have to admit that Andros was a far better character than Justin ever was.

Perhaps the Silver Ranger could have been an alien, just like Zhane was in the finished season, but curiously the production team wasn’t even sure they’d use the Silver Ranger! In response to the question of whether the Mega Delta Zord (an early name for the Delta Megazord) “belonged to” to the Silver Ranger, it was stated, “we should also discuss whether to bring the Silver Ranger in at all.”

Not bring in the sixth Ranger? How could they even consider that? To understand this line of thinking, at the time this proto concept was being written, the Power Rangers production team only had access to 27 episodes of Megaranger, a little over half the season. Mega Silver was introduced in episode 24 with the handicap of a short morphed time limit. With this in mind, it’s easy to see why the producers considered not including him. We can assume that once the producers saw more of Megaranger they realized they had enough footage to make him a worthwhile inclusion.

Villains

Justin and Dimitria weren’t the only carry overs from Turbo. In the bio for Ecliptor, a major In Space villain, he’s described as “Divatox’s new second-in-command.” Divatox would have carried over as the main villain of In Space! In the series as aired Divatox made a few guest appearances but was quickly phased out in favor of a new villain, Astronema.

This, like T.J. being the Red Ranger instead of Andros, removes a core element of the series. Spoiler for a nearly 25-year-old show, but part way through the season Astronema was revealed to be Andros’ sister! With Divatox in place, In Space would have lost a major part of what made it so memorable to fans.

How would Divatox have fit into things? We know she would have been working for Dark Specter but her over the top personality might have clashed with the more powerful leader of evil. Maybe the character would have gotten a new lease on life, especially if her supporting cast of villains were jettisoned. Ecliptor being called Divatox’s new second-in-command seems to imply that Elgar, a general in Turbo and Divatox’s nephew, would have been jettisoned from the show. At the very least, he would have played a minor supporting role as he did in the final version of In Space. Without a wacky supporting cast, Divatox might have lost some of her comedy and played a bit more serious. As interesting as that would have been, Divatox’s humor is what made her so memorable so it’s for the best that Astronema was brought in.

The documents also lay out a new group of henchmen that would have joined the season, “purple putties.” These were undoubtedly a temp name for the “Kunekune” foot soldiers from Megaranger. At this point it looks like the production had planned on utilizing them more extensively than In Space eventually did, where they were mostly dropped in favor of the US original Quantrons.

The biggest big bad of the season though is Dark Specter. While the outline for the episodes makes him appear similar to his final version, he would have featured a very different appearance. The character as aired reused the Maligore villain suit from Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie with a quick lampshade by Divatox to explain away the similarity. The proto version of the season lays out that the suit they planned to use was that of the lead villain from Carranger, the previous Sentai season. Exhaus.

The documents describe Dark Specter as, “the Monarch of Evil is an enormous floating head. It is bigger than the platform, bigger than the whole mountain. His breath alone causes a strong wind to blow over the surface of the platform.” This is a fairly accurate description of Exhaus, further supported by a mention from production that, “his image is available on the Turbo footage (cars).” Ultimately the Exhaus monster suit would get used as Goldgoyle, the final villain that wiped out the Turbo Rangers’ megazords. More than likely the Maligore suit was used in its place because it looked more menacing.

An Unseen Megazord

This isn’t just an unseen part of In Space, it was unseen in Megaranger as well! Alongside designs for the other Megazords of the season, including the Cosmotron Megazord, an early name for the Mega Voyager, is a design for a Megazord that never made it past the development stage. The Stratoforce Megazord. A Megazord made of only one component Zord, this may have been an early idea that was most likely scrapped in favor of the Mega Winger, the Silver Ranger’s Megazord. The name was later reused for one of the Zords in Lost Galaxy.

Was All This Better Than What We Got?

No. As interesting as some of these ideas are, seeing Zordon get captured is the only major change that would have benefited the season. Divatox is incredible and Justin isn’t as bad as fans make him out to be, but their inclusion wouldn’t have made the season better. Andros and Astronema alone are two of the better characters Power Rangers has ever had. It would have been awful to lose them.

The best thing about this proto version is the peak it gives us into the production of Power Rangers. It lets us see just how far ahead they had to start planning a season and how only having a chunk of the Sentai footage impacted it. We get insight into how the demands of production and limits of budget forced these big ideas to get scaled down.

More than anything it makes you appreciate what we ended up getting all the more. Power Rangers In Space arguably helped foster the dedicated fan base the franchise still has today. It took everything that had come before and made it matter. It gave the series stakes and a broader canvas of stories to work with. It excited the imagination.

Maybe a giant silky pyramid could have done the same but somehow I doubt it.

Thanks to Project Hexagon: The Power Rangers Script Archive for providing the pitch and scans included here.

The post Power Rangers: The Version of In Space We Never Got appeared first on Den of Geek.

