AFO: Alligator vs. Black Bear - June 29

This week is proving to be much more exciting than the past ones; a new ‘DM’ movie is coming to the cinema at last; this is primarily a children’s franchise, so I cannot say that I am the biggest fan of these films.

Then there is the new TV promo for the new ‘Marvel’s InHumans’ series. So far, the viewers are not being impressed, let alone overwhelmed; many think that Lockjaw the dog is the best character of them all, and he is CGI’ed. In addition, he is a dog, not a human, so does make him an InDog instead? Never mind; my point is that I am more excited about the upcoming ‘Jumanji’ movie, and I am not its’ biggest fan either. I remember the original film very enough, it was good, and it was also less controversial than the upcoming rehash is, because it was more child-friendly and less sexualized and edgy. (Does ‘Jumanji’ even need that?)

…As for the upcoming new movie of the ‘Jurassic Park’/’Jurassic World’ franchise… so far we got some single shots and a poster – not too much to go on. The original JW movie was not bad, just… somewhat reminiscent of the SWII movie – not bad, but still nowhere as good as the original SW trilogy was.

This probably brings up back to the TV land, as ‘Killjoys’ S3 is coming to TV tomorrow, (June 30, 2017), or so. ‘Killjoys’ are a very enjoyable TV show, and I am honestly excited about seeing the S3 in the future, (hopefully. Things will be chaotic at our house in the near future, so I do not know how well I will be able to keep up with the series. In the meantime, though, I have been re-watching AFO – the ‘Alligator vs. Black Bear’ episode, so let us talk a bit about it instead.

Firstly, a dash of classification. The proper name of the episode is the ‘American Alligator vs. American Black Bear’, because overseas, in Asia, lives a Chinese Alligator, (possibly the closest relative to the American species), as well as an Asiatic Black Bear, (whose relationship with the American Black Bear is more vague).

The Chinese Alligator lives only in China, and may be extinct in the wild. It looks like its American cousin, but it is smaller, and has an armored belly, (and the American Alligator does not). The Asiatic Black Bear looks basically just like any other bear, (including the Giant Panda), but it is usually black, save for a large white patch on its’ chest, hence it is also called a moon bear – as opposed to the sun bear, which lives in southeast Asia, (and the Asiatic Black Bear lives – these days – in Bangladesh, China, and Russia, more to the north), is called a Malaysian bear for that reason, and the patch on its’ chest is yellow instead. The American Black Bear usually does not have a patch on its chest…but sometimes it does, and it is not always black; sometimes it is brown or even creamy white. Isn’t taxonomy fun?

But the science of classifying animals (and plants) aside, one of the reasons why the crew of AFO chose the American Alligator and Black Bear for this episode is because it is far more likely to happen in the wild, because the Chinese Alligator is virtually extinct in the wild on one hand, and on the other it is far too timid to attack something as big and dangerous as a bear. Come to think of it, so’s the American Alligator. So?

So we come to realism & suspension of disbelief, the storytelling elements that help people believe a story, whether it is AFO, AoS, or anything else. AoS, for example, seemed to have outlasted its’ welcome; certainly the S4 finale was met with very low audience numbers – people just weren’t excited about the titular characters winning against the last villains of the season anymore. Not when there is an entire platter of DC shows to choose from at the same time, for example.

But AoS is fiction, just as the aforementioned ‘Killjoys’, or ‘Marvel’s InHumans’ are. AFO was based on facts, conversely, and… they had their own pitfalls. They did their best to run the show only via facts and data, but they had only a limited amount of it from the start. The format of AFO was largely dependent on various big carnivorous animals – mammals, reptiles and fish – and most of them are physically similar to each other. A bear and a big cat are related to each other only distantly, but physically, they are built similarly, their skeletons have more superficial similarities to each other than the bones of a bear and a walrus do, even though the walrus is closer related to the bear (and the wolf) than a big cat is.

