1) In 2005 BBC released a two-part show called The Truth
about Killer Dinosaurs. It was an amazing documentary, much better than the
later dinosaur shows such as Jurassic Fight Club and was conveniently
forgotten by the dinosaur fan crowd after its’ release for showing some
unorthodox conclusions about Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor dinosaurs. Now, in
2013, BBC decided to reanimate the documentary by giving their DVD a brand new
cover that has nothing to do with the actual documentary: it features T-Rex attacking
a long-necked sauropod, even though this documentary had no sauropods in it.
The textual description is completely misleading as well: “New research has led to novel ways of
seeing some of the most brutal killers in history. The ubiquitous Tyrannosaurus
rex: was he king of the dinosaurs or a mediocre scavenger? The feared
Velociraptor: six-foot tall like in the movies or small and covered in
feathers?” No offence, but in paleontology an 8 year gap means that the
research used in this documentary is no longer new, and the show doesn’t focus
on Tyrannosaurus’ lifestyle, all that mattered was could it defeat Triceratops
or get gored instead? That is just pure misdirection and completely unnecessary:
The Truth about Killer Dinosaurs is a very impressive documentary that
does not need misleading images and text to be sold. But that is the law of the
market for you.
2) Some time ago, a brony with too much time on his hands
made a five-minute presentation on YouTube about alicorns – Twilight &
Cadence vs. Celestia & Luna, claiming that Celestia & Luna have had to
ascend as Twilight & Cadence did or it would make no sense other than to
make money for Hasbro. Well, guess what, comrade: that is the bottom line for
Hasbro: MLP: FIM has to make money for them, otherwise it is cancelled (which
does not discount reruns, I admit).
Let me briefly elaborate. The wise brony pointed out that
ever since LF sold her rights of the show to Hasbro her canon – Celestia &
Luna were born alicorns, not made – is no different from his own. He is
correct: Hasbro know can tweak the canon however it likes – LF is unlikely to
take them to court, the outcome is too unpredictable, but...
But the audience of the show does not care. Do not forget –
most of them are girls (presumably) around 12 years of age on average. At this
point of age they do not care as to how the ponies on the show get their wings –
they just want to see more of them... or less. Hasbro – who has to make money –
will do its best to ensure that the audience will buy those new winged
alicorns, but it is unlikely that this will require any sort of explanation as
to how Twilight & Cadence are different from Celestia & Luna. All four
are pony princesses, so they all are winged, simple enough and the buyers will
buy them.
Or not, you never know with teen and preteen children.
Cadence has already appeared less than half-a-dozen times in the entire show up
to date (that is 66 episodes, so she appeared roughly in 1/11th of
the entire show alongside Shining, so not a lot) and if Twilight with wings is
less popular than Twilight without them, then Twilight will lose them (in a
great, dramatic episode, no doubt) and Hasbro will... if not make money, then
stop losing it – no pony-brony logic here, just the law of the market.
End
No comments:
Post a Comment