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biomedgrid · 4 years ago

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Biomed Grid | Simulation Programs in Disaster Medicine

Introduction

The Significance Soft Abilities in the services of disaster medicine Soft skills are characterized as the individual qualities that empower a person to communicate adequately and harmoniously with others in stuff conditions and are fundamental for effective execution in any relational setting. According to Abbas [1] these properties are much more pivotal in the medical services industry of disaster medicine and not only, where therapeutic experts and representatives more nearly collaborate with patients and different human groups, as a rule under to great degree troublesome and passionate conditions. Accordingly, people work in disaster medicine issues should completely screen work possibility to guarantee they have the delicate aptitudes required to convey an outstanding level of care and administration to patients, while additionally having the capacity to effectively team up with staff individuals to boost hierarchical viability [2,3]. In the aviation business, accident analyses, machine analysis, and cockpit voice recordings unconcealed that unsafe conditions were overtimes associated with failures in staff ’ non-technical (cognitive and social) skills, instead of an absence of technical data, ability to execute commands and algorithms. The correlation between the skills of the team members, the possible initiatives they may be required to take and the performance (quality and safety results) are decisive for the outcome of the mission [4,5].

Methodology

Problem statement: In the period of the most recent century, the quantity of catastrophes has astoundingly expanded, showing that future ages of doctors will be called upon to give mass-setback treatment to a significantly more noteworthy degree than previously. Various examinations point to the absence of satisfactory preparing in the medicinal administration of catastrophe reaction – an insufficiency that has turned out to be drastically clear in the ongoing past. In each real crisis there are yet noteworthy quantities of help staff who do not have a portion of the basic aptitudes, as a result, numerous legislatures and logical foundations concur that fiasco solution instruction ought to be incorporated into the standard restorative educational programs. The significance of improving instruction and preparing in a debacle of global safety and health has broadly been seen by medical understudies underlining that will react to massive disasters. This will be requiring specialist medical intervention which will be depend on non-technical skills. In any case, ongoing examinations have been demonstrated that exclusive a little level of restorative schools worldwide have included training of soft skills in medicine of catastrophes in their studies program. Along these lines, preparing restorative understudies to acquire non-technical skills through simulation, for getting to be helpful wellbeing experts is fundamental.

It adopted the following procedure for the Systematic methodology review:

a. Determining the research question and the appropriate studies

b. Search for studies

c. Selection of studies that meet the import criteria

d. Evaluation of the quality of the selected studies

e. Export data from studies

f. Statistical analysis of data (meta-analysis)

Subsequently for the selection of appropriate studies: All search results from various sources and removal of Duplicates with help from bibliographic reporting programs as PRISMA were merged the titles and abstracts of all reports and isolation of potentially relevant studies were rode. The full text of the potentially appropriate one’s studies had been read (Table 1).

Table 1: Description of the Selection of Appropriate Articles for the Bibliographic Review by PRISMA Technique.

Consideration/Prohibition Criteria

Papers were incorporated that announced investigations:

a. Focusing on no specialized abilities estimates pertinent to the crisis mind condition.

b. That were embraced in any nation.

Papers were barred if they were:

a. Not accessible in English.

b. Did exclude or give access to the estimation instrument.

c. Related to specialized or clinical aptitudes estimates alone.

Following this, essential pursuit articles not meeting any of the consideration criteria by title or dynamic were barred; outstanding modified. A search of the literature was conducted to find and review instruments to quantify nontechnical skills including cooperation, leadership, higher cognitive process and scenario awareness. Electronic databases were searched from 2010 to 2018 and below are some of the databases used: Directory of open access books http://www.doabooks.org/ PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/pubmed/ Google scholar http://scholar. google.com/ Scirus http://www.scirus.com/Google book search http://books.google. com/ The Librarians’ Internet Index http://www.lii.org/ Internet Public Library (IPL) http: //www.ipl.org as well as in: - MEDLINEEMBASE- Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) SCOPUS, NATIONAL & KAPODISTRIAN UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS: Libraries & Information Services, WEB OF SCIENCE (WOS), NATIONAL ARCHIVE OF DOCTORAL DISTRIBUTIONS / ECB , OPENACCESS, OPENARCHIVES, JOURNAL OF MAGAZINES (EDETB), ZEFYROS, ARGO, DOAJ, Free Medical Journals & Free Medical Books (via the Amedeo medical database), OCLCECO, U.S. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE (NLM) - Databases & Electronic Resources

Additionally, to the current, systematic searches of the cooperation literature, one by one performed by the authors, were accessed for key papers between 2010 and 2018. Reference has been made to important global writing there are some gaps in the literature that make the research meaningful and original. It is clear the relationship of the explanation behind the examination with the continuous written work about the issue, the reason and the investigation questions are clear. The method grasped to answer ask about the request is appropriate.

a. Data aggregation instruments have been adequately delineated and endorsed and trustworthy.

b. Pleasing elucidations for the results are given.

c. The ends rely upon the data assembled.

d. The methodological obstructions of the investigation are seen.

e. The structure and relationship of the parts of the investigation is clear

f. Isolation of studies that meet the import criteria

Measurable examination of information was performed utilizing SPSS 16.0 programming (Chicago, IL, USA). The between rater unwavering quality was estimated utilizing an intra-class relationship. For all tests, a P-estimation of <0.05 was viewed as noteworthy (two-sided).

Main Part

The impersonation of a true procedure or task of a framework over time. Envelops the advancement of a model that will repeat the key highlights and characteristics of a real framework. The model speaks to the framework itself, while reproduction speaks to the conduct of the framework after some time Utilized with progress over the long haul in Flying Military Driving Transportation, Vehicles, Urban arranging Assembling Solution Medicinal recreation is a moderately new idea for preparing and assessment of doctors in disaster medicine incorporates a differing scope of procedures.