With crocodiles and alligators, of course, the similarities are more than just superficial – the two are twin twigs of the same branch of the tree of life: not only they occupy the same econiche, they can coexist – the Chinese Alligator lives on the same continent as do several species of crocodiles, and South America is home not only to the various caimans, (essentially the local versions of the alligators), but to several species of ‘true’ crocodiles as well. These reptiles can get along, and much better than the big cats of Africa, Asia and the Americas do, in comparison, and – they all have the same hunting & fighting technique, which was actually shown on AFO as part of the episodes’ footage. There are physical differences between crocodiles and alligators, but they are fairly minor, and from a technical P.O.V. – bare bones and the metal replicas built from these bones – they are non-existent.

With bears these similarities are not as extreme, but for the sort of experiments that AFO did with its’ machines, this was enough. Even in RL, all bears behave similarly, the only exceptions are the polar bear, (which is completely carnivorous and lives part of its’ life in the water), and the giant panda, (which is completely herbivorous instead). The brown bear has its’ differences from the black and the moon bears, but AFO does not focus on them, (and they are outside its’ data collecting criteria, anyhow).

This probably brings us to the actual face-off. In theory, just as DW did, AFO used the data that the staff collected via the models to determine the winner, but in reality, this was not so. In the ‘Jaguar vs. Anaconda’ episode, the jaguar lost. In RL, this would not be so; a jaguar has jaws powerful enough to bite through skull bones of peccaries and caimans, so, once it pinned down an anaconda and bit it, it would probably be able to rip the snake in two, if it got especially lucky. And yet it lost on AFO. Why?

Well, why not? On DW, the staff actually showed the various numbers of the various weapons, wins and x-factors; AFO did not even do that. DW actually raised an issue – who was correct, who was more important, the data or the experts/hosts; AFO did not have that. Moreover, while this ensured that there was no controversy surrounding their decision…there still was, at least in the ‘Lion vs. Tiger’ episode, (and so I probably will not be touching it at all). Instead, the viewers got the option to take the AFO’s decisions regarding the face-offs at a face value, (pardon the pun), and while some had accepted it, the others had not – and so the show was not renewed for a second season for this reason as well. AFO’s approach had its virtues, but it had its’ flaws too; not even the season’s/series’ finale ‘Sperm Whale vs. Giant Squid’ could save it…

Well, that is that for this entry; see you all soon!

GoT - AU fiction

For a change, here are some rough ideas for my AU Game of Thrones’ story that I might be writing someday.

1) Both Lyanna Stark and Elia Martell survived the raid and the war, as did their children. Because Eddard had a falling-out with Robert, (or rather, he would chose Lyanna even over the king every time, period), he agreed to hide Lyanna in Dorne, alongside Elia. Oberyn Martell, who would not mind having Dorne rule the Iron Throne and the rest of Westeros, has offered to marry Lyanna to help her further, and Lyanna tentatively agreed for the sake of her, Jon, Elia, etc. (The Game of Thrones is afoot). Now, the North (Starks) and the East (Dorne) are tentative political allies, mostly because the West (Lannisters) and the South (Tyrells) do not care for them very much, the Vale (Arryn) and the Riverlands (Tully) are with king Robert (and King’s Landing), and the Ironborn…no one really wants to deal with the Ironborn, period.

In addition, since Oberyn is married, Ellaria Sand got handed over to Eddard as a consolation prize. (People in Dorne are not nicer than they are in the rest of Westeros). Since Eddard was aware that Catelyn Tully was in love with his late elder brother, he was kind of won over by Ellaria eventually and the two married. Ellaria actually makes a better lady of the North than Catelyn did, she is not from ‘the South’, but from the East, and was trained to be accommodating and compromising; plus the fact that she knows that Jon is not Eddard’s oldest son, but his nephew helps. Oberyn continues to make his own plans, but for now he, (and Eddard, and the others) are content to wait and see what Robert does next to use his mistakes against him. (People in Westeros can be patient – especially in Dorne, you know?) Thus, for now both North and East are content with peace, carefully strengthening their alliance and figuring where to go from there.

