Quarantine entry #3 - March 24

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and in this instance because it is just the third day of the lockdown/quarantine. So far the highlights of my day were 1) seeing a white-breasted nuthatch, (much bigger and chunkier than its’ red-breasted cousin is); 2) seeing a junco, (at least I think that it was – I don’t have access to my guidebooks for the moment, and without them identifying birds is harder than with them); and 3) seeing someone’s cat wander by, (and possibly scaring away the local birds and squirrels – you can never tell with cats, after all). Not exactly the heights of excitement, so I went back to DW, and this time I chose the ‘Sun Tzu vs. Vlad the Impaler’ S2 episode. And-?

…And it had never struck me before that this episode is not too different from the RCRW one, (see the entry from 2 days ago). Vlad came across as a fighter/barbarian combo, while Sun Tzu was more of a strategist. Fair enough, but the truth is, DW was about the weapons, rather than the warriors, at least in the first two seasons. In the final third season this got less clear-cut, but STVI was an S2 episode, so it was still all about the weapons, and Vlad’s weapons were more advanced than ST’s were.

To elaborate, ST’s weapons were from before the firearms were invented, and Vlad’s – from after. It can be argued that Vlad’s hand cannon – a primitive firearm – did not make too much difference in the final simulation, but the simulations are based upon the numbers derived from the earlier tests, and on that occasion, Vlad’s hand cannon proved to be a more efficient weapon than ST’s incendiary arrows were, and in a way that made sense too. Sometimes, TV can suck as much as real life does, only differently.

Now, as for the ‘X-factors’, they did not really make a difference, and this is where the reference to the RCRW episode comes in. Not unlike his Roman counterpart, ST was a more detached leader, he preferred a hands-off approach, and was not really big on battles on a personal level. Yes, he was much smarter and sneakier than Vlad was, but because this was a one-on-one fight, in the end, Vlad’s superior strength and military equipment were able to carry the Impaler through. Hooray!

…And yes, you cannot call STVI a prejudiced episode – Vlad’s weapons slash equipment were genuinely better than ST’s were, they were more advanced and derived too, and his armor was tougher as well. Therefore, he won fairly. Anything else?

Sadly, no. I do not feel like ranting about anything DW related here and now, and as for FH, I must admit that I care for the proto-Chinese faction, the newest faction, the least of them all. In addition, Ubisoft itself seems to be putting FH on the backburner as compared to its’ other products, such Assassin’s Creed or the Tom Clancy based one. Maybe that’s justifiable, a crossover with the Prince of Persia or not; frankly, the latter’s heyday was probably in the 90s, and now I’m not so certain that a fusion with him will give FH any sort of a boost at all, but maybe that’s just me. It is hard to stay positive, when there are little to none people on the streets and the only sounds are birds, planes, trains, and the occasional car. COVID-19 is not as bad as people are making it out to be, but because the key word here is ‘people in charge’, the results are bad all the same. It is hard to say if the old dream of the ‘global village’ will die, (hint: not too likely), but people are using COVID-19 as an excuse to push their plans and progress their plots all the same and things are changing, period. Where will we end up when this is all over? Who knows; what I know is that I will probably not be talking about DW tomorrow – just to spice things up.

…This is it for now; see you all soon!