The main occurrence of medicinal reproduction was by Dr. Gregoire of Paris in the seventeenth century [6], utilizing a puppet he intended to show helped and muddled conveyances to birthing specialists. Reenactment has advanced throughout the years to extend from utilizing institutionalized patients to automated patients; from part-undertaking mentors to high-constancy puppets numerous fields in prescription are developing into an interventional and hands-on way to deal with handling medical problems. Recreation has been generally utilized in disaster medicine pieces of preparing Careful fields are additionally utilizing reenactments to pre-establish methods (Figure 1) .

These weren’t supposed to be specifically just like the living body, however rather a basic reproduction permitting midwives to grasp the position of the kid within the passageway [8]. By permission of the Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum. As of late received into disaster health crisis preparing over the world. Crisis prescription as a claim to fame involves acing both information and fitness.

Figure 1: Late seventh-century “birthing phantom.

Characterization

Virtual reenactment where genuine individuals utilize recreated gear in a reproduced world or virtual condition. Live reenactment where genuine individuals utilize recreated or sham hardware. Emergency asset administration (CRM) requires two arrangements of abilities: both specialized aptitudes Technical Skills (TS) and non-specialized abilities or better non-technical skills (NTS) or conduct execution. TS have been characterized as the ‘ampleness of the moves made from a therapeutic and specialized point of view’, and NTS have been characterized as ‘basic leadership and group association forms utilized amid the group’s administration of a circumstance’[1,7,13,16-38].

There is an absence of major understanding whether great technical skills execution is joined by great execution, or whether the preparation of nontechnical skills affects the execution of TS amid emergency [13]. Understanding the connection between these two traits in such circumstances could have expansive ramifications for clinical execution preparing, evaluation, and research. This investigation expects to decide the connection amongst technical skills and non-technical skills amid a reenacted emergency. We conjecture that TS and NTS are related and are not autonomous of each other amid emergency circumstances [10-12].

Conventional and Contemporary Training

As of late, medicinal college training has started to show an alternate way to deal with both the conventional model of living educating and clinical practice by managing okay and multifaceted nature under the supervision of an administering educator [13]. Lately, innovative and logical disclosures have started and are being utilized in medicinal instruction as much and in disaster medicine, going for the quick, fast, subjective, worldwide and self-coordinated routine with regards to restorative learning and aptitudes.

Additionally, the consistent stream of subjective, inquire about and down to earth data, which is currently created in a quick and regularly expanding way, has started to invite some inflexibility in the best possible method for learning and comprehension through conventional means [14]. Albeit these days a piece of the clinical preparing happens, all things considered, circumstances [generally okay and dependable with the nearness of a director], therapeutic preparing has turned out to be progressively delicate to security issues and the nature of arrangement of medicinal administrations in emergent situations. In this manner, better approaches for learning and honing are being looked for which can be connected in a controlled situation for instructing to manage uncontrolled breakdowns such as those in mass casualties [15-35]. So, it becomes perceived that this procedure will require the clinical treatment of instances of rich assorted variety [35] (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Mannequin for use in training in disaster medicine is courteous concession after written application to the company LIFECAST BODY SIMULATION.

Simulation training utilizing reproduction advancements is a logical field, which goes for decreasing many the inconveniences related to the conventional learning model. Experimental simulation programs have sufficiently acquired proof from the effective utilization of pilot training programs for a long time in the field of aeronautics. Specifically, pilot test programs have loaned to their individual therapeutic highlights, for example, high photorealism amid a virtual flight, the deluge of multisensory information into the assessment and utilization of material criticism and complex movement advances. From a specialized perspective, this information is straightforwardly pertinent to restorative instruction, what’s more rehearsing - realizing they can likewise be utilized to unabashedly assess, enhance and sort the trainee’s specialized abilities. The term reproduction incorporates into expansion to its instructive measurement and its scientific - computational frame.

Specifically, medicinal models are frequently utilized in the restorative science to mimic different minuscule marvels (for example photon collaboration with MONTECARLO) [21,33,49]. Be that as it may, these models, which are for the most part of measurable starting point, are called upon to depict and dissect a wonder at a minute level with a specific end goal to make valuable determi nations, for the structure/type of a tissue or an injury, the method of communication of the radiation [53]. Restorative recreation in instruction is an alternate space, going for the sensible reenactment of plainly visible wonders experienced in the clinical schedule, going for better training and assessment of learners. In any case, computational models, for example, MONTECARLO procedures can likewise be utilized in the instructive reenactment, however, to investigate and decipher the information created by the separate test systems [21,33,49]. In outline, one could state that computational reenactment can be an apparatus for instructive recreation in medical training in massive destruction, however not vice versa.

Identity and conduct tests

As a valuable proportion of group working potential and basic leadership, the most widely recognized identity test is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which is controlled to more than 3.5 million individuals for every annum [42-45]. The measure depends on Jung’s hypothesis of mental sorts which portrays an attention on the outside universe of individuals, things and experience (extroversion) and the interior universe of internal procedures and reflections (self-preoccupation). Of potential use to restorative group improvement is Catell’s Personality Factors Test (16PF), which recognizes a gathering of practices that describe an identity compose, yet in addition incorporates a thinking capacity measure [19-43].