2) Lady Lannister did not die giving birth to Tyrion; thus, while Tyrion is still a dwarf, his, (or rather – their) mother lived, and eventually Lannisters had another child – another daughter. Thus, lady Lannister remained in the lives of her family to ensure that Tywin doesn’t turn into Westeros’ first supervillain ever, (Hell, the man had lions in the basement of his castle!), and the twins didn’t have incest, (because no mother could ever approve of something like that), so the Lannisters aren’t tethering at the edge of an abyss but are actually human, (even if just by Westeros’ standards). Rather, they are carefully consolidating their power, (Cersei has not married Robert, Jaime is not in Kingsguard because he is the heir to CR etc.,) in the West. They are not friends with the Starks, but Starks’ alliance with Dorne ensures that the Lannisters’ are not sure that they win, and so for the moment there is no war in Westeros.

In addition, for now Tywin and the rest of the Lannisters are strengthening the west and are planning to make their next move…whatever it is. They still do not like Starks very much, but are not ready to battle them…for now.

3) Finally, Robert is married to Catelyn Tully (canon lady Stark), her sister is married to Arryn, the King’s Hand, and for the moment both the Riverlands and the Vale are the strongest supporters of the Baratheon regime. Petyr Baelish is still around, but killing a king is harder than any lord, (even someone like Stark), plus there is the matter of Robert’s brothers, (and potential heirs), so for now Baelish is biding his time and figuring out what to do next.

4) And elsewhere things are as they are in the canon, (especially Daenerys). That is all I got so far. What do you think?

E3, FH, MCU, spiders, etc. - June 13

So, where do we stand with ‘FH’ the game? Nowhere, apparently, as it is not being mentioned anywhere at all. No, seriously, there were some videos around May 16, (2017) about the new PCs – the centurion and the shinobi, about people playing them, (or against them), and – that is it. 

...Considering that in the Alpha/Beta runs “FH’ videos appeared daily – and we’re talking official releases, not unofficial ones of users downloading their favorite kills or whatever – not like that, no. Official videos, official releases, official updates, etc. – none of that, and no promos, no hoopla, no excitement – this isn’t what ‘FH’ needs, it needs quite the opposite, as Injustice 2 shows – yes, its’ peak is passes, its’ release is done, but it keeps on going – it released new characters, it did its’ best to utilize the release of the WW movie for itself; kind of selfish, but practical. ‘FH’ did none of that. Pity. Now warning – spoiler alert coming on below!

In other news, of course, there is the entire E3 event, and it is overwhelming. I feel like pointing out only two out of the numerous reveals that took place there, (such as the new version of ‘Age of Empires’ game. Hm?). Firstly, the new ‘Marvel vs. Capcom’ game, where Ultron and Sigma utilized two of the Infinity stones to fuse themselves into an Ultron Sigma entity and take over both Marvel™ and Capcom™ universes, killing everyone in the process and letting the machines rule instead. Ergo, the heroes – from Captain America to Mega Man to Rocket Raccoon to Chun-Li – will work together to defeat the new villain, and-

And they will need help from Thanos, who is currently captured by the Avengers, (somehow), and is willing to help, because Infinity Stones, yeah? I believe that at some point he and Ultron Sigma will fight each other, especially in the story mode, and-

And yes, this is me harping again on the poor quality of the story mode in ‘FH’. This is one of the main ways as to how they have failed, when compared to Injustice 2 or ‘Marvel vs. Capcom’ game, and I have no idea if they have fixed it for real or not. If not, they are in trouble, period.

The other point that I want to make is about the new and upcoming ‘God of War’ game, where Kratos is going to the Vikings, (make your obligatory pun about the North/Norse here). On this road trip, he has switched his twin blades for a battle-axe, (BTW, you can find a video on ‘AWE Me’ YouTube channel where MAA make their own version of it, as they did for WW’s sword and shield, for example). Oh, and his son is coming along for the ride – apparently, sometime during the first games Kratos has acquired one as well as a beard. Seriously, the man is still bald as a knee, but now he has this really thick and bushy beard – WTF with it? It makes Kratos look ridiculous…and not very Viking, so I really hope that once the game is released for real, one can customize Kratos’ appearance so that he does not have the beard, because so far, it does not appear to have any game value, but – you never know.