Estimating identity is enlightening, albeit restricted, in that identity winds up settled at an early age. More helpful maybe is a proportion of favored conduct which empowers both individual and group knowledge [33-36]. Key Interpersonal Relations Orientation – Behavior (FIRO-B) is one such instrument which estimates zones of relational needs (both communicated and needed) distinguished as consideration, control and warmth. Social inclinations can likewise be mapped as a group profile [12,19,26]. These apparatuses have potential in the crisis mind field depending the requirements of the ED. Some can be utilized as proportions of potential or of individual, initiative or group execution that might be appraised without anyone else, subordinates or companions, through review or direct evaluations of observational execution. While choosing an instrument it isn’t just imperative to think about the legitimacy, dependability and plausibility of the measure however the foci required [4-23].

For instance, the Leadership Practices Inventory [13] consolidates classes, for example, ‘demonstrating the way’ and ‘empowering the heart’ which might be excessively wide an order for the private examination of crisis conduct, while Team Excellence and the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) [13-15] utilize a more engaged miniaturized scale way to deal with the estimation of group practices. The connection between NTS classifications and the TS agenda score had factually huge relationships, with running from 0.31 to 0.45.

Table-Top Simulation

During this kind of simulation, the intellectual and communicative setting, however not the physical one is replicated. As a rule, table-top simulations permit a combination of face to face teaching with the addition of some sensible exercises which offer the learners with the likelihood of swing their gained information into restricted follow. Largely, these simulations are scenario-based [1,19]. During this type of teaching the degree of reality will be varied to elucidate period problems like lack of communication. Studies on the consequences of table prime simulation on student perception of disaster preparation and management has shown that compared to field operation exercises, this technique provides higher potentialities to link the results of exercises to acceptable changes in terms of coaching, equipment, supplies, and plans and conjointly provides extra advantages for communications, coordination, assignment of responsibilities, and post-event mitigation priorities. Rudolph [51] uses one example for such coaching model is MIMMS (Major Incidents Medical Management and Support). MIMMS has been and is employed as a coaching course in several countries and is a method of standardizing the key incident management.

However, it’s primarily been healthcare-oriented and lacks the period ideas with relevance consumed time for various live like swing IV-line or stabilization of the cervical spine. it’s correct for showing the scene organization Associate in Nursing to disaster medicine to an extent however the organization of the hospital will be designed up, however the probabilities of interactive coaching of alternative components of the chain of response to major incidents is restricted [47-53].

Computer-Based Simulation

During this kind of simulation there may well be no human interaction. However, the tactic will be improved if every or restricted range of scholars has their own pedagogue. During this technique accent material, simulation exercises and programmed learning are given to the scholar while not the presence of a tutor or trainer. Subtle e-learning programs may supply semi-AI responses (an intelligent response system), recommend routes to explore, and management the speed of learning betting on the student’s input. In follow, the scholar solely needs a laptop of given power. A less technologically mediated system would come with internet-broadcast lectures, films, or demonstrations, and the provision of labor (e.g. written papers) to a personality’s teacher (Figure 3).

The strength of the system is that each student has the chance to find out at her/his own pace and time. Sufficiently subtle programming will judge students, guide them, and supply all necessary materials. Course materials will simply be updated. There’s no limitation in range of participants, as they use their own house and time to catch up with the teachings [48-53]. Learners have therefore time to rigorously replicate and supply proof for his or her feed back. The weaknesses of the system are the large resources it wants and the long time it takes to develop initial course.

Figure 3: Image courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories [3].

Alternative points to contemplate are isolation and loneliness of scholars while not human contact with teacher, that results in less motivation and slower progression and lower learner satisfaction. There are several tries to form this sort of simulation accessible for coaching with restricted success. The general expertise so far indicates that operating with this sort of coaching doesn’t fulfill the demand for interactive involvement of scholars [47-53].

Real-Time Simulation

During this kind of simulation over five hundredth of the course stress is on the crisis resource management and totally different aspects of the crisis like personnel, resource and time management are trained in specific things. The nucleus of the course is realistic simulations followed by careful debriefings. Simulation coaching will be supplemented by extra modalities like videotapes and role-playing to reinforce the supreme learning [47-53]. Simulation strives for prime degree of realism and so is conducted with workers and participants usually set at their normal operating setting. Situations have interaction participants in acceptable interactions and enhance cooperation, vertically in own organization and horizontally together with alternative organizations. These situations aim to ascertain inter-individual and inter-disciplinary interaction by asking and receiving helps. Workers could rotate among {different totally different completely different} stations to find out every positions potentialities and limitations to achieve different views [13-42].

Examination are crystal rectifier by one or a lot of instructors with special coaching or expertise and might be performed in whole cluster or separately to explore aspects of behavior and emphasize constructive critique and offers participants chance to find out from one another and to do and train to find out. Coaching is intense and possible, and the range of instructors will be adjusted to range of participants and also the structure of the course. According to Schon [52] this kind of coaching will be conducted by mistreatment figurants or patient cards.

Simulation coaching mistreatment figurants or “Field Exercises”. This model is incredibly resource overwhelming and therefore expensive. It typically wants great deal of figurants to check all levels in an exceedingly disaster management system and disturb the continued and daily medical aid activities. b. Simulation coaching mistreatment patients ‘card is one kind of simulation system which might be accustomed train and judge the total chain of response (Scene, transport, hospitals, command and communication) and coordination between totally different parts of the chain and the obtained results (outcomes). The coordination is by expertise one in all the foremost vital components of the response and its failure is often mentioned because the main reason for non-optimal outcome [40-53].

Is Simulation the Best Choice in Training of Disaster Medicine [1-57]?

Instructional plan ought to be founded on learning targets, student needs, wellbeing concerns, asset usage Virtual patients frequently used to educate clinical thinking Technology-improved reenactment is regularly for procedural preparing. How Do We Optimally Implement Simulation Education? More research to elucidate how to pick amongst sum and non-sum approaches Cost viability research to decide the genuine and correlation estimation of sum instruction. How Do We Optimally Implement Simulation Education? Near viability research should center on what works in reenactment – for which gathering of people-for what conditions- and at what cost. Assignment investigation should center on basic activities and can help decide the level of devotion important for the sort of preparing. How Do We Optimally Implement Simulation Education for training in disaster medicine? Watchful choice and sequencing of occasions encompassing the recreated errand Appropriate personnel improvement and bolster Institutional promise to reproduction [33].

Teamwork is central to the acquisition of non-technical skills (NTS), that are delineated as ‘the psychological feature, social and private resource skills that complement technical skills, and contribute to safe and economical task performance, they’re believed to be an important element of preparation for follow [42-53]. While simulation suites square measure currently commonplace, significantly in medium to high resource countries, several medical students receive restricted simulation experiences to develop their non-technical skills. Educators typically believe that the legitimacy and fidelity of simulation got to replicate the complexness of the ability being learned which hi-fi is critical for teaching advanced skills like cooperation, styles that square measure resource and time intensive aren’t property for delivery to giant cohorts. Nevertheless, there’s very little proof on the dimensions at that simulation is often productive [12-46]. At a similar time, it’s familiar that interactive giant cluster teaching will manufacture smart learning outcomes. Studies comparison high and low fidelity simulations have shown stripped will increase in learning, if a ‘baseline authenticity’ is obtained [19].

Fidelity exists in 2 major planes; ‘engineering’ [physical] and psychological, the latter being a lot of powerful in reassuring effective learning, once essential crucial parts exist within the situation. Despite engineering triumphs reminiscent of computerized voices and harm wounds, simulations of lack ‘sociological fidelity’. this manner of fidelity takes account of the mixing of an advanced vary of skills, attitudes and behaviors, that need a firm understanding on however factors reminiscent of imbalances of authority and influence, impact on collaborating and negotiating processes (these are advanced technical activities in their own right) [16-42]. An opportunity to analyze a number of these problems arose within the style and implementation of an outsized category learning and teaching activity, framed as a simulation of a natural disaster, so as for medical students to develop the non-technical skills essential to health care team operating [3-5]. We have incontestable the satisfactoriness and academic effectiveness of a large class teaching model for people trainees learning the non-technical skills of collaboration, negotiation and communication during a simulated disaster drugs context.

Our findings are of interest to medical faculties in disaster prone areas, as well as inside low resource countries, and as a possible intervention for learning the non-technical skills that square measure required for patient safety [48,53].

Conclusion

A series of substantial and reliable non-specialized expertise measures are accessible as soft skills, but only two articles have been used in the real-world crisis and have developed the simulation as a non-technical skill training tool only. There is a requirement to extend the assessment of cooperative skills to enhance a more meaningful understanding of team performance and to enhance the well-being of crisis tolerance that will be developed through a simulation program alone. Many papers refer to non-technical skills training, but do not focus exclusively on it. Always include or compare technical skills. This review inter alia demonstrated that TS and NTS are related and are not free of each other amid disaster emergent medicine. The idea of this relationship still can’t seem to be tended to. This examination gives the premise to future investigations assessing the impact of NTS preparing on the execution of TS, and whether NTS are non-specific and transferable between emergencies that require distinctive TS.

A large category teaching activity, framed as a simulation of a natural disaster is an appropriate and effective activity for medical students to develop the non-technical skills of collaboration, negotiation and communication, that area unit essential to team operating. The look may well be important in medical colleges in disaster prone areas, as well as among low resource countries, and as a possible intervention for learning the non-technical skills that area unit required for patient safety. Generally knowledge indicated the satisfactoriness and effectiveness of an outsized category simulation of natural disaster in demonstrating non-technical of skills of collaboration, negotiation and communication as learning outcomes There square measure variety of implications for medical and health educators want to develop massive scale disaster simulations to produce teaching and learning around team skills. Effectiveness analysis aims to spot academic interventions that may add a spread of settings. Specially understanding however refinements to the academic style is created, and prices managed thus health educators is also ready to adapt this model for fulfillment with their own students. While their square measure extremely protocoled emergency responses ready to be with success rehearsed by groups in sound reproduction simulation settings, most health care work isn’t routine and sometimes chaotic. ‘To act effectively in complicated things, team members have to be compelled to listen to all or any potential sources of knowledge and integrate that info into team action’.

These options and also the criteria mentioned within the methodology section of this study match the required coaching during a multidisciplinary atmosphere, within which students area unit deeply engaged in skills coaching by associate degree attempt} to unravel issues in an atmosphere that’s the same as those to be encountered in world [49-53]. One such coaching that has already gained interests in European countries is MRMI (Medical Response to Major Incidents), that relies on MacSim (Mass Casualty Simulation). It fulfills all criteria planned within the literature for a fascinating simulation training; it provides feedback by instructors, creates opportunities for repetitive observe, is integrated within the academic syllabus, presents a spread of problem levels, permits multiple learning methods, provides a spread of clinical eventualities, ensures a secure and educationally ancillary learning atmosphere, provides each team- and personalized learning, has outlined outcomes and is scientifically valid Instructions for future research on the subject Guidelines for future research on the subject Current careful practice requires; specialized and non-specialized skills, confirm the practice, emphasize deep-rooted commitment, control of results and a strong governance and education structure in the field of medical disaster.