Oh, and apparently Kratos and son may end up working with Jormungandr, the World Serpent, which is something else. You see, for the Vikings, the World Serpent was one of the children of Loki, and one of the monsters that would be instrumental in destroying the world in Ragnarok. Most important, in that world-ending event, (literally speaking), the World Serpent would battle Thor and both would kill each other in the end. …With Kratos on its’ side, the World Serpent just might survive, instead, so it’ll be interesting to see how the new game works out in the ‘story mode’, so to speak.

The other thing is that none of this probably applies to the upcoming ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ movie, because Hela, or Hel, who is one of the movie’s main villains, was also Loki’s child, and the World Serpent’s sibling, in the original myths. So far, there is no indication of this being the case; apparently, Loki is still a bachelor in MCU, as is Thor, so Hela is unlikely to be his daughter, period. In addition, I doubt that the World Serpent will be appearing either – it usually appeared only in comics rather than in any other media form, (though it did appear in the Avengers 2010 cartoon series, from what I understand). Therefore, we will have to wait and see how the new movie will turn out to be.

Now is probably a good time to return to real life. Firstly, if you see the video of ‘God of War’ behind the scenes motion capture, it is awesome. Secondly, the Nat Geo site aired/promoted a video of a spider overpowering a scorpion with its’ webbing. It too is awesome, just in a different, a RL, manner.

Why did the spider win? Because it used its’ web. See, while in vertebrate’ battles, (think AFO) size and strength matter, (though how AFO did it on its show is another thing, and one that I have discussed before), in invertebrate battles, other aspects matter just as much, if not more. One of them is venom – many invertebrate carnivores have it; another is webbing, and really, it is primarily the spider that uses it, (though other creatures, such as the larvae of New Zealand firefly, can use it too, BTW).

Basically, webbing is a tool, it is manifested by a spider’s own body, and can be used as a weapon, or not, if the spider uses it make a cocoon for its’ egg sack instead. Different species of spider can produce different sorts of webbing, and several spiders, (especially the tarantulas and the like), do not even use webbing to hunt.  

Okay more precisely, there are two types of spider. The first spiders like the orb-weaving spider, which lives in its web – it has a smooth body, (especially by human standards), small eyes, (proportionally speaking), skinny legs and small fangs. It is a passive predator – it waits for its prey to end up in the web by its own doing, then it senses the prey tangled in the web via its’ feet, (yes, spiders are strange like this also), it goes down the web, immobilizes its prey with silk, and kills it with venom, as it did with the scorpion in the video. Basically, spider silk is one of nature’ superweapons – so far there are no direct ‘antidotes’ against it. Not that that spiders are invulnerable – there are predators and parasites that eat them, from smaller vertebrates down to certain parasitic insects and other spiders…

This brings us to the second spider type that does not make webs for hunting. Rather, they stalk and ambush their prey, overpowering it through brute strength and venom, before wrapping it up in silk, (the first type of spider does it in reverse, remember?). Such spiders are usually bigger than their passively waiting cousins are; they are often hairier, proportionally stronger, with bigger eyes and fangs to hunt and kill their prey. The tarantulas and the raft spiders are that type of spider.

Indeed, spiders are very unusual and exciting creatures; not even their cousins – the scorpion, the false scorpion, the whip scorpion, the camel spider, the tick, the mite, etc. – are as unusual as the spiders are…but that is another story.

APB & etc. - June 9

And so, I got to learn that APB was cancelled during May 2017 (May 11^th, to be precise). Am I surprised? No. ‘Time after time’, Hell, even ‘Powerless’ was more lustrous than APB was, yet they got cancelled before APB did, and-

And nothing. APB had a lackluster idea but its’ delivery was solid, more so than ‘Powerless’, for example, so it isn’t surprising that it actually completed its initial season before getting cancelled while ‘Powerless’ didn’t get the chance, because it apparently redesigned itself before airing, and-

And nothing. My conspiracy theory is that AoS did the same thing several times during its four seasons, (and the fifth season is in its’ future so far), but, well, it was not cancelled. It also assimilated ‘Marvel’s Most Wanted’ TV show, which is why it never aired, but that is also a conspiracy theory and I am not ready to share it yet.