Finally, these necessities must be combined with various individual and specialized qualities, including correctness, proven ability, and empathic, quiet focused care through simulation programs. Research is currently focused on the means by which the absence of non-specialized skills causes tolerant defamation, as the general reasoning is that it weakens the specialized execution. We found that input acceptance and sustainable adaptation to occasional unpleasant actions in the work environment had beneficial effects on specialized execution. On the other hand, large amounts of frustration of exhaustion and cooperation were clearly linked to the specific error. Being a dignified specialist is different from being a decent “hand combination” is tied to a decent cooperative person who co-ordinates and discusses well with patients and their associates and pledges them to achieve their maximum potential.

For guidance for effective transfer from aviation to alternative work arrangements such as health care and medicine of mass disasters, it must be strictly designed to address the non-technical skills required for specific this this area. It is not enough to require training materials and easily delete “pilot” and replace it with “nurse” or “anesthetist”. Medicine, and more so, the unknown environment of urgency presents significant deviations in specialized and national cultures that exert powerful influences on acceptable behaviors, compared to pilots, since simulation programs were first used and created for them. It is completely wrong simply disaster medicine to replicate the simulation programs that created for pilots

Well-grounded development of behavioral markers to be used in disaster medicine have fashioned the premise for development of many courses by simulation addressing team skills , whereas NTS emphasizes the individual skills of a specific specialty inside a team, initial experiences that smart team performance goes on the far side the contributions of the people and additional work, particularly around team state of affairs awareness, and shared mental models in these difficult things is guaranteed. We conjecture that TS and NTS are related and are not autonomous of each other amid emergency circumstances.

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olmopress · 5 years ago

Text

Farticipatory culture!

week 7: Harry Jenkins, Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide, Introduction and Chapter 4

Shiiiit was reading Henry Jenkins boring. Oh my God. All those useless stories and that endless circumnavigation of issues. Man I understand you had to reach a certain wordcount to get someone to publish you but maaaaaaaaan I got so bored.

You are more than welcome to imagine that the stuff I liked about Mr. Jenkins is very little

BUT

I have to say we share a common interest in Star Wars. To honor that, I am unleashing the first FRANCHISE-THEMED post on this blog.

Yes kids! The visual content of this blog post will feature exclusively material from Star Wars!

If you like my idea you can contact me in private for donations. I would love to raise a little profit out of George Lucas’ copyrighted material because

SCREW HIM

So hit me up with your money, we shall use it to fund modern heroes fighting against the horrendous kebab imperialism of the Turkish fils de pute president.

OK here we go. Jerkin’ Mr. Jenkins has three concepts for us and

INCREDIBLY ENOUGH

none of them is particularly original. At times I fell almost like this guy is just a great affabulatore who probably got great grades in his college papers because he could babble for 2000 words without saying much of particular relevance.

BUT THIS IS JUST ME BEING NASTY

Sure.

Jenkins’ first and most important concept is that of convergence. We dumbasses who had to go through COM 220 in this university are already familiar with this word and associate it either with technological convergence or media ownership convergence. But just like that time in which the Buddha taught for 40 years straight just wake up one day and be

HOLD UP BRO IT WAS ALL A BIG EXPEDIENT TO PREPARE YOU FOR THE TRUTH OF THE

LOTUS SUTRA

Jenkins surprises us silly undergraduate with a sort of ULTIMATE MEANING of convergence. To him, convergence is neither solely about technology, nor solely about ownership. By convergence, he means

“the flow of content across ultiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want” (2)

Just the kind of definition I need the weekend before a midterm. Thanks Harry. So what I gather from this is that the converge he is talking about is essentially about content, or I mean comunque about themes and instances orbiting around a certain kind of content. Right? I guess. And so Jenkins focuses on how these kinds of contents are reproduced by and sought on different media.

Much of the rest of his introduction is Jenkins bustling with his own confused concepts to gain a degree of clarity of this stuff on convergence. Which in a way is fun to watch in itself. Because first he traces the supposedly linear history of the development of the idea – by the way quoting (and fortunately criticizing that JERK of Negroponte who believed that “monolithic empires of mass media are dissolving into an array of cottage industries” – and then he embarks on a frankly boring and useless story about this New Orleans Media Experience of 2003 about which honestly nobody gives a shit and even which even more honestly is just boring. Did I say that already? Oh sorry.

BUT IT’S TRUE

This story is infused (as frankly the rest of the stuff I have read) with a disgusting romantic notion of corporate behavior and aims, as if big media companies just couldn’t go on without including their audiences because they LOVE THEM.