My third conspiracy theory? Not many actors enjoy working with MCU these days and before. This is why Hayley Atwell left, (and since she was the titular character, AC collapsed), as did the others. New blood comes and goes, really, the only change that stuck with AoS is the replacement of Dalton with Simmons (and NCB, to a lesser extent), and…that is it. It is even possible that Dalton will return in S5, because why not?

This brings us to the InHumans the TV series, I suppose. So far, the plot is that the InHuman royal family flees their kingdom of Attilan, (maybe we will see some Kree or Skrull characters for a change), and find political refuge in Hawaii. Sounds exciting? I hope so, but after ‘Powerless’ and APB, (both had fairly exciting premises), I’ll wait for the new Marvel TV show to actually deliver – as well as to address the question who’s the president? Not the Donald, I hope?

Now is probably the time to bring forth Comey’s speech, but…I will not. Frankly, this has become repetitive – scandal-scandal-scandal, and meanwhile the 45^th president continues to do something stupid regardless of whatever the opposition thinks, because the opposition is still divided among itself and cannot concentrate to bring him down. In addition, they are apparently scared of Mike Pence being the potential new president, and you know what? A coward does not drink the champagne of victory, no, never. You don’t want to take risks? Then you are getting this particular president for the next 4 to 8 years, period. It is a nail in the wall – it is either there or it is not. Take your choice.

Other than Comey’s hearing, the main events were the Wonder Woman movie, and the latest Mummy movie. The first is a redesign of the first Captain America movie, set in WWI, rather than WWII. This raises an unexpected question – will there be a WWII Wonder Woman film? Probably yes, because while there is no analogue of MCU’s Hydra in DCEU, if DCEU skips over WWII, then everyone will remember the 45^th president’s alternate facts thesis, and no one wants to be on team Donald these days.

The second is a more Marvel-like remake of the original 1999 Mummy movie – sleeker, more streamlined and edgier – that sort of thing. It does not really work – the 1999 film itself was a remake, but it at least tried to be a horror movie, while the 2017 one tried to be several movie types at once and it did not work. The Dark Universe can be anything, but only one thing at once, I would say. Otherwise? It will be nothing instead.

Well, that’s it for tonight – maybe more rants next time around, eh?

Zuul the dinosaur

…And so, it is fifth of June already. Yay! In real life, my sister has graduated, and within the summer of 2017, she will have her new job. The two of us do not really get along, and this is all I am going to be talking about her here and now – not in the mood, not at all.

With RL off the table, what else is left there? Okay, there is the new nodosaur dinosaur that was (is?) talked about in May, and now June, of 2017. It is RL, actually, thus-

Thus the thing is that the official NG magazine article (June 2017) is almost downplaying the original excitement about the dinosaur from May. Take a look at the NG magazine archive, and find the October 2014 volume – it deals with Spinosaurus.

…Okay, no. We will actually try to avoid the JP franchise, movie or otherwise – as 2014-present showed, the RL Spinosaurus was a different animal from the one depicted in JP3, which is somewhat ironic, since I talked only last month about it – the RL Spinosaurus – fighting Tyrannosaurus and/or some Cretaceous carnosaur. Right. Here the thing is that back in October 2014 Spinosaurus got front-page coverage, it was the titular article of the volume, and now, in June 2017, this is not the case. The nodosaur is not the focus of the volume, the issue of why people lie is.

Again, so what? In addition, the NG has a point – nodosaurs are not as well-known as the theropod dinosaurs are. The article explains that they are cousins to Ankylosaurus (‘Walking with Dinosaurs’) and the like, but unlike the ankylosaurs in general (think Euoplocephalus, etc.) they had no tail club, but were more often spiked, as Sauropelta from ‘Monsters Resurrected’ was.