FUCK NO HARRY THEY JUST WANT THEIR MONEY AND THEY’LL DO EVERYTHING IT TAKES TO SQUEEZE AS MUCH OF IT AS POSSIBLE FROM THEIR OUR POCKETS AND YOU FUCKING KNOW IT GODDAMNIT YOU TEACH AT USC IT’S NOT LIKE YOU WERE BORN YESTERDAY

I’m sorry. You may have noticed I have slight tendency in losing my temper at

MANAGERIAL CAPITALIST PIGS

No I mean with people who see things differently from me. But let us go on. By the way there is a moment in which Jenkins, talking about the way in which corporations were dealing with the emergence of convergence (I rhymed!), writes:

“The old paradigms were breaking down faster than the new ones were emerging, producing panic among those most invested in the status quo and curiosity in those who saw change as an opportunity” (7)

You what this reminds me? Look it up here. This guy first wrote it. See that part about the monsters? Does it remind you of anything? Am I implying that media giants especially of the internet are giving us a new fascism? Did you know that Charlemagne most probably didn’t want to be crowned emperor by Pope Leo III?

Unless you’re a historian of the Middle Ages, one of the answers for those last two questions is “Yes.”

Btw you should know that I decided I was heterosexual when I was 3 and went to see Phantom Menace and got acquainted with the looks of this lady up here.

Anyway. Back to convergence. Jenkins goes on and on and on and on about this talking about the different lifespans of delivery technologies and media, about his self-defined Black Box Fallacy (because to him, and he honestly has a point, while hardware diverges, content converges), about the fact that convergence is a process and not an endpoint, and about all sorts of things

UNTIL

He basically says that convergence is a top-down process as much as it is a bottom-up one. And at this point, Harry, you kinda lost me. You have used so many different and contrasting ways of defining what is it that you’re trying to define that I do not know anymore if I am reading you or fucking Spinoza. And I AM SORRY, you ain’t as cool as my lad Baruch.

So yeah I was left pretty much like this:

I think we should stick to the explanation I gave in the beginning. let us move to a second concept, which will be hopefully easier to define.

I wanna talk about collective intelligence because Jerkings only suggests it. So let me do the explanation know.

Collective intelligence was at work fo instance on the Game of Thrones’ subreddit who higitus figidus cracked the secret behind Jon Snow’s lineage YEARS before the thing was revealed in the series. Like in those beautiful communist revolutions we don’t do anymore, commoners pooled their wits and skills to fuck over the greedy and ugly masters who enslaved them. This is collective intelligence: to unionize cognitive processes and screw capital ownership.

OK maybe this was a little bit too political but you get the point right? It’s about people pooling resources and working together to solve problems or propose stuff. It’s actually quite cool. And it happens all the time on the internet. Because it’s easier to pool those cognitive resources over there.

DONE!

Let’s move to the last one.

The third point in Jenkins’ reading was participatory culture. His endless spiel about Star Wars fandom was at times interesting and times suicide-inducing. Potentially cool as a case study, but we don’t really need it for the purposes of this post. So.

The stuff we need to know is contained in the first few pages of the chapter. First of all, Jenkins rightly notes that while fandom as always existed, the internet has tipped the scales because it makes fan culture more visible. Which is in itself quite OK.

youtube

aaaaand here’s a beautiful example of Star Wars’ participatory culture.

He then distinguishes between interactivity and participation. To him, interactivity refers only to the fact that people get more feedback when they consume cultural products. Participation, he says, is deeper because it is basically in the consumer’s (I hate this word) hands: it is “open-ended” and not constrained by the decision of the designers of the original/official products. The rest of the chapter deals in ways in which companies address fan-generated content. Funnily enough, he distinguishes between prohibitionists (tight-ass douchebags who don’t want you to mess with their precious product) and collaborationists (other douchebags who instead see the staff you do as yet one more opportunity to steal time and labor from you). Nice, huh?

The funniest thing is that he chooses COLLABORATIONISTS: I mean really? You really wanna make me do that association between capitalism and fascism again? It was your choice huh.

A good example that Jenkins makes is that of game modders, who manipulate the code of videogames to construct personalized fantasies that might expand the universe of the original game, or maybe even take it to a completely new direction. Here’s an example De’Noantri:

I guess I broke my rule about Star Wars. Too bad. But I am the one who calls te shots here. I’m your lider maximo here. This is a READ ONLY blog. You shut up and read, comrade!

To reach a conclusion, the whole story of how LucasArt deals with fandom content is surely fascinating, but Jenkins repeatedly fails to look at a very important issue. When George Lucas in ANY way makes use of content created by fans, most of the times directly appropriating the copyright for it, he is

EXPLOITING

those silly fans. Instance: when the devs of Star Wars Galaxies sought fan advice for developing the game, did these fans got paid? Where are their rights? Where is the compensation for the time and labor they offered? Nowhere. And so they have been exploited, allowing George Lucas to save money on people he would have had to pay for the same services. But he had the fans he wanted to iNcLuDe…

I mean you really thought I was not going to use this?

So the conclusion is:

FANS OF ALL NATIONS, UNIONIZE!

CLAIM YOUR SHARE OF PROFIT!

DEMAND COLLECTIVIZATION OF FRANCHISES!

DEMAND LIBERALIZATION OF FAN FICTION!

DEMAND THE FUTURE!

Here you can see a visual depiction of the fandom working class rising up against bourgeoise privilege.

Since I already broke the rule, culture time will be free this week too. This is a great Russian composer who certainly influenced Williams when composing Star Wars’ music. It is one of my favorites pieces of music ever so ENJOY!

youtube

Here instead you can see Caravaggio depicting me making it barely alive out of this week’s readings:

It happens every now and then. Let’s hope next it’ll be better.

auf Wiedersehen!

Image Sources: GIPHY.com, squillace.org, wikiart.org

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spynotebook · 8 years ago

Link

Image: CW.

Greeting, my Global Express Guaranteed packages of fun. Sorry “Postal Apocalypse” is a day late, but this time I did an extra extra-long version to make up for it—you get a free 50 percent more of my shenanigans! This week: The future of Batfleck! The future of Ghostbusters! The future of the Star Wars prequels! And I’m finally back to answering questions about where superheroes go to the bathroom.

Broken Arrowverse

Mike W.:

Greetings Postman! I had originally started watching the CW’s Arrow a few years ago when the first season debuted on Netflix, and continued with the second season when it was released (I prefer most shows in binge-watching form).

Friends who had watched the Arrow and Flash when they originally aired suggested that I start alternating episodes, because there were several crossover episodes throughout the season. I think that was good advice because some pieces of those crossovers may not have made sense taken out of the context of where both shows were at.

Now alternating between episodes of two shows wasn’t terrible. Occasionally I would forget to switch over and just hit “play next” and not realize my mistake until something regarding Flash happened on Arrow that hadn’t been mentioned yet in Flash, or vice versa. These spoilers, or even information that made no sense out of context bugged me every time!

The next set of seasons were released on Netflix, only this time the CW threw the Legends of Tomorrow in the mix as well! Alternating between three series at the same time seemed like a lot of work so I kept putting it off... only to have Supergirl get tossed into the crossover blender the season after that!

Is it worth watching all four shows concurrently for the crossover episodes? Bouncing back and forth seems like a lot of work, and I’m not sure if the order is consistent or if some shows missed episodes here and there , and if the ties between crossovers are important to each show then it seems like it might be frustrating if they were out of order. What do you suggest?

Honestly, as long as you account for the crossovers—and not even all of those—it can be reasonably uncomplicated for you to catch up. Sure, there’ll be a few references or asides to things that have happened in the other shows, but they’re few and far between, and never that important. Look, if they bug you they bug you, but trying to watch every episode of four TV series in the order they aired sounds like it would be infinitely more irritating. So I suggest trying this instead:

Arrow seasons one and two

Arrow season three, episodes 1-7

Flash season one, episodes 1-8 (episode 8 begins the first Arrow crossover)

Arrow season three, episodes 8-23 (episode 8 concludes it)

Flash season one, episodes 9-23

Arrow season four, episodes 1-7

Flash season two, episodes 1-8

Arrow season four, episodes 8-23 (same deal as Arrow s3 and Flash s1)

Flash season two, episodes 9-23

Legends of Tomorrow season one

Supergirl season one

Here’s where it gets a bit wackier, thanks to the “Invasion” crossover, and the Flash/Supergirl musical episode.

Arrow season five, episodes 1-7

Flash season three, episodes 1-7

Legends of Tomorrow season two, episode 1-6

Supergirl season two, episodes 1-8 (ep. 8 verrrrrry technically starts “Invasion”)

Flash season three, episode 8 (“Invasion” part two)

Arrow season five, episode 8 (“Invasion” part three)

Legends of Tomorrow season two, episode 7 (“Invasion” part four)

Arrow season five, episodes 9-23

Flash season three, episodes 8-16

Supergirl season two, episodes 8-16

Flash season three, episodes 17-23 (ep. 17 is the Flash/Supergirl musical)

Supergirl season two, episodes 17-22 (there’s no ep. 23)

Legends of Tomorrow season two, episodes 8-17

Since Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow are stand-alone after “Invasion,” it really doesn’t matter when you watch the rest of their seasons.

And yes, I recognize there’s technically a Flash/Supergirl crossover in seasons two and one, respectively, but it’s actually more of a cameo. Basically, the Flash shows up for an entire Supergirl episode; in the corresponding Flash episode, the Flash disappears for a couple of minutes while running around the multiverse; when he gets back to Earth-One he says, “Boy, that was weird!” or something. You 100 percent do not need to rearrange your viewing order to accommodate it, or anything else, in my opinion.

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Let the Hate Flow Through You

Andrew M.:

Dear Mr. Postman, I have a habit of forming complicated non-binary opinions after reading a book or watching a movie. Instead of just loving or hating something and then either gushing or complaining for the next hour, I more often declare frankly whether I enjoyed it or not, and then want to talk about everything both positive and negative. This has led to me having a reputation among my friends as someone who “hates everything.” Anytime I see a movie, if I don’t totally love it, I’m attacked.

And if it sounds like I’m just a buzzkill, I’m not certain that’s the case, either. I’m often very positive, I just like full discussions where we can talk about what did and didn’t work. Sure, I can be negative (I didn’t enjoy Rogue One and actually fell asleep during it, while Flash throws me into a weekly blind rage), but not everything’s going to win you over.

This has even ruined some of my nerd interests. Despite being a huge fan, I fell completely out of Doctor Who and stopped watching years ago because any fans I met would get offended if the discussion got even a little gray. And it’s no fun to be in a fandom and not talk to anyone.

Am I too harsh on my media? Should I lie and pretend I love everything? Should I stop discussion altogether?

Andrew, this is a question close to my heart, as I too look at things with a critical eye and am frequently accused of being a hater (as are my coworkers, as is io9 as a whole). To be fair, I do hate many things, and I have often hated things professionally; however, anyone who reads io9 regularly and has object permanence should be able to see that all of us here love a lot more than we hate.