…Actually, things are slightly more complex than the lay people believe; apparently, aside from Stegosaurus and its part of the family, the armored dinosaurs consisted of three groups, not two – the ankylosaurs, the nodosaurs, and the polacantines. Polacanthus, from the already mentioned WWD, was a polacantine, not a nodosaur…and this is being disputed, the entire issue of ankylosaurs vs. nodosaurs vs polacantines. So far, scientists still do not know for sure which armored dinosaur belongs in which group, not 100%...

Back to Zuul. Yes, it was the name of one of the monsters in the initial original Ghostbusters movie, and it is the name of the new dinosaur. Only the article avoids this completely for reasons that are not obvious to the readers. Why? No, seriously, why? Has something gone wrong with the dinosaur study and now NG (and co?) are trying to downplay it? Is it something else? Curious minds want to know!

Speaking of minds, ‘River Monsters’ (RM) is over. For good. JW is done with the show and AP. This is seriously depressing. Now AP seems to be left with mainly such shows as ‘My Cat from Hell’ and ‘Tanked’. Such pet shows are not bad, but RM was better, period.

In other news – speaking of AP – I have re-watched the AFO episode ‘Croc vs. Shark’ again, and re-watched the DW episodes ‘Aztec Jaguar vs. Zande Warrior’ and ‘Vlad the Impaler vs. Sun Tzu’. Upon seeing them, I concluded that DW was a more complex show, simply because the human warfare was more complex than anything that animals – especially other vertebrate animals (as opposed to such invertebrates as ants, wasps and/or termites) – can come up with. That said, until the human warfare in question began to involve firearms for real, raw physical strength, dexterity, and endurance (‘toughness’) were even more crucial than how they are now – but that is another story.

Getting back to animals, their physical strength, dexterity and toughness…yes, this brings us back to Spinosaurus and Zuul/not Zuul. Yes, in many ways Spinosaurus was the more impressive dinosaur, but most of these ways were physical; behavior-wise I doubt that Spinosaurus was that more advanced in behaviour than a nodosaur – or a modern crocodile – was (is); Tyrannosaurus, it was implied once, wasn’t as intelligent as a domestic cat, but that’s an unfair comparison; cats are very clever, conniving creatures, and now that my own cat has died, (well, it died a while back, but still), we all miss it…

Back to the dinosaurs. Sorry about rumbling in the last paragraph; the truth is, as a semi-aquatic animal, Spinosaurus was probably one of the more intelligent theropods, relatively speaking. It had to be in order to survive in a complex, 3-D, aquatic lifestyle. By contrast, the armored dinosaurs did not live more complex lives than the modern rhinoceroses or buffalos do – they were strong, large, (relatively so), well-armored, capable of defence and attack, as ‘Jurassic Fight Club’ and ‘Monsters Resurrected’ showed in the past, but these shows, and especially JFC, are somewhat suspect when it comes to facts, but they have a point – Zuul (let’s call it this for now) would’ve had to deal with such carnivores as Acrocanthosaurus, which is a carnosaur, (remember?), meaning that while it was huge and strong, it just wasn’t evolved in the right way to deal with a proportionally small and tough and spiky dinosaur as Zuul or Sauropelta, (when compared to a sauropod like Paluxysaurus/Sauroposeidon, for example). Carnosaurs just did not have the right bite power to tackle ankylosaurs and nodosaurs, unlike the last of the tyrannosaurs – Tyrannosaurus and its’ Asian counterpart, Tarbosaurus – but that was another story.

As for the raptors, Zuul possibly had to deal not just with Deinonychus, but also with the biggest raptor known to scientists (for now) – Utahraptor. They were not as powerful as Acrocanthosaurus or the other carnosaurs, but they were intelligent. In addition, they hunted in packs. This made them dangerous to Zuul and its’ relatives, especially if the armored dinosaurs were young, or old, or sick, or wounded or weakened in some other way – just look at some of the footage from the modern African safaris for comparison…

Well, that’s for Zuul so far. Until next time!